Afterworld

by Lynnette Lounsbury

  ‘Yes, there is.’ He spoke suddenly, angrily. He pulled his hourglass from his satchel – the only thing he had that might be heavy enough – and swung it wildly at the glass. The people around him stopped moving immediately and watched in fascination. Clearly no one had ever attempted to break open a case before. He swung the hourglass again. The glass tank shook and the water rippled Kaide’s long hair.

  Eva looked horrified.

  ‘You can’t do this, Dom, it’s too dangerous. The Nephilim will kill you!’

  He laughed suddenly and swung it again, each time astonished that the hourglass itself didn’t break. ‘Kill me? I’m already dead, Eva. This is my sister!’ He swung it again and this time a tiny crack appeared in the glass. With renewed vigour he swung at the glass and was surprised to find Eva swinging her own hourglass beside him. The glass was strong and they hit it three more times before the crack widened. The crowd was now pressing in around them, desperate to see what was happening.

  Dom heard a roar from behind him as Eduardo pushed between the two of them and hit the cracked glass with the hilt of his sword, shattering the case and showering them with water, fragments of glass and Kaide, who fell on top of Dom as he stumbled. Eva was first to her feet and as Dom struggled to stand he saw Eduardo lifting the limp form of his sister over his shoulder. The crowd around them was stunned and silent. Heads were flicking between the spectacle in front of them and the podium above where the Nephilim were seated. Dom didn’t get a chance to look upwards, Eva had grabbed his hand and was pulling him urgently through the crowd towards the exit. Dom smashed into people, shoving them left and right and he could feel Eduardo’s hot breath behind him as he carried Kaide out.

  They finally reached the archway of tree branches and stumbled out into the City.

  ‘Thank you,’ Dom gasped at Eva, holding her hand tightly.

  Her reply was wry. ‘I thought I might be able to keep you out of trouble. I did a great job, huh?’

  There was a roaring sound from the crowd still inside the stadium.

  ‘The Nephilim,’ Dom said, his heart beating faster than it ever had in life.

  ‘They are faster than us and they are smarter than us,’ Eva said grimly.

  Eduardo hoisted Kaide higher on his shoulder and broke into a run. ‘And they are coming.’

  They ran, following Eduardo who wove among streets and houses Dom had never seen, cutting through a section of the park in the centre of town and onwards through the other side. At one point they passed the building that they had been staying in and Dom called out, but his Guardian was moving too quickly for him to hear. Dom was grateful for the physical labour he had been doing; he was fit and he didn’t tire the same way he had in life. He felt he could keep running endlessly if he had to. Eva was right behind him and he could barely hear the light touch of her feet on the cobbled pavement. Finally they reached the hole in the City wall that Dom had crawled through with David.

  ‘Through here.’

  They pushed through the wall and as they fell panting to the ground, Eduardo turned and pushed the broken and scattered pieces back into place so it appeared as though there had never been a hole at all.

  Through the very dim light and mist Dom could see the silver lake a few metres away. He crawled over to where his Guardian had set his sister down. Her skin was still pale and wrinkled from the water and she was unconscious. Her breath was short and shallow.

  ‘What’s wrong with her?’ he asked Eva, who was also bending over Kaide, examining her blue fingers and cold skin. ‘Why hasn’t she regenerated? I thought it only took a few minutes.’

  ‘I don’t know. This is strange. She still seems almost . . . alive.’ Eduardo squatted beside them, his eyes bright and alert. He lifted Kaide’s head and opened one of her eyes. His face furrowed. ‘She’s asleep, a very deep sleep, which is natural after something like drowning for so long. She needs to recover a great deal of energy and strength. However, her eyes are strange. I think Eva might be right. I don’t know how, but Kaide doesn’t seem to be dead.’

  Eva shook her head. ‘There are rules, Eduardo. Rules that can’t be broken. The living don’t come here.’

  ‘It is also not possible to hold someone without their permission. That is why the Nephilim have to persuade people to risk their freedom in the Arena. They can hurt and punish anyone, we all can, but we can’t keep them against their will.’

  ‘So what’s going on?’ Dom stroked matted hair from Kaide’s forehead and watched her face. If she wasn’t dead, then what was she? Could he save her and send her back somehow?

