Junkland (The Hoarding Book 1)

by Patrick Johns

  “Well, I’ll cheers to that,” said Kevrin, lifting his mug in the air.

  The three teammates clinked their mugs together and took a large gulp. When they were done, Elyara gave Kevrin a wet kiss on the cheek.

  Jahrys turned away. He didn’t want to see that. It only made him think of Lily.

  “Well, if it isn’t Jahrhead, his loyal sidekick Kevrin and his forester lover. Finish any jobs today?” Rallick stood behind them at the bar, finished with his washing. He leaned over and wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

  “Piss off Rallick. We didn’t go out today.” Jahrys said, trying to shrug off Rallick’s arm.

  “Ha! I honestly don’t know how you guys have survived this long.” Rallick motioned at Willem for a drink behind the bar.

  “Willem has been nice enough to help us out during our slump. But we’re heading back out tomorrow,” Kevrin answered.

  “Anything to help out Alvys’s son for all the wine he had provided my bar before the Hoarding, and Kevrin used to help me stock up. These boys were my heroes.” Innkeeper Willem gave a little chuckle and went back to cleaning mugs. “I sure could use some of that Grent Wine, O’Jahrys. You don’t think there’s any lying around out there do you?”

  “We’ve searched the remains of my father’s shop, but it looks like we finished all the wine that was left in there. I’ll keep my eye out for you, though.” Jahrys turned to Rallick and said, “We’re going to complete our first job tomorrow, you’ll see.”

  “Well hopefully you have better luck at that than you do at Pooles and Palms. Just don’t let the Hoarders get you or else Laura is going to have to save both your butts.” He gave his best smile at Elyara.

  “My name’s Elyara, you idiot.” She gave Rallick a dirty look. “At least they have a girl! Go back to your buddies. It looks like they miss you.”

  Jahrys looked behind Rallick and saw Stade and Taygar staring at Rallick from the corner of the room. Jahrys gave a little chuckle.

  Rallick’s face turned red. “Hey, just watching out for my fellow Retrievers, that’s all.” He patted Jahrys hard on the shoulder and said, “I’ll be enjoying my nice reward of steak that was cooked fresh from the castle kitchens this afternoon.” With that, Rallick took his drink and walked back to his teammates.

  “We’ll show him,” Jahrys said, more to himself than to his friends.

  Willem began to fill up a keg behind the bar. He saw the glum look on Jahrys’s face. “This’ll cheer you up. This came in today fresh from the castle, courtesy of Old Lan’s team.” Willem’s mustache bounced up and down with excitement. It reminded Jahrys of his father.

  A keg was the last thing Old Lan needed from the castle. Jahrys knew what happened when Old Lan got his hands on alcohol.

  “Make sure you keep it away from him unless you want a repeat of last time,” said Jahrys.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be keeping a sharp eye on Old Lan.” Willem patted around the pockets of his clothing, looking for something. “Hey Jahrys, have you seen my keys?”

  “Nope. Haven’t seen them,” Jahrys lied.

  “Strange. I must have left them upstairs. I—”

  The door flew open again. It seemed to be another wave of teams, but there was screaming.

  Jahrys, Kevrin, and Elyara twirled around to look.

  “AHHH!”

  Tarl and Kat rushed into the bar carrying their teammate, Gabe. His legs were flying in all directions beneath him. He was holding his hand out and blood was dripping onto the floor.

  “AHHH! Cut if off! Just cut the damn thing off!” he screamed again.

  “By Zalus,” Willem mumbled to himself, “what happened?” Willem came around the bar to help carry Gabe.

  “We ran into some Hoarders on the way back from High Point,” explained a panicked Kat. “They chased us all the way back to The Arcalane. We were able to shake them loose, but one of them nicked Gabe in the hand.”

  Tarl continued for her. “The blast didn’t fully take off his hand, but it’s been getting worse. Look…”

  Willem bent down to examine Gabe’s injury. His hand was barely attached to his arm—his wrist was mangled. The glove that had covered it was burnt into his skin.

  “Quick. Get him in the back. Now!” Willem ordered.

