by R J Murray
Chapter 7 - Friends
John was still living alone on the plateau, but he didn't think it would be that way for long. Christine especially was interested in what he had shown her and Tricia would go wherever Christine went. The others were not so sure, but they at least recognized the advantages of having allies with special abilities, except the Sergeant. He really just refused to believe his own eyes. John felt he was going to be a big problem for some time to come. He had a really crappy attitude.
Tricia insisted that John was a Wizard, of course and wanted him to teach her 'magic'. She was disappointed when John turned her down, but she still wanted to go. She probably figured she could wear him down. “She was probably right.” John mused. In the meantime, he needed to work on his flying ship and his equipment, especially the crystals. He had a few ideas from talking with Christine and Gary and he was eager to try them out.
He had dropped Christine and Tricia off at the island and introduced the five men he had brought to start the new settlement. One of the men was an aircraft maintenance chief with the Air Force and John intended to use his knowledge to the fullest. He may or may not stay, but he was at least visiting, while they worked out the details of the new airship. Instead of two days, it would take a week to build the airship, but it would be better, stronger and faster than what John could have done himself. He was also gathering enough material to build more, on the theory that sooner or later he would find others like himself and Christine.
The new airship was shaping up fast. They had found a factory where they built tanks to hold liquids, like water or chemicals. Made of stainless steel and ranging in size from something that would fit on the back of a pickup truck, about ten feet long, to a semi truck. John transported four tanks, two about forty feet long and big enough to stand up in and two of the sixteen foot tanks about four feet tall.
He and Akatsuki had cut out the baffles inside the tanks and started setting them up as airships, with a side door for loading and smaller stainless steel pipes along each side like the pontoons on the first airship or rather like outriggers, sticking out about three feet on each side to provide stability. The thrusters would be under the floor towards the rear, three of them, two large and one smaller. The smaller crystal would be connected to the joy stick with a linkage that was similar to John's first effort, but much superior in design. The two large crystals were fixed in position and would supply the thrust needed. Experience was making a huge difference in the design and in the speed of fabrication that wouldn't have happened if Akatsuki wasn't there.
They had looked over several real aircraft, before deciding on using the tanks. The problem with real aircraft was the amount of plastics and computers used inside. While John and Akatsuki were able to pull many hundreds of feet of control cable from a few, many had computer controls and fly by wire technology. That was now useless and had been left behind. A world war one biplane would have been more useful.
An American with Japanese immigrant parents Akatsuki was a treasure trove of knowledge and a pretty nice guy. Suki, as he preferred to be called, played a mean hand of spades, knew more about aircraft construction and design than John could have ever imagined. John decided early in their relationship to be the hands and let Suki be the brains and it worked well. By the fifth day, the airship was ready for a test flight.
John was in the pilot’s seat and Suki was behind him, ready to take notes on the performance and see what they needed to do to improve the next model. The airship worked beautifully. It lifted off fast, and smoothly, climbed to five thousand feet and accelerated to over two hundred miles an hour. The noise was bad. The water tank was not made for flight and the skin was flexing and rattling, making a sound like a soda can being crushed.
Suki kicked John's seat and motioned him to slow down. Then he yelled in short sentences to be understood. “Test Flight, not a race. We check out the ship to make sure it's safe and that we have no problems. Then we race. If you kill us, I won't build you any more toys.”
John gave Suki the thumbs up and slowed the airship. The noise died down almost completely. He put the ship through the maneuvers he and Suki had laid out the night before and after about two hours, landed back on the plateau. Both men were ecstatic about the successful flight and were talking excitedly as they walked back to the workshop. Additional bracing and some heavier plate added to the walls would reduce the noise.
Suki wanted a full crew up there ASAP to start the fabrication of material for the next ship. The only hold up was the need for John to be present for cutting and welding of the parts. They also needed more people just to survive above a hunter gatherer level and with the second air ship ready they would be able to search for them. Once the rescue was finished and Sergeant Di Silva was settled in, that is. In the evenings they would go over the day’s work and talk about the future. Suki saw the violin one night and finally coerced John into playing and it became a part of the evenings.
Suki had seen some of the so-called tests and told John he was lucky not to be seriously dead. He promised to get a real test stand set up, when they had the time. In the meanwhile John was practicing building houses. He found it was easier to work in the cave because he could hollow out the walls and form them in place. Out in the open he had to move material to the site and stack it. A small house with three rooms could take two days just to get enough stone into position.
Then there were the dreams. They woke John up at times and he wasn't surprised that he had nightmares. After the events of the last month, the fact he thought he was still mostly sane was of some comfort. But then the dreams that were not nightmares, that seemed to be real events, they bothered John a lot. He kept these to himself as well.
The four men that they had dropped off in the nearest town were due to be picked up in an hour, so John had to get back in the air soon. Suki had decided to go with him, to see what other supplies might be available for the hanger and workshop he wanted to build. Suki had a thing for steam engines and without any other power sources available right now, John was open for anything. With the wind blowing across the plateau steadily most of the time, windmills were an option as well since John grew up repairing those.
Farming was going to happen soon, as well as animals for meat, hides and milk. The milk could be made into cheese, another of John's skills, preserving the milk for travel rations as well as stockpiling. They needed to find seed and he did know where to look for seeds and tools that fit a colony with almost no power beside muscle. As soon as he could see his way clear, he would head for the Amish country and find it.
The other problem with farming was that the breakdown of synthetic had poisoned much of the available soil, even on the plateau. They had to find a way to clean things up or there would be no farms. For now, they were going to pick up the relocation team, and see what else they could do.
Charlie had a problem and it wasn't a small one. A lot of the game they had depended on for food was just not around anymore and the teams had to go further each time to find anything. Second problem, the buildings they were looting for canned goods and materials were sinking into the ground, as the area continued to turn into a swamp. Once they sank below twenty or thirty feet under water, they were too deep for free diving.
Even worse, the island they were living on was being inundated. Not fast, but almost a foot in the last month. If it didn't get any faster, they had a year before the island was too small to support them and by then, hopefully, they would be moved to the new site.
The problem was that a lot of her people didn't want to merge with the bigger group, especially one run by the military as well. She knew that they would be better off with a larger group, safer, more hands to do the work and she wasn't too worried about having someone else in charge. Some of the others, though, didn't see the need to plan ahead, or stock pile supplies, or move to another location. They were fine here and there was enough to eat and drink, so eat, drink and be merry, because that's what it was all about. Idiots.
She had talked with Christine and Gary about the move she thought they needed to make. They agreed with her, but they were sure that at least three of the others wouldn't want to move and would try to convince the rest to stay and get rid of the three of them. Not all of the people who were willing to go were not too happy about John or his abilities. Christine had been with them long enough for them to be comfortable with and get to know, but John. Well, not only did he vaporize tons of rock in seconds, fly around in a pontoon boat and talk like a mental case, he dressed funny.
Of course, now that she thought about it, Christine dressed funny too, all black leather and knives everywhere. But she was a little, cute, pixie of a thing and John was six feet tall and broad shoulders. When Charlie asked what he was supposed to be for Halloween, John looked hurt and mumbled something about obviously steam punk and post apocalypse style, enough so that Charlie didn't want to bring it up again. She had no clue what steam punk was and she was not sure she wanted to.
