Arkadium Rising (28 page)

"More of a translator. They have these ancient parchments and scrolls. It's amazing how well-preserved they are. But they only know for sure what's written in about a quarter of them."

"And you can read the others?"

"Well… I'm starting to," he said with some embarrassment. "I've always been a quick study."

"Girls!" one of the washer women called out from the doorway to the kitchens. "You better wrap up lunch. It's almost time to start cooking dinner!"

"We better get going." Dawn stood and grabbed her barely touched plate of food.

"Give me a minute?" RJ asked his sister.

Dawn looked from her brother to Kylie. "Sure. Just hurry up. I'm not going to pick up your slack, Kye."

Dawn carried her plate toward the low stone building. She offered Kylie a dimpled smile before she went inside.

"So…?" Kylie said.

"I don't know what I'd do…" RJ looked up from his hands, "if you and Dawn weren't with me." He paused and placed his hand on top of hers. "We'll get out of this. I'll find a way."

"Kylie!" Dawn called out from the kitchen doorway, urging her back to work.

"I know you will, RJ." Kylie stood and kissed the top of his head before heading back to the kitchens.

2.

"…and when the Anaki advanced to the next block, I doubled back and hid in the back of the SUV." The girl's cheeks were losing some of the rosy glow from being cooped up in back of the Honda.

"I'm sorry, did you say Arkadium?"

"No. Anaki. I'm pretty sure I heard them say, 'We are the Anaki' and then something about not leaving behind any trace."

"Things are getting more and more complicated, aren't they?" he said. "So, what happened next? You were in the SUV, and…?"

"Yeah, I wanted to make a break for it down the street… but I… I was scared. They were everywhere, and I mean
everywhere
." The girl had been quiet at first, but after Jason shared a couple of Snickers bars with her, she realized Jason wasn't planning on killing her. After eating the second candy bar, she relaxed and began recounting how she had survived the Anaki swarm.

That term… Anaki, it sounded familiar, but hearing it out of the blue and coming from a stranger, Jason had trouble placing it.

"It was like I was paralyzed," she said. "And all I heard were screams… terrible screams. And the sounds of destruction. Utter devastation."

As the girl filled in her story, he remembered; Marcus had mentioned something about the Anaki, how they were "gruesome motherfuckers." So far, it sounded like Marcus might have been shortchanging them.

Feeling suddenly weak, he sat down on the faded blue couch. When she finally paused to take a breath, he asked, "So, are you from Rose Ridge?" The question sounded silly out loud, as if he were hitting on her at some random bar.

"Oh, God, no," she said with a laugh. "I'm from Chatham. That's near Springfield."

"I've heard of it." He patted the couch. She hesitated for a moment, but then sat down, looking relieved to be off her feet.

"Yeah, well, I was just passing through the area on my way back to school—I go to Webster University. That's in Kansas City. Anyway, I was supposed to meet up with Amber, she's my roommate. We're getting a new apartment for senior year. Or we were."

It felt nice being around what he assumed was a relatively normal person, even if he was mostly just listening to her.

"But when I was on the highway, my check engine light kept blinking, so I pulled off, but before I could find a service station, my car just stopped working. Can you believe it? It just, like, stopped. I almost didn't get it to the side of the road in time."

"And so… when the explosions happened?"

"So, yeah, I got a tow to a local garage. I was having lunch at a diner when the explosion happened. Most of the people thought it was an industrial accident at a plant nearby. Everyone rallied around the sheriff, this really old guy named Paulsen. But no one really knew what was going on. I still don't know much."

"A whole lot of people could say the same these days."

She laughed at his weak attempt at humor, and the sound brought Kat out of hiding. She jumped up onto Jason's lap, and the girl nearly ran away in fright.

"It's okay." Kat leaned against his palm as he petted her back. "This is my friend, Kattywampus. Kat for short. That's with a K, not a C, by the way."

The girl flashed a wide grin. "You named your cat, Kat?"

