Urban Survival: Chapter 2 part 2

He stuffed his face, he had not eaten good food, or even real food in a few days. The most he had, had to eat was some MREs and although they were filling, he was not a huge fan.

When Max had finished he walked over to the window and looked out. The window overlooked the city street, which, many years ago, used to be crowded with pedestrians and cars but now there was nothing more than the street itself and some rubble.

He decided he was at least on the eighth story of the building. Then he also noticed that there was movement on the ground below. There were still hundreds of groups of Cree attempting to find a way into the building. Max wondered if that was the ‘it’ Aeila had been talking about… he certainly hoped it was not.

Max could see rain drops falling daintily past his prison window, “at least the rain is beginning to let up,” he thought to himself.

He turned around and looked around the room again, while resting against the wall. Max then closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He wondered how his squad was and hoped they had made it back to the safe house all right. They probably thought he was dead.

Max slid down the wall into a sitting position, resting his arms on his bent knees. He was so tired. He had not had a full nights rest in almost week.

The wonderful feeling of sleep was creeping up on Max but he didn’t fight it, instead he let it engulf him.

However, someone shaking him and calling his name suddenly woke him. Max tried to scramble to his feet quickly out of instinct but someone held him down.

“Max! Max, everything’s fine it’s just me,” a female voice said laughing.

Max looked up at her face and saw that it was Aeila.

He looked around, “How long was I out?”

“I don’t know? I was only gone about, maybe twenty minutes.”

Max looked at her confused. He could have sworn it was longer than that but then again he had been asleep.

The Kahnora, Nova stood happily behind Aeila watching them intently. There was a protective grey bone crest over her head that covered all but Nova’s eyes. He also noticed that what he originally thought was smooth skin on Nova was really just short fine hairs. Nova’s pelt was not a solid black either. However, her fur had thin grey tiger stripes running down her sides.

“Come on, get up. I found Marcus, so now you’ve got to go see Jaq. I’m sure he’s already grown impatient.”

“Who is Marcus?” Max asked still sitting.

Aeila laughed, “Get up and I’ll show you. He’s right outside.”

Max got up slowly. Aeila watched him carefully as if she were studying him, Max pretended not to notice and walked over to the desk where he had left his canteen. Picking it up, he clipped it to his belt and turned around. Aeila was still watching him but when she saw that Max had noticed, she looked away quickly and blushed.

“Sorry. Are you ready to go?”

Max smiled, “Do I have a choice?”

“Unfortunately, no. Come on.”

Max followed her through the open door and stepped out into a hallway, Nova tailing closely behind. The hall was lit by floodlights at random intervals. He could hear the faint humming of the generators that were powering them. The two guards that had been watching Max’s prison were nowhere in sight but Max did not think anything of it.

Standing in the hall was an Ayra who looked a bit older than Max. The Ayra was also shorter than the others, just like Aeila.

“Max, this is Marcus” Aeila said leading them down the hallway, “I believe you met him earlier in the parking garage.”

Max nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement following her, “oh, you mean one of the ones who left you to die?”

“Yeah, I told her I was sorry. But Fal would have told the guards to raise the bridge if I didn’t tell them to wait for her. Aeila always finds a way out of trouble.”

Max immediately knew which Ayra it was when he heard his Australian-like accent, “Yeah and if I wasn’t such a nice guy she would be Cree chow.”

Marcus looked at his feet as Aeila lead them through a door to some stairs, “I know what I did was wrong. I just… panicked.”

“It’s okay Marcus, I understand,” Aeila reassured him.

The three of them descended the stairs in silence as Nova ran on ahead.

“So… This ‘thing’ that I need to fix… it doesn’t have anything to do with the hoard of Cree surrounding the building would it?” Max asked worriedly.

Aeila didn’t answer for a couple seconds and began to concern Max, but then she finally said hesitantly, “Sort of…”

Max put on a fake smile, “Oh great! Just what I ordered bloodthirsty carnivores…”

They reached the bottom of the stairs and exited through a door marked with a big number seven.

When Max saw what was on the other side of the door his jaw dropped.

“Max. Welcome to our safe house.” Aeila told Max when she saw his face.

They were in a huge room that would have originally been full of cubicles but now it had a huge hole in the center of the floor with smoke rising up through it into a vent hole in the ceiling. Small huts had been erected along the edges of the room. Max walked over to the edge of the hole and looked down.

The hole went through three floors to where Max could see four floors below him. On the floor farthest down, there was a large bonfire which was what was creating the smoke.

On each floor, there were randomly shaped huts and a bunch of Ayra walking around and talking with one another. Across the room on the floor below him, Max could see a group of Ayra kids kicking around an old soda can.

He could see Nova was already down a couple of stories running around with two other Kahnora. One had a reddish-brown pelt and the other a bluish-green one. Max had only every seen one Kahnora before, he had seen it on one of his scavenge missions but then he had no clue what kind of animal it was.

