Extinction (13 page)

“I know you’re angry with me,” he said icily, his
eyes darting away from mine and he stared intently at a brown smudge on the
otherwise spotless wall. “You misunderstood things between us. I was trying to
help. You were hurt and scared. I felt sorry for you.”

“So sorry for me that you kissed me?” He never cared
about me. He pitied me. To him I was nothing more than a weak little girl.

“I’m only a man, Lexie. And you threw yourself at
me. What was I supposed to do?” I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Is that
what he thought of me – what he had been thinking this whole time? 

“It’s not true.” My voice was barely a whisper, the
pain his words caused, leaving me weak.

“You’re not my type. Get over it.” His words sliced
through me. Bile rose in my throat. It felt as if someone had taken a knife and
cut out my heart. There was this vast hole in my chest where my heart once used
to be. All the blood drained from my face and I heard a whooshing sound in my
ears. How many times had I stood before my father and listened to every vile
despicable word he said to me, how many times did he hit me and yet none of it
could compare to the pain I felt at this moment. 

“That’s enough!” Arianna yelled at Chai and looked
like she was very close to punching him in the jaw. “If you say another word,
so help me, and I will tear your throat out.” I didn’t think I’ve ever seen her
so angry.

“I’m leaving,” Chai said stoically, his eyes resting
for a second on my pale face. He opened his mouth, but shut it again firmly. I
didn’t watch him leave. I just stood there and wished the floor could swallow
me whole.

“Lexie?” Arianna said carefully and rested a hand on
my shoulder. I shrugged it off.

“Don’t.” I whispered. I didn’t want them to say
anything. I didn’t want their pity. I didn’t want to feel anything. “Let’s get
back to training.”

      By the end of the day
every muscle in my body and a few I didn’t even know existed ached. 

“I’m hopeless,” I groaned as I lay on the training
mat, too tired to move an inch.

“I think you have potential,” Arianna said as she
pulled me to my feet. That meant a lot coming from her, even if she was lying. 
  

“I agree.” Gaios said and wiped the sweat from his
forehead with a towel. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. You did great
today.” He ruffled my hair as he walked past me and gave me a glimpse of his
adorable dimples. “You have a lot of courage.” 

“Not at all bad for a puny human,” Arianna said and
laughed at the offended look on my face. She constantly took great pleasure in
mocking my size. “Tomorrow you can start training with the others”

“Others?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to
train with the group. I knew how hopeless I was. They were trying their best to
make me feel better, but even I had to admit that I was the worst student here.

“We’re preparing for war and you must be ready,”
Gaios answered. “Let’s face it, there are only a few among you that have any
skills when it comes to fighting and you’re not facing an ordinary enemy. The
Vandelrizi are just as fast and strong as we are and they have other skills too
and weapons far more advanced than you have.”

It was something that bothered me too. I had
witnessed the Vandelrizi first hand in action. Except for their strength and
speed, they could lift a man off his feet with a single swipe of their hand. They
could lift objects ten times their size with a single thought. They possessed
telekinetic powers not even the Epsilon had.

We needed all the help we could get.

      I forced myself
to get out of bed. It had been another long sleepless night and I rubbed my
burning eyes. I wished I didn’t volunteer to do the morning kitchen duty. Usually
I welcomed the monotony and isolation of working in the kitchen, but today I
was too exhausted. Training turned out to be a lot tougher than I expected. I
was stiff and sore and after four days of non-stop sparring and sprinting under
Arianna’s supervision, I felt like death. She was a real pain in the ass and kept
drilling me non-stop. I wasn’t getting better either and even the younger kids
handed me my butt on a silver platter. 

I got dressed in a pair of tight fitting sweat pants
and t-shirt and headed toward the mess hall. Breakfast should be over by now. I
hadn’t been hungry in days and got in the habit of skipping meals in the mess
hall. I knew the main reason was Chai. I avoided seeing him as much as I could.
I usually grabbed a couple of sandwiches at night before I went to bed. It was
too painful to see him every day and not to speak to him. Chai totally ignored
me and even Emily had backed off. She hadn’t said a mean thing to me in days. But
it hurt seeing them together. A lot. Arianna and Gaios tried their best to
cheer me up. It was difficult for them too. Chai was like their brother. It
wasn’t fair to make them choose between me and Chai and I started avoiding them
too. After training each day I locked myself in my room. There had been times
that I even wished I’d never left Palasium. 

I touched the envelope in my pocket. I carried Mom’s
letter with me wherever I went.  It was like a little piece of her was with me.
I couldn’t make myself read it. I wasn’t ready to hear her last words to me
before she died. If I opened her letter, I would have to admit she was really
gone, she won’t ever come back.

Chai and Emily sat huddled together at a table in
the corner and my stomach did a flip. I was so sure the mess hall would be
empty by now. She was pressed so close to him, she was almost sitting on his
lap and giggled uncontrollably at every word he said. He smiled and took her
hand. My stomach lurched. Not long ago he smiled at me that way. 

