[scifan] plantation 01 - plantation

by Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons

  “Move away from the edge.” Daphne urges us quietly. “We have to hide.”

  We do as she says, more shocked than scared at this point, and not having had time to figure out our options. All of this becomes irrelevant when Biscuit takes a deep breath, goes back to the edge of the cliff and starts crawling down the slope after Tilly.

  Chapter 18

  Finn told me once that a cool head and a warm heart is all you need to make it through life. I find myself in the exact opposite position. My head feels terribly hot and my heart is cold as ice. I can’t think. I can’t move. I can’t process all that has just happened.

  Finn and Daphne both reach the edge of the hilltop within seconds. I snap out of my stupor and follow them, with Scout and Rabbit close behind me.

  Biscuit is on his belly, moving towards Tilly as fast as he can. Tilly tries to crawl back up to Biscuit while two Sliman guards climb up the hillside.

  “What now?” Daphne whispers.

  “Just wait,” Finn says. “We might be able to run once Biscuit and Tilly get closer. Or we might have to fight the two Sliman that are after them. If we take them out fast enough, we’ll have a chance.”

  Tilly stands up suddenly. She looks at us with panic on her face and yells: “I hear them now, they know you are on the hilltop. They’re telling the Sliman to capture us all alive. Run! Just run!”

  Finn turns white. Daphne retreats in shock.

  “We have to run,” she says. “The Saviors are too important to get caught like mice in a trap.”

  “Just how far do you think we’d get?” Finn whispers as he stands up.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “There’s only one option left,” Finn says. “We will surrender. At least, it will give Damian and the others a chance to start over. They can rebuild the Saviors. We are lost, Daphne. That’s it. End of game.”

  Scout lets a sob out. My heart sinks and I can barely see anything around me.

  Rabbit stands next to Finn. “I’m with you,” he says. “I will do anything you say.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to end like that,” Daphne whispers before she joins Finn and Rabbit, resigned to fate.

  Finn looks at me, Scout and Nya. “I’m sorry about this mess,” he says. “Now let’s go do this for our friends and the future Saviors.”

  We walk down the hill with our hands up in surrender. The two Sliman guards below are closing in on Tilly and Biscuit who stay frozen on their spot.

  I catch up to Finn. “Tell me you have a plan,” I say.

  “Sorry, Tick, no more aces up my sleeve. You were right about everything. I hope you will forgive me one day.”

  The two Sliman are a few feet away from Tilly and Biscuit. It will all be over soon. More Sliman are beginning to move in our direction.

  I look around and something doesn’t feel right. “Finn,” I say, “where’s Nya?”

  Finn turns his head back and so do I. There’s no sign of her. Then, Nya appears out of nowhere on top of the hill, tall and majestic.

  “There,” Finn says, but I already see her. Even from this distance I can see that her dark eyes have gone cold. She seems to focus on a target below.

  In one quick motion she lifts her weapon, pulls back the bow string and releases an explosive arrow into the heart of the Armory. There’s a moment when nothing happens before the building goes up with a bang. Flames explode everywhere as a series of munitions ignite. Three injured Sliman run out in panic and collapse.

  Before the aliens have time to react, Nya fires another arrow at the simulation building. Next come the headquarters and the lab. The whole place goes up in flames, with scattered Sliman running wild, a few of them converging to the spot outside the kitchen to cover the two confused aliens with their bodies.

  Finn and I look to each other stunned, terrified.

  “What the hell has she done?” Daphne says.

  “No point in surrendering now. They’ll kill us. To the observatory tower!” Finn yells and we take off at full speed down the hill.

  Biscuit and Tilly draw out their pulse guns and aim them at the two Sliman that are closing in on them.

  “Finn,” I say, pointing at Tilly and Biscuit.

  A rough, hoarse voice cuts across the sky making our skin crawl. “Catch them alive!”

  The Sliman that have remained standing, including the two who were on Tilly and Biscuit, charge at us, guns in hand. I count fourteen of them and each one is a ferocious machine that knows no pain or fear.

