by R. D. Brady
“This world is not an easy one.”
The man tossed and turned. Sweat rolled down his face as he mumbled. “They’re coming. Run, Shelly. Don’t let them get you.”
“What do you think he means?” Lyla asked. “He said there were ships in the air. People from the sky.”
“He’s hallucinating. You know that technology no longer exists.”
True. At one point, planes, cars, and computers were so much a part of everyday life that people didn’t even think of how remarkable they were. But ever since the asteroid, the world had changed. It was nothing like the Before. There were no governments. People banded together, creating camps, trying to eke out a living and defend against other camps. And Mother Nature.
Lyla wasn’t sure who was the bigger threat. They’d had to fight more than one group trying to steal their resources. But Mother Nature—there was nothing they could do to stop her. Swarms of tornados and waves of earthquakes decimated areas. Torrential rains could appear from a blue sky and wipe out a valley without notice. The asteroid had killed most of the world’s population, and now the aftereffects seemed to be trying to finish the job.
“The ships are coming! Run!” the man yelled, struggling to sit up, but the yell proved too exhausting. Tears rolled down his cheeks again. “Shelly.”
The man’s pain was difficult to watch, and Lyla couldn’t help but wonder who Shelly was. Was she a figment of his imagination, too?
“Your shift’s up. Why don’t you—”
“No,” Lyla said quickly. “I’ll stay.”
Frank narrowed his eyes, searching her face. “You took a double shift already.”
“Yes. But we both know that this needs to be kept quiet. No more people should be let into the loop than need to be. Just do me a favor and stop by and let Muriel and Riley know, okay?”
Lyla knew Frank wanted to argue with her. But he also knew she was right. Finally, he nodded. “Very well. I’ll send Jamal back with some food, all right?”
Lyla was not looking forward to the night ahead, but she nodded. “Great.”
Frank headed back to camp, and Lyla settled down by the front of the cave, her back against the wall.
“They’re coming. You need to run.” The man’s voice was soft, but the words were desperate and sent a chill up Lyla’s spine. It’s just his imagination, she reminded herself again and again as he rambled through the long night. Finally, as dawn broke, the man went silent and found peace.
And Lyla wondered why his hallucinations had taken the shape they had. Why ships? Why monsters? She looked at the man one last time as she pulled the sheet over him, preparing him for burial.
What did you see out there that made you hallucinate something so impossible?
Two Days Later
Twelve-year-old Riley Quinn hurried down the path of tents toward the one he shared with his mom and his aunt Lyla. He ducked through two tents side by side. “Come on, Dave,” he called, looking over his shoulder at his friend, who followed him.
Dave grimaced, his limp a little more pronounced than when they’d started out. “I’m coming.”
Riley slowed. Shoot. He always forgot about Dave’s leg. Normally the limp was barely noticeable. It was only when he ran that it became truly obvious. Dave had broken his leg when he was around five, and it hadn’t set correctly. Back then, the camp hadn’t had a doctor, and no one even realized it was broken. They thought he’d just banged it up good. By the time they realized what had happened, the damage was done.
Riley glanced past the last row of tents toward the barn. The camp was spread out over an acre on the edge of a long lake. The tents were at the western part with the crops to the east, nearer to the lake. It was a freshwater lake, meaning it worked for watering. A fifteen-foot wooden fence surrounded the crops, with only one entrance. The barn was north of the tents. But that wasn’t their destination. They were heading past it to the training yards to watch the Phoenixes, the camp’s security force.
David hurried to stand next to Riley. “Why did Mr. Tolliver have to keep us so long today?”
Riley shrugged. “You know Mr. Tolliver. He gets into certain subjects.” Mr. Tolliver, the camp doctor, was also their schoolteacher. And he did have a habit of going off a planned subject if he got distracted by something else. Riley wondered if he’d ever pick up on the fact that kids sometimes introduced those subjects just to get him focused on something else.
