NORA'S SUN

  A short story by

  M.S. Fowle

  Copyright © 2012 M.S. Fowle

  Kindle Edition

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design © 2013 Melchelle Designs

  http://melchelledesigns.com/

  TABLE OF CONENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  PROLOGUE

  I WAS JUST A baby when it happened. I didn't know the panic that had swept over the world that day. A large sphere, about half the size of the moon, was discovered traveling through space and it was coming straight for Earth. There wasn't a soul on this planet that doubted the end of the world was on its way. But as it approached, it suddenly slowed, until it merely stopped and orbited around our terrified planet. People scrambled to figure out what to do next, but they ran out of time. Exactly one day after it had arrived, that strange orb in space simply vanished, leaving everyone on Earth baffled. It remained a mystery for decades.

  Then, one fateful day, the leaders of the world synchronized a global address. They had come from that mysterious object in the sky more than twenty-five years ago and their numbers were spread across the lands, living and looking like anyone else. Since before the announcement, they had occupied nearly every top corporate, government, and military office throughout the world. They were the Merus and they had total power. Humans were now obsolete.

  While some of us ran and hid, the rest went to war. But facing the Merus was like nothing we could have imagined. They could do things… things that could have only been conjured up from the depths of fiction. So even though we outnumbered the Merus five to one, it didn't take them long to execute a full occupation of the planet. After two years of all out war, many of us had given up hope.

  CHAPTER ONE

  IT'S USUALLY WHAT WE hold most dear that we too often take for granted. But it's not until it's gone, until it's taken from us that we realize we would do anything to get it back. And as we long to mend the wounds left behind, we struggle to find some way to go on.

  I guess it could've happened to anyone. I used to be such a simple young woman. I had a house, a small family, a mediocre job. It was all relatively average, but I was happy. And yet there I was with a gun in my hand, aiming between a pair of begging eyes, without a merciful bone left in my body. I knew exactly who I was aiming at. They were responsible for everything. They killed our men, enslaved our women and turned our children into crude science experiments for their own greed. They were the enemy. My relatively average life had become a desperate mission to get back what they had taken from me. I was just a soldier to my grief.

  With my callous eyes staring down that barrel, I knew the man at the other end certainly wasn't human. So, I pulled the trigger without even a flinch. I then joined my two comrades to flee the grounds of that small militant outpost. We left only silence behind us as we slipped to the shadows of the surrounding forest and out into the broken world. I knew then as I always had – nothing could stop me. I had to get my life back.

  Miles away, the three of us had found an old cabin off a wooded trail, and so we camped there for the night. The sporadic abandoned towns and buildings scattered across the landscape had become havens for us many times. They were lucky enough to have survived the heavy artillery of the war. But their emptiness was eerie, which made it hard to sleep.

  I'm sure I couldn't have slept in any of those places if it hadn't been for Jules and Gordon. I'd known them since it all started, back when I was still me. That's why they stayed with me, I suppose. They knew they couldn't stop me, so they joined me instead.

  Jules was a seasoned computer programmer. She could crack any code or hack any security system with ease. Her husband, Gordon, had worked in SWAT for years. Both were outwardly rugged, unlike me. My only expertise came from the years of gymnastics my mother had forced upon me as a child, blessing me with incredible stealth. Everything else I learned from them. Our team was small, but undoubtedly determined. We spent a lot of our nights infiltrating enemy bases, following one clue to the next. As to why we did it… it was a little complicated.

  The only thing I was sure of that night was the dream I had.

  My friends and I were dashing through the intersecting shadows of alleyways, a faint morning sun barely brushing the rooftops of the buildings lined around us. Then, a back door opened, where a man appeared. His face was etched into my mind. My dream wouldn't let me forget it.

  Once the sun finally dawned the next morning, I jerked awake out of breath and my eyes wide with fright. I hurried to wake Jules and Gordon.

  "We have to go," I said.

  Without question, they joined me for another sprint through the woods. Leading the escape, I was only sure of where I was going, though I had never actually been there before. Soon, an onslaught of stampeding boots were chasing after us. We ran up the next hill to escape, only to halt and duck under a fallen tree. Down in the valley, a small town was infested with shanties and impoverished humans, along with a handful of armed soldiers to keep order. Their blue fatigues could easily be picked out, while their small numbers allowed us to sneak in.

  We had vanished into the narrows of the alleyways before the gray uniforms of our pursuers even climbed the hill behind us. I could hear their captain holler an order for an immediate lockdown of the entire settlement. He was trying to trap us inside, but I kept us running through the alleys. I could tell Jules and Gordon were growing concerned, but they said nothing.

  With a gasp, I stopped at the next intersection. "Wait here," I said.

  "For what…?" Gordon finally asked.

  Right on cue, the rear door of a nearby building opened and a man was stalled just inside. He just stared straight back at me, with that unforgettable face from my dream the night before.

  "C'mon," he then said with a wave.

  I ran towards him without a thought and Jules and Gordon weren't far behind. With guards rounding up refugees on the streets, we hustled through the long, musty backroom. I knew frustrations were growing outside. It was hard not to think about. But as we passed stacks of metal chairs and withered boxes, the man led us through the long structure to a side exit to the next street. Opening it carefully, we saw our way out. The gate to the commune was open and an empty truck was parked just inside. There was but one young guard to get past. The man then gestured us to wait and went casually outside. Startled, we opened the door a crack to watch and were rightfully stunned to find a tracker in full uniform marching towards the lone patrolman.

  "Are you some sort of idiot, son?" the tracker scolded, "We're in lockdown and you've got this gate wide open! And whose vehicle is this?"

  "Your secondary team parked it here, sir," said the guard, bottling his fright.

  "So where are the keys?" yelled the tracker, and the junior officer promptly pulled them from his pocket to hand over. "Now, you must be an idiot," he said as he took them, "Don't you know anyone could just take these from you and do this…"

  He then yanked the stun baton from the guard's belt and shoved a jolting charge to his chest, dropping him unconscious to the ground. That was when the tracker's body melded and morphed, altering his entire appearance back to that of the man. He looked back at us watching and just dangled the keys with a grin. Before Jules and Gordon could swap a thought, I was running out to hop into the truck. They didn't really have any other choice than to follow me and our savior drove us fast and far. We traveled for miles in silence, before I suddenly remembered.

  "Pull over," I said, "There's a GPS transmitter on this thing."

  The man looked over with a wrinkled brow, but he stopped just before a bridge. With the deep surge of a river flowing far below, we all got out. The man had no sooner closed his door when a pair of laser-sighted handguns were drawn and aimed at his head. With Jules and Gordon at the end of each one, I just went on searching under each wheel well.

  "You're one of them," said Jules, her usually tender eyes now afire.

  "But he's not with them," I said, lastly removing the device, "And he's coming with us."

  My loyal comrades merely shared a look, before they retired their guns and stepped away.

  "Wait…" the man was winded, almost laughing, "Why would I go with you?"

  "Because you want to get back what they took from you."

  He was quiet. I knew it was all a generalization – they had taken everything.

  "You don't have to," I said, and turned to hurl the transmitter into the river, "But I'm pretty sure you'll want to."

  I then got behind the wheel of the truck. As Jules and Gordon got in next, the man only stood there. But I just waited. Finally, he let out a sigh before taking the last seat up front, and I sped us all away. We crossed the bridge into a ghost town and left it to its sleep as I veered us down a tilted dirt road. With the sun now full in the sky, we had to remain as hidden as possible while still putting some mileage behind us. I also knew my passengers were growing more uneasy with every passing tree.

  "So…" the