Champion

Chapter 13

The reason this was so rare was that Eros commanded his priests and priestesses to be vessels for spreading his love; and choosing one partner to love was considered to reduce their ability to equally love all others. It was not that he did not wish his faithful to marry and be happy, quite the opposite. Eros believed that those who wished to have a family should put that family before all other mortal concerns. But that shift in priorities meant they must leave the priestess/priest-hood. He expected his clergy to put his worshipers first in their lives, which left little room to love their husbands or wives, and children as they should. As the old saying goes, 'one cannot serve two masters at the same time.'

Stepping past his kneeling form, she gathered her robes around her legs and slid into the oversized bag. The material was cold, but its softness felt wonderful against her skin. She wondered if she would be able to convince him to continue sharing the bag with her, or even let her use it alone, after this night. She slid to the far side of the bag, trying to make enough room for him to slide in beside her. It would be a tight fit.

Reaching down to the middle of the sleeping bag, David grabbed the zipper, and zipped the bag closed. Then he snapped the flap on the outer cover closed as well. That would keep the dirt out, and stop it from jamming up the zipper. Looking up to make sure she was comfortable, he saw a look of disappointment and confusion on Laurena's face.

"It's ok. It's a little cold right now, but the two inner bags are designed to trap your body heat and reflect it back on you; and the outer bag is wind, snow, and rain resistant, so it will keep the chill outside from seeping in. Just give it three minutes or so, and you'll be toasty warm.

"Try to get some sleep, I'll wake you in four hours and you can take over the watch while I get a few hours myself."

Reaching up, he turned off her headlamp and carefully pulled it from her head, trying not to mess up her hair in the process. Putting it in his pocket, he turned back to his gear, taking off his wet-weather top and putting on his fleece. His body heat in the thin mountain air had already started to dry the sweat from his combat shirt and trousers, and he could always toss the wet-weather top back on over the fleece later. Next he grabbed his M14 and two additional mags. He was going to take a walk outside and see if there was anyone out there searching for him. He doubted it.

Night operations in Mukavia were conducted by us Forces occasionally, but the ANA very rarely fought at night. The insurgents never attacked at night. The Mukavians were like a throw-back civilization where everything seemed stuck in the 1800's. If those bandits (?) he had killed and the lady inside were any indication, he was now in a civilization that was thrown a hell of a lot farther back than just the 1800's. But paranoia didn't play favorites, and he wasn't going to gamble with being snuck up on just because things shouldbe a certain way. Stepping out of the cave, David was momentarily distracted by a whiff of Laurena's scent. His jacket still smelled like her, and she smelled good.

Laying in the dark, in David's strangely comfortable bag, Laurena was frustrated and angry. She couldn't figure out what happened. She did everything right. She had tantalized him with glimpses of her perfect body, she knew he couldn't stop looking at her breasts, and when he stood up she had caught sight of the sizeable bulge tenting his trousers' front. Each step of the way, every tease, titillation, and temptation had elicited an obvious response from him. Why wasn't David's body pressed next to hers right now? Not realizing how different David's world, and his views about s*x, were; she was at a loss to explain how her plan failed. She decided she was being too subtle. She had heard of some men in Sanctuary Port who were completely oblivious to subtlety. He must be like those men. She resolved to be more overt in her teasing and seduction tomorrow. She had only had a little time to work on him tonight, but after a full day with her he would be begging her to share this bag.

*** Growing Closer ***

110605MAR13 DW

Near Snow Gap Pass, Abatinus Mountains, Erosius

Returning the freshly cleaned and oiled bolt carrier assembly to his M4's upper receiver; David swung it back down onto the lower receiver and secured it with the takedown pins. He then went through a functions check, verifying he had cleaned and reassembled his rifle correctly.

After leaving the cave the night before he had done a quick sweep of the area, but nothing had been moving in the darkness. Returning to the cave front, he had noticed his hands had started shaking again and stopped to smoke a cigarette. He had thought about his team, and the men he had killed that day. He was angry about losing his brothers-in-arms, and guilty over the deaths his hands had wrought. He was an artilleryman; it was his job to rain death upon his enemies. But he had never seen his work up close before.

Searching the pockets of a man he had shot moments earlier, and looking into his lifeless eyes had been easier for him than he had expected. The same was true of killing Laurena's attackers. They were rapists, scum of the vilest sort, and they would have probably killed her after they finished violating her in the worst imaginable ways. He had felt no remorse when he ended their lives.

