The Gift of Volkeye (16 page)

5

Rosa Lee had seen the incident with Rue and was hell-bent on keeping anything from coming in the direction of her son. She stepped out more into the open, cutting down a few more. Rosa also thought she might’ve landed a few shots in the side of the gigantic creature which was darting back and forth, crushing everything in its path. Two of her neighbours caught elbows in the face from him, and blood showered the earth as they fell backwards with large concave dents in their heads. Even if they managed to kill Phyllamon’s other troops, Rosa knew it would be a miracle if they survived Zu’s wrath! Once they finished with the others, they’d all have to take this beast at once…if there were any of her neighbours left by then!

She saw Daum crouched behind a large tree stump, reloading. (Obviously, like Nick, he had nothing laser powered. Normal guns discharged all their ammo quickly.) He was fighting a centipede-like enemy, who was the only other beast on the field with a flamethrower. It raised its arms, firing at a downward angle, and the blue fire singed the top of Daum’s shoulder. Daum dropped to the ground and rolled around to extinguish the flames, which had now spread to his ponytail.

Suddenly, the creature had most of his tail blown away, with only six of its legs remaining. Rosa Lee looked above and found Rufus was still zig-zagging back and forth, covering them whenever he had a clear shot. Not a bad distance shot, herself, Rosa Lee finished off the centipede man, burning holes across its midsection. As the flamethrower fell, the beast set himself ablaze.

Daum rolled off the rest of the fire and got up to help the others. He ducked behind a cottage as Zu raced by him. Although injured, he was so massive and powerful that it would take much more to bring him down. Daum watched him kill a few more of his neighbours as he ran amongst the cottages. When Zu was far enough away, he decided it was safe to come from behind his cover.

When he did, Daum found a girl (whom he didn’t know) being strangled from behind by the tail of something that looked like a miniature dragon. He ran around the reptile’s backside and unsheathed a large machete, cutting its tail off. The girl dropped to the ground and reclaimed her weapon. As the beast turned to face them, bleeding and furious, he had an argument with separate shots from two shotguns. He lost the debate miserably.

6

Meanwhile, a hundred feet away, Phyllamon paced back and forth, swearing under his breath. He was unsure of what to do, because his infantry numbers were nearly depleted. When Zu wound up being the last of them standing, was he capable of taking the remaining townsmen all by himself? Adding to Phyllamon’s worry was the fact that Zu wouldn’t be starting fresh…he was already injured!

Phyllamon let out a howl and grabbed Murlach, having one of his violent fits.

“Master, calm yourself!” Murlach choked out through the headlock he was in.

Rather strong for his size, he managed to pull one of Phyllamon’s hands away. Thinking that pain would bring him to his senses and make him focus, Murlach bit the thumb on Phyllamon’s right hand down to the bone.

Phyllamon grunted and fell to his knees, glaring at his bloody thumb. He leered at Murlach in fury.

“
Think
, Master! What’s your decision?”

“Goddammit!” Phyllamon growled. Just as he made to call off any remaining infantry, he and Murlach had to hit the deck.

7

A girl named Sonji, who’d fled to the trees in order to evade Zu, had just rejoined her neighbours. Rosa Lee had finally stepped out further as well, and the two of them stood side-by-side, helping the others pick off the next to last of Phyllamon’s soldiers. Now only one remained, and their group quickly huddled together, knowing it would take their combined firepower to stop him…if they could do it at all!

As they heard a shrill cry come from the end of town, they turned to find Zu had another of their own stretched horizontally in midair. He yanked their neighbour apart and began bolting towards them. They open fired.

Zu could hardly move without his body crying out in pain. Were it not for his size and strength, he knew that he’d have long been dead. His plight wouldn’t have been so bad were it not for the fact that he had no body armour! Murlach was having an impossible enough time finding a weapon that was suitable for him, so attempts to obtain armour for something his size (on short notice, no less) was really a stretch.

