The Third Breed

A party

Max eyes grew wide, he’d never seen a place so bright at night. It was like stars were gathered all over the place giving light to even the darkest parts of the houses.

There were a lot of different sounds, all mixing together making a much more beautiful noise that he had never heard before, the men were somewhat able to sing to it in unison.

All of the so called scouts looked really active and full of energy doing their jobs. There were even a few that he saw joyfully singing and dancing. It was something quite far and different from what he was used to.

Before, singing was only done when someone died, and dancing was a means to say farewell while the bodies were being burned.

“Max, they’re showing a movie right now, do you want to watch?” Lance turned to him as they went into a huge house with dark colors and had a really fragrant minty scent.

“Movie?” he smiles. Though he didn’t know what it was, getting to see something new made his heart race.

“It’s like a show and stuff for fun, the people from before use to make it, the colony managed to save a lot of it before the apocalypse, though they are unable to make one now of course.” Lance says while waving around his hands.

“Yes, I think you’ll love it.” Ariel joins in and pushes him towards a dark room that was somewhat glowing from inside.

He was all smiles while letting himself get taken by his friend. He didn’t feel anymore danger nor fear from the two people he’s been with these past few days, after all that they had been through, he was now sure that he could give his full trust to them.

“Someone even made popcorn!” Lance adds looking at a machine that was making noises and had some kind of milky scent.

“Popcorn?” He stops and looks at the contraption that made popping noises.

It was a rectangular box made of glass, and had a metallic pot on top where small cloud like things came out.

“You go ahead and get seated, I’ll go get us some snacks.” Lance waves them off and then goes to the weird rectangular machine.

“C’mon Max, I think I hear the best part coming,” Ariel pulls his arm leading him inside.

The place was a bit dark but a light came from a large box that had moving objects in it. There were three people sitting quietly in front. The place was slanted and the row of chairs were placed a bit higher as they got further from the glowing box.

They sat in the middle and he looked as Ariel watched the glowing box with eyes filled with excitement and anticipation.

When he saw what got his friends attention he could not help but become enthralled at the sight. There were small people inside the box, showing a different world much full of life and things that he has never seen before. He could hear them talk and do things he has never actually encountered before.

Max unconsciously backed away when a huge lizard like beast suddenly appeared in front of the people inside the box, but he quickly calmed himself when he saw Ariel staying perfectly still while watching what was happening.

“Ariel, they need help!” he whispers to his friend.

It seems everyone there was too scared to make a move against the monster in front of them. But there was also a part of him saying you need to ask first since they were inside the camp.

“What?” Ariel says eyes still focused on the glowing box.

“We need to help them,” he say again now standing up.

Ariel was startled and realizes what he has said.“Ow, no Max,” his friends giggles. “It’s just a movie, it’s not real.” he whispers pulling him to take a seat again.

He could not help but frown and get angry, seeing how the small people were in panic while running away from the beast. How can it be not real when he can perfectly see it in front of him.

“Everything okay?” Lance was already taking a seat beside them.

He immediately looks to his friend who he knew would not allow such a thing to happen. “Lance they need help.” He points to the box.

Lance chuckles but then quickly stops himself. “Max its not real, it’s just a movie, they made it a long time ago, and what you are seeing right now was made hundred of years ago, before the infected happened.”

“Then how can we still see it?” he blurts out pointing at the lizard like beast.

“How do I explain this,” Lance bit his lip trying to think of a way to properly say it. “That box, it is able to show things that happened before, like a memory. Only it is able to show it to everyone.” he says then points to his head.

“Okay.” A memory able to be seen by everyone, that made him stop. Now he was really amazed at how things worked in the colony.

Max knew that if it was just something like that then they wouldn’t be able to do anything even if they wanted to. He just tried to remember how the beast looked like, promising himself that he will kill it if he see’s one.

“Here, I mix sour cream and butter in it and I got us some soda’s.”

Lance places large container which his friends called a bowl on his lap, it was full of the cloud shaped things but now covered in a mix of yellowish and greenish ash, he then gives him a cup full of bubbling black water.

“Sodas!” Ariel gleefully said while taking the cup, without a minute to waste he immediately took a sip and licked his lips.

“Soda?” Max looked again at the black bubbling liquid in his cup.

It was cold and had a different smell from the one that they used to drink. Plus it was bubbling even though he wasn’t doing anything.

