Pull (Deep Darkness Book 1) (5 page)

It was suppose to be just another day at the river. Hayden swam under
me and grabbed my legs, pulling me underneath the shallow water. I returned
the favor coming up behind him and dunking him underwater. He might have
been a Drok but I knew all his moves. After Hayden it was Aira’s turn for a
dive. I grabbed her hands and we went around in circles creating waves all
around us. Finally I made my way around her and with our combined weight
we sank underneath the water’s surface. I opened my eyes and waved staring
through the red glaze watching her do the same. The red river was all around
me. Bubbles came out of our mouths as we mouthed the word ‘hello’ to one
another before making our way back to the surface for air. Hayden had been
watching us laughing. As I was taking what felt like my first breath justing
hitting the surface (you know that moment before being underwater becomes
too intense) and saw that Dom was nowhere to be seen. I prepared myself for
an ambush but there was nothing. All aournd us the water seemed calm. No
bubbles. No waves. Just still water.

“Hayden where is Dom?” Aira was the
first to ask.
“I thought he was down there with the two of you?”
We all looked around.
We already had a good idea of where he had gone. Dom was the bravest

of the four of us. He was always getting into trouble (getting us into trouble).
He was always the first one to talk to a new alien or climb to the top of a roof
or tower. He was also the best swimmer among us. We all knew better then to
go into the deep… further down the red river. Dom had always said that one
day he would swim there. He was full of pride. Always trying to prove he was
the best. He was the fastest and strongest of us and we had no doubt he could
do it. We just never tried - we knew it was wrong.

Aira screamed for help.
Hayden had to punch me in the ribs to hold me back from diving into
the red. An Arr7 was nearby doing some trade. It had heard Aira’s human cry
of pain and came running. It was massive. It had four long metal arms, each
with three pointy fingers. It had two legs that carried all of its weight rather
then six and a long tail that gave it balance. It was like a metal dinosaur with
human torso and a rectangular head. It looked down at us with its neck bent
forward before jumping into the river like a crocodile. The Arr7 only needed
a few seconds to figure out what was going on running algorithms in its head
to find the best course of action. In minutes a red and silver silhoutte emerged
to the water’s surface. The sun glared off its metal body into our eyes. Using
its weight as a mighty anchor the Arr7 began walking towards us. In its arms
lay Dom. Some Pok nearby had called the medics and a drop ship was
already on its way. Constables were already gathering. The drop ship looked
like a dove in the distnace slowly growing and growing. It’s wings spread
open and out like an angel of mercy before it landed softly on the ground. An
Eek emerged from the vehincle, its long skinny arms held out a breathing
apparatus. It looked like a plant I had seen in a holo; like a venus flytrap it
wrapped itself around Dom’s face and mouth.
I have had nightmares for years thinking about it.
Seeing Dom’s lifeless body struggle on the ground for air.
No alien tech could save him. Aira was right. The river was red because
it is the color of death. I felt like the leeches had killed Dom. I wondered if
from the bottom of the river lay a merman laughing. Had I thought about this
as a child I would have stopped. I would have swam somewhere else or
played indoors. If we had made different decisions maybe Dom wouldn’t
have been so carefree.
Aira leaned over on my shoulder. Both of us were soaking wet.
“Nothing will ever be the same will it?” she asked.

We were riding in an air skiff and I was holding her hand. I said nothing.
She had taken the words right out of my mouth. Hayden had already been
taken home. The Drok have a ritual which begins immediately after death
and he had already begun to observe it. We were leaving the medical
embassy; the only pace humans could be pronounced dead. We were given
only a few hours to say goodbye. Dom’s body was laid out before us like a
piece of art. His pose was that of a child sleeping. Errikus didn’t have
graveyards. Those that died here were burned to ash and thrown in the dirt
or they had their bodies given to their species’s embassy. Dom’s body was
given back to our embassy. He was frozen, his body would be taken to the
Aelita and buried (or burned) in space.

