THE EVENT

by Jamie Heppner

  Inside the cabin was dark. Not a single light glowed, but the beast could see almost as well as daytime. The scent of fresh earth was strong inside the cabin. So strong, it filled his nose. He could smell nothing else but the soil. As he looked around for anyone else, a sudden pain filled his head as the blunt end of a staff rammed into the back of his skull. A loud crack broke the air as his own vision faded, and he fell to the earth. The last thing the beast saw was a carpet under the table sagging slighting in the middle, as if a hole were under it.

  There was no other way out of the cabin. The remaining beasts were pulling off the other windows, and the door was shaking with the force of blow after blow. There was no room inside to swing the staff. He threw it down in frustration. It had been going so well. He thought to himself. He spared a glance at the table. It was as he had left it, undisturbed for now. Claws started to reach through the broken windows pulling at the remaining boards. The splintering of wood was all around him as they all worked to get at him inside the cabin. A howl broke from somewhere outside as one of the beasts called out loudly.

  "He is mine to kill, I will lead!" The sound of breaking wood ceased.

  The General seized the moment of silence and burst back out of the cabin, forgetting the staff discarded on the floor. In front of him stood a beast larger than the others, claws stretched from his fingers curled in rage as he stared down at the General standing defiant before him.

  "We are stronger than you...you should have died in the first rush. How do you yet see, how do you live?" The voice that came from his wolf like throat crushed the words as they escaped his lips. He was breathing heavily and his body showed signs of more than a few impacts with a staff. His right eye was swelling fast and would shut soon. The General knew it would be best to strike fast, but was also confused as to the start of this fight. Why had they come here at all?

  "You feel you need to kill me to lead, why? What did I do?"

  "You killed the leader!" The beast started to circle around the General trying to get into a position to attack. "You should have taken his place then but you didn't come. We all waited for you. Still you didn't come. Soon we began to fight amongst ourselves. With no leader, the fights grew daily. Some listened to me, not many. We came here to take the leadership ourselves. Now I will have it!"

  The beast lunged at the General with intent to crush him underneath. The General's hand-to-hand training snapped back to him in an instant and he spun out of the way. Grabbing the beast’s wrist, he pulled hard, and twisted sending the beast flying into the already weakened wall of the cabin. The structure shook violently but held. Not pausing to wait the General leapt on top of the beast and began throwing punches with all the strength he could muster. He didn't get long to try as the beast raised his hand and knocked the General back. The beast’s one eye was now closed shut and blood was running from its mouth. He leapt high once again to land on the General as he scrambled to his feet.

  The blow had knocked the wind out of the General. He was having trouble focusing, but managed to see the beast stand again and lunge through the air again, sticking with its same attack plan. He reached into his boot and pulled free the last dagger he had. As the beast came down on top of him hard, it was trying to wrap its claws around his neck. The General plunged the dagger deep. He knew where to hit, his training came from the best, and even though they didn't look human now, he somehow knew, they were still human inside.

  The dagger found its home deep in the kidney of his attacker. The claws that were tightening around his throat jerked as he struck again then let loose. With a shove, the General pushed the body off him and left it to die, the body twisting in pain.

  He watched as the remaining few werewolves stood motionless. As the beast died beside him his vision snapped back full force, the full light of the sun struck him and he realized how long he had been fighting. The General tilted his head back and let out a giant howl. Much the same as the others had done. His held a slightly more human tone.

  "I will lead!" He yelled at the top of his lungs to the remaining few.

  His yell echoed off the valley walls back to him and he wondered at what he had just said. The werewolves that were still standing all rushed back to the woods as fast as they had come. The General waited a few moments, but the only sounds remaining were the ones he had become accustomed to hearing. The werewolf at his feet had turned back to the form of a human, the deadly wound in its side seeping blood he laid there. Its eyes fogged over as they looked up to the cloudless sky.

  The General turned back inside the cabin when he believed it safe and noticed the body inside was also human. The back of his head crushed in where his staff had taken it, glazed eyes looking under the table.

  "That was close." He whispered as he saw how close to discovery his wife was.

  "Yes, it was." The quiet reply came from under the table. "Now if you would please help me out. I think it's safe. My visions have stabilized again.

  The General pulled her to safety noticing for the first time the wounds he had taken. His left arm was bleeding heavily, and would need tending soon. His wife was unharmed. The cabin shook slightly as a wind brushed its walls.

  "I think we should step outside, it's not as safe in here anymore. Unfortunately our cabin took quite the pounding." The General led her out the front door noticing how close the beasts had been to breaking it free from its hinges. The cabin shook slightly as he opened the door. All around the front of the cabin lay bodies. Human once again, they lay in their deaths twisted and bloodied. Only two of them still moved. The General pushed his wife behind him in defence as he saw the two humans struggle to stand. One looked to be an older man, much older than he was. He had an obviously broken leg and couldn't stand on it. The other was a young man, perhaps a few years older than Shade. His arm hung twisted at his side the bones showing through the skin. He was having a hard time staying conscious, the pain obvious in his eyes. The older one spoke first when he saw the General and his wife.

