Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) (26 page)

“So you’re alive!” the Hunter exclaimed as he was running, “How
many survived?”
Jan responded with, “What are you doing here? What do you want?”
The Hunter slowed his pace towards Jan. They were close enough
now. “We want to join you! My name is Palatu.” His hands were
outstretched, as if begging.
The others were coming up now, as they had increased their pace. It
was a bit disconcerting to Jan as the fully armed group started to arrive
where he and Palatu were standing and talking.
“How can we trust you?” Jan asked.
Palatu replied, “This was a suicide trip for us. We are desperate.”
Another joined in, “We have brought our families, and we can’t go
back. The NOV is in chaos. Everyone knows that there is no more
vaccine production, and there have been riots, home invasions, and the
police have been terrorizing us, looking for any hidden doses of vaccine.”
This time, a female voice was heard within her wildlands suit, “It was
only a matter of time before most of us died, along with our children. We
decided that if we were going to die, we should die trying to survive. You
have the vaccines — we had the suits to get out here. Do the math.”
“Why didn’t you send scouts?” Jan asked. “They would have been
able to come here, change filters, and go back to report.”
“You don’t understand,” the female Hunter replied, “You don’t know
how bad it is back there. The NOV’s National Police are torturing any one
they think might have any knowledge of hidden vaccines. The NOV
leaders are desperate for it, and will kill everyone trying to find more.
Their reasoning is that those sacrificed are going to die anyway.”
“They are succeeding,” said another Hunter, they are saving it for
themselves, along with their protectors, the troopers and police.”
Jan believed what they were saying and said, “Come with me now —
my people are scared to death of you. They believe you were sent by the
NOV. If I go back alone to report, there will be some who will argue and
make it complicated.” Then he smiled, and said, “Welcome. Welcome to
New Aletia.”
The hunters were overjoyed, and started cheering. “We made it! We
made it!”
Jan had a thought, “There is one thing though, that you must agree
to.”
“What?” asked Palatu, as they all became quickly quiet. They had
come from a life of rules, and this sounded like the first one here.
“You have asked to join us,” Jan replied, “That means you must agree
to attend our weekly LERN meetings.”
There was groaning from half of the males there, one said to another,
“See? I told you! They want to turn us into love-lovers!” There was more
moaning and grumbling.
Jan responded, “We won’t force you to join, but you must attend, to
learn about us, and understand us. This is
our
colony.” Then he said,
“There are six hundred of us, and many are watching from that building
right up there,” and Jan turned and pointed to the top of the hotel, poking
up in the distance above the buildings between them. “We have many
hunters of our own, and the rest of us have become quite proficient in the
use of firearms in the past eight months, as you can imagine. We are
survivors, and I can guarantee you that all of them are armed, right now,
and they are waiting to see what happens.”
Palatu turned and yelled to the others, “He said we don’t have to
become love-lovers! He just wants us to learn about them.”
One Hunter, Gast, the one that was complaining the most, said, “Let’s
take him as a hostage, and negotiate that!”
Palatu turned, and emptied a number of bullets into Gast, who fell to
the ground. He looked around at the others. “Anyone else?” he challenged. “This was supposed to be settled before we left! If I think anyone
will mess this up, I will mess
you
up!”
They all became quiet after that. They then all walked into the city —
into New Aletia.
When they arrived with Jan, nobody was outside but the snipers hidden on rooftops and around buildings. As they came close to the hotel,
Jan went inside the huge lobby and explained to everyone about the
situation. Just about everybody really was armed by now.
Dr. Kalep was upset about the NOV’s influence on their new free
world, but quickly saw the Hunters’ value in expanding their “safe zone”,
free of predators. The LERN hunters had mixed feelings as well. They
could use the help of these experts and their superior weaponry, but they
had developed their own level of pride in their accomplishments. They
did not want to give up the respected place that they had earned in this
journey. They would certainly refuse anyone taking over, and that was the
classic NOV style to be expected.
“They said that they would agree to attend weekly LERN meetings.”
Jan offered.
“No!” exclaimed Cush, “I can’t believe it!” Cush had never had attended a meeting himself, and to think that these NOV Hunters would
submit to such superstition was inconceivable to him.
Jasma could see the possibilities of getting the meetings jump-started
using this angle. “Excellent!” she exclaimed. “This will greatly expand
the call to meetings! Jan and I were just discussing the idea of increasing
participation. We can all teach them!”
The ones standing there were murmuring, and Jan said, “Listen, they
are right outside. What else are we going to do, really?”
There was no good answer. Nobody wanted a war, which they could
have if they so chose, at any moment.
Dom chimed up, “Listen, I wasn’t a LERN member, but I’ve learned
a lot, and you guys are OK. I think they’ll come around.”
“Me, too,” exclaimed Buz. “I wasn’t one of you, and it’s worked out
great. If they have to go to the meetings, they’ll learn that it isn’t such a
big deal.”
Jasma and Jan looked at each other. Jasma saw her opportunity, and
said, “We must all give a good example, and make every effort to come to
the meetings every week. We must show solidarity!”
Jan smiled at her. Jasma was a pro, and he was beginning to truly
appreciate her.
What the hell went wrong with her son?
he thought,
looking at Asa, who was scowling about another unwelcome change in
his life happening again.
Jan looked at Jasma, then at Ziba, and said, “Do you want to meet
them?”
“Yes, most definitely!” Ziba replied. She liked what Jasma and Jan
were cooking up, and wanted to support it.
“Wait! What about us?” said Dr. Kalep and Cush.
Ziba looked at them and asked, “Do you want to go out there?”
They both looked down. They did not trust the NOV Hunters that
much, yet.
Jasma glanced at Ziba and smiled. Then she directed her attention
again to Jan and Jasma and said, “Let’s go then,” and the three of them
went out to meet with the Hunters, who were now sitting or standing
around outside, waiting for what was next. They met, talked and when
convinced, they called the others out of the hotel to come and meet the
Hunters.
Jan retrieved Dom and they then ran over to the vaccine lab, which
was in the office building, and met with Lep. Lep was still stuck there by
the responsibility to keep almost constant watch on, and make adjustments to the vaccine module. Winoni had been finding and machining
parts for Lep as well. The parts were destined for a custom vaccineproducing unit Lep and Dom were assembling. This would be useful, as
well as provide a critical back-up if the first module failed for some
reason. Lep was of course unaware of the arrival of the Hunters, and was
shocked when Jan told him of why he needed enough vaccine for three
hundred people now. Lep told Dom to watch over the lab, and left with
Jan, bringing the supplies they needed.
After vaccinating the Hunters, Lep told them that being as deep as
they were in the wildlands they needed to keep using their suits and
respirators for another two weeks before they could safely take them off.
Five months had passed since the Hunters arrived. It had now been a
year since New Aletia was born. Population: 926. They all had a raucous
first anniversary party, and the Hunters were fitting in surprisingly well.
The huge rise in attendance of the meetings after the Hunters had first
arrived was slowly waning now. Due to an agreement that Palatu signed
as their leader, they still had to attend, even if the attendance of LERN
members had diminished. About half of them, mostly the females and
children, were now joining in on the love-circles.
Still, there was a negative element rising. More fights were breaking
out. In the last month alone there had been two rapes, and another murder.
The LERN leadership handled each of these cases individually. A
miniature jail was set up in the office building.
Everyone was miserable with the ever-increasing sores, along with
growing stomach and intestinal problems. Dr. Kalep’s chronic stomach
was becoming increasingly vexing, to the point that he had cut his
workload in half. Dr. Bilge was unable to help him very much, giving the
same explanation for one year now — there were different varieties of
bacteria and viruses in New Aletia, and immunity would take time.
Increasing power struggles had been occurring in both LERN and
especially amongst the Hunters, who had taken up residence with the
others. The Hunters generally kept conflicts private within their peers.
Considering the hotel, apartment building, and the office building, there
was plenty of room for the Hunters and their families to live. LERN
leaders had wisely decided to intermix the Hunters among their own, thus
splitting them up. Still, Jan and Martha were distressed about the increase
in violence. They were worried that perhaps you could take the D’otian
out of the NOV, but you couldn’t take the NOV out of the D’otian.

