by catt dahman
Bray laughed, almost falling down and fell into Mike’s arms, “About time. I thought you would never admit it.”
The pair later vanished into a room, but the boy Bray kissed joined them as did two girls and the hoots, groans, and cheers that came from the room didn’t have to be explained as they had a night of debauchery. It sounded as if there were a circus going on: walls shook when hit, the floor shuddered, and in some rooms, flakes of paint fell from the ceiling. It would always be a mystery to the rest because Bray and Mike never told about that night, but when asked about it, they laughed until they cried.
Woden finished another skin of wine and threw Nanna (Imogene) over his shoulder and ran through the farmhouse to another room.
“Wôld, Wôld, Wôld”!
Heaven’s giant knows what happens,
He, looking down from heaven,
Providing full jugs and sheaves.
Many a plant grows in the woods.
He is not born and grows not old,
“Wôld, Wôld, Wôld”!” Woden called.
Trevor was left alone to sit by the fire and sip whiskey. He liked Sandra a whole lot, but there was nothing to indicate she felt the same except they often paired up to fight together. A beautiful woman named Darla was the reality show contestant they found and took in. She cozied up to Trevor, saying she remembered watching him on television.
He reached out to take her shoulders and explain that he cared about someone else, but his drunken hands each landed on a fine-looking, albeit, fake, firm, perky breast, and he didn’t let go except to run his hands down her body. She pressed those fake breasts against his chest, her whole body touched his, and he forgot everything except the way his body was responding and how he needed this woman right then.
Taking his hand, Darla pulled him onto a huge bed, and with his head spinning, he let her undress him. He was too muddled to wonder why Darla kissed him and ran her bare breasts over him; then, he felt soft lips sliding along his legs, and he saw that Tammy was nipping at him. A naked man, beautifully built with long lean muscles and light hair, was there, and along came a red-haired woman they called Ginger. More wine skins were passed.
“We all wanna be gods and goddesses, Trevor,” Darla said.
“Yes?” He managed. He faintly wondered what Jeremy/Wodanaz/Woden had started but just grinned. Maybe he was drunk and only dreaming, but he took part in each element of that dream.
“Woden: god of ecstasy is here,” Wodanaz/Jeremy called as he ran down the hall naked, looking for more alcohol; his words echoed through the house. He would have done better to announce Frigg was there, goddess of fertility, sexual debauchery, delights, and overindulgence.
A wind blew outside, and on the wind, one could almost hear the goddess Frigg giggle at this most unusual outcome.
Chapter Six: Passion
“I hate you, Wod,” Shimei announced as they walked.
“Really? I didn’t force you to drink, did I?” Wodanaz paused. “Wait, I really didn’t, did I? Seriously?”
“You don’t even remember, do you? I could have really blamed you, “Shimei laughed. “No, you didn’t force anyone to drink, but man, you were Pan sorry…Woden…and when the great god drinks and is rowdy, so are his loyal subjects.”
“My Bacchanalian feast, huh? Blame me. Fine, I can’t argue since my head is throbbing.”
“Serves you right.”
“The whiskey they made is powerful,” Imogene said.
She went with the rest as did Isaac, Darla, and ten others. With Sam and the others dead, there was no way to defend the farm house from predators, so they loaded everything they had, which was very little, into packs, and filled litters with the rest of the corn, fruit, and vegetables they had grown.
Bray and Mike traded smiles occasionally but both complained about headaches.
They skirted an area that smelled of cat urine, carrion, and feces, figuring it was a place where woodlice and carnivores were gathered. Shimei shivered, remembering the woodlice; Mali reached for his hand, knowing that he was remembering those who died from the attack.
The first night they camped early in an abandoned building they found along the way; it was the only one still standing in the tiny town they walked through. Every other building was a mass of rubble with weeds, trash, and trees growing up and around them.
“It feels safe, I think,” Mike said, “I need safe so we can sleep.”
