Part 11
"Ezra," Asa called as he walked into the stone building, and behind him Dylan, Beka and Rhade cautiously stepped inside.
"Asa," Ezra lost her smile when she saw the three strangers with Asa. "You have company."
"Found em, matched our own, so thought we'd complete the set," Asa casually remarked preoccupied with putting the box of alcohol on the floor, and missing his wife's expression. "So go and get Harper, let's reunite them."
"Asa, we need to talk," Ezra frowned, as she nervously glanced at the strangers, so much bigger than Harper.
"What happened?" Asa guessed, putting his hands on his hips and now looking at his wife and seeing her concern. "This house ain't that big, if the kid was here he'd be out here already."
Dylan, Beka and Rhade exchanged concerned glances, as Ezra attempted to explain.
"He woke up disorientated, maybe with fever, or the other," she began quietly. "Hashim had come over to see if we had any more of that stuff," Ezra pointed with disgust towards the bottles. "When Seamus saw Hashim, expecting to see you, he must have panicked, next thing I know he just ran, Hashim gave chase but he was too quick, I don't know where he's gone or why," she finished, and stood uneasily in the silence that followed.
"I see," Asa simply said after a few moments, showing confusion. "That fever must have been worse than I thought," he offered to the others.
"Or he's had too much of that stuff," Ezra pointed to the box once more. "We've seen it before, drives people crazy."
"Lies," Asa dismissed quickly. "That 'stuff' is the only thing keeping this place going!"
"Harper likes a drink but he's not stupid," Beka added with worry. "My money is on his weak immune system, and the fever doing this."
"I tried to stop him, but he was barely registering," Ezra stated, showing concern but deep down she was frantic with concern that they'd discover the truth and not believe her.
"We need to find Harper," Dylan interjected. "If he is ill, delirious or needing some of that," Dylan glanced at the box. "Then being alone right now is not the ideal situation for him."
Asa turned to Dylan and nodded his head to agree. "He can't have gone far, lets just hope he does still have his wits about him not to stray across the borders," he hinted, and then turned to his wife. "How long has he been gone?"
"No more than half hour," Ezra lied, knowing it was closer to an hour.
"Let's go," Asa gestured and the three strangers left the building, leaving Ezra to sigh in relief, and hope that Harper would never be found, she couldn't begin to imagine what Asa might do if he ever found out about her cheating on him.
Harper stopped and leant against a stone wall for support, every street looked the same, every building looked cold and uninviting, and in near darkness Harper had to admit he was hopelessly lost and alone. Desperate for a drink of any kind, still tasting blood in his mouth, Harper struggled on but not knowing what he was hoping to find. On his own again, he considered, living on his wits, and then he frowned. He needed to find the others he finally decided, this wasn't his life anymore, he'd left this stupid existence behind many years ago for a reason, it was no longer all about him and his survival, he was different now and he knew he needed Beka and the others around him.
"Need a drink, stranger?"
Harper spun around, and saw a young Edenian male offering a bottle, casually leant against a wall, stood outside one of the many stone buildings. The young man had now caught sight of his appearance, and Harper guessed he looked a mess judging by the kid's expression, with blood and dirt caking his face after his run in with Hashim.
"It's ok," Harper returned dismissively, aware of the effects that stuff had had on him, mixed with the fever. "Thanks," he added, although deep down he knew he would love to quench his thirst.
"You look as though you need some," the young guy continued, maybe seeing in his expression that he wanted a drink. "You don't look well, you should rest and have some drink."
"Had too much of that stuff already," Harper explained, and turned to move on, knowing he had to keep moving to have any hope of finding the others.
"Well at least stay and rest, it's getting late to be wandering around, especially in the state you're in, and there's plenty of room back here," the guy offered.
"Stay with you?" Harper frowned unsure of the kid's intentions and persistence, before turning back to the guy. "Seriously, it's ok, I don't want to intrude."
"Hey, you found one of the aliens," a female voice then spoke up, and Harper raised his eyebrows on seeing a young women join the man, and then another appeared on the other side of the guy. "You have invited him to stay with us, right? He needs to stay with us; we can't let him walk the streets!"
"How many of you are there, back there?" Harper asked with surprise, showing more interest now.
"Six of us live here," the boy answered. "Plenty of room for a seventh."
"I could do with some rest," Harper shrugged, the idea beginning to appeal more as he partly smiled at the girls, suddenly feeling weary with the suggestion of rest. "And company," he added, hesitantly.
"Where are your friends, the other aliens?" the second girl asked.
Harper shrugged. "I don't know, I was separated after we got here, I'm always getting into trouble," he gestured awkwardly to his neck to show them the kind of trouble he'd had.
