by R. B. Tetro
The man looked like he wanted to say more, but the look on Pop’s face told him that if ever there was a time to shut up, that time was now. The group of survivors were frightened at Pop’s indifference. The smart ones agreed to fight immediately. Something in Pop’s voice made them think if they didn’t stay with him and his son’s, he would leave them behind; and they were right.
Pops took the binoculars so he could see what the Blood-eyes were doing. He watched them for several minutes as the survivors, still undecided about fighting, argued with the ones that had agreed to go.
“Jessie, Lucas, come over here,” said Pops. The two of them came over and knelt down beside him. “Am I wrong, or is that an entrance to a cave on the other side of those boulders?” asked Pops.
Jessie took another look, before handing the glasses over to Lucas. He was smiling as he looked at his dad. “Pretty good, old man…” He was a little embarrassed as he hadn’t seen the cave when he was scouting earlier, but relieved there was shelter waiting for them across the ridgetop.
“Shoot yeah,” Lucas said, slapping his older brother on the back. “That’s a cave all right… looks big.”
Pops nodded, smiling grimly. “The only problem is, we’re only seeing the ones outside of the cave, there’s no telling how many are inside.”
Jessie and Lucas couldn’t hide their disappointment. They dropped their heads, dejected. Pop gave them a minute, turning back toward the group to see how many would go with them. “We’re leaving in five minutes. Anyone that wants to go be ready. If you don’t want to go, you’re on your own from here on out. It’s nothing personal. We have no choice. If we stay here, we’ll either starve to death, be killed in the storm, or be eaten by the snogs and the Blood- eyes. If we go, we have a fighting chance,” finished Pops.
“Of course… it’s your way or the highway,” the former car slick spouted off.
Pops took a step toward the loud mouth, but before he could get any closer, Jessie appeared out of thin air, getting in the man’s face. “You have no right to talk to my dad that way. We risked everything to save you, and have asked for nothing in return. If you want to hide like a coward in the rocks and wait for the end that’s fine, just don’t expect us to sit here and watch. If you have anything else to say… keep it to yourself.”
He gave the blustery man a hard shove, sending him toppling over backwards onto his ample backside with a dull thump. The man acted like he wanted to get up and fight. Jessie stood ready. He was pretty sure he could handle an ex- Mercedes salesman.
The man got shakily to his feet, taking a good look in Jessie’s eyes. He saw no weakness or mercy. “I think we should go and help out,” he said; trying to sound like he was in charge. Everyone turned their backs on him, and busied themselves with getting ready for battle.
Pops and his sons watched the weary group as they prepared to move out. They looked skeptically at each other. There were at least twenty Blood-eyes outside the cave opening, and no telling how many were inside. There were only fifteen rescued wanderers and only a few of them had any fighting experience.
Pops shook his head and blew his breath out. He wondered if there’d been any Fortress survivors. He wondered if his son was still alive. “Let’s camp here tonight… behind those boulders, over there.” He pointed off to his right.
The group breathed a huge sigh of relief. They were exhausted and in no hurry to engage a cave full of hungry Blood-eyes.
Lucas led the group over to the camp spot, while Pops and Jessie stayed behind.
“You need some sleep old man,” Jessie said. He put his hand on his dad’s shoulder.
Pops smiled at him. “Thank you for dealing with that.” He nodded with his chin at the waddling loud mouth, struggling to keep up with the others.
Jessie smiled, looking down at his feet. “My pleasure, been listening to his crap for too long. I think we should hit them first light. We’ll get the ones we can with our bows and see what comes out.”
“Good thinking, we can try and whittle them down before we engage them,” Pops agreed.
Jessie nodded. “Could sneak up top there… maybe cause a rock slide with our last stick of dynamite,” Jessie suggested, pointing at a large cluster of precariously balanced boulders and rocks, hanging over the two giant boulders in front of the cave.
