The Lightning Lords

by M C Rooney

  THE LIGHTNING LORDS

  By M.C. ROONEY

  Copyright © 2015 by M C Rooney

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental

  The Van Diemen Chronicles

  The Last Politician

  The Lightning Lords

  The Violent Society

  The Arrogant Horseman

  The King of Control

  Tales from the Collapse

  The Distracted

  The Cykam War

  The Lunatics of Sydney

  The Two Realms

  The Water Planet

  The End of the Cusp

  Southern Tasmania, Year 2088

  “It’s such a beautiful spot now,” Jesse Dayton said as he stood behind his wife, Rachael, and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I know,” Rachael replied as he wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. “When my father said he was going to make it a place of beauty, I had no idea he would do such a magnificent job.”

  Jesse and Rachael were standing before the gravesite of the fifteen who had fallen from a bandit ambush twenty-four years earlier. Included were Jesse’s father, Jon Dayton, and Rachael’s uncle and grandfather, Harry and Ray Beasley. Behind the graves was a two-metre-high wooden plaque with all forty names of the rangers who had died that day carefully engraved into the wood. The surrounding area had pathways that were flanked by the most beautiful native plants that could be found. Jesse was amazed by how this clearing had gone from a place of grief to a place of peace and serenity. Jack Beasley, Rachael’s father, had promised to make this site a place of beauty, and he had done exactly that.

  Saying a few prayers over the graves of the departed to the ‘Infinite’ in the hope that, if their consciousness still existed, they were all at peace. Jesse moved on to the task at hand of convincing Rachael to let one of her children go.

  “I received a message from Lily today,” Jesse said, looking for a reaction from his wife. “Hobart is now cleared of all of the pale zombies.”

  “Well, that’s good news,” Rachael said, thinking of the last time she had seen them on that evil day.

  Lily Dayton, Jesse’s little sister, had grown up to be quite a leader. She had clearly taken after her Nan in willpower in getting what she wanted, but also her father, Jon Dayton, as she had turned out to be a very capable captain.

  Rachael turned to look at her husband. She could tell when the Mayor of Grovetown had something on his mind, something that he thought she wouldn’t like. She waited for him to continue.

  “She asks that anybody wanting to relocate to Hobart be told of its safety.”

  “Well, that’s fine, Jesse,” Rachael replied, “not that many would want to live there. We have all the land for building our population, whilst Hobart is still a concrete jungle, no matter how green it has turned.”

  “Lily wants to build Hobart as a base for moving farther north,” Jesse said, a thoughtful expression still on his face.

  What is he afraid of asking me? Rachael thought with sudden unease.

  “Jesse,” she said finally, “you look like you’ve swallowed a rotten apple. Please, tell me what is on your mind.”

  Jesse sighed. “She has set up her office as Mayor of Hobart in the town library.”

  “The Mayor of Hobart!” Rachael said in surprise. “How could she hold that position so quickly?”

  Jesse didn’t answer her question; he just raised an eyebrow.

  Sheer willpower, that’s how she did it, Rachael thought.

  “That library has no good memories for me,” she said with a shiver, thinking of all the zombies clambering for her blood all those years ago. She’d had nightmares for years over that day. It usually involved her crying out for her grandfather but never being able to find him.

  Jesse nodded his head in agreement. They had lost twenty good friends on that day so long ago. He lost his father on that day.

  “She wants to train new rangers for an eventual move northward,” he said with a careful look at his wife.

  So that is what he is afraid of asking me, Rachael thought with relief. Well, she would put him and his sister in their place.

  “She can’t have any of our children,” she said firmly. Jesse opened his mouth to voice his objections, but she overruled him with her own determination, the tenacity of a mother. Lily wasn’t the only one who had willpower. Jesse and Rachael had five children, Jon, Raymond, Sarah, Jack, and Tom, and there was no way she would let any of them go to Hobart. Ranger or no ranger, they were staying put, and that was that.

  “I know our eldest children are old enough to make their own decisions, but Jon,”—who was twenty-one years of age—“is a farmer. He loves the land and wants to start a farm of his own.”

  Jesse watched as Rachael counted down her children.

  “Raymond”—who was twenty years of age—“is already a ranger and is in love with a young woman from the south. He is staying put,” she finished firmly.

  “Sarah”—who was eighteen years old—“is not a ranger, and she has a soft heart, Jesse; even you would agree with that.”

  Jesse did nod his head in agreement at this. He couldn’t bear to see his only daughter leave anyway.

  “Jack is seventeen and too young,” she said, studying his face.

  Jesse raised an eyebrow as she mentioned his age. Rachael herself was a ranger at sixteen, but he did not mention that Lily Dayton wanted Jack as a ranger.

  Rachael stood still for a moment, looking at her husband. He hadn’t raised any objections so far, and she hadn’t mentioned their youngest child.

  “No!” she said in shock. “Not my baby boy; he’s only fifteen!”

  “Please listen, Rachael,” Jesse said pleadingly. “I think being away from us might do him some good.”

  “What do you mean, do him some good?” Rachael demanded as she glared at him. “You know he has no confidence.”

