by Mark Tufo
“And what is your question, hu-man? And please hurry, it is getting past my noon feeding time.” The reptile licked his lips as he pondered his next meal. I hoped it wasn’t leg of human.
“What exactly is your relationship to the Genogerians?” I asked as off-handedly as possible.
“That is a very good question for a hu-man, no wonder I have been winning so much drakka with you.”
I knew it! There’s the proof they had been gambling on us the entire time. We were just a football game to them. Well that answered that question.
“Our worlds mirror each other in very similar ways.” I highly doubted that. “On our planet we did not have a planet shattering event like the comet that destroyed almost all life on your planet. Our ‘dinosaurs’ as you call them merely became smaller in stature while their brain cavity increased. Along that evolutionary line, we had a split from early Genogerian to modern Progerian much like your own between Cro-Magnon and Homo-Sapiens. We, however, had enough sense not to destroy what would become our greatest allies in our quest for galactic domination. In essence, we are the brains behind their brawn.”
Wow, they weren’t technically slaves but they were definitely doing the brunt of the dirty work. But to me it didn’t look like they minded all that much. Being closer to their baser instincts must have made them perfect warriors, but would they be able to act without the head? Could that be their weakness? But I still had the problem of being able to relay this newfound information to Earth. I had so many questions, but Brystrar had made it abundantly clear he would answer one and only one question from each of us. And it looked as if we were getting to the point where his patience was beginning to wear thin. He looked at us much the same way we looked at him, in disgust and revulsion. All in all, it was a very informative day and it hands down beat the hell out of being in the female dominated beehive that was my house. There’s a guy for you, though. I’d rather be out with a bunch of guys who would rather see me dead and a bunch of aliens that didn’t care if I was dead or alive rather than having to spend the entire day in a house full of women. What was this spaceship coming to? I laughed out loud; the guard didn’t see the humor and pushed me just a little harder into my abode than need be.
“You’re alright?” Stephanie yelled from the top of the banister.
“I’m fine,” I answered. “We just went on a little tour.”
“Oh, thank God. We thought they might have taken you to execute you or something unimaginably horrible like that,” Stephanie half-cried. “Deb’s beside herself with anguish.”
“Well, could you please just let her know I’m good to go? I’m dog-tired. I just want to get some sleep.” I guessed I was being a little selfish but the sooner Deb could get along without me, the better off she’d be.
“I really think you should be the one to tell her that,” Steph threw in.
“Steph, listen, I know I’m not the king of this domain, but could you please just do this for me? Staying away from her is hard enough; if I see her crying I don’t know that I can take it.”
“Then why not just be with her? If it hurts both of you this much to be apart why should you?” she asked.
“You know the answer to that.” I raised my voice just a little too much.
“Mike, you know as well as I do there are no guarantees in life and all bets are definitely off in this place.”
“So is that your way of saying I’m a dead man walking?” I said, my voice now getting a little louder.
“Now hold on, you know I don’t think like that. If I was that fatalistic, I wouldn’t have bothered getting out of bed this morning. What would be the point?”
“I know, I know.” I was trying to calm her down as her voice was beginning to peak.
“I honestly think somehow, someway you’re going to get us out of this hellhole.”
“I’m glad you feel confident because honestly Steph I don’t feel the same way.”
“I don’t want to hear that!” she yelled. My head snapped back from the sheer voracity of it. “All of our lives also hang in the balance.” It was then I noticed the growing crowd of females who had gathered to watch our tirade. “If you keep thinking like that then we are all doomed and I personally will have none of it!” She was nearly shouting now, at this rate I figured the guards would be in here at any moment to quell the disturbance.
“Steph!” I shouted at the top of my lungs to finally quell her. “I love you but if you don’t shut up I’m going to come up there and smack you with a big stick.” She actually finally shut up, the gears in her head must have been turning a mile a minute; her face was beginning to blossom in patches of crimson and I could tell she was about to let loose a volley of insults. The girls watching could do nothing more than stare in disbelief with the turn of events. This had to be better than afternoon soaps. And then it happened. First, it was a snort, then a chuckle, and then I full out lost control, laughing. It was amazing what stress could do to a person. When Stephanie realized I was merely egging her on she began to laugh. She actually had to hold onto the banister to keep from falling over. And that would be the moment I used to always remember Stephanie—brunette hair flowing over a beautiful laughing face, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. It would be the last time I ever saw her laugh.
“What is all this noise?” Deb said, emerging from her room as she wiped sleep and old tears from her eyes.
“Mike, was just telling me,” Steph snorted, “how he was going to beat me with a big stick!” And then she started laughing anew.
“How is being beaten with a big stick funny?” Deb asked seriously.
And then I lost it, again. Deb stared at us for another minute or two before throwing her hands up in disgust and retiring back to her room. Steph and I both pointed and started laughing again. The range of emotions this ship put me through were vast and extreme in both directions. Even if I could get off this ship, would I ever be able to fit back into normal society? Who knew, but the fact remained, I had to try.
