The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 15

"I don't get it."

Hokulani looked up lazily from where she'd been sunning herself. They'd both gotten impressive tans after a month of sun. "Don't get what?"

"What we were fighting for so hard. I mean, look at this place." He gestured around them. "It's relatively peaceful. We live a harder life than the humans next to us, yet our life isn't bad. They have food, water, shelter. They get all this stuff for doing work that has almost nothing to do with actually getting food, water, or shelter. They aren't fighting each other, nor do they seem to want to get into fights. So what were we fighting for?"

She sat up and looked at him, thinking. "I don't know. I mean, they do seem to fight a lot, if you think about it. Just on a small scale. Look at British news, for example. People get drunk, get in a fist fight, and then end up in jail for a day or two. Or a couple breaks up and they get in a big fight about whether to break up, or who gets what stuff. Maybe they're just good at keeping most of their fights to a small scale."

"So you think there were bigger fights brewing, and we were just doing thinks to keep them from happening?"

"I suppose. I mean, it kind of makes sense. That's how they always explained it to us."

Aoloa frowned. "Why was it a problem for me to ask about it, then? Why couldn't they just let us meet some of the people we were defending, let us make a connection with them?"

"I don't know. Maybe if we do some more research, we can figure it out. Wanna go to town and leech some wifi?"

He nodded, and they snagged their clothes before sneaking down to the edge of the forest to wait for nightfall.

Once they were logged in, they quickly came across something that made them both concerned: pictures of them. A hiker and spotted them and taken pictures. It was at long range, but the caption said enough: "Vulgar nudists spotted in national forest. Rangers working to apprehend and bring up on charges."

They both began reading through the article. There were no details that would clearly identify the pictures as them, but the article implied the charges could carry the death penalty for Hokulani, for lewd conduct by a female. Aoloa was facing potential jail time of up to ten years. There was also a long list of possible other charges, depending on what else they were found to have been doing, ranging from poaching endangered wildlife to illegal camping to improper use of public lands.

The worst part about the article, however, was Hokulani's orange and black hair was visible in the photos, along with Aoloa's pitch black hair. There was only one possible conclusion. "Clarke will send them after us to finish the job," Aoloa stated.

"What about Kawikani and Lopaka? I mean, it's going to be obvious Kawikani didn't follow orders, and they'll figure out Lopaka helped. We don't even know for sure who all was involved in saving our lives."

"They won't trust the colony or berserkers to get us back. The pod won't be helpful here. So that would mean the pack and the cast. They'll have weapons, armor, everything." Aoloa checked the date on the article. "The only good thing is this is two days old. That means, at they earliest, they're striking now."

Hokulani shook her head. "They won't use troops that know us. Remember what Jack said? There are other units. We won't know what's coming for us. They might have nighttime warfare specialists, or specialty trackers, or... anything."

"Assume they're in the forest now, tracking us down. We weren't attempting to cover our scent, so they'll be headed this way. Do we try to hide in the city, hoping they don't spot us, or do we make a run for it?"

Hokulani went silent for a while, her eyes unfocused while he tried to figure out what to do. Finally, she looked at him and said, "I think they're arriving in about two hours."

"Why?"

"Air traffic control. There was a rerouting recently. It would fit if the UPS is sending in a stealth mission and getting friendly governments to route traffic away from visual contact. So they're dropping something in in about two hours."

"Okay, we'll go with that. We have a little bit of time. We should probably assume something meant to track us down and overpower us."

"A pack of canines, maybe with owls or bats as support?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Something to run us down and wear us out. If we stay in the city, they'll have to avoid entering or they'd raise awareness of what the UPS is doing. I know they want that secret. On the other hand, they can just do patrols outside of town, avoiding the roads..." He trailed off, then looked up at Hokulani.

"We ride out of town?" she guessed.

"Yeah. Slip inside a semi trailer or something. Sealed container on the roads. Would they notify the local authorities to watch the roads? Would they risk getting normal humans from a foreign power involved."

She shook her head firmly. "No. They want us back secretly. No witnesses. Then again, we don't want witnesses, either. We have to disappear someplace big enough we won't be found again."

"Agreed. First we get out of this trap. Then we find someplace we can disappear permanently. I have a feeling we're going to have to disappear into Russian forests. We'll work on our options once we're on our way out."

With that, they began working their way into town, staying low on roofs, then switching to alleys. They needed to get out, and fast.