TEOTWAWKI (An Original Novel - Episode11.2)
At the Melton’s
During the night the Meltons had been wakened by a loud noise. The only sound lately had been that of the rain on the water. It had to have been loud to hear over that.
CRASH...riiiiiiip....Splash
Weldon was up in an instant. The bedrooms were on the top floor of the house and set atop the berm. It was too dark and too foggy outside to see anything but the strange ripping sounds came from where the Old Barn sat.
Weldon made sure he had his pistol and his biggest flashlight then he stepped out the door. He was gone for half an hour before he returned. When he returned he was grim.
“Get dressed. “ He said needlessly. They’d all been sleeping in their clothes. “Gather some stuff together. We’re spending the rest of the night in GrandPa’s boat. Hurry now.“
Lucy helped Sherry pack some food and makes some coffee then asked “What happened daddy? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“Damn near it!” Weldon replied. “Something big smashed into the old barn. I couldn’t tell what it was. I wasn’t going to get very close in the dark, but I could tell that if it hadn’t hit the barn it would have hit us.
Weldon was a successful farmer on the Delta. All farmers liked toys. That was just the way it was. Neither he, nor his ancestors had seen any reason to throw toys away just because they got old. They only bought high quality toys that could be maintained and kept in good working order. That rather limited their options but even so it was rather amazing the number of toys that four generations had accumulated. They had a number of boats for example, the largest of which was his great grandfather’s ChrisCraft Motor Yacht maxresdefault.jpg. It had been purchased with bonds back in the war. It was plenty large to keep their feet dry in an emergency. This might just be an emergency so they moved on board.
Weldon was a belt and suspenders kind of a guy. He’d had that old motor-yacht serviced and stocked since the river began to rise. It was the largest and most comfortable of their several watercraft. He’d had it and others, tied up to the bedroom balcony.
They all tried to go back to sleep but THAT hadn’t worked. They all three eventually wound up sitting on the Flying Bridge, looking out at the fog on the water while listening to the small gasoline powered pumps remove rain water. Fortunately they had hundreds of gallons of gasoline in the big tank. That was one thing they didn’t have to worry about too badly. They also had several spares. Farmers tended to have a lot of little gas motors and pumps.
The seed sacks gave them some more time. If a section of the levee began to collapse they had something to repair it with. For a while. The water was still rising. It was still raining. They were about out of ideas.
Weldon lit up one of his last cigars. Might as well smoke it now.
“It was right over there on the river levee that my g’g’ grandfather and his brothers worked for months straight to keep this whole area from flooding back in the summer of 1927.” He told his daughter and his wife.
They listened.
“They didn’t quit.” he said “the flood beat them but it wasn’t because they quit. When it was over and the flood waters started to recede the Planter wouldn’t even let them leave. He was afraid that if he let them off the levee they’d leave the county and he’d not have anyone to do the work.”
Weldon took a drag on his cigar “He was right about that. My ancestors did leave. They had no choice. It was years before the fields were productive again. They didn’t have pumps back then like we do now. The water had to pretty much drain and dry up on it’s own. God put it there, God would take it away in his own good time, like they say.“
“Somehow they made enough money to come back here a and buy this place. There’s some fantastic stories about that which I find really hard to believe. If true our ancestors were hard, hard men. They never quit you see. They just changed their line of attack. Changed their tactics I think it’s called.” he blew out a cloud of smoke.
“I suppose they felt that since generations before them, both free and slave, had been born and died on this land that they had a tie to it? I suppose they felt that since they’d personally fought the river to a standstill they had a right to it? I dunno..but it’s been in my family ever since” He said
“There’s no shame in being defeated dear.” she said placing her hand on his arm
“Nope.” he agreed. “Sometimes the odds are just too great and you can’t win no matter what. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna quit. I might get beat but I won’t quit.”
Carlos was in pain. He welcomed the pain. He used the pain of multiple broken bones to keep himself away. He stood in the wheel house, intentionally putting wight on his broken leg to cause himself even more pain so that’d he’d stay awake. Going to sleep was the last thing he wanted to do. He might never wake up if he did.