After I grubbed down some food I forestalled sleep in favor of watching some more of Jersey Man’s battles. There had to be a weakness somewhere, it would mean my demise if I could not discover one in time. As I began to watch his matches for the third time that day, a theory came to mind. Granted, it was only a theory, but it was the first formulation of a plan and I was going to roll with it. So with that in mind and figuring I was not going to get any new information today, I decided to catch up on some sleep. And for the first time in a couple of weeks I actually slept well. So well, in fact, I never stirred when Debbie joined me in the bed. I awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and light-hearted, but that possibly could have been due to the fact that my nose was in Debbie’s hair and it smelled just like a strawberry field on a hot summer day. A couple of more whiffs and I would have been there. Debbie turned, noticed me in my rapture, and shoved me away.
“Don’t be getting any funny ideas just because I’m in your bed,” she snapped.
“You’re the one who came here,” I retorted. “Why are you giving me a hard time?”
“I was just cold.”
“There are extra blankets in the closet,” I answered matter-of-factly. She huffed and puffed and blew through the doorway. Geez, I thought, I think I pissed her off.
Jersey Man’s time had come and he was going to find himself in some trouble. I entered the arena first this time, once again being the underdog. The crowd’s response wasn’t nearly the same. Apparently, my contingent of fans was growing smaller, but there were still a few die-hards who must have made some serious drakka on me. The terrain was gorgeous. Under any other circumstances, I would have felt great peace here. It was a grassy meadow, with foot long golden green grass that actually swayed in the breeze. How was a breeze possible? I guess on this ship pretty much anything was. The aliens even piped in cricket and bird noises—this place could have made a fortune on Earth. Instant vacation, you could go anywhere on the planet and more than likely a
nywhere off the planet. How cool would that be to take a leisurely stroll on Martian shores? Or possibly check out a crater on the moon? The possibilities were endless. But alas, back to the here and now; the announcer was just finishing up his introduction of Mr. Rizino and I didn’t think he would waste his time letting me indulge in my reverie. It was time to put my plan into action and now that I was standing here it didn’t seem quite as good. It had looked better on paper. But it was way too late in the game to be changing now. The meadow motif greatly worked out in my favor, it gave me plenty of time to start haranguing Jersey Man. I ran to the far side of the arena across from me and grabbed a bow and arrow and then ran to the back edge of my wall to stand by where the spear stood. A guard raised a weapon level with my head. If I so much as brushed up against that spear while the bow was in my hand he would surely strike me dead. The crowd looked on in amazement, they thought I was committing suicide. I, however, had no intention of giving them that satisfaction. Rizino had seen me running across the arena like a madman, yet he didn’t seem perturbed about it in the least. I don’t think he cared.
“Hey, you thug!” I shouted. He looked at me and then looked around and pointed a finger to his chest as if to say ‘You talkin’ to me?’
“Yeah, you mook. I’m talking to you!” I yelled again. I couldn’t really tell from this distance, but I would swear to this day I saw the first real facial expression from Rizino since this whole thing started.
“It’s Italians like you that give the rest of your kind a bad name,” I yelled.
“Shut up!” he yelled as he quickened his pace.
"How did your kind go from the Roman Empire to Mussolini? The last great thing your people did was invent spaghetti, oh wait that was the Chinese, you just stole it."
Rizino looked a little irked.
“Good." I said quietly. "Come on, you guido!” I yelled.
Well I went and did it now. I ticked him off. “I’ll kill you, you little jerk. Nice and slow too,” he promised as he increased his pace to a full on charge.
Well, it’s do or die, I thought. I have to wait until he’s close enough that he’s committed but not too far that he is able to realize his folly. With fifteen yards between us, Rizino was charging like a mad bull with sword upraised, he definitely wanted to cut me in half. I raised my bow and arrow and drew back. Recognition dawned in his eyes, he knew the score. I had set him up and he had fallen for the trap. He was going way too fast to do anything with his momentum except come straight forward. Either I hit and killed him or I missed and he killed me. Well, as fate would have it, we were both wrong. I shot and I struck, but it was far from a mortal wound. The arrow hit on his left side and actually passed right through the fleshy part underneath the rib cage. But curiously, the arrow had another strange effect which I had not been prepared for at all. With about five yards between us, Rizino pulled up and just stared down at the blood pouring out of the wound in his side.
“I can’t believe you shot me!” he yelled over and over again. He was truly insulted I’d had the nerve to actually wound him. What was I thinking? This had to have been the first time he had ever suffered a wound by the hands of another. He was so used to doling out punishment, he didn’t have a clue how to receive it.
“You ass!” he spat. “I’ll kill you!”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” But I wasn’t playing with him. I had to be careful if he actually got his wits back about him, he was still incredibly lethal. I did not think stopping was going to be part of the plan. I hesitated, not knowing whether to finish him off with the bow and allowing my not so good aim to become a factor or grab the spear off the wall and give him a chance to come around. I had no desire to get close. I notched another arrow and let fly. At fifteen feet even a child would have had a tough time missing. The arrow hit with a solid thunk square in his chest. You could have heard a cricket chirp in the arena; the aliens had ceased all noise.
