The Lost Enclave

by Fredric Shernoff

  “So maybe there is someone in his camp with access to these secrets who doesn’t believe the Prophet is the way.”

  “Yeah. Maybe. Would be nice if they’d left a calling card.”

  “I’d thought they did. I thought it was you, Goldman.”

  “I know. Sorry I turned out to be a disappointment.”

  Nathaniel smiled, then winced when a wave of pain and exhaustion passed through his body. Goldman took no notice. “You are no disappointment, Goldman.”

  “Thanks. So how the fuck do we get out of this town? I crapped up my car back in your world, and my ID won’t pass muster anymore, so public transportation is out of the question.”

  “There was a woman…” Nathaniel began.

  “Right. The one who took you around looking for me. How do you expect to find her? ‘Cause I gotta tell you, Nate, if I was her, I’d have fled town the second you said goodbye.”

  Nathaniel shook his head. “Lilli is stronger than she believes. Much like you.”

  “Right. So you think she stayed in Ethos?”

  “It’s what she knows. And she was hoping to avoid detection by the Loyalty Guard.”

  “So she’d go back to a normal routine as quickly as possible. Play it cool.”

  “I don’t know the phrase, but yes. Her normal routine.” He paused. “The diner.”

  “Diner?”

  “A place where people eat. You went there.”

  “Jesus, Nate. I know what it is. I just meant like why would you assume she’ll go there?”

  “It’s a friendly place for her. Like the gathering halls in the enclave. She will go to hear the gossip and make sure she’s safe.”

  “You’re assuming a lot. For her, it’s been just a couple hours since she left you. Maybe she goes home after all that shit and stays in bed for the next week. You don’t know.”

  “I doubt that. She is—”

  “Stronger than she believes. I get it. Fine. Let’s go to the diner. But let’s move fast. I’m not thrilled with the condition you’re in right now and your clothes are still going to attract attention.”

  He doesn’t understand the beginning of my condition, Nathaniel thought. His head was pounding now, and his muscles kept losing their tension. He didn’t know how much longer he would be able to remain upright, and if he fell, the best-case scenario would be a trip back to Opellius’s house. On some level, he was beginning to regret his plan and his bravado. Still, they needed to press forward. Weakened or not, he was a Great One.

  The Ethos Diner was easy to find, as both of them had visited it previously. It took more walking than Nathaniel had hoped, and he had to catch his breath while leaning in the doorway.

  “Damn it, Nate,” Goldman said. “You’re falling apart! Can we at least sit down or something so we don’t look so obvious?” His eyes fell on a newspaper on a metal rack next to the door. “Shit, the slippage is worse than we thought.”

  “How?” Nathaniel asked.

  Goldman tapped the paper with the back of his hand. “This. I thought we were a couple of hours later, but it’s two days later. Which is going to make your plan that much more impossible.”

  Nathaniel scanned the room, which was nearly empty. He saw Lilli sitting in a corner booth facing away from them with her chin resting in her hands. He pointed to her with one hand while supporting himself with the other.

  “Oh, you’re kidding me,” Goldman muttered. “Jesus. Well, let’s go ruin her day.”

  Nathaniel pushed off the doorframe, and almost wobbled over. He steadied himself and Goldman stepped in front of him to provide support. A woman came over to them carrying menus. She looked at Nathaniel with concern.

  “Your friend was in here before, wasn’t he?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Goldman said. “He’s having a real tough go of it lately. Trying to cope, you know?” He pantomimed drinking.

  The woman nodded, but her face registered concern. Nathaniel wanted to say something, but he’d learned that in Goldman’s world, everything he did or said made people more uneasy. The woman led them to a booth on the opposite end of the wall from where Lilli sat. Nathaniel sat down and leaned against the wall. Goldman sat across from him, the worried, assessing look back on his face.

  “Stay here,” Goldman said. “Just relax. And don’t order anything. We can’t pay.”

  Nathaniel nodded. Food was the last thing he wanted. Even the thought made him feel sick. He had only felt that kind of sensation during his time as a mortal when he was young, and only once. It had been horrible then, and it was somehow worse now.

