Chapter 14

    On the run east, Mimyr and Ryn found the only thing as close to Kin was possible. A snaggle tooth human in an old truck who refused to leave the street where Katrina lived. Ryn knew the guy, his name was Earl. It was only the night before and Mimyr knew it was dangerous to go back. Ryn was the one who told him it was too flat to safely run east. They had to get a vehicle of some kind. The only people who would have vehicles they might have left behind were Kin that were close to being turned. Mimyr left Ryn sitting outside the city in a gully with instructions to make his way to the highway after nightfall if Mimyr didn't get him.

    Mimyr was the only one who really knew the scope of what was happening. There was a frantic phone call from Angstrym himself, telling him that everybody was dead. That he was running south, maybe to try and disappear in South America if he could make it that far. His last instruction to Mimyr was to try and save as many of the clan as possible, that was the way of the old. Mimyr almost asked if abandoning them all while he tried to save his own skin was 'the old way'. All Mimyr said was that he would do his best.
    That conversation seemed like it would have never happened. Mimyr only met Angstrym twice and both times were pleasant. They were  from different generations, but both had desk bound careers during those times. Mimyr was a bean-counter so they struck up conversations about their lives from before. It was the only time that Mimyr really spoke of that life, his human days.
    By the time he had met Angstrym, he already had a reputation as a cold and calculating vampire. The people that didn't know him would always wonder about him. His manner was stiff and always formal in a way. He did smile and laugh, but it always seemed a business affair. Something underlings at a large corporation would use to climb that ladder. One thing that Mimyr never got used to was not having to wear his round rimmed spectacles. Not glasses, spectacles. When he reached up to fix them, it looked like he was touching his eyebrow ina  small salute. Kin would speculate if Mimyr was in the service. Maybe not the army, but a cop, probably a detective. His demeanor stretched across his life as a human and well into his life as a vampire.
    The broken rules that were handed down were fractured and missing many pieces. Mimyr could see that by the way that Kin were treated. By the way he was treated himself. It felt like he was part of an organization was was thrown together with whatever parts were laying about. It made him upset, if here were in place of Angstrym, he would have kept the ties to every part of the clan in constant contact. When he tried to picture how the clan had spread north, in him mind, it bloomed like a fractal. Unchecked. Sloppy. Predictable.
    According to the phone call from Angstrym though, it might be that Mimyr was the last of the old clan. Maybe he was the leader. Of the vampires left, there were only two and Derrik was already headed west to tell the escaped Kin that they had to stay put until called. To stay out of sight for the good of everyone involved. Mimyr had no idea how they were to survive the coming onslaught, but they would have some kind of beginning already put in place. Mimyr would have to be the one to piece it all back together.
    It was Ryn who told Mimyr about the safe zone in British Columbia. He only knew of it because his life in the area. Once, he worked at a gas station that was not far south of Wilkins Lake. He years he spent there, he got to know the people. Always listening to their stories and they were always happy enough to tell anything that Ryn asked about. One day, he was told that he should go and check on a lake in the area, there were stories that people were seeing things around it. When Ryn asked what kind of things, they would tell about people disappearing into the lake.

    Ryn decided to go and see on a day off. He brought a backpack full of supplies, there was a picnic area beside the lake. He was getting up there in years, but he didn't think he was too old to go for a small hike around the lake. He parked his rusty, old car at the parking lot. It was a rest stop for travelers, big bathrooms, a few things for the kids to play on. The grass between two short fences that lead down to the lake made a nice acre for people to enjoy. Off to the side was a well marked path that lead off into a manicured forest.
    The path had a large sign beside it, telling the short history of the area. Ryn stopped and read it before going on his hike, it wasn't that far to where the path split from the shore of the lake. It split off and meandered up into the hills, the view from up there was probably pretty nice. Yet, Ryn wanted to make a day of going around the lake. Across the sun sparkled water was a hayfield that was bordered with two straight tree lines that went almost to the edge of the water. He figured it would take him most of the day before he got back to his car. He clapped his hands together and rubbed them then walked by the sign.
