Bang! Bang!

"NOOO!''

Bang!

Thump.

Julia trembled, sweat pouring down her grimy face and coating the insides of her torn clothes. With a heavy swallow, she closed her eyes and tried to pray, directing her attention to the Heavens, breathing deeply: Save me, Lucerne, forgive me, have mercy on your desolate disciples! Come destroy our enemies, wipe them out with one wave, one bomb… 

Another loud blast sounded behind her, ripping little Julia out of her feverish reverie as the sound echoed tinnily in her head. She placed her hands over her ears, pressing her lips. The desk under which she hid was flimsy and thin, the metal bent and dented wildly out of shape. If one power-shot, just one power-shot hit the surface, it would burst right through and kill her instantly. 

Of course it would. The Tenners had the most dangerous weapons, the strongest military, the most ruthless leaders. They had destroyed her family, taken her brother, imprisoned her mother. To Hell with the Tenners, and their power-guns, and their masked, merciless soldiers!

Julia began trembling again, this time with rage rather than fear. To Hell with the Tenners! When they died, when the Lucers triumphed, they would be damned to the Underworld. Lucerne would curse them there herself, full of righteous fury directed towards the tormentors of her followers.  

Powered by vengeful thoughts and renewed anger, Julia dared to peek out of the desk, as if to tell the Tenner soldiers, I’m brave. You haven’t killed me yet. Come and get me!

She regretted this immediately. A tall soldier stood right next to the desk, looking out for any stray Lucers to shoot. He saw her small, flaxen-haired head right away, and pointed the gun straight at her face.

Julia was paralyzed with fright, staring up into the soldier’s imposing black mask. The eyeholes were soulless and dark as pitch, making him seem, somehow, even more evil than she would have thought. His suit was bulletproof and strung with packs of ammunition and weapons. She had never seen a Tenner from up this close before, and she never wanted to again.

Suddenly, in her petrified state, Julia had a revelation. 

Calmly, she closed her eyes, face still turned upwards to the soldier. She had no chance of escape--after all, she was a nine-year old Lucer girl facing a fully grown, fully armed Tenner man. She would die here, in this apartment building turned vicious battlefield, and she would take her death with grace. Let him kill me, she thought, let him always remember the day he mercilessly slaughtered a young girl-child. I’ll meet Lucerne in Heaven, and tell her about it. 

Selfishly, she imagined herself as a martyr, praised by all Lucers for her brave self-sacrifice. Saint Julia, she would be called, for generations to come… 

Julia waited for the shock, for the final moment of agony, but it never came, even after a minute of dutiful, sorrow-filled waiting. When her patience finally wore thin, she slowly opened her eyes, expecting the worst. 

To her immense surprise, the soldier had lowered his weapon. His head was still turned down to her face, but it was tilted at a curious angle rather than a menacing one. Despite the chaos exploding around them, he didn’t move. 

Julia inhaled sharply, holding her breath. Were the eyes behind that mechanical soldier façade…seeing her? Would he, could he, possibly spare her life? 

A minute passed. In the distance, Lucers screamed, Tenners shot, and power-blasts went off like crazy. Still, the soldier kept looking at her, and Julia looked right back, too scared to turn away. Was this a trick? A trap, to set her momentarily off guard?

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he knelt down so that his face was directly opposite hers. “What are you doing here?’’ he asked, in a deep, rumbly, shockingly human voice.

Stunned, Julia had to take a moment to process his question before she could respond. “I'm--I--I live here." Her voice was shaky, vulnerable, betraying the scared child she always tried to hide. Why was he asking her this? Was he a Lucer in disguise, posing as a Tenner demon? 

The soldier was quiet for a moment, and Julia was afraid he would change his mind and just shoot her. She could imagine him doing it, going back and laughing about it to his fellow soldiers. “Hey, I killed a stupid Lucer girl today! She stuck her head right out and asked me to! Got her straight in the head!” And then they would laugh their horrible Tenner laughs and go kill more people, while Julia lay bleeding out from her head in a pool of blood. 

At this thought, her stomach dropped in anxiety, and her eyes began to tear up. She bit her lip to hold it in, determined not to let the soldier see her crying. 

The soldier began to mumble, his manly voice unsteady and confused. “Dear God…dear God, they didn’t tell me…” He placed a gloved hand to his hidden mouth. “It’s a child…”

At this, Julia’s fear instantly disappeared, and her teary face turned into a snarling one. How dare he talk about God! Lucerne wouldn’t give him a second glance when he arrived at Judgment after death. A heathen like him would go straight to Hell! Her mother had always said the Tenners were ignorant, that they worshipped a false God called science, that they would eventually get what they were asking for. Julia could remember her saying this clearly, before their family of three was separated. Her lined face had been grim, her dark eyes fiery, her raspy voice hateful in the tense moments of silence between endless bombings.

This hate inspired Julia, and she glared at the soldier as intensely as she could, clenching her fists for extra effect. She didn’t care if she would die. She wanted to make it known to this Tenner that he was a despised, loathful creature.

