Apocalypse Dance

by M. Barnette

  Two days later the siren went off, announcing unknown visitors.

  As the duly re-elected Military Advisor, Bells was at the gate when the pair of men arrived in a battered and beaten up truck that made the most awful grinding rattling noise as the engine struggled toward the town.

  "Son of a bitch,” he said, grinning.

  He knew both the truck and the men inside.

  Hawk and Dal had survived and found them. They'd even found Bells’ lost katana and brought it with them.

  The reunion between the men and Nikki was an all night, no holds barred celebration. The townsfolk, always happy to have a reason for a party, joined with an exuberance that left Hawk and Dal happy, stuffed with good food, slightly drunk, and grinning like fools.

  Drafting both of them as assistants, Bells listened as they gave their oaths to uphold the laws of Colby and protect its citizens, adding the disturbing fact that newly crowned Emperor Roderik had already started north from the Lone Star Empire with an army numbering over a thousand men.

  The combined population of Danbridge and Colby was only three hundred and ninety people, and of those only about sixty could fight worth a damn. Even if Horton and Sugarsprings came in on their side, they could only field a force of about one hundred able-bodied combatants.

  In the end Sugarsprings went over to Roderik, while the residents of Danbridge and Horton abandoned their towns, packed up what they could, and evacuated to the mountain town of Colby, which was renamed Fort Colby by popular vote.

  Mary Kate and the ladies who had helped Nikki in the Danbridge clinic joined her staffers at the Colby Hospital, their first official act being to get Luke and Clyde to repaint the sign to say Fort Colby Memorial Hospital. With a pair of RNs from Horton adding to their ranks they had something approaching an actual staff that swelled in number when two women, a medical assistant and a gynecologist from Sugarsprings, showed up at the town gate seeking asylum from the slave pens of the Lone Star Empire. With them came about half the women from Sugarsprings and almost four dozen children. One of the larger apartment buildings of Colby was put back on the power grid and the water turned back on to house all the new residents of the growing town.

  As word spread over the next few weeks, people started to trickle into Fort Colby, bringing with them their belongings and knowledge, adding to the viability of the town as a whole.

  There were more people to feed, but there were also many more hands to work on vital projects and everyone worked, even the older children and teenagers, a few of them joining the town militia as spotters who were sent out to the pass on rotation to watch for Roderik's approach.

  * * * *

  They wouldn't be able to meet Roderik's army head on, but there were a lot of ways to fight a war, and Bells knew every one of them.

  The Town Council stared at the map several of the children had helped make using plaster, modeling clay, and parts for model train sets, mostly trees and road signs. It was a fairly accurate map of the town and surrounding mountains laid out on sheets of plywood. At the south edge was a mark that indicated the location that had been Danbridge until Roderik had erased it from the map. Not that anyone had been there. The residents had pulled out, the last of the militia cleverly locking the gates from the inside and climbing over the wall to make it look like the town was still inhabited. At least on casual inspection.

  Rather than go down to the plains to fight Roderik, they'd make him come up into the mountains where his own tanks and APCs would be bottled up in the passes.

  "And that will be his undoing, because, gentlemen, ladies,” the Immortal said during the meeting of the Colby Defense Council, “we're going to drop the mountain on them."

  Walt's eyes widened. “That dynamite! You're going to use it to take them out?"

  Bells’ voice was filled with ice. “Yes."

  "Best place is at Dalton Point. The walls are steep there and rocks come down during spring melt anyway,” ex-Marine Sergeant O'Brien said. “It would be easy there."

  "Precisely,” the blond man replied, smiling faintly.

  "Well,” Walt began, “it looks like we've got a war on our hands."

  The meeting broke up, everyone hurrying to do their part for the defense of Colby.

  * * * *

  And their plan worked. It stopped the tanks and APCs that Emperor Roderik had with his army, but it failed to stop the rest of the army or Roderik himself. And of everything his army had, he was the single most dangerous element.

