Rest in Peace, by David Bingham

Snow drifted into the trench Colonel Kurtz had ordered his men to excavate. He’d been puzzled by the elongated mound his occupying troops had found in the parkland near the centre of the city,

   ‘Colonel, they knew, with winter coming, they couldn’t hold out against us.’

   The colonel looked down at the creatures which had fought so bravely against him. ‘They’d been under siege for six months. I doubt if they’d have lasted for more than a couple of days anyway.’

   ‘But did they need to go this far?’

   ‘I don’t know, Major. But, in a way, I admire them. They’d rather kill themselves than be subservient.’

   ‘There’s no way we’d have done it!’

   ‘I’m not so sure. Back on earth there’s lots of examples of this kind of thing.’

   The colonel raised his hand and signalled the excavator operators to fill in the trench.

   ‘At least we can tell base the area’s safe for colonisation.’

   ‘No rush, Major; they’ll have to wait until spring before they send settlers here.’

   And in that season of fresh growth a new settlement was established which was intended to rise from the ruins of the old.

   While underneath the surface a species, waking from their winter hibernation, stretched their stiff limbs and began to move upwards from darkness into the light.