Free Sins 02 - Sins of Violance by J.F. Penn

Sins of Violence
    An explosion rocked the air, raining chunks of masonry and glass down from the building above them. Ari and Sibyl dived behind the hulk of a ruined truck, rolling underneath to shelter from the hail of debris.
    “It’s getting closer,” Sibyl said, her voice tinged with the longing for battle, and Ari knew she wanted to be back there, fighting deep in Sector 35. The Corps was the only family they now had, a renegade team trying to restore order to one corner of the desolate planet.
    “I promise you the war won’t end while we take a few hours off,” said Ari, rolling out from under the vehicle once the dust had settled. Her lithe body was fast as a wildcat and she sprang to her feet, weapon ready, scanning for any danger.
    “Time off?” Sibyl laughed as she brushed herself down. “I haven’t heard that expression since before the Contagion.”
    “We need to get moving,” Ari said, acutely aware of her surroundings, for they were off their patch, deep into Untamed territory. But she had to risk running this gauntlet now, because it was almost too late.
    She had received the message a few days before, passed through the networks that still kept communication alive on this forsaken continent. Elyse was about to be Blessed and Ari couldn’t let that happen. Even though she hadn’t seen her sister for fifteen years, she remembered the little girl’s blonde curls and her laugh, the way her skin had smelled after a bath, back in the days when those were still possible. It was the innocent giggle that had stuck most in her mind, the last thing she had heard before she was led away for her own Blessing. She would not let that happen to Elyse, especially as the message had reported what else was going on in the city, the violent hold he had on the population after 29 years of rule.
    “You’ve never told me what happened in there,” Sibyl said, as they darted between the ruined buildings of the Empty Quarter, eyes drawn to every shadow. The area was only designated empty so that it could be written out of any rescue plan, but Ferals lurked here among the Untamed, and plague victims still eked out a pitiful existence in its shattered world. Ari turned briefly, her hand reaching out to squeeze Sibyl’s tense arm.
    “I’ll tell you when I come out again,” she said. If I make it back out. “It’s a long story, but I can’t do this alone. Thanks for coming with me.”
    Sibyl shook her head, dismissing the gratitude. “Just don’t expect me to shut up about wanting some answers.”
    The Empty Quarter had once been a business hub, with high-rise office buildings, boutique shops and restaurants. It had been a centre of commerce in the days when people still had such trifling concerns such as whether they could afford private education for their children, or which new car would get them the most kudos at work. Those were the days when people didn’t have to learn practical skills like how to grow crops or fix equipment, or how to fight and defend themselves and their families. The end of that life had come before Ari had been born, but she had seen its reflection in her mother’s eyes as she stumbled to draw water daily from the public well. Her mother’s naivety in the face of disaster had resulted in her own birth, a child of rape in the days when defence of the country became more important than protecting the innocent within it.
    Ari’s mother Beatrice had told her stories of that time, and how the days of plenty had been ended by the Contagion. The mysterious illness had spread from the icy far north, at first considered a wave of extreme violence endemic only to isolated communities. But when ordinary families were slaughtered by soccer Moms and children were found hacking at the disfigured bodies of their school friends, the brutality was examined in more detail by the authorities. It was found to be a virus, a strain unseen before, turning those infected into savage, uninhibited