Myers gasped for breath, clutching his chest just below his heart. Blood pooled around him, staining his shirt as he fought to cling to what little life he had left.
I ran my hands across my body in shock, realizing that I somehow had not been shot. I glanced over at Myers, and the fiends stared at me in confusion and shock. “You … ungh … you son of a bitch,” Myers gurgled through a mouth full of blood, letting out his final breath. Silence enveloped the courtyard momentarily. I stared at his body and then up at Lara, who was shivering in fright.
“Nooooo!” she screamed.
The pavement around me chipped away as gunshots hissed past me. I felt one rip into my leg, and I cried out in pain. I clumsily lumbered to the nearest flower bed, just as a shot raced past me and hit the wall behind me, an inch from where I just had been. Cheers erupted from the prisoners as the fiends broke through the main gate, setting them free.
I sprayed blindly into the foliage with an assault rifle I had picked up. Its sound was echoed by thirty times the amount of firepower, causing me to laugh to myself as I realized I was about to die. I grabbed my L96 and picked off a few more fiends. “Cease fire!” someone yelled, and the fighting subsided. I looked through my scope, spotting Lara, who was walking slowly toward me with her hands raised non-threateningly.
“Get back, Lara!” I yelled at her, waving my hand for her to go away. I didn’t want her to get hit by some trigger-happy fiend. She smiled softly, ignoring my warning and stopped about five meters away, purposely standing in front of me to block any possible shots. “You’re so damn stubborn,” I called over to her.
She laughed. “Are you okay?” she called over to me.
“I’ve seen better days,” I said, lowering myself onto the flower bed. I was exhausted from the two days of fighting. “Just move aside and let them finish me off. I don’t care anymore.”
She shook her head unhappily. “I’m not leaving here without you, Lance.”
“They’re going to hang me for this anyway,” I called over to her, but she shook her head again.
“You didn’t kill anyone, and the only PLF who did are dead,” she debated with me.
“I killed Myers and Robinson,” I said as tears trickled down my cheek.
“You saved our lives, though,” she said gratefully, advancing a few paces closer. “You’re the only one with a weapon that fires 7.62-caliber ammunition.” Lara calmly placed her hands in her pockets, as if we were having a casual, everyday conversation. “Ironically, most of the bullets recovered from wounded fiends were the same caliber as your weapon. No one was killed with it.” She held her hand out for me to surrender my weapons.
I nodded, handing her my AK89 and L96. She smiled at me, comfortingly shouldering the weapons. “Come with me, please, Lance,” she said gently, motioning for me to follow her. She walked toward the fiends who were bunkered down behind cover, off in the distance. Lara waved her hands to them, signaling that I had given up, and I limped a couple of paces behind her. Without thinking, I pulled out the 9mm from my back pocket, unloading the clip and cocking it, causing the chambered round to fall harmlessly to the ground. “Gun!” a fiend yelled. His shout was followed by a single shot, which ripped through my upper right shoulder.
The 9mm fell to the ground with a dull clunk, and Lara screamed in panic. I stumbled a step back toward cover and fell behind it in a pool of blood. I cursed to myself, feeling the wound.
“Don’t shoot, you idiot! He saved us!” someone called over to the shooter.
“Sorry. Almost got myself my first kill,” the shooter called back with an embarrassed laugh.
Lara raced over to me, her familiar gentle touch lifting me up into her lap as she examined the wound. “It’s not that bad,” she reassured me. I spat out a mouthful of blood. “Why didn’t you just give me the 9mm?” she scolded me, running her hand across my leg and shoulder. Her eyes glowed red, and the familiar blue worm-like lights shot out of her fingertips, crawling across my body and into the wounds.
“I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t thinking. I was just unloading it. I had no intention of hurting anyone,” I said defensively.
She nodded understandingly. “It’s okay, Lance. Just rest now. Everything will be okay.”
My body began to succumb to her spell, and I lost consciousness a moment later. Her soothing touch was the last thing I remembered.
Chapter 6
After the prison riot, I ended up spending a night in the hospital. Lara and a group of heavily armed fiends escorted me back down to the courtyard the following day. I spent another month or so locked up in the courtyard. It was getting pretty nippy out at night, but thankfully, Lara had bought me some winter kit and other warm clothing as a present a couple weeks ago, which I was snuggled into, comforted by the warmth.
My birthday would be tomorrow, and I wondered if Lara even knew. The next day, she didn’t come down to interrogate me, which I found unusual. She did, however, to my surprise, come down that night—with a birthday cake—while I was sleeping.
“Happy birthday, Lance!” she whispered warmly, placing the cake down and giving me a kiss.
“Wow, thank you! You remembered?” I asked her, surprised, as I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
She beamed down at me, nodding. “Of course I did. How could I forget my man’s birthday?” She sat down beside me, wrapped one of her arms around me in a hug, and gave me a light peck on my neck.
I smiled; a satisfied feeling kept me warm as I blew out the eighteen candles on the cake. “How did you know? I don’t think I ever told you.”
