Where the World Burns

Where the World Burns

“Mom was acting so weird. It’s like she was never going to see me again,” Scarlett said, looking at the box in her hands.  “She gave me this, though. Said it's from Dad. She never talks about him.”

“It’s definitely weird, Scar,” Jaycee said as she turned into the club parking lot.  She killed the engine and turned to Scarlett.  “You can talk to her about it tomorrow.  For now, let’s meet Mattie and dance with some hot guys.”

Scarlett continued to stare at the box until Jaycee snatched snatched it and turned it over. It was wrapped in some ancient dried palm leaf.  "Did your dad come from Hawaii or something?"

"Don't know," Scarlett said. "Mom wouldn’t even tell me that."

"What's Skeima?" Jaycee said, reading the name scrawled on the top.

"That's my real name," Scarlett said.  "Don't know why mom picked it.  She told me it means beautiful."  Jaycee was already pulling the wrapping off.

"Good you stuck with Scarlett.  It matches your hair," Jaycee said as she opened the box.  Inside was a very large claw, jet black, like an eagle’s, but much larger and sickle shaped.  There was a single hole drilled through and a leather thong strung through it.  As Scarlett looked closer, she could make out intricate carvings that reminded Scarlett of Celtic designs.  Without a second thought, Scarlett had slipped it over her neck.

They got out and started toward the door where there was already a crowd and a large bouncer checking a list.  “Hey girls.”  Scarlett and Jaycee turned just to see a man with sandy blond hair running up to them.

“Hey, he’s cute,” Jaycee muttered.

“Name’s Quinn by the way,” he said.

“I’m Jaycee and this is my BFF, Scarlett.”

“Jaycee, Scarlett,” he said with a smile.  “Now, you wouldn’t happen to be on the list would you.”

“Are you the bouncer?” Scarlett asked.

“Mattie should be in there by now,” Jaycee said.

“Don’t work here, just a guy who happens to know another way into this club.”

“You’re not going to grab my ass are you?” Scarlett said.

“Wouldn’t think of it.”

“Well that’s too bad,” Jaycee said with a wink.  “Show us your way in.”  Scarlett pulled Jaycee aside.

“What are you thinking?”

“If he’s a creep we can run and scream.”  She looked at the crowd ahead.  “They’ll hear us.”

“Fine.”

Quinn put his arm around Jaycee and Scarlett, leading them away from the entrance toward a nearby alley.  “Are you sure about this?” Scarlett asked as they started down the alley.

“This will be awesome,” Quinn said.  Before Scarlett could say anything, the alley shimmered then disappeared around her.

“Where am I?” Scarlett said, looking around.  Any trace of the city was gone, only an endless stretch of beach.  This was no beach she had ever been to before.  There were a few stone huts scattered around ahead of her.  It was sunset, and a tiny crescent moon hung near the horizon.  Scarlett felt oddly out of place as she stood there in her sparkly clubbing dress.

“Scar...” Jaycee said.  “Am I imagining this?”  Quinn let go of them and walked a few paces ahead and looked down the beach.  Scarlett followed his gaze to see a few more stone huts but it looked like there was some hastily rigged structures surrounding them.

In an instant, Quinn had dropped to his knees in the sand.

“I’m too late!” he shouted.  Was he weeping?  Scarlett had no idea if she should say something or just run back with Jaycee.

"Scar," Jaycee said in a weak voice.  "Where are we?"  It was no beach that Scarlett had ever seen.  Aside from the stone huts, the place looked desolate.

"Jaycee," Scarlett said.  "Let's get out of here.  Mattie’s probably looking for us."

"You’re running?  You can't go back" Quinn said, still looking out over the sea. "The rift has already closed."

"What rift?" Jaycee sobbed.  "Where are we? Why are we here?"

“I was supposed to bring the feared Skeima merka-Katuwali to help prepare the village defenses, but, I ended up with... you.”

“Yeah well fuck you too,” Scarlett said.  “How do you know my name?  And what the hell is Merkatuwall?”

“You don’t have a clue what I’m talking about,” Quinn said.  “You’re just some Cross-time child.  Hardly the Suviri warrior--”

Out of the darkness, several men emerged, carrying rifles of some kind.

"Jagermenschen," Quinn said.  “They’re the ones you were supposed to fight.”

“Me?” Scarlett said.

“The people here are simple fisherfolk, harvesting paca, a kind of sea silk.  They can’t stand up to a troop of Jagermenschen.  But the Suviri are known for their ferocity.  How else could they survive in the heart of the Cretaceous?”

