A Soldier in Love (5 page)

Michelle sat alone in
her bunk. She knew she wouldn’t be alone for much longer because Kate had decided
to bunk with her in the first few days. Michelle and Kate had grown closer but
Kate had also grown close to someone else as well. Michelle didn’t have to
question where Kate went most nights; she knew Kate and Aaron had been spending
a lot of time together. How or why anyone could fall in love on Redex, she was
unsure but she knew she didn’t mind. She needed the time alone. It was the only
time she could get the IS to work without anyone catching on to her.

Suddenly, it dawned on Michelle,
the exploration team, the original one that
first came to Redex
. She quickly tapped her IS on. She had been so tired and
worn out from training that she hadn’t thought of it. It was hard to keep
everything straight in her head. She had no paper or pen to write with and even
if she did she was sure they would be taken away.

“IS
activate
,”
Michelle said softly.

She heard it beep in
agreement to her orders.

“IS stream to me topic,
Redex Exploration Team 700,” she commanded.

“Topic found, Redex
Exploration Team 700. Team was sent on Earth Army mission number 700.”

No way, what great classification skills
, she rolled her eyes

“Redex Exploration Team
sent to find other planets suitable for human life. Their final ruling deemed
Redex as unsuitable for mankind.”

“Unsuitable? Why? IS
please
provide
report,” Michelle commanded.

“Despite an effort to
garden planet life for sustenance molcos hund destroyed it. Standard Redex
vegetation is unsuitable for human digestion. Three members of the original
mission died from complications.”

Damn.

“Earth Army deemed the
hide of the molcos hund too tough for bullets or knives to pierce. Several
bullets must be fired to kill. Molcos hund destroyed equipment, food, and
supplies. Exploration Team 700 did not return to Earth. There were no known
survivors.”

***

Over the next several
weeks it seemed that running had become a standard part of life.

Through the few weeks
that had passed they had slowly became acclimatized to the sweltering heat. The
cooling packs helped some which was good because they were able to do drills
without getting heat exhaustion.

The heat felt different
on Redex. Maybe it was because the green sun didn’t cause sunburn. Instead of
hitting your skin like on Earth, it felt like the heat just went straight into
your body and didn’t want to ever leave. Long after the drills were over, even
in the cool concrete building, one could still feel the heat radiating deep
inside. At night, when the sun set and it became cool, Michelle still felt the
heat. It gnawed at her, it drove her crazy. Well, it drove everyone crazy.

I’ll get used to it, I have to,
Michelle
told herself over and over. She thought if she
repeated it enough she would eventually get used to it. She guessed you could
get used to anything if you had to
.

Michelle continued
running in the desert sand with the others. She always started slow, the others
would pass her, they would get hot and slow down and that’s when she would
speed up.

Michelle thought the
running drills were idiotic.

 
We
shouldn’t be running from the enemy we should be learning how to defeat them. What
does he mean we don’t know the enemy? The IS told me about the inhabitants of
Redex. We have to learn how to fight these damn things off…

Anxiety gripped her
body as she realized that The Commander was probably adamant that they run
because that is most likely what they would be doing when they confronted the
enemy.

No one really knew what
was going on. No one knew if the Cabaka would come to Redex too.

What frightened
Michelle the most was that no one knew if something else was coming or if
something else was already here.

Not knowing is always
the worst kind of torture.

“Michelle?” Kate called
out quietly in the dark.

Michelle turned to her
now best friend and bunkmate.
“Yeah?”

They had been through a
lot together in the past few weeks. Michelle was thankful that Kate had
accepted her. Now, Michelle wasn’t sure how she got as far as she did without a
friend, without anyone to talk to. Although, she had kept the IS and the
information she attained from it a secret from Kate. She didn’t know why but
her gut had told her to keep it a secret as best she could.

“I was just seeing if
you were awake?” Kate said in a hushed tone.

“I couldn’t sleep. I’m
hungry,” Michelle replied staring at the ceiling in the dark room. She lightly
traced her fingertips over the top of her ribcage.

“Yeah, me too.
It feels like they don’t give us enough food for
all the drills we do,” Kate said softly.

“I’m sure it’s plenty.
I mean my hair keeps growing,
well,
everyone’s hair
grows so quickly here. I bet it’s all the vitamins and minerals,” Michelle
replied trying to be optimistic.

“Maybe… I guess you are
right about that,” Kate replied.

Michelle relaxed
against her thin mattress and looked over to Kate in the darkness. She couldn’t
really make out anything beyond her figure. She gently massaged her aching
muscles. It seemed like there wasn’t a time in which she wasn’t sore or tired. She
wished for ibuprofen, or aspirin, or a stout drink, anything to take the edge
of the pain.

“Do you think the Cabaka
will attack us here?” Kate questioned.

