“You hunt those?”
“Yes, the meat is good and feeds many for a long period of time. We have massive trees sharpened at a certain height to hamstring a beast. Once they are down, it’s easy enough to slit a throat. Their own weight can crush their organs when they fall. We normally hunt one before they migrate. It takes all of us working together to slaughter and retrieve the choice parts we need. The blood draws too many predators after a while. But by then we have our packs loaded.”
“Amazing,” she whispered as they continued to walk.
A powerful man stopped chopping wood to stare at Clarity and her smile died on her lips. He was in his prime with many tattoos. His gaze wasn’t hostile, exactly. He was intense as he studied her. Finally, he shook his head and she could see his lips move as though he muttered under his breath. He attacked the wood before him with a vengeance.
“Are your people angry I’m here?” Clarity asked.
Doom followed her gaze and took a deep breath. “There are times my men ask to keep a human safe until it’s time for them to leave. The humans always go, and the men are left bereaved. Menace is the last of his tribe, near my age. Salvation came too late for his people.”
“Salvation?”
Taking her arm Doom encouraged her forward. “The Neandersauri are relentless.”
“Your people have survived.”
“It’s taken time to rebuild, we were hunted almost to extinction. Others from neighboring tribes joined with me after losing their leaders. Few leaders joined with me after losing their tribes. I lead all here.”
“A human’s greatest asset is their ability to think, to reason and solve conflict. What are these hybrids capable of?”
“Death.”
“Reproduction?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you hunt them?”
“With what? Our weapons are useless against them. We have nothing to pierce their hides. Our spears aren’t enough. They are built for death, toned over thousands of years when all humanoid-type species realized in order to survive we must adapt and integrate with stronger species. Their bodies are massive; their claws rip our flesh to shreds. They think; they’re stronger. It’s impossible to hunt the hybrids as animals. When last they attacked my tribe they went after leaders. My father fell when I was still a boy on the verge of manhood. Many leaders were slaughtered across the planet. Their assault was systematic and strategic.”
“Are they smarter than you?”
Doom glanced away. Clearly he was uncomfortable. “They want something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Earth humans haven’t always come here. It’s only been a while.”
“When did humans start coming here?”
Doom shifted his feet. “In the last few decades. The hybrids have grown smarter. They hunt in numbers no less than two.”
Clarity stopped. “Since humans started coming here.”
“It’s a theory.”
She grew angry. “What happens to the humans on this planet?”
“They go home.”
Doom released her arm and strode forward; she had no choice except to follow. He led her to a mound of grass, domed, twenty feet in a circular diameter. He gripped the solid rock door with both hands. The places he touched lit with pink and blue light but he was too impatient and dragged the door open. Clarity knew from the bulging of his muscles she’d never in a million years budge the door. They stepped down sixteen steps—she guessed the height from floor to ground to be twenty feet.
Doom’s home was different from the protected human area. A dwelling the likes she’d never seen. Tools, benches, and furniture were placed strategically. Cupboards were cut into rock faces. There was only one raised platform where he slept; his bed was massive, the headboard made of polished yellow obsidian. Clarity blinked at the splendor. She never would have imagined stepping into another world under a mound of dirt.
The furs everywhere were brightly colored, and she wondered what animal they were from. Whatever it was it was large, perhaps the mammoth hybrid. She wondered at the animal’s size. Doom’s people could hunt things of this magnitude but not the hybrids, intelligence had to factor in. Beautiful furs on the walls delighted her. A mixture of fur and feathers interwoven. His home was the same as the protected area for humans, minus the splendor. She saw a tunnel leading underground, branching out, until with a touch Doom sealed it off. There was no tunnel in the place they kept humans.
Protected area or jail?
Clarity’s mind was racing as she fingered the furs on the bed then strolled over to a place with what looked to be huge bamboo shoots. A wooden sprocket could be twisted, and water flowed into the smoothed rock sink. At a sectioned off area were another sink and huge bathtub, both made from large amethysts. A million-dollar bathroom with polished rock flooring, but no toilet.
“Where does the water come from?” Clarity asked.
“One handle turn comes from the cave where you bathed. There are many hot springs inside. The other is from pools we created.”
“Where do you, um, poop?”
Doom gave her a disgusted gaze. “Why on earth do humans feel the need to make waste right in their own home?”
“Because outside our asses would freeze or get eaten, at least here.”
“We have a shelter in another cave. Your ass is safe.”
“Good to know.”
Beautiful fossils hung from the walls. The air was fresh and she wondered at the ventilation. It was strange seeing a place where ancient collided with new age. Doom’s people had knowledge, limited, but it was there. If two types of species survived so far she wondered if the hybrids might be that much more intelligent. Two having merged to be stronger, but who was smarter? Or rather when did who become smarter?
Clarity knew there was a connection between the hybrids and humans. She didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to wonder if the Neandersauri found a way to breed with humans. If they did, what happened to the human? The few pieces were falling into disturbing places.