  He watched as Goldman approached Lilli’s booth.

  “Excuse me, Miss,” Goldman said.

  Lilli startled, and looked to see who was speaking to her.

  “You…” she said, her eyes growing wide. “You’re Grant Sullivan. The gold man.”

  “Listen, can you not say any of that around here? Things are a little messy for me right now.”

  “I know,” Lilli said. “I saw you get your ass kicked in a hotel room.” She tilted her head as she studied him. “You’ve got fresh bruises all over you, but then a bunch of yellow ones.” Then she paused, as if correcting herself. “No. Fuck it. I don’t want to know what your deal is. Just leave me alone. Sorry.”

  “I don’t want to drag you back into this,” Goldman said, “but we need your help.”

  “We…oh. No.”

  Goldman nodded. “Yeah. I brought the aging superhero with me.” He pointed at Nathaniel and Lilli turned. She grimaced when she saw him, and turned quickly back to Goldman.

  “Whatever the hell you two are dealing with, it has nothing to do with me. Do you understand? I took care of Nathaniel. I listened to his crazy ramblings, and saw his parlor tricks. And I’m done. Do you get me? I don’t want the Loyalty Guard coming down on me.”

  “Lilli, listen, I’ve been there. I got dragged into all of this before Nate even got to me. I just wanted to live my life in peace. But I don’t get that choice. I have to see this all through to the end. We can make this world a better place and give everybody a chance at a better life. But we need your help for just a little bit more. Please, just come sit down with us and hear us out.”

  “Why can’t Nathaniel come over here?” she asked. “He’s too weak, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah. And I know he can hear me say this- he’s much weaker than he’s letting on.”

  Nathaniel wanted to retort but thought better of it. Goldman was handling things well enough.

  “Fine. Goddamn it. I’ll listen to the newest crazy story.”

  She got up and followed Goldman back to Nathaniel’s booth. He forced himself as upright as he could manage. “Good day, Lilli.”

  “Nathaniel. I’m pretty sure I asked you to leave me alone and not drag me into more of your shit. Didn’t I?”

  Goldman smiled. “Answer the lady, Nate. Tell her about how you coerced me into coming back here and promised me she’d be the right person to help us.”

  “I’m sorry to do this, Lilli,” Nathaniel said.

  “Yeah. I’m sure you are. And yet you’re doing it anyway.”

  “I have no choice. Can you sit down with us?”

  She took a seat across from Nathaniel, and Goldman slid in next to him. Nathaniel had to admit, Goldman’s strange humor had some kind of charm. He doubted he would have been able to get an audience with Lilli on his own. She may have run right out of the diner. Then again, he probably wouldn’t have been able to walk across the room without Goldman’s help either. Being so indebted to another person was a new and uncomfortable sensation.

  “So I brought you to save Grant Sullivan,” she said. “And then what happened?”

  “We returned to my time and took down the leader of my land,” Nathaniel said. “But we have reason to believe that everything wrong in my world begins here. With Weber.”

  Lilli looked around nervously. “Nathaniel! You can’t say that name. Seriously.”

  “For
give me,” he said. “We need your help to escape Ethos so that we may hunt down the answers we require.”

  “You want me to drive you both out of Ethos. How far?”

  Nathaniel looked to Goldman.

  “I don’t know,” Goldman said. “Probably a pretty good distance.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “We need to learn more about how the ‘leader’ operates,” Goldman said. “And we can’t do it in town where we’ve been compromised. We have to get out into the middle of nowhere.”

  Lilli blinked and her eyebrows arched. “You want me to drive you out to the middle of the woods or something and just leave you there?”

  “I know it sounds nuts,” Goldman said.

  “Yes. Yes it does.”

  “But, lady, if you’d seen some of the shit I’ve seen recently, you’d think this was normal as can be. Trust me. Anyway, we need to set up camp and take time to figure out our operation.”

  “Your operation?”

  “Surveillance of the Guard and its capabilities,” Nathaniel said in a hushed voice. “So that we can plan the course of our mission.”

