Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ The Young Debris ❯ Chapter 6
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Elven_mistress 
Sorry for the wait, only a total of 30 visits? That makes me sad *pouts*
Miscellaneous: Original Stories Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Post-apocalyptic / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.27.2009 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.6K | Visits: 184 | Status: Work In Progress
Sorry for the wait, only a total of 30 visits? That makes me sad *pouts*
Miscellaneous: Original Stories Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Post-apocalyptic / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.27.2009 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.6K | Visits: 184 | Status: Work In Progress
Well here is the new chapter, kinda dark I suppose but regrettably these things must be covered.
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Quintus stood on the balcony of his ten story building, sipping a glass of white wine. He watched the people below working on a stone temple that was to be dedicated to him, the slave drivers giving anyone who was slacking a good kick or smack with a riot stick. He smirked under the grey veil, he was rather enjoying his role as Lord over his own empire, small as it may be. As soon as his temple was finished he intended to expand, this city wasn’t nearly as big as he wanted his domain to be.
But that brought him to a new problem, Eva, their city was so small and he had border stations full of guards to prevent the slaves from escaping, so how could one single girl slip through? The thought alone infuriated him. He was their nameless Lord, the slaves called him a tyrant but the title sounded a little too harsh. Only a choice few knew his name and even fewer had seen his face, therfore whenever he wanted he could leave his room, sneak downt he stairwell and wander about with anonymity. He could disguise himself as a servant and go about his home, discovering who was discontent and troublesome; he could be a new slave and find out quickly of any who would make good soldiers and guards and discovering uprisings before they were even put into action, quelling it immediately with a quick "random" exacution to warn other slaves; or he could become a guard and find out who was loyal and who was a pretender. He had his suspicions as to how Eva escaped. She had been his right hand man and had seemed so dedicated to his monarchy, Quintus couldn’t fathom what could have made her run so quickly, he had always thought she believed in his vision of an empire with her as a coregent alongside Coiron.
He frowned and turned away from the window to sit on his sofa and read a book, placing his wine on the tray that the servant hurriedly refilled for his lord. Quintus watched him out of the corner of his eye as the vassal silently left the room.
I will have to deal with Coiron, he has been known for allowing his tongue to slip. Can’t have the people find out who I am, not even my remaining coregents would stay by my side then. Perhaps I shall deal with him this evening, I’ll invite him to have my evening meal with me. He thought to himself as he sat down in one of his favourite chairs.
He turned a page and continued reading and smiled to himself. Even though he had spent most of his life reading because he had nothing better to do, he still found it a good pastime. He knew several languages and could speak German, Spanish, and Arabic fluently. He had spent most of his time learning mathematics and ancient warfare, linguistics had been for recreational reading. The current book he was reading was in French, a language he had just recently mastered.
Quintus flinched as a door was slammed open and Aaron, the lesser of his three coregents, stormed into the room, his mussed black hair waving slightly, and threw down a blood soaked and tattered jacket on the coffee table. “She has headed north my lord,” He eyed a servant girl who was currently scrubbing blood off the floor by the desk, “should I send the dogs or some guards to retrieve her?”
The tyrant got up and walked to his bookshelf, gently placing his book away before returning to his place on the sofa to inspect the jacket that had now dirtied his clean marbletop table. He held it up to the light, it was definitely Eva’s, he had seen her wear it many times.
He tossed it aside into his laundry pile and looked up at Aaron through the veil, “no, let her think she is safe for now, we have better things to do than chase after a silly teenage girl.”
“Yes Sir, shall I return to my duties?” his cold grey eyes remaining forward.
Quintus nodded and waved him off, “yeah, sure.” So my dear Eva, you have fled north. Enjoy your winter. He chuckled to himself as he changed into some warmer robes before ordering his cooks to prepare dinner and invite Coiron to join him.
Coiron quietly sipped his wine, Quintus watching him through the veil. This guy gave him the willies, but he’d rather be serving this nutcase than be a slave like the others.
“Is there something you wanted to talk to me about my lord?”
The tyrant smiled beneath the cloth and shook his head, “can I not have a pleasant meal with my coregent?” He picked up a small bun and handed it to him.
Coiron chuckled, “the only person I’ve ever heard of share a meal with you was Eva.”
“Yes, well her and I did have a special connection. And she had seemed so dedicated to my cause. It is rather funny how she escaped so easily is it not?” He grinned when Coiron visibly paled, “it was almost as if she had help. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Coiron nodded dumbly and took a nervous sip of his drink, his hand was trembling slightly and if it had been anyone other than Quintus they would not have noticed.
They finished their dinner in a heavy silence, waited till the servants cleared the small table, then went and sat by the balcony to have their tea.
“You must miss her.”
Coiron’s head shot up, “My lord?”
Quintus laughed and patted the boy’s back, “I knew all about you and her, she told me you had even procured a townhouse together,” he stopped patting and gripped the back of his shirt collar, pulling it tight around his throat, “I also know you were the one to help her escape,” he whispered.
Coiron gasped for air as he clawed and the collar of his shirt in hopes of loosening it, “I swear I did not my lord!” He gasped as he continued to grasp at his collar.
This plea of innocence only made him tighten his hold, choking him harder. Coiron pleaded more until he couldn’t even get out a hoarse whisper, his mouth opening and closing in an almost comical manner, then his eyes began to droop as consciousness slipped from him.
With an angry huff the tyrant released him and watched as he coughed and choked for air. “I will let you live. For now.” he grabbed the collar and brought Coiron’s face up to his, “but do anything like that again and I will finish you.”
Eva shrugged and rearranged her cards, “yeah, but smart too. His family couldn’t afford special care and therapy for him so they just locked him in the basement. They'd buys books to keep him occupied, he had nothing better to do than learn.”
