The Harvest

Trusting their infiltration skills to the maximum just because they had watched a few spy movies back at home, Jon and Pethant were completely caught off guard when they ran into Leila in the airway. Leila at this point was a dirty mess of tears and dirt, and Jon was looking no better. She was started to freak out when she saw Jon when he gestured for her to be quiet as a handful of people in white lab coats walked from underneath them.

'I will not harm you...' Jon whispered before pointing towards the camera hanging on his neck, 'I am a cameraman...'

'You...' Leila had no clue what cameramen are, 'what does that mean...what do you do?'

'We...' Jon thought for a moment before answering, 'we pursue the truth.'

He saw Leila's eyes light up as her lips started to tremble and she began to cry silently with droplets of tears finding their way onto the metallic surface of the airway, a gentle tapping sound echoing in the airway as a result.

'Where did you come from.....' Jon asked, 'are you okay?'

'Follow me...' Slurring her words slightly, Leila turned her body around just barely, 'you want the truth...I can give it to you.....'

The massive opening of the compound that Leila came out of remained that way as the harvest continued in the underground city. There are a handful of the harvesters who flew back up due to their syringes getting totally filled up or them being too physically tired due to the slaughter.

'No fucking...' Jon murmured and Leila turned to see his eyes glowing with energy, not to dissimilarly to when she activates her enhanced sight, 'that's RED...in those syringes.....'

'Master?!'

'What did you think I come from?' Leila asked, her face looking mortified yet angry.

'From my understanding, you are from the plant.' Jon answered honestly, 'where the RED compound was taken...'

'HARVESTED.' Leila corrected him, 'and from my understanding, where I came from is supposed to be the last remaining city of the humankind.'

'Master, we have to help them!' Pethant said, 'this...is beyond anything we could have thought.'

'We will.' Jon said firmly, pressing a button and indicating to Bones that the two of them are now going to engage the enemy.

'Wait until you get down there.' Leila said with a pained voice, 'are you strong enough to fight?'

The airways were busted open with pieces of metal flying outwards at the speed of bullets as a few of the metal shards tearing through the harvester suits of the few standing closest to them. Then, before they can react, Jon dashed through the area holding onto Pethant on one hand and Leila on the other as he jumped through the hole which leads to the city far beneath it.

Leila and Pethant kept their fingers on the camera throughout it all, and when Jon finally made the turn, he thought he must have been in hell.

The earth underneath him are painted red as if a careless painter has accidentally tripped over an entire bucket. The countless harvesters are marching their ways through the various levels of the city that looked more like a slum with the resistances retreating at every moment.

Then, a sharp tearing pain exploded outwards inside both Jon and Pethant's mind with Pethant letting out a loud grunt and reaching to grab onto the helmet of his camera suit and Jon turned to the strategy of hyperventilation to manage the sudden onset of pain.

It was as if a million lights are turned on inside of his mind at once as every single one of his neurons are stretched out to the size of stars and cramped back inside of his dome.

There was something wrong about everything around him, and it is not only the acts of the harvesters.

Looking down at his wrist, the watch of his had gone into a frenzy with the arms flickering back and forth before the movements ceased.

'Something's wrong about everything!' Pethant said, shaking his head and summoning the winds from all around him to come to his aid and slow down their descent. Jon pushed away from the pair of them and landed solidly on the ground, creating a small dust cloud and a crater with the impact.

'I know!' Leila shouted back as the two of them glided around Jon and landed gracefully.

'The time, Pethant.' Jon said, throwing his watch towards Pethant, 'time was flowing differently down here, and when we went past the barrier that seemed to be responsible for this...'

Closing and opening his fist multiple times, Pethant agreed with Jon's observation. His body felt distant, his movements sluggish and mind foggy as if he is stuck in a dream.

'How often does this happen?' Jon turned to Leila who's looking at the two of them with a slightly worried look before gesturing to the destruction all around them.

'Ten years.' She replied, and Jon and Pethant shared an uneasy glance.

'Now we are down here, what do you want us to do?' Jon asked, and Leila turned around and started sprinting right away with the two of them following suit.