Tricia wasn't in the conversations, but that never stopped her before. She had a simple solution. John needed help at his base, so anyone who wanted to go there and check out the area should go. If they didn't like it, they could come back here or go somewhere else. If they went, at least they could see what was out there. Kids, you know, sometimes they were smarter than the adults. Tell them the truth, ask what they think and let those who wanted to stay, do so. Charlie was going, and so were most of the others. Anybody wanted to stay here and drown, that was their choice.
She called a meeting after the evening meal and explained what she was going to do and invited everyone to make up their own minds. She answered the questions as well as she could, gave all her reasons and told them to think about it. After the meeting, those who wanted to stay started campaigning to get the people they wanted on their side. They didn't talk to Charlie, Gary, or Christine to no one’s surprise. Two days later, there was a second meeting and only the three Charlie was concerned with were staying. Everyone else was ready to join a larger group and to help them move. All they had to do now was let John know and Christine would use the crystals to do that. They were ready to rejoin what was left of the world.
Joshua was on the move again. Frank was apologetic and offered to take his family, which now included Loren, and go with him, but Joshua wouldn't hear of it. The group had settled into a thriving colony. The ground being cleared for crops, farm animals being brought back into the barns and pastures, commerce growing between their group and three others in the area. People were settled and Joshua didn't want to take his few friends back on the road after the work they had put into the community.
The tension between the normal people and the Wizard had grown to where no one was comfortable, even with the food Joshua brought in and the help he was always willing to give to anyone. The incident that brought it to a head was simple. Joshua was trying to save the ammunition for the rifle and had taken to running game down on foot and killing them with his knife. He was seen clearing a twenty foot wide ravine, overtaking a deer on foot, then heaving the carcass over a shoulder, jumping back and he didn't break a sweat. It was too much for the community and they made Frank ask him to leave.
All that was behind him now and the town he had helped start was almost five miles back. He was moving slowly, not sure where he would go or what he would do, except head east for now. He had the rifle and the pistol, but left the shotgun, having run out of ammunition for it. It was a long day, as he didn't stop until dark and then just climbed a tree to sleep. He could sense water ahead, animals around him in the forest and the rain that would start about noon. He didn't understand why he could feel these things, or why his senses were growing stronger and ranging further, why he could do the things, that were physically not possible for others. The only things he could understand were that he was getting stronger, faster and more aware of the life around him and how the people around him felt the way they did. He would feel the same in their shoes. That didn't make him any more comfortable in the tree, but he went to sleep anyway.
The clouds were building in the morning, as he knew they would. Just like he knew there was a cave a few miles ahead that he would take cover in until the rain stopped. He jumped the fifteen feet down from the limb and started walking easily across the brush covered ground toward the gravel road he had been following.
He felt that he was being watched again, about a mile later, but it was different this time, more local, like someone was behind some bushes close to him. They felt familiar and Joshua figured that the camp sent someone to make sure he was actually leaving. He kept moving, heading for the cave, thinking that his watcher would be very wet soon, or they could reveal themselves and ask for shelter from the storm that was coming. It was going to be a bad storm, with heavy winds and hail. Anyone caught out in it would be in serious trouble.
In another two hours his tail was still with him, hiding very carefully. Joshua had no reason to look back, knowing where they were at all times with his new senses. He saw the cave ahead and jogged to the entrance. Throwing his equipment inside, Joshua started gathering as much wood as he could before the rain started, intending to start the fire with a pistol cartridge like he usually did. A couple of people in the camp had been able to use flint and steel and one older gent used a bow drill, but Joshua never did pick up the trick to either.
When he felt the first drops, Joshua ran to the cave with the last of the wood he had gathered and moved further into the cave where he had piled the remaining wood and his equipment. There were times when he really missed matches.
Matches still worked, when you could find them and they weren't wet, or covered in goo from the plastics melting or the box to strike them on hadn't melted because the glue was synthetic. Joshua hadn't been lucky in that area, despite his best efforts at looting. Lightning struck somewhere close and the wind started blowing leaves and dirt into the cave entrance, bad enough for Joshua to be glad he had moved into the cave as far as he did. Any closer and he would have a hard time keeping the firewood dry or even keeping the fire going.
His tail, whoever they were, was getting very wet. Joshua chuckled at the thought, wondering who it was that drew the sad duty of tracking him in this storm. He wondered if they would turn back after this or keep following him. The wind picked up even more and Joshua started moving his wood further back and found a small ledge along one side of the cave about five feet wide and stretching back out of sight. He moved everything there and set up another fire pit. He was looking for dry rocks when he felt someone enter the cave. He checked his pistol and moved quietly back toward the entrance, stopping before he got to the fire.
The footsteps were hesitant and he realized that his visitor was blind for the moment, not having a chance for their eyes to adjust to the dark of the cave. Joshua aimed at the spot he felt the person would appear and waited. The footsteps were close and he tensed, watching closely as a hand appeared, feeling the wall of the cave. Feet followed and then the head, bent down and dripping water, the wet hair across their face. A muffled sob reached his ears and a quick intake of air as another sob shock the intruder’s body. Joshua wasn't sure what to do or to think. Who in the world had they sent after him?
Cecilia's face lit up when she saw the fire and she nearly fell trying to get to it. Sitting by the fire, holding her hands over it to get warm, her eyes looked fearfully around the darkness which could hide anything. Joshua was stunned. He took a step out into the light and Cecilia saw him, jumping to her feet and throwing her arms around his waist. She was crying full out now and was totally incoherent. He put his arms around the shivering girl and stroked her dripping hair out of her face. She didn't resist when he took her back to the fire and sat down with her, letting her cry on his shoulder until she finally stopped.
They moved back to the shelf and Joshua finished the fire pit, carrying coals back to start the fire in the new position, while Cecilia, now wrapped in Joshua's only dry blanket, told him her story. She had
been upset when Joshua had been asked to leave and had told her dad how she felt. They had a few words, and Cecilia told him that if Joshua left, she would too. In the end Frank locked her in the shed that night and after Joshua had left the next morning, let her out. She wasted no time in gathering up what supplies she could lay her hands on, told Loren and her dad goodbye and left, following Joshua's trail as fast as she could. She wouldn't go back and if Joshua took her back, she wouldn't stay. She would run after him again and keep running after him.
He could tell that she was telling the truth, as far as she knew it and he really didn't want to face those people again. If he just went back and dropped Cecilia off out of sight of the camp, there was no guarantee that she would go into the camp and he couldn't leave her behind. To be honest, he didn't want to be alone anymore. Even though he thought of her more as a daughter than anything else, she would make his journey much less lonely. He wasn't comfortable with the way he was thinking and tried to decide what was best for her, but couldn't come up with that answer either.
Cecilia stopped talking for a moment and Joshua realized he had missed something. “Didn't you see it; couldn't you tell what was happening with dad and a lot of the others? The way they were changing?” Joshua asked her to explain what changes she meant, because he had been staying clear of the camp for awhile. Dad used to be a lot taller; he and at least a dozen of the others in both camps were meeting alone and keeping secrets. She said there were dozens of little things she noticed about her dad and some of the other kids said the same thing about the people who had taken them in. But it wasn't just the adults, because some of the kids were different too. Joshua didn't know what to make of her story, but he once again sensed that she was telling the truth, as she saw it, at least.