Kenny tossed his cards down and leaned back in his chair, “what is it we’re playing again? I forget.”
Kate sighed, “the same game we play every Wednesday night. Poker. Try paying attention.”
Kenny shrugged, “It’s boring anyways, I wanna play blackjack.”
Marie and Lisa put down their cards, “us too.”
Kate sighed in irritation and put her cards down, “Fine, we’ll play blackjack. Trent, you can be dealer first.”
Eva looked around herself while Trent shuffled the deck and dealt out everyone’s cards. These people were all from a small town so all the clans knew each other fairly well. A week ago, the day after she arrived to their farm, she was privileged to witness their little market that occurred every two weeks where the stripmall once stood. Each clan had something else to offer. Some made clothes, accessories, paints, or provided food like the Blood Moon did. There was one clan called the Lame Stag that was entirely made up of archers who offered lessons and equipment for a fair price. Elisha and the twins were actually wearing new outfits they had bought from the Dark Night clan. These clans weren’t like the people in her city. Halfway through the war everything went into complete anarchy in her home city and most people left for the countryside for safety. Here, instead of falling apart, they banded together.
They were an actual community, they may have divided into gangs, yet they had had almost no wars among each other. The clan leaders acted almost like a counsel on market day when they gathered and sat in a small corner to talk and exchange information on everything from the weather to the dwindling supplies and any new construction plans they had in mind for next spring. It was an odd form of democracy they had developed. Even as she looked around she could see a few people from the other three clans that had come over to play cards and socialize with old neighbors and school friends. Of course it wasn't all daisies and sunshine, there were a few irritating people among them and of course a few of your usual teenagers, but the intelligent and mature seemed to be in charge for once.
“Eva?”
She looked at Trent, “huh?”
He chuckled, “you in there? I asked you if you want to hit or stay.”
She looked down at her cards and yawned, “actually, I think I’ll sit out on this game, I was never any good at blackjack.”
Trent simply shrugged and shuffled her cards back into the deck and returned to his duties as a dealer.
“You were saying earlier about this nameless tyrant dude. How do you know so much about him?” Catherine, a member of the Dark Night clan, asked with mild scrutiny.
Eva yawned again and scratched her shoulder, “I just know stuff, plus I was kinda the head of his ‘royal’ guard.” the last bit was muttered quietly, the people closest to her heard but said nothing.
“I don’t see why we should have to worry about it, like you told the leaders on market day, he’s a good distance from us,” Kenny yawned, “great, now you’ve got me yawning.”
Eva folded her hands behind her head and leaned back, “he won’t stop with just the neighbouring towns and cities. He wants to be leader of his own country, start a monarchy. He’s as greedy and crazy as they come. And smart, like I already said.”
Trent handed his cards over to Kenny to put away since it was getting dark and time for bed, “maybe we should hold some kind of conference like we did two months ago, after the war ended. Just so we can start organizing to prepare ourselves for the worst.”
Kate nodded in agreement and asked Catherine and Koren, members of the Black Sun clan and residing artist and paint supplier, to tell their leaders that a conference would be held at the lake in two days. Koren offered to notify the Lame Stag clan whose den was only a short distance from the warehouse her clan lived in.
Two days passed quickly and it was conference day. The safest place to meet was at the lake, the starving predators wouldn’t come near due to the smell, the clans weren’t to keen on he stink from the water either. But the promise of a big community luncheon far from the lake won them over. Oddly enough even the group of surviving adults, that lived at the far end of town away from the teens, had decided to attend.
Amria was the only person everyone would listen to, being the neutral resident, even if she lived with Kate‘s clan. Plus she was somewhat worshipped by some of the people. So she climbed up on the large rock next to the water so that everyone could hear her and began to speak once everyone had seated themselves on the barren ground and were silent.
She took a deep breath and looked around at them. “a little over a week ago a young woman was found in the barn of the Blood Moon clan, injured and exhausted. She came from the south, fleeing someone that will probably want to interfere in our way of life. She is here to explain to all of you just how dangerous this person is. I ask you to listen to her.” Amria bowed and stepped down, her and Trent helped Eva up onto the rock, her movements still hindered by the wound in her side.
Eva shuffled her feet awkwardly and took a deep breath. “Hi. My name is Eva. I guess I should start at the beginning of it all, which kinda started at the end of the war.” She looked around at the many faces, children from nineteen to four were gathered, even a small group of surviving adults sat off to the side, "the end of the war was very sudden for everyone I think, and for many it took days to recover. During that first week of trying to find a grasp on life, there was one person who already had a grasp, he had it probably even before the war was over. He went around the city, giving people 'hope', telling them of this wonderful life he would give them if they would only follow him. At first it sounded like something wonderful so many followed him. But he never intended to give most of them the things the promised. By the time he showed his true colors... it was too late." And so her tale began, it lasted several hours as she recounted the enslavement of those who would not follow him. The executions of the ones viewed as useless and anyone who resembled adults. The conquering of one city block after another, adding more to his malitia, slaves, and the execution list. So long as an adult had something to teach or provide that a youth could not, they were permitted to live. Once their usefullness ran out however...
Several other leaders nodded in agreement, even two representatives from the Adults clan was there. Eva had done a fairly good job with her story telling and was able to get across the gravity of their situation. This young man she once served under was going to be a threat to their way of life sooner or later. They had already agreed to be diplomatic with any issues between the clans and stop fighting. That had taken a little arm twisting but the Mystic got them to agree at the first conference.
Amria crossed her arms, “if this psycho has as many followers as Eva has told us and growing in number.... If that’s the way it is, we will need to unite the clans, or he will pick us off one clan at a time when he gets here.”
“Do you have to make it sound so theatrical?”
