Now, Kansas
“Are you sure I don’t have to do anything special?” Deandre said.
“No Skills. Nothing that could add another element on top of my mana going into it,” Heddy said.
“Feels counterintuitive.”
“If it doesn’t work this time then we try other things next time.”
“Alright, just stand over there,” Deandre pointed to the other side of his anvil.
Heddy moved over and fidgeted with the heavy leather apron and sleeves Deandre had made her wear.
“I’ll be going from forge to anvil over here, so you’ll be fine if you stay there.”
“Do I really need to wear all this?” she gestured to the heavy clothing and the welding mask flipped up on her head. “I’m already sweating like a pig.”
“Not unless you want to possibly get some hot metal on your bare skin or eyes. Good way to ruin your concentration and get burned.” Deandre picked up a flat metal bar with a pair of iron tongs and buried it inside the pile of hot coals in his forge. He pumped the bellows a few times to turn up the heat. “So… I just do my thing?”
“Pretend I’m not here.”
Heddy focused on the magical energy inside of her.
The pounding headache slowly faded. Not into nothingness, but rather into a manageable annoyance. Like having a squiggly line in her eye.
She lost track of time and was jarred only by the sound of Deandre’s hammer striking the heated metal.
Eyes opened to the bright hot bar sending sparks like little stars out in the dark night sky outside the smithy.
She held her hands out in front of her toward the metal.
Almost immediately, she realized something was off.
She took the thick leather gloves off and cast them aside.
Deandre eyed her, but remained silent as he continued to hammer.
Much better.
The mana flowed from her and into the metal.
It was holding.
She could feel the magic infusing the metal.
Clang!
A portion of the magic flaked away with the rest of the impurities.
She continued to pour it in.
Clang!
Two steps forward. One back.
She fought against the attrition that accompanied Deandre’s rhythmic hammer.
Sweat poured from her, but her only thought was on the flow of mana from her to the slowly shaping bar of metal.
The hammering stopped suddenly.
Deandre thrust the vaguely knife-shaped bar of metal back into the intense heat of the forge.
Heddy barely noticed the roar of the air the Blacksmith pumped to fuel the flames.
Her breaths came in deep gasps.
“You okay?”
She could only nod.
Too much mana spent, too quickly.
If a third of it was being lost with each hammer blow, then she needed to tighten the flow.
The most important thing was to get as much mana into it throughout the forging process until the bar of metal was turned into a proper knife.
When Deandre resumed hammering, she slowed the flow of mana.
From anvil to forge and back again.
For close to hours, Heddy stood in the sweltering heat pushing her mana into the knife as it took shape.
It ended with suddenness.
“Time to quench,” Deandre said.
As previously discussed, Heddy rushed to quenching tube while increasing the pace of her mana transference.
So lost in her task that she didn’t flinch from the flames that shot up as Deandre plunged the knife blade into the oil.
Deandre finished the process by running a file across the edge of the 4-inch blade. “We have a proper knife. Just need to sharpen the edge, polish it and do the handle. Any preference?”
Heddy gasped and sat down on the ground. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Shit! We’re running out of time,” he eyed the clock on the wall. “Gonna have to do it rough and dirty,” he hustled to the worktable and grabbed strips of leather, paracord, grip tape and a water bottle. “So, did it work?”
“Yeah… I can feel the mana in it. Doesn’t seem to be leaking away.” Heddy downed the bottle Deandre handed her. “My theory is that what matters is the conceptual. The idea is that mana placed in the object as it is slowly turned into the finished form. By doing this you place the magic into the cellular makeup of the object. Or something like that.”
“Kinda like how adding carbon to iron turns it into steel,” Deandre said. “In this case the mana placed into it makes it… magical?”
“You can’t do it with a finished product because it’s a fixed thing on a conceptual level. That knife, is a knife. A mundane, non-magical object. That is its identity and that is not malleable.”
“Then how do you enchant stuff? I’ve seen the flaming weapons.”
“Trade secret, but I’ll explain since you’re a friend and ally. Think of it like painting. You’ve got a sword. You want a red sword, you spray it in red paint. The problem with that is—”
“Paint won’t last. You hit stuff and it chips.”