an was riding his contiss Karot out to the river to do some
solitary fishing. She had been awarded to Jan because he had
been promoted to LERN’s executive board, much to the
consternation of Dr. Kalep and Cush. Cush was not a board

member, so he had his wife Ushu do his bidding. In spite of this, the other
primary members, Ziba, Jasma, along with Drs. Scrib and Hendy, won the
vote for Jan. This all happened seven months after New Aletia’s first
anniversary.

When Jan arrived at his special fishing hole, he dismounted the contiss. He gave Karot a couple of tacks he had brought with him, to keep her
quiet. He then sat down on the edge of the wide stream to try his luck
under a whitish rock that jutted out from the opposite side of the stream, a
feeder to the river.

“C’mon,” he said to himself. “I know you’re under there. I got your
cousin last time!” He smiled, thinking about it. That last fish he had
caught here had put up an amazing fight.

Dr. Kalep and his supporters had been stopping every effort to produce any kinds of rules or laws. Things were becoming more and more
disorganized. People were shirking their workload in the developing
mines. They had plenty of hunters, but miners needed training, and they
also needed to show up. It was at the point where many people weren’t
appearing for work at all.

The easy yama harvesting was over. They found that they needed to
go ever deeper into the ocean to get to it. Winoni was developing different
methods, but all were risky. They had been attracting molicks in the water
more often, and other big sea creatures could be seen habitually gathering
in the distance.

The people were becoming increasingly negative and complaining.
Even Rachel obsessed about renovating a newly found theater on the
outskirts of town, and complained to Jan continually about it. He could
not understand why people were finding ways to be so unhappy in
paradise.

“They always want more, and it’s as if they need to be angry about
something,” he said to himself, sighing, reeling in his line for another
cast. He continued talking to himself saying, “It’s not just the complaining. It’s the violence. It’s as if their dragons are always raised, even here.”

