Salt of The Earth: The Fall of Barcelona

by Vlada Asta

  “How do we know you’re not lying?” the Mayor asked timidly.

  “You don’t. But as you could’ve noticed now, there are many things you don’t know. Luckily for you, there are people like Sebastian here who really want to save this city. By the way, if you choose to cooperate with me, know this: Sebastian is to become my assistant. He’s smarter than most of you, and I can use that.”

  Sebastian threw a surprised look at her. He hadn’t even recovered from that scene yet, and she was already talking about working together!

  But while he was calming down slowly, the Cardinal regained his self-control easily, like his status demanded.

  “We’ll discuss all the conditions later, but in general, we are ready to accept your help, Hente!”

  “Wonderful!” Aeterni smiled broadly. “I think we’ll get along!”

  She raised her hands to her face, and it took just a couple of snaps of her black jaws to destroy the titanium chains completely. Only now did she choose to demonstrate that she could’ve freed herself any moment she wanted.

  “Have you planned this?” Sebastian whispered.

  “Partly,” Aeterni answered in an equally quiet voice. “Part of it was improvisation. But it turned out great, admit it!”

  ***

  Martin looked at the line of people gathered in the corridor tiredly. He hated the days when it was his turn to work with the “unstable” candidates for receiving the pass.

  They were the worst among the refugees. The ones who managed to keep their life – and nothing more. They had lost all of their possessions, their houses, many of them – their health, some of them – their mind. Now this crowd of crippled, miserable, suffering people was trying to find their way to the peninsula. Some of them would probably manage to start a new life, but Martin knew through experience they would be the minority. Most of those people would remain tramps forever.

  Now it became even harder to work with these refugees. The rumors of an old woman and a child who were actually Hente in disguise had reached Toulouse. Those two beggars looked absolutely normal, they even talked! Their eyes weren’t black, and they had no visible fangs… Later it was reported they belonged to some rare type of Hente and the chances of the likes of them appearing in Toulouse weren’t high.

  But that old woman and her grandchild reached Barcelona somehow! She couldn’t have used the sea for this, and there was only one way across the land.

  Which meant that here in the line another monster could be waiting. The very thought of it made Martin reach for his sword nervously. He was studying every exhausted, pale face carefully, trying to find the signs of inhuman origin before that creature attacked him.

  His behavior didn’t go unnoticed. Henry, who was his partner for today, slapped his shoulder encouragingly.

  “You’re too twitchy, my Brother! The warriors of the Church shouldn’t tremble in fear!”

  “I’m not trembling, and your jokes are out of place here.”

  The woman passing the examination looked at them with reproach clear in her eyes. Judging by her face, she couldn’t be older than forty, yet her hair had already become completely white, and all light was gone from her eyes. She was alive – but not capable of true living. Martin didn’t want to imagine the things she had seen.

  Her future was not to be envied. She would wander the streets like a shadow or a ghost, or maybe she wouldn’t reach any city at all, becoming dinner for a lonely Hente. But they couldn’t forbid her from entering the peninsula since she had passed the test, proving she was human.

  “You know those Hente don’t use our city to walk in,” Henry reminded him.

  “But that old beggar got in somehow!”

  “It’s obvious… The wall protecting the border isn’t perfect. What Hente would come here to get a legal pass?”

  “The one who trusted its luck,” Martin guessed. “It would be easier for it to move around with a pass!”

  “That’s too complicated for those freaks.”

  “They are intelligent.”

  “If they’re so intelligent, they’ll figure they can’t pass the new test!”

  “They may not know about the new test.”

  Martin believed that the best option for checking the newcomers was pouring salt water over them. That wasn’t pleasant – but quite effective!

  However, someone from the management decided it wasn’t polite or something. The Hydrocompany was against it too, they believed it was irrational to use salt water like this. They trusted the computers and didn’t care about anything else.

  The computers actually weren’t a bad option. They didn’t make mistakes and didn’t cheat, it was impossible to bribe them. If some violation was suspected, the tested person would be covered in salt water immediately to guarantee the others’ safety. So the situation was by no means dire.

  Henry had finally finished filling in the pass and gave it to the woman.

  “Welcome to the peninsula, good luck with your new life! Invite the next one in.”

  The woman with a chance for new life didn’t look too happy about it. Her face was as gloomy as before, as if she didn’t really need that salvation, she was just following some inertia because she didn’t have the guts to accept her death.

  Martin felt sorry for such people, but at the same time he didn’t want them to be walking the same streets as his family.

  The next applicant was in no hurry to come in. Martin was about to move to the corridor to get that person when he finally appeared. The reason for the delay became clear immediately.

  The man was blind. He looked exhausted and damaged by the long journey, his clothes ragged, and he was hunching while checking the floor with a cane, his eyes hidden under a dirty bandage. But his hair, hiding half of his face, was jet black without a trickle of silver in it, so he couldn’t be too old.

  His condition was most likely the result of a Hente attack, and that happened long ago, because Martin couldn’t see any fresh wounds or blood on him.

