Ch.6 Athena's Gift

Chapter 6

“Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right”- Isaac Asimov


Eventually and inevitably, Chris sat down with Jeff and I to discuss his plans for the future. I knew that things had changed for us and I think that is why we hadn’t gone the extra twenty miles to get to my mom’s. We knew exactly how we were going to go, and the side roads had been clear for a long time.

Chris felt useful and as if he belonged with our hosts, the Illiniwek. He was a bit of an oddity, considering he clearly didn’t have any Native American heritage whatsoever. But, that criterion wasn’t observed quite as strictly as it may have been in the past. The people here didn’t seem to care so much about bloodlines and percentages. I think having the right attitude and a willingness to be an active part of the community was more important.

In yet another odd twist of irony, Chris was going to join some of the Illiniwek as they set up another community toward the West. They were going to try to reform the Illiniwek branch near Cahokia if they could, using the same model of inclusion that made this camp so successful.

I was disappointed about losing my friend in a purely selfish way. I was very tempted to give in to some blind jealousy concerning his new girlfriend, Anita. But, in the end, I could only wish him the best. He drove off on an ATV, part of a great herd of them, about a month after Jason was laid to rest.

Jeff was also getting antsy. It was time for us to move along as well. I wasn’t sure what my mom had going at her place, but knowing her, I was fairly certain she would become a regular trade destination. When it came time for us to leave, I invited Suzanne and Jill to join us. Jeff had his hands full.

We added some extra bedding and a few seedlings from the garden to the trunk and started the most dangerous leg of our driving journey.

Or not.

The roads weren’t in terrific shape, but we didn’t come across anyone else as we drove along. We found ourselves pulling up alongside Ten Mile Grove about forty-five minutes after we left New Illiniwek Retreat. I was having a nostalgic moment and insisted that we stop and find out if the ponds still held fish.

When I was in high school, we used to come out here every once in a while to fish. The people who owned it raised catfish, bass and bluegill to stock other ponds. We could catch them all day long for a fee, but we had to release them. There was a heavy log chain across the old gravel drive, so we left the car there and walked out on foot.

The place was overgrown and run down, deserted. Route 9 flowed out like a ribbon in front of it. I was surprised that no one had moved in or took over. We walked to the nearest of four ponds, it was scummy and stagnant. It probably had something living in it, but I doubted it was fish. These ponds were supposedly pretty deep, but they’d had aerators when I used to visit. We brushed off an old placard on the path leading to the next pond; it had pictures of the fish to be expected. As we looked I heard the sound of a pump coming to life. We hurried on to the next pond, which appeared much healthier. As we leaned out over the water, several small fish came to the surface, expecting to be fed. We were all pleasantly surprised, and somehow we managed to produce crumbs from crackers and cookies.

After checking the rest of the ponds, we found that at least two still held fish. We found one of the aeration pumps, and it ran off of a solar panel. Maybe we could find the panel for the first pond and see if it just needed wiped off?

The sky was beginning to cloud up so we decided to sit on the side of a pond for a moment before we left again.

Days like this were to be treasured, I had learned. We got a little wrapped up in talking about a fish trade between Ten Mile Grove and the Retreat. We never noticed the heavy fast moving clouds coming at us from the north.

A distant rumbling finally pulled us from our wild speculations. The air had taken on that peculiar greenish cast that people in tornado zones are familiar with. I assured everyone that we had plenty of time; we could walk to my mom’s from here.

Of course, Jill wasn’t having that. She started getting our stuff together and headed for the Vega.

It was a good thing she did. I’ve never seen clouds roll up that fast before. They had a strange stacked up look to them and the light turned almost sepia toned. All of the colors became some form of muted dirty browns. We could clearly see lightning in the upper layers, not yet striking the ground.

Jeff and I exchanged worried glances, nervously expecting some new and incredible threat.

“I don’t think we can chalk this up to Mother Earth.” Suzanne observed, sliding into the back seat of the Vega.

“I wish we had stayed at the Retreat now. Maybe we should think about going back.” Jill said pointedly.

“I think we just need to get to my mom’s. This storm is moving too fast. We won’t make it to the Retreat.” I said looking out the passenger side. I thought I could see things flying around in the clouds. I craned and twisted around in my seat as we got back on Rt 9.

“Look up Suzanne, do you see something in the clouds?” I asked. Jill leaned over and they both looked out the window, trying to see.

An audible collective gasp occurred as we saw them. They looked like giant bird skeletons. They were so far away it was hard to tell how big or any good details about them. We could only see the bones during the flash of lightning, like an x-ray. Their aerial dodging and weaving was clearly moving closer to us.

We flew around a set of wide curves and I pointed out my old home. My mom was outside on the front porch at the top of the hill, watching the approaching storm. She cast a nervous glance at us as we pulled in the driveway, so I lowered my window so I could wave to her to.

We pulled around the driveway curve to the garage; it was under the house as part of a walk out basement. Charlie, mom’s husband, met us at the door. We grabbed our bags and hustled inside and up the stairs so we could watch through the large front window.

