Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1

by Michele Notaro

  I thought about that for a second, then agreed, “Good plan.” I looked over at Orrean and told him, “We need to get you some human clothes so you don’t stand out as much.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Colt said from my side. “You grabbed an extra hat from your house, right? Maybe he should wear it?”

  “Good idea. It should be in the front pouch,” I nodded at the bag on his chest, so he riffled through it, producing a red ball cap, and passed it over to Orrean. I asked Cal, “Do you have an extra sweatshirt? You’re taller than the rest of us, so it might be the best bet until we can find something that fits better.”

  “I think so,” Cal answered, already looking through his bag. He threw a green hoodie to Orrean, who put it on and replaced his red hat once it was over his head. I was intrigued as I watched him… I would’ve sworn it looked like his hair was moving of its own accord. I eyed his back for a moment, but didn’t see any more movement, so I kept my mouth shut.

  Mandy giggled from my back, “You’re Christmas colors.”

  He smiled at her and winked, then said, “Thanks,” to both Cal and Colt, and nodded to me.

  “We’ll have to find a store to find something better since that sweatshirt isn’t quite big enough for you, but that’ll do for now. Hopefully everyone passing us will just think that you’re just a very tall human,” I said. “Oh,” I reached into my bag on Colt’s chest. I had forgotten that I grabbed my old sunglasses from my bedroom. I fished them out and held them out for Orrean. “These should help, too.” He took them with another nod to me. I had a weird sad vibe run through me when he covered his eyes and I could no longer see the purple, but as was becoming typical for me, I shook off the weird.

  When a group of ten Ferals attacked us an hour later, I realized our mistake. Colt couldn’t move efficiently with both bags and that made it harder for the two of us to protect Mandy. I ended up having to put her on the ground behind me. We were in an open field, so I didn’t even have anything to put her against, so I was freaking out about a Feral coming up behind her.

  Luckily though, the shoians were pretty damn efficient. I just had to stab each Feral with the Feral Stick and hold down the button. Simple, right? Yeah, in a way, but also not, since it meant getting close and holding the shoian against each Feral for at least ten seconds. A lot can happen in ten seconds when there’s dangerous things trying to kill you and yours.

  I kept panicking and looking behind me at both Mandy and Colt who were not well protected, but then I noticed that I wasn’t the only one protecting them. Soon Cal, Wes, and Nolan were at their sides, and even Orrean came to stand in front of them. Once I saw Orrean helping, I pushed Wes into Colt, who grabbed him and kept him in the middle of us. I was impressed that the alien was protecting all of us… that he seemed to care about my family. I was also impressed at the speed with which Orrean could move and the strength he clearly had. He still had to hold his shoian against a Feral for ten seconds, but he was able to use his free hand to knock others back or even to the ground easily. He took out at least half the Ferals while Nolan, Cal, and I took out the other half. Impressed and grateful, I guess I should say.

  After that, Orrean suggested, “Why don’t we find a place to make camp? There is a barn about one mile ahead. We can seek shelter there. I have a heater and a tent, but there will be more room in the barn.”

  “Okay,” I said breathlessly, and noted to myself that he wasn’t even the slightest bit out of breath.

  “I can carry her until we get there?” he asked me. I just half-shrugged, so he looked at Mandy. “Can I carry you the rest of the way?”

  “Yes, Orri,” she said in a sweet voice.

  He smiled at her and picked her up, then said, “This way.”

  Colt, Cal, Nolan, Wes, and I followed behind.

  Wes looked completely pissed. “I can help out, you know. I don’t appreciate being treated like a little kid, Jeremy. I’ve taken care of Mandy by myself this whole time, I do not need you to protect me from every little thing.”

  I was just as angry at his attitude as he was at me, so I asked, “Have you had to kill anyone yet? Feral or otherwise?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “No.”

  I stopped walking and grabbed his arm, making him stop too. “They were people once, Wesley. You don’t want to live with that guilt. You don’t want to sleep with their faces haunting you.”

