by A. L. Svartz
"Welcome passengers," a croaked voice said over the intercom. "Due to two passengers boarding the ship without Captain Authorization, I believe the only solution to this problem is to go out with a bang. Or should I say, boom. Yes, that's right. I've rigged the ship to explode. I would like to thank the passengers who chose to fly with us today, and I hope you will not return." The intercom shut off.
"Rigged to explode!" Kaj yelled out. "We're dead! There's no way out!"
"Who was that over the intercom?" Phos asked the old Daj. "Does it sound like any one of the Daj that were trapped down here with you?
The old Daj shrugged. "Doesn't sound familiar to me. But you'd better hurry and get out of here."
"The drill!" Kaj blurted out.
Phos looked at Kaj with a confused look.
"From the cave. Remember. You used it to cut through the rocks for us to escape."
Phos suddenly remembered what he was talking about. "Let's go. Who knows when this place will blow. Kaj, grab the old man and let's go." Phos raced out the cage, heading back over to the metal door that blocked the stairs.
Kaj went over to the old Daj, trying to help him up. "No, no my boy. Like I said before, I’d only slow you down. Hurry, while you still have a chance. Go!" Kaj raced out of the cage, heading over to Phos.
The silent drill cut with a determined effort, slowly penetrating through the metal door. Phos was carving out a square hole that was big enough for him to fit through. After a few seconds of drilling, the metal slab square that Phos cut out fell to the floor. He turned off the drill, quickly putting it back in his back.
"Quickly!" Phos said, making his way through the door. Kaj followed behind. "We’ve got to hurry! This place could blow any minute!"
They dashed through the ship, leaving the way they came in. Back out in the sandy terrain, they continued to run, getting as far away from the ship as possible. Running up back behind a hill, they both poked their heads up, waiting until the ship exploded. They both tried not to blink as they didn't want to miss it.
Everything went silent. It seemed as though the wind stopped as well. The inside of the ship lit up with a blinding white light. Fire escaped out every window. Pieces of metal were tossed in every direction - some pieces landing close to where Kaj and Phos were hiding.
All that Kaj could think about was the older Daj in there. He probably didn't feel anything or even know the explosion came - as it happened so fast. Kaj also couldn't get his uncle out of his head. He still hoped that his uncle was back at his village, living his life normally, not thinking that he was lying around somewhere.
Kaj didn't even pay attention as Phos was tugging on him to move out of the way. "Come on Kaj. Debris is falling all around us." They both ran away from their old position. A large piece of metal landing where they were just seconds after they left. They both ran down the hill, safely out of the debris zone. "That was close. You need to be more careful Kaj."
"Sorry," Kaj said, rubbing his head. He looked around, trying to see if there was anything around. In the far distance, Kaj saw a strange figure watching them. "What's that?" He pointed towards the creature.
Phos looked over to where Kaj was pointing. "That's it!" He yelled. "That's what I saw in the ship before the door closed us in. He did it. Whatever he is." Phos darted towards the creature, with Kaj soon following. The weird creature noticed that he had been spotted and took off as well. "Come on Kaj! After it!"
They both chased the creature, watching it hop its way away. The creature was very slow, and Kaj and Phos caught up to it in no time. Phos went for the tackle, apprehending the creature. They both struggled on the ground, but Phos ultimately had a grip on him.
"Who are you?!" Phos yelled at the creature. "What gives you the right to try and kill us?!"
"Let me go," the creature said in a whiny voice. "I'll tell you everything, just let me go. You're hurting me. Please."
Kaj went over to the two, trying to separate them. "Phos, let him go. Let him explain." He released the creature from his grasp.
The nude creature stood up, facing the two. Phos got up as well, dusting himself off. The creature reminded Phos of a frog, only with humanoid features. He had no neck, with long arms and legs, with a plump stomach. His fingers and toes were webbed, with three digits on each hand and foot. The mouth he had took up most of his face. He had large eyes that popped out from the top of his head.
"What's the deal you little freak?!" Phos snapped at the creature.
"Listen, listen," it whined out, putting out both his hands for protection. "I was one of the prisoners that the Galactic Soldiers took aboard. They locked me in there with all of the Daj. When the ship crashed, my cell door opened. I went searching around the ship, trying to find food, and I did. While I was searching around the ship some more, I started to hear voices. When I checked the downstairs, I saw a human staring back at me. I immediately thought it was a Galactic Soldier and knew that he would kill me if he found out I had escaped from the cell. That's why I trapped the two of you down there. That's why I blew up the ship. I was just trying to protect myself." The frog-like creature fell to his knees. "So please, just don't hurt me."
"Get up," Phos instructed the creature. He rose from the ground. "I understand where you're coming from, but you nearly killed us. All we were doing was trying to find a current map to get out of the desert."
