"If I'm right, United City should be right behind this hill," Phos said, inspecting the map as he and Kaj slowly traveled up the hill. "I can't believe we made it with so much time to spare." The two headed up the hill, digging their feet into the sand each step they took. Phos couldn't wait to see the city. The excitement that he held in him was overwhelming.
As they made it to the top of the hill, Phos expected to see a blooming city. But instead, lay the remains of a Galactic Soldier's ship. Different from the shuttles that they transported Kaj in, it was a fully fledged ship that Galactic Soldiers would use for space travel and combat.
"What is this?" Phos whispered to himself. He held the map up to his face. The location that they were at was exactly where the picture of Untied City was. "The map is wrong. It's too late."
Kaj slowly followed up as he was just finishing conquering the hill. He heard Phos going on about how the map was wrong.
Phos violently crumbled up the map and slammed it on the ground. The wind kicked the map over to Kaj. He slowly bent over and retrieved it. Unraveling the map, Kaj inspected it, making sure that Phos was reading it right. He studied at the location that they were supposedly at. Nothing seemed to be wrong with that. He looked around the corners of the map, trying to see if any dates or marks were present.
"What's this?" Kaj whispered to himself. He saw, at the top of the map, a very faded date. A date which was far behind the date today. "Phos, look at this." Kaj walked over to Phos, showing him the date that was on the map. "This map is old. Very old. No wonder that Daj never made it to United City. He was constantly walking around in circles."
Phos snatched the map out of Kaj's hand.
"So, like that Daj was, we've been circling around here as well," Phos said to Kaj. Kaj nodded his head. "Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Phos stomped his mechanical foot around in the sand. He did not hesitate to rip up the map into little shreds, tossing it into the air. He turned to Kaj. "Now what?"
Kaj looked over at the crashed Galactic Soldier's ship.
"Why don't we search the ship,” Kaj suggested to Phos. "Those Galactic Soldier's in that ship were probably heading to United City. They must have been using a current map to get there."
"Yes, we'll search the ship," Phos said. "Hopefully there are supplies in there to help us out." He headed down the hill, with Kaj following right behind him.
"I wonder what happened here?" Kaj said to himself. Smoke was still escaping from the top of the ship. Sparks were popping around the exterior.
They both approached the triangular ship. Walking around it once, trying to find the door in, they paid attention to the constructive detail. As they approached the door, Phos tried opening it. Locked. He pulled out his pistol and fired one shot at the handle. The door flew open. They both headed inside. It was very dark. Inside, the ship was huge.
"This is extraordinary," Kaj said, looking around the ship.
"Yep, this is what I used to drive almost every day," Phos said, walking around the ship, bringing back memories from when he served with the Galactic Soldiers. "This sure brings back a lot of memories for me. I miss it."
While walking around the ship, Phos gathered supplies that they might need - water in containers, a few pistols, some stale food. He stuffed the supplies into his bag without letting Kaj know.
"Find anything Kaj?" Phos yelled over to him. Kaj was opening up some chests that were stored in the back of the ship.
He knelt down, opening the first chest. A green light came on, letting him see the contents inside the chest. As he looked around, it appeared as though the chest was filled with armor plates.
"Not really," he yelled back over to Phos. He stood up, finding his way over to Phos. "What do you think happened to the pilots?"
"That's what I wanna know," Phos said, continuing to search through the ship. "Come, let's head into the pilot's room." Kaj followed close behind, trying not to get lost in the dark.
They headed up to the pilot's room. A tall silver door stood in front of them. The door was locked also. Again, Phos shot off the handle, letting the two of them enter the room.
In front of the two were two pilot seats, which were facing forward, and a large windshield with weird symbols displayed all around it. Kaj and Phos could see the top of two Galactic Soldier helmets sticking up from the seat. Both of them walked over to one seat, spinning the chair around.
Both of them jumped back from the frightful sight. Two Galactic Soldier's sat in a bloody mess. Blood was present all across their chest plates.
Phos pulled out a little light, turning it on, inspected the two soldiers.
"Hold this," Phos said, handing Kaj the light. Phos went up to one of the Galactic Soldiers.
"Gross," Kaj said as he shined the light on the human face. "What's wrong with him?"
The face of the human was disfigured. His mouth hung open, letting his tongue droop out. Dried blood was present under his nose. As Kaj moved the light up, he expected to see eyeballs. Instead, Kaj was shining the light through the empty eye sockets, revealing the back of the human's skull.
