by Naomi Lucas
Slipping, my clothes tear, while sharp rocks abrade my skin. My bleeding feet stain the rocks. My hands are raw, and my world spins. I cry and pray and beg. I’m hungry, thirsty, low on energy, and I don’t have much fight left in me.
But pigs?
I’m not letting pigs be my end. I fight my way higher and higher until I fall face-first onto a ledge toward the top, collapsing. I still hear their snorting below me. There’s more now. I roll over and stare at the sky, panting.
Even if I get to the top, what do I do next? My eyes catch the orb still hovering beside me. To my disappointment, it has spent more time ‘updating’ than answering my questions. At least it followed me.
“Orb,” I rasp. It blurs as my vision wavers.
“What can I do for you?” it asks.
“Where is the…” I don’t know what to ask to get the information I need.
“I don’t understand. Please repeat.”
“What predators are around me?” I finally say, repeating the question Vruksha asked in his bunker, all while trying to solidify a cohesive thought in my head.
The orb lights up and my eyes shift back to the sky. I don’t expect it to give me any sort of answer.
So when it does answer, I’m stunned.
“Scanning complete. There are several packs of pigs scattered around this region, two families of bears, and three snakes.”
I push up on my elbows. I smack my lips, swallowing even though my mouth is dry. “How do you know that?”
It doesn’t answer.
“Orb, how do you know what’s nearby?”
“I am connected to three major relays in this zone. Additionally, there are over eighteen hundred orbs signaling feedback in a fifty-mile radius around my location. Another fifty-six hundred are powered off. We are a linked data sharing maintenance system, used for the benefit of military security and the humans and the Lurkers working here.”
I stare dumbly at the orb.
What?
“Orb,” I cough, light-headed. “Do you know where Vruksha’s bunker is?”
The snorts are growing louder.
“I do not understand what a Vruksha bunker is. Please repeat.”
I reach up and cup the orb, bringing it to me. “Orb, is there a military base near my location? Anything?” I rub some of the dirt off its plastic frame.
“There’s the Caret Center two miles east and Eagle’s Rest base five miles north. We are currently within Eagle’s Technological Zone.”
A squeal pierces my ears, tearing my attention away from the orb. Rolling to my side, I look down the mountain.
I hear another cry as a second pig falls, tumbling hard against the rocks. There’s more now, at least a dozen, and they’re using each other to climb to my location. I drop the orb, letting it levitate, reaching for my stick before remembering that it’s gone. I find rocks instead.
Picking one up with both hands, I drop it on the nearest swine. The pig rears up and runs, skidding down the side before it falls off. It rights itself at the bottom and flees out of sight. I find another rock.
A bigger one.
I aim for a second pig. “Take that!” I shout, throwing it.
The rock smacks it directly on the head, killing the animal. It falls over, twitching.
I suck in, excited by my kill, before the pig closest to it stops climbing and tears into the corpse. I slink back over the ledge, disgusted and scared. Glancing up, there’s not much more I can climb without likely falling. There’s also not a lot of rocks left to throw.
I turn back to the orb. “Orb,” I hurriedly initiate, “is there anything near here that can help me get out of this situation?”
I reach over and pull another rock toward me as I wait for it to answer.
“I’m sorry. I do not understand your question.”
I close my eyes, press my brow to my knees. I don’t want to die here, not like this. I inhale and lean over the side, aiming my rock at the closest pig.
I miss.
I try not to cry. The remaining pigs, I count eleven now that the one that fled has returned, are between me and safety. I don’t have enough rocks left for half of them…
“Orb. Help me. Please, help me.”
I’m not expecting a response. I gather the remaining rocks to my side, preparing to die fighting. I can’t even kick the pigs off the ledge if they get close… my feet...
“Sending help to your location.”
Tears fill my eyes at the words.
“Help will be arriving shortly,” it says.
My fingers curl into my palms. I can scarcely hope that what the orb says is true; I don’t know what help is left to be had. But as I watch the pigs climb, trampling each other to reach me, a bang goes off, and blood hits my face.
I startle, shocked.
I don’t move as I’m drenched in the sounds, hearing shots go off one after another. The pigs scream and squeal. I fall onto my back, listening to the sweet sound of gunfire. Because that’s what it is: gunfire. I would know it anywhere.
“Female!” a voice roars, startling me further.
Vruksha?
I twist to my side. “Vruksha!” I scream. But all I see is red. Everything is red.
A bath of blood and pig gore.
Something moves through it, sliding up the ledge at stunning speeds. I call out, near delirious when Vruksha’s striking face fills my vision. It’s the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. I immediately start sobbing.
I grab him as he reaches for me, planting my face into his chest. His smell envelops me, and I sob harder. His scent immediately starts numbing the pain.
“Sssshhhh, female, sshh.” He gathers me into his arms. “You’re safe now.”
I gasp through tears, rubbing my face against him. “I thought you were dead.”
“As long as you’re alive, female, I’m alive. I’ll always be looking for you.”
He carries me away from the mountain, the blood, and the pigs.
