MoonRise

By A.G. Wyatt

Noah Brennan has encountered death more times than he cares to remember.

Since returning to society, he’s been imprisoned, beaten, and endured adversities that would have broken a lesser man. But every pain he has suffered has led him to his true purpose: finding a better world.

Now, to find salvation, Noah must make one last journey. A journey where bonds are tested, friends are lost, and old enemies stand in the way.

The only question left for Noah to answer: can he do what it takes to save humanity, even if it means losing everything?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucky Leaf Media
• Release date: Mar 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781632300393

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

FLIES

THE WATER WAS murky, a green foam of algae floating around the edges of what had once been a fountain at the center of a stone paved plaza. Flies buzzed across the surface, chasing each other in a dance older than humanity that now appeared destined to long outlive mankind.

Are you sure about this? Lily asked, holding two water skins as she peered hesitantly into the fountain. She looked especially young when she was nervous, a reminder of the fact that she was barely an adult, despite all the horror she had seen in the past year.

I’m sure. Noah plunged his own canteen into the fountain, water glugging in. He’d gotten used to this sort of thing through two decades on the road, but he still didn’t want to drink the slimy gunk on the surface. You get deep into a city, it’s easier to find fuel than water. We’ll set a fire tonight, filter out the worst crap and boil away the germs. It ain’t ever gonna taste like a clear mountain spring, but it’s less likely to kill us than thirst is.

But won’t that attract… Lily gestured at the surrounding area. "Won’t that attract them?"

It was a possibility. Noah scanned the office building towering behind them, its glass front mostly reduced to sparkling shards. Across the street, weeds grew in the aisles of forgotten stores and creepers trailed across shelves. He surveyed the slew of abandoned, rusted cars and the crater where a meteorite had leveled half a block up the street. Nothing moved except their fellow travelers and the horses.

We’re in a city, he said. Means we’re gonna have to pick our camping spot carefully to avoid the Rhaksasa. Reckon we get up on top of a building, set the fire so it’s not visible from the street and blockade the door to the stairway. Might have to fight a few to get back down in the morning, but we’ll be OK for the night.

Like all of his plans, he delivered it with more confidence than he felt. There were nine lives in his hands, only one of them his own. He’d learned by now that hesitation was more deadly than over-confidence. Get too cocky and you might ride into disaster, getting yourself killed and setting an example of what not to do for everyone. But hesitate, show you doubted what you were doing, and that doubt would spread. Soon no one would have any energy or momentum to carry them through. Without the drive to keep going, they’d stall and wind up being swamped by the cannibalistic Rhaksasa. Better to live dangerously than die cautiously.

Besides, settling down would never get them to the safety of Astra.

With all the bottles and canteens filled, they headed back to the others. They were still mounted, most of the adults keeping watch, Lucio and Serena gazing around from their places in front of Elena and Beltran Soto. For such young kids, they were calm and mature, but that didn’t stop them from getting bored or nervous or running off to explore. Having spent their lives so far out in the countryside with the Dionite tribe, urban environments held a particular fascination for them. Serena stared in amazement at sights and shapes she had probably never witnessed living in the wilds, but Lucio’s expression carried a look of dread beyond the imagination of his sister. They both explored their surroundings with wide eyes, but with very different understandings.

We good to go? Beltran puffed on his pipe, raised a single white eyebrow.

We’re good, Noah replied. Just let me get—

Look, a man! Serena pointed down a side street, to a figure lurching toward them, its clothes in rags, a jagged point of metal clutched in its hand.

Aman. The creature was a ravaged, featureless mess, its voice still recognizably female, if barely human. Aman. Aman.

Aman. Another voice echoed the phrase from the next street over.

Shit. Noah leaped into the saddle. Beneath him, Beth pawed the ground with her white hoof.

Everybody ready? Molly looked back from the front of the group, her expression determined, her katana drawn. Let’s go.

