Crown of Vengeance fie-1

by Stephen Zimmer

  “It’s so thick,” Ryan commented. “Think that you can even drive in this stuff?”

  Lee glanced over Ryan with an expression of disbelief. “Drive? Are you crazy?”

  “Probably,” retorted Ryan, laughing. “And if you are too afraid of a little fog, Lee… if it scares you too much, I would be glad to drive us out of here.”

  “Great idea. Turn my only car over to you,” Lee replied with a tenor of sarcasm. “Have your license with you tonight? Oh, I forgot… you don’t have one, do you?

  “Hasn’t stopped me in the past,” Ryan shot back, giving Lee a wink.

  “No, and one of those trips got you a nice visit to court,” Lee retorted. “We don’t need any more of that.”

  “Hey, with fog this thick, the cops won’t even be able to see us driving out of it,” Ryan said. “Don’t think they’ll take too much notice of me.”

  “Not until we find ourselves crashing right into a cruiser, at least,” Lee said, shaking his head. “That would be my luck if I ever threw you the keys.”

  “You have such little faith,” Ryan said, chuckling.

  “Not a matter of faith. I know you too well,” Lee responded, grinning widely.

  “That, you do, Lee,” Ryan concurred, laughing.

  “Well, what do you say? Instead of arguing about whether you or I drive, I think we should just wait this out for a little while back in the restaurant. If you are hungry, I can whip something up really quickly,” Lee stated.

  “It’d be lot better than standing out here,” Ryan replied.

  Lee and Ryan turned to go back to the restaurant. Lee was simply glad that he had only walked a few feet away from the building, continuing to be astounded at the sheer density of the fog. He stepped slowly, putting his hands ahead of him so that he did not walk face first into the facade of his restaurant.

  Lee had traversed only about four short strides when he heard the ground crunch beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw the unmistakable appearance of a forest floor beneath his feet, solid earth covered by foliage debris and grass. He took one tentative stride directly backwards, but the soles of his shoes met more soil, leaves, and twigs, instead of pavement.

  “What?” Ryan whispered at Lee’s side. He had drawn to a halt and was also staring down at the ground.

  Lee was confounded. He had walked those streets every day, and knew that there was nothing like what was now beneath his feet within any short distance of the restaurant.

  The ground that he could see slowly started to grow, and all of it resembled the initial patch. Bringing his gaze back up, he saw that the fog was beginning to dissipate everywhere.

  He took a deep breath, filled with tension as he waited for the fog to roll back and reveal the dark, starry firmament of a night sky. He knew that everything would be as it was once again.

  There was a simple explanation. He and Ryan had somehow gotten misdirected in the fog, to where someone had dumped a pile of excavated dirt and debris. Lee must not have taken notice of it during the day, which was not a surprise as he always had twenty things on his mind at once.

  To his amazement, everything around him was growing steadily brighter. Starting as a dim ambience, the light swelled considerably as the fog lessened in density.

  Lee knew that the overall illumination was already well beyond the capability of street lamps, igniting his sense of alarm again. His mouth fell agape as the fog thinned further and began to part. He looked up, awestruck, into the depths of a bright, midday sky, visible through a matrix of intertwining branches that belonged to a host of trees surrounding them; a breathtaking, blue-green sky, of a hue that Lee had never before witnessed.

  Lee began to turn around slowly, in complete circles, as it dawned on him that he was standing in the midst of a great forest. Rays of light filtered through the dense covering of leaves and branches overhead. The forest floor spread outward as far as he could see to the left and right, traveling up and around the slopes of large hills looming all about the bewildered two figures.

  “You seein’ what I’m seein’?” Ryan asked in a highly agitated voice. “Tell me you aren’t seeing this.”

  “If you are seeing a big forest all around you, and a weird sky, then we are seeing the same thing,” Lee responded in a low voice. His eyes darted in every direction, as he tried to find a modicum of sense in what he was experiencing.

