Out of the Ashes Read online

  Our already hard lives were about to get a lot harder.

  Flashes of my dead cousins and uncle covered in blood entered my mind, and then images of my sickly pale and unmoving father and cousin took centre stage. It made me sick to think I broke my promise to Jerek when my father and Zee died in my arms from the Great Illness. I failed them; I failed my entire family, and I always believed that my walking the Earth alone was my punishment from the Almighty.

  I closed my eyes, forcing the images of the war from my mind. The war had only lasted a few weeks—just until the virus uploaded to the augmented’s collective chips could be rewritten—but within those few weeks, hundreds of millions had been slaughtered. Within those few weeks, families had been torn apart, and a divide in mankind had been created.

  Originals—the nickname for humans without augmentations—were on one side and the augmented were on the other, and to this day, that divide still stood tall, waiting for the other to step out of line.

  I focused on my task and thought calming thoughts to bring down my elevated heart rate. I didn’t want to make it easy for any augs who took up work as watchmen. My current heartbeat would act as a dinner bell to them. I focused on the building that could just as easily kill me as quickly as any aug. The roof, most of the walls, and parts of the floor were missing from the structure, so I needed to watch my step and look out for animals, and people, who could sneak up on me and attack.

  With an arrow in one hand and my trusty self-made bow in the other, I crouched down and moved towards an open space in the wall and looked through it. Bright white spotlights lit up the WBO; it gave away many of the positions of the patrolling watchmen on the forty-foot wall of the building. I curled my lip in disgust at the sight of them.

  Watchmen were worse than any mindless man, woman, or rabid animal. They were the humans with great power and could decide your fate with the snap of their fingers. There used to be a thing called the ‘Court of Law’ where those accused of crimes could go and fight their accusations for their freedom, but not anymore. If a watchman decided you were guilty of something, then you were guilty. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. They were supposed to be protectors of the innocents and a beacon for a new law and order, but many of them were monsters in uniform. To me and many others, they were the root of all evil.

  I’d take my chances with a pack of feral mutts before I’d ever trust a watchman.

  My head was low as I scanned the perimeter. I glanced at my surroundings every few seconds to keep an eye on things before I’d return my attention back to the WBO. My eyes searched the dark night sky for drones in the air, and when I saw none of the flashing red lights, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Drones were a nightmare to deal with in general, but at night-time, they were always going to cause the death of someone. They scanned everywhere for the heat signature of a living being. It gave up people’s positions to the watchmen even if they were hiding in the most unlikely of places. A traveller I met hours before told me that the power link for the drones and all operating weapons of the WBO had been shut off when the Maji arrived. No one knew why, and if someone did know, they weren’t letting the information slip.

  Normally, I wouldn’t care. Normally, I wouldn’t break away from the rules that have kept me alive all these years, but I had a gut feeling I had to come to the WBO and see for myself what was happening.

  So far, my gamble was turning out to be a complete waste of time … until something happened. I startled when a patch of dark a thousand or so metres to the left of the WBO compound lit up suddenly. I sucked in a choked breath. A few smaller spacecrafts came to life and lifted from the Earth’s surface, ascending to the starlit heavens, but that’s not what amazed me.

  The mother of all spacecrafts was sitting in the newly lit up area, and it was huge. I had never seen an alien spacecraft up close before. When I was younger, I saw a few of them from a great distance as they descended from space and docked at one of the many trading posts stationed across the planet. This spacecraft, however, was the largest I had ever seen. I could not believe the sheer size of it, and when white lights began to flash across the hull, I found myself staring at it, my mouth agape with awe.

  I was, by no means, an expert in vessels not of this world, but I had listened to my father discuss them from the moment I could understand him until the moment he died. Growing up, manmade craft engine halls were like a second home to me. I knew the ins and outs of your typical spacecraft and its engines. I wholeheartedly knew the functions of a destroyer vessel and what made up the interior and exterior of one, and this craft was most certainly a destroyer.

  Being an engineer had been my father’s trade since he was twenty. After years of hard work, he had been promoted to chief engineer for many different crafts from the Earth’s military fleet when they were docked. He was so good at what he did; he even assisted the aliens with their mechanical problems when they docked at one of the trading posts. Because of my father, I understood spacecrafts, and I appreciated them, which was why this very one blew me away.

  It was easily five thousand metres long, and from what I could see, the only colour anywhere on it was the blue glow of the reactor core—the heart of the spacecraft. That very reactor powered sixteen massive drive assemblies that would propel the ship at what must be an unmatched speed. Ten dorsal turrets mounted particle projection cannons in pairs, lending what I knew would be excellent firepower. Eight monster plasma blasters were on either side of the nose of the craft and a heavier alpha plasma down its centreline most certainly permitted the ship to deliver blistering damage to anything unlucky enough to be caught within firing distance … and those were just the weapons I could see.

  If only you could see this, Papa.

  Again, my eyes watered, but I rubbed them until the stinging threat of tears subsided. Apart from being in love with the crafts, my father was a space fanatic or ‘space freak’, as I liked to tease him in my younger years. He loved the other species and was fascinated with them. Their differences, their similarities, their history, their culture—everything. He loved it all. He was part of a small faction of humans who believed the other species had a right to exist just as we did. He always said, “No planet or race lays claim to the universe; it lays claim to us.”

