Clan World

by Jim Kochanoff

  “Important?” He was distracted and knocked a metal object to the floor. “Where have you been that you don’t understand the significance of his death. Is your clan so stupid…?

  “We’re pretty removed,” I stammered.

  “Because of his death, all the bigger clans are jockeying for his position on council. Luther not only provided leadership, he provided unity. Under his direction, the clans have lived in a time of peace. Clans traded with each other when they used to fight against one another. Now, with him gone, who knows what is going to happen?”

  “It’s not my fault!” I yelled. “When I heard him speak at the meeting, it was for the first time. Even if I was this amazing sharpshooter, I could never kill anyone. You have to believe me!” His eyes danced around like he was considering my sincerity. He said nothing; even if he believed me, I doubted he would help.

  “Can I listen to the radio some more, Billy?” I asked, trying a new name. I wanted to listen to Luther and learn more about him.

  My captor said nothing, but he did go back to the radio to find the channel again. He fiddled for a minute but couldn’t get the station. He shrugged. “Must be getting close to the wastelands. Radio reception usually goes as we get closer.”

  “Wastelands?”

  “Do you not travel at all from your home? THE. WASTE. LANDS. A barren desert that is strictly forbidden to cross. Dust cyclones can appear at any time and people disappear and never come back.

  “Why? What happens if you enter?”

  “No one knows, because no one ever comes back. It’s important to travel around the outlying areas and not go through.”

  “Hope you have a good navigator,” I commented.

  “The best. Dad?” he yelled forward. A moment later, the tarp moved and a man with dark hair and a beard gazed back at us. He looked mostly at his son with a backward glance at me.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Fine. Are we getting close to the meeting place?”

  “Soon.” Not much of a talker.

  “Are you going to ask if I’m okay? Maybe tell me your son’s name?” I yelled, hoping to get a reaction. And I did, just not one I expected. His father seemed scared. Like talking to a girl was terrifying. He couldn’t respond. His son answered for him.

  “Don’t worry about her.” He waved his hand, like he was dismissing his dad. He took the message and went back to the front of the van. What the? This whole family is weird.

  “What is up with your dad? I can see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” I was being mean, but being tied up was not making me feel very pleasant.

  “My dad is autistic. He doesn’t talk well with people he doesn’t know.”

  “Maybe he just needs to get to know me.” My lack of sensitivity would make most people mad. Not this guy.

  “It takes a long time for him to get to know people and even longer to like them. You’d be surprised at how my parents first met.”

  “Try me. I’m not going anywhere. At least not until you give me away.” He smirked again; he was easy to make laugh. This guy was holding me against my will, so why couldn’t I dislike him more?

  “Why do you want to know?” he asked as if I was just humoring him.

  “Because my dad held back a lot about my mom, and I didn’t get to know her very well. So come on, spill it,” I commanded, and he shrugged.

  “Okay. Spider clan is small — maybe only a couple hundred members. Most people knew each other. My dad’s autism made clan members treat him as if something was wrong with him. He won’t look you in the eye. Unless he knows you, he rarely will talk or engage you. Because of this, he didn’t have many friends. In my dad’s case, he had one.”

  “And did that friend try to set him up with your mom?”

  “My dad’s friend tried to go out with my mom.” He noticed my look. “Oh yeah, this isn’t love at first sight. My mom dated my dad’s friend for a while, and initially Dad was aloof with her. It took him weeks before he accepted her as a friend and became more comfortable with her.”

  “That’s awkward. Was your dad’s friend comfortable with all of this?”

  “Yeah, and the three of them became inseparable. You didn’t see one without the other two. And my dad began to care more deeply for my mom. And my mom about my dad.” The van lurched suddenly, and I felt my body move forward against my bonds. The engine came to a stop.

  “What happened, Colin?” I asked, a bit intrigued by his story. He got up and walked toward the tarp between us and the cab.

  “You know what they say, three’s a crowd.” He gave one of his smiles that was neither mean nor sweet. “And my name is Lucaz.” At least I know his name now. It suits him.

