Strawberry Wine - Chapter 7
Disclaimers: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities between the characters in this story and real people (appearances, names, etc.) are purely coincidental. This story may contain homosexual material, including love and sex, so if material like this is illegal in your region or if it discomforts you, please leave.
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Strawberry Wine ===============
Chapter VII -----------
Date Unknown
I stood, obedient and nearly broken, at a wall. The king alien stood at a stone table with a dozen other aliens speaking, but I ignored them. The table projected an image of a city that was mostly conquered.
Chicago.
Much of the buildings and houses and complexes stood in ruins. There sat in the northwest of Chicago a giant grey-purple triangle stone- an alien structure.
A dozen or so smaller alien ships flew to and fro, and fired blue destruction orbs about. They fought civilians on the ground, and military tanks, as well as a handful of human fighter jets.
It didn't look promising for the humans, as with much of the world. But I had a glimmer of hope in my heart. I prayed for the humans of Chicago to overtake the aliens, no matter how meek the numbers.
"Damayak," the king beckoned. [Slave.]
I straightened my stance and looked toward the king. I hated being its personal slave, but resisting meant the touch of the rainbow torture light. After months- I think it was months- of being subjected to that excruciating pain, I became more than fearful of it.
"Igiyak'dun'nwak oka'kaa uv'amnut lai'vun," the king commanded. [Tell the chef that I am ready for my meal.]
I walked toward the the entrance wall, and one of the guard aliens stood in front of it for it to dissipate and let me out.
As I walked down the corridors, I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream and shout and vent all my anger and suffering. But I could no longer. I was almost numb to it all.
I was a hundred yards from the kitchens when there was a slight tremble in the floor. I felt the slight vibrations in the padding of my bare feet. I halted, and stared blankly ahead.
And then there was another vibration! But this one was so much bigger, it made the walls tremble. Dozens and dozens of aliens rounded the corner and ran passed me.
And the wall to my left suddenly burst with an explosion! A small chunk of the wall collided with the left side of my back, which sent me flying and careening down to the floor. My forehead smacked harshly on the floor, and the force made me roll and roll again.
"Fuck," I said in a daze.
My vision was once again- for the first time in years, it felt- blurry. But that was due to the head injury I'd just sustained. I was fighting unconsciousness, I tried so hard not to fall asleep, despite how much I wanted to. I rolled onto my back, and could hear alien's screaming and shouting, and gunfire! I'd never been so happy to hear a rifle shot in my life.
"Gin'a oud'la Alejair!" an alien somewhere screamed. [Protect the king!]
As I laid there, fighting to stay awake or even alive, I could see human ammunition hitting the walls and the dust flying off.
"Civilian!" a man's voice cried.
I allowed a tear to escape my eye as I looked. There were five people walking into the alien structure, all had a rifle being aimed and fired, and at least three other firearms attached to them. Some wore military grade gear, but others wore hunting camo.
And then a dozen more followed behind them. And then another dozen. And then another dozen! I cried openly, unashamedly. I was saved.
Suddenly, an old woman knelt at my side and grabbed my face. Her pale blue eyes looked scared, but much more determined. Her crows feet showed more pronounced when she squinted down at me.
"You speak English, Kid?" the woman asked. "Hey! You with me!?"
"Y-yeah," I answered emotionally.
The woman turned and shouted, "This one's good! Bring him back!"
Not even a second later, a tall man who looked to be in his early to mid thirties crouched down. He hooked his arms under me, and lifted me off the floor. I wrapped my arms around his neck and cried. I cried so hard.
The man ran, I could feel my dangling feet jostling about. But I didn't dare open my eyes. I was scared that it was all a dream. How cruel would that have been...
And then, all too soon, I was laid down on a hard felt surface. When I opened my eyes, I saw the grey ceiling of a vehicle. Sunlight shone through the windows. And another man- hair grey like the woman from earlier- wiped a wet cloth over my forehead. It stung like a motherfucker but I didn't care. I just cried, happy and relieved to be in the presence of people again.
"Dat's it," the man said, a slight French accent to his voice, as he cleaned my wound. "Juss let it out, Son. We got you out. What is your name?"
"Wh-where are we?" I asked.
"Diss is Chicago," the man answered. "Anywhere else hurt?"