Instead of getting angry at her sudden fury, he sighed, a long, deep, world-weary sound, fraught with regret and pity. “Dear God, I can’t do this.”

Suddenly, he stood up, causing Julia to flinch back. This was it, this was it...no, it wasn’t. To her astonishment, the soldier simply held out his hand. “Come with me,'' he said, voice breaking slightly. "I can’t kill you.'' 

Reluctantly, Julia complied, but she didn’t take his hand. She had no choice but to do as he said, but she wouldn’t be nice about it, even if it meant she might die.

She followed him through the wreckage of her former home, wrapping her arms around her thin, shivering body. The poorly-built walls had collapsed in on themselves, revealing the cloudy dark sky outside. They were situated on the top floor, where the smallest, cheapest, dirtiest rooms were. Julia lived there with thirty other Lucer children, spending her days in the streets stealing food or lying down, sick with disease, on the hardwood floors. She shuddered with disgust, reminded of the spiders and vermin that would sometimes crawl over her in her sleep. 

To her utmost horror, Julia saw a few children strewn on the ground amidst pieces of metal and debris. They were all dead, their emaciated forms spotted with bullet-holes and covered in blood. She gagged slightly, placing a hand over her mouth. The place smelled like rot, and fear, and death. She felt like crawling back under the desk and staying there forever.

The soldier noticed this. He paused mid-step, glancing back at her, then sighed again, continuing with his slow, steady steps across the floor. Quietly, he said, “I didn’t know they were killing children. I didn’t--I wouldn’t have--if I’d have known--” 

“Don’t!” burst Julia, trembling. ''You Tenners took my family. I hate you.’' Her voice was bold and raw, on the verge of sobs, its natural childish tone ridden with fear and anger and the memories of things a child should never have to go through. 

He stopped walking, but he didn’t say anything, or even sigh. Instead, he stood there, still as rock. Julia’s initial fear of him killing her slowly crept back, and she backed away slightly. Had she gone too far this time? What would happen? Her mind was too malnourished, too exhausted, too traumatized to form a coherent evaluation of the soldier’s character. He was a Tenner, so he was automatically bad, but he hadn’t killed her yet. Was he…a good Tenner?

This thought was almost too preposterous for Julia to consider seriously, going against everything her mother and her community had ever told her. All Tenners were bad. They were born that way. Right?

While Julia was preoccupied in her little thoughts, she almost didn’t notice the black menace slinking up close to her, getting ready to strike. When she did, it was too late. The moment she noticed the soot-colored figure running towards her, clad in Tenner gear, armed to the teeth, was the moment she heard the loud Bang! of a power-gunshot. She screamed, shielding her face with her bone-thin arms, though she knew it was pointless…  

…but the shot never hit her. Instead, she heard someone else’s body collapse onto the ground close by. Julia knew right away that it was the soldier.

She lowered her arms and opened her eyes warily, looking around for the attacker. He was gone. 

Relieved but tense, she stared down at the soldier, hissing in pain as he lay, writhing, on the dirty floor. She wanted desperately to find satisfaction out of this--he got what he deserved--but she couldn’t. For whatever reason, Julia couldn't find it in her to hate this man, this supposed sworn enemy.

At that moment, something compelled her to go approach him. Gingerly, and still keeping a safe distance, she knelt down by him and asked, “Are you okay?”

His reply was instantaneous, his voice gritty and pained. “N-no. Open the pack on my…arm. There’s…first aid.” 

Amazingly, Julia did as he said, opening up the small black bag hooked to his sleeve. “What do you ne--”

“The tourniquet, p-please.” He hissed, clenching his fists at the pain. “Quick-ly.”

Wordlessly, she placed it in his shaking, outstretched hand. With a grunt, he sat up quite suddenly, gasping when his back straightened. Slowly, and with visibly agonizing movements, he began to tie it around a large gash in his leg. 

While he did, Julia simply sat still, unsure of what to do. She couldn’t run away--there was nowhere safe to go--and she didn’t want to admit it, even to herself, that she was beginning to trust this soldier. She shuddered to think of how the other Lucers would react to her sympathy for this Tenner man, her mother especially. She could just imagine the ashamed, angry look on her mother’s face as she screamed at Julia for sinning, begging Lucerne to condemn her daughter to an eternity in hell. Bad girl, bad girl, you deserve to die, you deserve to burn, go back to the dark cellar, you’re not coming out ever, bad girl… 

Once again, Julia began to tear up at her own distressing thoughts. This time, though, she let her eyes flow freely, the salty droplets leaving clear trails down her grimy face. Her memories of her mother were mostly unpleasant--Julia likened her face to that of a wolf, snarling at her and howling mournfully to the Heavens--but she missed her. Despite the frequent beatings, the forced starvation, the endless sermons, and everything else, she missed her mother deeply. 

“Hey.”

