Island of the Gods

by C. M. Kane

  This time, to avoid injury, Tae employed the same tactic she had used on Trevor, she dropped to her haunches and lashed out with her boot. She hit the side of his knee and heard the snap as his kneecap dislocated, he fell in a screaming heap as she rolled away again. She stood up and quickly assessed the situation, as adrenalin continued to pump through her, the man simply lay there, gurgling and dying. Her mind quickly noticed that he had to have killed before in order to have the two knives he had carried, but she couldn’t see any water bottles. His vid-ball was staring down at him as he stilled, its blue light roaming up and down his body.

  She turned and jogged over to the spot where he had emerged from, about three metres in she found three water bottles and four protein bars stacked neatly on the ground. She quickly pocketed the protein bars and checked the water bottles. One was full, the other two were empty. Tae grabbed them anyway and returned to the man where she put them in a heap along with her stakes.

  The vid-ball emitted a series of clicks and its light turned off, she knew this meant he was now dead. The ball turned to face her, as they always did after a battle, she lifted her head and looked back at it, thinking. She was angry and scared out of her mind, but she wanted to send a defiant message to anyone that might be hoping for her death, so she raised her fist and, ever so slowly, extended her middle finger. The classics never got old.

  The vid-ball zoomed off into the distance, its mission complete.

  She knew what she had to do next, keeping her mind as blank as possible, she knelt down and removed his jacket. She studiously ignored the blood down the front of it and on the collar as she searched the pockets. She found another protein bar, that went straight into her stash. Next were his pants pockets, but she found nothing else that could be useful. The knife he had carried was some generic thing and incredibly blunt. She left it, her sharpened sticks were better. She then rolled him over, trying desperately to ignore the glassy eyes staring into a world he would never see again, because of her.

  Screw him, he’s already killed at least two people with intentions of making me number three. Now was not the time to think about what had just happened, she had work that needed to be done. Finding nothing in his back pockets she quickly stripped his belt then left him, going over to retrieve the knife he had dropped earlier. It was a large kitchen knife similar to the one she had intended to bring from home, not as sharp as hers though. She took it to her little pile.

  After a moment’s deliberation she quickly cut three holes across the bottom of his coat and threaded the belt through, then cut another two holes midway up on either side and with a further two at the top, then threaded the belt through and buckled it. By the time she had finished, she had fashioned herself a bag of sorts, she then put the water bottles inside it along with the kitchen knife. Picking up her own knife and the bag she walked to the tree line, leaving the two bloodied stakes and the dead man behind. She knew a retrieval team would be there soon to collect him. It was time for her to go.

  Tae then started to move away from the scene of her first kill, she only managed to jog for ten minutes before she had to stop. Tears were now pouring down her cheeks as the full realisation of what she had just done finally hit her. She began trembling as if she was in the grip of a fever, this was quickly followed by violent retching. As her stomach had next to nothing in it, it wasn’t long before she was simply dry-heaving and gasping for breath. She slid her back down a tree trunk until she was sitting. I’ve just killed a man, she thought in shock as her body continued to shake violently. Theoretically she knew the man had been intent on murdering her, but killing him and then living with it, were two entirely different things. She sat a further five minutes, allowing herself time to come to terms with what had just happened.

  I had to, she thought desperately as she glanced down at the blood on the bag, only to realise she had blood from his arterial spray on her hands, as well as across her own jacket and shirt. She remembered the fight again, the warmth on her face as she’d driven the stakes into his neck. She raised a trembling hand to her cheek, it came away red. She sucked in some more air as she leant over and started to dry-retch again.

  After she finally stopped she pushed herself up once more and wiped her mouth, slowly regaining her shattered composure. Well, it’s done. At least it was reasonably quick, he could have died a much worse death. Besides, I doubt the bastard even gave a thought to my death before he attacked. No, he just came running at me, like he was some kind of berserker. He was as good as dead in here anyway, she told herself sternly.

