by A D Jordan
Chapter 4
The cloaked figure had barely shrugged his shoulder at his inquiry back then and had said nothing, David's hand of its own volition had lifted the substance to his mouth, the taste had been sweet on the tongue and all the way down to his poor deprived gut. He'd waited somewhat fearfully for the side effects but none had come, none except the strange feeling of being full from just that little handful after days of starvation. The cloaked one had been right, it had been days since he'd last eaten; it had gotten so bad he'd even caught himself giving serious thought to seeking out human flesh, he'd daydreamed about it in the scorching heat of a ruthless sun that showed no mercy. He'd come back to his senses when the picture that formed in his mind had caused him to throw up the bile that lined his otherwise empty stomach.
It was on that first encounter that he'd tried to see around the cloak that shrouded the figure that walked slightly ahead of him and to his left. There was a weird feeling seeping into him as they walked but he had no words to describe it. It was almost as if he floated along, he had energy where before there was none and he felt...joy, yes that's it. What joy could be had in a time of desolation and despair? It had been years since he'd enjoyed a genuine laugh. The days leading up to the onslaught had been fraught with uncertainty and uproar. His own government had insisted that to avoid the happenings of Europe they had to take desperate measures. Millions of unsuspecting sheople had been gathered up and taken to camps. Thinking only of their safety and refuge the poor souls hadn't stopped to give thought to the rising temps and the fact that the dwellings were made of metal. He couldn't bring himself to think of their fates, it was too horrid to contemplate, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children had been literally cooked to death in their little steel prisons. The recollections of the few who had escaped were worse than anything he'd ever witnessed and never wished to again.
Looking into or rather beneath the hood of the cloak had been an otherworldly experience. It was like looking into an abyss, a dark deep vortex of nothingness, he'd been equally fascinated and horrified at once. What was this thing anyway?
"Not yet young David, seek not that which it is not yet time for you to know."
"Who speaks like that? Look you mind telling me who you are, I'm not sure I should be going anywhere with you, for all I know you could be leading me to the other freaks like you; fancy yourself a meal do ya?"
His feet refused to stop in their tracks even as he willed them to. It was as if the being was pulling him by some invisible chord.
"Hey cut it out you can't just force me against my will." He struggled futilely against nothing.
"You have no knowledge of what you speak, was it not free will that brought man to this?"
He raised his arm, still covered completely by the heavy material of the sable cloak he wore and encompassed the sordid destruction that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Not all men abused free will."
"Think you not, and how would you know what all men did or did not do?"
Before he could answer there was a loud screeching sound coming towards them at high speed.
"Night riders." He'd fairly yelled as he looked around in fear for a hiding place.
"Be at peace young David, why don't you find refuge behind yon tree while I see to this?"
"What?" He had been about to say what tree since there hadn't been a live tree to be found anywhere in quite sometime but the words gotten stuck in his throat as he noticed the huge many branched tree full of leaves a green such as he'd not seen in many a day.
"What...how...who?"
"Not now young David there'll be time enough for questions later."
He didn't need to tell the now trembling man that twice as he headed at full speed for the security of the tree. It was only after he'd reached relative safety that he thought to ask his new companion why he hadn't followed?
It was the events that transpired next that had given David his first ray of hope since he'd fled out his bedroom window. As he looked on there appeared two other similarly cloaked figures next to his intruder just as the nightriders appeared. What happened next was something out of a Sci Fi flick. The night riders seemed to be trying to pull off a hasty retreat but the cloaked figures, except for his new companion engaged the ten or more destroyers.
The noises were deafening and nerve wracking, the sights not to believed by the human eye but yet he couldn't look away. Each time one of the night riders tried to get around them to get to him since he was stupidly standing in plain sight so fascinated was he by the spectacle; one of the cloaked ones would snap him back. It wasn't this that made him decide then and there that he could maybe look forward to another time, no, it was the way they seemed to toy with the very beings that put fear in his heart.
'Thou shalt fear no one but the Most High.' His cloaked friend, Yash? Yes that's what was echoed to him on the edge of the wind. He brushed off the strangeness of the uttered name and the way it made him feel when repeated in his mind. He was sure he'd never heard the name before yet it seemed somehow familiar, like that of a long lost friend that had been gone for too long.
It hadn't taken the two cloaked ones long to destroy the hated nightriders and how they did it, well. He'd never seen anything like it in real life and not in the movies either except maybe once in The Matrix all those years ago.
Their hand to eye movement was otherworldly and was the first indication to the already stretched syntax of his mind that he was dealing with something or someone not of his realm. Who or what that was was too much for him to deal with at the moment so he'd chosen to push it aside.
From that day to this one he'd never been without some form of contact, whether it was through telepathic measures which were a neat new trick his friend had taught him, or the actual physical presence, he was comforted.
It had been days since he'd seen anything living except for the Jin that had just left, why Yash had waited until they'd left before showing up this time was a bit bothersome. The other...was he a man, he guessed he was at that. The other man had been talking more and more lately about David building up his strength both mentally and physically. It had only taken him a few months to realize what the cloaked being had been up to. Every chance he got and at every opportunity he was harping at David to think beyond his existence, his world as he saw it or even had known it. It wasn't easy after all these months of terror to forget what had been.
The fears, the hunger, the desperation that seemed to eat away at the very core of you. Yes his time spent with Yash seemed to erase much of the gnawing pain of those days but they were still too fresh and there was still so much going on.
He ignored the intensity of the sun as he kept to the hidden grottos that splattered the red rock valley. He was only ever cautious these days when alone, when in the presence of his friend it seemed he was overcome by a sense of invincibility.
