"Why... is it so... damn... hot..." Akikta panted as sweat beads dripped down his forehead. He tried drinking his saliva a few times, desperate for some form of liquid.
From his current position, all Akikta had to do was walk in a straight line, and he'd eventually find himself in Inkadia. But at this rate, he feared the heat would cook him alive before he even got halfway there.
Akikta thought about the translators Sal gave him, a hopeless attempt to take his mind off the blistering heat.
Something about them confused him. The technology and engineering design were a little ahead of anything Alterna could've offered, but they were clearly of human origin.
Sal and his clan were definitely descendants of whoever managed to escape Alterna all those years ago.
Going on that fact, Akikta now knew why their native languages differed, despite being of the same species. It made sense that the language of humans evolved beyond anything he was familiar with.
What didn't make sense was how quickly Sal had a pair of translators ready for Akikta's use.Not to mention that weird fish thing he saw earlier. Was that a pet of some kind? The thought alone gave him goosebumps.
A low and distant rumble broke the calm noise of wind and Akikta's train of thought.
He perked up, looking over his shoulder to see... a large ship? It was distant, but the silhouette was unmistakable. The wavy lines of a black ship rode across the sea of sand.
Akikta sighed and faced forward again. He lightly knocked on his head with both hands. "Not now, brain, please. It's bad enough I have to deal with this heat. Don't start making me hallucinate, too."
He had seen these types of things in movies. After spending ample time in the dunes with no one but themselves, the protagonist starts seeing things that aren't actually there.
Usually, the hallucination is an oasis, but Akikta knew the same principle applied here.
He continued forward, though he didn't get very far without hearing the rumble again. It sounded a little louder, but still faint. Akikta ignored the noise, only acknowledging it by knocking on his head with both hands again.
A minute of silence passed. Akikta breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful the auditory hallucinations had stopped. Or so he thought.
The rumble came back, this time nearly bursting his eardrums. The noise shook the ground and Akikta's very soul.
He fell and quickly looked over to see the ship was right on top of him, glistening a frightening brown color with a large steel crab-like claw as the figurehead. Shockingly, this was no hallucination.
Akikta scrambled to his feet and ran. His exhaustion from earlier suddenly vanished. All he could think about was getting to safety, away from whatever the hell that ship was. Was it even a ship? It couldn't be. They were nowhere near an ocean, yet the vessel sailed as if at sea.
Akikta wasn't given a chance to think, as he didn't make it far from the ship. It sailed right next to him, allowing a visual on its side.
Lined on the side of the ship were rows of small panels. One of these panels opened. Akikta expected to see a cannon slide out and take aim at him, but instead, a large grappling hook shot out. It grappled onto Akikta's body, making him tumble with a slight roll.
Somehow, the grappling hook began dispensing rope around his body with a loud mechanical whirring sound. When the noise stopped, so did the rope. But by then, Akikta was all wrapped up like a Christmas present.
YOU ARE READING
Survivors of Alterna: Best for Last
Hayran KurguAkikta, the last living remnant of humanity, outsmarted death; he's all that's left, which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the state of Earth. Like the rest of Alterna's residents, he had a dream to see the world above. But once he escaped Alte...