"N-no," I answered, and let out another sob.
"Good, because here comes anotha patient. Move aside, please."
I quickly sat up and took a seat against the wall of the van. The three dozen people came running out of the alien ship- which was tall- in a mad dash. A tall, buff black man carried an unconscious woman in his arms. Some of the people ran into other vehicles, which took off quickly once full. I was surprised to see a beige military tank through the window on the right side of the van. The black man leapt into the van and set the woman down where I had lain before.
"Drive!" the black man screamed.
The van roared to life and instantly took off, which made us all jostle. The grey-haired man immediately cleaned a wound on the woman's shoulder that was gushing blood. The woman looked pale, and on the brink of death.
"Was the leader there?" the grey-haired man asked as he took a needle out of a vial.
The black man sighed heavily, and replied, "We didn't see any distinct alien. Lost half our men, so I called it off."
"The king!" I suddenly said, my vision finally clear again. "The king of the aliens was in there!"
The grey-haired man stopped stitching the wound long enough to look at me in surprise. But then returned to mending the woman.
"How do you know that?" the black man asked.
"Because I was its personal slave! I was standing at its side, like, four minutes ago!"
The black man's dark eyes were wide. But then after a moment of shocked silence, he let out a laugh.
"Hot! Fuckin'! Damn!" the black man cried with laughter. "Y'hear that, Jose!? We finally fuckin' found the leader! Fuckin' Christ! Woohooooo!"
The man driving the van hit the steering wheel and laughed in the small victory as well.
"Fuck!" Jose screamed and suddenly veered right.
The alien ships behind us were firing blue destruction orbs. One of the orbs would have hit the van had Jose not veered.
The tank fired missiles at the ships, but zero found purchase. Jose continued to evade the blue orbs. The van went right, jerked left, and the asphalt exploded around us.
"Immobilizers!" the black man screamed. "Can you shoot a rifle?"
Before I could even answer, the black man pressed a rifle to my chest. He brandished his own rifle and opened the back doors of the van. He fired a round, but missed one of the red orbs flying toward us.
I perched near the edge of the back hatch, and aimed. I fired a round, but missed the red orb. I fired again, as did the black man. The red orb dissipated, but I don't know whose bullet hit it. It didn't matter who hit it, it was no longer a threat.
More red orbs flew toward us and the other vehicles. I saw a dozen men and women in the bed of a blue truck behind us, all of whom were also firing rifles and shotguns at the red orbs. There were dozens of red orbs soaring through the air menacingly. I fired, and missed an orb. I fired again, the red orb I was aiming for was thirty feet from the van, and it dissipated.
"Fuck yeah!" I shouted in victory.
The black man beside me chuckled and said, "Don't get cocky, Kid."
My ears were ringing almost painfully from the booms of the rifles, but I didn't care. I continued to fire round after round. I counted five orbs that I hit and destroyed before one of the tank's missiles hit one of the alien ships and it crashed to the ground.
"Ships are retreating!" the black man said with joy.
It was true, the ships had stopped giving chase. They got further back as the vehicles drove hastily ahead. We continued to fire our guns because the red orbs still gave chase.
Within minutes, the last of the red orbs was destroyed. The black man lowered his rifle as he laughed with relief. His hand went to the back of my neck and he shook me in victory.
"Where're you from, Kid?" the black man asked.
I answered, "Town in Indiana called Emerlane. Where are we going?"
"Jackson Station," the black man answered. "It's an underground transit station. We've been using it as a command centre and hideout since the attack."
"Are there people from Indiana there?" I asked with hope. "How many people are there?"
"Currently ninety-seven men, women, and children reside in the station," the black man replied. "And I'm sorry, but I don't know of anyone from Indiana. The station is filled with people from all over the planet. Our weapons specialist is from Egypt. The forager is from Brazil. Arnaud, our doctor here, is French but was living in Ireland."
"And..." I began, confused, "the aliens had captured them?"
While he cut the thread after he finished stitching the woman's wound, Arnaud answered, "I was driving home, in Dublin, when the skies were littered with alien ships. The red orbs immobilized so many. One got my car, and I tried to run. I awoke in New York, a slave to an alien combat commander. Lavar here, and his team, rescued me and a few others from the alien base in Portland."
