One and a half years. One and a half years ago, the Hignue had invaded and unleashed hell on the world. Hordes of extraterrestrial electronic life overwhelmed humanity and in 6 months, that flame of human life was all but quashed.
Three months. Three months ago a team of four survivors set out on their mission to follow the whispers rumors of the Resistance, a supposed group of surviving anarchists with connections to an un-infested safe haven.
28 days. It had been 28 days since the last time they’d heard from Heirloom. After two months of weekly correspondence, the radio silence was more than unusual.
Pana sat on a pile of pillows in their corner of the room, a laptop on their lap, and a radio scanner next to them. Their brow was furrowed in concentration as they typed furiously. Their last communication had been on the 27th of last month. Pana glanced at the beat up calendar tacked to the wall. Today was the 24th. They let out a sigh through their nose and focused back on the scanner, picking up the radio that was attached and pushing the ‘TALK’ button. They played a recording of the S.O.S. tone into the receiver before speaking.
“If there is anyone who reads me, please come in. We need help. Again, if there is anyone out there who reads me, please respond. The city has been overrun. We are survivors who need help. Please respond.” They strapped a rubber band to the com so that the talk button would stay on and kept the S.O.S. on repeat, as it would stay for the next hour.
Then, through the front entrance came a voice and then another following suit.
“I just don’t understand why we have to go now. We haven’t had time to talk this through.”
“That’s not your choice, Leo! He’s my brother. Not to mention his husband and the others. Why can’t you get on board with this?!”
The first to come into sight was Akira, who stepped over the tripwire and disabled the intruder alarm up front. Then came Leandro, whose face was twisted in some sort of emotion that resembled either anger or sadness or maybe concern? Pana couldn’t tell.
“Well excuse me for being a little uncomfortable with up-and abandoning the only thing we know for certain is safe!” He shot in Akira’s direction.
Akira approached Pana’s corner, paying notice to when they pointed toward the lit ‘On Air’ sign and keeping his voice quiet.
“Any interference?” Pana shook their head. “Have you heard from Heirloom?” He tried to keep any twinge of hopefulness out of his voice, but shit, he needed good news. Pana’s frown deepened just so and then another shake of the head. Akira sighed and closed his eyes. A month was too long. They had to do something.
Leandro appeared behind Akira and put his hands on either side of his arms, rubbing up and down in a soothing motion.
“Look,” he said next to his ear, “I just don’t like the idea of taking you and Pana to chase after silence. If we don’t know what happened to them-”
“Don’t go there.” He hissed in a whisper. And he stormed away.
Leandro looked at Pana and huffed. He reached into on of his jacket pockets and pulled out a package of gummy bears, tossing it to the ginger.
“Anything?” Head shake. “Damn. Guess I better go talk to him.”
“Probably.” Pana throws a green gummy bear at him.
“Hey,” he smirked, pointing at them “don’t waste those, they’re hard to find.” Pana cracked a smile and threw another gummy.
“Yeah, yeah…” And so he left Pana to their tech and headed toward the second story ladder.
Leandro peeked his head above the landing. Akira was sitting with his back to him, knees folded to his chest with arm around them, looking at the lilac evening sky through the gaping hole that made it less of a room and more of a balcony.
He climbed up and walked over, plopping himself down next to him and draping his arm over his shoulder. Akira laid his head against him without saying a word. They stayed quiet, just watching the sky, droids zipping through the air and collecting data on the conditions to report back to their homebase. Leandro spoke first, softly and with care dripping from every word.
“You understand, everything I say comes from a place of love right? I need you to understand that.”
Leandro felt Akira take a deep breath against his body.
“I know.” He said. Another moment of quiet. “It’s just,” he sighed “I don’t know where he is. Dashi, a-and Dante and Sansa and Henrae… they could be lost or captured or… dead for all I know. And I… I just need to know.” He finally turned to look Leandro in the eyes. He looked so deflated. Softly he added, “Wouldn’t you want the same the for your family?”
It still hurt., but it was duller now. The topic didn’t knock the wind out of him like it used to. It didn’t cause him to double over and hyperventilate. And the ache he felt now wasn’t the same ache he got after hours of sobs racking his chest. Now it was more muted. He’d almost come to terms with it. His family had all been at home when the invasion started. Cuba was hit so fast and so brutally, the damage and death toll was devastating. What few phone lines weren’t destroyed were jammed and nobody could seem to get ahold of anyone. Rescue teams that had been sent didn’t come back and eventually the world diverted their attentions to… to places that stood a chance.
The only family that could have evaded it was his sister Vera, who’d been stationed in Canada during the attack. But even the military suffered. Wearing itself thin until corruption and panic all but tore it apart. Leandro stopped hoping. He made the very realistic assumption that everyone he cared about was gone. He’s lucky Tadashi, Henare and Akira had found him when they did. That kind of mindset doesn’t bode so well in a place where death wasn’t that hard to achieve.
“You guys are my family. All I want is to keep you safe.” He nudged against him so they swayed together for just a moment.
“We can only live in safety for so long.” Hearing a catch in Akira’s words, Leandro realized with a start that he was crying. Akira wasn’t a crier. He was more of a punch-holes-in-the-wall kind of emoter. He stared at his downturned face while he continued. “The Hignue are closing in, they’ll have the city clean soon, we’d be lucky to get 3 more months here. Pana’s driving themself crazy looking for any shred of evidence Morgan and their family is okay and now Tadashi-” His shoulders shuddered and his words caught in his throat. Leandro’s brows knit together, and he looked on, heartbroken, at a boy who was so used to pushing his fear aside it ate him alive.
He turned and pulled Akira into his body and rubbed his back as he cried quietly into his jacket. He rested his head atop his and shushed him sweetly, looking out toward the edge of the city that used to taper off into a nice suburban area. Thing’s still smoked. Buildings lay crumbled against the skyline. Akira was right, of course. They didn’t have much longer here. They had hoped that Heirloom would make it to the Resistance base and give them the greenlight to follow by now. But when they stopped receiving telecommunications, shit hit the fan.
“We’re going to go after them.”
Akira met his eyes, puffy and but wide with emotion.
“But… we take time to properly prepare.” He took one last over the fading color of the sky. “We don’t go tonight, or tomorrow. We get our shit together. Then we’ll go.” He turned back to meet Akira’s gaze.
He doesn’t say anything. Just studies Leandro’s face before nodding. That’s all Leandro needed. He pressed a long, gentle kiss to his forehead.
They watched the darker hues takeover the sky and the moon grow brighter until it illuminated the sky in a soft pale yellow glow from behind a passing cloud. Akira retired downstairs to prep tomorrow, leaving Leandro gazing at the sky deep in thought, legs dangling. He thought about everything they were about to get into. About how the second they stepped foot beyond city boundaries they were completely at the hands of fate, who thus far, had appeared to be nothing but cruel. But the thought that kept making its way to the front of his mind demanded him to know what the future held. And he didn’t know how to answer that thought. Not even when he pulled the little box out of his pocket to look at the ring he held on to. Especially then.
One of the featured fics! Zine coming out soon! Keep your notifications on!
