Ashes of the Realm - Juliette's Dream

by Andrew, Saxon

  Champ walked away. Julie stepped back from the rear fence and waited. Champ lay down and everyone went down with him. Julie raised the bowgun and saw the guard leaning back in his chair a hundred and fifty yards away. She saw his puzzled expression as he brought his chair down. She had to fire between two fence squares that were only four inches on a side. She smiled and fired the arrow.

  The guard saw everyone lying down at one time and wondered what was going on. This was irregular. He brought his chair down and the arrow went through his right eye. He was dead before he fell off the chair. She said “Now, Jingo!” Things happened fast after that arrow hit the guard. Scotty released two arrows and hit the two guards on each side of the compound. They fell within two seconds of the first guard. Cezee came flying in with Jingo hanging on the tip of his tail. Cezee flared his wings and stopped with his tail only five feet off the ground. Jingo dropped off, ran under the overhang, and pulled the breaker on the wires that electrified the fence of the compound. Jingo picked up the blaster and used its sling to throw it over his shoulder.

  Vring landed at the rear of the compound, gripped the rear fence, and pulled it away from the supports. The fence resisted but gave way as Vring pulled it. He held it before it could crash down.

  Juliette turned off her color shifting and the prisoners saw her. Her parents rushed up to hug her, but Juliette held out her arm and whispered. “Later, we have things to do.” The prisoners were looking at the rear of the compound and there was nothing between them and the forest. Julie said, “Come with me.” She turned to go and no one followed her. She turned back and said in a voice they could hear, “There will be no Torg to harm you tonight. We have eliminated them. If you want your freedom, you’ll find it this way.” She turned and started walking toward the forest.

  Champ watched her go and stared at the back wall lying on the ground. He decided. He ran and caught up with her. Julie’s parents were right behind him. Greven looked at the others, watching them leave, and said, “I think I’ve picked my last pod.” Then he turned and ran after Champ. The others in the compound watched them walk away and then, as if someone had given a signal, they all scampered after Julie.

  There were fifteen guards on the hill overlooking the compound. Two of them had blasters and were located next to each other at the bend of the horseshoe shaped hill. The hundred Zord Riders were circling above the guards waiting for the signal to attack. Julie released the arrow and Zreeg said, “Now!”

  Michael Blake had his bowgun raised and he fired it at the first guard and followed it with another at the second guard holding a blaster. Both guards dropped dead with an arrow through their heads. Two riders swooped down on their Zord and grabbed the guards and their blasters and flew out over the forest. The other thirteen guards with standard rifles were hit at least five times each and fell where they stood. They were also picked up and carried over the forest and dropped for the Torg’s enjoyment.

  Michael sent word the guards were eliminated and continued to fly over the Magrum’s bunker. There were exits scattered around the hill, and the flyers scanned the area looking for anyone that stuck their head out.

  Jingo waited as Cezee came in and dropped his tail into the compound. He jumped and grabbed it and started climbing. Cezee took off, leveled out, and Jingo scampered up to his bindings. “Take me to the ship.” He tied the blaster to his harness and saw the ship straight ahead.

  Cezee flew over the ship and thought to Jeek, “Get out of here. Try to be as quiet as possible.”

  Jeek said, “Time to go. Try to leave quietly.”

  Tesa hit the antigravity switch and pushed the ship up with a small thruster. The ship rose quickly and cleared the trees. She pointed the nose away from the compound and hit the small thruster on the rear. The ship shot over the horizon in less than five seconds.

  Jingo watched it go, but saw a brief strobe of light on the hills behind him. “That should bring rain.”

  A Magrum saw a flash on his display in the control center of the bunker and tried to remember if it was cloudy outside that afternoon. No. “Is a storm coming?” The community always conserved power, but he decided to turn on the cameras. He looked at the display showing the sky and didn’t see any clouds. “What was it?” He turned on one of the external cameras on top of the hill and swung it around the bunker. The ship was gone. He brought the focus in closer and jumped out of his chair. It wasn’t there. He hit the alarm button, swung the camera around toward the compound, and immediately saw the prisoners were gone. He raised the view and saw the last of them entering the forest at the edge of the clearing. Grang came running in with his ever-present blaster, “What’s happening?”

  The sentry pointed to the three displays and Grang saw the ship was missing. “How did this happen?”

  “I have no idea, but the workers are escaping into the forest.”

  “How did they get out?”

  “Look for yourself. My cameras don’t show anyone out there. But the guards are all missing, and Grelo is lying dead at the entrance.”

  Grang ran from the control room for the central shaft.

  Jingo joined Scotty and Michael circling the bunker. Jingo sent a message to them that the ship emitted a bright light when it left. “I suspect they saw it.”

  Scotty said, “Vring, spread the Riders out and have each of them assigned a section of the hill to defend. The archers in the woods will handle any that come out of the main entrance.”

  “Where are you going to be?”

  “Why, Vring and I will take the center section.”

