ALICE

Chapter 86 - ALUMNUS

Chapter 86: ALUMNUS

 He was bleeding. Pain shot through his chest, every breath intensifying the sensation in his torso.

 Angel was straddled over the ATV seat, his gloved hands weakly gripping the handholds on the side of the vehicle. In front of him was Redd, manoeuvring the quad through the sand, compensating for the lack of traction in the dunes, driving as fast as he could.

 Angel was slumped against Redd’s back, his eyes closed and every muscle in his body tensed.

 Redd’s mind was spinning. Was taking this contract a mistake? In all of the intelligence Angel and he had been given by the LSF on the natives, never once had it mentioned dirty bombs like these. They were supposedly a basic force, and yet Angel was slumped against him with a pound of shrapnel in his body.

 Redd spotted the pool in the distance, extending his wrist further on the accelerator, even though the ATV was already at full speed. When he had finally reached the base, Redd grabbed Angel from the quad and carried him towards the pool, leaving the ATV running. He kicked up the sand to reveal a pane of glass lying in the sand. As the sun shone against the screen, it lit up, a virtual keypad emblazoned on the display. Redd knelt down, and with his hand wet with Angel’s blood, he typed in the five-digit code. Immediately, the screen flashed green and a large hole opened in the sand, a set of sandy, cement stairs descending into the ground. Redd wasted no time getting Angel down into the base, hearing the door close behind him.

 As Redd laid the man on the table and prepared himself for surgery, he wondered if he had made a mistake. Just two months into a six year contract to fight these people, and already this had happened.

 (BREAK)

 Angel ran his fingers against his naked chest, feeling the scars embossed upon his flesh. Each one had a memory associated with it, most pertained to Cole Redd. His arms, plastered with the bandages he had applied himself, had returned to their normal shade of skin colour for the most part.

 He was sitting on his cot, slowly peeling off his bandages when the door opened again. He looked up, but didn’t move as he saw Alice stepping into the room. Her bandages had been removed and her skin looked as fair as it normally had been as opposed to the bright red that it was previously. Her blonde hair, usually pulled back in a ponytail was cascading around her shoulders, a tangled mess that made her even more beautiful to Angel than before.

 She looked tired, but for once, at peace. He stood up, a few bandages still on his left arm. He opened his mouth to speak but Alice was quicker; “I’m sorry.”

 This shifted Angel’s paradigm, every response he had planned was null and he was caught off guard, “For what?”

 Alice stared into his eyes, feeling every pain this man had felt in his life, every love, everything that his eyes gave away that his mouth would not.

 She stepped forward, shrinking the distance between them from two feet to two inches, “For this.”

 She stood on her toes, wrapped her hands around the back of his neck, pulled his head towards hers, and interlocked her lips with his. There was only a moment of hesitation from Angel, before he pulled her small body into his by the small of her back. The kiss was intense, but passionate, and that passion only ramped up as he kissed her neck and ran his hands to the hem of her shirt, pulling it up over her stomach, her naked breasts, and finally her head, disconnecting his lips from her for only a moment.

 He took her on the cot, never feeling so sure of something in his entire life. The bandages stayed on his left arm for a while before his sweat made them fall off on their own accord.