Cloudhawk’s anger and fear were gone. His mind went blank like he finally lost all power of thought. Perhaps, he’d given up. There was no way to fight back. Was this his fate? To die here, after so much, halfway on his road to the Elysian lands? It was so ridiculous that he would laugh if he had the strength to!
In the end, even Cloudhawk had his limits. After days of agony, his will was broken, brought to the brink by a week of torture and finally pushed over the edge in the darkness of this tank. He couldn’t see any way out.
Little by little, his body relaxed.
Little by little, he abandoned this meaningless struggle.
Only, as that numb stillness took over his mind, Cloudhawk could suddenly feel something coming from the stone. A pulse followed by a pale light that radiated from within his tightly clenched fist. A strange and unexplainable power filled the space around him.
The stone… the stone was awakening!
All of a sudden, he was filled with a joy that threatened to drive him mad. He’d managed to use the stone only rarely since obtaining it and never when he called. This was the exception, the one time it awakened at his request.
The difference between this odd stone and normal relics lay in the fact that using it was far more rigorous. Only when he entered a perfect state of stillness, where everything else melted away, was his will able to resonate with it.
This was a very large and important discovery! It was the first time his desperate groping revealed any truth about the stone.
The light from the stone grew more intense, and the fluid around him began to vibrate. It roiled like it was boiling, followed by an intense rattling noise. All at once, the glass tank that held him shattered sending shards of glass and caustic fluid in every direction.
“What the hell is going on?!”
Two bewildered scientists rushed in and gaped at the mess that greeted them. They hurriedly rummaged through the debris only to be more shocked by what they found.
Nothing! Cloudhawk was gone!
120 The Bird Egg
Cloudhawk gradually regained consciousness and opened his eyes to find himself lying face down in the dirt. The call of a bird chirped in his ears, and he could feel multiple hairy things moving around over him. One of them stretched out its tongue and licked him.
“What the fuck?!”
Cloudhawk jerked and scrambled to sit up, eyes wide. His sudden movements caused a flock of bird-like creatures to scatter. Though frightened, the creatures didn’t flee far. They gathered a dozen or so feet away and continued to watch this stranger who had tumbled from the sky.
What fresh hell did he find himself in? It wasn’t the desert. There were no ruins… it was some sort of forest.
Cloudhawk was stupefied by the view. Creatures were everywhere, thousands of them. Cloudhawk had never seen so many animals gathered in one place. He sat among them as naked as the day he was born and covered in sticky fluid. A pungent medicinal scent wafted off of him, which was probably what attracted these creatures.
They weren’t large. The smallest ones looked something like squirrels and were roughly half the size of his palm. The biggest looked like meerkats and had to only weigh a couple of pounds. There were birds too, owl-like ones that watched him from the trees and could turn their heads two hundred degrees. Those were a little larger than his fist.
Big or small, every one of them was adorable and interacted peacefully with each other. It was a shocking reversal from where he’d come from since the wastelands were filled with vicious things that would sooner kill you than look at you.
Cloudhawk stood and noticed that the ground was littered with nutshells and fruit husks. The forest had to be rich in food. No wonder there were so many critters. Perhaps, that was also why they were so docile. At least for the moment, he didn’t feel like they were a threat.
“The hell are you doin’? Go! Fuck off!” Once they saw that Cloudhawk wasn’t violent, several smaller animals tried climbing onto his back. He swatted at the fuzzy things to keep them at bay. “You annoying little shits! Keep fuckin’ with me! See if I don’t have you for dinner!”
You could take the boy out of the wastelands but never the wastelands out of the boy. He was as crass and grouchy as ever, and the woodland creatures had never encountered a beast so ornery. The offending critters bounded away a few feet before sitting back on their hind legs to stare at him.
This place was weird!
The forest was lush and crowded with plant life, some of which was heavy with delectable smelling fruit. One tree, in particular, caught his eye. It was an ancient of the forest with creatures climbing in and out of holes in its trunk. It must serve as a home for many of the animals.
