Sisters of the Dawn's Early Light Page 3

  In all that these women did and had to do to fight the corruption, things cost money; money Y-Wood controlled electronically via their own banking system. There were always so many computerized systems to get around but luckily, Raegan’s hubby, Lomax, helped the women in many of these areas. Lomax, a thirty-year-old curly blond fellow, was the sisters' answer to computer hacking and knowhow, and even better, he had an inside connection to Y-Wood. He was also an undercover reporter, and although he worked for the Corporation, he truly was very much a freedom fighter just like all the girls.

  Chaya, who was always recognizable with her diamond-encrusted cheek piercings, was off to rally those who wanted to fight against the crazy laws and restrictions of the Y-Wood Corporation. She was on her way to Hartford, Connecticut.

  Each of the sisters split in various directions. It was the life they chose to lead. The life they sacrificed for a once-great country; one they had a dream about, a dream to make it free once again.

  Chapter Four

  Lomax wracked his brain while sitting in a private office below Boston. He knew his wife had just arrived back, and soon his work would have to come to a stop for a bit. There was so much to be done before the big day. He had months to perfect everything, yet it felt like only weeks. He not only worked for Y-Wood under the guise of R-Bel news, his online newspaper that was heavily controlled by the Corporation, he was often used for the sisterhood’s own gain and was in charge of most of the things the women did when it came to digital information and technology. He loved being in Boston though, for he had a little friend here, one he and Raegan kept hidden away from anyone who was not in their very close inner circle. The days of having children freely were long gone. Although he didn't agree with them, strict birthing laws were in full effect.

  Working beside him today was Tyne Gem, an attractive, pale-skinned bright blond with lovely blue eyes. The two of them had a few more days together to dissect all the information before them. Tyne would then be leaving to join Mahira as her second, or trainer, as the fiery gladiator made her rounds in combat action all around the northeast.

  Tyne had downloaded detailed plans of Y-Wood’s main home base location, not all that far from where she and Lomax were currently working. The place was called Fenway Park. At one time, it had been an old yet infamous game stadium, a place where humans played a sort of ball sport.

  Lomax studied her findings. “There’s a lot of information here, mostly all guarded and encrypted. This will take months to decipher.”

  Tyne nodded to him. “Nothing you can’t figure out, I tend to think.”

  Lomax smirked at her reply. “I can, but it won’t be easy.” He shook his head at that and added, “Besides, there’s always this never-ending struggle to supply people with food, water, medicine, and everything else under the sun. Time just seems to slip through my fingers daily!”

  Tyne understood his burden quite clearly. Humans always carried too much weight, she thought. “We are the hope of this land, are we not?”

  Lomax chuckled lightly and nodded to his friend. “Yes, that’s us. I will just be glad when it’s all over and we can finally put an end to the suffering of all those around us. The rich get richer and everyone else struggles simply to stay alive. What kind of a world is that?”

  Tyne looked like she was scanning her brain as she turned her head from side to side, contemplating the question. She then had her answer. “It is a world that we will change.” Lomax loved the sound of that, and the two of them went back to work.

  Raegan got to Boston but was feeling a bit worse for wear; the night before, well, it was not a restful one. She'd always had a sixth sense, and often had visions and dreams of possible things to come. Sometimes they were eerie hauntings that kept her from getting a decent sleep on many a night. Last night was one of those nights. She kept seeing her little boy, Johan; he was reaching out for her and calling for her. “Help me, Mom…please help me, Mommy,” he cried to her. She'd found this very upsetting to say the least and had promised to spend some time with her awesome little guy before she left.

  For Raegan and her trip to the fake state capital, she would make sure to dress down to appear weak without her typical demeanor. She would truly need to play the role of a reporter who was more interested in getting the tale told on the Corporation's side than her own.

  She would make sure to say her goodbyes to her husband, for marriage was a big-time rarity in the year 3015. Most people nowadays didn't stay with one mate; they preferred clans of people just to be safe. Raegan just had the one special man in her life, and she loved him dearly.

  A group with bigger numbers gave everyone a better chance to survive. The sisterhood still had numbers, and they were always growing.

  Raegan was not like most people. She had already met with both her very special men more than once that morning and had made sure to give each multiple giant hugs. Her words came easily as she told them they meant the world to her and that she loved them very, very much.

  Lomax knew that what she was doing as an undercover reporter for the Corporation was serious and dangerous work. Even as a young girl, it had been her goal to change the world, and she above all others had taken the words of Metaya Valteese to heart. She wanted to follow in her footsteps and was eager for the sisterhood to topple the giant Y-Wood, which was nothing more than a boys' club that punished the poor and disrespected all women.

  Heading to the capital, Raegan saw they had restored the one-time landmark, and no doubt the Corporation was very proud of themselves; she was due to report on such a fine refurbishment. In truth, what Raegan really wanted to see was a place that one day, just one day, she hoped would maybe return to some of its former glory, and she certainly hoped she would be there to witness it. Imagining such a grand place as a sisterhood location was simply a dream she carried day in, day out.

  Lomax had also gone back to work. During a break, he noticed his assistant was somewhat tuned out and focusing on something other than their research.

