TItle: Find You Here (4/?)
Title: Find You Here (4/?)
Author: dreamerchaos
Pairing: ChristopherxWikus.
Rating: NC-17 overall.
Warnings: Language. Slash between an alien and a human(Or who was once a human, technically…). Gore.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are owned by Peter Jackson. I make no profit by writing this work of fiction.
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“You must have hit your head.” Wikus bends down and swiftly scoops Barry up, ignoring his son’s whines, “I don’t know that name.” He backs up towards the door of his shack.
Elizabeth remains poised in her crouch, eyes following his. A peculiar smile paints her lips. “I think we both know who I am talking to.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The door swings open behind him as his shoulder blades force the frame to shift. “Please leave.”
“Please.” She tries to halt him, her hand held out in entreaty. “Please, wait--”
A large clawed hand snaps forward out of the interior of the shack like a cobra and circles her wrist.
Donald snarls, and yanks the smaller female into the interior of the dark shack.
“Donald!!” Wikus gasps, jerking away from the rattling prawn. Barry keens when Elizabeth stumbles and falls to her knees onto the floor of the shack.
Donald slams the shack door shut with a harsh clang.
“Wikus…” He whispers, pained, “Wikus. I…I can break her neck. And…hide the body. She will never let slip your secret.” He waits, trembling, awaiting Wikus’ word to proceed.
Wikus moans with distress. Donald echoes.
Wikus, and especially Donald, has grown attached to the young woman in the last year; particularly Donald, finding himself oddly fascinated by the confusing, but beguiling female. The thought of her betraying Wikus to MNU, accompanied by the notion of a hushed murder in order to silence her, unsettled them both beyond measure.
Elizabeth shudders, long hair a tangled mess of chestnut curls around her wide, watery eyes. “…can you?” She asks, “Can you do it? Is that what you are willing to do in order to protect your secret, Wikus? When I suspected your existence half a year ago and yet I didn’t inform MNU?”
“That’s a lie!” Donald sounds desperate, hands quaking as they curl underneath his chin while he keens, “You could not have possibly known!”
“Unusual eye pigmentation,” The MNU agent mumbles. The rattles on, “Rare…But nothing to lend to substantial confirmation. Higher brain function noted in comparison to surrounding population, a more significant note. Familiarity with MNU operations and handling of documentation is conclusive.”
She raises her head, a sad glimmer in her bright eyes, “But the most important clue was the half-destroyed evidence of the human language scattered throughout the yard. You should really teach Barry not to practice writing in the dirt outside the shack.”
Barry trills at his name. The little prawn bobs his head back and forth between his foster father and protector. “…daddy?” He whines, little claws knead at Wikus’ chest.
“Why?” Wikus squeezes his eyes shut, frustrated and in despair, “This does not make any sense! Why didn’t you go to your superior officers with your findings? You could have been promoted. You said you wanted to get out of MNU. You can’t possibly make me believe that you would pass up your meal ticket.”
“True.” Elizabeth isn’t so shallow as to color her words with pretty lies, “It would have been easy to go to your father-in-law Piet Smit and deliver the wonderful news.”
Her bottom lip quivers. “…but…” Her eyes water, “I….I can’t. How can I put anyone-Prawn, human, my brother, my neighbor, into the hands of those monsters. Those…those things down in their labs, the scientists, they practically salivate at the idea of getting their hands on you.”
Elizabeth shakes her head; the motion scatters droplets of unhindered tears. “And I got to know you so well. I heard you laugh. I heard you curse. I watched your joy, your frustration. How could I betray such a thing and live with myself during the aftermath?”
“Countless others have.” Wikus isn’t so easily convinced, no matter how much it aches to look into her hurt expression. “What makes you any different?”
Elizabeth stutters. “I…” She bites her lip. “…all I can ask is for you to trust me.”
“Never.”
The door smashes open for a second time. William is suddenly stomping through the doorway before the metal frame can swing closed.
“MNU,” William wraps his talons around her throat. Elizabeth wheezes, lifted off her knees, hanging like a kitten within his grasp, “MNU spreads lies.”
Donald wails softly. “Nooo…” He beseeches.
“Your infatuation blinds you!” William rears around, hissing at the young prawn. “Lose your fascination with this creature! She works for MNU! She will eventually betray you!”
Wikus claws at William’s wrist. “I worked for MNU!” He tries to reason with the huge prawn. They needed to wait and listen before they are left with a body to lie and stink up the shack.
“Yes.” William does acknowledge the truth of the fact. Umber eyes glow in the dark of the shack, but his claws do not slacken, “And you will forever live with that shame. But look at you….you could have left a tiny, abandoned prawn to die smothered underneath the filth and garbage. Instead you picked him up and cared for him as your own. You proved yourself.”
