Awakening the Mare (Fall of Man Book 1) (14 page)

“Why did you not stop her, Davis?” I
asked.

“There’s no stopping your mother.” Davis
stood. “Now, please, will you read that book?”

“I will.”

“I’ll let you rest.” He leaned forward and
kissed me on the forehead. “Good night.”

“Davis?”

He stopped. “Yes?”

“Was my brother ... was my brother your
son?”

Davis hung his head low, then peered at me
through the tops of his eyes. “Yeah, Vala, he was.”

“I am so sorry. I truly am.”

“Me too.” After giving me a sad, forced
smile, Davis turned and left.

I lifted the book. If not for anything else,
I would learn for Davis.

The first night that I read from the book
Davis had given me, it happened again. The spinning sensation. I
likened it to when I was a little girl and I would turn around and
around and when I stopped, everything spun around me. This new
internal sensation was followed by a feeling of release and flying.
My spirit escaping my body, soaring out of the bunker, only this
time I did not go home to my village.

It was odd because there was a moment when it
happened that I thought to myself,
I know I am sleeping but I am
aware.

I soared through the door of the bunker up
the stairs and through the museum. I could hear the screams of the
Savages as they conquered the streets. Once I passed through the
museum, I slipped easily through the door as if it were air, and
saw Snake seated on the top step of the museum. He was drinking
from a brown bottle and he looked sad.

He would take a drink, then a Savage would
drop down from the sky. It would move to attack him, then Snake
would shoot it with an arrow, take another drink and wait for more
Savages.

The next morning when Snake arrived to
introduce me to the world of ‘color television’, I asked him about
what he had done the night before. At first, he told me he was
hanging out at home reading. I dismissed my experience as a dream,
until I told him about it. It was then he told me that he actually
was killing Sybaris while getting ‘drunk’. It was a bad day for
him. The anniversary of his son’s death.

That alone confirmed that I was indeed doing
some sort of out of body traveling, so all that remained was me
being able to control it, learn to do so while I slept, and then
eventually develop the ability to do so while I was awake. There
was a chapter in the book that mentioned bringing a ‘trigger’ into
my dreams. A trigger means to think of an object as I fall asleep.
It will cause my subconscious to bring it into my dream. When I see
it, it would ‘trigger’ me to know I was sleeping and in turn
transfer me to a lucid state, enabling me to transport.

The next two nights I was able to do so.
Setting my traveling goal on a simple one, I remained in Angeles
City, watching the Savages try to take victims.

To be able to achieve the ultimate goal in
transporting, I had to be able to do so at will and not only when I
was sleeping. The book told of using something called ‘white noise’
and to focus on it.

Marie said the ocean was perfect to visit
during the day but I was not able to leave the bunker until I was
finished with my program. She pulled out an old clock that ‘ticked’
at a steady pace.

It was in the middle of the day, just after I
finished viewing an informative news show called
Sixty
Minutes
. I lay next to the clock and focused on the steady
sound. Once I had gotten into the rhythm of the sound, my body
relaxed and I did all the steps the book had outlined.

My key was spinning. My body had to spin.
Fast and faster my core spun like a child’s toy until I could
release.

I was not sleeping at all, and with my
release, I looked down at myself lying on my bed. I feared at first
I had died, then dismissed it. Marie sat in a chair reading from a
thin paper magazine. The words on front said ‘
Caught
Cheating’
and she was engrossed in it. I moved to her and she
didn’t see me or notice I was there.

“Marie,” I called to her.

She turned a page.

Think. See me. Think.

After concentrating on my visibility, I
called her name again. “Marie.”

She glanced up from the magazine and
screamed. I frightened her and in return, she scared me into
instantaneously returning to my body. I discovered at that moment,
returning too quickly made it hard to breathe. I sat up gasping for
air. One thing was certain, however. I had reached a milestone. It
was something that could be a powerful tool and I had to perfect
it.

Three times a day, in between our television
lessons, Marie would have me practice traveling. She would send me
places, all places I had been to in my short time in Angeles
City.

