by Ethan Proud
“You are right, but there is more to living than simply existing. We haven’t even left a mark on this planet, other than the crater. Once we leave, the sands will erase any mark of our passing. No one will remember the Shrikers,” Gana answered, and blinked away the dark thoughts before they rushed to the forefront of his brain.
“Well, we are out of time to do anything meaningful now,” Utria said and skipped another stone. This one was round and sank with a loud splash.
“You don’t think what we’ve done is meaningful?” Gana asked, watching as Utria searched for a flat stone.
“Meaningful to us. But as you put it, nothing that will stand the test of time.” Utria turned a rock over in her hands, examining it for imperfections. This one was a pale grey, speckled with blue. She put it in her pocket and began searching for another stone to cast.
“Maybe nothing stands the test of time. Just look at Earth,” Gana mused. He felt a rock gently strike his ribs hardly a second later.
“Don’t act like you used to live there.” Utria laughed, an obnoxious but contagious sound.
“Let’s go check out the city,” Gana suggested. “What’s going to happen if we aren’t standing guard? We are living amongst our enemy as friends.”
“If we get disciplined, it’s your fault,” Utria said and started towards the glowing lights of the city.
“I thought you liked that kind of stuff,” Gana said and ducked before the next rock hit him in the face.
They weaved their way between the streets, seeing cages of the glowing moths, Greyling children playing in mock yards, and adults milling about between the groups of Exos. Assimilation was tricky, but the aliens were attempting to communicate with the Shrikers. One approached Gana and Utria. The soldiers had to resist the urge to reach for their weapons.
The Greyling before them babbled happily and reached out and patted them both on the heads. Once again, the urge to reach for a weapon was nearly overwhelming. Instead, they both smiled forcibly, and the creature grimaced awkwardly. Utria remembered the stone in her pocket and handed it to the Greyling. It took it, held it aloft as if to catch the light, and admired it with a cooing noise. The Greyling placed it gently in a satchel at its hip, the only clothing the savage humanoid wore. The Greyling didn’t spend much more time on the interaction, but meandered past them, presumably to its house.
“Do you think it has a family?” Utria asked, watching it go.
Gana glanced at the children running about. “It either has a family or a litter.”
“Must you be a cynic?” Utria said and lightly backhanded him in the stomach.
“Oof.”
“Maybe we should go back to the lake…” Utria trailed off.
Gana met her eyes. “Can’t think of any better place to go?”
X
At the surface, the sand buffeted the rover and the satellite receiver dish and antenna attached to it. It was almost impossible to decipher the static coming across the other end of it. The sandstorm rolling in appeared as an impenetrable wall of beige barreling towards them.
“I think we should park the rover below ground,” Lago said as he turned to face Kilo. He was met by a blank stare. Blood bubbled past Kilo’s lips and spilled over his chin. His hands were clutched over his middle, but Lago could see the bloodstained point protruding from his stomach.
Deirde pushed the dead man from her blade, one of the collapsible spears she had carried every day as a hunter. The Shrikers hadn’t considered the primitive projectile a weapon. Yuto was only a few paces to her left. Their eyes glowed furiously from their blacked out sockets. Even through the skull façade, Lago recognized them.
“I should have killed you. The war paint is cute though.” He reached for the pistol at his hip, but Yuto lunged and wrapped him in a bear-hug tackle and ripped him to the ground. Lago slammed his forehead into the Hydra’s face and felt the skin break under one of Yuto’s teeth. With a crack, the front tooth slipped from its hold in the jaw. Yuto reeled, and Lago twisted violently, a foot connecting with Yuto’s chin. The Shriker leapt to his feet, barely missing being impaled by the spear. Quick as a viper, he reached out and gripped the haft just below the blade. He yanked as hard as he could and Deirde stumbled forward as she lost her grip. He whipped the butt of the weapon across her back, but she didn’t cry out. Rather, she swung a fist right into Lago’s groin. Lago swore, and retaliated with his own right-hook into her nose. It broke with a satisfying crack and a gush of blood. Both the teeth painted on her face and those in her mouth now ran red. Deirde was a wild woman, and a broken nose wasn’t going to stop her. She snatched the green streak of Lago’s hair and with all her force pulled his face down to meet the knee she rammed upward.
