by C. R Corbin
And then he is flung out into the desert.
He rolled away from the front of the beast and ended up on the sand as the beast digs into the ground. He listens intently and feels the vibrations of the grounds to tell where the beast would surface once again.
Luckily, Nakiel had something for this.
He grabs a small bomb in his pocket and holds it carefully, waiting for the beast to assault him once again. It digs through the surface and presses up against him, its mouth opening before he slams his hand into its open maw. He runs his claws through the soft tissue and digs it out before the bomb explodes. And it does, causing a massive mess of flesh to fling out onto the desert.
He rolls away just in time to dodge most of it, the sand coats his white hair and he looks up to see Heather running up to him, her family following closely behind. She pats him down, flinging the sand off of his body as she examines him for any injuries.
"I'm fine teami." Nakiel states with a reassuring pat on her shoulder, using a Verotan term of endearment, and she nods, her caring manner quickly being replaced with wonderment.
The family had never been out this far into the desert, there was nothing around them for miles and the sun was beating down on them with all of its might. In Heather's contact book she understood that the coordinates of their nearest contact was somewhere along the mountains that they were currently near. They knew this from the handheld device that she had on her. All humans had one in case they got lost in the desert and needed to find civilization, it was actually a protection that was negotiated and fulfilled by the AI in order to grant some level of protection to the workers.
But the trouble was that they still had a substantial distance to travel. About a couple of days of walking at least and along that journey they could easily be accosted by bandits or worse.
"We better get moving if we want any chance of making it there." Sophia remarked and beckoned the group along.
She was right, the sun would cook them all before they made any progress if they weren't careful.
Nakiel has his bow at the ready considering the fact that they were much more likely to encounter an enemy at a distance out here. Heather merely stayed near her father and tried to get him to keep walking despite the growing weakness that was infecting the old man. It was clear that all of this pressure had taken a toll, Nakiel didn't want to think of it considering what it would do to his mate so he focused on his goal.
The first day of their journey was rather uneventful for that very reason.
Heather spent the time talking to Nakiel while Sophia and her father merely kept silent, only occasionally speaking to remark on the environment. Nakiel quite enjoyed the conversation, his ears occasionally picked up the sounds of motors in the distance but they disappeared without fail every time thus far.
"So what is it like? This world of yours? Not a desert is it?" Heather asks.
"Not at all. It's a forest world with plenty of water, it often rains actually. There are several different climates but I don't think that it ever gets as dry as here. It served as an outpost planet for our people since the first was destroyed quite a while ago. I think that you and your family will like it."
Sophia closes her eyes and tries to think of what it was like back then, when there was still some semblance of freedom living with her mother. Her mother and her rebel friends lived in caravans and during that period of time she experienced the greatest degree of freedom that she ever had. She was able to see much of what Heather was seeing now. The infinite blue sky and the waves of sand, it was charming and even depressing sometimes but it was freedom.
What they lived under was a far cry from all of that. Mines and industrial buildings covered in rust that infected the soul with gloom.
And from the way that this man was describing his planet it was nothing like this. There was life there, tangible life that you could reach out and touch and embrace. Here there was just the sands and the heat, there was rarely any life besides those giant burrowing worms or the occasional birds. The bandits....well in her mind they didn't really count, those vermin were hard to consider living things in her opinion, after she had seen what they had done. And she feared that they would meet them soon if they kept on walking, a fear that would come true.......
And it would have resounding consequences.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was night-time, the group had agreed to huddle behind a boulder to rest. Heather chose a spot near Nakiel and leaned up against the same boulder. He was insistent that she use his cloak as a blanket, it got quite cold out here at night after all.
"Are you okay?" he asks her and she nods.
"You?"
"I'll be fine."
The pair had learned much about one another in the last few days. Heather had told him stories about her youth and what she had done in her short life, all the crazy "adventures" that she had in that town. It wasn't much but she wasn't exactly someone that had all of these exciting stories to tell. Nakiel listened and answered any questions that she might have had. He was rather fortunate due to the fact that she was a rather enthusiastic talker, that meant that he didn't have to say much to her. He could listen which he usually preferred to do when conversing with others.
As much as he hated to say it, he did not have the charisma of some of his other brothers. He still cherished this woman, however, and would do everything in his power to see that she would survive and be his.
She leans her head against the sandy boulder and looks up at the stars. The entire world was painted in this shade of blue that almost made it seem like they were underwater. "I used to look up at the stars and wonder if there was anyone coming to save us from all of this. I swear that my mom used to tell me all of these crazy stories about the world and about heroes that came to save the day. I believed them...I always believed them, even now I believe them." Heather remarks. "And do you think I am one of those heroes?" Nakiel asks. "Possibly, we will have to see won't we?"
