Chapter 27 #2
“Proceed to the scanner,” said the stern-faced guard.
I followed her instructions and walked into a large metal tube.
There was an outline of a human with their feet spread apart and their arms raised.
At the guard’s instruction, I did the same, and to my shock, I felt a pulse of electricity whip through the tube as it closed in a half circle and opened up again.
I stumbled back, my tail hitting the wall of the tube.
“What was that? What did it just do to me?” I demanded.
“It’s just a scanner,” Blair said impatiently.
“What is it scanning?” I snapped.
“I don’t know man, I never worked for the TSA. Probably just metals and shit so you don’t blow up the airport.”
“They are the ones with the bomb!”
“Look, I don’t have time to explain to you America’s overdependence on security and Big Brother. Just get your crap from the bin and go!”
I stormed to the end of the queue and gathered my armor, quickly pulling it on.
“All right, good, we’re halfway done. Turn to your right and head down the stairs to the train.”
Running down the hall, I descended the moving staircase. A line of humans blocked me halfway down, seemingly content to stand perfectly still and let the stairs’ momentum carry them onward. Impatient, I shoved them down the stairs and leapt over them. “What is a train?”
“On your right side, there’s a bunch of double doors. It looks like the train isn’t there yet, so you probably just missed it. Stand there, and it should be back in about thirty seconds. When it gets there, the doors will open, and all you have to do is step on,” Blair directed.
Seems simple enough.
Or so I thought. The train entered with a roar of the beast accompanied by the screech of something evil and wrong when it stopped.
It was a monstrous windowed tube that looked like it belonged to the Biwban rather than the humans.
The doors opened, but there was nothing but death on the other side.
I was nowhere near the crash site when the Calamity struck, but all of Dulrock could see when the sky split in half.
There was no warning. No way to prepare.
A boom and a flash and then the air just burned.
I didn’t know mountains could disintegrate.
I didn’t know the ground could just simply split and swallow cities. I didn’t—
A man shoved past my shoulder and entered the train as more humans filed into the cramped tube like it was an average occurrence. I moved to step on the train, but the light above the door blinked red.
Red like the streaks in the sky before meteors of death pelted the ground. All of Yorule City died instantly. No mercy for mothers, no children to mourn them. I had seen war, relished in it. That was annihilation; that was the end.
“What happened?” Blair asked. “You completely missed it.”
Ash blanketed everything. Disease came in burning eyes and blackened lungs. Nothing worked, no vaccine, no safe zones.
I cleared my throat. “I’ll get the next one, that one was too full.”
“Ah, yes,” she soothed. “Well, we can’t have His Majesty cramped on the little train when his so-called wife is STRAPPED TO A BOMB!”
“I know,” I snapped. Yet when I heard the train coming again, claws pierced my spine at its loud roar.
“Osid, you good?” Blair asked, her tone gentler.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” she mused. “Look, I’m sure this might be scary for you if you haven’t seen it before. I promise you it’s gonna be fine. Just step on the train, one hoof after the other. You don’t have to be afraid.”
“I am not afraid, you wicked creature. The last train was simply too full.”
Blair sighed. “Of course it was, my mistake. Tell you what, even if you’re not afraid, humor me a little and close your eyes.”
“What does that have to do with—”
“Just humor me and close them.”
With a deep breath I closed my eyes, trying to drown out the telltale hiss of the train coming to a stop. I couldn’t see the Calamity behind my eyelids, but the screams, gods there was so much screaming.
The air sickness affected the holy oracles the worst. Weeks before the crash, they had flagged a terrible omen on the horizon, but none of them could say for what.
I had visited them soon after the announcement, but every last one looked dead-eyed with terror.
Even the high seer could do nothing but weep when I pressed her for answers.
Three days after the crash, the first oracle fell ill.
Hours later, the first holy woman fell from her temple in the sky to splatter her body on the streets below.
Then two more, then three, until a rain of bodies caused mass panic.
Fists pounded the castle gates. The desperate begged for a cure their king couldn’t provide.
Scientists said it was their larger lungs due to living high in the sky. Zealots said it was their penance for grievances only the gods knew. The press said it was a terrorist attack committed by the enemies of the empire.