  They'd sent the armored division up one pass, and taken the other one into Colby—now the self stylized Fort Colby, a designation they would soon learn gained them nothing—Roderik riding in his command vehicle in the vanguard of the attacking force.

  He was met at the closed gates by his own brother, the younger man waiting for him outside, a white parlay flag fluttering over his head. There was a young man at his side, the pale glow surrounding him in the second sight showed he was some type of Beast, but not an Immortal.

  No, of the half dozen Immortals that existed in this world, Roderik and his brother were the only ones with their freedom on his continent. The one other, a three hundred and fifty-year-old Unicorn named Tobais, was languishing in Roderik's prison, kept weak by the Dragon's tapping of his power through a weakness he'd discovered all Immortals had. The ability to have their vitality tapped by someone they loved. And the fool Tobais had loved a woman who betrayed him and gave what she held to Roderik. Love was for fools. Women were not worth that sort of devotion and loyalty because they themselves could not give it. Women were good for a single thing only; making children to repopulate the empty world. And to make new Immortals that would owe their allegiance to him, Roderik, the Great Dragon. Any of them that denied his right to rulership would meet the same fate as Tobais the Fool.

  But for his scheme to bear the fruit of his plans he needed that bitch Nikki back. Only through her could he realize his goals because she was the One. The woman from whom Immortal sons could come forth. All that was needed was an Immortal sire.

  And he, Roderik would be the father of those sons. With the strength of his own draconic Immortality, and the power of a Unicorn backing it, no Immortal in the entire world could stand in his path. Not even his own brother who'd stolen her from him and tried to begin his own Empire.

  Leaving his command vehicle, Roderik walked forward, alone, to meet his brother under the flag of truce.

  "Ready to surrender already?” he asked.

  "Funny you should ask that,” Hawk remarked, “because that's what I was going to ask you."

  Roderik gave his brother a quietly snide laugh. “My, now that is funny. What are you going to do to keep me from taking that slut back? Kill me? You don't have the power and you know it."

  "Sure I know it. But I also know that, without your armored division your ass isn't going to get into Fort Colby."

  Roderik frowned.

  "We dropped a mountain on them, so they're not going to show up for the party, Roderik,” the younger man at his brother's side remarked, a pleased, malicious smile on his face.

  Roderik could now see the overlay of his Beast across the man's face in the second sight. A Tiger. He would be a dangerous opponent for any of his men to face. The young man was most assuredly responsible for Keane's demise at the farmhouse last fall, and that definitely made him an opponent to reckon with since Keane, the Grizzly, had been one of Roderik's best men.

  But no Tiger could face the fury of an unleashed Dragon, and there were no other Dragons. Roderik knew that as fact because he would have felt the presence of a rival to his power.

  * * * *

  Dal regarded Roderik with cool determination. He and Hawk were going to keep Roderik out of town, and away from Nikki, until Bells could get back from Dalton's Point where they'd gotten rid of the pseudo-Emperor's armored unit.

  He and Hawk might stand some small chance of keeping Roderik out of town. His own chances of survival were low, and he knew it. But
since Anya was dead he didn't much care about anything. He missed her, and the only family he had left were Nikki and Hawk. And there just no way in hell was Roderik ever getting his hands on Nikki. Not as long as he could draw breath into his lungs.

  He glanced at the men on the wall, hoping to see the signal that Bells had made it back from the ambush: a bright blue scarf one of the people on the wall would casually wipe his face with at the first sign of the Immortal's return.

  The scarf was firmly stuffed into Sheriff Dobb's belt, the older man himself grim-faced.

  Roderik was still spouting his mouth off, telling Hawk how he was going to raze the town to the bedrock if Nikki wasn't brought out to him immediately.

  "Well now, you see, there's a problem with that,” the Fenyx told the Dragon.

  "And that would be?"

  "She'd rather die than be yours again."

  Dal watched the rage suffusing the Dragon's face and wished he could die of an apoplexy, or maybe from something nasty and incurable. Like lead poisoning from a few dozen clips full of bullets. A man like Roderik deserved to die ignominiously.

