Eden (Eden Saga) Page 9

  Another form joined the fray. It was Erzulie. She swooped from the sky and impaled her sword into the side of one of the hounds. Both angel and beast tumbled to the ground.

  “Run!” Father Callahan shouted as he turned.

  However, one of the hounds was behind them. It pounced on him as the remaining hounds cleared the small cacti and rocks and entered their camp. Alexandra swung herself to the other side of a cactus to avoid the lunge of one of the hounds. Another waited for her and leapt.

  She raised her arms to protect her face as the animal slammed her to the ground and pinned her there. The shock from the impact left her woozy for a moment, but the hound’s sulfurous breath and sticky drool sobered her almost instantly.

  The beast closed its maw of yellow, jagged teeth and sniffed her chest. As it moved its nose across her shoulders she noticed the collar. Iron spikes protruded from the metal band. A broken chain dangled from a fixed ring and rested on her stomach.

  She tried to move her arms, but the red-skinned beast kept her pinned to the earth. The hound rumbled a low growl and raised its head. Something pissed it off and Alexandra hoped it wasn’t her own stench.

  Then, Father Richard Callahan’s voice filled the area. “Beasts of Hell! Be gone!”

  Still growling, the animal backed off her body. Father Callahan stepped to her and offered his hand. His other hand grasped his cross. The priest’s eyes narrowed with intensity as he stared down the hound. Alexandra tried to stand, but found her legs lacked the courage. She scurried to a spot behind him.

  After glancing at her, the hound turned and bounded away. Father Callahan knelt beside her.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, Father. How did you do that?” She found she could stand and she scanned the area. The hounds were gone.

  He rubbed his chin and some of the edge was gone from his eyes. “I don’t know, exactly,” he said. “One moment I’m dog food, and the next moment… Strange really, I told the dog to leave me alone and it seemed really scared. Weird.”

  “They are cowed by those who have faith.” Koneh appeared in the camp, sword in hand. “However, not all minions of Hell are so easily dispatched.”

  “Easy?” Alexandra said. “I almost got eaten!”

  Koneh slid his sword under his rags and said, “Remember what Erzulie said? It appears the hounds are dragging women off to their masters. You were in no immediate danger.”

  Alexandra exhaled. “That’s comforting.”

  “You survived unscathed.”

  “What if the father wasn’t here? I would have been dragged away for sure.”

  Koneh walked towards her and said, “Do you really think these hounds can out run Erzulie?” He waited for a moment before he continued. “Like I said. You were in no danger there.”

  “Erzulie-” Alexandra said as she searched the sky. “Where is she?”

  “Hunting down the stragglers,” he said. “Get your things together. We must move.”

  “What? Why?” Alexandra’s heart fell in her chest. She needed sleep!

  “Those hounds were in service of something much more terrible,” Koneh said. “We would be wise to not be here when he comes looking for them.”

  “Who would come looking for them?” Alexandra was unsatisfied with Koneh’s answers.

  “More movement and less talk, Alexandra. Our time is short,” Koneh said.

  Though he was impatient, she caught him examining her body. Was he looking for wounds?

  Father Callahan touched her arm and said, “Come. We can talk about this later.”

  With a sigh, she nodded. Father Callahan helped her pack her blankets and the group was on the move again. After a few minutes, she asked “Why isn’t Erzulie back yet?”

  Koneh, a few steps ahead of them, said, “She won’t be long.”

  “Shouldn’t we go back and help her?” Alexandra asked, though she didn’t know how much help she could offer.

  Alexandra felt Koneh’s grin as she stared at the back of his hood. “She can more than handle a few hounds,” he said.

  “So, Koneh,” Father Callahan said, “those hounds. Tell us about them.”

  Koneh stopped, kneeled, examined the ground, rose, and then resumed his pace. “Well,” he said, “Not much to tell. They are used by demons as scouts and the ones we just met belong to a particularly nasty fellow.”

  “Really now?” Father Callahan asked. “Who?”

  “Derechi the Unclean. Or, as Erzulie likes to call him, Derechi the Dirty.”

