Lord of Ends

by Sam Ryder

  She was trying to slow me down, but I wasn’t having it.

  “Look, I’m not scared of the Rising, okay?” I said. “They can hem and haw, and they can try to punish me, or beat me, or kill me. Let them try.” Though I knew I was being overly defensive, I’d never liked when someone told me I couldn’t do something.

  Hannah scoffed at my attitude. “You’re cocky. That means you’ll be sloppy. We’ve come this far. Sloppiness is not a risk we can take. Please don’t put your pride ahead of our safety.”

  “You came to me, remember?” I said. “You didn’t come to our outpost to pick up Harrison the bartender, or Max the ugly drunk, or the card-playing Barneses. You came to The Last Stop for Cutter. And I’m not saying I’m the world’s greatest anything. I’m not the smartest. But I’ve got instincts. And those instincts are right more often than they are wrong. If that wasn’t the case, then you wouldn’t have come to me, right? You think Gehn would’ve seen me in one of her dreams?” Though I still wasn’t sure about the validity or meaning of her dreams, but she had seen me in them, and that had to mean something.

  That one got her. She knew she was stuck. As smart as she was, she had to defer on this. I was leading this journey. That meant we were going straight into the city as soon as we got there.

  And who knew? Maybe we’d locate the dream reader quickly and be out by high noon. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

  Dawn began to arrive in slow measures, the inky darkness turning to hazy gray then hues of dark brown to match the desert landscape. We were close to the city limits now. That’s when Gehn started breathing heavily.

  “You okay?” I asked. She wore a mask of fear on her face.

  “Stop the wagon,” she ordered.

  “We’re so close to the city,” I said. “Can it wait?”

  “No,” she insisted.

  I pulled the mule to a stop. Gehn climbed off the wagon and took a few steps out, staring at the city.

  Hannah and I exchanged glances. “She knows,” Hannah said in a low voice. “She agrees with me. She knows something’s up. It’s much more dangerous to enter during daylight hours.”

  “Just let me talk to her,” I said.

  I climbed off the wagon, kicking up dust as my boots hit the ground. Gehn was a few feet away, pacing back and forth.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Gehn said. “I never know exactly what it is. But I just have a strong feeling of dread. We’re walking into a dangerous zone here.”

  I looked toward the city. One by one and then in bunches, people were emerging from their sleeping quarters, starting their days.

  “You don’t want to go in this morning, do you?” I asked. “You want to stay out here?”

  She hesitated. Gehn was a sweet girl. She had zero confidence in herself, unlike her sister. Maybe that happens when you’re an Ender. After what she went through, I understood that.

  Similarly, Hannah was confident in herself purely from being a First, regardless of her current status within the Guild. People always treated Firsts as though their opinions and thoughts were right. They raised Firsts on a pedestal. Even if she disagreed with that treatment, it had still affected her. So that factored into these discussions.

  I took Gehn by the hand. “Look me in the eye,” I said. She did. “Do you want to wait out the daylight and enter under the cover of darkness? Will we be safer if we go into the city at night?”

  “We won’t be safe,” she said, “and I don’t think we should enter at night. I think we should wait until tomorrow morning.”

  That took me by surprise. Why would one day make a difference? Then again, this could be one of those situations like in the old world where if you left your house five minutes earlier or later you’d get into a horrible car accident. “All right,” I said. “Then we will wait.”

  I was impatient, but I trusted Gehn’s instincts as much as my own at this point. And now that I’d heard what she had to say, our instincts were aligned.

  Hannah smiled knowingly when I approached her. She thought she knew what we’d agreed. She jumped down, and I called Chuck off the wagon to join us. “We’ll enter first thing tomorrow morning,” I announced.

  “What?” she said, her smile of victory quickly morphing into one of anger.

  “So we wait a whole day and then go in during daylight anyway?”

  “Gehn’s call,” I said.

