by Alta Hensley
Teet. Teet. Teet. Teet.
Suddenly, I narrowed my eyes. I picked up my crumple of clothes, my soggy hair swinging in my face. If the mutated canary found me, it would only take seconds until it gored through my pasty flesh and gnawed on my bones. My neck craned at an angle. I needed a quick plan—the faster the better. Out in the clearing, I saw a gray structure sticking out like a knife. After promptly jumping onto the bank, I turned. Dark moody eyes greeted me. It began moving toward me. Teet. Teet. Teet.
Drooling. Spitting. Gnashing.
No way out.
Worse, I had only one chance to make a break for it.
“Fuck it,” I mumbled under my breath.
I fled barefoot, jamming one leg at a time in my pants. The canary lurched after me, crunching dead detritus under his gnarled feet. I hooked a left, rustling the leaves on the trees.
Oh God, oh God, oh God!
I saw other staggering figures along the way, lumbering in my direction. For the next few seconds, I pictured the end of my life. I could hear Pike’s voice in my head. Run!
Finally, I neared the shimmering pewter-colored structure, an old mining station. Small. A gleaming handle caught my eye, and I clung onto it with both of my hands. Hearing scuttling noises close at my back, I frantically jerked at the door, but the damn thing didn’t budge.
Teet. Teet. Teet. Teet.
Almost paralyzed with fear, I pulled back and kicked the handle with all of my weight. It remained stuck for what felt like endless minutes. Until finally, a low-pitched creak echoed from the hinges of the door. I turned, sweating and retching at the musty stench.
A head full of snapping teeth thrust right for my neck. I reared back. The canary’s drool curdled down its maw like a thick black gravy. I shambled away, walloping the canary with a chunk of dead wood. It grunted, wildly clawing bleeding grooves in my arms. I slammed at its head again. Bits of brain and jellied blood sprayed on my lips. I pushed the brain-crushed canary away with a manic guttural sound. Glancing over my shoulder, other canaries teetered right for me. From what little I could see inside the mining station, an oil thick darkness awaited. I took a second to consider—but not too deeply—whether if hunkering down inside was a good or a shit idea.
Canaries surrounded me, blood oozed from their shredded flesh. I latched on the swinging door handle, sprinted inside, and slammed it right behind me.
Panic sparked in my gut.
No light.
It was cold inside. Freezing.
A mining station with no power. Figures. The canaries stood maybe a good twenty feet from my door. My first instinct was to slide my hands along the walls, hoping to find a fuse box or at least anything useful. The metal walls felt cool underneath my fingertips. Every few seconds my nails would scrape on narrow grooves. I fumbled like this until something landed on my feet with a soft nearly inaudible thud.
I kneeled down slowly, patting my hands on the floor. Something long and smooth found my hand. It took me a moment to grab it, and a sudden flash of weak dim light flickered from the laserlight I found on the ground. With a swift wave, I aimed it at the floor. Five stiff, dead fingers had dropped on the tips of my bare feet. With flustered kicks, it flung up and out of my way. I swung the light, making out a silhouette in the dark. I looked across the room and caught a glimpse of a frozen pair of eyes. The slack-jawed corpse slumped against the wall. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled until I fought to put myself at ease.
It’s not like I hadn’t seen a dead body before. Just the opposite. Death was not new to me.
I eyed it briefly, and then turned my head away. No matter how much I fished deep in his pockets, I came up with nothing—other than pocket lint and a rusty razor that was balled in the other hand. Maybe the poor bastard intended to kill himself, or attempt to fight off the canaries to no avail?
The body itself was surrounded by a halo of dead flies. With no food or water, I’d practically climbed in my own coffin. I had a good three days until I’d die of thirst. Either that, or the hellfire of hunger in the pit of my belly would do me in first. I slid my back against the wall, hugging my knees. I needed a solution, but couldn’t think of a single one.