“Where did they find it?” Ariel continues and starts taking heaps of the cloud food and begins putting it in his mouth.

“It was in one of those barricade crates we didn’t check,” Lance laughs it off.

“Max you have to taste this,” Ariel says raising his cup then takes another gulp. His words were barely understandable because his cheeks were all puffy because he put so much food in it.

Max gave it a smell, it had that sweet scent but had a weird tangy mix to it. He slowly put it in his mouth and like before he could not help but take a deep breath as his eyes grew wide from the different kind of sweetness and the sort of after taste it gave in his mouth like it was being frozen and tickled.

“Is it delicious?” Lance gave out a grin seeing his expression

“Yes.” Max nods and then starts taking a handful of the food and puts it in his mouth like how Ariel had done before.

A burst of that sweet milky, grassy and sea like taste that his friend calls salty started to attack his senses, as he began chewing the crunchy little bits of cloud, making his mouth water even more.

“Slow down Max, you’re going to choke if you eat like Ariel.”

Lance jokingly scolds seeing as how his mouth was about to burst as he tries to chew the large serving of food he had put in his mouth.

“This is great, you should have some too!” He raises the bowl seeing as how Lance was not eating.

Even though Lance was trying to hold his laugh he takes a few pieces and puts it in his mouth.

“Don’t stuff yourselves, after this, we’re going to the mess hall, I heard from one of the scouts that they have a chef with them and he’s making something special for dinner.” Lance gleefully reminds him.

“Okay.”

“I’m really looking forwards to anything that’s made of meat.” Ariel says though the young man was still looking at the so called movie.

“I heard Lord Joseph ordered them to make a feast for everyone,” Lance adds which makes their friends head turn to them.

“Is there barbecue?” Ariel sleepy like eyes were now wide open and showed a bit of shine in them.

“I think so,” Lance grinned again as he too began watching.

Max just remained quiet, shifting his gaze from the two men talking on both his side and the movie. Not wanting to miss any of the two. He found it both fun and entertaining and was starting to feel excited himself. Since he was now wondering what kind of meat it was that the two were talking about.

After the black box had finished showing it’s memories, all three of them raced to the mess hall. Three of the tables were occupied by the scouts. Lord Joseph was sitting in the middle in a table that was in front of everyone and was placed facing them.

Max was surprised to see so many people eating together and so many different types of food prepared.

“Our hero has finally arrived! Everyone let us greet our new comrade mister Max Arseniko.” Lord Joseph announces making everyone turn to them.

Max froze, his face straightened seeing so many looking at him all at once. He felt his chest start to thump as people smiled, clapped and started cheering and shouting phrases.

“Lance what do I do?” He bends to get closer to his friend.

“Just bow your head and say thank you,” Lance whispers in his ears.

He does what he says and then everyone became much more louder. They were greeted and patted as they walked until they were finally able to take a seat.

Though Max felt so vulnerable right now, he was quite comfortable sitting between his two friends.

Everyone calmed down when Lord Joseph raised his hands. “To all of you brave men and those who are no longer with us now, let me also give you my thanks. Without everyone’s hard work and cooperation, we may have never been able to get here. Though not all of us made it. Let us be thankful for being alive and may we never forget the sacrifices and hardships of our fallen comrades who risked their lives for this mission. Let us also give credit to Lance Dullahan and Ariel Lee, for they have given us hope in the form of Max Arseniko, showing that our efforts and hard work are not in vain. May we find and save more people in the coming days. For our Colony!” He raises his cup.

And everyone follows. “For our colony!” all of the scouts shouted in unison.

Max just remained quite while looking at everyone, he was still bewildered at what was happening, though he did managed to understand that it was some kind of talk of things that had happened.

After that, everybody started eating. There were so many things in front of him that he didn’t know where to start.

“Here Max, you should try these first,” Ariel started putting several types of food on his plate, some he recognized as cooked meat but there were some that were beautifully made.

“What’s it called?” He asks as his mouth started to water just looking at it.

“This one is called pork barbecue, spring rolls and this one is a beef steak,” Ariel points at each of the food that he was introducing.

“Don’t forget your rice Max,” Lance adds a very large serving of the white puff in his plate.

The moment he sunk his teeth into the so called steak he felt like in heaven because of the amazing softness and juiciness of the meat that had an added mix of flavor. It even tasted better since he was being surrounded by a lot of people.