Clutch

by JA Huss

  "My front pocket," Aren chokes. "Junco, help me up!"

  I do, and he fishes the letter from his pants pocket and hands it over. The alien takes it and walks a few paces away for privacy.

  "What is it, Aren?"

  He shrugs. "Dunno. I can't read their language."

  "Well, where the hell did you get it? Try that one."

  The alien is back so Aren doesn't answer me. "Well? What the hell does it say?" He scowls and hands it over to me. All I see is gibberish.

  "Apparently," Tier begins, "we have an agreement between parties."

  "English, please," I snap.

  "That was English."

  I throw up my hands. "What does it mean?"

  "Seems yer friend there needs to grant me permission ta remove ya from custody. Though it's an old document and my plans have been recently revised. So I'm not sure I need to honor it anymore."

  "You're not taking her," Aren growls.

  "You have no say in that, boy. None whatsoever. She has already agreed to come."

  They both look over at me and my eyes move from one to the other. Tier's tell me nothing, but Aren's speak loud and clear in their silence. "He says he won't kill you if I go."

  "Goddammit, Junco, how fucking gullible can you be? Every fucking time I get you–" He stops and starts again. "Listen, Junco, he's not going to kill me. Can't kill me, OK?"

  Tier laughs. "I can and I will."

  "Fine," I shrug. "You want to fight over me, knock yourselves out."

  Tier remains calm and looks Aren in the eyes. Aren meets his gaze and nods his head. Then the alien's face changes before my eyes and I step back and trip over a rock as I try to get away. "Aren, I'll just go–"

  Aren spits on the ground and winces as he draws in a breath. "This dirty fucking avian can take his permission, his bullshit, and his ugly giant buzzard wings and get the FUCK OFF MY PLANET!"

  I don't even have time to wince at his insults before Tier is on him.

  Chapter Six

  There is blood everywhere within seconds, but to my surprise it's not Aren's. He's got a laser knife in his hand and he's cut the avian across his chest. Tier looks down and I can see his green eyes glow with rage in the darkness.

  "Stop!" I scream it as loud as I can, but they don't even hear me.

  They are both in a crouched fighting position now, slowly circling each other. The blood is pouring out of Tier's chest as he speaks. "Ya have no chance against me human. None at all."

  Tier actually bares his teeth and I feel my stomach clench. "Stop, you guys!"

  Aren answers me this time, his eyes locked on the avian. "Junco, start running and don't stop."

  "No!" I scream. "I'm not leaving you guys here to fight like children! I said I'd go, Aren, just stop! I don't want him to kill you!"

  Tier is silent through this, and even though there is a lot of blood, he doesn't seem fazed or slow, or even slightly distracted. The look on his face is one of a predator about to take down a kill.

  "He's not even close to killing me, Junco, he knows he can't kill me."

  "W-w-what?" I stutter.

  Tier answers this time. "Your loverboy here thinks he's got tricks up his sleeve, but he's wrong, Junco. I've got more tricks than he can even begin to imagine. And if you don't want to watch his head roll through the grass you'll run away like he said. I'll pick you up when we're done."

  "Like hell you will," Aren snaps back.

  Tier makes his move then. He's definitely not as fast on the ground as he is in the air, but his arms are almost long enough to reach out and grab Aren right where he stands. Almost. Aren ducks and catches his wing and twists it until the alien is forced to roll in the air with it or face an injury I can't stomach the thought of. He does twist and then he's free, but Aren attacks with the laser again, cutting another gash down the side of his leg.

  Tier lifts off the ground like he's going to finish the job. My hands grasp around for the weapon I know is there and when I find it I hit the charge button. Aren is on the ground now and his head is bleeding. The alien hovers in the air just above him. They are talking but I'm too distracted by the charging whine of the plasma rifle to pay attention. Tier dives in for the kill, landing on top of Aren's chest. At the same time the rifle's charge button goes green and I blast the alien in the back for a full ten seconds.

  He falls off to the side with a look of shock on his face.