“Right, eventually the enchant will fail or the blade will. It’s not meant to be heated or frozen or electrified repeatedly,” she shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not a high level in Enchanter, so it’ll probably be better as I level up. Or the way I do it needs to improve too.”
“Okay, now that we’ve got a knife… invested with mana… what does it do?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you could test that out for me.”
Deandre grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll have to take it home and do it in secret, but I’ll start as soon as I get back tonight.”
“Sounds good. Just keep it a secret.”
“No problem. I live alone.”
“I can’t come back here too soon or go to your house. It’ll draw attention.”
“I’ll do a write up on my testing results. Have it delivered to your shop with the next batch of arrowheads.”
“Too risky. I don’t trust the delivery person.”
“What if I do the delivery? It’s been a while since I last went to your shop. I’ll just say that I want to touch base about my work. That shouldn’t be suspicious. Kinda like why you visited tonight.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. It’s an already established pattern.”
“It’ll give me a chance to properly finish this,” Deandre wrapped the knife in a towel and hid it in the bottom of his tool bag.
“I’d better get out of here before the rest of them come back.”
Deandre bid her goodnight and she walked back to her shop.
She had underestimated the drain on her mana and the last few blocks had been an ordeal of placing one foot in front of the other while fighting off the darkness that pushed in around the edges of her vision.
She reached her front door and noted with relief that the tape she had placed over the keyhole was undisturbed.
She staggered up the stairs to her apartment.
A different lock, undisturbed tape.
Inside and into bed.
Into the relief of darkness.
Short-lived as it was.
The same soft, tempting song layered over dreams she wouldn’t remember.
Always the same.
Only the song would remain.
A thin thread drifting in the breeze in the back of her thoughts.
So faint that her awake self was never sure that it existed.
----------------------------------------
Heddy spent the next week fulfilling her arrowhead quotas.
She had fallen a day behind due to her experiment investing mana into the knife blade and pushed herself into a ragged state to catch up.
“Hey! Hedd—”
She pushed the basket of arrowheads into Joe’s arms and slammed the door in his face. Then locked it.
“Uh… thanks?” Joe called from outside.
She didn’t have the time and the mental bandwidth to play nice, so she went back to her workshop to start on the next batch only to be greeted by Knox.
The silver-haired man was absent his customary warm smile.
“The back door was locked and barred.”
“I’ve got Skills,” Knox shrugged.
“This is too soon. I don’t get paid until tomorrow.”
“I’m not here about that.”
“I might have something, but Deandre hasn’t been able to get away from his work. They’re pushing them real hard.”
“I’m aware and I’m here to share what I’ve learned on the whys…”
“Well, fuck! Out with it! I’m dealing with mana drain and my head is killing me. I don’t have the patience for your cryptic stuff right now.”
“Oh… then I’ll get right to it with none of my usual flair for making the horrible at least somewhat palatable, so as to not send you into the depths of crushing despair—” he caught her eyes and cleared his throat. “It’s not just a Meat Parade… it’s many and they’re all converging here,” he pointed to the floor. “I mean, not in your shop, but—”
“I get it!” she snapped. “How much time?”
“Our leaders,” he sneered, “are hoping a month at the earliest. It is their sincere, god-fearing hope that the multiple parades take their time with the settlements on the way that they are rolling through as we speak.”
He explained the news from the scouts and other sources, including desperate survivors that had started trickling in from the east. Dozens of settlements in what was once the state of Missouri had already fallen.
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Everyone knew that not all of those poor people would go into the Meat Parade’s belly, some would be given the choice to join their ranks.
“How can there be so many? The fuckers have never been seen in groups of larger than a few hundred.”
“I believe there’s an accurate report that the largest known cannibal gathering was just shy of a thousand. All incinerated by some kind of fire guy in Colorado. Hmm… wonder what it’ll take to get him to help us out?”
“That’s just a myth. It was probably dozens of mages casting fireballs and sprays. We can’t put our hopes on one powerful savior.” She put her head in her hands. Tears threatened, but she angrily forced them away. “I can’t do anything, not in a month. They have to run now.”
“We wouldn’t make it far without your superweapons,” he patted her on the back. “It’s not your fault. If only we had more time.”
“The cannibals will eat everyone outside the walls!”
