Extinction

by Viljoen, Daleen

  I scooted over to the left of the bed and opened the drawer of the nightstand. I lifted Mom’s picture from it and cradled it in my hand. It was the only thing I had left of her and my heart filled with the all too familiar ache whenever I thought of her. I looked so much like her - it was like staring in the mirror. We could’ve been twins. We had the same honey-colored hair, but she wore her silky straight hair shoulder length, while mine reached my lower back in soft waves. She used to love brushing my hair when I was a little girl, while telling me fairytales. Our favorite story was Rapunzel and I always solemnly swore I would never cut my hair.

  We shared the same flawless porcelain skin and heart-shaped face. Like her, I was small and petite, though I was more curvaceous than Mom. Even though I was so slender no one would confuse me for a boy since the moment I got my first bra.

  No wonder Robert hated me so much. He must see her every time he looks at me. Only our eyes were different. Hers were chartreuse green and mine were pale blue, like bleached denim.

  I wished I was more like her. She was strong and brave, always selflessly helping others. I was more impulsive and I definitely didn’t consider myself as brave. She hated the fact that Robert sided with the Vandelrizi and she didn’t let a moment go by without making her feelings clear, not backing down no matter what he said or did to her. She spent every day in Palasium fighting for the slaves. I could never be that fearless. I had spent my whole life being terrified of him. I returned the picture to the drawer and closed it.

  I bounced off the bed - a quick shower and then I were heading to the slave quarters. I helped to dish out water and soup among the slaves during the day as they worked, even though I knew many of them resented having me around. There was so little I could to for them, but I tried my best every day to help in some small way and the fact that Robert totally disapproved was an added bonus. He expected me to stay at home all day and not mix with the slaves. I stubbornly disobeyed him and slipped away to the slave quarters every possible moment.

  I showered and dressed in the white cotton tunic everyone in Palasium was expected to wear. It wasn’t very pretty but it was light and comfortable during the day in the scorching heat. Heading down the stairs, the opulence of the room below slammed into me. I felt nauseous. Gold and Bordeaux red weaved curtains adorned the windows and an exquisite Persian carpet covered the hardwood floor. Several white leather couches were spaced around an agar-wood coffee table. On the walls hang original paintings from the most revered artists. People around us were dying of hunger and disease and Robert’s main priority was to surround himself with treasures that were now worthless in this new world we lived in. I’m not even sure where he found all of these things. Barely anything was left after the terrible wars after the Vandelrizi invaded earth. What wasn’t destroyed in the wars was wiped out of existence by the terraforming of our planet. I hated living in this house. It was a daily reminder of how much I loathed living in Palasium.

  I strolled to the kitchen and grabbed a piece of bread off the kitchen table and stuffed it in my mouth. Maria stood in front of the stove and looked like she was about to object to my lack of manners, but she only shook her head and gave me a broad smile.

  “Eat, Alexis. Comer un desayuno adecuado.” Maria was one of the few people that insisted on calling me by my birth name. She pointed to a chair. Every morning she insisted I sit down and eat a proper breakfast.

  “I haven’t got time. I have to get to the quarters.” I chuckled at her disapproving scowl as I grabbed another piece of bread. “And you know I can’t resist your fresh baked bread.”

  “You make your padre very angry, cariño.” I shrugged, savoring the doughy goodness of the warm bread.

  “Father’s always upset with me.” Nothing I did would ever please him, so I could just as well do as I pleased.

  “Take one, cariño. Don’t fall, you squash bread.” She pointed to a freshly baked loaf of bread on the kitchen table. Steam rose in wispy waves from it and the smell made my stomach grumble. No one could bake bread like Maria. I tried my best to smuggle food from our kitchen to take to the slave quarters and although Maria never openly said the food was for the slaves, she always made sure there was something to take with me. The meager rations the slaves received were barely enough to keep them alive.

  “I’ll protect it with my life,” I promised and hugged the old woman.

