Pahnyakin Rising (5 page)

Not one to give up on her goals, Dresden continued her ride.  The full moon was casting enough natural soft white light on the roads that she found it unnecessary to use the square LED headlight affixed at the center of her handlebars.  Her eyes darted from side to side every few feet and she noted something odd:  for three blocks, she saw no Unies.  Dogs barked in back yards as the girl pedaled her bicycle down the center of the black two-lane street.  The neighborhood appeared untouched by the Pahnyakins and she thought, for the first time since the species moved into the area, that the neighborhood was like she remembered from childhood.  She liked it that way, but she could not calm the uneasiness she felt at the lack of presence from the aliens.

Two yellow lights were on at her high school but there were no cars parked in the vacant lot.  Across the street on her right, a television was left on at the cable provider’s office.  She never did understand that.  It wasn’t as if pedestrians ever stopped outside the glass front building to watch the around-the-clock news station.  She passed the hologram on the corner of Shelby Drive and Upper 11
th
Street.  The figure of Mayor Bago holding a sign that simply read, ‘Reelect Bago’ smiled and crackled as brown-winged moths hovered and fluttered wildly in front of the bulbs that projected the transparent image. Dresden always thought holograms were creepy. 

She was unsure of the time as she reached a white-painted billboard with the words, ‘Goodbye from Easton, Indiana’ written in large red letters, but she knew she was only two miles from the Wotomack Bridge.  The teenager pedaled in darkness with wind blowing her hair behind her numb ears until she reached a crumpled blue beer can on the side of the cracked pavement.  She squeezed her hand brakes lightly and squinted to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was.  Dresden climbed off her bike and laid it in the dewy overgrown ditch on the left side of the road.  She was more focused on the repetitive lavender flashing light half a mile up the road.  It was all she could see as the moon hid behind slow-moving dark clouds.

In the dark of night, the girl walked through the ditch and prayed she was unseen by the Pahnyakins ahead.  She still could not make out that the beings were on the bridge, but what else could the flashing be? 

The arches of her feet stretched and hurt with every heavy and rushed step she took.  She could tell she was nearing the transmitter.  A sweet scent filled the air and she recognized it as the honeysuckle cluster to the left of the bushes.  As she neared the transmitter, she could see the outlines of six Pahnyakin beings surrounding a Gaia.  It was unlike anything she had ever witnessed.  The purple visitor’s flashing slowed to a dim glow and the Pahnyakins’ chatters and clicks grew in volume and speed.  The clicks reminded Dresden of a stick clattering against the spoke of a bicycle tire.  She hid near the transmitter and pushed the weeds to the right with the side of her palm for a better view of the bridge.

Like air released from the squeezed lip of a balloon, a squeaking screech rang through the air.  Even from a distance, the noise hurt Dresden’s eardrums.  She quickly drew her palms over her single-pierced ears.  The teenager carefully observed the Pahnyakins surrounding the Gaia as they hurriedly moved away from the leader.  Something wasn’t right and the senior girl knew she should leave as quickly as possible, but something inside of her wanted to move
closer
. 

The glow from the Gaia grew brighter as Dresden cautiously crawled through the tall grass on her hands and knees.  Her thin leggings were soaked within thirty seconds of moving nearer to the bridge.  Her fingers sank into the cold and muddied ground.  Something slithered over her right fingertips and she gasped in fear.  Realizing her error, she whipped her eyes forward to see four Unies and two Imperators eyeing the land in her direction.  She held her breath as she waited for the beings to return their attention to the Gaia.  Her lungs burned and the visitors looked away just as she forcefully exhaled. 

Dresden’s entire body was trembling as she watched the Pahnyakins.  In fear of being caught, she could barely keep her body propped up.  The Gaia continued to shriek and lifted her chin towards the sky in a pained howl. 

