In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (27 page)

Kabus
hurls his fist back, like some kind of martial arts master, laying every blow
into Julio. Kabus grabs Julio and flings him at Lance.

Julio
crashes into him and they tumble into the ground.

Julio
struggles to get up. He coughs, blood splatters on the ground from his mouth.

Shit
.

There
is no way they can beat him.

“Fuck,”
Lance mutters. He also struggles up. There is only one option, they’re going to
die if they continue on.

“Fuck
this.”

They
can’t defeat Kabus and he knows it. Kabus just smiles at them, standing in the
same spot, he barely moved an inch.

“Run.”

Cole
explodes out of the building he crashed into and toward Ulbe, they fight. They
go hit for hit, Ulbe blocks and counters Cole every move. Ulbe lands a hit and
sends Cole into the air.

It’s
like he’s anticipating his every move, every swing he tries, Ulbe is ready to
counter it.

Ulbe
pulsates and sends an invisible force at Cole. But he can see it and blocks it
with his force field. Cole suddenly shoots up blindingly fast into the sky. The
Damon follows.

Cole
flies higher and higher into the air, past the clouds and pushes into the upper
limits of the atmosphere. The folds of the Earth past him. He spins, twirling
like a butterfly in the wind.

A
faire approaches in the distance. He closes his eyes and lets the elements rush
over him. He loves this, the air that massages his hair, the wind caressing his
body, the silence of the Earth, the freedom of it. He could never do this
without his power, he opens his eyes.

In
the horizon, the blue trail of earth consolidates into the black of space. He
could have never seen this without the confines of a vehicle, hell he would’ve
never seen it from this perspective in his lifetime.

Cole
stops, he wishes he could continue on forever but he has thing to take care
off.

He
falls, Ulbe comes screaming up from below him. Cole fires his spheres at him,
but Ulbe effortlessly dodges them.

This
is his medium, the sky.

Ulbe
opens his mouth and lets out a beam of hell fire. It surprises Cole as—

He’s
hit and falls down.

His
spheres spin around him and clears the smoke. Not a mark.

“This
is still nothing!!” Cole yells. 

He
flies for the Damon and swings at him, who simply dodges his efforts. Cole
shoots up and then back down, bringing his leg down on Ulbe.
Anticipate
that, asshole
.

As
Ulbe is hit down, he spins and swings his wings into Cole. Cole staggers back
as Ulbe swings his hand and—

Boom!
Cole is sent flying into a nearby faires docking bay by the invisible force.

The
president sits at his desk in his fake oval office. He stares out into the room,
most of the generals and leaders still work at the monitors.

No
matter what he says they have a battle to run.

But
the rest, they all stand at their seats, staring up at him, as if he’s some
kind of savior brought to save them, with their hopeful eyes, waiting for him
to say something, anything, to bring them a new hope.

Maybe
it’s time, for the end of the lies of a politician and the hopeful words of a
prophet. It’s time for the words of a human, the truth. No matter how cold and
hard it is. He’s not looking for a reelection.

“What
do you want me to say? You want me to say, that we will win this… that I have
some kind of plan, that this will end soon and we all can finally rest and
sleep like nothing has happen, you’ll say we’ll fight with all our might. That
this is our home, you’ll say, this is our world, you’ll yell! Let them come to
us to meet there end!

But,
yet… when all the yelling and shouting is done, and we look up into the sky as they
come down to us. Descending from the very clouds we prayed upon, descending
from the very sky we hoped upon, for forgiveness, salvation, the very stars we
wished upon to vanquish our enemies, to destroy the wicked, to protect us.

And
to see them come from above, knowing we are all alone in this cold dark world,
that nobody will come and save us, that we are destined to a depressing fate.
How can we fight, how will we muster up the effort, when there are no more
stars in our once hopeful, lonely sky. When there is no more hope left for us…”

The
president pauses, he can’t let them down. They are looking up to him, not for
the truth but not exactly the reality. They just want something to have hope
toward.

“But
there is hope.”

In
safe houses around the battlefield, people huddle around their televisions and
radios. They listen to the president’s speech, listening intently for they need
someone or something to bring them hope.

“I
was told once that I like to help others. I do like to help others, that’s
human nature and why you elected me.”

In
another stadium, Thora sits in her makeshift bed, arms wrapped around her legs,
head in her knees. Alone, rocking back and forth. She doesn’t believe in hope
any more.

In
a street near the air base, Julio and Lance sprint down it. Kabus chases
closely behind, with a stupid grin on his face.

These
are the chosen, the titans,
the
ones who are supposed
to protect the planet and maybe even the galaxy. Yet, here they are in a moment
of weakness.

In
front of them the road ends, only a seven story apartment building stands in
front of them. This feels familiar to Julio, but this time only Kabus or
himself
is going to come out alive.

He’s
going to end him once and for all.

“There
is room for everyone on this green earth, no matter what race.”

“Go
through it!” Julio yells.

They
leap incredibly high and crash through the fifth story window. Lance lands
perfectly on his feet as Julio plunges in, tumbling to the floor, skidding
across the carpet and to a stop.

He
gets to his knees and tries to catch his breath. Glass pierced his skin, but
he’s not healing.

