“Where did they take her?”
I hesitated before answering, making sure no one else was listening. “To Nito. Nito has my sister.”
EIGHTEEN – TANNER
It was a fight to behold. Never in all my days of dealing with the bloodthirsty walking and flying damned did I see something as magnificent as a Day Stalker and Savage go head to head. Two hours before dawn in what we considered a relative safe time, I made my way back to the beach to check on those there.
My plan was to check on it, get some rest, then head to the old Hanson Book Barn where we store explosives in the basement. I was pretty excited about going on the offensive with the Day Stalkers. I knew there were a lot, but no more than we could handle.
After my beach expedition, my adrenaline was pumped.
Suddenly, Davis’ original plan to let the Stalkers and Savages take care of most of the problem seemed brilliant. It was a plan I had paid little attention to and Vala had dismissed as passive and, well, cowardly.
The proof was in seeing it.
There were three breeds of bloodthirsties, they all hated each other, and they all were fighting for the same thing.
Us.
It was like the apocalypse books I would read, where gangs would roam the land, bad men, wanting what good people had. Fighting for it.
The first wave of Savages arrived on the beach later than the usual time. They must have failed at finding food, because for them to be out so close to the light of day told me two things: they were hungry, and they lived and hid close enough to escape before the sun could burn them out.
They perched in their usual position on the wall that ran along the beach, waiting for the right moment to fly out and snatch someone. There weren’t that many. Only the brave ones, the cocky ones. We had enough manpower to handle any attack they initiated.
We waited armed and ready. Those who opted for the safety of the beach were silent, and only a few were awake.
One of the Savages did his signature twitch of his head, turning it so as to eye his sleeping victim, planning his stalk and attack— one I was certain would fail. Then, just before I thought they were about to form a lynch mob, from behind them, leaping the walls, were Day Stalkers.
My heart thumped. Day Stalkers near the beach sanctuary? That had never happened. I was certain these were not the ones from the road, the ones we planned to take out the next day.
The Day Stalkers sank into the stand. Getting a footing was tough for them, and while I was positive we had enough strong power for Savages, we didn’t have enough to conquer both.
Thankfully, the moment the Day Stalkers jumped ahead of the attack, the Savages descended upon them.
It was vicious and brutal and also beautiful.
The Savages were faster but the Day Stalkers were stronger.
I watched a Savage land on a Day Stalker. There was no attempt to lift him. It was a simple kill situation. Since the Day Stalkers were already dead, they didn’t go down without a fight. Ripping their necks did nothing but anger the Day Stalkers, and they engaged in an all-out blood brawl. A Savage ripped legs from a Day Stalker and the Stalker kept fighting until he was nothing but a head on the beach. The Savage finished it with a hard claw to the skull.
Outnumbering the Savages, instead of their focus being on humans, the Day Stalkers turned on the Savages. Three or four Day Stalkers took on a Savage, tearing it apart until it was no more.
The people on the beach awoke and instead of retreating to the water, they were able to get to the buses without even being noticed. The Day Stalkers and Savages were too consumed with each other.
The guards stayed to finish off the battle, inadvertently practicing Davis’ original plan.
To begin with, there were close to twenty Savages and triple that of Day Stalkers. When it was finished, only four Day Stalkers remained, the rest had diligently battled to the death, eliminating not only each other, but their threat to us as well.
It was brilliant, exhilarating, and we killed the final four, already battle weary, with relative ease.
It was a light at the end of the tunnel. A tweak in Davis’ plan. Let the Savages and Day Stalkers take each other out and the Sybaris would be a breeze for us.
By the time the sun had risen fully, I wasn’t in need of rest, I was raring to go on our initiative to cut the Day Stalkers off at the pass. As I thought about that, another idea hit me.
NINETEEN – VALA
His face was blackened with old blood that rested beneath the layers of leather-like skin. It was barely a human face, more elongated and drawn. The black blood pumped through thick veins of his face causing a continuous pulsating ripple. He was one of four Elders.
While they were gatekeepers, they were also hierarchy of the Sybaris community. As in any civilization there are levels of importance and authority. The Elders, be they gatekeepers or city watchers, were the highest of the high.
Then came the Royalty, lawmakers, healers, soldiers, and finally, the educators. That was the chain of command.
For a Sybaris to approach an Elder in regard to another Sybaris, it was serious.
When the lawmakers came and took the survivors from Esperanza to the next town, Iry took me to the gatekeepers.
The lair was dark and damp, foul smelling, heavy with the stench of rotten blood. Trophies of human infant skeletal remains hung on the walls. I wanted to vomit, I didn’t want to be there, yet, it was the only choice for my safety that Iry could think of. Also for my sister.
The Elder’s lips did not move, yet his voice resonated from within him. I was able to hear him. His eyes were glazed with gray with a single speck of black for a pupil.
