by R. B. Tetro
Blood was almost spent, he’d been wounded and was losing a lot of blood. He put his soldiers between him and the door and was about to make his escape, when Siros appeared. Blood barely had time to dive to the side before Siros’ energy bolt exploded where he’d been standing, sending rocks and wood debris flying, deafening everyone’s ears.
Blood came up swinging, surprising Siros and catching him high on the shoulder with the point of his gore-stained blade. Siros bounced off the doorway; screaming and falling into the room, blood spewing from his shoulder. Blood raised his sword for the kill stroke, but right before he could bring his blade down, Magnus was on him again.
Blood’s soldiers were trying to get Magnus off of him, but Magnus was hitting Blood over and over again in the face. Blood could feel his facial bones breaking apart. He managed to draw his dagger and thrust upward, grunting as the blade hit bone, then it clattered from his grasp onto the floor.
He saw that the blade of his dagger had a lot of dark blood on it. I managed to wound the bastard, at least. His vision was going dim, but he could see some of his loyal soldiers fighting against Magnus, all of them dying for him at the end of the giant man’s sword, while the others lifted him and carried him out of the room.
The last thing he saw was Siros staggering to his feet and shouting a loud spell. Just as his soldiers managed to get him safely out of the blood- soaked chamber, there was a loud explosion and body parts flew by him and his men and then he fell unconscious.
CHAPTER SIXTY
Pops was ready to start climbing the walls. Before the bombs went off he and his sons were farmers. They got up at four in the morning, worked well past dark, and did it all over again the next day. It was his life and his son’s lives and his wife’s life, and it had been a good life; a cherished life.
Now, after being holed up in Over Watch, waiting for the snow to melt, he was more than ready to go. Pops had been hearing rumors there were farms at the Star Towers, inside the walls of course, but small food plots none-the-less, and goats and chickens. He wasn’t naïve enough to think that it would even remotely be like the piece of heaven on earth that he and his family had the good fortune to live on, but, at least, he would be working the soil with a rake this time, instead of a tractor, but growing things.
It was the late watch. Pops couldn’t sleep so he’d traded places with an Over Watch guardsman and went down into the tunnels in search of something to kill. He was with two other insomniac guard members, all three of them armed to the teeth, each of them carrying a whistle. Snog patrol was the only form of recreation Pops could sink his teeth into. When the snows fell, it had driven the snogs underground, and there had been no lack of them.
Pops shined his light up a tunnel. He could see movement, and hear grunting. He nudged the guardsmen behind him, letting his light play off the high-ceiling tunnel. “Shit…there’s a lot of them. I thought they were all supposed to be hibernating,” whispered the youngest guardsman.
Pops frowned, shaking his head. The young soldier was right. Although the movements of the snogs were lethargic, they were awake and moving about way before time. “Go and tell Daniel and Preacher, tell them to send help and plenty of fire. Go now!” Pops ordered the young guardsman, who nodded and turned on his heels, disappearing up the way they’d come.
Pops guessed there were at least one hundred snogs in the tunnel. It was hard to tell, because they all lay coiled together in a giant viper ball. Pops could tell they knew he was watching them, and he shuddered while he watched the hibernating mutants try to wake themselves up.
“The snogs shouldn’t be moving about yet, and certainly not this many…” the remaining guardsman said, more to himself than to Pops.
Pops nodded in agreement and frowned, motioning the man to follow him back up the trail to wait for back-up. He led the way, stopping in a cave used to store gunpowder. While they waited for back-up, Pops wished he was with his remaining sons.
“The snogs are sleeping, and were going to set them on fire while they sleep. There’s no honor in that.” The remaining guardsman said all of a sudden.
Pops looked at him open mouthed and stunned.
The guardsman merely shrugged and started to light a cigarette.
Pops grabbed him by the collar, shaking the piss out of him, knocking the cigarette out of his hand. “There’s no more honor, or being merciful, you dumb- shit, there’s only killing anything that tries to kill you, or you friends, or your family. If you think those monsters would hesitate for a second over killing your dumb-ass or your family while your sleeping, then you’d better think again. They live to kill, and will keep on killing until we kill every last one of them. Do you understand?”
The guardsman rubbed his neck and coughed, nodding his head, stepping away from Pops powerful reach.
“You and your friends are all bloodthirsty savages,” the guardsman shouted and pulled up his sleeve, revealing the sign of the Council guard on his forearm, rushing at him with his dagger drawn, managing to nick Pops under his left eye before Pops snapped his neck like a chicken. “I am what this world made me!” Pops shouted, standing over the dead traitor.
His voice echoed off the walls of the tunnel, carrying up to Daniel and Reverend as they made their way down to him. “I am what this world made me!”
“Ain’t that the truth,” said Daniel.
“Amen to that…” Reverend agreed.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
The main cavern of Over Watch was lit by hundreds of torches, making it seem almost like daylight. Ribbons of all colors were tied to everything and around the speaking circle. It was beautiful, a moment of time reserved for love and the celebration of love.
