by Phil Maxey
As the sound of anxious voices flowed from every window and door making him smile, he drove his fist into the glass which instantly shattered. A man, maybe in his forties appeared in the room. A look of horror froze upon his face, until he remembered the shotgun in his hands, but before it was even raised to be level with the demonic-looking creature outside, a blackened claw pierced his chest.
Copeland pulled his hand out, bringing the man’s still beating heart with him, and took a slow bite from the lump of flesh as the body of the man fell against the wall of the cramped bedroom, then slumped onto the floor.
He looked down at the shotgun, and for a fraction of a second was tempted to pick it up and use it, but that would make it too easy. Instead, with his wings retracting even further into his back, he walked through the doorway into a dark corridor and was immediately hit by a bullet from a handgun. It hit the armor-like scales that crossed his chest and ricocheted into the roof.
A young woman with long frizzy hair fired again, but this time she missed, and Copeland’s clawed hand was around her neck throttling the life from her before she could take aim again. After a few seconds of frantic kicking, her eyes bulged, and she fell limp in his arm. As he sunk his extended incisors into her neck, screams and shouts rang out from the rest of the building, and those that were once inside ran out into the night.
He walked into another room. This one was slightly larger and contained two unmade beds, and some children’s books which were open and laying on the frayed brown carpet.
Keeping his anger in check, he calmly walked to the window and punched through the glass and wooden board, breaking both. After a few more impacts, the entire window frame and board fell to the ground outside.
He heard the man before he even entered the room behind him but let him charge forward with the axe in his hand anyway. To make it even easier the man grunted as he brought the blade downwards through the air.
Copeland turned in a blur and caught the axe, stopping it instantly. The man looked up in horror as the thing in front of him grinned.
In one swift movement, Copeland grabbed the man by his neck and tossed him like a rag doll through the gap where the window used to be.
The man’s screams only lasted a second.
Copeland leaned forward, letting the warm night air wash over him. His eyes could see the human heat signatures scuttling like bugs into holes and other places they thought would protect them.
His grin widened, and he leapt forward, taking flight.
*****
Jasper sat on the wet sand and looked up at the midday blue sky. His sunglasses shielded his eyes from most of the sunlight, but they still watered slightly. He quickly looked back down at the lake. He rummaged his fingers through the sand until he found a stone, which he threw into the water. It landed with a satisfying plop, and he watched the waves ripple out. Something about the ever expanding circles reminded him of how he felt when he connected to the other scourge-infected minds.
“That’s not how you do it,” said Jess, standing behind him on the sandy shore. She walked forward looking for a better kind of projectile. “Look, you need one like this.” She bent down, grabbed a flat shiny pebble, and held it a few inches from his face. She then turned and, with a whip of an arm, flung it onto the almost flat lake surface.
The stone skimmed and bounced until finally giving up and descending into the depths, twenty or so feet from them.
Jasper smiled.
Jessica looked again and found one which she offered the young boy. “Here, you try.”
He took the stone, stood, then swung his arm around. The stone looped into the air and plopped into the water again. He looked at Jess and they both started giggling.
Not far behind them both, Mary sat on the grass just outside the garden of the large house and smiled. Flint was laying down panting at her side.
A mile away, Joel limped forward along a bland but clean corridor until he made it to the room which Marina was standing outside of.
His back was mostly healed but his legs still stubbornly refused to work correctly.
She, with bruises and lacerations across her head and appendages, looked through the large glass window at the figure in the room who was almost entirely covered in bandages.
Two nurses leaned over Anna, looking at the white cloth-like materials and monitoring her vitals.
Those outside turned to face the direction of the footsteps which hit their senses before Doctor Lee Kemp appeared. A tall man that looked younger than his sixty-odd years approached them, producing a quick smile.
“You vamps—”
“Hybrids,” said Marina.
“Sorry, hybrids sure are tough birds.” He looked at the frail woman through the glass. “From my understanding, those infected by the scourge are particularly susceptible to ultra-violet light, the fact that she’s still part human is probably what saved her.”
“How long will it be until she’s back to normal?” said Joel.
The doctor’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure what ‘normal’ is for your kind. She’s healing fast, but how long? I have no idea. If I were you, I would find something to do around town for the next few days.” He paused as if pondering how to phrase his thoughts. “You might want to keep your distance from the rest of the townspeople. Being a doctor, I have some idea of how you might have come to exist, but for the others, they will just see you as the spawn of the devil, and if enough of them get together…”
“We understand,” said Joel.
Inside the room, the nurse gestured to Lee. “Excuse me.” He went inside, closing the door quietly behind him.
Marina shook her head. “I wonder if Lucian’s told everyone he’s like us.”
“Didn’t they see from what he did during the fight?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t see.”
“Well, that’s his problem. He did save our asses though.”
“Yeah… and we’re never going to hear the end of that.”