“So give her the same chance!” Wikus challenged.
“Your circumstances are far different!” Elizabeth’s lips begin to turn a pale shade of blue, air narrowly squeezing past the large prawn’s tight grip.
“…please..” Donald whispers. Begging.
“You have to trust us!” Wikus’ voice rises into a high pitched shout.
“What you ask me to do is look aside as you commit suicide!!” William roars. Barry shrieks in the background, and hides his face, trying to deafen the raised voices.
Donald’s fists shake against his hips. He looks at his oldest friend for the longest moment before finally, “If you kill her, I’ll hate you forever!!” His shout bounces upon the wood walls of the shack.
William jolts back, betrayed, eyes wide with agonized offense.
Elizabeth crumbles onto her belly with a hand pressed to her throat and a rattling wheeze whoops from within her chest as she gulps like a fish on dry land. Lung sacs expand and savor the musty yet dear quality of withheld oxygen.
William’s hands curl into bitter fists, entire frame rattles with undirected rage and upset.
He is quick to properly direct his ire. “You,” He snarls down at the female. Elizabeth shudders and shrinks back, “If you betray them, I will find you. I will haunt you. I will track you down to the ends of the planet. And then, I shall not be kind. You will beg…You will want mercy. And perhaps, maybe, I will be kind and comply when you beg for death.”
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Elizabeth returns after several long months away.
“Surprised to see me?” She sits down beside him against the wall of the shed. Both prawn and human savor the gentle warmth of the sun and the cool breeze, a rare pleasant day amongst the trash kingdom of District 9.
Wikus blinks. Acknowledging her arrival with no little amount of surprise, “You are either brave, or a fool.”
She grins, a show of bravado. “Only six months left.” Elizabeth stretches her long legs, relieving the tension in her sour muscles. “William will be happy to see me gone.”
“He means well.”
“I’m not disagreeing.” She admits. “But I do have a healthy sense of preservation too. The less he and I cross paths, the better.”
“Where will you go after MNU?”
“My university back home has an internship program abroad,” Elizabeth smiles when Barry totters over, the little prawn chattering unintelligibly to her, little hands resting upon the agent’s knees and his clawed feet secured atop her shoes. She laughs and gently clasps his tiny fingers between hers, “It will take time and a lot of applications to be filled out, but with a kick ass resume, I’m sure to be accepted.”
“I’m sure that you’ll do great.”
Elizabeth picks at a frayed thread along the hem of her gray blouse. “Thanks.”
Wikus twiddles his fingers in uncomfortable silence.
“Elizabeth.” Wikus finally scrounges forth the courage to ask the question that has been bothering him for the last year. “I need to ask you something…”
“Sure!” Elizabeth’s knees bob, much to Barry’s utter delight, the little prawn certain this was a new game of how long he can hold on while he is bounced up and down.
“My…wife…” Elizabeth’s face grows concerned as his voice hitched. “Tania…I need to know…is she okay? Is she still living in Johannesburg?”
Barry moans in upset when Elizabeth ceases to bump her knees up and down, the ride now over. “…Wikus..” The MNU agent hesitates, “…how much do you know about what happened in regards to your wife after you disappeared?”
“Little to nothing,” The prawn accepts Barry’s weight as the young prawn crawls into his lap now that his playmate no longer wishes to entertain him. “I ventured home on more than one occasion to leave her a gift to let her know that I was still alive, but other than that…” He shrugs.
Elizabeth won’t meet his eyes.
“Elizabeth.” He begs. “Tell me.”
She takes a moment to gather her words. “Wikus…” Elizabeth pulls her knees up to her chest, arms wrapped tight around her folded legs, “Smit’s daughter suffered a miscarriage.”
His world tilts on its axis. He collapses against the side of the shack, his strength fleeing from him. Alarmed, Barry trilled.
“Daddy?” Barry murmured. “Daddy okay?”
“Y-Yes…” The air has fled from Wikus’ lung sacs. ‘Liar,’ a traitorous voice whispers. He can’t stop shaking.
“Was…was the baby mine?”
Elizabeth’s eyelids flutter shut. Her head bobs, chin aquiver.
A sob colors his next question. “Was it a boy?”
She shakes her head sharply.
“A little girl…” His eyes burn, a hot clear bead of agony lances down his cheek, his single blue eye weeps tears of bittersweet joy, “My baby. My little angel….” In his head he can envision a crooked baby-tooth smile and shimmering gold pigtails. He chokes with sorrow.
