“We need to hide,” Cal shouted what I was thinking, “It’s gaining on us. We need some place to hide!”
“There’s nowhere around,” Nolan shouted back, “The trees aren’t thick enough.”
“There’s probably Taoree on the ground too,” I added since we were obviously completely screwed even without me pointing that out.
I felt the wind blowing from behind me and knew the fucking ship was right there and that they could most definitely see us. Orrean stopped running and turned to face the ship, looking up into the sky at it.
“Everyone touch my arm and don’t let go,” he yelled over the humming.
With no idea what he was planning, I ran to him with Cal, Wes, and Nolan, and we all grabbed his arm. Mandy was still on his back. Wes was the last one to touch his arm, and as soon as he did, a bright white light shot out of Orrean’s chest and back, forming a dome around us. It was an exact replica of the white dome that had shot out of me all those weeks ago.
Orrean started to fall, so we all lowered him gently down until he was on his knees with us still holding on to him. I felt him start to shake and convulse, so I grabbed the back of his neck with my other hand to try to steady him. Mandy was standing on her own feet now, so she was holding onto Orrean’s shoulders.
I looked away from them for a second to see what was going on and saw some Taoree walking around, looking like they were searching for us, but they didn’t seem capable of looking in our exact direction. I figured we were safe in the dome thing and that they couldn’t see or hear us, so I turned my attention back to Orrean, who had started to shake more violently.
He met my eyes and I saw some blood trickle down from his nose. My heart pulled as I was reminded of Colt. I tried to push him out of my mind, but he was always there, hiding in the shadows, just an indelible part of who I was now. So, with him in the back of my mind, I stared at Orrean and could see how much pain he was in. Not only could I see it on his face, but I could remember it from when I had a freaking protection dome shooting out of me, too.
I felt the need to comfort him, so I pulled him with the hand I still had on his neck until his forehead found my shoulder. I could tell that he was breathing heavily, so I rubbed his neck as I looked at the others. They were all staring back at me, looking utterly terrified.
To try to help and calm the others, I whispered, “They can’t see us.” Then to Orrean I asked, “They can’t hear us either, can they?”
He shook his head against my shoulder, then somehow burrowed closer to me as I held on tight. I felt helpless again, just like I had with Colt. It seemed like no matter how much I wanted to protect my family, I would always be helpless to do so. I wrapped my arm around my Taoree friend and tried to smile at Mandy, but she ended up burying her face between Orrean’s shoulder blades. So I looked at Wes, Cal, and Nolan, who still looked terrified, but gave me little nods to tell me they were okay.
I returned my attention to Orrean when he clutched my shirt in his hands. The guys still held his one arm, but the other was tucked between us. I kept rubbing his neck, hoping it was comforting and not hurting him even more.
Then I just kneeled there, watching the enemy Taoree walking around searching for us. The more of them I saw, the more I noticed how different they actually looked from one another. My first impression of the aliens had been that they all looked alike, but now I could see that they were just as different from one another as humans were.
None of them came close enough to the dome for me to hear them, but the whole time I kept wondering if I would be able to understand them like I had last time. It seemed like they stayed in our area way longer than needed, and when they finally did leave, Orrean held that dome up for at least another hour.
By the time he released it, he was a shaking, shivering mess with blood coming out of his nose and ears. It was like he just depleted when he let the dome go; he just crumpled, but luckily he was still leaning on me, so I caught him.
I swear I heard a whispered, “Run,” so I started to get up, holding Orrean in my arms. He felt tiny and frail, even though I knew he was so much taller and stronger than me.
As I shifted him a little, I said to the others, “We need to run.”
“Jeremy,” Wes started to argue, but I cut him off.
“Trust me, we need to run. They’ll be back here soon,” I informed him, knowing it to be true.
“Fine.” He grabbed Cal’s backpack and added it to his back so Cal could pick Mandy up.