She spurred her horse into action, led them down the street at a sharp canter. Behind, the Rhaksasa started running, still shouting after them as they galloped away.

Aman! Aman! Rhaksasa!

A blur of flailing limbs flung itself from a third-floor balcony, landed with a crunch on the asphalt ahead of them. It rose on one leg, the other hanging, twisted beneath it, teeth bared and pointed metal raised.

Rhaksasa! it shrieked.

There was a crack and the creature keeled over, blood pouring from the stump where its head had been. Smoke trailed from Jarvis’s musket.

Didn’t know you were such a good shot, Noah said as the gray-bearded little farmer stowed the weapon away, a task made more difficult by the jolting of horse.

I ain’t, Jarvis replied. Just got lucky.

Another of the creatures sprang from a doorway, lunging at Vostok as he brought up the rear. The big Russian swung the fire ax he’d looted two days before, hitting with such force that the Rhaksasa’s skull split open, splattering brains across the pavement. Their pursuers stopped as they reached the bodies, descending on their fallen comrades in a bloody feeding frenzy.

When I go, you burn me instead, yes? Vostok said. I don’t want to be dinner for crazy people.

Gonna eat you ourselves, buddy, Noah replied. Can’t let such prime meat go to waste.

They laughed, more from relief than the quality of the joke. The Rhaksasa were far enough behind now that Molly was slowing the pace, letting the horses catch their breath and the riders bunch together to confer.

Can we stop soon? Elena asked. The kids are exhausted.

As she said it she placed a hand on Lucio’s head, the little boy frowning and leaning back against her on the horse they shared. But Elena’s gaze flitted over to Serena and Beltran, wearily adjusting the furs he had gathered around him. Everyone except Beltran knew he was too old for the hard riding the other adults might have managed alone. And everyone knew better than to say it out loud.

Night will be falling soon anyway, Noah said. Let’s start looking for somewhere to make camp.

Moon rock section divider

They settled in for the night on top of a multi-story car park, well above the streets where the Rhaksasa roamed. There was enough space to light a couple of small fires well away from the edge, out of sight from the street below. As the stars and the debris belt that had once been the moon shone down on them, they huddled around those fires, watching the water bubble through Jarvis’s improvised purification system.

Found some brewing kits in one of the shops down there, he said, gesturing through the roof beneath them. I done this before when the weather got bad and messed up the stream on the farm. Figure it’ll give us better water than we’d get any other way.

He smiled across the fire at Molly, leaning in against Noah. The love Jarvis had for her mother had brought him into their little group, and the memory of that love meant he kept a special eye out for her. Noah half expected to get a talk one of these days about his intentions toward Molly, and whether he could provide for their future together. As if anyone had much of a future in this beaten down ruin of a world.

Except that they just might have a future now. He opened one of his saddle bags and pulled out the Oracle, the strange computer he’d brought from Apollo. The end of the device given to him by the Dionite Johan still stuck out of one side—he hadn’t dared remove it since he’d gotten the machine working for fear that it might never start up again. If the laser in the device could run out so easily, who knew what else might break down if he wasn’t careful.

The surface of the Oracle was a single seamless block, black shot through with strands of gold like lightning in motion. He ran his hand across the smooth surface then tapped a button on one corner to bring the machine to life.

Immediately, words and numbers flashed into his vision, sprayed straight through his eyes and into his brain by the Oracle’s interface. Temperature, cloud cover, and humidity showed to one side, time and date above it. The Oracle started speculatively showing information about his surroundings—the temperature of the fire, the purity of the water, the chemical consistency of the concrete, even the body mass index of his companions. With a swipe of his hand, he made it all disappear.

Search files for Rhaksasa, he said.

