by R. Malak
Jay surprised by the revelation, he knew instantly that this was one architectural wonder, that mankind would never be able to achieve. Feeling a hand lightly tapping his shoulder, he turned and almost cried out aloud, ‘Why god, why do you punish me?’ for standing before him was Kara with a sweet expression on her face.
“What do you want?” he snapped.
Biting her lips, she squirmed in front of his angry eyes and replied, “Why I just wanted to say thank you, is all. Thanks for defending me back there. I know I should have said it something earlier, but that doesn’t matter anymore.”
Jay almost exploded with the amount anger that he felt bubbling up inside of him.
Roland, sensing he was not wanted, fingered the spectacles on his face. “I, ah, will leave you two to talk,” he said and left them alone on the bridge.
Jay sick of the way she was staring up at like he was a god. Cursed the heavens for bringing this blight upon his life, turned round and stormed off. Only to stumble into twinkle Dee and twinkle Dum.
Peter with a fading bruise on his pale face shoved him back. “I thought I told you to stay away from her,” he said. Tony looked at Peter. “I think the man, wants another beating Peter.”
Peter grinned and replied, “I think so.” He cracked his knuckles.
Jay was mentally preparing himself for another fight, when to his surprise Gregory and Connor butted in between them. The police chief snapping, “Leave him the fuck alone and take that damned wench with you.”
Peter glared at Gregory, but with the odds out of their favor the cowards slunk off like the dogs they were with Kara not far behind them.
“Thanks Greg, much appreciated.”
Gregory grinned boyishly and slapped him on the back, hitting one of his many bruises. “Think nothing of it kiddo, like you said we have to stick together.”
“Looks like you got yourself a new friend,” said Connor who had finally caught up with him.
Jay smiled and nodded his head watching Gregory wander off to join Clemens by the bridge. “It seems that way don’t it.”
Together they returned to the barricade, where one by one soldiers shifted in amongst the group of people to check their ID tags and send them through into one of the grey tents set up along the bridge.
Jay queued up at the back of the line to await his turn and noticed the mercenaries they had come with, were nowhere to be seen.
A young woman with short red hair came over to stand beside him, and asked in a bored tone, “Your ID tag please.”
He pulled out his ID tag a second time and showed it to her.
She took it her hand and held it up to her lens. Nodding her head, she returned his tag and waved him towards the tent. “Go inside the tent, grab some food and drink, and get changed.” With her job done, she walked away from him to the next person in line.
Jay his belly rumbling at the thought of getting some food, quickened his pace and entered the tent. Tables were organized around the tent in a U formation, with supplies on each of the tables and soldiers in military fatigues standing right behind them. Moving to the first table he was handed a bottle of water from a stern-faced soldier, he was then handed a day’s worth of battlefield rations that came in small disposable plastic bags and at the third table he was handed a clean set of black and grey military issue uniforms,
Jay headed to the back of room with his supplies bundled up in his arms, placed the food down on a chair and swiftly changed into the more comfortable military uniform. Done, he exited through the back of the tent and was handed a backpack by a soldier waiting outside. Nodding his head in thanks, he took a sip from the bottle of water and dropped the supplies he had received into the backpack.
Jay found the rest of his companions, standing over by the bridge’s railing. Gregory in full military uniform was complaining bitterly about having to get changed to an annoyed Clemens, who kept scowling at his use of swearwords.
Grinning he slid the backpack onto his back and headed over to them. “Hey, have you guys seen Connor?”
Clemens shook her head replying tiredly, “Sorry Jay, we haven’t seen him.”
Jay worried something might have happened to the old man, was about to head back into the tent to search for him, when a loud booming sound rocked the ground beneath his feet.
Using the railing on the bridge to steady himself, he looked over towards the city’s skyline, where thick clouds of smoke were beginning to rise up in the distance.
“What the fuck was that?” Asked Gregory in his usual gruff manner.
Jay grunted back having no idea himself, but it sounded like an explosion.
Roland, who was still studying the archway not too far away from them absentmindedly replied, “Oh that, that must be the artillery the soldiers were telling me about, apparently the beasts have entered the city and the military have taken to bombing the area whenever they get a chance.”
Dear god above! The beasts were inside the city, and they were bombing it. His thoughts turned to Tally all alone with nothing besides his friend for company, as all around him the city went up in flames. Almost panicking, he frantically searched for Jackson, anxious to be off and moving once more. And saw Peter and Tony standing by the railing with big grins on their stupid faces, right next to them Kara was crying.
Mouth drying with fear, he walked over towards the nasty duo. “Why is she crying?”
Tony smiled and shrugged. “Maybe because her old friend fell off the bridge, it was a tragic accident,” he said dryly.
Jay’s mouth dropped open, his heart sinking, Connor was dead! Had these bastards pushed him over the side?
As if answering his question, the pair laughed at his anguished expression, their laughs biting deeply into his skin, twisting his grief into rage, white hot rage. These men had killed his friend, just to hurt him.
With a bellow of hate, he shoulder-charged into the waiting Tony knocking him to the ground and kicking his head into the metal railing knocking him unconscious.