Today, it had been ancient Egypt. And Riley had to admit he loved when Mr. Tolliver took them with him into the ancient past, back before the asteroid, when the world had created incredible things. Ancient Egypt held a special interest for Riley. Pharaohs, the pyramids, the Great Sphinx—he couldn’t get enough of it.
He dreamed of one day going to see it all with his own eyes. But he knew that was just a dream. No one crossed the ocean anymore. Besides, who knew if Egypt even still existed? The Great Pyramid was right next to the Nile River. It was probably underwater. So much land was now underwater that Mr. Tolliver couldn’t even show them an official map of the world. He’d crossed out a lot of places he knew were underwater from reports before all the electricity and worldwide communications systems went out.
“Did you hear what Mr. Tolliver said about electronic libraries? A machine with thousands of books in it, but it could fit in your hand. Can you imagine?”
Riley shook his head. “No, I can’t.” And he really couldn’t. Whenever anyone talked of the Before, it all seemed so incredible. Cars that could transport people miles in minutes, planes that flew through the air, even machines that made food.
“Man, I would give anything to see that.” David grinned at him and then his eyes lit up. He nodded down the road. “They’re coming.”
Riley looked to where David motioned and saw them—the Phoenixes. Mr. Tolliver explained that the Phoenixes had been named so because they stepped out of the ashes of the destruction to help people survive.
He and David ran to the edge of the path and stopped as the group of warriors marched past. They were in charge of protecting the camp’s residents—everything from humans to animals. Each had a brown or green cloak that helped them blend into the trees. Each had a sword strapped to their side, and each carried a tall staff. They trained every day without fail, and there were always a handful patrolling the perimeter of the camp.
Each soldier was tough as nails and ferocious in a fight. Jamal and Addie Hudson, Lyla’s closest friends, went by, giving both boys a grin.
Riley stood on his toes, trying to see through the group. He grinned when he caught sight of his aunt and nudged David. “There she is.” Lyla stood in the middle, dwarfed by the Phoenixes around her.
At twenty-three, she was one of the youngest and looked it. She was the smallest warrior by far. But Riley had seen her take down everybody she’d ever gone against. She was fearless and respected by every single Phoenix. Even the older Phoenixes asked her for help. And Riley knew one day she’d be in charge of all of them.
Lyla caught sight of Riley and gave him a smile.
He waved. “Have you started your training yet?” he yelled. “Can we watch?”
A few of the warriors grinned at his yell.
She said something to the man next to her before jogging over to Riley. She reached out and ruffled his hair. “We haven’t started yet. Weren’t you supposed to go help your mom get ready for the move?”
Riley groaned. “We have two whole days.”
“Two days is not a lot of time to get things done. We’re even cutting our training time down so we can get the camp ready. It’s going to take all of us”—she looked at each of them—“to make this move happen.”
“Sorry, Lyla,” David murmured.
Lyla looked over her shoulder at the Phoenixes as they disappeared behind the barn, then turned back to the boys. “Tell you what, if you guys get done what you need to get done, you can come watch.”
Riley grinned, opening his mouth to thank her.
Lyla put up a hand. “But then you will help us get the camp ready.”
Riley and David were already nodding before Lyla finished speaking.
She smiled. “All right. Go. I’ll see you in a little bit.”
Lyla caught up with the Phoenixes as they entered the training area. The ‘training area’ was really just an open piece of ground between the barn and some of the wooden cabins. Otto Swingler glanced back at her and then waited until she caught up, falling in step with her. He leaned down, way down, and whispered, “Can we meet up tomorrow morning?”
“Yeah. By the old oak.”
He nodded.
“See you then.” Otto hurried toward the rest of the group.
Addie caught the exchange with a raised eyebrow. She grinned, the sunlight shining off her dark skin. Lyla knew Addie thought something was going on between her and Otto, but Lyla was pretty sure his tastes did not run in her direction. No, Lyla was helping Otto with his fighting skills. He was easily a foot taller than any member of the camp and built of solid muscle, which made him a target whenever they got into skirmishes with other groups. Most people figured they should take out the big guy first.
