After Humanity

A short story by James Lomax, currently undertaking his Duke of Edinburgh bronze award. Part 10 of 12

AT last things are kicking off! Carlos has no idea what’s going on, with his friend betraying him, his Gorgon suddenly speaking English, and then beating up his co-workers! Hopefully the Gorgon can shed a whole sun’s worth of light on the subject…

CARLOS woke up. He couldn’t really tell where he was, except it was wooden and small. He was sitting on a bed, staring out at a window, which gave him a perfect view of the

XVX mines. This meant he was on the rim of the crater, where the XVX meteorite landed on this planet. This also meant he was in slave dwellings.

He stumbled out of bed, dazed and confused. What happened? Oh, that

happened.

“You fainted.” Carlos turned to the corner and found his Gorgon, sitting on the floor. “You must have a million questions.”

“I’ll explain everything. You healed me, almost certainly saving my life. Thank you. I’m sorry I paid you by organising a rebellion behind your back and learning your language, but it was all for the greater good. You see, by living with you, I found you were very… conflicted. You really didn’t know what to do, but you did what you thought was right, by hiding me even from your friend. I know you always do the right thing, so I decided you will help us rebel and be free.”

Carlos realized he was still on the floor, so he got up and tried to look intimidating, although he was still in his dressing gown. “Why should I help you? You’re slave scum. I would be betraying my kind. I would be going against the dying wish of my parents.”

The Gorgon saw this was a good excuse. “Your parents, you’ve thought about them a lot.”

“You can read minds?”

“Naturally, how else would I know how conflicted you are? You really don’t know who your parents are, do you?”

“What… How much do you know?”

“For that, you’ll need to cooperate. I’ll

meet you outside when you’re ready.” Then it walked out the door, leaving Carlos to think. He desperately wanted to find out about his parents, and he respected the Gorgon. He also remembered what it had said about him always doing the right thing.

Maybe he just wanted to find out about his parents. Maybe, deep down, he knew he was doing the right thing. Whatever the reason, Carlos walked out the door and joined them.

He was met with the sight of probably half a million Gorgons and a couple hundred brutes staring at him. There were so many, they took up the entirety of the crater. In the thick of them was a makeshift war table, complete with little figurines of Gorgons and enforcers.

His Gorgon looked at him. “Ah, you’re here. I knew you made the right decision. You’ll have to excuse us, many are against your leadership and want to kill you horribly, especially the brutes. Don’t worry about them.”

Carlos stared at the figurines. “So, what are we going to do?”

“Well, you know more about the enforcers than all of us combined, so you are going to plan the whole thing.”