by Angela Timms
Kyla smiled. “Well I think we’ve made a good start. That little lady is more than likely the village gossip. The seeds of doubt have been sewn. It’s not all guns and killing Kel, a bit of subtlety can go a long way.”
Kel smiled. “Oh I don’t know but I bet it will end up with a shootout.”
Rennon smiled back. “I have no doubts that it will. Don’t worry about the food, I can scan it to make sure there’s nothing in it. So, are we going out tonight to see what those things are?”
Kel took a look out of the window. “Need you ask? We will have a better idea of what is going on if we know what we are up against.”
Kyla went and sat on the bed. “Well we’re sitting targets here. The balcony out there would give direct access into this room and those windows wouldn’t hold anyone out who really wanted to get in. I say we get out of here and onto the street and see if we can hunt the hunter.”
Kel smiled and stood up. “Now you are talking.”
Rennon stood up. “Unanimous then, we’ll wait until it is dark enough to cover us getting out then we’ll take a look around. Shall we eat first?”
Kel looked at Rennon. “You know me, I’m always hungry.”
Rennon went to the door. “I’ll go down and get us something. You can stay here Kel, I don’t want trouble.”
Kel put on a very fake hurt look. “I don’t know what you mean.” He closed the door after Rennon had gone out and turned the key. He then turned and leant on the door and looked over at Kyla who was sitting on the bed. “Come here.”
Kyla stood up and slowly walked across the room. Kel slipped his arm around her waist and almost lifted her up as he wrapped his other arm around her, bent down and tried to kiss her but she pulled back smiling. He looked disappointed by smiled. “You two had me worried today. I don’t like waiting.”
Kyla smiled up at him. “I’ve noticed. We had some trouble getting the horse out of the Hopper and finding somewhere to put it. Rennon wanted to download the information he had as well. You know him. He’s easily distracted when there’s a terminal around.”
Kel smiled back. “Well there was me, stuck in the rain while he played with his terminal, nice.”
Kyla smiled. “Well you got a chance to be closer to nature after being cooped up on the space base for so long.”
Kel frowned. “Could have been dryer.” He went to the window. “Well at least the rain has stopped. We’d better get out of these wet things before we catch something. Would you like a hand.”
Kyla turned to glare at him then remembered the dress. “Oh, er, yes thanks.”
Kel smiled and opened up the bags and began hanging up clothes for them while Kyla got out of her soaked dress. “It is still a marvel to me how you managed to ride that horse with that on.”
Kyla smiled. “It’s a wonder to me too. Probably not how you are supposed to but they’ll put that down to us being foreigners and all.” She hung the soggy dress over the wardrobe door and pulled off the petticoat.
Kel walked over and began to unlace the corset underneath. “Whoever thought of these things must have had a real wicked streak. That can’t be comfortable. How do you breathe?”
Kyla breathed a sigh of relief as Kel loosened the strings. “These are the invention of a man who wanted to make sure that women couldn’t do much. Still, it gives me a great waist.”
Kel bent down and bit her neck. “Your waist is just fine.”
Kyla froze and stepped back as if something had pushed her. She put a hand on his chest and pushed him away. “Don’t, just don’t.” There were tears in her eyes.
Kel looked surprised. “What have I done? What’s the matter Kyla, come on you have to tell me now. Hold on… biting your neck… was that it? Was that what upset you?” He turned away from her and took a deep breath. “Ok, I’ll back off. I didn’t know you were spoken for.”
Kyla flashed a quick sarcastic smile. “I’m not.” She shook her head, her curls falling down over her shift. “Some things just cannot be.”
Kel turned and grabbed her arm. “Don’t play games with me. Tell me straight.”
