by Tufo, Mark
“Magic?” I asked Azile, pointing towards the flame.
“It is not magic, it is more a harnessing of the earth’s energy.”
“So, magic then?” I winced as she squeezed my fingers.
“In the beginning,” Inuktuk spoke as she entered the structure, “the world of man was poisoned with the curse of ‘The Death’. This was his transgression for questioning the might of the one true leader. Man fought back, finding ways to extend lives unnaturally…even approaching the point of immortality.”
“Not all it’s cracked up to be,” I said so softly that even Azile with her bat ears couldn’t pick it up. Tommy looked over though and smiled sadly. He knew.
“The Creator watched as His wayward children played with a fire they could not control.” On cue the fire blazed up for a brief second, the crowd ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed.’ I noticed as Azile swiveled her head around; probably looking for the special-effects supervisor. “He became angry, His children had turned their back on Him, and like any good father, he needed to teach them a lesson. The dead were brought back to drag man down from their lofty perch.”
Inuktuk’s words were mesmerizing to the gathering. Women clutched children, men hugged their women. Eyes were wide with fright.
I wanted to shout what kind of God would do that, but that seemed wholly unacceptable. Man had been his own downfall; he needed little help from outside sources to destroy himself.
“The dead destroyed life, cleansing it away like the pestilence that it was.”
“This is rich,” I said, barely holding on to my rising anger. The cleansing away she so casually talked about were my family and friends. “What do you know about the cleansing?” I shouted. I think Azile broke one of my fingers as I stood.
The crowd had completely hushed as they all looked to me, I had interrupted something important, a ceremony they’d probably been having for years.
“I knew those people that were ‘cleansed’ as you so eloquently put it. They weren’t vying for God’s positions. They didnsitiThewidtht want immortality…they wanted to live and to love. They worked hard to provide for their families, they were normal people who put too much trust in a government that did not have their best interests at heart. So, don’t you stand there all high and mighty talking about how they were struck down by a vengeful God. You weren’t there. It was people listening to misguided leaders that got us in this world of shit! They spoke lies and the populace believed it, maybe because they didn’t think they’d be lied to,” I said, pointing at Inuktuk
“Michael, we are guests here,” Azile said from my side. “Who are we to question their beliefs?” She tried to pull me down and minimize the damage.
I was shaking with rage. “Beliefs mired in ignorance,” I said.
Inuktuk clamped her lips. I could tell she was not used to having her authority questioned. Her eyes bore into me. Bailey stood up as a few armed guards began to move in from the periphery.
She waved them away. “It is not often that we can talk about The Purge with someone who was actually in attendance.”
Had I not been so focused on my rage I would not have missed her reference of ‘often’. She did not say ‘We have never had the opportunity to talk about The Purge with someone who was actually in attendance.’
“Well, then isn’t it your lucky day,” I told her.
“May I continue?” Inuktuk asked. “This is more a story of our origins than of your struggle to survive.”
“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” I told her.
Azile sat, rubbing her hand across her face. I followed suit and sat. It was many long minutes before Bailey felt comfortable enough to join us.
“What is it about Tynes’ that always feel the need to protect your ass?” Bailey said softly in my ear.
“I must be winning you over,” I told her. I was slightly uncomfortable as I realized we were still being watched intently.
“I’m listening,” I told Inuktuk.
“When the world seemed at its darkest, one man arose,” Inuktuk said, and as a practiced chorus, the crowd chanted, “Samir, Samir, Samir.”
“Samir?” I asked. “Fuck that sounds familiar,” I said, hardly above a whisper. I saw Azile’s lips moving, I think she was prepping an incantation that would keep me wrapped head to toe in heavy cloth if I so much as made a move to scratch my nose.
“The Great French architect,” Inuktuk continued, “came forth from the Wild West and, with his Golden Arches, lit the way for a new people.”
The chorus started again. “Landians, Landians, Landians.” They were swaying to their words.
“What do they put in the water around here, I could go for a glass.”
“Talbot, shut the fuck up,” Bailey said.
“Ah…there’s the Tynes blood line ringing forth,” I said to her.
The pieces started falling into place and it started with a pickle. Samir worked at McDonald’s. The great French architect was more of a Fry Tech than an architect. I’d h itean>ad an encounter with him many long years ago. It was a bad day at that point in my life, but nothing in comparison to the ones that were merely right around the corner. Was it all just some elaborate cosmic joke that he would survive the zom-apoc to create this community? I’d like to say yes, but I don’t put much stock in coincidence.
Samir, a hard working immigrant from India, had destroyed my McDonald’s order that had quickly spiraled out of control and into a pickle tossing fiasco. You’ll have to find one of my zombie journals for a clearer explanation.
Inuktuk continued. “He knew to
keep his people safe he would have to distance himself as much as possible from man’s modern ways. Away from the sky flyers, away from the spider web of information called ‘the net.’ Away from the poisons that were routinely injected into our bodies.”
He got that part right.
“He began to live off the land like our great ancestors did, taking only what we needed, leaving the rest. We became one with the land, thus naming ourselves Landians.”
