Salt of The Earth: The Fall of Barcelona

by Vlada Asta

  At first she couldn’t understand why Maya dragged her here. But then she united her eyesight with her sensing ability, and everything became clear.

  Something was moving ahead of them, on the very horizon. And it was massive! Trees were shaking visibly, and not from the wind; the pack marching between them had at least fifty predators in it. Another pack was going that way from the east, and they were from the same Clans. It looked too much like an army!

  “What is that?” Aeterni whispered in astonishment. “Where are they going?”

  “I’ve noticed that there were barely any Hente left in these lands. They were just gone! So I delayed my hunt and went down to surveillance. That’s how I learned Tsiara’s and Goar’s Hente were forming packs, but not moving. As if they were waiting for something! They were hiding in caves, basements and distant forests…. Today they left their shelters. Judging from what other members of our Clan see, all of them got out at once. And since these two Mothers had been very interested in the peninsula lately, I figured they were going there.”

  “But… it’s an army!”

  “Yes it is,” Maya nodded. “Humans have a good defense system, but not good enough to stop them. That army won’t conquer the entire peninsula, but they will definitely break through the border – and move the border itself back. The map of the world will change. I dare to suggest that, when facing such a danger, humans will send their best men to fight it. That includes the man you love. Logically, he will be one of the first to die in this war. But that doesn’t really matter since you’ve decided to replace him already. All we can do now is call Karim off and observe this battle from a safe distance.”

  ***

  Never before had the Hente demonstrated the humanity how powerful they truly were as openly as on that moment. Computer detectors caught their approach – and that was it. The creatures were smart enough to find the tiny cameras hidden in the forest and destroy them. They had done it before the system could analyze anything.

  Thus the people in Toulouse knew a large pack was approaching, and nothing more. Meanwhile, the seismographs were catching the growing tremble underneath the surface. They had been installed especially for detecting the giant worm, and it looked like they worked.

  It was the most massive attack Lucas had ever heard of.

  “Try to use the satellite!” he ordered. “Can we see them or not?”

  “We’re trying, Brother Lucas. But there are too many trees at their current location!”

  The predators had calculated this! The forest was cut out at a mile’s distance around Toulouse, but by the time the pack got there, no satellite would be necessary, humans would see them with their own eyes.

  How were they supposed to organize the defense? Where to send their soldiers? If Aeterni was here, she could’ve sensed something and helped them, but she was in Barcelona – and that was too far.

  “Get the Hydrosystem ready,” Lucas commanded. “If we turn it on on maximum, that should be enough to destroy half of the pack in one move. Are they trying to win through their amount? We’ll show them this trick won’t work with us!”

  He didn’t want to be in charge now. And he shouldn’t have been: he wasn’t the official leader here. But the warriors who were looked completely lost and helpless, they kept their heads low and listened to him.

  They spent years in Toulouse, but they had never seen anything like this before. That was… an invasion, no less! They were afraid, and a commander should never be afraid.

  “Start evacuating the civilians,” Lucas added. “At least get them out of the city until we deal with the damn Hente! Besides, as soon as the worm gets here, we won’t avoid casualties!”

  “What about the refugees? Some of them haven’t been checked yet… What do we do with them?”

  Lucas had to think about it. People on the other side of that fence weren’t examined, and there could be Hente hiding among them. But still… Letting a dozen Hente get to the peninsula was better than leaving hundreds of defenseless humans to die here.

  “Evacuate the refugees too, but they should be the last to leave this city. And make sure they go to some separate village and stay there until everything is over.”

  He knew that it was hard to follow his order, nearly impossible even. When the attack started, they’d need all warriors they had in Toulouse, and only a few of them would be sent to watch the refugees. But there were no simple decisions at the time like this!

  “Where are you going, Brother Lucas?” one of the soldiers asked when he noticed him leaving.

  “To the city border. I want to see how many of them will be annihilated by the Hydrosystem. Start the evacuation! How much time do we have until their arrival?”

  “If they continue approaching at the same speed, around forty minutes…”

  “Then we have half an hour. Move!”

  There was no official announcement about the pack’s approach, but everyone could sense the dread. The citizens who lived at the border hurried to leave with their families once they noticed the soldiers gathering there. Their neighbors saw that and followed the suit. Thousands of people who had nothing to do with this war… Lucas knew that not all of them would survive this day, but he preferred not to think about it.

  The church warriors were well organized, even the ones who had just finished the Seminary. They were scared, naturally, but not to the point of losing self-control. They would stay here till the very end…

  On his way to the city border, Lucas kept looking around. He was hoping to see Sebastian or some other warrior with whom he had already fought before. It would be easier to work with them. They were facing a new danger, unheard of before, and they had no proper commanders in the city!

  Surveillance towers were installed beside the city walls, they were perfect for observing the territory around Toulouse and the distant forest where the pack was coming from. The Hydrosystem control center was also here.

  The pipes supplying salt water stretched through the field in front of the gates. Once activated, they wound create huge fountains. The salt would melt the Hente coming from the forest, and then, pouring through the soil, it could even harm the worm if it crawls there. If everything went according to plan, saving that city wouldn’t be too difficult.

