Population Control

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

This next part will be translated for you so you don't have to learn the Ze language. There was a Ze in an underground shack, not even worthy of being called a home. He had made a fairly nice wooden floor for the room he had, but you could tell that it was made with scrap wood and had definitely been used.

He was reading a book about a giant water creature that was called a whale by humans and was being hunted by a captain. He was reading it intently until there was some commotion coming from above his room. He quickly closed his book and went over to a board in the corner of the room. He lifted it off the floor and set the book on top of the pile of books inside the hole. He quickly set the board back over the books as he heard the noise getting closer.

He turned to face the other Ze as they entered the room. There were seven Ze that came into the room. The majority of them had pieces of board and pieces of pipe, but three had shockers. He saw this and backed up against the wall staring at them.

Then their leader stepped forward and said, "Where's your food at? I am sorry Shesh, but I need your food."

Shesh looked at the leader with disbelief, because the leader of them was his friend Hedri.

"I won't ask again Shesh, where is your food at?" demanded Hedri.

Shesh looked at him wishing he that he could talk back. Shesh couldn't talk ever since he was born. He could hear what they were saying, but couldn't respond. He could only motion or write what he wanted to say. He didn't bother to write anything down because he knew that they couldn't read. So he motioned that he had no food.

"Don't tell me you don't have any food! I saw you eating a couple days ago and you didn't eat all of it; so where's the food at?" demanded Hedri.

Shesh motioned for them to leave because he had nothing here.

Then Hedri said "Check the walls and floor for any secret holes. Now Shesh, where is it!"

Then he went over to Shesh and swung with his lower right arm, Shesh blocked it, but didn't stop the kick to the chest that followed. It knocked him back and he broke into the wall. After he pulled himself out of the wall, Hedri walked up to him and was about to hit him again, but noticed that Shesh had broken into a secret hole in the wall.

"What's this Shesh?" asked Hedri.

He went over to the hole and cleared out the broken bits of wood and looked inside. He glanced over at Shesh then he motioned to his gang to come over. As they came over Hedri shoved his hand into the hole and pulled out some meat.

"You lied to me, I asked you before if I could have food when we were friends and you flat out told me you didn't have any food. It was in here the whole time I was asking you." said Hedri as he stared down at Shesh holding the meat in his hand.

Shesh just looked up at him while he was talking. When he finished Shesh stood up and looked at all of them and noticed that one of them that was armed with a shocker was standing close to him. Shesh also took a slight glance towards the entrance of his place.

After staring at the leader for a few moments he made an attempt for the shocker. He did a fake jab at him to distract him as one of his other arms reached for the shocker. As he reacted to the jab he raised his shocker right into Shesh's hand. Shesh took it and held him in front of himself with the shocker pushed into his back. The other two who had shockers aimed them at Shesh, but didn't fire because Shesh was using one of their own as a shield.

After Shesh did this, he made his way slowly to the exit/entrance to his place. Once he reached it he realized the problem. The only way he could leave was through there, but it was a hole going up with a ladder leading to the outside. He couldn't carry his "shield" up the ladder with him because Shesh is a small Ze.