A Soldier in Love (34 page)

She almost lost her
balance when she realized she was on the edge of a step. Her stomach clenched
at her near fall. She stooped down in the darkness and reached out in front of
her. It was a stairwell.

Alone in the darkness,
she thought she would become hysterical. The darkness seemed absolute and unwavering.
She put a protective hand over her belly. She would crawl down. She couldn’t
risk a fall.
 

She stooped down and in
a crawl she pushed forward faster as best she could. Her hands became coated
from dust on the dirty floor.

She wiped the sweat
from her brow. It was becoming hot without the central air-conditioning the big
building had been equipped with. She swallowed worrying that any minute they
could come for her. The electricity could come back on at any moment and they
could burst through the door and find her. They would then realize she wasn’t
who she said she was. They would take away her baby.

No, that’s not an option,
she reminded herself.

Instead of fighting the
darkness she welcomed it instead. She clung to the darkness as she crawled down
the stairs like a small child. It was hard and laboring going down flight after
flight. She wasn’t even sure how far up they were. She persisted until she
could finally see it. It was so tiny in the contrast of the darkness, but it
was there. It was the light coming from the street outside of the door. She
quickly got to her feet and slowly opened the door.

She could see others
walking but they didn’t seem to notice her. She began moving forward and tapped
her IS. She heard it beep as it turned on.

“IS direct me to the
docking zone on New Earth II,” she whispered.

Its mechanical tone
began to direct her position. As soon as she began to head in the right
direction she picked up speed and ran. She ran as fast as she could as heads turned
but she picked up speed anyway.

She was free but she
was yet to feel relief.

Michelle had ran and
walked for hours. She was closer to the docking zone but still very far away.
She worried that they would be after her soon. She wanted to stop, she wanted
to rest but she was too frightened.

If they found her they
would surely know.

She looked to a heavily
wooded area that she was approaching. The plants and trees were exactly like
those of Earth, it was New Earth II after all. It had been designed to be
exactly like Earth.

She quickly made her
way towards the dense bush. It would be safe; she could hide if they tried to
track her since the Earth Army satellites were down. She would wait for him. She
knew it had only been a few hours since she had spoken to Serik but it felt
like a lifetime. She sat down and rested. She didn’t want to hurt her unborn
child. Her boy, she realized.
Their boy.

Michelle apprehensively
looked around. She could hear rustling.

Shit, I should have got some sort of weapon. I’m
sitting here in the middle of the forest.

She quickly grabbed a
large tree branch. She knew it wasn’t much but it was something.

“Michelle?” she heard a
familiar voice call out.

“Oh God, Serik is that
you,” she cried as he appeared from the vegetation. Relief swept over her body
like never before.

“Yeah, baby it’s me,”
he said running to her and gathering her in his arms.

“I love you, I was so
afraid I was going to lose you,” Michelle cried as she buried her face into his
chest and inhaled his soothing scent.

“Michelle, I would go
to the end of the universe to find you,” he said as he relished having her back
in his arms.

“I was so afraid,” she
said as she looked into his face, into his eyes, feeling comforted and secure.

“It’s OK. I’m here
now,” he soothed her.

“Serik, I’m pregnant,”
she blurted out.

He grinned. He hunched
down to place a gentle kiss on her lips.

“Damn, that makes me
happy. Hurry let’s go, let’s get on the ship and get you out of this fucked up
place,” he said quickly.

“Well, well, well,” a
voice boomed.

Michelle and Serik
turned around to see Officer Mansfield.

“Leave us alone, Mansfield,”
Michelle stated calmly.

“I can’t believe
it’s
true, Michelle. I can’t believe you willingly gave
yourself to a Baat. Hmm, and you’re carrying his baby. We’ll have to clean your
womb of that filth and fill you up with a nice human baby from my seed. Oh, how
I’ll enjoy taking you over and over,” he mused with a sinister grin.

Serik let out a primal
growl that caused the hairs on the back of Michelle’s neck to stand up.

 
“You’re dead,” Serik growled.
 

Michelle squeezed Serik’s
hand. “Just go, Mansfield. Leave us alone. You know you can’t win a fight
against Serik. ”

“I can if I have this.”
He pulled a gun from his coat and pointed it at Serik.

Michelle swallowed and quickly
slipped in front of Serik.

Serik cringed. There
was no way he could have his mate in harm’s way. He would rather die than have
her be in danger.

“Just put it down,”
Michelle said with her hands up the air. Michelle knew he wouldn’t shoot her.
She was too valuable to shoot even if she was just a toy.

But as soon as the
words escaped her mouth Serik with his impossibly fast Baat speed had already
knocked it to the ground.

Michelle grabbed his
gun from the ground. It all happened in a blink of an eye; she didn’t hesitate
as she pulled the trigger.

