Starling

By Nikki Ryan Black

In a world that has been overran by an alien species intent on reproducing with the human race, Seren finds herself living and training in the Blitz Sanctuary. To Seren, its a means of survival, but when her mentor, Cort, is assigned to her, it becomes clear that something is not as it seems. Young, beautiful and authoritative, Cort eludes to the under workings of the society that has been her refuge. But there's something more to Cort, something familiar... and dark. Dealing with extreme prejudice, fear and inequality, Seren begins to face the realities of the world around her and confront her own physicality.She must decide if she can trust this mysterious man and ultimately,place her fate in his hands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365773341

Book preview

Starling

Starling

By: Nikki Ryan Black

Chapter 1

The sanctuary wasn’t always my home. Still, it was hard to remember my life before then, laying on a makeshift cot in the darkness of the subway station. I could hear water dripping somewhere nearby; a constant seep from the streets above. Sometimes, it was the only reminder that another world existed at all. In my mind’s eye I imagined it pooling somewhere in the floor, among the fourteen other refugees housed with me. It was always either too cold or too hot and it was always too wet. Such climate was to be expected underground. I was safe though and that’s what was important. I had risked my life coming to the Blitz Sanctuary and my mother had given hers.

My only goal for so long had been to find safety, that I wasn’t sure which direction my life would take next. I didn’t know what to do with myself since my goal had been reached.  I needed some direction, a plan. Deep down I had always felt that my life was meant for something more…that I was something more. But there I sat, surrounded by girls and guys just like me, all just surviving at the sanctuary. Maybe that’s what set all of us apart, that we were survivors. I knew each one of us had made it by various means and through a multitude of trials. We were lucky.

I tried to sleep but my thoughts wandered back to my journey to the sanctuary and the horrific ordeal I had faced. I was 17, but I felt so much older for all of it. I had lived a very hard life.

A noise brought me back from my thoughts. Those were memories best forgotten anyway. It was our dorm leader, Makiy, walking toward my room. Her blonde hair was stained brown from the rotten tunnel air, her skin the color of ash. She carried herself well though. Makiy had been in the sanctuary when I arrived. I could only imagine how long she had lived in it.

Seren, she began as she stepped into my quarters. I’ve come with mixed news, but I hope you will be happy with it…

Mixed news. That didn’t sound good.

You’ve been here over a year now, continued Makiy. You haven’t seen the sunlight in too long. We trust you now and as you know, we’re taking in more refugees every day.

I knew where the conversation was headed.

Seren, we are moving your group to level two. Your dormitory will be refilled with a new group of refugees. We are going to train you to be an official Blitz. This means you will have a permanent place with us, should you choose to accept it.

Blitz, was the name the official people used to describe themselves. It was German for lightning, and in truth, it was fitting. I had watched the more seasoned people in the tunnels. They were fast, sharp and would be scary, if they weren’t my protectors. But what Makiy was not saying was something we all knew too well; I had the choice to stay and train, but if I refused, it would be time for me to leave.

I didn’t understand all the details and I didn’t know what the training would require. But I also didn’t see that I had much of a choice. To begin, I had nowhere else to go and no family that I was aware of. I didn’t remember my journey to the sanctuary. I had woken up in the dormitory alone and when I inquired about the people I had been travelling with no one knew anything about them. I had just written it off as another one of my patchwork memories. Something must have happened that I chose not to remember. Maybe it was bad? Maybe I chose to block it out? The last thing I remembered, I was on a train with a man named John and his daughter, Luxe. John had wrapped our hands in razor wire and pretended that we were his slaves so that the Starlings on board wouldn’t take us. I had seen horrific sights. There were Starlings everywhere, each with a multitude of slave women, mostly nude. I was so sleepy though, exhausted from our journey. I must have passed out. That’s all I could pull from my subconscious. 

Beyond not having anywhere to go, I was also very afraid of the Starlings. They were beautiful creatures, taller than most humans, chiseled frames… but extremely hostile. When they first came to our planet to propagate their species, many women fell in love with them and their boisterous charm. But it wasn’t long until the humans began to see them for the monsters that they were. When they became excited, dark wings would extend from their shoulders and long, sharp teeth protruded from their mouths. If that weren’t enough, all the offspring those women gave birth to died, and they followed shortly thereafter. Our scientists called it a complete genetic incompatibility. The women soon refused the Starlings. That’s when they started taking slaves.

