Age of Men Read online

free one of the creature’s scales in the struggle. It’s as hard as iron and as sharp as a knife.”

  “How are we gonna use one scale to bring down one of those things?” Richard huffed.

  “The scale isn’t for them.” Josh said, “It’s for stripping the flesh off the bones of the dead. The bones can be sharpened using a rock as a hammer and the scale as a chisel. We can use them as spears.”

  “Are you for real?” Richard asked outraged.

  “That’s insane.” Jack said.

  “If you can think of something better, please…” Josh shrugged.

  Jack glanced away from the scale in Josh’s hand and looked down at the corpse. He couldn’t believe he was actually contemplating deboning a human being, but the situation they were in gave them no other choice. He knew it might be their only chance, but he doubted whether he had it in him to become a butcher of human flesh.

  27

  Alicia’s captors decided to make camp for the night next to a river and held her prisoner in a cage made of crystals that emitted light beams of pure energy that kept her encaged. The two perds grazed a few feet away while the two large men set up for the night; one set up a tent-like structure while the other one got a fire going as the two suns set in the distance.

  The one setting up the fire finally removed his mask and to Alicia’s surprise and shock, the natives looked remarkably like humans; his skin was a pale white – almost bordering on light blue and he had long, silky, white hair that flowed over his broad shoulders like a waterfall. He called out something in his language to the other one and then turned to Alicia.

  “Do you eat flesh?” He asked.

  She stared at him without saying a word; still flabbergasted at the fact that they looked so much alike – in fact he was a gorgeous man despite being an alien. His purple eyes seemed to glow ever so slightly in the dark and pulled her in like a moth to a flame as if casting a mesmerizing spell on her.

  “Female.” He insisted, “Do you eat flesh?”

  She snapped out of her mesmerized state; wondering what the hell came over her. It had been years since she had an infatuation for any man other than Jack and felt a bit ashamed of herself.

  “You mean meat?” She asked, “Yes. I guess so.”

  He looked up at the sky and concentrated until his eyes emitted purple rays of light up into the sky; rays that reached up about ten feet before dissipating into the darkness. He kept standing like that until a winged creature approached and circled the light beams. It looked like a bat with four wings flapping into each other and was the size of a turkey. The light drew the creature closer to him and then he grabbed it and snapped its neck before dispelling the beams of light back into his eyes.

  She watched as he dropped the dead creature next to the fire and used left-over wood to construct a roasting pole.

  “Petrav.” He said.

  “I’m sorry?” She was confused about the statement.

  “That’s what they call me. Petrav.” He said.

  “Alicia.” She said; uncertain what to make of the conversation, “Where are you taking me?”

  “You already know. I saw you talking to my perd. Wernus and I are connected. He took a risk to talk to you.”

  “Please don’t punish him.”

  “I do not punish.” Petrav said, “Only our leader can punish.”

  “Your leader?” She asked; already knowing the answer, “Why are you taking me to Pretor?”

  “We scout for scattered humans.” Petrav said.

  “Wernus said you dump the others in a prison. Why not me? Why are you taking me to your leader? What does he or she want with me?”

  “You’re different.” Petrav said and stepped closer to her, “You will save our people.”

  “Save your people?”

  “Eljav has been looking for you. He searched the entire universe for you. That’s why you were brought here.”

  “Why me?” Alicia asked flattered, but confused, “What’s so special about me?”

  Petrav sat down cross-legged next to the cage of radiant energy and glanced up at the night sky that was filled with millions of bright stars; some bigger than others and more clearly visible.

  “Look at the sky.” He said, “What do you see?”

  “Stars.”

  “What else?”

  Alicia stared at the sky for a moment longer and then shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking for.

  “The red planet.” He said.

  He pointed at the rising red giant with the planetary rings to the east.

  “In a sky filled with stars, you are the red planet.” Petrav said, “Everyone can see it. We could immediately see that you were the one we’re looking for. Like we’re linked to our perds, we’re also linked to Eljav and he’s already excited to meet you.”

