by Maxey, Phil
*****
“What did you do to me!” shouted the girl whose fingers kept disintegrating into a thick smoke, then reforming with their usual density. She was sat on the side of her cell’s bed.
Max looked for the right answer. “Umm… Honestly, young lady, I have no idea. But! You’re alive!”
The look of anguish on her face reached a crescendo and she screamed throwing her head forward and bringing her hands up to catch it, but instead, her head kept on going until she stopped her momentum by throwing her foot forward. She yelled again, this time from gritted teeth while what used to be her hands drifted in the air. A human-limb-shaped fog.
Max, Rachel, and Joel stood just inside the confined space.
Rachel walked forward and kneeled, then held her own hand out. “Just relax, Sasha…”
The girl tried a smile but then doing so seemed so absurd to her that her expression reverted to one of frustration.
“Think of something that makes you happy. A memory, anything. And when you’re ready, just place your hand in mine…”
Sasha’s eyes turned from Rachel’s, searching through the past until she found what she was looking for. She looked back at the scientist and slowly reached forward. The spindly mist solidified until five human-looking fingers were clutching Rachel’s own.
Rachel smiled. “See…”
“Her ability is linked to her emotions it would seem…” said Max.
Sasha threw him a fierce look. “I have a name, old man.”
“Yes. I apologize. Please stay calm.” The words came tinged with fear that was obvious to everyone in the cramped space.
“Look, I’m no threat to any of you okay? I just need you to fix me.”
Max stepped forward and placed his hand lightly on Sasha’s shoulder, patting it a few times. Secretly, he was glad his effort did not move through the young woman’s skin and bone, instead, he smiled. “I promise, we will do what we can to help you.”
“Do you crave blood?” said Joel.
“Umm…” she shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.” She went to talk more but let out a short laugh, then stopped.
“What’s funny?” said Rachel.
“I was going to ask if that is normal, but…” anguish returned to Sasha’s face. “Nothing about this situation is normal.”
“Well, there’s a small bottle of blood near the door if you need it.” Joel stepped outside, his own mind retracing certain memories from a few days previously.
Max left the cell and both men stood for a few seconds, wondering what words would be of any use to utter.
“How’s Josh?” said Joel.
“Not so good. He said the cravings are worse than he imagined. Each time I drop by his cell, he asks for more blood. Poor fellow.”
Joel looked around at the still locked doors in the block. “Lots of people are in the same situation. They are going to have to figure out a way of dealing with the hunger. Like we all have.”
“Are the rumors true that you want to leave this place soon? I was just getting used to it.”
Joel wasn’t sure if the older man was joking, but then Max smiled, and he did the same.
“We can’t stay here. It’s a matter of when, not if, the corporation arrives again. And we’re in no state to stop them this time.”
“Not even with sixty-five hybrids? Not including yourselves.”
“Next time, Copeland won’t leave anything to chance.”
Max nodded. “So where will we all go?”
A noise from the cell block entrance drew both of their attention.
“Anywhere other than the west coast,” said Marina, standing in the doorway.
Both men filled with joy on seeing her, but only one of them displayed that.
“Ah! Good to see you back on your feet!” said Max.
She half frowned, half smiled. “So where are we going?” she said to Joel.
“Carla knows of some human camps that she said were last on the corporation's list to get to. If we leave within a day, we might be able to get to them before they do.”
“Sounds good.” She turned and went to walk back outside.
“Umm… I’m glad to see you… well,” said Joel.
“Me too.” She left.
Max looked back to the cell doors. “So how are we humans meant to protect ourselves surrounded by all these hybrids, all looking for their next meal?”
Joel sighed. It was another of those problems that he nor Anna had had time to think about before they used his blood. “We get them feeding on animals as soon as we can.” Joel walked to the exit.
“That doesn’t sound like much of a plan?” Max shouted after him.
“We’ll find you all guns,” said Joel, leaving.
CHAPTER SIX
Donnie, Shannon, and Evan walked along the soot-covered ground, just outside what was left of the prison wall. Each one lost in their own thoughts, but it was obvious to Evan that Donnie and Shannon were walking closer to each other than they were to him. That was fine. Any jealousy he had of the young man that could become a werewolf ended when Donnie saved his life.
“So if everyone leaves which way you two going?” said Evan.
Donnie kicked a blackened rock against a piece of the metal fence. “Reckon I need to head south and see Ma and Pa. Make sure they’re doing okay. Bring them some supplies if I can find any on the way.”
Evan waited for Shannon’s response, when none came he felt like he needed to prompt one from her anyway. “And you?”
Hundreds of yards ahead of them, two pickups packed with soldiers drove past what used to be the main entrance and onto the main road.
“Where they going?” she said.
“They’re looking for more vehicles. Most of what we had are trashed. No one’s going anywhere unless they find more,” said Evan. He looked back at Shannon. “So what're your plans?” He was genuinely interested.