"Where are his eyes?" Kaj asked Phos. "What happened to him?" Kaj shined the light further up, showing that the human's short hair was very patchy. Phos hovered his hand over the soldier's head, grabbing a chunk of hair. It came off his head with ease.
Phos went over to the other Galactic Soldier. He had the same effects as the other soldier. Phos again grabbed the human's hair, resulting in the same outcome.
"I don't understand what happened to these men," Phos said, walking around the chairs, inspecting the dashboard. He then went back around to view the pilots again. "There doesn't seem to be any struggle. As for the blood, it looks as though they threw it up."
As the two were still inspecting the bodies, they suddenly heard something scurry around. They both snapped their heads in the direction that they heard the sound.
"What was that? Kaj whispered. He shined the light over in the direction of the sound.
Phos snatched the light out of Kaj's hand, slowly walking away from him. He peered out the doorway, making sure nobody was hiding around.
Turning back to Kaj, he said, "Let’s find the map and get out of here as quickly as possible." He tossed the light back over to Kaj. Phos pulled out another one for himself. "You search the downstairs part of the ship. I'll search up here."
They both headed off. Kaj walked to the back of the ship, finding a small pair of stairs that led down. He followed them down, hearing the scurried sound again. Stopping midway on the stairs, he shone the light around. Still nothing. Kaj continued down the steps, into the lower part of the ship. Shining the light around, it was a very short hallway that seemed to lead into a larger room. He slowly walked down the hallway, keeping the light in front of him.
Kaj then heard something fall down in the room ahead of him. "Who's there?" He said out loud. No response. He continued forward, anxiously waiting for something to pop out and scare him.
Walking into the larger room, Kaj was shocked at what he saw. Lined up all around the room were cages. He walked up to the first one and shone his light inside. "Ahh," he screamed, falling back, dropping the light. He brought himself together, picking up the light, shining it back into the cage. At least two rotting carcasses of Daj were sitting in there. Both of which were extremely skinny. He then went over to the cage that was behind him. Three more carcasses laid there.
"What the heck is this?!" Kaj said in an angrily tone. He ran over to the next cage. More dead Daj. Kaj ran throughout the entire downstairs, checking every single cage, all of which contained dead creatures of his race.
"Hello," a scratchy voice called out.
Kaj spun around, racing over to where he heard the voice. He a
pproached the cage, shining the light inside of it, through the metal bars. Kaj saw two dead Daj piled on top of each other, with teeth marks apparently on them. He then shone the light over to the other side of the cage, where another Daj was.
He sat up against the back of the cage bars. Reaching his hand up towards the cage, he then shielded his eyes from the light.
"Please, the light," he said.
"Oh, sorry," Kaj said, lowering the light to where his feet were. Kaj walked up closer to the cage. "What's going on here?"
"The ... the ... Galactic Soldiers," the weak Daj forced out. "They raided my village, snatching up everyone." The old Daj moaned for a second. "Wait a minute young man. Don't I know you?"
Kaj shined the light up to the Daj's face for just a second, getting a better look at him. He did somehow look familiar to Kaj. It suddenly came to him. The old Daj that sat in the cage was the same one that Kaj rescued not long ago from the goons.
"Now I know who you are!" Kaj burst out. He shone the light on the back wall near the Daj's head. "You're the old man that I rescued from before. Remember."
The older Daj's eyes widened as he now remembered. "Yes, I know who you are now. You're that nice boy that saved me."
"What happened?" Kaj asked.
The older Daj leaned up a little. "Soon after the Galactic Soldier's supposedly left in the shuttle with you and the others, they soon returned. They told us that we all were going to United City, and for everybody to get into these cages. All of us were a little skeptical and refused to do so. We all wanted the nice transportation that you got. When we refused to get in, they started attacking us - firing at us and beating us. They forced the remaining Daj that were still alive into the cages. After they packed us all on this ship, they then told us the truth. That we were going to be experimented on for future Galactic Soldier technology. We were all frightened. We all thought we were granted freedom like you."
"So how did everyone end up like this?" Kaj asked.
