by J Deleon
“Well that, and I’m going to cut my hair.” Jennifer grabbed a piece of hair to look at.
“Wait, why?” Cecily was confused.
“Well, it might be safer to have short hair, you know? That way they won’t have anything to pull me with.”
“Oh, should I do the same?” Cecily asked, saddened by the thought.
“If you want.” Jennifer told her.
Cecily thought for a moment. “I’ll just cut it a little shorter.”
Jennifer chuckled. “Okay.”
Cecily went to find knives. Behind the counter, there were folding knives of all different types. Cecily grabbed two of the more useful looking ones and went back to Jennifer.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Cecily asked.
“I’m sure.” Jennifer pulled out the knife from the packaging and opened it. Cecily watched as she grabbed pieces of her hair and started to cut. By the time she was done, her hair barely had enough length to pull on. “How does it look?”
“You look like a little kid.” Cecily laughed.
Jennifer joined in. “Shut up.”
“Well, I’m not cutting that much off.” Cecily grabbed her ponytail and looked at it. “Here, just cut off a few inches.”
Jennifer did so, much quicker than it took to do her own. “Go look at yourself.”
The two went into the restroom to examine themselves.
“It doesn’t look too bad.” Cecily fiddled with her shorter ponytail.
Jennifer ruffled her short hair. It didn’t even cover her eyebrows anymore. “Mine will do.” She turned to Cecily. “You ready to ask the group?”
Cecily turned to Jennifer. “I guess.”
Jennifer chuckled. “Let’s go.”
Emry
There footsteps shook the ground, but Emry held on to Danielle. She tried to lift her up, but there was no use. She looked back to see that they had spotted her. There were over a dozen aliens in the area, now closing in on her.
“I’m sorry, Danielle.” Emry cried. She set her body down gently and reached for her slingshot. She reached into a pocket on her jacket that she had filled with stones. She placed a stone into the string and pulled back. “This is for you.”
The stone launched out, lodging itself into the torso of one of the aliens. The alien placed its hand on the wound and fell to the ground. This was when Emry tried to make her escape.
She reloaded her slingshot and continued to turn around to shoot at the following aliens. They all pulled out their bow and arrows to fight back. Emry maneuvered her way through the wreckage and down the alleys. She leaned on the side of a building to catch her breath.
“Emry.” A small, angelic voice echoed down the alley.
Emry jumped and grabbed her slingshot. She looked in the direction she heard the voice.
“Emry.” The voice echoed again.
“Who’s there?” She demanded to know.
“Bad things.” The voice gave her chills.
“What?” She questioned.
“To come.”
“Who’s there?” She pulled back a stone on her slingshot.
“No good will come.” The voice sounded like it was in pain.
Emry was finally making out what the voice was telling her. “What are you talking about?”
“The Red Orb.”
“What Red Orb?”
“Must not be stopped.”
“I don’t know what you’re telling me. What Red Orb?” Emry stood up and tried to find the voice. “Where are you?”
“Grave things will come if not.”
“Who’s there?” Emry shouted. She felt as if she was losing her mind.
“The Red Orb.” The voice began to repeat the same three words, growing louder inside her head. The words started overlapping each other, getting closer to her, spoken more violently as each one came to her mind. The words hammered into her until she fell to the ground, unable to take the loud words booming in her ears.
“Stop it!” She shouted at the voice. “Stop it!”
Chapter 2:
The Weapons of Gods
Scott
“Th—this way!” Scott was in tremendous pain. He held onto his bleeding side until they made it back to their safe haven.
Kevin carried Ian inside first. Scott followed behind; making sure they had lost the monsters.
“Oh my god. What happened?” The others in Kevin’s group rushed over to aid them.
“There’s aliens!” Kevin blurted out. “They’re coming!”
“What?” The entire group started to panic as Kevin went on. Soon enough, the entire group was in a panic.
“Kevin, stop!” Scott tried to calm them down, but the damage was done.
“We’re not safe!” A person shouted.
“We need to leave!” Another pointed out.
“There’s nowhere to go!” The group started to argue amongst themselves.
“We can’t stay!”
“We’ll die!”
“They’re going to kill us if we stay!”
Scott couldn’t take the shouting. It was his job to keep the people safe, but with only one of him, this was no easy feat.
“Everybody!” Scott shouted. His voice overpowered all the others. The room fell silent to his voice. “We’re not going to get anywhere with all of this arguing.”
“He’s right.” Kevin agreed. “Trust me, we’ve seen them. We’ve fought them. We’re no match like this. We need to get all of our things and go—now.”
“Where’s Danielle?” A voice in the crowd asked.
“And Emry?” A young lady in the front asked.
Kevin kept quiet as well as Scott and Ian. The long silence gave the crowd all the information they needed. The young girl in the front started to tear up in the silence. A young child next to her grabbed her hand to comfort her.