With Otto, that was relatively easy to do. He had no feel for fighting. He needed to know exactly what he should do in each situation to respond. He couldn’t make it up on the spot. But the bigger problem was that his heart wasn’t in it. Otto’s size was impressive, but he was a gentle giant. Lyla could only get him to fight by reminding him he was protecting other people. It was why it was so difficult to train him—he never went full out or even close to full out during training. He was too worried about hurting someone.
Lyla had spoken with Frank about it. But Frank knew that just the sight of Otto could be a deterrent, so he asked Lyla to work on getting his fighting skills up. Lyla had been working with him, but she hadn’t really seen any improvement.
She caught the gaze of the head of the Phoenixes, who stood in the middle of the training yard, his legs braced. Allan Carter looked at her and then looked away. Allan was another big guy, but he liked to fight, maybe a little too much, in Lyla’s opinion. Allan had made it clear that he viewed being in charge of security as a stepping stone to camp leader. And the fact that Frank had made clear his preference for Lyla taking over one day had not helped improve Allan’s opinion of her. It also didn’t help that his ego always seemed to need feeding.
But as much as he would like her out of his way, Lyla wasn’t really worried about Allan. After all, she knew she was good, and so did everybody else, including Allan. So while Allan may dislike her, when push came to shove, she was the first one he called up when he needed someone at his back.
Allan waved everyone toward the stable, and Lyla frowned as they all headed that way. Addie and Jamal bookended Lyla as they headed in.
“What’s this all about?” Lyla asked.
“It’s probably about the ship from yesterday,” Addie whispered.
Lyla stopped still, meeting Jamal’s gaze, the words from a dead man ringing through her head. “What?”
“Oh, right, you two were out on patrol,” Addie said. “Saul was out gathering herbs for the kitchen when he claimed some sort of ship flew overhead. It was probably a big bird. Saul’s not exactly comfortable in the woods.”
“I’m sure that’s it,” Jamal said quickly, flicking his eyes to Lyla and away again. Lyla could hear the nervousness in his voice.
A second person claiming to see a ship? What was going on?
Addie scoffed, oblivious to the tension in both Lyla and Jamal. “Please, there have been no ships in the air since the asteroid. I think Saul was drinking.”
“He doesn’t drink,” Lyla said.
“Well, then it was a big bird. I mean, what else could it be?” Addie asked.
The eighteen Phoenixes were spread out across the space, leaning against walls, sitting on bales of hay, all facing Allan, who stood in the hay between the stalls. Lyla, Addie, and Jamal quickly sat on some bales near Otto. There were thirty-six Phoenixes in total, but the rest were on guard duty. Frank had doubled the guard. Lyla thought it was in response to the rabies scare, but now she wondered if there was an additional worry occupying Frank’s thoughts.
Allan gestured for quiet, and all the murmurs stopped. “We’ve had reports that the Tanners lost most of their crops to an earthquake swarm.”
“Oh no,” Addie murmured next to her. Lyla felt the same despair at the thought.
Allan put up a hand for quiet. “We will aid them if we can, but we will also need to make sure our own food stores are protected.”
Allan wasn’t talking about protecting them from the swarms. They all knew that was impossible. When Mother Nature struck, all you could do was sit back and wait until she was done. No, Allan meant we might need to protect our food from the Tanners. We traded with them and occasionally shared news. But when hunger hit a camp, there was no telling what people would do. They’d had other camps attack them in the past after a crop devastation. It was the reason the crops had a fifteen-foot wall surrounding them.
“What about refugees?” called out Montell, a tall African-American Phoenix a few years older than Lyla.
“If they make it down to the new camp, we’ll take in anyone willing to work, the same as always.” Allan looked around, making eye contact with most of the Phoenixes. “We’ll need extra guards on the food supplies as we head south. I expect you’ll all volunteer?”
