The Bottom Rung

by Sam Hall

  “We should just kill him.” Rohan heard the familiar sound of someone chambering a round into a pistol. “He’s as cunning as a sewer rat, is Rohan. There’s no way he’ll settle for living quietly in Ground Zero.”

  “Horde voted the McIntyres in and they said dump him, so we dump him. I’m not fucking with the new order, especially one with divine intervention on speed dial.”

  “Alright, let’s do this shit.”

  He felt a flush of shame when the inarticulate cries fought their way from his throat. Every ache that had been reawakened during the ride over, now roared to the front of his consciousness as he was dragged, skull thudding over the rough terrain. He tried to move, to paw at their hands, to stop them, at least let him lie in peace on the rubble-filled ground, but onwards they went until tears streamed down his face.

  “Fuck it, here will do.”

  He was dropped with no more care than one would a piece of rubbish. He tried to shift, only managing to curl slightly to get away from the sharp points pricking his spine.

  “Have fun ruling over the revenants and the rock spiders, fuckhead.”

  He enjoyed the silence that came afterwards. It wasn’t complete. He heard the skitter of animals, he hoped they were animals, in the ruins around him. The sun had to be going down, the cool air saw his abused muscles tighten, the dull persistent ache growing until his fingers started to claw at the ground.

  It will end soon, he told himself, riding the waves of agony, forced to, because what else could he do? The symbiotes are healing you, you just have to ride this out.

  But are they? You’ve been bleeding for some time and you haven’t replenished. What if you burn out what you have, trying to heal?

  He was glad for the silence as the tears began to flow again, running down his face, pooling in his ears. He did that for gods knew how long. Misery has a curious kind of timelessness, no longer progressing in tiny increments, rather it moved in ebbs and flows, seeming to last forever at the moment of perfect unhappiness, rushing forward again once the outburst was over.

  He didn’t get to that point. He barely heard the footsteps of the interloper, only realising they were there when a cool hand went to his forehead. “What do we have here?” the stranger asked. Rohan’s fangs snapped down at the scent of something warm-blooded. “Vampire, hmm?”

  He was going to snatch the unwary creature to him, crush him against his chest, sink his fucking fangs into their unprotected neck. They thought him beaten down, defanged by his experience, but he was an apex predator, lying in wait.

  His murderous dreams were interrupted by a surprise. A wrist was shoved against his mouth, the owner scraping the skin against his fangs, basically forcing him to drink. The run of salty thick liquid did the trick, if slowly. Soon enough he was wrapping his hands around the donators arm to hold them still, he pried his eyelids open when the reduction in swelling made it possible. What he saw there was an angel.

  Pure as the driven snow, white hair a halo around the startlingly beautiful face, it took Rohan a while to place the owner. “Marley?” he said, the words fighting their way past his still healing vocal cords.

  “Yes,” he said, his grin enough to make his heart stutter briefly in his chest. “You remembered. Now, how did a king come to be dumped like yesterday’s refuse in Ground Zero?”

  Rohan tried to answer, the urge to tell him the whole bloody story, to pour out all the toxic filth that had built inside him since he’d been so humiliatingly banished, stronger than any pain he might have felt. Marley seemed to sense this, cocking his head to one side and smiling. “Ssh…” he said, stroking Rohan’s face, “it’s OK. I need a king to take out a queen, and you’ll do nicely.”

  Glossary

  Cremorne: the only human-led country on the continent. Was part of the dual kingdom of Angalmar, with the witchbreed run state of Cardinia being its other half.

  Meridian City: capital of Cremorne. The city is officially split into two parts, the new city, built after the Revolution and the remains of the old city that was renamed the Quarter when it became an internment centre for all anomalous citizens.

  Ground Zero: the area of the Quarter where the final battle between humans and anomalous was fought. It is largely destroyed and has stayed in a derelict state, inhabited by the outcasts from the different sectors.

  The Wall: created in the aftermath of the Revolution to house the vampire population, it was created through a combination of human ingenuity and the use of deep witchbreed magics. Made from concrete and steel, it is impossible to break or scale. It has massive TV screens installed all around its perimeter, so that anomalous citizens may learn the truth about life in Meridian and perhaps how to live in a civilised manner.

  Anomalous: a Cremorni catch-all term for anyone who is not human. Includes witchbreed, werewolves, vampires and albinos, as they are the most common non-humans.

  Angelicus: a giant marigold-like flower grown for its pollen. Refined into a drug, it has pain killing as well as euphoric effects on users, with some strains inducing hallucinogenic states.

  Yellow: street name for the drug, Angelicus

  Albino: a kind of non-human. Albinism is a genetic condition that can occur spontaneously in any population, including humans. Children born with this condition tend to have much greater genetic variability, resulting in birth defects and a wide array of paranormal abilities. Though some have demonstrated some useful psychic or telekinetic abilities, the average albino tends towards random useless displays of psychic powers, such as being able to change their eye colour at will or being able to sense the presence of animals. All albino children are kept medicated at all times during their childhoods while being studied at the Orphanage, to ensure compliance. The addictive nature of the drug has meant that a state-sanctioned policy of keeping all albinos, both adult and child, on the drug has resulted in much fewer paranormal incidents that could be potentially a threat to humankind.

