Anne Winchell - The Last War

“He attacked me,” she whispered. Her eyes were burning and she had to gasp in a breath because her nose was dripping. “He was going to kill my family.”

Raven was silent and she shut her eyes. She had never told anyone before. It was almost liberating, like she had finally spoken the words to free herself from a spell of pain and silence. But she still waited for Raven’s judgment. Attacks, even paired with death threats, were serious crimes, but didn’t earn the death sentence. If he even believed she was attacked. The police who arrived on the scene ignored everything she said, ignored the evidence all around that clearly outlined what had happened. It didn’t matter what had happened before she killed him. Murder was the capital crime, and the man, no matter what he’d done, was the victim of murder. Nothing else mattered.

“I’m sorry,” he finally whispered. He sounded unsure and she pulled away from his grip to examine his face. Sorrow, compassion, helplessness, but not a trace of blame. “I don’t know what to say,” he added, as if in explanation of his awkwardness. “I’m sorry.”

Kaela’s eyes blurred in tears and she hugged him tightly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and resting her head against his neck. His collar was getting soaked with tears, but he didn’t move. He stroked her back and murmured something comforting. Kaela realized that this was the first time she had ever cried about what happened. She mostly tried to ignore it, to run from it. She had never imagined being able to tell someone about it and have them respond like this.

Her tears continued but her lips curled upward, almost into a smile, and she nearly laughed at the joy and relief she felt at having finally been able to properly mourn the girl she had once been before she had taken a life. She held Raven close long after her tears stopped and he never tried to pull away. They had so many other things to be doing and he had so many other concerns than the ancient problems of a woman he had just met, and she couldn’t begin to express her gratitude as he gave her as much time as she needed.

Raven watched the world through Kaela’s eyes the next day. She had put the contacts back in without question before leaving. They hadn’t spoken much. Raven still wasn’t sure what to say. He couldn’t fix what had happened, even though he wanted to. Attacks and threats to family were serious crimes, but while attacks had a clear punishment under Kaonite law, threats didn’t. There was no reciprocal action. Murderers were put to death, thieves had property and belongings taken away, and attackers were beaten, but there was no way to determine if a person’s threats were serious unless they led to action. Someone accused of threatening to kill someone might be sent to prison if the threat were considered serious enough, but there were no real guidelines.

He wanted to share some of his own past with Kaela, but he still wasn’t ready to face what had happened. He wondered if Kaela would be working with him when he was finally ready to stop running from his past and face it the way she had. Probably not. And counting on her would be a mistake. If there was one thing Raven had learned, it was not to depend on other people unless absolutely necessary. Raven had one true friend, Scott, and that was enough. The more people he trusted, the more it would hurt when they inevitably betrayed him.

The rebellion remained remarkably well organized, Raven had been pleased to learn. For decades, every capital in every state had a headquarters and freely shared information, and communication between the East and West was generally good as well. Yet despite the openness of communication, Kaela was the first government spy to actually infiltrate one of the central headquarters, and she had only managed to do so with Raven’s help. The resisters were incredibly loyal to one another and devoted to their cause, and refused to accept anyone who lacked the requisite determination.

The problem with the rebellion was the lack of a clear goal. Raven had attempted to solve this when he led the movement, but looking back, his goals were vague and unrealistic. The general aim was to topple the world governments while leaving state governments intact. They wanted to return to the days of smaller states and nations, when people had different languages and customs based on their location and ancestry. Right now, each state maintained a level of distinction: the Indian state was distinct from the Russian and Asian states even though they were adjacent. But individual liberties and differences were considered less important than world-wide agreement, and minority groups were constantly pushed out of the government because of their unwillingness to assimilate into the world-wide norm.

Raven and the other resisters believed that once the world government had less power and the states had more, the balance of power would again shift to the individual versus the majority. At least, Raven used to believe that. The Graveyard Massacre had shown him the flaw of valuing individual lives. Fifty-two people had been killed. His friends. People who believed in him. Murdered by the police. For the police and the government, the event was entirely a numbers game. A large group of people had threatened the safety of the government and were disposed of. No guilt, no retribution. But to Raven and the handful of survivors, every single death meant an individual person no longer able to live their lives and take care of their friends and families.

Most of the survivors left the movement after that. There was no point risking their lives when the government didn’t even notice when those lives were lost. Raven had left as well, and lived with Scott for a few years. Scott was loosely associated with the movement as a member of the press, but he had never been an active member and was firmly against the use of violence to accomplish anything. He was Raven’s only real friend and the two of them grew incredibly close after the massacre. When Medane started sending letters to Raven, Scott had destroyed them without telling Raven until much later. Raven was grateful; he wouldn’t have been able to handle a message from the corrupt government at first. But eventually he began to see the world the way everyone else seemed to, and he began to accept that a certain number of people had to be sacrificed in order to protect the whole. It wasn’t right, and Raven had never gotten used to it, but he had learned to live in a world that had no regard for individual lives.

A message blinked on one of the screens and Raven switched it to communication. It was Medane, and he looked furious.

“Atheus has decided to help lure Galley out by attacking,” Medane said. “Make sure he doesn’t cause any damage.”

“Atheus or Galley?”

“Both,” Medane snapped.

His eyes were narrowed to slits and he looked angrier than Raven had ever seen. Raven agreed and ended the communication, glad to be away from Medane’s wrath. Especially since Raven knew he was to blame for it.

There was no direct way to alert Kaela of the imminent attack since all communication devices were blocked at Grader’s house. Inn, Raven corrected himself. He still couldn’t believe that Klaus, one of the least in-touch members of the movement, had taken over after Raven left. But Raven had personally set up the security at his house and it was superb. The cameras in Kaela’s lenses had been a gamble, since there was a good chance that the signal would be blocked as well as audio signals. He looked at the screen showing Kaela’s field of vision and noticed movement among the people at the back. It took a few moments before Kaela looked up, then stood up and started moving with everyone.

They must have been heading out to stop Atheus, or going to support Galley. Kaela’s gaze was flickering between faces too fast for Raven to watch and he stopped, hoping she at least saw something useful. She kept scanning the crowd until Galley appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Raven replayed the moments before Galley arrived. Nothing. All of the people in the screen a few seconds earlier were still in screen when Kaela looked back. Raven returned to the live feed and found himself staring at Atheus.