Radioactive (22 page)

A smile spreads across Asha’s face and she begins to laugh a laugh so carefree and full of soul that I have never seen with her before.

“I bet that was the first time you drove one of those things,” she teases me with a grin.

Guiltily, but also grinning, I reply, “It always looked so simple!”

“That was so much fun,” Asha wipes her face off, her face beaming with unusual optimistic cheer. “May I try it?”

“Go ahead,” I urge her to sit down on the front of the vehicle, and I sit behind her. Without hesitation, she starts up the motor and then we’re away with the same rapid pace we were going before. Initially her driving is jerky and bumpy, but after a short time we glide over the sand like dragonflies over the water of a lake. Asha seems to be a true natural talent. The speed causes her no problems. On the contrary, her smile gets wider the faster we go. Soon the bright ball of light from the Legion commander’s sphere is only a small light on the horizon. I have no idea where we are, but I do not care as long as Asha is cheering, full of joy and shouting toward the heavens. She is acting like a completely different person. I have never seen anyone as happy is this, not even Iris when I gave her Dumbo for her birthday.

We ride all through the desert. Up a hill and down again. Asha manages to take curves so sharp that we practically touch the ground, but do not fall off. Only when we see the first rays of dawn over the horizon do I realize how quickly time has passed. We have driven through the night and that means it is high time for us to return. I can only hope our disappearance was not noticed.

“Asha, we must go back,” I call to her against the wind. The desert drifter abruptly comes to a halt. I force forward and hit my chin on Asha’s shoulder. With a pained face I rub my chin and let my mouth open a little bit.

“What’s wrong?” I ask her, confused. But Asha is sitting transfixed in front of me. Her hands are clawed around the handlebar so tight that the knuckles of her already pale hands turn whiter.

“I will not return,” she admits softly.

I should have expected that. “I know. I would prefer to travel with you through the day, but there are tasks that must be done.”

“They will find someone else to serve the Legion commanders,” Asha snarls unexpectedly.

I’m trying to repress my feelings, but I feel attacked. After all, I’m also a Legion commander.

“The mating battles are imminent. There is a lot to organize,” I try to explain to her, ignoring her answer. But later she whistles through her teeth.

“That’s the limit. I cannot let the sperm of some other idiot in me after the seeds of the last monster were just removed,” she replies sarcastically. So she knows about the pregnancy. We never talked about it.

“The rules have been changed. Women will now participate in the battles and you will know with whom you will be paired,” I try to cheer her up, but I can clearly see it’s having the opposite effect.

“Do you think that makes it better? Before I would not have known whose seeds are growing in me like a parasite. Also, I have no chance anyway. In the performance tests my opponent defeated me in a few seconds. I am an absolute failure!”

“Welcome to the club,” I reply in jest, but it does not phase her.

“What would happen if we simply did not return? We might join up with the rebels,” she suggests and I feel that she is completely serious. Pleadingly she turns to me. I cannot do this. Firstly because Finn and Zoe need my help, and on the other hand, I do not want to leave the Legion. I will not be a rebel. My place is in the Legion. It is my job to protect and guide the people of the safety zone and I can only do that as long as I am part of the Legion.

“The rebels live a dangerous life,” I warn her, but she does not care.

“A dangerous life is better than a life in captivity,” she replies. She reminds me of the old Finn. That sounded like something he would have said.

“I do not know if the rebels would even accept you,” I say. It is hard to say if she would be welcomed with open arms or not. It would depend on their emotional level, how they feel about the Legion right now. Perhaps they wouldn’t even take me back.

The statement seems to unsettle Asha. The dark blue sky slowly turns purple. Time is running out.

“Please, we must go back.”

Asha shakes her head and rises from the desert drifter.”

“Go without me, I will stay here.”

Alarmed, I shake my head and climb off the vehicle. It would backfire on me if I were to come back without it, but that’s not what I’m doing.

“Asha, please. We’re friends,” I implore her.

Doubtfully she looks up to me and eyes my face. She never had a friend. The concept of friendship is as alien to her as it was to me for a long time.

