The Preacher Man

At the beginning of what I thought was the pre-dawn twilight, I looked at my watch. It was 6:42 AM, thirty-two minutes before sunrise. Abby and I had been keeping an excellent pace, pausing only for brief five-minute rest stops. I looked up ahead at our trail and thought it was the perfect time for a real break.

"Abby, let's rest here, have some breakfast. We'll start up again in an hour."

"Sounds good to me!" She unslung her pack and set it by her feet. "Why such a nice break?"

"Oh, a couple of reasons. Take a look up ahead."

Abby stared for a moment and nodded, telling me she understood my point.

Our open area by the lakeshore was disappearing. A short ridgeline had been approaching the lake edge from our left as we walked, slowly squeezing the width of our safe meadow. The deep forest was currently only forty meters away, and up ahead we could both see that the forest would soon be coming right to the water's edge. I unslung my pack and brushed the snow off a boulder by the water's edge. Abby picked another boulder and did the same. The lake was still unfrozen, and in the moonlight very beautiful.

But it was no time to be lulled into complacency by the idyllic landscape. The next hour would be the most dangerous part of the day, and it was an obvious choice to spend it in an open area.

Abby smiled at me. "So much darkness! The sun won't rise for another half hour!" she exclaimed as she sat on her boulder and wiggled her feet. She pointed to the eastern horizon. It had a faint suggestion of pink. Abby shook her head. "It seems so strange!"

"Well," I smiled. "Qataban was what, sixteen degrees southern latitude? We're probably right at forty-five degrees north. Yeah, I can guess this is quite a change. You'll find Jizari and Bandar Arenas are even more extreme, if we ever wind up living there."

I turned on a pair of small binoculars and took a quick sweep of the area, making sure nothing was sneaking up on us in the darkness. We were fine.

Abigail gestured at my binoculars as I switched them off. "Infra-red?"

"Yeah. A bit more tricky than you might think. The bears' coats are superb insulators. They don't leave much of a heat signature. Abby, how are you holding up?"

"Me? I feel absolutely fine. This break does feel nice though. How far do you think we've come?"

"A good thirteen kilometers. We're making great time. We just do this for six more days and we're home, and the sun hasn't even risen yet. The key is not to push it. We're carrying some serious weight with these backpacks. You feel a shoulder muscle cramping, or any pain from your back or foot, any pain at all, tell me immediately."

"Okay, I will, I promise. Ilias?"

"Yeah?"

"Your sensor array, how long will the batteries last?"

"We should be fine for the whole trip. The core battery is the best I've ever seen, over 6000 Watt-hours of real delivery, even with this cold weather, and it weighs less than seven kilos. We'll be able to run the sensors eight hours a day for ten days. This is MUCH better gear than I ever had at Anqara."

I broke out some food supplies from the backpack Abigail had been carrying and passed out breakfast. We ate in silence for a while, admiring the lake and waiting for the sun to rise. We also made frequent visual scans of the area while we ate.

I was so happy to be out here with Abigail. She was my perfect wife. "Ah Abby, it's so beautiful here. Life is good!"

Abigail smiled at me but then shook her head. "I still can't believe the Priests would send boys out here like this! How old were you?"

"Survival training started right after our second gate."

"What?! Oh that's right! You mentioned that last night!" She smiled and wiggled her hips erotically. "I guess I had something else on my mind!" But then she looked incredulous. "Your thirteenth year?!"

"Yeah. Actually, we all looked forward to it. It was our one chance to be on our own, away from observation. We traveled in six-boy teams. There is huge safety in numbers. It was also our time to build friendships, and to learn to depend on each other." I shrugged after a moment. "It never really seemed that dangerous. We were all armed, not like this, but what we had was adequate."

"What could six boys have the fight off a pack of bears?"

"Automatic rifles. I could have chosen one for this trip, instead of the pair of Devil-dogs."

"Oh... What made you pick the pistols?"

I laughed. "The choice was obvious! The only reason for a rifle would be for offense, taking out a bear at 200 meters or more. For this trip, all we need is a defensive perimeter. We're not out here to go to war with the bears."

I pulled out a spare pistol clip from my backpack. Our leg holsters also carried one spare clip. "Compared to a rifle, these darts give us four times the short-range firepower for their weight. I have no desire to port heavy rifle ammo around."

