by Greg Dragon
She was disappointed in herself and forced it from her mind, spending whole hours on the rooftop, absorbing the cold. She liked how it felt being so high above the New York streets; it made her feel safe, and bigger than the disaster.
It was on the second week of their time spent in the bank building when Jasmine’s wounds completely healed. She had stayed still during her whole recovery, moving only when the other girls fed her something or forced her to drink. She was weak, tired, and feeling depressed, but Isobel took her outside into the cold and worked on her.
“Will she be okay?” James asked, and Koko nodded affirmatively as they stood around the roaring fire.
“Now that Jazz is back with us, we will need to track the demon and finish him off,” Alysia said.
“We’ll be ready whenever you are,” her father said.
“A few of us should stay behind, secure the camp in case of anything,” she said. “I don’t know how far he’s dragged himself into the city, but we wouldn’t come back until I can verify that he’s dead.”
Jaime walked up behind her and touched her arm to get her attention. “CeeCee, I’ve been meaning to ask. Do you think that was one of the six masters that you are supposed to kill?”
“That would be nice, wouldn’t it? For him to be here at the point where we woke up. But I won’t know until he’s dead or until Lord Chaos tells me. The masters are supposed to be powerful, and that beast sure was, but I expected more … so I won’t hold my breath,” she said.
Alysia walked away from the fire to get her supplies and Koko followed behind her silently.
“Uhm, CeeCee?” she asked, and Alysia turned around, surprised to find her alone.
“What’s up, Koko?” she said.
“May I have a word with you, in private?” she asked, and Alysia took her into the office and closed the door.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“The hunt today. Will it be the four of us? Do you plan to take Jasmine along now that she’s better?”
“What makes you ask, Koko? Are you okay? You’re always the first one ready to go on a run.” Alysia saw that the girl was staring at her feet and seemed embarrassed, and then she saw that Jaime was looming around outside. “Oh,” she said quietly. She rubbed her chin. “You want to volunteer to be one of the members staying this time, am I correct?”
“Not unless you need me, Alysia. I am for the cause first! Jasmine should stay with me to give her time to recuperate, and you will need no-one’s help, not with the state of the lost after your fight.” Koko said all of this without looking up.
“I remember when you didn’t like me, Koko, you remember that?” Koko shook her head at the accusation, but Alysia merely laughed. “No, I’m not trying to make you feel bad, Koko, it’s okay. I’m just so amazed by how far we’ve come in the span of time, and for you to care what I think. Look, you’re your own woman, and you can decide whatever you wish. I’m merely a sister of the Bloody Garot, a free warrior, just like you, Isobel, and Jazz.”
“How come Jazz gets a new name and not the rest of us?” Koko asked, finally looking up at Alysia. “Is it because she has the brown skin like you do, CeeCee? Do you feel a kinship with her beyond myself and Isobel?”
“Koko, if you weren’t an innocent, half-demon girl, I would be so mad at you for even suggesting that I am some sort of racist. I made up ‘Jazz’ because she was hurt and I wanted to be affectionate. But—wait a minute. Is that what Isobel is being so huffy about?” Alysia asked, crossing her arms defensively as she did.
“Yes. She knew you first. She is upset that you don’t love her enough to give her a name, but Jasmine was given one, and more of your attention.”
Alysia sighed and threw up her hands in frustration. She had wanted to dole out nicknames, but they were so weird and questioning of her human idiosyncrasies that she had delayed it in order to ease them into it.
“Alright, from now on Isobel is Izzy to us. She is our Izzy, you got it?”
“Izzy. I really, really like it! What’s mine?” Koko asked, and Alysia balked because what could be shorter than a four-letter name?
“Hmm, how about we call you Kay? Short for the first letter in your name.” She watched the girl’s face intently, to see if she would have to think of something else.
“Kay!” Koko repeated loudly, and it was so strange and awkward that Alysia felt embarrassed for her.
