Dominion

by Doug Goodman

  They climbed down the ladder. They were shocked to find most of the guards asleep. Only the fat woman was awake, and she was massaging her head.

  “Tough night?” Kirk asked her sarcastically.

  She glared at them and grunted that they should head to the top of the bridge. There, next to the Olivarez home, they found some of the townspeople gathered. Mr. Olivarez and Val were there, too. They looked tired and weary, as if they had struggled to sleep, too.

  “Malifax is near,” Mr. Olivarez said. “He demands blood. What’ll it be?”

  “Thanks, but we’ll walk all the same,” Aidan said. He reached for the locker holding the Winchester 70 and undid the combination.

  Mr. Olivarez slammed the locker shut as Aidan opened it.

  “It isn’t like that.”

  “But you said we were free to go if we wanted.”

  “It’s never that easy. You are free to go once one of you has paid the price in blood.”

  “What?” Peter yelled. “That isn’t fair. You said…”

  “Malifax demands blood, and Malifax will receive blood!” Mr. Olivarez yelled. The people in the crowd cheered Mr. Olivarez.

  “Fine. I’ll do it,” Jax said. “Sacrifice me.”

  “You don’t even know what we propose,” Mr. Olivarez said. There was something black and inky about the way his words came out of his mouth. Aidan had never noticed it until then.

  “I’m your man, either way,” Jax said.

  Mr. Olivarez signaled the man with the tattoo sleeves. That man opened the adjacent locker. It was full of garden supplies.

  “These came from one of the first crates we opened, and right away, I knew it would be special. The container was headed to some hardware outlets until Black Friday when all the dockworkers were killed. I had the locker brought here, and I inspected it.”

  He walked over to one of the garden tillers and lifted it up into the air. It was the hand-held kind. The crowd cheered. It had long spikes.

  “Throughout history, societies have made sacrifices to their gods. These use special instruments that they consider as sacred as the ritual. I keep my instruments very clean so that there is no chance of infections or sharing any blood borne pathogens. I want you all to know that I take no delight in this.”

  Jax took his polo off.

  “Not you, kung fu kid,” Mr. Olivarez said. “You.”

  “Me?” Aidan said. He had been fine with Jax wanting to prove his love and devotion.

  “You’re the one in charge, are you not? Then you own the numbers. You can’t punt and pass that responsibility.”

  Aidan set his eyes. “Where do you want me?”

  Two men grabbed him and shoved him to the ground, kneeling on his shoulders. Two more men pinned his ankles to the ground.

  As he struggled, his friends tried to reach him, but the armed guard stopped them. Val held Alyssa. Aidan could see none of this.

  First, he felt pressure against his back. Then he heard Alyssa scream, and he felt more pressure on his back. He tried to glance at it, but he couldn’t see what was going on. He couldn’t see much of anything. His vision was going blurry.

  When he awoke, he saw his blood on Mr. Olivarez’s hands and wrists. The garden tiller at his side was also covered in blood. Fresh blood. In his other hand, Mr. Olivarez held Aidan’s baby blue polo shirt up for everyone to see. He then tossed it over the side of the bridge. Aidan felt like his body was falling over the bridge, too. Falling, falling, falling.

  But two men were holding him up. He wondered, when did I get up?

  “Are we done?” he managed to gasp to Mr. Olivarez in what he hoped sounded defiant. He didn’t think he had the strength for a single word more.

  Mr. Olivarez said, “I am sorry, but Malifax spoke to us last night. He will not be satisfied with blood alone. He demands bone and flesh as well. I don’t know what you did, but he has a real lust for you, son. He never demands so much.”

  Aidan didn’t hear anything after the words, “bone and flesh.” His mind was whirling like his vision. From in front, Mr. Olivarez approach him with a pair of bolt cutters. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter sheltered Colt. Alyssa screamed into Val’s arms, and Riley and Jax clung to each other. Only Jax was watching him. Aidan felt a knuckle pop. He didn’t know he was so tense. It felt better for a moment until he realized that the knuckle didn’t pop – his little finger was gone. Thrown to the sea as the toll for crossing the bridge. Three billy goats gruff. Then he passed out.

