1
About five years ago, Hell paid a visit to the planet Earth. I remember hearing about it first on television, like everyone else. The ‘experts’ had all kinds of theories and explanations, but nothing concrete. Then people started disappearing; on they’re way to work, running at the track; going to the store. Pretty soon, people were afraid to leave their homes. The fires came next; no matter where you went, something was burning. It was happening everywhere, all over the world.
And then they came.
There was nowhere to hide, there was so much fear, before too long panic set in. They seemed to be everywhere, they… ha…why don’t we call them what they are: dragons... oh yea - right out of a sci-fi novel... fucking fire-breathing dragons!
I lost my family, except for Michael. I try not to remember that part too much; it tends to make me a little crazy. My clearest memory of that time is taking Michael away from the fire, and running. I can remember seeing the Houston skyline ablaze in my rear view mirror as I headed south on I-45 towards Galveston. Great patches of black smoke spiraled towards the sky and covered the horizon from one end to the other. I thought we would be safe near the ocean; they seemed to avoid large areas of water. Getting food wasn’t a problem, we hit stores for that, and we were careful to conserve. K-Marts, Academy’s and such supplied us with all the camping gear and weapons we needed. I found a real nice crossbow at one of these and kept it with me all the time. We were exceedingly careful as we traveled along the coast towards Beaumont. Before to long we spotted roving bands of marauders; these men were butchers and very deadly. Man never changes, take away his cities, his society, and he reverts to the caveman mentality pretty damn quick. We steered clear of these groups and turned inland. Every now and then we would find a farmhouse that was untouched; we would stay a day or two and rest up at these places.
Michael was in a state of shock for several months; seeing your family disintegrated in a ball of fire is pretty traumatic for a 9 year old. I did what I could for him, which wasn’t much; I was worried he wouldn’t snap out of it. We ran, we hid, we screamed, and finally we just held each other and cried. After that the healing started.
I realized that we had to get to the mountains. Up in Colorado seemed like the logical place to g; but getting there would be a big problem. I found a big camouflaged Dodge Ram truck outside of Cleveland, Texas. We used that for several weeks; it took us to the Dallas-Ft Worth area where we hunted around for food supplies.
In a burned out mall near Ft Worth, we found a couple of starving yellow Lab puppies. They were the first things Michael showed any interest in, so I decided to keep them. I hoped that they would help him heal, and bring my old Michael back to me. Over time, with some food and lots of love, the dogs got stronger. They became very protective of us…and best of all they knew when any of the dragons were in the area. Michael came out of his self-imposed exile and joined the world again; I take no credit there, the two labs brought him back to life. He named them Tabs and Ash; to me they were simply the ‘Twins’. Michael kept his eye on them all the time we were moving as the dogs were alert to everything around us.
Traveling by night was definitely out, those things had great eyesight in the dark. We had to move by day carefully, and we got very good at it as we managed to cover a lot of ground. We steered clear of the marauding groups that were in the area. That’s when the dreams started coming. I was trying to make it to a place that I kept dreaming about; it was somewhere out west. I started to head across Texas towards New Mexico; for some reason it felt right to go this way. Then we got lucky, I found a Hummer abandoned in one of the small towns near Amarillo; we traveled comfortably in that for a long time. I was heading towards Four Corners, New Mexico. I figured that we could head into the mountains of Utah, up towards Capitol Reef National Park.
We ran into a small group of four people outside Albuquerque; they were just like us, scared and running. We talked about what we knew, about where we were trying to go and why; and we compared our dreams. The man in this little group seemed to be in charge. His name was Sam; he was a large man, a former Marine, somewhere in his late 40’s or early 50’s. He was fit and trim, he kept himself in shape, habit I guess. He sort of barked things out like he was giving orders. The woman with him calmed him down, and he began to relate his story. You couldn’t blame him for being cautious. He hated those things with a passion; but he also recognized them as a formidable enemy. There wasn’t much that could rattle a Marine, so it was kind of weird when his voice cracked as he spoke. He was the only one of us who had actually seen one of them. ‘They’re dragons I tell you. Never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen one of them myself. Fire breathing and all, nothing would stop them, we fired everything at them and they just kept coming. They were so fucking big! You have no idea until you see one of them up close.’ He took a long swallow from a bottle of Jack. Then he said something that caught my attention right away. He said he kept having the same damn dreams over and over again. They told him he had to keep moving north, northwest, towards the ‘mountains in the mist.’ I realized then that we had all been having the same dream.