  She glanced at the red planet again with all its majestic beauty and felt flattered that they compared her to such an incredible sight. She couldn’t comprehend what exactly it meant, but it was a good feeling to know that someone searched the entire universe to find her – she actually forgot to worry about Jack and Timmy for a moment. What kind of person – what kind of mother – would forget to worry about her own son? Every time she glanced into Petrav’s deep eyes she found herself get lost in them.

  “Where did you learn to speak my language?” She asked.

  “We’ve been testing our transporting device for centuries.” Petrav said, “I learn from talking to your people.”

  The other man called out to Petrav and seemed angry.

  “What did he say?”

  “He doesn’t like me talking to you.” Petrav said, “He thinks I trust your people too easy.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “A human killed his brother while trying to escape once.” Petrav said.

  “Oh.” She said as he got up, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “I’ll get the flesh cooked.”

  28

  “You can’t be serious?” Richard asked in disbelief.

  The three men stood a few feet away from the corpse while the rest of the imprisoned men walked up and down restlessly looking for loved ones – everyone too preoccupied by their own dilemma to even take note of what they were talking about.

  “Those fire demons will be back,” Josh said, “And next time they might grab one of us. We need to be prepared – we need to kill one of those things to show them that we’re not gonna take things lying down.”

  “I’m getting sick from just talking about it.” Jack felt nauseated.

  “Life is filled with difficult decisions.” Josh said, “But when it comes down to survival, it’s the fittest that’ll be left standing and I for one would like to get out of this hell.”

  A monster’s growl echoed like thunder and signalled everyone that they were returning for more victims to feed upon. It wasn’t long before everyone started running and screaming in all directions as they watched the dark skies for any sign of the unseen creatures. The slow and the old were trampled to death while some of the smaller guys near the fire wall were pushed into the flames that consumed them. Jack shielded Timmy from the horrid sight of a man fighting to get out of the fire wall, but was held there by an unseen force within the blue flame until his corpse finally collapsed; completely consumed by the fire.

  “We should move.” Richard said, “Look for somewhere to hide.”

  “Where would you wanna hide?” Josh asked, “Stand your ground and keep your eye on the sky. You don’t run unless you know where your enemy is.”

  Timmy sobbed quietly into Jack’s chest as the three men stood and looked up at the sky while everyone else around them ran around panicking and screaming. Another screech echoed through the night sky and this time it sounded much closer, but there was still no sign of the flying monster.

  After the last echo resonated into the darkness, all they could here was screaming and downpour of rain. After a while, people realized that
they were clear of danger and the panic slowly started dying down.

  “Stand your ground!” Josh said, “Keep your sights fixed on the sky!”

  One by one the people nearby started looking up at the sky in dreaded anticipation of the fire monsters, but saw nothing except the dark clouds and drizzle that went along with it. Josh had spent enough time in the outdoors to know that predators snuck up on their prey when they least expected it… and this might just be the calm before storm he was dreading.

  Timmy lifted his head off his father’s chest and glanced at all the men and boys staring up at the sky and could actually hear the sound of raindrops impact with the ground in the utter silence that befell the humans around him. Timmy shielded his little eyes from the rain as he looked up at the dark clouds, and despite not really knowing what they were fearing, he could sense the fear that was in everyone’s hearts.

  Instantaneously a fire monster pierced through the clouds that twirled up away in a vortex around its flaming wings as it rapidly descended towards the humans; shrieking with a wide open snout. All hell broke lose as everyone started screaming and running to get away from the monster.

  “Stand still!” Josh insisted as the monster descended, “Keep your eyes on it and watch where it’s going so you can go in the opposite direction!”

  Jack could hardly hear Josh over the terrified screams around them, but stood still and watched as the monster came down towards them. He wanted to run away, but instinct told him to trust Josh and so he stood where he was – hoping for it to be the right decision.

  The monster swooped down a few yards in front of them and grabbed a fat