  “Yes, I do know that,” Jesse replied, “and I think Lily may be able to teach him to have some.”

  “What!” Rachael replied angrily. “So you think his mother cannot do that?”

  “I think you may smother him, because he has low self-esteem,” said Jesse in a gentle voice, “and because you worry about him. You have seen the way he walks around with his eyes looking to the ground. Your grandfather once told me that my father was like that before the Collapse, and he turned into a great man through experience, not by being sheltered from life’s trials.”

  “So you’re saying Lily can raise my child better than I can?”

  “No, of course not,” he replied, “but I think it would be good for him to have a change of scenery, to discover who he really is.”

  “I can’t believe this, Jesse,” Rachael said angrily. “Lily wants to move northwards. Who knows what danger lies in the Midlands.”

  “She intends staying where she is for a few years yet,” Jesse replied. “She wants to build a secure town first.”

  The rangers were still used for fighting bandits, but had moved on to areas of law enforcement as well.

  “She trains her rangers, not just in physical self-defence, but also the mind. She has a whole library at her disposal. She intends for her rangers to be educated as much as possible.”

  “Mary and Nick are still very good at teaching,” Rachael argued.

  “Yes, I know,” Jesse agreed, “but the books in the library are more diverse and thorough. Lily intends on copying them and sending copies for us to use whenever possible.”

  So many people had died in search of those books.
Now, since Lily held Hobart, these books would soon be available to everybody.

  “Oh, how gracious of her,” replied Rachael testily. “So why doesn’t Lily have a child of her own? Then she could teach them all she wants.”

  “Lily’s goal is not babies, but building a new society, Rachael,” replied Jesse. “You know that.”

  Yes, she did know that. Lily had always been driven to lead people. Even from her early teenage years, she had pushed herself in all areas of knowledge. She wasn’t a farmer or a hunter, that was for sure.

  “Perhaps we could send Tom to your sister in Kingston,” said Rachael, who was now sounding desperate. “Ash would love to see him. Or even my Uncle Billy could look after him?”

  “Ash has a family of her own. And Billy is the Mayor of Kingston now, so he does not have much time on his hands,” replied Jesse, who was looking at his wife’s worried face. “Rachael, I love him too,” he said gently. “That’s why I think letting him go may be a good thing for him.”

  She looked at him with tears in her eyes. Tears at the heartache of letting one of her children go. Something all mothers must do eventually, but were never ready for. Finally, she nodded her head in agreement, and Jesse breathed a sigh of relief. Now all he had to do was convince Tom to leave his mother.

  Jesse felt a surge of nervousness that he hadn’t felt in a long time as he made his way into Hobart Town. A large number of people were cleaning the streets and setting fire to what was obviously a large pile of pale zombies. Jesse wondered whether the pale ones had time to rise before their brains were smashed in. No element of surprise this time, you dead bastards, Jesse thought angrily.

  The trip to Hobart had gone smoothly. There really wasn’t any danger anymore from bandits, who had never numbered more than a dozen ever since Mason and Bradfield had been killed. They must also be aware that Grovetown had guns hidden away for a rainy day, as Billy and Jack would like to say. But he did take an escort of ten with him for the journey, as he was always cautious, like his father had been. He had enjoyed seeing his sister Ash in Kingston. She seemed very happy with her husband Tim and six children, and Rachael’s Uncle Billy was handling the new position of Mayor of Kingston very well since the retirement of his father-in-law.

  So the Daytons and Beasleys were Mayors of Grovetown, Kingston, and Hobart. His father and Uncle Ray would be laughing about that if they knew, he thought with a smile.

  His smile melted on his face when he looked at the rider next to him. Tom Dayton had the blond hair of his mother, but his father’s brooding looks, and, at fifteen, he was proving to be a Beasley in size. He was going to be a man mountain in a few years, just like his Grandfather Jack. But today, he stooped when standing, would not look you directly in the face, and mumbled when he talked. Some would say he was a usual grumpy teenager, but Jesse knew it was more than that. Depression had a silent little brother, and that brother was called low self-esteem.

  Was he doing the right thing? Jesse worried. Would becoming a ranger give him confidence, or destroy him completely?

  Getting Tom to agree to come to Hobart in the first place had been a very hard thing to do. His mother didn’t help at all, actually seeming quite pleased that he was so reluctant to leave, but after a week of talking to him—Rachael said he was nagging him—Tom had finally agreed to come to Hobart to train to become a ranger.

  Walking his horse towards the library, Jesse looked inside one of the destroyed buildings and saw hundreds of burnt-out metal cars that were piled on top of each other and left to rot. This place was going to take a long time to rebuild. But if anyone could do it, he knew that Lily could.

  Finally reaching the library, Jesse spoke to one of the guards and informed him that the mayor’s brother had arrived. Jesse looked around the library street, as the guard went in search of his sister, and tried to suppress a shiver. This is where the battle had started on that fateful day. This was where twenty of his friends had died. They had been so young, he thought with sadness.

  Whenever Jesse looked in the mirror, he saw a man in his forties. When he thought of his dead friends, though, he still saw young men and women, or to be exact, kids, and they would never have the chance to age as he had done.