I also knew that I longed for the sun. We were each required to stand under a man hole of sorts for 30 minutes each day as the sun made its journey across the sky. Still, the light was dim, filtered, and I knew I was deficient in vitamin D, among everything else. It would be nice to go back into the daylight from time to time, despite the danger. My main motivation was the usual though…survival. I could definitely survive in the sanctuary better than I could out on the streets again. I didn’t want to go back there. 

I looked at Makiy, sighed, and nodded my head. Of course, I’ll train. I am honored that you find me a worthy candidate. I realize that others aren’t so fortunate.

It was true. Makiy explained that of the fifty refugees housed in the lower dormitory, only twenty had been selected. The other thirty would be leaving the following morning, among them, my friend, Jasper. He claimed to have relatives in the sanctuary on the west coast and wanted to journey to them. I suspected that had he shown any interest in staying, he would have been selected. Jasper was a happy person, physically fit and had made friends with everyone. I knew I would be sad to see him leave.

The morning dragged on. I joined Jasper in the dining hall and we sat down together with some ten other people to enjoy our Oat Meal. I remembered my mother telling me about peasants hundreds of years ago who lived on a continent that no longer existed. They often ate gruel. I felt pretty sure the Oat Meal was similar.

The thought of my mother gave me pause. Our last meal together before we left for the sanctuary had been bacon with eggs. It had been a tradition of ours to have breakfast for supper occasionally. A flash of her body lying on the floor of the convenience store crossed my mind. The gun she had gone in to take was still grasped in her hands as the blood trickled out of her head. I had only barely had time to grab the gun before two Starlings came in to take her body, to where I never knew. She had been killed by a common thug who had taken her shoes and coat for his daughter. She would have given them to him had he only asked. I later learned who that killer was as I had met up with him in an alley a couple nights later. I had taken pity on him and had travelled with them from then on. John and Luxe.

The dining hall was large and open. It was once used as a loading area when the trains still ran. There were sky lights above, painted black now for security and long, still functioning lights dangled from the forty-foot ceiling. Tables, made from plywood, repurposed shelves and other semi wooden items were lined in neat rows across the room. As we ate, more people began to filter in. It always amazed me at how many people lived there. Before the subways were closed, the city had expanded them to include multiple levels. The one we used had four. Each level was filled to its tipping point with either refugees, like me, mostly in the lower levels or Official Blitz, who were housed in the upper ones. I wandered why they hadn’t expanded the sanctuary. The subway must have run for many miles in each direction, but we were inhabiting only a couple miles on each level. When I asked, Makiy told me that it was because there weren’t enough resources to repurpose any farther. Rooms had to be built, furniture provided and training halls to be constructed.

The noise level began to rise and Jasper and I were joined by several other people. Penny, my bossy and somewhat tomboyish friend, sat to my left. Her choppy, boy cut hair was raven black and made her nose rings stand out on her face. I hoped she would be staying at the sanctuary. Cam, a hefty refugee with short, military cut hair that didn’t compliment his face, sat down across from Jasper and finally, our team leader, Makiy, sat down across from me. Those were my people.

Cam looked sad and I asked what was wrong to Makiy. He’s leaving in the morning, she told me. It was not his choice. Oh.

I wasn’t surprised. Cam was not physically fit and I doubted he could or would train to be an Official Blitz. He came in about the same time I had and a night hadn’t passed that I hadn’t heard him sobbing in his sleep. It was clear he was no warrior. Still, I would be sad to see him go. It was cruel, but it was necessary.

I was perplexed as I thought about Cam. Why was I chosen to train? While thin, I was not physically fit. If anything, I was weak. My color was bad. I was not strong. I had no special skills or traits. I was quiet and stayed to myself, unlike Jasper and many others, who made friends easily. I had no strong connections or ties either. Most of the others, given our desperate situation, had found comrodery in a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I hadn’t met anyone I was interested in. How could I have been chosen to stay?

Makiy was looking at me oddly. I thought she was following my facial expressions because she reached over and took my hand before saying, You have friends here, Seren. Don’t forget it.

