Program Erin

by Alex Fall

  "Some people don't deserve it. Stop questioning me!"

  He looked up to meet me eyes. Suddenly, he gripped the fox and snapped its neck, tossing its dead body to the side.

  "What the *cuss* is wrong with you?!" I yelled, jumping to my feet.

  "Don't cuss. I was simply ridding the world of a predator. It just finished killing some rabbits. You like rabbits don't you?"

  "It has to kill rabbits! That's what they eat, don't they?"

  "Why does it bother you so much that I killed it? Since when is the great 'Program Erin' ever bothered by death?"

  "That's not the same! I..." Oh, the anger! His sarcasm! I HATE being proven wrong!

  "The line of reasoning that you use to justify killing is the same line of reason that nearly destroyed the planet. It's also the same line of reasoning that prompted Project De'mus. Am I right?"

  "Shut the *cuss* up!"

  "Erin...don't cuss. You need to hear this so that you're not so kill happy..."

  "I said shut up you *cuss!*" I yelled defiantly. "I told you not to-"

  Fake Arty held up his hands to calm me down. "Wait, wait! Just give me a second...." He leaned down, and the fox kit came bounding into his arms again. He stood while holding it, the small animal licking at his face as if the figment of my imagination were its brother. I noticed the the body of the dead fox was missing.

  "See? It's not dead. I just needed a way to show you your inner self. And no cussing."

  My nostrils flared as I breathed the anger out.

  "You're going to wake up soon. Before you do, would you like to hold the fox?"

  I stormed over to the tree and sat against it. "No."

  "Erin, please don't be angry. When is the next chance you'll have to hold a fox?" He stood over me with that stupid smile, holding out the young animal slightly.

  After unsuccessfully glaring at him, I sighed and took the fox. It snuggled and squirmed to lick my at my face. Stupid animal, stop making me happy!

  The rest of the dream was spent petting and playing with an imaginary fox. At some point, Fake Arty came and sat close to me. Also at some point, my mood broke and I actually smiled.

  Reality greeted me unexpectedly. My eyes popped open with little warning. It was cold in the new room that I was moved to, and Sharon was nestled against me. Where as before I was petting a fox, now my hand was tangled into Sharon's hair. Not the same...

  I shook my hand free and sat up in the small room that was now mine. This world was so bland compared to where I just was. This one was dark, dirty, and lacked color. And yet, this is real life. The rest of my day I would spend being bummed because of a silly dream.

  Being early in the morning, I made my way to the ring to practice, after making sure Sharon and my pack came with me. Sharon complained about being tired and hungry once we made it to the fight hall. She's been talking more as of lately. I put up with it as best as I could. While she sipped on a juice bottle, I trained in the ring itself, growing accustomed to the way it felt and reacted to my movements. For reflex and balance training, I used the ropes as a slack line to balance on and held various stretches and poses while balancing. Sharon watched with a certain curiosity.

  The guards that were assigned to me on account of my 'bad behavior' stood nearby, also watching, though they seemed bored. I could tell that they didn't like me, but it seemed more like it was because they would rather be elsewhere, based on the conversations they whispered amongst themselves. However, there was one guard today that seemed to have a more focused indifference toward me than the rest. It was Marius...

  Time to practice.

  "If there's something else you'd rather be doing, I'd be perfectly fine if you left," I commented as I held a yoga like pose on the ropes.

  Some of the guards stirred and Sharon looked up when I broke the silence. "I'm sure you would," Marius said.

  "Just offering. You all look so bored and useless from up here."

  "Useless?" One of the guards behind me piped.

  "Keeping you in line is far more useful than you yourself are," Marius replied matter of factly.

  "It WOULD be useful, if you could actually carry out your job," I replied as I slowly and fluidly switched stances.

  "Is that an invite?" The guard to my right asked.

  "Don't listen to her. She's just trying to tick you off," said Marius.

  "Yes, that is an invite. If any of you can last more than two minutes, I'll accept that you might have a use."

  "Don't listen to her," Marius repeated.