Barry’s upturned palms capture the descent of warm raindrops, the young prawn chirrs in surprise at the sudden downpour.
“She couldn’t take it.” Elizabeth wishes she could find the courage to wrap her arms around Wikus’ shoulders, the slender prawn’s head lowered in grief, large blue t-shirt and frayed black shorts quake while he shudders. But…she knows that it isn’t her warm, slender arms that Wikus’ aches for. “She lost her husband. Then her child….she said the District took everything from her.”
“She left.” Wikus whispers. It wasn’t a question.
Elizabeth nods. “She has family up north. From the office gossip, she won’t even take phone calls or letters from her father.”
Wikus chokes around a spark of dark humor. “Bastard didn’t deserve her.” He mutters, “Got what he had coming, after he lied so many times to his own daughter.”
“I’m so sorry.” Elizabeth hides her face against her knees. “I…wish things were different.”
“Don’t.” His growl startles her something fierce. Wikus tries to gentle his voice. “Don’t. Yes, things could be different. Both my daughter and she could have died. Or another scenario, my child might have had no father, and then no mother to raise her. And my fooking father-in-law could have raised my child.” Wikus shudders, not wanting to envision such a nightmare, a new version of purgatory, to know that his beloved child was under the care of such a deceitful, powerful man.
“…Yeah,” Elizabeth offers a brave smile. “You’re right.” She agrees, “Look forward, and forget about the past, huh?”
“Yeah,” Wikus’ head falls back to thump against the wall of the shed, “Easier to say and hear it then it is to follow that advice. But slowly, one day at a time. That’s all that I have left.”
Barry chirrs and tugs harshly at Wikus’ collar.
Wikus yelps from the surprisingly strong grip, “And of course I have you!” The adult prawn laughs. Barry chirps in affirmation.
“You’re really good for him.” Elizabeth groans as she rises to her feet, her posterior sore from the rough uneven ground, “You and Donald are superior guardians. Amazing how many scientists speculate that prawns abandon their young as soon as they can acquire their own food without an adult’s assistance. All these scientists would have to do is observe their behavior in the field, and many theories would disintegrate.”
“Speaking of Donald,” Elizabeth looks over her shoulder as Wikus speaks directly to her back, “Have you noticed...” Wikus tries to determine how to proceed.
A flush of pink brushes the apples of her cheeks. Elizabeth ducks her head, “Yeah…” She begins to pace, “I’ve noticed.”
Wikus can understand her concern and confusion, not to mention the hot embarrassment. “He’s young.” He tries to validate the reasons for Donald’s infatuation and defense of the young human woman, “It’s kind of cute. His very first crush.”
“Don’t let William hear you say that.” Elizabeth isn’t blind to the fact that the elder prawn secretly holds Donald in affectionate regard, even though Donald is too enamored with Elizabeth to realize that William hovers in the background, dismayed, torn that the younger prawn doesn’t notice nor reciprocates his affections.
Elizabeth huffs. “It’s unexpected.” She shifts restlessly, “I’m turned off by his attention, and yet, I feel honored. It’s so easy to look at him and see the thick, alien body and unusual features and rear back in disdain. But…how can I dwell on such a feeling, when he makes me laugh when he does something funny, or he gives me one of his hanging baubles as a gift?”
She whips around, “But you know what really upsets me?” Her voice rises, “I’m of the firm belief that we should give anyone a chance, to prove that their affection is honest and true. I should not focus on their beauty, or status, or their sex. Yet I know what people would say behind my back and to my face if I were in a relationship with an extraterrestrial.”
“I can’t say that I wasn’t any different.” Wikus admits, “Who is to say that I still don’t dwell on such prejudices? I love Tania. My wife. My woman. I…have a hard time picturing myself in…that sort of relationship with one of them, no matter that I have friends amongst them.”
“But how do you know if you won’t give them a chance?” She asks, face hardened with determination, “You told me about how you and Christopher struggled to reach the command shuttle after you had broken into MNU. Didn’t he refuse to leave you behind? Didn’t he promise to come back for you?”
“He was honor-bound.” Wikus insists.
“Bullshit!” Elizabeth snaps, “Is it always so simple, Wikus? Stop dancing around the topic. Can’t you just accept that, maybe, Christopher cared about you as more than an ally? Is it really so hard to accept that it broke his heart to leave you?”
“He only knew me for three days!”
“But you said it felt like a lifetime.” Her words ring with wisdom far beyond her age.
“Fook,” Wikus drags a hand across his face, “Can’t we pretend that this conversation never happened?”
“Oh no, you’re not getting out of it that easily! Get back here right now!”
