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Their plan of action, discussed hastily with the other four youngsters, was simpler than they thought once they removed every overcomplicated aspect of it. They - that was Addie with Brianne in tow - would approach the alien, they each would hit it hard with the rocks lying around them, and then Addie would whistle sharply, and the others would rush in with thick branches for all of them to hit the alien until it lies lifeless in the soil. They’d dig a hole in the ground and bury it...
“We must do this,” Taylor had stated. “If it sees us first, we’d have a hundred bio-scanners above us before we can even run a hundred yards from here... And Ma told me they’d kill us for running from the Habitat...”
As Addie and Brianne stare at the heaving back of the alien, they each glance at the other person. For several seconds they hesitate, then he nods, and he motions for Brianne to follow.
The alien is a horrid mass of muscles, slime, and the breath from its beak-like mouth makes both youngsters gag for the little fresh air that exists around them. When the alien moves, like it will turn around and see them, Addie raises his hand with the rock and as hard as he can he hits the creature. A moment later, another arm moves through the air and Brianne has copied Addie’s actions. Each individual pounds the creature several times, then Addie straightens and lets out a sharp whistle that to him sounds odd and distorted.
For several minutes, a panic courses through his mind, thinking none of the others in their small group might have heard him. He heaves as loudly now as the creature. The earlier heaves had seemed had almost resembled the cooing of one of the few remaining animals. They’ve turned to shrieks of pain that fade fast. They wounded it for sure. Glancing down and covering over his nose and mouth, Addie wonders how many more blows it will take to silence it...
The thuds coming from around Addie and Brianne make them each jump sideways.
Addie glances up and around them as the thuds keep coming. If the bio-scanners appeared right now, they wouldn’t live out the day. He feels like the boy in the movie fragment that they’d showed several summers earlier. But those boys were on a deserted island in the middle of an ocean. He’s a boy on a planet with no more oceans left...
The alien slowly loses its battle to make any sounds, and after just three minutes of them all hitting it with branches and rocks, it lies silently at their feet. Silenced. Lifeless. All six individuals are glancing in every direction now to determine whether any bio-scanner was on its way. They wait for a good fifteen minutes before moving.
~~~
TAYLOR PUSHES AGAINST the alien with a boot. It flops a bit, and the arm it had held against its head falls into the dust of the growing field. A moment later, the body oozes out a liquid that darkens the soil below their feet.
“Is that their blood?” Brianne asks.
“I guess so,” Sam answers quietly. “I guess we’re the first ones to see any of them bleed...”
“We need to dig a hole quickly before any bio-scanners come,” Joey hisses.
“There’s a dip in the ground near the boulder,” Kaylee suggests, pointing to their left, “so if we make that deeper we have an easier task to—” She doesn’t finish the comment because a sob escapes.
“Are you crying about killing one of them?” Taylor asks.
“NO,” Kaylee answers, “this just reminds me of seeing them taking away the parents of a friend, and the mother fell over and they hit her so often she never got up...”
“I think all of us have horror stories to share with whoever is inside that cave and waiting for us,” Addie grunts. “But we must hurry before either the workers come here, or the bio-scanners do one of their surveys.”
“I see none,” Kaylee grunts.
“It doesn’t mean there are none,” Addie says, “and you know they’re fast...”
Kaylee flashes an angry stare at him, then she sighs before saying, “I guess I should tell at some point, right?”
“Tell us what?” Taylor asks.
“Well, about what happened two months ago...” Kaylee says. “I told Addie a few days ago, just after we’d departed...” Taylor gives Addie a questioning stare, then notices his friend looks away. Something of what Kaylee had told him had left him feeling ashamed, or something darker was going on...
“Kaylee, is it related to this... killing?” Taylor asks sharply. “Tell me!”
She nods as an answer, looking down now. Taylor steps towards her, then he grabs her by the shoulders. “Tell me, Kay, WHAT HAPPENED?”
“You don’t need to shout at me. I was going to tell you...” Kaylee says sheepishly. “I lied when I said I had seen none of them before. I was... errr... I belonged to a... gang. That’s an Old Earth word for people who are rebels in a way. We got into trouble when we killed several of them. We, that’s Bree and I, are the only ones left. My Pa said they’d help get away easily. I’m worried as nothing has happened yet. I’m scared that they killed my Pa because of what I did...”
Taylor smirks for a moment, then glances at Addie. “Is that why you keep staring at the sky?” he asks. “Like you’re expecting trouble?”
“Hmm,” Addie grunts in response without answering the last question, and he’s now glaring at Kaylee. Almost like he’s angry with her instead of Taylor, like she had been the one to keep secrets from him.
“Okay, I guess we got to hurry,” Taylor says. “First bury it, then make this area look as much as possible as nothing happened here...”
“You’re not angry with me?” Kaylee whispers. She barely can look up at Taylor after his outburst.
“I guess not,” Taylor says. “Not after having to deal with them when they came for Addie’s grandpa. I remember what he said about how they regard us, Addie. He said we’re nothing more than slaves to them...”
