Endless War (Complete)

Chapter 7 "My Companion:

So what am I supposed to do with a companion that doesn't even look human. I find myself looking back over my shoulder way to often, gleaming what I can of the creature accompanying me. I know it is human, however I still feel as if I am walking feet away from one of The Fallen, my enemy. I don't even know if I am going in the right direction, I suppose that if I was off course it would correct me.

We finally make our way past an oasis of water, so I take a moment to compose myself. Taking deep cleansing breaths I reorient myself. I close my eyes and feel within myself what direction is north, I turn back to the oasis. I am sure this is where the camp gets its water from as we are surrounded by desert. "We can't stay here long but I need to cool off and top off my canteens."

I slowly start removing my gear and excess clothing as I approach the water until I am wearing nothing but my tank top and underwear. Slowly I submerse myself into the cold water. Holding my breath I sink below the surface, I have not bathed in over a week. I can feel the clumps of soil washing away and feel more like myself. As I slowly rise from the water I look over at my companion who is turned away from me trying its hardest not to look over its shoulder.

I allow my undergarments to dry in the open air and motion my companion towards the water. "It feels refreshing." I smile, as I watch more of my companions green sickly skin become visible. I look away feeling sick, and hear what seems to be a sad sigh come from the creature. How can I know that it is human yet at the same time be unable to call it anything other than a creature. I too sigh and start a small fire to help keep me warm as I dry.

Suddenly there is a completely nude creature standing in front of me pouring water on my tiny flame. "Do you want us to get caught?" it asks in its' forced broken english. Before I can answer no it continues to yell at me. "We are not far from the others and they would surly see a plume of smoke rising from their water supply. How can a chipped person who, knows all of the art of war be so stupid?" It sighs and walks back into the stream.

I feel as tears start to form in the corners of my eyes. I swear I feel as if I have never been yelled at before, not that I can ever remember a time where anyone has yelled at me in the past. I take deep breaths trying to calm myself with my head resting on my knees. When I feel a hand resting on my shoulder, my chip kicks in and the next thing I know there is a naked Fallen lying on the ground beside me.

"Glad to see you don't hold a grudge. I was just coming over to apologize for yelling." I hear a strange noise almost like a growl with a snort and look at it strangely. The noise repeats when it looks up at my confused face. "Laughing, that is what laughter sounds like."

"I don't know how we are ever going to be able to get along. Where are you taking me, seeing as I have been the one leading? Not to mention who the hell are you?" I crack my neck then continue looking at the water as the creature gets up and puts its uniform on. I swear its clothes didn't look like that when they were strewn about the ground, but I didn't take the time to investigate its clothing, I suppose I was to busy being yelled at.

"Don't worry about my name, I don't know how to translate it into what you perceive as english. Trust me it is a harder language than you would think. I am following you so that your chip can lead us, I know there is a repair station around here but it has been too well hidden. When someones chip malfunctions it leads them to the center. I was just going to follow you there and see how well guarded it is." It grimaces, though I am pretty sure it is supposed to look like a smile on a human face.

"Do you even realize how ugly you look to me?" I grumble, and start walking. "Not only that, my chip didn't malfunction. So I hope you are ready to roam the woods for a month or so. Unless you want me to allow the chip to take over and me to kill you."

"I know that you see me as some weird creature, and it doesn't bother me. Now about your chip, there is no doubt in my mind that it has malfunctioned, there is no way that the human consciousness can override one of those chips without something being wrong with it. If you feel like it is not leading you maybe we should just rest for the day and pick up traveling tonight when it is cooler. You stay here, don't start any fires and I will get us something to eat." It starts to walk off into the woods and I call it back.

"Why hunt when I have food in this pack that rehydrates with water and well we have a lovely oasis?" I ask as I start pulling different freeze-dried items from my pack that he rescued along with my weapon.

It sighs and walks back over toward me and sits across from me. I watch as its oversized green head looks over all of the baggies of food. Suddenly its huge eyes get even bigger and it reaches for the ice-cream, the one thing that doesn't require reconstitution. It opens the bag and looks inside at the Neapolitan concoction, takes a chunk of it, sticks out its tong over its razor sharp teeth and sucks on it.

Before he puts the next piece in his mouth he hands a piece to me. "My mom, managed to steal some of these when I was a child, she told me stories about people who went into the sky and to the moon."

I know where the story is going but I allow it to finish telling me about the astronauts that explored the moon then beyond our galaxy in search of a habitable world. His story ends much different than mine used to though.

It lowers its face and looks at the ice-cream, "...they tried on so many worlds to start a settlement, but it never worked. That was when the wars began, The rich laying waist to the poor and when their warriors refused to fight their war, they brain washed them into thinking that we were monsters."

It takes a while for me to mull over what my companion just told me. Just the though of knowing that we were killing ourselves makes my stomach churn. I know in the past we have had wars, even pitting brother against brother but that was a different time. We are supposed to be so educated now, especially with these chips in our heads giving us all the information that is available, as long as we don't ask about this war and why it began. Not that it would give anything away, that has to do with more than an alien invasion.

It finishes the ice-cream then licks the residue off of his fingertips making sure to ingest every morsel. I watch its grimace as it grows, I can only imagine that it is truly smiling at me. I lie back into the dirt and stare at the moonlight as it penetrates the tree canopy. It seems odd that there is a wooded area with a pond so close the the adobe houses and dessert. It is a beautiful dessert oasis, I know that the tree cover will be short lived, but I enjoy it none the less.

I shiver as the cold creeps in from above but the back of me remains warm as the heat from the day seeps into my skin. I suddenly feel the warmth of something being thrown over me. I look down to see a jacket has been thrown over me. "I thought you were wearing a unitard." I look over at it and it is still dressed in the same manner as before.

"Yet another illusion." Is its' simple reply.

I close my eyes and imagine myself laying at home in my comfortable bed, wondering what, if any, of my senses I can trust. How is it that a chip in my head can make me hear, feel and see things that are not there? For all I know my sense of smell and memory are affected by this chip. It tells me how to fight and even who I am, who am I? The one thing in my life that I was sure about, is completely wrong, we are not fighting against an alien armada. We are killing ourselves, but why?