Part One: The Food Court
“Canna please stay behind me, don’t go running off.” Rune whispered, trying his damnedest not to show his anxiety to his sister. He gripped his battle-axe in one hand and the broken door of the mall with the other. “Pretend to be a fairy ok? Light and quiet as a fairy, just as mom always said.” Canna nodded, a giant cheeky grin rising on her flat face, “Sir, yes sir!”
With another deep breath Rune pulled open the door as slowly as possible to stop it from creaking and stepped inside. He looked around the lobby to check for anybody or anything before leading Canna up the broken set of escalators. Rune hadn’t felt this nervous in a while. He went over the plan in his head again and again. Adee and himself were meant to meet in the deserted food court on the top floor, just like last time. However, Rune was going to hide in the kitchen area until he knew everything was safe. It seemed that no matter how many times he told himself this he didn’t feel much better.
“As quiet as a mouse.” Rune reminded his sister as they neared the food court. Canna scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, “I don’t want to be a nasty old mouse! I’m as quiet as a fair-” Rune slapped his hand over her mouth to silence her. “God, can’t you be any louder?” She shrugged and although she couldn’t speak the mumbling sounded a bit like “Yeah!” Rune let out a sigh and let go of her, pulling her towards the food court.
Finally they neared the kitchen entrance. When the mall was open chances are this door was blocked from the public. However, after decades of decay anything that shrouded the door was now nothing but dust and gravel on the floor. “Now remember, be very, very quiet Canna, I’ll go out first and if anything seems to go wrong run as fast – and quietly – as possible back home. Do you understand?” Rune muttered, gripping his battle-axe a bit tighter. He carefully opened the door and stepped in first before beckoning Canna to follow him. He may have been more nervous now than when he met Adee the first time!
He kept taking in slow deep breaths, hoping that he wouldn’t hyperventilate. “Now stay in here,” Rune whispered, hushing his sister as he fit her beneath the sink in a tiny cupboard. She didn’t complain aloud but she did have quite the dirty look.
“Canna, come on. It’ll be fine just stay in hear and I’ll come and get you.” Rune sighed, patting Canna’s shoulder before closing the cupboard door.
Rune stood watching the food court carefully. He had to make sure that both Adee and Daedalus was there and more importantly, what they were doing.
Adee sat slouched over the same chair she had sat in a month before. Her flat face sat gently in her hands, a dirty scowl on her lips. Her hair was up this time, rolled round and round into a bun that took up most of her scalp. She twisted a loose curl between her fingers and rolled her large eyes. Behind her was a tall figure, turned away from Rune’s view. What ever this figure was saying, Adee wasn’t to interested in it.
Suddenly she jumped up and slammed the pistol at her waist down onto the table, “Daedalus! For the last time! Humans aren’t below us; they’re identical to us! Just wait, please! You’ll see for your self.” The figure turned around, crossing his arms over his bulky chest. This must be Daedalus, thought Rune. He looked like Adee, with a flat face, thin lips and a lack of a nose. Like his younger counterpart he had large eyes but unlike Adee there was no difference in color between his irises and pupils. Something about his appears seemed so creepy and stern.
“I never said that they were below us, I said we have no idea if they are or not! For all you know this human you’ve somehow become ‘friends’ with is nothing more than an ape that looks like us!” He barked. Rune was beginning to feel quiet insulted by this guy’s comment. He knew if Daedalus was here with Adee then he wasn’t a threat but that didn’t mean Rune liked him.
Rune made sure Canna was still kept hidden and gripped his battle-axe tighter before kicking open the kitchen’s door. Both Adee and Daedalus jumped up in shock and grabbed for guns. “I’m no ape.” Yelled Rune, “Not in the least!” Adee breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her weapon back to the table while Daedalus’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
Suddenly Adee burst into laughter. She dropped her gun back onto the table and shot a dirty look towards Daedalus. “An ape can’t do that, now can they?” Daedalus rolled his dark eyes, obviously holding back a set of curse words that would embarrass the dirtiest of talkers. Rune gave the man a smug grin and reached out his hand, “My name is Rune West, you can easily call me Human if you prefer. Think of it as a reminder that although we’re not the same species I am not an ape.” Daedalus scoffed and shook Rune’s hand before turning away from him and back to his partner. “Perhaps you should speak to your friend here about the respect you should give to your elders. Obviously Earthlings haven’t learned such manners.”
Adee clamped a hand on Daedalus’s shoulder, “Now, now Daedalus, maybe it’s you that should learn manners.” She chuckled, smiling over at Rune, “Rune, this is Daedalus Aurelius. Fortunately he’s on our side but unfortunately he’s a bit of an asshole about it.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Rune sighed. Adee may have been right about her partner, he was a bit of an ass but he didn’t look like he’d harm a human. Rune assumed that it’d be safe to bring Canna out then, she was probably growing impatient with each passing second. “I mentioned it to you last time Adee, but my sister is with me, she’s been wanting to meet you.” He said, beginning to walk back towards the kitchen doors.
“Wait, there’s others?” Yelled Daedalus. Although Rune couldn’t see behind him by the sound of it he had just heard the distinct sound of a woman slapping the living shit out of a man. For a moment it reminded him of when he was a kid. His father always had a crude sense of humor and although his mother liked it, she never liked it when her children were around. Rune had plenty of hilarious memories of his father making some perverted comment and out of nowhere – with lightening fast speed – his mother slapped him right in the back of his head. “Our kids are going to turn out just like you if you don’t stop saying those things!” Isabel would yell, the most furious look on her face. Then Samuel would pull a sly grin – the same grin Canna would have any time she’d lie – and say, “Then they’ll marry a beautiful woman such as yourself!” That’d always get him out of his wife’s spell of fury.
“Canna, it’s me. Everything’s safe, you can come out now.” Rune called out, knocking atop the cupboard. Suddenly a small voice responded. “What’s the password?” Rune rolled his eyes and knelt down, yanking open the door. “The password is get your butt out of here, God knows what nasty stuff has been growing in here the last forty years!” Canna burst into giggles and crawled out, “Ai, Ai captain!”
Although Canna was extremely excited on the way to the mall in the few seconds that came before seeing these “aliens” for the first time she had became extremely shy. She gripped onto the back of Rune’s blue jeans and buried her face into his tee shirt. He gripped her shoulder, trying to push her forward. She may have been small but she was stronger than even Rune at times.
“Adee, Daedalus, this is my sister, Canna West.” Said Rune, coming back to the food court and – obviously – interrupting an argument between the two aliens. It ceased the second his voiced echoed through the room and Adee jumped up from her chair, a kind smile on her flat face. “I was wondering what was taking you so long. Daedalus,” she looked over her shoulder, throwing an all-to-familiar glare towards her partner. “How about you formally introduce yourself to our friends.”
Daedalus hesitantly stood from his own chair and stood before Rune, glancing down at Canna’s hair, which was the only thing visible while she hid. “My name is Daedalus Aurelius, I’m assigned to Earth to finish the extermina-” he paused, looking from Canna to Rune.
“We know.” Rune sighed, “You’re supposed to kill the rest of humanity but you’re not going to do that, so it doesn’t matter. Like I said before, my name is Rune, this is my little sister Canna.” He looked down
at his sister and nudged her towards Daedalus. “Come on, at least tell Adee hi, she doesn’t look like a total jerk, right?” Canna giggled and peaked her head out, her large eyes scanning both Adee and her partner. “Yeah she doesn’t look mean, she looks like Mommy.” With another friendly – and frankly adorable – giggle she moved away from her brother and held out the dozens of colorful drawing to Adee. “Here I made these for you!”
Icarus Rising Page 2