Authors: Jonathan Maas
Zeke chose not to answer and didn’t even acknowledge the proposition.
“I’m askin’ you one more time, brother,” said Legion. “Will you act as the charred one, the thief in the night, and lead us out of depravity?”
Zeke considered the request, and then shook his head
no
. Legion nodded in response, and then laughed.
“They said you weren’t that moveable, and I get it,” said Legion. “Your kind ain’t easily swayed. So I tell you what …”
Legion snapped his fingers towards Delilah, and she gestured at Lilith, who went to Legion’s desk and got a key from inside. She walked out of the room, and ten minutes passed.
Ten minutes later she came with a prisoner, shackled at the legs and with a gag over her mouth. It was Courtney. Zeke had escaped with her, but they had been captured and separated and had not been together since. He was glad to see her alive but didn’t want to see her like this.
“We haven’t touched her,” said Legion, before looking at Courtney. “Ain’t that right?”
Courtney stared straight ahead without acknowledging the statement, showing no emotion. Zeke knew that she didn’t want him to react but he couldn’t resist feeling for her, because he felt blame for her current position. She had followed him away from the Salvation, and he had led her here to the dockyards. Legion’s men had attacked them both, and Zeke had woken up in a cage while she must have woken up on this boat.
But I led her to this place regardless, and now I must find a way to lead her out.
“Come back with what we need, an honest map to the place where we want to go,” said Legion, “and we’ll have enough supplies to stop what you see in the pit, and because of you we’ll be able to start our path to redemption. Hell, we’ll start it out right by lettin’ your friend here go, you have my word. But if you fail in the task, my black brother …”
Legion pointed towards the fighting pit below. The two pigs were slaughtered, and their handler too. The woman and her partner weren’t celebrating because the big man had been injured, his leg bitten nearly in half by the one of the animals. The woman was by his side, crying and dressing his wound with whatever she could while the audience cheered.
“If you don’t do as we tell you, we’ll send your friend down there and see if she got what it takes to become one of us,” said Legion. “Your call. You can be the one our legends foretell, the mapmaker, the pathfinder, the
charred one
who paves our road to redemption. You can also leave us as-is, and your friend will spend the rest of her life in our dockyard morass, in the quagmire you see below, the swamp that you will forever have abandoned.”
They gave Zeke an old truck with metal panels on the roof that could slide down and protect him during the day. Zeke waited until the next sundown to leave, and as per Legion’s request, no one harassed him in his room. He slept deeply, surrounded by candles and little else.
They made Zeke drive off in the opposite direction of his buried tents, and since he knew there was no way he could circle back around to get them without them noticing, he decided to just start the vehicle and leave the supplies be. He turned the key and the engine came slowly alive with a growl. The old truck had been driven into the ground over the decades, but it worked now, and it kept moving forward.
It’s like a grizzled old man who is destined to live past a hundred.
It’s slow and it grumbles, but it won’t die.
The truck snarled, spat and moaned with every turn Zeke took, but it kept going.
/***/
Zeke drove along the coast and could see the water sparkling faintly, and he wondered if any people were still living out in the ocean. Perhaps there was another tanker out there, stranded by the flare but holding a living crew. Or perhaps there was a submarine, disabled but floating on the surface, its metal hull keeping the crew safe from the sun at all times.
Perhaps those people drifted to a vacant island.
Perhaps they made their own shelters and don’t have to worry about people like Lilith, Legion, Malphas and Scox.
Though he was still concerned for Courtney, Zeke looked across the endless ocean and couldn’t help finding it peaceful and untouched. There were no abandoned buildings, nor were there dead bodies dried up and scattered across the waves like pieces of jerky. The water was water, and Zeke knew that much beneath the surface must have stayed pristine, or at least unaware.
There are places where light doesn’t go.
There are underwater caverns and communities at the bottom of the ocean, dark places that depend on other things besides light to survive, and these places must still be alive. As long as the flare is shut out by something, or at least muted, normal life can go on.
Zeke saw something dart across the abandoned road in front of his truck and instinctively threw on the brakes. The vehicle’s headlights didn’t show what it was, but it was definitely too big to be an insect.
Though he didn’t exactly know why, Zeke felt he just
had to
see more of this creature, so he stopped the car and got out. He saw miles of darkness in all directions and found no distinct point of reference that he could use to locate this area later. If he hoped to find this animal, this was the only chance he had of doing so.
He walked into the darkness and listened to the ocean sway gently to the side of his truck, and looked in the opposite direction. The scant light from the night sky was hiding, perhaps behind clouds, and he could see nothing, just darkness.
