by Maxey, Phil
They laughed again.
Marina’s plate was empty as was her hosts. Without realizing she was there, Zelma stepped forward and picked up both pieces of dining ware, then paused focusing on the guest.
“What did you think?”
Alfredo frowned. “Zelma, I’m sure she enjoyed it.”
Marina smiled. “It was amazing. Maybe you can give me…” The older woman had already turned and left the room. “The recipe…” It wasn’t a falsehood, it was the best tasting piece of meat she had since becoming a hybrid. There were even a few times she had to control her emotions so her vamp side didn’t make a sudden appearance.
“Don’t mind her. We do not get people here very often. She’s also a little—”
“Protective?”
He nodded. “Yes, and I love her for it.”
Marina took another sip from her glass. “So umm have you ever been married?”
He leaned back in his chair, placing a napkin on the table. “A few times. You?” He noticed the shadow fall across her face. “Oh, I do not mean to pry, if you do not want to—”
She shook her head. “It’s okay, it’s a bit of a long story…”
“I am in no rush to be anywhere.”
She smiled. “Okay…” Recalling the last few months brought a tear to her eye on more than one occasion. From leaving her sisters in the hope of finding Russel, to meeting Joel and learning what had become of her husband, to becoming a parent to another child and the battles she had fought across the mainland, ending eventually in arriving at the island.
“You are a warrior…”
It was not the response she expected, but it made her happy anyway. She nodded. “I just tried to survive, for Jessica and then Jasper… I have no idea what the future will hold…”
Alfredo went to stand when the side door opened to the long room once again, and Zelma walked forward. “Sir, I do not wish to disturb you, but the general did ask that you to be at the headquarters very early.”
Marina could sense the archeologists anger amongst his increased heart rate.
He forced a smile and looked at his guest. “Zelma is correct. It is quite late. I will have my driver take you back to your apartment.”
Soon they were outside the entrance. Marina rubbed her shoulders. The chill in the air was biting.
“Oh… wait,” he said to her. “There’s something I have for you.” He disappeared back into the hallway, through a doorway and returned with a shoal.
Marina’s eyes widened on seeing it, for it was inlaid with gold and silver thread making up a scene from another time. She raised a hand. “I… can’t take that.”
He walked forward and placed it around her shoulders, lingering just a second more than he needed too, then stepped away. She immediately felt warmer.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
He nodded to the driver, who opened the rear door. “I will see you at the headquarters in the morning.”
She nodded, then turned and walked to the humvee and got in. As she passed through the backstreets of the base, her mind replayed the evening, emotion threatening to overwhelm her. For the first time in weeks. She felt… human.
The humvee stopped and she got out with a smile on her face, but then stopped and looked out over the buildings across the street. Tiny sparkles of light were sliding across the night sky.
*****
In the open bed in the back of the pickup, Copeland sat nearest the cabin, weighing the vehicle down, with Kizzy by his side, Dalton sat opposite and Nelson near the tailgate. Each of them avoided catching the eyes of the other.
Roadside signs came and went, some mentioning population centers but Joel avoided them all, a distant buzz in his brain telling him of what lay in that direction. Instead, he kept the pickup to the more uneven tracks.
He felt like he had been traveling constantly for a week, even though it had only been a few days. He knew what the island meant to those with him, a final destination which they wouldn’t need to be moved on from. No kings, no corporation, and maybe no vamps if what Galloway had mentioned was true, that those on the island fought and won their battle against the scourge. But unlike the woman sleeping to his right, or those in the seats behind, he knew the struggle would not be over until Rynon and Eltir were dust. The kings were coming for revenge, and for the tablets. There was no hope of something close to a normal life until that particular problem was taken care of. At least they wouldn’t have to travel to the kings. The war would come to them.
He looked at the mileometer, quickly doing the math and worked out they had already traveled a few hundred miles. The dark shapes which hung over the valleys that enclosed the narrow roads they had been on, no longer dominated the landscape. The scenery was flatter, more spread out with a hint of some hills slowly descending to a point ahead of them. He hoped that meant they were nearing the coast.
Dalton picked up the salty taste in the air before anyone else, but then the shapes of buildings appeared at the back of fields, bordered by palm trees and they all knew they were close to civilisation again.
Joel knew it too, and continued on the route taking them into the town, his mind free of the background noise which meant danger lurked in the shadows.
Their headlights revealed single and double story colonial style buildings in various states of disrepair. Boarded up windows sat in the gloom behind verandas, with street walls covered in brightly colored graffiti showing death and destruction.
“A friend of mine always wanted to come here for a vacation,” said Corine.
“We’re close to the ocean, I can smell it,” said Joel. “We’re find a place to rest, then in the morning see if we can find a boat big enough to take all of us to Puerto Rico.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Marina stood outside the glass doors of the headquarters entrance. Evan had expected to be with her, but when the soldiers came they made it clear the ride was for her only. She could tell despite his silence he didn’t take the news well, but Shannon had happily agreed to look after the kids again, which she was glad for.
