by Drew Briney
HE HADN’T SLEPT MUCH the night before but that didn’t stop him from waking up just after sunrise. Rubbing his eyes, shifting his weight, and leaning upon his right elbow, Blaze looked over to where Evelia was sleeping and allowed his vision to focus on her more clearly. She slept peacefully. Motionless. She was no supermodel but she was elegant and Blaze found beauty in her character as much as in her appearance. She was refined – and thoughtful – and fun. For the past several years, Blaze believed they could be best friends if they just took the time to get to know each other better – but he had been too shy to really do much to make that happen.
Now, it appeared that they might be companions for life by default – the precise situation he had been trying to avoid. Because Blaze held very high position in the Order, boasted very good health, and was of a similar age, he could have reasonably demanded that Evelia become his wife under existing Order rules – but he was looking for a lasting friendship, not mandatory matrimony; friends by choice, not family by force. While Blaze was genuinely pleased to be able to spend all the time he wanted with her now – and for the foreseeable future – his fortune also felt a little bit like a prison. Would Evelia remain his companion because she had no other choice or could they become genuine friends despite the lack of any competing choices? At this point, he wasn’t sure if lady fortune was on his side or if this turn of events would prove the destruction of everything he had ever hoped for.
Pushing himself away from the ground with all of his strength, Blaze stood up with resolute effort. He needed to quit philosophizing over his situation and to focus on doing what needed to be done. He needed to rescue Jazz; he needed to come up with a plan to stop Dr. Boyd’s team – or to concede to the inevitable conclusion that he should join Dr. Boyd’s team; and he needed to save a baby girl he didn’t even know existed until yesterday afternoon. What complications a small baby might add to his current difficulties, he didn’t know. What he did know is that something inside of him stirred when the magic woman spoke to him and something inside was stirring him to follow her requests. Yet, somehow, those feelings failed to override his conflicted feelings of suspicion about this idiosyncratic alien – something inside intermittently nagged at him.
Eyeing his surroundings, Blaze quickly noticed that the magic woman was gone. That made him nervous. While he wasn’t sure why he didn’t trust her when she wasn’t around, he recognized that he intuitively trusted her whenever she spoke to him. Fleetingly, he remembered reading about hypnotism and that made him wonder … Probably better that she is gone for a while, he considered, suddenly a little stressed. Somehow, he would feel more comfortable without her being around this morning – somehow it seemed safer.
Gathering up a large handful of berries, a small handful of watermeal, some local version of mint leaves, and some coconut milk he had stored in a leather flask, he mixed the ingredients and prepared a simple breakfast for himself and Evelia, rightly guessing that the magic woman had already eaten.
As he cut up the mint leaves into small pieces and began mixing them into the coconut milk and berries, his mind considered the task ahead. Sparring friends in the Order was sport and exercise. Death matches in the simulator with aliens, beasts, and other people was extreme sport and intense exercise. Fighting local natives who were probably untrained in any sophisticated version of martial arts and who probably had no sophisticated weaponry was slaughter.
Sure, it was possible that no one would attack him – but that was unlikely theory and wishful thinking, Blaze estimated. If everything went well, he might be able to sneak into the community, listen for a baby’s cry, take the child from its mother, and return to the pond without incident. If anything went poorly, he could expect to engage in a very real, lethal battle where he may have to kill someone – or several people. Then again, he could be killed as well. And for what? A baby that he didn’t know anything about other than a few stories told by an odd alien woman who spoke with two voices.
We decided to trust her before we even left the Order, he reminded himself. And there was good reason to trust her now: she voluntarily saved Evelia’s life and she predicted the explosion of the Orders. And her words, actions, and her very being all screamed gracefulness and sincerity. And then, there was a high probability that she held some superstitious affinity for Blaze because his hair bore the image of her most sacred symbol – a bizarre discovery that made zero sense and left him reeling with confusion. And while none of this was enough to gain his complete trust in the magic woman - it was something.