  But Lucas doubted that things would be so simple. He couldn’t believe the Hente were so stupid! On the contrary, their actions had been disturbingly smart lately. They had to have some sort of strategy prepared…

  The main tower was quiet, the tension in the air so thick Lucas could almost feel it. He went to a window and looked outside. The field and the forest appeared as normal as ever, and it was hard to believe the colossal threat awaiting there.

  “Are they still on the move?” Lucas asked.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “When will they get here?”

  “The computer estimates it as ten minutes.”

  “How much time does it take to turn the Hydrosystem on?”

  “It’s already fully prepared, Brother Lucas. We just need to press the button, and the water flow would go here, straight from the sea, in seconds.”

  “Is there a chance they’ll pass it?”

  “Not more than one percent of the entire pack,” the warrior reported. “I don’t know what they’re counting on!”

  That attack continued to look suicidal – and that was quite alarming. Those creatures were part of a collective mind, they couldn’t commit suicide. But understanding their plan seemed impossible to humans, they had to wait.

  However, the peace was broken long before the pack appeared on the horizon. The tense silence was suddenly interrupted by human screams and low growling – and all of that was coming from inside the city, not from the forest.

  Lucas couldn’t believe his ears; he ran to the other side of the tower to check what was going on.

  There were Hente on the streets of Toulouse. Not hundreds of them, and not a pack, just around twenty beasts, but even that was enough to w
reak havoc! They appeared in the place that was by all means safe, and the soldiers were concentrated by the border now with no-one left to stop these predators. They were spreading through the city, attacking the civilians who had never held a weapon in their entire life!

  It only took Lucas a couple of minutes to figure where they came from. Some of them were still behind the fence outlining the refugee area. They were lashing out at the real humans mercilessly – at everyone who stood beside them when they gained their true form.

  Lucas didn’t believe it was a coincidence. Their diversion was too timely, there were too many of them in that crowd. It was all part of the same strategy! They knew the pack was coming – because they were part of it.

  “I’m going there!” Lucas announced. “Someone has to stop them!”

  “You won’t handle that alone, you are needed here! A squad has already been sent there! Brother Lucas, the enemy is in sight!”

  It took Lucas all of his willpower to ignore the desperate screams coming from the streets. He had to stay… Going there and fighting till he was killed was easier than living with those screams in his memory, but it wasn’t a mere attack, it was a military campaign. He had to turn his emotions off and take practical, ruthless decisions.

  He knew that the city attack was just a distraction. The main force was about to reach them – Lucas realized it especially clear when he finally saw the pack. They were pouring from the forest like a living sea – first dozens, and then hundreds of them. It was the largest gathering of Hente he had ever seen! There were predators from two Clans here, moving in perfect accord, like soldiers.

  They appeared to be some unbreakable force that humans couldn’t even fight, they could only run for their lives, hoping the pack would sate its hunger on others and stop, letting the survivors live for a couple of days longer. Even Lucas, a devoted and experienced warrior, was having such urges. He could only imagine what the freshmen were thinking about.

  But they couldn’t escape. The peninsula was behind them, the territory that had been the symbol of safety and peace for years. Where would they go? The Hente would chase them back to the shore, and everything would end there. People would have no food, no agriculture, they would lose everything. That was agony, not life!

  They had to stop the Hente here, in Toulouse. Even if thousands of lives had to be sacrificed for that – to save millions in the future.

  “Shall we turn the Hydrosystem on?” the warrior at the computer control asked. He looked pale and frightened. “They’re within its reach!”

  “It’s too early. Will it turn on the moment you press the button?”

  “Yes…”

  “Then we’ll let them get closer. I’ll tell you when.”

  He didn’t want everything to depend on him. But if it happened this way, if no-one else dared to take this responsibility, Lucas had to stay strong!

  He waited for the pack to take half of the field. It was hard, and he wanted to crush them as soon as possible, but he wasn’t going to lose his cool. If those beasts came here, humans had to destroy them, not just scare them off. The Hente had to learn their lesson for good!

  “Now!” Lucas commanded. “Turn it on!”

  That was all the warrior needed to hear. A couple of movements of his trembling hand – and water burst from the ground, covering the Hente with salt. Pained howling filled the air, and the first flakes of ashes were falling down, turning into dirt. The Hente were dying almost instantly, they lost around forty beasts in those first moments, but they continued moving forward stubbornly.

  That was confusing – until the moment computer monitors showed red signs of alarm. The salty fountains over the field were drying out as fast as they appeared. The pipes weren’t blocked completely, and there was still some water pouring onto the field. But the fountains became so small the Hente avoided them easily. The ashes of their dead brothers covered the salt, giving them a chance to walk this earth without harm.

  “What’s happening?” was the only thing Lucas could ask.

  “It looks like all the secondary pipes shut down! Two of the southern ones were officially closed for repair yesterday. No problems were registered at the west, but judging by the data I have the pipes there simply collapsed! That wasn’t supposed to happen! The contrast in water pressure destroyed another supportive system and damaged the main one! With the citizens using their personal protection systems now, we are left with next to nothing!”

