Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Under Sun and Darkness

She followed him willingly enough away from the source of her anxiety.

The old Mare, whose name was, Cinnamon, was a brave horse too, and she had protected him from danger on more than one occasion, and he had no doubt that this was one of those times. Years and years of intuition, gut feelings, and life had Jim reaching for his radio and his shotgun at the same time holding back from the corn field, not sure if he was supposed to expect an alien body snatcher, or a mountain lion.

Beside him the horse danced from one side to the other, not as agitated as before, but still on edge, her eyes never leaving the row of stalks in front of her.

"Hey Jerry, this is Jim. I got some sort of problem out near the north quadrant, right before sight B3."

"Copy that Jim, what's the problem."

"Cinnamon is spooked by somethin' won't go towards the corn field to save her life, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous too."

He let the radio go silent for a minute and waited. Other men might have laughed at his definition of "A problem" A gut feeling and a nervous horse was hardly soemthing that should be cause for alarm, but the men and women who worked here knew better than that. Cinnamon was the matriarch of the company horses, the oldest and wisest beast among them, not to mention the bravest. Everyone had seen her ability to detect trouble from a mile away.

Not to mention Jim, a smarter, or braver man none of them had ever met, and if he said soemthing was wrong than by golly it probably was.

It was only with the greatest wish that martha hoped her youngest son would some day grow to have his father's caution. Lord knows that if Adam Vir had been in his father's shoes, he would have jumped off the horse and marched towards the corn field like a teenage girl in some sort of slasher horror movie.

Bless the boy, he was brave to a fault but dumber than bricks on occasion.

Jim waited there keeping an eye on his horse and on the line of stalks eerily still in the mid day sun and blazing heat.

Nothing moved.

It was then that he heard the sound of four- wheelers and galloping hooves come up behind him. The men on machines rode up a little ways behind him and stopped. The men riding horses made it about twenty feet from him before, inexplicably, all the horses stopped and refused to go further. One of the horses, a young stallion by the name of Buck lived up to his name as he began to hick and bounce as his rider tried to rein him in, and only calmed as he was led back another few hundred paces, leaving his rider to walk the rest of the way.

The group of men dismounted.

Those horses that were less brave turned tale and ran back to where Buck was standing, knees knocking together in a way they had never seen a horse behave before.

Ida turned to look at Jim her eyes wide under her large straw hat, "The hell's going on Jim."

"I don't know, but unfortunately, It is our job to find out."

The group of men and woman raised their guns, and he turned his head to look around at them. Men and women all hardened by life, and the way they held their weapons was a sure sign of where they had come from. The farming conglomerates had taken in a lot of soldiers after the war, people who weren't squeamish against a rough day's work under the sun, but also interested in the uncommonly high pay the conglomerates were willing to give.

At least this one.

The men and women here were treated right by the business, and so were loyal.