by Dan Glover
"Is that why none of the People want to do anything with their lives, Grandmother Lily? I've watched as nearly all of them do nothing but eat and sleep. Is that really all there is to life?"
"The fact that we have all the time we'll ever need does not mean we should fritter it away on trivial and meaningless activities that does no one any good, my darling Ena. Those People you speak of will perhaps one day awaken to their malady and discover what they are meant to do. If not, they will gradually waste away like an untended garden."
He said nothing but that discussion made an enormous impact upon his psyche. The days of youthful abandon were over and instead he began to chart a course for his life which would eventually lead him to Toulon and an apprenticeship with Grandfather Nate.
While Niall appreciated the notion of having an eternity to do whatever it was he meant to do, he also knew calamity could overcome him at any time. Though the Lake people were impervious to age and illness, they had nearly vanished from the earth. They had often fallen victim to accidents just as the People did and their propensity for bravado seemed to lead them into places only fools would go.
Though he loved his father he often wondered why the man preferred to spend his time alone in the wilderness risking his life when he could be home with his family. It seemed such a waste of time. During the fifteen years he spent growing up on the Isle of Skye he doubted he'd seen his own father more than a few times a year.
His mother Ena's father Kāne was apparently the same way as Alpin. He was rumored to leave for years at a time without a word as to where he was going or if he'd be back. While it was tempting in an intellectual way to leave everyone and everything behind, to strike out into the unknown with no intention of returning, Niall didn’t understand how the men could forget about their loved ones so easily. Just before he left the Isle of Skye he had talked to his mother about her ancestors and his.
"Father has no long term memory, my sweet Niall. Though I never met any of the other men of the Lake, Grandmother Lily told me that they were all like that. She said they were fearful creatures who inhabited the dim recesses of the Lake only emerging to mate at periodic intervals."
"That doesn’t sound very romantic, mother. No wonder there were so few people of the Lake."
Though he didn’t understand how it happened he knew mother had four parents. Kāne was special to her. Apparently they had some weird kind of connection whereby they conversed telepathically. Every time he was around the man Niall became confused. Apparently Kāne emitted a kind of psychic energy that caused other men of their species to slowly lose their minds.
"From what I gather, my sweet Niall, life was hard under the Lake. Though its waters acted as a sanctuary, it was also a trap. Grandmother Lauren often told me about being terrified of the monsters of the deep as well as the monkeys who lived upon the shores. Her people suffered great privations. Even after they began leaving the Lake and living upon the land they were persecuted and reviled."
He had felt guilty after he had left the Isle of Skye without saying farewell to his mother. Though he told himself she never would have approved of his going, he also knew he had caused her untold worries. The lands of old Scotland were rife with predators: tigers, lions, even bears and hippopotamuses flourished in the wilderness. Though there had never been an animal attack, that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.
He swore he would never do a thing like that again yet here he was, hurrying home to Toulon having taking off once again without a word. He knew he would never forgive himself if something had happened in his absence.
Just as the motorcycle began to sputter for lack of fuel he realized he was home. Coasting into the courtyard his worst fear confronted him making his spirits drop and his hearts nearly ceasing to beat. A body of a woman lay prone on the ground.
It was Karen.
Chapter 5 4—The Letdown
He'd failed again.
Alpin thought he could save them all by sacrificing his own life but the engines gave out before he could reach his destination, first one and then the other; he was forced to put down in the desert below amid sand dunes continually shifting into shapes reflected in the sky.
As long as he could remember he had always been a failure at anything he set his hand to doing. He had been a horrible son to his parents, a loathsome brother to the girl who everyone thought was his sister, and an even worse father to his children. He had no idea why Ena put up with him as a husband and a friend.
Sitting in the cockpit of the downed jet and afraid to go out into the maelstrom of shifting sands an old guilt surfaced: how he ran away from Ena that day on the beach in old France. He felt it too, the presence of something approaching them, an animal, perhaps, or worse, a human being wild and uncivilized ready to kidnap Ena and make her a prisoner. Instead of standing by girl he just made sweet love with he raced into the sea challenging her—almost as an afterthought—to a race back to Orchardton Hall.
As things turned out, Kāne wasn’t a danger to Ena at all. Still, Alpin didn’t know that. When Ena didn’t follow him right away he didn’t even consider turning back to see why. He simply swam hard and strong homing in on old Scotland the way he had learned to do as a child: bouncing electrical impulses off his midsection and into the ocean and receiving information back in ways he had yet to understand.
When she confronted him later about leaving her all alone on a strange beach in old France he remembered how he played the wounded lover... acting as if she was the one at fault for not taking him up on his ridiculous challenge.
He never deserved her love. Ena was a crescent of blue light shimmering over the ocean just before dawn... the tinkling sparkle of the first star blooming in the coming of night. She had stood by him even with all the abuse he had hurled at her... the cruel taunting words, the lonely nights she must have spent wondering where he was and if he would ever return to her.
Sometimes he wondered if he tortured her just to see how much she would take before cutting him loose. Ena was too good to him. Maybe if she had treated him unkindly in return he might have mended his ways... there it was again... the same old blame game... telling himself it was all her fault that he was so mean.
