“So whipipo are on their way here now?” I asked.
He looked at Taqmaine and back at us and nodded his head.
I shook my head in disgust. I couldn’t believe them. “Grab and pack what you can and let’s get out of here,” I said as I turned back to my crew. “We have to make it quick and we have to get the hell out of here. We can’t let them find us because I doubt that they crew they will send will be small. Especially since we just took out one of their spies.”
“Can we still come with you?” asked Taqmaine as she looked at us with pleading eyes.
“Hell no,” said Breyrian. “I suggest you grab what you can as well and go on about your way because we now can’t trust you. How do we know you’re not bugged to? We have to think about what’s best for us. Bye! You already put us in enough danger.”
Taqmaine looked as if she wanted to cry but I didn’t let that sway me. She was beautiful and I would have loved to help her and get to know her but she and her brother had risked everyone that I was with safety so I had to let them go. My team would never trust them and neither would I. We grabbed water bottles, first aid kits, food, the knives and lighters and headed on our way. We knew that we had to make a dent in getting away from that area and we didn’t even know which way the whipipo were coming from so we were at a complete disadvantage.
“Stay on alert. We don’t know what is going to happen,” I said as we kept going into the unknown. I just hoped that whichever way this was taking us, that it was out of the reach of the whipipo. We’ve come too far to get captured now.
Chapter 3
I looked and listened all around to listen for footsteps and sounds of whipipo. I knew that they would send their best soldiers out to try and find us because of the size Breyrian and I were. We were what they considered Elite melanins and would do anything to get their hands on us. And that meant sending the strongest of their soldiers. I wish I had caught the camera in the girl’s eye before, but even if I had she had already seen us so the information was already sent. This is not what I had on the agenda when I woke up this morning. I was planning on the usual, almost uneventful day, but now that was over. Right now all I wanted to do was get some rest and clear my head after shooting that little girl. I’ve never killed someone so young before and I didn’t know how to handle it. It was eating me up inside.
“I can’t believe that we actually ran across one of the melanins that they experimented on. It was the first time I’ve seen one up close. How did you spot it because I looked at that girl a few times and didn’t spot anything wrong with her,” said Breyrian as he fell in step beside me.
“I just had a feeling. The way that she kept looking at me and then the way that her eye kept flashing I knew something was wrong. We all have side effects from the sun now but I haven’t heard anything about flashing eyes. It was all just a little too crazy. My gut told me that something was off so I just went with my instinct,” I said as I shook my head. I didn’t take pleasure in killing the young girl, especially when she seemed so sweet but there was no way that I was going to let that slide. I couldn’t afford mistakes and I had already made one when I allowed them near my crew. Next time I would inspect any melanin that came our way more closely because that was a mistake I couldn’t afford to make again.
“I don’t think that you should’ve killed her,” said Tyleah finally speaking up. She hadn’t spoken much all day and I knew that she was holding a lot in because she always did. She didn’t say much, but when she did it was usually about something she didn’t agree with.
“Oh and what was he supposed to do huh Tyleah? Let the whipipo get us? Is that what you wanted to happen? Because if that’s the case you can go back to where that little girl is and wait for them right there,” said Ahshay as she walked over and got into Tyleah’s face.
“Calm down Ashay,” I said as I tried to cool her down just a little bit. She had a temper and it didn’t take much to get her upset, but now was not the right time.
“No, I’m tired of her. She knows what we’re going up against and every chance she gets she either brings down what we’re doing or something crazy. Like earlier when she made the noise like we weren’t hiding from the whipipo I just don’t understand her,” said Ahshay. “It’s like she doesn’t want our help and wants to take us down with her. Because it’s clear she doesn’t really care about our safety.”
“Well, I’m sorry if I don’t fit your grand scheme of being a soldier,” said Tyleah sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. “I’m trying to be a team player. I really am, but some things I’m just not for like you guys.”
“Well you definitely don’t fit my description of a soldier that’s for sure. I was all for saving you but honestly you’ve been holding us back. You complain and cry all the time like we’re all not dealing with the exact same thing. None of us have a family all we have is each other. We have to stick together. We have to survive together. But we’re only ever gonna be as good as our weakest link and that’s you so just face the facts,,” said Ahshay.
“So that’s how you really feel?” asked Tyleah her voice laced with hurt.
“Kind of,” said Breyrian. “Like come on Tyleah. We all really are dealing with the same thing. We can’t become emotional every time something happens. If that was the case then we would never make it anywhere. We would never succeed and we will either end up dead or experimented and I’m sorry but I don’t want that in my future. So you either have to get with the program or just leave us because eventually you’re going to get us all caught up. I don’t even understand how you made it all those years on your own if this is how you act. I would’ve figured you got caught a long time ago.”
“So, we’re all just supposed to become cold hearted and killers?” she asked as she looked at each one of us.
“Kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest,” I said. I know that this wasn’t what she wanted to hear but it was what she needed to hear and hopefully some of it would sink in.
