Holi's Saviour: A glimpse of the KGU.
1. Castellegia, Edge of the Etheric Empire.
Holi ran. The branches hanging over the broken wire fences of the pitch-dark alley snatched at her tangled green hair and whipped her cruelly as she fled to escape the monster that was chasing her. She stumbled over something that was both hard and soft at the same time, horrified to recognise the half-rotten corpse she had almost tripped over. Only just keeping her balance and continuing to run towards the part of town where she lived with the littlies, she risked a glance back, seeing the strange green eyes closing in on her and she sprinted as fast as her ten-year-old lungs allowed, careening off the snatching claws of the fence, desperate to escape what she knew was certain death.
Breaking free of the brambles at the end of the alley and into the dim light of the ruined street, Holi kept the frantic pace up, searching for a place to hide. Her eyes wild, she scanned the broken buildings without slowing, refusing to be resigned to her fate. A light came into view up ahead and Holi pelted towards it as the monster's hungry growls bled into the air around her, as though in frustration at the prospect of losing its meal.
As she approached the bright light, Holi prayed it represented safety and not the slavers she had read about in the before time but she knew even then that a slave lived and a monster's dinner didn't. She had to get home. "Please, please, please," she chanted her internal mantra with each ragged breath, and a strange vehicle surrounded by black-clad figures came into view. As she reached the group she almost collapsed as a woman held out her arms to catch Holi.
"Monster!" she gasped, her chest heaving and constricting with the effort of running and fear of being killed by the creature chasing her. She looked up at the woman and immediately started to back away, afraid for her life once more. The woman had red eyes!
"Don't worry little one," the woman said softly, her eyes changing from red to brown, like Holi's. "We know all about these monsters and we're here to make them go away." Holi looked up again, seeing the kindness on the strange woman's face. Glancing around, she saw the other men and women, all dressed the same in black clothing with weapons strapped around their bodies. They also seemed kind, if scary to her so she took a deep breath and pointed in the direction of the alley where the monster had nearly caught her. The scary/kind woman made a hand gesture and three of the people around her set of in the direction Holi had indicated and a few moments later, Holi heard guns and unearthly screams as the people made the monster go away forever. She decided they were Angels, sent to save them.
2. Holi is saved
"What's your name sweetie?" the lady asked. Let's see if we can find who your parents are and get you home." Holi didn't know what the lady meant, she felt confused. "I'm Holi," she said, big brown eyes turned towards the Angel in front of her. "I live in the big building near the beach. What is parents? And who are you?"
"Well Holi," said the Lady, who looked sad now. "My name is Bethany Anne and parents are the adults who take care of us and keep us safe when we're young. Do you have anyone like that?" Holi felt a tear break the corner of her eye as the last of her adrenaline left her. "No," she whispered as she slid to a sitting position. She felt a flicker of hope; maybe Bethany Anne could help her and the younger children she had found? They had been hiding for so long, trying to avoid the monsters who were once their loved ones. "There's nobody like that anymore, just me and the littlies. There are others but they run away when they see us and Master and Mistress changed. I have to go. I was looking for medicine for Lolly but the monsters are everywhere tonight."
She sniffled, a bubble of snot popping at the end of her nose. "Pip and Lolly are on their own, if I don't get back soon, they might try coming outside by themselves. They need me. Can I go to them now please?"
The Angel, Bethany Anne, Holi reminded herself, changed her face again. This time she was frowning, and then she smiled brightly at Holi, overwhelming her with her beauty once again. "I can't leave you here alone now, can I? Let's get you back home then, I'll take you there. Come on Holi, it's this way!" Bethany Anne led Holi towards her oddly shaped vehicle. With no little trepidation, and a tiny spark growing inside her heart, Holi followed her.
3. Bethany Anne, pod seating area
Bethany Anne swore internally as she entered the pod. "ADAM?"
YES, BETHANY ANNE?
