Day 16, D-Day N-2
Today a thousand rats crawled out of the hole. It was the first day all 4 firing squads were assembled at once.
BANG!!
BAN-BANG!!
BA-BAN-BANG-BRRR!!
A volley of gunfire filled the air, bullets rained down on waves of rats for the next 12 minutes. Most died by the firing squads, few managed to crawl out of the kill box but were mauled to death soon after.
After the wave was over, Anna ran to me.
"My lady, it's not looking good. Today it was only a thousand yet they made it out of the kill box." She spoke.
Yes what Anna said were my thoughts too. As the rats get killed the deceased pile up acting as barricades for the coming rats allowing the rats to survive longer and get the footing to climb out of the killbox.
If we are already on the verge of being over run at just a 1000 rats I don't want to imagine what will be left of us at 10,000 or 100,000.
Something has to change… but what will it be?
I can dig out trenches in killboxes but no matter how deep I dig it, a hundred thousand dead rats will take up far too much space. But wait, I haven't accounted for the arson team since they weren't needed today. Burning the bodies of the rats will certainly clear up some space. Even still a hundred thousand is just stupidly big , but even s-
Breaking me out of my frantic thoughts, a hand tugged on my dress.
"Excuse me… mom no I mean ma'am, there will be no gunfire tommorow… right?"
The young boy from yesterday stuttered.
At first glance one could tell the boy was no more than 13 years old. He had dirty blonde hair and still wore the quarry labourer's uniform he had in yesterday.
Why is he walking around freely without any restraints, kidnapped people aren't supposed to get that luxury you know. I'll talk to Anna about it later.
Back to the boy, tears were welling in his eyes about to drop at a moments notice if I delayed my answer for a second later so I responded.
" Yes there will be even more gunshots tomorrow and explosions too, and the day after that it will increase too and after that-"
Before even letting me finish, he was already sobbing and whimpering. What's the deal with him? I don't think I was such a crybaby at that age.
Now… uhh what do I do with him. Walking away seems inconsiderate but then again how considerate should I be with people I kidnapped… ugh I don't have any experience dealing with these kinds of situations.
To stop his crying, let's distract him first.
"Lookie here, did your hair just get more blond?!" I purposely overreacted to catch his attention.
"Huh? yeah it- yea it did" the boy sobbed as he spoke.
"It's my ether ability, the more stressed or extremely emotional I get, the more my hair changes colour, from black to blond to white, until I reach a threshold of stress and then— and then I — I explode!"
Ohhh, suddenly the colour-changing-hair lie I said turned deadly. How far do I have to be from a nuke to survive? No, I don't think I can get far enough to survive. With how much he's crying, he looks like he's about to blow right this moment.
How do I calm him down? I don't know! I don't know how to deal with children, despite being just a year older than me it was Anna who always babysat me.
Right, Anna can help where is she?!
As I was cascading down the hill of my thoughts trying to come up with a plan to survive. Anna had already swept into action, consoling the boy. By the time I came to my senses and tried to find Anna she had already diffused (pun intended) the situation.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Later that evening I received a firm scolding from Anna.
She was rightful to be upset. I tried to stand my ground stating that I wasn't properly informed about the situation and how I couldn't predict that his reaction to my words would be so extreme but to no avail.
When Anna gets in this state, she is impossible to refute.
Here is what Anna learnt about the boy;
His name was Marcus Hemming, he grew up in a violent neighbourhood where gunshots meant ongoing turf wars between gangs.
But for the Hemming family a gunshot symbolised something deeper. Marcus's father, Ronald Hemming was a police officer as such he always had a loaded weapon within arm's reach.
When Marcus was young, Ronald had to defend his family from intruders 3 times and each time a gunshot told Marcus of two futures, either his father succeeded in defending himself and the family, or that it his father was the one who got shot.
The fourth time Marcus' house was invaded, it was in broad daylight, his mother tried her best to defend the house like Ronald did. She did well for being untrained, 2 of the 7 intruders were shot dead, the rest ran away and Marcus's mother bled out before the ambulance arrived.
So due to his past experiences, Marcus flinches even at the sight of a gun… and today, he was subject to witness a volley of gunfire.
The weight of my words from before pinned me down. I didn't really know how to proceed from here. See if I knew about his situation before I would… I would.
I would have atleast spoken less harshly.
….
A lot of excuses are made with hindsight.
But … I really don't know how to account for him now. I can't promise to cease all gunfire, I was speaking the truth when I said it will only ever increase from now.
And I can't keep him away from our defence site too, he needs to be close by as he is my trump card for the future waves. The tides of battle can turn with devastating swiftness so who knows when we'll need his ability.
Then suddenly, a light bulb lit in my head.
I know what I can offer Marcus, to acknowledge and accept his trauma yet have him at standby when he is needed. I can offer him therapy.