Kyla relaxed and looked up at him, her eyes slightly stony. “Some loves cannot be, some unions cannot be. However both parties may want it otherwise. I’ve told nobody about this as there’s no point. That is the end of it. Baron Joniel has his duty. I have mine. He is a servant of the Dark Lord, I follow the White Lady. He is a Darklaskion, a life sucker. If we were to spend but one night together and if he were to touch me he would not be able to control his true nature and he would not be able to stop himself killing me. Enough reasons?”
Kel looked down at her kindly. “Enough reasons. But you can’t be alone forever.”
Kyla smiled. “I’m never alone.”
Kel looked at her quizzically. “What do you mean?”
Kyla looked up at him. “Before he loved me he bound me to serve him on his ship. That is a life binding. I was just an apprentice then on my first pilgrimage. But then his base was attacked and he got badly injured. He was at the point of death. I could and should have left him there but I had got to know him by then and I think even then I loved him. Against all my order’s beliefs I brought him back and then everything changed. I changed him. I brought him back as I let him drink my blood willingly. As a servant of the White Lady that had an effect on him. The binding he used then cannot be broken and it mutated as our emotions changed. It was created out of something dark, love changed it to something else. That was how I managed to call him when I was at Mission Command. That is the secret I must keep and now you must also. That is why he walked away from that contract and why he now serves The Prince where in all his thousands of years of life he has never served any man.”
Kel put his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. “I understand.” Rennon knocked at the door and Kyla slipped behind the screen taking the dry clothes with her. Kel opened the door and Rennon came in with a tray and three plates of food. “I didn’t disturb anything did I?” Kel glared at him and Rennon smiled back cheekily, went to the table and put the tray down. When they were all in dry clothes they sat around the small table. Rennon had brought in a chair from his room so he didn’t have to sit on the bed and they tucked in after he had analyzed the food and pronounced it safe to eat. They piled the plates on the tray and left it on the table.
They got ready to go out in silence. Weapons emerged from the bags, each wrapped carefully to avoid any casual onlooker’s attention. They were soon enough kitted out with a sword, knife and blaster.
Kel opened the window and slipped out onto the now dark balcony while Rennon moved the lamp to the other side of the room and left it burning on the dresser. Kyla followed Kel out and Rennon stepped out and closed the window. He used Temhold Gum to hold the window shut before joining the others. Most of the rooms were in darkness so it wasn’t too hard to get to the end of the balcony without being seen. Kel climbed over the wooden wall and shinned down the supporting post. Kyla followed him, much relieved to now be wearing trousers and a shirt. Rennon kept watch and then he shinned down as well and joined the others in the shadows around the corner behind a water barrel.
The street was quiet other than the noise coming from the Saloon. The piano player was in full swing and the sound of conversation spilled out onto the street. The outer storm door was shut and the curtains were pulled across. There were a few cracks that the light got through but other than that the front of the Saloon was in darkness.
Kel spotted something, across the street in the moonlight. Down a side alleyway. Something was moving in the shadows. He had only noticed it as it had moved across a white sign board that was illuminated by the next door house’s window. Kel grabbed Rennon’s arm. He jumped and only just managed to keep a hold on his weapon. “There’s something over there in the shadows, moving towards the street.” Kel was off across the street before either of them could stop him. He sprinted across the dusty road, leapt in the air and landed on the shadow and ro
lled it backwards into the dirt.
The two were locked together in hand to hand combat when Kyla and Rennon got there. The figure was dressed in ordinary clothes which as far as they could see were torn almost to rags. As Rennon turned his torch on them they saw its face was covered in what looked like a white featureless mask. It seemed impossibly strong and Kel was thrown back against the wall. As he recovered his feet and Kyla and Rennon made a dive at him the creature it turned with a remarkable speed and disappeared off down the alleyway. Kel had found his feet again and was running, the other two very close behind. The creature reached the corner of the house and ran around the back, closely followed by the three of them.
The alleyway was wider along the back. The residential houses had been built in no particular order and many encroached on the pathway. They had to really sprint to keep up with the creature, then when turning a corner they were faced with four more. Now outnumbered Kel slowed a little and let the others catch up and they faced the five in a line.