“’Lots of hallways…and…it’s a school. See? Lockers. We’re in a school.”
“Be careful. No woodlice have an odor or carrion but watch for those things. If we got in, they can get in,” Trevor said.
“Let’s find a good spot. Water, aspirin, sleep,” Mali moaned.
In the first classroom, windows were knocked out, and the room was exposed; they closed the door again. The second and third were the same. They decided to find the office area, which should have been more centralized and possibly intact. Mike opened a last door and back stepped, holding his gun up frantically.
Wodanaz gently lowered the barrel, “It’s okay. Jeez. What happened here?”
In the center lay a grown-sized skeleton, and around it were twenty or more small skeletons. There for years, they were rotten and gave off a sweet-rotten stench. It was an adult with many children around. Maybe those who cleared people out found them still there and executed them all. Two other classrooms looked the same; they were tombs of dead children and a teacher.
The office area was clear of bones, and they set up camp there, closing the door securely and making use of the principal’s office and nurse’s office, which was stripped bare of supplies. It wasn’t as private, but it felt safe from predators.
The next day, they all felt better, but not back to normal, and Larry, the wolf, periodically seemed to laugh at them. That night they slept in a rocky alcove.
On the third night, they were close to home but slept in a thick grove of trees so they could return in the daylight. Those at Asgard cheered to see them, and curious and excited, they came out to see the newcomers.
“About time. We were wondering,” Susan said, laughing as she hugged Wodanaz, “you look terrible. What happened?”
Wodanaz grimaced, “Well, it would be better if we had a battle story, but it was whiskey that whipped my ass.”
Everyone from Asgard laughed and teased the group for days, and they introduced the new people to the cave and to how they did things.
“Do they think we’ll work them to death?” Ruby asked Trevor. She had listed so many chores she felt maybe she had over whelmed them.
“Nah. To be honest, that list was a fraction of what they have been doing since they were treated as slaves.”
Sandra took Isaac to look at his arm. She gave him a shot that made him cry for a little while and then handed Imogene tablets, which she explained how to take. He cried many times, but she made sure it wouldn’t hurt. With morphine, she sedated him and took some thin tissue from his leg and applied it to the hole in his arm, stitching it securely, “It won’t be pretty, and he will cry over his leg and arm, but it may work, and if so, he’ll do just fine.”
“Like that poor woman?” Imogene motioned to Nedra with her head and stared scornfully.
“What would you prefer her to do?” Susan asked.
“What she did. I’m just worried about him.”
“Of course, try to relax; he’ll sleep a while,” Sandra said.
Imogene nodded and sat beside Isaac, but she watched Wodanaz. He was telling
the group about his wolf-man status and how he was Woden and about the party they had, leaving out the parts about the debauchery and about how drunk they truly were.
“You all deserved your headaches,” Ruby teased.
“Eh, you should have been there. You would have been just as drunk,” Bray said.
“Nope. I would have been smarter.”
Wodanaz picked Susan up and swung her around, “I missed you.”
“I missed you
, too, silly man. It’ll take days, if not weeks, for the new people
to feel relaxed here. You scared them,” Susan whispered. She watched as all the new people huddled away from the wolves and their pups, watched the micro compsognothus, John and his friends warily, and ignored the cats. Without knowing all of Wodanaz’s mythological stories, they still feared the animals that acted as part of the community and seemed controlled somehow by the mysterious Wodanaz.
Their confusion mounted when Wodanaz deferred to Jack and reported to him in ways that made them think Jack was in charge. Jack laughed loudly at the stories the others told. He and Marcus had them repeat parts several times as they rolled on the floor and wiped tears.
“After I get cleaned up, maybe we need some time alone,” Wodanaz said to Susan.
“Get a room,” Jack chuckled.
“We have a cubical,” Susan blushed. She told Wodanaz to go clean up and was still smiling when she looked over to Isaac, checking to see if he still slept. The woman, Imogene, glared at her, but Susan just sighed; she was sure the woman was just worried about her child and the spider bite.
