Judgement

by Eric A. Shelman

  “A pool?” asked Carla, sounding nervous. “I can’t swim. Is it dangerous?”

  “It is, but the ledge is wide enough if you keep your back to the cave wall and sidestep.”

  “How wide?” asked Tommy Rivers.

  “Wide enough for your feet. Perhaps a tad narrow for Cole and Danny’s,” she added.

  “Great,” said Danny and I in unison.

  “As I said, just be careful. Just when it seems it will never end, we will reach the place where we descend.”

  “Haven’t we already descended?” asked Jimmy.

  “Just follow, and be careful,” said Tala.

  We all did. Georgie pulled me around to go ahead of her, and took my left hand in hers as we crab-walked along the ledge. To be honest, I was a little freaked out with the torch in my right and her hand in my left; one misstep and I’d pull her over the edge with me.

  After an indeterminate amount of time, Tala slowed, then stepped down onto a lower ledge and turned around. “It is intact. We can still access it.”

  I wasn’t sure whether I should dance or cry. I wasn’t doing either until I was clear of the damned ledge, I’ll guaran-damn-tee you that.

  I turned. “You okay?” I asked Georgie.

  “Yes, why do you ask?”

  “Just checkin’ on my girlfriend. Makin’ sure you’re not claustrophobic or somethin’.”

  “I never was, but after zombies, what could possibly scare any of us anymore?”

  “Damned good point.”

  “Okay,” said Tala. “When you step down, you will find inset areas to place your feet as you move down. Those of you holding torches, be careful not to drop them on those below.”

  “How far down?” asked Lilly.

  “Around thirty feet,” answered Tala.

  With that, she descended first, torch in hand, held over her head. The ridge widened around the smaller chute she’d gone into, so me, Micky and Georgie could stand around and watch her descend. She held the torch against the far wall of the approximately three-foot wide vertical chamber, so it would not burn those following behind.

  “Come,” she said.

  This was our trust point. We would either find answers down there, or we were being led into a trap.

  I didn’t really believe that, but I was the kind of kid who was sure every dark room I went into had every known and unknown monster in the world hiding in the shadows.

  “Go, Mick,” I said. At least he’d die first. All this shit was his idea, after all.

  Micky made his way down, holding his torch the same way as Tala had. It lit the way for Lilly, who was torchless, with Danny behind her.

  I sent Georgina down next, able to follow Danny’s torchlight, and I came next, with Jimmy, Carla, Silver Bolt and the man named Tommy bringing up the rear.

  Talk about low man on the totem pole.

  Come to think of it, I’m not even sure if that’s politically incorrect, but I’ve never given a shit about that stuff anyway.

  Ω

  When we emerged from the rocky chute and again stood on solid ground, Tala told us to wait while she lit yet more torches.

  As the torchlight chased away the darkness, the enormous cavern soared into view, high above us. A lot of the markings and paintings were in places impossible to reach without some sort of climbing paraphernalia or scaffolding, but I saw no sign of anything like that.

  The higher the markings were, the larger the print was. To me, it was as amazing as Easter Island or the pyramids of Egypt. I had no clue how it was achieved, or what the motivations of the people who risked their lives to do it were.

  “Kinda makes me proud to be an Indian,” I whispered to Georgie.

  Yep. She punched my arm.

  Once the floor around us was visible, I spotted several containers made of what almost appeared to be petrified wood, placed against the soaring rock walls.

  “What’s in those?” I asked.

  “Oil for the torches,” said Tala. “It was replenished by those who came. The pool is straight ahead. To reach it, there is a path over there. For now, sit. The bats will remain where they are until nightfall.”

  “What happens then?” asked Jimmy.

  “Duh,” said Carla. “When bats take flight, they shit. You’ll have guano all over your head.”

  “Oh, that’s real nice,” said Jimmy.

  “Hey, I think I’ve had that Ben & Jerry’s flavor,” I quipped. “Guano Mint Chip.”

  “Please be quiet as I study this,” Tala said, her voice flat and serious. She opened the satchel around her neck and withdrew the book her father had penned.

  We did as she said. The rest of us lined up against the wall and just stared in wonder as she climbed around the cavern, seeming to find footholds and outcroppings to hold onto where she needed them.

  It was becoming clearer how the work was done; there was a lot of chiseling and hammering prep work beforehand.

  I don’t know if it was two or three hours later that Tala finally came back and knelt before our group.

  “For everything dark, there is light. For everything evil, there is good. I have found this to be true here.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Magi Silver Bolt.

  “I mean the answers are here. I feel a sense of urgency, as my father surely draws near. I feel him as surely as I feel the powers of my elders in this place.”

  “How long do we have?” asked Georgie.

  “I cannot tell, but it will not take him long. He knows I have come here. He does not know of your presence here, but he was aware you were searching for Chief Wattana.”

  “So, if he shows up we might have some advantage,” said Danny.

  “No.”

  “Care to elaborate?” I asked.

  “Please, listen to me. You all have a decision to make.”

  Here it was. I had to decide whether I wanted to be around for a couple hundred more years in a world like this one.