Pops smiled, nudging his son’s solid shoulder. “Good idea…your turning out to
be quite the warrior,” he said; his pride evident in his voice.
“I had the best teacher any warrior could want,” Jessie answered humbly.
“Tomorrow morning then…” said Pops. He turned to join the group and try and get some much needed sleep.
“Okay Dad, see you at first light,” Jessie said. He continued to study the Blood- eyes through the binoculars.
Pops stopped and went back over to his son, hugging him closely. “I love you, son. I’m very proud of you,” he whispered in Jessie’s ear.
Jessie hugged him back. “I love you too, Dad. Don’t worry… Junior’s too mean to die,” he joked half-heartedly.
Pops smiled, touching his middle son’s face, before turning to get some rest.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Scout was up early the next morning and despite being hung over to beat the band, he was on his way long before the sun made its spectacular mountain top appearance. From his vantage point, he was able to see several different ridgetops and could just make out a small group of people breaking camp on the opposite ridge from him.
He could also see a large tribe of Blood- eyes on the ridge beyond theirs. From his angle of sight, he could see the front of the cave as well as the back of the cave which opened up on the other side of the ridge out of sight from the small band of civilized on the opposite ridgetop. The front of the cave was crowded with about fifteen Blood- eyes, pushing and shoving each other as they tried to make their way into the main entrance.
Scout studied both groups through his binoculars looking at one group for a while then another. He couldn’t be sure but he felt as if the small band of civilized –people that don’t eat other people- were getting ready to attack the much larger force of Blood-eyes.
He frowned as he realized that they could not see that the cave they were about to die trying to take was some sort of stronghold for the blood eyes. There were at least fifty of them on the backside of the ridge trying to get into the back entrance of the cave, and no telling how many more inside.
Scout was torn between staying on track for his mission to Over Watch, or trying to warn the civilized. He opened his backpack and took out the Hulk figurine- he called it Mr. Mean- who scowled at him for interrupting its sleep. Scout shrugged his bony shoulders and apologized to his tiny companion. “I’m stuck and don’t know what to do, so I’m trying to ask you,’’ Scout confided to the hulk figurine.
Usually Mr. Mean didn’t talk so early. In fact, he was often silent until Scout started drinking and then it seemed as if the normally stoic, green figure became quite the conversationalist. ‘’What should I do, Mr. Mean? Should I go… or maybe, no?’’ Scout was careful how he approached his friend. The last time he’d made his little green buddy mad, he’d not spoken to Scout for a month.
“Should we leave them be… or save them and set them free?”
The tiny doll stared at Scout with its permanent, rage filled glare, but Scout was sure he’d seen his friend nod his head, yes. “Thank you, old friend… for helping out again,” Scout said reverently, before returning him to the bottom corner of his overstuffed back-pack.
He started to run along the ridge top, looking for the fastest way to intercept the unknowing group of civilized. Finally, he found a narrow saddle between the lofty ridgetops and ran, full speed, toward the group. It took almost twenty minutes of scrambling up and down the rocky slopes to reach them, but he managed to do just that before they broke camp.
Daniel was the first one to hear him coming. He pushed Chloe behind him and readied his axe. A
fter seeing Daniel go on full alert, Pops and the others made a tight circle around those unable to fight.
“My name is Scout, that’s what I do. I made up my mind to come and warn you!” the young man panted.
Pops and Jessie exchanged curiously amused looks.
“Warn us about what?” asked Pops.
Scout stepped into view. He was small and wiry, with long, dirty blond, matted dread locks. He was also out of range. “There is more than meets the eye in that cave high in the sky.” Scout extended his long skinny arm, pointing at the ridgetop the Blood- eyes were on. “If you go to fight, you will all most surely die,” he said; in a kind of strange musical voice.
“What are you talking about, scarecrow?” Jessie demanded; embarrassed that the weird looking newcomer had been able to get the drop on him.
