As they walked slowly through the crowds, the Martians in there kept on staring at them. Donnie kept his head straight, never turning it to any side. He heard the Martians speak in their alien language, laughing, others dancing to the Martian Jazz, two females dancing on a pole and others having a drink.
“Just like earth’s night club” he chuckled.
They stopped in front of the bar’s counter. The bartender was busy arranging bottles in shelves. He was from the Durianda clan, his skin was deep green and looked very fat with his back facing them.
Arida knocked the counter and pulled her hoodie down. The bartender turned around with a frown on his face, stared at Donnie first, but his head was hung low. He turned to Arida and quickly, he flashed a big smile. “Arida!” he shouted on top of his voice.
The room all of a sudden became very silent, the band stopped performing and looked at where she stood. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and turned to where she stood.
“Oh, oh, cover blown” Donnie’ heart lurched.
“Arida!” every Martian in the room shouted in accord. They cheered, looking happy, most of them came and shook her hand.
Donnie stood still, confused at what was just going on around him. He didn’t understand why a place so dangerous, with dangerous Martians would be very happy and cheering for Arida who was just a fugitive like him. He was surprised at how they were treating her like some kind of queen.
Ten minutes later, everything went back to normal again, the band started to perform again and everyone continued to do whatever they were doing before they arrived.
Arida forced a pathetic smile and then narrowed her eyes, knowing the bounty hunters in there had already alerted the militia and it won’t be long before they come after them. She knew she had to make things fast and get out of there.
The bartender laughed and offered them a drink, a blue liquid in a glass, foaming on the surface and vapor rising out of it. Arida resisted as they spoke in their alien language. Whiles speaking, they kept on saying a name; Mugus. Donnie couldn’t understand a word they were saying, except for the Mugus name. The bartender looked at Donnie and pointed at him, speaking the alien language to Arida.
“A friend of mine” Arida answered. Donnie’s face changed, surprised at why she answered the bartender in English.
The bartender nodded and looked at Donnie suspiciously. Donnie swiftly lowered his head. It seemed the bartender wasn’t aware they were wanted, after all it’s the Black night club and they aren’t concerned about whatever goes on on the outside.
He opened the counter and gave them access inside. Arida wore back her hoodie and patted Donnie’s back as she walked into the opened counter. The bartender opened a door at the counter back and they entered. They followed him along a corridor and then branched into another turn with a metallic door.
He pressed a red button beside the door and like before, a circular light projected from the door and scanned his face. An image of his face appeared on the door and a little detail of him under it.
“Nozz-grail, Durianda clan” a computerized voice spoke and then everything went shut. Silence hung above the corridor they stood. The metallic door then slid opened with a fuzz sound.
The bartender looked at them and gestured a hand towards the opened door.
“Enjoy your time with the grand master Mugus” he bowed slightly and smiled.
Donnie was stunned, his eyebrows raised. “Did he just speak English? I can’t believe it or it’s my mind playing tricks on me?” He could feel his heart racing as he followed Arida into the opened door. He wasn’t sure of what Arida was doing. As they entered into the room, Donnie spun and looked at the bartender, his hands still on the button. He popped out an evil looking smile, pressed the button again and the door slid closed.
Chapter TEN
“Well, well, well” a voice got Donnie to turn around. A fat being with wrinkled face, neck wasn’t visible as her large head covered it, deep green in color, two eyes, each on the sides of its head and two separate hands on both sides of his body, sat in a single brown couch. It was a Duriandan just like Nozz, however this one was a female. She was smoking a pipe and had two Gray-ail guards standing beside her. Everywhere in the room was dark, except at where Mugus sat, which single spotlight was on her.
“After two years of disappearing from the Lower Rim, you show up here today, Arida” Mugus puffed out smoke from her mouth.
Donnie stood behind Arida to prevent much on him.
“My dear Arida, what brings you back here? Are you back to reclaim your glory old days of fighting?”
