Opened Eyes - A Short Story

Pinpricks of light filled the sky as I opened my eyes.  Pain shot through my shoulder when I tried to move.  I couldn’t for the life of me remember what had caused that.  Turning my head to look at it caused more pain.  So, I sat there, staring at the stars.

I must have fallen asleep again because the next thing I saw was the sun rising, peeking through the canopy of boughs, dappling the leaf covered floor with polka-dot patterns of light.  As I sat there, still racked with pain, a doe and her fawn stepped into the clearing, stopped and stared right at me.  They stood and watched me for several long moments before the fawn, with the curiousness of the young, stepped closer to me.  It sniffed the air, watched me for a moment and stepped closer.  The fawn took two more steps until it was standing in front of me.  It bent down and sniffed around my face.  Then it licked me twice, as if tasting me.  A sound off to the left made the fawn start and it bolted back to its mother, the two of them trotting off into the woods the way they’d come.

I tried to move again, but the pain made all but the smallest movements agony.  I was probably done for, though I still couldn’t remember how it had happened.

A voice woke me the third time, soft, gentle like a warm breeze.

“You will recover.  All you need is time.”

I looked around as best I could but couldn’t see anyone nearby.  “Where are you?”

“Everywhere.  Nowhere.  It doesn’t matter.  I am here for you.”

The warm breeze intensified, becoming a wind that whipped around my body like a small tornado.  The pain in my shoulder lessened.  Moving still hurt, but with effort I knew I could stand up.  I didn’t know if I could stay standing, however.

“Better,” the soft voice said.  It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact.

The day began to warm and, try as I might, it was impossible to stay awake.  I dozed off, falling into the darkness of sleep.

Today Is The Day I Die - A Short Story

“Today… today is the day I die…”

Alina stared at the screen, listening to the voice of her sister coming from the hidden speaker.  Her sister.

They’d been through training together.  They’d ascended through the ranks together and had often served together.  And then she’d been accepted into the Valkyrie and they’d lost touch.  The Valkyrie were the Empire’s elite combat force.  Highly trained, versatile, and often acting as covert agents at the whim of the Empress herself.  Most people in the Empire had heard of the Valkyrie, but few had ever seen one of them in the flesh.

“The Vreen laid siege to Earth ten days ago.  They were swift and vicious, leaving nothing in their wake, overrunning the world in hours.  The defense forces, both Imperial and native, were decimated.  Only small pockets of resistance were left, fighting to survive in the hope that the Empire would arrive in time to save them.  Hoping against hope for us Valkyrie to come to their aid.

“We were too late.”

The voice was rough and ragged with exhaustion.  She had been here for days and had probably slept little if at all.  Alina knew how she felt.  Fatigue was a soldier’s nemesis and Alina had held its hand more than a few times over the years.

“We flew in low and fast, trying to keep the element of surprise on our side.  Somehow the Vreen were aware of us.  Their anti-air fire took out more than a few of our landing craft.  We evaded their fire and made a hot landing just outside the perimeter of the base, pouring out of the landing craft with rifles blasting away.  Many Vreen fell in the first few seconds of our assault, but they kept coming.  We did our best to surround them but they managed to break our line, forcing us to scatter and take cover where we could.”

Alina saw the assault in her mind.  She could see her sister in her combat armor with her rifle unslung, taking careful shots as she advanced with her sisters toward the enemy, then breaking toward cover when the true battle was joined.

“My squad found a group of Human soldiers holed up in a wrecked building.  They were tired, scared and quickly running out of supplies.

“They hoped we were their salvation.”

Alina looked around the room.  Bodies strewn across the floor told the horrifying tale.  There had been no rescue.  No salvation.

“Before we could regroup, the Vreen were on us.  They came through the windows and up through the ground, their insectoid armor protecting them from what fire we could lay in to them, their claws tearing through durasteel armor like paper, shredding flesh leaving only bone behind.  The few of us left retreated further into the building, blocking the exits as we went, hoping against hope they would hold.  They did.  For a while.”

Alina stood up from the chair she’d been sitting in and looked around her.  Her sister’s body lay against the wall on the far end of the room, her eyes closed and a small smile on her face.  Her other sister’s bodies and those of the Humans who had tried in vain to defend this place were strewn haphazardly around the room.  Most were only identifiable as skeletons, but a few had been spared the Vreen’s embrace.  Her sister’s voice continued as she looked for other information to take back with her.

“This place is our last hope.  We’ll make a stand here and perhaps, Great Mother willing, we’ll survive long enough to be rescued ourselves, or at least to take out as many Vreen as we can.  Alina, if you hear this, know that I wanted to tell you everything.  It wasn’t your fault.  You couldn’t have known, and I don’t fault you for any of it.  We’re sisters, Alina, and that counts for more than anything in this universe.”

The audio from the terminal was silent for a short while.  Just as Alina thought to go and check on it, a banging noise erupted from its speaker.  Then a crash of rending durasteel and screams.

“They’ve broken through the barricades!  They’re coming up through the floor!  This is it!  We need to form up!  Hold them back!”

