by R. D. Brady
That had been a cold, hard winter. They made it through because they had each other. She knew that. Lyla spent that winter hunting for every small piece of game she could find and bringing it back to feed the camp. She still remembered how cold she’d felt, her toes and fingers going numb. But she’d pushed on, knowing lives depended on her, knowing the two lives of her little family depended on her.
Lyla looked back at her sister, who ran a hand through Riley’s hair. Muriel was the softness in this cold world. If Lyla was the fist, then Muriel was the heart. And the fist wasn’t much use if the heart stopped beating.
Lyla pulled her gaze away, not liking where her thoughts were heading. They’re alive. Focus on that. But the fear wouldn’t leave her.
She had been a warrior for the group for seven years, fully initiated when she was eighteen. But so far that had meant fighting off humans and animals. In all of those fights—and there had been many—she had never been as terrified as she was today. She couldn’t kill those things. All she’d been able to do was throw them off balance, allowing people a chance to escape.
Lyla studied the forest floor below. It was quiet, but not too quiet. Every once in while an animal would dart out. But their occasional appearance did nothing to distract her mind. Ever since those things attacked the camp, one single question flashed continually through her mind: What are they?
The shortest one she saw had been at least seven feet tall. The tallest was close to ten. And they were incredibly strong. And we cannot get through their suits.
There had been no warning of their approach, despite the guards that always surrounded the camp. No warning except the ravings of a man on the edge of death. And Saul, who said he’d seen a ship flying overhead the day before. They must have been doing reconnaissance on the camp.
Lyla closed her eyes. She had no doubt those perimeter guards had been the first to die today. And despite all their training, it had been done silently and efficiently. Might as well have had no guard for all the good it did. One minute everything was normal and the next, all hell had broken loose. The first blast had taken out five Phoenixes, and the ones left were barely able to defend themselves, never mind the camp.
All their precautions to keep the camp safe had proven worthless. The fighting skills that worked against humans and animals had failed spectacularly today. But how did you prepare to fight an enemy you never knew existed?
At the snap of a branch, she whipped her head to the right as a small deer wandered out. It found a patch of grass it liked and contented itself with eating. Lyla relaxed, knowing the deer wouldn’t be standing there so calmly if those things were nearby.
Above her, a full moon shone down. It was a beautiful sight, all bright and luminescent in the dark cloudless sky. Beautiful as it was, she wished it wasn’t quite so bright. While it made it easier for her to see, it also made it easier for her to be seen.
She squinted and could just make out the face in the moon. Long ago, her father had told her that the man in the moon was real and that he watched over them. When she was a kid, whenever she was scared, she would look up at the Moon and remember her father’s words.
Nothing can happen to you when the man in the moon is watching.
She smiled, but then the smile faded when she remembered finding his body four years ago. He had gone out hunting with Chris, Muriel’s husband. It should have been fine. Spring was in full effect. But a snowstorm had sprung up out of nowhere. They had never returned.
When the snow stopped and they still hadn’t returned, Lyla had gone looking, and she’d found them both. She closed her eyes against the pain the memory still elicited.
She glanced back at the Moon, the memory of her father’s words about the man in the moon no longer provided her comfort. She let out a sigh, pulling her legs up and wrapping her cloak tighter around her. How she wished she could believe her father’s words now.
But now I think it may be the man in the moon we need to worry about.
Muriel joined her at the entrance of the cave, peering out into the dark night. “Anything?”
“All quiet.” Lyla tilted her head toward the back of the cave. “How’s he doing?”
Muriel sat next to her with a sigh. “He’s asleep. The one good thing about all that running is that it tired him out. But today was rough.”
Lyla nodded, not turning. “For all of us.”
Silence descended as they both stared out. Lyla watched the deer. It finished its meal and wandered back into the trees.
“Lyla, what were those things today?”
Lyla glanced over at Muriel, whose eyes were full of fear. Lyla tried to keep that fear out of her own eyes. It had always been that way. Lyla was the one who swallowed down her fear and kept a brave face, even when she was terrified. Her strength allowed Muriel to feel her fear and pass through it.
Today she pulled on all those old habits and shoved her fear away. But she couldn’t help remembering plunging her knife into the being’s chest. It would have been a killing blow if it had landed. Instead of a dead opponent, she’d been left with a shattered knife. Lyla liked to think that she could handle anything, face anything. But at that moment, she had been powerless. All her training, all her hard work, and she couldn’t kill the thing.
Lyla strove to keep all emotion out of her voice and just report on what she knew, which wasn’t much. “I don’t know what they were. All I know is our swords can’t cut through whatever armor they were wearing. The best we can do is knock them off balance.”
“They can’t be human, can they?”
Lyla paused before speaking. “I don’t see how. I mean, occasionally you might see a tall human. But a group of them that are eight feet tall or taller?” Lyla shook her head. “No. They can’t be human.”
“So what does that mean? Robots? Aliens?”
Lyla thought of the things she had taken down. They had been warm, and although strong, they were soft, like skin. “I don’t think they’re robots. As for aliens …” She shrugged. “I just don’t know.”
