Chapter 22: Showdown

Mahn swung at the disgusting hunter child but it swiftly leaped back away from him hissing. Its black eyes were insectile and its behavior so alien that the idea of it being related to humans seemed far fetched. Studying the smaller creature, Mahn marveled at it. The hunter child had no visible sex organs. When would its eyes change from black to red like the adults? When would show signs of sexual maturity?

Mahn attacked it again. Rat-quick, the creature whipped away from him and ran into the maze, vanishing in the steam.

Not sensing any further danger, Mahn took the opportunity to treat his bleeding wound. Blood was like a beacon to the hunters. They could smell it over great distances.

Mahn got out some salvaged bandages and pressed them as best he could against the wound to slow the bleeding on his shoulder. He then tied a tight knot to keep the bandage in place. He ventured through a few chambers and finally found a personnel locker room, all the while keeping direct pressure on his wound with one hand.

At one time, this locker room would have been lit up and buzzing with conversation as a personnel team changing into their work uniforms. Now it was silent and dark like an abandoned cellar.

The first aid kit had been raided. There was nothing left inside but empty packages, eye drops and a few ointments for burns. He searched the personnel lockers and managed to find a clean t-shirt. After the bleeding stopped and the bandage needed to be changed, he could use the clean cloth to replace the bandage.

Mahn needed to find a way to the bridge. The plan to double back to help rescue Nadia was moot as long as Gallo still had control of the ship. If Gallo could lock Nadia up, he could trap any of them at any time if they didn't get to the bridge and stop him.

Mahn reached the area where the two dead hunter children should be. As he walked through the junction, he saw that one of them had been partially eaten already. Perhaps the child that had escaped had come back for an easy meal and had snacked on it's comrade.

Little bastard.

Mahn pressed on, hurrying through the maze-like chambers which seemed endless. He knew eventually he would have to find stairs because he was so far below the level of the bridge. A fog filled chamber lay before him it was empty of any machinery and storage shelves.

Through the fog, Mahn saw Scarface at the other side of the room, waiting for him.

His heart nearly stopped.

Mahn closed his eyes. Of all the times they had crossed paths, they had never fought for longer than a few melee exchanges. He wasn't sure if he was strong enough to kill Scarface one on one and now was a bad time to try, considering his wounded shoulder.

Scarface was glaring at him.

He watched the leader of the hunters make challenging gestures at him. It was clear that Scarface wanted to end their rivalry once and for all. The spear that the beast carried looked especially dangerous up close.

Scarface struck it's chest with a fist. It wanted Mahn to attack it.

Mahn knew that the hunters were intelligent but he wasn't sure to what degree. Considering they were once human, he was unsure of why the hunters had lost the ability of speech. They communicated like animals through body language, posturing and noises.

Scarface struck it's chest again, harder this time. It was growing impatient.

There was a good chance that somehow, the consumption of human flesh had corrupted their progression. Human beings required a variety of foods to provide carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, proteins and starches to maintain health. Some of the essential nutrients could be found in the red meat of humans, but not enough to sustain a healthy diet. Perhaps the chronic deprivation of certain nutrients had reduced brain function, limited the hunter's intelligence or even stunted their mutation keeping them from excelling into a higher form of human and reduced them to the monsters they had become.

Scarface growled angrily. The ruddy eyes were glaring at him.

This drastic shift from humanity to such bestial behavior would take generations to complete. The entire flight from Earth to Pandorum was 123 years. To prevent long term cryogenic sleep, portions of the ship were awakened every eight years for a few months at a time. The awake team was supposed to wake up the next team and then reenter cryogenic sleep to begin another eight year rotation until the flight was completed. The ship was never to be unattended and no one aboard was supposed to remain in cryogenic for longer than eight years.

If these hunters were the offspring of one of the very first crew rotations, decades could have passed. Several generations of hunters could have lived and died.

Mahn also suspected that on different parts of the Elysium, other humans had awaken and also survived as Leland, Nadia and Bower had. The ship was vast, he and his companions had only traveled through a small portion of it. They was a total of 60,000 people on board.

Scarface watched him.

