Mayan Afterglow (9 page)

Finally Ian turned and walked in the opposite direction
toward the Pyramid of the Moon. He would climb it and face the solid version of
Mictlan alone.

One at a time, the people who had watched them approach the
old city began to follow him. He ignored them. By the time he reached the base
of the pyramid he sensed the crowd had grown quite large. He turned to find
fifty or more thin-faced, tired-looking people watching him.

“What do you want?” he asked, holding up his gun.

A woman with dirty brown hair and smudges of dirt on her
face stepped forward. She spoke with a distinct accent from the southeastern
United States. “We want to help.”

“He’ll kill you.”

“Maybe, but we’re sure to die if he survives,” she said.

Ian shook his head. “Go back behind the walls. I can’t be
responsible for your lives, too.”

Another one of the group stepped forward. A man with dark
brown hair that was graying around the temples said, “We’ve been waiting for
her to come. For a while we thought she was a myth. Then we saw your plane
doing battle with a demon and we knew that it’s all true. We’ve been waiting
and now we’ll do what we can to help.”

The woman added, “If we die then at least we died for
something and not just starving in the desert.”

Head still shaking, Ian turned toward the pyramid. “Well
then climb at your own risk, my friends.”

Aileen climbed up the steps of the Pyramid of the Sun. Asher
was close behind her. He had shot two crows that had swooped down on them and
then it had been quiet.

“I think Ian has company,” Asher said.

Aileen strained her eyes toward the other pyramid. She saw
people climbing up. “The others.”

“I hope they want to help and are not chasing him.”

She grinned. “He can take care of himself.”

“And us too.”

“Yes, and us too.”

She was too late in noticing the smell of rotting flesh or
maybe the breeze had blown in the wrong direction but suddenly she was bouncing
down hard steps. The rotting corpse on top of her snapped his broken teeth and
the stench of a diseased mouth nearly caused her to black out. She pushed at it
with her arms while using her legs to try to stop the fall.

The air went out of her lungs as she came to a sudden stop
on a crumbled bit of steps. Having landed on top, Aileen jumped back. She
scrambled backward on all fours. The creature leaped forward. Striking out with
her entire body, she sliced through its neck with the long knife she pulled
from her boot. Its pus-covered body fell at her feet while its head tumbled a
few yards away.

“Good God!” Asher cried as he ran down the steps.

Aileen turned her head and vomited up what was left of her
sparse breakfast.

“You okay?”

She pushed herself up. Asher took her elbow and helped her
to her feet. “Yes,” she said.

They started back up the steps.

“For what it’s worth, Aileen, you were fantastic just then.
I was terrified until I saw you pull that machete from your boot.”

“It’s just a knife.”

“Damn big one,” he mumbled as they climbed on.

As Ian approached the top he stopped and turned to his
companions. “Try to encircle the perimeter. We can’t hurt him until he’s fully
in this world. Hopefully, I can manage it on my own. You all just watch and
wait.”

Without a word the crowd dispersed in a line going both to
the right and left of him. They made their way around the top of the pyramid
standing at least three deep.

“Incredible,” Ian said to no one.

The Southern girl who had spoken before was beside him. When
he crawled on his belly toward the top she followed on her stomach as well.

He turned toward her. Her hair was straight and long and she
had gathered it back into a tight ponytail. Although far too thin, she was
still a pretty girl. “How old are you?”

Brown eyes looked back at him and she smiled. Perfect teeth
that had probably spent some time in braces, shone whiter than he expected
against her dirty skin. “I’m nineteen. How old are you?”

“Thirty-two,” he said, surprised by her directness.

“What’s your name?”

“Ian.”

“I’m Nancy.”

“Well, Nancy, have you ever fired a gun?”

“I grew up in Georgia, son. Of course I have.”

He handed her the rifle and said, “Only use it if you have
to. Try to stay hidden. If it looks like he’s winning, shoot even if you think
you might hit me. I’m expendable, Nancy, but he must be destroyed. Do you
understand?”

“Yes. I understand,” she said, seeming much older than her
nineteen years.

Ian tried to see across to the Pyramid of the Sun but all he
saw was the structure. In the high sun he couldn’t make out Aileen or Asher. He
couldn’t take the time to marvel at the fact that the sun had broken through
the dark red clouds.

