Blood

by Cheryl Twaddle

  “But how are you going to kill this man?” asked Emma Lee. “If he surrounds himself with men who think he’s their saviour, how are you going to get close enough to kill him?”

  “You can ask the colonel,” said Billy who had finished his soup and was listening to our conversation.

  “The colonel?” asked Max. I had been so caught up in his return and his news of the Blood Demons and our kiss that I had completely forgotten to tell him about Colonel Al.

  “Yeah,” continued Billy. “He’s a real colonel, too, from the army. He’s been to war and everything! I bet he knows how to do it.”

  “Who is this colonel?” asked Max.

  Chapter 19

  “I can’t believe you want to go home so much,” Max said. We had told him everything about Colonel Al and his experiments and were now making our way to the mines so he could meet him. I knew he’d have a lot of questions about the colonel but I didn’t think he’d be so upset that I wanted to go back home. I still couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to stay down here and not return to the world we came from. I understood that it wasn’t going to be the same as when they left but it still had to be better than here. There were so many conveniences there like heat, light, running water to name a few. I really missed my hot showers and I could guarantee the others would like them too.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not really meaning it. “I miss my home and I want to go back. Don’t you?”

  “Nicky, I fell down here over three hundred years ago,” he explained. “The home I remember does not exist anymore. The way that world is now would be just as foreign to me as this world is to you. I’ve had glimpses of what it looks like each time the 360 happens and I don’t think I’d fit in. This is my world now; I’m comfortable here, I know how to live here.”

  “I could show you around,” I said, laughingly but I was upset that he really didn’t want to come with me. “I could help you adapt to the way the world works now. It’s better than here. You don’t have to work so hard to survive.”

  “Nicky, I don’t want to go,” he said and I could see the seriousness in his eyes.

  “Okay, I guess I’ll go alone,” I said and picked up my pace so I didn’t have to walk beside him anymore. I was angry with him for not even giving it a chance. If he thought that I was going to stay here with him, well, there was just no way! My mom and dad were still alive; my friends were still there. I wasn’t even gone for a year. For me, nothing had changed. How could he expect me to stay? I paused for a moment to consider his side. What was I thinking? How could I be so cold? Whoever he knew there died long ago. There, he had nothing; here he had everything. How could I expect him to leave? This was his home now. I silently cursed for letting myself care so much about him. If only I could ignore my feelings for him, I could leave without another thought. I looked back at him and realized he was watching me and, by the look on his face, was just as troubled as I was over this. I smiled and waited for him to catch up.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I guess it’s not really a problem unless we actually figure out how to get back.”

  “You’re right,” he said sounding relieved, “but I do know what it’s like to miss your home and your family. If you have the chance to see them again, I can’t ask you not to take it.”

  “Thank you,” I said. It was all we were going to say about the subject for now.

  When we got to the mines, Max was surprised by how well it was hidden. With a few strategically placed branches, it could disappear altogether. He followed us with apprehension through the tunnels. I could tell he was a little antsy and wondered if he was claustrophobic. It would be out of character for him to be afraid of something. His demeanor changed, though, when we reached the ‘lab’ and he saw his friend with his head hovering over some kind of apparatus, his eyes completely focused on two round tubes.

  “Max!” It was Robert who saw him first and came to him with his hand outstretched to welcome him back. “You’re back! What a pleasant surprise. We were wondering how your journey was going. I’m glad to see you’re okay.”

  “Mate?” Cornelius looked up from the microscope. “Well, I’ll be damned; it is you! Back from the pit of blood I dare say.”

  “You could say that,” Max said. He greeted each of them with a handshake and hug. They were all happy to see him but they also wanted to know about the Blood Demons and if they were, indeed, on their way. Colonel Al stood in the background waiting to be introduced.

  “You must be the colonel,” Max said as he made his way over to him.

