Chapter forty-six
 

 

They reached the first of the West Indie Archipelagos in six days like Steve projected. None of them felt any real hunger pangs even though the food ran out in the time span Jane predicted. That was something to think about because Damian felt it would be useful to know if their ability to comfortably go without food for so long, was due to being vegetarians, the changed earth conditions, or the alterations to their systems. Later he will get the crew to help him do some in-depth research on it.

It was early in the day when they arrived, so they were able to begin exploring the Islands immediately. They anchored the boat close to the coast and set out.

"Which Island is this?" Feifong asked.

" Dis is Trinidad," Chandra answered. "Mi Faddah was born here."

Damian, who had never left mainland U.S. before, was stunned at how different the Island looked from what he had imagined.

It was a beautiful place, but from the time they got 10 yards inland they were seeing modern buildings. He expected more jungle.

There was an eerie silence to the beautiful little spot in the world. They weren't seeing any signs of life--not even of animals.

The big cat--as if she had gone stir crazy on the boat--shot off like a bullet as soon as her paws touched land. They all watched her as she disappeared in the distance, running and sniffing, sniffing and running. The Iowees were also running wild in a way. They were in bliss--laughing and playing, rolling around in the grass.

The farther inland they walked, the more skeletons they were coming across. Damian had entertained thoughts of setting up camp on the Island for a while but Chandra was emitting so much sorrow, even the Soldiers seemed to sense it, though she said nothing, and her face expressed nothing any different than usual.

" It stinks of death here, even more than back in the States." Steve said. " Let's stock up and get away from here." His eyes were on Chandra, full of puzzlement as they tried to match what she was emitting emotionally, to the expression he saw on her face.

They all agreed that they should set sail for one of the other Islands as soon as they gathered some food. Chandra, Jane, and Michelle went about the task. The pickings weren't abundant. They were in the wildest part of the Island but as they walked along the coast, they saw that things weren't getting any greener or more fruitful.

" Let's go back." Steve urged again. "We just need enough food to last for a day. The Antilles group isn't far from here. We'll find plenty of what we need there. Should be able to stay there a while too."

Damian called Chandra with his thoughts. Ten minutes later she came back with Jane and Michelle. They were carrying nearly empty bags.

" Not too much to find here." Jane said to Damian.

" That's one of the reasons we're leaving." Damian turned from Jane and whistled loudly. Soon the Iowees were back with them.

"Wonder where Sheba is?" Feifong said.

Steve looked over all their heads into the distance " I don't know, but Sheba' ta get her feline ass back here."

" We need a signal for her like we have for the Iowees." Chako said.

Damian sighed. " Alright...let's go find the cat."

"Sheba!"

"Sheeebaaa!"

"Sheba!"

"Sheeeba!"

"Shebah!"

"Shebaaah!"

"Sheeeebaaaaaaaah!"

"Sheba!"

"Shebaaaaaaaaaaaa"

"Sheeeeba!, Sheeeeba!"

"Sheeeeeba!"

"Shee-itt!"

Michelle playfully rolled her eyes at Steve. Just then the big cat came bounding up. It stopped in front of everybody and sat. Then she yawned, and after the Iowees got off her neck, she stood up and shook, walked passed everybody with her head straight up in the air.

Steve looked at Damian and back at the cat who was heading towards the boat.

"Well, exscuuuse us."

Chapter forty-seven

They all got back on the boat. Chandra, Jane and Michelle, immediately went to work at preparing a meal. If they weren't feeling the hunger pangs before, the wafts of Michelle's expertise with spices and herbs soon had them all remembering what three days without food was supposed to feel like.

When they sat down to eat, the first thing Steve did was throw the big cat a taste of the vegetarian meal. She sniffed at it before lapping it up. Then she looked up at Steve for more.

" I'll be damned!" Chako exclaimed.

"I'll be damned too," Steve said to the cat," before I give you any more of my supper. " He stuffed a big spoonful in his mouth and shrugged. "Who knew?"

"You got any extra?" Damian asked Chandra

"There's plenty of fixings left, yes--if no one wants seconds."

Michelle stood up and went into the boat's kitchen. She came back with a big bowl full of greens. She set it down before the big cat who took one whiff before she went to work lapping in earnest.

Damian thought as he watched the tiger, the world had truly become a bizarre place in which to try to live.


***************

The next Island they landed on was much more to what Damian expected. There was even sounds of the living that weren't their own. He was sure if they moved much farther inland they would find it as modern as the Island of Trinidad, but they had no intentions of moving very far inland, or any need to. The coast was a vegetarian's dream, and the scent of the air was sweeter than berries compared to the smell of the place they had just left. They could stay here a while. Get their land legs back and have plenty of supplies to take with them when they leave.

They began to unload the ship and set up for at least a 2 month stay.

The big cat didn't run wild this time. She found a spot and lay down near the frolicking Iowees, drowsily watching them with constantly opening and closing eyelids.

When night fell, the moon seemed close enough to touch, it didn't get much colder than it was during the daylight hours and the mood with the scenery and pleasant scents was surreal in the way it affected them all. They were all paired off; the sounds of people making love seemed as natural as the chirps, whistles and calls of nature .

Damian didn't unclothe Chandra but she was in his arms, the two of them enjoying the stillness of their deep love as much as they did when they were being physical.

Finally Chandra said softly:

"I wonda wat mi Auntie is feelin' ri' now?"

