Текст книги "Arrival"

Автор книги: A.G. Wilde

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter Eleven

FER’RO

The little female’s aggression makes us thrum with pleasure.

As she slams the small rock into the Gryken’s body, I do not stop her.

None of us do.

We can sense her distress. Her pain.

Her anger.

It mirrors ours.

She crushes the Gryken in the same way it has crushed countless worlds.

It deserves every blow she puts on it. It is only a pity it is not still alive to feel the pain.

I kick its battered body toward the water and it lands not too far from it.

The female has released some of what aches her inside, but she is spent.

I can see it in how her body sags.

“Plant it,” I say, and Ga’Var clicks in agreement.

He and some of my brethren move away toward the Gryken’s body but others remain.

My gaze flicks over them.

None have returned to our ship. Possibly, they are awaiting my command to do so.

Unofficially, I have become their leader. A role I do not want, but one I will perform with great honor.

If my race can help rid the universe of the Gryken, I will do all that is in my power to make sure that happens.

I hear Ga’Var hiss as he lifts the Gryken’s battered body. One of his hackles pierces right through it.

Both female’s stare with wide eyes as he impales it with a metal pole and slams the pole into the earth below.

A barbaric act, but one that sends a message nonetheless.

They are our enemy—ours and these beings before us.

My gaze flicks back to the female and I hope she understands the message.

We are not her enemy.

San’ten clicks sharply from behind them and they jerk.

I can tell their sense of perception is not very good. They are not very aware of the movements around them or how my brethren struggle to fight their instincts because of the scent of their fear.

“This one,” he clicks, his gaze falling on the female lying flat on the ground. “This one is infested.”

A hiss leaves my lips that I’m too slow to hold back.

I knew as much.

That is what the Gryken’s do.

They forcefully breed, cloning themselves in the wombs of other species.

In their short life-span, they kill many, many females, oftentimes tearing the female apart in the process of their birth into this world.

I saw it happen with my own eyes to the females of my world.

My hackles have risen again without me realizing.

I only know the image I’m projecting when I see it reflected in the brown-haired female’s eyes.

She lets go of the other and scrambles over to the infested one as if she understands we are speaking about her.

She is not capable of fighting us, yet she attempts to guard another.

Does she even know what the other female harbors? What is growing inside her?

We have to kill it.

San’ten clicks at her and makes to move toward her but the female shrieks and kicks at him.

I hear a low thrum from someone else—impressed by the female’s will.

It reflects my own feelings.

She’d impressed me from the moment she pointed her stick weapon at me.

I set my hackles down and click at San’ten.

“Wait.”

He casts his gaze my way, his symbiotes writhing a little. Annoyed.

“It is growing by the day,” he clicks. “Why wait? We should kill it now.”

“There is still time.” My gaze bores into his dark eyes till his ba’clan settle down and his hackles flatten.

The brown-haired female is looking between us now and I notice she meets my gaze more often than not.

Perhaps I am becoming less terrifying.

Taking a step forward, I crouch to her level and her dark-haired friend scoots away and almost backs into Ga’Var, who has returned from the water.

“The Gryken is planted. The message clear.”

He clicks at me and I click approval back.

The brown-haired female’s gaze is darting between Ga’Var and me now and at her attention to us, I hear him thrum.

Immediately, I hiss at him.

I do not know why.

He blinks at me, but his thrum stops.

For a moment, I blink at him too before pulling my gaze away.

She is still staring at us, those expressive eyes of hers confused and a little frightened.

But her fear scent isn’t as strong as the night before.

It is bearable now.

“What is your designation?” I rasp. Her language is strange on my tongue. Too many syllables.

She blinks at me, those wide eyes getting a little bigger.

“M—my name?” She glances at the other female who has moved slowly away from Ga’Var. “You want to know my name?”

My ears twitch at the sound of her voice. A thrum starts in my throat that I stop before the others can hear.

“Yes.”

She glances at the other female again. “My name is Adira. Adira Mosely.”

The name is surprisingly short for the amount of syllables in her language. I turn it over in my mind.

“Adee’rah’mohs’lee.”

She blinks at me as if she cannot believe I am speaking to her and her lips twitch and turn up a little. “Just Adira is fine.”

Adee’ra.

“And you? What is your name?”

I pause for a moment. She has given me the shortened version of hers. So I will do the same for her.

“Fer’ro.”

She blinks at me but her eyes are not as wide as before.

She glances at the other female and they exchange something in their gazes that I do not understand.

