The manager sighed and curiously asked Axel ‘this your daughter?”
Seriously.
“My one and only” said Axel and looked over at me with a grin. We did in fact look like father and daughter for the very first time, and I found myself silently thinking how much I liked that feeling.
The very loud snort coming from the manager broke me out of my reverie. I guess he was satisfied that nothing untoward was going on, even wishing us a pleasant stay as he handed Axel the room key.
I can’t remember falling asleep, I hadn’t realised just how physically exhausted I was. As soon as my head had hit the pillow I was out, of course there was the tea Axel made me drink before sleep. I was alone in the room when I woke. I found a note on Axel’s bed. It made me smile just because he made his bed, Axel didn’t believe in other people picking up after him. I was informed that Axel was getting our gear and car ready and ordering our breakfast, he would be back in…oh no I had ten minutes to shower and get dressed.
The shower water was as scorching hot as I could bare it. I remember thinking once that all I needed was a long, very hot shower and all would always be ok with the world. Unfortunately this wouldn’t be a long one and I had just finished dressing when Axel came back into the room.
It was a short walk to the diner, no more than two minutes. Who knew two minutes would actually feel like two hours when this was over. The beasts came out of nowhere, in fact I couldn’t see them at first, I was knocked off my feet by something invisible as was Axel. I heard the faint sound of a click and the cloaked world around me exploded to life.
Four of those beasts from my dreams were coming back at us, Axel had a knife, I had nothing, this was not going to be a fair fight. Axel had already punched one in the mouth trying to get his knife under its chin. I couldn’t move. These beasts were enormous and they were making sounds. The one Axel was fighting, it sounded like laughter coming from its mouth. I looked over at Axel and he was screaming “run”. That word again.
I couldn’t move, I wouldn’t, I wasn’t going to leave Axel’s side. I heard the grunt before I saw the beast and it was getting ready to charge straight at me. It was inches away, legs/hands I’m not sure what extended, grabbing at me when I heard a loud explosion. I saw the beast thrown from the spot in front of me, bleeding profusely as it whimpered hitting the ground.
This distraction is all Axel needed, the beast standing over Axel now searching for the source of the explosion didn’t notice Axels’ knife slicing its throat. Three beasts remained, two of which fell following another two explosions. I found the source, a young man standing in front of the diner holding a very large gun. He was looking at me now and neither of us noticed as the last beast bounded toward Axel’s turned back.
The man came up to me hand extended “come with me if you want to live” he calmly said with a smirk on his face. In retrospect I would appreciate the reference, even charmed by it but right now I was too terrified and shocked to do anything but stare at him.
“Lily, it’s ok”. He said my name, how did he know my name. “Your father sent me to protect you”. I didn’t have time to react to hearing that, what I heard instead was Axel’s scream.
I turned just in time to see the beast tear Axel’s knife arm with its claws then slicing into his chest as it retracted its limb. This young man however didn’t miss a beat. He aimed his gun and fired a shot directly into the head of the beast.
There was a lot of blood, I wasn’t sure which was Axel’s and which was beast. I ran over to him and just held him, he was conscious, barely and as I sat terrified and shocked our saviour had taken off his shirt and was pressing it into Axel’s chest wound.
“We have to go now. I’ve cloaked us so no-one can see what’s happened but they did hear the gunshots, we’re starting to get an audience”. He looked at Axel, “can you stand or do I have to carry you” again the smirk.
“Who are you” it was barely a whisper from Axels mouth, I was afraid I was losing him.
“My name is Jason sir, Lily’s father told me that if he died I was to come and protect her because the Palace would come looking for her. He died several days ago and they were not Palace guards’ (nodding towards the dead beasts) which means that Gentech are after her as well. I will explain more when we’re on the road but for now we have to move”.
Axel barely nodded, “stand” he whispered and with that Jason lent him his shoulder and helped him back to our car.
“Get your friend comfortable, I need to get my gear from my car” shouted Jason as he ran towards his car. “Axel”, I shouted after him. ‘His name is Axel”. He just looked at me then barely nodded and turned towards his car.
As I was strapping Axel into the back seat, I quietly said “Axel, please don’t leave me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know if this guy is safe”.
Axel startled me when he opened his eyes “right now, we must trust, he saved us” and with that he lost consciousness.
I had just sat next to Axel in the back seat when Jason piled his belongings onto the front passenger seat and sat behind the steering wheel. He turned and handed me a box.
“There are instruments in here that you can use to fix those gashes, we need to close them he’s lost a lot of blood. You will have to do it as I drive, we need to keep moving.” I must have looked terrified, that’s the only thing I knew to explain that look of pure compassion on Jason’s face.
“He’s going to be OK Lily you just need to close his wounds.” Right I thought. I have a job to do.