“Why are you crying?” The little girl asked.
“It’s okay.” Scott told her. “Everything is going to be fine.”
“Please, just trust us.” Kevin spoke with a weak voice. Scott hadn’t noticed that Kevin, himself, was crying at the sight of the young lady. Scott felt weak at the sight as well, but couldn’t shed a tear if he tried. “We need to go.”
“It’s his fault.” Ryan, the large man, said. “We were fine until those two came.”
“It’s not like that.” Kevin tried to regain his demeanor. “This was going to happen either way.”
“No, we were safe here.” Ryan argued.
“It’s best we fight these monsters instead of just running away. He was right. I don’t want the human race to die out, running. If we’re going down, we’re going down fighting.” Kevin spoke sternly.
“Yeah, fuck running.” A voice agreed.
“We need to fight back.” The young lady in the front spoke with a weary voice.
“Good! But we can’t fight here. We need to go, now!” Kevin told his group.
The group started to spread out to get their belongings. It only took a few minutes for the group to head out to the streets, opposite from where Scott and his small group of fighters came. He didn’t know how long it would be until the aliens found them, but he was determined to get these people as far away from the action as possible.
Cecily
The nights were long for Cecily, longing for any word from her parents. She had never gone longer than a few days without talking to her family—she knew it was well beyond that point now.
She had lost count of the days since the world had ended. The days seemed like a blur to her while the nights were filled with restless worrying. She always tried to be a cheerful person, one who always wore a smile, but the long walks and the temporary shelters took a toll on her. The feeling of emptiness started to get to her by the second week. As she assumed the others felt, there were signs of never returning to their old lives. Every night she would lay her head down and stare out at the purple sky, her dreams of going back to college faded.
Cecily
had led the group all through the large city. They remained in constant movement to avoid the monsters at all costs. Over the weeks of travelling, they encountered more and more survivors; each one looking for help. They accumulated a fairly sized group, never turning down a person. The people were just thrilled to know that they weren’t the only ones. A few of the members weren’t too fond of the idea, but they grew into it as time went by.
Not only were they trying to keep safe, but they had started protecting themselves as well. Sean gave the group the idea to try and gain some protection. This included guns and ammunition for the adults. Once again, the idea wasn’t much liked at the start of their travels, but once the group started to finally run into the monsters in person, they agreed to have the weapons.
It wasn’t too often when monsters would find them, but when they did, the majority of the group was too scared to fight. This lead to them constantly fleeing the scene for shelter. Members like Jennifer wanted to fight back, not wanting to feel like all they could do was run, but the others who couldn’t accept the new world didn’t want any part of that.
Training started a few days in. The entire group spent time practicing wielding and shooting guns while the others looked out for the children. They had shifts between the two to even out the practice times. Cecily wasn’t at all good with a gun once she started, but seeing Jennifer not any better comforted her. The two always practiced together and learned together. It wasn’t long before the two started to compete on who was a better shooter. Though they weren’t the best in the group, their accuracy wasn’t bad. The familiarity with guns in the group made the people feel better as time went on.
The day was quiet as they travelled through Academy Boulevard. Cecily walked in front, leading the way. Jennifer was just behind. Sean had discussed with Cecily about where they should go. He had come to trust her a lot more since she brought his son medicine. He thought it best if Cecily lead the way on this day, letting her call the shots on where to stop. Even though Cecily had repeatedly told him that she was new to the city, he insisted on letting her take the lead. The position had been filled by several other people before her, now it was her turn.
There were sections of the city that were completely gone. They had reached the downtown area where a lot of the damage had taken place. Whole sections of the city were divided by mile long gaps in the earth. No building was standing tall in the area, which made it harder for the group to find a place to stay for the night.
Cecily looked up at the sky; the hints of purple started to show. She knew it would be soon before they would have to find shelter. The weather started to get colder both day and night. Winter was coming for the group, and soon. Being so up north, the city was cold all year long. The winter was going to be a brutal time for Cecily and her group.
Jennifer stopped behind Cecily, gaining her attention. Cecily turned to her, curious.
“What is it?” Cecily asked her.
“I hear something.” Jennifer looked around.
Cecily walked up to Jennifer to listen. Sean and the others stopped shortly after.
“What is it?” Sean asked.
A barely audible growl came from beyond the fallen buildings.
“They’re near.” Cecily stated.
The group started to panic.
“Everybody just calm down.” Sean announced as he looked around.
“We have to get out of here.” Amy, a newcomer to the group stated.
“Come on.” Cecily tried to guide their way away from the sounds.
The roaring grew louder as they hurried away. Cecily tried to block out the sound.
Cecily stopped once the ground began to shake. She looked around to see if they were in sight. From the corner of her eye, she saw a small blur. She turned in the direction to investigate. Not too far away, there was a person running, holding something in their arms. Before Cecily could acknowledge what she had seen, the person was out of sight.
