Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home

by K T Valentine

  “That’s what I’m here for” She laughed softly as she put pressure on his shoulder to get him to lie back again. “Orion will be back in a moment, she went to have a look around to see if anyone else needed medical assistance with Zen and Laelia.”

  Sure, there would be others here who could help with the medical side of things, but Orion expected them to still be shaken by what they had experienced. The young woman had decided, therefore, that she would be the lead in organising this for now. At least then there would be a start of this by the time the group moved onto the next town.

  “What about the others?” Kit asked, glancing around the room pointedly.

  “You mean Oliver?” Katya smirked a little, laughing quietly at the blush that darkened the male’s cheeks beneath his wiry beard. “Oliver went with the others, and the military operatives already here, to go and get the people off the machines in that building, and to eliminate the Hiko in there.”

  Concern moved over the man’s face at this information, Katya couldn’t help but reach out and stroke his cheek soothingly.

  “Don’t worry, he’s survived this face and now he’s got trained fights surrounding him. He just needs to let out some frustration on the Hiko.” Katya commented. “He was very angry that they caused you pain, there’s no way he’ll let them hurt him. Plus, I told Axel and Leonora to knock him out if he was being too reckless.”

  Kit laughed at that, his hand moving to press against his wound as he did so. He seemed to relax at the idea of Axel and Leonora being charged with such a thing. “Thank you. I can’t lose him…” He whispered gently before glancing up as the door opened and Orion entered.

  “Ah, you’re awake!” She chimed brightly “How are you feeling?” Glancing to Katya she smiled “Oh, everyone is coming back – Seth said something about you wanting to be present for the scout report.”

  Leaving Orion to it, Katya moved to find the group of people who had returned, glad to see that while many were wounded, her friends were all fine. Looked like practice really did make perfect, even when that was simply in relation to effective survival against a hellish species.

  “How did it go?” Katya called as she reached where her friends stood guiding the wounded and the civilians from the machines to areas where they could be treated. “Olli, Kit’s awake if you wanted…” that was all she had to add for him to perk up and kiss her cheek before darting off.

  Axel laughed at the sight of the male’s retreating back “Good thing he wasn’t needed to speak during the report to the high ups we located here.” Draping his arm around Katya’s shoulders, the male grinned down at her, his cheek cut slightly but not enough to cause him any worry. “You are going to want to hear all of this… and then we are going to want to hear your conclusions. So far, you’ve been right every time, and I don’t care what the high-ups think about themselves, as far as we are concerned, you are the expert here. Myself, Seth, and Leonora have decided to back you up and demand you are listened to if they try to brush over anything.”

  Katya felt the same odd pressure in her stomach as she had felt the night before while talking about the anatomy of the Nerushi and the Hiko. She didn’t consider herself much of an expert, it wasn’t like the usual situation where an expert had years of study and experience behind them. The female had simply acted as she felt she had to, and she had observed and cut open enough for her to conclude enough for her survival.

  Compared to those who had hidden or had been stuffed into a room for farming, she supposed that did make her an expert.

  “Alright. I got this!” Katya concluded out loud as she playfully shoved Axel a little, his arm falling away from her shoulders as he laughed.

  “Damn right you do. Come on.”

  Katya followed her soldier friends through the streets, noticing Colt had been roped into helping with the movement of the injured. He looked a little white, perhaps still very unsure about the idea of fighting off so many monsters instead of staying where he was safe. But Katya had to hand it to him, he hadn’t protested when he was recruited that morning.

  Compared to the group with their stained, torn and frayed clothes, the high-ups of military personnel that remained safe in the sub-terrain city beneath London were dressed smartly and pristinely even if they were sat in a room just as unlived in as any of the other marble houses designed in the vault towns. As Katya stood to the side to listen to Axel explain what they had found, she found herself frowning at that typical safety of the rich and powerful.

  “We lost seven of the people on the machines, they were too far along the process of extraction and so we had to end their suffering” Axel started, feeling that this was the more important piece of information. “The liquids from the men, women and children were filtered into different kegs while the overall pink leftovers could mix together.”

  “What are they farming us for?” one of the female commanders questioned.

  “Please, any questions will be directed to our expert towards the end, for any theory that she had in the works” Leonora input, motioning to Katya who was leant against the wall of the room they were using, her face focused and listening. She already had a theory on that, but it could wait.

  Upon the silent confirmation that he could continue, Axel spoke about the bits that Katya wanted to know more about.

  “The armouries appear specific to the Nerushi and the Hiko, they mould the armour to the body in a way that appears completely permanent. Now, while this was known to us, there does seem to be areas behind the machines where the aliens are but non-functional. Like they are asleep until they put onto the armoury machine and then shipped out to where ever they are meant to be.” Axel continued to explain and speak about what they had found while forcing apart some of the machines, Leonora giving extra detail about this as she was the engineer who had more of an idea than Axel.

