by SJ Davis
Twenty years before I came into being, the world’s best scientific minds had come together and finally solved the problem. It was oil. So water became even more precious than it had before. We suddenly had to respect the planet that supported our existence. Every car was halted, no more oil was drilled, the entire worldview changed. We had to care about survival. The Earth had finally said enough, and we had to listen.
Then they came, in ships similar to our own. The large ships entered the atmosphere over every major city, and the smaller, steam powered airships formed vertical lines around the planet. At first, we sent friendly representatives to speak to them; our large airships rose into the air and went out to meet them. There was hope for three days, and then the first of our ships were destroyed over New York, Hollywood, and Chicago.
As the shock of it started to settle in, we found out that Japan was under siege, as was London. In the first thirteen days, millions of humans died. We had abandoned war and the industrial complex as a whole. We no longer focused on making weapons and fighting each other for scraps of land. We had come together and solved the basic problem, that of healing the planet and ensuring that we went on.
Was it fate that we were so vulnerable when they attacked us? It may have been Karma, a retribution for thousands of years of barbaric behavior and slaughter.
That first wave killed almost everyone in my hometown, but my mother and father bundled me up, explained the situation to my eight-year-old brother, Evan, and fled, along with a small group from their neighborhood. You see, my parents lived in a gated community of scientific minds. Both of my parents had been responsible for helping switch the world’s view from war to survival. Was it ironic that they needed to save as many as they could, including my brother and me with no weapons to speak of? Perhaps it was. They traveled in the darkness of night, and during the day, we all huddled in abandoned homes, eating whatever we could find. This went on for the first year, and then my father said enough.
He led our small group to the desert of Nevada, into old military bunkers. It had long since been abandoned, but it was a place that the invaders seemed to have no interest in, as it was pretty devoid of water. The enemy was collected over the oceans, at that point. They would send out small patrols and search, always searching, but we never once saw them.
I don’t know if you can understand how terrifying it is to not be able to put a face on your enemy. An enemy you were not quite sure of why they hated you. All we did know was that, to survive, we needed to hide from them.
As their interest shifted from us to the water supply, the world calmed, but their large airships remained. They hovered in the skies above us like a dark reminder, a lingering memory of what once was. As long as they remained, we would never again be free.
It was only five years into the invasion when the first of the men on Earth started to become ill. It began as a cough, progressing to flu-like symptoms, then full-blown pneumonia. The fever that came along with it was often uncontrollable, and as we tried our best to fend against it with medications collected by scouts, but it started to take its toll.
I was eight when my brother Evan died from the mysterious disease in the middle of the night. I remember seeing my mother collapse in my father’s arms. I stood there feeling completely helpless, and my father looked at me. His eyes cold and lifeless, he closed the door, and it was the last time I saw him healthy. He fell ill and died three weeks after Evan had.
It was not long after that the rest of the males in the compound fell to the same mysterious illness. Months passed, but no females became ill. The fear of dying outweighed even the invasion and the uncertainty of our future. My mother became distant, and she stopped talking to me. Without her, I felt as if my world had truly ended. The compound was quiet except for the crying at night from those who mourned the loss of their husbands, brothers, sons, and friends.
One night, I decided to get up and walk the compound, and I saw lights on in one of the large hangars. I snuck into the hangar, careful to not be noticed. I crouched behind a large stack of metal, left behind by a military no longer in service. My eyes widened as I watched my mother, along with thirty or so other women from the compound, working on an airship —equipped with weapons. I watched as the sparks from the welding torches melded metal into what would be that of legend. That of a small band of women, who decided to fight back, regardless of overwhelming odds and a crushing loss.
I watched as my mother lifted the screen on her welding helmet and grinned. She was working on a smaller ship, one that looked as if it could hold two people, one in the front and one in the back. She ran her hand along the side of the pieced-together metal, and I narrowed my eyes as I read the painted inscription on the side.
Paper Dolls
***
“Rock!” I screamed as I twisted my small airship into a spiral. I rolled it over, high in the air, as two black fighter ships pursued me. I grinned as I let it drop straight down and in between the two of them. My co-pilot closed her eyes and started to yell as I gritted my teeth.
“Hope! I hate it when you do that!” Faith said as she held onto the glass bubble above her head.
I laughed as I suddenly pulled the throttle, and my small air ship sputtered back to life. I zeroed in on the ships now in front of us. My move had confused them, as I had hoped it would. I bulls-eyed one, shot it down, and then quickly rolled my ship to the right as the second one darted out of my way. Obviously, the pilot knew a bit more than most had when fighting me.
“Um, Faith…navi?” I yelled out.
Faith opened one eye and stared at the screen in front of her. She watched as a small red blip popped up to our left, and she looked out through her goggles, narrowing her eyes. Then she saw it, the black ship barreling towards us as top speed.
“Right… two clicks north by northwest.”
“Thanks,” I said as I rolled us and started to dive towards the large enemy airship below.
