by Vlada Asta
Salt of The Earth
The Fall of Barcelona
By Vlada Asta
Chapter 1
When the creature stood still, it was easy to mistake it for a human – a tall one, true, no shorter than six feet, broad-shouldered and muscular, but still a human. That was how those predators deceived their prey, luring the unsuspecting victim closer. But once they started to move, the illusion of their human nature would shatter in mere seconds.
They moved so smoothly that it looked like they had hinges instead of joints. Their arms and legs could twist in any direction at amazing speed, which was hard to track with naked eye. While attacking, they would fall on all fours, and at those moments their chest could be pointed at either the earth or the sky.
Their chest was the very place their opponent should always observe. The temptation was great to look them in the eye, just like with other predators, but that would be useless. Their eyes were solid black, similar to the eyes of all Hente, as if filled with ink from the inside. Their expression remained blank even when they killed – or when they died.
Their eyes appeared human in shape, but there was nothing on the face beneath them – no nose or mouth, just a smooth layer of grayish skin. The face was followed by the neck that appeared human and then there was the chest – with a huge mouth in it. It was triangular in shape, stretching from shoulders to the creature’s stomach, and it could open in three directions. Each side of the mouth was full of sharp fangs, and once they closed on someone, the chances of survival were next to zero. The only way Hente could let their prey go was by tearing the flesh off its bones.
Fast, large and strong, they were one of the most dangerous subspecies of Hente known to man. They were called Slayers for that. Nobody expected to see a large pack of those things that close to the city limit, and even imagining what would happen if they got past the gates brought fear into the soldiers’ souls. If Hente entered the streets of Barcelona, crimson rivers would soon color the pavement…
So they couldn’t let the Slayers go any further. There were bullets and water flows coming from the city walls, but Hente were smart, they didn’t come close enough to be killed that easily. They were looking for a loophole. Once given enough time, they would succeed; they were as intelligent as humans in that regard. At least, that was the official version, because right now it was hard to believe that outraged man-eating creatures were that smart.
There was no need to understand them. Hente had to be stopped. And Sebastian knew he could do it.
Someone had to die today – the pack that came to the city was too large, and they were too desperate in their attacks. The Brothers in the frontline were facing great risk, Sebastian could hear their screams and he saw someone’s sword lying abandoned in a puddle of blood. No warrior would leave his sword if still alive. Someone had already perished, more soldiers would…
But not him. Sebastian couldn’t tell why he was so sure about it. It was most likely the work of his intuition, which had never failed him before. He was moving forward not because of fear or his duty, he was driven by cold rage. No-one had to force him there, he wanted to destroy those creatures, all of them.
The blade of his sword cut the predator that jumped at him. The flesh burned with salt was falling apart in clouds of smoke; the Slayer howled, moving away from the weapon. Sebastian didn’t plan on letting him go, he charged forward, cutting off the hand that reached out for him and stabbing the open mouth.
The fangs froze mere inches from his skin, but left him unharmed. It wasn’t dumb luck or an accident, the creature died at the very moment Sebastian expected it to. He turned his back to the Slayer calmly; the Slayer still looked alive, but was slowly turning into ashes.
A scream reached him from afar:
“Retreat! Third Squad, we’re moving back to the city!”
Sebastian recognized the voice of his field commander immediately, and he remembered he was part of the Third Squad perfectly well. But he didn’t like that order: the Hente were still strong. No less than fifteen predators were left on the battlefield, they just moved a bit further from the city.
“Why should we retreat?” he asked quietly, coming closer to his commander. He didn’t want to challenge his authority in front of the others, but he wasn’t ready to accept that order either.
“Instructions from the Headquarters,” Brother Adrian replied.
It was easy to tell he was happy about it. Just like the others, Adrian was shocked by that sudden attack. He was used to dealing with those creatures out in the wild, not at the gates of his home! Sebastian had no idea how that happened either. But he could get back to finding the reason later, after the threat was terminated!
He tried to talk some sense into his commander:
“Is it really wise to spread our forces when Hente are out of the water cannons’ reach? It’s not only about us, soldiers may suffer too!”
“Squads One and Five will stay on the frontline, and we’re pulling back!”
Brother Adrian already sounded annoyed, he was desperate to return under the protection of the Hydrosystem again. As for his conscience… it was probably silent since he liked to believe other squads would handle this.
Sebastian couldn’t accept it. He had no doubts about the First Squad – they were the elite, they’d be fine. But the Fifth Squad was mostly made of newbies who had just finished the Seminary! It was too early for them to fight the Slayers… it was probably their first meeting with Hente altogether.
He couldn’t lead the squad with him, he had neither the authority nor the right to do so. Who was he to risk other people’s lives? But he could put his own at stake. He wasn’t too worried about his life since he was confident he wouldn’t die today.
The gut feeling had never failed him.