“Wow, maybe you guys really should’ve left me stranded where I was because I don’t think that I can ever become the people you guys are. I still have a heart. I still care about other people than the ones that are just in this group,” she said.
“And we have a heart to. We just can’t let it get in the way of our judgment or survival,” I said. “At the end of the day, nobody is forcing you to stay Tyleah. If you don’t like the way things are done around here then nobody is holding you hostage. Feel free to leave because we don’t want anybody who doesn’t want to be here. Nor do we want anybody that is going to hinder us. We’ve made it clear that we can’t save everybody and here you are still getting on us about things out of our control.”
She looked at us and I could tell that she was seriously contemplating leaving us. I knew that she had issues with the way a lot of things were done with us but I was standing firm with what I said. I couldn’t bend on this. As much as I would hate to see her leave, I didn’t want to risk the collective because of it. After a few moments she let out a sigh and just continued to walk with us. I was surprised that she actually stayed but maybe now she would actually straighten out her attitude about things or at least stop complaining. But I couldn’t dwell on that right now. The sun was beginning to set and we still needed to find shelter.
“We’re going to need to find somewhere to camp soon. The sun is going down and we don’t want to get caught out here with God knows what,” I said.
“There should be a town close by that has a few abandoned buildings in it. We could start a fire, eat, and get some rest as we regroup and figure out what to do next,” said Breyrian.
“Do you know exactly how far the next town might be?” I asked.
“Umm probably less than a mile,” he said. “I think that we passed through it before. Right now, it’s the only option we have because it’s not like we can go back to the tents.”
“Okay,” I said.
We walked a little longer before we finally came up on a
town. As usual it looked deserted and dead. There was nothing friendly or beautiful about living on this Earth in this more and it was a sad reality. No flowers, no real sunshine, nothing.It was just plain and isolated. We walked through the desolate town and into an abandoned building in the middle because whipipo always checked the ones on the end first so it would give us time to think of a plan if we were ever in a compromising situation. We saw a warehouse looking building in the middle of the town and Breyrian and I went to check it out as Tyleah and Ahshay stood outside and played lookout. We looked around every part of building and once we realized that no one was in there we went outside to let the girls know it was safe and waved them in. We settled in the middle of the floor as Breyrian made a fire so that we could see and stay warm because temperatures dropped really low at night to freezing. We found it ironic since the temperatures in the day were so unbearable. But one thing for sure, dealing with the heat was a whole lot better than freezing to death.
“It feels so good to not be walking anymore,” said Ahshay as she took off one of her shoes and and began to rub her foot.
“Okay we need to take inventory of everything we have so that we know how to ration it out and see how long it will last before we need to get more supplies,” I said. “And nobody go over there ration amount this time. We don’t want to be out there when we don’t have to be. And we most definitely do not want a repeat of what happened out there today. The only good thing that came of it was the supplies that we found and for that I’m grateful since we didn’t make it to the water.”
Breyrian threw up his hands. “Alright, alright, alright, I won’t go over this time. Especially not after the day that we had. I will restrain myself. I will just try to cool off my thirst for as long as I can.”
“Yeah because if you don’t then I will restrain you. We almost lost our lives today,” said Ahshay as she shot him a glare. “I am glad that we found a first aid kit though we needed one badly. And we had been looking for one for months without finding one. I’m just glad none of us got hurt during that time or it could have been bad.”
“Yeah, we do have a lot of good stuff here. So let’s figure it all out before it gets too dark to see anything and we all be too tired to care,” I said.
We got to work laying everything out and looking it over. We laid out how much food we would need for each day and water and realized that we had enough food and water for a week and a half which was a lot better than what we usually had. We usually only had food for about three or four days at a time. And that was if we were lucky. We packed up the rest of the food and water in our backpacks and kept out what we needed that night. I placed the backpacks and weapons by Breyrian and me so that if anything did happen we could protect it. Survival of the fittest.
5 years earlier.....
“I just have a bad feeling that something is going to happen today,” said Ahshay as we sat outside with our dog Rocky.
“Quit being negative,” I said as I threw Rocky a stick and he went to fetch it. She always found a way to bring down a beautiful day and today I just wasn’t trying to hear it.
“I mean, look at the sun Ty. It’s almost as if we can touch it. And it’s just so hot today. It’s never this hot. I feel like we live in the desert instead of Florida. I bet if I was to crack an egg right now it would cook.”
“It’s been that way for about a month now. And according to the news there’s nothing to worry about. Maybe it has something todo with them claiming that the world would shift and we would be closer to the sun. But either way I don’t see it as reason to panic.”
“And you believe everything the news says now?” she asked with a raised brow. “You know they only tell you what they want you to hear. Never the full truth. At least that’s what daddy says.”