He introduced his companions. The woman’s name was Lucy. She was about 40, give or take a few, black hair pulled back and braided and twisted into a knot. She was about 5’5”, kind of plumpish in that middle-aged way. She was scared too, but quick on her feet. She had made her way from Las Cruces all by herself – yes, she was gutsy! She had passed thru areas that were totally decimated; and thru a lot of areas that were still burning. She had a wonderful sense of humor, made jokes about the state of things. She never knew that she was the one who kept me sane throughout the next couple of months. She said she kept having these strange dreams of a mountain in mist, and safety. She had met up with the man about 2 weeks previous to running into us. She said he was a good decent man, he had been very kind to her and she trusted him.
They had two teenagers with them that they picked up along the way. The boy was about 16 or 17, he was jumpy, had that look of seeing too much too soon. Once he was probably the football hero, the big man at school; now he was just a scared kid. He was still pretty husky, stood 6’ or so, sandy brown hair, and he carried a rifle with him. He was also angry as hell at the whole situation; a real fighter or he never would have made it this far. Said his name was Billy Rob; he had his arm protectively around the girl. He called her Ashley. She was about 16, a wispy-blonde, probably a former cheerleader; you know the thin-vulnerable type. She still had that ‘deer in the headlights’ look. She was probably part of the in-crowd in high school; the Homecoming Queen, and all that nonsense. What she had seen in the past couple of weeks was probably too much for her to take in. She was very jumpy, held onto the boy for dear life; she was going to have to toughen up or she would become a liability.
Sam suggested we travel together. Michael said he felt they were ‘good’ people and the ‘twins’ seemed to like them. The fact that we should stay together made sense. The night’s dreams confirmed this, so we set out the next morning as one big ‘family’.
That was when I first got the idea that some one or some thing was guiding us. I began to form an idea of sorts about all that had happened, about the world, and started to think of things in Biblical terms. I kept most of this to myself, not wanting to alarm the others, or give them cause to doubt my sanity. Shit, I doubted it!
We gassed up in a little town and headed out toward the desert. Something was pushing us to go, and go quickly. The dogs loved all the attention they were getting. And ever-vigilant Michael kept his eyes on the skies. During one stop we found shelter in some caves. We had no fire, as we couldn’t take the chance. In the dark of night, any light can be seen a long way off. And we all knew their eyesight was something we couldn’t afford to attract.
I knew the desert was cold at night, but we had good sleeping bags and we would be warm enough in them. Sometime during the night I felt Michaels hand on my leg.
“Something’s out there, the dogs are cowering.”
I got out the crossbow and slowly made my way towards the front of the cave. I listened for what seemed like an eternity. I could make out no sound; there was no wind, no moon, nothing. The dogs were still back there curled tightly together, heads down.
Then I heard it…. Whoosh - whoosh!
The hair on the back of my neck rose to sharp attention, chills ran down my spine; it was out there, up in the night sky. And then I saw it, reflected in the moons light as it made a low pass over the whole area. It was huge… even that word isn’t good enough. Black as coal, dripping blood from a recent kill I guessed.
Movement caught my eye down below as two horses darted out from a small arroyo and started to run like the wind. They were racing across the plain to the mountains on the other side.
Go, go you beauties… fly! I begged them to hurry.
The dragon spotted them, turned in mid-air and with lighting speed was upon them in seconds. I was sick to my stomach, but still watched in fascination as it swept them both up in its gigantic claws and began to feed. Lord Almighty, how were we ever going to survive, I asked myself. I made sure I was inside the cave just enough so it wouldn’t see me, and kept watch all night. It finally gave up and flew off to more fertile feeding grounds just before dawn. When the others rose I told them about our night visitor, they were none too happy. We agreed to put as many miles behind us as we could before stopping again.
By midday we came to a small rise that overlooked a ranch. We headed towards it to see if there were any horses. I still thought that horses were the best way to get where we were headed. The ranch was deserted, but there was a large barn out back. Sam and I decided to check it out and to our amazement found that the barn held 10 horses. Someone had kept this place going. We searched everywhere but found no one. There were four stunningly beautiful Arabian show horses; the other stalls held 5 Quarter horses. The last two stalls held a big Indian paint and a pony about 9 months old, just perfect for Michael to ride. There were saddles for all of us, and it didn’t take us long to get it together and get the hell out of there. I can tell you it was a little surreal using those beautiful Arabians as packhorses. We kept close to the mountains, and found shelter for the night in abandoned towns, and in caves. The ‘twins’ were growing at an alarming rate, getting really big; they had bonded strongly with Michael.
I became convinced that we were being ‘guided’ along. We seemed to make the right decisions, and always found what we needed at the right time. We discussed this aspect of our journey with each other, and agreed that a much ‘higher force’ was in play here.
