Part 1. (Prologue.)

At the sound of the approaching Nietzschean soldiers, the humans in the small room scattered, knowing that they were trapped, but still looking in desperation for a way out, to save themselves from what they knew was coming.

One couple took a glance at the only door, assessing the risk. They tried to run for it, but had not made it 3 steps out and towards the safety of the dark sewage tunnels, when their bodies convulsed and collapsed.

Another man stood and gently pushed his only son and wife, his hand pressing into the boy’s chest, keeping him down, in his Mother’s arms.

As the Nietzscheans entered the area, a deathly still silence fell over the humans, as the soldiers silently scanned them, looking for young, strong workers. One of the Nietzscheans stepped forward and pulled a girl to her feet, pulling her away from her family, with a woman screaming for her, pleading with them to take her instead.

There were 5 soldiers, and 4 of them quickly picked out a human, and pulled them up, leaving the groups of people, several crying for their loss.

The last one approached the man and his family, stopping in front of the crouched group.

“The boy.”

He reached out, but the Father, fed up of submitting to the aliens who had taken over his home planet and made slaves of his people, stood, blocking the tall man in front of him. The movement didn’t go down well, this human was playing things differently from the rest, but the Nietzschean wasn’t going to let it go.

“Move!”

Bringing his eyes up, and meeting his blue ones with the dark brown pair of the alien, he spoke with quiet conviction.

“No.”

The punch wasn’t unexpected, and given the superior strength, the human was thrown sideways to the ground, showing the wife and son to the soldiers, the woman gently sliding her son out of her arms, and standing to protect him.

“Take me instead.”

Now that she finally stood up to them, she was surprised at how calm she was. A small part of her brain rationalised that it was probably the maternal instinct, to put her child’s life above her own, but most of her brain had shut down, not allowing her to process her actions. Due to the rush of adrenaline, she hardly felt the pain when the bullet hit her chest, knocking her down, with a soft, surprised gasp, rather than the scream or yell that she would have expected. But what was to be expected was the cry that came.

“CATRIN!!”

The man dropped to his knees next to his love’s body, a ran a hand through the blond hair, forgetting all else for a moment, except the two of them, and the loss as the bright blue eyes in front of him started to dull, eyes glazing over with a pain that was starting to flare up. He was pulled back to reality by a whisper, which was followed by a small cry.

“Mum? - Wait! NO!”

With a strength that he didn’t know that he possessed, the man managed to wrestle his son away from his captors, pulling him momentarily close to him, before pushing him towards the door that the Nietzschean’s had come through.

“Run, Seamus.”

The tall Nietzschean, had temporarily forgotten the boy in his anger towards the human, approaching the older one, fist raised, ready to strike.

The first fist hit him square in the jaw, pushing it out of alignment. As soon as he had recovered, another punch landed on his nose, causing it to start bleeding profusely.

Opening his eyes, he saw that Seamus hadn’t moved, and his wide eyes were darting from his Mother, to his Father and the Nietzschean, and then back again.

“Seamus, RUN!”

“But…”

He took a step backwards, towards the open door, but couldn’t quite bring himself to leave yet, his eyes flicked to his Mother, who was hanging by the skin of her teeth to life, tears starting to prick at his eyes. This couldn’t be happening, it was all a really bad dream. In a moment he would wake up, and they would all be together again.

“Just…go…”

Finally, he turned and bolted, trying to not listen to the occasional shouts of pain from within as the Nietzschean beat the spark, and eventually the life, out of his Father. Even as he left the room, Catrin’s eyes slipped closed as she surrendered to the dark, and several minutes later, the man followed suit, admitting defeat. The Nietzschean would then turn and leave, leaving the bodies as a reminder of what happened when human slaves forgot their place and tried to fight back.

***

Seamus didn’t know how long he had been running, adrenaline keeping him going for longer than he would normally be able to, so by the time he curled up in a dark corner in a tunnel, far away from any Nietzscheans, he wasn’t 100% sure where he was, or how to get back, but for now, that was just fine with him.

The tears that had been threatening to fall since he left the small room that contained his parents…bodies, started coming in rivers. His whole body shook with his heart-wrenching sobs, full of grief and loss. He was lucky that there was no-one else around, because he was unable to keep silent, should a Nietzschean have come by him, though that was unlikely.

After a time, he quietened down, and the tears fell silently, apart from a few short gasps.

Footsteps put his heart in his throat, pulling his legs up to his chest, and trying to control his breathing.

***