Through the Eyes of the Phoenix

by Martin W Francis

  I cleaned the blade of my sword before sheathing it. Jess nodded her head, Carla gave me a thumbs up, and Aurora said nice moves. Sandra who still had not made her first kill gave a sigh of relief steadily placing her pistol back in her holster.

  A scuttle noise suddenly came from behind the others. I saw a male Fallen wearing a dark red suit with a funny circular red hat stumbling near them. Turning towards the noise I heard mom say that it was a bell hop, whatever that is. It was missing flesh from the right side of its face. It advanced with a slight limp stepping with an awkward sideways gape. Aurora stepped away from the others sweeping around to its side. She withdrew a knife quietly sneaking behind it (it seemed really focused on Carla for some reason). It heard Aurora too late. It began to turn its head seconds before the knife was plunged into its temple. It fell to the ground twitching momentarily before becoming still.

  Carla went behind the main desk taking four keys off pegs on the wall. Each had numbers coinciding with rooms next to each other. She laid them on the desk for us to take one.

  “Been ages since I have seen a hotel that still uses keys instead of electronic cards. At least we don’t have to kick in doors to gain entry. Figured the two of you would rather share a room to feel safer.”

  “If the two of you are going to be rolling around moaning all night, I hope you will keep it to a whisper.”

  “Aurora! Now I know where Em gets the free expression of words from. You do realize that is my little girl?”

  “Mom, I’m seventeen not seven. As far as sex goes, I sneak into Sandra’s room at night occasionally, but we haven’t done anything except cuddle together. You do realize that eventually we will though?”

  Throwing her hands up in the air pretending despair, Jess grabbed up one of the keys walking away. Aurora snickered a little. Carla held her hands over her mouth trying not to laugh.

  Sandra walked behind me pressing up against my back while wrapping her arms around my waist. “I think your free expression is sexy.”

  Carla and Aurora both started laughing hysterically. A couple minutes later while holding her side with tears in her eyes from laughing so hard, Aurora looked up.

  “You two remind me of Kurt and myself. It’s nice to see that blissful happiness expressed in the love you have for one another.” She continued to smile momentarily before putting on a straight face. “Really though, try not to bang the bed against the wall to loudly.”

  Sandra and I both blushed bright red which made them start laughing all over again.

  We gathered together for a quick dinner. Afterwards, we played cards that Carla had brought. We used an old oil lantern for light when it began to get dark. Mom seemed to somehow win most hands. After a while everyone decided to retire. That night we did have relations for the first time likely due to the earlier conversation. It was spectacular! I had to cover my mouth several times. We made love for hours until so exhausted we both passed out.

  We got back on the road the following morning pretty early. A few hours later we encountered a couple of regular Fallen. We had just entered a small town called Lakeview when we came across them. We pulled over to refuel from the small tank on the trailer towed behind the Suburban. The smell of rotted meat was horrible in the air. Aurora complained while pumping the fuel about not doing it prior to leaving the hotel. The Fallen wearing white uniforms and beige cone shaped things on their heads came out of an open ice cream parlor across the street. Sandra saw them first drawing her gun. Jess immediately assessed the situation seeing Sandra pull her weapon. She told everyone to let Sandra take care of them. She had her gun trained just to be safe. Her first bullet went astray, Sandra not used to the concept of the targets moving. She took down two before the third got close enough that she was too frightened to focus. She shot it in the right cheek and the shoulder as she started backing away. Jess pulled the trigger on her gun finishing off the final Fallen.

  “Sorry, I freaked out.”

  “It’s understandable being your first time. You need to keep practicing. You have to learn to stay calm no matter what. Also, be sure to take in your environment at all times. You don’t want to be shooting in the direction of old fuel pumps or accidentally shoot someone that is going in for a kill. Those are the two main secrets to survival.”

  “Yes ma’am. I’ll do my best in the future to take those words to heart.”

  “Ember, what have you noticed since we came in town?”

  “A few small easy to secure places. There was also a veterinary clinic that likely has bandages, possibly other medical supplies that could be of use. It had at least one Fallen crawling around without legs on the side of the building. Saw a mechanic shop that probably has decent makeshift weapons. I mean they usually have lots of tools, oil, rags, and other stuff.”

  Jess nodded her head satisfied with my observational skills.

  “Not bad kid. I guess you have learned a few things from all the previous outings you’ve been on.”

  I explained to Sandra that observing everything was something that was instilled at a very young age during outings with my Uncle Kurt and others. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to show her up. We loaded back up driving for another thirty minutes. Jess pulled over to the side of the road.

  “We are coming up on a big city. We have to enter the city limits shortly to get to our destination. Everyone keep an eye out.”

  Mom shifted the vehicle back into drive. A few minutes later abandoned vehicles began to clutter the roadway. Some had Fallen trapped inside. Broken glass on a few car had human victims missing half their faces. They had joined the numbers of the undead unintelligent enough to release themselves from their seatbelts. There were pools of dried blood all over the streets. We managed to maneuver around the vehicles enough to turn down a completely empty dirt road. It winded at an angle for about half a mile ending at massive gates. Aurora got out with Jess to help her pull them open. They reclosed them from the inside after Carla pulled the Suburban inside.

