The War for Mare (The Fall of Man Book 3) (8 page)

While I listened to Burt, my attention was
on the loud fun the two people playing air hockey were having.

Burt must have noticed my attention was
there. “Go on. Go introduce yourself. We don’t bite. We aren’t
Savages or Ancients.” He chuckled. “Get it? Bite. Ancients? Maybe
not.”

Snake laughed loudly at the really bad
joke.

“I get it,” I said and made my way over to
the air hockey table. I needed to get a closer look.

“Score!” the girl shouted. “Ha!’

“You suck,” her competitor said. “Best out
of five?”

“Sure…” she looked at me. “Unless the new
guy wants to play.” She set down her paddle and extended her hand.
“Brea.”

“I’m sorry?” I said, shaking her hand.

“Brea. That’s my name. That’s Josh.”

“What’s up?” Josh nodded.

“Did you want to play?” She reminded me a
lot of Erin from Angeles City. Perky, cute, darker hair that was
straight and came to her shoulders. Only Brea seemed, I don’t know,
more tomboyish.

“No, I…. I haven’t a clue what this is. This
is the first time I ever saw this game.”

“Seriously?” she asked. “You been living in
the Straits?”

“Nah,” Josh said. “He doesn’t look or dress
like he’s been in the Straits. Maybe a rogue.”

She tightened her lips and nodded. “Yeah,
makes sense. You from a rogue?”

“Okay, I am really lost now,” I said. “A
rogue?”

“That’s what we call places that are maybe a
farm with one or two families,” Josh explained. “Small
communities.”

“No, I’m from Angeles City.”

The paddle dropped from Josh’s hand as if I
had said something shocking. “For real? You’re a rebel?”

“Yeah, if that’s what you call us.”

“Wow. Pretty cool. Pleased to meet you.” He
finally shook my hand.

“Thanks. Nice to meet you, too.”

“So, Rebel, instead of a game, they hand you
a gun, growing up,” Brea said.

“Pretty much.”

“That sucks.”

“It’s the way of life.”

“Not really. Not for all. How about
playing?”

“I told you, I don’t know this game.”

She handed me a paddle, grabbed my arm, and
pulled me over to the same spot at the end of the table. “How about
you learn? Josh here is the perfect first opponent. He’s
horrible.”

Josh laughed one of those fake exaggerated
laughs and took his spot.

“I have no idea what to do,” I said.

“No worries.” Brea smiled. “I’ll teach you.”
She placed her hand over mine to show me how to hold the paddle.
Her hands were soft and delicate. No scars, no rough edges. No
rough life.

If I wasn’t so aware of how bad things were
out there, Hopeland would be a great place to stay, at least from
what I was seeing.

For the time being, while there, I would
enjoy all it had to offer.

I suppose I
appeared a little silly basking in the moment with Davis. I didn’t
think so at first and my arms stayed tight around him, my face
plastered to his chest. Then he said, “Okay, okay, that’s
good.”

He removed my arms and smiled. Something
changed at that moment. I believe he saw me differently. Suddenly,
he wanted to spend time with me and know everything there was to
know about me.

He had me wait and then he raced from the
room and returned with wine and food. Surely, he had a seduction
plan on mind. It must have been time for him to do that portion of
the conditioning.

I was ready.

“This calls for a celebration,” he said,
pouring me wine. “Do you drink?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“True.” He poured me a glass. “You can take
a break from conditioning.”

“Tell me, why do we celebrate?”

“Because you, my new friend, have vital
information. I have needs.”

“I’m glad.”

“Let’s run you dry.”

“Hmm. Then I’ll need this.” I brought the
wine to my lips. “Too bad we don’t have a little honey.” I caught
myself. “I jest.”

“If you want honey, I’ll get you honey.”

“Maybe later.”

He winked. “Sounds good. So...” He downed
his whole glass and then poured more. “We have established you were
a housemaid in the Ancient City. Tell me a little about you. What
do you remember? Your life.”

“You don’t think I am weird anymore?”

“Oh, no, you’re definitely out there. But I
need to hear your story.”

“Why?”

