The Lonely Winds Book XIII: P. O. V.

[B. I. Flight]

Chapter I
Other People’s Lives

Since the dawn of time, people as both groups and individuals have sought to understand the world around them. From this search came the rise of countless disciplines: philosophies, religions, the sciences. Organized teachings and the Scientific Method arose in efforts to unify the endlessly diverse mindsets that bloom during this selfsame quest for enlightenment.

Yet, this search has been plagued from the very beginning by an omnipresent taint, a corruption that permeates the seeking of the truth. This taint can turn compatriots against each other, rend divisions in previously unified philosophies and irreparably damage whole lines of thought. It can make villains of heroes (and vice versa), ruin lives and even bring down whole civilizations.

This “taint” is perspective. The individual point of view is ever resistant to the unifying efforts of external philosophies. A person’s perspective is an undeniable factor in their overall worldview, influencing decisions and playing some part in nearly every aspect of their lives. So pervasive is this nebulous thing called “point of view” that entire new philosophies have developed solely to ponder its nature. Can it influence reality, or is it purely in the mind of the individual? Does an individual perspective necessarily reveal truth about a given topic or is it entirely limited by the bias and knowledge of the one that carries is?

While its nature may remain academic, the fact remains: it is personal perspective, and how individuals act upon it, that in large part determines how the world works, for good or ill.

*****

On a cool Wednesday evening in November, 2044 T.E., two men crept along a sidewalk in downtown Ylelon. It was a street like a thousand others in the city, lined by housing projects like those in any other city’s downside. The two men’s pale skin shone under the streetlights in a sharp contrast to their dark clothing, which was worn and dirty. As they passed by the mouth of an alley between two tenements they stopped, looked about conspiratorially and ducked into the alley when they were confident there was no-one nearby to see them.

The alley was narrow and strewn with trash. The decrepit remains of an entertainment center leaned against a side entryway to one of the tenements. One of the men grasped the ruined case and tipped it up, allowing the other to open the door and slip inside. The first man let the TV case lean so that when he deftly followed the second inside and slammed the door, the case fell back against it.

The building’s interior was stripped bare. Like the alley outside, it too was strewn with the detritus that had been left within since its previous owners and tenets had abandoned it some time ago. The two men navigated through the dark around the remains of the building’s former life: here a ragged mattress, half-leaning against a wall, there a broken sink in the middle of the floor.

Through halls and up stairs to the third floor they went until they reached an innocuous door. The taller of the pair knocked, three times then twice more. Presently two locks clicked, the door opened from within and the two men slipped inside.

“You didn’t find anything?” demanded the one who had opened the door, a feral-looking man with wild black hair and wearing an old white shirt and grossly-stained blue jeans.

“Don’t start, Carter!” snapped the shorter of the two returning men. He pointed a threatening finger directly into Carter’s face. “You wanna bitch about us not finding food, you can go looking yourself for once.”

The front door opened directly into a living area complimented in the squatter’s tradition with broken furniture and salvaged decorations. A haggard-looking blond woman sat on a dingy couch in the middle of the room: a brunette woman and an almost skeletally thin man lounged on a thin carpet on the floor.

“You didn’t find anything?” moaned the blonde. “Oh, man…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, Audrey,” said the thin man, “Ricky isn’t back yet, I’m sure he’ll get us something.”

“Here we go again!” grumbled Carter. “Rick’s not bringing anything back, he’s more worthless than these two and you know it!”

“Stuff it up your ass, Carter!” snapped the short man.

“Guys, keep it down!” said the thin man. “Look, there’s no need to panic, we’ve got emergency rations if we need it, right?”

“Can we?” Audrey asked. “I’m so hungry…”

“Leave off! We have to save that for when we really need it!” Carter almost spat the words.

“What the hell do you think this is, dumbass?” growled the short searched. “None of us has eaten anything in a friggin’ week! Besides, the food won’t keep forever.”

“Ok, we wait for Ricky to get back, then we get something to eat. Everybody ok with that?” asked the thin man.

