“All right, Scarlet. It’s been long enough. We should introduce the water folk to your brothers. Can all of you fit in here now? It looks like it’d be big enough for at least a short while.”
“I think we can manage for a time, though we will want to enlarge it or move elsewhere soon. My brothers do not cherish the idea of remaining cooped up in a den after gaining their freedom once again.”
“For now, let’s get all of them in here, and I’ll go round everyone up. I thought about doing this in two groups, but I’ll bring everyone down. I’d like them to meet your family, but we also need to let them know what just happened with the cities.”
“As you wish.”
Leaving Scarlet’s side, Jared walked back up the smooth tunnel created from dragon fire. It was awesome to have an entire contingent of dragons around. Already Scarlet proved her worth, and they rarely worried about their safety with her around. Jared should’ve felt even more secure, but after what they’d just encountered with the drop ships, even a full contingent of dragons wasn’t enough to quell his fears entirely. It was a start, certainly, but they had a long way to go before he would truly feel safe.
Jared started at the top of the platforms with his room, then the dining hall. One by one, he called into each of the rooms until everyone was ready to go. They crowded the stairs, an excited murmur of voices accompanying them to the clearing and the tunnel leading down.
Since they couldn’t all fly, Scarlet’s brothers trudged through the dense forest of desiccated trees, careful not to disturb too many of them and ruin the cover they afforded. Every now and again, pieces of trees snapped off and made Jared cringe. They’d need to go and erase the evidence of their passage.
“Everyone, grab hold of someone to help you descend this tunnel. It’s slick. I’ll go first in case you fall.”
Vanessa grabbed Jared’s arm and walked with him. Slowly, the rest of the water folk edged themselves down the tunnel while Jared, Elle, and Kitty waited at the bottom. Elle and Kitty hadn’t needed the warning. Elle had jumped on Kitty’s back, and the large graceful feline walked down the sloping tunnel as if on a flat surface, her claws easily slicing through the super-heated dirt to gain purchase.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the group made it to the bottom safely and clustered together. It reminded Jared of the first time he’d seen them emerging from the lake. Every sound and movement had terrified them. They’d been little more than husks of the people he now saw before him. The pale blue of their skin had been transformed to a healthy skin tone. They were still pale compared to him, but they no longer looked sickly. It was more like a lack of sunlight. The gaunt nature of their bodies had disappeared, replaced by athletic builds as everyone worked tirelessly to better their small community.
They’d come a long way, and now here they stood in a large underground cavern created by a dozen dragons. Jared suspected they couldn’t see all the dragons yet, nor the water trickling through the middle of the room. Their eyesight, while much better than it had been, didn’t really let them see in the dark like him with his enhanced abilities. The only light penetrating the underground chamber was the shaft they’d walked down. It illuminated some of the room, but not enough.
“Hey, Pete,” Jared called out. “Do we have portable lights in that workshop of yours?”
“Y-y-yes. There are some charging on my workbench. They should be ready to g-go by now. We’ve had clear skies, and the solar p-p-panels are working well.”
“Okay, everyone hold here. I’ll be right back.”
Jared sprinted up to Pete’s room. He found half a dozen of the portable lanterns. Unplugging them, he jogged back to the group. He passed three out to Elle and took the remaining three.
“Spread them around the room so everyone can get a good idea of the size of this place and see what’s inside.”
They placed the lanterns around the area, flicking them on to their highest settings. It wasn’t sufficient by any stretch of the imagination, but it at least gave everyone a reference point to anchor themselves in the massive room.
“Okay, everyone stay close and follow me.”
He walked a few dozen yards forward. Several people gasped as they saw the dragons for the first time. Excitedly, they jostled for better views and pointed in all directions.
“Listen up, everyone. There’s a lot we need to discuss. I know this is exciting, but I promise everyone will have plenty of time to greet our newest allies and to explore this cave. I’ll give you a brief introduction now, but there are also more serious matters we need to discuss.”