  We are nearing the observatory, a narrow three-story building with a single window on the third floor. It’s the last building to the west and a good hundred feet away from the rest of the buildings. We’ve used it as a lookout place and we have weapons and food stored inside.

  We linger a moment for Nya, Tilly and Biscuit to catch up and we all enter the observatory just in time to close the steel door behind us before any Sliman can sneak in.

  The staircase is so narrow only one person can go up at a time. Finn stops Nya as she climbs the stairs to get to the window. “How many more arrows?”

  “Seven,” she says. “One explosive arrow and six regular ones.” Her voice is steady, impermeable. It’s no use trying to figure out why she did what she did, but I think the answer is simple, because for Nya things are always simple. She has been preparing for this moment all her life, silent and remote, perfecting her skills, working to achieve perfection at battle. Nya responds to instinct more than anybody else. She is the idealized version of our line of warriors. She knows no surrender.

  “Make them count,” Finn says to her as she moves to the window.

  Daphne and Finn take their place in front of the door, guns in hand. The rest of us align ourselves behind them, ready to fight for our lives when the Sliman break through the door.

  Thick sweat covers my eyebrows and my upper lip. My heart beats so hard I can hear it in my ears. Tilly’s right arm is bleeding. I wrap it up with a piece of cloth that I tear off my shirt.

  The Sliman are banging on the door for a while. Then they suddenly stop. The same hoarse voice as before speaks through a loudspeaker. “Surrender now and you will live. Keep resisting and you shall die. You have two minutes.” The nightmarish echo of those words spoken through the horrifying voice of an alien creature mimicking human speech is paralyzing.

  “What are we going to do, Finn?” Rabbit says.

  It’s an impossible question and we know it. All eyes turn to Finn. His silence is the only answer available. We quietly acknowledge how much we care for everyone in the room, what a good fortune it has been to have known each other and to have dreamed of a better world together.

  “I don’t want to go back to the plantation,” Scout says.

  Finn lifts his head to the top of the staircase.

  “Nya,” he says, “show time.”

  Nya nods, takes aim and fires her last explosive arrow at the two alien vehicles parked in the combat ring.

  Almost simultaneously the door is brought down and the Sliman storm the observatory. Finn takes the first one down with a swift blow to the neck. Daphne sinks her knife in the thigh of the second Sliman but they are both back up seconds later.

  More Sliman pour through the door, huge and expressionless like a night terror. It’s clear that they have orders to do their best not to kill us—not yet anyway.

  We refuse to go down without a fight even if it’s hopeless. It would be a different story if Damian, Zoe, Theo and Doc were here, especially if the fight took place in the forest. We would be in our element then and it would be pretty hard for anyone to get us.

  We fight tooth and nail as the Sliman attack us with one goal only: to promptly remove our weapons from us, leaving us vulnerable and weak in the narrow space of the building. They know we won’t dare to shoot in this enclosure with our companions all around us. Pulse guns can cause indiscriminate, irreparable damage when used in such a confined space.

  Nya comes down from the third floor and
shoots two arrows before she is disarmed. Both arrows hit their intended targets in the chest and that infuriates the remaining eight Sliman, probably because they didn’t think we could put up a serious fight and didn’t bother to thicken their skin enough to turn it into a shield.

  Two of them grab Nya and throw her to the floor. They kick her on the back and head several times. I feel the deadly grip of a Sliman hand around my neck and I realize what asphyxiation feels like.

  Scout is being dragged by the hair. Rabbit’s face is red with blood. Tilly can barely walk anymore. Biscuit is on his knees with a Sliman boot on his neck. Daphne and Finn are the last two still standing but they are quickly overpowered.

  We are dragged and shoved outside and made to kneel in front of the two aliens. They look exactly as I remember them from the plantation except they might have shrunk a bit more. They have human-like features, and they are quite small and thin, and completely bald. Their voices sound as if they had swallowed a dozen razors and their fingers don’t have nails. Their age is indeterminate, their features indistinct. Their gaze is scrutinizing.