“Just because he is gone doesn’t mean he is truly dead, he is a part of
us,” I continued.
I was read to cry but I felt that I had to stay strong.
I couldn’t let my true feelings out no matter how bad I wanted to.
My shirt was weit with Aira’s tears. How long had she been leaning on
me crying?
Hours?
I had to be strong for her.
I continued to speak when I should have shut the hell up, “Somewhere
in time, somewhere out there someone is seeing through Dom’s eyes, they are
seeing him make his mother smile, his father laugh. The are seeing him live
his life over and over,” I thought then about how someone was seeing this
moment as well. What would they think? Would they feel the sadness I feel
bottled up inside me? WOuld they care for my loss? Somewhere in time
someone was watching Dom’s life - - they were also watching him die.
When we got back to the school it was late and our parents were waiting
for us.
“I don’t want to go home with you!” Aira screamed.
Her mother had always bad mouthed us and said if she could stay on
Errikus she would. Not everyone was happy about leaving. Her mom was a
sleeper. She would go in and out of stasis every ten to twenty years only for
short instances or trips off world. Most sleepers would spend their time
cooking or helping with upkeep but they weren’t awake often. They had no
purpose. ‘Users’ like myself would be awake the most on the ship, sometimes
stasis wouldn’t even be an option. I guess there was something about being
trapped on a ship for so long and waking up in intervals to the same day after
day routine that made sleepers feel bitter as if the walls were closing in. I
would feel pretty bad too if the only thing I was designated good for was
cleaning anthers mess. Aira was the first in her family to be born with the
gene that made her a ‘user’ like me… and like me and the others she would
die long before anyone in stasis ever woke up. Aira’s mother had nothing but
resentment for her daughter and our kind.
“It might as well have been you,” her mother said.
Aira slapped her across the face - Not that it made a difference.
My mother on the other hand wasn’t going to allow that kind of abuse to
continue. Aira was going to stay with us after that but for some reason (guilt
maybe) she decided to go with her mother instead. I couldn’t wait to leave
Errikus forever. Aira’s mother would go to sleep and Aira would begin her
use of the nexus just like I would. We would be on two different ships but we
would both be safe. We would always have the COMs and special occasions
to talk to and see one another. Errikus was never really our home.

