by R. B. Tetro
For a while, the cavern went a little bonkers until Reverend got their undivided attention by introducing Angel. She stood and with Onyx be her side made her way into the stone-ringed speaking circle. Gradually, the crowd grew silent. Onyx took two turns and lay down at her feet, facing the crowd so she could see their reaction.
“My name is Angel.”
“Hello, Angel,” the crowded cavern replied.
“I would like to announce my engagement to Poet and to ask you, my new friends and family, if we could be married here before the snows melt?”
The cavern erupted in applause and yelling and shouting. It had been too long since they’d had anything to celebrate… finally they would have something they could all feel a little bit normal about. Several women came forward and hugged her, cried with her and offered to help her with all of the preparations and planning.
Pops and his sons offered to build an altar. Several people came and congratulated Poet; who took it all in with his customary bashfulness and blushing cheeks. That night the free people’s army of the territories was happy. Many old songs were sung and many a wine glass tipped, and everyone was well warmed up and sucking in as much normality as they could from the deal, until the radio began to crackle and the Red Robin reminded them that the world was still going to shit.
“This is the Red Robin. All you Over Watch bad-asses better listen up and listen up good.
As much as I hate that the winter storms are subsiding, it is what it is. Be ready to fight or flee. Your enemies are pre-paring to march.
Listen up Over Watch…You have two weeks, maybe less. So make plans and say your goodbyes, true Americans, cause it’s time for the next chapter in this messed up back-assward book of life.
Cherish these last days of peace and harmony. Cherish each other. Cherish our freedom. Cling to the hope that you will, in fact, reach the safety of the Star Towers. Until then my heart and voice go with each and every one of you. Remember…we found out the hard way… united we stand… divided we fall.
Goodnight true Americans…hold on…stay strong…and fight on!
For a moment, it was silent and then the head rocking, ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister banged out of the radio, filling the cavern and everybody in it with a burning fire. Slowly, the crowd began to sing along and jump up and down to the music. Hand in hand, singing as one, scared half to death of what was to come, but determined to face it together.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Trumpets blare death’s morbid challenge
desperate humans, bleed and die
Sand filled gory wounds
gaping open for the bloodthirsty beast
the roar of savagery on the air
Hammer strike~
death blow
blood drenched warrior
free at last
- Poet
The days following the announcement of their marriage were delightfully, thought consuming. Angel and Poet spent most of the time being congratulated and making new friends. Angel asked Chloe to be her maid of honor.
She was delighted and jumped at the opportunity to feel something like real life once again, even if it was only for a little while. Poet was nervous about asking Daniel to be his best man, and Reverend to perform the ceremony, but ask them he did, and they both agreed to be there for him. Pops and his sons were asked to be the groomsman and the bridesmaids were made up of young women from Over Watch.
All through the week leading up to the ceremony, the gracious people of Over Watch and the territories brought by gifts and things to help them on their journey to Star Towers. Poet and his bride to be were overwhelmed at their generosity. The Over Watch people were no different from anybody else in the post-nuclear land, necessary things were at a premium but still, almost all of them gave something that meant something to them.
While Angel and her maids of honor were busy preparing for the occasion, Poet was sent away to look at where the ceremony was to be held. As he stood in the great speaking cavern, he tried not to think about his wife and the fact that she was dead and that his heart was still in love with her. “I’m sorry, love. You always told me, if something should happen to you I should go on with my life, and I suppose I must. But I want you to know, no matter how things go between me and Angel, I will always miss you and love you and never get over you.”
He looked around the sacred speaking circle before taking a joint out of his pocket and settling down on one of the stone benches to smoke it while he tried to write his wedding vows. He’d torn up the first three pages and was working on the fourth when Daniel came and sat down beside him.
“Pretty sure you’re not supposed to be smoking weed in the speaking circle…” Daniel grinned.
Poet smiled and looked around before taking another quick hit and putting it out. “Pretty sure your right…” he coughed.
“Couldn’t help but hear what you were saying to your wife, I mean your last wife, I mean…” Daniel tried.
“It’s okay. I know what you mean. I miss her. I have to go on, but I miss her and can’t help but feeling a little like…like I’m fooling around on her.”
Daniel got a far-away look in his eyes and grunted. “I know exactly how you feel. I miss my wife and I hold out hope that she and my son are still alive, but my heart belongs to Chloe also, and I hate myself for it.”
“Maybe, in this world, things like that are okay… just because it’s so damn desperate out here and all,” mumbled Poet.
Daniel shrugged, mulling that over for a moment, while he lit a cigarette.
Poet looked at him and winked. “Pretty sure you’re not supposed to smoke inside the speaking circle.”
Daniel smiled and nodded, taking a quick puff before putting it out. “Yeah…pretty sure I’m not.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Candle was strangely quiet on the way out of the tunnel and up to the tallest parapet of the keep. From there, it was up to Darius to tight-rope the hand- wide ledge across to the cliff and up even higher to the hawk’s landing spot. It took him nearly the entire night and he was exhausted, but proud of himself. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he looked around for signs of his high-flying friend.
