had decided that it was time to test with mass genetic reconfiguration.
Female to male ratios of newborns had dropped to forty seven from sixty two percent in eighteen months and the council was forced to have a medicine created to increase the births of female children. A medicine that had promising results in the first two months.
Unfortunately, after that period, all of the females not born from the medicine began to die from a sickness while ninety eight percent of men followed; leaving a generation of solely females.
The Gralari were in turmoil and so the brotherhood of nine was birthed by the last Mother of the council, Jelar. Shortly before she fell to the illness, her final order put Neysor and his six brothers as the figureheads of the brotherhood. Their first command to the now young race was to return to Earth and rebuild it as a new home.
This was the second time they had tried in seven hundred years.
Another fist collided with the soft grey jaw of the biochemist who had the blame of the failure thrust upon her by General Shenim, “Because of you our race is doomed to extinction!” Her words dripping from her lips like venom as Neysor looked into the white room while leaning on the curved archway.
The scientist looked up into Shenim's burning blue eyes which were partially obstructed by the long brown strands of hair across her face. But not obstructed enough to prevent the haunting image of her pupils in a thin slit. “You m-m-must understand general, we did t-t-t-tests which were successful, you bei-”
A blood splattering slap silenced her, “You are never to speak of that!” The scientist began sobbing again while looking on the floor.
Shenim raised her fist and Neysor decided to intervene, “Shenim! That's enough.”
She spun to face Neysor, “Commander!” Her white armour tightening as she brought her arm to her chest. The scientist following weakly in her brown lab-coat and, despite the anguish that Neysor felt, forced pity into his heart.
“Lai, shouldn't you be somewhere else?” Tension built up between the three as Lai nodded and scurried out of the room, a white panel door falling behind her.
“What are you doing Neysor? It's her fault that this has happened!” Shenim was acting like an angry child and she knew it as soon as she looked into Neysor's black eyes.
“Calm Shenim, mistakes do happen, it was not her fault.”
Her eyes widened and her brows furrowed, “Calm?” She began pacing the room, “Calm!?” Her fingers running through and pulling her silky hair,
“Yes general, calm.”
Tears ran down Shenim's lighter skin, “Only you could say 'calm' at a time like this!”
The brotherhood was taught three very simple rules: one, learn patience for the young bloods.
“The planet is filled with monsters!”
Two, never break the brotherhood.
“This was our last hope! We have nothing left!” Three, the most important, “Maybe not our last hope.” And the one that Neysor hated the most.
“What do you mean?” He crossed the room and placed his hand on Shenim's mid-section, leaned in and kissed her lips lightly.
Never fall in love.
Burning Buildings
“John, if we survive this I’m going to kill you.” The flames were licking my back but in spite of being in a fatal situation we’d learned a valuable lesson. They were very vulnerable to fire, went up in a second and were down after a few more.
“Yeah, yeah, but let me save us first.” There was a window at the end of the hall next to the stair well, I struggled to remember how high up we were as the smoke got thicker and the hall got hotter. ‘You're floors up, Harry can probably make that’.
Problem was if I smashed the window the fire would get pulled toward it pretty damn quickly, even with the room's window open behind us.
“Get it off me!” I spun to see a child, a little boy, well, what was left of him, dangling off of Harry’s arm while he pushed on its head to prevent it from biting him. I waited for the perfect moment before grabbing it by the scruff of its neck, holding it at arm’s length.
“We’re going out the window, you think you can make it down?” I threw the kid at a zed flailing out of the flames.
“Yeah, I can make that.” The flames were creeping out of the room and further into the hallway allowing more and more of the dead to come running toward us.
“Let’s go-” They weren’t going up like before, some of the dying and charred corpses must’ve been acting like a path, blocking the flames from the fresh assailants making their way up toward us, “Now!” I kept my head facing the damaged and slightly less flame covered zombies chasing us down as I ran for the window, their gnashing teeth and guttural roars proved incredibly distracting.
