Awakening the Mare (Fall of Man Book 1)

by Jacqueline Druga

  I actually tried to stomp my foot like a pouting child, but it was useless in the sand. “No. My former educator.”

  “Let’s sit, Vala.” Davis led me near the wall where we took a seat on the stairs. “You have brought this man up before.”

  “He is not a man, he is a Civilized Sybaris.”

  Davis cocked back. “And he knows for sure you’re a Mare?”

  “He told me about things. Said I was a blessing for some, a curse for others. He must have meant I was a curse for man.”

  “No.” Davis shook his head. “Far from it. You are a curse to them. What you did to the Savage was unbelievable.”

  “Iry said I can make things happen by feeling it or thinking it.”

  “I’ve heard that as well.”

  “What if I get angry and hurt someone that isn’t bad? Like Tanner?”

  “Well, I can see Tanner pushing those buttons.”

  I gasped.

  “I’m joking. Yes, it is a risk, but it is something you have to work on. Just like the other parts.”

  “Other parts?”

  “When you were a little girl and the Savages would come, you’d close your eyes and cover your ears. That created an invisibility about you. We have to work on making that happen without covering your eyes. The weapon portion, another part. The transporting can be a big thing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “One of the abilities that we are certain of is an out of body experience in which the Mare can travel anywhere, by direction of the mind. You have to have been there, though, I remember being told that.”

  “So if I trained, then I could go to the sea and look for people instead of you sending Tanner and Marie out?”

  “Conceivably.”

  “How do you know so much about Mares?”

  “Because we had one for the longest time. Problem was, she was quite older and couldn’t do much more than mental work. She was the one who blessed you with the gift, and hoped one day you’d come back.”

  “I did. Sadly, I have missed her.”

  “I have people going through the library and her notes. We’ll piece it together. For now, things are calm. You should try to rest.”

  “My heart still races and I feel as if I am being shunned.”

  “Nah, people are just a little taken back. They’ll be fine.”

  “Will I see Tanner?”

  “Probably not. He’s on cleanup. Body burning. You’ll see him tomorrow.”

  I stood and prepared to walk to my area and fire pit. I paused and looked back. “Davis, you were playing music. You were even leading it. You are very good.”

  “Thank you, Vala. I should hope. When the world ended, I was topping the country charts.”

  I smiled awkwardly. Not having a clue what ‘topping the charts’ meant, I took it as an accomplishment because Davis stated it with such pride.

  Rest was not easy. My body felt as if my blood was still pumping at full speed. I lay there listening to the ocean and the absorbing the sound it made. I could feel the pull of it, even with my eyes closed.

  Then it happened again.

  A state of sleep, yet in a realization of what was happening.

  My mind knew my body was sleeping, yet I was aware of all that was going on. Aware that I felt pulled at my center core. Physically, I felt as if I were spinning.

  Spinning. Spinning.

  Release.

  I’d experienced it before, two nights earlier when I was floating on the sea. Perhaps it was the water. Whatever the case, I was filled with the sensation of flying. Moving fast, I soared through the night sky, flashes of light hitting my eyes. A part of me feared I had died, because when I turned from the flashing lights, I found the ground far below me.

  I was being pulled, and that was the only thing I could think of to describe it. I had no direction whatsoever, lassoed by an invisible rope and quickly reeled in.

  Over the fields, the mountains, the desert until finally… I ascended on Akana.

  It was night and the village was dark, except for my home.

  I knew the reason for that. My poor mother was sick with worry over me, and could not sleep. She was probably pacing the floors, sobbing.

  Was it a lucid dream, or had I traveled some way to Akana? Traveling like Davis said, using the ability I had as a Mare.

  I landed behind my home and used the back entrance to get in.

  The eating area was dark and the light came from the living room. To get there I had to pass my own room, and I paused.

  Even though it was only a couple days, I missed my little sister Sophie and I stepped into the bedroom. Seeing she was sound asleep, I walked to her bed. The thin cover had dropped halfway down and I reached for it.

  My hand was translucent. I could see the blood pumping, but it did not look like blood, it was illuminated. Streaks of light pulsated through my veins. I reached for the covers and brought them to her shoulders.

  Sophie groaned and rolled over, her eyes opened slightly.

  “Vala?” she said groggily.

  “Shh, Sophie, I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too.”

  “Go back to sleep. You are dreaming.” I leaned down to her and placed my lips gently to her forehead. Sophie rolled to her other side.

  I stood completely, then went to check on my mother. I heard voices. I recognized my mother’s but not the other voice.

  I walked the narrow hall that led to the living room. My mother sat in a chair and beside her, kneeling, was a woman. The woman had long, thick, curly auburn hair and a beautiful face. She smiled at my mother, then removed a tube from her arm.

  She was taking my mother’s blood.

  “You are very gentle, Nezil,” my mother said. “The woman last night was tough.”

  “I have been doing this for a while.” She stood and smiled again. “I’ll make sure they get this.”

  “Please tell Nito for me.”

