Pahnyakin Rising (12 page)

Two of Easton’s armed guards pushed at the right side of the heavy gate and it slid open to the left as it unevenly dragged against the cracked black asphalt, revealing miles of open road and unplanted fields.  Dresden squinted her eyes at the sight of a blue lump a hundred feet to her left.  To the right were more lumps in the distance.

“What are those things out there?” Dresden motioned.

The dark-haired guard looked puzzled.  “You’re kidding, right?”

Dresden’s eyes darted.

“Dodge,” the guard frantically asked, “is she kidding?”

“They’re ones we’ve killed.  Some hit mines we planted in the fields, but then they started scanning the fields and used the mines against us.” 

He nodded to the towers. 

“They took out the north towers three nights ago.  We lost six people.  It’s only a matter of time before they come back and take out the southern towers—or worse.”

“Take me to the bridge,” Dresden replied stoically.  “I have to look at it again.”



The two walked in silence along a path of destruction upon the broken road leading away from Easton.  Dresden’s boots intermittently caught on the busted pavement as she viewed the area around her in utter surprise.  Pahnyakin bodies were lifeless in the fields to each side of her.  She came to a halt at the body she had touched in the dark the night before.  They were at least a half mile from the gate. 

“I thought you said you burned bodies of your people?” she choked through disgust and sadness.

The blonde man’s hair was ripped from his skull in patches and he was left half-naked from the waist up in the deep wet ditch.  One of the lenses was missing from his wiry golden bifocal frames and what was left of his eyes stared blankly to the dusk skies. 

“He tried to make contact with them,” Dodge grumbled.  “This lowlife piece of crap stopped being one of our people when we found him sneaking out maps of Easton.  We took the maps and he was banished from town.”

“Why would someone do that?” she questioned.

Dodge shrugged.  “He was trying to save himself.  We’re not a ‘one man for himself’ community.  You made sure of that.”

“What happened to him?  Did you have anything to do with this?”

“No.  I guess they turned on him.  They’re not exactly known for making deals, Dres.”

The teenager turned away from the body and silently continued walking towards what she could remember was left of the bridge.

“Where are they now?” Dresden asked.  “You’d think, you know, they’d be all over if they were really in control.”

She did not even have to look to know her friend nodded.

“Oh, they’re around,” he said.  “A large pod hangs out at their silo to the south.  Then,” he coughed lightly, “they have huts along the edges of these fields.  Their big station, though, is past Bicknell.”

“But that’s only like four miles away from us.  Why aren’t we seeing any right now?  Why aren’t they grabbing people the second they leave town?”

“You warned us of this.”  He grunted.  “I can’t believe we have to go through everything all over again.  This isn’t fair.”

“Warned you of what?” 

A faded and chipped post up ahead and to her left caught her eye.  Just as she remembered, the bridge was nearly gone.

“You told us there’d be a day when they’d retreat.  So, you know, after you died they held back for a while.  We worked on reinforcing our towers, the gate, building artillery from runs.  Now, though, they’re hitting us in spurts.  You warned us that the day the jolt attacks start, they’ll already have a larger attack planned.”

“Dresden,” he said. 

She turned to face him.

He continued, “We’re all going to die if they go through with a bigger attack.  Our gates are starting to fall apart and there are weak spots in the perimeter fence.  Two weeks ago a Uni and two Absorbers got in and killed a guard in the middle of the night.  It took a dozen of us to get them cornered and brought down.”

Her glance fell to the dirt as she thought aloud, “They didn’t send two Absorbers to fight.  If they sent that many they would’ve killed more people.”

“We were wondering why they didn’t.  They left his wife alive.  She isn’t taking it so well.”

“They didn’t kill the wife because it wasn’t a target kill,” she blurted out.  “These attacks, lately…Have you counted how many of each are coming?”

“What do you mean?”

She shook her eyes and said tiredly, “Magisters?  Imperators?  How many of each are coming?”

“They don’t send many Unies to the gates.  We see more of them at night.  Uh,” he closed his eyes and replayed the attacks in his mind.  “They’ve been sending a lot of Magisters and Assistants.  Absorbers come in thick groups a lot lately, too.”

“How long has this been going on?  I mean, how long have you really noticed their groups have been like this?”

“Why?”

“I wanna know.  How long has it been?”

He shrugged and scanned the area around them.

“Um, maybe about a month or so?  Six to eight weeks, probably.  Why?”

Dresden walked quickly towards the bridge.  Her calves felt heavy as she trudged through thick weeds.

“Why?” Dodge repeated.

“Because,” she said, looking forward, “they’re not target attacks.  The Magisters are teaching the Assistants how to hit you at different angles and the Absorbers are picking up your response times and techniques.  These attacks haven’t been real.”

“Oh, like Hell they haven’t been.  You haven’t watched our people die recently, have you?  They’re real.  The damage is real.  They took out two towers with no trouble at all.”

Dresden sighed loudly.  What was so difficult to understand?

“They’re doing practice runs, Dodge.  And when the big attack happens, they’re not going to send Absorbers.  They’re going to send in the real power: Unies and Assistants.  If it took that many of you to take down three, everyone in Easton will die when the real attack happens.”  

The girl wondered, as she stomped her foot on the surface of the remaining wooden planks, how she ever became to stand as a beacon of light to the dark town of Easton.  What she suggested was not knowledge of the Pahnyakins but of common sense.  There was nothing special about her, but she took a moment to appreciate that her boldness came naturally.  Like defending herself against Dodge before leaving town, she somehow had a growing gut feeling of what to do next.  The hairs on the back of her neck stood on her prickly skin.

