Avalon Uncensored
…there will always be the hunted
For a moment the land that emerged from the mist appeared like skyscrapers and twisted super highway overpasses, but as the fog cleared they could see that this was not Manhattan. Instead the land was dry, rising steeply into hills that were often crowned with pine forests, and mountains topped with snow.
"For a moment I thought we were home," Elisa said as they made landfall.
"Perhaps, when we finish here, Avalon will see fit to send us back to Manhattan," Goliath said.
"What could Avalon want from us in such an empty land," Angela asked.
Bronx set up a low growl as a four legged creature darted over a nearby ridge, rifle shots calling after it.
"That's a wolf," Elisa said. "If we are in America then that is a protected species!"
"Then we have found our calling here, come!" Goliath cried.
"Your pelt is gonna look great in my foyer," the poacher said as he cornered the wolf. He aimed in when he heard roars from the darkened sky. Looking up a monster landed before him.
"Oh Jesus!" The man cried as Goliath snatched the rifle away from him and bent it into a clothes pin.
Nearby the others landed amongst the hunters who instantly panicked at the sight of the Gargoyles.
"Surely Avalon sent us here for more than this," Angela said as she snatched a portly child with a rifle that seemed oversized in his sausage like fingers. The other hunters were running, many were overweight and over or under aged like this child.
Elisa snatched the rifle from the kid's hands, "they're not carrying kid's toys."
Barking, Bronx chased the defeated foe into the tall bushes.
"Bronx, come back here," Elisa cried, running after the great garbeast. That was when a laser blast erupted from the tangled branches. The shot struck at Elisa's feet, causing her to tumble.
"Elisa," Angela cried and charged after her friend as laser bolts sailed at her. She snatched up the human detective, grabbed a tree branch and threw herself into flight. It looked as if she was going to get away when a bolt struck her in the forehead; the last thing Angela saw was a bright light.
Angela dropped Elisa who crashed through the canopy of a trees, Angela herself was carried by the evening breezes, filling her wings, taking her high to silhouette before the moon.
Gone to the world, Angela continued to glide as if on auto pilot until the breeze finally died. She dropped altitude, slowly at first while the winds still struggled to pick her up, then, when the winds stopped, she dropped.
Angela's body circled down, tumbling through altitude toward a farm house with glowing windows, but she could also crash in the field beyond.
The gods of fate seemed apt to have her smash into the house where, inside, an unknown number of humans lurked. But a sudden breeze was enough to take Angela away from the house to collide into the nearby tree.
Motionless, the tree was where she came to a stop, near a derelict tree house. Lidless eyes blinked in the dark, from the tree house and below, watching the new arrival in silent fascination.
At the battle Goliath found himself running along the ground, a large hole already burned into his wing. His clan had been scattered and now he was being chased by two humans in black armed with heavy particle beam rifles.
Goliath had run long and hard constantly up and up elevation, his naked feet were soon crushing through snow and his upper body was crashing through pine trees; his hunters were ever gaining.
He came to the edge of a cliff that overlooked a steep drop and a forested valley, he looked back. The pursuing lithe forms were just yards away, crashing through the trees, one took a shot that nearly missed Goliath's ear.
He had one choice.
Goliath opened his wings and jumped, knowing he would not glide well, maybe not at all. He fell for soundless seconds, his body and internal organs seeming to float in space, he saw the rocky mountain side coming up to greet him and was certain he would meet it, and his bones would haunt those crevasses for all time. But, in an instant, what was left of his wings caught the wind, he slowly planed away from the place that would be his death.
The hunters arrived at the cliff side, the larger one aimed in at Goliath's slowly floating form; he could not miss and his finger quivered on the trigger.
The smaller one put his hand on the gun, stopping him.
"I had him! Why did you stop me?"
"Don't you remember the rules," the smaller one demanded.
"How would 'it' ever know I wasted a Gargoyle? It's not even here!"
"How did 'it' know how to find you? How did it know who you are? How did 'it' get you here? Maybe you should show some respect before 'it' gets pissed off and decides to punish both of us," the smaller hunter said.
"Whatever, it can't be everywhere at once," the larger hunter muttered as they walked away.
The Hunters returned to the group where they had Elisa in binders, one of the Poachers marched at them. "Dude!" He said with a severe gesture toward Elisa. "She's a cop!
The hunter said nothing and slung his rifle.
"We've gone too far this time! To shoot at and kidnap a cop!"
