by Sawyer Black
“Where’s Adam?” he shouted.
“He’s here,” Aela cried.
“I’m here, Henry.”
His little voice flooded Henry with joy. It didn’t matter that it was dark. Henry couldn’t see through the tears, anyway.
He followed the voice to their shapes on the ground.
Aela sat with Adam in her lap. Blood and grime covered her face and hair. Adam’s white outfit was nearly black.
Henry fell to his knees, skidding through the mud, splashing bits of filth into the boy’s face. Adam reached up, and Henry scooped him into his arms. The sobs left him breathless. He could only rock him back and forth, thanking a God he hated that the boy was okay.
He felt Aela’s hand on his shoulder, and he looked into where her wide eyes shone from her filthy face. “Are you all right?”
“Just a few scratches, and I’m lucky. They all went straight for Adam.”
“Not all of them.” Big Ben’s voice strained from pain and effort.
Solomon’s arm was slung over Big Ben’s shoulder, and his feet dragged through the mud. Henry started to rise, but helping meant letting Adam go.
Kasey came limping out of the dark, pushing against Solomon’s other side, taking the burden from Big Ben and easing the wounded man to the ground. “He’s hurt pretty bad.”
Aela slid over to join him, bending to examine his injuries.
Big Ben slid to the ground with a grunt, his breath in ragged gasps. He laid Demon Piercer across his thighs. It glistened with blood from handle to tip. Blood dripped from his fingers and pattered to the ground.
Henry held Adam away from him, inspecting his body for damage. “Are you hurt?”
“I was,” Adam said, his voice dry and cracking. "I got stabbed in the stomach. It hurt so bad, but I killed that motherfucker, then I healed myself.” He turned to look at Solomon. “Can I heal him, Henry?”
Big Ben said, “No. You’ve been through enough. Kasey will take him back to the Way Home, and we’ll move on. I just need a little rest.”
Aela spun to face the big man. “You need more than a little rest.”
“I’ll be fine, woman.”
“No,” Henry said. “We’ll all go back. All the way to Solitude maybe.”
“No, Henry,” Adam cried. “You said we would save my father. You promised.”
“I know, buddy, but you’re hurt.”
“No, I’m not. I just need to rest like Big Ben.”
Big Ben pointed behind Henry. “He might be right. Look what you did.”
Henry turned and froze in disbelief. The Lost lay piled and scattered, torn beyond recognition. Henry barely remembered the frenzy — just enough to feel a swelling wave of satisfaction and pride, both of them sick.
He turned back, and Big Ben looked at him with that measuring expression he’d given Aela in Solitude. Henry opened his mouth to ask the ox what his fucking problem was, but Kasey broke his concentration.
“I think Solomon’s gonna be all right. He’s cut up a little, with a lump on his forehead the size of my fist. But he’s breathing okay.”
Big Ben nodded. “What about you?”
“I’m banged up a little, but I’m doing better than you.”
“He’s got a point,” Aela said. “Maybe you should take Solomon back and wait for us at the Way Home.”
“Hell no. What if there’re more?”
Henry nodded. “Then we all go back.”
Adam wriggled out of Henry’s arms. He tried to stand, but sat with a splat, and his head dropped to his chest. “You promised.”
Henry felt the kid’s pain. Exhaustion crept into his shoulders.
Big Ben raised his hand. “All right. I’ll take Solomon back, but you people get into the trees and hide. I’ll be back as soon as I can, and then we’ll keep going.”
Henry shook his head, but he extended his senses out, spinning the dial in his head. There was nothing out there but darkness. “Okay.”
Adam smiled and climbed back into his lap.
Big Ben slid Demon Piercer back into the scabbard on his back. He stood with a grimace, and walked over to Solomon, his boots squelching into the mud. He bent and put Solomon’s arm over his shoulder. He got a tight grip on Solomon’s wrist, took a whistling breath, then stood with Solomon draped behind his neck. Demon Piercer’s handle looked like it dug into the man’s ribs, but Henry thought he wouldn’t mind.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” His shape disappeared into the shadows leading out of the woods, and Henry wondered if they’d see him again.
Adam’s soft snores rose from his lap, and Henry shook his head. “No fucking way. This is insane. I don’t care how mad the little guy gets. We’re going back.”
Aela reached up to grab Kasey’s hand as she looked at Henry. “Are you sure?”
“Fuck yeah. Something is wrong about all this. I can’t put my finger on it, but yeah. I’m sure.”
Kasey released Aela’s hand and whispered, “Do you hear something?”
Aela crouched down. “What is it?”
“Voices.”
Henry strained his eyes into the dark, staring down the path. He heard nothing, but a glow grew between the trees. Bobbing light, as a lantern held out in front of someone walking over uneven ground. He quested out with his mind, searching.
No dark emotions. No hunger or need. Just the light coming closer, and the whisper of voices in the distance.
“Into the forest,” he hissed.
Kasey stooped to grab his spear, and Aela lifted her knives as they eased through the mud. Henry pushed through the wet brush on the side of the path, holding Adam against his chest to soften any vibration that might wake him.
He wove through the trees for several yards, but the sticks and leaves were dryer the farther from the path they went. They were making too much noise, so he stopped in his tracks, spinning and dropping to his knees. Aela and Kasey crept to his side, making much less noise than his big ass.