He
can’t keep doing this.

He
jumps up, pushing through a painful grunt.

“Keep
going,” Julio says. He looks down the hall. “We can take him at the end.”

They
run down the hallway, running with all their might. With the dark purple carpet
and checkered wallpaper the hallway feels infinitely long.

Lance
starts to leave Julio behind.

Julio
struggles more and more to keep up. Something is wrong.

“Wait.
Stop!” Lance shouts.

Lance
halts, Julio skids to a stop. He walks up to Lance and looks around, nobody is
chasing them.

Perfect
chance to catch his breath, Julio kneels and breathes deeply, it’s getting
harder to breathe, his legs and arms feel like spaghetti.

There
is a tense silence in the hallway.

Where
is that fucker?

They
turn around.

Nothing.

There’s
a creak, it echoes through the building. Julio pushes himself back to his feet,
he nearly blacks out doing it.

Lance
didn’t notice, he doesn’t want to be a burden.

Bang!

Julio
jumps. He looks around frantically, his tiredness is messing with his senses.
He can’t tell where it’s coming from.

Lance
braces himself, getting ready.

“Whatever
you do—“

He
stops, there is another bang, this time at the end of the hallway, toward where
they were heading. Suddenly there’s a loud rat tat
tat
sound.

Footsteps.

Heading
toward them.

 “—keep
running,” Lance says as the footsteps close in.

Julio
can kill him, for good this time.

“But—“

The
footsteps stops behind them. The steps stopped almost right under them. Julio
backs up, Lance’s locket lights up.

“Run!”
Lance yells.

Kabus
rips through the floor and into Lance. Insulation and carpet fly through the
air. Julio runs, Lance and Kabus crash back down from the ceiling and through
the floor.

Julio
stares straight ahead and runs the hardest he has ever had to run before.

His
body betrays him.

His
legs
slow
, cramps hit his abdomen, his chest tightens,
it gets hard to breath.

He’s
at his limit, the stupid fucking limit he trained so hard to break and to get
rid of. It’s all crashing back on him.

Why!?
Why does it have to happen now!?

After
all he’s been through. He peers right down the hall to the window ahead of him.

A
safe haven.

Behind
him the fight continues, crashing up they go through the wall to the left and
then to the right. It’s disorienting as they tear through the works of man,
like it’s nothing.

Lance
actually holds his own.

They
rip through the ceiling again. This time they don’t come back down. Julio
closes in to the window and stops hard, almost falling through.

He
heaves in heavily, sweat smearing the glass as his head slams into it.

“But
greed and hate has poisoned us, changing our race, our nature.”

He
looks out the window, the five stories seem like millions. Almost certain death
if he jumps in his condition, he struggles to stay upright, his body shakes.

This
is it.

“As
we fight against this threat we must unite together, putting aside our
prejudice and hate.”

His
ring beeps, a display projects on top of it. It says ‘Power depleted.’

He’s
not immortal any more.

His
muscle suddenly get sore, using the powers took a toll on his body, but it
seems like when he had energy it neglected the pain and soreness.

Out
the window, the sky flashes as more forces come down. He looks down the streets
below.

“I
can’t do it…I just can’t…”

What
would be better if he can’t defeat Kabus, falling to his death or getting
mutilated by him?

Kabus
crashes down behind him, right on queue. Julio turns and leans against the
window, he tries to suppress his shakes but it barely works.

“And
rise up and remember why were still alive, on top of our food chain.”

“I
have seemed to have lost your friend back there, the slippery fuck. But you are
the one I really want,” Kabus says.

Kabus
blows him a kiss and slowly walks toward him. Julio grimaces at the thoughts
going through Kabus’s head.

“You
know on our home world, we have these things called recreants, they’re just
like your rats, pest of the Earth consuming and destroying everything they
touch, yet exterminating their equivalent.”

Julio
breathes in and calms himself, his shakes stops. He feels something in the
distance in his mind, a small ball of energy, he tries to reach out for it.

Nothing.

But
he feels it getting closer, speaking to him.

“We
came to Earth a couple of millennia ago when we were led by the peace keeping
type. But your kind were so dirty and violent that we simply left, until you
could ascend to a level worth associating with. All uncultivated civilizations
are like that. But that was when the Astrons ruled us.”

While
Kabus babbles on, Julio feels the source getting closer, close enough he can
see it, through the ceiling, through the clouds, the sky and through space.

It
is the sun.

His
vision turns into blackness, darkness surrounds him,
only
the sun floats in front of him.

It
heard his pleas.

This
must be what Jahum meant when he said he could speak with the stars. It’s the very
sun which gave Earth life, the very thing that people pined for. It wants to
help him, give him just enough energy for him to make it through this. But not
more, for every ounce it gives is taken from its own life.

Julio
blinks, he’s back in front of Kabus, leaning against the window. He can feel
his skin tingling, he needs just enough.

Fear
and anxiety leaves him, he stares directly into Kabus’s eyes. Julio finally
understands, an answer to a question he never really asked himself before, but
in this moment, he’s come to a primal understanding of it. If he can really
speak with the stars, what to fear in death. The stars will protect him.