  When he awoke, his back and hand were on fire. Not flaming fire, but white-hot poker fire. He could not move and started to cry, assuming he was paralyzed. As he cried, though, he felt his foot scrape against the floor. He had never been so happy to feel such pain.

  Val was there with Alyssa. When she saw Aidan awake, she ran over to him. She began petting his shaved head. He didn’t hear much of what she said, only “recover” and “three days.” Then he was out again.

  By the third day, he was getting better, but still wasn’t ready to walk. Unfortunately, he had no choice. It was time to go.

  He placed his journal into his back pocket. He winced with every step, which launched a rocket ship of pain through his central nervous system. On either side of Aidan stood Riley and Alyssa, but his brothers and the rest of the lost boys walked huddled close-by with all their gear and their weapons. He wasn’t sure, but he thought they had picked up one or two more kids. Maybe the kids Peter had mentioned. Definitely Kirk’s new guitar buddy. They both had guitars strapped to their backs.

  “Is it just me or are there more people in our group now than before we arrived?”

  “So much for reducing our numbers. Are you okay?” Alyssa asked. “It’s okay if you’re not. But you look beyond pained. You look pissed.”

  “No, I’m not. Just feeling claustrophobic.”

  “Too bad. We’re not letting you go.”

  “Good. I don’t think I could stand.”

  Before they could begin the walk down the bridge, Mr. Olivarez, Val, and a group of the militia stopped them.

  “Aren’t you going to let us go, you shithole?” Jax asked.

  Mr. Olivarez was watching Aidan with pained eyes. He shook his head.

  “You bastard,” Jax continued his torrent. “You said we could leave.”

  Mr. Olivarez rubbed his forehead as he said, “I’m sorry. This has never happened before. The Malifax. It demands more.”

  “Hell no,” Jax said, and he pulled out his parang.

  “Your creature changing the game on you?” Aidan mumbled.

  “The tribute must be paid.”

  “Does anyone even talk like that anymore?” Peter grumbled.

  “You’ve got plenty of people here,” Jax said. “Have one of them serve up some human sushi to that monster.”

  “Malifax wants one of you. That much is clear.”

  “You expect us to roll over and let you chop us up?”

  “No. But one of you must die. We have no choice.”

  “Stop!” Val shouted. Mr. Olivarez turned to his son.

  “I know this must be hard, Val, but this is the only way to survive.”

  “Let them go, Dad.”

  “We let them go and Malifax will destroy everything. I’m doing this for you,” he said.

  “Then don’t. You can’t protect me forever, Dad.”

  “I will protect you with my last breath if I have to.”

  “I know. That’s why you have to stop.”

  Mr. Olivarez put his hand on Val’s shoulder, then ordered everyone to the top of the bridge. Aidan had to be carried.

  “I won’t ask you to decide which one of you we will sacrifice,” Mr. Olivarez said when everyone reached the top. He pulled out a black bag and handed it to the group, saying, “Inside are black stones and one white. Whoever takes the white stone will be sacrificed.”

  Kirk reached out for the bag. Peter could tell Kirk was going to throw it back into Mr. Olivarez’s face. But
then, as Kirk grabbed the bag, Mr. Olivarez shot him in the stomach.

  Kirk fell to the asphalt, his new guitar friend next to him. He looked up into her soft blue eyes and said, “I guess it makes sense that the anarchist is killed so randomly.” He couldn’t hear the words coming out of his mouth. It was like he was watching everything through a tunnel that ended with light and her blue eyes. A third, red eye ripped between the other two, and she fell forward. She was dead before she hit his chest.

  “Teach you to leave us,” one of the guards growled.

  Kirk gave the guard no more recognition than he deserved. To the lost boys he said with his last breath, “Tentacles.”

  Aidan, who was overly tired and slightly tunnel-visioned himself, thought this was a weird thing to say. Jax was quicker-minded, though, and pulled the lost boys away. “Run!” he yelled as the first tentacle reached over the bridge and grabbed one of the guards.