Every once in awhile, I had a pretty good idea about things. This was not one of those times. A rush of blood gushed through my heart as it pulsed to the rhythm of its beat. It thudded loud and hard like the hammer of a sawed off gun. Carefully, I eased open the door to take a peek. That’s when I saw the fuse box, right before the tree line. I had to make a break for it. Otherwise, the feral horde of snapping canaries would flay my skin right in broad daylight. I pulled back, setting myself in a running stance.
“Fuck…”
I stepped out with the blunt end of a laserlight like a plastic samurai sword. I charged forward at full speed, enraged, wide-eyed, arms above my head and shrieking at the top of my lungs.
I smashed the flat head of my laserlight like a sledgehammer, deep in their pocked and scarred faces. I dodged their clawing gangly arms. Another canary swiped at my thigh, I pivoted slightly and at once, shoved the handle into its gurgling gullet. A tidal wave of black mucusy pus exploded on my shirt and ratty hair. Immediately, I stepped back smearing off the reeking goo, frantically checking for my own wounds. I didn’t once take my eyes off of the fuse box, storming right for it. Canaries sputtered in my face, chomping as they chased me in a possessed rage. I shuffled a few steps, banging on the metal fuse box and grabbed a fistful of rainbow colored wires.
Groaning, snarling canaries ambushed me in a corner. I muttered to myself, plugging in wires every which way. An electric zip surged through the power line as shockwaves of pure energy reached the core. I didn’t have the words to express my breathless joy when the light above the mining station door flickered bright. But over the course of the next few seconds, I observed the sprawl of canaries flanking me from all directions. My heart skipped a beat, and I drew in my arms.
“This isn’t happening, is it?” I asked in a dead tone. With a plague of the mutated tottering lock step and shoulder to shoulder, I didn’t even have a chance. Mortified, I crouched down with my knees and my arms drawn into my chest awaiting to be wholly gobbled in a bloody hemorrhaging mess. Even now, I couldn’t sob or shed a tear.
I glanced up nervously when a white, hot light exploded and vanished in the air. The throng of the desecrated corpses parted right down in the center. The shimmering tip of a gun caught my eye first.
A second blast sent fleshy fluids soaring into the sky. I inched up and froze where I stood. Canaries gagged, stampeding each other to hook their rotting teeth into the gun toting assailant’s neck. After walking a few paces, someone extended me a hand, and I heard a familiar voice. Pike. Pike!
“Pike! You are back! You came back!”
I pummeled the six-foot crimson-lit man in his hardened broad chest. I stared down at the thick red veins of light streaking down his forearms, and couldn’t wait to feel them wrapped around my body. I eyed Pike’s leather belt that held snug a small rusted-edged hatchet on his right side. He lowered his gun, adopting a stance of calm.
“We’ve got a ways to where Cross is with the ship, and these canaries aren’t going to just step out of our way. I’m worried about Cross. He isn’t going to be able to hold them off long by himself. This fucking planet is infested with them now.”
I let out a breath, said nothing more, and ran at Pike’s side. As we ran, he handed me the hatchet from his waist with a steely-eyed smile. Canaries looked upon us with wet gleaming eyes. Pike lifted up his gun in one motion. A chewed-faced canary bolted, wailing as it forged for us. Pike cocked his gun. The double-click of the forearm was like music to my ears. A volley of rotten skin and desiccated muscle erupted into oblivion.
Pike gripped my hand, as Canaries kept close on our heels, racing to get back to the ship.
I ran as fast as I could, my lungs burned. I ran without looking back, gasping sobs. If branches of trees and shrubs sliced the skin of my
hands, and limbs struck at my face, it didn’t matter. It was nothing compared to the suffering I would experience if a canary got a hold of me. Pike and I had to get back to the ship. I jumped a fallen tree and landed in dark mud. My feet lost traction, and I slipped, falling hard onto hands and knees, tearing the thin fabric of my clothing. Bloody scrapes marred the skin of my palms, but I continued on with all the speed I could muster.
Canaries screeched, the high pitched fervor of that god awful teeting threatening to drive me insane. Both Pike and I ignored the fact that more came from all around as we ran. Canaries catapulted themselves in front of us only to be met with a shot from Pike’s gun.