"There are children here. What the fuck are these people that they leave children to be murdered by their families? As if it wasn't enough to allow the poor be mutated in the first place. Can you even imagine what they've been through? Shit. We need to find ALL the kids and get them out of here because I'm going to blast this shit-stain planet and its fuck-nugget feudal aristocracy back to the Dark Ages."
DEPLOYING CAMERA DRONES NOW, STANDBY PLEASE... ADAM paused,
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LIKE THIS BETHANY ANNE, THERE ARE ISOLATED GROUPS OF CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WALLED-IN ZONES. THEY ARE ALL IN NEED OF FOOD AND MEDICAL ASSISTANCE, MANY HAVE BEEN KILLED
"What. The. Fuck. Ok ADAM, get the teams on it we're going to save as many as we possibly can. What about this little one, Holi?" She strapped the small, frail child into her seat and took her own.
AS FAR AS I CAN TELL THIS CHILD MUST HAVE BEEN CARING FOR MANY OTHERS IN THE AREA BY HERSELF FOR QUITE SOME TIME. SHE'S STRONGER THAN SHE LOOKS. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE ADULT POPULATION ON THIS PLANET HAVE CONTRACTED THE NANOCYTE VIRUS HARMARTEA UNLEASHED AND ALL HAVE BECOME MIS-ENGINEERED. THE CHILDREN ARE BEING RESCUED AS WE SPEAK. YOU WILL DO YOUR BEST AS ALWAYS BETHANY ANNE, AND IT WILL BE ENOUGH
"Thank you ADAM. I guess I needed that pep talk. I just wish I could have gotten here sooner. I'll fry that bitch when I find her!"
THE CAMERA DRONES HAVE COMPLETED THEIR SWEEP OF THE AREA ANDTHERE IS AN ABANDONED HOSPITAL NEXT TO THE BEACH SHE DESCRIBED THAT SEEMS OCCUPIED. DRONE FOOTAGE IS SHOWING THREE MIS-ENGINEERED IN THE AREA SURROUNDING THE HOSPITAL ENTRANCE. HOW ABOUT YOU TAKE SOME OF THAT FRUSTRATION OUT ON THEM?
"You have the best ideas ADAM, let's go and save some kids! Holi here can help us if she feels up to a challenge. God, ADAM shit like this makes me miss Earth's bollocks, this was supposed to be a simple mission; kill the Kurtherian scum-bucket that was playing God with this planet and move on to the next place on the road to Justice. Now it's genetically engineered peasants gone wrong and orphaned kids all over the fucking place. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck!" She sighed out loud, turning her attention to the brave little girl strapped into the seat in front of her.
4. Holi, Bethany Anne's pod
"Bethany Anne?" Holi asked quietly, her eyes wide with not knowing but hoping. "Do I belong to you now? I don't mind as long as we can get Pip and Lolly and the others, I'll work so hard if you look after us, I promise!" She looked out of the window, seeing the green lights that marked the monsters locations disappear one by one. She almost didn't believe what she was seeing.
Bethany Anne looked at her as if she could see into Holi's very soul. She felt like squirming under the beautiful Lady's inspection but held still and kept eye contact. She had to convince her to help them or Lolly might die; he'd been so ill this winter. "Well, Holi, people can't belong to other people so you don't belong to me," Holi's heart fell, hope draining faster than the blood from her face. She didn't want them, they were doomed!
"But you, Lolly and Pip and the others can come live with us if it's what you all want? There are many other children here that need our help too; do you think you're up to a challenge?"
A fresh tear made its track down Holi's dirty, scratched face and she broke out into the most beautiful smile Bethany Anne had ever seen. The hope of a safe place after all this time felt like too much to bear in her young heart. Her only goal for too long had been surviving so she could keep the littlies alive. Someone had to go out and find food. The hospit had been stripped bare in the first few months after the grown-ups had begun getting ill, before they changed into nightmares. There was nothing there for them except the safety of a hiding place the monsters couldn't get to at night.