“Okay … Kay, you can be one of the people left behind to tend to camp. It will be me, Izzy, and probably my dad. We can go find the lost and send it home, and then we will come back and tell you all about it.”
The girl bowed deeply, spun around and then ran out of the room. Alysia watched as Jaime joined her from the corner where he was waiting, and he seemed overly excited when she told him the good news. Post-apocalyptic love, how sweet, Alysia thought to herself. Then she turned around and went back to packing her things for the long road ahead.
~ * ~ * ~
The world was so far gone that it looked like another planet. Alysia wondered if they went past New York harbor if she would find the Statue of Liberty, toppled over and desecrated. Why wouldn’t it be? It was the cliché symbol for the fall of humanity, wasn’t it? There would be the arm, still holding the torch as if it were the last glimmer of hope in their living hell, and the head would lay next to it, the body … missing.
She had taken Isobel with her to hunt the monster, but when they were a few blocks away from their hideout, James and Tracy caught up with them. With the full human couple bringing up the rear of their hunting party, they could only move a couple of hours before taking a break. Alysia was annoyed at her father for forcing himself on the hunt, but she couldn’t find a way to object respectfully.
When they had traveled for about four hours and stopped on a bridge, Tracy came over to her and sat down next to her.
“Where do you suppose everyone went?” she asked, and Alysia closed her eyes, annoyed.
“Heaven, hell, I don’t know, Tracy. Maybe they all got turned into demons and moved their party underground.”
“Yup, you’re still sore with me. Alysia, I am sorry, okay? I am sorry that I fell in love with your father during what had to be the most traumatic period of your life. I’m sorry. But, we’re here now, here at this juncture where we don’t even know if we’re the last human beings left on earth. So for the sake of survival, can you please just forgive us?” she asked.
Alysia opened up her eyes and stared at the redheaded beauty. She couldn’t believe that there was a time when she was a beat cop. Now she was a survivor. And a man-stealing victim at that, she thought. But she was right: they only had each other.
“There had better be more survivors out in the world than us,” Alysia said, pulling open a bottle of water and taking a drink before handing it to Tracy.
“Yeah, it would be sad if we’re all that’s left,” Tracy began.
“No, it’s not really that – I mean yeah, I’m concerned for humanity, that’s a given. But, if we’re all that’s left, that makes Jaime the only eligible bachelor for me to repopulate the earth,” she said.
“You could do much worse, girl,” Tracy said, winking at her and handing back the bottle while shifting a lock of hair out of her eye.
“I see. So you want to violate him next, huh?” Alysia quipped.
“Oh, oh, that— I see, so we’re back on that again, huh? Me and your dad. Look, make all the jokes you want if it makes things easier between us, but all I’m saying is that Jaime is a good guy. He’s extremely nice. Immature as hell and a total pain, but he’s nice, and he likes you. Sometimes I wonder if you stay blind on purpose in order to not acknowledge that you like him too.”
Alysia stared at Tracy for a time, unable to say how she really felt about her. She shook her head and got up to her feet, then stared out at the water as it drifted calmly below the bridge. “You don’t know anything,” she finally said. “You’re a good fighter, and an impressive chick, but you d
on’t know how I feel about Jaime. Plus, if I’m blind, I don’t know what to call you. Isn’t it obvious that he’s into something with Koko?”
Tracy chuckled and then stood up and walked up next to her. “Yeah, but how does that make you feel?” she asked.
“It makes me feel like, hmm, you know, Tracy. It makes me feel like I have much more important things to do than worry about who a boy has his eyes on. Can we drop the tired topic? If you’re trying to offer an olive branch, you sure have a strange way of going about it.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll drop it. My mistake. So, this wounded beasty that we’re hunting. How far could it have gone?”
“It’s close,” Alysia said. “Isobel ran ahead a few hours ago, and she saw it sleeping amidst the rubble on the other side. I want to catch it when it isn’t ready for me; that way I can just take care of it and we can go back.”
