Red Sky: Rising

by Ben Archer

  The sight fills me with a healthy kind of rage. One that keeps me focused on freeing her instead of tracking down Shepherd and his goons. The first thing I have to do is get rid of the cuffs. This isn’t really a problem since I can snap off the chair arms and simply slide her out.

  She’s standing. Don’t know for how long, but she’s standing.

  “I’ve got you Quinn.” My reassurance causes her head to wobble without ever looking directly at me. She mostly just stares blankly in my general direction without ever actually seeing me. I have to scoop her up, shove all that to the back of my mind, and move on. Right now is about pure survival.

  Of course this single-minded resolve has to be tested almost instantly. The moment we set off toward the front window, a pretty fierce tug tries to yank her out of my arms. I expect to find one of the threatening soldiers on the other end, instead there’s only the swollen sausage fingers of the governor. The stumpy little man is practically having a heart attack from trying to pull the petite girl away from me. My monster begs to wiggle up his nose until finding the death button in his brain. I have to calmly remind myself (and him) not to get sucked into those kind of thoughts.

  And it turns out that my resolve is indeed excellent today! Instead of folding him into a greasy little ball, I settle for one of the most satisfying punches of my life. I delight in feeling each knuckle sink into that pudgy face. They have to push away several squishy layers before finally reaching the hard bones of his skull. The delicate nose cartilage bursts through his thin skin and blood spurts in every direction. After that, the short prick merely stumbles off into the growing chaos. There, problem solved.

  Now, with that out of the way, I can finally get back to getting out of here. This time with a fresh grin and budding sense of accomplishment. That is until I discover the downside of a window bursting like a bubble… there are shards of scattered glass everywhere! Even on the ledge OVER the window!

  I clear out as much as possible, but still manage to slice my palm wide open on the way up. The dripping hand becomes so distracting that I almost miss the glowing red eyes lurking above us. In my defense, the light begins so dim that it can barely cut through the smoke, then gets turned up to retina searing levels when our climb starts. The entire side of the building is suddenly under a very unwelcomed spotlight. The skull-masked guard then reaches down, "Need a hand?" Funny bastard…

  I recommend for the all-too-familiar guy to go make toast in a tub, while I begin looking for another way out. We're definitely not going up, or back into the chaotic room, so I quietly whisper for Quinn to hold on. She obliges by wrapping around my neck like a scarf that’s been tied a little too tight. I’m forced to shove off from the building before even finding out where the rest of his asshole friends could be. There’s no plan or thought involved with launching us out into the flaming unknown; only instinct.

  What we’ll find out here is a nerve-wrecking mystery, but staying on that wall was no longer an option. I only hope we don’t land in a pile of burning debris, although because I’m backwards, there’s no real control over that, either. All I can do is cocoon around Quinn and prepare for the worst.

  My ass is the first to find out. When it hits soft dirt instead of jagged metal, I already consider this a victory. I’ve had the displeasure of rolling across the ground several times today, and it certainly doesn’t feel any better this time around. Each bounce hurts a little more than the last. By the time this is over, I’m going to be one gigantic (hopefully) walking bruise.

  After sliding to a twisted, uncomfortable stop, I quickly swing around to keep moving. Pulling myself off the floor becomes a game of “spot the new aches and pains,” and the big winner appears to be a shoulder that’s several inches lower than it used to be. The knee that keeps trying to lock up is a close runner up. Nevertheless, our goal of staying alive is still within reach!

  I urgently shout to Quinn, "We have to go!" but my warning comes a little too late. An impenetrable wall of shadows are already emerging from the raging flames. Their angry faces are lit only by the burning remains of their precious arena. The swarm swiftly confines us into an ever-shrinking circle.

  "You should’ve just let the little bitch die, Flynn." barks an unmistakable voice. "Which time, Shepherd? Here in your sick game or back in the cave? Oh, maybe we can still roast her over the fire!” I say while excitedly clapping my hands.

