Young Survivors

I

Imagination

Guest
Original poster
Dust and dirt clung to Ren's eyes the very second she opened them, it was like trying to see through a gauzy ribbon. She blinked rapidly, forcing her eyes to water, washing out the gritty film covering her blue-green eyes. Her whole body ached from a night of laying on the bare ground as she tried to sit up against the makeshift plywood walls. Instantly, the cloth she'd hung over the wood toppled on top of her, causing a new round of dust to cover her eyeballs. She crawled out, coughing as though her lungs were filled with dirt. She embraced the shambles that were once known as her hometown, Bushire, with a small, accepting sigh.
She sat down on a large rock near her 'tent' and grabbed the knapsack of supplies she salvaged the previous day. She blindly groped inside for a thermos filled with clean water. After a few sparing sips, Ren capped the thermos and tossed it back into the sack. It clanged against the pistol, beef jerkey and box of bullets she'd found in an old gun store and butcher shop yesterday.
Ren rested her chin in her hands, pondering her chances of survival until a peaceful, natural death. Highly unlikely, considering the single bottle of water. She gazed around at the scattered dead bodies, people she used to know, and even care about. Everyone on Earth, eighteen and older had fought fiercely against the attacking Xelopian aliens. They'd come with weapons and powers decades more advanced than the humans, leaving Ren's race looking like mere rodents to the Xelo planet.
A tear slid down Ren's cheek as she remembered her father racing out onto the streets, taking electrified bullet after bullet for his wife, friends, and even people he didn't know. He'd finally fallen, jumping in front of Ren's mom to save her from an arrow sailing through the sky in a simple arc.
Ren immediately wiped the tear away. At age seventeen, she hadn't cried in 12 years, and she wasn't about to turn to pitying herself.
"Surely there are other seventeen and unders that weren't found by the Xelopians on their final sweep of the planet." Ren reassured herself by speaking out loud. She winced as the memory of a Xelopian swallowing Mr. Stillings', her neighbor, body whole, as they did to many others.
"I should have been there, by my fathers side." Ren picked up a stone and chucked it across the remnants of her city. "I'm skilled with a gun, and a knife. I should have fought despite his orders. I-I should be dead too.."
 
Walter awoke immediately to the sound of a rock tumbling next to his head, though he refused to let his eyes open, in case whatever it was that had caused it to move wasn't friendly. Maybe, if he pretended he was dead, whatever it was would move on and leave him alone. Hopefully then he might be able to find food for himself. When no further sounds of movement were picked up by his eardrums, he finally allowed himself to open his eyes and sit up, silently, just in case.

A lot of things seemed to be 'just in case' these days, he reflected. The knife held inside the right sleeve of his jacket, the flare gun he had found, and all the bandages he had scavenged over the years. Just in case. Three small words, yet those three small words could be whether he lives or dies. Someday, it might be important, and he'd need them...

Crouching down low, he strained his ears to catch anything. But the town seemed dead, like it had been for a while now. Still, the cold metal of his knife reassured him as he crept further out of the makeshift lean-to he had been sleeping in that night. The bodies didn't bother him much. He didn't know why, maybe after seeing everyone you know and love die before you made your heart stone cold, unfeeling. As he reached the mouth of the shelter, he picked up the faintest traces of a voice. Hopefully, his dark hair and clothes would cover him in the pre-dawn darkness.

Moving closer to the sound, his dark green eyes soon were able to make out a figure sitting on a rock. Making his way around them, just far enough so that he could barely see them, but see them nonetheless, he gained a position behind and above them, upon a rocky crag. And there he waited, trying to see who they were and why they were here.
 
Ren felt a pair of eyes staring her down like she was an animal in the zoo. She squirmed, hating to feel so weak, powerless and unprepared in front of others. Or perhaps it wasn't exactly an 'other'. Maybe it was the last hungry Xelopian scouting the planet for his final meal before taking flight back to his planet. Or maybe it was simply her mind playing tricks on her. Nevertheless, Ren slowly- as not to alarm the creature-pulled the gun out of the sack, She cocked it, the metallic sound ringing through-out the barren city, like a single bell chiming a warning signal. Standing up, Ren finally caught sight of a face watching her from behind a grouping of large boulders. A male. A human male. The first human she'd seen in days.