  “Hello,” the newcomer said, sounding a bit confused. “You’ll have to say something, or I won’t know where you are.”

  “Stay there,” Henry told him, looking bored. “I’ll show you the way later.”

  “Where are you from?” Martin asked.

  “Zurich.”

  “That city was declared unsafe a year ago. Where have you been since then?”

  “That’s why it became unsafe,” the man pointed at his bandaged eyes. “I was there when the big attack happened… I didn’t want to leave, because I thought something would change. But nobody wants to protect the cities by the border, which are too far from the salt water. When a new pack arrived to hunt, they chose my house. I wasn’t born blind, you know… It took me this year to get used to it.”

  “Why have you come to the peninsula?”

  “Because I can’t protect myself anymore. I need to find a place where there’s no Hente, and then I might live for a little longer…”

  He couldn’t protect himself – and he couldn’t be useful. But Martin didn’t have the right to say that kind of truth.

  Henry stood up from his chair and led the man to the scanner. He put rubber gloves for it, he didn’t want to touch the dirty tramp with his bare hands.

  The scanner was as good of a testing resource as salt water, and better fit for places like Toulouse. Everybody knew that Hente had no skeleton. It didn’t matter what subspecies those freaks belonged to, they could look like humans, but there was nothing but slime inside of them. Their jaws where the only part of them made of different cells, but no-one knew why… weird creatures. Forsaken ones.

  The scanning was fast and effective. After a few seconds needed for analyzing the data they could see the image on the screen – the blind man’s silhouette with a skeleton inside of it. That could’ve been enough, but rules were rules.

  “Take this,” Henry put a small device into the tramp’s hand. “Press the needle to break the skin. We’ll take your bloo
d for the analysis, one drop should be enough.”

  There was no need for actual analysis here, they just had to see the color of the blood. Hente blood was black, while human blood was red – no exceptions. But the civilians had to think a full analysis took place, otherwise they wouldn’t trust that method.

  Martin was glad his partner was working with this tramp. It was clear they were facing a crippled man, not a Hente. But who knew what diseases he might be carrying! He’d been homeless for a year now, sleeping in sewers and eating some junk... And there were hundreds of such men out there.

  Why waste valuable resources on them? It would’ve been much more practical to send the likes of him to the wild lands! They wouldn’t live long anywhere, but their death there would sate the appetite of Hente for a while, winning some time for normal people.

  The idea seemed monstrous at first, but Martin knew many people thought this way. They just didn’t dare to say it… But a few more cases like Zurich, and they would!

  “An eye scan is part of the test as well,” Henry noted. “Do you have anything to scan, traveler?”

  The blind man didn’t appreciate the joke. He took the dirty bandage off his face, and Martin felt his stomach spasm in disgust.

  That man had no eyes. At all. It looked like they were crushed by a single powerful blow: the creature that attacked him slashed across his face, destroying both eyeballs in an instant. Now two bloody holes were gaping in their place, with an ugly scar adding to them across the nose.

  “I don’t think you can scan that,” the blind man said dryly. “But you may try if you want to.”

  Henry hurried to file his pass. They felt uneasy being in the same room with this man. Martin didn’t feel angry at him, because his condition was one of his worst nightmares. He was still alive – but mostly helpless. Death seemed like a better option from that perspective…

  After getting his pass the blind man put it into his old jacket and left. Martin opened the window to let some fresh air into the room.

  He was about to invite the next man in – but didn’t have the time for it. The sound of alert, sharp and loud, flew through the air. An emotionless computer voice warned them:

  “Attention to all warriors! Checkpoint violation detected. Multiple Hente identified.”

  ***

  Everything turned out better than she expected. Aeterni knew there were Hente in the city – she sensed them as soon as she arrived. She was confident they’d come to watch her execution if it was public. That was why she found a way to let the police arrest her. But to find those Hente in the front row… from the Clan that had minimal difference with humans… the result was quite epic!

  She was surprised by Sebastian’s trust. That only fueled her desire to understand his true nature. She demanded to make him her assistant for that reason.

  Humans were much more willing to work with her than before. Her presence was the only thing keeping the citizens from panic now. She turned into their protector in a matter of minutes. They preferred to watch her from safe distance and didn’t dare to touch her, but Aeterni was fine with that.

  They gave her a big house close to the Ramblas. Many families used to share it, but now the top floor belonged solely to her, while the lower ones were given to warriors. Humans tried to pretend it was just a coincidence, that they weren’t watching her this way, but Aeterni wasn’t going to believe that. She wasn’t upset by it either; they weren’t threatening her now.

  The only thing that upset her was Sebastian’s behavior. He followed his leader’s order and came to live with her, but their communication became limited. He remained silent if she didn’t ask him anything and refused to say what was bothering him.

  That annoyed her greatly, but wasn’t enough to ruin her mood. She was studying expensive furniture and antique porcelain with delight. This wasn’t a temporary shelter, it was her home! It was such a strange and unfamiliar idea to her…

  She was going to work on understanding this world. So far most of her knowledge was inherited from somebody else – from the people this body was made of. But she was going to make her own memories very soon!