  Shepherd responds, "Do you always have to be a smart ass?"

  "It's a coping mechanism!" I bluntly answer.

  "I tried, Flynn. I tried to get you to see what’s happening here. Not this girl’s death, that’s meaningless, but the big picture. There’s change in motion that you won’t stop. You can’t stop! If you would have just ran back into your trees, then none of this would have happened!”

  "It’s better than what you assholes call fun around here."

  He rejects the idea and boldly proclaims, "What we’re doing is actually changing things. We’re moving away from the apocalypse and finally setting the world right! How is that any different than what you fought for in the Great War?”

  I’m shocked at the words spewing form my friend’s mouth. "You know, the scary thing is you really believe that."

  "Of course I do. I believe in ending all this! Why don’t you?” He lets distress slip through this time.

  “What you’re doing here isn’t new, Shepherd. People have been justifying their atrocities for centuries. You can’t just defend one evil with another. What’s the saying? Two wrongs don’t make a…”

  He interrupts the tired cliché before finishing, “I’m sorry you can’t see more clearly on this. I’m also sorry I can’t waste any more time explaining it to you. She’s going to the Eutherians and these people are going to kill you. You brought that on yourself.” He waves his arms around the wreckage as if I didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “You know, Shepherd, you're right. I'm probably going to die today." The sound of my voice would lead you to assume I had surrendered to his false logic; however, just as the words reach Shepherd’s ears ―before they even reach my brain― I sink my teeth into Quinn's soft neck. She doesn't have a chance to scream. Only one quiet squeak makes it out before collapsing from the venom spreading through her.

  "...but not before I take away your precious little gift."

  I make the bold declaration while still not totally sure what I’ve done, or why I did it. There’s not much time to figure it out either. My jaw instantly explodes from a meeting with Shepherds fist. It’s the kind of vicious collision that numbs my entire body and sends me to the ground in a crumpled puddle of bones.

  The ringing in my ears makes it hard to hear him shouting above. "YOU DAMN FOOL! Why can’t you get it?? That doesn’t matter to them! They’ll eat her as a vampire! Even if they wouldn’t, I could easily replace her with two of her friends! If one cow gets away, you don't stop eating! You eat its friend! Why can’t you understand that she doesn't matter? None of them matter!" He towers over to point down at the girl.

  Then he continues making his point by lifting me up by the collar. "He is the phoenix! The phoenix of hope, by rule of the divine. And in order to rise, a phoenix must burn! He will burn this whole world to the ground! It’s OUR time Flynn!!!" Slamming my skull on the ground after each new word really drives his point home. I’m fighting against the steady waves of unconsciousness, but they get stronger with every hit. Eventually there are no other options than drifting out into the murky waters, as Shepherd’s garbled mess of words fade into the distance.

  I can barely make out Quinn lying next to me. She’s still frozen from the bite and there’s nothing I can do to help her anymore. She’ll die as alone as the girl in the cave. At least she’ll be the last of my mistakes. I reach to her one last time. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you Dru… I'm sorryyyy.

  Chapter 18: Uncharted

  A jarring pain stops me from aimlessly drifting away on an endless sea. The cause is unknown, but i
t seizes the entire right side of my body from head to toe. It hastily parts the unconscious clouds and commands me back to life. Even with eyes struggling with the hazy fog, it doesn’t take much to track down the source of torment. Quinn’s delicate hand is quickly turning my fingers into pretzels without the salt! The vampire infection is spreading so rapidly that she’s stuck shaking violently on the ground! Not to mention, crushing every damn bone in my hand!

  The thumb is the first to give out under the pressure. It now has two bends like the rest of the regular fingers; this one just happens to go back in the opposite direction. Several more fingers end up snapping before I can wrangle the hand away from the crusher.

  While pain has cleared away the remaining mental cobwebs, my feet are still struggling to escape this stubborn hangover. They slip, slide, and go in every direction but underneath me. I eventually get them to cooperate just enough to reach a safer location to watch her convulsing arms and legs pound the earth. Their brutal force is a clear sign of the horror still to come. I can already see the haunting shade of blue transforming her once hazel eyes. They flutter with the palest color this side of white.

