Tumultuous Soulmates Are On Opposing Sides Of A Conflict [FICTOID]

They met again in the ruins of an apothecary shop during The last battle of The Final War.

It had been years since they last met; he a prisoner of war, she a guard.

He escaped -- not without her help, because he loved her and knew she would be executed if she aided him -- and made his way back to his own lines, wondering if he’d ever see her again.

“You look well,” he said, “except for the eyepatch.”

“Your side did this to me,” she said, stepping over a skeleton wearing an apron and a bow tie, the unfortunate apothecary himself.

“All’s fair in love and war,” he murmured.

“This certainly wasn’t love,” she said, pointing to her missing eye.

Outside, the remnants of the two armies fought in suicidal frenzy under a spreading mushroom cloud.

“How did you escape?” she asked.

“I found a dead cow and dragged it to the river, then clung to its bloated carcass as it floated downstream.”

She smiled.  “Good.  I’m glad it was ugly and inpleasant for you.  They punished everyone for your escape.  The prisoners were worked twice as hard, we guards were whipped, the commandant ousted and sent to the front.”

“Did they send you, too?”

“No, I volunteered.”  Her voice and expression changed, becoming more ladylike.  “I knew it would be my only chance to see you again.”

“The gears of fate turned,” he said.  “The sprockets lined up.”

“Yes, they did.”

They were a perfect match, they understood each other instinctively.  Together they scrounged through the ruins of the shop, looking for birth control.

© Buzz Dixon