  ‘I don’t know. We will stay out here tonight. The Nephilim will never come out here. Tomorrow we will seek sanctuary with Enoch and find out what he knows. He is the closest to the Awe, he will know what to do.’

  ‘Out here? You’ve got to be kidding.’ Eva stood up. ‘You know what’s out here, don’t you? We’ll be torn apart. We’ll be thrown into the lake.’

  ‘By the forest people?’ Dom asked.

  ‘The addicts. That guy you were with will be one soon. The ones who stay out here and look into the lake too often and for too long. They go insane. They don’t eat or drink for weeks, they burn their eyes until they can barely see and when they finally succumb to hunger they attack anyone they can find. Each other. People stupid enough to stay out in the dark. Us.’ She sat down fatalistically.

  Dom reached out tentatively and touched her arm, fully expecting her to pull away. ‘Thanks. For this. For helping Kaide. I know you both have to protect me, but you don’t have to help her. You could have just dragged me out of there. So, I appreciate it.’

  Eva stared at his hand on her arm as though she were deciding what to do and then looked at him. Neither of them spoke for a moment and then she said softly, ‘Sure.’

  Eduardo pulled another hidden weapon from his belt, a short sword. He crouched on his toes, bouncing slightly, ready for whatever was coming.

  Eva and Dom sat in the pebbled sand with their backs against the wall and both drew their own knives from their satchels. Dom wondered if he would actually be able to use it. Probably not. He couldn’t imagine sinking it into someone’s flesh, no matter how insane they were. If they were trying to eat him – maybe.

  They were silent only a few moments before the howling started. It chilled Dom’s blood, people in pain and anger shrieking wildly. It sounded like they were fighting, almost like cats. A few glowing points of light appeared in the trees around the edge of the lake. He assumed they were eyes, burned until they glowed like the lake. The more he sat in front of the lake, the more he desperately wanted to use it. Perhaps he could find out more about what had happened to Kaide. He wondered if his Guide or Guardian would let him get close enough.

  ‘I’m going to look in the lake,’ he said as firmly as he could.

  Eduardo’s eyes narrowed.

  Eva frowned. ‘It’s dangerous at the best of times, Dom. It’s dangerous in daylight. I can’t see well enough to protect you here.’

  ‘I can,’ Eduardo said. ‘I think he is right. We need to find out what is going on. If the girl is not actually dead, then rules that have been in place for eternity have been broken. If the Nephilim can travel between life and death, if he can steal the living – we need to know. I will protect you and Eva can watch the girl.’

  Dom nodded and stood, walking towards the pool. He could feel the pull of it as he approached, the expectation, the desire to be a part of life again. He wondered how much he was doing this for Kaide and how much for himself. He knelt and leaned forward, one hand on the ground to steady himself, the other around his knife. He glanced up at Eduardo who nodded. Lowering his head Dom felt the silvery glow behind his eyes and pictures rushed towards him. He tried to concentrate on his sister and whispered her name, but seemed to have little control over what he saw: his mother, in a silver convertible, driving through the streets of Delhi. Her hair was longer than the last time he had seen her and he remembered what Eva
had said about time being mixed up. His mother turned through the gates of the local hospital. It was a small and very exclusive hospital used by the local expatriates. He had been there a couple of times for vaccinations and once for a broken wrist. It was staffed by some of the best doctors in Delhi. His mother parked in a visitors’ parking space. She took a full and obviously heavy garbage bag from the trunk of her car and carried it through the front doors. The hospital had four security guards who seemed to know her well, smiling as they opened the door for her without asking for identification. Dom wondered again how much time had passed back in his old life. His mother walked differently. There was no bounce in her step, but she walked tall and held her head up. She looked healthy and purposeful, something he hadn’t seen in years.

  Dom’s mother greeted the woman behind the reception desk, handing over the huge bag with a smile. The woman beamed, clasping his mother’s hands and bowing her head in thanks. She took the bag into the reception area and opened it with enthusiasm. It was full of his mother’s clothes. She walked down the hall to a set of double doors. Dom tried to read the sign above the door, but couldn’t make it out. His mother pressed a button by the door and waited. After a moment, the doors swung inward and a woman in white scrubs greeted his mother with a long hug. The two women held each other for a long time and when they finally pulled apart, his mother kept her hand on the woman’s arm. He finally saw her face. It was Angie. If his mother seemed more alive, Angie was less so. Her face was more lined and the sadness in it pulled her eyes down at the corners. She smiled the same soft smile he remembered and gestured his mother down the hallway.