Lost in thought, Clarity slumped onto a wooden chair to eat at a smooth rock table. She accepted the bread Doom gave her and chewed small pieces methodically. The hybrids were too big for a human to carry offspring. Dinosaurs laid eggs. Human females produced eggs but gave birth to flesh and blood. Was it possible for a woman to have an egg birth? The tug of a frown made her forehead hurt for a second. What resources would an egg deplete if a human female actually gave birth to one?
“Not possible,” she whispered aloud.
“What isn’t possible?”
Clarity jumped, she forgot Doom was near her. “Tell me the truth. How long have you been harvesting humans for those hybrids?”
Doom looked guilty as hell and surprised—he looked surprised. “Humans go home.”
Clarity rolled her tongue on the inside of her cheek, a gesture when she was pissed. Edward called it her duck and run like hell move. She slipped her hand into her purse and pulled out her taser. For a moment she rolled it in her hand letting Doom get a good look.
“Mace is nasty.”
Doom nodded. “Yeah sure is.” His eyes were still red.
Clarity leaned forward. “This little device will make mace seem like a child’s toy.”
“I have no doubt you’re lying.”
“Try me.”
“Your fate is sealed.”
“I make my own destiny. Fate is for fools.”
“You will spend a year here. Why would you want to spend it in fear?”
“So you do hand humans over. To save your own neck.”
Doom jumped up to pace. “I keep my people safe. I pay for every sacrifice.” He stopped abruptly then growling, he continued. “Do you know the agony I suffer or that Menace suffered? I keep humans innocent of harmful thoughts or actions from others for as long as possible. Not only are the hybrids out there. Some humans don’t even make it to me. I save them. Then they go home.”
; Clarity watched him pace for a moment, a telltale groove in the fur rug suggested the act was habit. “Has there never been another who questioned your actions?”
He paled visibly. “Some question, perhaps some guess. Many say nothing. They are gentle humans who don’t come to me with a satchel of weapons. The first human didn’t. But if she had a purse she might have.”
Clarity wondered if there was more to the selection of humans harvested from sinkholes. Human lambs was a theory.
“Are the humans you have known weak? Or ill?”
“Some yes. They are different than you.”
An odd thought occurred to Clarity. This planet was like Earth. What if there were more Earth-like planets in different stages of advancement. Why not? Science fiction didn’t have to be made up of freaky alien planets with strange alien-type creatures. Earth was crazy enough in its infant stages. No one could tell her a dinosaur wasn’t a wacky creature.
“Will you tell me about the first human?”
Doom continued to pace casting her periodic glances. She could tell he wasn’t a liar by nature. Why was it so hard to realize large powerful men had hearts and hurts? That was the look in his gaze—hurt, remorse, anger, fear, all bundled together—making the largest man she’d ever seen appear as vulnerable as a small boy. His tone, when he spoke, was soft.
“One by one my people died, hunted to the brink of extinction. We were always running, hiding, crying with our fear. I spent many a night huddled in my mother’s arms wishing I was as big as my father, until I realized he was helpless. The agony of that notion terrified me. We were doomed. But not as yet, there were still many different types of humans. The smaller were killed first, and one by one the races died. The hybrids are systematic creatures. Kill the weak first. My people are the strongest of the humanoids left.
“We were clever and learned to hide. There was danger when we left our hideouts to hunt, but my own village remained strong in numbers, or so I thought. Until one year, many years ago after my parents died a human appeared. Her name was Alice. We were happy to have her, thrilled. Alice was fun and full of life. She was kept safe and welcomed into our midst. I adored her and her stories; I was young then. She was a number of years older. She wasn’t old enough to be my mother but she was smart like her. I learned a great many things.
“We were nomads; all humanoids had to be with existing cultures. Our people, our type of humanoid, were considered the hierarchy. There were still a number of us in my tribe, and we didn’t need to integrate with anyone, especially a lesser form of human. We avoided other humans and looked the other way when the hybrids killed off the others. As I grew older and cockier, I was adept at keeping my villagers safe. Little did I know it was a matter of time before we were next. Perhaps our arrogance, my arrogance, almost killed us. My people began to fall. When she, Alice, found the rocks and the way they glowed, she designed the homes we have now. Alice was right, the time had come to stand our ground and lay roots. The crude implements she devised seemed so sophisticated to us.
“The homes couldn’t be built fast enough. More people joined us, and I allowed it, welcomed them. I should have seen the safety in numbers. The tragedy is our ideas came too late for too many. We soon discovered only our kind and the hybrids walked the planet. The hybrids hunted wherever whenever, no one was safe. The work was tedious and backbreaking, but all could see the value, how smart the human was. She taught us to harvest and store food for more than just the big sleep. You remind me of her in a way, but you are much younger. We warned her of the hybrids, to keep her distance. I wanted her safe. Alice was always wandering, always looking for new ideas.”
“Or maybe the sinkhole that brought her here.”
Doom stopped pacing to sit. He ran a hand over his face and took a small sip from a wooden cup before continuing.