  Despite still feeling decidedly shaky she made herself stand again. She still had a job to do and the brown-skinned man might not be the last person she faced. She hadn’t attacked anyone as yet, he had attacked her. He’d left her with no choice. He would have killed her without a seconds hesitation, and she’d be damned if she’d feel guilty because she’d chosen life.

  Brohan had tried to prepare her she realised, but until you had to fight and kill to survive, you could never truly conceive of all that went with it. Something shifted inside her, an innocence and naivety that had been the mark of her youth was now gone forever, shattered with the plunging of a two stakes, and although she didn’t think she could ever deliberately attack anyone, she realised she would kill again without moment’s hesitation if need be. She silently acknowledged the sorrow and shame she felt at what she’d had to do, and then pushed it aside. The man had made his choice and now he was dead, she wasn’t. It was time to move on.

  She washed the blood off of her hands and face with a little of the spare water then opened a full protein bar and added it to the half bar left over from that morning, she had extra rations now and needed the energy.

  After finishing them and having another long drink she put her bottle in the improvised bag with the rest and hoisted her arm through the holes so it hung from her shoulder.

  She reached down and grabbed her knife then started jogging in the direction of the volcano, her eyes scanned around restlessly as she watched and listened for any sound that could mean danger. She still had the unsettling feeling she was being watched, but now she didn’t care. If she was being watched they hadn’t intervened to either help or hinder her, so they were unimportant for the moment. If someone made him or herself known she would deal with them then. Since her first brush with death on the mountain she had decided it was one problem at a time, that’s all there was in her new world, just one problem at a time.

  She continued on until dusk, trying to put as much distance between herself and the mountain as possible. If a god wanted her dead then she had just given them her location. The only thing she could do about it now was run, so she kept up the pace Brohan had set for her: jog an hour, walk an hour.

  Fatigue had become a major feature in her life, she could now only move by force of will. Her legs ached and she was starving, the protein bar and a half she had eaten earlier as her reward hadn’t even made a small dent in her hunger. She needed food, and so far she had seen nothing even remotely edible, not that she’d been looking overly hard. Setting a good pace had been her main objective, until now. Back to the original plan, she thought. Every time she walked now she kept an eagle eye out for something that might be edible. After an hour into her flight, just to add to her misery, it had begun to drizzle steadily.

  It wasn’t until the sky began to darken again that Tae finally found what she had been searching for, a large clump of Salsify. She dropped to her knees and undid the bag, after quickly withdrawing the carving knife she set to work in a frenzy of digging. She finished up with seventeen roots, a seriously good haul.

  After she had the roots safely tucked away in her bag she looked at the ground in dismay. This wasn’t something she would be able to hide easily so she didn’t bother, choosing instead to just smooth it flat and hope for the best. She looked around the small clearing, she was tired and needed to find some form of shelter as soon as possible before she collapsed.

 
There had been an additional scream that she’d heard as she was running today and it had sounded uncomfortably close, obviously she had reached another of the jumper’s territories. If she remembered correctly, Brohan had said that there were hot springs scattered around this area, as well as some small caves. Right about now I could definitely use a cave and a hot bath, she thought wearily as she continued moving through the seemingly endless forest. As darkness closed in on her she stopped and found a tree with a low-hanging branch. This time she was going to do exactly as Brohan had advised her. After scattering loose twigs and branches all around the area in the rapidly fading light, she climbed up the tree and wedged herself between two branches that were close together. She was only about three metres up, but that was as far as she was prepared to go in case she fell out during the night.

  Settling her bag on her lap and opening it, she took out eight of the tubers, then she cleaned each one carefully with the bottom of her t-shirt before starting to eat her evening meal. Although she could still taste the dirt on them, their odd taste made her mouth water and her stomach growl in response to her wonderful impromptu feast. After finishing her meal she finally felt sated for the first time since her first day on the Island. She opened her bottle and drank the last of its water. One bottle left, that meant she had to find somewhere to refill. Packing it away again, she hooked the bag over a broken branch.