The entire population packed the place, all speaking in hushed, excited tones while they waited for the guests of honor to arrive. Susan Timmons started playing Amazing Grace on an old, nicked up, bullet- riddled upright piano, filling the cavern with its unforgettable song. The crowd quieted, all of them listening. Most of them knew the song, most of them had memories of hearing it at different times and different places, before the bombs went off.
When the song was over, a young boy came forward and whispered into Susan’s ear. Susan smiled and nodded. Sitting up straight, she started playing the familiar wedding song.
Pops and his sons were the first of the wedding party to enter, then Daniel. They were smiling as they made their way down to the speaking circle. Poet entered next. He was dressed in a long, pure white robe with a golden belt. Despite his face being permanently disfigured, today he felt handsome and full of joy. As he made his way he couldn’t help looking around for his friend, the old lady.
He smiled. She’d been the closest thing to family he’d had after the bombs dropped. Pops clapped him on the shoulder, snapping him out of his daydreaming, and he faced the Over Watch crowd.
Over Watch stood and gasped, murmuring and clapping their hands as Angel entered the cavern. She was resplendent in a long, pearl- studded white wedding dress, handmade out of silk.
Behind her walked Chloe, and again the crowd murmured and gasped. She was beautiful as well, dressed in a floor-length silk gown and glowing as her eyes met Daniel’s. The crowded cavern felt the emotion between them.
Poet stared at his radiant wife to be and he realized that no matter how tenuous their fragile lives had become, life itself continued and grew.
The cavern was awe inspiring, hung with gold and forest green tapestries - the colors of Over Watch. Over two hundred torches were lit throughout, quickening the crystals, bathing the cavern in a clear silvery glow. It’s perfect, Poet thought and he smiled, as best as he could with only half his lips.
Angel came up the aisle slowly, with Onyx by her side. Everyone in the Cavern, all two thousand of them, were smiling. And for a while, everyone was home, in their own hometowns again, either watching one of their friends or family members getting married or tying the knot themselves.
This wedding, this brief respite from th
e horrors that awaited them all, reminded them of home, and how much home meant to all of them, and how much more home means after you lose it.
By the time the piano player finished playing the wedding march, Angel stood facing him. Poet was trembling she was so beautiful. He reached out and patted Onyx head, before taking her hand in his. Onyx stared at him so that Angel could look at him while they exchanged their vows.
After a quick nod and wink to both of them, Reverend began. “It is with great joy that I come before you this evening, to join in holy matrimony our new and dear friends, Poet and Angel.”
The crowd went crazy, clapping and cheering as if Angel and Poet had just won the Super Bowl.
Daniel was clapping along with them while smiling at Chloe, and that’s when he felt the first twinge of warning that, for some reason, he’d always felt right before combat.
He paused and watched Reverend waiting for the crowd to settle, shaking it off, until he saw Scout and Pops who were staring with an odd look on their face’s at the far south-end of the cavern. Chains and Basher were following their gaze, whispering to each other.
Reverend continued, expertly warming the crowd up for the vows. Again, Daniel had the same feeling, just a twinge at first, then stronger, and right before Poet began to read his vows, he shouted. “Everybody get down!”
The south end of the cavern blew up and people started dying by the hundreds.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Daniel was given the choice of either joining the Army or going into juvenile detention when he was seventeen. He’d decided he didn’t want to be locked up so he joined and became an infantry soldier. After hell’s passage, who some called Basic Training, all of his superiors started to see in Daniel what everyone else saw in him.
Daniel Brady was a born leader. The men followed him, and did what he said. Not because he forced them to, but because they loved him. His superiors suggested Daniel go to college and get his degree and he did, and when it was all said and done, before the war for America started, Daniel was a Captain with his own company in the middle of several wars.
There were rumors of a looming promotion. His superiors liked him, his men loved him and his enemies lay piled at his feet. Then the troops were called home. Daniel didn’t like what he saw when he got back to his beloved country. It was different, and he and his had fought back and it was terrible because they were fighting against their friends and family members, and many, many people died around him as always.
The attack on Over Watch, in the middle of the wedding, was the worst thing, Daniel had ever seen. The berserkers came pouring in first; screaming, biting, ripping and tearing any human flesh they could grab. Next came the Blood- eyes with General Blood at the lead, hacking, biting and killing anyone who managed to fight or get in their way.
The way Daniel figured it, they killed two hundred people in the first ten minutes of fighting. For a moment, he almost lost hope as hundreds of snogs poured in after the Blood- eyes. That’s when it happened. Daniel had seen it before but never this strong and pronounced. The people of Over Watch got mad. They’d been enjoying a rare, peaceful, love- filled moment before these murdering bastards had shown up and started killing them.
Blood hadn’t taken into consideration the fact that Daniel and Reverend had insisted that the people of Over Watch go everywhere armed to the teeth. The people of the territory rose up and fought back, side by side, back to
back, and Daniel led them with Chains, Juggernaut, Pops and his sons, Scout, Basher and Reverend by his side.
Even after they all rose and fought together things were not looking good until Tinker and his little band of remote control carrying teenagers came in with their flying machines, whirring, spinning and slicing. Twenty minutes later, what was left of Blood’s invaders were forced back through the south opening.
