Awakening the Mare (Fall of Man Book 1)

by Jacqueline Druga

  My eyes rolled to the back of my head and I passed out again.

  This time, I dreamt.

  It was a weird dream that started out with the feeling that the floater was spinning, as if it were going down a funnel. In the dream the floater threw me to the sky, through a series of bright lights, and I landed at my home.

  Just outside the sitting room window, I saw my mother inside, pacing, lit by a single lantern. It seemed so real, but it was only a dream. I knew it was a dream, especially when I absorbed through the walls and stood right by her. Her arms were clasped tightly to her body, and I couldn’t decipher the look on her face. Worry? Fear?

  Then again, my mother’s fate was unknown. Surely, with what transpired in the town square between Nito and I, my mother had been taken.

  There was knock on the door, it opened, and Iry walked inside. He peeked out of the windows and closed the curtain.

  “Anything?” my mother asked him.

  “They weren’t able to get her.”

  My mother sighed heavily.

  “You and Sophie will be fine, but it won’t be long before they use you as a bargaining tool to get her to come back.”

  “Then what?” she asked. “Will they kill her?”

  “It depends who takes her.”

  “Iry, tell me you’ll do it. Tell me.”

  “I’ll try. She has to return to be chosen. Otherwise, if they get her outside the Straits, she is free game.”

  Slowly my mother’s head lowered and her hands went to her face.

  It was an odd dream, very realistic. Especially when Iry looked directly at me.

  It startled me, and then there was a single knock on the door.

  “Wake up, Vala,” Iry said.

  Another knock.

  “You are safe for now. Find refuge. I’ll come for you. This way is best.”

  Knock.

  “Wake up.”

  I opened my eyes, immediately shielding them from the bright sunlight.

  The knocking was slow and continuous, and I noticed the float jolted with each knock. I must have drifted up against something.

  My entire body ached, especially my arm. With the sun beating on me, I would think I would be warm, but I wasn’t. My body shivered with chills.

  The floater hit again.

  “Hey, you alive?”

  I jumped at the sound of the male voice. Quickly I turned my body, my muscles were sore and hurt with every move. The poison had worn off. Sort of. My head still pounded and throbbed.

  His face was young, possibly around my age. He was thin, but it was hard to tell how tall because he crouched at the end of a wooden pier.

  His brown hair wasn’t long like the males in my community, it was shorter, as if he defied the laws and cut it.

  “Man,” he said, “you look like crap. You okay?”

  “Man? I am female, can you not tell?”

  He laughed and extended his hand. “Here.”

  I sat up. “What?”

  “Take it.”

  I looked at his empty palm.

  “Take it,” he repeated with insistence.

  “I don’t know what you are offering or if it is something I cannot see, but what is it I am suppose to take from your hand?”

  Again, he laughed. “Funny. No, grab my hand. I’ll help you out. I won’t bite.”

  I gasped. “I certainly hope not.” I knew by his appearance he wasn’t a Sybaris. Why would he mention biting me, though? Unless humans in the west did bite.

  “You gonna let me help you?”

  He talked strange.

  “Yes.” I looked at his hand. “But I cannot touch you.”

  “Why? You sick?”

  “I was hit with an arrow that had poison.”

  “I don’t think it's contagious, but that does suck.” He reached down and grabbed my arm.

  I screamed.

  “What? What?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “You are male. We are not properly courted. You touched me.”

  “Oh my God, you’re one of them chicks. Seriously, those laws don’t apply over here. Please let me help you out of that boat. You look really bad.” Again, he held out his hand. “Let me help you.”

  Reluctantly, and with some fear of repercussion, I accepted his help from the float. As I made my way to the pier, my legs were weak and they buckled under me.

  He removed a strapped canteen from his shoulder. “You lips are really dry. Have a drink.”

  “What is it?”

  “Um… water?”

  “You talk funny.”

  “No, you talk funny. Drink.”

  I took a drink. It was cool, but as soon as my mouth registered it, it tasted funny and it made me cough.

  He lifted my arm. “You’re hurt.”

  The back of his hand went to my forehead. I gasped. I was so shocked by his boldness, I could barely move.

  “Plus you feel fevered.”

  I inched back.

  “Why do you do get scared when I touch you?”

  “Because you are male.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “It’s just….” I took another drink and forced myself to swallow. “Never mind. How did you find me?”

  “It was our day,” he said. “Every couple of days a group comes out here to check. Since we had a few people from Esperanza escape, our leader wants to make sure we check often. If you crossed the sea, you probably don’t know.”

  “Know what?” I asked.

  “A lot of things.”

  “So there are others. Any from Akana?”

  He made this groan sound, as if he was searching for words, and tilted his head. “Not sure. You’re actually the first girl I’ve met from the Netherlands. The few that came before you, they kept them separate until they normalized.”

  “I am very normal.”

  “Hmm. I bet. Well, you also seem very ill. At least look it. How are you feeling?”

  “Tired, yet, I slept. Unwell, if that makes sense.”

  “Yeah, it does. They hit you with one of their tainted arrows. Can I take you to camp? Have you checked out? We don’t want to waste daylight hours. Then we’ll take you to AC.”