I wanted to stand farther away from him. He had a stench so bad, even Iry smelled it.
“You know what it is you are accusing Her Highness of committing?” he asked.
I wanted to huff at him, sarcastically reply that I did. However, I simply stepped back and looked at Iry. “Why are we here? He doesn’t believe me.”
“Elder,” Iry said, moving in front of me, “Nito has organized strikes against the rebels in the outer lands and—”
“That is not my concern. They are not under our protection.”
“Those in Esperanza are,” Iry said. “We are supposed to protect them.”
“And you believe that Nito was the reason for the attack?”
“She drew them in.”
“On what basis do you make this accusation?” he asked of me.
“I followed the beast,” I answered. “I locked on to my sister as it carried her away and it took her to Nito.”
“If Nito had nothing to do with it, then why did the beast not just devour the child like everyone else?” Iry pointed out. “He took her to Nito. Also, how did the flock make it beyond the watchful eye of the master gatekeepers? There are gatekeepers to protect all of the Straits, they would have to know the vulnerable entrances to get in, and we know they do not think that deeply.”
“There is talk that they followed her here,” the Elder said. “That she brought them with her.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “And they took my sister?”
“Why should I believe the woman?” the Elder asked Iry.
“For the same reason Nito did this,” Iry replied. “Nito wants her because she is a Mare. A Mare cannot lie.”
“This is true.” He reached out and touched me. I recoiled, not before his bony, ice cold hand locked on to my shoulder. I felt his presence drain me. When he did, for a split second his hideous face turned normal, then transformed again. He hissed a breath. “Very well. This is a crime against her own. She must appear before the king. The king shall hold court, and it will take place today midday.”
“No,” Iry argued. “The king is Nito’s father. They are joined by the same bloodline. He will protect her.”
Iry had to be speaking wrong, they did not share the same blood line. Sybaris could not have children. That was why they took human infants, raised th
em as their own, then turned them as adults.
“The king is fair,” said the Elder. “Because she is a Mare, he also has the ability to pull the information forward for the court to decide. I have that ability as well, but it would drain her and she is too vital to you and to us. She has chosen you is that not correct?”
Iry looked at me and I nodded.
“Then she is your responsibility. You know what you need to do?”
“What?” I asked. “What do you need to do?” Iry hushed me.
The cloaked Elder pulled his hood back over his face and stepped into the darkness. “You have not long to prepare her. Once the sun crosses the high sky and moves west you will need to go to the High Court.”
“We will, and thank you.” Iry took me by my arm and led me from the lair.
“What do you need to do with me?” I asked again. “What is he talking about?”
“I’ll tell you later, once we get to the city of the Ancients.”
I pulled away. “What about my sister?”
“If we want to help Sophie, then we need to go about it correctly. And that is by going to the high court.”
“Why do they care? Why would they choose to help me? We are human, after all.”
“Nito committed a high crime. She deliberately caused the loss of life to over two hundred humans.”
“Again, why would they care?”
We arrived at the waiting vehicle and he opened the door for me.
“Because we have promised to protect you,” Iry replied, “and more so, by causing the death of so many, as harsh as it sounds, she shorted our food supply.”
My mouth dropped open.
He shrugged. “Sorry.”
I got inside the vehicle and sunk into my seat. “Swell,” I muttered, like I heard Tanner say a hundred times.
We set off on our journey to the City of the Ancients.
TWENTY - TANNER
“You want to do what?” Davis asked me.
I had approached him with what I thought was a really cool idea.
He scratched his head, looked at me, and chuckled. “You’re nuts.” Then he proceeded to move about his office barking orders to the team.
“I’m serious.”
“Tanner, I commend you for being ambitious. I’m actually implementing one of your suggestions right now. We have the weapons, we have the manpower, and now you want to change it up?”
“In a way.”
Davis threw up his hands.
“No, listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“A few hours ago, we didn’t have to do a thing to stop a Savage attack. We didn’t have to do a thing to stop a Day Stalker attack. They tore each other up. You suggested from day one, okay, maybe years later and day one, that we let them all battle it out and we clean up the mess. I didn’t think it would work until I saw the Savages and Day Stalkers destroy each other.”
“I told you that would happen all along.”
“The Savages are coming from somewhere. We established that. They have camp.”
“Camps. Plural. There is more than one.”
“Then we find them,” I said. “Instead of waiting for them to stalk us, we go get them.”
“You mean go after them like we are the Day Stalkers today? Get them while they sleep, burst a little sunlight into them?”
“Sort of. I think we should take one of the converted trailers and pack it with Day Stalkers, then take the Day Stalkers to the Savages.”
“Like I wanted to do to the Sybaris.”
“Yes.”
“Are you proposing we do this today? Instead of killing the Day Stalkers, we round them up, hold them somewhere, until we find a Savage Camp?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Well, no. You’ve got it backwards, Tanner. Taking the Stalkers to the Savages would be a viable plan if we already knew where the Savages were camped out.”