Everyone nodded back at him. Food was life. It was that simple. But this year it would be even more important. An advance group had gone down ahead to begin setting up the camp, but it was new land. There were no guarantees the crops would take right away. They might need to make this year’s yield stretch.
Allan paused. “Now, there is another issue which you no doubt have heard about. Saul claims to have seen a ship in the sky. Frank sent out some runners yesterday in that direction. They reported no further sightings. However, we are going to keep extra guards on duty for a while as a precaution. In addition, the silence rule applies. No one in the camp is to know about the sighting. Right now, it looks like Saul was mistaken, and there’s no point having everyone jumping at shadows for no good reason.”
“Are we going to send anyone toward the coast? Saul said the ship was heading in that direction,” Shane Summers called out.
“Frank and I have discussed it. And we will be looking for volunteers. Until then, we need to discuss the new guard schedule. I’m afraid you guys aren’t going to like it too much.”
Lyla tuned him out, turning her head toward the front gate with a frown. What was that? There was a strange noise under the normal sounds of the camp.
“I’m sorry, Lyla, are we boring you?” Allan asked.
Addie nudged her shoulder.
Lyla stood, the hair on the back of her neck rising. “Something’s wrong.”
Allan might not like Lyla, but he trusted her instincts and was immediately on alert. “Where?”
“Front gate.”
He pointed to a group of Phoenixes to his right. “You six, front gate. The rest of you span out.”
Lyla moved at a jog along with the rest of the Phoenixes, trying to figure out what exactly was on her radar. But she couldn’t pin it down. She just knew something was wrong.
A whistling sound came from overhead as a ball of light skimmed through the sky.
Lyla whirled around. “No!”
The ball of light slammed into the stable. Lyla was flung into the air before being slammed onto her back as shards of wood pierced the air.
Her head ringing, Lyla rolled to her feet, pulling her staff from behind her back. Lyla stumbled forward to where Allan lay. “Allan, are you—” He stared straight ahead, a gaping wound in his neck and chest, his right arm gone.
Lyla looked across Allan’s body and saw more Phoenixes down, at least five by her count. Screams sounded behind her, followed by that strange noise, but this time it was louder and closer.
It leveled a weapon at Lyla. Without hesitation, she rolled, and a ray of light burst from the staff. It engulfed Allan in blue light for only a second before reducing his body to ash.
Riley and David were headed away from the stables with the intent of going straight home. But then they’d started messing around with one of the moves Lyla had shown them to disarm someone. As Riley landed in the dust at David’s feet, he grinned up at him. “That was awesome.”
David stepped back with a grin. “Yeah.” He glanced back toward the stables. “We better go check with our moms or we’ll never get to see the training.”
Riley rolled to his feet, wiping his dusty hands on his pants. “Hey, maybe they’ll let us practice with them.”
David’s eyes lit up. “Yeah. I’ll go get my sword.” David’s sword was really just a stick. Each of the kids had one. They trained three times a week with them.
“Five minutes,” Riley called over his shoulder as he took off on a run to get his own and beg his mom to let him watch the training.
Riley ran down the path, dodging other people who were carting vegetables and lugging bags. He swerved around a group who was setting up the tables for dinner. Most gave him a smile as he passed. He turned down the row of tents that bordered the back of the camp. Stopping at the fourth to the last one, he peeked in, hoping his mom was out.
His mother raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes?”
His mom looked just like Lyla, with the same blue eyes and the same pale skin, though she usually wore her dark brown hair down.
Shoot. “Um, can I go watch the Phoenixes train?”
She smiled but shook her head. “You know we need to pack up. There’s a lot to do.”
Riley kicked at the ground, but he’d known she was going to say that. The camp had gotten too big to survive another cold winter. Riley still remembered how hungry he’d been most of the last one. And he didn’t like to think of the people who hadn’t made it. Now that all the crops were in, they were to begin their migration south.
