by Jim Spencer
It jerked on the spot many times as a mass of spears struck it. Some going through, some simply bruising it. Eventually, it stood on the spot, dead from its wounds. Hanging at a slight thirty-degree angle, it was being held up by the first spear that went through it, with blood pouring down the head. It seemed somewhat plastic and unreal in the surroundings. Just then, the morning sun came up, and shun the beast in a great shadow. A gloomy figure was lit up by the fire of sunlight, creating a surreal image in his mind which he knew he would not forget anytime soon.
As he stood there, still perplexed, the slender woman, who was quite beautiful, came up to him and introduced herself.
‘Greetings to you. I am Sana Kene, daughter of Ruto Kene. Who may you be?’
He stood there, perplexed for a moment or so, unsure what to say, or to comment on what he had seen. It was a miracle that he had not been scratched. She seemed to take this in an unusual manner, as she smiled at him before saying,
‘I’m not sure you’re used to standard accustoms. But when someone greets you, you should greet them back.’
Only then he realised that his mouth was wide open. He must have seemed hysterical to her. He composed himself, before finally saying,
‘I’m sorry. I’ve never seen that before. The way you killed that beast.’
‘It was savage and would have done worse to you. Besides, your friends would have been too late to help you,’ she pointed behind them. Looking back, he saw Cordell and the others with their weapons on the ground and hands up. Other tribesmen were stood behind them with spears. Where they had come from, he would never know. He turned around to this woman, who was called Sana, and formally introduced himself.
‘My name is Arion, son of Sanion,’ he was careful to pronounce it correctly to try and impress her, though why he did this, he couldn’t answer.
‘Sanion, that’s an old tribesperson’s name. of our ancestors. Were you from here originally?’
‘My father, no. My great grandfather migrated to what is now civil country.’
‘Hardly. Anyway, what brings you here?’
‘Peace.’
‘Peace,’ she repeated.
‘Yes, well a truce. We oppose what civil country is doing and want to help.’
‘We’ll see about that. Bring them all back to father,’ she ordered. They made their way to the first district of tribe country. To what end, he did not yet know.
Chapter 12
He noticed a simple signpost, which read 175. When asked, the lady mentioned it was actually closer to 375.
‘Why haven’t you changed it then?’ he asked, somewhat in disbelief.
‘I think we have more pressing matters at hand, Mr Arion.’
‘Yes, of course. Living in the open, survival.’
‘You seemed to have ‘read’ a lot about us.’
‘I’m sorry. It’s just… I’ve never met anyone from Tribe country before,’ he resisted with great difficulty to finish that with ‘anyone as beautiful’.
There were tents out in the open running for about 2 miles from what Arion could tell. The others marvelled their astonishment. Not so much at the outdoors, more at the living conditions. Though Cordell seemed to be talking to the locals in some sort of foreign tongue he hadn’t heard before. He stepped backwards, trying his best not to gaze at the woman from behind and asked Cordell what that was.
‘That was Arabic.’
‘You can speak that?’
‘Only enough to converse. Turns out, this guy remembers me from a few years back.’
‘Really? What did you do?’
‘I saved his life. We might be able to negotiate. If we’re going to meet her father, let me come in with you.’
‘Sure,’ although, in all fairness, he was unsure how he was supposed to negotiate without him.
*
They waited outside of a tent that was larger than the rest. It had some minor decoration on the outskirts. He called it that, for he didn’t what else to say of it. There were scales and skinned animals adorning the outside on each corner. Some were hanging off the edge of large sticks. To what end, he didn’t know. He figured he could open with that question. It would certainly help as an ice breaker. The woman came out and asked both Arion and Cordell to come inside. They came in and Sana closed the entrance behind them, staying inside, possibly to watch and learn.
He half wished he could do that. The man who stood in front of him was extremely stocky, with next to no fat. His shoulders extremely broad, with a well-chiselled body. The only thing that gave him away as an old man was the face, which was wrinkled, but not greatly. He had a tan on his skin which gave new meaning to taking in the sun. The most striking of his features were his eyes and hands. The eyes were very round with big eyelashes, unusually so. The brown eyes gazed back at him and seemed to peer into his soul, but there was a certain easiness to him, which made Arion feel at peace. He couldn’t explain why. His daughter had definitely inherited his eyes.
He noticed that his hands were about triple the thickness of Arion’s. he seemed to have endured great harshness in his lifetime, as his hands were somewhat more firm than they should be naturally. He figured this was due to scavenging all his life. He knew that if he ever decided to fight him physically, he would probably be dead within one hit. That would seem funny if it wasn’t so true. The man addressed Cordell first,
‘Welcome Cordell. I am aware of you.’
Cordell nodded his appreciation. He then directed his gaze towards Arion, who could only smile sheepishly as Ruto spoke,
‘Mr Arion, I hear your name is. I welcome you to Tribe country, village number 375.’
‘I am most humbled to be here, of course,’ he answered in what he felt was the politest he could address him. The old man smiled as he spoke to Arion again.
‘I think this is the first time you’ve come out into the real world.’
