Final Days: Escape

by Jasper T. Scott

  Andrew and Kendra followed Belidar back into the airlock of their ship and watched as he began cycling the controls to flood the chamber with water from outside the submerged vessel.

  “Please, you have to help us,” Kendra said.

  Belidar turned away as water came swirling in around their feet. “Put your masks on,” he suggested, his alien language warbling out simultaneous to the mental translation that shivered through the devices on their heads.

  They fitted the strange cup-shaped rebreathers over their noses. Andrew felt his moving against his skin, automatically adapting to the shape of his face for the perfect fit. A light suction confirmed that it was properly seated, and Andrew switched to breathing through his mouth until the water finished filling the airlock.

  “We would help you if we could, but we will be lucky to escape this planet alive, even without the added risk of saving you.”

  “We’ll be fast,” Andrew suggested. “You won’t have to delay on our account.”

  The alien’s neck fins fluttered, and a trilling sound escaped its lips. “No. Our operatives will already be returning with the fuel cell.”

  “Returning from where?” Kendra asked, her gaze on the water as it rose over her chest.

  “From your camp. Your ship arrived recently. It will have had the same power source as ours. The Watchers built them both, and the technology is the same.”

  Andrew glared at Belidar with that admission. “Let me get this straight: you stole our fuel cell, and you won’t even give us a ride out of here in exchange?”

  “You have no use for the fuel cell.”

  “Says you. Maybe we’d like to blast out of here one day like you’re doing. How are we going to do that if we don’t have a power source?”

  “Your ship is in pieces. Ours was in better condition. Besides, you would not like our destination. It is a water world.”

  “With no land?” Kendra asked, standing on tiptoes to avoid the rising water.

  “This discussion is over,” Belidar replied.

  Water rose past Andrew’s lips, and he was forced to breathe through his nose to avoid inhaling a mouthful of it. The airlock filled to the top before the outer doors sprang open. Belidar swam out, doing the breaststroke like a frog. Kendra followed, heading for the shimmering surface of the lake some fifty feet above their heads. The pressure on Andrew’s ears was intense, but it quickly eased as he followed Kendra up. They breached the surface into the pale blue sunlight, and followed Belidar to the nearest waterway in their primitive-looking village.

  Within minutes the three of them were standing on the shore, and Belidar was scanning the sky, as if expecting an aerial attack.

  “You must leave quickly. Use the cover of the trees. Do not delay.” Andrew assumed he was worried about their safety, but the alien clarified his concerns with what he said next. “We cannot afford for your presence here to expose our plans.”

  Kendra scowled and shook her head.

  Andrew smirked and patted the alien roughly on the back. “Don’t worry, we’ll get out of your hair. Oh—wait, I guess you don’t have any.”

  Belidar acted confused. “How could you be in my hair even if I did have such a grotesque feature?”

  “No sense of humor on this one,” Andrew added.

  “Where are our belongings?” Kendra asked.

  Belidar pointed to a building that resembled the others, and started toward a wooden door on the lower level. “Follow me.”

  They did, and Belidar entered the room to reveal another minimalist space littered with cushions and an indoor pool that served as an access to the waterways and the lake beyond. They collected their packs, utility belts, and rifles from one corner, then returned to the entrance and left the welcome coolness of the interior for the blazing heat of the sunlit swamp.

  Andrew nodded to Belidar, hoping he hadn’t noticed that they’d stashed the rebreathers in their packs. “See you around, frogman. Don’t crash into any asteroids.”

  “Asteroids are easily avoided,” Belidar replied.

  “If you say so. Let’s go, Kendra.”

  “Wait. Your translators.”

  The device clinging to Andrew’s head abruptly released him and folded itself up into a ball, rolling off the bridge of his head and hitting the ground at his feet with a muffled thump. Kendra’s translator fell off a split second later.

  Andrew snorted. “I guess that’s one way to shut me up.”

  Kendra smiled and slowly shook her head. She led them to the jungle, testing the ground ahead of her with the branch Andrew had broken off on their way in for that very purpose.