  Guard two stepped up to the ropes. "With what kind of conditions? Cause I don't particularly feel like being burned."

  "If you tell me your power and your name, I won't use my power."

  "Mm...I don't know," he said.

  "Come on, you got this!" Another guard said.

  "It's easy if she doesn't use her power," yet another added.

  "Don't do it," Marius threw in.

  The man stepped away from the ropes, eyeing me cautiously. "Useless..." I jeered.

  "Fine, I'm bored and this could be a nice challenge, I'll admit," guard four suddenly announced. He stepped between the ropes and to the center of the ring. I heard Marius utter "idiot..." under his breath.

  "Sharon!" I declared as I hopped of the rope and into the ring. She snapped to attention like a deer in the headlights. "Get my watch and keep time. When either of us fall on the ground, count to five. If they're not up by then, the other wins. Oh, and if more than two minutes pass, let me know."

  "Um...ok..." She replied in a confused state.

  The guard took his flannel long sleeve shirt off and threw it to the side. Beginning his stretches, he began to announce, "Name's Dema-"

  "Wait. Get through prepping yourself before you tell me," I said.

  I cold read him while he stretched. Muscle tone denotes working out, fitting for a guard. Types of stretches indicate that he doesn't have high flexibility, nor does his balance seem especially outstanding. Narrow focused eyes, normal to high alertness level, slightly above average height, loose pants will be a disadvantage, built forearms and knuckles meaning he likely focuses on punches more than any form of offense, right eye slightly more narrow than the other, likely a past injury to the face. His vision will be impaired on his right side by a fraction.

  "Ok let's do it! Name's Demarco and I'm a Brute."

  I produced a half smile and slight bow. "Charmed."

  A couple of the six guards in the room snickered. Before Demarco put up a stance, I was on him. A headbutt sent him reeling back, and before he left my reach, I hooked my hands underneath his knee and yanked his leg out from underneath him. He crashed onto the mat, and I jumped onto his chest, knelt down and landed two blows to his head before his foot found its way to my stomach and shoved me off.

  While I worked on swallowing the pain of my stomach injury and blow to the gut, Demarco scrambled to his feet. We stood at the same time, and a few of his friends expressed surprise and encouragement for him. We charged each other. I ducked his straight punch, sidestepped his swipe, and jumped to avoid his kick, keeping myself at his right side. He blocked a fast kick of my own coming at the left side of his head. Drop down, swipe his legs out again.

  He stepped back to avoid the swipe, so I recovered and closed the distance by jumping into the air, left arm pulled back. He knew the blow would land on his right eye, so he pulled both arms up to block it. Perfect...

  I landed crouched in front of him, purposefully not carrying out my hit. Instead, I wound up to land a solid kick on his belly. Upon realizing that I made a feint, he threw his arms out and backhanded me. The blow stunned me and blurred my vision for a second, but I used the momentum to spin around and drop into a two handed technique, forgetting the kick altogether. Planting the hit in his belly meant he was again stumbling back and coughing.

  His back touched the ropes. It gave me the 0.3 seconds to jump into the air for my next kick. Even though his hands were up and even though
he supposedly was a Brute, I nailed my foot into his hands hard enough that his hands smacked his head. Next, my hands slipped around his waist, and he was again flung to the ground. After putting several more specialized punches on his face, I paused.

  "Sharon?"

  "Oh! Uh...three, four, five."

  "I win. You're useless."

  "Whaaat?" Guard five shouted. "How did you let that happen man?"

  Demarco used the ropes to stand, holding his bloody nose while moaning.

  "She cheated, didn't she? She burn you?"

  "I could have done better than that!"

  "She kept you on the defense the entire time!"

  The guards argued and swore that I shouldn't have won. Clearly I've upset them. Marius just leaned against a rail with his arms crossed, trying to match my death glare.

  Guard five jumped in the hexagonal ring. "I'm going to show you how it's done. N-"

  "Prep first, tell me after," I said.