Michelle remained quiet
for a moment. She was unsure whether to be optimistic or honest with Kate. Hesitantly,
she decided on the later. She wanted her friend to be prepared. “I don’t think
it’s the Cabaka we will have to worry about here.”

“What do you mean?”
Kate asked.

Michelle sighed unsure
of how to explain. She thought for a moment to herself.

“What’s going on? Just
tell me,” Kate said with a worried tone in her voice.

“Why do we run every
day?” Michelle questioned. Maybe Michelle could help her figure it out on her
own instead of outright telling her.

“Because it’s protocol,”
Kate began.

“Fuck that. I don’t
give a fuck about protocol. I care about living,” Michelle said vehemently.

“What do you mean?”
Kate asked in a frightened tone.

Michelle sighed. Her
little emotional outburst caused nothing but stress for the sweet natured
Kate.
 

“I don’t think The
Commander knows what to do… Why do we run? It doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t we
be doing something more productive with our time? Fighting the Cabaka?
Engineering something? Moving to a different planet? You know, one that doesn’t
suck.”

“I don’t know,” Kate
admitted.

“I don’t want to scare
you, Kate,” Michelle said still unable to see her friend in the darkness that cloaked
both of them.

Kate let out a small
laugh. “Michelle, I’ve been scared ever since…” she paused. “I can’t remember a
time I haven’t been worried and frightened. ”

“There’s something else
here on this planet.” Michelle interrupted.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure exactly
but the original explorers who came here, the ones that built this place… well,
they never came home.” Michelle’s stomach turned. She wasn’t sure if she did
the right thing telling her or not. Was ignorance bliss in this case or would
it be more important to know? Should everyone know? She didn’t know what the
answer was. She only knew she could take things day by day.

“Michelle, I promise
you this. I’m with you and we are in this together. No matter what happens I
have your back.”

Michelle was thankful
the darkness hid the tears in her eyes.

“Kate, you’re my best
friend.”

“You’re mine too.”

***

The next morning
Michelle took her place in line along with the other soldiers.

“
A3343Z,”
The Commander called out as he looked down at a list fastened to a clipboard.

“Sir, yes, sir,” Michelle replied stepping forward.
She was just a number, just a soldier.

“At ease, you are to go to the training room instead
of running from today forward,” The Commander ordered.

Michelle nodded.

He scribbled something on a notebook. “You still
have to run when we do drills.”

“Yes sir,” she replied.

“Well, go on then, go!” he barked as he violently waved
his hands in the air.

She turned and made her way to the training room. Her
heavy boots pounded down on the concrete floor.
She
entered the training room. It was small but it was reminiscent of combat and
martial classes. It held a thin mat on the floor, an old punching bag, and a
pile of gloves in the corner of the small room. It was dusty and upon further
examination she could see that the equipment was almost ancient. She figured it
could do though.

She watched as a young
black man entered. He was about average height, maybe a little taller than her.
He was muscular but not bulky. He was still lean like a true fighter would be,
maybe a little too lean since the food rations.

“Hey,” he said warmly
as he shut the door behind him.

She nodded in return.

“Hey, you’re the one
who pulled me inside, well one of the one’s, when we first got here and I had
collapsed,” he exclaimed snapping his fingers as if it would help him to
remember better.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re
used to the heat now,” Michelle offered.

He nodded. “Well, I
don’t know if anyone ever gets used to the heat here. I’m tolerant of it now,
at least.”

She nodded and gave him
a weak smile.

“It was a big change
for me. I had been stationed in the Earth Army on the space station before.
It’s
cold there you know. Guess they’re trying to thaw me
out here,” he grinned flashing a set of perfectly straight, bright white teeth.
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter really. Let’s get started. This is what’s
going to matter.”

She stepped forward as
he handed her a pair of combat gloves, a helmet, and a mouth guard. She took
the mouth guard out of its case and slipped it into her mouth. She shook the
dust off of the rest of the things.

“I’m T8924 or Bryce by
the way. I don’t know if I ever told you my name,” he offered as he put on his
own equipment.
 

“I’m
A3343Z,
but just call me Michelle,” she replied. She was hesitant to tell him to call
her “Z” like Aaron did. It felt like something special that Aaron had reserved
just for her. Not that she was special to Aaron, he was with Kate. No, Aaron
was more like a big brother to her. She loved Kate and Aaron desperately. They
made this shitty planet somehow bearable.

She looked around the empty room. It was warm; she
wondered why it wasn’t as cool as the rest of the building.
It was at least cooler than running in the
desert
, she reminded herself.

“Just us today?” she
questioned as she looked around the otherwise empty room.

“Yeah, you’re good on
the running. The Commander said we got to start training for hand to hand combat.
Running first then combat,” he replied.

“Then what?” she
questioned trying to get more information.