I didn’t recognise anything in this box as I screamed in frustration. Our very calm and collected driver however did, he pointed out an instrument and explained how to use it. As soon as I placed it on the end of Axels first wound and pressed the button the wound started to knit together, first the underlying muscle fibres and blood vessels then the skin. It’s all I needed to see to start feeling centred again. This was going to work and everything was going to be ok.
I looked up and noticed this strange man watching me from the rear view mirror, smiling encouragingly. By the time we had lost ourselves amongst all the other cars on the freeway all of Axel’s wounds were closed and dressed and I had given him a prophylactic shot of antibiotics, yet another fancy piece of tech. Axel was still unconscious but his vitals, yes there was an instrument that scanned his body, heart and tissue and gave me his vitals and according to this Axel was weak but ok. Hopefully he would be conscious again soon and we could figure out exactly what the hell was going on.
There was silence in the car, my saviour wasn’t talking, I was not in the mood to ask questions, I turned and looked out the window and became fully aware of the phrase playing over and over in the back of my mind, my father is dead.
The Beast
The pack leader felt like ripping the rest of his useless pack to shreds. Only four of the team who had lagged behind remained. He observed bodies of his fallen pack littered all over the parking lot. His human was not going to like hearing this news. His next communication was due in an hour and the leader scanned the area thoroughly recording as much information as possible for Gentech to see. Special assignment indeed, the pack leader would have enjoyed hearing his human explain that one.
There was nothing else to do except pick up the trail. The pack leader managed to pick up the scents all the way to a car spot in the parking lot. There was something else there too another scent but there were scents everywhere so for now he was going to dismiss this as nothing. Maybe they had someone help them to their car. This was the companion’s blood, he had been badly injured, it was a fair assumption. Also a pleasing revelation, with this much blood that wound be severe enough to slow them down. The pack leader was really looking forward to catching up with them.
Chapter 17
Lily
We had been driving for an hour, at least I’m pretty sure it was an hour co
unting every second to every ‘my father’s dead’, over and over again. Jason finally broke the silence
“How’s Axel doing back there?”
“OK, I think” I said distracted out of my repeating mantra,
“His vitals are stable, I’m not sure if he’s sleeping or unconscious though”. I was worried I hadn’t seen Axel look so helpless before and it made me feel all the more helpless.
“Once it starts getting dark we will find somewhere to sleep for the night and we’ll take a good look at him. He did lose a lot of blood so at the very least he’s going to be weak” said Jason.
“What about those creatures” I could not shake their image “won’t they find us”.
“Not for a while, I’ve thrown them off our trail for now and I still have a few tricks up my sleeve we should have a couple of days before we need to start worrying about them again. It’s going to be harder for them to find us than it is for us to lose them”. Jason was looking at me through the rear view mirror, encouraging smile on his face, it wasn’t making me feel better.
“Are you wearing contact lenses”, his eyes were brown, I was curious.
“Yes” was all he said.
“Lily, I know you must have many questions, I too have some of my own. Do you think they can wait til we’re somewhere safe and secure for the night?”
“Yes” I answered weakly “except I need to know something right now”. “OK” he said cautiously.
“Can Axel and I trust you”? OK so that was a loaded question and Jason looked none too pleased that I had asked it so before he could say anything I leapt right in “Before Axel lost consciousness I asked him the same question. He said you saved our lives so we had no choice but to trust you. Was he right?” Again silence although I think this time he was forming an answer, one that I could accept I bet.
“Lily, I knew your father for a while and I came to love him like my own. He would never have told me about you if he didn’t think he could trust me, he would never have made me promise that I would come to you when he died unless he trusted me. I can never betray his trust that you can believe. Whether you trust me or not, (sigh) well that’s your decision to make, just know that I didn’t come here to hurt you, I came to keep you safe from the people your father thought would hurt you.” Here he paused, watching me in the rear view mirror, waiting for my reaction.
“Is that answer good enough for now” he asked, hopefully. “Yes” I said “for now”, ha a smile. I don’t think I was supposed to see that.
It was strange seeing him here like this, disguised like us. A few days ago I never knew aliens were on the planet and now I discovered that I’d been surrounded by them my entire life, that I was one. The truth is that I’d never even met a young man before and I felt a little weird like I was supposed to act in a certain way, like giggle when a handsome boy was around, that’s what they did in the movies. I didn’t feel much like giggling. Especially since I really didn’t know what he looked like and he really didn’t know what I looked like, at least that’s what I thought at the time.
I reached over and took hold of Axel’s hand. It was warm at least and his complexion wasn’t as ashen as it was when I first patched him up.
“Do you think Axel will need a blood transfusion” I wondered aloud.
“Maybe” said Jason, “Are you the same blood type as him?” he asked somewhat hopefully. “I’m not sure” I said.
“Tell you what” said Jason. “Once we find a place for the night we’ll check him out. There’s a gizmo in that box that tells us blood compatibility. If either of us are matches and he hasn’t come round yet we can give him some blood. I’ve seen it done before, it’s not hard. We just can’t take him to a hospital neither ours or there’s so we’re going to have to heal him ourselves”.
