(IWWC) Evan's choice

Today



Evan spat into the dust and squinted into the setting sun,directly above the reported location of the Indie encampment.

He was tired, weary.

The panoramic scene of the sierra mountains did nothing to soothe the exhaustion that seemed to grip his very heart.

He spat again, mouth dry from his grueling hike to this mountain peak.He took a deep breath. Willing himself to recover lost strength.

Now, with his back against a looming Ponderosa pine , he allowed himself a moment of reflection.

** ** **

"The total collapse, economically and socially, of all we hold dear!"

The fat man spewed the words and pounded on the podium with a large fist. Evan watched him with disinterested amusement. He had heard the rhetoric before.
Ideas so radical. Downfall of all the worlds religions. Total anarchy. Yes, he had heard it all.Only the enemy ever changed and nothing else.

Evan yawned and the fat man continued his angry rant.

"The indie-brats are gaining in public opinion polls.They are gaining an audience!"The red faced man continued from the slightly elevated community center stage."They have a leader now, for God's sake!"

Evan hadn't really given much thought to the Indigo Nation one way or the other as fat-man droned on. To him they were just updated hippies,flower children. Maybe irritating little snots, but not much of a threat even with their self proclaimed 'leader'.

That was five years ago and Evan had only been home from the Muslim-front for 9 days or so when he had let Jessie talk him into attending the town hall meeting.

For some reason, Jessie hated the Indies. He never really asked why.To him it just didn't seem that important. Besides, Jessie was a fine looking young woman and God only knew he had put up with some
women with much more radical ideas for a chance at a good roll in the sack
.So he could put up with a fat fundamentalist and a little rabble-raising.Jessie viewed him as a Soldier-Protecting-The-Way and he felt just enough sexual attraction for her to keep up the good politically aware citizen facade.

He took a small sip of water now, the coolness felt good upon his dry lips.Still alert,eyes at the valley floor,he again let his mind travel backward with a grim smile that was almost a grimace.

"If only I had known then", he thought,remembering again the steps that lead him here to this mountaintop.


** ** **

He was technically a reservist at the time and had already given his service to the Way for six years.The 89th Crusader arm had held the 'slims outside of New Zionia when his term expired and frankly he was tired of the bloodshed and passed on the re-up.That was the last stand anyway in his eyes.Superior Crusader firepower coupled with superior holographic propaganda
had pretty much ended the Crusade with the defeat of the 'slims.Their failure to retake New Zionia,or old Tehran if one preferred, had effectively broken their back as well as their will. They were a fanatical enemy,true---they just badly underestimated exactly how fanatical the opposition could be. And how bloody.
He blinked at the recollections. Eyes wide, ears open. Every sense on alert even as his mind remembered the brutality of that insane ideological/theological war.

And although a reservist, it didn't stop the Military Crusader Arm from contacting him a year after Jess and he had attended the town hall meeting.

The defeat of the Muslim regime and the social erasure of that religion had left a void of sorts; no real enemy was left. Whether or not this was foreseen, Evan didn't know and really didn't care.

Didn't care, that was, except that it affected him now.He rolled off the bed with Jessie reluctantly and returned the call to the Crusader Arm with a sigh. An assassins work was never done.


** ** **

In the valley below him, something moved and Evan sprang back to the present in an instant.Eyes narrow in the rapidly fading light, he dropped the battle helmet infraura-shield over his pale blue eyes and flicked it on. The beauty of the mountain range and old memories instantly forgotten as the software purred to life.

With his grip on the de-harmonizer-rifle tight, he scanned the valley below,software humming reassuringly in his helmet.His intel had reported the Indie settlement was directly below,his tech-gear worked perfectly and he knew his orders well.

"Got you".He smiled a tight smile,breath catching. "Stupid spoiled kids and those damned auras...didn't they realize they glowed like a firefly on a camp out?"


His finger, so comfortable on the DH trigger, was at the ready. The Indigos may have had a magic of sorts but they had forgotten, or ignored, the ability of Grey inspired high-tech . The indescribable color of the aura indicated in a millisecond his target was in fact the elusive Piotre, self proclaimed 'guider' of the Indie nation.

Evan had been here before at this point and his mission was clear.

De-harmonize the kid. Eradicate the hippie.

Breath catching,he targets in, realizing he was closer to the encampment than he thought.It was reading 289 meters to the target aura and closing slowly. And 35 millions UN dollars worth of software was simply not wrong.


"It can end here and now." Evan muttered to himself impercitably.The end of the madness, the restoration of the status quo. The creepy kid was a figure head, the voice for the Indies. Without him....


His finger began to move with a measured slowness, practiced and calm now. In his element.


Oddly though, a fleeting thought ran through his mind. His weariness tugged somewhere deep within.

So tired.

He remembered then, his old grandmother suddenly. So weird, odd.He flipped the thought away, blinking, almost incredulous that he had it to begin with.

The aura was in slight brush, obviously on a mountain trail,gone,then there again.Moving forward. Towards him.


Tired, weary. Too much blood. Too much pain.

He gritted his teeth. Stilled his breath.Somewhere inside his deepest brain he felt something odd and he was experienced enough to know it.

The target aura was again clearly visible and below him now and he knew his chance was now or never...

When he saw Jess in his mind.Saw her crying,felt her tears over something long ago, long forgotten. And not just her.

He felt more, so much more. The old fading, the violent being replaced with something new and odd.

This was his last chance and he clearly understood now that it was the very last chance for the old pargidm.He was a Soldier Of The Way. The best chance for the status Quo.He was a Crusader to the end.

He had but to pull the trigger, de-harmonize the kid and end the Indie movement with finality.The crushing weight of tomorrow rested upon his shoulders. His alone.

And he was just so weary.

** ** **

Tomorrow


The pale blue eyed girl fed the eagle from her hand and smiled as it flew away. The sun shone upon her,air sweet as honey suckle filled her nostrils.Her pale hair blew slightly in a soft wind.

She had best be moving now and like the eagle, her mind took her up and away into the clear blue of the Sierra sky.


Straight towards the shining spires of the capital city of Earth:

New Evan.

Well written, a good storey with great description, a well deserved Star and Flag from me, good luck in the competition- cheers!

Wow, great story, and well written. I enjoyed it very much.

Superb writing my friend!

I have to agree, excellent writing on your part. I could feel myself on the mountain with him, holding the rifle, ready to do some serious De-harmonizing. Your descriptive nature told the story well.

I hope you do well in the contest,

wupy

A soldiers perspective handled well. I loved the description of the weaponry and how it worked too. Lots of creativity in this story, CS JR.

Nancy Ann Tappe describes Barack Obama as a Humanist in her website. As such, it might not be a 'reach' to consider the POTUS as an Indigo himself and perhaps the leader in the soldiers gunsight.

Just a thought.