Eighteen
A Naga’s Plea
Gemma
I wake to crackling and the smell of meat. My body curls deeper into the soft warmth that’s gathered around me. I don’t want to move. All I want to do is remain here, where I know it’s safe. In my dream, I was standing in a quiet, undecorated apartment, staring at paints I longed to use.
My belly roils, howling from prolonged hollowness. I groan and cling to the fur gathered around my mouth.
“Wake, female, and eat.”
I open my eyes to Vruksha holding a spit with meat hanging off it. Smoke rises from the meat.
I turn over and vomit, hacking up air. Vruksha gathers my hair and holds it away from my face. I cough until my empty stomach stops churning. I shake, barely able to hold my body upright.
Rising slowly from the furs, Vruksha helps me into a sitting position. He places the meat at my mouth, and I nearly gag again. I cup his hands to steady them and take a bite anyway, sinking my teeth into crisp perfection.
Meat this fresh, this good is rare, even for someone who works on the bridge of a warship. It’s for the rich and the planet dwellers who refuse to give such luxuries up. I tear into it after the first bite, not stopping until I finish.
I hope it’s one of the pigs who tried to eat me.
Vruksha pulls the spit away when I’m done, otherwise, I probably would’ve eaten it too.
“Thank you,” I say.
He hums and slips away, returning soon after with a cloth. I wipe my face and hands, and flinch from the cuts there.
“You are feeling better,” he says.
Am I? I glimpse the space around me, recognizing the inner shell of the bunker. But I’m in a different part of it, deeper in, I think. There are still crates perched about, cement walls, and the flickering lights above. I’m in a circular bed—or cot—and there are warm pelts gathered on every side of my body.
There are also pelts hanging from some of the walls and strange baubles and artifacts of Earth. The
re’s a whole row of orbs on a built-in shelf opposite me. I see my dirty, bloody one at the end.
My gaze returns to Vruksha. He’s watching me, poised close to my side. I stare at him for time, dazed and so happy to be alive, to see him alive. I continue to stare as the meat settles in my belly, needing the extra moments to decide I’m not dead, and he saved me.
“What happened?” I ask, my voice a broken whisper.
He moves at my words, taking my cloth and setting it aside. “You passed out after I found you. You’ve been asleep since.”
“How… long?”
“Several days.”
I reach up and feel my crimped hair, my face. “Days?”
Has it been days? I test my limbs and wince. It feels like minutes.
“You’re hurt, Gemma. You nearly died.”
My brow furrows. I push the pelts gathered atop me off.
I’m naked. I quickly bring a pelt back to cover me, but I glimpse the damage to my body.
I’m wrapped in bandages up and down my limbs, covered in so many bruises that my flesh is unrecognizable, and my feet… My feet are covered in balls of cloth. I wiggle my toes and gasp. There’s the pain. I sink my teeth into my lower lip.
But I realize I’m clean, my hair is soft around my shoulders, if not tousled, and for the first day since I was abandoned by my people, I don’t feel grimy. “You cleaned me.”
“You wouldn’t stop bleeding. I feared infection.”
My eyes slide back to Vruksha. “Thank you.” How can I ever repay him?
The look he gives me is grave, pained. Tired?
Has he slept, taken care of himself?
“Drink this,” he rumbles, handing me a cup.
“What is it?”
“Tea, made of local plants and herbs that will dull your pain. A recipe was given to me by one of the orbs,” he adds.
I swish the cup and take a sip. I recognize the taste. Hazy memories of Vruksha pouring the liquid down my throat return to me. I finish off the tea, already feeling better. The heat of it slips through my body, soothing me.
He takes my cup away and places several pelts back atop me. “Sleep, female, you need rest. You can not regenerate without it.”
I lie back and drift off, not needing to be told twice.
The next time I wake, I cry out in pain. It radiates up my legs and through my feet. I grip the bedding but find only one pelt beneath me, the rest are gone.
“Sssshhh. This will be over soon.”
Vision blurry, I find Vruksha leaning over my legs, pulling off my bandages and cleaning my skin. He gathers my feet and places them into a basin of water.
I gasp, tears brimming my eyes. “It hurts.”
He slides a cup over to me with the tip of his tail and I take it, downing the contents before he has the time to tell me what it is. The pain tempers.
I slump and stare at the ceiling as Vruksha takes care of me. Shame fills me as he cleans my wounds and massages my aching muscles. He slowly makes his way up my legs, taking his time. I’m naked, and it bothers me. I’m weak and needy, and I hate it.
I can’t be weak, I can’t be needy. Weak, needy people can’t help others and can’t hold a high-ranking position…
But it’s his washing of my body that I can’t handle the most. He’s an alien male, a species with no given name as far as I know by humanity, and he is not beholden to me. I don’t want him to think I’m helpless. I reach down and grab his wrist before he dips his hands between my thighs.
“Please,” I say, I beg, pulling at the cloth with my other hand.
His eyes pin me, but he lets me pull the cloth from his grip. I clean the rest up myself.
When I’m done, Vruksha hands me another ration of meat. I try to take it from him, but he growls, not letting me.
“What? Why?” I ask.
“I will feed you.”
“I can feed myself…” I touch my mouth. “It’s not hurting like the rest of me.”