  It took them almost an hour to make it to the jungle at the far end of the marshy green field of moss.

  “Can you believe that guy?” Andrew asked as they stopped for water in the shade of a massive tree.

  “He’s just trying to protect his people.”

  “Yeah, to the exclusion of all other people.”

  “We don’t know that they’ll make it,” Kendra pointed out. “What if Hound takes out their ship before they can escape?”

  “At least they have a shot,” Andrew added. “What are our chances if we stay? Between Mary and Hound, we’re screwed.”

  “Maybe not. Maybe we can learn to get along. My sister said Hound was going to deal with Mary, but...”

  “But what?”

  “He wants to kill you.”

  “Tell me something I don’t already know,” Andrew said, throwing up his hands.

  “I’m serious, Andy.”

  “So am I.”

  “Then what are we going to do? We can’t return to camp.”

  “And we can’t stay here,” Andrew pointed out.

  “So where does that leave us?”

  “We free Val and the others and bring them here. We could hide in the jungle until the frog people escape, maybe even use their escape as a diversion.”

  “Hound will find us. You heard what they said about the Watchers,” Kendra said.

  “Then we keep going, over the next ridge.”

  “And eat what? Drink what? We won’t make it very far.”

  Andrew crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s your damned point, Kendra?”

  She glared angrily at the tone of his voice, but it didn’t last. She gave in with a sigh and looked away into the shadowy depths of the jungle between them and their valley. “Maybe it’s time we stopped trying to resist. Hound might not be all good, but at least he wasn’t actively trying to kill us like Morris. We toe the line, bide our time, wait until we can conceive of a realistic escape plan or take control of the colony.”

  Andrew spent a moment grinding his teeth and glaring at the back of Kendra’s head. Finally she turned to face him, and he saw how broken she was. “Please, Andrew. I can’t lose you. Tell Hound it’s over. We’ll help him take out Mary.”

  Andrew hesitated for a second, warring with himself. He uncrossed his arms and heaved his shoulders, shaking his head for lack of words. What could he say? She was right. Kendra crossed the distance between them and grabbed his hands in both of hers. “We’ll make it work. It won’t be the first time that people have had to accept a tyrannical regime in order to survive. And maybe one day, just like these people here, we’ll find our chance to break free.”

  “Yeah. Maybe,” Andrew agreed.

  Kendra turned his chin, forcing him to look into her eyes. “Promise me you’ll stop fighting Hound.”

  “Fine. I promise.”

  Kendra flashed a broken smile and rose on her toes to kiss him hard on the lips. “Thank you,” she breathed against him as she withdrew.

  She took his hand in hers, and he let her lead him back through the jungles, testing the ground as they went. He felt numb and despondent, his spirit broken, but life would go on. However twisted Hound’s motives might be, they’d find some way to live in peace with him.

  They had to.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Val

  As
Val listened to Hound’s speech, shock rolled through her in waves. Eden had used a faster-than-light propulsion system to get them here—wherever here was—in just seven days. Hound’s people had destroyed Earth in order to terraform it. Billions of people were dead, and here he was pretending to be the good guy because he’d insisted on saving a thousand of them to ensure the human race didn’t go extinct. He’d alluded to this being some kind of personal project, as if not all of his people shared his goals. Maybe he was right and humans had been doing this long before aliens had done it to them, but that didn’t make it okay. Especially not for a species that was so much more advanced than them.

  They’d killed her mother, her friends, all the boys she’d liked and the bullies who’d teased her: everyone. Gone. And with that revelation, the feeble hope she’d been clinging to evaporated: the idea that her mom had found refuge on Earth with some sizable remnant of humanity. Now she knew the truth: these one thousand people—now even less from the recent killings—were all that remained of the human race.

  Tony’s hand slipped into hers, his palm cold and clammy against her skin. “Hey,” he whispered, bumping shoulders with her. “Let’s walk.” He jerked his chin to indicate the direction the crowd was moving in. Everyone was following Lewis Hound across the fields, heading for Eden Two.