Still, he couldn’t help harboring some lingering suspicions. She refused to help him approach the challenges with Dr. Boyd the way he expected. He wanted her to help stop Dr. Boyd’s newest space tour until he could explain to the crew that Dr. Boyd had known all along that their friends and family were doomed to extermination at the hands of the natives and he more particularly wanted to share this with friends and family that may have they survived the explosion - that is, if there were any.
And he wanted to rescue Jazz.
But the magic woman had insisted that the baby be rescued first – despite the fact that the timing seemed less than ideal – taking care of a baby was hardly conducive to a possible physical confrontation with Dr. Boyd’s team.
Stop crying over spilled milk, he castigated himself. Duty calls and sometimes that precludes the opportunity to refuse to serve. If the magic woman was right, a little baby girl needed someone to save her and no one else could – or would – help her. He just needed to resolve himself to do the right thing and to get it over with. Besides, even if none of these reasons were sufficient motivation, Evelia wanted Blaze to save the little girl as well. If he couldn’t trust his own judgment in this situation, he could certainly trust hers. Blaze knew that he not infrequently made some serious errors in judgment. Evelia on the other hand was a good judge of character; she understood people; she intuitively knew which things were the right things to do. Therefore, her opinion in this situation mattered – and it mattered a lot.
Munching down the last spoonful of berries and watermeal, Blaze looked over at Evelia who remained fast asleep and picked up his staff. Setting down his bowl and scanning his person to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything, he tapped the blades sheathed on each side of his boots and inside of the breast pocket of his jacket to make sure they were secure. Lifting his staff, he inspected the small control panel to make sure it was properly charged and that each of its functions were set to activate properly. He wiped down the panels where he could access those functions and pushed the thin covering for those panels into place so that they were not accidentally accessed.
Ready.
He considered waking Evelia to let her know that he was going but thought better of it. He didn’t really know what to say, she probably needed some sleep, and the magic woman would probably return before she woke up so there was little purpose in waking her at this time. Instead, he set one of the boxes of provisions next to her makeshift bed and placed the bowl of food on top of it, suddenly realizing that it might attract insects if it wasn’t properly covered. Dang! he grumbled to himself, considering his lack of thoughtful preparation. Then, eyeing an unused cleaning cloth he had brought with him, he carefully placed it over the bowl to keep out all unwanted bug life. That is it, he concluded, taking his first step forward and beginning his trek to Elayuh’s village.
Time for my first real fight.
BLAZE FOUND AND READ SEVERAL ARTICLES in the updated database about successfully surviving in the jungle – and more particularly, he read about neighboring Malaysian and Indonesian jungles because he had heard that changes from the Third Holocaust may have made these jungles more similar than they had been previously – and he shared a summary of that information with Evelia. Not long after they ventured into the thick underbrush, Blaze and Evelia made plasters of mud for their lower legs to avoid bites from bugs and leeches – which unfortunately hadn’t protected Evelia from the reptilian bite and
which had incurred spontaneous laughter from the magic woman when Blaze explained why they had done this. He failed to understand the humor of their precautions but being so pleased with the alien’s power of healing, he also failed to question her joviality over their efforts.
They made bedding out of large branches with gargantuan leaves to cover them – Blaze had already forgotten why that was important but it was high on his list so he stuck strictly to that advice – he guessed that it probably kept scorpions and other noxious critters from becoming unwelcomed bed companions. Either way, the makeshift beds were remarkably comfortable all things considered. He prepared their small camp on high ground early in the afternoon to avoid mosquitoes and infections that come from waterlogged areas – and to avoid sudden flooding caused by heavy rains. These preparations were also made at the expense of the alien’s gentle, yet barely bridled laughter. Although her body was largely designed for a sandy, near desert-like environment, she loved to be in the water so she enjoyed the moist ground near ponds and marshy areas. With thicker, harder skin, she was relatively impervious to some of the weaknesses common to human flesh. But to accommodate her new companions the evening past, she slept on higher ground with them.
