Authors Notes
Hey readers!
The pace is finally starting to pick up.
Things are starting to get dangerous and action-packed, just what I like.
I hope you are liking the story so far.
Thank you so much for reading :3
Leo Albin
Carplis, Colony Planet 287.
Some Alleyway in Carplis
3300 AD
Why did she have to live up on the 7th floor?
"Well, here's my place. It's not much, but it's something." Her place is a little studio. Kitchen, living room, and bedroom all in one. "You can sleep on the futon if you want. I can even pull it out to make a bed. There's food in the-"
"Can I take a bath?"
Zora set her hat on the coffee table and kicked her shoes off. "I don't have a bath, but I have a shower. The bathroom is the door on your right. I'll get you some clothes." She opened the closet next to the window and pulled out a matching pair of sports bra and underwear. Then she grabbed a pair of army green harem pants and a black tank top. "You can have these, they don't look good on me anyway."
"Thank you."
"Oh, the hot water is closest to the wall and the cold is the furthest from the wall. It'll take a while for the water to heat up." She said as she bundled the clothes and threw them at me.
"I'll be out in a min." I'm glad she's a nice person. If I were still on the ship they'd want me to pay for the shower.
Once inside the bathroom, I caught a glance at myself in the mirror. Thankfully, I still got my thick thighs and my hourglass shaped body. I thought I'd lose it from how much I was starving on the voyage over here. Last time I weighed myself I was 117, I used to be 125. Although, 117 is a healthy weight for my height. At 14 I grew to be 5'2 and haven't grown since, now i'm stuck short for the rest of my life.
Damn, I look a fuckin mess." I muttered, looking over at myself in the mirror. "Ow!" My fingers got caught in a knot as I tried to comb through my dirty blonde hair. It's knotted at the ends and looks a bit greasy. To my surprise, it actually grew past my shoulder blades. I managed to part my hair to the left, barely covering my eyebrow piercing.
I didn't even notice that my nose was red until I parted my hair. "When did I get that?" I lightly scratched my nose. "Oww." The touch left a burning feeling where my finger was.
I remember my mom saying something about having very sensitive skin when it comes to sun exposure. Then again, she's as white as a ghost. I, however, am not as white as a ghost. I have a fair skin color and look tan compared to her. I just wish I had her eyes, she had the prettiest blue eyes that only radiated love and kindness. I have a large pair of grey-hazel eyes that, with the help of my chubby cheeks, make me look younger than I am.
"Hmm?" The right side of my face is blurry. I stepped forward and wiped the mirror.
It was steam, that means the showers ready!
Leo Albin
Carplis, Colony Planet 287.
Zora's place
3300 AD
"Are you alright in there?" Zora asked. "Yea, just getting dressed." I already had on the underwear and sports bra. "I threw away your old clothes because they're pretty much done for."
"Ok!" I yelled out as I put on the clothes she gave me. When I walked out of the bathroom, Zora was sitting on the couch drinking coffee as she scrolled through the news posted on her holographic screen.
"Thank you for letting me use your shower."
She looked up from the screen. "Wow. Who are you and what are you doing in my house? The person from before looked entirely different." She joked.
Zora bent over and tossed a pair of dark brown greek sandals by my feet. "I didn't have any extra shoes to spare so I hope you don't mind sandals. Hopefully we wear the same size." They were a bit tricky to put on because of the weird design, but they looked nice once I figured out how to put them on. They stop at my ankle and zipped up in the back.
"They fit."
"I thought they would, we both have some small feet. I'm a size 6 in womens and 5 in boys, incase you don't know what size you are." She set her coffee down on the table and stood up. "You should look out the window. It's quite the view."
Zora moved the curtain. By the looks of it, her place is on the outer edge of the city. "Aren't there usually birds flying around a city?"
"Yea, you're right. There's usually a lot of Kri flying around in the sky. Kri are these flying bird/monkeys. They sing, puff their chest out, and fluff their head feathers up to look like a mohawk when they're trying to find a mate. They're either blue with some pink, or vice versa. I don't know what happened to them today, they're usually all over the city."
A couple large buildings sat outside the city a few miles out. The hangar door and the hospital sign is the easiest to spot from here. Although, the hangar door was left wide open and unguarded.
I jumped when Zora rested her hand on my shoulder. "The building to the left is the hospital and the gigantic building on the right is the hangars for military ships. The labs are underground."
This place is overcrowded, so why is there no-one outside? How can she not notice how quiet it is over there?
"We're on an overpopulated planet and no-one is outside the hospital. No patients going in or coming out. No guards patrolling the grounds. No pilots or mechanics in the hangars. What's goin on?" I asked, an all-too-familiar sense of danger making itself known in my gut. Zora shook my shoulder. "Stop being paranoid. A lot of people here can't afford medical, so they take care of each other."
"So they take care of heart attacks, internal bleeding, and diseases without medical equipment? This place is overcrowded, how can there not be at least a few people over at the hospital?"
"Well-" Zora paused, fixated on something outside.
Past the city and labs, somewhere in the horizon, there's a firework in the shape of some kind of symbol. It could barely be seen from where I stood. "You guys just shoot off fireworks whenever?" Zora lightly shook her head. "No, the people here only shoot off fireworks on holidays. I've never seen a glyph like that before." Zora stated, looking confused and slightly concerned.
