Narican- the Cloaked Deception

by D M Robbins

  More people near us are swallowed by the hungry storm. The train finally lurches to a stop with one big bang. We’re thrown summersaulting through the air into the darkness. The cyclone teeth dart in our direction. About fifteen of us land hard on a grass field.

  The train wreckage is immense. People are down and injured and the landscape is littered with train debris. It all seems so out of place.

  I look for a safe house, cave, tuft of tress, anything to hide within. The teeth at the center of the wind descend over Tanz and I. Running over I punch one tooth that breaks off and is sucked into the vortex. Another tooth pops right into place.

  The mouth opens wide to bite.

  “Run, Claremone.”

  I look up the hill in front of me and in all directions. “To where?” I shout back. The wind noise is fierce. “There’s no cover. There’s nowhere to go!”

  Tanz shakes his head, looking up at the storm, then points. “Ruuuunnnn!”

  It takes me a second then I nod, knowing what he means.

  I scan the tornado’s size. My feet start pumping, pistons firing. I lift off and run as hard as I can. First around the train then up around the wind in the opposite direction moving faster and faster as the thermals draw me along. I grind my teeth. I have to do this. I run harder and harder. I hear pain and crying from within the cyclone. Those same voices I’ve heard before. The storm shifts, trying to shake me off like a bucking bronco. I run faster, outpacing it. The tornado tail whips, trying to suck me in but no go. I step on it, burning up the air. The chomping six-foot teeth come at me and I knock another one into the vortex and keep running. The tail whips, knocking me about fifty feet. I shake my head from the blow, regaining composure.

  I’m going to run even faster. So fast this thing will turn itself into a pretzel. I pedal, breathing deeply, gathering steam. And… now! I burst at it. Full steam like a meteor. It can’t catch up as I create an updraft that diminishes the wind, shrinking it. It whips and bucks. I move faster and harder. The blackness fades and the storm shrinks. A glimmer of sunlight shines.

  The horizon can be seen again. I don’t stop until the wind has been reduced completely. I spin around it in faster rotations then slow into a descent.

  “Great job!” Tanz shouts up as I’m slowing just above him.

  My piston legs prepare for a landing with sneakers burnt and crisp. I need to get new ones.

  The day clears. The deadly vortex is not entirely gone. In the palm of my hand I present the small tornado to Tanz. The baby storm bounces back and forth trying to bite my hand.

  I hold the mini-tornado out for him.

  “Can we keep it?” I joke.

  Tanz brings his face closer, staring at it with his radiant blue eyes. The wind straightens up, standing still.

  Tanz analyzes it. “This is a very sophisticated attack beyond any mortal capabilities. And whomever can control the elements. We must be wary.” He places information into his equation. “87% complete.” It closes and evaporates. He brings out a small box from his backpack and places the wind inside.

  We check if we can help the wounded, spinning in all directions, but people are gone. No one lays in the field. Only luggage and train debris. We stare at each other and shrug.

  Beginning at the rear of the train we check from seat to seat. Each person is frozen in different poses: drinking coffee, taking pictures of the landscape, reading the newspaper. We look at each other as we walk through this strange scenario. I poke a man with a newspaper. Tanz pokes a girl with a lollipop.

  “They’re mannequins, plastic…” Tanz says.

  We stare at each other again then up and down the car. The plastic people all have looks of intrigue and enthusiasm.

  One blond woman stares off with sadness in her large round eyes as a tear runs down her cheek.

  “Hello, ma’am? Ma’am?” I lean in. But nothing. No blink. No breath. “All fakes? How? They were real when we left.”

  We get to the conductor and he too is just a beefy mannequin with beard and brown hair, plastic smile, conductor hat and thumbs up on his hand.

  “Another set up. Some computer program or illusion.” Tanz says confounded.

  I am thoroughly confused. But I trust what I saw. “I guess that’s why we were in front.”

  He nods.

  We grab our stuff. “Might as well start walking,” I say.