  Her body is bent into shapes that humans shouldn’t be able to reach. Legs are where arms should be, twisting and pulling wildly, all while her face shows the most intense, burning pain possible. Finally, with one last massive thrust toward the sky, the seizures come to a scary end. Her chest remains bent into a high arch, while her feet and skull remain glued to the ground. She’s formed a perfect half circle that could be straight from a full-fledged exorcism.

  Her angry fingers have chewed up a thick cloud of dust that hides everything except her screaming face. Her pained cries have steadily become the all-too-familiar Eutherian howls. It’s no coincidence the circle of people has expanded as well. Even they fear what’s going to happen next.

  Quinn roars to her feet like an animal freed from its chains. Flames dance in her wild eyes as they scan the crowd. She snaps her teeth; pausing only to taste the burning air. Without provocation, she heaves herself into the crowd claws first. Those new, primal fangs instantly remove the throat of the person closest to her. She spits it high in the air, and before the chuck of flesh can even land, she’s already latched onto her next target. Furled claws dig aggressively through anyone who dares to come within reach. On, and on, and on, she goes until the air is filled with the noxious odor of death.

  This is only the beginning of a masterpiece of violence that carries the tiny girl across the entire crowd. She claws through anyone crazy enough to be near her. They don’t have to be attacking, just physically exist. All while I stay carefully hidden behind the mangled steel to watch it all happen.

  Nothing is scarier than a freshly turned vampire. The venom fuels our need to eat, kill, or do whatever it takes to satisfy the rampaging monster within. She’s something different though. What I’ve unleashed is an emotionally devastated girl onto the very same people who slaughtered her family. The venom might be providing the strength, but her motivation is something much, much darker.

  She shreds the mob like paper dolls. Trained killers fall easily at the hands of a small teenage girl. Shepherd appears to have wisely disappeared into the wildly scrambling crowd. Apparently his desire to feed her to the bats isn’t as strong as his need to save his own ass.

  The first familiar face she finds is, appropriately, the first hunter that found her family. The tall assassin plants like a statue waiting for her. His long black coat flaps dramatically in the waves of billowing smoke. She brushes off a few more insignificant attackers on her unstoppable march to him. They fall quickly, almost effortlessly, into a growing pile. The look on her brow is one of single minded vengeance.

  The hunter doesn’t move an inch until the young vampire gets within reach. Even then it’s a crude punch I wouldn’t expect from such a skilled warrior. Quinn doesn’t even attempt to block or avoid it in any way. Instead, she drives her sharp fangs down through the top of his speeding fist. Blood leaks from the sides of her mouth as she clamps down on the impaled hand. His pain stokes the raging fire in her eyes. When she draws in the corners of her mouth, I question whether it’s to keep him locked in place… or to smile.

  He eventually frees the pierced hand at a steep cost. It must be pulled directly through her fiercely clamped fangs. On the way, ripping into thin strips of flesh and hanging meat. Every single muscle is shredded in a gruesome display of power that doesn’t stop there. Then, the unrelenting Quinn drops down to, unexpectedly, slice the back of his leg. His calf splits like a busted melon. This is the first time she’s slowed down for even a second. She’s obviously taking her time to enjoy every drop of his ghoulish agony. She even drags him back by the same injured leg when he tries to crawl away. Safe to say she remembers exactly what he did.

  She’s fighting wild, but calculated. She wants him to hurt. But apparently not for long since three lightning fast moves later, it's over.

  First: She lifts him up by the throat.

  Second: She slams him down with enough force to shake the ground all the way back where I’m hiding. He shatters so completely his entire body loses shape. The impact turns him into a bag of mushy jelly with disconnected bones floating around inside.

