Geneticide: The End of the Beginning
The First Revelation (Revised Edition): Part 5
By: Deranged Kitsune

"In a corrupt world, an Innocent is a freak."
-- Anonymous

Tonight's odyssey has taken us to many areas of the continental United States. We have been witness to various manners of humanity, in different environments with different personalities. For the last segment of tonight's presentation, we will journey beyond the borders of our current continent, returning to the Old World. Specifically, this final part will be taking us to Europe. We will also be deviating from our previous examples of mythological creatures. Because, you see, not everyone has fallen victim to that affliction. Some have been changed to ordinally animals, albeit anthropomorphic in nature.

The air has a crisp tinge to it, signs of spring in the early morning air. As dawn approaches on this night of revelations, our focus turns to a young woman in the middle of a dying forest in Eastern Europe. This woman is currently running from a metallic demon of the Russian army.

As we move to follow our subject, we gain a better view of who she is and what she is doing heading through this hostile country. The heavily clothed figure of our subject comes to a halt behind a massive pine tree, breathing hard from her awkward running through the dead forest. She places the large bundle that she's carrying on the ground, unslinging a rifle from her shoulder.

The young woman kneels down, stroking the head of her charge. "Don't worry, Oren. We'll get out of this. I don't know how, but we will."

Our subject knows perfectly well that the Omni-Pod is gaining. She knows well the sounds of the death machine's hydraulics as they echo up from the valley's riverbed. She and her child have been running from the Pods for several days, and now that they are on the brink of freedom, one of the Russian death machines has finally tracked them down.

The young woman reminds herself that she's not doing this entirely for herself, but for Oren. It is for his life, a life of possible freedom, which she is currently putting them both at risk for. She reminds herself of the horrors that she endured as a child, horrors that she would save her son from.

Her son. That statement has taken on new meaning for her. Where once was a six-year old boy, now stands a three-foot tall, chocolate-brown river otter. Our subject has no idea what caused this change to happen, only that a few hours ago her poor Oren had violently awaken, his screams sending shivers down her spine. Had she not witnessed his transformation for herself, she would have scarcely believed that this creature was once her green eyed boy.

The Omni-Pod recaptures her attention and she turns and swings her rifle around in preparation to disable it. Kneeling down, she pops the clip to check how much ammo she has left. The last few days have not been kind to her supply, and she fears that she is running low. Her fears are confirmed as her gaze falls upon the solitary shell in the magazine.

'Then I had better make it right,' she thinks as she lowers herself to the ground, bringing the sight up to her eye.

The Omni-Pod is still making its patrol of the riverbank, completely oblivious to the fact that a pair of deserters are situated not more the a hundred yards up the hill, concealed by the tree-line. Despite its lack of knowledge, the Pod's weapon systems are primed, ready to dispatch anything that it comes across. This particular Pod's mission is boarder patrol, preventing people like Oren and his mother from doing exactly what they are about to. Its polished silver sides reflect the early dawn light.

"Come on your bastard," whispers our subject, "turn around. Turn around. Come on, give me a shot." The young woman is trying to will the pod to turn, so that she can get a clear shot at its sensor node. If she can nail it with a direct hit, then it should put the Pod out of commission, allowing her and her son to make the final leg of their run to freedom.

The bundle of rags and clothes a few feet behind the woman looks out towards the Pod as well. While not having the advantage of the rifle's telescopic sight, Oren can still make out the nefarious hunk of metal. He blinks his eyes, his whiskers twitching as the smells of the forest reach him. The smell of his mother's fear reaches him also. "Come on, you bastard," he whispers along with his mother. "Come on, come on, come on, come on." With all his might, Oren wills the death machine to turn and give his mother the shot she needs.

With a screeching whir of servos and hydraulics, the Omni-Pod suddenly turns towards the hillside and the unknown threat its electronic brain has registered. We see the multi-optic sights quickly scan the hills, shifting through the different bandwidths as it tries to locate the target it knows is there. If we could see from the Pod's point of view, we would see that it has locked onto a target in infrared mode and is zooming in. 10X flashing to 20X, then 30X, then 90X, then 100X normal magnification. As it reaches 120X, we are given a clear view of the heat signature of a woman looking down the barrel of a rifle from behind a tree. The next instant the display is distorted by a heat bloom as the gun is discharged, shortly before flickering wildly with rolling images and static.

Our subject can scarcely believe that she hit it dead on. Even as far up the hill as she is, she can still hear the whines and screeches as the death machine writhes on the ground. Her shot had hit directly on the main sensor node, completely disorientating the Pod. She swiftly stands up, her rifle clattering useless to the ground as her son runs up to her. Oren clutches her tightly, and she hugs him close to her leg as the pair watches the evil machine in its death throes.

"It's alright, baby. It can't hurt us any more." She strokes the course fur atop her son's head. "We had better get going. There might be more of these things around."

Almost as if to defy the mother's wishes, the Pod rotates its missile module towards the ridgeline. While its sensors are for naught now, it still has a recording of its target's last position. Extrapolating the most likely locations for a direct hit, the Pod looses several projectiles.

"Oh, God!" yells our subject as she sees the missiles coming her way. Snatching up Oren, the young mother sprints off down the far side of the hill.

Our subject's fatigue is starting to show at this point. She has been on the run for several days, often spending the nights awake and on guard against the Pods and similar threats. But she is being driven by fear, fear for herself and for her son. As it is, her flight is just fast enough to avoid the missiles, but not all of their effects.