“The attack of the hybrids on our village was swift, we were given no warning, everything was chaos when they hit from every direction. Alice was so loving. She helped whomever she could. The last time I saw her, she faced off with a hybrid. He was going to kill me and I was injured. The tiny little thing holding a weapon was only trying to protect me, but for some reason the hybrid didn’t strike her dead, at least not at first, he took her away.”
There was pain in his voice; Clarity could tell the images haunted him. He must have loved her more than he let on. Alice must have loved him to face such an opponent. Again the wheels were turning in her mind. She wondered at Doom’s kindness. If he handed humans over, he had to remain aloof.
“We lost so many, it was the single home the human female that had us build that saved our lives. I was dragged into the home. A hybrid couldn’t open the door, even with their hybrid human-type hand bones. The solid rock is impenetrable. Other tribes were destroyed and scattered having no such safe-haven. After the attack brought us to our knees, tribes joined tribes to unite, but it was almost too late. We were almost hunted to extinction. That was the hybrids’ goal, to annihilate us. The human female was right. The hybrids wanted us dead. We were a threat. We could think. We were the last humans to stand in their way of owning the entire planet.
“Then something changed. It was the first time I met DaV-nin, a new leader of the hybrids. He was the only hybrid who wanted to speak to me. Hybrids are so dangerous because of their accelerated growth. They are adult by the end of their first year. The first time we were raided by the hybrids after the human came, the hybrids promised a truce. My people were spared. They would leave my people and the people of the other tribes alone as long as we gave them a human quota.”
“Didn’t you question why?”
“No,” he shouted and jumped to his feet. “Yes,” quieter. “But it was the first time since my father’s demise I saw hope. As long as we meet the hybrids’ needs we are left alone.”
Doom sat, he buried his face in his hands, then lowered them. The tortured glance he cast in her direction told her his pain.
“Our number is so little on this planet. Perhaps a few thousand of us. Some I think are hiding out there. It seems every year the quota gets bigger. Some of our people can’t make the number and the hybrids take our people.”
Clarity’s mind was racing. “They went from wanting your people dead to trading with them. They must need you. Maybe to keep the humans alive for a certain period. Or to capture humans. The hybrids are scary as shit; I sure wouldn’t go near them. Mixing with a human from Earth might have caused a change. Depending on how fast the hybrids grow it might even be DaV-nin was a product of the first Earth human. The offspring might have been more intelligent, enough to trigger the idea in the hybrid. The more humans they captured the smarter they would become. Even a hundred years ago humans were learning in leaps and bounds, now with the intelligence today. My God.”
“What?”
“In the last fifty years we have moved well into space travel. What if the hybrids know this? What if that’s their goal. If the hybrids are multiplying, it means they will need a new source of knowledge, space, food. Eventually your people and humans won’t be enough. Do they breed with their own? Breeding with humans seems so farfetched. Even if their internal skeletal structure is close to human, the outer dinosaur hybrid is too big.”
“After the first human was taken we noticed a drop in hybrid females. I’ve come across the little corpses as though they were crushed after birth. Why they would kill their own is baffling.”
“It’s scary as shit. If they feel their females are inferior for some reason, this isn’t good. A mass army of killer males. Or maybe only males are compatible, or maybe there isn’t enough of the humans for all, and they have selected their females for extinction. What kind of species has no compassion for their own?”
Clarity had to stop the annihilation. The ‘what if’s’ were endless. If the hybrids wanted to branch out and head to Earth, they might have figured out bombs and ways to use other weapons. If a single hybrid could somehow mate a human female to produce offspring, the sce
narios were endless. But what did they need human males for? For a second, the idea of a hybrid eating the human brain to absorb knowledge made her want to gag.
“Do you ever find the humans’ remains?”
“No.”
“How many offspring do the hybrids have at a time?”
“Three. I came across an enclosed nest once. They had burrowed their way out. The little ones were small, the female crushed, the two males were already deadly though waist high. I’m not sure if it was the siblings or an adult who killed the female offspring. I barely escaped with my life. A grown hybrid had come to collect them and called them off. It’s death to harm a hybrid.”
“What happens to the humans you collect?”
“They go home.”
“Damn you, you better tell me or so help me I’ll shove this taser up your ass.”
“I don’t know. I saw no trace. There is never any trace. After they are released, we never see them again. Maybe they do eventually find a way home.”
“You send them to their death and you don’t know?” Clarity was outraged.
Doom stood and spread his hands wide. “They die, they go home. They will go home. I will take every last soul with me and set them free. I swear. Can you not see I speak the truth, how can you not see what’s in front of you?”
He spread his arms wide. Scowling Clarity stood to study the tattoos. They were no ordinary markings. Each line, each face was personal. Symbols of intricate articles were carved in his flesh. He was beautiful, and frightening. Clarity was beginning to understand what those tattoos represented.
“Who draws those on you?”
“I don’t know. After the humans began being sacrificed, the images appeared. I carry the mark of each individual and when I die, they will walk with me and be free.”
“What do you do with the humans?”
“I don’t hurt them in any way. We all walk into the forest.”
Clarity's Doom (Ancient Origins Book 1) Page 7
