End Boss

by Bryan Nyaude

  Whatever was around me, was definitely fast and very big judging by the noise, but there was no way we could have been followed, was there?

  “Hang tight, Den, I will be there soon,” he said and the com link went static.

  “Consider it done,” I laughed nervously.

  “Don’t move,” a voice I had never heard before spoke to me, something pointed at my back.

  Crap, I had been careless and now my enemy had got the best of me. Someone small was behind me—I could tell because of the shadow looming through me. I would guess a child. I tilted my back and lowered my stance ready to counterattack at the perfect chance.

  “Who are you and what do you want?” I dropped my guns and raised my hands in the air.

  “I said don’t move,” the person said and kicked me on the ground.

  Whoever it was didn’t seem too friendly, considering their tone of voice. I panted for a little, while trying to get back on my feet. I was sure my enemy was a child. Meaning there was no way he or she could have knocked me to my feet, bearing in mind how heavy my armor was. Slowly, I turned my gaze and looked up to see who my enemy was. No way, it was just a little boy and he had no weapons, which was rather disappointing. He had gray skin and rather wild green hair; he looked human enough, but at the same time, he didn’t. I just couldn’t explain it, but there was something about him that reminded me of Ali.

  “I told you not to move, didn’t I?” he growled at me, putting his foot on my chest and clenching his fists.

  He looked like a miniature little dog, barking and growling at me. I didn’t need my guns to take him on. I mean, he was a youngster, after all, and by some miracle, he had managed to knock me down to the ground. Quickly, I pulled his leg and threw him to the ground as gently as I could, since he was still just a kid.

  “Quit, kid, you can’t beat me,” I commented, standing up. “Now go back home and play with your toys.”

  I flexed my neck and shoulders and skipped around on my feet, to get my blood pumping again. I was at least a meter taller than he was and yet it didn’t seem to faze him. His posture was smooth and calm, as if he had been in this type of situation a thousand times over.

  “I warned you not to move, but you didn’t listen,” he hissed and dashed towards me.

  Painfully to say, I didn’t see him coming until it was too late. All I felt was a slight, but powerful pressure in my abdomen. I don’t know what happened. But I was sent flying back a few yards in the opposite direction, as if I was hit by a truck. My stomach twisted terribly back, sending me lying back flat for a few seconds. I lifted my head and looked back at the kid. Impossible, this wasn’t happening to me now, was it?

  “I’m here, Den, what’s the problem?” Rick yelled as he dashed towards me. He helped me get up slowly while holding his gun tightly. “What’s going on? Where is the enemy? How come you are on the ground in pain?”

  “Yeah, long story, but we don’t have time to chat now,” I said and made a startling dash for my gun.

  As predicted, we were no match for these aliens, in hand to hand combat. Just as the gun was within my grasp, I was hit by something strong in the chest so hard my legs locked. It was so painful I barely could breath for a few seconds. I dropped down to my knees and fell sideways, onto the ground.

  “What is out there?” Rick yelled, shooting his guns everywhere at once, hoping to hit something. He was going to laugh if I told him it was a kid, nevertheless, a very skilled and dangerous one. Time was of the essence. I was in pain, but I got back up on my feet and quickly viewed my surrounding. The alien kid was hiding somewhere close. Our best chance of survival lay in mutual teamwork.

  “Rick, come here,” I whispered, using my com link.

  I had a plan, but it was going to be difficult to do unless we both worked together flawlessly. From what I could deduce, the kid wasn’t alone. He probably had a team with him, hiding somewhere in the thicket—and they were probably close, and were watching our every move. Rick moved swiftly and stopped once he was a few feet from me.

  “Okay, I’m here,” Rick said, placing his back against mine. “Mind telling me what’s going on? Is it a terror beast or something else?”

  “You wouldn’t believe if I told you. Give me some of the smoke canisters, if you have any?” I whispered to him, extending my left arm outwards.