Abigail nodded thoughtfully. "But you chose the rifles as boys?"

"Well, yeah. As boys, all we had to do was defend a campsite a few kilometers from Anqara. The bears in the area learned it was a really bad move to attack us. We had a nice, unwritten treaty going, peaceful co-existence. We didn't actively hunt them, and the bears left us in peace. Not to say they wouldn't seize an opportunity if we did something stupid."

Abigail seemed to get my point. "Ah... And as adults, you now team up with your wives?"

"Well..." I felt a bit embarrassed. "Actually... No, not exactly. Below command rank, militia laborers go as two-man teams and managers go solo. It's only military commanders that are required to bring a wife along, as an extra burden."

Abigail was silent for a moment and then gulped. "Ilias, do you think of me as a burden here?"

"Oh no, not at all! You're a tremendous asset. With you, this test is ridiculously easy. But think! This is no place for a woman, for anyone who has no memory! The key to survival here is our ability to learn!"

Abigail grimaced with the realization and nodded. "They expect me to be your pack animal, don't they? I'm an expendable pack animal."

"Yeah, pretty much. Alone, I'd have a Devil-dog strapped to each leg. I'll get extra credit if I bring you back alive with me, but all I'm required to do is get back myself. I've heard horror stories of..." I was silent for a moment.

Abigail caught my thought and whispered. "... of men using the survival test to cull a least favorite wife?"

I nodded glumly. "Yeah... It's sheer cruelty. Any wife you don't want you can just divorce. One day later they can be someone else's virgin bride."

"Ilias, do you really believe that? Do you know what the work gangs are like, for the women who have no husband? I've seen the mining trains bring the women back. They were in chains! They are worked brutally hard, and even with the anti-aging drugs, the physical abuse takes a toll on the body. Very few of the women are ever selected as marriage partners again." She paused. "Was it any different at Anqara?"

I sighed deeply. "I doubt it." A moment passed and I whispered, "Abigail, I am so deeply ashamed."

"Huh? About what?"

"About my gender, what it's doing..."

Abigail got off her boulder and sat down next to me. She leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Sweet Ilias, none of this is"

She never got a chance to finish her comment. The sound of a short burst of heavy rifle fire erupted from the ridgeline near us, followed by human screams. After a brief second to decide to leave our packs, Abby and I raced to investigate, unholstering our pistols as we sprinted up the ridge.

Chapter 12. War with the Bears

Time: November 26, 8235 7:10 AM

My wife and I crested the ridge a few minutes before sunrise, and saw a scene of utter mayhem before us. We both paused for a moment trying to understand the carnage.

We were on the western ridge of a small ravine about 120 meters wide, running north-south roughly parallel with the lakeshore. At the bottom of the ravine were the remains of what used to be a campsite very similar to our own. It had been successfully attacked by a large pack of bears.

From my past experience, I knew bear packs were very consistent in their make-up. There would be one alpha-male, the largest bear in the pack, plus two to four females, plus an occasional second male who was very much subservient to the alpha-male.

A six-pack was the largest size I'd ever heard of. There's no advantage for them to hunt in larger numbers, and they eat so much it would put a strain on their territory. Finally, it was my personal hunch they had such ornery personalities that a pack would tear itself apart if it had more than six bears in it.

There was no question here who was the alpha-male. He was a monster, bigger than I thought a bear could ever get. He was rearing up and roaring on his hind legs, and he wasn't one centimeter less that five meters as he stood. His size and power were breathtaking, even from sixty meters away, and in my mind I tagged him as bear #1.

The alpha-male and what I guessed were three females (bears #2, #3, and #4), were in a tight square pattern, surrounding a woman lying on her back on the ground in the center of the square. She was dressed in a full burqa, looking up and screaming in terror at the alpha-male who was roaring at her. A burqa! I shook my head in disgust at the infinite stupidity.

About thirty-five meters south of the alpha-male were two other bears (#5 and #6), which I guessed were the beta-male and another female. They each had a firm bite across the thigh of a human corpse and had torn the bloody torso almost in two with their tug-of-war for a meal.

My eyes flashed back to the alpha-male. I was transfixed by his behavior. Instead of pouncing and dispatching his prey, he had raised his forearms high above his head, splaying out his massive bear claws seven meters above the ground. He continued his mind-numbing roar, and I realized in shock he was intentionally looming and displaying himself above the woman, enjoying her terrified screams.