“Come on,” Aeila said grabbing Max’s arm and leading him around to one side of the hole.

A rectangular section of the floor had been cut out and set up like a ramp down to the next floor. The two Ayra led Max through the mini town and down multiple ramps until they had reached the floor with the bonfire. All the Ayra men and women smiled and waved when they saw Max, Aeila and Marcus walk by.

At first, Max thought that they were waving to Aeila and Marcus but when he looked a bit closer, he saw that they were staring directly at him. At least that is what it felt like. Then Max also noticed that the teenaged Ayra girls were staring at him and giggling as he passed.

Max was very confused. He had no idea that Ayra could be so… friendly. But then again the only Ayra he had ever dealt with before were the POWs captured during the War with the Ayra. And those Ayra were extremely unhappy campers.

Up ahead, Max could see a set of double doors that they were now heading towards and he wondered what Jaq was going to tell him. He could only think about the hoard of angry and probably hungry Cree just outside of the building. If that was what he was supposed to fix… he was a dead man.

Max was interrupted in mid thought when a cocky looking Ayra and two larger cohorts suddenly blocked their path.

“Hey, Aeila. What do you got there? Is that you’re new boyfriend? You know humans are never up to any good.” The Ayra said, his voice trying to sound smooth and sly.

Aeila shifted her weight to her right leg and crossed her arms, “neither are you Syler. Not get out of our way!”

Max noticed that all the happy, cheerfulness in her voice present when she had talked to Max was now completely absent in the words she spoke to Syler.

Nova seemed to have noticed what was going on and stepped in between Aeila and Syler. She growled harshly and bared her teeth. The most eerie thing about it was the fact that Nova’s smooth, short hair was now bristling and seeming to ripple across her body.

“Whoa ho-ho! Come on babe…”

Syler chuckled, “Cute pet.”

He took a step towards Nova and kicked her. Nova yelped and ran to hide behind Aeila, still growling. Syler then tried to lean in and kiss Aeila on the cheek but before he got anywhere Aeila punched him in the gut with all her might. Syler winced as he sucked in sharply for air.

“You’ve always be a strong girl Aeila, but you’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.”

As Syler stepped towards Aeila, Marcus placed his hand on Syler’s shoulder, “Leave her alone Syler.”

Syler spun around and threw Marcus to the ground.

“Syler calm down.” One of Syler’s large cronies tried to tell him.

Looking at the large Ayra he shouted, “Shut… Up!”

Turning back to Marcus, Syler yelled, “You don’t tell me what to do Human! I don’t listen to people like you!”

Max looked awkwardly at Marcus. Was Marcus truly Human? If he were, that would explain his Australian accent. Moreover, if he were Human Max could not resist. This was one of the moments when Max felt he needed to help someone who was in trouble.

As Syler turned back to deal with Aeila he stopped suddenly, almost surprised, when he saw Max standing between him and his “prey”.

“Then maybe you’ll listen me,” Max said squaring his shoulders.

He had no intention of actually fighting but just in case a fight broke out he didn’t want to be caught off guard.

Syler laughed, “That’s cute Human. Now get out of my way.”

The Ayra stepped towards Max to shove him out of the way. But as Syler’s hands touched Max, Max threw his hands up and broke Syler’s contact with him.

Stumbling to catch himself from falling forward, Syler’s face changed from amusement to anger.

Once he regained his balance he again commanded, “Get out of my way!”

Slyer emphasized ‘way’ by swinging his fist at Max, but Max easily deflected the blow. Slyer swung a few more fists angrily, which Max effortlessly blocked. Growing increasingly more aggravated with each blocked punch, Syler threw a low blow.

Max caught Syler’s arm with both hands and twisted so that Syler was forced to turn his back to Max. Max then kicked him in the back sending Syler sprawling. When Syler got up the sight was pathetic. He looked frustrated and embarrassed as if his pride had just been pried from his clutches.

As Syler charged Max desperately, Aeila turned to Syler’s large crony who had tried to calm him down and asked, “Brale, would you please stop Syler before he hurts himself? We need to get going. Orders from Jaq.”

The muscular Ayra nodded, “Sure thing Aeila. He’s getting out of hand anyways.”

Brale walked up behind Syler. Wrapping his arms around Syler’s waist Brale picked him up. He lifted Syler off the ground and away from Max with ease.

“What are you doing you idiot!?” Syler yelled at Brale trying to hit his own man.

Marcus walked over to Aeila, “are you alright?”

“I should be asking you that,” Aeila laughed, then turned to Max, “Thank you. Again.”

Nova let a complimentary whistle as well.

Max nodded, “It was nothing.”

Smiling Aeila led Max and Marcus back down their original path. Nova ran ahead a she had before, trotting through the doorway excitedly.

As they walked through the double doors, Max could hear Syler still yelling at Brale.

“Well that was fun,” Max said to himself sarcastically.