“Fuck!” I suddenly utter.
I can’t do this anymore. I just want to take a break from my life and start over. No Esuh, no Nusae, no corrupt Originators, no pressure.
I rest my head on my hands and breath in. I’m sitting in the middle of the camp, close to the generator that Pyro set up to fuel the protective force field. It’s not something extraordinary, but it’s strong enough to keep any zombies away long enough for us to get away. The engine drones serenely, being the only thing right now showing a semblance of normality. It’s soothing in its own, twisted way.
“You should rest.”
“What the?” I squeak when I hear Cross’ voice from behind me. He scared the shit out of me. I would have started screaming if I didn’t see him smiling at me the minute I turn my head. “What the hell, Dale? I could have hurt you.”
He stops smiling and looks at me with a grave look on his face. “You used my first name after so long. It’s somehow...odd hearing it come off your lips.”
He’s right. I haven’t uttered his name for so long now. I do call him Dale now and then, but I never really mean it in a friendly way. A minute ago, though, when he scared me, I went back a year. Back then, he was just a human doctor that was trying to help us save Jay, and I was just a clueless Chronicler that thought that her life’s purpose was to untangle the Nusae Mystery. Maybe it was better that way. Maybe I shouldn’t have saved Jay from his cryogenic pod after all.
Or maybe not. I don’t know.
“You’re troubled about your boyfriend, Jasih, right?” he suddenly says.
He’s still on his feet, watching the engine slightly shake while producing energy. He keeps his arms crossed before his chest. His eyes shine in the dim light of the engine. He looks stunning, as always.
“Yes. And no. I’m concerned about this mission, too. Do you think we have any chance of going through with this? Are we going to survive? Will we manage to save the Phadh?,” I say.
I feel calmer almost instantly. Talking about my fears to him make them real, but seeing Cross not change his attitude or get worried, somehow makes me feel stronger. These men are all miracle workers after all.
“Maybe you’re thinking it the wrong way, Eladia. Up there, in the spaceship, there’s a young girl named Alyce. That girl, and every member of her family, all her friends, even common strangers that have nothing to do with her, will die if we don’t go through with this mission. I don’t know if we are going to survive, but if I’m going to die for something, then I’ll do it in a way that that girl, up in the sky, will get to keep her life instead.”
Cross takes another step towards me and squats next to me. He stretches his hands and plays with the shadows the light casts on the wall.
I’m not sure if I feel better now, but surely I feel confident. This man hasn’t changed a bit since we met. He may be the Organization’s Swamp, devoting his life to the people he’s trying to protect, but he’ll always be that doctor I met a year ago, a person mending other people’s lives.
“You’re right, I guess. I’m also worried about Jay. You did a good job guessing back there.” I stop and look at him. He stares me back. I keep on talking. “He’s not himself anymore, and I think I may be the reason for that. I chose his dark side, and now I think I’ve made a mistake. I couldn’t choose between them, so I thought that the most fun one was the one I wanted. But back there? I don’t know. He was tired and aggressive. He was in no way funny or heroic. He acted just like a wounded animal, growling at me and showing his teeth. And I’m not sure I can live with that.”
He listens to me patiently as I talk. His expression is softer now and against all the odds, a grin appears on his face. Is he trying to mock me by laughing at my problems? Maybe he’s not the man I thought he’s after all.
“It wasn’t your fault, Eladia. Jasih is a troubled person. He always was and always will be. He’s the last of his race and will probably remain like that until he dies. Also, he carries inside him two personalities, both of them damaged and conflicted. Honestly, even if it was the other Jay calling the shots about the cube, I think things wouldn’t be too different.”
Or maybe I’m just a bitch that doesn’t know what she wants. Yeah, that would work too as an excuse. Cross...well, Dale, is a wise person that I’ve met too late in my life. If I hadn’t fallen for Jay, then maybe I would have fallen for him. But now, watching him suffer in his own skin, trying to understand what’s going on with his life as well, I’m starting to feel that my problems are not so big after all.
I smile at him and nod. It’s the only thing I can do without making a fool of myself. He gets back on his feet and turns to walk away.
“You never talk about yourself,” I suddenly say. I don’t know what made me say that to him now, but it feels like the right thing to do. After all, I trusted him with my problems. Maybe he can do the same with his, too.
He turns and stares at me; my heart skips a beat. “What do you want to know?”
He smiles; I smile back at him. I don’t know why, but it feels like I’m cheating on Jay just by looking at him.
“Do you have someone important to your life? Someone you want to protect?”
“Of course. Why do you think I put up with the Organization if not to protect that certain someone?” He sounds like he’s having fun answering my questions.
So, I keep firing them away.
“So, does that certain someone has a name?”
He cracks a loud laugh but quickly stops so he doesn’t wake everyone up. It’s really late and tomorrow we all should be rested.
“Yes, he has. But I’m not in the mood for sharing it.”
