Planet Z

''This is my diary and my only escape from this terrible reality that i am facing each day.
Each day was a question.

I will survive another day ?

My child in my belly will see the light of the world ?

Our ancestors lived in a gigantic space station that was constructed by our colonies in Zeus.

For few hundred years wondering around the black space.

But they had been watched.

After a mysterious chains of event's that is pretty much unknown even to me they crashed in a planet far away from the main travel routes of the space.

The planet was small.

It was smaller in size even from the moon of our beloved earth but with almost the same atmosphere.

Breathing there wasn't a problem.

Our people found also plenty of hot or boiling water sources emerging from the earth in many places , but this also made the atmosphere very heavy from moisture and mist.

The temperature was high, like desert or jungle but it's exact source was a mystery because the sun in this solar system was too far from them.

The light from a distant red sun was dim during the day and the nights was sometimes nearly as brights as days with two moons and plenty of stars shinning high above the pitch black sky.

Our eyesight become more sensitive in this low lighting and our other sense's became even sharper in order to survive in this shadowlands as we named them in the begging.

The land was flat and sandy and no plants existed there feeding from the sun light and soil minerals like earth's.

Only forests with unknown species of white mushrooms and strange kind of plants like the giant sundews thrived ,especially in the southern marshlands.

This crimson carnivores plants could also be found around the few old volcanoes of the planet in the west ,the Nightlands as we called them.

No mammals or birds could be found there but inside the forests and marshlands a variety of creature's lurked ,waiting for someone to come closer or step in the wrong place.

Our people learned to survive there and many men and women died during the process.

But the survivors endured and they gradually became taller and stronger from their ancestors in each new generation.

The humans there wear light clothing made from everything that they could found and used no shoes because of the sandy environment that destroyed any kind of footwear very quickly.

But our greatest challenge started two hundred years before in one of the hottest years of the planet when ''they'' came for the first time.

The Predators as they are more commonly known to the human race were a species of alien warriors which practiced trophy hunting of other life forms around their galaxy.

They had arranged our crash in this wretched place and watched our progress as we evolve our weapons and small nomadic societies which wandering constantly around the planet searching for food and shelter.

In the beginning we hid unable to understand why and who slaughter us but slowly we began to understand our enemies.

They came in small hunting packs ,usually triads or alone, constantly evolving their methods of tracking, flashing out and killing us with a variety of hunting practices and traps.

Armed with ancient weapons like spears, bows,some still functional rifles and our burning desire to survive we kill several of them but this eventually seemed to attract their interest even more than before.

They were competed to enter the ritual of becoming ''Blooded ''.

This meant to kill a prey that has been deemed worthy.

This prey was usually men and women that before was our best hunters and fighters.

Our fights against the carnivorous creatures of the planet before was not enough to prepare us for that.

The Predators , as we learn in all of this dark years were different individuals from the same species, each one with his own physical characteristics and methods of hunting.

They also appeared to develope technically , using cunningly new nets,spears and a variety of bladed weaponry.*

But during their ceremonial hunts they avoided other more advance and destructive weapons that they sure had in procession in their huge spaceships.

But one day everything changed.

The Predators disappeared as suddenly as they came.

We had almost fourteen years to see them and i started to hope that perhaps they left as in peace.

Perhaps we had a chance to survive a little until we find our way back to the rest of humanity.

But i was wrong.''

*The creatures believed to be genderless but using their advanced genetic engineering and knowledge they reproduced themselves without the need of pregnancy or any maternity as the humans.

With this way Predators improved their physical characteristics and abilities to kill in each new generation that they made.

Siege of Darkness

Chapter 2

The thick muscles of the young man stretched as he got up from his bed under the huge routs of a giant red coloured sundew.

The root's of this strange carnivorous plant was entangled with five or six similar ones in shores of the small lavender lagoon in front of him.

The man long braided hair black as midnight ,like his short beard and heavy with scented oil was an indication of his status as a Warrior among his scattered people.

His icy blue eyes gazed at the still asleep girl next to him.

She was a young woman with waist-long silky blond hair that was felling over her pale white shoulders.

