Hey guys an gals GhostNobody here with an apology to make to you all, an eagle eyed reader so a big thank you to wisekyuubi she or he just noticed that I skipped over chapter 24 going from 23 to 25 which means you all missed out on a key piece of the story, I'm sorry guys this was an over sight on my part for having way too many chapters in my foc manager at once, I run about 3 chapters ahead of you all at any point and they're in process of being beta'd or edited and I believe I simply hit the button on the wring one come publishing day, so without further day an a heathy serving of embraessment here is chapter 24.
Sorry guys.
GhostNobody
Chapter 24: Special Delivery.
"I feel like an evil ice cream man!" Picasso called down to Zachee as she drove, they weren't headed to the hospital she had been at, but another one on the other side of the city that she had been working in conjunction with, there had been a higher military presence there after the outbreak to try and protect the large virology unit, in fact, she was supposed to have been transfered there herself, but shit happens, right?
"I thought all ice cream men are evil?" she called back up as she weaved around the abandoned vehicles, they'd managed to lose the majority of their pursuers already, they had drawn quite a crowd too and had probably started a mass movement across the city.
"Good point, mind you, I do think you'd probably look rather cute in a little pink and white outfit, handing out ice creams from a little hatch in your van, doc, you know the type, the ones that always have a coffee maker in them in the back that if you pretend to be short enough you can make the pretty Scalathor bend down to serve you and you can use the coffee machine like a mirror to get a glimpse of her cute tail," Picasso called down, making Zachee flush, she knew he was only teasing her and being playful, she'd learned that Picasso had quite a dirty sense of humor and, to be honest, she was actually rather glad of it as it was helping to keep her mind off things outside their little armored van.
But Zachee could give as good as she could get, "Yeah, I know the type, they're similar to the ones where, if you angle the rear view mirror just right, you get a rather nice view of the human manning the turret, Hey! Is there something following us!?" she said, exclaiming at the end, and Picasso snapped around with his Smartgun and panned it back and forth sweeping his motion tracker too.
"Where? I don't see anything?" he asked, sounding confused, Zachee grinned to herself as she watched his rear end packed into that flexible armor swaying back and forth, boy, she bet he had buns of steel under that metal.
"False alarm, must have been the wind, but, on a prettier note, I know why they call it a tail gunner now," she said, grinning to herself, Picasso suddenly clicked to what had just been done to him and he laughed, now that she was coming out of her shell, the doc was nearly as bad as Spike for jokes, just as well, she was cute.
"Very funny, doc, very funny, but you ever hear the story of the little Scalathor who cried wolf?" he asked, Zachee looked at him thoughtfully, despite him not being able to see her.
"No, why? What happened to her?" she asked curiously.
"Well, the story goes that there was this pretty little Scalathor who had a farm, now, she would get bored from time to time so she hit on an idea, she ran into town yelling wolf! Wolf! And all the town's people came running, but there was no wolf, so they all left, unhappy that they'd been tricked, now the pretty little Scalathor thought this was really funny, so she did it two or three more times and each time the town's people came running, but, as always, there was no wolf, but then one day, there really was a wolf, so the pretty Scalathor started yelling Wolf! Wolf! but this time the town's people had had enough of her games and no one came, so she was all alone, just her and the big bad wolf," he said.
"So what happened, did he eat her?" Zachee asked curiously.
"Well, as it turned out, the big bad wolf actually had a thing for pretty Scalathor girls and this one was the prettiest one he'd ever seen, so he dragged her back in the house and had his wicked way with her all night long and the pair lived happily ever after, the end," Picasso said, and out of nowhere, Zachee burst out laughing, she'd been expecting a joke about a different type of eating her but that kinda caught off guard a bit and it made her laugh.
"You like that one eh?" Picasso called down.
"Yeah it was a good one, but in reality, if they were on my world it would have been the Scalathor girl dragging the big bad wolf off and having her wicked way with him all night long," she said, and Picasso laughed out loud.