  “And you must be the Scottish pirate,” Colonel Al said as he stepped forward and saluted Max. “Colonel Albert Young, United States army. Very pleased to meet you. I have been informed of these Blood Demons and their plans for total destruction of our community. I admire that you have taken the responsibility to act as a scout to ascertain the position of said group and report back to us any information you have obtained.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned! You are definitely a soldier all right,” said Max as he shook the colonel’s hand. “It doesn’t matter what uniform a soldier wears; you all have the same rehearsed greeting. Yes, colonel, I have been on a scouting mission to find the Blood Demons and I have brought back information on their whereabouts and their plans.”

  “Well, sir,” said Colonel Al, “I suggest we all cease our experiments and retreat to my quarters where we can talk and I can make coffee for everyone.”

  “Geez, colonel, you don’t have to be so formal,” I said. “Max is just one of us. You can talk to him just like you talk to us.”

  “I’m sorry.” I could see his expression change and he seemed more relaxed. “It’s just habit to talk to a returning soldier with respect.”

  “But Max isn’t a soldier,” I said.

  “No, but he was on a very important and dangerous mission like any real soldier,” said Colonel Al and I felt bad for calling him out on the way he was talking. He was only being respectful towards Max. I probably should have let him.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “You’re right. Talk to him however you want.”

  “I don’t care how you talk to me,” said Max. “I heard you say coffee and I don’t want to say anymore until I have a cup.”

  They were all sitting around Colonel Al’s room; some on the edge of the bed and some on the floor. Max was drinking a cup of coffee and I could tell he was enjoying it because he smiled after every sip. Robert and Cornelius were having coffee as well but Emma Lee and myself didn’t want one. The colonel didn’t have a lot of coffee left and I wanted him to save it for himself. Besides, the colonel had made me a cup this morning.

  “So, mate,” said Cornelius, “tell us what you’ve discovered.”

  “Okay,” he took in a deep breath, regretting that he had to tell them how much danger they were in. “Let me start by saying that, yes, I did find the Demons. I talked to their leader and I’m afraid the news is not good.” He told the others what he had already told us; that Howling Wolf probably didn’t believe his story about how bad it was here and that he was most likely on his way right now and was bringing an army of a hundred men with him. We were impossibly outnumbered and, if we stayed, would probably be killed. We needed to find a way to defeat them. That’s when he told them about the plan to assassinate Howling Wolf.

  “If we kill their leader,” he explained, “maybe we’ll kill the ideology that inspires these men. It’s our only hope.”

  “Or we could run,” said Emma Lee. “I know these men and what they can do. I’ve seen it. They want to kill people; they love it. It’s what they live for. I don’t think we can get their leader without getting ourselves killed first.”

  “But I’m willing to take that risk,” said Max. “If we leave, we’re giving them an opportunity to continue with their killing. There are others that live around here. I, for one, will not be responsible for leaving them to die under the Demons’ rule.”

  “Then we’ll take them with us,�
�� said Emma Lee.

  “Or, we ask them to help us fight,” said Cornelius.

  “They won’t help,” I said. “Remember when we were gathering people to go fight Pig over the water? None of them wanted to help. They all wanted to stay in their own little bubbles and let us do the dirty work for them. I don’t think they’ll take this threat any differently.”

  “Nicole is right,” said Robert who, until now, had been silent. “Nobody is going to help us and we can’t just leave and hope that the Demons will pass them by. I think we should try to kill their leader. Max is right, it’s our only chance. Now, let’s stop wasting time arguing about it and figure out how to do it.”

  We talked for another twenty minutes trying to come up with a plan to kill Howling Wolf. We all agreed that it would be almost impossible to get to him. Maybe a child would be able to infiltrate his ranks without suspicion but Colonel Al was strongly opposed to such a ploy. This was what the Viet Cong did and he refused to be like them. No child would be used as an assassin, not while he breathed the air around him. We couldn’t use Max because he was supposed to be on his way to the beaches of California. In fact, using one of the men would be too risky. Howling Wolf would see any man from here as a threat. We were running out of options.

