A New Night

Hunter Nightmares

The defeat I felt at the death of Steelface was immeasurable. He’d been the only chance I had left at ending the pain of the Night People … with an added offer of ending the rest of the Golems. Though I had a general aversion to killing, I felt an intimate familiarity with their brand of evil. It didn’t come from desperation or confusion; it was knowing and unapologetic cruelty. If the world would be better off with anyone, it was them.

Now, however, I felt unable to process this terror that seized me even as I existed as a nonphysical being of untold power. He … was headed to the Island.

While fear kept me stunned in place, an even more dire sense of it pushed me to drag all of my being back to the Hospital. I nearly just jumped in my body to go, but there was so much I had to do before I could.

The Triumvirate needed to know the caretaking instructions—lists of medical ailments that required regular treatment. So I thought for a moment before an odd instinct compelled something in my brain. Instinctively, I took the memory of what I had witnessed … like a jagged chunk now burned onto my brain … and gave it digital form. I took these two items and left them in every collection of information I could find within the wires and signals comprising the hospital’s virtual presence. I then returned to the room of pods where they kept Romalla, Scraa, Dro, Gar, the Queen, and the rest of the Hunters.

Last … I needed to do as Jackie had recommended and gain the trust of the Queen’s Hunters if any of us were to stand a chance at escaping. But how? As I thought, my presence circulated lazily through the room. I noted that it took effort not to be drawn in by the sort of magnetized energy coming from each person trapped in their dreams. If I peeked, I would know the most intimate details of their thoughts and lives.

Was that an invasion of privacy? I wasn’t sure. But the situation was desperate, and it wasn’t as if the Hunters had any particular respect for boundaries when it came to mind reading. To them, I reasoned, this was probably as inane as shaking hands. I huffed; the idea of it still seemed wrong.

How had Jackie done it so that I didn’t become angry? That’s right … she had made it obvious that something had not been right. Within a matter of seconds, I had been able to decide whether I wanted her around or not. This seemed better … like an actual handshake—except specialized for people who hated physical contact.

So I allowed my consciousness to be drawn by the gravitational force of Gar’s pod. As soon as I did, I was no longer in the Sky City.

Now I was in a jungle clearing. The dense jungle had been cut away for about a hundred yards around. Within this clearing were hundreds of thin Hunters, all children and adolescents. These children were surrounded by a few larger Hunters, adults who watched with yellow eyes that projected an oppressive psychic aura. These adults were clearly not guardians. They watched with intimidation toward the young Hunters digging their claws into the earth, carving stonework by slamming harder rocks into them, and clearing wet jungle with torches and singed fur.

This was not the same village where I had met the Hunters from before. The place I’d been was much more thinly populated. And the ruins that I had seen before were ancient stone structures. What I was looking at now looked like blocky skeletons with earth and jungle running through and between them. It took me a full minute before I realized that these were the remains of a human city! The Hunters of this unknown and enormous tribe were uncovering it.

Then, I spotted a much younger Gar carrying large bags of soil. He was clearly malnourished, shorter than he should have been, but rippling with lean muscle.

After a moment’s hesitation, I tried to will myself into a noticeable presence.

Young Gar paused right as I did. It took him a moment, but I soon saw a familiar face of disdain while he stepped malignantly through my holograph. Yeah … he definitely saw me. However, he continued the scene as if nothing had happened. Like the others, he continued his labors.

I watched invisibly by his side, trying to understand why he was here. Why was this the place that the Calming Program had put him? This was nothing wonderful about this place, nothing serene, nothing that even slightly reflected the peaceful place where I’d been placed. On the contrary, this was more like a circle of Hell, and it caused a sick feeling in my stomach.

“Gar!” said the voice of a female Hunter that was the age of Gar. I recognized her tall stature, halo-like ears, and her permanent facial expression that lacked vulnerability. The Queen … covered in minor cuts, dried blood, and soil matted in her fur.

“Krebba,” Young Gar said in his low and gruff psychic tone. His eyes widened and temporarily became soft and watery; he then darted into the trees, out of sight. Only then did he whisper, “You shouldn’t be here. They will punish you for not hunting.”

At the mention of that last word, Gar’s belly growled viciously. He turned away in embarrassment.

Krebba, the future Queen, pulled a hand from behind her back and produced a small piece of dirty meat. She whispered, “Then you do not want this?” A subtle smile danced across her face.

Gar was unable to speak for a moment, and his stomach cried out again. He placed a heavy cloth filled with dirt on the ground beside him.

Krebba tossed the meat to Gar and watched him rabidly consume the small bit of flesh. Then, finally, she said, “I’ve nearly dried and hidden a trove.”

This news caused Gar to choke, cough, and gasp for air. When he had regained control of himself, he said, “If they find out-”

“They won’t,” Krebba said with a toothy smile and eyes that sparkled with mischievous delight. “I met a Hunter named Dro. He’s found an underwater cave for us to hide food ... and people. He’s talking about leaving the masters. The only problem is that we don’t have access to the labor slaves. You, on the other hand …”

Gar’s eyes got big, and his pupils dilated. He shook his head several times. It looked like he was unable to handle what she was saying.

