Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (6 page)

Suddenly, we hear knocking from
the back entrance of the warehouse.  I grab a lead pipe I had been sleeping
next to.  We had locked the doors tightly, but we are still on edge over
possible intruders.  First we hear three fast knocks, followed by a pause, and
then two more fast knocks.  I ease up a little.  It’s the secret knock we had
made before.  Ace has returned.

“Ace, is that you?” I ask.

Isaac shushes me.  “Let Tiago
handle this.”

“Ace, what is the code?” Tiago
asks.

“Aww, c’mon, just let me in,” Ace
says impatiently.

“The code,” Tiago says again
sternly.

“Eight,” he says.

Tiago had made a coding system for
us during the week.  If there was someone with us or someone had taken us
hostage, we’d respond four.  If we were injured, we’d respond fifteen.  Eight
means everything is clear.

Tiago instructs Alex to open the
locks.  This place isn’t automated, it’s old.  We were able to find some
industrial padlocks in the warehouse, but only Alex has the strength to unlock
and lock them thanks to his rhino DNA.  Alex usually does a lot of the physical
work in our family, like lifting heavy things and helps with the tough manual
labor.  His personality is rough, like his grey skin, and brutish, like his
large physique.  He usually hangs with Tiago.  I feel Tiago keeps him around
for protection, like a bodyguard.  Personally, Alex kind of frightens me.

Ace bursts through the door,
breathing deeply.  He is wearing a coat that is hooded and wide lens black
sunglasses.  We concealed his identity as much as we could, especially since
he’s moving in daylight.

He rests his body on his knees to
recuperate.

“Give me a minute,” he says,
panting.

We back up and wait, all of us are
on pins and needles to know what he discovered.  Isaac and I exchange glances. 
I have a worried look on my face, but he shakes his head reassuringly.  Ace
finally gets settled in.

“What did you see?” Tiago asks.

“I was able to make it about a
hundred feet away from the house.  When I got there, there was already a group
of people snooping around.  They were taking our things and putting them into a
large storage hovercar,” Ace says.

“Were they bill collectors?” 
Maddie, my half cow, half human sister asks.  Some of my brothers look at her
dumbfounded.  Her question doesn’t surprise me though, she’s not very bright.

“I don’t think so,” Ace responds. 
“They look like they’re members of law enforcement or something.  I saw the
letters USASD on their vehicle.”

“United Species Alliance Science
Division,” Candy responds.  She’s probably the smartest in our family, and is
usually on top of the world’s current events and scientific breakthroughs.

“The United Species Alliance?” Oscar asks.  “What do they want with our things?”

“I don’t know,” Ace says.

“You heard him,” Tiago interrupts,
“It’s the science division.  They come to experiment on us.”

“You don’t know that,” Oscar says
defensively.

“What other reason could it be? 
It’s their science division,” Tiago emphasizes the science.  Oscar is silent. 
I look around and see the grim expression on everyone’s face, even Isaac’s. 
The hard truth is becoming apparent, mother was right about the outside world.

“What about Leonard?” I ask Ace. 
“Did you see him?”

Ace is quiet and looks at the
floor.  His nose begins to twitch and I hear a small sniffle.  His whiskers
droop down and his pointed ears fold to the side of his head.

“Yeah, I saw him,” Ace says.  “The
science team packed him away in a body bag.”

I don’t understand what Ace means
at first.  Body bag?  Why would they need that?  But then Ace makes it all too
clear.

“Leonard is dead,” he said.

The room is silent.  I think back
to when Leonard was a child and mother held him in her arms so proudly.  I
remember how much he adored her, how he never questioned her, and always went
by her word.  He was endearing not only to her, but to all of us.  A baby
brother to everyone.  He was the only one who cared about mother enough that he
went back to see her off.  And now, he was dead for it.

“How did it happen?” I asked.

“I don’t know.  I just saw him
being carried away into the truck.”

None of us want to speak.  Leonard
was so young and caring.  He didn’t know the world like we did, because it
wasn’t his nature to acknowledge the brutality around us.

But that’s what caused him to
die.  He deserved better.

“He was murdered,” Tiago says
angrily.

All of us acknowledge the truth
that Tiago speaks, but none of us step up to respond to him.

