by A. L. Svartz
"Congratulations!" a Galactic Soldier behind the group of five said. "You five have been chosen to be spared and to continue the legacy of your people. Others from around this planet have also been chosen and are heading to United City as are we." The Galactic Soldier pressed a button on his wrist. When he did, the silver door in front of them opened up. A long hall of stairs that led up was revealed. "We may proceed." The group then followed the Galactic Solider up the stairs.
It seemed like hours had gone by. As the group finally approached the top of the stairs, they were halted. In front of them were two Galactic Soldiers. They stood in front of an old, wooden door.
"Are there anymore that are coming up?" one of the Galactic Soldiers asked.
"Negative, this is the last group," the other responded. He then turned to face the group. "Alright. Before you go out there, put on these mask to keep the sand from kicking up in your face."
He then handed the five the black masks, which they placed on. They were similar to the helmets that the Galactic Soldiers wore.
"As soon as we open this door, I want all of you to follow quickly behind us. Ready?"
To Kaj, it all went by in a flash. The door was kicked down. Sand filled the room they were in. They all charged though the open world. As they ran, Kaj glanced around only to see the brown sand being picked up in the air.
"Get in the shuttle!" the one Galactic Soldier yelled, trying to yell over the wind.
Up ahead was the shuttle - barely visible to the group, Kaj could make out a pointed front only. He then saw the bottom portion of the shuttle door open. They ran up the platform and into the shuttle. The platform quickly closed behind them.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE CRASH
The five of them took off the black masks that they were wearing. Inside were two long benches, each coming off from the sides of the shuttle.
"You five will stay in this room until we arrive at United City," one of the Galactic Soldiers said. The three then went through the door to the pilot’s room.
The group of five sat down with Kaj and the young female Daj on the right side, while the other three sat on the left.
"What's your name?" the young female Daj asked Kaj.
Kaj sat forward with his hands cupped together. "My name's Kaj," he answered as he sat back, becoming more relaxed.
She smiled at Kaj. "My name's Maj," she introduced herself. She noticed that Kaj wasn't really paying attention. He kept bouncing his left leg. Maj gently placed her hand on his knee. "It's ok. I'm nervous also."
Kaj then smiled back at her. "I'm ... just … scared," he said slowly. "I don't know what it's like out there."
"It's ok. My parents always said, if you're together, you'll be safe." There was a long pause before another spoke. "So, how'd you convince your parents to allow you to leave?"
Kaj sat there for a minute in deep thought. He knew it wasn't her fault for mentioning his parents. She didn't know. This time he held strong, clearing his throat. "Uh, my parents are ... gone," he said. It was more painful to say than what he thought. He shut his eyes.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she said, putting her hand up to her mouth. She had a shocked expressed stained on her face.
"It's ok," Kaj responded, opening his eyes again. "You didn't know. My uncle was actually the one that made me go. He knew that I didn't deserve to die along with this planet."
"I begged my parents to allow me to go," Maj said. "I told them that I would make our family name famous for me continuing the legacy of the Daj. I mean, we are the only planet that our species is on."
As Maj was about to say something else, the engine turned on, cutting her voice off. The whole shuttle shook. Kaj looked out the window behind him. A huge white wing came out the side of the shuttle. Before they knew it, the shuttle was on its way to United City.
Several hours passed. Everybody on board was asleep except for the pilots, Kaj, and Maj. As hard as he tried to stay awake, Kaj slowly drifted off to sleep.
Kaj suddenly woke, but to his surprise, the shuttle was empty. Maj and the others were gone. Standing up, Kaj looked out the window, seeing that the shuttle was still moving. He then headed into the pilot's room, empty. Who was driving the shuttle? he thought.
Kaj watched as the shuttle's speed increased drastically. In front of the shuttle a large hole was present. Kaj sat in the pilot's seat, pressing random buttons and pulling on levers. None of that seemed to have helped.
Racing off into the hole the shuttle went. Kaj watched in horror as everything turned dark. As the shuttle neared the bottom, Kaj knew that he wouldn't feel a thing. The shuttle was feet away from the bottom. Kaj shut his eyes. As it was just about to make impact, Kaj found himself in a foreign area. He opened his eyes.
Kaj was sitting on a bench outside, but not in the desert terrain that he was used to. Tall, green trees towered over Kaj. He stood up from the bench, looking up at the beautiful trees as the wind shuffled their leaves. Not knowing he was barefoot, Kaj stepped onto the soft grass which tickled his feet. He looked around to see if anybody else was present.
"Hello," he said, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Anybody here?" He walked around a little bit more, trying to see if he was near a house or structure. It was as if his whole planet suddenly gained new life, turning its deserts into green lands.
"Hello there son," a deep voice from behind Kaj blurted out. He quickly spun himself around, staring at two shadowy figures. They both walked simultaneously together towards him. The dark shadow that fell over the both of them slowly disappeared.