Nine Days.
We made a memorial to Dom. The Arr7 and the Eek that tried to save
him came and helped us too. They brought flowers that originated on their
home world. Flowers that were precious and valuable and would have made
good trade now lay planted to the ground, their roots buried in the last place
my best friend had stood smiling, laughing, playing.
Eight Days.
Everyone began to prepare for the three starships to arrive. It was going
to be a huge gathering filled with festivities, music, and food. Not just the
humans were excited ‘The Trinity’ was bound to bring with it gifts from offworld. They would bring news of the outside, the ins and outs of other
worlds, fashions, and news on the war with the Skrav. The elders onboard the
Erebus and Aelita would probably even spend a week or two on the surface
sharing news and tactics that they had learned from the Arr7.
“How are we at war with an enemy we have never seen?”
I had asked my mother this question many times but now it seemed far
more important then it had ever been. I listened close to her words as she sat
me beside her and told me stories that she had heard and even smaller battles
she herself had lived through as a little girl. She would tell me about a
monster named Scar, another named Molack, and another called Vile, human
names given to the Skrav to incite fear and horror. Each of those Skrav were
responsible for attacks against humanity and other species. She would tell me
how after they destroyed our sun and began to hunt us down we were always
just far enough away from them but we had still lost hundreds of colonies and
people who had tried to settle on the different worlds we stopped at along the
way. Each world was nothing more then a pit stop, a place where ‘the Trinity’
could resupply and humans could breathe for a year or two at most. Errikus
had been the longest we had stayed in one place. The Skrav were in a race
with us towards Eden, following behind us. We were two apex predators
after the same prey. A lion and a bear.
That night I sat with my mother on the balcony of our embassy and
stared out at the massive crowd that was already beginning to gather. The
festival and festivities had already begun. This was the biggest event of the
year, possibly the biggest event most on this world would see in their lifetime.
It wasn’t fair that we couldn’t stay. Aside from thinking about Dom I was
anxious all the excitment made me think, “what if the Skrav arrived first?” I
asked my mother with every childhood fear instilled inside my voice. “Mother
will protect you, you will protect Aira, Aira will protect Hayden, the Drok
will protect the humans, the Arr7 will protect the Drok, the Eek will protect
the Arr7, and so on and on. Together we will watch over and protect each
ther, we are all family, united gor a greater good, so long as we are on this
world the Skrav will not come after us, it’s one of the reasons we have chosen
this place,” she answered kissing my cheek and sending me to bed.
Seven Days.
The crowds grew even larger doubling in size. Aliens from the outskirts
had started migrating into town. We received a communication sphere (a
small COM drone) from the Tritan. It was the smallest of the three human
ships and it was to be the first to arrive. It would appear above the planet in
seven days and quickly descend to the space dock (the port) around noon. I
heard that it would be dropping straight out of the immer just above the
stratosphere. It was funny how we still couldn’t go faster then light and yet
we were all so close and far away. There were exotic ships throughout the
galaxy and yet our ships were still some of the most advanced… and by far
the most advanced to come to this backwater world, Errikus. Between the
new ion drives and Lethe tech our journey to Eden through empty space
would be cut in half.
The Tritan, the smallest of our ships, was barely a mile long. It was
meant to be much smaller when it was designed. It was originally nothing
more then a scout ship when originally conceived. Some scientists imagined it
as a two-man vessel no bigger then our a drop ship. The original blueprint
actually became what we base most of our transports and drop ships on now
and the Tritan after a major re-design became the first starship built, a
testament to the engineering of man. The idea bigger is better latched on and
the second starship the Aelita was made to be three times the size of the
Tritan while the Erebus became a ship the size of New York City. Both the
Aelita and Erebus would drop into orbit above Errikus that night with the
Erebus landing close to the outskirts of the city.
“In a few days we’ll be leaving. Are you excited?” my mother asked.
I told her I was and smiled. I was lying. I knew she could tell but that
didn’t matter. She had taught me to be strong. All I could think about was
Dom and the undertow. I had another nightmare that night. I had been
having nightmares ever since he drowned. I dreamt of the red river. I was
swimming alone but then I heard him. I swam towards Dom as his voice grew
louder and louder but he was nowhere to be seen. It was there then I realized
I had swam too far and I was in the deep. That was when I looked down and
saw his silhouette below my feet. I started to feel his cold fingers touching the
tip of my toes and then there was a sharp stabbing sensation. It felt like pins
and needles being jabbed into the entire bottom half of my body. I could see
his figure and at first I thought he was simply pulling himself to the surface. I
thought for a moment that Dom had come back from the dead and then at the
last minute he turned into a Skrav. The Skrav climbed over top of me and the
stabbing sensation paralyzed my entire body. I watched the Skrav shift into a
snake and wrap itself around me while its head twisted into the form of a
shark. I felt its gaping jaw grab me and pull me under. I was caught in inside
the undertow screaming. That was the moment I would wake up.
Six Days.
Aira and I sat alone at Dom’s memorial. Hayden was with his family.
They were teaching him some mourning ritual that involved painting his face
with a black streak, fasting, and lighting incense along with a number of
prayers spoken to praise the dead and pittance honoring fallen warriors. I’m
glad that his family respected Dom in that way.
“What if we see him die?” Aira cried, “what if we use the nexus and we
have to watch Dom’s last breath?” she was in tears. “The chance of that
happening are near impossible,” I said but she had already come up with a
reply, “the chances of us finding all the Skrav ships and changing our future
were said to be impossible too.” I sat speechless for a moment before telling
her that if that were to ever happen then we would honor him… we would
watch no matter how bad it hurt and we would honor him by living. We sat
for hours after and I held her in my arms. Before the night was over she
asked, “How do you live for the dead?” a question I felt unable to answer.
Five Days.
The city was more alive than ever. Music littered every street corner and
alley as people strummed, plucked, and sang in the streets. Even the ghettos
were full of dancers and singers both male, female, and in-between. Everyone
was celebrating. Everyone except Aira, Hayden, and I. “Just because you
can’t be happy right now doesn’t mean you should stay home or lay in bed,”
my mother had said before telling me I needed to go and be with the others.
My mother didn’t want me to spend my last days on Errikus sad and