  Some archaeological evidence suggests that albinos once held positions of religious significance. It was the depiction of albinos in a Reunion like ritual that led to the contemporary inclusion of them in current rituals. Some academics have controversially suggested that all anomalous citizens derive their abilities from a genetic recessive albinism, but this has yet to be proven.

  Reunion: a ritual held each year to try and bring the gods back to walk the earth again. Held on the small island of Talos, ritual dances derived from murals are performed around the Ladder of the Gods, alongside holy relics. There is usually a wide range of events leading up to the day, to try and gain the gods' favour. It has been unsuccessful so far.

  Vampires: a strange branch of the non-human family, most vampires began their lives as humans. Human children from the Crèche facility will choose to make the transition when approaching adulthood. The process involves infecting the human with large amounts of the parasite vampires call the symbiote through blood transfusions. It has a relatively high success rate in comparison to being bitten by a werewolf.

  Symbiote: a parasitic organism that lives in the bloodstream of vampires, it creates significant changes in a human body, gifting the host great strength and speed, retractable fangs, enhanced healing and greater longevity. It also induces extreme sexual appetites and aggression. Coming into contact with any vampire body fluids will induce temporary extremes of sexual desire and receptivity. As the small sample of symbiote dies off in the non-vampire, the host will experience high levels of pain and longing. It’s believed that the parasite creates an environment conducive for infecting a wide variety of temporary hosts, as well as a constant supply of blood, to replenish the red blood cells the symbiote feeds on.

  It works as a wound healer, creating a glassy looking fluid that fills any bite made by a vampire as well as working to heal serious injuries to the host.

  The Glorious Revolution: in pre-Revolutionary times human beings were used at worst as little more than cattle under the yoke of the vampire aristocracy. Rul
ed by King Arun, the whole of Cremorne fell under the dominion of the vampires that made up the royal court. Not all vampires were deemed of sufficient stature to be given grants of land by the Crown. The current self-styled king, Rohan, was little more than a minor clerk. The needs of humans were supposed to be served by the lesser human court, ruled by the Vieran dynasty. The Vieran’s did little to further the plight of humans, preferring instead to enjoy their privileged position at the vampire court.

  Coming out of a group of dissenting students at the University of Meridian, Charles Hesse, the hero of the Revolution, roused the people, using a combination of human ingenuity and sheer numbers to overcome the vampires in a series of carefully orchestrated attacks. Within a relatively short period of time, the vampires were overthrown, the most powerful installed in cells made specifically for the keeping of anomalous creatures and the trials began. Found guilty before a human jury, the King and all of his family were executed at a site inside the Quarter now called the Scaffold. The blood of each person was collected in an ingenious system and the symbiotic strains within have proven to be incredibly useful in military as well as medical applications.

  While the most powerful vampires in the Horde were similarly dispatched, it was the petitions of Hesse that made clear that all anomalous creatures would need to be dealt with, not just the vampires and that wholesale slaughter would result in aggression from the anomalous run countries surrounding us. From this, the Quarter was born.

  All anomalous creatures within the border of Cremorne were removed from the land and placed within the ruins of old Meridian City, enclosed within a highly secured facility now called the Quarter.

  The Crèche: a government-run institution based just inside the Quarter, built against the Wall. Developed to deal with the high levels of orphan children within the Quarter, human orderlies provide food, board, care and education for anomalous children, hoping to rehabilitate them and create positive change. At the age of fourteen, children are then transitioned out into adult life through a series of work programs.

  The Orphanage: a subsidiary of the Crèche run by Hesse Corp. The promiscuity and tendency to ignore state-provided offers of contraceptives by albino women resulted in Hesse Corp developing the Orphanage as a means to manage the complexity of albino pregnancy and births. As albino babies are born with a completely random set of genetic mutations and subsequent paranormal abilities, this is best contained within the facility until the child is old enough to be placed on an appropriate drug regime. Testing is done while the children are young, to ascertain any useful abilities that can be redeployed as well as further research into the nature of the anomalous.

  Once children have been placed on a drug schedule and their abilities explored, they are integrated into the Crèche population, to be transitioned into hopefully productive lives within the Quarter.

  Cardinia: witchbreed run country that has waged war against Cremorne since the secession two hundred years ago.

  About the Author

  I grew up in that bit of Australia you saw in Crocodile Dundee. Yup, I have seen saltwater crocs in the wild, have held a koala (the 70s, when stressing wildlife for the kiddies was still cool) and have swatted an insane number of hand sized spiders (they think I am their queen and are always wherever I am!). I have a gorgeous child with ASD, a super supportive, truly awesome partner and so, so many animals. Seriously, there are double the pets to people.

  Being a little baby writer, trying to make her way in the big, crowded, world of self-publishing, reviews are our lifeblood. Seriously, we’re sitting in isolated rooms wondering what the hell we are doing with our lives, so chuck a review on Amazon or Goodreads and I will loooove you!

  Stalk me!

  Facebook author group: Sam’s Hall of Heroines

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2356697491274667/

  Come and see teasers and me explain what the hell was going on in my head when I was writing that.