He kneeled next to her and whispered something in her ear as he was gently caressing her cheeks.

But the girl didn't move.

His dark eyes looked at her anxiously,his thump lightly tracing the lane of her cheekbone.

"- Bree ? Sweetie ?" he whispered to her again.

The girl stirred still half asleep in her mat.

He sighed with relief.

He looked outside.

The day was starting to become warmer and he knew that soon this place near the water will be to expose for them to hide.

He needed to wake her.

- Bree how are you feel today ? he asked her with a little anxious but gentle voice.

The man saw her soft bare feet outside the blanket and playfully tickled her soles with his long fingers.

But the woman still refusing to leave her bed tried to cover herself again ,hiding her fair face under her rich mane.

- Bree ? he whispered smiling with his mate playful attitude.

But the girl didn't answer.

Bree was again asleep.

-Bree please ! the man said again a little impatiently.

His brown hand touched her lightly on her white shoulder.

A dark thought crossed his mind and perhaps memories even darker than their present dangers.

''- We have to leave before the night come and made the things difficult for us and suitable for ... them ! , he thought frowning and looked anxiously towards the entrance of their shelter.

The man turned his attention again to the young woman.

- Oh Bree ! Don't be like a little girl ! the warrior said a little louder but carefully to avoid scarring her.

The woman slowly opened her alluring deep blue eyes.

-I am so tired love ...I think that I am a little sick and we have travelled day and night for almost a week now ...,We can't stay a little longer this time ? she said softly pushing her hair behind her ear and locking her eyes with his.

He remained silent for a while thinking about her words.

- Please stay there with me and don't worry about anything ,she whispered smiling at him.

-Sweetie we need to find a better place to hide ,he replied eventually holding her hand gently.

Bree closed her eyes again and a faint smile appeared in her pink lips.

She remembered again the first time when they met eachother fighting in the dunes against a venomous drider that was ready to attack her younger sister Adira.

Now she was too tired for another moving deeper inside the thick jungle that covered all the lands around their shelter.

As far as she could see in the horizon at least.
His handsome face approached hers and before she opened again her eyes his lips were to hers in a tender kiss.

Then the tall man quickly scooped her from where she was laying and held her tightly in his arms.

He wrapped his blanket around her to protect the girl complexion from a few small bloodthirsty insects that started to fly around outside of their shelter, awakening from the stronger light of the distant afternoon sun.

-We need to move Bree and quickly,he said to her once again looking towards the direction of the western horizon.

Passage to Dawn

Chapter 3

The humans become experts to hide their tracks from their enemies ,Predators or other types of dangerous local wildlife.

They train their children about camouflage,tracking and how to use a variety of weapons that their parents used ,often every day, to keep them alive.

The young warriors men and women learnt how to find their enemies advantages and disadvantages in order to survive and become ''Hunters''.

If they managed to kill a Predator they were becoming ''Warriors'', a title of great honour among them.

But in the end very few survived until then.

Huddled

The only thing that she remembered was that they were sleeping huddling together with her mate during the chilly night in their shelter inside a small cave.

They were surrounded from dangerous quick sand swamps that provide them with some protection but she still had this strange feeling this night ...

Her mate a handsome young hunter with long stark locks and dark skin decorated with black painted designs was still awake looking at her beautiful face.

The man was hugging her protectively close to his chest as she was half asleep in his arms.

-Sleep beautiful ,she remembered him whispering near her ear.

-We have a long way tomorrow toward the mountains,he added kissing gently her forehead.

Fenella opened her large eyes and gave him a sweet smile.

She nodded.

-Everything will be fine Asher ,we are close now ,she whispered softly touching gently the long scar that her mate had in his neck.

This scar was a painful memory for both of them.
But she had injuries too.

She had a deep gash in her right calf and Asher had carefully bandaged her leg with straps from his own clothes to stop the bleeding.

He carried her in his arms for the rest of the day before they found this shelter yesterday evening.

They had so many dangerous encounters there near the Nightlands.

She was so exhausted now but happy that they had made it so far together.

