Deadfall 

Where is your pride? He had said. 
I was growing tired of this. The day had been tough. My life seemed to be one long struggle. My hunting that day had gone badly, which meant less food and goods to sell, on top of that, my rifle needed repairing, which meant more money lost. 

And now this Jerk. 
I hadn’t answered him, my mind was racing, how had he got in? 
This was prime real estate on Treasure Island, and the houses were built using the most modern security systems on the planet. Yet, here he was. 
Also, I suspected he had planned it; my house is also my Society’s Headquarters. On any other night, my men would be here, but not tonight. 
We had been asked to escort a large shipment of Alien Blood back from the Space Station, unprotected ships are quite often subjected to attacks from pirates and bandits, and for this mission, I had sent all my men. 
I wasn’t sure how he had received information of this trip, and at this moment, the need to know, wasn’t my priority. Also I reasoned, if he was able to breach the security system, he may have been tapping into our communications too, thus learning our movements. 
He was waiting for an answer. 
That b.astard was sat in my chair too, crossed legged, hands folded on his lap, his head at a slight angle, the look upon his face was of defiance, of self-assured arrogance. I don’t like surprises, or been caught off guard, and I could see how pleased with himself he was. 
I licked my top lip, then hated myself for doing it, was a dead give-away I was nervous. The need to think clearly was paramount, what did he want? More importantly what did he know? A decision had to be made, my men would be back soon, and I didn’t want them to find this person here. Too awkward, too many questions would be asked. 

Where is your pride? 

Here, I answered. 
My 41 was still in my hand, all I had dropped, on spinning round and seeing him, was half a Sabakuma carcass. 
In two paces I had lifted that pistol, and brought it level with his for-head. For a brief moment, I thought I saw a look of uncertainty flicker in his eyes. Then I pulled the trigger. 
The force of the blow knocked him backward, both human and chair, crashing to the ground. The wall behind not just sprayed with blood, but splashed with it, brain, hair, bone, sliding thickly southward in rivers of deep red. At that range, the damage was somewhat brutal; my face too was smattered with bits of destroyed human flesh. 

I wiped my face off on my sleeve, then surveyed the mess, which I knew would take hours to clean up. This made me angry, and I kicked the still warm body a number of times. Three or four kicks in; a wallet became dislodged, and fell from his jacket. I stooped to pick it up then took it over to a lamp, where I could look through it. 

I pulled out various cards, trinkets, coins.. a photo. A photo taken approximately five years previously, of a couple. A man a woman, holding each other close, and smiling. Memories came flooding back of a life I had almost forgotten. 
A life on Earth, before the war, before I was exiled here. Feelings that had lay dormant in me for so long flickered in my soul. 
The man in the photo, was the same man I had just killed. We had come to this planet together, had tried to make a life here, together. It couldn’t and didn’t work, I wanted more, so much more. 
I had ambitions, goals, he wanted to farm the land. So I had left, and all contact had stopped, until tonight. He had found me, or had he. The woman he loved was hardly this hardened hunter stood here now, I hadn’t even given him the chance to talk, for a brief moment, I allowed myself to remember tenderness, and then I quickly dismissed the thought, as utter nonsense. I stared at the woman in that photo, and barely recognised myself. 

My instinct had told me he would come looking one day. On leaving him it hadn’t taken me long to achieve my wealth and status, although not done in the most honest way. But it had been easy. The planets economy was still in turmoil, with the authorities busy settling and policing colonies, people like me were afforded anonymity. As long as I was careful and covered my tracks, I was able to quite literally get away with...Murder. But this person did know me, knew I had stepped off a ship with nothing but an orange jump suit. He could ask questions, make things awkward. Had he come to do this? Never the less, his decision to poke his nose in had cost him his head. 

Took me an hour to drag his body to the small hill behind my house. I had wrapped some plastic around the head to try to contain the blood, but still, there were hints of a trail here and there. 

I removed this plastic now, and laid him out on his back. I straightened my self up and stretched my aching muscles, and looked out, into the night, and waited. Within minutes I could hear the foot-falls of Atrax. I dropped the photo down on his chest, and backed quietly away, before turning and jogging some fifty yards from the body. 
I turned once more, just to be sure, and could see now, a pack of maybe seven Atrax, picking up the scent of blood, to a meal they would soon devour. 

I turned to leave, and then stopped, something had caught my eye, a glint in the moonlight, for a second I wasn’t sure what it could have been, then realised. It was his wedding ring. 

I reached my front steps and could hear the roar of ship engines, there to the east a ship was landing at one of the hangers. 
My men were back safely, I smiled pleased. My communicator buzzed, Petrus calling of their return. 

“DJ, all went well, we have it” he said. 

“And the Cargo Pilots?” I asked, 

“Dead, we have informed the authorities we were too late, made it look like pirates did it” 

Still smiling I turned to walk into the house, had some mess to clean up, before hanging up I laughed and said.. 

“Pirates DID do it”. 

 The End