  The rest of the bar was silent, watching the commotion. Willem escorted them to the back room. People looked around at each other awkwardly as Gabe’s screams drowned out any noise from the room.

  “Poor Gabe,” said Elyara, shaking her head in sympathy. “That could’ve been us out there. We need to get some sleep so we’re prepared for tomorrow. Who knows how long we’ll be in the Junkland for.”

  Kevrin finished his drink, wiped his lips clean and said, “Elyara’s right. I’m heading up to bed. Don’t stay up too late, Jahrys. We have to get to the Retrieval Stations early tomorrow so we’re guaranteed a decent job.”

  “I won’t be too much longer,” Jahrys lied, feeling too depressed to attempt to sleep.

  “See you tomorrow.” Kevrin and Elyara said, as they walked up the stairs to the right of the bar.

  Jahrys sunk himself into his stool and zoned out from the screams and the light chatter around him. He continued to think of his parents. He thought about his mother, how loving and caring she had been. And when she would remember what he liked and didn’t like to eat. He missed those little things. And he missed his father. He missed having someone teach him new things, like the art of carpentry, fishing, and how to make Mother smile. Even if it was things he didn’t want to learn, Jahrys would always appreciate it later on down the road.

  And then there was Lily. He would do anything to see her. How could he have let her slip away?

  He fumbled around with the necklace in his pocket. His fingers lightly outlining the shape of the gem. I’ll make you all proud tomorrow, he thought.

  “BUCUUUUUUCK!”

  Jahrys looked down and smiled. Miller was staring up at him. He had finally dropped the keys onto the floor.

  “Finally got bored of biting metal?” Jahrys bent down and scratched the chicken’s round, bony head.

  “BUCUUUUUUCK!”

  Jahrys laughed. “Me too, Mill. Me too.”

  Chapter 15

  Jahrys

  THE NEXT DAY started with a pounding headache for Jahrys. He rolled out of bed, still wearing the same clothes he had on the night before. Miller squawked as he was flung off the bed.

  Jahrys’s room was tiny, but big enough to fit a bed and a small dresser. A doorway led into an even smaller washroom.

  I shouldn’t have had all those drinks, Jahrys thought, as he stumbled his way into the washroom, ignoring the angry pecks at his toes from Miller. He dunked his hands into the bucket of water and splashed his face. He looked into the cracked mirror hanging on the wall above the bucket. His eyes were baggy and black, his tan skin looked pale, and his hair was a mess.

  It had been another sleepless night for Jahrys. He had the same nightmares he had been having for the past three years. Once again, he watched his parents die, listening to their screams. Once again, he had felt Lily’s hand slip away from his as he listened to her voice fade away.

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  Miller ran to the door and began pecking at it.

  Jahrys turned and stumbled towards the door. He pushed Miller out of the way with his foot and opened it. Kevrin stood there and instantly tossed him a loaf of bread. Jahrys caught it as Miller scooted out under Jahrys’s legs.

  “Eat some of this and let’s get going,” Kevrin told him.

  Jahrys took a bite and walked back over to his dresser. He gathered his bag he had packed the night before, and they both made their way down the creaking stairs to the bar.

  There was no one in the bar except for Elyara, who had been waiting for them. Good, Jahrys thought, everyone must still be sleeping.

  Jahrys, Kevrin, and Elyara walked around the bar into the back room. The back room used to be for storage before
the Hoarding, but Willem had since enhanced it. Hooks now lined the right side of the wall, holding clean suits and helmets. Captor Packs were lined up against the left side of the wall. There was a separate room used for washing after teams returned from the Junkland.

  The three teammates found their designated suits and slipped them on, double checking that their skin was not exposed to the air. They were tight, but the lightweight material made it easy to move around in. The suits had been collected from the dead Hoarders that had been killed over the years. The strangest thing had happened, though. The yellow lights on the suits, Captor Packs, and Captors that they had collected had changed blue. Every suit now had a blue tint. No one could explain it. Willem assumed it was some kind of sorcery.