He knew that they were not going anywhere until sometime tomorrow afternoon, if then, so there was no immediate decision required. He suggested that they get some sleep, that he needed some time to think about all this and she nodded in agreement, a little too fast for Joshua's comfort. He pointed a finger and touched the end of her nose, “Sleep, nothing else, got it?” She blushed guiltily before nodding her head once again. Joshua put one of the two large logs on the fire which would leave a good bed of coals in the morning to start the day with. Then he lay down, using his pack as a pillow and Cecilia cuddled up with him, falling asleep almost immediately. Joshua took a little longer, but he too finally gave in to sleep as well.
Cecilia was up cooking breakfast when Joshua woke up. She was wearing one of his shirts and Joshua saw all of her clothes hanging around the fire, drying out. She smiled sweetly. “Morning. It's still raining pretty hard, so I figured I would go ahead and try to get my things dry, while we wait for the sun to come out. Coffee is ready when you are and the rest will be done in a couple of minutes. I was using the left side of the tunnel back there as a bathroom, so watch your step.”
Joshua grinned at her glib acceptance of the situation. She seemed to take so much of this in her stride, without even blinking. He went to the back of the cave to relieve himself, taking a branch from the fire to light his path. He stuck the end of the branch in a crack in the rock and stepped a few feet past it, leaning against the wall while emptying his bladder. When he was done, he turned to get his makeshift torch and saw something shining in the weak reflected light. He bent down with the torch in his hand, curious as to what would shine back here and reaching out, he touched a crystal. The reaction was stunning. Light blazed out causing Joshua to yell and fall back in surprise. Cecilia heard him and came running. “What is it? What happened? What's that light?”
Joshua motioned her forward, as he knelt by the glowing crystal. “I just touched this and it lit up. I don't know why, but if there are more, it may be a useful thing to have.”
They looked at the crystal for a minute, then Joshua reached out and picked it up, gingerly. Standing up, he held it over his head and used it to look around the cave floor.
“Look, there's more over that way.” Cecilia pointed as she moved to pick up another crystal like the first. She was disappointed when nothing happened. Joshua reached out to take one of the crystals from her hand, to compare it to his and it lit up the second his finger touched it. He pulled his hand back and the crystal continued to glow brightly, even in Cecilia's hand. “So you have to touch it to make it work, but then I can use it. It's better than nothing.”
Joshua agreed with her and they continued to search the cave floor, finding crystals everywhere after about twenty feet past the first find. After about half an hour, Cecilia's crystal started to fade, but was renewed by Joshua without any problem. There were a lot of different crystals scattered on the floor among the lighting crystals. Joshua asked Cecilia to pick up a few of them and then they would go back to the ledge to check them out. They could always come back and get more, later, if they were of any use.
Cecilia handed Joshua the next crystal, which did nothing at all. Cecilia looked disappointed and held up another one that looked the same. “Looks like we've got a couple of duds,” as she tossed the second crystal to Joshua. When he caught it, the world exploded in his eyes and he saw the landscape as far south as the Florida Keys. There were people and towns; he could see them as shadowy figures moving around, talking here and there, one or two solid people in some of the groups. Then he heard the voices.
“Hi. My name is Christine. I see you found the crystals. Don't mess with the reddish ones, unless you want to burn your hand off. Some of the others are dangerous too. John, are you listening?” Then another voice, “I'm here. You're doing fine, so I'll just listen, unless you need me.”
Joshua was listening and trying to focus on where these voices were coming from when a girl appeared in front of him. “Wow! How did you do that?”
“Who are you talking to, Joshua.” Cecilia's voice was foggy and faint, but he was aware of her and felt her hand on his shoulder.
“It's OK. Just give me a minute.”
“Like I said, my name is Christine. What's yours?”
“Joshua. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Joshua. We can see your general location through these crystals and that's also how we can talk. I'm in south Georgia, close to the Florida line and you are in north Georgia about eighty miles south of the Tennessee line. I can't see closer than that, but it feels like a cave and a lot of water.”
“I'm, I mean, we're in a cave, taking shelter from a storm for a couple of days and that's where we found these crystals. You're saying some of them are dangerous.”
“Oh yeah. Very dangerous if you don't know how to handle them. John knows more about them than I do and he burned himself pretty badly. Be very careful. Would you like some company?”
“What do you mean?'
“Would you like us to come and pick you up? You and the girl? We can bring you down here or drop you off somewhere, if you like. We would like to meet you, at least. We Wizards need to stick together.”
“Christine!”
“Sorry John. John doesn't like magic and mysticism and he fights it pretty hard. Strange, since he can fly and shoot fireballs and everything. So, how about it?”
“I don't know what to think. You sound like a joke or something.”
“John calls it 'light hearted banter' and he drives me crazy with it sometimes. I don't know why I'm doing it too. Maybe it's contagious. Sorry. I'll try to be more serious.”
“He can fly? Like on a broom stick?'
“Probably. He built an airship using the crystals as a power source and found my group of survivors and then we found others together. He has been teaching me what he knows about the crystals. I'm sure that you can fly the ship as well, since you can use these boosters to communicate. That's what we call the crystals you have in your hand. What's the little girl’s name?”
“Cecilia. Now, I didn't do anything wrong, but a couple of days ago I was told to leave the people I was with because of what I can do and not to come back. They were afra
id of me, so I left. Cecilia ran away from the group and followed me here. Now, she is telling me that there is more to it than I thought, that the people are changing into something else. Have you seen any of that kind of thing?”
“Maybe. We have a few in our group that are behaving strangely. We need to get together and compare notes. Did you want us to take Cecilia home?”
“I don't know yet. She should be with her family, but if they are turning into something and she isn't, it might not be safe. She and I will have to talk about it.”
“Fair enough. When the storm lets up, call us and we will come up and meet with you, let you look us over, then you can decide.”
“The storm will be over mid afternoon tomorrow.”
“You know this for sure?” John asked.
“Yes. I can sense the weather and other things. It will be over when I said.”
“Then we will see you tomorrow. Have a good night.”
Joshua let the crystals fall from his hand, and became aware of the fire and Cecilia's worried face. He smiled at her and told her what the others had said.
John landed the new ship at the edge of Charlie's camp less than fifteen minutes after they finished talking to Joshua. He had been in the air when contact had been made, but put the ship into hover mode when he was listening to the conversation. He pushed the ship up to four hundred mph and was pleased with how easy the new ship was to fly. He owed Suki a lot. When he got out of the ship, Tricia was all over him and in self defense, he found himself picking her up and carrying her as he walked toward the group around the fire. Not that he minded. He actually liked kids.
“Wow, it's huge and it's a lot prettier than the other one. Did you build it by yourself? Have you gone after Joshua yet? What do you think Cecilia meant?”
John laughed at her antics, always amazed at her energy. “Yes, yes, no, no and I don't know.”
Tricia was puzzled for a few seconds, then grinned. “You answered all my questions. That's pretty good. I'll have to work harder.”
“You do that and I'll hold your head under water for a few minutes to slow you down.” Christine was right behind her. “Nice ship. It is huge. What was it, a tanker?”
“Yes, we found a factory yard full of them. We can build a fleet, if we had enough pilots to fly them.”
Charlie came up and they started talking about the move. With the new ship, it was decided to go now, since they could do it in one flight and there was no sense in dragging things out. As they loaded the larger groups share into the hold, Charlie decided to leave a few extra things for the three staying behind since they were not going to have access to supplies for much longer. The three were not impressed with her generosity. They were changing, visibly now, darker, with longer, coarser hair and their hands and feet were longer than they should be, almost deformed. Their skin looked almost scaly. They didn't mix with the others, but hung back in the shadows, glaring at the group leaving. Christine breathed a sigh of relief when they were finally in the air. “Did you get a good look at them?”