"Anyway, a little while after we left, all of us heard this loud, screeching sound. We thought it was just the Galactic Soldiers messing with us like we're their pets. But it wasn't them. It was something else. Something I wish it wasn't. One of the others down here told me he heard the sound before. He told everyone to prepare as we were about to crash, and he was right. The ship halted, and we heard a bunch of men upstairs screaming. That loud screeching sound continued for a little while longer. Then, everything went silent. We screamed to see if anybody would come and let us out. But no one came. We started to starve down here. And you know how Daj are my good boy. If we don't get our nutrients and vitamins within a certain period of time, our bodies start eating us from the inside. We were left here to starve."
"That's awful," Kaj said. He was now resting on one of his knees as he listened to the older Daj tell his story.
"I watched as each Daj in here died off, until I was the last one. I would've been gone by now, but I managed to survive by doing the unthinkable and resorting to cannibalism."
"Hold on a second," Kaj said, standing up. He turned over towards the hallway, yelling, "Phos, get down here! Quick!" He listened as he heard the footsteps of a Phos from above. Coming down the stairs and through the hallway, Phos appeared.
"What's wrong," he said. "I heard you call ..." He couldn't finish his sentence. Phos stood there motionless as he shone the light around the room, viewing all the dead bodies of Daj trapped in cages. "What's going on here? What is all this?"
"The Galactic Soldiers," Kaj said. "This older Daj told me that they rounded them all up and were going to use them for experiments."
"This is madness," Phos said. "In all my years of being a Captain for the Galactic Soldiers, and knowing all of our secrets objectives, I've never seen or heard anything about this." Phos went up to the cage. "Are you alright sir?"
The elder Daj was quiet. "I've never trusted your kind, and now, never will." He moaned again. "Your kind has done more damage to this planet than the Oce have."
"Hey!" Kaj yelled out.
"No no," Phos said. "The man is speaking what he feels is true. And I agree with him. The Galactic Soldiers have done more harm than good. We've done more damage than protection. It's not entirely my fault, but I feel a part of it is. And for that, I am truly sorry to you, and mostly to you Kaj. Growing up under fear is no way anyone should grow up. But I'm going to make it up, for the both of you. We are going to get to United City. We are going to get on that ship. And we are going to get back at what the Oce and the Galactic Soldiers have done to your planet, and most importantly, your lives."
Phos pulled out his pistol, firing a shot at the hold latch, allowing the cage door to swing open. Both Kaj and Phos slowly walked into the cage. Phos knelt down, until he was eye level with the elderly Daj.
"Come on sir, we're getting you out of here," Phos said. The elderly man didn't move.
"At the age I'm at, I would only drag the two of you down," the old Daj said. "I only wished this happened sooner, so I could at least see United a City one last time. I hope you two make it to the city, and you as well see the beauty in it as I did."
Kaj felt bad that the older Daj would soon be gone. It felt so weird that someone that was so close to Kaj would be dead soon. Then, a thought came into his head.
"Uncle!" Kaj blurted out. He ran out of the cage, searching the cages again, seeing if his uncle was in any of them. "Uncle! Uncle!" Kaj kept yelling for him, hoping that he would respond. "Where are you uncle?!" Kaj ran back over to the cage that Phos and the older Daj were in. Kaj described to the older Daj what his uncle looked like, hoping that he may have seen him get caged.
"Sorry son," the older Daj coughed out. "The whole scene went by in a flash. I hardly remember anything. I'm terribly sorry."
Kaj fell to his knees on the filthy cage floor. He gagged a little bit, thinking that he will never see his uncle again. His family was gone. His parents, and now his uncle. He kept imagining his uncle lying in a bloody pool of his own blood in front of his house.
Phos knelt down next to Kaj. Rubbing his back, he said, "It’ll be alright." Phos stood back up. He shone the light back near the old man. "Do you know where you can find a current map of your planet? The one we have is very dated."
"Shouldn't there be one by the pilot's room," the old man said. "If not, some Galactic Soldiers have a map programmed into their helmet. Speaking of helmets, how come you are not wearing one?"
"What do you mean?" Phos said.
"Don't you know that our air on this planet is poisonous to humans? That's why the Galactic Soldiers wear those helmets. It's certainly not for the fashion."
Phos quickly turned to Kaj. "That's why the pilots were like that. Breathing in the air caused that to happen to them."
Kaj was still getting over the fact that his uncle was gone. He slowly stood up. "But, why would they do that? You know, remove their helmets."
"They probably didn't want to see what was coming next," the older Daj said. "If I was in their shoes, I'd probably do the same."