  They whisper to each other to decide our future.

  I reach out and touch Scout’s hand on my left. She’s shaking violently and there’s nothing I can do to soothe her. I scan the devastation of the facilities that I will never see again. The fires have been put out and all that’s left is burnt walls, ashes and black soil. The only building standing is the kitchen. I can’t help but smile at the thought that just one girl has been able to cause such devastation.

  One of the aliens takes his sensory receptor device from underneath his cape. I have seen this contraption on a few occasions before, and almost always it was brought out during an emergency or for exhibition. Those devices are small, no bigger than our own touchpads, but they can do some pretty incredible things.

  They can move objects from a distance; they can make them levitate; they can produce huge amounts of energy in the form of blue and purple magnetic fields and who knows what else. These energy fields can make plants grow faster, they can light up entire Plantations, they can repair broken bones or they can blow things up, but all that happens at great expense to the aliens who seem to be physically connected to the devices.

  The weaker they get, the less able they are to produce the energy fields, so they will avoid using them unless absolutely necessary. It takes them several hours, even days to recover after such a use.

  The devices have also been used as a means of intimidation, as they can lift you up and throw you against a wall and there’s nothing good to be expected when they are paraded in front of you.

  The sensory receptors respond only to the alien touch, not even Sliman can make them work. The aliens used to tease us with that at Plantation-8. Finn and I were present when they practically threw one at us during inspection time. A few children reached for the device and tried to make it work to no avail. They ended up with bad burns on their hands when the device got overheated in an attempt to protect itself.

  The alien with the receptor walks in front of us, starting with Biscuit. He puts the device on Biscuit’s face as if scanning him for something, while the second alien watches from a distance like a hawk.

  The first alien now moves the device over Daphne’s face, then Nya’s and Finn’s. My turn is coming up. I don’t know what possesses me but the moment the cold surface of the device touches my cheek, I reach out and grab it from the alien’s hand.

  I steady myself for the blow that will surely follow, but instead I see what can only be described as sheer terror on the alien’s face. I hear a buzz, I look at my hands and see that the sensory device is turned on and a red sparkling intermittent light beams out like some kind of signal.

  Three Sliman move toward me but I spring up to my feet fast and turn the device on them. A moment later, they are levitated five feet off the ground and are thrown with a thud against the walls behind them.

  “That is impossible,” the second alien growls. I defiantly turn the device on him. He crouches and whimpers as I send a small electric shock his way.

  Finn overcomes his initial shock and, taking advantage of the confusion, springs to his feet. Daphne follows and they both attack the Sliman guards.

  Nya, Tilly, Scout, Rabbit and Biscuit join them without hesitation. The Saviors attack the invaders with everything they have while I throw my electric blasts left and right.

  I feel a sharp ache in my right hand that gets worse as I keep firing. The pain gets so intense that I almost drop the device and I have to support my right hand with my left.

  The power I can generate lessens over time and becomes unstable. I am losing control of the sensory receptor device and the harder I try, the worse the outcome gets. I am not the only one who takes notice of this. Two of the Sliman disentangle themselves from the conflict with the Saviors and walk towards me. I fire at them desperately but they are able to avoid the small electric lightning-like flames I produce. The receptor doesn’t obey me anymore.

  I take in the scene around me: my friends are being defeated. Their injuries get worse and they are beaten down again and again. The only ones that are still putting up a decent fight are the super-warriors, Daphne and Finn, but they won’t last for long.

  My strength and concentration abandon me. I see the raised gun in the Sliman’s hand and realize it’s a tranquilizer. They don’t want to kill me. They want to take me prisoner and study me. They want to see how I’m doing what I’m doing. I understand that. I’d like to know the answer myself.

  A second Sliman plunges at me with another tranq gun and then a third one. The receptor shuts down. Finn drops to the ground under the Sliman blows. Daphne keeps kicking, keeps resisting like the fearless goddess that she is.