“I saw. They looked like something out of a fairy tale.” John hesitated. “You know how much it hurts me to say this, but they looked like Orks.”
“Like what?”
“Orks. Goblins. Fairy tale monsters that live in the dark underground recesses and hate the light.”
“I don't know what’s more frightening, those people changing or John talking about Goblins.” Charlie shook her head. “John talking about, what you call ‘em? Orks?”
“It's what the Elves call Goblins. It was in the movie.” Tricia once again had their attention. “You guys are sooo out of it. The bad Wizard was starting a war against Humans and his army was all the bad things, Goblins and Trolls and stuff and the Humans had Elves and the good Wizards on their side and all the good magic creatures.”
“Well, we know who to come to for all our info on this subject. Who won?”
“The good guys, of course.”
“John, what made you say that? You would never admit something like that without a reason.” Christine looked worried.
“The Professor. He said the area was reverting to an ancient sea. Something that was, that was real, a long time ago. I live on a plateau, fifteen hundred feet high, in Florida, filled with crystals that look like normal quartz and garnets, but have new properties. We are flying with those crystals and it can only be done by people who were changed by whatever it was that started this. Green eyed magic Tricia calls it. Joshua can sense the weather and other things, he said. His people are changing; probably just like those three we left on the island. Some of us remain Human, some change to Wizards, some to Orks and some to . . . what? If all this adds up to what I think it does, then I have to change a lot of things that I was taught to believe. I have to change my beliefs to fit the facts. Fact number one, age. You gained sixteen years or maybe lost them. I'm not sure how to say it. You got younger and so did Gary, by about twenty years. I got younger too. I'm eighty one years old and I look twenty.”
The others looked at him and started to talk all at once.
“Let me finish this train of thought. Then we can discuss how full of it I am. What if all the legends were true. What if, a long time ago, something happened and the universe around us changed. What if science didn't exist before the change and magic didn't exist after the change. What if all of this is the universe just changing back to what it was before.”
“Why would it change? Why would it change back?” Charlie shook her head. “It doesn't make sense. There has to be a reason for a change.”
Gary threw his two cents into the conversation, as the airship approached the plateau. “Think about this. We all know that whatever happened did not occurred all at once. There were waves or ripples of different intensities coming across the whole planet. If it didn't cover the whole planet, there would have been a rescue effort from somewhere by now, right?” The others nodded in agreement. “Tricia, you've got a hole in your jeans.”
“I'm sorry. I'm just a little kid and it's hard to keep stuff neat out in the woods.”
“No, no, that's not what I mean. I'm just using it as an example, of what I'm thinking. Not blaming you for anything. Everyone, look at the rip. It has a fringe around it, OK, it's not smooth. Let’s say that the space around us, maybe not the whole universe, just a piece of it tore. I don't know why, this is just thinking out loud. Earth and a lot of space around it fell into the rip and we got science. Well, let’s say that whatever caused the rip, stopped and space moved back. The fringes of the hole were the waves or ripples that we experienced and once the hole was mended, this universe and its laws, magic laws, took over. Remember the news stories? This started in space, and has been coming for a while. It fits what John said too. There is a theory concerning dark matter. Supposedly, some mathematicians felt that the movement of galaxies, some galaxies, could be explained if dark matter sat outside our universe, in large clumps. If the mass of the dark matter were large enough to move entire galaxies, then this would cause a tear in the fabric of space, two tears on opposite sides of the universe. What if the theory was correct?”
“Huh. That just came to you, did it? What was that you said, the math of Magicians?” Charlie shook her head. “You and Tricia need to spend less time together.”
“You're really eighty one years old?'
John grinned. “Yes, I'm old enough to be Gary's dad. My eyes changed more than you guys did, too. I think we all changed somewhat and in some way. We are not who we were before and we have to live with it. We need to adapt to the new laws of the universe and if that includes Wizards, Orks and Elves, and the space time continuum being ripped in half by dark matter, then so be it. Let's get this ship unloaded, I need to go after Joshua and Cecilia in the morning and I want to get some sleep first.”
The next day John and Christine, in two airships, transferred everyone down to the town where the recovery team was working. They had decided that one of the pilots should remain at all ti
mes with the group, just in case something should happen, it wouldn't happen to both of them. John would go after Joshua while Christine and the pontoon boat would stay with the crew.
Christine wasn't happy about it, but she agreed with the group’s decision. They each made a few trips back and forth to the plateau, ferrying materials and supplies that Suki wanted to build his hanger and to work on the next set of airships. About noon John headed north to find Joshua.
When he passed over a town or city he would take notes on the condition and what he saw, as well as mark the site on his ever present map. When he reached what was left of Atlanta he was shocked by the sight of a smoking volcano rising above a lava plain. Here and there he could see things sticking up through the hardening lava, the golden dome of the capitol building, parts of the stadium and some of the taller piles of rubble. Most of the city was gone and John swung the ship northeast when he saw no signs of life below.
He stayed close to the ground scanning the surface for signs of any activity. He swung the ship back and forth in a wide pattern, trying to cover as much ground on either side of his flight path as he could. The destruction continued for a long way, but eventually he saw buildings that had collapsed and burned, but no more lava.
He was especially interested in a small town to the north of Atlanta, the one where his daughter and her husband lived. The grandkids were married now too, but he had not seen them since his daughter put him in the nursing home in Florida. He wanted to know if they were alive, at least. The town was gone when he arrived, a huge hole in the ground filled with steaming water. He searched but found no one alive and, after an hour, headed back toward the outskirts of Atlanta.
Once, near a small shopping center he thought he saw movement but there was nothing visible when he swung back around to check it out. He circled once again then continued on after a large dog ran across the parking lot and disappeared into another building. Continuing to search for survivors John flew northeast, passing over the building Elizabeth and her kids were sleeping in, neither aware of the presence of the other.
Later that afternoon John landed in front of the cave, having seen Joshua and Cecilia standing outside and waving him in. They greeted each other with caution, Joshua with his rifle in hand and John with his wand.
John saw a man in his twenties and a girl about eleven or twelve, both wearing jeans and t-shirts. He was wearing boots and she was wearing sandals. They saw a long haired twenty year old man, wearing an outlandish leather coat, with sheets of chain mail hanging from the shoulders, a broad leather hat and strange boots, carrying a small stick.
“Does that work for you?” asked Joshua, pointing at the wand.
“A lot better than a rifle. This can blow through granite, vaporize concrete and steel, neat stuff like that. Crystals make it possible. You found some here, I understand.”
“Yes, want to see them?”
Cecilia made a rude noise. “If you guys want, you can have a pissing contest later. Don't you think we should do something else for now? Like act your age?”
John looked at her and smiled. “You know a girl named Tricia? You sound like her.” He put the wand away and held out his hand. “Don't you hate it when the kids are right?”
Joshua slung the rifle and shook the offered hand. “Yes, I do. It's so embarrassing, like getting caught drinking out of the milk carton. I asked Cecilia to gather up some of the different types of crystals, since they don't get active when she touches them. You want to show them to the nice man, now that you've put us in our place?”