“Right on, Cal,” said the tall searcher. The others nodded and murmured in approval. Only Carter pouted in silence with his arms folded.

“Ok, good, we’ve got a plan,” Cal said as he walked around behind Audrey’s couch. He crouched and stood quickly, holding a woman, bound and gagged, dangling by her hair. Tears streaked her face, she had a black eye and was covered in huge, dark bruises.

“You hear that, baby?” Cal mocked. “When our friends get back, you’re lunch.”

The woman began to sob, but the sounds of her cries were lost among the laughter of the gathering.

*****

The group amused themselves with games of cards while they awaited Ricky’s return. The bound woman remained huddled on the floor behind the couch, weeping softly.

Presently the code knock sounded at the door, quite rapidly. Cal was on his way to the door when the knock came again.

“Hold up!” Cal said as he opened the locks. The instant he opened the door the lithe form of Ricky stepped inside and pushed it closed again.

“Oh, look,” Carter said, “Ricky didn’t find anything, either.”

“Shut it, Carter! What’s wrong, Rick?” Cal asked.

“I don’t know,” Ricky replied. He looked more frightened than Cal had ever seen him. “I think somebody’s following me.”

The short searcher was immediately on his feet. “Who? Cops?”

“I’m not sure,” said Ricky. “I tried to lose them for four blocks. They’re good, whoever they are.”

“Did they see you come back here?” asked the tall searcher.

“I’m not sure.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding!” Carter said. “You come back here when you thought you might be followed?”

“Cram it!” Cal said. “Ok, Don, you’re with me. James, you go with Ricky. We’ve gotta check the exits right now.”

“What do I do?” asked Carter.

“You stay here and keep your damn mouth shut for a change!” Cal snorted. “Lock the door and don’t open it for anyone who doesn’t
knock, even if it’s one of us.”

“But--”

“Shut it! This is serious! Move, people!”

The short searcher, Don, went with Cal into the hall, James with Ricky. Carter, cursing a blue streak under his breath, locked the door behind them.

*****

While Don and Cal went to watch the doors of the building’s lobby, James and Ricky went to the end of the second-floor hallway, where they could watch the door below through the empty window. Most of the other entryways to the building had been boarded up or blocked off over the years, making those two doors the most likely places where an intruder would try to gain access to the building. The alley was still and undisturbed, the only sounds those of the city beyond.

“I don’t see anything, do you?” James asked after several tense seconds.

“Nope.”

“This isn’t so bad,” James said as he leaned against the wall by the window. “Maybe nobody’s coming, or if they are, at least we get some time away from Carter.”

Ricky didn’t laugh. He kept his eyes on the alley. “I got careless. I shouldn’t have come back here without knowing it was safe.”

“Look on the bright side. If it’s some moron following strangers around, we’ll just drag him inside. I’ll be like takeout!” said James.

“And if it’s cops?”

“Then we’ll have to move again, I guess,” James shrugged.

“Damn it!” Ricky slumped again the wall beside the window. “I’m so sick of moving all the time! I should’ve been more careful!” He punctuated his frustration by hitting the wall once with his fist.

“Relax, man. No sense panicking before we know for sure what’s going on.”

James kept watch for several minutes, long enough for Ricky to finish sulking and rejoin the vigil. Several more uneventful minutes had them both wondering if they were waiting for nothing.

“So much for panicking,” muttered Ricky. “Man…wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to live like this? I’d love to have a real apartment somewhere, with electricity, get some video games to pass the days.”

“Tell me about it!” James said. “You know they released Ultimate Tournament V already?”

“No way!”

“Yeah, like last week. I was cruising the mall the other day. There was an article about it in one of the gaming mags in the bookstore. New moves for every character, more options, and like thirty new fighters.”

“Wow, thirty? What does that make now, like two hundred?”

“Something like that.” James shrugged again. “They’ve got people from all over the world…but they didn’t get anyone from Ylelon.”

“What? They missed us again? We’ve got all kinds of cool legends and stuff!”