In an instant, the glowing being collapsed to the surface of the Wotomack Bridge and the surrounding Pahnyakins sprinted towards the area in which Dresden was hiding.  The mechanical creatures were fast; she could feel the ground shake under her palms as the beings sprinted closer to her. 

Making a decision based on a flood of fear and courage meeting face-to-face, the teenager stood and ran full-speed towards the center of the bridge.  She knew she was spotted by the Pahnyakins that moved in her direction, and she knew it was likely that one would grab her, but she pressed her toes to the ground with every step and propelled herself forward.  She was unsteady on her feet as she attempted to keep her heels off of the ground.  Each time one of the wedges touched the earth, her ankles wobbled and she feared falling. 

Clicking and high-pitched screeching combined to fill the night air.  She thought she could hear a pack of coyotes in the distance, but it was hard to tell with the noise from the alien race clouding her focus.  She neared the Pahnyakins and hoped the beings would be shocked that the spy they wished to catch was running towards them.  Maybe it would buy her some time to evade them. 

She was soon the one in shock.  The group of Pahnyakins were not running to catch her.  They were fleeing.  None of the six reached out to grab her.  Instead, their visors flashed golden speckles that Dresden had never seen before.  She felt worried and overwhelmed with curiosity at the same time and could not stop herself from running, despite the ever-growing fear that swelled in her stomach and crept up the back of her dry throat.

Her boots stomped on the white loose planks as she reached the bridge and as she neared the center, the Gaia in front of her writhed in pain.  She slowed her movements and cautiously approached the being.  Dresden inched nearer to the Gaia and threw her head over her left shoulder to see what the other beings were doing; they were standing in a horizontal line beyond the bushes where the transmitter was hidden.  They stood motionlessly and looked onward. 

As Dresden walked forward, the Gaia’s purple emission grew in brightness. 

“Can you understand me?” the teenager asked the being.

The Gaia’s visor was cracked near the its crown and the alien’s flat hand opened. 

“Are you hurt?” Dresden asked in a broken voice. 

From the ground, the Gaia hissed.  The warning did not stop the teenager.  Dresden stood at the Gaia’s shins and knelt beside the robotic creature. She reached her hand towards the Gaia’s visor and the creature let out a sound that left Dresden incapacitated.  Dresden pulled her hand back and her bracelet caught on a rusty nail.  It slipped from her wrist. 

The teenager, once again, pressed her palms to her ears but it was not enough to drown out the noise.  She felt a stream of warm liquid on her palm and saw speckles of blood dripping to the peeling white paint below her.  Dresden attempted to stand, but she could not find the strength.  The creature at her side grew brighter until the bridge and surrounding area lit up like daylight.  Dresden clamped her eyes shut as the emittance of light and sound became unbearable.  She was engulfed by a burning sensation and an explosion of purple light was visible even through her clenched eyelids.  The 17-year-old shrieked in pain as she felt her flesh singe. 

Like the Gaia, Dresden crumpled to the surface of the bridge.

-7-

She moaned and attempted to roll to her side, but Dresden was fatigued and in pain.  The girl struggled to open her eyes and when she could, she could only see white splotches of light.  She had been blinded by the flash.  Her brain pounded inside her skull and she tasted coppery blood on her tongue.  With every ounce of determination she could find within herself, Dresden pressed her palms against the planks below her and lifted herself to a seated position.  She buried her forehead in her knees and panted. 

Though she knew she needed to stand and get off the bridge immediately, she could not move.  Her knees were weak and her legs shook uncontrollably.  She could not hear anything but piercing ringing in her ears, and as her eyesight returned, she could tell something was terribly wrong.  Under the light of the moon, Dresden realized she was sitting on the only four-foot stretch of the bridge that remained.  The planks were charred and the nails were rusty.  Frantically, she looked to the field behind her but the Pahnyakins were nowhere in sight.  She looked for the Gaia that was in front of her just moments earlier. 

Dresden was alone on what was left of the Wotomack Bridge.