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Wikus shushes Barry when the young prawn tries to follow his father outside. Wikus gently shuts the door behind him and steps out into his front yard. “What’s going on?” The MNU taskforce is strangely restless; more armored men encircle the heavy tanks, the teams hanging together in tight niches.
“It’s the Nigerians.” Elizabeth inches towards him, keeping her voice down so that the armed officers cannot hear. “They’re making a show of reclaiming their territory back from MNU. Word is that they feel threatened by the move to District 10 next month, since they’ll lose all their customers.”
“You mean lose all of their alien weapons they bartered from their extraterrestrial customers.”
She nods her head tersely.
“I should find Donald and William.” Wikus worries about his two neighbors, “I need to warn them to stay nearby and to keep a sharper eye out for trouble.”
“It’s all under control, Wikus.” She assures him with a confident look and a calming smile. “Go to your son. I’ll be sure to point them in your direction should I see them.”
“Thank you.” Wikus knows that she is right and he should worry less about picking his way through the tight mesh of shacks and littered streets and just remain home with Barry; more than likely he would miss both prawns entirely during the course of his search when they were already on their way home.
“Don’t like loud men!” Barry pipes when Wikus returns indoors, jumping forward and quick to curl his arms and legs around his father’s leg.
Two years old and Barry still clung to him like a little parasite. “Affectionate little bugger.” He mutters with pride, and gently tugs at his son’s antenna.
“Wanna play!”
“Hush.” Wikus lightly chides, “Not for a while. It’s not safe outside. We should rest while the air is still cool and the wind blows soft.”
“Don’t want a nap.”
“Well, I need one--”
BOOOOOM
A sharp explosion and lick of hot air blasts the exterior of the shed.
Barry’s shrieks follow Wikus as he crashes to the dirt-packed floor.
“Barry!” His son continues with a prolonged wail. Wikus dives for him, a flood of relief to see that Barry is uninjured, only petrified out of his mind by the furls of flames in the window and the black glower of a thick choking fog of smoke.
“Daaaadddyyyy!!”
Wikus snarls as the terror seeps from his son, the pheromones of a distraught sprawnling enrages him like no other. Brutally he squelches that potent rage and directs his energy into guarding his son.
“Come with me!” He swings his son into his arms, “it’s okay! We’re safe. I just need to look outside and check that everyone else is all right!” and rushes to the door, kicking it open.
Outside men and women scream, faces charred and forearms scorched from the immense heat while less injured agents struggle to get close to the hellfire that surrounds a large metal, blackened skeleton as they aim portable fire extinguishers towards the wreckage of a smoldering helicopter that has crashed half a mile down the road.
A war zone floods the streets while bloodied officers try to regain their wits. Several men and women collapse face first to the blood-soaked ground, their bodies peppered with the sting of a barrage of bullets. Nigerians howl like lunatics bay to the moon. They wave their guns like spears, bullets pumping from the barrels with every tense of a forefinger.
“Oh my god!” Elizabeth startles him by grabbing Wikus painfully by the shoulders. “Get back inside!! It’s the Nigerians! They have an aerial assault weapon!” Gunfire riots throughout the District, the wails of enraged prawns reach the heavens, men and women stumble for the safety of the tanks, screaming for aid into their radios.
“The shacks are on fire!” His neighbors bellow in alarm and scurry around the destroyed shacks to try and salvage what they can.
“Barry. Let go!” Wikus drops his son, pushing him in the direction of the shack. “Get inside!” Barry wails but obediently hops towards home, with every step peeking over his shoulder plaintively until he is safely indoors.
“Watch out!!” Men scream.
Small green seedpods are hurled in succession into the air and begin to fall down from the sky.
“Grenades!” Wikus shouts, and throws Elizabeth under the cover of the armored tank alongside him.
The explosions pepper rooftops and the armored carriers. Men and women howl in agony, several torn to shreds by the shrapnel. The prawns fare much better, their quicker instincts and speed allow many to scramble to safety in the nick of time.
“It’s an ambush…” Elizabeth’s hands are sliced by the hot burning shrapnel as she clambers out from underneath the tank. She stumbles onto her feet, “I…I have to call this in―”
“Just stay down!!”
“People are dying!” In the middle of her struggles to rip her radio out of its holster, Elizabeth misses the figure lurking in the shadows.
Wikus doesn’t.
In slow motion, Wikus throws out his hand, screaming for her to get down.
Elizabeth turns in alarm to his warning shout, her face falling in horror.
The Nigerian who hides like a rat within the shadow grins with cruel promise, tobacco yellow teeth smile like a devil, the automatic rifle level with his hip as he aims and fires.