Arida stood glaring at Mugus. “I came here for none of that―why did you lie to me Mugus. You gave me a fake map to the Upper Rim and that cost me a lot, I almost got killed”
“Ohh” Mugus laughed.
“This isn’t funny Mugus. You had the blades all along and you made me believe it was up there. You led me into a trap, I guess you wanted me dead so you can have them all for yourself. How could you be so self-centered?”
Donnie was stunned. He couldn’t believe every Martian they had encountered that day were all speaking English, the language he understands. His eyes moved back and forth at them as they conversed.
“Go straight to the point Arida. Tell me what you came here for” Mugus’s happy face changed into a frown.
“I shouldn’t be telling you that. You know what I came for―the blades”
Mugus gasped all of sudden with smoke puffing out of his mouth. “The blade?” she coughed out smoke and cocked an eyebrow. Arida nodded once.
“That’s some valuable weapon my little Arida―a weapon that made it wielders in ancient times so powerful, the ancient Roghims. If the militia of both rims finds out such weapons are in my possession, I wouldn’t know what I would do. You know am already wanted down here and I ―”
“I can sense something fishy about your speech― go straight to the point Mugus” Arida interrupted.
Mugus grinned. ‘All am trying to say is, give me something valuable in exchange for those blades”. She pulled the pipe out of her mouth and placed it on a little table beside the couch. She clapped her hands and in an instant, two grey-ails came from the dark, placed a little table infront of her, slowly put a shiny silver box on it and disappeared back into the dark. The room became quiet afterwards as Arida stared into the eyes of Mugus.
Mugus smirked and opened the jewelry box infront of her.
“I don’t even get what’s going on here. What’s this powerful weapon they are talking of?” Donnie wondered.
Mugus turned the opened box around so Arida and Donnie could see what was inside. Two blade hilts in a “T” shape laid in the box, one in gold and the other in silver. Arida gazed at them with widened eyes. “Finally, the Roghim hilts” she whispered to herself but Donnie somehow heard it. She raised her head back to Mugus with her surprised face fading into a scowl. “So what valuable thing do you want in exchange?”
Mugus smiled, tapping her forehead with her large right index finger whiles she was trying to decide. She paused and slowly pointed at Donnie. “I need that alien behind you―the one they call the human being”
Terror instantly swept through Donnie, he clasped on the pistol on his belt. Arida had a surprise look on her face too. She wasn’t going to trade Donnie for anything or anyone on the planet, she promised him. “Wait, wait, I―”
“Did you think I don’t know all the news circulating around you two? You two are the most wanted beings on the whole of Mars. No one has done what both of you have accomplished―escaping an execution on the Upper Rim”
Donnie hastily pulled out the 367 sig pistol and pointed it at Mugus. He took off the gas mask and threw it on the floor.
“You are not having me Mrs. green Martian” Donnie said angrily.
Guards quickly came from the surrounding darkness and encircled them, pointing their laser guns at both of them.
“Tell your guards to drop weapons or I shoot you!” Donnie shrieked.
Mugus shook her head. “You are on my planet, in my club and wanted, you are in no position to make deals right now. You, rather surrender yours and let’s get back to business”
“No, no, that isn’t going to happen. Am not any valuable trophy for you or anyone!” Donnie could feel sweat sliding down his forehead and the side of his cheeks, his body shuddered.
Arida’s hands were widespread apart, she swiveled and stared at the gray-ail guards that surrounded them with laser guns. She halted in front of the jewelry box and stretched her hands towards it, then the two blade hilts suddenly flew right into her palms.
Mugus jerked out of her seat, her eyebrows heightened. “You can’t use them without the Roghim gloves. It won’t be of any use to you Arida! Put them right back where you took it ―you know you can’t leave this place alive with those hilts still in your hand!”
“Don’t worry, I already have the gloves you were also searching for. You had the blades, I had the gloves― but now, I guess I have all the two” Arida grinned. Mugus face hardened with anger.
