THE EVENT

by Jamie Heppner

  Shade had a dream of the moon. It was whole and shining in the sky above him. He had just come back from a hike in the moonlit sky with Dawn. All her attention focused on him and they had had a wonderful time. They spent the night together, talking of everything under the stars and the night had gone by so quickly. Not a single minute of it had been wasted with her. Shade was as happy as he could be. Then a howl broke through the night. Shade blinked his eyes. The dream was still sharp in his mind, but he knew he hadn't been with Dawn. He had been talking to Greytop.

  "Greytop!"

  The old wolf's body was on the ground. His eyes remained closed, but he was breathing steadily. Another howl broke the air more desperate then before. Shade stumbled to his feet and the world swam before his eyes. His knees buckled as he fell forward to the ground. It was only with pure luck that he managed to catch himself before falling too hard. Shade began to crawl towards the cabin on his hands and knees. Trying his hardest to clear his vision, he worked his way around the cabin to see what was happening. The sounds of a fight began to penetrate into his mind as his vision came back into focus. There were rings of steel on steel. A scraping noise he couldn't place. He got to the cabin and used its walls to pull himself back on his feet again. This time he was a little more stable. With effort, Shade began walking around to the other side. The battle sounds ringing louder in his ears. Standing in the middle of his family stood a knight in armour. Shade blinked his eyes again trying desperately to clear his vision. No, it wasn't a knight, but it was close. It was a Nightwalker, but it looked modified. Steel plates, roughly beaten into shape, covered its body. Not as a knight would be with armour though, it had the plates actually attached. Blood slowly ran down from where someone had rammed the steel underneath the skin. The Nightwalker also had a helmet on his head with very small slits. It looked like whoever made it formed it to be a tight fit. Large dents on the top showed someone had hammered it down onto the monsters head.

  The Nightwalker held no weapons in his hands, but the armour on its arms and wrists held spikes, if it tried to grab for anyone, those spikes would penetrate anything it tried to grab. His legs were fully shielded with steel plates covered everything that could be used to disable this monster. Bonetwister and the General were losing the fight. Both had cuts all over where the Nightwalker had gotten too close. Dawn held her sword out in front and its blade flicked out with a metallic ring. She couldn't find an opening in the monster's armour either and as it pressed forward, she had to move back.

  Shade looked around for his mother only to find her standing a distance away. She was in the shadows of a tree keeping it between her and the Nightwalker. Shade's father must have placed her there. She would be safe for now.

  Shade took a tentative step forward but his legs were still shaking. It took great effort to remain on his feet. The Nightwalker had his back towards him but he had no means to attack it. His dagger would be useless, even more than Dawn's sword. Its blade was so thin it would more likely shatter on the impact. The Nightwalker moved slowly but his attacks were relentless, who ever had thought of placing armour on its vital areas had done brilliant work, even if it looked done in haste.

  Dawn flicked her sword out repeatedly, looking for a way to slow down the abomination before her. It wasn't working. She managed to stay out of its grasp easily enough but if she backed too far away, it would simply move on to another. She did her best to keep its attention while the others tried to find a way to bring it down. They were losing ground. Dawn backed up farther as a wild swing of the beasts steel fist knocked her sword from her hand. It landed softly in some bushes just to her side. Dawn hesitated a moment and waited for the next swing. It just missed her and she used that moment to dive down and try to retrieve her sword.

