Chương 14: The Horror of our Choices

Stepping up to the front of the cage with Amelia and Squeaky a step behind him, he saw all three extraterrestrials side-by-side in front of him. They all had large black eyes on their bobble heads, gray skin, were bald with think arms and long, multi-jointed fingers. Also unlike the Nosferians, there wasn't an obvious difference between their body shapes, meaning he had no idea if they were all the same gender, if they even went by a dimorphic measure at all.

They wore mildly scuffed white suits, decorated with strange patterns. Unlike the nosferians, he could actually read their facial expressions, confirming what he needed to know.

"Let me guess," he said "You three know English because humans are a discovered species to you already. You appear in our media more than enough for me to believe you're unknown to at least a few of the top-ranking members of the government. There seems to be some kind of relation between space in the Overworld and space in the Underworld, otherwise I wouldn't have been placed so close to those I know. So…

You were either living on or near Earth, stationed there for some reason, and have more than enough knowledge on our culture to speak with us, which is why I've been told that Nicole was talking to you, and not doing charades at you." The central alien seemed to startle slightly, but regained his composure.

"You would be mostly correct, human," the central one said.

"Our implants grant thorough knowledge on how humans communicate." He nodded, "Now then, what did you tell Nicole that got her so mad at you?" The alien seemed to sneer.

"Only the truth."

'Hoo boy, here we go.' Seeing Aaron's flat expression and how he had no intention to prompt them further, the central alien simply continued.

"She asks to know why we were kept in a separate cage, but we are not comfortable sharing that until we are free. We are aware of the human tendency to avoid cruelty in most cases, except for the notable exceptions of the mentally ill, like the cannibals that trapped us all here. Those in the camp are not of the cruel variety, so we know you will let us out eventually, and may as well do so now. You gain nothing from setting us free, as we have no intention to stay near you at all, so we will be no threat.

We believe we can find our way on our own, now that we have gained the bearings and understand the abilities this 'System' entity has granted us." Aaron hummed thoughtfully. Did they have Primaries? Unlikely, that would be too many of the same user in the same general area for the System to get proper data; not to mention, he didn't think Primaries would be a good fit for their culture either. Humans were… intense.

And Primaries seemed to thrive on intense desire towards a goal- his did at least, but he'd have to ask the others to be sure. Still, it was more likely they'd earned something else, but he was sure they wouldn't tell him.

"I see… and her response?" The alien sneered, "I will not recount our entire conversation. If you wish to know what we spoke of, ask her." He tilted his head to the side, "Despite how likely it is that she's going to paint you in a terrible light? I'm sure she won't give an objective retelling."

"If an angry woman is all it takes to impair your judgement, then you were not fit to be a leader in the first place," the gray said in derision. Aaron frowned, "I'm not fit to be a leader, but you know? There's maybe sixty humans here, and at most thirty nosferians. We don't have many options. If you're counting on me being perfect, you need to realign yourself, because y'know? I don't care. If Nicole wants me to let you rot in that cage, dying of thirst over the course of a few days?

Well, fine, I value her more than all of you." He scoffed, shaking his head.

"I'll be back after talking to Nicole. Honestly, at this point, you're just gambling with your life, because you've obviously never actually talked to a human, only heard of them. In a situation like this? Where making a mistake will mean our deaths?" He chuckled darkly, "If cutting you down increases my chances of survival even a single percent, I'll do it in a heartbeat. You're right that I'll regret having to do it later, but you know what? I'll still be alive, and you'll still be dead.

If you don't believe me," he said, then gestured to the blood of the cannibal that was still on him.

"Not even an hour ago I was forced to kill one of the cannibal survivors that begged for its life, because it would raise our chances of survival. If you think I value you more than another human, you're delusional," he finally said, turned around and walking away. By the time he finished speaking, the central one was unrepentant, but its two comrades had quietly shuffled back, and now shared an indecipherable look.

He went off to find Nicole, and both Amelia and Squeaky followed; honestly, he'd mostly forgotten they were there. Amelia moved close to him and whispered "What a bitch. Who acts pretentious in a situation like this?" Aaron smirked but avoided laughing too loudly, "Someone who has never struggled before. They can't imagine anything bad happening to them, which speaks volumes for how advanced their actual society is. Ever met someone sheltered growing up? Someone who lived off of daddy's money?

They act exactly like that; at least the other two were starting to reevaluate their choices only after I said I have and will kill. They likely think I'm insane too, but I mean… whatever gets them thinking." Amelia considered his words, then asked "Will you? Kill them, that is?" Aaron shook his head, "I'd just let them go off on their own like they want, because if they do, I won't have to kill them.

I'm not wasting food, tools, or a vehicle on pretentious members of a utopian society, and without all that, they'll be dead soon enough." * He found Nicole pacing around the area where he'd come into camp, notably blocking her view of the cages with the truck that was still sitting there. Peter, another woman, and- surprisingly- his former landlord Gary stood around her, listening to her rant about her current frustrations.