She stuck out her tongue first, then spread the crystals on the blanket she had laid out on the ground. John looked them over and saw three that were different than what he had seen before. “You have a pair of leather gloves?”
Joshua shook his head in the negative, so John pulled a pair out of his jacket and gave them to him. “Leather insulates the crystals, so we can handle them safely. I would like to gather a few samples of these.” He said, pointing at the different ones. “Most of these I already use, but I haven't seen those three before. These over here are light, heat and boosters. I don't see the flight crystals I use in the air ship, or the thrusters.'”
John ducked his head back into the ships door and came out with two flashlights and an empty musette bag. He showed Joshua how to turn the flashlight on and off, then let him lead the way into the cave. With the flashlights they were able to see clearly for some distance and went further into the cave than the two had the first night. Eventually they came out in a large open space inside and found the floor and walls covered with crystals, the open space somewhat smaller than the cave under the plateau.
The crystals were not all the same ones that Joshua had shown John outside, so the three of them gathered what they could carry and went back to the ship. John felt it would be better to test them back at the base, in the lab that Suki was setting up and explained it to the others. Joshua was reluctant at first, until John showed him the burns from his earlier tests and told him about the boosters and the energy beam.
“I got burned a little from the garnet, but when I set it up with two boosters in series, all hell broke loose. I'm lucky to be alive. I got most of this damage from molten copper and iron, when my vise melted and splattered.”
They loaded the crystals and Joshua’s things aboard the airship and flew south. During the trip John was showing Joshua how to handle the controls and let him fly for a while. When they approached the outskirts of Atlanta, John told them he wanted to scout the area and about the motion he had seen. There was a chance there were survivors and John didn't want to miss this opportunity to find them.
John landed outside of the town and carefully hid the airship in a building without a roof. Joshua and Cecilia waited in the ship, with clear instructions about how to find the others, just in case.
Satisfied with his preparations, John left the building, which was a public restroom in a city park and headed west; toward the place he had seen movement on the ground during his flyby earlier. It was still overcast and late in the day, so John knew he had to hurry in order to get out of here before dark.
Moving from building to building and staying in the shadows as much as possible, it took almost an hour to reach the place John was looking for. It was a ruined grocery store, one of the big chains. It was hard to tell which one the place used to be, but this was the area where he had seen movement.
He was debating whether to go inside or scout around the area first when he heard a faint scream from behind the store. Moving quickly through the parking lot, taking advantage of the rusty cars still sitting in their spaces, he covered the ground as fast as he could and still be cautious. Peering around the corner of the building he saw two people and what looked like a really dead dog.
One person, the smaller of the two, was on the ground and the second, larger person was kicking them. John figured that they were fighting over the dog. The larger of the two moved off with the dog and John took a look through a pair of antique binoculars. It was a teenage boy, maybe eighteen, filthy and different somehow, dressed in rags and with heavily matted hair. The one on the ground turned out to be a little girl with green eyes. The girl tried to stand up, failed and started crawling after the teenager. The boy turned and looked at her for a minute, then put the dog down and picked up a concrete block. Holding the block over his head he walked back toward the little girl.
John's first shot from the wand shattered and melted the block, splattering the remains behind the boy. The kid was stunned and just stood there, confused and apparently unable to decide what to do next. John yelled at him to back off. The kid moved away, grabbed up the dog and ran, ducking and weaving, as though he was expecting another shot to be fired.
When John got to her a few seconds later, the girl was laying huddled on the ground, crying. “Are you OK? Where are you hurt?” He felt stupid asking, since she was bleeding from cuts across her forehead and face and was obviously too weak to stand from the bea
ting the boy had given her.
“How about some water? It's clean.”
Getting out his canteen, John held the girl upright and tried to pour a little water across her mouth without choking her. At first she tried to fight him off, but wasn't able to do more than wriggle. When the water splashed across her lips, she quit moving for a second, then tried to grab the canteen. John guided the canteen to her lips and carefully poured a little into her mouth. She promptly choked on the first mouthful. John waited a few seconds to let her catch her breath before her offered her more.
“Don't try to drink it all at once. Just a little at a time. I have plenty, so you can have it all if you want.”
The girl looked at him for a moment then said “Thank you” in a very small voice.
“You're welcome” He helped her take a small drink, then another. She kept passing out for a few seconds, then awake again, confused. John splashed a little water on a rag and kept wiping her face and lips with the moisture.
“Where are the kids?”
“What kids? How Many?”
Then she would pass out again. John decided to take her back to the airship. He picked her up, still holding his wand in his right hand. She struggled weakly, then stopped moving. John was afraid she was dead, but she had just passed out again. He had only gone a few blocks when she woke up again. He looked at her and stopped, giving her some more water. She got it down and looked around. “Where are the kids?”
“What kids? I only found you. Where are they?”
She stared at him and then relaxed so completely that John almost dropped her. It was like she had given up and thrown herself on his mercy. What he did, she had no strength to stop. She didn't speak, so John picked her up and started moving.
He had almost reached the airship when she moved in his arms. He looked at her and she was looking at a building behind him. He turned and looked. It was a ruined school building. Suspicious, he moved toward it and the girl started to struggle against his hold. “Are the kids in there? I won't hurt them, I want to help.” Again, she was silent, but tears slowly ran down her checks. “I'll take that as a yes.”
John made his way to the building and entered carefully. His wand was in one hand and the girl in the other, her legs through the strap of his musette bag.
Seeing nothing he looked at the girl again. She pointed down the hall and when they reach the second door she said “In there.”
Setting the girl down, John got out his flashlight and the bright white light filled the room. Inside, he heard squealing and sounds of small bodies moving across the floor. All he could see was a pile of desks and books with a blackboard lying across the center of the pile.
Slowly at first, heads appeared from the pile of furniture in the room. A tiny little girl about five came out of the pile and stood up, her hand over her face, trying to look through the light. John turned the light so it wasn't in their eyes and so it would shine on Elizabeth.
“Come on, look, it's OK. I brought your friend back. She got hurt and she was worried about you being alone. My name is John and I'm here to help.”
“What happened to her?” Other heads appeared. Elizabeth looked over at the kids. “Dogg.” The kids looked even more scared and a couple of them started to cry.
“Hey, it's going to be alright. I'll take care of any dogs and I'll take care of you, until your friend is better.”
“I'm hungry.”
“Me too.”
John reached into his bag. Pulling out a sandwich wrapped in wax paper he held it up. “Peanut butter and jelly anyone.”
“Is it crunchy?” asked the five year old.
“No, it's not. I can get crunchy, but I didn't bring any with me.”
“That's OK. I don't like crunchy.” she said in her tiny voice.
John scratched his head and shrugged. Kids. He watched as, one by one six dirty little kids moved into the light. John broke up the sandwich into six small pieces and handed them out to each child. He took his canteen and a cup out of his bag and started pouring water into the cup. He saw Elizabeth watching him. “Easier for them to hold a cup.”
John took the cup and first touched Elizabeth's lips to it, then gave some to each child as they ate their PB & J. John took another sandwich out of his bag and cut it up for them, giving the girl a piece as well, then refilled the cup, giving some to her, then to each child.
“I have one more canteen with me and two more sandwiches. But, I have all kinds of food and drinks back at my place. Would you kids like to come with me?” John smiled as he said, “I have soap and showers too.”
“How far is it?”
