The Barkuu Part I: The Culling

By Lauren Wright

A mysterious cloud in space envelopes the planet. Upon dissipation, everyone emerges from their shelters to find civilization wrecked and the world cleansed. Like the industrious spider, humankind rebuilds; until further events reduce their numbers across the globe. With society in tatters, and all advantages stripped from them, how will humanit

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lauren Wright
• Release date: Dec 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798218171773

Book preview

CONTENTS

Forethought

~ one ~

SIGHT

~ two ~

EVO

~ three ~

DISCOVERY

~ four ~

KELLY AND MIKA

~ five ~

ONYANA

~ six ~

PIZZA NIGHT

~ seven ~

TWO MONTHS TO IMPACT

~ eight ~

IMPACT DAY

~ nine ~

ONYANA IMPACT

~ ten ~

POST IMPACT

~ eleven ~

NEW BEGINNINGS

~ twelve ~

THE WEDDING

~ thirteen ~

THE MESSAGE

~ fourteen ~

MOVING DAY

~ fifteen ~

MOVING DAY PART II

~ sixteen ~

MOVING DAY PART III

~ seventeen ~

MOVING DAY PART IV

~ eighteen ~

MOVING DAY PART V

THE BARKUU PART II: DAWN OF A SPECIES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Copyright © 2022 by Lauren Wright

ISBN: 979-8-21817-177-3 (e book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious.

Any similarity to a real person, even in name, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Cover Art by Mango

First Printing, 2022

FORETHOUGHT

One should only ever find entertainment and inspiration, from a hypothetical alternate universe; for it is our ability to imagine, that gives us foresight.

Ponder

All of life is progression; the very moment life ceases to thrive, it begins to decay.

~ One ~

SIGHT

3:40 a.m. Winter 2036

Parkev sat on the fountain fully cloaked and watched the people scurry out of the lobby. A man came, pushing his way through the crowd in a hurry to reach the bus. Parkev smiled under his mask and fired a thin stream of molecules at the man's foot. The molecules quickly chained together, forming a hairlike line so thin it was nearly invisible.

The line touched the man's foot as he ran and polarized to him. As the molecules bonded to him, Parkev yanked on the tether. The man's foot jerked back fast and as he tried to run; he slammed face-first into the Spanish decor tile that spanned the foyer of the hotel. The man looked up confused, blood from his nose already running down his mouth.

As bystanders stopped to view the spectacle, Parkev started reeling the man back toward him.

The sight was odd; the man hadn't tripped but had still smacked the ground with deafening force. Parkev continued pulling the tether, and the man scooched backward. People jumped back, startled, and then the man started screaming. As he jerked the man back toward the fountain a few feet at a time, Parkev stood bold and uncamouflaged.

When the people recognized the strange creature standing on the fountain, they screamed and scattered. Parkev jerked the man to the left and then around his head. The man's head hit the fountain as he swung around, breaking his neck. His dead body continued to swing around the creature's head before sending him through the windows above the front door. The body exploded through the windows and hit the bus with such force it rocked back and forth. Finally, the lifeless body fell to the ground.

People were panicking and clearing the lobby as quickly as possible. Parkev engaged a device that formed into a ragged spear and launched it at a woman running to the side exit. The force swept her off her feet, impaling her in the door and blocking any escape. As people attempted to retreat from the door, Parkev vaulted over to them.

He positioned himself to land on a young man and woman holding hands. He engaged the booster gloves, covering his hands and feet. The force slammed them both into the ground and obliterated their bodies. The people around them were sent sprawling in all directions, covered in the remains of the couple.

In one smooth motion, Parkev spun around, a cannon forming on his arm, he fired a concentrated beam at a man trying to clear debris from the door. As the man pulled on the bags, the beam carried past him, disintegrating his arms and left shoulder. No longer attached to the debris, the man flew backward under his own force, hitting the ground, and rolled onto his face. He lay there screaming, unable to roll over, as freshly cauterized wounds had replaced his arms and shoulder.

Parkev stood and observed his work. A few people were trying to recover, he looked at them and snorted. He called his spear and it transformed from a gnarly shaft with jagged protrusions, to a smooth ball; he caught it and placed it on his abdomen.

An overlay to his vision appeared and he looked around. Most of the lobby had been vacated, but there, crouched behind the counter, a few patrons remained, hiding like roaches.

Amused by his victims' attempts to hide, he held out his hand in a cup, and a small ball of light began forming. A few seconds later, he opened his hand and it shot toward them. He vaulted backward through the busted windows over the entrance, transitioned to a backflip, and landed on a white bus. As soon as he touched down, he sprang off the bus, pushing in a large section of the roof. As he vaulted from the bus, a massive explosion blew out the remaining windows in the hotel, rocked the buses, and cracked the reinforced windows.

There was chaos in the streets, people escaping in any way they could manage. Vehicles chalked the streets, honking and trying to clear the area. The message had been delivered; it was time to thin the herd.

Parkev landed in front of a fleeing Ford F150 Crew Cab and stood gracefully. The truck gunned toward him. Parkev knelt and an energy field exploded in front of him, disintegrating the front of the truck. The momentum of the truck and the force of the blast sent the vehicle tumbling over his head, the contents of the bed sailing. As the truck came crashing down, so did a shower of getaway bags, filled with essential items, weapons, and water.

Parkev stood, observing the carnage, *TINK... TINK, TINK, TINK, TINK*. Shots rang off his armor from multiple weapons. Parkev turned around unphased, and the fire picked up. *TINK, TINK, TINK, TINK*.

