Fate Unexpected (Earth Defender Book 1) (3 page)

Kylah and her dad spent the majority of the day staring out the
window and watching TV for updated reports on the illness. One subject they
didn’t discuss was the fact that they’d abandoned her mom’s body at the
hospital. There was nothing they could do to change that. The place had been
overrun with the turned. It seemed those who’d gotten sick either died or
changed. According to the news reports, so far, none of the experts could stop
the illness, or figure out what it was.

It was late in the evening when her dad started coughing. An hour
later, he coughed blood and had it running from his eyes. There was no question
that he had the same sickness that had killed her mom.

They were up in the master bedroom. Before she’d helped him
upstairs, he’d insisted she bringing some rope he had in the garage and a large
kitchen knife. Once inside the room, her dad had demanded she tie his hands and
feet together. Kylah had refused, but he hadn’t backed down until she finally
agreed. The knife, she was told, was for her to kill him if he turned. He
didn’t want to risk the chance that he would and then kill her. He wanted her
to survive.

Kylah sat next to him on the bed. He’d been wheezing for the last
half hour. If she went by what her mom had gone through, her dad neared the end
of the sickness, one way or another.

It was close to ten o’clock at night when her dad had one last
labored coughing fit, then was thrown into a seizure. He strained against the
ropes at his wrists and ankles, but she dared not untie him. Kylah gripped the
handle of the knife she held tighter, hoping she wouldn’t be put in the
situation where she’d have to use it.

The last of his spasms ended, then he went lax with a soft sigh.
Kylah watched him intently, silently praying that would be the end. It wasn’t.
After a few seconds, her dad’s eyelids snapped open and she stared into his red
eyes. He snarled his upper lip and growled. He fought against the ropes that bound
him, and snapped his teeth in her direction as he tried to get closer.

“Oh, Dad,” Kylah said on a sob.

His growls increased in volume, and he fought harder against the
ropes. It had to be now. She couldn’t put it off. It had to be done. It was
what her dad had wanted. He’d made her promise.

Kylah tried not to think too much about what she did. She leaned
over her dad and raised the knife. With a final silent,
I love you
, she
brought it down with all her might, straight through his heart. She held his
gaze until the life left his red eyes, then burst into a flood of tears.

* * * *

Kylah had left her dad’s body in the master bedroom and closed the
door. As if she’d been sleep walking, she’d gone to her room, climbed into bed
and pulled the covers tight around her as she lay on her side in a ball. She’d
quietly cried herself to sleep.

She awoke the following morning with a slight cough. It worsened as
the day progressed. It didn’t take a genius to determine she now had the
sickness too. At that point, Kylah almost welcomed it. Both her parents were
gone. And the world was no longer a place she recognized.

As the sickness took hold of her, Kylah went to the master bedroom
one last time to look at her father. The knife she’d used to kill him still
stuck out of his chest. She looked around the room, and her gaze landed on the
broadsword that sat on top the dresser. She coughed up blood as she crossed
over to it and picked it up.

Kylah held it close to her chest as she left her father behind,
closing him inside once more, and headed to her bedroom. There would be no one to
put her out of her misery if she ended up turning. At least she’d be trapped
inside the house, unable to kill.

She lay in her bed and waited for the end to come. It wasn’t long.
Maybe an hour. Her wheezing turned to coughing, then the seizure started. That
was when her world went black.

Chapter Two

Nine months later

Kylah walked down the deserted main street of Republic with her
sword drawn. It was night, and the turned were less active at that time, but
that didn’t mean some hadn’t strayed from their packs to do a little hunting on
their own. The turned were opportunistic creatures, who’d kill any person
unlucky enough to hit their radar. Plus, there were the aliens who hunted
humans as well, day or night.

All those months ago, when Kylah had come down with the sickness,
she’d known it’d be the end of her, but that hadn’t been the case. Instead of
dying or turning, she’d awakened the following morning, illness free. And not
exactly as she’d been before.

She hadn’t turned, but she’d definitely been changed. She was
stronger, like able to drag a car across the street on her own with one hand,
and faster. Her eyesight had become keener, same with her hearing. Whereas
before she’d been passable when it came to sword play, she now classed herself
as an expert since her reflexes were increased.

Kylah also healed at a rapid rate. She’d found that out when she’d
had a run-in with a few turned in the early days. One had managed to claw her.
The scratches had healed within seconds as if they’d never been there.

She stopped walking at the sound of something metal hitting the
pavement, coming from the alley just up ahead. Kylah silently stepped toward it
with her sword raised. She gazed all around, able to see just as well in the
darkness as she could during the day. Once she reached it, she let out a quiet
chuckle. A raccoon stared back at her from the inside of an open Dumpster. He
was welcome to it.