  “Let’s walk from here.”

  There was a long driveway leading up to a huge house. Many trees surrounded the sides and back of the house. Grabbing our things we followed mom slowly to the house. She glanced around looking at the trees. She stopped to take a moment staring across at an old large oak tree to the right of the house. Squinting to see if there was something missing, I noticed there were a couple crosses underneath the tree.

  “There are a graves over there. That what you were looking at mom?”

  “You and Sandra are welcome to go have a look. We’ll meet you at the house.”

  We both looked at each other for a second before dropping our bags. We took off like kids having a race to see who the rotten egg was. Slightly out of breath I panted catching up the last few feet to Sandra. She was already having a closer look at the crosses which had lilies growing wildly around them. Taking in several deep breaths of air into my lungs, I sat down to take a look myself. My heart beat faster in my chest, but not from the exertion. These were crosses that my own father had engraved. One was of my Uncle Will that I never met. The other was my dad’s first wife Carmen.

  “They have the same last names of your family.”

  “It’s my uncle and my dad’s other wife. He died from a crazy guy wielding a machete after the Living Death epidemic first began. She turned around the same time as my uncle died. It was back in the days that the virus was carried in the storms.”

  “The journal?”

  “Yeah, he wrote the details of the engravings in there too. We are at my dad’s house.”

  Back at the house we found the others chatting on the front porch patio area while lounging about in chairs.

  “You been here before mom?”

  “Nope.”

  “How did you find the place then?”

  “Address and key from Dan. I take it that you know where we are after your journey to the oak tree?”

  “Yes, I just still can’t believe it. Was this our destina
tion to begin with?”

  “I figured you were old enough now. It was time to finally come see for myself too. It’s been a long time since we lost Rye. I still miss him. No matter how much time passes I always will. This house and everything inside are technically your inheritance.” Jess gave me a hug. When she pulled away I saw there were tears in her eyes that were quickly wiped away. Reaching out her right hand, a key rested in her palm. “Take it. Have a look around.”

  Holding Sandra’s hand for support I unlocked the house stepping inside. There were rooms in every direction with a staircase nearby. The living room was massive with several extravagant couches and recliners. There was a huge flat screen television on one of the walls (I imagined playing video games on something that large would feel like actually being in the game). Another wall had a large fireplace. Inside was a makeshift grill with a cast iron pan on it. A camp stove was off to the right of the fireplace. Two rocking chairs sat near an end table with two coffee mugs sitting on coasters.

  I walked through various rooms glancing at everything. In one room I found a cd collection. I took a few to listen to later. One in particular I stowed away made me smile. It was a band called ‘Extracting Darkness’ that my dad had listened to when he left this place behind. I also borrowed a few books from the small library. I found a photo album that I stuffed in my bag to browse through later. I had glanced inside seeing a few pictures of Rye for the first time which nearly brought me to tears. In an office Sandra came across a pocket watch with gems on the casing. On the back was etched, ‘Happy Birthday Ryan, love Rusty and Michelle Pendleton.’ I wound the dial finding that it immediately started ticking away. Since it was a gift from my grandparents most likely to my father, I added it to my growing collection. We continued to explore like we were on a treasure hunt until Carla called out that lunch was ready.

  Chapter 5

  Confrontation

  -1-

  During lunch I shared the things I had found with the others. After lunch, we sat around browsing through the photo album together. Mom told us that we were probably going to stay the night here tonight before actually going camping for a couple days. She told us to have fun exploring while they went scouting a little for supplies to take back to Alpine.

  A few hours later I had pretty much gone through the house in its entirety. No matter how much time I spent browsing there was no way I could possibly search every inch (the house was simply too huge). I decided to take a break asking Sandra if she felt like going for a walk outside.

  The three acres of land around the house were expansive. There was a small guest house that had nothing of interest on inspection. A red barn had empty horse stalls inside. Rusting next to the barn was the frame of an old car called a Rolls Royce. There was another building that held around twenty vehicles inside that looked pristine. There were several that I would love to take home! Furthest from the house near the back fence was a tiny pond. The water was pretty murky looking. There were still fish inside it apparently. They jumped splashing water when we got near the pond. We were staring at the water so intently hoping to see them resurface that we were not aware we had company. Several men jumped the fence hiding among some brush quietly observing us for a few minutes. They patiently waited for the right moment it seemed to make us jump out of our skin at their voices.

  “Hi ladies, mind if we have a word?”

  Sandra and I spun around drawing our pistols.

  “Holster your weapons now!” Five men were holding semi-automatic rifles pointed directly at us. We had no choice but to comply. “Now unbuckle your holsters, sit them on the ground, and step away to the right. Further please.”