Nolan grabbed my backpack and he pulled it off of me while shifting Orrean in my arms, then we took off in the opposite direction we saw the ship go. Orrean was curled up in a ball in my arms, still clutching my jacket and shuddering every now and then.
When I first lifted him, I had thought he felt light and small, but the longer I carried him, the heavier he got. Or at least it felt that way. After carrying him like that for probably more than twenty minutes, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had to stop and lean against a tree.
“Orrean,” I whispered to him, “do you think you can hold onto my back? I don’t think I can carry you like this much longer.” I felt like a weak dumbass, but I couldn’t let my pride make us slow and get us all killed.
He nodded, so Nolan and Wes helped me move him around to my back. Once settled there, I decided that he was still a heavy bastard, but at least it was easier to carry him this way. We quickly and quietly walked for another two hours. It was dark out, so it was a little slower going than normal, but at least we were moving. I could tell that Orrean kept falling in and out of sleep on my back. I had expected that, since the same thing had happened to me and he held the dome longer than I had.
We ended up finding an old cabin, and without really any discussion, the four of us that were walking, headed right for it. Wes and Nolan checked it out first, since they only had bags and not a person to carry, and when it was cleared, we went inside.
It was a small cabin with one bed, a couch, a small table, and a very small kitchen. I went for the bed immediately, lowering Orrean onto it. He was still shivering, so I covered him with the blanket, then added his sleeping bag on top of that, hoping that would warm him up. When I went to walk away, his hand shot out of the blanket and grabbed my wrist. When I looked at his face, he was still sleeping, so I peeled his fingers off and tried to move away again. He started moving toward me again.
So I bent over, patting his hand, and whispered, “I’m not leaving, I’m just getting my sleeping bag. We’re safe. Go back to sleep.”
That seemed to settle him some, so I grabbed my sleeping bag from Nolan and brought it back over next to the bed. I laid it down on the floor next to the bed and got inside. Wes lay down next to me, then Mandy, Cal, and finally Nolan, who had first watch. I fell asleep in seconds.
We were back at the fence this time, sitting at the tree side by side. Neither of us said anything. I just put my arm around his shoulders and let him rest his head against me, letting him rest just like he had let me so many times before. We sat there all night, saying nothing, but offering comfort.
No words were needed.
***
Time seemed to slip by so slowly. Every day was the same. We walked, we killed Ferals, we walked some more, sometimes we ran from Taoree, but pretty much we just walked. Days had turned into weeks, and if I thought about it, I knew we had been walking for almost an entire month. When I realized we missed Christmas, and possibly New Year’s, without even acknowledging it—or at least I assumed it passed since I had no clue what day it was—I found these bracelets to give everyone when we were raiding a convenience store.
It was stupid, but I figured I had been such a dick to everyone when they needed me that I could at least present some kind of peace offering. The bracelets were braided leather cuffs, some brown, some black straps that snapped closed. When we sat down to eat lunch the same day I found them, I took my glove off and pulled them out.
I was suddenly embarrassed, but I pushed thr
ough it. “Sorry I was such an asshole,” I announced, essentially stopping all other conversation and bringing all eyes to me. “I know this doesn’t make up for it, but I found these today, and since we missed Christmas, well…” I trailed off and handed a brown leather bracelet to Wesley next to me and a black one with a little dyed purple strip to Mandy, and asked her, “Is purple still your favorite color?”
“Yes,” she answered, taking it from me. “Thank you, J.” I helped her snap it on.
Then I passed Nolan, Cal, and Orrean each a bracelet. Orrean looked shocked and asked, “You are giving one to me?”
I smiled a little and just said, “Of course.” I almost said that he was a part of our little family now, but I held my tongue, unable to actually express it.
“Thank you, Jeremy,” he said quietly. I nodded at him.
Then I turned to Wes when he said, “Thanks, J. I like this one.” He had already hooked it on himself and added it to his collection of leather bracelets on his wrist.