Did he just say he? Maybe I didn’t hear him right.
“Also, I want to protect you as well. Does that count as enough people or not?” he says and smiles at me again.
“I’m not sure I understand, but I’ll say yes. We’re more than enough for one man,” I say.
He got me by surprise with that last sentence of his. He wants to protect me as well. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, and I can’t say anything in return. It would have ruined the moment. Still, there’s something that seems relevant.
“I want to protect you, too. And everyone in this crew. Well, your friend Pyro maybe a little less, but I would hate seeing him die in this mission. He kept Silver and Zan safe throughout this year. That much I owe him.”
Dale turns his back on me and walks away laughing. He’s heading towards his tent, never saying a thing. He moves his head up and down, nodding from behind, but I don’t manage to get more answers from him. Dale manages to remain a mystery to me even after I’ve learned that he has people in his life he wants to protect. Who are they, except me? I really hope I get to know some day.
I stand on my feet and head towards Jay’s tent. Right then, everything that happened back in the shuttle comes back to me. By constantly being in this form, Jay has started to lose his mind. I can’t sleep with him, not when I don’t know if I’ll wake up alive. Every other day I would have trusted him with my life, but tonight, I want to keep it for myself.
So, when I turn and head toward Silver’s tent, I fumble the grip of the laser gun I keep on me.
I have many people I want to protect as well, and I’ll do everything in my power to do so, even if I have to lose everything in the process.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Jay
The morning comes, and Pyro wakes us up. It’s time to start for the City Hall. Silver managed to calculate the position of the energy signal, so it’s easier to plan our route there. I feel better than last night, but still, my feet are a bit wobbly, and my neck is stiff. My eyes are also sensitive to the light, but in every other way, I’m perfectly fine.
You aren’t fine, Jasih. You’re falling apart. You have to change back. You have to let me out.
His voice comes to me clear as day, way louder than the dream I had last night or any other occasion until now. How does he get to have su
ch a strong connection to this body while I have not?
You’re a parasite. You never belonged to this body, to begin with. You’re just a live armor, and I’m the owner of this body. You have to understand that!
Okay, now he can invade into my thoughts, too. I kinda preferred it when he didn’t talk at all. Now I just want to hit him in the face, but I know that it will hurt me more. We share a fucking body.
I feel some kind of discomfort deep into my stomach. He’s forcing me out of this body, but I’m not that weak yet. I can still endure his shit. I don’t give a damn, you hear me? You gave me control of this body. She loves me more, and you know it. Don’t resist.
“Jay, are you okay?” Dale suddenly appears out of nowhere. “We have to start towards the City Hall as soon as we can. Get ready as fast as you can.” He’s the only one that bothered to check up on me since we woke up this morning. Eladia, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found.
“Yeah, I’m fine!”
He arches his brows in surprise. I was more aggressive with him than I wanted. Does he hate me now, too? Does he also think that I’m only a parasite born to obey his orders? Shit, don’t they get it? I’m fucking alive.
He turns his back on me and walks ahead. He finds Pyro and whispers something to the other man. He shakes his head. What the hell did he say to him?
“Good morning, Jay.” Eladia’s voice calms me down a bit. She does a good job distracting me for a moment.
“Where have you been?”
Again, I talk louder than I want. What’s wrong with me? It’s like I can control my body anymore.
“Hey, tone it down a bit. We’re in the middle of the danger zone. If they hear you, we’re gonna have to fight them,” she says.
“Fight who? I thought we were alone on this planet. Isn’t this planet Purged or something?”
“Come on, Jay. We talked about this in the briefing two days ago. No, the planet is still populated by undead monsters that destroy everything in their path. They are highly sensitive to sounds and will attack us if they spot us. But, it’s not only that. Dale thinks that there are also black-maskers here. We have to be careful if we want to get to the City Hall without any more troubles,” she explains to me in a calm, condescending tone.
Still, Dale this, Dale that. Isn’t she the one that was calling him with his last name until yesterday?
“You and the doctor—are you back to being friends?” I say.
She shakes her head and looks at me with disappointment in her eyes. “Didn’t you hear me? We have more important problems now than my relationship with Dale.”
“Maybe this is the only things that really matters to me right now. After all, you didn’t come to our tent last night. Was there a reason to that?”
“Fuck off, Jay,” she suddenly says. “First, you threaten me and then you act like nothing has changed between us? Go to hell,” she bursts out.
Why is she angry at me? Why I roar at her? I only understand what I’ve done after my cry echoes through the empty streets of Mosa.
“Are you out of your mind?” Pyro quickly bellows to me.
But it’s too late already.
The first attack comes from behind me. I hear the haunting sound of a body crawling behind me. A man, missing a hand and a leg, is trying to get me, but it’s moving way too slow to be any danger to anyone. I kick him in the head and then I return to the rest of the crew. Only then I see the horde of monsters amassing around us, pushing us to the corner of our camp.
