Extinction

by Viljoen, Daleen

  “Who are you?” I whispered.

  “My name’s Erich. I’m a friend.” He unzipped his jacket and placed it over my chest, covering me from the cold.

  “Thank you.” I whispered and wondered why he was helping me. The soldiers were very loyal to my father. Helping me would get him back in the slave quarters.

  Don’t thank me.” He looked at me pityingly and a lump formed in my throat. “I wish I can do more.” He stood and took his position in front me, scanning the streets.

  Chapter 5

  My arms were tender and stinging as the sun warmed me. It was just after sunrise and the soldiers were herding slaves to the square. They were making an example of me – I was the picture girl for what would happen if you went against the New Order, as the Vandelrizi liked to be called. With the first rays of daybreak, Erich removed his jacket and gave me another sip of water. He didn’t speak to me again, though he gave my hand a quick squeeze as if to encourage me.

  I could see Rosa among the slaves, gathering around me on the square. Tears streamed down her cheeks, glistening in the rays of the sun. She tried to push past the crowd to get to me; angrily shoving people aside and I slowly shook my head at her. She would end up in chains with me if she tried to help. She stopped and her whole body shook as she stood crying. There was nothing she could do to save me. She clasped her arms around her body and rocked herself. I wondered where Emily was. I didn’t see her among the crowd.

  The people in the crowd were unhappy. I could hear more and more shouts of rage as the minutes ticked by. Nuevo was wrong if he thought I would be a warning to them to not disobey the Vandelrizi. They were angry and frustrated at being treated like this. Today I wasn’t Minister Millers daughter, but another human being mistreated by the Vandelrizi. Today I was finally one of them. The soldiers were getting restless, they could handle meek slaves, but if they waited another minute a riot would break out.

  Benson stepped forward and undid the chains from the lamp post and hauled me to my feet. It was time for me to leave before the situation with the crowd got out of hand. My legs were weak and I could barely walk. He pushed me toward a truck, parked in the square, and shoved me roughly inside so that my face met the leather seat first. I stiffly pushed myself upright. Emily was in the seat next to me. Her eyes wide with fear in her pale face. She clutched her chained hands on her lap.

  “What’re you doing here,” I rasped. Emily hadn’t done anything wrong. Why was she in the truck with me?

  “They say I’m a traitor like you. That we’re helping the rebels,” she stammered. This couldn’t be happening.

  “No!” I screamed at the soldiers outside the truck and hammered against the window. But no one was listening.

  I glanced back as we left the city through the gates of Palasium. Robert didn’t even come to see me before I left. He had nothing to say to me, his own flesh and blood. Not even goodbye. I took a look at the city which was my home for the past seven years. I had seen it grown from tents to a full-grown concrete city. I would never come back here. I would never again see the people I cared for. Before sundown I would be dead. I had heard about the trials in Cyrius. Trial was another word for torture. They would extract what they needed from me and kill me in the process. They would make me beg for death to come and release me.

  I watched the endless dunes roll by – one after the other until they blended into one sandy blur. I rubbed my eyes. There was a truck in front of us and two more behind us and all were filled with soldiers. They weren’t taking any chances in me escaping, as if I stood a chance against only one soldier. I didn’t even know how to fight. In the distance I could see the outline of a mountain. Strangely it had survived the terraforming and now stood proud against the horizon after it conquered the endless desert. Before I always thought it was a beacon of hope, now it was just another lonely mountain fighting against the endless onslaught of sand and wind until one day the desert would swallow it whole. I was beyond tired, nearing physical collapse, but there was no chance I could sleep.

  This was my fault. Emily didn’t deserve this. She didn’t do anything wrong. Because of me she would be punished too. I was the reason she was going to die. We were heading towards our death. I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want Emily to suffer because of me. It wasn’t fair. I never had the chance to live – to really live and experience life. Rosa always said fate had a hand in everything that happened to us, but what plan did fate have that included my best friend dying, because of me.