  He narrowed his eyes further. “You can’t protect me forever, big brother. I will have to defend myself at some point.”

  “Yeah, well, until that point comes, I’m going to do everything in my power to protect you for as long as I can,” I stated.

  He walked past me, roughly bumping my shoulder as he passed me. I slowly walked along, catching up to Colt who had waited for me. I watched as Wes sped up to where Orrean was walking with Mandy and he fell into step with the Taoree. Apparently, both the younger members of our group had fully accepted Orrean into our ranks.

  “He’ll get over it,” Colt said as we walked.

  “Maybe,” I mumbled.

  “Once he has to help fight, he’ll realize you were right. That it is better to not have to kill, and then he’ll quit being a pain in the ass,” he suggested.

  “He would never admit that I was right,” I mused.

  Colt sighed, “Probably not, but at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that you are.”

  “I don’t want to be right about it,” I admitted.

  Colt reached over and plucked his hat off my head, placing it back on his own. “I know.”

  We followed the others all the way to the abandoned barn Orrean was talking about. Then we all pulled out our sleeping bags and settled down as we ate cold canned goods for dinner, and Colt and I started combining the contents of our bags, so we could trade off on carrying Mandy. Tomorrow was bound to be worse for her since she would be sore from walking so much today. We even gave Nolan and Cal a few items to keep in their bags, which they were fine with since it would help Mandy and allow us to move at a faster pace. Once fed, everyone settled in for the night.

  Colt and I took the corner of the barn farthest from everyone else, and I was able to keep my promise of a blow job. I was happy to say that as long as I covered his mouth with my palm, we weren’t too loud. Of course, Colt returned the favor, but I just bit into one fist to keep quiet while the other was tangled in his soft curls. We both fell asleep sated and content.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Jeremy.”

  What the actual fuck? I’m still having these dreams even though I know that damn alien is only feet away from me as we sleep. “Orrean,” I greeted the dream alien I was standing a few feet away from.

  He smiled at me, but it looked forced, then he looked away.

  I looked around, but didn’t recognize our surroundings. There was a field and a few trees, but I had no clue where we were, so I asked, “Where are we?”

  He looked back at me. “I do not know.”

  “Don’t,” I corrected, annoyed that even in my own dream he was still speaking all stilted-like.

  “I don’t know,” he amended. “You don’t recognize this place?”

  “Nope,” I popped the ‘p’ at the end of my word for some reason. I think I was a little annoyed with myself now that this alien was an actual part of the real world. “Why am I still dreaming about you?”

  He spread his fingers open, indicating that he didn’t have the answer, but I had a feeling he did… or that he at least had an idea. Which was ridiculous, as this was the dream version of the Taoree and not the actual real, live one.

  “You are even less talkative than usual tonight,” I observed after several minutes passed without either of us speaking. I plopped down on the grass and crossed my legs. “May as well get comfortable if we’re gonna be here all night,” I told him.

  He followed my lead and sat down a few feet from me, crossing his legs, resting his elbows on his knees, and putting his head in his hands. I e
yed him for a moment before looking up into the sky.

  “I wonder where your planet is.” I mused out loud.

  “You can’t really see it from Earth,” he answered even though it hadn’t been a real question. “But it’s in the direction of the Big Dipper,” he added, pointing up into the sky. I noticed that he purposefully tried to condense his words and stumbled over them a little, but it was better than his stilted-talk.

  I followed the direction of his finger and saw the constellation he was talking about.

  A while later I asked, “How long did it take you to get to Earth from your planet—uh, from Orlia?”

  He tilted his head back and forth, considering before answering, “About a year, give or take a few weeks.”

  “Was it hard leaving all those people you’ve been working with when you came with us? I mean, you worked with them for years. There must have been at least a few of them you liked, right?” I had no clue what compelled me to ask that, but then again, it didn’t really matter here.