He turned to the dragons. “When you introduce yourself, can you please dial back your telepathy as much as possible? If you feel you’re unable to do so, just nod your head. These people, aside from maybe two, cannot handle the mental pressure, and it will hurt them greatly.” Just talking about it made his temples hurt as he remembered Alestrialia’s voice booming inside his mind.
One by one, Jared introduced the fire dragons. Thankfully, they were all able to dial back the psionic pressure on everyone’s minds. He saw a few of the water folk squint and furrow their brows while the dragons spoke, but nothing to show it was overly painful. Introductions done, Jared moved on to other business.
“This chamber is large enough for the dragons to sleep and remain out of sight for anyone flying over the area. Initially, we’d thought they would need to find some shelter far away from here. It’s awesome this cave was here for us to use. A stroke of luck, but unfortunately that luck didn’t hold earlier today.”
A few people cast confused looks his way, but he decided to save the bad news until after he’d finished explaining this new cave system. Jared made sure everyone was paying attention to him before continuing.
“Scarlet and her brothers will be enough to keep any creatures at bay, but we must explore the tunnel systems on either side of this cavern to make sure it’s safe. Once things settle down, I’ll take a small party with me and explore them to make sure we aren’t sharing this area with any other creatures. So please keep your explorations to this main room until that happens. Also, please stay close to the rest of the group. If any of these dragons move, they won’t notice a small human and could accidentally hurt one of you.”
His message received, Jared paused to collect his thoughts. He furrowed his brow, thinking through the best way to broach the earlier battle.
“The next topic is not so pleasant.” Jared hesitated as a ripple of fear passed through the group. “I…”
Jared didn’t know how to continue. He’d killed George. Sure, the man had never pulled his weight and had gone against Jared most of the way, but he had been a member of their group. He’d survived nearly a decade enslaved like the rest. While Jared himself felt no remorse, some of these folks might. Especially Damien, since they’d been close. Though, ever since the story about Razael unfolded, Damien hadn’t given Jared much trouble, had pulled his weight, and fit in with everyone else.
With no better way to say it, Jared dropped the news.
“George is dead.” He observed their faces but found he was the only one with a look of surprise. He’d expected some reaction, if not from Damien, then surely Vanessa would’ve had something to say about it. Only, no one spoke, and no one made an outward sign of caring.
“Um…I killed him?” Jared added a hint of a question in his words.
A few stray thoughts brushed his mind as several people sent telepathic words to their friends.
"Good riddance."
"It’s about time."
"That’s a relief."
He wondered where all the people were who’d agreed with George the other night. Specifically, when Jared had outlined their plans. Not even Damien looked particularly crestfallen about his death.
“I see there was no love lost on him. I’m curious, why did none of you stand up against him when
he fought us every step of the way? If I’d known you felt like this then, I’d have cast him out long ago, before he learned the secrets of bonding. He made quite a mess for us today, and we could’ve avoided it. He planned to turn us all in to the cities, and he stole a bunch of our new phase weapons.”
“Jared, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have stood up for him.”
“It’s okay, Vanessa. I understand why you did, and I don’t blame you. I didn’t kick him out before because I knew you’d all been through so much in your time under Razael’s influence, but I realize now, that wasn’t the right move to make.”
“Jared, we—” Vanessa collected her thoughts before finishing, “—we’d only just had our will returned to us. The experience was raw, and every person in our group survived. We saw anyone not us as an outsider. Even looking back at it, I don’t think we would make any different choices. The conversation we had the other day—it was necessary, and I think you know why.”
She didn’t elaborate any further, and she didn’t need to. Jared understood that she needed to stay a neutral party. If his actions went against the will of her people, she needed to side with them and reach an acceptable compromise later. Laying a hand on her shoulder, Jared nodded.
