by Zara Zenia
Draygus
Warriors of Orba
Zara Zenia
Illustrated by
Kasmit Covers
Edited by
Teresa Banschbach
Contents
Mailing List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Thank You
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Copyright © 2017 by Zara Zenia
All rights reserved.
Cover design © 2017 by Kasmit Covers
Edited by Teresa Banschbach
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
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Chapter 1
Draygus
I looked into the rearview mirror and saw the lights of the car behind me. They'd been shining into the back of the people carrier for the last hour, following me as I twisted and turned around the complex, human city. Of course, it didn't help that I was driving a human car, an outdated, primitive piece of junk that wouldn't pass for scrap back on Orba.
Pushing my foot onto the accelerator pedal, I breathed a sigh of frustration as the car refused to move at a speed I was expecting.
"Fuck!"
Slamming my hands on the steering wheel in a futile attempt at venting my anger, I looked up to see the lights behind me gaining on me. They were brighter now, shining in through the back window and illuminating the back seat and all the things on it; a pacifier, an assortment of infantile toys and some garbage strewn across the floor. The car obviously belonged to a family before I slid inside and sent it careering out into the night. I'd have felt bad for them if it wasn't for the fact it was such a piece of crap. Probably did them a favor.
Ahead of me, the stop light turned red, and with traffic coming from all sides, I had no choice but to screech to a halt.
"Shit."
Behind me, the lights increased to full beams of white light that bounced off the mirror and into my eyes. I squinted and rubbed at my face before peering into the rearview mirror again. Now I could see the faces of the people who had made it their job to trace my every move. To anybody else, they'd look like humans, ugly humans maybe, but humans nonetheless. They had adopted the caramel complexion of sun-drenched men. They had coiffed brown hair that lay smooth and shiny across their scalps and their clothing covered them impeccably. The driver pulled at his starched collar and gave me a subtle nod. Only I could see the Orban in his eyes, the cunning, mischievous glint and the radiance that shone from them.
"Palzu," I whispered to myself as I looked back up at the stoplight.
These tricolored lights had been the bane of my life since I first began to drive on Earth. Back home, we didn't need such things. All the cars were driverless, rich in a multitude of sensory devices that made it impossible to crash. Here on Earth, humans would most likely regard such technology as witchcraft. I could imagine them lining up to see the invincible cars that required no manual brakes, no stoplights, or seat belts. I laughed and shook my head. Humans... they were so easily impressed.
The stop light turned green and I sped away, pushing the car into the abyss of the night as the city began to fall away from me. Along the sides of the road, trees began to appear like rustling ghosts in the dark, whispering as their leaves shimmered in the breeze. Vegetation was a rare occurrence on Orba, something seldom seen but always desired. For a second, I slowed down to look closer at the billowing branches as they reached out across the road; green, ethereal tendrils that tickled the sides of the car as I passed.
Breathing in the scent of the earth, I closed my eyes for a second and savored the essence of nature; a world without humans. It has been said that trees were on Earth long before humans were and that they will be here long after the people have perished. Trees are strong yet fragile and beautiful despite their unwavering ability to thrive in the dirt. Trees are a life-giving mystery, creatures that humans want to destroy as much as they need. They provide the oxygen they require to breathe but are often slaughtered for the most mundane of reasons. Trees, why couldn't humans be as simple and valuable as trees?
Glancing back in the rearview mirror, I see Palzu's men grinning at me, mocking me. They think I'm in their trap; they assume they have caught me once and for all. What they don't know is that I brought them out here. It was only a matter of time until they got so close to me, but do they really think it's because of my own stupidity? No, I brought them here of my own will, to lure them.
I see them talking to one another before speaking into their sleeves as they transmit messages back to Palzu's team. Meanwhile, I look ahead and see no cars in sight. The moon hangs low and heavy in the black sky that's peppered with a million glittering stars. I remembered my time on the moon fondly. Working in special ops back on Orba, meant I could be deployed anywhere at the last minute and the moon was the location of my last official trip before I fled to Earth. I once stumbled across a human child's story book which spoke of the moon being crafted from hollowed out cheese and that mice resided there. There had not been an instance in my life when I laughed more. The moon made of cheese... I found myself laughing at the thought once again as I stomped on the accelerator and picked up speed along the highway.
Now the trees began to fall away and give way to sand, great big dunes of dust and dirt that covered the landscape. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this Earthen desert was Mars. It had the same consistency of air, the same arid landscape that tickled your throat and made you cough.