  Time ticked by, Seth soon taking over to speak. “The top floor was most interesting though, there were transport types we have only ever seen attacking us. And there seemed to be a control panel which we couldn’t figure out; there seemed to be no power to it or any response to touch, however, we saw one Nerushi moving its hand over it as the wall closed after a vehicle entered.”

  “If they have vehicles, why did you report that you always see them on foot?” This female commander just couldn’t keep her mouth shut. It was like she didn’t want to take the information from these vagabonds who had traipsed around the country and somehow survived. Seth raised an eyebrow at her, showing his lack of amusement over her interruptions.

  Before he could speak, however, the red and brown-haired female pushed herself from the wall and spoke.

  “From what we have seen of their behaviour, and what they are collecting from humans, it is likely that the vehicles are used for the movement of the liquids and the dispersal of the mass amount of alien numbers across the country,” Katya spoke with careful words, picking them so they didn’t raise too many other questions she hadn’t thought through yet. “If the vehicles are the same that they used when invading, then it would make sense to use them to take what they are farming from us back up to the main ship.”

  “Main ship?”

  Katya blinked at the man who spoke “Well, yeah. That first day there was a large ship in the sky while the small ones caused hell on Earth. Logically, that would be the ‘mothership’ as it were, and where these building materials were brought down from.” She looked around at the confused faces, including those of her friends. “When they came down, none of you looked up?”

  “We were too busy responding to a war” spat the female who was looking at her with disrespect in her eyes.

  “Well, now you know.” Katya shrugged slightly “The difference between the liquids, I think, is hormonal. I think they are separating males, females and children to be able to syphon specific hormones that are higher in those groups. It also would explain why there are no elderly within those we have saved.”

  “What do they want them fo
r?” Axel asked curiously.

  Katya glanced towards him, pausing for a moment before shrugging.

  “I, honestly, have no idea about that one.”

  The mystery of these aliens was still incredibly scary to everyone. And that never answered question of what they wanted from humanity and why remained on their shoulders. Katya moved onto another question which she was yet to answer.

  “As for why they seem to always travel on foot, it is likely that we are easier to hunt that way. From within a vehicle, they would be unable to smell out our hormones as accurately and we would have an increased amount of time to run and hide. But hunting on foot they have an advantage of the silence and increased scent catching.” For these reasonings, she was hoping logic would help her out on the spot and keep her on the right lines. “They would also be able to search buildings on foot, whereas in the vehicles they would be restricted to simply moving around in open areas.”

  Glancing over towards Seth, Katya found herself running out of things to say in relation to it all. As though realising that, Seth cleared his throat and spoke to take those eyes off the female and back to him.

  “Needless to say, any action without the appropriate knowledge against these creatures would be ill-advised. The only reason we have survived is because of the theories which Miss Devaroux has come up with. Her willingness to carve up these creatures and endure the hellish observations of their actions has given us this chance to know how to fight back.” Katya felt her cheeks redden at his words. He made it sound so noble when in reality it was nothing so wonderful and organised in her mind. She had gotten lucky. More times than she could count. She put up a good fight, and she paid more attention to her surroundings than others in the group, but that was the extent of it.

  Seth continued to speak with the commanders as they got up, dismissing the others while they ruminated over the information they had been given.

  “Hormones huh? Well, at least we have some kind of answer on that front.” Leonora looked bemused at Katya as they grouped together to wait for Seth outside. “Not that it helps us much…”

  “Maybe not you guys… but I’m on artificial hormones while having female sex hormones suppressed… so I’m curious as to whether that would mess with them” Katya commented, thinking back to that first factory where the Hiko hadn’t registered anyone was there until it looked at her between the tanks. Had she not smelled the same as what it was used to hunting?

  “You try that out and you’ll get yourself killed,” Leonora said sternly, clearly thinking that Katya would test it out to see how much distance she could get away with.

  “I’m not going to; I’m not that stupid” Katya sulked slightly as she looked down to her arm, healing but still bandaged “I hate being less able to help out, but I’m not going to do something that reckless on a minor theory.”

  “Damn right you aren’t” Ah, Seth was back. “We can do this if we are clever… plus the generals here are going to see if they can figure out a way to set up teams to do what we are doing. They might need some time to put them together and get some practice into the areas of weakness… but at least that way, more factories can be reached at a quicker rate.”

  The three looked back at him in surprise. “You thought about organising that??” Axel exclaimed.

  “Well… yeah. Seemed obvious to me if we have the support of people that high up in charge” Seth looked at Axel with derision, gaining a sheepish look from his old friend. “Plus, it takes the pressure off our group… once we get to Katya’s home town, we won’t feel the intense need to move on as soon as possible. That way Katya and Oliver can actually check on their family members properly.”

