Tabitha

by Hall, Andrew

  ‘Do you?’ he replied. ‘Look at us. We’re a race above. We’ve adapted. That’s why they’re hunting us. Why everything is hunting us. Because we’re the real survivors. They’re all afraid of us.’ Tabitha watched him. He was making too much sense for her to be pointing a gun at him. Still, she had her doubts. He looked strong, intimidating, even despite his smile. His grin revealed a mouth full of sharp black teeth. She kept the pistol on him.

  ‘The freak shall inherit the Earth,’ Alex added. ‘That’s why they’re so afraid of us. I came up with that myself, by the way. I’ve had a lot of time on my own to think. Do you like it?’

  ‘How many are there in the hive? People like us?’ said Tabitha, dismissing his question.

  ‘I don’t know. Nine, ten maybe? Those were the ones I saw them taking in there, anyway. Could be a lot more inside,’ he replied. ‘Men, women, little kids. If they’re all still alive, that is.’

  ‘You want to get them out,’ said Tabitha, still uncertain of him.

  ‘Of course I want to get them out,’ Alex replied wilfully, his face growing stern. ‘They’re the only reason I’ve stayed alive, so I could help them somehow. But I can’t do it on my own. I’ve tried. Now you’re here too, we can help them together. Break them out of there and take them somewhere safe.’

  ‘People like us? You’re sure?’ said Tabitha, clinging to the hope.

  ‘People like us,’ Alex assured her. ‘We need to get to them. We need to get together, all of us.’ he had Tabitha’s attention. ‘You know to the aliens, we’re the threats. Not the humans,’ he said. His face had grown fierce at the thought. ‘The humans? They were easy. The whole invasion was easy. But when the freaks start getting together and fighting back, that’s a whole different story. You and me, we could be the start of that, you know? If we work together, we can get those people out of there. Our people.’ Tabitha stared at him and imagined more people like them. A tribe. An uprising. A sudden fleeting thought of a fight they could win. But… she’d already had a tribe. She’d had the Ghosts. They’d tried to fight back; look what happened to them. Maybe this would be different, though. She was stronger now. She could protect them.

  ‘So, what do you think?’ Alex asked her, interrupting her thoughts. Tabitha looked back to him and opened her mouth to speak; hesitated. She felt torn. She didn’t want any more deaths on her conscience. She wasn’t even sure if she believed him yet. What about the plan? Her and Seven were going to leave the planet. That’s what they wanted, to leave it all behind and find a safe new home. The thought had been so strong in Seven’s mind; in both their minds. Now though… maybe she could take her tribe with her, wherever Seven was taking her. They could all start again, on a new world. A new race flourishing, far away from the world that hated them... if the man in front of her was telling the truth.

  ‘You don’t trust me,’ Alex observed. Tabitha pulled her eyes from the road where she’d been staring, lost in thought.

  ‘I…’ she hesitated.

  ‘You don’t have any reason to trust me,’ he said with a smile. ‘It’s understandable. I mean you only just got here, you don’t know me, and you’ve had the shittiest time because of what you are. And you’re a long way from England.’

  ‘Wales,’ she corrected him.

  ‘Sorry. Wales,’ he said with a smile. ‘So yeah, fine, you don’t have any reason to trust me. But look at that monster you’re sitting on,’ he chuckled. ‘If anyone’s got a reason to be nervous, it’s me. If you don’t trust me, you can just... vaporise me. I mean look at that thing.’ Tabitha stroked Seven’s neck proudly, and dipped into his thoughts. Seven didn’t know what to make of him either. The man looked like her; he smelled a little like her. That was the only feedback she could get. Beyond that, Seven was preoccupied with getting away into space. He didn’t think much about a tribe; she was his tribe. Tabitha smiled at Seven’s thought and fell in love with him just a little bit more.

  ‘Look, I know I can’t make you trust me,’ said Alex. ‘All I can say is I’ve had a really hard time surviving out here. And I’m not about to risk my life by crossing a girl on a, a, big-ass dragon.’ Tabitha stifled a smile. She sent her thoughts into Seven’s head. Let’s see about these prisoners, she told her dragon. If he tries anything, you know what to do. Seven understood.

  ‘What do you know about the hive?’ she said, looking back to the man.

  ‘I know there’s some kind of air defences,’ he replied. ‘They’ll shoot you down if you fly too close. You’re not exactly inconspicuous, riding around on that thing.’

