Defender (New World Book 7) (4 page)

They were alone in the woods. If he left her she might die. If he caged her she might die. Taz placed a hand to his head wanting to howl his frustration. His mind was at war. His mission was not to interfere.

Stay, go. Stay, go.

“Emma?”

The croaking voice of the male reached Taz’s ears. He hadn’t killed him. Taz slipped back into the foliage overwhelmed with relief. The male stumbled into view looking a little disheveled.

“Emma?”

The male gathered the female to his chest. Her lashes fluttered. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I guess the moose hit me from behind or something. Fuck me, I flew like a baseball hit in a home run. I better get you home.”

The male helped the female to stand. She grabbed his arms as something fluttered to the ground. Taz could see her stunned expression and he tensed. Her hand lifted her shirt exposing her belly. She ran the flat of her hand across her tummy.

“It’s gone,” she whispered.

“Holy shit, Emma we need to get you to a doctor. The moose must have ripped off your colostomy bag.”

“No it’s gone. The bag is on the ground and my intestine is inside me. There’s no hole, there’s no scar, there’s nothing. There’s no pain anywhere. It’s a miracle.
Oh my God
.”

She flung her arms around the young male. Taz wasn’t certain what she meant, but his shield must have done something big. At least his problem was solved. The girl wasn’t really safe with the puny male, but she wasn’t alone. Taz turned and left the couple. He needed to get away from the child. There was a slight change in his shield. The difference was minor; if he got away from her, the strange receptive feeling would vanish.

The urge to run was strong and Taz gave in racing across the forest floor. The terrain was unsteady, rocks crumbled under his weight. Tree branches bowed in his grasp. The air wasn’t pure. He stopped in his tracks when the sun disappeared behind a cloud. Sunlight was everything to a Tonan warrior. His planet regulated any rain. The scientists controlled the weather. Earth was primitive. Humans were weak.

It wasn’t Taz’s place to determine if the males should die and the females be enslaved. A thought did nag the corner of his brain. What would happen to the children? Tonans had killed all females four hundred years prior—his mother included. Human children would be going to Taz’s planet.

I can’t care. I’m a warrior not a defender of innocents.

Taz hardened his heart. He was on a mission. End of story.

Macey wanted to cry. Instead, she wandered through the rubble that was once her home, forcing herself to move forward. There was no going back. Her gaze went from one piled mess to another. A rubble graveyard was in her wake. Cement, brick, stone and drywall pieces were strewn haphazard, teasing her ankles with thoughts of twisting bones as she walked. Steel pipes, tubes, storm drains lay mangled in the street as she moved on. A fire hydrant spewed water to make little rivers that pooled into puddle ponds having nowhere to drain. Animals sat, moped or wandered in a daze. A cracked half-smashed fish tank sat between a couch and love seat, two fish swam in the small amount of water left. Spirals of smoke flittered from charred remains. She gagged when she saw a burned arm exposed under a roof.

A McDonald’s huge M sign was on a neighbor’s front yard. Macey had been at the restaurant two days ago; it was within walking distance, and she’d chatted with a friend over coffee. It was a beautiful day. Out the window the lineup for the drive through moved swiftly. A woman sat outside feeding her dog some of her chicken nuggets and fries. Kids played in the indoor play area. Smiles as far as the eye could see, and carefree. Everything had been normal.

The devastation confronting her was surreal.
Why do I feel betrayed, as though there should have been a warning?
How can things be so benign and turn malignant in two little days? The papers showed other areas devastated, but it could never happen here.

It had.

The storm that hit their small town was like nothing Macey had ever seen or wanted to again. Tornado slash hurricane, slash nightmare. Gusting wind, torrential rain, howling noises that screamed through Macey’s home in the dead of night. A dozen banshees would have been preferable and less frightening. Her walls caved in around her until only one stood to shelter her. The basement collapsed and filled with water. Furniture floated away—it was just gone. By the time the storm passed, Macey had lost everything but the clothes on her back.

People were emerging in a daze from basements, crevasses, anything they could find when seeking a fast shelter. Cries came from all directions. Cries of help, deafening despair. Bodies gathered in arms. A man walked sightlessly carrying a woman, his wife no doubt, in no particular direction, there was nowhere to go. Macey blinked in rapid succession. Devastation didn’t happen to sleepy little towns. The nightmare before her was a dream, it had to be.

