Mazon Resurrection

By William M. Clark Jr.

The Last Mazon, Amazon Resurrection is a book of many journeys. It's about a single family's wish to aid human life as it protects its own line from the ravages of time's relentless need to create the future! The reader can relate to God's love of children, who move with purpose, not to change human life but to inspire human life to reimagine what it can accomplish with trusted family and respect for those who we share our human race with.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638740032

Book preview

cover.jpg

Mazon Resurrection

William M. Clark Jr.

ISBN 978-1-63874-002-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63874-004-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-63874-003-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by William M. Clark Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

The Author of this novel series thought it best to restructure this series to maximize the intensity of this and other continuations of this ongoing storyline; it is our hope that the reader will enjoy less time between sequels and will be far more likely to embrace its characters.

We all know the story of Adam and Eve, but what we didn’t comprehend was how we would spiral down through time together, still blaming each other for the loss of peace and perfect freedom! What made Eve want more only grew with the passing of time, and man followed the daughters of Eve, trying to help her come back from the damage separation was causing her… But he was doomed to fail, because she had found joy in the separation and could not see how a life of control could ever bring her the peace and joy that it brought to Adam.

When she expressed these emotions, he accepted the differences between them because he was unwilling to live his life without her. He became a slave to her needs, eventually rebelling against her over and over until they no longer needed each other… The daughters of Eve used the sons of Adam, using his need to be joined until even that was not a viable option between them.

Time allowed them to evolve, but they didn’t understand that time doesn’t allow you to rewrite. Only forward can we find our existence and modify our path in time! We call this course the future. The future has no idea of the past, thinking it acts alone, growing and expanding life in the one way it must go. It can’t stop or look back on what was; if it did, time would stop… I guess I should speak of another point in time called the past; it has no idea that it closes the door that the future leaves open… It lives in darkness, keeping to itself all that has been. To gain access to time, one must come from the future and exist in the past!

On July 8, 2343, war broke out within humans! Men and women took each other prisoner and forced their counterparts into submission…at the cost of many millions of human casualties. Children were the largest of human casualties because they often were forced to take sides against one of their parents…and fight to destroy the other. The future of humanity evolved without sight lines, into the unknown darkness of the past. Then in the year 2601, after billions of lives were lost in war, judgment came in the form of a new future timeline for humanity. On a cold and snowy winter night, the world watched as a seemingly small meteor broke through a complex array of defense weapons, weapons that were created and armed to stop random entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Humanity’s war had battle lines that prevented air assaults by anything other than transport ships. The war had taken away the costly concepts of random destruction by air, so it was a shock seeing the ball of fire stream across the southern skies, striking the horizon at the northern region of the planet.

The meteor shook the Earth as it struck! But it did little damage, as if the shock wave that followed the impact made the Earth’s core react! But only for a moment. The northern countries reported that the meteor was mostly ice… Two years after the meteor crashed to the north, a story began to spread about a girl child born of a dying female, who after the mother’s death crawled out of the womb, then, on her own, stood up!

By the year 2637, the war was seeing fewer men on the battlefields. Women all over the world were celebrating the high numbers of male decline on the front lines. Soon they were to find out that this was not because the men had slowed their crushing victories against them, but the sheer number of male children being born had dropped at an alarming rate!

The men who had female captives also noticed the high numbers of females being born to them. They could only assume it to be a trend to be ignored; in ten years’ time the male camps were filled with female slaves! They outnumbered the men three to one, and hard choices had to be made whether to set some free or use them in ways that would risk their lives and bring down their numbers; they chose the latter and began to use female captives in battle simulations and fighting games amongst themselves. Only those women who gave birth to a male child were exempt from the deadly risk of internal fray.

Many great names grew out of the decades of internal consumption, and the strongest of fighting men grew from the House of Mazon, who, despite their fighting and leadership skills, also instilled a moral standard unlike their brothers on the battlefield. But like the rest, the Mazon family dwindled until there was only one male warrior to carry on the family line… His name was Adjion Mazon, but to all who knew him, he was simply called Mazon.

In the thirty-second year of Adjion’s life, a battle with a small but very violent class of female soldiers netted a woman of great skill and strength… But she would not speak! Nor would she cry out if injured; none of the other women knew of her, and even though her fighting skills were unmatched in the woman’s army! The men placed her in the games to see who amongst them would defeat her and take her life, and many lives were lost. Men died every time they came against her, and they didn’t even know her name.

Mazon watched the games from afar because the young woman had no fear and was being treated like an animal, caged and chained because the men feared her, and he hated the fact that one female made them question their resolve against female domination. The men had named the girl Libel because they said she was liable to kill them all before she would ever give in to them. And it became a mere sporting event with Libel… The goal was no longer to see who could take her life but to see who could break her spirit and take her as his mate! It was said that strong women had boy children! So without weapons, the men fought to have her.