Looking around, Cloudhawk saw it wasn’t just one. Many enormous trees were evenly spaced around the area, every one of them at least a hundred and fifty feet tall. Ten people couldn’t completely circle one with their arms stretched around it. While the distance between them was very small, it was the canopy he thought was most intriguing. Each tree’s crown was perfectly round and hung over him in a near-perfect half sphere. The ground was covered in grass and foliage, but as Cloudhawk spread his eyes towards the horizon, he could see hundreds of these trees. They looked almost like giant mushrooms.
Each one was the same shape, the same size, and was evenly spaced…
What natural forest had such neat arrangements?
Animals crawled in and out of holes that, to Cloudhawk, looked a lot like old windows set in the tree trunks. He imagined this place could have been a village sometime long ago where intelligent creatures lived. For some unknown reason, the society had disappeared and animals moved in. Over time, the place became a forest.
Cloudhawk’s skin still burned and itched, caused by residual damage from those drugs they’d kept him in. He absently scratched but paid the sensation little mind. Instead, Cloudhawk set about plucking a couple of enormous leaves off the trees to fashion himself a makeshift skirt. He had to cover his dangly bits before the critters mistook them for berries.
Thankfully, the denizens of the tree village proved harmless. There were plentiful nuts and fruits for them to enjoy, so Cloudhawk felt he could relax around them. However, he was still vigilant, since just because he didn’t sense danger right away didn’t mean there wasn’t danger right around the corner!
Each time the stone had transported Cloudhawk, it’d brought him somewhere different. The one thing the destinations all had in common was that they were places that harbored intelligent life or used to. But, for reasons he could never figure out, they all seemed to have been abandoned for thousands of years and left behind ruins that made him imagine what life must have been like.
Where civilization gave up control, the wilds crept back in to lay claim. It was strange, Cloudhawk noted, that he hadn’t seen any carnivorous animals, but there had to be some didn’t there? How else did the ecology keep in balance?
After wandering for a little while, Cloudhawk came upon several strange bones scattered along the ground with tufts of fur. The scene seemed to verify the wastelander’s assumption: something out here was the natural enemy of the peaceful forest critters. Whatever the case, he had to find somewhere safe to hide out. Out here unarmed and defenseless, he was an easy meal for any sort of predator until the sedatives wore off.
Could he go back? Unacceptable! He refused to get caught up and become the Academician’s lab rat again!
“Move! C’mon, out of the way!”
A flood of animals had poured out of the trees to look at this bizarre newcomer. They craned their necks from windows, hung from tree branches, and skittered around his feet in a tide. Everywhere he looked, all he saw were bobbing heads and no open path. Clearly, they did not fear man, and if he’d wanted, Cloudhawk could pluck one up off the ground without resistance. He felt like if he wasn’t careful, he’d crush a bunch just by trying to walk around.
Just then, a faint pulse caught Cloudhawk’s attention.
It was a pu
lse he’d come to be familiar with: the energy of a relic. Could one be nearby? When he transferred before, he’d found two, so coming across another here wouldn’t be such a strange thing.
He was naked and alone, so maybe this relic could help him out in this situation! Without giving it any further thought, he tried to track down the source of the resonance.
It led him to a tree that was unlike the others, twice the size with a doorway large enough for him to pass through. He crossed the threshold without hesitation. The inside was more spacious than he thought, and several thousand small animals had made it their home. Fruits and nuts were gathered up in piles like a hidden storehouse… wait, were the animals working together to store food?
The resonance was coming from one of the food stacks. He started to dig without regard for the painstaking work done by the forest critters, popping a berry or nut into his mouth from time to time. They were juicy and sweet. These animals were lucky to be living here, Cloudhawk thought.
