Eve Sky
Chapter 12 - "Is there no hope left?" (despairs)
by StarCross
Survivors numbered around fifty for the entire makeshift base, with many maimed by the destruction. None bothered to send out scouts to see if there anyone alive from the assault in the Dallas Metropolis, and even the stunned and shocked Eva felt no need to inquire about her loved one.
Then Jerri finally arrived in the newly erected yet shanty encampment, heroically yet tragically at sundown. Life returned to Eva who had came out of her tent after all the commotion of a returning soldier. Before Jerri could collapse into exhaustion, Eva ran into her wife's arms kissing her. The sight of her wife brought Jerri enough strength to embrace her just as passionately.
Jerri was then carried into the medical tent, and immediately Evie ran into her other mother's bedside to wail in her embrace. She yelled out repeatedly, "Oma!"
"How nice," said Jerri. "She's shortened 'Other Mother' now."
"Actually," said Eva, "Oma is German for 'grandmother'."
"What? You're calling me grandmother now?"
Jerri gave Evie a hard noogie and started tickling her. Immediately, Evie's troubles were erased, and she then playfully fought back against her other mother.
Soon, she received into her arms her twin infant daughters, Nikhila and Odilia, who cooed happily at the sight of their other mother. Evie became jealous and wanted to be held by Jerri. So she poked them until they cried, which made Eva discipline her by hitting her softly on the head.
"But I wanna drink oma's milk!" Evie complained.
"You're too old," said Jerri. "Besides, I'm not in the mood now. And stop calling oma."
"Oma is oma!"
"Evie, Jerri doesn't like it when she is called that," said Eva.
"She is older than you mama."
"Actually, I'm older than her."
"Is that true? Okay, how about I call her amam?"
"I suppose that is okay."
The main entrance of the medical tent was cleared to make way for the wheelchair-bound Farrah Drake, general of what remained of the Unified forces. She was missing her prosthetic leg, but Eva had learned from the others that it was damaged and it needed repairs. Ol' Bella was accompanying her, but now with her head wrapped in a bandage once more. Sergeant Sati Kutner was beside the general, apparently unhurt.
"Farrah?" Jerri asked.
"It seems that you're the only survivor we have," said Farrah. "I can't believe you came back with just scratches and bruises."
"I failed you."
"Jerri, I didn't mean..."
"I failed everyone. The General, I mean Tesla died trying to save me."
"You never were supposed to defeat the MA Unit."
"I was supposed to damn it!"
"Wait a minute," said Bella. "We're forgetting the fact that Mistress Aggregation Units had suddenly stopped attacking us. It's way too early for their period of rest."
"Could there be reason for this?" said Farrah. "This isn't like them."
"I don't know. They could be allowing us to live in order to rendezvous with the rest of our surviving forces to kill us."
"They're just toying with us."
There was a moment of silence for thinking.
"Well," said Bella, "at least they left the food and medical supplies alone seeing as they we wouldn't be needing them if we're dead. Whatever we did, we really gave them a big scare."
"So what should we do now general?" asked Sati.
"We'll have to evacuate this city of death," said Farrah. "We'll travel light and take only what we need."
"And the wounded?"
"I'm promoting you to Second General. You'll be staying with here with Bella to get them bandaged up for travel. If you can't save them... I'll leave that up to you."
"Understood."
"Where will we be going?" asked Jerri.
"To the Great Border-Wall of Mexico," replied Farrah. "We may be able to find something there to fight off those machinations, or at the very least use it as temporary shelter."
Jerri decided to accompany the first evacuation wave, which consisted of fifteen able people not counting herself and her family. Tenaya came along as well, and a van was given to them along with a few assault rifles and a grenade launcher. Everything they needed was packed into the drunk and into the third-row back seat.
Farrah rode in an armored Humvee with her personal drive. That vehicle would be the one to lead the small car caravan across the southern deserts of North America to their destination. They traveled on roads that were paved, unpaved, and falling into ruin due to a lack of repair. The towns and cities had already been deserted even before the advent of MA Units, but eventually they rode through a city that suffered from the assault.
Phoenix was the name of the metropolis, and though it was under the administration of the late Congregational Confederacy (and the Nataraja Agriculture for a brief stint), its position allowed for massive exchanges of both legal and illegal commerce, as well as a melting pot of cultures of the world. Now, it was riddled by massive coral-like web structures that pierced the towering buildings and the ground like frozen lighting. Jerri and Eva could see from their windows that the very same coral "lighting" had pierced countless robots, military machines, and women, whose corpses were mummified due to extreme dehydration. No life, not even insects inhabited this city.
"You think they're destroying the animals as well?" Jerri asked.
"Can't say for sure," said Eva. "They can be programmed to."