“ELIZABETH!!”
Author: dreamerchaos
Pairing: ChristopherxWikus.
Rating: NC-17 overall.
Warnings: Language. Slash between an alien and a human(Or who was once a human, technically…). Gore.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are owned by Peter Jackson. I make no profit by writing this work of fiction.
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“You must have hit your head.” Wikus bends down and swiftly scoops Barry up, ignoring his son’s whines, “I don’t know that name.” He backs up towards the door of his shack.
Elizabeth remains poised in her crouch, eyes following his. A peculiar smile paints her lips. “I think we both know who I am talking to.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The door swings open behind him as his shoulder blades force the frame to shift. “Please leave.”
“Please.” She tries to halt him, her hand held out in entreaty. “Please, wait--”
A large clawed hand snaps forward out of the interior of the shack like a cobra and circles her wrist.
Donald snarls, and yanks the smaller female into the interior of the dark shack.
“Donald!!” Wikus gasps, jerking away from the rattling prawn. Barry keens when Elizabeth stumbles and falls to her knees onto the floor of the shack.
Donald slams the shack door shut with a harsh clang.
“Wikus…” He whispers, pained, “Wikus. I…I can break her neck. And…hide the body. She will never let slip your secret.” He waits, trembling, awaiting Wikus’ word to proceed.
Wikus moans with distress. Donald echoes.
Wikus, and especially Donald, has grown attached to the young woman in the last year; particularly Donald, finding himself oddly fascinated by the confusing, but beguiling female. The thought of her betraying Wikus to MNU, accompanied by the notion of a hushed murder in order to silence her, unsettled them both beyond measure.
Elizabeth shudders, long hair a tangled mess of chestnut curls around her wide, watery eyes. “…can you?” She asks, “Can you do it? Is that what you are willing to do in order to protect your secret, Wikus? When I suspected your existence half a year ago and yet I didn’t inform MNU?”
“That’s a lie!” Donald sounds desperate, hands quaking as they curl underneath his chin while he keens, “You could not have possibly known!”
“Unusual eye pigmentation,” The MNU agent mumbles. The rattles on, “Rare…But nothing to lend to substantial confirmation. Higher brain function noted in comparison to surrounding population, a more significant note. Familiarity with MNU operations and handling of documentation is conclusive.”
She raises her head, a sad glimmer in her bright eyes, “But the most important clue was the half-destroyed evidence of the human language scattered throughout the yard. You should really teach Barry not to practice writing in the dirt outside the shack.”
Barry trills at his name. The little prawn bobs his head back and forth between his foster father and protector. “…daddy?” He whines, little claws knead at Wikus’ chest.
“Why?” Wikus squeezes his eyes shut, frustrated and in despair, “This does not make any sense! Why didn’t you go to your superior officers with your findings? You could have been promoted. You said you wanted to get out of MNU. You can’t possibly make me believe that you would pass up your meal ticket.”
“True.” Elizabeth isn’t so shallow as to color her words with pretty lies, “It would have been easy to go to your father-in-law Piet Smit and deliver the wonderful news.”
Her bottom lip quivers. “…but…” Her eyes water, “I….I can’t. How can I put anyone-Prawn, human, my brother, my neighbor, into the hands of those monsters. Those…those things down in their labs, the scientists, they practically salivate at the idea of getting their hands on you.”
Elizabeth shakes her head; the motion scatters droplets of unhindered tears. “And I got to know you so well. I heard you laugh. I heard you curse. I watched your joy, your frustration. How could I betray such a thing and live with myself during the aftermath?”
“Countless others have.” Wikus isn’t so easily convinced, no matter how much it aches to look into her hurt expression. “What makes you any different?”
Elizabeth stutters. “I…” She bites her lip. “…all I can ask is for you to trust me.”
“Never.”
The door smashes open for a second time. William is suddenly stomping through the doorway before the metal frame can swing closed.
“MNU,” William wraps his talons around her throat. Elizabeth wheezes, lifted off her knees, hanging like a kitten within his grasp, “MNU spreads lies.”
Donald wails softly. “Nooo…” He beseeches.
“Your infatuation blinds you!” William rears around, hissing at the young prawn. “Lose your fascination with this creature! She works for MNU! She will eventually betray you!”
Wikus claws at William’s wrist. “I worked for MNU!” He tries to reason with the huge prawn. They needed to wait and listen before they are left with a body to lie and stink up the shack.
“Yes.” William does acknowledge the truth of the fact. Umber eyes glow in the dark of the shack, but his claws do not slacken, “And you will forever live with that shame. But look at you….you could have left a tiny, abandoned prawn to die smothered underneath the filth and garbage. Instead you picked him up and cared for him as your own. You proved yourself.”
