E.B.E. 21- the Hunt

by Peer Lehregger

  Hannes looked at her, he had a thought.

  "Listen, can it be that the thing with the account and the thing with my job served that purpose, wait... Yeah, sure. I shouldn't have any money; I might even get kicked out of the apartment. If you hadn't had the machine, we'd have no money and a lot of trouble..."

  He looked out of the window with his mind puzzled. Ibby waited.

  "Ibby," he asked, "in the brewery, did more people die there?"

  Ibby nodded.

  "How many?"

  Ibby held up eight fingers.

  "Did you kill them all?"

  Ibby nodded.

  Hannes looked at her and looked at her.

  "Was it necessary?"

  Ibby nodded emphatically, then she pointed to Hannes and to herself, then drove her flat hand over her throat.

  They’ve had that before. So, he'd have been killed too. Pensive, he stared into emptiness.

  Suddenly a loud noise was heard on the street, window glass broke, a loud squeak was heard. Hannes got up and went to the window, looked out. He couldn't believe what he saw. A small truck stood next to his Renault, had just knocked his loading claw into the passenger compartment and began to lift the vehicle. Stunned, he watched for a moment, and as he turned around in anger and a bright red head and stormed past Ibby, she held him tight. Torn by Hannes momentum from the chair, she held him tight. He tried to loosen her grip, but that wasn't possible, it felt like Hannes's arm was being held by a vise. Blind with rage, he tried to shake her off, but she wouldn't let go. It took Hannes a moment to get himself back under control. Panting he stood there, Ibby made sure with a clear questioning look whether he had calmed down again.

  Hannes pointed at the window. "They take me my car away. They just take it away from me." Ibby nodded and tried to hug Hannes. He pushed her aside. "Ibby, what's going on? Why the car ? There's no reason, is there?"

  Ibby pointed to him, to himself, then to the floor. Hannes understood. "We're supposed to stay here. Here in Cologne. We're not supposed to leave. And then my friend was surely murdered. You just killed them both. So that we don't have a person with whom we can exchange ourselves, a person who might be able to help us. Right?"

  Ibby nodded, pointed to Hannes and the chair. Sit back down!

  Hannes let his shoulders hang. Slowly, he didn't know what to do. It got too much for him.

  He looked at Ibby. He didn't know how to tell her that. But Ibby had to leave. He wanted to work again, earn money again, shop normally, he wanted to have a car again, he wanted to go for a walk in the city, he wanted to go to the pub now and then in the evening, he wanted to watch TV in the living room and sleep in the bedroom. He wanted to live as normally as he did four weeks ago. Sure, he thought I'd miss her now before I told her that.

  But even the closeness to the being, this pleasant, comforting, healing closeness to her, was in no relation to the problems he now had. So many dead, all because of her. And the bad thing was that these dead were covered up and that because of the connection to him also people died who actually had nothing to do with the whole thing.

  He was surprised that they hadn't cut him off the electricity or the water ... Actually, it would have been possible for the apartment to be evacuated, he thought, but if they, whoever they were, wanted the two of them to stay here, under control, then it was pointless to cut off the energy.

  He gave Ibby a thoughtful look. Would she be all right? Certainly, if she doesn't take her clothes off and run around naked. Sunglasses on, a scarf around the chin, so that also the face form does not attract attention, money, produced in a dark corner, she would have enough. She was strong, she was fortified because nobody could resist the claws and the speed. She was, in his opinion, highly intelligent and would certainly find a way to get along. Cologne is big, he thought, there are a thousand corners to hide in here. And maybe she could also leave Cologne in the dark or even in broad daylight and hide somewhere else. And food she could buy by pointing to the things she wanted to have, or simply going to a grocery store.

  He clipped. He noticed that he had never seen Ibby eat before. Sure, sip smoothies or drink water. Okay, but he'd never seen her eat anything solid in all that time. He had never seen her bite heartily into a cheese sandwich; he always had bread and cheese in the house, that was her food in the first days. She had always eaten when he was already in bed, always at night.