A sudden movement on the ground caught my eye. Dozens of large black creatures with spiked tails ran from the hangars towards the city. They easily cleared the security fences, some were jumping over and others dug under.
"What are those things?" I asked, turning to Zora. Her head shot down to look, but she never answered.
"Oh my god." Zora's whisper was so quiet that I almost didn't hear her. She was staring out the window, pale and horrified. Her hands covered her mouth as tears ran from her eyes. Whatever those things are, they're attacking people.
Right in front of our building, a mother screamed as her children were pried from her arms. Her children were being dragged back to the labs as the mother was stabbed through her stomach with a spiked tail. With a seemingly effortless motion, the thing lifted her up and casted her body aside. Her children screamed as she skidded a few feet before tumbling to a stop. She didn't move after that, she was perfectly still.
I grabbed Zora's arm, but she seemed to be stuck on the creature. "Please tell me this is some really elaborate and fucked up welcome home yours!."
The thing stood on its hind legs, arched its elongated head back, and let out an ear piercing screech. Then it jumped onto our building and started to climb up the wall. It climbed up two floors before breaking into a window. It wasn't long until the rest followed.
Zora snapped out of her frozen state and grabbed me by my wrists. "Listen. W-we need to grab-. There's some emergency kits in the hallway. I'll go grab them while you get some supplies together. We-we need to leave!" Zora turned to run but I stopped her. "You can't go out there they're in the hallway!" She put her hand on my shoulder. " I'll be right back. There's a bag in my closet and a pulse rifle under the futon. It has a loaded clip in it so handle it with care, and don't point it at anything you're not going to shoot. You know how to shoot a pulse rifle, right?"
"Yea."
"One more thing. If I don't make it back in 15 minutes, or one of those things breaks into this room, you need to take the pulse rifle and get to one of the ships in the hangars. If there aren't any ships in the hangars then try the landing pads." She rubbed the side of my arm with her thumb.
"If one of them break in I can just kill it with the pulse rifle."
"No! The pulse rifle is only if you absolutely have to use it. If you can run, then run. Don't waste the ammo because that's all I got."
"Then what's the pulse rifle even for?"
"Last means of Defense." Then she turned out into the hallway, leaving me alone.
Zora Sheath
Carplis, Colony Planet 287.
7th floor, Sythes hotel
3300 AD
I left Leo in the room where it's the safest. I'm responsible for her now, that means I have to put myself in harms way in order for her to get a fair chance of living past this.
The hallway was empty, for now. Screams and the sound of explosions came from all over. The smell of blood and bodies filled my senses. With my heart racing and blood pumping, I ran to the emergency kit holder by the stairway. "Fuck, the glass doors locked." What am I going to use to break open this damn glass? I could break it with my fist, but I might get cut. What if these things smell blood. Could they?
One of the room doors squeaked open, and I started to walk to it. It's an insane idea, I'll admit. Definitely not one of my better ones.
*Hissss.*
One of those things is in that studio, but from what I can see with my back against the wall, there's a flashlight in there. It's next to a chair in front of a cabinet, not so far from the door. I could use that to break the glass and get the kit. I don't own a flashlight and we really need one for when it gets dark, or for really dark places. This planet has two suns so it doesn't get dark a lot, but there is a 12 hour span where it does get dark. We will need the flashlight then.
I froze with my hand on the door. I have to go in there, but everything else is telling me to run. Oh well, looks like everything else is smarter than me. "One, two… Go." I forced myself to stand in the middle of the doorway and open the door. The alien had its back turned towards me, and as far as I could tell, it had no idea I was here. I gotta hurry while it's distracted.
Tip-toeing my way across the room while keeping my eyes peeled on that mother fucker is a challenge to say the least. It's so terrifying to look at. So much that I kept my back on the wall and held my breath. It was holding a guy up by his face and looked like it was kissing him. The hell is it doin that for?
I jumped when my foot knocked the flashlight over. I went to pick it up, but stopped when a clear substance dripped on my hand. I touched it with my other hand, squishing it with my thumb and index finger. It feels like glue but looks like saliva. The fuck is it? Wait, it couldn't be. I looked up to see an exoskeletal abdomen.
*Hisssss*
"AHHHHCKK!"
It picked me up by my throat and held me against the wall as it's second mouth grazed my face, like it was smelling me. It was judging me for something. "Please -Cough- Let me -cough cough- Go." It's grip is too tight, I can barely breathe. The creature hissed again as it poked its tail against my stomach. "No, plea-Uhhck." I can't even scream. I never imagined the pain I would go through if I had a tail stabbed through my stomach and out my back, but if I did, I would have been nowhere near the amount of pain. What was even more sinister about this creature, is that the motion seemed effortless to it. Like its tail is a heated knife and I'm the butter.
Darkness started to cloud the corners of my vision as I grabbed the tail that's stabbed through me. The creature now held me up by only its tail. It brought me close to its face and opened its mouth to show me its pearly white teeth. Then it threw me with an enraged screech. I flew through the room and heard glass break. The feeling of falling came soon after, but like everything else, it was slowly numbing away.
I hope Leo wasn't lying about knowing how to use that pulse rifle. She's going to need it.