“There’s no need for any of that.” Kyle preemptively said. “I’m not here to fight any of you.”
“Shut your mouth fleshie!” The cougar barked at him.
“Being so obviously non aggressive never works with these people my god.” He groaned to himself. He put both of his hands up in the air to signal his surrender. “Is this better for you now?”
The cougar completely ignored his gesture and pranced down the catwalk, sliding off a staircase and landed on the ground right in front of him.
“I know what you’re going to do and I’m warning you it’s just going to be a waste of time.”
The cougar pounced on him directly after being told that and tried their best to pierce their daggered teeth into him. His skin resisted even after being tugged at with his whole shirt being ripped off. After a minute or two of trying to gnaw at him the cougar completely gave up on trying and defensively jumped back and hunkered down growling.
“I told you.” He got up from the ground with his chewed up shirt. “It only made you tired.”
“What the hell even are you.” It asked aggressively after barking at him.
“Indestructible. Now I’m-”
“You haven’t killed him yet?” The bear yelled down from up top.
“Shut the fuck up Yord!” The cougar yelled back.
“I knew you couldn’t really do it.” It started joking.
“You guys do know what jokes are.” Kyle remarked. “But anyways I’m looking for a snake named Rafta, you know where he is?”
The bear and cougar both looked shocked. Neither of them wanted to respond to that.
“Is there any way to talk to him? Or do you even know him? I’m honestly confused by your silence.”
“How do you even know who he is?” Yord asked in return.
“Heard from her sister. I’m here to just have a little chat. That came off more sinister than I wanted it to but I promise you, hand to god, that I have no ill intent.”
“What even is your business?” The cougar followed up.
“Well simply put, I want to understand him, and talk him out of his plan to take over the city above.”
“Of course you fleshies want that.”
“Yeah I know, such a crazy position.”
A slow falling net came down from above and latched all around Kyle. It was loose like a blanket and he could easily escape. He looked up and saw that Yord was holding a rope that casted down the trap.
“Well if this is the only way I can get to Rafta then so be it.” He commented.
“You ain’t going anywhere.” Yord pulled up on the rope and the whole net tightened around Kyle, trapping him in a tight ball like he was a fish. “We’ll determine what to do with you. Aaron report this to the others.”
The cougar complied and ran up the staircase as Kyle was hoisted up into Yord’s claws, getting clutched like he was a grocery bag underneath his humongous paws.
“As long as you hurry up with it then I’m fine with this.” He cracked a small giggle.
16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5gRDDZXGwt
“Oh my god.” Resta spoke out in a gasped breath.
Right in front of her was her brother, Rafta, sitting on a throne. He had a much darker skin tone with his right eye being red and the left one absolutely normal. He also had a scar running down his cheek. They were both the same size as each other.
“I can’t believe it. You’re alive!” He slithered down and wrapped all around her. “I thought I was never going to see you again.” He sounded like he was on the verge of tears. “Where have you been all this time?”
She seemed puzzled by his attitude but she hugged him back. “I’ve been here in the sewers. Like you have.”
“Really!?” He let go of the grasp to plop right down in front of her, his head tilted slightly. “We tried looking for you but couldn’t get very far without running into those rats. I thought for sure that they had eaten you or something.”
“We were able to not get eaten alive by them.”
“That’s good. Really good. I’m just glad you’re back and ok.”
“I’m glad you’re doing well.”
“Listen sis. I’m sorry about running away and everything I said. I didn’t really mean it, it was all just heat of the moment stuff and I’m truly genuinely sorry for all of it. I always meant to come back but those rats were becoming such a huge issue that we couldn’t move far so we just stuck in this corner. But, look at what we’ve accomplished. I’m sorry I’m all very giddy about everything I can finally tell you.” He started to move erratically, swinging back and forth on the ground as he was talking.
“Rafta this is amazing it really is.”
“I know right now we've been able to have a concurrent food system with a water pump and clean housing. We have so many jobs everyone fulfills. We have a real functioning society.”
“All of that seems unbelievable.”
“Yes! But it’s happened. Blood sweat and tears all poured into this sucker. It’s just like we dreamed of Resta. Just like we fantasize at night. This is it. I was so scared that I was going to achieve everything we were told by mom and dad was silly without you. But now that you’re here it’s all that I would have wished for and more. We can get started right away-”
“Rafta I-I” She stuttered and couldn’t really put the full sentence together.
“I’m relaying all of this on you so fast I know but I’m just so excited.”
“It’s not that at all. Brother I have a camp full of people I can’t just leave behind.”
“Oh don’t worry we can bring them along. We’re getting a whole new addition to our lovely society.”
“That’s not going to be that easy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Brother, the things you said. Everything that happened, still lingers over there.”