“Knowing you will help me gauge the validity
of what you tell me.”

Understood. Surely I couldn’t tell him my
real story. But what about human life did I know? Suddenly, I
recalled all the television shows.

“Where shall I begin?”

“Do you have brothers or sisters?”

“Yes,” I replied. I didn’t really, but I had
to make up something. “There were six of us. Three boys and three
girls. My father was an architect.”

“Did you have a maid, too?”

“As a matter of fact—”

“I’m joking. Did you work? What did you do?
Before the housemaid thing.”

Knowing I had a skill as a seamstress, I
could share that. But he may not have known the term seamstress. I
wracked my brain again, I answered according to what he’d know with
the television shows. “Fashion designer. I was a designing
woman.”

“I see. Okay, where are you from?
Originally, before the Event. Before the plague and war.”

Dare I spew out, ‘Deep in the caverns of the
Laurel Mountains in Pennsylvania’? No…think. Shows. Finally, I
figured it out. “Green Acres.”

He sat back. “Is that near Petticoat
Junction?”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

Again, he downed his glass. “Enough of your
past. If I showed you a map, could you show me where the Ancient
City is?”

“I can. Anything for you.”

“Then I’ll be back.” He stood and walked to
the door.

“Davis?”

He paused at the door. “Yes?”

“Just so you know, if you want, you can have
your way with me.”

“Um… thanks. Maybe later.”

“I can wait.”

He flashed a hurried smile and raced out the
door. His urgency was impressive. I suppose he wanted to get that
map so he could eventually get to me.

Despite that he did not know I was at one
time an Ancient, surely he sensed the generosity of my offering.
After all, it is not every day a woman like me offers herself to
someone like Davis.

Sophie had a
coldness to her soul. That was the one thing I noticed right away.
She lacked deep emotion and understanding. Granted she was only a
child, but still, when I told her of our mother’s passing, she
merely nodded her understanding. The Sophie I knew before would
have cried. Even I shed a tear for our mother.

She needed to rest. Not that Ancients or
‘Humancients’ as I learned they were called, needed to sleep, but
they did require rest. Sophie was so young, she required more. I
made sure she had a lunch of fruit, and then I read her a story,
kissed her, and left her room.

The events of the early morning were still
on my mind. The king was insistent that it was a ploy, a mind game
played on me by Anubis.

I needed to escape, to forget about it. I
was saddened to learn that Snake and Tanner had left without saying
goodbye. Did they truly harbor ill feelings toward me? The hallway
was long, and my destination was Iry’s hidden room. I felt the need
to watch
ALF
.

I took four steps and the hallway, decorated
with golden paper, turned dark and cold. I spun around and no
longer was I in Iry’s house, I was somewhere else.

I was in a cavern of sorts, with dark, wet
walls, it was damp and smelled foul. Where was I? How did I get
there?

Had I fallen asleep?
Wake up,
I told
myself.
Wake up
!

I reached down to pinch my arm and as I
grabbed hold of the flesh between my two fingers I saw the Savage.
He growled hungrily at me. I backed up.

“Mare,” a deep voice called.

I turned slowly to my right and in the
distance was Anubis. He lifted his staff. “Welcome to our world.”
With a slam of his staff to the ground, he cried out, “Attack!”

From behind him a wave of Savages raced my
way. A herd of hundreds ran after me. The one Savage that was near
me reached for my arm, scratching it with his claws.

If this was a dream or transport, surely I
wasn’t waking up.

Doing the only thing I could, I spun and ran
in the opposite direction. The passageway was long and dark, and
from what I saw, was nothing more than a dead end. I was trapped.
For some reason I was faster than the Savages, and when I arrived
at the wall, I pounded my fists against it.

They drew closer and closer, surely I was
facing the end of my time. Not wanting to see it coming, I turned
and faced the wall and in desperation, I threw my hands against it.
The wall crumbled and I tumbled forward into Iry’s personal
chambers.

He was seated at a desk and stood in alarm.
“Vala?”

I scurried to my feet, looking behind me to
see only a door.

“What’s wrong?” He reached down and helped
me to my feet.