Generations had passed. Mahn had been awake for a year at most maybe less. The hunters had been awake for most of the flight, maybe fifty years? Seventy-five years perhaps? That could be enough time to degrade from humans into beasts. The hunters had abandoned a wide variety of foods and relied on a steady diet of flesh to their own degradation.

Mahn realized that the hunters they were fighting might never have been human. They could easily be a different generation, the original human crew could have died off or been killed years ago. Scarface might have been born a hunter child, ignorant of human life, interaction and human behavior. From birth, the hunter children viewed humans as prey, not ancestors or fellow human beings.

Scarface growled again.

Mahn studied the creature. There was still unmistakable human resemblance, "We have fought many times you and I. This will be our last."

The leader of the hunter pack was silent.

"There will be no mercy," Mahn warned it, "If I get the upper hand, I will finish you."

The beast growled menacingly at him showing its tusked teeth.

As soon as Mahn reached to draw the swords from his back, his shoulder wound started to bleed again. It hurt badly, throbbing with a sharpness that almost felt like a burn. At least his shoulder didn't feel weakened too significantly.

Scarface looked excited.

The fork that they were facing off in was about ten feet by ten feet. Even though it was small, it seemed bigger because of the four possible exit hallways.

Scarface didn't move. It seemed to be waiting for Mahn to attack first.

Mahn assumed a twin sword fighting stance.

The beast glared.

Mahn waited.

It was a standoff like in the old western movies. After a few seconds passed and neither warrior made a move, Mahn would not have been surprised to see a tumbleweed blow between them from one of the side room to the other.

Scarface growled again. This growl was deep and angry. He began to circle Mahn.

In response, Mahn circled in the same direction.

"Well," Mahn told Scarface softly, "Let us begin."

Scarface attacked.

At first, Mahn thought it was going to thrust the spear at his heart as it always had in the past, so he prepared to parry. At the last second, Scarface swung forward with the back end of the spear, catching him on the side of the face with the spear's shaft. The stroke knocked Mahn flat on his back.

Crying out triumphantly, Scarface plunged the spear downwards at Mahn's throat.

Mahn crossed his swords and parried upwards. The spear was caught between the two swords and the force of the attack was transferred to the grating a few inches above his head. Curling his knees up to his chest, Mahn kicked the beast as hard as he could with both feet in it's face.

Scarface bellowed with rage as it was knocked backwards. It had lost his grip on the spear. The weapon remained stuck in the grating.

Mahn scrambled to his feet as Scarface began to circle him again panting and growling.

Both of them had already drawn blood on each other. Mahn had a thin cut to his temple and Scarface was bleeding from its mouth.

The monster was circling to try and get back to the spear in order to retrieve it. Mahn allowed it to rearm itself. He wanted to win the battle fairly.

Scarface took a few hard tugs to free the spear from the grating.

Once again, a stand off ensued.

Mahn feigned a low attack with one sword then hacked viciously at Scarface's neck with the other. Scarface parried it and used the spear tip as a blade slashing at Mahn's midsection. Mahn parried.

Scarface let out a war cry and butt stroked at Mahn's head again. Mahn evaded the attack by retreating a few steps but to his horror, the beast whirled with it's initial wayward attack and stabbed at his chest. Mahn tried to parry it, metal clanging against metal sending sparks flying. He managed to forced the thrust away from his chest but the spear head pierced deep into the already wounded shoulder.

Scarface drove forward, thrusting the spear deeper and driving Mahn backward. Mahn swung the swords at it, trying to cripple its arms but Scarface let go of the spear stepping closer to bite his throat but as it did, Mahn threw an elbow, striking it squarely in the face. Scarface fell back, reaching, jerked the spear painfully from his shoulder and Mahn let out a cry even though he fought to not make a sound.

Blood flowed.

He was going to need more bandages.

Scarface lost two of it's front, lower teeth from the elbow strike and it did not look happy. Even more of the dark, hideous blood ran from it's mouth.

Mahn tried to move his shoulder and was frightened to find that it barely responded. He was surprised he could still move it after all the tissue damage it had sustained. That was at least something. Determined to win, he attacked the beast, hacking swiftly at it with both swords over and over again.