Nakiel sniffs the night air and his ears twitch before he begins his next question, "You really do value your mother don't you. What kind of woman was she?"
Heather's face instantly lights up and she reminisces on the kind of person her mother was. A strong and independent fighter that only settled down when it was clear that she would have to. Heather had fond memories of her conveying the lessons that she had learned surviving as a young woman in the desert. Such a strong figure...that was wiped away by the systematic oppression that was brought down on them by the machines.
She really hated them for that above everything else.
Sophia and her father were fast asleep in another corner of the little burrow that they had found. The pair were simply laying on the sand which was soft enough to be considered a bed in some sense. Not that they had much choice in the matter at the moment actually. Nakiel shuts his eyes as he continues to speak of nonsensical things with his mate deep into the night when he hears it.
A loud rumbling.
It was at this point when he tried to deduce just what it was. Was it one of those worms from earlier? Was that it? It certainly could be with all of the noise and shaking but something told him that it wasn't quite that. For one, this noise was higher in pitch, he could even hear something that sounded like...music in the distance. The worm emitted a sound signal that was incredibly low in pitch, it could shake the ground with how much base it had. And this wasn't that, so just what was it? He prayed that it wouldn't be bandits. They had already finished running for the day and the humans were exhausted. He couldn't force them to flee so that would only mean that he would have to place them in one spot and protect them which was something that he wasn't entirely comfortable doing right now since there was no clear hiding spot besides this little burrow which didn't provide much in the way of protection.
So he hoped for the next best thing, that the bandits just wouldn't see them.
"Get down." He orders Heather who complies and hugs the roc
k as she lowers her head. He peers from behind the rock at the distant vehicles that were shining their floodlights onto the sands. His fingers tighten around his bow and he hopes that they would not come.
And then a light shines over in their direction.
He bows his head down and suddenly he hears the bandits grow a bit rowdier. They begin to call out and attract the bandits to the area. He curses and draws one of the small explosives from his belts before gazing at the rest of his group. The old man and Sophia had woken up at this point and were looking to him for guidance.
He was sure that he could win, he just wasn't entirely sure that he would be able to keep everyone in this party safe.
"The scanner is picking up something." Said a bandit.
Nakiel's stomach sunk even more when he realized that these weren't just ordinary bandits, these were the kind that hunted humans for pleasure. They didn't just pillage, they were wandering the sands to hunt down any human that they could find to sell back to the machines for money. He notches his arrow and looks over the cover before pulling the string back before firing off a single shot that strikes their floodlight.
"Go go!" he whispers to Heather and her family.
She looks at him in a confused manner, "Where?"
"Anywhere but here. Find a cave or some place to hide. You can't stay here." Nakiel says before he takes out one of the knives on his belt and hands it to her, "Use this only if you have to."
The humans begin to run along the side of the mountain while Nakiel draws out one of his explosives and tosses it in the general direction of the bandit vehicle. The plume of sand that follows is enough to obscure the view and in the darkness it seems to him that Heather and her family would be able to make an escape unnoticed while he tended to the bandits.
He draws back his arrow and prepares once again.
He fires off a single shot that strikes the hood of the car in front of him, it is currently speeding toward him with a caravan of many other vehicles alongside it. It was the main one however, so he saw fit to strike at it first due to its size and position at the center of the caravan. The vehicle that held the floodlight was disabled already so they would have a hard time spotting him.
Yet they could still blindly fire, that was always an option for the bandits.
He sees a rocket headed directly for him and jumps onto the ground and rolls away before it could strike the boulder that he was leaning up against. The rock explodes into a million pieces as he runs away, he manages to dodge most of the shrapnel although some of it does manage to cut his back, nothing that would disable him for long however.
And he draws his bow once more, taking aim at one of the other vehicles. He manages to strike it at its wheels which causes it to flip and roll in the sand wildly, causing a wreck that soon slows down the other vehicles riding alongside it.
He would have to flee regardless, the rest of the vehicles would only slow down for a moment to dodge the wrecked car and would catch up soon enough. He picked up Heather's scent and saw that she had managed to burrow her and her family in a small cavern along the edge of the cliff. It was tucked behind some rock so they should be fine, he thought.
"Nakiel, what's happening? You're hurt." Heather observes and he shakes his head.
"I will feel a lot better if you keep safe so stay there." He orders her.
Whilst attempting to find a hiding spot or vantage point that would enable him to hide from the approaching bandits he looks up to the rocks and scales up a small portion of the cliff face. He grips onto the rough terrain and pulls himself up before camouflaging himself alongside one of the bushes that cling to the side of the cliff. He was perched up on a thin piece of rock and readies his arrows as he sees the vehicles approaching. He made sure that the next one was explosive so that he could eliminate them effectively.
