Fated Hybrids

Chapter 2

I heard Emery's little footsteps behind me and I was sure she was heading into the kitchen too. Food was scarce to put it nicely, but my late nights out kept the cabinets somewhat decent. The kitchen was my mom's happy place, or it used to be anyway.

She loved tigers so the kitchen had tiger print everywhere except for the windows and floor. There were tiger cub magnets on the refrigerator, a tiger head wall clock and a calendar with tigers in different environments for every month. There was a small, wooden folding table with two chairs next to the window. Emery and I were the only ones who sat here and ate now, sometimes just either of us alone.

I saw a saucer on the table with bread crumbs and small dots of jelly on it. She had definitely eaten some toast this morning. I went to the cabinet near the stove to find some chicken broth.

"Clean up your mess little girl. You know mom wouldn't let you leave it there." I heard her sigh behind me. I found one of three cans of chicken broth and took one out. It had one of those easy open tabs so I was happy I didn't need to use the can opener. All of the dishes had been cleaned last night by Emery, so all I had to do was take a bowl from the dish rack.

Whenever I came home, the house was clean and mom was tucked in as comfortable as possible sleeping. Emery really did do more than her share for such a young kid. I opened the can of broth, poured it into a deep soup bowl, and put it in the microwave for two minutes. Emery came up beside me with her plate, dragging one of the dining chairs behind her. She still wasn't tall enough to reach the knobs on the kitchen faucet. Once she got up on the chair she started washing her saucer. I stood next to her with my arms crossed and watched her with a smile.

"I need you to feed mom her broth when it's done. Can you do that for me?" She looked over at me as she rinsed the plate off.

"Yeah, but why can't you do it?" The classic phrase, 'because I want you to do it' most parents use went through my mind; but I didn't want to make her feel like I was being the bossy big sister.

"Because I have to get an early start today. Mom's medicine is going to be gone tomorrow and I need to find her more today before the sun goes down. None of my contacts can be found after sunset, I told you this before."

She set her plate in the dish rack but continued to stand on the chair, feeling secure that we were at the same height I guess.

"Your contacts are stupid, the Xerclanz come out anytime of the day." I almost laughed seeing the little frown on her face. She looked so much like my father when she frowned.

"True, but they move in large numbers at night. Don't forget we're running low on food again and the early bird catches the worm Em."

I said reaching up and rubbing the top of her head, giving her instant bed hair. She gasped and responded by jumping on me with her wet hands going straight onto my face. She giggled and her laughter was like that of baby angels chasing each other in the heavens. Her laughs made me laugh every time.

"Lazy birds go hungry when they sleep through the morning Zara!"

She was still giggling as she said this and I had to get her back with an intense tickling session. I started tickling her sides and she let go of me, dropping to the floor on her butt. I looked down at her with my best sinister grin before the beeping of the Microwave went off.

"No fair! You tickled me!" she said with her little finger pointing up at me. Her hair came down to the middle of her back but was slightly wavy like my father's was. She had my father’s eyes like I did.

"Anything goes in a tickle war, Em. Get up and go feed mom okay? I'm about to head out."

She got up from the floor with a small grunt before giving me a hug. I hugged her back.

"Love you, thank you for being such a good kid. I'll be back before dark all right?" She nodded and let go of me.

I headed back upstairs to my room to figure out what clothes I wouldn't mind throwing away just in case I happened to get monster guts on me. It's happened more times than I'd like to mention. I'm young, but in times like these, age is irrelevant. The number of years you survive is what matters.

It's 4032 and it feels like we’ve reverted back to ancient times. At least that's what it feels like to me. I rummaged through my drawers and took out a long sleeve, light gray sweater that was a soft, thin material. I wanted to say a mix between cotton and polyester. It was a V-neck but the v was low cut and showed a bit of cleavage; Just a little.

I chose some black jean shorts that came to mid thigh to go with it. I was simple, no one to impress anyway. I tossed a panty and bra set on the bed with the outfit and headed to the bathroom.

Once I got dressed, I put my black steel toe boots on and grabbed my black pea coat from the hook on the back of the bedroom door. It was a nice one that came down to the top of my boots. It was cool enough for fall, but I often got hot moving around so much. Hence my shorts. I put on my coat and pulled my still damp hair from underneath it. It fell down onto the back of my coat with a wet slapping sound. I never left the house without two things, my weapon bag and my mother's necklace around my neck. I always wore her necklace, since the day she gave it to me; I never took it off. The necklace had a sterling silver chain that hung past my breasts. The charm was like nothing I’d seen before. It had a dragon carved from an Agate stone sitting on a jade fan, it was my most cherished possession.