  He considered this for a while before saying, “There were a few that I liked. A few I will even miss, but they agreed with the emperor, so it was better to go our separate ways.”

  “Hm,” I said noncommittally.

  “I’m so sorry about Colt,” he said quietly.

  I snapped my gaze at him. “Nothing is going to happen to him.”

  He suddenly had sympathy in his gaze, and I didn’t like it. He told me, “You need to be prepared, Jeremy. Colt’s Qiren are being called. I can sense it. He doesn’t have much time left… I’m so sorry.”

  “You’re an asshole,” I told him. “We’re going to get to your fucking Independent camp before anything happens to him,” I insisted.

  He whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  I decided to ignore him and just look at the stars. I didn’t have the energy to run away from him, as much as I didn’t appreciate what he was saying.

  I laid back and put my hands behind my head to stare at the stars in a more comfortable position. Eventually, I felt Orrean lay next to me and mirror my position. He wasn’t close enough to touch me, but I could still feel his body heat coming from close by, which was strange for a dream because it felt so real.

  Later he said, “Jeremy, I…” but he trailed off.

  “You what?”

  “I… never mind,” he grumbled.

  “Now you have to tell me,” I urged, completely curious about what he was going to say.

  “Not tonight,” he told me with that sad look in his eyes again. “It’s time for you to get up, anyway.”

  “What?”

  “Jeremy… it’s time to wake up.”

  I snapped my eyes open to see Nolan in my face with his hand on my shoulder. “It’s your turn, J. Sorry. Colt’s after you.”

  “Okay,” I whispered as I wiped the sleep from my eyes.

  He walked away and I sat up, shifting Colt so he was on my lap rather than my chest. I looked around and thought I saw movement from the direction where I knew Orrean was sleeping, but it was too dark to know for sure. I spent the rest of my watch playing with Colt’s hair and squinting in the dark.

  When I woke Colt up for his turn, I settled in, using his lap as a pillow and fell asleep immediately. Orrean was in my dream again, but this time we simply lay in the grass beside one another and watched the stars. It was strange, even for a dream, but it was peaceful, and I woke up the next day feeling more content than I had the previous few days.

  ***

  We spent the next couple of days traveling, killing Ferals, and avoiding humans. We found Orrean some human clothes that fit—surprisingly—so with that, and wearing my hat and sunglasses, he looked like a human from a distance. He kept his long braid tucked into his clothes at all times, and we’d just avoid letting other humans get close enough to see his eyes if he took the sunglasses off. We tried to convince one group of humans to travel with us to the Independent camp, but they didn’t trust Orrean once they saw him up close. They actually threatened us before running off, so now we just tried to avoid humans altogether—unless someone needed help from a Feral attack, then we’d jump in.

  The tent Orrean had was pretty amazing. It was completely black and blocked out all light from escaping the inside, so we could actually use flashlights. There was a skylight at the top that we could see out of, but didn’t let our lights escape. He also brought a little heater that looked like a small orb on a stand and glowed orange when in use, but somehow could not catch our sleeping bags on fire. The tent kept all the heat inside, so we were actually more comfortable at night. Our new sleeping bags were made for below zero degree temperatures, but even so, I didn’t know if we would’ve survived the nights without the magic tent and heater. It was getting colder every day.

  We had made it out of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest by the fifth day of travel. Nolan and Orrean were in charge of directing us. They constantly had out the map and compasses, so I just followed along and let them do their thing.

  We all took turns carrying Mandy and trading off our bags. She walked too, so we would each get a short break while she walked before needing to take a backpack or pick her up again. She was being a real trooper, though, and every day she tried to push herself further. She was also probably the most positive person of our group, so it was nice to have her good spirits with us all the time.

  We had been pretty lucky not to run into too many Ferals in the forest, so we’d been able to keep Wes from having to kill anyone so far, but it seemed like as soon as we came into a suburban area again, we started running into more and more of them. My need to keep my brother innocent seemed doomed.