  "Hold. We are no longer a threat to you. You have claimed the leadership. We will all serve you now."

  The younger one nodded his head slowly, trying to hide the pain he must have felt.

  The Oracle moved back from behind her husband.

  "They speak true. I don't see any harm coming from them in the future. Even if they wished it, I don't think either of them are in a place to try. What are your names?"

  The older one spoke first again. "I was known as Art Tilman before the event. Now I'm known as Greytop. That’s what the old leader named me. The young one here, he hasn't been named yet. That was one of the problems without the leader. It is your job to name him now."

  The General looked at the youth on the ground again his arm still twisted as he tried to move it closer to himself. "What was your name before?"

  "Kyle Bonhain" He whispered between gritted teeth.

  "Ok Kyle, would you like to keep that name?"

  The youth shook his head causing himself more pain as he did so. "No! I must be renamed!"

  The General considered a moment. "Ok, you shall be known as Bonetwister then. It's fitting I think."

  The younger werewolf smiled despite his pain then his eyelids flickered and he passed out unable to remain conscious any longer.

  "What are you going to do with us then?" Greytop asked. "You are in your rights to kill us for attacking you. No-one else in the clan would protest now."

  The General looked around him at the carnage everywhere. Well over a dozen bodies lay broken, their eyes dim.

  "No, I won't be taking your lives...yet. I need some information from you first. Then we will decide what to do about this mess I seem to have found myself in the middle of."

  Chapter 8

  Shade and Dawn camped beside the road that night. They hadn't seen a single person on the trip and they were beginning to get a sense that they might not.

  Shade had a thought while they were walking, but was hesitant to remind Dawn of it whil
e they were so far from home. It had popped into his mind shortly after the sun had set and he had been unable to think about much else since, Werewolves. He kept rolling over and over that attack in his mind.

  Shade didn't offer much in the way of conversation that night; he couldn't get over the memories. It was lucky for him that Dawn wasn't much of a conversationalist and went to sleep quickly herself. When the daylight had crept over the mountains, Shade didn't bother trying to sleep anymore. His rest had come in fits throughout the night, his dreams full of werewolves.

  It didn't take long for Dawn to rise beside him. The pair ate a quick breakfast, cleaned up their camp and once again started down the road towards town. They would be seeing the outskirts of it soon enough.

  Only a scant few hours later, the two started to see signs of their prior civilization. The roads got wider and were in much better shape. Street signs and billboards were cropping up on the side of the road their pictures fading and torn.

  As they got closer, a car or truck would be sitting on the side of the road. Shade insisted on looking at almost every one but Dawn always stayed back. She had no interest. Shade was forming an idea though. He would have to think about it more. All the vehicles remained empty. Their doors and trunks open, all the contents dumped on the side of the road. Very little of use remained. Occasionally they saw a blanket or some jumper cables strewn beside the vehicle, but in a world where rain no longer fell and cold didn't seem to come at all, either item would lay there until the earth itself took them back.

  Once they hit the outskirts of town, the signs of destruction became more visible. They saw cars smashed together or flipped on their sides. There was evidence of widespread fires as some trees and buildings were twisted and burned. Even though they still hadn’t seen anyone, they both decided to be even more careful. It wasn’t long before they came to the place the mall should have been. His father had told him it was simple to find. They had placed it on the side of the freeway for obvious reasons.

  "We should be able to see it soon." Shade broke the silence. Dawn simply nodded her eyes intent on the horizon. She looked uneasy but said nothing about it. A small overpass came up ahead and Shade decided to climb up to see how far away the mall still was. The steps were already starting to crumble under his feet, but it hadn't collapsed anywhere yet, so Shade trusted it as he carefully climbed up top. Dawn watched him start up then continued to survey the surrounding area. When Shade reached the top and looked out, he stood very still and called down to Dawn. "I think you should see this."

  Dawn shook her head no, but Shade became insistent. Much slower than Shade, she carefully went up the steps to reach his side. She had been so intent on the stairs that when she looked out ahead of them to where the mall should be she almost stepped back and fell down the stairs.

  A giant tear in the earth stretched out across the landscape.

  "There must have been an earthquake or something." Shade whispered to her.

  Off to one side you could see the two sides close together. The rift between them only a few feet, as the tear extended though it became larger and larger until it was hundreds of feet wide.

  "That’s where the mall is supposed to be I think." Shade raised a hand over his eyes to block some sun and give himself a better view.

  "Yes, I can see some of the parking lot left beside the rift. There are still some cars parked there."

  The two climbed down carefully back to the safety of ground.

  "What should we do?" Dawn asked as she placed her hand on Shade's head.

  "We have to go look at least. It should be safe for us there. Maybe we will get lucky and still find something. At the very least, we need some kind of cloths, unless of course you want to start walking around in the nude. It is warm enough I suppose."

  Dawn blushed heavily and gave Shade a good hard hit to the arm.

  "I'll take that as a no. We still need to try and find some seeds."

  Shade started walking towards the now sunken mall but Dawn held back a moment just looking at it. Shade noticed quickly and came back to her.

