Saga of the Scout

by Cliff Hamrick

  “The horse!” Ethan exclaimed. He went back into the living room and looked out the window, but the horse was no longer in the front yard. He quietly opened the door in case anyone was around and peeked outside.

  The neighborhood was as dark as it was quiet. There was no movement and no signs of the horse. He did not hear anything. There were no sounds of shouting or whips from the railroad tracks. Ethan wondered if they had stopped or if they were so far away that he couldn’t hear them anymore.

  No matter what, the horse was gone and with it was the sword and his food and water. At least the knife was still on his hip. But he would have to walk to the stadium.

  He returned to the kitchen and found some bottled water. There was dry food that he could have eaten, but he felt that his stomach wasn’t ready for that just yet. He slipped the raider’s mask back on and left the house. He wasn’t sure how to get to the stadium, but he remembered from the map he studied that the railroad tracks would get him there.

  He followed his steps from before and was soon back on the tracks. From the intersection of road and tracks, Ethan could see that the machine had stopped. It was further north on the tracks than when he saw it earlier, just on the edge of San Marcos.

  In the dim moonlight, he could not make out any details, but he noticed that there was very little movement.

  He was curious, so he walked closer to get a better look, always keeping a bush or a tree between him and the World Breaker to remain unseen. As he got closer, he could feel the waves of energy hitting him again. But they weren’t as strong as before, and he wasn’t feeling sick or hallucinating now. In fact, he was starting to feel better as he got closer. The soreness was leaving his muscles, and his headache faded with each step he took towards the machine.

  When he saw someone walking a patrol around the machine, Ethan dropped to a knee to hide and watch. The person walked to the side closest to Ethan. Once again, he wished for binoculars.

  It seemed that, in this world, simply being able to see a long distance was like having a superpower. Ethan stared at the person, trying to discern any details. They didn’t seem like a raider.

  When the person unzipped their pants and relieved themselves, Ethan realized what he was seeing. It was one of the soldiers from the stadium. He could see the outline of the soldier’s uniform against the background of the dimly lit flatbed railroad car.

  For some reason, the soldier was guarding the World Breaker, whatever that was, and forcing people to pull it. Were the soldier’s working for the raiders all along? Did they even know what they were doing?

  Ethan drew his knife and decided some questions didn’t require answers. He stayed crouched down and snuck closer to the guard, keeping the low bushes and tall grass between them. The guard finished and zipped up. Ethan froze, his eyes focused on the soldier. Then the soldier walked away from Ethan to finish his patrol around the car.

  Ethan took his opportunity and rushed forward, careful to only step on the heavy wooden railroad ties to keep quiet. The soldier heard him, though, and turned around, but it was too late. Ethan was too close.

  He wrapped his hand around the soldier’s face to clamp his mouth shut. Pulling the soldier’s head back and up, Ethan slit the soldier’s throat.

  He held the soldier’s body up for a moment, so his feet wouldn’t touch the ground until the stopped kicking. Once the body was still, he set the limp body on the ground and crouched down. He could hear the soft sounds of someone walking near the railroad car. Then another set. There were two other guards.

  He wondered if they were raiders or soldiers. As he heard the sounds of another guard approach, Ethan crouched down and waited.

  He saw booted feet approaching the rear of the railroad car where he knelt. Another army soldier walked around the corner of the car. This one carried a spear.

  Ethan jumped up and grabbed at the soldier’s throat. He plunged the long, curved knife up and into the soldier’s stomach. The soldier cried out, but it was weak, and only once. The curved tip of the knife pierced the soldier’s diaphragm, and he couldn’t breathe or scream. But the soldier dropped the spear, and the wooden shaft clattered loudly on the iron rail. From the other side of the railroad car, Ethan heard another soldier.

  “What’s going on?” It was a woman’s voice. A short, silent pause extended as Ethan knelt to hold the dying soldier’s feet so they wouldn’t kick against the loose gravel. Then he heard her walk closer.