“No, but nothing has happened yet, so I think that we will be fine. I mean we are one of the safest planets in the world. We are also the only planet proven to have life form and if we’re still surviving by being this close then I’m sure that we’ll keep surviving,” I said as I looked at Rocky who had stopped moving and was now growling at the ground. I stood up and walked towards him because maybe he saw something that I didn’t see from where I was standing. But, when I went and walked over to him there was nothing on the ground. “What’s wrong boy?” I asked as I reached behind his ear to try and calm him down but it didn’t work. He just stood there and kept growling at the ground.
I leaned forward and looked at the ground to where he was looking at. I was starting to think that maybe he had lost his mind until the ground started to shake. I was a little lost at first, thinking that maybe it was an earthquake. But, this didn’t feel like an earthquake, and besides we didn’t get earthquakes here. It felt as if the whole world was about to collapse at any second. I glanced back at Ahshay and she had a look of panic on her face that I’ve never seen before. I rushed over to her and as soon as I reached her a ball of fire shot from the sky and slammed into the ground and immediately we jumped back.
“I told you I had a bad feeling about today Ty,” she said as she gripped onto my arm tightly.
“I know...and all we can do now is hope that we survive this mess,” I said as I pulled her closer to me and looked at all of the chaos erupting around us. It literally looked as if the world was erupting and everything as we knew it was now changed forever.
Present day....
“Ty...Ty...Tysim,” said Breyrian as he waved his hand in front of my face snapping me back into reality.
I shook my head and looked at him, “Sorry man. I was out of it.”
“I know you weren’t sleeping on the job,” said Breyrian as he took a seat beside me.
“No, I was just thinking about the day that our lives changed forever,” I said as I laid my head back against the wall. Sometimes even to this day it was still hard to put together that this was our reality. I just wanted it all to be a bad dream but I knew that wasn’t true. It’s just sad at how things took a turn for the worst so quickly.
“Yeah, that was a crazy time but what good is it gonna do to sit and think about it? We can’t go back and change that day so it’s no need to dwell on the situation. It’s only going to make you even more depressed.”
“I know but I have to think about it. Otherwise, I’ll never get ahead. I have to remember that pain and devastation so that it will motivate me to do better. To lead better. I have to remember all that pain so that we can fight better. As depressing and devastating as it is, I need to remember it.”
“I hear you bro. You can go to sleep now. I got this.”
“Alright, wake me for my next shift.”
Chapter 4
I woke up the next morning to the sounds of my crew and a few more voices that I didn’t recognize. I hopped up immediately and saw Ahshay and Breyrian with their weapons drawn on two melanins. One was a scrawny little brown skinned boy with a small afro and the slight appearance of a scraggly beard. The other was a female that was tall, dark skinned, and cut as if she lifted weights for a living. She looked like she could have been a bodybuilder in another lifetime. The muscles in her arm looked as if she could do some serious damage to someone and at this moment it could be one of us. I raised my weapon and looked at Breyrian in the eyes. “What’s going on here?”
The girl turned around to me and that’s when I caught a good look at her face. She had soft features that didn’t match her body type at all. She looked me up and down and smirked. “You all are on the whipipo most wanted list for killing one of their spies.”
“And you work for the whipipo I’m assuming,” I said as I raised my weapon a little higher. This week just wasn’t our week. And the list that she was talking about was actually a billboard. Once you were wanted the whipipo would flash your face all over the place to get people to turn you in for a reward. It’s how a lot of the melanins ended up turning on each other.
She raised her brow and chuckled. “No, we would never play ourselves like that. I’d never wa
nt to be a slave to those pale motherfuckers. Trust me that’s not what we’re all about.”
“Okay, so then who are you and what do you want with us?” I asked as I examined her to see if anything was off about her. I definitely couldn’t afford another slip up. I looked closely at her eyes and didn’t see anything flashing in them
“I’m Tamoia and this is Dizzie. We want to join your rebellion. We’re actually on the whipipo most wanted list as well and we have three more friends who are as well. We all who are on the list try to stick together since we seem to be the only ones with the guts to stand up and do anything about what’s going on,” she said. “As you know it’s hard to find melanins to go against the whipipo and we’ve been hoping to find other people for a while now.”
I stared at her for a second and then looked over her shoulder at Breyrian. “Go look outside and check out her story. Be careful, the last thing we need is to lose you.”
He nodded his head as he looked at us one more time and headed towards the door.
“You’re smart, I like that. You have to be very careful who you can trust,” she said as she looked between me and Ahshay.
“You’re not telling me anything I already don’t know,” I said with a smirk. I knew that she was trying to smooth me over but that wouldn’t be so easily done until I could confirm her story.
“Are you really considering this Tysim? I mean after what just happened I really don’t think that we should be adding people to our group,” said Ahshay as she shot me a glare.
“If we want to make the change that we say we do, then we do have to join forces with other people. This might be the way. Especially since they’re on the most wanted list themselves,” I said. “We can’t keep going on by ourselves that’s for sure and I’ve looked her over. She doesn’t have anything programmed on her. Unless you want to pat her down, which I’m sure that you already did in the first place.”
Melanin Wars Page 3