"Sounds like hell of a place to live," he said, and Zachee's smile and mirth vanished like smoke in the wind as her memories of home came back.
"Yeah, you could say that, but not in a good way, especially if you're male, there have been improvements in the last few years, but it's still not up to scratch with the rest of the galaxy, even male tourists have to be careful on my world, there have been abductions of males of other species, which threatened to cause major diplomatic incidents between us and the other races, if they were not returned immediately to their loved ones and families then my race had to pay major compensation to families for both emotional and physical distress caused to them, even now the practice of trying to buy non Scalathor males from their families is still on going after the government set a penalty of death on anyone who kidnapped any male of any other race, the male equality movement has thankfully been making major leaps and bounds to secure equality and freedom, but I don't believe we're there yet," she said very very sadly.
Picasso didn't make a joke about this as he could hear her genuine sadness, it touched him because it meant that, like Moodstone, she truly was one of the good ones, someone who believed in the true equality of all sentient life, regardless of gender, race, creed, color or any factor, all that was required was you were a living, breathing, thinking creature, which included synthetics, because they were independently thinking creatures too.
The silence was kinda awkward and Zachee felt an instant need to fill it, "You know, I visited the Felenis home world once?" She said.
"Yeah? I've heard it's beautiful," Picasso said, glad of the break in the silence.
"It's incredible, its such a place of beautiful tranquility, they live in such harmony with one another, it's truly incredible, they have this system that kinda acts like reservations for all the different genus types so they don't lose their racial identity, but there is no law to prevent any Felenis from having a relationship from any other, it's only so that each of the sub genus are treated equally, so each of them can have their own traditions respected and remembered, but all the major cities are fully integrated, it's truly an amazing system, plus, it works well with all the diverse eco system their planet has, like, for instance, in the polar regions you find white fur snow tigers and certain snow lepords, in the hotter regions you find panthers and lions, in the jungles you find red tigers and on the plains you find cheetahs, obviously I'm just generalizing as there are a whole plethora of sub genus," she said.
Picasso was thoughtful and then something struck him, "Hey, how come all of their sub genus have humanized names? How come they call themselves after the earth species of big cats?" he asked.
"You know, I wondered this very thing once, so I asked an esteemed colleague of mine at the very hospital we're going to, she told me that when the Felenis met humanity and visited your world and saw the utter coincidental similarities between themselves and your big feline species that intrigued them and when they found out the names you had for your big cats they liked the names better and thought it would help them to integrate better with humanity if they had a sort of human familiarity already in place, so they adopted the names, though trying to pronounce their original names in the Felenis language is like trying to tie a knot in your shoe laces with your tongue while blindfolded, it's an incredibly hard language that's more chirps and chitters than anything else," she said, and Picasso laughed and nodded.
"Yeah one of the only times I've heard Whisper speak her own language was when me and her were working out in the gym on board our ship and she just pulled off this utterly incredible escape from one of my holds and she did this back flip after running up a wall and flipped over my head, when she landed she went to run forwards and she caught her little toe on the very edge of a power cycle next to the mat, oh boy, I've never heard anything like it in my life, I don't know how many different names she called that cycle, but none of them sounded good, it kinda sounded like someone taught a cricket Japanese and then sped it up and threw some Chinese in on top just to fuck shit up," he said, laughing at the memory.
Zachee smiled for a moment at the mental image but then a flush of something weird ran through her and it was hot like fire, it took her aback for a moment, jealousy? She felt jealous of Whisper because she got to train with Picasso on the mats? Suddenly an image flashed into her mind like a happy day dream of her dressed in nothing but a dark smile and him the same wrestling on the mats of his ship, they rolled around each trying to pin the other and trying to lock each other up, she was getting him all hot and sweaty and all that wonderful human sweat and skin oils were rubbing off all over her scales making them shine and smell entirely of him, of his masculine human musk, but her litheness and strength won the day and she was able to flip him over onto his back and pin him down on his back, with his legs wrapped in hers, his hands pinned above his head, locked in hers at the wrists, slowly, she lowers her head to the helpless captured human and she begins to wind her horn into his hair, pulling his head to hers, pulling his face into line with hers and making it so he can't get away or avoid her eyes or her lips and cementing her claim, before she adjusts her hips, lifts her tail and lowers slowly down, down, down, and that's when she hit a car.
