Paris yelled at me to stop, “Natalie, look out there. There must be hundreds still coming at us. What happened?” I looked out at the crowd and noticed how small they were.
“Paris, are those full grown bugs? Or are they still maturing? Something tells me we won’t find any more escaped people alive.” I got shivers thinking about how they must have died. The thought of going through that pain and horror almost made me gag. Thank goodness we hadn’t eaten dinner yet!
“You’re right. They are all young cockroaches. That could work to our advantage. Venay told me that once they fully mature their carapaces are almost impossible to penetrate. However, when they are young, their bodies are still sensitive to our phasers. We don’t have to only aim for their faces. Let’s give it a try and see if slicing them open will kill them just as easily.” She took aim at a close bug and hit its back. It stopped and was writhing on the ground.
She hit it again and it stopped moving. That gave me hope that I could actually do something more than hit dirt. I changed my aim and I ended up tearing up quite a few of those mutant things.
Somehow, Zelan found me, and he was furious. His eyes were narrowed, and his mouth was pursed. He had his hands at his side and they were clenched. "What are you doing out here? It is too dangerous for you. I told you to stay in our room." He looked at Paris and gave her the evil eye.
“Did she talk you into coming out here?” He pointed to Paris with his thumb. “She has been known to get herself into a lot of trouble. You shouldn’t have followed her.” He shook his head at me when I shrugged my shoulders and brought my hands up in front of me.
“She kinda dragged me along. But now that I am here, I think I am doing pretty good. You should see how many I have killed. Stay here with us and watch.” I pointed my gun back out over the wall and started shooting them and hitting them on their backs.
“You won’t kill them that way. It only slows them down,” he said.
“Nuh uh, watch.” I hit one again I had already hit in the back, and it died. “We discovered that these are all youth. Can’t you tell how small they are?”
He hit his forehead and realization set in. “Of course! We have never seen them when they are young. They only send their fully mature cockroaches out to fight. Oh, crap! This means, oh no. I am so sorry."
“Yea, we figured it out already. There won’t be any more humans to find out there. At least we know what happened.” I shook my head and took aim again at another group headed toward us.
“Commander, these are young Zateelians. It takes two shots to their body, and they die. I am going to pass the word around along the wall. Maybe you can get the warriors in the turret guns to start firing? Those should kill them easily.” I heard Zelan say when he called the Commander to let him know what we discovered. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”
“Commander Venay also figured it out. The word is spreading. We should have these suckers exterminated shortly. The transport ship has some weapons on it, so Haver and Aysiaer are going to take it up and start firing at the largest grouping of bugs.” We heard the ship coming towards us just as Zelan finished telling me about it.
I looked up and saw the turrets from their weapons take aim at a cluster and fire. Bugs and guts went flying all over the place. The warriors on the wall started cheering as we watched bug after bug die.
The three of us pointed our guns and started to take out the single cockroaches that got past the large phaser and cannon bursts. They just kept coming. How they had reproduced so many in such a short time was beyond me. I would have to remember to ask Zelan about this later.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one small bug trying to climb up the wall. It kept slipping. No wonder they used that metal for the wall. I had wondered about it. When we first arrived it was a bit shiny, and I had to cover my eyes to keep them from hurting. It seemed like it would have been more of a pain than needed. Now it made perfect sense watching that cockroach slipping down the wall.
I decided to end his difficult climb. It was a perfect hit to its head, and the roach went splat. It also caught another one on its way down. I hoped none were getting inside. Paris pointed a few more out to me that had made it onto the wall.
“Natalie, let’s spread out so we can target different spots along the wall as they try to climb. Zelan, make sure your guys along the wall get back to fighting. They need to get their heads out of the clouds, literally.” Paris pointed to a few warriors who were watching the transport ship annihilate the bugs that were further out from the wall. I could understand why they were doing that, but they were supposed to be warriors, not spectators.
I moved down the wall a little bit, and Zelan followed me. “Natalie, I understand you want to help. However, this isn’t the best place for someone who has never had to fight a day in their life.” His comment actually hurt. I started to doubt myself and missed the next few shots.
“Zelan, if you can’t be helpful then you can just leave. I was doing fine without you. Now, I can’t concentrate.” I shot again and hit one right in the eye. That was just plain gross.
Now that I was upset, I pictured Zelan’s face on all of the bugs and hit them right on. Hmm, that might be the trick then. Wonder if it worked for Ben’s face too. “Hot dog! It does!” I said to no one in particular.
"What's that?" Zelan asked. He moved a bit closer and noticed how many I just obliterated. "Oh, you do have skills, don't you. Sorry, I shouldn't have doubted you."
I pictured the next one with Zelan’s stupid face and blew it to bits. “Take that you stupid alien!”
“That’s the way, keep killing ‘em!” Zelan patted me on the back and kept shooting. How infuriating he was! The rest of the bugs I killed had his face on them. He was so condescending! Paris never treated me like that. She had faith that I could do this. I wondered if that was why Zelan wanted me to stay inside because he had no faith in me?
