A deal had to be made, and a careful one at that, thought Zaey.
A tour was in order a bit later that night. Zaey was guided through the mining complex, and as she moved about visiting the different areas, she realized that there was a pretty big and impressive community built up here. Like most places in the war-torn country, they always had to be on the lookout, and this moment was no different. The sudden sounds of engines roaring above put everybody on high alert.
Corporation vessels were hovering about and searching the area. Any type of meeting was going to be a gamble, and Zaey explained as much to the leaders she met with privately after the Corporation vessels had left the area.
“Y-Wood is too powerful. The key to winning anything against them is to defeat the head honcho of their regime, and that's going to take a lot of numbers. I highly suggest that we all work together.”
Lucinda replied, “We want to help, but first we have to deal with the city people here asking us to turn over more goods. If we don't, we will be reported and done away with. These people are traders, we can’t trust anyone.”
“I fully understand. I think we should talk more in the morning. Can I see the rest of the community now, please?”
As she explored and met even more people in the mining homestead, she came to an area where a young girl with her long, brown hair tied up in a ponytail was firing up a crowd of other kids and adults. She jumped about with a sword, fighting imaginary opponents while leaping and rolling about. She then dropped to the ground, doing pushups and clapping each time she rose up before doing another one.
This little gal, with a rare streak of white in her locks, was of Asian descent, perhaps Japanese mixed with American. She had energy beyond words and offered to take on the petite Australian woman in a push-up contest with all the community watching.
Zaey had no choice but to oblige. Both girls dropped down and the count was on.
The feisty kid’s name was Karma, Zaey soon learned from the clan's chants as they gathered around the fire. She was keeping up pretty well with the Mystical Slayer, and both were still going strong after at least fifty pushups each. The watching crowd loved the competition.
Finally, the younger girl dropped to her belly in exhaustion; wow, she must have done a hundred and twenty pushups…very impressive, thought Zaey.
In a private moment later on, Zaey explained to Karma how she felt about their earlier match up. “You did well, and you certainly impressed me. Keep it up and your perseverance, enthusiasm, and strength will pay off in the long run. You remind me of when I was younger. I had dreams and felt like the physical part of training would lead to good things.”
Karma was intrigued by her conversation with this new, mysterious woman. She listened intently and then asked, “Do you think I could be like you one day?”
Zaey smiled. “If you believe enough, you can be anything you want to be, so, yes!”
Karma liked what she heard. “I think you and your sisters are amazing. I love how you are all trying to inspire everyone to be better, and how you all have hope of change. People need anything that they can cling on to.” Zaey was now impressed with this little one’s attitude as well.
Karma kept talking. “They all need to see a light on the horizon. You know, every morning when I get up, I still see the sun rise…it's like the dawn's early light, and everyone needs a reason to believe in that light, a beacon to take away the darkness.”
Zaey was now utterly impressed with how this young girl spoke; she felt rejuvenated just by the kid's words. “You, young lady, have a spirit that I feel one day will make a difference in the world.”
In the back of her mind, she truly had a feeling that Karma would be in her company again. Perhaps a new recruit. She hugged the child tightly and told her that a hug is better than a million words. For the first time in a long time, Karma felt secure.
As the two prepared to go their separate ways, Zaey asked the child, “I was not going to ask this but I am deeply curious, Karma, what’s with the white streak in your hair?”
The girl grabbed her white streak and ran her hand down it. “I was born with—”
Zaey laughed. “Well, it’s unique and I like it.” She then turned to go, but Karma tapped her on the back.
“You didn’t let me finish! The white, to me, represents the light…the goodness that has to be fought against the darkness.” The girl smiled. Zaey nodded her head with approval and went on her way.
In the morning, the community leaders explained that if they were to expose themselves, their entire living quarters would be destroyed and turned to rubble by Corporation missiles. Zaey realized this but knew it had to be done, somehow in their favor. “If you feel they are onto you and danger is about, you can’t wait, it has to be done.”
They knew she was right, though none wanted to say so. Zaey told them in great detail about the plans of the sisterhood; she told them they would need this community behind them. The coming plan was to strike out at the head of the snake, to knock the Y-Wood Corporation to its knees. All eyes and ears were tuned to the woman’s inspirational speech.
Later that evening, the mining community offered more good food, song, and dance. She saw that people, no matter how hard the world could be, always seemed to hold out some sort of hope and were always looking to find joy in any standard of living, just like tonight’s celebration. The world had been beaten down through the centuries, the young Australian girl realized. Every day, buildings in the country were still falling down and constant fires kept burning in all locations. The common folk, good people, were fighting for scraps of food just to stay alive while one big boys' club made all the rules; rules that only offered suffering to those on the outside.
The evening was a testimony to hardy folk still trying to enjoy life. Zaey made it a point to add something before all retired for the evening. She addressed the entire gathering.
“There's one thing that no one can ever take away from you, and that's your spirit. Your spirit is your true shield. You must keep it strong and never give in!” People nodded their heads in agreement.