“I get it, I do. It’s just unfortunate things turned out the way they did. George almost made it back to the old colony before we intercepted him. We’d almost caught him when one of the drop ships showed up. We got our first good look at the humans that live above. Let me start by saying they are much stronger and more powerful than us. The only reason Scarlet and I defeated him was through teamwork. If you look at Scarlet’s side, you’ll see that the guy we faced almost gravely injured her. His weapons punched right through her defenses and scales. If even one more volley hit her side…” Jared shuddered.
It was Vanessa’s turn to reassure him as she reached up and squeezed his hand on her shoulder.
“After Scarlet left, it was everything I could do to avoid the phase rounds from this guy. His reflexes were fast and accurate. So fast, I couldn’t even see him move sometimes. He predicted most of my maneuvers. Thankfully, I distracted him long enough for Scarlet to spew fire at him. After the fight, George tried to take me out with a phase rifle, and that’s when I killed him.”
Everyone listening to his words gasped. They directed words of outrage at the now deceased member of their group. They couldn’t believe the guy would turn a weapon on Jared after he’d saved them from Razael.
Jared shook his head. Some people were fundamentally ungrateful, and nothing anyone did could change that. He finished his retelling of the battle and everyone started chatting about their encounter. Jared had to raise his voice over the noise to get their attention.
“Hold up a minute; I’m not finished. The credit for saving us goes to Malsour, Ashazad, and Kanundran. Without them coming to our rescue, I’m fairly certain Scarlet and I wouldn’t have made it back. We are fortunate they regained their ability to fly on their way here.”
Vanessa drew close and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. “I’m so sorry, Jared. You were right, and I should have listened to you when you expressed your suspicions about George. I never thought he’d do something like this. He never came across as outright malicious.”
“Don’t worry about it. I probably would’ve made the same choices in your shoes. You can see I’m protective of those I love. If someone came out of nowhere saying I shouldn’t trust someone and to banish them immediately after meeting them, I’d be suspicious too.” Turning back to the rest of the group Jared changed the topic. “It wasn’t all a loss! We got a huge number of weapons, equipment, and medical supplies from the ships. If it weren’t for the cities finding out dragons are real, I’d almost say George did us a favor.”
“They know?”
“How?”
“I thought—”
“Whoa, okay, yeah. I kind of left that part out. I lost my train of thought when you all didn’t react the way I thought you would. Yes, one ship got away and headed back to their city. I took out one, the second downed ship was from friendly fire after I used it to fire on them. Scarlet and her brothers took out three more ships, but as soon as the final one realized it had no chance, it bolted, and there’s no way they’d have caught up to it. So, yes. The cities know there are at least four dragons in the area and that we can easily take out a few drop ships. It doesn’t bode well for a surprise attack, but I got other stuff that might help us out. I’ll show everything when we head up for dinner. For now, everyone should take time to introduce yourselves to Scarlet’s family. Elle, Kitty? Can you two help me search down these tunnels? I want to make sure there’s nothing immediately beyond this area. Everyone else, please stay down here and away from the tunnel to the surface. The cities will likely send an even greater response to our attack, and we must stay out of sight as much as possible. Once I’ve finished searching these connecting tunnels, I’ll verify the coast is clear above and we can head up for dinner.”
Jared turned toward the first tunnel, Elle and Kitty on his heels. “Kitty, do you mind taking point? Elle, you take center, and I’ll guard the rear in case anything sneaks around us.”
Kitty surged forward, her camouflage ability triggering. Jared flipped over to Heat Sight to make sure he saw anything lurking along the walls. Even with Heat Sight, he couldn’t see where Kitty was. Her ability was impressive, and one day he hoped to learn how to do it. It was near invisibility and would provide a huge advantage if they ever infiltrated the cities.
They didn’t have far before discovering the tunnel dead-ended and the water continued running under a rock wall. Jared suspected that if they cleared out the area, they’d find yet more tunnels, but for now they didn’t need to worry about any intruders from this direction.