“So give her the same chance!” Wikus challenged.
“Your circumstances are far different!” Elizabeth’s lips begin to turn a pale shade of blue, air narrowly squeezing past the large prawn’s tight grip.
“…please..” Donald whispers. Begging.
“You have to trust us!” Wikus’ voice rises into a high pitched shout.
“What you ask me to do is look aside as you commit suicide!!” William roars. Barry shrieks in the background, and hides his face, trying to deafen the raised voices.
Donald’s fists shake against his hips. He looks at his oldest friend for the longest moment before finally, “If you kill her, I’ll hate you forever!!” His shout bounces upon the wood walls of the shack.
William jolts back, betrayed, eyes wide with agonized offense.
Elizabeth crumbles onto her belly with a hand pressed to her throat and a rattling wheeze whoops from within her chest as she gulps like a fish on dry land. Lung sacs expand and savor the musty yet dear quality of withheld oxygen.
William’s hands curl into bitter fists, entire frame rattles with undirected rage and upset.
He is quick to properly direct his ire. “You,” He snarls down at the female. Elizabeth shudders and shrinks back, “If you betray them, I will find you. I will haunt you. I will track you down to the ends of the planet. And then, I shall not be kind. You will beg…You will want mercy. And perhaps, maybe, I will be kind and comply when you beg for death.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elizabeth returns after several long months away.
“Surprised to see me?” She sits down beside him against the wall of the shed. Both prawn and human savor the gentle warmth of the sun and the cool breeze, a rare pleasant day amongst the trash kingdom of District 9.
Wikus blinks. Acknowledging her arrival with no little amount of surprise, “You are either brave, or a fool.”
She grins, a show of bravado. “Only six months left.” Elizabeth stretches her long legs, relieving the tension in her sour muscles. “William will be happy to see me gone.”
“He means well.”
“I’m not disagreeing.” She admits. “But I do have a healthy sense of preservation too. The less he and I cross paths, the better.”
“Where will you go after MNU?”
“My university back home has an internship program abroad,” Elizabeth smiles when Barry totters over, the little prawn chattering unintelligibly to her, little hands resting upon the agent’s knees and his clawed feet secured atop her shoes. She laughs and gently clasps his tiny fingers between hers, “It will take time and a lot of applications to be filled out, but with a kick ass resume, I’m sure to be accepted.”
“I’m sure that you’ll do great.”
Elizabeth picks at a frayed thread along the hem of her gray blouse. “Thanks.”
Wikus twiddles his fingers in uncomfortable silence.
“Elizabeth.” Wikus finally scrounges forth the courage to ask the question that has been bothering him for the last year. “I need to ask you something…”
“Sure!” Elizabeth’s knees bob, much to Barry’s utter delight, the little prawn certain this was a new game of how long he can hold on while he is bounced up and down.
“My…wife…” Elizabeth’s face grows concerned as his voice hitched. “Tania…I need to know…is she okay? Is she still living in Johannesburg?”
Barry moans in upset when Elizabeth ceases to bump her knees up and down, the ride now over. “…Wikus..” The MNU agent hesitates, “…how much do you know about what happened in regards to your wife after you disappeared?”
“Little to nothing,” The prawn accepts Barry’s weight as the young prawn crawls into his lap now that his playmate no longer wishes to entertain him. “I ventured home on more than one occasion to leave her a gift to let her know that I was still alive, but other than that…” He shrugs.
Elizabeth won’t meet his eyes.
“Elizabeth.” He begs. “Tell me.”
She takes a moment to gather her words. “Wikus…” Elizabeth pulls her knees up to her chest, arms wrapped tight around her folded legs, “Smit’s daughter suffered a miscarriage.”
His world tilts on its axis. He collapses against the side of the shack, his strength fleeing from him. Alarmed, Barry trilled.
“Daddy?” Barry murmured. “Daddy okay?”
“Y-Yes…” The air has fled from Wikus’ lung sacs. ‘Liar,’ a traitorous voice whispers. He can’t stop shaking.
“Was…was the baby mine?”
Elizabeth’s eyelids flutter shut. Her head bobs, chin aquiver.
A sob colors his next question. “Was it a boy?”
She shakes her head sharply.
“A little girl…” His eyes burn, a hot clear bead of agony lances down his cheek, his single blue eye weeps tears of bittersweet joy, “My baby. My little angel….” In his head he can envision a crooked baby-tooth smile and shimmering gold pigtails. He chokes with sorrow.