He’d passed all reason. He was hallucinating. He only knew that he couldn’t sleep. His wife depended upon him to stand watch. Watch for what? He no longer knew. Perhaps for the sound of engines? He heard large engines in the distance. Had someone one found him? How could he draw attention?`
On board the Coast Guard Cutter Horatius it was all ahead slow. Sleepy watch standers and the helmsman were keeping each other awake. The watch couldn’t see squat. It was as if they were passing thru grey sawdust. Visibility was less than a hundred yards. Sometime less, Sometimes much less. Sometimes it was only a few feet.
The Helmsman made sure that the Horatius stayed in the middle of the river channel. UpRiver they’d passed, and were still passing, barges hung up on underwater obstructions. Some of the Bridges were even down, their supports knocked from beneath them by the barges. The watch kept an eye on the radar. They avoided barges.
As luck would have it a barge or several barges screened the Skirmish place from the radar. As luck would have it Carlos’s pitiful airhorn wasn’t noticed over the sound of the Horatius’s big Cats. The deep burbling sound, and the damping effect of the fog, prevented anyone on board for hearing it.
It WAS heard though. Drones have no engines to blank out distant noise. One of the Long Hunter Drones had detected the sound of Carlos’ airhorn and notified Dragon Central, a Dragon Drone had been vectored to investigate. The small dragon was controlled by a Daemon. Akatsuki was taking her turn at the ‘board’. She evaluated the situation almost instantly then took steps. All of the unseen cyber-mites aboard the Horatius swarmed. They flew away from the Coast Guard cutter quickly. The crew never missed them, never having known they were onboard.
The cybermites began to traverse the distance from the receding Cutter and Carlos boat. They were in a hurry so they coalesced in flight to become larger. A hundred tiny cyber-mites combined to become a tiny dragon. They could fly faster in the larger form.
Akatsuki hovered near Carlos Skirmish in the Pilot House of his boat. When the time was right she said: “That doesn’t seem to be working does it? They can’t hear you.”
One of Carlos’s eyes was swollen shut so he couldn’t see very well through it. He turned his head to stare at a small dragon hovering in the air nearby with the other eye. When he did so a swarm of small dragons, no larger than bees, flew into the Boat.
Ignorant of the swarm behind him. Carlos squinted and strained to bring the hovering apparition beside him into focus. He could still see it although barely.
“Who are you? What are you?” Carlos asked.

“I’m NOT from the government” Akatsuki said “I really AM here to help you.”
“What do you mean?” Carlos was wobbly on his feet. He almost fell down.
“I’m here to help you.” Akatsuki repeated “Before you fall down. We can do this two ways. The easy way or the hard way. The easy way is for you to place this around your neck.”
She held out a dog-collar choker, more appropriate she thought on a man than a feminine necklace.
Carlos didn’t move. “Beware of gifts from Dragons”. Had he really heard that before or was his mind playing tricks upon him. He thought about that for a second. A small dragon was hovering beside him while offering him a fortune in jewels. Was his mind playing tricks on him? Ya think?
“What’s the hard way?” he asked.
“I bite you on the neck like a snake.” Akatsuki hissed.
“My what big fangs you have” Carlos wavered and fought to stay awake. “I believe I’ll take the easy way. Here, Gimme!”
Akatsuki gave him the choker. It stung him when he put it on. The Dragon Tear in the choker took a reading and calibrated itself against Carlos’s DNA. It belonged to Carlos now. Instantly Blood-Nanites, calibrated to match the Carlos DNA was dispatched throughout Carlos body.
“Very GOOD!” Akatsuki said
Carlos turned to look at his wife. She was covered by a swarm of tiny dragons biting her. He couldn’t even see her face. He screamed her name in fear and attempted to interfere. He had to remove those tiny dragons. They were biting her.
“My name is Akatsuki!!” The dragon said “I’ll thank you to do as I COMMAND. The power of the SoulStone made me. By the power of the SoulStone I COMMAND you to leave her alone! I’m working hard attempting to save her life. Work with me NOW!”
Carlos stopped. He’d been a grunt and there was something about the command voice. The many, many small dragons moved continued to cover her. They had stopped biting began to evaporate. Soon a semi-transparent mist remained, then that was gone.
After the Choker-Sting, Carlos mind was clearing quickly. Somehow, miraculously, the red pain induced haze began to go away. Oddly enough the dragon didn’t. It was still there. Carlos became more aware of his surrounding as the pain induce fog receded.
