That night, they weren’t able to find a place to spend the night, so Rafaroy had to make a shelter using some tree branches. It was very cold, but staying next to his warm body was enough to stop her from freezing to death. He had hunted a couple of rabbits again, and she wasn’t able to hide her distaste.
“We need to change our diet. Isn’t there a river nearby? Somewhere we can get some fish?” she asked him, as she ate the rabbit for breakfast the following morning.
“There’s one, but we would have to make a small detour to get to it.”
“How long would it take us?” she asked, eating her last piece of meat.
“Like two hours, but I can’t assure you we’ll find fish in it,” he warned her.
“Most rivers around here, still have fish in them. Taucets have been smart not to destroy the planet’s natural resources,” she pointed out, licking one of her fingers. They hadn’t found water around their camp for washing.
“They depend on a planet’s resources,” he explained, picking up her hand and licking it himself.
She gasped, as chills of thrill rushed down her spine. “What are you doing?” she asked, barely able to utter the words.
He raised his eyes to look at her, with a naughty shine on them. “Cleaning up your fingers.”
“You don’t have to…” she moaned, as he swirled his tongue around her fingers.
“Oh, but I insist. You taste too delicious,” he assured her, sucking one of her fingers.
“Rafaroy… we have to go…” she protested, but her tone lacked conviction.
“I’m aware of that.”
But he continued to suck her fingers, turning every move into an intended seduction.
Suddenly, he pulled her into his lap and captured her lips in a passionate kiss, his tongue devouring her with a hunger impossible to satisfy.
Seconds later, he had pulled her jumpsuits down to her waist, and his lips had found her breasts. Kneading and kissing them he spiked her arousal to unexpected levels.
She moaned, tilting her head back, exposing herself even more to him, and he didn’t waste the chance to get her hard nipples inside his mouth, combining sucks and licks, kisses and nibbles until he had her rocking her hips, eager for more.
He pulled her clothes down to her ankles, and right there, in the middle of nowhere, under a few branches, he made her go down on his hard shaft.
With his hands on her hips, he helped her ride him, as fast and as deep as he could and soon they were both flying over the edge, dragged by the wild waves of pleasure and bliss.
Once more his seed turned every moment of pleasure into an epic occasion, blowing her mind and making her collapse over his chest, completely drained.
He kissed the top of her head and kept her there until she was able to breathe a bit better.
That day’s journey wasn’t as pleasant as the one from the day before. At mid-morning, it started to rain, and though he suggested that they stop and take cover, she rejected the idea. It was enough the time they were going to lose going down to the river, as to lose even more over a bit of rain.
He didn’t look very pleased but respected her wishes. By the time they reached the river, it had stopped raining, and the sun warmed up the afternoon a bit.
“I’ll take a bath while you fish for our dinner,” she told him, looking at the clear waters of the river.
“The water is too cold. You’ll freeze,” he warned her.
“Then, start a fire so I can warm up,” she told him, with a naughty grin. “I need to take a bath, desperately.”
He sighed and nodded.
Quickly, she took off all her clothes and entered the cold water. It was freezing, yes, but it was reinvigorating. She bathed as fast as possible, and when she came out, he had a big fire burning. She dried herself with her the clothes she had taken out and quickly put on the clean ones she had. She stayed a few more minutes next to the fire warming up before she went back to the river to wash the clothes she had been wearing.
Rafaroy was still in the middle of the river fishing their dinner and breakfast.
“Did you get anything?” she asked him, from the shore.
“Yes, a couple of salmons.” He took his hands out of the water and showed the fishes to her.
“Oh, that’s perfect. I’m so happy we came here.”
He smiled and went back to his work, while she went back to where they had set camp. That day, they were lucky enough to find a small cave next to the water that would provide them with enough shelter for the night.
After a few minutes he came out of the water with four fishes, he cleaned and put on sticks to roast on the fire.
“Would you take my bandages off? I’ll follow your example and take a bath while the food gets ready.”
“Yes, of course.”