On the other side of humanity, the women were having a different type of problem. With the male population dropping steadily by 10 percent all over the world, using men in captivity to reproduce became increasingly difficult because they became aware of their dwindling numbers and refused to engage in propagation. They were tortured often until those willing to submit were unable to perform… To combat this problem extensive cloning began. Men were being created in labs all over the world for use in desired sexual acts of pleasure. There was another important note about the clones; they never lived past their thirtieth year of life… They became aware that as the father was, so was the child. They were often born very docile, so they could be trusted to walk freely amongst women, but no clone ever produced a male child! Women began to see them as useless tools for pleasure… They preferred fighting to capture real men who were unpredictable and whose longevity matched their own.

Our story begins with one of the male soldiers from the House of Mazon watching as a young woman fought for her life, and he began to care what happened to her… Without a word, her tall frame, slender, but modest curves amazed him; she fought with effortless motion! As if she were endowed with the ability to anticipate and redirect force… After the men in the camp had stopped trying to kill her, she no longer killed them. Mazon could see that the woman was letting her guard down more and more and was wounded from constant attacks. As she lay wounded, being bandaged by a female slave, she listened to the voices of the men outside; they were boasting to Mazon, saying he should join them in conquering this woman. Mazon lowered his head after looking around at the men and seeing the camaraderie of his brothers in battle. It had been many years since they came together like this…and he didn’t want to dampen their spirits.

Doc spoke out, I was the first to try and win this woman! And I have one leg missing, he said with a smile. Does the greatest of us shy away from the damage and the prize of taking this woman’s spirit?

And the other men in the group shouted and cheered for his participation in the games! Mazon put one hand in the air, calling for calm, and as the crowd began to grow silent, more men approached to listen to what he had to say.

When we first captured the slave girl, I too saw her stubbornness and intended to join the sport! But this woman reminded me of a woman my father spoke of often with respect. I have never seen a woman so at peace within herself… My father lived a long life and told us stories about the past, he said that long ago men fought their brothers for any reason at all, and time would repeat itself as long as we were willing to take what was not ours from those who were willing to fight for what they had found… Women have become very violent, and we have no choice but to protect ourselves. My father believed in God and gave us rules to live, fight, and die by… He wanted us to live each day as if God was in the place we stood, watching our every move… We have all noticed the lack of male children born to our generation.

The men all groaned in agreement.

If we don’t change, said Mazon, we will not recover.

So what are the choices we need to make? said one of the crowd.

What about the woman? said another voice.

I say let this be the last test of this woman! said Mazon. If any man fights and wins, let him do as he wishes with her; if she is undefeated, then she will be tattooed like the rest of our women! So she cannot return to the female camp and let her freely walk amongst us…if she chooses.

Just then a soldier passing by from a neighboring camp said, I would like to see the woman you speak of with such fear! speaking loudly from the back as he pushed his way through the crowd to the front, where Mazon was standing. My name is Dutchman.

He towered above the crowd with hair that covered him as if he was part bear! And they welcomed him, all except Mazon, who took silent but obvious offense!

The crowd walked away with the new warrior, leaving Doc alone at Mazon’s side.

Doc said to him, They like to hear you speak, but I’m afraid they like feeling their strength instead of their compassion.

Libel turned away from listening, and the old woman who tended to her wounds said, He has never took to anyone before you, speaking in a tone that only Libel could hear. But tomorrow they will test you well, so sleep and be ready. The old woman picked up the cloth she used to clean the blood away and walked toward the door and called the guard to open the door.

Libel couldn’t sleep; she lay there thinking about all that was spoken…hearing the changing of guards taking place. When the camp was at rest, the door to her cell opened, and the light of the moon streamed in to reveal no guard was present at her door. She didn’t move right away but listened to the footsteps in the blue light of the night for clues… The camp was not known to her, and she could never find her way back to her sisters in arms. In truth, amongst her sisters she was also feared, but not for her fighting skills but for how she didn’t age like the rest of them, and they said that she came from the dead… There were many guards with her at all times in the female camp because she didn’t understand the concept of fear.

Just as she was about to rise up, she heard the footsteps of the one called Mazon moving away from her position. He had opened the door to set her free. Now she was intrigued, and for the first time in her life, someone was afraid for her and not of her… She closed the door to her cell and tried to get some rest.

In the morning, they prepared for Libel’s final test! There were four men ready to fight Libel. While two were barehanded, the other two carried weapons with them. Dutchman was one. His weapon was one of shiny polished alloy that reflected the sun as a distraction in battle. It was long like a staff, and it came apart at his whim, and when he squeezed the divided helves at its grip, an eight-inch extension protruded from its tips, all in all a very useful weapon of destruction on the battlefield… The new day revealed: not all of the hairiness about this man Dutchman was his own! He had made a colorful cascade of women’s hair to drape over himself on cold nights, hair tied with string at the top and layered on top of each other like shingles on a rooftop. You could see under all his layers of hairs. He was a very powerful man.

Mazon was relieved that he had set the girl free and wouldn’t have to watch her struggle this day…but to his surprise, they brought her out in chains. The guard found the cell door unlocked, and he whispered this to Mazon as they were bringing her out.