Then innocently enough she told me to go to
the ocean. To see the magnificent body of water in the day. I
thought that was a great idea, especially after seeing Mike, Carol,
and all the Brady children go to ocean.

I traveled there and it was so much better in
the light of day. I could not wait until I got released from the
bunker and physically went there, because in my infancy point in
projecting, I could only hear and see. I could not feel the ocean
air or the sand beneath my feet.

Standing there, enjoying it, my attention was
drawn to a familiar laugh.

Tanner.

I grinned widely. I had not seen him at all
since being in the bunker. I had asked Marie about him. She told me
he was busy and that Davis did not want any outside influences for
me. For some reason I was filled with excitement over hearing him,
and I turned from my ocean view to see him.

My smile fell from my face. Tanner flapped a
blanket on the beach, and he was not alone. Smiling, he sat down
with a girl.

She looked older than me, though not by much.
Her short hair was auburn, and it blew softly in the wind. She had
a beautiful face with petite features. They sat together on the
blanket, and Tanner pulled out some fruit from a bag. I could not
make out what they were saying but they were giggling. The
sensation and sound of blood rushing filled my ears. They did that
flirting nudge and then… then he not only touched her, Tanner
leaned into the girl and kissed her.

It seemed in slow motion and they held the
kiss for a long time. My gut swirled and my head buzzed. Anger and
sadness, both at the same time, consumed me and I wanted to scream.
I did not know or understand why it happened and the clash of
opposing emotions swept me back and returned me to my body faster
than I wanted.

“Vala!” Marie grabbed a hold of me. “Breathe.
Breathe!”

I could not catch my breath.

“Open your eyes and breathe,” she said.

Finally, I gained control and my breathing
eased.

“Here, take a drink.” She handed me a cup.
“What happened? You went to the ocean?”

I nodded and took a sip.

“Did something happen?”

“No.” I handed her the cup and wiped my mouth
with the back of my hand.

“You look upset.”

“I… I saw…” Locking eyes with Marie, I
paused. “I saw the ocean. And it frightened me because I could see
it clearly.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Marie compassionately stroked
my hair. “You’re fine. Why don’t we eat lunch and get back to our
lessons? You’re almost done. I know you can’t wait to leave
here.”

Something inside told me my mind wouldn’t be
on my lessons, they would be on Tanner, and that disturbed me.

“
It is called hero worship.”

I was not transporting or leaving my body, I
was having a dream. A simple dream. I was in the bunker enjoying
the books. Yet, there was Iry standing before me.

“It happens when someone saves you,” he said.
“What you are feeling will pass.”

“How do you know what I am feeling?”

“Because I have been around.”

“Why are you in my dream, Iry?”

“Because you opened that door. You have been
moving about. Now you can see me more. I know what you saw when you
transported, him and that girl. It bothered you. It will pass
because it is a simple infatuation. You feel jealousy.”

“This is a dream.”

“Yes, it is, but I am here.”

“Why?”

“Because, Vala, this is not you. This living
in Angeles City, that’s not you. You are more than this. You are
destined to be something more.”

“Akana is not for me either.”

“No, it is not.”

“Then what is?”

Iry smiled. “Me.”

I did not respond.

“This is very limited,” Iry stated.
“Conversations in your dream state are limited to what your
subconscious will allow. Once you are free from this iron cell
called a bunker, I will find you. I will speak to you more. I
will.... I will see you soon.

Then he vanished and I slipped back into a
normal dream state. One where I was not lucid, where Marie looked
ten years younger, and Snake was wearing Alice the maid’s uniform.
A restful sleep and dream until I woke up and Davis was there.

“Ready sleepy head?” he asked.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up. “Did I sleep
late?”

“No,” Davis said. “I want to get you into
your new home, then start training you.”

“Training to do what?”

“I’ve been working on something. For now,
let’s get you out of here.”

“After she eats,” Marie said. “She has to
eat.”

“I’ll feed her when we get home.”

