The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire (5 page)

“
The way we see it is we have two realistic options. We either
destroy the nest, to prevent the area becoming flooded with Monster
spawn, or we leave them be and hope that they never come into
contact with us.” My father expound. Instantly the room fell into
silence as every single person present began to think over their
options. I had already made my mind up. I knew what I wanted to do
to them the second I laid eyes on the nest.

“
I thought they couldn’t reproduce anymore?” Dexter Payne
called. Despite being third in command here at Haven, he hadn’t
been given a heads up about the meeting. He, just like everyone
else who hadn’t been present at the time of the discovery was
hearing this for the first time.

“
That’s what we thought. There’s no doubt that in recent years
the monsters haven’t been able to reproduce. We placed this down to
sustained malnourishment. Once most of life on earth had been
drained many of them went into hibernation, turned to cannibalism
or simply starved to death. I fear we may have an Elder on our
hands here.” My dad said, with a gulp.

That last part
shook me right to my core and sent shockwaves around the room.
Never for a second had I considered that the eggs may belong to one
of the original eleven elders. An Elder. Twice the size of the
other monsters, and ten times as deadly. Grandpa had told me the
story of how the civilization crumbled a thousand times over – it
was because of the eleven Elders. These Elders brought about the
destruction of entire cities and brought countries to their
knees.

The year was
2014. There was no warning signs – nobody could have predicted what
happened. One day, people in a country called Iceland awoke to find
the Island’s largest volcano to be on the brink of erupting.
Surrounding cities and towns were evacuated, but it wasn’t just
lava that was sent erupting into the air. The volcano gave birth to
something. The very first Elder. A dragon, the size of an airplane,
stretched its wings high above Iceland, the country’s scared and
confused citizens could only stand and stare in curiosity as the
monstrous creature took flight above. Their curiosity soon turned
to panic as the creature began to rain humongous clouds of fire
down upon them. Thousands were burnt alive by the beast. This
dragon came to be known as Greyhorn. All around the world, another
ten dragons were born from the largest volcanos, each extracting
their own fiery hell upon the people of earth. Despite their best
efforts, the Elder dragons proved near invincible.

It wasn’t just
dragons that the volcano’s gave birth too. Countless creatures, all
monumental in size soon followed. Even today, travellers describe
new creatures that haven’t yet been documented.

The Eleven
Elders began to spawn young too – an estimated three hundred
dragons ravaged the skies and scorched the lands at the time of the
last official estimate. By the time most of civilization had been
destroyed, seven Elder Dragon’s still remained. It is said that
their spawn would take centuries to reach their size and strength,
or even to be able to breed for that matter, yet still they were
ferocious creatures, capable of unleashing unspeakable waves of
destruction with a single breath.

It was because of these Elder dragons - and the other
countless creatures that followed them out of the fiery depths of
the earth - that mankind had been near destroyed. It is because of
these that the remaining humans must fight for their very survival
in a harsh and hostile world. These Elders
created
the Charred Lands.

And now it
seemed one may have settled down, right at our door step. The
implications of this were unthinkable.

There was a
chance that the nest didn’t belong to a dragon at all, rather
another one of The Charred Lands many mutant monsters – but the
damage done to Barry Deer’s house was pretty much concrete evidence
that a dragon had been in the area. The other creatures rarely ever
reached sizes above that of a car, I couldn’t imagine anything that
size being able to give birth to such large eggs.

I had never
seen an Elder Dragon in all of my lifetime; few who had were alive
to tell the story. They were deadly, destructive creatures. On two
occasions younger dragons have flown over Haven, and several times
I’ve witnessed other monstrous creatures scatter past our walls,
but never have I come into direct contact with the beasts which
brought about the end of society.

“
We have to destroy the eggs.” Timothy finally said, a firm
harshness to his voice – as though his mind was set in stone, and
no arguing otherwise would change his mind. Timothy was often like
that.

“
Who knows what kind of consequences that would bring on
Haven.” My father replied. Just as they always did, I could see the
two brothers locking horns. In the past – especially after Timothy
lost his wife and unborn child – their relationship had broken
down. Timothy was second in charge only because my Grandpa had made
it so, had it been up to my father I had no doubt in my mind that
Dexter Payne would have been placed second in command. It wasn’t
unusual to find dad seeking Dexter’s advice before
Timothy’s.

For a few
seconds the two brothers stood in front of the small crowd, their
eyes firmly locked upon each other, a single trickle of sweat began
to drip down my dad’s forehead. Neither of the two was going to
budge easily on this. And so, the debate began.

“
So you’re suggesting we just leave the eggs there and wait for
a nest of Dragons to spawn?” Timothy almost laughed, looking to the
crowd for support in a shroud of arrogance.

“
So let’s say we destroy them. We could be bringing whatever
gave birth to them right to our doorstep! This is more than likely
a dragon we’re dealing with here, if we destroy its eggs it will
come looking for whoever was responsible!”

“
It’s already on our doorstep, brother. This animal murdered
Barry Deer, and slaughtered three of our own. Tony, Amy and Kyle
Olsen are DEAD because of that monster!” He spat. Quickly it was
becoming easy to see whos side the crowd were on. All I could do
was sit and watch as others began to nod their heads at Timothy’s
points. Antonio Payne even went as far as to clap.

“
We could move them further away from Haven. The mother would
probably still be able to find them, that way we would potentially
be out of harm’s way.” My dad tried, desperately trying to gather
his composure and come up with some good points, but already the
crowd had turned. I heard various sighs from around me after my
father said that.

Timothy stood
silent for a moment, before bursting out in controllable laughter,
he wiped away a tear from his cheek before his face fell deadly
serious, “The eggs must be destroyed, dear brother. It is decided.”
He said, his face void of any emotion. Without so much as another
word he barged past my father and made his way out of the meeting
room.