Behind me, Palzu's men picked up their pace until they were close to the rear of my car, their faces unwaveringly smug and satisfied.
"Bastards. Stupid bastards," I said to myself.
They began to laugh. I imagined them sharing a joke at my expense and it burned a hole in my chest. Anger never came that easily to me. I'd like to think I was calm and collected at all times, able to navigate the most complex of challenges with a steady mind. But these guys sent a wave of fire through me. I don't know if it was the look on their faces, the fact that they'd been hounding me for weeks, or that they worked for Palzu. I wanted to crush them and send their battered corpses back to Orba where Palzu could weep over them and curse the loss of his special agents.
On the horizon, I could see the red, blinking lights of the facility. That's where I needed to be, but first I needed to get rid of these assholes. Ins
tinctively, I looked up to the stars to see if Orba was visible. For a fleeting moment, I was certain I spotted it glistening amidst the array of planets, but after another glance at the car behind me, it was lost. I needed an idea, a spark of inspiration.
"Come on, Dray. Think, just think. You've done this a hundred times already. You can do it again. Get rid of them, just cut them loose!"
Behind me, the desert spread out toward the city, while in front, the sand seemed to fill an infinite space in which I could lose these special agent suckers or be lost myself. Usually, an ambush would be a perfect scenario, but out here there was too much space and not enough time to think.
The red lights loomed up fast. I'd be there in only a few minutes and my plan would be foiled. I could see the barbed wire fencing and the metallic shine of the security cameras. I could see the buildings begin to take shape from the shadows and the lit-up windows beckoning me ever closer.
"Shit..."
The agents were approaching at a greater speed. For a moment, I imagined their breaths steaming on the back of my neck and the stench of their eager, Orban sweat twitching at my nostrils. Part of me wished they'd fall victim to a freak accident; a meteor landing on their car, a wild animal leaping out into the road, or a moment of lapsed concentration sending their vehicle plunging into a nearby trench. But I knew I wasn't to be so lucky. I needed to get rid of them fast and I needed to do it myself.
"Think, Draygus. Remember you've lived this moment a thousand times already. Remember the great war and all the times you dragged yourself away from danger at a hair's breadth," I thought to myself.
I closed my eyes for a second and let the car glide away along the straight stretch of road. An image flashed in my head, the vision of a desert not too different from this one. I had been a young man in the Orban infantry then, sent on an emergency reconnaissance mission when we found ourselves being tailed by enemy forces. The vividness of the fear in my heart returned, the endless thumping in my chest and the sound of the blood rushing in my ears. I was there once again with the gut-sucking terror that comes from being prey in the wilderness.
The enemy forces were strong and insidious and wanted me dead, but unlike the men behind me, they were barbarians. Palzu's men, on the other hands, were weak in comparison, little more than egocentric worms in suits. Still, I had defeated those men then and I was going to defeat these bastards now.
"Remember, Dray. Just do it again. You know what to do."
I opened my eyes and saw the facility approaching fast and the lights speeding up behind me. There was no time for a fight. The precious seconds I had left were to be used wisely, and I couldn't expend useful energy on the primordial act of battering our fists against one another. I had to be fast and I had to be discerning. Scanning my eyes over the landscape, I tried to gauge my options. Then I saw my chance.
The single cluster of shrubs clumped at the side of the road. It was so small it was inconspicuous, yet large enough to shroud a humble people carrier. Slamming on the brakes, I veered off and spun three hundred and sixty degrees in an effort to kick up as much dust as possible. Once the road was covered in a cloud of dirt, I darted behind the bushes. It was a somewhat childish attempt at feigning concealment but it would work, if only for a while.
The men behind me hit the brakes hard and found themselves amidst the cloud. I could hear them coughing as the sand drifted in through their open windows. There was the sound of their doors opening as they jumped out and heaved up sand covered saliva and mucus onto the road.
"That son of a bitch!" I heard one of them gasp as he spluttered. "Where the fuck did he go?"
"I dunno! I can't see a thing!"
Lying low behind the shrubs, I eased myself out of the car and making sure to not make a sound, I walked twenty paces out into the desert, paying careful attention to the footprints I was leaving behind. Glancing back over my shoulder, I could see the cloud of dust begin to dissipate and the faint figures of Palzu's men began to come into focus. With only seconds to spare, I walked backward, making sure my feet fell into the position of the prints I'd left behind. Once back at the car, I crawled beneath the brambles and waited, holding my breath as a stray branch pricked through the back of my leather jacket.
"Hey! Where did he go?" I heard one of the men say as the air cleared.