  “I’ll do it,” I said. It was really our only choice.

  “No!” Max was the first to respond. “Nicky, no, it would be way too dangerous. You don’t know what this man is capable of.”

  “Yeah I do,” I said, touched that he was worried about me and angry that he was worried about me. I wasn’t some weak little girl. If a man could assassinate this guy, then so could I. “How could I not know what he’s capable of? You guys keep telling me. This guy, Howling Wolf? He sees, he wants, he kills, he takes. That about sum it up?”

  “Y-yeah,” Max answered, always shocked with how I could get to the point so quickly.

  “Ok, then, by process of elimination, I’m the only one left,” I said. “So, I’ll get close to him and I’ll kill him.”

  “What about me?” asked Emma Lee and I could see that breaking into the Blood Demons camp was the last thing she wanted to do but I admired her attempt at volunteering.

  “No,” I said, “it can’t be you. He’d recognize your accent and know that you’re from the south and probably know about his attack on the mine community. He’ll know you’ll be seeking revenge.”

  “She’s right, pet,” said Cornelius who stepped forward to take her hand.

  “Then, it’s settled,” I said. “I’ll kill this wolf guy.”

  “Howling Wolf,” corrected Max who still wasn’t happy to let me do this. I could tell that he would have a lot to say the next time we were alone.

  “Okay, now that that’s out of the way,” I wanted to change the subject as soon as I could, “let’s go show Max what we’re working on. Maybe he can tell us what the rocks are.” Everyone agreed and we started to make our way back to the lab.

  “We’re not finished with this,” he whispered to me on our way down the tunnel.

  We stopped in the other rooms and showed him what we were doing with the clocks, the radio, the calendar. We explained it all to him earlier but it was different to actually see it. I could tell he didn’t have a clue what any of it meant. He came here so long ago. He didn’t know what radios were. He practically grew up on a pirate ship and, unlike Cornelius, had never studied any kind of science. He knew how to fight and steal and that was about it. Never, in his life, had he ever looked down a microscope.

  “What is that?” he asked while he stared at a sample of rock being magnified a thousand time.

  “It’s a piece of rock,” explained the colonel as he adjusted the small flame under the specimen. It was the only light source we had to actually see the specimen and had to be constantly monitored. If it got to high, it could burn the specimen. If it got to low, you couldn’t see anything.

  “That’s a rock?” He seemed fascinated with it. “Show me.”

  “It’s here,” said Colonel Al, pointing out a dish of crushed rock. He had pounded it down into a powder. “See? It’s been reduced to this form so we could like at it easier.”

  “Wow, that’s impressive.” He reached out and gathered some of the powder in his hand. He looked at it closely and even smelled it. I watched him closely, amused by his child-like fascination with the rock powder. When he was finished, he turned his hand over to pour the powder back into the dish.

  “What the...?” I started, silenced by what I was seeing. The powder in Max’s hand was not going back into the dish. Instead, as he poured it out of his hand, it seemed to make a sudden ninety degree turn in the middle of the air and head for the door. As it did so, the powder that was still in the dish rose up and joined the rest of the powder heading for the door. “What’s it doing?”

  “I don’t know,” Robert said, regaining his speech before the others. “It seems to be leaving.”

  “I see that but how? Why?” I asked.

  “You mean it’s never done this before?” asked Max.

  “No,” Colonel Al had finally found his voice. “Nobody’s ever poured the powder into the air before.”

  We followed the powder through the door and down the tunnel. It kept going as if it knew where it had to be. It went outside and picked up speed in the open air. It headed northeast away from the forest. We tried to run after it but it was too fast; we lost it.

  “Where did it go, go, go?” asked Marshal. “Nicky?”