Trent placed his hand on her arm, “Kate dear, we have more important things to worry about than Mystic’s love for theatre.”
Michael chuckled, “you young people are something.”
Victoria, leader of the Black Sun clan, turned to face him, “keep it to yourself Adult. It’s because of your people that half the world is dead and the other half a mess.”
Henry sighed and leaned back while running his hand through his jet black hair. He shook his head, “we already discussed this, the adults were only doing what they thought was best at the time. I thought we already forgave them.”
Michael adjusted his leather vest and coughed nervously, the teenagers that were left alive after the war had at first wanted to kill him and the other adults, being the only adult willing to talk with the teens at the time, he stood for all the war, death and suffering they had been through. But after a little while they cooled down and some of them wanted him as a leader. The leader of the Gang that was now the Lame Stag clan stepped down and appointed him as leader and he left the other more stubborn grownups to themselves. He was grateful that the young people hadn’t disposed of him as they had wanted to. But at every gathering there were insults thrown and remarks that made him remember that they still didn’t trust his judgment.
“I am only here to offer any wisdom I may have on a topic,” he turned to Victoria, “and since adults screwed up with the last war, by all means, see if you can do better.”
“Yeah? Well at least we won’t go killing innocent bystanders!” Victoria retorted angrily.
“Maybe if you knew the technicalities you wouldn’t think that!”
“You don’t see us throwing nuclear warheads willy-nilly do you?” Elisha asked heatedly.
"Oh yes, like if you had the option you wouldn't!"
"We wouldn't be dumb enough to make them!" Zack the leader of the nearby farming town called Rising Sun shouted back.
“That’s enough!” Everyone turned to look at Kenny, who for the time being had been sitting silent in the corner and only listening.
He came forward into the circle made by the leaders and their seconds, “we have more important things to worry about, if you haven’t noticed. There is a narcissisic nutcase creating an army and trying to take over what’s left of our pathetic world. You are all being immature blaming each other for something that cannot be helped or changed. Let me remind you that this tyrant Eva told us about has already made himself a king with an organized malitia and weapons and armor for them. And the Mystic may be a little on the theatrical side, but she at least knows what she’s talking about. I‘ve seen her spend hours in Kate‘s study and the Lame Stag’s library researching and studying so that she can help us in every possible way.” He sat down next to Trent and took out his water bottle for a sip, “and did we have to meet by the lake? That stench is making me wanna blow chunks.”
A few nervous chuckles went around the room and released most of the tension, although Victoria continued to shoot Michael dark looks along with her second Fallon who was also a member of the cheerleaders of the old world.
“Well,” Brian sighed after a short awkward pause, “I suppose we should choose some sort of leader, I vote for The Mystic.”
"Same here, everybody listens to you." Helena, Brian's second, agreed. The other leaders murmered in agreement.
Amria blushed under her mask and shook her head, “I don't understand why you all hold me on some sort of pedestal or belive I am some sort of Shamen. I know things, and I know how to get people to do things but I am not a leader. I believe that Kate would make a much better leader.”
Kate snorted, "no thank you, keep me out of this one."
"You must! You do not want it therefore you are the best choice for it." Amria insisted.
Eva yawned and lit some incense from the small stash that they had, hoping to remove some of the rotting stench from their tent, “I don’t really care, as long as he loses I’m happy.”
Of course, that started up a whole new argument as to whether or not she should care, which led back to the argument of who should be leader of the clans if they were to unite. Catherine and Michael both thought Kate or Eva should be their leader, Brian wasn’t too happy that his general didn’t agree with him, Victoria and her second still thought she should be in charge, and Kate and Eva both just sat there with raised eyebrows and watched them all argue like... well, like children.
Trent just yawned and turned so that the candle light wouldn’t get into his eyes.
Kate continued to murmur darkly as she began reading, a few moments later slamming the book down in her lap, “I mean seriously! Seriously! What is wrong with them? I just wanted to wring their necks the entire time!” She looked down at Trent whose back was still to her, “are you even listening to me?”
“Uh huh,” he grunted tiredly. He could feel her staring at his back so, sighing, he rolled over to face her and sat up, “your point is?”
She glared at him and huffed, “Never mind, let’s just go to sleep.”
Trent watched her slide down and snuggle under the covers. Rolling his eyes, he blew out the candle she had been using to read by and laid next to her and stroked her hair in an hopeless effort to calm her down.
Eva leaned against the doorframe and stared down at the fields. She sighed, her grey eyes scanning the darkness, following the coyotes that were scratching at the base of the fence that had been lined by large boulders and stones to make a natural fence to add to the fencing and barb wire, trying to find a way in.
She looked over at Arthur, a new addition to the clan from the Rising Sun people, he had his longbow strung and ready, an arrow held loosely on the cord.
He was Elisha’s cousin, only a year older than her and Kate at seventeen, and was Lara’s new boyfriend, which Eva found odd since they had nothing in common. He was almost six feet tall with brown hair that was tied back in a long ponytail that reached his waist. She had seen photos of him from when he was fourteen, a scrawny pipsqueak at the time, but he had filled out.
In a second he had the bowstring pulled back and an arrow ready as one of the coyotes managed to get through the barbed wire and made a mad dash for the barn and cows within. Eva watched as the arrow took it directly in the heart and rolled before stopping dead at the barnyard gate. He was a lethal shot with his bow, that much she would admit.
Lara‘s head poked out the door beside Eva, “Arthur sweetie? Are you coming to bed?”
He smiled and fired the bow one last time, it landing in the dirt just short of the spot in the fence that the coyote came through. He unstrung the bow, making a mental note to have David reinforce that part of the fence with more wire. He nodded goodnight to Eva and headed in behind Lara.
