Barnaby of the Dustplains - Chronos 1

"Wake up, Barney,” a young voice spoke into his mind. Was it the end at last? Was this some semblance of a hopeful afterlife rearing its head, or was this darkness all it would be? “Come on, wake up, sleepyhead.”

Barnaby felt pain all over his body. No, that life he led and lost wasn’t over just yet. With this thought, memories of his family now gone flooded back in. He couldn’t recall how they met their end, but the pain present in his body meant that he pushed himself past the limits. Perhaps that was enough. Barnaby tried to fade away from the pain, let go of life at last and join his family, but a small hand slapped his forehead a few times. Was he already there?

“Barnaby!” The voice said louder. There was light beyond his heavy eyelids.

Above him stood a young girl with shimmering golden eyes. Her face was covered in mud and blood, but she was not bothered by it one bit. Her lips curved into a smile making her look menacing paired with darker spots all over her body until she stepped away to twirl just a few feet away, a stained brown dress spinning in the metal-flavored air.

Barnaby tried to move his body, but heavy chains bound him into a kneeling position. That’s right. He was there to die in the most painful means of torture. Why didn’t he? He watched the girl twirl away into the field of corpses. She jumped onto one and giggled at the softness, following to bounce from one to another. Who was it that killed them? It could not have been her. As if reading his mind, the girl stopped to face him from atop the back of a large man now dead. Her bare feet were covered in a mixture of brown and red.

“I saved you, Barney,” she said with the most childish grin not fit for this serious situation. These men were Sam Caroll’s men. So many of them to die in one place was trouble for the whole Dust Plains. He would tear apart every small town in search of the culprit, and only one person currently fit the profile. Barnaby.

“You should have left me to die,” he managed to say while testing the chains. “Living’s a fate far worse, especially in the Dust Plains.” The girl leapt from the blobby corpse and seemed to float to the ground. She came up to put a hand to his forehead and stepped back right after with a surprised look on her face.

“You did die,” she said with the same bubbly voice. “I brought you back.” There was no lie in her eyes, but the strange color threw off Barnaby’s perception. How could it be? She was just a child, no older than… than… Barnaby froze in a memory of his daughter, gone now. So was his wife. It was all HIS fault, Sam Caroll’s. The six-and-a-half-pointed star was burned into Barnaby’s brain as a symbol that Carollers wore. They were the worst of the Dust Plains, trafficking human beings as slaves, with women as worse. By helping Barnaby, this girl only endangered herself.

“You know, they’ll hunt you down when they find out about this,” he said. “Sam Caroll will seek your head personally.” The girl spun on the spot and bowed to him.

“Call me ‘Jodi’,” she said. “And I need your help, Barney.”

“No,” he replied instantly. There was nothing to hesitate over. She was trouble, whatever she was. Her smile faded to a frown.

“Without my help, they’ll just find and kill you again,” Jodi said.

“That’s fine,” Barnaby said letting the chains dig into his flesh with the weight of his body again. “I’m better off dead at this point. It’s not like I’ve got anything left to fight for.” He closed his eyes to keep tears from forming.

“You’ve got me, Barney,” the girl said and kissed him on the cheek. Barnaby’s eyes shot open in surprise. Her action exploded his heart in sadness for the loss of his daughter, but Barnaby restructured the emotion into anger.

“Why’d you do that?” He yelled, but Jodi didn’t recoil at the shouted words. There was something wrong with this child. Jodi only smiled in reaction to his rage and put her bloodied palm on his forehead again.

“My friend once told me that a kiss is like a blessing,” she said with her hand pressing down on his forehead. “And she told me that anything is possible with a blessing.”

“Your friend sounds irrational,” Barnaby replied. “Why do you keep touching my forehead?” Her palm lifted.

“Will you be my friend?” Jodi asked and waited while watching his eyes. Why did those eyes look so familiar? It felt as if he’d seen them before, somewhere in his past. There they were. It was a girl who played with his daughter long ago. How was that possible? Barnaby felt his memories play out wrong. There was never a girl like her staying with them.

“What did you do?” He asked. “How are you in my memories? What have you done to me?!”

“Don’t worry,” Jodi said. “I didn’t eat them. I just put myself into a few happy bits. According to them, we’re already friends, so when I need your help, you should-.”

“Be quiet!” Barnaby interrupted. A sound of engines resonated in the distance. It could only be more Carollers. Their Lazats were built loud to intimidate regular people. This was bad. If Jodi stayed there, the bastards would take her with them. The Carollers already took one child from him, they would not take another. “You have to run! More of these guys are coming!”

“Not without you,” Jodi said as the loud engines got closer. “Will you help me, Barney?” She kept getting his name wrong, but Barnaby didn’t feel it mattered under the circumstances. It was almost pleasing. It reminded him of his daughter’s first attempts at his name. That was a happy memory. Yet, it also brought up another who used that name to tease him be this use.

