by Jamie Petit
Andax reached out for the manual controls. “I have a rough idea of where we’re heading. I’m going to see how close to a city I can get us.”
His fingers flew over the systems command board and the rocket lurched. I closed my eyes. There was nothing else to it. Just close my eyes. Die, or live. It was out of my hands. It was all in his hands. I’d given my life to him. And I was okay with that.
The branches of trees rushed along beneath our pod, then the branches shattering against our force. We bounced off a vaporized trunk and skidded to a halt.
Andax grabbed my hand. “We can’t stop. We have to run.”
EIGHT
The pod depressurized, launching the hatch into the air, crashing into purple brush some distance away. Andax moved swiftly just a few paces ahead of me. I could tell he was holding back quite a bit. If he’d wanted to, he could outpace me in just a few full-force movements.
The power contained in his legs was evident, and getting to see him move in an open and natural environment was a revelation. I’d only ever seen him in the constrained halls of the ship. At most we wrestled that one time, but even that was a series of small, tight movements. This was a Wynmerian in his natural habitat. It was beautiful.
My clumsy human legs pumped crazily, furiously pounding the earth as I raced to keep up, or at least not hold him back too much.
At some point—I lost track of time entirely—we reached a stream and Andax went to his knees and sipped a handful of water from his palms.
“It’s okay to drink,” he said, motioning me over. “We can’t be certain of how often we’ll reach water, so we need to take it when it comes. And take as much of it as you can.” He dropped his head to the water and drank straight from the stream.
I followed suit, dunking my head to drink as deep as I could. The water was sweet. “Where are we going? How far?”
Andax lifted his head and peered out at the horizon. “You see that glinting sliver out there? Way out there? That’s the city we need to reach.”
I squinted and stared out over the crimson plains. Far, far in the distance I saw the walls of the city. “That’s… that’s gotta be over two or three days walking.”
“If we press on, don’t stop, we can do it in less than two. The important thing is to keep moving, and avoid trouble.” Andax stood up and started walking again.
I jogged up alongside him. “What happened? Why did it happen? Who would want to do that?” I looked up at the sky, streaked red and black with the remains of the Trothor. It was beautiful and terrifying. With its slowly decaying orbit, there was no way to tell where it would finally crash.
“There’re a handful of my people who don’t like us breeding with humans. They’re obsessed with purity. Even if it means the end of our entire species.”
“But why blow up the Trothor?”
“Probably because they know it’s a vital part of our supply line. The real question is how they managed to get on board. How the hell they managed to get the materials for this.”
I thought for a moment as we ducked back into the trees. “Loyalists to the cause? They enroll in the navy, they behave, they steal some weapons, and boom. Literally.”
“These people aren’t in our registers. They can’t join the navy.”
“Why? Is it like a caste system or something?”
“Not at all. They choose to live in the wilds of Wynmere. We call them Wildmeres.”
“What? Why?”
“They refuse our cities. They know they’re populated with half-humans so they don’t want any part of it.”
“So, how do they keep going? Recruits?”
“Some recruits, sure. But we still get a few Omegas born once in a while. Often enough that, with recruits, the purist factions are able to keep their population mostly stable.”
“Doesn’t that—”
“Cause horrific mutations through genetic invariance? Yeah. Not to mention that once they get their hands on an Omega they keep him as a broodmare until he dies. Basically spends his whole life being raped in a cave.”
“A love of purity, but not of each other?”
“Yeah. We’ll catch one every once in a while, trying to sneak into one of the cities to kidnap an Omega. They’re basically feral.”
“That’s horrifying.”
“It’s also why it doesn’t make sense that they could pull something like this off. They’ve been separated out from our society for so long… even if they could integrate, how would they know how?”
“I’m an expert in Wynmerian studies, but not that expert. Hell, I didn’t even know this about the purists.”
“We try to keep it quiet.”
“Understandably.”
Andax threw up a hand and stopped in his tracks. “They know we’re out here. They’re searching for our trail.”
“Can they find it?”
“Definitely.”
“And then what?”
“I couldn’t tell you exactly. But judging by what they’ve done so far, it won’t be anything we’d like.”
“What are our options?”
“They’ll make camp soon. These wild Wynmerians are more superstitious. We can keep pushing on another hour or two after they’ve stopped. That’ll buy us some time.”
Thunder rampaged through the darkening skies. I looked up as a few drops of cold rain splashed against my skin. “Something to cover our tracks.”
Andax grabbed my hand. “Let’s go. We’re almost to the canyon road. There’re many places to stay dry and sleep there. But we have to move quickly.”
