by SJ Davis
I rolled my eyes at him. “Don’t tell me, you are going to go high, roll, and drop between them. It has been done, by me.”
He kept climbing and climbing, taking us to the edge of the atmosphere, the ships continued to follow us, until they suddenly sputtered out — evidently the change in oxygen in the air stalled their machines.
Both ships started to fall as he turned our ship and pursued them. I watched closely. I figured he would allow them to eject and survive it, but he shot one ship out of the sky, and then the other, as the balls of fire fell like meteors towards the surface. They both hit the ground far below us, and he turned our ship and headed back to base.
***
I sat and ate my rations. Everything we had was canned, to be convenient and mobile. In fact, we were always ready to move, so I had not considered anything to be a true home, ever…except for the sky. In the clouds, I could feel free and at home. There, I was in my true element. There, I made a difference, and could kill as many of them as I could.
Grayson walked into the mess hall, but I continued to eat my food in silence as he took a seat across from me. It was the middle of the night, and no one else was even up. I kept weird hours. Sleep was not my friend, anyway. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was death. I also had no real friends. I never counted my co-pilots as friends. I mean, they were only there to help, if they even did that.
Honestly, every one of them had served as a witness to my insanity. My mother was right, I was reckless, but I was confident in my abilities as a Paper Doll pilot. I did not feel as if I needed any help. She said I was like my father. I wish I could validate that, but Grayson and his kind had stolen that from me, as well as the future, seeing that we had no males to procreate.
He sat down without asking me if he could. I chewed my ration meal bar as he stared at his tray. He opened one of the square bars and sniffed at it.
I looked at the color of it and waved my bar at him. “That is meat, probably beef.”
“Beef?”
“Cow. We had cows before you guys showed up and killed them all.”
“I don’t remember killing cows, what did they look like?”
“Big, white and black animals. They chew grass, go ‘moo’.”
“‘Go moo’. That sounds strange.”
“Well, all we have now is this bar to simulate beef, that little virus trick of yours killed off all of the meat on Earth.”
“Seems a bit barbaric to eat living things,” he said as he took a bite and chewed. He leaned forward and spit it out onto his tray.
I swallowed and smiled at him. “That’s ironic, don’t tell me that you are a vegetarian.”
“If you mean we only eat what we grow, then yes.”
I laughed at him and shook my head. I took the last bite of my bar and chewed it. He watched me, and when I noticed, I stared him down.
“Do you eat us?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.
“Humans? No, no we do not eat you.”
“Shocking.” I muttered.
He picked up another bar and opened it. This one was green, he sniffed at it, and then took a cautious bite.
“Vegetables. Probably spinach, they love to hand out spinach.”
He chewed and swallowed that time. “Much better.”
I stood up and picked up my silver tray. “Glad you found something you liked, I would hate to think you would be unsatisfied with anything we have to offer here.”
He looked up at me and his expression looked calm, but a bit sad. “I am not the enemy, Hope.”
I laughed and turned to walk away.
“I have the virus with me.”
I stopped and turned back to him. “What?”
“The virus. The one we unleashed on the Earth years ago to kill the population. I mean they released it, not me. It was meant to kill all of you, and instead, it killed the males and left the females...”
“Left the females what?” I asked him.
“Your mother has not told you?” He said in a low tone.
I walked back and slammed my tray on the table in front of him, my leftover bars flew off it, but he was not bothered. His red eyes remained locked onto mine.
“Told me what?”
“The virus not only killed the males, it left the females sterile.”
“What?” I said as I my breath left me.
“Yes. You are not able to repopulate the planet, even if you defeat us.”
“That virus killed my father and my brother, and now you are telling me that even though we survived it, we are…we can have no children?”
“I know, and I am sorry.”
“Sorry?” I laughed as I rolled my eyes at him. I stood up straight and crossed my arms on my chest. “What do you think? That you can just stroll in here, shoot two ships down, tell me you have the virus, and drop this bombshell on me?”
“I know you don’t trust me, Hope.”
“You think?” I yelled at him.
He blinked, the first emotion I had seen from him. He sighed and then stood up. “What matters is that your mother does, and I have no intention of letting her down. Even if I have to do it without you.”
I watched him walk away from me, and my eyes filled with tears. How infuriating, and how dare he mention her and her trust. He had not earned trust, not hers, not mine… Not anyone’s.
“Do you have any idea what your people did to this world?” I screamed at him.
He stopped walking and looked down. He turned back to me, his expression finally that of sadness. “I am willing to kill my entire race for a peaceful future. You can believe me or not, Hope, but for someone with such a beautiful name, I would think you would or could have some. Have hope, that is.”
I wiped the tears from my cheek as he left me there so angry, but wanting desperately to believe in him.
“Who the hell are you?”
He paused and started to walk out of the hall. “I am not my father’s son, he led this invasion.”
“Your father?” I asked him.
