Last 8 Minutes on Earth

The golden thread coming through the cracked window was the only daylight Mira had seen in what felt like months, despite having been captured only three days ago. She was now down to her last eight minutes of captivity and life.

She had been chained to the stone wall since her capture. The steel collar around her neck was unyielding and tight. She was all alone in the cell, but not on the floor. There were about a handful of prisoners left now and their collective execution was scheduled at 5.00 PM on the dot, officially marking the end of stage one of the colonisation of Earth.

Her captors had kindly placed a clock on the opposite wall facing each holding cell, so that the prisoners can track every single second left of their remaining existence. But this clock was a blessing for Mira as it had allowed her to formulate an escape plan.

It took the Andals less than a century to annihilate any resistance from humanity. They had successfully eradicated all humans a decade ago with the death of her mother.

The Andals have been conquering world after world, killing off every living creature. They are just as deadly and ruthless as they are beautiful, and just as lecherous. They constantly procreate and fill up planet after planet with their kind, feeding off its resources until it is just a husk, a dried-up rock unable to sustain even bacterial life forms.

Despite her hopeless situation, Mira was not ready to roll over and die just yet. She had escaped her conquerors enough times already to know what tricks work. She could hear her guard’s approaching footsteps now. He always came around 4.52 PM and today was no exception. Her life depended on his predictability.

She put her dirt-covered fingers around the heart-shaped locket, took out a round tablet from inside, then shoved it back under her shirt. It was the last item she had left from her mother, and it was also her only chance of escape. The locket was a family heirloom she was told. It had originally been given to her grandmother by her grandfather. The locket contained his image, his utterly human image.

He was one of the first soldiers that were sent out to fight the most futile war in the history of mankind. His body was never recovered; a grave was never built for his family to visit. Mira admired the man and his courage but knowing what she does of the Andals, she understood how pointless his resistance was. She lifted the little round tablet and quickly shoved it in her mouth, moving it to the side of her cheek with her tongue.

And there he was, the guard looked bored and had the usual look of disdain on his face every time he looked inside the cells. He truly hated her kind. There were no humans left now. Her kind consisted of the so-called “mongrels”, or “half-breeds”.

When they first arrived, the Andals went rampant on every single human they saw in every way imaginable. Men, women it mattered not, the women of course, would sometimes get pregnant. Not all of them would get killed, some would manage to escape and go on to have their children. Some of those children looked more Andal than human and that is exactly what Mira looked like.

She hated them with all her heart and despised how much she looked like them. In fact, the only human thing about her was her mother’s green eyes, but the rest of her was fully Andal, which is the only reason she was able to survive as long as she had.

The guard was just about to walk past her cell when she cat-called him. He turned around to give her a better look and the corner of his mouth lifted a little bit. Had she looked more human, he probably would have spat at her for daring to even attempt interaction with him, but her dark, greyish skin, silver hair falling to her thighs and high cheekbones pleased him, and she knew it.

The guard assessed her, staring from her feet and when he reached her eyes, the frown appeared again, and he turned around to continue walking.

“Where are you going, handsome?” she called after him. He stopped again and turned around to face her. “Stay for a chat, I know you can speak our language.” She teased with a playful and pleasant voice. It was working. The tiny lift in the corner of his mouth was back.

“Yes, I know your primitive language, but it does not mean I wish to speak it.” He said and turned back around.

“I do not wish to speak either, I want something else from you.” She winked at him teasingly.

“You dare make demands of me, you lowly creature?!” She had to make her play fast. It was 4.54 PM.

“Only something that might benefit you too. I do not wish to spend my last hours alive chained to a wall with nothing to do. Do you understand what I am proposing?” he sneered at her, he understood.

“I am not like the rest of my kin; I do not wish to sully myself with mongrels.”

“Come on now, where is the harm in trying something at least once?” He was silent for a second, his eyes darting between her and the corridor, he is checking for company.

Andals believe they are superior to any other life form, and they cannot possibly be outsmarted or defeated. It is also why they never decided to spare half-breeds like her. Purity of the blood line was something sacred to them and only Andals were allowed to walk this new world they had won for themselves.