She pointed her pistol at him, despite her longing to run up and hug him as though her were her father, back from the dead.
"Put any and all weapons down. Approach me with your arms in the air, stating your first and last name." Ren demanded, steadying her grip on the gun by widening her stance.

Ren could never be sure that this boy wasn't a Xelopian spy sent to destroy her and every last person on the planet, or even a figment of her imagination teasing her, but something drew her to him. The way his emerald-like eyes sparkled? Or the way his mysterious dark hair blew gently in the soft breeze, viciously reminding her of the grass that used to sprout before all the nuclear damage?
There was something, yes. But Ren just wasn't quite sure what it was.
 
Hearing the sound of a gun being cocked, Walter immediately drew his sword, even though he knew it would do no good against a gun. As soon as he was ordered to put his weapons down, he hid his knife back in his clothes, thinking, No way in hell am I going down there without a weapon, not when she has one. At least he knew she wasn't blatantly Xelopian. That was a good sign right? His common sense returning to him, he called over, not moving closer to her, "I'm not getting closer to you until I know you're human. Honestly, I can't understand why you'd want me to get close to you. I could be anyone...anything." Although there was a slightly condescending tone to his voice, he only spoke the truth.

Still, after a second, he sighed audibly, slowly getting to his knees first, then standing up, the movement irritating his bad knee. Leaving his satchel that held his few belongings and his flare gun upon the rubble, he raised his hands above his head, almost nonchalantly.

"Walter," he said, "Skylar Gardener. And who might you be, miss?" he asked as he carefully made his way towards her, prepared to dive to the right if she made a move like she was about to shoot.
 
"Ren. Just Ren." Ren said firmly, her voice catching after swallowing a wave of dust. She walked towards Walter, slowly. Instantly she noticed the slight bulge in the back of his shirt, manipulating his slender image. With the swift movement of a practiced disarmer, Ren pulled the extended knife up out of his collar. She raised an eyebrow, staring into his mesmorizing green eyes with her own blue ones.

"You're smart." She acknowledged, placing his sword back in his hands. She turned around, gun facing the ground at her side.
"See- up there, you could be hiding anything. Nuclear bomb. Minigun. Seasoning. But down here," Ren turned back to face him. "Down here, I can assure myself that the only weapon you carry is that sword." Ren chuckled. "Which gives a strong-not definate- signal that I can trust you. And thats all we have at this point. Trust."

Ren felt the smooth metal on the barrel of her gun, like so many others that had passed through her hands. Ren handed the gun to Walter.
"Shoot me. If I'm correct, a real Xelopian would rapidly undisuise itself after blood is drawn." Ren sighed threw her arms in the air, ready to take the bullet.
 
((Sorry for closing this thread.. major accident. >.<))
 
((It's okay ^^))

Ren. So that was her name. As he saw her tensing up to make a move against him, he ducked, but it wasn't quickly enough and she got his sword anyway. Cursing inwardly, he made a mental note to make something that would keep it hidden better. As she raised her eyebrow, he shrugged, giving her a smile that said, "What else could you expect?" She had a weapon, it was only common sense that he would have one, too.

"I wouldn't have lived this long if I wasn't smart," Walter said, taking his knife back. He was silent as she spoke about how the only thing the two of them had at the moment was trust. However, he was surprised when she handed him the gun. He was even more surprised as she told him to shoot her. Immediately, he responded with, "No way, I can't shoot a person...Put yourself in my place. This girl I just met wants me to shoot her. I don't know how to treat a bullet wound. The best I can do is relocated a joint, and even then I have a hard time." Walter knew he was rambling, it was a nervous tic he'd had before everything had happened, and it prevailed until after.
 
"I understand that it's not exactly natural to shoot a person you just met, but I've taken and given many bullets through my life. I can treat the wound easily, and if it makes you feel better, you can shoot my left-or submissive arm." Ren lowered her arms slightly, slowly realizing he wasn't going to do it. She squinted her eyes through the dust, trying not to let them water in front of Walter in fear that he might suspect them to be tears.

She stood her ground, moving her left arm way out to the side. She closed her eyes lightly, to save them from the pain of the flying dirt that kept wafting up despite the lack of people and wind.
 
