by Janet Durbin
Drayco glanced up. The wary look on Joseph's face caused the dark man from the past to return to the present. He went to his friend's side.
"I'm sorry about that. I forgot you haven't seen one of these things before. Come on, let me show it to you.” Drayco started to walk back to the cart, but stopped when he realized Joseph was not following. He said, “I promise, it won't hurt you."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure."
Joseph made his way warily to the cart. He stayed in front of it, out of reach, just in case. When it made no move against him, he relaxed, but not much. Drayco kept his face straight. He did not want to insult the man trying to help him find his sister by laughing at him. He returned to the seat recently vacated and indicated for Joseph to sit next to him. He refused.
"I might have allowed myself to get this close to the thing from the past, but I'll be damned if I'll be stupid enough to get into the thing.
This time, Drayco could not hold back. He snickered, “Joseph, it's only a machine from long ago. All it did was carry people from point A to point B, just like a wagon does today. The driver told it where to go by steering this wheel.” Drayco put his hands on the big circular object in front of him.
Joseph continued to watch from a distance.
"Oh well, if you won't sit down, would you at least hold the light over here so I can see what I'm doing?"
Joseph moved beside the cart with much apprehension. He focused the light where Drayco indicated and lit up the control panel for the vehicle. A shiny metal object with a round ring hanging from it reflected the light back as soon as it hit it. The object was partially sticking out of the inside wall of the box. He leaned over to have a closer look.
Drayco saw what caught the man's interest. He shouted, “Aha! There is a key.” He reached up, grabbed the shiny metal thing, and gave it a twist. The white box on wheels vibrated and a humming noise sounded. They both stopped within moments. Joseph shot backward, pulling his sword out at the same time. The flashlight fell to the floor.
"It's a demon thing, Drayco! Get out of there before it eats you!"
Drayco looked up at Joseph, shocked by his friend's reaction. Seconds later, he was laughing so hard tears ran down his cheeks. He leaned over onto the wheel and accidentally honked the horn. Joseph responded by swinging his sword in one fluid motion and hitting the hood of the cart as hard as he could. The resounding thud of metal hitting fiberglass echoed throughout the vast space.
That did it. Drayco fell out of the cart. He landed on the floor, rolling, holding his sides and howling.
"How can you laugh at a time like this?” Joseph was hard pressed to watch both the box and his friend. “Or are you hurt? Did it bite you before you got away?” His head swung back and forth like those watching a tennis match.
After what felt like an eternity, Drayco finally regained his composure. He sat up, wiped his eyes, and glanced up at the man who still held his sword toward the cart. “Joseph, give me a hand up, will you?” He reached up, waiting for Joseph to decide what to do.
Joseph took one more look at the cart, then shifted the sword to his left hand. He reached down and pulled Drayco to his feet. Once the dark man was standing, he returned both hands to the sword, ready to do battle with the mechanical beast.
The dark twin faced the cart and put his hands on his hips. He knew now he would never get Joseph into the thing, not after what he had just witnessed.
"I want to thank you,” Drayco said with a sideways glance at the man standing next to him. “I haven't laughed that much in a very long time."
"Glad to be so entertaining,” Joseph replied sarcastically. He relaxed his pose only when the box continued to sit still, as if it was dead.
"We better move on. Since I doubt you will ride in this, we'll have to leave it. Let me look around first. I might find something we can use from it."
Drayco picked up the light and went to the rear of the cart. He lifted the lid to a compartment and rummaged around, finding another working flashlight and a pack to carry things in, but nothing more. He put the spare light in the bag, then slung it over his shoulder.
I don't want to use this light until absolutely necessary, especially since there are not enough spare batteries to go around.
When the dark man was finished, Joseph put his sword away and took back the flashlight. He followed the wall leading away from the cart with utmost speed. Drayco walked behind him, smiling. The light, again, barely pierced the gloom. They had walked for about seventy-five paces when the end of the wall came into view. Unlike the last corner, this one was empty. The two men continued in the same direction until they returned to the point they had first entered from, the stairs.
"Great. Now what?” Joseph threw his arms up in total exasperation.
"We wait. We didn't run into Drizzle during the entire circumference of the area, and we only found one way in, so he must have found another."
Drayco sat down on the steps. He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. As Joseph watched, the dark man shut his eyes and relaxed, his chin resting on his chest.
"You can try and sleep at a time like this? We have to find Shyanne before something bad happens to her. First, you make a game out of the box contraption from hell, now you sit down and do nothing!” Joseph started to pace back and forth, the light waving around like a ray gun from an old movie.
"Sit down, Joseph. All your pacing isn't going to solve a thing except make you tired. And I need you to be strong when the time comes."
"And when it that going to be?"
"When Drizzle returns."
Joseph let out a long, slow exhalation. He knew Drayco was right, but it burned in his gut. To just sit around and do nothing was very frustrating; it was something he was not used to doing. Hard work was a way of life for him. He was not likely to change any time in the near future.
