Royal Hues of Blue: Book One

by Greg Gotti

  Maria finished resetting the trap and rose to her feet. She smiled at him, and he returned her smile as they walked back towards the house. John followed behind her, and he suddenly realized he didn’t care if he ever returned home. Home wouldn’t miss him; everyone he loved was gone. All he had left was killing. Killing Ristas was the only thing waiting for him if he returned to the Soona. They would send him out again and again to kill Ristas until the day came when the Ristas would finally kill him. Even if he managed to survive the war, what reason did he have to believe the war would ever be over? It had been raging for his entire life, and neither side had ever been able to win it. It was a back-and-forth, never-ending cycle of death, revenge, and destruction. John was done with it all. He was never going home.

  Because he was already home.

  If Maria would have him, he would stay with her for as long as he lived. He loved her, and he was ready to let her love him. The Ristas obviously weren’t concerned about what happened up here on the mountain. Maria lived here quietly tending her animals, growing her own fruits and vegetables, and she never seemed to leave the mountain. Maybe they could just stay here. He knew it wasn’t realistic, but he didn’t care. He would find a way. He would find a way for them to be together.

  He helped her gather eggs and milk her goats as they did each morning. He didn’t care about military operations anymore. He simply wanted to stay here with her and forget all about the stupid war. The morning sun had not yet broken the horizon, but he knew the day would be hot. The wind was blowing from the south and there was not a single cloud in the sky. It had been growing steadily warmer over the past two weeks, and John was grateful for the higher altitude that usually offered relief in the form of cooler, fresh air. Now that the rainy season was over, it would be hot and dry most days, which was fine by him. He hated the cold of winter and was glad to have the heat. He and Maria had wisely risen early in order to finish their most vigorous chores before the heat set in.

  John’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rapidly approaching thunder. He and Maria turned their faces to the clear blue sky; puzzled by a sound of thunder that grew from silence to an almost deafening level in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, a large, winged object roared over their heads and shook the ground beneath their feet. John knew instantly this was one of the flying machines he often saw leaving streaks in the sky. He had never seen one so low until now, and the sound of it was almost terrifying. Something shot out the top of the machine as it passed overhead, and they watched as the machine continued on making a downward arc to their right and disappeared behind the tree line as its sound faded. They looked at each other in astonishment. A loud boom sounded from down in the valley. He realized the machine must have crashed into the ground. Maria tugged at his arm, and he turned his attention back to her to see her pointing to the sky where a man hung suspended from a sort of sail as he descended towards the ground. John had seen such a contraption before. There were Soona who used them to jump from cliffs and could steer them to exact points of landing. He realized what had shot out of the machine as it passed overhead had been a man. That man was now floating earthward not far from where they stood. They watched as the man passed directly over them, maybe 50 feet off the ground, and splashed down in the lake behind the house. John shot a look at the stunned Maria.

  “Come on!” he yelled as he took off running for the lake.

  They ran to the shore of the lake where the small rowboat was fastened to the dock and unhooked it. They each grabbed a paddle and rowed out to where the sail lay on the surface of the water. They quickly reached where the man thrashed about; struggling to free himself from the large white sail. John realized the man was unable to reach the surface due to being trapped under the sail. He dove into the water on the other side of the boat and swam underneath as he made his way to where the man desperately fought for his life.

  The water was relatively clear, as most mountain lakes tend to be due to the rocky nature of their basins, but it was not yet light enough for John to see much beneath the water’s surface. He felt one of the lines attached to the sail being pulled and yanked and immediately realized the man was trying to free himself from it. He pulled his hunting knife from its scabbard and cut the line with a single stroke. He kept hold of the line and followed it to where he found the man thrashing about trying to free himself. John grabbed hold of him and set about trying to cut the other lines keeping him trapped, but he had a hard time locating them in the darkness of the water. He knew the man was drowning. He began to feel his own lungs running short of oxygen. Just as he began to think he was going to have to surface for air and come back, he found the final line and cut the man free. He put an arm around the man and kicked for his life to clear the sail. When he could hold his breath no longer, he kicked as hard as he could to reach the surface.

  He broke the surface with a mighty gasp. He took several gasps of air to fill his oxygen-deprived lungs as he fought to keep the man’s head above water. Maria quickly paddled the boat to where they were and pulled the man into the boat as John pushed him over the edge. She laid the man on his back and sat to one side so John could climb over the other.

  “We have to get the water out of his lungs!” John yelled.

  He placed two hands on the man’s chest and started pumping rapidly. He stopped long enough to listen for any sign of breathing and started again. He stopped after another dozen thrusts and checked again; still not breathing. He pinched the man’s nose shut and blew two huge blasts of air into his lungs before resuming his thrusts. He got midway through another round before the man suddenly lurched and began coughing violently as water spewed from his mouth. John pulled him to a sitting position, and Maria smacked him on the back several times to help him rid his lungs of lake water. He sat slumped against John’s shoulder; coughing water out of his lungs as Maria placed a hand on his back.

