Delvers LLC- Surviving Ludus

by Blaise Corvin (ed)

  “Well, it looks like you are going to live after all. Swallow this,” said the woman who then held the sphere out to the German, who was still lying on his back, a spreading bloodstain on the stomach portion of his uniform.

  “But Captain—” the woman who had brought the bag had begun to yell, but the Captain cut her off.

  “We aren’t thieves, we have honor. Besides, look at the insignia. These aren’t meant for us.”

  “Yes, Captain,” said the woman and backed off a bit.

  The German stared at the orb for a moment then at his blood-stained stomach. He was dying anyway, he didn’t care. He popped the orb in his mouth and swallowed.

  “Rest now, we will protect you,” said the Captain as she patted the German’s head.

  “Are y’all French? Where the fuck is the beach?” I asked.

  All of the assorted warrior-women around me just stared with different forms of amused looks. It was time to come to terms with reality. “I’m not in Kansas anymore am I?” I asked, referencing a movie I had seen as a kid that reminded me of my current circumstances.

  “It’s time to accept your new reality,” said the woman I only knew as the Captain. “You aren’t on the planet that you know as Earth. This is a planet named Ludus, and I’m what you know as an alien.”

  “That’s… That’s impossible. An alien, from space? Wait, no, how would you even know English?” I blubbered out.

  “Because I was married to a Terran, a human, for a long time. He taught me much about your Earth,” she stated.

  “What happened to him?” I blurted out before realizing the question was probably personal.

  “He died of old age after a long and happy life.”

  “You married an old man?”

  “No, I married a young man, younger than you are now, even. Then we were married for sixty wonderful years, until he died. That was about thirteen years ago.”

  I stared at the woman deeply and forced myself to calm down. I could see the age in her eyes, and hear the truth in her words. What kind of place was this? I backed up a few paces to think about everything she had told me and in my haste to get some space I tripped on the corpse of one of the first creatures that had attacked me. I landed on my butt next to her, and realized that the creature was female. Now that I could get a closer look, I realized she was almost beautiful except for the bullet hole in her chest, beautiful like an exotic tiger at the zoo. Just like the super-powered speed/rock type of sorcerer that the Captain had fought off, this one also had fangs, pinpoint black pupils, and of course the pointed ears.

  I reached out and touched the pointed ear, even tugged on it once to ensure it was real. Then I closed the woman’s eyes and said the small prayer I said for all downed warriors if I had the time. By reflex I said it out loud like I normally did, but I normally did it for the benefit of the men I was chosen to lead. For whatever reason it still felt right.

  “Lord, take this warrior into your loving arms. Help them find peace. Help guide the warriors that are still alive. Protect those who would do good in this world, and damn those who would do evil. Amen.”

  The stout and short pointed-eared women around me glanced at each other and broke into whispers in a language I didn’t understand. For whatever reason it pissed me off. “Hey now, share with the class! I’m an adult I can hear it,” I said with an edge in my voice. The one they called the Captain marched over to me and helped me to my feet.

  “They are talking about a Terran with honor, you. My people are naturally afraid of Terrans. It’s rare to see one perform death rites, over an attacker no less. We were never properly introduced. My name is Rauli, Captain Rauli,” she said while holding out a hand. I happily shook it.

  “I’m Sergeant Thompson. I have to ask, Captain Rauli, how are my men? We were in a battle back on Earth, are they okay?”

  “I have no way to answer you. I have never been to Earth and you will never go back. The faster you accept that you live here now, on Ludus, the better chance of survival you will have.” She ordered, “Take this, and hold onto it. Swallow it before the next time you sleep.” Then she slapped the wooden box with the painted American flag on the top into my hand. “Don’t lose it, it’s currently worth more than you are. More than any of us really,” she said while motioning around at the others.

  “So what’s next?” I asked.

  “Next, you dump all of your bullets on the ground. Gunpowder acts strangely on Ludus, and it could blow at any time.”

  I couldn’t help but look at her spear. She must have seen it, because she said, “What, you think I’m too stupid to make a firearm? There is a reason that no one else here is using one. Keep them if you want to, but don’t blame me when it blows your little Terran nuts off.”

  I didn’t hesitate after that, she was right. Guns are stupid easy to make for even a moron, and this woman was no moron. Prisoners had made guns before out of plumbing pieces and all of these women had just rushed into a life-or-death fight without them. If there wasn’t a really damn good reason to not have guns here, like gunpowder randomly exploding for example, then everyone would have them. I dumped all of my rounds onto the ground rickey fucking tick. I felt dumb as shit doing it, but I really didn’t want to blow my nuts off.

  “Thanks for the warning,” I said as soon as I was done, “but my nuts aren’t little, asshole,” I said. Before I knew what was even happening my face was burning and presumably had been slapped again.

  “First rule of Ludus, respect power! And especially respect those older than you. Age on Ludus generally tends to mean that the person has had more time to learn how to kick your ass.”

  She was right again of course, and I started doing the math in my head about how old she might be given the information she’d given me. Then I realized I had no baseline since I didn’t know how old she was when she had gotten married.