  The forty-three year old restaurant owner and the sixteen-year-old youth stood in stunned silence for several more minutes.

  “So, what do we do now?” queried Ryan, finally breaching the impasse.

  “That is the question of the hour,” Lee stated. It took him another few moments to muster up the rest of his words. “Maybe we start walking. We should try to find out where we are, or if anything’s around.”

  “I don’t know. We don’t know this place. We don’t know what’s around here. It might not be all that friendly. We don’t know,” Ryan said, his words tumbling out more quickly from his trembling mouth.

  As stunned as Lee was, he still caught the tone and pace of Ryan’s voice, and looked over towards the youth with understanding. Ryan’s eyes exhibited the look of a frightened youth, certainly much more than the look of the hardened, street-smart young man that he saw himself as.

  “I am open to suggestions, we can figure this out together,” Lee said, keeping his voice calm so that he did not add any impetus to Ryan’s rising panic. He did not want the young man to become unhinged, and he sensed an acute danger of that happening any moment.

  Ryan paused a few moments before answering. Though Lee was anything but settled, Ryan finally seemed to draw some stability from the older man’s composure.

  “No, you are right. The top of the hill would be best. I can scale one of the trees there, and see if I can get a view of anything,” Ryan said, as he started off towards the slope that Lee had been eyeing. “See if I can find a road or buildings… something like that.”

  Lee strode briskly next to Ryan, as the two mounted the long slope and finally reached the summit of the broad hill.

  Near to the top, Ryan moved over to the base of a tall oak tree, which had strong lower branches extending out from the trunk just within reach of Ryan’s fingers. He jumped up, grabbed the branch, and pulled himself up in a smooth motion. He methodically navigated up the heights of the tree, climbing from branch to branch with little difficulty.

  Lee stood still on the ground below, a look of concern on his face as he watched the other’s careful progress.

  At long last, Ryan hugged the trunk of the tree as his feet rested upon one of the uppermost branches. His body weight caused a slight sway as he craned his neck to look out over the treetops.

  Lee waited pensively as he watched Ryan scan the horizons. Lee remained tense as he saw that Ryan’s expression remained unchanged.

  Finally, Ryan looked back down towards Lee and shook his head in frustration. “Nothing. Nothing but a lot more of this,” Ryan announced sourly.

  With a resigned sigh, he held onto the tree and rested for several moments, looking outward as Lee patiently awaited his return below.

  RYAN

  Ryan’s eyes drank in the uniform hue of the sky, bright and vibrant in the light of the sun directly over him. Though there was no sign of roads or buildings, it was a majestic vision.

  “Amazing,” Ryan murmured, shaking his head one more time, as he finally looked downward to begin his descent.

  His nerves were teetering on the edge. Only minutes before, he had been standing in front of a restaurant just off the downtown area. He was now peering from the top of a tall tree, atop a hill in the midst of a forest that spread out in every direction as far as the eye could see.

  Ryan had not gone more than a couple branches lower, gingerly bringing his weight to bear upon each one to make certain that they would hold his weight, when a dark shadow abruptly fell across him. His breath caught in his throat, as his eyes shot back towards the sky in alarm.

&nb
sp; Gliding along the air currents was a very large, winged creature. It had a long, thin body that was covered with a light growth of purplish fur. Broad, membranous wings protruded from its back. A short, thick neck connected the body to an elongated head that resembled a cross between that of a serpent and a bird. Two narrow legs were tucked underneath its body, each ending in grasping talons whose ends looked wickedly sharp.

  Ryan froze as the shadow from the animal crossed him and continued onward. It emitted a sustained, hollow cry that chilled his nerves.

  The only comfort was that the flying monstrosity appeared to have not taken any notice of Ryan, as it showed no outward reaction to the young man’s presence. As the creature glided into the distance, Ryan counted himself lucky and resumed his descent, quickly angling down from branch to branch with less caution and more urgency. He jumped down to the ground, bypassing one lower branch, and paced over to Lee.