She heard the general’s voice inside the building before she was visible through the glass. Alongside her was the colonel, Maddison and the two archeologists, her dinner host from the previous night and Sophia.
Galloway smiled on seeing Marina, pushing open the door, as two humvees pulled up.
“I can’t thank you enough Marina for finding the tomb.” The general briefly gestured towards Alfredo. “If you had listened to Alfredo we would have never have found it—” Marina caught the flash of anger across the man’s eyes next to her. “— And today we will explore it properly. Perhaps even meet this fourth king.”
“Well, it was more Ev—”
Galloway slapped her on the shoulder, then kept on going, climbing into the front of the first humvee, taking Winston, Maddison and another soldier with her. Marina followed the archeologists into the second vehicle, while a truck laden with more personnel stopped behind.
The ride to the cave system was quicker than the first, but gave Marina a better chance than before to fully absorb the beauty of the landscape they were moving through. The island’s exotic plants had begun to reclaim the man-made structures and roads, giving the landscape an almost pre-historic feel to it. If this was to be the place humanity would try to survive, they could have picked a worse spot, she thought.
The convoy parked close to where they had the first time, in the parking lot close to the small complex of buildings, covered in signs for tourists. As before, Marina quietened her senses for even the slightest hint of movement amongst the trunks and branches that bordered the overgrown lawns, but felt no vamps.
Instead of taking the tourist trail into the caves, she led the group of officers and soldiers, most who were carrying crates full of equipment, into the undergrowth, the ground rising and becoming steeper with each heavy, awkward step.
After a long trek which consisted of a few rest stops, she found herself s
ome way in front of the others and spotted the change in the landscape ahead. Standing on a path in one of the few clearings which gave a view of the mountainous summit, she tried to better see her destination against the bright sun.
Where have the trees gone…
She didn’t realize at first, but Alfredo was standing beside her looking at the exact same spot as she was. “Something’s not right…” When he didn’t respond she looked at him, and for a moment thought she was standing next to a stranger, for rage was evident across his face. His eyes flicked to hers and his emotion dissipated.
“What… do you see up there?” he said.
“Umm… the landscapes wrong. The forest continued to the summit. That’s why it was never spotted from the air before. But you can see what I’m seeing, right? There is no forest up there anymore…”
The general caught up with them, standing nearby out of breath. “I sure do hope this king, whoever he is, is worth it!” She produced a cloth and wiped the sweat from her face. “I had hoped being different would make this journey easier, but it hasn’t.”
Winston emerged from the forest and stopped near her, also short of breath. “We stopping for a bit?”
Marina walked forward. “No, we have to keep going.”
*****
Anna stood on a corner. Above, the blue sky did little to shield her from the burning heat, and her eyes watered if she even attempted to look up. She wiped away the wetness and looked around. A half completed four-story building sat to her right, its insides exposed while a series of small triangular roofed buildings sat alongside, each one a different pastel color to the next. At the center, directly opposite her was a small park with trees and grass that was now a few feet in height. Just visible amongst the lime green reeds was a stroller.
She walked across the road to the entrance and leaned over the gate, not wanting to look inside the red and silver buggy, but did so and was relieved to find it empty.
She reached around the back of her neck, dragging the sweat from it and wiped her hand on her pants, while studying the town around her. No doubt, idyllic before the end, a place such as the one she was standing in would have had no defense for the disease which turned its citizens into blood lusting monsters, despite the lower population.
In the distance between the tops of trees a tall building could be seen. Perhaps a steeple? She walked quickly past store fronts with various pieces of decaying wood across their fronts, and arrived at another junction. A white brick church stood proud, slightly raised and behind what was once a garden but was now a chaos of plants all vying to be closer to the sun than the others. For some unknown reason rather than moving to her left, towards what suggested to be the more built up area of the town, she continued across the road, and up the stone path to the arched entrance of the old building. She listened at the wooden door and heard something she did not expect. A human heart beat. Distant, but definitely somewhere within the solid building in front of her.
Just as she placed a hand on the door, she heard a rifle cock behind her.
She spun around in shock at somebody being able to creep up on her. An elderly but stout man with a handlebar mustache stood about ten-feet away, his rifle aimed squarely at her chest. He spoke in Spanish then seeing her confusion tried again in English.
“Back away from the door, lady.”
She stepped to the side, her arms raised. “I’m not here to harm anyone.”
The man looked around. “Your friends here? Saw you come into town.”
“We’re in an apartment block, not far from here…”
“Why you here? There’s no blood in this town if that’s what you’re after!”
She knew he meant humans, and she also knew that was a lie. “We thought this town was abandoned. We got our own blood… You’re like me aren’t you? A hybrid?”
She heard the heart beat suddenly get louder, and the wooden door creaked, while the old man’s expression changed to one of panic, and he waved his hand to the small face that appeared around the door. “Get back inside!” The boy quickly closed the door.