There were dead bodies everywhere. The carnage was terrible but Daniel noticed a quiet toughness in everyone present. Eventually everyone was accounted for and the names of the dead were written in the Over Watch ledger- a part of history that a bell would be forever ring for.
Many of the survivors approached Daniel and shook his hand or hugged him or both. If it hadn’t been for him and his men none of them would have known what to do. It had been Daniel and his soldiers along with Poet, Angel and the wolves who’d rallied everyone, and it had been Daniel who’d led the charge right into the main force of snogs.
The snogs were used to people running in terror at the sight of them, but when Daniel and his faithful followers attacked them, it had scared them and sent them running with their spiked tails tucked in-between their legs back through the gaping hole in the South wall.
Blood had watched Daniel, mesmerized. His fearless heart was a thing to behold.
The cavern should have easily been taken, but now they would have to wait for more troops to arrive. It had been his plan; after barely surviving his run-in with Magnus and Siros to attack Over Watch early, before Magnus and his troops could attack, so that he would have a strategic position in which to battle Magnus’s army.
But he had underestimated the will for survival of the people of Over Watch and knew that if he didn’t somehow manage to kill Daniel, his failure was going to get costly.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Constance was sitting by Darius’s bed when he woke. It was early, still dark. Darius looked up at her, bleary- eyed and confused, delighted and scared. Since he’d been held captive, he could count the number of times his mother had actually come to see him on two hands. Usually, his mother sent someone to escort him to come and see her.
She looks so different each time I see her. He could faintly remember her face when he was younger, a face that had been as kind at one time as it was beautiful. Now, there was only the darkness in her heart reflected in her Blood red eyes, her once waist length raven hair, now as white as frost.
“Mother…what a wonderful surprise,” he managed.
Constance looked at her boy for the first time in a long time. He’d turned into a man. He had his fathers’ rugged good looks, but his limited diet had emaciated him, leaving him rail thin, with ghastly white skin. “My son…” she whispered, leaning forward, she went to touch his hand, but stopped herself.
Darius reached out, brushing her claw like hand briefly. For a moment, they were mother and son, then it was gone, and Constance was Queen Constance again, and Darius her imprisoned son.
Constance reached inside the folds of her robe, taking a small rolled up bundle of food out, opening it and setting it on the table beside him.
Darius’s cheeks flushed and he smiled. There was bread- thick and still warm, without mold, and cheese which he’d not eaten in years, and grapes and apples. Darius’s eyes watered. He picked up a piece of cheese, offering it to his mother, before painfully managing to gum a bite with his bandaged fingertips. It was glorious, waking up taste sensors in his mouth long since neglected. He took a moment to relish in it as he sat staring at his mother with the eyes of a thankful child.
“I know I am not what I should be to you, and your life must be terrible,” Constance whispered. She looked around his chambers, the chambers he’d been locked in since he was just a boy. It was grim, devoid of comforts.
“I have not been the mother I should have been to you, but I’ve kept you alive and fed. Now I am here to warn you, my son, that Magnus is watching you… and me,” Constance voice trailed off, as she looked fearfully toward the door.
Darius watched her for a moment. She looked tired, and locked within herself. He wondered if somewhere deep inside the evil that had consumed her, she was still the Constance Clemens that his dead father had fallen in love with.
“I’m aware that Magnus doesn’t trust me, and that my life is in constant danger. It’s really nothing new,” Darius remarked.
“He knows about a hawk, or has suspicions about a hawk. He can’t prove it yet, but he thinks you’re helping the True Americans. Surely you must know that
!” Constance voice rose.
His heart was pounding in his bird- like chest. He knew if his mother thought it was serious enough to come and grace him with a visit, Magnus and Siros must be close to figuring out what he was up to.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
“Gather round children, sit close to one another. Draw strength from one another, while we fight to survive. Stay quiet children, there’s monsters about.” Chloe whispered, while she gathered the children into an inner chamber designed to hide them from the terrors in the cavern.
With the help of several other Over Watchers she’d managed to get all the surviving children sat down and quiet. Outside, the fighting grew louder, the sounds of the battle echoing off the walls of their hiding place. Chloe started to sing, quietly at first, then gradually louder until the sounds of the crying children and the battle faded away. The song was familiar to most of them, although none of them had ever heard anyone sing it so beautifully before.
Chloe sang America the Beautiful like it should have been sung every day before America was destroyed. Some of the women and men joined in and together their voices filled the chamber, drowning out the sounds of chaos. When they finished the song, it was silent. For several long minutes, Chloe stood with her ear to the door. She could hear the moaning of the hundreds of wounded and every now and again the sounds of voices, though she couldn’t make out what they were saying or who was doing the saying.
The handle on the door was shaken from the outside. All of the grown-ups formed a line between them and the children. Some of the older children joined them. The door was flung open.
Children screamed.
It was Juggernaut…with Daniel close behind him. Chloe had never been so happy to see someone as she was at that moment. She stepped passed Juggernaut, grabbing Daniel, holding him close. He gently moved her away from the door, hugging her back for a few precious moments before ordering them all out of the chamber. “Stay together. There’s not much time. Follow Juggernaut into the tunnels. Stay there until we come for you.”