Did they make it up to the top or were they already dead?
His stomach churned with the latter thought. If she was gone what would he do?
It didn’t matter. Without her none of this mattered but either way he would
make Mictlan pay for what he had done to her.

He rolled onto his back and checked the clip in his pistol.
He tucked it into his jeans and then took a second gun from the back of his
belt and checked that one. A third gun came from a strap around his lower leg.
He checked that one, too.

“Is that it?” Nancy asked.

He grinned. “No, but it’ll have to do for now.” He dug in
the pack he’d carried and handed her a box of ammunition. “Here, this is all
the ammo I have. Don’t use it unless I fail,” he reminded her again.

Aileen stepped onto the top of the pyramid. Blue sky poked
out above them. The sun shone for the first time in almost eleven months. She
turned her face up to the warming globe.

“Is that a good sign?” Asher asked.

“I don’t know but it sure feels good,” she said.

As the sun reached higher the familiar dark red clouds
filled in the blue sky eventually closing over the sun. Once again the Earth
was cast in darkness. The Pyramid of the Moon loomed black in the near
distance. She should have been afraid of that structure but all she could think
was that Ian was there. Her future was with Ian if only she could survive the
next few minutes. It was a big “if”.

No time for more thoughts of the future. Mictlan appeared at
the top of the opposite pyramid. She faced him.

“Asher, no matter what happens, don’t interfere. You keep
anything that comes up the pyramid away from me but do no more,” she commanded.

“What if…”

“No. You cannot interfere. He has to become mortal in this
world for Ian to kill him and send him back where he belongs.”

“I understand,” the boy said, though his voice sounded
skeptical.

Aileen looked up toward the dark sky and pictured the bright
sun behind the clouds. Her face glowed from within. She lifted both hands and
the clouds parted enough for the sun to make an appearance.

A bolt of blue lightning flashed across the sky from the
other pyramid. The distance was too far to see detail of anything but Mictlan’s
human face appeared directly in front of her. His terrible smile like a gash
across his face, he mocked her.

White light flew from her fingers across the expanse hitting
Mictlan. His laughter filled both sky and land.

A werewolf skulked onto the top of the pyramid. Asher fired
two quick shots into the beast’s head and it dropped where it stood. He
reloaded just as another reached the summit. He fired again but missed. The
beast lunged toward Aileen. He fired again this time hitting the wolf in the
nose. The impact stopped its forward motion. It ran to the right, bleeding and
whimpering before it tumbled down the side of the pyramid toward the hard
ground.

Asher reloaded, still keeping himself between Aileen and
whatever might come over the sides of the structure.

She could see Mictlan clearly now. He was becoming whole. He
was gaining power. She could feel her own life slipping away. Asher was just
behind her. His warm back touched her. She leaned against him.

“Stay with me, Aileen,” she heard him saying above the
thunderous lightning and gunfire.

From the corner of her eye she saw a rotting corpse drop to
her left. With no time to worry about Asher, she focused on the enemy. He was
roaring as he grew stronger.

“Aileen?”

“I don’t know if I can,” she confessed. Her entire body
pounded with agony. Her life was ebbing away, draining into Mictlan.

“You have to,” Asher said. “Ian will die if you fail.”

Ian. Oh God, Ian is over there.
She turned her face
up toward the sky and her prayer was more of a plea. “I need more. Please.”

She put her hands down and the white light disappeared. She
saw the moment of confusion on Mictlan’s face before she lifted one hand. A
bolt of lightning flew across the distance hitting him in the chest.

He screamed with rage and lifted his own hand shooting back.
His bolt merged with hers filling the Earth and sky with blinding light.

Aileen screamed in pain.

When Ian reached the top of the Pyramid of the Moon he heard
the crackle of lightning and felt the now familiar pain in his head. Now that
the sun had gone back behind the clouds he could make out the figure of Aileen
across the way. She was only a dot from that distance and she seemed small
compared to the monster in front of him. He could still see through The Lord of
the Dead. He had to wait.

“What are you doing? Why don’t you shoot?” Nancy asked.

“Not yet. He’s not here yet. It will just go through him,”
Ian yelled above the cracking thunder.

Creatures started scaling the side of the pyramid. Men and
women who no longer lived but still walked the Earth and a few werewolves
climbed higher.