The guard pulled out his chip, looked around once more, and unlocked the cell. She could tell by the gleam in his eyes that whatever reservations he had had about bedding a “mongrel” was gone. He put his antimatter gun in the corner of the cell and started undoing his trousers, slowly approaching her.

“Put your hands behind your head, mongrel, and close those disgusting eyes.” He said but the bite was gone, replaced only with clear lust.

He grabbed her and quickly started removing her clothes, and just as he undid the last button, Mira opened her eyes, jumped, and wrapped her legs around his waist. He was taken aback by her actions but the moment he met her eyes and the forced lust she had summoned there, he lost his composure and lunged for her lips.

She allowed him, however, sick it made her, she kissed him back and as she did, slid the tablet from her cheek into his mouth. The tablet was a very strong sedative, so much so that it was used by people like her to commit suicide if they ever got caught. It also had a protective coat that would dissolve, and she was getting near to that point. It would take a minute for it to start working and that is all the time Mira could spare for this as part of her plan.

After a few seconds, the strength of his grip started to loosen, Mira could tell the tablet was working. He had started to sway on his feet and after another twenty seconds, he dropped dead on the ground. She could not hide the satisfied smile that spread across her face. She had killed many Andals whilst on the run and never got tired of watching them take their last breaths, in fact, she spared a few precious seconds savouring it. Then she leaned over his unmoving body and searched for his chip. It worked on every collar and every door, so she went to work.

She grabbed the guard’s gun and ran as fast as she could unlocking as many doors and collars as possible. Those were her people and she owed them a chance to survive.

Suddenly it was mayhem, people were running up and down the corridors trying to flee. Mira knew the only way out was on one of the ships the Andals have waiting for the guards in the courtyard after they were done with the executions. It was now 4.57 PM, and the guards were running up to see what all the commotion was about. Mira was waiting for them from the top of the stairs with the gun. She could pick them all out from here.

At 4.59 PM, she could not see any more guards coming for her, but it did not mean there were none, so she carefully started to make her way to the courtyard. There was one ship ready to go, but she had never flown such a thing. She had no idea where to begin.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw an Andal boy running away from the action, she had to capture him alive.

Mira followed the Andal with her gun pointed at his head, and just as he turned to look around, he spotted her. To her surprise, he had brown eyes, not golden. He must be like her. Mira lowered her gun.

“I will not shoot you. It is alright.” She said with a reassuring voice. He swallowed hard but nodded in acknowledgement. Mira realised that he was headed exactly where she was, for the ship. There was no time for introductions or small talk.

“Do you know how to fly these?”

“I do, yes, for years I was hiding as one of them and got trained as a pilot. Got discovered by accident by my commander.”

“Tough luck. Tell me your life story later. Let us go now! I am not sure how long it would take them to regroup.”

“Thank you for freeing me.” Mira only gave a nod of her head and both of them sprang into action. They made a run for it with all their strength and thanks to the Andals who sired them, there was a lot of it and Mira was going to use every drop to return the pain and misery they brought down upon her world ten-fold.

She will come back to this planet one day and wrestle it out of their hands. She will do to their kind what they did to humanity and every other living being of this planet. She will find more refugees like her, survivors who lost everything and wish for nothing more in life than to taste Andal blood and she will make them her family, her comrades, her army.

The two of them reached the ship and he slipped into the pilot seat with ease, buckled up, flipped some switches, and were in the air.

“Where should we go? Mars?” he asked.

“No, not Mars. The colony there will be next on their hit list. We go into deep space and search for others like us.”

“Sounds good to me. I am Eric.” Eric. A human name. He put his right hand out for her to shake. Such a human gesture made her smile. As long as they were alive, this tiny bit of humanity inside of them will live on and they will nurture it, tell their tales, sing their songs, and keep the traditions taught to them by the last humans who ever walked the Earth. Humanity might be gone, but their hearts beat inside of these children.

As they left Earth’s atmosphere, Mira reached for the heart-shaped locket, looked down at her grandfather’s picture, and made a silent vow to him and all her ancestors to reclaim her lost home and eradicate every single Andal in the galaxy. The death of humanity will not go unpunished.

It was now 5.04 PM and Mira was still alive. It was proof enough that she is capable of everything and making good on this silent vow will be no exception.