  I stole a look at Benson in the seat in front of me. He stared sternly out the window. I wondered if the Vandelrizi hadn’t invaded our world if he would still be this sadistic individual. Was he the product of our circumstances or was he born this way? Did he have parents or siblings? Though he and Robert were so close, I knew nothing about him.

  At least Chai was safe. The guards searched the whole city and couldn’t find him. By some miracle no one thought of the tunnels and that he might have used it to escape.

  Suddenly the truck in front of us exploded in a huge ball of fire. Our truck sharply swerved to the side of the road to avoid the mangled mass off burning metal and we skidded to a halt. Soldiers peeled out of the trucks behind us and aimed their rifles at the dunes surrounding the dirt road ready for anything. Benson cursed loudly and slammed the door open. He jumped out, rifle in his hand, leaving us behind. Immediately I could hear the popping of automatic rifles and I ducked down on the seat as the front window exploded in a thousand shards of glass. The drivers head lolled to the right and blood seeped through his shirt. The convoy was under attack. It could be the Scavengers or the rebels and I didn’t intend to stay and find out. Emily’s screams tore through the inside of the truck. I took her by the shoulders and forced her to look at me.

  “Run!”

  This was our chance to escape. I threw open the door and landed on all fours on the sand. I could see Emily doing the same. Ignoring the pain slamming through my joints, I scrambled to my feet and staggered across the sand, heading towards the nearest dune. My head pounded with every breath I took and I choked on the thick smoke coming from the burning vehicle.

  The metal bands on my wrists started to vibrate and hum, before penetrating pain shot through my body, paralyzing me. One of the soldiers had the device that activated the Vandelrizi torture device. I screamed in frustration and agony as my body hit the sand. My arms and legs convulsed while my back arched and I felt the numbness setting in. A few more moments of this and I wouldn’t be able to use my arms and legs for hours.

  “Think you can run away from me, princess?” Benson towered over me with the hated black device snugly in his hand. His lips twitched sadistically as he watched my body spasm and contorts in pain.

  He took immense pleasure in my suffering. He let go off the button and the pain lessened leaving me too weak to move. He grabbed the back of my shirt in his fist and dragged me back to the truck. All around us I could hear shouts and gunfire, but Benson looked totally unaware that the soldiers were busy fighting a full out war against their attackers. His only focus was me. He dropped me at the truck, removing his gun from the holster on his hip and pressed the tip of the barrel against my skull.

  “I think I’ll finish it now. Why wait for a trial? Let’s have some fun now.” He smirked viciously at me and his finger curled around the trigger.

  “Why do you hate me so much?” I managed to croak. He glared at me, his grey eyes filled with hatred.

  “You disgust me. You are like vermin infesting this planet with your humanity. We’re superior to you.” I gulped. He actually thought in his warped mind he was one of the Vandelrizi. He didn’t see himself as human anymore. He was even more deluded than I realized. Did they brainwash him?

  “You’re human! Don’t you get it? The Vandelrizi are going to kill us all – you included.” The look he gave me told me I was wasting my breath on arguing with him. His eyes shone with insanity. I braced myself as I waited for him to pull the trigg
er. At least it would be quick and I would be spared from a slow and painful death at the hands of the Vandelrizi.

  One moment Benson was next to me and the next he was ripped from his feet in a flash of lightning. A second later his body smacked next to me in the sand with his open eyes staring lifelessly at me. His head was bent at an unnatural angle, his neck was broken.

  The scream that erupted from my mouth sounded more like a broken howl. Chai, dressed all in black, stood a few feet away from us. His legs were spread wide in the sand with his fists balled at his side. His face was like granite, cold and unyielding as he glared at Benson’s lifeless body. I’ve never seen so much anger compacted in one body. I didn’t know if I was looking at an angel or a devil.

  A soldier jumped him from behind and curled an arm around his neck, trying to choke him, but Chai reached behind him with one arm and threw the guard straight over the truck as if he weighed nothing. The soldier hit the sand with a thump on the other side and groaned. Two more Palasium soldiers circled Chai and he moved unbelievably fast, sidestepping the first and plunged a knife in the second guard’s chest. The soldier’s jaw went slack and blood trickled from his lips before toppling over face first in the sand. Chai moved in a blur and snapped the first soldier’s neck as if it was nothing more than mere twigs in his hands. He moved faster than humanly possible.