The search came up empty, just like every time before. The nearest he’d found was an entry in the device’s built-in encyclopedia, a reference to Hindu demons called ‘Rakshasa’. The world might have gone to hell, but he wasn’t quite ready to believe in demons yet. And these searches had become a ritual, a way of settling his thoughts before he delved into the Oracle and the still incomprehensible mass of files it contained. He was still convinced that Astra, the place it was linked to, was some kind of safe haven. The files he’d understood implied that it was a fallback plan, assembled by someone ready for a disaster like the one they’d faced twenty years before. Maybe there would be people there already, people who could help them out. Or maybe there would be something that had remained untouched for twenty years, something that would help humanity start picking itself back up out of the dirt. At the very least, it offered the possibility of safety for fugitives chased from the Dionite tribe and the town of Apollo after the communities they’d loved fell into the hands of dictatorial thugs.

Anything? Molly asked. Her question was a ritual too, a way of bringing him back into the moment. Not a big thing, but something they needed—casual conversation and little shared routines rebuilding the bond that had been broken by his infidelity.

Nothing. He set the Oracle aside. Same as always.

They were doing that copycat thing again today, Jarvis said as he retrieved a bottle of clean water from the still. Serena said ‘a man’, and then they all started in with ‘aman’, copyin’ her words for a while.

You reckon that’s what ‘rhaksasa’ is? Noah asked. Just some word they’ve picked up and keep comin’ back to.

Could be about numbers, Jarvis said. If it’s all about actin’ with the herd, and most of the herd’s already screamin’ ‘rhaksasa’, ain’t nothin’ else gonna last long. They’ll just all go back to joinin’ in.

Maybe is same with metal. Vostok leaned forward, the flickering firelight bringing out the scar on his chin. Many of them have it, so the rest follow. Is like when kids all act the same way. You know, this thing…

Peer pressure. Noah laughed. It was a crazy idea, but then it was a crazy world. So what, they all stick chunks of metal through them for fashion? Carry around matching pieces for weapons and souvenirs?

It’s always the same metal, Lily said. Have you noticed that? If it catches the light right, it has a sort of red sheen to it. I thought at first it might be blood, but you can see it before they hit anything. Before they…

Her words trailed off and she looked at Noah. He knew they were thinking the same thing, of the first time they’d seen the Rhaksasa in action, tearing Mason apart, their friend gutted and devoured before their very eyes. Time made it easier to deal with, but it didn’t make it any less hideous.

Noah felt around in the pocket of his old camouflage jacket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He’d gotten lucky rummaging through a corner store on their way through the city. Twenty-year-old tobacco wasn’t as good as the fresh crops from Jarvis’s farm, but it was a hell of a lot better than no tobacco at all.

He lit one with the burning end of a stick from the fire, threw the pack over to Jarvis and Beltran, who proceeded to rip open a cigarette each, tipping the contents into their pipes. Habit was a strong thing, why else were any of them smoking?

Then again, what kept any of them going, fighting for survival, if it wasn’t habit?

He got up and walked to the edge of the roof, leaving the rest talking quietly around the campfire. He’d grown to like that sound, the gentle chatter of humanity, in a way that he hadn’t a year before. Or maybe hadn’t wanted to. Keep away from people and you kept away from the terrible possibility of seeing them hurt or killed. Was that what he’d really taken from his brothers’ deaths all those years before? A distrust not of the rest of humanity, but of his own feelings?

He looked out across the dark ruins, listening to the distant howl of wolves, the sound imitated by Rhaksasa packs in the city itself. Even such feral remnants of humanity retained the urge to stay together. Why wouldn’t he?

Because now the expectations of others lay upon him. He wouldn’t just be failing himself if he didn’t find Astra. It wasn’t just about a safe place to hide and diggin’ up his Pa’s past. It was about Molly, Lily, and the rest. It was about all the other people in the world they could help if they found a safe haven, a place to rebuild from. It was about a future that wasn’t just tribes or packs or dictatorships.

Listen to me. He placed a hand on Bourne, the gun’s handle smooth and familiar. Someone’s gettin’ a messiah complex.