He analyzed his situation quickly. There was only one salt cartridge left in the sword, but that one was full, he had completely used the solution in the dagger, and he had two throwing knives on his belt. It wasn’t the best set, but… He only had to make sure the kids from the Fifth Squad were safe, so that should do.
He darted off his place without saying a word to his commander. Brother Adrian was puzzled by such insolence at first to the point where he couldn’t utter anything, and then he screamed:
“Brother Sebastian! Get back here! Sebastian!”
Sebastian heard him perfectly, but chose to pretend he didn’t. He knew what he was doing, and discussing it would be nothing but a waste of time. He wasn’t sure it was not a mistake, and yet he couldn’t do it any other way.
He jumped over the piles of smoking ashes only to discover that the Fifth’s Squad position was as bad as he had expected. One of the warriors was seriously wounded, the other one was trying to cover him, but he was horrified at the sight of two Hente about to attack him simultaneously. Such horror was the worst enemy during the battle, crushing even the strongest fighters. Those kids would understand it later – if they survived today. Sebastian wanted them to survive.
He threw a knife at the larger creature, killing it on the spot. He knew that would happen, even though he threw the blade on the move: Sebastian was one of the best snipers among the Brothers. He wasn’t proud if this talent, he simply used it.
He opted for killing the second predator with his sword, he trusted that way of fighting the most. The Slayer saw it was facing an experienced rival now, and it was more alert. It rose to its feet, opening its mouth completely, and that image was enough for the wounded boy to faint.
“Get him out of here!” Sebastian shouted to the second warrior. “I can handle this!”
The kid didn’t dare to argue. He probably thought
he was facing the official backup from the city. He stayed with his comrade even though his life was in danger – he would make a great soldier, but in a year or two, with proper knowledge and experience.
Sebastian quit thinking about him, concentrating on his opponent completely. He had fought the Slayers more than once, and he knew how fast they were. It was as if they were dancing: each of their movements smoothly turned into another, their agile bodies twisting, their claws and fangs getting closer, looking for a chance to finish the fight, looking for a human’s mistake. He had seen them kill his friends. He wasn’t afraid; he believed the feeling in his soul.
He wouldn’t die today.
He pretended to have lost balance, letting his opponent come closer. When the Slayer tried to deliver a crushing blow, Sebastian moved from its claws rapidly and cut the creature across its chest, then, turning his wrist, copied the same move in another direction, making it a crisscross cut. He pushed the blade harder to make sure the wound would be full of salt.
Not a drop of the solution was wasted. The Hente turned into ashes in seconds. That took more than half of the cartridge, which, fortunately, didn’t matter anymore.
The battle was over. The wind was carrying clouds of ashes around, like a stray dog that found a garbage bag. The air was filled with screaming and moaning of the dying warriors, but the growling of the beasts was gone – the whole pack was eliminated. The Brothers, tired and battered, were slowly recovering. Some of them sat on the ground in complete stupor, and those probably wouldn’t be able to fight anymore. Others were helping the wounded and pulling the bodies of their dead comrades closer to the city. There were also those who ignored the people bleeding around them, they were too busy finding the black jaws among the ashes – the only trophy left after killing a Hente. Those warriors had been on the battlefield for too long, and something extremely important was lost to them forever…
“Brother Sebastian!”
The commander’s voice interrupted his thoughts, making Sebastian cringe. Turning around, he saw Adrian approaching him.
His gut feeling was warning him he was in trouble now.
***
Dozens of shining eyes were watching her attentively. Eyes filled with trust and hope, ready to believe every word she said. To them, the answers she gave were the ultimate truth, their main knowledge about this world, and thus she was some higher being, an oracle aware of the secrets of the universe.
Gabriella couldn’t let them down. Her personal doubts and fears had no value now. The kids gathered in her class weren’t supposed to know that grown-ups couldn’t control everything, and a tragedy had just happened outside the city limits. They came here to learn the official version of history, explaining them how the world became what it was these days. That version was clear and simple, it would serve them as a beacon for the next years, until they became old enough to have their own opinion.
“Today we are going to discuss the history of our world,” Gabriella smiled at them. She learned to keep her emotions in check, and now she was perfect at it. “It’s not too long and marked with horrible events that you must know.”
Those weren’t the first students she was teaching, and she knew the story she had to tell them perfectly. She could be saying it automatically now, while her thoughts were concentrated on a different matter.
She had a lot to think about! A pack of Hente had almost reached Barcelona, that had never happened before! The whole peninsula was considered a safe territory, the heart of their state. Sure, some desperate predators managed to break through the border every now and then, but the patrols always found and annihilated them fast, those creatures could only dream about seeing the city from afar!
And now there was a large pack… The rumor spread that there were more than fifty beasts in it, but of course, rumors tend to be exaggerated. Still, even if the amount was half of the claimed number, it was too much. The Hente were destroyed, and the fear they brought stayed.
