By the fourth day and with no sign that the ship’s basic functions were returning, the fighting at the ports worsened until it was all over the vessel, regardless of caste floor, including the main bridge.
“We decided it was time to take our chances and try leaving,” Benjamin continues.
He and his brother left with their neighbors to the nearest port, finding corpses waiting for them instead of soldiers,and encountered little resistance except when boarding their neighbor’s ship where others tried to board as well. “When we finally took off, we didn’t go far, and remained withinTheDreadnaut’simmediate airspace with the hundreds of other ships that had already departed. It was like that for a couple of days as more ships escaped as things inside worsened. Then the announcement came through the radio…Flee. Before it’s too late. So, when everyone started warping or flying away, my neighbor followed suit. We had no idea Earth was habitable until then. We found out through the radio that there was a military base stationed on it that we could go to. Since we were unable to warp like some of the larger ships, we followed those headed for the planet. It was either that, stay hovering in space, or go to the moon.”
“The Dreadnauterupted as we were fleeing and we just barely made it out of the blast radius alive...” the other male, Quinton, adds at the end.
Watching Julia out of the corner of my eye, her face flickers with disbelief and worry, and I can tell a lot of what Benjamin is saying is a surprise to her.
“I just hope…” Benjamin briefly trails off. “I just hope most got off and cleared the ship in time…”
When he goes silent, they all follow suit.
An overwhelming sense of mourning comes across the group within the seconds and minutes that follow. Benjamin returns to where he was sitting and rubs his palms over his face. Eyeing the males’s tight lips and sunken expressions, I can understand why they are reacting the way they are.They have lost everything they have ever known. They have lost their home.
I have lost my home.
Time passes as the silence grows, only interrupted by Olivia’s soft crying. Taking in her sallow features, a tightness in mythroat grows. Feeling sorry for her and curious about her silence, I wonder what she lost fromThe Dreadnaut’sdestruction.
Julia gently wraps one of her arms around the younger girl’s shoulder, careful not to disturb the girl’s wound. She hums softly while brushing the girl’s messy hair behind her ears. Olivia leans into Julia’s hand and winces when she cries harder.
I turn away, giving them some privacy.
As for Benjamin, he does not mention his brother’s corpse again.
TWELVE
THROUGH THE WOODS
Krellix
The humans,including Julia, have been quiet since Benjamin’s retelling, and though we left our little camp hours ago, their silence continues. Wanting to glance over my shoulder at Julia, where she trails at the back of our line-up, I continue onward instead. I do not want her to see that I am checking on her, that I am worried. It is best she not notice anything about me at all, and instead focuses on her wellbeing.
I want to comfort her, and tell her it will be okay. But I do not even think I can believe my own words. She no longer has a home, and as someone who is homeless themselves, I do not have much to say in the way of hope.
“Excuse me?”
A soft voice pulls me out of my thoughts.
Peering down at the girl in my arms, she brings her clamped hands to her lips when our eyes lock. Hers wavering with stress and fear as she looks over my face, the light brown in them wavering with unease.
She is smaller than Julia, but that might be because she is young, and her touselled hair is the color of lakeshore sand rather than the dark, luscious brown of the older female’s.My female's…
“Can we take a short rest?” the girl asks with a whisper, her eyes darting away from mine like she is nervous of angering me. “I have to… to go.”
I frown down at her. “Go where?”
Her eyes widen, and whatever color she has regained, seeps away. She has not complained since I picked her up to carry her in the cradle of my embrace but due to the stiffness of her body, I know my nearness makes her uncomfortable. That, and I believe Julia told her to keep her nose turned away from me but did not tell her why.
“Uh. Go… like using the bathroom.”
Bathroom. Ah, a human thing.
“There are no bathrooms out here.” The only ones I know of are inside Zaku’s home. “You will have to manage without one. Will the lake help? We are near the shore.”
I have taken them west off the steepest parts of the mountain slope and into the forest surrounding the lake below. We have been traversing it for the past hour and have only recently changed direction to continue heading north.
“Lake? Like a big body of water?”
