In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater

by J Alex McCarthy

  “I can take you. We’re close to the river, if you don’t cross it you should be fine,” Lance says.

  “No! I’m tired of us splitting up, there’s only three of us left. We need to go together or—“ Lawrence pauses.

  Blood bursts out his mouth. A jagged piece of metal pokes out two feet from his chest. He falls dead.

  “Make that two,” Kabus says.

  Lance runs to Lawrence but pauses when he looks down the street.

  “Shit,” Julio says.

  Kabus stands in the middle of the street, standing at only seven feet tall.

  An alpha.

  The white house bunker is setup as a control room. Monitors, computers, and maps take up most of the room. Generals and the remaining world leaders command the battle from this safe haven.

  Off to the side is the fake oval office for the president speech. In the middle of it all, the president sits in his chair, overlooking the situation. But he’s really lingering in thought, thinking.

  Acting as if he’s watching the monitors, thinking of a world-saving strategy.

  It’s just a play from his many years as a politician. He isn’t doing any of those things, he knows how hopeless it is.

  This meaningless war.

  No matter what he thinks of, they are all out of options. No nukes, no secret world saving technology and now he has to give his promised speech to the remainder of his people.

  Is he going to give them useless hope? So when the ceiling comes down on them they could at least have one last good blissful final thought. Or is he going to tell them to give one final prayer to their gods. Or whichever god is watching over them.

  His secretary walks up next to him.

  “We have taken control of most of the radio and television signals, we are ready for you, sir.”

  Thora sits alone in her bed in the stadium, her head in her knees. Everyone surrounds a television at the other end of the stadium. Arnold is with them too, with Neil. Awaiting the impending conference. The president isn’t going to save them. She puts her head back down and rocks the night away.

  Ulbe and Cole continue to stare at each other, who is going to make the first move. His spheres spin around him excitedly.

  Ulbe swings at Cole, Cole moves fast, his force field pops up. Ulbe’s fist breaks through it and lands into Cole. Cole hurls into a building.

  Kabus slowly walks toward Julio, Lance and Reese in a playful manner. He knows how weak they are.

  “Reese! Run for it!!” Julio yells. Reese runs into an alley to the left.

  “Long time no see,” Kabus says with a toothy grin.

  Julio flings an energy blast at him, Kabus simply swats it away.

  “You’re going to have to try harder than that.”

  “Kill him!” Julio yells, they need to take care of him quick, before he can attack.

  Both Julio and Lance charge, Kabus smiles and fires at them, energy projectiles slung at them. Lance dodges them but Julio is hit hard, it explodes when it hits his chest and he flies back. Lance leaps toward Kabus and –

  In a flash, Kabus jumps and kicks Lance impossibly fast in the chest and sends him into the air. It was so fast Lance doesn’t know what just happened. Julio comes from his right swinging hard, but none of them hit. Kabus dodges stupidly fast.

  Kabus hurls his fist back, like some kind of martial arts master, laying every blow into Julio. Kabus grabs Julio and flings him at Lance.

  Julio crashes into him and they tumble into the ground.

  Julio struggles to get up. He coughs, blood splatters on the ground from his mouth.

  Shit.

  There is no way they can beat him.

  “Fuck,” Lance mutters. He also struggles up. There is only one option, they’re going to die if they continue on.

  “Fuck this.”

  They can’t defeat Kabus and he knows it. Kabus just smiles at them, standing in the same spot, he barely moved an inch.

  “Run.”

  Cole explodes out of the building he crashed into and toward Ulbe, they fight. They go hit for hit, Ulbe blocks and counters Cole every move. Ulbe lands a hit and sends Cole into the air.

  It’s like he’s anticipating his every move, every swing he tries, Ulbe is ready to counter it.

  Ulbe pulsates and sends an invisible force at Cole. But he can see it and blocks it with his force field. Cole suddenly shoots up blindingly fast into the sky. The Damon follows.