  “Hey, how old are you anyway, lady?” The second the sentence had left my mouth I was already rolling across the ground, my other cheek on fire. She had slapped me so damn hard that I had left my feet. “Stop hitting me, lady!”

  “Respect!” she shouted back. “Now get up, you and your friend owe me a debt. I just saved your lives after all.”

  “That’s not my friend,” I said, pointing at the unconscious German. I was ready to continue my reply with something smarmy but my cheeks were already hurting enough so I continued a little more respectfully. “And I don’t feel I owe you anything. I killed most of the creatures, and I helped you defeat the scary-speedy-rocky-guy.”

  “Fine, you think you don’t owe me. Stay here in the misty woods of madness with the roaming monsters of Ludus. I’m going back to my bed in my secure fort. Have fun, Terran, goodbye!” she said, turning her back on me.

  “Alright, alright, I got your point. You bailed my ass out, you are showing me the ropes, I owe you.”

  Behind us as we talked a few of the women she had brought with her moved the German to a stretcher and pulled up his clothing to expose his wound before pouring water on it and pressure wrapping it. I had to admit the wound did look better already, somehow.

  “How is his wound getting better already? He should be dead. I mean, I understand it had something to do with the orb he swallowed, but...” I trailed off.

  “We can discuss that matter in the safety of my fort. Now we have to move. Can you run for forty minutes?”

  “I can, but that sounds terrible.”

  “Too bad, suck it up. If you run slow, you get eaten by the monsters of Ludus. You think what you just fought was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet!”

  The rest of the women in the clearing quickly searched all of the dead bodies in the area and secured all of their weapons and gear, and then without preamble they took off running. I didn’t hesitate either and I ran with them. I felt a little dumb carrying a gun with no ammo in it, but it was better than a sharp stick, or maybe it wasn’t on this planet.

  The women quickly fell into a tight formati
on with scouts to either side and with Captain Rauli in the front. I assumed she led because she had the neat glowing spear and the invisible shield around her body. I fell in behind her, waiting until my body adjusted to the speed and caught a good running rhythm so I could breathe and talk properly.

  “So, you call me Terran, that means human. What kind of alien are you?”

  “Areva,” she shouted over her shoulder. I could tell she was only half paying attention to the conversation, and that she was probably more interested in scanning for threats. I was okay with this.

  “Where are the men? Why’d you bring only women?” I asked next, trying to keep my tone neutral so she wouldn’t slap me again. This was hard to do while running.

  “Back at the fort sleeping. It’s the middle of the night. Men are rare here,” she replied. There was a lot to unpack in that one, but I had already accepted that I was on an alien planet, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch to accept the rest of what she had just said.

  “And what were the creatures called that attacked me?”

  “Fideli.”

  “Are all Fideli evil?”

  “Most of them.”

  I lost track of time as we jogged through the woods. I even let my awareness lapse, leaving it to the alien women around me to protect me, and I went into the meditative mode I used on long runs. I was used to this since I had been living a military life.

  My thoughts went to my men on the beach. Had the trip to Ludus taken a long time? Had it taken me years to get here, were my men home with their families, or were they dead on the beach? Were their last breaths spent wondering why I had abandoned them?

  I was filled with doubts and fears. So I did what I always do with emotional shit garbage like that. I took it all and put it into a bundle then I shoved it deep, deep down into the farthest recesses of my mind and slammed a big ole metaphorical steel door on it.

  It didn’t feel good, it didn’t feel right, but it allowed me to come back into the moment. I was on Ludus now. I didn’t know much about this world, but from what I had heard and seen so far... it wasn’t a kind place. The running formation broke through a particularly dense area of trees and ran into an open field that I assumed had been purposefully cleared.

  We crested a small incline and the Areva’s fort came into view. It was a lot of fresh-cut logs jammed into the ground upright with metal bracers here and there. The walls looked strong and thick. Other lightly armored women with longbows walked on top of the walls so there must have been some kind of a walkway on top. Some of the logs were taller than others, forming a random but functional parapet, which provided some cover for the women patrolling the top. It was large, the front was about the length of a football field and I couldn’t tell how far back the fort went. Overall it left me impressed.

  We ran up to a large bronze portcullis that was lifted out of the way seemingly by the patrolling women on the walls who had seen us approach. Once through we were in a ten-foot-long wooden hallway. There were sturdy vertical logs on all sides of us, far too heavy and thick for any attacker to breach, and another bronze portcullis was ahead, but already opened. I had to assume they could close that barrier as well in case of emergencies. Once on the other side of the second portcullis, Captain Rauli spun around and put her hand up on my chest. Then she pointed to a wooden single-story building just off of the path we were on. It had wooden bars in the windows.

  “You are in there. The German will be joining you once our doctor has seen to him. The orb has kept him alive so far,” said Rauli.

  “What the fuck is that? Some kind of a jail?”

  “You must love being slapped. I’ll let that one slide. No, you cretin, that is not a jail. Have we done you any harm? Have we shown you any ill will? That is our boarding house for visitors to the fort. You are neither friend nor foe, you can sleep in there or you can sleep outside the walls, your choice.