  My father was a wise man, and if he were with me, experiencing a spacecraft of this magnitude up close and personal, he’d be beside himself with happiness. The emotion I felt at that moment distracted me, and that distraction was about to cost me dearly.

  When I heard softly creaked movements come from close by, I jerked away from the crack in the wall, reached back, withdrew an arrow from my quiver, and readied my bow. I heard a gruff curse then the sound of heavy footsteps began to pound up the stairs of the building I was in. It caused my heart to slam into my ribs as it thrummed in my chest.

  Watchmen.

  “Civilian female at HQ,” a muffled voice said. “Armed and dangerous. Alert the Maji of a possible attack.”

  Alert the Maji? My brow creased with confusion. Not alert the watchmen patrol?

  I took aim, steadied my breathing, and like a reflex, I released an arrow when I saw the head of a watchman breach the hole in the floor beneath the stairway. Not a second later, the arrow penetrated his exposed eye socket, and he dropped onto the stairway with a thud. It was only as my arrow pierced his skull that I realised he hadn’t worn a helmet, and he had no protection against my weapon. A yelp was heard after the watchman dropped then vile cursing followed.

  “She kill’t him!” a deep voice bellowed. “That fuckin’ whore kill’t Kiker!”

  The reality I had just killed a person did not sink in. Instead, stomach-churning fear did. If they weren’t going to kill me before, the watchmen surely would now that I had killed one of their own. I sucked in a breath, and with rapid speed, I released another arrow in warning. I didn’t wait around for the second watchman to call for backup or to come after me. I turned, and without thinking, I jump
ed from the first floor of the building. I turned midair and landed on my left side, almost instantly falling into a roll as I tumbled down the side of a ditch.

  Searing hot pain vibrated through my body, but I couldn’t pause to soothe away the aches because I had to get on my feet and get moving. I pushed myself to my feet with my right arm when I realised my left one was burning with pain and wouldn’t move. I looked down at it and saw the joint was clearly dislocated and the bone was possibly broken at the elbow. White dots splashed across the back of my eyes, and I had to close them to get control.

  Don’t think about it.

  I opened my eyes, reached for my bow and quiver, but then abandoned them when I saw they were in pieces and scattered around the ditch. I used my right hand to hold my left arm against my body as I scrambled up the mud bank and ran like the devil himself was on my heels. I bit down on my lip when each step caused excruciating aches to tear through my arm. Twice more, my vision was spotted with white dots, but I forced myself to continue running as the area I was in began to come to life with light that was betraying my position. Sheer determination to get away was the only thing that kept me moving, but it wasn’t enough.

  Less than a minute after I jumped out of the building and began running, I was tackled to the ground from behind.

  A scream of agony tore from my throat as fresh pain surged through my body, mainly from my left arm. I was flipped onto my back, and a quick glance downwards gave me a revolting picture. The bone of my forearm was snapped in two, and a prodding piece stuck out of my skin for all to see. All doubt was wiped from my mind—it was definitely broken. I turned my head to the side and promptly puked up my stomach contents. Not a second later, I was pulled up to my feet by my hair and forcefully shoved. I stumbled backwards away from the watchman who tackled me. I looked up at him and saw he was pointing an old-fashioned handheld gun at me.

  “This is for Kiker!”

  I closed my eyes and awaited my release from this prison sentence many called life.

  I’m coming home, Papa.

  A bang rippled through the air, but surprisingly, it was the gurgled male scream that startled me and caused my eyes to open. The watchman who was about to take my life was on his knees before me with a large gaping hole in the centre of his chest. It smelled like his flesh was burning, and from the slight puff of smoke that rose from his wound, I’d say a plasma blaster made the hole. I switched my gaze to his face and felt the blood drain from my own. His dark, panicked eyes were focused on me, but his mouth was agape, and blood was spewing from it like a river.

  “Help,” he choked out around the thick liquid before he fell forward.

  I jumped backwards as his face smacked off the ground with a sickening crack. His body twitched once, twice, then his movements ceased. I thought he was still breathing but quickly realised the hyperventilating rasps weren’t coming from him; they were coming from me. I lifted a shaking hand to my mouth and covered it as I stared down at the now dead watchman.

  I swayed from side to side as my pain and shock became too much for me. I focused my blurring vision dead ahead and made out six dark figures walking toward me. Six huge figures. When they stopped a few metres from me, they stared at me, and me at them. They were fully clothed in a black armour of some kind, and it only made them look that much more intimidating.

  The man in the front said something in a language that didn’t sound of this planet, and without thinking, I stammered, “Wh-what?”

  The man grunted and turned to his right and spoke to the person behind him in that same strange language.

  “No,” the man behind replied in strained English. “We’ve practiced for weeks; you have not. You need to learn how to speak the human languages to make this mission easier, just until we fit them with translators of their own. Do what I told you to do. Repeat what your translator says through your comm, and the female will understand you like you can understand me right now. I’m not responding to you anymore unless you use this particular human language.”

