Race to the end

RaceTTEnd 3

I walked to the far house near the end of the long line of more advanced houses. This is where I lived. On my own, so as not to distract me. But even then I had no family. They had not adapted to a new virus that had plagued us, and were killed off quickly. It was painless, or so I was told. Thinking now of them brought a strange twinge to my chest which I tried to ignore. As I entered my house I found Ribo there awaiting me. He sat in a chair, his back stiff and straight. I stood before him waiting for him to breach a subject with me, but his eyes were closed so he must not have noticed my presence. I cleared my throat roughly. His eyes flickered to me, and then out to the door that I had left open.

I paced slightly up and down the room. I had to deal with this threat of ‘feelings’. They would not help our situation. I turned to Ribo.

“We need to get this situation under control” My voice came out harder and more rigid than I meant it to. Ribo nodded, his hand absently stroking the table. I watched his fingers move back and forth. “If we do not, we could have a pandemic on our hands” I carried on. My hands clasped tightly behind my back I paced again, willing a solution into my head. I glanced outside, and saw the green hue turning deep emerald.

Night was coming.

As I was looking out of the window, I never noticed Ribo stand and force me to stop. He held my arms, his force causing me to stop instantly. It made me look at him, his eyes glazed over. He had green eyes, like the deep emerald of the night sky.

It contrasted with the light blue tint of his skin. The same tint all the homo expectos had. It is said that because the sand and dust on the floor is gray, as we came from the sand, we adapted to camouflage. Hence the blue tinted skin.

What we didn’t understand was why we had navy stripes down our faces, pointed triangles with the point pointing to our eyes. They were only around the edges of our faces. It fascinated me, as everyone had a different pattern of stripes. Some were darker, or longer or fatter. We could also retract or push out our finger nails, into long sharp claws. It was a defence mechanism.

Ribo’s eyes held me with intensity; something that until now I never believed existed. His eyes glazed into mine, my vibrant blue eyes shining back. I was the only homo expectro with blue eyes. They were either green or brown. The sun set behind me, the sky turning deep dark green. The shadows fell over his face. I realised we had been stood like this for a while. I stepped back, feeling his grip loosen.

“Yes” he said indifferently his hand rising up to clutch the air. I had moved back out of his way. I stared at him, confusion written all over my face. His claws had come out, and they dangled inches from my face. He held his hand their as he spoke. “But maybe, these feelings are not as bad as they seem” He motioned his hand for me to move forward. I obeyed and came face to face with him. That same intensity burned in his eyes.

Ever since my mother had connected with Ribo’s father, we had been like a family. That was until my mother went missing. After the rest of my family had died, my mother had never really rested. When she went missing I assumed she had died. This gave me hope that she was at peace. Ribo was like a brother to me, even if I was more powerful and higher ranked. This intensity in his eyes scared me. I started my eyes growing wide as I looked at him.

We were experiencing feelings. I was ‘scared’. He was… well. His hand stroked the side of my face. His finger traced the stripe on my cheek. Weird tingles flew through my body. I shuddered as the cold air, drifted through the open door. I gulped, my breath pounding in my ears. I turned from Ribo and walked towards the door. He looked to me, his eyebrows knitted together.

“We need to go” I muttered. I couldn’t help the embarrassment in my voice. He stared at me, a clear question on his face. I sighed. “We need to go tell the hub that we—“I stopped, and started again “That’s we are experiencing feelings”

Ribo stared for a while longer and then nodded. I turned away from him and walked out of the open door. I heard faint sounds behind me indicating that Ribo was following me. I didn’t look back. Fear coursed through me.

I stalked towards the hub, my step brother in tow.