Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1)

by Chris Walters

  Eric walked over to the windows. In the dark, he had not realized the advantage these higher buildings gave him. The rain was still pouring down, but in mid-day, he could see most of the block they were on. After a short thought on this, he realized that he couldn’t even see the street yesterday. Was it possible that the rain was letting up? He watched his men go from storefront to storefront, but there were multiple floors in some of these buildings. He needed watchers at the highest points near each corner. He walked to the back of the building and opened the door to the fire escape. Someone could get up this, or someone could get out of it. There was an alley there. He realized that he didn’t need to secure the opposite side of the street as much as he needed to secure the block he was on. Glancing down at a small restaurant on the corner on the other side of the alley, he thought there might be food there.

  Food. Resources would be very limited. They needed to ration, and they needed to systematically loot any resource or item of value first from the block they were on and then moving out. He needed to control his surroundings. Also, they had twelve rifles with affixed bayonets, which were good weapons, but they would need more if push came to shove. As he walked back in and locked the door, one of the tied up and gagged individuals was trying to communicate with him. It was Marcus, the student who didn’t want to join, but didn’t want to leave. Eric walked over and pulled the gag down.

  “Sensei,” he said, “I am sorry. There is more going on here than I thought. I am hungry, I am aching form these binds, and I am ready to comply. I want to be part of the group.”

  Eric smiled a broad smile, but he wasn’t fooled for a minute. He helped the man to his feet and untied his hands. He led him down the stairs. In the dojo, most of his men had returned.

  “Men,” Eric began, “Marcus has changed his mind. He would like to be part of the group now.” No one said anything, they just looked at him. Eric saw the tension in Marcus’ shoulders. He had wondered how he was going to show power to secure his command and Marcus had given him the chance. Marcus was a Black Belt and a gifted fighter. Eric knew what the man would do, even before he knew, if that was possible.

  The man took a long stride out and turned to strike Eric, swinging low for the stomach. Eric let out a low Kiai, bracing his stomach against the punch. The man hit, but Eric only felt enough to laugh. Then Eric performed a three-inch punch. Holding his fist out, Eric settled into a stance and the chi from his fist hit Marcus in the mid-section and the 225-pound man flew in the air about eight feet and landed on his back. He rolled over and went to rise, but Eric was already on him. Using the chi, he kicked the man in the side, raising him about three feet off the floor and then quickly sidekicked him while he was in mid-air, launching the man through the window and into the street. Eric walked out into the rain.

  Marcus lay on his back, coughing up blood. He was covered with small cuts from the glass of the window and was most likely not going to survive the hits. This was not enough of a show to ensure obedience from the others. Eric lifted his leg straight up high over his head and came down with a crushing axe kick, his heel smashing into Marcus’ sternum. It wasn’t just that Eric felt the shattering of bones, which he did. It was the sound of pulverized bone and flesh which preceded the massive amount of blood that flew out of the man’s mouth and nose. Eric had crushed his chest, crushed his heart. Marcus lay dead in the street.

  “Gather him up, take him over to the park and leave him near the fountain.” Eric said and two men rushed forward to do as told. “He does not deserve the honor of burial. That is only for ours. He can be eaten by the birds.”

  Eric turned and walked back into the dojo, fully aware of every eye in the vicinity watching him go. That will be enough fear. They will not get out of line again. A smug smile crossed his lips.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  A nasty morning-breath taste in her mouth, Jenny woke on the floor of the taco spot. She had no idea how long she had slept, but it seemed to be mid-day. Tentatively rising, she looked around the small restaurant and saw that no one was there. There was also no sound, other than the never-ending rain. Colorado Springs was a notoriously dry area, and it had been raining hard for over two days now. She rose above the counter and looked around. Unsure whether it was a lightening of the rain, or just that she had grown used to it, she looked around the small building, and outside and felt like she could see better than she had from her studio. She was still only a block and a half from those creeps at the martial arts studio, so she needed to be careful.

  Now that there was mid-day light in the building, she could see that she had not been the only person to go through the cupboards. Somehow, whoever had gone before had missed the tortillas and Jenny couldn’t be happier. She gathered what she had left and threw them in a plastic to-go bag. She wasn’t sure how long she would be without food, and this was all there was for now. Clothes that were already made to be snug, clung to her body in a way that just made her feel dirty and she just felt gross all over. This was the third day she had been in the same clothes, as well as having worked out in them and then run through the rain. She longed for a shower and her own bed.

  Creeping to the door, she peered around to see what she could see. There really wasn’t anything moving that she could tell, and she could hear nothing but the rain hitting the tin roof of the little eatery. There were houses up the street, she knew that from her runs, but no one was out and about. Maybe it was just the rain. Closing her eyes and centering herself, she looked out into the rain with the inner sight she had come to know in the past two days. At the edge of her vision, she thought she occasionally saw flashes of people’s auras in the windows, but there was no way to tell if they were looking this way or not. She didn’t know why she was so scared, why she didn’t want anyone at all to see her, but she didn’t. She decided to go through the park. In the rain, there was a much lower chance of people being out in the open space.