She watched the door close with silent eyes before turning back to the empty land before her. For a while she thought over the war, oddly she couldn’t remember what had started it. But no one really cared after a while, they just wanted it to end, it didn’t seem to matter who won. Eva didn’t even know who won. Her thoughts left the past war and wandered into the future battle that would no doubt occur. What would they do? They had hardly enough people to fight with, perhaps barely one hundred to match an army near six times that. She had thought it was a little strange that they allowed Amria to somewhat run the show. But they all seemed to trust her, they trusted everyone far to well. She thought of Quintus and his greed. He wanted to rule, he was already in charge of a few cities, probably another by now, she knew he had been planning to take control of the one past his last campaign. The teens and children he kept as slaves or soldiers, killing anyone who so much as looked like an adult.
Eva looked down, she had also killed a good share with her scimitar, the hilt stained with their blood. Trent had once said that he didn’t understand how she slept at night. She shook her head, she had had to do what she had had to do to stay alive. If she had not, he would have had her killed, probably himself or by her lover.
Coiron. She had loved him so much, he had helped her escape and she prayed that he had not been found out by Quintus. If he found out, she shuddered, she didn’t even want to know what he’d do. He had already cut down a few who stood up to him and opposed to his killing all the adults that were no longer of use to him. Something she had been forced to witness and do.
The faceless lord, as he liked to call himself, everyone else called him the Faceless Tyrant, including his followers when his back was turned.
She allowed a small smile. "They will turn on him and tear him apart like rabid dogs if given the chance." She was sure of it, but until then she would play the cards she had been given.
And just as she was thinking these thoughts, her eyes were attracted to a strange lights moving on the ground. For a while they just followed the skyline it while her mind turned, watching it slowly bob over the hills. Then, after about thirty minutes or so of watching curiously, it finally registered. A torch. More than one by the looks of it. And coming from the south.
At first she thought it may have been Quintus’ men, coming after her, but she shoved that aside, he wasn’t that foolish as to waste a bunch of useful soldiers on her.
The torchlight had been from a small group of refugees, only eight of them. Slaves that had escaped from the faceless Tyrant’s grasp. They had been welcomed into the farmhouse, given tea and blankets while Samuel tended to their bumps and bruises and the sores on their feet, most having walked in them bare. They were silent, as if they were afraid of something.
It was her. They kept casting nervous glances Eva’s way. A foreboding feeling of mistrust hovering between her and the refugees. After a nod from Kate and Amria, she left the room to go to bed and hopefully catch some sleep.
Kate knelt down and tightened a blanket around a little girl with hollow, grey eyes.
She smiled innocently, “now, how are feeling? Do your feet still hurt?”
She shook her head, not very talkative at all.
“Do you want to tell me how you escaped?”
“She doesn’t remember,” a young man, maybe 15, interrupted. “she was asleep when we left, I carried her.”
A woman the same age as him cast a dark look at the door Eva had gone through. “What’s she doing here?”
Kate shrugged and stood up, stretching her sore shoulders, “we found her in our barn a little under two weeks ago. She had a pretty bad gash in her side when we found her, it’ll take forever to heal and I don’t even wanna think about the scar it’ll leave.”
The woman muttered something about Eva deserving it and a few other fowl words that Kate hadn’t heard in a while. The people in her small town hadn’t been much of the swearing type, unless they were really pissed at something or drunk. People didn’t talk much anymore about anything other than work, except for at gatherings and to their close companions. But the town held an eerie silence that no one liked at all, the wind sometimes making the battered brinze school bell clang in the emptiness.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use that kind of language,” Trent muttered from the corner, Kate had to smile at this considering he used to swear left and right at school when it had existed.
Kate flopped down on the bed and closed her eyes, not even bothering to remove her shoes. It had been a long night and it was nearly dawn. The refugees had explained their dislike of Eva, things Kate already knew. Although the brutality of the invasions was new, Eva had never told them like the young woman had, her name was Marsha. She had been good friends with Eva at one time, thus deepening her hatred.
Kate didn’t know that all the adults were murdered. She resented them too for destroying their world, but still. There was a line that that Tyrant had crossed. A line that Kate never thought would be crossed, a line between humanity and something else, something not human or animal.
Apparently Coiron was still helping people escape, although the little girl Amy said that he couldn‘t talk very well anymore and had a big bruise on his throat. The young man, his name Jeremy, had said that they had tried to escape with ten, but two fell victim to the soldiers that guarded the parameters of the slave camps. Kate had found that disgusting in itself, treating people like livestock. But she tried not to think about it, she would end up making herself sick if she did.
Trent leaned on the doorframe for a while, watching Kate’s eyelids move. A semblance of a smile on his lips, he had always found it cute how her eyes would move quickly when she was thinking hard, they would even move around if they were open. As if the tings she was thinking were actually written in front of her and she was looking them over. Some people found this creepy, and it sort of was, but it always made him want to laugh out loud in class when she’d be reading a problem on the board and trying to solve it. It was like being able to actually see the wheels turning in her head.
“Long day?”
She lifted her head and glared at him before allowing it to drop back down again and stare at the ceiling, she had artfully painted a forest scenery on to remind herself of what the woods surrounding her town once looked like. “Who kills a bunch of people just because of their age and appearance?”
Trent hopped on one foot while trying to remove his boot, the bed comletely occupied, “Two that I can think of, but all we gotta worry about is,” he gave a hard yank and grinned triumphantly as the boot came off, “this psycho we gotta deal with. The dude with no name.” He tugged off his other boot and then pulled his shirt off, “what’s the name he gave himself? Face lord?”
Kate sat up, “The Faceless Lord?”
“Yeah that!” He gave her a shove and dove under the covers before he got too cold, “so we gotta deal with a jerk who’s also a crazy. It happens.”
Kate sighed irritably. “How can you be so calm about all this?”