"What madwoman would want them to do such a thing?"
Eva began to remember the words the MA Units spoke to another about their mistress being pleased.
"A horrible woman," Eva replied. "A horrible, hateful woman."
They made a twelve-hour encampment in a clearing of the metropolis, and quickly resumed their journey at the break of dawn. The caravan would be passing by the Phoenix town district of Tuscon, which would mean that the Wall would be seen in plain view. Jerri, who had never really seen the Wall, was anxious to behold it, but she saw nothing.
The lead Humvee vehicle stopped. Jerri looked over and saw that Farrah was arguing with the driver. Just then, Farrah climbed out of the vehicle and stumbled to the ground. She then propped herself on her prosthetic leg and hobbled towards the southern horizon screaming, "It was supposed to be here! How could they have destroyed it?"
Jerri turned off the van. She passed by the other cars and their stunned drivers on her way to catch up to a lamenting Farrah.
"The Wall was supposed to be the most robust and impenetrable structure ever built," said Farrah. "Ancient technology is buried underneath there."
"It's all right," said Jerri. "Let's just camp here for the rest of the day and figure something out."
"Okay..."
The Wall gone like that. It would not be surprising given the destructive power of the MA Units. It was like it was a coordinated team attack to cripple any chance for humanity to fight back.
It was now a somber moment in the Tuscon encampment. They all took shelter inside an abandoned school gymnasium that had no chance of running water, let alone electricity. Power was drawn for the vehicles, and a few had to sacrifice all their gas and battery to do so. Water was gathered on foot from a nearby sewer line, and they had to boil it first to kill the germs. Jerri also began to wonder if the MA Units were also killing off all fungi and bacterial life.
One night was spent, and on the next day Jerri and the women discussed amongst themselves on where to go from Tuscon. They suggested finding an airship to search for more peaceful grounds--provided that the MA Units didn't destroy them. They suggested taking a boat to Asia--provided that the MA Units didn't sink them all. They also suggested finding and hiding in the many ancient bunkers of the world--provided that the MA Units didn't collapse and bury them. They even thought about constructing the said transports and shelters--provided that the MA Units didn't destroy all the tools and the power generators.
"So we could be living like savages until the very end," said Eva.
"With no hope of saving what's left us," said Farrah. "The in vitro clinics would be gone. The clone vats would be gone. Males would be gone. Perhaps we should really welcome the twilight of our kind."
Eva and Jerri looked at each other, and the nodded discreetly.
"Can we excuse ourselves?" Eva said to the group. "My wife and I need to talk to our children about all this."
"As you wish," said Farrah.
Eva and Jerri exited the old gymnasium to talk with one another in private. Their children were playing outside with Tenaya babysitting them.
"Do you think we should tell them?" asked Eva.
"Why ask me?" Jerri asked.
"You're the one who can impregnate all the known women in this world. You could be our last hope!"
"I... I'm a little scared. If we tell them, those monsters will know about me... and about our girls."
"At least... at least we should give them hope. I know you don't want to be protected like last time, but Jerri..."
"Think of the children, huh?"
"I know we can survive this somehow. We just have to figure out how to evade those MA Units."
"Okay. Let's go in and--"
"Amam!" cried Evie. "Amam! This lady wants to see you!"
Lady? Jerri and Eva spun around and saw their Evie holding the hand of a Spanish-looking woman in a black matador's suit, the traje de luces. Attached to her back in an X-formation were two long pikes decorated with blood-red banderillas, or little flags, close to the spearhead. She also had a sword attached to her side, and she was carrying one of the infant twins in her other arm.
Though there was no malice in her eyes, Jerri and Eva immediately knew who she was and looked around for Tenaya and the other twin. Tenaya came running into view with the baby, and it was just then that a silvery orb zipped right in front of her. The ground in front of her disintegrated to form a crater, and there materializing in a green Grecian dress was the Coral Thunder Reese.
"Danya," said Reese. "Thank you for finding them for us."
"Sure," mumbled the Pike Matador.
"Oh God, Evie!" Eva cried. Jerri held her wife back from doing anything rash that would anger the machinations.
"What's wrong mama?" Evie asked.
"Get away from her!"
"Please don't resist daughter of Nataraja," said Reese as she hovered right behind Tenaya. Without touching her, Reese nudged Tenaya closer to Jerri and Eva, while Danya brought the other two children towards their mothers.
At the same time, the rest of the MA Units materialized inside the gym using the walls as their source of material. Their appearance caused the panic necessary for the woman to shoot at them with their guns. Again, it proved useless as the bullets passed right through their false human bodies.
The Pearl Caster and the Blade Ribbon had appeared once more, and this time they were joined by the rest of their sisters who had been busy around the world.