  Cole flies higher and higher into the air, past the clouds and pushes into the upper limits of the atmosphere. The folds of the Earth past him. He spins, twirling like a butterfly in the wind.

  A faire approaches in the distance. He closes his eyes and lets the elements rush over him. He loves this, the air that massages his hair, the wind caressing his body, the silence of the Earth, the freedom of it. He could never do this without his power, he opens his eyes.

  In the horizon, the blue trail of earth consolidates into the black of space. He could have never seen this without the confines of a vehicle, hell he would’ve never seen it from this perspective in his lifetime.

  Cole stops, he wishes he could continue on forever but he has thing to take care off.

  He falls, Ulbe comes screaming up from below him. Cole fires his spheres at him, but Ulbe effortlessly dodges them.

  This is his medium, the sky.

  Ulbe opens his mouth and lets out a beam of hell fire. It surprises Cole as—

  He’s hit and falls down.

  His spheres spin around him and clears the smoke. Not a mark.

  “This is still nothing!!” Cole yells.

  He flies for the Damon and swings at him, who simply dodges his efforts. Cole shoots up and then back down, bringing his leg down on Ulbe. Anticipate that, asshole.

  As Ulbe is hit down, he spins and swings his wings into Cole. Cole staggers back as Ulbe swings his hand and—

  Boom! Cole is sent flying into a nearby faires docking bay by the invisible force.

  The president sits at his desk in his fake oval office. He stares out into the room, most of the generals and leaders still work at the monitors.

  No matter what he says they have a battle to run.

  But the rest, they all stand at their seats, staring up at him, as if he’s some kind of savior brought to save them, with their hopeful eyes, waiting for him to say something, anything, to bring them a new hope.

  Maybe it’s time, for the end of the lies of a politician and the hopeful words of a prophet. It’s time for the words of a human, the truth. No matter how cold and hard it is. He’s not looking for a reelection.

  “What do you want me to say? You want me to say, that we will win this… that I have some kind of plan, that this will end soon and we all can finally rest and sleep like nothing has happen, you’ll say we’ll fight with all our might. That this is our home, you’ll say, this is our world, you’ll yell! Let them come to us to meet there end!

  But, yet… when all the yelling and shouting is done, and we look up into the sky as they come down to us. Descending from the very clouds we prayed upon, descending from the very sky we hoped upon, for forgiveness, salvation, the very stars we wished upon to vanquish our enemies, to destroy the wicked, to protect us.

  And to see them come from above, knowing we are all alone in this cold dark world, that nobody will come and save us, that we are destined to a depressing fate. How can we fight, how will we muster up the effort, when there are no more stars in our once hopeful, lonely sky. When there is no more hope left for us…”

  The president pauses, he can’t let them down. They are looking up to him, not for the truth but not exactly the reality. They just want something to have hope toward.

  “But there is hope.”

  In safe houses around the battlefield, people huddle around their televisions and radios. They listen to the president’s speech, listening intently for they need someone or something to bring them hope.

  “I was told once that I like to help othe
rs. I do like to help others, that’s human nature and why you elected me.”

  In another stadium, Thora sits in her makeshift bed, arms wrapped around her legs, head in her knees. Alone, rocking back and forth. She doesn’t believe in hope any more.

  In a street near the air base, Julio and Lance sprint down it. Kabus chases closely behind, with a stupid grin on his face.

  These are the chosen, the titans, the ones who are supposed to protect the planet and maybe even the galaxy. Yet, here they are in a moment of weakness.

  In front of them the road ends, only a seven story apartment building stands in front of them. This feels familiar to Julio, but this time only Kabus or himself is going to come out alive.

  He’s going to end him once and for all.

  “There is room for everyone on this green earth, no matter what race.”

  “Go through it!” Julio yells.

  They leap incredibly high and crash through the fifth story window. Lance lands perfectly on his feet as Julio plunges in, tumbling to the floor, skidding across the carpet and to a stop.