“Dunno what the options are yet. But with winter coming, it needs to be warmer than here.”
They all smiled in agreement.
Bill watched the three young people walking together from the top of tower B. Despite them being virtually three different species, the fact they were getting on, and even seemed to share a friendship, he felt bode well for the future. He had thought for a while that humans were now going to have to share with the ‘others,’ and as they were the weaker species they needed to make friends for all their sakes. But then there was what he saw on his computer screen seconds before he activated the vamp bomb. He sighed.
Huffing and puffing came from the staircase behind him.
“You couldn’t have chosen somewhere less elevated to meet?” said Max as his head appeared, quickly followed by his body, each step a labored effort. Max finally made it into the small room and leaned on the closest desk.
“Most private spot in this whole place,” said Bill.
“So… why am I up here?” Max said, trying to recover his composure.
Bill had been mulling over if he should reveal what he had seen on his computer screen since he saw it. “Just before I activated the energy discharge, I saw other things. Other information the tablet was telling me…”
Max stood more upright, his tiredness being replaced with youthful curiosity. “Really? What did you see?”
Bill took a deep breath. “There are other tablets…”
Max fully stood. “More? How do you know this?”
Bill looked down to the computer laptop on the desk in front of him and stood back, allowing Max to see the screen. Symbols, next to words, scrolled continuously upwards for a few seconds, then reset back to the bottom and started moving once again.
Max inched forward while fumbling in his pocket for his glasses, which he found and placed on his nose. He leaned over the screen, his mouth opening and closing, mirroring his thoughts. “It… mentions, two more devices…”
Max stood back. “But where could they be…”
“Copeland must h
ave found three tablets when he excavated the tomb. We always presumed there was only the one because of what Joel told us. But it would seem there were more. Question is, does the corporation have them or were they taken by the government forces as well?”
Max looked at Bill for Bill’s final words were clearly a question aimed at him.
“No… well… we never had any of the tablets, Joel’s was the first. We never even knew they existed beyond mentions in ancient texts. If the army had them, they kept them from the scientists.”
“There is something else…” said Bill. “Look at what else was recorded.”
Max looked again. “Yes… it… appears to mention…” Max tried to keep up with the phrases and words sliding up the screen. “Can you pause this at all?”
Bill rested his finger on the touchpad and the display froze. “Look at the third line.”
Max spoke the broken sentence aloud. “Rynon, Tyror, and Eltir. Three machines of… destiny… for… three hybrids. The fate of those not touched by the… Alkron is beneath the earth.” He looked at Bill. “What are these three names?”
“They could refer to the tablets.”
“Or hybrids? Perhaps three individuals in the past?”
“Maybe… but one guess who the ‘not touched by the Alkron’ are?”
“Us…”
“I fear that is the case.”
Max looked back to the staircase. “But Joel and the others, they seem perfectly reasonable. They are still in control of their faculties. They are still human, but just with extra abilities. They are trying to help us humans!”
“And how long will that remain that way? We still don’t know how the virus works… maybe over time their brains will change, their minds become corrupted in some fashion. And with the power of whatever the tablet is… and then if there are two more of these things out there, would humanity ever stand a chance to survive? Who knows what else the technology inside the tablet can do? What if I had touched a different set of symbols and wiped us out instead of the vamps!”
Now it was Max’s turn to take in a deep breath. “So what do we do?”
“The tablet has to be hidden, so no hybrid can ever find it.”
“Maybe Joel would agree to that?”
“And what if he doesn’t? How are we going to stop him from doing what he wants with it? Or what if Copeland arrives with another army and takes it? No, the only answer is to remove it from the game completely.”
Max leaned on the desk once again. “But without the power of the tablet, we would never have made it through the night. Once we find a way of restoring power to it, why not use it to protect ourselves?”
“With what, hybrid blood?”
“Hmm… I know it would seem to require pure blood, but what about your grandson? Might he help us?”
“I don’t know…” The weight of keeping his plans from Evan was obvious across Bill’s face. “We will leave with one of the groups, then when the opportunity is right we will leave them as well and take the tablet with us. It might be the only chance the humans have.”
*****
Copeland stood at the base of huge stone pillars that held up the roof of a Greek-style temple. He looked out over a city, but it was unlike any he had witnessed before. There were skyscrapers, but also ancient-looking buildings as if both time periods had crashed into one another. In the streets were thousands upon thousands of hybrids, cheering, their eyes dark. He felt proud. He had brought about the end of times.
He stepped forward down the wide stone steps, raising his arms and spoke, but his words were silent and floated away on the wind. He gestured again, pacing up and down, trying to be seen, but even though all eyes were looking towards him, nobody reacted to his protestations. His actions did not matter. His words did not matter. He did not matter.
Slowly the chaos of noise crystalized to become a chant which shook the very stone foundations he stood upon.
