Blood Moon

Chapter Fourteen - The First Great Battle

Nina eyed me up and down as I twirled round in ungraceful motions for her. "You know I've never seen you not in bright colours but brown suits you well."

Yes the colour of rot, I smiled. "It would suit you well too."

She laughed, giving me a twirl and I couldn't help but watch her move. "Don't you dare, one of us has to keep our colourful traditions alive." Her red dungarees clashed beautifully with a huge stripy yellow jumper and some rainbow laced Doc Martens.

On the table beside us, was a huge colourful banner covered in fish, whales and plastic bottles. It read, 'Like The Oceans We Rise'. After the giggling fit last night the two had ganged together to bully my painting ability, it seemed my lack of coordination had been a joke for years. I eyed my deformed blobs of fish as they swam wonkily on the edge of the poster, a monument to my failures.

Later as the night had gone on, we had drunk and danced around the kitchen table to Starman. David Bowie is, I'll admit, my guilty favourite. Then, once Albie had finally gone home and Nina was snoring, I had lain on Lilo's double bed. Stared up at the ceiling and plotted murder.

"Hey, Lilo?" Suddenly I was aware that Nina had stood behind me, she put her arms around my waist.

"Hey Nina." It was strange, at first, borrowing Lilo's voice but after a few days of talking I don't think I could have spoken any other way.

"You weren't speaking."

"Oh." I let her hold me.

"If you're not ready we can stay here, my bit is kind of done already. Plus I'm exhausted and would be so up for baking cookies if you wanted. Anyways, I'm sure Albie could find some willing people to help her hold the banner." Sweet things were a true blessing of human form and I had personally given myself the side mission to try as many as I could before the world ended. This, however, was my actual mission.

I turned, letting my arms find her body and stared into her eyes. "It's ok. I'm as ready as I'll ever be. You'll let me know if I do something weird though, yeah?"

She squeezed my hand and I allowed the warmth of it to spread up my arm. By now I had learnt our secret code. "I'll try but Lilo you have always been weird." The name shook inside my head and she leaned in, her lips almost met mine. My whole body trembled with the anticipation of it, I had sworn not to kiss her.

The doorbell came to my rescue. So, instead, she kissed my cheek.

Albie had appeared, dressed a thousand times more stylishly than Nina and I combined. She raised her eyebrows teasingly. "You look like a tomato." My whole face was hot where Nina had kissed it.

I looked to Nina to be rescued but she just giggled as we grabbed our coats and tumbled into Albie's car.

I took the backseat, planning to let them chatter as I considered my plan. Instead, about five minutes down the road I made a beautiful discovery, the open window. Closing my eyes, the wind whipped my hair every which way as it slapped life into my face. Nina, who had just looked back at me opened hers too and with a mighty yell plunged her head into the flying air. Suddenly an impressive yodel sounded, Albie was slamming the pedal down and we raced at breakneck speed along the bending country roads. Heroes played on repeat and apart from the occasional whoop, no one said a word.

It was strange, our souls were trapped in such small bodies. Yet, together we felt a lot larger than I had ever felt. I don't think I could have stopped grinning if I'd tried. Which I didn't.

Once we got there, however, my mission crashed back to the forefront of my mind and try as I might the smile could not be summoned. There must have been five thousand people there, all bustling to surround one stage but spilling into the side streets and roads that surrounded it. Most held coloured banners similar to ours but with more swear words. As if that wasn't enough to clash with one's mind they were dressed in the widest array of colourful clothing I had ever witnessed. Many were painted all over, others had no hair and were pierced with jewellery in the most extraordinary places. Everything I had read and watched, on the ways of normal humans had to be thrown away in that moment. To conclude, it was a terrifying but beautiful army that met me in battle and for the first time I questioned if I was qualified to face them.

Nervously, I fiddled with the weapon underneath my jacket, feeling out it's bends and edges. My war book had mentioned it and a mere google search had found it's details. Following the recipe for it had been easy too, especially after all the cakes Nina and I had baked together.

Stopping it, though, would not be so easy.

"Come on!" Albie and Nina clasped my hand and we plunged into their ranks, armed with elbows. Which both of them used unsparingly. This was a side of them I had not seen before and one I liked a lot.

In the chaos, it was easy to drop my weapon on the floor and light it.

Eventually we made it, to the centre of the crowd where we packed ourselves so tightly that I felt as though I was rationing my oxygen with the whole crowd. Like trees in a rainforest we occupied different layers, some clambering on poles and others on the people that surrounded them. Nina herself became an emergent tree, balanced precariously on Albie's shoulders they swayed together. I offered a hand for support and smiled, content to drown with the canopy myself.

Suddenly, the world went very heavy and my stomach clenched. Nina and Albie were laughing and belting the words of yet another Bowie song that erupted from the speakers on the stage, creating tuneless, timeless echoes in the surrounding crowd. Rebel Rebel, it reminded me of both of them. Yet it was as though a veil had come between me and their world.

My head suddenly became far too much for my body and I sagged.

If the crowd was loud before it was nothing compared to the sudden roar that erupted as a young woman stepped onto the stage. She raised her arms and they yelled out appreciation yet again beating against anything they could find in their battle roar. As she spoke, the hope felt like a tangible thing that enveloped everything and looking up at Nina I didn't think I'd ever seen her so happy.

I had done the right thing.

The bomb's internal clicking was silent, as the best ones are but it's beat drummed in my head. It couldn't be very long now. The woman was saying something about a future and I couldn't help but compare her to my own leader. Would sharing the world with these mammals be so bad?

Ten minutes at most would be left, it was excruciating in itself not knowing how long I had in this small vessel. I looked up at Nina. Knowing that even if it meant my filaments could never fill the Earth once more, that I could never bloom or feast on the future I had created for my sisters. I wanted to kiss her.

Nina was clambering off Albie, who was the whitest I had ever seen her and was shaking. She staggered with each fidget of the crowd and it seemed only a matter of moments until she fainted.

"Lilo, help me!" Claiming the name at last, I grabbed Albie's shoulder as we tugged her from the crowd. This time we needed no elbows and they parted like the red sea to our faces. Yet they seemed to spread endlessly as we pulled Albie from their clutches.

At first, I had been simply guiding her along. Now my heart beat almost as fast as hers in the effort it took to bear both our weights. From Nina's grunting I knew she felt the same but we had long ago given up on talking.

The end was in sight and the people no longer a rainforest became easier to fight through. Finally we found a quiet bench, far from the crowd and frighteningly docile Albie lay upon it.

Nina crouched on the grass beside her and rustled through her hiking rucksack before pulling out a large chocolate bar, which she split in half handing to Albie. "Good thing I brought my Albie collapsing supplies, we'll inject you with sugar and you'll be up and protesting in no time." She bit off a great section of chocolate and handed the rest to me. "Just one time, could you faint after the speech though?" Her voice was muffled, as small pieces of chocolate flew from her mouth. One collided with my face and I felt a little betrayed. Once, I had started talking, Nina had often scolded me for the flying food that resulted from my frantic chattering when we talked about space or music or most things to be honest.

Albie, now a distinctly more human colour sat up and tentatively nibbled at the chocolate. "Well it doesn't help having the weight of the world on my shoulders."

"Oh very funny, you weren't so light to carry out the crowd either."

Lilo's heart - my heart - raced. If I'd got it right, the bomb would be powerful. Were we still in range?

My question was answered, as the world exploded.