  #####

  Bonetwister couldn't believe what he was seeing. He was in wolf form and strength was coursing through his veins like a liquid fire. It wasn't enough. Repeatedly he tried to get in closer to see if he could tear the Nightwalker's head from its body. The steel plating repeatedly resisted his efforts. It was a good thing he hadn't faced one of these in the mall. He watched helplessly as Dawn tried to strike out with her sword. She was so beautiful it was hard for him to concentrate on the fight. "If anything happens to her." Then with a lucky blow, the beast took out her sword and it flew away. Dawn simply stood there defenceless, the beast wound up another swing and Dawn went flying into the bushes. Bonetwister threw his head back in a howl that tore from his throat. He pushed himself hard off the ground and flew into the back of the Nightwalker. His attack was useless. The Nightwalker spun himself around and slammed a spike into Bonetwister’s shoulder. He heard the crunch of the bone before he felt the pain. The pain followed soon enough and when it hit he dropped to the ground. Bonetwister had to fight to stay conscious. With great effort, he backed himself away from the Nightwalker ,hoping it would at least follow him and leave the others alone. The beast had turned again and now faced the General and the Oracle alone.

  #####

  The General had been fighting defensive for the most part. He kept trying to lure away the Nightwalker but it wouldn't be baited. Dawn had gone down, he hadn't seen her hit, but she wasn't visible from where he stood. Bonetwister lay on his side in his human form again. He had tried very hard to break the armour of the Nightwalker, but in his attempts, he had taken a large hit. The General could see a pool of blood forming from a deep wound in Bonetwister’s shoulder. The General shifted the grip on the staff he held and moved to an offensive posture. Defence wouldn't win this fight.

  The General placed himself between his wife and the Nightwalker. A scream broke from his wife and he spun his head around to see her. Off to the side another armoured Nightwalker stepped from the woods and mechanically began to move towards her.

  "RUN!" The General yelled. The Oracle broke off to the only clear way she could see. Her run slowed by the break she had received before. No matter what they had tried, they had never been able to heal the break correctly. She barely moved at a fast walking pace now as she tried to run. The General spared another glance to be sure his wife had gotten away. The armoured Nightwalkers were slow but relentless. The Oracle stopped short of the woods and fell backwards as another armoured Nightwalker stepped from the woods in front of her.

  Shade watched helplessly as Dawn fell, then Bonetwister. His legs finally had stopped letting him down and he stood around the corner. No one had seen him yet and he didn't think he could have helped. Then a second, then a third Nightwalker joined the fight. It was all the General could do to stay on his feet. The staff in his hands whirled too fast to see. The dull thuds of wood on steel and flesh reached his ears, but the Nightwalkers didn't slow there mechanical pursuit. Shade realized that if he didn't help, they would all die tonight.

  "How can I help?" The thought screamed inside his head. "There has to be something! How can I use my power here?"

  Shade thought of the car. "Maybe if I can get it started it will distract them. Or I could ram them with it." Shade pulled the stone from his pocket and felt the extra power available there again. The plan died as soon as he finished thinking it. The car was in terrible shape after the original attack. Even if it did run, he would have no chance of using it as a battering ram. There wasn't enough time.

  "If only I could use this against them." Shade stared at the glowing stone in his hand. "So much electricity here and I have no way to use it."

  Then an idea formed in Shade's mind. All three of the Nightwalkers fought pressed in close on his father. He was doing his best to hold them off but slowly they were surrounding him. When they did, it wouldn't be long before he fell. Shade stepped out from behind the house and into view. His father saw him and his eyes told him to run away. He held the stone out in front of him and walked up to the Nightwalkers.

  "DAD...DROP!" Shade yelled at the top of his lungs. His outburst was enough for the Nightwalkers to pause a moment as the newest member of the fight entered into their vac
ant minds. One pulled off and began moving towards Shade. The break was enough for the General to dive out of the way. With the strength of a youth, he rolled away to the side and sprang back up ready to fight again. Shade hoped this worked. He grasped the stone as tight as he could and pulled all the power into him.

  #####

  The General rolled away and landed once again on his feet. His son had given him the break he needed, but it wasn't going to last long. He watched helplessly as a Nightwalker marched up to his son. Shade was just standing there! What did he think he was doing? Then he saw the glow inside his boy become so bright it looked like daylight was inside Shade's skin.

