Grub

The narrow dirt streets, between the brown and towering chimney-like housing, were very quiet this morning, absent the odor of the combustion motored vehicles and the sound of the mechanical gear-shifting and handlebar bells of the hundreds of bicycles, but 11-year-old Xi Yang paid no attention to this. Nor did he think much about the increased number of guards that patrolled back and forth outside the district walls.

His attention though, was drawn to the absence of his favorite statue, the one where images of all the worlds children held hands and appeared to be moving in a circular, clockwise motion. In fact, Xi began to notice how all the statues along his way were no longer there.

“Hello, Acant,” he called out as soon as he say him.

Acant was easy to spot. He stood taller than most kids his age and his multi-horned head was darker and did not match his back-shell or his six thin and jagged exoskeletal legs.

“You should not have come here, today,” Acant gargled, his mouthpiece more suited for his native tongue, a clicking.

“No? Why?” Xi asked.

“You should not have, that is all.”

“But I don’t understand. We played here yesterday and we still need to finish the ramp for your bicycle.”

“That will not happen anymore. You should go. Bad, bad.”

“Is it the stupid war?”

“Bad, bad,” Acant repeated.

Xi watched his friend. He looked neither sad nor angry, but then he also knew that Acant’s type have very little in the way of facial movements, so any real emotion was in the eyes or in their speech.

“Is it because your people are winning?”

“We are not people.”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, you go. Trouble.”

“But what about the ramp?”

“Forget ramp,” Acant’s voice rose sharply.

It wasn’t until then that Xi realized that a crowd was forming. Smaller and larger, older and younger, all of Acant’s kind.

“Okay,” Xi said, disappointed.

Somewhere in the gathering crowd he heard the slur, ‘grub.’ He’d heard it used on ‘district enforcement,’ but had never been called it before.

“I don’t understand,” Xi said, “I was born here, like my parents and grand parents and their parents, but suddenly I don’t belong here, suddenly I’m a — grub?”

“You always been grub,” Acant said.

The claim stung Xi deeply. And though angry, he felt more like crying as he tried figure out what had changed between now and yesterday afternoon after class.

He knew Acant had learned the same lesson in history that he had. On Earth, nearly two-hundred years previous, America and China were at war with each other.

As they battled they learned of a bigger threat, that there was a need to move humans off the planet. That’s how Xi’s family, now called Terrans and no longer Earthlings, had come to the planet Dalis and met the Dalisians.

At first the Terrans enslaved the Dalisians, forcing them to work long hard hours with little food or sleep. This had been more than 150-earth-years ago, but things had changed.

Though separate species, the Dalisians eventually earned their freedom and became equals with the Terrans, who eventually began calling themselves Dalisians as well. But then a war had begun a dozen years ago, before either Acant or Xi were born, between another race of Dalisian-type species and human exploring for new colonizing grounds and mineral enrichment.

A stone flew from out the growing crowd that now surrounded the boy, striking Xi on top of his right shoulder and he fell down. This was followed by a din of rapid clicking, some which Xi understood was about him — including grub, kill, feast.

He felt the kicks, clawing, scratching and stabs from the many legs of the crowd that seemed to surge over him. Thankfully, Acant stepped in and stopped what was happening.

“Go! Bad! Trouble! Not wanted!” Acant garbled before falling into a guttural clicking, that sounded far more threatening than Xi had ever known.

Bloodied, Xi got to his feet and turned to leave, only to find his way blocked by other bug-like Dalisians. Another stone sailed from the gathering, smashing into Xi’s left temple.

The boy’s vision swirled into nothingness as he toppled to the ground.

He died from the blow, never understanding why he’d been turned on by Acant and his kind. District enforcers came a few seconds later, but by that time there was very little left of Xi, as his body had been picked clean.