Imogene felt hatred rising in her heart, filling her head and soul.
She hated Susan.
Chapter Seven: Wyrd
“It’s getting chilly.”
“Yes, we’ll have an early winter, I suppose,” Jack said to Wodanaz. Shimei and the other two walked the cliff’s edge, looking out into the night, “What’s wrong? We’re growing as a community, and we’re free. Why are you so depressed?”
“Imogene is pregnant.”
“What does that have to do with you, oh….” Shimei stopped and leaned against a rock, “the Bacchanalian festival, huh?”
“Yeah. One drunken night I can hardly recall, and now she’s pregnant. She told me this morning, and eventually she will be like a firecracker, her fuse is lit, and she’ll tell everyone. She’ll tell Susan.”
“I’m sorry, Brother,” Jack said, “what can we do?”
“I don’t know. I’ve thought about it all day, and Susan will push me away when she finds out. Living here with her hating me: I think I’ll go crazy. Funny she had to tell me now after Freya was born prematurely.”
Jack sighed. Wodanaz and Susan’s baby was born too soon, only seven months in the womb with a tiny head the size of an apple and able to fit in Woden’s palm. Susan cried at first, but she was a healer, and her milk was strong and rich; she kept her baby warm, watched at all times, and fed her as much as she would take as often as she would take it. Freya finally turned a corner and began to gain weight and fill out and looked like a full term baby now.
Wodanaz doted on the beautiful little baby girl, giving in to her every whim and acting upon every cry; as he loved his daughter, his first born child, his love for Susan became a type of worship, and he spent time holding his baby and just watching his woman, his wife, go about her business until she blushed and kissed him, whispering for him to stop.
`At first, Susan felt Imogene was hostile to her because, after hearing the full history, she thought Imogene must be bitter over the two children she miscarried and because a few days after arriving, poor Isaac died of the spider bite since the poison and infection went into his blood stream. Losing a child and seeing Susan pregnant had to be painful for the other woman.
One day while they worked, Imogene pushed Susan off a rock; that was what caused Susan to go into early labor, but Imogene said there had been a huge copperhead snake that was about to strike Susan and pushing her had possibly saved her life since the snake was swollen with summer poison it hadn’t use.
Lawryn and Ruby didn’t like Imogene although they were polite. They said they didn’t see a snake. And they didn’t like the way Imogene glared at Susan or the way she watched Woden as if he really were a god.
Susan just laughed. “She may have a crush. Who wouldn’t? He is dashing with his eye patch and wolf entourage.”
But now Wodanaz expressed concerns to Shimei and Jack, “What if she pushed Susan on purpose?”
“You can’t prove it, so there’s no sense in accusing her. She would just do worse. Maybe you should tell Susan first and make out that everyone was drunk and maybe the dad is Bray or Shi.”
“Hey, hey, my Brother, but ummm, he was with Mali. What did I sneak into a closet and do it and go back?” Shimei asked.
Jack chuckled at Shimei, “Bray or Mike, Trevor even. It could be one of them.”
“Except it was me, and when she tells Susan, my face will give it away, the shame and regret, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do. You fellows believe in fate?”
“Some. I think we have choices and make our own fate,” Shimei said.
“True. The Norse had a word: wyrd. They felt as if in some cases, we make our own fate and have karma based on choices we make, like how you decided to go or not go into that cave, Shi. You didn’t know what that choice would lead to, but you made it. We made a choice to stay out here and not go back to the other world.”
“True,” Jack said.
“You never know what the other choices would have led to or what choices you missed. Maybe there is regret, but whatever happens, that is wyrd. Some things you can’t stop or change, and there are no choices that can help. None of us could do anything to change the fact that there are dinosaurs all over the place.”
“I agree.”