Muriel went silent. Lyla pictured the fight back at the camp. They hadn’t been able to fight the beings—not in any real sense. She’d seen seven of her Phoenixes get evaporated, along with countless others. She closed her eyes. How are we going to defeat these things?
The ash itself brought back horrible memories. It reminded her of the five years when ash had covered everything. Her father said a volcano must have erupted. Even when the ash stopped falling it took two more years for it to disappear entirely. It was in the water, the food, everywhere. Muriel, who’d been pregnant at the time, had been terrified that it would affect the baby. When Riley was born happy and healthy, they had all breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Did you know anything about them?” Muriel asked.
Lyla looked up, guilt eating at her. She sighed. “Two nights ago Jamal and I found a guy just outside the camp. He was sick, delirious. Simon thinks it was rabies.”
Muriel gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
And it was just that type of reaction that had led Frank to decide to not inform the rest of the camp about the man. Nothing terrified a group more than a disease with no cure. “He was ranting. We thought it was just the fever talking. He said they came in ships. He said they would kill us all. We thought he was hallucinating. And then yesterday Saul said he’d seen an airship. But it all just seemed impossible. That type of technology doesn’t exist on this planet anymore.” Lyla paused. “But it might exist on another one.”
“Is that what you think they are?”
“Crazy as it may sound, it’s also the most logical explanation.” She sighed. “Damn it, we should have warned people. We should have—”
Muriel put her arm around Lyla’s shoulders and squeezed. “You can’t blame yourself. I mean, there have been days when getting a fire lit has proven almost impossible. So how could you believe a sick man ranting about flying ships? I mean, look at how we live. Some days it feels li
ke we are one step removed from Neanderthals or cave dwellers.” Muriel looked around, her voice dry. “Says the woman hiding with her family in a cave.”
A small smile crossed Lyla’s lips.
Muriel shook her head. “I’d settle for some electricity or an indoor toilet. But spaceships? They shouldn’t exist here. Not unless someone brought them from somewhere off this planet. You couldn’t have known.”
“But someone had to have known about them. Maybe other groups saw them first. We can’t be the first ones they attacked.”
“You still couldn’t have known. We don’t have communication with any other groups, at least not regularly.”
“But that’s the problem,” Lyla burst out. “If something happens, we don’t learn about it until it’s too late. We need to be working together with other groups, not isolated from them.”
“But with the distance, it’s too difficult to maintain that communication. I mean, if we had radios or computers like before the asteroid, it would be easy. That’s assuming we could find people we could trust.”
Lyla closed her eyes, picturing the last group of people they’d had trouble with. The men had barely been human. They’d had trophies of their kills around their necks. And they had decided their camp was their next target. It had been a bloody fight, but eventually Lyla and her people succeeded. But it reinforced why they needed to stay isolated.
Lyla sighed. “But we need to do better than this. We’re barely surviving. It’s not enough.”
“Maybe we should join up with another group. Safety in numbers.”
Lyla shook her head. “Not now, not with those things out there. That just means they’ll find us sooner. Smaller is probably safer.”
“But that will make basic survival that much more difficult.”
Lyla nodded, feeling even more exhausted all of a sudden. She rested her head on her knees. “I know, I know. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”
Muriel pulled her into her shoulder.
Lyla sighed, letting herself lean on Muriel, both physically and otherwise, for just a little bit. “There has to be a better way to survive than this, though. And we have to figure it out. We’re all living from day to day. I have to believe there’s a better way.”
“Even with the aliens?”
“Well, maybe not with them,” Lyla said. “But maybe some group figured out a weakness. That would be something we all need to know. Right now, one group could figure it out, and we’d never know.”
“Do you think they have a weakness?”
This time Lyla’s voice was confident. This answer she was sure of. “Everything has a weakness.”
Muriel took Lyla’s hand and squeezed it.
Lyla looked up into her sister’s eyes.
“I need you to promise me something,” Muriel said.
Lyla didn’t like the tone of her voice. “Okay.”
“Whatever happens, you take care of Riley.”
“Of course I’ll take care of him.”
“No.” Muriel’s eyes were intense. “You’re a better fighter than me. If things go bad, you get Riley and run. You don’t think about me.”
Lyla yanked her hand away, shaking her head. “No. I’m not leaving you behind. We’ll all get out.”
“Lyla, you know as well as I do that if these things keep coming, you have a better chance of surviving than I do. Which means if Riley is with you, he has a better chance of surviving. You have to promise to take care of him. You can protect him better than I can.”
Lyla wanted to argue with her. She wanted to tell her that it would be fine. That they would all get out of this. But that wasn’t true. The strongest would survive. And she was stronger than Muriel. She gripped Muriel’s hand. “If it comes to that, I’ll protect him with my life. But it won’t come to that.”
Muriel studied Lyla’s eyes for a moment before she reached up, pushed a stray hair off Lyla’s forehead, and placed a kiss there. Then she leaned her head into Lyla’s, just like she’d done since they were kids. “I love you, Lyla.”