  “Estás bien,” said Maria as she made small circles with her hand to comfort him.

  John looked their visitor over. He wore a blue one-piece uniform of some kind with a silver helmet. The man continued to cough violently. He had obviously swallowed a lot of water, but John could hear him breathing in gasps and knew he would be fine. He looked towards where the flying machine had disappeared beyond the trees and saw the smoke rising into the sky. He knew the Ristas would no doubt come to investigate what had happened and shook his head in frustration. He turned his attention back to the man and helped him remove his helmet. He had very dark skin, much darker than the Ristas, with brown eyes and perfectly white teeth. He had never seen anyone so dark before, and he wondered what his story was.

  He helped the man steady himself and looked him over. He wore some kind of uniform with symbols sewn onto it. One in particular caught his attention: a flag with stars and stripes. He knew this flag well. It was from before The Fall. His grandfather had owned one and it was his most cherished possession. He had never considered himself a Soona, but an American. Many of the older members of his tribe were that way. The state had tolerated them because the Ten Precepts demanded parents and grandparents be honored, but America was long gone. John still had his grandfather’s flag. It hadn’t seemed right to get rid of it, but the state would not look kindly upon its display. He kept it in a hidden cubbyhole above his closet door where he’d occasionally take it out to look at it. He cherished the family heirloom, but it was the Soona Nation that had saved his people. Now, he looked at the flag sewn onto the man’s uniform and asked himself: If America was gone, why was this man wearing its flag?

  There were other patches bearing emblems John did not recognize. One bore a fist gripping a lightning bolt. Another showed an eagle clutching a lightning bolt in its talons. He saw one more patch bearing the name “Williams.” He would have plenty of questions, but he decided to get them off the lake first. He sat down on the bench at the front of the rowboat and grabbed the oars. He began rowing the boat back to shore as the pilot shook his head and looked around.
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  “You’re okay, Williams,” he said. “We’ve got you.”

  Williams breathed deeply as he tried to get his bearings. He looked at them in confusion as he raised his head. He coughed to clear his lungs more as John rowed the little boat towards a house barely visible at the edge of the lake. The morning sun was just meeting the horizon and the sky was growing brighter.

  “Let’s get you to the house and into some dry clothes,” John said as he rowed. “It’s not every day it rains men out of the sky around here.”

  Williams tried to grin as he nodded his head. He was doing his best to avoid another fit of coughing.

  “Yeah, what a country, huh? God bless America,” Williams said with a small laugh.

  John said nothing as he rowed them to the dock.

  John watched as Maria brought fruit, eggs and goat’s milk to the table where the three of them prepared to have breakfast. Maria had given Williams an oversized t-shirt and a pair of men’s shorts she produced from a trunk in one of the spare rooms. John studied their visitor carefully. He wanted to ask a thousand questions, but he knew he needed to play this smart. Williams would be relaxed and more willing to share as long as he believed them to be simple mountain people. If he suspected them of being more than that, he’d clam up quick.

  “So, Williams,” John began, “what on earth happened up there?”

  Williams chewed a bite of apple as he pondered the question for a moment.

  “Something in the computer, I think. I lost power and dropped altitude quickly. I barely had time to bail out.”

  “Bail out?” John asked.

  “Eject from the aircraft,” Williams said as he took a long pull on his milk.

  “I have seen those machines fly over us before but never so low to the ground,” John observed.

  “The machines are called ‘airplanes,’ and that’s because this is flyover country,” said Williams. “Most aircraft just pass over it on the way to somewhere else, so they fly at a high altitude. I wasn’t that low until everything went haywire.”

  Maria brought the pitcher of cold goat’s milk and refilled the thirsty pilot’s mug. She smiled as he thanked her, and she took a seat beside John. She bowed her head and gave thanks for their meal before picking up her fork and digging into her eggs.

  “Thank you for the food, ma’am,” said Williams as he took a bite of his food. “I can’t thank you both enough for saving my life. I’m not sure what happened up there. I was just cruising along doing my thing when my Navtron suddenly blinked out.”

  “Your what?” John asked.

  “My Navtron? My navigational computer. It shows me where I am and how to get where I want to go. It went out, and when it came back on, it was showing me off course. I adjusted, but when I started to see daybreak from 40,000 feet, I could tell the land wasn’t matching what the computer was showing. I had no communications, no navigation, and then my entire electrical system started shutting down. I managed to pull a few tricks to keep her going for a few more minutes, but eventually everything just started turning off. I ended up bailing out and next thing I know, I’m waking up in your boat.”

  “I guess that goes with the territory when you’re in the military,” John said with a shrug.

  “Yeah,” Williams laughed, “but test flights are usually pretty routine. I guess this is why we have to test new aircraft, right?”

  “Obviously,” John said with a laugh. “I’ve never flown one before, but it makes sense to test anything before you use it.”

  “Well, that one was a prototype. It’s supposed to be America’s new pride and joy, but it clearly needs some bugs worked out.”

  “Bugs?” John asked.

  “Yeah… For sure.”