Damian wondered if she read his thoughts, or he hers, because he was wondering the same thing. No one should be alone on a night like this--especially when they can clearly hear other people being together.

" Why don't we go find out? Be company for her?"

Chandra was up almost before he finished his suggestion. She grabbed his hand. "Okey."

They walked over to where Sheree had set up. Since they had the boat to carry as much gear as they wanted, they had raided the sports supply stores of New York, and with a lot of other things, taken some outdoor tents to use as shelter. Damian knocked on Sheree's tent.

"Sheree..."

"Auntie..."

"Damian, Chandie...come in."

She had been reading. Damian looked at her face and he saw no signs of unhappiness there. Not even in the emotions she emitted did he sense any sorrowful feelings--in fact, from what she was transmitting, she was feeling pretty damned good.

"What art thou reading?" Damian boomed in his imitation of Othello. Chandra giggled.

"Chandie...come and sit here." Sheree hugged her when she obeyed. "You too, Damian, sit close to me. It's so good of you two to think about me on a night like this." She held up the book and looked at it's cover.

It's called Nimrod:Lost son of Sumeria."

"Really...Is it about the Nimrod?" Damian asked.

" Yes, and it's very good."

" What made you pick up a book about Nimrod?"

She had taken it off the shelf of a bookstore before they left New York .

" I don't know. I've been thinking about that story in the bible, off and on since you started talking about Zeus and a new Genesis. When I saw the title on the cover in the store I just picked it up."

" Is he a good guy or bad guy in the book, because I've never heard a story where Nimrod was depicted as a good guy. Even Satan and Hitler had people who thought they were good guys, but as far as I know, Nimrod never had a single fan. None who would openly admit it anyway."

" He's a good guy in this book. In a lot of ways; the way the Author depicts him, reminds me of you."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Can I read it when you're finished?" Both Damian and Chandra asked at the same time.

"Yes. You two can read it together. I see you in the book too, Chandie, but you will be a composite of three Characters because one of them dies and one is cold and vengeful, but they all have some of your characteristics, and two of them love Nimrod, like you love Damian."

" I cyan nuh wait ti read it, Auntie."

I'll give it to you as soon as I finish."

"Sheree, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

"Ask, but I already know what you want to know Damian, and I don't mind talking about it."

" Do you miss Isabella--I mean do you regret leaving her?"

" I miss Janet more. And no, I don't regret being where I am Damian."

" Don't you get lonely?"

"Yes...but I'm used to long periods of being alone. Don't worry so much about my happiness, Damian. I'm as happy as I've ever been, which is not saying too much for that state of being, but I'm OK. I'll be OK."

Chandra leaned over and wrapped her arms around her Aunt. Sheree closed her eyes and basked in her niece's embrace, her face a mask of pure pleasure.

"Oh Chandie, I wish I had spent more time with you when you were younger. Forgive for saying this; but my brother is such a grouch, I couldn't stand to be around him for five minutes. I hated the way he talked to people--especially Verlene, even though I knew he was always all bark and no bite."

" I know Auntie. Him mellowed sum in he old age, but him neva learned how ti talk ti people. But him was a good kingman, Auntie. Yuh just had to get ti know him t' see it."

" I knew him. But you're right. He had a good heart. And he certainly loved you, Junior and Verlene. I think it was losing the full use of his legs that soured him. When we were children I loved him so much--we were so close. I guess that's why it was so hard for me to be around him after he changed. He used to talk to me in ways that made me feel so special. That's why I always believed I could do whatever I set my mind to. Then he turned into Oscar Madison." Sheree suddenly cackled. "You two pups have no idea who Oscar Madison was do you? God...I loved that show."

Chandra couldn't remember if she'd ever heard her Aunt laugh with such uninhibited joy. She didn't know who Oscar Madison was, but she didn't have to. If he gave her Auntie so much joy in her life, he was alright with her.

Chapter forty-eight

The big Cat almost killed her.

She was a wild looking thing, nearly unrecognizable as people, under the dirt, rags, and the wild mass of hair that was housing almost everything that grew in the jungle.

Bruce, who had an ear out for the Iowees even though no one expected any trouble, heard them scream. He was probably the only person in their group who could run faster than Chandie. Three point nine speed, a soldier's ability to swiftly and calmly assess a situation and a deep love for the Iowees was the only thing that saved the wild thing's life.

Bruce got to the scene just as the big cat crouched. He instantly recognized before him, a person about to be leaped on by a 300 pound cat who thought she was protecting the terrified, screaming Iowees.

"Down! Sheba. Down girl!" Bruce Yelled.

The big cat turned at the sound his voice. She looked at the Iowees, who had run to Bruce and were now quiet. She turned away from the thing she was about to kill and sidled over to stand beside the Iowees.

Bruce looked at the wild thing, who was standing there, still frozen with the fear of coming into a clearing and finding herself face-to-face with a fang baring tiger.

He saw that she was hurt and bleeding. He stepped towards her. She screamed, and took of running like a deer.

During his days in College, as a star cornerback for Virginia Tech college, he didn't have to run as far to catch top rated halfbacks from behind.

Hurt, as she was, the wild thing still ran faster than that guy who was the top draft pick for the Washington Redskins football team his senior year who they said--when he played against him--was as fast as that year's Olympic sprint champion. He caught him from behind too--just like all the rest.