Hope?

“Nice to meet you, Fer’ro. Welcome to Earth.”

ADIRA

They did not let the dead alien rest on the ground for long.

With hisses and snarls, clicks and thrums, they pierced the octopi-like alien thing with a sharpened pole and planted it near the edge of the lake like some sort of effigy.

It is like a ritual, one celebrating the death of the thing, and I do not know if they do it for me and Sam or for themselves.

One thing is for sure though, they seem to hate the thing as much as we do.

It is drying out even as I stare at it, shriveling under the morning sun like a raisin.

Mina is awake now, her eyes barely open and I notice the alien with the charcoal eyes watching her.

He’d approached her earlier with those spikes of his rising and his fangs bared.

I’m sure he and Fer’ro had been talking about her.

Maybe they know what’s inside her.

Maybe they were going to hurt her.

I’m not sure, but the dark-eyed one had stopped when Fer’ro spoke to him and I’m getting the sense Fer’ro has some sort of rank over the others.

I watch them now, trying to figure out where me and the rest of humanity stand, when Mina leans against me.

She is so weak, she cannot rise.

She needs to eat if she has any chance of surviving this for much longer.

We all need to eat.

I look toward the lake and wonder if there are any fish in it.

Maybe, if I could catch some…

But the aliens around us still have the hairs at the back of my neck standing on end.

They don’t scare me as much as before. They seem intelligent and it doesn’t appear that they mean us any harm.

I am still hesitant to trust them though.

They are not from this world after all and I still don’t know why they are here or what they want from us.

None other except Lava Eyes, Fer’ro, has spoken to us and my gaze searches the shore for him. I catch him as he rises from the water and his eyes find me immediately.

It is somewhat disturbing, the way his gaze seeks me out and I find myself glancing away quickly.

He doesn’t stare at Mina and Sam like that, and I wonder why.

When I look up again, he’s setting down a piece of shiny metal into a pile, his gaze still on me.

They seem to be dismantling the machine piece by piece and it hits me that…their ship, the black bird, is nowhere to be seen.

I wonder if it sank during the attack too.

I stare back at him as he rises and, either I’m getting used to the stares or I’m getting used to the fact that he and the others have mostly left us alone.

Apart from that strange circle they’d formed around us while we slept, they haven’t come close again.

They watch us though.

Always watching and I know there isn’t a chance of us escaping without being noticed and caught immediately.

I’m still looking at Fer’ro when he takes a step toward us.

My heart skips a beat and I hold my breath.

Is he going to speak to me again?

I have a lot of questions I want to ask.

But as he nears, my stomach takes that moment to growl and he pauses suddenly, his ears twitching underneath his suit.

“We’d be getting that nasty food sac around now, wouldn’t we?” Sam whispers.

She was right. As much as I don’t want to think about the time we spent in that machine, now would be when we’d be eating. The orb…no, the thing controlling the orb fed us on rotation. Once every day and at the same hour.

My stomach growls again and I press my palm against it.

I will have to try and find us food.

It’s clear these aliens aren’t going to let us go, not that we could get far anyway, in our condition.

That means there isn’t much of a chance to forage—not that this is the ideal location for foraging either.

I know nothing about living in the wild.

Sam moves toward us and presses the back of her hand against Mina’s forehead.

She takes her temperature like this at different intervals, making sure it’s stable and hasn’t risen.

While she is taking care of Mina, that means I need to find us food.

I’m not sure how I’m going to manage it.

I have my broken wrist curled toward my body and every fiber within me aches.

I’ll have to hunt one-handed and limping.

There’s a click close by and I realize it’s the burgundy-eyed alien. I didn’t notice his approach and that makes me stiffen a little.

They’re big, huge, but move so fluidly and silently.

A few more sharp clicks come from his mouth and several of his kind look our way.

Fer’ro steps toward us.

I don’t know where he gets it from, but something appears in his hand.

A pouch.

He stretches it toward me, his gaze studying my face as if he’s watching for my reaction—no, as if he’s afraid I will scream and run if he comes closer.

Watching me, he moves closer and his suit retracts.

Sam gasps.

It’s the first time she’s seeing one of them without the dark suit covering the entirety of their body.

He doesn’t take his eyes off me but his gaze is earnest, if I could call it that.

Clicking at me, he stops mid-click then speaks so I can understand.

“Sustenance,” he says.

My gaze falls back to the pouch in his hand.

The pouch wriggles and my stomach immediately turns.