D-do you guys know the day's date?" I asked.
Lavar answered, "It has been... one hundred and twenty-two days since the arrival. So it's... sorry, I stopped keeping track of the date a long ass time ago. I only count sunrises."
Thinking, I replied, "A hundred twenty-two days... makes today... June sixteenth. Fuck. I was in alien slavery almost four months."
The van skidded to a halt. I hadn't even noticed that sunlight no longer lit everything, but fluorescent lights did.
As Arnaud woke the woman, I asked Lavar, "Did the aliens turn electricity back on or something?"
"No," Lavar responded and handed me a backpack. "Triana was a mechanical engineer. She disassembled and reassembled a flash light, but it still didn't turn on. So she rubbed the wires on two positive magnets, giant ones. That worked. So she and a few others did the same to this subway station. And voila, electricity."
I had a backpack strapped to my back and a couple rifles in my arms when Lavar and three dozen people jogged through the parking lot. I followed, down corridors. Through doors. Down two sets of stairs.
I stopped midway down the last set of stairs. I stared in awe at the near hundred people in the transit station. Some cleaned firearms. Some loaded rifle and pistol magazines. Some stitched clothing.
"Does anybody know Jack and Trisha Brighton!?" I called to the crowd, and I fought off sobs of fear and hope. They are a--"
"Sky!?"
My heart stopped. A lump formed, giant in my throat. That voice.
"Skyler!?"
As I quickly descended down the stairs, I looked toward my brother's voice. He stepped out from behind a pillar, and I didn't hold back the tears. I cried without shame as I ran toward my brother. I was as careful as I could be, I weaved through the people, but still bumped shoulders with a couple of them.
I jumped into my brother's arms and whimpered, "Vance."
Around a sniffle, my brother said, "Baby bro. Yo-you're alive. You're okay."
"Wh-where are mom and dad?" I asked, both relieved and pensive. "And Jase? And- and the girls?"
"I- I don't know where dad and Jase and the girls are," Vance answered with a broken voice. "We made it to- to the Horners' house but their car and truck were already gone. We made just passed Minneapolis when the aliens caught up with us. An immobilizer got dad's truck, mom stopped her s.u.v. and she shot the orb off dad's roof. But an immobilizer landed on her hip. Dad shot it off, and mom ran back to her car. But a destructor orb landed ten feet from the road. Mom... she- she was... hit by a piece of concrete. In the head. She... died... instantly."
"Oh," I said with my heart already very much broken. "Mom."
Vance and I cried together. His arms tightened around my back, as mine did around his shoulders.
Vance carried on, "An immobilizer caught the S.U.V. outside of Winnipeg, and another caught me as I tried to run. Dad and Jase must not have seen it, they kept driving. I woke up in an alien encampment in Portland, and I was rescued from there. But I'm so fucking happy to see you, Sky. I- I never thought I'd ever see you again."
"Excuse me," Lavar's voice said apologetically from behind me. "Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt a reunion, but mind coming with me? We'd like to learn everything we can about the king alien and its vessel."
01 September 2016
The first day of school started out fine. I handed in my summer assignments to the appropriate teachers, and went to the guidance counsellor for a new class schedule.
While I waited in line, an arm was strewn across my lower back, and Darwin greeted, "Hey, Nerd."
"Idiot," I greeted back warmly. "Got your class schedule already?"
"I'm not taking senior classes like a total geek I know," Darwin teased. "Admin already had my schedule ready for me at the office. My first class is calculus and it starts in four minutes. I'll see ya later."
Darwin planted a quick kiss to my cheek and walked away. The girl behind me- Isadora, if I remembered correctly- was smiling. I smiled sheepishly back, and buried my face in Tolstoy's War & Peace.
Good morning, Skyler," Mr. Eralon said from behind his desk. Take a seat. How are you? I see you've had a busy summer. You elected to take senior coursework but no summer classes."
"Yeah," I replied with a chuckle. "Doing everything I can to graduate this school year. And I'm doing just fine, Sir."
"Well I did get your email last night," Mr. Eralon stated happily. "It got me curious, so I checked your file. You only need thirty-eight credits to graduate, but from your teachers' files, you should need just twenty after they hand in your summer course grades. And you've elected to take on all twenty credits this semester rather than stretching it over two semesters. Ya know, if you stretch it, you'll have more time for friends, or even a part time job. Save some money for college."
