Start of Part 9__________________________________________________________________________________________

“Well. You can tell your dad that I’m up for anything. Just don’t tell him that I’ll be going into hiding for the next few years.” I patted the locked chest and stood up.

“Hey thanks for bringing out the stuff.” I smiled, happy to move on.

She shrugged, “I’ve been using it as a desk because some bright shit decided to take all of my chairs the last time I was out.”

I chuckled awkwardly. I don’t know who it was but people are weird sometimes. They just up and took all the chairs and benches, why they would need so many things to sit on? I have no idea.

“Are these the bat-erryz?” Malinda asked me. Saying mispronouncing words should be illegal because it’s too adorable.

She'd snuck up on me at some point and was still ducking low. It was probably the smart thing to do; but the gangs generally just fire a few shots and run away. Whenever they fire a round they alert everyone that there’s an enemy nearby and it usually starts a chain reaction of firefights. Standing around talking probably isn’t the best thing we could be doing right now. Fear the enemy you don’t see and not the one you do see and all that.

“Yeah. These are your batteries.” I corrected. 

“Ashley can we borrow a backpack? These two want our amazing batteries filled with magical powers.” I said as seriously as I could. I had to admit it sounded ridiculous.

“Sure. You’ll owe me though.” Ashley shrugged.

I chuckled awkwardly before saying seriously, “So long as it’s not something involving your father.”

“You and your friend heading back now?” Ashley asked curiously.

I shook my head and sighed, “Nah, I’ll be taking them up toward Earlwood to tap into my electronics cache.”

“The fighting is pretty severe there, be on your toes Haris. It’s not gonna be a random gangster taking a few shots before running off like just now.” Ashley advised solemnly.

“I have a big green walking man of iron and a red skinned girl that can deflect bullets, I’ll be fine.” I forced a smile.

As of yesterday my life had quickly become absurd and alien in and of itself. Knowing what Welkin and Malinda have told me I know now that this is all only going to get worse. How long before more unspeakable monsters from their world decide to pass the threshold and come to this world? How many can we expect? How powerful could they be? After seeing Malinda deflecting bullets with a few words and the flick of a hand I’m not confident we could stop them. I’m not even sure I’d want them to be stopped. We will go to war with them that’s an inevitable fact however. I know that much from my General Galactic history classes. Humanity had started the war with the Luudesi. The Luudesi had seen humanity as a sister species. To them we were derived from the same ancestors and while far more savage, stupid and ignorant than them; they had taken it upon themselves to educate us. However humanity in all is endless stupidity considered the Luudesi as a species of slavers, each of them monsters in their own right. 

The Luudesi kidnap select members of sentient species that they find suitable and turn them into Luudes. The process that turns a being into a Luudes strips away all previous personality and memories, keeping only knowledge. It stripps away the supposedly tainted flesh of base lifeforms and replaces it with the refined form of a Luudesi template. The entire process is quick, painless and equivalent to a rebirth of sorts. Luudes are both war slave and trainee to the Luudesi militant social structure. After serving in the Luudesi military for enough time and gaining enough achievements a Luudes finally becomes a free citizen of the Luudesi Empire and at that time are hence forth recognized as a Luudesi. At least that’s what we had learned in regards to such things  before we cut communication with them. 

The Luudesi took offense at such stupidity from a species they considered themselves so closely related too and declared war. It was only later when humanity's relations with other alien civilization that we realized just how big of a mistake we’d made. Our most important lesson being that in our galaxy the Luudesi are in charge. When the Luudesi speak, the galactic civilizations either get in line or grab their guns. Anything less would just offend the Luudesi further.

I reviewed the information in my memory like it had grown fur and legs. I was horrible at General Galactic history, how do I even know this? I never payed attention in those classes and I only even went once. I got an N for it which I didn’t realize was a grade I could get. I thought it was a joke grade that they gave to me because I never showed up. I only learned later that N stood for None, as in that I couldn’t be graded because there was nothing to grade. Not that I needed to pass it in order to graduate and so was why I never attended it in the first place. I only really found interest in the subject after graduating.

“What could go wrong? A purple elephant with horns flies through the sky and flattens us? I should be so lucky.” I joked darkly to myself.

I handed the backpack to Welkin after filling it half with batteries. We’ll save the rest of the space for a few phones and maybe a laptop.

“I’d watch out for them if I were you. Those Yelperphand can get pretty nasty if you aren’t careful.” Welkin said to me seriously after taking the backpack from me.

I glared at him, he had to be fucking with me. However he looked very serious and I wasn’t sure if I should laugh it off or quake in my boots at the prospect of flying purple elephants with horns. I decided for indifference. I wouldn’t play their game.

“Come on. Let’s get your stuff.” My voice harsher than I’d meant it to be.

“I’ll be going further south. I’ll contact you once I’ve found a good place.” Ashley told me as we waved goodbye.

“Take care of your scales.” I smiled.

Malinda and Welkin muttered their goodbyes and the three of us left the train station via the train tracks. We headed Northeast East along the train tracks toward sydney airport where my electronics were I had a small stockpile of electronics. Most people in the city tend to avoid the train tracks, I’ve only ever seen unaffiliated willing to walk along them. It’s probably because we grow up having it ground into our heads that walking on train tracks is like courting death. Obviously the trains don’t work anymore, just like all other public transport in the city; but we or at least I still have an inherent fear of getting run over by a train. 

