Clarity's Doom (Ancient Origins Book 1) (23 page)

“Nick wants to see you.” She was gazing at Doom.

“Why have you come?”

“I told Nick what you want and he told me to take the children to you, well Clarity really. He wants us to learn to defend ourselves. Whether you win or lose, we will all grow up and the hybrids will pick us off one by one. The age difference is too great. I told Nick that, I figured out what you meant about us being only children and of no use. They will want me soon. They’ll go after Nick soon, maybe as soon as next year. Then me, then Nina. Em and Luke will be left alone with the twins and any other child Nick finds before he’s killed.”

“I’ll find Nick,” Doom stated and began to walk away.

Clarity grabbed his arm. “I’m coming.”

Doom gripped her shoulders and gazed into her eyes. “He wants me dead. I won’t take chances with you.”

“Doom,” a voice bellowed.

Menace and a few village men came forward. There were five human men and three human females with them. Menace carried a young woman in his arms. Clarity raced to him. The woman was unconscious. Clarity’s heart began to pound.

“Doom, look.” She pointed at her arm. “The vaccine. She’s from my Earth.” Both gave each other open-mouthed stares.

****

Doom told Clarity to stay with Menace and wait for the woman to wake up. Clarity was hesitant but he promised her he would be fine. Nick knew of his existence for years, he could have killed him. Doom didn’t mention he noticed Kiki no longer had the bomb. Clarity would figure it out fast so he had to hurry.

The mountain where the children lived was close and Doom was moving fast. He wanted the confrontation over with. Clarity would worry the entire time he was gone. He knew he was being watched; he could feel it. He wanted answers and he was positive Nick knew something.

Nick stalked Doom. Undaunted Doom spun in a slow circle watching the teen as he moved above him from rock to rock. In his hand he held the bomb Kiki received for information. The other hand held a match. He only needed one. Nick chuckled when Doom eyed the weapon.

“No worries,” Nick said. “This for my safety. We face after hybrids dead. I want you pass message to Clarity.”

“What message?”

“DaV-nin wants her. He wants eggs, whatever that mean. He want taste her brain. He thinks there be harvest, is good. Your battle, Kiki told me, is go.”

“What else do you know?”

“Hybrids sleep, wake when you do. Not like too cold. Some go to heat. Not all. Vul-ner-able under nose. Only five females of own they breed. Don’t know how breed, but see human female’s guts ripped open, low on belly like they look for something. She alive when they do it. Female’s death horrible.”

Doom knew he was being taunted. The words were short but understandable. Nick had a vile smirk on his face. The boy wanted him to suffer. The young man wasn’t done. Doom already wanted to vomit with the images. Hate ruled the boy-man before him.

“They pin woman down, slice claw in belly, pull something out. Then she killed for brain. Your fault,
Doom
.”

“The hybrids do the killing.”

“You give victims. You bad. Cruel. Hate you.
Hate you
.”

Nick jumped down the side of the cliff and was gone. Doom’s heart was racing. The hybrids held the humans for a month. Maybe it took them that long for the hunt. Doom wondered if they waited for a certain time when their females were fertile. Clarity and the other human females had a bleeding time each month. The village women no longer did but Doom wasn’t so naive he didn’t know the bleeding was associated with sex and babies. Anything was possible. He raced back to Clarity and found her in Menace’s home. The female had yet to wake.

“When she wakes take her to the main hall,” Doom commanded. He wasted no time grabbing Clarity’s hand and taking her to his home and told her what Nick had said.

“My ovaries? My brain? What are they, hybrid zombies?” Clarity asked. “Unless they figured out a way to…shit, that’s gross. If they take my ovaries and mix them with their sperm and put it back into a host’s body, but that’s crazy.” She slumped onto the bed.

“No, it’s not crazy.” Doom gazed into space before sitting next to her. “When Alice came she spoke of being with a man and they couldn’t have children. They did something she said a test tube, maybe.”

“Do you think DaV-nin could be a result of that?”

“Maybe, somehow. But if they consume brains, she would have been dead before her ovaries were harvested.”

