We Are From Greenland, Chapter 1
The taste of blood filled his mouth. Yes, now he remembered what had happened. He had crashed his dart after the hive had exploded. He had been shot down by one of the opposing forces crafts. He had sustained a variety of injuries but nothing life threatening. The landing had been quite rough, looking around his dart he could see that some of the sensors were still working. After a few keystrokes he could see his younger brother's dart had landed nearby.
Closing his eyes he released his mind into the network as he called out to his brother. "Are you alive, brother?"
"Yes, but my dart cannot fly."
"Can you get out?"
"Yes, and you?"
"Yes, pull your hardrive and any useful parts. I will be to your location momentarily."
"I will."
He opened his eyes and started to cannibalize the useful systems on the dart. After a busy twenty minutes he left his dart with a backpack full of parts. He rushed across the hot desert to his brother.
Coming up to his brother's dart; he could see him cramming the last few parts into his own backpack.
"There is a human settlement not far from here. If we travel steadily we should be there by dusk," the older brother said.
"Fine, lead the way."
Trudging through the hot desert they made their way to the human settlement. The sun was beating down on them in their black leather jackets. Under normal circumstances they would have looked for shelter and then traveled under the cover of dark; however these were not normal circumstances. In their galaxy no human had ever been able to best their kind. But in their galaxy humans would not have been allowed to develop technology to fight invading aliens. These humans' defenses were good. They had displayed such cunning that they had managed to blow up the 'super' hive that was powered by a ZPM. Without a doubt they would have the technology and the ability to track the fallen darts and capture or kill the wraith.
After about two hours of walking they came upon the outskirts of the human settlement. Finding a nearby abandoned building, the two sought refuge from the boiling sun.
"When it is dark we will go into the human settlement and find transportation away from here. From what my sensors told me the settlement is larger than most of the ones back home," said the older brother.
"Good. Then finding food should not be an issue."
"No, it should be quite plentiful here as long as we use discretion. We will need to be careful on how we dispose of bodies. Humans here can communicate with one another across great distances and if they start finding bodies just laying around then they will come looking for us."
"Understood, I will take the first watch while you rest."
"Fine," the older brother said as he found the darkest corner in the bare room and sat down to rest.
Darkness had fallen outside as the brothers began to stir again. They had gone through their packs and minimized the amount of stuff in them so now they were less obtrusive.
The buzzing street lamps lit the dirty, partially abandoned street as they moved sneakily into the shadows outside the building. They headed down the street towards the more populated area of town.
After traveling for several blocks they came upon an older, trashy looking woman who was leaning against one of the street lamps. She took a long drag from her cigarette as she stared down the street.
An old beat up Chrysler New Yorker came chugging down the street and pulled up to where she was standing. She walked over to the car still smoking on her cigarette. She talked to the man in the car for a moment, then walked around and climbed into the passenger seat of the vehicle. They saw the car start to move for a bit then there was a scream, then nothing.
They saw the woman get out of the car with a wad of green paper and some gold jewelry. She shimmied her short skirt back down and walked into the nearby alley.
"Man, he didn't have barely squat on him. Hardly worth the bother," She said to someone else in the alleyway.
The two wraiths quietly shifted towards the others in the shadowy alley.
"If we moved to a more populated area, people would notice you drugging your clients and taking everything they got. Plus how likely do you think it would be for these fellas to pick an old tramp like you over some of that young meat out there. If they'd chose you, you'd have to do some actual hooking," a man in a deeply toned voice said.
"I know, I know. Give me my freaking cigarettes," she wined as she handed over the objects.
A hand reached out of the shadows and placed a crumpled pack of Virginia Slims in her hand.
Opening the pack and extracting a lighter and a cigarette, she lit one of the slightly squashed cigarettes. "I wish you wouldn't put these in your butt pocket. You smashed them with that big butt of yours," she protested.
"Bitch, bitch, bitch, that all you ever do, Candace. You should quite smoking those darn things anyway they'll kill you."
"I doubt that," she said as she took another drag from her cigarette.
The older brother looked at his brother, and said on the network, "Dinner?"
"Appetizers at least." Younger brother shot back laconically.
Moving swiftly through the darkness, her pimp barely saw the older brother before he clamped down on his chest and began to drain his life away. He flailed his hands desperately but all was to no avail.
Candice screamed as the younger brother pinned her against the wall sucking the life out of her, too.
After a few moments it was all over.
"Next time I get the healthier one," sneered the younger brother as he tossed Candace's corpse into a nearby dumpster.
"Fine," he said as he reached down to pick up the wad of green paper the pimp had dropped.
"Currency perhaps?" he queried as he examined the paper. "They seem to come in a variety of denominations, but are constant in what some look like from one to the other. I have a feeling that this will be helpful for us to have if we shall survive here." He leaned down and started to search the pimps clothing. After going through the clothing and the bag that the pimp had with him, the brothers had discovered another larger wad of green paper, a knife, needles with some unknown substance in them, and a black metal L-shaped object with a fake wooden handle and movable components. There was also a long coat with a hood in the bag, the older brother put it on and pulled the hood over his head.
The younger brother scavenged the jacket off of the pimp, which also to his delight had a hood that was zipped up in the collar. Unzipping it he pulled it over his head, but let his white locks hang out of the hood to further hide his face.
Throwing the scavenged items into his sack, the older brother said, "We should get moving. The humans are probably looking for us."
"Yes," the younger brother responded as he looked at a strange square plastic package he had found in the pimp's pocket.
"Leave it or put it back in your pocket," he said with a growl as he began to walk away dragging the pimps body over to the dumpster and then throwing it in.
