by LM. Preston
“Ugh!” Aadi cried out. The sharp needle-like knives cut the skin at his neck, forcing the black poison deep into his blood and down his neck. He screamed and felt like acid was pouring through his veins. He fell back to his knees. Picturing Eirena, he forced himself back to standing, one leg at a time. He told himself to focus and heard Jantik in the background telling him to stop fighting it. He blocked everything out and grabbed the collar that was locked on his neck. He felt the power building through the intense pouring of the poison through his veins. The power started in his center and poured to his legs, his feet, his arms, and finally his hands. With all the focus he could muster, he pulled the collar off, and it snapped in two in his hands. He felt nothing but anger and his determination to save Eirena, his one last link to home.
Without thought or hesitation, he turned to Jantik, who now appeared afraid of him. As Jantik shied away in fear, Aadi reached out and grabbed the collar on Jantik’s neck. He yanked it off and broke it into pieces before it could inject its poison into Jantik’s veins.
“Thank you, my friend. We must hurry before they return!” Jantik said, and he ran off without hesitation. Aadi quickly followed, only to get frustrated with Jantik’s comparably slow pace. Aadi scooped Jantik up easily with his arm and ran at an accelerated speed to the boulder that held their weapons and Ebu. Jantik held on tightly, as the thought of falling seemed much worse than allowing Aadi to run with him tucked under his arm. They quickly came upon the boulder, and Aadi put his backpack on. Jantik quickly followed by putting on his sack.
“Ebu, is there a faster way into the lair of the Femoh?” Aadi asked. He had no time for doubts or concern for why he was changing. He didn’t wonder why now only the dull pain of the poison seemed to be absorbed into his body as though it was part of him.
“Yes, the fastest way is down through one of the sinkholes. This one will take us to an underground tunnel,” Ebu said.
“Then that is the route we will take. Do you want me to carry you, Jantik?” Aadi asked and held out his arm.
“No. We need to take this slowly, for there are millions of Femoh, and they are not as weak as they may seem. They are quick and deadly when they have to be. We still need to sneak up on them. If we are walking, we don’t appear threatening. We want to be able to sneak in undetected,” said Jantik. He started to walk in the direction of the sinkhole that would take them directly into the Femoh domain. Aadi followed with no hesitation or fear. He called to Eirena and screamed into her mind, “Get up and fight, Eirena! Now! Help save yourself! Push away the pain and pull in the power!” He knocked down the door Eirena had built around herself in her mind with a strong mental push.
Eirena jerked with the mental image of a red-skinned, red-eyed Aadi, and it shocked her out of her pain. She was flat on the floor with the painful nails removed from her body. They no longer pierced the skin that now healed almost instantly as the nails sunk back into the floor from which they came.
Finul was now the only one left of the lead torturers that enjoyed causing her so much pain. Eirena groggily opened her eyes and saw about twenty other Femoh observing Finul’s ritual of cutting her with the long knives that sent needles of burning fire into her muscles. They were all smiling down at the spectacle in pleasure. Eirena breathed in deeply to pull all the pain within and felt power starting to build deep in her stomach. It flowed through her veins, down her legs, to her fingertips, and she called to the connection Aadi had created to communicate with her mentally.
“I am in the west corridor, and I am ready when you are!” she thought, as she pictured the changed Aadi slipping through a sinkhole in her mind.
Aadi slipped easily behind Jantik as they slid through the rounded sinkhole into the Femoh territory. The tunneled hallway was carved smoothly from a black granite stone that had lines of white striped throughout. Jantik took out his weapons, ready for any surprise attack. Aadi followed suit and held the lavik in his hand as he would a gun and the talin as though it were a sword. They slowly snaked undetected down the winding hallway and came upon a small group of Femoh heading in their direction.
Aadi felt power building with his anger in the center of his gut. He pushed it out into his hands and then pictured these beings in his mind and pushed out. He forced himself to remember and to project out all the blackness and the pain that he had felt through Eirena into the minds of the few Femoh that stood between him and Eirena. A few of them fell, screaming and squirming in painful heaps on the floor. The remainder of them seemed to be hampered by the visions, yet they looked pleased as they came in for the attack. Jantik acted quickly and shot his lavik, following through with a precise swipe to the neck of the Femoh that came into attack. Jantik’s victim quickly hit the floor. Aadi thought of Eirena and called to her again, “Eirena! Fight! Fight!”
Aadi went forward for a physical attack, and although he was still a bit shorter than the Femoh, the power he felt throughout him refused to let him feel weak or inferior. He went for the neck of the Femoh standing ahead of him and pushed the poison that he held deep within and the image of its painful, sharp burning through the veins of the Femoh he held in a strangle hold. The Femoh looked to be in deep pain, but it would not submit. It punched Aadi in his face, and another grabbed his arms from behind. Aadi was determined to destroy them and kicked the Femoh in front of him in the stomach. With power he barely held at bay, he jerked his arms free from the Femoh that held him. Then, he turned around and punched it in the neck. He jabbed his fingers into its eyes without mercy, and it fell to its knees. Aadi kneed up into his jaw. He didn’t wait to see it fall as he followed Jantik in the direction of the huge blast they heard down the hall.