The grocery store was her destination. Now that winter was over and
spring had come, it was time for her to move on. Republic was mostly a ghost
town. Those who remained, kept hidden, only venturing out to make runs for
supplies. Packs of turned roamed the area, but what was even more troublesome was
the aliens who had come and taken over Earth.

It’d been two days after she’d awakened from being sick that the
first alien spaceships had appeared over every major city in the world. From
those, smaller crafts had spread out to other areas, dropping off troops to
gather up humans who remained unturned. For what reason, nobody knew. Kylah had
no idea how many were around Republic. Electricity had been one of the first
things to be lost once the aliens had landed, stopping the flow of information
from the outside world.

Kylah arrived at the store and went around to the back of the
building where she’d managed to pry open a door. She went inside. She planned
to get as many supplies as she could carry, then come tomorrow, she was
leaving. She was going to head up to Sherman Pass, deep into the forested
mountain area where she hoped she wouldn’t be bothered by turned or aliens.
Both liked to be where people were. If it wasn’t remote enough, she’d have to
consider making the almost three-hundred-and-fifty mile journey to the North
Cascades. She’d be too far away from civilization to make runs for supplies,
but she’d have to make do. That was why after the grocery store she’d be going
to one of the local sporting goods stores to find a bow and arrows. She’d teach
herself how to hunt with them. Guns were out of the question since the noise
would attract unwanted attention.

She unshouldered one of the two backpacks she carried once she
reached the canned goods aisle. It was kind of picked over. In the early days,
everyone had gone nuts trying to stock up on food. The backroom probably had
more, at least she hoped.

After Kylah got what she came for, she left the grocery store the
same way she’d come in. She’d just about made it to the corner of the building
at the front when the sound of voices—speaking in a language she’d never heard—reached
her ears. She quickly backed into the shadows and pressed herself against the
brick wall. She slowed her breathing as she waited for the aliens to move past
her.

They soon came into sight. There were two of them. And as usual,
they were completely different from each other. They had to be from different
species or worlds. Kylah thought that strange since all the spaceships were
identical, which she assumed would signify one race was behind Earth’s
takeover.

The one alien was average height to a human man, but there was where
the similarities ended. His body was covered in snow-white fur, and his eyes
were the same color. He spoke in a voice that was laced with animalistic
growls. His lower jaw jutted out slightly from his top one, and the long bottom
eyeteeth overlapped his upper lip. Sharp claws tipped the fingers on each
four-fingered hand. He wore black leather-looking pants that were tucked into black
boots that ended at his calves. A matching vest covered his upper body.

The second alien was nothing like his companion. He was humanoid in
appearance. He was also huge. If Kylah had to guess, she figured he stood at
around six-foot-eight. His body was so padded with well-defined muscles he
looked like a bodybuilder. It was incased in the same type of black leather
pants and boots. Instead of a vest, he wore a black t-shirt-like garment. His
black hair was on the longish side, and since he had his back to her as he
stopped to look into the window of one of the buildings across the street, she
saw it hung just past the tops of his shoulders.

He turned and the two of them headed to her side of the street.
Kylah had to hold back a gasp as she stared at the human-looking alien. He had
a face that would make any woman weak in the knees. He was gorgeous. Even his
gold cat eyes didn’t detract from his looks. If anything the color of them and
their slitted pupils gave him an exotic appearance.

Kylah pushed back farther into the shadows as the two walked toward
the grocery store. She gave herself a silent scolding to not get distracted by
the hunky alien. If he spotted her, he and his companion would take her away to
their spaceship. She had a good feeling that whoever was taken never came back
to the surface again.

The two aliens walked out of her line of sight as she presumed they
looked through the store’s windows. They continued to softly speak to one
another in their strange language. Kylah inched farther away from the corner of
the building.

They stepped into view once more, and her hiding spot was almost
blown when a cat raced past her toward the sidewalk. She pressed tighter
against the wall and thought,
please don’t let them see me, please don’t let
them see me
. Her luck held. The furred alien said something to the other,
nudged him and laughed. He laughed harder as the ginger tabby cat stopped in
front of the tall alien, arched its back and hissed at him. The human-like male
didn’t appear impressed. He hissed and growled at the cat, which took off in a
run. His furred companion continued to laugh as they walked down the street,
not once looking in her direction.

Once they were farther away and then had rounded the corner to walk
down another street, Kylah left the shadows and took off running. Thank
goodness the sporting goods store was located in the opposite direction the
aliens had gone, and was on the way to her house. It definitely was time for
her to leave Republic.

* * * *

Rune scowled at Gada as he laughed once more. His furry friend was
soon going to get up close and personal with Rune’s fist if he didn’t stop. So
what if damn Earth’s cats reacted the way they did when they encountered him.
The little creatures obviously could sense the feline part of him, no matter
how small it was.