The men are seeing this man as their champion, Doc said as he leaned to rest his body next to Mazon, she looks well rested today, looking at the surprise in the face of Mazon. I guess you better go save her from the big, bad man if you want to lay claim to her! I’ll keep your secret. Doc got up and made his way to the center of the arena, speaking to the crowd, saying, We have a new warrior to save us from the big, bad female, said in sarcastic jest! Look at this woman, said Doc. She cleans herself and even combs her long black hair before she forces us to bleed for her amusement… We want to see this one live long enough to be broken and tamed… We need men who believe they can do more than kill! We need a conqueror. Let us stick to our decision to break her, and let us put forward our best… Is there anyone else willing to fight this woman for the sake of male domination?

Mazon stepped into the crowd, and a cheer rang out as Mazon took off his weapons and shield, dropping them at his feet, and the others followed. They drew lots to be first to win her, with Dutchman being last! The first two men were quickly immobilized, but one of the survivors of an early battle with Libel, named Chomo, took his revenge using martial arts. In their first fight he was angry and wanted a fast kill…but he was toying with the thought of having this one to make his slave. He was known to be very violent to the women he captured, killing many of them in fits of rage! He fought dirty, and just as Libel began to show signs of defeat, her fighting style changed, and she began to fight different… You could almost see her fists tighten. She began to use things to jump from to make every blow sound like it broke his bones, then as a final move, she jumped up, kicking him with the left knee just under his head, using the other leg to pin him around his neck, then thrusting backward, flipping him and breaking his neck.

There was silence as Libel stood to her feet. For Mazon it was clear that he would have to fight hard enough to really damage Libel, and if he didn’t win her defeat, Dutchman would win her or kill her. While Mazon was thinking how to save the woman, Dutchman entered the arena, being angry at the sight of Libel’s silent composure. As Dutchman lunged himself at Libel, Mazon intervened, clutching him from behind until they both fell to the ground.

I am next in line to fight, said Mazon.

That only made Dutchman fight against his brothers who tried to calm him…but they were not able to control him!

As the crowd pushed him back, he fell next to his weapon, and he picked up the staff that he carried with him for battle! He pointed it toward Mazon, rushing him! Without his weapon, Mazon backed himself into the arena, where a surprising thing happened! Libel put her hand out and pulled Mazon safely behind her. And with a look that she had not expressed in other events, she moved to engage Dutchman; she slowly moved down to the ground to put dust over her hands, never taking her eyes off Dutchman. She felt a surge and jolted slightly. When she stood to her feet, her chains fell away. The crowd drew back at the sight of her freedom, and Mazon, seeing her willingness to protect him, went for his own weapons to use in her defense, but she glanced in his direction, and as their eyes met she was able to express to him not to worry… It was like they could communicate without words. Dutchman was circling her position, yelling and cursing at her, and he separated his staff and had a piece of it in both hands. The clouds overhead blocked out the sun, making the ends of Dutchman’s weapon less refractive. He swung at her with his right hand, and that told her he was a right-handed fighter. As his swing missed the mark, he held it in front of her body while he moved to strike her with the other edge. As she was about to compensate for the left-handed approach, the right-handed edge remained in front of her. It made a sound that released another blade! Leaning back just in time to avoid the protruding blade, she kicked his right hand at the base of the weapon, forcing him to release his grasp, sending it up and over Libel’s head and landing on the ground behind her. She continued in a backflip motion that allowed her to avoid the second blow.

Dutchman put the remaining weapon in his right hand and moved closer and closer to her as if to grab her with his considerable strength…but being right-handed, it was the weaker of the two limbs that he attempted to grasp her with. She reached out and grabbed him at the wrist, breaking it! Keeping herself close to his left side, she positioned herself under his left shoulder…dislocating the shoulder. Dutchman was unable to strike her without doing damage to himself with the weapon in his right hand… After breaking his ribs on the left side, she shifted her weight, rotating around to grab him by the neck, but he anticipated this maneuver, dropping the weapon in his right hand to free himself. And as Libel heard the weapon hit the ground, she reached down between his massive calves and took hold of the weapon, pulling it upward between his legs until it stopped…and then pulling the blade back toward her, removing his genitalia. He fell to his knees and leaned forward on his right hand, and Libel grabbed the weapon’s base firmly, extending the blade, and plunged him through the heart! And as she released the knife, there was a complete silence as the sound of the weapon’s blade retracting from inside him could be heard as he fell dead to the ground.

In less than eight minutes, the man was dead!

Mazon approached Libel slowly and threw down his weapons, saying to her, Now I see you! It was our own violence that you matched to protect yourself… When we no longer wanted to kill you, you didn’t use deadly force.

She looked at him with the same peaceful eyes as if she were looking for something in him.

They brought new chains to bind her with, and he said, No, this one is mine, and I will take responsibility for her…

He reached out his hand, but she would not take it. As he walked backward toward his place in the compound, she followed. When he reached the door of his cell, she walked in slowly and put her hand on his chest as if to say stay outside, and he remained at the entrance, watching her as she looked at his possessions. She stopped at each photo, picking them up and putting them down.