  He unclipped me from my prison, but my hands and feet remained bound. I wasn’t going anywhere should I escape from him. I ducked my head under the tarp while we exited the van. The scenery had changed completely. The lushness of the woods was gone, replaced by a barren, lifeless land that could have been on the moon. Small, sandy hills dotted the landscape, with-crater like holes scooped out of the land.

  “Why are stopping here?” I asked, staring across the plain. From the dust rising off the ground, I saw there was another clan approaching us.

  “Meeting point,” he answered. “Time to pass you on and get paid.”

  I squinted, but I couldn’t see details of the nearing clan. Lucaz had said that he was handing me off to the Hunter clan. Could this be them?

  I saw large beasts with their riders. There was no doubt which clan this was.

  Then I saw who was in front. He stared in our direction like a bull focused on its target. The boy who had accused me of killing Luther. I wasn’t sure if he would hurt me, or worse. I barely knew him but hated him just the same.

  Abraham was coming for me.

  12

  Enemies

  The beast’s hot breath smelled like dead meat. It paced around me as if sizing up another meal. But Abraham’s smile identified him as the true predator.

  “Well, look who’s finally been caught. How did you do it, Lucaz? She’s a real slippery one.” The three of us stood outside of Lucaz’s van. The Spider and Hunter clans milled around us but kept their distance. I was Abraham’s prize, and he wasn’t sharing me with anyone.

  “One of my traps — she basically ran right into it with her friends.”

  “Are Tuko and Jinn here?” Abraham looked around.

  “No — I let Armor clan know, and I’m sure they got them out. Had a feeling they might try to follow us, but our scouts haven’t noticed anyone.” Lucaz was casual. I couldn’t get a read if he liked Abraham, or if I was strictly a business transaction.

  “In case either one of you cared, I’m trapped against my will and charged for a crime I had nothing to do with.” I pulled against my leather bonds, but they were unrelenting. I hated this situation and wished I had never left home.

  “Did you see her kill Luther?” Lucaz asked. “How did she do it?”

  “With a rifle,” Abraham answered, avoiding the first question and staring straight at me. “You killed a great man. I hope you are ready to answer for your crimes.”

  “And you are full of crap. I have never fired a rifle in my life. If you asked me, you fired the gun and you and your clan blamed me.” He looked at me and I couldn’t see the slightest reaction of guilt. He’d make a great poker player.

  “And the guilty always claim they are innocent. Funny that no one from your clan has come forward to support you. Wonder why that is?”

  Snap. He has me there. Lucaz peered at me like he’d bought Abraham’s argument.

  “Yet the Armor clan members that I was with support my innocence. Guess that cancels you out!” I shot back. I hit a nerve, because he pulled on my bonds, jerking my head back.

  “You’ll have time to prove your innocence when we get to the Cradle. The council will decide what to do.” Lucaz put his arm on Abraham’s. “What?” he said defiantly.

  “
Time for supper. My dad is preparing our meal. You are welcome to join us.”

  “No.” Abraham shot a glance back at his own vehicles and at a campfire that was burning bright. “Make sure she stays tied up. Hunter clan will post sentries tonight to make sure she remains secure and no dust storms blow in.” He grasped my chin with his hand. “I’m going to march you into the Cradle myself. Have a nice meal.” He shot me a crazy smile and walked back through the desert to his clan.

  “He must be better with animals than with people,” I said.

  Lucaz smiled. “He can be pretty intense. Runs in the family.” He took the bonds off my legs so I could walk and we marched to a nearby fire. The sun had dipped in the horizon and the sky had a majestic orange tinge. I contemplated making a break for it. I knew I could run fast, but to where? I was in the middle of a desert wasteland with no food or water, hands tied behind my back and dozens of unfriendly clan members who could scoop me up. I needed to be patient, find out more about my surroundings. Wait for the right moment.