Marie shook her head. “I already have it
prepared. Come on, Vala.”

I made my way to the table, where Marie had a
meal prepared for me. I had gotten so comfortable with Marie that I
did not want to leave.

I had been in the bunker ten days. Longer,
she said, than anyone else she ever knew. Marie told me I was
harder to break than toilet training her son was. Prior to my time
in the bunker, I would not have gotten that joke.

I learned so much. Marie told me she knew
when I used the words ‘yeah’, and ‘okay’ I was good to go. ‘Okay’
was a new word for me. I liked it a lot, especially when I found
out it actually was short for ‘all is good’.

Relaxing my speech was something I had to
work on. It still was not natural, and I supposed eventually it
would be. I focused on how they talked on television and
incorporated that into the way I talked. If I wanted to be accepted
into Angeles City, I had to be like them.

I did not like leaving Marie. She was
comforting and in a sense, I knew she needed me, as if I were a
welcome distraction. For as much as I was slightly afraid of
leaving the bunker, I was sure Marie wanted to go home and I asked
her that.

“Are you missing your own home?”

“Very much so,” Marie replied. “Davis
promised he was keeping an eye out on it.”

“Fields are good. Ready for picking,” Davis
said. “I even got Vala’s room ready.”

My eyes widened with surprise. “I will be
living with Marie?”

Marie smiled. “I hope that’s all right.”

“Yes!” I shrieked enthusiastically, and leapt
from my seat to embrace her.

“I’m glad you’re happy. Finish up.” Marie
said, darting a kiss to my cheek.

I returned to my seat with a newfound
excitement.

“Wait until you see what I found for your
bedroom wall,” Davis winked.

“I can’t wait.”

Davis nodded his head at Marie. “She’s
talking like us.”

“Pretty much so,” Marie said. “She slips, but
she’s getting there.”

“So it worked well? I was worried,” Davis
said. “She was down here quite a while.”

“Even though she tends to whine like Lucy
now, argued to get a Carol Brady haircut, mentioned she will not
settle for a husband unless he looks like Jessie from
Full
House,
she—”

“His hair is am
azing
,” I
interjected.

Marie snickered. “Oh, yeah, and she laughs
like ALF.”

“What kind of laugh is that?”

I demonstrated. “Ha… Ha-ha... ha.”

Davis laughed.

“At first I found it difficult to grasp,” I
explained. “A furry, toy looking man with a deep voice and an
affliction for dining on cats. However…” I held back my laugh, “he
is the king of sarcasm.”

“I concur. You love that eighties stuff.”
Davis ran his hand over my head in an affectionate manner. “Finish
up. We have a lot to do and I want to start that training.”

“Davis? The last we spoke of any battle, you
didn’t know what exactly was going on. The only plan was to let the
Sybaris battle it out themselves. Have you figured out how to do
that?”

“No. That was the plan and that was all that
we had to work with… before you arrived. Now that we have you,
Vala, all that has changed.”

“You have another plan?”

A pleased smile slipped across Davis’ face.
“We have a plan.”

The village of homes was located outside the
city limits of Angeles. No big buildings, trees, or bushes took
over the roads en route there. Davis called it a ‘housing plan’, or
that’s what it was called prior to the event. He showed me what he
referred to as a ‘brochure’ of what it looked like previously.

It was well hidden in the trees. Once we
approached it, I saw what they had transformed it into. It had two
huge stone walls with an iron gate. The words ‘Lyon Estates' were
etched on a bronze style sign.

My first thought was there was no way that
simple gate would keep away the Savages. Then I realized it wasn’t
supposed to. The homes were plated with metal shutters and
reinforced roofs.

Unlike in the brochure, there were a lot of
homes missing. Some were ‘shelled’ out and used as indoor plant
housing. Some were leveled to make room for planting gardens. All
around the homes were small farms, and people moved about the road,
carrying goods by way of horse drawn carts.

With the exception of the farming so close to
the homes, it really held the same peaceful simplicity of
Akana.