She came to a book that looked as if it was burned in a fire, and as she picked it up, he spoke and said, That is called a Bible. My father gave it to me before he died. It tells the story of a people God loved many years before our time…

Mazon didn’t know if she could comprehend or understand from the sound of his voice what he was trying to say, so he let her look for herself. She opened the fragile-looking book to find the pages of the book unburned, and she sat down slowly as if she could read and understand… She passed through the pages as if to skim through it and set it down near where she picked it up.

As soon as she had done so, Mazon, who had remained at the threshold of his room, slowly eased his way in with her! Always giving her the space she seemed to need… He wanted to offer her some fruit. Sensing it would encroach on her space, he grabbed two of the best pieces and tossed one of them over his head in her direction and glanced over his left shoulder to see her reaction. He smiled as she caught it without taking her eyes off the room as she sat back down and began to eat it. The old woman who had been tending to her was ordered to come dress her wounds. Doc wanted to see what was going on inside, and since the old woman was a part of his house, he could get a report on the situation… He was a little nosy at times, but this time he had cause to be so.

The door was open, and as customary for forced laborers, they must wait at the door to be asked to enter. She stood there in the heat of the sun. Mazon said nothing, so Libel got up and walked over to her and kissed her on both sides of her face and walked out of his house and toward the cell, where the woman usually tended her wounds, but another fighter had already been placed there. Mazon stood in the door of his house and compelled them to come back with his hands, and as they did, he took the washbasin the woman had and the rags and followed Libel as she reentered the house and told the woman she could leave them. The door remained open to instill a sense of freedom in the house. As Libel sat down where she had before, Mazon pulled a string near the door as he entered, and a piece of cloth fell down in front of the opened door, shading the room from the sun. The wind moved the cloth about…redirecting shade and air in a most pleasing manner.

Libel took a moment to remember the leaves blowing about outside, the sound of the compound resting from the noise and chaos of the day. The animals and birds were nesting, and their sounds filled her mind with peace. Her eyes closed just for a second, but far in the distance, war could always be heard… She opened her eyes to see Mazon kneel at her feet with the water and other things that he took from the old woman’s hands, and as he dipped the cloth in the solution, she stood and disrobed. As her clothes fell to the floor, Mazon looked up to see her true form. He filled his eyes and then slowly rose and covered her with a nearby cloth, draping it over the parts of her body that were causing stimulation… It was good that the cloth was large… He picked up the rag and began to wipe the dried blood from her face and was happy that the day’s fighting didn’t do as much damage as he thought. The blood was mostly that of the other fighters.

Libel didn’t know what to make of the situation…never having a man this close to her without hate in his heart and contempt in his eyes. She stood there as Mazon cleaned the blood from her face, and as he pulled back her hair, his fingers began to rake softly and linger in her long black hair, and then he stopped abruptly and walked out of the room and out of the house.

He saw Doc and walked over to him, saying, Let us go bury our dead! They have no one to mourn them but us… He agreed, and they did so.

A guard was placed to watch his house and report any movements of the woman warrior… Inside the House of Mazon, Libel cleaned herself and combed her hair because she intended to give in to Mazon in the way that women she knew gave themselves to the men they were attracted to… But when he returned to his house, he didn’t have the same look in his eyes. The desire was lost, and he was distant, and his mood constantly changed like the ebb and flow of the sea.

In the next two years, they became close, and a child was born to the House of Mazon. Libel bore a son! Many years had passed since the birth of a male child to any female captives, and the word spread amongst all the surrounding settlements. They came to see the male child, and word even spread to the women’s military forces…

All over the world, the births of male children had come to a devastating end. The war was going to end the human race if they couldn’t come to some kind of agreement…and since the male population had many slaves and no need to clone, it would have to be the female population to strike out and try to end the war. It was agreed all over the world that all steps to end the war must start immediately. Some of the female forces who heard about the birth of the male child decided to take control of the compound where the child was born and take mother, father, and child in custody for study and observation…

Until now the female forces didn’t send troops so far east from their base because men would gather and cut them down, trapping them behind their lines, but this bold offensive was agreed on because with the declining male numbers it was thought to be less likely to fail. As the female forces hit the outer perimeter of the male settlements, taking camp after camp, killing anyone who resisted…word came to the House of Mazon that the women were looking for a male child! They wanted to take the child and were gaining ground and calling for more and more troops to reinforce their losses.

We are ready to fight this battle for the child, but maybe you and the mother should move further into the hill country with him, so we can weaken their numbers and force them to give up their search!

Libel was holding the child, seeming to tune out the words that were being spoken. The child was starting to cry, so she held him firmly. Her hair fell onto the child, and he stopped crying. Tears began to silently fall onto the baby’s face and hands as he played with her hair… The other men in the room had not seen such love for a boy child from a female. When the men saw this, their fighting spirits grew, and they were determined to see them all safely escorted away from the fighting…but Libel knew the women were too strong for the men! She wiped the tears from her face. She could hear the sound of approaching battle. Mazon was sure it would be best if she took the boy and went with the escorts east into higher and safer ground… He knew she could defend him no matter what they encountered on the way, of that he was sure.