A week later we reached a desert and could see in the distance a large mountain range that appeared to be covered by mist. As we crossed the desert we hardly ever saw any living thing. No birds, no lizards, no people… nothing. We headed towards the mountain quickly and the closer we got, the more it changed before our eyes. It appeared to be a series of valleys hidden in the large mountain chain. There would be plenty of places in these mountains to hide. We went over several ridges and ended up in a small valley. It seemed to be hidden from everything else by a thick mist that encircled the entire mountain. This would become home for a time, we set up a makeshift camp.
Sam and Michael and I explored the mountains and the surrounding area in the succeeding days. We found a second area, where we are now, and we set up a permanent camp. I decided to explore a little further on, and found the backside of the mountains.
I stood on the rim overlooking a grassy plain below. There was what appeared to be a town down there. Thru binoculars I could see there were a lot of large warehouses towards the end of the small town. And there were trucks strewn around one building, and some semis around the other two warehouses. I told Sam about it and we decided to take a look. Michael and the ‘twins’ came along for protection.
To our surprise the electricity was still on in all the buildings! These warehouses were self-sufficient; they had their own generator, and an unlimited fuel supply – they were solar powered! Inside we hit pay dirt; the warehouses held everything we needed to survive. One was a food center with a freezer unit stocked full. We weren’t going to starve after all. From what we could gather this was a distribution center for all of the surrounding towns and cities; so they were stocked full. We also found one warehouse loaded with everything but food. Clothing, furniture, beds, blankets, everything! We would be able to exist in relative comfort. None of us wanted to move into the town; no, we were safer in the mountains and we knew it. It was getting some of this stuff back to the campsite that was going to be a problem; but we would work it out, we had plenty of time now.
A year passed so fast we hardly noticed; we had all been so busy getting our new camp up and running. The security devices we had set up around the camp weren’t worth shit; it was the ‘twins’ who ended up warning us when we had company. Then the dreams started to inform us when people were headed our way. Our first band of stragglers came bounding out of the brush one month after our first anniversary. There were 12 of them, and they faced the growling ‘twins’ in fear. By this time they were quite a formidable looking pair; at least 250 pounds each.
Then a mountain of a man stepped forward, knelt down and talked to the dogs. They quieted and eventually tails wagged, and they licked his face as if in recognition. They accepted him and his group; that was good enough for us. He said his name was Big John; and he gave new meaning to the word ‘big’. He proved to be just the person we needed. He helped us to organize better, and he set up a much more effective security system for our perimeter. Oh, and he became my dearest friend.
Over the years we carefully built up the camp, we reinforced it, refined it. More stragglers came in every now and then, and they would all say the same thing more or less; ‘I was just drawn to this area; I couldn’t help myself, it was like a magnet was pulling me in this way; or ‘I dreamt of this place’. So we started to grow little by little over the next several years till we were over 150 people.
We’ve become pretty self-sufficient at this survival game. We had two farmers come in during year two. They taught us all about farming, and we rely on them greatly. Then an engineer appeared, and then a carpenter, and the list continued to grow on and on. Whatever, or whoever we needed would suddenly appear. We began to understand that we had all gathered here in this area for a reason. Each of us has the ‘dreams’ in one form or another; and we have come to believe that we have a special task down the road.
And then, towards the end of year two, I went off on a little exploring trek. It taught me a lesson I wouldn’t ever forget; and it also led me to where I found Jake. Everything changed after that, even me! Jake saved me, though he likes to say that I rescued him…. hell, the truth is - he saved us all!
But then, that’s what he was sent to do - save us.
Oh - did I mention that Jake was a dragon?
We haven’t seen any of the marauders for some time now. They seem to concentrate around the little populated areas that they can loot. Our main problem now is the mutant animals that make their way up the mountain every now and then. There seems to be an awful lot of them lately; we believe that there was a nuclear weapon used on the black fire dragons, and the mutants are the result of the fallout. Jake generally finds them before they get here, but a few have managed to slip thru our defenses. Then he, or Lady Jennie, takes them out quickly.
Lady Jennie is Michael’s dragon.
Recently the dreams began to tell us about a new group of men coming our way. Jake said he was waiting for them to arrive; they had to be here before we could begin our task. They had been on the road for almost a year. They had all seen some terrible things, been thru some worse things, things that would stay with them forever. This group of men had been molded and finely tuned for a specific task. Now, they were ready to be used, so they were directed to the mountains.
They would have to fight their way up and over the mountain; evil doesn’t like to give in easily.