“Rynon… Rynon…”
Over and over so loud it hurt what passed as his ears. He turned to face the wooden doors which towered over him and were opening. Out walked the three kings, with Rynon at their lead. He wanted to greet them. To cheer them himself, but he could not move. He looked down to his ankles. They were chained to other Draks. Each creature cowering below the new Gods.
Copeland awoke on the floor of his apartment, his lizard scaled legs and arms flailing until he fully understood where he was.
He calmed and looked at his bed which was a good few feet away. Its sheets which were made from a silk-like metal thread to stop him from tearing them were strewn across the floor.
Dreaming…
He got to his feet and walked slowly to the blood dispenser. As he drunk the crimson liquid he waited for it to soothe him, to wash away the feeling that the dream had left him with. Of being useless.
It was a feeling he had not felt since he was a child. From the days when he would always be last to be picked for the soccer team, and how even if he managed to get on the pitch to play, the other players would not pass to him anyway. For a whole term, he pleaded with his mother to allow him to miss practice, but his concerns were always rebuffed and he knew he had another week of humiliation to endure.
‘Make yourself useful and they will want you to play with them!’ Were his mother’s pointless words.
Useless…
The word stuck in his brain, hitting its edges as if it was a fly trying and failing to escape.
He looked down at the fragments of glass in his hand and the blood oozing between his fingers. Grabbing a towel he cleaned his clawed fingers and walked to the large fake digital scene of stars which was in place of the actual daylight outside.
“Show me the throne room. Replay time period just before I left, again,” he said into the air.
Stars were quickly replaced with the three hybrids and their discussions after he, Galen, and the other humans had left.
This would be the eleventh time he would see and hear the words come from the hybrids’ mouths, and they were just as pointed as the first time.
He thought they would be grateful for what he had done. Impressed that he had given them the entire planet for them to rule.
Instead, they had brought their ancient views with them. After going back through some of the ancient texts which were excavated with everything else from the Kings Tomb, he discovered ‘Drak’s’ were despised by the hybrids. Seen as lesser Alkrons, their abilities to persuade beings even more basic, were useful, and they were often used by former kings to lead armies.
“Pffff” Copeland scoffed again as he did the first time he read what his role was meant to be.
He was the CEO of a multinational corporation. He had brought the world to its knees… no, lower, he had made humanity crawl, all by his determination and strength of will.
He had spent some hours going over the possibility of convincing the hybrids that he should be treated with respect, perhaps even as an equal, but each time he imagined himself confronting them, he saw an outcome which did not end well for him.
These three beings from the past felt it was their destiny to rule over everyone else. There was no changing their minds.
Others were also becoming loyal to them, circumventing his own authority. Even a few of his own Alkron guard were now taking orders directly from the kings. The rot had taken root, how long before he would be in chains like in his dream?
He spun around and angrily swore into the gloom.
It was not meant to be like this. He brought them back because they knew from where the Alkron virus came. And the tablets; they could operate them. Something he was never able to do. Play along with the idea that they still held sway. Treat them as they used to be treated. Gain their trust.
But he underestimated their greed for power and their influence on others.
They still needed him. There was that. And he still controlled the corporation's assets which were now spread out over most of the continent, killing and capturin
g vamps and humans alike.
The kings might have destiny on their side but, despite their strength, they were just three hybrids. He already had an army made up of thousands, including many Alkrons which he hoped were still loyal to him.
The tablets were key. If he found them before the kings did the other Alkrons would follow him. Then there would be only one king.
CHAPTER SEVEN
In the west, the burning disc of fusion dipped beneath the horizon and Joel opened his eyes. He had found a cell in block D, an area that had been mostly used to store the town's supplies and quickly passed into sleep four hours before.
Sixty-five new hybrid scourge minds were now added to the original eight that he was always conscious of. The result of which was a constant headache. He pulled his pack up from the side of the camp bed and rummaged until he found a small flask. Pulling the stopper out, he put his head back and let the burning spirit flow into his throat and then stomach. Not the same thrill as absorbing blood, but alcohol seemed to help quiet his mind.
The voices immediately started to recede, allowing his audible senses to do their job. In the distance, he heard the sounds of engines. Trucks, pickups, and other vehicles thundered outside the walls of his cell.
It was time they made a decision of where they were all going to go. First, though, he wanted to know if the hybrids were ready to be allowed out of their confinements.
Slipping his boots back on, he walked to the small sink and splashed some water across his face. Despite the lack of light, he could see fairly well, and put his arms into his jacket and moved outside. A short walk later, he was on the other side of the prison and entering cell block A.
He was surprised to see groups of people sitting and standing. Hybrids.
Anna was talking to one of them. A middle-aged woman who was sucking on a blood bag and nodding.
Joel walked across to them, as he did a hush fell across the large space and the hybrids moved to one side.
Anna turned around wondering what was happening. On seeing him, she smiled.
“I thought we were going to have a conversation about the next step?” he said, trying not to notice those that were staring.