"Shit! We lost him."
"Wait, what's that over there?"
Their feet crunched along the sand until they reached the car.
"That idiot thought he could hide behind this bush," one of them laughed.
Looking out from under the bushes, I could see their feet only inches away. Clapping a hand over my mouth, I made sure not to make a sound, not to breathe an iota of air. I made sure I didn't move a muscle.
"Hang on, are those footprints?"
"Wait..."
There was more crunching, the sound of them moving over to the back of the car as they began to trace my footsteps.
"He went that way!"
"Let's go!"
And their footsteps rushed away from me into the desert, the sound of their excited voices dissolving into the night.
"Morons," I said to myself with a smirk as I pulled myself free from the shrubbery.
Standing up, I could now see the facility in front of me. That's where the girl was, the little, sweet human that I'd been stalking for weeks. Now all I needed to do was find her.
Chapter 2
Anya
"Anya?"
"Yeah..."
I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a sip of coffee.
"Anya, you look like you need a break."
"I'm fine."
Susan swiveled in her seat to face me. Taking my wrist away from the keyboard, she turned me toward her.
"I mean it," she said. "You've been staring at the screen for almost fourteen hours.
"I'm fine," I repeated and turned back to the computer.
She sighed and slumped in her seat.
"What do you think this is anyway?"
"Who knows," I moaned and knuckled my watery eyes. "But I've never seen this activity before, not on this scale anyway."
For a moment, we both stared at our screens and watched the anomalous line of dots that were forming across the map.
"I just... I just... I have no idea what I'm looking at," I stuttered.
"Me neither."
After taking a deep breath, she slammed her laptop shut and turned off her desk lamp.
"We need to get outta here," she said and stood up.
"Yeah, better get home."
She pulled on her coat and slid her handbag up her arm.
"Coming?" she asked.
"Oh, er... where to?"
"Miranda and I are going to the Rhonda."
"What?" I gasp. "No way!"
"Yes, way!" she smiled and pulled out a pair of heels from her bag. "You should come!"
I shifted nervously in my seat and looked at my reflection in the blacked-out screen of my computer. Dark circles lurked beneath my eyes and my cheeks were pink and puffy. Picking up my icy soda can, I pressed it to my face to revive me.
"I can't," I said. "I really need to get home. Need to feed my cat."
Susan laughed and shook her head.
"You can't be serious. Your cat has been living without you all day. Another few hours won't hurt her. Don't they sleep for, like, twenty hours a day anyway?"
"Hmmmm...."
"So?" she dangled her heels in front of me.
"No," I answered solemnly. "I don't have anything to wear."
"Not a problem!" she smiled and pulled out the bottom drawer of her desk. "I always keep some weekend essentials at the office."
Running her perfectly manicured nails through her platinum hair, she began to pull out a sequence of garments that looked so small they could have almost been cheese wire.
"Whoa, I can't wear that!"
"Sure you can," she laughed and tossed me a skirt that could have been a belt.
"No," I said. "Just no."
"Jesus Christ, Anya! Have some fun will ya? It's Friday night. You can't just hang out with your cat and watch reruns of the Gilmore Girls."
My cheeks began to burn and I glanced away, looking back down to the shreds of fabric that hung from my fingers. I hadn't been invited out in months, couldn't remember the last time I'd been away from home at the weekend. I could feel her eyes on me, she was always trying to figure out what I was thinking, always trying to make me say yes to things that terrified me.
"Sorry, I can't," I huffed and pushed the clothes back into her hands.
She let out a long breath and sat back down in front of me.
"How long have we known each other?" she asked.
"I dunno," I shrugged. "A couple years, maybe."
"Four years," she said. "Four years we've been working together and you've never come out with any of us."
"That can't be true!" I protested.
"Yeah... It's true," she said with an emphatic nod. "Not once. You don't even come to the office parties."
"Hey! I came to the Christmas party last year," I said.
"That doesn't count. You only stayed for, like, ten minutes."
She thrust the skirt and blouse back into my arms and this time tumbled a pair of heels on top.
"Tell me, when was the last time you had some fun?" she asked.
I didn't answer.
The line to the club was long, but Miranda and Susan ignored it.
"This way!" Miranda called and gestured for us to skip the queue and head straight for the door.
People stared as we walked past, with groups of guys eyeing us up as they wondered who the girls in sequins were.
"I don't like this," I whispered in Susan's ear. "Everyone's looking at us."
"Enjoy it, honey," she answered. "You're not gonna be young forever."
