“I guess the rover is going to have a little more space,” Marshall makes another poorly timed joke.

It must be his way of dealing with stressful situations, a natural reaction. Similar to people who lave in moments of seriousness. I don’t have much more time to think of it as Karl lunges forward. I prepare to fight him of but he avoids me. He avoids Marshall and slams into Aaimina, dropping her to the ground. Thore is quick to separate them, tossing Karl to the other side of the roof.

Karl pops back up waving a handgun. He must have tackled Aaimina because he thought she would be the easiest to disarm. I guess he made the right choice, but none of us were expecting him to lunge at as. He keeps waving the gun, shouting but nothing intelligible. Thore steps forward and quickly drops as a bullet pierces through his thigh. It’s not fatal as long as no major arteries were hit. I need to get his pants off to be sure there’s no serious damage. I can’t do that with Karl waving a gun around. I’m forced to just watch as Thore rolls on the ground.

“Hey Thore, I need you to stop rolling around so much. Put your hands over the wound and try to limit the blood loss,” it’s terrible advice but the only advice I can give him at the moment.

“You always got all the answers,” Karl points the gun at me. “Get your hands up!”

“They are up,” I respond.

“Get them higher!”

I do as I’m told and raise my hands higher. A handgun isn’t going to pierce the armor but I lost my helmet a long time ago. If he decides to shoot me in the head, then I’m going to take a tumble the same way that his wife did.

“Duane didn’t shoot your wife, why are you pointing the gun at him,” Aaimina pleads for me.

“Don’t worry,” I’ll be fine, I try to calm her.

“No, you won’t be fine. You’re going to die here. Everyone is going to die here. You people are terrible. Especially you,” he keeps the gun trained on me. “You’re a coward. You know that bastard is out of control and you never stop him. You won’t even tell him to calm down because you’re afraid. You just do whatever he says. You were going to shoot my wife because he told you to,” Karl keeps shouting. “What do you have to say for yourself? Answer me damnit!”

“I’m sorry,” It’s all I can muster, I don’t know what he wants from me.

“Is that all you can say,” sorry was not the answer he wanted from me. “Kill him. Take your gun out and kill him,” Karl points the gun to Marshall. “Yeah, kill your daddy and see how it feels to lose your family. See how I feel!”

“Nobody has to die here,” Niko speaks up.

“I don’t even know your name. You just sit in the corner being all emotional until someone speaks to you then you wag your tail like an abandoned dog. You don’t even have a purpose in this group. You’re just dead weight that Duane keeps around to feel better about being worthless, because you’re even more of a coward than he is.”

“Alright,” is all Niko says.

“Yeah, it is alright. Everybody dies and Marshall is first. Then I’m going to kill all of you and make Duane watch because he won’t do anything. He’s afraid to make a move without Marshall’s word. What, he’s your military commander? Where’s the military? We’re done with missions. This shit is all done. Nobody can survive being a coward out here”

“He wants you to shoot me, just shoot me,” Marshall says calmly.

“I’m not going to shoot you,” I respond.

“He’s right you’re a coward. I told you that. It’s not your fault, you were born that way. It’s probably your daddy’s fault. DNA with no backbone. Happens to a lot of people. Go ahead and shoot me.”

“No, stop playing into his game,” I argue with Marshall.

“Hey Aaimina,” Marshall turns to her. “Did Duane tell you that when we first encountered the grubs he ran and hid? I know you think of him a super soldier, but he’s not. He runs away at the first sign of danger. It’s pretty clear you two got something going on, just thought it would be fair if you knew,” Marshall winks at her.

“Why are you doing this,” I ask.

“Because the man didn’t lie. I’m a terrible person, and you’re a coward. You can’t make the tough decisions and I always choose the easiest route even if it’s the most violent. We don’t deserve to live. The rest of them, just wrong time wrong place.”

“Just stop, we can figure this out.”

“You know Marki hated you too? She thought you were the weakest excuse for a man she had ever seen. When we pulled you out of that wreckage she had wished it would be anyone else,” Marshall lays in. “She was just a good person and a good soldier. Sometimes I wonder why she died instead of you. You just don’t have the heart to do what needs to be done,” Marshall shrugs.

I raise my gun, “is this what you want?”

“Oh, so you’ll shoot him when he says to but not when I say to,” Karl asks.

“Don’t worry Karl, I’m going to shoot you when I’m done with him.”

“Stop,” Thore shouts from the ground. “If we start fighting we’ll never make it,” he forces the words through gritted teeth.

“Sorry Thore, some people just have to die,” I respond. “Some people outlive their usefulness.”

“Do it,” Karl shouts.

I squeeze the trigger of my gun firing several shots. Aaimina screams as Marshall drops. I quickly turn and fire off more shots. There’s no blood or screams, blasts from my gun seer the wounds closed on Karl’s body before he can drop or get a single shot off. There’s no closing villain monologue for him. He’s just dead. The first time I’ve ever killed a human and I don’t know how to react.

I walk over and kick the body a few times, to make sure he’s really dead. I don’t even remember what he looked like anymore, I just see the hole burned through where his face used to be. Still smoking slightly bone, flesh, muscle, and everything else burns at once. I’ve smelt human bodies burning before during experiments but those people were long dead. This is different, it’s just the wounds I inflicted. His heart was still beating when those holes were burned through his body. He’s not even a man, or a monster. Just an empty shell that used to contain a person.

“Damnit, you didn’t need to shoot me that many times,” Marshall shouts as he lifts himself from the ground.

His armor is burned, displaying a few cracks around his left shoulder. I just aimed close to his head. Enough that the shock would give me the chance to kill Karl. The spot where his commander designations has been burned away. Karl was right about three things. I’m a coward. There’s no more military structure. Being afraid is no longer an option.

“Duane, are you good,” Aaimina asks me.

“Yeah, I’m good. Let’s get going.”