Time passed, and the sky started getting cloudy. Jan looked up behind
himself and said, “Well Karot, I think it’s time to go home.”
“Not quite,”
he heard the Guide say.
“There is something here that
you will want to see.”
Jan vision was directed to a path that went between two big boulders
that had rolled down the nearby hill, and settled a long time ago. He
walked over between them.
“Keep going,”
the Guide said.
“Where am I going?” asked Jan. “What do you want me to see?” He
was now walking along the bottom of the hill, towards the river.
“You are looking for answers, you will find some today. Walk over
there, to your right,”
the Guide told Jan,
“Yes, down there.”
Jan saw the depression in the ground. It looked like a sinkhole. “Are
you sure?” he asked, knowing that the Guide was always sure.
He made his way into it, looking for whatever he was supposed to be
finding, when —
Crack!
— Jan suddenly fell into — “Water!” he yelled,
as he plunged deeply into a rapidly moving underground river. He swam
frantically, trying to get his equilibrium as he spun around like a rag doll
in the torrent of water. He determined the way up, and came hard against
the rock “ceiling” of the water-filled tunnel.
No!
His mind screamed as
his lungs were beginning to ache for air. He continued with the flow for a
few moments, bouncing along the top, hoping for an exit, or maybe an air
bubble. After a couple of minutes his rational mind gave way to the
animal, and Jan found himself clawing at the ceiling kicking frantically,
whipping his tail to push forward, when his head finally popped up into
an air pocket. There were some big crystals poking out from the rock, and
Jan grabbed hold of one, gasping for air. His legs were being pulled by
the rapid current, but he was holding on for dear life.
“What am I going to do?” he called out into the blackness. The Guide
did not answer. Jan could never hear the Guide in times of stress. If Jan
had any anxiety about a question, he could not hear the Guide’s answer —
and it sucked.
“Well,” Jan said to himself, as he considered his situation, “The
Guide didn’t bring me here to die.”
That wouldn’t make any sense.
“Should I try to swim back?” Jan asked himself, as he was still gasping
for air. He tried to pull his legs and feet against the current. “It’s
impossible,” he said to himself.
After he caught his breath, Jan decided that he could not just stay
there. “I found one air bubble, there must be more,” he said. Then he
hyperventilated for another minute or so, and in pitch darkness, let go of
the crystal he had held onto, and let the water take him again, swimming
for his life.
Jan swam for another two or three minutes, bouncing along the top
looking for air, and found himself in the same state as he just was twenty
minutes ago. He was losing it, and he had to fight the impulse to inhale
water as his lungs were burning for air. He missed two air bubbles
because he couldn’t hold on to anything. The base of his tail was aching
from the use of it to propel himself through the water. Thirty more
seconds later he was scratching wildly at the water and the ceiling again.
His hands kept clawing upwards for the search for a bubble, he felt
himself blacking out — and then there was suddenly no ceiling, and no
weight to his body.
Jan was forcibly pissed out into the air of an underground cavern
containing a small lake within it.
What the hell now —
he grabbed what
breath he could as he fell twenty feet and smacked the water hard,
plunging into it deeply. He immediately swam upwards, gasping for air as
he surfaced, his spastic throat making a rasping noise as he choked to
bring air in through it. Jan was able to gain some composure after a few
breaths, and started swimming for the edge of the water.
I have to get out
of this water.
There were two strange glows to the space, one red and the other
blue. They were coming from a large open area that was above the water
and was dry. Jan swam to the edge and weakly pulled himself out of the
water, still gasping and choking. He collapsed on his back on the smooth
hard cool floor, seeing a high ceiling above, panting heavily. He closed
his eyes and laid there for twenty minutes, breathing, recovering, and
feeling as though his exhausted body was so heavy it was sinking through
the marble floor on which he was lying.
While lying there, Jan eventually opened his eyes again. As they
adjusted, he saw that the ceiling was covered with ornate designs from
what looked like miniature tiles. They formed pictures of D’otians. He
recognized the designs of long, gently curving lines that all had a
common center. The artwork had the same round things at the end of the
lines, pointed at the tips.
“Platacs!” he said in amazement, as he recognized them by their
lighter scale coloring. There were various scenes portrayed of apparent
historical events. Jan wondered about the many cryptic symbols. There
were other scenes on the ceiling. These ones displayed other kinds of
D’otians that did not have the lighter scales of the Platacs. Some were
easily recognizable as Aletians, due to their gray coloring and tall crests.
The crests on the Aletians were a bit wider, dark gray, and had half-inch