Bourne didn’t reply. Not that he ever had, any more than he’d ever fired a bullet. But the comfort of that silent company was fading somehow.

Something screeched as it scampered across the rooftop opposite. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, night vision showing him just enough to grasp the outline. Not a person but an ape, long arms trailing as it crossed the tiles. It paused for a moment, turned as if to look at him across the darkness between them, and then continued on its way.

Crazy world. Noah dropped the end of his cigarette, ground it out beneath the worn sole of his boot, and walked back toward the fire. Never mind saving humanity, he was starting to think that humanity might have just saved him.

CHAPTER TWO

VOSTOK’S AX

IT WAS AMAZING what had become of some public parks without humans to limit them. What had once been only a handful of trees and some flower beds became a haven of beauty in the middle of sprawling ruins with bright flowers bursting forth in what was otherwise a gray wasteland of weathered concrete.

Noah took a deep breath, enjoying the scents of flowers and fresh greenery. What might have been called a spring shower had fallen during the night, if spring still existed. It was followed by a morning of blazing heat that evaporated the dewy aftermath, leaving the air crisp and clean. These were the moments that had seldom happened before the moon fell. Now if you could just survive, they came more often than good meals.

I’m hungry. Lucio wriggled in the saddle in front of Beltran, looked around for someone to answer his plea. Can I have something to eat?

When we stop, his grandfather replied, laying a gentle hand on the boy’s head. We don’t have spare for snacks.

We should stop soon, Lucio said. I need to pee.

Me too, Serena echoed. Need to pee.

Two weeks on the road with the kids had taught Noah not to ignore moments like this. Sometimes they could be appeased or asked to be quiet. But more often a break giving them ten minutes to rest or run around, to feel in control of their lives and their little bodies before they were hauled back up onto the horses and out along the road, was the best option.

The park would provide shelter, but with a good view down the streets for lookouts. It was as good a place as any to give Lucio and Serena a chance to run around. If he was honest, he could do with stretching his own legs too.

OK, he said. Let’s head in between the trees, get some rest and some water into us.

He dismounted, handing Beth’s reins to Elena.

Molly and I will keep watch around the perimeter, he said. Take our horses in with the rest, keep them out of sight.

Molly drew a musket from her saddle bag and joined him on the ground while the others headed into the wooded area of the park.

Thanks a lot, she said. What if I’d wanted a rest too?

He pulled her close, grinning as he did.

This’ll give us an excuse not to do duties tonight, he said. Get some time to ourselves. Still want to rest?

She grinned back at him.

I guess not. She stood on tiptoes, kissing him briefly before stepping away. I’ll head around the outside. You follow in a couple of minutes, keep our patrols spread out for better coverage.

She headed off around the outside of the small park, looking back with a wink before she disappeared around the corner.

Noah drew his sword. Deadweight was looking even more battered than when he’d acquired it, but he’d developed a certain sentimental attachment. Having the sword in his hand would remind him to stay alert, and he’d be ready if anything came his way. They’d already had more close calls with Rhaksasa than he liked, and the monsters just seemed to keep growing in numbers. It was a crazy situation—it wasn’t like he’d ever seen them with children or thought they had enough humanity left to raise young. Yet here they were, everywhere he traveled, a growing mass of menace.

A high, childish scream burst from among the trees.

Rhaksasa! Rhaksa— The fierce shout was cut short.

Fear squeezing his chest tight, Noah dashed into the park, bursting through the undergrowth and into an area of flowers and shrubbery around a pond in the center. Vostok stood over the body of a Rhaksasa, blood dripping from his ax, a grim look on his face. Elena, pale-faced, was clutching a weeping Serena.

It was sleeping in a bush, she said. Serena almost trod on it, and then—

Never mind. The immediate threat was dealt with, but Noah knew what would come next. More of them will have heard that. They’ll be on their way. We need to saddle up and—

Can’t. Jarvis pointed out of the far side of the park, where a gap had been torn through the undergrowth. The horses were hundreds of yards away, galloping off down the street, Molly racing frantically after them. They bolted at the noise.