"But there's just one thing I don't understand," Kaj said.
"What's that?" asked Phos.
"If the humans upstairs died because they inhaled the air, and you're a human, then how come what happened to them didn’t happen to you?" Kaj and the older Daj looked at Phos very confused.
"Yes, I was wondering the same thing as well," the older Daj added in.
Phos looked at both of them, not knowing what to say. He was at a loss. "I'm not totally sure," he said. "I can't explain it myself. Maybe, I'm somehow immune to the toxic air."
The two Daj kind of rubbed it off, though Kaj remained very skeptical.
While the thr
ee continued to talk, Phos spotted something off the corner of his eye. He thought he saw a figure standing near the stairs. Snapping his neck quickly in that direction, he did in fact see something there.
Shining his light over where the figure was standing, he yelled, "Hey you!" The weird creature scurried up the stairs, not giving Phos or the others enough time to actually see what it looked like. Both Kaj and Phos ran out of the cage, heading towards the stairs.
"We'll be back," Kaj addressed to the older Daj.
They both headed for the stairs, but while they did, a blaring alarm suddenly ignited. The downstairs section of the ship that they were in starting flashing red lights that were on the ceiling. Kaj and Phos stopped and watched the lights flash for a second or two before continuing forward. As they were about to head up the stairs, a large metal door collapsed in front of them, blocking their only exit.
Phos pounded both his fists on the metal door. "Dammit! Let us out whoever you are!" He shone the light around the door, seeing if there was a handle for him to shoot off. Nothing. It was a blank metal door. Both of them ran back down the hallway, back into the large room with the cages. "Check the end of the room Kaj. See if there's another way out."
Running to the end of the room, he came across a wall. No door. No way out. "Nothing Phos!" Kaj yelled over. He ran back over to where Phos was.
"How do we get out of here now," Phos said. "We don't have that much time until the ship leaves." They both headed back into the cage the elderly Daj was in.
"Looks like you're both trapped," the old Daj said. "Just like me."
The intercom for the ship suddenly came on. All three listened as they waited for a voice to follow.
"Welcome passengers," a croaked voice said over the intercom. "Due to two passengers boarding the ship without Captain Authorization, I believe the only solution to this problem is to go out with a bang. Or should I say, boom. Yes, that's right. I've rigged the ship to explode. I would like to thank the passengers who chose to fly with us today, and I hope you will not return." The intercom shut off.
"Rigged to explode!" Kaj yelled out. "We're dead! There's no way out!"
"Who was that over the intercom?" Phos asked the old Daj. "Does it sound like any one of the Daj that were trapped down here with you?
The old Daj shrugged. "Doesn't sound familiar to me. But you'd better hurry and get out of here."
"The drill!" Kaj blurted out.
Phos looked at Kaj with a confused look.
"From the cave. Remember. You used it to cut through the rocks for us to escape."
Phos suddenly remembered what he was talking about. "Let's go. Who knows when this place will blow. Kaj, grab the old man and let's go." Phos raced out the cage, heading back over to the metal door that blocked the stairs.
Kaj went over to the old Daj, trying to help him up. "No, no my boy. Like I said before, I’d only slow you down. Hurry, while you still have a chance. Go!" Kaj raced out of the cage, heading over to Phos.
The silent drill cut with a determined effort, slowly penetrating through the metal door. Phos was carving out a square hole that was big enough for him to fit through. After a few seconds of drilling, the metal slab square that Phos cut out fell to the floor. He turned off the drill, quickly putting it back in his back.
"Quickly!" Phos said, making his way through the door. Kaj followed behind. "We’ve got to hurry! This place could blow any minute!"
They dashed through the ship, leaving the way they came in. Back out in the sandy terrain, they continued to run, getting as far away from the ship as possible. Running up back behind a hill, they both poked their heads up, waiting until the ship exploded. They both tried not to blink as they didn't want to miss it.
Everything went silent. It seemed as though the wind stopped as well. The inside of the ship lit up with a blinding white light. Fire escaped out every window. Pieces of metal were tossed in every direction - some pieces landing close to where Kaj and Phos were hiding.
All that Kaj could think about was the older Daj in there. He probably didn't feel anything or even know the explosion came - as it happened so fast. Kaj also couldn't get his uncle out of his head. He still hoped that his uncle was back at his village, living his life normally, not thinking that he was lying around somewhere.
