by Lily Anton
They walked the long way around the water’s perimeter, and the minute bit of safety she felt at being somewhere familiar was giving way to panic as he led them further away from the main center of the Section. She didn’t want to be out of sight, and wondered if Krase had some way of getting her off the ship. If that happened, she knew she’d be fucked.
Her mind scrambled to come up with some way to delay them that wouldn’t look suspicious but the problem was taken out of her hands when a loud boom echoed across the Section, the floor underneath her swaying with the impact.
People screamed, and humans poured out of their rooms, looking around and below to the source of the sound.
Leila’s ears were ringing, and the smell of smoke quickly filled the space. She could see it rolling in towards her, a hazy red fog that was thick and cloying, beginning to block her vision.
“No!” Krase yelled, his voice overshadowed by the shouts of concern and panic as the smoke defied physics and began to somehow rapidly fill the massive space.
She caught sight of a few Debir reaching for weapons or to alert others, but she was grabbed violently by the arm, all pretenses gone as Krase dragged her through the thick red clouds of smoke, seemingly unaffected and immune to her cursing and attempts to wrench her arm free from his ironclad grip.
Shouts of alarm now coupled with automated sirens going off in the space, hundreds if not thousands of footsteps stumbling around as terrified voices and cries mingled together.
Something hard slammed into her shoulder, making her reel back with enough force that Krase lost his grip on her.
Leila saved herself from falling over, ignoring the pain in her shoulder as the risk of being trampled would be worse. But she had an opening now, and in the craziness of people running around blindly, she took her one shot and ran off, disappearing into the crowd and ignoring the angry growl that raised the hair on her neck.
Like the perfect dramatic entrance in a movie scene, the red clouds of smoke began to thin, and hulking massive figures emerged from the plumes.
Other than their imposing height, they looked nothing like Debirs, their scaled faces and sharp four fingered claws glinting as if made of metal. Their skin was all the same; a mottling of green and purple that made them look sickly, with pink scars criss-crossing on almost all their faces and bare chests.
She wouldn’t have judged them based on appearance alone, however, considering the context they were terrifying to look at and screamed predator.
Bladed weapons that matched the blood-red glow of their eyes were in their hands, their eerily wide mouths looking like permanent grins on their faces. Considering their stocky builds and thick arms, she honestly didn’t think they needed anything other than their bare hands to tear anyone apart.
Others around her began to notice the invaders; more panicked shrieking and less shouts as the explosion became the least of their worries.
Leila could only assume that these scaly assholes were the Baza, and watched the group of them fan out to flank them on the lower level.
The humans on the other levels were definitely safer for the time being than those that were here on the ground floor.
Krase’s voice was now close enough that she could hear it clearly, even if she didn’t understand what was being said.
Struggling against the wave of people knocking into her, she saw the Debir angrily yelling at one of the Baza that stood slightly apart from the others.
Whatever their deal had been -because it was obvious there had been one- had clearly not gone the way Krase had thought it would go.
“Humanssss…”
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, and it made her skin shiver.
“You belong to the Baza now... Do not fight us or you will die.”
Leila would have laughed if she didn’t believe every word of it. They had come for the humans on board, and as she felt people press in against her from all sides, she realized that they were being herded together like cattle.
Where the hell were the Debir?! There had been a few she’d seen, but surely they weren’t going to abandon them?!
‘Ezon is coming’ she reminded herself. ‘He will have a plan. He will come.’
She had to keep telling herself that, hoping that her comm unit was still working and not daring to check it. All she had risked doing was patting her pocket to make sure it was still there although what good did that even do at this point?
Krase was shouting now, spittle flying from his mouth as he argued with who she assumed was the Baza leader.
Within seconds the Debir was flying across the air, his body slamming to the ground across the other side of the room.
A scared cry of a child caught Leila’s attention, her panic flaring as she hadn’t seen a kid on board. The tearful hushes of a woman trying in vain to calm the child somehow further drove home the point that this was all fucking real and happening and the Baza would utterly destroy them if anyone tried to play hero.
“Rose! No! That’s my daughter! No!” the frantic screams along with a young girl drew everyone’s attention as one of the Baza had picked up a young human girl, her mother ignoring all threats to her own safety and lunging for her child, only for everyone to watch in horror as the child was thrown without a second thought, a loud splash reverberating from the water from where she’d landed.
Leila’s relief that she’d landed in water and not on the marbled ground was short-lived as the mother’s screaming continued, her child struggling in the deep pool.
‘She can’t swim,’ was her only horrifying thought, the Baza responsible backhanding the screaming woman with such force that they heard her fall to the ground, completely silent.