  Third: She brings her heel straight down to collapse his chest like a popped balloon. The remaining fighters are either fiercely loyal or nuttier than squirrel shit, either way there are still plenty of them to keep the vicious show going for far longer than it should. No matter how many try, she puts each one down. Gruesomely.

  We eventually reach another person that interests me. The surviving wild man is the next familiar face to challenge her. Outside the ring he fights very different than the rampaging gorilla routine from earlier. He actually moves quite gracefully to have such a chunky body. He’s also the only one who’s carefully stayed outside her reach. He waits for her to make a mistake, and the longer they go, the wilder she fights. Her patience (if she ever had any) is quickly slipping away.

  He eventually finds an opening large enough to wrap those tree-trunk sized arms around. Several other attackers move in to take advantage of her newly trapped position. All the crazed twin has to do is stay locked in place while the mob attacks with blunt rocks and sharp blades. She can only shove them away with a few well-placed heels to the chest.

  She’s become a rampaging bull desperately trying to buck the attached strong man, yet he still manages to forcefully twist both wrists behind her. The crowd is growing bolder by the second. She’s helpless without her claws and they know it. They’re dipping a bit closer to the hogtied girl each time. One of them even manages to land a rough looking cut that opens a flowing river of crimson. That’s when I realize she’s not going to make it back without my help.

  Now, I’m not crazy enough to go in there empty handed, but since everything here is either sharp, or on fire, a weapon shouldn’t be too hard to find. While the selection might be plentiful, my time is not. I end up grabbing the closest thing that looks destructive; a long piece of mangled steel that should make for a fantastic spear. Then I simply line up the jagged end with the Wild Man’s laughing head and connect the two together.

  The sharp spike penetrates his thick skull mid-laugh. His abrupt stop leaves a haunting echo lingering in the burnt air. It only takes another half second for the lifeless body to reach the ground. It falls with a heavy thud.

  That’s still too long for Quinn.

  She refuses to even let the newly dead fingers release before removing pieces from every remaining attacker. Some fall instantly, while others bleed out slowly. Within minutes, none are left. The unintended consequence is that I’m suddenly left all alone with her. Judging by her rising claws, this won’t be a friendly reunion.

  While there is a slight delay instead of instant decapitation, it’s not long before she’s coming after me. "Whoa there kid!" I try reasoning. "Quinn, it's me! You remember me!”

  My desperate plea doesn’t keep the fierce g
irl from shifting into full-on Olympic sprinter mode.

  “HOLD ON!”

  “HOLD ON!!”

  “HOLD ON!!!”

  Now, I generally consider myself a fast person, but compared to her I’m a three-toed sloth with two broken ankles. She removes a long strip of skin before I even take a single step. The burning sensation of canyons being carved into my back is ample motivation to return to my shelter much quicker. But what happens when I get there??? She’s still gonna be just like this!

  I leap into one of the corners with some weak notion of fighting off the irrational wildcat. Although, how to actually defend against something like her is completely beyond me. One foot stays up to knock her back, if possible, while my hands are reserved for offense only. They remain up even after it becomes plainly obvious she isn’t coming after me. I peek across the flames to find she’s already balls deep in a new group of pathetic attackers. It turns out that my best defense is her very short attention span.

  We need to end this. I can’t just wait around until it’s my turn again. She's worse than a dog who’s been backed into a corner, with a hurt leg, a thorn in its paw, and any other stereotypes that could be used to describe a pissed off animal. So what do you do with a rabid dog?

  Cage it.

  A long section of metal from the fallen tower will make the perfect wrapper to turn Quinn into a human burrito. Bending the corners in should make it easier to fit her squarely in the middle and, hopefully, the steel will be strong enough to keep her there.

  I charge full speed ahead as soon as her back is to me. Within seconds, a Quinn-shaped outline appears in the creased metal. I wrap the sheet all the way around and bear hug the little blonde tornado with all my might. Several rips and tears quickly appear from her kicking around like rocks in a blender. The thin barrier was only meant to be a protective layer between us. And a very temporary one at that.