The Unwelcome Ones – The Conclusion

An Excerpt of Original Science Fiction

By Joe Peters

 

 

 

I turned in the opposite direction of the men and took off, my feet smashing off the ground, sending dirt flying in a dusty trail behind me. My muscles pumped harder than they ever had before, propelling me forward as rapidly as my body could physically manage to get away from the captors.

They had a disadvantage in their heavy suits, but it wasn’t delaying them too much, as I could still hear the armor clanking closely behind me. It was hard to breathe at this rate, my throat burning and sore in a desperate attempt to pull air into my lungs and keep my heart beating as quickly as it was.

The trees and shrubbery flew by in a blur, passing like birds in flight, as we closed in on Grand Yione Bridge, the path that had taken us here in the first place. The bridge extended for a solid 400 feet, crossing a canyon that was so deep it became difficult to see to the bottom. It carried a fall that would surely kill anyone.

I charged over a collapsed tree, my ankle smashing into it and sending me to the ground. The pain smashed brutally into my nerves and I hobbled to get back up to my feet, getting help from Alixer, who pulled me back up and ran with an arm wrapped around my shoulders.

The padding of the dirt soon turned to the clopping sound of our boots meeting the humongous stone walkway. We were running as fast as possible with an injured ankle being thrown into the mix. The pain throbbed throughout my body as we came to another horrific sight.

There were guards waiting on the other side of the bridge, and they were already running across to cut us off.

Alixer came to a halt and leaned me against the side of the bridge. His red eyes stared into mine.

“I don’t care if it’s just an injured ankle. You stay put and I’ll take them out.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he turned away as we were blocked in on both sides. He looked left and then right, giving a slight nod at both groups.

“Gentlemen.”

A second later, the guards charged at him in unison, taking him as the threat due to his arm. I, clearly, wasn’t much of a threat to them at the moment.

The purple glow grew to an astonishing force, making any sort of skin invisible on his arm. He turned to the guards on the right and sent a purple wave splashing towards them, knocking them backwards into a jumbled mess.

Next he focused on the guards on the right, and there were at least 15 of them, coming over him like an army. He began to do exactly what he had done to the first guard, impaling them through their armor and killing them almost instantly.

Alixer managed to expertly dodge the attacks of the others, making it seem as if he had done this before. Bodies rapidly dropped, forming a pile of corpses on the ground.

It was impressive, I had to admit, no matter how frightening it was. Seeing my brother like this, a killing machine, tore through me like stab wounds from a poison-soaked knife.

The guards from the right charged again, one of them coming right at me, his arm clearly distinguishing him as a fire element. I braced myself for the impact again, since I had no clue how my powers worked, but right as the man came up on me, Alixer saved me.

He flashed a smirk at me and I could barely make out the words “I got you bro,” right as he went to turn back around. But it was too late. He had let his guard down for a few seconds too long.

A sharp, long tree branch of an arm tore through his cape and straight into him as a soldier in white armor came at him.

My heart dropped and the heavy breathing that had been with me left my body as my brother was lifted into the air, the veins in his face clearly visible, and blood splashed down onto the dirty, somewhat white stone.

He was gone… He was actually gone. And my mind was finding it so impossibly difficult to register. But he didn’t scream.

I did.

“ALIXER!”

I stumbled forward in some desperate futile attempt to stop the man and save my brother somehow, but I was charged at again.

Metal smashed upon me, sending the pain in my body up to a level equivalent of what you might experience in a torture chamber. I could even maybe go as far as to say Hell. But who knows, I was likely about to find out, if what they said about us being so evil was true.

My body was thrust over the edge, my limbs flailing as I plummeted downwards. I was going to die…

Wind roared past me like a lion, and the last sight that entered my eyes was the corpse of my brother still hanging limply in the air.

And then the pain smashed into every fiber of my body, and I was out like a light.

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