Shared by the Alien Hybrids

by Lia Nox

  I settled her down so that she could stand in the water, free to move her own body as she pleased; she immediately started to twirl about, splashing water with her feet.

  Even when overcome with playful emotions, she still managed to look graceful and serene, her hips swaying, her breasts lightly bouncing, and her hair cascading like rolling waves. We all sat down on the beach, a little ways back from the water, and watched her. We were able to share in her happiness, all four of us able to put the stresses of this journey behind us for just a second. We were able to simply enjoy ourselves.

  Delia finally stopped moving about and turned to look at us, the sun so bright against her that she was a glowing silhouette on the horizon. She held her arms out to us, her face so full of joy.

  “My boys.” I wasn’t sure what this term “boys” meant, but the way she said it made it sound endearing and positive, like we held a special place in her heart and her life. I was obviously turning into a bit of a romantic myself, I privately joked, as I kept thinking such sweet things in my mind.

  But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing after all, it had always served Tarnan well - I admired him and looked up to him, even if he didn’t know it, so to become more like him would be an honor.

  “I love you all,” she said, and the way she said it I knew she was talking about affection.

  “I love you,” I whispered. Zuvo and Tarnan repeated it. She looked at us, cocking her head, smiling.

  I could only hope I was conveying my love for her.

  I hadn’t even registered that Delia had moved to crawl up beside me until she touched my face, helping bring me back to the present.

  “Where were you right now?” She asked. I frowned back at her, to which she laughed, feeling foolish that she’d tried to talk to me as if we both could follow along. As futile as it may have felt to her, I liked that she kept on trying because it meant that, eventually, we’d get there and be able to understand one another more fluently.

  Not that I could say when that monumental moment would be, but judging by the progress we’d already made, I didn’t think it would take all that long. We’d gone from not knowing names to being able to say those words and a few others, and, in return, had built up love and trust along the way.

  She rested her head on me, with Tarnan doing the same to her, while Zuvo sat beside me, his arms stretched across me so that he could stroke her legs; all three of us were touching, though it wasn’t carnal in the slightest. We watched as the waves lapped away, as the sand caught the rays from the sun, and just lived in each other's arms.

  But as I happily sighed into the moment, my ears pricked up as I heard a thundering coming from behind us in the distance; something was rushing with fierce rage, and it was headed straight for us.

  The oasis we’d created had been shattered, as I’d always known it would eventually due to the bloody beasts and monsters of this planet.

  Turning to Zuvo and then to Tarnan, I scowled as I tore myself away from the view in front of me.

  “Now we fight.”

  I snarled, my anger more pronounced than before.

  Something special had been tainted by these disgusting, mauling creatures.

  Muscles clenched and taut, we readied ourselves.

  Tarnan

  I stood on the sand, my body fraught with tension.

  In the distance, something indistinct moved toward us fast, the sound of its movements pregnant with violence. Narrowing my eyes into slits, I grit my teeth as I realized I was looking at more than thirty of the creatures we had fought in the plains.

  They moved swiftly across the beach, their paws barely touching the sand as they went, and there was a particularly large beast leading the whole pack. In fact, they were all bigger than the strange not-animals we had already fought, some three or four times larger.

  Canid in shape, their size was more like that of a bear than anything else.

  A pack like this would do more than just harass us—it could destroy us.

  “This isn’t good,” Axar said in a low growl. “We can’t take them head-on like this. They’ll just flank us and pick us off one by one.”

  “It’s not like we have a choice.” Cracking his knuckles, Zuvo seemed more than ready to take on the whole pack by himself. Or die trying. “This might our last stand, brothers.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “We’ve had a good run then.” I balled my hands into fists, my heart already beating hard, when I felt Delia’s hand on my forearm.

  Her fingers dug deep into my muscles, and I turned around to look at her. Her expression was one of anxiety, but I didn’t see any panic in there. Somehow, she trusted us to make it out of this alive.

  “Look.” Pointing toward a distant spot behind a couple of dunes, she drew our attention to what looked like a metallic antenna that gleamed under the sunlight. “A station. Better to fight.”

  “She’s right.” Turning his attention back to the pack of creatures, Axar took a deep breath and then nodded to himself. “Our odds are better if we’re inside a building. Harder for them to flank us and take advantage of an open space.”

  “Then we have to go now,” Zuvo said. “Run.”

  The four us dashed across the beach as fast as we could, fully knowing that each wasted second meant a tactical advantage for the murderous creatures on our heels. Keeping pace with Delia’s slower strides, we reached the top of the dunes in under a minute, the ruins of some coastal station laying at a stone’s throw from where we were.

  An antenna jutted from the main building as it reached for the skies, but it seemed the station had been abandoned long ago. Rust covered the walls, and thick patches of grass sprouted from the cracks in the concrete floor.

  Still, the buildings still seemed to have some structural integrity, and they would provide invaluable cover when it came to planning our next moves.