  “Where are we headed?” Val asked, her voice sounding dull and strange, even to her own ears.

  “To let Carrie and Keller out. Hound wants to tell them the score.”

  Val shook her head quickly. She felt sick to her stomach, her whole body shivering from the cold despite the fact that it was the middle of the day. “I’m not...” She trailed off and stopped suddenly, her stomach emptying on the grass. Tony held her hair back and steadied her shoulders. She stood with hands on her knees, legs shaking, her whole body aching and spent. She stumbled away, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. “I’m sorry, I...” She trailed off, confusion wrinkling her forehead.

  “It’s okay. You’re past due for your next dose of whatever was in Mary’s water.”

  “Not Mary. Morris. Shelley Morris,” Val replied.

  “Everything okay?” Roland called. Val nodded and struggled to catch up. Tony kept pace with her, studying her with a knitted brow and concern etching his features.

  “She’s having withdrawal,” Roland said before Val could explain. He turned and nodded to a few of the other Saints in their white jumpsuits. Some of them were busy retching their guts out. Others had crumpled to the ground, curling into fetal positions. “You’re lucky you were late to the party. Some of them were losing their minds from that stuff.”

  Tony nodded gravely. “Arthur.”

  “I’ve been through this before. It’ll get worse before it’s better, but a tough girl like you’ll make it, no problem,” Roland told her.

  Val looked between them with wide eyes. She felt a spasm from her roiling stomach, but managed to push through it and nod. “Thanks. I’ll be okay.”

  They walked on to Eden Two and watched as Hound walked up a makeshift ramp and opened the rear airlock. He disappeared inside, but no one followed.

  “You think we should go in?” Tony asked. “To make sure he doesn’t hurt them?”

  “Like we could stop him,” Roland replied.

  A few minutes later the alien returned with Carrie and Keller in tow. Both of them were bloodied and bruised from whatever interrogations Morris and her goons had subjected them to. Keller limped down the ramp while Carrie stopped at the top of it with Hound, her gaze sweeping over the scene, taking in the sorry state of the colony and its people.

  Hound spoke, his voice booming out with unnatural volume and clarity. “Take today to mourn and detox. Bury your dead. If you’re up to it, start thinking about who should run for governor. We will hold proper elections, and one of you will represent your colony and all of its interests to me. Also, if anyone has information on the whereabouts of Kendra Baker and Andrew Miller, please come to me immediately.”

  “What are you going to do with them?” Val called out in a croaking voice that sounded far weaker than she’d intended.

  “As I said before, they are enemies of the colony. As soon as we find them, they will be brought to justice.”

  “You mean killed!” Roland shouted. A general murmur of discontent spread through the group.

  “Give them another chance,” Carrie said, her voice carrying to Val’s ears despite the distance.

  “I tried that. Andrew refused to see reason; Kendra likewise. The time for talking is over. They made their choice. But no, we won’t execute them—unless your new government deems that capital punishment is a valid response to treason. That’s just one of many matters that all of you will need to decide—with my help, of course.”

  Val glared up at Hound, wondering how much freedom he really intended to give them. Would he let them govern themselves and make their own laws, or would democracy be nothing but a thin veneer that he used to cover up his tyranny?

  Only time would tell. Val peered to the forests, silently wishing for her dad and Kendra to stay away, at least until some degree of proper order was established. If they returned now, in the middle of this chaos, Hound could kill them both himself and no one would try to stop him.

  Thinking about them brought to mind a new possibility and a thread of hope: had they found whatever they’d gone searching for? Maybe there was another option besides staying here and agreeing to be a part of Hound’s game park.

  * * *

  Kendra

  Hair stuck to Kendra’s forehead, and she pulled the worn elastic from the ponytail, bending over to let it all tumble forward. Kendra wasn’t a vain person, more focused on her work than her exterior, but she’d always done the bare minimum, which included having her hair bleached blonder every five weeks like clockwork.

