captured by louis 05

         “What happened back there? What's going on? Was that some type of genetic modification?”
           Louis was panting. He grabbed a pair of medical tongs, and began to dig a bullet out of his arm.
         “That's possible. I knew they were dangerous, but no one has ever seen anything like this before.  We can't wait any longer to move out against them.”
         “Huh?”
         “I mean it won't be long before they realize how many of us there are in the capital. I have to send out the word to everyone, including those on the outside.”
          Louis ripped the bullet out squirting a stream of blood out in front of him. He looked at Adam.
        “That means we are going to have to finish this... tonight.”
        “...”
          Louis scratched his head.
        “Haha. Sorry to throw so much on you when you don't really have very much real combat training yet. But really. Our entire plan revolved around them not knowing about us. From the very beginning we knew that no matter how prepared we were, we had to move the second they knew we were here.”
          And if we're not prepared enough... well... we die.”
          Louis looked up with his boyish grin.
          Adam stood up and looked out, reflecting on the fact that he now knew that he should never have agreed to stay here in the first place, no matter how kidnapped and not really his own option that was. Which he still wasn't too clear on. They had escaped and made it to their larger outpost. There were more people here, outfitting hurriedly for battle... to get on the offensive before they ended up on the defensive. Hobbes would be afraid once he learned how many people were really already here. He would bring back any forces he could which were in range to defend against the infiltrators who had managed to get this far undetected.
          Adam wondered who it was that Louis was referring to on the outside. More of his own?
          He looked back out.
        “What exactly are we going to do?”
        “Everyone else will try to capture the capital. It may be possible to get in, and capture it, but this is unlikely. Even with what we have, these people are dangerous. It will be mostly a game of endurance. They are for now a diversion.”
        “And?”
        “The best of them will come with us. Hopefully we can get by into the power station without being seen.”
        “I thought you said that only the three of us could enter?”
        “No.”
        “?”
          Louis looked at him.
        “I said that only the three of us could survive.”
        “!”
        “This is a suicide mission for every last other person we bring with us. Though there will not be many people there, it will certainly be guarded. Those who come with us will not be able to survive long. We will have to finish everything before they die.
          ...And then... the three of us will have to maintain the threat long enough to get Amasia to surrender... alone.”
          Adam put his hand on his face.
        “I'm glad that this is going to be so easy.”
        “...”
        “Also that you told me this earlier. How do you even know they won't guard this, if it is so important?”
        “They will. I Said we'd be bringing the best, didn't I?”
        “...Good point.”
        “We'll be going along a ways with the ones who are headed to the capital. The reinforcements will have an easy time to take it after the first wave, if we can threaten them with extinction.”
        “But what if they don't belie...”
        “...”
        “!”
         Adam's eyes got bigger. He suddenly realized what exactly it was he was doing. In all likelihood Hobbes would not submit to the threat in the first place. No dictator would simply give up power like this over an idle threat. And so... that means...
        ...It was not an idle threat. If they would not believe him from threats alone, Louis would simply start turning off the power to entire areas, killing everyone inside. Adam remembered the story of the dropping of the first atomic bomb, and how in that moment it had changed the world forever. But it was more than just the advancement of technology. It was used to destroy whole cities of not even soldiers, but civilians... children... snuffing out the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in an instant. It was done again and again in the hopes of ending a war, breeding hopelessness and despair. Adam had always felt personally terrible about it in general, even though it had happened eons before his birth, and very obviously had nothing to do with him. He had hoped that if he was there he would have found a way to do it differently. Something else, that did not have to kill...
        ...But he was here now. He had unwittingly walked into a position now where he would have millions of lives on his head. And he would have to bear the pain of this for all time. Was it worth it? What if they never gave in? How far would Louis take this? If they never succeeded, he would have had a hand in the deaths of millions of people.
        ...For no reason.
        ...This was not something a life of charity work and a declaration of repentance could make up for after the fact. This was something that no one ever could make up for.
        What could he do? If he turned back now, then what? Louis may have been his friend in another life, but at this point in all likelihood he would simply kill him if he had to to push the plan ahead; his sole consolation being that Louis would probably not enjoy it, regardless of the fact that he would have no hesitation. Could he run away? Could he...
        Should he just go along with it? If he just gritted his teeth and everything went well, he could live in peace for the rest of his life.
        …
        Peace.
        Would he be able to go on living? He had tried to kill himself once. Could refrain from doing so again if he felt the deaths of millions of people upon him?
        Then what?
         Adam thought... He realized that if it came down to it it might end with just the three of them at the controls... If Louis trusted him, surely he would not try to lock him out at the last moments. Could he do something then if he needed to?
       ...But wait. Who said Louis trusted him at all? Maybe the entire story about distrusting whoever  the other person was was only told to him as a trick. Maybe he was never trusted in the first place. Maybe both him and this other person were being played against eachother so that Louis could get rid of them both in the last moments.
      Wait...
      Maybe Adam was never immune at all. Maybe the entire story was for some more complicated purpose. Maybe he too was one of the people who would drop dead on entry. Maybe everyone he was going to bring was all told the same lie
      ...No, that couldn't be it. They might communicate this to eachother.
      Why was he panicking?
      ...Oh, right. The warlike situation. Being stuck in a lose – lose situation.
      Was it worth it the risk? Would killing people really be justified? How bad was Hobbes really? Adam admitted to himself he really did not know. Why didn't he know? Was he really that unaware of modern events in his earlier life? He thought his memory was good, but... a dictatorship? Was it not really that bad? Maybe he came from a bubble where you simply did not learn these things. Was... what was his life?
       At any rate, he realized he needed time to think. He would go with Louis to the end, and when he got there... he would decide what it was he had to do.
      ...If he was even alive that is.
      Hopefully he was not dead.