The creature that had been running stopped just past the other four and turned to join them. Then they rushed forwards. There seemed to be no organization to their fighting, they were just violent, there was no control. Kel was having a little difficulty as he had ended up with three, Rennon and Kyla had one each.
Kyla got a lucky strike on her one. He flew back into the wall and fell to the ground unconscious. She leapt on him and tied his hands and feet with a cable tie. She then leapt across to help Kel, catching a blow that was aimed at his head with her dagger almost took the hand off the creature. It screamed but kept fighting, spraying blood onto the dusty ground. Kel had put one of his down, his sword had easily taken its head clean off. The second had been caught on the backswing and was now holding its throat. He then turned and lashed out at the one that Kyla had been fighting. He caught that one across the chest with his sword and it stepped back, winded. This was enough to give Kyla the chance to cut its throat. As it fell to the ground Kel finished off the other one.
It was quiet in the alley. Rennon pulled out his torch. “Well, let’s have a look at what these things look like.” He felt under the creature’s chin and grabbed hold of the mask. He pulled it firmly upwards and it started to peel off then stopped. The mask was grafted onto the skin and wouldn’t go any further. There were tendrils coming from the mask which burrowed into the skin so it looked fibrous. “That is disgusting. That mask has grown onto the face.”
Kyla looked away and checked out the alley and surrounding area. Kel knelt down and took out his knife. He began to cut through the tendrils. A white liquid flowed over the face and splattered onto the floor. He jumped back in time so that he didn’t get any over him.
Rennon took out a box from his pocket and started getting samples into the tubes inside. He took skin, blood and the white liquid and the tendrils.
He labelled them up and put them into the box and shut it. “Ok, I’m done. I can scan all this when we get back to the room. All we need to do now is get rid of the bodies.”
Kel went from one to the next, checking and making sure they were dead. He cut the throat of the cable tied one. Kyla was watching out and was able to warn them when she saw more of these things coming out from the shadows. There were at least twenty of them and they were moving towards them at an alarming rate. Kel and Rennon sprang to their feet and pulled out their blasters. Kyla had her blaster out, set to silent and her red beam of energy cut into one after the other as they closed the gap. By the time what was left of the creatures reached them there were only four left. Kel cut one almost in half as it got to him, badly wounding a second with his backswing. Kyla sliced her one’s head off. Rennon engaged in a frantic exchange of blows before Kel sliced its head off. With a backswing Kel finished the injured one off. More were coming but thankfully none from behind them. They backed away back down the alleyway they had come down and ran across the road. Kel gave Kyla a leg up onto the supporting beam which she used to get the extra reach needed to get up onto the balcony. She then lent down and grabbed Rennon’s arm and helped him up. Kel stepped back and took a run at it, launching himself off the ground he caught the balcony rail and swung himself up.
When they were inside they shut the windows and moved the wardrobe in front of them. It moved easily with all three of them pushing and pulling. They moved it just in time as they heard the glass breaking behind the wardrobe and the sound of something scratching at the back of it. Nails dug into the splintering wood, the wardrobe rocking as the onslaught continued.
The scratching stopped but they didn’t relax. They looked at each other and had their blasters ready. The let up wasn’t for long as the wardrobe fell forwards and the creatures crashed into the room en masse. The three began franticly firing and the bodies started piling up on the balcony and in the room. The creatures seemed to be unthinking and without fear, they just kept coming. They climbed over the ones that had already fallen. Then they stopped coming, it went quiet and the three were left in an eerie silence. They stood there for almost half an hour and then moved to the window together and looked out. Everything was still.
They waited but nothing happened.