They hung out for another fifteen minutes before Tracy went back to retrieve James. He and Isobel had decided to run reconnaissance on a dark tunnel that they passed on the way to the bridge.
“Hi CeeCee!” Isobel said when she reunited with the party.
“Hey there, Izzy. Did you guys find anything interesting in the cave?” she replied, trying her best to match Isobel’s excitement.
Isobel lifted her sword to show the black ichor that stained its blade, and Alysia looked past her quickly to make sure that her father was all right.
“So the demons did move underground,” she said out loud, and Isobel shrugged while James nodded.
“Masses of them, hanging out in the dark as if they’re waiting on something,” he said, and Alysia felt uneasy when he said it.
“Isobel, you’ve been through something like this with the lost. Do they always behave this way when they invade?” she asked.
Isobel shrugged again. “When Chaos Lord took me, it was very early in their invasion, CeeCee. Dibolosa was able to stop the lost before it got to this point,” she said.
“Let us not forget that we lost thirty years in that subway tunnel,” Tracy added. Her voice had dropped to the point where it was almost a whisper and they all stood silent, reflecting on what it meant.
“Doesn’t seem fair, does it?” Alysia said after a time. “Well, the most we can do is play it forward, so let’s go find this thing and put an end to its terror.”
They ran across the bridge at a brisk pace until they got to a roundabout bordered by high arches. The demon was seated beneath one of them. His back was turned and it looked as if he was asleep.
“It heals. It’s healing like we do, CeeCee,” Isobel whispered and Alysia could see that its severed wing was beginning to grow back in place.
“Like hell it will,” she spat and gripped the handle of the blade. “Please stay here and wait for us,” she said to James and Tracy, then nodded at Isobel to get ready.
The tiny girl hopped up on the railing of the bridge and began running. She skipped this way and that to climb the ruins, and then when she was near where the creature slept, she somersaulted and landed on the top of one of the arches. Alysia moved quickly and pulled the Twilight Sword free as she got closer to the beast. When she was close enough to touch it, she swung it into his shoulder, but he woke up with a violent start, knocking her and the blade into a nearby post.
James brought the pulse rifle up and began firing, but a loud noise from across the bridge forced him to glance at a host of demons rushing in at them. Tracy pulled her own gun and they began to fire into the mob, but there were too many and they were closing in, so they backed into the circle where the wounded demon was.
Alysia experienced pain she had never felt before, as the blow dealt to her small frame did more damage than she could imagine. She was seeing in doubles and she looked around for where she dropped the sword. She crawled to where she saw two of them. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs, then snatched it up with a rolling motion. Isobel saw that the beast was about to pounce on Alysia, so she leapt and drove her sword into its neck, only to have it spin acrobatically and grab her before slamming her into the ground.
“IZZY!” Alysia screamed as she saw her tiny body bend unnaturally and go limp from the impact. She scrambled to her feet and spat on the dusty stones. The blood from her injured tongue poured freely as she gripped the hilt, and she hoped and prayed that Isobel still had life. She quickly glanced at her father to see why he wasn’t helping. When she saw him shooting, she couldn’t understand why it was that she hadn’t seen the trap the big demon had set.
She held up her palm and stood with her legs apart, daring him to touch her Isobel again, but he merely circled the plaza, smiling at her. It reminded her of a jackal on the walls of the Egyptian pyramids, a tall, black, winged jackal that walked upright on its hind legs.
“Izzy, Izzy can you hear me?” she spoke, keeping an eye on the demon as he got down on all fours and prepped to launch himself at her. The girl shuddered and opened her eyes. A faint smile crossed her lips and forced painful, hot tears to fall from Alysia’s eyes.
The creature launched itself with the speed of a blitzing linebacker, and Alysia made to meet it with her sword but found that her injuries were more severe than she thought. She couldn’t move fast enough to bring the blade around, and was run over instantly. The world went black, and her head throbbed, but then her eyes were back open and she was spitting out blood.