  He gets to his knees and tries to catch his breath. Glass pierced his skin, but he’s not healing.

  He can’t keep doing this.

  He jumps up, pushing through a painful grunt.

  “Keep going,” Julio says. He looks down the hall. “We can take him at the end.”

  They run down the hallway, running with all their might. With the dark purple carpet and checkered wallpaper the hallway feels infinitely long.

  Lance starts to leave Julio behind.

  Julio struggles more and more to keep up. Something is wrong.

  “Wait. Stop!” Lance shouts.

  Lance halts, Julio skids to a stop. He walks up to Lance and looks around, nobody is chasing them.

  Perfect chance to catch his breath, Julio kneels and breathes deeply, it’s getting harder to breathe, his legs and arms feel like spaghetti.

  There is a tense silence in the hallway.

  Where is that fucker?

  They turn around.

  Nothing.

  There’s a creak, it echoes through the building. Julio pushes himself back to his feet, he nearly blacks out doing it.

  Lance didn’t notice, he doesn’t want to be a burden.

  Bang!

  Julio jumps. He looks around frantically, his tiredness is messing with his senses. He can’t tell where it’s coming from.

  Lance braces himself, getting ready.

  “Whatever you do—“

  He stops, there is another bang, this time at the end of the hallway, toward where they were heading. Suddenly there’s a loud rat tat tat sound.

  Footsteps.

  Heading toward them.

  “—keep running,” Lance says as the footsteps close in.

  Julio can kill him, for good this time.

  “But—“

  The footsteps stops behind them. The steps stopped almost right under them. Julio backs up, Lance’s locket lights up.

  “Run!” Lance yells.

  Kabus rips through the floor and into Lance. Insulation and carpet fly through the air. Julio runs, Lance and Kabus crash back down from the ceiling and through the floor.

  Julio stares straight ahead and runs the hardest he has ever had to run before.

  His body betrays him.

  His legs slow, cramps hit his abdomen, his chest tightens, it gets hard to breath.

  He’s at his limit, the stupid fucking limit he trained so hard to break and to get rid of. It’s all crashing back on him.

  Why!? Why does it have to happen now!?

  After all he’s been through. He peers right down the hall to the window ahead of him.

  A safe haven.

  Behind him the fight continues, crashing up they go through the wall to the left and then to the right. It’s disorienting as they tear through the works of man, like it’s nothing.

  Lance actually holds his own.

  They rip through the ceiling again. This time they don’t come back down. Julio closes in to the window and stops hard, almost falling through.

  He heaves in heavily, sweat smearing the glass as his head slams into it.

  “But greed and hate has poisoned us, changing our race, our nature.”

  He looks out the window, the five stories seem like millions. Almost certain death if he jumps in his condition, he struggles to stay upright, his body shakes.

  This is it.

  “As we fight against this threat we must unite together, putting aside our prejudice and hate.”

  His ring beeps, a display projects on top of it. It says ‘Power depleted.’

  He’s not immortal any more.

  His muscle suddenly get sore, using the powers took a toll on his body, but it seems like when he had energy it neglected the pain and soreness.

  Out the window, the sky flashes as more forces come down. He looks down the streets below.

  “I can’t do it…I just can’t…”

  What would be better if he can’t defeat Kabus, falling to his death or getting mutilated by him?

  Kabus crashes down behind him, right on queue. Julio turns and leans against the window, he tries to suppress his shakes but it barely works.

  “And rise up and remember why were still alive, on top of our food chain.”

  “I have seemed to have lost your friend back there, the slippery fuck. But you are the one I really want,” Kabus says.

  Kabus blows him a kiss and slowly walks toward him. Julio grimaces at the thoughts going through Kabus’s head.

  “You know on our home world, we have these things called recreants, they’re just like your rats, pest of the Earth consuming and destroying everything they touch, yet exterminating their equivalent.”

