Battle for Earth Ch. 03

"Oscar!" Menja continued to scream, rocketing toward Oscar.

Oscar lay on the ground, panting and sweating bullets trying to push the dead, heavy tiger off him, but found it too heavy for him. Menja landed on the ground and pulled the carcass off her future husband with ease. His bulletproof vest was slightly torn from the tiger's claws swiping at it. His neck was bleeding from a scratch that the tiger took but it wasn't deep. Blood that oozed out of the dead tiger's bullet holes stained much of Oscar's face and body.

That moment of man vs beast, with her man coming out on top, made Menja love him even more. Oscar checked the magazine of his firearm to see if he was empty or not. He looked beside him and gave the dead tiger a gentle nudge of his shoe.

"I guess it's dead now. Fuck, I wasn't quick enough on the draw though. It got me on my damn neck. Hey, Menja do you think you can--"

Menja flew towards him like a missile, almost knocking him over. She looked up at him with big eyes almost on the verge of overflowing.

"Menja, what's wrong?"

Her voice hitched and hiccoughed as she cried out in anguish "You...you were so cool. The way you...killed it. But I was also afraid that I was too late to save you."

"Menja," he said her name endearingly. He smiled at her large, teary bug eyes looking so worried and on the edge of letting open the floodgates. "You don't have that dark a soul after all."

Menja stared back at him and realized the weight his words carried. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and turned her head away, embarrassed.

"I won't tell him. But this is dangerous. This tiger must have escaped from a zoo around here and found its way here. Guess this means I must keep my eyes open for more of them."

"Not to worry, big dick! I'm going to take this tiger back inside and skin it. Then I'm going to enchant its pelt to mask you as a frightening monster in the presence of other predators. But first I need to bleed it out. Let's get started right now!"

**Paris (France)**

Western Europe, Region 10

Driving up to the opened gates of the presidential Elysee palace, Roxane and Elred were still not talking to one another. He had tried at first to get her to talk to him without first apologizing to her, but she wanted an apology before speaking to him. His pride would not let him and so, for three days straight, there was silence between them. Roxane prepared her own meals and drinks, and Elred did the same.

Roxane stepped out of her car and began to move all the supplies she had collected over the previous seven days into the palace, all by herself. Elred stepped out of the car with his arms crossed over his chest and then sprinted toward the palace wall, running up it till he reached the roof. Roxane had to stop and take a moment to marvel at Elred's ability to scale walls without using his hands. On top of the roof, Elred sat cross-legged and contemplated his earlier actions that got him to this point. Roxane sighed, dreading carrying more of the large and heavy boxes into the palace herself.

Several hours passed and daylight began to dim, marking the end of the day and welcoming the night. Roxane parked the car inside of the palace courtyard behind the gates. Even then, she locked it after she finished settling into her new home. She took the time to shower before fixing herself something to eat. Without Elred, dinner at the large dining table wasn't nearly as exciting or fulfilling as she had thought it would be.

With a dejected sigh, she placed her utensils down on her plate, alongside the half-eaten steak and greens. She found a door that led to the palace roof, a door previously used only by security and maintenance workers. Along the way, Roxane found a small light-based phone sitting in the stairwell. She picked it up and turned it on. It wasn't locked so turning it on was as easy as swiping her finger across the surface to give it the command to turn on. The phone had hundreds of apps on it, and she kept swiping across on the home screen to try and see what kind of apps the previous owner of the phone had as she walked up the stairs.

"Who had the time to use all these damn apps?" she asked herself.

She came upon the roof entrance door and stopped in front of it. She lowered the phone down from her face and stared at the "Aucune entree" sign on the door.

"It's okay, Roxane, it's okay," she assured herself. "On the other side, there's a very angry sun elf who I slapped when he came on too strong. Nothing and no one to be afraid of."

She pushed the door open. Usually, an alarm would have rung when crossing into an area where unauthorized people were not allowed. No such alarm rang this time. Roxane walked outside and looked around for Elred. The last time she had seen him was when they arrived at the palace. Now he was sitting on the left side of the roof, cross-legged, with his back determinedly turned to her. And presumably with his arms crossed in front of his chest, in a huff.

He was so close yet he felt so far away from her.

"Even I can't hold a grudge for this long. So how can he?" She swallowed her nervous anticipation and took a few steps towards him, before halting as nerves overcame her. In confusion, she looked around and then down at the phone she was carrying, noticing for the first time one of the apps was flashing and had a number '1' on its upper left corner.

"Message the World?" she whispered to herself. She touched the screen and saw the app's screen pop up. There was a list of categories including 'Funny' 'Fail' 'Mean' 'Emotional' 'Animals' and 'New.' She ended up on a new screen when she pressed 'latest videos.'

"Oh my God!" Roxane gasped as she realized the importance of what she saw looking at. Remembering that she had another important matter to deal with first, she placed the phone in her pocket and approached Elred.