Penny smiled at me in agreement and continued to eat her gruel. Penny was someone I liked very much. She was as close to a best friend as I had ever had. We weren’t the giggly, girly kind of friends I remembered from back home, but we respected each other. Penny had a rougher life than I had. She was always in trouble at home, even before the Starlings came. Because of her temper, her parents had sent her to a camp for troubled teens and when she came back, she was no more reformed than before. She was fifteen when the Starlings came and at sixteen, she had fallen in love with one of them. She ran away with him just before her parents were killed by a group of thugs trying to steal supplies. While she never talked about him much, she did say that he was good to her. He protected her and didn’t want her to have his children because he knew it would mean her death. When he was murdered by his fellow Starlings for not forcing her to breed, she ran to the sanctuary and had been a refugee ever since. She was just two years older than me and we had been housed in the same dormitory for twelve months.

I’ll be coming with you to train, she smiled at me. At least I had one friend coming. Also, Makiy would stay as lead in the lower dorms, so I knew I’d never be alone. She was already an Official Blitz.

A commotion started in the dining hall as another group of people entered. Through the entranceway, I spotted several Officers, those were the people who were responsible for training the Blitz. Most had been training for ages. They were older men with graying hair and women who had passed the physicals alongside them. They were the strongest among us. The commotion however, followed the second in line. Different from the others, this man was very young. I would have guessed him to be in his early twenties. He was over six-foot-tall and had cold black hair, razor sharp black eyes and a chiseled jawline. He was beautiful. He was intimidating. But that’s not what was so impressive. The commotion was surrounding the fact that he had entered with the Officers. No one that young was an officer…even I had known that.

He’s a new Officer, Makiy explained. He has been training only three years but because of his exceptional performance during that training, he has been promoted to Officer, just this year. There has been some argument about his ability at such a young age which has caused many debates, but I assure you, if you see him in action just once, your doubt will be put to rest.

I glanced over at the new officer…and I thought…no, I was sure, he was looking right back at me.

Chapter 2

The next morning was bittersweet. At 5:00 am Makiy and two other dorm leaders made their way into my dormitory filled with fifteen refugees. Of the fifteen, only five of us, Penny and myself included, were asked to exit the dorm with our belongings. I had packed the night before, though I didn’t have very much with me. I clung to my pack my mother had made for me over a year ago; it’s only contents, a black garbage bag and the gun that she had lost her life for. Strewn around the bottom of the pack, fallen from a box that had disintegrated from the elements, lay a handful of bullets I had managed to steal after the Starlings had taken her body. I’m not sure why I kept the gun but it was likely a combination of a few factors. To begin, if it was important enough for my mother to lose her life over, it was important enough for me to keep. Next, I suspected that in the back of my mind I believed that if it got bad enough, I’d rather die than be taken. I thought that’s why my mother had taken the gun to begin with. She had known that a gun wouldn’t penetrate a Starlings skin.

Other than my pack, I brought with me three outfits of makeshift clothing, given to me by the sanctuary, a tin of instant coffee, half used, and a notebook with a pen that had been distributed to the new trainees, as we were called then, the night before.

As we trudged down the hallway, all twenty of us gathered, we each seemed to glance back at the dormitory that had been home for so long. I thought of my friends and I hoped their journey into the unknown would be a safe and successful one. 

At the end of the hallway, a large metal door, usually bolted shut from the other side, stood open and waiting for us. Penny and I clung together as we made our way into what appeared to be a stairwell and up onto the concrete stairs before us. We were only moving to level two, so it was an easy climb. As we entered the hallway above though, it was clear that my world had changed. While there was an apparent increase in moisture dripping through the ceiling and cracks, probably due to our more elevated proximity to the surface, there was also a cleanliness on that level that we hadn’t had in the lower dormitories. The hallways, once black and covered with grime, had been scrubbed clean, returned to their original gray concrete. The lights were all working, ridding us of the overcast darkness that had consumed us for so long. I understood that refugees had to earn trust. I understood that any one of us could be a traitor or become afraid and run into the streets yelling our location. In my logical brain, I knew that the precautions the Blitz had taken, keeping us indoors, keeping us on the lower levels and away from exits, was necessary. I couldn’t help feeling just a bit betrayed then though, realizing that just one flight of stairs below us, the living conditions were so much worse.

While level two was better, it still wasn’t good. The floors were still covered with a sticky substance that seemed to permeate the very air we were breathing and there was still no natural light. As my eyes adjusted to the powerful fluorescents though, I began to see details I had missed.

The walls were lined with training items. Battle weapons, it seemed. There were swords and knives, shields and brass knuckles. Even some ancient throwing stars hanged haphazardly on a shelf to my right. I had known I would be trained, but for some reason I had assumed it would be more like survival skills. No battle.