  Just like with the refugees, it wasn’t an accident. The Hente had planned everything! They somehow managed to break the additional pipes, and they either did it discretely, or the warriors who were watching those pipes hid the damage to avoid punishment. And all of that led to a catastrophe…

  “Can we change the flow?” Lucas inquired. “Put all the water we have onto the field?”

  He knew that the lives of the citizens depended on that now. But it was a matter of necessary sacrifice… It had to be done. A desperate measure for a desperate time!

  “I’m trying, Brother Lucas… But the system wasn’t designed for this!”

  “Then we need to stop them at the gates! Tell everyone on those towers to get down to the field! We’ve already informed Barcelona about it, we just need to hold them long enough for the back-up to arrive! Send an SOS signal to other countries, they’ll help us!”

  “I’ve already done that…”

  “Good, then we just have to fight them off! Don’t give up, it’s not over yet! We have to fight not to the death, but to the moment help gets here! The whole peninsula depends on us now, we can’t fail them!”

  As if to mock his words, a rumble sounded from the street. A cloud of dust flew to the sky and covered the city like mist. Leaning over the windowsill, Lucas could see the giant worm that had just broken through the pavement.

  It was here again. Its colossal head rose above the roofs, the jaws opened, letting new Hente out. Thirty of them, no less, large and powerful beasts with nobody left on the streets to stop them. They merged with the ones who entered Toulouse as refugees, and even more of them were coming from the border.

  That meant there were roughly five Hente against each human warrior. And that was only judging by the ones Lucas saw, he had no idea how many of them were waiting in the forest.

  That was the end of Toulouse. No alternatives left. Humans would fight them, but out of pure despair, because running was even more useless. They didn’t have a single chance to win without the Hydrosystem working. They’d fight, and then they’d fall – and the whole peninsula would fall with them.

  Lucas grasped the handle of his sword, feeling the familiar coolness of metal under his skin. Strangely enough, he wasn’t scared anymore. He just didn’t want to die like this, becoming part of humanity’s greatest defeat. But nothing depended on him anymore.

  ***

  Sebastian instinctively felt that this was it. The end to everything he knew. He didn’t think about his own life – at least, he didn’t regret it. It would be even right for him to die here. But other people didn’t deserve this… And he was trying to help them as long as he could.

  He didn’t see where the first Hente in the city came from. All he cared about was the threat they posed to people. He was fighting alone, not even trying to join any squad. Maybe the support of his comrades would help him to live longer, but it wouldn’t change anything in the end.

  He didn’t want to obey orders or issue them. He wanted to move without thinking, guided solely by his body, which was trained by dozens of fights. Sebastian was fighting without worrying about anyone at all, and it was a special experience – liberating in a way. It made him faster and deadlier than ever.

  The Hente were jumping at him from all sides, and they were mostly Slayers – or rather, Tsiara’s Clan. At first there were fewer of them in the city than the smaller ones, Goar’s children. But soon came the worm. It spat out its lethal cargo and disappeared again, leaving a dark crater in the ground. Apparently the giant wa
sn’t going to participate in the battle, though it looked much better than the last time: its wounds were healed. Tsiara had improved her main masterpiece, that was for sure.

  Sebastian didn’t notice the moment he was left on the street alone. All humans ran to the evacuation points, and he was surrounded by Hente from all sides. He had to win them some time… That was the only victory available to him in this hell. Those people wouldn’t live long too, but that would depend on the warriors guarding them, not him. Perhaps they could put an end to this…

  He didn’t believe that though. All their previous struggle was put on trial now – and it meant nothing. Any resistance was futile. They could fight in agony, like a butterfly trapped in a spider’s web, but that wouldn’t change anything. The spider would come and eat its meal.

  That was just part of human nature… They wanted to stay optimistic even at the times it was illogical. They tore day after day from the destiny’s fangs and believed that would be enough. They didn’t think about the future, because if they did, everything would be over. They would understand the hopelessness of their situation.

  Sebastian still fought. It was probably just inertia on his behalf. He had been doing this for years – only fighting. That was all the life he could have in a world like this. Nothing changed since the day his mother died. And if he had died with her, nobody would’ve noticed the difference. One of the creatures attacking Toulouse could’ve been made of his mother’s dead body. By fighting them he was fighting her.

  One day wasn’t important at all.

  In this war they could win nothing but a single day.

  Although… If he had died on the day he lost his first squad, he would never have met Aeterni. If he had died an hour before she got to that cathedral, he would never have had those moments with her. He would’ve had nothing… But the weeks spent with her gave him the feeling of happiness he had forgotten. One night with her gave him more than his previous life without her!

  It was worth it. Aeterni was worth it. Was that the value of one day? Stealing those pieces of absolute happiness from the destiny one by one. Fighting for the right to make small steps instead of thinking decades into the future. Risking his life today to smile on peaceful streets tomorrow. Meeting her, creating a family, seeing his children… There was nothing universally important about it, and yet there was something priceless in those actions. The essence of life itself!