  The suits were crucial in protecting their skin in the Junkland. As the land became more and more dangerous, any open wound would instantly become infected, and they were running low on proper medicine to heal them. Survival was not guaranteed in the Junkland with an open wound. They also used the suits to protect themselves when fighting Hoarders.

  They had also collected the Captors from the dead Hoarders. The technology was nothing they had ever seen before. It took them awhile to learn how to use them.

  For the most part, using a Captor was straightforward: aim and click. There were two triggers on the handle. When the top trigger was pressed, it fired a fatal blast. However, the Captor had a limit. In order to recharge it, the Captor needed to be attached to the Captor Pack with the tube. Then, when the bottom trigger was pressed, it would fire a beam that would encompass any object it was pointed at. It was possible to use the Captor without the tube attached, but once the energy from the Captor was drained, it would not be able to fire anymore. There was a glass tube in the center of the Captor that glowed blue, showing the energy level.

  When both buttons were pressed…Jahrys and the Retrievers still weren’t sure exactly what happened. All they knew was when both triggers were pressed, the Captor would shoot out the objects from the Captor Pack in a compressed junk block. Energy was processed somehow, condensing the remains into a junk block.

  Once their suits were firmly secured, Kevrin helped Jahrys and Elyara attach their Captor Packs to their backs. When the packs were clipped in, a circular blue light on the back lit up. Jahrys and Elyara then attached the long tube from the pack to their Captors. They checked the blue light on both their Captors to see if they were fully charged.

  Kevrin never wore a Captor Pack because he claimed he wasn’t the best at using a Captor. So instead, he was in charge of carrying all of their bags and supplies they wanted to bring.

  The three teammates clipped on their helmets and walked back out into the bar, heading for the door. When Jahrys opened it, Miller tried to scoot out. Jahrys blocked his path with his boot.

  “The Junkland is no place for you,” Jahrys said through his helmet. His voice sounded distorted.

  Miller stared at him with fearful eyes, his stick legs were wobbling beneath his round body. Jahrys must have looked like a monster to Miller.

  Jahrys bent down to pet Miller with his gloved hand, but Miller squawked in fear and scurried away. Jahrys shrugged and walked out into the Junkland.

  The air was hazy and thick. Shattered junk blocks that had fallen from the junk walls above covered the roads. It was quiet; animals were rarely seen or heard anymore. There were no horses either, since the roads were too unstable to walk.

  The Junkland was lifeless.

  They were only a few streets away from the castle wall, where the Hoarders hadn’t polluted much of the roads, so it was easy to walk through. It wasn’t as demolished as the lands farther out along the edges.

  When they arrived at the closed Western Gate, Kevrin, Jahrys, and Elyara walked up the line of Retrieval Stations until they found the one they wanted. They approached a tiny wooden shed built into the stone of the wall. They walked up the creaking steps and opened the wooden door that was half off its hinges. It was dark inside and cramped, but Kevrin reached out and rang a bell.

  Ring, Ring, Ring.

  They stood patiently waiting.

  A window shot up and light poured into the shed. A large man appeared. He looked the three of them over.

  “Ah, if it isn’t Kevrin Danell, O’Jahrys Grent, and the beautiful Elyara M’ava, come to see good old Riago. You guys are out early this morning.” An old bald man stood behind the window, talking through the bars. He was so tall and large that he had to squat down to see them. “You haven’t, by any chance, found any leftovers of your father’s wine, have ya, O’Jahrys?”

  “No, sorry Riago, not this time. I’ll keep looking for you, though. How’d you know it was us?” They were all wearing their suits and had their helmets on.

  “I had a hunch. Ah. The things I’d do for that wine. Your father was a true wizard.” He coughed to clear his throat. “Well, what can old Riago do for ya this morning?”

  “We need another job,” said Kevrin.

  “What happened to the one I gave you a week’s past?” Riago asked while scratching his head.

  “Erh, well, we couldn’t find that man’s family compass,” Kevrin said with embarrassment.