  “I will,” Nezil said. “She knows.”

  In a flash of anger, I knew Nito was taking my mother’s blood. A tradeoff of some kind to keep my mother and sister safe. All because of me.

  Nezil placed the tube in her satchel. She then pulled out a small velvet sack and placed it in my mother’s hand. “Nito says she placed extra in here to buy your little one the best dress when the dressmakers come to town.”

  “Thank you. I will. Not much longer and I will not have to do this. Give Nito my thanks, and please tell her, I will deliver Vala.”

  No.

  No.

  I backed up. It was a dream. It had to be a dream. My mother was selling her blood to Nito with the promise of giving me to her?

  There was no way. My mind was playing tricks. The dream was a nightmare. I spun, raced down the hall and out the back door.

  Just as I stepped out into the cool night air, Nito appeared.

  She stood before me with a wicked smile. “Wake up, Mare. I am coming for you soon.”

  With a feeling of falling a hundred feet and a hard thump to my chest, I sprang awake and sat up, out of breath.

  The sky was getting light. My fire had dwindled to a smolder and the beach was quiet.

  The ocean had moved closer and the temperature had dropped. My body shook from the chill and from the dream.

  Grabbing the blanket, I pulled it around my shoulders. I was awake now and falling back to sleep was not an option.

  Something about the dream shook me to my core. I kept telling myself it was not real. It couldn’t be.

  26. Knowing

  In the morning, everyone was responsible for cleaning their area and fixing the fire pit for the next beach night. I had not seen Tanner and was worried that I would not. When I was finished cleaning my area, I waited by the stairs while Davis took command of all that was going on.

  Finally, Tanner appeared. He offered me a cup of hot brown substance, and a plate of eggs. He gave me both with a tired smile.

  I accepted them gratefully.


  “You did not sleep?” I asked him.

  “No, I was on watch after clean up. You did, though.”

  “You watched me sleep?”

  “No, that’s creepy. I checked on you. Did you sleep alright?”

  I shook my head. “My dreams were bad. They depressed me.”

  “I’m sorry. The good thing is, they’re only dreams, right?”

  “Right.”

  “You have a busy day.”

  “I do?”

  “Yep. You get to go to the museum and then you go into the bunker for your deprogramming.”

  “Tanner, you, Davis, Marie, and Snake are all I know. Please tell me I will see you when I am in this deprogramming.”

  “Do you want to?”

  “Yes.” I nodded, enjoying the food he brought. The drink was bitter, but I did not want to shadow his generosity by showing my distaste for it.

  “Then I’ll find a way. For now, I’ll leave you with Davis and I have to get some sleep.”

  “Please do. You have Sybaris eyes.”

  “I have what?”

  “Darkness under your eyes.”

  “Oh, yeah. Lack of sleep does that to you.”

  Tanner stayed with me until I finished eating. He talked about cleaning up the dead Savage Sybaris and then how he would go to his field job after he had gotten some sleep. He also spoke of training to be a soldier. He spoke so highly of being a soldier that a part of me longed to do that as well.

  However, as it was explained to me, I had a lot to do first.

  I was curious and nervous about the bunker. I was also excited about the museum. I had heard of them, but never saw one.

  Davis came for me after I had finished eating and took me to a horse drawn carriage. There was a sense of familiarity about the carriage and I took comfort in that. It was just he and I and we rode the overgrown streets of Angeles City for nearly one half hour, arriving at a building that was long and huge.

  The front had an arched entranceway, and like everything else, was overgrown with vines.

  “Last stop.” Davis reached to the back of the carriage and pulled out a large sack. “This is your new wardrobe and belongings. Your bunker teachers will help you with them.”

  “This is the bunker?”

  “No, this is the museum of man’s history. The bunker is under this.”

  He stepped from the carriage, secured the horses, then helped me down. I placed both my own bag and the new one over my shoulders and followed him up the path to the building.

  The sign by the door clearly read ‘Museum’ but over the previous name, written in red ink was the word ‘Man’s’.

  Man’s Museum.

  “It’s quite awesome in here,” Davis said. “People come here all the time.”

  “Even though they know man’s history?”

  “Absolutely. We like to be reminded.” He led me to the double doors. “Don’t let the outside fool you.” Davis reached for the door. “We take great care in preserving what was here, but we also added our own new division. Things we’ve collected and added. Come on.” He opened the door.

  The sunlight streaked through the windows, adding a warm feeling to the wooden and marble interior. Stepping down the small staircase, I was immediately greeted with a huge sign. On the left side of it was a picture of a man. He wore dark clothing, a vest, jacket, and a tie like most Sybaris wore. His legs were crossed and he had a studious look about him.

  “T.S. Eliot,” Davis said. “A great writer and poet. We thought he would be fitting for this exhibit. We call this the T.S. Eliot wing.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of a poem he wrote,” Davis said. “This is part of it. It’s called, The Hollow Man. You can read the whole piece inside.”

  This is the way the world ends

  This is the way the world ends

  This is the way the world ends

  Not with a bang, but a whimper.