“Yeah. Everyone forgets about Ylelon.”

“Yeah,” Ricky said, “until they’re invading us.”

They laughed.

“I dunno,” James said after some thought. “Maybe we could get something nicer, a motel in the slums, something like that. The problem is we’d have to be really careful where we…” He trailed off. “Sorry.”

“S’ok.”

“Think we’ve waited long enough? If somebody was following you, they sure as hell would have found this door by now.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right. C’mon, let’s grab the others and get some food.”

They got up together and began to make their way around the refuse in the hall. Moving quietly had long since become second nature to the two of them, as had situational awareness. Thus, as they moved through the filthy hall with instinctive silence their sharp hearing easily detected two sounds drifting through the window behind them: the rattle of an empty bear can being kicked and a muffled curse.

James and Ricky froze. No further sounds came from the alley, but a quick glance between the two confirmed that they both had heard something.

Slowly, painfully slowly, the two of them turned and started back toward the window. Each moved to one side of the sill and leaned against the wall, listening intently. Now they could just make out the sounds of several individuals moving around in the alley below. Whomever it was, they were making a great effort to stay quiet, but they could not muffle the slightest sounds of movement: the squish of boot leather against concrete, the rasp of clothing against skin, the respirator hiss of breaths being drawn. Then another sound came, one that startled both listeners: the hollow click of a bullet being chambered.

Ricky looked at James, who shook his head and held a finger up to his mouth. They both held stock-still and listened to the noises below, which presently began to include the barricade against the door being moved.

“James! We should get the hell out of here!” Ricky whispered. James motioned frantically for him to be quiet, then stopped as they both realized that the alley had again become deathly silent. James gestured for them to move back down the hallway and then it happened.

Ricky had no idea what it was that crashed through the empty window frame into the hallway. It looked like a man, a big man, but it moved faster than anything Ricky had ever seen. In the dark hallway it was a black-clad blur, lashing out with a blow that cracked three of Ricky’s ribs and embedded him in the drywall behind him. Then it turned its attention to James, laying him out flat with a single punch.

“James!” Ricky cried as he pulled himself free of the wall and lashed out with all his might in a punch to the back of the attacker’s head. The thing moved only slightly, staggering forward just off balance, then turned and struck again. It hit Ricky dead in the face with a massive fist, knocking him half-senseless.

Ricky felt himself tumbling through the air distantly, as through in a dream. He felt the impact as he hit the hallway floor and rolled freely. Even the sharp pains of his broken ribs protesting was muted. It was the pain in his face that brought him around; not from being punched, but the agony of burning. Still half-sensate, Ricky felt at his face and found four craters of seared flesh in a tight row: the uppermost one a hair’s breadth from his right eye. A familiar metallic tang hung in the air, mingling with the stench of his own charred flesh: silver. The blur at the end of the hall that was making hideous wet crunching noises as it battered James was also using silver.

“James!” Ricky called. He tried to get back to his feet, but his vision rolled dizzily. James was now hanging from the thing’s grip by his tattered shirt. His face lolled toward Ricky, battered, singed, covered in blood.

“Run, Rick,” he croaked. Somewhere in Ricky’s scattered wits the thought that James sounded peacefully sleepy formed and dissipated. The attacker lifted James above his head and smashed him against the floor, then hurled him through the window.

Blindly, Ricky turned and ran.

*****

“What the hell are they doing up there?” Don growled. He and Cal had taken places in the front entryway’s small lobby. The muffled shout and series of dull thuds that had reached their sharp hearing just well enough to startle them had stopped abruptly.

“Shh!” Call said. “Listen.”

Rapid footsteps passed overhead, traveling at breakneck speed from the end of the hall where Ricky and James were stationed to the opposite side. The footsteps faded, replaced in the distance by the hollow thuds of steps being descended and those in turn by footsteps again, this time approaching the two watchers.

Don and Cal braced themselves. The battered and terrified visage of Ricky tearing into the lobby at a dead run with four hideous burns on his face was certainly not what they expected to see.

