Still

Starry Observations & Nightly Chills

It was cold. The night whipped at his clothing causing it to flap behind him and chilled his bones to the core, he didn't mind it though. Growing up in a place where heat always seemed to scorching, the nightly desert air was comforting and its' cool hands kept him awake and alert as he powered down the small road. The stars overhead and the silence serene despite his motorcycle's quiet hum. A contented sigh passed from him as he urged the vehicle forwards, accelerating under the silvery light of the moon. He could remember the days he spent staring up at the sky from his mother's apartment, a lonely boy left alone to care for a ghost. The fresh night air greatly contrasted the dusty atmosphere he remembered, the moon more alive than the textbook pictures had depicted it. The lonely desert road was a far cry from the congested subways where space was a figment of imagination and freedom seemed nothing but a fleeting dream. The stars smiled down upon the lonely wander as memories filtered through his mind, a small shack standing feebly in the horizon as the bike departed from the main road and continued over the dry dusty ground. Dust clouded in the air as the bike accelerated, his eyes trained intently on the shack while memories played back in his mind like a broken record.

"Kees? Where are you going?"

"Out."

"Out where? Kees, you're not running away right? You wouldn't do that me, would you?"

"Of course not, Mom. I don't plan to ever leave. I'm just going to the store"

"Good."

Teeth gritted slightly, the broken record repeating things which caused frustration to boil up. Clouds passed over the moon and the path grew darker then ever before.

"Kees. Where are you going?"

"Out."

"Out where? Kees, you're not leaving right?"

"Of course not, Mom. I'm just going to school. I would never leave you."

"Good."

The moon broke through the clouds to find the wanderer father inland than before, the shack coming

Shoes hit marble floors as the sound of kids jeering grew distant. Their chants of "Fight" suddenly becoming quiet of the roar of a school bell diverted their attention. The sound of his heartbeat was deafening in his ears, yet comforting as he slipped behind an equipment shack and rested against it's backside.

"Uh, hey. The bell rung already, you need to go."

Fearful eyes stared up in surprise at the deep sound of a man's voice.

"Woah there. Here come with me, we need to get you to a nurse. You've got a nosebleed." A hand reached and effortlessly raised the boy onto his feet. Snaking an arm around his waist the other boy held him up and began to maneuver them towards the front of the building.

Dust flurried up into the sky as the motorcycle came to skidded halt in front of the old shack and a black helmet rose revealing a serious pale face and a mop of jet black hair. Gently propping the bike against a wooden beam, dark brow eyes gazed up at the starry night skies in dazed wonder. The Draco constellation bright in the sky as a black and red jacket was pulled over pale uncovered arms and a thin black cotton shirt.

They sat together on the steps of Kees' apartment complex, resting against the door to his apartment. Both were sweaty and panting as the older of the two raised his arm to wearily look at dark grey watch. "It's 10:34. You should probably go in and check on your mother, I didn't realize our run took that long."

"I'm glad it did. I never get out that much, I never get to experience the world."

"You will someday, don't worry. Family is important though and it's one of the strongest bonds you'll ever have with a group of people. Without family, love wouldn't seem as important as it is. Your family are the first people who ever introduce it to you."

"Yeah, I guess they are."

"You guess? Why do you say that?"

"It's nothing."

"Kees-"

"Don't worry. I swear it's nothing alright?" A bright smile followed the obvious lie.

"Alright then. Night Kees."

"Night Shaun."

Gloved hands drew shapes in the dust, a vague sketch of the starry universe above as the moon began to set and the subtlest hint of sunlight could be seen peaking out from the eastern horizon. Dust swam by with quiet hiss as the stars continued their moonlight dance through the night.

"Still as much of a stargazer as you once were, aren't you Kees?"

