Jed’s body burned while his mind wandered on autopilot to more memories he never sorted between good and bad. Perhaps the mixture of both is what called him to recall times gone past. He had been a soldier, but never a knight. It had always been his goal as a kid to wear the suit of shining armor, but here he had ended up an outlaw.
In his dreams he returned to youth. He was not even a pawn yet fresh out of the first phase of training with his bonus burning a hot wad in his pocket. The naive recruit set out to spend it on anything but lottery, or drink. Instead he went inside a little shop next to a tattoo parlor and billiards off base.
Outside “Predatory Pawn!” establishment wafted the commingling scents of strip joints and pizza parlors. Jed has many purchased objects in a paper bag. Who knows if there would be candy where he was going so he had bought a surplus. A laser stone lighter was a special mixture making a fire starting laser, purchased from a very expensive canteen and engraved with a four leaf. It lit under his helmet a light engraving of a rose to manifest love and finally a lunchbox that was plain blue hue he also marked up with the laser beam. He was somehow 16 again, and getting tattoos with his squad-mates. The items fell as the needle inked his skin.
The forest burned into the night behind the pair struggling to keep going. Bessie limped behind, struggling to get through the thick snow to sit on a log. Jed had taken a break from carrying her weight to drink from his canteen. A crude metal leaking cold water that tasted metallic sweet. His teeth chattered while escaping drops froze midair before his white beard. He chugged the winds whistled through the wasteland hardly illuminated by his flickering lantern.
“Dang,” he said, reemerging into the present, the cold eating away at his soul.
He raised a glove melded to his sleeve to shake the snow off the dropped weapon.
“You know you can leave me behind anytime, I can take care of myself,” Bessie said, adjusting her identical model lever action rifle.
She had finally caught up to where he had stopped and braced against a fur tree for support.
“We’ve talked about this. I don’t leave friends behind,” said Jed, unsuccessfully trying to cover his ears with a snow crusted cowboy hat. “Finding good people is a rare thing indeed and with my steed gone I can’t leave you to die out here in good conscience."
She shivered involuntarily a split second before covering it up with a brave face. She had seen the real him, but didn’t seem to mind steadying the rifle on the other hand that threatened to throw off her balance. Then she leaned on him for support long enough to transfer the warmth of her earmuff to his ears that had turned blue.
“Thank you."
“Can you carry yourself a little longer before needing to lean on me again to continue?” he shouted.
She let go of her support structure and grimaced.
“Yes, let's go”.
The pair continued on into the frozen forest with wind pushing against their backs the smell of wet wood smoldering dissipated. There were no howls of the wolves that had previously harassed them. Nothing but the branches they broke. The light had drastically increased with a full moon taking up half the sky. The danger facing them ahead is nothing but the cold hard elements. Jed charged forward through the drifts first clearing a path. His legs broke the ground ahead while she followed. There was a lack of moonlight tonight with a windchill enough to kill. The stars twinkled in the dark night. It was like the moons had been removed from their usual position. Everything in the dark tundra looked similar. The only thing keeping their progress the deep tracks left behind in the snow.
"On the bright side at least the moon will guide us tonight," said Bessie.
"Yeah we will make it," said Jed.
Her clothes were covered in a messy mix of sweat and half melted mix of snow that clung like glue to her attire. Jed was in similar condition and struggling due to his injuries adding up from an extended campaign of battles making him a veteran, but his leg hadn’t been bloodied like hers. To himself he thought it a good thing to have an extended recovery from the alien presence of his former Mule. He didn’t know if he could trust the creature, but before it was to rely on him or die. Now Jed intended to make Bessie his partner if the opportunity arose and perhaps more. For that reason he was acting like a good man while he might not be. He shook snowflakes from his cowboy hat. It was actions not intrusive thoughts that actually mattered in reality to everyone else but himself. The deadline to deliver her home and then get the jungle juice to the finish line was long past. That had to be an unfortunate fact. He slapped his beard clean of caking, and himself back to reality.
“You don’t happen to know these hills?” Inquired Jed, pointing down the slopes lined with brush, and beaver clippings.
“Shhh” she said, mouthing beside him a sign for silence. “I smell smoke” was whispered into Jed’s ear as the scent entered faintly.
He turned and whispered back. “Sure it’s not just the forest fire from your chuck wagon explosion?"
She tapped his shoulder and pointed him underneath a brightly shooting star.
"That star just shot out of that moon," said Jed.
"What?" Bessie asked, looking deeply concerned. "Hey don’t become hysterical , I see it alright man, but that’s a long way away and won’t save us from freezing to death,” she nudged him in a different direction.
"BOOM!"
Bessie pointed with a shaking hand while Jed couldn't even find the words to respond. Suddenly the sky had turned red as the moon went supernova as flaming hot fireballs shot across the horizon. A massive explosion orbiting them rumbled them with objects sent out in fiery streaks resembling shooting stars.
"Look, Look, am I going mad, I can’t believe my eyes,” he yelled.
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"Nope I see it and an incoming shower of debris RUN!"
Far underneath this destruction taking place the two figures ran through thorny snake-berry bushes covering the snowy field. Their icy breaths trailed behind them disappearing in the deep tracks left behind. The wind howled through the sparse trees bending and threatening to snap them like twigs with force of nature. The horizon was on fire as the first chunks of moon burned up on entrance, but heartier chunks were incoming.
"Yo look, here's a log cabin way down there at the bottom of the hillside we should head towards," said Bessie, grabbing his hand.
Jed loudly breathed in and out, catching his breath and releasing his anxieties. Where she pointed he spotted a tiny yellow rectangle of light from a log cabin.
“You suppose the residents will be friendly folks willing to lodge or enemy’s ready to slit our throats for our meager gear?” he asked.
