Chapter 10
“Man, what the fuck! Are you telling me they’re farming them like cattle?!”
Eric still couldn’t come to his senses. I remember I once told him to not be surprised at what human beings are capable of. We are no different than a wild beast – when it comes down to it, we will kill each other to survive. I didn’t want to explain to him that that’s what the Ill are merely trying to do. Because I didn’t want to believe it either.
“Do they seriously need to breed us like that? What the hell, I mean how many of them still are there? Wouldn’t they have just eaten most of each other by now?”
Eric and I were standing in front of the Captains desk. It all made sense now. Why they hadn’t been attacking. Why they kidnapped women. That’s why they took the farming equipment when they first left two years ago – to grow crops for feed. Feed for their livestock.
“They probably have eaten half of their own population by now.” I responded to Eric and the Captain. “If meat is all they can eat, then they would need a more sustainable approach. So they eventually stopped eating each other. That’s why they grew the wheat and the corn - to feed the ones planned for the slaughter.”
Eric and the Captain were silent.
“That’s why they took all the obstetrics equipment too. When I saw Sarah’s skin, it didn’t look like she gave birth to just one. It had to have been ten at the least. They’re breeding them using in-vitro fertilization.”
“What kind of sick bastard could even think of something like that! Why not just kill us and eat us!?” Eric said furiously.
“Like he said - sustainability. We could be stuck here forever. And it seemed to have allowed thousands of them to survive the last two years.” Captain Hildreth said. “A lot of them also had their children with them, don’t forget that. They’re probably most of them toddlers by now. Don’t underestimate what a parent would do for their child.”
My father once told me that the one thing that could bring even the most evil man to his knees is his child. I believe it. The survival of the Ills children caused one of the most gruesome things humanity has seen.
“Do you think they figured out why they could still eat others, even though they eat Havens food?” Eric asked.
“I don’t think it matters. I think the point for them is just to survive. If the only thing they can eat without having any problems is other people, then that’s what they’ll do. I think it’s what we would all do.” I said.
“We have to stop this.” The Eric said. “Hell no, that is not what I would do. If i were one of them, I would have just died honorably.” I knew Eric didn’t believe that, and I forgave him for being so amped. It wasn’t easy to take in.
“We can’t blame them.” Captain Hildreth said hesitantly. “But, we cannot let this continue. Prepare the security team and any able bodied man who knows hows to use a cannon.”
We left to go tell everyone the news.
I refused to bury Sarah here. Not on this alien planet. She deserved to be brought back to Earth. She was cremated and her ashes were put inside a gold plated urn. It was unfortunate Sarah died before we could get any answers from her. Even the smallest amount of intelligence would have given us an advantage in the coming assault.
The news of the farming caused a mass enragement amongst the colonists. There was a visceral need to rescue the ones being harvested. Everybody wanted to participate, but we only had so many weapons.
Although we outnumbered the Ill, they heavily outgunned us. All I ever remember from trying assault the Ill were the exploding heads of my teammates. We couldn’t even get close enough to see them before they would start shooting at us. Anyone that dared to peek around cover surely received a death sentence. And they tried to take off our heads on purposefully. A body hit by a cannon round doesn't usually leave behind a lot of meat. We needed to think of something.
My PDA pinged a message:
Briefing on assault @ 2600, Main Cabin.
I went to grab a bowl of soybeans. I could never pay attention on an empty stomach.