She did not realize she had stopped breathing until her dry, shriveled lungs forced her to gasp.

“You okay, Hon?” Dodge asked.  He placed the palm of his left hand on the small of her back and rubbed in a circular motion.

Dresden paid no mind to his wording.  “It was all here yesterday,” she panted.  “We were right here, Dodge.”

Her voice grew to an angry shout.  “Right here!  What is going on?”

“Sweetheart, that was years ago.  I barely remember anything about that day.  They took out this bridge in the first rounds of attacks; they found the monitors.”

“Why do you keep doing that?” she asked.

He popped his eyes wide open.  “Doing what?”

“Calling me stuff like that.”

He shrugged nervously.  “I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me, Dodge.”

“So,” he said quickly, changing the subject.  “There’s nothing left here.”

“Dodge,” she urged.  “I need you to be honest with me.”

“I am,” he replied forcefully.  “None of what I know matters.”

“It matters to me.”

He shook his head.  “It shouldn’t.  Right now you need to be focusing on training.  Day one of your countdown starts tomorrow.”

She lifted her head and stared to the empty field on the other side of the dry bank.

“And what happens when day three passes?  What happens if I can’t do what you told them I could, what they expect from me?”

“We’ll be out here,” he motioned.  “We’ll be in the Rising.”

-14-

Darkness fell by the time the two reached Dodge’s house. 

Their exchange of words on the walk home was minimal.  Dodge could feel the coldness radiating from Dresden.  She wanted to know what had transpired between the two of them over the years, but it was too deep to explain and would only create complications to an already-dangerous situation and he could not risk anything else, not now.  And what difference would it make?  This wasn’t
that
Dresden.  They didn’t share the same memories because she wasn’t there when the two made them.  He clung to those memories and found it unsettling and comforting simultaneously to have her back in his life. 

Dresden stomped by the armed guards stationed outside the front of the house and walked to the bedroom.  She sat on the bed and began removing her boots.

“You’re not sleeping in here,” she said upon Dodge’s entrance to the room.  She refused to lift her eyes to look at him. 

“Fine.  I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Fine.”

He crossed the room and yanked a standard-size firm pillow from the bed by the corner of its olive cotton pillowcase.  He wasn’t going to argue with her.  

“If I can understand them,” Dresden huffed, “why didn’t I ever teach you how to decode their clicks?”

She peeled her socks from her feet and examined the wrap around her ankle.

“It honestly never came up much.”

Dresden lifted her head and skeptically asked, “In, what, four years of leading, I never tried to teach anyone how to speak their language?  Isn’t that a little stupid of me?”

His bubbly lips hesitated to move.

“It is,” she answered herself.

“You said it was a code.  Dres, you could never speak it.  You just did it in your head.  I don’t know how you cracked the code.  We were always too busy with building up the town’s army and trying to survive.  It’s been a non-stop scramble since the attacks to make this town safe.”

“It doesn’t sound like I was a very good leader.”

He laughed.  “Seriously?”

Dodge took a seat on the edge of the bed and rested the pillow across his lap. 

“You were tough.  What happened at the meeting?  That would’ve never happened if you were still in charge.  People listen to you.”

“Listened,” she corrected.  “And why?  Dodge, did I hurt people?”

He ran his tongue over his lips and scratched at the patch of hair on his chin.  There were flecks of gold speckled amongst the mahogany and auburn wiry hairs. 

“You’ve never killed anyone innocent, if that’s what you mean.  But, really, I think half of these people screaming things at you are scared that you’re going to walk up and cold-clock them.”

“Really?” she exclaimed with an explosive snort.  “I’d do that?”

He smiled.  “Are you kidding me?  I’ve seen you land more punches than a heavyweight in the ring.”

“So I’m a jerk,” she muttered.

“No,” he assured her.  “You hear out your people.  You always have.  If someone has an idea of how to do something better, you listen to that.  That’s what a real leader does, Dresden, and that’s what you are.”

“I can’t do this,” Dresden whispered.  “I just want to go home.”

“You are home.”

“To
my
home, before all of this mess.  I don’t want any of what this is.”

Dodge grew frustrated.  “You know what?  It’s dark.  You need to go to bed because we’re getting up before sunrise.”

“To do what?  Watch me fail over and over again?”

“Hey,” he said sternly.  He stood from the bed and looked down to her.  “If you want to throw yourself a pity party, that’s fine.  I’m not coming, though.”

She rolled her eyes.  “There you go again, acting like a jerk.”

“No,” he scoffed.  “I’m acting like I care about you.  You’re not you.  I get that.  I don’t know what you’re going through, but I know you seem to be insecure and scared and confused.  And that’s fine.  But I’m not going to sit around and watch you pout when I know you’re stronger than this.  You are powerful.  You are smart.  Get up and start acting
that
way.  Know that you are what we need and accept that.  Dresden, I don’t know if you’re ever going back to where you were before.  I don’t even know how you got here.  All I know is that it couldn’t have come at a better time.  Wake up and realize that you’re here for a reason.”

“And what if I’m not?  What if this was all just some kind of weird mistake?” she demanded.

“I don’t believe that.  You shouldn’t either.  Look, I’m going to sleep.  I’ll wake you up when it’s time to get ready.”

Dodge left Dresden in the quiet room.  She stood and walked to the light switch.  Alone in the dark, she crossed the room and crawled in bed.  She squirmed under the comforter until she rolled over and grunted at the way her clothes were twisting and tangling around her limbs. She closed her eyes and desperately attempted to fall asleep, but her stomach churned and her thoughts were racing.