“Keep running!” I say, sprinting through thick vegetation behind Vodkis. I cover our six by firing lethal energetic shots at hunters as she leads us through the forest.
“Zazarel, I see a clearing up ahead!” Vodkis says. The moment I turn around to see what she’s talking about, a shot flies past my right ear, exploding a tree next to her. “Ah!” She gets knocked to the ground. I stand behind her and suppress the hunters with a blinding amount of explosions.
“Are you okay?!”
“I’m good! We’re almost there!” I stop firing to get her on her feet. The hunters fire blindly through the smoke, with some shots almost hitting us. “Go!” We spirit for the clearing. It ends up being a cliff that overlooks a deep drop. Straight ahead is a waterfall, and below is a river.
“Um, what do we do?”
“Jump!”
“Jump? Zazarel, that’s a deep fall, and I can’t fly!” I point at the waterfall. “There?”
“Go for it!” She squats down to prep herself to leap. When she lunges, she shatters the rock I’m standing on and zooms into the sky. “Whoa!” I’m astonished to see such power from her. I feel like at any moment, she will muster the ability to finally fly.
I hover close behind Vodkis. She swings her arms and legs to keep her balance in the sky. Once she reaches her maximum height before falling, I catch her and hide behind the waterfall.
“You could’ve just gone around the water. Now we’re all wet,” Vodkis says. There’s a small indention in the hill below us we hide in. It’s big enough for us to sit inside. She unravels her hair and then wrings the water out from the wrap. “Two days on the run. When are they going to give up?”
“I don’t know,” I say without an ounce of hope in my voice. I graze her hair with the backside of my fingers to take my mood off the persistent annoyance from the hunters. Even though it has been wrapped for days, it remains soft. She smirks, giving me a side-eye as I continue rubbing it. “We’ll stay here for a few hours.” Her smile withers away. “I know, I know. But, better safe than sorry.”
“Fine.”
“Get some sleep. You’ve gone too far over your shift. I’ll keep you safe, so don’t worry.”
“Open your legs.” She lays back on me with the back of her head on my chest, then takes my hands into her lap. Her stomach growls underneath my palms in a consistent grumble.
“Would you like some fish later?”
“That sounds so mouth-watering. Zazy, don’t make me more hungry than I already am. I could eat a whole fish that’s half the size of my height.”
“Sorry, Vodkis.” Her stomach growls again. “Sleep well. I’ll keep an eye on them.”
I stay motionless to give Vodkis the best possible nap for the situation we’re dealing with. The hunters roam in the open, flying by or hovering in the sky. One hunter comes inches from the waterfall. His silhouette appears through the water. The exhaust from the jetpack fumes up the hole with its pungent odor. I place my nose under my shirt to filter the smell, then hover over her nose and mouth with my hand. I create a subtle verve barrier to block out the scent so she can sleep without detecting the pungent odor. The hunter leaves, including the other search parties, one by one.
“Thank goodness,” I say. Sometime later, I try to wake Vodkis up by rubbing her stomach with my thumb. She grunts while mumbling her words. “Time for lunch. Come on, let’s go.” I gently sit her up. She slouches but catches herself and yawns.
“I’m gonna need more resting than that,” Vodkis says, peeking her head out the hole. “Are they gone?”
“They’re gone, but I’ll check.” She scoots over to let me pass.
“Be careful.” I peek around the falling water as if it were a wall. Everything sounds normal. Birds chirping, water falling, nothing out of the ordinary. I scan the ridges for any lurking hunters as I slowly rise to the ground above me. There’s no one I can see or hear, so I head back to Vodkis.
“It’s safe,” I say, picking her up. “Where do you wanna go? Up or down?”
“Down, you big dummy. Did you forget about the fish? Plus, I wanna walk along the riverbank.” I take her down to the ground to let her roam while I search the river for something to eat. “Zazy, look in the sky!” There is a colorful ray of light streaming out from a gray cloud.
“What is that thing? Did someone spray paint from the clouds?”
“I don’t know, but it looks so cool!” I don’t say it out loud, but I find the strange phenomenon amazing. “Take me closer to it.”