Mazon stood close to mother and child, and he kissed them both and said, Hurry! Take the child, and never let him forget he was loved.

We must go! The fighting is almost upon us! said the men that were to escort them, pulling them to the other exit!

But Libel stopped and wiped the tears from her eyes once more and took her hair out of the child’s little fingers and gave the child to his father, kissing her son one last time and covering him once more, making sure he was warm. Libel beckoned Mazon to take the child. The other men helped Mazon to understand, saying one of them had to distract the approaching army if the others were to have a chance to be free.

Libel looked into Mazon’s eyes once more and turned her back to them.

The men said to him, She wants you to take the boy to safety.

Let’s go, or we may all die where we stand! said Doc.

There were seven men in the room besides Mazon. Libel with her back to them knelt on one knee, placing her hands behind her with her palms up, and began to speak! They had never heard a sound come from her lips, so for a moment they watched to see what she was doing. The words that Libel spoke were foreign to their ears, but as she spoke them, lightning began to strike the ground outside and then come up from the ground inside the room, hitting her hands. The light was blinding, and then it stopped, and as their eyes adjusted, they could see the addition of bracelets on both of her wrists. They glowed with a blue light that dissipated in just a moment.

Libel looked over her right shoulder with the rest of her still facing the coming battle, to see the men taking them both out to safety, and walked out to meet the armed forces that were entering the compound. Behind them she could see the legions of women soldiers killing as they advanced. She began aiding the male soldiers, defending the compound, and the women took no mercy, having seen the female slaves fighting with the men! The women took the camp and focused all their attention on Libel, who had killed them by the hundreds… The noise of war in the camp haunted the men as they took to higher ground! The men rallied around the child and his father as they made their way to safety. Mazon and some of the others wanted to go back to the fighting. They could see the women were not advancing, but as the wounded made their way up from the fighting, they told the story of Libel’s relentless destruction of the women warriors’ army… It was not to be believed unless it was seen! They could see the damage from afar… Many who left the fighting behind them wanted to go back to aid the fight! But the last of the refugees reported the camps in the wooded glen below to be lost! And the female quest to capture slaves had been given up! Many lives were lost, and they set fire to all the remaining structures, making a return to the past a work of complete restoration. Even though he knew Libel to be lost to him, he and some others went back to the compound. Leaving his young son with the refugees who pledged their lives to keep the boy safe, Mazon went down to find his female… When he got to the camp, the amount of broken women lying dead was so great that he couldn’t help stepping on them as he walked. The men who stayed to fight were all dead in one contained area, but there was no sign of Libel. He began to wonder whether he would even recognize her body from all the dead women strewn about in every direction. He took a burning piece of tree and began to look for signs of the woman he loved! As he passed the fire’s light in front of him on the road, the soldiers looked about the compound, which was lined with the dead. Mazon wanted to call out for Libel but knew, even if she were alive, she wouldn’t speak.

Mazon knew his son needed him and that would be the best way to honor Libel’s memory, so he turned back to the east. He could see the other men making their way out from amongst the destruction, so he made his way toward them. His house was burning, and he knew none of his past could be saved, only his future…from then on. He promised himself to never look back.

As he made his way back over the corpses, there was movement near a burning tree to his right! He rushed over to the spot, hoping with all his heart to find Libel so he could say to her all that he left unsaid, but as he drew near, the light from his torch revealed a warrior of the women’s military bleeding out. She had both arms and her left leg severed, and her body was resting on her severed parts as if she had been placed there… She began to laugh at the sight of him looking for his life in the dark, and he pulled out his weapon to take her life.

With her dying breath, she said, You are looking for the one whom you sent out to destroy us! I killed her before she took my limbs.

And Mazon wondered how Libel could take her limbs after this woman supposedly killed her.

Poison took her life, for she was too strong for us… I lived to see her fall, and my sisters took her away as a prize when she fell, she said.

With that, Mazon ran the woman through and lit her on fire with his torch. Mazon turned and walked away from the fiery death sparked by his anger and loss, thinking the past had caught up with him and a new future with his son was called for… Dropping his torch, he moved quickly through the night’s darkness to find his son!

