In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (35 page)

“Bermea!”
Someone yells behind him. Bermea snaps out of his stupor. A woman runs up to
him.

“Kelly?
Kelly Molino?”  

“Yes
Bermea Redding.” She hurtles against his chest and hugs the life out of him.

“But
I didn’t see you in the cage!?!”

She presses herself closer to him.

“I
was hiding behind some people. I didn’t want to be seen, just in case you
weren’t who I thought you
were
,” she says. She
starts to cry. “Oh god, I’m so glad that you are here,” She says
as she steps back. Kelly grabs his hands.

Kelly
was his college sweet-heart for a little while before he transferred to another
school. He never really gotten that far with her. When he had the courage to
ask her out she mentioned she liked him as well. But they only gotten as far as
one date before she got accepted into an Ivy
league
school.

He
hasn’t seen her since.

And
she remembered him.

What
are the odds that they would be put together?

She
blushes slightly. She looks… Very good. With her strawberry
red
hair coming down to the middle of her back,
just skirting the tips of her aureoles, and the thousands of little freckles
painting her face and chest. Bermea can’t help but stare. She glances down and
notices his member, but she doesn’t react.

“I
thought I was going to be alone. In this scary
place
,”
Kelly says. Bermea is still stumped at her, how lucky he is to
be with somebody he knows
. Somebody as beautiful as
her, and he’s her only companion.

Hopefully.

She
notices he’s hesitation.

“Oh.”
She pulls her hands away. “Are you taken?” She looks down, trying but failing
to hide her disappointment.

“No,
No!” He grabs her hands again and tries to think of something to not make
himself look like an idiot. “No, this
place
isn’t a scary as you think.” He brings himself closer to her.

He’s
a glass half full kind of guy. He wipes the tears away from
her
face, noticing how sweaty his palms are, but she
doesn’t move away.

“You
got to think positive. We could’ve been with the rest, dead and left behind.
But we’re here, in this menagerie, in a comfortable home and the safest place
on this ship.”

“You
really don't
believe him
do
you?”  

“I’d
like to think that I have a very good judge of character. It’s one of my inept
skills I have from growing up in a bad neighborhood.”

“And
exactly how did you grow up?” She smiles.

“How
about I tell you over dinner?”

“Over
dinner?”

Bermea
lets go of her hand and turns toward the food compiler. He opens one of the
windows and pulls out a steaming hot burger and fries platter.

“Or
lunch?”

She
jumps in glee and runs to the compiler and looks at the display.

Bermea
and Kelly walk up the grassy hill in their habitat. It’s abandoned so far, only
one human lies on the grass down below. The others are still scattered about.

They
make it to the top and sit with their backs on the white walls of the
enclosure. Kelly inches closer to Bermea, their thighs touching. This almost
feels too easy to Bermea. She rests her shoulder against his. Their food
platters lying on their laps.

“Oh,
wow, you can see the whole place from here,” Kelly says. Bermea pries his eyes
off of her for long enough to see what she’s talking about. He can see
everything from here, every single area and movements of his fellow humans.

Most
of them are down at the eating area, trying out every food their mind could
think of. In the waste area, two people stand
around
awkwardly. Both waiting for the other to go, too nervous to use it in front of
the other.

They’ve
must have not been in jail before. Because the jokes are on them because
even if one of them did leave
he can see
everything.
Not that he would want to see what
he’s guessing they are about to do.

In
the pool area, a large black man just sits in the water, alone. Is that the guy
who yelled back in the cage? Bermea wonders but his mind is too focused on the
woman next to him.

“You
can see everything. Our little hill over the prairie,” he says.

“One
minute until open,” a feminine voice says overhead.
The sound vibrates over the enclosure.
Outside their glass walls,
workers run from place to place getting ready for a day of work.

“I’m
nervous, I’m not sure I’m going to like being stared at like some
freaking
animal all day long. Why did this happen to
us? What did I do to deserve this?  I thought I lead a good life. All the
work I did, everything I was working toward is gone,” Kelly says
rambling on.
Her head slumps and she starts to cry.

“I
don’t know if I can do this.” Her tears drips on her Steak tartare. Bermea puts
his arm around her.

“None
of us deserved this. But you can do this. You’ve made it this far, haven’t you?
If you weren’t meant to be here
, you wouldn’t be
.”
He puts his arm around here.

A
little Serephin school boy presses his face up on the glass staring in. His school
group passes behind him. He stares directly at Bermea and Kelly.

He
points and laugh. Kelly presses against the wall as hard as she can, trying to
become unseen.

Bermea
waves, the boy waves back. Bermea sticks his fingers in his mouth and pulls his
cheeks back and makes a funny face. The boy screams and runs off.

Kelly
laughs, her pretty smile breaking through her tears.

“See
they are more afraid of us than we are of them. Well at least the kids.”

Kelly
starts to cheer up.

“How
can that be? Usually the smaller things are the ones who should be more
afraid.”

Bermea
looks at his left hand.

“You
ever wonder why we set traps when we want to kill a bug or
animal?
Why exactly we use a trap?” Bermea asks. Kelly shakes her head.

“It’s
because bugs are nasty and disgusting and it’s easier to trap something.”

Bermea
laughs.

“Okay
that’s one point for them but what are the other reasons?”

