Oden (11 page)

“Yeah. I mean, he was a god in your grade, so you can imagine what he was like to us. It’s not that big of a deal. I was sixteen and he was eighteen, so it wasn’t weird or anything.”

“Are you sure? He didn’t pressure you, did he?” I suddenly have a sick feeling, one that has nothing to do with being forced to eat white mush or from Riley.

“No, I was all for it. Most of my friends had already had sex, and I wanted my first to be with Jayden. He is so hot and muscly. I mean, you remember what he looks like, right?”

“So what happened afterwards? Did he call you?” I wince as I realise Jayden most likely used my sister as a quick screw. I swear, if I ever see that bastard, I’m going to cut off his—

“Oh, he called,
many
times. I just never took any of them. I know your first time isn’t meant to always be great, but he was awful. His kisses were all saliva, his dick was no bigger than my pinkie finger, and it was all over in about thirty seconds. Then he passed out
on me
so I couldn’t even move. It was gross.”

I quickly try to change my thinking from outraged on my sisters behalf to grossed out as well.

“Sorry your first time was so awful,” I finally say, my anger quickly dissipating when I see that, not only is she not upset, but in my exhausted state, I can’t keep any strong emotion going for long.

“It doesn’t matter, not really. I got my friends off my case about finally doing it, and they were all jealous that I got with Jayden Hooper. I just kept it to myself that he was awful.”

I shake my head, not understanding this at all. I never felt any pressure to have sex, however all of my friends were my teammates, and we mostly just spoke about basketball. It wasn’t until Lisa that dating became a common topic, and she never pushed me.

I sense she’s about to ask me again about Marduke, and since I don’t want to discuss it with her, I quickly head her off.

“I’m tired. Do you think we can continue this conversation tomorrow?” I beg, knowing that, when tomorrow comes, I’ll try to avoid it then, too.

“Sure, but don’t think you’re getting out of it.”

“I know. Goodnight, sis. I’m glad you’re here. I love you.” I take her hand, squeezing it. I don’t think I’ve ever told her I love her before. I always have loved her, of course, but usually, we’re arguing or giving each other the silent treatment, as a result we never say it aloud.

“I love you, too. And when Riley is born, I’m sure I’ll love her, too.”

I laugh at her words, feeling relief from them.

“What if Riley is a boy?”

“Then I’ll reserve judgment until I can change his diaper and not get peed on.”

I laugh again, a lightness coming over me. I have not even considered diapers, but it’s a small worry in the grand scheme of things. It’s something I wish was my only worry.

“Okay, then. Goodnight.”

I move over to the door and leave it ajar. As I exit the room, the light goes out with me. I sit down along the hallway and wait. I don’t want to be alone, but since every room I enter lights up brightly, I don’t have much choice. Also, that bed won’t fit all three of us, and I know Hannah will insist I take the bed if I stay. I don’t want to stay in a room all by myself, and Marduke said he was just going to find Ival and then he’d be back. Therefore, my sitting on the ground is only temporary.

I can’t hold off the sleep forever, though, and eventually, I do drift off to sleep. My final thoughts are of him and wondering what he and Ival are doing. He didn’t tell me where he was going or that he would be a long time.

Could something be wrong?

I don’t focus on that horrible thought, knowing Marduke is fine and these tunnels are safe.

If only they could have remained that way for us forever. But as always, trouble is just around the corner.

Chapter 7

Marduke

I find Ival rummaging through drawers and leaving everything in his wake a mess.

“What are you doing?” I ask, stepping into the large room.

There is a large table set out in the middle of the room. Scattered over it are digital maps and building plans. This would definitely not have been left like this, which means this has all happened since Ival got here.

“I’m searching,” he states distractedly.

“Yeah, what for?”

“For any physical information on our… security systems and spaceships. I need to… know how they are able to override our power and shut us… down. This war will be lost if we can’t get up into the air.”

“You really need to do that right this second?”

“What else is important right now?” He finally stares up from the pages in his hand, giving me a hard look.

“How about resting your body or refuelling. I had a quick look around, and there is no food down here. We need to get supplies before we all starve to death.”

“Yes, well, that wouldn’t be such a hard thing if… we didn’t have to suddenly feed a bunch of useless humans,” he growls.

“They didn’t ask to be put on Oden, we did that. Now, how about you get over them being here already, accept it, and let’s move on. Where does our nearest exit come out of?” As I distract him with a change in topics, I see his annoyance give way to his interest in the new topic.

“Technically, our nearest exit is out by the ramp… where the water comes into the tunnels from, but that… is complicated and we will be stuck in the water and easily… discovered by Jeprow’s men from our home if we go that way. Also, we risk… the chance of drowning, and in our fatigued state, I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”

“I agree.”