I nodded slowly, but patiently responded, "Thank you, Sir, but I'd rather cram it all in now. Next semester, despite having all credits required for graduation, I plan to take college courses. I wanna be so fu- freaking prepared for college."
"I thought you might," Mr. Eralon stated with a chuckle. "I've already approved your classes. Here you go."
I thanked the man genuinely, excitedly, and walked out of his office with my class schedule in hand. So my morning went smoothly. I answered most of the questions that Mrs. Kellie asked in A.P. Economics II. A.P. Accounting II bore little difficulty. And Phys. Ed. was brutal for me, I hated basketball.
"Have you heard all the rumours going around school!?" Wendy asked before she even sat down beside me. "It's all delicious!"
"Umm..." I said worriedly as I unloaded my lunch bag, "what rumours?"
"About you and Darwin!" Loren clarified. "Some say you two were mackin' on each other pretty heavy at his locker."
"Some say you guys were even dry-humping!" Katie said with a laughter. "Right there in the lobby! Please tell me some of it is at least true."
I laughed a little before I answered, "Well, no. None of that is true. Darwin just gave me a small kiss on the cheek while I was waiting in line to see Mr. Eralon."
I looked toward the jock table in the cafeteria. Darwin laughed at something one of his basketball buddies had said, as did the rest of the table.
"Well that sucks," Loren lamented. "I was hoping you two actually did rile each other up before class. Would've been hot to see."
"What would've been hot to see?" Ollie asked, he approached the table with Mike and Brad.
Wendy grabbed what looked like a chicken nugget off her tray- but I was not certain it was actual chicken- as she told the boys, "Sky and Darwin humping like rabbits at the lockers."
"That's true?" Mike asked around a laugh. "Didn't picture you to be an exhibitionist, Dude."
"Har, har, har," I said with sarcasm as I took out of my phone.
-
Me:
-
What's so funny?
"Any plans tonight?" I asked my friends. "Maybe hang out at the lake? Smoke a few bowls?"
Much of the table agreed, but some either had previous plans or had part time jobs to get to. And then a pair of soft lips planted a kiss on my temple.
"Rumours," Darwin said simply as he sat beside me.
I asked, "Huh?"
Darwin flashed his phone at me as a response. I hastily grabbed the device in horror.
"I'm in your phone as Bright Sky!?" I demanded. "That's, like, the cheesiest thing ever."
"Skyler Brighton equals bright sky in my eyes," Darwin responded with a shrug. "What am I in your phone as, then?"
"Nothing!" I said, laughing. "Just Darwin Horner."
Darwin didn't look impressed with that as he asked flatly, "That's it? I'm your first relationship, you say you love me, but I'm just Darwin Horner in your phone."
"Katie is Katie Benjamin, not B.F.F.," I said, as if it was logical- which it was! "Ollie is Oliver Pennington. I literally have no nicknames for anybody in my phone."
"God," Darwin groaned, "I'm in love with a total square."
"Okay here," I said and began typing.
Darwin looked at his new nickname in my contacts, and disapprovingly said, "Darwin Boopsy Babe. You named me Darwin Boopsy Babe."
I smiled seductively as I replied, "The first time I called you Boopsy Babe, you--"
"Uh!" Darwin suddenly cried, aghast. "That's secret!"
"What?" Mike asked, an amused smile plastered on his face. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Darwin quickly answered. "Anyway, Ryan heard a rumour. Apparently, we were going hot and heavy by Ms. Wallis' class. It is said that my hands slid inside your pants and massaged your ass. And your hand was in my shirt, teasing my nipple."
Disgusted, I asked, "How the fuck does a simple kiss on the cheek turn into unashamed groping!?"
Darwin kissed my cheek again, and then said, "So the whole school knows we're boyfriends. And nobody has given us shit. And you were worried."
"For you," I pressed. "I was worried for you. But yes, my apprehension was unfounded."
"Mm," Darwin hummed as he kissed my lips. "I love you, Babe."
A soft smile quirked my lips, and I responded, "Love you, too."
"Boopsy," Ollie said with a highly amused inflection in his voice.