  Somebody pulled Aidan in one direction, and everything was getting cloudy. He didn’t know if he was running or flying, but he was definitely moving. Something large knocked him down, and the world turned upside down. He saw a hundred mouths and a thousand eyes, and then he was back on the asphalt and something was flailing on him. He looked up and saw gunfire and tentacles. People were running everywhere. Jax roundhouse kicked one of the guards. In the corner, Val pulled Alyssa to safety and shot at a tentacle. The tentacles were like rain, like a thousand tentacles raining from the sky to grab people and pull them off the bridge.

  Alyssa drew close to Val. He was talking to her urgently. Passionately. He started to take off his shirt and they kissed. Was that for real? Did he dream it? No.

  “Alyssa!” Aidan yelled. “Come on!”

  Alyssa’s eyes were full of sorrow and terror. She shook her head to Aidan. Aidan turned away.

  Aidan pulled himself back onto his feet, fueled by anger. He stumbled down the bridge. Jax had to stop him.

  “We can’t go that way!” Jax shouted. He pointed to the bottom of the bridge where wargs were breaking down the barriers. “Where’s Alyssa?”

  “She’s made her choice.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “How do we get off this damn thing, then?” Aidan snapped back.

  Jax pointed to the large crane standing out in the middle of the air.

  Just then, they heard a large crumbling sound and a crash. A section of the lower portion of the bridge gave way.

  “Malifax is bringing the whole place down,” Peter yelled. “We have to get off here quick!”

  Jax helped Riley to the side. She leaped for the crane and missed. She started to flail her arms and caught a lower trestle. As she climbed up on the crane, Peter was already leaping across. The gymnast had no problem launching at bars through mid-air. He even did a bit of a twirl as he pulled himself up. He reached out his hand to Colt and smiled, saying, “Don’t worry. I’ll catch you.”

  Colt looked to Aidan, who nodded. “We will get you out as far as we can. It’s not a far jump at all.”

  As Colt jumped, though, the bridge shook. He faltered and fell. Jax grabbed him by the ankle and hauled him back up. Colt looked at them wide-eyed.

  “Second times the charm,” Jax said.

  Colt shook his head violently. They knew he would never do it again, not after nearly plummeting to his death.

  “I’ve got an idea!” Peter said. He tried to manipulate the crane’s cord and push it to them. It was too heavy, though.

  Jax ran off.

  A tentacle appeared in the sky and watched them with its many eyes. The tentacle struck forward, and a multitude of tiny mouths filled with rows of needle-like teeth jutted out from the black tentacle. Aidan pushed it out of the way with renewed strength.

  He saw Mr. Olivarez coming towards them, his gun raised. A tentacle jumped at Mr. Olivarez. The little mouths clamped onto him like a pit bull. First one mouth, then the others latched onto him. The tentacle closed around him. He could not move. When the other mouths began to tunnel into his insides, though, he began to scream. Mr. Olivarez looked into the many eyes of Malifax and vomited. Malifax dropped him, and his head rolled away from the pulp that was his body.

  Jax jumped over a tentacle and slashed it with his parang. He had the rifle strapped to his back and rappelling rope wrapped around his waist. Aidan thought to ask him where he got the rope, but honestly, he didn’t care. Was just glad he had it.

  Jax tossed the rope to Peter, who tied it to the crane. Then Jax tied the other end to a container hold.

  “Go, Colt!” Jax yelled. Colt shook his head again.

  “You have to do this, Colt. I can’t do it for you,” Aidan said.

  Colt nodded. He took hold of the rope and crawled hand-over-hand, the rope laying under his body and one leg out for balance.

  Colt knew better than to look down. He tried to ignore the wind and the way it made the rope sway. With every inch, his mind told him this was too scary and he should turn around. Tears streamed down his eyes as he crawled across the rope, concentrating on the faces of his brother and his open hands.

  Peter and Riley grabbed Colt when he was within reach and pulled him the rest of the way to the crane.

  “Your turn,” Jax said.

