Oden (7 page)

“Thank you. I’m sorry I ran, but I saw Logan, and I had—”

“It’s okay, I understand. I’m just grateful we got him here safely. You’ll all be safe in here, I promise.”

I nod, trying to let his words soak in and comfort me. I’m still in shock over everything that happened since being taken on Roth, though. I might have been in some weird sort of coma on Jeprow’s spacecraft, but my brain hasn’t been able to process anything I’ve been through. As soon as I woke up, I was fighting my way out of that room and getting to Marduke. Then, after we grabbed Ival, we were dropping out of a moving spaceship and arriving on a war stricken Oden. I am overwhelmed and exhausted.

Therefore, when I hear yelling echoing down to us and sobbing, I fear that the comfort Marduke just tried to give me is already pointless.

What threat is down here with us? What is waiting for us now? What is happening to the others?

Chapter 4

Mattie

The farther down we travel, the louder the voices and a light in the distance grows. I recognise one of the voices yelling. It is Lisa, and she sounds angry, not scared. Since she is down here with only Hannah, the kids, and Ival, it’s obvious who she is yelling at.

When we enter the new area, a light trailing along the ceiling of the tunnel reveals the scene in front of us. Hannah loses her grip on Logan’s hand as he sprints at us and throws himself at my legs, knocking me back into Marduke, who is able to catch me and keep me upright.

“Careful, Logan,” I mutter distractedly, steadying myself before reaching down to hold him. My eyes are glued to Lisa as she rages at Ival.

“You are the reason I’m here! You sent me away from Hank! You took me off Earth!” She shoves his shoulder and I am impressed. Ival is a scary looking guy, and with the way he’s glaring at Lisa, I’d be hesitant to yell at him, let alone push him.

When I hear Ival growling, though, I know it’s time to step in.

“Lisa, calm down.”

“Calm down! Are you serious? Do you not know who this is?” She turns around to face me, her shrieking voice echoing loudly around the tunnel.

“I do know who this is, but you don’t understand—”

“No,
you
don’t understand. He’s part of a different race. He’s the reason we’re stuck on this planet. His people control those machines!” Lisa is yelling at me now, her eyes wide. I can’t tell if she’s about to break down and cry, or try to hit me.

“I know who he is, but he’s not here to hurt us.” In my mind, I finish that sentence with
right now
.

“What do you mean?” Hannah moves to stand by Lisa, her gaze glaring over Ival before she stares at me.

“There are worse people who are trying to hurt us, ones who control those awful creatures.” My heart starts to pound, and I panic knowing I might have to admit who Marduke is, and maybe admit that I’m pregnant.

How will they react? Will they call me a traitor? A slut? Ival has already told me I am, already admitted that Marduke’s race would view me as such.

“Who cares? They’re all the same!” Lisa cries.

“They’re not. Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but you can trust Ival.” I hug Logan to me tighter, a cold shiver running over me as it hits me that this conversation might not go the way I need it to.

“Why the hell do you trust him? What did he do after he sent me away?”

“He hurt me and I was bleeding and I was so scared. You said I would see Daddy, and I wanted to see him, but I wanted you to come with me. I didn’t want to go alone,” Logan whispers against my shoulder, but his voice carries to all of us.

I gulp, forced back into that awful memory of watching Logan bleeding out in my arms. His shaking voice and trembling body takes on a whole new meaning to me now. He might be scared of the creatures and machines, but there is a monster in this tunnel with us who he fears just as much.

“He won’t ever hurt you again, Logan, I promise,” I tell him, rubbing his back and hoping my promise offers him some comfort. There is no way I’ll leave Logan alone with Ival, not for any reason.

“He
hurt
Logan?” Lisa gasps.

“Please, he’s not going to hurt any of you,” Marduke speaks up from behind me, his hand resting on Logan’s head, whose tears are soaking my neck again. It breaks my heart to know he’s so distressed.

“How do you know?” Hannah crosses her arms over her chest but stumbles when Lisa pushes past her.

“Wait a minute,” she says to herself, peering carefully at Marduke. “I didn’t notice it back on Earth, and I hadn’t thought about it before, but…” She gasps then, her eyes staring directly into mine. “He’s one of them.” She states it, not asking me directly, but she’s gazing intently at me. I know she’s trying to figure out if I knew this already.