“Oh.” He looked dejected. “Well. I’m sure we can sweep all of this under the rug. It’s been so long since that happened.”
“It was three years ago. It’s not going to be that simple.”
“But you can vouch for me right? We can-”
“You’re rushing everything too much. It can’t just happen that way, it's not going to happen that way.”
“Well you forgave me right?”
She opened her mouth to give a response but no words came out, she chose not to respond but only closed her jaw and sunk her head down.
“Right?” He breathed nervously. All of the other onlookers stared in awkward silence. Noticing the shifting tone in the atmosphere while he tried to grasp through a wave of overwhelming emotion. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if that means much to you but I thought we could get over it together. Guess I am rushing things once again. But I’ve changed from all of that. I’ve gotten better. Words don’t mean much in the massive scheme of things that transpired since then. But I tried to be better even if you don’t see it yet. Just please let me get a chance at-”
“Rafta!” Yord came calling down from the lower level.
“What is it?” He yelled back.
“I think we found that spy.” He showed him the sack with Kyle right in it, giving a smile and a thumbs up.
“What!? Well I fucking knew it was a human after all.”
Getting to the stairs he threw the net all the way up to land right next to Rafta.
“Ooo very impressive throw.” Kyle complimented jokingly.
“Sorry sis I need to take care of this real quick.” Rafta turned to her.
“Well we found him pretty easily.”
“We?” He was confused. “What do you mean by we?”
“Me and her.” He was able to poke out his finger to point directly at Resta.
“What?” Rafta looked absolutely appalled. “Wha-Why am I even going to believe anything that comes out of your fleshie mouth. Let’s just kill him, I'm sick of your shit already.”
“That’s going to be really hard to do but you can certainly try. Since you don’t want to hear anything I have to say.”
“Sorry boss.” Yord came right up the stairs. “We tried but we can’t even leave a mark on him. Says he’s indestructible.”
“Huh? Impossible. There’s no human out there thats-”
“It’s true!” Aaron interrupted. “I tried latching my fangs right into him but it didn’t even get through, not even once.”
“If this is some sort of comedy sketch you're doing, can you drop it? It’s not the time for that.”
“Go try it if you ain’t gonna believe me.”
“Whatever.” He slithered right up to Kyle, hissing as he unhinged his jaw and lunged forward with his sharp teeth snapping onto him. Like before his skin didn’t budge even after all of the pressure he put into his bite. After a multitude of attempts it didn’t help at all and only started to become exhausting.
“See! See!” Aaron exclaimed. “We ain’t lying. He just can’t be hurt at all.”
“Holy shit.” Rafta slithered backwards in astonishment. “That’s incredible.”
“I know.” Kyle responded. “Now that’s done I’d like to talk-”
“I’m not conversing with the likes of you. Can you please take him away somewhere where he’ll be monitored. We’ll decide what to do with him later, got more important matters to attend to.”
“Not even one-”
“Not one fucking word.”
“Resta please help me-”
“What?” He looked absolutely puzzled. “How do you know her name?”
“Put it together genius.”
He slowly turned around to look at Resta. She stared down at the ground in embarrassment with her face getting noticeably more blushed and flustered. She gave consistent and gradual glances at him.
“Sister? Explain to me right now what the hell is going on.” His whole mood seemed to shift and all of the other animals looked worried with some of them holding a contemptuous expression as they stared Resta down.
She whipped her whole body around to gaze at all of the eyes staring her down. She felt the immense social pressure her throat started to get clogged with saliva and she started to breathe more heavily. “I-I-” She was able to squeak out but she was still all choked up that it didn’t come out clearly.
“Don’t tell me please. There has to be some sort of explanation.” He egged her on. “Just tell me he’s fucking with me, please sis? That’s all I need to hear and we can get past this and ignore him. Throw him to the side. Just-I need to hear those words to come out of your mouth. We can calm the mood down after that and we’ll be on our merry way.” He rolled right up to her, forcing her face to be lifted up by the end of his tail.
“Rafta.” She started to speak, moving her head out from under his tail. “I can explain everything going on. Just hear me out first. That’s all I ask.”
His head twitched awkwardly. “Ok, ok.” He breathed in and out slowly. “I’m listening.”
She still felt the overwhelming stigma of everyone's looks, it felt like she could read their thoughts. It made her hesitate but quickly regained her composure. “I’ve known about your camp for a long time now. If you guys were complaining about a spy, that was probably me.”
Some of the people in the crowd gasped. “Why? Why didn’t you just tell me?” He asked.
“I was afraid of you.” She explained.
“Why-I-I-Man-”
“I was scared that you’d still hate me and everyone you left behind. I thought if I showed my face you were going to lose your mind.”
“God Resta.” He paused making some weird noises as he tried to form a sentence.