“Ricky?” Cal said. “What the hell are--”

Ricky barreled into Cal, almost knocking him prone, and seized him by the shirt. “It got him! It got James!”

“What? What are you talking about?” Cal said.

“This…this thing! It came through the window and threw James out of it!”

“Ricky, have you lost your last marble?” said Don.

Ricky let go of Cal and grabbed Don. “Are you listening to me? We’ve got to get out of here!”

“Ricky, man, calm down,” Cal said, gently taking Ricky’s hands off of Don’s jacket. “Take a moment and tell us what’s happening. Panicking won’t help anything.”

Ricky pulled away from the others. “Ok, James and I were at the window upstairs. We heard somebody sneaking around in the alley, then this thing came through the window at us. It moved like…it was, it tore James apart…”

“Ricky, what. The hell. Are you talking about?” said Don.

“Guys, guys, calm down,” Cal said. “If there’s somethin’ goin’ on, getting all nuts won’t help any. You said Jimmy’s hurt?”

“He’s dead!”

“Ok, back to the room, then. Quietly!”

*****

When the code knock sounded at the apartment door, Carter took his time going to answer it. As he ambled across the living room toward the door, he called out, “Damn, it’s about time! What have you losers been doing this whole--”

The instant the locks were withdrawn the door flung wide open, almost smacking Carter in the nose. Ricky, Cal and Don nearly tumbled into the room. Cal slammed the door shut and locked it again.

“We’re in trouble,” he said.

“Oh, way to go!” sneered Carter. “What did you do, bring the cops--”

Cal cut him off. “Not one word from you!”

“What’s going on? Where’s James?” Jayne asked as she and Audrey came to join the others.

“He’s de--” Ricky began; Cal cut him short by kicking him in the shin.

“Something’s happened,” he said. “Someone tried to get in the alley door. James was there.”

“But he’s ok, right?” Jayne asked, nearly frantic.

Cal looked at Ricky briefly before turning back to Jayne. “I don’t know, but we’re going to try to find him and help him.”

“What are we still talking about this for?” growled Carter. “Whoever’s here, let’s go beat their asses!”

“Reign yourself in, Carter!” snapped Don.

“Ok, everyone with me,” said Cal. “We’ll go downstairs to the far end and see if we can see anybody.”

*****

The “far end” of the first floor hallway was a wasteland of refuse and garbage. The outside door was completely blocked off by an old refrigerator and a small mountain of boxes and trash that extended into the hall past the base of the stairs. Cal and his rag-tag group gathered on the staircase above the garbage where they could peer around the stairwell wall and observe the length of the hall. The six of them took turns sneaking quick looks.

About midway down the hall, passing the lobby and the main office, a group of people were searching the apartments. All of them were dressed in black and all but one of them were carrying guns. Two of them were huge men built like weight-lifters: one wearing some kind of riot suit: a slight-figured woman with long red hair pulled back in a ponytail: and a tall blond man dressed like someone from a bad cyberpunk novel. They were systematically working their way down the hall, kicking in the door of each apartment and checking inside quickly before moving on.

Cal and his little band watched the intruders for several moments before withdrawing partway up the stairs. Don stayed at the base of the staircase to keep watch.

“What do we do? They’ve got guns!” Audrey whimpered.

“So what?” said Carter. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re vampires. I say we rush ‘em and tear ‘em apart!”

“Hold up,” Cal said. “We don’t know who these guys are or why they’re here.”

“Who gives a damn?” scoffed Carter.

“Will you shut your mouth for once and think?” Cal was visibly shaking as he spoke. “These guys aren’t cops or gang members. They did something to James. Something’s really wrong here.”

“Hey, they’re getting close,” Don whispered.

“Back to the room. Hurry!” said Cal. The group slunk back up the stairs as quietly as they could. Don lagged behind to watch the interlopers, who were uncomfortably close. He watched the redhead emerge from an apartment at the head of her group, look around--and then right at him. He ducked back around the corner as fast as he could. Deciding against the risk of looking again, he took off up the stairs.