I nod, knowing there is no point lying about this. If it wasn’t going to be Marduke’s accent that gave him away, then it was going to be the fact that he and Ival are clearly related. Not to mention, Ival would have blurted it out anyway just to drive a wedge between Marduke and the others.

“But you… you were meant to be good. Hank and Mattie saved you,” Lisa accuses Marduke, the betrayal she’s feeling obvious.

“He
is
good, Lisa. He’s saved my life and Logan’s a bunch of times. He helped save Hank’s, too,” I rush to say.

“We do not have time for this. We have… to move,” Ival grunts.

“I’m not moving until someone tells me what the hell is going on,” Hannah snaps.

“This tunnel might be empty of water now, but it… won’t be for long,” Ival snaps, talking over Lisa, who I think was about to tell Hannah our story from the beginning.

“What?” Marduke asks Ival, but Hannah and Lisa are staring angrily at me.

“We have a lot of walking to do, over a… full day’s worth I would guess. Every three… days, there is a pressure valve that releases water into… here and the tunnels fills up completely. I am… unsure how much time we will have before… that happens. If we are unlucky, then it will… be soon and we will drown.”

That catches everyone’s attention.

“I want out of here right now!” Lisa demands.

There is no way for us to go back, not with the collapse of the building outside. We’re trapped in here, and I have helped put the others here in danger.

“What the hell, Mattie? You said this was safer than the bunkers! We weren’t going to drown in them!” Hannah snaps at me.

“This isn’t her fault; she didn’t know about the water. Neither of us did,” Marduke defends me.

“Yeah, like we can trust you,” Lisa snaps at him, but her eyes quickly stray to me. They don’t soften as they take me in, the friendship and love I saw earlier no longer present in her stare. She’s furious with me.

“
Humans
…” Ival angrily mutters to himself, switching to his own language, which causes the others to shiver and Marduke to tense up next to me.

Ival storms away, clearly eager to keep moving, and Marduke lightly pushes me to follow him.

I hold in the groan of pain at having to keep walking. My feet are aching, my back is sore, and the added weight of Logan in my arms isn’t helping any.

“Do you need me to hold him?” Marduke asks, his hand moving over the side of my face to brush some wayward hair from my eyes.

“Not yet, I’m not ready to let him go,” I admit.

He nods in understanding. “I don’t want him to be in this situation, but I am pleased to see him,” he says quietly.

While I feel Lisa and Hannah’s eyes on us, maybe even Hope’s as she grips onto Lisa, I glance at what is ahead of us, taking in the unchanging, damp tunnel. There are small lights along the ceiling, but they cast strange shadows along the walls and over us.

Hannah’s voice carries to us as we tread quickly through the tunnels. She demands I tell her everything, so I do.

I explain what happened to us on Earth after Lisa was taken away. I leave out the sex and attempt to make Ival appear not as awful, since I know that won’t help them to trust him. I speak of Roth and linger over stories of Hank. I hear Lisa crying over how dedicated he was to finding her again, and I decide to leave off the last story of how things left off with him. I change it so that he made it back to the camps, and that Marduke and I stayed in the forest.

My story puts Logan to sleep, and with my entire body aching, I hand him over to Marduke who carefully cradles him in his arms. Seeing him being so careful and protective of Logan makes my heart soar. He might be concerned about what type of father he will make, but I know he’ll be amazing.

I have left Hannah and Lisa speechless, so we walk for a long time in silence.

After what feels like hours later, Hannah voices her first question.

“You know Mum and Dad are dead, right?” Her voice cracks with her heartbreaking question. It opens up the dark hole living inside me, still waiting to consume me.

“Yes,” I whisper, my voice hitching. Marduke frees a hand from supporting Logan so he can grip onto mine, squeezing it in support.

“And you don’t care that he’s part of the reason for that?”

I take a deep, shaky breath and only speak once I feel I have control and won’t break down. “I hate that Mum and Dad were killed. I’d give anything for them to be alive, but I don’t blame Marduke.”

“But if his people hadn’t attacked Earth, then they would still be alive.”