He walked over to the stairs and flopped down above Drayco. He did not lean against the wall. Instead, he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands, staring into the darkness, and waited for the cat to return.
"Put the light out. We need to conserve the batteries."
"You think that's wise? Something could creep up on us without us even knowing it."
Drayco looked up and stated in a matter of fact tone, “Something could do that now."
"You're right."
Joseph saw that the smiling, boyish look that had appeared on the dark man's face when he was toying with the cart was now gone. It had been replaced with the seriousness of a man aged well beyond his years.
Before the lifeline to the world of light was switched off, he saw Drayco's eyes. They were filled with pain, a pain so intense, he wondered for a long time what had happened to this man from the past to give him such a look.
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Chapter Seventeen
Drizzle ran ahead of the two men. He knew Drayco would be upset with him for doing so, especially after he was told not to, but he never listened to him anyway. Shyanne was his main purpose in life, not her twin. He left the sound of their footsteps far behind as he made his way down. The only noise heard now was the occasional scrape of his claws on the warm, moist, stone stairs. He flew down with the speed and agility of the cat he was. Unlike the men, the blackness of the stairway was not a problem for him; he had the ability to see in the dark.
He made it to the bottom of the long, sloping stairs without incident. A vast room made of stone and some other substance stood before him; a faint, long faded smell of gasoline powered vehicles hung in the air. Dark spots where oil had dripped from them onto the pavement below were visible.
The cat carefully advanced into the room, using the outer wall as his guide. He wanted no part of the open middle until he had a chance to explore the rest of the vast space. He found a vehicle tucked in a far corner, one he had not thought he would ever see again in his lifetime. It was a golf cart. Because he had no use
for it, he bypassed it completely and continued to explore.
The only entrance or exit he found was the one he had come down. Drizzle sat on his haunches and pondered. Ruben had definitely come this way. The cat had smelled the man's scent, intermingled with Shyanne's, all the way to the bottom. It went into the vast space. An idea came to his brain and he acted on it.
Going directly to the center of the expansive room, he lifted his nose and took in several deep breaths. The scents of Ruben and Shyanne were still fresh. They were easy to find. He crouched with his nose close to the ground and followed the trail to where it disappeared into a wall. No door was visible, but Drizzle knew one had to be there, just like at the top of the stairs. The scent of the people he tracked could not have just disappeared.
The cat stared at the wall. It was smooth, made of some kind of material unknown in the present world. No seams or creases showed. Even with his cat sight, he could not see any kind of opening mechanism. In frustration, he glanced up one more time and spotted what he had missed before. A small indentation the width of a straw was barely noticeable halfway up. He stood on his hind legs, put his front hands on either side of the indent, and sniffed. The scent of Ruben was strong, so strong it made the lips of the cat curl into a snarl.
This is where they went inside, and so shall I.
He tried to put one of his digits into the indent; it would not fit. He tried each one on both hands and came up with the same results. They were too fat and stubby. He rumbled with frustration at not being able to get in, and sat on his haunches, staring at the spot as if the power of his will alone would force it to open.
He started to pace back and forth to release some pent up frustration, and to think. Abruptly, he stopped, reached one of his hands upward and fanned it wide. A claw extended out from one of his digits. He looked at it, then at the indentation.
Standing on his hind legs once more, he poked the claw into the indentation. A seam slowly appeared next to the spot where Drizzle had put the claw. A matching one appeared a short distance away from the original. In an instant, the door disappeared into the wall. A shaft of light lit up the vast room, confirming it was empty except for the golf cart.
A long, wide hall with many doors showed beyond the opening. A slight humming filled his ears and a vibration almost too faint to notice ran throughout. This place had a familiar feel to it, a feel that the cat did not care to remember. It was the lab where he had been kept prisoner until the twin's father had brought him home. Drizzle remained outside the hall, watching and listening. When he heard no other sounds except the initial ones, he slid inside.
The door, which had remained open while he was near it, slid closed with a faint puff of air after he had gone a few paces down the hall. He spun around, ready for an attack. Nothing occurred so he turned back the way he'd been heading and started past the doors. These doors were easily seen, each with the same indentations. No sound came from any of the rooms he passed. Whoever had lived here appeared to be gone now.
Another door similar to the one he entered through was at the opposite end of the hall. Drizzle put his claw in and the door opened in a similar fashion. The humming sound was louder. It reminded the cat of something from a long time ago, the sound of machinery working. That seemed impossible for this day and age. Anyone he knew who possessed the knowledge to run them, much less do the maintenance on them, was dead. The last person died 200 years ago. So who was running them now?
The room was as vast as the empty one, with two exceptions: it wasn't empty, and there were doors on three of the four walls. Boxes of various sizes were haphazardly piled near the wall closest to the cat. More boxes of varying size were spread about the rest of the room. A generator the size of a small house stood in the middle. A large belt similar to the kind used by cars long ago ran along the side of the generator on large metal wheels with grooves molded in them to hold it.
