Fifteen years after a violent explosion eradicated his secret society, a single survivor, Temjin Moon, carries on in pursuit of the truth behind his knighthood. Living as a shadow among the crumbling ruins of degenerating humanity he nearly loses all faith in his mysterious past until strange events unfold about the city, all of which bare the indistinguishable relevance to his life's forgotten mission . . . Fifteen years after the murder of her parents, a young detective named Mei Ling struggles to piece together evidence from the past through vivid daydreams about a mysterious society she has never encountered called, The Moon Knights. Shrouded with deception, she uncovers a massive plot leading toward human annihilation but when a chance encounter with a hooded man appears in the ruins of the explosion, fifteen years to the day, her ominous destiny unfolds to reveal a startling truth.

The Moon's Last Knight

By Christopher Valiton

Abbott Press

Copyright © 2012 Christopher John Valiton
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4582-0664-0

Chapter One

Her eyes snapped open as the rush of adrenaline made her heart pound from the painful dream. The bed sheets were damp, and her body was shaking. Just another dream, she thought, like so many others before. Only this time it was more real. She could almost feel the tingling of heat across her skin.

She reached for the last tissue and dabbed the moisture from her brow. Her heart was throbbing so hard, it shook the beads of sweat from her forehead. What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I always dream of things I have never experienced?

At the age of twenty-three, Mei Ling was a gorgeous young woman with dark, silken hair and an athletic physique. She worked as a city detective and lived alone, unless the occasional balcony pigeon visited for handouts.

She looked around at her dark, second-story apartment. It was a good thing she lived alone, too; any normal boyfriend probably wouldn't tolerate waking up in a pool of his woman's perspiration, as well as a cluttered efficiency that looked more like a teenager's fantasy library.

Mei sighed, feeling her heartbeat calm as her mind phased back into reality. She tossed back the comforter and slipped from the living room futon, tiptoeing across the cold floor to glance out at the early-morning sky. There was a blanket of low fog covering the empty streets, making the nighttime curfew ever more eerie as the sound of silence prowled freely among the congested apartments. She looked up at the moon that always seemed to hang directly over the city, its radiant glow fighting to shine through the thick haze. The city had changed drastically in the past fifteen years, the rising towers of bustling commercial enterprises now glowing like a cluster of stars amid a void. "Where does the time go?" she mumbled, making her way into the bathroom.

It was the year 2112, and the world had been ransacked by the warring countries that sought ultimate power over the globe after 2012. The end of days, as it had been predicted, were only the beginning of the chaos that cast the once profitable future into isolated populations now scattered across barren continents. Governments had been crippled, which gave rise to tyrants and next-generation leaders who only served short terms before they were overthrown themselves. Thankfully, over the past thirty years, things had settled and remained stable, mostly because there just wasn't anything left worth laying claim to.

Nightmares were nothing new for Mei; she'd been having them since childhood. But recently they had become much more terrifying and frequent. She leaned over to fill her hands with cool water, splashing away the sticky sweat that held matted hair against her cheeks. Being part of a civil service meant she was privy to the gruesome sights of murder and death on a regular basis, but the bad dreams had nothing to do with her job highlights; she was certain of that.

Mei's dreams revolved around a group of mysterious people and a violent explosion, which she knew little about. She would even have daydreams at the most unlikely times, giving her intense cases of déjà vu that spurred images or words into her already confused train of thought.

She reached for a washcloth and dried her face, looking into the mirror at her reflection shaded in midnight tints. "What the hell is a Moon Knight?"

The words were among the few she could understand from the riddling nonsense that came along with some of the visions; one of the most common appeared to be a young man she had yet to identify. Although she had never met anyone like him, somehow she felt connected in an assortment of tragic ways.

In her dreams he was always a blur, crying and unidentifiable, yet consistently present. "Why does he cry?" Her reflection didn't respond. Thinking about him made her own heart share his sadness. None of it made any sense, and she wondered if it was just repressed feelings from her childhood.

She debated whether it was worth going out after curfew or not. "Just go, damn you," she told her reflection. There was no hope of returning to the dream world tonight. Mei knew her curiosity was relentless, and tonight was no different. Her heart had already decided the moment she awoke. "But you're not going to find anything new." She sighed and went to the dresser to change.

Mei slipped into a pair of sweats then tucked her badge and gun underneath. Even though she was an officer of the law, she was risking her job by traveling after curfew. Thankfully she had borrowed the government police cruiser from her partner, making cross-town travel less conspicuous. The curfew mandated no public activity after hours and turned the entire city into a ghost town.

She kept the cruiser at a mild speed and avoided the main roads, stirring the fog veils that crept across intersections as she made her way toward the city's outskirts. After one quick look behind, she made the illegal turn into the restricted zones and ignored the red light blinking over an unused junction. The paved roads immediately turned into patches of grainy dirt and broken rubble, scars from years of gang violence and civil disputes. A majority of the population lived safely within the crowded apartments that surrounded the inner commercial districts, but out here, miles from the nearest working phone booth, the abandons were a haven for those few who preferred to live anonymously.

Mei shivered as the road conditions deteriorated and the fog became dense. Her visibility was barely more than twenty feet, but she already knew the way. She had driven this path many times before.

Ever since she had become aware of her visions, Mei had been investigating any and all possibilities to solve her problem. Unfortunately, all had turned up as fruitless endeavors. She was on a journey down a road that had no signs, no directions, and never any answers. Mei pulled the car over and dimmed the headlights. Her mind began flipping through the same questions she had every time she came out here, hoping something would trigger a clue as to why she kept returning to the same spot. She stepped out of the car but kept the engine purring.

She was standing along the curb of an old building complex where reports of an incredible explosion had taken place fifteen years ago. There was hardly anything left standing, since the original blast had incinerated most of the structure. After years of erosion and weathering, only a few rusty supports poked out from a gaping crater.

The fog seemed to get thicker as Mei weaved around the heaps of rubble, taking extra care not to lose her bearings. There was no urban noise this far away from the city, only the quiet stir of her footsteps and the beat of her heart.

She stopped in the center of the mess and looked around at the inner crater. She remembered the hours she'd spent researching files about the accident as it had been reported. There were no witnesses, no culprits, no leads, and only a single survivor was reported; unfortunately, he had died soon after.

She closed her eyes and felt her head spin as she tried to visualize the original scene. She knew there was a meaning to it all, but what, she would never know without some kind of clue. "What am I supposed to do?" Mei sighed heavily and rubbed her temples with the tingling inside her head. She winced as the feeling transitioned into a throb and the pulse beat like a drum. She felt the same way when leaving a crime scene. "Damn it, another migraine. Not now, I don't...