  She looked from me to Gehn to confirm. Her sister said nothing. “Fine,” she breathed. “We need to find a safe place to make camp.”

  We set up camp in the low point nestled between two small hills well away from the main path most travelers would take to approach Rome. Typically you didn’t want to make camp in a depression, where all the water would flow if there was a storm, but this wasn’t a typical situation. We needed to hide. Still, I hoped the universe agreed not to bring a storm on this day or the coming night. We spent the day shooting the shit and discussing what the barkeep back at the crappy nothing outpost we’d stopped at. As the sun began to set, the air grew suddenly cooler—rare this time of year. Though it was risky, we built a small fire to keep warm. The glow of the firelight would be hidden by the hills surrounding us. There would be some smoke rising, but the dark night backdrop would mostly obscure it unless someone had eagle eyes and knew where to look. A risk worth taking to prevent us from freezing to death. A chill blew through the air making an eerie howl as it passed between the hills. Almost ghostly. It wasn’t hard to imagine a swarm of ghosts—the ever-living souls of those who’d perished under the violence of the Rising’s regime. I wasn’t interested in hunting tonight, so we finally took advantage of our rations.

  It was a quiet night. After the girls went to sleep on the wagon, I sat on the ground and stared off at the city, wondering what kind of danger we were getting ourselves into.

  How long would it take to find this dream reader? How quickly would they out Gehn as an Ender?

  I would have to prepare myself for whatever was to come, mentally and physically. I was still sore from my various injuries, but the couple days break from walking had allowed me to heal. I would perform when the time came, as I always did. I trusted my abilities to get out of scrapes as much as my instincts. Both Alpha and Beta were cleaned, loaded and ready to go, but I needed to strap as much ammo as I could handle to my chest. Running out of ammo would be devastating.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even been to Rome. Probably because of my daily drinking—every day seemed to meld into the next. But I did remember the feeling of being there; the uppity nature of the Rising. The superiority they claimed. The weird level of control they claimed over the wastelands.

  I wasn’t looking forward to the task at hand. But regardless, we were going. We didn’t come this far to turn around.

  I stood up and stretched. The fire was burning out. Chuck nestled somewhere between the girls on the wagon. Time to hit the hay.

  I walked to the wagon, then halted. The breeze howled in my ears. For a moment, I thought I heard a crunching sound. Then, nothing.

  Shaking it off, I kept walking. I climbed into the wagon and grabbed a blanket. Lying down next to Gehn, I snuggled in close to keep warm.

  Without waking, Gehn rolled over and squeezed my shoulder.

  “What?” I whispered.

  “Hmmm...” she trailed off, her eyes still closed. She squeezed it again.

  The hell was that about? I thought.

  I heard that crunching sound again. Curious, I crawled over to the edge of the wagon, rocking it side to side on its wheels. Everyone was so tired, they didn’t wake up.

  I stuck my head out around the corner of the canvas roof, but I didn’t see or hear anything.

  Maybe a critter running around. Whatever.

  I crawled back to my spot and pulled the blanket up again. Slowly, I drifted to sleep.

  That was when a hand clamped over my mouth.

  Another hand grabbed me by m
y shirt and yanked violently. I didn’t even have a chance to react, I just went with it. My eyes snapped open, and I jerked my head around, but the hand just clinched tighter.

  With astonishing strength, whoever this was pulled my arms behind my back and hooked them with one arm, locking me in his or her grip, while still clutching my face, preventing me from screaming.

  Finally realizing the danger I was in, I kicked my legs, dust flying everywhere. But the person dragged me further and further away from the wagon, my feet sliding across the dirt.

  Son of a bitch, I’m dead.

  I slept with Alpha and Beta holstered, just in case. I always did. But with my arms hooked behind my back like that, there was no way I could reach them.

  Finally, I gave in and let him drag my body. I knew it had to be a him at this point, unless it was Mrs. Incredible Hulk. No point in expending any more energy fighting. I would just let the person drag me along until we got wherever we were going.