  Instagram:

  https://www.instagram.com/samhallauthor/

  Teasers, WIPs and pictures of my animals here!

  Current releases

  Book Lover 1: Not My Fantasy

  Amazon link

  When Ash and her sister inherited their grandmother’s magic shop, they figured they’d be selling crystals and smudge sticks to ageing hippies. Instead, they find themselves dealing with a failing business and a revolving door of tinsel-haired elves and fairy-tale princes.

  And that’s not even the weird part.

  Cursed in some sort of freakish loop, Ash wakes up every morning next to her sister’s latest book boyfriend, or fangirl crush. Frazzled by her unwanted nocturnal visitors, Ash fights for the focus needed to save the shop from bankruptcy. Then, in walks Gabe. Looking like a biker wet dream, Ash immediately dismisses him as another of her sister’s lusty manifestations. But this hottie is real and may hold the key to saving their business.

  Things appear to be looking up, until an inter-dimensional gateway is discovered in the store that allows characters from every multiverse imaginable to cross over. Can the sisters learn how to control the portal before it destroys the line between fact and fiction?

  If you love paranormal romance and urban fantasy tropes, but want to have a bit of fun with them sometimes, this is your book. If you watched a lot of bad 80s fantasy with papier-mâché props, noticed all romance guys have massive wangs or checked the back of a wardrobe to see if there was a portal to another realm, this is your book. If you like snarky, sex-positive female characters, this is your book. If you still have a total soft spot for talking animals and really wish you could have one of your own, this is your book.

  Upcoming releases:

  Book Lover 2: As You Wish

  Tess is sick of being the sidekick. She’s come back to her life with a dog/dragon in tow and the memories of a dragon rider, so doing stock take at the shop isn’t quite cutting it. She’s trying, really she is, but with Ash’s insistence on doing her own thing, rather than learning more about the many different people they deal with through the portal and Jez’s horny hijinks, she’s starting to wonder if there isn’t more to life.

  Then there’s Flea, the dark haired, sexy tattooist who travelled through an inter-dimensional portal to rescue her. They’d shared one of the amazing nights of her life together, but now they barely even say hello when he comes by the shop.

  As if responding to her unspoken need for a call to action, dragon riders from Aravisia appear in the shop, complete with plasma spears, ordering her to appear before the courts for having an unregistered dragon. She thinks it’s going to be little other than traffic court, but it soon becomes clear that there’s something much more life-threatening afoot.

  Join Tess, Jez and Flea as they rampage through Aravisia, find out the truth behind Nan’s curse and maybe, just maybe, create sweeping, world altering, change.

  Acknowledgments

  Again, all kudos go to my partner, Matt, who, as always, acted as developmental editor and plot hole finder through the many, many incarnations of this book. I think he was beyond relieved when I finished this book as it meant there was no going back and changing stuff!

  I think he tolerates my other books, but this one was all politics and shit, so it was more up his alley. If you’re Australian, a popular Sunday activity for us is to sit and watch Insiders every week, so that might help you understand our relationship!

  Editing was done by the lovely Chanderella’s Editing Services. She was able to whip the draft into shape while also shooting me lots of encouraging feedback.

  https://chanderellaediting.wordpress.com/fiction-editing/

  Cover was created by the amazing Jacqueline Sweet. She managed to create the perfect personification of Lethe :)

  https://www.jacqueline-sweet.com/

  Katie Kemperman has been the alpha reader extraordinaire, helping me see where the story arcs needed to go, asking me a million questions which made me understand my own world-building better and
generally being an amazing cheerleader as well as critique partner. She’s had to deal with almost as many iterations of the book as Matt has!

  Thanks to Kym, Brandy and Trish for doing those initial alpha reads and taking a chance on a newbie writer. Kym, your questions really helped me to add extra info to make things a bit clearer.

  Thanks to Bekah, Jacqui and Alison for doing a second alpha read to make sure everything made sense and allay my fears it was all a bunch of mysterious bullshit.

  Beta team of awesomeness: Becca, AndreaB, Kathryn, Codi, Charlotte, Teresa, Emma, Alexis and Emily. You have been tremendous support as well as a massive help in picking up all those bloody typos! You have talked me down from several ledges, so thank you!

  Many newb authors have a story about how an established writer helped them on their way and here is mine. About fifteen years ago, I sent the first version of this book to British writer, Storm Constantine (her work is amazing and lush and beautiful and you should all read it) and she gave me some very kind, appropriate feedback.

  In the initial manuscript, I thought I was ever so arty and cutting edge, with lots of weird, often incomprehensible storylines and characters and purple prose as far as the eye could see. I’ve not entirely kicked those habits, but getting useful feedback from Storm helped me realise there was a whole lot of work to be done.

  She could have very easily tossed it in the “Are you fucking serious, set it on fire” pile, never to be seen again. Instead, her advice was spot on: I had no understanding of plot and how to structure a book and if I could please start there, that would be great, thanks. It took a really, really long time for me to get my head around that, I’m still doing that, but without that feedback, I would have just been slush piled and none the wiser as to why, so seriously, thank you.