“Fine,” Barnaby said claiming his body weight from the chains. He tried to shift them in some way to twist from the bind, but they didn’t budge. “Do me a favor and look around for something to break these chains with.”

“No need,” She said and stepped up to him. Barnaby half-expected her to slap his forehead, alter more of his memories, so he shifted away in recoil. “Stay still or you’ll get burned,” Jodi said and put her hands on the chains. They melted at her touch as if butter. The bits of molten metal dripped down her hands like water until all fell away, freeing Barnaby from the binds. One of the melting hands reached to help him to his feet, but he recoiled. Jodi stopped a second, then closed the gap to show that her hand was at a normal temperature.

Before the Carollers made their way in, Jodi dragged Barnaby into the back with surprising strength. Just seconds after they were out of sight, a group of people burst into the compound, wearing distinctive dust masks with a large Caroller star sigil. Carollers were thugs in the dry world of the Dust Plains, a corrupt militia. Barnaby watched them inspect the bodies of their friends as he tried to force his body to stand. Their leader inspected the chains still fading from red.

“Hey!” he called out to the others. “That monster-girl’s here. If we bring her in-”

“Sam told us to leave her to more skilled of the group,” one interrupted. “We should report the find and have them look-” The leader took out a gun and struck the man with the handle.

“Shut up, Jeff,” he said. “If we bring her in, we’ll all be made senior. Split up and search the place!” Barnaby and Jodi made their way deeper to hide, but there was no way out through the back. These compounds were meant as supply depots for traveling Carollers. They only stored food, and needed no secondary exits. Each of the Carollers was equipped with a gun and a knife. While that would be a piece of cake for Barnaby at full strength, right now even the most unskilled of them could subdue him. There had to be something he could use as a weapon among the supplies.

“Here,” Jodi said stopping at a barrel of grain.

“What’s here?” he asked forcing his broken body to stand without her support.

“Weapon,” she said pointing at the barrel.

“That’s just food,” he replied. “It’s called grain, dried seeds for humans to eat.”

“I know what grain is, dummy,” Jodi said. “There is a metal structure inside the barrel.” Barnaby stepped over to the barrel and looked at the surface of the grain stolen from the working people just to end up in the Dust Plains to feed the worst band of criminals. Unfortunately, the plains connected all the farmable land and thus gave Sam Caroll all the power.

When his hand sank into the grain, there was nothing until about a full arm’s depth into the contents. A cool metal surface at the very bottom felt alien at his touch.

“Well, damn,” he said gliding his fingers over the distant metal. “Sorry that I didn’t believe ya. Let’s see what we’re dealing with here.” There was a hope sprouting within him as he pulled on the metal tube. This was no gun, but could it really be the weapon of legend? Those devices no longer existed, if they ever did. As the metal cleared the surface, Barnaby’s heart leapt with joy. It was exactly what it couldn’t be.

“No. Way.” He said. The structure looked like a steel pipe, but at the thumb of the handle were two things. One was a glowing blue square, and the other was a round red button. “It’s a bloody ZaP.”

“Can you use it as a weapon?” Jodi asked.

>>>“I’ve read stories about these devices when I was a boy,” he said with blazing excitement of his eyes. “They’ve been gone for centuries, but this one looks brand new. The books said that this device held living electricity. Some said the tube had souls of strange creatures trapped inside. The red button set them loose on whoever was deemed an enemy of the holder. I can most definitely use this as a weapon.”

“HERE!” a voice burst out down the corridor from the barrel. Thugs found them, but with the ZaP in hand, Barnaby felt invincible. He hoped the button worked the same way as in the stories, coded in clicking patterns for variants of use. There was no time to hesitate. He pointed the ZaP at the ceiling and held the round button for five seconds. Out of the eternally black hollow end emerged a burst of blue light and electricity to form a giant blob, building up ever bigger until it burst through the roof. The building was cracked open to the heavy heat of the sun right above. This insane development stunned the Carollers and Barnaby. He was in awe to see and use the weapon of his dreams.

“GET HIM!” shouted one of the thugs. Where he was frozen in awe, they only felt fear. He pointed the device around the men that now surrounded him and Jodi.

“Hang on, Jodi,” Barnaby said and reached out his free hand to her. She took hold with both of her hands. Next, he pointed the ZaP to the ground with hopes that the two-second feature worked like in the stories. It wasn’t exactly perfect, as the five-second hold was meant to be a pair of giant hands made of blue lightning pushing outward. How much did they romanticize this device? There was no time to question the differences. Barnaby pressed the button for two seconds and let go to a push against his arm he thought might just break it, but by the time he had a thought to let go, the pressure was gone. The two of them were in the sky, high above the barren Dust Plains.