The loud bang and screech of metal from the parked car hitting the ram scoop on the front of the van and the heavy jolt snapped her out of the happy day dream in an instant and replaced the happy warms with cold fear, "Jesus, doc!" Picasso yelled as he was thrown about in the turret.
"Sorry, it was err in the way, at least we know the ram works now!" she called back, her voice thick with embarassment, boy, that had been a fucking close one, no more daydreams till they were parked up and inside out of the shit storm.
"Yeah, well, can we try to go around the damn things? Not exactly seat belts up here," Picasso moaned as he re-adjusted himself in the turret.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Zachee said, sounding as embarrassed as she felt, one little day dream and she'd nearly crashed the damn van, but, oh boy, what a day dream, she couldn't ever remember having something that intense in her life, boy, these pretty humans could really bring out the beast in you when you didn't expect it, but now she focused and kept her eyes on the road, thank the great tree the traffic was light.
The ram scoop was a beautifully simple and brutally efficient thing when it came to the undead, it's wedge shape pushed them off to the sides, shoving them away from the vehicle while its razor sharp edges took off limbs and other parts, crippling the undead if it didn't outright kill by lopping off heads as they were knocked under it, at first, Zachee was utterly grossed out and nauseated by it, but after half an hour of driving through small crowds and evading large hordes she was becoming pretty desensitized to it all, she got the feeling this was what happened to combat soldiers like Picasso, it was no wonder they had such dark senses of humor, it was obviously a coping mechanism, one she had a whole new application for.
The level of devastation in the city varied massively, some areas looked like they'd been hit by heavy artillery, holes in every available surface, burnt out vehicles everywhere and military check points that looked like they'd been run over by a steam roller made of flesh and bone.
But others were utterly pristine, like something had just beamed every single living thing off the face of the planet and not left a single trace of them anywhere, in these areas there weren't even hordes, so it made them both wonder, where was everyone?
The hospital loomed into view, a huge white building with a giant red cross that ran the entire length of the building from the roof to the floor, in the parking lot outside there was a collection of military tents as well as a few vehicles all abandoned, including a tank.
Zachee pulled the van up in front of the hospital and put it into the car park hidden between the tents so nobody would be able to see it from the streets, Picasso climbed down from the turret and Zachee joined him in the cargo area, "Ok, doc, now, remember what I said, let me lead and you stay close and watch my back, keep your eyes open and stay as quiet as possible," he said as she checked her weapon and he checked his, she nodded and Picasso opened the back doors and the pair stepped down to the ground.
After her last hospital, this place felt positively serene, there was obvious evidence of battle damage in the halls, but no bodies, but there was blood here and there and barricades as well, they moved slowly with Picasso out in front, holding his large smartgun ahead of him, she stuck close to her guardian angel and, now that he was in battle mode he was all business, and it was very reassuring, the way he moved just oozed confidence and skill, every movement was controlled and fluid, every swing of his gun was proceeded by his sharp and watchful eyes, she was extremely glad to have him at her side, there was utterly no way she could have done this on her own.
"The virology lab is this way," she said in a quiet whisper, pointing with her gun off to their right, her other hand held a torch that Picasso had told her to keep off his face as he was using a form of night vision and it would blind him, he nodded and turned in one fluid movement, swinging the long smartgun around to cover the corridor.
"Where is everyone? I really don't like this, we haven't see a single person, living or dead, since we got here," he said slowly in a quiet voice.
"Personally, I'm grateful," Zachee said, Picasso nodded.
