Rebekka

By R.S. BUIE

Imagine it's 2096 and the world is plagued with giant Condor and humanlike creatures. Rebekka Von Schmidt is living 200+ years into the future and needs to return home to exact revenge on the people responsible for her futuristic imprisonment. Born gifted, Rebekka is the daughter of Count Vladimir Von Schmidt, a renowned, yet unscrupulous, scien

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Dec 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781685151737

R.S. BUIE

R.S. Buie is a retired civil servant of 41 years who enjoys traveling to new places and solving mysteries. She lives in Ohio with her devoted husband, two precious daughters, son-in-law, and grandchildren. She is currently writing full time.

Book preview

PROLOGUETHE ORIGIN

T

he wind blew across the mountain air like a warm breeze, softly touching her face. She wore a soft, white, ruffled blouse; tight, black leather pants; and knee-high, black leather high boots. Her long, reddish-brown hair is braided and fixed firmly down her back. Her light-brown eyes are as cold as ice crystals. Standing still, quietly glaring out at the sea, watching the high winds and tall waves hitting hard against the rocks, she is waiting…

In the year 1842, the town's constable, Bill Graham, was pacing the floor in his office, frustrated at the number of babies that had been abducted since the village was transformed into a growing town two years past. He had a theory that the Count was involved but had no proof, and to make any accusations against someone prominent would mean the end of his career.

But yet, grabbing his forehead, he thought, I have a responsibility toward the people I’ve grown up with in this town and my family. Elisi is due any day now, and I can’t think of a way to even keep my unborn child safe. Dropping his head, he decided that a conversation was due, and picking up his hat, he heads to the Von Schmidt Castle.

Rebekka was just four years old, a small child with no mother, and she was living in a Castle filled with everything that she could possibly imagine to keep her safe and happy until father would return from one of his trips abroad, dragging her into his laboratory and locking the door. She would scream and cry for help, but no one ever came; she was alone.

When the experiments were complete and he seemed pleased with the outcome, she would be released to return to her room and recover. The helper never looked her in the eyes when they spoke to her or attended to her bandages, making her life in this giant mausoleum unbearable.

Crying would have no effect on them as it often ended with a slap across her face to quiet her down. The child hated the staff as much as she hated him and vowed to one day deal with them all.

As she began to grow, so did her abilities. The staff would often walk in to see her eating dead rats or other rodents. Several quit out of disgust and fear of the child, but those who stayed were cruel, and they punished her by locking her in the tower until he returned. She would not be fed or bathed, and she received no visitors, for they feared for their safety.

Now while growing older and continuing to change internally, she noticed that her relationship with the man had become tolerable, and she was to call him father. She never had one before, so this made her happy. He would take her on walks along the cliff and in the forest. All this will be yours one day, he would tell her, and then closely watch her reaction. So many times she would catch him watching her every move and saying to her, You are coming along nicely.

She didn’t understand what that meant, but she could feel a change inside her as she grew hungrier for flesh.

One day she bit father; he rushed out of the house and was gone for days. When he returned, she was told never to bite another human again, or she would be punished.

She promised, but there was one problem with her promise—looking up at him, she asked, What is a human?

1

THE RESCUE

I

t's year 2096; the Von Schmidt Castle sat on a cliff that is 160 feet high, overlooking the Romanian Sea, three miles south of a town called Seymour, Romania, 100 miles from the nearest Romanian town.

It was originally named Schmidt Romania in 1800 after Count Vladimir Von Schmidt, the town's most prominent family. According to a local legend, the Count practiced unorthodox experiments and dark magic.

It was widely rumored that a royal woman had disappeared from the Castle in 1846, after a violent fight with Prince Christian Sidorov, a Russian Royal. They say to avoid the Prince she ran to the rooftop of the Castle in tears. Just as she opened the door and walked out onto the rooftop, there was a violent storm, then lightning struck the rooftop and she was gone.

Her body was never found, leaving servants and the town to believe that something supernatural must have had occurred.

Some fifty years later, after the Princess's disappearance, to cover up the town's reputation for practicing dark magic, the town council changed its name to Seymour. The Castle remained empty and the rumors continued for over a hundred years.

The air was thin on Seymour cliff this time of year. Today, the lighthouse was the only friend a lost soul would have out there on the sea. The sky was cloudy and dim.

Rebekka was standing on the rooftop of the Von Schmidt Castle—quietly in thought, not moving—looking out at the sea as if in a trance, watching the harsh sway of water against the rocks below.

Her image at the top of the Castle would appear like a statue to anyone looking up from below or at sea. Her Castle was six floors high with three levels below ground, and over 200,000 square feet. It was designed and built against the mountain in the early 1800s. It's impossible to enter from the rear of the Castle.