  Mandy, who was currently on my back, pulled on my ear, so I squeezed above her knee, tickling her and making her laugh, which made me smile. I glanced over at Colt who was walking beside us, not paying a bit of attention to what we were doing.

  “You okay?” I asked Colt when I saw him pinch the bridge of his nose for the tenth time in the past hour.

  “Yeah… just getting a headache,” he said as he rubbed his forehead.

  “Hold on,” I said to him as I walked ahead past Wes, catching up to Orrean and Nolan. “Nol, do you still have some Tylenol in your bag?”

  “I think so, what’s up?” Nolan asked.

  “Colt has a headache.”

  Nolan started to slow down. “I’ll look for it,” he said as he swung his bag around to his chest and started rifling through it. He stopped walking until Colt caught up to him.

  “Do you want to switch off?” Orrean asked, bringing my attention to him instead.

  I boosted Mandy up a little bit. “I think I can carry this Peanut for a little while longer,” I said, making her giggle and poke me in the temple.

  “Let me know when you’re ready,” he said quietly, without looking at me. I had noticed over the past few days that he seemed to avoid making eye contact with me, but didn’t seem to mind it with everyone else. Maybe I did something to upset him? I shook my head at myself and my stray thought. I hadn’t really talked to him much, so I highly doubted I would’ve offended him.

  We walked in silence for a while. I could hear Cal, Nolan, and Colt having a quiet conversation, so I decided to give them some privacy. I figured they were talking about something that Mandy shouldn’t hear. I did glance back at Wes, though, who was walking between the two groups by himself, looking lonely and angry. I didn’t particularly want to get into yet another argument with him, so I chose the calm alien’s company instead.

  Orrean was humming next to me, so I asked, “What song is that?”

  He stopped humming abruptly and glanced at me before looking away again. “Just a song my brother used to sing.”

  “You have a brother?” I asked, surprised, though I supposed it made sense that he had a family, I just never thought about it before, which was kinda shitty since he’d saved me and my family a million times already.

  “Two, actually,” he answered, but di
dn’t give any more forthcoming information.

  I tried to keep the conversation going, “Are they older or younger?”

  “Both are older than me.”

  “Ah, so you’re the baby, then,” I stated with an amused smile.

  “I’m not a baby,” he sounded offended, which made me laugh.

  “I know that,” I chuckled but explained, “It’s just a saying if you’re the youngest child in the family. Unless… do you have any sisters?”

  “One, also older, so I guess that makes me the… baby as you put it.” He said ‘baby’ like it was a disgusting, offensive curse word, which of course made me laugh harder.

  Mandy told him from my back, “I’m the baby of the family, too.”

  He looked over to her and shot her a huge, bright smile. It seemed that he only gave genuine smiles to her and my brother. He reached over and ruffled her hair, so she smacked his hand away and shouted, “Hey, not the hair.”

  That made me laugh, because really, we were all gross and disheveled, but that was such a typical Mandy response that I couldn’t help it. Orrean laughed too, and for once, he made eye contact with me and I swore there was a twinkle in his eyes—he’d taken off his sunglasses. I had also noticed that he took them off a lot when there weren’t others around, as if the sunglasses made him uncomfortable.

  Our eye contact lingered on as we walked and something tightened in my chest. That strange warmth was back, but along with it was something else… something I couldn’t decide if I loved or hated. The moment was disrupted when Mandy smacked my chest.

  “J,” she whispered with a horrified voice in my ear, “they’re everywhere.”

  I looked around and saw that we were completely surrounded by Ferals. There were so many, I couldn’t count them. I’d say at least thirty. But their numbers weren’t the thing that was making my blood run cold. It was the fact that they were in a perfect circle around us, slowly moving forward—together. There was no other explanation for what I was seeing—the Ferals were working together. They weren’t speaking—I didn’t think they were capable of talking on their own, only of repeating their orders—but they were glancing at one another and moving as one unit.