“That science team probably ran
into him and killed him,” Tiago says.  “Mom was right, they want to experiment
on us like we’re a bunch of freaks.”

“Now let’s not jump to
conclusions,” Oscar says.  He stands up from his sitting position and looks
Tiago straight in the eyes.

“It’s the only conclusion!” Tiago
yells.  “What else could have happened?”

Oscar is silent.  He knows Tiago
is right, but doesn’t want to admit it.  Admitting it would show the truth that
we were not welcome in this world, that we would be killed without hesitation.

“What do you think we should do
now?” I say, interrupting the conversation in order to ease the tension.

“Well first thing’s first, we’re
running out of supplies.” Tiago replies.  “We’ll need to go into the city and
get some food.  But we can’t do it now, not in broad daylight.  We’ll have to
wait until the sun goes down.  We’ll only be safe moving in the shadows, to
avoid running into anyone.  We’ll need enough supplies to last us until we
decide to move on.”

“Move on to where?” I ask.

“Away from here.  We need to leave
Primm,” Tiago says.

“Oh, really?” Oscar says
skeptically.  “And where do you suppose we run to.”

“The Moon,” Tiago says.

All of us are shocked by the bomb
that Tiago has laid.  Leaving our home was hard enough.  Leaving Primm would be
even harder, but leaving Earth, that was just insane.

“The Moon?!”  Oscar yells. 
“You’ve lost it.”

“You know as much as I do that the
Moon is probably our only bet for living a safe life,” Tiago says.  “Leonard
was killed by a government agency.  Do you think they’re going to leave us
alone now?  Do you think even if he hadn’t died, that we could hide around
Primm forever?  We’ve been hiding all our lives, I’m done hiding.  I want to
live in freedom.”

“But why the Moon?” I ask him.

“The Moon may have been finished
terraforming fifty years ago, but it’s far from being as organized as Earth,”
Tiago says.  “There are still areas of the Moon that are uninhabited and
developing.  Areas away from governments or scientific agencies, away from the
kinds of people who are and will be looking for us.  These kinds of places are
the only ones left for us.  If we stay here on Earth, we’ll be found and
killed.  At least on the Moon, it will be a lot harder for anyone to track us
down.  It’s our only option if we want to live a full life, and not one in
hiding.”

“But how do we get there?” Candy
asks.  After learning Tiago’s plan, Candy suspects there will be tech
involved.  My guess is she knows the answer to her question, and her expertise
will come in handy.  She is not asking ‘how do we get there’, but rather ‘how
can I help us get there’.

“There are teleport stations in
Primm,” Tiago says.  “They can instantly transport us from one station to a
larger hub that will teleport us to the Moon.  I did research a while back,
before all this happened, and if we can connect to the San Francisco teleport
hub from Primm, then we can get to the Moon via the station there. ”

“But we can’t waltz into a station
without causing a commotion,” my brother, Isaac, says.  “We won’t be able to
hitch a ride in broad daylight, we don’t have credits, so how are we going to
get access to a live one?”

“We’ll have to break into one of
the stations at night,” Tiago says.  “Once we’re in, Candy, we’ll be counting
on you.  We’ll need you to figure out how to operate a teleporter and send us
out of here and to San Francisco.  Then when we make it to a station there,
you’ll need to send us to the Moon.  Are you up to the task?”

Candy looks hesitant yet eager at
the same time.  She moves her hairy arms and puts her long fingers on her
chin.  She walks forward and then backward, dragging her other knuckle on the
ground, much like a chimp would.  She wants to take on the challenge of
learning new tech, but is unsure about her abilities.  But then she looks at
the rest of us, knowing that our escape hinges on her skills.  She can’t let us
down and she knows it.

“Yes,” Candy says.  “I can do it.”

“Good,” Tiago says.  He then turns
to Ace, who has now fully recovered from all the running he did earlier.  “You
did good, Ace.  Without you we wouldn’t have been able to get the information
we needed.  We would’ve never known how much danger we’re in without your
help.”

“Really?” Ace’s eyes are beaming. 
I know Ace has an admiration for Tiago.  His approval means the world to him.

“Yes.  Do you think you’re up for
another task?”  Tiago asks.