Sputtering blood and a tooth or two, Lago spun back.
“You Hydras really are the dumbest creatures this planet could curse us with.” His dark eyes sent daggers at his two adversaries. He reached for the gun at his hip, ready to blow both of their brains out after kneecapping them. But instead, his hand settled into his empty holster.
“As you were saying, we really are dumb,” Yuto said and leveled the gun at Lago’s head. He watched as the hatred morphed into fear in the moment it took for him to pull the trigger. There wasn’t much left of Lago’s face after the recoil.
Yuto turned to Deirde and heaved a sigh of relief, they both looked like shit. Only two more Family members left. Then they heard the slow clapping behind them, just at the mouth of the fissure.
“Bravo. Bravo.” It was Fleet.
Yuto trained the gun on him. “I don’t know why you’re so pleased. You’re next.”
Fleet was undeterred. The broad smile on his face was unnerving. “I think you’ll want to know what I have to say.”
“Doubt it. Blast him,” Deirde said and wiped her sleeve across her nose.
“Last words. Make ‘em good,” Yuto said dryly.
“Rhea led the massacre of your village,” Fleet said coolly. He sounded too aloof to be trusted.
“But you ordered it,” Yuto countered.
“No, we ordered that she bring Jarrod back,” Fleet began. “She did not have orders to destroy any colony that had interacted with him.”
“I fail to see how this is going to convince us not to kill you as well,” Deirde growled and gestured for Yuto to finish the job at hand.
“I told Jorgen that I was going to check in on the Hydras. Make sure you felt at home. Nobody knows you followed Kilo and Lago, but you will be suspects if I, too, go missing today. If I return alive, however, I can offer you an alibi for the two corpses there,” Fleet said.
Yuto let the gun fall to his hip. “He’s right,” he said.
Deirde nodded reluctantly. “So we kill Rhea, what do you get?” she demanded.
“Aqi,” Fleet said with a devious gleam in his eye.
“Good luck with that.” Yuto laughed. “We will take care of Rhea, but the second part of your scheme is all you.”
“How pathetic!” Deirde said under her breath, but judging by how Fleet’s face darkened, he had heard it.
Chapter Forty-Three
Bare toes wiggling in the water, Aqi and Rhea sat on the shore of the lake letting the gentle waves lap up their calves. The grey wells beneath Rhea’s eyes hadn’t dissipated, but the unnatural jaundice sheen had. She was beginning to feel healthier now that she was drinking natural spring water. Her body was staving off the toxins that clung to her blood cells and circulated through her body like oxygen. Four Greylings flanked the pair. Whether they were basking in the glory, or fancied themselves as retainers, it was hard to tell. Aqi guessed it was the latter, since at least four of the aliens always attended them or stood guard outside their new abode. Though the Exos had their toes in the water, the Greylings stood stiffly a few feet back. Their red eyes bounced from one side of the cavern to the next, sometimes making eye contact with their brethren as if to communicate something unsaid.
The sound of footsteps alerted them to Fleet’s botherso
me presence. Apparently he was done sulking.
“Good morning or evening,” he said pleasantly and sat down next to them. “I trust you are adjusting well?”
“This is a minor adjustment compared to what is to come,” Aqi said simply.
“You mean our sojourn to our new home.” Fleet stated the obvious. He glanced up at the Greylings and their wary stares. “They worship your beauty.”
Rhea rolled her eyes, but Aqi was more tactful. “They worship me because of my relationship with the Godslayer. It is power, not beauty.”
“Either way, will you take them with us?”
“What?!” Aqi and Rhea exclaimed incredulously.
“They are your people now. Will you abandon them?” Fleet pressed.
“And as such, it is my decision and my decision alone. This is their home. They will stay. We won’t be missed,” Aqi said through gritted teeth.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Fleet said before he rose and left.
Rhea’s eyes followed his shrinking figure. “He’s planning something.”
“He always is. Scheming will do him little good now though,” Aqi said and paid no more heed to Fleet.