The beauty of this propulsion into the sky faded as they reached maximum height. After that point, the force of gravity took them back toward the dirt and rocks below. Barnaby was glad he didn’t let go of the ZaP as it was the only thing that could save them from this deadly fall. Well, the only thing that could save him. Barnaby looked over at Jodi to find her smiling bright in the rays of the sun. Her hair lit up gold in the radiance. That smile reminded Barnaby of his daughter. Maybe that was why he decided to help this strange child. He was ready to die, but dying for her cause had a possibility of vilifying him.

“HOLD ONTO ME!” Barnaby yelled over the air rushing past his mouth. Her hands wrapped around his arm as he aimed the ZaP down for another two-second burst to slow their fall. The first one, he angled away from the compound, but when the blue burst out, they moved much further away than he anticipated. Without watching the ground looked as if the sun jumped over a bit of the blue sky. Barnaby had to focus.

The next burst he tried to do straight down, but the motion he put them under was a force to be reckoned with. The next burst would have to angle against the force keeping them drifting during the fall. This only proved how much power the device had. They were nothing to a simple two-second burst. Just as he was about to press the button for the fourth time, Jodi put her hand over his and met his eyes. Something in there told him to wait until she said to do it. Barnaby waited, watching the ground come closer and zoom past at an incredible speed below. He’d feer death if he still wanted to be alive. Dying by the use of a ZaP would be a great way to go.

When Jodi’s hand let go of his wrist, he pressed the button for two seconds and looked over to find the ground much closer than he was comfortable with. Just as he cringed and braced for impact, the ZaP burst forth a blast of blue light and sparks that cut away all momentum.

When the dust settled, Barnaby awoke to find himself alone on the surface of his dry world, but unharmed. He wondered how long he was out and patted his clothes to find the ZaP holstered his pants. If that wasn’t just a hallucination, Jodi had to be real, but where could she have gone? A burst of fear entered his mind that she forgot to hold on for the landing and took the full brunt of their combined momentum.

“Jodi!” he called out. As he took a larger breath to shout her name again, she replied.

“Here, Barney,” she said behind him. The setting sun was blanking her out from the surroundings until it vanished into an instant night. Before Barnaby could rationalize what happened, Jodi turned from where she stood holding a miniature version of the disappeared sun, dimmed down to a molten sphere in the palm of her hand.

“What are you?” Barnaby asked in equal parts awe and fear. Jodi just smiled in the molten light.

“I’m Jodi,” she said and pointed the sphere into the horizon where it appeared again as the setting sun.

There was so much to fear of this supposed child. She melted steel chains with her bare hands, and now stole the sun from the sky. A story from the past lit up inside Barnaby’s mind. It was a questioning tale of creation where a writer created a story that ran away from him due to his own insanity. There was a mention there of a being made up of pure energy in that tale. Barnaby couldn’t remember the name, but felt Jodi was one such creature. He walked over keeping his eyes on hers. How could a child on his daughter’s age be such an oddity?

“That’s how they all look at me,” she said. “Everyone’s afraid of me, what I can do. They shun me, try to kill me, contain me, to use me. I just… I just thought you’d be different, Barney.” Her eyes closed, breaking the magnetic connection keeping Barnaby speechless. Now that he could speak, he didn’t know what to say. Was it as she said? Did he fear her, or was it awe that he felt? It was a strange thing to fear her when all he wanted to do was to die.

“It’s ok, Barney,” she said before he could speak. “I’ll just eat your memories of me and you can go on living without the realization that your world is just a small accidental speck in the stars. Come here.” She stepped closer and pulled Barnaby to kneel at her side. Eating his memories only confirmed his theory.

“Wait,” he said. “Don’t do it, Jodi.” Barnaby felt a shiver of decision on his neck. “Not everyone fears you. You said someone told you that a kiss is like a blessing, didn’t they?” Jodi looked off into the approaching night.

“She just used me,” she replied. “Not to say that I don’t still consider her my friend, but once she had a human gem, she was done with helping me, so I went looking for someone else and found you. I only brought you back because reading a dead mind is like reading a book while it’s burning to ash from the back of the tome. I was so glad you were a good person, but I still have a lot to learn about humans and their memories.” Barnaby wondered how it felt to learn to be human from consuming human memories.

“Your potential is why others fear you,” he said. If he was about to do the stupid thing of helping her, she needed to know more of this evil world she made herself a part of. “They fear the possibility of you becoming a weapon the most, but I can’t see you that way. When I look at you, Jodi, I see my baby girl, and fear has no place in my heart then.” Jodi smiled.

“I’m glad,” she replied.

“But you did force yourself into my memories,” Barnaby said. Her smile waned. “How much did you see?”

“Everything.”

“Then you know I’ve killed people,” he said. “You also know I did it for revenge. I’m a bad person, Jodi.” Her hand touched his scruffy cheek.

