Aquatyx

“Take a break.” That’s what I thought to myself. “Take a break, you should be in the clear now.” I kept thinking that, and I knew I should probably listen, but my fight-or-flight instinct told me to keep going. This most recent encounter had been one of the worst since I had landed here, and because that enemy attack from the clouds knocked the plane off course, I had no idea where the rest of my unit was - or my supplies, for that matter - so I had pretty much been on my own since then.

I started to slow down as I looked around. There didn’t seem to be any signs of any more hostile activity, and I could tell by the sunlight that nightfall would come soon, so I decided to stop and take stock of my situation. I was slightly dehydrated but didn’t have any safe water and my primary weapon was gone. My shelter, my sleeping bag, food…everything. Gone. No communications equipment, no way to send an SOS… I was pretty much out of luck. My survival knife was about the only thing I had in the world at that moment. That and the clothes on my back, and they were pretty soaked after this last encounter. So, first things first - I needed a new shelter.

There was no shortage of materials here in the Amazon. I just had to be careful what I used, being as the nearest tree could already be home to something a lot smaller and more dangerous than me, and I had no anti-venom. After a moment, I noticed a Spanish Cedar tree not far ahead. I recognized it because during our initial training for this mission, in the survival portion, we were told that Spanish Cedar is good for using as building materials, so I seemed to have lucked out. I just really had to make sure not to build near any rivers or ponds.

Later on, after I built my shelter, I decided to take a rest. I looked in the sky for a moment, just make sure there were no enemy clouds, but thankfully, everything was clear. My rest was short-lived though, because I realized that I was still hungry. I’d probably have to hunt whatever I was going to eat, especially considering that fishing was out of the question. Before I left to do that, I should probably build a fire. Thankfully, the matches in the handle of my survival knife were waterproof and I still had some extra wood to use as kindling from when I built the shelter, plus I had come across pieces of a downed maple tree while I was gathering Spanish Cedar for the shelter, and Maple is excellent for burning, so that helped me a lot in getting a good fire going.

No sooner had I built the fire though, when I ran into another problem. Hiding among the brush about thirty yards from me was a set of eyes - peering at me. I started moving forward, but after a couple of steps-

“Stop right there.”

I stopped, not knowing exactly what kind of situation I was dealing with yet.

“Don’t come any closer,” she said firmly.

“I’m not,” I told her. “But I can’t just stand here all night.”

“Yes, you can,” she replied. “You can if I tell you to.”

“Perhaps,” I said. “But why would you do that? I’m hoping we’re both on the same side. Shouldn’t we try to help each other?”

Just then, she moved out of the brush. I’ll admit, I was taken as soon as I laid eyes on her. Tall, slender…light-brown hair that was pretty messy at the moment, but that was to be expected. She was hiding in a jungle, after all. What really got my attention though, was her eyes. As soon as I looked into them, dark brown and beautiful, I couldn’t look away. This wasn’t necessarily a good thing, however, being as I don’t think she wanted to be friends.

“Who are you?” She asked firmly.

I started to answer, but she didn’t let me. “I am First Lieutenant-”

“You know what?” Don’t tell me.”

“Why?” I asked, puzzled.

“Because,” she replied,” I don’t want to know. I have to kill you, and knowing your name would just make it harder.”

“Why do you have to kill me?” I asked.

“Because,” she said, “I need your shelter. And your fire.”

“Well,” I said, “we could always share them.”

“That’s out of the question,” she replied. “I don’t know you or trust you.”

“Well, you’re an American, right?” I asked. “So am I.”

“I told you I didn’t want to know!” She snapped, pulling out one of the new evaporator rifles that were developed and quicky mass-produced to use against the enemy. She pointed it at me.

“Where’d you get that?” I asked her.

"One of the guards who was killed during an attack at the research station I work at. Or, worked at. I told you, I don’t want to know anything about you." 

“I was just trying to help you trust me,” I said calmly.

“I don’t want to trust you,” she snapped. “I just want to get out of here alive. That’s how I made it out of the research station. I grabbed the rifle after the guard went down and killed three of the…”

I looked at her as she paused for a moment before continuing. “I didn‘t want to kill them,” she explained, obviously frustrated. “I’m a scientist. I was here on an environmental project with my team when everything erupted around the world. I know they’re hostile, but when some of them started showing up here, we really thought we might be able to make contact. You know, figure them out.”

“They’re more than hostile,” I told her. “They’re predatory. Which is why they’re raiding the surface. It’s in their nature. That’s why we’re fighting. There’s no reasoning with them.”

“I know that,” she said, shaking her head. “I know that. They’re just…”

“I know,” I said, understanding what she was getting at. “They’re fascinating. I mean, the fact that they take the form of living freshwater. It’s just mind blowing. But they’re still dangerous.”