Digging through the stockpile was an exhausting process, but about halfway through, he spotted the source of the pulses. Yet, he looked at it confounded. This was a relic? This bird egg?
The egg was golden, about the size of his fist, and radiated a faint light. Tenderly, he used both hands to lift it from the pile, certain that the resonance was coming from it. From what he could tell, it appeared to be made of gold, and there were strange lines etched on its surface, likely decorative.
What he didn’t understand was what natural living thing produced eggs like this? He was definitely at a loss, but regardless of his confusion, this discovery was a good one for him.
Suddenly, Cloudhawk sensed something was off. His noisy surroundings were suddenly a lot quieter. When Cloudhawk lifted his head to look around, cradling the egg in his hands, he noticed that it’d become dark. The forest creatures were no longer dashing here and there but remained stone still exactly where they stood.
“What’s this? They‘re asleep?”
No, they weren’t asleep. As the light faded from the sky, their eyes changed, as did their bodies. They started getting bigger, taller, and stronger. Tiny claws became keen daggers, and fangs peeked from their lips.
“Holy shit! What the hell?!”
Cloudhawk gaped at the dark figures gathered around him, and they stared back with fierce glowing red eyes. They were special, these forests creatures. In the daylight, they were peaceful and friendly, but when night fell, they entered a murderous frenzy!
Hungry screeches and angry chitters rose all around him. All of a sudden, the happy friendly critters had become flesh-eating monsters! Without warning, they began viciously attacking each other!
A large number of the berserk creatures set their eyes on Cloudhawk.
“Son of a…”
He was surrounded, and they came at him like an army of ants. They were about to overrun him when the stone against his chest shimmered with light and – poof! Cloudhawk was gone.
Bang!
Cloudhawk hit the floor of the laboratory. With his head spinning, he stumbled back onto his feet.
What the fuck was going on with those things? It didn’t matter. Now wasn’t the time! Cloudhawk despaired to find that he was back in Blackwater Base, right back in the labs he’d tried to escape. Luckily, it wasn’t the tank room. It was somewhere different.
The mystical stone was silent. Something told him it was going to be a while, half a month maybe, before he’d be able to use it again.
As Cloudhawk was wracking his brain for a plan, he heard noises coming from the hall. Guards on patrol, he figured. They heard sounds coming from inside and had come to investigate with weapons raised.
“What is this?”
Two large tree leaves had been discarded on the floor. They knew broad foliage like this didn’t come from anything in Blackwater Base. Hell, there wasn’t anything like that all through the marshes, or even in Greenland Outpost. So how did they end up here?
Very much out of the ordinary.
The two guards were carefully examining the leaves when suddenly, a figure shot out at them. It grabbed them by their heads and knocked them together, hard. Crack! Both of their skulls were dented from the impact. Cloudhawk wasn’t sure whether they were alive or dead.
It was about then that Cloudhawk discovered he was significantly stronger than before. His power had noticeably improved after days of torture. He pulled the two bodies into a corner and stripped one of his uniform and weapon.
He had to find a way out of here, except he knew the lab was heavily guarded. There were bound to be several of the Academician’s transformed warriors as well. He wasn’t going to fight his way out.
He was under no illusions that his chance of escape was slim, but even if it was one in a million, he had to try. He took a breath, calming himself, for he knew the more he gave in to the fear, the more irrational he would get. He had to plan his next move carefully and do whatever he could to increase his chance of survival.
Cloudhawk grabbed one of his captive guards and shook him awake. “Where are they keeping Hellflower? Speak!”
The guard stuttered and tried to speak even though his brain was rattled, “S-she’s being kept in Sector Two.”
Cloudhawk chopped the guard’s neck with his hand, knocking him out. Hellflower wasn’t far. He slipped out of the room disguised as one of the guards and picked his way down the hall towards where she was being kept. Although Cloudhawk knew freeing her was likely hopeless, if he could find a way to save her, there might be hope for him.
