The First Ones Read online

  The First Ones

  Copyright 2016, Michael Louis Weinberger

  Published 2019 by Purple Mountain Publishing and Michael Weinberger

  Chapter 1: The Ancient Arboretum.

  July, 23rd 2018

  California’s Redwood Forest.

  11:57 p.m.

  The glow from the three-quarter-full moon gave the clearing an eerie ambient light that should not have been able to penetrate past the tree canopy and from within the surreal iridescence two figures knelt among Mother Earth’s Fingers. The first, a woman, hugged a swaddled two-year-old child close to her body and was shaking with anxiety from the knowledge of what was to come within the next few minutes. The second, a man, knelt next to her while keeping his eyes on the darkness of the sky above. The tiny child did not cry, but clung back to the woman fiercely, sensing the safety all children perceive while wrapped in protective arms.

  11:58 p.m.

  Storm clouds appeared to grow out of the darkness of the night sky from what seemed previously to be an otherwise cloudless night. So quickly did they come and so completely did the clouds obscure the starlight from the sky that it almost seemed as though a shadow of deeper darkness blanketed the earth.

  Nodding to himself as he witnessed the change in the sky, the man averted his eyes, glanced over to the woman, then simply and gently said, “It’s time.”

  The woman didn’t look up from the face of the child as she returned his nod. Tears filled her eyes as she rose and walked to the spot on the ground they had prepared earlier. The location was not random, in fact, it had required a massive amount of excruciatingly precise, and methodical measuring to pinpoint the exact spot equidistant from each of the five great trees, dubbed Mother Earth’s Fingers as the coming ritual required. The trees were a natural phenomenon that had taken on its own myth and legend within the National Park; however, very few understood the true nature of the area and the sacred significance bound within it.

  This pair understood what the trees represented and their intended purpose.

  The woman cooed a couple of comforting words to the baby, kissed the child’s forehead once more, then gingerly placed the tiny form in the designated location. Hesitantly she shuffled back to her original kneeling point where she wrapped her arms tightly around herself in a vain attempt to stop her body from shaking.

  Noticing her agitated state the man placed one hand on her shoulder, saying “It will be all right.”

  “I know,” the woman managed through a sob, forcing the positive words out, yet still sounding unconvinced.

  “We’ll get her through this,” he said, and turned to pick up his Mossberg semi-automatic Model 930 shotgun with his free hand, “I promise.”

  The model 930 was not a simple hunting weapon, instead it was a shotgun made for military use with a 24” barrel and allowed for an extended magazine that held 10 cartridges instead of the usual 3 or 5 as legally required when hunting game. The weapon could handle rounds filled with buckshot or rifled slugs called “Sabots” which were huge .50 caliber bullets held within a 72mm, 12 gauge cartridge. The manufacturing of these weapons and their ammunition, as used by the police and military forces, had made significant strides in accuracy and power in the last few years and this particular weapon was loaded with ten special Remington Sabots the police called ‘hot loads.’ Packed with additional powder these cartridges shot the massive .50 caliber slugs with extra power and velocity that could blow out the chest cavity of a moose from a distance of fifty yards.

  The woman looked up to the treetops as more thunder boomed in the sky above them. Then she pulled her oversized twin .50 Caliber Desert Eagle seven-inch semi-automatic pistols from their matching shoulder holsters, where they had been quietly waiting just below her armpits. As she clicked the safety switches to their off positions, those matching twin clicks made the man smile.

  “Thank you,” she didn’t look at the man as she spoke, sorrow evident in her voice.

  “For what?” the man asked quietly.

  “For everything,” She replied.

  The man dropped his chin to his chest, “Wouldn’t be much to live for if I didn’t see this through.”

  “Still,” and now she turned to face him, reaching a hand out to gently touch his chin, turning his face to hers, “thank you.”

  11:59 p.m.

  Nearly half a mile away the Ancient Witch, Kaylanna, was watching the skies, and felt an excitement grow within her as she saw the clouds forming over Mother Earth’s Fingers. She stood motionless and wearing only a hooded cloak, which now waved behind her like a cape and did nothing to cover her otherwise naked body. One strand of dark black hair billowed out from under the hood, which she unconsciously captured with a finger before tucking it back behind her ear. She lowered her hand from a face beautiful enough to inspire poets to prose and glanced down to inspect her palm to find that she was trembling with anticipation. A wicked, sly smile stretched across her face as she felt the exhilaration of the moment. After a millennium of waiting, the time had come when she would wrest the last of the ancient power she needed from the First Ones. The power of nature itself would be hers to command, and finally she would achieve her ultimate goal to purge the world of the human pestilence that infested it.

  At her heels sat a multitude of her brood. Each one tensed and ready to spring at her command. The massive beasts paced in anxious anticipation with saliva dripping copiously from their elongated fangs while their steel-like claws abraded the forest floor with every tread. Only vestiges of their resemblance remained from either the wolf or the man that the ancient magic had melded together into their new and deadly form. These beasts carried the strengths of both beings in one deadly package. Speed, strength, hearing, smell, sight, stamina and ferocity were all maximized, along with a degree of enlightened temperament, intelligence and instinct.