"Elred, I don't care if you're still mad at me for how I reacted to you grabbing my chest. Let me be the first to extend an olive branch and...Elred?" She walked over and pulled his shoulder. She was right, he had his arms crossed in front of his chest. But what at first, she thought was meditation, turned out to be nothing but, "Sleep? You were sleeping this whole time...?" Roxane stared blankly at him. Then laughter cracked out of her, waking Elred up.

"Who's there?" he said jumping up to his feet wielding a small dagger. "Roxane? I-I mean, woman?"

"Took you long enough to wake up. You know you don't snore when you sleep?"

"I--you weren't supposed to see me like that. What do you want from the boob grabbing sun elf?"

"Oh that's right, I called you boob grabber. I wanted to tell you, Mr. Pride, that I forgive you for grabbing my titty."

Elred looked happy and fixed and patted his tunic. "I accept your apology," he said walking past Roxane.

But Roxane grabbed Elred by his wrist with a strong grip, pulled him back and grabbed him by his ears.

"You're not getting off that easy, blondie! Apologize to me too, right now!"

"My ears aren't playthings for you to grab them like Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop it, woman!"

"My name isn't 'Woman', it's Roxane. And I'm not your woman until after I'm married to you! Now apologize to me right now or your new home will be out here!"

"Fine. I apo...apo...I take back my past action! And I hope we can bury this misunderstanding and move forward." Elred grunted in pain from the tight grip on his ears.

"Alright fine, I guess. With that mess out of the way, I wanted to show you this. I haven't watched it, but it's important."

"What are you referring to wom...pardon me. I mean, Roxane."

"I'm referring to this." Roxane held up the phone so they could both watch it.

"Your species has managed to harness the power of crystallized magic?

"Hardly! This is technology. You know, science?"

Elred gave Roxane a confused look. Roxane pressed play on the video sent out to the world from Brandon Evans and Miyuki.

**Yaounde, Cameroon**

Central Africa, Region 18

In learning how to use daggers in future sparring sessions and hunts, Eposi first needed to practice how to wield two weapons and that started with wielding two hunting knives. Eposi slashed at wooden dummies Methild had cut and sculpted for her from trees in the jungle. Eposi's face, arms and chest were covered in a thick layer of sweat. Methild watched from a distance at first to see how Eposi handled herself firstly by attacking the dummies without any set technique. Methild wasn't surprised at how stiff she looked out there.

"Eposi, it's clear to me that ye are trying too hard to look experienced, when in fact ye should not worry about how ye look or even if ye may trip. Fight like ye would if ye were being attacked by those wooden dummies. Do ye want me to help ye with that?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

Methild walked over to join her.

"Stop!" she commanded, halting Methild from advancing further. Eposi turned back to her wooden targets and performed a twisting technique. She slashed a wooden dummy twice on its chest before stabbing the back of its head with a knife. As amazing as it looked, she almost slipped and fell on one of her blades.

"I'm going out to hunt dinner. Have anything in mind?"

"Elephant meat."

"Elephant meat it is then."

An hour went by, then a second. Eposi trained and practiced non-stop. Her entire shirt and shorts were drenched in sweat. Placing her knives back in their belt sheaths, she went back inside the palace to take a shower and change.

Inside one of the palace's many bathrooms, Eposi automatically pulled out her phone, not having checked it for three days. It was habit, with no real reason to check it anymore as no one would be contacting her. But, when she turned it on and swiped her finger across it, she found she had one new message from her MtW app

"Is this for real?" she asked her herself. She clicked on the app and pressed on the newest video.

Now, she was sweating from a different form of anticipation. She sat on the rim of the large bathtub and watched Brandon Evans and Miyuki's recording. She already knew from Methild that she was not the only human left on the earth, but it had been a week since she had seen another human face alive and wandering about as she had been. She had no way of contacting him personally, but she did have a way of still reaching him. The same app he had used.

Eposi smiled and laughed, viewing the video repeatedly. "Methild and I need to send out our own video."

It had been over two hours since Methild left. He finally returned with three large slices of elephant meat in duffel bags he had found. Eposi waited for him outside of the palace gates and helped him move the large cuts of elephant using a wheelbarrow. They placed the meat inside a refrigerator and retreated to the solarium in the palace.

"How did your practice go, Eposi?"

"It went well. It's strange wielding two knives instead of one or a large machete. Do you prefer to fight with two weapons instead of one?"

"I do. And there are more ways to fight than using weapons, Eposi. There's also magic."

"Magic?"

"Yes, Magic. Manipulation of natural energies. Use of the elements or empowering items or weapons and armor with enchantments. I could enchant ye knives to be as hot as magma. Or pack the power of the earth itself."

"That all sounds helpful, thank you. But, there's something I need to show you right now." Eposi pulled her phone out and took a seat next to him, showing him the video Brandon and Miyuki had sent out.