In the blotches of vision that came to her between the spasms of pain, she could see Tracy, fighting like a cornered tiger. She had a pistol in one hand and her other clutched her leg, and all around her were fallen bodies, including her beloved James. Dad? Alysia thought, and she couldn’t believe it. Her father did not have the blood, the gift of healing that Chaos had given her, and he was older, with too many wounds to put a thought to.
They were overrun, and though she couldn’t see where the big demon was, she could see that the only thing saving her was the stubborn redhead, enraged by what had happened to James and unwilling to fall without a fight. She wanted to run over, clutch her father to her chest and will him back to life, but that wasn’t realistic. Her body hurt like hell, but nothing like her heart; it felt as if a sore had grown inside of her chest cavity.
She glanced up and saw that the main demon was on top of an arch, watching Tracy fight for her life. A calm came over her, and with her father seemingly dead, she stopped caring. What would be the point of going on if you are lost to me? she thought, relaxing in her position, watching Tracy fire round after round.
“GET UP ALYSIA! JAMES IS ALIVE!” Tracy said, when she glanced back and saw the look of surrender in Alysia’s eyes. “Don’t you dare give up on us, girl! Use your damn sword! Get up and fight!”
Alive, Alysia thought. My father is alive. The pain that had taken to her washed warmly along her limbs. She stood up and sheathed her sword, swaying on her feet as if a slight wind would blow her away. She clenched her fists and stomped on the ground, opening her mouth into a scream that came out loud and unnatural. The scream reinvigorated her as she let the pain out, and then she was amidst the rushing demons, swinging the Twilight Sword this way and that.
One by one she cut them down as she lunged forward, letting the blade follow her path as she moved. When she had killed enough of them to cause the rest to retreat, her entire appearance was horrific, their blood and guts smeared on her sword, clothes and skin. It was then that the watching demon decided to rush her again to finish it. But this was no weakened version of Alysia Knight. The Twilight Blade had drunk the life force of twenty demons or more and it vibrated within her palm as if it were a living thing, drunk on the life that it had taken.
Alysia spun like a wheel in a vertical slash, catching the demon not once but thrice as every rotation cut deeper into him, until on the fourth rotation, she shifted past him. Shifted, as if her form had become ethereal for just a moment. The blade grew black when she came to a stop and the big monster froze, unwilling to move out of fear that its limbs would fall apart if it did.
“Alysia Knight!” it roared, but it dared not turn to look at her.
“So you do talk,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut to stop the burning while simultaneously wiping the thick black blood off her blade.
“Why?” the beast asked. “Why do they help you?”
Alysia didn’t understand the question. She knelt and checked on Isobel, who hadn’t moved from where she had fallen. The little girl was brave and smiled up at Alysia, a smile that reflected a reverence borne of respect and awe rolled into one. “You will heal for me, won’t you, my little Izzy? You’re my angel. I don’t want to do this alone, I just—I just can’t do it.” Isobel blinked so slowly that Alysia worried she would never open her eyes again, but when she did, she understood it as her way of nodding affirmatively.
“Why does the Turevila help you?” the demon asked again, but Alysia was not in the mood for a question and answer.
“Tell your leaders that they help us because your time grows short, V’kosha dog! The Twilight Sword will take your souls, and then you will be weakened, and forced to face us in the other realm!” she screamed.
The demon’s silence was one that reflected the fear and surprise that came with hearing what Alysia had said to him. She stood up and stared at him, his furry back dripping blood from the deep wounds her sword had made during their fight. She held the hilt with both hands tight, and then rushed in and jumped, twisting violently and removing his head in a fatal cut.
The original demons that had fled watched from across the bridge, but when they saw the head drop, they scattered back into the city. They were the ones who set the trap to get Alysia Knight, but she had persevered and now they began to fear her even more. Why do they help you? the demon had asked, as if realizing that the attack on earth had set them up for even bigger problems. Chaos had told Alysia that the demons shared a hive mind, so despite her decapitating the one member of theirs to figure out her new power, the rest would know and prepare for her.
