Chapter Seven

Thoughts of my horrible dream quickly washed away as I rolled over to look at the ever so beautiful Lily. She woke up a couple minutes after me.

"Have fun last night?" she asked.

"You know it!"

"Honey, we can't let my father find us," she kissed me, "so we got to get back inside."

"I thought you didn't care what your father thought anymore."

"Kin, don't turn me into a hypocrite. I don't feel like dealing with my father right now. Let's milk the cows. That way, if my father asks what we were doing out so early, I just say that I was showing you how to milk a cow."

"Yeah… well I sure milked my cow last night!"

She hit me, than began to laugh and so did I.

"Does everybody from your planet have such a sick sense of humor?"

"Only the witty ones," I replied.

* * *

Lily's lie worked beautifully. Her stubborn father never suspected a thing.

"So, I suppose you've never milked a cow before," Lily's father seemed surprisingly comfortable.

"Nope."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Yeah… it was very nice."

"But probably not as nice as having sex with my daughter… is it?"

My heart started racing, and I gulped. I looked over at Lily, who was wide-eyed.

From out of the blue, a smile grew on Mr. Rider's face.

"I'm just joking with you, boy!"

"Yeah, I figured… since I definitely did not have sex with your daughter." I was so relieved.

"I'm glad you followed my rule, Kin," he seemed to like me now, "a lot of men have trouble resisting my daughter."

"I can't say that I'm surprised," I looked over to Lily to see her smiling.

We were all one big happy family. Just as I thought that things were only going to get better… they started to get worse.

Someone was knocking on the door and Mr. Rider was the one to answer it.

"Hello," he said.

"Mr. Rider!" exclaimed a young excited man, "you've got to come down to the hospital."

"Why? Did someone get hurt?"

"No… more like something," the young man looked over Mr. Rider's shoulder and saw me, "and bring him along too."

"Who, Kin?"

"Sure… whatever you call him. Maybe he's seen one of these things before."

I was a little curious about what he was talking about… but I think I already knew.

* * *

It was a dead zergling lying on a hospital bed. That was exactly what I had figured. Besides Mr. Rider and I, there were five other men surrounding the bed.

"So… you know what it is, stranger?" the same energetic young man asked me.

"Yup… it's a zergling."

"Pretty damn big," he replied.

"It's a baby," I replied.

Everyone grew a little terrified when I said that.

"A baby?" the young man questioned me, "…This hospital is full of men who had their fucking limbs ripped off by a… baby."

"Uh huh."

I walked over to the zergling and poked at it.
"This is a pretty small one."

"We've never seen these things before…" said a previously quiet older man, "where the hell did they come from? Is it your fault they're here, foreigner?"

"No!" I replied in reflex, "well… yes… and no."

They looked as if they couldn't decide whether or not they were angry.
"Explain," demanded the young man.

I told them the entire story from the point of the proposed alliance up until now (cutting out the steamy scenes with Lily). No one seamed to doubt my story at any point. That dead zergling lying on one of the hospital beds was proof.

Everyone was silent for about a minute, thinking about what they could possibly do. No matter how long any of us thought, there would be only one possible solution, and it would be a very difficult one.

"We have to kill them," the old man broke the silence, "We have to kill the Zerg. There is no other way."

"How the hell are we going to do that!?" demanded the talkative young man, "that one baby caused hell. There are probably twice as many Zergs in that ship than there are people in this village!"

"How did you kill this zergling?" I asked.

"We shot an arrow at it," explained the old man, "We tried swords, but we couldn't take it on close range. We shot the arrow when it wasn't looking."

"So you took it by surprise," I explained, "or you could say you outsmarted it…. The Zerg may be stronger than us. The Zerg may be faster than us. But we have the biggest advantage over them… intelligence."

* * *

We arranged all the men and some of the women who wanted to go, together. This would have to be our attack force. It was about a hundred people, mostly farmers. One of these people, to my disappointment, was Lily. I tried to talk her out of it in fear that she might get hurt or worse, but she persisted on going.