While Scarlett wanted to fire back with some remark the strangers had them surrounded and she thought better than shouting.  They barked at each other in a language Scarlett had never heard.  The one grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back to get a good look at her face.  His face split into a sinister smile.  Before Scarlett realized it, she had punched him in the mouth.  He took a step back and shouted in his own language before he kicked her.  Scarlett felt the pain explode in her stomach and resisted the urge to vomit.

The Jagermenschen grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet.  Scarlett got a good look at the hatred in his eyes and dreaded the things he would do to her.

“Careful with that one,” Quinn said, laughing.  "That's a mighty Suviri chieftain's daughter.  Good hunting."

“What the hell are you doing?” Scarlett said.

“Saving your ass from the leader’s tent.”

“Suviri?” said one of the Jagermenschen.

“You know that word don’t you, you stupid son of a pig,” Quinn said.

“I know the Suviri,” said another Jagermenschen, clearly the leader, judging by the medals he pinned on his chest and the vicious looking scar on his left cheek.  “You claim this girl is one?”

"Look at the claw on her neck," Quinn said.  The Jagermenschen hauled Scarlett to her feet, and nearly pulling the necklace off.  He shouted back at his compatriots and then shoved Scarlett to the ground.  He picked up Jaycee by the shirt, and looked her over.

“Don’t touch her!” Scarlett shouted, as she pulled herself up again.  The Jagermenschen gave her a dismissive glance before Scarlett landed a blow on his face the surprised even her with the ferocity.

“You claim this one.”

“She’s my friend,” Scarlett said.  “Yes.”

“Then no one will touch her until the hunt is over,” he said.  Jaycee was dragged off screaming and Scarlett started to go after her, but Quinn stopped her.

“You’ll only get her killed,” he said.  “Of course whoever kills you will claim her anyway.”

“Then I have to get away.”

“You’ll have to dig deep and find every bit of Suviri blood with in you.  Get as savage as these bastards are and make them fear to speak your name.”

“I’m not a killer.”

“Then you’ll die here,” Quinn said.  “The Jagermenschen intend to hunt us.  It’s what they do.”  More shouts in Jagermenschen and Quinn and Scarlett were dragged away from the huts to the edge of the camp where three men and one woman who stood there waiting for him.  His eyes stopped at one man who looked like a Bedouin and wore long flowing robes.  “An Izmawen,” he said.  “They must have been more than eager to get their hands on one of you.”  The Izmawen ignored him and looked out into the desert.

“What’s your name?” Scarlett asked.  The Izmawen man turned and looked at her.

“Massidal,” he said.

“I’m Scarlett,” she said.  Before Massidal could say anything, there was a gunshot from inside the camp and the five of them started running into the darkness.

“What’s going on?” Scarlett said.

“We have all night to try and find some safe place,” Quinn said.

“Out in the desert?” Scarlett said.  “With god knows what lurking out there?”

“This is the Silurian,” Quinn said with a laugh.  “There is nothing out there.”  The other two were already gone while Massidal took a slower pace.  Quinn seemed to be hanging around him, while Scarlett decided in their company she was probably safer.

Massidal followed the river near the camp further inland.  He stopped once to fill his waterskins and then continued on with barely a word.

They walked in silence for some time, as Scarlett would look up at the stars.  They were brighter then she ever remembered and there was nothing to obscure the view, although she could not pick out a single constellation.

“You have lots of questions,” Quinn said at last.  He stopped and turned to Scarlett.  “Go ahead.

“What the hell is going on?  Where are we, or rather when are we?”

“In the Silurian period, a good four-hundred-forty-two million years before your time.”

“How did you ever end up here?” Scarlett said.

“He’s a mercenary,” Massidal said.  It was the first time he had spoken since they set out. “He goes where he’s paid to go.”

“I’ll have you know I was once a respected Home Era agent.”  Massidal responded with a dismissive snort before he left the riverbank and started across the plain toward a small hill.  “And in my career, I managed to seize a few more, shall we say, exotic items,” Quinn said, chucking.  “Including weapons.”

“What do you have?” Massidal asked, striding over to Quinn.

“It’s in my place which is about three miles down the shore.  I doubt that Jagermenschen would have found it.”

“Then it’s time we started moving,” Massidal said.  “Which way?”

“This way through the desert.  If we start now, we can cross most of it before the sun comes up.”  Without another word, Massidal turned and started walking into the desert.

***

Despite the situation, Scarlett could not help but admire the beauty of the desert around her.  The starlight and a particularly bright nebula near the horizon was enough to let her make out the scenery around her, as they made their way over rock and sand.  She had sacrificed the heels on her shoes to enable her to walk, but it made the sequined dress she wore even more out of place.  As she looked up at the stars she stumbled over a rock and skinned her knee.

“Dammit!  How much further?” she asked.

“We’ve crossed about two miles,” Quinn said.  I would say another mile and a half or so.  We should make it in plenty of time before the sun comes up.”