  ‘Why do you care if I get shot down?’ she said.

  ‘Why do I care? Because I want to get my people out of there,’ he said. ‘Our people. And you’re the best chance we’ve got.’ Tabitha went to say something, hesitated. ‘Ever since those things came here, I’ve wanted revenge,’ Alex cut in. ‘It’s the only reason I’ve survived this long. Now we can take it straight to them. And we can help people just like us. We can save them. And blow the hive too.’

  ‘Blow it up? How?’ she said.

  ‘There’s a reactor in there,’ he replied. ‘Right in the middle of that place. I’ve seen it, from the tall buildings over there behind you. That reactor’s making the weird light you can see. If we blow that reactor, the whole colony goes up.’

  ‘With us inside it,’ Tabitha added.

  ‘We’ve got that thing to fly us out of there,’ said Alex, nodding at Seven with a kind of reverence.

  ‘Why don’t we just risk it and attack the place from the air, and rescue them that way?’ said Tabitha.

  ‘You haven’t seen those air defences,’ Alex said grimly. ‘You’re lucky you didn’t trigger them already actually, flying in here like that. They’d blow us to pieces before we even got close.’

  ‘He can walk us in then,’ Tabitha suggested, patting Seven’s neck.

  ‘Really? Does he walk quietly?’ Alex said with a grin. ‘I think he’s great, don’t get me wrong, but something tells me that sneaking isn’t his strong point. If we’re going to get those people out we need to do it without getting seen. Otherwise they’ll probably kill them before we can get to them.’

  ‘So you’re saying that we need to walk in there? Right into the hive?’ said Tabitha.

  ‘It’s the only way we’re going to get in,’ Alex replied with a shrug. ‘We’ll take out the air defences when we’re inside, and then we can get your friend here to help us out.’

  ‘It’s suicide,’ said Tabitha. The film lover in her had always wanted a good reason to say that. The rest of her was too busy being terrified.

  ‘So? These days, just falling asleep is suicide,’ Alex replied. ‘Taking a crap is suicide. Standing out here in the open talking… everything’s suicide.’ He made a good point, Tabitha told herself reluctantly. He was too confident about his plan though. Like talking about it was a guarantee they’d survive. The man didn’t move like he should have, either; he was too quick and graceful for his frame. She could kind of understand why Sylvia used to feel uneasy around her, if that was how she moved too. But the thought of Sylvia just pissed her off. All of Tabitha’s bitterness came rushing back in like a tide.

  ‘You still don’t trust me?’ Alex asked her, stepping closer on the road.

  ‘What gave it away?’ Tabitha replied, still aiming the pistol at him.

  ‘Well at least tell me your name,’ he said with a smile. ‘I can’t just call you hot redhead on a magic space dragon.’

  ‘Don’t call him that,’ Tabitha snapped defensively.

  ‘Alright, sorry,’ Alex replied, holding up his hands.

  ‘He’s Seven. I’m Tabitha,’ she said flatly. She’d never had time for cocky men.

  ‘Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, Tabitha,’ said Alex. ‘Hey… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to piss you off. Don’t take me too seriously.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I won’t,’ Tabitha replied, holstering her gun and jumping down from the saddle. She led S
even closer until Alex grew uneasy, and he backed away nervously from the dragon’s snout. Seven lay down on the road then, basking in the sunlight.

  ‘I don’t like the way he’s looking at me,’ said Alex, keeping his distance. Seven’s white eyes were staring at him, huge and predatory. ‘What does he eat?’

  ‘He doesn’t eat anything,’ Tabitha replied, stroking Seven’s shoulder. ‘He’s solar powered. So you really don’t need to be such a pussy around him.’ Alex laughed.

  ‘Anyone would be a pussy around him, look at him!’ he said. ‘So this guy is solar powered? I can’t believe it… I mean, look at those teeth.’

  ‘He’s got a bite on him,’ Tabitha said proudly. ‘You should see what he can do to his brothers and sisters.’

  ‘I can imagine,’ Alex replied, awestruck as he looked at him. ‘So what about you, what do you eat? Are you hungry? Let me guess – spider meat, rare and bloody, right?’

  ‘No,’ Tabitha replied. ‘I’m solar powered too.’

  ‘Great, so I’m stuck with a pair of fucking hippies,’ he chuckled. Tabitha didn’t see the funny side. Alex watched her while she made herself comfortable against Seven’s wing. She closed her eyes for a while and felt the warm sun on her skin.

