Inhuman (21 page)

“Yes Cassia, she did.”

Joy. I felt immense joy that my mother was like me. Even though I still didn’t know what we were, I was just happy that there had been another.

Frowning with yet another epiphany, I asked. “My father…did he?” I pointed to my chest with hope.

Shaking her head, she responded with less enthusiasm. “No, just her…and you.” Then she added with a very serious expression. “There is a prophecy that the elders used to speak of. The Kachina.”

I sat up with interest, normally the old legends of the elders didn’t spark much curiosity within me but I was beginning to believe in fairy tales.

“The elders spoke of a coming time when the new people would arrive. They said that they were of a royal bloodline and would be called…the star people.”

I’m sure my eyes widened to the point where they would soon fall out. This was all too unbelievable.

Aliens, were they talking about aliens?!

Closing my eyes and resting my head in my hands, I tried to wrap my head around her words. In the disbelief of the moment, I began to giggle. I laughed so hard that I nearly bowled myself out of my chair. My pregnant belly jiggled like a bowl of Jello. Looking up at grandmother, she looked offended, but that only seemed to make my maniacal musing even worse. Snorting as I fought for air, the laughter bubbled out of me.

God it felt good.

I wasn’t laughing at my grandmother or her story, I was laughing because for the first time in my life, something completely irrational made perfect sense.

If she had told me before this whole nightmare had started that I was some space creature, I would’ve turned tail and run away as fast as I could, but because of the fear, torture and inhumanity I’d endured over the last few months, I completely believed her.

For the first time in months, I cried tears of laughter. Poor grandmother stared at me as though I was completely cracked.

After several moments of basking in the glow of lunacy, I decided to ask her the question that had plagued me since the beginning of this nightmare. Though I was certain I knew the answer, I needed to hear it with my own ears.

Composing myself, I asked. “Grandmother, what am I?”

Wisdom danced through her eyes as she opened her mouth to answer. “You are…”

Before she could answer, however, her front door flew open with a large bang! Keanu stood in the doorway, panic marring his handsome face.

“
They’re
here!”

Peering out of my grandmother’s window, I saw over a dozen men in black approaching the bonfire.

With nearly my entire tribe standing in a semi-circle around the fire, I was genuinely frightened for the fate of my people. Plain and spiritual people, they were unaccustomed to violence and manipulations.

Keanu and Tanaka scoured my grandmother’s house for supplies and weapons, supplies they found plenty of, weapons, however, were scarce.

I noticed my grandmother eyeing Tanaka suspiciously as he searched her home. Thinking nothing of it, I turned back to the window to watch the unfolding drama outside.

The men in black appeared to be chatting pleasantly with the chief of our village and a few of the elders. I shuddered as I imagined what the Majestic 12 were telling them. What if they convinced my people that I was guilty of Amy’s murder and my village turned against me? If they handed me over to the men in black, I would be shipped straight back to the facility…if I was lucky. After all of this, I’m sure the Majestic 12 simply wanted my baby, and my head on a platter.

Swallowing hard, I was pleasantly relieved when Keanu came up from behind me, slid his arms around my waist and whispered in my ear. “Time to go.”

Turning around, I stared up at his face as I realized he wasn’t upset with me about Meyers or the fact that the baby might not be his.

Inhaling a calming breath, I looked out the window once more to witness a malleable tension form between the men in black and my village.

The chief was waving his hands and pointing as though ordering the outsiders to leave. A spark of hope fired in my chest as I watched the villagers move into an aggressive stance as though readying themselves to protect their home.

“Let’s go.” Keanu stated, leading us out the back door of grandmother’s house.

A streak of lightning ripped through the black fabric of the night sky as we ran through the dark. Thunder growled overhead with a vengeance as though the gods were shouting obscenities at the Majestic 12. They were intruders on sacred land, our land.

Escaping down a shadowy path behind grandmother’s house, we scrambled up a steep embankment. Grandmother led the way with Keanu helping her over the unpredictable terrain. Tanaka stayed close to me, holding me up when my cumbersome body threatened to topple me over.

With my grandmother nearly blind, I hoped that she could navigate her way to the cave without getting us lost in the desert.

Angry shouts and screams could be heard from the village below us. The Majestic 12 had ambushed my people and I feared for them. I knew the Hopi natives; they were fiercely intelligent and resourceful people. I just hoped it would be enough to keep them alive.

Tanaka held my hand tight as we shuffled down the side of the hill. Low growing brush slashed at my ankles and sand worked its way between my toes.

The mournful cries of coyotes in the distance and the whistle of roving winds suddenly captivated me.

The dream.

If it weren’t for being surrounded by people who cared for me, this scenario would have mimicked my reoccurring dream exactly, wandering the desert in the pitch of night, searching for the bane of my existence…the cave.

Grandmother had stated earlier that she’d discovered my mother in labor within Doe Mountain. Irony mocked me as the realization sank in. All this time, all these years, I’d searched for a cave that I thought was miles and miles from the village, and here, it was less than a mile from home.

“Stay low.” Keanu whispered, now in the lead.

Edging our way down the mountainside, a helicopter emerged in the distance, searching the ground below with a powerful spotlight. Its great blades sliced through the air, chopping their way toward my village like an army of battleaxes.

Even though my body was flooded with adrenaline, I found it nearly impossible to push myself further. Exhaustion and a sense of failure overwhelmed me. I had led those maniacs to my village and now my people had to fight them off.

My heart was heavy, but my abdomen felt even heavier as I forced myself to move forward. In the moment that I was going to fall upon my knees and surrender, my grandmother spoke the words I’d waited my whole life to hear.

