Rise the Phoenix

by Ely Page

  After clearing his mind, Dylan went back into town and headed for the elevator. He needed to see if someone was ready to get back into action.

  He knocked on the door and walked into Rodan’s room. He looked around, but Rodan was nowhere to be seen. Dylan shut the door, turned around, and was suddenly face-to-face with the man from Heaven.

  “Scared you, didn’t I?” Rodan asked, smiling and looking refreshed. Rodan noticed the look on Dylan’s face, which wiped the smile from his own. “What is the matter?” he asked the younger man in a more somber tone.

  “It’s Andy.” Dylan licked his lips before continuing. “Something is wrong with him. Chris doesn’t know what it is, but he is unconscious.”

  Rodan walked into the clinic followed by Dylan. As the door opened, Gina looked up from where her head lay on Andy’s chest. She moved out of the way when she saw that Rodan was only interested in getting close to Andy’s head. He laid his right hand across Andy’s forehead and closed his eyes.

  Rodan saw visions of Andy’s entire brain system and found what was causing all of Andy’s problems.

  “Chris?” Rodan asked, opening his eyes and orienting himself back to the clinic.

  “Yes, Rodan, I am right here.”

  Rodan moved his left hand from Andy’s forehead to behind his right ear. “Andy has a blood clot right where the tip of my middle finger is. Do you think you can operate on him and remove it?”

  Chris exhaled a big puff of air. “I never have done anything like that, but I have seen it done a few times.” She went silent for a moment and looked at everyone else in the room. “I have to go in, I have to try. If I don’t, I know the blood clot will kill him.” She sat down on a chair as the weight of what she had to do fell on her shoulders.

  “I will get everything ready,” Hanna said, walking into the back room where all the clinic supplies were kept.

  The surgery was nerve-racking. Chris did everything that she could to not break down and cry as she cut into Andy’s skull. Gina refused to leave the room; in fact, she refused to let go of Andy’s hand. Hanna was the only other one in the room. She assisted Chris with everything possible, from wiping down her brow to handing her surgical instruments. Hanna seemed to be in lockstep with Chris, and Chris might have fallen apart if Hanna wasn’t there.

  “I know he will pull out of it.” Leah consoled Ben as she, Dylan, and Greg waited at Ben and Hanna’s house during the surgery.

  Ben was taking this hard, as he and Andy had been best friends since the day they met at Frank and Alice’s house, which seemed like a lifetime ago.

  “He is as strong as anyone I know. I am going to get us something to drink,” Leah said, leaving the boys in the living room to check on the babies, who were all napping at the same time, which Leah thought was a miracle in itself.

  Ben stood up and paced the floor.

  “I have all the faith that Chris will get the blood clot out,” Greg said, placing his hand on Ben’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze before letting go.

  Dylan remained silent. He couldn’t help but think that evil forces were at work here, but he had no way of proving that, and Rodan didn’t sense anything of malice. At least, he didn’t tell Dylan if he did.

  Gina came running into Ben’s house, crying and out of breath. Greg had left, but Dylan and Leah were still there with Ben. All of them thought the worst when they first saw Gina.

  “It’s over,” she gasped. “Chris got it out. He is going to be OK.”

  Shouts, cheers, and hugs went all around.

  Dylan was helping Ollie in hayfield. It was the first cut of the season, and they both enjoyed the sweet smell of the freshly cut alfalfa. The sweat from the warm sun glistened on Dylan’s skin like highly polished metal. They were loading a wagon full of hay to take back to the stables.

  “Something is coming,” Dylan said, looking over the southern horizon.

  Ollie stuck his pitchfork in the ground and grabbed a cloth to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “What do you mean, something?” he asked, looking in the same direction Dylan was.

  “I don’t know, maybe just animals. Who knows, maybe there is a hurricane in the gulf and I just feel the change in the weather all the way up here?” Dylan said, shrugging it off and getting back to work.

  After he was done helping Ollie haul all the hay and put it up in the barn, Dylan went to find Rodan. He was in the first place Dylan looked—the grain elevator.

  “I sense something,” Dylan said, walking into Rodan’s little room. Neither Rodan nor Dylan had the ability to see visions on their own anymore. Dylan had visions once, but lost them when he arrived in Hope.

  The two men sat at a small square, wooden table next to a wall. They each placed their hands on the table. Rodan had his palms facing up. Dylan placed his hands inside of Rodan’s. They both shivered as a world opened inside their heads. They saw the same image from the same angle, as if they were the same person.

  They could see a barren place, like a desert. It must have been a town that had been wiped out by the recent earthquakes. A dog came running around a wall, and a few moments later, seven people walked around the same wall. They looked hardened and defeated, but they clearly had determination and a destination.

  The vision pulled back to showed Dylan and Rodan the path the group was taking. That path led them straight to Hope.

  “Who are they and where did they come from?” Dylan asked out loud after they broke out of the vision. He knew that Rodan didn’t have the answer to the question. “Frank had mentioned that a few of the other tribes around the world have been destroyed.”

  Rodan shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe they are survivors of one of those, even though that is a long way to go for any of them.”