Drizzle followed its progress and saw the belt cause another smaller belt, that reached toward the distant ceiling above, to spin around its own set of wheels. His association with Shyanne's family during the time before the virus allowed him to recall the similarities between this machine and the ones used by automobiles. He remembered seeing her father work on his truck many times, jumping up on the fender to watch whenever the young ones tried to help.
Drizzle was still pondering how the machine was running, since he could not smell any traces of gasoline, when he heard a door across the room slide open. Ruben entered with another being next to him. The cat ducked behind a stack of boxes before he was spotted. He watched as they approached.
"What do we do now? Are you going to be able to use the girl to your advantage?"
"That remains to be seen, doesn't it?” whispered the stranger draped in a long, flowing, black cape with the hood pulled up to hide the face.
"We've got a good association going here and I'd hate to see it come to an end."
"Don't be so hasty into thinking it's going to end soon. We have the girl, and with that, the means to find a solution to my problem."
"I hope so. Is it going to take much longer?"
"That also remains to be seen."
The pair made their way to another door on the opposite wall. The robed figure reached out with an object, a thin rod extending from it, and put it into the indentation. The door slid silently inside the wall, closing behind them once they were through. Before it did, the cat caught a glimpse of what lay beyond. It was filled with machines that looked like the ones used in the lab where he was born: the medical ones.
Drizzle pondered on the odd conversation between Ruben and the stranger, and tried to make sense of it, but could not. What he had witnessed in the other room was disturbing, as well. The cat was about to return to Drayco so he could discuss the situation with him when a whirring noise halted him in his tracks. He looked up to see a flying silver object that looked like a ball with a camera mounted on it float into the room. It entered through the door the men used when they had first come in.
The large, round lens spun as the machine flew around the room, focusing on different objects. No visible means of flight was evident as it hovered near his hiding spot. The cat remained as still as a statue. The boxes surrounding him saved him from detection, so far. If it flew around the stack, he would be out in the open.
All of a sudden, a crash came from another set of boxes stacked along the opposite wall. The floating camera shot in that direction, away from the cat's hiding place. A couple of smaller boxes, which had been stacked on bigger ones, rolled across the floor. Drizzle raised his head enough to see a huge, rat-like creature slink around the bigger boxes toward the smaller ones.
The floating camera hovered over it, watching. The rat thing looked up, wriggled its nose, and moved on after deeming it was not a food item. One side of the ball opened and a small, jointed robotic arm unfolded from inside. The arm focused on the rat. A bright ray of light shot from its end. Where the creature had been a second ago, nothing but a small pile of ash remained.
Drizzle could hear the whirring of the lens as the floating ball hovered over the pile. When nothing moved, it floated off toward the door Ruben and the strange person had disappeared through.
It put the tip of the arm into the indentation, causing the door open. Again, Drizzle could see what appeared to be medical equipment beyond. This time he noticed something else. Before the door closed, cutting off any further views, he glimpsed the head of a person with strawberry blonde hair lying on a table.
Shyanne.
The big cat waited until he was certain the floating ball was gone before moving out from behind the boxes. He crossed the room and inspected the ash pile. Nothing discernible of the creature remained. He decided it would be too risky to enter the other room alone, especially with the floating orb of death inside. He retraced his steps down the hall with many doors to the big, empty space with the golf cart. Darkness enveloped him as the door closed, but he was already heading toward the s
tairs leading to the inn. As he neared, a voice came out of the darkness. It was Drayco.
"Did you find her, Drizzle?"
He remained silent.
"Are you sure he's there?” Joseph asked.
"He's there. I ask again, did you find her?"
"Yes. She is in the company of the mercenary leader and a stranger dressed in a cloak that hides all from view."
"Anything else?"
"A strange floating ball that kills with a ray of light protects them."
"What did you say? A ball that floats? Are you mad?” Joseph flicked on the flashlight. The sudden light caused the men to look away until their eyes adjusted to the brightness.
The cat emitted a low, guttural growl at Joseph.
"Enough,” Drayco said. “Anything else?"
"It looks like they have her in a room attached to some kind of medical machines."
"What? We have to get her out of there, now, before they kill her!” Joseph jumped to his feet, dropping the flashlight in his haste to get up, causing it to go out. Both Drayco and the cat could hear him shuffling around in the darkness as he tried to find it.
"Joseph, stop. If they wanted to, they could have killed her a long time ago. They have some reason for needing her and she has to be alive."
Drayco's voice was soft, but firm. He picked up the dropped flashlight, which had rolled to a stop at his feet, turned it on and pointed it toward the distraught man. Joseph held his hand up to shield his eyes from the sudden brightness. Once his vision adjusted, he moved next to the dark man and sat down.
"What do you want to do?” The man had a wild look in his eyes, but he was under control enough to listen to Drayco.
"We need to check out this floating ball first. If it is as deadly as Drizzle says, we need to find a way to take it out. Drizzle, tell me everything you witnessed."
The cat sat on his haunches and told the men all he had heard from Ruben, the Boss, and about the floating orb. When he finished, Drayco leaned back and interlocked his fingers behind his head.
