Fallen Peace

By: Sinjin Jones

            The dim room in which Cesar was imprisoned was nothing compared to the darkness inside of him and even less compared to the darkness on the Surface, where the sun was blackened with despair; war drained was she. No, this darkness wasn’t menacing in the least, it was soothing in a way, but Cesar wasn’t enjoying himself. When your entire life has been spent in a society where war is the only hobby and death greets you around every corner, serenity is more torture than reprieve.

Outside the sound proof walls of this asylum, battle raged. Innumerable soldiers wearing the latest in internalized carbon armor struggled for the fate of terra firma, the fate of a doomed race, treading on the fatally frozen surface of a severely wounded planet and relinquishing their lives for an all but lost cause. Death suited them, it was the only thing that most citizens were fit to do, the one task they were bred to fulfill, their sole purpose. The ravaged battlefields of Taciturn, Carnagie, and Damsel were ridden with human corpses from campaigns long past, their flash frozen bones practically fused to the land and chunks of their flesh sailing through the harsh winter wind.

Cesar reflected on the Battle of Taciturn Pass in which millions of the remaining European culture were slain ruthlessly by the few, technologically advanced, Chinese. Cesar was one of the privileged few fortunate enough to escape the massacre, lasers were unforgiving. He had become a hero of sorts to the failing human race; even the enemies of Europe hailed him as the best warrior in existence. And he had the wounds to prove his heroism, his left leg was all but nonexistent, now replaced with synthetic robotics, and his skin was riddled with rips and scars frozen by ruthless cold. He didn’t fancy himself a hero, however, for, in war, there are no heroes, only the left-overs of those who fought bravely and the hypocrisy of those who did not.

Cesar had learned that there was no such thing as a victor, no such thing as the defeated, there was only who lived and who died, all else mattered not. He had realized that there was no cause for war, no reason or purpose but to remain in the realm of living, to see your family once again, to hold your children. All that mattered was you. On the battlefield, there was no happiness, no sadness, no love, no hate, no existence.

Images of the dying and the dead cluttered Cesar’s mind, he had experienced more sorrow and destruction than any one person deserved and he was now forced to confront it, face-to-face, day and night, in his cocoon of tranquility. He was forced to fight his internal demons, to confront them in the chasms of his mind, with no weapon but sanity and no armor but reason and he was losing. Suicide had crossed his mind countless times, any relief from this pain would be worth it; cost was not an option. To cease life seemed like bliss.

Unfortunately his cell was completely empty, only concrete and the air of cacophony surrounded him. That and his hatred. His hatred for all things living, for the human race and for this never ending conflict consumed him. That was likely the reason why he was sent to this place where no soul survived. Truthfully, he was dangerous, both to others and to himself, and this is the place where you were sent when you became a danger to the war mongers. This place where Cesar would undoubtedly die, be it from his own insanity or from the lack of food and drink.

The room was silent and foreboding; as if it knew it had complete control. Cesar merely sat, legs uncrossed and sprawled, on the cold stone floor as drips of melted ice from above cascaded into the growing puddle across from him. In his mind the fiercest of conflicts ensued, one where no victor could arise. That of light and dark. He was sure that soon either the darkness would consume him and he would be thrust into frenzied anger, beating himself to a mangled pulp, or the light would shine brightly upon him and grief from unimaginable horrors would eat away at his very being until he could no longer breathe and he would die much the same. He turned his weary head and gazed upon the titanium plated door that marked the threshold between dark and darker.

It opened.

Standing on the other side, coated with a layer of pliable shielding that was the only thing making his body visible at all, was a guard of the Surface whose job it was to remain stone-faced whilst either freeing or executing a prisoner. The guard walked in, breaking the unbearable silence with his tracks, and pulled Cesar to his feet, binding his hands with the pliable gold alloy that had long replaced hand cuffs.

            “You’re free,” he said as he led Cesar out of the door.

His vision became immediately dark as they entered the hallway, for no light existed here and the darkness was harsh. Cesar’s eyes struggled to see as the long, narrow hallway constructed of the blackest granite stretched in front of the pair.

They walked, their footsteps creating sound that echoed through the empty halls of the prison, and Cesar reflected upon his time in the cell, the time spent regretting his decisions, the time spent regretting his very existence.

The two came upon a split in the hallway and Cesar made a break for it. He knew this prison well and skillfully weaved his way through the system of corridors as quickly as his legs would carry him. Walls passed like memories in a thought filled mind and he came upon a door. This portal was different from all of the others, inscribed upon it was a warning.

Without a second thought, Cesar opened the door, stepping outside. Emergency lights flared at his back as he faced the dark and unrelenting chill of a sunless planet and joined the fallen among the battlefields of Taciturn, Carnegie, and Damsel in frozen peace, his bones practically fusing with the ground and his flesh sailing through the harsh winter winds of Earth.

This story was inspired by a friend of mine, thank you Taylor. It revolves around the character Cesar and what it means to be alive and also what war does to people. The character is one that I really enjoyed playing with because he is really regretful and contradictory to my personal attitude towards life. And I really like the descriptive nature of this story, it's my favorite way to write but I'm not too good at it.