  According to the maps she and Brohan had studied she should reach a river sometime tomorrow. After the river it was a day and a half to the escarpment. Once she climbed it there was only thirty or so kilometres to the volcano, probably thirty-five by the time she reached the Pyre.

  Just two and a half more days after the river, she told herself. I can do this. I just have to stay strong, stay focused. She knew that she was a reasonable swimmer, but she still silently prayed that this rain hadn’t turned a gentle summer’s stream into an impassable monster by the time she reached it. She pulled her legs up under her coat and the hood of the jacket down over her head in an effort to keep warm. It had stopped raining again but the cloud cover kept the forest dark and foreboding.

  Tomorrow, she thought, as she let herself drift. Tomorrow.

  CHAPTER 25

  Zeus was definitely getting annoyed. What had started as a pleasurable little mystery that he’d intended to solve was turning into a nightmare, he was up to his neck in gods. Thor seemed intent on drinking his entire supply of wine and mead, and would try for the nymphs when he found out about them. And now Poseidon, of all people, had turned up.

  Zeus had excused himself not long after Poseidon’s battle cruiser, the Atlantis, had appeared, and Poseidon being Poseidon, had just hung around out there silently, not even bothering to contact him. He, Zeus, was supposed to be in charge. Bastard! He loved his brother but he was sick and tired of getting the blame for what Loki had supposedly done to him. So, he had trapped almost the entire Thalien Warrior Caste, and therefore most of Poseidon’s own personal army, under some sort of distortion bubble, and that only Loki knew what the key to unlocking it was. What was Zeus supposed to do about it? He certainly couldn’t let him destroy his friendship with Loki, Odin and Thor over it, perhaps even start a war between them all. Zeus had fully intended to talk to Loki and get him to release them, knowing Loki‘s sense of humour he had probably just been trying to wind Poseidon up. Mission accomplished. He‘s been in a sulk for over nine hundred years! He thought angrily.

  How in Hades’ name was he to know Loki would go and get himself killed on Terra? He wasn’t a damn seer, but nooooo Poseidon had blamed him for Loki dying. Or to be more specific, he had blamed Zeus for not allowing him to find and torture Loki to find out how to release the trapped warriors. This would have been followed at the very least by them having a serious brawl of some kind. Sometimes he was pretty sure Poseidon was angrier at Loki for dying before he could fight him, than at losing his warriors in the first place, and now here he was just sitting out there refusing to speak. Arsehole!

  Zeus had decided to come back to the Olympus to take his frustrations out on the nymphs, leaving the other gods to continue drinking their way through his supply of alcohol. Odin was definitely right about Thor, the man was a bottomless pit. Zeus was sure that if Thor had his way, he would be bedding Isis before their little visit was through, and if not Isis then certainly Baste. Hell he’d looked as though he’d jump a slow moving Gnargoth (a large goat like creature that inhabited Thall) he was so wound up after Isis had entered the pavilion.

  He stripped and lay back on the bed, relaxing. First he summoned Tannan to find out what, if any, progress had been made regarding the girl. He also wanted to see if the vampire had any suggestions about what to do with all his brethren, especially what the hell he was supposed to do about Poseidon, who continued to lurk around out there. He sighed heavily. Family!

  Tannan voice came over the doors receiver and he entered at Zeus’ command.

  ‘Any progress?’ Zeus asked, leaning against his pillows.

  Tannan moved towards him, nodding. ‘Yes, my lord. I have found out that she personally hacked into the Thortown Hospital’s mainframe and swapped her name and details for another woman’s in a nearby town who was turning eighty on the day the present Island began. I have rectified the situation with the other woman, but only a god is able to reactivate nanites once they have been turned off.’ At Zeus’ look he continued, ‘I wouldn’t reactivate them as yet, we aren’t sure whether her plan might necessitate the need for her to be of greater age, so to do so might be jumping the gun, so to speak.’

