Wasteland…

Chapter 5

The Asian Slayer

"All right, so let's review what we already know so far," Delia said. They had both awaken a few moments ago and, assessing the sun's angle, it was near noon. "The sun is brighter than they say," said Connor, distracted with the sun. In the wasteland of the former N. America, the radiation blocks off most of the sun's light; the same as a full moon in this year, 2001, is noon back—or forward—at home. "Kinda strange huh," Delia said. "I thought that they would think that we were completely insane and idiots for trying to convince them that we're from the future."

"Oh," Connor replied, "I'm sure that they're very glad that we are gone from them." Connor knew that they had been going along with what they had been saying; just agreeing and asking questions so we would leave them thinking we had won and that we wouldn't come back. They think that we're that pointless…hell, who's gonna be believe us? 'Hey, me an' her are time travelers from the future and we were wondering…uh, who do you think might start a war in the next few years? That's why we're…' The whole idea of walking up to somebody and saying that was a bit thick. Simply put: ririridridiculous.

"I think that they believed us," pronounced Delia. "They seemed to come along with it…well…the 'Grinder' guy might've believed us; he seemed to be asking the most questions and wondering why we would say some bizarre story."

So, thought Connor, but he said, "Yeah, maybe…but I think that they won't believe us and that there ain't much we can do about it." Delia suspired, saying, "You're such a pessimist! I can't believe you!" Uh oh, thought Connor, that's not an exhausted reply; that's anger.

"Hey," Connor said, "I'm not trying to bring down the mission…I'm just trying to preserve our morale for when something disappointing happens…" It didn't make all that much sense but at least it was a little better.

They had to put me on this mission…because those cowardly scientists aren't sure enough about their own work to experiment anything on themselves… That sounded a lot more complicated than it is………

Delia was starting articulating again but Connor's instincts suddenly kicked in…warning him of something nearby. He pretended to be listening to Delia but his ears were vigilant of something faint but nigh… He turned, acting as if swatting at a fly, looking for anybody hiding in the trees or behind them. His eyes saw nothing but the many fall leaves on the ground and the generally naked trees. Suddenly, a blur of invisible movement went from behind one tree to another. What the hell was that?! He rubbed his eyes, realizing that he was tired. He also realized that Delia's voice had stopped talking. He averted his legs and looked back at her…

Chills crawled over him. Her face was pale and her eyes frozen on the tree that the hallucination had gone behind. "Did you see that," she whispered. Connor shook his head 'no' but motioned to her that she needs to keep talking…she didn't say anything. Connor stood up and abruptly said, "I need to take a piss." She fabricated a complaint and turned her back away from the tree that the…thing was hiding behind. Connor walked by the tree, his eyes examining it as he walked by………

Nothing. Nothing was there. Just a tree… Connor continued walking away, getting to where Delia certainly wouldn't be able to see him. Leaves crunching from behind! Connor heard the leaves and out of a military-trained reaction, rolled to the right, safely away from where he was standing. An almost-invisible man ran right where Connor had been standing and Connor realized what he was seeing. Somebody was wearing some kind of suit that made him or her inperceivable to the eye…all of them except for the outline of their body.

The figure stopped and it's head whipped around, looking straight at Connor. Judging by the figure's chest, it was definitely a girl and she was probably fast and agile. Connor heard the sound of a blade being pulled from a sheath and his eyes saw a very slender object coming from the top of her arm. She's got a sword! Connor jumped back as the girl went in for her first strike. Connor grabbed a nearby branch and tore it off the tree. It was about half a foot wide and a good ten feet long. This'll help until I can find a weapon… But somehow…somehow he knew the blade would cut through the thick branch. Nah, it couldn't… SCHINK!

It did.

As the young woman was whirling around from her last aggression, Connor dove forward, smashing her into the ground. It was strange to attack someone that was almost invisible; as if diving at a target you know is there but you can't see it. The assailant was only stunned for a brief second and Connor started dealing blows to her face. Suddenly, on one hit, part of the woman's mask came off, revealing a part of her cheek. "No," came a girl's voice. It was in another language but…I know what she said! That was another language… Connor didn't know how he knew it but he would resolve that later. He dealt more blows and with each one, more of the invisible suit came off. After the sixth punch, the whole head part of the suit had been ripped off.