“Not bad,” she said. “You had reasons. You were in pain. I could take all of that away, take those memories from you if-.”

“Don’t even say it,” Barnaby cut her off. “My demons make me what I am. I would never trade peace of mind for memories of my wife and child. Even dead, they mean more to me than anything else. Don’t ever suggest anything like that again.” Rather than reply, Jodi hugged him. The feeling of small arms around him brought up his daughter with a deep throb of sadness.

“I can place your mind into memories that feel vivid and real, Barney,” she said. “Any time you want to see them again, your family, just let me know and they will be by your side again.”

“They already are,” he said slipping from her hug. “But I’ll need to find Sam Caroll before I can face them again. First thing’s first. Are we heading, little lady?”

“The Dark Sorrowlands,” Jodi said and pointed to where the sun slipped away.

“That’s halfway around the world, Jodi,” Barnaby said. “It’ll take us months to get there on foot.”

“Then we should get going, Barney,” she said and walked off. He caught up to her in a few minutes with a nagging memory resurfacing of a very unpleasant person.

“Barnaby,” he corrected.

“I like Barney more.”

“Well, that’s not my name, so stop using it,” he replied. His mind froze for a moment. She saw all his memories. Did she see ALL the parts of his life?

“Faria calls you ‘Barney’, so why can’t I?” Jodi asked. If she knew about her, then she had to know that Faria happened after Jorana. Barnaby shook the thoughts away. Jodi probably didn’t care about the matters of the heart, but he had to tread carefully as Faria was an adult and Jodi, well, as least looked like a child.

“Faria and I have that kind of understanding,” he replied. “She calls me that, and I get upset, but it’s just a tease.” Jodi tilted her head in confusion.

“What’s a tease?” Jodi asked. Barnaby cursed in his mind. “Is that like when someone makes fun of another? Like mocking someone?”

“Yes!” Barnaby jumped at the simplification. “Wait. How do you not know that if you read memories?”

“Context,” she replied. “I read the memories, but don’t always understand the meanings. Plus I can’t remember all of them forever. I keep what I can, but the rest get digested and broken down.”

“You’re a bit scary that way, you know that?”

“I’m sorry, Barney, erm… Barnaby.”

“I’m glad you are,” he said. “While you might scare me a bit, it’s a good thing that bad people fear you. It gives you a bit of an edge. And you can call me ‘Barney’ if you want. I should get used to it so that Faria using it no longer infuriates me.” Barnaby looked up into the night sky and sighed at the millions of stars coming into view as darkness fell. The Dark Sorrowlands were one hell of a destination, but he still hoped to find a lazat on the way to pick up their pace.

“Hey, look,” Barnaby said. “The stars are out.” He looked over at Jodi who had her hands up to reach for them like Barnaby’s daughter once did.

“Soon,” she whispered, but said nothing more, only looked up in longing. Barnaby wondered what made her long for the darkness of space, but the idea surfaced from that old book, the final part. It had to be fiction.

The first leg of the journey had to be some town on the way to scrounge up the necessary supplies for the long road ahead. Luckily, a town just happened to show up after a day of travel toward the Sorrowlands. It was called Asterly, and was small enough to be controlled by a different breed of criminal than the Carollers. Many simple people lived there farming cattle, which was about the only thing that could be farmed in the Dust Plains. The livestock fed on what little grew in the dry climate that humans could not consume.

This town and those in the vicinity were subjected to a lower-class hoodlums called The Signets, sigs for short. Where the Carollers dealt with all sorts of heavy plots to shake down the larger towns and pillage on the way, these sigs were more concerned with survival on the misery of others, taking from those who didn’t have much to begin with.

“Keep your head down,” Barnaby said noticing the red skull signets on the fingers of some men in the town. The lower-class groups were often integrated into the community, holding up the whole town for taxation that kept them well off. “You don’t want to get on the bad side of these folks. They aren’t Carollers, but thugs all the same.”

“Why not just beat them all up?” Jodi asked at an audible volume. A few faces turned to them from the porches as they walked further into town.

“Life’s not that simple here, Jodi,” he replied. A pair of happy townsfolk crossed their path and proceeded onto the porch of the general story, only to be stopped by a big man with a red signet on his thumb.

“Excuse me, good sir,” said the male of the couple, but the signet did not stand aside. The woman’s face turned to shock as the sig lifted the man by the neck and threw him to the dirt road now behind Barnaby and Jodi. The woman ran to his side, but the big man was already there, clutching onto her shoulder with a wicked smile in his eye. She fought and struggled against the grip, but it only tightened as the sig pulled her close to him.

“Help! Anyone!” She called out, but nobody moved from their seats on porches of the town. The town lived in fear of such things. There was no helping them now.