“Then let’s start,” he
ordered.

He made his way to the
mat and Michelle followed. She got into a semi-crouched stance as he quickly
paced around on the balls of his feet. Michelle kept her hands balled into
fists close to her head. She watched as he quickly hopped around on the balls
of his feet, closer he came towards her, but she hopped backwards.

Always protect your face, your
head,
she could faintly hear Eric’s voice
still calling out to her.

What is wrong with me? Why is everything so fuzzy in
my head
?

Her thoughts ended up
abruptly as Bryce lunged forward at her throwing a punch. She ducked and stepped
back. He came at her again but she was quicker. He pulled back shuffling on his
feet from side to side. Michelle lunged at him quickly and threw an uppercut. He
tried to block but she hit first.

“You are good at this,”
he called out in a surprised tone.

They spared for a few
more minutes before he called time. He spit out his mouth guard and left the
room for a second.

Michelle took out her
mouth guard and waited for her racing heart to slow down. A good fight always
made her heart pound out of her chest.

“Says in your file you
practiced martial arts on Earth,” he said coming back in with water and what
looked like paperwork.

Michelle nodded and
took a sip of the water. It was warm and it had a distinct bitter taste to it.
 
She could vaguely remember doing martial arts
on Earth. She could feel the feeling of anger and rage for some reason as well.

I had to protect myself there… but why? Why is
everything fuzzy? What is wrong with me?

“What about you?”
Michelle asked as her green eyes met his deep brown ones.

“I’ve always been a
fighter,” he replied proudly leaving it at that. It was such a simple
explanation but she understood it.

She nodded and wiped
the sweat from her brow.

“So, what we training
for?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Wish
I knew.”

She took another sip of
water.

He looked down at his
watch. “I think it’s time take nourishment.”

Michelle took off her
helmet and gloves and followed him to the dining hall. They walked the rest of
the way in silence. She figured he was tired of her asking pesky questions he
didn’t have the answers for.

“Kate,” Michelle called
out down the hall to her friend. She nodded to Bryce as he went ahead of her
down to the cafeteria.

Kate turned around and
smiled and waited for Michelle to catch up with her.

“I didn’t even run
today and you still have to wait on me,” Michelle grinned and patted her friend
affectionately on the shoulder.

Kate let out a pretend
sigh. “I know!”

“Did you have to run
today?” Michelle asked in a lower voice.

Kate shook her head.
“No, you should be happy you didn’t have to run today either.”

“I am more worried than
happy,” Michelle frowned.

Kate’s face mimicked
her worried expression as she bit her lip out of nervous habit.

They remained quiet as
they entered the cafeteria. They took their bottled protein shake and oatmeal
and sat down on the floor as per usual. There were still no tables. There was
no chance of getting any either; there was nothing to make them from on Redex
and there weren’t any supplies left to make any either.

Michelle wondered if
the Earth Army truly meant for them to come here or not. They seemed incredibly
unprepared to house soldiers. She tried to push the thoughts of the Exploration
Team 700 dying out of her head.

We’ll be fine, everything is fine,
Michelle told herself.

“You think we’ll ever
get any decent food?” Kate asked interrupting her worries.

Michelle grinned.
“Better than nothing, I suppose.”

“Once when we were
running, I saw some melons growing, in the vegetated area,” Kate began.

Michelle shook her
head. “Don’t eat those.”

“What? I won’t… but why
not?” Kate said giving Michelle a confused look.

“I… I just know. Please
don’t eat them. They are poisonous to us, OK?” Michelle replied unsure whether
to tell Kate about the IS or not. Aaron was already one person too many who
knew about it.

Kate covered the opening
of the bottle of her protein drink with her thumb and attempted to give it a
small shake in hopes to make it less lumpy.

“They’ve been giving us
less lately,” Kate said pulling her thumb from the bottle.

Michelle nodded. It was
true they had been cutting back on rations.

“Maybe it’s because
they’re finally making us stop running all together,” Michelle offered.

Kate shook her head. “I
don’t know…”

Michelle smiled as best
she could. “Look everyone here is in great shape. Look at their skin, their hair,
and their nails. These things,” Michelle paused to pick up her protein drink,
“have a ton of vitamins and minerals. We’ll be fine on less.”

“Then why do I feel
hungry every night?” Kate moaned.

Michelle couldn’t deny
that she felt the same hunger each night herself. Some nights she couldn’t
sleep because her stomach ached from so much hunger. She looked around the room
and it seemed that most everyone looked as though they went to bed hungry every
night. Despite the baggy uniforms she could tell everyone was lean. Some were
beginning to look gaunt they were so thin.

She mustered up another
smile for her friend. “We are fine. It is enough.”

She hoped her words
were true. If not, she wasn’t sure how much more everyone could take.