Methild watched the video amazed at the sight of a human male and a supernaturally beautiful woman like Miyuki staring into the camera.

"By Lolth's heart, is this true Eposi? Is this a...um."

"This is a recording made by another human with his snow woman girlfriend. I mean wife...I'm not sure. But this is proof that I am not the last human on earth. We need to send out our own video too, right now!"

**Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (Australia)**

Australia/ Oceania, Region 26

With a population of over 2 million when humans were still around, Canberra was the capital city of the continent and country of Australia. Brandon and Miyuki arrived in the suburb of Deakin, where he sought out a specific store. He found a small strip mall beside the main road and walked up to the front of an ice cream store. He tugged on the handle of the door and, not surprisingly, found it locked.

Miyuki joined him, just in time to see him pick up a large rock and chuck it through the side window. Glass shattered as the rock fell into the store with a heavy thud, scratching the hardwood floor. The store alarm went off as Brandon waltzed inside and rummaged through the refrigerators, grabbing boxes of popsicles.

"Brandon. Brandon!" Miyuki yelled, trying to sound louder than the alarm blaring inside of the store.

"What is it!?"

"Why do you break into stores!?"

"Well, because there's no one else around to stop me, besides you. Besides, many stores are already locked. It's like whatever happened when everyone, vanished; the world seemed to reset itself to the day before. You should try it."

The Yuki-Onna seemed unsure at first. She left the ice cream shop and walked over to a bakery store two stores down.

She wondered which approach would be best. She could create a giant snowball and break the window beside the door. She could cut open the door using an ice knife. Instead, she blew an icy stream of air onto the door and window. The glass turned dark blue, covered in frost. She applied a little pressure to the window with her finger and watched the glass shatter before her, no alarms tripped this time. Inside she simply phased through the counter as a cloud of mist and re-solidified when she was on the other side. She reached inside a display case, greedily grabbing cupcakes and muffins and stuffing them into her mouth.

"Hey, Miyuki you alright over here? I heard glass shatter and--" Brandon watched his future wife devour three muffins at a time, with a big smile on her face. "Aw, you look so cute."

"Really?"

"Are you kidding me, you're about the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."

Overflowing with joy and love, Miyuki changed into mist, flew over to Brandon, and then solidified once again. She had a cupcake in her mouth and offered it to him. He pulled her in close and grabbed the cupcake from her with his mouth, taking a bite out of it and chewing, while Miyuki ate the other half. Swallowing, Miyuki and Brandon shared a kiss. Her tongue was surprisingly warm, although the rest of her mouth was barely lukewarm. Pulling back, Brandon blew a short, thick puff of mist from his mouth like cigarette smoke.

"Whoa," Brandon uttered, surprised.

"Did you like it?"

"Heck yeah. Miyuki, listen let's get back on the road. I need to give you directions on how to get to 'The Lodge.' That was the old home of the prime minister of Australia. I have a GPS Navigator that I stole from a shop, and the lodge should be in this neighborhood somewhere.

They walked back to the sled. With Brandon beside her, Miyuki performed a twisting movement with her arms, changing the boring old sled into a white and blue sleigh with silver runners. With another twist of her hands, Miyuki enchanted the sleigh to move by itself. Brandon held the navigator in his hands while the Yuki-Onna wrapped an arm around his while they both watched the tiny car symbol following the path that led to their destination. It was not a long trek, only thirty minutes later when Brandon and Miyuki finally arrived at The Lodge. It was a modest sized home located not far from the parliamentary house.

"Is this it?" Brandon said in disbelief. "They make it look so much larger on the light screen television."

"Brandon, you shouldn't offend the ruling house of your forebears. Like your home before, you need to show this one respect if you are to be a leader in the future."

"I suppose so." Brandon groaned a little. He stepped out of the sleigh and walked past the black gates of the house. Miyuki followed but first placed two snow beasts she created with her power to act as guard dogs, that circled the protective walls surrounding the grounds.

Brandon spent no time in getting a much-needed shower, undressing as soon as he He found the closest bathroom with a shower tub. Miyuki shadowed him, following him into the bathroom. He did not deliberately put on a show for his wife-to-be, but the sight of his strong back and tight ass was enough eye candy for her. As he started up the shower, she grabbed his phone from his pants pocket and phased through the door turning on the phone by childishly pressing her fingertip on the screen. The home screen appeared and so did all the apps on it. Miyuki looked for the MtW app and pressed it. She found a room to re-watch the video she and Brandon made. But as she re-watched the video, a 'ding' sound came from the phone. The Yuki-Onna moved her finger all over the screen, hoping to find what had made the sound. Her finger pressed on the arrow symbol in the upper left corner. And found herself back on MtW, although at a different screen with different categories.

Drawn to the 'new' category and the number 1 in white surrounded by a red square, she pressed it and saw her and Brandon's video. But below theirs--was a new video from a completely different couple from somewhere else in the world. Miyuki pressed it and watched the video.