From what he heard, she was irritated that people weren't listening to her when she tried to tell them to go scavenge the camp, furious that nobody wanted to say what they'd gained from the System, and exasperated that the aliens- both gray and nosferian- were standoffish and uncooperative. Those near her seemed to hang their heads slightly and try to make themselves as unassuming as possible, likely because they knew they were part of the problem as well…

yet, he notably saw that none of them had left the camp yet, and nobody volunteered to share what sort of boon the System gave them. Considering VoN told Aaron that his group was the only ones with Primaries, he knew they had to have something different, but he couldn't imagine what. She, clearly, wasn't having a good time. As he walked up, she looked up towards him and he saw a spark of hope in her eyes, so he felt guilty to crush it. Shaking his head, he said "They're just as bad as you said."

She sighed, face falling.

"It isn't your responsibility. Tell me, what exactly did you say, and what did they want? They wouldn't even bother telling me, said they were above explaining things and to ask you." Nicole rolled her eyes, but still told him "I'm trying to explain to them that they will die if they go out there, and that they should stick with us until we find another group of… uh, well, I never caught the name of their species.

Either way, I said they should wait until we find more of them, because we all saw how you returned after just a single day in the Underworld- and that was with a Primary patching you up, keeping you alive. They're walking off into their own deaths! And I'm trying to explain it to them, but they talk to me like I'm a child!

"They say stuff like 'We will work with you if you all listen to us,' and when I tell them there's no chance of anyone following their order because, well, we don't like them, they go 'Yes you will, it only makes sense. You will either listen or you will make worse decisions," as if they know what's best despite it being a human that freed us!" she said, scoffing.

"They think they're entitled to either lord over us, or that we should be grateful to be in their presence, and if we aren't, then they threaten to leave as if I should care! I know I should let them suffer their own consequences, but I just…" She stopped, taking a deep, calming breath.

"... I just don't want to see more people get hurt because of my decisions. They're immature children who don't know what they're asking for." The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. He nodded along the entire time, then placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you. For trying, and doing your best to help people. I can tell you really love others, and want to do what you can to not cause them pain, but at this point, we're all going to suffer before we escape. It will get worse long before it gets better, so let me do it instead. You can help people, I'll make the tough calls," he said, but really, this wasn't going to be a tough call for him at all. Those grays, had to go. Pulling his hand from her shoulder.

Glancing at the four surrounding them- Amelia, Peter, Gary, and the yet-unnamed woman- he asked "Is there anyone in the camp you trust? You have Peter of course, but Gary and…"

"Fiona," the woman supplied. She had green eyes, ginger hair, and a pale complexion.

"And Fiona, are there any others?" Thankfully, Nicole nodded.

"Peter and Fiona are two of the four that helped me take care of people in the cages. Right now, the other two, Alex and Benia are out searching for water for the people too weak to move…" Aaron did the math in his head,'Me, Amelia, Richard, Nicole, Gary, Peter, Fiona, Alex, Benia. That's nine people, eight of them have Primaries because there were eight in my group that showed up down here.'

"Which of them have Primaries?" he asked.

"All but Alex and Benia, we met them here." He hummed thoughtfully, "Who was the last person to come here with us?" Nicole opened her mouth, then snapped it shut.

"I don't remember," she said, slightly uncomfortable. Looking towards the others, he could see that nobody else with a Primary knew either, just that there was an eighth person. Aaron held back a sigh. Either their Primary hid them or some other shenanigans were going on, but he'd figure it out later. His head panned around, glaring across the camp, and saw many shamelessly lounging around, though they were thankfully the minority. Others were despondent, curled up in a ball crying, or otherwise too weak to move.

He could understand Nicole's frustration that people weren't listening, and some of that was justified, but he felt a different approach was required.

"Alright, waiting's just gonna make things worse, let's get to work." * He'd asked Squeaky to wait a slight distance behind him; he needed people's attention on him not her, and she was far taller. Even on the chair, he was still about an inch shorter. Thankfully, she didn't take it as badly this time; perhaps she saw him doing business things and had pieced together that he had a goal in mind, not just leaving her to go join someone else.

Carrying a broken chair, he moved over to the side of the camp where the Grays were, but didn't look directly at them. Facing the central part of where the people were gathering, he stood on the chair and looked out over the camp. Nicole, Peter, and Fiona walked behind him; their group had already drawn many eyes, as they were the only two ever really doing anything, but he still needed them to congregate enough to hear him"ATTENTION!" he shouted, and anyone not listening already turned his way now.

"If everyone could gather around me for a moment?" A few hesitated to move forward, looking at him warily, but thankfully, he'd read something online about that and had told both Amelia and Gary to walk up when he started talking. Others followed suit soon enough, and after a minute, he had most of the camp at least in earshot- four or five looked his way without moving, but he guessed they'd at least catch a few of his words. The area where everyone was sitting wasn't exactly large.

"My name is Aaron. As you might be able to tell from my feather and the flowers covering my body," he projected his voice, hoisting the feather in question up, "I am the one that opened the cage. I was pretty hurt then, so while I'm not recognizable, that was me.