The two adult Daj stood in front of Kaj, one male and one female. They were both wearing long white robes. The male Daj had short black hair while the female had long blonde hair.
"We got worried you were lost," the male Daj said to Kaj. "Come, we were just heading home." The two Daj approached Kaj, each grabbing his arm. They all walked towards their home together, with Kaj being smothered in the middle.
Kaj struggled to get free of their grasp, but couldn't. He wiggled and squirmed, dragging his feet on the ground to slow them down.
"Ahh, here we are," the male Daj said as they both stopped in front of a small cottage. With a straw roof and thick bark for the walls, they proceeded to go inside. "Wait a second champ. You stay out here. We'll be right back." The two Daj released Kaj as they headed inside the cottage.
"What's going on?" Kaj asked himself. He then found it strange as his voice didn't sound like his own. "What the ..." Kaj ran over to a puddle of water. Expecting to see his normal teenage self, he saw a very young version of himself. He moved his hands around, touching his face to make sure that it was him he was staring at in the puddle of water. "I don't understand."
Kaj looked around. The area he was in seemed very familiar to him, he just didn't remember why. He walked around the cottage, inspecting the outside.
"Why does this seem so familiar?"
As he walked around back to the front of the cottage, the beautiful blue sky that stood above him started to turn red, like blood. The tall green trees suddenly shrunk down and browned, the leaves shriveling up. A gust of wind blew past Kaj, messing his hair. Kaj swooped his hair down fixing it.
"Are you ok son," two voices simultaneously said. Kaj lifted his head back up, facing two skeletal versions of the Daj he just met. "We love you Kaj," they both said again, reaching their arms out at Kaj.
As frightened as Kaj was, he awoke from the nightmare. He looked around to see that everybody was sound asleep. After witnessing his nightmare, Kaj didn't want to go back to sleep.
Maj woke up from her slumber a few minutes after Kaj did. She slowly moved closer to Kaj, without him noticing. "You ok Kaj?" she asked. Kaj was reading some strange book that he secretly snagged from his uncle's shelf before he left. He quickly put it in his sac.
He looked up at her and noticed she was closer than before. "Yeah," he responded. "I've just been thinking. Like ... what's going to happen after we get on the ship and
leave? Where are we going to go? It's just so much to take in. We are leaving our home and venturing off to another world, completely strange to us. Don't you think that's scary?"
Maj interrupted Kaj by kissing him on the mouth. She put her hand on top of his hand that was resting on the bench. "I like you Kaj," Maj whispered to him, trying not to disturb the others.
Kaj looked at her in shock. He quickly took in what had just happened. He leaned forward and hugged her.
As the two were hugging, something went wrong. A long screeching sound could be heard from outside the shuttle. The two, still hugging, looked out the window only to see the sand still in the air. A loud bang came from the top of the shuttle. Then, the cone of the shuttle containing the pilot’s room quickly detached from the rest of the shuttle. The part of the shuttle the Daj were in quickly stopped moving. It started to flip up. The force of the shuttle being tossed about sent Kaj out the window and on to the sandy floor. He tumbled around on the ground, but quickly looked back up to see where the shuttle went. The end part of the shuttle flipped up and landed onto the cone of the shuttle. Kaj watching as fire and parts of the shuttle flew off. He covered his ears as the sound of the explosion was excruciatingly loud.
"Nooooo!” Kaj yelled as he started running away from the explosion site. The wind picked up even more. Parts of the shuttle fell all around him. As he was running, he somehow tripped. Laying there on the floor, one of the wings to the shuttle landed right in front of him.
The loud screeching was heard again. Kaj looked up. He couldn't believe what he saw. Two large creatures were moving through the sand. Kaj couldn't make out much. He did however notice six white, glowing eyes on each creature. They must've stood at least sixty feet tall. Kaj watched in shock and amazement as the creatures walked around the wrecked ship.
"It can't be," he whispered to himself.
The creatures started searching through the wreckage. Parts once again flew through the air. Kaj crawled towards the end of the wing. He peered around. A thick, long tail was visible. He quickly looked away.
"What … ugh .... am I going ... ugh ... to do?" Kaj said as he struggled to catch his breath. He then peered around the corner again. The creatures were gone. Kaj then scurried across the disaster zone, in the opposite direction the creatures were going, and over to what was left of the shuttle.
Flames snapped out around the shuttle. Kaj tried to look in to see if anyone was in there, but he couldn't tell. It was to badly wrecked. The warm flames were starting to irritate Kaj's skin. Nobody could have survived this, Kaj thought.