“That’s why I got them. They reminded me of you, but I figured everyone might like one.” I shrugged at him. I knew it was weird and stupid, but it wasn’t like I could give them much else. They needed to be able to carry it—or wear it in this case—or it needed to serve a function. While this didn’t serve a function, I thought that sometimes, everyone just needed to have something nice… or maybe something special.
Orrean, Cal, and Nolan had all helped one another put theirs on and I smiled at myself, since everyone seemed to like it and hopefully accepted my apology. But Orrean suddenly jumped to his feet.
“Taoree,” he announced, making all of us jump up and grab our bags. Orrean scooped up Mandy and put her on his back. “Hurry,” he said as he turned and started walking back in the direction we had come from.
I ran up ahead to ask him, “How far?”
He thought for a moment. “Half a mile back, but they’re moving fast. We need to hurry.”
I looked back to see if the others had heard him and figured they must have because all three of them started running. When they caught up to Orrean and me, we all took off at a run, letting the alien lead the way. We ran for a long time. We were out of breath, panting, and I sure as hell had burning muscles, but we were running for our lives, so I ignored it and pushed through.
Orrean slowed down a little and looked over his shoulder. I looked too, thinking I was going to see a Taoree right behind us, but I couldn’t see anyone.
Orrean announced, “There’s only one left on our trail. The others are searching elsewhere. But the one behind us is coming up fast. I do not think we can outrun him.” He looked around our surroundings, then added, “Come. We will use that large tree as a partial shield.”
I felt like my insides were suddenly made of ice. I didn’t understand how a tree was going to help us when a crazy, murdering Taoree was coming to take us out, but I trusted Orrean, so I followed him behind the tree. He positioned us all together with Mandy in the middle, then he turned around and stood next to the tree, facing away from us and essentially blocking us further from view. He pulled out and aimed his reelian—the gun that kills Taoree—and pointed it in the direction the footsteps were coming from.
It was only probably about thirty seconds before I heard the other Taoree run up and come to a halt. He immediately started talking to Orrean, “Zhidante Orrean, noa. Fui erere yu vo nob beti.” The only word I understood in that was Orrean, which meant that they knew each other. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Orrean responded to him without lowering his reelian, “Uhlerius, Derere vo terum tau hies numo.” Again I didn’t understand him, but Orrean reached back with his free hand and held onto my arm and suddenly, I could understand what was being said.
The other alien laughed and in Taoree said, “No, it is not. New orders I have to kill you and your human companions.” I know my eyes widened at that. I didn’t think Orrean would be on a hit list.
Orrean responded in Taoree, “Planning on following that order, are you?”
“Your brother it came from,” the other alien said. “The Emperor I cannot disobey.” Brother? Emperor?
“Once friends we were,” Orrean told him, still speaking in Taoree, “Does that count no longer?”
“Thelonious is my friend also,” the alien told him. I remembered that that was the emperor’s name. “But right you are. I will give you one free pass. But never again. Independent you are, my enemy you are.”
“Uhlerius, thank you,” Orrean responded and I felt some of the tension drain away, though I noted that he didn’t lower his weapon.
“Enemies we are the next time,” Uhlerius reminded him, “Cross my path again, do not. Kill an old friend… I do not want.”
“Do not want either,” Orrean told him. “Uhlerius, goodbye. Thank you.”
“Orrean, goodbye.” Uhlerius said before I heard his footsteps walk away.
We stood still for a whole minute before Orrean turned and led us away. I had so many questions running through my head, but I knew I needed to wait until we were farther from the danger. We ran for an undeterminable amount of time, just following Orrean, as crazy thoughts raced through my head.
When we finally slowed to a walk I asked Orrean, “Your brother ordered to kill you?”
He stopped in his tracks and turned to me. “You understood that again?”
“It seems that I just understand Taoree… sometimes,” I answered, as I stopped to face him and raised a brow, waiting for him to answer my initial question.