"No, I am not a cannibal, I never was. I came here with Nicole's group, but got separated from them early on. By the time I found you all, I was severely hurt, and had to rely on tricks to get close to the cage.

"While I was out there, I saw many horrific sights, as you might've noticed from my scars, those wounds that I'd gotten within a single day. So, believe me when I tell you this.

"We need to leave. NOW!" He screamed the last word, startling a few from their stupors as they began to stare at him fearfully.

"This may not be what you want to hear, you might be afraid to go out and think this place is safe, but you ARE WRONG! While I was out there, the Voice of Nothing told me a little bit about this place, and if we stay here, we will die! There was a beast called a Mushki that was the size of a truck, moved as fast as a race horse, and massacred a roving band of cannibals. Do you know how it hunted? Scent.

The Voice of Nothing directly said that it was likely that it would eventually follow the cannibal's paths back, and if it does, that thing will kill us all.

"I cannot do the terror justice, but to give you an idea, this feather I'm holding? The one that cut through flesh and bone alike? It's a feather from the Mushki's stomach that it lost while it was chasing the last surviving cannibals." The already horrified people appeared to grow more so as he spoke, but honestly, that might've been what he needed right now. He was no motivational speaker.

He needed these people moving, and he didn't know how to convince them, so he'd make sure they knew exactly what they were risking by just sitting around.

"So I tell you all this! Scavenge the camp, look for food, tools, water, gas, anything we can take! We take the remaining cars, and leave as soon as we can!"

"And go where?" a rebellious voice said. Aaron looked over, seeing a man on the smaller side.

"We have nowhere to go! Here, at least, we have water. I heard it from the cannibals themselves! That black lake is as drinkable as anything else, we should set up here instead! Together, we can kill that Mushi if it comes for us. We've got trucks, we can crash into it and attack it!" That was good information to have that the man accidentally revealed, but Aaron still frowned "Did you not just hear me? It took down a band of cannibals, a band that had cars.

The Voice of Nothing said it was from a gas giant, and its body was unquantifiably stronger than any human. It told me that the only chance of surviving was just to hope it went after someone else!"

"You keep saying the Voice of Nothing, but why should we believe you?! It hasn't spoken to any of us this entire time, why are you special?" Aaron was quickly losing his patience.

"Hell if I know! Maybe it was because I was alone, maybe it wanted to mess with the System. Let me clarify to you, I don't care what you think! I'm not dying. Anyone who wants to come with me, come help scavenge, and we will leave when we have enough. If you can help but choose not to, we will be leaving you behind!" Some of those in the back started to cry out in protest, but he simply shook his head.

"Everyone who wants to go, group up with Nicole, Peter, and Fiona! The rest of you, sit back and do jack shit, I don't care." Stepping off the crate, he walked away, leaving the band of confused onlookers trailing him with their eyes. Some were not content to wait, though, and the man who'd spoken up rushed forward, reaching out as he said "That's unfair! Some of us want to st-" Aaron wheeled around, pointing the blade at him. The man barely managed to stop as the chest-level sword nicked his chest.

The people dropped into silence, letting Aaron's words be heard.

"I am not kind. I am not fair.

"I am desperate.

"I don't know what you'll all do if you stay here, but you know what I'm going to do? Survive, explore, and find a way out of this godforsaken hellhole. Don't tell me what to do when you haven't seen what's out there already, when you haven't walked through a field of crushed cars and bloodstains, not even a single body left of the monster's victims, when you haven't faced down a horde of acid-spitting, horse-sized insects. When YOU haven't felt your organs boil as a parasite within you tries to kill you.

"I am not fair, but I am alive, and I will do everything to ensure that anyone who comes with me stays that way too." There was a deafening silence at his declaration, and the man slowly backed off, looking at him like he was insane. Yet, notably, many in the crowd looked at him with hope- perhaps that they had someone who'd gone out into the dark, and come back to guide them. Even if he had only a single day of experience, he at least knew more than them.

There were no other objections as he walked towards the grays once more. When he threw a glance behind him… he allowed his expression to relax as he saw most of the crowd move to follow Nicole and the others. Maybe they had a chance after all. His expression turned hard as he looked back at the grays, standing in front of their cage. Squeaky rejoined his side, though same as last time he'd spoken with the aliens, she was silent- and they did not acknowledge her either.

"A riveting speech," the central one drolled, and the other two winced slightly behind it.

"Then you won't help us?" The alien smirked, "We could help direct you, but if you think I'm picking through trash, you're delusional. I highly doubt you would leave anyone to the so-called monster you described, much less that woman from before." Aaron could only sigh, looking past the central one.

"And you two will not help either? You will die with him?" They froze, and the central one scoffed.

"We stand as one." He expected the others to object… but they didn't. He could only look at them piteously.

"I hope that, at the end of it all, you at least get the chance to regret your actions when you realize that you will be responsible for their deaths." The alien lost its composure for the first time, spitting vitriol in a language Aaron didn't recognize, so he simply turned around and left. There was too much to do to waste time on the useless.