  "This is your last chance."

  "That's what you said two last chances ago,” Hawk countered laconically, his jeering grin meant to enrage the other man.

  * * * *

  Which was exactly what it did.

  Bellowing in fury, Roderik let his power rise, the dark green Dragon that was his Immortal Beast coming to life in a welter of bilious green fire that sent Dal stumbling away, his Tiger answering the challenge of an Immortal gamely. Stripes appeared across his cheeks and down his bare arms, drawing bars of deep orange through his dark hair. Hawk's Fenyx burst into flame around him in a seething roar of red and yellow fire.

  Hawk met his older brother's charge, the pair of men grappling, struggling to gain even a momentary advantage, green fire encompassing the Fenyx, the yellow flame of the aviform Immortal wrapping around Roderik.

  Dal darted in, risking serious injury, taking a swipe at the Dragon, the claws of his Tiger form raking shallow gouges down Roderik's arm.

  Roaring in fury, the Dragon turned on the Tiger, flame billowing from it's gaping mouth.

  The only thing that saved Dal were his quick reflexes, the Tiger dodging aside, avoiding the fire that would have roasted his soul right out of his body and left his flesh burned.

  * * * *

  Hawk tore at his brother with burning Fenyx claws, drawing lines of pain down the older Immortal's chest, poisonous green fire searing him, weakening him. Roderik was too strong. His stolen power making the contest between the brothers thoroughly unequal.

  Roderik couldn't kill him, but the stolen vitality from Tobais meant his brother would be able to fight on long after Hawk collapsed from exhaustion.

  Dal came in at Roderik for a second dangerous attack, the Tiger daring to leap for Roderik, clawing, not at the man himself, but at the wings of his Immortal form.

  Roderik bellowed in outraged pain and spun around, breaking the hold Hawk had on him, sending the younger brother crashing to the ground as he rushed for the infuriating Tiger, intending to crush him like an insect.

  He struck Dal, the Tiger successful in partially evading the attack that could have killed him as the Dragon's claws ripped his shirt to ribbons and slashed flesh and muscle beneath. Bleeding, flames licking at the blood in the wounds, Dal backpedaled away from Roderik as Hawk launched himself, slamming into the other Immortal, taking them both to the ground.

  "RUN!” he shouted at Dal, telling the Tiger to get away from them.

  The fire was burning him, eating his life away. Staggering, Dal got farther away from the fight just as the gates into Fort Colby opened and Nikki came running out with the elderly Mary Kate hurrying after her.

  * * * *

  Nikki saw what had happened to Dal and grabbed the man, pulling him away from the pair of combatants. She didn't know what to do, how to stop the vile flame from consuming him, but she knew she had to do something or Dal was going to die.

  "Stay away, Nikki. I'm not going to make it this time,” he gasped out to her as he collapsed to the ground.

  Seeing the fire, Nikki felt something coming to life within her. Something cool and soothing. She reached out to Dal, her hands moving over the deep gashes in his flesh, barely touching him, the sting of the fire feeling like the bites of ants on her skin.

  A golden glow surrounded her, filling her hands, the flame extinguishing in the wake of her touch, the wounds healing visibly.

  His pain was an ache in her, a hurt that she could assuage. Mind drifting she lost her awareness of what was happening, of what she was doing. She was seeing a quiet pool of moonlit water surrounded by dark forest. A light wind ruffled the leaves of the trees.

  From the darkness beneath the forest canopy a proud doe stepped into the clearing by the pool, her large all-seeing eyes met Nikki's, a flash of recognition linking them.

  Healer, physician, the power of life lies within your hands. Use it well.

  Then the doe and the strange vision were gone and Nikki found herself gazing into Dal's startled eyes.

  * * * *

  "Holy shit,” Dal murmured looking from his sore chest to Nikki's serene gaze. They were deep pools of sable brown, full of compassion, of gentleness. Faintly he could see the outline of some type of Doe, but he wasn't familiar with the exact type of deer it represented.

  "I didn't know, Nikki."