“You want to live like this forever?” Krebba asked, her smile fading. “I won’t. I would rather die than continue as a slave. I won’t become an animal for them to breed and make more digging slaves!”

Gar looked up and visibly forced himself to nod to her. “I’ll do it, Krebba.”

Krebba nodded at him and returned to the cover of the jungle without another word.

Gar shut his eyes. To my surprise, golden light came from his forehead. It spread along his body … reaching his feet and then spreading along the ground. The golden light consumed everything until the jungle around us was gone, replaced by a stone city like the one I had been imprisoned in. The partially excavated remains of human cities were gone. All around us were the crumpled shadows of unmoving people … the older and better-fed slave masters.

The sky darkened; the last drips of golden light descended from the stars, taking the shape of strange birds that picked at the corpses.

Gar was still there, except he now had the ferocious body of the Hunter who had tried to kill me. He was covered in fresh wounds across his arms, chest, and face. Gar seemed to wake, as if from sleep. He looked around, seeming to realize where he was. Then, he sighed and said, “What do we do now?”

There was a flash of golden light behind Gar; two hunters slowly materialized. A slightly more mature Krebba was the first. She held a rusty machete, the same one from her fight with me. Her stomach was slightly extended. She was pregnant.

I recognized the other Hunter as a younger Dro. Dro’s fur was marred by a few wet wounds; he carried a bloody staff—teeth and claws embedded in the wood.

“Now, it’s over,” Dro said. He looked at Krebba, Gar, and various other Hunters who surrounded them. “We banded together to keep the masters from taking us back. But we can’t stay together just to become them and let the whole damned cycle begin again. The old ways were best, Hunters in pairs and by themselves. Even if we are not the ones who enslave our children, our children will enslave theirs. It is the nature of Hunters. Only by going back to the old way can we keep our lineage free.”

Gar’s muscles tensed. He glanced at a prominent wound in Krebba’s shoulder. He looked at a corpse not far from him, that of a young Hunter. His eyes then locked onto Dro in rage. Gar shouted, “After all we’ve followed you through … you can’t leave!”

“We have a fortress now,” Krebba said to Dro in a slightly debating tone. “We can build a city of our own. No slaves. We will keep only Hunters who are strong enough to fight. We can keep this thing we have fought for.”

Dro bared his teeth, wrinkled his face at them both, and scoffed. “Impossible. If Hunters remain in one place, there will be places of advantage—places where those who are truly strong will find themselves against the majority. Those weaklings who have gained a little power in numbers will gradually find more of it. This perverse power of the many will destroy the strong. True predators remain isolated, as my mother did before those dead slavers took her! As we all did before. If you stay to go down this path, the true predators will go extinct. All that will remain will be another generation of slavers … and slaves that eventually kill them as we did. I will not continue this cycle.”

More Hunters had gathered around the trio to watch the exchange.

“You’re short-sighted, Dro,” Krebba hissed. “It doesn’t matter what we choose. Other Hunters are already forming tribes of their own. The jungle is not as large as it once was, and there is nowhere for lone Hunters to hide. Those who do not suffer this new way will be destroyed.”

“Maybe the rest of you cannot survive,” Dro said with a loud growl. He then turned to face Krebba … and Krebba alone. “You and I can fend any tribe off. On the Mountain, we can raise our child in the old ways. Maybe we can find a way to move outside the Walls.”

“No!” Krebba said with a growl of her own. Her eyes were like steel—powerful, solid, unbending, absolute. “The old ways are finished. They’ll lead only to our children becoming just like your mother. Taken by slavers and rendered useless to protect her young. Prey!”

Dro roared, and Krebba roared right back. The two glared at one another with a weight that I swore I could physically feel like a heavy blanket. I couldn’t understand what was being said between them … which I think meant that no words were being communicated at all. It was just feeling … loathing … rage. The weight became a cold that hurt my joints and then a frost that bit at my skin. Then a snap—the ice broke!

Every nearby Hunter flared their eyes as they fell into defensive stances.

Dro lifted his staff and roared, “My child will not endure this cycle!” He swung his staff—and it was aimed at Krebba’s stomach! There was a shadowy blur, followed by a heavy snap as the staff collided with another Hunter’s ribs. It was Gar! He let out a howl of pain and tried to claw defensively.

Dro kicked him onto his back with his knee and lifted his staff over Gar’s head. The brutality never came, however. Instead, the other Hunters let out roars of their own and lunged at Dro—slashing with claws, swinging staves, and biting at him. Dro weaved and blocked, but the united Hunters had the upper hand.

Dro glanced around at them all and then used his tail and staff to launch into a backward summersault. It seemed he had realized that his predictions had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Out of sight, he let out an ominous roar.

“We will rip his head off!” Krebba shouted. She looked down at Gar, still immobilized, and then at the Hunters who had fought on her behalf. She stood tall and said. “We will kill him, and we will rule this jungle. This, I promise.”

Golden light emanated from Krebba as everything around me froze. Then, the light dripped down and consumed everything again. Now, Gar and I were standing on a boulder—overlooking a river like the one I’d fished at.