  #####

  Shade had never felt this much power. It pushed inside him trying to find a way to escape; he would give it that escape. One thought kept rolling around in his mind.

  "Metal conducts electricity."

  He imagined the power inside him streaking out like lightning to find every metal piece in front of him, and that is exactly what it did. The bolts arced out from his hands and tore giant holes through every part of the Nightwalkers that held metal. All at once, the three Nightwalkers fell to the ground, or what was left of them did. Giant holes burned through their bodies everywhere the metal was. There wasn't enough left of the three to make one body. Shade stood, his energy drained dry. All the life around him sucked away, every tree looked plain. His sight was normal and he felt weak.

  He was getting used to this now, the drained feeling. His head was throbbing still as he looked around at his family checking to see if everyone was still safe. Shade's father was helping his mom get back to her feet, she seemed to be ok. The werewolf looked to be ok, his bleeding had already stopped and it looked like he would be fine soon enough. Shade cast around looking for Dawn. After being hit she had fallen into the bushes on the side. Shade took a few steps closer, his legs still unsteady under him. There was an odd burn mark on a tree near where she had fallen.

  "What could have caused that? Was some metal stuck in the tree?" Shade took a step around the tree to look for Dawn. "She should be here somewhere."

  Then he saw her, she was still standing...although he saw her eyes rolled back into her head. Her mouth open wide in a silent scream, and her right hand raised in front of her, or what was left of it, the skin burned so badly he could barely recognize it.

  "The sword! She wasn't hit, she was diving into the bushes to retrieve her sword and it was made of metal too. Just like the Nightwalkers!"

  Shade rushed over to Dawn as best he could just as she crumpled to her knees, her mouth still in that silent scream. Her body went limp as Shade grabbed her; he couldn't support her and tumbled to the ground doing his best to cushion her fall. Shade called for help. Bonetwister was the first to come looking and the shock in his eyes was evident as he took in what had happened. The look on his face twisted to blame as he saw the charred remains of Dawn's hand. Wordlessly he picked her up, her body limp in his arms he turned around and quickly brought her back to the cabin.

  "Let me help!" Shade tried to pull himself back to his feet. The drain on his body from the lightning as well as the blow to his head slowed him greatly.

  "You have done enough." Bonetwister mumbled under his breath without looking back.

  Bonetwister took Dawn into the cabin and gently placed her on one of the beds. The General, his wife, and Shade filed in behind. They had seen what happened to her hand better as Bonetwister had walked past them. Shade was the first to speak.

  "I didn't mean for that to happen. I didn't know she had the sword on her."

  "Of course you didn't." The Oracle placed her arms around him. "I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't thought of using your power like that."

  "We would have died." The General spoke facing Bonetwister. "All of us would have died." His eyes didn't leave Bonetwister’s as he drove his point home with his stare. At first Bonetwister stared back with full fury in his eyes. Slowly the rage faded away to sorrow as the realization sunk in.

  Bonetwister tore his eyes away and looked down at Dawn. Even in her sleep, her face remained twisted with the pain of her hand.

  "What can we do for her?" The whisper broke through Shade's lips.

  "Do you have any power left Shade?" The Oracle said.

  "No, I'm drained, as is the moonstone. I didn't risk going small, I wasn't even sure that it would work until it did."

  "No one here has any healing skills either." The General stepped closer to Dawn and gingerly looked at her hand and arm. "The burn has stopped the bleeding already, but this must be agonizing. If Dawn were awake she could heal herself perhaps, but I’m not sure about that. She has never tried to heal herself before. We will have to do things the old way and bandage her up for now, unless someone has a better idea?"

  Shade hung his head and the Oracle moved to get some clean clothes for bandages, her limp prominent again after her fall.

  "I have an idea." Greytop spoke from the doorway, one side of his head matted with dried red blood.

  The General spun around and a dagger appeared in his hand. "Greytop! Are you ok? I forgot you were still out there.