'I want to stop the harvest, and I also want to confront the leaders.' Leila said through gritted teeth as her body moved through the wind, 'the leaders are supposed to guide us through this disaster, and yet...yet...'

Crossing the battlefields between the elites and the harvesters, they saw a few of the dead harvester's bodysuits evaporating away while the living few continued the conversion of the superhumans to the red compound. Leila had no intention of stopping for the ones who are already dead and Jon respected her decision. In the meanwhile, Pethant captured absolutely everything that he saw.

They made a turn through the city gate that was blasted open by the invading forces of the harvesters, and Leila headed straight for the cathedral which is located on the highest point in the city, coincidentally the last remaining place with a defensive shield around.

'Master, I will clear out the harvesters around the perimeter!' Pethant said, and both Leila and Jon nodded at him.

'There!' Leila pointed her finger up towards the highest point and Jon swiftly took down two harvesters that jumped into the way of them.

Then, his body was reduced to nothing more than a blur as he cleared out all of the harvesters in the entire area within the span of an instant, returning to Leila's side before she even realized what has happened.

'There...is a world out there, isn't there?' Leila asked hopefully, and Jon nodded.

'It's okay.' Jon said, 'I will take you and everyone else out there as soon as possible.'

Then, he disappeared for a split second again, this time clearing away a squadron of harvesters trying to break into a home.

His arms are now covered with blood, but Jon assured he merely injured all of the harvesters and revealed their true identity to the survivors. Everything became clear to Leila the moment she saw a suit completely burning away after the death of its owner, which gives some credence to the belief that the harvesters are in fact robots.

Just before the two arrived at the highest level, the last defense was broken through, and a pair of the harvesters with specialized paints over their bodies breached into the high cathedral of the city.

'Well.....it's time for a reset now, old man.' The leading man took off the helmet, revealing a tattooed face, a scar across the side of his chin, and a bold head, 'did you have a good ten years down here?'

Before the almighty leader of the humans can reply, two figures appeared at the entrance of the cathedral as the light cast their shadows all the way to where the man and the leader were facing off.

Leila was still recovering from her previous running efforts and Jon offered to carry her up through the last of her steps.

'Oh?' The leading man immediately cast his attention towards Jon, 'you invited some guest, old man?'

'You know about this?!' Leila asked accusingly, 'you knew that the robots are fake? You knew this is a losing battle?'

'Quiet, daughter.' The old man shot back, and Leila's fire only burned brighter, 'You know nothing.'

'No...I know enough.'

'Alright now...even time is much faster down here, I still don't want to waste it...' The man said, turning around and pointing his finger towards Leila, 'you don't mind me extracting your precious daughter away, do you?'

'No! Please...just reset everything now! You have already harvested enough!'

The leading man disappeared into a puff of smoke, surrounded the leader before partially reforming his body and holding him off the ground by the neck with one hand. His slow speech suddenly sped up and voice raised high, 'WE GET TO DECIDE WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT TO DO WITH YOU FARM ANIMALS! I CAN KILL YOU, RAPE HER, AND NOBODY IN THE DAMNED WORLD WILL FUCKING CARE!'

There was the sound of blood splattering and organ crushing, and the leading man looked down to see a hand poking through his chest.

There was the clicking sound of a camera shutter, and a flashlight went off by the side of his face.

'Huh?' He lets out a curious sound before dissolving into a cloud of smoke, releasing the leader onto the ground as his old body collapsed under the impact of the fall.

Then, the man reformed his body, the harvester suit and all and pointed at Jon.

'Who the hell are you?'

Looking down to make sure all of the footage is saved, Jon ignored the man's question.

'You think your attacks are going to work against me?' The man laughed maniacally, 'YOU FOOL! I can turn myself and everything I touch into gas! I am the Smok...'

Before he finished, Jon had already closed in the distance between the two, slamming his fist into the man's face and dunking him onto the ground before he even had a chance to dissolve his body!

Thumping him solidly onto the ground and nearly through the floors, Jon looked at the man in the eyes with a gaze strong enough to penetrate through his soul.

'And I...am a cameraman.'