Nothing was left standing. Macey didn’t know what to do, she wasn’t a doctor; she knew a little first aid but not enough to help those she saw. Helplessness invaded her soul. She didn’t know where to turn. Her cell phone was dead or there was no reception, hadn’t been for a few days.

A soft whimper caught Macey’s attention. She wandered closer as the tempo increased, drawing her. Maybe she could help—someone. Two little girls were huddled under a large piece of wood surrounded by glass in a deep depression in the ground.

“Come on sweetheart,” Macey said offering her hand to the youngest. “I’ll help you out. You’re safe now.” With all her heart she hoped it was true.

The girls were filthy. Their matted hair hadn’t been washed in some time. Their faces were covered in dirt, grime and bruises. Their clothes were ripped and stained. Scratches were visible. Dried blood in various places gave testimony to a horrible ordeal.

“This is our home,” the older girl replied.

“Where are your parents?” Macey asked.

“Dead. You won’t believe me but there are monsters out there. Horrible, hideous monsters.”

“What’s your name?” Macey helped the younger child around the glass.

“I’m Skylar and my little sister is Haven. This same storm hit our town two weeks ago. There were—things—that watched, that laughed. We’ve been wandering ever since. Everyone is trying to get to the shuttle pads. We were at one, but the man there said I could go but Haven was too young. I couldn’t leave my little sister all alone. Why would they even think I would?”

“They’re flying out? The shuttles?” Macey asked. “I thought they needed a few more months?”

“They do. But there’s a shelter underground full of women. They’re all a bit older than me, none looked over forty. The man was going to turn me away, but I heard another say I would be useful. He was creepy and made my skin crawl the way he looked at me. I grabbed Haven’s hand and ran and I heard them laughing. It was weird. He was so handsome; I know he was one of the aliens. But he seemed cruel. I thought they wanted to help us. Mother and father had tickets for the shuttles for all of us. Daddy said they were our salvation. My mother and father were so young when they had me. Now my parents are dead and the tickets are gone. We’re trapped here.”

“That is weird. Only women? I’m certain I heard a number of large company owners bought into the first flights. Most of them were men,” Macey said.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Skylar said. “Daddy owned a large corporation, he inherited it from grandpa, but I don’t know where to go to find help. We’re all alone; both mom and dad were only children. Grandma died a year after I was born; grandpa died last year. I never thought in my whole life I’d have to drink from puddles or find food in dumpsters.

“The place for children to go that was set up is gone, I haven’t found another. So many phones don’t work, my cell is dead and I have nowhere to charge it. Mom and dad gave us everything, and it’s gone, even his corporation. No one wants to buy any property on Earth, the storms are hitting in so many places. What money I have is gone. No one wants money anyway, they want tickets or food. Where we came from is bad. I hoped it was better here.”

The teenager’s hands twisted while her fingers entwined, she looked close to tears. Macey could understand. Skylar was just a child and the weight of the world was on her shoulders and she had a young sister to watch out for. It must have been a soul-searching moment to be tempted with the freedom of another planet.

“I’m hungry.” The little twittering voice of the younger sister made Macey smile. The honesty of youth.

Macey sat back on her heels and took the girl’s hands. “How old are you?”

“Eight. Skylar is sixteen.”

“I turned sixteen last week. Daddy was going to buy me a car. I wanted a pink one.” Skylar’s distraught gaze held Macey’s for a second. She then turned red and Macey could tell she was embarrassed.

“You can have new dreams,” Macey said.

“I doubt it. All I wanted was my parents back. I wanted them and nothing else, even if we didn’t have a house anymore, or anything else. Things mean nothing, things don’t love and they don’t take care of you. Lesson learned.” Skylar whispered.

The lesson was a hard one. Macey had never seen so much desolation on a teen’s face. Skylar’s haunted gaze shifted and Macey wondered what she had seen. She mentioned monsters. With a child of sixteen the word could mean anything, although Macey wondered.

Macey stood and gazed around. “My aunt Greta has a small cabin not far from here. I need to check on her. I think you both should come with me.”

