1. The lift descending


    Date: 10/2/2014, Categories: Love Stories, Author: Alexandra_A, Rating: 9, Source: LushStories

    you... Thank you!' My mouth moved and slurred words formed. 'Is this real?' 'Yes, soldier, it is. Sorry to harm you so, but I was left with no choice.' Our pod lurched and began to move once more. The altimeter counted down. Twenty-seven, twenty-six... Still sitting astride me, she lovingly pinched my cheek, her eyes now full of grateful tears. 'However unwittingly, you are my salvation and hence the salvation of my people, of everyone who still believes in me. I will never forget you, soldier.' Sixteen, fifteen, fourteen... I said the first words that came to mind. 'Take me with you. I will help you.' She shook her head. 'No. Your task is accomplished. I am delivered.' 'But there is no escape, Ma'am. You will be killed... please!' 'I'll be okay. As you can see,' she waved her stubby weapon before my eyes, 'I have friends in high places.' I pleaded once more. 'Please, take me with you!' It was as if I had not spoken. 'Now to seek out the resistance and continue the fight. Goodbye, soldier.' One last kiss and she clambered off me, quickly pulled her shift back over her head and crouched in readiness, her gun pointing at the waiting double doors. Three, two, one... The doors opened. She dashed from view. Gunfire. Cries. Slumping bodies. Within my guts, I sensed another countdown nearing its end. Four, three, two, one... * 'Is this all the ...
    data you have been able to retrieve.' 'Yes, Sir. The explosion tore him to pieces, completely destroying the lift and killing everyone in the immediate vicinity. We were fortunate to find even these fragments.' 'And you have found no trace of her?' 'No, Sir. None. We must assume she escaped.' 'And do we know who helped her?' 'No, but the soldier definitely played no conscious part.' 'It was we who destroyed him?' 'Yes, Sir. Self-destruct was triggered as soon as we realised there was a problem.' Drumming fingers were punctuated by resigned sighs. 'Nuke them. Poison them. Kill everything down there. Everything. She must be terminated. Understood?' 'Yes, Sir.' Their methods were random, indiscriminate, anathema to me. It pained me to know I was once the unstinting servant of a regime that would employ such inhuman methods. More disembodied voices floated in and out of my field of consciousness, though an absence of physical feedback told me it was I who had no body. I again focussed on their words, took succour from their negatives: No trace. None. And their positives: She escaped. In broken fragments, I heard her music, saw again the fluttering bird soaring high above its verdant territory. I closed my virtual eyes and whispered a silent prayer for the woman who had inadvertently destroyed me, the woman who had, in truth, saved me. *****
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