Darwin punched Ollie's arm and demanded, "Shut up!"
"C'mon," I said as I hugged my boyfriend, "it's a cute nickname. You secretly love it."
"I do not," Darwin denied. "Your Piankashaw ass will pay for ever thinking the nickname up."
"You love my Native American ass," I said and gave Darwin a peck on the lips. "You want to touch it. You want to kiss it."
"I wanna do so many things to your gorgeous ass," Darwin said softly, meaningfully. "Now eat your lunch, Bright Sky."
After we had all eaten, I hung a few sign-up sheets on a couple bulletin boards for the Editorial Club. And the rest of the school day passed without incident. Well, I noticed people looking at me and whispering, but looked away when I glanced at them. Whatever.
In Mrs. Havisher's class, after the bell rang, she said, "Skyler, you did pass A.P. Biology I during your summer studies, but I urge you to brush up on immunology. I graded your papers, and saw that there were some inconsistencies with your theories. A.P. Biology II will have major studies further exploring immunology starting next month, so be prepared for that."
"Okay," I said with a smile and a nod. "I'll study it more. Thank you, Mrs. Havisher."
"Enjoy the rest of your day, Skyler. Try to make sure you have fun. Be a teenager once in a while."
I met Darwin, Loren, Brad, Mike, and Katie in the school parking lot. Because Darwin's dad was in town, Darwin didn't have the truck. So we all piled in Loren's S.U.V. and she drove us to get a pizza from Grayerson's Pizzeria. We all chipped in for a large supreme and a two-litre bottle of Pepsi.
At Lake Emerlane, we all enjoyed the pizza and soda with music playing from Mike's phone.
I laid a baggie of lovely cannabis on the picnic table and asked, "Who's ready for a few bowls of Northern Lights?"
"Wooo!" Loren cried with glee. "I have a bag Doritos in the car."
As she ran for her car, Darwin called, "Mind grabbing my backpack, too!?"
After I had packed the bowl of my pipe, I took a big breath of smoke and held it in for a moment. As I kept the marijuana smoke in my lungs, I offered the pipe to Darwin. No surprise, Darwin declined. So I passed the pipe to Ollie.
After I exhaled, I stated to my boyfriend, "Ya know, I've never seen you smoke. I've seen you high, but never smoked."
"I don't smoke," Darwin replied easily. "Not good for lungs, so it's not good for my performance in track and basketball. I eat to get high."
Loren returned to the table and handed Darwin his backpack. Darwin extracted a Ziploc bag, which had cookies and brownies.
An hour later, we were all high and laughing, and listening to music from Katie's phone.
Darwin kissed my cheek and asked, "Feel like taking a walk?"
So Darwin and I walked along the shore hand in hand. Words were not needed to spoken, feelings were not needed to be verbalized, and companionship rang through the air around us.
Fifteen minutes into the stroll, Darwin stopped walking and pulled me in. He pressed his lips to mine, and instantly began a fiery, passionate makeout session.
Can I-" Darwin began as he looked deeply into my eyes. "Can I try getting- fucked by you?"
"You wanna..." I replied in shock. "You want me to fuck you?"
"Yeah," Darwin answered as he pulled two small packets out of his jeans pocket. "I- I brought a condom and lube. If- if you want."
"Yeah," I responded shyly yet excitedly. "I can- I can fuck you. I can totally do that. As a favour to you. And to me."
Darwin giggled, and said, "Shut up, you dork. Am I taking my shirt off or leaving it on?"
As Darwin kissed my neck, I said, "Wh-what if someone sees us?"
Darwin whispered seductively, "Then they'll see a gorgeous and hot-as-fuck geek fucking one of Emerlane's basketball stars."
"Fuck," I moaned as Darwin marked up my neck.
"Clothes, off," Darwin pled as he pulled his shirt over his head.
23 June 2017
In the back of a flower delivery van, Lavar said, "We are two minutes out from target."
Vance wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kissed my temple.
"It'll be okay," I promised my brother.
"Can't fucking believe you volunteered for this," Vance lamented.
"If--" I said to try to comfort my brother.
"DESTRUCTORS!" the driver screamed and veered left. "BRACE!"