“Really?” Skylar asked.

The girl’s eyes lit up and the corners of her lips twitched into a wispy smile. Macey ran her fingers over the petite girl’s dirty cheek. It was sad, her hopeful, desperate gaze. Macey had heard on the news about children being orphaned and no one caring as the need for foster homes increased. She never realized the problem was so bad until it stared her in the face. The dramatic growth in orphaned children was on the rise in staggering numbers. Macey knew it was the storms killing off their parents, but there was also a hint at suspicious missing persons, mostly women. The monsters Skylar spoke of gave her pause, again. It wasn’t the first time she heard the term used.

The strangers who had come to their planet offered salvation from the storms that were increasing. Macey knew times were rough but abandoning Earth wasn’t a likely scenario. Those who received passes for the shuttles would return soon after leaving. If not, Macey wished them well. The land of milk and honey sounded too good to be true. She wasn’t certain she trusted the strangers. Tonans, she believed they were called, from a place dubbed Ulsy. Macey wasn’t certain if it was the planet’s real name or a human’s term of ‘You’ll see’ when you get there, slung together. The males were humanoid and as Skylar said Macey also heard the men were attractive. And persuasive. With the Earth’s terrible disasters continuing to grow, she wondered if the aliens were correct in their assumption the storms would get worse.

That these aliens had shown up in the nick of time made Macey suspicious to say the least. The storms had been getting bad for a number of years. There were always talks of storms on the news. A terrible tsunami in one country, wildfires in another, severe flooding in an area used to drought. It seemed once the aliens showed up, everywhere was getting battered. It was definitely food for thought.

“I bet my aunt has home-baked bread and jam,” Macey said and tweaked Haven’s nose.

The three set out and walked for an hour. The cabin wasn’t far, debris from other areas made their trek tricky. The storm had tossed many household items, a few cars, and mattresses they climbed over or around. The lush vegetation became more dominant as the debris finally thinned. As they broke through the foliage to see the little cabin standing and apparently untouched, Macey breathed a sigh of relief. Aunt Greta was smiling in the doorway waving them in. Her home smelled of fresh bread and ginger cookies. The girls cleaned their faces and hands and were soon seated at a table where they devoured everything given to them. Macey took Greta off to the side.

“The house is gone, the town is totaled. I hope you don’t mind if I stay here with my visitors. They have no one left.”

“Not at all, darling. Poor little cherubs. I have the basement stocked. I’ve been sleeping down there at night. Have you noticed the storms mostly come at night? As though planned. I’m wondering about our visitors.”

Macey had been wondering the same. “The older girl, Skylar, told me the visitors seem interested in young women.”

“And the men with the big bucks. I’m guessing when they get what they want the storms will stop. Only male aliens have come. Makes me wonder also,” Greta said.

“I think you’re right. But it’s weird if aliens have our currency. Maybe the men with the money are being used for a different reason? To lure young women into a false sense of security. Or maybe for some reason the people with money should go first to pay for the shuttles like the government said. I’m at a loss. I think we should lay low until the storm literally passes. I have some old clothes that should fit these young ones stored in your attic.”

Macey plastered on her best, everything-is-fine gaze, and brought the girls milk. It would only be a matter of time before all was right with the world. They needed patience. Patience was something Macey had a great deal of.

* * * *

Taz had seen the images of Earth on the monitor for days on the shuttle but part of him hadn’t believed what he was seeing. When he ran out of forest, he was startled when he came to a town. A black substance was hard under his unshielded feet and he paused for a second to bend down and touch it. He wrinkled his nose wondering why anyone would put hard crap over natural beautiful earth; as strange as Earth’s ground, it was better than the black mess. Did this planet need coverings for everything?

Who clothed a planet?

A cold wind slipped across his chest as he stood. The area was quiet, and he moved as stealthily as possible. Parts near homes were covered in the black substance in lines where vehicles sat or moved; a strange line was whitish-grey adjoining the black to the green grass. Taz knew what grass was, they had it on his planet. It wasn’t the same lush hunter green he was used to. The grass was harder and didn’t smell as sweet. It was also sectioned oddly, squares, rectangles. Most of it was the same length.