Strike!: Ice Time

Elise could not hear anything around her. Her mind went into a dream-state as she stood beside the incinerator watching her husband's body burn.

She could not move. She still stood in her characteristic pose with her right knee slightly bent, her head slightly inclined to the right, with arms crossed. Her mind was briefly concerned with the engineering problem of burning 100 kilos of human body on a 180cm frame. Was the temperature hot enough to completely consume the body? It was her husband's body. She would not have his arms and legs around her tonight. She would not hear his slight snore behind her head. For the first time in more than 70 years he would be gone and never return. This hunting trip was forever. She could not cry. She only really cried once since they were married. That was when she had been sent by the Hansa Army to another warzone from Hairy Pig. They were both officers then and had to obey orders. She cried when she boarded her military transport and never cried again. She did not cry when he rescued her from the enemy. She did not cry when she was expelled from the Army. She did not cry when she found out they would never have children because of her wartime service.

Now he was dead, and she could not cry.

An intense feeling of love and loss overwhelmed her. He was her beloved. She would remember him. He had been kind. He had been brave beyond any requirement of the People or Hansa Army. His uniform was in their room hanging up on a wall. It had a Field Officer's insignia on the sleeves. It had Golden Dragons for heroism on the epaulets. My husband had been a brave, good man. Elise realized how much she loved him in that moment. Her emotion became amplified. She saw a fight with another man between her and several other yellow haired men. A tall red-headed woman with white skin was fighting alongside him. They both killed the yellow haired men very quickly. She was terrified. Elise could feel that intense terror emotion like the metallic taste of her own blood in her mouth. Was that what Hairy Pig had done to free her? Who was the woman with the flaming red hair? It could not have been that damn plok.