I turned my head just in time to be able to dive through the window. Hitting the neighbouring building's hard brick wall and bouncing down onto the alleyway's hard concrete pavement shoulder first. Rain sprinkling over me shortly before a small explosion sounded above my head. The building took in a sudden breath of fresh oxygen, giving the fire a burst of life.
Harry landed on his feet next to me, “Smooth.” I stuck out my hand and he pulled me up.
“Again, I save your ass and I don’t even get a thank you, didn’t your mother teach you manners?” I dusted myself off and readjusted the duffel. A breath of relief released itself involuntarily from my lungs as I saw the large metal gate standing between us and the now burning street.
“She did, but she also taught me that a fat guy gave me presents every year and that a fairy came along to collect my loose teeth, so what did she know?” We shared a laugh for a moment in our minute of safety.
Then an epiphany fell upon me, “You have any family or anything?” We started walking away from the fiery wreck of the apartment block and street.
“Yeah, my sister, she’s in Thailand though and I never knew my dad and my mum, died when I was young, I had a girlfriend but we split up last week.”
No hunting for family, I mean, his situation was sad, but it was good. It meant I could focus on staying alive and finding my family. It might sound like I was being selfish but they were important to our survival, they were the only capable people I knew. If Harry and I were going to survive we needed them.
“So what's the goal from here?” I shrugged as we stepped backward through the shadows. Away from the street of burning dead, sneaking toward a coffee shop in the street now ahead of us as the zombies roared, running around aimlessly behind in the flames.
“I don't know, we should probably get to work on setting up a base of operations, somewhere small where we know the way around.” We darted across the destruction-ridden street and ducked through a broken window of the brightly lit cafe. A single zed sat at a table, groaning continuously as Harry moved up behind it. His revolver in hand, he brought the heavy wooden handle across the back of its head, sending a crack though the shop as the zombie slumped uselessly forward.
I peeked out into the street, the glowing orange of the flames was staying put. None had followed us but I still had this strong feeling that we had to keep moving. “Let's go out through the back door, we'll stick to the back-paths for now.”
A nod confirmed that we were on the same page as we made our way past the counter and into a small back room, the metal-barred door that led to the exit swaying lightly in the wind.
I made my way for the door but Harry raised his hand to stop me, “I've had a thought.”
I waited for a moment for him to elaborate, “Yes?”
He pointed to a power box by the door, “Maybe we should start shutting off power in places we've searched, try and conserve what little juice the city will have left.”
It certainly wasn't a bad idea, juggling between how time consuming it was and how useful it could potentially be I decided that it would be worth it “Sounds good.”
He strode up proudly to metal box and flipped the main breaker switch, plunging us into darkness.
Hunting Grounds
I drew in a deep breath as I stepped out from the cafe where we had decided to spend the night into the smallest amount of sunlight that was peeking through the dense clouds. A warmth spread out over me while I kept my eyes firmly shut.
“Open your eyes you big baby, you look ridiculous.” Hesitance was forcing itself into my being. I longed to see the Sun without fear for the first time in years. But I had been trained by pain since the day I was turned. “If you don't open your eyes I'm leaving you here.”
I opened my eyes, flinching every one of the five seconds that it took me to do the seemingly simple task. Blinding natural light hit me in the face forcing me to blink uncontrollably. A smile sitting comfortably on my lips as I finally opened them fully. The street bathed in the yellow light that I had missed so much.
I surveyed the ruins we stood in and saw only beauty. “You cannot imagine what this feels like Harry.”
Stretching my arms I spun around for a few moments before Harry grabbed my arm, “Alright princess, let's go. We've got to get a lot done today, I'd like to find a place where I don't sleep in a cold-room tonight.”
Forcing myself away from my euphoric state I nodded and took the rifle from the duffel into my hands, “You're right, where to first?”
Harry shrugged as we began to walk down the footpath, the Sun becoming drowned by the sea of grey above us and pushing a sombre mood over the previously joyful street. “There's a shop a kilometre or so north