  “What? Are you guys jerking off back there?” Her tone sounded playful, but it was masking concern. Ethan could hear the sound of a metal weapon being drawn.

  She came around the corner, holding the sword the way an amateur holds a sword too far in front of them. Even in the dim light of the moon, Ethan could see it was the short-haired nurse from the medical station who had examined him just a few days ago. The realization caused him to pause.

  She almost tripped over the body of the soldier with the cut throat. She immediately looked up from the corpse and saw Ethan crouched over the body of another soldier. If she recognized him, then she didn’t show any signs.

  “Oh shit,” she exclaimed and immediately ran away towards the stadium. “Help! Someone’s here!”

  Her shouts shocked Ethan back into focus. He ran forward and tackled her from behind. He landed on her back as she went face-first across the railroad ties. Her sword slid away from her on the loose gravel.

  “Please, don’t kill me. I’m loyal to the Ilutu, I swear.” She held her hands up pleading.

  Ethan rolled her over and put his hand over her mouth. He held the knife up to her face so she could see the bloody blade glistening in the moonlight. He glanced around quickly but saw that no one else was coming.

  He kept his face close to hers so he could whisper, “I’m going to ask you some questions. If you don’t scream and just tell me what I want to know, then I won’t kill you, alright?”

  Her eyes were wide with confusion and terror as she slowly nodded.

  “Why are you helping them?” He carefully removed his hand from her mouth but pressed the sharp edge of his knife against her throat to remind her to stay quiet.

  She got the message and answered quietly, “We had to. No one was coming. We lost contact with the Army days ago. No more supplies, no ammo, the guns weren’t working, and the vehicles wouldn’t start. Then one day, these guys on horses and rhinos showed up, and the lieutenant tells us that we’re working for them now.”

  “What about the redheaded girl?”

  “I don’t know what she is, but she’s not a girl. I don’t think she’s even human.” There was a hint of fear in the nurse’s voice.

  “I know she’s not. I tried to warn you, but you tried to have me killed instead.”

  She looked into his eyes and over his mask-covered face. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Ethan Swain. The kid your lieutenant sent out to be shot. I’m going to stop all of this.”

  “We were told you were dead. She’s going to be pissed.”

  “I don’t care about her feelings. I just need to know how many more there are.”

  “Too many for you. Almost the whole platoon, and at least as many of the Agrabu.”

  She saw he didn’t recognize the word. “The Agrabu. That’s what they call themselves, the guys with the swords and horses.”

  “How do I get in? Is there a password or something.”

  She smirked at his lack of experience. “You’ve never really done anything like this before have you? You don’t stand a chance.”

  “I just killed two soldiers and took you down without even breaking a sweat. Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do. Just answer the question.”

  Her smirk faded. “No, there’s no password. You either belong in the stadium, or you don’t. Dressed like that, you could probably just walk in.”

  “That’s what I needed to know.” He stood up and jerked her to her feet with him. He turned her towards the machine on the railroad car, his knife s
till at her throat to remind her to keep quiet.

  “What is that thing,” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. Not really. The Agrabu call it the World Breaker. They talk about it like is a weapon. Maybe a bomb. People get sick when they are around it too much. Every day, they have to get new people to pull it. Some of them never recover.”

  “Sick? Like how?”

  “Kind of like radiation sickness. But not really. Most people get dizzy, nauseous, weak. Some are…changed. Like they’re mutating. The Agrabu take them away. I don’t know what they do with them.”

  Ethan considered that last statement before he pushed her ahead to the front of the railroad car. Huddled in the grass next to the railroad tracks was a group of about a dozen people.

  It was still chilly at night, and most of them weren’t dressed for warmth. He heard coughing and muttering as the people slowly stirred when he approached.