The ground shook hard enough to knock them down. Cecily’s glasses fell off, making her fumble around looking for them. All she could hear was the nearing sounds of the monsters. The members of her group now started to freak out as conflict was upon them. Cecily found her glasses, put them on, and stood back up to see a group of monsters just a few blocks away.
The people started to scream as the monsters began to notice them. A few fled as the others stood their ground. They had been preparing for this for too long. Cecily was ready to stop running and fight.
Adam
The night sky rematerialized along with Adam. He saw the pieces of space reassemble to make life and all creation once more. His hands were bound again once the monster he was tied to had formed underneath him. The monster landed on the ground with a thud, propelling Adam into the air a bit and then back on the rough scales.
Adam looked around, it seemed as if he were on earth again, but not in the city. It appeared to be a dessert out in the middle of nowhere. It was night time, but the sky wasn’t the purple; instead, it was red. He stared at the red sky until he saw the alien who had saved his life jump off of the monster and walk in front of him.
“Where are we?” Adam fought back, not allowing the alien to unbind him.
“I can explain to you later.” The alien tried to calm him. “But right now, we need to leave.”
“I just want to go home.” Adam cried.
“I’m afraid you can’t anymore.” The alien managed to grab a hold of Adam’s wrists and cut the mysterious rope.
Adam grieved at the alien’s words. Apart of him knew that there was no going back to normal ever again. The last human on earth has now been taken prisoner by aliens.
The alien helped Adam off of the monster and set him on the ground. Adam watched as the alien told the monster to stay. This was when he noticed the soil he was on. It wasn’t dirt or sand or anything else, it was red and soft. He scooped a bit up like sand, but pinching it only made it dissolve into smaller pieces.
The alien tried to help Adam up.
“Don’t touch me.” Adam jerked and stood up on his own.
“You have nothing to fear from me.” The alien kept its distance.
“You killed everybody on earth.” Adam pointed out.
“That wasn’t us. Come on, the Usepa will find us if we don’t move.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Adam was beyond confused.
“Our king. A being of power.” The alien tried to explain.
“I know what a fucking king is.” Adam blurted.
“I understand that you are afraid and confused. Believe me, I am too. But just try to listen to me. I think I have an idea of what is going on.” The alien spoke in a relaxed tone that somewhat soothed Adam.
“You invaded my world.” I think you know exactly what is going on.” Adam told it.
“That was a mistake. We shouldn’t have done that. And no, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t even understand how we are communicating right now, but I plan on finding out. Now just come with me.”
“No. I need to go back to the city.” Adam stepped back once more.
“We can’t go back there.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re not there anymore. Can’t you tell?” The alien motioned around him.
It was finally dawning on Adam that they had indeed left earth. Adam was now on their planet.
“Wait—” Adam looked around, losing his breath more and more after every second. “No…No. No. No.” Adam fell to his knees. “No, I need to go back. Please, just take me back.”
“I told you, we can’t. You have something to do with the Red Orb, and I’m going to find out what.” The alien forcefully grabbed Adam.
“Get away from me!” Adam tried to fight him off.
“I’m not going to hurt you. We just need to hurry. It can save us all!” The alien dragged Adam away from the monster.
“Everybody that’s worth saving is already dead.” Adam couldn’t help but think ab
out his family at that moment.
“Just hurry.” The alien led Adam a long distance out of the open area. After trying and failing numerous times to break free, Adam gave in and decided to follow the alien.
The two walked for what seemed like hours without any change in the area. “Do you have a name?”
Adam, who was staring at his feet as they walked, looked up. It was the first words that either of them had spoken for a while. “Adam.”
“I am Lescion.”
“That just sounds like an alien’s name.” Adam retorted.
“Here, you are the alien.” Lescion replied.
Adam remained quiet.
“Do you have a gender?” Lescion spoke again.
“M—male.” Adam hesitated.
“Male? That word wasn’t translated into Telemy like the others you speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean; I don’t think you are actually speaking Telemy like I hear you. I’m assuming that you are hearing me speak your native language, am I correct?”
“Yeah, you’re speaking English.”
“But I’m not. I am speaking Telemy. Just like the rest of my kind. You are only translating the words that you hear into your own language. You are also translating your words into Telemy without actually doing so. At least, that’s what I have come to understand.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Adam replied honestly.
Lescion stopped walking and turned to Adam. “When we first met you, we couldn’t understand each other. Renia touched you, and then we were able to communicate. I believe that you were meant to understand us. That you were destined to be the one of your kind to survive and communicate with us and other beings. That is why I think you can help stop the Red Orb.”
A thought came into Adam’s mind at the mention of the Red Orb. He remembered a dream he had just before the disasters started. He dreamt about a large Red Orb in the sky, blaring over the earth. It hadn’t clicked with him until just then, but he was sure it was connected.