The chorus started up again, the whole Landians thing. Maybe with a little mescaline this could be palatable, just needed a drum circle and we’d be all set. She droned on for most of the night. I had zoned out a while back. I know myself well enough that if I had stayed tuned in I would have taken offense to something and voiced my opinion no matter the consequences. Somehow, being drawn and quartered didn’t fit well into my future plans.
CHAPTER 17 - Mike Journal Entry Eleven
“Where you been?” Azile asked.
“Huh?” was my informed response.
“Haven’t heard so much as a peep out of you, and I know I’m not powerful enough to keep you quiet for that extent of time,” she said, a look between a smile and concern on her face. I’ve got to admit, it was somewhat alluring.
“Different time,” I told her, trying to shake the cobwebs of old thoughts from my mind. The crowd around the fire had thinned considerably. The major players were still in play.
“My name is Amy,” the woman I only knew as Inuktuk explained when she discovered we were the only ones remaining. “Amy McNea, as a matter of fact. I took the name Inuktuk after I became their leader. Read it in an old book, most of it was falling apart in my hands, not sure if the person was male, female, good or bad. Could have been a dog for all I know,” she said with a smile. “But it sounded powerful, like a name that should be leading the last of the free peoples”
I agreed silently with her, there were names that inspired people to follow: Stonewall Jackson, Hannibal, Caesar, MacArthur, Jesus. How far would Fred have gotten? Fred the Mighty! I thought. It brought a smile to my face. What can I say? I’m easily distracted.
“We have kept an eye on the Lycan as they have moved further east. Their numbers remain relatively low,” she said. “Certainly not enough to threaten man.”
“Normally I would agree with you, Inu—”
“Amy, please. Inuktuk is such a mouthful, and it’s n
ice to hear my given name from time to time.”
“Amy,” Azile corrected. “Something has shifted in the mindset of the Lycan. No longer are they content to stay in their corner of the world. Their new leader has decided that he does not want to lurk in the shadows. He wants for power, for absolute power…and is turning man against his own kind.”
“Looks like you’ll get your ‘cleansing’ after all,” I said bitterly.
I think Amy wanted to pull her black knife out and ram it down my throat. Funny how pissed off people get when you talk about the destruction of the folks they love.
“Really, Michael that is the best diplomacy you can muster?” Azile asked.
“I’m the muscle,” I told her, getting up and walking away from the proceedings. I swear I could feel her gaze boring into the back of my head.
Want some company? Tommy asked telepathically.
I was thankful for the request but told him ‘no’. Keep an eye on Oggie, I told him I was going for a walk.
I walked out of the large tent structure. The village had settled down for the night. It, however, was far from unaware. Sentries hidden in shadows and camouflaged to match their surroundings were everywhere. I wondered who could possibly be resting with so many of them watching for danger. I just wanted out, out of the village and out of the predicament I had found myself in. I was pissed at everyone.
If Azile had just left me alone, I was fairly confident I could have ridden the whole damn war out untroubled. What the hell does a Lycan want with an Old One? Now I had given them reason to hunt me down. I wanted to rip this settlement from its moorings. I could destroy dozens of them before they would even know what hit them, before even Azile could manage a defense.
At that point, she’d be forced to either put me down like a rabid dog or let me go on my own. I could sense the beat of a heart from a man more than twenty feet away. His eyes shone dully in the night as he watched me come towards him, his pulse quickening as he gripped his weapon tighter. I heard as his wet palm squeaked on the wood of the spear. I was a predator and I had found my prey.
“Time to die,” I said as I walked directly towards him.
I had made up my mind. I would drain him dry, leave his empty shell where it was, grab Oggie, and be gone. They’d find the body come daylight. I’d be long gone and free from this burden I did not wish to bear. The spear was coming up, my intentions damn near telegraphing my movements. A gazelle knows the difference between a resting and stalking lion and so did this unfortunate blood sack. A glint of light caught the sharp obsidian point of the spear, but unless I impaled myself on it, the spear was going to be fairly useless. My prey seemed frozen; fear dominated every feature on him, and yet he did not move. I grabbed the haft of the spear and snapped it in two, the thick wood making a resoundingly loud noise in the still night. I reached out and grabbed his neck, tilting his hetilgraad to the side, I moved in, jets of saliva running from my mouth as I sought to puncture his neck.
Unwise, Old One, came through my head as my fangs scraped off the top few layers of my victim’s skin.
I tossed the man to the side.
“You know, I’m really sick of that name!” I shouted. “And does somewhere on my head say ‘Always open?’”
Come to the river, the strange voice said once again in my head.
“Yeah, this seems like a great fucking idea,” I said as I traipsed out of the village and into the woods. Pitch black had nothing on what was going on out here. Clouds parted just enough to allow the slimmest of light to shimmer down on a figure huddled at the side of the streambed.
“Lycan,” I said, looking at the form. Not so much by appearance, but by smell. Whoever it was had donned human skin.
“Would you rather I took this form?” the beast said, changing seemingly from one step to the other.