Zeke reached into the supply kit they had provided him and took out a jar of goat’s milk, a bowl and two eggs. He then found four candles and a box of matches. He walked to the side of the road and sat down cross-legged. He lit a candle, letting the sides melt into the earth below until it became a solid base. He did that with the three other candles, placing them around him to make four corners.
He then opened the jar of goat’s milk and drank it. It was a bit sour, but tolerable. He knew Legion’s people kept goats and chickens, letting them sift through piles of trash to eat whatever they wished. Though the milk had turned it was still drinkable, and Zeke marveled at how a goat could make it out of nothing besides trash.
Zeke sat in between the candles, sipped the goat’s milk and waited.
Fifteen minutes later he saw a shadow in the distance, and saw that it was a small creature with dainty legs and a long snout pointed up in the air. Zeke was glad that he had brought the milk. Though it was sour, the milk’s strong odor carried well, and the creature had recognized it as something edible.
Zeke stayed still, and the creature approached, still shrouded in darkness. The creature stopped moving, and Zeke could tell that the animal was waiting for him to make the next move. Zeke took his jar of goat’s milk and poured a bit into the bowl and placed it on the ground. Zeke’s arms were long and he could place the bowl quite a bit of distance in front of him.
The creature still wouldn’t take the bowl after five minutes, so Zeke leaned forward and took the bowl back. He cracked an egg and dropped it in the bowl, and then placed the bowl far out in front of him again. He put the eggshells beside the bowl on the ground.
The creature took the bait this time and walked forward to sniff the bowl. The animal put its dainty snout so deep into the bowl that Zeke didn’t recognize it at first. But the creature lapped up the milk and eggs and then looked over at Zeke.
It was a fox, and it stared at Zeke as if to thank him for the meal.
/***/
Zeke drank his milk with the fox, and then cracked a raw egg in the jar for good measure and had that too. The fox watched him and then ate the discarded eggshells afterwards, jerking its head upwards to get them between the small teeth at the side of its mouth. Zeke followed suit, but chewed the eggshells more carefully. They tasted like small pebbles, and left his throat sore after they went down. The pain subsided though, and soon it was just Zeke and the fox.
Zeke couldn’t tell for sure, but since the fox so closely resembled the one in his dreams, he assumed this creature was a female.
Zeke took his candles back to the truck, and then got some more goat’s milk and poured it into the bowl. He put that bowl into the truck’s bed. The fox jumped into the back of the vehicle without a second thought.
/***/
Zeke drove for the next three days. Legion had given him gasoline, and Zeke passed by several abandoned cars from which he could siphon more fuel. The truck’s panels were creaky but protected him from the sun well during the day. Though Zeke offered the fox shelter, the creature refused. Zeke would close up the panels, fall asleep in complete darkness, and the fox would somehow still be there when he awoke. The second night Zeke stole a glance before sunrise and noticed that the fox was gone. The fox reappeared after sunset, and stayed in the truck’s bed while drinking Zeke’s goat’s milk. Zeke noticed that although the fox drank the milk voraciously, the creature wasn’t greedy and once even drank just half the bowl. Zeke took the remaining milk for himself. It was as sour as battery acid, but he stomached it and thanked the fox with a smile for sharing her meal.
On the third night Zeke peered out again before sunrise and saw the fox walk into the fading darkness, trotting with an unusual calm for a creature who was about to be burned alive in a foreign land. But after the next sunset, Zeke awoke to the
thunk
of the creature jumping back into the truck’s bed. Zeke tried to get it to come up to the cab, but the fox refused.
/***/
Zeke drove inland for the next day and reached the destination before sunrise, and then stepped out. He knew he had fifteen minutes to find his way to the end, because Legion had told him that.
Find the path in the mornin’, ’cause you can still take a little sun, then take the shelter over the hill,
Legion had told him.
Go at sunrise, because if you go at sunset you’ll get stuck out there in the darkness, prob’ly fall off the cliff in the night and break your legs.
Zeke knew that Legion was not to be trusted but felt that he was telling the truth in this regard. Zeke took a look at the destination in the growing light of the morning and understood why Legion had sent him on the mission. Zeke’s goal was behind a jagged hill, which was behind an abandoned riverbed strewn with large rocks. Zeke would have to get past the river and climb the hill with both hands before reaching the other side.
