Roth

by Jessica Frances

  I nod, unsure how I can keep a promise like that. If I get the chance to use this control and get us away from here, then I have to take it.

  We stay silent after that, all lost in our own thoughts. I don’t feel any movement that suggests we’re in the air, but I’m not sure if I would feel anything. Time doesn’t seem to exist here, and before I know it, my head is leaning on my chest and my eyes are refusing to stay open.

  I have not had a good night’s sleep since I was on Earth. The only decent sleep I have had since then has been with Marduke, and that was days ago. I assume sleep deprivation is not good when pregnant, so I ignore the uneasy feeling about letting my guard down. I know, if anything serious happens, I will wake up. Besides, I have Marduke right next to me and Ival opposite me to alert me of any drama.

  I don’t dream of anything; I’m in a blissfully calm and deep sleep. One I need badly. I have always been a light sleeper, but during this reprieve, I am able to sleep through a struggle, a fight, shouts of pain, and also someone screaming my name.

  I miss it all.

  Chapter 19

  Marduke

  This ship is different to the supply ship that I crashed on Roth. It’s larger and more suitable to hosting hundreds of women and men. It’s one of the vessels that were left behind from our failed mission over a hundred years ago. It must have crashed or had something wrong with it. That would be the only reason they wouldn’t just fly it off the planet and save themselves. But they had to have eventually fixed it. They made it work, and now they’re using our own ships against us.

  They’ve managed to take the Claws off their planet and use them to their advantage. They knew we wouldn’t be able to fight them, not without warning. Our hinema might be able to take them out better now since we’ve adjusted them after invading Earth, but we don’t have an unlimited supply of them. We also lost several on Earth. Just between Mattie, Hank and me, we destroyed many.

  What’s more, the nests are a worry because it’s unlikely it was a coincidence they were ready to have offspring. I assume Jeprow chose this time because those creatures are in their cycle to mate. They are not only dropping an army of ruthless creatures, but also ones that are ready to multiply.

  If we had invaded Earth a few months later than we did, like what was planned, humans wouldn’t be in this mess with us. Mattie would be safe and not trapped with a man like Jeprow while he does…

  I scream out, frustrated and furious that I have no idea what is happening to her. A few hours into our capture, I realised she was asleep. Then Jeprow came back with several of his men and took Ival and me away. Mattie was left in that holding area, restrained with neither of us there with her. She didn’t stir throughout any of it, either.

  I screamed her name and fought off the men holding me back, but all I got was several more kicks and punches for my trouble while she didn’t even so much as lift her head.

  I almost feared there was something wrong, but I know how exhausted she’s been. I know her body has most likely just shut down in order to heal and catch up on her lost sleep. At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

  The last thing I saw as I was taken away was Jeprow alone with Mattie. That image has stayed in my mind, preventing me from passing out, stopping me from falling asleep. The knowledge that Mattie is trapped alone with that man has tortured me far worse than anything his men have done to me.

  I am no longer chained up, but I am trapped in a room with no door and no control to open it. I sometimes hear Ival calling out, the sounds making it evident he’s also being tortured.

  I scream Mattie’s name, hoping she can hear me, without ever getting a response.

  With no real ability here to tell the time, and since I’m not sleeping, I feel like it’s been a year since I last laid eyes on Mattie. We haven’t yet landed on Oden, though; so I know it must be under a week.

  I pace the small room, which is more like a cell. There is a bare cot on one side and a bowl in another. I’ve been fed once, but they beat me up so badly afterwards that I vomited it back up. My entire body feels tender and sore. If I’m not bruised, then I’m swelling or bleeding.

  I have never been beaten so badly before, however I think it’s annoying them how I’m handling it. My only fear and worry is for Mattie. I often drift off in my mind when they come in here, and in those moments, I think of her. It’s keeping me sane knowing I have to fight for her, that I have to somehow save her from this torture. Even when she’s not with me, she’s managing to save me.

  My legs grow tired and I move onto the floor, lying down, gazing up at the ceiling, but I’m not seeing it. I see Mattie smiling at me, a baby in her arms. Our baby—Riley. She’s walking towards me, and I know that, in a moment, I’m about to have them both in my arms. They’re both healthy and happy. There is no tension in their bodies. Not any stress or fear. We’re a family and our lives are perfect.

  I smile a little, wanting that dream to be true. Then the image changes and I see Mattie again, but this time she’s not holding our child. She’s leaning over me and I see she’s wearing the vest I gave her. She’s still protected.

  I smile again, wishing I could feel her touch. I want to reach out, take hold of this Mattie, and kiss her. Tell her that I’m sorry and I’m going to fix this. I’m going to rescue her and take her away from all this.

  I reach out, seeing her mouth moving, yet her words are just a blur to me. When I actually feel the touch of her skin under my fingers, I realise I am asleep. My body has obviously just given up and forced me into unconsciousness. I’m instantly angry I’m not awake. What if Mattie needs me? What if I miss something?

  Then, when she crouches down over me, her lips gently brush across mine. I didn’t know a dream could feel so real. A selfish part of me is grateful to be having this dream. I have missed her touch so much. I need her.