Faith placed her feet up on the glass and gritted her teeth as I continued to dive straight down. Suddenly, another ship spotted us and started to rise straight up as we found ourselves in a dangerous game of air chicken.
“Hope?”
I ignored her as I narrowed my eyes and kept them trained on the ship barreling towards us.
“Hope? Hope!” she yelled out as she glanced behind us and saw the other ship closing in.
“Have a little faith, Faith.”
She laughed. “I hate it when you say that, it always means I should have brought a second pair of pants with me.”
I laughed as I held onto the stick with a death grip. Just as the ship in front of us appeared about twenty yards out, I rolled out of the way. As we fell from the sky, we watched as the two ships collided, causing a huge explosion. I smiled until I suddenly realized we were without power.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
“What?” Faith yelled from behind me as I stared at the dead screens and jiggled the stick.
“We need to leave.”
“No. No. No! I am not…” she started to scream.
I slammed my hand against the control panel, pressing the large red button down that had “Only in Case of Emergency” on it. Faith had written over it in black marker, crossing out the word emergency, and replaced it with “Hope” as a joke, I would assume. I crossed my arms on my chest and closed my eyes as both Faith and I were ejected from the airship, my tenth one I had ditched in the past year.
She screamed “I hate you….” her voice echoing and then fading in my ears.
Both chutes deployed with no problem, and as we floated downward, I looked out and saw a large airship explode and start to descend towards the ground. I smiled. There was nothing more beautiful to me than watching the enemy burn.
***
I sat in the large office, tapping my fingers on the chair arm as I heard the door open up behin
d me. I didn’t even bother to turn at the sound of heels on the wood floor below us. Instead, I leaned forward and rubbed my knees, I was still in my white war jumper with my Paper Doll patch on the front of it.
I lifted my eyes as I watched her step up to the large window. The clouds floated by us, slow and peaceful. Her hair was in a tight bun on the back of her head, as it always was, and her clothing clean and sterile, as was her attitude. She stared out into the skyline and then spoke to me.
“Your father would be so proud of you, Hope,” she said as she turned and looked at me.
I sighed. I had been sure she was going to berate me, and then I realized I had relaxed too soon.
“But.”
I shook my head. “I know. Listen, Mom—”
“Do you want to win this war?” she asked.
I closed my mouth, sighed, and then spoke calmly to her. “Of course I do.”
“Then stop destroying all of our resources.”
“Well, that is just a little dramatic, it was just a ship.”
She slammed her fist on the large black desk, and I jumped in my chair. I cleared my throat and sat up straight like the Paper Doll commander that I am supposed to be.
“Ten ships, ten top fighters, not to mention your complete disregard for your own safety, as well as for your co-pilot.”
“Faith? She loves it, don’t let her fool you.”
“Oh really?” she said as she lifted a small piece of paper and stared at it.
“She has requested a transfer.”
“What?” I asked as I stood up and stared at her.
She sighed and placed the paper on the desk. “This will be your fifth co-pilot, Hope. You have to respect the mission and those you take with you.”
I lowered my head, and then looked back up at her. “I do respect the mission. I am dedicated to you and to our survival. I always have been. I am a commander, a leader, and I am built to do one thing…kill the enemy.”
“Then start acting like it, Hope. When I started this operation, I wanted to give us a fighting chance, and it is foolish actions, such as your own, that will destroy everything we have built here. They all watch you very closely and look up to you. You are right, you are a leader, and if you were not so respected, I would permanently remove you from your post. Your inability to follow orders is tedious and a liability.”
I swallowed hard. Those words stung me more than she could ever imagine. Of course, I was dedicated. I had lost as much as she had, and she was all that I had left in this forsaken world. I settled my mind and stepped back into line.
“I apologize. My actions were immature, and I had no intention of representing you, or the Paper Dolls, in this way. I offer you my paper wings, if that is what you want from me, Mother.” I said it knowing what she wanted to hear as I had been there before, in that very situation, many times.
Her expression softened, and she walked around the desk as she watched me take my wings off of my white war jumper. I held it out to her as she clasped both of her hands over mine and closed it. She kept one hand on mine then lifted the other and moved my blonde bangs out of my eyes. She stared at me and grinned.
“You look so much like your father. And your tenacity matches his, too.”
I stared at her as she took her hand from mine and walked away from me. She stared out into the skyline again and regained her composure and place there.
“You will be grounded for a month. I have something very important for you to do.”
“Mom!”
She turned and held a hand up to me.
“I have to maintain order, and that includes you, Hope…and things have changed. I have someone for you to train, to meet. A new co-pilot.”
“I can train in the air!”
“You will not, this cannot be done in the air, it is a top secret mission.”
“Oh, top secret?” I said as I crossed my arms on my chest. She had my attention, and I was not so aggravated about being grounded.