“There’s a tentative plan to move everyone east of the city to the west. Except—”
He sighed. “A little birdie let slip a bit of evil news. The church won’t let that happen. They’re planning for our people to serve as delaying snacks, so to speak. Not only will they prevent movement from east to west, but they’re actually going to force the settlements on the west side to move to those on the east.”
“Why are they so evil? That wouldn’t serve any purpose than to give them a handful of days while the Meat Parade tortures and eats us.”
“Or convert,” he shrugged. “What does it matter in the end? Death of the body or death of the soul? It sucks either way.”
“Oh, I think there’s a big difference!” she snapped. “Better to die than destroy our souls by becoming one of those monsters.”
“Monsters beyond the wall. Monsters within,” he mused.
“We can’t let them use us as sacrificial fodder.”
“Agreed, but we don’t have much time. They’re planning to start moving our people as soon as they spot the first parade. Say when they’re a couple of days out. That would give them a day to forcible place people in the cannibal’s path.”
“You said there was multiple groups converging. What if they don’t attack from one direction? It’d make more sense for them to encircle the city.”
“Yeah, but it’s the Meat Parade. They’re not the thinking kind. They’ll take the most direct route.”
“You guys have a plan, right?”
“Nothing any of us really like. It’s a matter of weighing who are the worst monsters and getting away from those.”
“You’re going to sneak everyone back into the city?” she couldn’t believe the stupidity. Where they truly that desperate? “That’s—” Yes. They had to be. She imagined what it must’ve felt like to be stuck on the wrong side of the walls with looming doom just hundreds of miles away. She laughed bitterly. “I thought this was the wrong side…”
“It still is… it’s just not as bad as the side where the cannibals are,” he smiled sadly.
“There’s no hope… we can’t stay… we can’t leave…”
“I’m not going to lie and say that there’s a chance, cause even I’m struggling to see a way out for most of us to get through this alive and unhurt… any more than the church has already done… but you’ve got to have faith,” he snorted. “Ugh… I guess I’m trying to say that if we don’t have a chance then why not just off ourselves… although, on a personal level, that’s my plan if it looks like I’m about to fall into the Meat Parade’s claws. I’d suggest you have one too.”
Heddy stared at the floor for a long moment. Then she looked around her workshop. To the pile of arrowheads on one of her tables. To the bundled up swords on the floor, carelessly shoved up against one of the walls.
“They won’t make much of a difference. Our best fighters are significantly lower in level than the most basic church guard. They made sure of that years ago.”
“I wasn’t thinking of that. I was thinking of doing something else with them…”
The silence stretched.
“It’s so awkward when you get to thinking. Like you forget about everything else around you,” he sighed. “I’ll take that as the note to leave.”
“What? Note?” she blinked, but the thought slipped from her grasp just as quickly as it had appeared. “Yeah, sure. Be careful.”
“I’ll try to keep you abreast of any new information as I get them. I know you’re not really plugged into the movement… by choice, but with what’s on the horizon,” he shrugged. “I guess I think you should pay more attention to the details on what our people are dealing with. Not that we aren’t ungrateful for the supplies your cash buys us.”
“There’s another thing I can try. I don’t want to get hopes up, because I’m sure it won’t work, but…”
“Anything is better than nothing, as my grandmother used to say when I’d always half-burn the cookies,” he waved a hand.
“I’ll see,” she grabbed her sword bundle and rushed out of her shop ahead of her perplexed friend.
----------------------------------------
Now, New Mexico
“This is boring. We should’ve taken a different highway. This is the same one we took to get from Texas to Vegas. Boring,” Jayde said. “Hey, driver?” she called up to the front of the bus.
“We’re not there yet,” Cal said flatly.
“I poop on that… and the stupid flat desert scenery. It’s just all brown and hot,” Jayde said.
“We have AC in here and comfortable couches,” Dayana sighed.
“And snacks and games,” Trevor stood and checked one of the overhead compartments, “wow, so many. Is this a Quest or a vacation?” he grinned, but none of the others responded. “Okay, no games then. I’m going to get something from the fridge. Anyone want anything? Beer?”
“No. Be serious!” Amber snapped.
Trevor grumbled as he made his way toward the rear of the large bus.