  One of the men picked up our weapons stowing them in his bag while keeping a watchful eye on us. The man who had been doing the talking had a deep scar running diagonally from the lower part of his nose all the way across his cheek. He was wearing camouflage fatigues similar to the others, but his uniform was more decorated. His short square-shaped hair was completely white.

  “Mind if we have a little conversation? I’m looking for a woman named Jessie Sparks whom I believe was traveling with you.”

  “Never heard the name before,” I attempted to convincingly lie.

  “So that is how it’s going to be. What are you doing here at this residence? Who else were you traveling with?”

  “There are four of us total. We were just out scouting for supplies. We live in a large community that is running low on much needed necessities.”

  He asked me to describe the other two that traveled with us. I complied describing Aurora and Carla’s appearances.

  “Neither sounds like who you’re looking for sir. Could be they just stumbled on the location by chance.”

  “I don’t believe in coincidence or chance. We will wait for the others they are traveling with to see if their story checks out. In the meantime search the house for any belongings their group may have. Do it carefully! If they are telling the truth I want the house to appear untouched. Understood?” They confirmed that they understood. “Take these two and secure them in one of the rooms. Keep our presence completely silent at all times.”

  Walking back to the house, I concentrated my thoughts on the man with the scar who was intent on finding my mother. It came to me in a sudden flash right as we arrived at the house. It had to be General Sergio Ortiz. He was my mother’s boss in the military. Back before I was born Jess had intentionally sabotaged a project called ‘Starbreeze’ that would have wiped out the Fallen. The command to use the weapon had been given by the previous President of the United States (who went abroad when the government was overthrown). The problem with the project was that it would have also eviscerated all living survivors in the area (except those who had the proper protection). They would have been considered acceptable sacrifices for the greater good. It was an end to a means that would allow others including high officials such as the previous President to travel here from abroad. They could then start rebuilding without the presence of the Fallen while using the project in other countries.

  Now that I was aware of his identity the real question is what he wanted. Was it revenge, retaliation, or possibly to imprison her for her past actions? I recalled that he wasn’t fond of using ‘Starbreeze’ or of the previous President either. He was good friends with Jessie before the incident, but a stickler for orders. What would he actually do if he found her?

  “Sir, may I ask a question?”

  “Depends on the question.”

  “This woman you are looking for…why do you want her? What will happen when you find her? Is there a reward for her capture?”

  I made sure to throw in the last question to hide the fact I was trying to weasel information out of him.

  “A reward could definitely be worked out if information led me to her whereabouts. The other details are classified.”

  “Why are you wearing those uniforms? I thought the military was disbanded back before I was born. Did one of the other communities start a new military?”

  “You sure have a lot of questions. I cannot share any information that might compromise or hinder our mission. I am unable to give you the answers you’re searching for unfortunately. Perhaps you can answer a couple questions for me. Is it possible that you are simply pretending not to know Jessie? Are you perhaps attempting to pry information because you want to know what will happen when I do find her? Might you actually know exactly where I could find her?”

  “You seem to be a little paranoid, no offense. Wish I could be of more help honestly. Especially if that reward consisted of the supplies our community is in dire need of. I would hand her over on a silver platter for that kind of reward if I knew anything.”

  Luckily my biological mother was Amy so there was no noticeable resemblance to Jessie. However, he had likely seen pictures of my dad since they were closely monitoring his house. If he realized the uncanny resemblance I was screwed. Not sure how he made the connection between Jessie and Rye, but th
is was definitely a predicament. Hopefully, Sandra and I could somehow escape.

  Locked in a room with nothing to do we waited forever it seemed. There was one window that Rye had obviously heavily secured many years ago to keep out the Fallen. If only he had some clue that his daughter would be held prisoner in this room years in the future. I imagine he would have left some means to escape if he had known. The only belongings they had available to search were mine and Sandra’s. The others had taken their packs with them. I was confident they wouldn’t find my journal which I have been accustomed to hiding for a couple years now no matter where I go. This time I had stashed it inside a large grandfather clock in a study upstairs. Since they had orders basically not to touch anything, my secret was likely safe. I mentally took detailed notes to write later. It was something I have become excellent at doing.

  Around eight that night, a knock came at the door prior to being opened. Across the hall one of the men stood guard. Another man entered sitting recently cooked food on the floor before leaving. We both had enough common sense not to touch the food no matter how hungry we might be. A couple hours later Ortiz entered the room.

  “I take it that the food was not to your liking. Sorry we didn’t have any ice cream or cheesecake. It would seem that your party might have been caught by Fallen. I guess they could have had reasons to hunker down somewhere. Your bags will be brought to you shortly minus any weapons. If your party does not show up in the morning we will escort you safely to the highway and return your weapons at that time. One of you can drive I hope. You will not return to this house ever again after that. If you do, you will be shot on sight!”

  He left the room without waiting for a response. Hours crept by worrying that something actually had happened to the others. As hard as I tried to stay awake my eyes kept trying to close.

  “Get a little rest if you can. I’ll stay awake for the both of us.” Sandra gently kissed my forehead. She caressed my hair easing my troubled mind as I drifted off.