  While Rick was looking through his satchel pack, I massaged my chest softly. I could still feel the pain in my sternum and it ached terribly. It felt like I had been run over by a hover ship. Suddenly, Rick fell to the ground as something small swooshed past us like the wind. I raised my gun, but was unable to track it—it was just gone. That kid wasn’t human, if it was a kid to begin with. For all we know, it was a monster disguised as a child. Actually, I was beginning to think that everything on this planet just seemed out of place.

  This planet was weird in that it didn’t rotate clockwise or anticlockwise, which explained why there was never any long nights on this side of the planet. Such a distortion in the planetary axis was impossible to comprehend. In fact, we had no idea this planet existed until we picked up that signal.

  “What was that?” Rick coughed and got up.

  He staggered back and balanced himself, by putting weight on his left foot. I moved in front of him, with my gun in front. There was no sign of anything out of the ordinary, no traces of threat or danger riding in the wind. Wait, the wind. I could track him or it through the movement of wind. Whenever he attacked, he moved against the wind, meaning I could follow his movements and attack at the perfect chance.

  “Get ready, Rick,” I spoke, lowering my legs halfway to the ground. “He is coming again.”

  “Who is coming, Den? What is going on?” Rick was confused.

  I didn’t have the time to explain every detail to him. Besides, it also meant revealing the identity of Ali, who was hiding among the crew members at our main ship. There was a stir in the wind—a strong sense of imminent danger swiftly moving towards us through the ground. The looming shadow jolted past us again, hidden within the scent of the wind. Before we knew it, Rick and I were down again on the ground, groaning in agonizing pain. I was now sure the kid was moving with the wind. But logically, this was not possible. I mean, I knew DNA could mutate and take on a few characteristics, but this was just way too much to say the least. If by some coincidence, a race of humans lived on this planet, then that would explain the power and speed. I mean they had to have been here for at least a few centuries for this kind of evolution to take place.

  “Throw your canisters to the ground,” I coughed, urging Rick.

  He nodded without arguing and threw all of them, at once, onto the ground. I watched the canisters explode into the ground, sending a vapor of mist into the air. Everything was engulfed by the black smoke, completely blinding us to our surrounding. I coughed out loud and ached in pain. Honestly, it felt like one of my ribs had been broken, which was not bad, taking into consideration the alternative. Beyond this fog was a little alien monster with incredible speed and power and I really didn’t want to tangle with it. The wind kept whooshing around us without any accurate direction. I noticed something. Every time the wind passed by, the smoke cleared up little by little. It was just a matter of time before we were visible again.

  “This isn’t good,” I chuckled out loud.

  I tilted my back up, and sat on my legs for a second. My initial plan had failed, forcing me to improvise. Then a strange thought came to me; it was going to be tough to pull, but it was the only option.

  “Rick, where is Huggers?” I whispered to him as silently as I could.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” he raised his voice at me, which shook me a little. “You are not using Huggers as bait to lure whatever is out there.”

  Why was Rick not seeing the bigger picture here? There was more at stake than nursing that little monster. I shook my head, trying to come up with a way to convince him to think otherwise.

  “Rick, please! We are ru
nning out of time and this is the only option.”

  “Think of something else because I won’t let you use Huggers as a distraction to escape, he is just a baby.”

  Yeah right, that little baby was going to grow up one day and feed on us. I wanted to tell him that, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that those words would only provoke him. The last thing I wanted was to have Rick acting irrational.

  “I will be the bait,” he said, from the com link, and ran out of the smoke.

  Yeah, that kind of irrational behavior was what I was afraid of. It was too late to stop him. I got back on my feet and gritted my teeth. Rick had just ruined my perfectly good plan. Dalla was going to kill me if anything happened to her brother, and in this case, probably something will.

  “Wait, Rick, come back,” I yelled, although I doubted he heard me at all.