“I need you!”

Her eyes widen in disbelief. “You need me?” She says with a shaky voice.

“Of course! More than anyone else. If it were not for you, I would have simply pulled the blanket over my head and cried until no more tears would come out. But you were always there to comfort me.”

“I was never needed for anything by anyone,” she admits thoughtfully.

“A350 will train me for the mating battles. You can join in. That way we both will have a better chance. Please Asha! I promise I will not let anything happen to you.”

Hesitantly, she grabs my outstretched hand. Our hands are wrapped around each other. They are virtually indistinguishable from each other.

Finally, she nods. “Okay, I will come with you, but only for your sake. And I want you to promise me something.”

“Anything you want!” I shout relieved.

“If you ever leave the Legion, you cannot leave without me.”

I squeeze her hand a little tighter. “Promise!”

A350 and Clyde are waiting in the center of the arena for me. Her eyes widen in surprise as Asha, Ruby, Finn, and Zoe enter the sandy floor of the arena along with me. But unlike A350, Clyde smiles when he sees that I’m not alone. I have a feeling that his eyes linger a moment longer on Zoe’s face than necessary. She reciprocates his smile immediately, but then turns back to Finn who is staring fascinated at the ceiling of the arena. He is the only one of us who has never been here before. The size of the building is impressive, considering that the entire safety zone is underground. It is so bright that one might think that the light is really the sun and not particularly strong ceiling lights.

“Can you explain what you’re doing?” A350 asks angrily.

“I’m not the only one competing in the mating battles, so I should not be the only one trained for it.”

A350 presses her lips together and her eyes form narrow slits. She seems to think about whether she should accept my decision and instruct everyone or to leave the arena in disgust.

Finally she groans, annoyed. “A couple of exercise opponents certainly will not hurt.”

She breaks us up into three groups. Ruby and Clyde form the first group; they’re both fighters and thus already know a lot about combat. The next group, Zoe and Finn, somehow seem to be regarded as the two most vulnerable and spar against each other, while they want to practice with Asha and myself in the third group.

A350 gives each of us a laser device that we strap to our right arms. The arena is so large that all three groups and practice at the same time. First, Asha and I fight each other so that A350 can watch us in order to gauge our weaknesses. However, I fear she will be paying more attention to Asha than to me.

We introduce ourselves a few meters away from each other. Asha immediately goes into an attack position by standing with her legs slightly apart and standing firm. Simultaneously she bends her torso forward and raises her right arm with the laser in my direction. Asha’s simple show shows that she is grateful to be allowed to train with me. So I take my position. A350 nods and begins the countdown.

“Okay. Three, two, one... Go!”

As soon as the match is on, Asha shoots and hits me in the middle of the chest. If we were playing with loaded devices, I’d be dead. The battle is terminated before it has even begun for me. I never expected that Asha would shoot immediately. Normally the opponents circle some time before anyone dares to shoot.

“Damn A518, are you asleep? What’s going on?” A350 yells angrily. “As soon as you enter the field you have to expect an attack. Once again!”

Again, we take our starting positions.

“Okay. Three, two, one... Go!”

Again, Asha fires a shot at me, but this time I’m prepared for it so I dodge to the side. Without pause, she fires again as though this were a real life and death situation. Her shot misses. I haven’t been able to shoot back; I’ve been too busy dodging her shots. I actually thought we would have some fun with each other before firing, but Asha is taking this deadly seriously.

“Shoot!” A350 shouts while I counter another of Asha’s lasers. How? I would love to shoot back, but I’d be a sitting duck while aiming. Asha rushes me; I flee, and in quickly out of breath, while Asha continues to fire relentlessly at my retreating self, dodging from one location to the next.

“This is not a game!” A350 grumbles angrily. The longer the fight, the angrier she seems to be. I had indeed warned her that I’m not good, but she probably did not expect me to be as bad as I am against Asha.

Just as I dodge the next shot, I catch a glimpse of Zoe who is frantically dodging her brother’s shots on the other side of the arena. Finn must be taking this as seriously as Asha. I look from Zoe to Finn and our eyes meet as Asha’s beam hits me. The battle is over and I lost again.