They all have that metal thing on their heads, a flashing red button that keeps on shimmering. The crew, everyone except Silver and Zan, quickly get in formation. That means that Pyro, Dale, and Eladia are standing back-to-back and examine the horde getting closer to them, ready to devour them.
The undead hesitate to come closer to us at first, but like wild animals being hungry as hell, they soon decide that dying is worth it if they just manage to get a bite on us.
My bloodlust gives me the strength I need to fight them. I smack their craniums on the ground and kick them back as fast as I can, but where I manage to kill one, two more appear. It’s fucking impossible to kill them all. At that moment, Zan and Silver decide to join the battle. Morphing into her thruster form, Silver burns the bodies to a pulp. Zan, on the other hand, uses a metal staff, one similar to Eladia’s staff, to pierce their heads and kill them on the spot.
They don’t need me to help them; they don’t need anyone to help them anymore. They move fast and efficiently, taking out three to four of them with one sweep. Eladia and Dale move in unison, clearing wave after wave of the undead until a small pile of bodies gathers around them. Pyro, on the other hand, is a lone wolf using an old fashioned sword to sever their heads, but never even breaking a sweat.
I...well, I’m struggling with three of them, but soon, I keep up with the rest of the team. It’s almost funny how we get to kill people without having to regret it afterward. I would be genuinely happy if I wasn’t too tired of this shit. I really need to sleep.
After I kick the heads of three undead humans off their bodies, I stop and see that there’s no one left to fight. We managed to kill them all in a matter of minutes, a feat that we wouldn’t have been able to manage a year ago. Eladia, especially, was in the heat of the battle and after the end of it, she looks like this has been just a warm up exercise to her.
I walk closer to her to congratulate her only for Dale to stop me with a punch in the face.
“What the fuck?” I shout at him.
“You could have killed us all. You endangered this whole mission, and almost killed Eladia and even yourself with this nonsense. Keep your shit together, Jasih, or else wait here until we clear the City Hall and then come in. Millions of lives depend on us! Don’t fuck this up!”
I stare at him and then at Eladia; they all look at me like I’m a piece of shit.
Before I can say anything, they all move ahead, leaving me behind. At that moment, I understand. My anger is deep-rooted, and my mission is now clear in my head. Humans are the most selfish and unstable creatures of the Galaxy. It’s them that I have to destroy, not the Phadh.
I sink my hand deep into my pocket and fumble the cube. It’s warm, bursting with power. I feel the same too.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Eladia
Three hours of walking can have their toll on you, especially when you start your day with an all-out battle against zombies and an unstable man that doesn’t know when to stop. Jay is way behind us, walking all by himself. Dale...well, he shouldn’t have done that. But he was right. Mosa is in no way the place it used to be before. Danger is lurking behind every corner.
It sort of reminds me of Primordial Earth, the place this adventure began. Instead of booming plantation and trees matching buildings in width and height, the planet is a forest of debris and half-buildings. How can dead humans cause that much destruction? Does someone control them?
In my mind, the first time we met those monsters pops up. It was back in the hospital while Jay, the platinum-skinned one, was severely wounded. We’ve just met Dale back then and didn’t know anything about his true identity, but still, he was able to help us in his own way, coming up with solutions about Jay and his alien nature.
Back then, the undead monsters appeared out of nowhere and almost killed us. Except they mysteriously stopped when they had the chance to do it. They had frozen in place and didn’t move until we were safe and they were unable to reach us. Dale thinks that the Originators control them, but I’m not so sure anymore. Aren’t they the ones that wanted us dead back then? Why didn’t they finish their jobs when they could?
I’m not sure about anything, anymore. Pyro, never removing his mask, is the most suspicious of them all. The Organization is nowhere to be found, and the Ocean, the other high-ranked member, isn’t here to help. I don’t know if I’m supposed to ask or anything, but I’m starting to feel less certain about the people I walk with.
Dale has done
everything in his power to train and protect me, but he also told me that I’m just as important to the mission as Jay is. What did he mean by that?
“We’ll stop here for now,” Pyro suddenly says.
His voice snaps me out of my train of thoughts. Still, it strikes me as odd that he, of all the people, ordered us to stop before arriving at the City Hall. If anything, I thought he would want us to get in and out as fast as humanly possible. Something is going on.
I move closer to them; Pyro sees me and stops talking. “What do you want?” he asks, calmly.
“Why did we stop? I thought you wanted to get there as soon as possible. We’re losing light, and we’re not equipped for a night raid,” I say. Dale has also trained me to work in a team and made me memorize various pieces of equipment so that I could use them all with closed eyes. It was a busy year after all.
Alien Romance Box Set: Romantic Suspense: Alien Destiny: Scifi Alien Romance Adventure Romantic Suspence Trilogy (Complete Series Box Set Books 1-3) Page 100