The hawk landed behind him, somehow. He’d never heard him coming. “Welcome my friend, thanks for dropping in,” Darius joked.
The hawk looked at him differently tonight. Sad maybe mad, it was very hard to read the hawk. It took turns looking at him and snapping his head around at every noise.
Darius held up his hands in surrender, approaching it slowly, with a sad look on his face. The hawk raised his great wing the canister was under, allowing Darius room to retrieve and send his last message. “I’m afraid you need to stay away from here for a while. Do you understand? It’s too dangerous for you and for me…” Stepping back and away, Darius raised his hand in a quiet goodbye. He felt completely alone, and overwhelmed.
The hawk tarried, which was not at all like him. Instead of rocketing away in his usual dramatic fashion, he started flapping his wings, slowly at first than faster and harder until Darius was blown back against the rocks. Then the hawk stopped flapping and bowed low, with his wings tucked neatly in, like he’d been practicing. Giving Darius a controlled screech, it rose straight up, hovering inches away from him and then was gone.
Darius couldn’t help but smile. His friend had giving him a grand farewell he would never forget. He made his way back to the tunnel entrance, not stopping until he was well inside. He sat there on a cold rock with tears in his eyes and not much left in his courageous heart. It wasn’t long until his last and only friend came up to him, rubbing it’s course- haired rump against him, settling down beside him.
“Candle…my dear old friend, no more journeys to the sky for a while. We have to lay low, at least until Magnus and Siros find something better to focus their eyes on.” Darius eyes dripped hot tears on the rocks.
Candle snuggled into him closer, snorting and stretching, licking up
Darius’ tears and resting his head on his leg. Darius petted him for a while, crying quietly until he’d cried himself out. They sat in silence, both of them dreaming they were in a better place with more food and less monsters.
Darius took his two most prize possessions out of the lining of his jacket. One was a faded and wrinkled Polaroid picture of him, his father and mother before the nuclear bombs and the One World government turned the U.S.A into a giant, monster buffet. The second item was a letter, torn and tattered, almost unreadable. It didn’t matter to Darius, he’d read the letter countless times since his mother had given it to him in a moment of weakness, before the darkness stained her soul.
The letter was from his father. Darius mumbled the words softly as he read the letter once again.
My son;
I will not be able to see you, or hold you, or take care of you for a while, so all I can do is to write to you what is in my heart.
Since I was old enough to be called a man-although that doesn’t always make you a man- I have wanted a son. My father, your grand-father, always taught me to love first and fight for what I love. As you grow older, keep these words close to your heart. Let them guide you and strengthen you, and prepare you for the hard journey you will undoubtedly go through.
First and most importantly, always take care of your mother. I’m afraid with the way things are going, the world as we know it is about to change, and I’m not looking forward to the new world that’s coming.
Listen well, my son, and prepare yourself for the fight. The once great, United States of America will never be the same. I wish you could have lived for a while as a free man. To know that you can step out and go anywhere and do anything and be anything and live anyway that you can think of is a powerful feeling, Son, a powerful feeling that gives birth to powerful deeds.
Remember Son; freedom is in the marrow of our bones. It must be fought for and protected at all cost. If you don’t have freedom, you exist only to serve another man’s desire and dreams. I have defended freedom my entire adult life and my wish to you, Son, is that you do the same.
Your fight, no doubt, will be much different than mine. But no matter what and who you are fighting you will, no doubt, be fighting for freedom. Always look to God first… he is the truth and the light and the way. His son will guide you and show you how to act and live.
Be a leader, Son, although I think you will be one whether you want to be or not, as I was and have been all my life. Be fair and firm, and always take care of those around you and never abandon the cause.
I love you, Son. I wish I could have raised you and been the father that every child needs. Please know that it was not because I didn’t want to be there for you, because I want that more than anything. I will never give up hope of seeing you and being with you one day, my precious son. I know, deep in my heart, that you and I will meet and you will know me at first sight, and I you.
That hope of one day standing alongside you and fighting together is what keeps me going. Tell your mother that your father loves her and will always love her. And know that I love and care for you, and am so very proud to be your father.
Good-by my son, until we meet again.
Darius folded the letter and put it away. Candle looked up at him expectantly, and then darted up the tunnel, turning to wait for his weary friend.
It took Darius a moment to get his feet under him, then stumbling weakly forward, he nodded at Candle that he was ready.
He was nervous. He’d stayed too long in the tunnel. Mistakes like that could get him killed. Maybe that’s why I did it, though, he thought, maybe it’s time to die and leave behind, forever, the terrible world that I’ve been born into or maybe, just maybe, I should do what my father would have done, and continue to fight.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Sharing your life story in the speaking circle had become an important part of becoming a citizen of Over Watch. Chloe was nervous while Reverend introduced her. She was a private person, used to being alone. Before, she had been wanted only for her body. Daniel was the first man to want nothing from her except for her company and friendship.