  Lilli put her head in her hands. “God. You people are fucking insane.”

  Goldman smiled. “So you’ll help us?”

  “Arrrgh!” Lilli groaned. The two other patrons in the diner and the woman behind the counter turned. “Fine. Fine. And then you’ll never come back this way again?”

  “I don’t see why we would,” Goldman said. “I mean, it’s a lovely town you’ve got here…probably the prettiest of the places I’ve almost died in. That said, it’s a big country.”

  Lilli shook her head. “I give up. Let me just pay for my lunch and we can go.”

  “Little late for lunch, isn’t it?” Goldman asked. “More like linner, really.”

  “I slept in, okay? Things have been rough.” She turned to Nathaniel. “Thanks to you, of course.”

  Nathaniel nodded. “Aye. I am sorry.”

  “Okay,” Goldman said. “Enough chitchat. Go pay for your linner.”

  “Is he always like this?” Lilli asked.

  “Indeed,” Nathaniel said. “It’s wearisome for a while, but it becomes bearable in time.”

  Goldman held his hand to his heart. “Nobody has ever described me in more perfect terms.”

  3

  They left the diner and found Lilli’s car. Goldman gave Nathaniel some support as they walked, and eased him into the back seat. Nathaniel slumped at an angle.

  “How long do you think you’re going to be able to stay here?” Goldman asked. “You’re getting worse.”

  “I’ll stay as long as need be.”

  “Great. And when you pass away, where would you like me to bury you?”

  Nathaniel frowned, but said nothing. Goldman opened the front passenger door and sat next to Lilli. Nathaniel closed his eyes and listened to the strange hum of the vehicle.

  “So are we talking west of Ethos or east?” Lilli asked. “There’s plenty of wilderness in both directions. Come to think of it, we could go north or south too, but you won’t find as much open land.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Goldman said. “We just have to get away.”

  As if to prove the point, one of the drones settled in directly in front of the car’s windshield.

  “Oh fuck,” Lilli said. “It’s scanning us.”

  “Yeah,” Goldman said. “Open the window.”

  Nathaniel opened his eyes and saw Goldman shift onto one hip. He pulled the energy weapon from his waistband, and rolled back the other way, putting the weapon out the window. Goldman fired, and the crackle of hellfire made Nathaniel cringe. It was the sound of death, a sound that had taken away those he loved and had brought him closer to his own end than most anything in his long existence.

  There was a thud, and Lilli let out a small scream. Nathaniel pushed himself upright, feeling another wave of nausea. “Is it destroyed?” he asked.

  “Dead as a doornail,” Goldman said. “Sorry about your hood, Lilli. That’s probably gonna leave a mark.”

  Lilli sighed. “Whatever. Can we just get the hell out of here now? I took some personal time off from work after the last mess you got me into, but right now I just want to get you out of my car, go to bed, and start back up at the bank bright and early, pretending none of this ever happened.”

  “Do you think the drone had a chance to report to its superiors?” Nathaniel asked.

  “Maybe,” Goldman said. “Time to get out of this town.”

  They drove past the Ethos town line. Nathaniel looked around. There was open road ahead, and empty land on both sides. Only the occasional metal sign disrupted the serene imagery. “It reminds me of the space between lands,” Nathaniel said.

  “The what?” Lilli asked.

  “The place where we came from. Where Opellius lives. It is empty and beautiful like this. I believe that land was once an area just like this, if not here exactly.”

  “So you’re from the future?” Lilli asked incredulously.

  “Aye, perhaps.” Nathaniel closed his eyes again and before long he found himself drifting toward sleep.

  Suddenly, the car jolted to a stop.

  “Shit!” Goldman yelled.

  “Oh fuck, they’re all around!” Lilli said.

  Nathaniel opened his eyes. There were drones on every side of the car, peering through the windows with their soulless eyes.

  “Drive!” Goldman said.

  The car lurched forward again. The drones in front smashed into the windshield, splintering the glass. Lilli screamed again and the car gained speed.