  "I’m fine, or I will be. Most of this has already healed, just the blood remains. It looks worse than it really is."

  The Oracle came back with the bandages and began wrapping her hand gently. Her fingers never missed a step even though she still couldn't see. "What’s your idea?"

  Greytop stepped closer and looked down at the pain in Dawn's face. "You could try and turn her."

  Chapter 13

  With a gasp of pain, he pulled his hands off the giant moonstone in the middle of the room. The rock was the size of a bowling ball. The glow around it faded out but still lit the room without the aid of torches. The faint smell of burning flesh drifted away as he plunged his hands into a basin he had kept close. A sizzling sound lifted into the air as his hands hit the water.

  "That bastard...How the hell did he do that?" Donovan cursed loudly has he began to kick items around the room while trying to wring some of the stinging out of his stiff fingers.

  "Who is he that can just throw lightning from his hands at will? He is really starting to piss me off. Does he have an idea the work it took to make three Nightwalkers like that? Now I'm going to lose some control over the Nightwalkers until I can charge this stone again. Then it's going to be another week at least until I have power to try something like that again. I almost had them! Shit! My sister is the only one out there that can spoil this for me. If I can just get her out of the way then I can concentrate on those fucking werewolves. Then nothing will be left to get in my way."

  Donovan lifted the moonstone with great care and walked it outside. He couldn't trust his Nightwalkers to do this for him. He wasn't even sure if the moonstones could be broken, he didn't have the urge to find out and he wasn't about to try with his. Without this stone, he wouldn't be able to coordinate more than a handful of Nightwalkers, let alone the army he had assembled. With the stone weakened like this, he would lose a few, they would walk off and either get themselves destroyed, or just cause random havoc. Either way didn't matter much to Donovan, when he had it charged again he would be able to call them back or find more to replace them. Nightwalkers were expendable. With great care, Donovan placed the stone in the cradle he had made for it. As soon as the sun rose it would begin to capture its rays and store them up inside. Even the stars powered it some, but it would take time, more time then he cared to wait.

  Donovan went back to his room and lit some torches to replace the light he had removed. The sun would be up soon and that at least would keep most of the Nightwalkers close by for the day. Their greatest weakness was daylight. Ohh it wouldn't kill them but it did blind them totally.

  "I guess I will have to add electricity to their weaknesses now," Donovan thought. Rummaging around the room that he had made for himself inside the mall, he found an old picture. Donovan didn't know why he had kept it. Already it was so long ago the p
eople in the picture hardly seemed familiar. Inside the cheap, metal, frame was a family. Two parents looking lovingly at the camera each had a younger version of themselves standing in front. It was a picture of himself and his sister. He remembered that trip. They had gone to Disneyland. With a careless fling, he tossed the picture across the room. The sound of breaking glass shattered the silence as the picture came to rest behind a couch. It had taken two of the Nightwalkers to drag that couch up here. It would be a long time before he ever saw that picture again.

  "That life is gone. I have a new one, a better one! Once I can get my meddling sister out of the way I'll be the only ruler in this new world. She should have never tried to stop me. I should have done more then take her voice. I should have taken her life for what she did to me."

  Donovan sat in the overly large chair in the middle of the room. Taking a moment to look around, he saw all the items that he scavenged from the ruined town. Most items were useless now, the only value they held was in their past. The bank had been the easiest to break into. Without the power to keep the doors locked down, his Nightwalkers had pulled the doors open in a couple days. It had taken more time to drag the gold bars to this room.

  In his past life Donovan had been poor, almost a pauper. Now he had riches beyond measure but they were worthless to anyone but himself. On the walls hung rugs and paintings, the best the stores had offered. At least that’s what he thought. The prices on them were all the highest so those were the ones he took. Expensive chairs and lights sat in corners tossed at random. Donovan didn't get visitors unless he summoned a Nightwalker and they didn't need to sit down.

  "Who needs company; I have everything I ever wanted."