City of Twilight: Rise of the Hunter (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  City of Twilight

  Part I: Rise of the Hunter

  By Donald D. Stephenson III

  The Vanguard Chronicles: City of Twilight © 2015 by Donald D. Stephenson III

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the author

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For Tif, who inspired me to not only begin this journey, but to finish it.

  I. Rise of the Hunter

  The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.

  -George Beranos

  1

  He couldn’t move. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t breathe. He didn’t understand why. He felt immense pressure over his entire body, bearing down upon him from above and below. He didn’t know why. His eyes were open, but it felt like they were closed. Darkness all around him. He shut his eyes and tried to recall his last memory. Dozens of hazy images flashed through his mind. Nothing stuck, though. He saw the image of a young man with white hair. He had blue eyes that had a menacing, animal appearance to them. He was standing in a cavern surrounded by bodies lying all around him. The image seemed familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time.

  He opened his eyes again in frustration. He tried focusing his memories, his thoughts.

  James. My name is James. The thought was clear in his head and he felt relieved at the recollection. He pushed his thoughts further, but no other information came to him. Instead, more hazy images flashed through his mind. This time a young woman with red hair, her face full of familiarity. He knew her, but couldn’t remember how. Seeing her face in his mind however, put him at ease. No other images were as visible in his mind as her face.

  James tried to sit up. He couldn’t, the pressure was so great. He pushed his arms upwards through the darkness. He realized he was buried, underneath a heavy mass. It was why he felt so much pressure and was unable to move.

  He pushed upwards again, this time focused on the girl’s face in his mind. He felt a strength coming outward from his back into his arms, and then the rest of his body. The mass on top of him began to give way as he pushed through it. Moments seemed like hours as he dug his way out, until he finally breached the surface. Both air and water hit him simultaneously, and he quickly pulled his strength and momentum and dug himself out the rest of the way. He crawled out of the hole and looked to the sky.

  Darkness was all around, and rain was falling down upon him. He stretched out his body, feeling like it was the first time for him to use it. He opened his mouth to breathe, and suddenly began to cough as his lungs filled with air for the first time in a while. He felt like he had just been born; his body was shaking and he couldn’t even focus his eyes. He fell to his knees, panting and looking at the ground. His heart felt like it was going to burst through his chest, like it has just been awoken from a slumber that should have killed him. He cried out, with what felt like every physical feeling a person could experience running through him all at once. His scream seemed to echo through the darkness, through the rain.

  He waited for his body to calm. Eventually, his eyes began to focus. What was blurred had become clear. He was sitting over a large mass of rubble, an entangling of concrete and metal. He turned his head to look at the hole out of which he'd crawled. He was surprised to see it go down for at least twenty feet, although the downpour was causing water to rush in. It didn’t feel like he’d dug that far through the rubble.

  He used his hands to push up from the ground, standing and shaking. He eventually gained his balance, and looked at himself. He was naked, covered in mud and water. He didn’t hurt, though, and couldn’t see any wounds or injuries on himself. He started to walk unsteadily through what appeared to be the wreckage of a structure or building. Walking through the jagged ground didn’t faze him as he moved through the destruction.

  He eventually reached what seemed to be solid ground, a paved road. He looked up, and could see buildings around him. He was in a city. He could tell that much. It was dark out though, with few lights visible. Despite the darkness, he had very little trouble seeing. The buildings around him were tall, some as high as thirty stories. They were all in disrepair, and none of them had glass intact in their windows.

  He could see small lights coming from some windows, indicating people inside. Living despite the darkness. He walked a little further, and could see yellow tape marked with the words “caution” repeating on it, following the perimeter of the rubble that was once a structure. He stood in front of the tape for a moment, trying to understand what had happened, and maybe recall who he was.

  “Hey, you!” a voice called to him, “stop right there.” He saw a man in a dark uniform with a flashlight in one hand, a small pistol in the other. Further behind the man was a car with flashing lights on top, with the words “Civic Protection” printed on the sides.

  “Identify yourself,” the officer said as he approached him cautiously, “and state what business you have here.”

  “I,” James began to speak, but he didn’t have an answer, “I don’t know.”

  “Wrong answer,” the Civic Protection officer said as he pulled some handcuffs from his belt. He reached for James to cuff him, and James stepped backwards. The man raised his weapon to James and said, "Get on your knees or you will be shot.”

  Without hesitation, James grabbed the front of the pistol as the officer fired it. He pulled the pistol from the man’s hand, and with his other hand James struck the officer’s elbow. It made a popping sound as it bent the wrong direction. The man screamed, startled. James twisted the man’s arm behind him until it popped out of its socket, and he slammed the man onto the ground head first. The officer was unconscious.