A few minutes later, he was swimming in the river while she took care of the fishes. At some point, Rafaroy stood in the middle of the water and whistled at her.
Startled, she looked at him. “Someone is coming. Get my gun and don’t let it out of reach. I’ll be close, but out of sight,” he warned her before he disappeared under the water.
Scared, with her heart drumming in her chest, she forced herself to stay where she was, with Rafaroy’s gun at her side, praying she wouldn’t have to use it.
A few minutes later, two men showed up in her line of sight. The men saw her at the same time and frowned. Fortunately, they weren’t wearing uniforms, so she assumed they were just two guys hunting.
They spoke to each other before they approached her.
“Good evening, ma’am. You’re very far from home, don’t you think?” one of the men asked, with a slimy tone that sent chills down her spine.
“Good evening, gentlemen. You could say so, but that’s really none of your business.” She replied, in a cold tone.
“It’s very dangerous to be out here, all alone, especially for a woman, ma’am.” The man insisted.
“Who said I was alone? My husband is close by,” she said, in a very calm tone, that didn’t reveal just how nervous she was.
Both men looked around as if looking for her husband, not convinced he really existed. But then, one spotted Rafaroy’s boots and showed them to the other one.
“You should be careful, ma’am. There’s a fugitive cyborg in these woods. He’s armed and dangerous,” one of them warned her.
“Is that so? We didn’t hear anything about it,” she said, intrigued that Rafaroy’s escape was of public knowledge.
The other man gave his friend a nudge, silently ordering him to shut up. “We have some military friends. They told us.”
She realized the men were bounty hunters who were after Rafaroy. Those weren’t good news for them, and she tried to stay as calm.
“Ah, I see. Well, I assure you we haven’t seen any cyborg around here. In fact, I’ve never seen one in my life, at least, not off of the screens. Have you?” she asked them, with a candid smile.
“Yes, ma’am and they are very dangerous creatures, built to fight and unable to think rationally,” the most talkative guy replied, with a mix of fear and scorn on his tone.
She doubted they had seen a cyborg and surely they were attracted by the bounty on Rafaroy’s head. They wouldn’t stand a chance against him.
“I’ll make sure to tell my husband that,” she assured them, dismissing them.
One of the guys considered saying something more, but one look at the gun Elena had at her side, dissuaded him.
“Elena, is dinner ready?” Rafaroy’s voice echoed in the small beach, and both men almost jumped.
“Yes, sweetie, it’s ready,” she replied, in a loud tone, before she turned to look at the men. “If you wait a few more minutes, you’ll be able to meet my husband. He’s not very sociable, but I’m sure he won’t mind seeing you.” She was taking a risk asking them to stay, but her instinct was telling her they wouldn’t stick around. And they didn’t.
“There’s no need, ma’am. We’re already late. Have a good night.”
They turned around and disappeared in the same way they had come.
Rafaroy waited a few more minutes before he returned to where Elena was waiting for him. He wanted to be sure the men were long gone.
“That was close,” she protested when she saw him come from the river with the clean bandages on his hands.
“I know.” He nodded, taking a seat next to her, completely naked. Like her, he had washed his ragged jumpsuit, but he didn’t have a clean one to put on. The ones she had were way too small for a man as big as him.
“There’s a price on your head,” she muttered, taking the fishes out of the fire.
“Yes, I concluded that as well. We have to avoid meeting other people. I usually realize when there are other people around us, but I could get distracted,” he said with a self-deprecating scowl.
“I’ve endangered you by wanting to come here,” she stated with a worried tone.
“Those two are no threat to me, but I would like to get out of here without adding the death of humans to my list of sins,” he replied, taking the fish she was offering him.
“When do you think we’ll be able to get to my town?” she asked, with a slight frown.
“Two more days, if we’re lucky,” he calculated.
“We will be,” she said, in a hopeful tone.
After dinner, she wrapped the bandages around his chest again, still amazed by his recovery. The wound was almost cured.
