“That is…kind of terrifying.”
“As an understatement.” Doc closed his eyes tightly before meeting Noah’s eyes again. “People can go nuts talking about this stuff. The unknown is scary, but the evidence just keeps stacking up. These Aelves are moving, just small groups right now, but driving survivors before them, and apparently destroying towns. And that's not the worst of it—I’ve heard that they’re no longer just kidnapping people, or attacking little towns. There have been fortresses and cities—entire cities—taken down by just one or two dozen Aelves.”
“What? How?” Noah asked, aghast.
Chris crushed his cigarette under a heel and stared at the night sky. He said, “If you think about it. We’re nothing without our technology. Even in the fortresses, it's hard to keep people in line or informed. Without warnings about the Aelves’ attacks, it's hard to prepare for that kind of thing, especially if nobody believes they even exist, to begin with. But on top of that, like I told you before, they have magic. They’re also reported to be stronger, faster, and tougher than us.
The older man paused, cocking his head while he re-buttoned the top of his flannel shirt that always came undone. The older man tried to act nonchalant, but his tone changed slightly, and he didn’t look directly at Noah. “Actually, now that I think about it, remember that place I mentioned before?”
The young man had caught the gleam in Doc’s eye—the smoker was a horrible actor. “What do you mean?” he lied. He knew exactly what the other man meant. Doc had teased Noah before about his curiosity regarding Hammerfist after Doc had brought it up in the first place.
They’d discussed Camp Hammerfist several times over the last few months. Doc had pieced together rumors into an inspiring, almost unbelievable story. Camp Hammerfist was reportedly one of the only fortresses that had survived pretty much everything thrown at it, remaining unscathed. Ever since Noah had asked a few very normal, very innocent questions about what a certain woman might look like, Doc had never let it go. For such a brilliant man, he could be really irritating about this subject.
Chris Broad raised an eyebrow at Noah and gave him a wolfish smile. “You know, Hammerfist! The place with the beautiful leader, Zelda—the rumored warrior beauty on the other side of the God forsaken country. If I recall, you were very curious about Zelda, even asking if we had pictures of her, right? Come on, Noah; you remember Hammerfist! There’s no shame, we both know what kind of girls you’re into now.” Doc grinned so hard, his cheeks must have hurt.
Noah looked away in irritation. He hadn’t thought about any girls since Krystal Conolly, his high school crush…well, mostly. Besides, he was too busy these days just surviving, and maybe even trying to save the entire Human race to worry about silly stuff like dating.
Doc seemed to catch his mood because he sobered and said, “Hammerfist is rumored to be one of the only places to ever survive an attack by Aelves. I actually just got this information fairly recently in a letter. I don’t have any details, and it’s probably not true, but I thought it was interesting.”
“And you never mentioned this before? Why is—” Suddenly the orb pulsed again in Noah’s hand, elevating his hearing on its own. The sounds in the area increased in his mind, and he heard something out of place, a ragged breath and someone dragging their leg. Noah held up a hand and gave Doc an alert look. The wiry man immediately nodded and stood, preparing for a visitor. Meanwhile, Noah quietly skulked to the not-so-hidden lab and hid in his secret cubby, latching it behind him. He held the purple orb to his chest and listened to the person approaching the cabin.
***
From his hiding place, Noah listened to the stranger’s arrival. Being the professional he was, Doc Broad hadn’t acted any differently than usual and diagnosed the visitor the same as he would anyone else. He didn’t even ask the man why he was alone. Flying solo was a dangerous risk in the post-Shift world. Is he a member of the Red Chain? Noah wondered. Some part of him worried, as usual, that the newcomer could be a test from Redford. Then he heard Doc Broad’s diagnosis that the guy had really hurt his ankle, and felt a bit silly. He continued to listen in.
“You’re all set, James,” Doc said from two rooms away. Noah wasn’t sure whether James was a member of the Red Chain. Learning each other’s first names was never a priority for the raiders, or at least hadn’t been for Worm. Doc Broad obviously felt differently—about everyone.