  “Tala, that depends, doesn’t it?” I said. “Besides changin’ us, what else have you got planned?”

  “You know of the black rain – which was not really rain at all – that began the process of creating the skinwalkers.”

  “I think we all know that, Tala,” said Carla. “And we were spared because of our native blood.”

  “Yes. That is where my father erred. There is little doubt in my mind he did not realize how little of our peoples’ blood was required to leave people unaffected.”

  “He had to know those things would attack anyone left alive, even if they were 100% Indian,” said Jimmy. “How did he justify that?”

  “I cannot pretend to understand my father’s motivations or what his intentions were when he set all this in motion, but I believe once he was changed by this place, he believed himself to be a god.”

  A god of the zombies. I shuddered at the thought but tried to keep it from Georgie.

  Leaning close to my girlfriend, I said, “Are we going to do this?”

  She whispered back. “I’m a doctor, Cole. While it took me a while to believe in zombies, near-immortality might be a bit harder for me to swallow.”

  “What are zombies, though? They might be dead, but they’re basically immortal. No way they die on their own.”

  Suddenly, Georgie stood up. She approached the spot where Tala stood. “Have you ever seen anyone changed like you and your father die?”

  She shook her head. “I know of no others, though they likely exist.”

  “Thanks for being honest.”

  Tala nodded. “I know why you ask. You do not wish to live forever. I cannot promise that you won’t, but I can promise you one thing.”

  We all just stared at her. She got the hint.

  “If you do not undergo the change that is possible in this cavern, and I am unable to stop the skinwalkers, you will be running from them for the rest of your days.”

  “Oh, God. Roxy,” said Georgina.

  I nodded. “I get it. Wish you would
have brought her with?”

  “I don’t even know. I’m willing to take the chance, but I’m not sure that as a doctor, I’d be willing to risk my daughter.”

  “It’s not exactly an unknown,” I said, nodding toward Tala, who stood patiently – for now. “She seems fine. Plus, look at the bright side.”

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “You’ll be aging so slowly that eventually you’ll be younger and hotter than your daughter.”

  The slap was expected, but it still hurt.

  “There is one more thing,” said Tala. “The most important thing.”

  Again, we all stared at her face, the firelight dancing off her bronze skin.

  “I have found passages that I believe are the antithesis of the curse issued by Chief Wattana. The ceremony must be done under the open sky, so any results we may hope for will remain an unknown until after you have all gone through the changes that are possible in this place.”

  “Couldn’t we come back?” asked Danny. “Change ourselves later if we still have to deal with the … what, skinwalkers?”

  Tala shrugged. “That depends on my father. He has clearly achieved what he intended with this place. I do not know whether he ever planned to return the world to its former state, or if he has the information to do so.”

  “So, if he wants to undo what he did,” said Georgina, “and he didn’t write down the … antithesis, I believe you called it … he’ll need to come back here.”

  “That is correct,” said Tala.

  “I have a question about something I don’t think you’ve mentioned,” I said. “What do you call him? I keep saying Qualetaco, but I’m pretty sure that’s not right.”

  “Qaletaqa,” said the young chief named Silver Bolt.

  “Okay, Qaletaqa. He’s your daddy, you said.”

  “My father, yes,” said Tala.

  “Okay. What’s it gonna take to stop him?”

  Tala stared at me, understanding in her eyes. She nodded. “He must die. It is the only way. One does not plan something of this magnitude for so many years just to abandon it at the first opposition.”

  “Even if that opposition is you?” asked Carla. “His own daughter? I think the real question is, how much pull do you have with your father? Can you convince him to give up on this?”

  Tala appeared to think about it for a moment. “The truth is, I do not know. Look at his sinister actions, and how he hid them from me for so many years. That means even if he loves me in his own way, there is a substantial level of mistrust. That causes me to question everything about him.”

  “Bottom line, would you be willing to kill your daddy?” I asked. “You said, and I quote, he must die. Would you do it, or more importantly, would you stand by while one of us did it if it came down to that?”

  Tala did not hesitate this time. She nodded her head. “On one condition. I can read my father’s eyes. If I am able to confront him and first ask him to stop what he has begun, I will know the answer without him speaking any words.”

  “And if you see he’s unwilling to back off this thing, you’d kill him then and there,” said Lilly. It wasn’t so much a question as a confirmation of fact.

  “Yes.”

  I straightened up and looked at everyone. “Who’s in? Show of hands. Everyone ready to dive headlong into semi-immortality?”

  “Wait,” said Georgie. “I have one last question. If what you’re about to do works, and we become like you and your father, do you believe we would be able to return here and repeat it? For others?”

  “She’s talkin’ about her daughter, Tala,” I said.

  “He’s right,” said Georgie. “I recognize the value in the changes, but it means I would have to watch my daughter Roxy surpass me in physical age and most likely, die.”

  Tala did not hesitate in her answer. “It is this place that is singular. The words and the ancient spirits who dwell here make the changes possible. This I understand from other texts written here, above and around us. It matters not who reads the words, as long as they are accurate.”

  “Could they be translated? By you?” asked Georgina.