“First things first, food. You, small dummy.”
“Don’t you ever call me that.” She shifts her lower jaw out to bare her fangs.
“Sorry. I..I... I didn’t mean it.”
“I know,” she laughs and sticks her tongue at me. I sigh with my hand over my heart. “Did I scare you?”
“Yes. I thought I insulted you.” Her smile pivots into a light giggle, then her eyes suddenly lock on something flowing through the river. She walks into the water, grabbing after something. “What do you see?”
“Got you!” A long giant brown fish with white stripes wiggles in and out of the water. “A little help here, Zazy? This thing is slipping out of my hands.”
“Coming!” I help her bring the fish to the bank for her to kill it with a single punch to its head. “That should do us good until our next meal.” She cuts open the fish with her sharp nails, then guts it clean. “This is the life, eh? Running, roaming, hunting.”
“If we didn’t have to run, this wouldn’t be so bad.” I’m a bit surprised to hear her say that.
“Do you like being in the wilderness?”
“Mhmm. When we’re not being hunted, it’s so peaceful out here. I don’t have to hear the cracks of a whip, the agony of the pain in people’s voices. And listen...” All I hear is the distant waterfall, the river sloshing down the stream, and the subtle wind. “This is the ambiance I needed in my life. It brings me to tears how calming it sounds.” I agree with her by nodding my head. “I hope the ladies I worked with survived. They were good to me.”
“Alric,” I whisper, gazing up the stream. “I hope he and that woman made it out. He always dreamed about being with a woman he liked.” Vodkis sighs as she crosses the water with her fish in hand. She runs it through the water, cleaning the insides, then leaps on top of the ridge out of my sight. I lag behind her, thinking of the possibility Alric might’ve died in the explosion. He’s not known for his speed in flight. King Melon’s devastating attack still hurts to this day. My legs are bruised from the electrocution from narrowly escaping. I’m surprised I’m capable of standing without any significant pain hindering me.
“Damn, that King,” I say, biting down on my teeth.“I will not forget what he did. This fight isn’t over, Melon!”
“Zazy,” Vodkis says in a gentle yet loud voice.
“Yes, Vodkis?”
“Let’s eat, my love. Make a fire.”
“Right... Coming!”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
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One day passes. Vodkis and I move north, exploring our damp green world. There is so much untamed land free from Melonian influences. So far, I have not seen a single shred of evidence that our people came through here.
Vodkis jogs ahead of me, jumping in the air every few steps. At first, it seems a bit goofy the way she keeps hopping, but then I realize she’s trying to float. She hovers on certain jumps and falls back down on others.
“You can do it,” I say, running with her.
“I’m so close. I can feel it!” In one power jump, she takes to the skies. “Woo!” She shouts, making her voice echo throughout the valley. I fly under her just in case she falls to the ground. Her flight continues upward without any hint of dropping.
“Oh my gosh!” I gasp. “I think you got this!” Right when I’m confident that her ability to fly is manifesting, she begins to drop.
“Um, Zazy?”
“I got you.” I grab her before she falls two feet. “That was good, Vodkis.”
“Damnit! I almost had it. What is wrong with me?”
“Nothing’s wrong with you. It takes time to get a feel for it.” Her arms lock around my back while she continues to whine with her head pressing on my chest.
“I wanna fly right now.”
“Be patient. You’ll get there one day.”
“Zazy,” she says, lifting her head back up. “I...” She looks over my head. “Who’s that?” I turn around to see what she’s looking at. It’s a silhouette of a woman. Her body isn’t stationary. It wiggles left to right from top to bottom.
“Vodkis, get on my back. Right now.” As I rotate to face my stomach to the ground, she crawls to my back. I reposition to a standing position to get a good look at the dark figure and ready my hands to fire energy shots just in case the woman is hostile. “Who are you?” She doesn’t say anything. The more I gaze at the aberration, the clearer the form evolves. “Wait a sec... I recognize that thing,” I whisper to Vodkis.
“Where?”