“Iry,” I said breathlessly, “they pulled me
through again.”

<><><><>

When we arrived at the king’s palace, I
expected him to emerge with a ‘what does she want now?’ attitude,
instead, he appeared scared, shaken.

“So this wasn’t a vision?” Iry asked.

“I’m afraid not,” the king replied. “I hoped
it was, but after hearing this, I fear they have locked in on
her.”

“Vala, pack up, grab Sophie, we are leaving
Ancient City.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the king said. “They
found her. They have her. Next time she may not be so lucky. This
was a warning, their arrogance to let us know the power they
have.”

“Is there nothing we can do?” Iry asked.
“Surely, your spirit guards can—”

“They are no match for Anubis, he is a God.”
The king stood from his throne.

“What do they want?” I asked.

“Your blood. Your soul.”

“What about the things that Susan said? That
they want to attack We need to find this out. The Savages are
mighty, I can defeat many, but the numbers I saw…”

“That has to be a delusion,” the king said.
“Anubis is using them to get to you.”

“Then can I project?” I asked. “Can I travel
to them? See what is real and what is not?”

“If they see your essence they will
apprehend you.”

“So we’re at a loss,” Iry said. “She isn’t
even safe while awake?”

“They can pull her in and we will lose her,”
said the king.

“Why now?” Iry asked. “Why did they wait
until now?”

“Because she married you. Marriage means an
offspring. They can’t have that. A child of a Mare and purebred
Ancient would be more powerful than Anubis.”

“Where’s the fight?” Iry snapped. “There has
to be a way to protect her.”

After a moment of silence, the king dropped
down to his throne, and peered up at us from the tops of his eyes.
“There is.”

“What?” Iry asked. “Anything. We need to
protect her.”

“They can take her, overpower her at any
time, unless….” He paused. “Unless she is with child, and the child
of an Ancient. The power of the child will protect her and make her
too strong for them to control.”

“Will I be able to safely see what they are
up to then?” I asked.

“Yes,” the king answered.

“I see.” I nodded and thanked the king. My
gut swirled with feelings of trouble. I had embarked on a journey
to change the world, to defeat the foe. I was fast finding out, my
foe was not the Ancients after all.

“I delivered game systems to restaurants,
bars, you name it,” Burt said. “That was my job. I liked it.”

We sat around a
table in their main room. The air hockey game was popular and folks
had to write their name on a board to line up to play. It was
relaxing and I wasn’t antsy, although I couldn’t wait to get back
to Angeles City. Burt said they’d take us close. About a two hour
walk from there.

Brea joined us at the table, though she said
she couldn’t stay too late. She was a pretty cool girl. I liked
her. I invited her to come to Angeles City with us and she
laughed.

“We’re pretty happy here. I arrived here
when I was a kid.”

I asked Burt, “How did you guys get this
place?”

“Geez. Hard to remember what came first. But
I got here early on. I delivered games here. That’s how I knew it
existed. And the Ancients left us alone, Savages too. Pretty good
living.”

“How do you get people from the Straits?”
Snake asked.

“They wander to the shack above,” Burt
replied. “What did you do before becoming a soldier against the
Ancients?”

Snake took a drink of his whiskey. “Rocket
scientist.”

We all laughed.

“Seriously,” Snake said. “I worked for NASA,
fifteen years. Hydraulics. If I hadn’t been working there I would
have never seen the satellite images that pushed me west.”

Burt furrowed his brow. “But west was where
the war was and the virus missed.”

“The virus had an immunity factor. We didn’t
escape it, we were immune. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ill
informed,” said Snake. “We saw them coming. Big black movements
that came out of nowhere.”

“Saw what?” I asked.

“Savages,” Snake said. “They couldn’t figure
out what it was until reports from the ground came in. They were
everywhere, black masses in every continent. The war story wasn’t
exactly true, it was smoke and mirrors to keep the public calm. We
actually thought we were gonna beat them. People were told to go
west because that was the only place that didn’t show large masses,
well, enough to be picked up by the space station. New Zealand is
pretty safe from everything, from what I heard.”