“How would I know but I need to take my chances here in order to survive,” she said, taking the lead forward.
“I would expect this area to be your area of expertise,” he called back.
“Truth be I don’t know where we are, but you can sleep outdoors if you wish, it's time to improvise," she said, charging for the sticks.
Jed followed like a lost puppy dog. As they worked down the slopes the natural elements attacked them. The wind chill was sadistic and working through the several feet deep snow drifts littered the area was a nightmare. A vision of one pushing black smoke into the field below puffed into a smoke signal quickly dispersed just as it registered. Jed felt Mules presence enter his consciousness again and shivered, chilled to the bone. The feeling went away as the shooting star fell away into the mountain range bordering their location.
“There goes another one,” hollered Bessie, aiming her rifle at the horizon. “I wish I had my family's deer slayer with a wide scope attached to get a better picture."
“That’s well and good. Adrenaline got you going good so we need to get moving again before."
“We need to get smart here on getting into the cover of that cabin,” she interrupted.
“We’ll scout it out together, let's go,” said Jed, charging forward in the lead.
Later they sat resting on their stomachs directly overlooking a small house. There appeared to be one floor, two windows and a steep roof. Out front the guards sat looking dumbstruck at the horizon.
“I think the apocalypse is upon us,” yelled a grunt in winter camouflage.
“The what?” Asked the heavy troop holding a giant minigun.
“Not another one of those guys,” whispered Jed.
“We can outmaneuver him.. we have to,” replies Bessie, with a thumbs up.
“The end times are here, look!,” screamed the winter camouflaged grunt at the top of his lungs.
“Well yeah I can see that clear as day.. Man I hate being stranded at this outpost till summertime with you fools,” replied the heavily armed and armored individual.
The moon had cracked in half, and the bottom end had fallen out of view. The top portion was coming apart at the seams as flares shot outwards. Bright spears of light shone right through holes from behind. The cracking noises intensified while holes formed in old asteroid holes. The crusty crescent moon resembled a rotten banana husk dying in the sun.
“We gotta find out how many are inside that house and plan from there,” Bessie whispered, starting forward.
She quivered as a cold hand grabbed her from behind. Jed’s stern face met hers and his stare in the moonlight was intense enough to scare her still. He pointed towards a separate woodshed where a flag was flying limply on the roof. It said “K for Killin Hood”.
“Bad guys,”.. He angled her head back towards the main house where smoke was coming from a chimney. “Those windows are boarded while light might escape out the corners we have to guess how many are indoors,”
A soldier spun around looking confused and peered into the shadows. The pair stuck their heads in the snow and gulped.
“Did I hear something?” the guard yelled.
The angry burning up sky responded with what sounded like a guttural burp deep enough to split atoms apart. The soldiers fell over like greenhorns working a boat in their first offshore storm. Shingles flew from the buildings while a pile of logs rolled out a door ripped open. There were big chunks of space junk raining towards the area.
“Help me up boys quick we gotta get to the cellar” Screeched the heavily armored soldier flailing his arms and legs.
He was stuck on his back at an awkward position having fallen on his gun. Reinforcements ran from the dwelling to join the circle around the perimeter. Three troops gathered around their fallen comrade and began to pull. Four of them groaned until they were all pulled back to the ground like an anchor collapsing in a heap together.
“This armor is ridiculous.”
“They don’t call it heavy armor for nothing.. Get a winch or something Boris.”
“Yes Sir.:
“Now our chance to strike before the storm hits there's no time for anything smarter,” said Bessie, aiming her gun and flicking the safety to the side with the red dot.
“Hold yours horses just a few more seconds,” muttered Jed, holding her back again. “Where’s that cellar entrance that’s where we need to be,”.
“Must be inside that house,” she replied.
“I’ll distract them, and you get indoors, kill anything in your way, and then get into the safety of the basement and wait for me,” he finished.
“Fine, I'll wait for your first move..hurry,” she said.
“Yup,” mumbled Jed, sprinting for the woodshed.
All six soldiers who were outside now surrounded their fallen compatriot. The heavily armored individual was almost pulled to his feet as Jed climbed. His arms grabbed into open slits in the woodshed while his feet used the flat wall. A snowball smacked right in the face of one pulling soldier. He fell on his ass knocking down the entire pack back into collapse. Jed crouched behind the cover of the roof and set his loaded gun on the apex. He flicked the safety off and aimed right between the eyes.
“Bang!”
The heavily armored trooper withered screaming in pain. Blood spurted out the hole in his helmet like a geyser of hot water melting through the ice. The rest of the regular soldiers turned and aimed their weapons.
“Bang, Bang, bang!”
The enemies started shooting while Jed kept shooting and another grunt crumpled to the ground. Return fire whizzed above his head as he returned to cover. He breathed a sigh of relief to still be alive until hot steel penetrated the shingles next to him like nothing.
Jed jumped from the roof while bullets shredded his former location. The remaining soldiers kept blasting as Bessie ran behind them creeping into the cabin in stealth mode. The place appeared empty as her heart beat rapidly. There was a fire burning in an open stone place, a spartan kitchen table with a cabinet full of canned items,an icebox, and some beds and couches well slept in. The floor was littered with fresh fallen objects and broken glasses. Towards the far end a dark rectangle greeted her behind a half open door slowly creaking open on its hinges, underneath a stuffed boar's head must have been the basement entrance.
She turned and saw the troops walking slowly towards the shed. The sky right above was full of flaming objects getting closer and closer. Where was Jed? She turned to shoot him an exit.
“Boom!”
Something smashed into the roof above sending her falling to the ground. Things fell from the kitchen while her broken leg exploded into pain immobilizing her.