By the time he caught her, the wild thing would have been in the End zone. But he did catch her, and nearly got his eyeballs scratched out for the effort. She was fighting like she thought he was trying to rape or kill her.

"You need medical attention...sorry." He pinched a nerve in her neck, and she went out like a light. He threw her over his shoulders and started walking.

The big cat, who was now lounging under Chandra's feet, saw them first. Her ears stood straight up as she rose off her haunches. Chandra looked where the cat was looking and gasped. She started running towards Bruce. Her emissions alerted the others and they all stopped what they were doing and started approaching Bruce

" What happened to she?" Chandra asked Bruce.

"I'll tell you what I know later. She's okay but her arms, wrists and hands are cut badly."

Damian helped Bruce ease the female off Bruce's shoulder. The two supported her between them as they carried her towards the tent they set up as Chandra's "emergency room."

" What happened to her?" Steve, the last one to arrive, asked.

" Besides me putting her to sleep with a nerve pinch I don't really know."

"Why did you do that?"

"Because she was hysterical, and about to beat me to death out there."

Bruce and Damian carried her inside the tent. They laid her down on the covered ground.



"How did you come across her?" Damian looked at the unconscious woman and saw that she was very young--no more than eighteen years old.  Even under all the dirt, her beauty was evident. She was a light-skinned Africoid woman, looked like one of those mix-raced Models who were always the faces of the Islands' tourist industry.

"She came up over the ridge...I think running from something, or some one. I heard the Iowees scream and got to the scene just in time to stop Sheba from jumping on her. I saw that she was hurt, went to help her and she took off like a bat out of hell. I chased her. When I caught her she almost tore my face off. I think she's been raped, or otherwise attacked by someone. The cuts on her arms and hands look like defensive knife wounds. I don't know what the burns on her wrists come from...rope maybe."

" I've got to tek she dirty clothes off." Chandra said. She asked Bruce, "weh she gwan wek up?"

"Any second now." Bruce started moving towards the exit. Damian followed him out of the tent.

"Knife wounds?" Damian asked as he and Bruce walked side-by-side.

"I'm pretty sure."

"That means there are other people on the Island beside us and the girl."

"Yeah."

" You really think she was raped?"

" I've come on the scene a few times after women had been raped, or, otherwise brutally traumatized. That's what she acted like when she fought me. She was frenetic."

" So there's at least one dangerous person around somewhere. "

"At least one. But in my experience Damian, predatory people are like deer trying to cross the road at night. It's not the first one that fucks your car up, it's always one, of the two or three others running behind him. In other words, I think there might be more than two people left alive on this Island. And they aint nice."

" What makes you say that?"

"Look at the girl. She's been living like a hunted animal for a long time. One man don't keep anybody on the run like that in this much space. She's being terrorized by a few people.
"
"I guess that answers my next question."

"What's that?"

" Do we move on or stay.

"Yeah I guess it does."



***************


" I'm going Steve, and that's final. I know a hell of a lot more about fighting than you do. And I'm also a Medic. Chandra is staying in camp to watch over the injured girl, so who do you suggest is more qualified than me to go?"

Steve put up his hands. " You're right. Excuse me for wanting my woman to stay safe like all the other women."

" I really don't feel like doing this right now." She tucked her knife in her waistband and picked up her spear.

" I'm sorry Shelly, It's just that I--"

She pressed him. "It's just that you what?"

"Never mind."

"Are you ever going to say it to me, Steven?"

" Shelly...I, I love you."

She put the spear down and moved into his arms.

"I love you too...so very much."


It was decided that Steve, Michelle, Bruce and Chako, would go with Damian. Patrick and the rest of the women would stay in the Camp with the Iowees. The big Cat was also supposed to stay, but she decided she wanted to go. She acted like she was going to stay as told. Sat there as obedient as a show dog, and watched until Damian and those with him disappeared from sight. Then she got up and took off in a full stretch after them before anyone could say gone.

She stayed on Steve's left, just out of range of his stride. And as if she was deliberately toying with him; when he stopped and playfully kicked at her every once in a while, she would skip ahead just far enough so that he missed. And then fall right back into the same range.

"You have to keep it down, Steve." Bruce said. "Were on a reconnaissance mission and we don't want any potential enemies to spot us before we see them if we can avoid it."

They were out with their weapons trying to find out who was hunting the young woman, and if any other people were being terrorized in the same manner.

Suddenly the big cat's ears sprang up and she stood as stiff as a board. "Get low." Bruce hissed. Michelle and Chako instantly dropped into a crouch. Damian and Steve saw what the soldiers did, and followed suit.

" One trick...," Bruce addressed Chako. "you go ahead and see what Sheba is reacting to." The young Indian nodded and took off, moving quickly and quieter than a tiger's shadow. The real tiger stayed right beside him.

Chapter forty-nine

freedom fighter where have you gone to
or could it be you've always been here
freedom fighter I know that I owe you
everything I got and all I hold dear
"Freedomfighter" from the New Genesis CD by akamardukson

"You're not going to believe it."

"What did you see, One trick?"

Chako looked from Bruce, to the others, and back to Bruce.

"You ever see that movie "Roots?"

"Yeah." Bruce responded.

"That's what I saw."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Keep your voice down Steve...goddamn!" Chako hissed.