One of the girls moved forward to look more closely at the damage for herself, and feeling uneasy with the sudden attention, Harper backed away slightly. "Look, its ok, I'll be fine," he stressed, and continued backing away.
"You're hurt, who did this?" the other female spoke, looking at Harper's bloodied face. "Come on, we'll protect you if you stay, you don't have to be afraid."
"I'm not afraid, I just don't want to intrude," Harper protested lightly.
The male moved forward, and before Harper could protest he put an arm around the human's shoulders. "The name is Buz, and you are now our guest, our people invited you here and we're going to play host, maybe a bit late I know but it's the thought that counts," Buz smiled, as he walked Harper towards their home.
"My name is Tarah," the first female offered. "And this is my sister Junia."
"Great to meet you," Harper offered, feeling a little pressured as he was ushered into the building. "My name is Harper," he offered.
"People, gather, we have a new member to our collective," Buz announced proudly. "This is Harper," he introduced, as Harper stood uneasily for a moment.
"Looks kind of freaky with that strange hair," a seated guy offered, as Harper glanced around the room, finding three more lounging Edenian males in front of him, all drinking from the familiar bottles.
"Our very own alien," Buz agreed with an amused smile, and Harper joined in the spirit with a smirk of his own.
"He's not one of us," another of the seated males argued. "We didn't invite him or his freaky friends here."
"Zal, yes we did, remember that meeting, we all raised our hands?" Buz prompted. "We drank our drink?" he further prompted.
"Ah," Zal turned back to Harper. "I remember now, that was cool."
Buz frowned at Harper, to suggest Zal wasn't the brightest in the group. "Sit yourself down, have a drink, join our happy band of hangouts."
"So you just hang around, no family or anything?" Harper sat down, the group he had joined looked no older than late teens early twenties, and from what he understood of this community it was a little odd to find a group of 'kids' like this, living alone.
No one answered for a moment, as Harper accepted a bottle, even though he was hesitant about resuming his drinking so soon after quitting, he was really desperate for something to quench his thirst.
"We only have each other, our parents are all fools," Zal finally spoke for the group, almost spitting his words with disgust. "Soon as we were old enough, we came here, where the real folk live."
"You mean you weren't here before?" Harper checked, not that confident with only a basic understanding of how things worked in Edenia.
"Our parents are Kenan worshippers, too scared to oppose him, they all live amongst the Haves, happy and safe," Tarah explained, now seated with her sister on the floor.
"So you chose to live like this?" Harper asked, beginning to find a new respect for the kids.
"Yeah," Zal smiled. "More drink over this side, less hassles."
"Less food too," Tarah shrugged.
"But more spirit," Buz quickly added. "Just because we've lived amongst the Haves, it didn't make us better or this situation better over there," he continued.
"Kenan scares us, we don't know what his actions might do to the future of this place, we don't want change, a lot of these people do not want change, we we're happy as things were," Tarah insisted with passion.
Harper frowned, and then sighed. "I do know what will happen, I know what's out there, all too well," he shrugged, avoiding eye contact.
There was silence in the room now, as attention focused on Harper who seemed reluctant to continue.
"Bad stuff," Harper offered finally, feeling the perspiration falling down the side of his face from the lingering fever.
"Please, we need to know what is out there," Junia spoke quietly, but joined Harper by his side, taking his arm into her own. "We can't begin to understand until we know the truth."
"I envy you all, you know that?" Harper almost sneered, taking a deep breath and looking upwards. "You just don't know what is out there, maybe its better that way," he explained.
"If it's so bad, why are you in this Commonwealth, I hear they go looking for trouble," one of the males spoke up, who had remained quiet before.
Harper offered a confused expression. "I don't know any other way of life, because of what I've seen and experienced, I can't walk away and live in ignorance," he stated. "You guys, you all still have a chance to not be like me," Harper tried to explain. "I want to help," he then added.
"So tell us," Junia persisted.
Harper just smiled. "OK, I tell you what I can, but what do you know already? I mean you got a message to us, you can't be that ignorant of the universe."
Harper watched as the six young adults exchanged uncertain glances, before Buz, who appeared to be their leader of sorts, spoke up.
"We only know rumours, information beyond those walls is difficult at best," Buz offered with a shrug, and he stood up to pace the floor. "We've heard of demons, fur and sharp teeth, rip you to shreds and beasts with spears for arms," Buz gestured to his forearms to make his point. "We heard of a great man, fighting the odds to defeat the bad, and other stuff like talking rats, fish, all manner of nonsense I bet," he then smiled, partly embarrassed. "We must seem pretty lame to you, to believe this stuff."
With a smirk, Harper could only shrug. "Maybe it would be funnier if it wasn't true," he spoke with seriousness.
"It's true?" Junia asked, fear lacing her words, as she held Harper's arm tighter.