“Shouldn’t we help?” Jodi asked.

“This world is cruel to the weak,” Barnaby replied without breaking his stride. “Interfering with one of these thugs, would set all of them onto us, and I saw about a dozen of them already.” Jodi grabbed his arm to stop him.

“If that was me, would you help?” Barnaby had to consider the answer. Being what she was, she wouldn’t even need help, but if it was a child the age of his daughter, of course he would. Before he could turn to answer her, she was gone. He cursed and turned with a hand trained on his ZaP as Jodi sprinted toward the big sig in the road. With a leap, she kicked both feet into the massive knee, doing little to no damage.

“Leave them alone!” she shouted. A few people nearby stirred, signet friends no doubt. The big one let go of the woman only to try and grab Jodi, but she was quicker than his motion. By the time Barnaby ran up to the two of them, they were surrounded by other sigs, each brandishing some sort of weapon. This town was too small for any of them to have guns. It cost too much money to make good steel for those, and yet the oldest looking sig pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Jodi. She was still jumping around to dodge the big man’s attacks. Barnaby closed the distance to the gunman, knocking out three other sigs with punches to their necks.

“Hold up now,” Barnaby said putting the metal tube of the ZaP to the man’s head. “I take it you’re the lead here. No random sig gonna have a cast gun in these parts.”

“You know who we are, boy?” the gun guy replied. “You really don’t want to mess with the signets. We report to Sam Caroll, ya know!”

“I know,” Barnaby said. “They happen to want me dead. By the way, that thing pointed at your head is a ZaP, so you best lower your gun unless you’d like to have a face full of lightning.” He was a senior signet, so there was a chance he knew of the fabled weapons. A younger person wouldn’t even give a damn at that name. The old timer lowered the heavy weapon and handed it over. “No tell them to stand down.”

“You think they’ll listen to me?” he asked. “The Signets have no authority head. I may be old, but they don’t give a damn what I say.”

“If you work under the Carollers, then you do answer to someone,” Barnaby said. “You’re safe for now, but if I have to come to my friend’s aid, some of your men might die. You best go peacefully, geezer.” He nodded slowly.

“Donny, stop!” the old man called out to the big man still trying to get a single hit on Jodi. She tried to land some hits, but his size impeded most efforts. Donny stopped, but Jodi kept landing hits and kicks to no avail.

“Jodi, wait,” Barnaby called out. Her punches and kicks slowed to a stop. “The situation is handled. These sigs will now be moving on to some next town. Isn’t that right, sir?” Barnaby pushed the ZaP to the man’s skull.

“Right,” he said. “Boys, pack up! We’re moving on to Durn!” Barnaby led him to the edge of town with the other sigs and watched them walk off into the distant horizon. When they were barely visible, he put a sequence into the ZaP to bring forth the grounding spiders. The reality of this sale was just a walking lightning that chased after the signets along the ground. The romanticized versions were supposed to be much bigger and hairy with lightning shedding into the air. The ZaP was proving a good weapon, but not exactly as described in the old books.

“Spiders my ass,” Barnaby said under his breath and turned to Jodi who still looked off into the distance. “Never meet your heroes. They tend to disappoint.” She said nothing.

“Thank you, Barney,” she said without turning to him. He almost corrected her again about the name, but remembered that he allowed her to use it. Every time she called him that, Barnaby’s mind went off to the dark months after Jo died. He met Faria in those times, a woman trying to break the world for her own reasons that she never shared. Where Barnaby used weapons, she used the more archaic forms of tools, those once only fabled in stories Barnaby read when young. The most notable few were: a green crystal that made the shadows step aside, a pink dagger that heated up on friction with the air, and a triangle of some purple metal meant as a key to a dimension called Secear. She was looking for a way to use that last one before Barnaby left her side.

“Is the couple ok?” He asked to snap himself out of the Faria flashback. Jodi nodded, but didn’t smile.

“They won’t even remember,” she replied. “I consumed the memory of that one event from their minds.” Her one solution to human problems was to alter the memories, but in most cases, humans had to learn from their mistakes. For example, running around all happy when a bunch of signets were around was like asking for the sobering lesson of the Dust Plains. With that memory gone, those two might run into the same situation. Barnaby wanted to explain this to Jodi, but he’d feel too much like a father again if he started teaching her stuff. He lost the right to call himself that long ago.

“What does eating memories do for you?” he asked instead. She finally smiled again, looking away from the horizon where the sigs disappeared.

“Information gathering,” she said. “But I digest them and poop out emotions.”

“You what?” he asked. It sounded somewhat logical that out of events inside memories she would pluck out the motional bits, but why was that waste material in her eyes? She drew out a brown pouch from her pocket with gemstones in a variety of colors. The red one drew Barnaby in, but when he held it, his mind lit on fire with rage. He let it fall from his fingers before he screamed out and the anger subsided.

