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  Sully responded slowly, “I know, it’s a shame that none of our parents could raise that cash for us.”

  Achilles shook his head, “I miss them too, but they were put in Gommerstall Prison, nobody has heard from them in years.”

  “No, they escaped, remember? They destroyed the prison and got out.”

  Achilles raised an eyebrow, “We don’t know if they got out, we saw footage of the plane leave the prison and then it exploded, we were kids back then but I know what we saw.”

  “DON’T SAY THAT!” Sully’s outburst shocked the whole carriage, Poxon raised his head from collecting the money.

  “Everything ok?” he asked.

  Both Achilles and Sully looked to the floor sheepishly, “We’re fine, we’re sorry.”

  Poxon grumbled and went back to counting the credits in his hat. Achilles took Sully aside, her demeanour made him think that she didn’t want to talk or listen anymore, but he made her anyway.

  “Look, I miss my parents too, we all do, and there’s nothing I want more than to see my mum and dad back here but they’re not, and we are! We took care of ourselves, we dodged the authorities who wanted us fostered, we are all the family we need right now, and by putting on crummy shows, that cash for that college trip on the spaceship might just be possible.”

  Sully relented.

  “We will get to the spaceship won’t we, Achilles? I really want to go on that zoo trip.”

  Achilles answered loudly, whilst putting a huge arm around her shoulder, “You see us? All of us? We’re all going on that trip tomorrow.” He pointed to the others, “Every one of those kids has been through hell and back since we all lost our parents to Big Man’s shit, but we got through it.”

  Sully smiled and nodded her head in a slight relief, “You really know how to say the right things to a girl.”

  Achilles’ own smile was pensive when returned, “Didn’t work with Jess, did it? No matter how hard I tried.”

  “I don’t know why you’re still trying to win her back you know.”

  Achilles shrugged, “Fair heart never won a maiden, some might say.”

  Sully wasn’t convinced, “Others might say she’s a virus with cheap shoes, plus there is that other girl, Sayles, sniffing around you.”

  “I like Sayles, I’m going to ask her out after we get back if things don‘t work out with Jess.”

  Sully chewed at her right thumbnail and found herself hesitating, “Jess dumped you, chances are it’s over.”

  Achilles’ eyes flicked to his friend’s and then back to Sully, they squinted slowly as Sully began coughing with her head bent down.

  “You ok?”

  Sully gave the ‘thumbs up’ whilst still hacking a nasty cough, “Just a summer cold probably, I’ll be fine.” Achilles wasn’t sure but carried on regardless.

  “You never liked Jess, did you?”

  “Not after the way she treated you and you still run around her like a lovesick puppy, just hope you haven’t invited her.”

  “Nope,” Achilles sighed.

  “Good, because if we can raise the money, I’ll ask my cousins Echo and Enya to come.”

  “The redheads?”

  Sully nodded and coughed slightly again.

  “Well shit,” Achilles said with a grin, “Why didn’t you say so?”

  Rayash

  Dozens of figures entered the National Headquarters of Pure Science at Kornush.

  They strode purposely through the great halls clad in combat attire with laser rifles raised in attack anticipation. Leading the men was a man wearing an old, battered leather jacket adorned with knives of various shapes. He wore a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck. As he walked forward in deep strides with his group, another figure stepped out in front of him.

  It was a middle-aged man who didn’t move right, his steps were awkward and unsure and there was a vacant look in his eyes. He started to blink rapidly and stumbled forward.

  The group stopped and observed that the man lumbering forward was almost nude, apart from a pair of bloodied running shoes. The left part of his jaw was missing as well as most of his left arm, his right arm swung softly like a child’s garden swing in a summer’s breeze, although its hand was missing.

  As soon as the stumbling creature spotted the group, its strange steps turned more bizarre as it tried to hurry itself towards the pack of men.

