D'Mok Revival 1: Awakening

by Michael J. Zummo

He let out a gasp. “Such a young voice. I thought you were a bandit. Or maybe a creature!”

  Allia giggled. “I’m not.”

  “Forgive me, child. . . What brings a child to this town?”

  “We’re looking for someone and—”

  “We’re? More child-friends?”

  Mencari moved closer. “No, but friends just the same.”

  The old man’s face contorted, anger deepening his ancient wrinkles. “Go away! Can’t you see you’ve taken everything we have! What town did you take this child from?”

  “No,” Allia said hurriedly. “We’re not—”

  “What did they tell you, child? That you will make our haven strong and proud? That you can return to your family when you’re done? No one ever returns!”

  “No! We’re looking for Odoli.”

  “Odoli?” The name seemed to bleed away his anger. “I haven’t heard that name in some time.”

  Mencari took a few steps forward. “Is he here?”

  He raised his cane and shook it, but was so weak he almost dropped it. “You!” he cried out. “Just stay back.”

  Allia waved Mencari off, then moved closer to the blind man. “Is Odoli here?”

  His old bones cracked as he bent over to address her directly. “You mean they. Two boys. But they . . .” His empty eyes skittered quickly from side to side as his ancient body became rigid. “If you don’t know, then you couldn’t be from this haven!”

  “We aren’t from here,” Mencari said.

  The old man’s eyes squinted in contempt. “You are Anto’liea’s henchmen!”

  “We’re not anybody’s henchmen,” Allia blurted. “We keep hearing about them, and we don’t even know who they are!”

  The man’s head pulled back and tilted slightly.

  “Please,” Allia said. “Help us.”

  Her plea weakened the last of his resistance. “The Anto’liea are notorious, but they’ve never used children.” With a great sigh, he leaned toward her and whispered, “I believe you, little one. But you won’t find the Odolis here.”

  Seigie muttered, “They lied to us.”

  The old man’s head tilted toward Seigie. “Who lied to you?”

  “The people from the spaceport,” Mencari answered.

  “Even with our Olympic loss, it still has power, eh?” The old man chortled. “Let’s see what we can find out, child. Follow me.”

  She jumped up and hugged him. “Oh, thank you!”

  As the old man recovered from the hug, Mencari looked questioningly at Allia. With a smile, she shrugged and trotted along behind the man.

  It was getting too dark to see, but the old man made his way without need of light back down the street to the one tall building they had seen on their first approach. As he opened the door, the smell of cooking vegetables wafted out, along with muted chattering.

  The fireplace was centrally located. Candles dotted the interior and gave off faint light. As the fire crackled, bursts of light gave shape to those hidden in the shadows, perhaps two dozen men and women spread about the room, some in small groups talking, others sitting by themselves.

  All of them were as ancient as the man who’d led them there.

  “We have visitors,” the old man said.

  As Ichini and Allia entered, a gasp escaped a few patrons.

  “A child!”

  “Where is the child from?”

  The exuberant tone abruptly changed to a chorus of questions and expletives as Mencari and Seigie stepped inside.

  “Where did they take this child from?”

  “We have no more here, you bastards. Go!”

  The old man raised a hand. “No. They have not come for that. They are looking for the Odoli boys.”

  At this, one of the women said, “Odoli? Certainly they would know they were taken long ago.”

  The old man leaned his cane against a chair before lowering himself into it. “They are not from here.”

  Again the darkness came alive with a clamor.

  “We don’t help Anto’liea scum either!”

  The man sighed. “They aren’t Anto’liea. I believe the child. And I know the Odoli boys were taken long ago. But to which camp were they sent?”

  A man moved into the firelight, revealing himself as younger than the others. “Gramps, how could you forget?” he said.

  “Don’t play quizzing games. If I knew the answer, I wouldn’t ask.”

  “But you do. They were taken to Shiki.”

  “What do you want with them?” the woman asked.

