Hard Corps (Quentin Case Book 2)

by John Hook

  The remaining creature near me was faster than I was and managed to cut me deeply in the ribs. Hot pain shot through my side, but I managed to kick the creature. They were tough skinned and had good natural defenses in numbers, but they weren’t very heavy. That’s why I had been able to scoop up the one near the cliff. The creature flew across the clearing like a ball and hit a rock, splitting open his head. The last creature of the group bolted and ran into the woods.

  I helped the woman up, breathing hard.

  “You okay?” I looked over her wounds to see if any of them were deep. At first she pulled away, still a little fearful and more than a little embarrassed as she crossed one arm over her breasts. Then she looked up with an expression of wan relief.

  “I’m sorry. Thank you. You risked everything for us. I’ll be all right once my clothes reappear.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by clothes reappearing.

  “Looks like you have had experience with these demons.” The man who had taken one out with a rock reached to shake my hand.

  “Actually, first time I’ve seen them. Then again, I really have no memory. Who are you?”

  The man shrugged.

  “We don’t know. We have no names and we have no memories. We just found ourselves out here. Every so often we would see these demons and we would hide from them. This time, they surprised us.”

  I looked at the other two who were both, understandably, shaken up. “We were traveling with him,” The woman said, pointing to the man I had just spoken with. “He has been around longer and found a place we might be safe.”

  “Well, I actually have a name,” I said. “I’m Rox.”

  “We made up names for ourselves too. I’m Lazar, she’s Marsa, and the fellow you saved is Barro.”

  I picked up my spear, retracting it from the demon and wiping it off.

  “You called them demons?”

  “That’s what they call them in the place I found. I had gone off to do some scouting while Marsa and Barro hid in a cave. The three of us, none knowing where we were going, made too easy a target.”

  “Case in point.” I looked around.

  “Yeah. Some guide, huh?” Lazar shook his head.

  “This place is pretty dangerous no matter what you do.”

  Lazar nodded. “Anyway, I found a place that seemed to be populated by others like us, but there were no demons, no dangerous animals. So I came back for Marsa and Barro.”

  “You didn’t go into the place? Talk to the people there?”

  “No, I wanted to get back as quickly as possible. I was worried. Why?”

  “Don’t know. I don’t trust things in this place. Still, at least we have a place to go and see what happens. Mind if I come?”

  “I know I’ll feel a lot better if you do.” Barro put a grateful hand on my shoulder. Clothes had reappeared on both Barro and Marsa and they were visibly becoming more relaxed.

  “They called us protos. What does that mean?”

  “Don’t know. It seemed to mean something like wild humans. I guess it’s what we are.”

  I nodded. I was still puzzled by the reappearing clothes, as well as the fact that our wounds seemed to be healing, although my side was going to be in pain for a while.

  Lazar set off through the forest. Marsa and Barro followed. I hefted my spear, looking around, and painfully took up the rear.

  15.

  We headed out along the rim of the mountain and then began a sharp descent into a gorge cut by the stream I had drunk from earlier. We ran into several patrols of the creatures that Lazar called demons. They apparently combed the lower hills looking for wild humans. Lazar indicated that it was unusual for demons to climb as high as where I had found them because of the dangers from the wild creatures in the mountains. The pack that had found them had spotted Lazar climbing up and had followed him, being careless about keeping track of where they were.

  Two of the scouting parties we spotted were the green-yellow smaller demons. There was also one troupe of larger gray demons that seemed to be set up to stay a while, with a makeshift shelter and supplies. We weren’t sure what they were doing, but avoided them nonetheless.

  When it was nearly dark, we decided to make camp. Lazar pointed out a dull yellow glow in the distance. He said they lit their streets somehow at night. He had watched them do it. That was the town. We agreed that it would be better to approach by daylight. Although we were traveling together and, in the battle with the demons a certain bond had formed, none of us seemed too comfortable with each other. The funny thing was that I had felt the pangs of feeling like I was alone in the world before I met them. However, rather than relief, I felt a kind of wariness. Maybe it was this world in which nothing felt safe, not even the idyllic beauty of the high mountain forests. I was uneasy with my companions and said little. We decided to have one person stay focused while the others drifted, in turns, during the dark period. I then climbed a tree and nestled into a cluster of branches high above the others.

  I drifted. The next morning I didn’t remember most of the images that floated in, but there was a sense they went from comforting to something darker. I was reaching to try and remember. I kept having this nagging feeling that I needed to remember something and I almost could, even when I was walking around in the daytime, but it would always elude me like some insubstantial ghost. It always made me agitated and more suspicious of my surroundings and, now, the people I was with. All I could remember the next morning was what brought me to full attention, the sound of screaming. It was not like before, when I was being born and the screams were mine. And it wasn’t one voice, but a chorus of screams, both pain-filled and hopeless, rising louder and louder in the darkness. Except when I sat up, startled, it was light, a rosy gleam across the sky.

  “You okay?” Barro called up. He was standing watch. “We couldn’t figure out how to get you up for your watch with you up there, but we could hear you making sounds that weren’t too happy.”