  With one last look around, Jenny ran across the field of green damp grass, and promptly slid onto her back. The grass was so soaked that she had basically hydroplaned across it. It was like a solid puddle across the green. From this vantage point, she could also see the muddy pond-sized puddles in numerous places around the park. The pavement seemed now to be a better choice, so Jenny walked carefully toward the nearest paved path, about fifteen yards away. This was a path she knew well, having run it a number of times. It wound its way around the park and then down by the nearly dry creek and under some overpasses before coming to a freeway overpass walkway that would be ideal for getting her nearer to home.

  Reaching the path, she tried to look as normal as one can, when one is walking in the pouring rain, carrying a taco restaurant take-out bag and wearing yoga clothes. With more solid ground underneath her feet, she began to jog, attempting to put as much distance between herself and the karate guys as she could. Rounding a corner, and drawing near to an overpass, though, she heard the murmur voices through the rain and slipped into a dense brush off the path. She couldn’t make out the words, she could only identify them as voices, but they seemed to be either celebrating or yelling, she wasn’t sure.

  Finding that there were places she could creep around in the dense bushes, she got closer to the overpass. The rain was so loud, echoing through the under-side of the overpass like it was going through a bullhorn. Jenny thought she could make all the noise in the world, and no one would hear. Calming herself, she crouched there for a moment to collect her thoughts. Centering herself and accessing that inner sight, she opened her eyes and peered through the brush. There in a clearing were a mish-mash of auras, she didn’t know how many. But, there were reds and muddy golds, dirty gray and quite a bit of grayish white, and a healthy dose of the dark brown she saw on all of the students at the martial arts place. As she peered, she saw something else though. There were bodies on the ground. These people weren’t arguing. They weren’t celebrating. They were mourning. Then Jenny saw what was causing the sound, it wasn’t the rains
that beat down on some building or overhang, it was a river. The creek that was always dry wasn’t just full. It was flowing like the rivers up in the mountains that she had gone rafting in many times. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

  She wasn’t afraid of these people either. Jenny couldn’t tell if it was due to their grief or something else, but she didn’t feel any malice from them. She walked out of the bushes and toward their clearing. She had to go that way anyway. As she walked into the clearing, they turned to see her coming, but didn’t seem to care that much. She saw the state of their clothes, the shanty that was constructed under the overpass. These were the homeless; they were the faceless many that polite society turned away from when, and if, they did notice them.

  “Is everyone alright?” she asked.

  One of the men looked at her and just shook his head sadly. “No, ma’am. Quite a few of our friends didn’t make it. They was killed by the storm.” He pointed to about twenty bodies lined up under the overpass. “Most of ‘em had shacks down in the creek bed, they didn’t move in time.”

  Jenny walked over nearer to the bodies, many of them were pretty banged up, but all showed the bloat that probably came from pulling them out of water where they had drowned. They were mostly older, but there were a few that were her age and younger. There were only seven still alive, that she could see. “Are the rest of you okay? Is there anything I can do?”

  “That is very sweet of you, ma’am,” said a woman who had been standing behind the man she was talking to, “but you have to get to safety. Don’t be by the water. It isn’t safe.” The woman broke down in tears and walked the other way.

  Another man came up to her with something in his hands. “Do you need some food?” he held out three cans that looked like they had been taken from the restaurant she had spent the night in.

  “Thank you, no, I have some. Do you all need some of this?” She was overwhelmed at the generosity of those who had nothing. They were willing to give some of the little bit they had to help people out. Generosity is abundant in those who have little, and rare in those who have much. It was quite beautiful and brought tears to her eyes. “I have to get across the creek.”

  The first man looked up at her. “You can’t go this way miss. The water has washed everything out.” Jenny looked past him, there wasn’t even a way through this area without going into the water. She was going to have to backtrack. “You have to go back up to the road to pass, but be careful. We had someone come through yesterday who tried the pass. He is lying over there now.” He pointed to the bodies.

  “You all need to stay safe,” she said, “there are bad men around.”

  The guy nodded, “looters.”

  “And others,” Jenny said.

  “There always are when bad things happen.” He said rather matter of fact. Jenny wondered how many disasters this aged man had experienced. She looked at the lines of his face and knew that she could never have told how old the man was. He had the indiscriminate age of poverty. But, he had a kindness that can only be molded by the harshness of life. Many people are embittered by their circumstances, but a few come through that to be truly changed into a beautiful person, refined by life’s troubles. She thought she was looking at one of those few now. She thanked him for the info, making a point to remember that bad circumstances can make you nasty, or wonderful. It was entirely up to you. She then turned and made her way back around to the path which would carry her up to the road. It wasn’t entirely safe to be out in the open in broad daylight like that, but the more distance she put between herself and downtown, the better off she thought she would be. There is a hotel on the other side of the freeway, just up this road. I wonder if anyone is there. Jenny made her way up onto the road.