The Little Things & Big Plans

The warmth of a fireplace inside the cabin was comforting as two men sat directly opposite of one another, neither spoke a word. There was an atmosphere of desperate longing as each revealed in their thirst for knowledge about the other. The tensity was finally broken as the older and noticeably more relaxed of the two spoke up, “Kees, look. I know you’re mad and I understand why, but please just talk to me. I’m not a psychic and the only way we’re getting anything accomplished is by talking it through.”

Kees looked up, his eyes hard and barely restraining a look of anger “Alright, but you know why I’m mad Shaun.”

Nodding, Shaun sighed as he took a seat at the small coffee table which stood between the two. “You’re mad because I joined the Army and left without telling you anything. I know it was a bad decision and I’ve already told you that I regret it. What more do you-”

“I want an explanation! Nothing you did makes sense. You always say ‘Don’t take unnecessary risks unless you've got something on the line. Well look at you! We weren't being affected by the war and we were happy! You were happy!”

Shaun’s shoulder’s tensed at Kees’ sharp tone and he ran a calloused hand over his face,”There was something on the line, Kees. There was a potential end to humanity itself in the form of something we had never dealt with before, something that we always thought was on our side. It would have reached us eventually and it did.” Shaun’s voice went dark as he stared up Kees, knowing fully well that the memory of the Terror hitting their home was fresh in both their minds. The Terror had exploded at the end of the 34th century, a time when politics raged and nations were at a constant state of tense cease-fire. It was true that the first places affected by it had been large, overpopulated nations and it had taken nearly six years for it to reach the desolate wasteland they had called home. Yet, the Terror had been like nothing the human race had ever thought of being an enemy nor had anyone thought of how to protect themselves against something of large scale destruction as the Terror was. It had begun as a strange phenomenon, a priest reporting that he saw dark purple flashes in the night sky. A woman crying that a dark shadow in the form of her deceased husband had kidnapped their five year old child. No one would have ever thought that faith itself would become a weapon, that the supernatural would no longer be a child’s tale or mere belief but a living danger. When it hit, no one was prepared and humanity payed the price for their neglection of all possibilities.

“But you didn’t have to go when you did. You left everyone behind, and you left everyone in pain! You said you never wanted to hurt anyone but you hurt everyone! Your mother, your sisters, everyone!” The word “me” went unsaid but by the pained expression evident on Kees’ face it wasn’t hard to inference the anger was a spawning from abandon. “Kees, I’m sorry. I can’t say it more and I can’t express it to you more than I’ve already done. Will you please just forgive me?”

Kees turned to look down at the wooden floor, dark with stains from unknown things. Musing silently to himself, he looked back up at Shaun’s face and smiled “Alright, but just for today. Now what’s this plan you’ve got?”

Shaun smiled “Straight to the point as always, well I’m sure you’ve heard about the Selium Bank?” Kees let out a derisive snort as he took the chair opposite of Shaun and leaned back, tempted to put his feet on the table “You mean that stupid black market group? Yeah, I’ve heard of them.”

Kees laughed as he thought of the ridiculous group, they had offered him a plethora of items back home ; all of which had been nothing but cheap plastic replicas. They claimed to have supernatural ties which they credited to the government's inability to wipe them off the face of the planet, in reality they had only their ingenious cockroach of a leader to thank for that. He had somehow found a way to keep informants everywhere and continuously withhold information about his organization’s core from the thousands of spies tracking their every movement.