“There is another, which enters directly through to… our house. Unfortunately, it was placed for the purpose of… getting quickly to safety. It was not set up to help infiltrate it from… within. Without knowing what we’re dealing with, entering from… there will amount to us surrendering. We save that until we know… it can be of use.”

I nod, wishing he’d just hurry up and answer my question.

“Our next entrance places us directly into the centre of Jyin. It would be useful knowledge to… see what state Jyin is in, and if we’ve been able to maintain any… control here. We have a higher amount of hinemas, and our soldiers as well as the majority… of our population reside here. It is important that we have control here.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Then we get it back. We cannot lose Jyin, and we… cannot lose Oden. This is our planet, and we will fight until the death to keep it.”

I nod, half agreeing with his words while the other half of me is frustrated we still have so much to do before I can rest. I didn’t sleep at all while I was mistreated on Jeprow’s ship because I refused to allow myself to rest while I had no idea what Mattie was being put through. Now it has been a week without sleep, without proper food, and Ival is discussing war like we’re ready to face that.

I’m not. I’m ready for a bed, Mattie wrapped up in my arms, and a long, deep sleep. The only reason I want to wake up is so I can make love to Mattie until we both fall back into a satisfied rest.

Entering a battlefield, risking my life to gather food, and having to leave Mattie while I do that isn’t something I’m excited about, but she needs food. Riley needs food, I need it, and so will the others. If I don’t do this now, then I will find it harder to leave later, and perhaps Mattie will fight to come with us. At least, right now, she won’t know we’re leaving, and she will stay down here where it is safe.

“Let’s go.” I groan, pushing off from the table I was using to help me stay upright and then leading the way out of the room, letting Ival take over after a while since he knows where we are going.

Jyin can’t be in too bad of a state, right?

***

Too much time later, we finally reach the exit we want. I climb up the ladder behind Ival as he slowly eases the hatch to take a peek at our surroundings. He is quick to close it again.

“What is it?” I whisper, even though our voices can’t possibly carry out into the open.

“Prepare yourself, brother,” Ival hisses, giving me no other warning about what I’m supposed to prepare for before he swings the door open and flings himself out.

I follow suit, slamming the hidden door shut just as a Claw leaps over my head, aiming for Ival.

It is an all-out war here except there are also our soldiers fighting back. We’re surrounded by destroyed buildings, the hidden door now out in the open. Of course, everyone is too distracted to notice where we’ve come from or even that we are here.

As soon as the door closes, it blends back into the ground. We are lucky the building didn’t collapse over the entrance, or else we would have had to keep going until we could find a new entrance, which might have taken hours.

Ival ducks down as one of our guards slams an arrow directly into the Claw’s head. I notice the men and women have guns on their sides, no doubt most taken from Earth and perhaps a few are our own knockoffs of their weapons, but no one is using them. Either they don’t realise the firepower they have at their hands, or they are choosing not to use the human technology.

As more Claws pour their way towards us, I scramble forwards and grab a hold of one of the guns being ignored. The woman moves to complain at the intrusion, but pauses in shock when she sees my face.

I point and shoot the gun until there are no bullets left, taking down four Claws.

“Drym, you are here?” one of the men exclaims of Ival standing next to him, but instantly, he winces, knowing how Ival hates when someone states the obvious.

“What is our status?” he barks out, taking the gun off the man’s side and looking it over.

Another Claw storms towards our group and the woman next to me stands and fires off another arrow. It’s another direct hit and she crouches down afterwards to stay hidden.

“We’re heavily under attack, thousands dead and more missing. We tried to evacuate our people, however they came at us from every direction. Our spaceships are useless, we can’t teleport anywhere, and we’re losing the battle against the Claws. The hinemas are stationed across the other side of town where most of the children are hiding in the bunkers. Their numbers are depleting rapidly, though.”

“What of our leader? Is he alive?” he asks of our father.

“No word, however we know your house has been taken over. We fear he might be dead. We all thought you were taken hostage, too. If we hadn’t been trapped here, we were going to storm the house.”

“No, this is where you need to be. Protect… our people as best you can,” Ival grunts.

“Move!” someone farther down yells, and we all scramble when a particularly large Claw leaps into the air, landing where we had just been huddling earlier.

I move away from the group, knowing I don’t have the energy for this fight and this is not the reason Ival and I came here.

I run quickly, finding so much destruction surrounding me it takes my breath away. Our cities have always been beautiful, clean, and full of life. Right now, there is only death and devastation.

Leaping over dead bodies and having to go around the dead Claws, I find a group of homes that have so far evaded destruction. Much like the bunkers on Edael, there are hidden bunkers in many houses here. So even though the buildings have crumbled, hopefully people knew enough to hide in there. There should be enough supplies in each to last past this war. Now we just need to win it.