I turned to Abigail to tell her to switch to exploding darts, but she had already decided on her own course of action. She had sighted the alpha-male, and started firing slow-auto shots of the non-exploding darts.

Insanity! The great male bellowed with rage at the pain of three super-sonic needles per second burrowing into his massive chest. The roar vibrated the ground beneath us, and two large snowy masses directly in front of us started moving.

Shaitan! Two more bears, #7 and #8, right on top of us! The flat light of the pre-dawn had blended them perfectly into the snow. As they turned to charge us, I switched my pistol to full-auto and sprayed a dozen shots of exploding darts into the head of the bear directly in front of me.

The bear in front of Abigail reared up to pounce on her. She switched her pistol to full auto and sprayed her target a scant three meters in front of her, shredding the bear's stomach and intestines with thirty non-exploding darts.

Her pistol clicked on empty and as designed had loaded an exploding dart into the chamber but did not fire it. I was sure her target was mortally wounded, but unfortunately Abigail had not targeted any critical neural / motor control functions. I whipped my arm up and firing a spray of exploding darts high above the breastbone and into the neck, literally blowing the bear's head off.

The decapitated mass looked like it was about to fall on top of Abigail. I aimed for the corpse's chest and began spraying it with darts, hoping the explosions would push it over backwards.

I succeeded just as I ran out of exploding ammo. I took a quick look to assess the situation while yelling out, "Abigail! Switch to exploding!"

Surprisingly the alpha-bear was hightailing it away from us, climbing towards the opposite ridgeline. Bear #4 was moving in for the kill of the woman below, and bears #2 and #3 were charging us. Off to our right bears #5 and #6 were also charging us, but were farther away.

Abigail obeyed me and made a strategic decision. She decided to ignore the two closest bears and save the woman's life. She raked a dozen exploding darts along the middle of the bear's torso, and the bear #4 dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Bears #2 and #3 were charging us and about twenty meters away. Abby and I both opened up on full-auto, I with my remaining non-exploding darts and Abby with her remaining exploding darts. My target was weaving madly, but I finally managed to score a number of head shots before exhausting my clip.

The darts when super-sonic have tremendous penetrating power, even enough to fly through a bear's massively thick skull. My target dropped lifeless in front of me.

Abigail's bear #3 was also dead, but Abby couldn't bring herself to stop firing at it. She drained the last of her clip into its corpse. "Abby, reload!" I bellowed.

We had an incredible stroke of luck. Bears #7 and #8 were still charging us, but had stumbled onto some loose rocks beneath the snow and had started a mini avalanche. They stumbled backwards for a moment, giving us several precious seconds of extra time. Luckily I also had a fresh clip already in my hand, the one I had taken from our backpacks a few moments before. I quickly ejected my spent clip and snapped in the new one.

I sighted on bear #7 and began firing. After a second of spray my target was eliminated. I turned to look at Abby and saw she was having a problem loading the spare clip from her holster. She was using far more force than should have been necessary, and it looked as if she were about to damage the breech loader. "Abby!" I yelled, "Switch guns!"

I pulled Abby's gun from her hands and handed her mine. She started spraying the remaining attacking bear with exploding darts while I tried to insert her clip. I quickly realized she had tried to insert the clip backwards, the darts facing towards the back of the pistol, and had jammed the ammo magazine into the breech loader.

I turned to Abby. She was still firing at the corpse of bear #8, draining the pistol's supply of exploding darts. I grabbed the pistol from her hands and looked frantically at our one remaining adversary, the alpha-male. He was just about to crest the opposite ridgeline a 120 meters away. I sighted and began firing at full auto.

There was one exploding dart left in the pistol. One shot went off and then I felt a brief click as the pistol auto-switched to the non-exploding darts. I tried to target the center of the backside of the alpha-male, but through the optical sights I saw the darts were drifting left and chewing up the bear's left flank. At this distance, I knew the darts were dropping to sub-sonic before impact but were still deadly. The bear's haunch collapsed under the onslaught, and as I drained the pistol the last darts struck high on his flank and near his tailbone. And then the bear disappeared over the ridge.