As Mazon came to the place where he left his son with the men, he found them all standing away from the child, whom they had put at a distance, alone by the warmth of the fire. He questioned the men, and they began to tell him the events that took place almost the moment that Mazon walked away from them, saying the ground shook heavily around the boy, until they had to move away from him! Then lightning came up from the ground, covering the boy in light for a moment, and one of the survivors who saw Libel fighting the women warriors told them that Libel also glowed in battle… When she tired from the fight, she would light up and be strengthened. The man speaking was a lookout who was stationed in a tree above the camp and could see the entire battle from the moment Libel stepped out of the House of Mazon. The soldier speaking had fear in his eyes as he told what he saw. They were so afraid of the child that they wanted to take the life of the child Libel had given birth to, but because they loved and respected Mazon as their leader, they could not strike down his son! But after seeing and hearing the fear in the eyes of the men, he decided it was wise to take his son and live on their own… So while the camp rested from all the fighting and fears of the day, he and his son walked away. Moving further east, Mazon found more and more camps that were not so divided…camps that reminded him of their own, as they became when Libel was alive…and when he and his son came across a tribe of men and women who were not so close to the frontlines of humanity’s war, he saw the freedom and love and how the women welcomed them and took care of them without fear! He decided to stay and raise his son there. He told the people of the tribe that the boy’s mother had died at childbirth and he had not even named the child… They encouraged him to stay, and Mazon named his son Taneeous, Taneeous Mazon.

As time moved forward, little Taneeous grew into a very handsome young boy, and even though his father discouraged speaking about their past, the topic of his mother often came up. Was she pretty? Was she strong? Did she love him? But his father just said yes or no to all little Taneeous’s questions, but when Taneeous was about fifteen years old he began to wonder why he didn’t grow older like the other children that he grew up with! Why did he still have the look of a ten-year-old child? It concerned Taneeous so much that his father was compelled to answer, just to stop him from pressing others for the information he sought. It was starting to make others wonder as well…

One day Taneeous didn’t come back with the group of boys he ran with! And when questioned, the boys said he was told he couldn’t play with them because he was too young! That he was sad and didn’t cry or anything, he just went back toward the camp! They asked Mazon if they could help look for little Taneeous…

Mazon answered with a smile, No, I know where he is! looking north to the peak of the mountains. Mazon walked up to the place they often went to talk together. It had a stream leading down to the camp, and as Mazon approached, he saw his son sitting in the middle of a rocky little brook where the water’s flow seemed to wash his back.

There was a small tree stump flowing downstream toward him, and as Mazon was just about to warn him, Taneeous spoke, saying, I know about the tree, holding his hand above the water flowing just behind him.

A spark came from his hand, and the direction of the tree changed, and as it did, Mazon looked around to see if anyone saw what Taneeous had done with his hand. Seeing that no one saw him, he sat in the water next to his son and said, How did you know I was there?

He answered, I could feel your steps in the flow of the stream. Each step made the water shake. I like water, said Taneeous.

Do you hear other things and other people’s footsteps, or is it just me you hear in the water?

He answered, Everyone! And everything for miles!

Taneeous was using his hands to make ripples in the stream as the water curved around him and joined together in front of him… He didn’t look up but was pretending not to feel anything emotional. His father knew he was feeling like he would never be like his friends and was wondering what he would be in days to come.

So he asked him, Are you upset about the others rejecting you because of your size?

I was at first, he said, but it’s true, I am too small to do what they do… But they would be afraid to see me as you see me, wouldn’t they?

Yes, I think they would be very afraid. With his head down and his little fingers playing in the relentless flow of the stream, Taneeous asked once more about his mother!

His father, having faith in his abilities, asked him, Is there anyone near us who could overhear us?

Taneeous looked up at his father with anticipation, shifting himself away from his father while turning toward him so he could see his father’s face as he spoke. No, Father, we are alone.

Mazon said to his son, What I am about to say to you is all that I know about your mother, and it must not be repeated to anyone. You must give your word that this stays between us, and I will never repeat it or answer any other questions on the subject! So listen closely!

Taneeous answered, I understand. I give my word.

Mazon looked up at the sky as he began to remember aloud, A day just like this day, when a battle took place almost twenty years ago, on that day he said there was word of a transport that the women’s army was scheduled to make! And because we were in need of supplies, we tracked the movements of their ships until we could see how many soldiers were delegated to accompany this transport. A supply transport always had five to eight women ride along to protect the shipment! This had twice that many, so we struck the ship as it was about to leave for its destination, and after doing so, we found nothing at all onboard! We struck down all the women who fought us except your mother, who killed three of our men and seemed to give up the fighting as soon as I entered the cargo bay and saw it was empty! My first thought was of it all being a trap, that the women’s army set up to catch us! But there were no new soldiers coming toward our position, so we bound the women and took them to our campsite. Women were very organized back then and not so concerned with protocol, they did what they wanted, and so did we!

So did Mother fight you when you took the other women? said young Taneeous.

Mazon shook his head no, but his pause seemed like he was remembering a time that he could not put into words…

Sensing this, Taneeous said, Tell all of it, Father! I want to know it all!

So Mazon took a deep breath and began to tell the past once more, saying, "Your mother got to our camp and was forced to fight for the right to live amongst the men! Because the camp was getting too full of female slaves, we began to use them for fighting challenges. I didn’t approve of these acts of aggression initially! But I went along with my brothers… Soon all the focus was on your mother! She killed many a man in the arena. She healed fast and each day came out to fight without a bit of fear on her face or in her manner of fighting. For a time she killed all who fought her, and as the men began to fear her, secretly the killing stopped, and she began to break them in ways that rendered their ability to fight in battle less deadly. Your mother was not as beautiful as some of the other captives in our camp, but she was mysterious, and somehow I began to feel for her! Silently, internally, I began to cheer for her continued success.