  They both sat in silence for a while before Rodan spoke up. “Either our Father will let us know what to do with these people, or he may have us be our own judges.”

  Dylan thought about those people in the vision and how they knew where to go. He wondered why this tribe and not one of the others in the world.

  Dylan had called his lieutenants to the old school house. “Rodan and I have seen something that I need to tell you about and that you have to prepare for.”

  Several heads turned and a couple of “Ohs!” were heard.

  Dylan continued. “Seven people are heading our way, to our home.”

  “Who are they? Where are they coming from?” Porter asked.

  “That we don’t know yet, but I can tell you they look normal to me..” Dylan let out a sigh and sat down on a plastic school chair.

  “So . . . ,” Mike said with a dramatic pause as he looked at the others in the room. “Are they safe?”

  Dylan chuckled a little. “Yes, as far as I can tell they look just like us, which is why I believe they are normal. If they were from any other part of the world, then we would know that.”

  Mike shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, are they wambei in disguise?”

  Dylan stood up. “Oh, sorry, Mike, but no. They look like regular everyday people, maybe a little battle-hardened and tired and dirty, but hey, aren’t we all?”

  Dylan went home. It was getting dark out and the street lights were lit. Leah was used to Dylan coming home late. She accepted it because she knew how important he was to the cause. He was the de facto general of the tribe, even though he didn’t have an official title.

  “Hello, is anybody here?” Dylan shouted as he opened the screen door to the house.

  Rexy the dog came running out of the kitchen and down the hall. Rexy was found in liter of other puppies in Ollies barn, the mom and all her puppies were easily adopted by people in the town. Dylan gave him a quick scratch on the head. Little Johnny came wobbling out of the family room. He was getting better at walking, but he still wanted to crawl most of the time.

  “Hey, little
man. What are you doing?” Dylan picked up his little boy and held him in his arms. John let out a long line of indistinguishable toddler talk. “Sounds like you had a busy day.” Dylan pretended to understand what was said.

  Leah came out of the family room holding Frankie. She leaned up against the door frame. She looked beautiful with her hair pulled back in a ponytail with just a little strand hanging off to the right side of her face. She was wearing a tank top and a pair of short shorts.

  “He did have a busy day. We played out in the yard all morning, and after he took a nap, we went to play with Willow and Tank,” Leah said, looking directly into Dylan’s eyes. “I bet daddy’s hungry. Let’s get him some dinner.”

  John started to wiggle, so Dylan sat him back down on the floor. He then grabbed Dylan’s hand and started to lead him to the kitchen.

  When Dylan leaned over so he could reach John’s hand, he gave Rexy a quick scratch under the chin. He grabbed Leah’s hand and they all walked to the kitchen together.

  Dylan and Leah enjoyed their night together. Normally Dylan was gone in the morning before Leah and the boys ever woke up, but he stayed that morning because he wanted to tell Leah about the vision.

  “Why are you still here?” Leah asked when she came downstairs and found Dylan sitting at the kitchen table.

  “Now, I need to tell you something.”

  Leah’s face grew dark with fear of what Dylan might say.

  Dylan did nothing to alleviate that fear. “Rodan and I had a vision yesterday.”

  Leah didn’t like hearing about visions; they never had anything good in them. She remained standing near the table, too uncomfortable to sit.

  “We saw some people, some humans, walking, and it seemed like they are headed this way.”

  “What does this mean? Are they coming to do us harm?” Leah asked with a lot more questions running through her head, going faster than her mouth could say them.

  “Calm down. They seem harmless, but to be safe, I and a few others are going to go out and meet them way before they ever get here,” Dylan said, trying to reassure her.

  “When are you leaving?” Leah asked, finally sitting down at the table.

  “Today. We should be back in two or three days. We don’t know how far out they are, so we are going on foot with one pack horse.”

  Chapter 13

  Dylan and his handpicked group of Porter, Ben, and Andy headed out to meet the newcomers. It was the first time Andy had really done anything since his surgery, and Dylan was hesitant to take him, but Andy insisted. They packed as light as they could for themselves, bringing with them enough supplies, including food and medicine, for the people they were going to intercept.

  They headed south, the same direction the wambei came from to start the first battle. That alone made Andy less than comfortable about the whole thing.

  “We’ll be fine,” Dylan told Andy. “Rodan blessed us and told us that we are carrying with us the same protection as if we were behind the walls.”

  It helped a little, but Andy still looked over his shoulder from time to time.

  They had walked less than a mile when they started to notice that the vegetation was becoming scarce.

  “It looks like we truly must be living in paradise after seeing what everywhere else looks like,” Ben stated.

  “I’m sure in time things will improve. Farming will be easier, and we will start to spread out, just like they did at the beginning,” Porter said.

  “That’s if we live to see it,” Andy put in his two cents.

  Small talk had occupied the men as they walked southeast toward the Red River. The river used to be the boundary between Oklahoma and Texas. Dylan had a feeling that they might meet the travelers there or a little beyond.

  “Tie up the horse on this side of the river,” Dylan ordered as he scanned the other side. “We will cross at the bridge, and then we need to go into the thicket of trees other there.” Dylan pointed to the trees directly across from them. “Watch as they approach. I want to make sure they are pure before we expose ourselves.”

