by RWK Clark
“Explain, fool!” The servant tried to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth except spit and gurgling noises.
Superior grew even more agitated, his anger reaching its peak. With his other hand he grabbed the servant by the top of his bald, narrow head and snapped his neck with one motion. He then looked the dead man in the eyes, amused with the way death felt in his bare hands. He dropped the body to the floor and turned to Secondary.
“Had I not known you since the beginning of my existence you would be next for me, and this one has whet my appetite for blood. We will go to the surface together… now!” Secondary jumped to his feet and bowed in respect, then followed Superior out the door of his quarters.
They reached the control room in ten Earth minutes flat. “We will be going to the planet’s surface,” stated Superior to the man at the controls. “Now!”
The ship’s captain looked at him, terrified to open his mouth. Finally, he worked up enough courage to state, “I no longer have the power to open or close the doors, Leader.”
Secondary backed toward the entrance to the control room. He would certainly make a run for it. When he saw the rage rising in his leader’s eyes, he knew what was coming, and he knew his turn was coming up.
He ducked out the door and ran for his life.
∞
Josh and Kamryn were almost holding their breath trying to hear what was going on. The sounds of chaos had grown very close now.
Tears fell silently down Kamryn’s cheeks. Josh held her hand firmly in his as they listened. “It’s going to be alright, Kam,” He whispered. “Shhh. They won’t find us. If they do, we will fight. I would rather die than be without you.”
She nodded in the darkness, unbeknownst to him. Suddenly they heard a blood-curdling shriek.
“No, no, we have more time!” It was Sharon’s voice, right outside of Wells’ office. “You said we had more time! No!” Her screams continued, soon becoming muffled. They continued, but began to fade in the distance.
There was a crash. It was the Oppressors. They were trying to get into the door of Wells’ office.
Josh’s arms went instinctively around Kamryn, and he pulled her close. She could hear his heart pounding, and she was sure they could hear it, too. Could they hear hers as well?
Crash! Again they stormed into the door. They were struggling against the barricade, but Josh knew in his heart that it was only a matter of time. He began to plant kiss after kiss on Kamryn’s forehead and in her hair.
“I love you, Kamryn. I love you. I always will.”
“I love you too, Josh. Forever,” she replied. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed as the din continued to come from the outer office.
There was a deafening crash. They were through the door. Furnishings were being thrown; they could hear the pieces crashing against the wall of the office. Kamryn put her hands firmly over her ears.
Suddenly the closet door flew open and a blinding light shone directly on the two trembling young adults in the corner.
“Grrr…” was all the Oppressor in the lead said before rushing forward and grabbing Josh, whose arms were around Kamryn. He jerked him violently, trying to separate the two, but Kamryn clung to him.
She was sobbing, but she managed to scream over and over, “No! No! No, please no!” Another of the men crowded his way in and, grabbing her, ripped her from Josh’s arms.
Kamryn took one look into his eyes and fainted dead away.
She woke to a loud clanging noise. What could that be? There was nothing in the office that would make that noise.
She rolled over and opened her eyes. She was in a large room. Pallet beds consisting of no more than covers, void of pillows, lined the walls. She sat up. There was a door at the end of the rectangular room, and next to it were two filthy toilets with sinks installed into the tanks of them, the kind you might see in a jail cell.
She was in a facility.
“Josh! Josh! Are you here?” Tears began to stream from her eyes.
A soft voice replied from a dark corner, “There is no one called Josh here.”
She turned her head in the direction the voice came from. “Who is that? Where are we?”
A figure emerged from the shadows in a corner and began to slowly approach her. It was a girl, no more than seventeen years old. She was filthy, her clothing torn, and her hair in complete disarray. She held out her hand to Kamryn in a gesture of kindness.
“I’m Maddie. Maddie Anderson. We’re in a facility.”
“No!” Kamryn was in complete denial as to the reality of her situation.
Maddie sat down on the pallet next to Kamryn’s. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Kamryn, and I don’t belong here. I have to get out of here!” She stood and ran for the door. She began to pound viciously on the door. It was large and made of metal. It was not going to give way.
“It’s no use, Kamryn. They won’t even come to the door. They ignore us unless we are testing.”
Kamryn fell to the floor, exasperated and exhausted. “Where is Josh? Where could he be?”
Maddie answered her question the best she could with the knowledge she had. “They keep men in another area of the facility. We don’t even see them while we are testing. We see them only in the halls when we go for the tests.”
Suddenly, Kamryn felt the tiniest sliver of hope.
“You mean, I might see him?” She asked Maddie.
The girl nodded in the darkness. “They took me and my dad at the same time. I have seen him in passing nearly every day, but we are not allowed to speak.”
Kamryn’s wheels began to turn. She needed to buck up. She needed to stay strong for Josh.
“When will they come get us for the tests?”
∞
Josh was pacing around the filthy cell block. They had thrown him in, struggling every step of the way. He had landed on the floor, hitting his head in the process. He had only gotten up and chased after them, running into the large metal door as they slammed it in his face and locked it.
