The End of Magic (Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy)

by GM Gambrell

  Twenty Six

  The city in the cave wasn’t as large as Shreveport, or even Old Dallas. It was more of a large village, but Duncan was awestruck as they started towards the preserved town. The cars in the streets, though dust-covered, looked brand new. There were no rusting hulks, no fireball scars along the sides of the buildings. There were also no skeletons of any sort, human or otherwise. The town looked as if it had gone to sleep some time ago and never awoken. The glass in the storefront windows was intact and, peeking through, they saw the shelves lined with goods for sale, though the sale had ended a thousand years before.

  “This is pretty creepy,” Jessica began. “I expect someone to come out, sweeping the sidewalk or something, at any moment.”

  “NAME would love this, I suspect,” he said as they paused outside a video store. There were posters advertising movies with names like Jaws of Fury and One night in San Antonio.

  “Do you think they’re all right?” Jessica said, referring to Sir Dog and NAME.

  “I don’t know, and, until we find a way out of here, there isn’t anything we can do to help them. The last I saw NAME, he was on his side, but I think his solar panels were still exposed. He’ll have power, if nothing else. He might even be able to spin the wheels on one side enough to turn over.” Duncan didn’t think he’d be able to do that, but he didn’t want Jessica to worry.

  “And Sir Dog?”

  “He was surviving in the Wastes when he found me,” Duncan began. “I think he’ll be fine.”

  The continued on through the business district of the old town. There were cafes and coffee shops, a barbershop, and endless antique shops. That gave Duncan a chuckle. Everything in the ancient town was antique. He wondered if the storeowners, a thousand years ago, would have ever thought that even the floor mat outside their shop door would one day be an antique. They didn’t enter any of the buildings.

  “It almost seems wrong to go in one, doesn’t it?” Jessica asked, putting voice to his thoughts. “It seems like we’d be waking the dead.”

  “I’m afraid we’re going to have to, eventually.” Duncan told her. “Something protected this town from not just the Magicians, but time itself. I don’t know what happened to the people, but every ancient human dwelling we’ve seen has at least shown signs of the Last War. This place hasn’t and it looks like they all just up and left one day. But the town itself was protected. It had somehow been protected and moved down here. Do you realize what that would mean? If we could somehow shield ourselves from the Magicians, we might even be able to shield ourselves from the Creeping Death. We wouldn’t have to go underground, and we wouldn’t have to hide from them anymore.”

  “Maybe they all did survive the Last War,” Jessica began. “But if they did, what happened to them? Where have they all gone? Why aren’t their descendants here now?”

  “I don’t know,” Duncan admitted. “But like I said, we need to find out. I have a feeling this is important.”

  They continued through the ancient town, marveling at cars and motorcycles, the intact buildings, and even the neatly cut lawns. The grass was still green, despite the only partial sunshine that filtered down through the tunnels above. He paused in one yard and knelt, picking up a child’s baby doll. The thing looked realistic and even said “Mommy” when he touched it, giving both of them a start. He carefully put it back exactly where it was, scared to disturb the ancient scene.

  In the very center of the town stood a three-story courthouse made of red brick. It was an elegant building, complete with spires and a massive clock centered above the large front doors. It was the most beautiful building Duncan had ever seen, human or otherwise, and he saw the love with which the original craftsman had built it. The only thing that stood out in the town at all and seemed out of the ordinary were the three, black semi-trucks parked next to it. He’d seen rusted hulks of the trucks before, as well as pictures of them in the Magician histories, but these three looked different from all of those. Their trailers were covered in round dishes, and hundreds of cables, large and small, led from the trucks into the courthouse. There were also several other vehicles that he recognized as military transports interspersed around them. There were machine gun emplacements, along with cannons and mortars. Whoever these men had been, they’d been preparing for war.

  “Duncan, look,” Jessica said, pointing to the side of one of the trucks.

  There were suits of armor there, massive affairs of steel that, when worn, would make a man well over eight feet tall. They were lined up neatly along the side of the truck, with cables running into ports on the trucks. There was an air of electricity about the suits, like they might come online at any moment.

  “I’ve never seen those in the Magician Histories.” Duncan told her. “And I don’t think they’re of Magician design.”

  “What are they?”

  Each of the arms on the massive war suits was equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers. There were also rocket pods on the shoulders. “I think they were suits of armor for men to wear in defense against the Magicians. I think, judging by the state of this town, that they never got the chance to use them. Whatever happened to this town to preserve it like this also managed to stop whatever plans they had.”

  “Or they were here to guard the town.”

  “That could be the case too, I guess. We need more information,” Duncan said, realizing just how little they knew. This town could be the key to saving everything, he thought, and yet he felt like a first-year student at the Magic School trying to learn how to color without touching the colors.

  “We need to find a place to spend the night,” Jessica corrected. She was always the practical one, he thought.

  The light was fading from the surface and Duncan dreaded being trapped in the city without any light at all. He still had an electric lantern in his pack, but the batteries wouldn’t last long. The city appeared to be empty, but they still didn’t know for sure if they were alone or not. He looked around, trying to pick the building for them to enter. He really didn’t want to enter any of them and felt as if he were disturbing a grave just being in the city.

  “How about there?” she asked, pointing to a building directly across from the courthouse and the military vehicles. “Isn’t that the sort of place you spent all that time in back in New Dallas?”

  The sign above the building read Center, Texas Public Library and Duncan could have kissed Jessica when she pointed it out to him.