  Back outside we see the capital off in the distance.

  “Clearly someone doesn’t want us to get there,” Tanz says.

  After some distance I look back. The train damage is severe as it lays on its side off the tracks, metal peeled away. The wreck is no illusion. Shirts and pants from open luggage rest on the ground.

  *

  We walk a few miles and stop with the darkness of night. It’s a grassy area we tamp down into beds. Luckily, it’s a warm summer’s evening. We’re not prepared for camping though. I find rocks to make a firepit while Tanz rummages around his bag for the little food he brought. I make the teepee for the fire out of twigs and dry grass using matches Tanz brought along.

  “Is there anything you don’t have in that bag?”

  “No,” he says, handing me a protein bar. “All natural, no preservatives…”

  I nod, ravenous for anything. We rest on the grass beds trying to relax.

  I start hearing those voices again, the ones I heard from within the tornado. People murmuring in pain. Different voices. A collection of them.

  I listen closer and faintly hear certain words from within the myriad.

  “Why did they do that to me?”

  “God, I hate myself.”

  “You’re a terrible mother. I hate you.”

  More grumbling and pain. Vague words about lies and killing.

  “Kill you.”

  “Kill you.”

  “Kill you.”

  With goosebumps tickling my neck, I ask Tanz, “I’m not going crazy, right? You hear that.”

  He nods, scanning in all directions. “A deaf man could hear that.”

  “But where are they?” I ask, looking around.

  “Trapped entities enslaved by the dark forces.”

  “Are they people?”

  He purses his lips and shifts his head, pondering. “Many of them. Or their essence.”

  “Can they be freed? They’re in pain.”

  “Yes, once the yoke is broken. If not, they will remain forever trapped. Forever in agony.”

  “How is the air filled with them? I don’t understand.”

  He pulls up a calculation. “Their pain was somehow captured and infused within the air molecules.”

  The starless black sky rumbles. But no clouds rest above. Just a thick black mat.

  “Is the sky also part of this?”

  “Indeed, it must be. My summation is that the program controls the sky and everything beneath it.”

  “Controlling the elements, huh? I don’t like it.”

  “Neither do I.”

  An uneasy feeling sits around us. There’s no safety out here. The air is thick and heavy. Miles and miles of open terrain and clearly something is watching us, wanting something from us.

  I try sleeping with one eye open but hear these rising voices murmur.

  After a few minutes I push off the ground. “I can’t sleep with all this racket!” I shout, tired of it. “Reveal yourself!”

  Tanz rolls over pressing himself up. “Clearly they want something from us.”

  “Who?” I ask as he feeds the fire more grass that lights up the sky.

  “Whoever is behind this. The dark forces take on many shapes. Fears you may have. Weaknesses they hope to exploit.”

  What he says triggers a memory of camping with my parents when I was young. After hearing noises in the woods, I got so scared I thought a bear was outside our tent cracking twigs and rustling leaves. I thought he was going to eat us and only our bones would be left. I laid in the tent paralyzed by fear. It turned out to be a raccoon rustling th
rough smores trash.

  Tanz hands me a few iron core crystals.

  “That’s the last of it. We will acquire more from my contact when we return and continue reconnecting strands.”

  “And if we ever want to get home, right?”

  “Yes, that as well.”

  Feeling stronger, I stand. The moaning voices continue as my anger grows.

  “Come on! We’re right here!” I shout at them.

  Their volume and anger grows, matching mine.

  “Do not encourage them. Anger begets anger. We are somehow on their land. In their lair if you will.”

  I think about this land that had been closed to the public. For testing perhaps. I wonder if this is a trap and if Tanz knows that too.

  “We’re in trouble out here, aren’t we? I mean, there’s no safe space for miles. Kind of at their mercy.”

  “As always we are safe in the moment remaining one with our highest selves aligned with universal intelligence. And yet of course I see your point.”

  “We’re not sleeping anyway. Let’s go check it out. See what they want. I’d be having nightmares anyway if I was.”