depressed. She wanted me to remember the city for everything it was.
Aira and I decided that afternoon to stop wasting our last week on
Errikus and continue to explore the city the way our friend would have
wanted us to. We skipped school and using what little money we had we
found a scribe. For half of everything we had the furry Pok took our picture
and gave us two copies. Each of us would have one, something to remember
each other by. We wrote this on the back of each and signed our name, “We
may be on two ships but we will never be far apart.” With the last bit of
change I had left I bought Aira a small dagger. “Even if I can’t protect you,
this will.” She gave me my first kiss after that.
Night came and we watched the various ships come and go from the port
as the sky disappeared. “They look like fireflies,” she said. For the first time in
a long time you could see the stars above Errikus and there directly north a
wide empty black space where the Earth had once been. It was a reminded,
we didn’t belong here. It was a reminder what would happen should we stay
in one place for too long, a reminder that we would be leaving soon.
I wonder what the ‘Sons of Sol’ and the forefathers would be thinking
now. I wonder if this was the great and miraculous journey they had visioned.
Would they still hve let the Skrav destroy our sun? I don’t think anything the
nexus could show me would make me believe this was the right path that
humanity had been meant to be on. So many had lost their lives and yet here
we are celebrating and moving forward simply because it was all we really
could do. Maybe this was how we live for the dead.
Four Days.
Hayden is back with us. We try to spend the day playing, we run
through the strets like rabid dogs tease and tangle with aliens we don’t
recognize and throw rocks in the woods and climb trees as high as we can.
We do everything we can but go near the red river. The day feels ‘blah’ bland
like it never happened. I go to bed and have nightmares again.
Three Days.
We mourn together at the river. No one tells us to go play. No one tells
us anything. Strangers pass us by in the streets and pay their respect with
prayers and flowers.
Two Days.
Every belong I have except for some clothing is now packed and loaded
at the dock. Aira spends the day with her mother. She knows this is the last
time she will see her little girl the way that she is. She spends her day trying
to make up for a lifetime of resentment. Hayden and I spend half our day at
the river and the other half walking, memorizing the smell and look of the
alleys and streets of Errikus.
One Day.
The streets are flooded with music and species of all shapes, sizes, and
color. My mother buys me an instrument called a guitar. It is an instrument
she says originated on Earth. It is as long as both my arms and has seven
pieces of metal wire running down from top to bottom (or rather from one
side to the other). When I first saw it I thought it was weapon but a Pok
named Flet showed me how to strum it and pluck the strings. It was far from
being a weapon. Flet told me how he learned to play from a group of humans
and how this instrument had changed his life for the better. I’m glad for all
the whispers of savagery and war we have still made a small difference to
some. The music it makes is beautiful. He tells me I’m a natural and even cuts
my mother and I a deal on the price (not that we needed the money,
everything on the Erebus would be shared or rationed). I thank him for
making me smile.
Day Zero.
I woke up screaming again. Another nightmare about the undertow.
Another nightmare about Dom. I spent the morning in a cold sweat wrapped
in my mother’s arms before she finally got up and brought me medicine and
something to eat. After breakfast she takes Aira and I to the memorial. We
never thought our last few hours on Errikus would be in mourning. The red
river had been dyed blue for the festival. The city founders had thought it
would be a neat trick to dye their river the color of the ones of Earth. There
in the deep I could still see the red. I could still imagine Dom’s body sinking
to the bottom. I could feel the pins and needles stabbing at my feet. Any
moment now I thought the jaws of a shark would come out of the water in a
wave that would pull me under wrapping its snake like body around me. I
was all in my head. It made me sick.
We finally made it to the docks. It took us several hours even by airship
to make it to our designated positions. The city square up to the landing rail
was filled with thousands of people. Everyone was counting down the
minutes until the Tritan would arrive. If I had to compare this event to
something on Earth I would call it the ‘Burning Man’ of the stars. I was
standing next to my mother. Across the heads of dozens of other men and
women stood Aira on top of someone’s shoulders.
5,4,3,2,1 . . .
Silence. Nothing happened. I looked at my mom for answers. I was
about to ask her the same question that had overtaken everyone’s mind.
Where was the Tritan? I didn’t ask. I didn’t say anything. She wouldn’t have
any answers. Like everyone else we stood there waiting. She looked at me
and grabbed my hand. She squeezed firmly. Hysteria slowly began. People
began talking and causing a small uproar. The founders of the city scratched
their heads. A group of Myra screamed and then we heard them smash a
window as they began trying to loot a store. They wanted chaos. Their boney
crowns and armor were no match for the Eek security. No one knew what
was happening and no one could have planned on what happened next. It
had only been a few minutes and everyone was on edge reacting in many
different way.
Then it appeared. It came out of thin air. Parts of it seemed to appear
and disappear. I felt like the world itself was being torn in two. The air would
heat up and then immediately grow cold. I became harder and harder to
breath. It was then we saw what was happening. The Tritan had appeared
and pieces were breaking off like rain falling from the sky. Falling over our
heads. The sky was literally falling. People began screaming and running but
for those closest to the center there was only silence. No time to run. The last
sounded like a train tearing apart on its tracks. The Tritan burned and twisted
as it came out of the immer piece by piece raining hell down onto the ground.
I reached out for my mother’s hand but couldn’t feel her. Why did I let go in
the first place? I didn’t have time to react. I fell to my knees. The crowd
moved around me and shoved me bruising my sides and shoulders. If felt like
hours but it had only been a few seconds before I turned and looked to my
left. I found my mother lying on the ground. Everything after seemed to fade
to black. The Tritan screeched one more time as it positioned itself on the
ground in two colossal pieces less than a mile away like ship sinking on the
ocean floor devouring any poor soul stationed underneath. There it settled. I
watched as a cloud of dust came towards us like a tsunami. Everything had
gone silent or perhaps I had just gone deaf. Dust and ash flew out from below
the ship covering every in of the air. I could hear the Myra screaming again, I
wasn’t deaf after all. The closest to the epicenter were dead already, the ash
and air mixed together turning their lungs into cement suffocating them in an
instant. Others had become nothing more than black shadows etched onto
walls and the ground. It was their remains mixed with the debris of the Tritan
that surrounded me now. It was then we heard the cry of the beast…