Joel smiled. “He also seemed pretty happy he has now got seven Humvees and a bunch of weapons and ammo.”
“Have they managed to get the ultra-violet weapon working again?”
“It took some damage, but I was talking to a guy who used to be an engineer who thinks they can get it up and running.”
Marina looked back at Anna in the bed. “If they do that, it’s sure going to make this place a lot safer from what’s beyond the walls.”
Joel joined her looking at the doctor examining Anna’s bandages. “Yeah.”
“She’s going to get better, right?”
“She better. Doctors are in short supply.” He briefly looked across to Marina. “How’s Jess?”
“She’s holding up.”
“Maybe she can get the boy talking.”
She looked at Joel. “You’re sure he’s not a vamp, right? Or even a hybrid?”
“Did you sense anything when you were with him?”
“No.”
“He’s definitely been through the change, but Corvin said he’s got no thirst for blood. Jess is safe with him, and if he does become something of a danger, Flint and Mary are with her.”
A noise further along the corridor made them both look in that direction. Bill appeared from the stairs, and beckoned.
They walked across to him. “Everything alright?” said Joel.
The words seemed to stick in Bill’s throat as his eyes shifted between the two in front of him. “We need to talk about what happened yesterday.”
Joel had completely forgotten what occurred when he held the tablet the day before. If it wasn’t for the man in front of him reminding him, he would have thought he imagined it. Joel sighed and turned away.
Marina looked confused. “Talk about what? The fight at the farm?”
“Umm… Joel had a… well…” Bill frowned, searching for words.
“When I picked up the tablet, the symbols on it changed, and then I dropped it because well, what the fuck.�
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Marina’s expression grew even more extreme. “Changed? It’s a stone tablet—”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to him about, but I guess we can have that conversation now.” Bill looked down the stairwell and along the corridor, then tugged on Joel’s arm to follow him into a small utility room.
Marina closed the door behind them.
“So, the stone tablet is not a stone tablet.”
“I figured. What is it then?” said Joel.
“Oddly, the term ‘tablet’ is well suited. Myself and Evan think it’s some kind of computing device.”
Marina chortled, then stopped when she saw Bill was serious.
Bill’s eyes dropped and he briefly waved his hand. “I know. It’s crazy.”
“Then it’s not thousands of years old, it must be one of Copeland’s… like actual computing devices.”
“Well, it could be a modern device… but… we think it’s not.”
Images of the strange shadow-infused tomb, with the sarcophagi crept into Joel’s mind.
“But how can that be?” said Marina.
“We don’t know but—” Bill stepped closer to Joel who seemed to be deep in thought. “—We think if you could hold it—”
Joel’s eyes widened as he looked into the hopeful older mans face. “Why would I want to do that? Maybe it’s some kind of bomb, that’s primed to explode when I touch it, we don’t know anything about it…”
Bill nodded. “And the only way we’re going to learn is by you touching it again, and this time I’ll monitor what—”
A knock at the door made Bill jump. An elderly woman wearing a white uniform looked through the small glass panel and frowned.
Joel opened the door before the nurse could. “We’re just leaving,” he said to her, walking out.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Joel stood in the spacious living room of the house they had all been offered to stay in and examined the strange tablet device which sat on the glass coffee table. He looked between Bill, who was behind him, and Evan, who was seated to the side, and then back to the tablet.
“Just lean down and pick it up. And this time, when things start happening, don’t drop it,” said Bill, holding a cell phone pointed at the tablet.
Evan monitored a laptop, which had it’s tiny webcam camera pointed at Joel and the strange artefact.
Joel took a deep breath. The object on the table looked innocent enough, but he had no time for what he regarded as magic, despite how excited Bill and Evan were when they told him of their theories. After thirty minutes of them trying to convince him to partake in an experiment, he finally gave in, if just to stop them from saying the words ‘Annunaki’ and ‘Alien technology’ again. All he was concerned with was the effect the tablet was going to have on his mind. The strange visions were increasing in clarity and he needed to be in the real world, the one where people died.
He leaned down and picked up the tablet.
Nothing changed on the cool smooth surface.
Joel turned slightly to Bill. “See, it wasn’t—” Before he could finish, some of the symbols which were arranged in a twelve by eighteen grid, slowly morphed into others. “Err… you recognize any of these new symbols…” he said, tilting it in their direction.
There was no response.
“Bill?”
“No…” The older man looked across to Evan. “You’re recording, correct?”
“Sure am.”
Joel watched as more symbols changed, each one glowing slightly. “So, now what?”
“Now, for the experiment. Touch one of the symbols.”
“Which one?”
“Umm, start with the top left one. The first…”
Joel blew out his cheeks. “Okay…” He lightly touched the first golden symbol.
The scene in front of him blew outwards. Walls, bookshelves, ceiling, everything stretched as if it was made of rubber, extending into infinity, then snapped back, except where he was now, wasn’t the living room.