  “She won’t be long, Son,” he said to Tom.

  “Yes, Dad,” Tom replied, looking at the ground, as usual.

  Dammit, he is going to make me feel guilty with that sad look on his face.

  He was about to tell his son to sit up straight when his little sister, Lily, walked down the library steps to the street level. She stood there for a moment and just looked at him, then gave an appraising look to his youngest son.

  “He has your look, Jesse,” she said in that strong voice of hers. “But he is obviously going to be a huge man like his grandfather and great-grandfather.”

  “I’m surprised you remember Ray Beasley, Lily,” Jesse said as he dismounted.

  “I have vague memories of him,” she replied, “and of Father, of course.” She was only six when he was murdered but she remembered the hugs and kisses he used to give her and of course his kind smile.

  “Do you remember when your big brother used to hug you all the time?” Jesse said as he walked closer with a smile.

  He was never sure if Lily would be affectionate towards him or not. Jesse used to hug her all the time after Father had died, but as she got older, she became more and more distant, physically and emotionally.

  Jesse was pleased when she smiled at him and opened her arms. “Yes, I remember,” she said as Jesse enveloped her small stature in a big hug.

  Jesse then stood back and looked at her. She definitely looked like their Nan, but a part of him remembered his mother’s smiles, so whenever he looked at Lily, he couldn’t help but think of Sarah Dayton.

  “You thinking of our mother again?” said Lily, talking about the mother she never knew.

  “Psychic,” Jesse replied.

  “Hmm, not sure about those,” Lily answered, as pragmatic as ever. But Lily did have dreams, strange dreams in which a mature looking woman dressed in white was urging her to unite the people of her lands. ‘There will be dangers to face to the north in your lifetime,’ the woman had said ‘but the real danger will come one day from the icy continent to the south. His name is Jaxmin.’

  Jesse now wondered what Lily thought about their mother. He never really asked her about her, and Lily seemed to think of their Nan as her mother, which was understandable considering the strong presence Nan had had in their lives, especially after they had lost their father also.

  Lily then turned her sharp gaze back on Tom, who had also dismounted his horse. Jesse hoped she would go easy on him, but then again, perhaps he did need some discipline to master his thoughts.

  “So, nephew Tom Dayton, we meet at last.” she said.

  Tom looked up from the ground, and with a red face, muttered the memorised courtesy that Jesse had told him to say.

  “Pleased to meet you, Mayor Dayton,” he mumbled, and then went back to looking at the ground.

  “My word, Jesse,” she said, “I think I have my work cut out for me with this one.”

  “Indeed,” Jesse replied, but as he looked at his sister, he saw that she looked quite pleased at the challenge.

  Have I done the right thing?

  Lily turned her gaze towards him as if picking up his thoughts again. “He will be well looked after,” she said gently.

  “Thank you,” Jesse said softly, with a relieved smile.

  “I have a present for you before you go,” Lily said. Well, she was getting rid of him already by the sounds of things.

  “What’s that, Little Sister?” he asked.

  “Well, it’s not really for you, but for the whole community,” she replied, and at a snap of her fingers, people came forward with large hampers of what looked to be books.

  Finally, he thought, anticipation coursing through him. Nick and Mary would be so thrilled.

  “It’s only spare
copies though, Jesse,” she said as she saw the smile on his face. “We will start making copies when we have all settled in.”

  “Thank you, Lily,” he replied with genuine gratitude. “It has taken twenty-four years, but finally, we’ve got our wish.”

  “We are not dumb people,” Lily replied. “We are free thinkers,” she finished with a smile on her face.

  Jesse laughed and hugged her one more time.

  “Here,” he said quietly as he took a wrapped item off his horse’s saddle. “I want you to give this to him when you think he is ready.”

  Lily looked at the blanketed item and felt the shape of it. She looked at her brother in shock. For once, Jesse saw his sister was speechless.

  Turning to his son, he decided that a quick goodbye would be for the best. “You listen to your aunt,” he said. “Learn as much as you can, and be all that you can be. Do you understand?” he finished, trying to sound all fatherly and confident.

  “I will, Dad,” Tom replied with sad eyes.

  “Remember, we are only a day’s ride away. We will not be here with you in body, but we will be here with you in spirit,” he added as he placed a hand on his son’s heart.

  “I understand, Dad.”

  And Tom did look a bit happier with the thought that he would not be forgotten by his family.

  After giving his son a big hug, Jesse quickly mounted his horse and, nodding to his sister, set off down the road at a fast pace. He moved quickly for fear he would drag his son back with him and that he would embarrass himself by crying almost as much as Tom’s mother had.

  Tom watched his father ride away with a strong sense of anxiety. Not only had he said goodbye to his mother yesterday, now he had just said goodbye to his father as well. He felt his heart race and his breathing become faster, and he was on the verge of panic, until he heard his aunt snap her fingers.

  “Right, Tom Dayton. You follow me right this instant,” Aunt Lily said, and she walked back up the stairs quickly. “And stop slouching,” she called down from the top of the stairs.