One day a man from another camp came to us and challenged the men to kill this woman… He inspired the men with great words of battles fought…until they had forgotten their fear and wanted her dead! The men had almost given up Libel as a means of sport fighting, but the big man from the south was very angry, and I was afraid for your mother because she had stopped killing, and this new man would be trying to quickly and violently take her life…and a very good friend who had lost his leg in battle with your mother reminded me that the only way to stop your mother from fighting that day was to take her as my wife. He saw my heart was for her, so I entered the tournament reluctantly because I knew that I would have to hurt her to win her life and take her for my own. Because of pride, I could not break tradition, so Doc rallied the men around me, and I entered. I waited for the order of fighting to be called out. It was always randomly chosen, but inside I was praying that my turn came before the angry man! He came last, and with that I went back to my shelter and knelt down privately and asked Almighty God to save me so I could save her! I had pretended to reject women because of the war, but I wanted more than a slave to have children with. I wanted to find an equal to fight for our family above all else, and even though your mother never said a word until the night she died, I somehow knew that she was what I should be fighting for… By the time I came out, the first man lay dead on the ground. I ran out because the crowd let out a shocking sigh, and I thought I had missed my chance to save the woman! When I saw her, I was relieved to see that she was still alive and doing well, but the angry man was eager to get his hands on her, growing madder by the moment.

What did the angry man look like? said Taneeous.

"He stood about seven feet tall, and he was covered in hair! Not just on his head and face, but his body was covered as well. He came at the darkest time of night, so I really didn’t get a good look at him until the next day! The day of the tournament, then I could see that the hair on his body was made of the hair he took off dead women he had killed… He somehow made a warm coat from the women warriors he killed in battle, and when he took it off, it revealed a collection of biceps and other muscles from head to foot that made me sorry for anyone who had to withstand him. He had many wounds from past conflicts…but I thought if I could fight well and win Libel, he would not get his chance to do harm.

Before I knew it, my turn was next. They were cleaning away the blood and broken body, and as always your mother prepared herself for the next fight, showing no fear at all! Which somehow enraged the angry man, and he ran toward the arena out of turn to kill her! I grabbed him, and we fell to the ground. The crowd pushed him back until he picked up his weapon, and even though he agreed to fight with his hands…when he picked his weapon up, the crowd became calm and moved aside to let him fight! I went and armed myself, determined to come between them, but your mother seemed to know my intent and waved me off as if to say, ‘Stay back,’ and in a few moves, the angry man was dead! He was the angriest man I had ever seen, and she did things that day I had never seen her do! She was stronger than he, but only while he raged against her! And it was clear to me that she was a match for all aggression that confronted her. It was not that she was fearless, she was just peaceful, she was what I had longed for in a woman, and as I stepped over the angry man’s body toward her, I dropped my weapon and freed her! I claimed her as mine, and the people seeing her free and loose agreed! After all, they wanted the angry man dead too, Mazon said with a smile, looking down at his son, who was smiling the whole time.

Did the men still fight with my mother? asked Taneeous.

No, said Mazon, there was peace in our camp. She was my wife, and we grew to understand each other. Even though I loved your mother, I never really said ‘I love you’ to her, because I would have had to explain the whole concept of love. I think she loved me, but I will never know for sure, but she loved you, my son, of that I am sure. The stories about her last battle was a testament to family, freedom, and the love she had for her male child!

Me! said Taneeous.

Yes, you! I had never seen your mother cry until the day she had to leave you! And I know that she expected me to love you and teach you all that I knew! Because she chose me while I was choosing her! Until that night she had never shown emotion. While others would have turned away from a boy child, I could see that she was trusting me with your life, and it was hard not to stay and fight at her side! But even harder to let you die or become a slave… I can’t say what happens to men when they are the property of what other women call ‘the sisterhood of women,’ but your mother must have known and wanted you to live free. She knew I would tell you about her someday and you would know she loved you. Even though I heard her speak on her last day, I don’t think she could speak like we speak to each other.

Taneeous looked up at his father’s eyes to see him for the first time cry tears, aware that his emotions were showing. Mazon put his hands in the stream and tossed water into his face and hair.

As he did, Taneeous interrupted his father, saying, The guys are coming.

Mazon said before they got too close, Tell no one about your mother! They may be still looking for you. There is much to tell.

And after saying that, they were seen together in the stream. As the boys reached them, they began to apologize for their earlier exclusions, saying, It was no fun without you, Taneeous…

They told Mazon that Newman was looking for him at the camp, so they all made their way down to the camp. Mazon lagged behind the young boys to let them talk and play around like young people did…

The sun was starting to set, and the sky looked as if it was going to rain. It had been a long time between rainstorms, and what little foliage that they managed to maintain around the compound was in need of water. Mazon was starting to lag even further behind… He found himself thinking more and more about Libel, how everything seemed new to her yet she knew what most things were! And then he noticed a buildup of energy above the boys’ location… The boys were out of sight completely.