NINE
It was too risky to build a fire, so Andax and I pressed our bodies close together to stay warm. He folded his long, thick hair under him for a makeshift pillow and I let my head be cradled against his chest. My ear pressed against him, I listened to the breath rushing through his lungs, the blood coursing through his heart.
“This canyon will lead us to the city,” Andax said quietly. “We’ll wake early and follow it. If we move quickly, we could even be in a bed by nightfall tomorrow.”
“Sounds nice,” I said.
We were getting closer to safety and I knew I’d have to make a choice at some point. I’d lost Janie, but I didn’t have to lose everything from Earth. I could find another girlfriend. Maybe… maybe a human boyfriend, if that was the sort of thing I was feeling now. Either way… I could build a life under the skies of my birth.
If I gave myself over to Andax, to the Wynmerian way, I’d inevitably leave all that behind. Part of me knew that was a choice I’d be happy to make in the end, but giving up your homeworld isn’t an easy decision to make. There’s many types of love—love of a person, love of home—and none of it is rational.
Andax ran the tips of his fingers down my spine. I shivered against him. He cupped my chin and tipped my head back slightly. Looking into his eyes I couldn’t imagine why I’d ever want another girlfriend, another person. I couldn’t imagine why I’d ever want another romance of any kind. I couldn’t even tell you why I’d ever need to see the blue skies of Earth ever again. I was drawn to Andax’s crystal eyes and the soft crimson shimmer of the Wynmerian heavens.
Yet, as our kiss built in passion—as I felt myself grow hard, as I ached to have Andax inside me—I was suddenly afraid. Forever is a long time. It can be a wonder—or a horror.
How long would Andax hold me? Even Janie grew tired of me. And I’d known her for years. I knew that the sort of pair-bonding involved in Wynmerian relationships after the Omega formation resulted in a virtually unending affection, but still… We’re complex creatures. I had no doubt that you could love and despise someone at the same time, perhaps in equal measure.
If you fall for someone so easily, perhaps you could come to hate them with equal ease.
We could always just stay like this. We could be together, and as long as he never entered my body again, I’d remain a normal human. We could have a relationship like we do on earth, just without the sex.
T
he mere thought of delaying our consummation put a chill in me. I wanted Andax—wanted to make love to him—more than I’d ever wanted just about anything in my life. It was a driving urge that hadn’t dimmed or dulled a bit since we’d met.
I rolled over, so I was facing away from him and reached behind me, fishing into his pants and drawing out his cock. I tugged the waist of my pants down over my rear and rubbed the tip of his cock along my ass.
A low purr rumbled out of Andax’s throat as his hips angled and pressed firmly against my ass. I slowly opened up to him. Andax grew even harder, pulsing in anticipation.
This was it. Another thrust and I’d be his. His Omega. An entire life on Earth—a life that I’d come to believe in and look forward to ever since just a few days ago—would vanish.
My friends, my family—what would any of them think? Would they accept my Wynmerian lover? Would I lose absolutely everything? Home, planet, friends, family, future?
A panic welled up inside me, wrenching my chest like a ruthless winch. “Wait.” I reached back, putting my hand to Andax’s chest. I dislodged from his cock and slid down his body.
Andax let out a lungful of air, but he didn’t protest.
My eyes stung with tears. What was I doing? I lowered my mouth around Andax’s cock. All I wanted to do right now, all I could do, was give him pleasure, make up for the tease. I wanted Andax happy. I wanted to be happy.
Yet I was too afraid to be that happy.
Sucking on Andax was close enough to having him inside me. When he came, I swallowed hungrily, eager to take whatever part of him inside me that I could. For now it was the best I could do.
When I was done I crawled up his body and kissed him. He made a motion as if to return the favor, but I stopped him, nuzzled back against his shoulder, and fell asleep listening to the air and blood in his chest.
TEN
We set out early the next morning and by the time we’d hit midday, the walls of the great city were starting to take on a real shape in my eyes as we drew closer.
Of course, days on Wynmere were a little different than the ones on Earth. Long days and long nights. By the time it was the Wynmerian equivalent of noon, we’d been walking almost ten hours.
The expanse of heavily mined wasteland surrounding the canyon gave way to thickening forests when we’d finally gotten close enough to the city for me to get a real sense of the immense size of it.
“How many people live here,” I asked Andax.
“A couple hundred thousand,” he said. “The city will seem fairly familiar once we get inside the walls. For anthropoids like us, there aren’t that many ways of making a metropolis.”
“How many humans?”
“This city? I’m not sure,” he said with a shrug. “We won’t be staying here long, though. I live in a different city on a whole other part of the planet, where the government rules from.”