  Mencari looked to Allia to respond. “We need help,” she said. “To fight an enemy off-world. One that could hurt a lot of people.”

  The babble of questions began anew.

  “You are fighters?”

  “You don’t look like fighters. You wouldn’t survive the first round of the Olympics!”

  The younger man faced the visitors, “Why should we help you? What’s in this for us?”

  Looking around, Seigie said, “Can you tell us what happened here?”

  With a heavy sigh, the blind man adjusted himself in his chair. “Many years ago, the Master of this haven believed our town held the most promising contenders for the Olympics.”

  “Sporting events?” Mencari said.

  “Can you call that butchery ‘sport’? Madness, I call it! That, and that mockery of rewarding those best at killing with what’s left of our precious resources.”

  “And they took our children!” the old woman, said, her voice a near screech. “To train. To compete in their sport.”

  The younger man explained, “The Master’s goons took the youngest and dragged them away. Just a handful were left here, those too old for their recruiting.”

  The old woman nodded. “The Odoli brothers were babies then.”

  With a sigh, the old man explained, “We tried to get them back. This . . .” He pointed to his clouded eyes, “. . . is what the lucky escaped with. They came for years, harvesting our children. The same painful lesson was taught to any who tried to stop them. Those strong enough moved away, hid in other towns not cursed like this one.”

  The young man nodded. “So, what’s in it for us if we help you find the Odoli brothers?”

  One of the old men said, “Maybe if they destroy that camp? The younger generations could move back home.”

  The woman turned to him. “Crazy old coot, how many camps does the Master have now? He’d send his goons back too!”

  “When is the Olympics?” Mencari asked to distract her.

  “In nine years. The last one happened last year.”

  Mencari considered what they’d all said. “Where is this camp?”

  The younger man replied. “A place called Kunren. In the hills above the town of Shiki. Due north of here.”

  “Then let’s go,” Allia said.

  One of the women shrieked, “You can’t go! Sten, you can’t let them take the child there!”

  “We’ll keep her safe,” Mencari said. “And we’ll see what we can do to help you. We can’t promise anything, but we’ll try.”

  The blind man motioned toward the younger one. “Doruk, help them find their way.”

  “Why should we?” Doruk said. “We know nothing about them. It’s a waste of time.”

  “Time is all we have,” Sten said. “And listen to them. Do they act like collectors? Do they sound like Anto’liea’s henchmen? No! These people are different.”

  Doruk snorted in protest, but finally sighed. “Fine. I’ll take them as far as Shiki, then they’re on their own. This town doesn’t need any retribution for helping them.”

  As he moved toward the door, he grabbed a few canteens. Mencari and the group followed behind. Realizing the old man couldn’t see her, Allia ran over and hugged him. “Thank you again, Sten.”

  His ruined eyes showed tears when she released him.

  * * * * *

  “The aurora will provide us enough light to travel,” Doruk said, poi
nting into the night sky.

  Mencari looked up. Had they not seen the energy barrier when they came in, they might’ve also mistaken the illumination as a natural solar wind across the atmosphere. Good disguise, he thought, but chose not to fill Doruk in on the true source of the light.

  While they moved northward on the dirt path to the edge of the town, Mencari probed further about what the blind man Sten had mentioned. “Why was this ‘Master’ so interested in your town?” he asked. “Did it have something to do with the Odoli brothers?” Mencari asked.

  “We read reports about Jerin Odoli,” Allia said. “That he led a group into some big battle.”

  Doruk shook his head. “Maybe that family originally attracted the Master. Great strength. Speed. They could hunt and kill creatures no one else could. They were truly. . . different. The mother especially. I’m told she could move and fight like no other.”

  “And what happened to them?” Allia said, pulling up to walk next to him.

  “The Master came for the kids. Jerin and his brother Naijen. The parents tried to stop them. They were killed, but not before they took out a bunch of the collectors. Other men from our town followed the collectors back to Shiki, trying to rescue the boys. They never stood a chance. A few like Sten came back blind. I was twelve then. It was the last time anyone fought back.”

