A Warrior's Journey (19 page)

It wasn’t because of the cover she gave her
entirely, but rather it was because of the fact that she and Missy
had managed to survive growing up together in the slums as teens.
They had a bond of sorts because of it.

Old memories came back to her and she
groaned from the weight of them on her consciousness. She would get
no sleep again tonight. Her chest hurt, which reminded her of what
she had stashed there earlier in the day.

In relief she pulled the sack out and walked
over to a table. She dumped the contents of the sack out onto the
table and gasped. The pure gold shown up from the table top like a
temptation not to be resisted.

It was a lot of money and she knew just what
she was going to do with it. She scooped up most of the gold and
put it back in its sack only saving a little of it for herself.
Quickly she moved to her bedroom and took off her high heels and
tossed them. They hurt her feet, but they helped her create the
image that she wanted in the public’s eye of herself and well she
liked them for some other reason besides that.

She stripped off the tight dress and slipped
into a pair of pants and a heavy sweater. Going to a closet she
pulled out a trench coat and a pair of black boots that went up to
her knees. Within minutes she was back down on the dark city
streets walking threw a light drizzle towards the slum part of the
city.

We made our way around the city in search of
the churches that might still have the Holy Scriptures of the
Creator. We found several churches.

One church with a dome on top of it was
dedicated to a different god than the one we served. Another church
had been renovated into rooms for people to stay in. We found one
that was vacant and had the roof mostly fallen in and was covered
in graffiti. And then we found a big one.

It was huge and extravagant as any Zoarinian
temple. The rest of us waited outside as Larc went to go enquire
inside. He returned in an hour with a dark look clouding his
face.

Orhanin asked somewhat exasperatedly,
“Didn’t they have a copy of the Holy Scriptures?”

“They did a long time ago, but they got rid
of them when the edict came down to get rid of all of them.”

“If they are a church how could they make a
decision to do that?” I asked.

Darkly Larc continued, “They have another
book as important to them as the Bible in their faith that they
said was given to their founder by an angel. They’ve decided to
focus on it and other teachings like it instead.”

We all looked at him in disbelief. The
Creator had surely left this world if this city was anything to
judge by!

This city was full of darkness with the
evidence of it walking all about us. In some ways it was like I had
never left Rauel before it was burned. I saw the same depravities
being committed that the Zoarinians were famous for.

Larc broke into my reflections on the city,
“This mission is going to be a lot harder than I thought it was
going to be. We need to head back toward the van and rejoin with
Talaric and his men. Maybe they’ve been more successful than we
have.”

We had gotten quite a few odd looks during
our search, but it seemed that all we had to do was stare back
meanly and they would scatter like pigeons before us. We reached
the van to find nobody there.

This wasn’t good. It was already getting
dark. Talaric should have been here. We waited, each of us
concealed in different side alleys near the van in case a trap was
being sprung upon us.

Hours passed by. The city was noisy at
night, but not much was going on right where we were at.
Occasionally someone would stumble by. The street was lit dimly by
a few scattered street lights that were still in operation.

My opinion of the city wasn’t much. It
looked like it had been rather grand at one point in history, but
now it was little better than a ruin of its former glory. Life in
the city seemed chaotic with little to hold it all together.

I heard a faint scraping noise followed by a
rustling of clothing. Then I heard a moan. I decided to risk it and
I made my way down the alley towards where the sound had emanated
from.

I was almost on the point of tripping over
the figure on the ground, when I heard a moan that alerted me to
the presence of a body at my feet. Kneeling down I smelled leather
then a unique tobacco smell and instantly I knew who it was. It was
Ronice.

He had been one of the men to go with
Talaric. Where were the rest of them?

“Ronice can you hear me? Where are you
hurt?”

Where was he not?

I felt blood all over him! It was a wonder
how he had been able to make it here at all with this amount of
blood loss.

Weakly I heard him ask, “Zevin is that
you?”

“Yes lie still. I’ll call for the
others.”

Turning back down the alley I mimicked the
whistle of a Zoza bird in distress. The call and the bird were
completely foreign to this place, but the others would understand
to come quick. Within seconds they were all around me, as I held
Ronice’s upper body and head in my lap.

Larc had bought some kind of light device
earlier in the day and he now turned it on shielding most of it
with his hand. We all sucked our breath in.

Ronice was literally covered in blood. Larc
tore his shirt open. There were three holes in Ronice made by
something other than a sword or even an arrow and they had bled
badly. He should be dead from the location of the wounds and likely
he soon would be.

Larc leaned forward, “Ronice can you hear
me?” His eyes flickered open and he smiled a little and mumbled out
something that sounded like, “Good I can die now, I’m with my
brothers.”

A well of emotion seized me at his words for
that was what we all were here in this strange land, brothers
united by a common cause and a need to protect our own.

“Ronice what happened?” Larc asked.

He seemed to gather himself, “Some men
stopped us and asked us for identification. We said we didn’t have
any. We said we would go home and get it for them. They pulled out
some kind of a weapon. We started to walk away and they used their
weapons. Like getting hit by an arrow only worse!”

“Are the others dead?” Larc asked.

Ronice nodded yes and then said, “Except for
Talaric. I don’t know where he is. He separated from us earlier in
the day.”

Talaric had separated away from them!

Larc was about to ask more, when Ronice
reached up and grabbed the front of Larc’s shirt, “I killed them
Larc! I broke their chicken necks. They weren’t real men like
us!”

On the end of his impassioned statement
Ronice slumped back to the ground dead. We sat there in the alley
way mourning the loss of a brother and the two who had been with
him.

“We need to get out of here!” Larc said
tearing himself from the sorrow we were all feeling.