  He fell silent and knitted his eyebrow. Let's see...built muscles, solid stance, build suggests more than normal amount of kicking, big lips from a few false teeth he keeps hidden meaning he's accustomed to blocking face shots, active clothes-"

  "I'm ready NOW! Name, Briant! Power, Brute!" He interrupted. He flicked his head to the side to pop his neck. Hm, Briant seems flustered. Good...

  "How quaint," I replied.

  This time I advanced slowly. I clenched my fists but started off with a snap kick aimed at his ear. He raised one hand and blocked it easily. As soon as my foot came down, I used a lunge with incredible speed. Revealing the training he had, he sidestepped and hooked his arm around my waist. I found myself change directions and slam on my back into the ring floor, bouncing just out of reach.

  The pain in my stomach burn had my stomach spasm and lock, and the power behind the counterattack left me out of breath. I saw Briant advance toward me confidently while I struggled to stand. As he drew back to ruin my shoulder with a punch, my abdomen released itself. Like water, I maneuvered around his strike, grabbed his wrist pull him forward, then wormed my other arm around behind his head. As he moved past me, I turned and slammed his cranium into the corner pole that the ropes were connected to. He tried to recover his balance, so I point punched his ribs and grabbed the arm that dropped down to block the next hit. As I carried him backward, I struck his forearm like I would a piece of cinder block when breaking it. A loud crack sounded out, and I carried him to the ground, finishing the combo with an elbow in his smarting ribs as we hit the floor.

  "Gah! My arm!" Briant shouted.

  "Sharon?"

  "Uh, one, two, three..."

  Briant tried to push himself up with his good arm despite me sitting on his chest. When I grabbed the bulge in his upper arm, he shouted and dropped back to the floor.

  "Four, five."

  "I win."

  There were more guards in the room than there were before I started the fight with Briant. As I stood, a couple of guards rushed to help Briant. Two of his helpers stood to face me. "What's to stop us from killing you now?"

  "The fact that I would make you charcoal faster than you could run off this ring. Besides, he agreed to fighting me, you can't deny that."

  They stared at me for a second, then sulked off to finish helping their comrade. The arguing and denial of the bystanders was now given in whispers, meaning their disdain was growing.

  The booming of someone stomping down on the ring broke the quiet atmosphere. It was Marius, and he looked angry.

  "Fight me. That's what you want isn't it?"

  I cocked my head and put on a slight smile. "Aw, you DO care."

  "Shut up, lank! Lamont, Justin! Grab that stupid Lesser. Win or lose, she's mine!"

  My face lost its smile. So, you want to up the stakes, do you?

  "She's not a lesser. Her name is Sharon," I stated.

  "My name is Marius, and I'm a Snowflake!"

  "This isn't just practice, is it?" I asked.

  "Now you're getting the picture," my opponent replied as he marched toward me like a slow, angry bear.

  I met his glare and matched his stride. His hand went up and three giant icicle like structures jutted out of the mat at various points in my body. I ducked away from two, and shattered the third with a chop. With blinding speed, Marius' fist planted itself in my stomach, and I barely threw myself back in time to dodge the next one going for my eye. Even as I pulled away, he redirected the miss into a hit by striking me with his elbow. I fell, sprawled across the ground.

  Now I'm the one on the defense. Pain collected on my burn and in my leg for being used too much. Don't slow down, keep fighting! I flipped over onto my back, but a casing of ice locked my left forearm into place and sent needle like pain into it. I think I just took some freeze damage. Marius came down at me with an icy punch dagger formed into his fist. I managed to raise my foot in time to catch him by the nook of his elbow. He jerked back and raised his leg to kick my chin. My other foot stuck his chin first, then both of my feet landed in his chest, sending him a meter or so away from me.

  "Sapphire!"

  Sharon's voice pierced through the air, alerting me to the panic she felt. From lying on my back, I saw her trying to run away but still stay in my sight. The two guards were close behind. My anger boiled...

  I swung my right fist down and cracked the ice casing on my left arm, and again to break the ice. I stood, just in time to dodge and shove Marius away to create distance. The sound of crystallizing water tickled at my ears from behind, so I turned and shattered the structure apart with a kick.