“They’re emotion gemstones,” Jodi said picking up the red crystal Barnaby dropped into the sand. “They are what I produce as waste due to consuming human memories. They don’t seem to work on me, which is a bid sad, but I need to collect them when produced or some humans will pick them up and try to make the human gem like my friend from the Sorrowlands did once.”

“No way,” Barnaby said picking up a pink gem from the pouch. Almost right away, a joy filled his mind with thoughts of Jorana and Valery, their daughter. He felt as if they were alive and by his side, but when Jodi took the gem back, he felt the emotion ripped away again to his reality. They were gone, killed buried.

“That one’s love,” Jodi said. “My friend told me it’s the most addicting one since all the humans want to feel loved, or be in love. It’s all just poop to me though.” Barnaby reasserted himself from the first time he lost his family. It was a vivid reach, but holding that gem, he could die a happy man. He shook the thought off. Sam Caroll was to blame for his family. He had to die to complete that revenge.

“What in the hell are you, Jodi?” Barnaby asked. She looked into his eyes and smiled just like the many times before.

“I’m Jodi,” she replied. “The gems are sorted by color for different emotions, but most of the time they can’t be a pure single emotion. The pure ones are valuable in their own right, but if you collect all of them, each pure emotion, they form a condensed gem called the human gem, or a true element gem. It has many names, but that’s what my friend in the Sorrowlands chose to use me for. Once she had the gem, she left me to figure out my problems alone.”

“That doesn’t sound like a friend, Jodi,” Barnaby said. “Don’t you know what a friend is yet? How long have you been eating memories?” Jodi grimaced.

“The definition of friends differs from person to person,” she said. “I was a friend in her mind, and she wasn’t a bad person. That’s all I know.”

“So how come we’re going to see her?” he asked. What was the purpose of getting some “friend” involved in something that would likely kill them all? Was that Jodi’s revenge for being used as a human gem farm?

“I drop the gems off at her place so they don’t fall into the wrong hands,” she said. “It’s better than burying them underground where they might become magical jewelry or something.” Barnaby thought back to Faria’s green crystal. Was that an emotion gem too? Some rich inhabitants of the Dust Plains could pay a lot of money to hoard these mystical stones.

“How kind of her to keep them all,” Barnaby said. “Though I’m sure she’d just trying to make more human gems. How many pure ones does it take?”

“Forty-two,” Jodi replied. “The rare ones aren’t as easy to find, so I doubt she’ll make another in this century.” Barnaby wondered if that was just a figure of speech. Did Jodi even know what a “figure of speech” was?

“Let’s head back to the store,” he said rather than debate her understanding. “I snagged the old one’s purse, so we can buy some supplies for our trip. Maybe we can even buy a ride for part of the way, though I bet nobody wants to travel into the cloudy and grim lands.” They weren’t always so, but wars tend to ruin the land, especially fought with climate weapons. The clouds that darkened those parts were not water and air, but pollutants that resisted rainfall.

It was a short walk from the edge of Asterly to the general store, but they weren’t met with cheers and applause fitting of heroes. Barnaby figured most of the townsfolk would be smart enough to know that there was no permanent way of getting rid of thugs like signets and Carollers. They always came back, often greater in numbers. These people knew their peace was temporary, and Barnaby almost wanted to apologize for interfering. They walked with eyes on them all the way into the store.

“Don’t wonder off,” Barnaby said, but Jodi already took off into the open space filled with products. Barnaby turned to the clerk. “Sorry about her. I’ll pay for any damage she does.” The guy was about his age, but with less hair. He was smiling, but one of those forced smiles of a salesperson.

“Sweet kid,” he said looking her way. “So what do you need, stranger?”

“Name’s Barnaby,” he said. “We just need some basic stuff. Water, some food. Is there a lazat I can buy or borrow? Maybe someone could give us a ride toward the Dark Sorrowlands.”

“You know, when the Signets come back, I’ll have to tell them which way the two of you went,” the clerk said with a constant smile on his face.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Barnaby said. “We really shouldn’t have gotten involved. Sorry about that.”

“I just don’t want any trouble,” he continued. “You understand?” Barnaby sighed and trained a hand on the ZaP. Most times when someone said that, they were about to strike, at least that was his experience in the Dust Plains.

“Neither do I,” Barnaby said. “But this girl is trouble. Not to mention that Carollers want me dead. Consider your next moves carefully.” He watched the guy’s hand under the counter relax and let go of a weapon.

“Fancy weapon you’ve got there,” he said. His hand came out slowly with a box of candy. “I’ve never seen an actual ZaP, only heard stories. Candy for your daughter?”