" I counted about fifty of them. Set up in some kind of compound. White men...walked and talked like Commandos. Probably Special Forces. From their accents; British. There were Natives to the Island, some of them roped around their wrists and ankles. About a dozen of the Natives seemed to be some kind of Enforcers judging by the way they pushed around and barked at all the others. Most of the Islanders were women, about two hundred of them. I saw about twenty children, a few old men, a couple of middle-aged men. Except for the ones cracking the whips, I didn't see any young Native men...or any white women."

Damian fell out of his crouch unto his ass; stunned.

" What the fuck is going on?" He rarely used profanity. Felt like ma heard him every time he did--even when she was alive and in another State, or he was on the playground playing somewhere when he was little. Ma and that old wide, brown belt, just waiting for him to get home.

" They were probably chosen to survive just like we were. " Bruce said. "All the secret Agencies and Special Forces of the so-called free world worked hand in glove with some factions of our force;did a lot of the dirty work against our own citizens that we didn't want to risk doing. Our unit hunted some of those ultra secret units down for some of the crimes they committed against Americans."

"So...you're saying there could be cells like that, all over the world?" Damian half-stated, half-questioned.

" There seems to be a planned agenda unfolding before us, Damian." Chako said. "We knew about it but we didn't think they had the time to distribute the balm or to equip all the cells well enough for them to ride out the breach underground. That still may be the case but...we had hoped for the best case scenario--that the extent of their plans began and ended in the U.S. with the Drakes unit. Looks like we may have gotten the worse case scenario. Their plans might have been fully implemented, which means, as you suggest, they are set up, and fully operational all over the world.
Since they are operational in such a small theater as these Islands, that suggests that more likely, than not, they are set up to take over the whole world for slavery like it used to be back in Atlantis before the great rebel broke up the world wide Draconian Empire."

It no longer surprised Damian how deep the Military, Scientific world, Spy, Space agencies, and other such esteemed, supposedly "rational" institutions were into the whole occult, hidden history thing.

Unless they wrote in the bible, most people believed the ancient Historians, Priests and other Recorders of events of the past to be fools, fantasists, liars or stupid children who were so much less knowledgeable, serious and reliable than today's Historians and learned Scribes are. But the people who really ran the world--who had all the artifacts, documents, evidence and information took what the Ancients recorded and reported, very seriously. They had run the world and coursed the future by it.

What did continually surprise him, was how openly and casually these occult soldiers, starting with Lee, were saying such things to him. Intellectually, he knew they were doing it because they figured secrets really didn't matter too much considering the condition of the world. But it still always shocked a little to hear how much truth was kept from people and how different the world really was from the way most people lived and died believing it to be. People had stopped believing in magic, the fantastical and the supernatural, not knowing that their way of belief is what was truly lie and illusion--not the magical, and sometime super advanced world the Ancients believed in and wrote about.

"This is ridiculous." Steve got up.

" Where the hell are you going?" Bruce grabbed the big man's spear. Steve yanked it loose.

" I'm going to kill some fucking devils."

" Oh, did I forget to mention," Chako said quickly, "all of them were armed with some kind of wicked weapon."

"Steve," Damian said evenly, "we have to plan how we are going to do this. We can't just rush in on that many highly trained killers. We need to get Patrick and sat down and figure out some kind of strategy...but I promise you big guy. We won't leave these Islands before we liberate those people."

Steve turned and started walking back to their camp. The big cat walked beside him, looking as solemn and stiff in her stride as Steve did in his.

When he arrived back in the camp, Damian immediately put everyone to the task of disassembling the camp and packing up. They were leaving the Island for one farther away. There, they will plan, train, and prepare to come back and liberate those women and children. He would have liked to do it yesterday, but he knew that simply wasn't possible. He had four professional soldiers with him--Bruce, Patrick, Michelle and Chako. Good as they were, they were no match for fifty men who were just as highly trained. The big cat will be a huge asset in a battle, and he had no doubts that she understood what was going on as silly as that would make him sound if he ever told that to anyone. He had to put Chandra, Sheree, Feifong, Steve, Jane, Ada, himself, and the new girl, through an extensive, intense combat training course. He knew Bruce and Chako could do the job. It might take them months, maybe even a year, but they'll be back, and these people will be set free on their Island.

They still had to get to the Southern Continent on schedule but he was sure they could spare at least a year. They had crossed the U.S, much faster than they calculated they would. Plus they where making good time at sea. They had figured in two or three months stays on land, all along their trip to Africa. After they liberate those people, they will have to now, abandon that part of the plan and make shorter stopovers.

Once they settle in Africa, he knew what his life's mission was to be. He will sail around the world.

In the story the Ancients tell, the great Rebel went all over the world liberating the enslaved.

He felt like the great Rebel's spirit was still alive--inside him. And still obsessed with the same purpose.

Who's that muse that everyone seems to think is sitting on your shoulder Damian?

You've been touched.

I know. By the very breeze of heaven.

No I mean by god.

I see the man. The man who never falls apart. The one who is destined to win.

Just remember Damian. Even the better man can't win if he doesn't know he's in a contest.

It's the struggle, Damian. Always had been always will be.

The way the author depicts him in the book reminds me a lot of you

The ship was back at sea. Damian was back in his favorite spot at the prow, staring across the water. The big cat stood beside him, lost just as deep in her own thoughts. Chandra stood in the cabin doorway silently watching him. Tears were streaming from her eyes.

Chapter fifty

 

"Today, goddammit!" Antonio growled like a coach before the big game.