“The only reason I’m appearing here is because of him.” She nudged her head to draw attention to Kyle, which everyone proceeded to do. “He was one of the only people up above that showed kindness to me. He could’ve killed me but he didn’t. He spoke to me like he did as any other. Let me speak, didn't judge, he was only curious. He offered to help my community and when I told him about you, he wanted to help you out. All he’s here to do is help.”
“Resta!” He began to yell getting right up into her face. “That’s what those creatures do! They say anything or do anything to get into your good graces and whenever the opportunity presents itself they’ll strike and kill us all!”
“Not all of them. I believe that-”
“You don’t have the experience to know that. Trust me sis I’ve seen the horrors that they’re capable of-”
“I have too! Don’t say that I’m uneducated because me and you damn sure know that we’re the ones who know the most. You need to give them a chance. This is the person.”
“How many chances did they give us? Huh? We were created to be experiments and poked and prodded at like a piece of fucking meat on a lab table. Whenever any one of us go out to the surface they get captured, eaten, or get fucking killed brutally. We’re not equals to them, why should we treat them with this god like reverence-”
“I’m not asking for that. I’m asking that we just work with one.”
“Over my dead fucking body. I’m not getting caught up with helping a fleshie only to get backstabbed.”
“If we can make a connection to the upper world we can make some actual progress.”
“Actual progress? Look around you. I’ve made all of this happen all without the work of them. Even if we got to the surface, so what? You know how many of them are up there that’ll rip us to shred without a second to think or doubt. It’s never going to happen.”
“So your solution is to kill them all.”
“No. Only to make them pay.” He delivered with a sinister tone. “No peace agreement will ever be reached with their kind. So why even bother when we can make them feel the way we have for centuries. Take a few hostages as slaves, gorge one's insides out, kill one's entire family in front of them. Every single ounce of pain they passed onto us we can pass it right back. Treat others the way you want to be treated, remember the story book we read as kids. If they even wanted us to be integrated to their society then it’s too fucking late.”
“You’re sick.”
“Think of mom and dad-”
She whipped her tail around to his face, slapping him. Everybody watching gasped and were absolutely shocked. His head snapped to be facing the opposite of her.
“Don’t use their death as the justification for your insanity.” She started to beam down tears. “Why can’t we just be better instead of stooping down to their level. Why do any of the depraved things you spewed out of your fucking mouth? Violence only brings more violence, you’re not going to break the cycle. You’re going to keep it running. If you want me to believe you’ve changed just show me, because right now. It feels like you’re the same person from three years ago. A bitter violent man.”
It was a deadly amount of silence dropped onto the entire room. Nobody said a word with the only sound being the flickering of the surrounding lamps throughout the entire camp.
“Resta.” He still looked away from her. “I’m sorry for what I’m about to do.”
He signaled to Yord who threw out another net encapsulating her. She was startled and started to wiggle around but it tightened around her to the point where she couldn’t move.
“Hey!” Kyle yelled out. “Your problem here is with me.”
“Put something over his mouth.” He ordered. Aaron had a roll of duct tape to give to Yord.
“You’re not going to silence me that easily!” He managed to squeak out before being forcefully covered up.
“What the hell are you doing?” Resta asked.
“You’re going to lead me to your camp immediately.” He slid right up into her face.
“No! What are you planning-”
“If you don’t-”
“Rafta!”
“Shut your fucking mouth and give me the directions to your camp or I’ll fucking kill every single one of them. Initiate my plan to take over the city and fucking kill everyone on the surface so help me god Resta. I’m going to lose my fucking mind if the next words out of your stupid mouth that isn’t yes sir, or directions!” His voice seemed to be stretched out from screaming at the top of his lungs.
Her eyes widened with tears streaming out of her eyes. Not wanting to respond she just gave a nod before curling up into a ball.
“Good.” He backed off. “Everyone on the defense force please follow me. We have to make some…Negotiations.”
16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QaYqAljQn
Sounds of a beeping forklift going in reverse along with the chatter of some customers and an employee at a hardware store. It was an expansive shop containing all of the essential tools and tons of wood for any purpose. With household items like kitchen sinks, refrigerators. Bathrooms, living rooms, and tons of other templates for whatever you want in your house.
Outside was a nursery filled with plants and other gardening needs. Greg was browsing the aisles with the nasty smell of manure but it seemed to be more tolerable ever since coming right out of the sewer.
He browsed multiple but didn’t have what he was looking for. He kept looping around just in case he was missing the seeds but there weren’t any worth taking. Standing in the middle of an aisle he spotted an employee who was on a ladder stocking the top layer of the shelf.
He had this urge to go and ask the employee but many thoughts and concerns flooded his mind. It was super overwhelming that he had to get completely out of sight.