Walter shook his head, feeling like his heart was in his throat. He'd never been good on doing what was needed to be done. He'd always wimp out in the last moment or get someone else to do it. As she told him that he could shoot her submissive arm, he swallowed hard, watching as she shut her eyes. Closing his eyes as well for a long second, he reopened them, telling himself he was able to do it.

He raised his left arm, the one holding the gun, swallowing his fear. Taking careful aim, afraid he might miss, he looked away just as he felt his finger upon the trigger clench, and the loudest bang he had ever heard reverberated through his ears.
 
((My plot is not directly connected with yours yet so you do not have to reply right now))

Xual'lan scraped his claws against the cold steel hull of his ship. The sound reverberated in his tiny eardrums, he needed something to break the unbearable silence. He liked the sound, it reminded him of the high octave songs the Dephonans sang in a last attempt at saving themselves before his father exterminated them.

Speaking of his father, Xual'lan was quite restless as his father has recently died mysteriously. Whenever a Xelopian monarch died the two most legitimate heirs must fight to the death for the throne. In a few minutes now he will be forced to kill his twin brother, the already quite accomplish warrior Ra'asha'ana. Xual'lan was scared of his brothers fighting abilities and did not want to fight him, as a matter of fact Xual'lan did not want to fight anyone. He was an outsider in Xelopian society, one of the few who did not wholeheartedly support the many Intergalactic wars the Empire would fight. He was meek and small compared to most, and would often flee the battles he was forced to attend. He knew he could not win this fight, Xual'lan decided too himself that he would surrender right when he stepped into the stadium.
 
((Sounds good, I'm excited to see what comes next!))

The impact of the bullet was not as painful as she'd thought it would be. Walters aim was dead on, and the shiny silver bullet lay embedded in her arm. Ren cringed as she gently worked the bullet out of the wound. It was shallow, and wouldn't take more then a week or two to heal. Ren dropped to the ground and ripped off a horizontal long strip of her dirt covered, light-blue t-shirt. She pressed it into the bloody hole in her arm, careful not to aggravate it more then the bullet already had. After she soaked up some of the blood, she wrapped the strip around it like gauze, to keep out the dust.

"You have outstanding aim." Ren laughed, rising to her feet once again.
 
Walter winced as she began working the bullet out of the wound, hoping he hadn't hurt her terribly. What was he thinking? He scolded himself, Of course a bullet would hurt. As she sat down and began tearing her shirt to make a bandage, he said, "Wait here. I've got bandages in my backpack." Turning around he smiled to himself. Apparently, 'just in case' had turned out to be useful. Going back to the pile of rubble he had left his things at, he grabbed them, slinging his bag over his shoulder and approaching her once more.

"That's not clean," he told her, knowing that something like that could give her an infection. He didn't think he'd be able to amputate if he needed to. When she complimented his aim, all he could do was shake his head, his heart still thudding against his chest. "Hold this," he said, holding the gun out to her while simultaneously looking through his bag for the rolls of gauze he had gotten from the remains of a small hospital.

((As am I ^^))
 
"XUAL'LAN ENTER THE STADIUM". He heard of the Psi-speakers. The dreaded moment had come. Xual'lan would rather be anywhere but here, Dephon, Eeno, Kamoosh, even little Earth would be a better place to be. But they where all dead planets, exterminated by his fathers enemies, all cold and lifeless, not the best place one should spend his time.

"XUAL'LAN ENTER THE STADIUM". He heard again, the voice was that of Ze'ephoro, his fathers head commander. How he hated that man, all of the daily war practice, all the games of strategy. How he tried to drill visions of glory and conquest into Xual'lan's young mind, when all Xual'lan wanted to do was explore the universe and view her inhabitants. "XUAL'LAN ENTER THE STADIUM". And that low, booming voice. Ick.

He figured he better get going, cautiously he placed one foot, then another onto the blood-stain floor of the stadium. The crowd cried, it had been a while since there had been a fight, especially one of this caliber. "RA'ASHA'ANA ENTER THE STADIUM". Xual'lan's brother boastful stomped into the stadium, his very face breathing new life into the crowd. Their champion had arrived. Ra'asha'ana struck a few poses before whispering a word to his brother. "I know you won't win, but at least try to put on a good show for them, will you brother?" Xual'lan sneered at him, as the crowd cheered for excitement, ready to see their champion win another glorious victory.