  This is it, then. It was good while it lasted. The Saviors made their stand at last. The guns aim at my arms and legs. I close my eyes, getting ready for the blow. When I wake up from this, I will not be myself anymore.

  I hear a familiar voice screaming out my name. I open my eyes and barely have a moment to watch Damian’s face as he jumps on the first Sliman and breaks his neck with a single click. He leaps in front of me, gun in hand, ready to protect me with his own body.

  There are ten Sliman left standing and eight of them close in on Damian. He puts his left arm behind his back and pushes me further away. The guns that are trained on him are not tranq guns. The first shot scratches his left shoulder. He fires back getting one more Sliman out of the way.

  The second pulse hits him on the thigh causing a deep gash. He stumbles for a moment but then steadies himself. My eyes get teary and my heart drops. All I can think is that I don’t want him to die for me, that I’d give anything to protect him, to save him. I’d give anything to go back in time and treat him with more respect and appreciation for all that he has done for the Saviors. For all that he’s doing for me now.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Theo, Zoe and Doc running to our aid, but they are too far away, they will never make it here on time.

  Damian hits one more Sliman before he gets shot in the right arm. I feel as if I’ve been struck myself. His gun drops to the ground. He stands powerless as two more Sliman aim at him.

  They’re done playing. They are going for his chest.

  The blasts are fired simultaneously but Damian is left standing in front of me. Daphne has managed to free herself and jump in front of Damian. Her blonde hair falls onto her face as she stumbles backwards before collapsing.

  Damian screams like a hurt animal. Finn crawls to Daphne. Scout and Tilly stare in disbelief. Nya falls to her knees pulling her own hair. Rabbit hides his face in the burnt soil. Biscuit trembles. Zoe, Theo and Doc slow down as if suddenly frozen, unable to process what has just happened.

  The Sliman don’t bother with Damian anymore. He’s kneeling next to Daphne, his face red with tears and despair. The Sliman are coming for me.

  I feel a tremendous wave of rage and fury build up inside me. I don’t care a
bout anything anymore. My veins swell up in my temples. I don’t give a damn whether I live or die. My fists get tight around the receptor and only now do I realize I am still holding it.

  I yield the power that lurks inside it with a fury and force I didn’t think possible. The ground shakes when I target the two Sliman who shot Daphne. They fly up in the air and then sail backward like dolls in the wind and smash viciously against the burnt remains. I did that.

  And more. I create a cyclone that sweeps everything up in the air, rocks, debris, weapons, branches, leaves. My fury is now directed at the two aliens. I go to them with big strides, my features harden up to the point that I don’t think they will ever return to normal. My hatred is overpowering, overwhelming. It’s all that exists right now.

  I hear the sound of new vehicles. The aliens have called for reinforcements. I don’t care. I can take them all on. I won’t stop until they’re all dead, little specks of dust on their way to oblivion. I will kick the whole bloody species back to the space where they belong and watch them blow up into tiny pieces.

  A new group of Sliman guards walk in on the scene of disaster, weapons in hand, eyes fixed on me. “Freeze them”, I think to myself and the device spews out a curtain of ice. It’s not enough to actually freeze them but it becomes clear to me that the receptor is connected to my mind and will do whatever I tell it to do.

  I blow away the new horde of Sliman with a huge blue electromagnetic blast. They are taken aback and don’t know what to do next. Two Sliman take off towards the Saviors that have gathered around Daphne. One of them grabs Tilly by the hair and the other one kicks Rabbit on the shin. The distraction they create works for them as I lose focus. Four Sliman run towards me and before I know it, four guns are pointed at me from four different directions.

  I order the receptor to blow them all up but it’s a confusing request and I have to re-focus my attention. I start spinning on the spot and the first shot misses me by a few inches. The spinning increases the power of the receptor to the point that I think I can set the whole forest on fire. A blue shield springs out of the receptor and covers me like a mist. Their next pulse blast hits the shield but cannot penetrate it.