“All right, let’s double back and check the other side.”
When they got back to the main room, Jared watched all the water folk mingling with the dragons, several even had their hands on a dragon’s side as they communicated using telepathy. It surprised Jared that the dragons were open to a more intimate form of communication. Jared found himself grinning as he entered the tunnel with the water folk. Everything had gone smoothly introducing the two groups together, and he hoped it would continue until every dragon found a companion worthy of the bond.
Kitty took the lead again, disappearing from sight. This tunnel didn’t end abruptly as the other had, and they walked for nearly fifteen minutes before a scuffle ahead alerted him that Kitty had found something. He whipped out his new phase pistols. They functioned exactly like his previous ones, but were twice as heavy. They had the same safeties on the handgrip. The grip itself was of the same material. Overall, the main difference was the weight of the thing, a larger battery pack, and a grayish black color versus the white of the other.
A moment later, Kitty materialized in front of him, blood dripping down her snout.
“What happened?”
“Rats.”
“How many?”
“None. They are no more.” Kitty’s lips pulled back into a mischievous smile, revealing bits of flesh and fur stuck between her teeth.
“Why must you and Scarlet—” Jared cut off his next words and shook his head. “Never mind. Did you take them all out?”
“They are all dead.”
“Good. Where there’s one rat, there’s usually a lot more. Scarlet and I learned that the hard way and had to destroy an entire horde.”
“Only three nearby, but more further up the tunnel, maybe.”
“Let’s keep going, but please be careful. If there is a den, I want to be first in line. I should be able to take them out easily enough with these new phase pistols.”
Kitty turned around and headed back up the tunnel. A moment later, Jared and Elle passed the scene of destruction and found three mutilated rat corpses, large chunks missing where Kitty had indulged he
rself. Shuddering, he turned away from the shredded corpses and followed Kitty.
They encountered nothing else for another fifteen minutes and Jared called the search. If there was anything else, or another horde of rats, they were far enough up the tunnel it wouldn’t be an immediate threat for anyone. Even if there was a horde of rats, the dragons could easily eliminate them.
Jared’s biggest concern was the sanitation of the river that flowed through the cave system. The rats were upstream, and if they lived even remotely like those he’d encountered in the New York City subway, he didn’t want to think what kind of nastiness pervaded the water. He’d make sure no one drank from the stream until it was verified safe.
They made it back to the large chamber quickly, no longer concerned with stealth. Several people standing by the tunnel had turned to leave, yet the majority of the water folk walked among the dragons conversing.
“Scarlet, how goes everything here?”
“Well! My brothers are very much enjoying themselves. I did not expect such a warm welcome.”
“That’s good news. Perhaps all of them will bond in time.”
“It is possible.”
“We didn’t find anything threatening in the tunnels. Downstream is a dead end, so we don’t have to guard that tunnel. Upstream, Kitty found a few rats and dispatched them in a most horrifying manner.” Jared did his best to sound indignant, eliciting a chuckle from Scarlet.
“We are predators. We do not use forks and knives, as you humans.” Scarlet radiated smugness and reveled in his discomfort.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. I still have nightmares when I think of the lizards you fried. I can still hear the sizzling and bubbling of their flesh.”
“It was rather gruesome even for me, but the meat beneath tasted delicious.”
Jared knew he wouldn’t win this argument. He preferred to have his food prepared and cooked, but to Scarlet and Kitty any prey was good enough.
After double-checking everyone had what they needed, he let everyone know to steer clear of drinking the water for now. Then he led the group waiting by the exit up to their rooms. Just to be safe, Jared had Kitty and Elle scout the area first. Certain no city-dwellers or drop ships lurked nearby, they left the safety of the tunnel. Everyone piled into the dining hall since it was nearly time to eat. Marie directed several people to help prepare dinner while Jared, Elle, and Kitty returned to the cavern.
Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Page 15
