Drakin: The Story of Raiya Read online

  DRAKIN

  The Story of Raiya

  A Novel by James Harrington

  ISBN:

  978-0692057070

  First Printing:

  January 2018

  Cover Art:

  Brett Warniers

  Rick Chandler

  Hanna Hymel

  Editing:

  Eric Klingenberg

  Copyright © January 2018, James Harrington

  Printed and Bound in the USA

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

  “Command, we’re in position, approaching target!”

  “Roger lieutenant.”

  Lt. Rich Ye checked his Geiger counter as it clicked, “Command… radiation levels here are much higher than normal… This thing is reading a level… good God, this is close to where Chernobyl was about 10 years ago!”

  “That confirms our initial readings, Lieutenant. Proceed to the crash site.”

  “Copy that.”

  The new Ford F150 pickup truck plowed through the rubble and debris with little issue. Lt. Ye kept his eyes focused on the road in front of him, desperate not to blow a tire. He held the wheel as straight as he could.

  Another voice appeared behind him, “This is incredible… hard to believe that a few days ago, this was Manhattan…”

  Rich looked over to the edge of the crater. The dust and smoke made it difficult to see too far, but in the distance, he could make out smashed buildings and debris that had been ripped from the ground. The impact of the meteor had caused an unbelievable amount of devastation and it was likely that New York would never be the same.

  “I hear you Mike, but Hiroshima was in as bad a shape and they were able to rebuild. Come on, let’s keep moving.”

  The two men donned white and gray radiation suites that sparkled in the sun. They had been anxious to see for themselves just how big the meteor was, but they had to be cautious. The way down the crater was steep and the truck was having a hard time navigating the debris.

  Roughly halfway down, the pickup began to jolt violently. Lt. Ye pressed on the breaks, “That’s as far is it goes. We’re on foot now.”

  Mike stumbled over a piece of debris as he stepped out of the back. Rich grabbed his arm to keep him upright, “Easy buddy… you don’t want to fall and risk tearing your suit.”

  Mike nodded, “Thanks!”

  He quickly straightened up the silver suit and continued walking, “Didn’t NASA see this coming? You would think…”

  “They did…” Rich replied, “but there was no way to stop it. You saw the news. They threw nukes, remote satellites, and several other things to knock it out. No matter what they did, it just kept on coming. It was like nothing even made a scratch!”

  He quickly looked over the debris before he spoke, “Hey, at least they saw it in time to evacuate the city. We saved what counts.”

  “I hear you… I mean look at the size of that thing!”

  “It’s a wonder it didn’t do more damage…”

  The black meteor looked like a giant cannonball from a pirate ship. It sat prominently in the center of the crater and didn’t even look like it had broken up at all since impact. Several burn marks all over it remained from where the U.S. Military had made a valiant effort to shoot it down. Smoke and steam emanated from the surface.

  “Mother of God… How big do you think it is, Mike?”

  Mike squinted as he measured with his eyes, “Six… seven stories, about seventy, eighty feet tall? I’m heading around to the other side. I want to get an idea of the total mass of this thing…”

  “Roger that.” Rich replied. “Be careful and keep me posted.”

  “Wilco.”

  As Mike headed in the other direction, Rich examined the surface of the meteor, “Command… this is odd… This thing is perfectly smooth. That shouldn’t be possible.”

  All he got in response was static.

  “Command?”

  “…”

  “Someone, respond!”

  “…”

  Rich tapped on the radio, “Mike, are you there?”

  The static became even worse.

  Gotta be the radiation… “God damn radio!”

  He sighed and turned back to the meteor, “Now what?”

  Maybe it was the way that the sun was shining, but something on the side of the otherwise smooth surface caught Rich’s eye, “What the heck?”

  There was an odd-looking symbol covered in dirt roughly four feet to the right of where Rich was standing, “What is this?”

  He stepped closer to it and brushed the dirt away, “Command… if you’re reading this… There’s some kind of symbol here. It… it looks like a circle with a triangle in the middle… almost looks like a planet with clouds etched in. Command… I think it’s now pretty evident that this meteor is not a natural phenomenon… Could be a derelict satellite from another world… or an actual spacecraft…”

  “…”

  “Could it really be…?”

  Rich bent down at his knees and ran his finger over the triangle, brushing as much dirt off as he could. As his finger reached the upper-most tip, the triangle flashed blue. What the…

  Rich didn’t know what to make of it. What had he just activated? He didn’t have long to think as it flashed a second time, then a third, and then a fourth. There was a loud crumbling sound as the almost the entire side of the meteor collapsed into dust.

  “Command, something’s happening. I’m not sure how, but I think I just activated… something.”

  Rich took several steps back as a massive dust cloud engulfed him, “Command… Come in, damn it! I’m now convinced this thing is alien in origin… likely some kind of spaceship?”

  As the dust cleared, Rich could see something odd in the opening that had been created, “All right… I can’t be certain, but I think I see something here that might be alive… There’s five… maybe six giant reptilian creatures here.”

