Pull (originally published as Deep Darkness v1)

The Undertow - Part 1

I was always picked on when I was young. I was nicknamed 'bones' and 'the weak one' other kids were stronger, faster, smarter, and had said I was nothing but a tool. I was seven years old when I finally fought back. A kid twice my size that had always made fun of me and taunted me was picking on a girl only half our age. I was use to the bullying. I could take it. I was proud of how I was able to take it. It only hurt the first few times but then I realized there was nothing he could really do to hurt me. This was different though; when he began picking on someone else he crossed a line. I could feel all the anger inside me building up. He had taken a small stuffed animal of hers and ripped its head off. That was the last straw. I attacked him with my fist kicking and throwing my fists at his jaw. Before I knew it I had scraped a small piece of the skin off his face with my shoe. He grabbed me and bent my arm around my back. I could feel my shoulder popping out of place while all around us people had begun to gather. No one was screaming telling him to stop. He began lifting me into the air. I could feel my bones about to break. I was screaming and crying for help when a figure appeared grabbed him from behind and forced him to let me go. The figure pressed on the bullies arm breaking it forcing him to submit. When it was all over the figure introduced himself to me as Dom. I had seen him around but for the most part I had always kept to myself. He was a year older then I was and much bigger. He said he use to be small like I was but one of his friends a Drok named Hayden had taught him self defense. It wasn't long before he introduced me to his friends. The first person Dom introduced me to was a girl named Aira. It turns out she saw what was happening . She found Dom and begged him to save me. I was no longer considered weak after that day. Even though Dom stepped in and saved me I had stood my ground and earned the respect of everyone around me.

Hayden, Don, Aira, and I all lived together under a small group of guardians. Though there were few of guardians there were hundreds of children. For fourteen years we grew up together. Thought it was only for the past seven we came close friends. The home was called various things; some even called it a nursery. It was just a name that they called it; truly it was more of a school or camp for human children. We didn't spend all of or time there, we still had rooms at all our parent's homes. We didn't get to see them as much as we liked but we were taken care of by some of the smartest and kindest humans still around. Our parents each worked jobs in the city. Some of them were engineers, teachers, scientists, or bar tenders and because of that they couldn't always be around. We were looked after by the group of guardians called the caregivers. My mother was one of them. While most guardians were strong and tough my mother was small fragile sweet and gentle. Our school was located just inside the massive black walls of the city. We were close enough that we were protected from any beasts in the wild that made it through by the alien drones and far enough that we had something similar to blue and red trees we could climb, rivers, and woods we could play in. It was always a risk. The danger of being swept away or falling into a "cold spot" were you couldn't breathe.

We were allowed to explore the city by ourselves but we were always told to stay within a few miles of home. Hayden, Dom, Aira, and I were always exploring the world around us and the strange new aliens that showed up day after day. We would watch from docks and bridges as ships docked or appeared out of thin air. Some exotic ships travelled here across dimensions...going from one spiral arm of the galaxy to another. The aliens onboard those ships were thousands of years old because of cryosleep. We were told horror stories about how they were running from the Skrav. Even on the other side of the galaxy they were the enemy. The Skrav had decimated hundreds of worlds and committed genocide all across the galaxy. Most of these ships were preprogrammed to fly trade routes all anyone needed was some basic math and a star chart to know where they wanted to go. The Erebus, Aelita, and the Tritan all did the same appearing out of thin air trick. My mother had shown me videos and pictures since I was three. It amazed me that despite our low population we still had the strongest and fastest ships. I guess this was one of the reasons they called us savages... they said we stole our technology from the Skrav. They were right in many ways but I like to think that we not only stole and successfully reverse engineered their ships we improved them.