The faith into the absolute protection of the border and the power of the patrols was cracked. It was only the first blow so far, the seed of the upcoming panic, but if such attacks repeated, the order would be gone in no time! They were living in one of the most developed states left on the planet, they had a lot to lose.
But the kids sitting in front of her were too young to understand this. They were mostly six and seven years old, and Gabriella even saw toddlers among them. It was their first visit to the church school, and she couldn’t fail them.
All generations gathered in the hall, including the great-grandparents of these kids, had never known any different kind of life. That made believing Gabriella’s version of the events easy for them.
“Two centuries ago the world was drowning in sin. People were killing each other for money, gold, power, words and ideas. Men were perverted, evil and vicious. Women didn’t think of their virtue, copied men’s behavior and stopped caring about their families. Chaos and debauchery were everywhere. Every new child born was coming into the world full of disgrace, and repeated the sins of its fathers. Only few people remained on the right path, but they weren’t enough to enlighten the fallen.”
She was saying only the things she was allowed to say, word by word. Gabriella knew that if she dared to add something, it wouldn’t go unnoticed. On each of her lessons there was a representative of the Church sitting in the back row. They didn’t tell her anything, they were just watching, but that was enough.
She obeyed every rule and taught only the approved truth to her students. What was the use of trying anything else? They would simply replace her with a teacher who was ready to do what they were told.
Gabriella had long since stopped believing most of her stories. She could see that the parents didn’t believe her either. But they had to make sure their children were here to guarantee them a better future.
“When the evil became common in this world, it started to gain shape,” Gabriella continued. “That’s how the first Hente came to be – the monsters that live outside of our country. At first there were very few of them, and people weren’t really scared. Sometimes they were believed to be the carriers of some virus, mutants or even humans wearing masks. Hente appeared in different countries, in small groups, and it seemed so easy to get rid of them. It took humans many years to realize it’s nearly impossible to kill a Hente.”
There was a small part of truth in this chapter of the story. The Hente epidemic had truly started without any apparent cause. They were feared – because it was hard not to fear large predators who fed on humans. But nobody believed them to be a global disaster. When they shot Hente, or hit them, or burned them with fire, the creatures always pulled back. Their wounds were so severe people were confident that the beasts were running to die in peace.
But things were more complicated than that, since the nature of Hente was truly unique. They only looked like humans, inside, they were a new species. When they encountered a type of weapon unknown to them, Hente would retreat in order to heal – and adapt. Their wounds disappeared very fast with no harm left, and the number of creatures was growing.
“When people finally understood the threat, it was already too late. Huge packs of Hente were wandering the continents, raiding cities and countries. People got used to relying on their military power, but it was pointless now. No matter what they did, Hente would always rise from ashes. Because they weren’t humans or animals, they were demons sent from hell to destroy all sinners.”
That version was meant to follow the interests of the state. Nobody actually knew what Hente were and where they came from. Gabriella heard that in some countries they were referred to as aliens. She didn’t believe that: in the two hundred years they ruled this planet they didn’t demonstrate a single space ship, trace of technology or even civilized behavior. They were intelligent, true, but extremely wild at that.
Plus, they didn’t concentrate on sinners only, they ate everyone they could catch. It was impossible to negotiate with t
hem, and destroying them was still troublesome. In the library Gabriella found the chronicles of the case when humans dropped a nuclear bomb on the city occupied by Hente. The explosion killed all the people left in there and made the territory infected for decades to come, while the Hente shook the dust off their skin and moved further.
“Luckily, there were still virtuous people who deserved the right to live!” she declared solemnly. “God gave them the only weapon that could kill the demons, and that was salt. Because as we all know, salt is made of the tears of angels crying for human sins.”
There was something ironic about it. After failing with the best weapons, after numerous losses and horror the humanity was to find out that these creatures were destroyed by salt. Humans paid a great price for this knowledge, but it saved them.
Salt was turning the bodies of Hente into ashes. However, the amount of salt needed depended strongly on the size of the predator. If it wasn’t enough, the creature would get a burn, retreat to heal and attack again someday. So the amount of salt in the new weapons used against Hente was carefully calculated.
Sea salt was the most effective against them, though mineral salt wasn’t that far behind. However, two centuries of research hadn’t brought either an alternative or even a chemical replacement, so the humanity’s resources were greatly restricted.
It seemed like a great weapon, with such expanse of salt water on the planet. But carrying large amounts of water around wasn’t too convenient, and by the time people discovered it the world had already suffered great losses. The amount of humans left was so poor they had to concentrate on survival, abandoning most of the territory conquered by Hente.
“Righteous people gathered in the places blessed by God. They were presented with the mystery of salt guarding them from demons. However, some of the sinners learned about the mystery, stole it and were left to live too. Righteous people weren’t angry with them, because they knew saving the weak was a good deed.”