They prepared to leave clothes drying each day while they were walking around in other clothes to avoid chills at night and fevers and they made several other precautions to make sure that their trek to find the magic woman was relatively uneventful. One would think an adventurous soul like Blaze would have been ecstatic to be thrown into such unknown territory – and in some respects this was true – but this situation was not so simplistic.
The buzz of life in Borneo’s jungles is indescribably active – but to someone who had grown up completely separated from nature other than plants and animal life preserved to maintain a complete ecosystem conducive to greenhouse farming, the constant noises of critters and the constant new sensations of rain, excessive moisture, chilly temperatures after sunset, unfamiliar sounds, unfamiliar creatures, and the obnoxious scratches that resulted from brushing up against sharp grasses and strange plants made these jungles unspeakably overwhelming to someone so unaccustomed to life in the outdoors.
Mostly, the new environment was exhilarating – and nothing else. He enjoyed the beautiful birds, the exotic butterflies (on the rare occasions that he saw any), the nearly unlimited variety of vegetation that made Borneo so famous during the Classic Age, the shy mammalian critters that seemed so curious to see a bipedal animal wandering through their neck of the jungle, and the rich colors he found everywhere he went.
On the other hand, life on the outside was terrifying. Poisonous plants, poisonous reptiles, vicious animals (both mammals and reptiles), diseases (Blaze only assumed that they continued to be a problem since the Third Holocaust), and gene splicing abominations all represented very real dangers that could pounce upon you at any moment. That part of jungle life was unnerving at best, terrifying at worst.
Add these dangers to being alone and not being habituated or trained to survive in an area like this and one discovers tenacious tension – a constant barrage of nervous stress. Sure, conditions somewhat like these were put in the simulator but the simulator never anticipated the variety and the density of life to be found here. Besides, simulator conditions usually mimicked geographical conditions like quicksand, sharp grasses, and sudden changes in terrain. It didn’t focus on biting insects, infectious reptiles, unnerving noises, or anything akin to gene splicing experiments (aliens excepted).
And while the simulator did mimic extreme humidity and extreme heat, these fighting conditions never lasted for several hours, let alone several days. Already, Blaze felt extra fatigue from the debilitating heat and humidity. Within a few minutes after changing his clothes, he had felt like he needed another good washing. The body’s natural tendency to sweat, coupled with excessive humidity, made his clothes sag like baggy elephant skin – and it felt just as heavy as well. The articles on survival suggested long clothing to prevent insect bites but apparently, they didn’t consider the drawbacks to dressing like this when preparing for a possible battle.
Hearing the sound of talking ahead, Blaze suddenly stopped thinking about the newness of his environment and refocused his thoughts on following directions. He pulled the cube out of his pocket and quietly unfolded it to regain his bearing while carefully listening to the sound of those voices. Just children, he concluded. Happy children.
Not especially surprised, Blaze discovered that he had gotten off his intended path some time ago – perhaps an hour or more – and he further discovered that more time had passed than he realized. Now only a few minutes away from the village, Blaze was disappointingly on the opposite end of the village that the magic woman described. He would have to carefully creep around the perimeter to avoid being noticed – and if he was noticed, he was far from being in an ideal condition to fight. His clothes stuck to his skin like legs in deep mud – they move but only with great effort. And they wouldn’t provide any significant protective armor against an attack either – Blaze had been preparing for a short jaunt into the jungle and back, nothing more. As he thought the situation through more carefully, he realized that he was entirely unprepared for what might happen next.
His eyes scanned his surroundings carefully. He could now see where the boys had been playing. He could see areas that had been cleared away carefully – and probably regularly – by the natives. And he could see that he was in the middle of an area that was not well traveled and that was relatively overgrown. Further, the ground below was particularly muddy with soil that had a strong composition of clay. Perfect, he thought, coming up with an entirely new plan of action.