Kees’ laughter dissipated as he saw the stoic expression on Shaun’s face “Kees. I made a deal with their leader.” The statement shattered every expectation Kees had, and left him speechless; mouth agape and mind fruitlessly grasping for words. Getting up from the table, Shaun walked over to a molding door and pulled a dark grey jacket off a dirtied coat hanger. Reaching into it’s inner pocket, he pulled out a tiny black stick and pulled it apart. A blue screen appeared from the two ends like a scroll being undone, “Here read this. It’ll explain it better than I can.” Shaun held it out and and gave a half-hearted smile as Kees eagerly snatched it from him, eyes pouring over it as his mind spun to get a grasp on the situation. The email was simple enough; find a certain person by the name Serena, transport her back to the cabin, email when complete, and help get her to a specific point which would be disclosed after they confirmed she was at the cabin. The sides of Kees mouth twitched in displeasure as he stared at the email, the idea that Shaun had agreed to this was inconceivable and didn’t help the spinning of Kees head. None of it made sense and the whole “plan” seemed a ruse to get two unlikely victims to do dirty work. It was too feeble and too cliche, Shaun had to have some idea to the instability of the whole thing. “I already agreed. There’s no going back, no matter how completely absurd it is.” I didn’t know the army turned you into a mind reader, Shaun Kees thought snarkily as his fists turned white from the iron grip he had the device in. “Kees, I know it’s stupid but hear me out. Whoever this is, they’re important and from what I squeezed out of the Selium Bank leader, she has the theories and the insight on how to create weapons on stopping this whole thing. I know I said to never take risks on feeble ideas, but now you’re either with me or not- and I need you on my side. You’ve got more smuggling practice and that’s about what we’re doing. So, are you in?” A tanned, muscled arm reached out with it’s calloused palm out. Kees eyed it wearily but with a weary sigh and held back criticism he reached out interlocking their hands. They were friends and Kees would rather die than lose his friend- brother to another stupid idea, he bite back all forms of condemnation and smiled feebly “I’m not going to dog you further on this but you better have a better plan than Mr.Enigma over there.”

“Trust me, I’ve got one and it’s a good one.”

Bad Plans & Flying Limbs

The plan was absolutely, positively, uncharacteristically terrible contrary to what Kees had been told, and frankly he absolutely hated it for exactly three major reasons. First, the plan involved Shaun taking his motorcycle to pick up location. The obvious problem being the words “his” and “motorcycle”, Kees abhorred the idea of anyone aside himself from touching his precious craft. Secondly, the plan involved Shaun taking the motorcycle and not Kees with Shaun. Kees, was beyond disgruntled by this in both terms of his motorcycle’s safety and Shaun’s own. It wasn't that Kees doubted the twelve years of military experience Shaun flaunted around, it more so was that Kees opposed all forms of leaving Shaun’s side. The chances of losing Shaun again were severely lessened by Kees presence beside him, even then Kees would be more happy spending time in captivity together than mentally murdering himself for allowing Shaun to be captured in the first place. Yet, here he was on a telecommunications device listening to the soft purr of his precious vehicle and Shaun’s incessant complaining. The nerves hadn't yet kicked in but annoyance was certainly present as Kees lazily watched Shaun ride down the desert road using a drone.

“Kees, I’d hate to complain but you really need a better variation of this thing. It’s too thin and I feel like any little motion is going to throw me into the dust.” Rolling his eyes Kees allowed the drone to droop downwards closer to Shaun, “It’s perfectly fine for me, and last I checked I bought it for myself. It would be a better ride if I were there driving it.”

“Kees. I told you why I can’t let you come, now can please get that stupid drone farther away from me? It’s too loud.” Grumbling Kees re-positioned the drone back to where it once had been, “You’re hallucinating, these models don’t make any noise.” Shaun snorted as he urged the motorcycle further “I don’t believe that for a minute. They had a couple of those things back in the army and when we took them on a scout mission they caused more of those weird monstrosities to come at us. I know for a fact they make noise.”

“Yeah, alright old man. What happened anyway? You never exactly told me what happened when you left.” No response came as the motorcycle gained a sudden boost of acceleration.

“Shaun?” No response again as Kees pushed the drone faster, the motorcycle still continuing to accelerate. Panic struck Kees as the screen which projected the drone’s visual camera and a map of the surrounding area began to flash with a red dot in the middle of the ahead road.

“Shaun, watch out there’s something coming up.” More dots began to appear as the screen began to emit a low warning sound yet no answer came as Kees helplessly watched Shaun leave the drone behind.