  Dom’s mother entered a room, and set about replenishing the water in numerous vases of colourful flowers. It was a tiny room, but it was a private one, only one bed amid an array of electronic equipment. Lights were flashing and there were dozens of tubes running into the figure on the bed. He looked at the patient’s face, but couldn’t recognise it. Perhaps his mother volunteered to visit sick people? Dom watched her sit beside the bed and hold the patient’s hand, stroking it lovingly and talking. No, she seemed to know the person. He searched for a name above the bed, but couldn’t get close enough. His eyes screamed at him, burning. He knew he shouldn’t watch for much longer. He tried again thinking of his sister, willing the vision to let him know what had happened to her, but nothing happened, he just saw his mother sitting beside the hospital bed, apparently settling in for a long visit. He wondered what he should do. In desperation he leaned closer, only millimetres from the liquid. He could feel it pulling at his skin, cold like dry ice. The skin on his face started to burn from it. Wincing, he held his eyes shut for a moment and then opened them wishing for something more. He was closer. He could see the figure in the bed clearly. He wasn’t sure if it was male or female. It was bald with two jagged pink scars crossing the top of the skull. One was healing, the other still had staples in it. The face was puffy and covered in similar scars, some pink, some with tiny stitches in them. One eye was covered by a gauze patch, the other eye pulled down by another laceration. Tubes were in the figure’s nose and down its throat. There was little about it that seemed human. It was more of a Frankenstein, pieced together in a gruesome jigsaw puzzle. He looked harder trying to recognise the face, sure this was important, but it still meant nothing to him. His eyes stung until they dripped. He knew he needed to leave the pool. Behind him he heard the night-time howling of the forest and shivered. One last look. He squinted to read the letters on the sign above the bed again. At last they came into focus and Dom’s heart gave a shudder. The misspelled name was ‘Kade Mathers’. He pulled himself back from the lake and lay panting on the sand. His eyes ached and wouldn’t stop watering.

  When he finally managed to get them open he gazed up into the shadowed face of Eduardo. His Guardian still had his sword drawn and was offering him a hand up. Dom took it, staggering to his feet and leaning heavily on his arm as they walked back to Eva and his sister.

  When Eva saw Dom she was horrified and she turned to Eduardo. ‘Why didn’t you pull him back? He could have permanent damage.’

  ‘What? What do you mean?’ Dom swiped at his running eyes and saw in the half-light that it was blood dripping from his hands, not tears. ‘Oh.’

  ‘Yeah. Now do you see what I mean about this place? Dangerous.’ She stood and used the edge of her cloak to wipe his eyes. As she did it, Dom watched her face, only a few inches away. Her lips were parted slightly in concentration. Dom leaned forward slightly feeling a sudden desire to kiss her.

  Eduardo cleared his throat. Dom stepped back and saw his Guardian’s smug smile. Eva moved away and squatted next to the still-sleeping Kaide as if nothing had happened. Dom wondered if she had felt anything touching his face like that. He glanced at his sister, her skin perfect and scar-less, long hair, wet and matted around her face, and remembered.

  ‘She’s not dead. I saw her.’

  ‘Really!’ Eva was animated. ‘I knew it. Satarial’s figured out how to get back there. Back to life. He’s found a way to interact with the living.’ She sounded excited yet concerned.

  Eduardo was less surprised. ‘What was she like? Your sister? Back there?’ He gestured his head towards the lake.

  ‘I think she was in a coma. We were in a car accident. That’s how I, you know, that’s how I died.’ It still felt like a ridiculous thing to say. ‘I saw her in the hospital room and it looked as though she had been there for a while. Longer than a week.’

  ‘I told you. Time is strange here. Sometimes when you look into the world it can be like you’re flipping back and forwards in time. It doesn’t run straight and it doesn’t run at the same speed.’