  Jingo said, “Is it because that’s where the one you have a blood feud with is usually located?”

  “Maybe. Go to your sections.”

  The archers protecting the prisoners had gotten them halfway to the clearing, then fifty of them at the rear turned and went back toward the compound. They waited, and suddenly Magrum began pouring out of the bunker entrance running toward the front of the compound. One fumbled with the keys to open the lock as hundreds backed up behind him. The archers called for a hundred to join them, then the reinforcements turned and moved back toward the compound. Julie continued her walk through the forest. The remaining hundred and fifty archers spaced themselves around the prisoners and killed any Torg that approached them.

  The Magrum finally removed the lock and the large yellow creatures rushed through the compound and out the rear. They had advanced fifty yards when suddenly, fifty of them fell to the ground with arrows in their upper bodies. The charging mass behind them began tripping and falling over the ones in front. Fifty more Magrum were hit two seconds later before they knew the danger in front. The hundreds raised their rifles and fired into the forest.

  “Everyone down!” Zreeg warned.

  The archers hit the ground, crawled fifty yards deeper into the forest, and stood behind trees. They would load an arrow and fire at the howling mass of approaching Magrums. Dead Magrums littered the clearing in front of the forest.

  Scotty heard the loud howl and rifle shots of the Magrums, “Vring; stay over the center section of the hill, but circle over the compound.”

  Vring didn’t want to do it, but he flew over the center section and turned to come back. That’s when he saw the huge Magrum raising his blaster on top of the hill. One moment the spot was empty and the next the Magrum was there. Scotty saw him at the same moment and knew he was going to hit the forest with his blaster and cut down everything in the front trees.

  “Go, Vring!” Vring accelerated at an unbelievable velocity and Scotty raised his bowgun and knew he was going to have the most difficult shot of his life. He didn’t want to kill the huge Magrum but the on rushing speed coupled with the tiny target was an impossible shot. He fired the arrow and prayed.

  Grang lined the front edge of the forest up in his sights and heard a strange noise. The arrow whistled in and struck the hole in the end of the blaster’s barrel and cut it all the way to the collection chamber where the lens that focuse
d the blaster’s beam was shattered. The bolt blew out the end of the blaster and the flash blinded Grang. He fell on the ground and was groping for the blaster when he was yanked off the ground and lifted by something that held him tightly bound. He felt around and unimaginable fear gripped him. He was bound by claws that were bigger than his body. He struggled, but couldn’t move. The flash on the hill blinded those archers that had the misfortune to step out to fire an arrow, so they got down on all fours and scrambled back into the forest until they could regain their night vision.

  Magrum warriors started popping out of doors on top of the hill by the hundreds. Jingo looked at the huge numbers and thought, “This is not good.” Then he heard, “All right everyone, clear the area. Get out of there now!!!”

  Timmy and Tesa had taken the ship south from the pitched battle. Tesa turned and went straight up twenty thousand feet to see what was happening at the bunker.

  Timmy sat in the second chair beside Tesa and focused the scanner. They saw the charging of the Magrum into the clearing and scanned the hill, discovering more than 10,000 Magrum were collecting ammunition for their rifles and heading toward the exit. “Tesa, the archers don’t have anywhere near enough arrows to stop them.”

  “Timmy, the screen is on line and my board just notified me that the second red generator came on line. I thought this shuttle only had one.”

  Timmy looked at Tesa and she saw his amazement on his face. “Tesa, we are sitting in history. I’ll tell you about it later, but I downloaded the defense and weapons program for this ship. Transfer them from your board to mine.”

  “How do I do that, Tim?”

  “Bottom right corner. Do you see the purple slide? It should be on the left; push it to the right.”

  Tesa pushed the slide and she saw Timmy’s display panel change dramatically. “All right!” Timmy looked at his scanner and said, “Tesa, we can’t be harmed by the Magrum’s weapons, even their blasters, so don’t get nervous. I want you to come in low over the trees in front of the clearing and slowly fly toward the bunker. When you’re three hundred yards away from it, stop and hover. Do you think you can handle that flight?”

  Tesa smiled, “I have an auto-hover control that allows me to remain stationary and use a joy stick to move in any direction I choose. That’s easy.”

  “Ok, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to expand our screen so nothing can hit the woods where the archers are. I also scan several large energy sources in that bunker. I’m going to hit that bunker with a full beam, and who knows what’s going to happen. Are you ready?”

  Tesa extended her upper right hand and Timmy reached out and squeezed it. “Here we go.”

  Cezee banked hard right and the other Flyers turned left and right and flew away from the hill. Scotty had turned back to the compound at high altitude and saw the black ship come in over the front edge of the forest, hitting the clearing with a bright red beam. The beam then traveled the length of the clearing through the compound and arrived at the bunker, where its intensity quadrupled in size. The entire hill melted, then erupted in a huge explosion. The ship had extended a screen between it and the forest, and the huge blast stopped before it hit the pinned archers.

