by Sonia Nova
He no longer wanted to kill the creature to win the challenge. To kill it so it couldn’t kill him first. No… He wanted to kill the creature to end its pain.
When the beast charged at him again, Arez rolled to his side. With new determination, he jumped on top of the creature again, grabbing it by its horns once more. The beast reared its head back again, obviously not liking the added weight. It tried to shake him loose just as it had done before, but this time, Arez refused to let go.
Instead, he climbed properly on its neck and clamped his legs tight. The beast roared again, a mad howl that echoed in the clearing. It shook its head back and forth in an attempt to get rid of him, but Arez only held on tighter.
He bent over on the beast’s neck, grazing his sharp teeth against its gray, hardened skin, before he sank them deep into its flesh.
The warm taste of blood and iron filled his mouth and the creature howled in pain. It tried to shake him loose again, this time even more frantically than before, but Arez only bit harder. He tore at the creature’s neck with his teeth, taking no pleasure in the kill but knowing it needed to be done.
After what seemed like an eternity, the beast finally lost its fight and collapsed to the ground. It took in a ragged breath and Arez climbed off its neck slowly. He stared at the beast quietly, watching in silence as its blood seeped onto the cold, gray sand.
The beast looked back at him, clearly knowing its time had come, and Arez felt a stabbing pain in his chest of an emotion he didn’t want to name.
Empathy. Fear at what he had recognized in the beast’s eyes. Something like that.
The creature blinked its eyes lazily at him, laying still on the cold ground as it pulled its last breath. Blood seeped onto the ground beneath, painting the sand dark red under his feet. The bright red eyes of the beast dulled ever so slowly, and Arez knew it had finally let go.
Peace… The beast would now know peace at last.
Shaking off the uneasy feeling the creature’s death had caused him, Arez quickly turned away from its corpse, unable to look at it any longer. Instead, he turned to look at the paths around him once more.
To his surprise, this time, not all of them were empty. At the entrance of the path beside the one with blood stood a… female. He frowned at the sight. A female… with odd, fiery hair and a pale complexion. She smiled kindly at him, her light pink lips curving up in a pleasant expression.
Arez couldn’t help but stare at the vision before him. She had caught him unguarded. After all, in his memories, the Pit had never held anything so beautiful. Instinctively, he took a step toward her, wanting to be nearer to her, to see her from up close.
But then, he hesitated. The Pit had never held anything so beautiful… or anything good.
Arez glanced around, waiting for some kind of a trap to launch at him, or for someone to attack him the moment he lost his focus. But when nothing did – and no one else was to be seen in the clearing – he turned back to the female.
She was calling out to him in a silent voice, smiling with that same radiance she had a moment ago. The discomfort from before when he’d killed the beast faded away. She made him feel… warm. His brow furrowed and he tried to understand. She reminded him of… something. He wasn’t sure what. But he knew he would do anything to keep her smiling like that at him.
What was she? An illusion made to distract him? To kill him?
Arez found that the longer he looked at her, the more he didn’t care. Maybe the female was his key to peace. Maybe she would grant him his final silence, just as he had granted the beast a moment ago, to end the suffering and pain of the Pit.
The female continued to smile at him, beckoning him toward her. He took yet another step closer. And another. Soon, he found himself running toward her but the distance seemed to stretch and stretch, and the female remained far from his reach.
But he wouldn’t stop running.
He sprinted toward her, his heart thundering in his chest. He was so close he could almost smell her. Sense her. Hear her. But then, suddenly, the female’s expression faltered. She looked uncertain, just before her eyes rounded in fear.
And at that moment, it hit him too. He smelled the putrid stench of his reptilian makers, and a group of scaly green lizards appeared from the path, behind the female. They approached her from both sides, marching toward her.
Her eyes widened in fear and she screamed a silent scream. She looked him in the eye as her mouth gaped open in a soundless “O.”
Arez’s heart jumped in his chest and he ran faster toward her. Faster than he ever had in his life. Her eyes begged him to help her, to save her, and Arez wanted nothing more than to do just that. Adrenaline pulsed in his veins, and the world twisted and turned around him as he ran, trying to reach her.
Simulation. It’s a simulation.
Arez shook the thought from his mind. It didn’t matter. The hold this woman had on him was too strong. He couldn’t let his makers have her. Whatever happened to him, it didn’t matter. As long as his makers didn’t get her.
He reached out toward her in a desperate grasp. The tips of his fingers almost touched her, but not quite. His makers grabbed her by her arms then, pulling her even farther away from him. Forever out of his reach.
No…
As his makers dragged her deeper into the path behind them, she started to fade before his eyes, her silent screams burned to his mind, her desperate expression etched to his very being.
Naomi…
* * *
Arez woke up with a snap, gasping for his breath. His body was covered in cold sweat, but the icy chill of the Pit had receded from his bones. He felt like he could finally breathe again, like he was taking his first breath in a very long time.
His eyesight was dark, and voices whispered around him again. By the time he properly came to, he realized he was back in the Krezlian examination room. Of course, he had never left.
The cold in his bones hadn’t been the coldness of the Pit at all… but the ice of whatever poison the Krezlians had stuck into his system this time.