Rebekka stood quietly, listening to every sound around her, including the footsteps approaching from the west end of the Castle rooftop. They were quiet and deliberate, as if hiding a secret. Her keen awareness and sense of smell alerted her about anyone close by. Shaking her head slowly, she wondered why Jason, Commander of the guards, was always trying to sneak up on her.

It had become a game between them—one she knew that he would never win.

Without turning around, taking a deep breath, she said, Jason, why are you still here? Frustrated, she continued, It's important that you and the team go into town and check for rations and survivors.

Jason, clearly annoyed with Rebekka's insistence on searching the town for survivors, answered, You do know that it's been months since we have found anyone alive. Moving closer to her, he asked, Anyway, why do you care if there are survivors?

Slightly tilting her head, as if considering the question, she thought he was right. More survivors meant inadequate food supply in the Castle and hence lesser chance of survival, because there were already more than five hundred humans under the protection of the Castle, including her team of fifty.

Given her certain appetite, it could also mean that survivors would eventually be in danger if something began to stir deep inside her.

She looked down, thinking, I just can’t let them die without trying to save them. Turning her head and slightly tilting it, looking over her shoulder, she replied quietly with a dry, definitive tone, Jason, get moving.

After intently staring at her for a second, he turned with a frown and quickly walked away.

Jason went back to the rooftop door and down the tower staircase, wondering how she could always tell who was approaching her without looking. Shaking his head with a smile, he realized that this was part of her mystery.

He walked into the recreation room located on the lower level of the first floor of the Castle and yelled to his team, Men, its time.

Four men got up from their resting places, quickly glanced at each other, and followed Jason to the parking garage. To outsiders they appeared to be some hybrid of Indian and Eskimo. But, no one knew where they really came from, except Rebekka, Eric and Jason. They took extra care in loading up two black, custom made, fifteen-passenger seat vans; four two-door commercial vans with weapons; and medical equipment.

Then quickly climbing into the vans, they sped out of the garage down the side of mountain toward the town of Seymour.

Just six miles over the cliff was the town that appeared deserted. The vans moved slowly through its downtown streets, taking care not to attract the wrong kind of attention. The vans were quiet as the engines had been modified and were incapable of making a sound. The drivers pulled over and parked in front of Hammond Department Store. It was the largest departmental store in the middle of downtown.

This was the spot where they had found the last thirty survivors just six months ago. During the rescue, they were attacked by manlike creatures and had killed them all before pulling out of town with the survivors.

Jason got out, turned to the driver, and said, Stay in the van and keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

The driver acknowledged the orders by giving him a quick salute.

As Jason and two of his men entered the store, he could not help hoping that they would not find anyone alive. It had been two months since their last trip to town.

He thought of their encounter six months ago with the manlike creatures, and couldn’t shake the feeling that they resembled the townspeople. Their attack on his team was so calculating and vicious that Jason gave the order for the creatures to be eliminated. He remembered the creatures’ screams as they had no choice but to burn them alive. The creatures attacked his team too quickly and Jason didn’t want to take any chance of contamination. Jason could not help but feel something else was at play here, turning these people from human to creatures.

He knew that finding more survivors and taking them to the Castle without a way to test them in the fields could raise the possibility of health complications for everyone, as they could be infected or worse-starting to turn.

It was unclear how or by whom the infections started or what they had become. The creatures appeared human-like and had a grayish complexion, as if they had been living in a cave for centuries. They were not visible when Rebekka and her team arrived (two hundred years into the future).

Jason's men walked down each aisle in silence. Their faces were serious as they moved instinctively with each other. Their guns were loaded and ready to fire as they moved effortlessly through the store. Jason always noticed that during these searches, something was odd about his team. It seemed that they were looking without consciousness, without seeing.

It was believed by most of the locals (before the bombs went off, delivering infectious gases, and destroying the world) that these men were mythical Native Americans. Their presence always unnerved the town.

Their dialect was unclear, and they did not speak when spoken to by locals or socialize with anyone from town. In fact, they did not go anywhere without Jason or Eric present.

Jason and Eric would speak for them; no one understood just how they communicated. Their movements were swift and focused.

These were the characteristics that earned them the nick name ghost team by the locals.

In the back of the store in aisle three, little Lucy peeked out from behind the box of tissues, her mother grabbed her arm, pulling her back closer to her chest with her finger on her lips, motioning her to be quiet. But it caused the box to move slightly that drew the teams attention.

The team moved faster through the store, without making a sound, sensing every movement around them. They moved closer to the back of the store as the freezer doors swung open, and, to their surprise, many people came out.