  We stomp out the small fire then cover it with rocks.

  We walk a few feet in each direction, seeing nothing.

  “Well, which way?” I ask, then a horrible voice shrieks behind me. “Boo.” I jump.

  “They’re just trying to scare us…” Tanz says.

  “Well, it’s working.”

  The voice shrieks again like bones had broken and a scream follows. Scratchy voices flood the empty landscape like bodiless ghosts.

  “They want us to move westward,” Tanz says.

  I nod, stumbling over a rock and landing on the hard-packed soil. “I’m getting sick of this! What do you want?” I shout again, propped up on the ground.

  “Yyyyoouuuuu,” I hear. Chills run through me.

  “Did you hear that, Tanz?”

  “How could I not?” he says as we continue walking.

  A glow appears in the distance under the matte black sky. A bright red glow that radiates heat. I get warmer, the heat intensifies. As we approach, I see Tanz clearly, as bright as daylight, with the dark sky and rugged landscape around us.

  “This appears as if a mirage,” he says.

  “Mirages aren’t hot,” I say as we slow our pace.

  The heat source comes into sight. We stop atop a small bowl maybe fifty yards in length. Gnarled oddly shaped leafless trees stand petrified around the perimeter.

  “Is that… lava?” I ask, peering down in confusion.

  Tanz calculates. “It cannot be, though appears so. However, no active lava beds exist in the east let alone within miles of the capital. These are all programs. False realities.”

  “You can’t feel programs, Tanz. So, what do we do? I mean, we’ve come this far.”

  “Enter, I suppose. It is the only way to learn.”

  With better judgment, I plead, “But I don’t really want to enter and learn. I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “As we are meant to.”

  “That’s really great, Tanz. Comforting. I’m feeling so much worse now. Thank you.”

  “Any time.”

  We walk down the slope of the bowl into the small valley. The lava lake sits about thirty feet into the center where the land is flat. The lava appeared calm when we stood at the top but now bubbles and spits flames as we descend. The voices and cries of pain vanish from the air.

  Across on the far hillside a crow lands on a tree branch and is instantly fried, ashing over, dusting to the ground. Another one lands, the branch moves like an arm and the bird is eaten at the tip, sucked right in.

  “Did you see that? That branch just ate that bird.”

  But Tanz didn’t see. He’s looking at the glowing red pool in front of us, calculating with a fading blue equation.

  “My sight is distorted here,” he says, when a shrill cry calls out from within the bowl, echoing.

  “This was definitely a bad idea.”

  “Yes, by my calculations I would have to agree with you.”

  “What did it say?”

  “You don’t want to know. Low possible outcome.”

  I nod, growing more uncertain with each step.

  Once we reach the base of the hill the top tree branches begin extending out from all sides toward the center of the bowl. Roots shoot down the hill from the lowest part of the trees. These roots have come alive, slithering down the hillside toward us.

  “Look, they’re snakes.” I point. A high pitch shriek permeates the bowl.

  “Ah, they’re playing,” Tanz says as the slithering roots snap at each other.

  “And the branches are closing off the top. Snakes and branches, your little equation couldn’t see that?”

  “No, it could not. Clearly they anticipate us to dust and disappear. That bird was an example,” Tanz observes. “That is why they lured us down here. To disappear.”

  The branches at the top closest together begin connecting as the middle ones extend toward the center.

  The snake roots get closer, shriek louder, and the lava lake rumbles.

  I cover my ears as the roof is closing and sky shrinking. “Why has it gotten so loud?”

  “This is a game to them.” He draws up another calculation that quickly fades. “I cannot hold them. My ability, this extra sense. My DNA is unraveling within my cells,” he says, losing the waving blue images.

  “It’s time we get out of here anyway. Watch this.” I grab Tanz.

  The branches almost complete their connection across the center, blocking out the sky as if forming a newly thatched hut. My feet begin pulsating and pumping. My legs thicken and I grow strong, but with a slight cramp, tightness in my right leg. As we lift off, I pump harder and the pistons sound and jet engine blares. We rise above the snapping snakes and move for the hilltop and trees.

