Zas was woodworking outside when he heard the front door shut quietly. It was a beautiful morning. Blue skies, and fluffy white clouds, no one else was up and about at this time of day, and Zas enjoyed the solitude. He watched as Dina started walking towards her car.

“Nice day to sneak out of your lovers house huh?” Zas called startling her. Dina flinched and then turned around. She stuck her tongue out and then turned around and sauntered back to her car. Zas chuckled, he loved teasing her when she slept over; which had been almost everyday since the Holiday. As much as he hated it, Ezza and Dina were getting closer and closer. He was starting to feel like he was losing his best friend. He knew that wasn’t true, but it was still how he felt, eventually though a decision would have to be made. They would be leaving, but he figured that by now they’d have to take Dina as well. This was getting complicated. Shaking his head to clear it, he went back to his woodworking.

 

Ezza sat at the table eating his cereal. He had been woken by Cameron slamming the front door as he ran out of the house. He had looked a little unkempt, so Ezza figured out it had been important, but he couldn’t quite focus on that. His mind was still on the night before when Dina had given him a key. When he had asked what it was for, she had told him it was to her house. Well their house if he had wanted it to be. Ezza had been shocked, he did really want to make it their house. Especially after she told him that he was going to be father-maybe. She was expecting test results from the hospital soon and would know for sure. Ezza had whooped and hollered, picking Dina up he had spun her around. Their celebration had made Zas and Cameron come running at all the noise. They had burst open the door to find Ezza and Dina collapsed on the bed all tangled together and laughing. Cameron had offered apologies, red faced. Zas had just said keep it down, then turned to Cameron and said ‘kids!’ Which made both of them laugh as they walked away.

Ezza knew he’d have to tell Zas and then they’d have to make plans to take Dina with them. Things were getting complicated, but Ezza couldn’t have been happier about it. After drying his dishes and putting them away, he went outside to work in his garden. He was so happy he was practically bursting at the seams. As he went through the garden he began calculating how to move his plants to his new family’s home.

 

That night Zas and Ezza were at the bar talking about their days when Cameron came in to the house. He looked pale and upset. Cameron sat down at the bar, and ordered a drink. Ezza placed it in front of him, and Cameron swallowed it one go, letting out a sigh.

“What’s going on? They sell out of your favourite hair gel again?” Zas teased Cameron.

“Pack what you need. NOW.” Cameron said. He rushed over to the computer and inserted a small USB stick into the side of it. He began typing frantically on the keyboard. Zas and Ezza stood still watching Cameron, after a few moments of silence Zas shook his head made a disgusted sound and walked out of the house. He went to his woodworking bench to blow off some steam, Cameron frustrated him to no end sometimes. A little while later Cameron came outside to talk to Zas, Ezza was behind him. Ezza shrugged when Zas gave him a questioning look.

“Cameron what’s going on?” Ezza asked nervously.

“Awhile ago an informant of mine found out that the Council’s Military Networks were looking for you. You’d been spotted after you crashed a few times. Interest was dying down finally, and people thought you were just another ghost sighting to stir up excitement, in other words a wild goose chase. However at that party you were spotted by a Hunter. They don’t lie, they don’t joke around and they track by scent. Specifically Ezza’s, don’t ask me why. I thought I took him out before he reported, but I didn’t make it I guess. So now the hunt was reactivated. We need to move you and hide you where you won’t be found. Windenburg is too open, you can be scented and hunted too easily here. I’m taking you to a port town. Lots of different species traffic from our allies, humans crushed together in small spaces, etc. It’ll confuse them.” Cameron informed them. Then his phone rang, as he answered it Ezza grabbed a hold of Zas’s arm.

      

“What do we do?” He asked nervously.

“We run. If Cameron thinks that’s best, we run. We hide and we survive. Hopefully at this port town we can find a way to get off by stowing away or paying. Then we go.” Zas said. In his head he was already calculating what they’d need to take and what could be left behind.

“Damn! Is there anyway around it?” Cameron frantically asked into the phone. He sighed as he hung up.

“What about Dina?” Ezza asked Zas desperately.

“If we leave, your girlfriend should be fine. She’ll be hurt but this is going to be a hard move. If we could have done it slower, we could have taken her if she accepted us.” Zas responded as he thought about how to begin preparing for their run. Ezza knew what Zas was saying but he couldn’t process it. He needed to protect Dina. Tugging on Zas’s arm, he tried one last time.