Rage and terror fought for dominance as they watched the woman be picked up and thrown into the water after her daughter. The Baza responsible clearly thought it wasn’t worth the effort to contain her.
One of the humans rushed the alien with an enraged yell, only to get backhanded as well. The man was lucky he hadn’t been punched in the face or he’d be dead. Instead he was barely conscious and left to stumble back into the crowd.
Something or someone caught Leila’s attention: a large form diving from the levels above and entering the water, barely disturbing its surface. If anyone else had noticed, they were keeping it to themselves, and Leila watched in relief as seconds later she saw movement at the far end of the lake.
Even with the distance between them, she made out Opho’s familiar silver skin and hair, the small girl and woman in his arms as he quickly hurried out of sight.
Seeing him made hope flare up bright in her chest.
“You…”
Leila’s head snapped forward and up. While all the Baza looked practically the same, she knew it was the leader; a large scar cutting across a cloudy eye.
That still left him with one though, and as the crowd parted ways around her, he looked her over with an expression she didn’t want to decipher.
“You are not clothed like the other humans…”
She held back a flinch as he stared down at her, especially as she saw two rows of sharp serrated teeth inches from her face.
“Your scent is...familiar…” he mumbled with a low growl, and Leila didn’t know if that was a bad thing or a worse thing.
Maybe it was her imagination but she swore he looked like he was going to touch her, only to be disturbed by another Baza stepping forward: this one with a large jagged scar that ran diagonally from shoulder to hip.
Their language was all growls, the changes in pitch and tone barely distinguishable, making it a language that sounded perpetually angry and menacing. Rather fitting considering what she knew about them so far.
“You will come with us now or we kill you,” the amplified voice warned,
Everyone was huddled together in groups, and they watched some Baza pointing to the upper levels where humans were no doubt hiding now having seen the horror that awaited below them. It was clear there was a discu
ssion happening about the humans above, but based on whatever the leader said in response, the Baza didn’t appear to be changing tactics.
All of a sudden they were being corralled and moved towards the other end, and Leila hoped that Opho and the two he had rescued had moved out of sight.
She was towards the front of the large group that was made up of hundreds of them, if not half the total number of humans on board, and the burst of hope she had felt was gone. What made it worse were the whispers by her side, asking her of all people what they should do. There was no answer she could give them other than to stay calm and everything would be fine.
Whether or not she believed that was another thing entirely as each step she took among the masses killed the burst of hope she’d felt earlier.
Leila tried slowing down, if only to get herself back into the center of the group. It was the only way she could think to risk taking out her comm unit and start pleading for help now.
Unfortunately, slowing down didn’t do much as the sheer number of people behind her pushed her forward with the momentum of their steps. The Baza leader’s eyes also kept looking back at her as if ensuring she hadn’t tried to escape. That unsettled her the most.
She didn’t want to die and had no desire to fight them in a vain attempt to try and save herself. They would no doubt kill others in retaliation for her doing something stupid or they would find other ways to make her regret her decision. Ways that she did not want to think about.
They were back near where Krase had attempted to bring her, the thick steel-like double doors blasted open by whatever they had used to cause the red smoke earlier.
As an admitted atheist, she did not believe in a higher being of any kind, but she found herself praying to anything out there, hoping for some sort of fucking miracle that would get them out of this mess.
‘If there is something fucking out there, please do something!’
Suddenly, she was surrounded in complete darkness, every single light source gone. Blinking several times to adjust was of no use, the people around her panicking and shouting and shoving while she could hear the Baza call out to one another angrily.
She quickly tried to orient herself, remembering what had been around them, the ability to calm anyone gone as people shoved and scattered, literally blind as they flailed about seeking safety.
The red glow of the Baza’s eyes worked in the humans favour and Leila did her best to stay clear of them, unsure of how well these aliens could see in the dark.
“Look!” someone called out, which honestly was a stupid thing to say since they couldn’t see fuck all. Still, she did her best, her head darting around and spotting colored eyes above them, pulses of green light shooting towards the crowd.
The panic intensified, and maybe Leila was imagining it now but the number of red glowing eyes were becoming less and less; many of the humans realizing that the Debirs had taken the high ground and were sniping the Baza with extreme precision.
The few Baza’s she could hear in the distance were shouting at each other, but she detected an uncurrent of frenzied alarm.
She found herself with more space to move around, the air around her a welcome feel after being boxed in.