  Throwing one quick glance at the creatures, I tensed up as I realized they were less than a hundred yards away from us. The four of us ran down the dunes fast, and we dove through the opening on the outer wall of the station.

  I looked at the main compound inside the walls, three buildings connected by short passages, and only then did I realize that we had dove through an open gate. It looked rusty and old, but if we managed to close it we’d have some invaluable protection.

  Perhaps reading my mind, Delia immediately positioned herself behind the gate and started pushing it as hard as she could.

  Axar and Zuvo joined her, and I scanned the grounds for something we could use to reinforce it.

  Grabbing a few discarded pipes that lay on the ground, I joined the others as the gate swung on its hinges.

  “Faster!” Axar bellowed, the maddening roar of the creatures already echoing inside my head. They were just a few yards away now, the saliva dripping down from their jaws giving them a crazed appearance. Except it didn’t look like saliva—instead, it resembled oil.

  Their eyes were vacant and devoid of life, and it felt like they only existed as irrational instruments of death.

  We managed to shut the gate at the last second, and I pushed my shoulder against it as countless bodies slammed against it from the other side. Using the pipes I had collected, the others buried their tips in the ground and then pushed them against the gate for reinforcement.

  The station walls weren’t as high as I would like them to be, but at least we had managed to gain a few minutes.

  “That was close,” I laughed, adrenaline still coursing through my veins.

  “Too close,” Zuvo said in that sullen tone of his. He eyed the hinges of the gate warily, taking in every rusted-out detail, and shook his head. “The gate won’t hold for long. We’ll still have to fight.”

  “Our chances are better now.” Looking at Delia, Axar let a small smile spread across his lips.

  If it weren’t for her, we would have all died on the beach, surrounded by the killing machines outside. No matter how strong we were, there was
no chance in hell we would have survived an encounter like that.

  We had to be smarter if we wanted to win and, thanks to Delia, we now had a better chance to be just that.

  Without warning, she suddenly turned her back to us and started making her way toward a bulky metallic pillar standing in the middle of the courtyard. She went down on one knee, removed a barely noticeable panel from its place and then started messing with a panoply of small tangled wires.

  A few seconds later and she squealed with delight, clapping her hands together as a small spark jumped up from the wires.

  “What is it?” Walking up to her, I looked down at the many crossed wires in her hands and scratched my chin.

  She said something faster than I could interpret it and smiled as she saw the confusion taking over my face.

  “Power,” she continued, more slowly now. Excitedly pointing at the wires, she then pointed at the many doors that led the way into the few buildings scattered around the courtyard.

  As if to make it even more obvious, she crossed a different set of wires and a door on the main building slid up into a hidden partition.

  She didn’t need to say a single word.

  The moment the door opened, the four of us started running toward the entrance it had created. Once inside, Delia immediately went to a panel on the wall and repeated the procedure she had done outside.

  In a matter of seconds, the door slid back down, creating one more layer between us and the pack of creatures.

  With a proud smile on her lips, she placed both hands on her hips and glanced at us. She wasn’t as strong as we were, but there was no doubt in my mind that she could hold her own.

  More than just a prize to be protected, she was slowly growing into a capable member of our team.

  “What do we do now?” She asked us, her words blending with the incessant pounding outside the gate. Even though we had bought some time, we still had to plan our next move. Time was running out, and we needed to have a strategy in place. Fast.

  Zuvo and I looked at Axar for some guidance, but he said nothing. His brow was furrowed, and shadows of doubt and worry made his expression a grim one. Clenching his jaw, he started pacing the small hall we were in. Only after a few seconds did he speak up.

  “I’ll stay with Delia and protect her in case they break in. You two, explore the building and see if there’s something we can use inside this place. I want to know all entry points and structural weaknesses too.”

  Just as quickly as Axar spoke, Zuvo and I merged with the shadows inside the building and marched in opposite ways. I made my way down a long corridor, my eyes adjusting to the darkness, and made a mental count of how many rooms I passed through.

  The whole floor was pretty much deserted, and most divisions were bare. Only a few chairs and desks that had been bolted down to the floor remained, and those wouldn’t be of much use.

  The few windows I could see were protected by rusty metallic bars, but they seemed retractable.

  Perhaps Delia could open one of them for us and create an escape out of the death trap we were in. I would have preferred to fight than to run, but I would gladly do it if that meant Delia would be safe.

  Her safety came before my pride.

  Satisfied with my analysis of the building, I returned to the main hall and joined Zuvo. Doing it as quickly as we could, we gave Axar a rundown of the building’s architecture, and I couldn’t help but notice that Delia was listening attentively to every word we were saying.

  I wasn’t sure if she could understand us clearly, but I could tell she was trying her hardest.

  “Maybe we can find a way out through one of the windows you found,” Axar started, raking one hand over his face.

  He didn’t like the situation we were in—this building could give us some tactical advantage, but it could turn into a glorified coffin just as well. “If they take their time breaking in, maybe we can sneak out without being detected.”

  The odds weren’t that good, but at least we had a strategy.