The assassin was Asian, what country Connor wasn't sure of but her face showed obvious ire and that meant he had to knock her out somehow. Suddenly he remembered that she still had that blade out but it was too late—he felt a sudden void enter him, through his chest and out his back. It slowly went back out of him but the pain was unbelievably overwhelming. He could now see the blade attached to the killer's invisible arm. He looked down and saw his insides, intestines and stomach but parts of it were…flickering somehow…oh. The part of the suit that was on the blade had come off of the blade and was inside him, not working right. Connor started seeing dots but as he watched his insides…they were growing back?! Connor uttered a moan of horror as he watched his intestines slowly regenerate back to what they were before the large blade had cut into him. In about fifteen more seconds, his skin was back, though the pain was still there.

The Asian girl stood over him, the blade sinking back into her arm. There were holes all over the girl's suit, revealing patches of skin here and there and…strange, unfamiliar looking devices imbedded into her, sticking out of her skin. The blade had come from one of them.

"Who—what are you," Connor started to ask but some kind of gun came out of one of the devices on her right arm and he dove to his right, dodging the proton lasers. They had protons back…now?! I thought they weren't invented until 2009!! Connor, once recovered from his dive, jumped at a tree, then bounced off of it onto another, then did the same thing, and finally, he crashed into the assassin. She…it took Connor a few seconds to realize that she had growled at him. She just growled?! What in the world are you? She started to raise her right hand but he kicked it away and planted his left heel into her throat. She wasn't going to stop until he—and probably Delia—were dead…and that left him no choice but to kill her. "You had it coming," he said, then crushed her neck. The bones popping told him she was dead and blood that started flooding from her mouth, ears, nose, and eyes told Connor that she had already been hurt…but from what, he wondered. He hadn't done anything that would make her hemmorhage.

How strange that she should—his thoughts were interrupted by another woman's voice—Delia! "Connor! Are you okay?" She raced down the small him she was on top of him, and when she reached him, hugged him around the neck. A second later she stepped back and started looking over him. "Are you okay? Did you take any hits, any at all?" Connor just shook his head and nodded in the corpse's direction.

"She's dead, and yes, I took a hit…in a way."

She frowned. "Explain."

"She had a blade and she got it right through me—as in right into my chest and out the other end. When she pulled it back out, I looked down at myself and saw my…my insides and they were regenerating."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Regenerating?? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Every thing grew back?" Connor nodded and showed her his stomach. He had a large scar where the sword had gone into him; she looked at his back and saw that there was a scar there too. Obvious proof that he wasn't lying. She had watched him recover and nursed him a few times too, and she has seen him without his shirt on enough to know that those two scars had never been there before.

"Maybe it's…," she tried to think about what it could be but her mind went blank…except for a gut feeling that she already knew that he could do this. She…it was just an instinct. Delia shrugged it off and kept trying to think of a solution. "Perhaps—well, there are for sure—things about time travel that we don't of, especially things about how are bodies are going to handle it. We weren't sure if we would come back with both arms, our head, etc. Maybe time travel somehoe altered my body's anatomy to where we heal a lot faster."

Connor nodded, accepting the theory but knowing and well-aware of the fact that it probably wasn't true. He had the feeling that she kind of felt that she already knew that he could do it. They both had the same instincts but Connor knew she'd deny knowing it until the truth was found…Delia was like that. You usually could never tell what she was really thinking half the time.

Delia turned and looked at the dead body of the Asian killer. Her neck was crushed badly and the blood was now all around her head. She was so soaked that Delia couldn't really tell what she looked like. "What did you do to her?"

Connor shrugged. "I just crushed her neck. All the rest of that blood came from a previous injury or something fragile that I woke up during the fight."

Delia bent down and mumbled, "I think I'm going to autopsy her." Connor made a gross look and replied, "Just what exactly are you going to autopsy her with? It's not like you're gonna find a scalpel, a weight device, and a few other much-needed tools for that kind of project. I mean, come on Delia, wake up. We don't have jackshit right now. And that's exactly what we need." Delia looked at him and said, "I know we don't have hardly anything other than the clothes on our backs—," Delia eyed Connor's torn up shirt lying nearby, "—the clothes on our bodies…but, it's quite obvious that this woman tried to kill you, it's quite obvious that nobody knows we're from the future except for the people on that plane and it's quite obvious that if I can find out anything about this woman, that might lead us to accomplishing our mission.

"As a military expert, you tell me what we should do," Delia finished. She had a dire smile on her face and Connor wondered what it was for.

Connor looked around, just to be sure, and said, "Can't argue with that. You do whatever you want with that…woman-thing but I'm gonna climb this tree and take a nap close to the top. If you need anything, just call me," he scurrilously finished. Connor turned away and looked at the tree he planned on climbing. He grabbed one branch and started pulling himself up.