As he came to the thick brush that grew around the camp, lightning began to strike the ground violently! The boys cried out all at once, and Mazon hurried to them, falling several times as he entered the space of the last lightning strike. There was a strange blue light around the young men that seemed to come from the palm of Taneeous… That blue light held everything within it motionless like a big blue bubble that locked them in time…

Mazon came up behind Taneeous, filled with fear and amazement! He reached out to touch his son on the shoulder, and as he did the blue light collapsed and trees fell. Fire came down from above the tree line, catching the surroundings ablaze. Both Taneeous and Mazon rushed to help the boys that were trapped and hurt, but two of the six boys were lost in the fire, and one was in shock. He had his eyes on Taneeous the whole time and must have seen Taneeous reacting to the lightning strikes… By the time they had pulled the boys away from danger, other people from the camp were responding to the boys’ outcry…rushing to the fire that they saw. One of them was Newman, who, in the panic of losing Poe and Loomis, forgot all about speaking to Mazon… The two that were lost were his sons, and he stood there looking into the fire, where his two boys lay dead.

While the others concentrated on the living, Mazon looked over to see Newman walking into the fire! He called out, but it was too late! Without a scream or a sound, he fell next to his sons and put his arms out, touching them both! The crying stopped, and the pain the others were feeling didn’t seem as bad. They were alive, and the family of friends lost in this traumatic experience would have a lasting effect on them all!

They helped each other down to camp. When Taneeous and Mazon entered the infirmary, there lay Mazon’s old friend Doc. Doc had come in looking for Mazon and the boy to tell them that the women were still looking for the boy. Their eyes met in secret, and when it was clear that no one could hear them, Doc told what he came to say to Mazon.

Doc asked about the boy child, saying, He must be a young man by now!

Mazon looked over to his son and, with a slight head movement, beckoned him to come closer…

Doc took one look at the boy and said, This can’t be the one you left us with. Is this your second son?

This is he, said Mazon.

Doc was dying and told them both that they should keep moving. When I came here, said Doc, Dr. Newman heard me ask about you in the camp… He wanted to know more than I was willing to say…go tonight! said Doc. They are looking for an older-looking boy, and the look of this boy should throw them off you! But things are crazy out there, the world has no males being born at all, I heard them say! They may take him from you just for cloning. They don’t fight us anymore, they sneak into camp and take our young men and boys. They are close behind me in the southern and western regions. Needing rest, Doc fell asleep.

That very night, Taneeous and his father snuck out of camp, both saddened by the day’s events but willing to start new. Looking at his son as they walked away from all he had known, he looked different today. He became a man in many ways, and his father was still thinking about the strange light that came from the boy! They both forgot that one of the boys might have seen all that Taneeous did that day… Little did anyone know, the women who had taken Libel’s life had mourned her passing and were spending years of study devoted to the armor she had acquired during battle. She was shielded almost from head to foot! But they couldn’t penetrate her defenses even though she was dead! They worshipped her as the seer of things to come. She was fighting for her son because she knew men would soon be extinct… To them she was the greatest of all soldiers, and women came from all over the world to see her and to try to remove her armor! Until the day came when there was much fighting over her remains. Not one piece of this woman could be extracted except her blood, which exposed a form of metallic cell structure in her bloodstream, yet after all the years that passed, she had not lost her skin color! Her body had not decayed! Her form was just as it was the day she died!

There was a story that began to spread about the warrior returning to fight with her son against them, and by all accounts this was not at all outside the realm of possibility! A decree was made to lay the warrior female to rest and to leave her with her armor intact! Somewhere unknown and inaccessible for all time… The world probed for such a place, and far to the north somewhere in the Russian territories, it was said that long ago, a meteor struck Russia and had since changed the area around it year after year. People had died trying to explore it. It was thought that if they put the body somewhere in that region, the changing environment would make the burial chamber completely off-limits to biological life. This was to be a secret undertaking of very few countries and soldiers, that anyone who knew too much about the burial mission should be eliminated…

In one of the favored pleasure cities of the women’s army, the united heads of three countries met to discuss the proposed plan to lay the woman warrior to rest… Nothing was to be recorded in any way, said the female leader of the United States named Roshell. The women of the United States took the lead in many trends and statutes that were then adopted by others all over the world… One such trend was the elimination of the second name. Two names meant that you were bound to another and carried their name as well as your own… Since the woman warrior fought and died in the United States, they felt they had the right to choose how and where the woman warrior should be laid to rest, but in keeping with the rest of the world’s needs, it was an open-ended endeavor that put all who knew of it at mortal risk.

Roshell chose many sites, all with very deadly terrain. This was meant to deceive those who were on the project. But only she knew which had been chosen because it was Roshell’s idea to lay the warrior woman to rest permanently. She was the only one who had all the details and could take the lives of any other person who knew too much! She was truly up to the task; she was a woman who