"can't wait."
Posted By: DJ<deanero@home.com>
Date: 21 January 2000, 8:48 a.m.
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"You are an infectious wound, spreading like a virus through our beloved heavens. We must be cleansed of your sickness."
With that, the Covenant alien unsheathes his energy-knife and whispers a small prayer. I lay on the cold ground, but I can't move. What have they done to me? How did I get into this mess? Why can't the Covenant understand that I just don't want to fight anymore?
Upon finishing his prayer, the alien stands over me, holding his knife high above his head with both hands, blade pointing down. The fog begins to thicken, to the point where I can barely see the alien there in front of me. I can see the knife clearly, however, it's light shining like a beacon in the cold night. My eyes are fixated on it, and I begin to think that maybe salvation lay within the knife's energy. I'm tired of fighting. I'm still unable to move. Try as I might, I am simply paralyzed, unable to even speak.
The alien looks towards the heavens and shrieks what sounds like a battle cry, or a warning to anyone or anything that can hear him. It is then that the darkness and fog begins to recede, revealing hundreds of aliens around me, chanting in their foreign, guttural tongue.
"My God. Please don't..."
I've never seen an alien this close before. Without the fog, I look straight into it's fiery eyes. It's clear to me now. There was going to be no reasoning with these creatures. I've never seen such pure hatred like I did this moment, in his eyes. There was going to be no reasoning with them, no compromise. We lock into a gaze for moments that seems like an eternity. Then it happens. He starts to smirk and squint. Everything slows down to a crawl, even the chanting slows in timing and pitch. I can feel my heart pounding in my throat. The alien's neck muscles begins to constrict, then his shoulders, his biceps, then forearms. It was like watching dominos falling, with the treat at the end being my death. His hands clench his bright dagger tighter, but the dagger is perfectly still.
The alien plunges his knife into my heart. There is a flash...then...
"Good. You're up to take over watch. Bad dreams again?"
I nod, trying to get my bearings.
"I can't wait to get at the bugs today. I'm up to 450 kills!" He slaps me on the back.
"Yeah," I reply, "can't wait."
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