When Kayla came to, she was lying on the truck’s roof, surrounded by broken glass, with her seat hanging above her head. A hand grabbed her arm and hauled her through the smashed window. Her father sat her up against the side of the truck, and checked her for injuries, though she was only covered in scratches. His left arm was strangely bent, and he didn’t use it.
The sight of her father badly injured made Kayla want to cry.
“Dad—” she whimpered, but he clamped his free hand over her mouth.
From somewhere nearby, there was a snorting sound.
The truck had rolled over the roadside bushes into a field, and, from the other side of the foliage, Kayla heard the scraping and shuffling of something big approaching.
“We’re hunting now, understand?” her father whispered. “You need to hide in the hedgerow over there, and don’t let anything find you. No matter what you see or hear, stay hidden.”
She wiped her eyes and nodded.
He picked up his shotgun from beside the truck. Kayla followed his gesture and moved quietly toward the foliage a dozen yards away. Her hands shook as she hid herself in the bushes and smeared dirt on her face to camouflage her skin.
She knew her father had lied to her. They weren’t hunting; they were the prey.
Her father moved around the truck, craning his neck to get a glimpse of whatever had hit them in the road.
A terrible roar pierced the evening air, and Kayla almost yelped. The sound was louder than anything she’d heard from an animal. Her father disappeared into the bushes separating him from the roadside, and for some time, she couldn’t hear anything at all.
A rapid series of gunshots broke the silence, followed by a snarl and the sound of something smacking against concrete.
Then silence.
Kayla fought back tears and begged for a sound from her father. A cough, a yell, or the snap of the shotgun as it reloaded—anything to let her know he still lived. Every second that passed broke her heart a little more.
After a while, the stomping and dragging sounds of the creature resumed.
Her father had to be dead.
Too frightened now to feel anything, Kayla didn’t sob or shed a tear—she lay as still as the earth around her. Nothing would dig her out of her hiding place.
As time passed, a ball of molten rage settled in her gut. She’d survive, and one day kill this evil creature, along with every single member of its species, and anything else that wanted to hurt Calderans.
Ran hung silently in the sky, a bleeding eye watching the night’s horror. Only the brilliant line of a meteor proved that time still passed.
A distant but gentle noise broke the silence.
Suddenly, a black shape darted out of the tree line on the opposite side of the field. A figure was sprinting toward the truck, faster than Kayla had ever seen a human being move. The figure leapt impossibly high through the air and landed on the inverted vehicle.
A weapon pointed toward the road, and a rapid staccato of snaps rang out, like gunshots, but quieter than Kayla had heard before. There was a distant roar, and the pounding of heavy feet. The creature charged through the hedgerow, smashing into the wreck as the mysterious assailant rolled away.
Kayla shivered. The monster was a nightmare of spikes and claws, and almost as large as the truck. But it was as slow as a cow, and she watched breathlessly as the figure leapt out of the grass, weapon aimed. The black silhouette circled the beast, which turned to follow, until the figure stopped moving. Kayla held her breath as the creature tensed on its hind legs, obviously preparing to charge. She willed the mysterious figure to turn and run, but it didn’t move as it seemed to stare down the monster.
A loud crack pierced the air and the side of the creature’s head exploded, the body collapsing in a heap. That had to have been another gunshot, but where had it come from? Kayla’s eyes darted across the shadows, but found nothing. The figure moved towards the body, lowered its weapon, and fired a burst. The beast didn’t move again.
Kayla wondered if she should get up and make herself known to this strange person, who seemed to be some kind of soldier from one of the militias. But fear made her hesitate. Her father had said ‘No matter what’. Maybe she should wait and watch instead.
A second figure emerged across the field, walking towards the carnage, and carrying the largest rifle Kayla had ever seen. The first figure remained still, head tilted, as though listening to an invisible voice. They searched the wreckage of the truck, then stood up, turning this way and that.
A woman’s voice broke the silence. “Kayla Barnes!” she called. “Are you out there? We’re here to help!”
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Overwhelmed by grief, fear, and anger, Kayla didn’t move. The woman’s accent was not from the area—what if she was one of the Helvets her father and the other villagers always warned her about? Her stomach clenched, and a burning desire to protect her father’s body from the strangers took ahold of her. She didn’t want to see what the beast had done to him, but she couldn’t let him be taken by Helvets.
Kayla steeled herself and began to crawl through the undergrowth. As she moved down the hedgerow towards the truck, the second figure disappeared through the bushes bordering the road.
“We have food and water!” the woman called. “And we can take you back to your village!” She began searching the field, stopping to call out now and again.
As Kayla crawled closer, invisible in the dirt and leaves, she saw the soldier was wearing a dark uniform, with no markings. She didn’t look like a woman, but a sinister machine. Her face was hidden behind a helmet that sprouted antennae, and bulged in odd places, like an insect’s. Her weapon was not the type of hunting rifle used by the farmers in the militia, but black, and more complex.
The soldier with the long rifle—now slung on their back—returned and joined the search, but as far as Kayla was concerned, they could stay out there all night and they wouldn’t find her. They might have killed the monster, but her father’s body lay out in the road. All she could think about was her duty to make sure he was taken home, and buried in the village cemetery.