  As a group they waited, maintaining this minimum safe distance until the ritual was completed. Any closer and they would be subject to the energies released at the ritual’s conclusion. Energies of life and rebirth that would be deadly to any such as they. Kaylanna continued to watch the night sky, waiting for the sign that would indicate she could safely unleash her children at their intended targets.

  It wouldn’t be long now.

  12:00a.m.

  The clouds hovering above the forest clearing began to roll in on themselves as thunder cracked and shattered the silence of the night. The man and woman kneeling directly below looked up with awe struck eyes, as sensational flashes of light seemed to burst from inside the animated vapors and as an energy gathered itself.

  Averting their eyes from the celestial spectacle, the duo braced their bodies, while the toddler squealed in joy at the light and sound. Holding her tiny arms up to the heavens, the little girl wriggled her fingers at the clouds, as if desperately reaching for a favorite toy that was just out of reach.

  Then the energy that had been building could no longer be contained as a lightning bolt burst from the center of the cloud formation, splintered into five jagged branches and, as electricity is want to do, sought the closest path to “ground.” Each lightning branch simultaneously struck all five of the great Redwood trees making up the Mother Earth’s Fingers, but did not ignite the trees, as would be the usual result. Instead, the energy from the bolts were strangely drawn in through the branches and funneled into each tree trunk before being sent hurtling down to the forest floor at an incredible velocity. The energy traveled from trunk to underground root, all coalescing to a common junction in the clearing, directly under the spot where the toddler had been laid.

  When the energies finally reached their destination, an eruption of light, sound and force exploded upward and outward from the ground, sendi
ng the man and woman airborne for nearly thirty feet. The duo landed unceremoniously on the earthen floor leaving them bruised and semi-conscious, but otherwise intact and fortunate to not have been launched into an unyielding tree trunk on the far side of the clearing. Then the area went quiet as the skies cleared and the tumult of the storm faded away, leaving only a haze of dry earth forming a particulate cloud over the clearing, as evidence of the event.

  Chapter 2: The Akhlut

  The sound of the blast echoed unencumbered throughout the forest and rumbled with enough intensity that it could have been mistakenly attributed to thunder. It was the signal that the ceremony had ended and Kaylanna’s brood burst from their where they waited like greyhounds being released from the gates. The beasts shot forward and sprinted into the forest, releasing howls of ecstasy as they ran.

  Kaylanna watched her loyal children as they bounded off after her prize. She swooned at the thought of the bloody spectacle that was forthcoming and, unable to keep control of her emotions any further, Kaylanna threw her head back, and with a volume and pitch humanly impossible to achieve, she shrieked a euphoric cry to the night sky. Once her lungs were empty and her call to battle full vocalized, she then called upon her magic and began her shift from the human guise she wore into the form of a prehistoric Red Dog. Once the change was completed she joined in the hunt and ran after her children toward the clearing and the trio within.

  ***

  The woman was the first to fully regain her senses after the blast and she sat up while desperately trying to peer into the dusty aftermath. She was about to call out when a small shadow, not quite three feet tall began moving out of the earthen cloud. The man had found his footing at this point as well and made his way to the woman’s side as the pair watched in awe as the toddler, still wearing her swaddling clothes, effortlessly walked over on her uncoordinated infantile legs and feet to where they knelt in the clearing.

  The child looked from the woman to the man and then down to her feet with eyes far too intelligent to be those of a two-year-old. She began to study her small form as she raised one hand in front of her eyes as if perplexed by the extremity. The toddler, who was now much more than a toddler, considered her hand for a moment, before lowering it back down to her side and looked back to the man and woman who knelt before her.

  The child took a few more steps forward and placed a hand on each of their bowed heads. The child closed her eyes for a moment, as if concentrating on an otherwise inaudible sound, and then she opened her eyes and dropped her arms to her sides.

  “Hi.”

  The word flowed from the small girl in perfect clarity, albeit spoken in the high-pitched and immature voice of a two-year-old.

  The pair rose to their feet and the woman opened her mouth to say something when the sound of the Kaylanna’s inhuman shriek filled the air.

  The child’s eyebrows rose on her small forehead, “Uh-oh!”

  Immediately the man clicked the safety off of the shotgun while the woman holstered one of her pistols to scoop up the child, and they bolted for one side of the clearing. The woman entered the tree line first as the man backpedaled close behind, covering them from the nightmares they knew were swiftly approaching.

  “How could they have found us so quickly?” the woman said in between breaths as she willed her legs to run faster, while still needing to navigate over the exposed roots in the forest floor.

  “No idea,” the man shouted back, “but it looks like they were waiting for the ritual to end before striking.”

  Behind them the sounds of huge and heavy animals bursting from the trees into the clearing resounded in their ears. The beasts took a mere moment to sniff at the ground before locating the scent of their quarry and exploding into a sprint once more. The growls and howls of bloodlust echoed through the night bellowed from throats that chaffed with a thirst that only the warm blood of their prey could slake.

  “They’ll be on us any second now!” the man shouted, “I need to buy you two some more time, keep moving until you get to the road!”