Delia looked at the body and bent down when she suddenly realized that she could only see tiny parts of the woman's body. Delia almost screeched but realized that she could see the outline. Why didn't I notice that before, she wondered.

Connor had seen her jump when she actually looked at the body and knew almost exactly what she was thinking. Because you were too concerned about me to even notice the body. I had to show it to you before you saw it. He smiled and kept climbing.

Delia soon realized that the woman had been wearing an invisibility suit. "Amazing," she said. She had heard of them back—forward—in the future but she'd never seen them before and had always wanted to. Delia touched the smooth fabric; it felt cold like steel, but it was very silky and it seemed…Delia pulled her hand back the moment she realized that the woman wasn't wearing any clothes underneath the invisibility suit.

Delia thought she heard something cracking and popped and she looked up at Connor, who was still climbing up the tree. "Connor be careful, okay? That tree might be dead." Sounds like my mother, Connor thought as he continued climbing.

Delia started to look back down when—BAM!! The fist came from nowhere and caught her in the lower jaw, left of the palaver. Blood sprayed from her mouth and Delia rolled away as a quick reaction. She was about to shout Connor's name when another hit came…only this one wasn't a punch or kick. The sword sunk into her chest, above her left breast, just millimeters away from her heart. Delia cried out just before duskiness clustered over her eyes and head…

Connor heard the cry and, hanging by one arm, looked down and—, "NNNOOO!" Connor was farther than thirty feet high as he swung his legs a little bit, aiming for the attacker, and he let go of the branch, falling unbelievably fast. The ether rushing by him, he crashed into the assassin's head, crushing her in between Connor and the ground. A half-second later, she whipped one of her arms around from under Connor and connected with Connor's solar plexus. Flying away from the hit, Connor crashed into a tree—and went straight through it! The rest of the tree fell in a different trajectory, but Connor hit the ground and rolled several yards.

Grunting from the pain, Connor was slowly getting to his feet when, quite suddenly, the Asian was standing over him. She sent her knee into his rib cage and he flew up a few feet, then landed back on his knees. "AAA," he yelled as a couple ribs snapped away from the spine and ligaments holding onto them. The pain was tormenting, agonizing his thoughts. Distortion was clouding his vision like an old television. His breathing fast, trying to take in the pain, and his adrenaline pumping rapidly, Connor slowly tried to get to his feet. He did and the Asian's face showed surprise…and what seemed like a little bit of fear. "AAA," Connor cried out as his regeneration moved his ribs around and started reattaching them to the spine.

The Asian's head tilted a little to the left, as if realizing something.

Connor suddenly felt better, instantly realizing that he was healed; very, very abscessed but healed. He kept acting like he was hurt. Finally, the Asian stepped forward to finish him off. Connor grabbed her by her leg and swung her around into a tree.

She uttered a cry of pain as she hit the ground but quickly recovered, flinging away and getting good distance between Connor and herself. Her suit was now almost completely gone; she was completely nude before Connor but it was as if…

It was as if she didn't care. Connor frowned. Everybody I know would cover himself or herself up… Then he remembered that she had growled earlier and it finally hit him…she's not a human…she's something else, something… He couldn't figure it out and he didn't have time to. A gun formed on her arm and she raised it, aiming at Connor. Connor jumped onto a tree and started to rapidly climb up it. As he had expected, she shot the tree, aiming for him. The tree started falling and Connor pushed off of it, jumping away from the tree but pushing it onto the slayer.

Just before a sickening masticate, the Asian let out a strident scream as the tree fell onto her.

Connor hit the ground and slowly got back to his feet. Delia, he remembered and started limping over to her frail body. Cradling her in his arms, he checked for a pulse…there was none…

His eyes started to water up and he tried to fight the tears but…now he was alone. Alone in the past, to try and stop a war that he didn't even know who started…no…no, no, no, no, no, no…

Suddenly he heard leaves crunching and he looked up to find a short, teenage girl standing over him. She had a blue camera in her hand and fiery-red hair… She was one of the people on the plane they had broken into. She pointed to her camera with her index finger and said, "I got it all on tape. Hurry and we might be able to save her."

Connor was immediately on his feet, carrying Delia.

The girl started jogging, Connor following the girl with Delia in his arms; he was hurting but Delia, to him, was worth ignoring his own detriments. In a few minutes they hit a trail. "The name's Fidget," she said, "and I still don't believe that nitwit story about you and her being from the future but I do believe this…you two are in some serious trouble."