The Serpent League

by Brendan Walsh

  Delta would expect him to take a few more steps back and get set for another try at an attack. With the new information Samuel had, he wasn’t going to do that. He knew that all he had to do was throw his adversary off just once, and then the fight would be over.

  The bat moved forward, expecting to pursue the doctor.

  Samuel spun around, blade neck high.

  He felt the blade sink an inch under the bat’s chest and through his ribs.

  Delta’s mouth fell open, and he made a small yelp. Not a pained one, but of surprise.

  Clear, colorless blood seeped out from his wound. A second after the blood exited his body it turned black. In another moment the blood stopped dripping and settled in dry dead clumps in the bat’s fur.

  Delta put a wing to his injury, holding it as he began to walk away.

  Samuel rushed forward. After what they had been through he was not going to let Delta turn his back on him.

  He could see that the bat’s mouth was dripping blood. With the infection of the dead blood, everything seemed to be changing in him. His fur went back and forth from black to white, and his features from his teeth to his wings and feet seemed to go in and out like waves.

  The blood from his mouth turned black. Delta bent over, letting out a massive chunk of dead blood. His breathing was increasing, but the doctor knew that the bat’s infected lungs could only maintain their work so long.

  Samuel closed his eyes. “I’m sorry…”

  Delta’s wings began to shrink. Their color went in and out in blinks. His ears and teeth appeared to be receding as they lost their color, and retreated into an unclaimed, colorless form, just like the color of living League blood.

  Samuel’s eyes burst open.

  The knife fell from his hand.

  The bat’s wings, made of five fingers within his wings, retreated to the thumbs of their tips. From the colorless wave of his skin, a paleness formed, and a new set of five fingers replaced the wings.

  The fur on Delta’s head grew longer, and where there was fur on his chest and belly, a purple fabric appeared. The rest of the features on his face shrank into recognizable Homo Sapien features. The new organism that bent over in front of him had changed completely.

  The only thing that was the same was the blood. It continued to plop out in wet chunks from the human’s body.

  Samuel’s hand flew to his mouth. “BJ…”

  His daughter stopped, then coughed some more. The chunks of dead blood were getting smaller, but she was losing color, and a lot of healthy blood.

  “BJ!” he screamed. “God damnit, BJ! Why would you do that?”

  BJ managed to cease her diseased coughing to look her father in the eye. Her eyes were the only things still with life. “I don’t want to live like you want us to. I refuse to sacrifice that much…I’d never have been okay with it.”

  She wiped the corners of her mouth. She moved her legs, trying to get up.

  Her breathing quickened. “It hurts too much. I can’t get up. My body won’t let me.”

  Samuel moved forward to rest his daughter’s head against his arms. A flying force barreled him out of the way before he could touch her.

  The massive creature pinned him down. From the look in Delta’s eyes, he knew he wasn’t a trick.

  “What did you do!” the bat screamed.

  24

  Suicide Song

  Patrick and the gang were quick enough to see Elder get pummeled to the ground by the bat. But they weren’t quick enough, even with the help of their gryphons, to stop what he read in Elder and BJ’s intentions.

  He saw BJ lying limp on her belly. She was still breathing, but it was more forced than natural.

  “Edgar, stop!” he shouted.

  The bat turned to look at him. A shameful recognition spread between the two.

  The gryphons they rode landed several feet from the scene. Patrick and the rest got off their steeds and onto their feet. John Hunter flew in from behind, landing to the side of Lindsey and her ride.

  The bat shielded Samuel with his wings, looking like he didn’t want his friends to see what he was hiding.

  A deep groaning sound came from under him. Delta reared up, turning away from everyone as Patrick could see what he was hiding.

  Samuel Elder didn’t look to be in a better state than his daughter. His veins underneath his skin were turning black. With the bat no longer over him, he shoved himself up, clutching his stomach as he did.

  “What did you do?” Johnny asked.

  A new flapping came from above. Everyone turned to look. It was a gryphon. Based on the looks in their own gryphons’ eyes, it wasn’t one that they recognized. But the person clutched to its neck was a friend of theirs, as unrecognizable as he had become.

  Everyone moved back a step to allow Gary and his gryphon to land next to Samuel and Delta. Gary, still covered in white fur and wearing only his pair of jeans, unsaddled himself from his beast. He had healed remarkably since his beating from Inas, but everyone could tell he was still in pain, and there was still blood all over his fur.

  “So this is where you fly off to.” Gary said.

  Delta turned from his friend, looking down at the doctor. “I was angry. He killed BJ.”

  “She’s not dead yet.” Gary knelt down, feeling her pulse. “I think the fact you say such things says a lot about what you’ve become.”

  “What I’ve become?” Delta spat. “You remember when we first met. I’ve always been a killer. I have no power to rebel against that part of me, but there is still much I can do. I can take out people like Sam Elder.”

  Gary rushed forward and shoved Delta back with a brush of his claws. “You don’t have to rebel! Why do you have to?”

  “Because I can do this.” The bat looked around. The sky was still active with his birds and other mutant creatures. “This is the most good I can do.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  Patrick’s eyes shut. Delta was going to try another attack. He felt it in his mind. The bat was creeping up, distracting everyone with his argument with Gary.