The soldier's voice startled her, breaking her out of her wandering thoughts. She blinked at him where he sat on the floor.

He coughed lightly before continuing. “Would..would you like to come with me back to my hub? There’s food, and we can get your injuries fixed up.”

Julia’s eyes widened, and she took a step back, processing his question. Her mind whirled. He wanted to…to help her, by taking her to a Tenner hub where she would be surrounded by the enemy? “I--I don’t--”

He cut her off. “You’ll be safe, I promise. I just want to help.” His voice was nervous, but held an obvious undertone of kindness. 

He stuck his large, gloved hand out to her. “You can have a better life.”

His voice sounded so hopeful, so genuine. Without thinking, Julia placed her hand in his.

Immediately, he seized her wrist tightly and stood up without any sign of struggle or injury. Julia gasped. “No-”

Without a word, he pulled out his power-gun and shot her right in the stomach. She collapsed onto the floor, her tiny form barely making a sound as the soldier walked away. In the distance, she could hear his emotionless voice. “Soldier D-531 reporting. All Lucers successfully terminated. Out.”

Julia cried as she slowly bled to death. Her last thoughts were an endless stream of pain, lamenting the merciless world she was leaving behind. I shouldn’t have trusted him. Why did he drag it out like that?  Where are you, momma? Save me, Lucerne… 

It was good that Julia didn’t know she was the last Lucer left. Her tortured mind wouldn’t have been able to bear it.

… 

D-531 walked down the stairs and away from the bleeding Lucer girl. Her creepy appearance remained clear in his mind, and he shuddered, thinking of her sunken black eyes and skeletal frame. Her limbs had resembled metal rods, and her sickly head balanced precariously on her thin, wobbly neck. Those Lucers all looked the same, like the crazy, deranged religious fanatics they were. Thankfully, they were all dead now. Earth was finally purified.

He continued walking down the flights of creaky wooden stairs. Each floor was littered with dead Lucers, and the entire place stank of rot and death. Good riddance, he thought, wrinkling his nose. The stench was overpowering, even with the thick sweaty mask covering his mouth and nose. Thank the T.S. we’ll burn this place down.

This wasn’t the only Lucer hideout he had helped raze, and the girl wasn’t the first child he had coerced into death by means of emotional manipulation. The legions of Tenner soldiers were made to inflict real pain, physical and mental, on their victims, for the sole purpose of hardening their hearts. It was difficult at first--the guilt, the shame, all that--but you got used to it. He had come to think of the killings as an act of mercy, freeing the children from a life of frenzied, cultish devotion. 

He reached the bottom floor and exited the building, stepping over bodies in the lobby. 

“D-531!” One of his partners called out to him once he stepped outside. The sky was cloudy and gray, and the air felt wet and chilly. “There you are! Are you done?”

“Yep.” Waiting for him was a black military helicopter and the fifteen other teammates who had assisted him in the extermination. “Let’s go. We got ‘em all.”

They piled into the helicopter and the pilot took off immediately. For a moment, they remained hovering above the building. Red fire blew out from the bottom of the helicopter, setting the demolished building on fire. Soon, the fire spread to every building on the once Lucer-occupied street.

D-531 sighed contentedly, looking down at the inferno from his window. It was a satisfying sight, the flames like so many citizens applauding the soldiers for their good deeds. To finish exterminating the Lucers, the last religious group on Earth, was to purify the world, ridding it from the once-prominent disease of religion. 

Religion. The word itself sent shivers down his spine. 

Once, long ago, humans had believed in an omniscient, omnipotent being called God. They worshipped this being, their minds sick with false hopes and beliefs, a direct insult to the wonders of science and technology. These people were a drag on society, keeping humanity anchored to its dark past when it could progress so much further. They retained their belief in nonsense concepts like love, empathy, and kindness, preferring to help the weaklings rather than get rid of them to selectively strengthen the human race. Idiots.

Thankfully, when the Technological State was founded, they quickly set out to work killing all religious groups. First went the Abrahamans and Dharmans, then the Zorons, and then the Bleudings. The Lucers had been the last ones left, and today, they were finally gone.

“Hey, want a drink?” D-531 turned around, startled. D-845 held out a cooler full of ice-cold bottles of various types of liquor. He had removed his mask, revealing a face nearly identical to everyone else’s. They were all like siblings, in a way, mass-produced with the dark features and strong qualities of a soldier. “You look a little out of it.”

“Sure,” D-531 said, pulling off his own face cover. He breathed in the cool air, wiping his sweaty face with a towel. “Give me something strong.”

D-845 handed him a bottle, and the other thirteen teammates decided to join in as well. 

“A toast!” D-531 exclaimed, raising his bottle. “A toast to the last Lucer extermination. A toast to the wonders of the great Technological State!”

Everyone cheered, clinking their bottles together, drinking into rowdy revelry as the helicopter traveled farther and farther away from the ravaged Lucer colony. Indeed, nary a trace of the Old World remained left on Earth.