  Zeus nodded. ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Yes, my lord. I have tracked a WLE jumper to the residence of Tae Rames on the day the mother and brother supposedly left. I then traced the pilots back to the WLE Headquarters. They were two Thalien, my lord. Interestingly enough, one of them was the orange one from the vid. I am still in the process of locating the whereabouts of the second one, but he does go by the same surname as the first, so I’d hazard a guess that they’re relatives of some description.

  I also found orders for the mission in the WLE computer system. They are supposedly from the commander, but these are, in my opinion, false. Their system has been hacked, and unlike the girl, who-ever did this definitely knows how to cover their tracks. That is all the information that was obtainable. We did however have a bit of luck with the jumper, my lord. I traced it from the residence straight to a warehouse. I sent Martin, one of your more discreet hunters, to snoop around. He found that although they were no longer there, two occupied sleepers had been transferred to another jumper, along with the missing thalien. He is now tracing where the jumper went, hopefully we will know where they are within the next thirty-four hours.’

  Zeus smiled. ‘Well at least that’s something.’ He twirled a strand of his blonde hair around his fingers absently. ‘I don’t suppose you have any suggestions as to what the hell I’m to do with that lot down in the pavilion? And let’s not forget my erstwhile brother who’s skulking about up here,’ he muttered testily.

  Tannan nodded. ‘I have been thinking about that, my lord, and I think it may be time to make the best of a bad situation.’

  Zeus frowned. ‘How so?’

  Tannan braced himself knowing how his lord would react to what he was about to say. ‘I think it’s time to invite Poseidon down to the pavilion.’

  Zeus jumped up. ‘Are you mad? We’d have a brawl between him and either Thor or Odin, or more likely all three, within ten seconds of him setting foot in the place. They won’t stand for any bitching about Loki now that he’s dead, and you know Poseidon, he won’t be able to help himself.’

  ‘I don’t think so, my lord. Not if you invite him down and tell them all what has occurred.’

  Zeus stared at Tannan, thunderstruck. ‘I thought I was supposed to be keeping this secret and protecting her,“to shake the tree up a bit”, I believe you said, or something to that effect.’

  Tannan nodded patiently. ‘You wer
e, my lord, but obviously we shook a few too many apples loose. If you tell everyone what is going on, including the fact that you have personally sent in Vesh as protection against any outside interference then, then if one of them is interfering, they won’t dare move against the girl, it would be tantamount to declaring war on you.’

  Zeus sat down again, a thoughtful expression on his face. ‘You’re right of course, but there’s also something else that has been bothering me.’

  Tannan looked at him enquiringly, ‘my Lord?’ he said, as he was holding his ear again, a habit he had picked up that surfaced every time he received a message.

  ‘I find myself thinking that maybe it’s not a question of who is here, maybe it’s more of a question of who isn’t.’

  Tannan frowned. ‘Lord Ares,’ he breathed.

  Zeus looked at him, his eyes narrowed. ‘Yes. I have five battle cruisers appear within a few hours of my arrival, all stating the same thing; they followed because I arrived here on full battle alert. So just where is the supposed god of war hiding out?’

  Tannan nodded slowly, ‘You’re right of course, my lord, and ah … there are now six battle cruisers.’

  Zeus clasped his head as if in pain. ‘Who?’

  Tannan looked with sympathy at his god, their plan now lay in shreds around them. ‘It’s the Cerberus, my lord. It seems Hades couldn’t miss out on a family reunion, he’s already signalled the pavilion that both he and Persephone will be joining them shortly.’ Zeus groaned but Tannan continued. ‘I think the plan to tell them is the most viable option open to you. After all, it’s not as if it’s a great conspiracy, you are merely having a little fun and looking into a few questions that have been raised regarding this young woman, which of course anyone in your position would. Besides which,’ he continued, ‘for all intents and purposes, not one of them seem to be in the slightest bit interested in moving. In fact, I just intercepted a message from the pavilion to the Idris ordering more mead, wine and food to be brought down. It seems they’re settling in for the long haul.’