The Flame Sniper Lindwe was a black woman garbed in a fiery traditional Nigerian dress and adorned with clattering fiery golden bangles on her wrists. Staring at her and even being in her presence made one feel hot in a hellish way.
The Crystal Dancer Kaguya was a demure-looking Japanese woman in a snowy white kimono and a hood-cloak that obscured the upper half of her face exposing only her snow-white cheeks and blood-red lips. Her cold audible exhales sent more than just physical chills.
And the Silver Spinner Annette was a girl barely in her teens in a sparkling prom dress, and her platinum blond hair was cut and styled to accommodate her two very thin and very long pigtails. Though young and seemingly innocent, Annette had a grin that made even the strong-hearted shudder. She ran her fingers through her hair and sent out an attack wave of silver strings that sliced apart the guns of Farrah and the rest of the women. However, she "accidentally" amputated a few of their hands and arms, decapitated a head, and took out Farrah's prosthetic leg.
"Whoops," smiled Annette.
"You meant to do that, didn't you?" said Lindwe.
"I guess I did. I'll just have to finish the job."
"Annette, we only came down here to pick this family up," said Danya. "We can't traumatize them any further."
"You mean," gasped Farrah, "that you're only here for Jerri and her family."
"Of course," replied Annette. "We spared your miserable vile human existence just because you're with her. Be thankful that I didn't kill you in an instant."
"You're here for us?" asked Jerri.
"That's right! You win! You have now been awarded a free trip for your and your family to our mistress's humble abode in the heavens. Now, if you'll--"
"We're not going."
"Eh? But it's a free trip, and you'll receive all the luxurious amenities of--"
"You'll take us there and kill us!"
"Do you really think that? Oh, I feel so insulted and ashamed, but I guess it is understandable given our apparent malevolence. Anyway, our mistress has expressed a deep interest you, for as you all should know--if she hadn't told you--that our tomboyish glasses-wearing lady possesses the unique ability to impregnate other women. In some ways, she--whatever her name is..."
"Jerri Adams," said Danya.
"Jerri Adams, in some ways, is like the last virile man on Earth. Does it not strike you odd that she already has three children, with one more on the way? They ain't adopted for all I know."
Farrah and the fourteen women gasped.
"Is that true Jerri?" Farrah asked. "Are you able to impregnate other women?"
Jerri looked down. "It is."
"So if you'll please," said Annette, "let's all take a ride up to Fortress Eschaton and visit our dear and lonely mistress. She would really like that."
"Jerri," said Eva whispered. "I don't like this."
"Neither do I," said Jerri. "But we don't have much a choice, do we?"
"Rest assured Misses Adams," said Danya, "that no harm will come to you and your family."
"As for these wretches of flesh here," said Annette, "I'm not sure if I can guarantee them surviving for more than a minute."
"Annette!"
"What?"
"Misses Adams, we'll guarantee the safety of your friends as well if you would just come with us. Isn't that right Annette?"
"Huh?"
"Annette."
The two MA Units stared each other down.
"Fine," Annette sighed. "I'll let them off."
"Good. Does that meet your approval Misses Adams?"
"It does," replied Jerri.
"Good. Reese, you'll carry the older child. Cherise, carry the wife, and you Hina will carry the 'seeder'. I'll be taking the infants."
"So we meet again," Hina smiled as she approached Jerri.
Danya grabbed either Nikhila or Odilia from Tenaya's arms. Leaving Lindwe, Kaguya, and Annette behind, Danya and the other MA Units began ascending to the air. As for Tenaya, she began to run after her adoptive family with desperate worry.
"Hmm, that girl wants to come with us," said Hina.
"Wait, stop," said Jerri. They all stopped in midair. "Do you think you can take her along? She is a close family friend. In fact, we consider her as family than a personal maid."
"Ah, I see," said Danya. "Kaguya, you'll take this friend of Misses Adams."
Then Tenaya felt the and heard the cold breath behind her. Kaguya had teleported or perhaps materialized behind her, and she further felt her coldness when she wrapped her arms around her body. Tenaya was taken up, and accelerated further up when she met up with Jerri and her family.
Back on the ground, Lindwe and Annette remained in the remains of the gym staring down at the surviving humans they were supposed to watch over.
"Hey Lindwe," said Annette. "Danya didn't say how long we're supposed to keep them safe, did she?"
"She didn't," grinned Lindwe.
"Our safety means that we don't have to die by your hands!" Farrah yelled.
"Then we won't use our hands," said Annette. "Won't we sister?"
"True, true," said Lindwe.
"You monsters!" Farrah cried.
"Then I guess we lied then," said Annette as she brushed the hair of her thin pigtails. "That is a real pity."
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