  She’d never liked her shade of dirty blonde, a mixture that was in between tones. Her mother was a strawberry blonde, while Carrie took after their dad with dark chestnut locks. Kendra ran fingers through the messy strands, and wondered what Andrew thought when he saw her. Did he look at her unkempt appearance and still like what he saw?

  “What’s going on in that head of yours?” Andrew asked, sitting on a boulder at the base of the ridge.

  Their world was caving in around them, and Kendra was thinking about what a man thought of her. This was why she’d hesitated dating in the first place. Men were a distraction. She glanced at Andrew as she slid the frayed elastic back over her hair, hoping it wouldn’t snap. At least he was a handsome diversion. “Nothing. Just thinking about what’s going to happen when we cross this ridge.”

  Andrew drank from the canteen, passing it to her, and she saw the exhaustion creeping through his expression. “It’s like you said. I apologize, and Hound lets me live.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Then I guess someone will have to take care of Valeria.”

  Kendra couldn’t think about it ending like that. “You know I’d be there for her regardless.”

  “She really cares about you,” Andrew said, averting his gaze.

  “I love her too, Andrew. I love all of you guys.”

  He locked stares with her. “Good. I love… all of you guys too.”

  Kendra smiled, trying to lower her anxiety. “I’ll enter camp first, talk to Carrie and Hound. Make sure Valeria and Rollie are okay.”

  “Then what? I hide out in the forest for a bit?” he asked.

  “Sure. When it’s settled, I’ll find you and bring you back with me.” Kendra could only hope it would be that simple.

  “If these Froggers stole the power cell, camp might be a little on edge. We’ll have to scope it out together first,” Andrew told her definitively.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she said, dropping to the boulder beside his. She was tired. Even though the distance to the lake wasn’t overly far, the constant prodding with the stick along the swampy ground used a lot of energy, not to mention the fear gnawing at her min
d the entire time.

  “Did you hear that?” Andrew asked, standing with his Beretta in his hand.

  “No.” But now she did. One of the aliens walked toward them, a translator in each webbed hand. Two more stood close behind it, armed with the flute-shaped guns, but they didn’t aim them menacingly. “Andy, lower the gun.”

  He did, and they took the devices. Kendra wondered if this was Belidar or another. She still couldn’t tell them apart. She slipped the apparatus over her head, the spider-arms moving over her skull.

  “Hello, Kendra and Andrew. We have encountered an issue,” the voice in her head said. It was the same alien as before.

  “Is that so?” Andrew asked.

  “The operatives failed. We didn’t retrieve the energy cell as intended.”

  Kendra waited for the other shoe to drop.

  Andrew had less patience. “So now you need our help, is that it?”

  Belidar remained calm. “That’s correct.”

  “And in exchange you’ll grant us passage on your ship outta this hellhole?” Andrew asked.

  “Yes.”

  Kendra considered this. “Not for the ten I’d suggested earlier. We want you to take all of us.”

  The alien blinked, clear lids moving sideways over his dark eyes, and gills flared around his neck. “We cannot accommodate everyone.”

  “Bullshit. We’ve been on your ship. You guys need to use those water tanks to keep your gills or whatever hydrated. The rest of the space is fair game. You can manage a group our size no problem,” Andrew said.

  Kendra didn’t mention that they’d have no food, and not knowing how far they were traveling, that could be a real problem, but at this moment the technical logistics felt secondary. They were being offered a means to escape, and they couldn’t mess this up.

  “As I said, we are…”

  “Belidar, don’t do this. You understand our situation. Our home is gone. We won’t survive here, not without your help. Take us with you. You’ll have an entire colony to assist you wherever we’re going. We can be partners, trade with one another. We have Earth’s best and brightest, only they’ve never been given a shot to prove it here. Not with the constant oppression.” Kendra stood taller, hearing her voice rise in volume. “We’ll help you take this energy cell, but you have to promise to bring everyone with you.” Her hand gripped the gun in her palm.