Human

|| thirty-one ||

Day Thirty

On the morning of Earth Day, the Colony door opened early, before the sun broke through the clouds. I stepped out onto Earth, with Zelda at my side. Behind me followed every human and half we had on our side.

I tried to contact the other colonies, but Million had pulled out his power card. All communications with the others were severed; left us in the dark. I'm sure he thought he had the upper hand in doing it, but we'd already made our plans and set them in stone. Any other calls made to and from the other colonies after were just that—calls: hellos, goodbyes, and normal conversations we weren't allowed otherwise.

My morning call to them would have been good luck.

Not that we needed it. Why? Because we let go, just like I told Zelda.

We all let go, severed the chains that bound us. We pushed fear and regret out from our bodies, and sleep came easier. Our Colony had the highest spirits and we hadn't even won yet.

Outside, the warm air blew and wrapped us in, hugging us. I closed my eyes and welcomed it. Hell, even the planet knew what we were going to do, and if Earth wanted to give me a hug and thanks in advance—shit—who was I to walk away from it?

"Jake." Riddick came beside his daughter and looked over her head at me. He was dressed like me—hell, everyone was. We all wore black; other colonies wore silver or white. Someone said it'd be easier to count bodies that way if we died in the fight, we'd know which Colony they belonged to.

Colony Six wore grey and they weren't far either; I heard an echo from their marching steps, carried in the wind.

"Riddick," I said his name because I didn't know what he needed. We'd already made arrangements. In fact, he was supposed to go east with Axel. Not upfront with me. Thinking about it, I looked at him with a cocked brow. "Where's Axel?"

"He's taken Shawn with him," he said, running his hand over the side of his hair. "Kenna has stayed inside with Mama and the Elders too old to fight, as well as the three younger humans."

"Okay." I faced him, moving Zelda aside. "But why are you here? We've gone over this. We—"

"I cannot let my daughter fight." He grabbed Zelda gently by the shoulders, bringing hushed murmurs from those around us. His forehead creased, his lips thinned and before he managed to say a word, he made frustrated noises instead. "Zelda..." He shook his head. "Your mother did not want this life for you. This war. This is..."

"This is my world." Zelda grabbed his hands and moved them back to his side. The look she gave him, the smile—yeah, she definitely let it all go. Astorian, who? Not Zel. She was all human, baby. "This is my fight. If—no, when we win today, we'll all be able to have the life we were meant to have."

What could Riddick say? Nothing. There wasn't a word that could change her mind. I knew it when she looked up at me and pulled her hair into a ponytail, low on her head. Her hands wrapped around her daggers, double wielding them at her sides. That grin she gave me... shit if there weren't people around and a Tyrant to fight, I swear I'd...

"Ships are descending now." Steve broke through the crowd with his glass pad in hand. He didn't look up from it, his fingers rapidly tapping the screen. "Systems have detected a couple of hundred engines—"

"Couple hundred?" I tried to look at his pad.

"—Powering on and stirring up abnormal weather patterns nearby." He looked up at the sky. "Million's ship is in the boot-up process. Any minute, and we'll have rain and gunfire."