"Yeeeah!" Mustafa thumped his chest with his fist.

Antonio and his unit were gathered around, going over their battle plan.

"Moose, I want you and John, to take out the white nig--uh boy together. He's the strongest one in their unit. We take him down, and half the battle is over."

"Yes sir!" Mustafa's eyes gleamed. His missing front teeth made the words come out as, "stess stir."

"Rick, you kill the Spic. After you do him, get Fathead, but don't kill him if you don't have to."

Sonya scowled. "What's with all the slurs lately Tony? You're a Spic your goddamn self."

Since his Mother--whose family raised him-- was Anglo, and his Father only quarter Mexican, he had never in his life saw himself as a Latino, or anything else but a white man. His last name was pronounced "George, not Jorge', and not many people in his life had made the mistake of mispronouncing it twice. Still, Sonya was right. The military taught its Commanders to put a lid on their racism for a reason and he was smart enough to know what that was. He couldn't afford to drive any wedges between himself and his people. He wasn't racist anyway. At least not with his family. He would die for any of them.

"You're right, Sonya. I guess it's that goddamn boy...stuck his black nose right in my face and turkeyed me. But yawl know it was only because of my neck. Still, I can't get it out of my mind how he punked me. I see his  face in my sleep every night and I guess it's starting to effect me. It won't happen again I promise you...You too Moose."

" What?" Mustafa said.

Antonio went back to detailing the plan.

"I'll take out Lee. Sonya, you take Lee's woman. Don't let her scratch you with those monkey paws. You see her nails?"

Sonya exhaled and pursed her lips "fuck," she said under her breath. She was reeeeally beginning to dislike this bastard.

She had joined the unit three years before the big breach. Been on about a dozen missions. Done a lot of killing but she couldn't recall much about who, why or how she killed. During that entire period she was strung out on drugs. She could get release from the torment over her dead child no other way. Now, all her drugs were gone. She never went through any kinds of withdrawal pangs and didn't know why. But she was getting her memories and her conscience back. She'd rather have the drugs.

She was ex-military when she joined the Special Forces. Dishonorably discharged for beating a black woman to death during a traffic accident and dispute, despite the fact that her 2 year old daughter was killed in that accident and the woman had attacked her first. She just lost it, blanked out and went into killing mode. It wasn't racially motivated, but she knew those who recruited her for the Drakes unit thought it was. Thought she was some lowlife scumbag who would eagerly go around killing people for no reason but hate for what they were born looking like.

Her best friend in the Unit was Michelle. She missed her so much. She wished desperately, that  she had deserted with her. She was sick of her life. Sick about her past, sick of the memories, sick of being straight. She needed something or she was going to slit her wrists soon. Marijuana, did nothing for her and that's the only kind of drug she can get now in this godforsaken world.

"Mesha," Antonio was saying, forgetting his promise 2 minutes after he made it, "You get the Sandnigger."

"Shakira?" Being Ukrainian for twenty, of her 30 years, Mesha had no idea what a Sandnigger was.

"Yeah, Shakira...Tam, you take the mouse. "

"Yes sir," Tameka smiled, her perfect white teeth, overkill, shining in such a dazzling beautiful face. She had to be the most gorgeous straight woman in the world, who at the age of twenty-seven, has never had a man show interest in her. Her romantic situation was one of the unexplained mysteries of the world, or proof positive that personality was like magnetic force--it  can attract and it can repel.

"David, I want to take out the dago, Lezbo as quickly as you can and then help out any of us who needs it"

"Yes sir."

Antonio leaned forward and looked all of them in the eyes. "Do.Not.Touch. Janet. You hear me? Or Lee--unless by some stroke of luck, he gets the best of me. They're mine." He stood up straight. "Alright warriors...

Let's do it!"

Chapter fifty-one

They planted anchor about three Islands away from the one they left. The first thing Damian did was to send Bruce and Chako to check the place out. The big cat went with them, everybody else stayed on the boat. Four hours later, the advance team returned. There was nothing living on the Island. No signs of people or animals.

This Island was every bit as charming as the one they left. The greens were plentiful, and the air clear. There was even a fresh water stream less than a mile to the South of them. They decided that the best move was to set up camp near the coast like they did before. It could be advantageous to have the sea at their backs.

All cleaned up, and having been able to sleep in peace for the first time since the white men showed up, the girl soon showed that, far from being wild, she was highly cultured, intelligent and articulate. She was the child of what was once the Island's black elite.

She said her name was Elizabeth.

She didn't know where the white soldiers came from. A rumor went around among the people who lived outside the cities, that they were ghouls who rose out of the grave. White people had long lived in the Islands but after the great sun flash, they all died. None were seen for so long after that, people almost forgot they ever walked among them.

Damian figured the soldiers emerged from underground bunkers. Since so much time had passed since any Whites were seen, that meant they rode out the aftereffects from the breach, underground. Almost five years underground. With the way the earth had changed, that meant they couldn't possibly be full-strength physically, so how did they manage to defeat and kill all the young men? Damian suspected that, besides the fifty rebel women Elizabeth talk about when telling her story, and maybe a few men who may have been killed, most of the people simply did not fight back, either out of superstition, awe, or fear.

She said when the white men appeared, they immediately started killing all the young men and boys, except for those who cried and begged the hardest for their lives. Then they spent months raping all the young women until most of them stopped resisting. Those who showed no signs of giving in, were bound hand and foot and separated from the others. The ones who stopped fighting were forced to work with the old men and women, building the compound, and doing whatever else the white men had for them to do.