"Maybe if we let her go now they'll go easy on us!
"You are making sense," Elisa said. "Let me go now…"
The big hunter marched forward and slammed a fist against her gut; Elisa went down, sputtering on the cold, dry, earth.
"You hired me to come here and get rid of the wolves that threaten your herds," the smaller hunter said. "But who brought the wolves back in the first place?"
"The Feds did, but we are looking at serious prison time!"
"It's worse than that," the hunter replied. "The creatures that attacked us were Wendigos, they attack children, whether human or calf. This so called cop leads them, and because of her, they will be back."
The other Poachers gasped and spoke in alarmed tones.
"That's a lie," Elisa cried.
The Poachers were still gasping and talking loudly.
The big Hunter scooped Elisa from the ground, "we cannot afford to panic now or we will face more than time behind bars." He said to his group.
"What do we do," one asked.
"I'm taking the cop," the Hunter said. "And you will go home and do your best to pretend to live a normal, decent, life. While you are doing this you will gather all the weapons and ammo you can and we will meet again on Monday night."
"What will we do then?"
"Send the Government a powerful message about citizen's rights in regards to the insult of sending this cop and her creatures!"
Angela….
Strange slim creatures dressed in rags emerged from the tree house and seemingly from every shadow of the house and forest. They stared at the winged woman draped over two branches in the tree above them; they looked to each other.
"What are you doing!" A woman screamed as she rushed out the door and to where the kids were putting up a ladder into the tree; other adult and sub adult women stood at the door and watched in stunned silence.
"Look, Aunt Stephanie," the starved human child pointed to the tree to where Angela rested. "An angel!"
Stephanie gasped at what she saw as the other women and teenage girls walked over to gawk as well.
"It doesn't look exactly like an Angel, it could be a demon," a fourteen year old girl commented.
"Whatever it is, we need to get it out of the tree before Uncle Jacob gets home," Stephanie said. "And we need to get it out of here… we may have to leave the house for this."
The others, adults, teenagers, and children shuddered at the thought.
"It's those kinds of words that got you sent here to the punishment ranch in the first place, Stephanie!" Another woman cried. "We need to let the men take care of this!"
"If we do nothing, what do you think Jacob is going to do? Or if the Guard Boys catch her? Do you want to see her tossed in the cesspool? What will we do when others like this creature come looking for her when she does not return? And what do you think will happen to us when we are caught up in the battle? What will we do when the police arrive?" Stephanie asked, and then commented under her breath. "There are much better uses for a Gargoyle…"
The women around Stephanie gulped and consent was granted. They worked together, nearly fifty of them on the ladder bringing Angela, hand by hand, to the ground. They then brought her to a crumbling barn at the edge of the property, the one place where they knew Jacob or the Guard Boys were not likely to search.
The door fell off when they pulled on it, rats, mice, and other creatures scattered at the introduction of moon light. A work bench was there, just enough room surrounded by the collapsing roof where an owl watched with his big, wise, eyes.
They rushed Angela in and cleared the dirt, turds, and dust from the bench and put the Gargoyle on it.
"It's still alive," Stephanie said while checking Angela's wrist, neck and chest. "The question is if it's permanently damaged… Then the others will come and I'm sunk…"
"What was that, Sister Stephanie," the fourteen year old asked.
"What happened…" Angela groaned.
"Headlights!" One of the kids cried.
"Get back to the house, now!" Stephanie screamed and in a second, the barn was cleared except for a stirring Angela. Stephanie remained for a moment, frowning as she looked down on the fallen Gargoyle. She eventually and slowly walked away, back into the house.
Angela groaned and rolled off the bench, the hard impact was enough to jolt her back to reality. "What! Where am I!" She jumped and saw that she was in a bizarre crushed barn. She cradled her head in her arms which brought a silver spike of pain.
She stumbled forward and found a dust encrusted mirror, she wiped a swath through it. Able to see herself she lifted a lock of silky black hair and saw the source of her pain, the mother of all welts, purple, black, and red.
Another bolt of pain caused her to double over and shake; as much as it hurt she knew she would survive without permanent injury. She had sketchy memories of what had happened to her, but remembered that particle beam weaponry had to be set for the size of the prey, or something like that. She supposed she survived because the weapon was set for smaller woodland creatures. Yeah, that explanation will do, for now…
She heard voices.
First she hoped that it was Goliath and Elisa, but glancing out the fallen door, she knew she was not in Avalon anymore.