“We should rest then,” Massidal said.

“Why?”

“They’ll be rested,” he said.  “And expect us to run ourselves ragged through the night.  They won’t come into the desert, but try to wait us out.”

“I say we go on another mile,” Quinn said.  “Because once that sun is up we won’t last long.”

They continued on for a while before they came to a rock outcrop before a sea of dunes.  “We’ll rest here for a while,” Massidal said.  Scarlett had no idea how they could rest, given they were in a completely empty desert millions of years in the past with a group of psychos hunting them.  Within a few minutes she was asleep.

***

Dreaming in the past was not what Scarlett expected.  She dreamed of dinosaurs, feathery velociraptors, or perhaps people pretending to be dinosaurs.  They all turned and looked at her.  Scarlett knew they were waiting for her to strike.  A prehistoric monster that Scarlett did not recognize ran at them and the people changed back into velicraptors and Scarlett changed alongside them.  She slashed at the monster with her foot claw and watched the blood flow.  Delighted with the sensation she attacked, she kept slashing until she awoke.

***

Scarlett lay awake in that vast empty desert looking at the stars wheeling overhead.  What brought me to this place, and why?  Is anyone out there? she wondered, but the sky, felt as empty as the land around her.  She drifted off again.

***

It was still dark when Scarlett was awakened.  “We need to get moving,” Massidal said.

“Can I please have some some answers,” Scarlett said, as she pulled her heelless pumps back onto her aching feet.  “Who the hell are the Jagermenschen and how the hell did I end up four hundred million years in the past?”

“You need to know this now?” Quinn said.

“I think I’ve been patient.  My friend Jaycee is looking at a fate worse than death and I don’t see much of a way out of here.”

“We can talk as we go,” Massidal said.

“How did we end up here?  How do we move through time?”

“No one knows what caused the rifts,” Quinn said.  “But they run throughout the history of the planet.  Most seemed to be concentrated after the Blue Moment.”

“Blue moment?”

“Oxygenation,” Quinn said.

“And the Jagermenschen?”

“Some stone age culture that flourished in the Pliocene,” Massidal said.  “The Hunt is the preoccupation of theirs.”

“No one knows why,” Quinn said.

“What do we do?” Scarlett said.

“We make it back to my home and find the plasma rifle there.  Then Skeima, daughter of Katuwali will take care of the Jagermenschen.”

“I’m going to have to ask you what you know about me,” Scarlett said.

“In time,” Quinn said with a smile.  “First we need to get through those dunes before the sun comes up.”

***

Scarlett thought she was going to die. The sun had only just cleared the horizon, but the heat was already unbearable.  Massidal gave a a drink from the waterskins, but it was only enough to wet her tongue.  “How much longer?” she gasped.  She tried not to think about water.  “How much longer...” she asked again.

“Soon enough,” Quinn said.  Scarlett would have cursed him out, but that took too much energy.  Looking ahead was a single mountainous sand dune.

“You have to be kidding me,” she muttered.

“Don’t you smell that?” Quinn said.  “The salt in the air?  Over that hill and we’re at the shore.”

It did smell like the beach, and Scarlett could not help smiling.  But it still did not solve the water problem.  Massidal dashed up, walking up the side of the dune to the top without even a second thought.  He looked around from the top and then waved them up.  Quinn scrambled up after him and Scarlett tried but had to take off her broken shoes before she could make any sort of progress and even then, it was impossible to ignore the burning sand on her feet.

When she reached the top, the sight of the blue ocean had never been so inviting.  “There!” Quinn said, pointing at what looked like a stone hut, a short distance inland from the water.

“It looks like the Jagermenschen haven’t found this place,” Massidal said.

“Then let’s get down there before they do,” Quinn said.  “There’s a desalinator down by the water.”

“Thank god,” Scarlett said as she started down the hill.

***

“There’s still no food here,” Quinn said as he and Scarlett settled in the cool corner of the hut.

“I don’t care,” she said, leaning against the cool stones.

“What is this place?” Massidal said, walking in with a full skin of water that he handed off the Scarlett.  Scarlett did not even ask before she started gulping.  The warm water was a godsend.

“This was the place I first stayed in when I came here.  I thought I could stake my own paca claim.  Fortunately the villagers were patient with me.

“I’m sorry,” she said, handing the skin back.

“I can get more,” Massidal said.  “I have to say I’m impressed with a Murtadi type desalinator here.”

“Trading paca can bring all kinds of benefits,” Quinn said.

“We still need to deal with the Jagermenschen,” Scarlett said.

“Ask and ye shall receive,” Quinn said with a smile.  He crawled over next to Scarlett and none too gently shoved her aside.