Barry’s upturned palms capture the descent of warm raindrops, the young prawn chirrs in surprise at the sudden downpour.
“She couldn’t take it.” Elizabeth wishes she could find the courage to wrap her arms around Wikus’ shoulders, the slender prawn’s head lowered in grief, large blue t-shirt and frayed black shorts quake while he shudders. But…she knows that it isn’t her warm, slender arms that Wikus’ aches for. “She lost her husband. Then her child….she said the District took everything from her.”
“She left.” Wikus whispers. It wasn’t a question.
Elizabeth nods. “She has family up north. From the office gossip, she won’t even take phone calls or letters from her father.”
Wikus chokes around a spark of dark humor. “Bastard didn’t deserve her.” He mutters, “Got what he had coming, after he lied so many times to his own daughter.”
“I’m so sorry.” Elizabeth hides her face against her knees. “I…wish things were different.”
“Don’t.” His growl startles her something fierce. Wikus tries to gentle his voice. “Don’t. Yes, things could be different. Both my daughter and she could have died. Or another scenario, my child might have had no father, and then no mother to raise her. And my fooking father-in-law could have raised my child.” Wikus shudders, not wanting to envision such a nightmare, a new version of purgatory, to know that his beloved child was under the care of such a deceitful, powerful man.
“…Yeah,” Elizabeth offers a brave smile. “You’re right.” She agrees, “Look forward, and forget about the past, huh?”
“Yeah,” Wikus’ head falls back to thump against the wall of the shed, “Easier to say and hear it then it is to follow that advice. But slowly, one day at a time. That’s all that I have left.”
Barry chirrs and tugs harshly at Wikus’ collar.
Wikus yelps from the surprisingly strong grip, “And of course I have you!” The adult prawn laughs. Barry chirps in affirmation.
“You’re really good for him.” Elizabeth groans as she rises to her feet, her posterior sore from the rough uneven ground, “You and Donald are superior guardians. Amazing how many scientists speculate that prawns abandon their young as soon as they can acquire their own food without an adult’s assistance. All these scientists would have to do is observe their behavior in the field, and many theories would disintegrate.”
“Speaking of Donald,” Elizabeth looks over her shoulder as Wikus speaks directly to her back, “Have you noticed...” Wikus tries to determine how to proceed.
A flush of pink brushes the apples of her cheeks. Elizabeth ducks her head, “Yeah…” She begins to pace, “I’ve noticed.”
Wikus can understand her concern and confusion, not to mention the hot embarrassment. “He’s young.” He tries to validate the reasons for Donald’s infatuation and defense of the young human woman, “It’s kind of cute. His very first crush.”
“Don’t let William hear you say that.” Elizabeth isn’t blind to the fact that the elder prawn secretly holds Donald in affectionate regard, even though Donald is too enamored with Elizabeth to realize that William hovers in the background, dismayed, torn that the younger prawn doesn’t notice nor reciprocates his affections.
Elizabeth huffs. “It’s unexpected.” She shifts restlessly, “I’m turned off by his attention, and yet, I feel honored. It’s so easy to look at him and see the thick, alien body and unusual features and rear back in disdain. But…how can I dwell on such a feeling, when he makes me laugh when he does something funny, or he gives me one of his hanging baubles as a gift?”
She whips around, “But you know what really upsets me?” Her voice rises, “I’m of the firm belief that we should give anyone a chance, to prove that their affection is honest and true. I should not focus on their beauty, or status, or their sex. Yet I know what people would say behind my back and to my face if I were in a relationship with an extraterrestrial.”
“I can’t say that I wasn’t any different.” Wikus admits, “Who is to say that I still don’t dwell on such prejudices? I love Tania. My wife. My woman. I…have a hard time picturing myself in…that sort of relationship with one of them, no matter that I have friends amongst them.”
“But how do you know if you won’t give them a chance?” She asks, face hardened with determination, “You told me about how you and Christopher struggled to reach the command shuttle after you had broken into MNU. Didn’t he refuse to leave you behind? Didn’t he promise to come back for you?”
“He was honor-bound.” Wikus insists.
“Bullshit!” Elizabeth snaps, “Is it always so simple, Wikus? Stop dancing around the topic. Can’t you just accept that, maybe, Christopher cared about you as more than an ally? Is it really so hard to accept that it broke his heart to leave you?”
“He only knew me for three days!”
“But you said it felt like a lifetime.” Her words ring with wisdom far beyond her age.
“Fook,” Wikus drags a hand across his face, “Can’t we pretend that this conversation never happened?”