  The special woman had the ability to run things in her computer brain and be online at any given time without having to use any sort of technical equipment. He broke her trance by snapping his fingers at her and asked, “You seem to be pretty preoccupied with something else. Care to explain?”

  Tyne looked to him, pushing her straight blond hair to the side. “I've been talking to someone very much like myself, but there just doesn't seem to be much to lend towards any sort of a relationship. I would like to feel love like you and Raegan and your son.”

  Lomax understood where she was coming from, but her confession came somewhat out of the blue. Tyne continued her process of thinking out loud. “Someone like me needs hope too, you know?”

  Lomax got serious with her. “You may not realize it," he said, "but feelings like that are fine to have. Love is really what we have the most of when it comes to living and trying to make life better for the ones we live with…love gives us the courage and strength to carry on.”

  Tyne smiled, and her pearly white teeth glistened. She so desperately wanted to agree, but she had never experienced such love in her lifetime. “What's his name?" asked Lomax.

  Tyne’s eyes lit up. “His name is Xaltus, I call him Ex for short. We've only really met a few times. He is a doctor.” Lomax smiled and she went on. “He resides on the east coast at one of our outposts. He's done some work on me and is always very kind, and quite handsome if I may say so.”

  Lomax hoped that his special sisterhood friend would experience love one day. He got up from his chair, patted Tyne on the shoulder and said, “We need a full break, in fact, let’s take the rest of the day off. I need more coffee and a donut.”

  Tyne Gem looked up at the computer hacker and smiled again. She then added, “Enjoy your human food…your yummy donut.”

  Lomax then made his way through the halls of the New York compound and found his son.

  Johan had his dad's hair, but Lomax alwa
ys said that his higher cheekbones and better complexion were most definitely from his mother, the beautiful Raegan. There were various places all about this complex, including a few rooms where some of the children could play. However, the area was always on high alert, so playtimes were few and far between, especially as get-togethers for kids in any sort of group. His boy had still found time to play today, even if it was just by himself. Lomax watched the young boy playing and noticed he was mimicking some of his mother's martial arts moves. Johan did some sort of a Kata; a preplanned set of moves that involved him striking out with his open hand, followed by a kick, and then he spun around and jumped in the air, crossing both arms in a high-up blocking formation. To finish his solo display, he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Kiai!”

  Realizing his dad was watching, Johan continued to play, clearly proud of what he was doing.

  The little boy went to a shelf along the wall where he had placed a series of plastic bottles as targets. Withdrawing several rocks from a pouch on the floor, he began tossing them one by one at the bottles to test his accuracy. He wasn't all too bad for a small fellow. Lomax finally interrupted the target practice and said hello.

  “You’re getting pretty good there, son,” he announced as he went over and gave his boy a high five.

  Johan looked up at his daddy who he truly loved. “Dad, would you play with me?”

  Lomax knew, even today in a dystopian society, a kid still just wanted to have enjoyment; they wanted to do fun things, and under the circumstances, he had no other choice but to agree to play a game. He enjoyed times like this either way.

  First, they played a game of tag and chased each other about the halls, and later they set up the same bottles but rolled the rocks in a bowling type of activity. These small, simple games were the types of activities people had always taken for granted in the past. Lomax never regretted spending time with his son.

  ***

  Jansa and Sinaye would stay in New York a little longer.

  The pair locked themselves in the laboratory for a week with plenty of work to do. Sinaye, who had always been a robot fanatic from a very young age, had become one of the top-level experts in the country. Today she was working on a way to better penetrate the armor of the Corporation's most expensive creations.

  The answer, of course, was a special type of laser beam or bullet that she and her sister, Dr. Jansa, had been spending a lot of time on. The results were not perfect, but they were satisfactory. They were able to spend just as much time working with the sisterhood’s secret body and mind enhancing drug. Beauty, elite dexterity, and brainpower came at a price for most, and regretfully, it cost a ton of money to recreate Starigen 6280 so the dosage allotment was limited to the elite members of the sisterhood only. They needed more ingredients, and more funding.

  Neither sister could find a way around making this easier. Throughout the week, they would also spend time on improving a healing spray that many of the sisters found themselves using regularly in such a battle-torn society. The two women were exhausted by week's end, and Jansa suggested that they find some way to relieve their stress and built up anxiety.

  Anywhere the women went outside the safety of their hidden bases had dangerous implications. In the end, they decided to visit a nerdy friend of Jansa’s who often held private get-togethers in a hidden location deep in the city. Sinaye was not that much of a partier, but her enthusiastic sister would not take no for an answer.

  Chapter Five

  For the little Australian woman, Zaey, her trip would be the longest of all her sisters because she would be going to Teton County, Wyoming.

  This led to quite a lot of travel and most of it by Corporation bullet train. She had her license as a freelance lawyer, and that would usually be effective for the safety and ease of travel. Yet in the post-apocalyptic USA, travel was never overly easy.

  The Corporation had a keen eye out for those that traveled with fancy jobs, titles, and appearances. They also made sure to take note of any groups of people, as it was the law to not travel in groups of any more than four at a time. Larger groups would face serious interrogation from the Corporation's always active roving clones or robotic soldiers.