O..K.. then. I sent out a silent prayer that Axel was going to be just fine, this mantra replacing my previous one. I could always revisit my father’s death later when Axel was well and recovering.
The Library
Gordon was most displeased. He felt like locking up the Curator and throwing away the key. One dead Esperanzi, Gentech. Yep that was definitely a growl originating from his mouth. This was a disaster. From a simple snatch and grab to this, Gentech, always one step ahead. How is that possible, unless…”
“Curator, I want your files on all your employees and I want to interview them all one by one, including your file”.
The Curator felt horrified, he knew what the unspoken accusation was “to what end director”.
“I need to know if any of your employees are working for Gentech. Considering where I got my intelligence from and now this, my logical conclusion is that you have a leak.”
As soon as the Esperanzi made an appearance in Wolfs life Gordon started investigating. His informant at Gentech had enlightened him to the existence of Wolf’s daughter. Of course he had only just made the connection feeling put out at believing Wolfs convincing lies. He couldn’t wait to learn from his informant how Gentech had pieced this family story together.
“No, that’s not possible” cried the Curator. “My employees are honourable, loyal people, none of them could have done this. The only other person that knew about the live nanites was Axel and he would never inform on us”.
How much more ridiculous could this man be, Gordon was flabbergasted.
“Of course it wasn’t Axel you stupid man, he’s with the girl right now and they’re running from the Esperanzi. Have you not figured that out yet? I do not know why he’s protecting her, a question for him another time but I am sure he is not your leak. Now please do as I ask before I begin to lose my temper”.
The Curator stared grim faced at Gordon trying to comprehend the enormity of what he was saying, one of the Palace guards shoved Gordon on the arm “Proceed, I will come with you”. Feeling somewhat like a prisoner, the Curator was forced out of the room ready to hand one of his trusted people over to the man that until a few days ago he was willing to risk his own life for.
Chapter 18
Lily
My dreams had changed.
There were no more beasts killing people the beast was now staring at me, throughout the whole dream. Yet it changed from night to night. This night’s dream brought a new surprise, a conversation between us. The beast had looked at me, looked through me and made guttural sounds, eventually they turned into words, single words or two, never more than two words. I had asked it its name “no name” it replied.
“Why do I keep seeing you”? It didn’t answer just shrugged, really it shrugged.
“Why are you after me” I needed answers “orders” is all it said.
“From who?”
“Guardian”.
“What’s going to happen to me” I asked
“Will catch” it said as it curled its snarly mouth up at me staring straight through me with those goldy brown eyes.
“What are you” I asked,
“Creature” it replied, then it smiled, its eyes lowering
“You scared?” that was the first question it had asked me
“Yes” I replied.
“Should be” it said and it chuckled, seriously chuckled. Then suddenly it raised its head, looked straight into my eyes, growled and ran off and just like that it disappeared from my dream and I woke up in a nice, uncomfortable cold sweat.
It had been a worrisome night. Axel had been in and out of consciousness and Jason and I had decided to transfuse some of my blood into Axel. Actually I’m not sure I made that decision. I was thinking about it and I heard Axel say “do it” except I can’t remember seeing him awake. I remember thinking how scared I was, what if it didn’t work, what if it made Axel worse not better and again Axel’s voice “it’s safe, it will help me then I can help you, please Lily, do it”. Again, I’m sure he was out of it and yet hearing his voice strengthened my resolve. Jas
on had to help me, there was no way I was going to do this on my own, putting a needle into my own vein.
Jason was right, it did look really easy to do. First he worked on my arm and then on Axels and as he looked up I noticed that his mood had changed to weary.
“Are you ok Jason” I asked. “Not going to faint at the sight of blood are you”.
He smiled a little then, a weary smile “no” he said. “I’m not afraid of blood”.
And then silence, the pin drop kind. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It would take about 15 mintues to transfuse about 300 mls of blood into Axel. It was going to be a long 15 minutes. I had started to zone out when Jason startled me with a question
“Lily, how much do you know about us” he asked.
“Us as in you and where you’re from or us as in Travellers”, the look on this face worried me a little.
“Travellers” he said.
“Well” how was I going to say this without sounding too stupid? For some reason, I didn’t want him to think that I was stupid.
“Up until a few days ago, I didn’t know Travellers existed. I thought I was like everyone else, you know on TV, on the streets. I didn’t know anything about this. I didn’t even know about the alien archive under the Library. I didn’t even know Axel disguised me when I left the Library, I didn’t even know that everyone in the Library had the same colour eyes as me because everyone told me that my eye colour was a fluke, I didn’t know that they cloaked themselves around me, I didn’t even know aliens had come to earth. I didn’t know anything until I saw that creature in my dreams, it had the same colour eyes as me and I went looking in the library for information and that’s when I got into trouble for looking in that particular section and that’s when I found out what I was and who everyone around me was.”