She stood back in shock
and the gun slipped out of her hands. She had never killed anyone before. It
was something she had prepared herself for, for such a long time. She was a
solider and it was her duty to kill, but she had killed one of her own.
Michelle watched as blood began to pour everywhere.

Serik instinctively
picked up the gun from the ground. He knew they couldn’t have such evidence
left behind.
 

“We’ve got to go,
baby,” he called as he gripped her arm.

She nodded as she gave Mansfield’s
body one last look. She had killed. She had taken a life away. She figured it
was his life for her son’s life and that was a fair trade.

Michelle felt Serik’s
strong arms around her.

“What are you doing?”
she cried as he lifted her up.

“I can’t have you run
when you’re with child,” he said gently.

Michelle tried to
control her terror as they quickly darted between trees. It was a huge forest. The
trees had been genetically modified and grew at a much faster rate than they
did on Earth. She didn’t want to think about the other side effects that the
trees might have had.

“We can’t take the main
path too dangerous,” he said as he sensed her unease.
 

Serik was surprisingly fast despite carrying her. The
minutes sped by as Serik lead them back to the shuttle.

Michelle took a sigh of relief when they finally got
inside.

“Get us out of here now,” Michelle begged.

Serik nodded as he configured the controls.

Michelle strapped in. The familiar hurling feeling
set them in motion. Michelle put a hand over her stomach protectively.

Serik gave his mate a concerned look. She gave him a
weak smile telling him she was fine.

“I never want to be away from you again,” he said
pulling her small body to his as they finally reached an altitude where they
could
unstrap
.

“Oh God, Serik.
I thought I would never see you again,” she said squeezing him tightly.

“I would have found a way back to you. I would have
done anything to find you,” he replied.

“You did,” Michelle smiled weakly.

“And you’re feeling OK?” Serik said with a look of
concern on his face.

Michelle nodded.

“There’s one more thing…” he began.

“What?” Michelle asked.

“We have to remove your Earth Army chip or they will
come after us,” he replied.
 

She ran her hand over her wrist. It was a dangerous
spot to have something removed which of course was why the Earth Army thought
it would be a good idea to implant one near major veins. Michelle followed Serik
to the medic station. After everything she had been through in one day, she
would have to endure another procedure.

Serik rubbed an antiseptic numbing cream over her
wrist. Michelle stared down at the thick black characters,
A3343Z
. She had been numbers and letters for far too long. She was
a person now. She no longer belonged to the Earth Army. Hell, she no longer
belonged to Earth.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he said sympathetically as he
began an incision into her flesh.

It was the second time she saw a pool of blood that
day. Michelle didn’t know if she was tired from the long crazy day or just give
out in general, but she didn’t feel a thing as he cut the chip out.

“What are we going to do with it?” she asked.

“I’m going to throw it out the garbage shoot and it
will disintegrate into space,” he replied.

He gently dressed and bandaged her bleeding wrist
and then went to dispose of the chip. Michelle sat in silence. The chip had
taken away her soldier’s status.
No,
she railed herself.
No, I’m still a
soldier, just not an Earth Army soldier.
Once a soldier,
always a soldier.

“That wasn’t my sister,” she said softly as his blue
and golden gaze met hers as he came back into the room.

“What do you mean?” he asked. He took her hands into
his.

“Remember how the Earth Army gave her memory fog? I
think they gave her something. They had to brainwash her. She wasn’t right, she
wasn’t normal,” Michelle sighed.

“It’s over now,” he offered gently.

She wondered if that was true or not. She nodded as
a wave of exhaustion overwhelmed her. Michelle followed Serik out of the medic
area and onto the couch.
 

He sat next to her and took her into his arms.

“Michelle, I missed you,” Serik said. “I missed you
more than words can express.”

“I missed you too,” Michelle replied as she relaxed
against him. It was hard to believe she had escaped once again.

“I don’t ever want to be without you again,” he said
in a serious tone.

She gave him a small smile. “I don’t think you’ll
have to.”

“I almost forget,” he fumbled around in his pocket
as he pulled out a small box.
 
“I was
going to give this to you during our ceremony.”

He took her hand and gently kissed it. He was
delicate with her bandaged wrist as he slid the ring onto her left ring finger.

“Our love can be a circle now,” he said gently.

“Serik,” Michelle began as she admired the ring,
“It’s beautiful.”

A look of disappointment swept over her face.

“What’s wrong? I thought you’d like it. If you don’t
we can get a different one,” Serik said with a frown.

“No, Serik. It’s not that. I just… I’m sorry,” she
replied.

“For what?” he questioned.

“Well, everything, really.
Our ceremony got ruined. I don’t know… just everything we had to go through to
get to this point,” she said with a look of utter exhaustion in her eyes.
 

He shook his head. “I would go through it all again if
it meant I got to be with you.”