Scout disappeared suddenly, appearing seconds later next to Pops before any of them could even hope to react. Pops nodded, grudgingly giving the stranger the respect he was obviously owed after being able to sneak up on him while he was looking.
“What I say is what you should hear, there is greater danger than you fear, my advice would be not to go, if you want another way, I’ll show,” Scout rhymed as he pointed toward the ridge were the Blood- eye cave was located.
“That’s enough, little clown, we have things to do,’’ Jessie said. He and Lucas moved toward Scout, who pulled out a wicked, two- foot long stiletto, and stood waiting for them with a smile on his sun- darkened face.
“Wait,’’ Daniel said firmly, coming out from behind Pops and his sons. As soon as Scout saw him, he smiled and danced around before jumping up into Daniels arms.
For a moment, Daniel was confused, then his face lit up with recognition. “Son of a… is that you, Scout? Your freaking hair got long, man. What the hell are you doing all the way out here?”
“I came to warn you, Captain, something bad is about to happen,” Scout said; still holding on to Daniel; like he was his long, lost father.
Daniel followed Scouts grey eyed gaze to the top of the ridge with the Blood eyes on it, studying it for a moment. Gently extracting himself from Scout’s deceptively powerful grip, he held him out at arm’s length. “Are you telling me there’s a lot more to those Blood-eyes than meets the eye?”
Scout smiled and clapped his hands together, dancing around and pointing at Daniel as if he had just won a new car. “The captain is right, stay another night, I will show you what you need to see, leave your group and come with me…’’ Scout finished, holding his hands out to Daniel and Pops.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Darius sat at the end of a twenty- foot- long, stone dining table next to his mother.
He was trying not to look at what she was eating, or listen to the gruesome sounds of her sharpened teeth biting into human bone and gristle. He’d managed not to gag so far, but when he watched her suck the end of a roasted toe before tossing it aside and grabbing another, he threw up more than a little in his mouth.
Blinking rapidly and swallowing the bile in his throat he kept his head down and picked at the rare, fresh fruit on the plate in front of him.
“So, boy… there’s a rumor going around that you’ve been seen at the top of the cliffs,” Magnus accused him between bites of his human brain pie.
Darius was all ears, but his mother was too engrossed with being gross to pay attention. Magnus was staring at him while he tapped his finger on the upside down, human skull that he was eating out of.
Darius was too afraid to speak.
Magnus maintained his withering stare while Darius squirmed in his chair and his mother picked thoughtfully through a fresh pile of roasted digits.
“I’m locked in my room twenty- four seven…” Darius finally managed to lie.
In an instant, Magnus was beside him, ripping his chair out from under him, sending him crashing face-first into his fresh fruit with a wet smack. “Don’t you dare lie to me boy…don’t you dare!”
The commotion managed to pull his feeding mother away from her meal. She came over the table and put herself in between Magnus and her son. “If you ever touch him again you will never again touch me!”
Darius was stunned. An angry red welt was already rising on his forehead.
“He’s a spoiled little weakling, with no taste for human meat. My sources are never wrong. If they say he was out of his chambers and up on the cliffs then that is the way of it!”
Darius was shaking all over and seriously thinking about running away but the sight of his mother coming to defend him steeled his resolve to stand with her for as long as he was able. “I have no way to get out of my chambers, and no desire to… even if I could.”
Magnus reached for him. Darius managed to slip under the table. Enraged, Magnus picked up the incredibly heavy table, flipping it, end over end, like it was nothing more than a folding card table, revealing Darius hiding underneath.
Magnus tried to get around Constance, but she stood her ground; all five feet ten of her against the over seven-foot-tall Magnus. “I’m warning you Magnus!” she shrieked as loud as she could.
Something in the way that she was holding her hands out-palms up- made Magnus stop. He stared at her curiously, stepping back just a little.
“Leave him be Magnus…please. It is the only thing I have ever asked for.” she soothed.