There were about fifty women like her, who were still resisting weeks later. The white men started treating them better than anyone else. They were given more food, housed in the first buildings built and given all kinds of gifts. One by one, the rebellious women started going with the white men under their own freewill. After a while, all the women but she and 12 others were with the white men as willing Mistresses.

The white men gave up trying to win her and the other 12 over with kindness and started raping and beating them again. Two of them was tortured to death in front of everyone because they bit their Assaulter's penis off.
When after a while, the ten of them, who were still surviving, still wasn't broken by the brutality, they were turned over to the Native men who had chosen to sell their souls to the white men, in exchanged for their lives. Most of the ten rebel women found being treated like dogs, by the black Enforcers, a better alternative to being mistresses of the white men. Six of the white men  harbored such respect and affection for the rebel women that they had tried to force into their beds, they secretly protected and adorned them. The women's black Keepers were only fronts for their white, secret admirers. Compared to everyone else, the six women lived like queens as they took from black hands what they refused under torture from white hands.

Elizabeth was one of those six holdouts. But even a cushy slavery like the one she was under was more slavery than she could live with. Even though she was no longer in bonds and not even bossed in her home, much less the fields, she still took the first opportunity she got, to run.

Two days after she escaped, one of the black Enforcers had stumbled upon her while she was sleeping under a bush. He tried to take her back. She fought the Enforcer like she fought Bruce. He forgot all about taking her back and tried to kill her with a knife. She took it from him. Cut her hands in the process, but cut his throat worse. She had been on the run since. Both the white men and the Black Enforcers made it personal--one of  the white men in particular. They wanted her, but she was fast, learned to sleep with one eye open. Fear so heightened her senses, she learned to hear and react like a rabbit--even when she was dozing.

She had eluded them for three weeks after killing the Enforcer, but she knew she wasn't going to elude them much longer.

She saw the boat arrive. Had hidden out of sight until she saw who was on it. She saw Damian, Chandra, Sheree, and Chako, and saw hope. Then she saw Steve, Patrick and Jane, and fled back into the dense.

The next day, she saw the Iowees playing. Had watched them a long time with fascination. Was compelled to try to talk to them so she approached them. They screamed. She knew she must have looked like some kind of monster to them. She wanted to show them that she meant them no harm. Then the big cat came out of nowhere. She thought it was going to attack her, but she was too scared to move. But it didn't attack her, it just sidled up to within a few feet of her and sat down, watching her unblinking. She moved, and it snarled, baring its fang as if saying I'm not going to hurt you if you don't move, but if you do move, I'll eat you. She didn't move, was growing fascinated, losing her fear of the cat. Then she saw Bruce running towards her like so many men had done over the weeks. Her body reflectively jumped, the big cat growled, the man yelled; she panicked and started running as fast as she could.

No one had ever caught her before. She went insane with fear when Bruce tackled her. Started fighting with all her soul force. That was the last thing she remembered until she woke up and saw Chandra sitting in front of her, looking at her like her mother used to do when she was a little girl, and mother thought she was asleep.

She remembered saying mama, but even then she knew Chandra wasn't her mother. She felt so much like she remembered feeling when she was a little girl, safe in her room with her mother, she said it anyway. After living in terror for so long, she sensed when she was safe--when someone was with her, who would fight to protect her. She remembered Chandra walking over to her and laying down beside her. She remembered turning towards the pretty woman and falling asleep.

Chapter fifty-two

Lee


"Sir," Shakira leaned over the big hole and yelled. "Here they come."

Lee put down the shovel and wiped his hands on his pants. Alonzo, Felix, Kiesha, Isabella, and Tiararay, calmly chose their weapons and started climbing out of the hole. Lee followed them.

He had known about it, the very minute when the Drakes had arrived. They were sloppy, nothing near the professionals they were 6 years ago when they had surprised him and took the Iowees from him.

They had him outnumbered and he'd thought long and hard about the implications of that. This was low tech warfare, as primitive as it got; nothing was going to win this day but skill, stamina, numbers and muscle. Advantage: Drakes.

He would have killed them when he had the chance if he knew his people would balk at crossing the ocean, or had any inkling that he would lose Chako, Patrick and Bruce.

Maybe what he should have done was order them all to get on the boat. He was sure Damian was still alive somewhere--he and his crew. Another time, another day, another place, he would have ordered them to go, and shot anybody who refused, but he wouldn't have had to shoot anyone. All he had to do was give the order. They would have obeyed him. But he no longer felt he had the right to assert that kind of authority over them. Why...he didn't know. They were still under oath. He was still their Commanding officer. For all they knew Command quarters was still alive and functioning someplace.

Then again he did know. It was when he looked at the world around him. Saw how small he was. How insignificant. He was little, too little to have command over somebody's life in a world where the faces weren't just a blur of unidentifiable multitudes, but clear, distinct, so few, he not only knew every living person left alive in the part of the world he inhabited, he knew every personality, every quirk, every ounce of them--like a part of his own body. It's easy to not see a man, woman, body part; to take for granted what you didn't really need to survive. Easy to treat their existence like your own possession, to do with what you will, to kill, to order them to kill themselves, when you can replace them with a million others, like changing socks. But when there are no multitudes, when there are just a few, and you lose a man, a body part, you feel it, you really see how small and weak you are, and how losing that body part renders you even weaker and smaller. That's when you begin to see that if you aren't God almighty, you're just too little--too  goddamn little for anything but bossing around yourself.