Peter stunned by the swiftness of his attack, stepped backwards, with his hands held up, but Jay was in no mood to forgive. He took Peter’s punch on the chin and swung a return punch harder and faster to his jawline, dropping Peter to the ground. Leaping on top of him, he punched relentlessly into Peter’s face, blood spilling from cuts to his eyes, lips and forehead.
Voices called out to him to stop, but he couldn’t. They had killed Connor, a defenseless old man. Hands grabbed hold of him from behind and pulled him back. He struggled violently to get free. “They killed Connor! They killed Connor! They killed Connor! They… killed… Connor.” The words he spoke hit him like a hammer dropping him to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks. Connor his neighbor and friend for many years was gone, dead because of him.
Gregory released his arms and knelt beside him and patted him on the back. Kara still in tears, continued to sob.
It was then that Jackson decided to return striding into their midst with his mercs right on his heels, all of them carrying large empty duffle bags. Seeing the two unconscious men with blood all over them he glared around him and asked, “What the fuck happened here?”
A sniveling Kara spoke up softly, “Peter and Tony threw Connor off the bridge, then…then Jay went crazy and attacked them.”
Jackson laughed like he had heard the funniest joke in the world, with his men doing the same. “Didn’t see that fucking coming did we lads?” The mercs chuckled and shook their heads. “Mace, Hammer carry the idiots will you.”
The pair of mercenaries rolled their eyes, but moved to do as commanded.
“The rest of you get up, and let’s move, it will be nightfall soon,” Jackson said and strode onto the bridge.
Jay felt arms grab onto him and try to lift, Gregory’s hard voice telling him to stand. But Jay was far too deep in the pits of despair to care. He gazed up at the sky feeling lost and without hope. His son was missing, he hadn’t seen his family in days and now his only true friend
in the world was dead. Eyes catching hold of an engraved image of two naked men fighting each other on the archway. Jay understood its message implicitly, humanity had been fighting each other since the beginning of time. So why would they stop now?
Tears drying on his cheeks, he stood up and thrust aside his despair. He couldn’t give up, yet. Gregory, Kara and Clemens stood waiting for him. Nodding his head in thanks, he started off down the bridge with them surrounding him to either side. Comforted by their presence, he caught up to Jackson’s group, who walked along the side of the bridge on the footpath.
The bridge stretching for miles, took hours for them to cross with Jay barely looking up to view the wonderful vista of the clear blue water and dozens of cruise liners below them. By the time they reached the end of the bridge just about everyone was out of breath.
Except for Jackson, who didn’t have a single drop of sweat on his wide forehead. Snorting his nose in disgust he called a halt and led them over to towards a café that sat directly in front of bridge with long lines of neglected stores to either side of a road covered in potholes. Opposite the café was a mostly empty car park with only a few older model cars gathering dust.
Jay his feet sore sat at one of the tables by the Café, beneath a green square umbrella and tried to not dwell upon his lost friend.
Gregory sat down next to him. “Listen I am sorry about your friend, it’s a crying shame what happened to him, but don’t you worry justice will be served.”
Jay nodded, but he didn’t really believe his words. Justice. What did justice have to do with anything? Was it Just that an old man that had never wronged anyone in his whole life was dead? Was it Just that the two men, who committed the heinous act were still alive? No... there was no more justice in this world. That part of the world was dead long ago.
Kara, a few meters away, hesitantly stood looking at them, clearly wishing to sit with them.
Sighing, and knowing he was going to regret this, he waved her over to take a seat beside them. She gave him a grateful smile and sat down to eat one of her military rations.
After staring off into the distance, for a while measuring the distance to the smoke, he too pulled out a military ration pack. Biting it open with his teeth, he squeezed the thick brown sludge into his mouth and swallowed. Well, it didn’t taste too bad. The mercs standing watch around the café shot them dark looks at the sight of them eating.
Jackson stalking his way in between the tables outside the café’ glared at them. “It’s time to leave.”
With another scowl in their direction, Jackson circled round to the back of the café and led them to a dark secluded alleyway. Nodding his head to his men, the mercenaries formed up behind them and raised their weapons “Dump those two pricks by the wall. The rest of you get in line!”
Shaken by deadly tone of his voice, Jay walked towards the wall and faced the mercenaries, who had assault rifles and shotguns pointed towards them.
Kara terrified stood beside him weeping uncontrollably.
Jackson pointed at their feet and ordered, “Now empty your pockets onto the ground.”
Shivering with foreknowledge of what was about to happen. He sifted his fingers through his pockets, tossing everything he had out onto the ground and exchanged brief glances at Gregory, who was fingering something in his pocket.
As the mercenaries stepped forward to collect the items from the ground Gregory whipped out a .38 Snub nose pistol out of his pocket and fired into the man bending down in front of him, killing him instantly, then turned to fire at the rest of the mercs.
Kara screamed and Clemens threw herself to the side, as the mercenaries responded, opening fire at point blank range killing Gregory and wounding Clemens.
One of the mercenaries also wounded from the brief firefight, a big shaggy haired fellow groggily got back up onto his feet and fired his shotgun into Gregory’s head exploding it.
