Exiles continued

"What have you done!" She runs across the road and plunges into the grass finding the man lying spread eagle in the tall grass. His face is a mask of agony as he gurgles up blood from the tear that is his mouth. 

"You shot him!" Mags yells as she struggles to think what to do. She looks back at the man who is caught between gasps of pain, gasps for air and the shock at what has just happened to him.

"Yes." Mars says, Mags looks back at him, standing on the road, the gun still extended out to where that man had stood.
                     

"You shot him, you sonnava-bitch!" Mags yells again, she throws her gun away into the grass and kneels beside the dying man. "I can't believe this."

"yes." Mars says it again without inflection, he considers the gun, obviously not satisfied with its performance.

Mags tries to resuscitate the man, but it is obvious he’s dying. She tries for several minutes to save the man’s life but it is a complete loss. The end result is her shirt is covered with the man’s blood. She looks around desperately knowing that it is hopeless, that nothing she does will be enough. 

"Aren’t you going to help me? He’s dying." She gestures at Mars then points back at the man, realizing that she is now caught halfway between a crouch and what? Was she getting ready to charge the killer or run for her life. It suddenly seems so pointless. Instead she drops onto her behind, and makes to wipe her brow with the back of her hand stopping only when she see the dark blood staining it.

" I wouldn’t have shot him if I wanted to help him." Mars says pedantically. He looks at her a moment, then shakes his head not understanding her logic at all.

Mags drops her hand and looks down at the man.
"He’s dead. He’s dead. You killed him! You sonnava-bitch!" She realizes she is growing hysterical and tries to stop herself and fails. She is sobbing at the horror that lies right in front of her.

"Yes,"  Mars says dropping the arm holing the gun to his side and considering her as if she were a zoo animal rather than a human being. "that was my purpose for shooting him."

"Why?" Mags asks as she starts trying to wipe the blood from her hands on the grass. "Why would you do that?" As she gathers up bunches of grass and rubs them in her hands she see the blood all over her tee shirt and stops, shaking her head in despair. She waits a moment then looks up at Mars. "Why Mars? Why?"

 "It was him or us."

"You’re crazy. Him or us.  What kind of answer is that? Him or us!" She half sobs as she looks down at the stained shirt- it had been her favorite Pink Floyd shirt for Chrissakes! "I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere with a raging psycho!"  She climbs to her feet and pulls the shirt up which -of course gets stuck. She gags at the smell of ichor and chokes as she desperately tears it the rest of the way of of her head. She throws it away, then in a sudden rush of terror and nausea throws up what little is left in her stomach-which turns out to be very little.

Mars looks at her, then turns away and walks to the other side of the road and squats down.
Mags stops as she realizes that she isn't reacting as much as she is wanting to vomit and straightens up. Her hair falls on her pale shoulders, she looks down at her bra and wonders if it will be okay. She reminds herself this is California and walking around in a bra is no big deal. She sighs and looks at her hands. Making a decision she hastily bends down and wipes her hands on the dead man’s clothes.
Pausing after doing this she looks back at the man she barely knows squatting on the side of the road, She bites her bottom lip as she tries to decide what to do next.
Taking a deep breath, she makes a decision stands up and walks over to Mars. She squats down next to him and they stay there a bit as she tries to gather her thoughts. 

Mags looks at her hands still a bit red and wishes not for the first time that day for a shower and change of clothers.
"All right, I’m sorry," She begins and peers over at him. "You’re not a psycho, but you’re so… so completely merciless."
"No, not merciless just efficient." Mars says as he looks away at the horizon.

"What?"

"Efficient." Mars says again.

Maybe she apologized to soon, She watched him a moment having a unnerving feeling of deja-vue then realizing that it came from that robot movie she had watched last year where the machine had been human looking and equally as remorseless. It probably would have referred to killing all those people and cops as efficient.
"Efficient! You call that efficient." She heard herself saying. "You just shot a man down in cold blood and you have the nerve to call it efficient?"

Mars looks at her and with a flush of relief he doesn't have those robot eyes. They look sad and a little bewildered.
"Yes. If my father had had his way, then that would have been merciless." Mars speak and she feels him look into himself and it is as if he goes a long, long way away from where they are sitting. "But instead I was built to be different- a soldier template, so it was efficient."

"Did you just say built?" Oh crap, holy crap!- he is the terminate- thingy! She thinks and remembers the name Sarah Connors- for some reason. Why- what does that name have to do with the robot monster? She hears herself say something that seems like it has been rehearsed or said before. "you mean like you were designed, like a machine?"