  "Neither did I,” she replied as he got to his feet.

  "Get back inside the gate!” he told her, “It's you he's here for, and now I think we know why. You're special, too, Nikki. With you he could have an unstoppable army."

  She shook her head. “Help Hawk. I'll do what I can for you both, but I'm not going back inside the town and putting these people at risk."

  As they spoke Hawk was thrown aside, the man sprawling like a broken doll.

  From the wall the guards opened fire with every gun they had, trying to slow Roderik down now that neither the Fenyx or the Tiger would be in danger of a stray bullet.

  Draconic wings swept into the line of fire, most of the bullets stopping, slowing, only a few hitting their target and doing any damage.

  But the barrage didn't do anything to prevent Roderik from stalking toward Nikki.

  Nikki almost fell when Dal shoved her away from the enraged Dragon, and Mary Kate grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the gate. “Girl, you can't help them! All you can do is get caught!"

  "I can help them!” she countered, as Dal was thrown backward into her arms, the pair of them and the old woman falling from the force behind Roderik's attack.

  Injured and bleeding, Dal wasn't moving. She slapped her hands over the deep wounds and healed him, the Tiger getting up to face the Dragon as Nikki scrambled for Hawk's motionless form.

  Inside the gate a cheer went up and she wondered what Dal had done to the Dragon as she dropped to her knees beside Hawk. The man was already trying to regain his feet as she arrived.

  "Nikki, what the hell are you doing out here!” he demanded.

  Instead of wasting breath by answering, she ran her hands over his body, closing his wounds, almost completely healing the damage Roderik had done to him.

  "Holy shit,” he said, repeating Dal's words without realizing it.

  "Go help Dal before that son of a bitch kills him!” she ordered, hauling at the big man's arm.

  "Damn you're good, girl,” he said as he charged back into the fray.

  Dal was already down again, and Hawk didn't last much longer before Nikki was hurrying for them, trying to keep Roderik busy.

  The gates of Fort Colby opened and a slender blond, his hair ornamented with a riot of beads, grey feathers, and small silver bells came walking out. Calm as you please he drew his handgun and emptied all six rounds into the Dragon who had just turned to go after her.

  * * * *

  Roderik turned around, a furious scream coming from his mouth at the pain of six shots in hi
s back. Six bullets that should not have penetrated his defenses since they were from an old fashioned revolver. It took high powered guns to hammer through the inferno of green fire spinning around him, and the bullets from anything less than an assault rifle shouldn't have touched him. But they had.

  "Who the fuck are you!” he snarled.

  "The one who just shot you. I thought you'd be smart enough to figure that out on you own. I see I'm wrong.” The smaller man's tone was loaded with derision.

  "He's the guy that came up with the plan that trashed your armored division,” his brother informed him with a gore-stained smile as he struggled to get to his feet. His pelvis was broken and he wouldn't be getting back up, a fact which pleased Roderik.

  The Dragon regarded the smaller man, standing there so calmly, reloading his revolver as if he had not a care in the world.

  "We don't have to do this,” Roderik said, seeking a useful ally rather than another corpse that was of no use to anyone. If what his brother said was true, the blond was a good tactical leader, which was something he had in short supply, and the attack in the pass had been strategically sound, though it had failed to take his own power and that of his Rangers into account. Even without the armored division they could still easily capture the town.

  But he thought knew how to appeal to the young man. Didn't all men desire power and control over others? And women. Roderik had both to give. Prestige and a high position within the Lone Star Empire, and whatever women struck his fancy. “We could work together. Build an Empire from the wreckage."

  "No thanks. I'd make a lousy Duke or whatever. Besides, Duke Bells just sounds too stupid for reality.” The reply was delivered in a flippant tone, sliding though a mouth curled in a mocking smile that angered Roderik. He'd never been able to tolerate such offhanded comments, they offended his sensibilities.

  "Fine. Then you'll die."

  The smaller man just smiled, raised his hand, and made a little ‘come hither’ motion. It too was mocking.