  “They’re coming after us,” Goldman said. “We’re fucked, Nate.”

  Nathaniel felt adrenaline kick in, and he sat up at full alert. “Use the energy weapon. Take out as many as you can.”

  “You aren’t getting this!” Lilli cried. “The Loyalty Guard is on its way. We’re dead!”

  “Lilli, you turn this vehicle around and go back the way we came,” Nathaniel said. “Goldman, you create a path for us. As much of one as you can.”

  Lilli spun the wheel and the car turned. Nathaniel fell into the door and had to struggle to right himself. Goldman leaned out the window and fired the energy weapon again and again. The bolts of power crippled the drones, which fell from the sky.

  “Push through,” Nathaniel said to Lilli. “Keep going!”

  Lilli was crying as she pushed her car to its limits. They bumped over the broken road and the shells of the drones that littered the ground as Goldman shot them.

  “They sent a fucking squadron after us!” Goldman yelled.

  Nathaniel cursed himself for being so useless even as he prodded his partners onward.

  “There’s the sign for the town limits,” Goldman said. “We’re back in Ethos now. Where to?”

  “The portal,” Nathaniel said. “Find the portal.”

  “We’re retreating?” Goldman asked.

  “What would you have us do?” Nathaniel responded. “We are outmatched.”

  At that moment, sirens sounded.

  “The Loyalty Guard!” Lilli screamed. “They’re here!”

  “Find the portal!” Nathaniel commanded.

  “There!” Goldman said. “Lilli, pull up right there.”

  “That’s where I found you,” Lilli muttered. “When all this started.”

  “Aye. You need to come with us.”

  “No. No. No. I’m not going anywhere. I want this all to end. I’ll just tell the Guard that you people forced me to drive you around. I can fix this.”

  Goldman put a hand on her shoulder. “You can’t fix this. This shit is happening. Nate’s right. You have to come with us.”

  Lilli pulled the car to a stop. The sirens grew louder as they got out of the car. Goldman came around to Nathaniel’s door and helped him to his feet. “Nate, we really need to talk about putting you on a diet if I’m going to have to keep lugging you around.”

  “They’re comin
g!” Lilli called. “Shit! I can’t believe I let you talk me into this!”

  “The portal’s right over there,” Goldman said. “You just can’t see it cause you didn’t come through it.”

  “Stop where you are!” a voice called. Two of the Loyalty Guards had exited a car and were approaching fast. One of the men had his gun drawn.

  “We need to move like lightning,” Goldman said. “You all with me?”

  “No!” Lilli said. “Let me talk to them and explain.”

  “Don’t move!” the other Guard called.

  “Slowly…” Goldman called as they moved closer to the portal. “Slowly. Inch over here. Now!”

  To Nathaniel’s weary mind and body, the events seemed to transpire in slow motion. Goldman fired the energy weapon at the Loyalty Guards as he, Nathaniel, and Lilli fell backwards toward the portal. Lilli struggled as Nathaniel pulled her with them.

  The energy weapon paralyzed one Guard, who fell to the ground in a twitching heap. The other Guard fired his gun. The gunshots boomed as the portal rushed up all around them. Nathaniel felt the sting as a bullet caught him in the abdomen. Then there was nothing.

  When Nathaniel awoke, he was back in bed at Opellius’s house. One of the hive mind was watching him with some disdain. He supposed he couldn’t blame the creature. Their simple lives had become increasingly complicated since Nathaniel had arrived. The same could probably be said for everyone else he’d met along the way.

  “I’m sorry I don’t know your name,” Nathaniel said. “I don’t have Goldman’s ability to differentiate between you. I wish I could.”

  The hive mind shrugged and wrinkled its grey face. “Dendooti.”

  “Indeed,” Nathaniel said. “Where is Goldman? And the woman?”

  “Minta minta,” the hive mind said. It paused, and closed its eyes with great focus. “Goooadmahn. Ay oh kay.”

  Nathaniel was stunned. “He’s teaching you. Incredible.”

  The hive mind vanished from view, and Nathaniel sat up in time to see the door close as the humanoid left.