  James realized what he’d done after it was all over. He was still crouched over the man as he looked at his right hand, which held the pistol the officer had fired. The bullet was in his hand, flattened in the impact of the gunshot. His hand was unharmed. He looked down at the unconscious man again, and began to panic. He stood up and looked around.

  “Hey kid,” a voice called out to him. There was an old looking man in tattered clothed. The man was waving to him from a block away. He was motioning for James to come over to him. James ran over to the man, still panicked over what he’d just done.

  “Are you alright?” the man asked in a raspy voice.

  “I...I’m not sure.”

  “Well, what’s your name?”

  “I think its James.”

  “Well, James, we need to get you out of here." The man pulled the jacket off his own back and put it over James’ shoulders. He let them away from that place, pushing a cart with assorted bags of clothes and other items on it. As they walked, the man pulled some clothes out of one of the bags, handing them to James. “Put these on,” the man said. “You can call me Bill. I usually walk around this area every few weeks or so. You’re lucky I caught you.” James dressed himself as they walked, eventually clothed in a tattered short sleeve shirt that had once been white and a worn pair of pants that had holes in the knees.

  “Do you remember anything about yourself, or where you are?” Bill asked, talking loudly in the downpour.

  “No,” James said, “I just woke up in that rubble. I don’t remember more than some faces, but I can’t even recall their names.”

  “Well,” Bill said, “you sure crawled out of that rubble over there. It’s from some doctor’s
building that collapsed a month ago. This is Old District. I guess it had some other name once upon a time, but now that’s what everyone in the city calls it. This city is named Dirge, or the city of twilight as a lot of people call it. Those guards were guarding the wreckage because that was some sort of important government building. I don’t know why, though; nothing there but rubble now. CP just wants another reason to tell people what to do, I guess.”

  “City of twilight,” James said, “odd nickname for a city.”

  “It will never get brighter than what was once evening, even at the brightest moments of the day. We live in a perpetual darkness. I say it fits. We’re the last city on the planet. It’s disappointing I guess, that it won’t ever get better than this. You get used to it, though.”

  “Who are the Civic Protection?” James asked. “Why are they controlling everything? Those men attacked me, and I don’t even understand how I fought them off.” There was so much confusion moving through his thoughts. He felt as though his mind were a giant puzzle that someone had scattered all the pieces to places he couldn’t reach.

  “Civic Protection,” Bill sighed as he spoke, “look, I know a place you can go where you may be able to find someone to help you.” James stared at the ground while listening to the man. “There’s a V shelter a few blocks from here; they’ve got people who can talk to you. There might be a doctor there who can look at that thing on your back.” James nodded while hiding his confusion. He hadn’t felt anything on his back. I guess that would be a good idea for now, James thought. Bill seemed quiet as he led him down the next few blocks.

  *****

  For nearly an hour James had stood in an old restroom staring at a dingy mirror. Bill had been kind enough to drop him off in front of the shelter, but James had felt too paranoid about actually entering it. Something in his mind told him to not enter, that there was another way to find his answers. He ran to one of the nearby dilapidated buildings. It was abandoned, like many other areas, but that didn’t stop people from living there, hidden from sight.

  There was an unused restroom, on a floor that was partially flooded with the rain water from the storm outside. No one was around, and anyone nearby as he walked would slink away to avoid him. People who were afraid of the predators of the night. He felt bad for them. He walked into the restroom, his bare feet splashing through the pools on the floor.

  It was dark, but he could still see. In fact, he could see extremely well. He knew it was dark, but it didn’t matter. Things that normally didn’t give off much light were now shining in the darkness to him. He couldn’t explain why. He also couldn’t explain what was on his back.

  Bill was right, something was wrong with him. The mirror was cracked and broken in several places, but he could still see himself clearly. He felt as though he was looking at himself for the first time. He had dark hair, almost black. It was very short, no longer than half an inch. His face was thin, but not gaunt, and his eyes looked silver in the light. He’d taken off his shirt to see himself better in the mirror. He was just over six feet, and in very athletic shape, but his torso was covered with what looked like severe burn scars. Some of the streaks were still pink, but most were fully healed. He felt no pain from any of them. From the base of his neck to his tail bone was what looked like an organically shaped silver metal plate that had been formed to his spine on his back. It had ridges and scales, looking like his spine had just turned to metal and started protruding from the skin like a reptile. He reached his hand around to his back, touching it. It was warm, as warm as his skin. It was sensitive, too. It felt like he was touch just another part of his back, not a piece of metal on it. It wasn’t just on his skin though, it was in it. He could tell it spanned his entire body, and what he was seeing was just the surface.