Scarface circled away from him, parrying and dodging his attacks. They had both assumed a dance of death, each whirling, ducking, parrying and dodging.

Mahn spotted an opening and took it, hacking at Scarface's hand as it gripped the spear, severing three of the monster's fingers in the process. It shrieked in pain. Mahn roundhouse kicked it hard in the head, sending it to the floor.

The wicked spear fell to the grating.

Disarmed again, Scarface rolled with inhuman agility, getting to it's feet before Mahn could attack it while it was down.

Both warriors were bleeding badly.

Mahn found that he could no longer maintain a grip on the sword with his wounded arm. The weapon slipped from his numb fingers and clanged to the floor.

It was now fangs and a claw against one sword.

The beast hurled itself at Mahn dodging a counter slash that he threw in response to it's attack. It managed to get it's wounded hand on Mahn's sword arm. They struggled briefly. Scarface reached with its good hand and gripped Mahn's throat. The claws on both the creature's hands were digging into his flesh. Driving forward, Scarface lifted Mahn into the air and slammed him against the wall.

Mahn saw a flash as his head came into contact with steel. He twisted his body, bringing one of his legs over the monster's arm. He used all his strength to force the monster's arm downward, breaking it's grip on his throat.

The beast curled it's ruined hand into a fist and hammered Mahn over the head sending him face first to the floor. He rolled, hacking at it's leg but it stepped back to safety allowing Mahn enough time to get back to his feet.

Scarface came forward again, clawing at Mahn's face but as he brought the sword up to parry it's attack, the beast grabbed his arm a second time but this time with it's good hand. It squeezed hard on his wrist, digging in the sharp claws. Crying out in pain, Mahn dropped the sword but threw a straight punch at its face knocking it back.

Scarface kicked his sword away. The circumstances of the fight had changed again. Now it was fangs and a claw against hands and feet.

The beast charged again Mahn did a spinning kick to it's midsection, knocking the air out of it. Undaunted, the beast tried grabbing his leg but Mahn stepped back.

They circled each other.

Mahn assumed a boxer's stance, "I guess I will have to beat you to death."

Like an enraged bull, Scarface charged again. It's ruined hand balled into a fist, it punched at Mahn then clawed at him with the other. He deftly blocked both attacks and stepped closer to the monster quickly grabbing it by the shoulder spikes. Using the beast's body weight against itself, he executed a hip throw, slamming Scarface to the floor as hard as he could.

As it made contact with the metal floor, the monster tried to grab onto Mahn. The sharp claws tore through the fabric gouging deep into his ribs.

Mahn saw the beast's eyes roll back into it's head for a split second on impact from the throw. He could feel the claws tearing his flesh but still focused on the attack and drew his knee across the monster's face with a loud crack.

The force of the blow to Scarface's jaw should have broke it and rendered the beast unconscious. Scarface's jaw didn't break and it remained lucid. It grappled with Mahn trying to bite the side of his stomach. Alarmed, Mahn fought to free himself from the creature's grip but it held fast. They struggled again, Mahn pushing the beast away and Scarface fighting to bite him. Scarface was too strong. Slowly, it overpowered Mahn and bit deep into the side of his abdomen. He screamed in pain and fear. He hammered the side of it's head with both fists, frantically trying to stop it's onslaught. Scarface bit deeper and tore out some of Mahn's flesh.

The pain nearly dropped him into a faint. His legs were weakened and he almost buckled.

Mahn noticed that one of the armor spikes on the creature's shoulders was loose. With one last desperate act, Mahn pulled the spike out and plunged it deep into the beast's neck repeatedly. Scarface bit him again, Mahn cried out in agony. He kept stabbing it and stabbing it. Scarface kept biting him. A deep darkness seemed to fill the room around him then it filled his vision.

Am I dying?

Before the blackness completely cut his sight off, he looked down and saw that Scarface was dead.

He had won.

The darkness swooped in like a bird of prey covering him in a blanket of black.

Mahn felt himself falling back as he lost consciousness.

He had won.