“When I was heading back to the men’s quarters after leaving your place, I saw her floating in the clouds. I thought I was hallucinating.” The woman points to her right, off in the distance where mountains are. “What is she doing?”
“Maybe she’s telling us to look over there.”
“Are you certain? I don’t see anything to really look at.”
“I don’t know.” I hover closer to the ghostly woman. Vodkis secures her arms tighter around my chest and her legs on my pelvis. I keep my hands up just in case I have to attack.
“Who are you?” The woman doesn’t say a word but continues to point. “What are you?”
“Go west! Seek salvation!” It yells in a low feminine doubled voice then fades into nothing. I move to the spot it was hovering in to check and see if it’s really gone.
“Do you feel that?”
“It’s warmer here,” Vodkis says, reaching the open space in front of me. “What the hell was that thing, Zazy?”
“Your guess is good as mine.”
“Hmm,” she hums, softening her grip on me. “What should we do now?” I weigh the outcomes of continuing north following the river versus going west into more unknown territory. “Maybe the thing was a message. If there are more of our people, perhaps we can enlist them to return to our plantation, yeah?” Her insight is hopeful. An idea like that sounds promising, yet we’re going off a whim of the woman being friendly.
“What if it’s a trap?” Her answer is a quiet sigh through her nose and a mild tightening of her arms around me. “Damnit...” I whisper through my teeth, hovering in the direction the woman pointed without looking at where I’m going.
“Huh? We’re really going?” I bring Vodkis’s right hand up to kiss the back of it, then interlock my left hand between her fingers. “Hey... Is everything alright? You don’t normally do that unless something is bugging your mind.”
“If there’s help in that direction, we must take it. I just hope we’ll find peace.”
“I believe there will.”
“Yeah?”
“Chin up, my big guy. To the mountains, we go.” Her sarcastic yet enthusiastic tone doesn’t resonate with me. I’m not too happy with alternating our route. I’m worried I’ll get lost and lose awareness of where the river is if we need to fall back. Easy food will be harder to hunt since I’ll be doing most of the hunting. Vodkis can’t fly. She’s not a fast runner, so chasing animals will be pointless if I cannot do it.
“Ugh, here we go.” I fly across the open field, staying low over the high grass. There’s another forest far up ahead that might extend towards the mountains.
“I’ll sit up to spot if anyone is around.”
“Sounds good.” She gets into her criss-cross sitting position. I elevate my flight to add some height to help her spot things at a distance. “What... is that?”
“Hmm?”
“It’s right above us. Looks like white vultures?”
“White vultures? Let me see.” She hops off my back once I slow down. I check the skies to spot what these white vultures are. The birds circle high in the sky, directly over our heads. I sniff the air to try to locate where the dead carcass is. “I don’t smell anything? Are these even vultures?”
“I’m not sure anymore.”
“You should go fly up there to see what exactly it is.”
“Sure. Be right back.” I leap into the air at a fast speed to prevent the birds from bolting too far. I snag one of them and immediately notice something is off. It isn’t real. This bird is a hard white piece of plastic. The eyes are not in the skull but under its stomach. When it moves, it makes a low buzzing sound. “What is this thing?” I release it, but it stays around me. “Very strange. Who made this?”
“Zazarel!” Vodkis yells. I quickly look down to my right to see what’s going on. She’s backing up with her hands raised, looking forward. Hunters emerge out of the forest with their guns raised at us.
“Get down, or we’ll open fire!” A hunter yells from out of the group. One of the hunters rushes her with their gun raised.
“I’m surrendering,” Vodkis says. She trips onto her butt when the barrel of the gun rams into her stomach. “Hey! I’m giving up! You don’t have to do that!” Her trembling voice is enough to jump my heart up further than it already is. I fly to her but stop when all the hunters point their weapons at me. “No! Zazarel, please put your hands up!” Her wish falls on deaf ears. I am not going to surrender to the likes of them. “Zazy, what are you doing? They will kill you!”
“Put your hands up, NOW!”