  After we reached quite a distance from the wagon, whoever this was let go of me. I fell to the ground with a thud.

  “What the fuck, man?” I yelled as I stood up.

  Then a fist cold-cocked me on the side of my head, sending me flying backward and crashing to the ground again.

  I tasted blood. My eyes were filled with tears and stars. It was hard enough to see what was going on. But I had to get my bearings quickly before someone killed me.

  Chapter 23

  Close Encounter

  I shook the cobwebs from my head. It was pitch black, but a clear night, the stars glittering like lanterns hung in the sky. Unfortunately, the moon was waning toward a sliver, not bright to make out what the bastard looked like.

  But against the backdrop of the starry sky, I could at least catch the outline of him.

  His features were bulbous and round. He was bald. At one point, he turned his head to the side, and a huge nose poked out from his face.

  The man hunched over, his massive shoulders rounded down. He didn’t even appear to have a neck. His frame was built like a brick house.

  He breathed heavily, grunting with every exhale. He made a strange slobbering noise.

  Regardless of the fact that I couldn’t see him in the light, there was no doubt in my mind what this ogre was.

  An Ender.

  As beautiful as female Enders like Gehn could be, the men were hideous. Nobody knew why the transformation for males was so different to females, but it was what it was.

  Male Enders were also known for their brute strength, something I’d never fully appreciated until being dragged like a ragdoll by one. These guys were vicious, too. As disturbing as it was that humans killed Enders regularly, I always thought part of the reason for that was safety from these maniacs, at least the males.

  Piss off an Ender and you were dead. End of story. I assumed that meant they killed most Enders because they were threatening members of the Rising.

  Once I met Gehn, that assumption had changed somewhat.

  But standing in the darkness, an Ender across from me, it didn’t matter what I assumed. This asshole was pissed at me and I was as good as dead.

  I realized why Gehn hadn’t awoken in the night, her sixth sense flaring with a warning of danger: this male Ender was no threat to her. Her warning bells only went off if she was in danger. Which made me chopped liver.

  Hell if I would go down without a fight though.

  I reached to my hip for Alpha or Beta, figuring my best chance would be to blow the son of a bitch to smithereens before this got out of hand. The longer I fought this guy, the greater chance I was fucked, and not in the good way.

  But when my fingers reached my holster, my stomach sank. The guns were gone. Even though I slept with them out here, they must have fallen out while he was dragging me. Unless…

  No. Couldn’t be.

  Everyone said the males were mindless killing machines, their minds stolen by the mutation. But what if everyone was wrong, making assumptions based on appearance? What if these male Enders could think? Was that better or worse? Did it mean they could be reasoned with, or just that they were all the more dangerous? Reasoning with him seemed like the wrong move at this point considering the way he’d dragged me out of the wagon with such violence.

  Shit. If I’m getting out of here alive, I have to do it with my own two hands.

  I wasn’t scared anymore. I was pissed. It was time to channel that anger into my fists and throw it back at him as hard as I could.

  Without a word, I silently rose to my feet and ran up to the silhouette with my fists clenched. I swung my right hand at his face, hoping to hear the crunching of some bones on contact. My knuckles rocked him right in the cheek with a sickening thud, but he stood there. His head barely shifted.

  Well, if he was mad before...

  The Ender grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me close, then lifted me up over his head like I was a featherweight. He slammed me into the dirt, knocking the wind out of me for a brief second as tremors rolled through my body.

  I managed one deep breath and then rolled as fast as I could to stay clear of him. I heard him stomp after me, trying to grab me again. I thought I was clear, so I pushed up onto my knees. He kicked me in the face with a barefoot that felt as hard as a metal pipe.

  I hit the ground once more, dazed, my knees bent behind me and the tendon in my injured knee screaming with pain.

  “What the hell?” I screamed at him, though it was an irrational reaction. “What’s your problem?”