“It will definitely be a miracle if we escape this place alive” Donnie thought, still pointing the gun at Mugus.
“You can’t leave this place alive. Give up!” Mugus yelled, and then blaring sirens and whirring engines came from outside and above the roof. Everyone looked up at the ceiling.
“I guess those bounty hunters in the club have already alerted the militia. They are here and you can’t escaped from them this time!” Mugus sneered. Donnie’s heart jumped, the pistol trembling in his hands.
“Release the hilts to me and I can guarantee your escape from this place― from them!” Mugus shouted and pointed at the ceiling as the noise got louder. The room began quaking.
“No! You will lead us right into their hands and take your price. I know you Mugus, greedy phlog―killing two birds with one stone right? You get the hilts back and take us to the militia for another reward. Am not a fool Mugus!”
Mugus head shivered with anger. “Exterminate them!”
An explosion of teargas sounded in the room. The guards left their weapons and cupped their hands over their ears, the loud explosion had distorted their hearing. Donnie bent and held his knees. He felt his head aching and his ear, deafening.
Smoke from the teargas began diffusing in the room. He heard the gray- ail guards coughing and groaning. “The gas mask” he remembered and began to look around the floor if he could find where he threw it.
He couldn’t find it after seconds of searching around with his eyes. A hand quickly pulled him into the smoke. Donnie turned around out of panic, sweeping his pistol through the smoke and toward the target.
Arida gripped his hand and handed him the gas mask. Donnie sighed in relief when he saw her. He grabbed the gas mask and quickly wore it. He gasped in ease as he finally got to breathe in good air once again.
“Now come on, follow me” Arida smacked his shoulders and disappeared into the smokes.
Chapter ELEVEN
Donnie followed her into the smokes till they got to a wall in the room.
“Another code?” Donnie screeched through the noise. “We will be dead before―” a loud tearing noise interrupted him. The roof was pulled off the building. They both squatted and looked up to see the night skies now visible above them. Fleet of airships and Martian cops in jetpacks suspended above the opened room. Donnie looked shocked, a whole militia troop above them. Arida wasn’t looking surprised at all, she grabbed Donnie’s jacket and jumped high out of the opened roof with him. It was like she had superpowers, because no one could just jump above a fifteen feet wall with just a leap. Donnie screamed all the way through the air till they ended up on the edge of the roof. “Whoa, whoa―whoa, how did you do that?” Donnie panted and pushed off Arida’s from her jacket. He looked down from the edge and realized they were about hundreds of feet high on the building. He became stunned, surprise transforming his face. “Hey how did we get high up here? We never climbed any stares when we got inside the club”
Arida took a glove from her long coat and put it on. “This is Mars, you can’t understand everything” she pulled the gloves further above her wrist. The gloves had random stripes and little circles on it―they suddenly lit up in white seconds after putting it on.
Spotlights from the airships fell on them. “They definitely came for us” Arida looked up and then turned her head towards Donnie. “Follow me Don” she jumped and climbed onto another building’s roof, Donnie followed, his heart racing and imagining what these Martians would do to them when they get their hands on them. The spotlights followed them as they ran and jump from building to building.
Chief Balain and Hakaz watched the two fugitives from an airship’s window above, both their hands at their back. “Is that the being from earth you are talking about?” Donnie pointed Balain pointed at Donnie through the glasses. Hakaz nodded. “Just like the dead one we sold to you―from all the beings we’ve captured on Mars’ this one is the most dangerous”
“Does his face look like the dead one you sold to our ambassadors?” Chief Balain asked. Hakaz turned and looked at her. “Exactly the same”
Donnie followed behind Arida, panting and gasping for breath. He took off the gas mask, threw it on the roof and rubbed off his sweaty face with his fore arms. Arida, who was running suddenly stopped herself from taking another step. She began glancing around.
“What is wrong?” Donnie walked towards her.
“They are here”
“Who?”