A truck blazed headlights and heavily armed young warriors tumbled out and marched into the house all while talking loudly, joyously.
Angela pulled her head back and crouched behind an ancient band saw, her head was still breaking out in pain and her vision was coming and going. It was an easy guess that if she tried to fly she would just fall down and make easy prey for these humans; she would make an easy target on foot as well.
The headlights blinked off and the humans tumbled into the house where she could hear voices. Angela looked around, there was only one way out and that was through the gaping doorway of this crushed barn.
She hid behind the heavy steel of the saw, she supposed the sensible choice was to wait here, wait for rescue, but she did not like that idea. She may not be able to fly, and barely walk, but if she stayed and one of those men came she would be cornered in here.
She pulled herself up and slowly felt her way outside, at least in the open she had a place to run should the enemy come.
But, as she crept to the trees she still heard the many voices inside the house and stopped. She had never seen modern humans in their abodes and was curious. Though the plaintiff moon and stars seemed to warn her, she tip toed to the nearest blazing window and peeked in.
Inside the house was rundown and scattered with trash, but it was remarkably full, before her two men and three boys sat at the table while women, girls, and other children rushed about behind them at various tasks.
"…damn Federal Government's getting in our way again, but the Hunter knows how to deal with them," a clean shaven man with glasses and a crew cut said. "Get all the guns and ammo we have, chop chop! The Government will regret their interference this time!"
The women and children piled assault rifles, shotguns, handguns, knives, and the ammo to use them all on the table before the men.
The man stood and looked through the weapons, "where is the .44?"
None of the women or children answered him as they were busy gathering weapons and making dinner.
"Where is the .44! The ammo's here, but not the gun!" He screamed.
"I do not know, Uncle Jacob," a child scurried by.
Uncle Jacob's face when from red, to crimson, to purple, finally he grabbed the nearest teenage girl and yanked her over. "Where the FUCK is the .44!"
"I don't know," she said.
It began…
He threw her against the hot stove and then yanked her off. Jacob grabbed the nearest thing that could be used as a weapon; that was a revolver.
Angela could not see what was happening but could see the pistol rising and falling in murderous arcs, she could hear the sound of the weapon slamming against her ribs and the reverb her lungs made from the impacts.
Angela never felt such rage and her body showed it, her eyes blazed crimson, her wings shot out, her teeth shown, and every lean muscle popped, a thought somewhere in her rage clouded mind wondered if this was how Demona felt every time she experienced a human atrocity.
Barely aware of what she was doing, she was charging for the front door. She was not sure if she was going to scare these men, beat them, or kill them.
Angela would not get that chance, the front porch was crowded with children who stood in her way. Angela was not about to rip her way through these innocents, so her rage cooled.
Their eyes looked down on her, boring through her, they were portholes to somewhere dark, prematurely aged after being through hell long before they were old enough to deal with it.
"Thank God for remembering us by sending you," one of the children said. "But even God can't help us here."
"Stand aside," Angela said. "I'll show them God's love, Old Testament style."
But another emerged from the house, a thin woman with dirty blond hair and equally exhausted eyes. "Come inside or you will miss the prayer," Stephanie said to the children and they filed inside.
The human and the Gargoyle faced each other.
"I'm not sure what you are," Stephanie said. "But you can't help them."
"Stand aside and I will help by making that man feel your pain," Angela said.
"Then what," Stephanie asked. "You attack and beat him to an inch of his life? Then the paramedics from town will have to be called. When they get here not only will we have to explain that an Angel beat this man up, but they will realize what kind of place this is. The Government will take away the children and put them up in foster homes, their mothers will never see them again. They will see prison time in order to punish men like Jacob and the cult leaders that put us here."
Angela stood in silence, feeling the hopelessness of the situation.
Another woman rushed out and grabbed Stephanie, "they're starting the prayer, you need to get in here now!"
"Goodbye, Angel," Stephanie said. "It is time for you to leave. Take yourself and the others that are sure to be near and do not come back." and Angela was left alone.
Sad, defeated, Angela walked back to the window and looked inside. In the kitchen Jacob, Stephanie, and the entire clan were kneeling as the bloodied and beaten woman led the prayer. "I ask god to forgive me for misleading Brother Jacob and refusing his command…" she began.
Angela couldn't watch anymore, instead she walked in the thick nearby forest that touched the walls of the compound. She worried about the rest of her clan but knew that this strange family was the reason why Avalon sent her here.