Opening his eyes, the upside-down kiss abruptly righted itself, and the face that materialized before his eyes was that of the new arrival, Ciera. Momentary confusion coalesced into the remembrance of what had just happened. She had murdered him or attempted to as he was obviously still alive.
His wounds no longer hurt, and they had begun to strangely tingle. Slowly, reluctantly, she broke the kiss and sat back up to where she remained, straddling him. She looked down at him and cocked her head to the side with a mixture of anger and anguish in her voice as she spoke.
"I was home free, all I had to do was leave and I’d live another day. But then I had to see you one last time. Why’d you have to be so pure... and sad... and angry... and genuine when you thought that no one was watching you? I need to hate you, but I just can’t?"
"Why?" coughed Reece weakly. "What’d I do to you?"
She looked down at him with a mix of pity and anger before responding to his first question. She ignored the second.
"Because, if I don’t tell them everything I’ve learned and betray you all, they’ll torture and kill me. It’s simple. We can’t hide from them, they’re everywhere and they’re coming," she explained with an ominous finality in her voice.
"Wait, who’s coming?" asked Reece as a feeling of dread crept into his mind.
"The Order of the Purifiers!" replied the distraught Ciera. "They’ll be here within the day and kill you all, and now me too." She added the last comment as a sad whisper, almost like it was for herself.
Reece’s heart sank at her confession and he could feel his blood running cold in his veins. He had to warn everybody and evacuate immediately, though he didn’t know where they could go or even if there was enough time.
But he still had this traitorous vixen straddling him and he could only deal with one thing at a time. He needed to get as much information from her as he could. Maybe there could still be a way out of this mess. He had to try.
"Okay, how long before they get here?" he demanded.
"I’m not sure, maybe eighteen hours, but it could be more or less. I was supposed to leave and meet up with them before they got here to give them the layout and locations of all of you so they could better plan their attack, but they already know you are all here," she told him as she calmed herself down.
Then her face screwed up in confusion. "I don’t understand why I’m feeling this way, but I can’t seem to control it."
She seemed to be thinking out loud. Her dark-brown eyes suddenly grew wide as she stared down at Reece’s face. "The way you make me feel, too powerful to be entirely natural. You have a power in you, one I haven’t felt since...oh my, I know what you must be... "
Her eyebrows shot up just as her mouth dropped.
"No, that can’t be right...," she gasped. "They were completely wiped out a millennium ago, during the last age. But you have the same gift...how? What are you? You can’t be a regular human."
"Sorry, lady, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m just an American astronaut and marine," replied Reece impatiently before taking a deep breath as he tried to figure out if he could trust this disturbed young woman if he removed the Order’s hold on her. He decided he had to try. After all, he wasn’t about to kill her, especially since she had spared him only moments ago.
"Now, about your collar," he explained to the distraught woman. "I think I might be able to do something about that if you could get off of me."
She stared at him for a moment before deciding to listen to him and stand up. Reece tested his wounds and found them mostly healed, though a little sore as he forced himself to his feet. He assumed her kiss must have healing properties, information that he tucked away into the back of his mind.
"So, I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you that I’m pretty sure you’re not entirely human. You’re some kind of succubus, right?" asked Reece as he removed her black lacey choker so he could examine her shock collar.
"My kind are called lilin, but yes...succubae and many other myths are loosely based on us, but nearly everything known is complete bullshit. We are not monsters, evil spirits, demons from the underworld, witches, or murderers of men."
"We aren’t all that different than ordinary humans," she continued. "... except for our longevity, persuasive qualities, and a particular diet. And we don’t kill unless we must, just like you. But I suspect you’re not entirely a normal human either."
"Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about there, but if you’ll come with me and give me your trust, I can have you out of that collar in no time. I gotta tell you though, it’s gonna hurt like you can’t imagine."
"Do it," came Ciera’s instant and forceful reply. "I’ve already felt enough unimaginable pain at the hands of the evil bastards that put this thing on me for ten lifetimes."
"By the way," queried Reece, "Your kind are called lilin?"
"That’s right, why?" asked the young woman.