“That’s close enough.” I put my hand up, looking around me for any of his brethren.
“I am alone. I am always alone, Old One,” the Lycan said, taking another approaching step.
“Listen, you guys aren’t the easiest thing to kill in the world, but I’m ready for round three.” I told him.
“I’m sure you are. My name is Lunos.” He stopped his forward progress.
“Great, you want a dog bone or something?”
He snarled but made no further move.
“I am Xavier’s brother,” he said almost triumphantly.
“Fine. I’ll give you two bones, why don’t you run home. Or are you here to deliver some portent message? About how he’s going to skin me alive, or maybe eviscerate me, or maybe just a plain old eating? What is it? You interrupted my feeding and I’m growing impatient. I wonder what your tough hide would taste like.”
He roared, nearby birds flew from their resting post. I heard all manner of small animals scurrying away. I braced for his charge. It never came.
“That ought to bring the natives coming,” I told him.
“You are a fool for an Old One.”
“I never made it to the academy, there was a problem with my student loans…couldn’t secure any government money, too much red tape.”
“I watched as you killed Timbre,” Lunos said.
“I’m sorry, did you lose money on a bet or something? Is that what this is about? I’m sure your brother will cover your losses.”
“My brother would kill me on sight,” Lunos said.
“Intriguing…go on, I’ll listen for now.”
“Lycan are born in litters much like our distant relatives the wolf, but only one can survive. It is our birth instinct to kill our siblings. It is an evolutionary safeguard to keep our numbers lowur n are so that the pack would not starve.
“Or bring attention to their existence,” I said. “Yet, if what you say is true, then how are you here?”
“As a newborn pup I realized I could not defeat Xavier even with the help of my siblings who would form an alliance until the greater threat was destroyed.”
“What a wonderful welcome to life,” I said. “A battle royale among family members, that shit is usually saved until many years later when a parent dies and all the little bastards fight over some useless possessions.”
“I snuck out of the den while they were killing each other.”
“Where was your bitch?” I asked, half meaning it as an insult veiled in an honest question.
“Her job was done with our birth.”
“I really thought mankind was the most screwed up species on the planet, except for maybe the praying mantis that rips the head off her lover when she’s done. That’s some pretty sick shit.”
“Do you wish to discuss the mating habits of an insect, Old One?”
“Listen, asshole, if you’re that psychotic’s brother, then that means you’re not a whole lot younger than I am.”
“It is not a term of derogation.” Lunos said. “More like a term of respect. An honoring of the way the world used to be.”
“That was no great shakes…the world I mean.”
“I have never known a time that was worthy of being alive.”
“Why are you here, Lunos? Apparently not to fight. The Lycan I have met are more of the ‘kill first’ variety.”
“I have kept an eye on my kind as only an outsider can. I have watched as my brother took control of the clans and is now uniting them for a war. He has even gone so far as to forbid the gleaning.”
“Gleaning?”
“The destruction of litter-mates.”
“Oh. Makes sense, increases his numbers, gotta figure that has rubbed a few of his kind the wrong way, though.”
“There are many things he does now that goes against our very being.”
“Is the domination and elimination of man among them?”
“It is, but that is not at the top of his list of transgressions. Making the tainted ones and using them for his devices is. We are a proud species and he degrades us by having subservient beings do his bidding.”
“Werewolves,” I said mo
re to myself for clarification.
“There is a reason your history has so few of them. They are creatures that should never exist. Man is not worthy to have Lycan blood flow through their veins.”
“Looks like we agree in principle to what you’re saying, maybe not the exact words I would use.”
“He has entire old world prisons stuffed full of them and each moon he creates more. He is getting to a tipping point where your kind will not survive.”
“Lunos, you’re talking a lot without really giving me any new information. Have you come to throw your lot in with our side?”
“Never!” he said, full of pride.
“Well, that was pretty definitive. I’m not sure why we are having this clandestine meeting then.”
“Xavier threatens more than just man. His ambition will also bring an end to the Lycan.”
“Talk about killing two birds with one stone. And why should I care? Seems to me that, that would solve all of my particular problems.”
“You talk as if your heart is stone, but your actions prove otherwise. I saw you kiss the Red Witch.”
“You saw that?”
“I’ve watched your interactions with Bailey and even the dog Oggie. You were a man once…have you already forgotten?”
“Last thing I need is a lesson in semantics from a flea-infested Lycan.”
He growled again, this one lower and somehow more menacing. I think I had finally provoked him enough for an attack. He looked over my shoulder the way I had come.
“My time here grows short. I will not defy my kind, but whatever internal battle you are fighting, you need to lay to rest. You must stop my brother at all costs. He will kill all those you say you care nothing for and not once will he have any doubts or regrets about his actions. Those are human detriments…not Lycan.”
“Seems you’re walking a mighty fine line, Lunos. You give me just enough to be concerned, but nothing I can really use. Where will he be attacking next?”
Lunos looked long and hard at me. “It will not be the place you call Talboton, other than that I don’t know.”