The van jerked to and fro as blue destruction orbs exploded around it. Jemma popper her upper body out of the sun roof with a rifle. Lavar opened the back hatch, and Vance and I joined in opening fire at the destructors. During a veer right, Vance stumbled in his crouch and nearly fell out, but I gripped the back of his kevlar vest and pulled him steady.
"Immobilizers!" Lavar cried.
It was too much and too fast for us. Within seconds, a red orb landed on the side of the van. I hopped out and shot the immobilizer. That didn't matter. A dozen more immobilizers landed on the van, so we all ran for a dark alley.
As myself and a dozen others reloaded our magazines, Lavar called, "Everybody okay!?"
"Good!" "Good!" "Good!"
"Stick to the plan!" Lavar commanded. "Keep to alleys and buildings! Head west... now!"
At the corner, Lavar peered around with his rifle aimed and at the ready. He marched forward, and we followed.
Five blocks later, Gustav fired his rifle and a blue orb exploded in the air. And we continued forward.
We reached the edge of the mostly destroyed buildings. Before us was a levelled field, buildings that had been complete obliterated. Glass and wood and bricks laid coldly on the ground. Three hundred or so feet before us stood at the giant alien compound.
Lavar said with a shaky voice, "Around the right corner is the hole we made three weeks ago. If anybody feels the urge to flee, I won't stop you. But you'll be disappointing me and this team and the rest of humanity. Surviving members of civilization are all counting on you."
I looked to my left, my heart was hammering in my chest. Vance took his right hand off the trigger and grabbed my shoulder. A tear slid down his cheek, but his smile was both anxious and proud.
"Go," Lavar said quietly, but full of determination.
He ran forward, and we followed. Instantly, a hundred red orbs shot forth from the roof of the alien structure. We fired, and fired and fired. Dozens of immobilizers dissipated, and then a dozen more.
We reached the halfway point when Jemma was rendered frozen in the air by a red orb. Marie stood at her side and aimed her own rifle to destroy the orb, but another landed on her shoulder.
As discussed and planned previously, we couldn't risk our own lives to save them, so we continued dashing forward. We didn't last much longer. A hundred feet from the ship, an immobilizer touched my knee and I couldn't move.
"Sky!" Vance called.
My brother made to rescue me, but a red orb landed on his hip. I screamed from the pain that the red orbs emit, and passed within seconds.
Date Unknown
I awoke suddenly. To no surprise, I was suspended in the air by shackles on my wrists. Shackles around my ankles, just like the first time I was captured, strapped my legs down tight. But this time, I was not nude but was still dressed in the slave outfit that I had worn under my clothes.
"Welcome back to the waking world, Baby Bro," Vance said with a hoarse voice.
Vance was shackled to my left. Manuel was shackled to my right. Both were nude, and looked so gaunt.
"Long you been awake?" I asked groggily.
"Not long," Vance answered. "Guess twenty minutes."
Just then, the wall dissipated. Two aliens walked in, followed by the king itself. The king's face looked annoyed, its white eyes were narrowed.
"Bek'pag eya'vin daam'na?" I asked with a smirk. [Did you miss me?]
The king's response was to raise its hand with the rainbow orb of pain. It touched my sternum, and I immediately howled and cried with pain.
"Stop!" Vance screamed, sorrowful and angry. "SKY!"
When the king ended my torture, it touched the shackles and set me free.
The king pointed to Vance and Manuel and said to the guards, "Zuvya'tip klif jeso'gren." [They will work in repairs.]
So I went right back to being the king's personal slave. The king spent a lot of time in the strategy room, it looked over holograms of the ship and the damage that humans were working to repair.
The king sent me to retrieve its midday meal. As I walked throughout the corridors, I saw Vance in a line of people being led somewhere. All of them were dressed in skin-tight white clothes from neck to toe. I reached my hand out as we passed, and gave his elbow a gentle squeeze.
So the king ate. I stood at a wall obediently, and occasionally scratched an itch on my thigh.
And... what would have been right on schedule had I known what day or time it was, the walls trembled. The guard aliens rushed to get the king to safety.
Twelve seconds after the guard escorted the king out of the room, the other corridor wall exploded. I reached inside my suit between my shoulders, and pulled the tape off. I pushed the X-Acto blade out of the tape, and ran for the only guard in the room. I plunged the blade in its throat, and sliced it open. Pink liquid sprayed out, and painted my face in warmth that disgusted me.