  The city of Palasium was divided in four – East-, West-, North- and Southside. It was more of a town than a city, with barely a thousand residents. We lived in East-side. Robert’s mansion stood ostentatious among the more humble houses in the area. Each soldier of the Guard received a house, though the younger soldiers preferred to share houses. On the West-side was a humungous palatial building where the Vandelrizi stayed when they were not on their ships hovering in the earth’s atmosphere. It was also where the cobblestone square was where public trials and executions were held.

  Until a couple of months ago the Vandelrizi were more in numbers than the humans in Palasium, but most of them left, in the utmost secrecy and returned to their ships in the past couple of weeks. I wouldn’t even be aware of them leaving if I hadn’t overheard Robert discussing the situation with his protégée, Sargent Tom Benson. They were baffled by the sudden exodus of Vandelrizi, but it was not like you could go up to them and ask what they were up to, except if you had a death wish. Not even Robert, who was their most trusted human employee on earth, would dare to ask them. From what I could count, only about fifty of the Vandelrizi were left in Palasium and I heard rumors spreading that the same was happening in Cyrius. Something was definitely up with them.

  The South-side was divided between fields for cultivating food and warehouses where supplies were kept. The big monstrous power station providing electricity to the city was on the border of the South- and North-side. The whole of the North-side was cordoned off from the rest of the city with tall chain linked fences with barbwire on top. The slaves were kept inside, only allowed to leave under supervision of the soldiers. They were forced to live in tents and derelict buildings with only the bare necessities. An oversized gate was the only entrance and not only was it guarded day and night, but it was electronically locked and only father and the soldiers of the Guard had the code.

  If that wasn’t enough, a concrete wall with watchtowers and searchlights surrounded the whole of the city. There was no escape for the slaves.

  My shoes crunched on the brick sidewalk. Slaves, escorted to work, passed me and I flinched at the openly hostile stares of some of them. I knew what some of them called me behind my back – the princess in the ivory castle. I couldn’t blame them for instinctively distrusting me. In a way I represented all the suffering and hardship they endured under my father’s rule. I tried hard not to let it get to me. The more resentment they had toward me, the harder I tried to help them in any way I could. My father’s blood ran through my veins but I was not like him and I would fight until my very last breath not to become him.

  The kitchen for the slaves was inside the quarters, more of a space cordoned off by sheets hanging on a rope. There I received the bottles of water and meager rations of soup to distribute among the slaves working in the fields. I passed through the gate without a hassle, most of the soldiers of the Guard were used to seeing me come and go from the slave quarters. They didn’t stop me anymore. By now they knew I would find my way in, no matter what.

  The laughter of children drifted down the street. It seemed so normal, except that in the whole of Palasium there wasn’t a child younger than six years of age. Not one baby was born in the past six years. When the Vandelrizi arrived, they released a toxic substance in our air and we unknowingly inhaled the poison with every breath we took. Millions of people died – many were lucky enough to survive, including my family, but it rendered all the remaining humans sterile, not being able to conceive. It was the sad reality that if the Vandelrizi didn’t kill us all first, we would eventually become extinct on our own. Ther
e wouldn’t be a next generation. We were screwed one way or the other.

  “Good morning, Miss Miller.” I nearly jumped out of my own skin. The blood in my veins turned to ice.

  “Good morning, Master Nuevo Y'shol,” I answered and gave a bow. I avoided the Vandelrizi as much as I could, but they always found a way to creep up on you when you least expect it. Especially Nuevo, some days I was sure he was stalking me.

  “Where are you off to, Miss Millar,” he asked putting emphasis on the ‘s’ and pronouncing every word perfectly. I more than once had the desire to ask him to say ‘slithering’, probably because he reminded me of a snake, when he spoke in that weird way. He blinked and it couldn’t be any creepier. I couldn’t get used to the way they looked - huge eyes with red irises and black slits for pupils. Green scales covered the skin around his eyes fading into pale greyish skin. He looked like a cross between a human and a salamander.