Xual'lan knew he had to say it now, but what would the do with him should he surrender? No one has dared to surrender before a battle in over a million years. Would they apprehend him or execute him, or would they simply let him be? Xual'lan liked the last one but knew that it would be very unlikely. "BEGIN!" Rash'asha'ana was preparing his weapons, Xual'lan knew now was the time to do it. He took a big gulp of air and shouted and the anxious crowd, their cries now deafening.

"Silence!"
 
Ren immediately began unwinding the long strand of fabric, frowning at herself for not asking for a bandage before ripping the hem off of her shirt. How barbaric was she? Ren sighed, taking back the pistol and sitting back down on the ground- ignoring the slight throbbing that resonated through her arm. She picked at her dirt-encrusted nails, trying to kill time as he rummaged around for medical gauze.

"So," Ren sighed. "How'd you survive..?" Ren shivered, as though she could hear the screams of the citizens in her head. She then threw her hands to her forehead, trying to calm herself down.
 
Walter pretended to not have heard her for a second, his throat feeling like it was closing up as her seemingly innocent question brought up all those memories he had tried to bury forever. Still, he didn't pause in his search for the gauze, soon finding it. After he had felt that his emotions were in check again, he began wrapping her arm with it, until it red stopped bleeding through the bandage. After a second, he leant his weight on his heels, thinking.

After a second, he said, "I did what I had to do to keep myself alive. And, for a time, my brother. But that's where I failed. The one time it mattered most, I couldn't protect him..." he trailed off, memories of his younger brother, who had looked so much like their mother, lying dead in a pool of his own blood. It was like the day she had died, her hand reaching for their father in a perverse joke of the Creation of Adam. Not keen on telling her any more, he asked, "What about you?"
 
Ren held her arm out limply for Walter to wrap it in the flimsy gauze. She felt as though her heart was enfolded in sorrow as he slowly relayed his simple, yet depressing story. She held back another flood of tears, bending and stretching her arm as he finished wrapping it. He in turn, asked her for her own tale. She then understood why he was hesitant to share with her. She bit her lip, looking away.

"My parents had told me to stay inside. 'Fighting isn't for children' they'd said. Of course, that threw me into a fiery fit of rage. I'd yelled back; 'I've been fighting forever! And I'm hardly a child- I'm seventeen years old!' My father loaded his gun. 'You're not going out in that mess.' He'd muttered sternly. Our argument went back and forth for a good ten minutes, my mother nodding every now and then, we were wasting valuable time. Finally, I was so pissed off I screamed 'I wish you would go out there and never return!!'"

Ren wiped away the straggling tears that kept leaking out.

"Little did I know that wishes really do come true." Ren whispered. "Since the end of the war, I surfaced to land after hiding in the sewers. I salvaged for useful tools without much luck. The Xelopians really sucked this town dry. I drank murky river water until I found a clean spring a little outside the town border. I'm still alive." Ren stood up.

"I wish I wasn't."
 
"Silence I tell you!"
The crowd was aghast. The meek little son has spoken, for the first time in public a swell. What could he want? Was he stronger than they have perceived? The silence was broken by a rush of meaningless questions. It was a good few minutes and the noise wasn't dying down. Ra'asha'ana gave Xual'lan a half-sympathetic look, Xual'lan wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

"Silence!"
This time the command was ushered by the champion. Out of respect, the sound of the crowd drew to a abrupt stop. "My brother here obviously has something to say here, I demand you give him your up most attention". All eyes where turned toward Xual'lan, it was all to much for him. He felt as if he was being crushed under the immense, heavy pressure of the crowd. He had to push forward, for his brother, for himself.

"Xelopians" His voice trembling with a newly found eloquence "I cannot fight my brother" the crowd began to boo and hiss. The Xelopian grand council was shocked, what where they going to do with him, they couldn't just spill royal blood, that would be heresy against the war gods. The Council decided to imprison Xual'lan until they could decide what to do with him. In the meantime they would send a warrior from a recently conquered planet to fight the champion. A measure often used in these situations in order to prevent a riot. A soldier brought out a peach-skinned Nu Snu, the sentient inhabitants of their most recent victory. His eyes where a deep blue and looked straight back at Xual'lan, almost a call for help. How could they force this poor being to fight? Even he stood a better chance against his brother than he did. Before he could do anything to protest to large guard took him by the arms and dragged him into the prison located adjacent to the stadium.
 