I grabbed the small navy blue cylinder off the dead alien's belt, and clamped its limp fingers around it. Two points of lime green sprang out of either end, dangerously sharp. I bolted out of the strategy room, and ran ahead of four dozen or so shouting, angry people all firing guns.
Himanshu handed me a shotgun as we ran. The ship's defences fire small blue orbs out of the walls, obliterating anybody they hit. But we persevered. We fought, and we fought hard. I could see the king running about sixty feet ahead. As my feet carried me swiftly, I threw the alien spear. It soared through the air, and pierced the flesh of an alien's neck.
And fuck it hurt a thousand times worse than the rainbow light when a yellow streak of light from an alien pistol hit my left shoulder. It went clean through my flesh, and blood gushed out. But I had to keep going. I was on a mission.
I reloaded the double barrel as my feet stomped on the ground, and fired. I successfully killed three more aliens with those two rounds. Due to the jostling of the gun as I ran, I dropped a shell as I reloaded.
The king made it to its bedroom, where the defences were much stronger, and the wall solicited behind it.
"Get away from the wall!" I shouted as I approached.
The people made a circle around the entrance to the bedroom and continued to fire shotgun shells at the walls, which still emitted small blue destructors. I quickly grabbed the body of a dead alien and held it up in front of the wall. But the wall didn't dissipate like it should've.
I shouted with exertion, "Step further back!"
The people did, they widened the circle around the wall. I ducked my head, and hoped that the wall only saw an alien. It did, and the wall dissipated. I rushed forward, and used the dead alien as a shield. The people came rushing in behind me, and fired their guns. More destructors fired at us, and obliterated much of us. I tossed the dead alien aside and was met with five more yellow streaks of light all over my body. I screamed in immense pain, but fired my own shotgun. The two aliens closest to the king aimed their pistols and fired. Both streaks hit my chest, and I screamed again as I careened to the ground.
And then a final, ominous blast rang through the air. And the king alien's face was blown in a sickening pink ooze.
The five remaining alien guards in the room suddenly fell to the ground, unharmed but dead.
"Sky!" I heard my brother's voice in the distance. "SKYLER!"
He wasn't in the distance. The next second, he was crouched down beside me. He was already crying tears before his hands clamped down on my wounds, trying to stop the bleeding.
"Wh-" Vance began, but had difficulty speaking. "Where're the healing coins you mentioned? Sky! The healing coins!"
I lifted my arm to point, and said weakly, "Ow. B-belts."
"The belts!" Vance screamed at people. "CHECK THE FUCKING BELTS! They'll be purp- LILAC in colour! HURRY!"
And then the most beautiful vision came into sight. Darwin crouched down beside me as well. I must've been dreaming.
"Sky!?" Darwin said in alarm before his palms clamped down on my wounds. "Sky, j-just hang on, Baby. We'll- we'll patch you right up, okay?"
"Dar," I said weakly but happily. "You really here, Babe?"
Darwin quickly answered, "Yes, yes, I'm here, Sky. You'll be okay."
Around whimpers of pain and fear, I said, "Ow. I-it hurts. It hurts, Dar."
"Fucking HURRY!" Vance screamed as tears flooded from his eyes.
"I don'-" I said, and let out a whine. "I don' wan' die, Dar."
"You-" Darwin swallowed the lump in his throat. "You won't die, Baby. I won't let you die. I'm right here. Jus-just hang on one more second, Sky. Just one more second. C-can you do that for me?"
"I l-love you."
"I know, Baby. I lo..."
The End.
So there you have it, guys! We have reached the end of another story! Please don't hate me for killing off our main character! But how did you like Skyler's name? Did you picture the main guy to be a Skyler? Did you imagine him to be a Native American teen?
So I chose to title this story 'Strawberry Wine' simply because Skyler relishes the memories of his days with Darwin as their young love awakened and soared in their hearts. Their relationship began in the summer, and would've continued had the invasion not happened. I would have loved to see how they could have spent their respective seventeenth birthdays together.
If you want to check out my other fictions, they will be listed below.
The Trick is to Keep Breathing
tyler.christopher36@yahoo.com