    The place he picked to split off the marked path, to follow the shore of the lake, already looked like a popular place to do that. It was already beaten down to the earth and wandered off along the steeper incline. It followed the hill that lead up to the pavement then around into thicker trees. As he reached those trees, the sound of the vehicles passing along the highway got further and further away. He took his handkerchief out of pocket and wiped it across his brow. The path was getting tougher to follow.
    It wasn't long before he was struggling over fallen trees. The trees were no longer spaced. The crowded together until he was making his way along a trail that liked to grab at his clothes and backpack.  It was probably a cow trail, the trees he had to climb over were worn down past the bark to the greying wood. As quickly as he had gotten into the trees, he wrestled open a wire gate and closed it. Then he popped out onto the slope of the hayfield. It was a lot bigger than it looked from the parking lot. He took off his pack and pulled out a bottle of water.
    Ryn looked around, he knew that some ranchers in the area were always complaining about people just walking out onto his fields. He didn't want to spend a lot of time out there, but he had to enjoy the view. Across the lake, he could see the parking lot. There weren't a lot of people there, but he watched a car pull in and park beside his car. A few adults climbed out and were stretching, he wished he could see their plates. It was interesting to know where people came from and where they were going. It was part of the reason he liked working where he did. In a few seconds, a couple kids piled out and ran for the small playground. Ryn took put his bottle of water back in his pack and slung on his back.
    The going got even harder when he got through the other side of the fence. There was no gate and the cow trail wasn't really visible. Still he struggling through the bush, slipping on moss covered fallen trees. A few times he stepped down onto what he thought was dry ground and found his foot wet up to his ankles. The lake on this side didn't have a shore like the other side. Through his own heavy breathing, he could hear the clatter of metal on metal. He thought he might be coming up on some kind of logging site.
    Before he came out of the woods into a small clearing, he stopped to look. First, he didn't want to get run over by some big piece of machinery. Second, he didn't want to be seen where he wasn't supposed to be. He sat on a log and watched a wrecker backing down the slope towards the lake. A few people got out and were talking when another group of people came by and started pointing around. Maybe they were pulling a car out of the lake? Ryn wanted to go look, but none of the people there were cops. In fact, they were all natives.
    At the gas station where he worked, he felt like he connected more with the natives than anybody else in the region. Mostly because a people who had stories of hard times would always find company with other people in the same boat. Still, he felt like he should just mind his own business. Before he could turn around and go back through the bushes. The natives were spreading out along the shore of the lake.
    Ryn wondered if he was out of sight of the highway because this would be drawing attention. He listened for traffic passing and couldn't hear any. He tried to draw a picture of the shape of the lake in his mind, it kind of curved along a hillside. Might have been why he kept walking to the edge and stepping in it while he tried to walk in a straight line. He guessed that he was too close to just start walking away, but he wanted to hide all the same. He moved as quietly as he could and slid behind the log he was at.
    The people started picking up rocks and sticks and throwing them into the lake. Ryn sat behind the log, only his head peeping out. One of the started to holler and point, the rest backed up then gathered around the wrecker. On the bed was a large winch and something bundled up in a tarp. Somebody undid the tie-downs and pulled the bundle out. It plopped onto the ground. They pulled the tarps corners out and Ryn couldn't make out what it was. It had long matted fur, but two long legs, the rest was out of sight. He thought it was a ram or maybe a llama.
    They pulled the long cable out and attached it to the thing on the tarp. It must have had a cable or something coming from its mouth because it was where it attached to the cable. After a few minutes of pointing and arguing, laughing and arguing more, a few of the natives took corners of the tarp and pulled. The dragged the thing to the edge of the water, they seemed to be pretty wary of the water's edge. Always making sure to keep an eye on it.
    A few of the guys ran up the hill and were back in a couple minutes. That was when Ryn felt like he made a bad mistake staying, they were standing there with large guns. He saw his share of rifles, but these looked like machine guns. There was more arguing, but they stopped when something huge splashed in the water. All at once, all their heads turned and looked. The arguing stopped and the guys with guns pulled their guns up half way, ready to start shooting if they needed to.
    A few more guys went to the back of the wrecker and pulled out long aluminum poles. They went and got ready to push the thing on the tarp into the water. They waited until the truck rumbled to life and throttled up to power the winch. They turned and pushed the thing into the water.