The room fell
deadly silent. People began to follow Timothy’s example and
disperse from the room, leaving my father stood alone at the front;
annoyed and embarrassed. His head dropped down in defeat. I wanted
so desperately to say something to him, but I simply couldn’t find
the words. Instead, I quietly stood to my feet and made my way out
of the meeting room.

Chapter
Six

I couldn’t
sleep. I spent what felt like hours rolling around on my old, rough
and bumpy mattress, with no luck. No matter how hard I tried, I
just couldn’t keep my eyes shut. Every time I managed to close
them, I would have flash backs of Tony Olsen’s burnt, charred bones
– that image was going to stick with me for quite some time.

Not only was I
being haunted by the image of the body, but my mind was filled with
an abundance of activity over the nest. It had been decided that a
small team would head out and ‘deal’ with the eggs tomorrow. It was
a scary, risky mission – but it had been decided that it was for
the greater good. I wouldn’t be taking part in the expedition,
father had decided that it was far too dangerous for me. Instead,
he, Timothy, Brandon and Ruby were heading out to do the deed. I
was surprised to find that everyone in Haven, aside from myself,
Ruby and father had been in favour of destroying the nest, even
Brandon had stood up to dad. It was rare that my dad found himself
fighting against the majority – people usually flocked to his side
during debates, but not this time. All he could do was grit his
teeth and go along with what the community, as a whole had
decided.

The soft, yet
extremely grating sound of Brandon’s snoring was beginning to grind
on my nerves. I never usually had trouble sleeping, I usually went
to bed before everyone else, but not tonight. Elsewhere in the
house, I could hear distant, mumbled voices. I instantly recognised
one of them to be my Grandpa. I knew exactly what was going on.

I quietly
slipped out of bed, dressed in nothing but my pyjama bottoms, and
tip toed out of my bedroom and down the hall way to the room where
my brother and sister slept. Just as I suspected, the sound of my
Grandpa’s voice was coming from here.

I found the
door to be slightly agar. A thin trail of light shone through into
the otherwise pitch black hallway. Inside the small room, my two
younger siblings, Toby and Amber sat up in their beds; their faces
alight with fascination as my Grandpa sat beside them, telling the
same old stories that he used to tell me when I was their age.

Hearing his
soft, warm voice talk about a distant time filled with technology
and peace brought a rush of warmth and nostalgia to my heart. It
took me right back to my childhood, when I sat in the very same bed
that my younger brother, Toby sat in. Stories from before the Rise
always fascinated me.

“
Tell my favourite story, grandpa!” Amber said as Grandpa
finished telling a story about how he had once gone on holiday to a
foreign country called Spain. Amber’s face was a picture of youth
and innocence, at the tender age of seven, she was too young to
comprehend the harshness of the world that she had been brought
into. I would do anything to have a time machine and visit the days
Grandpa told us of.

“
Which one is that?” My Grandpa chuckled.

“
The one about the Dragon Rider.” She replied, sitting up
eagerly.

“
Ah, Mogbane.” He said, pausing and looking to the ceiling as
though trying to remember the story.

I remembered
the story of Mogbane. Just like my sister, it fascinated me, though
part of me never truly allowed myself to believe this particular
story.

“
One day a traveller passed through Haven and with him, he
brought stories of a man living high up in the mountains beyond
Manchester. The man he told us of had a rare, and special ability.
It is said that this man, named Mogbane, has trained and tamed one
of the winged beasts that ravaged the skies. People speak of seeing
him riding upon the dragon, thousands of feet into the air like a
majestic angel.”

“
How did he tame one, Grandpa?” Toby interrupted, his voice
thick with doubt – I wasn’t surprised by this. Toby was a smart kid
who had a habit of questioning everything. He wanted to know the
causes and reasons for everything, a trait which at times could be
a little annoying, but would surely eventually craft him into a
perfect citizen of the Charred Lands.

“
It is said that he raised the dragon as his own from birth. It
is still a small dragon, but powerful nevertheless. Mogbane comes
from a small group of people living in the mountains who call
themselves ‘The Church of Fire’. These people have different views
about the dragons. They seem to think that they have religious
roots and look to the creatures as Gods - looney’s if you ask me.”
My Grandpa finished, with a laugh.

“
Do you think it’s true?” Toby asked.

“
I’m afraid I don’t. There’s a lot we human’s don’t know about
the Dragons, but one thing that we have been able to concur on is
that they’re killing machines. They live to breath their reign of
destruction or tear anything apart that moves. They’re monsters,
plain and simple. I don’t believe that they can be tamed.” He
sighed, the mood in the room shifted somewhat.

“
Aren’t you a little old for stories?” A voice said from
behind. I almost jumped from my skin as I spun around to find my
father standing alone in the dark hallway.

“
I was just…” I stuttered, feeling my face turn red with
embarrassment.

“
It’s okay. I can’t sleep either, but we won’t drift off if
we’re not in bed now, will we?” He said, gesturing me to return to
my room. I nodded my head and silently made my way back.

“
Goodnight son.” He said, giving me a quick kiss on my forehead
as I returned into my bedroom, and returned to Brandon’s
insufferable snoring.

Chapter
Seven

I drifted off
the second my head hit the pillow, before I knew it, it was
morning.

“
You’re going to miss breakfast.” Brandon said as I groggily
opened my eyes. He was already dressed, ready for his venture out
into The Charred Lands. With all things considered, he looked
surprisingly calm.

“
Are you nervous about going out there?” I asked, rubbing my
eyes and sitting up in my bed. I still felt half asleep, my eyes
were almost glued shut.

“
Nervous as hell.” He laughed, before giving me a wink and
quickly exiting the room.