“Maybe you can adopt one of the strays as your kid,” Gada said with
a loud chortle.

“Oh yeah. I think one could be your mate since you’re just as furry
as they are.”

Gada stopped laughing and gave Rune a hard look. “That’s not fair. I
only meant it as a joke.”

His friend was Neelean, from the planet Neele. The males there
thought it was an honor to find a mate since the females were the ones who
determined which male they bonded with. Rune’s home world was Dracus. Dracan
couples decided who they mated with the same way Earth ones did. So if he
wanted to keep a woman as his own, it was his own business.

“If I offended you,” Rune said, “then stop with the laughing about
the cats. I hate the things as much as they hate me.”

Gada held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. I’ll keep my laughter on
the inside.”

Rune shook his head. “Just as long as I don’t hear it.” He looked
around the street they walked down. “Why are we here? This town is deserted.”

“They must have thought otherwise or they wouldn’t have sent us.”

The Xphens were the “they” Gada referred to. The other race was from
the planet Xph, and was Rune’s employer. He was a mercenary. The Xphens’ troops
consisted of men like him and conscripted soldiers from the worlds they’d
conquered, which Gada was one of. The Xphens were small, gray skinned, very
skinny and hairless. They basically didn’t have much muscle tone. Their solid
black eyes were large, and didn’t seem to miss anything. They were a very
intelligent race, but lacked the physical power to take over worlds so relied
on others to be their brawn. They also weren’t much to look at. They had no
noses and small mouths that hardly moved when they spoke. There was no way to
tell between the two sexes unless someone got a look at what was between their
legs.

“I guess,” Rune said. “As long as the Xphens keep paying, I’ll go
wherever they want me. Even when I don’t understand the motive behind the
order.”

“Spoken like a true mercenary.”

He shrugged. “What did you expect? That’s what I am, and I’m damn
good at it too.”

They walked in silence. Neither one of them had taken their guns out
of their holsters. He didn’t expect to run into any of the creatures most of
the humans had changed to. They had orders to kill any on sight that they
encountered. Those creatures were the byproduct of the substance the Xphens had
released into the Earth’s atmosphere nine months ago, right after their ships
had arrived.

With that thought in mind, Rune asked, “Gada, what do you make of
what the Xphens did to the humans?”

“I don’t know their reasoning behind it. If they wanted to wipe out
the species so the planet was all theirs, it’d make better sense just to bomb
it and start over. Plus, I have no idea why they want us to capture any humans
who didn’t go through the change. I’m thinking they’re looking for something in
them, and none have had it. Every Earthling brought aboard our ship has been
terminated after they were examined.”

That was true. Rune was a mercenary and all, but what the Xphens had
done to the humans stuck in his craw. It smacked of species medical
experimentation. The Earthlings had had no warning, and within a week of the
Xphens’ ships arriving at the planet, the majority of them were dead or
changed.

Rune nodded. “And who knows how many have been terminated on the other
ships that are stationed at different areas of Earth. If the Xphens are looking
for something in particular in the humans, what they’re doing is damn
inefficient.”

“Well, don’t be saying anything like that on the ship. You’ll end up
in the brig or worse. Mercenary or no. The Xphens don’t tolerate
insubordination of any kind.”

“I’m not that stupid. Come one, let’s get back to camp. Nothing is
happening here. Maybe during the day we’ll have better luck.”

“It think you’re right. This is a waste of time right now.”

He and Gada turned and headed back the way they’d come. Just outside
the main part of town, their runners were cloaked from sight. The vehicles were
similar to Earth’s motorcycles, except they hovered above the ground and
traveled at much greater speeds.

They climbed onto their runners and then started the machines, which
gave off a quiet, low hum. It took Rune and Gada only a matter of minutes to
reach their camp. It was situated just off what the humans called Sherman Pass.
It wasn’t cloaked, but a force field kept anyone or anything from getting close
to it while they were away. The only other time it’d go on would be when they
slept.

As Rune parked his runner, he took a deep breath of the clean air.
The forest reminded him of his home world. Growing up, he’d spent a small
amount of his childhood running through trees similar to the ones around him.
It was too bad he was on hunter duty. He would have loved to travel to
different parts of Earth as a getaway. Thanks to the Xphens, he understood
English, the language in the part of the planet he was stationed. It’d been a
requirement to all the troops that had been ordered onto the surface. Each one
was given the ability to understand what was left of the population in whatever
dialect they spoke. He hadn’t enjoyed having electrodes stuck to his head and
basically having the new language uploaded to his brain in a matter of seconds,
but it was easier than having to learn it the slow way.

Rune prepared to bed down in his shelter pod as Gada did the same in
his. Come morning, they’d be on the hunt again. There wasn’t much action to the
job, but at least he was getting paid to do it.

* * * *