Her breathing became labored at the beginning stages of a panic attack.  She fought to calm her nerves and attempted to breathe evenly.  As the fear became too much to handle, she leaned to her left and vomited into the void below.  The water below the bridge was gone. 

After struggling to collect herself, Dresden stood.  She extended her arms to keep her balance but still swayed.  Four feet from the nearest embankment, she did not know how she was going to get off the bridge.  She dropped back to her knees and reached under the jagged drop off in an attempt to feel for a supporting beam.  The girl could not reach.  She slowly walked to the far edge of the remnants and let out a whimper.  Knowing she could barely walk, she wondered how she could possibly pull off the only plan that came to mind, but she knew she had to try.

Dresden drew a breath of frigid air and ran full-speed towards the embankment.  She jumped at the last possible moment and landed hard on the ground with a pained cry.  The girl curled into a fetal position on the cold earth and drew her right knee to her chest, reaching to nurse her ankle.  Tears streamed from her glossy eyes and she sobbed unsteadily.  It took her 15 minutes to stand, and even then she moaned and sniffled over the pain that shot through her leg. 

The girl hobbled as fast as she could manage through the overgrown field.  She tried to lick her lips, but her mouth was too dry.  In a desperate attempt for moisture, she wiped her finger on her wet cheek and dabbed tears on her cracked skin. 

Her hearing returned with every step she took, but the sounds around her were faint and garbled.  She heard crickets and a barking dog.  The girl turned her head towards Easton but could not see anything through the dark.  She smelled honeysuckle and winced as she made her way to the transmitter.  If she could just lean against the black box for a moment, perhaps she could regain some of her strength. 

“Where is it?” she cried in defeat.  She dropped to her knees in her torn leggings and patted the bushes with her scratched palms.  “They took it.  Oh my God, they took it.”

After taking a moment to physically rest, the emotionally and mentally overwhelmed teenager stood once more and practically dragged herself towards Easton.  The pavement under her feet did not feel right, but she could not see in the dead of night to tell why the ground felt uneven.  Her toes kept hitting heavy rocks and several times she almost fell, but she persevered with the goal of reaching her bicycle, though she didn’t have a clue how she would manage to ride it back to town.  If she could only get inside city limits, she could knock on a stranger’s door and ask them to call her parents.  She would accept being grounded, as long as she could get to a doctor. 

Her pulse raced and she could feel her heartbeat throbbing from every major vein in her body.  The walk that took her just a few minutes earlier was tripled in time.  She felt weak as she approached the ditch where she left her bicycle.  Dresden stumbled and fell to the wet grass.  She felt in the darkness for her bike, but her fingers only felt the ground. 

“No,” she cried.  “No.  I can’t be out here all night.”

She dragged herself in a weakened crawl through the muddy ditch, feeling blindly along the way.  Her right hand touched something cold and clammy.  She gripped the object with both palms and guided her fingertips up and down until she realized she was grasping something that felt all too familiar.  As she recognized the cylindrical, squishy sensation of fleshy, lifeless fingers, she screamed with a shriek that echoed throughout the night.

As she pushed herself backwards, she was blinded by thick foggy beams from two handheld floodlights.  She squinted and raised her forearm to shield her eyes.

“Stand up,” barked a female’s voice.  Dresden could tell the woman was older by the deep tone.

“What?  What’s going on?” asked the teenager.

She felt a tug on the back of her hair and she squealed.

“Get up now,” repeated the woman. 

As Dresden’s eyes adjusted to the light, she could see the woman giving the orders.  She appeared to be in her late 40s and had dark skin that matched her brown eyes that gleamed in the backlash of the lights’ glows.  Her hair was pulled sleekly against her crown and tied in a naturally-curly poof at the back of her skull.  A bloodied bandage was tied around her left upper arm and there was dried blood on her sunken cheekbones.  The woman’s mouth dropped open in shock but she quickly regained her tough composure.