Once again, Zu found himself fleeing Rufus’s assault. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the barrels on the hoverchair glowing white with heat. This was a huge worry, as Rufus had a near perfect angle of attack and, combined with those villagers in front of him, Zu was now being
pummeled
with ammunition! He leapt side-to-side in attempts to avoid the blasts, but he wasn’t doing well at all.

Unsure of how much more he could take, Zu was determined to make it near the people soon. This would at least stop the fire from above, affording him the chance of escape. Dismissing the pain, Zu increased his speed tenfold.

When he came upon the townsmen, he once again took on a bull-like charge, bent on killing as many as possible before retreating. Zu gave an explosive stretch with both arms, batting the villagers out of his way. Nine of them took flight, and three others were tromped upon as he plowed his way through the crowd, quickly disappearing into the trees.

Rosa Lee, who was lucky enough to only have sustained cuts and bruises, climbed slowly to her feet. She staggered a bit, for she’d been knocked aside by Zu’s muscular thighs, and this was easily the most jarring collision she’d ever felt in her life. Rosa imagined that this was what being hit full on by a speeding hover would’ve felt like. Incredibly surprised that she wasn’t dead, she looked about, inspecting the casualties. Sonji and Daum, as well as others (injured but living), slowly got up to join her.

Nicolas had managed to drag Rue’s body from the forest. He left her to rest at the foot of the trees and went to join his mother. Nick ran to hug Rosa Lee and found her crying.

“How many?” he asked.

“It’s so hard to tell, Nick…over fifty I think,” she said, glaring at the carnage around her.

Nick shook his head in disbelief, kneeling over random bodies for signs of survivors. “Did we at least get Phyllamon? Does anyone know?” he asked, running about the corpses.

No one got the chance to answer, as the echoes of random fire suddenly startled them. They looked to the sky and found Rufus racing towards the opposite end of the clearing, shooting at something he’d found amidst the trees.

8

Phyllamon and Murlach fell to the floor in the nick of time. Red-hot beams of light pierced the body of the pod, whizzing every which way as they lay stiff on the floor. As Murlach reached into his jacket pocket for the ejection remote, a laser that passed too near burned his face.

Rufus circled round and round, blasting any untouched area. He momentarily considered hovering over top just in case Phyllamon and the little man hadn’t been killed. However, he decided against it, as he didn’t want to be directly above the pod if it blew.

Murlach continued to rummage through his pockets. All he felt was the keys for the corridors of the castle, and there were a great many of them to dig through! Desperately flustered, he began squeezing the pocket in hopes that he might trigger the ejection.

“Murlach, get us out of here!” Phyllamon roared over the noise of frenetic flames, laser fire, and melting machinery.

In a panic, Murlach squeezed his pocket with all his might. Just as he thought the end of them had come at last, the center of the pod raised and shielded itself. Then they shot straight into the sky, leaving a thunderous explosion behind them. All that remained at the scene was smoking debris and a very angry old man. Rufus spun about in the air, blasting the surrounding treetops in a cussing fit. It was all he could do, for there was no way his chair was fast enough to catch them.

9

It was now late. Rosa Lee, Nicolas, and a few other survivors gave a last look about the battle-worn town. Out of the cottages in the very center, the only ones that were still standing were either slowly burning to ashes or riddled with bullets and laser burns.

On the opposite edge of Rhameeryla, rested the biggest fire of all, for it was in one of the cottages that they decided to place the fifty-seven bodies of their neighbours. Here, there was more to burn, so the fire was correspondingly much bigger than the others. Though some wanted to dig graves, they let the idea go, knowing this was as proper a burial as any of them had time to give.

Phyllamon’s soldiers, however, was a different story. They’d left those corpses scattered about to be eaten by vultures or any vermin that crossed their paths.