She did her best to keep them fed and well, especially Lolly and Pip. She remembered how she found them all that time ago, two dirty, injured babies sitting in the street. She had been returning from a foraging expedition, there was still game if you were careful and knew where to go. Being a peasant she already had the skills to lure and catch food, she knew which plants to eat. Her master had always said she was too clever for a thrall's life and indulged her in her learning. She had watched her kindly old master eat his loving wife's face through a gap under the floorboards of the farmhouse she had lived in all her life.
Time had passed since the uncertain days the adults had begun killing and eating everyone indiscriminately. Many of the others were slowly learning her tricks but it had been a battle to keep them alive in the beginning. She had often gone without a meal when there wasn't enough to go around; the littlies needed the food more. She had persevered the hard times and been rewarded with love and respect from the fast-growing littlies.
She was disturbed from her thoughts as the vehicle, 'a pod' she told herself, started to slow. Looking out of the window, she could see the hospit below. She made as if to unfasten her restraints but Bethany Anne stalled her with a hand. "You'll be going home really soon brave girl. First, I have to take care of something down there so you hold tight here, ok?" Holi watched open-mouthed as Bethany Anne disappeared!
Holi gasped at the reappearance of her saviour on the street below. She saw the red light from Bethany Anne's eyes again. Was she..? She was! Holi couldn't believe that Bethany Anne was taunting the monsters, daring them to come closer and slicing them to ribbons when they did! It was as though the Angel were dancing. She cheered and clapped for her Hero as the pod descended to the safe street below.
5. Holi, Hospit
Holi ran to the secret entrance. Bethany Anne had asked her to tell the children who were hiding that she had come to rescue them and take them away from this place. She wanted to see Lolly first though. He'd been suffering greatly from a hacking cough and she was afraid he might have died while she was away. Pip was there, in the old boiler room. The boiler would work for a short time each day and she had hoped this would be enough to keep Lolly warm.
"Where were you!" he burst into tears, relieved to see her. "I thought you were dead!"
Holi allowed the small boy to pummel her with his tiny fists. She understood more than he realised.
"Pip, I nearly did die! I didn't see the light in time and the monster nearly got me. Only I ran! I ran and ran and I found an Angel! She saved me and brought me home so she can save all of us! I need you to run and tell everyone. She killed all the monsters that were prowling outside and her people killed all the rest. We can go outside again! She's going to take everyone who wants to go to a new life with something wonderful called Parents. We have to get everyone outside now!"
She scooped Lolly up in his nest of tattered blankets. Putting her cheek to his throat, she felt his lifeblood still flowing but it was very slow. The two children left their nest in the boiler room, Holi headed outside with Lolly, Pip running to the stairwell to shout up to the other children. "Come quick!" he called, his voice echoing up the walls of the floors above. "Holi came back and she brought an Angel to save us!" He turned and ran after Holi, hearing the clatter of the other littlies feet on the stairs.
The children were understandably timid; they had known no other safe place in their lives. Most had been infants when Holi found them, lucky ones that had been missed by the carnage of the monsters' teeth. They gazed in wonder at Bethany Anne, never having seen someone so tall, or beautiful. Or scary to some of them, a few of the smallest burst into tears.
Bethany Anne nodded to Holi as she took the child in her arms. He was painfully thin and struggling to draw more than a shallow, wheezy breath. She took him to her pod for emergency treatment. Holi watched her walk off for a moment before turning to the children in her care.
"That Angel is Bethany Anne. She made all the scary monsters go away and now she would like to help us. She's going to take us far away from here, to a place where there is food, and safety and people who will take care of us, just like we imagined in our stories. We can all be happy now! Are you all ready for an adventure?" She saw smiles, and more tears. No sadness though, these were the tears of relief, of the end of terror. These were tears of joy.
Soon, the children were strapped into pod seats on their way to a new beginning. Holi had no misgivings; Bethany Anne was the safest place she had ever known. She could feel it in her bones.
THE END...