Going all the way to the back making sure nobody else could see him. He was right near an open door that led to the warehouse section where they kept some extra stock.
“Maybe they have the seeds I need.” He said out loud to himself.
Tip toeing to peer around the corner to make sure no other employee spotted him entering, once he was confident he entered through the back. The warehouse was fully lit with ceiling lights beaming down with rows of shelves that almost reached the ceiling.
On them were stocks of everything in the store. It was really big and some other workers were walking down the aisle with a pallet jack. Beeping of a forklift could still be heard outside.
Thinking quickly to not get caught, he propelled himself upwards to the top of one of the shelfs. He landed directly onto a pallet that contained a ton of plastic wrapped boxes with a hardware brand's logo. It wasn’t as brightly lit as it was on the ground but he could see some gardening items on the other side.
He started moving toward it, jumping across pallets and aisles to get to the other side. He had to time his jumps to when no other worker was around to see him leaping from place to place. At any second he could be noticed if he messes up the timing.
Fortunately he got to the other side of the gardening section to peruse the items. Looking at the first few pallets he saw nothing that were seeds, with the same reek of manure that grossed him out earlier. It all was basic flower stuff with some tools as well.
Right below him was other stuff, thankfully it wasn’t as bright as it was near the entrance so he could actually get down there without being spotted by another employee.
Leveraging his body down to the lower shelf to inspect the next pallet a conversation caught his attention down below. “Lindsey!” A grown man’s voice was overheard.
“What sir?” She asked back, looking quite terrified. Down right below him was a short petite blonde woman who was carrying a box. A tall man wearing a flannel and black jeans came up to her.
“I’ve got some bad news for ya’” He had some sort of southern accent that Greg couldn’t discern.
“What is it?” She lowered her arms.
“So. We’ve had a huge problem with shoplifters and our business hasn’t been really booming lately. And, this has nothing else to do with you. This is just a purely business decision.” He sighed. “I’ve got off the phone with Anna and we’re planning on cutting some of our staff.”
“Please don’t tell me.”
“I’m sorry. You’re a part timer and you don’t work in the front that often. This is nothing personal, it's purely a business decision. I’m sorry that I have to tell you this but this is your last shift. No need to clock out early, take your time alright.” He gave her a pat on the back. “I need to get back to the office but please don’t take it extremely personal. I’m sorry and I hope you have a future prosperous career.” He scurried off in a fast paced walk, leaving Lindsey all by herself.
Greg was unable to see her face but he could tell by her body language that she was on the verge of tears. She dropped the box and ran away from it as it hit the ground with a loud clang. Going to the back where she could be outside.
With little hesitation he followed her as far as he could without being visible. Peeking through the open gate to see her on a staircase crying. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her phone making a quick call. Her phone was ringing for a bit before someone on the other end picked up.
“Mom?” She said, A voice came back to her but he couldn’t hear anything. “Yeah, it’s just that-” She choked on her words for a second. “I’ve been fired.”
She started to cry even more. Leveraging the phone down to hold her face in her palms. Greg felt a weird sensation in his heart, like he wanted to comfort her. It overwhelmed him that he had to look away and plug his ears, hearing her sob started to make him uneasy.
It was silent inside his head then he started getting flashes of all of the people he’s killed. In the city where he took down whole blocks, where he destroyed many buildings, ruined people’s lives, and the screams of others.
All of it started to get louder and unbearable to hear. He uncovered his ears and jumped right off the shelf, using his bat to propel himself off and right out of the window in the warehouse’s ceiling.
Going high up into the sky flying away somewhere else. He didn’t know where to go or even what he was doing. He just had to get away, somewhere private where it was just quiet. He flew all the way to the top of an office building, sitting down right next to the door that led inside.
He let his body slide right down the door directly onto the ground. “God what am I even doing?” He asked himself. “What am I going to tell everyone? ‘Oh I’m sorry I couldn’t find anything to help you’ it’s going to be a fucking catastrophe. It’ll just prove that fucking asshole right?”
His eyes gazed right up into the sky. It was very cloudy and sunny with a plane flying right above him leaving a trail behind.
“Kyle what would you do? I guess he would just steal the seeds but that’s what got that woman fired. Maybe we should just stop. Even if I’m stealing for the good of helping others, the effects just trickle down to an innocent person. Man, I’m saying it like it’s some sort of grand revelation it should just be obvious right? Why does it take me so long to understand all of this shit.” He stomped his feet into the ground. “I need to get a grip.”
The wind picked up a bit, flopping his hair around and getting into his face, having to bat his hair back.
“Think of a solution man come on. I can’t just come back with absolutely nothing. If Kyle can do it, so can I, right? I can help people too. I made a promise to. I’ve come all this way for a reason. I’ll finally bring some good to this world.”16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKANh0vAjDj
