AZU-1: Lifehack (15 page)

~~~~~

Chapter 20: No Means Ow

~~~~~

It was a relief to be rid of Regan for
a bit. Being with her felt like being pawed by a lazy panther. The
advances, the innuendos, the occasional uninvited touch.

Alisia was enveloped enough in her
thoughts that she almost walked right into Corporal Parker, who
also seemed to have his head in the clouds.

“
Oh!” Parker jolted back to
reality, “I, Sir! Sorry, I...”

“
At ease, Parker. My
fault.”

“
Uh, sure.” Parker seemed to
be slipping back into his own mind.

“
What’s up, soldier?” Alisia
asked, carefully weighing her speaking tone between compassion and
the detachment befitting rank.

“
Sir, uh, Captain... I’m
just kinda shook up about Kensington.”

In all the fuss with Regan, Alisia had
nearly forgotten about Tracy’s death. She suddenly felt guilty
about letting it slip so far from her mind. “Yeah. It was
senseless. I shouldn’t have left her.”

“
Oh, no, no, Captain. I
didn’t mean to say y-“

“
Of course not.” Alisia
paused. “I was just saying. I shouldn’t have.”

Parker sighed. “You made your call, it
just didn’t work. I just... this is going to sound stupid,
Cap..”

“
Stupid’s OK, Parker.
Speak.”

“
I talked to her a bit
before the mission, and I... kinda liked her. I mean, I hardly knew
her, but she.....”

His tone spoke volumes. Love at first
sight? Alisia was cynical of the concept, but this silly Corporal
was obviously affected in some way or the other. She really didn’t
know what to say about it. They stood there, looking at the floor
for what seemed a long time. Finally, Alisia began to walk off with
a soothing pat to Parker’s shoulder as she left. Parker kept
looking at the floor and leaned against the wall for a moment
before continuing on.

As Alisia went about her business she
suddenly realized she was hungry. She headed over to the mess hall.
It was empty, except for a Private with KP duty tending to some
little task behind the counter.

“
Hey, soldier? Got any
leftovers?”

The Private perked up and looked at
Alisia. “Uh, Sir, yes. Want some?”

“
I dunno, what is
it?”

“
......Meat.. something.
You’d have to ask chef, he’s not around.”

“
Sounds yummy. Yeah, hook me
up.”

“
Right away.” The Private
disappeared into the back. Alisia wandered over to the juice
machine and filled up two of those tiny glasses with OJ. She was
looking down the counter for a tray, when she felt a
presence.

Arms came around her and the heat and
pressure of a body pressed against her back. So much for the
vacation from Regan. One of Regan’s hands slipped a pinky down
Alisia’s pants. The other hand snuck up under her shirt,
threatening an even less welcome touch. A little purr escaped
Regan.

“
Hello Regan.” Alisia
grumbled.

“
How did you know?” Regan’s
voice came back soft and light, ignoring Alisia’s tone.

“
Lucky guess. Could you let
go please?”

A soft giggle came from Regan. “Hey
baby, once you’ve had chick, you’ll never want d-“

“
Please stop talking now.”
Alisia almost yelled.

“
Mmmm, what’s
wrong?”

“
I don’t like girls, I like
guys.”

Regan responded with a little mock
disgust, but still in her soft seductive tone.”Bah. What kind of
lesbian are you?”

“
I’m not a lesbian!” Yeah,
now she was yelling.

Regan giggled softly again, “Not with
that attitude you’re not!”

Alisia’s anger grew exponentially. Just
then the Private came back with a steaming plate of ‘meat’ dinner.
He nearly dropped it at the sight of Regan doing her damnedest to
wrap herself around Alisia.

“
Oh my god! Sir. I, sorry.
Uh-“ and with that he handed Alisia the plate and rushed back into
the depths of the kitchen, face blushing.

Alisia snapped. Her elbow flew back
into Regan’s ribs. She turned around, nearly in the same motion,
and threw Regan to the ground in a textbook maneuver. The maneuver
did however send dinner flying, mostly all over Alisia.