Pulling it back toward himself, he raises the pouch toward his mouth and nips the side with his sharp teeth.

Whatever is inside begins wriggling even more.

I watch him as his mouth opens and, for the first time, I see his tongue.

I don’t know whether it is me that gasps or Sam.

“Fuck…me…” Sam mutters.

Indeed.

Fer’ro’s tongue sweeps across his lips before he dips it into the pouch.

It is so long and thick, I can only stare at it with wide eyes.

I’m transfixed as his tongue retreats from the pouch’s entrance with long strings of dark spaghetti in its grasp.

For the tip of it has curled around them, holding them as he pulls them into his mouth.

“Did you just see that?” Sam grips my shoulder, her eyes also wide. “Tell me that’s not his tongue.”

I gulp as I stare. I don’t fucking know what the hell that thing was but it has got to be his tongue.

What else?

Fer’ro closes his mouth, his gaze on me as he chews.

There. Are. Popping. Sounds.

Like something fluid-filled being crushed by those sharp teeth of his.

Spaghetti doesn’t pop and as he chews, a dark line of fluid appears just at the edge of his lips.

Stomach acid comes up into my throat and I force it back down.

Once more, he stretches the pouch toward me again.

“Looks like spaghetti,” Sam whispers.

She obviously hadn’t seen the pouch wriggle.

“That,” my stomach lurches again, “that isn’t spaghetti.”

As if to prove that it’s edible, Burgundy-Eyes makes a click and reaches for the pouch. He dips a sharp claw inside and takes out the black “spaghetti.”

It wriggles between his fingers and I definitely puke into my mouth as he throws his head back and drops the thing in his mouth.

“Oh…God,” Sam groans. “That’s disgusting.”

Both aliens’ ears twitch at her words and I stiffen, bracing myself if they retaliate at her offensive words.

But all Fer’ro and Burgundy Eyes do is glance at each other, their ears twitching as they look at the pouch.

He gestures to me again but I swallow hard, pulling on the little bravery that I have left, and I shake my head.

“We can’t eat that,” I say.

Well…we technically could but no matter how hungry, I don’t think I can eat alien worms.

Fer’ro looks at the pouch.

“I can find us food if you allow me to.”

My suggestion makes the large alien stiffen. I can almost see his muscles harden in his shoulders.

He knows it’s a test.

Are we prisoners here? Or are we free to go?

“I won’t run again.” I do not know why I say that. Desperation maybe.

I couldn’t run even if I wanted to. I’m too weak and the bruises I’ve suffered are very much still there.

Fer’ro studies me for a moment. “Where will you hunt?”

Hunt?

Surely, I don’t look like I’m any good at doing such a thing. Do I?

But maybe this is the first time they’re encountering our kind. Maybe we’re just as strange to them as they are to us.

I don’t know about hunting, but I can think of something.

If humans aren’t good at anything else, we’re good with adapting…coming up with ideas.

“I can find us food,” I repeat, surer this time.

“Where?” he repeats. “Where will you hunt?”

I lick my lips.

Is this a test for me now?

Jerking my chin toward the water, I swallow hard. “There. In the water.”

Fer’ro studies me for a few moments before he glances at Burgundy-Eyes.

There’s a click and a thrum between them.

He looks back at me and clicks as well. Then, as if realizing I have no idea what he just said, he speaks. “Come. Show me how.”

Sam grips my arm, her voice low and insistent. “You can’t go off with him.”

I don’t know if she realizes, but even though she just whispered those words, I’m pretty sure the aliens heard what she said.

But I force a brave smile at her.

I’m not scared.

I’m trusting my instincts here. Leaning on them.

And I…

I trust him.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend…right.

Right?

Chapter Twelve

ADIRA

My steps are shaky as I rise. I’m much weaker than I thought.

So much so that I almost stumble. But I catch myself in time.

I dart a glance at Fer’ro and he pulls his arm back.

He’d been about to touch me. To stop my fall, perhaps.

Those intent eyes of his are on me now, they never left, and I have to pull my gaze away as I face the water.

He’s not the only one watching me either.

They all are and I feel like some sort of spectacle as I walk on shaky legs toward the lake.

I stare out across it.

The surface glistens in the sunlight and you wouldn’t know what lies beneath.

The wreckage…the bodies…what’s left of the Feeders.

My lungs constrict at that thought and I glance behind me.

A chill goes through me at the many eyes directed my way.

At Fer’ro.

He’s still watching me too.

He’s so focused on me, I don’t know if he is aware of anything else around him.

