Dawn of a New Age, Part 2

This is the second part of the fiction I wrote as an introduction to my upcoming superhero campaign. The first part is posted here. You dear readers are getting to experience this for the same time along with my players. I hope you like it! I f you have any feedback, positive or negative, I’d love to hear it.

And now, on to part two:

Dawn of a New Age, Part 2

March 14^th, 2011

11:43 AM

The man pushed up the flap and exited the sweat lodge. The midday sun was blinding and he shielded his eyes. The Arizona desert stretched all around him, no wind blew and the sweat drenched flimsy cotton tunic clung to his body. He looked around trying to find the battery operated alarm clock, it was too close to noon, and it should have gone off earlier. He felt parched and began looking for the gallon of water and found it some way off along with his clock, everything seemed to be strewn about camp, and he could not see his camping tent. Disoriented, dizzy, he realized he was dehydrated.

“Carlos…” the voice startled him; few people called him Carlos anymore, he was Charlie now. He felt for his piece and realized it was in the glove compartment. Where was the jeep? “Carlos, change is coming.” Charlie looked back at the old man sitting by the fire. He sat with his legs crossed, his weather beaten face was wrinkled and his scowl seemed permanently etched upon his features. The snow white hair pulled back into a ponytail in sharp contrast to the dust covered denim shirt, but Charlie focused on his squash blossom necklace, the glistening silver and the speckled turquoise distracted him and for a moment he did not hear what the medicine man was saying.

“Carlos, listen to me, did you learn nothing in there? Drink some water you are addled brained.” The old man shook his head disapprovingly. Charlie took long gulps straight from the bottle, rivulets of water running down his chin. He wiped away the water with the back of his hand and asked, “Where’s the jeep?” The old man sighed and pointed towards the east, Charlie looked and saw it right there, how could he had missed it before? It was a good thing the medicine man was here to watch the still smoking fire and make sure he was alright. Was that smoke behind the hills, a fire perhaps? But there was no town there, no town for miles…

“Carlos Taima Niyol, we don’t have much time. Coyote is loose among us, the spirit world touched upon this one and much has changed while you purified yourself.  This is not your father’s world, no more. It is a new day.” Charlie was not sure he understood and it had nothing to do with dehydration. Like his father he had long ago turned his back on his grandfather’s traditions and all this seemed like mumbo jumbo to him. “Come on man, stop that. Where’s that smoke coming from?” The roar deafened him and he covered his eyes when he looked up. Military Jets flew overhead, terribly low. What were they looking for? “Did you see what happened old man?” he turned towards the medicine man and he was gone. The fire long dead, probably while he was inside the lodge.

Charlie walked over to the jeep and fumbled inside the glove compartment for his cell phone. He pressed the power button and the screen came to life but the display was a strange pixilated rainbow. He took out the gun almost as an afterthought and then saw the squash blossom necklace, the silver was tarnished and the turquoise still stained with the blood of the old man he had killed little over a week ago. Charlie walked back to the dead fire and threw the necklace into the ashes, “Not keeping this now.”

© Roberto Micheri, 2010. All rights reserved.