  “All this for friendly sporting events?”

  Doruk’s steps slowed a bit at Mencari’s question. “Friendly? If you call to-the-death friendly, perhaps. The Olympics determine who gets control of what’s left of our world’s resources: meaning, who gets to live easy. But it’s rigged. The Anto’liea have it locked up. They always win. They even passed a law making it okay to have members of other teams killed before they got to the competition. ‘Survival of the fittest’ they called it.”

  Doruk fell silent. The small band walked on. Time passed uneventfully during the planet’s short night. The few creatures they came upon posed little challenge. Soon, Seigie spotted what appeared to be small structures in the distance.

  “Shiki?” she asked Doruk.

  He looked in the direction of her glance. “No. That place has been abandoned for years. Wells turned foul, then dried up. Same with the crops. People leave quick when they’re starving. Our town seems fine for now. Though I don’t think many of the old folks would survive if they had to go somewhere else.”

  As dawn broke, the morning’s rays revealed a change in the land before them. Allia pointed down the path. “Mountains.”

  “Not mountains,” Doruk said, but shared no more.

  As they neared them, the “mountains” were revealed as masses of rubble. Patches of color spotted the gray stone.

  “The elders claim these were buildings that crumbled in the last war,” Doruk said. With a bitter laugh, he added, “There was a time, long ago during the great peace, when such wonders could be built.”

  Mencari said, “Have you ever been to the spaceport?”

  Doruk’s face darkened defensively. “If it’s not near Gisie, it’s not important to me.”

  “You should go look at it. And as we flew in, we saw huge spires built into the sky—”

  Allia said, “And things throwing energy everywhere!”

  “Resonance fields,” Seigie explained.

  “Some type of shield technology,” Mencari said. “Pretty amazing.”

  Especially compared to life here in the boondocks.

  “Hard to imagine,” Doruk said. “To make anything in our village, we have to tear down older buildings for the wood.

  As they emerged from the colored mounds, the ground sloped steeply downward. Descending, the travelers were welcomed by a change of scenery. The grass was brilliant green. There were tall trees and rolling hills. The chirping of birds made Allia bound ahead of them with glee.

  The slope plateaued, and they saw the roofs of buildings hidden behind a massive wooden wall. The only breaches in the solid structure were three wide gateways.

  Doruk pointed and said, “Shiki.” Then he pointed to the far hillside. “Kunren Campu.”

  Mencari saw more structures, higher up on a bluff that rose above the town, but too far away to see much detail.

  A gentle wind began to blow. Doruk looked to the sky, then in the direction from which the wind blew. He snorted in frustration. Muttering, “Rain coming,” he turned to head back the way they’d come.

  “Where are you going?” Mencari said. “I thought you were going to take us to Shiki.”

  Doruk took another step, then stopped and looked back at them. “If anyone asks, you never visited Gisie. Our people’s lives depend on that.”

  He gave Allia a look filled with sadness. “And keep the child safe.”

  The four watched him head back toward the colored mounds.

  Ichini cuddled up to Allia’s leg, as the girl looked up at Mencari. “Now what?”

  He looked over at the walled town of Shiki. There was some movement along the hillsides. Mencari pointed to the moving shapes. “Either wild animals, or scouts.”

  Allia said, “Can’t we just sneak into town?”

  Seigie snorted. “Into a whole town of warriors? Not likely.”

  Pouting, Allia kicked a small stone. A large shadow suddenly covered them. The entire group looked up to see sizable storm clouds rolling in.

  Seigie looked down at Allia. “You. You’re our cover story. They’re looking for young recruits, and you’re a child.”

  Mencari looked across the ominous clouds. He nodded his head in agreement. “I can’t think of anything better.”

  “Can’t we just ask where the Odoli brothers are?” Allia suggested.