  He turned around. Johnny and Slate were already on the floor. Lindsey and her father were reeling back, clutching their heads. The gryphons were spinning around.

  He’s scared. Patrick thought. He doesn’t know what he’s doing!

  Patrick grabbed onto the bat’s mind. Despite their proximity, it was much harder to hold on to it than all of the mutant creatures he had been inhibiting during the battle combined. He could hear his friends and the gryphons starting to settle down.

  His efforts were helping, but compared to Delta, he had no stamina.

  Delta knew this, so he upped his mental attack.

  Patrick screamed. “Stop it! You’re hurting everyone!”

  “I have to!” Delta raised his wings to his head, beginning to suffer from Patrick’s efforts. “You all need to get out of here. We will speak when my work is done!”

  “NO!”

  With every move Delta made to shield out Patrick’s mind, the human folded another mental layer onto the fight. It was back and forth and back and forth, like they were folding an infinite flag.

  “Patrick. Patrick!” Johnny shouted.

  He felt his friend grab onto him. Patrick found himself incapable of controlling his body. He was standing stiffly, with his eyes closed shut. He could feel his eyes moving behind his eyelids, but that was all he could do.

  Delta’s mind wasn’t any better off. At first Patrick thought that it was the bat who was inhibiting him, but reading what was happening in his head, they were both doing a number on each other. Even if Patrick tried to pull out his mental reaches, they were sucked back in.

  He felt them getting closer. Their minds were like two colliding bubbles, and he was terrified that one of them would pop.

  A sound. A sound of running feet rose. A voice shouting in tears. Begging. He felt Delta pause. Whatever was coming, it was something that they both could sense.
r />   And their senses gave in to the picture.

  “Gordon!” He heard his mother shout.

  Something was keeping her voice far away.

  Patrick turned his head. It was a door. The knob turned and turned, and his mother threw herself at it whenever she had a break from crying out in fury.

  “Gordon, give him back to me! I don’t know what you’re doing!”

  The room was big. Patrick tried turning to get a look at it, but something was pushing him. Someone was holding his hand and rushing him to the corner of the room.

  He looked up. It was his father. Gordon Buchanan. Around him was a series of strange equipment. It looked like they were in some kind of lab.

  Dad! Patrick tried to say. Dad, what’s happening? What are you doing here?

  Thinking was all he could do. His lips wouldn’t move, despite how real they felt.

  “It’s okay, son.” His father tightened his grip on his arm. “Your pain will be over soon.”

  He tried to say something again. Still nothing.

  What is this, an illusion?

  “Daddy, I’m scared!” Came his voice.

  It came from him, but he didn’t do it on purpose.

  It’s a memory! But I don’t’ remember this…

  “Gordon, let him go!” His mother slammed into the door one more time. “Samuel’s almost here. Wait for him! Don’t you dare hurt my son anymore!”

  There was no doubt that his father could hear her. He was ignoring her.

  “Son, I’m sorry…I… sometimes we have to do things for the people we love, even if it hurts them a little bit.”

  “I don’t want to be hurt anymore!” his nine-year-old self cried.

  Slowly it came back to him. Something was keeping the memory back, but whatever it was, its veil was being pulled back.

  The presence of another mind came like a punch to the face.

  Who’s there?

  Patrick!

  Edgar?

  It’s me! What did you do?

  I didn’t do anything! I was just trying to stop you!

  I think we were both too strong. I think we overexerted ourselves. We’ve blacked out.

  Are you seeing this?

  Almost…I’m getting flashes…

  “I won’t let anything happen to you again.” His father came down to a knee, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. “I know I haven’t been there for you as much as I should. After Samuel lost his daughter.” He sniffled. “Those abusing bastards. Son, the Serpent League has to be stopped. They’re trying to take us for everything we have, because they know that we’re the only people standing in the way of their victory.”

  His father turned around, pulling a zippered bag closer to him.

  “But you won’t be alone.”

  He zipped the bag open and pulled out a plastic jar. There was a small brown creature inside. It moved its head up and down in curiosity, tapping at the edge with a wing.

  Patrick!

  Edgar?

  I see you!

  “Son,” he started as he raised the jar for Patrick to see. “I’m a storyteller. You know those stories I always like to tell you? The ones about magical creatures and about heroes, villains, and superheroes? This will be just like that, except you’ll be in it.”

  “What is that?” his kid self asked.

  It’s you, Edgar.

  “Patrick, meet your new friend. He doesn’t have a name yet, but I’m sure you’ll figure something out. I…I want you to know that what I’ve done for you…all the injections and the pills…they’re all to help you.”

  Daddy, I’m scared.

  “Daddy, I’m scared!”

  His father put his hands on his shoulders, tightening his grip. “I know. I know. But I need you to be strong.” He wiped his eyes again. “They’ve taken my friends from me. The League took the Frosts, they took Samuel’s wife and daughter, and they’ve ruined my marriage but they’re not going to take you!”

  I don’t want them to take me.

  “I don’t want them to take me!”

  He was remembering now. The veil was gone, and it was as if this memory were only a day old.