“They’re more than that,” she replied. They’re deadly.”

“I know,” I told her. “Which is why we should stick together. Because we’re human, and like every other human on this planet, we want to survive.

As the two of us paused for a moment, she looked around, then looked at me again.

“Why are you looking at me like that,” she asked.

“Like what?”

“Like…that…” she said. “I don’t know how to describe it. You’re just not looking at me like someone who’s afraid of being shot.”

“I’m not afraid of being shot,” I told her.

“Why not?” she asked, holding the rifle up. “You know these guns can affect people as well.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well then why aren’t you afraid?” She asked. “Don’t you think I can do it?”

“I know you can,” I replied. “But I also know you don’t want to.”

She smiled for a moment. “I said I didn’t want to shoot them.”

I smiled back at her. “Okay,” I replied. “So that means you do want to shoot me then?”

She looked back at me, then put the rifle down.

“I will do it,” she said, moving forward. “Don’t give me a reason.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” I told her. “The last thing either of us needs is another fight”

I started moving back toward the shelter.

“Come on,” I told her. “Let’s sit over by the fire.”

As the two of us walked over and took our places by the fire, she sat the rifle down at her side, up against a tree. That didn’t bother me, though. It seemed to make her feel better. I could tell she was incredibly smart, but she certainly wasn’t a soldier. She was just doing the best she could, given the situation.

“So, how’d you end up here?” She asked me.

“Sorta by accident,” I told her. “Sorta not.”

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“I was with a Delta unit that was assigned to help alliance forces investigate a possible mass staging point at O’Higgins/San Martin Lake in Chile and Bolivia. We thought it might be a direct connection down to one of the enemy’s deepest ancient seas. Obviously, we didn’t make it that far, though. Our transport was hit and we bailed, but in the commotion, we all got separated. I don’t know where anyone else is.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I hope you find them.”

“Thanks,” I replied,” but right now, I just want to get out of this jungle. How far is that research station of yours?”

“Maybe a couple of hours south,” she said. “But it’s no use going there. The station was destroyed in the attack. There is a village about a half hour from there, though. Hopefully it hasn’t been overrun.”

“I hope not,” I agreed. “Who knows? Maybe at least some of the guys in my unit made it there.”

Just then, I heard a noise come from the jungle beside us. Immediately, I looked back, holding my knife out as I stood up. She stood up as well.

“What is it?” She asked. 

“I heard something,” I said.

“You think it could be one of them?” She asked, grabbing her rifle.

“I don’t know,” I said, still looking into the jungle. “It shouldn’t be. There aren’t any bodies of water near here, and I fought one at the last river, but that was probably a good hour or so north.”

Just then, a howler monkey swung wildly away from one of the trees closest to us. She and I both jumped, then breathed a collective sigh of relief. Suddenly, she looked above me and gasped. Just above the tree… there was a cloud! An Aquatyx materialized from the cloud and sailed down from the sky, right into our camp. Immediately, we both reached for the rifle, but the Aquatyx kicked it into the jungle first, then grabbed she and I both and submerged us into its form. Immediately, we could feel it absorbing the water from our bodies. Reaching for my knife, I pulled it out and cut the Aquatyx’ form the way I did with the other one before, temporarily freeing us, but not for long as the creature quickly healed, though slightly weakened from losing some of its form. As the two of us scrambled to our feet, I got between she and the Aquatyx.

“Go!” I told her as the Aquatyx faced me. “Run away from the direction of the cloud! Move!

With that, she ran as I started swinging my knife, chopping at the Aquatyx over and over, weaking it as it lost more of its form, while still making its way closer and closer to me. Finally, I swiped at it one more time, but it still had enough form to grab my legs, pulling them out from under me. As it started to absorb the water from my body again, I looked back and saw that she was gone - she had gotten away. As I felt myself dehydrating further and further, I started preparing myself for what I believed was the inevitable when suddenly, a blast shot out from the jungle where the Aquatyx had kicked the rifle. The blazing material hit the Aquatyx point-blank, causing it to violently explode into water vapor with such force that it soaked the area, extinguishing the campfire in the process. A moment later, she came out, carrying the rifle.

“Okay, maybe I wanted to shoot that one,” she said, out of breath but smiling.

Slowly, I struggled to my feet. “Well, I’m glad you did. Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Yeah,” she answered, walking over to help me get my balance. “What about you?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Just a little dehydrated, that’s all.”

"Okay,” she replied as she gave me the rifle to lean on. She motioned in the direction of the village. “Shall we then?”

“Good idea,” I replied as I regained my strength. “Hopefully we can find some food there. And some safe water.”

“Safe water,” she repeated. It’s amazing to think that there still could be such a thing.

“There needs to be,” I replied. “We all need there to be.”

Grateful to still be alive, the two of us cautiously but quickly started making our way to the village. Together.