Moving into the large building, I enter and immediately search for a kitchen. I find it fully stocked and grab a bag, quickly filling it up. When it’s almost too heavy to lift, I tie it up and swing it over my shoulder. This will hopefully last us several days.

Heading back towards the secret entrance to the tunnels proves to be harder than I would like, however. More Claws have flooded the streets, appearing to be never ending.

Dodging and weaving around them, I find myself heading back towards Ival, who hasn’t left the small group we found earlier.

He glares at me when I join them and his eyes narrow over the bag. I’m not sure what his problem is, but I don’t get to ask as three Claws sprint our way. I’m not sure if we would have had enough time to get out of the way if a loud ear-splitting whistle hadn’t happened. It came out of nowhere, and every Claw in the vicinity freezes, almost like they’re hypnotized.

They glance upwards, and I see a few women and men taking advantage of their distracted state, shooting them in the head. However, when I glance upwards to see what the Claws find so interesting, I can’t look away.

The sky has been replaced with the image of our home. There is movement out in front, but the image is too far away to make out what is happening.

“What is this?”

“They showed us this when they executed your mother,” one of the men whispers.

The picture zooms in closer, first showing my mother’s head—which is no longer attached to her body—stuck on top of a stick outside our home. The image is awful and gruesome, yet I don’t look away as the picture moves past her and I see Jeprow’s evil grin.

He is standing tall, looking as though he is at ease as he gazes directly into the camera, therefore appearing as though he is staring directly at us.

“Hello and welcome to the next chapter of
A Death in the Family
. The first one was such a success, I thought a sequel was in order,” he sneers, his hand motioning to the side where three men step forward. They are dragging a man who is bloodied and unrecognizable except it’s obvious to everyone who he is.

This is our father.

“I feel a shift in the air. A new change in leadership is coming. Any last words, old man?” Jeprow asks, leaning down over our father.

“Ival, do whatever it takes to get Oden back, and do it soon,” he grunts, his voice quieter and weaker than I have ever heard it before.

“Touching, but don’t worry. I assure you there will be another edition of this coming up soon. Will it be one of your sons? Or perhaps a lover and future grandchild?” he taunts, standing tall again as he stares directly down at the camera. “Stay tuned to find out.” He steps out of shot then, and a different man steps forward with a large blade. While one man holds our father’s head still, he is quickly beheaded before our eyes.

Another whistle sounds and the Claws move back into action. Instead of them being distracted, it is us. The Claws ruthlessly strike back at us, and we all have to jolt ourselves from the fog in our heads.

I dodge out of the way of a Claw crushing the place I had just been standing, and as the tail spins around, ready to pierce me, a soldier runs into me and pulls up his shield, sending a circle of electrical energy around us. While it’s not enough to seriously harm the Claw, it stings it and causes it to redirect its attack. That then gives enough time for another soldier to fire a spear through its head.

“We have to get out of here and regroup,” Ival commands.

“We have to go back down to the tunnels,” I hiss at him.

“We can’t do anything from there. We need… weapons and a way to break the hold they have over our spaceships.”

“He threatened to kill a grandchild. Mattie is the only one who is carrying a child. That was a direct threat on her.”

“She is in the tunnel; no one knows about them. Your…
human
is safe.”

“Not if she starves to death. I’m going back to her.”

“No, you’re not. I’m leader now, and I command you… to stay here. There is too much needed to be done.”

I shake my head at him. There is no way I’m not going back to see Mattie. Partly for selfish reasons, but I also just need to see her with my own eyes to assure myself that she is alive and unharmed. Jeprow just threatened her. I won’t be able to relax until I have her safe in my arms.

“I will give her this food and come back.”

“No, you will—” Ival grabs my arm, ready to order me to obey him, however two men knock us over as a Claw attacks and one of the men is sliced almost in half.

We spring into action, moving, and I’m handed another gun. For a short while, nothing happens except for ducking, running, and shooting. We move as a group, eventually separating into two smaller groups when we have to dive in opposite directions to avoid a leaping Claw.

Slowly, I make my way back towards the hidden tunnel, and as I’m standing over it, Ival grabs my arm and twists it behind me, causing pain to radiate up my arm and shoulder.

“Fine, go back to your human. However, when I… come back down there to get you, I expect your full cooperation. I also… expect you to be wearing your argu. It is of no use down there, and already… I’ve witnessed two near misses, which would have been no problem had you… been protected. Take it off her, or I will,” he snaps and then eases open the hatch.

I don’t give him a second thought. I drop the bag of food down first and then swing over the ledge and climb down, hearing the snap of the latch above.