“Well, then, how many there?”
“Couple thousand? Maybe ten thousand? Maybe more? Outside of the ones I know personally as friends, I see humans walking around all the time, but almost never the same face twice.” Andax paused and looked at me. “You’re worried.”
“I just want to know if I’ll be alone. Uh…” I stumbled on my words. “I mean, I wouldn’t be, I just mean…”
Andax smiled and nodded. “I know what you mean. Nothing replaces being around your own kind. A shared culture, a shared history. It’s important.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry,” he said, “There’s a strong human community. Great food from earth, museums, the latest movies. All that stuff you Earthlings like.”
I laughed. “Us Earthlings, eh?”
“Well, you are from Earth.”
“It’s just strange hearing us all lumped together like that. I wouldn’t even lump people from different parts of the same country together.”
“You all seem very similar to us Wynmerians.”
“That’s a little… speciest? Is that a word?”
“I don’t know,” said Andax laughing. “It’s your language, not mine.”
“I’ll have to look it up later. There’s internet, right?”
He hesitated. “Well, there’s Wynmerian internet. It’d be a bit difficult to connect to the Earth web.”
“Yeah, I guess it would.”
“Stop.” Andax put his hand against my chest and stopped in his tracks. “Get behind me.” He stood to his full height, legs wide, in a defensive stance.
I heard it then. Footsteps in the woods. There wasn’t much space between the forest’s edge and the precipice of the canyon, but I back up behind Andax as much as I could.
They appeared out from between the trees. They were Wynmerians, but didn’t look much like any I’d come across before. In fact, I hadn’t even read anything about them. This was new ground. I had a reflexive urge to reach for my notepad and pen.
They were an even deeper golden-bronze color than I’d ever seen. They glinted in the evening sun like moving metallic statues. Their eyes were exceptionally bright, like glowing diamonds. They weren’t as tall as the average Wynmerian, but their bulky muscles made up for it as far as seeming imposing goes. They were clad in animal skins, the four to the sides carrying broadswords and the leader in the center with a modern rifle.
Five of them. They surrounded us. They spoke in a fast, clipped Wynmerian dialect, but I was just able to follow along.
“Give us the human,” said the leader in the center.
“No.”
“We’re not here to debate. There are others coming. Listen—you can hear them.”
Andax tilted his head up and listened. “Yes. A lot more.”
“I’m not interested in killing a fellow Wynmerian, if I can help it. We only want to remove the human.”
“You have no claim to this human.”
The leader sniffed at the air and smirked. “Neither do you it seems.”
“He is under my protection.”
“He is not your Omega. Your protection means nothing.”
“Would a Wildmere like you even care if he was an Omega?”
The leader spat at being called a ‘Wildmere’. “Perhaps for your sake.”
“Are you sure?”
“It is better this way. If you were bound, we’d easily just kill you both.”
“You might as well then.”
The leader laughed and raised the barrel of his rifle. “The rules have certainly changed quite a bit.” He nodded at the sky, still streaked with the remains of the Trothor. “We have needed to kill some of our own to save the rest of our species.”
“So, what are you waiting for?”
“It’s not in the nature of a Wynmerian to kill one of his own. It’s a difficult choice.”
“I’ll make it easy then.” Andax stepped forward until the barrel was pressed against his chest.
The shimmer of the leader’s face dimmed a bit. He scowled. “I’ve never killed one of my own, but I will do it!” He pressed the barrel into Andax’s chest harder. He grinned sickly. “Maybe if you were an Omega, I’d just kidnap you, take you. Rape you until you couldn’t produce any more offspring for me.”
“Pleasant.” Andax leaned in.
“But who really needs another Alpha running around?”
“Who indeed?”
Andax’s hands shot up as he sidestepped, throwing the leader off balance. He snatched the rifle and kicked the leader in the back, forcing him to the canyon’s edge. He advanced on the scrambling man until he was creeping over the precipice. The other four wild Wynmerians had their swords drawn, uncertain.
“I won’t kill you,” said Andax. “The ground will.”
Andax lifted his foot and kicked the leader in the face, toppling him back off the cliff. The others charged us, but Andax was ready for them. He dodged their blades and sent them rolling.
At that moment, I remembered the martial training from a few days ago and as one of the men charged Andax from behind I
slipped under him and managed to leverage him to the ground.
I heard three more descending screams and then Andax came over to me and the man I’d brought to the ground. He pulled the man up to his feet and brought him over to the edge of the canyon.
“Do you want to die today?”
“No,” the grunt pleaded.
“Neither did my men.”