"She's got Kattywampus hair."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Crazy or disorganized." He pressed Kat's hair flat, but it sprang up again in odd yet charming spikes. "And she's not my cat. Just a friend I met a few days back. She was in a bad situation and I couldn't leave her behind."

This last bit cut her grin short. She looked into the distance, but when all she saw was the destruction of Rose Ridge, she dropped her gaze to her hands. She swallowed hard and pushed some of her blonde hair back behind her ear.

"I'm leaving this area and I want you to come with me," Jason said. "There has to be some place that is safe, that's organized."

"I don't think any amount of organizing is going to stop the Anaki."

"You might be right. But I can't stay here. And I don't think you should, either."

Her gaze lifted from her hands. The light gray blue of her eyes returned, pushing away the darkness.

"There has to be, I don't know… police, military,
something
."

She stood up and brushed the back of her shorts. "You're right. There's nothing here but death."

"Great. There's just one thing." Jason stood and lifted his pack onto his shoulders.

"What's that?"

He extended his hand. "Name's Jason Grant."

The girl's grin returned. It was such a simple thing—a grin of all things—but that hint of normalcy was something he wanted to latch onto.

She shook his hand firmly, formally. "Leah. Leah Fedowski. Nice to meet you."

"We should probably get going. Do you have anything to bring along?"

Leah grabbed the sleeping bag from the back of the Pilot. "Just this. I didn't have much chance to look around for supplies." She rolled the bag and carried it under one arm.

"That's understandable." He knew he was almost out of food, but he couldn't imagine digging through the remains of this destroyed town. He'd seen the dead woman hanging out from her car; there could only be others. Lots of others. "Well, if you're ready, I'm ready. Let's hit the road."

Jason reached out and Kat jumped into his arms. He placed her in her little nest on top of his pack.

"And you think she's not your pet?" Leah laughed.

After a mile or so of unbroken cornfields traversing the gently undulating hillside, Jason noticed a dark lump on the side of the road just up ahead.

"Is that a deer?"

"I… I don't think so," Leah replied.

When they got nearer Jason realized the bulky shape was a person. His senses went on high alert and he removed his .38 from his belt.

"Do you have a weapon?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Like I said, not much time to pack."

"I don't like the look of this."

She nodded. "Me neither. I think it's one of them."

"What do you mean?"

"The Anaki."

Jason eyed the surrounding fields as he closed within a few feet of the body. He didn't know what kind of trap this could be, but he figured he couldn't be too careful. He saw no movement, but he didn't put his gun away. The body was sprawled flat on its back, its legs outstretched, while its hands were reaching for its neck. Blood had trailed away from the body and dried in dark pools on the roadside gravel. Clean white bone showed in the ruins of the killing wound.

"What the hell is he wearing?"

The Anaki warrior wore a form-fitting helmet that looked similar to a swimmer's cap, but was evidently made of lightweight metal with a matte finish. A mask extended from the helmet's brow ridge, attached by a single hinge that allowed it to flip open or closed. The corpse had been little more than a boy. Patchy peach fuzz covered his cheeks and chin. Jason touched the mask with the nose of his gun and closed it to block out the corpse's blank stare. The mask was a skull's face. The eye sockets were a black mesh. The image was frightening, the stuff of nightmares.

"I think it's armor," Leah said. "Look at his chest, his legs, too."

He didn't want to, but Jason tapped his knuckles against what looked to be a bulletproof breastplate. Sections of armor overlapped down the boy's abdomen, as well as his arms and legs.

"I bet that's Kevlar or something similar," he said. "I don't see any weapons."

"Me neither, but I did back at Rose Ridge. Most of them had these long staffs with a hooked blade on one end. I also saw guns, different kinds of blades and axes… one of the freaks actually carried a frickin' Samurai sword. Can you believe that?"

Jason sighed and stood to his full height. "I'm pretty sure I could believe anything at this point."

"I bet they stripped him of anything useful. The armor, it looks personalized, like it would fit him and no one else."

"I think you're right.

There were few gaps in the armor, but Jason did notice blood had welled up low on his belly and trailed all the way down to his feet. The coloration made him think it was older than his mortal wound.