For several minutes, nothing happened. The two of us just watched the river flow. It was like … Gar was taking a break. Had he gone back to visit those memories voluntarily?

I waited a little longer before I couldn’t take the silence anymore. Finally, I said, “Uh, hey.” Wow, that was a lame thing to say to my mortal enemy after he had revealed all that.

Gar continued to watch the water as he said, “I thought you were Basel…Bassella. You really are the Alpha Predators. You tricked me, tricked all of us into thinking we had infiltrated the mind of the puppet you left to wander in the jungle. All along, you were luring us to your realm. It was only a matter of time until we Hunters became prey to your people.”

I stepped in front of him so that he had to see my facial reaction as I rolled my eyes and pointed to the rest of me. “You would really give me that much credit?” I asked, allowing him the slightest amount of room to read my thoughts.

“Bassella …” Gar said; he looked at me again and bared his teeth. “You’re toying with me.”

“I’m not!” I said and stamped my foot. “Wait—if you didn’t know it was me, why did you let me see all that?”

Gar shrugged and let out the closest thing to a smile, “I wanted to let the Alpha Predators know that if they thought to keep the Hunters as slaves … especially these Hunters … they would be slaughtered in the end as well.”

“Oh,” I said and chewed on my lip for a moment.

“I nearly asked about this shape,” Gar said, pointing at all of me with a brushing motion. “However, that much seems obvious … even with the mane not shared by the Alpha Predators that look almost like you.”

“My … oh! My hair,” I said and blushed. I began to twirl a finger through one of my curls.

“What confuses me is the ‘why’,” Gar continued. “Why were you in that heavy form that you did not use with any efficiency? I refuse to believe that you are a competent enough manipulator to have lured me here from the start.”

I thought for a moment … not sure how to briefly explain all the many complexities of what had brought me here. I knew there was no point in lying; even without his powers, I thought that Gar would see passed that. So, I just shrugged enthusiastically and said, “An … accident? I was left behind in that form and couldn’t remember why.”

Gar studied me momentarily before looking down contemplatively and nodding. “I trust my instincts about you … and that is the only possibility, no matter how unlikely, that aligns with the fragility of what your mind was when you were in our kingdom.”

I exhaled, noting how reliving it felt to do so even though I was in a simulation and didn’t need to. The exchange so far had made me feel dangerously close to hopeful. “So … would you work together with us to escape?”

“Trust you!” Gar spat as if he couldn’t believe it. “You think I’d trust you after you backed out of our arrangement?”

“You were keeping my friend hostage, you irritating hair-brain!” I said, feeling unexpectedly angry—frustrated that he wasn’t listening. Who was he to be mad at me? He’d tried to blackmail me into committing murder. If anyone had the right to be angry, it was me. Realizing this and daring to feel a bit miffed felt foreign to me, but in a pleasant way. As if … I now felt that sense of value in myself, a sense of value that told me I was also valid in feeling a strong emotion.

Gar was not phased by my small amount of lashing out. After a moment, however, he showed a cool and malevolent smile. “Why would we need your help? I learned today that no Alpha Predator of any kind is a threat to my kind. We will figure out how to overcome this mind prison. Then, we will overtake this place again and establish our kingdom from atop the highest city in the world.”

I shrugged, genuinely doubting his words, and then gave an eye-roll for good measure.

This seemed to unnerve Gar, “With you imprisoned here, they could not stop us again. And something tells me that your alliance with the rest of the Alpha Predators has been dashed to pieces.”

“What I’m worried about are the monsters that will actually use their weaponry against you,” I said and then made a virtual replica of my ring-gun appear in my hand. “You remember this, don’t you? Imagine that … but hundreds of them. And instead of knocking you out cold, it cuts pieces out of your body. Even you wouldn’t survive a round if they brought big guns.”

A theatrical whim played out in my mind, so I turned the little virtual ring-gun into something much larger. It glowed gold and expanded in size until the light had taken the shape of the sort of light machine gun I had seen on the Golem with the gold, smiling mask. Although, in reality, I could have never held it in my flesh body, it was no issue to swing the imaginary gun that was the size of me. I pulled the trigger and let out a barrage of rounds at the jungle around us. The bullets tore through the trees like paper—leaving no illusion of their power.

Gar looked at the devastation and then back at me, only the slightest hint of doubt in his eyes.

I just shrugged, tired of his dickishness, and added, “By the way, that gun will be one of the least bad things ahead. Even if you escape and take this city, somehow, the Alpha Predators plan on making the Wall so tall that the Hunters are never able to escape again. While the rest of the species of other planets all eventually ascend to the stars, the Hunters will all be imprisoned and left to suffocate and extinguish.

Gar hissed at me and made a fist. He looked around as if for something to hit, but everything was still in ruins from my earlier display. My words triggered a growing of Gar’s pupils. His muscles spasmed slightly as he said in a low growl, “They will not imprison us.”

“They’ll try unless we escape and then find a way to stop them,” I replied, looking him in the eye. “I need your help so we can all get out of here. But we will need one another’s help if we do not want the Immortal Golems or the Alpha Predators to impose their judgments on us.”

With a long hesitation, Gar finally gave the slightest nod.