Chapter 6

Kira

The smell of smoke and burning flesh seared my nostrils as it wafted in on the breeze blowing by. The stench was putrid and seeped into every fiber of my clothing. I genuinely hate this part of the job, but I cannot argue that it is at least effective. The once hidden and peaceful compound had now almost been reduced to rubble with dozens of bodies laid across the ground. The people here didn’t really put up much of a fight. The few who did, we disposed of quickly. Jebediah, their once bold and fearless leader, is now kneeling in front of me, tied up. That coward. The moment he saw me, he tried to run away, and didn’t even try to help his own people. Truly despicable. I walked up to Jebediah and crouched down to his level.

“We had a deal, Jebediah. You would supply us with manpower, and we would leave you and your people alone.”

         “Please, Commander Kira, I promise we will have the goods for you, we just need a little bit more time on our end-”

         “I have already given you an extra week Jeb and still you came up short. Now it’s time to pay up.” I stand up and dust the sand off. “ Guards take them away.”  The guards begin to pick up Jebediah and the rest of the captured prisoners, now destined to be our new slaves.

         “No, no, Commander Kira, please, we can pay, we can pay!” Jebediah’s cries instantly go silent as a guard knocks him unconscious and continues to carry him and the others to the caravans. I allow my eyes to wander and gaze upon the destruction before me. This small, pitiful compound, why anyone would want to live outside of the big cities beats me. I continue to scan around the compound one last time, where something shiny catches my eye. I walk over to one of the earth-like structures and pick up a silver spoon. Useless. Absolutely nothing here is worth dying for. I turned around and exited outside of the structure when I saw a small opening in the cliff wall. The opening could have been no bigger than a few feet wide, so it was small enough to not be noticed but once it was seen you knew instinctively that it was an entrance to a cave.

“Lieutenant Orion, on me.” We walked up to the cave entrance with our torches in hand. The surrounding air began to change, and there was now a slight chill. The cave was dark with a slight dampness that lingered on our skin. As we rounded a corner, we began to see some faint light up ahead.

“I have a bad feeling about this Commander.”

“I know Lieutenant, stay alert.” We walked cautiously to the light where the cave expanded until we were in an open atrium. Torches lined the walls around us, and right in front, on the biggest wall of the room, was a mural. The mural wasn’t well done, not by any means, but upon further inspection, there appeared to be a story being told. There were figures in the mural that resembled people and a character in the middle that the figures were surrounding and kneeling down to.

“What do you suppose this is, Commander?” Orion said curiously.

“If I had to guess, it appears to be the history of Jebediah’s people. From this drawing, it seems that they came out here to worship their deity in peace.” I walked further across the wall. “However, something appeared to have happened. They believed that their deity abandoned them and that’s when bad things started to happen, famine, disease, war.” I get to the end of the cave wall where the mural stops abruptly. I turned my head around, looking to see if they had continued the story anywhere else. To the right of me, I saw a corridor with more light pouring from it. I walked over to where it opened up into another room, this time the room was smaller and not as well-lit. When I held the torch up to the wall in front of me, I almost dropped it on the floor.

The mural on the wall was a graphic scene that could only be described as barbaric. People were sacrificing their children to the fire, engaging in blatant murder and cannibalism, all for the sake of pleasing their deity. To me, it just further proved why there are no gods. What type of god would ask for such atrocities?