1
Michelle ducked as a grenade went whistling over her head. This was going to be the day she died, she was sure of it. And to think she’d been so excited and ready to fight when they first recruited her. Of course, she hadn’t known the whole truth back then, had she? She had been misled, and blinded, she had walked to the battlefield with stupid hopes to save her country and to help build a better world.
The story, as far as she knew, had started about twenty-three years before, when the world was poisoned by a massive nuclear waste explosion in several key cities of the Earth. Among those cities were New York, Rio de Janeiro, London, Madrid, Tokyo, Johannesburg, and New Delhi. All of those and several others were blasted to nothingness on the 1st of October, five minutes apart each. That had led people to believe, correctly, that it had been a deliberate attack, orchestrated by someone to wipe almost all living creatures from the face of the Earth, or maybe they hadn’t intended for it to end this way, maybe they just wanted minor repercussions. No one knew for sure, but one thing was certain: they had fucked up.
95% of the world population died within a month. Their last days were lived in agonizing pain, and after some saw what happened to others begin to happen to them, they opted to die before the radiation started affecting them. Another portion of humanity (about 2%) lived well for about six months and then started developing strange masses in their body, which then mutated into symptoms akin to the ones the first victims had experienced. The remainder group of people seemed to be immune. Twenty-three years had passed, after all, and they still hadn’t developed any symptoms of malformations in their bodies. There were still some scientists who checked on the surviving people every six months or so, just to be sure, but no one was holding their breath. The worst had already happened. The world had already moved on.
The people who were left, naturally, began pointing fingers, searching for the culprit of this clusterfuck. Eventually, as it is human nature, two global groups began to form, one from the East and one from the West. The West group included all countries from North America, South America and Central America, plus some European countries like Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Portugal. The other group was the rest of the world. Both teams had been led to believe by their leaders that the opposite team was the enemy and the orchestrator of the attacks. As a result, when military forces began to form, people were eager to go to war with the other side to obliterate them and make them pay. Within both groups and among each and every one of the survivors a sense of purpose bloomed: being the last bit of humanity standing and bring the other side to justice (namely, death).
Michelle had been a citizen of Costa Rica, in Central America, and therefore was part of The West. When the incident happened, she’d been only six years old. Since then, she’d been fed the rhetoric about The East being corrupt and evil and seeking the destruction of The West. She’d believed every part of it, and on her twentieth birthday had enlisted to be part of the armed forces to defeat the enemy.
Finally, after nine years of waiting, she’d received the official summons from Sergeant Peter Graymond. He recruited between twenty and thirty people to go to what had been Egypt, where it was believed The East was hiding. Every time he returned alone, assuring them that the people he’d taken with him were safe in a secret base, where they were waiting for more soldiers. That happened every time, somehow there were always too many people on the other side, so more people from The West had to go. And they did. Everyone was excited and ready to fight; ready to make The East pay for all the damage they did. So, when Sergeant Graymond returned, they waited anxiously at home, waiting for their call to action to finally arrive.
When it did, Michelle jumped for joy. This had been her dream, and it was finally coming true, she was going to war for her side, for the right side, and she’d make her side proud. She’d die for her side if necessary. Now, under the scorching sun and covered in soot, smithereens flying through the sky every which way, she wasn’t so sure anymore. Michelle ducked and dived behind the cover of a jutting rock. She didn’t want to die, but was sure she would. Apart from the fact that she was in a literal war, amidst a full-blown battle, there was something admittedly fishy about the way Graymond was handling everything. His first command before approaching the battlefield had been to leave the sergeant to him. If anyone so much as scratched The East’s sergeant’s cheek, they would pay. That was his one and only order. Apart from that, kill as many people as you can.
Michelle glanced to the right. There was Graymond, halfheartedly loading his gun out in the open. That was what bothered her the most, the blatant disregard of his own life and how no one was targeting him. Maybe, she thought, it was possible that the sergeant from the other side had told his army to stay away from Graymond as well, but still…
Michelle peeked over her rock and found a target. She shot and got him straight in the chest. Then she ducked back behind the rock.
“Good job, Miss,” Graymond told her approvingly from where he was standing. He was looking directly at her, her eyes unbothered by the battle unfolding in front of him. “Keep it up and maybe you’ll end up a sergeant, like me.”