I wanted to ignore the plates of half-eaten food on
the table next to them, but it would be so obvious that I was avoiding them. I
lifted my chin and headed to the table. I was not going to show them how much
they upset me. My fingers trembled and I nearly dropped the stack of plates in
my arms. They clattered loudly as I tried to hold on to them. A blob of pale
yellow egg dripped on my shirt and I flushed. I felt their eyes on me as I
tried to wipe the sticky yellow yolk from my shirt.

“How sweet! The spoiled little princess is doing
manual labor,” Emily said, her voice filled with sarcasm. “Did you know she
lived in a palace while everyone around her was starving?”

I stiffened and clenched my jaw. Emily was trying to
provoke me and it was working. 

“Her daddy doesn’t love her. He’s happy she’s gone,”
she added and my gaze flicked to them in disgust at her crudeness. Emily smiled
slyly. Chai stared at me, his face expressionless. I didn’t understand how he
could be with someone so vile. 

“You should try doing some honest work sometime.” I
was tired of keeping quiet and letting her get away with insulting me.   

“Be nice, girls,” Chai said and I wondered to whom he
was speaking – to me or her. I wasn’t the one trying to start a fight. I had
tried my best to get Emily to forgive me. I had apologized to her again and
again. 

“Not even your mommy wanted you. She ran away as fast
as she could to get away from you.”

That was it!  I had enough and I rushed forward, not
sure if I was going to dump the plates on her head or punch the smile from her
face. I didn’t get very far, before a strong arm grabbed me by the waist from
behind and dragged me backward.

“It’s your fault she’s dead. It’s your fault your
daddy shot her.” 

I never told Emily how my mother died. She and Rosa
came to Palasium after my mother died. I never told anyone that my father shot
her. Nobody except for Chai.

“How could you?” I yelled at Chai. “How could you
tell her?” 

Angry tears stung my eyes. Chai looked at me with
shock. It was the first real emotion I’ve seen from him since he returned from
his ship. I was picked up from the floor; my feet dangled in the air and I was whirled
around so that my back was turned to them. I was only put back on my feet once
we reached the kitchen. I dropped the plates in the basin with such force that
one of them cracked right down the middle. I wiped the tears from my face with
the back of my hand.

“Why did you stop me?” I pivoted and found Erich
grinning apologetically at me. He drew a hand through his unruly curls. 

“Hi,” he said sheepishly.

“You’re back!”

“Yeah, things are getting a bit hot in Palasium. Bill
wanted me back here before my cover is blown.”

“I’m glad you’re safe.” I pushed my anger aside. I
was happy and relieved that Erich was safely back here. I didn’t want him to
get hurt, not after what he had done for me. I felt connected to him since that
night.

“What’s up with you and golden boy?” I smirked and
began scraping left-over food from the plates.

“You shouldn’t have stopped me,” I said warily. “She’s
a bitch and he’s a jerk.”

“You seemed very cozy the last time I saw you.”

“Things changed.”  I couldn’t believe that Chai told
Emily about my parents. I never believed he would do that to me. He betrayed me
in the worst possible way. I didn’t know him at all anymore. Maybe I never knew
him at all.

“Arianna told me you’re training with the groups. Why
don’t we head to the gym and I’ll train you today?” Erich asked. “Get some of
this anger out of your system. I’ll even let you punch me.”

“Arianna told you how bad I was?” I laughed at the
innocent face he pulled.

“She thought you could do with some extra help.”

 “I have to finish up here first.” There was nothing
I wanted more than get out of here, but I promised to clean up and the dishes
won’t clean themselves.

“I’ll help you.”  

Erich rolled up his sleeves and dutifully helped me
washing the dirty dishes. I laughed more than once at his antics. We were both
soaked with water and soap suds clung to his hair by the time we were finished.
He was one of those people that even though you had just met them, it felt like
you had known them all your life. 

      
I
aimed my foot
at Erich’s midsection as I kicked. At the last
moment he moved out of the way and my foot hit empty air. I lost my balance and
tumbled backward. Erich tried to grab my arm and we both ended up on the
training mat in a tangled heap. We laughed loudly as we tried to untangle our
entwined legs.

“My grandmother can move faster than you,” taunted
Erich and pulled me upright. I stumbled again and this time he caught me and
steadied me in his arms. He gave me a wicked grin and the next moment he
flipped me over his shoulder and I landed on the mat with a thud. I groaned
loudly.

“You’re going to pay for that,” I grunted and jumped
up. “Can you’re grandmother do this?” I tackled him and used the full momentum
of my weight to bring him down on the mat. We were like two kids playing
instead of training and Arianna shook her head in disapproval. I didn’t mind,
this was the first fun I had in days. 

 I caught Chai glaring at us from across the room.
His hands were balled at his sides and his eyes flung daggers at us. It looked
like he wanted to strangle us both.