    Ryn couldn't help himself, he got to his knees and he looked down to see what he could. All of a sudden the line to the wrecker pulled tight and people started yelling. The guy working the winch started pulling back. Whatever their bait was worked, whatever they hooked was pretty big.
    All Ryn could hear was the roar of the engine and the whine of the winch as it pulled. Then the splashing, he could only make out something churning up the water. It was jet black and pissed off, enough to start pulling back. The wrecker wheels were slowly beginning to turn backward. It had two axles over the flatbed, the forward axle and the rear were rotating then jerking back. Each time, they would dig into the ground a little more.
    The guy who was driving was standing on the runner and looking back, he looked worried. He was yelling at another guy and they seemed to agree to go for broke. Lose the fight, and probably the truck, or break the damn cable. He got in and the stacked blew thick black smoke into the air as the rear wheels started to churn up the dirt. It started to move forward. As loud as it all was, Ryn could hear strands of the heavy cable snapping with loud twangs.
    As the truck started to win the tug-o-war, Ryn looked down at the shore. Slowly a head came out of the water and he could only think of the things in dinosaur movies. He could see water running off of it, glinting scales every time it stopped trashing against the cable. That was enough to know that he was seeing something that he wasn't supposed to see. The truck kept inching forward though, what he saw kept getting worse and worse.
    What he first thought was maybe a massive snake, large enough to be called a monster, was more of a monstrosity. The entire thing was covered around the body with the jet black scales. He was, sort of, right when he thought the first knob of black that protruded off the side of the thing was a leg. It kicked and thrashed, trying to get traction on the ground and push back. It was also covered in black scales. The thing only hissed when the leg bent at an odd angle and snapped. It was then when Ryn realized that it looked human, too human. The further the thing was pulled out of the water, other appendages tried for traction. It was covered in them, like branches on a tree, arms and legs that were all too human only covered in black scales. He couldn't stop watching one of the arms reaching and taking bunches of grass. Trying to stop from being pulled out of the water.
    The thing must have been at least sixty feet long by the time its tail was out of the water. It still twitched and writhed. Its gruesome appendages trying to get the thing back into the water. Ryn couldn't look anymore when the truck finally throttled back and idled. The guys standing around where just waiting, watching the thing move less and less.
    Ryn knew that he shouldn't, that he should fight it as hard as he could, but he couldn't stop it once it started. He leaned over and started to vomit. He could barely making out yells in the back of his mind. He put his arm on the log and rested his head. There were two people standing on either side of him, Ryn expected them to be the ones with the guns. When he looked, one was a woman and the other, an older man.

    “Yeah, tough to look at, eh?” The older man, not much older than Ryn though, said as he looked down at the thing.
    “Yes.” Ryn looked up and started to push himself up.
    “Here,” the woman reached down to help him, “I got you.”
    “Come on, let's go to my truck up the hill.” The old man held his arm up and motioned for Ryn to follow.
    Before Ryn could help himself, he turned back to look. It got worse, the thing looked more serpent like, the arms and legs that were poking out looked a little more human. The limbs looked like they belonged to corpses though. They were bloated and discoloured like a human would look after being in the water long enough.
    “Oh hell, damn it, I should have warned you.” The old man was patting Ryn's back.
    Ryn was bent over and retching, he reached up and took hold of the man's arm. When he was back under control, they started walking up the hill again.
    “If it's any comfort, I can tell you that you won't remember any of this after a while.” The woman walked around to the back of the truck and looked in. She pulled out a gym bag.
    “What was that?” Ryn finally asked.
    The old man looked down the hill, then turned to look at Ryn. “Don't know what you'd call it in your language. Dragon? No. Chimera? Closer. Serpent? Like all those. It's not important, it's something you want to forget, right?”
    Ryn nodded.
    “Well, we just need to find a couple things and we can send you on your way.” The woman looked trough the bag. “Damn it. Dad, where's the smoker?”
    “In the truck. I had to repack it before we came out this morning.” The old man was pointing around.
    Ryn felt lost. Everything was coming too fast. That thing that he would never forget, the natives treating all of it as another day at work, and there he was in the middle of it.
    “Who are you guys?” Ryn had to ask.