He blinked at her as if in confusoin and then grinned, “Denial is a wonderful thing.”
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Quintus stood on the balcony of his ten story building, sipping a glass of white wine. He watched the people below working on a stone temple that was to be dedicated to him, the slave drivers giving anyone who was slacking a good kick or smack with a riot stick. He smirked under the grey veil, he was rather enjoying his role as Lord over his own empire, small as it may be. As soon as his temple was finished he intended to expand, this city wasn’t nearly as big as he wanted his domain to be.
But that brought him to a new problem, Eva, their city was so small and he had border stations full of guards to prevent the slaves from escaping, so how could one single girl slip through? The thought alone infuriated him. He was their nameless Lord, the slaves called him a tyrant but the title sounded a little too harsh. Only a choice few knew his name and even fewer had seen his face, therfore whenever he wanted he could leave his room, sneak downt he stairwell and wander about with anonymity. He could disguise himself as a servant and go about his home, discovering who was discontent and troublesome; he could be a new slave and find out quickly of any who would make good soldiers and guards and discovering uprisings before they were even put into action, quelling it immediately with a quick "random" exacution to warn other slaves; or he could become a guard and find out who was loyal and who was a pretender. He had his suspicions as to how Eva escaped. She had been his right hand man and had seemed so dedicated to his monarchy, Quintus couldn’t fathom what could have made her run so quickly, he had always thought she believed in his vision of an empire with her as a coregent alongside Coiron.
He frowned and turned away from the window to sit on his sofa and read a book, placing his wine on the tray that the servant hurriedly refilled for his lord. Quintus watched him out of the corner of his eye as the vassal silently left the room.
I will have to deal with Coiron, he has been known for allowing his tongue to slip. Can’t have the people find out who I am, not even my remaining coregents would stay by my side then. Perhaps I shall deal with him this evening, I’ll invite him to have my evening meal with me. He thought to himself as he sat down in one of his favourite chairs.
He turned a page and continued reading and smiled to himself. Even though he had spent most of his life reading because he had nothing better to do, he still found it a good pastime. He knew several languages and could speak German, Spanish, and Arabic fluently. He had spent most of his time learning mathematics and ancient warfare, linguistics had been for recreational reading. The current book he was reading was in French, a language he had just recently mastered.
Quintus flinched as a door was slammed open and Aaron, the lesser of his three coregents, stormed into the room, his mussed black hair waving slightly, and threw down a blood soaked and tattered jacket on the coffee table. “She has headed north my lord,” He eyed a servant girl who was currently scrubbing blood off the floor by the desk, “should I send the dogs or some guards to retrieve her?”
The tyrant got up and walked to his bookshelf, gently placing his book away before returning to his place on the sofa to inspect the jacket that had now dirtied his clean marbletop table. He held it up to the light, it was definitely Eva’s, he had seen her wear it many times.
He tossed it aside into his laundry pile and looked up at Aaron through the veil, “no, let her think she is safe for now, we have better things to do than chase after a silly teenage girl.”
“Yes Sir, shall I return to my duties?” his cold grey eyes remaining forward.
Quintus nodded and waved him off, “yeah, sure.” So my dear Eva, you have fled north. Enjoy your winter. He chuckled to himself as he changed into some warmer robes before ordering his cooks to prepare dinner and invite Coiron to join him.
Coiron quietly sipped his wine, Quintus watching him through the veil. This guy gave him the willies, but he’d rather be serving this nutcase than be a slave like the others.
“Is there something you wanted to talk to me about my lord?”
The tyrant smiled beneath the cloth and shook his head, “can I not have a pleasant meal with my coregent?” He picked up a small bun and handed it to him.
Coiron chuckled, “the only person I’ve ever heard of share a meal with you was Eva.”
“Yes, well her and I did have a special connection. And she had seemed so dedicated to my cause. It is rather funny how she escaped so easily is it not?” He grinned when Coiron visibly paled, “it was almost as if she had help. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Coiron nodded dumbly and took a nervous sip of his drink, his hand was trembling slightly and if it had been anyone other than Quintus they would not have noticed.
They finished their dinner in a heavy silence, waited till the servants cleared the small table, then went and sat by the balcony to have their tea.
“You must miss her.”
Coiron’s head shot up, “My lord?”
Quintus laughed and patted the boy’s back, “I knew all about you and her, she told me you had even procured a townhouse together,” he stopped patting and gripped the back of his shirt collar, pulling it tight around his throat, “I also know you were the one to help her escape,” he whispered.
Coiron gasped for air as he clawed and the collar of his shirt in hopes of loosening it, “I swear I did not my lord!” He gasped as he continued to grasp at his collar.
This plea of innocence only made him tighten his hold, choking him harder. Coiron pleaded more until he couldn’t even get out a hoarse whisper, his mouth opening and closing in an almost comical manner, then his eyes began to droop as consciousness slipped from him.
With an angry huff the tyrant released him and watched as he coughed and choked for air. “I will let you live. For now.” he grabbed the collar and brought Coiron’s face up to his, “but do anything like that again and I will finish you.”
* * * * * *
“He sounds like a real nutcase, how could he possibly make people follow him?” Trent responded as he tossed in another few beans.Eva shrugged and rearranged her cards, “yeah, but smart too. His family couldn’t afford special care and therapy for him so they just locked him in the basement. They'd buys books to keep him occupied, he had nothing better to do than learn.”
Kenny tossed his cards down and leaned back in his chair, “what is it we’re playing again? I forget.”
Kate sighed, “the same game we play every Wednesday night. Poker. Try paying attention.”
Kenny shrugged, “It’s boring anyways, I wanna play blackjack.”
Marie and Lisa put down their cards, “us too.”
Kate sighed in irritation and put her cards down, “Fine, we’ll play blackjack. Trent, you can be dealer first.”