  The former bunker was gone. Half the field behind it was blasted into a glass surface.

  The former prisoners had reached the edge of the clearing when they heard the giant blast. They turned and saw the fireball as it rose high into the night sky, illuminating everything. Nighttime turned to daytime for a full minute. The prisoners turned back to Julie with wonder on their faces, and she motioned them into the clearing. As they walked out of the woods they saw archers step out with them. They had turned off the color shifting and the prisoners saw many fanning out between them and the woods. They knew that these beings with the bowguns had protected them on their walk. Suddenly they heard a loud screech, and Vring came zooming in with Scotty on his back. The size of the creature the Human was riding frightened them, and many turned to run in the woods when they heard, “Friends, these are the ones that saved you. You have nothing to fear.” The prisoners turned and saw more than a hundred of the huge creatures start landing in the clearing. Every one of them had a green suited rider on its back. They stopped in amazement and Julie shouted, “The Magrum are gone! They will never enslave anyone again. These friends are taking you to freedom and peace. They are here to save you, and you have nothing to fear. They are here to protect you, and you owe them your lives.”

  Greven stepped out of the crowd and ran up to Vring and grabbed his front leg and hugged it. Every prisoner heard him say. “Thank you so much. I hated picking those pods.”

  Everyone burst out laughing. Julie looked at Greven and knew that one of the heroes of this night was the slow Spejek. It was he that made it all possible. She walked up to Greven and hugged him. Scotty came off Vring and said, “Now, we have to move you to our home. We’re excited about your joining our communities.” He looked at Julie and knew it was not going to be easy to persuade them to mount a Zord. He looked out at the clearing, pulled his visor down, and didn’t see any in the clearing. “Vring, where are the Flyers?”

  “They are not needed, White Hair.”

  Scotty heard a noise and turned to see the big black ship landing in the clearing. The landing bay door opened and Timmy stepped out and said, “Taxi, anyone?”

  Scotty started laughing as Julie ran up and hugged him tightly, took his hand, and led him to a man and a woman. The woman had the same color hair as Julie. “Mom, Dad, this is the man that is responsible for saving us. He’s also going to be my husband.”

  Scotty was shocked. Then he smiled, “It is my pleasure to meet you. I love your daughter very much. It was also her bravery that made all this possible.”

  The two rushed forward and hugged the daughter they thought lost, then hugged Scotty. Vring looked down on the four Humans and smiled. Then he remembered Julie’s dream. He didn’t know what to think about that.

  Timmy and Tesa came running up to Scotty and said, “It will take three trips, but we’ll transport all of them to the two communities. They should all arrive in less than three hours.”

  Scotty shook his head, amazed at the speed the ship would have to travel. Then they heard a sound and turned to Vring, who still had Grang held tightly in his left front claws. Scotty’s eyes narrowed, and Julie saw his immediate anger. Vring looked at Scotty and knew the long flight back with the Magrum in his claws was going to be hard. Vring thought, “White Hair, you must go back with the first group to see they are welcomed. I will bring this one to you in four days. You can then decide his fate.”

  Scotty walked up and stared at the obviously frightened Magrum. Scotty looked in Grang’s eyes and the Magrum could see danger. He didn’t move, fearing the Human would order the beast to crush him.

  Vring said, “You know I’m right, White Hair.”

  Jingo walked up and said, Cezee and I will make sure he arrives.”

  Scotty looked at Jingo, “Why don’t you go back and I’ll fly.”

  Jingo lowered his head and looked at Scotty over his eyebrow, “Oh, you think I’m better at getting the communities to work together?”

  Vring said, “He’ll still be talking to them when you fly in.”

  Jingo jerked his head up at Vring, and Scotty saw Cezee look off in different directions like he wasn’t paying attention. Julie burst out laughing and Jingo said, “What’s so funny?”

  Scotty tried to control himself, but he started jerking with his restrained laughter. “Ok, Jingo. You bring him in,” he managed to get out.

  “Maybe I should go back instead.”

  With that Scotty grabbed his ribs and laughed hard, ‘Stop, stop, you’re killing me!”

  Jingo looked at the group and said, “What?!?”

  They all lost control, and Julie ended up on the ground holding her ribs.

  “I don’t get it.”

  Even Cezee had to fly away to hide his laughter.
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br />   Jingo looked at Joe and Grace Larson, and they looked at each other and said, “We don’t get it either.”

  Scotty joined Julie on the ground laughing.

  Vring looked up in the trees when Jingo looked at him.

  Julie saw Vring look away, screamed, then laughed so hard it hurt.

  Vring glanced down and shrugged.

  Scotty couldn’t breathe.

  The archers at the trees were using the trunks to hold them up, they were laughing so hard.

  The former prisoners looked around and wondered what was so funny.

  Jingo couldn’t figure it out either.

  Scotty was sitting on his favorite hill with Julie. They sat in silence, enjoying the majesty of the universe. Scotty sighed and looked at Julie, “The kids really have taken to that ship.”