The Serpent League

by Brendan Walsh

  It hadn’t come fast enough. He hadn’t had the time to inspect the shapes to his side, and a giant force rammed into him from the side.

  He screamed, trying to regain control of his wings. As he got back to a flight rhythm his back crashed against something hard. He felt himself sink as the shattering of glass followed.

  “Errrghhhh…” he groaned.

  As he sat up, he felt his spine was still intact. A creaking sound of dented metal came from under him. He looked below him. He was sitting on top of the roof of an abandoned taxi cab.

  “I guess I can survive a fall.” he told himself.

  His attacker swooped down from the roof. Another set of footfalls followed from the pavement to his right.

  A gryphon landed gracefully on the sidewalk in front of him. He turned his head. It was a human approaching him, looking almost more like a Neanderthal. His hair was long and unkempt. His clothes were in tatters, as his had been after his first transformation, and was barefoot, making his movements quieter.

  “Look what the cat dragged in.” The hominid-looking human snickered.

  Gary turned to the gryphon, who was eyeing her partner. He didn’t need an attack to know that the pair didn’t have friendly intentions.

  “Your arrogance has taken you far enough.” The gryphon looked at him.

  Gary groaned, rubbing his now furry rump from his jeans. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You receive the greatest gift an animal could receive, and you use it to rebel against your betters.” She shook her head. “Delta has a mission. He doesn’t have time for pitiful creatures like yourself.”

  “Well, he gave me quite a speech before we started fighting,” Gary smirked. “I think he was going out of his way to spend time with me.”

  The feralish human smiled, letting out a high pitch laugh that sent a shiver down Gary’s spine. “How are we going to kill this one, girl?”

  The gryphon shot him a look, turning away from the flushed Gary. “I don’t want any part in your unnecessary cruelties, Inas.”

  “Come on!” he whined. “Oh, Master and Delta would be so pleased with our exterminating of this unwanted pest. Please kill him with me!”

  Gary’s eyes widened. She was looking at him, and he could tell that the gryphon was having a serious debate with herself.

  “Fine.” she said. “But I don’t want to be licking his blood off my fur the rest of the night.”

  23

  I Was There

  Elder had to follow the sounds of the battle.

  He didn’t have any transportation now that he had no gryphons or even a car, so it was the best he could do.

  Every half a block or so he would run into some mutant beast sneaking from alongside abandoned cars or dark alleys. Whether they were friendly or hostile, he didn’t often have the chance to find out. He opened his jar of the dead sludge and they went right back into hiding.

  They don’t know what it is, and they’re afraid of it, he thought. They can sense it. It’s an instinct. Their living blood will hardly allow them to get closer.

  And he went along his way once they scampered back into the darkness.

  Nothing from the adrenaline thrill through his veins or the chilly winds of the coming apocalypse could sate his anxiety about his daughter. He was doing the right thing. He knew it. But his new relationship with his daughter was off to a sub-par start. She would know one day. She would know that he chose to do the best thing not just for them, but for the remaining people like them in the world.

  It was hard, and he had to be harder.

  A sound came from above that let him know he didn’t have to walk much longer. It was a familiar flapping, a sound that he was used to hearing as it got farther away from him. This time the figure was approaching. It was approaching for the last time.

  “How kind of you to find me.” The doctor spread out his arms. “You know how many times I could have been mauled out here?”

  The dark, winged creature fell to its feet, placing its wings in front of its body to come to a full stop. Samuel would never forget the bat’s yellow eyes or the way it sunk its ears and narrowed its eyes when it was focusing on something.

  “I know what you have planned.” replied the bat. “I’m in the head of every living creature on earth. Even something like you is no exception.”

  Elder smiled. He figured there was no point in hiding the jar against his chest. He held the jar up with one hand. The bowie knife inside was clearly visible.

  “I have to do this.” Elder’s face grew dark. “You have given me no choice.”