“It's a long way off, but I have transportation just down the street. We can be home in a couple of hours.”
“Home, huh.”
“Think you can walk two blocks? What about it kids? Think you can help your friend get to my ship?”
“Ship? What kind of ship? Like a boat?” They all spoke at once.
“It's an airship. Not an airplane, something a little different. I think it's pretty neat. Come and see and then you tell me what you think about it. OK?”
Dead silence. Then one little voice spoke, saying, “We gotta fly?”
“Cool!”
John headed straight back this time, not trying to hide and the short trip to the airship was uneventful. When they arrived at the park bathroom, the kids all looked at the airship. Finally one spoke. “How did you get it through the door?”
“It takes off straight up, like a helicopter.”
John slid the door open on the side and found that Joshua was holding the rifle on him. When he saw it was John and saw the kids, he quickly handed the rifle to Cecilia and jumped out of the ship, to help the kids into the doorway.
“Didn't want to take any chances. I saw someone out of the porthole a few minutes ago and they didn't look too friendly. Or entirely human.”
“Probably Dogg, the guy who was beating the crap out of this one. They were fighting over a dead dog and she lost.”
Cecilia was helping the kids situate the little ones inside the airship and saw Elizabeth in John's arms. “Oh, the poor thing. Get her in here. No, wait; let me spread some blankets out for her to lie on. Give me just a minute.”
Joshua nodded and picked up the rifle. Moving to the doorway, he stuck his head out and looked around the area. “Hurry up, I've got movement. A lot of movement. Big dog pack and they're headed this way.”
John laid Elizabeth inside on the blankets and went to the doorway, pulling his wand out as he peered around the stile. It was a big pack, more than a dozen and they were huge dogs. Leading the pack was Dogg.
“We need to go.”
Joshua hesitated. “I think we need to take this guy out. He's leading a pack of dogs and hunting people.”
John also hesitated. “You’re probably right. I hate to do it though.”
“Me too, but I've had to kill before to protect Cecilia and others. It's not easy, but . . .” His voice trailed off.
“I'll do it.”
John raised his wand, aiming at the center of the pack where Dogg stood. Behind them the girls screamed. Spinning around they found dogs between them and the ship, three of them, with more coming in the windows at the back of the building. John fired at the three dogs in front of them, narrowing the beam from the wand to slice the dogs in half. The two men ran for the ships hatch as the other dogs poured into the building.
Joshua fired as he ran, as did John, hitting several of the animals, but one jumped ahead of them and leaped for the hatch. Joshua couldn't fire, for fear of hitting the girls, but John fired a single blob of energy about the size of a dime into the back of the dog’s head, which died laying across Cecilia's back. She had thrown herself across Elizabeth and two of the little kids, trying to protect them.
The two men got aboard and slammed the hatch shut behind them. Joshua pulled the dog’s body off of the girls and hugged Cecilia to him. John pulled himself over the kids and hit
the controls, causing the airship to jump into the sky. When they were in the clouds, John stopped their ascent and hovered while he went back to check everyone.
No one was hurt badly, although Cecilia had several wide scrapes across her back from the dog’s claws and fangs as he landed across her. All the kids were crying, scared half to death but unhurt. Hugging three of the littlest kids with one hand, John used his free hand to pass his limited first aid kit back to Joshua, who met his eyes.
“Next time, I won't hesitate. This is my fault.”
Joshua shook his head. “No, it's Dogg's fault. We didn't come here to hurt anyone, but he did. I hesitated too. We both value life over death and that's a good thing. Sometimes, you have to make hard choices.” Then, indicating the dead dog, “Do we want to kick this thing out of the ship?”
“No, I think we need to take it back.” The kids weren't too happy about that. “We need to show it to the others, especially the professor. Cecilia, thank you. You are one brave girl and I'm glad you're with us.”
She looked up at John and nodded, her eyes wet with tears, obviously still shaken. Joshua continued to apply the salve to her wounds and John went back to the controls, speaking with and touching each child to reassure them of their safety. So small and helpless and dirty. He sat in the pilot’s seat, two of the kids following and getting in the right seat to watch. John turned the ship south, making sure they were well hidden in the clouds, not trusting Dogg to stay in Atlanta and not to follow them.
“What's your name?”
“I'm Anthony and this is my sister, April. Are you magic?”
“I don't know. I can do a lot of things I couldn't do before, but, magic?”
April said, “It looked like magic. It looked like a magic wand too.”
Joshua joined the conversation from the back. “It looked like magic to me, too. How does this thing fly, again?”
“Magnets. Ancient astronauts. Dumb luck. All of the above.”
The kids giggled. “You're funny. I like you.” April grinned at him.
John put on more speed, hearing Elizabeth moaning in the back. He was worried about her and wanted to get these other kids back so they could get checked out. If they had been on their own for this whole time, they could have serious health problems. The medics at West Base would be able to help, he hoped. In the mean time, Anthony and April kept him company.
In less than an hour, they were landing on the plateau and were met by Christine and the others in the group. They all made a fuss over the kids and Christine took charge of Elizabeth, until they could get a medic from West Base. Joshua and John told their tale and everyone took a step back when the dog was pulled out from under the blanket Joshua had thrown over it to keep the kids from seeing it again.
Charlie looked at Cecilia. “You jumped in front of THAT?! Girl, you are my kind of hero.” and to John. “You think this professor guy can identify that animal?”
“Maybe. Won't hurt to let him see it, be warned about it and the fact that a Human was leading the pack.”
This was a piece of information they had not shared until the kids were gone into the quarters. It had a sobering effect on all the adults and the recovery team wanted to leave now and warn the western base. John agreed with them so he, Suki and Charlie got back into the air ship and lifted off. The hundred and fifty miles to the western base only took about twenty minutes. When they landed and introductions had been made for Charlie, Sergeant De Silva and Professor Johnson were introduced to the new threat.
“I think that this is indeed a dire wolf. You're saying that a man was leading the pack.”
“Not exactly a man. We have seen changes in people, becoming something else.” John went over what he and Gary had come up with so far. “This is just guess work on our part. We can't know for certain that's what's happening. But so far, it does fit the few facts that we know.”
Sergeant Di Silva was not impressed. “Sounds like a load of bull to me. Goblins, dire wolves and all that other crap you're talking about. It just can't happen like that. It's not possible.”
“Then you tell me what I saw and tell me what that is.” John pointed at the dire wolf.
The first arrow came out of the tree line and caught the Sergeant in the throat. More followed and John looked around wildly. Wizard or not, he had no idea what to do in combat. Moving with the soldiers who were dragging Di Silva to cover, John looked over the barricade at the woods to the north. He had both wands out, one in each hand and was looking for movement. Around him, civilians were scurrying for cover as arrows and stones continued to fall, many finding targets. People were screaming and dying around him and John was no longer willing to take it.
He aimed the fire wand at the woods at what appeared to be the far left of the attacking force. Making his mental picture he started throwing liquid fireballs into the edge of the trees. The fireballs splashed when they hit the ground, igniting the underbrush and anyone hiding in it. Screams started coming from the woods as the flames spread. When John saw a person, he would fire the other wand and green lightning would flare across the enemy, who simply vanished in a ball of green gold fire. By the time the attack ended the entire edge of the woods was ablaze and the only things moving were the trees when the fires claimed them or when they fell from John having sliced them in half.