  “How do bugs crash an airplane?”

  “Huh?” Williams looked at him funny. “Oh, no… That’s just an expression. It means problems with the aircraft that need to be worked out.”

  “Sorry,” John apologized. He’d never heard that before.

  Maria smiled and took another bite of her eggs. John saw the smile fade from their guest’s face as he sat quietly for a moment.

  “She doesn’t say much, does she?” Williams observed.

  “She is just shy,” said John.

  “She is also obviously Latina. I wonder, does she even speak English?”

  Latina? English? John felt his body tense up. Williams knew something wasn’t right, and John wondered what was going through the American’s mind as they both set down their forks and stared at each other. Williams studied him for a moment and the quiet in the room was so total that John could hear his pulse racing through his temples. Williams looked at Maria and back at John before shrugging and picking up his fork.

  “I don’t care. You folks saved my life. If you want to have a wife smuggled in from the zones, it is none of my business. Just don’t get caught. You know they’ll hang you if they catch you. They have zero tolerance with border violations.”

  Williams used his fork to gather the last of his eggs and took a bite as John watched him silently. He knew pushing any farther would send up red flags for Williams, but the Ristas would already be investigating the crash. At some point, they would realize there were no human remains, and they would begin a grid search liked they had employed for him. Williams obviously had no idea where he was. He thought he was still in America, wherever that was, and John had no idea how he was going to handle finding out he had splashed down right in the middle of the front lines of an all-out war. John had never met anyone from outside the Soona. Even the prisoners he had captured had been quickly taken away to be interrogated by the Soona Security Service. It was worth the risk to find out all he could; his mind was still reeling from discovering America was still around and obviously technologically far ahead of the Soona. He wondered how many of the things he’d been taught were a lie. Was any of it true? He didn’t know what to believe.

  “I think it is a load of crap about the border,” John began, “if I want to travel to another land, what gives someone the right to tell me I have to stay on my own side of a line? I’m a man; I’ll go where I please.”

  “And catch a massive case of the Haze and bring it back across the border with you,” Williams said shaking his head. He gestured at Maria, “You’re lucky to have gotten a healthy one when you brought her over. How do you think the outbreaks happen anyways? Someone wants to smuggle someone in from the zones, slave labor, maybe a wife, and they carry the Haze in with them. Next thing you know, the kids start coming down sick because the vaccine doesn’t work before age 11 or so, and everyone is a panic. They quarantine the whole area and start testing everyone. They always catch the illegal, yet people keep doing it.”

  John’s head felt dizzy; he was being exposed to information he’d never heard in his life and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. He would normally be skeptical of any new information as being potentially meant to confuse the Soona, but there was no way the Ristas could have orchestrated such a thing. If they had access to flying machines such as the one that brought Williams here, they would have used them in war. He realized Williams had no idea he was practically on the Soona/Rista border. John knew the Ristas would torture Williams if they caught him. They might be ignorant savages with minds bent only upon killing, rape and war, but they knew the value of strategic information. He needed to get Williams back to the Soona so he could tell the High Council…

  And that is when a great epiphany hit John like a bucket of cold water in the face. Tell them what? The High Council had to know all about America. There was no way a nation powerful enough to have such technology could still exist without the council knowing about it. For some unknown reason, the Soona were being lied to by their leaders. His grandfather had told him of when there had been no Soona; no Ristas. There had only been Americans before The Fall. What had happened to change that? Had they really once been a part of the same nation of people as the Ristas? John’s mind was full of so many questions. He wasn�
��t sure who to trust, but he knew he had to get Williams and Maria out of here. The Ristas would come looking for the pilot once they realized there were no human remains in the wreckage. They had to get off this mountain and out of the area before the Rista’s could set up their search.

  John realized he had been deep in thought and saw Williams studying him closely. He gave the pilot an embarrassed grin and looked away. He wasn’t sure exactly how to play this, but he decided he didn’t have time for games.

  “Williams, where exactly do you believe you landed?” John asked.

  “My Navtron was telling me somewhere along the Nevada/and what’s left of Arizona border, but the terrain tells me that’s wrong,” Williams said with an uncertain look. “When I saw the rivers, I was worried I had dropped in Colorado. I can’t possibly have gotten that far off-course, so I guess it’s Utah somewhere. Where exactly are we?”

  “You ARE in Colorado,” John said coolly. “You are practically on the Soona/Rista border, and the Ristas will come looking for you as soon as they realize you aren’t still in your airplane.”

  Williams’s eyes grew wide and he shot up straight in his chair.

  “What did you just say?”

  “I said you are in Colorado; at least they used to call it Colorado from what I gather. You’re just inside of Rista territory in the middle of a war zone.”

  “Oh, sweet heavens,” Williams said rising from his seat. “Oh, sweet heavens, I’m in the zones. I’m in the fragging zones!!! Oh, God help me. I’m gonna die!”

  “It’s okay,” John said rising from the table holding up one hand. “We will get you out of here. Soona territory isn’t that far away.”