  “Now you may not,” Delta said. “but you had a choice. You could have been much different to me. I was your child. You were more interested in using me rather than showing me love.”

  Elder fingered the lid of the jar open with his gloved hand. “You were telling me a much different story earlier. When I had you in the cage days ago, you told me that you had once had a father, and you told me that he was a much more ‘noble animal’ than me.”

  “That doesn’t negate the obligation you had to me!” Delta’s telepathic voice grew more strained, tightened.

  “We’ve all made mistakes.” Elder took a few steps closer. “I think I’ve made fewer than many have accused me of, but in time, everyone will see that I was good in the end. I’m afraid you won’t be among that number.”

  The bat extended his wings, seeming to smirk at the challenge the doctor was proposing. “You expect to stab me with that knife?” Delta’s nose crinkled as he sniffed it from afar. “Dead blood…”

  “I’m not surprised you’re familiar.” Elder replied. “Seeing as I believe it’s the one thing that can take you out.”

  “Well then,” the bat took several steps towards the Samuel, hobbling with his wings. “come and end this. Come and end the burden you set up. Come end your child.”

  Samuel unsheathed the knife from the jar. Thick chunks of dead sludge dripped from the blade, landing in a foul pool at his feet.

  He held it chest-high as Delta leaped forward.

  A mutant horse creature was charging forward, and Patrick’s fighting was the only thing that stopped it from ramming into Lindsey and Slate.

  He could feel the veins in his head under all the strain. Patrick couldn’t believe how much of a physical strain his abilities were inflicting on him. Nevertheless, he had to fight off dozens at the same moment.

  Johnny came to the rescue as Patrick’s hands went to the sides of his eyes. His friend raised the aluminum bat into the air and slammed it into the side of the mutant beast’s head. It toppled onto the ground, still breathing. He allowed himself a breath. An unconscious creature was a lot easier to keep down than an awake one.

  That was one down.

  A giant reptilian-bird swooped down from the sky. As it got closer, Patrick was able to get a better secure on it.

  “How is it going?” Jane asked him.

  “I’m trying not to break my concentration.”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  On his left, Eagle Eye was trying to pin down a parade of small dog creatures. The vacant cars along the street served for good defense, and even weapons when the strength was available.

  “Suddenly I regret never letting Lindsey have pets.” He laughed.

  “You’re not the only one, dad,” his daughter replied.

  Planting his talons on the pavement, John lifted the front of a pickup truck. When it was as high as his head, he chucked it in front of him. The front end of the truck caught the group of dogs on the back, forcing them onto the ground.

  With Patrick’s help they were knocked out. They were injured enough to be put unconscious through his mental abilities. Eagle Eye let the weight of the truck fall on the rest of them, keeping them pinned under in case Patrick’s power proved not to be enough.

  Rita and Jane were put against the front of an empty Starbucks. The latter waved her softball bat back and forth to keep a humanoid bird creature at bay. Its
likeness to John Hunter was uncanny. It just served to the gang as a reminder that there were many people that ended up going the opposite way as Eagle Eye had.

  “Back!” she shouted, moving forward as the creature backed off. “Can’t you see this whole thing won’t bring anything?”

  “I think they find Edgar’s voice in their head more convincing.” Johnny said.

  Johnny rushed to the opposite side of the street. A group of hostile werewolves were trying to put him in a corner. But it was all a trick. He had his group of friendly werewolves that were ready to pounce from the alley around the corner.

  It would make everyone’s job easier if the ambush were successful. Several fewer angry animals Patrick needed to restrain.

  Slate and Lindsey leaped from their spots, weapons in hand, a pair of giant mutant tigers prowled the borders of the street, letting out growls that would have sent them running if they weren’t already retreating.

  “Make sure you don’t forget about the upcoming ones.” Slate said, concern in his voice.

  “I know. I’m doing the best I can!” Patrick shouted.

