Survivors

Holly and Jack picked themselves up off the floor. The second blast had been even bigger than the first one. They stood up to see a scene of devastation. Every tree in a hundred meter radius was flattened and charred black. Most of the Aliens were lying prone, silent and unmoving. Whether the Aliens were dead or simply short circuited in some way they couldn’t tell. A few were still hovering around but their movement was so erratic it was obvious that they were malfunctioning in some way. The remaining soldiers were picking themselves up dazed and confused, looking around with staring eyes from soot blackened faces.

“Quick, quick” yelled Jack, shattering the silence that had fallen over the battlefield. “Finish them off before they recover. Finish then while they’re out of action”.

Realisation slowly dawned on the soldiers that their enemy was totally helpless. Suddenly they were up running like a pack of wolves, dashing from Alien to Alien blasting them at point blank range, laughing as they went. This was now an absolute slaughter. Holly watched the men in shock and then turned to Jack questioningly.

He became aware that she was watching him and there was no mistaking her disgust at the men for what they were doing and particularly him for having given the order. Jack stared steadily back at her for a few seconds.

“This is war” he said defiantly “What do you expect us to do”.

“This isn’t war” replied Holly “This is revenge”

“And what about you and all those raids you Luke and Joe used to carry out! What was that if that wasn’t revenge”

“But at least we didn’t walk around shooting them when they were defenceless”

“I don’t think whether they were defenceless or not made the slightest difference to the ones you shot” said Jack grimly. “They still ended up just as dead”.

With that Jack slung his rifle over his shoulder and headed back to the helicopters.

Holly watched him go for a couple of seconds before a thought came crashing into her mind like a thunderbolt.

“Oh my god” she shouted “Joe! Luke! Where are you!?”

She turned and ran towards where the transporter had been, frantically searching for the two people she really cared about.