Someone tripped, and she heard them fall, her hands instinctively moving down to try and find who it was, only to feel the rough texture of scars and scales under her fingers. Leila snatched her hand back, her stomach in her throat with how close one of these bastards had been to her.
Everything around her felt slow and heavy, yet too quick for her to react to. The lights were still out, and now she could make out the sounds of fists hitting flesh, a sound she was not familiar with but she knew what it was as soon as she heard it. The growls of remaining Baza were now mixed with angered growls of Debirs, colored eyes glowing all around her as apparently they had no trouble seeing in the dark.
It felt like a lifetime before the lights finally came back on, although when she looked back on this moment at some point in the future, it all happened within a matter of seconds.
She winced, pinching her eyes shut in reflex, but forcing her vision to adjust as quickly as it could so she could see what was going on.
Several Baza were motionless on the ground, while others groaned in obvious pain that did nothing to make her sympathize with them. She was not a violent person, did not condone killing people, and yet their absolute disregard for life and their obvious cruelty did not make her feel an ounce of sympathy for them.
Hundreds of Debir were still dropping down from the levels above, some going to check over their enemies while others were immediately speaking with humans or rounding them up for care and safety. Shock had set in with most, and everyone moved about willingly.
A man quietly wept beside her on the floor, slowly rocking himself back and forth. A Debir was there within moments, slowly kneeling down to ask if they were injured.
Leila wanted nothing more than to just take a seat next to them, needing a moment to collect her thoughts and calm her breathing. But more than that, she wanted Ezon.
Her eyes scanned the crowd trying to spot him, but there were still too many humans and Debirs in the crowd for her to see much of anything. Every second she didn’t see him the pressure in her chest grew, her eyes pooling with tears she stubbornly blinked away and wrote off as stress.
A Debir holding a portable scanner approached her, asking if she needed medical assistance, but she waved them off, urging them to help the others. If she was injured, shock and adrenaline were doing a good job of keeping her oblivious to it.
She was careful to avoid any Baza laying on the ground, some with pinkish colored liquid pooled around them, and eyed them with a level of detachment that surprised her.
It was hard to stop herself from asking every single Debir if they knew where Ezon was. As the commander, it was possible he hadn’t led the rescue himself, but she wished he was there nonetheless.
The familiar melody that drifted gently in the back of her mind grew more pronounced as she walked, her attention immediately latching on to it. A weird game of hot and cold followed, adjusting her steps when the song in her head grew fainter, and eventually picked up its trail and all but ran as it grew louder in her head.
‘He’s here! Where is he?!’
And just like that, the crowds parted and she saw him, his hands wrapped around the throat of a Baza that was lying on the floor.
She heard the sickening crunch of a neck snapping. The violence of the action was so much at odds with hands that had been so gentle with her.
His eyes immediately locked onto hers, somehow knowing exactly which direction she was advancing from.
As he stood up, Leila quickly looked him over for any signs of injury, finding only a scrape across his face. Now that she had found him, her feet somehow glued themselves to the floor.
What had she expected to happen? Run into his arms and have him pick her up and carry her away from all of this?
‘Yes,’ Her mind was a traitor and she ignored it even though it was right. She was exhausted; not just from this, but from constantly being the strong self-sufficient one who didn’t go bawling their eyes out or need anyone to comfort them. Just once she wanted to be able to let her guard down.
Decision made, she made a beeline for him, ready to throw her arms around his waist, appearances be damned.
The bite of cold metal against her neck registered before the hand around her chest did, her whole body going rigid. Even with the blood roaring in her ears once more, she could make out the gasps around her as she and her captor were given a wide berth.
All around her she could see Debir aiming in her direction, or rather, at whomever was now holding her at knife point. She didn’t dare look to see who it was, feeling the press of a blade against her neck with every breath she took.
Ezon looked absolutely murderous, his skin so dark it was almost black, golden eyes narrowed and focused. His hands werenclenched by his side as he stared her ass
ailant down.
“Krase, release her now.”
Each word carried the promise of death.
“These humans are worthless!” Krase hissed with self-righteous anger. “We could have been rid of the Baza for good if we had just allowed them Earth!”
“You betray us for the Baza in hopes of peace?!” Ezon thundered, and Leila felt Krase flinch at the sound, the pressure of the blade against her skin lessening ever so slightly.
The silent intensity of his anger belied the deadly calm of his next words. “Release her at once...or I will rip your head from your body.”
It was the first time Leila had ever heard anyone literally gulp, and since it came from the asshole with the blade to her neck, there was no greater sound. A moment later the blade was gone, Krase realizing he wasn’t getting out of this, hostage or not.