  The words were strong and sobering. I read them out loud, the last of which rolled from my tongue in a whisper. “Not with a bang, but a whimper.”

  “How true that is.”

  “I thought this was a museum about man’s history. Is it not?”

  “It is,” Davis said. “Man makes history every day. This place will tell you about how we lived. And sadly, you are also about to learn how we ended.”

  We were alone in the building and Davis’ voice echoed against the hollow and somber walls of the museum. I felt humbled and ready to absorb all that I could. With an open mind and heavy heart, I followed Davis.

  27. Hollow Man

  It was bigger than I, round, and beautiful. Davis called it a globe. I had never seen one and once he told me exactly what it was, I could not stop looking.

  “This is our world.”

  “It is huge,” I replied.

  “Yeah, it is. And all of this....” he motioned about the globe, “had people at one time. Do you see now why I hold out hope that there are others?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “We are just a speck.” He moved the globe and pointed to Angeles City, in a land labeled ‘California’. “This is where we are.” He turned the globe. “This is where the Sybaris are said to have originated and ruled at one time. And this…” he spun the globe a little, “is where the end began.”

  “India.”

  “One point three billion people. Roughly one thousand people per square mile. To give you a comparison, the United States averaged eighty-five people per square mile.”

  “So the people in India were crowded.”

  “Very. Not as crowded as areas of China. But crowded enough that a bacteria, unable to be stopped by modern medicine, spread like wildfire. It started as a fever and then BAM… it was everywhere.”

  He took me by my arm and led me down a hall. On the walls were large images with words encased in glass. “These are old newspapers we are preserving them. This is the first of them.”

  I looked at the images. Bold wording saying ‘Virus!’, ‘Millions dead!’ Images of crying people wearing masks. One image was of soldier standing near a pile of burning bodies.

  “The beginning,” he explained. “And then…” he stepped further down.

  China Closes border.

  “It hit the next country,” I said in dawning realization. “You mentioned that one as being crowded.”

  “You got it. This was about six months before everything went insane. The bacteria was being pretty much contained to overseas. Really taking its toll. We had the means to travel by air. But all of that was shut down so no one over there could make it here with the sickness.”

  “Then how did we as a country fall?”

  “War. Don’t get me wrong. It hit here, on the East Coast. Scientists were battling every day to find a cure for this thing. People got angry.”

  Davis was pointing to different newspapers and images as we walked.

  “Accusations were leveled, then fights broke out. The Westward Movement started and people headed out here from the east. There were some nuclear exchanges. Personally, I feel war was a cover-up for the attempt to burn it out.”

  “I do not understand ‘nuclear exchange’.”

  “Bombs of fire with power like you couldn’t imagine.”

  Halfway down the hall the images stopped. replaced with photographs and written word on paper. “Where are the… newspapers?”

  “The world ground to a halt. All of these papers are firsthand testimonies from people all over the country that witnessed the world end. That witnessed…the rise of the Sybaris.”

  “It is all here?”

  “Yes. You’ll be in this building for a while, so you can come up and read all of these whenever you want.”

  “You have an entire process for me.”

  “We do. And I think you’ll like it.” He led me to a door.

  “Are we leaving this part?” I asked.

  “Yes, like I said though, you can come back. This here is the end. We need
to start at the beginning.”

  We turned a bend and walked into a huge open hall. In it was a giant but still monster. Its head was huge, teeth large, and he was in skeleton form.

  I shrieked at the sight of it.

  “Welcome to the beginning,” Davis said. “To the world of dinosaurs.”

  28. The First Step

  We moved through the museum at a fast pace. Davis explained a lot and it was speed learning. There was no way I was to take it all in. It seemed as if a part of him thought I knew all of which he spoke of. I did not. I had no idea who the Native American Indians were, or that there was something called ‘snow’ and people survived in that. I did not see how that was possible. Temperatures so cold that water freezes, and some falls like a dust from the sky. It was incomprehensible.

  I hoped to never see snow in my lifetime.

  There was so much for me to learn, thousands of years of history was marked in images and statues. I could see myself spending a lot of time here in this museum.

  There was one section that struck me as familiar, as if I knew it under different names. The look of the people, and the way they dressed.

  It was so familiar to me with the history I had learned of the Ancients, that I had to ask Davis.

  “Were the Pharaohs the original Sybaris?” I asked.

  “There is speculation but no one knows for sure. Why?”

  “Because they look like the Civilized Ancients. The hair, the body decorations, the paint on the faces, all but the way they dress.”

  “Well, no one can say for certain. Again, speculation. Some say the Pharaohs were the Sybaris and the Israelites were the humans. There are so many different theories on it that no one knows for sure.”

  “Israelites. I really would love to know that side of the story.”

  “You can.” Davis reached for the bag he had given me and slid it from my shoulder. He opened it. “We have a counsel and they voted that this book be included in the deprogramming process. Some believe in it, some don’t. Overall, it really shows how people act and react and it has some good advice.” He handed me the thick book.