There were no more active targets present, but my mind was still in full battle mode. Ignoring the continuing screams of the woman at the bottom of the ravine, I ejected my spent clip and loaded the spare from my holster. I chambered an exploding dart, flipped the safety level on, and handed the pistol to Abby.

She had a semi-dazed look in her eyes, but she accepted the pistol, gave me a hand signal to show she understood that the safety was on, and started to go down the ravine.

"Stop!" I commanded. I started examining Abby's gun while Abby waited stiffly by my side. I took my time and tried to work the clip out gently. After a minute I finally got it loose and examined the breech loader. It seemed undamaged. I loaded the clip properly, chambered a non-exploding dart and test-fired into a bear corpse. Then I repeated the test with an exploding dart. Satisfied the pistol was undamaged, I switched the safety on and looked at Abigail.

"Ilias, can we go down to her?" she asked with a tilt of her head. The woman below was still faintly screaming in terror, lying on her side staring at bear #4 a few meters away. She was in shock and probably didn't even realize the bear was dead.

I took one last look back at our backpacks resting peacefully alongside the boulders by the lake. I didn't want to let them get out of eyesight, and I certainly didn't want to split up from Abigail. I thought about taking the time for both us to hike back and retrieve them, but the screams were moving me too. Zaim would go ballistic if he ever knew of this decision, but I decided to go the compassionate route. "Okay, but just for a moment. We bring her straight back to our gear."

Abby nodded gratefully and we began hiking down the ravine.

Chapter 13. The Plead

A moment later we reached the woman at the bottom of the ravine. I kept a nervous eye on our surroundings. There was limited visibility all around us, with especially thick forest along the ravine to our north. I didn't like our position at all. We were very exposed and blind on all our escape routes. In the back of my mind I was second-guessing my decision to leave all our critical gear by the lake. "Abby, one minute, no more," I whispered.

Abigail nodded and knelt by the woman in the burqa. The woman's face was completely covered by her veil and she was lying curled in a fetal position. Her screams had faded to a rhythmic whimper.

Abigail put her hand on the woman's shoulder and spoke in a calm voice. "You have to come with us. We have to leave now."

There didn't seem to be a response. Abigail reached across and detached the head veil from the burqa. Underneath was a large mop of reddish hair held in a loose ponytail. Abigail stroked the woman's cheek, and the woman's eyes finally looked up into Abigail's.

"Come!" said Abigail, "We're friends. We have to leave. We have to leave now." Abigail put her hands under the woman's shoulders, and started nudging her to stand. I waited impatiently, weighing my option of walking back up the ravine by myself so I could see both Abigail and the packs. I hated the thought though of even a sixty meter separation with the alpha bear still on the loose. But then the woman stood up, and under Abigail's persistent but kind encouragement, started to walk with us back up the ravine to the lake.

As we climbed out, the first rays of the morning sunlight began hitting the tops of the trees. Feeling relieved to finally be in true daylight, we took our final steps to the top of the ridge.

Abigail and I both gasped at once. Forty meters west of us were our backpacks and the lake, and forty meters north of the backpacks was the alpha-male. He was hopping on three legs along our old tracks and making good time. He would be at our precious backpacks in seconds.

Abigail and I both drew our pistols and charged. The gigantic bear saw us immediately and roared in frustration, and then pivoted towards the lake and crouched to jump. Fortunately for us he could only propel with one hind leg, and with his slower speed he was a perfect target. Abigail and I both started firing at full-auto just before the bear began to spring from the ground.

For someone with so little firing experience, Abigail's aim was magnificent. She led her target perfectly, scoring a dozen solid hits of the exploding darts along the side of his torso. My aim was just above hers. I was targeting the spinal column.

The bear hit the water with a tremendous splash and rippling wave. Abigail and I ran down to protect our backpacks. The unveiled woman in the burqa slowly followed.

By the time we reached the shoreline, the bear had surfaced. He was floating motionless about six meters from the shore. While I covered him, Abigail grabbed all our gear and dragged it away from the lake.

"Is he dead?" she called out.

"I think so," I replied. "Wouldn't hurt to make sure." I switched to single-shot and fired one explosive dart into the top of his neck, angling the dart to explode deep inside the skull cavity. Gray cranial matter blew out of both eye sockets as the dart went off. "No question now," I called out.