  “They won’t. They won’t! Because you’re going to be strong.”

  From the counter he grabbed a glass vial. Gordon dipped a syringe through the cap. He watched as a thick, black, viscous fluid filled the syringe.

  Dead blood…the stuff Elder was going to kill Edgar with!

  “I know I have a plan with Samuel,” Gordon said. “and this bat will be crucial in its conclusion, but… the League finds a way. Will. They’re all about people being willing to do things. Horrible things. Which is why you will never be perfect. You’re just a kid, Patrick. There’s too much here you don’t understand.”

  Patrick felt his lips start to quiver. He had just been pricked by his father’s syringe.

  It hurts!

  “It hurts! Make it stop!”

  “I know it hurts right now, but it’s going to be better for you. It was a mistake to subject you to everything that I did. In the end, I think they wanted me to do this to you. This black stuff will get all that other stuff I put in you out. You’ll be back to normal, for a while. But the blood never goes away. Never really. But it’s the only thing I can do right now. They want a tool, just like they did to Samuel’s kid, but they’re not going to get it. They’re scared. They know they can lose!”

  “And you,” He picked up the jar with the bat. “if we’re going to win, you’re going to have to make choices of your own. You’re going to be transformed, no doubt about that. Your life is going to be horrible, and I weep for you. You’ll be invaluable to their cause. You’ll be tempted by all the awful things people can do, but if you can, if you can remember this when you’re a whole new creature, remember just one thing. Remember just one selfless thing that someone did. In the end, blood can win by beating blood. I… think that if there is one thing my stories have been trying to say, it is that creatures should not be made into such tools, that there should be no such distinction between ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’. I think that the League will only be beat through their weakness. Not through what makes them what they are.”

  A crashing came from behind. His father threw the jar with Edgar back into the bag.

  It was a bird, but before it could fly halfway through the room it changed color. Its body became colorless, and a massive reptilian being took its place.

  “Master…” his father stood up, shielding his son behind him. “It’s done. I’m not putting my son through anything else.”

  That was where the memory ended. Before his eyes were closed off, he felt the dead blood going through his veins. His younger self must have fallen into some kind of shock and become unconscious.

  His mind was pulling back. Edgar was still there, probably still a part of the memory, overhearing the fight between his father and the one called Master.

  Johnny was still shoving him. He was still standing.

  His eyes opened. Everyone was still in their place. Gary was still bloody and Jane’s arms were still crossed. Not even five seconds had past.

  Edgar’s eyes opened a second later. The bat looked around. Something in his eyes had changed entirely.

  “Patrick, he killed your father.”

  Edgar’s head lowered. He crossed his wings to his head, as if trying to tame a headache.

  His eyes fell to Gary, who was still standing defiantly in front of Edgar. The bat’s mouth fell open, and he looked as if he just noticed Gary was here.

  “I didn’t even notice you were hurt.” Edgar rubbed his nose, sniffing. “In my rage, I didn’t even know you were hurt. My friend. My friend.”

  “Are you going to let one unpleasant memory stop you from doing what you were meant to do?” came a new, deep voice.

  Everyone turned their heads. Patrick recognized the creature stomping forward as the terrified gryphons moved out of the way. It was the one his father had called ‘Maste
r’.

  “Fucking murderer!” Patrick screamed.

  He rushed towards the beast, but Edgar’s wings caught the back of his shirt.

  “Don’t do it, Patrick.” The bat told him. “There’s nothing you can do.”

  “He’s right.” Master said. “And now what, Delta? You’ve seen me and my league kill hundreds in the last few days. What difference does this one death make?”

  Edgar’s eyes lowered to the ground, as he wobbled on his wings, approaching Master. “The reason I wanted to join you was for these people. For the humans I call my friends. But you’re not making a better world. You’re turning us all into pieces for your game. And for what? Evolution? The future of life? Maybe. Maybe you have some valid points there. But I want no part of it. If it’s going to entail ending the lives of good people then the whole thing is rotten. And I’ve seen too many cruel creatures on your side. I will never stand with someone who made a friend suffer.”

  “So what? You’re going to give up all that power I gave you?” Master laughed.

  “And what are you going to do?” Gary asked. “You just got here. Why weren’t you here earlier? Why haven’t you been doing any real fighting yourself?”

  “It’s not my role to do so.”

  “Says who?” Gary growled, showing his sharp teeth. “You’re the ‘Master’ aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I am!” replied the crocodile. “You arrogant little insects. You think this is the first time the League has changed the world? You think you can win just like that with the snap of your fingers?”

  “What are you so scared of?” asked Gary.

  Patrick closed his eyes again. He went into Master’s mind. It was the most sealed off mind that he had tried to enter, way more guarded than Edgar’s, but there was something there. Something terrifying to him, even with the small glimpse he was able to get from what the creature was thinking.

  Master indeed was terrified of something.

  “If you do this, Delta,” he shouted. “if you’re really going to give everything up right now, then you’re making an enormous mistake. Not just for you, but for the good creatures of earth you say you care about. The League has never failed before. The consequences of a loss this big will be cataclysmic. You will have destroyed yourselves, and you’ll have nowhere to go, Delta.”