********************


Lee and his group stood waiting calmly as they watched the Drakes approach.

"What you doing with that hole, Lee?" Antonio led his unit to within a few yards of the Dragonhunters, stopped and raised his hand.

" Trying to survive, Tony. Maybe you should try it too."

" Very funny. Don't waste time trying to bullshit me, Lee. You know what's going to happen today."

"Doesn't have to, Tony. Look around you. Take a good look. What do you see? Hear? Not a goddamn thing in this whole world but us. We can kill one another, but why? The Iowees aren't here. And there's nobody to pin any medals on you-- no daddy sitting behind a desk in a uniform to pat you on the head and give you that acceptance your real daddy never gave you."

Antonio laughed at the bespectacled Soldier. "You know the biggest problem with giving Niggers access to books Lee? They start believing and absorbing every goddamn thing they read. They think everybody who writes a book is Confucius. But a white man knows who writes the books; the Psychology books, the Science books, the Religious books, the History books, because it was probably some twerp whose face he farted in when they were kids. We don't take 'em that seriously Lee, so don't waste your time trying to psychobabble me"


Now it was Lee's time to laugh. "That's good Tony. But what I'm saying to you is we have no reason to fight and kill anymore."

"And that brings us to the major difference between you and me, Lee. You're the one who had a reason to fight and kill. "

Lee knew then, that trying to talk his way out of a fight was impossible, but he wanted to try one more thing because on the faces of a few of Antonio's people, he could see some kind of uncertainty.

" You know there's going to be another breach in three years, Tony. If we don't finish this bunker, we're all going to fry."

" You're chickenshit, Lee. Always have been, always will be. That's why in the end you always wind up as soup for guys like me. You should be on a boat with that boy, but here you are digging a goddamn grave. And don't think I don't know why. I know you, Lee. And I know if you had imposed your will like you were supposed to, you would be on that boat. Chickenshit. I seen it in your eyes the first time I saw you. That's why you're going to die, and that's why you deserve to die. But I'm going to give you a choice, just like you once gave me a choice. We can stab you to death, or beat you to death. Whichever you want. Your call."

Lee couldn't believe the man would cut his advantage like that. The odds were still heavily in his favor, but it was senseless for him to take such a risk in a fight to the death.

" Alright. I choose to fight without weapons but how do I know you'll stick to that if we throw down ours?"

" The code of honor between warriors. I'm not the kind of goody-good soldier you are, but despite what you think, I'm still a warrior with honor.

"Alright, we'll throw our weapons in the hole and move up there to neutral ground." Lee nodded at the men and women around him. They all threw their knives and spears in the hole.

"Toss 'em." Antonio ordered. His troops stepped up and threw in all their weapons.

" Let's go." Lee started walking. His group started after him.

" Leave the Civs behind Lee. They can't help you in a fight anyway."

"Why...so you can have them at your mercy if we lose? They chose if they want to fight or not."

" Janet...I swear. I won't hurt you. Stay behind." Antonio pleaded.

" Fuck you, Tony." Felix snarled. " Don't talk to her."

Antonio ignored him. "And I won't hurt the other Civ. I give you my word, Warrior's code of honor. Just stay behind baby...I'm sorry for hitting you. It'll never happen again."

" It won't?" Janet started walking towards Antonio. " Let's see." She stopped a few feet in front of him and leaned into his face. "Fuck you." Then she stood there watching him changing colors, looking into his eyes as the pupil's got tiny with rage. But he didn't lash out at her. Finally she turned and walked back to Lee. "I wanna fight."

Lee had trained her in combat--she and Mike. She wasn't up to par with any of the female soldiers, but she wasn't defenseless either.

Mike said nothing, but he didn't have to. As he stood there beside Shakira, the look on his face said everything anybody had to know, to realize what he was going to do.

******************


Alonzo "Big house" Briener threw the first punch. Knocked another one of Mustafa's teeth out. The two men had been staring at each other from the moment the Drakes showed up in Lee's camp. Mustafa's smirk didn't hold the amusement it did when he trained it on Damian--aimed at Alonzo it was full of challenge and disrespect. Big House was aching to push it into the back of Mustafa's neck. Mustafa had barely turned after they reached the designated fighting area before his face stopped a hard rock fist in full swing.

Mustafa hit the dirt, blood spurting from his already crooked nose. Mustafa rolled and pushed himself up from the dirt and Alonzo kicked him so hard two of Mustafa's  recently healed ribs cracked again. Alonzo stood--eyes beaming triumphant as he watched with satisfaction, the groaning Mustafa.

John Huang watched Alonzo. He didn't even approach him quietly because he was enraged. Alonzo still didn't notice him because he was so focused on Mustafa. John Huang took Big House's leg out from under him with a side kick that would have snapped an electrical pole in half. Alonzo's knee joint snapped, and the big man fell to the ground rolling and screaming in agony.

Mustafa got up. The blood that dribbled down his chin was nothing compared to the bloodlust that was in his wild eyes as he went for the disabled Alonzo Briener.

John Huang turned from them to see who else he could take down.

Suddenly Mike came rushing at John and took him down.