When he woke after crashing his motorcycle in the mountains of old Scotland she was by his bedside. Though she told him that the family was sitting by his side in shifts he got the distinct impression she never left... that she slept in the high-back chair while awaiting his awakening.
Even when she gave him a second chance he couldn’t be the man she was worthy of, someone who would stand by her through both the best of times and the worst. He ran away. The decrepit log cabin in the Grampians became his real home.
The children grew up without a father while his wife learned to live without a husband. Of course Ena still looked like the teenager she would always be but there was something in her eyes now that he'd never seen before, a kind of resignation; as if she'd been hurt for too long to ever forgive him again.
He had hopes of redeeming himself with this trip. By offering up himself as a sacrifice he could become a savior not only to the people stranded here in old America but to how he would be remembered by his family... by Ena. Talking to Amanda brought back all the hurt he caused his wife. It would have been better to die, to be finally rid of the horror of solitude.
Though he longed for it, being alone terrified him. In all his dreams he walked the earth by himself, a solitary figure amid a ruined civilization gradually dissolving into chaos. When he called out, there was no answer. Everywhere he looked he found signs of those before him but they were long gone.
It wasn’t dying that frightened him... everything died sooner or later, even the immortals like his family. No... it was dying alone that terrified him. That night he had awakened injured and by himself deep in the wilderness had given him a tiny glimpse of his future... only this time there would be no rescue unlooked for.
As a youngster—before Ena was born—he used to attempt t
o insinuate himself with the other children of the People by playing games around the castle but they always shunned him. He was different and they all knew it. Even though they teased him about his gills and tormented him over the size of his feet, he kept going back to play.
When his sister came into the world, she was everything to him. He adored her. Suddenly there was someone like him in the world, someone not so different as to instill a loathing of himself. They were rarely apart until the time he overheard his parents talking about Ena and the circumstances of her birth. She wasn’t his sister. She wasn’t related to him at all.
Something inside him changed after that. As they grew older he began to want her in ways a brother shouldn’t. Though he chided himself as the feelings grew stronger he knew he had to act upon them or leave his family.
She gave herself willingly. He took and kept on taking, never giving. Even now, ready to give his life for her, he was a failure. While he hid in the wreckage of a jet he stole from Pete, Ena would become a thrall to the sand.
When he first heard the jet coming in for a landing he thought he was experiencing hallucinations. The nanobots were finally taking his mind. No one here in old America was able to fly a jet and even if they were, where would they find one?
With his mouth hanging open in amazement he watched as the jet taxied close to his. The door opened. His father jumped out to run to him as the jet took off again. Alpin had just enough time to see Pete in the cockpit waving to him.
It seemed like a goodbye more so than a hello.
"How did you find me, father?"
"We saw your plane as we flew overhead. What are you doing here, Alpin?"
"I came to help Ena. Lady Lily told me how we had to destroy the nanobot nest."
"How were you going to do that, son?"
"By flying this jet into it... but my engines gave out before I could reach it."
"Oh no... that's what he meant."
"What are you talking about, father?"
"When I jumped out of the plane just now Pete asked me to tell Karen that he loved her. I didn’t understand why he would say that. He plans on doing what you were going to do, Alpin."
"I thought I could set the autopilot to hit a specific target, father, and then parachute out of the jet. But it uses the horizon to navigate by, not ground targets. Pete knows that too, of course. He's the one who trained me to fly."
"Pete... are you there? Come in, Pete."
His father spoke into the cell phone he held in his hand but there was no answer.
"Let's talk about this plan of yours, Pete. There must be some other way."
The door to the cockpit burst open. What looked like an enormous glittery snake slithered into the plane but its shape changed even as Alpin jumped up to grab the shotgun hanging in the overhead compartment.
Sand filled the jet to such an extent that he couldn't breathe. His father was gone, carried off by a gigantic claw which formed out of the thick air. As he thumbed off the safety to press the trigger he knew it was useless. The enemy was too small to be seen. Bullets wouldn't harm it. Still, as darkness gathered around the edges of his vision he squeezed off one shot after another.
When he woke he recognized his surroundings as his bedroom back at Orchardton Hall. Ena was softly asleep next to him. A low hissing sound gradually grew louder as he rolled over in bed. When he reached out to shake her awake his hand went through her.
She was a mirage... perhaps she had always been nothing but a dream. The room was spinning out of control as if he was being swept up into a massive whirlwind. He saw all those that he loved swirling around him but when he cried out to them his voice was ripped from his throat.
Chapter 55—Defeat
Chester was dead.
The thought devastated Natalia... she had loved the big cat ever since that night in old New York harbor when he had nearly capsized the Nautilus while climbing aboard. One look into his eyes told her that they were safe in his presence.
Now he had given his life to save them... the old cat was feeble and sick yet he had followed them willingly. Karen had been right, though. They never should have brought him along.