  “Hargh, Hargh,” Riago let out a bark of a laugh. “Well, let’s see what old Riago has for you today. Hopefully something a little easier then.” He turned and started fumbling through some files to his right. “Hmm. No. Not this. Or this. Hmm.” After a few minutes Riago said, “Ah ha! This should be a good one for ya.” He slid a piece of paper beneath a slit at the bottom of the window. Kevrin took the piece of paper and examined it over. Jahrys and Elyara glanced at it over Kevrin’s shoulder. It was a drawing of a white book with golden hinges.

  “What is this?” Kevrin asked as he passed the drawing back to his teammates.

  “It’s a diary,” Riago said. “A girl has been coming with the same job, month after month, with no success. Even Rallick and his gang couldn’t find it.”

  Rallick failed to mention that at the bar, thought Jahrys.

  “Bring that diary back here in one piece and the girl has left a hefty reward,” said Riago, leaning over his desk.

  “What kind of reward?” Elyara asked, curiously.

  “All she told me was you would be highly rewarded.”

  Kevrin, Jahrys, and Elyara all looked at each other and nodded.

  “We accept!” said Kevrin, taking the paper from Jahrys and folding it into his bag.

  “You all have two weeks before Riago opens this job again to another team. So get moving,” Riago said, shooing them away with a hand.

  Kevrin, Jahrys, and Elyara turned to leave.

  “One more thing,” Riago yelled out behind them. There was a loud thump in a cabinet below the window. “Take these.”

  Jahrys reached down, opened the cabinet, and saw three knives.

  “You guys are going to be needing all the help you can get. Hargh, Hargh.” Riago let out a laugh as he shut the window and left Kevrin, Jahrys, and Elyara in the darkness of the shed.

  Chapter 16

  Jahrys

  JAHRYS JOLTED UP, gasping for breath. His lungs felt like they were going to collapse and his heart was pounding in his chest. He was covered in sweat and his hands were shaking. A dream, it was only a dream, thought Jahrys as his lungs searched for air. He rolled over to his side and grabbed his leather waterskin. He drank it greedily. After he was done and his heart rate slowed, he tried to remember what the dream was about. Screaming, he thought. All I remember is a woman screaming.

  His vision was blurred, but it was gradually coming back. His eye was stinging because a piece of his long, brown hair had whipped into it. He was still in his suit; he didn’t want to take it off, just in case something were to happen during the night. His helmet was on the wooden floor next to him. His Captor Pack and Captor were next to his helmet. Lily’s necklace was clenched tightly in his hand.

  He lifted his head and looked around the musty room, still trying to calm d
own. The room was dark and the air was heavy and thick; it felt like it was engulfing his body. It was completely empty. There was no furniture, doors, or any household items; they were all taken during the Hoarding.

  A small fire was to his left. Kevrin had made it last night when he had cooked some fish they had caught when they fished along The Pass that fed into Ocean Lake. It was a nice change from all the dry bread they had been eating the past week.

  Kevrin had tried his best to make the fire small enough as to be unnoticed. He also wanted to avoid burning down the house they were currently residing.

  The fire was now reduced to ashes and wisps of smoke. The red embers were dimly glowing. There was a pot next to the fire that was filled a quarter of the way up with water. Jahrys’s bag lay behind him; he had been using it as a pillow. It wasn’t the most comfortable sleep when compared to the other nights of their journey.

  After leaving Riago’s Retrieval Station, they had decided it would be a good idea to check High Point since Kat had mentioned her team had spotted Hoarders in that area. They had traveled to the east side of the castle where a boathouse had been built over the crossing of the Seaport River. The boathouse led into the castle, but this had also been boarded up—King Leoné had sealed it during The Sickness. However, the boathouse was still accessible from the outside. The Retrievers had rebuilt a few boats after the Hoarding and kept them hidden inside.

  Jahrys, Kevrin, and Elyara had taken a boat down the river. The river had been flowing fast after the storm, so it only had taken them a little more than two days to travel down to The Pass that fed them into Ocean Lake.

  The mist and fog from the lake had given them enough of a cover, so they had decided to camp along the shore, stocking up on fish, and searching the perimeter for any signs of Hoarders. The junk walls also protected them, forming a circle around the lake, towering high into the gray sky.