  Squinting, I saw two more black clad figures fighting the remaining soldiers. A tall girl, with long raven hair cascading over her shoulders, wielded a sword with graceful movements as if she was a warrior princess. Next to her was a blonde, broad chested boy with the biceps the size of tree trunks, slamming a huge fist into a soldier’s face. They both moved with the same speed and agility as Chai, taking down one soldier after the other with deadly precision. One thought stood painfully out in my mind – they were not human. No ordinary human being could move with their speed or had their strength. The realization hit me square in the chest – the Vandelrizi wasn’t the only aliens on earth. Humanity would not survive another alien race invading earth, intent to destroy us. We barely survived the first invasion.

  I rolled onto my stomach and crawled to the other side of the truck, willing my numb limbs to cooperate. I had to find Emily. We had to get away from here. A Palasium soldier lay in front of me, his eyes staring unblinkingly at the circling smoke in the sky above him. Blood seeped into the sand beneath him, leaving a dark circle around his body. I pried the gun from his lifeless fingers and kept crawling. A leg with a foot in a white boot lay before me. Where the knee was supposed to be, red flesh was torn in strips. Blood dripped with slow precision from the mangled piece of meat that once belonged to a body. All around me was the pungent smell of death and I heaved. The throbbing in my head became a roar as I struggled to my feet and stood swaying in the sand. The roar was so loud it blocked out all other senses. I felt the screams forcefully tearing free from my body but I couldn’t hear them. My legs wouldn’t move forward. I was stuck in hell.

  The blonde boy landed in front of me as if he was flying and sand whirled around his feet. He held his hands out towards me and his mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I aimed the gun at him with trembling fingers and every cell inside me yelled at me to shoot him. He should have moved – got out of the way or attacked me, but he just stood there, his blue eyes wide as he kept speaking silent words. I couldn’t make my finger pull the trigger. I didn’t want to kill him. I couldn’t do it.

  The gun fell from my hands and I sunk to my knees. His mouth was still moving and it looked like he was yelling at someone, but I couldn’t care anymore and I closed my eyes. My fingers clawed into the loose sand beneath me as I struggled to breathe. The more I tried to inhale, the less any oxygen reached my lungs. It was as if a gigantic hand pressed on my chest, forcing all the air from my lungs.

  “Lexie!” Chai’s voice was loud and crystal clear above the noise in my head. “Lexie, look at me!”

  I slowly opened my eyes. Chai was on his knees in front of me with the palms of his hands pressed against both sides of my face. His beautiful eyes were full of concern as he scrutinized my face. I reeled back and scraped at the sand to get away from him. He was not human. He was something else – something infinitely dangerous. His arms shot forward and he grabbed my hips and swiveled me around so that my back was pressed against his chest and his thighs pressed against my hips. Again, he placed the palms of his hands on my face.

  “Lexie, listen to me! You have to breathe.” I tried to struggle from his grip, but my body was too weak to obey. “You have to breathe,” he repeated. His voice was so clear, almost as if he was inside my head.

  I tried to take a breath, but the pressure on my chest increased and I arched my back. Chai’s left arm encircled my waist pulling me closer to him. He kept one hand pressed to my face as he held me close to him.

  He said something in a language I couldn’t understand. It sounded soft and musical and he kept repeating the words. Warmth filled me - a soft and caressing smoke that drifted inside me, filling every corner of me with its soothing heat. The roaring in my head slowly subsided and I could feel air filling my lungs.

  “That’s my girl,” Chai said as I inhaled deeply.

  “Is she okay?” a voice asked and I stiffened. Chai kept me securely pressed against him and I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.

  “She’s in shock” he answered and his voice sounded different than a moment ago – it was farther away and not as clear as before.

