Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 19:29:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: John D <zachstack@yahoo.com>
Cc: zachstack@yahoo.com
Subject: BSB Broken Bonds Part 5

Previously...

Outside the massed Spires of Radu and his two
allies...

'We mustn't allow for that bitch Brittania and her gay
compatriot to beat us to these new comers.'  Vera was
virulent in her arguement.

'Quiet, Vera.'  Radu's mental prowess was tremendous.
His mental voice although quiet, still echoed in the
minds of his allies.  'You forget that we are still in
the house of our enemies.  Maltus The Magus is a
thought theif.  Careful of what you say.  I agree with
what you have to say, but we will not speak of this
again until we are in the safety of our own homes.'
Radu mounted his monster and flew out to a huge gust
of dust and wind into the open air that was beginning
to brighten to the coming sunlit hours.
*******************************************************
Back at the Rache Camp...

"Nick, I have someone for you to meet."  Jase
whispered to Nick amidst all the chaotic partying of
the tribe.

Jase laughed a rich boyish laugh, and leaned in to
Nick.  "Don't worry about it, I think you're adorable
too."  Nick leaned back to see if the other was
joking.  Jase winked at him happily and said.  "C'mon,
grab your friends, let's go meet the other Sleeper."

Nick whispered over to the other guys and they were
quickly off with Jase to meet the other guy from their
time.
****************************************
Meanwile back in the Vampyre Valley. In Maltus The
Magus' Citadel.

"I believe these three know something that we have
missed.  I have scried their minds, and all I see is
chaos.  I dared not venture deeper in caution of being
caught."  Maltus' frown deepened.  "I must notify Lord
Zakaiyus at once."  He scampered off back to his
launching ports to mount a dragon to his closest
neighbor and ally's great ZakSpire.

End of Part 4

-------------------------------------------------------
**Disclaimers:  This is a work of fiction and should
not be taken any other way.  It is a horror sci-fi
epic that pits the members of the Backstreet Boys
along with the remnants of the human race against
vampyres in a post apocalyptic world.  Any
resemblances to persons living or dead -- aside from
me -- is  highly coincidental.  This does not reflect
the lives of any of the Backstreet Boys or Aaron
Carter.  Enjoy**
-------------------------------------------------------

BSB Broken Bonds Part 5
"Brother's Keeper"


Jase snuck them out from the main celebration to
follow a segregated path that led from the main
settlement to a rather thickly wooded area south of
the main entrance.  While animals of great diversity
and shapes and form lined the flanks of the main camp,
the path was pure and utter desolation.  There was
nothing; no noise, no sound, no smell, just the
overbearing echo of silence and the ominous feel of
something hiding in the dark.

Just as Nick is about to say something to Jase, they
suddenly found themselves on a relatively large
clearing that surrounded a relatively medium sized
construct.  The closest thing to resemble this squat
new building that any of the boys have seen before was
a lodge.  But even that, they thought, was a stretch.
The construct was obviously one story, and built
relatively close to the ground.  The roof was made
thick with branches covered with a facade of leaves
and vines.  The porch stood alone in front of the
circular house, with only one entrance.  Windows
adorned the sides of the house, but to say that they
were indeed windows seemed wrong.  These were square
openings -- or seem to be -- with wooden covers that
also gave off an illusion of vines and bushes.  The
house, if it could be called that, was a small hump on
the ground consisting of dying and dead leaves, vines,
thick branches lined with mud and straw. As though to
contrast to the images of death and decay, the lump of
earth also sported its own colourful array of living
plants; cat's claw vines crawled up around its humped
shoulders, large purple blossoms bloomed around the
porch, and like a single beacon in a dark alley, a
small torch lit the small entry way under the main
awning in front.

"This is it."  Jase said spreading his arms almost
proudly as he continued to march the boys up the small
gravel path up to the front of the porch.  "This is
the home of Paul The Sleeper."  As though on cue, the
hidden door opened and a large burly man stepped
through to bare welcome to his visitors.

"Come in."  His deep voice rang out like a gong in the
night just before he disappeared once more into the
shadow strewn house.

"Shall we?"  Jase smiled and raised his eyebrows at
the six new visitors.

"S-sure."  Kevin answered.  Even he was a little
unsure of the current situation.  The silence and the
distance from the main body of the tribe was just too
nerve wracking, even for him.

Jase then led all five of the Backstreet Boys and
Nick's little brother, Aaron, up the surprising steps
and into the roommy interior where the large man was
standing.

"Paul?"  Kevin asked when Jase seemed to have stopped
talking completely.

"No.  I am not the Sleeper."  Was all the burly man
said.

"This is Ramus.  He is Paul's bodyguard."  Jase
continued with the explanation.  "Paul, is very
important to the tribe.  He is an adept mathematician,
philosopher, architect, and engineer.  His skills has
grown over the course of his stay with the tribe.  He
has also shown our young lads many ways to use weapons
and strength building to keep us on our toes in case
of a Vampyre raid."