"Is that any relation to lilitus?" asked Reece out of curiosity.
"What do you know of lilitus?" asked Ciera, instantly suspicious.
Reece held up his hands in mock surrender. "I happen to have a friend who is one, that’s all. After everything that’s happened, it seems that many of the folks who used to hide amongst the masses have been brought out of hiding."
Ciera visibly relaxed. "That makes sense, I guess. And to answer your question, yes, we have a very loose connection with lilitus. But it’s a connection based more on semantics and etymology than any actual genetic similarities between our two peoples."
"From what my mother taught me, they are both derived from lilu, the Mesopotamian word for "night monster"," explained the young woman.
"As I’m sure you already know, most regular humans view anyone distinctly different from themselves as monsters, and therefore, most of us seek safety in the cover of darkness," she continued. "So, the root is incredibly vague. There are probably a few other words out there that use lilu as the root."
"Huh," replied Reece, cocking his head to the side as he processed the tidbit of information provided by the beautiful female. "That’s interesting. I had no idea... so, uh... Now, why don’t we go and see about getting that shock collar off you?"
Reece left the building to find Karina, with Ciera following him like a beaten puppy. It didn’t take him long to track down the diminutive lilitu lass. He found her practicing with a weapon he had only seen once before...in the dream he had just experienced.
He shook his head. No, that didn’t make sense. He supposed he must have seen it once previously and just didn’t remember it. Shaking the disturbing thought from his mind, he continued to watch what she was doing. She stood in the center of the courtyard and was busy swinging a black crescent blade and a silver chain around in patterns to inflict maximum damage on an imagined foe.
She reeled it back in when she saw the pair approaching. She eyed them both with a thoughtful look on her face as she attempted to ascertain the reason Reece was bringing Ciera to her. It was then that she noticed the shock collar on Ciera’s neck and her eyes grew wide.
"Reece, she’s under their control. Get away from her!"
"I know Karina, she needs our help," replied Reece as he calmly tried to pacify the girl. "Can you give her your blood while I pull the device out of the back of her neck? It’s the only thing that’ll allow her to survive the procedure."
"Well, there is another way..." began Ciera before thinking better of it. "Never mind, it would be too soon."
Reece had been on the receiving end of a stream of surprises and world-shattering revelations before, but it didn’t get any easier. Whatever it was that Ciera was going to tell him, he knew he could handle it.
With that in mind, he dismissed her half-finished thought from his mind to join the strange dream in a pile of questions he would deal with later. Karina looked from him to her and then back to him again.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"Fine," she reluctantly agreed. "Let’s get this over with."
"First, I’m going to go to the machine shop. I’ll be right back. Oh, and we’re going to be attacked within the day. We’re going to need to prepare everyone."
"Attacked!?! How...and by who? And you just mention this now?" exclaimed Karina incredulously as she shook her head in disbelief.
"Ciera will fill you in!" shouted Reece over his shoulder as he rushed to the machine shop.
Whatever Ciera had done to him, it hadn’t just healed his wounds but had reinvigorated him as well. He was able to sprint to the machine shop, where he ran into Lenny...their resident grease-monkey.
The pasty blonde man was laying under a sun rover doing some maintenance when Reece came inside. He pulled his lanky body out from under the vehicle on his crawler, a flat wheeled device used to move about in tight spaces. The man sat up in his grungy black t-shirt and grease-smeared blue coveralls.
"What’s the good word?" asked Lenny as his eyes readjusted to the extra light now that he wasn’t under the rover.
"Bad news, bud. We just found out that an attack by the Order is coming within the day," Reece informed him. "Can you spread the word that everyone needs to be ready to evacuate within twelve hours?"
"This isn’t a joke or a drill, is it?" asked Lenny in a sober tone.
"No, I’m afraid not," Reece replied.
"In that case, I’m on it. You can count on me," said Lenny as he dropped the wrench he was holding and ran off to fulfill the task.
"I know I can, thanks Lenny," Reece called out after the man.
Reece then grabbed the items he needed and sprinted back to the girls. Ciera and Karina were in a spirited debate as Reece finished running up to them, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. They both stopped talking as they saw him approach. In his hands, he held insulated gloves and a bolt cutter he had procured from Lenny’s garage.