And it had awakened his memories…
Arez coughed, his senses slowly returning to him. His body ached and he felt more tired than he had for many cycles. But at least he was warm again. He tried to move his body to stretch, but the steel bars of the examination table held him in place, chained up.
He blinked, trying to get a better look at his surroundings. He thought he’d heard voices, but there was no one else in the room. He was greeted by the metallic color of the ceiling once more, but this time, he was alone.
He didn’t know how long it had been, but the fact that he was alone, with no Krezlians around, suggested he wasn’t supposed to have woken up yet.
Arez closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He tried to stay calm, figure a way out of this. It probably wouldn’t take long for the Krezlians to come back, wherever they were. And when they did come, they would notice he was awake… And he couldn’t think anything good would come out of that.
Arez concentrated on his breathing. His muscles felt weak, but he still tried to strain them against the bars.
No use.
As he shut his eyes to his surroundings, he could hear the voices again in his ears. He realized they were coming from the room next door. Krezlians talking.
He concentrated on the voices, trying to make out the words through the thick walls.
“There are changes in this one,” a male voice said – the scientist who had been in the room earlier. The one who had given him the serum… or whatever the hell kind of a drug it had been. Probably a hallucinogen of some type, considering it had been the catalyst of some kind of a simulated experience.
Arez narrowed his eyes, training his ears in the direction of the conversation.
Another Krezlian grunted. Was it the one who had told the scientist to put him under? “Like the one our brothers captured on the Ka’elea two qezets ago? The one with the human female?”
“
No. Not quite like that. His hormones were off the charts. This one’s… Accelerated heartbeat, yes. Faster reflexes, yes. Based on the simulation just now, all his senses are heightened. But not to the same extent as the specimen from the spaceship.”
The other Krezlian hissed. “Continue to test him. See if his results turn similar with time.”
“Yes, sir.”
With those words, Arez heard some shuffling in the other room and a few footsteps moved toward the door that connected the rooms. His heart leaped in his chest and he frantically tried to push against the restraints holding him in place. He could feel the metal creak slightly, but the bars wouldn’t move.
The door clicked open, and the scientist walked in. His slit eyes immediately widened as he saw Arez awake and he screamed.
The guard ran into the room, and when he saw Arez, he immediately rushed to him. Arez growled at him, baring his sharp teeth at the disgusting reptile, but he could only do so much when he was tied up. The guard smacked him hard in the face, making him see stars for a moment.
Arez’s head spun, but as his eyes focused again, he was surprised to find that the scientist had moved to the back corner of the room, and that the guard was hovering above him instead.
“The changes in the other specimen were due to his contact with the female, yes?” The guard stared at Arez, his yellow eyes sharp, but the question had been directed to the scientist, not him.
“Yes,” the scientist confirmed from the corner, looking slightly alarmed at the situation, with his eyes darting from the guard to Arez. Good. He should be alarmed. Because if he put any more of that poison into his veins, he would–
The guard stepped closer to Arez, so close that Arez could smell the fish he’d likely eaten for breakfast. He fought against the bile threatening to rise in his throat as the Krezlian revealed his broken, yellowing teeth to him.
“So maybe this one has a female somewhere too? Maybe the effects just aren’t as strong because we only have him and not the female? Say, X-9087…” The guard said Arez’s old identification number smoothly – the number he’d been known as to the Krezlians before he’d named himself Arez – and Arez flinched.
The guard… Or no, he couldn’t be just a guard. He wore a Krezlian military uniform, but obviously he knew more than just any soldier. The general studied him carefully as he spoke.
“Do you have a female hidden somewhere? Perhaps a human?”
Arez almost laughed. He would have, if he hadn’t been tied up on a Krezlian examination table. The question was simply that absurd. Him? A female? What the hell was he on about?
But then, his mind returned to Naomi and her appearance in the Pit, and suddenly, a sour taste filled his mouth. Surely, that wasn’t what he had meant, was it? Either way, she certainly wasn’t his female, and he didn’t have her “hidden” anywhere…
He snapped his mouth shut. He wasn’t going to answer the general. No way in hell. Let the fuckers believe what they want, and only better if they misunderstood him. But there was no way he was going to give them any information. Especially not about her.
When he didn’t say anything for a while, the general’s face darkened in anger, and his eyes flashed. Before Arez could react, the man’s fist made contact with his face again.
“You will ANSWER ME!” the general bellowed through the ringing in his ears.
Arez spat out blood. He could feel a drip spilling forth from his nose too and the tingling sensation of pain spreading on his face. But despite the pain, Arez did laugh now. He bared his teeth at the general once more, his lips twisting in a cruel smile.
“No,” he breathed the simple word that seemed to enrage the general only more. The general’s face darkened again, but then he seemed to get a hold of himself.
“Very well then…” the general said calmly, turning toward the door. Arez frowned at his departing back. He was smarter than to assume the man was simply leaving.
His suspicion was confirmed a moment later when the general bent down by a cupboard beside the door and took something out. Arez’s eyes widened and his heart nearly jumped to his throat when he recognized the device. It had been used on him more times than he could count. And each time, it had been just as painful as the last.