"A map," the creature said. "I found one." He lifted his arms around to his slimy back. Reaching both his hands into the back of his skin, he pulled out a soaking map. He ringed it out dry before giving it to Phos.
"Thanks," Phos said, unraveling the map.
"What is your name?" asked Kaj.
"Groog," the creature responded.
Phos studied the map, noticing the differences from the previous one. "Here." Phos pointed to a location on the map. "That's where we are, and United City is right around the corner. We should be there soon."
"Why the rush to United City?" Groog asked. "That place is crawling with Galactic Soldiers. I wouldn't dare step foot in there."
"Good, because you're not coming," Phos said. "I appreciate the map, but this is an apology for almost killing us. Come on Kaj, we need to get going." As Phos started to walk away, the wind blew the map out of Phos' hands.
"I got it," Kaj said, chasing after the map. It blew over to where all the debris was. He snatched the map from air, holding onto it firmly. Kaj looked around, seeing all of the debris from the ship scattered around.
As he was looking around, he suddenly heard a shot being fired. Kaj raced back over to where Phos and Groog were. He was shocked at what he saw.
"What the heck just happened?!" Kaj yelled. He saw Phos holding his pistol in his hand, with Groog on the ground. He ran over to them. Kneeling down, he saw that Groog had a bullet wound. Kaj stood back up. "You shot him."
"He lunged at me," Phos said. "While I turned and watched you go after the map, the little freak jumped on me. I fought him off my back, and the only other thing I could think of doing was shooting him. I tried not to kill him. I must've hit something important. Out here Kaj, you can't trust anybody."
Kaj didn't say a word. He handed Phos the map. Phos fixed the map. He tried to find the location they were at again.
"We need to head in that direction," Phos pointed. He stepped over Groog's body while Kaj went around it. "We should be there soon."
CHAPTER NINE
THE OUTSIDERS
"Come on Kaj!" Phos yelled out. "You're falling behind." He tried talking over the howling of the wind. Phos stopped and waited for Kaj to make his way up the short, sandy hill. In his hand, Phos held a pair of binoculars. He looked through them. "Well, well. There it is."
"What ... is ... it," Kaj said, trying to catch his breath. Phos handed the binoculars over to Kaj. As he looked through them, he could make out a city in the distance. He became excited. That was United City Kaj was looking at. He could see the shield that protected the city. Also, he could see a ship
prepping for launch. "The ship!"
Phos quickly snatched back the binoculars to get a look at it for himself. "Dammit! We've got to hurry!" Phos put the binoculars back in his sac before running down the hill with Kaj.
The two darted across the sand, every step taking them closer to United City. Even with the mechanical legs that Phos had, he ran far better than a man his age should have.
"Come on Kaj!" Phos yelled again. Kaj was still trying to catch his breath and wasn't running at his full speed.
As Kaj was finally catching up to Phos, something stopped them both from going any further. Phos dropped to the ground, hiding behind a large rock that was in front of them.
"Get down," Phos instructed Kaj. He also dropped to the ground.
"What is it?" Kaj asked, peering around the rock. He spotted two rows of identical looking huts with a long path in between. The small village was right in front of the translucent blue shield that protected United City. Kaj could see what looked like Daj roaming around the village. They appeared somewhat different to Kaj though. Not as clean and healthy as the Daj that lived in his village, but more buffed out and filthy.
"They're called Outsiders," Phos said. "Once normal citizens of United City, now turned to bandits. Most of them were banished from United City, depending on the severity of their crime. I read a little bit about them while I was stranded in that cave. There's no way to get into United City except to go right through the village."
"Will they harm us?" Kaj asked. After what he just went through, Kaj didn't know if he could take much more of this.
"Not if we don't provoke them," Phos said. "As long as we just keep quiet, and proceed to go forward, we should be alright. But if we're going to do this, we need to hurry. That ship could leave anytime now. Just follow my lead, and stay close to me."
Phos and Kaj rose up from the sand and began to walk down to the village. Kaj, extremely nervous, was walking very to close to Phos. He had fought the usual bullies in his village, but nothing to the extent of these bandits. They would kill Kaj the second they got the chance to.
"If anything goes wrong, I brought my rifle along," Phos said to Kaj. "I'm not afraid of anything now … after what we both just went through. The only ones that should be afraid are them."
They continued to head towards the village. For some reason, Kaj knew that something bad was going to happen. He had a strange feeling in his stomach.
As they entered the village, dirty looks were being shot at them. Kaj slightly turned his head to look at a nasty Daj, leaning against one of the huts, sharpening his sword. He snarled at Kaj, which made him jump.