Rizino blinked once in utter amazement, looked down at the arrow in his chest, and then spoke his final words.
“You can’t kill me.” I don’t know if he was asking or not, but the job was done. He fell face forward onto the arrow, driving it straight through his back, the skin popping as it broke through. I didn’t look twice at the body as I headed out of the arena. My thoughts had turned elsewhere. I was really hoping for chicken tonight when I got back to the house. The guards brought down my latest gift, a pretty brunette, although a little too tall for me. She looked to be about five-foot ten At five-foot nine I had never liked going out with girls taller than myself, hopefully she could cook. For some damn reason, I was famished. I left the arena and only a handful of aliens were making any noise. It seemed to me that my guard may have been giving me a wider berth today, I didn’t think he was all that frightened but even he was amazed at the unconcerned attitude I had adopted upon killing my latest foe. If he had the ability to mind read he would have seen I was shaking like a leaf on the inside.
“What’s your name?” I tried valiantly not to stammer. But it was hard with my heart beating inside my chest like a jackhammer.
“Carla,” the girl answered nervously. She was also a little thrown off by my attitude.
“Well, Carla, can you cook?”
“Um, some.” She looked at me sideways, still trying to get a bead on me.
“Well, then we’ll get along fabulously.” And that was the last thing I said to anybody for the rest of the night. I was sure she didn’t mind.
“Are you alright?” more than one girl chimed out. Deb, however, knew better, she didn’t say a word. I headed straight for the kitchen and luckily food had been prepared. Regrettably, not chicken, but meatloaf would have do to. Nothing caps off a good day of killing quite like a nice slice of meatloaf. Although it can be a little disconcerting to eat a meal while thirteen women watch your every move. I guessed I’d better eat with my mouth closed tonight. I was going to sleep the sleep of the dead. Not quite the Rizino dead but dead nonetheless. I ate, wiped my mouth with my shirt, and headed up the stairs into my loft bedroom. Apparently, Deb wasn’t the only one who could read my mood that night. Nobody asked another question or spoke a word in my direction. I slept and dreamed. I dreamed of every person I had killed thus far. All of them looked at me with the quizzical Rizino look and asked how I could have possibly done that to them. I was wondering if there was a Heaven and had any of these people made it there. And if I made it to Heaven and met these people would they still be mad? Do you ever really get over being killed? How could you? It did not make for great sleep. I was actually happy when Deb came in and interrupted my nightmares.
“Mike, you up?” She shook me a little harder than I thought was needed.
She had startled me and I instinctually reached up and grabbed her by the throat. She had begun to gasp and scratch my arms before I became aware enough of my surroundings and let her go.
“I’m so sorry, Deb. You scared the crap out of me,” I said.
“Well, just think I how I feel,” she said as she began to rub her neck.
“You know I didn’t mean it, right?” I pleaded.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean to try to kill me. I shouldn’t have startled you out of your sleep, especially since you were tossing and turning so much.”
“No, I’m thankful to be out of that world,” I said with true conviction.
“I know we’ve been down this road before.”
“But…” I said.
“Are you alright? You looked sort of possessed out there. You’re starting to get that look about you like some of those others,” she said with disdain.
“I’m not sure.” I replied. And I wasn’t. How can you go around killing people and hold on to the sense of who you are? “I’m having a hard time finding the person who first came onto this ship. I mean, yeah, I was nervous about last night’s bout, but it was a lot further buried than it should have been. I know every time I go into the arena it’s either him or me, and
I know it has to be him. It’s as black and white as that. All the moral issues seem to go right out the window the minute we start. I’m sorry they have to die, but I’m not sorry I’m the one doing it. Does that make sense? Or am I just going insane?”
“No it sounds sane enough,” she replied “I’m sorry you have to go through this and I know the burden you carry when you think of all of us and that makes your job even tougher.”
“Deb, if it wasn’t for you and the rest of the girls, I would have given up a long time ago,” I replied.
“Why do you say that?” she pleaded.
“If it wasn’t for all of you, the guilt piling on me with each killing would have been too much. I think I would have let Timmins do me in. I’m truly afraid for my Judgment Day, how could St. Peter possibly let me through the gates?” I was almost crying.
“He’ll open the gates wide when you get there. You are our savior, Mike. You put everything on the line to make sure all of us here stay safe. Your sacrifice alone would have him open the gate. But I know the true you also. You are a very caring and compassionate person, I can see how this is eating you up inside. I’m not sure I could do what you do even with all these other people’s lives on the line. God won’t have a choice but to leave the door wide open when you finally kick the can in sixty or seventy more years.”
I laughed. I was counting my life minute by minute and Deb was figuring for the next sixty or seventy years. “I love you, Deb. You’re just the dose of what I need tonight. And I hope no matter what happens in our lives you’ll always be there.”