When her feet hit the floorboards in unison the few creatures still clinging to Chester raised their red eyes and stared at Natalia like she was on the lunch menu. As gun shots echoed through the distance Natalia watched in horror as the marauding chimpanzees disembarked from the corpse of the gigantic tiger and began ambling toward her at all the speed they could muster.
Staring at the chimpanzees, Natalia lost track of where Lauren had gotten off to... she assumed the Lady was right behind her but looking about she realized her lover was gone, perhaps born silently off by an unseen enemy. She felt confused, like the time the doctor back in Russia told her she had cancer... that nothing could be done to cure it, and how she would certainly die from it within mere weeks.
She recalled how a high-pitched whine had begun squealing in her left ear. At first she ignored it but soon it became so loud it was all she could hear. She saw the doctor's mouth moving—forming words—but they meant nothing.
When the headache started she thought her brain was bursting... the sound in her ear merely a precursor to the swelling occurring in her cranial cavity. When she was a small girl one of her playmates fell down and struck her nose on the pavement resulting in a geyser of blood pouring forth. When Natalia went to her in an effort to help the girl began convulsing.
Later she heard that the little girl had developed meningitis dying an excruciating death as brains leaked out both her ears. Natalia didn’t understand how or why her playmate died. It was only years later that she learned the symptoms and recognized the ailment which afflicted the little girl.
How long had Lauren been gone? Was she beginning to feel the effects of Lake Baikal syndrome? Her mind was muddled and she couldn't seem to think straight. For a second she wondered if she was simply dreaming all this and in actuality they were still home at Orchardton Hall.
A pain in her leg startled her into awareness of the moment. An arm ending in a clawed hand had snaked its way through a broken wallboard and was clasped firmly around her ankle. Kicking and stomping, she drove the beast away but not without suffering a deep and hideous wound running from her shin to her heel.
A lumbering form rose from the floor as if materializing from nothingness as a scream resounded from outside: Lauren must have been surreptitiously taken. Anger flamed hot in Natalia's mind blotting out all thought for her own safety.
Still holding what looked to be an old long-handled sickle made for cutting wheat which hung from a rafter she wheeled about swinging it with abandon. The beast rising up from the floor spurted a fountain of blood where its head was once fastened. As another beast's arm reached for her again she sheared it off at the elbow. She swung the sickle again, lower this time.
Rushing out the door onto the set of stairs leading to the good earth she stared right into a red set of eyes soon pierced through the head. As the beast fell it knocked others around it to the ground freeing the steps for her descent. She jumped rather than climbed down. When she hit the dirt she whirled about, a tornado lopping off limbs and heads until she is surrounded by heaps of still twitching flesh.
"Natalia!"
Lauren's scream reverberated through the tumult. Looking up from the carnage she saw her friend being carried away, slung over the back of an enormously hoary chimpanzee.
In two seconds she had crossed the suddenly empty field, lopped its legs off at the ankles, and as the beast gave a startled cry and dropped Lauren it rolled over raising its hands in a futile attempt to protect itself from the blade. With arms hewed off Natalia left the creature to wallow in the mud and bleed to death as she helped Lauren to her feet.
She was wounded grievously. With each breath Natalia saw pink bubbles leaking out of Lauren's upper chest where her clothing had been ripped away. She held both hands over her stomach. Natalia didn’t know if it was on account of a
piercing wound or if she was attempting to keep her entrails from bursting out. She feared the former.
The grass was slick with blood and gore as they made their way back to the outer door. The rattle of gunfire continued unabated. A Ford pickup truck was surrounded by a seething frenzy of gnarled and angry animals as Amanda, Luciana, and Ginger stood firing AK-47s into the fast diminishing horde.
"It looks as if we're winning, sweet Lauren. Do you think you can make it to the truck?"
"We better go back inside, darling Natalia. All we have done is to anger these creatures. Look over there."
Following Lauren's gaze Natalia saw what was coming for them: thousands more frothing at the mouth chimpanzees were emerging from the Chunnel on a mad dash in their direction.
With flaming eyes they looked like crazed porcupines the way every hair on their bodies stood up and their pupils were red and they carried weapons in their hands... clubs, spears, and hammers... ready to pummel their enemies into the dust.
The rattle of machine gun fire split the air as Amanda opened up on the horde with the mini-gun mounted in the back of the truck. Spent shells poured out of the chamber like grain running from a silo. Ginger fed one belt of ammunition after another into the breech until the barrel began to glow a dull orange.
"Come, Ladies... we'll have to make a run for it!"
Luciana held out an arm beckoning them to hurry. Suddenly, though, Lauren collapsed on the ground at Natalia's feet... the poor girl was obviously spent. At first she feared the worst... that Lauren had died on her feet... but then the girl whimpered a delicate cry of pain as her eyelids fluttered open.
"Leave me here, precious Natalia. My life is over... do not waste yours trying to save me."
"Help me carry her, my darling Luciana... she cannot walk on her own."
Before she had uttered the words both Luciana and Ginger were at her side helping to gently raise Lauren's torn body into the bed of the truck. The next instant Amanda let out a cry of dismay as her mini gun jammed.