Jay shocked at the brutality of Gregory’s death, realized he had only one opportunity to stay alive. He put his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out the magnum revolver and fired rapidly. Hitting the two nearest to him with shots to the head and driving Jackson and the green haired punk back to duck for cover behind some parked cars.
Urging Kara and Clemens to run, he retreated behind the big green dumpster firing his weapon, before quickly reloading his pistol.
There was a moment of silence with only the wind whistling in between the buildings.
Jackson called out from behind the car, “Howlin, warned me you’d be trouble, and here you are causing me trouble.”
Jay his pistol loaded looked down at Clemens and Kara crouching down beside him. Feeling oddly calm he asked, “Why bring us all the way out here, if you were just going to kill us?”
Jackson laughed, “Why? Why because there ain’t no laws out here, and it’s much cheaper to take back those ID tags off you and use them again to lure some more poor fools out here.”
Fucking Grey had set them up then, probably knowing full well, that this would happen to them. But he couldn’t think about retribution right now, he needed to get out of here.
As if reading his thoughts Jackson laughed again and said, “There ain’t nowhere out of here alive fool, unless you drop your gun and slide it over to us, maybe then we’ll let you live. There’s always a place in my company for skilled shooters.”
“And the women? What will happen to them?”
Jackson chuckled darkly, “I think you already know the answer to that. So, what’s it gonna be? Will you join me? Or die here?”
Kara looked up at him with big fearful round eyes.
He was about to reply, when an idea struck him. He whispered quickly, “Listen I need you two to push the dumpster towards the car and stay behind it, okay.”
Clemens bit the inside of her lip and nodded her head. Kara after a while nodded her head as well.
“Good, now push!”
The pair of women pressed their shoulders against the sides of the dumpster and rolled it forward towards the car. Jackson and Howlin stood up and opened fire tearing holes in the dumpster, as it rolled towards them.
Jay following closely behind the girl’s, waited for the mercenaries to stop firing, before leaping out the side of the dumpster, rolling on the ground and firing into the feet of both men beneath the cars. He then swiftly got back up and raced over to other side of the car and before they could get a word out he fired twice. The gunshots echoed loudly, and then it was quiet again.
A timid voice called out to him, “Is it over?”
Jay nodded his head and replied, “Yes, it’s over.” More artillery fire rained down upon the City of Portland blistering the sky with red smoke and shaking the earth and Jay knew his journey had only just begun.
TEN
“Hi honey, me and Josh have safely made to Lincoln City. It’s so beautiful here, there are market places, which sell exotic fruits and all kinds of clothing. There are restaurants with good local food and wine, which come from the fields outside the city. And the City is filled to the brim with old buildings that I am sure Tally would have loved to see. But, most importantly Toleman has assured me that this place is safe. And I think I believe him. There must be thousands upon thousands of tents pegged outside the City Wall. Anyway I just called to see if you were okay? A part of me still hopes that one day my phone will work and I’ll hear your voice again. Jay…I miss you…Josh misses you, and I wish every single day that you would come back to us soon… stay safe my love.”
“Sorry, the person you are calling right now is unavailable, please call back later or leave a ten second message after the beep……beeeep”
Two Days Later
“Jay you’re not going to believe this, guess who I bumped into while out walking. Hold on a sec, I’ll put him on the phone… Jay, it’s me your father. Sarah tells me you’ve gone off to find your boy Tally. Now, while I don’t like the idea of you abandoning your family like that, I think I understand why you’ve don
e it. So find that boy of yours and hurry back, until then I’ll look out for your family. Take care my boy and may good fortune be with you.”
“Sorry, the person you are calling right now is unavailable, please call back later or leave a ten second message after the beep……beeeep”
~ * ~
“This is an emergency message from the United Nations Military. Please be advised. Travelling at night is now prohibited. This is for your own safety. This message will repeat.”
“This is an emergency message from the United Nations Military. Please be advised. Travelling at night is now prohibited. This is for your own safety. This message will repeat.”
“This is an emergency message from the United Nations Military. Please be advised. Travelling at night is now prohibited. This is for your own safety. This message will repeat.”
~ * ~
Location: The Spire, Year 2061
Three Days Later
Berzook sat alone on bent knees in amongst a grove of trees; an image of his god Lord Sezrath carved into the base of the tree trunk and prayed for guidance. For the past three days Kozan the New WarLord of the Horde, had begun instituting a series of changes that were beginning to worry him. The trucks and other vehicles that had carried their supplies, which they had acquired over time through battle, were destroyed. The goblins their strongest allies in the war with the humans were slowly being turned into slaves to replace the humans, which was causing much unrest among the goblin tribes. And the humans that had been captured were being brought to Kozan’s tent, so that he could achieve his iron skin transformation, desecrating the very foundation of Sezrath’s blessing. Humans were supposed to be killed in battle and their hearts torn out from their chests, while they were still beating. Not like this. That however was nothing compared to the outlawing of Duerza battles, due to his fear of being challenged and defeated. That above all else, had him wondering, if he had made the right decision to side with Kozan.