‘It is, yes,’ he answered honestly.
‘You must have many questions, some trivial, some insightful.l’
‘Mostly trivial, like what’s with the animal skins outside the tent?’
‘This is my home, young one, not a tent.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he realised his mistake just after he said it.
‘That’s ok. You are unaccustomed to our ways. The animal skins are there to mark our territory. The sticks are for warning and decoration.’
‘What about water?’
‘There’s enough in the ground. We dig where we can. We share.’
‘I guess the most obvious question is, how have you survived out here for so long?’
‘By sharing and understanding,’ he answered simply. He waited a moment. When Arion did not ask anything else, he spoke, ‘Why are you here specifically?’ He sat down as he said this and beckoned the other two to do the same. Arion was a little unsure how to do this and after a moment he simply sat on his knees upon a cloth. A mere moment later some people came into the tent and presented some stew. Arion thanked them and when they left asked what it was.
‘Wolf meat. Don’t worry, not the one that was killed.’
This didn’t make him any more comfortable. He forced himself to keep a straight face as he took a plate and wondered what to do next. He heard sniggering from behind and saw Sana laughing at him for knowing so little.
‘Come now Sana, it is unwise to laugh at our guests,’ her father spoke. She replied in her native tongue to which her father shrugged and beckoned her forward.
‘Here let me show you,’ she said in English.
‘How come you speak our language?’ Arion asked her.
‘Same reason why you are what you are. I enjoy learning.’ She put some food into his plate and showed him how to break the pieces of bread to eat the meat. As if to add insult to injury she took a couple of bites from his plate. He was somewhat distraught when he realised what she was doing and she begun to laugh out loud, to which her father rather hesitantly smiled as well. Cordell simply watched, enjoying the s
how. Once he finally had the plate under his grasp and away from her, her father spoke,
‘I say she likes you.’
Sana didn’t agree or disagree and Arion, though red in the face took this opportunity to explain why he was here. After a moment or two, Ruto asked him to bring one of the weapons inside. He didn’t appear serious, but he knew that this was a make or break moment. As he came back with the enhanced gun, Ruto was standing up talking to Cordell, who was possibly talking of his experiences so far.
‘I’ve just been telling him what’s been happening,’ he whispered to Arion, to which he nodded his appreciation.
‘You’ve had quite an experience young one,’ Ruto commented.
‘It hasn’t been easy.’
‘Hmm. Let me hold the weapon.’ Arion gave it to him without thinking twice. He held it as if he had always held a gun. He asked a couple of questions as to how it worked and Arion attempted to explain it in as easy a way as possible.
‘It was called The Higgs Boson at one point, but we’ve basically managed to control this element, which I renamed to the God Particle.’
‘A bold statement,’ Ruto exclaimed.
‘Well, the reason I say this is because the element is within every one of us and in every living thing. It influences all our decisions, though we still have the free will to go against it, so it makes sense. I simply found a way to manoeuvre it.’
‘Explain.’ Ruto asked.
‘Simply put it, I made it move in a different direction. I can only influence a small part of it, not all of it. of course. That’s impossible. No machine is big enough to be able to encompass the entire universe.’
‘I see. It certainly puts things in perspective,’ Ruto exclaimed, ‘What do you think, my dear?’ he asked his daughter, who had stayed silent the whole time.
‘I suppose it could be used for good, but I can see how it can influence bad as well. It proves one thing though, God exists.’
‘It does indeed, at least in an ethereal kind of way,’ Arion spoke, to which Ruto said,
‘We do not believe in ethereal. We believe it is ALL real.’
Arion apologised straight away as he realised he had unintentionally hit a nerve there. Ruto took it well enough and gave the weapon back to Arion.
‘Why bring it here?’ he asked Arion.
‘To help you.’
‘I know that, but why now? Why not stop the creation of this…weapon I suppose before it could be used on us?’
‘It was wrong to use it on humans.’
‘And it was not wrong to use it on animals?’
Arion was caught off guard there. Not quite knowing what to say he chose to somewhat shrug off the answer,
‘We believe all life is sacred, even ones that are not natural.’
‘Natural?’
‘The Wolf meat you ate.’
‘Wait a minute. They were discovered alive and well within the crater of the earth.’
‘Were they now? Or was that a story that Civil country told its children to hide the truth?’
‘What truth?’
‘That the Wolves were a form of genetic warfare.’
Arion looked at Ruto in disbelief,
‘Are you telling me that civil country created the Wolves by…what, cloning?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m telling you. And they fed you a lie by telling you a bedtime story.’
He scoffed as he heard this and looked at Cordell, who said,
‘This is news to me.’
‘It is, is it? Ok, tell me this then. How many history books still exist in your country?’
Neither one could answer that; for they knew that older history books had been disappearing over the past thirty years or so. In fact, Cordell was the most renounced historian in civil country right now.
‘Exactly,’ Ruto finished for them. They apologised once again for their lack of knowledge and Arion asked if he could learn of their culture.
‘You won’t be able to.’