  ‘So what, you’re recharging right now?’ said Alex. Tabitha nodded restfully. ‘And you never need to go find any food?’ Tabitha shook her head. ‘How did you learn to do that?’

  ‘I just touched Seven on the nose,’ she said, eyes closed, skin soaking in the light.

  ‘So, you rubbed a magic space dragon on the nose, and now all you need to live is sunshine?’ he chuckled.

  ‘I said don’t call him that,’ Tabitha snapped. ‘He gets more pissed off than I do.’ Seven was staring at him.

  ‘Alright, alright,’ said Alex, exasperated. ‘So your body learned his solar power, right?’

  ‘Yep,’ she replied. ‘You’re welcome to try. I don’t think he’ll bite you.’

  ‘You don’t think he’ll bite me?’ said Alex. ‘That’s reassuring.’ Tabitha shrugged her shoulders, sunbathing. Alex approached cautiously. Tabitha had her eyes closed. Seven started growling; a huge deep rumble that Alex felt in his chest. Tabitha opened her eyes and saw Alex standing over her, blocking out the sunlight. He had a hand held out to Seven’s skin, hesitating.

  ‘I don’t think he likes me,’ said Alex, stepping back. Tabitha looked up at him and laid a hand on Seven’s side.

  ‘Probably because you’re standing so close to me,’ she observed. ‘He’s defensive.’ Alex stepped back a little more until Seven’s growling quietened down.

  ‘It’s ok,’ Tabitha told her dragon, stroking a scale. ‘Just let him touch your nose for a second.’ Alex looked to her uncertainly and then back to Seven, and stepped a little closer. He reached out his grey hand and placed it gently on Seven’s snout.

  ‘I don’t feel anything,’ he said, his voice wavering nervously.

  ‘It should tingle, like electricity,’ said Tabitha. ‘Does it feel hot?’

  ‘I can’t feel anything,’ he replied. ‘Nothing’s happening.’

  ‘Maybe you just don’t work that way,’ said Tabitha, shrugging her shoulders. ‘How did you get your abilities?’

  ‘Eating stuff,’ Alex replied with a black-fanged grin. ‘I got my new hands here from eating a spider, when I was in pretty bad shape. The meat and blood fixed me right up. The rest I got from eating a big black thing that the army shot up to pieces before they left. I don’t think I could eat all your friend here though. He’s a little on the big side.’

  ‘I don’t think he’d let you eat him, somehow,’ Tabitha replied. She had a thought. ‘You said the hive was like a garden, didn’t you? Maybe you could eat some of the alien plants if we find any, for solar power,’ she suggested, feeling refreshed from the sunlight.

  ‘Do you think that’d work?’ said Alex, suddenly intrigued.

  ‘No idea,’ Tabitha replied, standing up and dusting off her alien catsuit. ‘It’s worth a try though, isn’t it?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Alex, looking her body up and down when she stretched in the sunlight. ‘I like eating meat, not rabbit food,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘Suit yourself,’ Tabitha replied. ‘Can you show me how to get inside that hive then?’

  ‘What, right now?’ said Alex, sneezing at the bright sky.

  ‘Well, unless you’ve got anything better to do out here, instead of rescuing your own kind?’ Tabitha replied, looked around at the ruined city. Alex grinned.

  ‘Let’s do it,’ he said, glancing at the desolation that he used to call home. Tabitha nodded grimly and thought about the dangers to come, and went over to stroke Seven’s snout.

  ‘Stick to the rooftops, ok?’ she told her dragon, stepping back as Seven climbed to his feet.

  ‘He’s going to watch over us, right?’ said Alex, watching Seven stretch out his vast rectangular wings. ‘Tell him that he can’t fly over the hive, or they’ll shoot him down.’

  ‘Did you hear that?’ Tabitha asked Seven. Her dragon grunted a growl and took off from the street, his beating wings blowing a tide of dust across the road.

  ‘Jeez,’ Alex mumbled, shielding his eyes from the dust as he watched Seven take off into the sky.

  ‘Shall we get going?’ Tabitha asked him.

  ‘Let’s do it,’ Alex replied, watching Seven as he landed down on a ruined office block overhead. ‘Follow me.’

  ‘First things to change were my hands,’ said Alex, making conversation, as he lead Tabitha down a ruined grey high street.

