Razing Pel (8 page)

The silent drill cut with a
determined effort, slowly penetrating through the metal door.
 Phos was carving out a square hole that was big enough for
him to fit through.  After a few seconds of drilling, the
metal slab square that Phos cut out fell to the floor.  He
turned off the drill, quickly putting it back in his
back.

"Quickly!" Phos said, making his
way through the door.  Kaj followed behind.  "We’ve got
to hurry!  This place could blow any minute!"

They dashed through the ship,
leaving the way they came in.  Back out in the sandy terrain,
they continued to run, getting as far away from the ship as
possible.  Running up back behind a hill, they both poked
their heads up, waiting until the ship exploded.  They both
tried not to blink as they didn't want to miss it.

Everything went silent.  It
seemed as though the wind stopped as well.  The inside of the
ship lit up with a blinding white light.  Fire escaped out
every window.  Pieces of metal were tossed in every direction
- some pieces landing close to where Kaj and Phos were
hiding.

All that Kaj could think about was
the older Daj in there.  He probably didn't feel anything or
even know the explosion came - as it happened so fast.  Kaj
also couldn't get his uncle out of his head.  He still hoped
that his uncle was back at his village, living his life normally,
not thinking that he was lying around somewhere.

Kaj didn't even pay attention as
Phos was tugging on him to move out of the way.   "Come
on Kaj.  Debris is falling all around us."  They both ran
away from their old position.  A large piece of metal landing
where they were just seconds after they left.  They both ran
down the hill, safely out of the debris zone.  "That was
close.  You need to be more careful Kaj."

"Sorry," Kaj said, rubbing his
head.  He looked around, trying to see if there was anything
around.  In the far distance, Kaj saw a strange figure
watching them.  "What's that?"  He pointed towards the
creature.

Phos looked over to where Kaj was
pointing.  "That's it!" He yelled.  "That's what I saw in
the ship before the door closed us in.  He did it.
 Whatever he is."  Phos darted towards the creature, with
Kaj soon following.  The weird creature noticed that he had
been spotted and took off as well.  "Come on Kaj!  After
it!"

They both chased the creature,
watching it hop its way away.  The creature was very slow, and
Kaj and Phos caught up to it in no time.  Phos went for the
tackle, apprehending the creature.  They both struggled on the
ground, but Phos ultimately had a grip on him.

"Who are you?!" Phos yelled at the
creature.  "What gives you the right to try and kill
us?!"

"Let me go," the creature said in
a whiny voice.  "I'll tell you everything, just let me go.
 You're hurting me.  Please."

Kaj went over to the two, trying
to separate them.  "Phos, let him go.  Let him explain."
 He released the creature from his grasp.

The nude creature stood up, facing
the two.  Phos got up as well, dusting himself off.  The
creature reminded Phos of a frog, only with humanoid features.
 He had no neck, with long arms and legs, with a plump
stomach.  His fingers and toes were webbed, with three digits
on each hand and foot.  The mouth he had took up most of his
face.  He had large eyes that popped out from the top of his
head.

"What's the deal you little
freak?!" Phos snapped at the creature.

"Listen, listen," it whined out,
putting out both his hands for protection.  "I was one of the
prisoners that the Galactic Soldiers took aboard.  They locked
me in there with all of the Daj.  When the ship crashed, my
cell door opened.  I went searching around the ship, trying to
find food, and I did.  While I was searching around the ship
some more, I started to hear voices.  When I checked the
downstairs, I saw a human staring back at me.  I immediately
thought it was a Galactic Soldier and knew that he would kill me if
he found out I had escaped from the cell.  That's why I
trapped the two of you down there.  That's why I blew up the
ship.  I was just trying to protect myself."  The
frog-like creature fell to his knees.  "So please, just don't
hurt me."

"Get up," Phos instructed the
creature.  He rose from the ground.  "I understand where
you're coming from, but you nearly killed us.  All we were
doing was trying to find a current map to get out of the
desert."

"A map," the creature said.
 "I found one."  He lifted his arms around to his slimy
back.  Reaching both his hands into the back of his skin, he
pulled out a soaking map.  He ringed it out dry before giving
it to Phos.

"Thanks," Phos said, unraveling
the map.

"What is your name?" asked
Kaj.

"Groog," the creature
responded.

Phos studied the map, noticing the
differences from the previous one.  "Here."  Phos pointed
to a location on the map.  "That's where we are, and United
City is right around the corner.  We should be there
soon."

"Why the rush to United City?"
Groog asked.  "That place is crawling with Galactic Soldiers.
 I wouldn't dare step foot in there."

"Good, because you're not coming,"
Phos said.  "I appreciate the map, but this is an apology for
almost killing us.  Come on Kaj, we need to get going."
 As Phos started to walk away, the wind blew the map out of
Phos' hands.

"I got it," Kaj said, chasing
after the map.  It blew over to where all the debris was.
 He snatched the map from air, holding onto it firmly.
 Kaj looked around, seeing all of the debris from the ship
scattered around.

As he was looking around, he
suddenly heard a shot being fired.  Kaj raced back over to
where Phos and Groog were.  He was shocked at what he
saw.

"What the heck just happened?!"
Kaj yelled.  He saw Phos holding his pistol in his hand, with
Groog on the ground.  He ran over to them.  Kneeling
down, he saw that Groog had a bullet wound.  Kaj stood back
up.  "You shot him."

"He lunged at me," Phos said.
 "While I turned and watched you go after the map, the little
freak jumped on me.  I fought him off my back, and the only
other thing I could think of doing was shooting him.  I tried
not to kill him.  I must've hit something important.  Out
here Kaj, you can't trust anybody."

