Thaluk had waited long enough, finally that old coward of chieftain was dead, succumbed to the bloody cough he developed months ago.
And Thaluk had plans, ambitious plans.
His plans where long known to many in the tribe, they knew he had a keen interest in the old cities and the wonders from times ago, and more than once had he been warned, by the tribe elders as well as the old chieftain that entering the old cities was dangerous, that the curse of the old war would fall upon him and all who would follow him.
But Thaluk was no fool, there was no such thing as "a curse of the old war", he had seen the wonders of the "Sisters" years ago, as he still was a young boy, and he knew that those wonders must have come from the old cities, and that the rumours of the curse must have been placed into the mind of the elders by those "Sisters" to prevent others to find those wonders for themselves.
It was easy for him, the now best hunter in the tribe, to convince most of the younger impressionable members to make him the new chieftain, those favoured by the elders where not that impressive as the loud boasting of Thaluk.
He was barely made new chieftain as he announced it, that he will travel to the old city to the north, find its hidden riches and bring them back to the tribe. He had soon many willing young men around him, willing to follow him into the adventure.
On the morning as the group prepared to leave the tribe to the old city, Moresh, one of the elderwomen came to Thaluk.
"You cant go Thaluk, we said it before and i say it again, others went there, the curse will get you as it got them, And you will doom those who foolishly follow you as well!", Moresh placed her old weak frame in front of Thaluk, blocking the way.
Thaluk had more than enough from those old weaklings and cowards, he was barely holding back his rage and shoved Moresh out of his way with no effort at all.
"I have enough from your cowardish whining old wrench, stay in my way again and i will banish you from the tribe, don't forget who the chieftain is! You will be sorry when i come back with the wonders that i find!", he signalled the others and moved out, leaving the tribe and Moresh, who barely had avoided to fall down. Moresh shouted after him "Turn back Thaluk, you will find just misery and doom!"
Her shouts only reached deaf ears.
The old city was several days to the north, Thaluk knew the way, he had prepared this for a long time. He knew which places to avoid, the hunting grounds of the bonegnawer tribe, vicious man eaters who lived between his tribe and the old city, usually raiding nomad tribes.
The bonegnawers cowardly avoided the old city, and as the first ruins came into sight, he felt some relief, they wouldn't dare to come that near, and he was near to become the greatest chieftain as far as man can travel in a year.
He and his followers slowly travelled into the city, which was empty of all life, the buildings only barren husks, some towering high into the sky.
Sometimes they found charred bones, old, crumpling from age, belonging to long dead humans, but more importantly, it didn't take long to find one of the wonders of the time before the war. In the basement of one of the old buildings, he found firesticks, more than two handful of them. He had seen them only twice in his life, belonging to some nomads who traded with his village, but he knew what they are, powerful weapons who can kill a strong man from far away. He roughly knew how to use them, and what was needed that they function, and so his followers grabbed the firesticks and several boxes with those "metal beans" that where used with them.
They moved deeper in the city.
Sama was the first, on the second evening inside the city he complained about dizziness. They laughed first, telling him he was a fool to drink that water he found inside a building, and made already fun of him telling that he would probably spending the rest of this adventure shitting his guts out.
The next morning, Sama was blind and he vomited blood.
Some others became unsure, they talked silently, partially hidden from Thaluks ears, about the curse.
Sama died that afternoon, and the others felt ill as well, Thaluk shouted at them, told them they where cowards, but he himself didn't feel well anymore.
The next morning all of them felt worse, and no matter what Thaluk said, they didn't want to move anymore forward, deeper into the city. Reluctantly, he decided to travel back with them to the tribes village.
It took them longer to travel back, the illness became worse and worse, hair felt out, they had to vomit, their skin opened itself, leaving violently bleeding wounds, dizziness and hallucinations followed.
As they reached the village, they where greeted with silence and closed doors.
"We need help... open the door". Thaluk shouted, but he didn't get the answer he expected, instead a fist sized stone hit him on the shoulder, it was Moresh, standing above the entrance to the village.
"Go you fool, go, you carry the mark of the curse! You will not enter the Village or you will give the curse to all of us!"
"I'm your chief, you cant deny me entrance to my village you ol..." the rest of his sentence was silenced from violent coughing, blood dripped from his mouth to the ground, and Moresh answered with yet another stone.. followed by more from the other villagers:
"Go Thaluk, take those with the curse... go deep in the mountains and die there, you will not enter this village!"
Thaluk thought a moment to use the firestick to silence Moresh forever, but then he saw the scared faces of those who had followed him, they knew, the curse was true. Defeated he moved backwards, he still wanted to say something, but he knew it made no sense anymore.
They went to the mountains.
Epilogue
The Geiger counter rattled fast as she entered the cave and Sister 2134 used the her egg to connect to the sisters in the nearest outpost. ""I found them, 12 corpses, all heavily radiated, those fools!"", her mind suddenly was flooded with another, hearing the thoughts of the sister who send her here to this place to investigate, ""As the elders have said, we must take care of those body's or we risk that someone spreads the radiation further!""
""I will close the cave and then travel back, at least those poor souls will have some kind of burial then!"", she felt some kind of agreement from the other side of the connection.
From her backpack, she removed a small silver sphere, barely larger than a walnut, using the egg again, she connected with this tiny device, then placed it near the entrance of the cave, she didn't look back into the cave, and as she was already a long distance away, she heard the thunder of a detonation and the growl of an avalanche. Sister 2134 sighed softly as she reached her ATV on the base of the mountain and made her way back to the sisterhood outpost.
No comments:
Post a Comment