It didn’t look too difficult as the sun approached, but Zeke knew he’d have to find a good path quickly and stick with it. If he chose the wrong way, he’d lose his grip and fall to the ground below, possibly breaking his leg and then …
A single mistake and you’ll die out here. It doesn’t matter if you are the “charred one.” You’ll be dead within the next hour if you’re not careful.
The sun started to come up, shining red over his shoulder and onto the hill, and Zeke found the right path to take. He looked around for the fox, and the animal was already in the riverbed, working its way through the rocks.
Zeke went over the path one more time in his head, knowing that he’d have to write it down after he was safe before his return to the dockyards. Zeke would travel over the largest rock in the ravine below, reach the hill and then walk to the left until he found the large stone jutting out of the cliff like a crow’s beak. Zeke would climb the hill at that point, and keep left of the jutting stone.
Zeke breathed deeply and then crossed the riverbed. He counted two hundred and thirty-four paces to the overhanging rock. His strides were longer than the average man’s, but Legion’s people would have to figure that part out before climbing this themselves in the dark. Zeke grabbed onto a rock at the base of the hill, and it was well illuminated now. Zeke climbed quickly and felt the sun creep up on his back, as if someone had opened an oven behind him.
Zeke stayed calm and kept climbing. He looked up and figured that he needed ten more minutes to ascend the hill, perhaps half that if he hurried. He continued to climb, putting one hand in front of the other. He’d never climbed a hill like this but figured that the key was to keep pushing upwards with his legs. He could use his hands to guide him along the path, but his legs and feet would push him to the top.
He got to the stone shaped like a crow’s beak and climbed to the left of it, finally crawling on top of it with the rising sun behind him. He stood on the ledge and felt the radiation behind him growing stronger. The sun had grown closer, and the heat felt like nettles just starting to pierce his flesh. He knew he would be okay as long as he kept looking forward. If the sun was to his back, he’d be fine.
My skin can take the rays for a little while longer
,
but my eyes cannot.
He suddenly realized that he didn’t know what was beyond the top of the hill, and got scared. Perhaps Legion had been wrong about this place. The town could be thirty minutes beyond the hill, or maybe there was no town at all. Perhaps Legion had told him the truth, and it was Zeke who had read Legion’s map incorrectly.
Perhaps Legion has given me lies.
Maybe there’s nothing beyond this climb but rocks and dust.
He looked up and saw the fox, perched at the top of the hill like a statue. The creature looked unafraid of the rising sun, and also looked as if she was waiting for Zeke. Zeke put his hands up and continued his climb, mindful of the fox and ascending quickly. Even though this creature was guiding him, Zeke didn’t like the fact that the fox was exposing herself to the sun. He wanted to reach the creature and tuck her away in his coat like a toy. He wanted to protect this animal until sundown, and then let her roam free as she wished.
Zeke climbed step after step, aiming for the fox. Though she had taken an unknown route, the path towards her was easy to climb, and soon Zeke reached the top. The fox kept three feet away from him but didn’t scurry away like she had in the past. Together they stood and observed the valley below, planning their next move as the sun slowly grew fiercer.
They saw a small collection of buildings a half-mile away, the biggest one of them three stories tall. It looked like a remote extension of another city, like a place people would go during their working day and then abandon completely in the evening.
Zeke decided to aim for the largest building. It was solidly built and would protect him from the sun. Even if it wasn’t the right building to investigate, it would do for the next day. He just needed to get through the next half-mile before the sun got too bright.
He felt the sun coming up hot on his back and knew that it would now kill any other man. The pain would drop another to his knees, turn him over, peel his skin and begin the process of cooking him thoroughly.
Zeke ran forward and the fox kept pace, trotting along with Zeke’s footsteps towards the three-story building. Zeke felt the sun’s nettles digging deeper into his body, even through his thick coat.
The sun is rising fast.
If I can take ten percent of its strength, it’s at nine percent and rising.
/***/
The building’s windows were lined with opaque material, but the thick front double doors were unlocked. Zeke opened the doors and rushed inside with the fox, then closed the door behind them to bring darkness and silence. Zeke continued to feel a phantom burn on his skin, with his nerve endings continuing to complain about the sun outside. The pain left him moments later, and his eyes adjusted until he could see the inside of the building, faintly lit but still visible.
The thick curtains lining the inside of the windows hadn’t completely shut the sun out, and the thin strips around their edges cast enough light to illuminate the place, just barely. He was safe though, and the light was good enough for him to see the fox running away from him.
Zeke followed the fox, who trotted down the hallway comfortably, as if she had lived there for a year. Zeke looked around him and tried to understand the purpose of the building, what it was originally intended to be, and what it was now.