“I love you, too.” Lyla let herself close her eyes for just a moment and enjoy the feel of her sister with her. Because she had a feeling—and she knew Muriel did, too—that this moment of comfort would be their last for a while.
The dream faded as Riley blinked his eyes open. He reared back at first, seeing a figure leaning over him in the dark.
His mom’s voice cut through the fear. “Riley.”
He closed his eyes. Mom was here. It was all right.
But his mom just shook him again. “Riley, it’s time to get up.”
He groaned, his whole body feeling heavy.
“Riley, we need to go now.”
Riley opened his eyes, the dim light in the cave enough to confuse him. Where— He stared at the rock ceiling and then his mom before the memories from yesterday rushed back to him all at once. He sat straight up, his pulse racing.
His mom put her arm around him. “Shh, honey, it’s okay. You’re safe. I’m here. Lyla’s here.”
Riley looked to where his aunt stood at the entrance of the cave, her staff in her arms, her sword strapped to her side, her cloak covering her. He felt better at the sight of her. She looked like she always did—strong, confident.
He remembered her taking down that thing from yesterday. She’d defeated it. His pulse calmed a little. As long as Lyla was around, they were safe. He pushed off the ground, his legs already tired. But he knew his mom was just as sore. He didn’t ask about breakfast because he knew there would be none today. “I’m ready. Where are we going?”
“To meet everyone else,” Lyla said.
But Riley heard the words that hadn’t been said. To meet everyone who is left.
Lyla looked at him. “You ready?”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
Lyla led the way. The Moon gave them enough light to see by, especially once his eyes got accustomed to it. Lyla moved like she had night vision. She never stumbled, never got caught on a bush. She moved soundlessly through the trees.
They walked in silence in the dark for an hour before dawn broke. The sky shifted from black to blue with angry slashes of pink. But they didn’t stop as the sun rose higher in the sky. It felt like they’d been walking for hours before Lyla put up a hand for them to stop. They had not seen a soul, which wasn’t unusual. But Riley had hoped they’d come across some people from camp. They’d just come over a rise, and Riley knew the Old Mill was just over the next one.
Instead of heading there, Lyla gestured toward a tall series of bushes. She slipped behind one and was completely hidden. Riley and his mom followed suit.
Lyla glanced over at them. “The mill is just ahead. I’m going to make sure everything is all right. You two stay here, out of sight. If you hear anything you don’t like, you two get out of here, and I will find you.”
His mom pursed her lips together at Lyla’s order but eventually nodded. Lyla squeezed his mom’s arm and ruffled Riley’s hair before she slipped away.
He watched the spot where his aunt disappeared. In his mind, he pictured her being ambushed by those things. He started to tremble and couldn’t make himself stop.
His mother wrapped her arm around him, rubbing his arms. “She’ll be fine. It’ll be okay.”
Riley hated when adults said things like that. They were empty words. There was nothing fine about any of this. Things were not going to be okay. But for now he let himself be lied to. And he let a small part of himself believe his mother was right.
Riley lay down, staring up at the sky as time dragged on. He wanted to sleep, but he was too scared to even think about closing his eyes. He started counting, his fear for his aunt making it hard to stay silent. When he passed five thousand, he began to shake. “Something’s wrong. We need to go find her.”
His mom shook her head. “No. We stay here.”
“But—”
Without warning, his aunt reappeared, and Riley felt relief flood him.
“How many people are there?” his mom asked.
“About twenty,” Lyla replied.
“Only twenty?” His mom’s eyes grew large, her face paling.
Lyla squeezed her arm. “Yeah. But that doesn’t mean it’s everybody. People were scattered. They could be being cautious. They know where we’re heading. They could meet us down there.”
She nodded, blowing out a little breath, a small tremor running through her.
“Now, let’s go. They’re getting ready to move in a few minutes.” Lyla started to jog. Riley stayed behind her with his mom, not liking how worried she looked. Ahead, he saw the Old Mill.
It had once been a lumber mill. The old saws inside were rusted over. Most had crashed to the ground. One wall had collapsed and the other three leaned precariously into one another. Trees had begun to reclaim the space, an oak growing in the middle of the building, its top branches reaching just below the ceiling.
Riley scanned the area but didn’t see anyone. Where were they? His heart clenched. Had something happened?
His aunt turned to the left just before they reached the clearing around the building. Riley heard a dull murmur, and his heart raced. People. There were people ahead.
Riley smiled just before a scream split the air.
Lyla clamped onto Riley’s arm as soon as the scream sounded and dragged him into the trees. Muriel was right behind them.
And then Lyla heard the blasting noise.
“Move,” Lyla whispered furiously as soon as they were hidden by the trees. She grabbed Riley’s hand and sprinted forward. Muriel stayed glued to their heels.
A scream sounded in front of them followed by the blasting noise. Lyla yanked Riley to a stop and paused, trying to listen over the sound of her pounding heart.
She could hear someone coming behind them. And they were not coming quietly. And she knew there was also someone ahead of them. Right or left?
Riley stared up at her with big eyes, his breath coming out in pants. Muriel stood waiting, trusting her. Lyla tugged him to the left. “Come on.”