The dorm leaders who led us, including Makiy, took us farther down the hall. Each two persons were assigned a room. One pair would go left, the other would go right. Penny and I held hands and I was nearly holding my breath until Makiy called our names. Seren. Penny. Right- dorm 207.

I was relieved. At least I wouldn’t be separated from my friend. I glanced down the hall and saw that there were probably thirty more doors, as far as I could see. Since the new trainees would only be using ten of them, I wandered what lay behind the rest.

Penny and I entered our room and we each chose a bed. Mine was on the right wall, hers to the left. Behind us, at the headboards of our beds, we each had a desk, complete with a chair and a personal lamp. At the foot of the bed, a small wardrobe. The back was lined with hooks for additional clothing that none of us had. I placed my notebook on the desk and began unpacking my things when someone knocked at the door. It was Makiy.

I trust you ladies are pleased? she asked with a grin spreading across her face.

Yes, Makiy! I exclaimed. I’m not sure how you did it but, thank you. Penny nodded in agreement in her quietly rebellious way. I knew she was pleased as well.

Well, I think you will like your privacy, Makiy continued. I know this is a lot better than sharing a dorm with thirteen others. You girls are friends. We like comradery here, so it was nothing. I was so happy I was about to burst. The weapons, far from my mind, took a backseat to my new found happiness. Maybe I was meant to be an officer. Maybe things would be okay after all.

But girls, came Makiy, it will be different here. This will take some adjustment on your part. You must earn your trust still and while you are more advanced than a refugee in this place, you have a long way to go. Try to be patient. At that she left our room for the hallway and a large metal door slid out from the wall. As it closed into place, with a vibrating thud I observed that it was missing a handle.

Penny’s eyes grew large as she quickly walked over to the door. She searched frantically for a handle and when she found none, she began slamming her body into it with her shoulder. I was shocked.

Penny! I yelled, Penny! Calm down. Penny was quickly starting to hyperventilate and as I grabbed her by the arm she turned and took a swing at me, barely missing my nose as she regained focus on my face and saw who I was. Our eye contact seemed to ground her some and she allowed me to lead her to her bed.

Penny was clearly very claustrophobic.

She stared at me, glanced at the door and said, Something is wrong here. Why did they lock us in? We were free to come and go on the lower level.

Yes, I replied in the most soothing voice I could muster. But on the lower level, there was no stairway. There were no weapons and no way out. We could only hurt each other. Did you see the walls? There is an arsenal out there! And I’ll bet that some of those other rooms house lower level officers too. You heard Makiy. We still must earn our trust.

Penny’s shoulders slumped, Right. She said. Right. But those weapons…they worry me too. Penny had a point. I was worried as well, but I wouldn’t let my friend see that.  It’s funny how a person can switch from such a happy mood to such a fearful one so quickly. It only takes a single moment to change one’s entire perception of the world.

Time passed slowly in the room. There was no clear passage between day and night without the reminders to go to dinner, lights out time and breakfast. In fact, there was no lights out time at all. For the duration of the time in our room, the lights remained on. There were no calls for meals and no food was brought. Because we had no bathroom facility in our rooms, we were forced to hold it. It quickly became miserable. I began to get afraid that something had happened to everyone else. Had there been an attack? Were we alone, left to die? Surely, they wouldn’t be thas cruel to us.

The door was clearly sound proof as we heard not a peep from the hallway to let us know if there was any life out there at all. Since no one could hear us, Penny and I passed the time by talking. We hadn’t ever really had a full conversation before, not with so many ears listening and the loud noise of multiple voices at all times. What discussion we had before had taken place with many other people present and was never personal. Penny was breaking down though and talking seemed to keep her calmer. I learned that the reason she was so claustrophobic was because during the time after her lover Starling had been killed and before she made her way to the sanctuary, she had been held captive by some Starlings. She said they had placed her in a cell such as our room, only bare and had left her for days. I thought that the door was what upset Penny most. It was unnatural in that setting. It wasn’t part of the original subway system and had been modified by more modern technology. She said it was the same type of door used to house her before.

I must have fallen asleep, because I found myself wrapped up in a nightmare. It was the same nightmare I had been having for months and each time, I seemed I noticed something else, something new about it. I was on the train with John and Luxe again. I was in our booth behind the table, wedged into a corner. All of a sudden, there was a great shaking sensation, the tracks, feeling as if they had broken beneath me. I could hear screams but I couldn’t