by A. R. Daun
I looked around at the deserted corridor. The other creatures had gone, and even the injured one had disappeared from view. For a brief second my confusion at this unexpected turn of events made me wonder whether I had dreamed the entire encounter. But a quick glance at the fallen Risen confirmed that this was not the case, though it was now an unrecognizable mass of bubbling flesh and warped keratinous armor.
I rushed out of the building and looked wildly around. Off in the distance I could hear the crash of waves against the beach as the tide came in, but the streets were as deserted as ever, and the rows of crumbling buildings stared back at me with missing windows that looked too much like empty eye sockets. My chest was heaving and I breathed deeply as I sought to regain my composure, but a sudden horrible moment of clarity caused me to jerk, as the reason for their sudden flight dawned on me.
They had learned something. The creature that was now nothing more than a puddle of slime and bubbling froth on the Carlyle's broken tiled floor had managed to pierce the veil that shrouds my thoughts as its nanites had driven deep into my skull, and before it had succumbed to my own attacks it had managed to convey some vital piece of information to its companions. They could not have been anything other than agents of the threat I had become aware of in the Deep West, and now they knew what steps I had taken to counter it.
Yours in Time,
Ammara Lewis,
Miami Settlement,
August 3, 2170
CHAPTER 44
Year 150 A.R.
Old Route 95 North
300 km northeast of New Savannah, Georgia
And to think people feared the end of the world.
- Marco Pappadakis
It didn't help that Jaq was so enthusiastic about it.
Pham grunted again and glanced sideways at his erstwhile companion. She was humming a tune, and a small absent smile played along the corners of her mouth. Around them nature thrived and grew wild in the absence of any caretakers. The Great Road they followed was more an outline of its original visage than a solid construct, its fractured surface a hodge-podge of spreading weeds and tufts of Bermuda grass. Beyond it, Yellow Buckeye trees with their large spreading crowns crowded around younger American Beech wrapped in smooth battleship gray bark, while various Hickory species sporting intricate pinnately compound leaves huddled together as if for comfort.
Pham looked behind him. He wanted to check on the harnessed oni that carried their supplies, and he was gratified to see that the dumb beast was still trudging along with the huge leather pack strapped to its back. He knew of instances where one of its ilk would suddenly go wandering off without so much as a warning, driven by unknown whims and desires, and in their case, such an event would be disastrous. The pack itself must have weight upwards of 100 kg, and the oni hefted it casually, almost lackadaisically.
“Don't worry, your Tara will still be there,” Jaq said, taking a welcome break from her humming. “She won't leave. She likes you, you know.”
“It,” Pham grimaced. “It's an it, not a she.”
He stopped, then realized he had not completed his rebuttal.
“And it's not mine.” Pham finished, albeit somewhat lamely he thought. Although he had not been the handler responsible for training and keeping Tara, it was now for all intents and purposes his.
Jaq made a show of glancing back and scrutinizing the oni. Her eyes fixed on the animal's large and well-developed breasts, which were barely covered by the loose fitting cotton tunic that all harnessed oni wore, and she arched an eyebrow at Pham, who slumped and sighed in return.
“Anyway,” Pham retorted weakly. “It's just a dumb beast. I'm not even sure why I took this one instead of another just like it. I know you people in the Conch Settlements don't harness oni, but believe me they're all the same. Not enough brainpower to outsmart a dog, but stronger than a team of men put together.”
Jaq looked surreptitiously at him.
“If I tell you something, promise you won't tell anyone else?” She asked in a serious tone.
Pham scratched his right cheek idly, mulling this request. He had the sudden dread that she would ask about the girl who had been splayed face down on Lord Marco's chamber. He nodded carefully.
“Of course not. What is it?”
Jaq was silent for a moment, and Pham thought at first she had changed her mind and wouldn't answer.
“I think some of the wild oni can talk,” she said. She rushed her words, perhaps thinking that spitting them out quickly would somehow negate any possible ridicule on Pham's part.
Pham blinked.
“Really?” He finally said, and decided that he would treat this as a serious revelation for now, and not some elaborate joke by his friend, who had always been partial to tweaking Pham's stern demeanor. “How did you find this out?”
She told him about her encounter with the wild oni pack, and about the infant that had somehow cried out to its mother. Pham listened attentively, prompting her with slight nods of his head, and asking questions at times to clarify certain parts of the story. He had to admit he was quite skeptical at first, assuming that she had somehow misheard the oni in the heat of battle.
“And you're sure you heard right?” He asked for about the third time.
She nodded grimly.
“What does it mean Pham?” Jaq asked. She looked at him almost plaintively, as if he somehow had the power to clear up all her questions. Pham was suddenly reminded of those times when he had visited the Conch a long time back, and she had insisted on tagging along wherever he went, badgering him with questions about his own settlement. She had only been in her early teens at the time, and Pham, had desperately tried to get rid of the little pest.