He got up to go and the others with him, but
I stayed beside Ronice. Larc looked at me and gestured to the
others to go ahead down the alley.

Larc knelt down beside me, “Your brother’s
problems are not yours. I need you Zevin! More so than I ever
needed your brother on this mission. The men do not think less of
you and neither do I for your brother’s actions. Now come on we
need to leave!”

Still staring at Ronice’s face in the
darkness I felt myself twisted up with bitter anger, “Larc some
part of me wants to kill Talaric. Why did my father send him on
this mission?”

Larc laid his hand on my shoulder and didn’t
even bother to address my stated desire to kill my own brother.

“I think your father hoped that this mission
would make a man out of him, despite whether or not that was a wise
decision on your father’s part I still need the man that you are.
Are you with me?”

I nodded and got up and followed him out of
the alley.

Orhanin and Thanic looked nervous about
something and then I saw why. Talaric was leaning against the van’s
side with his arms crossed and an obstinate look on his face.

I started for him of my own volition, but
Larc hand signaled Orhanin and Thanic who intercepted me. They held
me by either arm securely and there was little I could do to get
away, as they were both extremely strong men.

Larc in turn walked up to Talaric, who was
giving me a sneer. Talaric started to say something, when he was
thrown back against the van by a vicious backhanded slap from
Larc.

Talaric was completely surprised by it and
started to say something again, when Larc backhanded him again so
hard that he was knocked to the ground. Then Larc said fairly
spitting his words out, “You don’t do anything or much less say
anything from now on unless I say otherwise! Understand me?”

I saw Talaric nod and then we were moving
off down the street in the semi darkness. Orhanin kept an arm
around me squeezing my shoulder consolingly as he served a double
purpose of keeping me away from my brother, who was on the other
side of him.

Evette moved very carefully through the
gloom of the darkened city. Crime was very high in the city, which
begged the question ‘what really could be considered crime anymore’
as some crimes were consensually ordained it seemed.

The Committee didn’t even bother trying to
maintain any control in the area she was headed for. It literally
was a dark area, where any crime could be committed and no one
would come to help. Up ahead of her in the gloom the tall dirty
spire of a church stuck up above the standing rubble of the
surrounding buildings.

The outside of the church was all boarded up
and the church itself was interconnected with the old tenement
housing to either side of it. Very carefully she began to climb up
the outside of one of the adjoining buildings.

It was the only way to access the old church
from the street. Gaining the roof of one of the connecting
buildings she made her way along it and slipped through a window
that had been converted into a small door.

There was light inside from candles as there
was no electricity in this part of the city. She heard a voice up
ahead of her in the corridor that she was walking down. It must be
story time, which the memory of brought out a rare smile that
reflected something genuine. She stepped into the room where the
voice was coming from just at the right moment of the story.

“Surprise! Look whose here!”

Twenty some young kids leaped up squealing
in glee at the top of their lungs as they caught sight of her. They
mobbed her in mass in search for the candy that she always brought
them.

She laughed as the little hands went
everywhere in search of the candy. Hoisting a big bag out of her
coat she held it aloft to the tune of, ‘Please can I have some
Yevy?’ from the little eager faces that starred up at her.

Yevy that was what they called her here. She
dropped the bag and a feeding frenzy ensued. Still laughing she
carefully stepped out of the way of the busy foragers and made her
way to the old woman seated in the rocking chair.

“They love it when you come dear. It’s been
so long.”

“Yes, I know I’ve been busy with work and
the time got away from me. I have something for you Mama!”

All the children called her ‘Mama’ as she
was exactly that to them. Once she had cared for her and Missy just
as she now cared for these unwanted children.

“You’re getting those dark circles under
your eyes again. The old nightmares?” The old woman asked with
concern.

“Never mind about my dark circles, look at
what I brought you!”

She poured out the little pouch into Mama’s
hand.

“Oh my goodness dear! There’s enough money
here to feed the children for years!”

“I want it to do more than that Mama! I want
to get all of us out of here to South America! It’s more stable
there and the children will have the future that they can’t have
here.”

Mama looked at her deeply for a moment, “Is
that the only reason my dear Yevy?” “No, I need to get out of here!
I don’t like what I am becoming! I need to get out!”

Mama folded her hand over the gold, “Then
that is what we will do. Give me a couple of days to make
preparations and we’ll be ready to start our new life
elsewhere.”

Evette turned to go, but turned back as Mama
called her name. “Thank you Evette! You have always been an angel
to us when I’ve needed you most. I didn’t know how I was going to
go on feeding the children much longer.”

Mama got up stiffly and walked over to
Evette and enfolded her in a hug. Somewhat shyly Evette returned
the hug. Mama and the children were the only ones that she could
stand to be touched by, but even with them it was awkward to return
a touch of any kind.

She left then and quickly made her way back
toward her apartment. She was almost there when her phone began to
ring in her pocket. Picking it out of her pocket she saw that it
was from the Committee station and she groaned aloud.

Opening it she answered, “Evette Moran
speaking.”

The voice that came back to her was urgent
in its demand, “We need you to come into the office. We know it’s
early and that you had a late shift yesterday, but it’s
urgent!”

“Why what’s going on?”

“There was a gun battle earlier this evening
that killed several of the alien suspects and about two hours ago
we captured two more. Committee member Tomlinson has asked for you
by name to assist in the interrogation.”

“I’m on my way!” Evette shut the phone and
headed for the office. She was as curious as everybody else was
about these strangers from space.

The sun was coming up and I wished it
wasn’t. The dark had offered us some concealment, but we would just
have to make do. I was careful not to poke my head over the edge of
the roof to far as I starred at the building where they had taken
Larc and Talaric. Orhanin and Thanic were further back on the roof
in hiding.