The soldiers around him started moving carefully out of cover and scouting the area, most carrying a rifle with a bayonet, a few with axes, knives or in two cases, baseball bats. One man with stripes on his sleeve seemed to be in charge, until he approached John and saluted. Not sure what to do, John returned the salute and waited.
Corporal Joseph Edgerton made his report and asked for his orders. John was puzzled, but asked about the Sergeant. He was dead, the arrow cutting through his jugular vein. John told the Corporal to mount a guard around as much of the perimeter as possible and see to the wounded. Corporal Edgerton saluted again and ran off to carry out John's orders. John looked around and found Charlie and then together, the Professor who answered John's question.
“You defended the camp, you are the Wizard and you are the one I instructed them to follow if anything happened to me or the Sergeant. Obviously, they would follow a fighter instead of a school teacher, so the ranking man went to you, the Wizard. Apparently you gave the correct orders, because the men are obeying them and the Corporal has not returned to tell me that I'm full of beans. I'd say you were a success, so far, don't let it go to your head. Now, we need to evacuate as soon as possible. They will come back and they will wait until they see the airship leave.”
“Then it won't leave until we are ready to take everyone. I'll stay and get Christine and Joshua to start the move.”
John moved behind the barricade and got out the crystals. Calling Christine he explained the situation and asked how long it would take to get the next large airship ready. The answer was that they needed Suki back before they could tell him. John kicked himself mentally. He had Suki with him and he had no idea whether he was alive or not. He told Christine to get Gary involved and put him in charge then get Joshua and as much copper wire as they had on hand and fly out with the pontoon boat. Christine didn't understand everything he wanted but she said she would get it together and be there as quick as she could. John went to find Suki and the Corporal and started asking questions about other weapons. With Joshua being able to fire a rifle or any firearm, he wanted to see if he could too.
“Why do you need to know about our weapons, Sir? They don't work.”
“It's simple Corporal Edgerton. There is nothing wrong with the weapons. I believe I can make them work. I need to see them and to test at least one of them to make sure what I have in mind will allow you and your people to fire them.” The corporal saluted and lead the way to the building currently in use as the arsenal, full of weapons neatly cleaned, greased and stored in a locked metal building.
John picked out three weapons, a light squad machine gun, a rifle and a case of hand gre
nades. Corporal Edgerton detailed a squad to clean the grease out of them and prep them for firing. The squad thought he was nuts but they did what he said. They worked harder when John opened up with the machine gun and cut down several small trees that had survived the last assault.
“Got any wire?”
Nobody asked why, but went at a fast run to bring it back. John wrapped the wire around the barrel of the machine gun and held one end about twenty feet away, instructing one of the squad to fire it. It worked. They were impressed.
John explained. “As long as I am in contact with the weapon, even through a copper wire, anyone can work it. Without contact it's a paperweight. We need to set up defensive positions that can work with this limitation. We can set up two different contact points with myself in the center of one and my other Wizard, Joshua in the second. He and I will be the heavy weapons with our wands and you will be the support and cover us, keeping the enemy down and unable to get close enough to use the bows and the slings they seem to favor. Corporal, any suggestions.”
“What about Jenny, Sir. Didn't she use the airship? Couldn't she be a contact point?”
“You trust her with your lives?”
“No. But if we put a man behind her, maybe . . .”
“I can start and stop the weapons with a thought and so can she. If she decides to be a brat, will you cut her throat or beat her to make her work?”
“No, Sir. I wouldn't. She's just a kid.”
“I won't either and I won't put a child into a combat situation. It's not fair to her and it's not safe for the men. We handle it with what resources we have to protect the civilians. Right now, I have an air ship on its way here. We need to get the wounded and the children out of here. We don't have enough people to defend the entire camp, so we pull back to a size and an area that we can defend. You need to get your medical team to split up into groups. One to go with the injured, one to stay here and a smaller group to ride back and forth with the wounded in the airship. You then need to divide the rest of the camp into groups, who will go in sequence until everyone is gone. With these people, we need to load some supplies and materials with each trip. We leave nothing behind that the enemy can use against us or anyone else. If we can't take it we destroy it. The last group will be us with our weapons. Every one clear on this? Corporal, use whatever civilians you need to prep for the evacuation, get the Professor involved and use Charlie, the woman who came with me. She's sharp and can handle a team. Suki, you are going back in the first load. No discussion. I need another ship as fast as you can get it built. Use Christine to weld if you need her but bolt it together if you have to and I'll weld it when you get it here. Everyone move out and get it done. I'll be here if you need me.”
Everyone jumped up and ran. “This is easier than I thought it would be. What do you think, Suki?”
“I think you will make a good General, as long as you don't get killed leading the charge. We can't afford to lose any of you Wizards. Without you, we will be overrun and I don't particularly want to die here. I don't particularly want to die anywhere but I can't stop it forever. I think in bed from old age or a jealous husband would be nice.”
“I don't want to be a General and I'm not crazy about being a soldier or giving these people orders that may get them killed. If there was anyone else who I could trust I would hand it all over and be grateful. You got anybody who can do this?”
“No, you're it. So far, I can't find fault with anything you've done. You didn't actually tell the Corporal where to put his gun emplacements, just told him what you wanted and the limitations he has to work under. That was good, because he will give it some thought about interlocking fields of fire and defensive movement before he drops a sandbag. You will remember to inspect what they are doing, before it gets completely finished?”
John nodded and looked at the tree line. “What if I move that back another fifty yards?”
“Can't argue the logic there either. How close do you need to get?”
“I can do it from here. Just need to warn people. It gets a little loud.”
“Is this what you did the first time you were here?”
John nodded and Suki ran out of the bunker to tell the Corporal to spread the word. He came back in a few minutes and gave John the thumbs up.
“Fire in the hole! Fire in the Hole!”
John looked at the tree line and pulled his wand. The green and yellow cone of destruction played across the trees and they vanished as they were touched, with the noise building steadily the longer John fired. When he stopped, scattered screams could be heard around the grounds as the people slowly realized that it was over.
“You know that is the most horrible sound I have ever heard. Can't you do something about it?”
“Sure. I just don't fire that particular wave pattern. Of course, it doesn't work without the noise so, you know, it seems silly to go to all the trouble if it doesn't work.”
“O. K. Why didn't you use that during the attack?”
“The noise disables everyone, except the Wizard. Would our men recover first or the enemy?”
“Good point. I didn't think of that side of it. You may have a future as a military leader after all.”
John and Suki walked away from the bunker, walking the grounds to watch what the men were doing and to speak with them. John tried to get to know some of the people he may get killed, trying to assure himself that he was doing all he could do.
Jenny watched him as he walked around, talking to everyone. She wanted one of those wands he carried. She was magic too and these people didn't seem to think she was important. Her dad always said that there are people who were important like them, who deserved only the best and they shouldn't have to ask for it. The people around them should know their place. They didn't appreciate her as much as they should have, anyway. With the wand, these people would treat her right and if they didn't, she would make them suffer, as an example to the rest. First, she would get the wand, then she would be in charge. She liked the idea and kept an eye on John and her wand.
The pontoon boat arrived about an hour later and John was surprised to see Christine, Joshua and Elizabeth aboard. John met them as the boat landed and shook Joshua's hand. “Glad you could make it. We have a problem and I need all the help I can get.”
“I told them all you told me. Anything new happen?” Asked Christine.