“Do you need blood? We can spare some if you need it.”
“What I need is for you and your friends to—” The man’s eyes grew wide. “El Diablo!”
She felt the breeze before she felt the lack of sun due to the huge beast blocking it from above. Copeland descended from above, but not before the old man could turn his barrel upwards, his eyes widening, and got off a shot, which merely bounced off the Drak’s scaley skin. She knew what was about to happen and ran forward grabbing the weapon and waving Copeland off. “Get away! He’s just an old man!”
The door was open again, now with two young faces peering out in terror at what was beating huge wings in the sky. The old man broke free, ran to the door pushing the children back inside and slammed it shut behind him.
“No, wait, we mean you no harm!” she shouted at the closed door.
Copeland landed looking confused. “He had a—”
She pushed the old style rifle into his hands. “Stay out of this!” She then turned and walked back to the door just a shotgun blast disintegrated a hole in the middle of it. The pellets slashed across her face, but missed doing any major damage.
Copeland, his eyes wide marched towards the church, but she held a hand up. “Leave! You’re making it worse!” He frowned, then took to the sky. She turned back to the church, seeing the old man waving his double barrel gun in her direction and dived to the ground just before the shot sliced through the large-leafed plants above her.
“Please stop firing!” she screamed, but she could hear him trying to reload. In a blink of an eye she had got to her feet, smashed through what remained of the door and pulled the shotgun from his grasp. He took a swing at her, which she easily avoided it and even with one hand was able to push him to the ground, where he looked up at her, his eyes dark, his hands claws. She quickly bent down, picked up a cartridge and loaded one of the barrels, then to his surprise handed it back to him. He took it tentatively checking it was loaded then aimed it back at her, his eyes now more human looking.
“What the hell was that?” he shouted.
She sighed, then walked and sat on the nearest pew. “That’s a long story.” Fifteen feet away, a child looked out from a small gap in a door at the back of the church. She smiled and waved. He waved back. She looked at the old man. “My names Anna. What’s yours?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Marina staggered out from the thick network of leaves and stalks to a landscape devoid of forest. The others were far behind, apart from Alfredo and Sophia who were closer.
As she walked forward jumping from one uneven broken slab of stone to another, moving towards what used to be the pinnacle of the mountain, a flattened landscape came into view.
“No… no…” she said as she climbed higher, scrambling over a mix of boulders and dirt until finally stopping, wavering on the edge of a massive piece of splintered stone, a newly formed ledge which looked down to a crater.
“It can’t be…” she said under her breath.
What used to be quarter of a mile of forest, covering the mountain summit, was now a depression. A noise came from behind but she remained looking at the quarry-like terrain of dust and rock.
Alfredo stood by her side. She briefly looked at him, “It was here… It wasn’t like this. There was an entrance to the temple…” She wasn’t sure if he was listening, for his eyes were wide. He jumped down from the ledge. “Wait! It could be dangerous!” She jumped down too, following him as he quickly made his way lower until they were both standing in the bottom of the bowl shaped terrain.
Soldiers appeared at the rim, looking down at them, then Maddison.
Alfredo picked up some rocks, then let them drop back to the ground. “It’s gone…”
“I don’t understand,” said Marina. “How could this have happened?”
He looked at her, his mouth half open when Galloway appeared at the ledge above.
She waved them back up.
They both climbed back to the top.
“This… can’t be our fault,” said Marina. “The place was old yeah, but sound, solid, there’s no way...” A memory of the night before struck her, but one with a conclusion so absurd she couldn’t regard it. She looked at the general. “Last night I saw lights in the sky, over the base. Aircraft.”
Galloway looked bemused. “Nothing was cleared to fly last night. But even if they were, what would that have to do with… a cave in? I don’t understand your thinking here, Marina.”
The younger woman turned away, trying to make sense of the crater. “I don’t know… could this have been caused by an explosion?”
The general screwed her face up in disbelief. “Even if it could have happened like that, why? Why would someone from the base want to destroy the temple?”
Marina’s eyes widened. “You have a spy! Someone from the corporation is on the base! They destroyed the temple to stop the fourth king from waking up, or whatever it is they do! And now—” She looked back at the thousands of tons of fractured rock. “— They have. You have to find them!”
Galloway shook her head then looked at Maddison. “What do you think? Could this have been caused by explosives?”
The young woman traced her fingers over a large split boulder. “Possibly. But to be sure we would have to move thousands of tons of rock to get to some that has explosive residue on it.”
The general turned to Winston. “You suspect anyone on your staff? Hardly anyone knew about this place.”
The colonel rubbed his chin. “Not until now I haven’t.” He looked at Alfredo who was standing with Sophia a few feet away, seemingly looking beyond the rubble. “What about your team, Alfredo? Anyone you’re not sure about.”
“I trust my team,” he said without turning around.