The loud screeching filled his ears again. He looked around, trying to spot the terrifying creatures. Kaj had no better idea than to flee the wreckage scene. Darting across the disaster zone, sand beating at his face, he went out into the vast wasteland.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE GUARDIAN
It seemed as though hours passed by since Kaj left the wreckage scene. Every so often he'd look back to check to see if anyone from the scene was alive and following him. But to his disappointment, there wasn't. He was all alone.
In the distance, Kaj could hear a faint buzzing sound that began to grow louder. He looked around to only see the sand flying around. "What is that?" Kaj whispered to himself. A distant triangular-shaped object was approaching him. "Wait, I know what that is!" The object was getting closer. Kaj backed out of the way a little. He started waving his arms around as if he were trying to flag the object down. "It is! It's a shuttle! Hey, hey!"
The shuttle flew right by Kaj - the speed it was going knocked him down, covering his body in sand. He spit out sand that found its way into his mouth. Getting up, he again waved his arms around as he yelled, hoping they'd turn around and pick him up. "Hey, hey! Come back!" It was no use. The shuttle was long gone.
As he wandered through the wasteland, Kaj's thoughts were soon getting to him. He kept thinking about how he would never get out of the desert, and just keep circling around it. He'd end up like every other Daj that would try to be free but fail in the end.
The idea of suicide came to his head a few times. It'd be quick, a voice in his head echoed every time he thought of the subject. Even though it sounded like an easy way out, he knew he had to fulfill his duty and continue the legacy of his people. He knew that his uncle would be disappointed in him if he just gave up halfway through, though the thought of seeing his parents again made him second guess every time.
An hour or so had passed by. Kaj's stomach growled. He grabbed his stomach and felt it grumble, trying to remember the last time he ate. Kaj slid off his backpack and unzipped it. He pulled out a few pieces of squished bread wrapped in brown paper. Forcefully, he devoured both pieces in seconds.
"Ah," Kaj sighed. He dropped onto the sandy floor, lying on his side. The rest that Kaj needed for his journey slipped off his schedule. As his eyelids grew closer together, Kaj spotted something.
"What the ..." Kaj said as he sat up. He slipped back on his backpack as he noticed that whatever was out there was heading towards him. As the creature headed towards Kaj, he made a dash in the other direction. He raced across the terrain, faster than he ever thought he could run. One bad step he took sent everything from his unzipped backpack flying out. He took a look back, but still kept running, ignoring what had just happened.
Up ahead Kaj could see a new biome. Tall, lively trees stood out in the distance. A large smile grew on Kaj's face. He knew he must be close. Kaj glanced back again to see the creature still chasing him.
The creature then let out a roar. Kaj jumped a little by the sound of the hungry beast, but continued until he reached the biome.
Kaj was stunned by the sudden forest that stood before him. He ran into the forest, crushing leaves and darting by trees. Glancing over the area, Kaj was in awe as he had never seen anything like it before.
He could hear behind him the creature rushing across the forest floor.
As Kaj was running, he had one idea pop into his head. Up ahead he could see a tall, thick tree. When he made it up to the tree, he sharply turned behind and started to climb. His long fingers helped him grab on around the trunk. Looking down as he climbed up, Kaj saw the creature race past his hiding spot. He climbed up to a long branch on the tree.
"Thank goodness," Kaj said, panting heavily. He sat on the branch, his feet dangling down. As he took a few minutes to rest, he looked around at the beautiful scenery. Large glowing ovals attached themselves all around the bottom of the trees. Tall trees filled the forest with green vines hanging down. As he looked up into the sky, the top of the forest was covered in a net of leaves.
Kaj sat up in the tree for a couple of minutes, gathering his thoughts. Taking in what had just happened. The sudden withdrawal of his home, his uncle, and the travelers was really getting to him. He sat forward with his hands cupped in front of him. Kaj felt the need to cry but held it back, knowing that he must stay positive if he wanted to get off this planet.
"Ok, I must be getting close." Kaj stood up on the branch. As he got up, his foot slipped and he was sent down into a bush. He fumbled around until he could pop his head out. When he did, another face was staring directly at him. The very creature that was chasing him before was inches away.
The creature's wide eyes were locked with Kaj's. They both sat there, motionless. The creature’s short ears kept shifting directions, catching all the sounds that were in the forest. He noticed the bushy black hairs that were at the tips of its ears, with the same type of fur going from the back of its head and up to its tail. The fur was a beige color, almost the same color as Kaj's skin.
They both continued to stare each other down, until Kaj made the daring decision to flee. He dashed into the deep forest again with the creature quickly following after. Kaj glanced behind him to check to see how close the creature was. When he did, his foot caught underneath a root, sending him rolling out onto a flat, grassy terrain. He laid there on his stomach as he watched the creature leap over him and then fa
ce him down when it landed. Kaj knew that he was caught … closing his eyes … knowing that he couldn't do more. As he waited for the creature to attack him, something stopped it.