He left me standing there in the dimly lit hall, wanting so badly to believe him, and so very scared that if I did, it could be our destruction.
***
I stood on the deck and watched as airship after airship left us. A huge battle had begun in the north. We had spent years fighting to get there, lost many, and yet we were making progress. It did give me hope each time my mother was able to change our advancing position on the large map in the situation room. It was there that she conferred with the other leaders, those who had their own squadrons, and fought just as hard as ours. We were stationed in five spots on Earth, ours being the most important, and home base to all.
I was proud of my mom, although our relationship was not normal and never would be. I had watched her closely as a child as she flew her own squad, her own group of Paper Dolls, the first of its kind. When they downed their first enemy, airship women started to show up. A few at first, and then many. Some seeking shelter for them and their daughters, but most wanted one thing — revenge. My mother offered that with each invader we slaughtered.
I heard her voice before I could hear her footsteps. She was like that, very stealthy. It was unnerving, but I guess she’d learned to be after years and years of war. The time in battle had aged her, and two streaks of white ran along the sides of her hair, but her face was still angelic. You would never guess that she was a killer, a leader. The leader of the new world order.
She was in her mid-forties, and I had just turned twenty-one. Legal for drinks, which seemed ridiculous, since I had been flying and killing the invaders since I was fifteen. My mother tried her best to retain some sense of normality and refused to allow anyone under twenty-one to drink alcohol. It was probably best, seeing that almost the entire population was in their teens. I cannot imagine the anarchy wi
th a bunch of drunken girls flying the skies and looking to shoot any black airships down…large or small.
It still amazed me at times when I looked at her and knew she literally led us, everyone who had survived the initial wave of attacks.
“I want you to spend time with Grayson today, show him everything about our defenses.”
I shook my head and she tilted hers.
“It is a direct order, Hope. I am not asking.”
I sighed as Grayson stepped up next to her, and I looked him over. He was no longer in his flight suit, which was black as opposed to our white ones. Instead, he wore regular pants and a t-shirt. I looked him over and then turned back to my mom.
“So just show him everything, then.”
She nodded and left us there in the bay.
“Those are airships.” I pointed to the row of fighters stretched out to each side of us.
He laughed. “I know, I flew one.”
“Listen, I am under direct orders to show you everything, so that is what I am going to do, Grayson.”
“You can call me Gray, if you wish.”
“I don’t.”
He grinned as I started to walk along the fighters. I stopped and looked up at the words Paper Dolls painted on the side of one. He stopped and looked up at it, too.
“Why are you called that, Paper Dolls, what does it mean?”
I paused, and then turned, realizing he was far too close to me. I stepped back, and he smiled as he looked me over.
“It’s irony. My mother knew that no one would think a band of girls could fight off such a force, so she was being sarcastic when she named it,” I said to him as he looked up at the writing.
“I think perhaps she was just being truthful. There is a vulnerability to paper, and yet, when set free, it floats on the wind.”
I watched his lips as he spoke, and quickly looked away when his eyes returned to my own. He was attractive in a very annoying way. His manners bothered me. His civility, his compassion, all of it. I could do with less distraction.
“Well, if so, she never told me.”
“Mmmm,” he said.
I stared him down. “What?”
“Oh, it seems we have a lot in common as far as parents and relationships go. My relationship with my father is strained, at best.”
I laughed, and then quickly stopped. “Well, I would say so, since you are here and not with him, trying to kill us off.”
He paused and looked towards the open bay doors. He walked towards it, stopping a few feet from the edge. The air blew in, nice and cool and whipped his hair around. Mine remained still and pulled to one side, braided over my shoulder, long and blonde. Blonde just like my dad’s. I stopped and looked out as two birds hovered in the sky, both enjoying the sunlight, peaceful…companions. I glanced at Grayson, who was watching them as closely as I had been. Then he started to talk, and I remained quiet and listened, which I am not known to do.
“I was small when it began, the sickness,” he stopped and looked down at his hands and then back to the sky. “You see, my father was a scientist, one of our best, and he was hell bent on eradicating sickness. He became obsessed with longevity. So much so, he started to play with viruses. First, it was a virus in the soil, something to make the vegetables stronger, bigger...give us a higher yield. Once it proved effective, his team moved onto water, to purify it and make it better, so that it would help heal as well as give us life.” He stopped and turned to me. “We noticed the first problems two months after it was launched. The first people to get sick seemed as if they simply had a cold, then flu…then—”
I interrupted him. “Fever,” I whispered.
He narrowed his eyes. “Yes, fever. High and not manageable, but it only attacked certain people, not all.”
“Certain, as in who?” I asked him.
He looked out again. “Women, females, young and old… They started to die, and once it began, it got worse and worse until it didn’t matter if they drank the water or not. They still got sick, because the virus mutated and went airborne. My mother and my three sisters died, and when that happened, my father changed. You see, everything he did in life was for family. It was for us. He only wanted a better life for us, and everyone else would simply benefit from his obsession with health and living forever.”