Kaj didn't say a word.  He
handed Phos the map.  Phos fixed the map.  He tried to
find the location they were at again.

"We need to head in that
direction," Phos pointed.  He stepped over Groog's body while
Kaj went around it.  "We should be there soon."

CHAPTER NINE

THE OUTSIDERS

"Come on Kaj!" Phos yelled out.
 "You're falling behind."  He tried talking over the
howling of the wind.  Phos stopped and waited for Kaj to make
his way up the short, sandy hill.  In his hand, Phos held a
pair of binoculars.  He looked through them.  "Well,
well.  There it is."

"What ... is ... it," Kaj said,
trying to catch his breath.  Phos handed the binoculars over
to Kaj.  As he looked through them, he could make out a city
in the distance.  He became excited.  That was United
City Kaj was looking at.  He could see the shield that
protected the city.  Also, he could see a ship prepping for
launch.  "The ship!"

Phos quickly snatched back the
binoculars to get a look at it for himself.  "Dammit!
 We've got to hurry!"  Phos put the binoculars back in
his sac before running down the hill with Kaj.

The two darted across the sand,
every step taking them closer to United City.  Even with the
mechanical legs that Phos had, he ran far better than a man his age
should have.

"Come on Kaj!" Phos yelled again.
 Kaj was still trying to catch his breath and wasn't running
at his full speed.

As Kaj was finally catching up to
Phos, something stopped them both from going any further.
 Phos dropped to the ground, hiding behind a large rock that
was in front of them.

"Get down," Phos instructed Kaj.
 He also dropped to the ground.

"What is it?" Kaj asked, peering
around the rock.  He spotted two rows of identical looking
huts with a long path in between.  The small village was right
in front of the translucent blue shield that protected United City.
 Kaj could see what looked like Daj roaming around the
village.  They appeared somewhat different to Kaj though.
 Not as clean and healthy as the Daj that lived in his
village, but more buffed out and filthy.

"They're called Outsiders," Phos
said.  "Once normal citizens of United City, now turned to
bandits.  Most of them were banished from United City,
depending on the severity of their crime.  I read a little bit
about them while I was stranded in that cave.  There's no way
to get into United City except to go right through the
village."

"Will they harm us?" Kaj asked.
 After what he just went through, Kaj didn't know if he could
take much more of this.

"Not if we don't provoke them,"
Phos said.  "As long as we just keep quiet, and proceed to go
forward, we should be alright.  But if we're going to do this,
we need to hurry.  That ship could leave anytime now.
  Just follow my lead, and stay close to me."

Phos and Kaj rose up from the sand
and began to walk down to the village.  Kaj, extremely
nervous, was walking very to close to Phos.  He had fought the
usual bullies in his village, but nothing to the extent of these
bandits.  They would kill Kaj the second they got the chance
to.  

"If anything goes wrong, I brought
my rifle along," Phos said to Kaj.  "I'm not afraid of
anything now … after what we both just went through.  The only
ones that should be afraid are them."

They continued to head towards the
village.  For some reason, Kaj knew that something bad was
going to happen.  He had a strange feeling in his
stomach.

As they entered the village, dirty
looks were being shot at them.  Kaj slightly turned his head
to look at a nasty Daj, leaning against one of the huts, sharpening
his sword.  He snarled at Kaj, which made him jump.

"Just keep your eyes forward,"
Phos instructed him.  Kaj quickly snapped forward.  They
noticed that someone who seemed to be important in the village was
approaching them.  Both of them stopped.  "Let me do the
talking," Phos whispered to Kaj.

"Well, well, what do we have
here?" a chubby Daj in front of them said.  He stood a little
bit taller than Kaj, but not as tall at Phos and held two daggers
in his hand.  The red facial hair he had covered most of his
face, with his beard nearly touching the ground.  His muscular
arms were exposed and covered with tattoos of strange symbols.
 "Looks like we have a couple of guests."  He walked in
circles around the two.  "Right boys!"  The crowd of
mischief Daj laughed and yelled.

Two more goons walked up next to
the chubby Daj as he stopped in front of the two again.  "Well
gentlemen, my name is Toris," the chubby Daj announced.  "And
I proclaim myself the leader of this village."

"Thank you for having us in your
village, Toris," Phos said, without moving a muscle.  He stood
completely still.  "If you may, we only wish to pass through
and enter the city.  We mean no harm to anyone
here."

Toris glanced back at the city.
"Ahh, I see," Toris said.  "You two are making your way off
this rusted out planet.  Well, let me tell you something, if
we're forced to be destroyed along with this planet, I think it's
only fair if you stay."  Toris stuck out one of his daggers,
pointing it at Phos' throat.  "You two aren't going
anywhere."

"We don't want any trouble," Phos
told him.  "Just let us pass."  He began to grow
irritated.  Phos knew that he didn't have time to waste.
 The ship could leave any minute and he wasn't going to let
some chubby Daj stop him and Kaj from escaping.

Kaj looked around.  It seemed
as though every Daj in the village had gathered.  He noticed
that a few Daj were riding some sort of giant lizard creature.
 They were covered in armor and it kept on snarling, sticking
out its long tongue every time it did.

Phos then slightly tapped Kaj's
foot with his own.  Kaj looked up at him.  He was
signaling Kaj to open up his sac.  Phos continued to distract
Toris as Kaj unzipped the sac.  He knew that Phos wanted his
rifle.

"This is your last chance," Phos
proclaimed.  "Let us pass!"  Phos didn't want to harm
anyone.  He simply just wanted to pass through, letting the
corrupt Daj go on with their lives.

"Apparently, just like your legs,
your ears are rusted out too," Toris snapped.