  He wondered why they didn’t fight back. The guards were armed but greatly outnumbered by the prisoners. Then he saw that they were tied together in groups at their necks. If they tried to run, then they would likely choke themselves. He cut the ropes and told the nurse to untie the knots. The people seemed too confused to help at first. The World Breaker was already having its effect on them.

  Ethan told a few of them, “Follow these tracks north until you get to the river. Wait there. I’ll be coming back for you.”

  One of the prisoners spoke up. It was the college-age man in cargo shorts and T-shirt who accused Ethan of trying to rape the redheaded girl, which led to the army throwing Ethan out of the stadium. “Thank you, thank you. I thought we were going to die. Who are you?”

  Ethan didn’t want to explain himself again. “Don’t worry about that. Just get out of here and keep quiet.”

  The Army nurse hesitated. She didn’t know what Ethan would do next.

  Ethan grabbed her arm. “You’ll go with them. But first, I need you to tell me where they keep the rhinos.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Ethan gathered up the sword and spear from the dead soldiers and followed the railroad tracks towards the stadium. The nurse told him that the Agrabu kept the animals in a city park near the river just across from the stadium. She didn’t know how many guards would be there.

  Ethan walked quietly on the railroad, making sure to keep his feet on the wide wooden railroad ties so his feet wouldn’t crunch on the loose gravel.

  He couldn’t see very far in the dim moonlight, but he thought, at least, it meant people would have trouble seeing him as well. He didn’t have to walk far before he saw the light of a campfire up ahead and to his right.

  On his left, just across a parking lot filled with derelict vehicles was Bobcat Stadium, its dark, silent walls looming up into the sky.

  As he got closer, he saw the distinct shapes of horses standing close together, their heads down as they slept. But he saw other shapes, large shapes with broken outlines created from woolly fur. The rhinos were real. He remembered them from the first day but never saw them since and wondered if they were just a part of a dream he had.

  He pushed away questions about where they came from and set his mind to the task. He slowed his steps and crouched down as he walked. He still hadn’t seen any signs of guards. Surely, they didn’t leave their mounts unguarded. He circled so that the herd of six horses was between him and light of the campfire in case anyone was watching.

  When he was within a few yards of the fire, he saw them. There were two raiders, dressed in their black leather pants, but shirtless and unmasked. They were lying flat on their back asleep next to the fire. Ethan jammed the tip of his spear into the throats of the raiders, killing them quickly and silently.

  He didn’t like murdering people in their sleep, but he couldn’t risk them making any noise. Not with the stadium so close.

  He turned towards the rhino. It stood in one spot, passively watching him as its ears flicked around towards him. It was as big as any rhino he had seen at the zoo, but its long woolly fur made it appear bigger.

  Two long, sharp horns protruded from its snout, the front horn twice as long as the rear horn. On the rhino’s back was a large saddle made for such a creature. There were even reins dangling from its mouth.

  The only other thing Ethan knew about rhinos was that they were very dangerous and had a tendency to trample and kill things they didn’t like. He hoped this rhino was more friendly than that.

  He gathered up the reins and led it like a horse. The rhino didn’t move at first, but with a little enticement, Ethan was able to get it walking. Luckily, it was well-trained as a mount.

  Ethan led the rhino back to the World Breaker. It walked slowly. Rhinos don’t get in a hurry unless they want to and this one wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere. Luckily, he was far enough away from the stadium that no one could see him and his massive companion lumbering in the dark.

  When Ethan arrived, he unhitched the ropes that were being used to pull the railroad car and tied them to the side of the flatbed, around the machine that rode on it. He paused to look at the World Breaker more closely.

  Even in the dim light, he could see some details. What he originally thought were imperfections in the bronze sphere were actually runes engraved in the metal. They looked similar to those that the raider carved on the door during his first night. He still had no idea what they meant.

  The liquid inside the cylinders was too viscous to be water. He imagined that it might be blood. But that didn’t seem right either. It bubbled slightly as it moved up bronze tubes, into the machine and then back into the cylinder. He quietly knocked on the side of the metal sphere. It didn’t sound hollow, but it wasn’t completely solid either. Something was inside.