"Alright, let’s get this done," he huffed as he took a second to catch his breath.
Karina gave him a look that showed her complete lack of amusement before biting her wrist and offering it to the succubus girl, or ‘lilin’ as she had called herself. Ciera took her proffered arm and looked at Reece. Her face got a disgusted look on it as she began to drink Karina’s blood.
The lilitu girl gently tapped Ciera on the shoulder to let her know that she could stop. Ciera pulled away and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Taking two deep breaths, the young woman prepared herself as best she could for what was to come.
Reece angled the bolt cutters around the collar and took a deep breath before squeezing the handles together. The sharpened blades of the bolt cutter sliced through the collar like butter, releasing the powerful current of electricity into the poor girl who subsequently dropped to her knees.
Reece dropped the bolt cutters and grabbed the collar from behind with his insulated-glove-covered hands and pulled with all his might. The collar pulled out with the same sickening ripping sound that it had with Karina. The normally fatal wound opened horrifically but closed within a few seconds as Karina’s blood did its work, leaving the young woman shaken, but alive.
Ciera looked at Karina and Reece in total shock as she felt around her long thin neck without a hint of damage other than the blood from the short-lived wound.
"You did it, and I’m not dead!" she said in a near whisper, more to convince herself than to let them know that she was okay.
She quickly faced Reece with a completely serious look on her beautiful face.
"Destroy that thing, it’s got a tracker on it," she insisted.
"Yeah, this isn’t our first rodeo," said Reece as he crushed the collar’s electronics under his thick boot heel, causing a loud popping sound with sparks shooting out of the device.
The mechanism let out a puff of dark smoke that followed the sparks as Reece reduced it to a small pile of charred metal and old-fashioned plastic attached to a ruined strap of leather. Angel and several other community members ran up to the trio just as Reece finished demolishing the torture and control collar.
"What’s going on? Lenny said that you told him we’re going to be attacked!" exclaimed Angel as he looked wildly between the three.
"It’s true, Angel. They’ll be here in a little over half a day. Ciera was forced to lead them here, but she turned on them and warned us of the impending attack, giving us time to fight back or flee," explained Reece to the reeling Angel.
"We should be gone or ready to fight in twelve hours, giving us some wiggle room. Now, Ciera...what can you tell us about their numbers and types of mutations we may have to face or flee?" asked Reece forcefully as he took command of the situation and began systematically breaking it down into manageable phases.
He told himself that he was in the information-gathering phase now and needed to remain calm and think rationally.
"Well, they don’t tell me much, but I’ve seen at least twenty different regular humans. They have a small army of undead people, perhaps several hundred. I’ve heard their wolves howling at night, so I know they have a few of them, though I don’t know how many, explained Ciera. "They also refer to some secret weapon of theirs, some being of some power that they speak about in fear and reverence. That’s all I know for sure. I’m sorry I can’t help more. I feel awful for bringing this down upon you all."
"And what direction will they be coming from?" asked Reece as he ignored her feelings for now and concentrated on the facts.
"From the North-West most likely. At least that was where I was supposed to meet up with them," replied Ciera in a regretful tone.
"Hmm. Well, I think we can probably handle everything you know about, but I’m concerned about the creatures you don’t know about," replied Reece. "We should at least evacuate all the non-combatants and send them north in the transport rollers. Fill them with as much food and water as they can carry and get going immediately."
"Those multi-terrain troop transports are tough, but not very fast and they need to get as much distance between them and this place as they can get," he continued. "Have them stick to the roads so they’re harder to track and don’t stop for anything. The rest of us should try and hold them here. If things go south, we’ll need to bug out quickly, so we need all of our fastest vehicles prepped in case we are overrun."
"Good thinking. Sounds like a solid plan," agreed Angel. "We’ll see to the preparations."
"Why don’t we all just run?" asked Ciera with more than a little fear in her voice, probably at the thought of what they would do to her if they ever got their hands on her again.
Reece put his hand on her shoulder and looked her square in her gorgeously pleading face and dark-brown eyes framed in fear.