Regan landed on her butt and looked
blankly forward in shock. Alisia stood frozen, rigid with anger but
also surprised at the magnitude of her own actions. It was a little
rough, maybe.

Regan swung around while fumbling to
stand, and began to run. Even if she was in the right, Alisia
suddenly felt awful. “Regan!” she called, but Regan didn’t
stop.

Regan ran all the way back to the
quarters that the Major had assigned her, pushing over a couple
soldiers along the way just to blow off steam. She blasted into the
room and slammed the door as hard as she could. Her body suddenly
felt limp, and she collapsed to the floor sobbing.

“
That stupid bitch!” thought
Regan, “Stupid straight bitch!” She chose to blame straightness,
ignoring her own inappropriately strong approach.

Though the tears had started before she
made it out of the mess hall, she only noticed them now. They fell
in front of her with wet slaps against the polished cement. She
wanted to sit there and cry forever, but she was eventually forced
to accept that her knees were sore. She dragged herself up onto the
bed, knocking over a couple beer bottles that she’d emptied shortly
after her talk with the Major. The male soldiers were ever so
co-operative in helping her find a few necessities. She quickly
emptied another. With some of her own possessions here, it almost
felt like her home in Autar. The tiles were cement instead, her
plant wasn’t here, and she didn’t need to barricade the door. The
urge was there though.

She curled up on the bed, and obsessed
over Alisia.

Regan sat up and looked in the nearby
mirror. “Shit, look at me, I’m fucking hot!” she thought with self
admiration and an alcohol head rush. “I mean, really. I don’t care
how straight she thinks she is, look at this. I mean, damn! I’d do
me!” She flopped back and tried to think of evil plots to seduce
the lovely Alisia. The gears in her head ground away. When she
managed to grind away all her lusty tension, the alcohol commanded
her to sleep, where she dreamed.

~~~~~

Chapter 21: Unattainable

~~~~~

Alisia was in the middle of cleaning
her P90, but her mind was elsewhere. “That crazy bitch.” She
thought. But the moment after thinking it, she felt a little
guilty. After all, Alisia was perhaps the first live human Regan
had seen in a long time.

Who knows? Maybe she had some kind of
psychological reaction and bonded to her or something. She might
need some serious help. Living in a dead city, alone? She had to be
nuts to begin with not to evacuate. Alisia wrestled with irritation
and pity, then realized that the parts to her P90 were about as
clean as they’d ever get.

She put it back together and cursed
Regan under her breath again. Her dinner still felt sticky on her,
even though she’d changed her shirt already. She headed for the
main showers.

Regan lurked the halls, mind filled
with... a mess. That’s all there was to it. Being among living
people again was difficult. Thankfully there was only the
occasional soldier passing by. She couldn’t stop herself from
suspiciously eyeing strangers in the hall to make sure they were
really among the living.

Just when she was about to head back to
her room she spotted Alisia far down the hall, carrying a
towel.

Regan grinned like a fiend. Towels
usually implied all kinds of fun things. Regan discreetly followed
Alisia and was thrilled to see her walk into a door labeled
‘WOMEN’. Looking around for witnesses, Regan realized that no one
would think it strange to see her going in too. Playing it casual,
but with nerves rattling with anticipation, she walked over to the
door and opened it.

This side of the main women’s washroom
was all stalls and sinks. Further down was a doorway to a changing
room. Regan silently crept near it and heard the sounds of Alisia
getting ready for the shower. Then she heard bare footsteps softly
walking away. Regan peeked in and saw no one. Alisia had left
through the far doorway, into the showers.

Regan continued forward, stopping for a
moment to admire the neatly folded pile of clothes that Alisia had
left behind. She defeated the childish urge to search for her
unmentionables and headed on in search of the grand
prize.