I scooted away from him and closer to another warrior along the wall. We needed to spread out anyway. Plus, I did not want him watching me. If I let slip his name while I was imagining his face on those bugs, it could get awkward. He didn’t need to know I was killing him over and over in my mind.
There was no time to dwell him. One of the bugs did get over the side of the wall and attacked a warrior. I was the closest person so I ran to him and shot at the back of the bug. It was already on top of the warrior, and what I saw next was going to stay with me a very long time. There was a tube going from the bug down the inside of the warrior’s mouth. I could see something being pushed inside his body. It must have been egg sacks. I screamed as I shot its head off and the egg sack exploded all over the warrior.
He knew exactly what happened to him. His eyes were wide with shock and his mouth was still full of the reproductive organ that had been forced down his throat. He looked at me pleadingly since he couldn’t talk, and his arms reached out to my gun. I knew what he wanted. There was no way I could do it. Tears built up in my eyes as I looked at him and knew exactly what was going to happen, but I wasn’t strong enough to help him.
Zelan ran up behind me and saw the warrior laying there. He didn’t even hesitate. His gun aimed at the guy’s head, and he shot it. No warning, no apology, nothing. He shot the warrior’s head multiple times to ensure that nothing survived.
Tears streaked down my face as I kept seeing the image over and over in my head. I couldn’t believe how cold-hearted Zelan was. He didn’t even say anything to me. I saw him take something out of his pocket and he walked over to the body and set it on fire. Then he walked back to me, took my hand, and led me away from the fire.
Once we stopped I yanked my hand out of his, “How could you be so callous and kill him like that? You didn’t even say you were sorry or ask him if he had any last words.” I started crying, and he took me in his arms and held me.
“Natalie, I can’t tell you how sorry I am you had to see that. Navoy was a brave warrior. It was exactly what he wanted.” He sighed. “Was that the
first time you have seen a person die?” He held me tight while I cried. I just nodded my head into his chest.
He sighed, “I really wish I could help console you right now. There is nothing more I want than to take you back to our room and protect you, but I can’t. I have to get back to fighting. If you want to sit next to me you can. No one will think any less of you.”
"No, I need to help in any way I can. If I sit here, I will just keep crying and that won't help the settlement at all." I wiped my tears and sucked in a deep breath. "I can cry later."
I walked away from him and faced out to the battle below us and got right back to shooting the enemy. I no longer pictured Zelan’s head. Now, all I saw were the disgusting bugs and my need for them to be dead. I was going to avenge that warrior’s death.
Chapter 10
We fought nonstop until Commander Venay came over to tell us we got the last bug. I wiped the sweat from my brow and noted at least an hour had passed since that brave warrior died. There were so many cockroach bodies out there. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d been hitting dead bodies for the past ten minutes. I hadn’t noticed any movement for a while, but I was not taking any chances after what happened to the warrior who was next to me. “Commander, there were so many of them. Is that normal?” I just couldn’t understand how they reproduced so quickly.
“Sadly, yes it is. My guess is that all of the surviving insectoids from the crashed ship impregnated every human they found. Some humans probably had multiple egg sacks put inside of them. The young grow rather quickly.” He ran a hand through his hair.
“My guess is that the humans never got very far and were captured within hours of their escape. This is why it is so important for us to keep everyone together inside of the ship. No one wants to see this happen again.” He paused as he looked out to the battlefield and shook his head.
“Not just because they attacked our settlement, but because of what happens to the host body. We will need to send out parties to find the bodies and ensure that they are all incinerated. It is doubtful that we will find any more viable egg sacks inside the bodies, but you can never be too sure.” He looked past us towards Navoy’s body that was still burning.
The Commander sighed and looked over the wall. “Zelan, please take your mate back to your room.” He looked back at Paris, “Paris, will you please listen to me and go with your friends? We have clean-up to do. This is not going to be pleasant. All of the bodies must be burned. There is no way to tell if there are any viable egg sacks inside of those we killed. While rare, I have heard that even if you kill the body, their eggs can still hatch inside of them. We don’t need any more cockroach population explosions.” He motioned for her to join him.
Paris walked up to the Commander and wrapped her arms around him. “Yes, I will go back to the room and wait for you. Unless Natalie needs me, then I will be in her room.” She reached up and gave him a quick kiss. “I love you Venay. Please don’t take too long.”
He caressed her cheek with his giant hand and leaned into her. “I love you Paris with everything I am. If I could, I would go back with you. They need help. Navoy isn’t the only one we lost today. This is really bad. I think we will need to stay here for a few days to help them get back on their feet. They lost at least fifty warriors today.”
I couldn't listen anymore. I turned into Zelan and started to cry. "Shh, I am here for you, Natalie. Let’s go back to our room.” We started to walk slowly to the stairs. Once we got to the bottom, we waited until Paris showed up.
“I am sorry I brought you out here, Natalie. I never should have done that. Truly, I thought it might be 100 of them, and we could quickly kill them. It should have been an easy way for you to practice shooting and get comfortable with a phaser gun. Had I known what we were up against, I probably would have stayed back with you instead of coming out here.” Paris shook her head and sighed.