He firmly stuck his staff in the mud. He pushed back the protective screen covering the control panel and placed his finger over the panel. Recognizing his fingerprint, it illuminated and displayed its various options. With great deliberation, Blaze pressed the options that he wanted: linatech based magnetic fields to stop projectiles from entering a small perimeter about his person – that was the most important one; electric pulse options available when twisting the center coating; and linatech based energy pulses, which, despite their misleading name, were essentially bullets that he could shoot out of the staff – they would require another command but they were essentially ready. Blaze had never used two of these functions in battle – they were akin to cheating during a simulation in his estimation – but this would be no simulation.
Maintain focus, he reminded himself. Be constantly aware of your surroundings. Liquid misdirection. Never take life when you can spare it. These and other mantras from his martial arts training turned over in his mind as he took off everything but his underclothes. Plastering himself with mud from head to toe took quite a bit more effort than he expected. To begin with, he rolled in the mud like a playful pig until he was largely covered with the claylike substance. Then, he rubbed it around his eyes, behind his ears, and other spots that were not adequately covered from the rolling. Satisfied that he was probably better camouflaged now than he had been earlier, that his body was much cooler than a few moments before, and that his strange appearance might prove somewhat startling to superstitious natives, Blaze put his shoes back on, hid his clothes and his cube, and began slowly making his way around the village, making every effort to remain silent and out of sight.
But Blaze had never seriously trained in stealth.
While the Order focused on training its citizenry for the ultimate eventuality of returning to a hostile “outside” world, the pragmatics of various disciplines were hard to maintain for multiple generations. Protection from a sunburn for instance was a matter of theory – unless one worked in the gardens a lot; needing to learn another language was merely a theory; surviving in the jungles of Borneo was theory; and for Blaze, learning to sneak up on an enemy proved to be theory as well.
IT SEEMED INSTANTANEOUS: the village was in an uproar. All it took was Blaze’s rhythmic footwork. Larger than most of
them, his larger frame broke decomposing branches louder than the natives. But other factors added to his failure as well: his pathway through uncleared undergrowth made larger vegetation vibrate and expose his location; and his staff was shiny. Despite the fact that Blaze had coated his bo staff with mud, its metallic surface coupled with the moisture proved too slippery to retain the organic coating. Probably, any one of these things could have given Blaze’s position away to the natives in and of themselves. Altogether, he might as well have trudged through the middle of town waving his arms and yelling as to try to avoid the ever watchful eyes of the natives.
Taking her without a fight is not going to happen, he instinctively thought as a small line of hardened men created a barrier between Blaze and the nearest homes in the village and as he heard that familiar humming sound: several well aimed arrows were redirected around Blaze as the linatech based magnetic fields stopped them from hitting their target. Never tested in real combat, Blaze inwardly sighed relief as technology preserved from the Second Holocaust now preserved his own life. A second volley followed the first as Blaze cut his way through the last bit of undergrowth separating himself from these men. These arrows also found unexpected targets, leaving the observing natives in a state of superstitious panic.
But warriors are never trained to succumb to their fears. Several natives grabbed their spears and lofted them at Blaze as he closed the distance between himself and their ranks. Instinctively, Blaze swatted towards one particularly well aimed spear, briefly forgetting to trust the staff’s function. Because of this blocking motion, the magnetic field redirected slightly and sent the spear more quickly into the earth where it was buried much deeper than any native had seen a spear posted into the earth.
Eyes wide, their fear increased – but so did their courage. Moments later, Blaze was blocking attacks from multiple men and trudging his way through the midst of them, pointlessly listening for the cry of a newborn baby. After immobilizing many opponents, he soon realized that his superior fighting skills would be insufficient for this task – despite his great conditioning and athleticism, his strength was waning rapidly and he knew that he could not physically endure much longer.