The first thing he noticed, other than the dragon, was that his wife was not dead. She was even looking a tiny bit better. Not a lot but a little bit.
The second thing he noticed was a window in reality opening before them. A bearded old white man looked at him kindly. “We’ve done the best we can do with the resources we have on site. Hang on a little bit longer while we send more resources.”
Then he went away and the face of a young boy appeared.
“ Akatsuki had to go. She asked me to take over. Do you have any questions?” Carl asked. Oddly enough Carlos and Carl were able to talk easily. The Dragon no longer talked. It didn’t even move. It’s motivating force was gone. All that remained was an empty puppet. Carl continued the work that Akatsuki had begun. He managed to get Carlos calmed down, and fixed up to the point that he wasn’t likely to fall down and die just yet.
The woman was in grave condition, Shelby thought. Akatsuki had explained that to Shelby. She had been horribly crushed by something heavy. She had been on the very edge of death hanging on by torn and bleeding fingernails. It wouldn’t take much to send her over edge. The Cyber-mites from the Coast Guard ship had merged together into tiny dragons. Their combined load of blood-nanites could only hold her back from the edge for so long. She was too badly injured for them to repair her without more help. That done they formed an OmniSuit around her. It too was attempting to keep her alive.
Shelby was sending more help. He had conjured a high speed flying eagle drone. Then he had made a very special dragon tear necklace for the woman in the style of an Eagle Talon. The eight Crystal Claws were long and sharp. He placed it around his neck. The claw tips pierced his neck and removed blood, a lot of blood. The blood turned the clear crystal turned crimson.
Shelby placed the BloodTalon on the Speedster, gave it the route and stood back. The HighSpeed Eagle Drone took off like a bat out of hell. A life depended upon it arriving in time.

When the Eagle arrived Carlos was cradling Karlee in his arms. She was somewhat awake and a tiny bit responsive. Enough so that he was feeding her chicken soup. All the while he was talking to her. He was crooning to her. His face was tracked with tears.
Shelby was the EagleDrone. A Mage does more than merely tele-operate a drone. A Mage becomes the Drone. Shelby was just a Mage. He was the ArchMage. He looked at Carlos dead on as only an Eagle can look at someone and said “Place the BloodTalon around her neck.”
The Eagle Drone handed Carlos a necklace. Shelby’s voice had the bite of authority. It struck straight to Carlos soul. Carlos couldn’t have disobeyed if he had wanted to. He did as he was commanded.
“Put her on the table” the Eagle said. “then stand back.”
Carlos swept the dishes aside negligently with one arm. He laid her bruised and broken body on the table top. He had never noticed the omni-suit from the cyber-mites of the day before. It was so thin and transparent he couldn’t tell that she had it on. She didn’t have much on. She had slept in a nightgown which was pretty much history. Her injuries were revealed and were heartbreaking for him to see.
A blood red haze arose from the Blood colored Eagle Claws of the necklace. It obscured the woman’s form before it settled upon her, then it covered her like paint. The once black woman was briefly red as if dipped in blood. The blood disappeared immediately as it was absorbed.
“She’s not dead.” the Eagle said. “She’s pumped full of BloodNanites and is encased in a suit that you might not have noticed. It will that will take care of her every need other than food. By the way, you’re wearing an OmniSuit too. It’s thin but it’s getting thicker. It will help you. Re-enforcement drones carrying more SSmoke, and BloodNanites are on the way. You’re being taken care of too. Your wife was just more critical. Just thought that you’d like to know.”
The Eagle continued “She’s as safe now as if she were in the left hand pocket of God, any God. Give her time to heal. You might do some healing yourself. You need some. I sense something very special about her. She’s been grievously wounded, but she will heal.”
“How do you know?” Carlos asked.
“I know a lot of things.” The Eagle said looking at him straight on. It seemed to gaze upon his very SOUL with searing penetrating scrutiny. “I know a lot of things. I know that the baby is unharmed and that your neighbor, Weldon Melton will be dropping by soon. For coffee no doubt, do you have some?”
“I’ll see you soon, in person. Get well. This is now your Eagle. The Dragon belongs to your wife. ” The light went out of the eyes of the regal bird. It was now just and unmanned drone.