  He touched Kaide’s face, unsure of how to describe what he had seen. Eduardo watched his face.

  ‘What else was there, Dominic?’

  Dom paused, watching his sister sleep. ‘She was badly injured.’ He realised that didn’t adequately describe it. ‘I mean, really messed up. I didn’t recognise her. Her head . . . her face . . . it was . . . it was, bad.’

  Eva turned from him to Kaide. ‘Oh.’

  They were silent for a moment, thinking about the implications of what Dom had described. The howling in the woods sounded closer.

  ‘Is there any chance we could wake her up?’ Dom changed the subject.

  ‘I tried. She stirred a little, but that was it.’

  He sat down next to her, laying his knife in his lap, and leaned back against the City wall. Eduardo walked a few feet away and stood like a sentinel, still and silent, watching the eyes that glowed in the woods beyond the lake.

  ‘He’s a strange one,’ Eva said quietly. ‘I’ve only ever seen him drunk and useless, completely uninterested in his job. And yet, the last couple of days, he’s a different person. He even looks . . .’ She furrowed her brow searching for the right words.

  ‘Taller?’ Dom smiled.

  ‘Yeah, maybe. But that’s not possible. I saw him lift his sword today and his arm looked more . . . it looked bigger. Stronger. That’s weird right?’

  ‘Weird that you were looking at his arms. He’s about seven hundred years older than you,’ Dom joked.

  Eva actually smiled and knocked her shoulder against him. ‘You kidding me? Eduardo? He has been the bane of my post-life existence. He’s been dead far too long for me.’ She smirked at the thought and then they both laughed softly. ‘You’re about three years younger than me,’ she said finally.

  Dom wasn’t sure what to say. Did it mean she actually considered him as an option? He forced his face to stay straight and spoke as coolly as possible. ‘I’m a bit taller though. That has to count for something, right?’

  She laughed again. ‘I guess.’

  He looked at her. She didn’t turn away from him. Dom felt an understanding in Eva he had never felt before. He looked into her thick-lashed eyes and knew that he had never felt this way about a girl before. He didn’t know what to do with that realisation but he did know th
at now was not the time to say anything. She dropped her eyes and leaned back against the wall and the moment was gone.

  Dom was brought back to the present by a hollow, howling scream. What were they going to do? They couldn’t go into the City and he couldn’t earn the minutes he needed out here. Somehow they had to find out what to do with Kaide, too. Could she go back to life? He pulled himself to his feet, wiping the last bloody tears from his stinging eyes. He hoped he never had to look into that lake again.

  He walked a few paces towards Eduardo, feeling the heat of the man’s body in the cool darkness before he could see him clearly.

  ‘Do you have any idea what to do?’ Dom never heard a reply. There was a sudden rush of wind and a thick smell of decay as something barrelled into him and knocked him onto the dirt. The night was so dark and the creature moved so quickly he couldn’t see clearly what it was, but heard teeth snapping and gnashing near his face. He pushed at the creature’s shoulders. He heard the roar of Eduardo who stabbed at the creature with his sword. He heard the thick sickening sound of flesh being sliced, but the creature, though screaming in pain, kept its hands at Dom’s neck. It rolled him desperately away from Eduardo who had grabbed its leg and was pulling hard. Eduardo stabbed again with his sword and Dom felt the creature lose its grip on his neck.

  Eva called out in the dark, but he couldn’t understand what she said. His knife was in the belt of his jeans, but he knew if he reached for it he would have to let go of the thing’s shoulders and it might get closer to him. He risked it, reaching as fast as he could for his short knife. He wasn’t quick enough. He felt a sharp, tearing pain in his neck as the creature sank its teeth into his skin and muscle and shook its head back and forth furiously. He felt a dull pain and a heat that spread through his head, clouding his vision. Jamming his shoulder upwards into the creature’s mouth he momentarily knocked it away and used his hand to stab upwards into its chest. It fell back stunned onto the ground and Dom scrambled away. Eduardo walked calmly towards the wounded creature and before it could regenerate, picked it up, his hand around its neck. Dom looked up at the limp form. It was a man, starved to bone and sinew with eyes so burned and bloodied they glowed eerily. His teeth were sharp and jagged and he moaned and howled like an injured dog.