Weiren

By Taylor Cook

In a world where beasts known as Riamin roam the lands, an elite few have been tasked with protecting the remaining world. These few were given the name Weiren. When Emily and her friends Mia, Wes and Kyle turn eighteen they are put into a training program to determine whether they possess the abilities of a Weiren. After learning the truth about her family Emily ventures out into the dead world above in search of answers ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Jun 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781925353198

Taylor Cook

Taylor was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. As a mother of one she occupied her time with the idea of creating a story that included elements from her life and that of a fantasy life some of us daydream about. She is hoping to continue her passion for writing and create more similar stories in the future and hopefully even a continuation of her first published story, Weiren.

Book preview

WEIREN

by

Taylor Cook

This is an IndieMosh book

brought to you by MoshPit Publishing

an imprint of Mosher’s Business Support Pty Ltd

PO BOX 147

Hazelbrook NSW 2779

http://www.indiemosh.com.au/

Copyright 2015 © Taylor Cook

All rights reserved

Licence Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the author and publisher.

Disclaimer

This story is entirely a work of fiction.

No character in this story is taken from real life. Any resemblance to any person or persons living or dead is accidental and unintentional.

The author, her agents and publishers cannot be held responsible for any claim otherwise and take no responsibility for any such coincidence.

For my daughter,

Emily May

CHAPTER 1

Laying on my bed with my arms behind my head staring at the small air duct above me I think about everything that is about to happen to me. Honestly I am shit scared. Fear ripples through my body and I quickly rub my arms in a hopeless attempt of ridding my goose bumps. I am probably not the only person in their bed trying so desperately to fall asleep. Fear is installed in everyone in my world, fear of the unknown and even more frightening, the known.

For as long as I can remember this has been the norm. Legends of beasts known to us as Riamin that roam the dead world above were just your run of the mill children's bedtime story. My father, General Robert Mayne, trained warriors to defeat them. I often asked him about his times in the dead world but he always just changed the subject and when my father wants to be left alone you don't push it. He's a stubborn man, tall and quite attractive for his age. Grey has overtaken his once pitch black hair and his blue eyes seem to darken with each journey to the world above. But he is all I have left after mother passed away bringing me into this world. He often told me tales about her beauty, acting out scenes for me when I was little like she was a fair maiden locked away in a tower guarded by an evil dragon and he was her knight in shining armour that had come to rescue her. That was always my favourite story. I can tell her misses her. I have her smile apparently, although there are no photographs of her, I have never questioned why. I often sit at the edge of my bed looking around at my room and run my fingers through my light brown hair imagining if her hair was the same and if she had blue eyes like father and I. I never blamed myself for her death, but I wish more than anything I could have met her.

I hear a low wet growl beside me. I cannot see, I try so hard to open my eyes to see what it is but my eyelids fail me. I am on my knees unable to move, why can't I move!? I move my fingers into the ground below and I can feel dirt between them and I have no idea how I ended up outside. I try to scream for help and all I feel is a hand grab my throat to stop me. No, not a hand, a claw, it has a hard grip on me and I cannot move a muscle and I feel it sink its teeth right into my shoulder. The heat is unbearable, I can feel the warmth take me further away, further away from all I know and love. My heartbeat slows and I see a light, but not the bright white light as I always expected it's much darker, as it moves closer I notice it is a mirror. It stops just inches in front of me, I peer inside and I see myself leaning over something, a body, it turns its head and its face is rotting, peeling away to the bone as it goes, blood dripping down its mouth and over its chin landing on the body below. It smiles and launches towards me.

Emily! Emily! Goddamn it wake up!

I open my eyes and my father is leaning over me gripping my shoulders and shaking me. I hadn't even realised I had fallen asleep. It all felt so real. I sit straight up and look at the empty room around me, the concrete walls keeps the room forever cold and I have nothing to warm myself besides my thin grey blanket with ZERO printed on the corner. ZERO is the name of the whole facility in which we live, completely built underground to protect us from the outside world, feels more like a prison. I wrap my arms around him and he holds me until I have stopped my heavy breathing.

It's just a nightmare, Emily it was just a dream, you're okay I'm here, Father kisses my hair and I feel safe again. He is the only person who calls me Emily, it's strange hearing it, for as long as I remember everyone just called me M.

Was it the same dream? He asks his voice warm with concern. I close my eyes and nod.

Yes but I'm fine, see? I give him my best attempt at a smile and he relaxes his shoulders. He is always so tense. He holds me at arm’s length and he freezes, he turns his head and closes his eyes.

I didn't think this day would come so soon, In that moment I remember, day of first training.

They should call it day of dread. It comes around once a year and all the children of the colonies who have turned eighteen since the last training day leave their homes and are put into a training program that essentially turns them into killers. There happens to be one thing in particular we are being trained to hunt and kill, Riamin. Riamin are a name we give humans that have been bitten and transformed into creatures of nightmares. I know little about them as they are rarely mentioned when I talk to the other colonists, especially the elite warriors. The elite keep to themselves and spend most of their days training in the facilities below. They are never the same when they return from the dead world, if they return.