He huffed out a breath of annoyance. “Yes, my brother ordered them to kill me.”
“Are you serious?” Cal asked as he came to walk next to me.
Orrean nodded. “Yes. I have no doubt it was him.”
“Your brother’s the emperor, isn’t he? That’s what that guy meant, right?” I asked, eyeing the alien.
His eyes went wide before he looked away. He didn’t answer right away and I thought I might have to force it out of him, but finally he answered without looking at any of us, “Yes. Thelonious is my brother.”
“Holy shit,” Cal said as he took a step away from Orrean. Cal grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away with him.
“Why didn’t you tell us this to begin with?” I asked, shaking off Cal’s hand.
Orrean finally looked at me. “You would never have trusted me if I had.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but as I thought about it some, I closed my jaw. Once we found out who was behind the Ferals and Taoree killing us, I doubt we would have wanted to have anything to do with someone even remotely close to the Emperor. So he was probably right, but I still didn’t want to admit it out loud to him.
“See,” Orrean mused, “There’s no way I could have gotten you to come with me.”
“Is there really an Independent camp?” That came from Nolan somewhere behind me.
Orrean looked over my shoulder at him. “Of course. I’m taking you somewhere safe.”
I just stared at the Taoree. I couldn’t decide whether or not to be pissed at him. I was annoyed, definitely, but I had to admit that he had a good reason to keep it from us.
Finally I sighed and said, “Okay. Let’s keep going. Let’s find somewhere safe for the night.”
Wes sounded completely annoyed, “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say to him? His brother is the fucking person that killed all our families and you want to just forget about it?”
Without taking my eyes off Orrean, I answered Wes with a simple, “Yes.” Orrean looked surprised, but gave me a slight nod of thanks.
Wes huffed, “That’s bullshit, J. We need to question him.”
I raised a brow at Orrean, allowing him to take this one, so Orrean looked over at my brother and said, “You can ask anything you want. I will give you an honest answer.”
Before my brother could complain and start in on his Twenty Questions, I said, “We can walk and talk at the same time. Come on.”
Orrean nodded at me again and turned around to lead the way with Wes next to him asking him a million and a half questions. My brother would’ve made a great detective.
When Wes finally stopped hounding Orrean, I walked next to the alien and said, “Say something in Taoree.”
He did that weird shoulder roll thing, then started, “Vo olox Eo et,” I reached out and touched his arm as he continued in Taoree, “say what?” He looked down at my hand on his arm, then at my wide eyes, before speaking in his native tongue again, “Understand me, you can?”
I nodded and whispered, “Yes.” I let go of his arm.
“Jili Eo bo zun,” he said.
I shook my head. “I didn’t understand that.” I held up my hand to emphasize that I was no longer touching him. Then I slowly reached out and gripped his forearm again.
“Now?” he asked me in Taoree.
“Yes,” I answered.
He continued in his language, “You understand Taoree when we touch.”
I swallowed. “Apparently I do.”
“Strange that is.”
“You can say that again.” I looked over at the others, surprised to see them staring at us with wide eyes and weird expressions, so I said, “I can understand him when I’m touching his arm.” I waved Cal over. “Here, you try.”
I switched places with Cal and watched as Orrean spoke in Taoree again without me understanding what he was saying, since I was no longer holding on to his arm.
Cal looked at me in confusion. “I can’t understand a single word he’s saying, J. You sure you can understand him?”
Orrean switched to English, “Both of you listen at the same time and we can compare what you think I said.”
“Good idea,” I said already walking behind him to his other side and touching his other arm. I leaned forward to look at Cal. “You still touching his arm?”
“Yep,” Cal popped his ‘p’ making me smile at him.
Orrean switched back to Taoree, “Dirt smudge on his face, Cal has. Even so, he is still sexy.”
I smacked Orrean’s chest with a laugh. “Orrean, gross.” Orrean started laughing with a big smile aimed at me.
Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1 Page 25