This is a test.

He is testing me as much as I am testing him right now.

My so-called “hunting” skills are about to be graded. A sure indicator of my species’ strength—of what we’re capable of.

If I appear too weak…will they turn against us?

Will they judge us as unfit for…whatever they are here for?

I gulp at the thought and put one foot in front of the other and then another.

It’s silent as I walk. Eerily so.

Those of his kind along the shore stop to watch us go and the silence is unnerving.

There are no birds in the small amount of trees nearby. No signs of life anywhere.

Still, I continue on, my gaze averted as I keep my focus in front of me.

If the fate of humanity really depends on my hunting skills…

We. Are. Fucked.

I’m walking, or rather, limping for maybe a few minutes when I glance behind me and I jerk a little.

Fer’ro’s eyes bore into mine.

He’s still following me.

How can someone so big be so quiet?

I glance away quickly, suddenly aware of his gaze on my back.

Did I say I trusted him? Cautiously so?

I’m not so sure what I feel anymore.

But I’m a rational woman…right?

They haven’t hurt us yet. They could have harmed us while we all slept.

I gulp as I turn my head to the side a little and catch Fer’ro’s huge form in the corner of my eye.

I feel like prey with the way he looks at me. Not just him either…all of them.

It’s like looking into the emotionless gaze of an apex predator.

Some deep-set instinct within me is telling me to run.

Run, right now!

But my mind is wrestling with the logic of it all.

A breath shudders through me as I try to lean on the arm of reason.

Even if I run, he’ll catch me, and if he wants to hurt me, there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

I’m not in a power position.

Forcing away the fear that’s giving me heart palpitations, I continue putting one foot in front of the other.

I can focus on what I can control, and right now, I’m being given the chance to find food.

I’ll do my best to procure some for the three of us.

So, I focus on walking.

The shore of this lake is a bit rocky, which doesn’t help, but when I glance in the direction I’ve come, I’m surprised at my progress.

I’ve walked some distance away from Sam and Mina and, it may have been a subconscious effort, but I’ve walked away from where I think the orb fell too.

There’s a rocky area near the shore that leads into the water. Broken wood sticks out of the surface and some of the planks are still nailed together.

The remnants of an old pier.

I head toward it, searching for something I can use to try and catch some fish.

Shit.

I don’t even know how to fish with proper tools much less with what nature provides.

But my brow furrows as I search the ground.

I spot a branch as I hobble along and I grab it.

It’s about as long as a walking stick and thin.

I don’t have a knife so I use the next best thing I can think of.

My teeth.

Lifting the edge to my mouth, I bite and gnaw at the branch to sharpen the end as best as I can.

I huff as I work.

It’s hard doing things with one hand.

Behind me, Fer’ro watches. I see when he moves toward me to help but when I stiffen, he pauses.

I don’t know if he was trying to help or not.

I’m not so sure I want to get unnecessarily close to him.

By the time I reach the pier, the branch is pointy enough to poke something.

As I step upon the rocks and begin to hobble across the pier, there is a click behind me.

I pause and turn my head to the side so I can see him.

Fuck. What’s gotten over me?

I can’t even face him fully.

“That does not seem like a stable hunting spot.”

His voice is such a deep baritone that the inflection makes the words sound foreign to my ear.

But I nod. “You’re right. It’s not really. But it will hold.” I think.

He clicks at me again and this time I meet his gaze.

Secondary eyelids slip across his eyes before disappearing again.

The sight has me frozen as I stare at him.

“And if the female falls in?”

For a second, I don’t realize he’s speaking about me.

I blink at him.

He’s not moving at all. And I realize now that when he does move, his movements are measured and calculated.

As if…as if he is being cautious around me.

I frown a little as I glance down at the water.

It laps against the wooden pier peacefully and the sound is calming.

“If I fall in, I’ll survive.”

When I look back, those fire eyes are still on me, studying me, and his ears twitch as I turn and continue along the pier.

He doesn’t follow.

Guess he’s going to stay there then.

No problem. Having him so close unnerves me still.

I can get it done quicker too if he doesn’t come any farther.

Something moves on the rocks behind me that makes me pause, my gaze snapping to the location of the movement, and I turn to look just as a small bird hops on top of the rocks.

A robin.

Surprise makes me hold my breath.

“Oh my God,” I whisper. It’s the first animal I’ve seen in so, so long.

It’s a tiny little thing and I wonder what it’s doing all the way out here.