“Vodkis, run!” I say, zooming straight for the hunter by her. Vodkis retreats the way we came while all of them try shooting at me. Instead of letting out a volley of energy blasts, I lob a charged ball at them. It lands between the hunters and explodes. The shockwave knocks me off balance, but I regain control then immediately go for her.
“What was that?” Vodkis says when I pick her up.
“I don’t know. It just came out like that,” I say, looking around for where to fly towards. Two emerge from the smoke firing at us with close-call shots. One grazes the tips of my hair and shocks me a bit. “Damn! They’re trying to tase us!”
“Fly into the woods and try to lose them there.”
“Good idea.” I head there to shake them off my tail. “Hey, I need to use my arms.”
“Oh! Right!” She locks her legs and arms tightly around my back to the point it somewhat hurts. I use the same charge-up attack from before. The explosions carpet the ground, blowing up everything in sight. Just to add more chaos, I toss some far to my sides to make it seem we are in different places.
“Let’s see if that worked.” I throw one far ahead of me, then fly up into the thick foliage of several tightly knitted trees. No one notices us coming up here, but I remain hidden just in case.
“Oh, crap!” Vodkis whispers loudly.
“Shush,” I say, putting my index finger against my mouth. I don’t entirely blow air out my mouth when I notice she’s grabbing her hair.
“My wrap! I lost it!” Out of nowhere, a hunter hovers over our heads. Vodkis covers her hair with her hands, and I use my arms to conceal more white from showing the green foliage. She’s breathing through her mouth. I shush her, hoping it’ll make her silent. It doesn’t. Now she breathes through her nose at a faster rate.
“Calm down.” She whimpers a bit when another hunter joins in. Her body starts to slightly tremble. “You’re okay,” I say in a tone we can only hear.
“Where did they go?” A hunter says. The second hunter glances down to continue looking elsewhere. “How the hell did we lose them?”
“We’ll keep looking. I don’t want the King to send Shivera to punish us. Let’s keep going forward towards the last explosion. They must be there,” the second hunter says. They fly away out of sight and in earshot.
“They’re gone,” I say, tugging on Vodkis’s left hand. She keeps her hands where they are and presses her forehead into my chest.
“Are they gone, truly?” She says. I close my eyes to hone in all my senses to detect if anyone is nearby. “Well?”
“Nothing. You can relax now.” She lets me put her hands down. I straighten her hair with my fingers, then kiss the top of her head. Her trembling slows down, but I wish it’ll stop. “It’s okay.”
“No, it is not,” she says, looking up at me. Her eyes are drenched in tears. She ends up crying while clutching my shirt into her eyes. “We’ve been at this for days! I can’t take it anymore being on the run!”
“Do you want to surrender to them?”
“N-no... Never. I just want us to be left alone.”
“I want that too. I’m just as frustrated as you are, but I fear this will be our life until we can find a way to fight against the Melonians.”
“Ugh!”
“I know. I know.” We cuddle in silence. I give her back rubs, and light kisses on top of her head to make her feel better. The trembles cease, including the heavy breathing. It saddens me to see her stressing out. I don’t know how long she’ll be able to handle this. And if she breaks, who’s to say I’ll break too? I need to take us to where that ghostly woman was talking about. If salvation is there, I must get us there safe and sound. Life on the run can’t be a reality we’re forced to live in.
“Alright,” I say, nudging her arms to make her move off me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah... for now. Are we moving on?” Vodkis says, taking a step back and checking the ground. “I need to find my wrap before we go.” She leans out while holding a thin branch to look further. “Ah! I see it.” I hover out to see it while she hops on my back. “See it?” Her head wrap is on top of a green leaf next to the tree we were on.
“Must’ve fallen off when I bolted up here.” I descend close enough to the ground for her to jump off me. She shakes off some dirt and wraps it around her head. “So,” she says, taking a quick sniff to pull back the mucus in her nose and holding her elbows by crossing her arms.
“We’ll stay here for some time, then continue onward,” I say, bringing her close so I can comfort her.
“I love you,” she says out of the blue.
“I love you too, Vodkis,” I say, holding her tighter. “I need you to be strong for me, okay? Our life might get harder before it gets better.”
“I’ll try.”