“Zas she may be pregnant, we can’t just leave her here!” Ezza said loudly. Zas stiffened and Cameron stopped talking. Both men turned to Ezza.

“What?” Zas asked in disbelief.

“Oh Ezza, didn’t you use safety measures?” Cameron asked at the same time. Ezza looked down at his feet. Zas let out an aggravated sigh and rubbed his forehead.

“Then well just have to take her, whether she wants to or not. This is your doing, so your responsibility.” Zas said looking Ezza in the eyes.

“You could also kill her.” Cameron said as Zas and Ezza stared each other in the eye.

 

“What!?” Ezza cried out. He was shaking with fury and heading towards Cameron. Zas put his hands on his friends shoulder and pushed him back.

“Ezza stop! Cameron not helpful or happening.” Zas said trying to smooth the situation.

“Well it may be the only option Muffin. They’re sending the Hunters. It will take them about a week to get a Kiss together.” Cameron said.

“Okay,  then we hide in this city, and then leave.” Zas said confirming things with Cameron. Cameron looked down.

“What now?” Zas asked. Ezza was pacing behind him, hands on his head and muttering to himself.

“Yeah, the reason it’s so vital that they find you is because they’ve moved into the final phase testing of the weapons on this planet. They think you’re spies. Also, they’ve closed the webbing on this planet.” Cameron finished.

“Webbing? What webbing? What does that mean?” Zas asked. Cameron motioned for them all to go inside. After the door had closed behind them, he explained.

“Ever find it weird your engine went out suddenly? You hit a strand of the web. It’s a new defence they’re building. It creates kind of like an invisibility barrier around something. In this case the planet earth. It’s going to disappear, or at least look that way. Which means no one gets in and no one gets out. You’re stuck here, we all are.” Cameron said sadness saturating his voice. Zas just stared at him for a moment, thinking.

“There’s no way? At all?” Zas questioned Cameron.

“Not right now. No one’s found a way to get past this so far. Not like it hasn’t been tried before. Maybe down the road someone will find something we can use.” Cameron stated.

“Were stuck!?” Ezza said panic evident in his voice. “What do we do? What about the Hunters!? Are we just going to be hunted for the rest of our lives!? What about Dina!? Zas what about Dina!?”

Zas had to grab Ezza’s hands off of his shirt so he could think straight. In his panic Ezza was shaking him so hard he felt like his neck was going to snap.

“Dina will be fine, once you’re removed from her. It’s the Hunters and the possible rug rat you’ll have to deal with. Take the child out, and run.” Cameron said coldly. Zas assessed Cameron. He was a cold blooded man when he had a job to do. Zas kind of admired that trait, it was something he himself had never mastered.

 

“Were stuck? No kids? No making it home? No Dina? Zas I can’t-“ Ezza started to say, but he was cut off by a loud beeping noise. Zas’s eyes widened as a garbled woman’s voice came out of Ezza’s arm area

“What’s happening?” Cameron asked curiously getting up and coming towards them.

“Ezza shut it down now!” Zas hollered at his friend. This was the last thing they needed, stupid Ezza and his stupid panicking.

“I can’t my suit isn’t repaired enough to fix it. Zas! Help me shut it down!” Ezza cried out thrusting his arm towards his friend. Zas reached out for Ezza’s arm not sure what he could do, but hoping to be able to do something to stop it. Just as Zas touched Ezza, and before Cameron got to them a blinding light exploded outwards covering the entire room.

ISOLATION PROTOCOL INITIATED

After the light faded away, all three of them blinked several times. Cameron was the first recover.

“Well kiddies, that was interesting. Now does someone want explain- What the hell!?” He yelled out. Zas looked at him a moment and then turned to see what had startled Cameron. His mouth dropped open.

“What are both of you looking at?” Ezza asked. Walking away from the two of them Ezza went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

“Well this really is not going to help. How do we fix it?” Ezza called out.

“You can’t. It’s permanent.” Zas said, his mind still reeling from what happened.

“I don’t know what happened, but I want to. In the mean time, I can work with this. This changes the game.” Cameron said.

“What do you mean?” Zas and Ezza asked at the same time. Ezza had come out of the bathroom.

“Well it was Ezza’s scent they zoned in on specifically. Now you’re scent is different. Here’s what we’re going to do. This will hurt you a lot Pretty Baby, but it’s the only way.” Cameron said clasping Ezza on the shoulders.