Chapter 51: Chapter 51

Maya “April, go with Josh. I will not tell you again,” Xhisara scolded April, as she reluctantly went off with the green guy, dragging her heels.

It was the next day, whatever that meant in the place with no dark. They had all slept for what seemed like a very long time.

“Why was she not allowed to stay?” asked Maya, since the child clearly wanted to be a part of what was happening, the planning of what to do next.

“She was close to William before,” answered Xhisara. “I trust no-one now, not after Phy betraying us all.”

“But you trust Syrhahn?” it was a genuine question, not a barbed indication that she thought him untrustworthy.

“Implicitly. He would give his life for his son, would you give yours for your friend?” Xhisara’s question caught her off guard and left her standing there while Xhisara took her place leaning against a tree in the small oval shaped clearing.

Syrhahn moved from behind his tree where he had accidentally eavesdropped their conversation, and sat down next to Ka.

Maya didn’t had any time to think more on what Xhisara said as at that moment Ka grabbed pulled her down next to him against a tree, and Xhisara cleared her throat.

They were sat in a natural conference room, each leaning against a tree, with the exception of Rob who was sitting on the right side of Les’s tree, the latter’s robust form taking up the entire organic back rest.

Maya wriggled out of Ka’s grasp, moving towards Rob in the open as she was feeling suffocated. Something about there being only trees before a fiery furnace that was the rest of the planet was making her claustrophobic.

“Where to start?” Xhisara wondered from her tree on Syrhahn’s right. “That William went to such trouble to dispatch Syrhahn while retaining a spy on my planet?”

They all sat in silence contemplating the incredibly tall women’s words. Maya couldn’t really attach any emotion to what she was saying, she had run out of compassion, out of something. She had reached a stage of numbness that left her returned to the surreal and dissociated state of not truly knowing that she was awake.

It occurred to her again that none of it was real, that she was back in a coma, that they had been right all along, that her life with Ka, with music was too good to be true. That her life was simply too weird to be true.

The irony wasn’t lost on Maya. Somehow they had got caught up in someone else’s war and she felt really really small, like an ant caught up in a war between giants.

“We have our own army,” Xhisara was saying when Maya tuned back in. “But William has been assembling one too. Anyone could be a spy, so you have to be careful.”

“Think we know that,” Les interjected grimly. “We had one in our house, that’s how we ended up here in the first place.”

He did have a point, Xhisara was talking to them like they were idiots who had just arrived on the last spaceship, as if they hadn’t left everything they knew behind, nor lost someone they loved.

“Sorry,” she apologised. “We’re now all in the same boat, I was too far in my own world then.”

“Homeless and hunted by a madman who has kidnapped one of us, yup, same boat,” Les agreed, somehow managing to sound jolly.

“I still don’t see how he can take control of the entire multiverse. I mean, what is he doing, one planet at a time? How can one guy take over a whole planet?” Rob was leaning back against his arms, his legs out in front of him, with his head cocked to the side as he posed the question to Xhisara.

“There are only a finite number of air breathing worlds, he already has control of some of them. Just look at your Peoples Republic of Africa, which is under William’s control,” Xhisara responded, making Maya and Ka give her funny looks.

“What Peoples Republic of Africa?” scorned Maya, while Ka nodded in agreement.

“Exactly,” said Xhisara.

“Erm, that big land mass below Spain?” Les looked at Maya and Ka as if they were children who had never heard of dinosaurs.

“That’s Africa,” Ka frowned. “You’re telling me that our Earths are different?”

“Indeed,” broke in Xhisara. “The Republic is gaining in power and has been fed with technology not befitting its era.”

“It was one of William’s favourite things to do, leave one mirror as a control so he could see the difference he has made, feel his power,” Joe joined in. Maya had forgotten that he was there even though he was parked diagonally opposite her.

“He’s just a sick fuck!” ranted Maya. “Enjoying killi...”