  "The ice is getting easier to break. Is that because all the moisture in the room is pretty much used up?" I asked.

  Marius lowered his hand and met my death stare.

  "Good, then it's my turn," I uttered.

  I lunged at my enemy as I shot a fireball off of my forearm. The burn left behind was a thin line around my arm near my elbow, but it still hurt like being branded by a wire. Marius tried to shield himself with ice, but had to jump away clumsily, being caught off guard by the flames. They caught the outside of his arm, scorching his sleeve off and ruining his upper arm. Not being accustomed to burn pain, he took the next second to close his eyes and growl loudly, while I used it to start a five hit combo that left Marius on the ground with two broken ribs. I didn't even wait for the five second countdown.

  Storming over to Sharon, I jumped onto the rope and into the ring of horrified guards. Commanding them to move and slipping past like they didn't exist, I ascended the stairs with haste toward the two men that held Sharon.

  "Lamont! Look out!" Guard six shouted.

  Too late.

  As he swirled to face and attack me, I stopped him in his tracks by grabbing his hair and shoving his head down into the metal edge of a seat back twice. After the second, I felt his hand grab and jolt my leg with electricity, locking it up and sending me into a rage. I slammed him once more into the seat back, then into the wooden armrest where he fell unconscious. The safety of a gun clicked near my face. Justin was aiming a pistol at my head.

  Lamont fell to the floor as I swatted the pistol away with a superheated hand (melting the weapon) and awkwardly jumped at Justin. My legs weren't working properly, but I still managed to latch a hand around Justin's mouth. Before I lost grip, I heated up, leaving a hand shaped burn on and around his lips. Out of reflex, he shoved me off into a chair, from where I forced both of my feet as hard as I could into his chest. Justin fell down the stadium style seating and cracked his back across a lower row of seats before landing on the floor.

  In pain, lightheaded from the jolt, and panting, I stood with the support of nearby chairs. Sharon watched me cautiously, scooting closer when we watched every guard in the room and then some draw their weapons and aim them at us.

  "What the *cuss* is going on in here?" Rod shouted upon entering.

  "Just practicing," I said between breaths.

  "You," Rod said, pointing to the neares
t guard. "Shoot the Lesser."

  "I told you, I was practicing," I replied, moving in front of Sharon. "Then Marius took it too far and threatened Sharon."

  "That is NOT what hap-" a nearby Bolt began to say. Rod held up a hand to silence him.

  "Sapphire eyes...I see now why everyone that meets you wanna kill you. You know there are already bounties for you? So hear me out; if you ever cause any more trouble, your death sentence will make me some quick cash. And for this little stunt, you don't get no more food until after your first fight."

  We locked gazes for a long time. In the end, Rod broke it by walking back to wherever he spends his time, rather than letting me win the battle of eye contact. Even still, his punishment spelled out complications for me. Everything that just transpired left me with a craving for sleep meds as well.

  Things would be much easier if I had my ship.

  Part 11

  "So how is everything?" Fake Arty asked.

  Both of us were sitting on the pebbly bank of a shallow river, surrounded by perfect scenery. Serene woods edged the bank, with a medley of bird calls flowing in the air and rays of early morning sunlight shining through the trees. Fresh dirt, fog, leaves, and slight flower scents permeated the air. It was still Ilavoan as far as I could tell.

  "Fine."

  "Erin...you seem upset..."

  "Sorry. Haven't been getting a lot of food lately."

  "Oh. You know you have to eat."

  "I know, I do eat. Just not as much as I should be. It's harder to get food."

  Fake Arty skipped a small stone across the water. He seemed to be thinking. "That's not the only reason you're upset, is it?"

  I broke my spaced out gazing at the water to see his face. He wasn't looking at me, but he knew what he did. I hate it when he can read me like that. I hate that smile too...

  "I can't stand it when you do that."

  Fake Arty's smile grew slightly. "What ever are you talking about?"

  Death glare. Fake Arty never looked at me to see it. "Yes, I'm upset over some other things too..."

  "Like what?"

  I sighed. "The Feeders are bad in their entirety, not at all like the Grounded."