  Several mental lights were dimmed as he heard Johnny scream, followed by the sound of his bat connecting with the wolves’ bones. He felt through the minds of the hostile wolves the pain of being attacked by others of their species, along with Johnny and his aluminum club. Patrick’s eyes drooped. His power had its advantages, but he was not immune to feeling with others’ minds while connecting with them.

  Once the snarling from around Johnny’s corner ceased, he surveyed the damage already done. He had been perfectly successful so far in inhibiting the creatures enough to fight back. Eagle Eye didn’t have a problem. His friends were still just normal humans among mutant beasts. Considering the staunch lack of blood dripping from the skin of his friends, he was being pretty damn good at his new abilities.

  With the quieting of the hostile wolves’ minds, he was able to detect a new mental source the moment it flew over him. Edgar. Or Delta, as he was now called according to the bat’s psyche. He was flying fast, so it would only be another few seconds before his connection was too weak to make an impact. But in the flash, like a flicker of a light miles below the sea’s surface,

  He read a thought and felt it instinctually. A friend of his was about to make a serious mistake. They were many blocks away. With all the hostile animals around them, there would be no way he could-

  “AHHHHHHHHHH!”

  A warmth washed under his skull. The rush of the beasts’ minds all around him illuminating like the moon in the night sky, and then there was nothing. Patrick’s eyes were closed, but he heard the limp bodies of the mutant reptiles tumble on their forelegs and the tigers fell on their sides. He couldn’t tell if any of them were dead, he had never unleashed such a power like that before.

  His friends were silent. They all stood speechless as all their enemies were unmoving.

  Eagle Eye flapped his wings and landed on the street. A frightened look glistened in his avian eyes as he turned to his daughter and the gang.

  “Patrick, you did this?”

  He slowly nodded.

  “What happened?”

  “I think we’re too late.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Lindsey. From the other side, Johnny and his group of wolves rounded the corner, huddling with the rest of the gang.

  “We need to run as fast as we can.” Patrick said. “It’s Doctor Elder.”

  Gary felt as if his right eye were about to slide out of its socket. It was leaking so much blood that it could simply slide out like an egg yolk.

  The feeling left him with the next blow.

  “You haven’t felt anything yet, boy.” laughed Inas.

  Through his unbleeding eye, Gary watched the feralish human throw his spine back, almost at a perfect right angle. He screamed, but he and the gryphon were likely the only ones to hear his deep, infernal bellow as it was absorbed by the active night.

  Black fur sprouted from every inch of the human’s pale skin. His jaw pulled out until it was almost a rectangle and a set of fangs sprouted from the front of his gums. What was left of his clothes was ripped into ribbons as the new bipedal wolf shredded his shirt off, along with his pants.

  “Here’s to the new pack.” Inas said, his voice changed to fit his new physique. “Ever see Elder’s other wolves do this? This is a gift from Master!”

  The wolf picked Gary up by the chest of his fur and threw him against the empty taxi he had fallen on.

  “Just a lonely little birdie, aren’t you?” The massive wolf sneered. “Or are you a bat? Or a flying bear?”

  “I’d like to think I’m all of the above.” Gary replied, coughing out a spurt of blood.

  The gryphon moved to his back. A set of giant claws came swinging around from behind him as if he were a ball of yarn. Her claws caught him right as Inas was lifting him onto the hood of the car. The base of his spine took the hardest hit. A chunk of his back hit the ground below him, making an ugly wet sound. He felt the warmth of blood going down the back of his neck to the stump of a tail he had grown.

  “What is it that Delta saw in you?” Inas raised the motionless human into the air, holding him up by the neck. “You’re not impressive. You smell average.” Inas’s pink tongue slipped out of his mouth and washed against Gary’s neck, lapping up the fresh blood from his wounds. “And you don’t taste especially good. Clearly Delta was out of his mind. Thank Master he’s finally in his mind.”