  “It’s such a lovely morning I decided to take a walk,” I could tell by the downward slant of his mouth, he knew I was lying. His pale skin was drawn so taught over his high cheekbones that it was nearly translucent and I saw thin black veins beneath the surface. I never saw them smile.

  “Will you be honoring us with your presence tonight?” he asked and blinked a few times. Yeah, if you wanted me to vomit all over your black robes. Robert knew better than to make me go to these dinners, I always ended up embarrassing him by saying exactly what was on my mind.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t attend.”

  “What a pity. You are always so…entertaining,” he replied. I was positive it wasn’t the word he was looking for – nuisance would be a better choice. He knew how intensely I despised them. “I will leave you to your walk.”

  I gave another bow and he turned and floated away. The Vandelrizi didn’t walk, they floated across the ground. His black robe covered his feet and I wondered if he even had any. He was sinewy but I knew they were deceivingly strong. I have seen him snap a man’s neck with one hand without breaking a sweat and they could move as fast as lightning. They also had telepathic powers, able to lift objects into the air with their minds. I inhaled deeply, I wasn’t even aware that I stopped breathing. Their presence always made me jittery.

  I clutched the loaf of bread, covered in a checkered tea cloth closer to my body and continued down the street. Near the kitchen area I heard a commotion around the corner. A woman’s high pitched shrieks sliced the air. I dropped the bread on the sidewalk - Maria was going to kill me. I rushed around the corner and saw a soldier towering over a woman lying on the pavement. She was frail and dirty blonde hair framed a tear streaked face. She was curled into herself, screaming and sobbing hysterically. The soldier’s hand was lifted in the air holding a baton and I went ice-cold with fury.

  “Stop it!” I positioned myself between him and the sobbing woman.

  “Stay out of this Miss Miller,” he snapped at me. With my streak of bad luck it was of course, Sargent Benson, father’s most trusted soldier.

  “Don’t you dare hit her again!” I clenched my fists at my side. I might be a lot smaller than him, but this was one fight I was not backing out of.

  “She stole food from the stores. She must be punished as our law states.”

  I shuddered as he glared at me with cold grey eyes. He proved to be merciless on more than one occasion and I was aware of the immense cruelty he treated the slaves with. He was only seventeen, the same age as me, but somewhere along the way he lost his humanity - if he ever had any. In a totally normal situation he would be unimpressive. All of his features were plain and ordinary. In a crowd you wouldn’t even notice him with his mud colored hair, pale skin and round baby face.

  “Your father won’t approve of you interfering in official business,” he added icily and his look held a challenge. He knew it was the one thing he could dangle above my head that terrified me.

  “I don’t care what he thinks. You can’t go around beating a defenseless woman. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

  “Like you?” He clenched his jaw and for a moment I was sure he was going to strike me. A gathering crowd of slaves surrounded us and I was aware of the rising antagonism emanating from them. Benson shifted uneasily. The crowd was getting angrier by the minute and very soon he would have a mutiny on his hands. The soldiers would come to disperse them if a riot broke out, but until then he would be solely at their mercy. He grudgingly dropped his arm holding the baton and with his other hand he seized my upper arm in an iron grip and dragged me down the street after him.

  “You can explain this mess to your father.” He spat on the bricks on the ground. His fingers bit into the soft flesh of my arm.

  “You’re hurting me.” He ignored me and kept dragging me down the streets. I stumbled several times and he roughly jerked me upright, not caring if I got hurt in the process.

  We reached Robert’s office in the two-story grey building a couple of blocks from our house. Benson pushed me through the glass doors and dragged me across the lavish marble entranceway. He shoved me onto one of the wingback chairs lined up next to the solid teak wood door of my father’s office.

  He gave a quick rap on the door and entered, closing it behind him, leaving me to simmer in my chair. I sighed and pulled my knees to my chin. I didn’t look forward to a confrontation with Robert. They never ended well. The minutes ticked by and I scrutinized the shiny marble floor and the intricate grey patterns embedded in every tile. The door finally swung open and Benson appeared.