  She couldn’t see any reason why a man would have died coming up here, and that frightened her. What might have happened? She thought it best not to think about it and walked up over the overpass toward the opposite side. When she reached the peak of the hill that was made out of the overpass, she could see the other side. She saw the crashed cars, and as she looked down on the deserted freeway, there were cars for miles, empty cars, many of which had crashed into each other. It was the most lonely thing she thought she had ever seen. Is this the end of the world? She thought to herself. Is this what the end looks like? She moved on down the other side of the overpass, very concerned about what she might find closer to home.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Jessica felt an undeniable attraction to Kyle. She had sort of fallen for him when he was training her at the store, but his strength in the crisis only made her like him that much more. They walked along in the rain, which honestly felt lighter than it had yesterday, but it was hard to tell if it was lighter, or they were just used to it, because it was still incessantly pounding down on them. They avoided ditches, and Kyle’s dad had told them to stay to the middle of the road, so they all walked basically single file down the dotted yellow line in the middle of the road. Well, everyone walked single file except for Kyle and his Dad. They were at the front, about fifteen feet ahead of her, in a conversation she couldn’t here. Kyle was being emphatic about something, but she had no idea what it was.

  When she had woken in the High School, Kyle was already up and outside the door. He seemed genuinely concerned about something, but what it was, she couldn’t tell and he wasn’t telling, at least not to her. She had laid a little close to him last night, she really hoped she hadn’t scared him away. She sloshed along, looking down at her feet, at her shoes that were already ruined by the water and the walk. She was in her work uniform, but it was drenched to the core. Every garment she wore was absolutely soaked all the way through. It was disgusting. But, Jess was a trooper, she was not going to whine about it.

  They occasionally passed a house, though they were less frequent once they had moved into the forest. She couldn’t believe there was a forest like this right next to the city. It was tall, full of pine trees and dense. She really liked Colorado Springs, but it was nothing like home. Home was typical suburbia, of the stereo-typical Christian brand that was so popular these days. Her parents had found religion in the 1990’s and had moved them to an aggressively conservative community to raise a family. They had agreed to pay for her education if she went to a Christian University, so she had chosen one right here in Colorado Springs, a town her parents loved. She thought about her parents and wondered when she would be able to call them again.

  Considering her fellow travelers, Jess looked back over her shoulder at Erica. The woman had not spoken much since her friend had died. She seemed to be trying to stay as close to Adam as Jess tried to stay to Kyle. Erica was probably six or so years older than Jessica, but she liked her and hoped that they would become friends. Kyle was dropping back now into the single line, behind his dad and directly in front of Jess. She sped her pace a little to catch up to him, her legs burning with the strain of the walking they had done the last two days.

  “Hey, I am glad you guys are done talking. The walking can get a little boring.” She said as she pulled up close.

  “Yeah? I will try not to bore you then.” He replied with a smile.

  “If you don’t mind my asking, what were you talking to your Dad about?” Jessica didn’t want to pry, but she was just so curious about it.

  “I had a dream.” He said sheepishly.

  “You seemed pretty, well, pretty animated.” She pushed a little bit, nothing about that seemed like a dream.

  “It was quite a dream.” He said with a smile, and diverted her with a question, “Did you have any dreams last night?”

  This small talk was as good as any other talk for her purposes, but in her mind, she committed to herself that she would find out about that dream. They talked on for a while, but when they came a spot where the road was completely washed out, they all just stopped. After what had happened to Ellen, none of them wanted to test it. But, it had to be done. Cal was tying a rope around his waist and giving the other end of
it to Kyle and Adam who wrapped and secured it around their own.

  Cal gave them all directions. “Okay, here is what we are going to do. I am going to wade across, secured by Kyle and Adam. Once there, I will tie my end of the rope to a tree. They will then tie their end of the rope to a tree. Adam is going to make a harness out of the other rope and we will attach a carabiner to the stationary rope and then Jessica and Erica will go across, then Kyle, and finally Adam will untie from the tree on this side, secure it around his waist and we will get him to the other side. Keep your feet about shoulder width apart. Don’t walk too fast. Don’t pick your legs up too much. If we are careful, this should not be a problem.” He looked each person in the eye and asked, “Is everything clear? Any questions?”

  When each person gave their thumbs up, Cal began across the water. He walked slowly, and almost pushed into the water. It took longer than she would have thought, but he came up on the dry other side, or relatively dry since it was still raining. He called across to them. “The current is stronger than I would have guessed. Be careful. This is straining the muscles.”

  Adam tied the other side around a tree, while Cal did the same across the water. They pulled the rope tight. Adam then built a harness to go around the waist and crotch of each person. Once he had secured Erica in it, he attached it to the other rope with one of those little climbing hooks, Jess assumed that is what a carabiner was. At numerous points, Erica looked like she was going to fall, but eventually she made it across and just sat on the ground. Now it was Jessica’s turn, and Adam pulled the harness back across and got her situated with it.