  Aren jumps to his feet and grabs my hand and we run, hard. "Is he dead?" I ask. But Aren doesn't answer me. "Is he dead, Aren?"

  "Run! Just run!"

  He pulls on me as I start to drop back behind him, forcing me to keep up with his pace, and we break for the buggy. When we get there he jumps in and has it started and in gear before I can even settle in my seat and we are moving across the prairie grass.

  "What's happening? Is he dead, Aren?" I scream it over the raging wind that pierces my ears, but Aren is looking up in the sky and doesn't answer.

  "He's coming, isn't he?" The words aren't even out of my mouth when I hear the hard beat of giant wings overhead.

  Aren jams the buggy into the next gear and we go faster, but we both know that there is no way to outrun the monster circling above us.

  Tier swoops down and comes straight for the buggy. "Duck!" Aren screams. I do, just as the giant talons reach out to grab me. I feel my skin open up as the sharp claws skim across my shoulders and the hot blood spills out and down my arm. The beating stops for a minute and my head goes woozy. I look over at Aren and his mouth is moving but the words don't make any sense and my world starts to blur.

  I bounce as the buggy jumps the rough prairie terrain and my muscles are no longer able to compensate for the movement, causing me to slump over against the door.

  Blood is flowing down my shirt and pooling around my hips. I snap back to reality a bit, just enough to realize we've stopped. Aren is dragging me out of the buggy by my arms when the monster returns and snatches me away.

  Off in the distance I hear the chaos of war and feel the heat of plasma rifles as they crackle across the grassland. My senses return just enough to understand that Tier's talons are piercing my waist, his arms clasping me to his chest. We are flying.

  I feel the wind across my face and try to open my eyes, but I can't. The heat of plasma fire blasts past me and it's only then that I realize we're being shot at by the soldiers who were supposed to pick Aren and me up.

  A bolt of plasma hits Tier and then I am falling. It feels wonderful to be free of those claws. My bliss is interrupted as the powerful talons reach out and jerk me back into the confines of my captor and the world goes dim.

  We fly until we stop, which seems soon to me, but the world is still blurry. Not as bad as it was back in the buggy, but I'm not completely coherent and I can't move my body very well. Tier drops to his knees as he lands, taking me with him. I feel the shelter of his wings as they scoop me up and I lose interest in anything else except for the warmth. I know he is talking because I feel the vibrations on my neck, but I can't hear anything. His eyes glow faintly in the darkness and I am mesmerized. It feels like we stay that way for a long time, but it could have been seconds for all I know. I have lost all sense of being.

  I slip in and out of consciousness, but I do hear the soldiers off in the distance each time I come up for a gulp of reality. I can't tell exactly how far away they are, but if they are close, Tier is not worried. He never moves. I squirm until he releases my arms but not my body.

  He speaks and now I can hear him. "Why do ya have to be such a troubled one, Junco?"

  I'm the first to admit that I'm a fairly fucked-up person, but I'm not sure how he'd know any of that, so I say nothing.

  "Why don't ya just do what yer told?" he prods.

  I find my voice and croak out some words. "So, in your culture everyone does what they're told?"

  "The little girls generally do, darlin'."

  I manage to shake my head in frustration even though his wings
are wrapped around me. "Well, maybe this will help," I croon up to him in my throaty new voice, "I'm a human, get it? And human girls around my age are quite temperamental and emotional. You must not have had very much training in human culture if that simple fact mystifies you. I feel better now, so let go of me."

  He does and is crouching down as he watches me struggle to prop myself up on my elbows. I hear the soldiers off in the distance again. "They're getting closer. Why did we stop here?"

  He smiles and his eyes have a faint glow to them as he answers, "Because I poisoned ya by mistake and without the antidote you'd be dead within minutes. Healing ya was necessary for the mission to continue."

  I scramble up on my hands and knees and wait there as my head clears. He makes no move to help me, but I don't ask for help. So it evens out.