In the past, Noah had asked Doc why he fixed anybody that came by, never even asked where anyone come from. More pointedly, he’d asked why he was helping the Red Chain. Chris Broad had responded that he must help anybody he could, regardless of the kind of person they were. He didn’t always want to, but he felt obligated. The man felt he had the skills for it, so he had no excuses for not helping people. The down-to-earth man had seemed melancholy about the subject but had been perking up over time.
Noah knew where part of Doc’s new excitement came from. With the orb and his experimentations with it, he felt he could provide a different kind of help for humanity. He could give electricity back to everyone again. Of course, this meant it could definitely never fall into Redford’s hands. Doc had bluntly told Noah that he might just hand over a copy of all his research to the youth once he was done, so it had more chance of reaching the right people.
If such a thing happened, the brilliant man wanted Noah to travel to Smalltown, one of the three safe fortresses in Ohio around the Cleveland area. Noah had already been heading there before he’d been captured by the Red Chain. “From the sounds of it,” Doc Broad had once explained to Noah, “the three major fortresses in the Cleveland area are led by three people who go by the names Ruby, Blue, and Yellow. They must know each other—I’ve heard the three fortresses are constantly trading and even support each other against raider attacks. The Cleveland area is one of the last safe places in America.”
As Noah sat in the hidden cupboard, he half-listened to Doc talk to the new patient. At first, he’d actually been paying attention, but nobody was saying anything particularly interesting, and the young man felt antsy while thinking about the last strongholds left in the US.
Not many people were left anymore. So many people had died the last two years… He hadn’t realized he’d started crying until a single tear fell to his stained blue jeans. Some of the memories he had now…he had nightmares almost every night. Noah rubbed his face and settled his emotions, studying his clothing as he did so. Doc cleaned their belongings pretty often, but the last few months had not been kind to anything Noah owned or had acquired. These days, the survivors just made do with what they could. Sure, there were plenty of clothes in the cities, but supply runs to those predator-infested areas were practically suicide these days.
Finally, he heard the stranger leave. James, or whoever he was, had left the area in a different direction than he’d arrived. This was good. If he had left in the same direction he’d arrived, that would have been cause for concern, signifying a home base or a separate group. The lanky young man sighed in relief and stepped out of the hidden cubby to wait for his host in the lab. When the slim, clean-shaven man returned, Noah said, “That could have been a trap.”
“I know,” said Doc. “But anyone who comes here has my help. You know this. Besides, without the help of some of my visitors with food and water and such, we might have a problem with basic survival.”
Noah looked away and kept his disagreement silent. He had voiced his concerns about Doc Broad’s treatment policy several times already. Some of the people that came to the cabin were shifty, even scarier than the Red Chain. One day, one of them might snap and kill their wilderness doctor.
Silence rang for a few seconds. Noah fidgeted with the orb in his hand, and Doc Broad sighed. He said, “I really was going to wait to show this to you, but I guess the final stage doesn’t truly need to be done yet.” Noah turned back with a questioning look. Doc stretched his hand out, wordlessly asking for the orb. After a slight hesitation, the young man hande
d it over. Giving up the precious object was hard to do, but he really did trust Doc with his life. The older man was responsible for both of their lives every day, actually.
Noah followed Doc around the makeshift lab. The center of the room didn’t look special, but underneath several piles of old, salvaged video game consoles, Doc had hidden a contraption he’d built for the orb. Noah recognized it, surprised as usual by how simple it looked. The whole thing was small enough to hold in his hands.
Doc Broad examined the sphere and chuckled. “You know, even after all this time, I can’t use this thing at all. I don’t understand it now, but maybe we will in time.” Then the man put the orb inside the cradle he’d made for it, part of a modified mini generator. The blocky gizmo was wired to an old MP3 player, which was, in turn, hooked up to a speaker. Doc Broad flipped on a switch, and the light of the MP3 player flared, static echoing softly through the speaker.
