The Galactic Bride

Somewhere along the line Aki had fallen asleep. The fear he had been feeling gave way to the aching pain his legs and lower back felt. But what awakened him wasn't the morning light shining through General Anura's make-shift door, it was the dead silence and the almost pitch black conditions.

He wasn't cold, like he thought he might be, but it wasn't warm either. He wouldn't mind blanket, but it wasn't cold enough that he needed one. Before him lay the General curled up in a ball. Some point in their sleep, she had rolled over and was facing him. She was asleep. Once again the thought of her being a woman popped in his head. Only once before had he considered her as such.

He was about to go back to sleep when he heard chatting echoing through the jungle. The sounds were distorted and far off, but someone was in the area, no doubt walking along the stream looking for stragglers. He listened, straining his ears to pick up the voices, but he couldn't tell how far away they were or what they were saying.

He looked at the General intending to wake her up, but her eyes were already open. She rolled over on her stomach, and raised her upper body up with her arms, as if that would help her hear better. He listened as well. The noise was coming closer. Both of them could make out words here and there now, but not a conversation.

As they advanced the voices got louder. Now Aki could make out what they were saying. He listened.

"…drank out of the pond." The first voice said. Unfortunately Aki couldn't catch the first part of that sentence.

"Me too. I'm already feeling sick."

The General and Aki looked at each other. So a group had drank from the pond from the dead bear's waterfall. It was a good idea.

"I bet you more than anything the referees placed that there."

"No way. That's the thinking of a military mind. General Anura ran in this direction, didn't she? I bet she put that animal over the waterfall."

"Well I just hope we run into her before I get too bad." One of them groaned. "I feel like puking."

General Anura looked at Aki, and pressed a palm to her own mouth indicating to keep silent. He wasn't making any noise so he was unsure why she told him that. But she sat up and quickly opened her bag and pulled out her ax. Then she crawled near the door, hovering and waiting. Aki got the idea. If those two came near the cave entrance, they'd ambush them. He grabbed the spear gun.

"There's no fires, we climbed up here for nothing."

"She's up here, I'm telling you. I'm going to get her before she gets us."

"Hold on… my stomach."

"Forget about that, Lets press against this rock face and see if it leads us anywhere."

Aki crotched near General, spear-gun ready. It had only occurred to him now that they were posed to attack and kill someone. He knew that was the whole purpose of the Contest, but it was only now that he was active in it. The bear over the water was one thing, but this was completely different. Could he really do it?

"This wall is all funny… I bet there is a cave near by."

There was. The General pushed opened the bush-door and charged out at the two figures who had just came within eye sight. Aki saw her silhouette tackle one, while the other one seemed to look dumbfounded at the suddenness of the attack. With an opening like that it was easy to aim and pull the trigger to is spear gun. The second silhouette was impaled in the neck, gargled and fell to the ground.

Aki ran out and retracted the spear and set it back up on the gun, then look for the General. He could only hear the struggle, so he was of little help. Then someone rose from the ground. From the large chest and pony-tail he knew it was her. She came back to him, breathing a little heavier.

"I'm fine, and you?"

"Me too."

"Let's dump the bodies over the cliff. We'll used the rock face to guide us."

The bodies. She said it as if they weren't just two people they had killed. A sickness went over him. He had just killed someone. Sure, it was someone who was actively seeking out his murder, but that didn't change the fact that he had given in so easily and murdered someone without a second thought. What had he become?

"It's not your fault." General Anura told him, somehow sensing his displeasure of the situation. "In times like this, you can't be who you normally are. You put that away and do what is necessary."

How did she know he was feeling upset at this? Probably from the countless soldiers she had seen buckle under pressure he figured. "I'll take the arms, and you take the legs." He tried to sound cold, but his voice shook.

She didn't chide him on that. They took the one he killed first over to the cliff's edge. His mind must have been filled with the thoughts of his recent murder, as it seemed to take no time at all. There was a small fire on the beach below. Clearly whoever that was camping there had no fear of being attacked.

"Let's try and toss the body as close to that camp as possible. Show them up for being so smug." The General whispered.

Somehow, swinging the body and tossing it as far as it would go seemed to take the horrible nature out of what they were doing. They couldn't see where they body landed, but it was clear enough that it was somewhere on the beach. It would get discovered in the light.

"Now the other one." Whispered the General.

So they repeated the process. It took some time navigating in the dark and finding the thing, but they did. After they tossed the other one over, Aki felt blood on him. He felt sick. The General must have gotten messy as well as she suggested the go to the stream and wash up, even if it was dangerous.

After retrieving their weapons, they did just that. The water was cold, but Aki would have taken being freezing to wearing the blood of their victims all night. When they had finished washing up, he followed the General. She wasn't heading back to the cave, but traveling along the stream back to the waterfall. At first he wondered what she was up to, then realized that she was scouting.