We made it to Wolli Creek where the train tracks split off towards to north and south east. There we climbed up onto the platform of the Wolli creek train station and headed past my favorite bakery before the city went to shit, past a round about and cut through the Princes highway to Cahill Park. Once there we crouched a tree which was kind of pointless. I just wanted to play at knowing what I was doing for a bit and it seemed like the right thing. Especially considering that the gunshots and shouting had become deafening. The gangs were fighting somewhere close to the park and it sounded like it was coming from the south or maybe the south west. To south was apparently a gold club according to my gps. It sounded like they were closer than that however, so most likely they were fighting on and around Innesdale road and Flora street. I turned back towards Welkin and Malinda and noticed that Malinda kept flinching whenever she heard one of the higher caliber rifles snap the air.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Yeah, this sucks.” I said said to them.

“What are we waiting for?” Malinda asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Nothing, just catching my breath.” I lied.

My first instinct was to run and hide until the gunfire stopped. We had an objective to fulfil however and somehow I felt compelled enough to do it that any fear I felt was squashed down and extinguished. It also helped that I was sitting at home and watching TV through Rachel. That was pretty relaxing other than that she was hungry again.

“We should get moving before they’re done and start looking for survivors. No time to sit around Haris.” Welkin gruffed in his weird mutant alien scottish accent.

“Sure.” I shrugged. I’ll find out what that shootout was about later.

I led them through the park, noting that someone had taken the liberty of spray painting the web address for the forums over the ghastly painting alongside the walls of the City of Sydney Netball Association building. One of the few good things to come out of the cities quarantine in my opinion.

We cut through the park, walking for a short while along cooks river before crossing the bridge. Since we’d arrived I put away my phone, noting that it was now seven pm. It’ll probably be eleven by the time we return which isn’t ideal. Not that we can do anything about it. Driving a car around would be too risky. Not to mention that I don’t even know how to drive. I led us to the customs building where I’d hidden a three or so laptops and a stack of phones in a safe. We managed to fit all the phones in the bag and one laptop.

“Are you sure you don’t want the other two laptops? I don’t plan on coming back here so I might just take them with us anyway.” I scratched the stubble on my chin as I thought about it.

Honestly I’m not a laptop person so I’m thinking I’ll just leave them here. I looked at Malinda and Welkin for a bit before shrugging.

“Let’s head back then. Rachel should be getting hungry by now.” Malinda was already at the door waiting for us when she said this.

There wasn’t any reason to stick around here and the gangs firefight seemed to have cooled off for now. It was also true that Rachel was hungry.

“You’re right. We should get back quickly.” I conceded and the three of us started on our way back.

I felt the tension of the day so far drain out of me and took a moment once we were outside of the customs building. I stared up at the hole in the sky. Here we were right under the center of it. I felt disconnected as I watched the alien world slowly rotate in the night sky. It was night time there as well at the moment and I could see the patterns of city lights cracking the landscape.

I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it. I wasn’t ready to say it but I knew what I wanted. I wanted to go with them when they went back to their world. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask them. They didn’t trust me, not yet and not anytime soon. Rachel would be going with them. I thought absently.

“So is there even any point in being Haris anymore?” I asked myself aloud through Rachel’s mouth.

Down this road be madness. I chuckled to myself and discarded the entire thought. I heard Malinda and Welkin’s footstep come to a halt on the gravel suddenly and looked back at the two.

“What’s up?” I asked with a raised brow.

Did I say that aloud as myself as well? That could be bad. If they found out Rachel was me they won’t be willing to take her or rather myself via proxy. Well, if my connection still works at all between worlds.

“Nothing. Just thi-”

A howl interrupted Malinda and drowned out all other noise. I hunched over in pain as I covered my ears to try and block out the sound. The howling stopped only to be replaced by the snarling and barking of hounds before another howl sounded and I felt like my head was going to explode. I felt something break and the pain stopped. All the noise had been replaced with deep muted tones that I couldn’t make sense of. My hands felt wet and warm and when I brought them away from my ears I found that they were covered in blood. Had it really been loud enough to burst my eardrums? I thought with not a small amount of confusion. I felt dizzy now, like I was going to faint or throw up. Since when could dogs make a noise that loud?

End of Part 9__________________________________________________________________________________________

AUTHOR explains: So I would have had this done a few days ago. Like four days ago or so. But I experienced something of an emotional break down after getting into a fight around eight days ago. Yeah, I wasn't really even doing anything and the other person spat poison with their words. A bit too many of those words dealt critical blows and I flew into a rage and spoke with my fists. Apparently I'm a lot better at speaking with my fists than my brother is so I just up and left after punching him once. Anyway I thought I was above violence and learned that I don't know shit so I was pretty depressed. We both went too far and we've now forgiven each other. But that doesn't mean I've forgiven myself for using my fists instead of just walking away from my brother who's 27 and was chucking a hussy fit at me for making myself a coffee at 3am.

Anyway I sat on the beach, watched the sunrise alone, cried a few tears. Throwing punches is a big deal for me because of my anger issues. So yeah, this is why it's been a few days later than I'd been meaning it to be. I didn't get much writing done, actually I only just finished writing this part just now so it's probably a bit jank. My brains still not entirely in the writing mind set so I'll probably be having some difficulty's writing for a few weeks. Regardless I'll do what I can to get them out on time but I make no promises.