Eva looked around herself while Trent shuffled the deck and dealt out everyone’s cards. These people were all from a small town so all the clans knew each other fairly well. A week ago, the day after she arrived to their farm, she was privileged to witness their little market that occurred every two weeks where the stripmall once stood. Each clan had something else to offer. Some made clothes, accessories, paints, or provided food like the Blood Moon did. There was one clan called the Lame Stag that was entirely made up of archers who offered lessons and equipment for a fair price. Elisha and the twins were actually wearing new outfits they had bought from the Dark Night clan. These clans weren’t like the people in her city. Halfway through the war everything went into complete anarchy in her home city and most people left for the countryside for safety. Here, instead of falling apart, they banded together.
They were an actual community, they may have divided into gangs, yet they had had almost no wars among each other. The clan leaders acted almost like a counsel on market day when they gathered and sat in a small corner to talk and exchange information on everything from the weather to the dwindling supplies and any new construction plans they had in mind for next spring. It was an odd form of democracy they had developed. Even as she looked around she could see a few people from the other three clans that had come over to play cards and socialize with old neighbors and school friends. Of course it wasn't all daisies and sunshine, there were a few irritating people among them and of course a few of your usual teenagers, but the intelligent and mature seemed to be in charge for once.
“Eva?”
She looked at Trent, “huh?”
He chuckled, “you in there? I asked you if you want to hit or stay.”
She looked down at her cards and yawned, “actually, I think I’ll sit out on this game, I was never any good at blackjack.”
Trent simply shrugged and shuffled her cards back into the deck and returned to his duties as a dealer.
“You were saying earlier about this nameless tyrant dude. How do you know so much about him?” Catherine, a member of the Dark Night clan, asked with mild scrutiny.
Eva yawned again and scratched her shoulder, “I just know stuff, plus I was kinda the head of his ‘royal’ guard.” the last bit was muttered quietly, the people closest to her heard but said nothing.
“I don’t see why we should have to worry about it, like you told the leaders on market day, he’s a good distance from us,” Kenny yawned, “great, now you’ve got me yawning.”
Eva folded her hands behind her head and leaned back, “he won’t stop with just the neighbouring towns and cities. He wants to be leader of his own country, start a monarchy. He’s as greedy and crazy as they come. And smart, like I already said.”
Trent handed his cards over to Kenny to put away since it was getting dark and time for bed, “maybe we should hold some kind of conference like we did two months ago, after the war ended. Just so we can start organizing to prepare ourselves for the worst.”
Kate nodded in agreement and asked Catherine and Koren, members of the Black Sun clan and residing artist and paint supplier, to tell their leaders that a conference would be held at the lake in two days. Koren offered to notify the Lame Stag clan whose den was only a short distance from the warehouse her clan lived in.
Two days passed quickly and it was conference day. The safest place to meet was at the lake, the starving predators wouldn’t come near due to the smell, the clans weren’t to keen on he stink from the water either. But the promise of a big community luncheon far from the lake won them over. Oddly enough even the group of surviving adults, that lived at the far end of town away from the teens, had decided to attend.
Amria was the only person everyone would listen to, being the neutral resident, even if she lived with Kate‘s clan. Plus she was somewhat worshipped by some of the people. So she climbed up on the large rock next to the water so that everyone could hear her and began to speak once everyone had seated themselves on the barren ground and were silent.
She took a deep breath and looked around at them. “a little over a week ago a young woman was found in the barn of the Blood Moon clan, injured and exhausted. She came from the south, fleeing someone that will probably want to interfere in our way of life. She is here to explain to all of you just how dangerous this person is. I ask you to listen to her.” Amria bowed and stepped down, her and Trent helped Eva up onto the rock, her movements still hindered by the wound in her side.
Eva shuffled her feet awkwardly and took a deep breath. “Hi. My name is Eva. I guess I should start at the beginning of it all, which kinda started at the end of the war.” She looked around at the many faces, children from nineteen to four were gathered, even a small group of surviving adults sat off to the side, "the end of the war was very sudden for everyone I think, and for many it took days to recover. During that first week of trying to find a grasp on life, there was one person who already had a grasp, he had it probably even before the war was over. He went around the city, giving people 'hope', telling them of this wonderful life he would give them if they would only follow him. At first it sounded like something wonderful so many followed him. But he never intended to give most of them the things the promised. By the time he showed his true colors... it was too late." And so her tale began, it lasted several hours as she recounted the enslavement of those who would not follow him. The executions of the ones viewed as useless and anyone who resembled adults. The conquering of one city block after another, adding more to his malitia, slaves, and the execution list. So long as an adult had something to teach or provide that a youth could not, they were permitted to live. Once their usefullness ran out however...
* * * * * *
“This is definitely a problem,” Brian, leader of the Dark Night clan, stated as he sat down on one of the cushions in the tent set up for the leaders so they could talk privately.Several other leaders nodded in agreement, even two representatives from the Adults clan was there. Eva had done a fairly good job with her story telling and was able to get across the gravity of their situation. This young man she once served under was going to be a threat to their way of life sooner or later. They had already agreed to be diplomatic with any issues between the clans and stop fighting. That had taken a little arm twisting but the Mystic got them to agree at the first conference.
Amria crossed her arms, “if this psycho has as many followers as Eva has told us and growing in number.... If that’s the way it is, we will need to unite the clans, or he will pick us off one clan at a time when he gets here.”
“Do you have to make it sound so theatrical?”
Trent placed his hand on her arm, “Kate dear, we have more important things to worry about than Mystic’s love for theatre.”
Michael chuckled, “you young people are something.”
Victoria, leader of the Black Sun clan, turned to face him, “keep it to yourself Adult. It’s because of your people that half the world is dead and the other half a mess.”
