We were equal in strength and size so almost as one, we decided to step back and keep guard. "Who are you?" I asked, keeping my blade at the ready. It was a beautiful knife as long as my arm, light and sharper than one of those horse-bird talons. She scoped me out for what seemed a full minute and then sat down on a nearby rock, not answering my question.
"I asked you a question, stranger," I said seating myself with my blade on my lap, keeping my eyes on her.
"I heard you," she replied.
"And so?"
"So what?" she said this with a hint of mischief in her tone, she was toying with me.
"Why would you try to kill me?"
"I was testing you…" Now a full, beautiful but still not safe, smile. A smile is something I have not seen since my sister and I were separated. This woman was young, like me, but mysterious. Intriguing.
"Why would you test me? And I have obviously passed, seeing as I still have breath, stranger I am not one to dabble with, I warn you."
She smiled again, almost like a siren, dangerously inviting.
"You sound like you learned to speak from poetry books instead of language books, it's cute."
"Again you ignore my questions, it matters not how I speak but what the outcome of this meeting is. Stranger, what do you desire? Take it and leave, I have haste to make on my journey." I say this getting up and stuffing my makeshift camp-site into my backpack, just some tarp and dowels, cooking utensils, weapon repair materials. All the while keeping my eye on this strange woman.
"I wasn't lookin' for trouble ya know, I've been alone awhile. I'd hoped you'd be open to some company…"
"I do not need a companion." 'I honestly don't, she'd just slow me down.'
"Alright then." And she gets up and starts walking South, the same direction I need to be going. Perhaps if I watched her closely, she could be useful to help fight off bandits. She didn't look like a bandit but definitely had a mysterious omen about her.
"Mercy," I called out to her. She turned almost as if expecting it.
"You're heading South too aren't ya?" She smiled walking back slowly.
"Yes, but I do insist on knowing your name, stranger if we are to share food and passage."
She walks right up to me, my hand already on my blade ready to kill her if necessary. Leaning in close the hairs raised on my skin when she whispered, "You're cute when you're mad."
With that, she stepped away and put out her hand.
"What do you suppose I do with that…?" I asked her, confused.
"Shake it, in good faith." She laughs.
I look at her still sceptical, "Your name, stranger? Then I shall accept your faith."
She gently takes my hand and shakes it. "Beau. Now let's go before we get into any more trouble." 'Her smile. Gorgeous. No, stop it Mercy, you need to be focused right now. you're going South, finding Shilo and getting her to the shuttle. But what if we miss the shuttle? Fuck, I'm so tired...'
"Hey babe, wake up! Mercy, Mercy can you hear me? Jesus, hey you…" I heard this in a daze of confusion. 'Where did I go? Who was this warm, gentle body above me? What were those? Bats? God Almighty, they were snakes with wings and scorpion tails…'
I feel myself being gently picked up and carried, and carried. It felt like forever. Wherever I lay was warm and safe and I knew it. My body relaxed and I felt a hot, relieved breath on the back of my neck when my muscles ceased shaking from the black-out. 'What was that?' After pondering the sight of this new creature, and the aching in my body I fell asleep, I slept for longer than I could in days. Safe and warm. With her behind me, Beau. I remember now. She somehow knew the flying snakes were coming and protected me. I remember her tending the mamba bites. They were black as coal. And their bites look like cigar burns in your skin. Beau had made herself a shelter from the horrific reality of the Ruins. She wasn't a threat, and I just knew this. My grandmother said I was gifted with the power of mercy, like my name but also I knew a true thought from a false word.
As I woke I raised her arm from my waist and covered her with the blanket of fur, it seemed almost Kudu-like. Those were a Saharan buck of some kind. It was warm seeing as the sun had long since reflected on the earth for a full year, in decades. My grandmother's way of saying it is 'We fucked up gravity.' I learned curse words from her too, my mother died long before from an airborne attack that was sent the wrong coordinates. Grandmother Astrid raised us and taught us to fight and defend ourselves from a young age. She named me Mercy for her fighting style; 'Do not kill your enemy if they do not intend to kill you.'
I'll get back to some more history later. Beau doesn't know I write better than I read. 'She's so cute sleeping under that fur, so warm… Mercy, focus!'
To 'cut a long story short' as Gran would say, we weren't considered a planet anymore. In fact, we were called a Wasteland. The inferior species. Homo-Sapien meant weak to alien species and our planet bore 3% of life, most of which was mutated by the Purple Rain. The 3 types of people and animals I mentioned before? Mutated Homo-Sapiens. The weaker immune, they were human-like scavengers. The others are Predators until they become Prey. The rules of coexistence were clear.
I need to find something to eat. I hear Beau stirring behind me; as if hearing my thoughts, she sits up and yawns. Stretching out like a cat. 'I had a cat as a child named Loki as he was very mischievous. He would catch mole-frogs, which was horrible because they were harmless, and he would eat them in one bite. Cats had many rows of teeth like a shark but otherwise looked just like its ancestor, the domestic cat.' She caught me staring.
"I just stole a glance, I apologize." I felt embarrassed that she caught me gawking. My grandmother taught me better. She chuckles and gets up in just a shirt and no undergarments. She stretched again and I spun around quickly. I was raised much more conservatively and it was just respectful to reserve one's nakedness unless in marriage.
"No harm in lookin' babe, you had me worried last night. A beautiful morning isn't it?" She says this walking towards me and taking her shirt off. I couldn't help it this time. She was so beautiful. Long black hair and tanned skin, coal scars, and warrior markings. Tokens of her family tied into her hair. She looked like a goddess. It was complexing how confidently she carried herself. So free, but how in this empty world did she manage to find such optimism? Her cheeks grew rosy when she smiled or was vexed. And freckles marked her nose and shoulders like little constellations.
"Ahem." She stood before me fully dressed now in armour and as if I were late for something. I need to stop losing time.
"I'll get dressed now too." I ducked down and went back into her temporary shelter, a cave above a waterfall.
Sadly the water was more protection than convenience. All the water is salty now. You need supplies to make a water distillery device if you wanna survive. I have built two. Just in case. I've been travelling for so long. Putting my knife in my sheath I turn around and Beau sprints towards me and tackles me to the ground. We fall hard, scraping against the rocky cave floor. I already feel blood leaking from my head. "What the…?" She clamps her hand over my mouth and says to breathe softly through my nose and be quiet. I nod and obey. She helps me up and we back up slowly to the edge of the cave. We'd have to be quick. The Mongeese were so quick and wicked like piranhas on land. And they came in large groups. She gives me a nod and looks down at my knife as if to say I should have it at the ready. I unsheath it slowly and nod back. She smiles and launches herself through the water film and on to the ledge opposite the cave a.k.a. 'our only way out.'
I figured that out after one glance of the shelter. Guess it's my turn. Damn, okay...here it goes.