  As night fell over Hope, those behind the wall felt slightly uneasy. Greg was napping on his couch in his living room when Emily came into the room and woke him up.

  “Greg,” she said, shaking him on the shoulder. “It sounds like the noises are happening again.”

  Greg shot up and ran outside immediately. “When did you first hear it?” Greg asked, looking over the horizon.

  “Just as soon as the sun went down.”

  “Stay inside. I am going to go check this out.”

  Greg ran off and headed straight to Jason’s house. As the lead elder, and with Dylan gone on the mission to meet the newcomers, Jason was the sole top commander. Greg was not close enough to Rodan to bother him.

  “What’s going on, Greg?” Jason’s wife Laura answered the door.

  “Is Jason available to talk?” Greg had a flat expression on his face so as not to alarm Laura.

  “Sure, just a minute.” Laura walked away, leaving the front door open.

  Jason came to the door from a back room. “Hi, Greg, what is going on?”

  Jason never seemed like the stress of running the last of human civilization was getting to him. He was always very easy to talk to.

  “The noises that Porter and I heard a while back,” Greg paused long enough for Jason to hear the distant howling. “They returned.”

  Jason went to talk to Rodan, and he sent Greg to the platform around the inside of the wall. Greg could tell that the howls were getting closer, maybe even closer than they had before.

  Not long after the four of them found a tree to hide behind, Dylan saw the dog that he had seen in the vision. The dog wasn’t running like in the vision; it seemed tired and worn out. Right behind the dog came the first person, a young dark-skinned man. He was carrying a spear, a staff with an arrow tied to the end of it. He was using it as a walking stick. When the river came into their view, they stopped.

  “I say we take a break here before crossing the river,” the young man spoke in a British accent.

  The six others with him agreed, and they all rested on the other side of the road near some other trees. The dog lay down and fell asleep almost immediately.

  Dylan thought about the best way to introduce himself to the new people. After talking quietly with the others, they decided in the morning would be best. When night came, the four of them crossed the river to bed down by their horse for the night.

  Jason found Greg on the platform over by the stables.

  “I don’t hear the howling anymore,” Jason said as he approached Greg.

  “No,” replied Greg. “But the animals are going crazy. I sent Mike to go get Ollie. What did Rodan say?”

  Jason looked down at his feet and then back up at Greg. “He was in some sort of trance. I think he was watching Dylan and those guys.”

  Greg, Jason, Nick, and Ollie went out to the stables. Mike, Roland, and Rich set up on the platform to give cover.

  “Something is spooking the hell out of the animals,” Ollie said with growing concern.

  The three men rounded the corner of the old barn that Ollie and Nick used to hold all the animals at night. Ollie held up his hand to stop the other three.

  “The hole in the wall there.” The men looked at what Ollie was talking about. “It has always been there, but now it is twice the size as it—”

  Ollie was cut off by a low growl followed by what sounded like flesh being torn. The horses and cows were kicking hard at their pens. Nick opened the walk-in door in the corner of the barn and flashed a light inside.

  A smell hit the men immediately, the smell of something rotten. It wasn’t a normal smell for a barn. The horses were up front, and they looked beyond spooked. Ollie quickly noticed that they had kicked down a couple of their pen boards. He
shined his light and saw his favorite horse, Tulip, had a chunk of hide missing from her back end. He pointed at his eyes then at the horse to let the men know to look. When they did, fear was the first thing that came over them.

  The sound of eating and rustling came from the back of the barn, where Ollie and Nick kept the cows.

  Greg took the lead with his shotgun at the ready. He led the other guys to the last pen in the row. It was where Ollie kept Myrtle, an older Holstein milk cow he’d found a mile away when he first got to Hope.

  Greg shined his light in her pen and was shocked at what he saw. Blood was everywhere, and Myrtle was down on the ground, clearly dead. Ollie almost cried. Jason was looking over Ollie’s shoulder to get a look when he heard something coming from above him. He turned to look up just in time to see a dark figure jump down on top of Nick, knocking him to the ground and out. Then it jumped up on him, going right for his throat.

  Greg and Ollie turned around in time to see a huge, black, dog-like figure jump on top of Jason before he could react. Greg pulled out his sawed-off shotgun and fired at the top of the dog to avoid hitting Jason. The dog reacted surprisingly slowly for just being shot in the back. It slowly, almost menacingly, raised its head up from Jason’s neck and looked at the two frightened men.

  Greg and Ollie were not expecting to see what they saw. The yellowest eyes either of them had ever seen stared back at them, and if a dog could smile an evil smile, this dog was doing it. Greg shook off his shock and fired his shotgun again, this time hitting the creature square in the face.

  A sound from above made Greg react even faster as another one of those demon dogs jumped down from the hay loft. Greg wasted no time in dispatching that one, firing his shotgun twice, hitting the dog and killing it in midair. The demon dog landed on top of Nick. Greg and Ollie quickly attended to the men. After they removed the two beasts, it was obvious that Jason was dead. His neck was opened all the way to his spine. Nick was still alive, just unconscious.