“Oh no, you’re not getting out of it that easily! Get back here right now!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wikus shushes Barry when the young prawn tries to follow his father outside. Wikus gently shuts the door behind him and steps out into his front yard. “What’s going on?” The MNU taskforce is strangely restless; more armored men encircle the heavy tanks, the teams hanging together in tight niches.
“It’s the Nigerians.” Elizabeth inches towards him, keeping her voice down so that the armed officers cannot hear. “They’re making a show of reclaiming their territory back from MNU. Word is that they feel threatened by the move to District 10 next month, since they’ll lose all their customers.”
“You mean lose all of their alien weapons they bartered from their extraterrestrial customers.”
She nods her head tersely.
“I should find Donald and William.” Wikus worries about his two neighbors, “I need to warn them to stay nearby and to keep a sharper eye out for trouble.”
“It’s all under control, Wikus.” She assures him with a confident look and a calming smile. “Go to your son. I’ll be sure to point them in your direction should I see them.”
“Thank you.” Wikus knows that she is right and he should worry less about picking his way through the tight mesh of shacks and littered streets and just remain home with Barry; more than likely he would miss both prawns entirely during the course of his search when they were already on their way home.
“Don’t like loud men!” Barry pipes when Wikus returns indoors, jumping forward and quick to curl his arms and legs around his father’s leg.
Two years old and Barry still clung to him like a little parasite. “Affectionate little bugger.” He mutters with pride, and gently tugs at his son’s antenna.
“Wanna play!”
“Hush.” Wikus lightly chides, “Not for a while. It’s not safe outside. We should rest while the air is still cool and the wind blows soft.”
“Don’t want a nap.”
“Well, I need one--”
BOOOOOM
A sharp explosion and lick of hot air blasts the exterior of the shed.
Barry’s shrieks follow Wikus as he crashes to the dirt-packed floor.
“Barry!” His son continues with a prolonged wail. Wikus dives for him, a flood of relief to see that Barry is uninjured, only petrified out of his mind by the furls of flames in the window and the black glower of a thick choking fog of smoke.
“Daaaadddyyyy!!”
Wikus snarls as the terror seeps from his son, the pheromones of a distraught sprawnling enrages him like no other. Brutally he squelches that potent rage and directs his energy into guarding his son.
“Come with me!” He swings his son into his arms, “it’s okay! We’re safe. I just need to look outside and check that everyone else is all right!” and rushes to the door, kicking it open.
Outside men and women scream, faces charred and forearms scorched from the immense heat while less injured agents struggle to get close to the hellfire that surrounds a large metal, blackened skeleton as they aim portable fire extinguishers towards the wreckage of a smoldering helicopter that has crashed half a mile down the road.
A war zone floods the streets while bloodied officers try to regain their wits. Several men and women collapse face first to the blood-soaked ground, their bodies peppered with the sting of a barrage of bullets. Nigerians howl like lunatics bay to the moon. They wave their guns like spears, bullets pumping from the barrels with every tense of a forefinger.
“Oh my god!” Elizabeth startles him by grabbing Wikus painfully by the shoulders. “Get back inside!! It’s the Nigerians! They have an aerial assault weapon!” Gunfire riots throughout the District, the wails of enraged prawns reach the heavens, men and women stumble for the safety of the tanks, screaming for aid into their radios.
“The shacks are on fire!” His neighbors bellow in alarm and scurry around the destroyed shacks to try and salvage what they can.
“Barry. Let go!” Wikus drops his son, pushing him in the direction of the shack. “Get inside!” Barry wails but obediently hops towards home, with every step peeking over his shoulder plaintively until he is safely indoors.
“Watch out!!” Men scream.
Small green seedpods are hurled in succession into the air and begin to fall down from the sky.
“Grenades!” Wikus shouts, and throws Elizabeth under the cover of the armored tank alongside him.
The explosions pepper rooftops and the armored carriers. Men and women howl in agony, several torn to shreds by the shrapnel. The prawns fare much better, their quicker instincts and speed allow many to scramble to safety in the nick of time.
“It’s an ambush…” Elizabeth’s hands are sliced by the hot burning shrapnel as she clambers out from underneath the tank. She stumbles onto her feet, “I…I have to call this in―”
“Just stay down!!”
“People are dying!” In the middle of her struggles to rip her radio out of its holster, Elizabeth misses the figure lurking in the shadows.
Wikus doesn’t.
In slow motion, Wikus throws out his hand, screaming for her to get down.
Elizabeth turns in alarm to his warning shout, her face falling in horror.
The Nigerian who hides like a rat within the shadow grins with cruel promise, tobacco yellow teeth smile like a devil, the automatic rifle level with his hip as he aims and fires.
“ELIZABETH!!”