Kelly
shrugs.

“It’s
because we have a mutual fear of death, seeing something die or killing a
living being with your own hands is a harrowing experience for most sane
people. When we set a trap there’s
a disconnect
, we
would rather have them kill themselves and just clean up the remains. It’s
easier to forget that they were living beings too”  

Kelly
looks at him.

“Who
have just as much as a right to live as
us.
”

“So
you don’t kill any living creature?”

“It
really matters in the moment,
" he says staring
at his platter. "I
didn’t used to be such a pacifists. It all
started when I was coming home from school when I was younger, there was a
crowd around my front fence. My dog was trying to dig its way out and it got
stuck in the fence.” Bermea relaxes a little bit, as more Serephins
pour
in.

“The
metal from the fence was sticking into his flesh and an officer had to shoot
him
. But he wasn’t dead. I pushed my way through the
crowd and sat down with him. He looked up at me
and
he
stopped whimpering. He was
so
happy
I was
there. He had experienced so much pain
,
and
yet I was there, so he was that much better. I stared into his eyes and snapped
his neck.”

“Oh…”
Kelly puts her hand over her mouth.

“When
they
asked why I did it, I told them
that...
I didn’t know, I just wanted to end his
suffering
,
I would want someone to do the same
for me. After that day I always looked at the world differently.
Us
humans have no reason to kill those who don’t want death.
Killing a being with emotion and intellect changed that in me.”

Bermea
moves his burger platter off his lap, it’s getting cold and he’s not that
hungry anymore. “That’s why we scare them. We are far more intelligent than
some canine. We are way past that. We are just like them, when they kill us it
reminds them of their own mortality. Unless they have already conquered their
fear of death.”

Kelly
sits next to him speechless.

“I…”
she pauses. “I guess that does make me feel better.” She stares out the cage as
well, watching kids and adults walk by. Most of them pause to take a gander at
the new arrivals. Kelly moves closer to Bermea.

“I’m
glad
that
it was you who was put in
here
with me,” she said.

“You
say that now. But I’m actually pretty unbearable,”

“I
know, I’m the one who picked you.”

“And
what if I don’t want to be picked by you,” he says. “I don’t know much about you
except of what you told me in college. Which I won’t lie I kind of don’t
remember.”

“Well
we can fix that.” She straightens up and kisses him on the lips.

And
with that, they relax against the wall and lay in the grass. Kelly cuddling on
top of him.

She
tells him of her past and what she did before and after college. She grew up
well, had a great father and mother and they didn’t support her career choice
but they never stopped giving her their love. After she graduated from Brown
she went to work for a major news agency, getting a regular job as a writer.

And
then everything went to hell, she lost her job in a scandal controversy, she
pushed away her ex-boyfriend, her parents died, and she was living month to
month before Earth got invaded. In reality, as long as she lives, it’s seems
like a blessing. 

Bermea
tells his tale. He grew up in a rough neighborhood with only his father and
three brothers. After one of his brothers died after a gang related stabbing
when he was ten, he had always worked hard to become something better than what
everyone expected of him. Over the years till college, he lost all his brothers
except one. And after college, he decided to try something steady for once and
joined to military. He was only in there for two years before LA was attacked,
and he was one of the first ones abducted.

They
continue to talk for what seems like hours. Just about random things, but
despite Bermea’s constant chatter, Kelly seems to love it.

“Oh
how long has it been?” Kelly asks.

Bermea
sits up.

He
looks at the small reflection of the Skyeaters sun through the water above.
It’s been a few hours.

“A
few hours I’m guessing. It’s hard to tell without any clocks, and they could be
on a different planetary cycle than ours.”

The
menagerie isn’t as busy as before but they are still people carousing
through.  Down the hill a big black guy waves at him. Axe. Most of the
people in the habitat are hovering around him.

Axe
looks up and waves at them to come over to him. “Should we go? I was having
such a nice time,” Kelly asks.

“Yeah,
of course, we got to get to know everybody in this place. We are living
together after all.” Bermea jumps to his feet.

At
the bottom of the hill, Bermea and Kelly sees Axe motioning them into a thicket
of trees. They follow him in. The trees block anyone from the outside from
seeing in. Five of the other humans sit in a circle talking.

“I
think these are all the ones who matter,” Axe says as he kneels down next to
the five. There are three men and only two woman. Bermea looks at his
surroundings, there is a tension in the air. Two of the men and women’s face
are covered in sweat.

And
it’s not from the heat.

Bermea
doesn’t like the look of this.

“So
what is this? Are you going to kill us or something?” Bermea says.

“What!?
God, no.” He glances around. “Come closer.” He motions toward the circle.
Bermea sighs and he and Kelly move closer.

“I
think I’ve found a way out.”

“What?”
Both Bermea and Kelly reply.

“Yes,
I’ve found a tree that peeks over the edge. When this place closes we can
escape.”

Bermea
looks at Kelly.

“A
way out. Why would you want to escape? It’s useless,” Bermea says.

“Why
would we want to escape? Are you fucking stupid? We are fucking trapped!! Caged
like animals. What fool would want to be caged up?” Axe says.

“Then
where are we going to go? Huh? Have you thought this out? Where we are now is
the best it’s going to get.”