Obviously, mom and Charlie were glad to see me and wanted to meet everyone. But my tone and Jeff’s agitation convinced them that we needed get ourselves situated before the storm hit. We pointed out the things flying around in the clouds and Charlie disappeared into the basement to gather rifles and pistols of all sorts. He also said something about electrifying the perimeter. I didn’t ask, I just prayed none of us found out about that particular gadget the hard way.

Jeff pulled out his chalk, but it wasn’t working very well on the carpet, and we decided that we didn’t want to be in front of a glass picture window in case it got broken.

So we moved the circle to the kitchen. Jeff and my mom worked on it together as the rest of us gave regular storm updates. A great gust of wind drove leaves from the trees and flattened some of the weeds along the road, followed by a sprinkling of pea sized hail. We looked for rotation and hooks but didn’t see any. I think that made it worse; tornado’s we were familiar with, we could handle.

Jeff moved throughout the living room, dining room and kitchen making notations in his foreign script on the walls. It was a curious mix of symbols and text reminiscent of the Demon writing at the hotel, only Jeff’s didn’t make my skin crawl when I looked at it. In the midst of all of this I had a moment of pride in my mom and Charlie, neither of them even looked like complaining about a strange scary man writing on their floors and walls! I could only guess that they had their own disturbing tales to tell and I felt a pang of remorse that I hadn’t been around to help them.

Just as Jeff finished up writing something on the front door a brilliant flash nearly blinded us. When our sight returned, we could see three figures on the road in front of the hill that was our front yard, about fifty feet from the house. They looked human, as opposed to Demon, but again they were very tall and lanky.

They seemed to jump from the road about fifteen feet into the yard. The ground had buckled where their feet touched and the house shook. They seemed to be experimentally walking towards us. After the first few ginger steps they seemed to settle into walking and strode right up to the picture window.

We were utterly terrified. These things were anything but human. Their skin emitted a glow like over exposed photos, obscuring some of the fine details. They seemed to be wearing simple tunics over leggings, in a shade of white I’ve never seen before. Most startling were their eyes. They had no color, no iris, no pupils. We couldn’t be sure who or what they were looking at.

Jill, Suzanne and my mom were trying to draw us into the kitchen, to get in the circle. I was tempted, but one of the things had turned its attention to me and I was rooted in place. I turned my head and saw that Jeff and Charlie had the same problem; they seemed hypnotized by these things. Charlie didn’t even have his rifle up.

“Get in the kitchen ladies.” I said, bringing my rifle up to bear. Did that really just come out of my mouth?

The creature that had been holding Charlie’s gaze seemed to snap out of it, swinging its stare to me. I heard Charlie’s sharp intake of breath, he had a bewildered look on his face. I kept waiting for Jeff to tell us what to do, but he seemed to be dazed.

“Charlie,” I barked, a little too loudly. “Go to the kitchen, tell everyone to stay in the circle, don’t talk to anyone outside the circle and don’t look at these things, look at the floor or each other.”

Two of the creatures moved up to my spot along the picture window. I took a step forward as well. I didn’t want to instigate any aggression, but I wanted them to know that they couldn’t take us without a fight either. I said a silent prayer that they didn’t just bust through the window.

“Jeff,” I whispered. “JEFF!”

No answer. Great!

The three things broke off the stare down. They seemed to be coming to some sort of conclusion about us. I did NOT want these things to get in here!

“Let’s go outside. Better to do this out there than in here with everyone else.” Jeff said quietly behind me. “We aren’t going to win this one.”

Oh, even better!
********************


I took a step towards the door, and the things turned sharply to follow me. I just kept walking, Jeff in tow. I quickly yanked the door open and stepped through, rifle up. I heard Jeff close the door behind us.

I nearly landed on my backside. The things moved so quickly I couldn’t track them. Suddenly, they were just inches from me. One of them had a hand on my rifle. It crushed the barrel in its hand before yanking it out of my grasp and tossing it about half a mile into the field across the road.

“&$^#@%@%,” It began, in a jarring discordant voice that nearly brought me to my knees, “….have already been judged worthy, you may leave us.”

“I am with her. I won’t leave her. She is also worthy.” Jeff answered. WTF?

“She is…” it began again, seeming to search for the right word, “ not under our…”

“Purview…Jurisdiction…Abomination” the words rang out from all three. I closed my mouth. There it was again, that abomination word.

They turned to look at each other, clearly having some sort of silent debate about me.

“Worthy of what?” I asked simply. Then immediately regretted it, wishing I could make myself small, make myself small…

The weight of their collective stares was overwhelming. I began to shake. I managed a peek at Jeff, who looked pale and waxy. I’ve never seen his confident veneer falter before.

“The Abomination is deemed…Not Evil” they voiced collectively, “We shall let it pass.”

Ohhh, thank God!! My legs turned to very relieved jelly as I sagged into Jeff. The creatures turned to the East. They each planted a foot in unison, the Earth trembled with the force and the pavement on the walk cracked where one of them had stepped. They seemed to spring up and forward, so fast that once again we couldn’t track them. But I heard them when they landed, that same Earth shaking tremor as when they arrived in my front yard.

“Holy Crap!” I let out. “What were those?”

“Not Holy Crap, that’s for certain.” Jeff answered, sounding mighty relieved himself, “I believe those were the good guys, Angels.”

“Come on, let’s go inside.” Jeff turned around and opened the door for me.