  He looked at Ibby. She slipped restlessly on her chair as if she knew Hannes thoughts. He noticed she was dressed. He hadn't really noticed her last time when she was dressed, he had gotten used to her walking around the apartment either naked or wearing a slip.

  He was surprised that even such a perfectly formed body, which he had already seen in every position, did not trigger any desire in him. She had no problem sitting on the sofa with her legs tightened or spread and watching TV. She also had no problem scratching her ass without inhibitions when he was around. It was, he thought, actually the awareness that she was a stranger. She almost looked like a human, but she was actually a stranger. An alien. No one could know what she was really thinking or intending. It could be, he suspected, that she simply used him and the apartment, a hostel, a shelter with someone who speaks, or at least communicates, so that she wasn't alone either.

  It occurred to him that she was tortured. He had almost forgotten the wounds that shocked him so much at that time due to his daily routine. He thought about it, that she was probably really persecuted, and that she should be killed. But if she really was a kind of vanguard of other aliens and the people she had captured were on the right side and she really had to die so that people could live in peace? On the other hand, he thought, if she really was some kind of vanguard, then the others of her species shouldn't be too far away ... They would have reacted long ago, Ibby was here for over three weeks now, and no UFOs showed up to look for her. She hadn't tried to contact her people either. She was actually here alone. Stranded. Hannes sighed, looked at Ibby.

  He needed several approaches before he could speak.

  "Ibby, I don't know how to tell you this. But I want you to sit there till the end until I've finished speaking. I want you to listen to me, to understand me. Okay?

  I think Ibby knew what Hannes was going to say right now. She closed her eyes, then nodded.

  Hannes had a lump in his throat. He cleared his throat, took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, then looked at Ibby.

  "Watch, Ibby. My life is all mixed up. I lost my job, I don't have a car anymore, I can't get into my account. People have died, Ibby, and it's connected to you."

  He swallowed. "Ibby, I don't know what to do next. Living with you the last few weeks have been..."

  Hannes came to a standstill, started over. "You know, I'm actually very lonely. I have a few people I can talk to. You really were a change of pace. I like it when you lie next to me at night and sleep. The closeness to you is wonderful. I feel like that, no, wait, it is as if I am not only no longer alone, but as if the closeness to you somehow fills me, um, as if ..."

  Ibby looked at him expressionlessly.

  "Ibby, but you're a stranger. You're not human. Look at you! Your black eyes, your face. The only way you can go out is to dress up. When you put on sunglasses and when you tie a scarf over your chin. It can't work out that way."

  He lowered his gaze. His stomach cramped.

  "I'm scared. I'm afraid we'll die, I'm afraid we'll end up in some lab."

  Upstairs in the apartment, footsteps were suddenly heard.

  "I don't know, Ibby, where this is going. Do you know?"

  Ibby shook his head but kept looking at him.

  "Look, Ibby, I think it's better if you..." He stopped. He didn't know how to keep talking. "I mean if you're on your own..." Again, he ran out of words. He looked out the window.

  Hannes looked at Ibby. She looked at him and Hannes saw how her right eye released a thick tear and slowly ran down the cheek. She didn't react when her eyes started watering, she ju
st looked at Hannes. Then she raised her hands back to her chest on her breasts, clenched her hands to fists, opened them again, clenched them and opened them. Then she pointed both hands at Hannes.

  He didn't know what this gesture meant, but the fact that Ibby was leaving now broke his heart.

  She got up, Hannes meant to get up, too. Ibby slowly raised her arms, Hannes had a flash of thought, now she kills me, but she put her arms around his neck, pulled him to herself and gave him a long kiss. She squeezed it in, then released and went into the bedroom. Hannes felt miserable.

  Heavy footsteps rumbled through the stairwell, stopping in front of Hannes' apartment door. There was a knock, but it sounded more like someone hammered his fist against the door. Hannes walked slowly to the door, just about to open, when Ibby appeared in Hannes old winter jacket, a cap on her head and her backpack on her back in the bedroom door, pale. Hannes stopped in amazement. Ibby was really pale in the face. No nice copper coloring of her skin, she was pale and looked at him. Hannes looked more closely and was shocked to find that she was afraid. With a wave of his hand, he chased her back into the bedroom. When the door was closed, he went to the apartment door, opened it and was frightened to the core.