“Damn, stem cell memories. I guess it depends on how fast their stem cell memories work. If it’s instantaneous then there might have been time. Didn’t you say it took a month for the tattoos to appear?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe it’s not their females but humans they wait for. There is a certain time when a woman ovulates in a month. Holy hell, what if they wait for a human female to ovulate—the best time to try for a child? How old are the humans when they come here?”

“The males are of all ages, the females are thirty and under mostly but not all. I think you’re right. They are looking for knowledge. They are breeding.”

“If the ovaries are used and a host, the bones might be as strong. If the hybrids use cell memory that fast, the baby within might be conditioned to grow strong. From necessity. Dinosaur DNA to adapt to grow and thrive. Shit. Every harvest they are getting smarter. Heath said they were on the verge of space flight. Soon the hybrids will have all the information they’ll need. Even without me. The hybrids need to be destroyed. We need to get busy.”

“Come on.”

Doom took her hand and they raced to the main room where everyone was gathered and arguing. Luke had his arms wrapped around Rex. It was clear the villagers weren’t impressed with the dinosaur in their midst. Bubble-gum was snapping at the dinosaur. Flight was outraged the dinosaur was upsetting the dog. Luke was ready to kill anyone who came near. Doom jumped up on the long table and held his hands up for quiet. He was happy to see Menace, and the female recently found was nestled into his arms. Many new faces stared at him, he guessed the arguing stemmed from them being brought up to speed. It made his job easier.

“We know what the hybrids are after,” Doom shouted. As he expected there were calls of questions. He held his hands splayed for silence. When the room settled he began again. “The hybrids are taking the human females’ ovaries and somehow impregnating their females with them. They then eat the brains of the humans for their memories.”

The female in Menace’s arms swayed and he pulled her tighter to his chest. Doom motioned to her.

“You, what’s your name?”

“She’s Solace. And we determined she’s from Clarity’s Earth,” Menace said.

“Well damn, does she have a taser, too?” Edge grumbled.

“What happened to you?” Clarity asked.

“I work at a daycare,” Solace said, she placed a hand to her head. “We, a few children and me, were sitting and playing. There was a commotion. A sinkhole above the children dropped strange toys. Before I could stop them, the children threw some of their toys up into the blackness. Then, one boy stood up. The blackness began to fall and before I could grab the child, he reached up. The second his fingers touched the darkness, he was sucked in. Then we all were. I tried to hold onto them all but was yanked away in the dark. I lost them. How could I lose them? I was responsible for them. Two and three year olds, gone. They aren’t here. Menace said no children came through the sinkhole with me or the other people. I don’t know any of these other people. I feel so alone.”

Solace began to sob, and Menace comforted her. Clarity stood beside Doom, and they clutched hands. Doom could see the sadness in Clarity’s eyes; he could also see the determination grow.

“We need to think bigger faster, if we’re going to save all three of our planets,” Clarity said. “Every second we have between now and the next sacrifice matters. We need to break up into groups. Solace, do you know anything about weapons?”

She dried her tears with the back of her hand. “Sure, I’m an army brat.”

Clarity’s smile beamed letting Doom know Solace being a self-proclaimed brat was a good thing.

“Gather together,” Doom shouted. “This is what we’re going to do.”

****

The long process of making fertilizer mixed with coal dust, molasses, and oil was tedious and Clarity had to make certain of safe storage. The shelter, constructed away from the underground homes, was difficult to reach during the high snow and impossible during a blizzard. Nothing could be made unless Clarity and others could remove their work from the main hall. The last thing she wanted was an explosion. Solace helped make crossbows from wood, the metal tips of arrows rolled in the light blue substance. Solace informed them her father had a fondness for making wooden gun barrels that he shared with her on numerous occasions as she was growing up. Solace was an only child and her father was indulgent, teaching her everything he felt a young woman needed to know in this world to survive. The information was put to good use. They lined the barrels with sandstone to shoot small pieces of debilitating blue matter separated by sandstone and rolled by sandstone.

The long process of making glass was difficult but Clarity wanted glass tips and boxes. An idea formed in her mind the first time she heard of what the blue stones could do and how she could harvest their power. The glass needed to be strong enough to not break with simple use but to shatter when dropped.