  Tala nodded. “Yes, I believe so, as long as the words remain very true to the original text. The spirits are not concerned with language; it is the meaning that matters.”

  Georgina look at me. I squeezed her hand.

  “Who would like to participate?” asked Tala. Every hand went into the air.

  “Then let’s begin,” said Tala. “Please, all of you. Go down this path and step into the water.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Lebanon, Kansas

  Roxy, Terry and Liam huddled together behind the curtain with Nina and her little boy, Gabriel. The noise below had died down, and Roxy could no longer wait.

  Her bladder had been on the verge of exploding for at least a couple of hours; she would not pee on the plywood platform upon which they all now sat.

  Leaning toward Terry, she whispered, “I have to go out there for a second. I’m about to pee my pants.”

  “Me, too,” said Terry. “I can still hold it a bit. Do we know how much of the platform is still up?”

  “Haven’t looked yet. It felt and sounded like it all fell, but here we are. Give me your flashlight.”

  “Better,” he said, digging through his pack. “Here. Take this.” He passed her a headlamp and she took it.

  “Perfect. I’ll probably need both hands if it’s as bad as it sounded. Ter, do me a favor and just come right outside the curtain. Keep an eye on me.”

  “While you pee?”

  “You’ve seen it before. Dozens of times, as a matter of fact.”

  “I know. I just like to seem shocked on occasion.”

  “Plenty of opportunity for that,” said Roxy. “Okay.”

  She stood.

  “Where are you going?” asked Liam.

  “Grown-up business,” she answered. “It’s nighttime now. Try to get some sleep.”

  “I can’t, not up here. My butt’s sore.”

  “When I’m out there I’ll see if there’s any way for us to get somewhere more comfortable,” said Roxy.

  “Yes, please do,” said Terry. “But don’t risk your life for it. We might have enough food to wait it out until your mom and everyone gets back.”

  “Should we wait here?” asked Nina. Thankfully, Gabriel was out cold.

  “Yes,” said Roxy. “For now.”

  Everyone informed, Roxy swept the curtain aside, opened the small plywood panel door and stepped out onto what little bit of catwalk remained just outside their little shelter. She looked down, adjusting her headlamp. It was bright, and shone down to the floor, illuminating the twisted, extruded metal of the length of catwalk that lay atop many of the motionless bodies below.

  Bodies were scattered all over the floor, but none of them were moving. There did not seem to be near enough of them to account for the ones that had fallen from the catwalk, much less the ones that never climbed up.

  She hoped the reason for that was that many of the post-apocalyptic refugees had run away in time, and were safe somewhere else.

  Logic and reality told her it was not true; rather they had been ravaged by the walking dead monsters and had changed.

  They had become the creatures they once feared, and now they were afraid of nothing.

  Roxy turned her head from side to side, scanning the floor, looking for any movement. The narrow beam of the headlamp wasn’t enough, but if she were ready and alert, nothing could get too close to her that she couldn’t kill it quickly.

  She had a tool-turned-weapon that she liked to use for close-combat, but had only used it once. Right after Garland had fabricated it for her, taking a Swiss-patterned round file and adding a handle that doubled as brass knuckles.

  It felt like part of her hand, and when she jabbed with it, it was stable in her grip, no matter how much muck got on it.

  He even made her a cool leather sheath for her belt.
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  She was kind of sure Garland had a crush on her, but having known him at his worst, she never gave it much thought. He wasn’t a bad looking guy under his country bumpkin façade, but … ugh. Too much history.

  She pulled the curtain behind her to the side again, and Terry’s wide eyes met hers.

  “How is it?”

  “It looks pretty clear down there. I have my radio on channel 16, so if you need me, just click twice and stop. It’s quiet. I’ll hear it.”

  Liam immediately lifted his radio and switched the channel to 16. In an effort to keep him quiet they’d made him holder of the radio. Of course he’d taken his role quite seriously. “Okay. We’re ready.”

  “Be careful,” said Nina.

  She nodded and dropped the curtain again, moving along the catwalk that was still intact, toward the west wall. She looked through the diamond mesh at her feet, scanning for movement.

  In a few minutes she made it the twenty or so feet to the wall, where a narrow section of scaffolding remained bolted there. It was about a foot wide where it started, and appeared to have some rods running up to the ceiling.

  Roxy guessed that was why the entire steel configuration hadn’t come down with the rest of the catwalk.

  Some of the ceiling-mount rods had detached and crashed to the floor in a tangle of metal and bodies, but the supports that remained should easily support a single person.

  Roxy stepped over a two-foot gap and tested her weight on the first section while holding onto a heavy-duty light fixture mounted above her. It felt solid, so she held on, practically hanging from it as she extended her foot out, resting it on the steel platform, and eventually allowing her weight to settle fully on it.

  It held without a creak. Eyeing above her again, she found another handhold, then bent her knees, bouncing.

  Solid.

  Good. She moved farther along the west wall, moving to the north side of the building. Becoming familiar with what held the support struts in place, and able to see with her headlamp if the support was compromised, she began making good time and distance.

  Occasionally scanning below her to be sure all was still clear, she gained confidence, almost running across the remnant of the catwalk.