Parkev held out his hands, fingers out and slightly curled in. A shield of energy formed, visible as bright blue light. The bullets from five shooters began collecting in the field, instantaneously appearing as though they had been transported.

In a moment, the firing stopped. Parkev concentrated on the field and the bullets began to rotate and glow. The copper sheathing around the tungsten carbide round began to liquefy, then vaporize as the tungsten carbide reached five thousand degrees, glowing white hot. A blast of energy returned the projectiles to their senders at a far greater speed. The rounds burned holes through the shooter's cover of cement and vehicles. All but one light was immediately extinguished. The overlay dissipated and Parkev walked over to examine the source of the light squirming on the ground.

The shot had barely missed the woman's heart and created a wound in her right lung. She lay there wheezing and terrified as Parkev walked up to her. He approached her feet and knelt, then slapped her foot. Horrified and confused by the action, she tried to use her arms and legs to push herself away. Excruciating pain shot through her when she tried to use her right arm and she let out a scream of agony, then dropped to the ground sobbing. He grabbed the foot he had just slapped by the toes and shook it gently. She jerked her foot away and kicked at him, then again screamed out in pain.

She tried in desperation to push herself away, lifting herself to her elbows and pushing away with her feet. She made it only a foot before collapsing back to the ground with a defeated scream and frustrated tears.

Parkev stood gracefully and took a step, covering the same ground. He knelt again and grabbed her foot, shaking it a little harder this time. She screamed and kicked, the terror temporarily overcoming the pain. When she landed a foot on his face, he immediately paused, then stood.

Ha, Ha, Ha, the laugh was deep and disturbing. Your fight is strong, vermin, the words were equally as deep, but spoken perfectly.

Tell me, rat, what is it one does with a failure? What does one do with a diseeaase? He elongated the word.

What does one do with rotting pestilence? His voice was thick with disgust as he rolled out the last words.

You're the disease! She screamed back.

Parkev moved quickly, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her off the ground in one swift motion.

Noooo, he spoke slowly, getting deeper, we are the cuuuurrrrree.

She shielded her face in terror as Parkev moved to kill her.

Onnie! Wake up, sweetie, wake up! It's just a dream, it's just another nightmare.

When Onnie awoke, her parents were both there, fear and pain for their child in their eyes. "It's ok baby, you're safe, we're here, it's just a dream. Everything is going to be ok, *shhhh* we're here for you."

~ Two ~

EVO

12:05 a.m. Mid-Summer, 2044

Crap. Holy crap. He's going to kill me. He's going to kill me and bury me right here in this forest. It's so dark that no one would see. The ground is soft; you could easily dig a hole in just a few minutes, which is nice because he'd probably make me do it.

I can picture it now: Why, no, Officer, I haven't seen him. He probably ran away to Hollywood. That would make sense – that’s what Emma Dinkle did.

One day, she disappeared with her boyfriend, seemingly to never be heard from again. Until late one night, she showed up on a pantyhose commercial. She had changed her name to Emma Waters. I guess it has a certain flow to it.

Okay, Evo, concentrate. How did Furly know you were here? Forget it; just focus on getting out of here. Which way do I go?

In haste, Evo had sprinted out the backyard, across the field, and straight into the forest. There was nothing out this way for hundreds of miles – just national forest scattered with hiking trails and wild animals.

At seventeen, Evo was five feet, eight inches, and weighed one hundred and sixty pounds. He was by no means massive. His actual name was Zeus, named after some burly god from a time before technology. Evo had looked it up once: Zeus held a thunderbolt, had white hair, and hated wearing a shirt. Nothing like Evo.

His parents hadn't referred to him as Zeus since he was a child. His mother always said it was because Evo fit him so much better. Like the next generation, she used to say. Though he suspected it was because he didn't live up to the name, unlike his brother, Bronze Adonis.

It wasn't fair; Bronze wasn't even his name – it was Adonis. He had been named after some handsome god who wore the envy of all.

Everyone called him Bronze because of his inexplicable, natural tan. Bronze, at six feet, two inches, was as stocky as he was tall. Bronze was the football star, the athlete, the favorite of everyone. Evo, by comparison, was quiet, pale, and much thinner. They could not have been more different.

Evo's parents weren't well educated – just simple farmer folk with good hearts. His father had taken some botany classes at the local college. It was an education that included, among its electives, a Greek mythology class.

It was a class he referred to on all available occasions, which was essentially all the time. No one was surprised when he insisted on naming his children after his favorite mythological entities.

It wouldn't be fair to call Evo lanky, as he didn't have the stature for such a label, but clumsy, fit the description.

He never liked sports and couldn't catch a ball to save his life. Should such a scenario arise, he needed to remember to plead for a more plausible challenge.

He had never joined an after-school club or even considered an extracurricular activity. If there is anything worse than being named after someone you can never live up to, it's being overshadowed by someone who does.

Bronze had the attention and admiration of cheerleaders, teachers, and parents alike. Just because he could run and catch a ball, he received showers of praise from everyone (except for the one person who mattered to Evo).

The one person Evo had always had an eye for was Lily Jean Furly. He had loved LJ since they were children. For as long as he could remember, she was all he cared about.

His life had become a constant endeavor to steal her gaze and to see her smile. The day she finally smiled in his direction, is the day his life changed forever. He knew in that instant he would someday marry this girl.

They were ten at the time, and they had been in love ever since. There was a