He had been in the room for what felt like days, but he knew it had been only a few hours. There were five other men with him, and one of them suggested he try to get some sleep, but he refused. How could anyone sleep under these circumstances?
All he could think about was Kamryn and the way she had gone limp like a rag doll in the arms of the Oppressor. What if they had killed her, or worse yet, raped her and left her alive? Where was she? The man who had told him to sleep also stated that if she was herded with him she would be here also. He would see her before it was over, when they went for testing.
He had to come up with a plan. Sleep was the last thing he would get while he was here.
∞
Superior was alone in his quarters. He was intellectually aware of what had taken place, generally anyway. Everyone who was on the ship was trapped on the ship. They could not figure out how to reverse the problem, or even what the nature of the problem was. The troops on Earth were continuing to herd, as far as he knew, and they would likely continue to do so until everyone was herded or they collapsed from exhaustion.
It really didn’t matter at this point. He was sure that, whatever they had done to take down the ship’s system was not the only measure they had taken. These beings were more than he had bargained for. Who knows what else they had put together as part of their scheme?
He had his minions working non-stop to try and fix the issues they had encountered, but it simply wasn’t working. They could detect nothing amiss. Everything seemed to be working fine, but nothing was working at all.
Superior laughed bitterly. The end result would be bad for the Oppressors. Very bad.
He would almost bet his life they had military personnel in hiding, and that they were advancing as he paced. They would eliminate his armies quickly and easily. His armies were on foot, with only a single weapon apiece in their possession. These cockroaches had large machines which they could climb inside of and dri
ve upon the surface of the ground, and they were made of a very strong material. They could drive right over the top of his men, and they knew it.
Superior was mad. He always had been, since his body was still tiny. He knew it, and he took great pride in the fact. He could live with being a genocidal madman.
What he couldn’t live with was wounded pride.
He took his weapon from his thigh, pointed it at his head, and laughing, blew it completely off his body, taking part of his shoulders with it.
His body fell lifeless to the floor, just like the bodies of countless underlings who had served him and died at his hand.
∞
General Fabriz had executed the orders given to him by the President perfectly.
Troops, both infantry and airmen, had been released on the Oppressors at 1000 hours exactly.
The warring had begun, and as far as he could tell, the humans were winning.
∞
Kamryn, Maddie, and six other women who were being housed in Kamryn’s cell were led out for testing. Maybe she would see Josh! As they were led down the cold, bare halls she kept her eyes peeled. After five minutes of walking they reached a room. The door was opened and they were ushered inside.
“Find a place to sit,” said an Oppressor at the front of the room rudely.
Kamryn sat at a schoolroom desk which had papers on top. A sharpened pencil sat atop the papers. She looked at the Oppressor, who was writing on a clipboard of some kind. She didn’t even have to think; the pencil went into the waistband of her pants without a second thought.
“Why aren’t you testing?” The question was directed at her. She looked around and saw the others had begun to write on their papers. They looked at her out of the corner of their eyes, scared of being reprimanded themselves.
“I don’t have a pencil,” she replied timidly.
This seemed to infuriate the Oppressor. “Learn to solve problems! Get one from an empty desk, fool!
She jumped up and grabbed the pencil from the desk next to hers, then she sat and began to take the test that sat before her, a smile on her face.
Josh sat at the grimy, old-fashioned desk pretending to do their bidding, but he was really drawing stick figures. Stick figures of humans murdering other stick figures which were obviously Oppressors. The thought satisfied him deeply.
He knew what he would do. He had a plan, and it would be simple to carry out. He only needed to be in the front of the line when they led them back to their cell.
It was worth risking dying for Kamryn.
∞
The world outside of the facilities had nearly fallen completely apart, but the Oppressors were like robots in carrying out Superior’s commands, and why not? They were terrified of him, and they had no idea he had taken his own life.
They had gotten no word to discontinue the herding or the testing, so they trudged away, but the fact was that the armies of this world were attacking them full force. They would shoot their weapons and take out the Earth soldiers, all the while continuing to drag people to the transport vehicles. Shouldn’t Superior have come to their aid by now?
Trudge was one of the Oppressor soldiers toiling away at carrying out his herding orders. He was a good military man, and loyal to the army and the Leader. He had a female Earth being slung over his shoulder. He had knocked her out cold with a single punch to the head, and on the way to the transport vehicle he had managed to kill several Earth soldiers. He was very proud of himself, and smug, but fighting was going on all around him; they were losing control, and it looked like all his work would be for naught.
He heard a terrible noise, metallic and ripping in nature. It came from overhead. He looked up just in time to see an Earth airship use its weapons on the Oppressor ship, tearing a massive hole in its hull. Flames and sparks shot out of the massive vessel, and a large chunk of its hull fell heavily to the ground. It was as big as a house, and it landed directly on Trudge and several other Oppressors and Earthlings alike, killing everyone it landed on. He didn’t even have time to wonder what was happening.