Kel got up. “Now we have to tell the owners. Keep vigilant. I’m going downstairs.” He went to the door and went outside. The corridor was empty as he walked down it and went down the stairs. The downstairs room was still full of people so he pushed his way through and went to the bar. The barman came over, all smiles, but his smile left his face when he saw Kel’s serious look and as he got closer the blood on his clothing. Kel spoke as a look of horror swept across the barman’s face. “You had better come upstairs. There is something you should see.”
The bartender followed him upstairs and into the room. He stopped in his tracks, mouth open. When he had recovered his composure he stepped forwards and took a look at the bodies. “I can’t believe this. That is Jake, I have seen that jacket a thousand times before he disappeared. All these people, they were the ones that disappeared. What is happening here?”
Kyla stepped forwards and put her hand on his arm and as the bartender collapsed into tears Kyla put her arms around him. “They aren’t themselves any more. There is a group of people out there called The Followers and now they have come here. They are your Priests. Where they can’t convert people they drug them and some they turn into these things to help them. Your people have been drugged and turned into these creatures. The Followers have then stepped in to sort out the problem so that you think that they are your saviors. They are using them to spread fear and keep you under control. ”
The barman started walking around the bodies. “I’m going to bring people up here to see this. People need to know. You must come downstairs and speak with them. Will you do that?”
Rennon stepped forwards. “We will. You had better go down first and say what you have seen.”
The bartender took a long look at the bodies on the floor and left the room. The three of them filed out behind him and down the stairs. The bartender stopped on the stairs and shouted. “People, people, you must listen to me.” When there was near silence he continued. “We are being deceived. Our people are being taken and being turned into the creatures that hunt us on the streets at night. These people have killed some of them. They are upstairs. They were our neighbours and our friends. I have asked our guests to explain what they know.”
There was a bubble of shocked conversation in the bar which slowly died down to a shocked silence.
The bartender looked over to Rennon. “Please, if you would now explain what you told me.”
Rennon cleared his throat. “The creatures that hunt your alleyways are indeed your friends and neighbours who went missing. The bartender here has recognised some of them. We are not from this place, we have travelled many lands and seen what these people have done. Wherever they go they seek to convert all they meet. Those who will not convert either disappear or are dealt with harshly. You are seeing here what they do. They have come, tur
ned some of your people into the creatures you will see upstairs. Then they have arrived as your saviors, keeping you safe by keeping you inside at night and keeping you under their control. Go upstairs and see what has been done to your friends and neighbours.”
There was a rush to get upstairs and the four of them had to move quickly to get out of the way. The mob rushed into their room and there was a general outcry when they saw the bodies. A voice inside the room rose higher than others. “We cannot allow this to continue, we must stop it, now. Who is with me? We must go to the place where the Followers are staying and we must rid our town of them. Who will come with me?” Everyone filed out of the room and ran down the stairs. Kel, Kyla and Rennon went back to the room as a tall, well- built man came in. “I am Ewan, the undertaker. It looks like I’m going to have a busy few days.” Rennon sat on the bed and took out his scanner and began to scan the test tubes. “Not that busy. I would suggest that these bodies are burnt. Those face masks are made of a living tissue. Be careful what you touch.”
The undertaker stood up. “Well, I’d better get them moved and I’ll see if I can’t get the minister out of the jail. He is going to be one relieved man.” He went down the stairs and they watched him cross the street on his way to the Town Jail.
The mob was on its way down the street and they disappeared around a corner. Kel looked at the other two. “We’d better go help them out. Those Followers may have other weapons in that place.”
They ran down the stairs, through the nearly empty bar. The bartender’s wife was there along with the Saloon Girls and the elderly pianist. They watched them go past and raised a glass.
Outside the night air was chilled and fresh. The moon was full so the street was well lit. As they rounded the corner the townspeople were pulling the Followers out into the street and tying them up. The bartender was with them. “We will give them a fair trial and a fair hanging if that is the right thing to do.”
Kel caught something out of the corner of his eye. The symbols hanging around the Followers necks had started to glow. “Run everyone, there is going to be an explosion.”