And soon the vehicles arrive.
If his intuition was correct based on what he had read, the devices that were used to track life forms primarily acted on a variety of signatures. Heartbeat, heat signatures, that sort of thing, in the desert at night they stood out rather explicitly due to this very reason. It was also the reason that he wanted Heather to shelter in a cavern that would provide more in the way of insulation, thus blurring her heat signature. The tiny boulders and mound of sand that they were hiding behind was not enough to obscure them so he hoped that this would suffice and it seemed like it did.
They were still picking up his signature however, but as they were approaching he began to take shots at them.
First came a volley of explosive arrows that caused most of the vehicles to lose control and spiral into these wrecks in the sands. That whittled down a great deal of their numbers but there were still the highly mobile bike riders that were able to avoid the projectiles. He had to use regular arrows on them and managed to take out a couple before another rocket caused him to abandon his perch and dive into the sands below.
Just as they were getting close.
By his estimate there were about 10 bandits left, he was certain that he could take them all in a hand to hand scenario but with how many firearms they had he was unsure if that was a wise decision considering his mate was still right here. She might be caught in the crossfire, she might get crushed by the rocks if these bandits should fire another missile at him.
And so he attempted to run off but was blocked off by the bandits who encircled him, their guns held high as they trapped him in a corner.
"Well well, I've never seen something like this before."
"Hey what the fuck is he?"
"What does it matter? He destroyed nearly half the team, we should fucking kill him."
"Nah if we turn this guy in there's a chance we could get paid a lot more."
The bandits continued to argue amongst one another and during that period Nakiel decided to act immediately. He drew several knives from his belt and tossed them all at the bandits which eliminated a great portion of them. The remaining portion began to fire at him but he was able to evade most of it. He leaps onto one for the riders and holds him against his chest as a human shield whilst confronting the last two.
"Drop it." Nakiel orders them, his voice a deep guttural growl while glaring at the remaining opponents in front of him.
One of them was holding that damned rocket launcher. Nakiel wasn't entirely sure that he was able to dodge this one considering the proximity but he had to bet it on his skills. The bandits gun was near his hand and if he acted fast enough he could shoot the two remaining humans who seemed to be silently debating on whether they should just shoot him with the rocket and kill their friend in the process or not.
And they chose the former.
The rocket speeds towards him and he rolls off to the side with the bandit at just the right time. He fires off several shots from his rifle at the two remaining bandits before cutting open the throat of the remainder but the true horror still awaits as he looks at where the missile had struck.
The cliff.
Right where Heather was hiding.
He sprints towards the rubble and hears screaming, he fears the worst but as he arrives he sees that his mate was unharmed, she was distraught over something else entirely.
Her father.
"He-hea.." he wheezed and coughed, there was some shrapnel in his stomach.
Nakiel kneels beside the man and places his hand on the bloody wound in order to stop the bleeding but it was clear that the man wasn't going to make it no matter how much effort they put into saving him. He was already weak from the entire journey and the destruction of his home so any attempt now would simply be palliative.
"Take care of them, ta-take..." He began to cough as he pointed to Nakiel who merely looked at him, his eyes widened and his hands shaking.
He had failed yet another person, despite all of his gifts.
Heather weeps over her father's body while Sophia merely watched, frozen in place due to the shock of it all. Perhaps that was an even wors
e reaction to perhaps the girl was expecting it on some level. After all her father couldn't continue onwards forever and this was a conclusion that was going to come eventually.
Nakiel just wished that the old man's death wasn't so violent, that the old man could have passed on in more peaceful circumstances.
He shuts his eyes and looks around to see if they were alone once again. There were no more beasts, no more men, just the sun peeking up from the horizon of sand to let them know that they were still alive, and that they were mortal.
CHAPTER NINE
"I..." Heather mutters while standing over the spot where her father was buried.
It was funny, he always did want to be buried somewhere in the desert, yet close to the mountain so that he could remain close to what he had done all his life. Her father had this weird obsession with poetic ends.
But he hadn't received his own.
A poetic end for him would have meant passing away far away from this place, far away from the mines, living an easy existence, a peaceful one. He would shut his eyes while breathing in air that wasn't contaminated with an excess amount of dust or pollutants. That was supposed to be how he would have left this world, how he would leave this universe.
And he hadn't received that, she was so angry that he didn't even get the chance to experience some of that peace that he had longed for, for as long as she could remember.
She didn't want to cry anymore, after all in some ways this should have been expected. Her father was getting older and the litany of health problems that he did weren't encouraging to say the least so to see him pass....it was almost a relief in some sense, in the sense that he wouldn't have to endure any more of this.