The same thing was taking place all over the world.
∞
Kamryn and the other women were being escorted back to their cell to have ‘sustenance’, as the Oppressors called it. She had taken the front of the line, and as they walked she took note of the keys and the weapon at the Oppressor’s side.
She closed the distance between herself and the inhuman being before her rapidly, not giving herself time to think or be afraid. As she picked up her pace she took the sharpened pencil from the waistband of her dirty jeans, and as the gap between them closed she lifted the makeshift weapon over her head. With all her might she plunged it between his shoulder blades and slightly to the left of his spine. It entered his body like a hot knife in butter.
She pulled back and quickly repeated her violent act. The Oppressor fell to his knees, his head back, his mouth open in agony. When he fell forward to his face she stabbed him again and again, until finally she was sure he was dead.
She took the keys from his belt and, turning to the other women, said simply, “Follow me, quick!
They ran as fast as they could, looking for any door that would lead them out of the horrid facility.
∞
At the exact same time that Kamryn was pulling the pencil from her jeans Josh himself was closing his own gap. He was tightening the space between the Oppressor leading the men to their cells, but he didn’t have a pencil. He had the strength of a male with a lot of brains, and in a flash he reached forward and tore the weapon from the thigh of the alien being leading the line.
Josh had no idea how to work the thing, so he simply aimed and pressed the only button he could see. It worked like a charm. The weapon emitted a line of light from a ball of fire at its muzzle, and it succeeded in literally ripping the being in two. The Oppressor fell directly to the floor, dead.
Josh looked at the weapon in his hand, observing the string of smoke which came from what he could only assume was a barrel. “Damn…” was the only thing he could think of to say. He turned to the others. “If you want out as bad as I do, I’d take your chance now, guys.”
He turned and took off running to find Kamryn.
∞
The facility was a maze of insane twists and turns which seemed to lead only to the metal doors of the cells. Kamryn could find no clearly marked exit, and she was beginning to panic; so were the women behind her. Suddenly, she heard her name.
“Kamryn! Kamryn! Are you in there?” Her eyes lit up. “Josh?” She screamed it as loud as she could. “Josh!”
They both continued yelling each other’s names, getting closer and closer, until Kam turned a corner and plowed directly into him. “Kamryn!” He took her in his arms and squeezed her tightly to him. He then released her, saying, “We have to get out of here now!” He took her hand and led her and the other women down a long hallway.
Suddenly, in a hallway to their right, an Oppressor appeared standing only about twenty yards away. “Stop! Where is your Director? You must return to your quarters, humans!” He began to make his way to them quickly.
“Run!” The group of women, led by Josh, continued their original course. They turned right, then left, then left again.
“Do you know where we are going, Josh?” Kamryn was beginning to get a bit desperate.
He nodded at her. “I do. I was awake when they brought me.”
The turned another three times, and then right in front of them, like magic, was an open door. Right outside of it there were a number of small ships. There were also a number of kicking, fighting humans struggling against the Oppressors who tried to maintain their arrest.
The group ran out the door and stopped dead in their tracks. Josh was staring, open-mouthed, at the sky above.
The Oppressors’ ship was breaking apart, massive chunks of it falling from the sky and hitting the Earth in random places all around.
Surrounded by Oppressors clo
sing in fast “We have to take a ship, or we are all going to die.” Josh began to run for the closest small craft. It was running, and appeared to be lighting up. The entrance was open, but it was beginning to close. Kamryn took notice that all the small ships were full and preparing to take off. “Get in. Everyone, IN!”
They ran up the walk way and into the ship. The last two women, who had been lagging behind slightly, did not make it, however. When Kamryn got on board she turned to take their hands and help them, but they were both crushed by a piece of the burning Oppressor ship.
The door of the transport craft seal shut with a loud ‘SUCK’. It was airtight.
It lifted directly off the ground and began to vibrate wildly. Kamryn looked around. There were approximately twenty people aboard with her and Josh, and as the craft headed into space she turned to him and asked, “Where are we going, Josh?”
A voice from the back of the craft answered her question.
“Our new home.”
Epilogue
General Fabriz and President Mason Observed the rubble and destruction all around them. Everything was flaming, smoke, and ashes. Every now and then a hand would wave from the piles of metal and debris, and another person would be saved.
Most of the Earth was in the same state, The death toll from the destruction was inconceivable. Humans had a lot of work ahead of them.
Years’ and years’ worth.
The earth was burning and smoking. The bodies of humans and oppressors alike were littering the entire landscape.
∞
The mini-craft flew far above the earth, far out of its atmosphere. It continued to distance itself from the smoking planet and its mangled inhabitants. Josh wondered how it flew. There were no Oppressors aboard.
Everyone was asleep, including Kamryn. There had been blankets at each seat, and he had found more in a storage space on one wall. He covered Kamryn and the extra women with them, and went to explore.