“Hey!”  Quinn ignored her and started digging in the sand.  After a few minutes he pulled up a large box and opened it up, pulling out a some type of gun.

“What is that?”  Massidal asked, very interested.

“When I was a Home Era temporal affairs agent, I had to deal with people smuggling advanced ‘Adja weapons all over time.  I decided to keep this one for myself.  Proved most useful when I left Home Era.”

“What an ‘Adja?” Scarlett asked.

“In the hundreds of millions of years there are hundreds of thousands of civilizations, some quite advanced,” Quinn said.  “The ‘Adja Empire leaves them all in the dust.”

“An ‘Adja plasma rifle,” Massidal said, taking the gun in his own hands.  “This is more than enough to deal with the Jagermenschen.”

“I say we head down around sunset,” Quinn said.  “Give them what for.  In the meantime, I’ll get some water.”

No sooner had he stepped out the door when Scarlett heard the gunshot.  Looking out the doorway, Scarlett saw Quinn fall to the ground.  “No!” she shouted.  She felt something break within her as well, as if all the events of the past day and a half had finally caught up with her.  Rage bubbled up from within her, and Scarlett latched onto it. Before she even realized what she was doing, she had taken the gun from Massidal and stormed out the door.

Massidal protested, but Scarlett would not stop.  She saw a pair of Jagermenschen armed with long rifles.  The first was reloading, but the second took aim at her.  Scarlett was faster, she brought the plasma rifle to bear and fired, watching a blast of yellow light shot straight at the first Jagermenschen.  In a matter of seconds he was consumed completely in a blast of fire until nothing remained but the rifle and the scorched hand still holding onto it.

The second Jagermeschen ran down the shore back toward their camp as Scarlett shouted after him.  “You better run!  Tell them Skeima is coming for them.”

“There goes our element of surprise,” Massidal said, picking up the dead man’s rifle.  He aimed and fired, dropping the Jagermenschen to the ground.  The man was not dead and tried to drag himself away down the stands.  “Do you want the kill?” he asked.

“I don’t care,” Scarlett said, looking at the gun in her hands.  For the first time she felt the power in her hands, power to change the world.  She looked back at Quinn’s body on the ground in front of her.  “Finish him, and then we’ll bury Quinn.”

“There’s the Suviri chieftain’s daughter,” Massidal said.

***

Scarlett and Massidal walked down the beach as the low sun turned the sand a brilliant gold.  She glanced at the plasma rifle on her arm before looking around at the various dunes to her right.  "How do we know they won't snipe us from the hills--"

"It's not their way," Massidal said.  "They need to look their prey in the eyes." Scarlett nodded but was not completely confident about it.  "There!" Massidal pointed to the stone huts of the village ahead of them.  The Jagermenschen had erected two primitive structures.  On the structures hung the bodies of the others that the Jagermenschen had selected for the hunt.

Scarlett took a deep breath and mumbled to herself, "I'm Suviri."  With that she fired off several shots at the structures and watched as the plasma blast set them light.  People started running around wildly shouting in the Jagermenschen language.  The battle had begun.

And then it was over before even Scarlett realized it.  She had burned down all the Jagermenschen who had come at her.  The mismatch of weapons had surprised her, like a popgun against a howitzer.  All around her were bits of scorched glass on the sand a few burned limbs, all that remained of the Jagermenschen.

“Massidal!” she shouted.  “Is that it?”  She turned around as Massidal was leading the prisoners out of the largest stone hut.  At the head of them was Jaycee, who stopped in her tracks when she saw Scarlett.

“Scar?” she asked cautiously.  “Don’t shoot me!”  Scarlett looked down and saw the plasma rifle was leveled at her friend.  She dropped the rife in the sand and turned to the burning structures, seeing the reflection in the sequins of her clubbing dress.

“What have I done?” she asked, as the enormity of what she had done it her.  She had killed almost a dozen people.  And done it without a second thought.

“You saved us, Scar,” Jaycee said.

Scarlett’s hands were shaking. “I’ve killed so many people.  What kind of monster am I?”

“You are Suviri, Skeima,” Massidal said.

“You’re my friend.  Scarlett Bennett,” Jaycee said, but Scarlett could not hold the tears back any longer.

***

Scarlett sat on the beach watching the waves hit the shore.  "Scar?"

"What do you want, Jaycee?"

"Just want to make sure you're OK," Jaycee said. "You've been keeping to yourself."

"I'm fine," Scarlett snapped.

"You did the right thing, Scar."

"Did I?" Scarlett said. "I burned down several people. I am a killer."

"You saved us!" Jaycee said. She sat down on the sand next to Scarlett. "You fought back from hell to save us," she said, taking Scarlett's hand in hers. "Isn't that good enough?"

"It'll have to be," Scarlett said, looking out over the waves again.

THE END