"I spent the entire time I was here on the ground since this thing started either running or hiding from these over-entitled bastards who decided that they should be the new world order. But they’re wrong, and we’re a lot stronger than they think. I’m done running, and it’s high time we took back our planet!" he told her with determination dripping from his words.
"Yeah, that’s right...Finally!... Yeah...Count me in!"
He must have said it louder than he intended because a chorus of voices rose behind him as a couple dozen of the community members raised their hands in shared defiance. Reece knew that they were all well aware of the entitled men that had decided to destroy the world and remake it for themselves and couldn’t find fault in their desire to fight back.
Reece shook his head in wonder and spread a bitter-sweet smile across his face at the strange turn of events. He hadn’t been trying to inspire anyone, just explaining his truth to Ciera so she would understand why he couldn’t run anymore.
After that, word spread quickly about the plan, and the rollers were prepared, but no one wanted to go. Reece’s words had inspired them beyond reason, and they all wanted to stay and fight, even the elderly and the children had oddly fallen under the spell.
"I’d rather go out fighting than hiding while others fought my battles for me," stated one of the older members of the community.
"It’s just not safe," countered Angel.
"I don’t care, I want to spit in the face of this so-called Order. They’re a bunch of cowards if you ask me," replied the balding man with fire in his eyes.
"Yeah, me too!" yelled another white-haired fellow.
"I can fight. I’m not that scared," said a preteen boy who looked wide-eyed and more than a little afraid, but still clearly wanted to help.
Angel shook his head, not knowing how to get through to folks that would only end up getting themselves killed. Reece saw that Angel was losing the debate and stepped in.
"Look, we all appreciate what you are willing to sacrifice. You have every right to. The Order has taken as much or more from you than the rest of us," he said as he began to soften them up. "I see the courage in your faces and have no doubt you would fight bravely. The thing is, you’re far too valuable to use as common foot soldiers. Elders, you have the knowledge and wisdom that we’ll need to rebuild society from the ground up. Can you truly leave that important of a task to the younger generations?"
"Young ones, you have an important role too," he continued. "You’re our future and will be the first generation to grow up in this new world. You’ll be better equipped to deal with whatever else is to come than the rest of us who have mainly known only peace and leisure. You all may not like it, but your roles for the future won’t be found on the battlefield today. Do you understand what I’m saying?"
The group of older and younger members of the community hummed and hawed and muttered under their breath but ultimately nodded their heads in understanding and acceptance of what Reece was asking of them.
"Good. Now please, stay safe and prepare to leave here. There isn’t much time left, alright?" asked Reece of the grumbling troop.
They grudgingly agreed and the small mob started to break up. Once they were on their way, Reece took a measure of their remaining fighters. Three dozen hardened survivors armed to the teeth, Angel and a half-dozen rakshasas (Angel had informed Reece that this was the ancient and proper name for were-jaguars, which he considered a racial slur).
Then there was Karina, carnage-incarnate in the body of a cute little girl. He knew she would join the battle. Next, he considered Ciera. The young woman had been through so much and he didn’t know how she would react when faced with her former captors. He figured it would be better if she took the rollers and left with the rest of the noncombatants.
"Ciera, this isn’t your fight. Grab your stuff and hop on a roller. It’ll take you safely away from here," insisted Reece.
"Like Hades, I will!" spat the suddenly animated young lady. "I’m a fully capable fighter and will be an asset in any battle. You’re going to need me, and I need some payback. Besides, I need you to survive too."
"I’m not sure you’re ready to face the Order so soon after all they’ve done..." began Reece before Ciera cut him off.
"I am sure. I’m sure that I’ll be going with you to get some serious payback against these monsters. Unless you plan on physically forcing me not to, I’m making this my battle as well. You don’t know what they did to me, so you have no right to ask me to stand down when I can fight back."
"Fine, this is your battle too," said Reece, giving in to the stubborn woman’s argument.
Whatever charm he must have used on the other community members wasn’t as convincing with her. Now, they had around half a day to prepare their defenses and plan a few surprises for their incoming ‘guests’.