Chapter 5
It wasn't long before he grew weary, the water like substance Yash had given him in the silver flask inscribed with some sort of ancient script was calling to him but he'd been cautioned to ration it for the most effect. He had days yet before he reached his destination; a destination he'd questioned but had been shut down as was usual. He'd travelled from New York by foot for the better part of a year through deplorable conditions; always on the lookout, never getting enough rest, too afraid to close his eyes lest he awakened to death.
He'd survived on the flesh of questionable critters along the way until they too became extinct; it was amazing what a once discerning palette would accept after days and weeks of going hungry.
The entire population had degenerated into nothing better than carnal minded beasts their only thoughts on their next feeding or their next fix. Back in New York when he'd been slinking around in the alleys and in the underground subway system he'd come to learn a lot about this new world. Most of the people there had been like-minded, not wanting to give into the madness of killing and eating the flesh of th
eir fellow beings. They'd shared stories from their respective neighborhoods in the tri state area. There were men and women from New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts and even as far away as Bar Harbor Maine. Some had been trapped in the city unexpectedly, having been on holiday when the sirens had started their wailing and the army of giant statured men had descended. For months there and been whispers from the underground factions, the ones who'd been diligently trying to warn the masses for years but had been shut down in one way or another so that only a handful actually paid heed to their ranting. David had been too busy living to pay much attention to such things; he had a good job with excellent pay, his pick of the litter when it came to willing females and more than enough paper in the bank to breathe easy.
Gone, it had been all gone in the twinkling of an eye, the bank was no more; well the building had still been there then though it was long gone now, but it had been just an empty shell, a beautiful monument to what once was. There was a new currency being used for those who had given into the Jin and their leader some being called Abadon. David had caught a glimpse of that one only once as he'd been slithering his way out of a dark alley that was enough for him. That's the night he decided to hightail it for parts unknown. Too many were falling victim to whatever enticements these unearthly beings were selling, even some whom he'd befriended in New York's under belly in the last few weeks had given in to the lure. It was no longer safe.
That had been more than a year and a half ago; now he found himself alone except for the visits from Yash, which seemed to keep him sane for the most part. It wasn't easy being left alone with your own thoughts day after day, night after night in this hell, and there was no escape to be found in the arms of blessed sleep. Sleep when it did come was plagued by dreams of the horrors that had befallen mankind, some of what he'd seen and even worst, some of what he thought was yet to come.
He'd been walking for hours when he saw the first sign of life; after having been on his own for so long with the constant worry of keeping himself safe he'd learned the signs. Someone or something was nearby, there were patterns in the red dust, not quite footprints, more like someone had swept them away or tried to.
"Yash?"
David wasn't sure what to do anymore, usually Yash guided him in these situations thought more and more lately the other being had been rather negligent in this. He was leaving the decisions you to him making him think more when he really didn't want to. How was he to know what was up ahead?
"Use your senses."
"What, what senses? Is whatever's up ahead friend or foe?"
"What did I say to you?"
"Which time?"
"David..."
"I know I know, I'm a pain but that's not helping me." Just then a shot rang out and barely missed taking off the side of his head.
"YASH!"
"Concentrate David."
He wasn't sure what he was talking about but he figured he'd better do something soon before he ended up with his brains splattered across the desert floor. What nowhere to hide, out in the open as he was, no weapon of his own all he had was his wits.
Think David think; what had Yash said? You’re not really alone.... Yes that's it.
The new realization had him squaring his shoulders and lifting his head.
"I hope you now what you're talking about." He mumbled under his breath sure the other couldn't hear him.
"I mean you no harm, I come in peace."
"Tell them your name."
"My name, what the he...ck difference does my name make its not like they know me."
"David."
"Fine." There was another warning shot off to the left but still too close for comfort.
"My name is David."
Everything became deathly silent then, then he heard the creaking of old wood like someone opening a door, he still hadn't been able to tell where the shots had come from and there was no dwelling, so where had the sound of an opening door come from?
He got his answer when the man climbed from beneath the ground.
"You're David?"
"Yeah!" He was a little affronted at the way the other man said that, almost as if he were disappointed or something.
"Scrawny little thing aren't you?"
"I guess I might seem that way to someone who's the size of a barge."
The other man threw his head back and roared which made David look around apprehensively. Was he nuts?
"Are you nuts, those things can hear you for miles?"
"Come young David."
"Oh geez not you too." He followed the man without question, which was completely out of character, but for all his burly girth and furring shots the stranger seemed friendly enough and his aura, though nowhere near that if Yash's was along the same wavelength.
"What's your name?"
"You can call me Jeremy."
He answered as he led him down into the hole form which he'd climbed. David's mouth fell open in astonishment.
"How did you do all this?"
The place was unbelievable, like any modern apartment in New York City before the fall. The layout wasn't something you'd think possible underground. There was carpet n the floor for crying out loud.
"What's going on, what is this place?"
"Well it's home for the next little while anyway."
"But how?"
"Have you ever heard of the voice in that fancy city of yours?"
"Of course who hasn't?"
Jeremy just grinned at his new companion.
"You're the voice?"
"In the flesh."
"But I thought...."
"That they'd got me, nah, though not for lack of trying; they annihilated some poor soul who'd come looking for me. Mistaken identity since none of them knows what I look like."
"Oh man so how did you...wait, why did you stop shooting when I told you my name?"
Jeremy studied the other man as if looking into him, and then a mysterious smile broke out across his face.
"Seen Yash lately?"
"Hey you know the Yash man?" David became even more relaxed at the knowledge that this might be a fellow comrade, maybe Yash hadn't been talking out of his ass after all, and this place he kept harping about did exist.
"I've known him it seems like ever."
Why that should cause the other man to roar with laughter was anyone's guess, David supposed he had the same strange problem as Yash; laughing at the mundane.
The Beginning of The End