“I don't know,” he finally admitted. “But all these portents about threats from the Deep West, and now your talking animals, remind me of what my old Uncle Tang told me was an ancient Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. I always thought that did not sound like much of a curse, but now I'm starting to re-evaluate my opinion.”
He shook his head glumly at this. All his life he had yearned to break free from the daily tedium of the Settlement. He felt that the need to explore the unknown was in his blood, and that his spirit would only be in its natural element when he was deep into the Risen Lands and far from the relative safety of the place he had called his home for more than two decades. Indeed, the notion that all such quests would be full of derring-do, with heroic music playing loudly in the background, had slowly over the years insinuated itself into his frequent daydreams. Now here he was on his first adventure, a quest that had serious ramifications for the fate of everyone he loved and knew, and all he could think about was how tired his feet were and how annoyed he was at Jaq's whistling.
They camped near the arching canopy of a mature Yellow Buckeye. The stars shone across the wide night sky, and Pham volunteered to stand first watch. He had too much worry inside him, and so he decided he could not fall asleep easily anyway and might as well put good use to his insomnia.
Jaq curled up into a tight bundle under her blankets and was almost immediately asleep, a trick that was probably second nature to her. He was sure that if something threatening were to happen, that his companion would be awake just as quickly, probably with her deadly bow and arrow in hand.
He glanced at the oni and saw that it had settled itself against the tree trunk, and was staring at the crackling fire Jaq had started before she slept. Pham couldn't be sure, but he could swear there was a hint of animation in the animal's face, as if the thing was somehow fascinated by the phenomenon it was watching.
He shook his head and yawned. The oni didn't need any sleep, and it would probably gawk at the fire all night long until they gave it something more practical to do. Idly, he wished they could entrust sentry duty to it so he could also get some rest. It had been a long and tiring day, and he knew it wouldn't get any better tomorrow. His mind drifted to thoughts of the day ahead, and soon he had nodded off,
oblivious to the slowly dimming fire and the rapidly ascending full moon.
Something jerked him wide awake. Pham blinked and found himself staring at a pair of large unblinking green eyes, and below them a wide mouth filled with a double row of canine teeth. He opened his mouth in surprise and the oni clamped a huge palm on it, silencing him.
The oni looked out towards the darkness, then back at him again. It repeated this a few times, and he got the message. There was something out there in the heavy woods, and his heart started thumping in earnest.
He nodded silently at it, and he was not surprised at all when the oni released its hold on him. He had finally come to accept the fact that there was something special about this particular animal, and Pham glanced warily at the darkness, then slid over to where Jaq was still asleep and touched her shoulder.
She opened her eyes, fully awake in an instant. At the same moment, her arms came up holding her compound bow, an arrow already nocked and ready. She looked at him quizzically, and Pham nodded at the oni, who was staring intently into the dark, its green eyes glowing faintly like those of some large feline.
A faint rustling emanated from the foliage. Pham looked nervously at his younger companion, but her pale blue eyes were focused on the dark brush that rose like small hills against the taller backdrop of trees. Whatever it was, it could not have been too large given the smaller size of the bushes within which it seemed to be moving, and Pham relaxed a bit. He did not relish the thought of going against one of the more massive creatures that he knew prowled about in the dark, but then something small and low to the ground sauntered confidently into the light of the dying fire.
Pham gaped. It was about a quarter of a meter tall at most, with soft dark brown fur that covered most of its body except for a large oval patch of white along the front of its torso, and a somewhat circular head fronted by a broad pale snout and a dark button nose. It had long thin limbs that ended in gray paws. A pair of small button eyes peered at them between two huge grayish ears that swiveled back and forth to some inner rhythm.
The picture jogged his memory. When Pham was younger, he had loved to go through the stacks of old books that his Uncle Tang had collected and carefully preserved from as many raided libraries as he could find. It was soothing and exciting at the same time to wrap himself up in the written memories of long bygone times. He read them all, sitting quietly in the dusty room with sunlight filtering in from a lone window, as his friends played outside and the day passed in languorous silence.
One of the books he had read was a book called My Pet Toby. It had been hard bound, and the story itself was rather mundane and somewhat too childish for his growing tastes. But he remembered the cover had shown a little boy watching his pet scampering up a gnarled tree trunk, which was topped by a crown of dark green leaves and a multitude of small red dots that were probably cherries or small apples. That little creature in the book, which was patterned after a type of animal called a “monkey”, bore a somewhat vague resemblance to the thing that was now staring up at them.
“Hey there,” Pham said, and raised one arm in greeting to the intruder. He couldn't think of anything else to say, and he felt slightly foolish thinking the thing would somehow respond.
It didn't. It simply stood there and stared at them, and after a minute or so of this strange standoff, Jaq lowered her bow and looked questioningly at Pham.
He shrugged.
“I suppose if it was hostile that it would have tried attacking us already.” He offered, somewhat lamely.
They waited. But as the minutes passed and nothing happened, Pham found that he was getting sleepy again. This was no surprise given their hard trek during the day, but it again reminded him how the reality of their adventure so far did not match up to his imagination. In his mind, heroes went from action to action with scarcely any time to do all the mundane chores and necessities of life. Little things like eating, and sleeping, and...well...he didn't want to go too far with that line of thought.