121 An Accord
Cloudhawk had vanished! His sudden disappearance had thrown the labs into chaos.
Academician Roste had no idea how it’d happened, but he could guess. Cloudhawk hadn’t really escaped – rather, he hadn’t run. He had to have used some mystical technique to vanish, something science had no way to explain. He put the blame on demon hunter abilities.
When he received the news, Roste immediately locked down the laboratories. He didn’t vent his anger at Chimp; that was the way of weak men. He needed his director to lead the search. Roste didn’t believe people could just disappear, so Cloudhawk had to be hiding somewhere. If they had to tear this place apart to find him, they would!
Under the Academician’s orders, Chimp started to canvas the area. No closet, box, or corner was ignored.
The day passed with countless people combing over the lab with a fine-toothed comb, twice. Not a single trace of the wastelander was found. Chimp was beyond furious as he led two scientists with him to a cage.
“Bring me the whip!”
A strikingly beautiful woman was locked away inside the prison. Her hands, which had been chopped off, looked like they’d been recently reattached. The wounds on her body had healed well. Her wrists were bound by two heavy locks, and her ankles were strapped to her waist with chains. She was left with no way to move.
Hellflower’s talents lay in her weapons mastery. Physically, there was nothing she could do, so they felt no need to keep her sedated. There was no way she could free herself from her restraints.
Her hair was tousled and messy. Her pretty face was pale and bloodless, making her seem alluringly delicate.
When Chimp stepped into the cage, he immediately laid into her with the whip. Her unblemished skin split beneath the lash. His blows rained upon her chest as well, tearing gashes in her clothes and damaging her supple flesh within.
However, Hellflower was a tenacious woman. She gritted her teeth and didn’t give him the satisfaction of even a single grunt. Chimp was spent after only a few lashes and stood before her, panting heavily. Slowly, she raised her head to look at him, her face pale and sweaty, and revealed a derisive sneer. “Let me guess. Judging by how upset our dear director is, I suspect something’s gone wrong with Cloudhawk.”
“What do you know about Cloudhawk’s abilities? Tell me everything!”
Her eyes were full of scorn and contempt. It was like she didn’t even regard him
as human, but rather like a moving pile of shit. She almost giggled. “It looks like my hypothesis was correct!”
“You dare laugh at me?!” He drew his dark and indecent eyes over Hellflower’s curves. With a wave, he summoned the scientists. “I don’t think you’ll be laughing for long.”
They approached with a box and retrieved from within it a large syringe. A pale yellow fluid sloshed inside. When she saw what it was, Hellflower’s mocking smile vanished. “What are you planning to do?”
Chimp felt back in control when he saw the smile flee from her face. He chuckled darkly and replied in an enigmatic voice, “The mechanism of this drug destroys the synapses in the brain, causing permanent damage. Any memories, emotions, and untrained skills will be lost, and you will lose the ability to make any independent judgments. You will serve between my legs as a slave, a bitch anyone can ride. I have to say I’m looking forward to it.”
Hellflower knew this was the Academician’s “brainwashing” drug. The damage it caused was irreversible, and once injected, she would become whatever sort of slave Chimp wanted her to become. She would much rather choose death!
“Are you ready to talk?” Chimp stank with confidence and pride. No one could resist his questioning, especially not someone as self-centered and faithless as Hellflower. “What are Cloudhawk’s powers!”
“I don’t know.”
She had spent the most time with the young demon hunter. Chimp was certain she knew the answers to his questions. As her words hung in the air, his face darkened, more depraved than before. He approached her step by step, reached out a hand, and stroked her face. “You won’t talk? That’s fine, we can take our time.”
Hellflower clenched her fists. “I really don’t know!”
“Turning you into my sex puppet would really satisfy my craving. It’ll be such a shame I won’t be able to see this expression on your face anymore. Now may be my last opportunity to try the real you, before I take it away.
“You – get your hands off me!”
The Wastelander Page 83