“You've got an extra passenger. That's new.” His voice had a little heat in it.
“Chill John, she's fine and she's one of us.”
“How could she be fine?” John looked at Elizabeth. “No offense but you were almost dead when I picked you up out of the dirt. I'm glad to see you standing and looking this good but you have got to be hurting,”
“I'm fine and I want to thank you for saving me and the kids. We were almost gone.”
Joshua spoke up. “It's one of the crystals we brought back. Christine used one of the crystals to heal her. Here.” Joshua dug in the bag he was carrying and brought out a blue cube. “This is a healing crystal and I figured you could use it. Elizabeth can fly an airship, too. She and I took turns on the way out here and she's actually a little quicker on the up take than I am.”
Elizabeth looked down and blushed a little at that.
John put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. “I'm glad you're OK and I'm glad you're here. We've got a lot of hurt people and we need to start an evacuation to get them to safety.” John laid out his plans, and asked for comment. No one had anything to add so he led them to the Corporal and introduced them.
They tested the positions with the wire and found that John and Joshua could handle about ten wires each, before the weapons started firing sporadically. Christine had brought extra wands and they each had two, even Elizabeth. Four Wizards, eight wands, twenty automatic weapons and a couple of layers of claymores finished off the major defenses, since the hand grenades still hadn't worked. After they were breached, it would be knives, gun butts and fists. J
ohn or Joshua would blow the claymores first, then hold the wires to allow the soldiers to fire their weapons.
When the big airship was loaded, Christine and Elizabeth would take the first load of people back to the first base; Suki would work on the second ship and as soon as they could, come back for the next load. When the second ship was finished, Elizabeth would start flying and they would get done with the evacuation even faster.
Joshua stopped in his tracks, looking at the forest. “They're forming up about ten yards past the tree line. At least two hundred plus . . . something else. Something I can't identify.” He stared at the woods edge. “More than one, wolves, they've got dire wolves, a big pack. They're Goblins, not people anymore.”
“It's time for you ladies to get to the airship and take off. It should be loaded by now, so move.”
Christine handed him the extra wands and took Elizabeth's hand. “We'll be back. Don't be stupid.” then ran for the airship. John and Joshua took up their positions, holding the wires to the guns in one hand and a wand in the other. They watched as the airship took off and accelerated into the distance. John looked at Joshua and then back at the men around him and knelt down behind the sandbags waiting.
The first wave came out of the dark and they almost missed it. Joshua felt something moving and used one of the flashlights John had handed him earlier. The piercing beam exposed a group of wolves and men crawling under a thin layer of fog across the open ground. John yelled open fire and gripped the wires tightly to the weapons, lobbing fireballs across the intervening distance at the figures that were now upright and running straight for the razor wire the troops had strung across the open ground in front of the prepared positions.
Tracer rounds laced through the dark, cutting the figures down even as they reached the wire, the fireballs Joshua and John were throwing behind them silhouetted the figures for the gunners. John was waiting for the second wave to fire the claymores, when something round, dark and glowing arched up out of the trees, landing between him and the next bunker, exploding on contact with the ground and knocking him down. He heard Joshua calling his name and soldiers firing around him, as, even in his daze, he held on to the wires.
John got up slowly and looked at the next wave approaching. He couldn't find his wand, so he grabbed the claymore triggers and fired them all. The second wave went down in flames and steel, between the mines, the weapons fire and Joshua's fireballs. John pulled out a wand from the extras in the bag Christine had left him and started firing at the area he thought the energy bomb came from, using a short rapid burst like the heavy machine gun next to him.
The gunner was down, now that he looked, one of the others having taken his place. John reached over and used the healing crystal on the gunner, who almost immediately returned to his position at the weapon. John was getting tired, his head was pounding and the noise of the battle was wearing on his ability to think. He figured that Joshua was also getting tired by now. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl and he had no idea how long the attack had been going on.
He had been flying for almost seven hours before all this began and that didn't help either. He was still firing his wand, but not as fast and the magic was weaker as well. In the dim light, he could see the third wave coming and John knew they were almost done for. He saw another energy bomb coming out of the trees and fired as much of a burst as he could muster at it, hoping to deflect it at least. He was pleased to see it detonate over the top of the advancing wave and knock down almost thirty of them, most of who didn't get up again.
John stopped using his wand after another half hour and concentrated on keeping the guns firing, thinking that they could do more damage than he could at this point and he was right. Ten machine guns versus one wand could take in a lot more targets, even though he could put more power into each target. After all, dead was dead and more energy didn't change that.
John's thoughts were harder to focus and he leaned against the sandbags, trying to stay alert but it was a losing battle. He wasn't even sure that he would stay conscious much longer. The last thing he saw was a little girl looking down at him and the gunner yelling something at him. Then he was out.
Joshua was trying to do it all just like John and having a hard time. When he saw John go down, he didn't know if he was alive or not but when the weapons on his side kept firing, Joshua figured he was saving his strength and that it was a good idea. He stopped using his wand as well, saving what he had left for a last stand. He looked back at John's position and thought he saw a girl but the smoke was swirling and he was having trouble focusing. Joshua went to one knee, fighting the blackness, struggling to keep his eyes open. A shout went up and fire erupted along the line of the advancing wolves and Goblins, consuming everything. Joshua heard someone yell something, but he couldn't catch it and then everything went dark.
He woke up and looked at the wooden beams over his head. They were clean and bright golden yellow in the light from the window. The sheets were clean, something smelled delicious and the pillow was just right. He felt great. Joshua stretched and sat up in bed, then looked around the room. John was in the bed next to him, eating eggs and sausage with biscuits and white milk gravy. A steaming mug sat on the stand next to him.
“Morning sleepy head. Hungry?”
“Starving. What happened?”
“We all died. This is heaven.”
Joshua looked at him for a moment, then the memories came flooding back in. “The battle and the evacuation, what happened?”
“The cavalry arrived in the nick of time. The air cavalry that is. Elizabeth and Christine strafed the hell out of the enemy lines in the forest and the attack crumbled. They used the healing crystal on everyone and got all of us aboard the ships. The healing didn't work on us too well, because we weren't hurt, just drained of almost every bit of energy we had.”
“How many did we lose?”
“Thirty six. They had a body count of almost a hundred and eighty. They think, hard to say when you're trying to count arms and legs. The girls hit them hard. They didn't count wolves.”
The door opened and Christine, Cecilia and Suki entered. Suki was carrying a tray of breakfast for Joshua, which he deposited on his chest. “Eat up and enjoy, because bed side service stops today. How are you feeling?”
“Tired.”
“Not surprised. You two put a lot into that battle and you both passed out as a result. I think we need to know more about the limits, before we get into real trouble.”
Both of the girls nodded in agreement. Christine added, “Since we know that they have at least one Wizard on their side, we need to learn a lot more about everything. We need to find more Wizards if we can since there are only four of us and one is ten years old. So, you two need to get dressed and see what we've been up to for the last three days, while you got caught up on your beauty sleep. Not that it helped.”
“If you ladies will excuse us, we will find our pants.”
The two girls left and the guys got out of bed, slowly. “Wait, did she say three days?”
“Yup. We were very tired,” John stretched as he answered. “and I could use a little more. I guess it will have to wait. Go ahead and eat while it's hot. I'll meet you later and we will see what the ladies have in mind.”
Joshua dug into the hot food, as John and Suki left the room.