Pull (originally published as Deep Darkness v1)

Trinity

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Trinity

    "God, you are fucking lucky, I couldn't even lift you and they were almost on top of us when.." She stopped and smiled brighter, as if our current crisis had come to an abrupt end. "Hayden came out of nowhere. He had two of his families swords and he cut through the horde like they were nothing. Like us he was making his way towards the factory hoping to grab a drop ship and fly to the outskirts of the city. He was a mess to show for it but he saved both of us." "Hayden! He's alive! Where is he?" I exclaimed."Hayden found us after all. I guess we stirred up a big enough mess to get his attention," I began to laugh in disbelief (with my rib still broken it hurt to laugh, I felt like my lungs were full of sewage). Aira gave me a drink and told me to swallow. "You have minor radiation poisoning, it's from turning the failsafe off. You risked everything to save us, a few more minutes and you would have been toast," she smiled again and this time leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I felt my pain subside as I took in our moment of victory.

    "Where is Hayden now?" I asked. "Fixing a drop ship. You're sure you can still fly one right?" she said. "Yeah," I smiled and passed out back to bed thinking 'today is the day we find out whether or not the Aelita arrives'.

    The sun seemed to shine through the broken window brighter than usual. Maybe I just wasn't use to the morning on this side of town. Hayden had come back during the middle of the night. He had primed a drop ship and had everything ready for us to leave. I owed him my life. I still couldn't believe it, the three of us united at last. Hayden was wearing Drok battle armor above his normal clothes given to him by his parents. The armor was made up of grey metal shoulder blades that extended upward, away from his face. He had a matching chest plate and wrist braces. It seemed very primitive but at the same time was very intimidating to look at. The Drok must have been fierce warriors on their home world. If I remember right they were like humans , always at war with each other and nature. Many Drok came from different tribes. The Drok almost went to war with us but we had hundreds of years of technology on them. They thought we were Gods. Now, hundreds of years fighting beside each other we are equals.

    It wasn't long after meeting the Drok the Skrav followed. We took as many of them with us as we could and like our people who watched our own world burn, they too watched the Skrav destroy their world. It must have been a nightmare. What did we do that was so wrong that the Skrav feel the need to destroy an entire civilization? Why would they sacrifice so many of their own to try and defeat us? We already lost. At the most we were a species now numbering in the thousands, running for our lives. How the hell did they still consider us a threat? Hayden's blades were made from black stone, carved from an element similar to a diamond but something only found on their original home world. His blades would sell for millions on the black market. They were lethal enough to be considered 'weapons of war' and were only to be used at such time. Hayden's parents had trained his daily in hand-to-hand combat and with kendo sticks but this was the first time Hayden had ever touched a real blade. Discipline and honor, those were the two most important attributes for a Drok to have. In many ways their culture was similar to that of the samurai.

    "Where are your parents? Shouldn't we be meeting up with them?" I asked. Aira walked out of the room. I had never seen such a look on Hayden's face. I knew then as Hayden began to speak that I had said something horribly wrong.

    "The three of us went searching for survivors. We weren't just searching for the two of you, though you were the highest priority on my list. We were searching for anyone we could find. We opened an underground shelter. The monster was so far away that it seemed like a good idea - we couldn't imagine those people starving or suffocating. We knew our actions would be justified. We just didn't know that when we opened it everyone inside would already be dead. Those that were still walking around had been infected by those tick things and they were mutating. Eek and humans had sprouted limbs that looked like wings and smaller limbs that covered their faces and bodies. The ticks were deep inside their bodies, tapped into their spines and chests. We killed them. We killed them all adn when it was over.. When the final body fell my mother and father were gone." Hayden paused. He was too strong to cry. Hayden knew I was here but he didn't need nor want any of my sympathy, that was a part of the Drok way. His parents had died honorably.