Eirena heard Aadi’s voice yell through her mind, and she had pushed all the power that she had used to bury her pain out of her stomach and through her hands, feet, and eyes, which threw Finul and the Femohs standing between her and the door down to the ground. The power surged through her like a river of fire. It hurt, yet felt addictive. She would kill them all, and now! She broke her binds, pulled the power back within her, and jumped up to stand. Her pain was forgotten as revenge, anger, and hatred at her tormentors filled her soul. The Femohs that remained standing attempted to rush toward her. She pulled deep at that power source of her pain and forced it out through the palm of her hand, knocking her attackers back against bars of the cell that held her. She walked over to Finul, who had just recovered from her first blast, his head moving from side to side. He looked up at her and smiled.
“My turn, Finul!” she said clearly in the tongue of Shrenas. He looked surprised and terrified at the realization that she knew his name in his own language. She kneeled on his stomach while keeping his colleagues at bay with the power filled surge from her left hand. She took him by the neck and started to use the power within her to choke him.
“You love giving pain? Well, I am giving it back to you!” she said as she concentrated on the feeling of the knives and the acid that had burned her skin brought forth a red beam that caused Finul to cry out in a dying pain. He started to seep blood of silver into the granite floor of the cell as Eirena heard someone yell her name.
“Eirena, don’t kill it! Stop!” Aadi screamed. He jerked the cell door open, grabbing Eirena around the waist. With no time to think about what the change had done to her, he secured her over his shoulder. He had to get them out of there alive and without any of them being captured. The remaining Femoh ran off in terror, and Finul lay unconscious and bleeding from his ear, eyes, and nose.
“No! He will die now!” Eirena yelled breathing hard with her determination to finish the deed.
“Eirena, there are millions of them. We need to go! We are in danger here!” Aadi said as he pulled Eirena up, holding her waist, adjusted her on his shoulder, and grabbed a shocked Jantik as he ran in hyper-speed through the hallway, jumping up out of the sinkhole from which he came. Eirena was too stunned by Aadi’s speed and too relieved to see him to fight to go back and finish killin
g her tormentors. However, as she let him carry her over his shoulder, she promised herself she would kill a lot more Femoh before they left this miserable planet.
Chapter 51
Jantik led the way to his home with Aadi, Eirena, and Ebu following close behind. Ebu mentioned on the walk that he had acquired a detailed layout of the Femoh facility. Jantik explained that he would have to hide them in the vehicle holding area next to his home since his kind didn’t trust any strangers. They came upon his home, which looked like a strange gold and red mountain. Jantik placed his hand on the packed dirt of the mountain and walked through, pulling Eirena and Aadi by the hand. Aadi looked back to see nothing that resembled the mountain behind him.
“Jantik, wasn’t that a mountain we came in through?” Aadi asked, confused.
“No. It’s a hologram. It looks like a mountain, but it is a force field that keeps us hidden from the Femoh and the Katek. Only one of both bloodlines can have access to the Nutah lands through this entry,” Jantik stated as he walked forward toward the gold building. The building was at the end of a sprinkling of several gold, red, and brown structures. None of them appeared to have windows. Jantik quickly led them to the building beside the gold one. They went in through the side door to a dark room that lit up upon their entry. Aadi looked around the smooth walls of metal that reflected the light in bronze and silver. There were what looked like spacecraft, but without wings. They were slim in design and bronze in color. They had no glass tops and were completely sealed.
“I am sorry, my friends, but I have to leave you. You will be safe here, but stay behind the Suka that we use for travel outside of the sphere,” Jantik said to Eirena and Aadi. He left from the doorway from which they came.
“Eirena, I have some things in my bag we can lay our heads on. Ebu, can you keep watch while we take a nap?” Aadi asked Ebu. Ebu went to stand by the door in which Jantik had left. Eirena stood and watched Aadi with her arms crossed as though she was cold. Aadi watched her from under his eyelids while he made a place for them to sleep behind the Suka furthest away from the door. He didn’t know what to say, for so much had happened since they had been separated. He wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right - like what his mom did for him whenever he was hurt or cried. He just didn’t think she would let him that close to her. She looked so sad and broken.
“Hey, are you cold?” Aadi asked her and wondered if he should bring up what happened to her with the Femoh. His heart ached at the knowledge of her pain, and he wanted to comfort her but didn’t know how.
“No, no. I just… I don’t want to talk right now, okay?” she said. She watched him finish up a place for them to sleep with small blankets he had in his backpack.
“Okay, you can lay on that side in the corner. I can lay by the Suka,” he said as he pointed to the blanket. Eirena went over to the blanket and lay down. She propped her back against the wall and watched Aadi prop up his bag into a pillow and lay back.
“Aadi?” Eirena asked, her silver eyes looking watery.
“Yeah, Eirena?” he replied and turned to face her.
“Um, can… can you hug me?” she asked shyly as she closed her eyes. He could tell that it hurt her pride to have to ask this of him. But he was glad she asked because he needed this also. Butterflies of uncertainty built in his stomach as he tried to look unaffected and strong.