  “We have a few hours until dawn still. I’m going home to shower and rest. I’ll come see you when I wake up. Go to sleep, swallow your orb first. A runner is coming now with some food and a washing bowl for you. I’m leaving a guard on your door. If you try to leave for any reason beside using the outhouse, or if you disobey the guard’s requests,” she said, putting emphasis on the word, “she will kill you.

  “Now I need two things from you. I need to know that you understand, and I need your first name.”

  It was a strange request, but in the grand scheme, it wasn’t that odd. “My name is Earl, Earl Thompson.”

  “Wash up, eat some food, take your orb, go to sleep,” she said, before spinning around and walking away. This left me standing in the packed dirt path that led into the rest of the fort. I shrugged my shoulders and headed to my bunk. Sleep sounded great, so did getting clean. Once inside the small building I was immediately reminded of a barracks, at least a small version of one. There were five rough-built wooden beds on either side of the room in uniform lines. There was no backdoor to the building, seemingly to make it easier to guard, and all of the windows were barred. I went to the farthest bunk away from the door, pushed it flush against a wall, and sat down.

  The front door opened again and a pretty Areva woman walked over. She handed me a bowl full of water with a rag in it, and a plate with some boiled plants on it that I didn’t recognize. I thanked her and she winked at me in a suggestive manner. Or maybe the wink meant ‘fuck you,’ I didn’t know yet, not having much experience with Areva culture.

  I stripped out of my disgusting uniform and wasn’t surprised to see that my entire body was a giant bruise. The more I calmed down, the more things started to hurt. One of my legs quickly became too tender to stand on, so I stayed seated as I finished cleaning myself up.

  Once I was done with the water bowl for myself, I put my whole uniform in it and pushed it under the water. It barely fit. The water immediately turned a pinkish-brown color from the grit and grime. I wished I had some soap to add to the mix, but water would have to do. I pulled out each piece, squeezing the residual water out of them onto the wooden plank floor and then laid them out on the bunk next to mine, since there was nowhere to properly hang them. The leftover washing water was so disgusting I felt guilty looking at it, so I threw it out of the nearest barred window.

  I knew more calories meant faster healing so I ate all of the boiled plants on the plate. They were surprisingly bland which was fine with me, I just wanted to sleep anyway. It was weird and awkward and made me feel defenseless being naked on an alien planet in a bed that wasn’t mine, but I wasn’t putting my wet uniform or my wet underwear back on.

  After mentally going through my mental checklist, I opened up the olive drab laundry bag that I had stored the boxed orb in. I examined the box and the orb one more time, mentally said “fuck it,” and swallowed the damned thing whole.

  Then my sleep-addled brain saw the now-empty laundry bag in a new light and I giggled manically.

  I used my boot knife to cut the two bottom corners out of it and then put my feet through. Then I pulled the bag up around my waist and yanked the drawstring tight and tied it. I was now wearing some fucked-up and hilarious-looking underwear/shorts type thing. The “US” marker on the bag now rested just below my bellybutton. I lay back and fell asleep, laughing at myself.

  Enemy Mine, Chapter Two

  When I came to, I felt a presence standing behind me. I jumped up and grabbed at where my Tommy Gun had hung on the corner of the small bed I was in. When I pulled on the strap, I was surprised to only find the empty sling, the weapon itself missing. So I attacked with my bare hands, kicking and punching frantically. I got flashes of a German uniform and wondered how the enemy had gotten into the barracks. Then the sucker grabbed me and threw me. I was airborne, I saw flashes of light, my back hit something hard, and I landed on the ground.

  I got to my knees as fast as I could and instinctively shoved my hands out in front of me. A beam of purple light flew out of them and slammed into the barracks, blowing pieces off o
f it in all directions. I let the energy loose and slashed more beams of heat and force in front of me. That was about the time that I remembered I was on Ludus. I realized I was using magic, and that I was tearing up someone else’s stuff. I cut my new powers off and looked at the burning and torn-up remains of the building and remembered the German.

  “Sour Kraut? You in there, bud?” I shouted at the remains of the structure.

  The German’s response was to throw a bed at me. It flew cleanly, right through the burning remains. The bed was on fire, and it was coming straight at my face. I shoved my hands out in front of me knowing something that weighed that much would probably kill me. I focused on a mental shove and a lighter-colored burst of purple energy came out of my hands, this time shaped like a wide cone. The bed was blasted into shreds and I rocked back hard from recoil. The sensation reminded me of the recoil of my Tommy Gun, only tenfold and all at once.

  Then the German erupted from the wreckage, trailing burning debris as he headed straight for me at a sprint. I readied another energy blast but before I let it off, Captain Rauli appeared and performed a jumping attack on the German, smacking him over the head with the flat portion of her spearhead. The impact was hard enough that it made a deadly-sounding crack and the German hit the dirt like a puppet who had just had his strings cut. I opened my mouth to laugh, but then Captain Rauli was on me.

  She swept my legs out from under me and while I was still airborne she slapped me across the face so hard that I saw stars. Then before I could even hit the ground, she hit me across the stomach with the shaft of her spear. I landed in a pile and immediately went into a fetal position to protect my injured stomach.