Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #11 February 2015 | Page 48

passed.
Hiroshi expected this; if it had been his unit moving
among Russians, they would have done the same.
He noted that Lunarites did not use their spears in that
manner. Instead, he noted that, when passing a corpse,
they would stop and press one of their three-fingered
hands to the forehead of the dead man. Are they praying for their victims? he wondered. ation-long wars,
their civilisation shattered beyond repair.
Is that what will happen to us, Hiroshi wondered. Will
we blasted our worlds into ruins?
“Help.”

in the ground. Hiro-shi’s face contorted in horror at
what he saw. Kato’s right arm was a mangled lump of
flesh and raw bone. His blood-soaked dark blue uniform was black in the purple light. The right side of his
uniform was shredded and in the dim light, it looked
like his intestines were poking through a tear in his
abdomen.
“Hiroshi, is that you?”
The final horror hit Hiroshi like a brick smashing into
his face; Kato’s face was blackened with burns, his eyes
swollen shut.
“Hiroshi, my arm hurts. How is my arm?”

“Kato, just rest easy. You’ll be fine.” Hiroshi suppressed
Hiroshi’s eyes snapped open. He was certain he had
an urge to vomit. He knew that Kato wouldn’t be alive
heard someone. He peeked over the Moon cow. No one for long.
was moving.
“Hirosh, I think I’m dying. I can’t open my eyes. Tell
“Hello?” he said.
my mother… she’ll be worried that I’m not wearing my
coat in the cold.”
“Help.”
Hiroshi suppressed tears as Kato spoke. He wanted to
It sounded like Kato. The jovial young man from Tokyo run, but found himself rooted to the spot.
had always been quick with a joke when things grew
rough. Hiroshi couldn’t see him; in the purple light, it
“I’ll tell her. I’ll tell her not to worry.”
was hard to make out more than human-shaped shad“Okay. I wish I could be home right now. I want to see
owy figures on the ground.
the girls in Ueno Park. I want to…”
“Kato, is that you?”
Kato’s voice faded into a whisper. Hiroshi couldn’t
“Hiroshi…help me…I’m shot.”
bring himself to get any closer to his dying comrade.
He sat there, watching Kato’s mouth move slower and
He has to be close, Hiroshi thought. He took a deep
slower. Abruptly, Kato let out a long moan and then lay
breath and, remaining as low as pos-sible, left the rela- still.
tive safety of his hiding spot and crept among the bodies of his fellow soldiers. He tried to avoid looking into “Kato? Kato?” Hiroshi held his hand beneath Kato’s
the faces, the blank, staring eyes, the mouths frozen in charred nose. He felt no breath. “I’m sorry I couldn’t
cries of pain and horror.
help you,” he said. He was about to return to the Moon
cow’s corpse when he heard the tramp of feet ap“Kato, where are you?”
proaching from the direction of the Russian position.
“Over here.” The voice was to his left, near the wall of
the cavern. He scuttled in the di-rection of the sound.
He found his squad-mate lying in a slight depression

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He did the first thing he could think of; he wedged
himself between Kato’s corpse and the cavern wall. He
tried to calm down enough to control his breathing,