“She’s not my kid,” Barnaby said relaxing the grip on his ZaP. “I’m just transporting her to her aunt in the Sorrowlands. And it’s a pass on the candy, thanks. We just need the basics and we’ll be, out of your lack of hair. So I’ll ask again. Do you have any lazats around?”

“None currently in town, I’m afraid,” the clerk replied. “But the Signets had one with them. I’m actually surprised none mentioned it as they left. It’s over by the blacksmith’s.”

“Perfect,” Barnaby said. “Come on, Jodi. We’ve got a ride.” She ran up with a few items in her arms.

“Can we buy these?” she asked with three toys in tow. One was a plush gerbil of some sort, where the others were pretend guns that made the sound of gunshots.

“I’ll take the plush,” Barnaby said turning to the clerk. “Put the toy guns away. You shouldn’t be playing with those anyway.” Jodi grimaced, but hugged the gerbil plush tight against her head. Whatever she was, Jodi still acted like a child, and with the memory of her playing with Valery, it felt far too real.

“Come on, Jodi,” he said. “Let’s find the lazat and get going.”

The vehicles that Signets drove were nothing special, but it would get them to the Sorrowlands, or at the very least to the edge. Past that point, the solar panels would be of no use, and they were the main power supply for all lazats and vehicles in the dust plains. Barnaby had no idea how people got around before elsewhere, but most of their world was the Dust Plains. Sam Caroll was limited to this vast emptiness. He was once the son of a steel casting baron, but killed his father and used the plant to create weapons since then.

The lazats had four rollers that turned for directional movement, moved by steel-cast gears and other parts that relied on the steel plant under the control of Caroll. By taking over control from his dad, Caroll stopped suppling tools and parts for the rich, instead fitting his followers with weapons to steal supplies from zats delivering food to the Dust Plains from beyond. How was Jodi involved in this crazy place? Once inside the metal cage on rollers, Barnaby pulled out some wires and tried to remember how to hotwire one of these things. As Jodi sat by his side, her hand touched the metal by the missing sparkey. When her eyes closed, the engine turned over and started. Barnaby looked to her in surprise.

“What?” she asked. “I have some tricks.” He felt like asking her what she was one more time, but stopped himself. Her answer would always be her name, and he already had an inkling that she was this Zaxient being he read about once. Maybe later on she’d explain more on the subject, when she trusted him more. Did he even care? He stopped the spiraling thought before he questioned still being alive.

“You sure do,” he said pushing the lever to release the brake. The lazat rolled forward into the open space. Barnaby turned to head toward the Sorrowlands before pushing the lever up to speed up. This zat version was a lot quieter than any that Carollers drove. The Signets had nothing to prove seeing as they were already subjugated by the Steel Baron of Bandits. Barnaby chuckled at the abbreviation. Steel Bob could be a good nickname for Sam Caroll, especially since Barnaby wanted to see the man bob for fruit in a vat of molten steel.

“What’s funny?” Jodi asked.

“Oh, nothing,” he replied realizing she was in the zat with him.

“Hmm,” she said and put her hand over his eyes. Barnaby hit the brake at the sudden lack of vision. “Heh, Steel Bob. That’s a bit funny.” Once she took her hand away, he put his serious face on.

“Don’t cover my eyes when I’m driving, Jodi,” he said as calmly as he could. His heart still beat faster at the sudden dangerous action. Imagining her as Valery helped a bit.

“Your fault, really,” she said playing with the gerbil doll on the dashboard. “Should have told me the joke.” Barnaby sighed and readjusted to the Dust Plains beyond the windshield. They’d only be able to travel during the day, so they had to make best use of the sun’s power.




On the second day of travel, Barnaby adjusted his direction by the rising sun and tried to hotwire the lazat again, but only shocked himself. Jodi was the only person who could turn the engine on and off without the sparkey.

“Faria lives on the way, doesn’t she?” she asked when they were all packed up to keep moving. “We should go see her.”

“Bad idea,” Barnaby replied. “I’d rather avoid that woman if I can.”

“Why’d that?” she asked getting into the front seat of the zat. Barnaby pointed at the ignition switch, but she wanted an answer before starting the engine. “She’s in love with you from what I saw in your memories.” Barnaby had no counter argument. There was just no room in his heart for two women, even with Jo gone. After a few minutes of silence, Jodi dropped the matter and started the zat.

Much of the Dust Plains was empty flatlands with rocks scattered about to avoid with the lazat’s rollers. Few cities showed up on the horizon, but each time Barnaby steered away from their direction to pass them by. At certain instances, a house happened to pop up in the middle of nowhere, likely with a dead family raided by Carollers. They were depots for them, and were another structure to avoid on the way. They were built with bricks, dust from the Plain mixed with water and heated to dry in a more solid form. Though still frail, the structures provided an escape from the deadly heat and wildlife just waiting for new prey.