Baking soda and vinegar were easy staples and though Doom wouldn’t like it, she planned on using many of her condoms for a surprise on the hybrids. Balloon bombs shot with an arrow over an intended target. She planned to fill a few condoms with a noxious substance, hoping to blind their enemy.

“Flight?” Clarity said bending down hands on her knees.

The boy came running over with the dog. Bubble-gum was taller than the boy. He loved all of the children but held a fondness for a little boy who always seemed left out. It didn’t help his expressions were laughed at, though the words weren’t meant to be unkind. When Flight mentioned to Ada his mother used to tell him she loved him with all her heart, the woman scoffed and asked the boy how you love with that particular organ. She went on to say you don’t love with your kidneys or intestines.

Clarity was relieved the other children, her Earth children, took to him easily. Flight managed to smile a little more when he was understood. He wasn’t ignored by Luke when they wanted to tussle. The other children knew nothing of hands-on play.

She put her hands on his shoulders. “How would you like to help me make paper for balloons?”

His face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Oh, boy would I ever. Can I use some?”

“Sure. We’re going to need pulp and water and make a screen. Later I can show you how to make grass paper.”

Flight was practically tap dancing. Clarity taught all of the children to make firecrackers. Village women taught human females how to make baskets for the oil they would heat. Steel was melted in droves. Tomahawks were given hooked ends, deadly for slitting hamstrings. The humans they found beside Solace were squeamish and timid but when informed of their fate worked with a vengeance. Using a long soft hide and charcoal, Doom and Clarity mapped out the areas they would set traps. The hybrid home was underlined. They would strike there first. Clarity was forming her own plan in her mind. The big sleep would be a big boon.

They all worked hard and were starving by the end of the day. Clarity made an iron pan and seared a hunk of meat from a giant reindeer on all sides, using the flavored butter, salt, and herbs to season. She dowsed the meat often with the wooden spoon scooping up the juice. Doom declared the meat delicious. Fast rolls were made. Sleepy children were carried to beds in their own homes. Bubble-gum followed Flight. Clarity knew Muffin slept outside the child’s door. The bulwark was smitten with the dog.

Soon after dinner it was time to retire for the night. The children from Kiki’s group plus one T-rex were placed in a home of their own. Clarity watched Luke clutch a small stone of light to his chest as his sister pulled a fur over him. She glanced up at Doom.

“They’re all so young,” she whispered.

“They’re smart.”

“They’re strong. They don’t want to be on this planet. I wish we could get them home.”

Doom placed his hand on her shoulder to guide her to their home. “I think the girls are happy to be around you.”

She knew he was right. It didn’t stop her from wishing. “I wonder if there’s any hope of returning them.”

Doom took her in his arms as the door slid back. “Do you want to leave?” His sadness crashed over his features.

Clarity cupped his cheek with her palm. “I am exactly where I want to be.”

“Even though I drool in my sleep?”

“Meh, what’s a little spit?” Doom grinned as she sauntered toward the bed. She sat and patted the fur beside her. “Besides it’s your farting that really kills me.”

Doom stood with his mouth open and Clarity laughed. He then tossed his head back and laughed, too. The sound was as surprising as it was pleasing. Even on this Earth the word fart was a mood breaker. Doom was breathtaking when he laughed. He was still chuckling as he dropped his belt and pants.

Chapter Thirteen

As the weather began to change, Clarity loved the massive falls Doom brought her to. Water teemed over to fall and break new-forming ice. Crystalized ice glistened over rocks. Nearby, green pine needles dripped water from the round wet tips as ice melted. At night, winter was dominant; during the day, the sun lazily claimed back parts of its domain. Clarity could almost envision the sultry cheeky smile of Mother Nature as she taunted the elements.

It was Doom’s idea they get away for quiet time. Every waking moment was spent making bombs and planning strategies. Menace and others smuggled the new weapons to the closer villages who in turn smuggled them to farther villages. Knowledge was shared about the planning. Excitement was growing and villagers had to remember to walk with caution if confronted with a hybrid. One small slip and disaster would strike if a hybrid decided to make a meal of a villager, rare but known to happen.