  The metal pulsed as he watched it, shrinking slightly. It then grew larger, covering his entire back and shoulders, sprouting scales and plates of armor, as well an organic metal layer of skin. When he flexed and bent, it moved with him, behaving more like skin and tissue than metal. He thought about what it would look like covering his whole body, and suddenly it did, spreading and growing over him. It felt as though it was sprouting right through his skin, crawling out of his pores in microscopic tendrils and building itself inside and outside his frame. His eyes became completely covered with the metal, looking like silver orbs in his head. The metal formed around his eyes to the rest of his face, creating a protective mask that covered his identifiable features.

  Seeing himself like that caused him to panic, and he willed the metal to shrink back down to a small size between his shoulder blades. He felt frightened and powerful at the same time. Whatever this metal was, James could tell it was a living creature. He could feel its emotions in the back of his mind, pushing against his own thoughts and feelings. A strong curiosity for its new host. James hadn’t noticed its thoughts before, and he wondered if it had chosen to reveal itself to him now. Maybe, he thought, it had hidden itself from me earlier because it was as confused and disoriented as he was. He could feel it move more through his body, a cold liquid sensation coursing through his veins. There was another pulse, and then he felt the same surge that he’d felt under the rubble. He realized it wasn’t an adrenaline surge, but rather this creature empowering him, making him stronger. He then realized that the creature was showing him that it had helped him get out of the rubble of the collapsed building. It probably saved me when the building collapsed, he thought.

  There was another surge, but this one was in his head. He could suddenly smell the mold and mildew in this old bathroom, as well as the decay from dead rodents and other creatures. He could hear footsteps and cars that were blocks away. He willed the creature to cover his eyes again, and noticed he could see even better in the dark, although the metal was covering his eyes.

  He sighed. I don’t even know who I am, he thought. I need some answers. He willed the creature to shrink as much as it allowed him to do. Oddly, it seemed to resist being too small. James wondered if it would always obey him. It was its own mind, its own presence. It didn’t want to be completely hidden.

  He concentrated on the metal creature maintaining its small form on his back. It required a constant level of focus for him to keep it hidden. He sighed again. Putting the old shirt back on, he left the dilapidated restroom and the condemned building it resided in.

  ​The rain was letting up, but dark clouds still loomed overhead. James stood staring at the sky, viewing it with his enhanced eyes. What has taken the light from this place, he wondered, for it to be called the city of twilight? It was obviously still the middle of the night, and this older section of the city, apparently called Old District, seemed to be the slums. The only people who were around were wearing tattered clothes and dark faces filled with hopelessness.

  ​He stood outside next to the road. The sidewalk lining the street led to buildings of a higher stature. Looking further in that direction he could see the buildings and other structures getting taller with the streets more lit. Looks more like the homeless district, he thought as he approached a group of people standing near an alley.

  ​“Where can I find more information about this city?” he asked.

  ​“Well, there's a library in East District,” one older man said. “Follow Main Street to East District. Main Street will lead you right through the center of the city. The library is a few blocks from a V shelter, on the right. It will be after you've entered East District. There's only one shelter there, so you'll know. The library has a big tower clock that rings the time. It can be heard from almost anywhere in Dirge.” James nodded his head to the man in silent thanks and turned to go up Main Street.

  ​“One more thing kid,” the man said with concern in his voice, “I don't know what your story is, but you don't seem to be familiar with this place. Watch out for CP. Our kind isn't welcome outside of Old District. There’s a curfew out in the other districts. You’re likely to at least get arrested.”

  ​�
��Thanks,” James said, “I will.” He began to walk up Main Street, moving through the alleys and the shadows to remain hidden. He needed to find his answers.

  2

  ​James stood in front of the East District library. The library sat directly on Main Street, just like the man had said. The building was very imposing, with great pillars in the front and a clock above in a tower, just like it had been described to James. Even so, it was dwarfed by the buildings around it. Old District was dimly lit, if there were any working lights at all. East District however, felt as though it were daytime. Street lights followed Main Street, along with bright lights of traffic signals.

  ​One wouldn't realize that East District and Old District were in the same city, if comparing the differences. East District was a small metropolis. There were signs of technology everywhere he looked. The vid screens dominated the city walls, lighting up the streets below. Some were small enough that they were meant for a pedestrian to just walk up to them, and some were so big that they were placed on the sides of buildings for people in cars passing by to see. There was a newscast of some sort coming from most of them, the voice on the screens being projected through unseen speakers. It almost echoed in the early morning quiet. Some were flashing texts of news updates. Others were flashing commercials. All of them, however, had a message at the bottom that said “The time is 5 o'clock, one hour until curfew ends.” He looked around, realizing there was very little movement in the street. There had been several groups of soldiers he’d moved past unseen, but there were more of them in larger groups the closer he went into the heart of the city.

  He approached the library. The glass doors set in the gray granite bricks echoed what he should have figured out. It was closed. Of course, with this curfew, nobody's out right now. He stood there, disappointed, trying to figure out how to pass the time. He started walking down the street past the library.