"Those demons with fur and sharp teeth, they are called Magog," Harper now spoke with fear in his voice. "My big time worst nightmare, and they do rip you to shreds, and it hurts like hell, but not only that, no way, these monsters then infest you with their eggs, so you become living incubators to more of their kind, that then kill you very painfully when born," he stressed, losing himself to his anger for a moment.
"Sounds terrible," Junia simply said.
"It is, I've lived in fear of them for most of my life," Harper spoke with calm.
"How did you escape them?" Zal asked.
"Who said I did?" Harper glared for a moment at Zal.
"The fact you're alive telling us this story," Zal showed some attitude, before casually gulping down some more of his drink.
Harper took a larger gulp of his drink before answering. "A couple of years back the Andromeda, our ship, was overrun by Magog," he frowned, with the memories coming back to taunt him. "They took me and another ship mate, Tyr, to their ship, the World Ship, which is so big it has its own sun," Harper stressed and used his hands to demonstrate the size.
"Its own sun?" Buz questioned. "It must be the size of a planet," he added.
"It is, several in fact," Harper agreed.
"So what happened, how'd you escape?" Junia asked with concern.
"Dylan Hunt came back for me, and Tyr, but I like to think more for me, being his super genius engineer," Harper smirked, trying to lighten the now tense mood.
"Dylan Hunt, he's one of your friends, right? He's here in Edenia?" Buz checked, and saw Harper nod his head.
"So you were saved, before these monsters hurt you?" Tarah spoke up.
Harper had to laugh. "I don't remember much, other than the blood and rags, that used to be my clothes," he struggled, looking away for a moment, realising he had never really spoken about this before with anyone, no one had every asked him to talk about it. "And discovering I was a father to a handful of eggs," he finished patting his belly, and took more of the drink to try and calm his emotions.
"I don't get it, you should be dead," Zal offered. "If what you say is true," he then stood up sharply. "Unless you have those things inside you still," he panicked, backing away, and causing the others to show concern.
"Relax, I'm clean, it's just me and a very empty starving stomach," Harper quickly assured them. "We figured a way to get rid of them, a risky almost cost me my life way, but the alternative was a gruesome death anyway, so I took that chance, and here I am; that's all you need to know."
"OK, so what about these other monsters, with the spears for hands?" Buz asked.
"Nietzscheans," Harper corrected. "They don't have spears for hands, they have bone blades that extend from their forearms."
"I've heard of them," Tarah spoke up eagerly. "They are like you, but better," she gestured to Harper.
"Gee, thanks," Harper sneered mockingly.
"I mean, one of you, your kind, and one of the aliens who came with you, he was called a Nietzschean by some of the elders," Tarah explained.
"Rhade, yeah, he's a Nietzschean, or uber as I prefer to call them, easier on the tongue," Harper stated, and glanced at Junia, who still held his arm as she sat by his side.
"If they are so bad, why do you hang out with them?" Zal asked.
"One out of a very very bad batch," Harper stressed. "Rhade is different, he wasn't brought up as a Nietzschean in the way the dirty bastards Nietzscheans were brought up," Harper explained passionately. "Those DB ubers, they were the ones who," Harper paused, taking a deep breath. "They were the ones who took everything away from me," he finally finished.
"Tell us," Junia softly spoke.
"They killed my family," Harper stood up, moving Junia's arm from his own. "That's all you need to know."
"We need to know more," Junia persisted.
"Well tough," Harper snapped, taking another gulp from his bottle. "I could sit here telling stories all night, it won't change a thing!"
The silence once again filled the room, and it hit Harper that his tone had been wrong, as he saw Junia back away, and disappear into the back room, whilst the others looked on unsure.
"I'm sorry," Harper sighed heavily. "Look, we'll talk more, maybe tomorrow, right now I feel ready to drop," he spoke and took a few steps before being hit by a dizzy spell that almost cost him his footing.
"Hey," Tarah stood up quickly to help Harper balance. "We shouldn't have pushed, you're sick, you need to rest and we did offer you that," she stressed, and she guided him towards the back, taking his bottle of drink from him and giving it to Buz.
"It's the drink," Harper offered tiredly. "It does this to me, its strong stuff," he remarked but saw Tarah smirk. "Not that I can't handle it, I'm just a little off colour, so its, you know," Harper attempted to recover some pride.
"Well sleep it off," Tarah suggested and gestured to the orange blanket Junia had prepared for Harper, and now gestured to him to rest.
"Thanks," Harper partly smiled at Junia, as he settled down. "And sorry for earlier, I just have some issues about my past, I shouldn't have snapped at you."
"It's ok," Junia offered, and got to her feet. "Now rest," she stated as she moved to the far corner, where her sister was already settling down. Harper watched as the young woman settled down, and then he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
TBC