Wodanaz stared into the night sky, wrapping his cloak tighter against the chill, “Winter is early this year. The Norse claimed there would be three bad winters before Nagnarok, which was the end or beginning of the final world, a mass destruction.”
“That’s depressing.”
“A wind age, a wolf age—
before the world goes headlong.
No man will have
mercy on another.” Wodanaz quoted.
“You’re the one who claimed to be a Norse god. You and your powerful kin should just calm down and let the world go on as it is. We’re doing fine; even with a rough winter, we’ll be okay.”
Wodanaz nodded, “Wyrd. I hope it turns out for the good, but you guys…every time you’re outside at night, you look at each other with woebegone faces and stare up at the sky like you expect the worst, and you’re praying to the sky gods to leave us alone and let us have more time here.”
“Praying never hurt,” Shimei muttered.
“No. But if you keep doing it and looking at each other with those worried faces, people will figure out you have concerns, and they’ll lose confidence, and they’ll lose their hope.”
“You have a word in Norse that means hope, Woden?”
“I told you. You just didn’t get it. Ragnarok. That’s not a catastrophe, but it means renewal. New chances are what hope is all about.”
“Says the man who is gonna be busted for getting Imogene knocked up,” Shimei laughed.
Wodanaz looked at him a second, and he and Jack both laughed until tears rolled down their faces.
Chapter Seven: In the O riginal Cave of Herr Doktor
It wasn’t important who did it; it was only important that it was done and what resulted. Maybe it was wyrd, a situation where others had to make choices or when there were no real choices to make as life played out. A door was open, just a crack. And further down a hallway, another door was open as was a third.
A small creature sniffed.
Something smelled interesting outside the door, and the little one nosed at the door, hissing until the crack grew wider. His siblings squeaked with interest, trying to be the first through the doorway, but a larger creature pushed past them. He was over six feet tall, had smooth scales, claws, and a jutting jaw full of sharp teeth.
The female turned to look at the rest, those creatures that hid among rocks and by a shallow pool and that slept in alcoves of feathers and random bits of fluff they were given for nests. Her eyes dwelled on the huge area that they lived in. It was comfortable and they were fed, but it was still a cage, albeit a big one.
A smaller crea
ture whined and twittered, but her partner nipped her flank until she stopped her nervous pacing.
The biggest one, looked up and down the walls as they slid into the hallway. He didn’t exactly recall the details and only had an image, but it was of climbing with hard things set into rocks and lines. He didn’t have those words, but he remembered how they looked; if he could have laughed, he would have. He had a strong back, extra large feet, and strong clawed-fore limbs for climbing.
Faintly, he thought of humans and thought he shouldn’t attack them, but they were food. It was confusing and always had been.
Had someone yelled, “Tate,” he would have turned, not knowing the word, but remembering the sound.
The female with green eyes followed him, sniffing. She thought leaving might be a bad thing, but staying was also a bad thing.
Once being Dr. Rick Parker, the creature passed windows and shuddered, recalling the pain he had endured. Doctor Josef Mendele said they gave Rick painkillers and kept him out of pain as his body and mind changed, the chemicals and nano-bots restructuring as they moved around his head, but that wasn’t true.
As if scaled, his skin burned and itched. His jaw hurt so badly that he cried. When his teeth fell out and the new, sharp ones grew in, he wailed until they gave him enough painkillers, afraid it would affect his mind to be in so much pain for so long. His leg and arm bones throbbed, and then they changed. His mind sent nightmares into his dreams as memories competed with confusion, and fear. His belly ached.
He recalled the pain very clearly.
If able, he would rip all the doctors apart and chew their bones to dust.
The female stopped and looked curiously at a window, staring at her reflection. Tilting her head, she examined her jaw and teeth as she raised a foreleg, razor claws twinkling in the glass. A tear slipped down her scaled cheek, and she blinked her green eyes. In her mind for a second, she remembered a handsome, Italian man with dark hair, white teeth, and eyes that showed love.