“Your boyfriend is pissed,” Erich said. He stretched
and I was once again surprised by how muscular he was for his age.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I mumbled and gave Erich a
push. I didn’t know what Chai’s problem was. He made it more than clear that he
wasn’t interested in me.

“But seriously, you’re hopeless,” Eric said and
stared thoughtfully at me. “Maybe we should try something else.” He rose and
pulled me up with him.

I followed him to the room next door. It was a bit
smaller than the gym and there were huge white targets mounted on one wall with
red circles painted on them. 

He took a key hanging from a chain around his neck
and unlocked a steel cabinet in the corner.  The door creaked open. The cabinet
clearly didn’t belong on the ship. The rebels must have brought it with them on
the ship. Erich took out a gun. I watched him, raising my brows. This didn’t
seem like a good idea. Thus far I had done poorly in training and I was sure I
wouldn’t be any better using a gun.

“Can you shoot?” he asked expectantly.

“Aim and pull the trigger? It’s as easy as that,” I
said with more confidence than I felt. I had fired a gun once before – the day
I met Chai in the jungle. I wasn’t sure shooting plants counted.

Erich placed the gun in my hand. “Give it a try.”

I lifted my arm and aimed at the target in the
middle. I pulled the trigger and the bullet hit the wall next to the target,
leaving a dent in the shiny metal. I completely missed and I cringed. I doubted
the alien council would be happy with the damage I did to their spaceship.

“Turn your body. Like this.” Erich placed his hands
on my hips and turned me so that my one foot was in front of the other. “Now feel
the gun in your hand. Think of it as an extension of your arm. It is a part of
you. Focus on the target. See where you want the bullet to hit in your mind.”

I inhaled and let my breath out slowly, readjusting
my grip on the gun until it didn’t feel foreign in my hand anymore. It was an
extension of me. I imagined the bullet moving through the air and hitting the
target in the middle. I pulled the trigger. The bullet smashed into the target
precisely in the middle. I couldn’t believe it. Erich let me shoot again and
again and every time I hit the target in the middle. I was an excellent
marksman. It was at least something I didn’t suck at. 

“I knew you would be good at this!” Erich said and
draped an arm around my shoulder. “It’s in your genes.”

I frowned. Robert knew how to use a gun, but he
wasn’t a very good shot and somehow I couldn’t imagine my mother ever doing any
of this.

“Why do you think it’s in my genes?”

“I think Bill mentioned to me your mother was a good
shot.” Erich suddenly looked very uncomfortable. “Why don’t you put the gun
away and I’ll go fetch us some water.”

I got the distinct feeling Erich was lying to me,
but before I could say another word, he sprinted from the room.

I emptied the gun and put it back inside the locker
when I heard footsteps behind me.

“That was quick…” I turned and came face to face
with Chai. Uneasiness filled me and my eyes automatically darted to the door. As
if Chai could read my mind, he moved in front of the door, blocking my only
escape route.

“I didn’t tell Emily about your mother,” he said
grimly. His fists opened and closed at his sides. He seemed nervous.

“I don’t believe you.” I slammed the door of the
cabinet shut and the sound echoed through the room.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“Wouldn’t you? You’ve lied about everything else.” I
knew I wasn’t being fair to him. I couldn’t blame him for having feelings for
Emily. She was really pretty. Much prettier than me and she could be very nice
if she wanted to be. I hated to admit it, but I was jealous.

“Not all of it’s a lie. I care about you.” His words
slammed into me and my breathing sped up.

“Leave me alone.” My voice cracked. How could he say
he cared about me, after all he had said and done in the past week? None of it
made any sense.

“Erich isn’t right for you.” My head snapped up. 

“You, of all people, want to tell me who I should be
with?” I laughed bitterly. “Why don’t you go back to Emily? I’m sure you can
find something to talk about and have a good laugh at me.”

“Lexie, listen to me.” A muscle popped in his jaw,
his body tense and rigid.

“I don’t want to hear anything else you’ve got to
say. You’ve said enough.” I hurled the words angrily at him.

“You don’t belong with Erich.” My anger boiled over. 
He had no right to come in here and talk to me like this.

“Who do I belong with?  Not with you! You’ve made
that perfectly clear.”  My shoulders sagged and I felt the anger leaving me.  I
didn’t want to argue with him anymore.  The pain it caused me was more than I
could handle.  “Erich is my friend. He makes me laugh and he doesn’t treat me
as if I carry the plague. Please leave me alone.”

“I can’t do that. Ever.” There was an edge of
desperation in his voice.

“I don’t understand. You can’t come in here and tell
me you care and the next…” My voice broke and I knew I had to leave before I
start crying. 

“Lexie…” He took a step closer and I backed up, my
back pressing against the wall.

“Why? Just tell me why? Is it because of who I am? Because
of what my father is?”