Endless theories, endless think pieces and pointing fingers, all of them wrong. Who would have thought the end of the world would be brought about by the gross negligence of an alien fuel company?
The fucking absurdity.
“Now keep your eyes closed and take two steps forward.”
“This is ridiculous,” I said. Yet I kept my eyes closed as I put one hoof in front of the other and stepped forward.
Blair kept her voice soft as she continued. “There is a metal pole by your left hand. Grab on to it and brace yourself.”
I reached out to find it, but the train lurched forward, my balance betrayed me. I staggered, tail flailing, and crashed into a seat, right into the lap of an elderly woman, who was sent to the floor.
“I probably should’ve mentioned that you could open your eyes now,” Blair snickered.
“Silence.”
“You knocked that granny clear off her chair—”
“I said silence, woman.”
But despite myself, the sound of her laughter even now finally put an end to the screams of the dead. Tension left my body until I could sit comfortably in the seat I’d unceremoniously claimed. The jingle of her Tamagotchi hit me through the speakers of the feather, and I smiled.
“Really? The sight of your king knocking into the elderly is what wins your heart?” I asked wryly.
Blair sniffed. “Maybe I just like a man who listens.”
“Of course you do, Venomous Thing.” She might have been the only being on this planet brave enough to order me around with no fear.
My advisors made suggestions, and my men were never so cowed as to keep their grievances silent, but there was still a fierce order to our chain of command.
There needed to be if we were to survive on such a harsh planet.
The beginning was lawless. Brothers tore at each other for scraps. After so much panic and death, being released onto a new world with a host of new dangers was too much for an already broken people.
Fear had been the favored method of control for many leaders, but it was never mine.
Survival doesn’t care about preferences, nor has it ever spared a soft heart.
As king, my duty was to provide by any means necessary.
So I built my walls high and hardened my heart.
Dulba’s gates remained open to all who needed shelter, but loyalty was the payment.
Traitors were silenced, thieves were cast out, and I became the tyrant of the new world.
Things were a little more lax on Sankatul.
The duties of leadership were more spread out among my council, and burdens could be shared among my extended royal family.
Betrayal and backstabbing were still par for the course in the ever-changing fight for power, yet still, with all of them gone, I didn’t realize how heavily I relied on them to share the weight of the crown.
The only remaining council member from before the Calamity was Jivorn, who I thought I could trust above all else. But if Blair was telling the truth, and he had meant to kill me, then…I had no one. Not one person on this gods forsaken planet who didn’t want to use or kill me.
No one except a frustrating little human who couldn’t give less of a shit about my position or duties.
Blair’s head cocked to the side, and she looked me up and down with a small smile. “You feeling better? I thought you might pass out with how green you were looking earlier.”
To my surprise, I answered honestly. “Still a bit shaken. It feels like I’m in the belly of a beast.”
She considered my words for a moment and said, “You might have motion sickness. Lie down on the bench and put your knees up. The ride will be over soon, but that position should make you less nauseous.”
When I did as instructed, she let out a pleased giggle. “Maybe this pairing isn’t doomed to fail. I like watching you do as I say.”
I closed my eyes, letting her voice drown out the sound of the train. Vulnerability was a luxury for the weak, yet with her…“I like doing as you say.”
The Tamagotchi dinged, and I looked at the screen to see Blair staring back at me, wide-eyed.
Her lush mouth hung open in clear surprise, and the sight of it had my cock reminiscing about her lips around its girth.
I pushed the memory away, not wanting to ruin the moment, and we sat in companionable silence as the Tamagotchi’s song filled the train.
When we reached Concourse D, I exited and followed Blair’s instructions, running down a crowded hallway.
“WAIT, WAIT!” Blair screamed.
I pitched forward, nearly falling over again as my hooves screeched against the polished floor. Looking around wildly, I asked, “What? What’s happened?”
“Break open that vending machine and grab me hot Cheetos and a Dr. Pepper. The Cheetos are the bag with the orange animal in the bottom row.”
Confused, I looked to my side to see a rectangle box with a see-through window. I smashed the glass and retrieved the orange bag. “Which one is Dr. Pepper?”