Speaking was not something I could do. I kept crying and leaned into Zelan as he walked us back to our rooms. Paris asked if I wanted her to join us, but I was not in the mood for company.
We made our way into the room, and Zelan sat me on the bed but never let go of me. I couldn’t understand why I was so upset. I didn’t even know the guy’s name until after he was gone.
I felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me. Watching someone die in a truly vile way made me think about what is really important to me. What I thought I knew about my life was all wrong. Ben had been an absolute jerk to me. Why was I even thinking about Ben anymore? Zelan wasn’t perfect, but he did have my best interests at heart. Unlike Ben.
I don’t want to be “that” girl. You know, the one who escapes into her past to avoid her present. This new me is a much stronger girl than the one I left behind on Earth. Dealing with the attack and all of the death is exactly what I needed to do.
Why can’t I get Navoy’s death and burning out of my head? “Zelan, why did you burn that warrior without so much as a word?” I pushed away from him and sat up straight, and then I wiped the tears from my face. Ugh, I must look awful right now. Not that I want to look good for Zelan, but I can tell I have snot nose going on right now and my eyes must be all swollen from the crying.
"Because that is what I would want. He was already suffering. Having that tube down his throat and knowing what was to come. That is too difficult. He was a warrior. Showing him compassion was exactly what I did. It was exactly what I would want anyone else to do for me. If it had been me, there was nothing anyone could have said or done to ease my pain." He took ahold of my hand and gently said, "Put yourself in his shoes. What would you have wanted at that moment in time?”
I sat there for a minute thinking about it. My forehead scrunched up as I considered Zelan’s words. “You’re right, nothing would have mattered. If my mom was there, I would have liked to have heard her tell me she loved me one last time. But nothing else would be appropriate. I think I understand now. That must have been a tough thing to do.” I turned to look at him. “Have you had to do that before?”
“Yes. There have been a couple of times I had to do that. Thankfully, none of the warriors had been close friends. I think that would be much harder. Even though I didn’t know Navoy, it was still tough. Killing anyone is tough, especially when they are on your team. I just told myself he was already dead, and what I did was the merciful thing to do.” He squeezed my hand and I gave him a hug. Until this moment, I hadn’t thought about what it must have been like for him. Then I thought about Paris.
“We should invite Paris over until the commander gets back. She shouldn’t be alone right now.” I felt like such an idiot for being so selfish. Zelan went to her room and brought her back.
“How are you doing, Paris?” I walked up to her and gave her a hug. She hugged me back pretty hard. “I am sorry I didn’t invite you in earlier. I was so self-absorbed I didn’t think about what you were going through.”
She let me go and stepped back. “Don’t worry about it. I had time to cry. I hate crying in front of people. So it worked out.” She shrugged her shoulders. “How about you? Are you okay?”
I gave her a small smile. “Yes, I am better now. I have never seen a dead body before this week and to watch as that bug did what it did.” I shivered as I remembered it. “Well, let’s just say I hope to never see a cockroach of any size again.”
“How about we play some games?” Zelan asked.
“What kind of games do you have?” I didn’t know anything about alien games, so I wondered what we could play.
“Some of the humans here requested some games a while back. So on one of our trips to Earth, we picked up a bunch of them and dropped them off here. This colony has always been the one to request the most from Earth. Others didn’t seem to care as much.” Zelan left Paris and me alone for only a few minutes before he came back with an armload of games.
We spent the next few hours playing various board games from Earth. I was just about to beat them in Monopoly when Comm
ander Venay showed up. I had half of the properties with hotels on them. Both Paris and Zelan had to mortgage most of their properties in order to keep playing. They were not going to make it more than three rounds before they lost to me. Stupid commander. What rotten timing.
Paris jumped up and opened the door for him, and she threw herself into his arms. I had never seen her show so much affection for him. “I am so happy to see you Venay!” And then she kissed him, right in front of us.
The Commander laughed and looked over at us, “She was losing wasn’t she?”
Zelan laughed and said, “Yes, we both were losing to Natalie!”
Paris slapped the commander on his shoulder. “Couldn’t I just be happy to see you? It has been a rough day.”
"I am sorry, sweetheart. Of course, that is why you jumped into my arms and kissed me in front of your friends. Forgive me for assuming it was something else." He smiled and kissed her quickly on the cheek. They said their goodbyes and left us alone.
“Is there any food around here? I am finally starting to get hungry. And by food, I don’t mean chalky, jello mold or food bars. I was really looking forward to the BBQ. There must be something else to eat this late at night, right?” My stomach started to grumble, loudly. “Oh, how embarrassing,” I said as I grabbed my stomach.
“Let’s go see what we can find. I doubt the ice cream shop or the sandwich place will be open tonight, but the canteen probably has something we can eat.” He reached out for my hand, and I let him hold it. It was surprisingly comforting. Today of all days, comfort was what I needed and wanted.
Worlds Collide: Sci-fi Adventure/Romance (Alpha Alien Abduction Tale Book 2) Page 7