Placing the small object in his pocket, the younger one followed after his brother as they started to slink down the road, they made it several blocks into a more inhabited area of town. There was a bunch of women in very skimpy clothing standing on the corner of the street.
Looking around for a way to avoid them, the older wraith decided to go down a side alley. After starting walking down the alley he realized his brother was not following him. He turned around and saw that his brother was ogling the human females. He let out a sigh and walked back to him.
"It is not play time; you can pick up a worshipper later."
"But they look fun," he said as he leaned slightly to look at the one in the leather skirt from a different angle.
Grabbing a handful of his little brother's hair, "Come on," the annoyed brother said as he began to drag his distracted brother behind him.
"Ahh…Ok, ok," The younger one said begrudgingly.
They went down the alley and turned on to a parallel street. The area they were walking in started to become a bit more populated by local people; none of them took any real interest in the pair since they looked like they had nothing of great value.
As they continued walking down the street, they both suddenly felt the presence of someone trying to seek them out. Looking around the older brother noticed a large, black SUV cruising down the road.
"Turn in here," he said quickly to his brother.
They walked through the doors of a seedy looking bar. The bar had a thick layer of smoke hanging in the air, and a floor that you didn't want to walk on in nice shoes for fear you would end up leaving one shoe behind stuck to the floor. The style of the bar would be called minimalistic if it wasn't such a fancy name; there was a bar, stools, dirty dull lights, and a bunch of tables. There were various small groups of people huddled around tables drinking and smoking, none of them even bothered to look at the two who had just walked in.
The two brothers walked up to the bar, but before they got to it a skinny, very drunk human male crashed into the younger brother spilling his drink on the younger brother.
The younger brother let out a low growl as he stared down at the drunken male in black gothic attire.
"I'm sorry man…If this a-hole hadn't been being such a dick to me, I wouldn't have been getting up to move chairs," he slurred as he gestured with a now mostly empty glass. "Hey, let me buy you a drink," he quickly added as he stumbled over to the bar.
Looking at his older brother for a moment he said across the network, "Should we leave this place or use him for camouflage."
"We will hide here for a little bit, maybe by then the others will have left."
The two wraiths walked up to the bar flanking the skinny human.
"Here you go," he said cheerfully as he handed the younger brother a mixed drink.
"What is it," he responded in a low voice.
"Oh it's a screwdriver, orange juice and vodka chilled."
"Hmmm…." He gave it a sniff and took a gulp out of it.
"Well do you like it? I can't really see your face there to tell."
"It is interesting," he said as he drank some more.
"Good, we will get you something stronger next. And how about you sir, do you want anything," he queried to the older brother listing to one side.
"No, I am my brother's keeper for the evening."
"Ahhhhh! The designated driver, well then more for us," the man responded as he slapped the younger brother on the back.
The older brother sat on the stool and sent his mind out searching for anyone else that had survived the intense battle. Much to his disappointment, he could not find anyone else in the general area. "Perhaps their darts landed somewhere else," he pondered.
Sometime had passed and he reached out to his younger brother whom had now consumed several drinks and was getting a bit fuzzy in his thoughts. Plus he was highly distracted since the human and he had been chatting up a storm after a few drinks. However, the older brother could see the human's stamina waning.
Leaning over to the human he whispered in his ear, "Where do you live?"
"In Colorado Springs, but I am staying in this crappy hotel down the street here while I'm on my business trip."
Pushing into the human's mind he could see the hotel quite clearly, they had passed by it earlier.
"It is time to rest. Why not let us help you get back to your room," the older brother said as he nudged the human's mind.
"Sure, we can go back there and drinks some more!" he said with a little hiccup at the end.
The older brother steered the drunken human and his tipsy brother back to the rundown hotel. After taking the door key from the human, since he could not operate the lock in his inebriated state, the three went into the room.
Closing and locking the door behind them, the older brother sat their two bags down in a chair. He walked over and pulled the drapes tightly shut.
The human male walked over to the table and grabbed one of the various glass bottles on it and poured shots into plastic cups. He and the younger brother barely had drunk them when he sat down on one of the twin pastel colored beds and passed out.
The older brother had gone around the room investigating and had found the TV. After fiddling with it for moment he got it to come on and started flicking through the channels till he came across a news broadcast.
The station was reporting on the citing that people had been calling in about a giant ball of fire falling from the sky, and how the government was denying it had happened.
A smirk smile came across his face, "So maybe we did destroy Atlantis." He said as his turned to see his younger brother who was leaning down to inspect the various liquor bottles.
"That would be great, but I do not think we are that lucky." He said as he poured himself another drink. "You want one?"
"Sure, we are safe and hidden now. I can afford to relax," he said as he walked over to the table and pulled his hood back.
The younger brother stood up and pulled his hood back, too. "Here you go. I have no idea what it is but darn does it pack a kick."
Taking the cup from him he sniffed at it for moment. "Fine. Well regardless of what has happened to Atlantis we will stay here for the night and in the morning we will see if this human can be of any further use to us in the long term," he said as he raised his cup.
"Sounds good to me. To the possibility we helped destroy Atlantis!" he said as they both toasted and drank the liquor very quickly.
"Ugg…you were not kidding. What is that stuff called?"
Picking up the bottle and staring at the label for a moment, "Sailor Jerry's Rum, 92 proof. I do not know, this measurement means nothing to me."
"Well, it is all yours; I am going to rest for the evening. Do not stay up to late drinking that. You will be miserable in the morning."
"Yes, mommy…"
The older brother let out a low growl. "I am trapped on Earth with no hive, no Queen, no dart, and my most frustrating younger brother. This is not how I thought the day would turn out," he said as he laid in the bed staring at the ceiling.