“You told me your date of birth a couple weeks ago, during one of our interrogations. And then, I saw it the other day in your file and thought it would be nice if I did a little something for you tonight. I know how much you must miss your family and friends.”
I smiled thankfully but remained silent. I realized her secret agenda was to try to obtain information about my family, which I had never talked to her about. I saw the disappointment fill her eyes as she must have realized that I’d figured out her plan. Surprisingly, she didn’t mention my family again for the entire night. I guess she didn’t want to ruin the birthday. We only got through about half of the birthday cake before Lara looked at the rest of it. She picked it up with a smirk, glancing over at me.
“What should I do with the rest of this?” she asked me playfully, inching closer.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned her, standing up.
She laughed, and the next thing I knew, she sprang at me, slamming the cake square into my face. Lara happily cried out victoriously, but I grabbed her by the waist, took the remainder of the cake, and rubbed it in her face. This caused a brief struggle for control over the remnants of the cake until Lara finally called out, “Truce!” I snickered at Lara, who was covered completely with cake frosting.
“Shut up. You’re not a pretty sight either,” she retorted with a smug expression. We laughed about the play-fight as we slowly eased ourselves down on the edge of the flower bed, fighting an unwinnable battle to clean ourselves off. “So I talked to my boss today, Lance,” she began, pausing to making sure I was paying attention. I glanced over at her, and she smiled, continuing on. “Anyway, he told me I could take you to my room for a while, now that it’s getting pretty chilly out here.” She tried to read my reaction, but I made sure to hide it from her. She pulled out my electric collar from her backpack.
“So we’re going to be living together from now on?” I asked her nervously.
She nodded, smiling. “Why do you look so scared? It will be fun!” she told me confidently. She paused. I think she was trying to figure out why I wasn’t as excited about the news as she was. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Lance,” she added in that moody tone girls always get when things aren’t going their way.
I kne
w I had no choice in the matter, so I put on a fake smile. “It sounds like a great idea,” I lied.
She happily gave me a kiss and latched the electric collar around my neck, and then we left the courtyard, walking down a path into the main entrance of the base. The only source of light inside the base was a dull red that slowly flashed light, fighting its way through the darkness to light up our path temporarily as we walked down the narrow hall. The smell of decaying bodies forced me to glance down to the ground, confirming my fears—I could make out the dimly lit shapes of dead, half-eaten humans, all scattered along the sides of the narrow hall.
I was filled with panic now as we passed by a pair of half-transformed fiends, gnawing on the remains of a dead body. They snarled at me as I passed, and Lara lashed out at them, baring her fangs threateningly with a low-pitched growl. “I want to go back,” I whispered anxiously as we turned a corner and quickly walked down an abandoned hallway.
“You’re going to be fine, Lance. I promise, okay? We’re almost there,” Lara reassured me. She tightened her grip around my hand to prevent me from making a run for it.
I glanced in another room and spotted five dead PLF soldiers, hanging by their necks. They sway back and forth, and the soft, eerie squeaking of the rope echoed around us. “Please let me go,” I begged her again, but she ignored me.
I was gripped by fear as we walked across what appeared to be bloodstains on the floor. I suddenly snapped, unable to control myself anymore. I violently ripped myself from her grasp and bolted down the hall.
“Lance!” Lara screamed angrily as she chased after me. She tackled me to the ground with her fiend strength and rolled me over, staring down at me questioningly. “Lance, I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.” She helped me back to my feet and resumed dragging my quivering body down the hall. “Just close your eyes. We’re almost there,” Lara instructed me.
When we finally made it to her room, I forced myself to open my eyes. I expected to be in a slaughterhouse or something, but to my relief, it really was her room. It wasn’t like a modern teenage girl’s room. I could tell she’d tried to clean it up a little for me.
A light shone dull red, illuminating the room. There were jagged claw marks that ran along the wall, along with a smashed bookcase swept into a pile in the corner of the room. My attention shifted back to huge gashes running along the wall.
I could feel Lara watching me as I ran my hand along the claw marks. They were about half a foot deep in some areas. I wanted to believe that they weren’t hers, but I knew deep down that the marks had to be from her, probably after losing her temper at something. I moved along the wall, tearing my attention away from it to the rest of the room.
Lara had a few books about humans on a small table in the middle of the room, and the rest were written in her language. “What language do you speak again? I forgot,” I called over to her, picking up a book and flipping it over to the back cover, which was written in her alien language.
“It’s called Jural,” she told me, approaching my side and examining the book I had in my hand. “That’s one of my favorites.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s a romance about two lovers who are torn apart by the war between the fiends and the reliks,” she explained, pausing to glance over at me. “I can read it to you sometime if you would like.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.” My attention shifted back to the rest of the room, which was covered with fangs, necklaces, and weird prehistoric-looking symbols engraved in the walls. I picked up a picture in a heart-shaped frame on her nightstand. I realized in surprise that it was of me, a couple of months ago, when we had gone down to the pond. “That was a fun day, hey?” Lara’s voice said gently.