We had about five travelers sent out to search for the ship. A day later they came back with the discovery of the ship. It was about fifty miles south of the village.

Everybody was made a bow, ten arrows, and a hunting knife. The bows made were very powerful long bows. A good shot from one of them was much more powerful than that of a gun.

The attack plan was to go straight for Razavar. Once their Zerg leader was killed, the Zerg wouldn't know up from down. They would most likely start attacking each other.

Before we went on the mission, a huge good luck party was thrown.

* * *

The party was held the night before we would depart, and it was wonderful. The folk music played by a local band was easy on the ears and the food was delicious.

I danced with Lily the whole night, with her father's consent of course.

"Lily," I said during one of the slower songs, "I think that maybe you should reconsider going on this mission."

"Kin," she replied, "we've been over this a million times. I'm going, end of story."

"I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I know honey. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"You don't know what these Zerg are like."

"Neither does anyone else in this village. I'm a tough bitch. You should know that from a couple nights ago."

I smirked at her.
"Yeah."

"Speaking of a couple of nights ago… I was thinking that maybe we could take a visit back to the barn. And you know…"

"Milk some cows?"

"Yeah."

I smiled.
"Let's go."

Chapter Eight

We left the village at the crack of dawn and began our journey. It took us till noon to arrive at the ship.

The ship was parked out in the middle of nowhere. The outside looked fine, but I knew by now that the inside would look… very Zerg. It would be covered in slime and cocoons would most likely be hanging from the roof. It would be dark in there too, since the Zerg weren't crazy about light. A chill was sent down my spine when I thought about what it was going to be like in there. It would be like so many horror movies that I'd seen, except it would be real…

Fear wasn't going to help out the situation; bravery would. I decided to give a motivational speech, because no one looked very stable.

"Look," I said, "I know you're all terrified, and I gotta admit… I'm a little scared too. But you have to put that aside for the next few hours. I've been in the military for quite a while. I don't imagine you know what the military is, so let's just say we're like a large army of warriors. If there's one thing I've learned while in the military it's this… believe you will live… and you will live; believe you will die… and you will die. The Zerg are literally dumber than our five-year-old children! They are just a bunch of animals! Animals aren't on top of the food chain, now are they? No! We're on top of the fucking food chain! So let's kill those overgrown bugs!"

Everybody cheered. My speech really motivated them, and I was quite proud of myself for it.

"Go!!!" I yelled and pointed to the ship. To my surprise the entrance was open. We charged through it, and it that moment I realized why it was open….

Razavar knew we were coming.

Chapter Nine

I looked to my side and saw Lily, and felt that I had to say something real romantic to her, before things got all… hellish.
"Lily," I was dazzled by her beauty, "I used to have insomnia."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Have you ever been unable to sleep. No matter how tired you were, you just couldn't sleep, and your life just turned into a daydream. That's insomnia. Any ways, I didn't notice this until recently, but I started sleeping again… when I met you."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you changed a lot of things in my life. I'm saying that you're important to me…. I'm saying that I love you."

I could tell that she was holding back tears.

"I love you too," she replied, then kissed me.

I wish time could stop so we could indulge ourselves with each other, but we had to keep going.

* * *

The inside of the ship was just as I had expected it: covered in slime, cocoons hanging from the roof, and very dark.

"Very homey, eh guys?" I commented.

I heard a few snickers and people trying to hold in their laughing.

I decided it best to tell them of my prediction. My prediction that Razavar had expected us. The group was very motivated and I didn't want to take that from them. However, I would make sure they kept very alert.

The only light we could get was from the occasional flicker from the lights above. That flicker would have to do, because it was really our only way to see. We definitely should have brought torches, but it was too late to go back now.

I slowed down the group as we approached a very large room. It was the ship bay. The large lights above flickered, to reveal about a hundred hydralisks and zerglings waiting for us.