  With a defeated sigh, the large man turned back in my direction.

  “I sa-said,” he rumbled in a bizarre accent as he switched to an extremely choppy version of English, pausing every couple of words as if he was trying to form them as he spoke. “What ‘re … you ‘oing … out … ‘ere?”

  After he had spoken, he removed the mask that covered his face. The now well-lit area shone brightly on his face and revealed all I needed to know about him to be terrified. He had vibrant grey skin, dazzling violet eyes, and menacing sharp teeth with gold caps on them. That was the moment I dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and began tumbling into darkness.

  “Why do fe-females … ‘eep ‘oing … dat ‘round me?” the Maji asked with a tired sigh.

  Without missing a beat, the other voice said, “I told you that you were ugly. How many human females must faint before you until you realise that?”

  If I was safe, I usually woke to silence. If there was a sound, no matter how minimal, it usually had a bad outcome for me. Today, I awoke to humming, soft singing, and beeping. Loud, constant, annoying beeping. I opened my eyes, and when a damaged concrete ceiling didn’t come into view, I began to panic. I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t. I looked down at my body and saw I was in a white gown of some sort with thick black straps covering my arms, chest, and lower legs, pinning me to the spot.

  Oh, my Almighty.

  My heart slammed into my chest, and I began to hyperventilate as I struggled against the ties that bound me to the unexpectedly comfortable … bed. I paused in my struggle and looked down once more. I blinked, surprised at what I found. I was on a real mattress and not one that was years old, flat, insect infested, and matted with dirt. A clean white linen sheet covered this one, and it had a lot of cushion in it. It felt incredible as if I was lying on a soft cloud.

  The comfort astonishingly calmed me down and gave me my bearings to scan my surroundings. My jaw fell open when the room I was confined to registered. It was clean—really clean—and undamaged. It had all its walls, the floor was intact, and so was the ceiling. It disturbed me greatly because I had never seen any place so pure and beautiful; it was somewhere that didn’t look it was dying. I had never seen anything like it.

  The shock from taking in the beauty of the room was quickly replaced with worry. Many questions ran through my mind.

  What’s going on? How did I get here? Where is here? Why am I strapped down to a bed? Is that somewhat fresh smell coming from me?

  I stared down at arms and legs, and I couldn’t believe when I spotted clear patches of skin. Usually, my skin was so matted with dirt it was hard to tell the colour of my skin, but not anymore. Someone had gone to great measures to cleanse me. While they had done a good job, I could still see patches of dirt and catch the faint stomach-churning twang of stale sweat. I knew my hair hadn’t been washed, considering how itchy my scalp still was. I wondered who cleaned me, but my thoughts on the matter suddenly fled and my body tensed when I sensed I wasn’t alone. I had heard humming and soft singing when I awoke, but those sounds were now mute, and for a moment, I wondered if I had imagined them. That was until I looked to my right and saw it.

  A Maji.

  The Maji staring at me from across the clean room was clearly a woman. I could see her skin was a vibrant grey, the irises of her eyes were the most eccentric colour of pink I had ever seen, and her hair was as white as the sheet was I lying on. She was huge in stature and leaner than anyone I had ever seen. Apart from those differences, she looked completely human. That was the part that freaked me out the most. She was very similar to a human woman, and I didn’t like it.

  I need a weapon.

  “Oh, my Almighty,” I whimpered when the woman slowly approached me.

  I had to crane my neck back to look up at her when she neared me. She must be at least six feet tall, give or take a few inches.

  “Be still, female,” she said, her voice surprisingly gentle. “I
mean you no har—”

  I screamed before she could finish her sentence.

  “Female,” she repeated, her features contorting in dismay. “I implore you to be calm. I mean you no—”

  The centre of the wall across from me opened like a hidden door and in stepped another Maji. He was even taller and broader than the woman trying her best to quieten me. He had a different coloured skin; it had more of a blue hue to it than grey. His hair was tight to his head, black as darkness, and his eyes were blood red with streaks of silver flicking through them in a pattern like lightning strikes. I lost my calm all over again. I began to scream even louder than before, and it caused the female Maji to plug her ears with her fingers. The man did the same, and he had a look of pain on his face.

  “Silence!” he bellowed after a few seconds.

  I clamped my lips shut and ceased breathing altogether.

  “Mikoh,” the alien woman snarled. “You’re scaring her!”

  She actually snarled at him, and the sound reminded me of a vicious animal I’d normally encounter in the woods.

  Mikoh lowered his hands from his ears. “She was scared before I entered, or was she screaming for another reason?”

  “Leave.” The woman growled, her posture rigid. “She is my charge, and you being here is making my introduction to her more difficult than it needs to be!”

  Mikoh lazily grinned, and it caused me to scream again because he had gold caps on his … fangs. Not mythical vampire kind of fangs, but fangs that would do a hell of a lot of damage to someone’s throat all the same. It was weird, but the fang observation made it concrete in my mind that I definitely couldn’t refer to them as man and woman anymore because they most certainly weren’t a regular man or woman. They were male and female.

  They were aliens.

  Mikoh quickly stuck his fingers back in his ears, and so did the alien female, but she was glaring at Mikoh, not me.