“Let’s go. We’ve been here for long enough. I’m hungry.” Rhea’s stomach warbled as if to voice its agreement. Together they left the shore.
X
Yuto and Deirde stayed in the alleyways and the darkest of shadows. Their mouths were hot with the metallic anxiety of promised vengeance. They watched the tallest house built against the lake shore for hours on end. Their eyes strained in the darkness, focused on the six Greylings standing post. They wouldn’t get past six Greylings and kill both the lovers unawares. It was a waiting game now, only the most opportune moment would suffice.
If crickets had ever voyaged out to AE625, no doubt their chirps would now pierce the stillness. Yuto and Deirde watched the house unflinchingly, like hounds. Their faces were smeared with molla and blood, only intensifying their skull-like apparitions. And like ghosts, they now haunted the Greyling City.
Suddenly the door opened and Aqi strode out, wearing a patchwork poncho and tall boots. Her golden embossed eyes glinted in the light. Even from a distance, the darkness of her irises was alluring. As she broke from the building with the grace of a puma, the Greylings turned to follow her. All six of them.
“Apparently she has faith in this Rhea,” Dierde purred, and she too stalked off like a cat.
Weaving between huts, stalagmites, and potential victims, they eventually stood before the towering structure. They took inventory of their surroundings before creeping to the front door and pushing it open slowly. It silently swung on its hinges, a seeming impossibility for a slab of solid stone. When the gap was wide enough for a single person to slip through, Deirde darted in.
Yuto slowly sealed the door behind him. Surprisingly, the room was well lit. From the outside it had appeared the inside was pitch black. Martian Flares in glass cases, probably brought by the Commanding Family, were placed periodically, bathing the room in their strange light. A stairwell wrapped around the room and a ninety degree turn took it up to the second level. The only multi-level building the Shrikers had ever been in had been the Shrike. This was oddly reminiscent. They recalled Fleet’s words, Hydra Nine. You’re more similar to them than you are to us. Though they both thought it, they didn’t discuss its ramifications. It had little bearing on their lives. They weren’t concerned with where they came from anymore. They were concerned with where they were going.
They breached the second level. Still no Rhea, but a crude mockery of a table was set in the middle of the table. A pile of molla caps that rivaled a dune in height sat in the middle of it. Around it, nine chairs were placed symbolically. Clearly, it was a meeting room of sorts. A trough of water sat in one corner. Inevitably, Deirde and Yuto locked their eyes on the caps on the table. Out of the corners of their eyes they made contact and floated towards the table. They painstakingly pulled a cap each from the pile and scraped a fingernail across the gills. It seemed so loud. Not nearly as loud as what was to come next though. They tapped their fingers together as if cheering a toast and held them aloft to their nostrils. Slowly, they inhaled, a precise gesture, but in their need for silence, it sounded like a gale of wind tearing through the building. They heard Rhea cough from some floors above them, and froze.
For a moment, their eyes glazed over as serotonin and dopamine were released from their brains by the bucketful, but in the same amount of time the edge returned. Their eyes glowed greedily. Vengeance was at hand.
Up the next flight of stairs, and still no sign of their prey. This room was completely empty. Devoid of even decorations. However, three large bloodstains darkened the stone in the center of the floor. Deirde and Yuto didn’t waste much more time debating the cryptic purpose of the room. For all they knew, Rio had spent his last days here. With heavy hearts they treaded silently up the final flight.
The penthouse was littered with more of the Martian Flare lamps, and chairs no doubt taken from the Commanding Family’s quarters. Large bags of stitched molla filled with sand were placed on the floor and were evidently very comfortable, judging by the way Rhea was curled up in one of them. She looked so childlike, resting in the fetal position, her fierce Mohawk limp across her face instead of spiked into the air. The hair on the side of her head was beginning to grow back, though it was barely past being categorized as stubble.
Deirde seethed with rage and coiled up within herself, ready to strike. In the blink of an eye, however, Rhea was across the room without uttering a sound. Her eyes were not dulled and bleary with sleep but on high alert.
“Very poetic,” Rhea snarled.