"Why…? Do you think they killed him?" Leah asked. "The other Anaki, I mean."

"I don't know who else would've. Maybe he was injured and they put him down. See this older blood?"

"Euthanasia?"

"Yeah, or he could've done something, I don't know, against their rules or codes. Whatever happened, he's dead."

Leah stepped away from the corpse. She placed her hands on her hips and looked around them in every direction. "So that means they're up ahead. The Anaki horde, or whatever you want to call them."

"Yeah. We probably shouldn't go that way."

"I'm not going back there… I can't."

Jason paced back and forth. "You know, before this hill I saw an access road. It's all overgrown, but it has to lead somewhere."

"Anywhere sounds better than here."

3.

A gentle breeze blew through the cornfields looming on either side of them, surrounding them in a ceaseless hum like dead radio static.

"So this is it?" Leah asked.

Double wheel ruts cut through the heavy grass lining the road. A seven- foot-wide turf path curved into the cornfield and out of sight.

"I know it doesn't look like much," he admitted. "I'm guessing this is an access road for a farmer to get his tractor around to different fields."

"Yeah, I can see that." She began walking down the access road. Jason followed, hoping they were making the right decision. "Let's see what we're getting ourselves into."

A gate blocked their path not more than thirty feet in. Jason looked back and could no longer see the blacktop.

"Now what?" he said, thinking out loud.

Before they could discuss the matter, Leah scooted around the gate. Jason tried to follow and his pack got caught. Leah kept walking.

"Hey, it's a farm!" she called out.

"Wait, hold on a minute!" Panic surged through him and he yanked the bottom corner of his pack until it ripped. But at least it was free. He quickened his pace and caught up to her. The cornfield ended and an old farmyard opened up—a dozen or so evenly spaced fruit trees, a few raised vegetable gardens, an honest-to-goodness chicken coop in the far corner by a solid-looking red barn, and as Jason glanced back toward Leah, an old white farmhouse with a wide, welcoming porch. A porch swing shifted back and forth in the wind, creaking on its chain.

Leah turned back toward him. "Look! It's not damaged!" She kept walking backward toward the house, as if it were drawing her closer with some invisible force. Her grin was infectious and he found himself hurrying toward her, his own smile widening. "The Anaki haven't been this way!"

The sound of a pump-action shotgun stopped both of them in their tracks.

"Just hold on a minute," a voice called out from near the barn.

1.

"Keep your hands where I can see them." A fortyish-looking man nervously panned a shotgun from Leah to Jason and back again. His khaki pants were dirty at the knees and his blue denim work shirt had either grease or some kind of oil staining the chest. He was lanky, but not strong. He looked like he had been laboring at some kind of work, yet he didn't look like exertion was familiar to him. "Okay, good. Now you," he said to Jason, "come up here by the two of us."

The man pointed the shotgun at Leah and waited for Jason to bridge the gap.

"We didn't mean anything by trespassing," Leah said. "It's just there was no clear road. The Anaki, they destroyed the next town down the road, and we were hoping to avoid running into them."

"The Anna-what, destroyed the… what did you say? The next town?"

"This is going to sound crazy," Jason said, "but there are these warrior-type guys dressed in armor and armed to the teeth. They just wiped out the town about a few miles down the road. Called Rose Ridge, I believe."

"Rose Ridge, it's gone? What about the people?" The shotgun dipped as he pondered this bit of news and the barrel now pointed toward the ground. Jason thought about trying to overpower the guy, but he didn't look like a threat. He hoped the stranger thought the same about them.

"We didn't stick around, but it didn't look good. Not at all."

The man went over to the porch steps and sat down. "It's just one thing after another, isn't it?" He rested the shotgun against the porch railing.

His face was a delicate pink and clean-shaven, which Jason took for a good sign. If a man took the time to keep up his appearance, it meant he was trying to carry on with civilized life. He wondered about his own haggard, bedraggled appearance. Besides his unkempt beard and filthy clothes, his body was a network of bruises in every painful shade of healing. He was a mess, and if appearances were an indication of desiring civilization, he was failing in that regard.