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ Tabitha replied, looking down at her metal palms. The breeze rustled warped sheets of newspaper along the pavement around them.

  ‘It happened the same day that the world ended, actually,’ Alex continued, thinking back. ‘Seems like a lifetime ago now. That was the day my brother died, and my girlfriend told me she was cheating on me. Some people get all the luck, huh?’

  ‘Well, you’re still alive,’ Tabitha replied, looking up at the ruined skyscrapers. They must have been a hell of a sight when they were still standing. Now they tilted and crumbled like towering tombstones. A graveyard of giants, standing haunted and annihilated in the stark sunlight.

  ‘No, you’re right,’ Alex considered, leading her on around a street corner. ‘I am still alive, I should be grateful. Maybe you and me, we made our own luck. How about you, you must have had a pretty tough time?’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Tabitha replied flatly.

  ‘That bad, huh?’ said Alex. ‘Well, I’ve seen everything since the invasion. Things I never thought civilised people could do. I saw this one guy who went crazy and started eating his own –

  ‘I don’t want to hear it,’ Tabitha cut in. ‘Just… tell me about the hive.’

  ‘Alright,’ Alex chuckled. ‘Well, down the bottom there, that’s Central Park. The hive pretty much starts on the other side of it.’ Alex noticed Seven swoop down onto a blown-out tower block right above them.

  ‘It’s probably a good idea for your friend up there to stay right where he is,’ said Alex. ‘If he gets any closer to the hive they’ll shoot him down.’

  ‘You’re paranoid,’ said Tabitha. ‘How do you know that, anyway?’

  ‘I’ve seen airplanes trying to bomb that hive every day for weeks,’ he said grimly. ‘They don’t try any more.’ Tabitha looked from Alex up to Seven on the top of the apartment block, and whistled up to him. His white eyes stared down at them.

  ‘Stay there ‘til I whistle for you, ok?’ she called up. Her voice echoed in the empty street. Seven looked at her and then turned away, watching the skyline.

  ‘Is that actually going to work?’ said Alex, swatting away a fly. ‘He’s really going to come for us when you whistle?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘So, how did you end up with that thing for a pet?’ Alex said with a grin.

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Tabitha replied. ‘A
nd he’s not my pet.’

  ‘Well, I’ve got a lot of time for a long story,’ said Alex, picking his way over a pile of rubble. Tabitha thought about Jim then; he’d said exactly the same thing when they’d first met. The memory of him stung, hard. Memories of everyone.

  ‘Entertainment’s been a little thin on the ground lately,’ said Alex, breaking Tabitha’s sad train of thought. ‘Go ahead, give me the whole long story.’

  ‘Maybe we should just keep our voices down and look out for spiders?’ Tabitha suggested.

  ‘Fine,’ Alex said dismissively, leading her on down the street. ‘I mean, you were the one shouting to a big old dragon on a rooftop just then, but whatever.’ Tabitha glanced at him and felt awkward. Maybe she owed him an apology. ‘So, I get through about five or six spiders a day,’ said Alex, changing the subject. ‘Unless I can get all solar powered, like you.’

  ‘You don’t sound too keen about it,’ Tabitha replied, walking on down the dead street beside him.

  ‘Keen? What does that mean?’ he said.

  ‘You don’t sound like you like the idea,’ Tabitha explained.

  ‘Oh, right,’ Alex said with a smile. ‘British English, language barrier, you know?’ he chuckled. ‘Uh, nah, I kind of like the hunt,’ he said, scratching a stubbly cheek. ‘Must be pretty dull, sitting around in the sun recharging all the time.’

  ‘I’m recharging right now,’ Tabitha replied, watching her corners as they crossed a road packed with dead taxis. ‘I don’t need to sit around.’

  ‘Well, I just hope you don’t fight like some lame-ass hippie sun-feeder,’ Alex teased her. ‘If you do, we’re screwed.’ Tabitha flashed him a look and said nothing. There was an awkward silence as they picked their way through the sea of taxis; Alex whistled quietly to take the edge of it. He was starting to grate on her.

  ‘Seriously though, I appreciate you being here,’ he said, leading her on towards the park. ‘I couldn’t do something this crazy without someone else like me to help.’

  ‘No, me neither,’ Tabitha admitted. She walked on beside him and cooled off a little from her mood. Some people were just wankers, she supposed; they couldn’t help it.