Hayden opened her eyes.
Sleep turned into wakefulness quickly.
She had years of practice at that.
One never knew when they’d be fighting for their lives upon waking up.
What she woke up to was the nameless toddler picking his nose as he stared closely into her face.
She sat up with a jolt.
“Good job, kid,” Jayde grinned at the boy.
That was when Hayden realized that she felt something sticky on her cheek. She bared her teeth at Jayde. “Oh, you dumb bi—”
“Language,” Dayana reached over and flicked her ear.
The toddler had been shocked by the sudden static in the air and he recoiled, stumbling into Jayde’s arms.
“Look what you did,” Jayde said reproachfully. “Picking on the little guy.”
“I’m sorry,” she said to the toddler as she picked the booger off her cheek. “I know it’s not your fault,” she tried to smile. “You were led astray by a manipulative and evil influence. Who will pay the next time we spar.”
“Can’t wait,” Jayde smirked.
“Perhaps it isn’t the best thing to bring the child into your childish games,” Lauren or Monsignor, since they had taken to using the woman’s ranger name, said. “And I realize my wording needs work,” she amended as the others burst out into laughter.
“It’s probably better this way. Less violent for sure,” Dayana said.
Monsignor tipped her head. “You might be right at that.” She had seen the Furies sparring, if one could call it that, several times.
Hayden’s focus went to the window.
The conversations in the bus became a vague murmur in her ears as the passing of the open desert drew her in hypnotically.
Jayde was right.
There wasn’t much to see in the bland brownness of the landscape.
Spring was turning into summer and what color the foliage had was already gone underneath the baking sun.
The haze of the heat rising from the ground obscured what could’ve been a splash of green from a patch of cacti or two.
Jayde wasn’t right, after all.
“Hey, I saw some cacti, so you were wrong, Jayde. It’s not all brown out there.”
Jayde blew her a raspberry, which the toddler copied with delight.
“Heads up everyone, we’re going to reach Albuquerque in fifteen minutes,” Cal called back from the driver’s seat.
That drew her attention.
The people of that city hadn’t been welcoming when the Golden Eagles’ expedition had gotten close. They had been forced to go around rather than stay on the highway that cut through the city.
She rose from the couch and made her way to the front.
“They’re not going to be friendly,” she said.
“Yup, didn’t forget your notes on that,” Cal said.
“Elliot said that they set up barricades on the roads around the city edges. Forced them to off-road for a bit after the first trip through.”
“Got those notes as well.”
“You haven’t mentioned a plan.”
“Love?” Cal glanced at Nila in the shotgun seat.
Nila swiveled around and held up a sizable sack. “We’ll bribe them with a generous toll fee.”
“What if they decide that they want more?” Jimenez said from the seat directly behind Cal’s. Unlike most of the others the woman was in full armor. The combination riot gear and chainmail getup didn’t look comfortable, but far be it for Hayden to remark on it. She understood seeing as how the only piece of armor she wasn’t currently wearing was her chest and back plate.
“They won’t,” Cal said lightly.
That was enough for them all, Hayden included.
She had seen what Cal could do. So she nodded and went back to her seat.
“I’m just saying, we should’ve gone a different route. I planned one through the Rockies. Definitely better scenery than the stupid desert,” Jayde said.
“Still on that? It’s done, stop bit— complaining.” Hayden plopped herself back into the couch.
The argued in a somewhat good-natured manner under the scrutinizing eye of Monsignor.
The woman was only in her early 30’s, but there was a weight, a gravitas to her that even Jayde found she couldn’t just ignore.
The bus slowed to a stop.
Cal stood up and took the sack of gold, silver, jewelry and gems from Nila. “I’ll be back,” he said in a strange accent.
“Lame,” Nila said.
Hayden donned her chest armor in a hurry before rushing to the front of the bus.
She had to vie for a spot, but fortunately she was taller than most so that she could just look over their heads.
A barricade made out of twisted metal stood a few hundred yards down the road.
“I count around 200 people. On the barricade and hidden in ground bunkers on both sides off the road. They must’ve seen us coming. I doubt that they had this many people just sitting out there in this heat as a normal thing,” Jimenez said.
A Scout’s eyes.