“Of course.  Anything to help out
the family,” Ace says.

“Good.  This is going to be a
riskier job, but I need you to go and get supplies for us.  Food, water,
clothes.  We’ll give you a list of things we’ll need.  Don’t worry, we’ll wait
until night so it’s safer for you.”

“Where do I go to get these
things?”

“There’s a supply depot about a
mile away from here.  It should have all the things we’ll need.  You can use
our packs to carry everything.”

“A supply depot?  I don’t think I
know where that is.”

“We can draw you a map.”

“Um…”  Ace looks confused, unsure
of the task given to him.  This mission requires intelligence that he doesn’t
have.  A map in his hands would surely lead to disaster.

“Let me go.  I can get the
supplies,” a shaky voice from behind me says.  It’s Lombardi, my older
brother.  He’s usually pretty quiet, not one to talk.  He lacks confidence
because of his appearance.  While we look different compared to a normal human,
Lombardi would be considered uglier than all of us.  He’s the only one with a
beak.  It’s large and sticks out of his face.  It’s kind of an eyesore.  He
also is the only one with feathers, and they’re usually oily.  The rest of us
either have a light layer of fur or hair, or none at all, but his feathers make
him look dirty.  His arms are wing shaped, but he cannot fly, and he has small,
grotesque hands sticking out of them.

Lombardi is also somewhat socially
awkward, most likely from a lack of confidence generated by his appearance.  He
wasn’t big and strong like Alex, nor was he tough, like Curtis, whose rough,
scaly skin matched his disheartened interior.  He couldn’t run fast, cheetah
like speeds like Ace, nor was he smart like Candy.  And he definitely wasn’t a
natural leader like Oscar or Tiago.  Lombardi was kind of useless.  It was sad
to say, but he was an outcast among outcasts.

And because of that, he always
wanted to prove himself.  This time was no exception.

Tiago looks skeptical, almost
annoyed, that Lombardi has volunteered to help.

“This is not a task for you,” he
says.

“Aww, c’mon big brother,” Lombardi
says.  “You know I was able to sneak out when we lived in the house.  And I can
read maps like a charm.  In fact, I know these neighborhoods pretty well thanks
to all the creeping around I’ve done.”

Lombardi did have that going for
him.  He is the most knowledgeable about the surrounding area.

“No,” Tiago says firmly.

“He has a point, though,” Oscar
says.  “I don’t think any of us has had as much exposure to this area as
Lombardi.”

Tiago looks at the rest of us and
then looks at Lombardi.  Lombard is frozen, his eyes wide open, hanging on
Tiago’s response.

“All right,” Tiago says
hesitantly.  “We may act tomorrow night.  Don’t fuck this up.”

“I won’t!” Lombardi responds
eagerly.

They and Oscar walk to another
side of the room to go over the details of the supply raid.  I walk over to Isaac. 
Everyone else also separates, doing their own thing until the night comes.

“What do you think of the plan?” I
ask him.

“Which one?  The supply raid or
Tiago’s master plan?” he asks.

“Tiago’s plan.”

“I don’t know, sis, I’m kind of
skeptical.”

“Me too.”

Isaac looks at me curious.  “Any
visions or senses?”

“No,” I say dodging his question. 
“You didn’t finish your answer.  What do you think?”

“On one hand he has a point.  The
Moon is the ideal place to live.  It’s just like Earth climate wise, and since
things haven’t completely settled down there, he is right.  We could live there
unnoticed.  We could find a place, and get food and supplies teleported to us
online.  We could live anonymously.  Hell, mom was able to do it so well that
no one even knew we existed.”

“What about the other hand?”

“It seems kind of rushed.  I don’t
know if Tiago has fully thought this plan out yet.”

“Oscar doesn’t seem too confident
about it.”

“Do you blame him?  Tiago is shooting
for the stars on this one, figuratively and literally.  A week ago, none of us
would’ve even considered being away from home and now, all of a sudden, we’re
being asked to leave Earth?  It’s too much to ask in such little time.”

“We’re running on a short
timeline.  It looks like people are going to be searching for us sooner than we
thought, with Leonard being taken away and all…”

We both stop talking to let the
words of my statement sink in.  Neither of us can believe that our little
brother is dead.