“Please, how hard can it be?’
Davis laughed. “Ha. How hard can it be? Do we know where any are?”
“No.”
“That ain’t for lack of trying. We’ve tried. Taking out the Savages during the day has been a goal, but unfortunately, we don’t know where they are. To accomplish that you have to follow them at night after they eat. That’s dangerous. In order to do so successfully, we need something else. We need Vala. She is the only one who could follow them.”
Davis handed out weapons to the gathered men then turned around and handed me a gun.
“Can I try?” I asked.
“To find them during the day? Sure. Later though.” He tossed me a spear. “First, we take out the road Stalkers.”
TWENTY-ONE – VALA
Iry drove the motorized vehicle. He wasn’t one that was held in enough esteem to have a driver. A long drive took us to a building, and from there we entered another vehicle. This one was big with many seats.
It looked like a bird, and in fact, that was what it was. A mechanical bird.
We lifted from the ground. I held on for dear life. We were flying; only a Sybaris could fly. I was curious how they came to invent these, so I asked Iry.
“The Sybaris didn’t make these. Man did.”
“Man made vehicles that float on air?”
“Yes. He used them quite often.”
“Do Sybaris not have the ability?”
“I really wish you would refrain from calling me a Sybaris. That is a very racist term.”
“Do the Ancients not know how to make vehicles that float on air?” I asked.
“We do. We actually have the ability to exceed this technology, however, we chose not to and use what man has made.”
While in the air floatation device I later learned was called an airplane, I didn’t want to show it, but I loved looking out the window and into the clouds. It was breathtaking, even if it did bother my ears.
After we landed, we drove again. The last leg of the trip. I was quiet the entire trip to the city of the Ancients. Iry assumed it was because I was sad or in deep thought, when actually I was trying to figure out how far it was. The location was lost once we flew there. I knew one thing, it was quite a distance. The airplane landed not far from the City of the Ancients. We could see it from the sky.
It wasn’t like Angeles City. There was no overgrowth, there was very little green at all. The entire shiny city, tall buildings of which I could only see the top, emerged from nothing but a desert of sand. It reminded me of the stories of Moses that I read in the book called The Bible.
“Is this called the City of the Ancients or does it have a name?” I asked.
“We call it La Sveg for short.”
“Does that mean the city?”
“Yes,” Iry said, remaining focused.
“Are we permitted to go there? I have never seen buildings that tall that are not overgrown with wildlife.”
“I’ll take you into the city later. It is most spectacular in the evening,” Iry said. “Right now, we must get to my house and get you cleaned up and into proper wardrobe.”
“When I visited you through projection there were women there. Will they be there?”
“Yes.”
“I will not have to be as scantily dressed as they were will I?’
“They were sunbathing, Vala.”
“The sun cannot bathe you.”
“You’ll learn about the ritual that humans do, or rather used to do. And no, you won’t be scantily dressed. You will be dressed formally for court.”
“I don’t understand this court. Nito’s own father will hear and decide what will happen?”
“Yes.”
“Will anything happen to her?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I have never been to one. The last one I heard of was during something humans called the Black Plague. We almost emerged full force during that time period.”
“Iry… how can Nito be of the bloodline of her father? I was always taught Ancients cannot bear children.”
I
t was at that moment, we pulled up to Iry’s home. I recognized it and he stopped the car.
“It is only being here on Earth that prohibits us from reproducing with each other.”
“Here on Earth? With each other?”
“We can produce with humans. Let’s leave it at that.” He opened his door.
“I need answers.”
“I promise you will get them,” he said. “Right now, we have to prepare you to meet the king.”
“I am worried about my sister.”
“As you should. But I promise you, Vala, this is the only way to help her. Trust me.”
After looking around and seeing how far away from my own world I had gotten, and knowing my sister’s life was in the balance, I had no choice but to trust Iry.
TWENTY-TWO – TANNER
There were plenty of moments in my life when I wished I was living in the times before the Great Sickness, in the times before the Sybaris ruled the Earth, well, for their second reign.
There are moments when I wish I could have parents to argue with, wear clothes that were subjective, get something called a driver’s license, because teenagers made such a big deal over them.
People my age made a big deal over a lot of things.
I have seen almost every single television show they had in the recondition bunker. Maybe not all, I left out the black and white ones, started with ALF, Saved by The Bell, and Fresh Prince and made my way into the next millennium.
Those shows aided in me desiring those moments. I wanted to go to that thing called high school, have friends that were strange, and be the cool guy that helped kids who wore their pants too high. How awesome would it have been to have the kick butt hair and a dance called a prom.
They had dances in those days. They laughed and they smiled and while only television programs, I was certain it was true because of stories Davis and others shared about their former lives being generally good and happy.
Not that it wasn’t happy for me at all. It was. A different happy, though.
Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) Page 6