I was about to yell fire, then figured that that might not be too intelligent. Instead, I whispered to the nearest person that I would clear my throat as a signal to fire, and to pass it on. It took about a minute to pass it on to everyone.

"Ahem!" I cleared my throat.

Arrows whizzed through the air, some almost striking my head. I could hear the first of the arrows make contact into the Zerg, but the rest were drowned out by their squealing.

Once the first wave of arrows had been sent off, the Zerg started to run towards us. I figured that there would still be time to hit them again before they reached us, so I yelled, "Again! Then pull out your hunting knives!"

Half the arrows sent off the second time probably just re-hit the already dead Zerg, but I still couldn't be disappointed by the overall damage of the arrows. They had probably killed over half of the Zerg in that room.

With so many bodies scrambling throughout the room, the Zerg couldn't dodge blows as easily as they would have liked, and many were sliced to death.

When it looked as though we may have won the battle, more Zerg poured into the room. That's when I decided that it would be best to stick to our original plan, and go straight for Razavar.

I glanced around to see if Lily was all right, but I couldn't see her. I had to assume that she was ok and go on.

I ditched the group, and headed out a small door that was away from the crowd. I knew that Razavar would not take part in the battle. He would not put himself in harms way. Chances were that he was in the ships farthest room from the ship bay. I didn't know exactly what room that would be, but I had to look.

The ship was huge and it took me a long time to get from place to place. Walking through the ship was very repetitive and at sometimes almost boring, but I was still very alert. At anytime a Zerg could jump out of nowhere and tear me to shreds.

Soon enough I ran into someone, but it wasn't Razavar. I'm not sure how far from the battle I was when I ran into him, but it was quite a ways.

I couldn't tell who it was at first. The lights flickering revealed that it was an infested Terran, but still not Razavar. It wasn't until he spoke that I knew who it was.

"Hello… friend," he said. His voice was very distorted from the infestation, but I could still make out who it was….

It was my old best friend, Dale.

* * *

"You!" I yelled at him, "you don't call me friend, you bastard!"

"You don't want to be my friend? Well that's a shame, cause if you're not going to be my friend… I might as well kill you!" He pounced at me, but I jumped out of the way in time.

I pulled out my hunting knife and started to swing at him, but he was being a hard target. The darkness also favored him much more than it did me.

"Come on… hit me, Kin!" he kept on yelling aloud.

His taunts were really starting to anger me. I swung the knife out in front of me, but hit nothing. I couldn't see myself winning this battle in the dark.

I kept swinging my knife out in front of me like a madman, until finally he whacked me from behind and I went tumbling to the ground, dropping my knife.

"Get up," he taunted me more, "you're pathetic!"

Then he kicked my chest as hard as he could. Besides breaking half my ribs and knocking the wind out of me, he also sent me halfway across the room. He was obviously a lot stronger as a Zerg.

Luckily, the kick sent me over to land on my hunting knife. Of course it wasn't sticking up, so it didn't hurt.

I knew Dale pretty well, even if he had been acting, there were just some things that you can't act. Dale was the very dramatic type, so he wouldn't just run over here and hack me to death. He would give me a little speech before he attempted to kill me, and I would have to take advantage of that.

I reached under my back, and grasped onto the hunting knife. I made sure to keep it hidden behind my back, because I wasn't quite sure how good Dale's enhanced night vision was.

As expected, he picked me up by my throat, and began to give me a little speech.

"Kin, Kin, Kin… I bet you thought that I was going to kill you."

Just then, I remembered about my telepathy. Of course he wouldn't kill me, I was too valuable. The Zerg out there were probably also ordered not to kill me.

"Instead of killing you, I'm going to simply infest you, so that you can become like me. Then we can become friends again."

I knew what he was going to say even before he said it.

"I'd rather be dead!" I spat in his face.

I couldn't stand the choking anymore. I had to act now, or never. I swung my army behind him, then pierced the knife through the back of his neck. I pushed it in with all my strength, and the tip of the knife poked out of his throat. I couldn't see his blood because of poor lighting, but I could feel it running down my arm.