  “You can go in,” he said and gave me a sadistic smile that sent shivers down my spine.

  I stood, straightened my tunic and checked that all my hair was in place in the ponytail on my head. Robert sat behind a broad desk. He drilled his podgy fingers impatiently on the lacquered desktop as I came in.

  “Will you care to explain your behavior to me?” His voice thundered through the office and two spots of red appeared on his chubby cheeks. He wasn’t alone. Nuevo hovered in the corner.

  “Sargent Benson already told you what happened.”

  “We want to hear from your mouth.” He pressed his fleshy lips into a thin line.

  “He was beating a defenseless woman.” I answered and lifted my chin higher. There was no chance in hell I would show him how scared I was of him.

  “He was doing his job!” he bellowed from his chair and if he wasn’t careful a vein would burst in his head.

  “The last I checked his job was to protect the city, not to assault the slaves.”

  Robert rose from his seat and came round his desk to stand before me. The shirt of the tunic stretched tightly across his huge belly and his brow glistened with the sheen of sweat, drawing attention to his receding hairline. He kept glancing nervously at Nuevo. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a white handkerchief.

  Nuevo floated across the room, closing the space between us.

  “You do not interfere with the duties of the Guard, Miss Miller.” His voice was calm, but I saw the glint of anger in his eyes.

  “Even if those duties are wrong and include hurting innocent people?” I was pushing them and the voice in my head warned me to stop, but I shoved it aside.

  “Your behavior nearly incited a riot today.”

  “Master Nuevo is right. Your behavior is unacceptable. How can the Vandelrizi trust me to run the city when I can’t even control my own daughter?” Of course Robert would side with the Vandelrizi. He was too spineless to ever stand up to them.

  “Is that the only thing you care about – what the Vandelrizi think of you? You don’t care that the humans, your people, are starving in the streets.” He clenched his fists at his side.

  “That is enough, Miss Millar. You are forgetting your place. You will obey us and our rules.” The threat was unmistakable in Nuevo’s voice.

  “Mom would never have…” I didn’t get to finish my sentence. A fleshy hand struck me as fast as lightning across my cheek. The force of it sent me reeling backward
.

  “You don’t mention her in my presence.” Robert lowered his hand huffing in anger.

  “Mom would never stand for this,” I said through gritted teeth. My face stung and I swallowed back the lump in my throat. I would not give him the satisfaction of crying. I turned on my heel and walked out the office with as much dignity as I could gather.

  “Don’t you dare walk out on Master Nuevo…” Robert’s voice roared down the hall behind me, but I kept going, heading home.

  I ignored the inquisitive looks of passersby, staring at the red mark blooming across my cheek, emptying my mind until I reached the safety of my room. I locked the door and slid to floor giving in to the tears building inside me. I hated him with every fiber of my being. I would never understand why Mom married such a weak man. Why did she leave me with him? My cheek was swollen and tender and I was sure it would leave a huge bruise on my face. It was only one of many I had to wear in the past couple of years. I’ve had to bear the brunt of Robert’s anger every day since Mom left.

  I sat there for a long time, just staring at the wooden floor. I could run away, but where would I go? I always assumed Mom joined the group of rebels after she left, but there was a very real chance that they wouldn’t want me in their midst, even if I were able to find them. I didn’t have anywhere to go and I knew I wouldn’t make it on my own. No one could survive in the desert and the jungle was too dangerous. I sighed for the hundredth time.

  I remembered the bag under my bed. I would take the medicine to Rosa; at least Robert couldn’t take that away from me. I would keep on helping our people, which is what Mom would want me to do.

  I washed my tear-streaked face and looked at my reflection in the mirror. An angry red bruise tinged with blue covered my swollen cheek. There was no way to hide it. I hated that everyone could see what Robert did to me. It made me feel weak.