“Shaun! Come on turn around!” Kees yelled as he tried to push the drone faster, the screen was now flashing red and more dots appeared.

“Kees. Turn the drone around and wait. Everything is fine and I’ll be back.” Shaun’s voice was clear and determined as he began to slow down.

“What? No- you said that I could-.”

Silence came from both ends as Kees realized the telecommunications dropped and that the drone’s visual was gone, it’s wave frequency intercepted and scrambled to the point of incomprehensibility. The cabin was silent and Kees stared at the mess of pixels and began to slowly try to maneuver the drone back to him. I knew this was a terrible plan.





I should have warned him in advance, I’m an idiot. Shaun’s mind screamed as he slowly began to walk forwards, his hands raised and his gait slow as he moved forwards. “Slow and steady Shaun. I’m afraid we have to take the extra precaution here.” A calm, silky voice spoke as Shaun drew closer. He could faintly make out the outline of a score of armed men before him, he snorted as two of them stepped out from their ranks and grabbed both his arms hauling him forwards. Some welcoming committee, he could feel the barrels of their guns ramming into his side as they practically dragged him across what expanse of road was left between him and the undefined army of blurred shadows. As they dragged him into the dark Shaun felt a familiar sense of panic bubble up inside him, the situation was all too familiar. It almost felt like- No no no. Come on Shaun, keep your head in the game. You aren't there and these people are human- human.... Human? The word seemed almost foreign in his mind as blurred images flashed before his line of vision. He saw himself and a group of armed men, weird black creatures pouring out from everywhere, screams coming from all around which were far from natural.

“Shaun? Shaun? What the hell is wrong with him?” Someone demanded and Shaun could feel a strong hand grabbing him and shaking him violently. Shaun, Shaun, Shaun. Why so nervous? That voice. It wasn't his, it wasn't anyone’s ; or was it? He couldn't’ remember. He couldn't distinguish between the voices calling out his name in panic or the ones gently beckoning him forwards. He could tendrils of weird making coming from unknown shapes, and he could hear people screaming his name over and over again. Shaun...Shaun! ….Shaun…..

“Shaun! For fucks sake, someone get me a bloody stretcher! He’s going down! Get the fucking medic and tell him to get his ass down here asap!” The voice, whoever it was screeched as Shaun felt the world grow distant and a sudden tired feeling dragging his eyelids shut. Human?





There was a tense silence between them all as they cautious stepped into the suffocating atmosphere of the damp, near- obliterated building. All around there were broken shards of glass, crumbled stone pillars, and a plethora of unnamed objects which Shaun could name if he were given the opportunity. The walls were in poor condition and covered in a weird black substance which streaked endlessly over every wall, ceiling, and floor. Silently, Shaun made his way towards one of the nearby walls and put a gloved hand over the substance. The glove gave a small purr as electronic devices embedded in it began to function, a soft pink light emitting from the glove and scanning one of the black stains. The light dispersed quickly as the helmet over Shaun’s head began to display a processing sign in the far right corner of his vision.

Scan completed. Substance: ELM-271NG detected.

“Guys, keep watch. I’ve got a hit on Terror creatures residue.” Shaun called out as he exited the scanner and continued to look about the crumpled building.

“They really need to give these things better names. I mean, Terror suits them perfectly but it doesn’t really help the people fighting them to have to call them that. You know?”

Shaun chuckled as he nudged a piled of rubble with his boot, carefully edging rubble off one another as a shiny metallic object caught his eye. Leaning down Shaun moved the rest of the rubble off the object and picked it up, dusting off the layers of dust which coated it.

“What the-” he said confusedly as he observed the object it. It was an eerily dark color which resembled the color of the residue on the walls, it had a strange series of markings on it which-

“Shaun!” Looking back Shaun’s eyes widened in captivated terror as a severed arm flew through the air and smacked against his face.





