“Anubis.” Iry looked up to the king. “It sounds like Anubis.”
“I will agree. I should have known. He would lead the Savages,” the king said.
“Who is Anubis?” I asked.
“He is the god of the dead,” Iry told me. “The world in between the suffering and the damned.”
“He would have the power to pull you through past any blockader guard you have of your dreams,” the king said. “But this does not mean you have seen the queen.”
“Was your queen not a Savage at one time?” Susan spoke up.
The king looked as if he wanted to kill her. “How do you know these things?”
“Your daughter told me. She told me that the queen was transformed and never returned from the Great Starvation. But she is turning. She’s turning with the Mare’s blood. Don’t you want your wife back? Don’t you want to see her human again?”
The king looked at me. “Did you see a female?”
I nodded. “Yes. She was still in mostly Savage form, but she did stand upright.”
“I told you,” Susan said. “Save her. Give her the blood of the Mare. If you do not she will continue working with Anubis and the Savages.”
The king threw out his hand again and pointed at the guards. “Take her away.”
Susan screamed and cried, fighting the guards as they dragged her away. “You will regret this! You will. They’re coming! All of them! For the humans. The Ancients. No one stands a chance. It will be a Savage world!”
SEVENTEEN – TANNER
Just as the sun began to lighten the sky, a car arrived for me and Snake. Snake hadn’t been asleep at all. But I had fallen asleep for about an hour so, enough for my body to feel the effects of all the alcohol I consumed the night before.
My God, if I didn’t know any better, I would swear I had a killer flu. Or maybe they had poisoned us. My head pounded, my mouth was dry, my throat was itchy, and my stomach felt like it was doing a dance of a thousand nights. I wanted to vomit.
Nathan gave us some bread and fruit, and some juice. After we ate, we took off. To my surprise, we didn’t take an airplane like we did the last time. They told us “will get you to a point, and you’ll be able to get home just fine.”
Without flying, I didn’t see how that was possible. Although, I wasn’t quite sure how far from Angeles City we were. I would assume quite a distance.
<><><><>
We drove for about two hours and finally they just pulled over, stopped the car, said good luck, and waited for us to get out.
“You’re joking, right?” I asked the driver with a chuckle.
“No I’m not,” he said. “You should be just fine from here.”
I looked out. There was nothing there. Nothing but rock and desert. From what I could tell, we were nowhere near Angeles City. How in the heck were we supposed to get home?
“Just get out,” Snake said. “Say nothing. Apparently they either don’t have any geographical instincts, or this is their way of killing us.”
The driver peered into the mirror to check us out after that remark. He merely shook his head, and said nothing.
I opened my door and grab my bag, as did Snake. No sooner had we stepped out and shut the door than the driver took off. He took off so fast he left us in a trail of sandy dust.
“Great. Just great.” I looked around again. There was nothing for as far as the eye could see.
“Well, we can stand here,” Snake said. “Or we could start walking.”
“Walk where?”
“Well,” Snake looked up to the sky, “there’s the sun. It sets in the west. Home is west. We’ll follow that.”
“That’s the big plan? Follow the sun?” I shook my head. “We’re going die here. We have no provisions whatsoever.”
“We’re alive,” Snake said. “And we had a heck of a vacation.”
“Vacation? That’s the way you look at it?”
“You could’ve had a good time too if you hadn’t been sulking the whole time.”
“Sulking? Of course I was sulking,” I said. “I chased Vala out here by telling her we found the Savage camp and there was no reason for her to stay, and then she got married.”
“Yes she did.”
“And her sister was made into one of those things, which was the reason she had to get married.”
“If that’s what you believe.”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s what she told you. Right?”
“Yes. Why would she lie?”
“To spare your feelings.”
“Please,” I snorted.
“She looked pretty happy with that—”
“Stop. If you’re trying to irritate me, you are. I’m on the verge of death, walking in this desert, in this heat, can I at least die less angry?”
“With the way you been, not enjoying your vacation, your food, or anything, I don’t see any way you’re going to die a happy man. Let alone less angry.”
“Gee, thanks.” I didn’t say much after that. I wanted to save my breath and keep my mouth moist. They didn’t give us any water or anything. We walked for a while, then in the distance I spotted a small wooden shack. It was the tiniest little building I had ever seen. Maybe 8’ x 8’. A little distance from it was another small, open, wooden structure. Did someone live out there? Were they out in the open, with the Savages flying around at night?
“Look ahead,” Snake said, pointing outward.
“I see it.”
“I think that’s what they meant, by us being able to get home from here.”
“Maybe they know someone is here and that person can give us provisions.”
“Funny how they just left us out here without any protection whatsoever. Can’t be alive. No way. Savages would tear that place apart.”
“We are awfully close to the Ancient City,” I said. “Maybe the Savages don’t come out this far.”
We walked further towards the shack, expecting nothing, and were surprised when a man appeared from the building.