"I hear you, but it's making me creeped out, at least when you can see the fuckers you know where they are and can go around them or shoot them, this not knowing is killing me," he said as he stepped down the corridor, watching his motion sensors, other than he and Zachee he had absolutely nothing.
The virology lab was completely intact, there wasn't a single sign of damage, but it had been abandoned in a real hurry, that's when a bleep lit up on Picasso's scanner, he instantly balled up a fist and held up above his shoulder.
Zachee froze solid, her eyes locked on him for instruction, he moved in slow deliberate movements, heading across the lab towards the cold storage area at the rear with it's heavy airbrushed metal doors.
He pointed at the right hand door of the two and indicated the handle, Zachee nodded, getting his meaning, she stepped up and to the side while he faced the door head on with his hands on his weapon, he glanced at her, a look of steely determination on his face and nodded.
The door swung open with a hiss of released air and Picasso moved forwards in a rush, swinging the smartgun with him, "NO! Please don't shoot me!" a young voice yelled and, as Zachee stepped into the fridge, she saw small figure that Picasso had his gun trained on and her mouth fell open, "Oh wow, a Draconis! You're a Draconis!" she exclaimed, looking at the figure huddled in the corner trying to shield itself with it's white wings.
"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious, now, umm, can you stop pointing the cannon at me?" the figure said, lifting up it's white scaled head to reveal a truly breathtaking Draconis female.
She had scales as white as fresh snow, ruby red eyes with huge vertical slit pupils, two luxurious curved black horns that ran from the top of her head over the back of her neck, a small feminine snout and a long slender neck.
She was dressed in what appeared to be a police uniform, or at least that's what Zachee saw after she unfurled her wings from around herself and stood up, "Corporal Picasso, Spirit team six, and this is doctor Zachee Twisthorn, and you are?" Picasso said, lowering his weapon and looking at her in surprised awe.
"Shey, Shey Snowscale, Officer Shey Snowscale of the New Britannia PD, sector four, or rather I was, until all this shit," she said bitterly.
Then she turned her attention to Picasso and looked him up and down, Zachee swore she saw an approving smirk cross her mouth, "So, are you the rescue team?" she asked.
"Yeah, that would be us, ummm, don't take this the wrong way, but what are you doing in here?" Picasso asked.
"Taking my leave days, what do you think I'm doing? I got locked in when the damn door closed behind me while I was searching in here for medical supplies for my camp, we got two pregnant women and twenty people, I've been locked in here for a day and a half," she said, sounding utterly annoyed with herself.
Rather than take the piss out of her, Picasso latched onto the intel about her camp, "You have a camp of survivors?" he asked, and she nodded.
"Yeah, I just said that! Are you deaf or something? Four of us came here looking for medical supplies, the others obviously left by now," she said bitterly, Picasso looked annoyed at the hostility.
"Hey, what's with the aggression? We're here trying to help people like you, you see any other people pod dropping into a hostile zone filled with undead to help people?" he said, glaring her down.
Shey looked at him in utter surprise at the aggression in his voice, then looked kinda embaressed and downcast, "Sorry, I don't mean to be a tail hole, but I'm cold as hell, I get really grumpy when I'm cold, I apologise, that was really unprofessional," she said.
Picasso nodded, understanding, "Alright, let's get you out of here and you can warm up while we do our thing, we have a vehicle and we can get you back to your camp, then we can mark your location for retrieval as soon as we can get the air defences offline," Picasso said, now Shey looked hopeful and thankful.
"For real? You're going to get us out of here?" She asked.
Picasso nodded, "Well, that is the plan, yeah, first we're picking up some medical supplies for the doc here to be able to get her pretty tail in gear and study this thing, hopefully either develop a cure or possibly a vaccine, or just a good way of fighting it would work, but for that she needs equipment, or, more accurately, she needs equipment like this here in the virology lab, in fact, you being here is most fortuitous as it means you can help us carry some of the stuff out, then we'll help you get anything you need and even give you a lift to your camp, sound good?" he said.