Pike pointed in the direction of where Cross waited with the ship. “There. Run faster!” We both picked up speed seeing several canaries make their way toward Cross. He did his best shooting them as they came, but there were so many.
“Cross,” I called, but my breath was so short it barely made a sound. “Cross!” I tried again.
And then it happened…
I gasped in shock, watching the canary come from Cross’s right while he was reloading his gun. The bulging-eyed monster lunged for Cross, knocking him down to the ground.
“No!” I screamed as I ran as fast as I could behind Pike who was charging full speed toward the canaries and his fallen brother.
The canary hissed, thrashing Cross’s lumbering body along the panels of the ship. I panicked as bits of the man’s torn flesh flicked against the cargo hold.
As if Pike had suddenly possessed a superhuman power, he went charging toward the mass of canaries with bullets blazing. Over and over he shot, killing them all one by one. Still in mid run, he scooped down and picked up Cross’s limp body and ran into the cargo hold with me still running behind him. Within seconds, Pike had the door closed and the ship in the air, while I crouched down by Cross’s bloody body.
“I’m glad you are all right,” Cross said with his arm folded across a gash on his chest, shielding the wound from my prying eyes. His big muscled body now looked so frail and broken.
“Let me see it, Cross.” I looked at the wound, then to Cross’s fluttering eyes, and then back at the wound again. “We’ll get you fixed up. Just let Pike get us out of here,” I said as I watched the blood spurt from his wound with every beat of his heart. So much blood. So much fucking blood!
Cross swung his head left and coughed up blood. Then he gazed upon me with a wolfish smile. “It’s my time.” He coughed hard, cringing in pain. “Those bastards got me.”
“This is my fault. I’m why this happened,” I said, somehow physically incapable of shedding tears, but not feeling such agonizing pain since the death of Trinity.
“We should have never left you here,” Cross replied. He coughed again into his fist. “I want you to take care of my brother. Promise me.”
“Stop, Cross. You are going to be fine.” I screamed at Pike who was busy flying the ship to safety. “Pike! I need you!”
Cross coughed again, gagging on the bubbling blood filling his airway. “He’ll need you. Do not let him push you away. Do not. There is love there. There is good inside of him. My lifeblood just stole it all. But I’ll soon be gone. I won’t be able to steal all the virtue any longer. He will be able to have it all. Pike may just need your help to find it.” He coughed again, and his eyes began to fade. “Promise me, Truth. Promise me you will help Pike find my gold light.”
“I promise.”
“He was the one, Truth. He was the one who said we had to come back and get you. It was he who didn’t want to live without you.”
I nodded with my eyes clenched shut.
Now Pike would have to live without his Lifeblood Twin.
I opened my eyes when I heard Cross gasp for air as his body slowly died. Gold. The color of life. Of beauty. Of warmth. A color that faded away completely as Cross took his last breath.
Cross! Cross! Cross!
I swam my fingers in the pool of his blood, taking in the last of his warmth. Cross! Cross was dead. Dead! My head spun, and all I could hear was a high, blood-curdling scream. Someone was screaming. I was screaming. It was me.
Cross! No! No, please! Don’t leave me!
I screamed over and over until there was nothing. Darkness. My body finally decided it was time to shut down. Nothing but darkness as I collapsed upon Cross’s blood.
Chapter 10
I woke up in my old bed, my old room, alone. I was clean, bandaged, and in fresh clothes. Pike must have done it because…Cross was dead. Gone.
Fresh tears filled my eyes at the thought. I had lost Trinity. I had lost Cross. How much pain could one person endure in a lifetime?
I sat up having no sense of time. I wondered how long I had been unconscious. Hours? Days? Where was Pike? Standing up and grimacing when my feet hit the floor, it dawned on me that I had run at full speed barefoot. Looking down at the bandages, and feeling the throbbing pain let me know I must have shredded the soles of my feet. Limping over to the intercom, I hit the button.
“Pike? Are you there?”
I waited. Silence.
“Pike?”
I waited.
The door to my room slid open before I could call him again. There before me was Pike. Colorless. Void of any red that once illuminated through his large frame. All that remained was a pallid silhouette such as myself. His opaque figure was a painful reminder that his Lifeblood Twin was dead.