It looks at me, twisting its head in that strange way birds do, before it tweets at me.

Happiness fills me so much I choke on it.

But that happiness quickly diminishes as I see a dark shadow in the corner of my eye.

Fer’ro moves toward the bird, his arm outstretched.

“No!”

He pauses.

“It’s just a bird. Leave it alone.”

He eyes me.

“Please.”

“A…bird?” he says in that strange way of his.

I nod.

“A bird,” I repeat.

“Not sustenance?”

I gulp at that. “Yes…but no. I don’t want to eat it.” I couldn’t imagine killing and eating such a beautiful thing.

The bird tweets again and I watch the alien’s ears twitch with bated breath.

The little bird must have suddenly gotten the cue because it flies off.

I release a sigh and watch it go.

When I look back, the alien is staring at me so intently, I forget what I was doing before.

Oh.

Right.

“Hunting.”

Turning, I continue making my way gingerly across the broken pier.

The wood is rotten in some parts and a bit slippery but I will not allow Murphy’s law to get the best of me now.

As soon as the thought crosses my mind, I slip.

There’s a single moment of my eyes widening as I realize I’m going down and the next, there’s a strong hand against my back, steadying me.

My surprised gaze shoots to the alien who’s suddenly by my side.

How the hell did he move so fast?

My heart does a big thump.

I was right. He’s calculating his movements so he doesn’t scare me.

Why else?

If he can move like this…

Fuck.

Well, there goes my instinct to run away.

Now I just want to hide.

I straighten as soon as I have my footing, but not before his touch sends a lightning bolt down my spine.

“Th—Thanks.”

He doesn’t reply but his ears twitch toward me almost comically.

I turn from him and continue moving along the pier. More careful this time.

The wood creaks as Fer’ro follows close behind me.

I can still feel his eyes on my back and it’s making the hairs along my arms rise.

The pier leads into the water a fair bit and soon we’re standing over water deep enough for sizeable fish to be lurking in.

I crouch and Fer’ro watches me for a second before he copies me.

I find myself staring at him in disbelief.

He’s so huge, he looks funny crouching the way I am.

A nervous laugh huffs from my nose and his ears flatten against the side of his head.

It’s almost…adorable.

I snap my gaze away from his at that thought.

This is a being whose people destroyed a machine not even our missiles could take down.

There’s nothing adorable about a demon.

Trying to ignore him as best as I can, I eye the water.

It’s murky. I can hardly see anything.. But I grasp my stick and I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

My bones are aching and I’m about to give up when I see a fish.

It darts through the algae and disappears for a moment, it’s silvery skin appearing catching the light.

Grasping my stick tighter, I hold my breath, waiting to see it again.

And then I do.

There!

I’m so excited, too excited, that I shriek and stab my stick in the water too quickly.

There’s a hiss behind me.

Fer’ro.

One glance over my shoulder and I jerk back so hard I almost fall into the water.

Fer’ro has risen over me, his blades are out, spiking along his arms, and his lips are pulled back.

Wicked fangs are bared at me.

Shock, fear, has my breath stuck in my throat.

How stupid was I to venture away from Sam and Mina?

Right now, in this moment, I can see just how foolish that was.

Was this what he had intended from the start? Had he just been waiting till we were alone to attack me?

To eat me?

But the aggression the dark alien is expressing lasts only a second.

He stills, and the blades retreat but it takes a few more moments for his mouth to close and conceal those wicked teeth of his.

Gulping hard, I don’t move.

What the fuck was that?

I’m almost too scared to look away from him.

If I look away, will he try to attack me again?

But something flicks at the end of my stick so hard, I almost lose my hold on it.

A fish.

A small one but a fish nonetheless.

I…I caught it?

The little victory catches me unaware and I realize I’d had no faith I was going to catch anything at all.

I’m not sure if I want to laugh or cry. What happens is a sob of happiness and fear that lodges in my throat.

Through the corner of my eyes, I notice Fer’ro’s blades rise part way as he watches me and I promptly silence myself.

I can’t tell if he’s about to attack me or not.

Maybe he’s like one of those predators that attack when you’re not looking.

For that reason, I keep my gaze on him as I pull the branch toward me.

It’s pierced right through and the fish flaps, trying to get off it.

Fer’ro watches the fish move.

“Sustenance?” he asks.

“Yes.”

He stares at it before he stands.

“You are a good hunter,” he says.

That sob that’s lodged in my throat constricts the muscles there.

Is that it?

Have I passed the test?