The sound of water began and a chill
ran up Regan’s spine. A mildly insane grin was plastered on her
face. A few more steps forward... The main shower room was divided
by occasional frosted glass walls. One such frosted panel stood
fifteen meters or so across the shower room, and obscured the finer
details of Alisia as she showered.

Regan’s first instinct was to run over
there and open up with the crudest innuendo she could muster,
delivered in the sweetest possible voice.

But for some reason, she couldn’t force
herself any closer than the doorway. She was stunned by the beauty
of the target of her desire.

Regan leaned against the wall, staring
as her breathing deepened. Regan felt suddenly so helpless. Her
usual overconfident thoughts were swept away by the idea of being
curled up with Alisia and drifting into sleep. Regan slid down the
glass and sat for a while, fighting tears.

When Alisia was done her shower Regan
was already gone, unnoticed. Alisia dried off and got dressed. She
couldn’t find her dog tags though.

~~~~~

Chapter 22: ReEntry

~~~~~

Alisia walked into Regan’s quarters
since she wasn’t answering the door. Regan was curled up tight on
the bed asleep, still in her usual clothes, clutching the blanket
like her life depended on it. Also clutched in her hand were
Alisia’s dog tags.

Alisia stepped closer, being careful to
avoid the growing sprawl of beer bottles. She knelt down intending
to take her dog tags back, but on getting that close she saw the
expression on Regan’s face. It spoke of anguish. She looked at the
tags again. It would be hard to take them anyway, the chain was
around Regan’s neck. Alisia suddenly felt like she had intruded on
something private.

She backed out of the room and slammed
the door shut, following with a few loud knocks. She heard a
startled mumble inside. That did it. Alisia knocked again at a more
reasonable volume, and in a few moments Regan appeared. The dog
tags were no longer around her neck. They looked at each other for
a few moments in silence before Alisia remembered why she
came.

“
Oh, the Major says he got a
lock on your brother’s tracker. It moves around a bit, so he’s uh..
still walking.”

Regan, still groggy, was a little
surprised at the news. “Mm, alright then. Stick a VTag on it and
when this headache clears up, I’ll go in.”

“
It’s already
active.”

Regan looked Alisia up and down. “Uh..
well, thanks.” She went back in and closed the door on Alisia.
Alisia stood in front of the door for a moment as if there was
something else to be said. Nothing came to her, so she
left.

A handful of hours later, Regan walked
into the bay of the south gate. She tapped her comm on. “Major? I’m
ready to go. Open up.”

“
Alright, Ms. Grier, good
hunting.” the Major’s voice replied.

A sound came from behind her. Alisia
hopped off the irradiator, where she’d been sitting and waiting.
She walked up beside Regan, facing the gates as they
opened.

“
Come to see me off?” Regan
asked.

Alisia scrunched the corner of her
mouth, adjusted her belt, and huffed. “Nah.” She paused to adjust
her eyes to the sun. “I’m coming along.”

“
You don’t have to, you
know.”

“
Well, the way I see it, I
hauled you out of there, so you’re my responsibility.” The truth
was that this was a military operation, and Regan was a
guest.

Regan stared at her for a moment,
trying to squeeze out every drop of meaning out of her words, but
Alisia just stared forward at the city. When the gates finished
opening, Alisia leisurely stepped forward. Regan kept pace and
followed.

The last time Regan looked at the
outside of the city like this, it was new. Brimming with people and
hope. Now for the first time, she saw it like other people did. A
shrine of ruin, a phantom of disaster. It was a unique flavour of
dread that never found her while she was inside.

“
Corporal Parker, watching
your six again today, Captain.” came through the comm.

“
How ya doin today, Parker?”
Alisia responded.

“
It’s okay, Cap.”

~~~

In relative quiet, the two walked into
the city. The sun was intense today, and cast bold, stark shadows.
As they passed between buildings, the shadows seemed to swallow
them up, especially as they neared the shade cast by the south
bridge. Compared to the blinding brightness they had left, the
shadows felt like midnight. The tracker’s VTag was floating
ahead.