Deirde and Yuto smiled at each other, the face paint grin split to reveal actual teeth.
“At least this one didn’t call us dumb,” Yuto said and shrugged humorously.
“I’m not your first mark?” Rhea asked, the muscles in her legs bunched like she was ready to spring at any moment.
“You weren’t even a target until we found out the role you played in the massacre of our colony,” Deirde said.
She and Yuto broke apart to begin closing in on Rhea in a pincer movement, leaving the door tantalizingly clear. That last sentence was enticing enough that Rhea relaxed for just one second.
“Fleet no doubt told you.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, after he watched us slaughter Kilo and that demon with the green hair,” Deirde supplied, shuddering when she remembered Lago pinning her against the desert sand.
“You should have tried to kill a few more before coming here. I’d hate to cut your spree short,” Rhea said confidently, her hand slithering towards the knife in her boot.
Deirde tsked as a retort, and Yuto sprang.
Rhea flattened herself against the wall and grabbed Yuto by the shoulder, extended her leg and meant to toss him to the floor. But the Hydra were wild animals, vicious by nature and not like the guard dogs of the Wreckage. He nimbly twisted on the ball of his foot and struck Rhea in the face with his elbow. Her skull cracked against the wall, but she was just as feisty. She snatched his arm with both hands and sank her teeth into the tender flesh of his underarm. With a yelp he leapt back and tripped over one of the sandbags on the floor, landing solidly on his back.
Out of her peripherals Rhea detected Deirde’s advance. She turned and faced the woman squarely while drawing the knife from her boot.
Deirde saw the motion long before it had the chance to turn deadly for her. She stopped short, pulled her knee to her chest, and extended her booted foot with full force right into Rhea’s chest.
The Scout Warchief joined Yuto on the ground, gasping for breath.
“My lover is dead because of you,” Deirde hissed as she paced closer to the prone figure on the ground. “Now Aqi will feel the same pain that I have felt. Before you die, I want you to know that whatever pain she feels from losing you…it’s your fault.”
Not having recovered enou
gh to gain her feet again, Rhea swung her foot at Deirde in an attempt to trip her. Deftly, the Hydra skipped over the leg and planted her next step right onto Rhea’s stomach. She put her whole weight onto the woman and heard the gentle hiss of air slowly leaving her diaphragm. The knife on the floor caught Deirde’s eye and she stooped to pick it up before looking back at her victim. Rhea’s eyes were fluttering. She was still too weak to offer up much of a fight, and now without oxygen the little strength she had was seeping out. Not even her desire not to break Aqi’s heart gave her enough fortitude to fight back. Blackness crept into the edge of her vision and the last thing she saw was Deirde bringing the gleaming knife down towards her chest.
With the blade buried to the hilt in Rhea, Deirde stood up and wiped a hand across the back of her forehead, leaving a streak of blood. Yuto managed to press himself up on his elbows and coughed up a long tendril of drool. He heaved himself to his feet and swayed woozily.
“Are you serious?” Deirde asked and laughed lightly. “A concussion.”
“I’ll be fine.” Yuto shook his head fervently as if it would clear his mind and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “We need to leave before Aqi and her retainers come back.”
“I agree.”
They clattered down the stairs together, the noise mainly Yuto’s fault as he had trouble keeping his footing and Deirde had to assist him. They eased out from behind the door and into the streets and didn’t bother meeting Fleet’s expectant stare from the shadows. In fact, they said little to the man. He was a worm and didn’t warrant their respect.
X
It wasn’t long before Aqi returned to her new dwelling after a great sense of unease overcame her. She called out to Rhea as soon as she crossed the threshold, but of course no one answered. She dashed up the stairs with enough speed to rival an Olympic athlete and with the urgency of a fire engine. When she discovered what was waiting for her, she dropped to her knees. Had her hair been long enough to yank out, she would have, but instead she raked her claws across her scalp and face and let loose an anguished scream that was heard by all. Her cries continued for many hours and didn’t lessen in intensity as she rocked the corpse of the one woman she had ever loved. Her throat was raw and tasted of blood, but she didn’t stop. No amount of pain could rival what had just been taken from her.