Walter was silent as she spoke, thankful to have a distraction from his own past. He looked up at her when she stood up, questioning in his eyes. At her comment about wishing she was dead, he nodded, standing up as well. "You and I both," he whispered, looking into her eyes. "But if we were, then everything our parents had done for us would be in vain." After a few seconds of silence, he said, "Where are you planning on going?"

He was curious, wishing to know more of who she was. And maybe he'd be able to find an ally, someone who could watch his back as he watched hers. To have someone who could, it would be priceless. Anything could be out there, and he couldn't spend his time looking forwards if he had to keep his gaze behind him.
 
"I have no plan. I just know I want to leave here, all that's left is broken memories." Ren said slowly, knowing he would understand. She slung her knapsack over a shoulder and flashed him a sad smile. "What about you? Mind if I tag along? That is as long as this isn't your final destination." It then occured to Ren that she'd never met or seen Walter before today, perhaps he was from elsewhere.

"Are you from here, Bushire?" Ren asked, peeking behind her shoulder and flicking a insect out of her long, wavy and brown hair.
 
Xual'lan was thrown into a steel jail cell, a screen showed the current battle, it hadn't started yet. That poor Nu Snu, so defenseless he thought, even through the screen his eyes pierced the marrow of his soul. He had studied the inhabitants of that planet, Earth the locals called it, before his fathers armies had conquered it. The Nu Snu was an offensive term, meaning something like 'Stupid Ape Creature' in English, the soldier always gave their enemies offensive names, and they always caught on with the regular populace. During his studies he felt very intrigued by them, they where often in engaged with war, and amongst each other yet they still had time for more refined things that other species would often do. As he watched the preparations for the battle he could help but imagine how the Nu Snu must've felt, what was his like back on watery Earth? Xual'lan certainly didn't want to go to Earth, he could not stand liquids, but the inhabitants intrigued him nonetheless.

That battle began, the Nu Snu's face looking even more helpless than before. All the creature had was a clunky piece of metal! The poor thing could never hope to stand a chance against advance Xelopian technology. You could tell the champion didn't want to do this either, but it wasn't a good way to start of his reign with a riot so he pulled out large blade, his most swift and efficient weapon. Xual'lan let out a sigh of relief, at least the poor thing's death would be painless. Rash'asha'ana charged the Nu Snu, and the victim did something unexpected, he tried to climb up the walls of the Stadium. This was hopeless, Xelopian claws where perfect for climbing compared to the Nu Snu's clumsy fingers. The creature slipped and fell, and was swiftly executed by the champion.

***

Xual'lan could not sleep that night, sleep was one thing that his species and the Nu Snu shared in common, sleep and dreams. And with dreams come nightmares, something Xual'lan had suffered from for all his life. Most Xelopians would dream of conquest and glory, well, so did Xual'lan. Most of his species would love these dreams, even write them down in search of battle strategies and tactics. These same dreams haunted Xual'lan, like an inescapable destiny taunting him every night. Tonight they where especially bad, he had dreams he was remorselessly killing off armies of Nu Snu and Dephonans, all the while laughing with his brother as their skulls and exo-shells piled up into a pyramid. Around the middle of the night he had decided he had enough, and vowed never to sleep for the rest of the night.

***

That morning Xual'lan was to receive the verdict, he didn't really care at this point, the spirits of his nightmares flying around his had where more important to right now. The guards opened the cell door and shoved him into a hover-caravan. It would be a long ride until he reached the Grand Temple of Cualt-zech'huan, the supposed house of the god of Judgement. The road would take him through the capital, maybe he would see love, the fair Ita'anti. The sight of her slick talons might help him get through this ghastly day. But Ita'anti barley knew he existed, although he was the son of a king, he wasn't exactly advertised, and today she would probably not even dare look at him after his horrendous act of surrender the previous morning. Still, he always had some hope.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back