The Krezlian electrocuter. A torture device of the worst caliber.
Arez pulled on his restraints again, quickly trying to make them budge before the device could be used on him again, but he knew it was no use.
“I don’t know anything!” he hissed through his teeth, despite knowing that his denial would hardly deter the general.
“No?” The general asked, slowly walking closer to him again and pointing the electrocuter toward him.
Arez’s eyes were trained on the device as the general snapped it on and fired straight into his chest. He howled in pain as thousands of volts flashed through him in a split second, burning his skin, his blood, his bones, everything. The flash of lightning that the electrocuter incited didn’t last long… but the pain did.
His whole body spasmed on the examination table. His fingernails dug into his palms as his hands curled into fists and he gritted his teeth, trying to concentrate on breathing through his nose as his muscles contracted under the electrocuter’s power. Fuck… Fuck, fuck, fuck!
The effects slowly started to fade, and the general spoke again. “Then… Who was that female you jumped in to rescue? The one you saved at the Alliance station? Because she would fit the description, wouldn’t she?”
Arez froze in his place, his blood suddenly turning cold in his veins. Shit. They knew about her.
The Krezlian continued to talk, now licking his lips with his disgusting, long, brown tongue. “I wasn’t there, but I hear she was quite fetching. Orange hair, quite rare on a human. Smooth, pale skin. I believe she even had a rather large bosom. Say, have you ever touched her breasts? Squeezed a little perhap–”
Something inside Arez snapped at that moment and he saw red. Before the general managed to finish his sentence, Arez was screaming at him. He pulled on his restraints like he had gone mad, feeling the most incredible surge of adrenaline inside him. A menacing growl filled the room that he was shocked to discover was coming from him.
“She is mine! Mine!”
He growled at the general and, with those words, finally managed to snap the metal bars holding his arms open. In a blur, he gripped the general standing beside him by his neck, pulling him down onto the examination table and cracking his head on the steely edge of it. Then, he turned to the scientist.
The man’s eyes were wide in horror, having just witnessed the slaughter of his supervisor. He immediately rushed to the entrance of the room, punching the door open with a button. Before Arez managed to release his legs from the restraints and run after him, the man was already gone.
Fuck…
Arez bent over, reaching for the table’s commands underneath it, and clicked his legs free. Several wires were attached to his body, but he swiftly tugged them off and hopped off the table.
Now, he just had to get out of here… And fast.
CHAPTER 12
NAOMI
Naomi tossed and turned in her bed. Her mind was restless and she couldn’t sleep. Memories of the past day kept playing in her mind – the Krezlians barging in to the Eifan station. The soldiers, who had lost their lives protecting everyone on the station – shot on the spot. And Arez… The Ezak-X male who’d had zero obligation to her, jumping in to save her. Possibly at the cost of his own life…
A choked sob escaped Naomi’s lips, and a tear fell down her cheek at the memory.
She had already cried her eyes out the day before, when the representatives had tried to assess the damage and count exactly who had made it to the surface of Agaria – and who hadn’t. But still, she couldn’t prevent the few tears rolling down her cheeks since then.
Her mind whirled and her heart ached as she stared at the ceiling of her bedroom, as awake as she had been hours ago. Even the sleepi
ng pills she had taken hadn’t helped. Her memories of the attack were a never-ending record that her brain just wouldn’t let go. And now that there were no important decisions to make, no distractions… She couldn’t make it stop.
What had happened to him? To Arez? She’d seen the Krezlians grab him in the end. But at least he had been alive at that point… Was he anymore?
And what would happen to all of them now that the Krezlians had the moon?
Naomi turned again on her bed, looking at the time. 4:05am Agari time.
She let out a heavy sigh, pushing back the covers. It was too hot for a blanket anyway. Or maybe she had a fever. For some reason, her body felt heated, burning up from the inside out. Sweat ran down her spine, and suddenly, she just had to get out of bed.
She stood up, looking out the window of the small hotel-like bedroom she had been given in the palace. She stared at the orange-brown night sky and the three large moons in the horizon. It was completely peaceful. Quiet. As if the battle the day before hadn’t even happened. Even the green moon looked unaffected. But Naomi knew it wasn’t.
Now that the Krezlians held the moon, along with a few Ezak-X captives who had gone missing during the battle, they had stopped there for the time being, and the planet was currently under a very fragile truce. Very fragile, because Naomi was sure that the Krezlians were only waiting for the next moment to strike.
Naomi walked sluggishly to her desk. She grabbed a glass from the table and went to the bathroom to get some cold water. She chugged it down, feeling refreshed as the cool liquid flowed down her system.
She slapped some more water on her face, and stared at herself in the mirror. Dark circles marked her eyes none too prettily and gave away the fact that she had hardly slept at all in the past few days. First, because of worrying about the upcoming war, and now… The fate of them all.
Naomi let out a heavy sigh, leaning against the sink. The planet she had been assigned to was now in the middle of war and she had to work on the peace negotiations. Fine, Ambassadors were meant to develop peaceful agreements between planets. But this was of a whole different caliber to what she had expected. And with a whole different species.