peaks along the top of them that were more pointed than the Platacs. The
Platac crests had smoothed-out points on their crests, and the equally tall
Platac crests had colors — orange, gray, and white.
There were pictures of other D’otians. Strange wide ones with double
crests on their heads and tails, and their whole bodies were orange-red.
They looked fierce. Jan also saw others that were short and brown, and
they had dark brown wide crests. Those ones looked pretty tough, too.
“What
is
this place?” he asked himself, in wonder, forgetting his
situation for a moment.
When he felt ready to move, Jan got up and walked over to the source
of the lights. He saw hundreds of containers set and stacked around in a
big area that lay between two large dormant iron shafts that were about
two hundred feet apart. Jan remarked to himself, “I know these shafts!”
The shafts continued straight through the ceiling thirty feet above. He
always passed that pair of iron shafts on his way to his fishing spot. “I
know where I am!” he said with some comfort. “Now I need to figure out
how to get out of here.”
But first, I need to check out this glow.
The red glow emanated from the direction of the iron shaft to his
right, and the blue came from the shaft on his left. There was no real
source to the light, it was just hanging there. There was a webbing made
of some type of metal suspended above the container-holding area,
forming a ceiling of sorts, about twelve feet high. The same webbing also
lined the floor, as well as the wall behind the containers. The webbing
stopped when it contacted the iron shafts on both sides of it. There was a
large container placed among the others, and Jan went to examine it. He
looked through the glass enclosure, and saw a Platac male, dead, laying in
it. He had a headdress on, and was adorned in strange clothing made from
materials Jan had not seen before. It was a gown, and had beautiful gold
thread designs sewn throughout, once again, similar to designs they had
on the walls of the hotel, and on the tiled ceiling here. There was a panel
on the dead D’otian’s container, which displayed various buttons and
lights.
“What
is
this?” Jan asked aloud as he walked among the containers,
and he came across a containerized bookcase with scores of books. He
pulled on the latch, and saw the electronic panel for the bookcase start
blinking. He pulled a book out and opened it. It had Platac writing, which
Jan could not read, as all the Platac writings he had read thus far were
translations. “Dr. Scrib will know what’s in these,” he muttered, as he
thumbed through the pages. “What kind of paper is this?” he asked, and
then continued, “It’s — what is it? There’s no agrist, no metal —” Any
paper he had ever seen was always made of thin sheets of agrist alloy.
This amazed him. These pages were light — very light. He pulled on
a corner of a page, and it tore. “Wow, I’d better be careful with this.” He
kept the book, but closed the bookcase door, and the lights on the panel
settled back down.
Jan started to notice that he felt different when he was standing on the
metal webbing under his feet, in the glowing field of light that was within
the space that the webbing outlined. He experienced a warm feeling
throughout his body. “I feel good!” he exclaimed. He looked over many
of the round canisters, all of which had similar electronic buttons and
lights. Some had glass tops, and he could see what looked like thousands
of very tiny stones inside.
Then he noticed a large canister that was cubical. When he looked
into it, he saw something astonishing through the glass top. Inside were
four of the biggest eggs he had ever seen. “What
is
this?” he repeatedly
asked himself.
Jan looked around, surveying the cavern. “I need to find a way out of
here!” He kept the book with him, and started searching for a way out. He
peered out across the water, but the wall on that far side was difficult to
see, considering the general darkness of the place. Jan kept looking across
the water, along every inch of the opposite wall that was above water.
“Since the water seems to stay at this level, there must be an exit for it
underwater,” he said to himself. He also said, shaking his head after
considering it, “I don’t want to do
that
again.”
Jan sat down at the edge of the floor near the water. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he was looking into, he could see variations on the
opposite wall that may have been shadows.
“Maybe that wall isn’t so smooth after all,” he said to himself. After
much self-talk, Jan decided to swim to the other side, and see what may
be over there. He took the book with him.
When he arrived at the opposite wall, he found a well-constructed
ledge along it. He climbed onto the ledge, and went to his right, walking
in the direction of the water that was spilling out of the hole he had
arrived through.
Nothing
, Jan thought despairingly.
The only thing left to do then was to walk in the opposite direction
along the wall to the other end of the ledge. As he was walking that way,
he saw something coming into view in the darkness at the far end. It was a
rectangular hole in the wall.
Yes!
Jan had to duck a bit to get through the
opening, and attempted to see what was in there.