A plan was devised to schedule a meeting over the next few days with Zaey and some of the mining community heads. They would all travel to meet with the inner-city officials to try to come up with a reasonable way to coexist without the city officials digging more deeply into the so-called small mining community.
***
Zaey and two other members of the mining community gathered in the city area and joined some of the Y-Wood officials in a large conference room. Lawyers were there to represent the city as well as the Corporation. Sometimes in life, you get lucky, and today was one of those days for the young lawyer; not only was she as smart as a whip, she was one pretty little lady, and a city official lawyer took notice of such as soon as they gathered together. It was one of those times when two people just hit it off.
He was infatuated with her, and she felt it. A handsome dark-haired young lawyer on her side was not a bad bargaining chip either.
When her turn came about, she explained how the community could help the city. She lied and said they had small numbers but still had some great resources, and if they were to use them to help the city and bring in some exports from the wilderness, the two could work in unison to satisfy the Y-Wood Corporation.
There were some heated talks and they had to adjourn twice to try to come up with a final plan, but in the end, the city official lawyer who went by the name of Brunson, always seemed to swing his decisions in Zaey’s favor. Finally, everything worked out okay and the little community would stay irrelevant and hidden and got a decent proposal. In private, Zaey talked about the sisterhood's overall plan, and that this, today, was just more of a stall. The ladies agreed with her and felt good about Zaey's ideas.
For the time being, all they had to do was produce some of their resources and devise a plan to make it all work out as well as possible. The finer details could be disc
ussed later. That night, the guests would be put up in the city, and it didn't take long for Brunson to approach Zaey and ask her if they could somehow enjoy the evening together.
It had been a long time since she had been with a man. She was pretty happy about the way he treated her and all that he'd fought for regarding the case, and she really had nothing better to do. Tonight would be interesting for sure.
City officials were housed in some of the surviving buildings that the Corporation owned. Guests were housed in old hotel buildings, and as the evening came about, Zaey slipped out of her accommodation to join Brunson. The city outside was partially in ruins, and danger still existed all about. Corporation sky drones did however patrol the regions where the bigger deals found housing.
Brunson and Zaey made their way to a more private sector and entered his apartment.
They small-talked a bit about what they did as fellow lawyers, all the while sipping some red wine. Zaey had dressed in a light green blouse and a silk black skirt and looked lovely, while he was in a well-tailored navy-blue suit.
Brunson was a charming man with bad-boy looks and very inviting brown eyes. The two would soon embrace by candlelight as the later evening hours came upon them.
Brunson's dark sideburns rubbed up against the Aussie’s reddish blond hair, and the smell of passion soon filled the room.
Slowly, he slipped from his jacket as Zaey unbuttoned his shirt. She slid it over his broad, well-defined shoulders, revealing his muscular bare chest. Brunson kissed her gently on her rose lips.
“You have a nice chest, it’s strong and cut,” Zaey purred to her companion.
The two kissed passionately as more clothes were removed; his slacks dropped to the floor, and her zip up skirt slid down to her ankles. Brunson grabbed the petite woman and took her onto the bed. He had revealed her small but perky breasts, and he ran his hands up her body, teasing her nipples. “You are such a lovely young woman,” he said as he nibbled her neck.
Words then became moans as the two made love into the late hours of the night.
Chapter Eleven
It was obvious there was a spy in the mix. The armored bots entered the dance floor and rushed about searching people.
The partygoers were now suspect to an odd hands-down registration search. This was going to be an issue for Sinaye and Jansa, but luckily, they got the distraction they needed when somebody who was perhaps feeling guilty about something bolted for a side exit. Several of the Corporation soldiers rushed at him, firing and shooting him cleanly in the back as he tried to escape.
Jeffrey stepped forward to protest the intrusion and tried to speak to the remaining bots. Suddenly, a bot shot Jeffrey down too, and all the guests let out a sharp gasp in disbelief.
A seriously upset friend of Jeffrey's started firing back at the bots from the party group, and this gave both women a chance to make their move. Jansa spotted a window close by, grabbed Sinaye, and pulled her towards it.
Jansa kicked the glass window out and she and her sister dove through the opening. They both jumped over the window sill and headed down some sort of a fire exit ladder. Chaos broke out in the room as robots started shooting everyone, some chasing after the sisters, others adding fire to the bloodbath within.
Some patrons jumped on robots while others not so tough tried to defend themselves or flee.
The women reached a landing, where they smashed through another window and entered into a ground floor room. Finding it was not occupied, they made their way out and down a set of stairs to the street level below.
Once on the street, another squadron of Corporation bots spotted them. They started firing immediately at the two women.
Both dove for cover behind a large metal trash bin. Sinaye looked to her sister. “This your idea of a fun night out?”
Jansa looked frustrated. “Maybe you should get in the bin?”
Sinaye shook her head defiantly. “There's no way I'm getting inside this thing. I can smell whatever's in there from here!”
Jansa peered around the bin, then looked back to her sister before replying. “We're not going to have enough time to go anywhere.” Both listened to the marching steps of the robots coming down the street, stomping closer and closer.