  “I don’t know,” I said but there was a theory forming in the back of my mind. What if the rock knew how to find the portal? What if that’s what its purpose was? Maybe it could lead us there. We could be home by tomorrow! “I think we should get some more! We can carry it in a bowl and sprinkle more into the air when we lose track of where it’s going.”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” said Marshal. “Nicky, that’s what we should do!” We headed back to the mine to crush up more rock.

  “What if it gets windy out?” asked Billy. “Won’t the wind take it away?”

  “But it’s not windy right now, Billy,” I said, angered that the boy had brought this up. Of course the wind would blow it away, but I didn’t want to think about it. I was convinced that it would take us to the portal and I didn’t want any wind to delay it.

  Twenty minutes later we had all managed to crush enough rock to fill a dish half way. We headed out of the mine. Colonel Al carried the dish, remembering to put his hand over it so the powder couldn’t fly out. When we got to where we had lost the first bit of powder, he reached into the bowl and took a pinch of it and sprinkled it into the air. Again it took a turn and headed northeast.

  “Let’s go!” shouted Marshal. We followed as fast as we could but we didn’t get very far. This powder was going much faster than the first time. We must have looked ridiculous, seven adults, two kids and a dog, we left Cocoa back at the mine and tethered to a tree, chasing a small cloud of powdered rock. I giggled to myself at what the image must look like.

  “What’s so funny?” Max was walking right beside me.

  “We are,” I said. “Running through the woods, chasing rock powder. Who’d have ever thought that’s how we would spend what’s left of the afternoon.”

  “It is a peculiar sight,” he laughed. “But, somehow, I can’t seem to stop.”

  “Me neither,” we both laughed and picked up our pace to keep up with the rock.

  The powder led us out of the trees and into the fields that led to Marshal’s. We were a bit further north but not a lot. It seemed to gain even more momentum over the fields and it wasn’t long before we lost it again. Kitten and Billy started throwing a stick for Barker to play fetch and he started barking as he waited for it to be thrown. Colonel Al reached into the dish and pinched more powder between his fingers. I watched him closely and then felt the air go still around me. A shiver ran up my spine and I looked over to the kids playing with Barker. The sound of a gunshot filled the air and I saw Kitten
fall to the ground. What the...I started to run to the fallen girl.

  “Kit? What’s wrong?” Billy ran to his friend. Another gunshot and Billy went flying through the air as the bullet ripped into his back. He fell face first, dead before he hit the ground. I finally got to Kitten who was being vigorously licked by Barker. Her tiny face was still, here eyes open and empty. Blood covered her coat and I tried to hold back a scream as I reached down to her neck to look for a pulse. There was none. She was gone. I looked to find Billy and saw Emma Lee crying over him. What the hell just happened? Another gunshot and a patch of ground inches from me flew into the air.

  “Come on!” Max grabbed me around the waist and lifted me into the air. “We have to hide!”

  “But Kitten, Billy,” I cried out.

  “They’re dead!” Max shouted. “Everyone, let’s go! They’re here, Howling Wolf, the Demons. Let’s go!”

  We ran for the woods, hearing more gunshots behind us. I didn’t see anyone else go down but I didn’t see everyone either. It was happening so fast and the things around me were a blur. I knew Max was beside me, holding my hand and I could see Barker running ahead of us. I couldn’t see anything else. I guessed we were heading back to the mines to hide in the tunnels but, all of a sudden, I didn’t know the way. Max pulled me along through the trees.

  “Cocoa!” I suddenly remembered our horse tied to a tree with no hope of escape. “We have to get to Cocoa and turn her loose; make her run away through the forest!”

  “We will,” answered Max as if he had thought the very same thing. “We’ll get to the mine, turn her loose, camouflage the entrance and hide inside but we have to hurry. They must have sent out a scouting group to find us and they’re on horseback. It won’t take them long to catch up.”

  “Where are the others?” I still couldn’t see everyone. “Did anyone else get shot?”

  “They’re all heading to the mines. We’re just a little quicker,” he answered. He was watching Barker and following every step the dog took. “Hurry!”