The Race

By Nathalie M.L. Römer

They came to our world a hundred years ago. Before we knew it they overran the world, destroyed our infrastructure and now we live in habitats. That's the best we can call our living accommodations. They terraformed the world...

 

What remains of humanity whispers about a plan to evacuate some of us. They claim that scientists h

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emerentsia QuickReads
• Release date: Apr 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9789198690644

Nathalie M.L. Römer

Nathalie M.L. Römer is an author based in Gusselby, Sweden. She lives here with her partner Anders. Before this, she lived for over two decades in Britain. She was born and initially raised in the Netherlands, and later also lived in Curaçao. Nathalie considers herself a multi-genre author, publishing them under her imprint Emerentsia Publications she co-owns with her partner. Nathalie writes science fiction, epic fantasy, mystery, horror and romance, and she's working on books in other genres.

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The Race

Nathalie M.L. Römer

Copyright © 2021 Nathalie M.L. Römer

ISBN-13: 9789198690644

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One

An overturned drastically deeply rusting car, turning slowly to dust, hides two individuals who are scrutinising the eastern landscape from edge of the roof of Habitat 4-C, at the most eastern side of what might have been the ancient border between the old nations France and Germany of what people now commonly call Old Earth. Though the names of the ancient nations are long forgotten by most of the current generation of humans - the few that remain after a war, an invasion, a colonisation or something else, something more devastating…

No one is certain of what happened a hundred years ago. Before we knew it, the world was overrun, changed, and creatures they only ever knew as ‘aliens’ had arrived and taken over every square metre of land and sea. Before we know it, we all lived in the Habitats, built by aliens. Governed by their rules, their laws, their edicts and their culture.

Who or what they are is a mystery, even now. We know they came here. That was what most knew. We don’t even know why they came, or from where.

One of the last calendars that’s still in existence, used by us secretly to measure ‘time’ in the human way, puts the arrival at around a hundred years ago; in what was the last quarter of the ‘twenty-first century’…

Who else is coming? Taylor hisses to the boy beside him.

"Kaylee, Sam and Joey all said they’d definitely come with us, too, Addie answers. Now that we’ve determined a direct route towards the borderlands they’ve said ‘yes’ to our plan…"

"When will they be here?" Taylor asks.

Kaylee and Sam are coming with us from Habitat 5-A, Addie says, pointing south of their location. "That’s the Habitat over there on the horizon. Sam said he could convince one other friend to come too, and their father is apparently a mapmaker."

"So I guess that such a person will be the most important person in our group when we leave… Taylor says. I presume they’ve also learned the skill of map recall at the same time. If I remember correctly, the dwellers of Habitat 5-A are the ones who compete in the monthly map search sprint…"

Yeah, you’re correct in that, Addie responds, and it’s claimed they found a portion of a movie on one of those old devices and repaired it with spare parts. It shows a group of citizens of Old Earth running to compete for a prize of some sort…

"So it’s just us—five ‘overzealous’ guys and a girl—who’ll be going through the fields towards the borderlands when the moon goes dark, right? Taylor suggests. It will be hard to convince the aliens that we’re a work detail—"

If I remember correctly, Sam said his other friend is also a… girl— Addie says.

"And they use the old ‘they’ pronoun despite the ridiculous laws set by the aliens? Taylor asks. How bold of… errr… them, I guess."

It shows true courage to go against everything that the aliens set in motion a hundred years ago, Addie says. "But that’s still not a work detail. We’d need to get someone to distract the aliens so we can succeed…"

"That just leaves us with the dilemma of how we can ensure that it distract the aliens…" Taylor mutters.

Sam had an idea for that, but I don’t think you’ll like it much, Addie grunts.

What idea?

We use the dung from the fields to shield us from their bio-scanners, Addie says, pointing up towards one of the low-hovering objects resembling the images of old planes.

Taylor studies the nearest few of the metallic objects the aliens used to monitor every part of the planet for living creatures. They had, in a matter of weeks, achieved what humans never did. Taylor glances at the display mounted atop of Habitat 4-C. The display would show whenever an animal or human was born or hatched and go down if an