Shey looked thoughtful and then stuck out her hand, "You got yourself a deal, human boy," she said, smiling, and Picasso raised an eyebrow but took her hand and shook it all the same.
"Alright, good, well then, let's get to work," he said, gesturing to the lab beyond the freezer, Shey nodded and walked past him, as she did, Picasso glanced at Zachee, who was sharing the same look as him, there was just something about her that she didn't like, and it went beyond the exotic good looks.
Shey was about 5.5 ft and slender but solid, graceful without even trying to be, when she walked, her long white tail seemed to just shimmy and sway with the roll of her hips, but her main defining feature were her large white wings, it was the major thing that set the Draconis apart from the Scalathor, though, technically, the two species were one and the same, they were kinda like a lion and a tiger, both big cats, but vastly different from one another.
"I've never seen a Draconis before," Picasso said softly to Zachee as they worked on collecting the gear that Zachee needed, she pointed the stuff out and the three of them carried it to the entrance of the hospital ready to be loaded onto the van, currently, Shey had just left carrying a case of growth medium and a load of petri dishes.
'They're basically Scalathor with wings, our races evolved on the same planet, in fact, we were one race once, but at some point in our evolution we split up, they developed wings to adapt to the mountains and high lands that they chose to live in and we developed the ability to breathe both air and water to adapt to our swamp like homelands," she said in a very matter of fact voice.
Picasso looked surprised at this little nugget of information, Zachee felt a whole barrage of Draconis questions coming, and why wouldn't he? Look at her, she was like silk compared to her sand paper, soft looking snow white scales, incredibly feminine features, two black horns! A tail to die for, and bloody wings! How could a regular Scalathor compete when compared to her?
"You can breathe underwater? That's freaking cool," he said, and Zachee felt herself being surprised again, she looked at him in confusion.
"Umm, yeah, not exactly useful in a place like this but, yeah, we have gills under our throat scales," she said.
"Moodstone has never mentioned that she could do that before, I can think of a million planets where that ability would come in seriously handy," he said, helping her hoist up a rather large microscopic scanner.
"Well, it's not something that really comes up in conversation really, well, unless the conversation happens to be what is the difference between a Draconis and a Scalathor," Zachee said, and Picasso snorted a laugh.
"Fair point," he said, and she noticed him glancing at the motion scanner that she knew his helmet contained from time to time as he walked backwards carrying the scanner.
"In fact, our societies are almost perfect parallels of one another, only difference between us is the topography and the wings really, when we developed space travel their entire culture left our home world for another one that suited them better, oh, and their females are even more aggressive than mine," she said.
"Yeah, I kinda noticed that, grumpy isn't she?" Picasso said, and Zachee laughed softly and shook her head.
"Umm, I didn't mean that kinda aggression, I meant sexually aggressive, my kind are bad, hers are worse, probably because the males can fly away I guess, it used to be a standing joke that, as a Scalathor male, if a female Draconis took a liking for you and you didn't like her back you might as well give up your lungs because there was no way you were breathing air again because you'd only be safe from her underwater, they're real persistent" she said.
Picasso snorted a laugh, "Can she breathe fire?" he asked, and now Zachee laughed and shook her head.
"Nope, no fire, just a fiery temper," she said, and he nodded.
"Good to know, so how come they're so rare then?" he asked.
"Because their people are xenophobes for the most part, most of the women on their world think that if they, like us, let our males leave their home world they'd be snapped up by the other races and then there'd be none left for them, it's selfish, narrow minded, and pathetic," Zachee said with obvious bitterness in her voice.
"You sound like you don't like her kind very much," Picasso said, Zachee sighed heavily.
"There's a lot of bad blood between our kinds, I mean, I cannot say that I have a personal problem with any Draconis as I've never met one before, just like you, but I know our history and obviously I don't know how much of it is colored by bias, but there are a lot of documented instances of violence between us, so yeah, it carries with it some, issues," she said.
