A New Earth 2.0

A new Species

L’wazi’s POV

I pin Oyam to the ground after ripping off his arm. It’s only after that, that he accepts defeat. Oyam is one sick bastard…He’s a cannibal among Omn kind, one of many who targets any and all creatures alive. His teeth are especially sharp for tearing apart flesh and eating it raw. The worse part of him is unlike the other cannibals that just attack without thinking, he thinks about how he’ll find his victims. He also thinks about how to scare them to the point that they can’t move, and they’re stuck in one place. Like a snake and a rabbit, he’ll strike without warning. It’s all about the fear for him, not just his next meal.

The Omn once did that, in our past. We would rampage through the villages of other Omn who lived in one hundred person’s colonies. But now we’ve gone to eating things that grow from the Earth, or fish the Se throw to the Land sometimes. The Se isn’t evil… in fact the one who came to the caves earlier wanted to warn us of an attack. It took them a while to realize we were being attacked by our own people. She said that the Se deals with a few tribes from their own species that turn against them and try to rage war. It seems we have more in common then we thoughts… Regardless, Oyam must stop this nonsense. We are getting the blow back from our actions.

’Hold him tightly.’ Mcebisi says, approaching me. I nod, and keep Oyam still. He doesn’t move with my iron grip. ‘Where is your tribe?’ Mcebisi asks. Oyam hisses at him in return. I shake my head.

’He’s not going to tell us.’ I tell Mcebisi hoping he’ll allow him to end Oyam’s life. We have proof now that he wanted to harm the humans, and he almost accomplished it by killing Scarlett. Although why he targeted her specifically I’m unsure.

’I know.’ Mcebisi says. He moves to end Oyam’s life, but I shake my head.

‘Not yet, we need to know why he was specifically targeting Scarlette.’ I tell Mcsibisi. He nods and pauses before Oyam. Everyone is quiet around us. The Omn who live with us now aren’t all used to chaos and destruction. They’re not used to a war. We’ve kept them pretty well hidden against it all up until now. Oyam must have been planning his attack for many moons. How many daubla does he still have, despite the many we’ve killed? I know he won’t answer any of these questions. He’s hungry for flesh, and that will make him ravenous by the end of today. There will be no talking to him after that.

‘What did you do to Scarlette? Why did you attack her specifically?’ I ask Oyam, despite knowing he won’t answer. He’s quiet for a few minutes.

’She will change our world… You don’t see it quite yet, but she has the power. The humans before her destroyed her world and made them flee to an new world, our world. They will destroy many lives and many a colony here. The Healots and the Se will go extinct. We will all die… unless… we change them into what we are. If we combine our DNA, they won’t be able to kill us.” Oyam begins to laugh. ‘They will become like us in so many ways. Ravenous for the first week, unable to control. Many of them won’t live with the change. Once you change one human…’ he begins to laugh and doesn’t finish his sentence. I look over at Mcebisi.

’We must keep him in case we need an antidote. We shall live… for now.’ Mcebisi says. Zola hisses at Oyam, and I drag him to a cage far underground, farther than any Omn will ever go. Oyam laughs the whole way, and makes no move to try and get away. Still, I don’t let my guard down. When I lock him in his cage, he jumps at the bars, one of his arms hang lose at his side.

‘I will get out… and when I do, all of those humans will dead! None shall survive the change!’ He growls. His eyes turn white the longer he laughs and growls. He’s dying before my eyes… Yet he’s changed so much that he does not care. He will be dead before two moons pass, if that.

‘Good Night brother.’ I answer, and walk away.

’You are no brother of mine!’ he yells in my head. I walk away from his banging on the bars, and his laughter.

The caves are quiet from Omn catching up on sleep. Many of them are tired from fighting earlier. I must admit, my body sways the longer I move, but I must check on Scarlette. When I reach the meeting room, most of the humans have fallen asleep. A few of them seem to be sick; they’re faces are pale, and they’re temperatures above 108 degrees. Some of them shake. In the middle of them all, on the table, is…

’Is that Scarlette?’ I ask Henry. He nods, and his eyes look cold hard. She must still be asleep… changing forms is a hard ordeal. For us Omn, just growing to an adult age requires periods of time were your body withers in pain, and you can barely move for many moons. Some Omn die during that time… those of us who are not strong enough to endure the pain leave their bodies and the remaining Omn bury them so the cannibals cannot find them. We used to eat the bodies that couldn’t survive, but we don’t do that anymore.

‘What happened?’ I ask T’wain. He explains to me how whatever was in the needle, when Oyam stabbed Scarlette, she grew and became like the Omn. In fact, she looks exactly like the Omn… Except… Her hair is brown with red highlights. Her skin is baby soft, like a young Omn’s would be. She has freckles across her nose, and her skin is paler then regular Omn. She looks… beautiful. Unique compared to everyone other Omn who either has Black or White hair. Only a few of us have grey or peppered hair.

‘When do you think she will awake?’ T’wain asks me. I study Scarlette for a minute. Her breathing is steady, but her body is moving. On the inside it’s still stretching and growing. Like humans, the Omn are very complex organisms. Our brains move twice as fast as the humans, our bodies quick and agile letting us climb walls and be able to go into deep terrains. Our bones are kind of like birds; hard and sturdy, but lighter than regular human bones, yet not quite hallow like a bird’s. Our eyes have similar layers to a cat; The Iris, Cornea, Anterior chamber, the lens, Cillary body, and angle of Filtration. The mayor change Scarlette will go through, which takes the Omn young three moons to complete, is the thinning of our bones and the stretching. To me it looks like she has the long bones already. I’m not sure whether they’ve hallowed out yet or not.

’It’s hard to tell. It could take three moons, or longer.’ I answer. He nods, and tells Henry.

“Did he kill that bastard?” Henry asks out loud. I’ve gotten used to their language so much that now I can understand him when they talk out loud.

‘Not yet… if Scarlett’s body reacts wrong to the shot, then he will have to create an antidote to keep her from dying.’ I answer. Henry scowls at me as if I’ve said something wrong.

‘She will live..’ A faint voice says. I look over and on the ground is the human scientist and the doctor. The doctor is holding the scientist, whose eyes droop. She looks like she’s going to fall asleep.

‘We have sleeping chambers… If you would like to move.’ I tell Marie. She shakes her head. It likes she’s using a lot of energy just to do that.

’I’m fine here…’ she says. She falls asleep after saying that, as her breathe slows I begin to think. All of these humans came here because they want to fight to live. If Oyam created a contagious virus to turn all of the humans into Omn, then a lot of them could die; especially the frozen one’s whose immune systems haven’t been working in a long time.

’Doctor Antonio… May I talk to you?’ I ask him. He looks up at me, confused for a moment, then he nods. He carefully slides away from Marie, and follows me to the hallway.

‘I think we can work together to possibly save Scarlette… and the rest of the humans.’ I say. He nods.

‘I’m listening.’