He releases me from his grip and I turn myself and slip out of the blanket and put my bare feet on the floor. It's so cold, I shiver in response. I stand and my father grabs his knees and hauls himself up, looks at me with his darkened eyes and I know exactly what he is thinking. I smile like I will be fine, he squeezes my shoulder and leaves closing the large steel door behind him.

Shit its cold, I say as I hug myself and wander over to the small room adjoining mine that holds all of my clothes. I change out of my clothes so fast I swear I'm not human. I pick the warmest looking things I own and throw them on, hopping a little when I can’t place my foot through one of my pant holes. Thick black tights, buckled black boots, a white singlet and a standard ZERO supplied navy blue hoodie. I grab my only hair tie and scoop my long unruly hair up into a ponytail and tie it. I walk to the door and grab the handle. I pause for a moment and glance around at the room, realising it may be the last time I am in here. It's nothing special, everything is ZERO supplied, right down to the underwear I have in my dresser, but it's home.

I find father out in the kitchen, if you can call it that, it is a square metal room with pots and pans hanging from the walls and the sink is over flowing with dirty dishes. We both aren't exactly the cleaning types. Besides, he is rarely home enough to do anything as trivial as cleaning the dishes. I sit down at the small round table on one of the chairs and breakfast is already in front of me in a small clear bowl, the usual, porridge.

Eat up you will need your strength, He says as he puts on his fake smile, one of our many traits that we share.

I eat slowly as I contemplate my dream last night. I've never seen a Riamin but it seems my imagination has decided it comes in the form of a person whose flesh is falling away from their face. I stop eating and put down my spoon. I don't think I ever want to face one if that's what I will be up against. Father distracts my thoughts by pointing out the time. I quickly finish my food and balance my bowl on the pile in the sink and turn to him.

Ready? he asks. I nod and I follow down the narrow hall and out the front door. Mia is waiting outside.

Mia! I embrace my best friend probably harder than she was expecting.

M, hey um I can't breathe, Crap, I release her from my grip remembering how tiny a person she is. Mia is a smaller girl with flawless delicate features and her dark brown hair is always plaited and hangs down over her shoulder. She makes up for her petite size with her attitude. For such a small person she can scare the shit out of the biggest guy here with just one look. She tilts her head to one side and asks how I am holding up.

Yeah I'll be fine, I'm just nervous, I just want this day to be over with. I bet Wes is shitting himself more than I am, We both giggle at the thought of our skinny little red headed friend being an elite warrior. Wes is the very opposite of a warrior in all sense of the word. He is the complete definition of a nerd. He tops every class and he was even chosen to do specialty work in Riamin research, something that most of us have to wait for the training days to learn. ZERO doesn’t like the colonists knowing too much about the Riamin. Wes hopes to one day join the ZERO researches into finding a vaccine that could reverse the effects on them and ultimately transform them back into their human form for good. He is always rambling on, if only he could capture one, open it up and study it. I tend to block him out when he rambles, I don't exactly find that idea as appealing as he does.

I'll look for you at the assembly, Father says as he turns to walk away. I can tell he is worried but as soon as we leave the house he is General Robert Mayne and leaves his emotions behind the steel door we came out of. He walks off down the corridor out of sight and that's when Mia turns to me.

He always looks so grumpy, She imitates his salute and his stern facial expression. I hold back a laugh.

It's kind of scary how accurately you do that, I say while shaking my head and rolling my eyes. I think she is trying to lighten the mood this day has put us all in yet somehow I don't think he would appreciate Mia's mocking him.

Have you seen the guys yet? I'm surprised Wes wasn't banging my door down this morning and pointing to his watch telling me to hurry up, I'm always late. Wes and Kyle live just down the hall. Kyle is our other friend. We all are very close as we grew up together. There are not a lot of things to do down here when you are a kid so we made do with each other’s company. Kyle is quite attractive, so they say. Sandy blonde hair and I have to admit his muscles almost tear through his shirts. But he is so vein! Any reflective surface and you can guarantee he's flexing his muscles in front of it. But he is a good friend to Wes so we tolerate it. He looks out for him like brothers. It helps that we are all the same age but unfortunately it just means today all of us are off to first training day.

Mia and I decide to go ahead without them so we continue down the hall until we see Kyle and Wes standing at the entrance to the training facility. The entrance is guarded by two soldiers on either side of ceiling high double doors and directly above them are some carvings. They are almost tribal looking.

Shit M did you get any sleep at all? Kyle says looking me up and down. I must look like a mess but I don’t care. I ignore his comment.

C'mon we better get inside before they start without us, I say to them. I quickly go up to Wes and hug him. He looks like he needed it today. I smile at him and gesture we go inside together. The guards standing at the door both open each side simultaneously and it opens reluctantly with a loud creak. You can't