“What the hell?” He instantly recognized the sand-colored stone pillars covered in etchings, but this time he could also feel the heat from the burning torches and smell the dry air.
He coughed. The noise reverberated as if he was under water.
Even though all his senses were telling him he wasn’t in Haven anymore, his mind flat-out refused to believe it. As he walked forward, he thrust out his hand, hitting the solid pillar. A small amount of dust fell to the flat floor. He held his fingers close to his face examining the dust which stuck to them.
This can’t be real. I’m hallucinating. The damn tablet did something to my brain.
He walked forward again, looking up at the ceiling which was equally as smooth, flat, and covered in carved figures as the walls were. As he moved past another pillar, the center of the room he was in came into view. The five sarcophagi from his visions sat in front of him, but now he was able to see their true size. He approached the one in the center, which the others were laid around. The lid which sat on top of the intricately carved walls was at the same level as his head, and it was at least eight feet long.
Pulses of light raced along metallic channels which were inlaid into the stonelike material the sarcophagi were made from, and, between them, scenes seemingly etched into the sides changed design and form. Joel stepped back when he realized he was watching some kind of depiction of a battle playing out. A sea of creatures which looked like vamps charged at each other. Some took to the air, while others fought with weapons. Then suddenly the scene changed to bodies, thousands, laying on a desertlike surface, while two remained fighting. Covered in an ornate armor they fought, exchanging parries and blows until one fell to the ground dead, and the other stood triumphant. The figure that was left looked human, and as they looked up at the sky, an angular shape appeared and descended. The stone-carving movie then reset.
Joel stepped further back and looked at the scale of the mausoleum-sized block in front of him.
A hand rested on his shoulder.
As he whirled around, the walls and pillars extended into the distance once more, this time when the world collapsed back on itself, he was looking at Bill in the living room.
Joel’s eyes were wide.
“Did anything happen?” said Bill.
*****
Marina looked at the homemade jars of orange peel jam and wondered what they used for currency in Haven.
Around her, the shelves which lined the walls of the small mom-and-pop store, were well-stocked but most of the branded items were already gone. What was left was homemade food items, grown and baked by the residents.
Towards the front of the store, Jess and Jasper laughed as they pretended to be heroes with magical powers, each one armed with a wooden shield and stick.
Marina looked at the counter and the elderly woman beyond.
Glasses perched on the end of the woman’s nose. “Is there anything you want, dear?”
Marina briefly sucked in her bottom lip as she awkwardly walked towards the counter. “I don’t have any money…”
The old woman smiled. “Oh, we don’t use money here anymore. Now the stores in Haven operate on a barter system. What do you have that you would like to offer?”
Marina checked her pockets, already knowing they were empty, but hoping the gesture might create some sympathy in the store owner. It didn’t. The woman’s smile remained fixed.
There were only two other items she could exchange. One was on her wrist, and the other was on her finger. They were both given to her by Russell, except one had a practical use, and the other, her wedding band, did not.
On leaving Russell months earlier and making her way to Denver with Jess, she had removed the plain-looking white gold ring for the first time since they married. It felt wrong and exhilarating at the same time to feel the breeze on the indented spot on her finger, and for most of her time with her sister it remained in her pants’ pocket. But the moment it was obvious the sc
ourge was something more than just a bad case of influenza, she retrieved it and slid it back on her finger. The country was descending into chaos, there was no time for silly games.
She held up her left hand and looked closely at it.
The woman pretended not to notice, and looked back down at the worn paperback she had been reading.
Marina looked back down the aisles to make sure Jess wasn’t watching, and she slid the ring off. A part of her wanted to take one final look at the inscription on the inside, but she chose not to, and instead placed it on the counter. “How much can I get for this?”
“Oh, let’s see.” The woman carefully picked it up and immediately weighed it in her hand. “Hmm, your husband must have done quite well for himself.”
“He did.”
“Well, the way it works is we give you what we call credits. And you can spend the credits how you like in any of the stores in Haven. For this, I would give you… three hundred.” The woman smiled. “Does that sound fair?”
Marina had no idea, but nodded anyway.
The elderly woman took a slip of paper, wrote ‘three hundred’ on to it, then wrote the name of the store and signed her name next to it. She then handed it to Marina. “Each time you spend credits, the store owner will write the new amount on the piece of paper and sign it.”
The thought occurred to Marina that someone could just fake a store owner’s signature, but she guessed the whole system worked on trust anyway.
Everything comes down to trust.
She took the slip, looking down at the name on it. “Thank you, Daphne.”
The old woman smiled. “So, what would you like from my store?”
Marina went to answer when she heard the sound of light feet running towards her. She quickly turned.
Jess ran up to her with a concerned expression. “It’s Jasper!”
Marina moved swiftly along the aisle until she spotted the young boy sitting on the floor, his back against a small pyramid of paint cans, and his knees up against his chest. He was rocking back and forth.