The crowd was leaning forward on their seats, clapping for her as she made her way carefully inside the speaking circle where she was to share her story so she could become a member of Over Watch. “Thank you. My name is Chloe Helen Thomas. I am 37 years young.”
The crowd chuckled a little, and Chloe rewarded them with a dazzling smile. “After the bombs went off, I was captured and sent to the human farms in the domes under the earth. I was meant to be food but as I got older, the Blood- eyes started using me… for other things.” Chloe dropped her head as the pain equated with the memory washed over and through her like acid rain.
“Our dome was in need of repair. It didn’t last near as long as they said it would. There was an uprising. Some of the men got ahold of some weapons and forced their way to the surface. For a while, it was just a fight for life. We scavenged and fought to stay alive against all the monsters that our own government created to destroy us. Then we were re-captured and taken back to the food farms, and life went back to normal for me…” Chloe’s eyes saddened and her voice trailed away.
“For a while, life was just life… nothing else, just surviving and praying for a miracle, and that’s when it happened. Just as I was about to give up on ever being free again, there was another uprising. The true American rebels came and helped us escape but in the middle of the fighting I was taken by a group of Blood- eyes. They took me far away from my people. I lived as their captive and slave.
That’s when Daniel came and saved me and brought me here and stayed with me until I was safe, even though he has other places to be…” Chloe’s voice trailed off, and her big, unstoppable tears dripped down on the speaking podium, sparkling like diamonds in the firelight.
For a moment, the crowd was silent and then a young lady, no more than fifteen, stood and started clapping her hands together. Softly at first, then louder until the older woman beside her stood and clapped with her, and then the crowd was clapping and cheering for her and for the first time in her God forsaken life, Chloe felt like she belonged somewhere and that maybe she was a part of something and that, just maybe, Daniel would come back and things would be okay.
One by one the crowd came down and met Chloe on the outside of the circle, some embracing her, some shaking her hand, all welcoming her into their extended family; a family all too familiar with the horrors that made up Chloe’s life.
Daniel and Chloe stared at each other while she was welcomed. Daniel saw her in a new light. She’d never spoken about how she had come to be a prisoner and he’d never asked. He walked toward her and the people spread apart and he came to her and her to him and they embraced and kissed and laughed and cried and, in the great cavern of Over Watch everything was almost normal.
Everybody took a second to enjoy it and for a little while life was like it was supposed to be with faith, family and friends, making it all go around.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Magnus stood watching Darius squirm and scream while Blood pulled his fingernails out one at a time, pausing just long enough to enjoy Darius’ reaction before taking another one. Blood had never liked Darius. He was so weak and pitiful it sickened him.
“Enough, Blood…” Magnus ordered.
Blood gave one more hard tug on Darius’ ring fingernail, smiling as it came free. Darius screamed bloody murder, thrashing about in the heavy chair he was tied to.
Magnus pushed Blood impatiently out of his way and grabbing Darius by the back of his sweat soaked, coal- black hair, He jerked the boy’s head back sharply, hissing into his face. “Who sends the hawk to you?”
Darius was close to unconsciousness. His left eye was swollen shut and there was dark blood bubbling out of his mouth. Blood had knocked out most of his teeth, and nearly torn his left ear off before Magnus had stopped him. Darius tried to focus on Magnus but his vision was blood-coated and limited
. “…no…hawk…just…walking,” he managed to slur through busted lips.
This time it was Magnus who back-handed him, sending him flying still tied to the chair. The rest of Darius’ ear came off and his head hit the side of the table with a gruesome thud.
“He can’t tell us anything if you kill him!” shouted Blood.
Magnus whipped around and grabbed Blood by the throat with one of his huge clawed hands, lifting him easily in the air and holding him out in front of him without straining. “You forget yourself, General Blood. It is you who takes orders from me!”
Blood was turning a deep shade of red. He kicked out, catching Magnus square in the throat. Magnus dropped him, stumbling back and fumbling for the handle of his broad sword while he tried to breathe.
General Blood was on him, shouting loudly, before swinging his sword at Magnus’ head with all of his might. An instant before his steel connected with the man’s giant cranium, Magnus managed to raise his sword, deflecting the death-blow just enough to keep General Blood from completely decapitating him.
He staggered to his feet swinging at Blood, driving him back with his own ferocious attack. General Blood gave ground, blocking and parrying, trying to buy himself time until his loyal troops came to help him.
His coup had started, before General Blood had wanted it to, but started none- the- less and now that the dye was cast, there could be no turning back. Magnus pressed him back, further and further across the room, slashing and hacking at him in an outraged frenzy. Suddenly the door burst apart. Ten of Magnus’ personal soldiers came in and rushed General Blood.
Blood stood with his back to the corner, killing three of them while Magnus caught his breath. Just as Magnus straightened himself and stepped toward Blood to rejoin the fight, twenty of Blood’s loyal troops came running in, attacking Magnus’ remaining guard while Magnus engaged Blood.