  My legs sputter as the cramp grows, tightening like a Charlie Horse. The pistons stutter and jet engine coughs like a struggling motor. I try willing them. We move upward but not fast enough. My legs spin but I feel them slowing, losing thickness. My grip on Tanz weakens. I cannot hold it.

  Tanz shouts into my ear, “You can’t make it! The iron and nickel in the lava are zeroing out the iron crystals in our blood.”

  Losing to gravity, dropping several feet out of control.

  “It’s our only chance.” I pump harder, calming my mind. Align with my higher self, align with my higher self.

  The jet engine roar returns as we shoot up, slamming into the roof branches—bending but not breaking them. Our momentum stops, my body slackens, and I drop Tanz. We tumble through the air approaching the ground fast. Snake roots await, ready to strike, snapping up at us. We hit the ground with a hard thud.

  We slap several roots away with our hands. He shoots laser eyes. A few recoil but the laser shorts out.

  “Tanz, Tanz, are you okay?” I ask, rushing over to him. Several fangs jut out around him.

  “Fine. I’m fine.” They surround us, hissing and snapping.

  I look up. “Look, the roof is closed. I can’t see the sky.”

  A clicking sound echoes as if the wood is interlocking in place one by one, sealing up the bowl and hillside. The trees now come alive beneath the roofline. Multiple eyeballs pop out of openings where birds and other creatures must have poked holes. Some trees have only one or two. Larger ones have a dozen or more eyes darting about, staring at us from the bowl perimeter like watchmen.

  “We have to get out of here, Tanz. But how? You’re the brains of this operation.”

  “Can you run?”

  “You mean, like, jog? I can try but don’t see how that’s going to work,” I say, looking up at the defenses waiting for us.

  “Focus on the young ones. They can’t see as well. You take the lead. I’ll run behind you. There.” He points to two thin, short trees with one eye each. I look at him like he’s crazy.

  “The only way ou
t of here is up.” He looks back at the lava while batting away another root. “Unless you want to go in there,” he says.

  “What about you?”

  “I can run. I’m not that old. On the count of three.”

  “Okay. Okay,” I say, as there appears no other options.

  “One, two, three!” I take off at a sprint.

  Tanz on my rear is keeping up.

  “Not bad, old man.”

  “Not bad yourself,” he says huffing as we dig into the hillside.

  As a human I dig hard. Legs not thickening. The top of the hill is not far but steep. I begin huffing and puffing, zigzagging between snakes halfway up. Another few feet and we almost make it to the lip and base of the trees.

  “Come on.” I grab his hand, pulling him.

  I pump hard trying to build momentum when snake roots strike us. One nips me on the arm and my skin sizzles. Another hits Tanz from the side. He lets out a sigh of pain and we both tumble down the hill. Now laying on top of hardened roots that are still moving toward the center. The only open space left will be the lava pool.

  “They seem less interested in us now than in connecting.” I say.

  They pass along the ground under us. The shrieks have paused. We stand brushing ourselves off.

  “If they connect, we’re dead…”

  “This is a mouth,” Tanz says.

  “What are we supposed to do?”

  Tanz pauses. “Past the trees is our only escape. Or is that what we are to believe? Give me a moment.”

  “We don’t have a moment!” A root grabs my left hand then another grabs my right. They wrap tightly around, pulling me toward the lava.

  “I can’t fight it. Too strong. Grrr.” I try pulling loose but can’t.

  A root slides between my legs attempting to connect with incoming roots. I step down hard on it. It stops slithering, snaps, and bites me on the thigh. My skin sizzles and smokes. It burns like acid.

  “Don’t do that!” Tanz implores.

  I nod, having already figured that out. One grabs Tanz and drags him toward the lava pool. “I. Can’t. Stop. It.”

  “The lava’s bubbling higher!” I shout above the noise.