  I sat by the fire on a rock while Lucaz remained beside me, holding a rope to my bonds. I felt like a kid at daycare that the teachers wanted to make sure didn’t run away. They weren’t wrong.

  “Hungry?” Lucaz asked.

  “Starving. I could eat a dinosaur.” His father stirred the pot and pulled out fatty meat in gravy. A gust blew into the flames, and the fire grew for a second. I noticed that his father handed both bowls to Lucaz instead of one to each of us. It felt like he barely acknowledged I was there. However, the smell from the bowl made me forget about the insult and I almost drooled.

  “Then it’s your lucky night,” Lucaz answered, and I couldn’t tell if he was joking. Once I took my first taste, I didn’t care. It was better than any steak I had back home. Maybe this world had some redeeming qualities after all. I ate in silence while Lucaz smirked at me. If he had given me a knife, I probably would have sliced the smirk right off his face.

  “Do you have a problem?” I asked between gulps.

  “Yes, she’s in front me.”

  “Funny guy. Once you hand me off to beast boy, I guess your problem is gone.”

  “Maybe,” he answered enigmatically. Why did every answer infuriate me further? I thought of something.

  “Tell me, smart guy. Why do you think that more things are breaking down and fewer and fewer people are able to fix them?” Lucaz just shrugged as if he had no idea. His father perked up, though, and spoke to me for the first time.

  “The world is broken,” he stated and stared directly into my eyes. “The world is breaking down.” And just as quickly, he turned away. Lucaz was surprised.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Dad never talks to strangers. He must feel comfortable with you.” I glanced at how his father was sitting with his body angled away. Yeah, he was real comfortable with me. I shivered as the night appeared to get even darker beyond the fire.

  “Maybe he just knows an innocent person. Better than his son,” I dug, hopefully to get some type of reaction from Lucaz. I got nothing. Massive surprise. I felt something gritty blow into my face. The wind was picking up. I brushed it away.

  “Where is home?” I asked innocently, trying to draw some conversation out of him. Both he and his father looked at each other.

  “The back of our truck. Our home was in the south before it was destroyed by animal attacks years ago. We travel town to town, trading what we can. Like a true spider, we bring others to us.” Lucaz smiled at his description.

  His father scowled instead. “No home. No home for the clan,” as he answered as his bowl was whipped out his hand by a gust. He and Lucaz looked at each other with a mix of panic and fear. I wondered if they had noticed the earlier gusts.

  “I’ll lash the van down. Bring whatever supplies you can and throw them in the back,” Lucaz commanded to his father and then pulled hard on my bonds.

  “Ouch! What’s your problem? Why has a bit of wind got you all upset?”

  “Because it’s more than a bit of wind. Look!” He pointed to the west.

  The sky was darker, but I could tell something was twisting. It seemed alive, like a creature with a thousand moving parts. It turned on itself and sand spun out of its center like unwanted body parts. In my home, where the weather was controlled, I had never seen one up close. But I had studied enough history to know what one could look like. This was a tornado.

  “How much time?” I stammered, the wind already whipping dirt into my mouth.

  “Seconds. Minutes. The dust devil comes from nowhere and can lift anything. People have been carried away.”

  Great. If the clans or animals don’t get you, the weather will. I should have called this place “death world” for all the ways you could die. Now my home patrolled by drones for my safety didn’t seem so bad. A metal object flew and imbedded itself in the ground several feet where I had been sitting.

  “Pay attention! We need to get to the back of our van and hunker down until this is over,” Lucaz yelled, but most of his words were drowned out by the wind. I bent my head down and tried to move forward, but the air had become jagged from sand and stone. My bonds were pulled from behind again. I swore. I didn’t know what was more irritating, the death storm or being directed like a dog on a leash. I’d like to pull Lucaz on a rope and see how he’d like it.

