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might live fifteen or more years. Would Zack be around when
his life passed? Would any of them be around to witness this tragedy? Zack
shook his head to these questions and a million others he asked over and over. 
    He couldn’t lay all the blame on the Sundogs. It was
Eve’s people who were the masterminds, who controlled the Sundogs, the planet.
Vampires, Luke called them. Adita, Roth named them. As far as Zack was
concerned names meant little. Giving the aliens a specific name, such as
vampire, would deceive the mind into thinking of them in that capacity, which
could be dangerous. The Adita could not be destroyed by holy water or garlic. A
stake to the heart was up for debate, seeing as how he didn’t know if they had
hearts. The Sundogs had internal organs, including a heart, but their skin was
capable of absorbing the kinetic energy from the most intense of impacts with
amazing effectiveness. He knew this for fact, having tested its strength with
various high-powered military hardware. Reason might dictate the Adita’s skin would
withstand the same level of assault, and reason also suggested they did have a
heart, but reason wasn’t exactly reliable in the current environment.
    Research in the bunker’s vast data base on the name
Adita delivered ambiguity in providing answers or hope. He’d found similar names
existing in ancient script, and even stories of blood sucking demons, gods and
angels depending on the date or region of reference. A few vague descriptions
of ghost like beings having soulless eyes peppered history, but the names Agra
and Arati never surfaced. A few sightings of a waif like being, that may or may
not have been Eve, were cited. One passage referred to the waif as a witch,
others called her a dark angel. One Russian tale told of a pale goddess, who
delivered a group of starving settlers from the depths of hell to a heaven of
abundance. The accounts were never in great detail or conclusive. The tellers often
referred to as people too far ‘in the cup’ or too crazy to be relied upon.
    When pressed, Austin had shared little information about
Eve or her people. Based on what Zack overheard in the Adita death chamber, he
knew she was somehow connected to Roxanne’s death. But Austin had been a closed
book on the subject of his wife. His reaction, and subsequent behavior, belied
the captain’s previous obsession with finding her, but the topic was better
left alone until such time Austin felt like sharing. Zack doubted very much they’d
have ever the ‘what happened to Roxanne’ conversation.
    Climate control, gargoyle looking beasts with computer
chips, vampire like aliens, all of these oddities could be rationalized, maybe
even explained by modern science or some sort of science. However, making sense
of the Captain’s attitude was beyond sense, common or otherwise. Zack sighed,
as if in doing so the weight of his thoughts might dissipate into the air. He
knew in a few hours it wouldn’t matter. The captain would be gone, Luke and Ed
tagging along like dutiful soldiers. Gone on a mission to save Austin’s son, to
save the people in the warehouses, to stop the Adita and to most likely die
before doing any of those things. Yet another anomaly Zack didn’t quite understand.
The paternity of the boy was unquestionable, he was Austin’s son, but who was
the mother? Eve or Roxanne? If Eve was the mother, the boy would not be fully
human and that in itself raised many more questions without answers.
    “Watching the suns?”
    Zack bolted out of his chair like a startled
jackrabbit. “Holy shit man. You scared the crap outta me.”
    “Sorry,” Austin offered halfheartedly.
    “Forget it.” Zack leaned on the chair for support, trying
to calm his nerves. “What’s with the sunglasses?”
    Austin rubbed his shaved head, pausing before he
spoke. “Can I trust you?”
    “Uh, I think we’ve figured that one out months ago.”
    “This is different.”
    “From what?” Zack laughed. It