Sacrifices

by Alan D Jones

  Chapter 4 - Fallen Saints

  April, 1981

  Wisdom is less about being right or wrong, than knowing when to speak and when to remain silent.

  A horrified Ruth floated to the ground in the Yucatan village of the Caballeros or, more accurately, what remained of it. Some of the cabins still smoldered and the air was soiled by the putrid smell of burning human flesh. Ruth walked quickly towards the several charred structures that were still standing in hopes of finding survivors. Mostly she was consumed with thoughts of her childhood girlfriend Gabriella and her family. She tried her best to follow protocol, but the thought of them being among the remains, shook Ruth and led her to rush from house to house without being as attentive to her surroundings as she should have been. She reviewed each body that she found looking for clues to their identity. With each face she recognized, her heart sank a little more.

  Ruth exited the last cabin and reentered the courtyard. There she caught a glimpse of a figure laying prone in the dirt and partially covered in mud. She thought that she recognized the chain around his neck. As she knelt down to verify her suspicions, a burst of energy erupted out of the jungle towards Ruth, knocking her to the ground. Had it not been for her personal protective shield she would have been sliced in half. As it was she was knocked up and over the body she was inspecting. As she tried to stand, an artillery shell exploded not ten feet in front of her and she was blown into one of the cabins.

  Destry emerged from the tree line exclaiming to his compatriot Chase “See, I told you I didn’t need any help to take her down, just like I toasted that tostada she was looking at. I’m not like the last Destry you guys had.”

  The Council of Nob, of which they were a part, had a standing membership seat for the current Destry. The Destry represented a war mongering clan of murderers whose only goal was to obtain and use the deadliest weaponry. In this particular time period, much of it originated from worlds other than Earth. The previous Destry had accidently blown himself up about a year before this incident, although, there was suspicion in the group that he had some help. The rest of the Nob council members looked down on the Destry du jour. They merely tolerated them for the vast resources at their disposal. Matasis often said that, in times of war, it is sometimes good to have a rabid dog on your side.

  Chase the Saint Killer, nearly translucent and completely bald, looked around searching for a second sister, since the sisters always worked in pairs. He stepped through a crumbling wall. Without looking at Destry he answered, “No, you’re not like him. He was smarter.”

  As if on cue, the home into which Ruth had been blown began to glow in an ambient blue haze. Transfixed, the two killers saw a shadowy figure standing in the doorway of the ravaged cabin. All they could see clearly was one pink lock of hair. Illuminated by a thin beam of sunlight, it hung across Ruth’s forehead.

  The only thing they heard was a soft but determined “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

  Immediately, a solid blue force beam extended from Ruth’s left hand into Destry knocking him back nearly fifty feet.

  More loudly Ruth cried “You killed one of the nicest men I’ve ever known! And, you laugh and mock him?”

  A second force beam erupted from Ruth’s right hand and into the ground beneath Chase, tossing him into the air.

  The battle suited Destry. Now back on his feet, he fired his alien particle beam cannon at Ruth again but, this time, she was ready. She had erected a blue shield around herself causing the deadly beam to disburse in a blue and red glow around her. A stunned Destry took a couple of steps back, before realizing that he still had his bazooka strapped to his back. He quickly loaded a shell into it as Ruth marched towards him. He fired the armor piercing round at Ruth from less than sixty feet away. The shell exploded on impact with Ruth’s shield and kicked up so much dust and debris that Destry, knocked to the ground by the proximity of the explosion, could no longer see Ruth. The scruffy, short, squat man smiled, that is, until he saw Ruth continuing to march through the dusty cloud towards him.

  The typically soft spoken Ruth shouted at Destry, “On your feet worm!”

  A frightened Destry scampered backwards as he looked to the woods to see just how far away his warhorse and others weapons were stashed. He wondered if he could make a run for it. He stood, but before he could take a step Ruth was upon him. Ruth who, like her sisters was trained in the martial arts, side-kicked Destry in his back, knocking him to the ground again.

  “On your feet!” Ruth yelled again.

  Rage was building within Ruth and Destry was her outlet. However, before Destry could rise, Ruth caught a glimpse of Chase behind her. Somehow he’d penetrated her outer shield.

  Chase smiled as he continued towards her, sword drawn, “Oh, child, you didn’t expect that you could stop me so easily did you?”

  In truth, no one on the Council of Nob feared Ruth. Not because she lacked power, she had plenty of that. No, they didn’t fear her because they all knew that she was not a killer. In fact, at this point she’d never killed a mortal in battle. Ruth was and always had been kind. Therefore, her enemies would take liberties with her that they would not with her sisters.