Nancy’s eyes widened. “You stay and take care of him. We’ll
deal with the rest.”

He heard gunfire. He saw creatures battling people and he
heard the cries of both sides dying. Ian Scott stood his ground. He made no
move until he saw the lightning change and Aileen cried out. He felt it more
than heard it over the great distance with all the noise.

She was dying. He knew it was true. Part of him began to die
as well. A gun in each hand, he began to fire before he even realized he had.
He was not sure if he had waited long enough until his shots hit the mark
pushing Mictlan backward.

Ian saw his rage and surprise but continued to shoot.
Lightning struck the devil’s right side as bullets pummeled his body. Mictlan
redirected his lightning toward Ian who threw himself down and rolled out of
the way of the bolt.

Another bolt struck Ian’s left shoulder. Burning pain shot
through him, but he fired until the clips were empty. He pulled the third gun
from his leg holster and fired again. Lightning flew across the sky, striking
Mictlan hard and sending him over the side of the pyramid.

Ian ran to the edge and watched Mictlan tumble to the
ground. His minions were collapsing and the people rushed down to where the
Lord of the Dead had landed. Ian followed them, watching as men and women shot
into his already dying body. They beat him with hammers and sticks.

By the time Ian reached the ground Mictlan had taken his
last breath in their world. His corpse was a bloody, broken pulp.

Ian looked toward the other pyramid. Something was making
its way down.

Nancy was beside him. “What is it?”

“Something is wrong,” Ian said and began to run down the
Avenue of the Dead.

His exhaustion forgotten, he ran across the ancient city
until he could clearly see Asher walking toward him. In the boy’s arms lay the
limp body of Aileen Grant.

“Oh, no,” Nancy said in a small voice.

Ian willed his heart to stop but it kept on beating. His
ears rang with the sound of rushing blood as it rolled down his wounded
shoulder dripping on the ground beneath him. He walked forward, feeling more
ghost than man. Asher’s eyes were older somehow. The boy seemed to have aged
ten years in the last hour.

“She’s alive,” he said as he reached Ian.

Those two words filled Ian’s head to near bursting. He no
longer heard the revelry of the people who had ultimately killed Mictlan.
“She’s alive,” filled his world as he took her from Asher.

She felt thin but warm in his arms.

“Thank God,” Nancy said, still next to him.

Ian dropped to his knees. Aileen’s eyes flickered open.

“You’re alive,” she said.

He nodded and was a little surprised when he felt her wipe
wetness from his cheek.

She sat up in his lap. Examining his shoulder, she said,
“You’re hurt.”

“I love you,” he said touching her lips with his.

“Look,” they heard Asher say.

Immediately fearing Mictlan’s return, Ian grabbed for his
gun and turned. The pilot was pointing up and smiling.

The thinning clouds revealed blue sky but it was a seagull
that Asher was pointing at.

“A good sign,” Aileen said. “If there is life in the sky
then perhaps we can expect things to grow down here as well. ‘As above, so
below’.”

“Did you hear what I said?” Ian asked.

Aileen smiled up at him. “I already knew that you loved me,
Ian.”

He grinned back. “Oh, and how did you know?”

“It’s clear in your eyes every time you look at me. But I’m
still very happy to hear you say it,” she admitted blushing slightly.

He tucked her wild hair behind her ear. “Where to now?” he
asked, lifting her onto her wobbly legs.

“Here is as good a place as any to start a life,” she said.

Ian gazed at the expanse of land in all directions.
Civilization had thrived here for thousands of years. “This is a perfect place
to begin.”

About A.S. Fenichel

A.S. Fenichel adores writing stories filled with love,
passion, desire, magic and maybe a little mayhem tossed in for good measure.
Books have always been her perfect escape and she still relishes diving into
one and staying up all night to finish a good story. Originally from New York,
she grew up in New Jersey. She now lives in the southwest with her real-life
hero, her wonderful husband. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys
cooking, travel, history and puttering in her garden.

A.S. welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email address on her
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at
www.ellorascave.com
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Mayan Afterglow

ISBN 9781419935275

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Mayan Afterglow Copyright © 2011 A.S. Fenichel

Edited by Helen Woodall

Cover art by Syneca

Electronic book publication July 2011

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