  “Do you think it’s the best time for it?” Sebastian asked, trying to hide his discontent.

  “Sure. What else am I supposed to do?”

  She was observing the mall with amusement. It was as huge as a temple, and also bright and shiny in its own way. Inside, the building was divided into dozens of departments that sold anything – from food to gold, which humans appreciated greatly for some reason.

  There were different people visiting this place. The church-abiding citizens, teenagers in provocative outfits, old men looking frightened by this carnival of consumption. They were too influenced by the time this city didn’t have a proper protection to relax.

  Looking at this splendor made it hard to believe that somewhere on the same continent the war was still going. And the same malls stood empty and abandoned… until time put an end to their existence.

  Sebastian didn’t share her admiration, he kept reminding her about things she considered boring.

  “How about beginning the hunt?”

  “What hunt?” she asked absent-mindedly, looking at the tiny figures made of caramel.

  “The Hente hunt! You said there are more of them in the city, not just the old woman!”

  He tried to speak quietly, because he didn’t want to scare the citizens with such talks – those humans made themselves believe Hente didn’t exist at all. Their protective lies were all but ruined now though, because the news of Hente living in the city spread like wildfire. And it was quite easy to recognize Aeterni, she wasn’t hiding her eyes and fangs.

  Because of that they were surrounded by empty space wherever they went, humans didn’t dare to approach her. But they didn’t leave the building altogether because her appearance was probably the brightest event in their otherwise boring life.

  “There are more Hente here indeed, but I doubt any of them are from the same Clan as that old woman. Illirika has her own stable territory, besides, she’s careful. I think she sent that couple here to gather information. As far as I know, there were no killings by Hente inside the city lately. Thus the Hente residing here must be nothing but spies, they’re not too dangerous.”

  “But some people had gone missing,” Sebastian pointed out. “We didn’t suspect that Hente were among us, so we didn’t view those disappearances as the result of their hunt!”

  “You should have. I guess someone’s hunting here after all. I’ll have to clean those streets.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about! We must be busy with this, not shopping!”

  “Later,” Aeterni said simply. “First I need to find some suitable clothes. This robe freaks me out.”

  She received new clothes when she arrived to her house, but Aeterni didn’t like them. Those were the same long dresses, very modest, but totally useless. Had anyone ever tried fighting in this?

  It wasn’t only about the freedom of movement. Aeterni knew that the looks affected humans greatly, and she wanted to study that influence further. Her body was made attractive for a reason!

  She wasn’t planning to break the local laws completely – she wasn’t going to walk around naked, though she saw nothing wrong with that. She just knew some areas of female body had to be covered, it was an old human tradition. She was going to stick to that necessary limitation.

  “Where are you going?” her partner asked in surprise. “It’s a lingerie store!”

  “I have to start with something!”

  “Not with perversion!”

  “What does it have to do with perversion? Do you realize I’m wearing nothing underneath that dress? Because your modest buddies were too shy to buy me something on their own!”

  Just like she expected, Sebastian was embarrassed. He was a priest after all, even though he spent most of his time on the battlefield. He was taught to believe everything connected to women and sex was sinful and fo
rbidden.

  Aeterni found it amusing, and she wasn’t going to make his life any easier.

  “I’ll wait for you here,” he warned her.

  “Bad idea. Look at the humans here – they’re frightened. Your presence is the guarantee of safety to them. They wouldn’t appreciate you staying away from me.”

  “I shouldn’t go there.”

  “Are you prohibited to?”

  “Not officially, but…”

  “Well, that’s it,” Aeterni interrupted him. “You’re not going there to find yourself lacy panties! You’re making sure I don’t kill anyone. Watch closely!”

  She didn’t need his presence there. He wasn’t happy to enter this store. But Aeterni was having too much fun to let him stay in the hallway.

  There were no sales assistants in this mall. Everything was controlled by computers: they took the money, released the antitheft blocks, packed the purchase. Aeterni suspected that if someone tried to sneak out an article without paying, nothing good would come out of it. She didn’t plan to try it, she didn’t enjoy this kind of jokes.

  Why waste her time, if she had a more complicated type of entertainment at her disposal?

  “Do you think that would look good on me?” she was taking small articles of clothing from the racks, pressing them to her body.

  “I’m not going to discuss it.”

  “But I need your help! I don’t even know how to put it on!”

  “Me neither.”

  “You’re no fun! Do you think it’s my size? Or too small for me?”

  He controlled his reaction perfectly, and anyone watching them wouldn’t be able to tell Sebastian was influenced by this in any way. But Aeterni liked studying the chemical reactions that were happening inside his body. She sensed everything: the change of temperature, increased heartbeat, hormonal balance. It was so complicated and mesmerizing to her!

  The Hente bodies were much simpler. They reacted to nothing but hunger and immediate threat. Their intelligence, which was often no lower than in humans, served these two purposes only.