Cops in jetpacks immediately ascended from the sides of the building and surrounded them. Donnie stared with an opened mouth, wishing he could die already. The cops landed on the roof and encircled them. Donnie pulled out his pistol and pointed it at them. Arida shoved her hand into her coat and brought out the golden Roghim hilt. She felt like she had no choice now, but to use it. She turned around, her back touching Donnie’s and pointed the hilt at the cops that faced her.
A fire in a form of a blade jerked out of the hilt. Donnie moved aside quickly, looking at the weapon that held Arida with expanded eyes. “What’s that?” the flames crawled around the gloves that wore her but it wasn’t burning it or her skin either. “Isn’t that burning your hands?”
Arida smiled and looked at Donnie, standing on his right with his chest heaving in and out. “Nah, the power of the ancient Roghims”
The faces of the cops surrounding them showed how shocked they were. They couldn’t believe the weapon they were taught to be extinct since their childhoods was now right infront of them.
“Is that Kail-ail holding the weapon am thinking of?” Chief Hakaz raised his eyebrows.
Chief Balain stood speechless, staring down with a taut jaw. “How could it be possible? She found what she was searching for―an ancient Roghim blade”
“I am sure to tell you she never got that weapon on the Upper Rim. She might have found it here―someone was keeping it down here”
“Mugus” Chief Balain narrowed her eye. “The city most notorious black marketer―we captured her in the building Arida and the alien was”
Chief Hakaz turned to Balain. “Should we go and interrogate her?”
“Not now, when we are done with those two down there, then we will proceed with the rest”
Hakaz grinned and nodded. “We will be catching two birds with one stone tonight”
Arida and Donnie stood opposite with their back facing each other.
“Drop your weapons….or…you…would force us to shoot” the cop’s voice shook through the microphone.
Donnie turned his head back slightly. “What now Arida?” he whispered.
“Down!” she pushed Donnie down to squat and swung the Roghim round in circles. Fire jolted out of the blade and in an instant, reduced all the cops around into ashes. Donnie’s face scrunched out of confusion, his mouth opened wide, hi
s face began to sweat again after seeing all the cops all of a sudden diminish into ashes. “What the hell” he muffled.
Arida grabbed his hood and pulled him up onto his feet. Everything began to move slowly for him, just like watching a movie in a slow motion. He stared at the fiery weapon in Arida’s hand and then looked at her face, Arida smiled and shrugged.
“What has she just done?” Chief Hakaz’s face drew with anger, his mind couldn’t process the bizarre scene he had just witnessed. “That weapon in her hand can destroy the whole of this city!”
Chief Balain continued to look speechless as she stared down at them through the window. She rubbed her palms down her face, held the top of her nose and squinted her eyes with her head hung low. She became distressed and frustrated. The girl she trained and took care of had just reduced fifty of her men into ashes. “This isn’t the Arida I trained”
“Won’t you say anything?” Hakaz yelled at her. “She just murdered fifty of your men and you stand there quietly like you saw nothing!”
Balain glared at Chief Hakaz. “Okay, okay” Hakaz nodded, acting like he was going crazy. “Am going down there to capture them myself and―”
“And when you are done I need you and your guards out of my city!” Balain yelled back. Hakaz nodded angrily and walked away.
Hakaz shuffled his way to the pilots of the airship, bent and then whispered into their ears a plan he had in mind. After he straightened his body, they looked up at him and nodded. A minute long, Chief Hakaz was suspending outside the airship in a jetpack.
“Come on, we have to escape their sight. We are just building away” Arida tapped Donnie’s back. For the first time, Donnie felt actual relief as his heart dropped from her statement. “Maybe she knows what she is doing after all” he thought and smiled faintly, looking at her. She had just jumped unto another building’s roof, a little higher than the building Donnie stood on. Then a bomb from Hakaz’s airship exploded into the building Arida stood on. A rush of hot air threw Donnie to the floor. The building together with Arida went collapsing down to the far ground.
Lost On Mars Page 5
