Flauraan

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

I watched Sophie go, and saw the other humans that went with her desperately to try and save their spaceship. Humans called out in protest after her, and I noticed the sudden shift in the mood. The tension from before was back and the humans were hostile again, and I knew why. They thought it was us who had messed with the ship; they thought we'd tricked them again.

Humans drew back in anger and disgust from my people, the same people they'd previously been conversing freely with.

"What did you do?" screamed one furious female human at me, and suddenly I was caught in the middle of yet another shouting match.

Humans even turned on humans as there were many who were still convinced we'd been telling the truth. I saw a woman pulling on her husband's arm, begging him to stop shouting. I saw another lady shielding her child's ears as she stared in fear at the still rocking spaceship.

"I knew you were lying!" shouted Brock, the human who'd been so adamantly angry before, as he gripped his gun fiercely, pointing the barrel straight at me. "Your people have crossed the line.

I raised my hands in a gesture of peace. "It wasn't me, and it wasn't my people, alright? Just trust me and-"

"Don't give me that bull crap!" he spat at me, cutting me off. The people around him were either supporting him with their fists pumping or trying to stop him with phrases like, 'She's just a kid!'

With my hands still up, I glanced towards the spaceship, which had stopped shaking but was now smoking instead, like it had the night it arrived. I knew what that meant, more of the mind-addling smoke that had caused enough trouble already. I wished for Sophie to hurry up, and do whatever it was she was planning.

"Oi!" my attention was torn back to Brock as he continued to train his gun on me furiously.

I scowled, tired of his stupid human pride.

"Alright, so shoot me then!" I shouted at him, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a flicker of alarm in the Paladanian leaders still standing in the crowd. "I'm sure that it will help you so much."

I threw my arms out. "Go on then, do it!"

He aimed the gun straight at my chest, and murmured, "Paladanian scum!"

Then he fired.

In the single fleeting moment of anticipation as the bolt of energy exited the powerful weapon, a couple of things happened. The communicator in my pocket vibrated, the spaceship stopped giving off smoke, and also about three people launched themselves in front of me, shields raised to deflect the bolt of energy that came zooming in my direction.

The shot ricocheted off of the shield of the person in front and changed direction, hitting a human beside Brock instead. The human, a middle-aged woman with fading red hair and a flashing neck device, fell to the floor writhing in pain, and two seconds later she was dead.

I heard a strangled cry from in front of me, and craned my neck to see Nella, a young Paladanian lady whose family ran the bakery in town, standing with a shield hung limply from her hand, smoking slightly from where it deflected the shot. Even from behind I could see how appalled she was at how her actions had led to death, but clearly Brock couldn't see it because he stared up at her coldly, accusingly, like it had been her that had fired the gun and not him. In that moment I understood how the humans had been so easily drawn in by Weraynian lies; they were led by people like Brock.

And as that realisation hit me, many humans, the ones seething with vengeance at their fellow's death, raised their guns and started firing.

Thus the battle begun.