‘Maybe I won’t, but my children might. And from there, maybe we can begin to rebuild our world.’
Ruto stood there for a moment, thinking before he finally answered,
‘You have a good mind, young one.’
‘Thank you. For now though, you need our help with these weapons.’
‘I am not risking open warfare,’ Ruto answered back, to which Arion replied,
‘It’s coming, one way or another.’ Ruto sat down again and sighed heavily. His broad shoulders literally shrunk as he breathed out, which would have seemed unusual if not for the circumstance,
‘I know,’ he finally answered, ‘It’s a shame that Civil Country and I don’t see eye to eye. They seem to like nothing but to rule.’
Cordell didn’t say anything to this, but he seemed clearly uncomfortable with that suggestion. Arion intervened before he could say anything,
‘I’m sure some are good.’
‘I know. But the ones in leadership…don’t help the rest.’
‘I’m sorry for that,’ Arion responded humbly. Ruto nodded and spoke,
‘You can stay in my tent for a few days. We’ll help the rest with furnishings as best as possible. Have you slept on the floor before?’
‘Er, not really.’
Ruto smiled as he spoke, ‘Well this is going to be a real culture shock for you.’
*
He awoke the next morning with a stiff neck and could barely move his back. After a couple of minutes of stretching, which Cordell showed him, he was able to get up. His eyes still felt heavy and he seemed to breathe a lot heavier.
‘Your nose needs a clean, that’s all.’ Ruto told him.
‘I’ve never had to clean my nose before.’
‘You’re not living in a test tube anymore, kid,’ They made their way to a wooden block, which was haphazardly shaped into a shell of sorts. Arion would learn later that the ‘manure’ was collected later in the day and combined with other elements to create gas. A natural resource, the people would tell him. It was one of the last things they had learned from civil country before leaving those parts.
‘We never left,’ Ruto corrected Arion later that day, ‘We were forced out.’
‘By who? Civil country? They wouldn’t do that/’
‘Don’t be so sure of that,’ Ruto answered, ‘Now show me how to use this weapon again.’
It was only the second time they had given out the weapons to everyone. Arion felt it would be best to show everyone in groups how to use the weapons. Since the people of tribe country were very much against weapons of any kind, it was proving difficult to train them as they mostly just walked away, angry at something or other. In the end, he had managed to get a couple dozen of them to agree to learn. It was in defense of their people, they would argue.
‘I don’t see how that is a bad thing, I told him. He just wouldn’t listen,’ Ruto told Arion later that evening.
‘I never intended to use it for bad, I must admit. I always meant it for mending.’
‘How could it mend?’ Ruto asked.
‘The particles work in the same way. I just reverse it and it mends cells.’
‘That sounds like the turritopsis nutricula.’
‘What, the ever-young jellyfish? Do they still exist?’
‘Yeah, in a river close by. One of the few left in the world.’
‘Wait, how do you know of that?’
‘We extract its cells occasionally to heal our people.’
‘You extract it? Using what?’
‘Technology, my lad. Mostly, a syringe.’
Ignoring the pun, Arion asked,
‘I thought Tribe country didn’t use technology.’
‘What kind of a stupid suggestion is that? Of course, we use technology.’
‘But that would mean…’
‘We’re the same as you? This might come as a shock to you, but we are humans.’
‘I never said you weren’t.’
‘I know, kiddo
. That is another thing that ‘Civil’ country has taught you.’
‘Ok, I’m confused now. If you use technology the same we do, then what is truly the difference between us?’
‘Nothing.’ Ruto answered, to Arion’s disappointment.
‘So why fight then?’ he pressed.
‘For the same reason all men fight. To gain power.’
‘That’s silly.’
‘I know, but it’s true. The real question is, where are you going to take that power when you die?’
Arion thought about this for a moment before saying,
‘Nowhere, I guess. I mean, pass it onto your kids, I suppose.’
‘Which doesn’t exactly make YOU powerful, it makes you a guardian of land.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Which begs the real question, what makes us different?’
‘I don’t know?’ Arion enquired.
‘Our belief in God.’
‘Oh come on.’
‘What’s the matter, don’t believe me?’
‘I’m a man of science.’
‘True enough, but that doesn’t mean you don’t believe in God. After all, this particle you found is called ‘God’ Particle. Besides you said yourself that it goes to show there is an entity.’
‘Yes, but I wouldn’t believe that an entity sent down these ‘revelations’, to make us believe in him.’
‘Why not? You barely understand the true complexities of the God particle. You can only control small fragments of it, not even a percentage. So what’s not to say that these things can’t happen? After all, it is in a realm that we don’t understand.’
Arion had no answer to this. They finished the remainder of his weapons training in silence.
Chapter 13
He sat down in silence, probably the first time he had done this in a couple of days. Arion looked around him, the tent was empty. For some reason, he felt empty. He couldn’t explain it, but his chest felt very heavy. It didn’t seem to hurt, just felt heavy. After a moment or two, without warning, tears began to flow from his face. Emotion overtook him as images of his dead father surfaced when he least expected them to. At that exact moment, someone walked in.