Henry sighed and leaned back while running his hand through his jet black hair. He shook his head, “we already discussed this, the adults were only doing what they thought was best at the time. I thought we already forgave them.”
Michael adjusted his leather vest and coughed nervously, the teenagers that were left alive after the war had at first wanted to kill him and the other adults, being the only adult willing to talk with the teens at the time, he stood for all the war, death and suffering they had been through. But after a little while they cooled down and some of them wanted him as a leader. The leader of the Gang that was now the Lame Stag clan stepped down and appointed him as leader and he left the other more stubborn grownups to themselves. He was grateful that the young people hadn’t disposed of him as they had wanted to. But at every gathering there were insults thrown and remarks that made him remember that they still didn’t trust his judgment.
“I am only here to offer any wisdom I may have on a topic,” he turned to Victoria, “and since adults screwed up with the last war, by all means, see if you can do better.”
“Yeah? Well at least we won’t go killing innocent bystanders!” Victoria retorted angrily.
“Maybe if you knew the technicalities you wouldn’t think that!”
“You don’t see us throwing nuclear warheads willy-nilly do you?” Elisha asked heatedly.
"Oh yes, like if you had the option you wouldn't!"
"We wouldn't be dumb enough to make them!" Zack the leader of the nearby farming town called Rising Sun shouted back.
“That’s enough!” Everyone turned to look at Kenny, who for the time being had been sitting silent in the corner and only listening.
He came forward into the circle made by the leaders and their seconds, “we have more important things to worry about, if you haven’t noticed. There is a narcissisic nutcase creating an army and trying to take over what’s left of our pathetic world. You are all being immature blaming each other for something that cannot be helped or changed. Let me remind you that this tyrant Eva told us about has already made himself a king with an organized malitia and weapons and armor for them. And the Mystic may be a little on the theatrical side, but she at least knows what she’s talking about. I‘ve seen her spend hours in Kate‘s study and the Lame Stag’s library researching and studying so that she can help us in every possible way.” He sat down next to Trent and took out his water bottle for a sip, “and did we have to meet by the lake? That stench is making me wanna blow chunks.”
A few nervous chuckles went around the room and released most of the tension, although Victoria continued to shoot Michael dark looks along with her second Fallon who was also a member of the cheerleaders of the old world.
“Well,” Brian sighed after a short awkward pause, “I suppose we should choose some sort of leader, I vote for The Mystic.”
"Same here, everybody listens to you." Helena, Brian's second, agreed. The other leaders murmered in agreement.
Amria blushed under her mask and shook her head, “I don't understand why you all hold me on some sort of pedestal or belive I am some sort of Shamen. I know things, and I know how to get people to do things but I am not a leader. I believe that Kate would make a much better leader.”
Kate snorted, "no thank you, keep me out of this one."
"You must! You do not want it therefore you are the best choice for it." Amria insisted.
Eva yawned and lit some incense from the small stash that they had, hoping to remove some of the rotting stench from their tent, “I don’t really care, as long as he loses I’m happy.”
Of course, that started up a whole new argument as to whether or not she should care, which led back to the argument of who should be leader of the clans if they were to unite. Catherine and Michael both thought Kate or Eva should be their leader, Brian wasn’t too happy that his general didn’t agree with him, Victoria and her second still thought she should be in charge, and Kate and Eva both just sat there with raised eyebrows and watched them all argue like... well, like children.
* * * * * *
“Well that was a total waste of time,” Kate muttered as she climbed into bed and picked her book up off of the bedside table that had been a chair at one time or another.Trent just yawned and turned so that the candle light wouldn’t get into his eyes.
Kate continued to murmur darkly as she began reading, a few moments later slamming the book down in her lap, “I mean seriously! Seriously! What is wrong with them? I just wanted to wring their necks the entire time!” She looked down at Trent whose back was still to her, “are you even listening to me?”
“Uh huh,” he grunted tiredly. He could feel her staring at his back so, sighing, he rolled over to face her and sat up, “your point is?”
She glared at him and huffed, “Never mind, let’s just go to sleep.”
Trent watched her slide down and snuggle under the covers. Rolling his eyes, he blew out the candle she had been using to read by and laid next to her and stroked her hair in an hopeless effort to calm her down.
Eva leaned against the doorframe and stared down at the fields. She sighed, her grey eyes scanning the darkness, following the coyotes that were scratching at the base of the fence that had been lined by large boulders and stones to make a natural fence to add to the fencing and barb wire, trying to find a way in.
She looked over at Arthur, a new addition to the clan from the Rising Sun people, he had his longbow strung and ready, an arrow held loosely on the cord.
He was Elisha’s cousin, only a year older than her and Kate at seventeen, and was Lara’s new boyfriend, which Eva found odd since they had nothing in common. He was almost six feet tall with brown hair that was tied back in a long ponytail that reached his waist. She had seen photos of him from when he was fourteen, a scrawny pipsqueak at the time, but he had filled out.
In a second he had the bowstring pulled back and an arrow ready as one of the coyotes managed to get through the barbed wire and made a mad dash for the barn and cows within. Eva watched as the arrow took it directly in the heart and rolled before stopping dead at the barnyard gate. He was a lethal shot with his bow, that much she would admit.
Lara‘s head poked out the door beside Eva, “Arthur sweetie? Are you coming to bed?”
He smiled and fired the bow one last time, it landing in the dirt just short of the spot in the fence that the coyote came through. He unstrung the bow, making a mental note to have David reinforce that part of the fence with more wire. He nodded goodnight to Eva and headed in behind Lara.