Slowly and patiently, hidden in the foliage of the hedgerow, she passed the soldiers and approached the truck. When she put her hand down, a sharp pain almost made her cry out. A sliver of multicolored crystal was stuck in her palm. Kayla pulled it out, wincing at the pain, and dropped it in the dirt. She wiped the blood off on her sleeve and continued to crawl.
Behind her, there was a soft click. Moments later, a hand grabbed her arm and firmly but gently hauled her off the ground.
“Get off me! Let go!” Kayla screamed as she tried to kick the steel-faced soldier in the leg.
The woman raised a hand to remove her helmet, and Kayla stopped struggling when she saw a smiling face looking back at her. Nearby, her partner did the same, revealing a concerned-looking woman.
“It’s okay, little one,” Kayla’s captor said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Stay away from my dad!” Kayla screamed.
She tried to get away, but the fingers around her wrist held her tightly, so she settled for attacking the woman’s leg. Her victim didn’t move or flinch as Kayla was driven by a rush of adrenaline into a frenzy of kicking, punching, and screaming. The pent-up terror of her ordeal unleashed itself into her muscles until her head ached and she became dizzy. When she finally exhausted herself, she collapsed on the ground in tears.
“Drink this,” said her captor gently, as she held out a bottle. “It’s water. Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you.”
Kayla sniffed the drink suspiciously, then took a deep gulp. She wiped her eyes and glared at the women. “Who are you? You don’t sound Calderan.”
“We’re not Calderan.” The woman let go of Kayla’s wrist. “Just friends. My name is Urtiga. This is my partner, Linh.”
“Helvets, then?” Kayla snapped. “Are you taking my father’s body?” The woman’s eyes dropped, and Kayla felt grief begin to consume her.
Another flash of anger held it at bay. “Tell me!” she snapped.
“I’m sorry about your father,” Urtiga said. “Your town’s militia is coming to take you both home—we just got here first.”
“Who are you?”
“We’re not Helvets, we’re just here to help. You know there are a lot more people than Helvets or Calderans in the galaxy?”
The one called Linh reached out to take her hand. “You’re hurt,” she said. “Let me take a look.”
Kayla wanted to resist, but as Linh’s hands touched her skin, her anger gave way, and a wave of exhaustion and grief came crashing down as she burst into tears again. The soldiers cleaned and bandaged the cuts she’d received from the crash, and when she had calmed, they fed her a chocolate bar.
“I’m surprised that you snuck past us,” Urtiga said. “Not many people can do that.”
The woman’s smile brought a little warmth back to Kayla’s heart. She shrugged and let her eyes wander across the equipment they carried. Their dark suits and guns were more sophisticated than anything she had seen on Caldera.
“I know you’re frightened,” Urtiga continued. “I was also young when I saw death for the first time. But I can tell you are strong, too.”
Something about the woman’s blunt statement made Kayla want to like her. “How did you know who I am?” she asked.
Urtiga hesitated and glanced at Linh. The woman raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Urtiga turned back to Kayla. “We have a friend in the area—a Calderan. They asked us to come here and help the militias deal with these monsters.”
Kayla’s brow furrowed. “Who? All the people I know say we are on our own. Where did you come from?”
“I can’t tell you,” Urtiga said. “And I’m afraid we’ll have to leave you here alone before your villagers arrive to get you. To put it simply, we don’t exist.”
“That’s stupid. Of course you exist.”
“Well, I mean that it’s a secret. You know, sometimes you need to stay hidden so you can do the things that need to be done in the world. You understand that don’t you Kayla?”
Kayla nodded. She wanted to know more about these mysterious women.
“Will you keep our secret?” Urtiga asked.
“Of course I will.”
Urtiga flashed her a warm smile. “Great. In that case, I have a gift for you.” She reached into her backpack and pulled out a plastic leaflet, which she handed to Kayla.
“Madam Georgia’s school for girls?” Kayla read, puzzled.
“I think you are a very special girl. You know how to stay calm when things are bad, and you know how to sneak better than a cat. But you also know how to be angry when you’re scared, and you don’t easily give up. Sometimes we meet special young women like yourself, and we pass along an invitation. Do you want to help us kill these monsters, Kayla?”
“Yes.” She glared at Urtiga, daring her to mock her.
“That voucher will get you into one of the best schools in Rackeye. They’ll give you an education and pay for everything you need. You will have to study, work as hard as you can every day, and be the smartest person you know. If you can do that, you might earn the right to be given a choice.”
“What choice?”
Urtiga smiled a dark smile. “Live in the world with everyone else, Helvets and Calderans. Or… stop existing.”
Kayla felt a thrilling sensation in her chest. She didn’t want to wait until a distant day. She wanted to know everything now, and her imagination ran wild. Would she be a soldier like these women? What kind of adventures would she have?
The distant roar of a truck pierced the night. Urtiga nodded to Linh, who moved off to the tree line and melted into the darkness.
Then she shouldered her backpack and stood up. “It will be tough for you Kayla Barnes, but there’s only one thing you need to remember if you want to see me again; don’t ever quit, little night stalker.”
Then she winked and moved off as the trucks pulled up on the road. Kayla watched the silhouette fade until the darkness swallowed her, leaving nothing behind but an impossible memory.