“I know, but he didn’t personally set out to harm us. He’s a good man, and like I said before, he’s saved my life countless times. I don’t think it’s fair to judge an entire species on the actions of just a few.”

Marduke feels tense next to me, and this time, I squeeze his hand to give him support. I hope he doesn’t believe I blame him. I already know he’s placed enough guilt on himself without Hannah and Lisa placing more on him.

“Look, can we speak in private?” Lisa asks. I look back at her to see her staring pointedly at Marduke.

Ival has already rushed ahead, and since Logan is still soundly asleep, I nod at him to give us some time alone. He’s hesitant to leave, I can see it in his face, yet he doesn’t voice his complaint. He just stares at me for a while in silence and then moves away, catching up to Ival. I have no doubt our voices will carry down the tunnel to him anyway.

When he’s far ahead of us, Hannah leans forward and whispers in my ear. “Are you crushing on him? Do you seriously have a crush on a freaking
alien
?” She doesn’t exactly sound judgmental, but I don’t hear excitement, either.

“Of course she’s not! As soon as she found out what he is, she would have never had feelings for him,” Lisa wrongly defends me.

“Actually, I do like Marduke a lot. I love him,” I admit, wincing as I prepare myself for the outburst that is sure to come.

Lisa doesn’t make me wait long. “No, you don’t, that is ridiculous. You could never love an alien, especially one who has invaded our homes and stolen us away. You’re mistaken.”

“I’m not, Lisa. I know it sounds—”

“Insane? Ludicrous? Seriously fucked up?” she yells, her voice sounding even louder as it echoes back to us.

“I’m sorry.” I shrug, not knowing what to say to her. If she’s reacting this way about me loving Marduke, I imagine she’s going to completely loathe me over the fact that I’m actually pregnant.

“Sorry that you’re in love with the enemy? Sorry that you’re betraying your own species? Sorry you’re a disgrace to your own family?” Lisa snaps, her sharp tone waking up Hope in her arms, who immediately starts crying. “I can’t be around you right now,” She says, glaring at me as she pushes me out of the way and storms off, still keeping her distance from Marduke and Ival.

I see him glance back at us, and even though I can’t see his expression from this far away, I assume he can see mine. I give him a small smile, hoping to express to him that I’m okay, although I’m far from it.

After I take several deep breaths and get control of the tears that are threatening to break loose, I turn back and glance at Hannah. “Your turn,” I say, but I see her staring at me in curiosity rather than with hatred or disgust like I’ve expected.

“You love him?” she asks me slowly.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I take a deep breath. “Because he’s not just an alien to me. He’s a good man, a brave one, who is kind and sweet, and he cares about me. The first time I saw him in Vancouver, he was risking his life to save a young girl. He nearly died saving that stranger. He has risked his life over and over for me and Logan, and I feel safe in his arms.” I tell her the truth, hoping she won’t tear me apart when I feel so vulnerable.

“You forgot something else,” she says, her voice giving nothing away to her reaction to my declaration.

“What?” I whisper, fearful she’s about to yell at me. She’s going to tell me I’m an awful person and she hates me. I’m not sure I can lose any more people today, and definitely not Hannah. She’s the only family I have left. The only connection I have to Mum and Dad.

“You forgot that he’s incredibly hot. Look at those arms!” she whispers, smiling at me when I stare at her in disbelief. “What? I have eyes, you know? I can see why you’d like him. Did you see his eyes? I’ve never seen eyes so green and deep before; they’re really cool.”

I probably look like I’ve got a dislocated jaw from how wide my mouth is hanging open.

“That’s a really super attractive look, sis.”

“You… are... you’re serious?”

“Sure. I mean, look at his ass, too, not bad.”

I ignore that comment, instead still stuck in my shock. “Aren’t you going to yell at me? You were just talking about Mum and Dad before and—”

“Listen, I’ve been alone ever since the invasion. I just want my sister, and if she’s gone crazy, then okay. I can deal with that.”

“You think I’m crazy?”

“I know you’re crazy. You have been probably since you were born. I suspected you were crazy when you refused to wear that beautiful dress for Aunt Mary’s wedding when you were ten. I
knew
you were crazy when Jayden Hooper asked you out in the ninth grade and you turned him down. The hottest guy in your whole class, maybe even the whole school, asks you out and you say no.”