  Lee’s face was one of sheer amazement, and his eyes remained fixed upward.

  “I don’t know what in the world that thing was, but it was big, and to be on the safe side, I am staying down here,” Ryan announced.

  “I think we’d better take things really carefully,” Lee said, his eyes looking about warily as if the forest would suddenly come alive with an array of menacing, unknown threats. “I think we’d better not assume anything. I think that’s the best thing to do right now.”

  “Let’s get going, and be ready for the trees, if you see anything at all on the ground,” Ryan responded. “I have no idea what that thing in the air was, and I wouldn’t be sure that we won’t run into even more creatures we don’t know about… ones down here that don’t fly.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about the trees either,” Lee commented, eyes widening, “Look!”

  He pointed towards the branches of a nearby tree.

  Ryan followed Lee’s gesture to find a small, furry canine-like creature staring quietly right at them. The tree that Ryan had climbed had been very close to the tree that this creature inhabited, and as his eyes met those of the creature he flinched reflexively in surprise.

  A ray of sunlight glinted off of one of the sharp talons by which the small mammal clutched the tree branch. Tucked close into its sides were a pair of dark, leathery wings. Its beady eyes, set back behind the length of its extended snout, seemed to be furtively studying the two humans.

  As if it now recognized that its presence had been discovered, it chittered excitedly and leaped abruptly from the tree, spreading its wings and gliding off into the depths of the forest.

  “No, we can’t be too sure,” Ryan agreed, unnerved further and finding himself growing more fearful by the second.

  “And we can’t assume that smaller is any less of a threat,” Lee added.

  “Have any more encouraging things to say?” Ryan curtly riposted.

  “Better figure the worst. At least things can only get better,” Lee replied dourly.

  Fully out of his element, Ryan was lost in a bizarre forest where the first two living creatures that he had set his eyes upon were entirely foreign to him. The specter of danger was palpably tangible to his senses, whether it lurked in the trees, the sky above, or upon the ground.

  A freezing anxiety arose to grip him in the wake of his rapidly diminishing hopes. The feeling traveled through Ryan with a mildly paralyzing effect, and he felt as if the world itself was compressing him from all sides.

  LEE

  Lee saw the glistening forming across Ryan’s eyes, feeling immediate empathy for the deep plight of the man-child. He knew that Ryan’s fierce pride was straining to hold back any visible sign of weakness. Yet Lee also knew that something rigid and inflexible could be shattered in an instant when enough pressure had been applied.

  Lee spoke to Ryan in as methodical and reassuring a voice as he could muster.

  “We have some things to learn, probably a whole lot of things. We will simply learn whatever we have to know, to make it through all of this. There is no other choice, so let’s set our minds on this one. I have your back covered, Ryan. I’m afraid, and there’s no harm in saying so, but fear can’t stop us from getting through this unless we let it.”

  “And these creatures? Do we stand a chance in a world like this, where we don’t know the first thing about what’s around us?” Ryan responded, his voice strained and shaking.

  “Stop and think for a moment, Ryan. Remember, even in the world we are familiar with, the animals are stronger and faster,” Lee replied. “Even an insect can carry several times its own bodyweight. But there is one thing that took us humans to the top of the heap, so that we didn’t have to constantly huddle in fear, and hide from predators.”

  Purposefully, he slowly brought his right hand up, and tapped the side of his temple firmly to punctuate his words.

  “It’s this. Right in here. The mind. And we both still have that with us,” Lee said.

  “I don’t see how I do. I can hardly think right now,” Ryan retorted, staring downward.

  “Okay, then maybe it is best that we find something that we can put our minds to. We need to know the lay of the land, we will need water eventually, and we’d better make ourselves some kind of weapon,” Lee said, hoping that the simple logic of his words would find root in Ryan’s troubled mind.