  When the dizziness subsides I sit back on my butt and look up at him. "So, you're not allowed to kill me? That's part of the mission?" I feel a little relieved at this revelation. At least my head won't be rolling in the grass like Cole's.

  "I have no plans to kill ya yet, darlin'."

  "What the fuck does that mean?"

  "I'm going to be honest with ya right now, Junco. I don't care for yer filthy mouth."

  Wait. What? I laugh. "You're worried about me swearing? Unbelievable. How about trying to be honest about your orders to kill me as well?"

  "I told ya, I'm not gonna kill ya."

  "Yet. You said yet," I growl.

  "Correct, I'm not gonna kill ya yet. Perhaps I will one day. Perhaps that day will never come. But right now I'm interested in keeping ya alive."

  "And that's OK with you?"

  "Yes, I'm OK with not killing ya. Yet."

  I get up to stomp off but he grabs my ankle and I fall to the ground face-first. "Not so fast. There are soldiers right over there, sweetheart. If ya want them to live, you'll stay quiet and still."

  "Where did you learn to talk to women? Lounge lizard school for the utterly stupid?"

  "So, ya want them all to die? Because that can be arranged."

  I shake my head and feel bad. "No, I don't want them to die."

  "Then shut yer mouth and lie still so they can move on to the next search sector."

  I do lie still but they do not move on. After several minutes it's clear that they know we are here, but they don't advance. "They see our heat signatures," I say.

  "Yes, that's unfortunate."

  "Unfortunate for whom?" I ask, but I don't want to know the answer. Whatever happens tonight, he's made one thing clear. We are leaving and if people have to die in order to accomplish that, so be it.

  Aren's amplified voice crosses the distance. "Let her go, Tier. If you let her go we'll back off and let you leave."

  I hear Tier snort at the stupid offer and I feel sorry for Aren because he might be dead in a few minutes if he keeps this up.

  Tier stands and pushes down on my shoulder at the same time so I stay on the ground. Unlike me, he is much taller than the tallgrass and I'm sure he makes for a very good target. But no one shoots him and that makes me think they are afraid and are waiting for him to make the first move.

  He speaks instead. "You have five minutes to clear out. After that, the carnage begins. If ya advance on us, I will personally eviscerate each one of ya and leave ya for the prairie lions to devour."

  After that there is silence for several seconds and I am hopeful. But that hope is shattered as a bolt from a plasma cannon fires down upon us. Tier leans down casually and covers me with his wings as the heat incinerates the grass around us. When the initial burst is over, he pushes me down to the ground and I burn my palms on the smoldering remains of vegetation. I gasp when I see his face, partly because of the soot that chars his skin, but mostly because his rage produces a bright green light that actually seeps out of his eyes. Then he is gone.

  I listen to the sounds of pain around me and I know that he's killing them, just like he said. In a few hours the prairie lions will follow the stench of death and eat them, bones and all, erasing any evidence of what is occurring here tonight.

  When he returns I don't even recognize him. His entire body is plastered with blood: his clothes, his hair, his face, and most of all his hands. Except they are not hands anymore, they are talons like his feet. I stare at him in horror and he follows my gaze down and retracts the razors.

  I want to ask about Aren but I already know the answer and I don't think I could take hearing it out loud so I just sit there and say nothing.

  He doesn't console me, apologize, or even say he warned them and they asked for it. Instead he takes flight, grabs me with his talons, lifts me up into his arms that wrap around me tight, and we fly away from the glow of fire beneath us. From the air I can see the carnage we leave behind and I have yet another horror to fill my dreams the next time I fall asleep.

  Chapter Seven

  We fly for a long time. I'm not sure of the direction because I can't see the sky above me. The alien blocks my view. The entire core of my body hurts from his tight grasp and my face starts to feel chapped from the wind. But at least I am warm. His body radiates heat and it exchanges easily between us.

  He sets me down in the darkness and I stumble a few paces before tripping and falling over. The palms of my hands sting as I reach out to try and catch my fall, but only succeed in slamming down on the ground. I realize I'm on a rock and after I adjust to the starlight I look up and find the Milky Way. Instantly my eyes are drawn down to the beacon of hope that dominates the western horizon. Peak City has never looked so beautiful and I smile as I realize where we are.