  There stands the Krampus, he thought horrified when he saw the huge man outside his door. A face carved like stone, coarse, with sparkling eyes, a distorted mouth, a crooked nose, a high forehead, a hat, perhaps a fedora, black, drawn into the face. Black army jacket, very big and still too tight, black cargo pants, heavy boots, army boots. He stood there, and in his paws he held some kind of rifle. It hummed and Hannes could see in his fright that there were red and green lights, LEDs, on the rifle. Hannes saw stunned that a thumb of the man was moving on a button on the handle, the humming became higher and more powerful.

  "You sent her away," the man's voice roared. "Send her out!"

  Further steps were heard from above.

  In Hannes's head, it clicked.

  "Sent away? No, I didn't."

  The man lifted the rifle a little. "Send her out. You sent her away."

  Hannes shook his head and was about to answer when the bedroom door opened. The man turned his eyes to the door. Ibby wasn't there. The man sniffed like a dog just picking up a trail.

  "I smell her! Get her out of here!" Hannes backed away, grabbed the doorknob of the bedroom door, closed the door.

  "Send her out. You released her!"

  The man's voice had become very loud, but no muscle moved in his face.

  "Send her out!" he yelled.

  Hannes shook his head. Finally, he understood. "No, I'm not sending her out. She can stay here. She's under my protection!" That sounded, also for Hannes, very funny, the man laughed loudly and booming.

  Hannes grasps and interrupts the laughter. "You're armed. You're stronger than me. But you don't come in here and get it. You're not gonna shoot me. You're just threatening me. You can't come in here. Or you can't come in here. I'm not sending Ibby away. She can stay."

  "Ibby? That's her name?"

  "I gave her the name."

  The man turned his face to a grimace. "A beautiful name. That's a wonderful name. She's gonna die. You will die."

  Although Hannes's heart was up to his neck, he laconically said: "We will all die. Go now."

  The man looked at him for a long time, disparaging. Then he grinned again but said nothing. The humming of the rifle became weaker and then silenced. He turned around and went up the stairs.

  Hannes closed the apartment door. He was sick and his legs were shaking. He looked down at himself and found that he was trembling all over his body. He leaned against the apartment door and let himself slide down, sat there, tried to restore order in his head. It was obvious he couldn't let Ibby go. As long as she stayed with him, nothing would happen to her.

  After a while, Ibby came out of the bedroom. She had taken off her jacket and cap as well as her backpack. She sat next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder. He didn't look at her.

  "Ibby," he whispered, "I'm sorry. I didn't get that. I didn't want to put you in danger. I didn't want anything to happen to you. I thought it would be easier for you if you were alone."

  Ibby took his hand and held it in her hands.

  "I'm sorry, Ibby." She squeezed his hand but did nothing else. Upstairs in the apartment, there was a moment to hear the heavy footsteps, then there was silence.

  Hannes and Ibby sat there for a long time. Hannes remembered something he was dying to get rid of.

  "Ibby?"

  She looked at him.

  "Ibby, that doesn't mean you have to do anything special to stay here. Do you know what I mean? Nothing's changing in our lives here. Do you understand that?"

  Ibby closed her eyes and nodded.

  "Look at me, Ibby!"

  Ibby opened her eyes again.

  "Ibby, do you get that? You don't have to do anything special to stay!"

  Ibby nodded emphatically.

  "Nothing changes."

  Ibby wiggled her head.

  The two of them sank back into their thoughts until the phone rang.

  Hannes sighed, let go of Ibby and went to the phone.

  He had barely picked up and called when he heard a familiar voice.

  "Hey, old asshole! Are you all right? Did something happen to you?"

  "Helge?"

  Conversations II

  Ibby stepped up to Hannes, looked at him questioningly. Hannes didn't notice her, stared out the window.

  "I thought you were dead. That's my information! You were killed in an explosion, I was told!"