  “AC?” I asked.

  “Angeles City. That’s why you crossed right? You wanted to get there?”

  “I was being chased out. I was fleeing for my life.”

  “Seriously?” he asked. “Usually people leave. Wow, you must have done something.”

  “I vomited on Nito.”

  “Wow, must have been some vicious upchuck for them to hunt you down.”

  “It burned her.”

  “Cool.”

  Cool? He was confused. Burning was hot. It was going to take me some time to learn the way he spoke and fully understand.

  I asked. “How far is the camp?”

  “Just a few miles. You’ll be safe, I promise. You need someone to check you out, make sure you’re okay, look at that arm. You lost some blood.”

  “It went into me.”

  “Obviously. The car’s over here.”

  We walked for a few feet and then I noticed the vehicle. I stopped.

  “What’s wrong now?” he asked.

  “You have a vehicle of the Sybaris.”

  “No, the Sybaris drive our vehicles. They learned the new fuel source from us. Sometimes it smells bad, and makes the cars loud. It’s not like they said it was in the old days, but it gets us back and forth.”

  “The old days, meaning, before the event? Like 1988.”

  “Yep.”

  “Yep?”

  “Yep.” He opened the door for me. “Get in.”

  “It is safe?”

  “Very. And so am I.” He faced me and held out his hand. “Tanner.”

  “No. I am still in school.”

  He smiled. “What?”

  “You asked if I were a tanner.”

  “No,” he laughed. “Tanner is my name.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. My na
me is Vala.” I slipped inside onto the cloth seat, it was warm and comfortable.

  “That’s a great name. Vala.”

  “Thank you.”

  “It means, the Chosen. But I’m sure you knew that.” He closed the door.

  Chosen.

  Actually, I didn’t know that. And as Tanner got into the vehicle, I realized he was right. Like he said earlier, there was a lot I didn’t know, and I was certain I was about to find out.

  14. Car Contraption

  As odd as it was, riding in the motorized vehicle frightened me. It scared me more than being chased by the Sybaris, because when I rode Casey, I was in control, mostly. But the vehicle seemed to move Tanner.

  Yes, he turned the circular object in front of him, but there was a pull to it that was hard to describe. I was surprised that he wanted to ride in something that the Sybaris used frequently.

  “It’s called a car,” he said.

  “A… car. Is that an abbreviated word, like mom to mother?”

  “I really don’t know.” He shrugged. “And another thing, when the Sybaris walked this Earth thousands of years ago, there were no cars. Man invented them.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  “How are you handling it? You’re holding on to the door handle for dear life.”

  “I don’t want it to stop and me eject forward.”

  Tanner laughed.

  “What do you always laugh?”

  “You’re funny. Maybe not on purpose and maybe it’s rude of me—”

  “It is.”

  “Okay.” He lifted his hand from the round turning thing. “I’ll stop.”

  “Please keep your hand on that object.”

  “Got it,” he said. “I’d play you some tunes, but it drains the car.”

  I only nodded. Play me some tunes? I assumed that was some sort of game, and I was grateful he chose not to, because I wanted his attention on the car contraption.

  “Can I tell you something?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You are going to laugh at this one day. Look back, maybe even in a month, and laugh about how odd everything seemed to you.”

  “Would you not be scared if you came to Akana?”

  “Freaked out, maybe.”

  “Explain what you mean when you say freaked out.”

  Tanner shrugged. “Um… I guess it means that it makes you feel weird, sort of like you feel right now.”

  “Why? You have not been there,”

  “True,” he said. “I’ve heard stories though, like you were told about this side of Esperanza. I hear you guys all dress alike, look alike, act alike, and anything to do with man before the Sybaris took over is purely forbidden. They teach you nothing about your history?”

  “Mildly.”

  “See?”

  “I know plenty about Man’s history, I have read forbidden material.”

  “Then why did you stay there?” he asked.

  “For my mother and my sister. I always knew I was destined to leave. What do you know about the Sybaris?”

  “A lot more than you. Because you’re shielded about them.”

  “They hide the ugly truth,” I said. “Problem is, I can only speculate.”

  “Not anymore. I or anyone else that is older can answer your questions.”

  “Good. My mother took me from Angeles City when I was five, so I don’t have much to go on.”

  “Five? So you have memories?”

  “I do.” I nodded.

  “Things have changed, you know.”

  Hearing this surprised me. “For the better or worse?”

  “I’d say the better, because we learned. For example, there’s a whole slew of kids who don’t talk because their vocal chords were cut so they didn’t cry or make noise as babies. We don’t do that anymore because we learned better how to protect ourselves."

  “That is sad that they cannot speak.”

  “They learned to communicate.”

  “If you learned so much,” I asked, “why haven’t you defeated the Sybaris yet?”

  “We aren’t ready, we need more information, I don’t know. I’m only a worker and a warrior. You’ll have to ask our leaders, and believe me, they will want to talk to you.”

  “Because I am from Akana?”

  “That, and you have information.”

  “I don’t think I have any information that you don’t have.”

  “Trust me, you lived there. You have more information than you realize.”