“There is no ‘living forever’.”
He sighed, looked at his hands, and then back to me. “We know this now. Then…well, my father thought he was unlocking the secrets to the universe. But in the end, he only became the bringer of death.”
“So every girl on your planet died, then?” I asked him.
He nodded. “Yes, they all died and left us populated with only males, water that was slowly turning into sludge, and an atmosphere that was turning to carbon dioxide. The virus continued to mutate and ruin everything. My father ruined everything, so he met with the top leaders of our world and came up with a plan. You see, we had been intercepting transmissions from your planet for decades, he knew this world could sustain life, our lives, and with a world we could rebuild and then try…”
He stopped and I touched his arm. He closed his eyes.
“He said your world was barbaric, that there was no way we could co-exist here with the inhabitants. And after listening to the news transmissions, of which he had obviously edited, everyone believed him…believed that the people here were built for war and destruction. So he made a new version of the virus as we travelled here, and once we broke through your atmosphere, the virus was released. It was meant to wipe out the population and leave the world in pristine condition. Why we believed this is beyond me. All it did was extend the nightmare and share our curse with all of you.”
“Wait…so is the atmosphere here going to change, and the water?” I asked him.
He looked at me, his red eyes glossy. “No, it did nothing to this world, but kill all of the men.”
I paused as the truth about that sunk in. “We had changed before you got here. We stopped making weapons, we had focused on being peaceful and healing this world… The polar ice caps had cracked in two, and my father and mother led that charge to save us. They are also scientists, but now my mother is a master at war…and that is because of your dad, because of his doing.”
He walked to the edge and let the tips of his shoes lean over the edge.
“I know what he has done. I know what a monster he is now. That is why I left, and came here, throwing myself on your mother’s mercy. On your mercy, Hope,” he said as he turned and stood on the edge staring at me.
“You need to step towards me, Grayson.”
He remained where he was, his expression not changing at all. The wind whipped up behind him and moved his hair around. The sunlight formed a halo on his head as he teetered on the edge of the opening, which was high on a cliff’s edge. I noticed the birds behind him, still hovering in the air. Free, a freedom I also felt when I flew.
“This is your decision, you decide if I live or die,” he said as if we were discussing the weather.
I stepped towards him, and he scooted even further back. His balance was off a bit more, and my heartbeat sped up in my chest. I should just let him go, right now. I could tell my mother that he was a spy and had lied to her. That he turned on me, and that I had to kill him to protect us.
He tilted his head as the thoughts ran through my mind. I could see him falling into oblivion, but I did not feel the satisfaction I thought that I would. The same satisfaction I felt each time I shot one of those black fighter ships from the sky. He started to raise his arms out to his side, and I lunged forward, grabbing one of his wrists and pulling him back in. He landed on top of me. We laid there as he stared down at me, his body pressed against my own. My heart was already at top speed and that was not helping at all.
He leaned into my ear, his movement seemingly in slow motion, and h
e whispered into my ear. “Now we can begin.”
***
I tried my best to ignore my changing feelings for Grayson over the next month. As we walked the bunker’s halls, the giggles and stares from the other Paper Dolls started to grate on my nerves. I got it. I mean Grayson was the first male we had seen since we had grown up. As children, your perspective on the opposite sex is simplistic. They are gross, annoying, just boys…but we had been robbed of that along with how we might have felt as young women, seeing one such as him.
Grayson had caught my attention when I first saw him in my mother’s office, but over the past month, I had noticed more. How his lip curled at the edge of his mouth when he smiled. His teeth — straight and white. His hair — shaggy and unruly, as I am. Even his eyes, although they were foreign in color, had grown on me. I could see his soul, I was looking past the enemy he had been, in birthright only, and seeing him for him. Almost human in every way, minus the fact that he came from a galaxy far away from our own.
How could I blame him for what he was born into? He had not made the virus, his father had. Grayson had not devised the plan that had led to our ruin, that had been his father. Should he be damned because of it? He had been deceived, just as the rest of his people had been. I could not help but see the similarities between us. He was fearless, independent, and willing to sacrifice for the greater good.
I understood all of these qualities as I understood breathing air. All of it made me look at him closer than I expected to. It made me feel something for him that I was not accustomed to. In fact, it made me feel new. When I was with him, I felt stronger and better, as if he was pushing me to be more. I was not sure what it was yet, but I could not stop it, nor did I want to.
I jumped when he sat down in front of me and chewed on his veggie bar ration. I swallowed as the other Paper Dolls stared at us sitting at the table. Faith walked up and sat down next to me as I scooted over a bit. She stared at Grayson and smiled, speaking to me without taking her eyes from him.
“Hi, Hope,” she said in a half-fake and cheery voice.