She watched the door close with silent eyes before turning back to the empty land before her. For a while she thought over the war, oddly she couldn’t remember what had started it. But no one really cared after a while, they just wanted it to end, it didn’t seem to matter who won. Eva didn’t even know who won. Her thoughts left the past war and wandered into the future battle that would no doubt occur. What would they do? They had hardly enough people to fight with, perhaps barely one hundred to match an army near six times that. She had thought it was a little strange that they allowed Amria to somewhat run the show. But they all seemed to trust her, they trusted everyone far to well. She thought of Quintus and his greed. He wanted to rule, he was already in charge of a few cities, probably another by now, she knew he had been planning to take control of the one past his last campaign. The teens and children he kept as slaves or soldiers, killing anyone who so much as looked like an adult.
Eva looked down, she had also killed a good share with her scimitar, the hilt stained with their blood. Trent had once said that he didn’t understand how she slept at night. She shook her head, she had had to do what she had had to do to stay alive. If she had not, he would have had her killed, probably himself or by her lover.
Coiron. She had loved him so much, he had helped her escape and she prayed that he had not been found out by Quintus. If he found out, she shuddered, she didn’t even want to know what he’d do. He had already cut down a few who stood up to him and opposed to his killing all the adults that were no longer of use to him. Something she had been forced to witness and do.
The faceless lord, as he liked to call himself, everyone else called him the Faceless Tyrant, including his followers when his back was turned.
She allowed a small smile. "They will turn on him and tear him apart like rabid dogs if given the chance." She was sure of it, but until then she would play the cards she had been given.
And just as she was thinking these thoughts, her eyes were attracted to a strange lights moving on the ground. For a while they just followed the skyline it while her mind turned, watching it slowly bob over the hills. Then, after about thirty minutes or so of watching curiously, it finally registered. A torch. More than one by the looks of it. And coming from the south.
At first she thought it may have been Quintus’ men, coming after her, but she shoved that aside, he wasn’t that foolish as to waste a bunch of useful soldiers on her.
The torchlight had been from a small group of refugees, only eight of them. Slaves that had escaped from the faceless Tyrant’s grasp. They had been welcomed into the farmhouse, given tea and blankets while Samuel tended to their bumps and bruises and the sores on their feet, most having walked in them bare. They were silent, as if they were afraid of something.
It was her. They kept casting nervous glances Eva’s way. A foreboding feeling of mistrust hovering between her and the refugees. After a nod from Kate and Amria, she left the room to go to bed and hopefully catch some sleep.
Kate knelt down and tightened a blanket around a little girl with hollow, grey eyes.
She smiled innocently, “now, how are feeling? Do your feet still hurt?”
She shook her head, not very talkative at all.
“Do you want to tell me how you escaped?”
“She doesn’t remember,” a young man, maybe 15, interrupted. “she was asleep when we left, I carried her.”
A woman the same age as him cast a dark look at the door Eva had gone through. “What’s she doing here?”
Kate shrugged and stood up, stretching her sore shoulders, “we found her in our barn a little under two weeks ago. She had a pretty bad gash in her side when we found her, it’ll take forever to heal and I don’t even wanna think about the scar it’ll leave.”
The woman muttered something about Eva deserving it and a few other fowl words that Kate hadn’t heard in a while. The people in her small town hadn’t been much of the swearing type, unless they were really pissed at something or drunk. People didn’t talk much anymore about anything other than work, except for at gatherings and to their close companions. But the town held an eerie silence that no one liked at all, the wind sometimes making the battered brinze school bell clang in the emptiness.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use that kind of language,” Trent muttered from the corner, Kate had to smile at this considering he used to swear left and right at school when it had existed.
Kate flopped down on the bed and closed her eyes, not even bothering to remove her shoes. It had been a long night and it was nearly dawn. The refugees had explained their dislike of Eva, things Kate already knew. Although the brutality of the invasions was new, Eva had never told them like the young woman had, her name was Marsha. She had been good friends with Eva at one time, thus deepening her hatred.
Kate didn’t know that all the adults were murdered. She resented them too for destroying their world, but still. There was a line that that Tyrant had crossed. A line that Kate never thought would be crossed, a line between humanity and something else, something not human or animal.
Apparently Coiron was still helping people escape, although the little girl Amy said that he couldn‘t talk very well anymore and had a big bruise on his throat. The young man, his name Jeremy, had said that they had tried to escape with ten, but two fell victim to the soldiers that guarded the parameters of the slave camps. Kate had found that disgusting in itself, treating people like livestock. But she tried not to think about it, she would end up making herself sick if she did.
Trent leaned on the doorframe for a while, watching Kate’s eyelids move. A semblance of a smile on his lips, he had always found it cute how her eyes would move quickly when she was thinking hard, they would even move around if they were open. As if the tings she was thinking were actually written in front of her and she was looking them over. Some people found this creepy, and it sort of was, but it always made him want to laugh out loud in class when she’d be reading a problem on the board and trying to solve it. It was like being able to actually see the wheels turning in her head.
“Long day?”
She lifted her head and glared at him before allowing it to drop back down again and stare at the ceiling, she had artfully painted a forest scenery on to remind herself of what the woods surrounding her town once looked like. “Who kills a bunch of people just because of their age and appearance?”
Trent hopped on one foot while trying to remove his boot, the bed comletely occupied, “Two that I can think of, but all we gotta worry about is,” he gave a hard yank and grinned triumphantly as the boot came off, “this psycho we gotta deal with. The dude with no name.” He tugged off his other boot and then pulled his shirt off, “what’s the name he gave himself? Face lord?”
Kate sat up, “The Faceless Lord?”
“Yeah that!” He gave her a shove and dove under the covers before he got too cold, “so we gotta deal with a jerk who’s also a crazy. It happens.”
Kate sighed irritably. “How can you be so calm about all this?”
He blinked at her as if in confusoin and then grinned, “Denial is a wonderful thing.”