  Rick had left one of his backup guns lying on the ground. I found it using my sonar scanners. It wasn’t a revolver; however, I took it nonetheless. I deployed a small drone from my armor and sent it flying into the air, while I stood motionlessly, hidden inside the smoke. With the small drone in the air, I could see clearly what was happening outside.

  Rick was standing outside the smoke’s range, with his hands up. “I give up, so please don’t attack me.”

  What was that buffoon doing? He dropped down to his knees as a sign of surrendering, but nothing happened after—which was a surprise. Then the wind picked up and sped right by him, in a jiffy, without knocking him down as before. Everything went silent again. I stealthy tiptoed towards him without leaving the cover of the fog and halted, once he was a few feet from me. I wanted to get close enough to see what was really happening. There was some mysterious secret to the boy’s speed and I was determined to uncover it. Again, the wind sprouted, but stopped in front of Rick as a small figure emerged. My legs tightened as I felt anxiety and anticipation build up inside me. I watched the little boy kick Rick’s back from behind onto the ground. He stood on top of him, with his right leg resting on top of his back, like a conqueror. That arrogant little fool was really starting to get on my nerves. I really wanted to blast him with a dozen bullets, but my morals kept getting in the way. Glancing down, at his feet, I noticed something bolted to his soles. The heels of his shoes had titanium bladed mini wheels with small boost thrusters. It explained why he was so fast and hard to track. Now everything was starting to make sense.

  “I told you people not to move, but you don’t listen,” he kicked Rick on the back again. “What are you doing on our planet, and what do you want?”

  Before I could assault him, I paused midway—his words had struck my interest. Well, for me, but not for Rick, who looked like he was in pain. If I attacked now, I would spook the boy and he would escape, or worse, kill us. Instead, I decided to wait it out and learn more of what this boy knew.

  “Rick, keep him talking,” I whispered to him from through our com link.

  “Well, that’s easy for you to say,” he commented. “It’s not like you are on the ground being trampled on by a little boy, whose foot feels like it weighs 10 tons?”

  “You volunteered, so deal with it.”

  Rick didn’t reply back although he did have a point. His life was in danger and I was taking a large gamble by not helping him now. I felt my conscience scream at me to help him, but my body didn’t respond. The intel the boy possessed was way too valuable to risk a confrontation at the moment. Even if I attacked, there was a possibility it wouldn’t end well for Rick and I.

  “If you tell me something, I will tell you something,” Rick said, chuckling on the ground.

  The little boy kicked him again and rattled, “you are in no position to make demands.”

  The boy was not spilling any secrets at all. What could I do? The smoke was clearing and he still wasn’t talking. Rick kept him busy some more, by asking him random questions, only to get hard kicks in the back. For a minute, I almost revealed myself; however, I moved back and stayed still—biding my time. There were two rules in warfare: never get caught and never get killed. Apparently, I had already broken the first rule and I was close to breaking the second one. Wait, I knew someone who could help us out of this pinch. There was only one person or alien who knew how to handle this type of situation. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure if my com link signal was strong enough to reach all the way there.

  “Hey, Ali, can you hear me?” I said, increasing the frequency on my com link, to reach a wide range.

  There was static on my com link for a while as if something was jamming the signal.

  “Yeah, I hear ya, what’s the problem?” he replied in a rude voice.

  You would think that I did something terrible to him, judging by the tone of his voice, but I really didn’t know what. Maybe, some people were just born that way—just cranky and hating anything.

  “We ran into a gray boy and I have to say he is really strong and fast. Something about all of this is just not adding up at all,” I commented in a low voice. “Care to clue us in on something. Anything at this point will do; I am tired of being kept in the dark.”

  I could still see Rick in pain as the little boy had his leg on his back. It didn’t even make sense at all, in my opinion. Just how strong was he? Or was Rick faking it?

  “Den, listen carefully,” he said in a serious voice. “That boy is not a monster, he is a human. But one who’s DNA has been mutated since he was probably born here. He is most likely a member of the kingdom or a member of the resistance; it's complicated, but just get Rick and Dalla and flee immediately, because he is probably not alone.”