The speaker filled the room with gunfire.  Alina could see the battle in her mind’s eye.  She could hear her sister barking out orders, urging her own sisters to fight to the last.  The noise lasted for all of thirty seconds and then the room fell silent again.

Alina stood in the room alone.  Waiting.  Finally, after an interminable amount of time, her sister spoke again.

“Today is the day I die.  We did the best we could.  The Vreen were too many.  I go to the Mother knowing my sisters fought bravely and with honor.  Today we were Valkyrie.”

There was a short gasp of air and then nothing.  Her sister had fallen.  Alina knelt down next to her, kissed her forehead, stood up and picked up the materials she’d collected.  She walked from the room, moving briskly to catch up with the rest of her team.  The bodies would be collected and identified by a cleanup team in the next few hours once the Vreen presence had been completely eradicated.  Her sisters would be honored on the homeworld, as would the Humans who fought with them.

Today was the day her sister died.  Today was the day that her life changed.  Today was the day the world changed.

Coffee Ninja

It had been a rough night.  Hansuke sat in the all-night café sipping his Americano.  He took it black and preferred it for its slightly bitter taste.  It was in a takeaway cup, green with a black lid.  He sat watching the early morning people make their way to or from their homes as a gentle rain began falling, causing some of them to open umbrellas, splashing the darkness with a dab of color here and there.

Hansuke watched the street display for a few minutes until Daisuke arrived.  Hansuke watched his friendly rival order a cup of coffee from the barista at the counter.  A few minutes later Daisuke arrived, cup in hand, at Hansuke’s table.  He nodded at one of the chairs across from Hansuke and Hansuke nodded his assent, so Daisuke sat down, setting his likewise green cup with a black lid in front of him.  Hansuke knew that Daisuke liked a stronger drink, so he almost always ordered an espresso.

Both men wore dark business suits with pink cherry blossom pins on the left lapel, a mark of the ninja clan they both belonged to.  They sat in silence, both respecting the code of silence their clan ascribed to and understanding that this was a time to relax and recuperate from a long day.

The rain fell harder, sounding flat and heavy on the awning outside the window.  The few people left out at this hour walked faster to their destinations and more umbrellas opened all but obscuring the people carrying them.

Both men stared out the window, lost in their own thoughts.  Hansuke lifted his cup to his lips and took a sip.  It tasted different, stronger.  He set the cup down slowly, staring at Daisuke without blinking.  The other ninja had obviously switched the cups without his noticing and this was a challenge Hansuke was not going to ignore.

Before he could act however, Nishi, another member of their clan, walked up to the table and caught Hansuke’s eye.  She nodded at the chair next to his and he again nodded his assent.  She sat down with a black-topped green cup in front of her.  Like the two men, she wore a somewhat more feminine version of the black business suit with the pink cherry blossom pin on its lapel.

Hansuke took another sip of his coffee.  He nearly gagged at the sweetness.  Nishi looked at him in shock at his reaction and then took a sip of her own drink.  A second later she made a face as if she’d bitten in to a ripe lemon, pursing her lips and screwing up her eyes almost comically.  Hansuke looked over at Daisuke but the other man was still staring out the window.

Silently, the other two ninja traded drinks.  Hansuke took a quick sip and tasted the familiar bite of his Americano.

A wind whipped up, whipping the now heavy rain down the street, streaking the windows and giving the scene outside an almost psychedelic effect.

The three ninja sat in silence, nursing their drinks, lost in their own thoughts.  Hansuke eyed Daisuke’s coffee, looking for an opening to swap cups in revenge.

His attention was broken by Yoshiko standing in front of their table.  Like Nishi, she wore the feminine version of the black business suit and held a black-lidded green coffee cup.

Yoshiko nodded to the remaining chair and Hansuke nodded back.  Yoshiko sat down, placing her cup daintily in front of her.  She like the rest of them had her mind on other things than her drink or the present company.  It had been, Hansuke mused, a rough day for all of them.

Moments later, Hansuke’s attention was drawn to Yoshiko as she gasped, nearly dropping her drink.  She looked at each of the other ninja in turn, trying to figure out which one had switched her coffee.  Hansuke sipped his own and felt the bland taste of a weak tea slide over his tongue.  He stared at Yoshiko and she grimaced, obviously expecting something other that what she’d tasted.  They traded cups and Hansuke sipped his drink, once again tasting his Americano.

A few minutes later, Daisuke stood up.  He picked up his cup, nodded at the others and made his way out in to the windy, rainy early morning.

The remaining three ninja sat staring at the rain for a while, each lost in his or her own thoughts. 
Hansuke picked up his drink and took a long pull, intending to finish it before leaving himself.  It was all he could do to not spit the strong espresso out all over the table.  Instinctively he looked up at the ceiling, but there was no one there.  The other ninja picked up their own drinks and sipped them.  Seeing no ill effects, Hansuke swore in silence to repay Daisuke for his last trick.  He would show his rival who was the better ninja.