Forgot all his combat training and charged in like a bull seeing a red flag--the same way he did, when he tackled and windmilled at Rick that day, and took a boot in the face from John Huang. This time, John was taking it in the face--again and again and again from Mike's wild, furious punches.

Sonya was in that black place, and she was completely overpowering Tiararay. She could fight a lot of professionally trained men to a standstill when she entered that place of darkness.

By the way she let her nails grow, it was evident that Tiararay had lost that edge, that instinct, that desire that it took to be an effective fighter. She had her mind in a peaceful, domestic mode. She still had skills, which the reflexes of alone, made her a formidable foe, but Sonya fought like a maniac. She lost herself in it. She fought dirty and ruthlessly. She was killing Lee's woman--just like she did that lady during that traffic accident.

The accident...when she lost her baby.

That poor woman. She never meant to beat her that way.

Her baby. She saw her baby; bloody, neck broken. She was in shock. Got out of the car. Saw the woman coming towards her. She wanted to tell the woman about her baby. She didn't know who the woman was. Didn't know she was involved in the accident. She just wanted the angelic woman to help her baby. The woman was cursing and screaming from the moment she saw her, but she didn't know it. Couldn't hear her. She couldn't hear anything.

The woman got closer. Her hands were waving, her lips were in a snarl, her eyes were flashing, but what she saw was an angel sent from God, who had come to help her baby.

"My baby." She said, and the woman raked her nails across her face. The pain was excruciating. Everything turned to red, then black.

And then a Cop hit her with a billyclub with all his strength.

Janet hit Sonya with all her might. And then she hit her again. Even then, Sonya didn't react like she was hurt. She just stopped punching Tiararay and rolled off her. Then she sat there beside the unconscious woman and sobbed like she was never going to stop.
Janet watched Sonya, crouched in a combat stance; saw that she wasn't going to do anything but sit there. She knelt down and took Tiararay's pulse. She was dead. Janet reached under Tiararay's arms and started dragging her off the battlefield.

Kiesha and Tameka were fighting evenly matched, blow for blow. Then Kiesha looked over and saw Alonzo on the ground. Mustafa had him in a neck hold. Alonzo looked liked he had already been kicked to death. Kiesha knew that neck hold. She saw Mustafa lips say something just before he turned Alonzo's head almost completely around. She screamed, called his name, reached for him. Tameka punched her in the throat, took her voice and her wind. Then Tameka leaped and spun. Kiesha fell to the ground, her neck as broken as Alonzo's, her arms reaching out towards him, her eyes empty of life.

David Bravefeather killed Isabella in four quick moves. He ducked the swing she took at him, grabbed her arm and got behind her, kissed her on the neck, then he yanked her head back as hard as he could, breaking her spine.

He then looked around and saw Mike on top of John.

Shakira's face was unrecognizable as human. Her mouth was a mass of blood and flesh, both her lips were split in half, her left eye was shut and her nose was a bloody pulp. Still, Mesha looked worse, and was now on the ground crawling, mewling like a newborn kitten for it's mother's teat. Shakira answered each pathetic small cry with another kick. Finally Mesha fell flat and stopped moving.

Then Shakira fell flat too.

When Bravefeather made the decision to rescue  John Huang from Mike's fury, first, Mesha was still standing. Bravefeather didn't see when his on/off again lover fell but he saw when and how she died. It enraged him. He left John to take revenge on Mike by himself. At full speed, he ran up to Shakira and leaped in the air, kicking her in the back so hard, the sound of Shakira's neck breaking was like a gunshot. She fell to the ground, dead before she hit the dirt.


With his first counter move, Lee broke Antonio's right arm. The fight between them was really decided at that moment. But Antonio was still fighting back twenty minutes later.

He was on one knee now, preparing himself to take yet another kick to the head instead of lying down. It wouldn't have mattered if he lay down or not and somewhere in the back of his disoriented brain, Antonio knew it. Lee was determined to kill him this time.

John and Tameka were holding a struggling, Janet. Mike lay stretched out on the ground like a dead man, still breathing only because John remembered Antonio's order, not to kill the Civs.

Felix and Rick had fought the longest, most brutal battle of them all. Felix seemingly won, beating Rick so bad, the blond soldier was on the ground writhing in some kind of seizure. David Bravefeather, and Mustafa--even though his broken ribs tortured him with pain--was slowly bearing down on Felix, grimly determined to make the exhausted soldier pay dearly for that victory over Rick.

Felix was already dead--dead tired. He was also bleeding like a waterfall, internally, but he kept fighting and Lee knew why. But it didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore--not even finishing off Antonio. Lee ran past Antonio, determined to do for Felix, what Felix did for him. He started swinging and kicking, screaming in a high pitched, sustain wail as he gave up mastery over his mind and body to a whirling dance of death.

Felix dropped to his knees and fell on his face. Bravefeather stomped him in the back of the neck with all his 200 pounds, but Felix was already dead from a hit the master kickboxer Rick, had scored beneath his heart, halfway in their fight.

Mike had hurt John Huang, but most of the wild punches were blocked by the Asian soldier. If not for orders, he would have killed Mike. He had no such orders regarding Lee. He saw Antonio and Rick and Mesha lying still on the ground. He screamed with rage and went for the last Dragonhunter still standing.

The last thing the bone tired, and probably insane Lee saw was more colors in his emptied mind. He never saw John Huang's running, driving kick aimed at the back of his head.