I walked across my room to my closet and on the door hung about three sawed-off shotguns; I always took one with plenty of shells. I also carried two double barrel pistols on my hips and extra clips in the inner pockets of my coat. That's my usual arsenal for regular outings.

If I thought I was really going to get into trouble I would bring a couple of flash grenades but I was just going out for business. Before there was a legitimate currency, we had no choice but to trade goods for what we wanted. Well, now we were back to trading. Only this time we weren't trading food or jewelry.

We trade energy. Our electricity left when the Xerclanz took over. We have a sustainable source of energy called Beilaj, or “life of the moon”. The energy from the moon is harnessed in an underground facility and then put into specially made containment vials. Every home, apartment building, secured facility, anything that uses energy has a device installed into it. These Beilaj containment vials are inserted and the energy is used. The Beilaj is possibly more valuable than medicine.

Even though the new trading system sounds simple, it isn't. Why would someone be willing to trade their precious energy? Because for each Beilaj, depending on the item you're trading for, you get double of what you are trading for. In some cases triple that. If someone wants a car battery or some fuel however, they will only get one; But with the exception of one Beilaj to go with it. As for me, well no one has tried to hustle me. It could be because of the double barrel hand guns on my hips, who knows.

We lived in a city called Glow Valley because of how the sunset seemed to make the entire skyline shine like the heavens. Nowadays no one was brave enough to stay out and admire the little things life offered.

I went back downstairs one more time to check on my mother and Emery before I left. I made a quick stop at the kitchen counter and grabbed my keys with a fast swipe, tucking them in my coat pocket. I found a sweet scene when I came to the doorway of my mother's bedroom. Emery was sitting in bed with my mom reading a book to her instead of the other way around.

My mother was sitting quietly, listening while she read. Emery had stopped reading and they both looked over at me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm leaving now. You know where my 'stuff' is if a Xerclan decides to pay a visit."

Emery just nodded. Neither of us wanted to give our mom a heart attack by talking about the use of guns in her house. Never mind the fact I taught Emery how to use one of my hand guns last year. She isn't a pro, but she hasn't missed a target yet and that made me feel comfortable having her here with our mom.

"Is there anything we need ASAP that I might've missed?" I asked. Emery was quiet for nearly a minute trying to really think about it.

"Oh! Mom needs a new catheter and we're on our last bar of soap. That's it though." I smiled and gave her a nod.

"Done and done. Love you guys..."

"We love you too." I heard them say simultaneously before I walked out of the room.

It was a heavy responsibility on Emery to take care of my mom and the house while I was gone, but there was no one else. I worried every time I left them, hoping that they would be safe until I could return to protect them.

Our house is one level and a decade old. My father and two of my uncles had built it themselves before the Xerclanz had dominated the human race completely. Our house was a prototype for a method of security that would allow people to sleep peacefully in their beds at night. The outside looked like your typical suburban home, but within the walls there was reinforced steel and cement. Of course those things alone are not enough to hold the Xerclanz back. A Beilaj-powered energy field surrounded the house and that seemed to interfere with the Xerclanz senses and made them vulnerable to attack. The president approved the prototype and created an assistance program so that people could afford such state of the art security. Like with every great invention, it came with problems.

Everyone wanted one but wasn't always approved for the program. So it didn't take long for most of their houses to be run through by Xerclanz. There weren't many people who knew how my father's invention worked. There are only a small number of houses that were built with the Beilaj powered magnetic field.

When my father died, he didn't leave any notes with my uncles to pass on the information so now most homes only have the reinforced steel and cement built in. The rest didn't have either of those things and were in ruins now.

Since our house was as safe as it could be considering, I was able to go out and get the things we needed. My only transportation was a Jaguar motorcycle made by Barend Hemmes in the early two thousands. It was seriously a motorbike with a Jaguar for the body. Back then you had to be rich as hell to own one and lucky to have even seen one. How I got my hands on it wasn't a very honorable story.

About three years ago, a big group of motorcyclists were fighting in the parking lot of a bar. I was on one of my usual errands walking by and spotted the shiny, black beauty on the side of the bar next to a few other nice bikes. I had to get a look at it so I went over to it; yes, while all of the drunken fighting was happening. When I was close enough to it, I noticed the keys had been left in the ignition.

I was twenty one, walking home alone just after sunset with about three more miles to go before I made it home. I took a chance and hopped on the bike, speeding off in the opposite direction of all the fighting. I was scared to death that the owner was going to catch me but no one followed me. Too busy fighting I guess. I can't remember the story I told my mom as far as where I got the bike from, but I still have it so whatever I said must’ve worked.