Page 4 of Pandora: Alien Games

As I looked down on me, I wore the space station uniform and not the black t-shirt and pants combo I recalled.

Van stopped in front of me. He was alive again, tall and gorgeous. When did he become so handsome? He stood there, out of my reach, with his tall, lean athletic body and wide shoulders, short blonde hair, and warm brown eyes. My best friend, the one who was like a brother to me.

“I never realized how good you look. Now I get why all the women on the station are after you.”

Van stood there, his arms crossed over his chest and an eyebrow creased in a sign of displeasure and disappointment.

“Are you upset with me?” I asked.

He remained silent, only his chest moved as he breathed.

“Move!” His voice came from everywhere even though his lips didn’t move.

I couldn’t walk anymore. I was hurt and tired, and my lips were cracked and bleeding. I opened my mouth to lick them, but my tongue was dry. “Van, help me. Please.”

My cracked lips bled harder. The strong wind that blew across the desert turned the delicate grains of sand into painful little knives that hurled against me. I tried to move my left arm then remembered I couldn’t because it was injured.

“Sky, move for fuck’s sake!” Van’s voice yelled at me again. As much as I tried to obey, my knees buckled and I crashed into the sand.

“The sand is soft, Van.”

“Sky, get up and keep going. You’re not safe here. You have to get away.”

“I’m so tired. Let me close my eyes, please, just for a few minutes.”

I wasn’t lying. I didn’t care about anything anymore. All I wanted was for it to end. Why prolong the agony? I should have slit my wrists on the sharp metal edge of the pod and bled out. Maybe I can get back there. Not now. I can die later. I just want to sleep. Close my eyes.

Opening my eyes for one last time, I saw Van standing there looking at me.

“I’m so sorry I disappointed you,” I whispered with my last breath before sleep took over. Nothing was bad anymore. Not the scorching heat. Not the wind. Not the throbbing pain in my upper arm. It’s all going to be okay.

* * *

My ankles and my wrists hurt and my eyes burned like hell. As I tried to open them, all I could see around me was darkness. The air smelled different, moist and sticky. Wrong. All around me I heard guttural noises, little shrieks of joy or pain. I was unable to differentiate between them.

4

Edoo

I had been hunting the remaining Rash for days now. They had attacked the Oasis, a clear sign they were starving. Rash are predators but cowards. They always prey on the weak and helpless, hit and run, then hit and run again.

A few of their skewered heads hung from my saddle. Their continuous chewing sounds did not bother Badoo. The only way to kill a Rash is to bash its brain, what little brain it still has left in that empty dry skull, but I need proof if I want to get my bounty. I’ll stomp on them after the Caliph gives me my reward. It’s no big deal. Their strength lays in the way they attack, fast, hard, and always in a horde.

This horde was rumored to have at least twenty Rash. They are unnatural creatures with dry, mummified bodies, still wrapped from the burial rituals, which came back to life and dig themselves under the sand like worms, waiting to surprise their prey. The desert is their playground.

I felt increasingly as if I was being watched as I walked with irregular footsteps. You can’t walk normal when you hunt Rash. They feel the vibration of the sand. My walk is awkward and breaks the normal rhythm to put them off.

They don’t care about Banoo, though they’ll eat other flesh. A Rash will always hunt humans first. Banoo, my giant yet slender fur-covered friend, walks next to me. There is no better Ren out there. He doesn’t need to drink for weeks and can carry his own body weight in supplies.

The wind pics up again. I lean my head back and allow my large nose to taste the scents of the open desert. It tastes like always. Like sand, heat… and there is another scent mixed in with the familiar ones, a delightful aroma I can’t place.

“What do you think, Banoo? What could that be?”

Banoo’s kind eyes, all four of them, looked at me. I scratched him between his two pair of eyes. Legend says the Ren have four eyes, two to see the living within this realm and two that covered with a grey membrane that allows them to see the dead. I don’t know if it’s true, I just know that Banoo feels things I sometimes miss. I trust his instinct completely.

The wind doesn’t bother me yet and I want to cover more ground. I have been hunting those damn Rash for too long. They’ll pay for what they did to the people of the Caliph. The desert has a law, and that is me.

The scent catches my nostrils again, sweet and coppery. This time, Banoo gives a sad groan from his tusk. He is never loud except to warn me. I lay my hand on top of his head and scratch his thick fur. His tusk touches my hand and I read his feelings. He is confused. The scent he picked up is new and he doesn’t know if he should be scared or not.