“If I get one more report that you’re leaving your chambers, I’ll roast you alive and eat you in front of your foolhardy mother!”
Darius nodded that he got the message, standing shakily and making his way to the door but it was blocked by two of Magnus’ personal guards, both of them well- armed and almost as big as Magnus himself. Darius stopped in front of them, just out of reach. “I’m ready to go back to my quarters now,” he said; trying to muster all the bass he could in his voice.
Magnus chuckled and took a step toward Darius, stopping only when Constance again got between the two of them. Magnus drew back his fist.
Constance started chanting and moving her hands in small circles. Darius picked up a chair and stepped toward Magnus. Just before he hit him there was knock on the door. The guards looked at Magnus, awaiting the go ahead to open the door.
Magnus drew his fist back again, wanting to crush Darius so bad he could taste it but, again, there was persistent knock on the door. “Well…open the door!” he shouted to his guards.
One of the guards opened the door, poking his head outside, before opening it all the way and announcing General Blood.
The general was a quick study. Seeing the overturned table and the looks of pure terror on Darius and Constance’s faces he back- pedaled. “Sorry…I’ll come back later.”
“Wait…” Magnus shouted, freezing him in his tracks. “Pick this up,” he ordered the guards, pointing at the table. It took a while but the two of them finally managed to set the table up and get out of the way.
“Sit!” Magnus ordered the three of them.
They sat.
“What news do you bring me General?”
“I bring news of victory… as if there was ever any doubt. Fortress has fallen and the patriots are scattered to the mountains.” the general boasted.
Magnus wasn’t smiling. Which immediately should have giving Blood cause for concern but he was too busy gloating over his hard-won victory in front of Constance to notice Magnus staring at him. “Did you say Fortress has fallen?” Magnus asked.
The general paused for a moment, not sure how Magnus wanted him to answer the question. “Yes, my King. Fortress has been destroyed.”
Magnus rose and looked at Constance and Darius. “Be gone from here,” he hissed.
They were out the door before he could change his mind. On their way down the hallway they could hear Magnus shouting about how he had wanted Fortress to remain intact and how General Blood was an imbecile and General Blood was screaming and they could hear the table being tossed around, yet again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The old lady woke slo
wly… her eyes blurry, her mouth dry. She sat up and looked around, smiling when she saw that her friend, Ruth, was sitting beside her bedroll. They’d made their way to Fortress about the same time and had been friends ever since. Ruth was sitting up, swaying slightly… trying to sleep.
The old lady tried to rise but could not. Her injured leg was heavily bandaged from mid-thigh all the way to her bony ankle. When she tried to swing her cumbersome leg over and get up, Ruth awoke and tried to stop her. “Now, old friend… be still… you’re in no shape to move yet.”
The old lady was weak and dizzy. She swore under her breath. “Where are we?”
“We’re on the ridgetop in a cave, you’re safe… for now,” Ruth answered her while wiping the sweat from her forehead. The old lady laid her head back, enjoying the feel of the cool cloth on her feverish face. “How long have I been out?”
“A full day and half the night,” Ruth answered. She handed her long- time friend a glass bottle, full of cool mountain spring water. The old women took the bottle and drank deeply from it, before easing herself back down again. “Thank you,” she managed. She was still groggy and needed to sleep but there was something that wouldn’t quite let her drift off again; something nagging at her in the back of her… “Poet!” she cried, looking around the spacious cave frantically.
“Please… be quiet,” Ruth shushed her, trying to calm her down.
“Poet… where is Poet?” the old lady demanded.
The other fortress survivors looked at her with deep concern on their faces. It was dark and everybody knew you didn’t make noise after dark. The old lady struggled to get to her feet. Stumbling forward as she continued to call for her friend. She pitched forward into Junior’s powerful arms as he came over to see what the problem was. “Poet, where is Poet?” she begged.
“You were by yourself when we found you. There was nobody else around,” Junior answered her.