"Thank you, Jase."  A quiet voice came out of the
shadows as an old man strode into the room.  He showed
grey hair at his temples mostly, but the top of his
strong round head showed dark hair turning to iron
gray colours.  He was not entirely old, maybe in his
40's, but the lines on his face made him seem older.
But while his voice seemed quiet, and his hair has
turned with time, The Sleeper was definitely a
helpless old man.  His looks alone made the boys think
twice about him needing a bodyguard.  He was not tall,
about 5'10 at the most maybe, but he held himself
confident that he didn't seem to notice.  His strong
face rested upon a thick well muscled neck over
shoulders almost as broad as Howie was tall.  He was
barrel chested, and but solid as a bag of bricks.  His
huge forearms glinted in the dim light of its bronze
tan while his muscles of hard work rippled underneath
his skin.  "Good evening."  His quiet, but pleasant
voice reached out to his guests as he spoke.  "I am
Paul, also known as The Sleeper amongst members of
this tribe."  He smiled, showing strong white teeth.
"But to my friends, it is Paul all the same."

He extended his large arms in a welcoming gesture.
"Sit, please.  How may I help you this close to dawn?"
 He sat heavily onto a large, highbacked leather
chair.

"Paul, may I introduce Kevin, Howie, Aj, Brian, Aaron,
and Nick."  Jase nodded his respects to the old
grizzly.  "Guys, this is The Sleeper.  Paul."

"Welcome, all." Paul nodded to the guys while they
offered him their hands and respects.

"Paul, these are..."

"The Backstreet Boys, I remember."  Paul again smiled,
cutting off the younger man.  "My apologies to you
Jase, I forgot myself in the excitement of finally
meeting others from my time."  He almost added the
grim truth of how most of them usually ended up dead
or under the mercy of the Vampyre lords -- they
sometimes did not know whom were the luckier ones.

"No problem, Paul.  It seems you and
the...er...Backstreet Boys may have things to catch up
on.  Ramus, why don't you join me in the cuisine, let
us not let our mouths get dry."  Jase excused himself,
as did Ramus, and made their way to the back.

"Jase is a regular here.  He is one of the more
curious youngsters of this tribe."  Paul answered the
questions on the faces of the Backstreet Boys.  "And
yes, I do remember you.  I wasn't this old back in our
own time, you know."

"Always, great to meet a fan." Brian added politely.

Paul smiled warmly.  "Sad to admit, I wasn't."  Paul
shifted to a more comfortable looking sprawl on the
chair.  "I was not a fan, but I had sisters...and a
brother."  The last he said almost sadly.  Regretful.
"It is true, though, when I said it is a great
pleasure to meet someone from our time.  In this
place, loneliness can come very easily when you don't
belong.  But, tell me first of your story and what
your fortune -- or fate -- has allowed you to sit
where you are now, almost 2 centuries past our time
and the Genocide?  In short, tell me how you got
here."

"Well, all we can really remember is getting into the
elevator cab of our hotel headed home from a club when
suddenly there were huge explosions that rocked the
building and our cab crashed."  kevin looked around if
someone wanted to pick up.  No one did, so he
continued.  "The next thing we knew was that we were
waking up one by one covered in dirt and soot with
more explosions outside our half buried elevator.
Surprised as we were that we had survived, it was
pretty much almost traumatizing when we saw what was
left of New York when we got out."

"That's when Jase showed up."  Nick cut in.

"Yeah, he saved me from huge wind that almost killed
me."  Aaron chimmed in.

"Ah, I see."  Paul smiled and nodded in response.
"The explosions that had sent you plummetting to your
doom were the beginning of an all out nuclear
warfare."  Paul noticed the shock on the others'
faces, but continued.  "The time was troubled with
dealings between the US and China.  Bush was our
president then, and he was not out to make friends.
He made the United States a beginning of a veritable
fortress much to the chagrin of our allies.  When
China had had enough of our "remorse" she had joined
with Iraq and Russia and bombed us and our allies.
After that, the world plunged into what is now known
as the Genocide.  Our enemies targetted large and
small cities of the US for their missles.  Thankfully
most of them ran off course.  However, now most of
what had been the United States now lay in ruins.
Everything south of New York has turned to waste and
swamplands.  New York and a few smaller states
survived, while the rest of the northern east coast
has been swallowed by the Atlantic.  Of course, we
have also been cut off from the West.  No one knows if
there are any survivors from the west.  There is only
barren desert wastelands of searing heat that no human
can live through there for more than an hour.  The
world as you and I knew it back in 2001 is dead."

"How could that happen?  I mean, the world seemed as
though we were in peace?"  Brian blurted, still
shocked at what he had just heard.