A bleep on Picasso's scanner signaled her return and he gestured with his head to tell Zachee to be quiet and she nodded just as Shey came back in, "Boy, it feels good to be warm again," she said, stretching both her limbs, tail, and wings, causing them to flare out.
"I'm amazed that you managed to survive for a day and a half locked in that freezer," Picasso said, and Shey gave him a sly smile.
"They say we Draconis have fire in our blood," she said in a rather sultry sounding voice that set every one of Zachee's scales on edge, oh shit, she liked him, this was bad, really fucking bad.
"Seriously?" Picasso said, raising an eyebrow as they put the scanner down, then Shey snorted a laugh and punched him on the arm.
"Nah, I'm just yanking your tail soldier boy, my home world is cold, so we're just much better at handling it than our swamp dwelling sisters are," Shey said, shooting a smile at Zachee that made her scales bristle again, she'd known him all of five bloody seconds and she was already flirting with him, she didn't even know what he looked like without the helemt on, next thing she knew she'd be trying to pin him down and wind her horns in his hair, bloody tail lifting Draconis hussy.
"Huh, makes sense, I guess, same reason that your tail is thinner than Zachee's I guess, yours is developed for flying while hers is developed for swimming," he said thoughtfully, and rather observantly, Zachee found herself impressed at this and so did Shey, who's eyes widened in surprise.
"Exactly right, it seems your a rarity around here, a human with an eye for a good reptile when he sees one," Shey said, it definitely seemed that warming up had done her temper a world of good.
Picasso nodded, "Yeah I do like a girl with a nice, strong, wide cute tail, especially when it comes in blue, blue is my favorite color," Picasso said, making Shey's smile vanish and her shoot a glance at Zachee who was now smiling all over her face like she'd just found a Gralek steak on her breakfast plate.
Picasso had noticed something of an unspoke rivalry developing between these two and he decided to shoot it down quick before it became a problem, the last thing he needed was the two scaly girls fighting over what ever the hell it was that got their tails in a twist, as cool as it was to imagine them both naked and horn wrestling in a vat of cherry sauce he couldn't see that happening, so he decided to cut the sniping short, plus, it was true, he did like a wide tail, though, only since he'd met Zachee, though it was kinda odd really as she didn't have a wide bum, in fact, she had a small and increadibaly cute bum tucked under her wide spiny tail, her tail kinda reminded him of an alligators tail with it's fin like spines, plus it was a rich blue color, another technical truth, blue was his favorite color.
Shey just snorted and then a smile broke out on her face, "You know what human? You're alright, so many of your kind seriously don't know how to take a joke and your males get all freaked out the second they see a female who has the slightest hint of independent strength, it's nice to see at least some of you can hold your own, I think I'm going to like you," she said with a grin that made Zachee's scales bristle with jealousy.
Picasso smiled and nodded, "Well, can't compare you to any other Draconis as you're the first I've ever seen, glad to see that at least some of you decided to go and see the universe in all it's diversity and splendor," he said, and her smile actually widened pleasantly and warmly.
"Why thank you, that's really nice of you," she said.
"Alright, let's get the rest of the gear and get out of here, I really don't like hanging about in the open like this," Picasso said, and both of them nodded in agreement.
It took them another twenty minutes to get everything packed up, "Alright, is that the last of it?" Picasso said, pointing to the six cases, and Zachee checked her list.
"Yup, that's everything, plus what we need for the survivors, I want to do one last quick check to see if there are any other drugs that we could snag, but other than that we're good," she said, he nodded and hoisting his smartgun into its locked up position he lifted two of the black carry cases.
"Alright, I'll run these out, Shey, you mind helping the doc, and don't take too long alright?" he said, Shey nodded as she finished packing various kits into her personal bag, Picasso turned and headed out the door.
"Spirit team huh? Never heard of them," Shey said, glancing at Zachee.