  “Can’t say I ever came across that name in any of my studies,” Father Callahan said.

  “He replaced Moloch. I assume you’ve heard of him.”

  “Yes I have,” Father Callahan said knowingly. “How do you know so much of Hell’s dealings?”

  “Wait a minute,” Alexandra said. “Who was Moloch?”

  Father Callahan turned to her and said, “Moloch was a cruel demon who-”

  “Fallen Angel,” Koneh said, correcting the priest. “Most of the demons you know of are actually former angels. Remember the difference.”

  “Anyway,” Father Callahan said, “Moloch encouraged the sacrifice of firstborn children by way of fire.”

  “That sounds… horrific,” she said as she tightened her jacket over her chest.

  The group walked in silence for a few moments. Father Callahan stared at the back of Koneh’s hood and fingered his cross. After what looked to Alexandra to be an internal struggle, he said, “What happened to Moloch?”

  Koneh halted the group and scanned the swirling red-black sky. He placed his fists on his hips and said, “You’ll have to ask the angel who killed him.”

  Erzulie burst from the darkness and landed with less grace than Alexandra had seen her command on other occasions. She clutched a spiked collar in one hand and a slender sword in her other hand.

  Father Callahan leaned towards Koneh and whispered, “Erzulie killed him?”

  Koneh nodded and approached Erzulie. After straightening her legs and folding her wings against her back, she handed the collar to him.

  “The pack leader’s collar,” she said as she slid her sword into a sheath on her belt. “They won’t be reporting to anyone now.” As Erzulie spoke, she glanced at Alexandra several times.

  “Good work, Erzul,” he said. “How much farther do you suggest?”

  “A few hours should do it.”

  Erzulie stepped past him and took Alexandra’s hands in her own. Her pure white eyes bore into her. What was in those eyes? Was there real compassion or only the shadow of emotion? Alexandra couldn’t tell.

  “Just a little farther,” Erzulie said as she struggled to catch her breath.

  “You’re… you’re out of breath?” Alexandra asked.

  Erzulie smiled. It was a pure smile, a child’s smile.

  “Yes, Lex,” she said. “I breathe air too.”

  The angel squeezed Alexandra’s hands, released, and then extended her wings. Like before, she thrust her wings towards the ground and shot upwards. Alexandra remained fixated for a moment as she stared at the dark patch of sky where Erzulie disappeared.

  “Let’s get moving,” Koneh said.

  Alexandra’s legs and ankle throbbed in protest as the group started walking again. She tried to push the pain and discomfort aside, but her efforts remained unsuccessful. Working out in the gym was far easier than trudging through a wasteland - giant dogs never chased her through the rows of exercise machines. After an hour of walking, the group stumbled upon a deserted roadway.

  “Route 70,” Father Callahan said as he poked the pavement with his walking-stick, perhaps to ensure it was real.

  “We’ll take this for a few more hours and then try to get some rest,” Koneh said.

  Sections of the road lay overturned or sunken into the ground. After several hours, they found a ruined car. Alexandra decided to stay back while the two men searched the vehicle. She didn’t want to see the faces of the deceased. She�
�d already had enough death for one lifetime.

  Father Callahan took some items from the trunk. Koneh removed a gas can from the wreck and siphoned the gasoline from the vehicle. He then roped the can to the army pack full of rations and the pair returned to her.

  “How did they die?” Alexandra asked. She was surprised to find her emotions dulled by all that she had seen. Was she accustomed to death after this short time? No, how could she be?

  “I didn’t take the time to examine them medically,” Koneh said. “But, the good Father offered a prayer for them. Let us continue.”

  They followed Route 70 for another half hour and then made camp off the side of the road. Erzulie landed and reported no activity as far as she could see. Koneh handed Alexandra and Father Callahan a ration pack from his bag. After Father Callahan showed her how to open the MRE and work the flameless ration heater, she devoured the bland contents. When she was finished, she made her bed and closed her eyes. She was asleep within moments.

  What felt like only minutes later, Alexandra awoke to the sound of screeching tires. She shot forward and saw a tractor-trailer cab swerve to a halt on the road. Its headlights lanced through the darkness illuminating their small camp.