"Like you, Brian, I do not know the answer to that.
Just like you, I also found myself in an elevator cab
frozen in time by the radiation of the nuclear
genocide.  I surfaced only some 24 years ago.  I was
not there when everything turned to hell on earth.
And no one you can access knows what happened.  Even
the records of the Rache tribe do not speak of the
events that happened.  Only the general truths and
results of the war."  Paul shifted in his seat as
Ramus and Jase returned with trays of drinks for
everyone.

"No one short of the oldest Vampyre master can tell
you what happened during the great calamity of the
Genocide."  As he said it, Jase wished that he could
take it back.  But before he could say anything,
screams echoed in the night so blood curdling, that it
made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
*******************************************************
[Back at the main camp a few minutes earlier...]

"Mikas, I think I am going to retire now."  Nolan
turned to his friend.  "I am tired, and we still have
a long trek tomorrow."

"As am I my friend, as am I.  But look, there is our
Cheiftain now, looks like he has something to say."
Mikas, Nolan, and their circle of friends and family
members turned to their leader.

"As you all know, there is once again trouble amongst
our enemies.  Vampyre sheds vampyre blood once again.
A blood war has ensued, the great Lord Lobos is no
more, and we have among us more Sleepers that have
survived their ill fates.  Tonight, indeed, is a cause
for celebration.  Tonight, is indeed a momentous
occasion..."  Rache's thunderous voice echoed to
silence when propulsions and large bellowing beasts
came crashing down around the camp.  "Battle
stations!"  The chieftain's voice was edged with fear
an panic.  But there was no hiding now, this was
reality.  Where was Ithica?!
*******************************************************
[Farther back still in the cycles of time.  At
ZakSpire's lofty appartments.]

"You summoned us, your Lordship?"  The delicate Lord
Donovan came weaving onto the rear launching port of
Zakaiyus' great fortress.  His slick purple robe
billowed around him like wings as he dismounted from
his great beast.  His right hand man followed suit.
It was his lover that had accompanied him.

"Aye, Donovan.  Where is the Lady Brittania?"  As
Maltus mentioned her name, the beautiful lady seemed
to materialize inside the great port on one of her own
beautifully crafted creatures.

"I am here, your Lordship.  How may Donovan and I
serve you?"  Brittania courtsied from the saddle of
her creature, paying respects to the two oldest and
most feared Vampyre Lords of the Valley.

"I have a job for you."  Zakaiyus' awesome gravely
voice echoed in the cavernous room.  "Lord Radu and
his allies have gone hunting for the new sleepers.  I
want you both to intercept them, and capture the
sleepers first and bring them to me alive before Radu
gets his paws on them."

"But this close to sunrise, my lord..."  Brittania
omted to protest, but Zakaiyus was in a foul mood this
close to sun up.  He was always the most sensitive to
bright lights.

"You have already failed me once tonight, my lady.  I
suggest you not make a habit of displeasing me, or you
will indeed find yourself chained to meet the sun!"
Zakaiyus growled.  "Lord Maltus, The Magus, has pin
pointed the location of new beings.  The Sleepers, we
believe.  Fetch them for me.  And do not kill any of
them.  Especially the old one.  In fact, leave him,
but take the others.  I grow weary, do not return
empty handed.  Now go!"  Zakaiyus commanded as he
ascended the stairwell to his dark private chambers.

"You heard your Lord, go.  Do not bother with your
armies.  I have pin pointed the location of the
Sleepers.  Go there covertly and capture them before
Radu does.  But remember not to hurt the old one, he
has special meaning for The Lord of ZakSpire."  Maltus
drew a crude map onto a piece of dried human skin.
"The encampment is only a few miles past the great
ruins.  But your goal is around it: here.  There is a
small hump of a dwelling there.  Crush it.  Send your
creature to collapse the dwelling, and capture
everyone that comes running out.  Spare the old one.
Now go."  Maltus handed the map to Donovan, and watch
Britannia launch first with her beast accompanied
suddenly by another monstrous flying thing with
numerous arms and legs that once upon a time belonged
to human beings.

"As you wish, M'Lord."  Donovan saluted, and then he
and his lover were off with Brittania in search of the
coveted Golden Sleepers.
*******************************************************
[A few minutes before the screams, but many past the
schemes of the Great Vampyre Lords Maltus and
Zakaiyus.]

'Vera, Vilya, now quietly, without mists, send your
creatures to destroy their fences.  We will take them
now by surprise.  They will not expect us this close
to sunrise.'  Radu commandered from the back of his
creature.  His own small contingent hovered behind
him.  "Attack NOW!"  He screamed his fury and it was
not a moment sooner when his creatures and lieutenants
came crashing down upon the unsuspecting members of
the Rache Tribe.

End of Part 5