I turned around to answer, but my voice caught in my throat—Lara had stripped down to her bra and underwear. She giggled, seeing my expression. “I’m going to give you your birthday present now,” she told me as she placed her hand against my chest. She pushed me down softly on her bed.
I woke up the next morning with her by my side. She was still sleeping, purring peacefully with each breath. She really was so beautiful. I knew I truly loved her and wanted to be with her, even though she was a fiend.
As she slept, I watched the sun slowly rising in the distance to brave another day. Lara woke up a few minutes later, rolling over sleepily and giving me a kiss. “Did you have a good birthday?” she asked me with a smirk.
“It was average,” I joked.
She punched me in the shoulder with a laugh and then snuggled closer to me. She followed my gaze out the window, at the sun slowly peeking over the mountains in the distance. “I love the beauty of your planet; it’s so amazing,” she whispered.
“Yeah, it’s nice to watch,” I agreed, rubbing her side affectionately.
She giggled and gave me a kiss. “Well, you must be happy,” she said as we cuddled with one another under the blankets.
“Huh?” I asked, confused.
“You’re probably one of the first humans to be able to say that he’s banged a fiend,” Lara told me playfully. She rolled over on top of me, coming to a rest on my chest and staring down at me with an amused expression. “Do you love me, Lance?” she asked nervously.
“Of course. You know I do,” I assured her, and her expression instantly washed over with relief.
A moment of silence followed while Lara played with my hair. “Let me hear you say it,” she whispered into my ear.
I hesitated, knowing that once I said the words, I was committed to the relationship.
“What? Do you have a girlfriend somewhere in the woods?” she asked. A flash of jealousy seemed to pump through her as she stopped playing with my hair and propped herself up to stare down at me. This was a side of Lara I definitely wanted to avoid.
“It’s not that …” I began.
“Then what is it?” she asked, raising her voice.
“See? Now you’re mad.” I tried to work my way from underneath her, but she readjusted herself, using her fiend strength to keep me pinned. I realized that I had gotten myself into an unwinnable battle and that I needed to get out of it quickly, or I was going to be in some real trouble.
Her muscles were tense as she glared down at me, disgust written across her face. “I’m not mad, Lance,” she seethed. “I’m trying to have a grown-up conversation with you, but you won’t.”
“Well, yes, I do love you, but what if something happens between us, and you kill me or something?” I told her.
Her clenched muscles relaxed as she slipped back into her loving mood. “Nothing’s going to happen between us, Lance,” she assured me, kissing me before lying across my chest affectionately.
“You’re sure?” I asked her skeptically, placing a hand on her back.
“Of course! We were meant for each other. Sure, we are going to have our ups and downs, but we are two different species, so of course that’s going to happen until we can reach a compromise and learn to adapt to our differences,” Lara explained thoughtfully.
“Okay,” I replied, rubbing her gently. She resumed purring.
“I know I may be moody at times, but I’m a teenage girl. Every girl has those moments,” she added with a laugh, trying to get me back in a good mood.
I smiled as well, which seemed to make her happy. She lay her head against my chest, listening to my heartbeat.
“I have a question for you, by the way,” I said softly, glancing over at the picture of me that she had on her nightstand.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“How do you have a picture of me? I’ve never seen you with a camera.”
“Oh!” She giggled and then explained. “Our minds take in thousands of images every second that we are alive, Lance.” She reached into her nightstand and pulled out an empty picture frame. She took out the pa
per backing behind the glass in the frame, and then glanced out the window at the mountains. She slowly ran her hand along the paper, and I watched in amazement as the dim outline of the mountains began appearing on the blank paper. A few more seconds past, and then the picture was complete. Color spread across the outline of the mountains.
“Wow,” I said in amazement.
She smiled, handing me the picture, which looked twenty times better than any picture taken with a camera.
“This puts high definition to shame,” I laughed.
She smiled at my amazement. “Would you like to do one?” she offered, taking me completely by surprise.
“Sure!” I flipped the picture over and ran my hand back and forth. “Voila!” I said dramatically, showing her the blank back side of the picture.
We both burst out laughing, and she gave me a kiss. “That’s amazing,” she said playfully. She took the picture from me and flipped it over, running her hand along it and making it vanish without a trace. “Find something you think would make a good picture,” she instructed.
I glanced through the window and spotted a bird about fifty meters away in a tree.
“Ready?” she asked. I nodded, and she placed her hand on top of mine on top of the paper. “Okay, I want you to think of nothing but that image,” she told me.
I stared down at the blank paper. My eyes widened in amazement as I felt a surge go through my hand, sort of like an electric shock. She ran my hand back and forth, and the picture formed, just like hers. Once it was finished, she let go of my hand, and I felt the light surges of her powers fade away with it.
“There you go! It’s beautiful,” she said.
I looked down at the picture of the blue jay in amazement. “Thank you so much! That was sick,” I said happily. I felt an even stronger bond with her now than I had five minutes ago.
“So what do you want to do today?” she asked.
“I don’t care; it’s up to you,” I told her with a yawn, still trying to shake off my sleepiness.
The Unexpected War Page 5