    “Nah, not important. Less you know, less you need to forget. It's faster.” The old man patted his shoulder. “Come around back, have a seat.”
    He lead Ryn around the back of the truck and then the sound of people yanking the cords on a couple chainsaws started. It made Ryn shudder. He could only imagine what they were going to have to do. Ryn saw a few of the natives walking up from down the hill. One of them, the driver of the wrecker, seemed to frown when he saw Ryn. The other guy was pulling a clip out of his gun and stowing it in his jacket pocket.
    “Lin?” The driver said. “What the hell you doing up here? Hey Jimmy, look who found us.”
    The other guy slung the gun over onto his shoulder and looked, he face broke open in a wide grin. “Lin! How the hell you get up here? On vacation?”
    “Who's Lin?” Ryn's shook his head.
    The driver started to laugh. “Well, that settles that, you guys all look alike.”
    “Hey, hell with you guys. My name is -” Ryn was starting to get mad, thinking of telling the natives that they were the same way, they all looked alike too.
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” The old man was holding his hands up. “Best we not know. This is tough enough without that.”
    “But they-” Ryn was interrupted again.
    “I know, I know, don't worry, they don't mean anything by it. They're good guys. Just, well, just think about what they were through.” The old man flipped his palms to the sky. “You know.”
    “Oh man, yeah, we're sorry, don't mean no harm. Just you looked like this old Japanese guy who-”
    “I'm Korean.” Ryn almost barked.
    “Oh. Okay. Look, just that he's a funny guy and we always joke around with him. He still can't pronounce his 'L's so we call him 'Rin'. Good guy.” The wrecker driver held his hand out.
    Ryn took his hand and shook it. “I'm sorry, just a little bit nervous. Feel like I fell off the edge of the world.”
    The driver laughed, “yeah I can imagine. Don't worry though, the old man is going to fix you right up and you'll be forgetting in a couple minutes.” He pointed up the hill to where the woman and old man where laying out a blanket on the grass.
    The old man waved Ryn over to sit down on the blanket.
    “What's going on?” Ryn sat down.
    “Well, I'll just sum up,” the old man knelt down and picked up a  thing, that looked suspiciously like a bong, but with a canister attached, “you press this button and it lights the thing then you take a shot. You fall asleep until we're done, then somebody puts something under your tongue, and we take our blanket and anything else and watch you from over yonder. When you start coming around we're gone and you remember laying down and looking at the sky because it's such a nice day. Harder work on a rainy day. Even harder on a snowy day. But anyways, that's what's going on.” The old man stood up and held out the 'smoker'.
    “I,” Ryn took it, “okay. How does this work?”
    “Huh, less arguing than I thought we'd get, but anyway, battery operated. Just flick the rocker switch and then it'll start smoking.” The old man pointed to side of the canister.
    Ryn flicked the switch, he wanted to forget seeing limbs snapping and the shiny black scales covering the limbs. Then seeing the decayed limbs that were once human was even worse. To forget those things would make sleeping and eating a lot easier. He took a deep breath, eyes closed, he wondered what it would feel like to be waking up to find himself laying on the ground.
    “So how long before it starts working?” Ryn looked up at the old guy.
    “Huh. Pretty rare, only seen it a couple times before, but,” the old man's lips turned into a thin line and he shook his head, “I think you might have to come with us.”

    Between the time they first met the people in Broken Hand and his time sitting in a gully, keeping an eye on the slow moving stream, Ryn got to know only a little. All he really got to know was a few of the people who always stopped by and 'shot the s**t' with him. Of course, sworn to secrecy, but that was mostly on him. While he didn't feel like he owed the guys anything, he felt like he belonged.
    When he had to move east for family matters, he missed them a lot. He never got to meet this 'Lin' character they mentioned. The hole that leaving left in his life, he filled it with a different crowd. A few of which he grew to care for very much. He wanted to protect them so he sent them to the only safe place he knew.
    When he found out that Mimyr would have done the same thing for them, for different reasons though, he felt better about what he did. The day started to grow into deeper shades of blue so he had to get moving soon, but a few more minutes wouldn't hurt. Run sat in the cool, damp grass thinking of the girls. He hoped they were safe. It was only a little later that he heard Mimyr calling out.