Each known water vein in the land was home to another town, or hoarded by the vast array of criminal organizations in the Dust Plains. Aside from water veins, resource mines for coal and iron, most power of the dust plains resided in the hands of the cattle and plant farmers on the southern outskirts on the Dust Plains. The farmable land was small, and thus neigh-immune to criminal activity, but the zats carrying the produce into the towns and cities shipping back water and resources, were vulnerable enough for Carollers and their subordinate groups.

“Another city, Barney,” Jodi said pointing in the distance. “Let’s just stop for a bit. Please! Maybe a town closer to the Sorrowlands isn’t populated by bad guys.” Barnaby said nothing as he altered course slightly to avoid the upcoming structures. It would be a hassle to run into more of Caroll’s men, even if they were just underlings of an absorbed group like the Signets. Jodi reached out and turned the engine off. Barnaby just looked to her, sighed, and waited until the zat fully stopped. Rather than speak, he turned to the steering wheel and pulled the wires back out ot try to hot wire the vehicle back to life.

“Why are you being this way, Barney?” she asked. “Not all towns aim to attack us like Asterly. What is this is just a normal southern town? We could resupply and head into the Sorrowlands ready for the trek.”

“Any way you look at it, towns are trouble,” Barnaby said before trying two wires that only shocked him again. “Regular people are always subject to fear for their lives and they would only direct the Carollers right to us. The most recent town was much worse, being under the thumb of the Southern Carollers to a degree of having weapons.”

“Do you hate them, Barney?” Jodi asked. “They do what they have to do to survive. We’re doing the same.

“I dislike them,” Barnaby replied and hit two wires together to start the engine, only to have Jodi turn it back off. There was no getting away from this talk, but Barnaby was dreading when it would come up. It was akin to when his parents decimated his innocence by burning his fantastic books about other worlds and devices just like the ZaP. Barnaby learned his lesson, but some kid part of him remained inside, still hoping to one day see a real ZaP. Thanks to Jodi, he did. This would hurt him more than she could understand.

“This has been a long time coming,” Barnaby said turning in his seat to face Jodi. “The Dust Plains are controlled by the Carollers. That much you know, but it’s far more outreaching of an evil grip than just Steel Bob.” Jodi snickered at the name they made up for Sam Caroll.

“Aside from the Carollers controlling the central parts of the Dust Plains,” he continued. “The organization has sections and leaders of the four directions: North, South, East, and West. Any new groups that rose up by inspiration of the same greed, were absorbed into the Carollers, like the Signets, or were dealt with in more gruesome means. Most of them joined up with Bob, powering up his corrupt empire. Apart from the sigs, I know a few other groups operating in the Dust Plains and beyond, even in the Sorrowlands.

“The group operating that war-torn wasteland are called Vizers, as they need to wear something over their eyes to keep soot hanging in the air of the land from their eyes. If your friend is still alive in that place, she must be under their control.” Jodi smiled.

“She can handle herself,” she said and turned the zat back on. “Besides, she lives in a cave, so I doubt these vizers would bother her. Thanks to the human gem, she doesn’t need to eat or drink. Maybe that’s why she wants a second one, to give to someone to be like that with her.” The human gem deserved more of an explanation, but Barnaby kept his mind on the corrupt world of theirs.

“Regardless,” he said. “The lands near the farms are tracked by a group called Wheel Corps. They operate all of the produce redistribution for the Dust Plains, keeping everyone in line for fear of malnutrition. While the farms have security set up by the elites living among the farmlands, when they try to feed the masses of the Dust Plains that farm cattle for their meat, all they end up feeding is the Steel Bob’s empire of fear.”

“So?” Jodi asked. “They’re all just bad guys, aren’t they? There has to be someone that stands up to them. Can’t those elites do something?”

“You can’t just write them all off as bad guys,” Barnaby said. “The whole mass of groups under Steel Bob make up about half of the population of our world. There is no exterminating that amount of people. A way to fix a world so far gone is understanding what went wrong in the first place. When we find Sam Caroll, I’ll ask what he knows of this before I take his life. All any normal person like me can do is live in ignorance of Bob, but there comes a time when life has a way of destroying itself.” Barnaby made himself remember how he lost his wife and daughter, but before the scene formed in his head, Jodi put a palm to his forehead and evaporated the recollection.

“It’ll work out somehow,” she said and smiled looking off at the town in the distance. “If you want, I’ll stay in the zat and you can grab supplies real fast. It shouldn’t cause a scene if we’re there and gone.”

“You’re awfully optimistic, aren’t you, whatever-you-are?” Barnaby said getting the zat moving toward the town before them.

“I’m Jodi,” she said yet again. “You used to be like this once, and can be so again.” Barnaby frowned at the bubbling flashback to his younger days. Jodi’s hand did not reach out this time to wipe the memory back into storage. He had to face this one alone.