"I think that's the point, they're a spec ops team, high end special forces made up of all the races, I've met their whole team, they're quite a bunch" she replied.
"Is he the only human on the team?" Shey asked, and Zachee shook her head.
"Nope, there's five humans, one Yautja, one Scalathor, and a Felenis, they're quite a team, Picasso and one of his colleagues, a human female called Ice, pulled me out of another hospital on the other side of the city after I barricaded myself in the labs there while I was trying to work on this thing," she said.
"I gotta say, he sure is an interesting one, never met a human who dosen't seem to have anything to prove before, I'm the only Draconic on the force and I'm surrounded by them all day long, but they all seem to have this machoism bullshit going on, it's like every one of them has to prove how much of an alpha male they are and fuck, does it annoy me most of the time, I mean yeah, it's like the exact opposite of home, which is exactly what I wanted, but it's like guys just settle down you know?" she said, and Zachee laughed and nodded.
"Believe it or not it's quite the same in the medical profession, a lot of the male doctors strut around like, what are those earth birds with the bright feathers on their tails...peacocks! Yes, like peacocks, utterly convinced that they are all knowing, used to make me laugh," she said, and Shey laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean! I just keep thinking to myself, god if you took a trip to my homeworld you'd wind up a sobbing wreck in five seconds flat, or be clinging onto the landing gear of the ship that dropped you there as soon as you saw what a real woman can do," she said, and Zachee snorted a laugh.
"But I got to give them credit, they definitely have some things right, I do like the way the good ones treat their females, there's a Yautja girl in our precinct and she's mated to a human guy and he's what she calls a romantic, every day he finds new ways to show her he loves her, and I mean all sorts of things, one day she came in and found that he'd had a custom set of boots made for her because of how long she's on her feet every day, he'd apparently seen what the standard issue boots were doing to her feet and went out of his way to have some made for her, and that was just one thing, I remember asking her how bad she had to scare him into doing something like that for her, she just laughed at me and shook her head, said he just did it because he loves her," Shey said, the disbelief in her voice was obvious.
"That's what human love is, why do you think so many of our males left when they had the chance?" Zachee said, Shey laughed and shook her head.
"Your males, not ours, women on our planet have them locked down tight, I mean, yeah, one or two have managed to escape, but it's bad there now," Shey said, Zachee felt a great sadness fill her heart.
"They don't deserve that, they deserve to be happy just like us, they get treated like slaves, beaten, raped, tormented and belittled, stolen from their families, and we wonder why they want to leave us?" Zachee said darkly, and Shey actually nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I kinda figured that shit out soon after I got here, I mean, I was just a little Draconis far from home and all filled with piss and vinegar being so far from home in the wide universe, on a human world filled with all these new things and ideas, so, there I was in a bar and I get to thinking, hey, I'm in a new place, I'm going to sample me some of the local delicacies, start scouting the bar for a male that I like the look of, spot this guy just sat in the corner chatting to a female human, thought to myself ahhh she ain't nothing I could easily take her, so I saunter over to the table point at the male and say, you come with me, then I look at the female and said i'm taking your male if he behaves himself and does as he's told I'll return him to you tomorrow in the same condition as he is now, I have never seen a male look so appalled in his life, he just looked at me like I'd gone crazy, the female jumps up and said 'touch my husband and I will tear those horns of yours off and feed them to you,' yeah, turned out she was some kind of martial artist, when I went to reach for the male she bounced my head off the table and when I woke up I was in the hospital, the nurse told me I got off lightly, apparently the guy I'd tried to take was a prize cage fighter and he'd have messed me up better than his wife did," Shey said, and Zachee snorted a laugh.
Shey shot her an irritated glance, "I'm sorry, but I have to say, serves you right, you're lucky they didn't try to have you done for attempted sexual assault or rape," she said, and Shey nodded after letting out a breath.