  "You won't believe it, but I'm a professional. But tell me, what did they tell you?"

  "I actually called you because my, uh, girlfriend and I wanted to come down for a few days, just relax. You offered me that the other day. Police picked up and they told me that you had died in an explosion on Sunday evening, that there was nothing left of you and the house. Then they wanted to know how I knew you, why I called and shit."

  "Hannes, I know you. You only move when there's no other way. You're in trouble, aren't you?"

  "That's fair to say. But I can't tell you any details, at least not on the phone!"

  Ibby bowed her head to listen. "Can I put you on speaker? My girlfriend wants to listen!"

  "You have a girlfriend?" the question came. "Yes, go ahead!"

  Hannes put the phone on the kitchen table. The two of them sat down. Ibby listened eagerly.

  "Yes, I do," Hannes replied, "and that's the problem!"

  "Well, now take it easy. Your girlfriend's the problem? What's the matter with her? What did she do?"

  "I can't tell you this on the phone."

  "Bullshit. Yes, you can. We're all being bugged. Doesn't matter."

  Ibby nudged Hannes, grinned and nodded.

  "Look, Helge, my girlfriend's not the problem. The problem is what's around it. You probably got yourself blown up because of her. Man, I really can't tell you anything else!"

  "Bullshit, say it! Don't be shy!"

  "Helge, it's not working. We'd have to meet so you'd understand. But that's all over now. How did you survive the whole thing?"

  "As I said, I'm a pro. Well, there was a little luck, too, but... You know, I actually wanted to go down through the basement door after my stalk, because I was totally dirty and the freezer for the game is downstairs. I forgot the key, though. Helga was with me and didn't take her key. Upstairs, she said, I can’t get in. I shouldn’t even consider. Because of dirt. We really got into a fight down there in front of the door."

  Hannes laughed. "You're a very impulsive fighter, aren't you?"

  "That's right. I just smashed the basement window with my rifle and went in through the window. Helga wasn't thrilled, but then she thought it was really good."

  "Why?"

  "Yeah, like, why. I found the bomb on the inside of the door. It wasn't bad. Then I told Helga what I discovered and told her to wait outside. I went through the house
and found more explosives at strategic locations. Not a bad job, but far from good."

  "You come across as really arrogant, you know that?"

  "I'm a professional! I can tell a good explosive from a bad one. I work in that field. Whatever. I disarmed the explosives at the door and drank coffee with Helga in the living room. It was really weird, with all the stuff around it, like 20 kilos of Nitropenta around you, that gives every shitty coffee a real spice."

  "How do you know what an explosive device that was?"

  "I took water first, see if it came loose, then alcohol, then paintbrush cleaner. The last one solved it. And they weren't idiots, I knew it had to be a stable explosive, not nitroglycerine. I took some of this stuff off and looked at what it was coming loose in. Then I came to the conclusion that it was PETN."

  "What?"

  "Man, that's military explosives! Extremely explosive! But you do know what explosive means, don't you?"

  "Yes, I do. And then what?"

  "Then we thought that it would be quite good if we emptied the freezer, put the wild boar that was in it in the living room, the freshly shot one down in the cellar, that we would collect our important things and then ... vanish into thin air."

  "You could have called the police. They'd have shown up with an explosives expert!"

  "Man, think about it! You come home and find your home mined. With military explosive. You're getting a weird feeling."

  "Go on, Helge, why are you calling me?"

  "It's very simple, too. Grabbed my laptop and read the router. I didn't want to answer the phone myself. Then I saw that you called me at noon on Sunday. I had the feeling that our planned ascension was connected to your call."

  Ibby nodded approvingly. Hannes was perplexed.

  "Come on, man, don't torture me like that!"

  "Well, we've discussed what we want to do. Then we collected our most important things, put them in the car, then I made a little time fuse, activated it, and then we just drove away. Down before the village, we stopped and watched our cabin fly into orbit."

  "You really are awesome!"

  "Yes! First, I took Helga to safety with my friends, stayed there overnight and now I'm on my way."