  The woman hesitated, “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t stop!!!” the man ordered as he readied his shotgun.

  The woman wanted to protest, but knew there wasn’t time to stop and argue the point. Tears began to fill her eyes while she held the child even tighter against her chest and kept running deeper into the darkness of the forest.

  The man watched as the woman disappeared from view, and then he turned to face the oncoming force. Breathing deeply, he smelled the cool, moist, night air that was thick with the sweet perfume of the pines and readied himself. The beasts made no attempt at stealth and the sounds of their needy grunts and heavy footfalls began to rise in volume as the man looked heavenward and glimpsed the stars through the treetops. He said a quick prayer for courage and checked his pockets for the extra ammunition that he knew he was going to need very, very soon.

  Suddenly the man whirled and dropped to one knee just as the first of the beasts to reach his location leapt at him from the shadows. At the last possible moment, the man raised the barrel of the shotgun and squeezed the trigger. The .50 caliber slug hit the airborne werewolf with such force that not only did it halt the creature in mid-flight, but sent the beast flying back in the direction it had come. Another animal figure sprinted in low to the ground, but the man recognized the attack tactic and dodged the extended claws by jumping to one side and rolling into a shooter’s crouch. Immediately the man placed two slugs into the second beast, one of which blew away the right side of the damned thing’s skull.

  More creatures arrived, but were reluctant to becoming intimately associated with the man’s shotgun. Each beast began to run in on the man from different angles, but would retreat just before the man could get the shotgun fixed upon them. It was a tactic similar to one used by timber wolves when hunting prey larger than themselves and the idea was to encircle their prey, keeping the lone animal spinning and off balance. Eventually the quarry would make a fatal mistake and give one of their pack the opportunity to rush in and seize a vulnerable spot in their jaws.

  But this man was no mere prey animal, and the moment he realized what the beasts were doing he countered with the last thing they expected.

  He attacked.

  Charging the pack, while shouting a battle cry, the man sprinted for the two closest monsters whose bestial, inhuman eyes still managed to register shock and dismay at the sight of the human charging toward them. The man squeezed the trigger on the shotgun, and the Sabots began tearing chunks of fur, flesh and bone out of the two beasts, leaving them quivering on the ground as he ran past.

  ***

  The woman had not gone more than fifty yards with the child before she lost her footing and fell. The impact of the earth against her shoulder was only a mild discomfort, but the infant flew from her grip and rolled awkwardly another ten feet before coming to a rest.

  Panic filled the woman, and she ignored the pain in her shoulder as she immediately rose to her feet, sprinting to where the child lay motionless. The child did not cry as the little girl’s eyes looked from the woman to the ground and back to the woman as if the experience of falling had been something new and interesting, as opposed to traumatic. Instinct made the woman want to scoop the toddler into her arms, but the look of confusion on the child’s face was so unsettling that it froze her in place.

  The girl began to right herself, brushing the dirt and pine needles from her clothes as she stood. The woman closed the remaining distance and extended her arms out to the girl, as if silently asking whether or not the girl wanted to be lifted and carried again. The girl tilted her head, regarding the outstretched arms and hands in front of her and began to reach out with her own tiny hands when the sound of something running toward them grew louder from the distant forest.

  With the same tiny, high-pitched voice that the toddler had used earlier, the girl said simply, “They’re coming.”

  There was no fear in those tw
o simple words, nor any other emotion for that matter. The child had simply stated it as a matter of fact, but it was filled with a knowledge and understanding far more advanced than any two-year-old should have been able to utter. The woman spun and drew her weapons but, despite the sounds growing ever louder and closer to them, could not see anyone or anything closing in on them.

  Then the girl tugged at the woman’s shirt, “We should hide.”

  The woman looked at the girl, and then again in the direction from where the sounds were coming, desperately trying to find a target for her guns.

  The girl tugged harder, “We should hide.”

  Frustration and fear overwhelmed the woman as she snapped her head to the child and frantically whispered, “They’re wolves! We can’t hide from them!”

  The woman immediately regretted the sharpness of her tone as the scorn might normally have sent the small girl into a loud tearful bawl. Instead, the girl’s eyes softened with patience and her lips parted into a smile.

  “We will not be discovered as long as we hide together,” she said with absolute certainty.

  The woman was about to protest when something in the girl’s demeanor gave her pause and she dropped her hands to her sides. The tiny girl took her by one wrist and pulled her to an area where a small overhanging of tree branches extended into a type of canopy that, once they were underneath, would conceal them from sight.

  The woman lifted the branches and together they quickly crawled into the space beyond. It was more difficult for the woman to scrunch herself into the small space, but she managed and allowed the curtain of pine needles to conceal the entrance.

  The woman turned and scooted back a bit, until her spine hit something solid. She reached a hand back to feel one side of a boulder that had been completely invisible in the darkness, which made for a substantial wall at their backs. The woman looked to the curtain of branches concealing them and found that she was able to see through them to a small degree. Horrified that their pursuers would be able to see in as well, the woman raised her firearms and prepared to shoot anything that might discover them.