  The leader of the group began to unravel his long scarf, it was a gift from his wife for his birthday. She got it from the finest silk shop in Kornush, and it did look good with his leather jacket, which she also bought for him from a flea market as he forgot her own birthday the week before.

  The fine scarf was meant to protect him from the dense smoke which was appearing all over Rayash thanks to the plasma flares, but it was now hampering his breathing and he was almost done removing it.

  With effortless calm he got up close to the stumbling being and wrapped the scarf around the creature’s neck, pulling it hard and turning it around. His men looked on as they watched their boss choke the life out of the poor creature; whether it was already dead or just heavily infected with the virus, the men saw what little life slip away from the creature. There was a frightened look in the creature’s eyes as the man tightened the scarf around the infected being and snapped its neck.

  “Excuse me,” he muttered as he unraveled his scarf from the infected man’s neck and wrapped it around his own, he rubbed his hands down on his leather jacket and spoke without looking back at his soldiers, “You ready, boys?” All of the soldiers nodded in unison, “Ok, let’s go.”

  The men sidestepped around the body and continued their walk further towards the science centre, when they were met with more company.

  The woman lay in her birthing chamber, breathing heavily, as her husband stood by her side holding her hand while his wife thrashed around in pain.

  A midwife adjusted her position as the baby was about to come, as another watched nervously nearby.

  “Easy Tashar, breathe easy and push.” the first midwife called to the second, “She’s in second stage right now, head is low.”

  The younger midwife just nodded and then softly spoke, “I’ll check her obs.”

  “Ok, this baby is coming now,” said the older midwife.

  “SCREW YOU!” was the expected reply.

  The nurse was used to such outbursts and carried on regardless, “Almost there, Tashar, just keep breathing, vertex visible.”

  The first midwife’s face dropped for a moment, “Ok, FHR is dropping, your baby needs to come now, you’re struggling, so pull your knees to your chest, take a deep breath and push.”

  Tashar strained through gritted teeth, and with an almighty effort pushed and screamed until there was silence, which was only broken by the sound of a baby crying. A terrific smile beamed upon her husband’s face.

  “IT’S A GIRL! WE HAVE A BABY GIRL!”

  The midwife carefully handed the precious baby to the man and he turned his new daughter to his wife, “Look at her Tashar, isn’t she lovely?”

  Through extreme exhaustion, his wife managed a smile, “She’s beautiful, just beautiful, Kozak.”

  The midwife took the baby away from the father.

  “It’s time to run the tests, Kozak, we have to make sure the baby is the potential.”

  The science centre rocked from another explosion, the fires were becoming more intense. Kozak covered his ears and then went to hold his wife’s hand, he stroked it tenderly.

  “Kozak?” The midwife called again.

  “Ok, do it,” he answered not even looking up at her.

  She nodded and reached into her pocket for her phone and spoke into it, “Could you come now please?”

  After a slight pause, the voice on the other line finally spoke and the midwife nodded again and stood back. There was suddenly a sound like a mini thunderclap and another figure materialized into the room shrouded in thick blue smoke. As the smoke cleared, it was another midwif
e, who wore her pure white nurse’s outfit with blue dreadlocked hair hanging behind her back. The smoke revealed a dark skin and piercing blue eyes aimed straight at the first midwife, her voice was calm and soft.

  “Ok, I’m here.”

  The first midwife coughed and waved her hand in front of her face, trying to fan the smoke, “We don’t need three midwives here, it’s kind of strange.”

  The second midwife hurried out of the room, pausing slightly to look at Tashar, her face was confused and she nodded her head to the new girl and then to the direction of Tashar before exiting, the first midwife coughed again.

  “Do you have to bring so much smoke with you, Silo? We do have a baby here.”

  Silo’s eyes narrowed at her colleague as she began to tie up her loose blue hair, “I’m a Vanisher, Bailey, we teleport and when we do, smoke appears, it’s part of the deal.”

  Vanishers were a race of beings on Rayash, they were teleporters who were mostly the minority on the planet.