  Finally the car stopped and we pulled in front of a rundown building. A single story building, built of wood, much like our homes, only this one was old and weather beaten, with weeds growing up to the windows. There was a porch hidden beneath the foliage, and the faded sign on the top of it said, “Fred's Bait Shop”.

  Tanner turned off the vehicle and opened the door. “We’re here. Our camp.”

  “Somehow, this is not what I envisioned as a camp.”

  “It can’t be, not really. If it looked like a camp then it wouldn’t be safe. Not all the way out here. Once I get you in, I’ll hide the car.” He walked around to my side of the car and opened the door.

  I swung out my legs nervously, still holding tight to my bags.

  “Do you need help?” he asked.

  “No. I am fine. I’ll walk.”

  As soon as I stood, my head grew dizzy. The building not fifty paces before me swam out of focus and my body swayed.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I can do this.”

  I moved slowly, because with each step I was fearful I would fall. But I was determined to make it to the building and do so on my own. I didn’t want Tanner to think I was weak, or promiscuous, because I kept allowing him to touch me.

  15. Camp

  There was such a beautiful wisdom about Marie’s face that I was in awe of her while she tended to me. I had never been close to or encountered anyone who had aged to the point where she was. She had soft embedded lines around her eyes, her forehead was creased, and even the skin on her neck was slightly loose. Silver and brown hair danced around her face. Her eyes sparkled blue and every time she connected them to me, I felt it.

  She was full of life, which she had accumulated for many years.

  “You alright, little one?” she asked.

  “Yes, Ma’am I am,” I replied, tilting my head to look at her.

  “Your pulse is a little rapid and you are fevered. I need to suture your wound, but want to give you some medicine to fight off the poison first.”

  “It didn’t kill me, so I’m fine.”

  She smiled gently, brushing my hair from my eyes. “It’s in your system. You can get very sick. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.” She grabbed hold of my sleeve and ripped it off.

  I gasped. “My bare skin!”

  “It’s fine. You’ll need to change those clothes and I want to wipe you down.”

  “I can bathe myself.”

  “Alright, but I’ll stay by you. I don’t want you passing out.”

  “Are you a medicine woman? Doctor?” I asked.

  “Medicine woman, sort of,” she said. “I’m a nurse and have been since before the world went to pot. Hold on, this will sting.”

  She rinsed my arm with water and it did sting, but not as much as when she placed a solution on my wound.

  “Give it a minute,” she said. “It will numb it enough for me to repair it.”

  “How old are you?” I asked.

  “I’m sixty-four.”

  My mouth opened in my shock.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I have never been this close to someone your age.”

  “You don’t have older people in your town?”

  I shook my head. “The age of fifty is considered ripened. We are not allowed near anyone of that age. Then they take them, they say, to live good lives in the Ancient city. I think they become feed for—” Realizing my words, I stopped. “I’m sorry.”


  A guard, an older man as well, sat across the room. He was quiet at first, then spoke up when I talked about Elders in our town. “They probably don’t want you talking to the older ones because they know how this world used to be.”

  “Oh, Snake. Stop,” Marie said.

  I screamed and jumped up.

  “What?” Marie asked. “What is it?”

  “Snake! Where?”

  She laughed warmly. “That’s his name. There’s no snake. Sit down.”

  Tanner laughed at me as well. “She’s a funny one.”

  “Boy,” Marie said, “go hide that car before sundown. Also hit the well for more water and get things heated before we have to buckle down. Make yourself useful. Go.”

  “Yeah, go,” Snake repeated.

  “Man,” Tanner said, shaking his head. “I get no respect.”

  After the door shut, I asked, “Why does he demand respect from you? You are his Elders.”

  Marie winked. “He’s joking. You’ll learn a little something called sarcasm.”

  “Sarcasm?"

  She nodded. “We’ll will fix this, hook you up with medication, and once you change and clean up, we’ll eat.”

  I trusted Marie. There was something about her I found comforting. “Are we staying here for the evening?”

  “Yes. It’s not worth a chance of running into the Savages. They come out at night.”

  “Only at night?”

  “Yes. We’ll be safe here. This place tightens down.”

  I didn’t know what she meant by that, but again, I trusted her. Fred’s Bait Shop looked run down from the outside, but obviously that was a cover. It looked like they used the building often.

  Inside, it was clean, and all the walls were metal. There was even metal coverings that looked as if they went over the windows. They probably did, to protect whoever was inside from the Sybaris.

  There was a cooking area, and sleeping quarters that were sectioned off. I was in the corner, which was set up for medical care.

  Snake rocked back and forth in a chair, a huge gun laying across his lap. I tried not to look over at him much out of respect. His shirt didn’t have sleeves and he wore short pants that exposed his hairy legs. It may have been something Marie was used to, but not to me. I had never seen a man expose that much of his skin before. It was unsettling.

  My mind was still reeling over all that had occurred. I was worried about my mother and my sister. I wanted to help them, and I knew the best way to do that was to keep going to Angeles City. To fight for a better life for them. That was what I always dreamt of doing, and now as I sat in a camp hidden in Fred’s Bait Shop, I was one step closer.