“There it is.” Pointing a crooked finger to the east, a bolt of sheet lightning tore across the sky as though illuminating my way home. Following the direction she was indicating, I could distinguish Doe Mountain.

With the intermittent flashes of light ripping through the sky, I could just barely make out an opening high on the mountainside.

It occurred to me while standing before my nemesis that this was a crazy plan. How was getting us into an old, musty cave going to protect us from the Majestic 12? They would eventually locate us, wouldn’t they? Cowering inside a rocky cavern, did we really think they would just give up and stop searching for us?

A gentle hand upon the small of my back gave me the motivation to continue. “Come on Cassia, you can do it.” Tanaka’s tender voice urged me, giving me that inspiration to keep going.

Sweat ran down my forehead and strands of my long black hair stuck to the side of my face as I clawed at the ground, forcing my body to ascend. Pulling myself up over the rocks and grasping at branches within my reach, I thought I might never see the top of this mountain.

Reaching a narrow ledge only a few feet from the mouth of the cave, my back against the wall of the cliff, I did what a person was never supposed to do in my situation—I looked down.

Even though it was pitch dark all the way down the side of the mountain, I could tell that we were fairly high up. My knees quaked a little as my hands groped along the surface behind me.

The path beneath my feet grew narrower as we moved along. Tanaka moved slowly behind me while I followed my grandmother and Keanu to the entrance of the cave.

My left foot searched for a grip in the darkness, my right foot following only after a secure foothold was found.

Only a few more steps baby.

I wanted to rub my stomach, to soothe her though I knew the comfort I sought was for myself.

With only a foot or two left before we reached safety, I suddenly lost my footing and slipped forward. Sliding into the abyss of darkness, my pregnant belly slammed into the side of the mountain as I plunged forward.

Somehow, in the midst of my fall, Tanaka had grabbed hold of my arm and literally held onto me while I dangled precariously at the edge of the cliff.

Involuntarily screaming, I prayed for two things—that I’d be pulled to safety and that the Majestic 12 didn’t hear me scream.

My large belly bumped against the side of the cliff as Tanaka struggled to maintain his unsteady grip on me. With two of his arms, he had a hold of only one of mine. With the weight of my body, he fought to simply prevent me from tumbling down the side of the mountain.

“Oh god!” Keanu’s voice penetrated from within the shadows, his footsteps growing louder as he moved to help us.

I tried to remain as still as possible until he reached our location. Worry began to set in as I heard Tanaka grunt and then fumble for a better hold on me. With the warmth of the desert night and the physical struggle, his palms felt sweaty and slippery against my skin.

“Keanu! Hurry!” I screeched as Tanaka’s grasp began to loosen even more.

I just wanted this over with. The whole nightmare just kept getting worse and worse. Not that I wanted to plummet off the edge of a cliff, but I was ready to be done with this experience.

My arm was sliding further and further from Tanaka’s hands. Soon he would only have my slender wrist to cling to. If Keanu didn’t hurry, the baby and I were going to die a horrible and tragic death.

As the pain of Tanaka’s grip overwhelmed my wrist, I honestly didn’t think Keanu was going to find us in time. He hadn’t been that far ahead of us but the narrow edge of the cliff and the darkness likely slowed him down.

Tears of relief flooded my eyes as I suddenly felt another set of hands wrap around my forearm; I was shocked when I was lifted so easily up into Keanu’s arms.

Burying my face into his chest, I sobbed with relief and fatigue. My arm throbbed all the way from the shoulder to the wrist. Leading me the rest of the way to the cave, I looked back to make sure Tanaka had made it safely.

Following his voice, Keanu, grandmother and I felt our way through the shadowy abyss until we were startled by the strike of a match and Tanaka’s face suddenly lighting up as he held up the flickering flame.

My grandmother gasped loudly and she moved toward Tanaka. Leaning in close to him, inspecting him, she whispered. “Could it be?”

“Yes healer, it is me.” His expression warmed with a wide smile as he glanced around at the faces sheltered within the cave…pausing the longest at mine.

As the flame slowly flickered out, I knew instinctively who he was. Somehow I think I’d realized it the first few minutes of our meeting, but wouldn’t believe it.

My father.

No one had to tell me, I just knew. Like a memory that had burrowed deep within my soul, I just knew who he was. Feeling my way through the darkness, I found him and gave him a big hug. A sense of completion filled me as I was held in the arms I had yearned for. I didn’t care anymore that he had missed being in my life, he was here now.

There are no words to explain the excruciating waves of pain that assault the body when a child is readying itself to come into the world. Lying on the cave floor, the flame of a newborn fire crackling and undulating beside me, I had a new definition of pain.

For the first hour, it was tolerable, only mild muscle cramps that made my stomach tighten and relax. The odd twinge in my back was easy enough to bear…then the marathon of torture reared its ugly head in my direction.

To ease my pain, both physically and spiritually, I shared the pains and woes of the last few months of my life with grandmother and Tanaka. Their compassion comforted me in more ways than I could imagine.

After a while, however, the labor silenced me.

Rippling waves of throbbing pain crushed my abdomen. Sweat poured down the sides of my face as I pounded the rocky floor beneath me.

I’d heard horrific stories of women enduring labor for hours and hours—even days! The mere thought of spending one more minute living with this agony was bad enough; I didn’t even want to consider the idea of suffering through days of this!

“Shhh…calm, child, remain calm.” My grandmother sat on one side of me and smoothed my damp hair away from my face. Tanaka was firmly planted on the other side of me, holding my hand. Both wore a strange expression, one that I couldn’t quite describe.