  Silence fell for a heartbeat.

  “Whoa! Seth’s being kind and thoughtful?” Leonora smirked.

  “I bet when we go back outside pigs will be flying” Axel joined with a laugh.

  “Shut it!” Seth snapped, his cheeks dusting with pink as his dark eyes glanced over to Katya who had grinned widely at his thought process.

  “Thanks” She chimed “I will be very unlikely to want to leave my sister for a little while even if she’s safe in one of these sub-terrain places!” She knew well enough herself that she would be very difficult to persuade to go elsewhere once they had found her family, even though she knew the horrors of the factories. So, knowing it was being discussed for the weight of helping others was on more than the shoulders of their little group was soothing to her.

  Back with the rest of the group, this information was passed around the group to let them know that hopefully, they would begin to get ahead of these things.

  “If they also went back to the ones we’ve been to, they might be able to train up more people for the same cause!” Orion clapped her hands slightly in anticipated excitement.

  “Yeah! We could rise up and kick these alien’s in the butt!” Oliver laughed along with her, raising a hand to share a high-five with her.

  It seemed that the idea of all this was well received and brought confidence to most of the members. Though that feeling was not shared by everyone, Colt seemed less than eager to hear that there was going to be more people out there.

  “It could turn into a war…” He grumbled lightly.

  “So?!” Axel immediately cut in “They brought it on, they killed and farmed us and it’s time we fought back on a bigger scale!”

  “It’s true Colt, there’s no way we can just wait it out underground – they’ll find us eventually” Orion nodded with a solemn expression for the first time since Katya had met her. “If all the people disappear, but none are killed, it’s only fair that they’ll begin to destroy everything to locate us. If people keep fighting, they won’t be looking for those safely hidden out of sight!” She glanced to Axel as though to double check her reasoning was sound, gaining a nod and an arm around her shoulders as the dark-skinned male grinned triumphantly.

  “Exactly! Orion, you are bright in mind and personality huh?”

  “Eh?” Orion couldn’t hide an embarrassed flush on her ivory pale skin, but she laughed and smiled none the less “Well, thank you.”

  It took a while for the mood to die down as everyone went back to their own things, Seth being called out by one of the generals while Orion going to double check the organisation of the medical aiders, dragging Colt along with her. It was unspoken that they would once again be on the move tomorrow, but there was something weighing on Katya.

  “I think you guys should stay here and catch us up later” Katya spoke mainly to Oliver and Kit, but she glanced to Zen and Laelia as well.

  “What the…?!” Oliver began to argue but Katya raised a hand to show that she wanted him to hear her out.

  “Kit shouldn’t be on the move yet, and you know it. I also think that you would be better off here with him; if not you’ll get distracted with worry” She continued, gaining a nod of the head from Leonora.

  “It’s true when Katya wasn’t around, you did have quite a few near misses while worrying about whether she was going to ever come back” she confirmed causing Oliver to pout slightly.

  “You can always catch us up afterwards but doing it when Kit can fight properly would be better” Katya glanced at Kit’s sleeping face. She hadn’t missed it back in that central hub, the way Oliver stood himself between the Nerushi and the wounded man. He hadn’t been thinking about how to fight back there, only how to protect Kit from being hit again. “Zen, I don’t think out there is a place for Laelia… It’s too dangerous, and if more people are going to start fights, the more those aliens are going to hit back.” Her blue hues had turned to the grey-haired male she was extremely fond of.

  Zen seemed unsure for a moment before sighing and nodding his head lightly “I was beginning to think the same thing, but I was hoping to see this through to the end with you guys.” He had been there from the first factory, after all, he had been the calm they needed in the hardest of days and he had prevented them from becoming too reckless in the face of c
old and fearsome nights.

  “We can always come back” Katya added with a smile; reaching out her hand to the male who pulled her close for a tight hug.

  “You better. You’re like a daughter I never had, so you better come back. I want to meet the rest of the clan” Zen chuckled softly as Katya squeezed him back with her good arm, ignoring the pressure on her healing one.

  “They’ll want to meet you, and everyone I’ve done this journey with so no worries about that!”

  Oliver was harder to convince to stay behind though, it was obvious that after being separated from his best friend was not what he wanted. Not after they had only just been reunited. What if something happened and he didn’t know? What if he caught up to them when Kit was better and find out that something had really taken Kat from his life forever??

  “I know you are worried… but you’ve got to stay with him. You love him.” Katya smiled softly at her dark-haired friend. That was the final argument in the debate of whether Oliver should stay or follow later. It was also a sign of complete support from Katya towards the emotions Oliver had barely noticed building up over the weeks.