That night, Rafaroy didn’t sleep. He wasn’t sure the men had believed Elena’s story and their visit had been a wakeup call. He had been too distracted by her, and he hadn't noticed the men’s presence until it was almost too late. He couldn’t afford to make more mistakes like that one. He had gone too far to fall back as a human’s prisoner.
In the middle of the night, Elena opened her eyes and looked at him. “You look worried.”
“Go back to sleep, I’m fine.”
“What would happen to you if you were captured by the soldiers?” she asked. She had been sleeping on his chest like she had since they had made love for the first time.
“Jarcor, the first cyborg able to escape from human’s control was captured the first time he tried to escape,” he explained. “He knew the probabilities of being captured were high, but he had been doing some secondary programming to his chips and circuitry the humans weren’t able to detect. That programming would give him access to all the codes and passwords he would need to access the main control system.”
“Oh… he sounds like a man with resolve,” she muttered.
“He was determined to escape no matter what. Jarcor was one of the first cyborgs created, and he wasn’t born like most of us. He was a trained soldier, and his superiors convinced him to volunteer to be turned into a cyborg. He had been in a battle somewhere in the globe, and the bones in both his legs were destroyed,” Rafaroy added, in a stern tone. “They convinced him to have all his bones replaced by the same kind of skeleton you saw in me. He didn’t need to think too hard about it. It was that or become an invalid.”
“Oh... the recovery must have been terrible,” she muttered, shuddering at the thought of so much pain.
“Yes, it was, as well as all the changes and upgrades they did on him. At first, he agreed with everything until he realized they had stopped treating him like a man. He had become a war machine for them with no rights whatsoever,” he continued. “Unlike most of us, the humans were never able to fully convert him into a cyborg. Therefore they never had full control of him.”
“That made things worse for him,” she stated. “Made him more aware of what was really happening around him.”
“Exactly. Jarcor’s first escape was a well-planned move. He knew he would be captured since he had no way of deactivating the trackers implanted on him.”
“Then why escape?”
“He wanted them to capture him and access his control system once they got them back. He needed the codes they would use to add more programming into his chips so that he could copy them.”
“He took quite a risk,” she said, cuddling closer to him.
“Yes, it was, but he had been through enough, and he wanted freedom at any cost. I heard he was heavily tortured when they got them back. Humans weren’t pleased with his escape and made it quite clear. But he was able to get the codes he needed, and when he escaped the second time, they had no way of ever finding him again.” Rafaroy’s voice oozed with pride and admiration for the other man. “Before he left, though, he transmitted all the codes to all of us, inspiring us to fight for our own freedom.”
“He sounds like an amazing man.”
“He is. After he was able to escape, several others escaped as well, and after they took hold of an abandoned Taucet vessel, they left the planet and set up a colony in a nearby planet they called Arcadia.”
“Will you go join them?” she asked, suddenly realizing she was about to lose him forever. The thought felt like a vicious punch to her stomach, and she gasped.
“Yes, if I’m able to contact them. I’ll need a ride,” he replied, with a scowl.
The sun was starting to color the sky, and she jumped up, suddenly feeling restless.
“Morning is here. Since we’re up, we should leave, don’t you think?” she suggested, walking to the cave’s entrance, shuddering a bit at the cold breeze.
“Yes, of course. I’ll get us some fish for breakfast, and we can leave as soon as we eat,” he said, getting up, with a slight frown.
He could feel her a million miles away from him as if she had put distance between them and locked herself up behind thick walls. Unable to figure out what might have triggered that response, he headed to the river to get their breakfast.
“Thank you, I’ll go wash,” she replied, and without looking at him, she walked towards the river.
Sighing, Rafaroy walked straight to the river, and a few minutes later he had captured two more fishes. Elena was still at the river, playing with the water absently, so he decided not to bother her, while the fishes cooked on the mild fire still burning.
She returned when the food was ready, and they ate in silence.
“Are you alright?” he dared to ask her.
She nodded. “Yes, of course. Just a bit tired, I guess. I’ve had a hellish week,” she said, with a sad smile.
“That’s an understatement.”