  Rayash was filled with many strange beings, not only teleporters but Changers as well; changers were essentially shapeshifters, with the ability to take the form of any person that they had already come into contact with.

  Both Vanishers and Changers studied sorcery and were quite adept, but Bailey and Silo were midwives and very good at their jobs, even as the planet crumbled around them, their main concern was for the welfare and health of this baby girl.

  Silo was slightly younger than Bailey, but both girls were in their twenties, Silo early and Bailey mid.

  Bailey handed the baby to Silo and pressed some buttons on the wall behind her. A blue three dimensional display of the room appeared from a small beam of light at the other end of the birthing chamber. The second young midwife returned, entering from a side door, looking flustered and tired.

  “What are you doing back, Tobin?” Bailey asked sternly, “Silo is here, I don’t need you.”

  “Sorry, I have family problems and have nowhere else to go, I just wanted to help, I just want to learn.”

  Bailey’s eyes closed with frustration, “Ok, you can stay but don’t let it happen again, young lady.”

  “No miss.”

  Tobin again nodded to Silo, who vanished again and reappeared. Silo carefully placed the baby into a medical scanner tube. Tobin joined Bailey as all three midwives got down to work with the health checks.

  The light then honed in on the baby and began to make its way up and down the tube. As the diagnostic readouts flashed up on the computer screens attached to the scanner, another explosion made everyone stumble, Tashar clung hard to the bed rails.

  “That wasn’t a plasma flare, we’re under attack.”

  Kozak listened to Bailey and took a step closer to one of the surveillance monitors.

  “What is it?” his wife asked.

  Kozak’s eyes never left the screen as he replied, “Trouble.”

  Outside the front doors of the science centre more of the horrific creatures were gathered; they had a yellowish complexion, but most of their faces were smeared with blood.

  Their clothes were ragged and torn, it was difficult to see where the clothes ended and the skin began, some stumbled along with missing arms, whilst others dragged themselves along as their stumps left a bloody trail.

  Leg stumps weren’t the only thing leaving a blood trail on the ground, intestines oozed out of bloated torn bodies and were stamped harder into the already bloody ground.

  Kozak let out a tired sigh as laser fire and hand grenades exploding cut through the swarm of lumbering infected and the troops pressed on, shooting down any surveillance camera attached to the front of the building.

  Tashar tried to ease herself from her bed as the explosions grew closer, “Is that guns I can hear outside?” she asked.

  Kozak span around to her and bit his lip nervously, “Like I said, it’s trouble.”

  The leader of the armed men made his way through the charred bodies of the infected.

  “Even though I don’t like killing my own people, we must do whatever it takes to preserve the life of everybody on Rayash.” He gave a look to the people still in flames, “But I think it’s too late for these poor bastards.” Anger flashed across his skin and he closed his eyes and clenched his fists, after a few controlled deep breaths, he opened his eyes again, “I won’t lie to you boys, what’s happening to our planet is scaring the shit out of me.”

  His men looked away in embarrassment at their leader’s choice language.

  “Does this bother you? Me swearing? Not being a sergeant major type? Not commanding respect from you? Well sod that, those days are over, we haven’t much time and I’m not going to lie to you, what lies beyond those doors and what we must do to protect and preserve our people is worrying and unnerving.”

  He gaped at the scene of the dead and rubbed the bridge of his nose due to extreme tiredness, “Anybody who doesn’t want to enter these doors is free to turn around and venture back into the solar flares that are making our beloved planet crumble, they are welcome to take their chances with our brothers and sisters who have succumbed to that cruel rat virus that courses through their veins, now I don’t believe any more than you do that you can truly turn the tide and hide from the sun or cure thousands of the infected, but you’re welcome to try with my blessing.”

  He looked at his men and gave a half smile, “Was that a bit too dramatic?”