  Ruth quickly projected a second field. Chase engaged it and, for a moment, it held him. Then, slowly, he began to phase through it as well. In response, Ruth floated upwards and away from the two tyrants. In his ethereal state, Chase could float to the ground or even catch and float along on a breeze. But, he could not really fly. Chase could not pursue Ruth once she took to the air.

  He called out to Destry, “Quick, go bring your sky chariot before she gets away!”

  Before either of the villains could take a second step, a red hot beam came down between them and the forest. The beam blazed a line in the dirt. Finally, Chase had his answer as to which sister was providing backup on this mission. It was Sarah, the sister Chase feared most. He feared her because he was unsure if his ability to pass through matter would save him from her righteous fire.

  Chase uttered the name Sarah’s enemies often called her, “Black Sarah.”

  “Damn! Sarah!” exclaimed Destry. “I’ve got some toys on my chariot I’d like to try out on her.” The sociopath began to move quickly towards the forest.

  Chase motioned to his compatriot, “I know you don’t value your life but if you value your warhorse you’ll keep it on the ground.”

  Chase also knew that during the daylight, they had little chance of finding Sarah in the sky. It would be like trying to pick out a star in the sky at high noon.

  Destry conceded the point and then yelled, “Where is our back up? Can’t she do something?”

  Zi the Sorceress emerged from the brush, “Sure, I could do something, but are you really ready to abandon our plan and have a battle to the death with them here, today, without Matasis or the space god?”

  Destry conceded again, “No, but where were you when Ruth had me back peddling?”

  Zi’s only reply was a mischievous, wavering half-smile.

  Destry yelled at Chase, “You see this? You see this?”

  Meanwhile, up in the clouds Ruth rendezvoused not only with Sarah, but also with the young Mavis Few. Mavis had, among other talents, the gift of healing. She often tagged along just in case anyone was injured. Mavis, age thirteen, was the daughter of the family rogue, Uncle Paul. No one actually knew Paul’s age. At the very least, he was many centuries old and a direct ancestor of every member of the family.

  Over the centuries, Uncle Paul had become increasingly unstable. His inter-dimensional traveling had diminished both his mental capacity and his ability to stay in this dimension. At seemingly random times, he would simply disappear. In the past, he’d been able to recluse himself to regain some sense of balance. But, this was a difficult time to simply walk off the battlefield. With Mavis’ father, Paul degrading and her mother a practitioner of black magic, Cil and her sisters had taken Mavis in to rear her.

 
; Mavis’ gift came in handy at times. Now, she sat quietly floating alongside Sarah in a blue half shell that Ruth had created earlier.

  Ruth, a little out of breath, in part due to the altitude but mostly from the events below, spoke quickly to her sister, “I didn’t see Gabby, but I found Uncle Jorge. They killed him. They killed him, slaughtered him, and left him in the street like a dog.

  Ruth began to weep softly, “I’m so upset and I don’t know what to do.”

  Now that Ruth was closer to her, Mavis could see the tears streaming down her face. Mavis could not remember ever seeing one of the Aunties crying. She’d seen them upset many times but this was a first. Seeing actual tears on the face of an Auntie frightened her.

  Sarah spoke softly to her sister, “I know. I saw it all from up here. I’ve never seen anything so horrible. But, I was so proud of you. You really kept it together down there. I don’t know if I could have.”

  In truth, Ruth’s sisters had varying levels of concern about Ruth’s toughness. Though it pained her greatly, after receiving the distress call from the Caballeros’ camp, Cil sent Ruth on this mission as a live training exercise. Ruth’s sisters knew that she could be the alpha level resource the Elders deemed her to be but until Ruth knew it she never would be. Sarah realized that Cil had full knowledge of what Ruth would find here. Still she sent her with specific instructions that Ruth Ann take the lead and for Sarah to be her backup. This knowledge caused a shiver to run down Sarah’s spine.

  Sarah wanted to hug her sister, but she could not while in the star-like state that she needed to maintain to stay aloft. She landed on the platform her sister had formed in the sky and became fully mortal so that she could embrace her. Silently, she held Ruth, saying everything without whispering a word.

  Mavis tried to stand on her floating half shell as she reached out to the Aunties. Seeing her, Ruth brought her to them, and the three of them embraced. Finally, Ruth said, “Let’s go home.” Sarah gave a reassuring smile to Ruth although she realized that Ruth would have to become tougher still to overcome the storm headed their way.