  Gary caught the look of the gryphon behind Inas. She wasn’t looking at him anymore. She wasn’t looking at anything. Her eyes were closed, and the only movements she made were with her claws as she wiped Gary’s blood off them.

  “You got lucky.” Inas focused his eyes. “All of you were lucky. This adventure of yours didn’t mean anything. How could it have? It was a losing battle. With our superior blood, how could you fight back? It was an effort from a losing species. We-”

  Inas’s grip loosened on Gary. The human opened his healthy eye to see the wolf’s eyes open as if framed. Clear blood dripped down from in front of his canine ears as a thick claw lifted from the base of his skull.

  The gryphon wasn’t looking. It seemed she refused to look. Three fat holes decorated Inas’s bloody head, and his lifeless body fell against the cold asphalt as the gryphon’s other claws fell out of his head.

  Gary groaned as he clutched his back. From the feel of it, his body was adapting quickly to his injuries. He felt a warmth return to his back as his skin was closing up.

  The gryphon’s eyes tightened, still closed, as she extended a paw out to him. Gary blinked, rubbing his injured eye as he accepted it.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Because…” she seemed as if on the verge of tears. “there are too many like him. There are too many.”

  Gary wobbled a bit. With his new body, it felt like his shoes were inhibiting positive changes to his body. The gryphon read his thoughts and raised one of his feet to her beak, plucking off his shoe and tossing it to the side. She repeated it with his other leg, and Gary’s feet instantly sprouted white fur, and the blood vanished.

  “What do you mean?”

  “This is a very vulnerable time. Vulnerable for all life on earth. Despite Delta, I believe that there is a chaos here that can’t be held down. Inas was cruel, ruthless, but very clever. Too many creatures like him are fighting for us. I’d rather see them killed than have the possibility of them coming to power.”

  Gary nodded. He took his hand and rubbed it against the side of the lion-bird’s neck.

  He smiled. “Thank you.”

  “Where were you going when I knocked you out of the sky?” she asked.

  “I’m following my friend. I’m not going to let Edgar escape me.”

  The gryphon bent down, laying her belly on the street. Gary’s limbs still had healing to do, so she gently shoved him against her body until he was sitting on her back, arms tight against
her neck.

  “Then I will take you to him.”

  Samuel felt his blade touch nothing again as Delta doubled back. The bat countered with a headbutt to the doctor’s chest. He let out a cry as he was sent onto his back. He held the knife as far away from him as his arm would allow.

  With the fight so far, all the dead blood had been swiped from the blade.

  “You know you won’t survive this.” Delta said. “Even if you somehow managed to kill me, I have countless followers who would pursue you until your death.”

  The doctor stood back up, shaking off the blow to his chest. The jar of blood sat several yards away from him. He opened the lid again and stirred his weapon in there enough to give it a new coat of sludge.

  “I’m aware.” he replied. “But I seem to have a mean record of surviving things. Even if I don’t, I’m not just doing this for me. I’m doing it for other families like mine. The ‘unworthy’ kinds, and for my daughter.”

  At the mention of BJ, Delta closed his eyes.

  “Don’t want to hear any more of my excuses?” Samuel sighed. “I don’t blame you. But that doesn’t make my words any less true.”

  He rushed forward, dead blood-coated blade in hand. Delta ducked down, dodging another swipe from the doctor’s bowie knife. Samuel also had his speed. The bat opened his mouth and lunged for a chomp at the doctor’s shoulder. He coupled back, barely dodging the bat’s massive fangs.

  There the doctor saw Delta’s weakness.

  It wasn’t that he was quicker than the bat. He looked into Delta’s deep yellow eyes as his jaws missed his shoulder. He had seen that look before. The bat was hesitant. He was holding back. Samuel didn’t know why, and he didn’t need to know, but Delta didn’t want to kill him.

  He knew from personal experience that fighting was a lot easier when one side wanted to kill the other and the other didn’t.