Don’t worry, stormy one, it’ll work and then you’ll be mine.
5
Zoe
Four Solars Until Kevins Arrive…
I don’t waste time while Julie rests and gathers her strength.
Every second counts.
Hadrian and Lyric instructed we be left with enough supplies to feed and defend ourselves. They spared as much as they could, which wasn’t really much at all, but it would have to do. If we don’t find a cure by the time the Kevins arrive, supplies won’t matter anyway. We’ll all be dead.
As Julie sleeps, I go over the supplies for a second time, pulling out all the weapons I think we may need to face the beasts. Even thinking about them makes me shiver. They reminded me of the wolves we’d brought with us to Earth II, the ones that had escaped and turned rabid, stalking the streets for new victims and clustering together in packs. Except these were five times as big.
Not to mention the new aliens we’d seen hunting them. The ones with golden skin and dark ink or scars, I couldn’t be sure from a distance. I’d seen something like them before, in depictions of early men from the original Earth, before it had been ruined by civilization. Barbarians, they were called. Cavemen. Did they live in the caves, I wonder? Is that how they stayed protected? I couldn’t be sure.
We had bigger problems to dwell on than these wild ones for now. They seemed aware of the prison, knew about the security cameras, and they’d kept their distance. They weren’t a threat.
For now.
I place two rucksacks from the store of supplies in front of me. I fill them with some rations of food, skeins of water, and zonnoblasters, one for Julie and one for me. There are two wicked sharp laser knives and I tuck one into each of our packs. I don’t relish the thought of tracking down the monsters, but I’ll do anything if it means keeping Avrell alive. Even if it means risking my own.
My chest grows tight and I have to pause for a moment in my work to rub at the space between my breasts that throbs with misery. He’s a jerk, sure, but I can’t stand to see him so weak and on the verge of death. Sometimes, when he looks at me, I can feel him saying goodbye and I want to scream and cry and rage.
The idiot.
Doesn’t he know I can’t do this without him?
Doesn’t he know the real reason why I was so upset at his appearance was because I was afraid?
Afraid of failure.
Afraid of death.
I’ve always been so afraid.
The only way to deal with it is to cover it up with healthy doses of rage. Rage is easy, but fear…fear is debilitating. It’d be all too easy to let fear consume me and drown me in its depths, but I can’t.
I have to fight.
I have to fight for Avrell.
“Let’s do this,” comes Julie’s voice from the doorway. I turn and match her tremulous smile. At least I’m not the only one who’s scared. It helps that I’m not alone. With these people, morts included, I’ll never have to be afraid and alone again.
“How are you feeling?” I ask as I get to my feet.
She bats my hands away when I attempt to lay one across her forehead to get a check on her temperature. “I’m fine. You’re as bad as Avrell. I feel much better after getting some sleep.”
“Are you sure? We can wait a few more hours if it would help. I don’t want you to push yourself too hard, too fast.”
Julie rolls her eyes. “I take it back. You’re worse than Avrell. Let’s go kill some monsters.”
I hold my tongue. She wouldn’t lie about her capabilities. Not when it could mean one of us could be hurt. We help each other into our zu-gear and shoulder our rucksacks.
“What’s the plan?” Julie asks.
“Avrell believes ingesting raw meat from one of those rabid wolves may be the cure he needs.”
“Ew,” she says, pulling a face. “Why in the hell would he want to do that?”
“Well, you saw those other…alien things. They ate the meat raw. They aren’t infected with The Rades. Avrell thinks there may be antibodies of some sort in the raw meat that will cure him and the others.”
Julie doesn’t look convinced. “He’s the genius, I guess. I’m just glad to be out of that room. Do you think we’ll be able to track one of those bastards down?”
We’ll have to. “We saw one of them run into the tunnels underneath the prison. We’ll start there and see if we can hunt it down. You’ve got a zonnoblaster, keep it with you. There’s also a knife in the front pocket of your rucksack.”
“Excellent,” she says, sounding almost enthused. I guess I would be too if I’d been stuck in bed for days on end.