  “This wayyyy!” He pointed, but it was getting nearly impossible to see more than a few feet in front of me. The vehicles in the camp swam back and forth in view. I saw our van about a hundred feet to my right and stepped toward it. Then the impossible happened. My next step took me a foot off the ground. Then my left foot did the same. I was floating! The wind howled by my ears as the sand whipped me in the face. I closed my eyes to prevent the grit from getting in. I reached my hands to the sky and felt like a kite about to sail away. Then I felt my bonds pull me back to earth.

  “Come with me, we have to get to cover!” Lucaz screamed in my ear. He grabbed my hand and for a second I almost felt like he cared. Then he dragged me forward. I couldn’t see anything and my sense of direction was completely lost. I had been turned around in the wind and no longer could tell right from left. We stepped forward, then the wind blew us two steps back. It was impossible; we had neither the strength or stamina to fight nature. Working against it was counterproductive. I motioned to Lucaz as I kneeled, which fortunately he seemed to understand and bent down as well. Together, we crawled inches at a time to a destination I couldn’t see if it was right in front of me.

  Talking was impossible, but gestures from Lucaz had us moving toward the van. I moved along the ground, which seemed covered by inches of sand. Suddenly, I pulled my hand back as I touched something sharp. I grasped it gently again and then followed the metal point up to a wooden handle. My hands grabbed the handle, and as I rose, I could make out the features of the holder of the spear. Abraham!

  The wind whipped the three of us into the air. I felt like a leaf with no control over my momentum. The two boys were yelling at each other, but I couldn't hear a word they were saying. The last thing I remembered was floating, hoping my body wouldn't be shattered against the body of a vehicle. Everything went black.

  13

  Wasteland

  I had no idea how long I had lain in oblivion. I felt comfortable, as if my bed had completely contoured to my body. But I knew I had to get up and find out what had happened. Was I still in the camp?

  I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it. Sand pushed into my eyeballs causing me to slam my eyelids shut. Too late. My eyes itched, but my arms felt pinned to my sides, as if a huge weight bore down on them. I screamed and swallowed sand. It was as if every decision I made caused more pain. I used my anger to break free, but it got me nowhere. I was exhausting myself while every opening in my body was about to suck in more sand. I calmed down, willing myself not to panic. I shifted right, then left. My body didn't move much, but I had some wiggle room on my left.

  Like a drowning victim,
I felt like I had no air. Was I dreaming, or was I being tortured? My fingers moved and I began to make a fist. Slowly my hands, then my wrist could move. Then I began bucking my head backward and pushed myself up, like I was rising from a grave. I felt cool air on my forehead as I pulled myself upward. My lungs screamed and I coughed up a mouthful of sand. It didn't matter — I was overjoyed to breathe fresh air.

  Then I turned and stared into Lucaz’s face. Blood flowed down from his temple and he looked the way I felt. Terrible.

  “About time you dug yourself out of there. Abraham got out a few minutes ago.”

  “Might have gone quicker if you actually helped,” I stated, pulling my arms up and trying to disengage my legs from the sand. What is touching me?

  “Why are you scratching my back?” The sensation was growing stronger.

  “I'm not touching you,” he whined, like the thought repulsed him. The scratching grew sharper and was traveling down my back.

  “Get off me!” I screamed to no one and reached under my shirt. Something scurried in my hand as I gripped it tightly. It sailed through the air and crashed onto the rock. I watched as it tottered on four legs with claws and scurried under the rocks.

  “Sand crabs,” said Lucaz. “They’re nasty things if they clip you. Almost like a paper cut,” he joked, amused by my panic.

  “Thanks for your concern. Aren’t you worried that your precious little hostage will get hurt?”

  “Reward is for dead or alive. Just so happens that you’re worth more alive so they can question you.”

  “Ha. Lot of good that’s going to do.” Like they’ll believe anything I have to say. “So, where are we? Where’s your father and our camp?”

  “Safe, I think. I saw him get to the van before we got blown away. The vehicle’s weight should have kept him and the others protected.”

  “And us?”

  “I don’t know where we are. The sky is too hazy to make out the sun in order to determine direction. Maybe by night we can figure out how to get out of here.”