  So Zaey went on a bullet train, alone, on route to Wyoming.

  The sisters never missed a chance to all hang out together; such times were very special. But, now with the tournament and martial arts training gathering finished, they were all off in various directions.

  ***

  Back at the home base in New York, Mahira had a little downtime. This was a good thing as her body could certainly use the rest. She took a day or two for some deep meditation. She wanted to and needed to cleanse her chakras and just let her mind relax away from the fighting, stress, and the urgency all the sisters felt from the world around them.

  No crazy sex, and she loved sex, no drugs, and no alcohol…nothing; just rest and recuperation. She liked to smoke a little weed at these times too. The aroma filled her room, and she finally began to chill out for the first time in a long time.

  Jansa, her alternative healer sister, would also let her use some of her healing crystals. She liked to visualize a better, more hopeful landscape, and she also liked to guide herself on a meditation where people in the former United States could go back to living some sort of a normal, happy life. She managed to do this for a full two days before her OCD kicked in and she found herself doing crunches and sit-ups. Why let the human body just sit around, she thought, make it a better weapon whenever possible. So much for resting.

  On the third day, she found herself in the weight room.

  ***

  For the young and lovely Mystical Slayer, Chaya, a trip to Hartford, Connecticut would be a challenge in its own right. The neighborhood she was due to speak at was a very rough and tumble zone. The rich in the vicinity were all for the Corporation, and only those that followed the rules prospered. All those against such tyranny and Y-Wood were mostly labeled as outcasts and driven to the lower city surroundings. Some of the more civilized people found refuge in spaces away from the city, in areas where the countryside could hide them peacefully.

  Chaya made it a point this time to ask her alternative goth friend, Blu, to accompany her on the flight. Blu was definitely the biggest character in the sisterhood. She was a heavily tattooed and pierced woman with an attitude, and her hair with a weird pixie cut was, of course, dyed blue. Blu had come down with an illness and was not able to offer too much help, but she did still manage to fly her friend to Connecticut.

  ***

  The time had arrived for Mahira and Tyne to make their long trip to many of the various fighting places across the northeast. Their first stop was a ferry, which they took to Long Island, New York. They knew the place was an isolated spot, yet the payoff was said to be good so it was there the ladies traveled to. They landed in a region most preferred not to step on once they got off the boat.

  As far as the eye could see was just a rocky waste-land, only occasionally broken up by a slightly bigger rock. Yup, that was it, rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Mahira and her companion paused before walking any further. Just over the horizon was a place the locals called simply, The Quarry. It was away from any kind of civilization, so they thought, and had nothing to do with the Y-Wood Corporation.

  It was an outland site that was home to the truly foul and depraved, which made it perfect for a meeting place away from prying eyes. However, what made it perfect also made it dangerous. There were no laws, only strength out here. The pair liked to take their chances when it came to earning more funding for their sisters. Mahira was simply an adrenaline junky, and Tyne, as she very well knew, was her trusty sidekick.

  Mahira was smaller than your average person, but her body was honed to perfection with a light frame built for strength and speed. Her dirty-blond hair looked almost red in the sunlight as the two girls traveled onward.

  She looked at her companion, Tyne Gem, and knew she
was the one she loved having beside her.

  “You know, Tyne, this is going to get rough. Be on the lookout for any kind of double dealing. The scum here are capable of anything, so I hear. Our contact, Stitcher, should already be about somewhere so keep a keen eye out.”

  Tyne nodded. “I’ll do my best, as always. You know I have your back. My eye, as you say, works far, clear, and well.”

  “Let’s get this show going then,” Mahira said as she started walking to The Quarry.

  After a bit of a walk, they curled around the shoreline and could hear the noise. Shortly after, they could see the gathering of tents and cabins in the distance along with yelling, screaming, motors revving, and many other unidentifiable sounds.

  Seeing the place didn’t cause either of the ladies any kind of shock. It was a bunch of rag tag tents and simple wooden buildings that had been thrown together from whatever could be scrounged or stolen. Fires dotted about the area with various occupants gathered around, and the smell of sweat, blood, and charred meat drifted through the air.

  Although nobody challenged them as they approached The Quarry, they could feel the many sets of eyes peering at them from all angles, undoubtedly sizing up their fighting prowess and their hunger for sexual play.

  The women made their way to the area's namesake arena while avoiding the side fires and darker spots. Immediately, they were greeted by one of the locals. He was as dirty as the rest, wearing leather boots, pants, a leather vest, and a rounded hat with a brim. His smile showed his stained, semi-rotten teeth.

  “Greetings,” he said as he made a grand bow, "and welcome to The Quarry, ladies." My name is Dun, and I can be yer host, guide, and contact fer the evening. Are ya here to watch, bet, or maybe even fight?” His smile got even bigger at the last word as his eyes worked up and down the two women before him.

  Mahira had never been to this area and didn’t know the customs, but most arenas were similar, with a few local flairs thrown in. Having this fellow as a guide would make things easier. “I’m here to fight, and if you make this an easy process, I’ll give you a part of the action.”