Kaj didn't even pay attention as Phos was tugging on him to move out of the way. "Come on Kaj. Debris is falling all around us." They both ran away from their old position. A large piece of metal landing where they were just seconds after they left. They both ran down the hill, safely out of the debris zone. "That was close. You need to be more careful Kaj."
"Sorry," Kaj said, rubbing his head. He looked around, trying to see if there was anything around. In the far distance, Kaj saw a strange figure watching them. "What's that?" He pointed towards the creature.
Phos looked over to where Kaj was pointing. "That's it!" He yelled. "That's what I saw in the ship before the door closed us in. He did it. Whatever he is." Phos darted towards the creature, with Kaj soon following. The weird creature noticed that he had been spotted and took off as well. "Come on Kaj! After it!"
They both chased the creature, watching it hop its way away. The creature was very slow, and Kaj and Phos caught up to it in no time. Phos went for the tackle, apprehending the creature. They both struggled on the ground, but Phos ultimately had a grip on him.
"Who are you?!" Phos yelled at the creature. "What gives you the right to try and kill us?!"
"Let me go," the creature said in a whiny voice. "I'll tell you everything, just let me go. You're hurting me. Please."
Kaj went over to the two, trying to separate them. "Phos, let him go. Let him explain." He released the creature from his grasp.
The nude creature stood up, facing the two. Phos got up as well, dusting himself off. The creature reminded Phos of a frog, only with humanoid features. He had no neck, with long arms and legs, with a plump stomach. His fingers and toes were webbed, with three digits on each hand and foot. The mouth he had took up most of his face. He had large eyes that popped out from the top of his head.
"What's the deal you little freak?!" Phos snapped at the creature.
"Listen, listen," it whined out, putting out both his hands for protection. "I was one of the prisoners that the Galactic Soldiers took aboard. They locked me in there with all of the Daj. When the ship crashed, my cell door opened. I went searching around the ship, trying to find food, and I did. While I was searching around the ship some more, I started to hear voices. When I checked the downstairs, I saw a human staring back at me. I immediately thought it was a Galactic Soldier and knew that he would kill me if he found out I had escaped from the cell. That's why I trapped the two of you down there. That's why I blew up the ship. I was just trying to protect myself." The frog-like creature fell to his knees. "So please, just don't hurt me."
"Get up," Phos instructed the creature. He rose from the ground. "I understand where you're coming from, but you nearly killed us. All we were doing was trying to find a current map to get out of the desert."
"A map," the creature said. "I found one." He lifted his arms around to his slimy back. Reaching both his hands into the back of his skin, he pulled out a soaking map. He ringed it out dry before giving it to Phos.
"Thanks," Phos said, unraveling the map.
"What is your name?" asked Kaj.
"Groog," the creature responded.
Phos studied the map, noticing the differences from the previous one. "Here." Phos pointed to a location on the map. "That's where we are, and United City is right around the corner. We should be there soon."
"Why the rush to United City?" Groog asked. "That place is crawling with Galactic Soldie
rs. I wouldn't dare step foot in there."
"Good, because you're not coming," Phos said. "I appreciate the map, but this is an apology for almost killing us. Come on Kaj, we need to get going." As Phos started to walk away, the wind blew the map out of Phos' hands.
"I got it," Kaj said, chasing after the map. It blew over to where all the debris was. He snatched the map from air, holding onto it firmly. Kaj looked around, seeing all of the debris from the ship scattered around.
As he was looking around, he suddenly heard a shot being fired. Kaj raced back over to where Phos and Groog were. He was shocked at what he saw.
"What the heck just happened?!" Kaj yelled. He saw Phos holding his pistol in his hand, with Groog on the ground. He ran over to them. Kneeling down, he saw that Groog had a bullet wound. Kaj stood back up. "You shot him."
"He lunged at me," Phos said. "While I turned and watched you go after the map, the little freak jumped on me. I fought him off my back, and the only other thing I could think of doing was shooting him. I tried not to kill him. I must've hit something important. Out here Kaj, you can't trust anybody."
Kaj didn't say a word. He handed Phos the map. Phos fixed the map. He tried to find the location they were at again.
"We need to head in that direction," Phos pointed. He stepped over Groog's body while Kaj went around it. "We should be there soon."
CHAPTER NINE
THE OUTSIDERS