"Just keep your eyes forward," Phos instructed him. Kaj quickly snapped forward. They noticed that someone who seemed to be important in the village was approaching them. Both of them stopped. "Let me do the talking," Phos whispered to Kaj.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" a chubby Daj in front of them said. He stood a little bit taller than Kaj, but not as tall at Phos and held two daggers in his hand. The red facial hair he had covered most of his face, with his beard nearly touching the ground. His muscular arms were exposed and covered with tattoos of strange symbols. "Looks like we have a couple of guests." He walked in circles around the two. "Right boys!" The crowd of mischief Daj laughed and yelled.
Two more goons walked up next to the chubby Daj as he stopped in front of the two again. "Well gentlemen, my name is Toris," the chubby Daj announced. "And I proclaim myself the leader of this village."
"Thank you for having us in your village, Toris," Phos said, without moving a muscle. He stood completely still. "If you may, we only wish to pass through and enter the city. We mean no harm to anyone here."
Toris glanced back at the city. "Ahh, I see," Toris said. "You two are making your way off this rusted out planet. Well, let me tell you something, if we're forced to be destroyed along with this planet, I think it's only fair if you stay." Toris stuck out one of his daggers, pointing it at Phos' throat. "You two aren't going anywhere."
"We don't want any trouble," Phos told him. "Just let us pass." He began to grow irritated. Phos knew that he didn't have time to waste. The ship could leave any minute and he wasn't going to let some chubby Daj stop him and Kaj from escaping.
Kaj looked around. It seemed as though every Daj in the village had gathered. He noticed that a few Daj were riding some sort of giant lizard creature. They were covered in armor and it kept on snarling, sticking out its long tongue every time it did.
Phos then slightly tapped Kaj's foot with his own. Kaj looked up at him. He was signaling Kaj to open up his sac. Phos continued to distract Toris as Kaj unzipped the sac. He knew that Phos wanted his rifle.
"This is your last chance," Phos proclaimed. "Let us pass!" Phos didn't want to harm anyone. He simply just wanted to pass through, letting the corrupt Daj go on with their lives.
"Apparently, just like your legs, your ears are rusted out too," Toris snapped.
That was the breaking point for Phos. He lifted his arm around him, reaching into his sac. In the second that he did, he brought around his assault rifle, firing off three bullets at Toris. The three bullets hit him in his shoulder and he fell to the ground without another word. Phos then pointed the rifle at the other two goons, firing a few bullets at each of them. They too fell to the ground.
"Come on Kaj!" Phos yelled as he dashed towards the city with Kaj following close behind. Kaj nearly tripping as he tried to catch up with Phos.
The entire village rallied and chased after the two. Kaj saw the lizard creatures that the Daj were riding, gaining on them. They ran in a zig-zag formation.
"Phos, behind us!" Kaj yelled. Kaj was worried that the lizard creature would take him down with its tongue, letting Phos run off without him.
Phos turned and saw the lizard creatures following close behind. He carefully aimed at one of the lizard creatures, firing a couple of bullets at its front right leg. The creature fell over, knocking off the Daj that was riding it before rolling over him.
Kaj was impressed that Phos still had a good set of skills, even for being the age that he is.
Phos aimed his rifle back at the crowd of Daj chasing them. He fired a few more bullets until his ammo ran out. Dropping the rifle, he reached into his sac. "Here!" Phos yelled, handing over a small ball that Kaj grabbed. "Throw it at them!"
Kaj looked back and lobbed the ball into the crowd of angry Daj. When it made contact with the sandy floor, it exploded, forming a cloud of smoke around the Daj.
The two finally made it to the front of the shield. Behind it was a Galactic Soldier standing at his post. He held his rifle down.
"Stop!" he instructed. "I cannot let you in unless you have the necessary passes." Phos pulled out his badge and showed it to the soldier. He studied it for a second before pressing a button, creating a small opening that would let the two pass through. As he pushed the button again to seal the off the opening, the angry crowd of Daj appeared out of the smoke. They screamed and yelled as they continued to charge up to shield. When the shield closed up, their screams were silenced. "You two better hurry if you wish to catch the ship. I was just about to head over there." The three made their way towards the ship. Their freedom was just steps away.
CHAPTER TEN
THE UNPLEASANT TURN
The three made their way through the city. Kaj looked around, staring at the buildings and people. Everyone in this city seemed sluggish and depressed. They all looked down, not even glancing up. The buildings were poorly made. They all seemed to be made of cheap, thin metal nailed together. Most of the buildings were damaged in some way, whether it'd be the roof missing or a collapsed wall. It was a let-down for Kaj. The way he remembered it as a kid was far better. The city to him was exciting and lively. Now, it was depressing and disappointing.