  I was shocked when he responded with his own words rather than more violence. “You’re on the wrong side,” he grunted in a rough and guttural voice. “Go back to your outpost.”

  It took me a second to recover from the surprise of hearing him speak. When I did, I said, “The hell are you talking about? What side?”

  The Ender grunted twice and it almost sounded like a laugh. He cracked his knuckles. I had the feeling he was done talking. But that didn’t matter. All that mattered right now was survival. And he was winning the fight, if I could even call it that. I wished my knee didn’t hurt so damn much, but those were the cards I was dealt. I had to shake it off and keep fighting. I wasn’t interested in making the women pick up my dead corpse in the morning.

  My only chance against this guy was if I moved quicker than him. Enders were notoriously strong but not especially known for their quickness. My damn knee complicated things, but it was my only hope. If I went toe-to-toe with this troll, I would lose. And if I tried to match him and absorb the hits, he’d crush me like a grape.

  He charged at me again, done with the chit chat. This time, I dodged faster. His body flew past me like a bowling ball hitting the gutter and missing all the pins. He grunted in surprise, which was satisfying. Thus far he’d been the one with all the surprises.

  Briefly, I considered making a mad dash for the wagon. Maybe I could get there in time to arm myself. Or maybe I could find Alpha or Beta lying in the dirt where he’d discarded them after taking them off me. They were fully loaded, so I could easily grab one and put a few bullets in his head. Game over.

  But if I made it back to the wagon and couldn’t get anything in time, I brought the violence to the women. I wasn’t interested in that.

  I’d keep him away from them or die trying. I had no other choice.

  He charged at me again. This time, I slipped by him like a wily running back dodging a linebacker, curling around and, kamikaze-like, leaping onto his back. I almost couldn’t wrap my arms around his neck, he was so big. But before I could lock my hands and squeeze, he bucked like a bronco, sending me sailing over his shoulders.

  Oh. Fuck.

  I turned my head in time to keep myself from crashing down directly on my skull. The fall could’ve snapped my neck, knocked me cold, or given me a concussion. No matter the outcome, I would be a sitting duck for him to finish off.

  By turning my head, I managed to roll through the fall, absorbing most of the blow on my shoulders.
But when the lower half of my body snapped forward, I smacked the ground hard enough to send another shockwave through me. Whatever pain had been relieved with the extra rest was back in full force, setting my knee on fire.

  I clutched my knee, gritting my teeth to get through the pain. His footsteps approached slowly, like a taunt. He was enjoying this. This time, I wasn’t sure if I could get out of the way in time.

  The only way I could get through this now was if I stunned him. But I couldn’t punch him hard enough to do any serious damage, that much had been proven. I couldn’t get my arms around him fast enough to choke him. Only one other idea appeared in my mind, a dirty move that I normally loathed resorting to.

  Kick the rotten bastard right in the balls.

  No, it wasn’t the most heroic thought. A man shouldn’t have to resort to kicking another man’s balls. I’ve never stooped that low in a fight in my life.

  I also didn’t even know if it would work. Were male Enders sensitive to shots in the cohones? Or did the mutation change that?

  Hell if I knew. But I was about to find out. I didn’t care that it was a coward’s way out, not when the outcome of this fight meant my survival and the survival of the two women I’d sworn to protect. I needed to survive this. If that meant taking a steel toe to a guy’s junk, then so be it.

  He approached and stood over me, his legs about shoulder width apart. It was the perfect scenario.

  I pushed up off the ground with my left foot and swung my right foot up to the sky. The tip of my boot landed a direct hit, and I gave him everything I had.

  For a moment, I was afraid that it didn’t work. He didn’t react immediately, just standing there like a big, angry, stupid statue.

  Then, his silhouette doubled over. The air rushed out of his lungs and wafted across my face.

  That’s right, you son of a bitch!

  I felt like a kid on the playground taking a cheap shot. But fuck it, it had opened a window for me. It had stunned the Ender. Now was my only chance to finish him off and I wouldn’t waste it.