He stood there in the distance, not moving. Watching us. As if he were expecting us.
He lifted his hand high in the air when we drew closer.
“Did they call him?” I asked in a whisper to Snake.
“How do you propose they would do that? This isn’t one of your sitcoms, or even a pre-vamp world. There’s no way to call.”
We kept walking, focusing on the man, an older fellow as I could tell the closer we got to him.
He finally moved when we were at a good twenty feet away. He jogged our way with a big smile on his face. He extended his hand to Snake first. “Hey there,” he said. “Nice to see you. My name is Burt.”
“Did you know we were coming?” I asked. “How in the heck would I know you were coming?” Burt asked. “I came out to enjoy the sun, even though it’s hot as hell, and then I saw you.”
“You saw us?” I asked.
“Thought maybe you were a mirage of first.” Burt laughed at his own joke. “Just kidding. I saw you, heard you. Voices carry in the quiet. What in the blazes are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? You don’t talk like one of those streets people.”
“We aren’t,” Snake answered. “We were in the City of the Ancients. We went there searching for one of our own. We found her, but she is staying there. The Ancients dropped us off here and told us that we could get home from here. But we don’t know where here is.”
“Well, here is a place that I swore the Ancients didn’t know about,” Burt said. “I thought we only knew about them.” He chuckled. “But they were right, you can get him home from here.”
“Are we that close to Angeles City?” I asked.
“No.” He shook his head. “Over one hundred miles away. At least.”
“Then how are we getting home from here?”
“We can help you,” he replied.
He said ‘we’, plural, implying there were more than just him. I found it hard to believe. Here we
were in the middle of nowhere with one shack, one even smaller half shack, and a middle-aged man. We? I thought for a moment he had lost his mind. I suppose he saw the look on my face.
“Don’t believe me?” he said. “That’s okay. We don’t have to help you.”
Snake reached back and smacked me in the gut. “Way to show your lack of appreciation… again.” Snake turned to the man. “We will gladly and humbly along with being appreciative, accept your help.” He then gave a side eyed look at me.
Was Snake playing into this man’s delusion? Or did he actually believe this man that there were people around people. People? What, they were all shoved in that little building? Because we were headed that way.
With the wave of his hand the man let us into the shack. The building was a single room with a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a tiny table. Once inside, Burt shut the door.
“Welcome to Hopeland,” he said.
I placed my hands on my hips and nodded in a pacifying, yet polite manner. “Wow. It is very nice, this hope land.”
Burt laughed and shook his head. “Aren’t you just a little sarcastic pip?” He walked to the corner of the room where there was a door that looked like a closet. “This ain’t Hopeland,” Burt said. “It’s below.” He opened the door and exposed a stairwell. “Elevator’s one flight down. Let’s go. Close the door behind you.”
I was hesitant in moving. Not because I was fearful, but because I was in shock.
Again, Snake nudged me. “There you go. Mr. Negativity. Let’s go. You should feel ashamed of yourself, for thinking the man was whack.” I stood on the top landing that led down a concrete encased stairwell.
I was more than ashamed for not believing Burt, I was in awe. My entire existence had been spent in the ruins of what once was a grand city, planning and plotting the demise of the beings that sought to destroy our world. I was as one track minded as everyone else. And unlike everyone else, I was fast learning and absorbing the fact that there was actually more to the world than just Angeles City.
EIGHTEEN – NITO
Television was an addiction, of that I was certain. I knew addiction. A problem in the Ancient City was many Ancients would sell their soul for a drop of honey, which gave them a euphoric high. Dabbling and trying honey once or twice in a lifetime was normal, but it was highly addictive, and in large doses was deadly to an Ancient.
Very few things were deadly to us.
Ancients didn’t catch the common cold that humans caught, and I wasn’t looking forward to that in my human body. We did however, have our own viruses that caused not only weakness, but deformity. We could be slain, if wounded in the correct manner.
Horse blood brought a painful death… and honey in high doses.
Human dealers hoarded honey. Many Ancients looked for it in old markets because they heard it did not go bad. But the savvy humans knew of the Ancients’ love for the quick and intense high. They pushed it and so many Ancients were on the streets, pathetic and trembling because they developed a need for it.
“Do you have any? Do you have any honey? Just a drop.”
It was insane.
I felt that same drive and addiction toward the television and the programs I enjoyed. Davis said I was stuck in the seventies. I didn’t know what that meant, but I was quite content to be there. Until he started playing that magical instrument.
Not only did he create a beautiful sound, his voice was magnetic, drawing me in. I started singing along, even though I didn’t know the words. I always had a lovely voice. I hummed and hit high notes, and stayed in a neutral pattern of melodic, doo, doo doo until Davis stopped me. Was he… laughing?
“What is so funny?” I asked. “I was singing with you.”
“Is that what you were doing? Singing?”
“Yes.”
“Stop.”