Sweat coated his every inch as his eyes shot open and he instinctively reached out to the nightstand, groping for the knife he left there. His hands reached out only to fall through the air as they were met with no nightstand or knife, looking around in confusion Shaun felt a calm reassurance run through him as he realized the room was not his own. “Shaun. Over here.” Looking over Shaun stared at the tall brunette standing over him with an annoyed scowl on his. Scowling down at him was the illustrious Selium Bank leader, Anaximander “Xi” Vellmare. Tall, lean, and adorned with locks of dark wavy brown hair which gently curled to touch the back of his neck, Xi looked more like one of the ecdysiast the army hired than the infamous informant broker. “Where am I?” Shaun mumbled as he stared at the other, his face suddenly deadpanning as he saw Xi was dressed in a dark cotton shirt and black boxers rather than his usual work outfit. “You’re in my quarters,” his features remained annoyed but a quick look of amusement flickered on him as he saw Shaun’s reaction “and don’t get any wrong ideas. I have the largest room in this fèn duī1 and the rest of the rooms are overpopulated.” Shaun nodded as he sat up and shifted so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “What do you think you’re doing?” Xi asked, raising an eyebrow curiously as he watched Shaun shakily stand on his feet. “I’m moving so you can get back down on your bed, I wasn't supposed to stay the night. I need to get going and move that girl.” Scoffing, Xi nodded “Good, I wasn't planning on letting you stay the night. First, you need to get water and clothes.” Motioning him to follow, Xi lead Shaun over to a small dresser which had been set up in the far right of the room. Xi strode over and grabbed a canteen along with a stack of clothes. “Here.” Xi handed the canteen over to Shaun and shoved the clothes into his arms. “There’s a new set of armor in there. I’m sure you’ll like it, polyester material infused with titanium and coated in a rubbery substance to make it a bit more sturdy. The gloves in there are also the government's latest version of the cybernetic battle gloves. Not an original name but they do their job well.” Shaun nodded and thanked Xi as he opened the canteen, drinking down the water. Xi strode over to the bed and sat on the edge, eyes analyzing Shaun’s every movement as he began to put on the clothes. Just like a cat, Shaun noted as he finished pulling the stretchy fabric over his chest. It felt lightweight and stretched comfortably around his body, feels like a water suit Shaun thought as he picked at the fabric. “Alright, now that I’m ready. Where’s the girl?” A smirk stretched over Xi’s face as he perked up and stared up at Shaun, his eyes connecting with the other’s and bearing flickers of amusement in them “Well about that, as expected there were some complications and the plan has changed.”




“He wants us to go get them?” The words were hissed as Kees glared at Shaun, his eyes looking over the outfit. He looks like a professional stripper Kees scoffed at the thought as he watched Shaun shift under his gaze. “Look, I know it’s not exactly ideal but at least we won’t have to trust his guards to deliver us to them. It’s more work but less risk, and you did mention that you’d rather do this ourselves without any interference.” Kees tongued clicked against his teeth as he looked at him. “Alright, what’s the plan?”

Shaun lent back against a lumpy couch and crossed his arms over his chest, “The person is based in a science center somewhere in Calquer. From what Xi could tell me, they’re somewhere underground and they won’t be alone. There’s a scientist down there that’s acting as a bodyguard. We’re to sneak into the restricted areas from the city of Gal’Ques and to find the bunker with a tracer that’s in this glove,” Shaun jerked his head down motioning at the cybernetic gloves “ Afterwards we have a brief chat with the inhabitants, grab them and then make our way back here. The plan is the same from there on out. Sound good?”

“Sounds good, as long as I get to help and those idiots stay out of this.” Kees said as he grabbed his motorcycle keys and a duffle bag from the grime covered kitchen counter. “Let’s get this over with.”

Footnotes
1  1: Fèn duī (Chinese Simplified) : Directly translates to “dung pile” Content translates to “shit pile”