"Yeah, that's what the nurse told me, she was a Scalathor too, she gave me this book all about humans and told me to read it if I wanted to remain outside of a jail cell on this world, she said, 'this is not home, treat it like it is and you won't last five seconds here, humans and other races do not tolerate that shit,' so, I read the book, and I just felt like my mind had been blown, I mean, yeah, technically, the book was an interspecies dating guide, but I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, I just couldn't believe that we had it all so bloody wrong, suddenly thinking of home and the way we treat our males made me sick, that was ten years ago and I'm still single, but now, at least I've got my pride and dignity knowing I'm different and now I'm the one enforcing the laws, and you wouldn't believe how many of our kind I pick up for the very same shit that I pulled," she said.
"Ohh, I would, trust me, I would," Zachee said, nodding,
"Hey, umm, question, Picasso seems like a good open minded human and he definitely seems to appreciate a good reptilian girl, and you would not believe how fucking rare that is, ten bloody years and other than the odd drunken dalliance in a bar with a human with bloody thick beer goggles on who turns out to be a fucking ninja the next day when I wake up and find them fucking gone I'm still no closer to finding out what that book was all about, plus, from what I can see through that helmet of his, hot damn he's a pretty one isn't he? Don't see too many like that that aren't claimed already or aren't a massive peacocking tail hole, so, yeah, is he, ummm, single?" Shey asked, Zachee felt a cold sliver of ice run down her spike, followed but a hot rush of anger, she picked up her cases and swished her tail angrily.
"Not if I have a say in it," she huffed quietly, but Shey heard her and a look of surprise turned into a dark smile.
"I see, well, ok then, sister, may the best human hunter win, you just got yourself a rival, ha, just like the tales of old, Draconic versus Scalathor," Shey said with a confident grin, then, with a swish of her long white luxurious looking tail, she was off.
The pair of them headed for the exit carrying the last of their gear, Picasso was waiting near the vehicle scanning the car park, his body language was tense and they could both see him spinning on the spot like he was trying to get a fix on something, as they got closer they heard him speaking on the radio, "Picasso to Queen Bee, I need an ariel sweep of my area, or a satellite image, I got a real bad feeling down here that something ain't right, tell me what you get, over," he said, Shey looked at Zachee questioningly.
"The Spirit ship in orbit, it can't land to extract anyone because the air defences would shoot it out of the sky, so they came in on drop pods" Zachee said.
Suddenly Picasso went tense and spun on the spot, looking off towards the city itself, "Say again, how many do you count?" he said, then he spun towards the girls, "Roger that! We're on the move, track them for me, Queen Bee, Picasso out!" he said, then he grabbed the bags and slung them into the truck.
"What's wrong, Picasso?" Zachee exclaimed, feeling rather fearful now.
"We gotta go, like right fucking now!" he exclaimed.
"What's going on?" Shey asked, her hand going to her holster automatically.
"We got three gang vehicles coming in fast, heading right for us, can't confirm it's the West Side boys yet, but whoever it is is not friendly," Picasso said.
Why do you say that?" Zachee exclaimed as he rather quickly turned and bundled her into the truck, followed by Shey, before slamming the doors shut and bolt locking them and taking his position in the turret, "Shey, you drive, you're a cop so you have advanced driver training and you know where we're going, get us to your camp most ricky fucking tick, if they pick us up I'll keep the fuckers off us, hopefully it's only the three as I really don't want to be having a rolling fucking fire fight right through the centre of dead town," Picasso said.
"Picasso, answer me!" Zachee yelled as she jumped into the passenger seat and Shey took the driver's seat and started the engine,
"Because the Queen Bee got quite a good look at the vehicles heading for us, they appear to have bodies strapped to the outside, it's unknown if they're dead or alive at this time, all we do know is that the bodies appear to be moving, so it's either camo or bait, and I really don't like either idea, so, not hanging around to find out seems like plan of the hour to me," Picasso said in a quiet voice as Shey backed them out, Zachee's heart froze and her stomach clenched into a sickly knot.
"Oh," she said quietly.