But in the stillness of the cold night he had time to reflect on his actions. He had killed without hesitation, his morality easily cast aside by his anger. Unfortunately, while his anger had faded, the faces of his slain foes had not. He could see them clearly, and he had wondered if God would forgive him. 'Thou shalt not kill'. Pretty clear instructions from the Bible about not doing exactly what he had done. On the trip over from the states he had asked a chaplain about that commandment, and he still remembered what the chaplain said.

"The King James Bible states 'thou shalt not kill.' But keep in mind that the King James Bible is an English translation from the earlier Latin, which was itself a translation from the earlier Greek. The Old Testament from which the Ten Commandments come is actually a Greek translation from the Torah, written in Hebrew," the chaplain had explained. "If you go back and read the original Hebrew it doesn't say 'kill'. It says 'retzach', which means murder. The original Hebrew commandment was 'Thou shalt not murder.' So the real question you should ask is: Are your actions in war murder, or are you trying to protect the lives of God's children by stopping those who wish to kill you and others?"

He still didn't have an answer to that. The Mukavian PSD members had been trying to kill him and his team, but they had stopped. He was pretty sure they had already started to run away when he and Captain Epps had engaged them. As for the criminals...he could have tried to wound them first, or given them a chance to surrender. It wasn't like they had guns, and he had the Mk 48; except he hadn't known that at the time. Besides, they probably weren't even real, just products of his coma-bound mind. Besides, even if he got a pass on killing people that attacked him, there was always that other thing. He was certain he would never be forgiven for that; and he knew that even if God did somehow forgive him, he could never forgive himself for what happened.

He had managed to smoke his cigarette to a tiny nub, and ended up burning his fingers with it while pondering his moral quandary and the fate of his immortal soul.

It was then that David decided to keep busy. After a day with two short but intense fights he had plenty of things to occupy his time and mind. He had field stripped and cleaned his Mk 48, his M14, and had just finished with his M4. He was extremely tired, but worried about sleeping after the IED explosion and the head wound. He was no medical expert, but he had suffered a concussion as a teen after being thrown from a horse; and he still remembered what it was like. Severe headache, impaired mental function, and lethargy were all major symptoms, and he'd had that trifecta in spades since the explosion. So rather than risking a nap that he may not wake up from, he decided to let Laurena sleep through the night while he kept watch and cared for his equipment. It also gave him some time to think about his situation.

He was still pretty certain he was in a coma. It was the explanation he was most willing to believe, but the longer it lasted the less he trusted that answer. While he had never been in a coma before, his normal dreams never lasted this long. Also, in the past, once he realized it was a dream he would wake up; or in rare cases dream of waking up only to start another dream that was more believable to his mind. This place was far from believable, but his mind refused to wake him or change the dream. The longer this lasted the more he entertained the possibility that one of the other two options might be true.

Yes, there were now two additional options in his mind. He could be dead, and this was some version of the afterlife that he didn't understand yet. Or, it could actually be real. He had struggled hard all night with that thought, but had realized it was steadily marching to the forefront of likely answers to his circumstances.

He had no explanation for it; no idea how or why he got from his world to here, but everything he had seen, heard, and experienced since waking on the side of this mountain yesterday seemed too real to be easily dismissed.

He needed to make a decision. If this was a coma he should be trying to wake himself, but he wasn't sure how to do that. If he was dead, he was stuck here until someone came and explained things to him. If this was real...well he wasn't sure what to do if this was real.

Packing up his weapons cleaning kit, he stowed it back in his ruck and slung his rifle across his back. He would go with girl, he decided. He could easily wander around these mountains aimlessly, but with what purpose? She was offering to take him to her god, Eros, who seemed to be the Big Cheese around here. Maybe that guy had some answers for David.

Besides, he thought to himself ruefully as he quietly approached her sleeping form; she is definitely easy on the eyes.

Reaching down, he gently touched Laurena's shoulder through the sleeping bag's thick surface. She shifted but did not wake at his light touch. Grasping her shoulder a little more firmly, he gave her a small shake. She rolled from her side to her back, and blurrily opened her eyes. He greeted her gaze with a comforting smile.

"Good morning. The sun is rising, and we need to get moving soon. Are you rested enough to move out in an hour?"

Nodding her head, she closed her sleepy eyes muttering, "Just a few more minutes."

Smiling with tolerant amusement, David decided to give her a few minutes before he tried again. It didn't take that long. Less than half a minute later, her eyes shot wide open and she sat upright quickly. Clutching his sleeping bag about her shoulders to ward off the chill morning air, she looked around the cave carefully but quickly.