3.     Beginning With After

Rick woke. It wasn't a slow dreamy wakening, but a sharp tug into the bright light of the morning after. There was no confusion as he opened his eyes - Rick knew where he was, knew who he was with, how he had spent his time the previous night. The only thing that escaped his mind was the answer to the question that buzzed about his mind - 'what now?'

They were friends. They were partners. And they had fucked.

What now?

Careful not to disturb the sleeping man next to him, Rick rolled out of Laurie's arms and stood up, cataloguing various aches and strains as he moved. Wincing, he traced a bite mark on his forearm, cursing his memory when images and feelings flooded back, stirring parts of him that were best left undisturbed.

Leaving Laurie naked and asleep on the floor, Rick showered. Bite marks, bruises, and cuts. His body was a tapestry, undeniable proof that something had happened last night that shouldn't have.

Rick lingered under the comforting spray of the shower. The last thing he wanted to do was to go back into that room and tell Laurie that their partnership was over. Finished. Contract null and void.

They had fucked.

And that sort of mindless nonsense had a way of changing everything.

Finally, Rick admitted that he was avoiding Laurie and what came after. With dramatic sigh he turned off the water. They were going to have to talk.

"We have to talk."

"I know," Laurie said, already awake when Rick entered the bedroom, "about last night. It was a spur of the moment thing. It meant nothing more than that, right?"

"Right." Rick agreed instantly, as he tried not to stare at the lean, naked body that was stretching next to the bed. Instead, he focused on Laurie's face, on the beads of sweat that were collecting on the pale forehead.

"Good." Laurie looked away as he pulled on a pair of pants. "I'm glad we worked that out."

Rick nodded. "Me too."

"Okay."

"Yeah."

A charged silence stretched out before them. Laurie stared out the window while Rick's eyes stayed fixed on Laurie. Could it really be this simple? Label it a mistake and move on?

Laurie spoke first, turning an expressionless face to Rick. "So- I have to get those circuit boards from Tye. A soldering iron too."

Rick nodded and Laurie walked past him still reeking of sex, the smell hanging in the air even after the door swung shut. Sighing, Rick took Laurie's spot on the bed and began to lose himself in thought. Thinking of Laurie, meeting his thrusts with breathless abandon, how good it felt to just exist in that moment with no responsibilities, nothing but the siren call of pleasure.

Thinking of how stupid it was to fuck a colleague. Rick hoped they could survive this. They were a formidable team and Rick was so close to retirement. They would get over his hiccup.

He was jerked out of his contemplation when the door snapped open and Laurie stumbled into the room.

"Mercs!" The door was shut and bolted.

Springing into action, Rick fished a gauge from under the bed while Laurie gathered up loose plans and equipment, thrusting them into a duffel bag.

"Get the comp. Erase the hard disk." Rick snapped, chambering a bullet.

"No time." Laurie said. "They're in the foyer. We have to jet. Now Rick."

"Fuck." Rick turned to jerk the window open when the sound of splintering wood told him it was too late...

The door exploded inwards, swinging on hinges warped by the force of the blow unleashed upon it. Rick kept his gaze trained on the door, gauge held before him, snapping it from side to side, following the movement of his eyes. A haze of dust and wood chips floated aimlessly through the room, lending a surreal, dream like air to the morning.

As the dust settled, Rick listened for sounds of movement, but there was nothing. It was quiet, too quiet. There were no calls for surrender and no movement from the other side of the doorway. Minutes ticked by, passing as if they were hours, working at the frayed control Rick was exercising over his emotions. He battled away internally, reaching for a semblance of calm that he didn't possess, but trying anyway. His life depended on this - their lives depended on this.

The faintest flicker grabbed his attention, heralding the arrival of the first merc, leaping into the room clutching a big gauge.

Time stopped and for a few heartbeats, Rick did nothing but stare as the muzzle of the merc's gun centered on his chest. Just one shot and he would be dead - chest a bleeding hole, body twitching as his life faded away and his blood pooled on the dusty floor.

No. He wasn't going to die here, not on this planet and not at the hands of this man. No.

Rick's fingers tightened on the trigger and the gauge bucked in his hand, time moving again as the three bullets hit their mark, colliding with the chest of the merc. He watched as the man jerked with the impact of each bullet, arms flailing as he was propelled backwards, out into the hall.

At the exact moment of the other man's death, calm found Rick and a strange sense of unreality settled upon him, the flow of time speeding up until everything was a blur of moving colours that only he could decode.

Rick watched Laurie hit the floor, rolling toward him and out of the line of fire before his own partner could accidentally shoot him, a ball of blue denim and blonde hair hurtling from one side of the room to the other.

He saw the next merc enter, gun firing indiscriminately into the room, a montage of grey and black set off by angry red bursts.

Sensing the immediate danger, his focus narrowed until there was only Rick, his gauge and the red mist of death as each bullet hit its mark, the hollow-points creating irreparable damage before exiting its victim.

More mercs entered, falling to the floor like dominos as Rick picked them off with precise firing. It was a slaughter and they stood no chance. They writhed on the floor, their twisted faces and harrowed screams of pain drowned out by the red of Rick's vision and the roar in his ears.

He emptied the magazine, squeezing the trigger despite the gun's empty state. It clicked over and over until Laurie's strong grip settled on his arm.

"Rick, stop. There's no more."

Rick looked into Laurie's eyes and read the truth there. He lowered the gun, but continued to stare at the other man, unable to look away.

To do so would only confirm what he had just done.

The faint sound of sirens caught their attention, but Rick could move. He HAD to look at Laurie.

Desperate, Laurie tugged his arm, "Rick, we gotta go NOW."

Eyes pinned on the back of Laurie's head, Rick allowed himself to be pulled out the door and over the bodies of the dead men and women. Something cracked under his foot and his gaze instinctively sought the cause.

His foot recoiled from the slim wrist, his eyes taking in the body of the merc beneath him. Sightless eyes, opened wide in agony, mouth agape, the corpse stared at him in silent accusation.

Nauseated, Rick stumbled after Laurie, his mind overloading with information and images, feelings and sounds as the gunfight played back on continuos loop in his memory.

His first kill, forced backwards as three bullets pierced skin and bone. His second kill, one to the heart. Third, fourth and fifth copping multiple bullets to the mid-section and number six losing the left side of her head. Seven, eight, nine... they were dead, all dead.

And Rick had become a murderer.

And it had all started with a simple grappling session.