  I opened my eyes and the blonde boy loomed above us, his brow furrowed as he watched me.

  “Where’s Arianna?” Chai asked keeping me pinned to him, as if he was afraid I would run if he let go of me.

  “She’s finishing up,” the blonde mass of muscles answered and pointed a finger towards the truck.

  The raven haired warrior princess moved toward a young soldier standing against the truck with a knife in her hand, the blade smeared with blood. Terror tore through my soul as I recognized the soldier. It was the same boy that guarded me last night and gave me the water to drink. I didn’t think any energy was left in me, but the last remaining drops sped through my veins and I pushed myself away from Chai, catching him off-guard. I didn’t know how I moved so quickly but in seconds I was standing before Arianna shielding the boy from her.

  “If you touch him, I’ll take you down.” My voice cracked and sounded foreign to my own ears. I could barely keep myself upright, but I was prepared to fight her with my last breath. Arianna cocked her head to one side and smiled. She was breathtakingly beautiful, her features absolutely perfect. Her eyes were as blue as sapphires against her olive skin.

  “I like her. She’s puny for a human, but she’s got guts,” she said and flicked her long hair over her shoulder. She inspected me from head to toe.

  “It’s okay,” Erich said behind me. I glanced at him over my shoulder. His lip was split and there was blood smeared on his face and hands. His hair was even messier than before and he looked incredibly young. Way too young to be caught up in the middle of a war. He gave me a lopsided smile.

  “I’m giving him his knife back,” Arianna added. Chai had joined her and stood watching me warily as if he was deciding how to approach me.

  “I’m with them,” Erich said and I was confused. I didn’t understand who or what they were and how the boy was connected to them.

  “Who are you?” I asked, not sure at whom I was directing my question.

  “I’m the same person I was yesterday,” Chai answered and carefully took a step forward with his hands raised in front of him, trying not to scare me.

  “You lied to me! You’re not a rebel,” I accused him.

  “Actually, we prefer revolutionaries or the resistance. Soldiers of fortune. Rebels sound so crude,” Erich said. He angled past me, running a hand through his curly hair. He reached for the knife in Arianna’s hand and sheaved it on his belt.

  “I didn’t tell a lie, Lexie. We’re helping the rebel
s.” Chai took another step forward and I stumbled away from him, my back pressed painfully against the door of the truck.

  “But you’re not human.”

  “I am,” Eric said and gave me a small wave.

  “Why don’t we go and fetch the other truck and leave these two to talk,” Arianna intervened and placed an arm around Erich’s shoulders and guided him around the truck. He laughed loudly at something she said.

  Chai took another step forward and my breathing sped up. He noticed and he frowned.

  “Lexie, I’ll never hurt you,” he said quietly. I didn’t know what to believe anymore. I felt confused and frightened. Yesterday he was a gorgeous rebel that made my heart beat faster with one look and today he was something totally different. I didn’t even know what he was.

  “What are you?” I asked and a tear rolled down my cheek.

  “I’m not from this planet. Neither is Arianna or Gaios. We’re here to help the humans against the Vandelrizi.” I wanted to believe him more than anything else as I stared into his warm chocolate brown eyes.

  “And after you help them? Are you going to finish the work of the Vandelrizi and kill the few humans left on this planet?”

  Chai looked hurt by my question. “Is that what you think of me?” he asked and he dropped his hands to his sides. I noticed how tired he looked. It didn’t look like he slept at all last night. There were dark bruises underneath his eyes and stubble lined his jaw.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.” I had no fight left in me. I didn’t know who I could trust anymore. I felt terribly lonely and broken. Tears silently kept flowing over my cheeks and I slid down the truck, collapsing on the sand. Chai groaned and in a split second he was next to me and crushed me to his chest.

  “Don’t cry, little one. I’ll never hurt you,” he said as he pulled me onto his lap and cradled me. I rested my head on his chest, closing my eyes. I didn’t care anymore if he was an alien or a cyborg for that matter. All I cared about was his arms around me and the beating of his heart next to my ear.