  Koneh crept to her side and said, “Stay here. The priest and I will check it out.”

  She rubbed her eyes and yawned as she nodded. Though the truck was a good distance away, Alexandra hid behind a rock. If things went sour, she was prepared to run.

  As the two men approached the vehicle, she peered at the long dark shadows. If there were hounds out there…

  The door to the cab opened and a man in a baseball cap jumped to the ground. Alexandra couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Father Callahan shook the man’s hand, so she assumed all was well.

  After more discussion, the driver returned to his cab, killed the headlights, stopped the engine and re-emerged with a backpack. He joined Alexandra’s companions and walked towards the camp.

  “Alexandra, meet Santino,” Father Callahan said.

  “Nice to meet you, Santino,” Alexandra said as she looked him over. Mexican-American, maybe in his forties, dark hair protruding haphazardly from his Texas Rangers baseball cap. Clothed in jeans with a stained tee shirt.

  With a thick Spanish accent, Santino said, “You too, Alejandra.”

  The last time she heard the Spanish pronunciation of her name was when her mother called, asking her to come to Mexico. Her mother said she had something important to say, but Alexandra couldn’t abandon work on such short notice. One week later, her mother died.

  “We’re the first people Santino has seen,” Father Callahan said.

  “Si, nuttin’s left of San Luis,” Santino said.

  “He agreed to drive us to Tampico,” Koneh said.

  “Si, I have enough gasoline for the drive.” Santino kept his distance and averted eye-contact with Koneh. Perhaps he was afraid of the scarred man.

  “Give us a moment to pack our things,” Koneh said.

  “Wait a minute, I barely slept!” Alexandra complained.

  Father Callahan touched her arm, smiled and whispered, “You were asleep for over six hours.”

  “Oh.” She raised one of her eyebrows, a trait she inherited from her mother. “Six hours? Didn’t feel like it.”

  Father Callahan nudged her with his elbow as he stepped past her. “Come on sleepy-head. Pack up and move out.”

  The group broke camp and piled into Santino’s roomy tractor-trailer cab. Alexandra cleaned debris and beer cans from her seat and noticed several pictures of topless women duct-taped to the walls. The pictures appeared to be from a Latino Hotties calendar.

  As they drove, they saw many wrecked vehicles on the road. Santino was forced to plow through some of them at a low speed. At Koneh’s direction, they didn’t stop to look for survivors or salvage. The trip to Tampico took less than two hours.

  Route 70 ended at a makeshift barricade of overturned cars, billboards and sandbags. Santino slowed to a halt and asked, “What now?”

  Several men emerged on the barricade and shouted, in Spanish, for them to exit the rig and show themselves. The group complied and Alexandra glanced towards the sky. Still no sign of Erzulie.

  “¿Hablan ingles ustedes?” Alexandra asked. She felt more comfortable speaking in her stronger language.

  “Yeah, we can talk English,” one of the men on the barricade said as he shone a spotlight on her group.

  The light settled on Koneh and one of the men shouted, “Diablo!”

  Several of the men disappeared behind the barricade while the rest pointed rifles at them. “Diablo!” repeated from behind the wall.

  Chapter 10

  “Wait!” Alexandra shouted as she threw her hands in the air. “He’s not a demon – no un diablo!”

  The men on the wall didn’t respond. They kept their weapons trained on Koneh and the rest of the group. Perhaps they waited for reinforcements from inside the barricade?

  Alexandra stepped forward and said, “He was burned by radiation.” She pointed at Koneh. “Radiacion.”

  “Don move, lady!”

  She halted her advance and said, “Okay, but we’re not here to pick a fight.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that.” A new figure appeared on the barricade. “Let’s see what we have here.”

  The speaker was more American than Mexican, though his olive skin and dark hair revealed part of his heritage. Either he worked hard to remove the accent from his speech, or English was his first language.

  “We’re not taking in any more stragglers,” the well-spoken man said. “Go back to the wasteland and find your own food.”

  Father Callahan stepped to Alexandra’s side and said, “Now that’s an awful attitude to have towards your fellow man in need.”

