Dominion

Chapter Nine: Immortalized Death

Chapter Nine: Immortalized Death

There were no words for this sight. For this feeling.

We were standing amongst the dead, killed in the worst way possible. We were surrounded by their bones, all that was left of them. Steam lifted into the air from each and every one of them, perhaps all that was left of who they were reaching for the skies.

Fires continued to burn from what was left of the village's buildings. Homes, likely filled with families. Still burning. There was nothing left. Nothing except death. All the Dominion ever leaves behind.

"This..." Vera started, shaking her head. A tear found its way down her face and onto the charred ground. Ground that these people had likely run across, screaming, spending their final moments in terror of what we were seeing. And Vera had no other words.

"This is what The Dominion does." I finished for her, my voice less sturdy than it had been in a long while. A singe of anger could be heard in it. "This is what happens when you fight them." I added, stepping away from the bones.

This is what would happen to the rebels, one day or another. And this was not something I would let happen to Ash. I had to get her away from this. I never wanted to lose her again, certainly not like this. I had to get her away.

"Thisss isss why we fight The Dark Onesss." Lizard replied to me, but I paid him little attention. My mind was singular in that moment. "To stop them from doing thisss to more."

"Do you hear that?" Vera asked both us, her eyes widening. Horror remained spread throughout her features as they did. I could tell looking in her eyes she had never seen something like this. She had never seen the horror The Dominion was truly capable of. And what she had just asked about was something far worse. Something she would come to wish I hadn't explained to her. "Someone's screaming!" She said, and I approached her.

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "No one's screaming." I said, calmly. The worst kind of calm, the one lined with both strength and fear. The kind of calm that should warn another to brace themselves.

"What'd do you mean no one's screaming?" She demanded. "I can hear them! Someone's still alive! We have to help!" She said, and tried to move toward what she was hearing, but I grabbed both her arms, firmly holding her in place. And she gave me a look that demanded to know why I was stopping her.

"No one is screaming, Vera." I said, and this time she heard the warning behind the calm. And her eyes stared into mine, angry, defiant...and afraid.

"It isss the corpssse." Lizard said, leaning down over the bones. I could hear the scream too. But I knew what it was.

"What?" Vera asked, and I let go of her.

"Dominion soldiers...have weapons that are equipped with a psychological residue amplifier." I said, slowly and calmly, my voice still lacking strength.

"What does that mean?" Vera asked.

"The sssteam," Lizard replied. "It isss not becaussse they were burnt. It isss from the amplifier. It remainsss on their bodies after death, replaying their final momentsss..." He explained, hesitantly.

"It's meant to let the people who come for the loved ones after the fact, or travelers like us, to know the punishment for defiance." I said, disgusted. "You're hearing their final screams." I finished, and Vera shook her head, backing away from me, her hand over her mouth again, unable to speak to what she was just told.

"It isss horrific." Lizard said, rising back to his feet. Horrific. That was one word for it. I had only ever seen one thing I would describe as worse, and really it wasn't. But it was more personal to me and that was what made it so.