  He looked toward the camp. “Not right away. Remember how everyone else reacted when we said we were looking for them. But we have to try something. When those clouds open up, we don’t want to be standing out here.”

  CHAPTER 13:

  Inked Honors

  “Some warrior fort!” Seigie scoffed, looking for any type of guards or resistance as they drew closer to the walls. Thunder boomed overhead, and a few sprinkles quickly turned to a downpour.

  Where is everyone? This can’t be right. Mencari too was alarmed by the ease approaching the camp.

  The gates were wide open and unguarded; as they passed through, Seigie looked to him and shook her head.

  They barely heard the shouts against the thunder and deluge. They rounded the corner and saw streets alive with men and women of various ages, all dressed in outlandish battle garb, and dashing for cover. Some had strange piercings, others open wounds, others bore ornate tattoos of various colors and patterns. Everyone appeared to have some type of marking, but no one seemed to have both piercings and tattoos.

  As Mencari and his companions looked up the main street, they saw a large group of people waiting in two lines leading into two small shacks. As one person came out of a shack, another entered from the line. The demeanor of those in the two lines was very different, though. Those to the right appeared tired and battered. Their faces held a combination of panic, sadness or angst. A few tried to sneak away, but were restrained and forced back into the queue by other warriors patrolling the area.

  To the left, howls of triumph or anticipation belted from various members in this group. Unlike the other line, the warriors standing watch here made sure only select individuals could enter that line.

  A pain-filled cry attracted their attention as they drew nearer to the shack on the right. Through a lighted window, they could see a warrior being forced into a chair. Two others held him in place while a third made an incision in his arm, then placed what appeared to be small, red-hot metal balls inside the slit. The man shrieked as the spheres disappeared into his limb, and black smoke rose from the sizzling wound. Allia turned her head away. Mencari whispered, “My god.”

  The warrior’s skin discolored as they stitched up the incision. It looked like there were bulbous tumor growths under the skin. The man was lifted from the chair and es
corted to the exit, where he staggered away.

  As another warrior was pulled from the line and forced into the chair, a cheer roared from the other side of the street, and a female warrior emerged from the left-hand hut. She howled as she proudly displayed her raw arm to onlookers in line. A pattern had been tattooed down its length. Despite its painful look, she appeared ecstatic. Fellow warriors approached and greeted her, and they began comparing their own tattoos to hers.

  Allia tugged on Mencari’s side. “Rhysus?”

  As he looked down, she pointed to the increasing numbers of people around them, now staring at the unmarked visitors. The chatter around them increased, with angry scowls from onlookers. Only the sudden deluge of rain kept the group from growing any larger, Mencari suspected.

  A stout, strapping young warrior approached. With a booming voice, he grabbed Mencari firmly by the arm. “You! This way.”

  The warrior’s mullet-style hair flowed like a horse’s mane while Mencari allowed himself to be pulled into a side street and into a small building, with Seigie, Allia, and Ichini close behind. As they entered, three soldiers exited and stood guard outside. The rain continued its steady downpour.

  The door closed, and Mencari noticed a tattoo on the warrior’s arm that matched those of the guards at the door. He looked more closely at the warrior’s body, and made out previously unnoticed curves. The he was a she.

  “This town has over six hundred warriors,” she said. “None are fond of strangers. Especially unmarked ones.”

  She peered at Seigie’s crystalline face. “Well, unmarked in the usual ways. You’ll listen to me and answer my questions. If you don’t, I’d be happy to send you back out to face those gathering outside.”

  Mencari said, “We’re—”

  “—here to bring you a new recruit,” Seigie finished.

  Allia looked down nervously.

  The woman warrior kept her eyes on Seigie. “Oh? A recruit?”

  “Yes,” Seigie said. “We were told recruits for . . . our haven were brought here.”

  “Really? Which town in ‘our haven’ are you from?”

  Seigie paused, unwilling to reveal the name of Gisie, the lone town they knew. She waited a second too long.