  Julio breathes in and calms himself, his shakes stops. He feels something in the distance in his mind, a small ball of energy, he tries to reach out for it.

  Nothing.

  But he feels it getting closer, speaking to him.

  “We came to Earth a couple of millennia ago when we were led by the peace keeping type. But your kind were so dirty and violent that we simply left, until you could ascend to a level worth associating with. All uncultivated civilizations are like that. But that was when the Astrons ruled us.”

  While Kabus babbles on, Julio feels the source getting closer, close enough he can see it, through the ceiling, through the clouds, the sky and through space.

  It is the sun.

  His vision turns into blackness, darkness surrounds him, only the sun floats in front of him.

  It heard his pleas.

  This must be what Jahum meant when he said he could speak with the stars. It’s the very sun which gave Earth life, the very thing that people pined for. It wants to help him, give him just enough energy for him to make it through this. But not more, for every ounce it gives is taken from its own life.

  Julio blinks, he’s back in front of Kabus, leaning against the window. He can feel his skin tingling, he needs just enough.

  Fear and anxiety leaves him, he stares directly into Kabus’s eyes. Julio finally understands, an answer to a question he never really asked himself before, but in this moment, he’s come to a primal understanding of it. If he can really speak with the stars, what to fear in death. The stars will protect him.

  He is never alone.

  “Your kind should be destroyed unless they can reach our level of enlightenment before their ignorance of the universe gets the best of them. No race so far is on our level, so they all will be terminated. It’s too bad. Cornered like a rat, you can’t run to your god. Your God Is Dead…Even rats have gods don’t they?”

  Julio smirks.

  “Based on what I know of this situation, not during any moment of your rambling did you make any sense,” Julio says.

  He’s trying to stall, he can feel the energy pulsating into him. He just needs a little more.

  “Ha, well most beings wouldn’t mind thinking their deaths had some
kind of meaning behind it. That was something I thought of on the fly. Let’s just say that we are the only ones you’ll be worshiping from now on.”

  Julio stands on his own. He looks at his hands. He has just enough.

  “Heaven must be a lonely place.” Julio swings out his right arm. He screams as—

  A force field projects in front of him, a beautiful shade of blue green. It attaches to his arm as he swings down and turns into an energy sword.

  “What the fuck do you know about rats?” Julio asks.

  “Hmm, so you can do that too.” Kabus swings down his arm and an orange energy sword appears. “You’re not as special as you think.”

  They stare at each other. This is Julio’s last chance, to kill him and give something valuable to this world.

  Kabus’s smile disappears. He’s ready. They charge.

  The window behind Julio explodes out as he lifts off hard, hurling for Kabus. The space between him and Kabus quickly comes to a close. Julio swings, Kabus swings as well and—

  As they crash into each other, Kabus is tackled hard from behind by Serena. His back snaps as if he was a girl scout tackled by a lineman. Julio flies back with him.

  From above, Lance crashes down from the ceiling feet first into Kabus and sends him through the floor. The wall gives out.

  Julio falls out, head first as the building crumbles down around him. This is it, the end of him.

  He stops and floats away from the building and the ground. Serena clutches his leg, she’s flying. “Hold on! I-I don’t have the hang of it y-yet!” she stutters. They start to descend lower.

  She really doesn’t have the hang of it.

  She aims for a rooftop.

  “Shit! Hang on!”

  They slam hard into the rooftop. They skid across the surface, Julio hits an air conditioner unit and stops, leaving a trail of blood. Serena hits the edge of the roof, catching herself before she falls off.

  “Oh, god,” she mutters; she got lucky.

  Lance leaps onto the rooftop, he got the hang of his powers.

  “I couldn’t find the guy but there’s no way he could’ve survived—“ He stops.

  He looks at Julio. Serena gets up, she has blood on her hands. She yelps, hands searching her body for a wound but she finds nothing.