  Rich strained his eyes as the dust continued to clear, “I’ll be… Command, I don’t believe this, but they… they look like dragons! Honest to God dragons! They have wings, long curved horns from their heads, hand-like claws… but they don’t look bipedal. This is incredible.”

  As he stepped closer, Rich could hear a sound like the purr of a mighty lion. His shoulder brushed against the wall, causing another crumbling sound. A small rock dropped from the wall and struck the ground. It made a small popping noise, like the sound of a Ping-Pong ball hitting the floor. It was faint, but audible nonetheless.

  Rich held his breath as, to his shock, one of the dragons began to stir. The massive black lizard, resting atop the other five as though he were protecting them, opened its eyes. Dust fell from his head and neck as the beast came to life.

  Rich quivered as the yellow and green eyes bared down on him as though they were piercing right through his chest. The dragon spread its wings and stretched as it stood up.

  He flinched as it began to speak, “Shreork terroj ein wroon!”

  Rich’s breathing became irregular. The menacing look on the creature’s face was unnerving, “Command… I think it’s trying to communicate.”

  “Teoric wge vcara!”

  “Definitely
sounds like it’s trying to communicate!”

  Rich spread his arms as a sign of peace and nervously smiled at the beast, “On behalf of the people of Earth, I’d like to welcome you to our planet. My name is Lieutenant Rich Ye. Can you understand me?”

  The dragon’s eyes narrowed, “Shorac torren terensa!”

  Rich had no idea if he was making any sense. Likely he wasn’t, but what else could he do, “You landed in one of our cities. We called it Manhattan.”

  The dragon appeared to be confused by Rich. After a few moments of silence, the it managed to speak, “So we made it… We live again… I thought our slumber would be eternal.”

  Rich took a step back, “You… how can you speak our language?”

  The dragon arched its neck as it stood up. It was a massive beast, easily fifty feet long, “My mind has abilities far beyond your comprehension. Hearing only a few conjugations of your language was more than enough to grasp the basics such a primitive form of communication.”

  A cold feeling came over Rich. He wasn’t certain that he was safe any longer, “So… why did you come to Earth?”

  The dragon stepped off his still-sleeping companions and stood over Rich looking straight down at him, “It was not by choice, I can assure you. The few of us you see before you are all that remains of my people. For countless rotations of our sun, the drakeas and cenizals lived together in peace. We lived in harmony with our planet and with each other. However, as time went on, those pathetic creatures grew to view us as a threat. We were… an ecological disaster, as they called us. We consumed too many resources, and infringed on their lands. Over time, they developed advanced cognitive abilities, including telepathy and telekinesis.”

  The dragon closed his eyes and released smoke from his jaw, “They started hunting us down. Mass genocide became a crusade to protect their world. My kin and I are the only ones they failed to destroy. We resisted every attack, every torture… all of it. We survived.”

  Rich slowly stepped away from the dragon, “So you are the last of your people… the drakeas?”

  The dragon nodded, “I suppose the translation in your language is dragon. A fitting name, I suppose. For the crime of existing, we were imprisoned in this vessel and flung into space by the most advanced of the cenizal practitioners. For ten thousand rotations we have slumbered… waiting… hoping that we would find a planet suitable for us. Though not conscious… we did experience moments of… horrific disembodied thought…”

  The look in the dragon’s eyes was clearly one of disdain as it glared at Rich, “You… tell me what the atmosphere of this planet is.”

  “Nitrogen Oxygen?”

  “Similar to our world… but not exact… this will take some adjustment… still it is better than we could have hoped for.”

  The dragon sniffed the air as a look of disgust came over it, “This is disgusting. The air here is horribly polluted… what has happened to this world? What have you done?”

  Rich shrugged, “You landed in downtown Manhattan. This was one of our cities. A lot of people lived here.”

  “I see…” The dragon replied in an intrigued tone. “A megalopolis then… So, your people are responsible for all this damage.”

  “Kind of…” Rich said defensively. “For years we didn’t know what kind of damage we were doing. We’ve only recently realized it and have made efforts to repair the damage. We’ve made significant…”

  The dragon huffed as it spoke, “I think I might be able to help speed the repairs along.”

  “How?” Rich asked nervously.

  The dragon smiled as its eyes rolled over red. In a flash of teeth, blood, and intense pain, Rich found himself in the dragon’s mouth, impaled on several teeth. The pain was paralyzing. He tried to scream, but his voice was completely drowned out by the blood pooling in the back of his throat. He couldn’t speak or breath.

  One violent thrust of the dragon’s neck sent Rich’s dying body flying into the air. It landed on the dragon’s tongue and disappeared as the dragon clamped its jaws together. A rumbling sound emanated from the beast’s stomach as it began to work again after countless years of slumber. “Such a pathetic creature… is that the infestation that we now have to deal with?”

  Finally, the dragon turned to its companions, “Brothers, sister, awaken! After ten thousand rotations, we have finally been awakened. It is time for us to rebuild the home that was destroyed!”

