Untitled
By Dana Quell

	The two people circled each other, wary of the other's presence, 
but content to do nothing about it for the moment.  In another lifetime, 
they had been friends, but this was another time, a different place, 
and to survive they could not be what they had been before.  
	Althea abruptly turned towards the other, Kara.   "We don't 
have to do this.  It's silly.  We were best friends."
	"Yeah, we were.  Until you decided it was time that we moved 
on.  Until we came here.  Now we're nothing but two people, stuck out 
in the desert, trying to survive," Kara spat back.
	Althea studied the person in front of her.  This was not the 
person she had known way back when; this was someone hard, cold, and 
ready to kill just because.  This was someone who had known hardship, 
and had become something slightly less human but slightly more than a 
monster.  Sure, she had the same black ringlets and cat-like green eyes, 
but she was not the same person inside.
	Althea supposed she wasn't the same person that she was before 
they came to this wasteland, but she didn't think that she had gone so 
far as Kara had.  After all, she had never had to kill a man, and she 
wasn't prepared to kill one of her oldest friends.
 	"Thea, listen, it's either you, or me, and I don't intend for 
it to be me," Kara continued.  "So, it's got to be you."
	Althea cringed.  Thea was her old nickname, something she 
didn't go by anymore.  Now she asked that everyone call her by her 
full name, or her Ejoou one, Atalmaniera.  The Ejoous called her that 
to honor the spirits they said lived within her.  "I won't fight you," 
she responded simply.
	Kara growled, then took out a knife from a sleeve and charged 
her.  Althea stepped back, taking out a knife of her own.  It was only 
a ceremonial knife that the Ejoous had given to her with her name, but 
it was sharp, and would do well to defend her.  
	They battled for a moment, then Kara managed to get the knife 
away from her.  She smiled, then was about to plunge her own knife 
into Althea's stomach.  A quick flick of Althea's wrist brought the 
knife into Kara's own abdominal.  
	Kara gasped, then glanced down at her own knife handle.  Blood 
began to pool around the open wound and drip out of the corner of her 
mouth.  "I'm so sorry," she sighed, falling to the ground.  "Can you 
forgive me for what I've become?"
	Althea knelt down next to her and nodded.  It wasn't her fault 
she had to become like this to survive.  "I forgive you," she whispered, 
salty tears welling up in her eyes, blurring her vision.  "I forgive 
you."
	Kara smiled.  "Thank you," she replied, her voice cracking.  
Then she died.
	Althea straightened, wiping away the tears from her eyes.  "You're 
welcome."  Then she left for her tribe, and didn't look back.