  I could almost hear the screams tapering off still, but they weren’t real. No one was screaming. I felt both deeply sad and deeply angry at the same time. And I had a feeling like I distrusted everyone. I wanted to run off and be on my own again, but it made sense to try to connect to this place of humans. I just didn’t know if they could be trusted.

  I dropped down to the ground and fixed the placement of the spear on my back.

  “You seem kind of withdrawn. Are you remembering something?”

  “I’m okay.” I tried not to sound snappy, but it was a bit short. “Let’s just continue on.”

  The others had already pulled themselves up and we set out. It wasn’t far. We walked for maybe an hour, coming out on high ground overlooking a small town. There was a main street and a few areas of houses stretching out for maybe ten blocks around the town center. Just off center, close to the main street, was a public square, paved in stone blocks. Off on the other side of the main street was an area of open land that seemed cultivated and people were lined up, doing slow repetitive movements facing the direction the sun was coming up. Something inside me stirred. Memories seemed to be just within reach, but not all of them were good. Then everything faded again.

  We hunkered down and watched. As the sun climbed in the sky, the people making repetitive motions broke up and went about their way. There seemed to be small shops along the main street. It was hard to tell what people were doing, but they seemed to move about freely and some greeted each other in a friendly way. Others seemed withdrawn and plain but moved about slowly and without any interference.

  At one point, we saw something a little more alarming. To one side of the town was a series of low, rectangular buildings that were different from the architecture of the rest of the town. They didn’t seem like living places. Maybe they were meeting places. A large number of people gathered over there and began practicing with weapons against targets made of wood and grasses. They had spears, but also clubs and something I couldn’t come up
with a name for that used string to launch small pointed sticks through the air at high speed.

  This aggression concerned me at first. However what we didn’t see were demons. We didn’t see any dangerous creatures. Perhaps that was because of the aggression. Like me, these humans had learned to protect themselves. The question really was, would they accept outsiders or would outsiders be seen as a threat to be eliminated?

  I looked at Lazar. “Maybe one of us should go in, see if they are really friendly before just all marching in.”

  Lazar shrugged. “Or what? We know what’s out here. Running and dodging demons. If the humans want to kill us too, we are pretty well sunk.”

  I laughed, though I wasn’t sure why. “You have a point.”

  I took off my spear and laid it in the grass.

  “What are you doing?” Barro asked. He and Marsa seemed not as convinced that just walking in was a good idea.

  I pointed to the military drills going on at the edge of town. “I’m not going to have any luck going up against that. Might as well not look like a potential threat walking in.”

  We headed down the slope. The really curious thing was that, when we walked into town no one much made a fuss. People turned to check us out and a few even said “hello,” but no one seemed overly concerned. A couple seemed surprised, followed by big smiles as if they were happy to see us. I heard a couple of whispers of “It’s him!” I had no idea who they were talking about.

  I suggested we head over to the low buildings where people were training figuring it must be where the authority in this town must be. We could find whoever was in charge. When we walked up, a large man who was stringing a bow used to launch—arrows, the word just seemed to pop up—looked up. His face shifted. His eyes widened and he looked startled. My immediate reaction was to go into a defensive stance, but he held his hands out, palms facing us. His face was pleasant and he showed no aggression.

  “Easy.” He said. “I mean you no harm.”

  I returned to a more normal posture but stayed alert.

  “You don’t seem to have demons here,” I said.

  He hesitated and several contradictory emotions seemed to cross his face. Finally he returned to a friendly, interested expression.

  “You noticed.”

  “We’d like to join you. If you fight the demons, I might like to help.”

  At this the large man appeared amused.

  “I bet you would.” He shook his head. “Come, I have someone I would like you to meet. You others can join us or look around here.”

  Over my shoulder I said “Stay here and see if I come back.”

  The man I was with laughed. I didn’t know why, but it was a genuine laugh of amusement and didn’t seem a threat. We walked over into town to one of the small houses. Again, people on the street greeted us, but I assumed they were greeting the one I was with. We finally entered a house. As we went in, my companion told me that the people he wanted me to meet had just returned to do some planning. They had been looking for someone.

  We entered the room. There was a tall, thin man with pale skin and curly hair at his temples. He was otherwise bald, with think dark glasses. There was another man, thin, with polished brown skin, wearing a suit. And there was a woman with dark hair and rounded eyes. I had seen her in my visions occasionally. She was the one who made my breathing easier. They all look startled.

  “I think I found us a new recruit.” The man with me said.

  I bowed. “Hello. My name is Rox.”

  They looked dumbstruck for a moment and then, they all fell on the floor laughing.

  I didn’t get it.

  It was a good deal of time before they were able to stop laughing, but each of them gave me a hug while carrying on, which made me even more unsure what was going on. I looked at the large man with me, but even he was having trouble fighting back the laughter. He shook his head and walked out.

  I had been prepared for a lot of possibilities. This was not one of them and I had no idea what to do.

  The man with warm brown skin seemed to get his composure back first. Humor still danced around in his eyes, but he also seemed to be in complete control.