I heard the door open up behind me, and a boy walked in. I almost stumbled to the ground as I turned to see him standing there. This was impossible, how…how could there be a boy here? My mouth opened and my eyes widened as I stared at him. He was so…I don’t know. How do you describe something so pretty that it takes your breath away from you? I had not seen a boy since I was young. Even then, boys, well… they never made my heart flutter in my chest as mine just had. His hair was dark, shaggy, some of it covered his left eye, and he reached up and moved it. His eyes were….
“Hope…this is Grayson. He will be your new…”
I walked towards him as her words faded behind me. His eyes were strange, something I had never seen before. His pupils were red in color. I stopped as I reached behind me and grabbed my gun. I pulled it out and held it up high, trained on his face as my Mother quickly walked up behind me.
“Hope!”
I bit my bottom lip as Grayson watched me with little to no expression on his face. My gun seemed to not matter to him at all.
“What is with your fucking eyes?” I asked.
My mom yelled at me again. “Hope, stand down!”
I glanced to the side to see my mother had her gun pointed at me. I grinned as my eyes returned to Grayson’s. Then I felt it, his blade was at my stomach, and I had not even seen it come out towards me. He was fast, faster than I was. He was not human, he could not be.
“What the hell is this?” I asked as my mom reached out and lowered my gun.
She looked at Grayson and smiled. “I apologize, Hope is…”
“A warrior, I can appreciate that.” Grayson said as he pulled his blade back from me and slid it onto his back.
I stood my ground as my heart pounded in my chest. “What is this?” I asked as my mom stepped up behind Grayson and they both looked at me.
“Grayson is not the enemy, he wants to help us.”
“You are one of them,” I said.
He tilted his head. “I am, but do not think of me as an enemy. I am not, I assure you.”
I laughed as I stepped back and shook my head. “What did you do to my mom? Did you drug her? Is this some kind of sick joke?”
My mother stepped out and held her hand up to me. “He did nothing but extend an offer of peace.”
“Right,” I said.
Grayson stepped towards me, and I stepped back, almost falling over the chair. He was behind me and caught me before I hit the ground. He helped me up, but I jerked away from him and stumbled away.
“Don’t touch me, enemy scum.”
He nodded to me and said nothing more as I turned to my mother.
“This is treason.”
“Hope, Grayson wants what we want…to end this war.”
“Right. How could you? How?” I asked my mother as she stared at me, her expression not changing a bit.
“Perhaps a demonstration is needed,” Grayson said as he grabbed my arm and dragged me along with him.
We reached the bay full of ships, and I saw a black one sitting there. My heart sunk, as I had seen so many of them before, so many that I had shot down and destroyed. Grayson walked past his ship and up to one of our own. He pushed me up the steps in front of him, his hands grazing my sides, and then he pushed on my ass.
“Help!” I yelled out as he grinned.
“I am not abducting you, Hope.”
He pushed me further up the steps and his touch infuriated me.
“Hey!” I said as I looked down at him. “I can climb on my own.”
He nodded to me as I scaled up and he followed closely behind. I tried to slip into the pilot’s seat, but he pushed me to the back. I landed on my head and yelled at him.
“Damn it!”
I rolled over and slipped into the co-pilot’s seat, completely disgusted with him. He grinned as he slid into
the pilot’s seat and the glass bubble slid closed above us.
“I am not a co-pilot,” I said as he placed his goggles on and I did, too. He started up the small airship and it rose a foot from the bay floor, hovering for a second.
“When you take me to your leader, I am going to kill him and then you,” I yelled out.
He smiled as the small ship started hum louder. “Sometimes, actions speak louder than words,” he said to me as the ship zipped out of the bay and upward into the blue sky.
I watched as we rose higher and higher. He took us to edge of the atmosphere and then rolled it. I looked out into the edge of darkness and then we descended at a frightening speed. Well, frightening to anyone but me. I am fearless when it comes to that, and height does not affect me. In fact, I am addicted to it.
He glanced back at me as I sat there and smiled. The corner of his lip curled up as he suddenly leveled out, and I could see a battle in the distance. The same one I had been forced to abandon. He picked up speed as he eyed two small black airships ganging up on one of our own, I mean my own…he was not one of “us”. In fact, he was one of them.
It was so hard for me to wrap my head around it and as I sat there, I looked down to see if I could find anything to hit him in the back of head with. I suddenly eyed a wrench left behind by a mechanic, and I lifted it up, steadying myself as he swayed our ship back and forth and headed towards the two ships in our sights. He turned as I gripped the wrench and smiled at me.
“Could you let me do this, first? I mean, before you try to kill me.”
I lowered it and smirked at him. He shook his head and turned back to see ahead of us. His sarcasm and disinterest in my hatred for him was annoying.
“I am going to show you something,” he said very calmly.
I narrowed my eyes as he sped up and zipped between the two ships as they suddenly turned their attention to us. He swung our ship back and forth, as the enemy shot at us from behind, the lightning flashes flew past each side of us as he calmly continued to fly. He suddenly rose into the sky and they pursued us.