His grip loosened, and he dropped me to the ground. He fell over as well, but unlike me, he was dead.

I tried to get up, but couldn't. I started to realize how much pain I was really in. I kept trying to get up, but I wasn't getting and stronger. Eventually, I just passed out.

Chapter Ten

I was getting awfully sick and tired of waking up in jail cells. Especially since I woke up in the same jail cell as the first time. The ship may have looked awfully different from when I last visited, but I lived there for four years nonetheless.

The light in the jail sector had been turned on, and I could see Razavar about ten feet away, staring through the bars at me. The lights had obviously been purposely turned on; Razavar had wanted me to see him.

"Looks like you lose, Kin," Razavar smirked at me.

"Oh God…" I was so weak I could barely move.

"I've got to admit… we really underestimated you… but not as much as you underestimated us."

"What do you mean!?"

"You know exactly what I mean Kin. You've fought off the truth for a while now, but you always knew the truth nonetheless."

"I'm sorry," Lily stepped out of the shadows.

"You… I can't believe you!" I act surprised, but Razavar was right, I always did know the truth. "I thought you loved me!"

"I did!" she responded, "I mean I do! I do love you Kin!"

"Well you have a real good way of showing it!"

"I didn't think that I would fall for you this way!"

"Enough!" Razavar yelled out, "I don't care about your romantic life! You've done what you were supposed to, Lily. Now just be a good little girl, and shut up!" He redirected his attention to Kin. "Did you really think that you could win this battle, Kin?"

"Not really, but nothing stops me from trying. Maybe the villagers have killed the Zerg now, and are searching for me. I can still win this! Yeah! I can still win this!"

Razavar began to laugh. "Kin, Kin, Kin. Don't play dumb with me. You've got to stop doubting yourself and believe what you know."

"The villagers," I responded, "they were all in this too."

"Yup. We even created the village for them."

I was speechless.

"Ha, ha, ha! Now I think it's about time that you become one of us. There are no Queens here, but that shouldn't be a problem." He pulled out a needle," I'll just inject a little of this sweet stuff in ya!"

Razavar started to walk over to me, but my eyes were still locked on Lily, and hers on mine. I had never seen someone look so guilty in all my life. She began to tremble, then ran up to Razavar, and punched him in the face. The punch was just in time too, a second later I would've been halfway Zerg.

Lily was a strong young woman, and her blow sent a stunned Razavar down to the floor.

"What are you doing!?" I yelled at her. She may have betrayed me, but I still cared for her, and I knew that Razavar wasn't one to forgive anybody.

Before he could realize what was going on, Lily snatched a pair of keys from Razavar's pocket. She quickly used them to let me out of my cell.

Razavar got up, and tried to charge at Lily, but I interrupted him with a blow to the head. He fell to the ground again, and then I jumped on top of him and started to send blows to his head, one after the other.

He swung back and struggled a little bit, but his attempts to stop me became weaker and weaker. I had punched his face until it was beyond recognition. Even though he had stopped moving, I knew he wasn't dead.

Lily walked over to me, and handed me her hunting knife. I took it and jabbed it into Razavar's throat.

There was no doubt that Razavar was dead now, so I stood up, covered in his blood.

I stared deep into Lily's eyes, saying nothing, for what seemed like forever. Finally, we decided that there was nothing to say, and kissed.

* * *

"There should be a Wraith or something in the ship bay we can take…. I would like to fly back home to Earth," I proposed to Lily.

"Yes…." She replied, "a trip to Earth would be nice…. Kin?"

"Yeah?"

"Now that you know that you have this gift… how are you going to live your life?"

That question stumped me for a second, but the answer seemed pretty clear to me nonetheless. "Like I've always lived my life."

She smiled, then we began to walk towards the ship bay.

"How did this whole hellish adventure start anyway?" Lily asked me about halfway to the ship bay.

"Hmmm…" I puzzled over the question for a few seconds, "just some phony alliance."