  I feel her pulling away and I grip the side of the vest, pulling her back close to me. I don’t like that my dream has kept bruises over her face, but as I breathe in her scent and feel her lips brush over mine again, I forget all about that.

  She gives in, but as soon as my tongue traces her lips, she pulls away from me.

  “Marduke, get the fuck up now!” Mattie hisses at me, her words sounding sharp and harsh against the dreamlike vision.

  “Mattie?” I whisper back, holding her face in my hands and bringing her back to my lips again. I kiss her deeply, needing to own her mouth and take all the strength I can get from her touch.

  I am so lost in her that I am shocked when she pulls away again. I should have control over her in my dreams. Why must they torture me, too?

  “Marduke, come on! I don’t know how long we have.” She pulls my hoodie then and I sit up, wincing at the pain from all of my injuries. I have never felt pain in a dream, either. Wait, is this…?

  “Mattie? Are you really here?” I gasp, reaching out properly and grabbing both of her arms, pulling her to me so our bodies collide.

  “Yes, I am. We need to leave!” she cries.

  “Wait, how are you here?”

  “I stole this control thing, remember?”

  “When?” I try to recall what she is talking about, but I have no idea.

  “Back when Jeprow first arrived on the spaceship.”

  “But that was a long time ago. What has happened to you?” I pull her away from me, keeping my hands on her arms so she can’t move too far away. I’m almost afraid to look at her and see her injuries. If she’s been treated anything like I have, I’m going to lose it. As it stands, I’m going to have to rip off the head of anyone who lay a finger on her.

  “I don’t know. I only just woke up in some strange room. The last thing I remember is falling asleep when we were chained to that wall.”

  “So no one hurt you?” I touch her arm, the only injury I see that wasn’t already there from Jeprow’s attack on her. The side of her jaw is a dark purple, and there is another bruise over the side of her face.

 
“When I woke up, I had a drip sort of thing in my arm. I ripped the needle out and I started to bleed. What do you think it was? Do you think Riley is okay?” Tears well up in her eyes as I hold her to me, feeling her body shake while trying to calm her down.

  “The baby is fine. I know it is,” I lie. I hope like hell Riley is okay, though. Neither of us could handle that loss.

  She nods into my shoulder. “I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I wasn’t restrained, and there was a man in there with me. He freaked me out. He gave me this weird smile when I opened my eyes, then he started towards me and I lost it. He wasn’t anywhere as strong as Jeprow. I knocked him out and used the control to get out of there. I’ve been sneaking around this stupid spaceship trying to find you ever since. There has to be about three billion rooms in here. I can’t even see the freaking doors. I have just been standing at random parts of the wall and pressing the symbols that appear.”

  “It’s okay. I have you now.” She’s still shaking in my arms, but she’s beginning to calm down. “You know, I was just thinking about how I wouldn’t give up until I found you, that it was my mission to save you. But again, you come along and save me instead. How did you become so brave?”

  “I’m not brave, Marduke. I just really needed you to give me a hug.” When she smiles at me, I wish it reached her eyes. I know she’s frightened.

  “Let’s find Ival and get out of here.” I take her hand and use my other hand to hold the control.

  “Are you sure you’re okay? You look…” She gives me a once-over. “Well, you look awful,” she whispers as we leave and begin the search for Ival. I know he’s close because I’ve heard his screams.

  “I’m better now that you’re here. Once we’re off this ship, I’ll feel perfect.”

  “How much time do you think before they realise we’re gone?”

  As if on cue, an alarm suddenly blares, and I let go of Mattie’s hand so she can cover both of her ears. We begin running then, no longer careful about our loud slapping of shoes on the ground.

  When I find Ival six rooms away, he looks worse than I feel. I’m positive he has several broken bones, and he can’t seem to catch his breath. He limps along with us while I wonder if we might have to leave him behind. Even given that he has tried to kill me and Mattie back on Earth and almost succeeded in killing Logan, I still feel hesitant to leave him here. No one deserves this fate. Not even my brother.

  Ival grabs my shoulder, pulling me back towards him and his mouth moves over my ear. “Are we over Oden?”

  “I don’t know,” I call back, moving over to a large open area to look out. When I see the familiar vision of Oden below, I feel the beginnings of hope that we might actually be able to get out of this.

  “Use the monit, send us below,” Ival says.

  I try to send Mattie off the spaceship, torn between wanting her out of danger but afraid of what she’ll find below in Oden.

  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. Whatever shield they’ve had up over Roth preventing us from communicating and flying is obviously over Oden, too. Until this spaceship needs to land, it most likely will stay up and we might not have enough time to wait for that.

  “This way.” Ival taps my shoulder and begins moving back the way we came.

  I don’t know that this is the best course of action, given that, if they’ve checked our rooms and found them empty, the first thing they’ll do is start the search from there.

  Before I can voice my concern, however, he stops at a part in the wall and signals for me to open it. I do and we all go into the small area. This is like a storage space, and at the back of the room is an opening to get to the underneath part of the spaceship.