Oren hears his mother scream as she stumbles to the ground. Even though his hearing is more sensitive then previously, he only clutches tighter to her, burying his face in her breast. As she kneels on the ground, slightly hunched over her son, we are given a clear view of the splinter of hardwood protruding from her shoulder blade. She had used herself as a human shield to protect her beloved boy.

The woman gasps out as she looks to the sky, panting to recover from the shock of her injury. "Oren," she pants, "go back there and see if you can pull that out. Mommy can't carry you with that sticking out back there."

Oren obediently goes around back and sees what was done to his mother. Tears come to his eyes at the sight of all the blood running down her back. Gripping the large splinter in both of his webbed paws, he flinches back when his mother cries out. "No, it's alright, baby. Just give it one hard pull and try and get it out. Do it for mommy."

Oren closes his eyes, takes hold of the wood, and prepares to give a mighty yank. We can see several tears flow over his cheek fur right before he wrenches the splinter from his mother's back. He flinches back several feet at the sharp exclamation from our young subject. While she had braced for the pain, it was almost too much for her. She fights to keep from blacking out as she holds her son to her when Oren runs up to comfort her.

Preparing for the worst, the young woman struggles to her feet. She reaches behind to her back, trying to stem the bleeding as her and her otter son resume their flight through the forest. As the mother and son enter a clearing, they frantically look left and right for any sign that they might finally answer their prayers of reaching the border. Surprisingly, they find it only to be another empty clearing. The mother is pleading with the universe, praying that this doesn't turn into a death trap and that they make it to salvation before she bleeds to death.

We switch the perspective from our subject and her ward to an Omni-Pod not more then 500 meters away. It's one of the many other Pods patrolling the border region, and this one happens to be downwind from our subject. It's display pans over the surrounding terrain, and we hear the distorted and amplified sounds of a person traipsing through the bush. The Pod comes around, the bottom-half rotating to realign with the top. The mechanical predator then commences to stalk its prey, the hydraulics in its multiple legs working in perfect synchronization to keep the Pod upright and level with its target.

The young woman that is our subject hears the obvious humming noise of the Omni-Pod before her young son does. A panicked expression crosses her face as she hustles her son into as swift a run as she can manage in her state. Her shoulder is really beginning to give her problems, and she is beginning to feel faint from loss of blood. The pair of them skid and slide down a gravel strewn slope. The thoughts floating through our subject's mind are all centering on the hope that the Pod can't make it down such an incline.

The only problem for Oren and his mother is that the hill is a deforested section, and they are completely exposed as they stumble for the concealing trees at the bottom. Our subject spins around to pick up her son when the otter stumbles and falls. She holds him close to her shoulder as she sprints for the trees, panting heavily from the exertion.

And they almost make it. When they're not more then a dozen paces from the edge of the forest, the Omni-pod appears at the top of the hill. As its sensors probe the ravine, we see the display screen change to a targeting one. Simultaneously the Gatling gun on the unit's base mobilizes and the targeting laser comes on-line. We hear the servos hum as the laser traces its way up to its fast moving victims.

Oren screams as the shells start to tear-up a line in the gravel behind him and his mother. The mother weaves and ducks, trying to make it to the tree line and avoid getting hit in the process. Perhaps if our subject had been in better condition, then they might have found their salvation. Just as they are about to duck behind a protective tree, a final shell catches the mother in the back of her leg.

"Mommy!" screams Oren, as he sees his mother slump against a large gnarled root of the tree. His mother's face is one of shocked pain; her eyes wide, her skin pale, and her breathing rapid. Considering that the bullet has completely shattered her leg bone, this reaction isn't that extreme.

Our subject motions her otter son to come closer, and Oren practically throws himself into her arms. Whispering a final tearful sob of "I love you" into her 6-year-old son's furry shoulder, his mother lets him go for the last time.

"Now go, Oren!" she shouts. "Run, get away."

"Mom..." he croaks as the tears stream down his furry cheeks.

"GO!"

Oren backs up several feet, still holding his arms out for his mother.

The young woman that is our subject grits her teeth as she makes the hardest decision of her short life. She hobbles up, using the tree for support as she fumbles for her last available weapon. Grabbing her grenade pistol, she prays that it still has a few shots left.

With a shout of defiance, the young woman twists out from behind the tree, swinging up her pistol to take aim at the killer machine. But she never gets the chance.

She barely makes it fully around before being cut down by the Omni-Pod's Gatling gun. Her body slowly falls to the ground, her dead eyes seeking those of her son.

"MOMMY!!" screams Oren as he runs towards her. The otter falls to his knees, skidding up to the body. He paws over her body, sobbing for his mother to get back up. But we all know that such a thing will never happen.

As we slowly begin leaving the final subjects on tonight's presentation, we see the form of the six-year old Oren lift his tear streaked face from the body of his dead mother to gaze at the metallic behemoth that is lumbering over them. We see that the Omni-Pod has locked its Gatling gun onto the otter, the targeting laser painting a large red dot on his forehead. But even as Oren peers up at this machine of death, we have to wonder why it's not firing on him like it's suppose to.

Moving to the display screen of the Omni-Pod, we get our answer. The display has split into a target identification display. On one side is the readout is targeting sight, its crosshairs fastened onto the face of the otter morph with the tears streaming down his cheeks. On the other side is a computer enhanced black and white still of that subject with a query flashing beneath it. We close this night of revelation and change on that exact note; with the display flashing, in bold red lettering, the phrase "Human?"

"Human..?"

"Human.....?"

Th'End of The First Revelation

Back to Part 4: Where The Wild Things Are
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