  “Padre! I-I didn’t see you there.”

  Alexandra leaned towards Father Callahan and whispered, “You know him?”

  “No,” he whispered in return.

  “I’m Marco. Explain your friend, Padre. Was he burned by radiation like your beautiful spokeswoman claims?”

  Father Callahan glanced at Koneh and said, “If Alexandra says it is true, then it is true. I only recently met these folks, but they have good hearts. We only wish a place to rest.”

  “Do you have something to offer Tampico?” Marco said. “Though you’re a priest, that’s not enough.”

  “Mi tractor can haul or move anythin’ you need,” Santino said as he jacked his thumb over his shoulder towards his rig.

  Marco looked past them to the rig and rubbed his chin. “Let them in,” he said as he disappeared behind the barricade.

  Moments later, the men behind the wall pushed aside sheets of metal and wood. Alexandra, Koneh, Father Callahan, and Santino piled into the cab and drove through the entrance.

  Tampico looked much like the village where Alexandra met Father Callahan, but on a larger scale. Some buildings were intact, but most were rubble. Empty oil drums and garbage cans housed fires and pockets of frightened people.

  Koneh leaned close to Alexandra and said, “Women.”

  Unlike Father Callahan’s village, where all the women were taken by demons, Tampico seemed well-stocked with the better sex.

  “Speaking of women,” she said to nobody in particular, “Where’s Erzulie?”

  As Santino maneuvered the rig into a dark spot of the encampment, Koneh said, “Staying away for now. You saw how they reacted to me.”

  The rig came to a stop and rattled its protest as the engine died. Everyone vacated the truck and Alexandra glanced around the ruined city center. Compared to everywhere else she’d been since her bus flipped, Tampico seemed like Mardi Gras. Well, Mardi Gras without the fireworks, neon necklaces and joy.

  People huddled in every nook. Fabric stretched over sleeping areas and across makeshift awnings for vehicles which now served as homes. Voices rose and fell from all corners of the area as if they were afraid to grow too long or too loud. The
scent of burning meat wafted into the air around the group and her stomach grumbled in response.

  Koneh dropped the army duffel full of rations in the center of them and said, “Why don’t you have a look around, Father. Judging by their reaction at the barricade, I think it best I stay here, out of sight.”

  Father Callahan tapped his walking stick on the ground and said, “I agree. Perhaps they have some news of the rest of the world.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Alexandra said, as hungry for information as she was for food.

  Koneh shook his head. “Too dangerous.”

  “Dammit Koneh, you don’t make decisions for me,” she said. “Just back off a bit.”

  “She’ll be fine,” Father Callahan said.

  Alexandra stepped past the priest and said, “I don’t need you babying me either. I’m a grown woman for Christ’s sake!”

  With dramatic flair, Father Callahan said, “She’s a grown woman!”

  As she stalked away from the group, Alexandra suppressed a laugh. The Irish-American priest was goofy in an endearing way.

  After a few moments, Father Callahan caught up to her and walked at her side. “Koneh’s just looking out for you,” he said.

  “I know,” she said, her anger dampened. “I’m probably not much fun to be around, am I?”

  He smiled. “I miss fun.”

  The pair found Tampico to be quite uniform in its disaster. What was worse, nobody seemed to know about anything beyond the barricade. After a few fruitless hours, Alexandra and Father Callahan returned to where they left the others at the rig. However, only Koneh was there.

  “Where’s Santino? And the truck?” Alexandra asked.

  Koneh stoked a campfire and then lounged with his back on the army duffel bag. “Marco came and said he needed the rig,” Koneh said. “That was an hour ago.”

  Alexandra slumped to the ground in front of the fire and closed her eyes. She was miserable. Her feet and back ached. Every inch of her body felt uncomfortable – like she was wearing someone else’s skin.

  “Koneh,” she said, “toss me one of those MRE’s.”

  Father Callahan sighed. “Yeah, might as well give me one too.”

  Alexandra propped the ration on a rock and chuckled, as the directions clearly stated to “prop on a rock or something.” After working the flameless heater, she waited for the meal to warm.