Noah sucked in a breath, and he took a step back. After two years, the sound of static was alien, equal parts joyful and terrifying. “Holy shit,” he whispered. “You just brought back electricity. Like, is this even real?”
Chris must have been trying to play it cool, because his poker face broke into a huge grin. “I’ll admit that when I first discovered this, you were sleeping, and I had to sit down for a while. One of my first thoughts after that was that I wanted to make hardcopy schematics and send you to Smalltown with the orb. You should be okay these days, at least if you’re careful. The orb can help you avoid a bunch of nasty stuff out there. I haven’t had a chance to even get very far with the schematics so far, though. Normal physics and electrical understanding don’t work with the orb. I figured all of this stuff out pretty much by accident and a lot of trial and error.”
“Wow, Doc,” Noah breathed. He kind of wanted to say something snarky, but the awe of the moment was just too great. This must have been how the first humans to discover fire had felt!
Doc Broad’s words tumbled out as he explained, “With this, we’ll be able to make communication relays between towns, and eventually, even other states! Of course, we'd have to use the orb to power batteries and generators for other towns. Well, at least I think that batteries charged by the orb will stay charged. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, none of this does, but I’m figuring it out. That said, I can't supply an entire town separately, but we’ll find a way. This is just the first step. There are other people who are more qualified than me to do this, but I knew that I would be able to figure something out with that orb if I had the time to play with it.”
“Do the MP3 player and speaker work?” Noah asked.
“You bet,” the thin man said, smiling. “In fact, I have one of my favorite songs from a video game queued up. It’s only an instrumental. I—To be honest, I’ve been dreaming of this moment ever since the Shift. This may be my favorite song of all time—the song playing during the first time I ever cried from a video game. I wanted this to be the first thing I heard if I could ever make electronics work again. Since it’s only an instrumental, there are no words. I feel kind of awkward, but…maybe I should sing it?
“Yeah, that’s fine, Doc,” Noah said, his voice full of wonder. The young man stared at the speaker like he expected it to do a magic trick. Maybe it would.
“I have a really bad voice.”
“It’s fine, Doc, just do whatever.” Noah waved a hand. “This is all amazing!”
“Okay, uh, the song was originally by Hikaru Utada, um—” The older man scratched his head and shifted from foot to foot.
“Seriously, Doc, just play it.”
“Okay, here we go!” Doc Broad shrugged and hit a button. Almost immediately, the song began playing, an acoustic guitar and techno background mixing together seamlessly. The lab swelled with the melody from the lonely little speaker, played at low volume. Doc nodded along, his eyes noticeably getting wet.
Meanwhile, Noah’s knees buckled. The music wasn’t anything like the aimless notes he mentally hummed when connecting with the orb. This song had structure, purpose, unlike his own life. The music pulled at him with longing and hope.
And then, Doc Broad sang. His voice was sharp and scratchy. He really wasn’t a talented singer, but the words brought tears to Noah’s eyes. Something in him broke, he felt the cracks in his spirit widen, and the song filled them with light. The orb in his hand pulsed with the music.
The thin man with the smoker’s voice sang of what lies beyond the morning, of warnings, the future not scaring him, and nothing being the same anymore. Those words landed in Noah's heart like a seed dug deep into the Earth. They would stay with him forever.
Chapter 7
Kahlek watched Moore of the Silver Clouds single-handedly destroy a group of nearly fifty humans with her magic. Fresh blood sprayed her pallid Unaleshi skin, a fine mist dusting her white hair braided in the warrior style–long and tight on the sides. Some of the humans screamed, and a few kept talking until Moore killed them, snuffing them out.
If Kahlek’s translation had been correct, this group of humans had issued a challenge before eventually cowering, and had called their human tribe the Red Metal Rope. Kahlek’s own knowledge of the primitive human language was lacking, not yet at the same level that his mage-master’s had been. But Twenek, his old mentor, was now dead, and Kahlek had no one else to learn from.