I burst into tears. “Oh, Pike,” I cried. “I’m so sorry. So sorry.”
To my surprise, Pike took me in his arms and held me close. He held me while I sobbed, stroked my back while my body shook with my misery. He kissed the top of my head as I apologized over and over again. Never once did he speak. Never once did he stop showing me love, kindness, and comfort. Pike. It was Pike who blanketed me in his white when the black wanted to blanket me completely.
I’m not sure how long I cried against his chest, but eventually Pike pulled me back so he could look me in the eyes. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. I could see his pain. I could see that his entire soul crumbling to pieces inside.
Stroking his pale face with my pale palms, I whispered, “Are you all right?” My white on his white, my pain touching his. Two Lifeblood Twins without the other half.
He nodded. “I will be.” Taking me by the hand, he led me back to the bed. “You need to rest. You’ve been through an awful ordeal.”
I shook my head. “No. I want to stay with you.” The thought of being alone for another second sent a panic through me. I never wanted to be alone again.
“I won’t leave you,” he reassured. He laid me down and crawled in bed beside me. “I made the biggest mistake of my life leaving you once before. I will never leave you again. Never.”
I curled up next to him and pressed my cheek to his chest as he hugged me tight. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“He is. Cross is gone.”
“What do we do now?”
“Nothing. We do nothing right now.”
I nodded, feeling my eyes grow heavy. The heavy beat of his heart acted like a lullaby as I allowed sleep to take over and hopefully begin to heal my broken soul.
Days of deep melancholy passed. Pain every waking moment as Pike and I tried to take life one day at a time. White. We were white, and the constant reminder of our loss made me hate the lack of color more than ever before. I had never seen a man float through life, but that was exactly what Pike was doing. Floating in a thick haze of grief. He became lifeless along with colorless. And as much as I wanted to take away his pain, I had no way of doing so. Everywhere we looked, we saw a reminder of Cross. And every time I looked at his twin brother, a sharp pang would nearly knock the air out of me.
But with each day, and with each hour, Pike and I slowly regained our strength. The deep fog we both moved through slowly began to lift. Conversations occurred between us, ones that didn’t have the name Cross in them. Inch by inch a sense of calm, contentment, and ac
ceptance began to seep into our waking hours. We were healing. Slowly.
We sat across from each other, like so many other times before, but today was different. Pike seemed like he was contemplating, heavy in thought. I decided to see if I could maybe get him to open up a little.
“Pike? You seem like you have been thinking pretty hard today.”
“I have.” He looked up at me and made eye contact. His expression gave nothing away.
“What about?”
“About us. About what our next step is. My brother and I were Pallid Slave transporters, but that has to change now. Now that I’m a Pallid as well. Plus,” he said as he studied me watching him, “that is no life for you anyway. I’ve heard of a small planet in the Zolar universe that is taking in Unins. It’s supposed to be a safe haven, but at the same time, there is talk that the outcast Unins are preparing for war against the Drenkens. Maybe it is time for you and me to join them. I’m sure if I study the star charts, I can find this planet, and you are a trained soldier so—”
My heart skipped a beat knowing that Pike was considering me in his future plans. “What are you saying?” I interrupted, needing more clarification. “Are you wanting a future with me in it?”
He smiled. The first genuine smile I had ever seen from him. It reminded me of Cross, but did not bring me sadness, but rather a happiness that filled my aching spirit. “Of course you are in it. When Cross and I went back to Canary, it was to claim you as ours. We had been damn fools to let you go, and we realized that…sadly too late.” He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “But I will never make that mistake again. I want you. You are mine.”
“Yours?”
“Mine.” He stood up and pulled me from my chair. He wrapped his arms around me, trapping me against his body. “I have no lifeblood, but with the loss of it, I gained something I have never had before. I feel. I feel so much more than the dark, angry emotions of before. It’s as if my heart has grown. My entire being has changed. I feel pain, I feel the loss of my brother, and yet I feel emotions such as hope, and love. Love for you.”