Sinaye looked to her sister. “Remember what we've been taught. I'll go one way, you go the other. We'll disarm their weapons and use them against them. Keep them in front of you at all times.” The ladies nodded in agreement; they had a plan, albeit a dangerous one, but they had no other choice.
As they prepared to go around the other side of the old trash bin, one of the silver and white military Corporation robots spoke out in a hesitated amplified dialogue. “You have broken Corporation protocols. Please reveal yourself from behind the metal box with your hands up in the air.”
The girls frowned at one another. Luckily for them, these were not the clones with enough artificial intelligence to plan a better attack, these robots were the not-so-smart type.
Advancing together, the bots were now almost at the bin. Sinaye went around left, and Jansa to the right. Jansa grabbed the nearest bot on her side and twisted his laser rifle free, placing herself behind him as his fellow soldiers fired at her new robotic shield.
She fired the gun over at the other robots as they circled around Sinaye. The shots missed but acted as more of a distraction. One bot managed to slip around to face her, and she used the butt end of the weapon to bash its face in.
Sinaye waited longer to draw the other bots closer to her side of the bin. She screamed out at them and showed herself, causing them to jog faster to her side. She then ran around to Jansa’s side, making sure all the bots saw her again so they would fire at her. It worked wonders, as bots shot the other bots in the way. She then tackled a bot near her sister and stole his rifle as they landed. Shots came at both girls now, and a full-on shootout was going down.
Jansa pushed forward with her robot shield and grabbed another robot to add to her cover. “Push with me,” she cried out to Sinaye as her sister rose up and came behind her. The ladies shot down several of the soldiers as they drove ahead. However, one got around and tackled Sinaye to the street surface.
It landed on top of her and reached out, grabbing her by the throat. There were a total of six of these metal men still attacking.
The one on Sinaye started punching down with his free hand, and the young Mystical Slayer had to raise both arms up for protection or risk suffering serious facial injuries.
Jansa, seeing the fight on the ground, fired into the thing's reaching arm and blew the appendage into several pieces.
Sinaye was still at a disadvantage, yet with great dexterity she whipped both her legs up around the robot’s neck, crossed her ankles tightly about its upper throat area and slung the robot off of her, sending it crashing to the ground.
Jansa suddenly backed off and helped Sinaye get back to the metal bin.
She took a shot in the back of her shoulder while doing so and cried out in pain. “Quick…ahhhh…go, go, get back! Get back to the bin!”
Using the metal bin as cover, Sinaye circled back in the opposite direction. She leaped up higher on the bin and with a massive leap, she jumped on several bots coming to find her. They scattered to the ground, and this gave Jansa time to come around and shoot them down. Sinaye was still down on her knees, but grabbing a pistol from a fallen bot, she shot at what remained to her left.
Jansa dealt with two more bots as they came at her, one she side kicked in the chest, sending him flying into his buddy and causing them both to topple over backwards. One robot soldier was up, still crawling about and closer than Jansa expected. He grabbed her by the legs and pulled her down to him. The two wrestled about while Sinaye, too, had a bot shooting at her.
Sinaye cut a zig zag pattern to make the thing's shots miss, but one hit her wrist and made her hand unusable until fixed. Her feet would have to suffice. As she came to the bot, she cartwheeled on on
e hand and smashed the metal fucker in the head. Its neck twisted to one side as it fell to the ground with smoke coming out of its mouth.
A few bots were still alive and moving on the ground but Sinaye shot them all down. Jansa had her bot under her, but he was still reaching for her, trying to grab and squeeze her head off. She took one of his arms, spun into a tight arm bar, and ripped it from its socket cleanly. The one-armed bot rose up with sparks shooting from its wound as it continued to attack her. Sinaye shot it dead a moment later.
Both sisters were wounded but still alive.
Jansa quickly began to make her way back to the party, but Sinaye ran up ahead of her and raised an eyebrow at such an idea. “I know you and Jeffrey were good childhood friends, but it’s too late. We can't go back in there, they're bound to have flyers here at any moment, sis. It's just too dangerous, we have to get out of here.”
Jansa paused and then lowered her head. She knew her sister was correct.
***
Back in D.C., the President Lincoln Memorial was shown in all its magnificent glory as a huge marble temple, with a statue some twenty-foot-tall and twenty feet wide.
Gathered around the monument, a group of bigwigs stood about in conversation. President Marcou took over in explaining the meaning of the statue. “We pay respect and honor here to a one-time great leader of our country. He represents a time when people were not so defiant and would listen to those in charge.”
Raegan clamped her lips tightly shut at such a statement. There was no democracy left in this country today, and it was this man’s fault. The entire realm had been destroyed by religious wars, greed, bio chemical attacks, and worst of all, nuclear destruction; all these new leaders cared about was acquiring more prestige and more money. She wanted to scream out. They did what they wanted, when they wanted, and all at severe cost to the general population.
Sisters of the Dawn's Early Light Page 8