  Ival kicks it in, moving down into it quickly, and with a quick look back at me for confirmation, Mattie follows him.

  Once we’re all in the small and cramped area, we crawl forward.

  “I thought we’d use the control and zap ourselves out of here?” Mattie huffs from in front of me. There is no way I am letting her out of my sight.

  “It’s blocked. We just need to hide out in here until whatever is blocking us is removed and then we can get out of here,” I explain, my bruised knees shooting up pain from this further abuse.

  Ival keeps going until he finds the small escape hatch that every spaceship has. He unlatches it and the door flies open, strong winds gusting around us. Then he moves and begins dropping something out of it.

  “We’re not seriously going to jump, are we?” Mattie screams out.

  “No,” I assure her, wondering why Ival has opened it. What is he dumping?

  “We’re getting off here now,” Ival calls back in English, wincing from the effort it takes to yell with his injuries. No doubt he has a broken rib or two.

  “What?” Mattie gives me a panicked glance and I return it. I don’t know what he’s talking about, and there is no way any of us can survive a jump. We must be over eighty thousand feet in the air.

  “Put this on.” Ival passes me an Aeepla, which is just a plain looking, black bodysuit. The material is stiff and thick enough to keep you warm and for the energy imbedded in the material to react to our bodies. I realise these are what he’s been dumping out of the escape hatch.

  “No way!” I call out, knowing this technology is old, unreliable and a hundred percent dangerous for Mattie. This only works for our DNA, and while she’s been able to get a monit to open a door, that is nothing like jumping out of a spaceship at eighty thousand feet and hoping it’ll land her and not let her fall to her death.

  “Hurry up.” He shoves one at Mattie and I watch her hesitantly placing it on. There’s no real room to move, so she has to lie on her back and wiggle it over her clothing. He only kept three for us, the rest he’s ditched so no one could follow us this way.

  “What is this thing?” she asks, her voice shaking.

  “Think of it like a parachute,” I explain, hesitant to place my own on. There is no way I can let her jump.

  “Really? Where is all the material for the parachute, though?” She taps along the back.

  “It is meant to prevent you from crashing. You’ll fall through the air, and as the ground gets closers, it’ll slow you down.”

  “Seriously?” Her mouth is agape.

  “Yeah, but these have been here for a hundred years, completely unused, and there is a reason we don’t use them anymore.”

  “They don’t work?”

  I hate that I’m giving her more to panic and fear. “They’ve never failed, but they weren’t necessary. This is connected to our DNA. It might not be safe for you.”

  She nods, understanding now. “Couldn’t we just hide out here until we land?”

  I want to nod that yes, we can and will do that, but lights suddenly shining at us change that plan. We have maybe a minute until Jeprow’s people reach us.

  “Oh, shit!” Mattie cries, finishing putting on her Aeepla.

  I haphazardly place my own on while I watch as Ival nods his head to me and then drops out of the hole. No last goodbye, not even a command to hurry up.

  “Marduke, I don’t know if I can do this. Did I ever tell you I’m terrified of heights? I mean, that mountain we jumped from when we were running from the fire was one thing, but this?” She pokes her head over the entryway and her face pales.

  “I’m sorry, we don’t have a choice. If we stay here, then we might not get another chance to escape.”

  “What if this thing doesn’t work? I don’t think this is a very good way to die.”

  “You won’t. Just hold my hand and don’t let go.” I take her hand, hearing voices growing closer as another light shines over us. “Do you trust me?”

  She nods her head, sitting with me at the hole as our legs dangle over the edge. “I love you, Marduke,” she yells out just to be heard over the gush of wind.

  “I love you, too.” I give her a quick kiss because a hand flies at us, and I know we’ve run out of time.

  We both
scoot forward and then we’re no longer in the spaceship. We’re falling.

  I close my eyes, my hands squeezing hold of Mattie’s, and I think about the fact we’re about to land on Oden.

  Mattie will be on my home planet, and we have things we need to do. We will need to find her sister and Logan. I will have to get them to a safe place so they can hide. Then, I will have to join my brother and fight Jeprow.

  Oden is at war, and Ival is right, I don’t get to choose whether or not I involve myself. I’m already involved, and I will fight for my people’s freedom. I’ll fight for my own freedom and I will fight for Mattie’s. Oden will not fall, and I won’t let any harm come to Mattie or Riley.

  This is not a war I plan on losing.

  We will win.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to my family and friends who have supported my writing. Much love to my amazing parents, grandparents, Greg, Amy, Amara, Mel, Meg, Carley, Erin, Christina, Kate, and Leigh. Your many words of excitement and interest has meant the world to me.

  Thank you to my editors, Alizon and Kristin, at C&D Editing. Your continued friendship and words of encouragement often have kept me going.

  And lastly, thank you to every blogger, reviewer, and reader who has reviewed my books, spoken about my books, messaged or emailed me to chat, and for just being so incredibly nice and supportive. Every word has meant a lot to me.

  Coming soon!

  Book three in the Invasion Trilogy:

  ODEN!

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