Twenek, the greatest scholar of the Blue Mountain tribe, had been wise enough to learn the most prominent languages and cultures of the humans before the Unaleshi had begun their mission. Before his people had sent the energy suppressors ahead of their ship, Twenek had been deep in study. Luckily, Kahlek had been taught his master’s techniques to absorb new languages and information quickly. Even without a goddess orb, Kahlek had been an outstanding student among the scholars of the Blue Mountains.
The young Unaleshi watched in sick fascination as the humans died one by one by Moore's gravity magic. Kahlek stood with the Silver Cloud warriors in Moore’s command, his differing uniform and hairstyle setting him apart from his cousins. With a quick glance, he noted that some of the other Unaleshi shared his reaction to the carnage, the rest looking bored with various degrees of sincerity. Moore herself was focused, intent. The female mage crushed some of the human’s legs as if they’d been pressed under immeasurable weight. Other humans were flipped screaming, high into the air, landing half a noq away. No, mile, Kahlek corrected himself, reminded of his master’s lessons. The closest human equivalent to noqs are miles. Remaining members of this human tribe were ripped apart with surgical precision. This group had been armed, but it hadn’t helped them.
Moore had been indulging lately, listening to the humans scream as she slowly ripped their skin away from muscle and sinew. The way she dissected the humans and floated their organs in the air, suspended in neat little rows for the survivors to see, gave Kahlek an unwanted insight into the human anatomy. Moore’s recent obsession was distasteful. Kahlek understood her motivation, but it made him impatient. He deeply wished he could put a stop to her…dalliances, but Moore still did her duty. Human brains and hearts were removed from both living and dead victims, and delivered to Moore’s assistant to store for transport back to the ship. Part of Kahlek’s irritation was how differently they viewed the humans. To her, they were the enemy, but he saw them as sustenance, nothing more.
Moore’s pride and her hatred for the humans were on full display as she slowly picked them apart. She could have used her gravity magic to destroy them all at once, but she took her time, made it personal. The opportunity was used to experiment, discover new ways to apply her magic to the human bodies. Kahlek found her efforts wasteful and inefficient.
Their differences could be traced back to their training. Moore was of the Silver Clouds, a tribe of proud warriors. Kahlek himself had learned the ways of the Blue Mountains, scholars and keepers of the Old Way. Unfortunately, his tribe was now the weakest. He should be pursuing his mission alone, or perhaps with a trusted ally or two, but inste
ad, he had to endure the zeal of the Silver Clouds.
Kahlek’s mission was simple, but important—he had to reclaim his master’s orb for his own tribe. The young Unaleshi frowned and thought, We need to hold what little power we have left or else the Silver Clouds will truly take control. When his master, Twenek, had gone missing, Kahlek had been the first to volunteer to reclaim the orb. The importance of the task had been immediately obvious.
Since he had still only been an apprentice scholar, the Silver Clouds had demanded that a number of their own mage-warriors accompany him. The result was…this. His tribe’s weakness had resulted in traveling with his cousins, who proceeded to insist on destroying population after population of humans instead of focusing on their mission. Kahlek sidestepped as blood sprayed in his direction. If his robes became stained to the point of ruin, he’d have to wait another Earth-month before the ship would grow the leaves necessary to replace it. The Silver Clouds had no such concerns, of course. Their slick uniforms doubled as armor, and were designed to repel bodily fluids. Kahlek found his war-like cousins excessive at times, but he appreciated their efficiency in matters of violence.
Usually.
Kahlek eyed Moore carefully, wondering if her rage against the humans would not spill over onto him. She’s still bitter about losing her husband, he noted as fact. When Kahlek’s tracking party had attacked a particularly well-defended human settlement, none of the Unaleshi had expected to face a nightmarish…abomination. The human female had somehow attuned with a goddess orb. Then the unthinkable had happened—the human female had managed to defeat Moore's husband, Poran, in combat.
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