  He tilted his head back to look up at the huge crystal mounted at the top of the huge machine. It was beautiful in the moonlight, and he wished he could see it this close during the day. He imagined that it would refract dazzling colors in bright sunlight. Everything about the machine was beautiful and strange. But he knew it had to be destroyed.

  As he walked around the machine, he noticed something that stood out. It was an equilateral triangle made of a smooth black stone. The triangle was set into the side of the metal sphere at about the height of Ethan’s head. There was an indentation in the black triangle in the shape of a hand. But the hand that it was designed for would have had very long fingers and only three of them.

  An ancient instinct came to Ethan, and he reached out to touch the black triangle. He slid his hand into the indentation and, though his fingers did not quite fit, he felt an electric jolt through his body. A sudden gasp of air, and he was blinded by bright sunlight.

  He still stood on the flat bed of the railroad car, and his hand still touched the World Breaker, but the sun was high in the sky, which was too deep of a shade of blue to be Earth.

  Around him was a soft, muddy landscape. It was as if he were on a muddy beach with nothing around him, not even the ocean, all the way out to the horizon. A musty, moldy smell flooded his nostrils, and the air hung warm and humid around him.

  He heard the peal of unearthly bells in the distance. Keeping his hand on the black triangle, he looked towards the sound, which seemed to be coming from the north, assuming directions mattered in this place.

  On the far horizon, he saw massive stone ziggurats surrounded by a high wall. A horrible ululation rose up from the ziggurats, which keened higher and higher until the sound forced Ethan to pull his hands to his ears to break the noise.

  Then the sound suddenly stopped, and it was night again. The cool night air of a Texas spring replaced the hot, humid air of that bizarre landscape. The only sound was crickets chirping at the stars.

  He looked at the hand that touched the machine and discovered that he was unharmed, though he did think that his hand seemed a little rougher than he remembered. But he had been working hard over the past few days and didn’t think anything of it.

  He didn’t
know what the machine was or what it did, but he knew that it was important to the raiders and the monster masquerading as a redheaded girl. He trusted the dream that Ashley showed him and jumped down from the railroad car and hitched the ropes to the saddle of the rhino.

  Once he was sure that everything was secure, he urged the rhino to move forward by pulling on the reins. It walked until the ropes were taut, and then stopped.

  He pulled on the reins of the rhino to get it to continue. “Come on! You can do it! Pull!”

  The rhino moved a little more, which caused the flatbed car to lift a little. But the rhino relaxed, and the car slammed down onto the tracks making the liquid inside the crystal cylinders slosh wildly. Ethan looked at the stadium in the distance and was afraid that the noise would bring more raiders and soldiers before he could finish the task.

  Ethan got behind the rhino and poked it in the rear with his spear. That got the rhino’s attention. It grumbled deeply in its chest as it turned to face Ethan.

  He jammed the tip of the spear into the other side of the rhino’s rear, which caused it to turn in that direction. Then Ethan poked at both sides to drive the rhino to run. It let out a low roar as it pushed forward to get away from the pain coming from behind.

  The ropes groaned as the railway car tipped over. Ethan heard a loud screech as the metal machine slid against the flat car. Ethan gave the rhino one last thrust, leaving the spear stuck in its tough hide. He ran away from them as the rhino finally pulled the car over far enough that the World Breaker slid off the flat car as it tipped over.

  The beautiful crystal on top hit the ground first and broke into a hundred pieces. Then, the crystal cylinders shattered, spilling the thick red liquid inside, which splashed onto the rhino. Ethan felt sorry for the poor animal as it cried out in pain, sounding more like a wounded puppy crying for its mother than a massive Ice Age beast.

  Whatever the liquid was, it dissolved everything it touched. The hindquarters of the rhino bubbled and smoked as hair, hide, and muscle melted away until all it could do was collapse under its own weight.