  Mason, a new recruit in the squad, usually very quiet, turned for a reaction from his colleagues, when none came, a foolish grin slowly appeared on his face, “Just a little bit sir,” he smiled.

  “Thought as much.”

  The leader took out a parcel from his leather jacket and unravelled it, “You see this? This is from my wife: it’s her homemade fairy cake. It’s a bit big and is as hard as rocks, but I love it because she made it for me; it’s a symbol of our love as she made some fairy cakes for me on our first picnic.” He shook his head sorrowfully, “She isn’t here with me now, so I’ll take a bite to remind me of our love and when I’ve finished? I know all hope is lost.”

  He looked again at Mason after taking a small bite from the cake and put it back in his pocket, “Was that speech a bit mushy?”

  “Pretty much, sir.”

  “Ok, we’ll crack on, as I was saying, if you want to leave and not enter the science centre or temple or whatever it is, then off you go.”

  The leader walked through the remains of the infected and his men and to the back of the group, he made a ‘parting motion’ with his hands and the men moved with their backs towards the walls.

  “Anybody?”

  The man in charge made a face when one of his men politely put his hand up.

  “Yes lad?”

  The solider with intense blonde hair and a pattern of freckles on his face spoke up, “I’m afraid sir, I’m afraid and I don’t want to go in there, I know we’re fighting to preserve our people, but I’d rather take my chances back in my home town if it’s all the same to you. My family is there, my friends are there and if these are to be the final days of Rayash, then I’d rather be with them.” The solider hesitated, wondering how his boss would react.

  “It’s a dangerous world we find ourselves in, solider, are you really sure that this is what you want?”

  Trembling slightly, the young solider struggled with his reply, “Yes please.”

  An uneasy quiet fell over the whole platoon and especially their leader, who shrugged his shoulders and asked for a towel from another soldier, who quickly passed it to the man in charge.

  He buried his head in the towel and wiped away a face full of sweat, “Then you can go, I don’t like the fact that you’re leaving this crew, but never let it be said that I’ll pressure any of my men to do something that they’re not entirely happy with, so yes, you can go and do what you feel is right.”

  The freckled soldier waited a while during the awkward silence and then bolted, pushing hurriedly through his teammates.

&n
bsp; As the soldier fled like a startled spider, a rifle fired from the group, the laser blast cut into the man’s head; his legs kept running, but his head was missing. After what seemed an eternity, the body finally toppled over, his remains had splattered all over his former colleagues, bits of brain and nose were wiped away in disgust.

  The leader reared back in shock as well as most of the platoon. He looked to see who had fired and saw the smoking rifle from another young recruit, his chest rose as he breathed heavily from shock.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” screamed the leader.

  “I shot him, sir,” was the earnest reply from the young assassin.

  The leader threw his hands up in the air, exasperated, “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?”

  “Because he was going to leave us, sir.”

  “I KNOW! BECAUSE I SAID HE COULD GO!”

  Giving his leader a dour look, the youngster raised his little eyebrows, “But you said, ‘You must do what you feel is right,’ so I assumed that was code for ‘If somebody wants to escape, shoot them.’”

  “No, I said, ‘You must do what you feel is right’ because I meant, ‘You must do what you feel is right.’ I wasn’t bullshitting the lad and you’ve just murdered one of your own comrades, I really could have done without this.” His hands tightened a bit more.

  Stay focused, he told himself. They’re losing it, you’re losing it, you’re in charge not them, guide them and free them.

  The leader released a humourless laugh and breathed out hard, “Fine, it’s done now, I’m not going to kill you, we will lose many more lives until we are finally free.”

  The man’s voice had changed, it went back to the clinical detached tone he started out with, “We haven’t much time, so please be quiet and try not to kill anybody unless they’re already dead.” Realising his platoon’s nervousness at the situation, he cut short his words, “Let’s go gentlemen, we have a world to save.” A sneeze stopped him from continuing as a soldier wiped his nose, “I think my hay fever has started sir.”

  Earth 65