“We should try to get more sleep,” he said. He gestured at the oni. “It'll be another tiring day tomorrow, and Tara over there can keep watch on our little intruder and make sure it doesn't suddenly chow down on us while we are asleep.”
Jaq nodded and in a few minutes was fast asleep again. If she had noticed his inadvertent use of the oni's name, she didn't care to mention it, and Pham was soon fast asleep himself.
She never said anything about it either as they continued their trek the next morning, and Pham was glad for the respite from her teasing. The day had started out sunny and warm, but some dark rain clouds had started to gather and his overall mood was not lifted by the fact the little creature had continued to follow them, using its long arms and legs to lope along at a leisurely pace. In addition, the heavily-used rustic green backpack he was carrying had started to feel heavier by the hour.
The oni for its part had seemed to lose all interest in their new companion. It trudged along behind them carrying its heavy pack as the hours piled on top of hours, and they slowly chewed the distance between them and what the old maps said was a city called Fayettville.
“Don't worry, she still loves you,” Jaq suddenly said, grinning at him, then winking. “It's just that she's probably slightly worried about all the other things that have been following us more discreetly in the surrounding woods.”
“What?” Pham managed to sputter, as he quickly surveyed the surrounding vegetation. “What other things?”
Jaq patted him on the shoulder and made a shushing gesture.
“I'd say there are probably around two dozen or more of them in a wide semi circle.” She said. “They've been with us since we decamped this morning. I would have told you sooner, but I don't think they mean us any harm. Like you said earlier, they could have done much damage already if they were hostile.”
“Well, what do they want?” He replied, glancing back nervously as if expecting something to charge them from behind.
“How would I know?” Jaq replied, and jerked a thumb at the monkey-like creature that followed closely behind them.. “You're the big reader. Have you read anything about a Risen that looks like that?”
Pham was silent for a moment,,, thinking about what she had just said.
“No,” he finally said, thinking about the look of the creature that he had now started to think of as a toby. “Not that kind. There are a lot of smaller ones, but as far as I can tell, I've never seen pictures of that one before. Did you know that a long time back there was only one type of Risen?”
Jaq shook her head.
“It's true.” He continued. “But you look around now and you see so many different kinds. It's as if they're evolving over the years, radiating into all these different forms to fill out as many of the ecological niches available to them. So you have photovores who were likely similar to the original forms, but now you also have predatory types who prey on other Risen. A whole ecosystem that has never existed before.
“And they're likely evolving much faster than biological forms like us, and in ways completely different than before. Something...or someone...is driving their evolution along paths that sometimes produce forms reminiscent of fictional animals and plants. Is it because deep inside some of them the thoughts and dreams of the men and women who were consumed so long ago are still somehow manifesting themselves as a physical reality? Think about that. If the wild variety of forms you see today can happen in only a few decades, what kinds of Risen will have evolved hundreds of years from now...or even thousands?”
He stopped, and noticed that Jaq was staring at him with wide eyes.
“Ummmmm,” He finished, then blushed. He had never spoken about his fascination with the Risen in so much detail to anyone before, and he wondered whether Jaq was going to laugh derisively at this pedantic diatribe.
But she was looking at him not with scorn, but with something akin to respect and perhaps even awe.
“How do you know all this?” She said, her eyes s
hining with interest. “I never knew all that. In fact, I never even thought about all that.”
“Hmmmm...well....” He began, still somewhat embarrassed. “I've always been interested in the Deep West, and my studies of the Risen sort of flowed from that interest. My great-grandfather was the one who first implemented the agricultural practices that made the New Savannah Settlement self-sufficient, and he managed to do this by ransacking all the old public and university libraries around. He was a voracious reader, and he also happened to be a biology major in college...one who dropped out after a couple years true, but a man who was true to his calling. He was very interested in the Risen, and frequently discussed them with the Lady Ammara Herself, and he kept detailed notes about his thoughts, all of which are kept in the family library.”
He stopped and sighed, realizing once again how pedantic he sounded.
“So,” he finished hurriedly. “That's why I know about them.”
A hand touched his shoulder from behind, and Pham yelped.
The oni grunted behind him, and they both turned.
“It's gone.” Jaq whispered, unlimbering her bow. They were in a small clearing, and Pham suddenly felt very exposed. He hefted his spear nervously, looking around warily at the shadowy recesses of the feral jungle that had encroached and finally overwhelmed the old highway.
The toby that had been following them was indeed gone. This by itself would have meant nothing to Pham, and he would probably be inclined to mutter good riddance, but something was bothering the oni as well, and that worried him a lot.
“What is it girl?” he asked softly,and the oni glanced at him briefly then grunted again, its gaze fixed firmly on the path.
“Run!” Jaq said, then darted into the thicker brush. Pham followed, but not before noting that the oni was hurrying along behind them.