“You did not even fire!” A350 yells toward me. “Is that some kind of a protest?”

“I wasn’t able to shoot,” I say, but without much hope of compassion.

“You cannot just stand there,” A350 replies blankly.

“Again, do it again, and this time you had better take a shot!” She threatens me. She begins to count down at once so I do not have time to catch my breath.

“Okay. Three, two, one... go!”

This time I do like Asha and fire my laser right off, but it misses its mark off to the side. We virtually run in a circle after each other until I suddenly change direction and run toward Asha and narrowly miss her. Although I am eager and getting the feel for it, A350 is still not satisfied.

“Faster! You’re both too slow!”

“You move like two sticks, even the second generation fighters would be faster.”

“Do not dance around, engage from the front!”

In this command, Asha suddenly changes her tactics and rushes toward me evading my shots by crouching and jumping. Since I cannot do the same, I decide to try it differently and run as fast as I can around to get behind her. Using this tactic, I get right behind her and aim my laser gun at her right ear. This injury would not be enough to kill, and it would only be counted as a hit, not a victory. Mating fights differ from the power struggles in the fact that they do not end after a set time, they last until one would be fatally wounded with real weapons. Even if the fight takes several hours.

Once Asha’s frontal attack tactic was not successful, we chase each other back through the arena. Here my good endurance ultimately comes to the rescue because after a few minutes Asha’s fire rate gets slower and eventually I manage to shoot her while she is gasping for breath. At least I have one victory.

However, A350 is still dissatisfied.

“Look at this as warm-up training. We are not done yet!” She says in an imperious tone. “Switch partners!”

A350 sends Asha to train with Finn. Zoe partners with Ruby, and I am to spar with Clyde. Is she serious? I wasn’t able to hold my own against Asha, how am I supposed to have a chance against Clyde? Incredulous and exhausted, I stare at her.

A350 just shrugs her shoulders. “In the mating battles, you will have to compete against the strongest of the strong if you want to win. We do not have enough time to let you compete for days against opponents of your level. Do your best!”

Clyde blushed slightly at her words and throws me an apologetic look. Since grumbling and whining will not help anyway, I admit defeat and make my way back to the starting position.

“Okay. Three, two, one... Go!”

Unlike Asha, Clyde doesn’t fire; he instead waits for a reaction on my part. It is too late for a surprise attack so I try to outwit him with speed, like I tried with Asha most recently. As if stung by a tarantula, I start running and fire a shot when I find myself behind him. Clyde responds much faster than Asha and before I know it, he stands in front of me and knocks my gun arm away with his left arm. I am not used to such physical battles in the arena. Usually these fights work at a distance, but Clyde now sweeps his feet under my legs so that I fall to the ground. I know that he could easily shoot me now, but instead he backs away and gives me the opportunity to stand again. We stand apart from each other. I fire a shot and Clyde swerves to the side to avoid it as Asha had done before. My goal is to chase Clyde across the field, like I did before, but Clyde is faster than I am and ends up behind me again. Instead of shooting me, he throws me roughly to the ground.

“Very good! Had he shot once, odds are you would have avoided it, but if you’re laying with your face in the sand the odds of you dodging decreases exponentially,” A350 comments while I spit sand out of my mouth. It is the second time Clyde had me dead to rights but did not fire. He is vastly superior to me.

Exhausted, I turn back and look into the brightness of the ceiling lights.

“Get up!” A350 cries. “I did not allow you to rest!”

Clyde leans over me and holds out his hand to help me up. Relieved I grab his hand.

“Damn it! Why did you did not shoot him at that moment?” A350 says as soon as I’m back on my feet next to Clyde.

Taken by surprise, I look at her. “He offered me his help. If I were to shoot him then, how unfair would that be?”

“The mating fights are not about who is fairest, only about who wins,” she shouts with a red face and then walks threateningly toward me.

“If you want to get out of this without being fertilized, then you should fight by all means,” she hisses at me.