They didn't have to talk too much when they wanted to express their feelings about something.

They understood one another so perfectly that many times they could read each other thoughts as easily as faint tracks in the sand dunes.

-Your hair is smelling exactly like the day when we first met , light of my life ,the young man whispered close to her ears ,caressing her pale cheek.

The girl smiled and opened her alluring eyes as she remembered their adventure in the Lake of Moonlight.

-I am so sorry that i couldn't help Nemi , Fenella ,the man said with a deep sigh closing his eyes.

-I am alive because of you my love ,she whispered to him and placed her elegant white hand into his.

-Don't punish yourself for that ,she said softly and gave him a gentle kiss in his cheek.

-I will try ,he answered with a faint smile.

-We know who you really are Asher ,she whispered as she was closing again her eyes.

She was too exhausted to stay awake more.

After a few moments Fenella fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

Two or more hours passed.
Suddently she was awoken from a strange chilling feeling in all of her body.

She rubbed her arms and stretched her bare feet still a little asleep.

A thought crossed her mind.
-Asher ! she whispered suddenly and looked around.

She got up trembling from something ,perhaps the cold.

She was alone and the old rifle and jagged spear weren't next to their mat as they had left them before they slept.

Their radio too.

This radio was there only connection with their central settlement where at least two hundred souls leaved hidden inside the crater of an old volcano.

It was their ''city'' or the ''nest '' ,as they called it.

But this secret place couldn't protect all the humans inside it or send help if they were far.

The girl heart was now pumping wildly in her chest.

Something was wrong.

She looked towards the entrance of the cave ready to run out from there ,feeling like trapped animal.

Fenella hesitated for a while and walked slowly towards the entrance.

She could feel the coldness of the white sand under her smooth soles of her small bare feet.

Suddenly a strong blue light almost blind her and a long piercing sound in her sensitive ears send her dazed on her knees.

Her vision darkened completely.

Then she fell limp, unable to suffer the agonizing pain that was coming from inside her head like a terrible supernatural scream of an unknown beast.

The girl didn't have any more memories after that.

Somewhere

Chapter 4

Fenella was laying almost unconscious in a strange lethargy without any  dreams or even visions. 

She was always loved by her lovers in all of her life but she rarely stayed too long with any of them.

And that wasnt always because she had decided that a new person was needed to satisfy the emotional turmoil inside her soul.

Men in this planet had much more difficult and dangerous life than their partners and sometimes went for hunting or reconasence missions and never ruterned back in their shelters.

Not alive at least.

But nobody complained about that reality and they did their duty for their consorts and each other with the best way possible.

That was their duty towards the human race here.

Their chance for survival.

The woman with the saggy auburn hair opened slowly her emerald cat like eyes and looked again the grey sky above her head.

 She was in a deep dark pit twenty feet under the hot wet surface of the Shadowforest.

The only exit was covered with a net from a flexible material that looked like metal but it was far more resilient and unbend.

She was inside this place for days drinking the water of the rain that sometimes flooded her prison and covered her almost to her waist.

The beautiful girl didn't remembered how she ended up there.

But when she was awake again and a black metallic bracelet was tightly around her left ankle.

She tried to remove it but it was impossible.

''It is like ... a kind of tracking device ? ,she whispered in the end , perplexed with the strange object.

Nobody of her people had ever seen something like that.

But who did this to her ? Who brought her here and why ?

The Predators killed their prey but she was still alive.

However this wasn't the case now.
And no human had seen them around for years as she could recall in her memory.

She stood up and looked again the strange net that somebody or something placed there to prevent her escape.

She placing her slender hands and feet to try again an other climbing attempt.

But she slipped again and again as the soft soil was too loose for her holdings.

She sat again on the ground hugging her bare knees tightly against her chest.

Her mind couldn't forget the disappearance of Asher.

-Where are you ? What happened to you ? ,she whispered with hot tears rolling again down from her cheeks.

It was dark outside now.

So dark and lonely.

Suddenly she heard a cracking noise from above.

Then net was gone and a thick black rope was hanging no more than two feet above her head !