I’m sorry. Beltran looked down at his hand, blood seeping from the palm. I was holding the reins, but they were too strong for me, and…

Shit. Noah looked around. At least they’d had time to unload some of the gear from the horses first. Grab the bags. We need to get moving.

They snatched everything up, shouldering saddle bags and blankets, and hurried out after Molly and the horses.

Rhaksasa! The sound came from the street ahead of them, accompanied by the sound of dozens of feet hurrying across broken pavement.

A group of Rhaksasa burst from a side-street, their expressions wild and fierce, shards of metal glinting in their hands.

Rhaksasa!

Molly! Noah bellowed, but it was too late. The Rhaksasa were between her and the rest of the travelers. Fear flashed across her face even as it tightened its grip on Noah’s heart.

He glanced around. There was an alley leading off to the north-east. That would make it easier to defend their rear, to avoid being swamped by waves of cannibals. Take one or two down, and the others stopping to eat might hold up the whole pursuit.

Quick. He grabbed hold of Lucio, flinging the trembling boy over his shoulder. Elena still held Serena in her arms. Jarvis, take the lead up that way. Beltran and Elena with me. Lily and Vostok, you two take the rear. Now! Move!

They ran, Jarvis rushing down the alley with his musket raised ahead of him, the rest of them not far behind. The Rhaksasa had split, half following Molly and the horses, the rest heading after Noah and his group.

As they reached the alley, Lily turned back and let fly with her bow. She was as deadly as ever, the shot plunging deep into the lead Rhaksasa’s chest, but the creature kept running for another dozen paces before it stumbled and fell, its comrades falling on the corpse to feast.

But there were more of them now, more than could get to the body, streaming in around the park from every direction. They kept running toward the alley, screaming and shrieking like people possessed.

Lucio squirmed and screamed, but Noah gripped him tight, not letting the boy work free of his grasp. With the children being carried, Beltran was by far the slowest, but there was little they could do about that. At least he could keep running longer than Serena and Lucio, a lifetime of farm labor and tribal living having given him endurance far surpassing his years.

They ran out the far end of the alley and turned left, following Jarvis towards a footbridge across a swollen river. Despite Lily’s best efforts and half her arrows, the Rhaksasa were still coming, swarming out of the alley after them. More emerged from other streets, heading towards the fleeing humans with cries of vicious delight.

Rhaksasa! Rhaksasa!

Noah felt his muscles burning, his shoulder aching beneath the weight of Lucio. The wound he’d received from Poulson still hadn’t fully healed and it throbbed like he was being stabbed all over again, but there was no time to switch arms.

We’ll never lose them, Beltran huffed as they ran across the bridge. It was so narrow they had to run single file, and it shook beneath their weight. Rust fell away from struts that hadn’t been painted or maintained for over twenty years.

Got to try, Noah said.

As he ran from the end of the bridge and on down the next street, he looked back. Vostok stood alone in the middle of the bridge, ax raised, facing back the way they’d come. The Rhaksasa had stopped and one of them was now prowling forward, its improvised weapon raised.

Dimitri? Noah called out. What the hell are you doin’?

I could not save Apollo, Vostok shouted. But I can save you, my friends. Now run!

The lead Rhaksasa leaped and Vostok swung his ax, sending the creature flying over the railing with a spray of blood and a splash as it hit the river. But more were coming, faster now, jostling each other in their eagerness to reach him and the smell of fresh blood.

Run! Vostok bellowed, and swung his ax.

It wrenched Noah’s heart, but the warm, squirming body pressed against his shoulder was reminder enough that he should do as he was told. If he couldn’t save everyone, he could at least make his friend’s death mean something. He could save the children.

There was no order to their flight now, no leader or