  Figures, I knew we were in trouble, but I just didn’t think it would be this bad and so complicated. His words of warning seemed to leave me even more confused than before. Who was the resistance? Were they enemies or friends? Oh well, I put the matter aside and focused completely.

  “How do we flee? The boy is just too fast and strong.”

  I couldn’t believe I was saying that—then again, it explained how half my crew had been taken so easily. I mean, if the boy was this strong, then it was most likely a full grown man was twice as powerful on this planet. How could we possibly beat that?

  “Any time now, Den,” Rick grunted out loudly and impatiently.

  Quickly, I took aim with the gun I had found and pointed it directly at the boy’s head. It was probably not going to kill him, but knock him down for a couple of seconds.

  “Don’t do anything reckless like shooting the boy,” the old man said and the com link cut off.

  How did he know that? I tried reconnecting the link several times, but the link didn’t come back on, and to make things worse, the smoke was almost gone. It was just a matter of time before he looked back and spotted me too. I tilted my back down and I switched the rest of my power supply to my offense and camouflage system. As slowly and as quietly as possible, I crept my way towards him, avoiding any sudden noise. He was so agitated by Rick that he never noticed me coming. Once I got a few inches behind him, I turned on my stunners and touched a portion of his neck at full voltage. The boy fell on the ground, moving uncontrollably for a few seconds, which came as a surprise to me.

  “What did you do that for?” Rick yelled from the ground while trying to get up. “He was just a kid and look at the condition you put him in.”

  I was expecting a thank you from him and not harsh words, although he had a point; I didn’t think this through, at all. It seemed electricity had a much more powerful effect on the residents on this planet than we thought. This was the third time electricity had worked marvelously. First, it was against the small terror beasts, and now against this boy, who was by far stronger than us. All I could hypothesize was that electricity somehow interfered more strongly with their nervous system than it did with normal humans.

  “You are welcome, Rick,” I said sarcastically, and kneeled down on the ground to examine the boy. He was still alive as I saw the frequency of his pulse beating strongl
y. It was rather impressive in a way. I stood up and began to walk away from him hastily. “We gotta go now, Rick, he isn’t alone.”

  Rick nodded and picked up his gear quickly. He turned on his camouflage system and followed behind me. Suddenly, my drone picked up movements all around us. They were not as loud or as big as terror beasts, based on what I could hear.

  “Rick, stop,” I warned him, using my com link and we both stopped moving.

  I held my gun tighter than before, looking in the direction in front of me, while Rick scanned the opposite direction.

  “What do you suppose is making that noise?” Rick whispered to me with fear in his voice. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to know or find out because I knew it had to be trouble. I started to hear voices suddenly as they got closer and closer. Seconds later, we saw what looked like people coming towards us.

  “Where is he?” a female voice spoke out loudly, “I told him not to go out there alone.”

  My eyes gazed at her. She had bright, black hair and distinct pale light brown eyes, and her skin was as gray as the boy’s—her full figure matched perfectly with her tall height

  “I think, I’m in love,” Rick sighed out loudly which freaked me out for a second. “Whoever she is, I hope she likes earth boys.”

  “Shut up, Rick,” I shook my head.

  If anyone was close, they could have heard it and found us in mere seconds. A group of strange alien warriors rushed past us and examined the crash site closely. For some reason, they dared not get close to our ship, which I found weird. It felt like they knew it was there, but dared not to go anywhere near it. I looked around, closely watching them. There were a handful of them, at least two dozen.

  “I found him,” one of the voices screamed, coming from where we had left the little boy. “He is in bad shape, but he will live.”

  The girl with the long black hair ran swiftly and kneeled by the little boy, who was unconscious on the ground. Her hands slipped past his face with an utter feel of concern and worry. She raised him halfway and held him tightly in her arms. I think they were related somehow, maybe brother and sister.