  “When I say no, I want you to understand it isn’t because I’m afraid of heights, but because I physically cannot do this.” Jax started doing something with his hands, but Aidan’s tunnel vision kept him from seeing what Jax was doing, so he kept talking. “I don’t have half the strength needed to cross a rope, nor the functionality in my body to do it. Tell my brothers to be good to each other. Take care of my brothers for me.”

  “When are you going to understand? Your brothers take pretty damn good care of themselves. If you trust them, they will even take care of you.” Jax pushed Aidan, and he fell backwards over the bridge. Suddenly, he was in the air, and there was nothing between him and a hundred-foot death drop. Then the twang of the rope caught him, and his limp body began to arch towards the crane.

  Peter and Colt grabbed Aidan. Riley, who had already climbed a little lower to give Peter and Colt more room, looked up at the three brothers’ silhouettes huddled together on the crane trestles, and for a moment she thought of birds on a wire. She put her hand out to Colt’s leg, which felt good and warm.

  Peter flung the unattached end of the rope back to Jax.

  Jax grabbed the rope at the same time that Malifax snapped the bridge columns. He heard the rumbling of the bridge and felt the line go tight as the bridge began sliding away from the crane.

  He cut a tentacle that had been stalking him and swung out into the open air, his legs flying into oblivion, and prayed that someone would catch him. His body collided with the crane, and Riley grabbed him by his shirt, which nearly ripped right off until she grabbed his arm, too.

  As the bridge slid into the shipping channel, the remaining lost boys climbed down the crane as fast as they could.

  From the side of the river, they waited for the cover of darkness to move. While they waited, they listened to the sounds of trapped bodies pleading for help from the rubble. Some people who had survived the fall were pulled underwater and drowned by Malifax. Any who escaped Malifax were dragged out of the water and ripped slowly apart by wargs.

  With nightfall, the wind direction changed. Smoke billowed towards them, and everyone still alive agreed this was the best cover for escape.

  Chapter Eight – Cheerful

  The fire truck stopped just beyond the overpass, and Jax cut the engine. The trees were smaller and less dense in this part of the state than in the area they came from. Instead of the pines and cypress of Houston, Central Texas gave them twisted juniper and cedar trees. Dark-barked trees with small tousles of leaf. The roadside was owned by neighborhoods of cactus and limestone.

  A few seconds later, the first wet, black-and-caramel-colored disc slipped underneath the mangled barbwire fence, skittered across the road, and entered the ranch land on the opposite sid
e. Aidan put down his journal. Colt wiggled his arms and made barfing noises while Jax tried to stop him. None of the five remaining lost boys had ever seen a cockroach that large before. It was as big as an office desk. As soon as the first roach crossed the road, three more came over the asphalt. Then it was five, then ten, then suddenly the road was swarming with giant, shiny roaches crawling all over each other. They left a giant trail of upturned earth, roach feces, and devastation behind them.

  “I think I need a bath,” Peter said.

  “Our world keeps getting grosser and grosser,” Colt said.

  “Let’s go take a look,” Jax said.

  They stopped to sleep at the top of a tall overpass in the carcass of an airplane. They inspected it carefully for signs of life, and they noticed that the plane had beak and claw marks along its fuselage. Also, the bodies had been completely picked apart, either by giant roaches or some other creatures. It still stunk, though, which was good because it meant their scent could get overwhelmed by the smell coming from the fuselage. A few of the seats only needed a whack or two with the fireman’s axe to ply them from the floor of the plane, so they dragged the seats out into the open, pushed them on their backs, and used the pillows for cushions.

  Jax thought of how out in the open this setup was. To a small degree, it terrified him. The safer place to sleep would be inside the fuselage where they were at least protected in case they were attacked. But then again, they had never been attacked by owls or other night prowlers. It also would give them some protection from the cold front that had pushed through earlier.

  Colt had taken a mostly-clean skull from one of the passengers. Now he was putting the plane’s gas mask on, taking it off the skull, and mumbling quietly to himself. He held up the gas mask, and the skull bobbled in the air. He laughed. It didn’t bother anyone.

  Under the stars that night, Peter said, “Well, at least you can see a lot more stars at night than you ever could before.”