  Ryan stood in rapt silence. His expression was dour, and Lee knew that Ryan’s mood was vacillating between the opposing forces at work inside of him. Lee waited patiently on the young man. As if dragging a heavy weight, Ryan finally brought his eyes up to meet Lee’s.

  “It’s worth a try,” Ryan announced rigidly.

  Once the youth had said the words, it was as if one part of him was unlocked and freed. He looked intently at the ground all around them, and without a word, walked over and picked up a fallen branch off of the forest floor. Placing one knee on the branch to pin it to the ground, he began ripping away the smaller offshoots growing out from it.

  When he had stripped the branch bare, Ryan rose up and started walking back up towards the summit of the hill, continuing to examine the ground. Lee followed behind him quietly, continuing to watch.

  Using the stripped branch, Ryan scraped around, revealing the rough edge of a jutting rock. Utilizing the edge of the rock, he patiently worked at one end of the branch until it was crudely sharpened.

  He turned back to Lee, gripping the rough spear about midway down its shaft. Ryan looked into Lee’s eyes, and something a little more firm and resolute was within his gaze now.

  “Then we can start with this,” Ryan proclaimed. “Start with the weapons, and then look to the rest.”

  Lee stifled a smile, proud. It was one less thing that he had to worry about in the midst of the unbelievable situation.

  “Well done, a good job,” Lee commented, with no hint of being patronizing, in sincere appreciation of the young man’s fortitude.

  Lee walked by Ryan, pausing momentarily to pat him gently upon the shoulder. Another elongated, stout branch, which probably had been broken off during a powerful storm, lay a few feet beyond them.

  Lee picked up the branch and began to strip it.

  ERIN

  “Okay Lynn, what is this?” Erin asked, irritated and unnerved at the relentless fog swirling all around them.

  The fog had encircled them fully, forbidding any forward vision and cooling the very air around them. She could feel the damp, chilly vapors brushing against her arms, face, and lower legs.

  “Come on, Erin. It’s time to get back around that fire,” Lynn said resolutely, reaching out and taking her friend’s hand.

  “We can hardly see a thing, though,” Erin replied, squeezing Lynn’s hand firmly in her anxiety as they turned to make their way back to the campsite.

  “Then we go slow, and we call out for directions. Just follow the voices of Uli and Razor in. We’ll probably walk right into them. It won’t be a problem at all,” Lynn stated. She took a few cautious steps forward, gently tugging Erin into motion behind he
r. “Come on, let’s start this way. Watch your step. Be careful.”

  Progress was painstakingly slow. The encumbering fog prevented Erin from catching even a glimpse of the campfire, though she was certain that it was just a short distance away.

  “Hey! Razor! Uli!” Lynn called out loudly. “Where are you guys?” Her voice carried off through the fog, as silence settled back in around them.

  They stood still for several moments, waiting for a reply from their friends to help with their bearings. None was forthcoming.

  Again, Lynn yelled out to their compatriots, and once again there was no response.

  “This is no time for jokes,” murmured Erin in sharp displeasure, delicately stepping over the trunk of a fallen tree that was in their path. She did not recall stepping over a tree trunk when she had gone into the woods, and began to worry that they might have oriented themselves in the wrong direction.

  “They had better not play around with us,” Erin remarked acidly, her uneasiness fueling her vexation. “They know I will give them hell. Believe me, I will. Unholy hell.”

  “Tell me about it,” Lynn concurred tersely. “But remember, they are just the type of dolts to try and pull something like that, especially if they figure out why we are calling out to them. They couldn’t have packed up the camp and moved it away in a couple of minutes. We’ll stumble into one of them sooner or later, no matter what.”

  “Hopefully sooner,” Erin responded, shaken by the utter lack of visibility.

  The two picked their way over yet another fallen tree. They continued onward cautiously, methodically making their way over a fairly open clearance of ground judging by the more sporadic contact with the trees looming out of the fog.

  The ground seemed to be flatter, certainly more so than the downward sloping angle that the hillside had, but Erin attributed the perception to her momentary disorientation.