  Mike stood on the far side of the meteor, unaware of what was going on. He was attempting to take measurements as he slowly paced around the side. Most of his equipment was working, but he couldn’t get through to command. Every time he tried, all he got was static, “God damn it, someone respond, please? This thing is massive!”

  Once again static was his only reply.

  “Command, hello? Hello? Can anyone here me? Someone respond!”

  “…”

  “Seriously what the hell? My lot in life that my equipment fails now of all times!”

  At that moment, Mike heard what sounded like crumbling and the growl of a lion. He looked up to see a massive lizard holding onto the side of the meteor, looking down at him menacingly, “Holy shit… what...?”

  The massive, mustard-yellow colored creature with red eyes jumped off the meteor and roared as its massive jaws opened. Mike screamed as he tried to turn and run, “No… no… Jesus, no! ACK!”

  The beast thrust its neck forward, caught Mike in its jaws and bit down hard. Blood spewed everywhere. Mike didn’t get a chance to scream as he watched the red liquid spill from his ripped skin. The pain was paralyzing as the lizard took hold.

  The beast opened its mouth, letting Mike loose before clamping down again. Mike went motionless as the pain overpowered him. He didn’t even have a chance to close his eyes before the world went black. Silence filled the room.

  10 years later…

  “Please… please… if anyone is home, please open the door!”

  “What in God’s name?”

  Ben shot straight up in bed. The hysterical sound coming from the next room echoed throughout the house. Loud banging and a woman’s frantic cry filled the room as he jumped out of bed.

  Ben was no stranger to uninvited guests at their door. In fact, he had a bolt gun right next to his nightstand for just such an occasion. He quickly grabbed it and made his way for the door.

  “Ben what is it?”

  Ben turned back and looked at his wife, “Stay here Linda, I’m going to find out. Better not be another shake down.”

  He pressed a small button on the wall next to the doorway before he stepped out into the living room. Light quickly flooded the room, letting the voice outside know that she had gotten their attention.

  The banging immediately ceased and was replaced by a faint sobbing, “Please… help me…”

  The sound made Ben a lot less oppressive as he gripped his rifle and opened the door. He quickly stepped back and aimed his gun. The indicator or the side screamed as the gun immediately came to life.

  The scene outside his house made Ben’s old heart ache. A woman with dark hair and extremely pale skin looked at him lifelessly. Her face and neck looked horribly thin, like she hadn’t eaten in a long time. Water dripped down the hood of her sweatshirt. Her breathing was labored and she was clearly sick, “Please...”

  Ben kept the gun trained on her, “Stay back… We don’t welcome drifters here. What do you want?”

  “Please help me…”

  Ben shook his head, “No way, you’re not coming in here. I’ve seen this before… I know what you have. That illness… it’s Dragon’s Bane if I ever saw a case!”

  “I’m not looking for shelter sir…”

  “Then what do you want?”

  Before she could respond, Linda appeared between them, “For goodness sake, Ben. Put the gun away! She’s not going to hurt anyone.”

  Ben lowered the gun so that it wasn’t pointing at his wife, “Linda, she’s ill. We can’t let her in here! It�
��s not…”

  Linda ignored him and looked at her sympathetically, “You poor dear, do you want some food?”

  The woman shook her head and let out a deep, labored, sigh, “Please… take her…”

  “Who?” Linda asked.

  The woman opened her sweatshirt and stepped forward. Linda gasped at what she saw. The woman was little more than a skeleton. Her bones protruded through very thin skin. If she did have Dragon’s Bane, it was further along than any victim she’d ever seen.

  Cradled in her impish arms, was a small black bundle, “My baby… please… save her. Spare her the… life I lived…”

  The woman’s weak arms looked like they were about to collapse. They trembled and her strength vanished as though she were holding something incredibly heavy.

  Linda quickly grabbed the baby from her before her arms gave out, causing Ben to panic, “Linda, we can’t!”

  “Hush you!” Linda replied sternly. “Dragon’s Bane doesn’t get transmitted to infants, you know that!”

  Ben fell silent, allowing Linda to return her attention to the woman at the door, “Sweetie, can we get you some food or…?”

  Before Linda could even finish her question, the woman’s eyes fluttered and she began swaying to the left. It was as though the woman’s remaining life had gone with the child. Her arms dropped, her shoulders slouched, and she became completely lethargic.

  The woman let out one last sigh as she collapsed on the ground, “Thank… you…”

  Linda cradled the child in her arms as she leaned down and extended her right hand to the woman’s neck, “Miss…? Miss?”

  Ben watched as she gently adjusted her fingers, “Is she alive?”

  A sad look appeared on her aging features as she pulled her hand away. She looked up at Ben with tears in her eyes and shook her head, “No… Poor thing, it must have taken everything she had left just to get here.”

  Ben knelt down next to his wife, “It’s just how things are these days… We’ll need to burn her body. We can’t let the Dragon’s Bane spread.”

  Linda nodded, “Yeah I guess so.”