I gasped. “Why? I have been told I have a lovely voice.”
“A strange voice. Ever hear of cats?”
“Yes. They are a strange delicacy, enjoyed by many back in the day.”
“Back in the day?” he placed down his instrument, a guitar he called it. “What day? None that I know of.”
“Well, the starving days,” I said, quickly trying to cover. “When the world went to… disarray.”
“People ate cats?” Davis shook his head and lifted his guitar. “That’s just sick.”
“You have a wonderful voice. You should be an entertainer.”
He chuckled. “I was.”
“Are.”
“Am, but I was a really big one at one time.”
“Like David Cassidy?”
“Uh, yeah, something like that. If I didn’t see you watching The Partridge Family so much, I’d wonder how you knew that.”
“That Danny Partridge,” I said. “He is something. Very misunderstood.”
“You like the antagonists I noticed,” he said. “Nelly Oleson, Danny Partridge, Mrs. Kravitz.”
I giggled. “Is she not charming?”
“No,” Davis said.
“I feel a kinship to them,” I said.
“I bet.”
“Endora reminds me of my own mother.”
“Endora?”
“The mother of the Bewitched person. She watches out for her daughter.”
“So your mother wasn’t a nice person?”
“She could be.” I pulled a chair closer to Davis. “Play some more.”
“You need to learn.”
“I am. What song do you want me to learn?”
“That’s not what I mean,” he said. “At the rate you’re grasping things, we’ll be down in this bunker for months.”
Months? Months below with this Davis person? I wondered if I could draw him in, bound him with my charms.
I tilted my head and smiled. “Would you like that?”
“What? Being down here for months with you?”
“Yes.” I felt my face flush.
“Um… no.” He shook his head.
What was that feeling? A lump. Yes, it felt like a lump. It made a flip in my chest and sunk to my gut. Suddenly I felt sad, as if I wanted to run from the room. “Why not?”
He started to reply, but stopped and asked, “Did you hit your head?”
“When?”
“A while back?”
“I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
“Because you have no recollection of life before the Events. Not to sound insulting, but the Events only happened fifteen years ago. You should have been old enough to remember everything.”
“Old enough?”
“Yeah, not saying you’re old but you aren’t young.”
I heaved in a huge breath. “Old? How old do you think I look?”
“Um, late forties.”
I screamed.
He cringed.
“I’m an elder. Oh my Gods!” I stood. “I am at the age to be placed out into Ancient Pasture.”
He smiled. “Killed.”
“What?”
“They kill the elders.”
“They do not. They take them to a nice place to live out their existence.”
“That’s what they tell you folks at the Straits. But the Ancients kill the old people.”
I gasped loudly. “An elder, whether Ancient or human, deserves respect. Human Elders are not killed. They are taken care of. Placed in a nice home.”
Davis shook his head. “You are so naïve.”
“How dare you? You are naïve to believe the Ancients kill the elders.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I’ve been told.”
“Yes, well I have seen the place. It’s in the Ancient City, a beautiful complex….” It was at that second I realized my error and knew my mind had better start thinking.
Davis slowly lifted his eyes to me. “You’ve seen the place?”
I lifted my head and cleared my throat. “Yes.”
“In the Ancient City?”
“Yes.”
&
nbsp; “You were there?”
“I… I was a house maiden for years.”
“So you know where it is?”
“Of course.”
He set down his guitar and jumped up. “Yes!” Then Davis charged my way.
Admittedly, I was frightened, I back up until he grabbed on to me and embraced me.
“Madge!” he said excitedly. “You are fast becoming my favorite person. Do you know how long we have been searching for Ancient City?”
I wanted to pull back, but instantly, I realized how good the embrace felt. He clutched tight, and I took advantage of my position, my arms went tight around his waist, I placed my cheek against his firm chest, and closed my eyes with what I would guess was the silliest of grins. But I didn’t care. I liked it.
In his arms, something came over me. A spell of sorts, because before I knew it, I was spewing forth, “If that made you happy, wait until you hear what else I know.”
And sadly I was a victim, helpless, and like one of those honey addicts. I would do or say anything to get a bit more of Davis.
NINETEEN – VALA
Transportation was provided and Iry and I were taken back to his home. No more was said, only that the king would be with us shortly.
Iry insisted that I rested and he would ensure my safety. I didn’t feel tired at all, even though I knew I had been up for two days.
Finally, while waiting on the king to arrive, I fell fast asleep.
Sophie woke me in a few hours and I gave me some of that brown substance Susan use to make.
Susan.
How I had trusted her. Iry had trusted her. For how long did she do Nito’s dirty work? Was it a new thing? A promise perhaps that she made the former princess?
Admittedly, I was a bit edgy and snippy with Iry. I did not understand why Susan had said that we would be attacked, I tell of my vision, and then suddenly nothing more was said.
The War for Mare (The Fall of Man Book 3) Page 5