Michelle nodded and went back to surveying the battlefield. After ten minutes or so, they began to retreat. She got up and began to follow them. Before she could move much, a strong hand grabbed her shoulder and forced her to crouch down again. “No, don’t follow them. This is a trap,” Graymond said.
“But they’re—”
“I know what they’re doing, I can see them, but I’ve seen it before. Let me go ahead and scout. I’ll return in a minute with news.” He walked nonchalantly through the battlefield, as if they had all the time of the world. Michelle wasn’t about to stay put and do nothing, so she decided to wait until he was out of sight, and stealthily followed him from a distance. She could feel the eyes of her fellow soldiers, watching her closely in disapproval. Michelle rounded the battlefield and crouched behind another hefty rock, just ten yards away from where the sergeant was, seemingly waiting for something. He tapped his foot and glanced at his watch, impatient. Then, after about five minutes of waiting, a mushroom cloud appeared on the horizon, the sky turning red and yellow in its wake. The blast left Michelle’s ears ringing, her jaw clenching. What the hell had happened?
Then the sergeant from The East appeared. He was a lean Asian man, about thirty-five years old, by Michelle’s estimate. He was smiling, and offered his outstretched hand to Graymond, who took it willingly enough. That was all Michelle needed to understand.
“What did you tell them?” Graymond asked.
“What I tell them all the time,” The East’s sergeant replied. “A greater number of your soldiers was approaching from behind, and we needed all the manpower we could take to overpower them. Never mind the ones we were already fighting; the others were more pressing.”
“Can’t believe they always believe that.”
“What will you say this time?”
“I’ll pat myself on the back. Those people literally adore me. They believe they are fighting the righteous fight. I guess that’s what everyone believes. Wait here.” He rummaged in his pocket and retrieved a grenade.
Michelle’s heart sank. She followed Graymond back to the battlefield, taking cover behind every rock she could find, and finally observed from a distance. She could barely hear what was happening, but she understood.
Graymond stood on the edge of the battlefield. “We won!” he announced, victorious. “The suckers thought we were attacking them from behind as well. I followed them, and when they were all huddled together, looking for our other group, I threw a grenade in their midst.”
Everyone left their post, celebrating, high-fiving each other, some even dancing, their weapons pointed to the sky.
“Now, now. Don’t celebrate just yet. Stay here and I’ll make sure everything is safe. In the meantime…” He rolled the grenade into the battlefield where all his army was, too excited to notice. He ran back for cover.
Michelle was far enough that the explosion wouldn’t reach her. She was about to abandon her cover and run at her team, telling them to stop being such fools and go away, when the grenade exploded them, wiping them away completely, blasting them to kingdom come, and leaving ragged clothes, boot-clad feet, blood, gristle, bones, and brains behind. Michelle crouched behind her rock, her eyes welling with tears, her hands covering her mouth. This was real. They were all dead at the hands of the person whom they had trusted the most. She wiped away her tears and stood up. Making sure her machine gun was loaded, she made her way back to where Graymond and The East’s sergeant were probably gloating about how gullible their people were.
She found them there, gathering their stuff and ready to go back somewhere to eat. She didn’t try to conceal herself, but their arrogance had made them blind; they didn’t see her. So, she cleared her throat.
“Missed me?” she asked when Graymond finally noticed her. She levelled her machine gun at him and pressed the trigger, shooting round upon round of bullets. His chest exploded in a mixture of scarlet blood and bones. He was thrusted backward and landed heavily on his back, agonizing in a puddle of blood. Michelle shot at the other sergeant and sent him flying. She walked over to where Graymond lay. “I think your gravest mistake was telling me to stay put. I’m really bad at following stupid orders.”
“Y—y—you weren’t there?”
“No, I followed you. And thank heavens I did. You are a piece of shit. You thought the people were dumb enough to follow you blindly.”
Graymond smiled maliciously. “Oh, but they did.” He licked blood from his lips. “Just because you disobeyed me doesn’t mean they all weren’t paying attention to me. And don’t believe that this is over. This is bigger than me. You haven’t even hindered it.”
“I don’t care. I’ll go back and tell all of our people that The East isn’t the enemy, it’s the people with all the power. They are the ones who control our version of the truth, and when misinformation becomes so universal, we have no choice but to believe them. Power. That’s all that exists, isn’t it?”
She looked down at Graymond and saw he’d died during her monologue. “I hope you rot in hell,” she whispered, wiping a tear from her eyes.