  "What’s wrong?"

  "I don't know. Just be careful. Something is wrong here. I can feel it but I can't seem to figure out what it is. Something is really wrong."

  "Ok, we will be careful. If there is anything down there though we need to find it soon, or else camp here tonight."

  Dawn shot Shade a look that told him in no way was she going to camp here tonight. He didn't need a mind speak to figure that out. The two began their walk with as much stealth as they could muster. Doing their best to keep hidden, they stayed close to trees, cars or any cover they could in case someone was watching. Soon they got closer to the lip and Dawn insisted that they move in very slowly. Shade went first to peer over the edge. A few rocks clattered down the edge as he got close, and peered over to see down the ravine.

  His eyes focused on the shadows that were below and he saw something he hadn't been expecting. Below him sat the mall. For the most part, it was intact. Some of the roof had collapsed in places and the windows were all smashed. Barely a single piece of glass remained next to another. For the most part, however the building was in surprisingly good shape.

  "It's okay come take a look." Shade said as he gestured Dawn to the edge. The look of surprise on her face showed through as well as she stared in disbelief at the building below.

  "So, do we go down and take a look around then? We can climb this ridge again easy when we want to get out. If it turns out too bad, we can always move up where it gets closer together and climb out there. I think we should be okay."

  Dawn nodded in agreement and swung her legs out over the edge to begin the decent.

  "Wait!" Shade exclaimed as she started down causing her to jump with fright. She started casting around to see where the danger was.

  Shade didn't notice her reaction though, and dropped his pack to run over to the cars parked nearby. One looked to be in decent shape, the doors and trunk wide open, but as Shade looked inside, he shook his head and started running to others one at a time. He looked inside each one dismissing it until he finally found what he was looking for. A wild smile broke on his face as he held up something in his hands. The light reflected off the object making it hard to see at first, but eventually Dawn saw what he was holding, keys. She swung her legs back up to the top and walked over to him.

  "I was thinking about this as we walked here. If I can create electricity...why can't I make a car run?" Shade hoped back inside and stuck the key in the ignition. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard. The now familiar tingle formed under his hands and with a twist of his wrist, he turned the key.

  Nothing happened. Shade turned the key again and still nothing happened.

  "Why doesn't it work?" He muttered to himself. His hand moved over to the stereo and it turned on. Static crackled from the radio. He tried the key once again and still nothing.

  "Damn, I thought for sure this would work." Shade climbed out of the car and stuffed the keys in his pocket. "Well I guess we can at least use this for storage if we should find anything. If we put stuff in the trunk we can find it again later when we come back."

  Dawn nodded her head and projected an image of them moving down before it got to dark.

  "Yeah, we better get looking." Shade kept looking at the car with backward glances as he too swung his legs over the edge, and started to slide down behind Dawn.

  The decent went easily as they both more or less slid down the side. At the bottom Dawn pointed out something to Shade he hadn't noticed. The soil here wasn't the same as the woods had been. It was more sand and rock. Normal. It didn't hold the same rich life that they had found deep in the forest. It didn't look bad; it just looked like everything had before the event. Town was at the lowest part of this valley. It still held plants like the forest they lived in but it was different somehow. After a moment, they pair dismissed it, having more important things on their minds.

  "We have lots of t
ime to think about it on the walk back." Shade concluded as they moved as carefully as they could towards the Mall in front of them. The destruction looked much worse now that they were standing inside of it. Shade and Dawn both stood outside the front doors, unwilling to be the first to set foot inside the darkness. Down here, they were much lower than the sun was shining and its light was already getting dimmer, making the inside of the mall a place of shadows and secrets.

  "We shouldn't be wasting time." Shade finally broke the silence.

  Dawn sent an image of Shade stepping inside and turning on the lights, filling the mall with their light.

  "Something tells me that won't work." Shade replied, but the image made him smile and broke some of the tension. Shade stepped inside first to the slow sound of a drawing sword behind him. I should have thought of that. Shade belatedly drew his dagger.

  The front doors lay torn from their runners and pushed aside. It was hard to see if it had been from before the plummet down here or after. Inside the mall, the rafters holding up the roof were bent and twisted. Some of them looked like they could snap at any minute. It was hard to tell how long they had been holding this way though, so Shade decided to take the plunge and move inside deeper.

  Almost everything from the front area looked stripped bare. Only the useless items were left behind. Some children’s toys, a large stack of CD's piled high against a broken till. Shade picked at them unconsciously as his eyes ranged for anything more useful. Clothing, food, or seeds would be good for the future. Dawn began looking around, holding the sword in one hand she sorted through discarded items with the other. Her eyes ranged the piles of items but always glancing up and around as the light grew dimmer.

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  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling inside this place. Something here was wrong. It plucked at her skin, making her jumpy. It seemed to whisper inside her mind but the words didn't make sense. The valley they had made home was so much different. It felt alive, wonderful, healing. It breathed out life and she drew it in like a tonic. This crater, this mall, it whispered of death. It leaked from everything around her like invisible hands trying to pull the light out of her body.