“It’s not whether it’s hurting or not, I want to feed you.”
“I’m not a child.”
“No. You are my mate, and I nearly lost you.” He lifts the meat to my mouth and gently presses it to my lips. “It will make me happy to feed you. It will calm me.”
I think about fighting him out of pride, but I don’t, because it’s not my pride that hurts with being fed. It’s the vulnerability. I glance down at my nude, broken body and know I’ve been at my most vulnerable for days.
And he’s still here.
He saved my life. He’s saving me still. I owe him everything.
I part my lips and take a nibble of meat, watching him. Vruksha moves closer and slides his tail behind me to support my back. I rest against it and take another bite.
I don’t understand why he puts his life in so much danger for me, why he’s going through all this effort to keep me alive—even comfortable. I get that there are no females here anymore, but to risk his life for one because of that? I don’t understand it.
If I’d been in this condition back up on The Dreadnaut, only family would’ve stayed by my side and I don’t even have family on The Dreadnaut. I haven’t seen my parents since I was thirteen.
Vruksha is an enigma.
I watch him watching me, swallowing thickly. Seeing him as a man for the first time, rather than an alien. Or a monster. Or some mindless beast, viciously attacking anything that comes near me.
We continue staring at each other long after I finish the meat.
It’s not just mere curiosity anymore, I want to know him—really know him—and how he came to be here on this ravaged world where there shouldn’t be any sentient life to begin with.
I’ve seen no alien spaceships.
“Will you get me a blanket?” I whisper.
His eyes dip for a second, and I cover my chest. But then he’s gone and soon returning with several pelts. He hands me one and tucks the others around my body, saving the last one to bind my feet. Afterward, he bandages my deeper wounds with fresh cloth and cleans the strips of the old ones in the same basin my feet were bathed in. We settle in the front of the bunker.
“You should rest,” he tells me.
“I’ve slept enough.”
“You’re still recovering.”
“And what about you?” I see the wounds on his tail and the cracks in the scales around them. They’re fleshy and red and swollen. They look painful.
“Me?”
“Your tail.” I reach out and touch it. “You’re hurt too, Vruksha.”
“I heal quickly. This is nothing compared to what I can truly endure.”
“I don’t…”
His eyes snap to mine. “Don’t what?”
“I don’t want you to endure anymore on my part,” I whisper and look down, unable to hold his eyes. It’s the truth. It pains me seeing he’s hurt too. That he’s suffering and not resting because of me. I’m such a burden.
You lose your job if you become a burden. You lose everything else after losing your job.
“Female,” he growls. “I will endure far more than this for you. This—” he indicates one of his gashes “—is nothing compared to what I’m willing to sacrifice for you. What torment I’m willing to face.”
“You shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything at all!”
I don’t know where the words come from, but it’s true.
He slides up against my body, and while I try to lean away, his tail is still behind me, holding me upright. I’m trapped.
“I have nearly lost you twice. Once with Azsote. A second time with Zhallaix. And if I hadn’t gotten to you in time, I would have lost you a third time. Do you know what I would do if I lose you?”
I shake my head.
“I would kill everything in my path until something or someone puts me out of my misery. I never wanted a female because of this, of how they make their mates crazy. I saw what happened to my father, but as I grew and he left, I realized why females are so important. It is w
hy I would do anything, anything to keep you. Now that I have known you, I wonder how my father lived for so long after my mother died.”
“But—” I swallow, asking the one question that has plagued me constantly, “Why me?”
“Life, sweet mate, there’s no life without you. Not on this world or any other, I am certain. What’s the point if there’s no life? You are my life.”
My brow furrows. “I don’t understand…”
“How could you? Living up in the stars where there are more worlds than this to choose from? My people are dead, long before we thrived. We are lonely, without ever knowing companionship. I don’t want to live without life anymore. I don’t want to be alone.
“When I saw you walk off your ship, at first I did not know what I was seeing. Another human male? A robot? But it was your hair that captivated me. And the way you lifted your face to the sky and smiled? I was mesmerized. You glow in the sunlight, little female, and I have never rested my eyes upon anything so sweet. Why you, Gemma? Because you stole my breath. You stole my life when you turned and found me in the forest.”
He says this with a haunted expression that weakens me. I tear my gaze away. I do not glow. It’s hard to look at him when he stares at me like I’m the reason the stars exist. He’s completely devoted himself to me.
My throat tightens. It hurts. He makes me hurt. I press my hand to my chest, gazing at the ruby scales of his tail.
How I wish I could paint him… Though I do not think I own a vibrant enough red to do Vruksha justice. I could keep him with me forever if I painted him. “I know what it’s like to be alone,” I say quietly.
I don’t know how else to respond.
“You do?”
I rub my lips together and nod. “Not like you, here. Loneliness is different up in the ships most humans live on. You’re surrounded by metal, plastic, glass, and cold space. And it makes you cold too because there’s no warmth up there. We’re crowded together, and there’s no escape, so it’s easier to put walls up, to keep everyone at a distance despite being surrounded all the time. Everyone is alone up there because everyone has these walls around them…”
“Then take them down?”