Outside, the Bonobos horde stormed ahead, a dreadful force of nature. Dabozz, chief, sat on a parrot three times bigger than their ancestors its feathers glowing like red-hot metal. Shrieking with a howl of bloodlust, he hurled fire rocks, burning down village houses. It was not a raid, but a full-scale attack.
"Take the termite!" he bellowed, his broken voice sounding like thunder as they walked towards Habituh's home.
Habituh shut the window, her mother Solenne next to her with her younger sister.
"Come on," Solenne commanded. They shifted into a study, its walls lined with books that hinted at an early modern human's quest for knowledge.
Solenne rolled a weighty chair aside. The shelves groaned and shifted, revealing a shining portal to a hidden room.
"How did you know it was here?" her husband Aziel panted, but his words were cut off by the crash of the shattering door.
They flitted in, feeling blindly for a switch or button. Habituh felt blindly amongst the books while the noises of the Bonobos drew near. The door crashed with a shattering impact, the footsteps ringing down the corridors, and the snarls of the leader slicing through the air like flashing knives.
Habituh had finally clutched the right book, and with a soft click, the door locked them in. They panted fiercely as the bitter reality hit them they were trapped.
"The termite escaped! Fucking humans!" one growled.
"We require an exit!" Solenne begged.
"Mommy, why do we always run? We just moved here months ago," her baby brother, Kian, asked, his voice trembling.
"It'll be okay. Father promises a true home," Aziel curtly replied.
"Where are we going, Father?" her younger sister Lila begged, clutching Solenne's shawl.
"North… Salemele," Aziel answered, the weight of the decision bearing down. They embraced, knowing the path ahead was fraught with peril.
The Forfeihuman were spiritual survivors children of those rejected from the afloat Sky Cities many years ago. Their Abrahamic faiths, shattered into hundreds of factions, warred against the ever-present threat of the Veil Kin
dark-skinned hunters who tracked humans, calling them nature destroyers, smart but fearful of their own ignorance.
Salemele was a great city of Salem Christians expecting a born, not descended from heaven, Messiah. They were fighters and constructors, and their city was guarded by high walls and advanced technology to keep intruders
human or Veil Kin.
There was no tolerance here; religion was a sword, cutting anyone who crossed its faith.
Since they learned one bitter lesson from their Homo sapiens forebears: it's like compressing a galaxy into an atom impossible and disastrous.
So anyone who stands against their religion is cast out, rejected not merely by their own kind but by other religions of Forfeit humans, wherever they obtain their credo.
Aziel's dad, Jabari, once led a southern host called "Heaven," a lovely city that was a refuge from non-stop earthquakes. Staunch in their belief that the Messiah would return again to teach them the right scriptures, they held on to their beliefs. But their fragile city was overrun at midnight
No one had any notion of why or whom. Aziel needed to flee, wandering until he reached the lands to the east, which are now referred to as Free City—not so free from the grip of cyclical natural disasters.
Habituh's people were among those who opted for coexistence. Their chieftain was Mahbuh, an Islamic cleric, who had gathered many under a not only religious but also hope banner—the Messiah's coming, no matter what name they called him. As much as they were driven by random natural catastrophes to migrate from area to area and were subjected to constant guerrilla attacks from the Veil Kin, Mahbuh kept them united.
But ten years ago, Mahbuh was murdered, and his disciples scattered like autumn leaves when a hurricane broke out. Now, the family fled once more across the East, to territory once held by aboriginal believers long welcoming to them but now under death warrant.
The West was still uncharted—a mapless stretch of desert known as the Territory of No Return. Desolate under incessant sun radiation and scored by radiation from the ancient wars in space, it was a desert compared to the vast melting ice continent in close vicinity. But these deserts were pockets in a broken world.
The West was held by the vile Veil Kin, a phantom that lay across all hope. The Forfeihuman had but a refuge to the North—to be baptized in the city walls of Salemele or to find shelter among the southern nations. The rest of the South was ruled by Muslims, their fortress cities strongholds amidst chaos.
But the South did not belong to them. Believers were ruled to the far northern edges, where air grew thin and ground was sacred. They consecrated this harsh country as holy land, guarding it fiercely as nature's own sanctuary.
Solenne's hand traced the wall until she found a small keypad, hidden in plain stone.
"It is a password," she whispered, but before she could answer, Dabozz's voice thundered near.
"Move this chair, now!" he barked.
Habituh and Solenne rushed, hands trembling as they stumbled across the keypad, hoping they'd be able to bypass the code.
Aziel hit the panel with his fist, the ringing metallic sound radiating through the tense stillness.
A soft, encouraging click followed—the lock cycled open.
Solenne touched a concealed catch on her gown, releasing a pale blue radiance that flooded over the hidden door, illuminating their narrow route of escape.
They moved stealthily into an underground tunnel and began to run.
Dozens of tunnels twisted and branched off before them, each going some new course. Steadying themselves, they took the path that went north. The dim, stuttering light revealed the dizzying depths below, and distant high ground loomed like a brooding sentinel far above.
"This is the end," Habituh breathed shallowly.
"Over here!" shouted a Bonobo ape.
"We've got to get back!" another yelled.
"You've got the termite leave none behind!" a third growled.
Solenne grabbed Aziel's arm in a tight hold. "They're surrounding us. What do we do now?"
"We jump," Aziel answered immediately.
"But we don't know how deep," Habituh warned.
From out of the blackness came an orangutan, enormous and muscular, its dirty fur glinting with bio-enhancements. Its lips struggled with words a coarse, throaty growl punctuated by stuttering words.
"W-w-w-wait," it stammered, gripping a sleek, high-tech gun on its arm. The device was half energy cannon and half taser, pulsating with stored power. Tubes pulsed with neon, and microscopic vents released tiny puffs of ionized gas.
"Look… you… family," it spoke slowly, eyes guarded but curious.
Aziel raised a hand. "What do you want from us? We don't mean harm we just want to live."
"Silver…" a Bonobo bellowed in the distance. "Where are you? We got the—"
The orangutan clapped its jaws shut, lifted its gun, and fired a searing blast of energy that hit the Bonobo right on target, slamming him down into the depths of the cavern.
They stood rigid in shock as the Bonobo kept on falling, the energies of the sparks flashing up and down his body lighting his plummet into the darkness. With a tremendous heave, the orangutan knocked the prone foe aside, revealing the massive, gaping hole of the cavern below.
"I think termites… wise," Silver snarled, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Too me… you dumb."
He slammed against the wall, revealing a hidden staircase descending deeper.
"Go now," commanded Silver. "I lure… them. Keep young safe. Make termite significant. Go!"
"Thank you, Silver," Aziel exclaimed, his voice serious.
They ran down the steps with the pounding of footsteps echoing behind them, Silver rushing into darkness, drawing the enemy off in another direction.