  “My name is Blaise.” He motioned to the others. “Do you remember any of us? You don’t remember this place? You don’t know who you are?”

  “I’m Rox,” I said, earnestly, and they all started laughing again.

  Finally, everyone regained their composure. Blaise guided me to a chair. The thin man with heavy glasses was wearing a shirt that said “Rockvale. Demon Free Zone.” He sat on the table across from me.

  “Looks like we have some work to do. My name is Izzy and we are friends. I’m assuming you were turned into a proto and don’t remember much of anything. Your name is Quentin Case.”

  “Quentin? What kind of a name is Quentin? Rox seems easier.”

  Izzy grinned. The woman with dark hair who seemed to move with precision and grace shook her head. “I’d better go get Saripha. We may need her.”

  Izzy looked at me. “Rox belongs to someone else. You’ll see her later. You are Quentin. This place is called Rockvale.”

  I looked at Izzy’s shirt.

  “And this place has no demons.”

  “Pretty much, and that is thanks in no small part to you.”

  They just watched me. It made me nervous.

  “Do you remember anything?” Izzy asked. “Anything at all?”

  “Nothing before I woke up in a tree.” I suddenly saw lava in my mind and some kind of flash. It made no sense and was gone as soon as I thought about it. “I was alone for a long while and then I found others being attacked by demons. After we killed them, we came here. One of them had seen this place.”

  Izzy looked at Blaise. “We’re going to have a lot of work to try to get his memory back.”

  “Maybe we can’t.”

  “Let’s try a different angle,” I said. “I know I’m trying to remember something, but I don’t know what. Do you have any idea what happened to me before I lost my memory? Something that would give me a clue about what I’m trying to remember.”

  “That’s the trouble, we aren’t sure either. Our last contact was when we had come out of Haven.”

  “Haven?”

  “The nickel version is that it’s a place where humans are tricked into thinking there are no demons or other bad things, and then they get kidnapped in the night.”

  That made me a little uneasy.

  “And Rockvale isn’t like that?”

  “No, but I understand that it probably wouldn’t be smart to entirely take our word for that.”

  I nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Izzy continued. “We had found a mysterious tower in the middle of nowhere with something being pumped from it. Blaise and I followed the line being pumped. It eventually disappeared, going deeper than we could follow. However, when we returned, you were gone and Baron Steel was floating around.”

  “Being clever and having formidable powers of deduction, we convinced you being gone and the Baron being there were connected,” Blaise added.

  “Who is Baron Steel?”

  “He’s a Shade. Works for a Manitor, but I’m guessing right now none of that means anything either. The problem is that, whatever happened to you, we missed it. We also don’t know if you got a look in that tower. You weren’t where you were going to wait for us. You might have been found before you could do anything, but knowing you, I suspect you might have found out something.”

  I shook my head. None of this was jogging any memories. Izzy sighed.

  “What is clear now is that you were damaged sufficiently to become a proto.”

  “A wild human?”

  “Well, yes, but that’s not the point. Becoming a proto is a type of rebirth. You can’t really die here in Hell, like the demons, because, well, you are already dead.”

  I thought about that for a moment, but I couldn’t quite make it make sense.

  “Normally
your body, which is a biological glamour, will heal itself when you are hurt.”

  I felt at my ribs and realized the wound had closed and there was only mild soreness now.

  “However, if there is too much damage, especially if major organ systems fail, you do a kind of rebirth. Your body disintegrates into raw materials and then reforms, usually wiping out all knowledge of a previous life. It happened to you once before. I’m not sure why, but that time you were able to remember quickly. Maybe it was because we recovered you so soon after. You ended up getting your whole personality back. I’m hoping it is still possible, if harder because of the delay.”

  “What if we can’t?” I was trying to puzzle this out.

  Blaise spoke quietly. “I think this is why even Guido couldn’t get a line on where he was when we were looking. I get the impression Guido is connected to everything, but there is little of Quentin in there.”

  I thought of the man in the yellow shirt and the tan pants reaching out his hand to me. I looked down at my yellow shirt and tan pants.

  “There is something in here.” I said. “I just don’t know how to get it out.”

  Suddenly two women appeared in the room near the door. They just seemed to materialize. I jumped up and landed behind the chair I was sitting in, taking up a defensive posture.

  “Sorry for the unconventional entrance.”

  I recognized them. Both had appeared in night visions. One was the woman white hair. I could see the wisdom in her green eyes. I realized her hair wasn’t so much white, but silver, and she wasn’t old. Actually, her age almost seemed to change depending on how you were looking at her. The other woman was the woman with dark hair who made my pulse race faster. Her eyes were dark, black pits, and there was something both playful and dangerous in them, but I felt a very strong attraction.

  I was trying to find a median place between alarm and alertness when a monster suddenly appeared behind them. He was large, almost 7 feet, with a broad, muscular body. Although humanoid, he had a dog’s head, which looked even more threatening as he drew his lips back, exposing his canines. In an odd way, he looked like he was smiling because his snout didn’t wrinkle into a snarl, but he seemed dangerous and he was right behind the women.