The bear had been pulled away from the water, but was still close near the bank. It took little effort to move the thing back into place. Below them were another fire, this time from the camp for their victims. It was the Tarfulles. Three of them to be exact. He hadn't noticed what race their victims where when they tossed them over the cliff before. He had been too busy thinking about how much of a horrible person he was. But there they were, most of them holding their stomachs.

They had a fire going, but not out of smugness like those on the beach. They needed it to cook medicine for the stomach pains they were in. There was a horrible smell of feces and vomit come from below. As before, Aki thought they looked like little girls, and was secretly glad he didn't see the faces during his first murder. General Anura pulled back and looked at him.

"We can take them." She whispered. "If you're up to it."

Once again, she was considering is feelings. If it was the Tyrians, it might be easier. But the Tarfulles seemed too innocent looking. Plus attacking them when they were clearly sick seemed unfair. But he raised his spear-gun anyway. He didn't know why. It was like he was was someone else.

"You fire from up here. I'll jump down after your first shot, which should rouse them. That should give you a chance to retract the spear and fire again. I'll take one on my own. Think you can do that?"

Aki nodded.

"This is going to suck." The General braced herself, holding her ax away from her body as she readied to jump into the pond.

Aki fired at the nearest Tarfull near the pond. At the same moment General Anura jumped. His aim wasn't as good as it should have been. It sliced into the Tarfull's upper thigh. She squealed as he retracted the spear. The rest were watching as a huge splash hit in front of them in the pond.

The remaining two leaped to their feet in order to defend themselves. By the time they reached the General, Aki had the spear again. It took moments to reload the gun and aim again, and within that moment the General had taken out one, and was fighting the other. Aki noticed she was careful to stay out of his line of sight. So he fired again.

Bullseye… or more like Tarfull eye. The small girl slumped down into the water instantly. General Anura pulled out Aki's spear, walked out of the pond into the camp, then hacked off the injured Tarfull's head. It was done. Aki retracted the spear, then went behind the bear and vomited.

"You stay up there. They have a rope by the wall, so I'll see what they have first." The General told him. He wasn't in the mood to argue.

When he had composed himself, he returned to the edge to see General Amura tossing unneeded items into the fire. Aki questioned this at first, then realized she was only taking useful things. One bag full of useful things to be exact. Once that was settled, she placed the bag under the rope and told him to take it up, which he did.While he was doing that, General Anura pulled the two dead bodies out of the water, went out of sight for a few moments, then threw them into the bushes. She came back and did the same thing to the one they had killed on land. It was clear she wanted whoever that came across the water again to drink from it. The died out fire might detract them, but three dead bodies would certainly make them more cautious.

After all this she added more wood to the fire, then climbed up the waterfall again. Once by the bear she re-washed herself. Aki took the heavy bag over his shoulder and watch her. Her body gleamed in the moonlight. How lovely the figure was for a cold, calculating butcher.

"You did a good job."

"Yeah?" Aki didn't feel like it. In fact, now he was wishing that search party had found them and killed them instead. Then they wouldn't be dealing with the guilt of murdering people.

"Your first shot below could have been better, but it took her out. What matters is you got that second one before she got enough steam." The General told him. "My legs were hurting from that jump, the pond isn't as deep as it looks."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine. I can't hurt any more than I already do at the very least." She rinsed off her legs one more time for good measure."I see." Aki wasn't in the mood to discuss the blow-for-blow taking apart of the people they killed. Maybe later when he could stomach it, but now all he could think of was that young Tarfull's face when he shot her in the eye. She was so young looking.

"Let's go."

They walked in silence until the reached the cave again. Once they had placed the new bag inside, both of them climbed back in. The General closed the door behind her. She looked tired. Now that Aki thought about it, he felt tired as well… yet all he could think about was the spear going through that Tarfull's eye. Why did she have to look so young?

"Tarfulles are vicious when attacking together." General Anura reminded him. "They aren't the children that they appear to be."

"I know." Aki said, but there was no bite to it. Whatever she said, it looked like a middle schooler.

"On their home world, they often eat the weak among them…"

Aki's stomach lurched. He didn't want to think about that.

"If we didn't do it, someone else would have." The General went on. "Your dead animal trick gave us the advantage."

Aki didn't want to talk about it. "Great."

She looked at him, and he could tell she knew exactly what he was going though. Sometime in the past, there was a young Anura who had been forced to kill her first person. Back then she probably felt the same way he did. She opened her mouth to say more, then clothed it. Perhaps she remembered how back then, she just wanted to be left alone.

"We should be fine for the rest of the night. Let's go to sleep." The General decided this tact instead. "If you're cold, you we can-"

He wasn't cold, but he laid down and clung to her anyway. She was a filthy killer, but she was the only one there who understood what it felt like, and can hold him. And she did. She wasn't the stiff and heartless General as she normally was. She was for that moment in time, a friend. Even if she forced Lani to give him her seed. Even if she kidnapped him. Even if she shot Hiro dead in front of his family. She was just like him. A murderer.