Cloud Communities

Cloud Communities

     A yellow small, squared cube came out of a long-squared cylinder. It was heading for a running human that didn’t look too human anymore. His body, face, arms, and legs still looked human, but the skin from those body parts was dripping off them. To disappear with a splat as it hit the ground of the building, he was in.

     The yellow cube missed hitting the running human three times before it hit him. Second, and third ones barely missed him. All four times the cube was following that human. Wherever he ran they were close behind him. On the fourth time, it hit him. He fell to the ground as a thin glow covered his body from head to toe.

     Shantia replaced her Long Shooter on her back harness as she walked up to this human. She got on her knees and leaned over him. “You gave me quite a run, but I finally caught you.”

     “You are returning to the surface of Hondis where you belong.” Shantia grabbed the sides of his arms and got him into a standing position. After lifting him slightly off the ground, she started walking with her outstretched arms.

##

     After Shantia placed her latest catch in a large clear tube, she watched a large monitor next to that tube to see him float to the surface of Hondis once he left that tube. “Another one returns to the surface of Hondis.”

     Just as Shantia started walking away from that tube Shantia stopped. Shantia tapped the inside of her right ear once. “A new hunt already. Give me the details.”

     About a half hour later, Shantia was meeting with Thammus in his large main Living Area. “I want you to find my daughter, Willinne.” Thammus showed Shantia an image of his daughter.”

     “She’s still human,” Shantia said after taking and looking at that image. “Has she recently gotten Death?”

     “No,” said Thammus as he took the image of Willinne back from Shantia. “I don’t know if she has it or not, but if she doesn’t, she soon will.”

     Shantia started looking around there. “It doesn’t matter. As long as she’s still human finding her shouldn’t be a problem.”

     Thammaus had some trouble speaking. Stammering, lowering his voice, etc. “There is one slight problem. She isn’t among the Cloud Communities. She on Hondis.”

##

     “I have never been to Hondis before,” said Shantia after sitting down in a Health chair. “What do I need to do to become one of them.”

     “Thammus said you could help me do that,” Shantia slowly started looking around Health while Health Professional Kandor laid out some equipment and tools beside Shantia. “He said you were the best one to do this.”

     Kandor finished what he was doing before he spoke to Shantia. “I am the best.”

     About two hours later Shantia fluttered her eyes open. She looked at what she could see of her body. It looked the same as before. Shantia started touching her face. That felt the same too. “Don’t understand. I look the same as before. You haven’t done anything to me.”

     “Look again.” Kandor handed Shantia a small Image Reflector. “This is what everyone will see when they look at you on Hondis.”

      Shantia looked at herself in the Image Reflector. She looked the same as the others on Hondis. “I thought you might prefer to see yourself as you are instead of what the other Hondisians see you.”

##

     Looking up at the tube she had just left, Shantia continued floating to the surface of Hondis. After getting there she crouched on one knee to make the landing easier. “It wasn’t as back as I thought it would be.”

     “It’s a lot different down here than from above.” Shantia slowly started looking around her. “No wonder they keep trying to come up to the Cloud Communities.”

     Shantia took a small device off her upper body. She tapped the middle of it to bring up an image of Willinne. “Every Hondis in the Cloud Communities has a Locator placed in their brain when they start to become an adult.”

     “As long as she’s still human, I will be able to find her.” Shantia kept her eyes on the Locator in her hand as she started walking. Changing directions every so often.

     “This isn’t going to be as easy as I thought.” Shantia suddenly stopped. “Either Willinne isn’t a human anymore or she’s in a group with a hundred other humans.”

##

     Shantia looked shocked. Her eyes looked puffy, and her jaw had dropped. “What did you just say? Did you ask me to kill your own daughter?”

     “I did.” Thammus couldn’t look at Shantia. He kept staring at the image of Willinne. “Don’t want to have to do it, but it must be done.”

     Shaking her head sadly from side to side, Shantia started staring at Thammus. “I’m not that kind of hunter. I don’t kill. Why do you want me to kill your daughter?”

     “Not only has she been personal with someone who has Death, but she has been helping him and the others like him to come up to the Cloud Communities.” Thammus was no longer looking at the image of Willinne, but he wasn’t looking at Shantia either.

     “I don’t want her killed,” continued Thammus. “She is my daughter, but by killing her those Hondisians won’t be able to come up here anymore.”

     Shantia pointed her Long Shooter at Willinne. Once she had separated from one group of humans and was heading for another large group, a red square cube came out of her Long Shooter. It headed for the head of Willinne, and it looked like it was about to kill her.

####

     “I’m not shocked my father has tried to do this to me,” said Willinne after Shantia showed up to see what she had done to her. Only nothing happened. Willinne just faked it to see who had tried to do that to her.