Hayden nodded approvingly.
Cal causally approached with hands held out wide, one with the sack of loot.
The silence in the bus was only broken by a rhythmic squeaking sound.
Monsignor cleared her throat pointedly.
“What?” Shrewed stopped squeezing the grip strengthener in each of his meaty hands.
“Yeah, maybe stop for now? Pick it up after the tense moment is done,” Jayde gave him a scrunch-faced smile.
Shrewed snorted. “Tense? The only tension is in whether those people are dumb enough to try anything. I was there when we crushed the cabal. I saw what he can do.”
“He’s right!” Jimenez’s eyes widened as she actually broke into a smile. “My danger sense isn’t going off. Like, a complete zero. Oh my god! How haven’t I noticed? Like this whole drive…”
Hayden continued to watch as Cal walked close enough to yell and be yelled at.
After a few minutes of back and forth several men and women approached from the barricade.
Cal placed the bag on the ground and slowly backed away a dozen yards.
One person examined the bag, while the rest kept their weapons or hands pointed at Cal, who merely stood there with open arms.
More yelling ensued, but the end result is what Cal had said would happen.
He made it back to the bus unharmed and drove them through the opened barricade.
“I even got us an escort,” Cal pointed at the truck of armed men and women in front of them.
A glance out the side window and mirror showed that there were trucks on both sides and behind them.
“At least they aren’t pointing their guns at us. Not very friendly-looking though,” Nila said.
“All this for a sack of jewelry. The bastards fired on us when he tried to approach under a white sheet,” Hayden said. “What’d you say to them that they even let you get close?”
“I told them the benefits of not making me an enemy… and I might’ve cheated just a little bit,” Cal said.
“Probably the first time they saw so many people with melanin in their skin in a long time,” Dayana said.
Hayden wasn’t sure if the venomous looks had anything to do with her slightly darker skin tone and curly black hair. Not that she cared. She had always dealt with the challenges of being only half of the dominant majority of what was once a country. “They probably just hate all outsiders.”
“Perhaps not entirely hate. There is a lot of fear in them. Marauding biker gangs, monsters in human form and few other things over the years will condition people to be distrustful of those that come from outside the tribe,” Cal said.
“Without the social contract of an ordered society it’s no surprise that humans revert,” Nila said.
Hayden went back to her spot on the couch once again. She tried to smile at the toddler Jayde cradled protectively on her lap, but he turned away.
“This is your fault,” she glared balefully at her friend.
“To the victor… the spoils,” Jayde shot her a feral grin.
The drive through the city wasn’t as tense as the circumstances should’ve made it.
The eastern barricade was moved and they where through.
Hayden half-expected gun fire to send them off, but there was only silence.
Cal drove through the rest of the day without stopping.
They ate lunch as they traveled and found other ways to pass the time when staring at the unchanging landscape got boring.
The sun began to redden the sky when Cal made another announcement.
“There’s a rest stop type area about ten minutes up ahead. Just a small one. A gas station, a diner, a mechanic’s shop and a trashy motel. We’re going to stop. I’d like to fill up without dipping into the reserves. I’m thinking we spend the night there.”
“You’re in charge,” Hayden said.
Why ask the rest of them for their opinion?
“No objections?” Cal continued.
Predictably, there were none.
Jayde raised a hand. “Do we get to fight?”
“Up to you,” Cal said.
Hayden regarded her fellow Furies.
“Yeah,” Dayana said.
“Duh,” Jayde echoed.
“Okay, but we should mix the teams up. Practice isn’t a substitute for live combat,” Hayden said.
“Any objections?” Cal said.
“No, it’s a good idea,” Marci said.
“We are in agreement,” Monsignor said.
“Whatever you think is best,” Amber eyed Cal, then Nila.
“I’ll join in too,” Nila said.
“Two teams of five seems the safest,” Monsignor said.
“Yeah, I’m good with that,” Hayden said.
They went over possible team compositions all the way to the point that Cal stopped the bus just outside the rest area.
“Two teams, four places to claim. Don’t worry about monster or mutant animal adds from surrounding desert. The little guy and I will wait in here. Good luck! You’re on your own for this one,” he smiled as he floated the toddler out of Jayde’s lap and into his arms.