“Oh, ah, sure. You know, Eirena, you can talk about it. It may make you feel better. We are in this together. I could feel and see everything that was done to you, and I am so sorry I couldn’t save you sooner,” said Aadi as he got up and moved his makeshift bed next to Eirena’s. He leaned his back against the wall, and Eirena came up to a sitting position and laid her head on Aadi’s shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He sat perfectly still, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable. With a breath of surprise, he relaxed as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him hard. Her arms hugging him felt so good - like home somehow. He hugged her back, relaxing for the first time since she was taken. He laid his head on top of hers, and they both sat there quietly as she began to cry. He gently kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes in relief. Not really able to believe that he had saved her, he closed his eyes while taking a slow, deep breath.
“Aadi, we have got to get off this planet. The Femoh want to use us. They say I have the markings of some race named Tumas that bought these ships called shilmena to this planet. They want to use these ships to regain their former power and control, and they will stop at nothing to get us both back,” Eirena blurted out through her tears. She finally sat up, wiped her silver rimmed eyelashes, and looked at Aadi.
“Eirena, I want to leave, too, but our ship doesn’t work. Both the Femoh and Katek are hunting us. We need the help of the Nutah to leave,” Aadi said. Gently, he removed his arm from around Eirena. He noticed she appeared to regain her strength and independence, and he didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable with too intense of a hugging session.
“Aadi, we can use the ship to go home. I know I can start it with the power I now hold within me. We can leave this place. We have got to go home,” Eirena said and hit her fist on her knee.
“I know we have a lot of unfinished business at home. Our parents are coming together to fight TEGRC because of what they did to us. I have to contact my mom again to find out how they are doing,” Aadi said and pulled up his legs to bend his knees.
“How are you able to talk to your mom?” Eirena asked.
“The same way I was able to call to you. My mom and I made this device called a telenex to give us something to do together. I believe when I adapted, my body absorbed it, and now it is permanently a part of me. She was making it for the company, and she decided not to release it to them. She wanted me to take it to space camp so I could call her if I needed to talk, but now, the telenex allows me to do much more. I am the only one that can initiate a connection. I can feel what the person feels, I can see what they are doing, and all I need to know is who they are and what they look like to reach them,” Aadi said.
“Can you talk to my brothers? You remember what they look like? You know… to ask them what is going on,” Eirena asked.
“I’ll try,” Aadi said and pictured Eirena’s brothers. He saw the two boys held down in beds by restraints as they slept. One of the boy’s skin was similar to Trevor’s, with transparent strips that allowed him to see the veins moving blood through his body. Whereas the other boy, Casey, was pale with hair that looked streaked with gray. Casey opened his eyes, and they were silver, like Eirena’s, then he quickly closed them as a tear dropped out and slid down into his ear. Aadi opened his mind and tried to touch the one named Casey, but Casey shut the door and only had darkness in his mind. Aadi then retreated back and looked at Eirena.
“They are changing. Casey has silver eyes like you. Paul looks like Trevor, and he is rejecting the change. How can they be changing if they didn’t get the immunization?” asked Aadi.
“Aadi, we aren’t changing just because of the immunization. We discovered when we tapped into the database that all of us, with the exception of Carter and Tacitus, are called Experiment X. Our parents were DNA donors for us, but they did something to our DNA. It was only our group, I think, but they added something. The immunization is only nanonytes that carry a synthesized portion of that gene, but its effects are only a result of the drug, and it doesn’t bond with its hosts. That’s why I believe some of the kids got sick. I am not sure, though. All I know is that they manipulated us before we were even born and that TEGRC is evil. The first thing I will do when I return is destroy that company and the scientist that did this to us!” Eirena said, now showing some of the fire he was used to seeing in her.
“Are you saying our parents knew what they did to us?” Aadi said with a look of hurt and disbelief on his face. He had asked himself this question many times before, but he hadn’t had the guts to confront his mother about it. Truth was, he never thought he could
. He didn’t want to know. He knew she loved him, but he had his doubts. It hurt too much to think that deeply about his parents’ reasons for sending him to camp. The thought of finding out if they had anything to do with their company’s deceit and manipulation was just a type of pain he wasn’t quite ready to face yet.
“Yes, they knew some of it. They knew from the beginning that we would be part of the experiment because they donated their eggs and DNA to create us. My father fought my mom the night before I left for camp. He didn’t want me to go, and he told her he wasn’t giving me back. I didn’t understand what it meant, but my mother was adamant that I should be the one to go and that she would keep my brothers for as long as she could. I had fought my parents about going. I never wanted this! I never wanted to even go to the stupid camp. I tried to run away the morning of camp before my mom dragged me there and told me if I didn’t go, then my brothers would suffer. So I went, thinking I would make the best of it. But for what?” she screamed loud raging whisper.
“Well our only choice now is to ask the Nutah for their help and to find that ship, start it, and get the others. That way, TEGRC can’t fight us all,” Aadi said and propped his head on his arm.