     Now Shantia and Willinne sat on the ground in the center of a large circle surrounded by about a hundred other humans. “Whatever my father has been telling you isn’t true. Do you see anyone here with Death?”

     “No, I don’t.” Shantia kept looking at the other humans around her. “I’m a Death Hunter. I have been sending down those with Death for almost thirty years.”

     Willinne smiled. “No, you haven’t. You appear to us you have Death, but your true self is still human. Right?”

     Now Shantia looked shocked. “Are you telling me no one I have been sending down here has had Death?”

     “Unfortunately, you haven’t. Whenever someone causes trouble in the Cloud Communities, they are sent down here.”

     “They can’t just be sent down here without going through Judgement. By turning them into having Death they can eliminate Judgement.”

##

     Shantia kept looking around her as she walked through a dead burned-out community with Willinne and several other Hondisians. “Where are we going? Why are we doing this?” Shantia asked after she ran to catch up to Willinne.

     “You want to look human again like the rest of us, don’t you?” Willinne answered as she kept on walking. Not taking her eyes off what she was doing. “We are on our way to see Taccah. Taccah will be able to help you to become human again.”

     “Taccah goes by many titles: He is a Trickster, an Illusioner, a SpellProvider. We just call him a friend.”
Willinne stopped in front of a large almost gone residence. The others stopped too.

     Willinne looked at Shantia. “Taccah hasn’t just been helping humans like you. He has also been helping me and others like me to get to and from the Cloud Communities.

##

     “The Wealthy and powerful did create Dead to try to control the poor, weak, and needy. That was almost three hundred years ago. It only lasted about a hundred years. The wealthy and powerful kept it going to stay in control of Hondis.”

     Shantia looked at Willinne. Then she looked back down at several dead or dying communities from where they were sitting on top of a very large mound of Hondis dirt. “So, there is a solution to Death, and it’s probably on the Cloud Communities.”

     “There is a solution to Death, but it’s not on the Cloud Communities. It’s here on Hondis.” Willinne started pointing her finger in different directions all around them. “As long as they stayed on Hondis, they can live a somewhat normal life.”

     “For about fifty years, the ones who used to have Death tried to go up to the Cloud Communities to give Death back to them. Over those fifty years, about a hundred thousand got up there.”

     Willinne started walking down that gradual mound with Shantia as she continued her story. “It took the wealthy and powerful around forty years to find out how they were doing it and stopped them.”

     “The wealthy and powerful had to do something. When Hondisians like me started to figure out what was going on that’s when they started sending us down here claiming we had Death.”

     Shantia stopped Willinne. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

     Willinne looked at Shantia. “Because you are a Death Hunter. You can help us a lot when we return to the Cloud Communities.”

##

     “What are we doing here?” Shantia asked as she and Willinne walked through a large opening of a huge mound. Now they were walking down within Hondis.

     “Before Death, we were a somewhat advanced planet.” Willinne just kept on walking. “After Death, the wealthy and powerful still wanted that advancement. So, they put Death to get it.”

     Willinne stopped at the end of that opening to show Shantia what was going on there. “That’s another reason to send troublemakers like me down here. So, that the wealthy and powerful could still stay wealthy and powerful.”

     Shantia started pointing at about six different creatures of different shapes and sizes. Including one that was flying around. Who or what are those?”

     “They are the ones who lived within Hondis.” Willinne smiled. “When Death happened, they started returning to the surface of Hondis.”

##

     Willinne pointed at about a thousand other human adults. Mostly males, but there were a lot of females too. Surrounding them on three sides were the creatures that Shantia called them from within Hondis. “This is why my father sent you to kill me.”

     “My father doesn’t know what is about to happen.” Willinne looked at Shantia. Then she looked back at where she was still pointing. “He knows something is going on, but not what it is though.”

     “What do you plan on doing?” Shantia couldn’t stop staring at the humans and creatures below them.

     Willinne didn’t stop staring either. “We are going to show the wealthy and powerful how so much fun it is to live on Hondis.”

     “We don’t want to kill anyone.” Willinne smiled. “Well, there’s one I would like to kill, but I won’t unless he gives me a reason to do it.”

     Shantia was now looking at Willinne. “How are you going to do this?”

     “With the help of Taccah and several hundred more like him, they will send us up to the Cloud Communities. Once we are up there, we will start sending them down here to live on Hondis.”

     “We know this is just the beginning. It may take us years to do this, but it will be done.”

     A few hours later, Shantia stood over what remained of Willinne and the others. They were all dead. “You’re right about one thing, Willinne. This is just the beginning. Only it’s not for you here on Hondis. It’s for us.”

     “I’m not just here to kill you Willinne. I was sent here to kill all of you. The Wealthy and powerful are still in control, and I’m one of them.

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