Taylor nods at the mass of blubber that was one alien about ten minutes earlier. “I’ve had my own theories about them for a long time myself,” he grunts, “and one theory is that the people of Old Earth were to be wrapped up in problems of their own making to pay attention to the sky above them. We would have a normal life with jobs, schools, houses and more if they’d never come here. Someone made a mistake and ignored a warning signal, and we’re still paying the price for their mistake a hundred years later...”
“I guess you would have killed a few if you got a chance for it?” Sam asks.
“I didn’t kill any, but my Ma did,” Taylor answers. “She told me she was part of a group, she didn’t give it a name, and on the last night before we had to leave, she told me about when she was my age... I think the adults in the world have been working in secret in to make certain that their children - all of us - could get away from here. I believe they might work with the people in the cave to make this happen...”
“I wondered why I had to go to my dwelling on the last night of all nights,” Addie grunts, “and there I thought that you’d changed your mind about going until you woke me the next day.”
“I wanted to tell you, but I knew it was too dangerous,” Taylor says. “That’s why we went to the roof. I had hoped you would notice it by yourself.”
“I thought you wanted to observe the bio-scanners to grab one of them for some sort of prank,” Addie says, smirking somewhat. “Not even in my wildest dreams did I think we’d be going... away...”
“I wanted to do that as well,” Taylor says. “Ma told me to count up how often they’d appear so I could plan when we travel and when we hide...”
“It seems she thought of everything,” Addie says. “Let’s hope it was enough... Did she know of the alien too?”
“She didn’t,” Taylor says. “But she prepared me for it if we encountered one of them...”
~~~
SAM AND JOEY WALK BACK into the small hollow under the boulder the group had been using as a shelter to stay out of the harsh heat of a midday sun. They’d did this the more the breathable air had become stale. Both boys pant for a moment to breathe in the fresher air in its shade. Four pairs of eyes stare up...
“So is the path to the next valley clear?” Sam asks.
“We waited for as long as possible, be certain,” Addie says. “He wanted to wait another hour, but I pointed out that we had to reach the other end of the valley by the evening.”
“We’ll be at the last valley by tomorrow evening,” Taylor grunts. “That’s where the cave should be located.”
“Your Ma is certain of it?” Joey asks.
“Yes,” Taylor answers.
“We saw part of an old bridge that they’ve not yet terraformed,” Addie says. “If we walk over the beams lying flat against the ground, we may save ourselves a few hours. If I’m right, they’re hollow and we can travel for that time unseen by the bio-scanners.”
“I agree with his plan,” Taylor says. “Let’s sleep for two hours before we continue...”
~~~
THE SUN IS ORANGE-COLOURED and sinking towards the skyline by the time six individuals arrive at the old bridge they’d spotted earlier in the day. They all look up at the uneven heap of metal and stone. “I wonder what they make this of,” Kaylee says as she runs her hand over the stone. “The metal is like the stuff in my Habitat, but I’ve seen nothing like this stone.”
“I think they called this ‘concrete’ on Old Earth,” Taylor says. “I heard an elder describe it during one of their meetings. One meeting my mother let me attend in secret. I guess I’ll have to tell all of you what they discussed when we’re safe. She told me not to speak about any of it until we get inside the cave...”
“I guess so we cannot give away human secrets if one or more of us got caught by the aliens...” Sam grunts. “I can understand why—It’s dangerous until we’re in the cave...”
“A bunker,” Taylor whispers. “I called it a cave, but the proper name is a bunker. It’s underground and Ma claims they’re doing something inside there that will mean we can be away from the aliens for the rest of our lives...”
“That’s more information than I wanted to know if I could be told stuff now,” Joey says. “But maybe because of that, we should take turns to sleep. Three of us sleep first, then the other three...”
“Yes, that’s a good plan really,” Brianne says. “Who is first?”
“I’d say you, Sam and Addie sleep first...” Taylor suggests.
“I’m cool with that,” Addie says, then he walks to the back of the hollow where he flops down onto the dirt of the ground, then he glances around him for a moment, before lying down and closing his eyes.
“Hrmph,” Brianne says, “so I guess I’ll sleep too then...”
“I’m going for some sleep too if that’s okay with all of you...” Sam grunts.
Brianne lies down beside Addie, who glances over his shoulder at Brianne momentarily, then he shrugs a moment, and he closes his eyes once more. Sam lies down on Addie’s other side, but he gives the other two some space. Taylor stares at Addie and Brianne, and them lying so closely confirms what he’d been suspecting about them...
~~~
TAYLOR AND KAYLEE WATCH on silently as their two friends are sleeping with Brianne leaning her head on Addie’s shoulder. Taylor glances several times from the pair towards Kaylee, before glancing back towards the sleeping individuals. Suddenly he wishes that the world was different, and that everything was safe.
“What are you thinking about?” Kaylee asks softly.
“I’m wishing we had a better world than this,” Taylor says. “That life was much better and safer than what is out there...”