  That, of course, until Delia spoke up.

  “Wait,” she cut Axar short. “I have a plan.”

  Zuvo

  “What is she doing?”

  Peering at Delia over Axar’s shoulder, I watched as she scribbled something on the floor using a piece of metal.

  She started with a rectangle, and then started adding partitions until her drawing resembled the building we were in. Little dots outside it marked the murderous beasts, and then a group of arrows signaled their movements.

  Suddenly, it dawned on me what Delia’s plan was.

  For someone that hadn’t been bred for battle, she was a quick thinker. More than that, she had the makings of an impeccable strategist.

  One look at Axar and it was all I needed to know that even he was impressed with Delia.

  “Do you understand her plan?” He asked us, never taking his eyes off Delia’s drawing. Outside, the pounding against the gate intensified. It wouldn’t be long before the creatures broke into the courtyard.

  “We do,” Tarnan and I replied in unison.

  Satisfied, Delia jumped up to her feet and ran her tongue over her parched lips. Even that simple gesture was enough to make my blood boil.

  There was something about her that made me feel more alive than I had ever felt. I thought that I had been born for battle, but now I saw that there was something worthier to live for than the agony of my enemies.

  “Here they come.” Clenching my jaw, I heard a deafening sound come from outside, the sound of heavy metal falling onto the ground echoing throughout the courtyard as the creatures finally broke through the gate.

  Just a few seconds later and the pounding resumed, except this time it was on the small entrance door of the building we were in. This one wouldn’t offer as much resistance as the gate, so time was of the essence.

  “Go. Now.” Delia’s tone was one that didn’t allow any questions and, for a small moment, I couldn’t stop myself from appreciating how well a leadership role fit her.

  Exchanging one final glance with the two men I had come to see as brothers, we all dashed down the corridor to our left.

  Each of us occupied a different room and, standing right by each doorway, we waited for Delia to give us a signal.

  From where I was, I could see her grappling with the confusion of wires she had unearthed from the wall.

  Her expression was one of pure concentration, and it slowly turned into a victorious one when the sound of metal grating against concrete echoed throughout the building.

  Just like she told us she would do, she lowered the bars on one of the windows.

  As if on cue, Axar ran straight toward the open window at the end of the corridor and let out a ferocious roar. The only reply he got was one of silence—the pounding on the door stopped, and it was as if the creatures had vanished.

  That moment of quiet didn’t last for long, though, as the shuffling of feet quickly made itself heard. Just like Delia had planned, the beasts were heading toward the source of the noise, and they would have to enter the building through the window, a choke point that would give us the upper hand.

  When Axar went back to his position, I closed my eyes and focused on the chaos coming our way. Even though I would have preferred to tear those beasts apart with my bare hands, I grabbed the handle of my bladed pole and took a deep breath to steady myself.

  The hurried shuffling of feet continued outside, closer to the open window with each passing second, and then a vicious looking muzzle appeared near the opening.

  My grip tightened around my weapon’s handle, and the world started moving in slow motion as the first creatures started pouring through the opening.

  They tumbled onto the corridor awkwardly, their claws hitting the concrete floor with a grating sound, and they snarled so loudly the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

  They moved slowly at first, their muzzles up as they sniffed at the air around them, but then their pace grew
more frantic as they started heading down the corridor.

  When one of them finally passed by me, I jumped outside the room I was hiding in and drove my blade into its skull. Tarnan and Axar followed suit shortly after, and we dispatched the first three with quick blows.

  “Now,” I bellowed, and the bars slid up so hard they cut through the beast trying to enter through the opening.

  Grinning wildly, despite the six ferocious beasts eyeing me and my brothers, I jumped forward and let loose. I attacked in deliberately, my blade finding its target each and every time.

  It wasn’t long before the corridor in which I was standing was littered with the bloodless corpses of our pursuers.

  But the battle was far from over.

  The moment Delia closed the window, the remaining creatures had returned to the door and had resumed their pounding. As I returned to her side, I immediately noticed the door rattling in its frame.

  “Again,” I snarled, and Delia quickly worked with the wires to open a second window.

  Moving with feline-like agility, I joined Axar and Tarnan as we assumed our agreed positions and readied ourselves for round two. As the first window was now useless, a corpse stuck in the bars, we went to the corridor opposite to the one we were originally in and repeated the same trick from before.

  Axar shouted and the creatures came.

  This time Delia only closed the window after almost fifteen creatures had managed to squeeze themselves past the opening, and these ones didn’t waste any time with sniffing their surroundings.

  They launched themselves forward maniacally, their jaws snapping at whatever was in their way, and Axar had to stand in the middle of the corridor to stop them from passing.

  Tarnan and I joined him and, wielding our weapons until our muscles felt as heavy as cement, we managed to keep the wild beasts at bay. Sweat covered my brow, and my hair was already plastered to my forehead, but I simply kept on going.

  Growling, I threw my pole at one of the creatures, the blade hitting it right in its torso, and then simply jumped toward the remaining one.