Rosa Lee and Nicolas blew kisses goodbye to their home and friends and then joined Daum and Sonji, who were curiously inspecting the tank which Phyllamon had left behind. First, they figured out how to close all the open shields, keeping the frigid weather outside. Then they looked around and found cases chock-full of weapons, ammunition and explosives. Also, they discovered a great lot of freeze dried food, which they knew would be disgusting but useful nonetheless.

Daum and Rosa Lee both had experience flying ships, so they found the tank would be easy to pilot. Now that they’d made themselves the navigators, the others found spots amongst the tank’s three levels and strapped themselves in. Nicolas had sat directly behind his mother and was already nodding off from the emotionally exhausting day. Others continued crying, and the rest of them stared blankly at the innards of the ship, wondering what was to become of them:

Where would they go? Did the tank have enough power and rations to get them there? If attacked again, would they have the strength for another fight? What had happened to the others who fled earlier, and had they faired any better than them? Would they ever be able to return to Rhameeryla? And, most importantly…

WHERE IN THE BLAZES WAS ZYNATHIAN, AND WAS HE AWARE OF THEIR SITUATION?

It was nearly two weeks after the destruction of Rhameeryla. The day was chilly and clear, and the sun was shining. The great trees of the forest seemed to smile upon a returning traveler, lifting his spirits even more, as he was already in a good mood. Though he was happy to return home after six months of travel, he was mostly excited because he would soon see his family and a certain girl that he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind since he left on his voyage.

As Teshunua wove through the trees in his one-man hover (another of Zynathian’s lavish gifts), he petted Jix lightly on the head.

“Be home any minute now, bud,” he said to the hybrid cat-beast, his best friend.

Whatever cheer they’d felt to be home, left them instantly as they stumbled onto an enormous path of overrun trees. Teshunua slowed the hover, trying to figure out what could’ve plowed its way through the forest like this.

And whatever it was, why was it here? Rhameeryla is supposed to be a secret!

Teshunua sped forward, following the trail. Instinctively knowing where it would lead, he tried to prepare himself for the worst. When he came to the clearing his heart seemed to drop into the pit of his stomach. Everything before him was something out of a horrific dream. There were bodies—charred and black as could be—and all the houses (except for those bordering the town, like Asha’s) were nearly obliterated.

He hovered amidst the carnage awhile longer and then got out to inspect. Jix followed.

“Bahzee…Asha!”

He ran to their cottage and burst through the charred door, gasping as he looked about the house. Though everything was black and covered in ash, it was completely empty. The only things left were those items that Asha considered to be useless. There was furniture, a refrigerator, and a stove. However, the sculptures, firearms, and food and clothing were gone.

“Whatever it was…Asha and Bahzee must’ve escaped it, you think?”

I agree!
Jix hissed in response.

“I hope this has nothing to do with Phyllamon!” Teshunua said, thinking a moment. “Jix, do me a favour and check those bodies outside and see if any are our neighbours! If so, look for survivors!”

At this, Jix flew outdoors.

Tesh darted out of the house and ran atop a large hill. Then he hurried to a giant Sequoia and touched a long, jagged piece of bark, standing aside as the hill began to quake. His home rose from a compartment in the earth with its tip towering above Rhameeryla at ninety feet.

He quickly went in and began searching. There had to be
something
, because he knew that Asha and Bahzee wouldn’t have left without…

“Ah!” He sighed with relief, seeing the letter atop the mantelpiece.

As he hurried to grab it, Jix flew through the open door and perched himself on the mantelpiece. He shook his head, following with a string of yowls and murmurs.

Many of our neighbours are dead! I smelled burnt, human flesh in the air and then crawled through a hole atop one of the cottages—Teshunua, there are dozens of bodies!

Teshunua swayed in shock, mouth hanging open. He backed up and began pacing the room, while Jix gave more details.

But those outdoors—beasts that I’ve never seen in these parts—they have a foul scent about them that I can’t place. They just may have come from Phyllamon’s castle!
Jix said, arching his back furiously.

At this, Teshunua tore open the letter from Bahzee.