  "You ever go there?" Tier asks me casually as I stand back up, like we're just a couple of friends taking in the view.

  I snort out a grunt. "I grew up twenty miles from the border, of course I go there." Peak City is the capital of the Mountain Republic. The western edge of the Rural Republic bucks up against the planet pad where the suborbitals land. Technically the pad belongs to us, as it's inside our border, but since we're such a small country and very few of our citizens will ever require a suborbital, we lease the land to the MR for a tidy sum that pays for our exceptional military.

  "So it's not forbidden for you to leave yer Republic?"

  "Where'd you ever get that idea?" I scowl at him. People think that just because we don't have certain modern amenities that we're backwards. It's really only the entertainment shit we renounce and it's beyond ignorant to believe that people who shun screens are backwards. We simply have better things to do than sit around watching strangers do stuff, then try to convince ourselves it's fun.

  He shrugs. "You Farm Families seem to have a lot of rules."

  "Yeah, we do. But we're not prisoners. If you're not Farm you can even work in the MR. Lots of people in our Council do. But if you're Farm, then," I shrug, "your job is here taking care of your land and making it productive. The city is just a nice place to visit and that's pretty much it."

  "Do you resent that?"

  "What kind of crap is this? Some third-degree on my political leanings?"

  "From what I can tell, you seem to resent quite a bit about following rules."

  "Well, you don't even know me, so how the hell would you know anyway?"

  "So, all the trouble you've caused over the past few months is – what? A strange coincidence?"

  "For your information I went into the Stag to see if a friend was OK," I lie. "My father just died and Dale didn't show up for the funeral. So I was – worried."

  "OK. Let's just pretend that's true. What about all the other stuff?"

  I look back at him. He's standing with his feet apart, arms crossed over his chest, and his wings are not quite closed tight against his body, but neither are they in any way extended. Relaxed, maybe? The wing tips sneak out from behind his body in an upturned lift, like they cross somewhere at the small of his back.

  I stop myself from staring. "What other stuff?"

  His head nods up and down as he grits his teeth, whic
h makes his jaw muscles tighten. But he doesn't answer me. Instead, he turns his back and walks away. I can see his wings first-hand now, and they do cross over each other, but they also seem to have a life of their own – like the ears on a horse – rotating and lifting in reaction to external stimuli.

  He stops at a dark shadow along the edge of the mountain. It's about three feet long and two feet high. There are thick roots from the tall conifers that dominate the side of the mountain branching over it, half concealing it from view. If I didn't see Tier approach it, I might never have noticed the little opening. He bends down and sticks his feet in the hole, then pushes back the woody tree roots and slips inside, leaving me alone in the darkness.

  I wait for several seconds but he doesn't come back so I get to my feet and walk over to see what he's up to. I try to see in the little hole, but it's too dark. His head pops back out and I scream in surprise, covering my mouth as he looks up at me, startled. "Why are ya just standing there?"

  I shrug. "What do you want me to do?"

  He grabs my ankles and pulls, making me fall on my ass. Then he's dragging me under the ground into the dark hole, my dress rolls up and the rocks are scraping against my plasma-burned back. Once inside I kick him hard in the shoulder and he lets go. "Get off me, you jerk!"

  He puts his face right up to mine and I feel my heart jump. "I'm tired of playing games with ya, girl. If you see me go somewhere, ya follow. Understand?"

  I consider saying something nasty back to him, but his eyes are glowing again and I take that as a sign that his patience is running on empty. So I just nod.

  He turns and begins to slide down the rocky hill inside the mountain and I follow, trying my best not to let loose an avalanche of stones on his head. The only light we have is from a lightstick that is the same color as his eyes. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that his eyes aren't actually providing some light as well.

  When we get to the bottom of the hill we stop and then he disappears into another dark shadow in the ground, taking the lightstick with him so I'm left in complete darkness.