Aela dropped her hand on his forearm, reassuring Henry with a squeeze. He sat back to wait.
The light came closer, sending yellow shafts through the trees.
Chapter Ten
The light was a square lantern held above a man’s head.
Like Paul Fucking Revere or something.
The man wore jeans and a white tank top. His arms were colorful tattoos clear to the knuckles. A silver chain hung from his belt.
His face was dominated by a hooked nose over a mouth of crooked fangs poking out of his lips in every direction. An aluminum bat cocked over his shoulder. Slick blond hair hung above his glinting eyes.
He was followed by a slop of shit whose belly sagged beneath the bottom edge of his red tee to hang over the crotch of his khakis. In one hand he held a long fire axe. In the other was a dripping sandwich. He pressed the sandwich into his face and took a wet bite, wiping his mouth on his forearm. The light washed over the pile of bodies, and Sloppy pointed with the axe. “What the fuck is this?”
If dumb had a voice, it would sound like that guy.
Slick held the light higher and shrugged, making the shadows dance. “I don’t fucking know, man. These creepers are out there.”
“Ravagers,” Aela whispered in his ear.
Henry’s heart charged. He locked his muscles to keep from leaping out of his skin.
He slowed his breath and leaned forward to listen.
Sloppy took another bite. “I ain’t never seen nothing like this, though.”
“Fuck yeah, man. Happens all the time. Like once, me and Chester was walking the walls, and a bunch of creepers come up. I nicked one with an arrow, and when they smelled the blood, it was like chum.”
“What’s chum?”
“That shit they put in the water to attract sharks. You ain’t got the Discovery channel?”
“Hey, excuse the fuck outta me, man.”
“I’m just saying. You should watch more TV. Maybe you learn something.”
“Whatever.” Slopp
y crammed the remaining third of the sandwich into his mouth, stuffing the last bit in with a fat finger. His cheeks puffed out while he chewed, and he looked around with a bored expression.
“Wha we onna oo?”
“The shit did you just say, you fat fuck?”
Sloppy swallowed, and his eyebrows drew down. “I’m not fat, okay? I just got a slow metabolism.”
Slick turned to hold the lantern over Sloppy’s head. “It’s faster than anorexia, that’s for sure.”
Henry tipped an imaginary hat.
That wasn’t bad.
“Fuck you,” Sloppy shouted. “I said, what are we gonna do?”
“I don’t know. What do you wanna do?”
“I don’t know. Nothing?”
Slick dropped the light to his thigh, and the underside of their faces lit like Jack-O-Lanterns. The shadows stretched to give them evil leers. “If we say something, they’ll just make us clean this shit up. If we don’t say nothing, then when the Watch comes through, they’ll find it, and then they’ll have to clean it.”
Sloppy grinned with rotten teeth and nodded like his neck was a broken spring. “Fuck yeah! I only got a week left, anyway. I don’t wanna spend it cleaning creeper blood outta my fingernails.”
“Then let’s head back and tell Thompson there’s nothing to report. Fairies or some shit.”
They walked back the way they had come, their jokes and laughter fading into the distance.
Henry looked into Kasey’s confusion. “What was that?”
Kasey shrugged.
“What’s anorexia?” Adam asked.
Henry looked down and stifled his laughter. “Don’t worry about it. How you feeling?”
“Better. I took a nap.”
“Not much of one.”
Henry set Adam on his feet and smoothed his hair. It was crunchy with dried blood. The boy ducked away from his pat, knocking his hand away with annoyance. “I dreamed about my mother.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, she misses me.”
“I’m sure she does, buddy.”
Adam pressed his knuckles into his eyes and sniffed. Henry felt his own throat close, but he swallowed and took a deep breath. “So, what should we do?”
Aela stood and slung her bag around to rest in the small of her back. “I say we follow them.”
“I don’t know. Those guys may be dumb as paint, but we have no idea what’s at the end of that path.”
“Then let’s find out. We’re going that way, anyway.”
“Yeah,” Adam said.
Henry looked over, and Kasey shrugged again. “Let’s just take a look.”
Adam grinned and spun to run through the trees. Henry reached out to pull him back, but the boy was too quick.
Goddamn it!
Henry jumped to his feet and followed as silently as he could, but he still felt like he sounded like a blind moose crashing through a forest made of plastic bags.
Adam stopped at the edge of the carnage, then bent down and drew his plastic sword from the mud. He turned, his eyes widening when they fell on his shield. He straightened with it hanging from his arm, again ready for battle.
Henry slowed when his feet hit the mud. He stepped over a gray corpse, stabbing his toe through the gaps in body parts as he made his way to his backpack, then leaned forward the last few feet and hooked a strap with one claw. He teetered when he pulled the pack to his chest, threw his other arm out for balance, and retraced his steps until he was clear of the bodies.
He stuck his arms through the straps and seated the pack across his shoulders. Saw them waiting for him, their eyes sparkling in the dark, and sighed. “We might as well get this over with.”
Henry kept his head swiveling, and his mind dialed to its limit. But he saw, sensed, and heard nothing. Just a walk under the hidden stars.
It was several minutes before he fixed on the glow in the distance, growing until it lit their path. He slowed and motioned for them to get to the edge of the trees.
Big Ben had been right. They were almost out of the woods. The path opened into a clearing, the mud and rocks edging up to a line of asphalt. A cracked road with a faded double yellow line down the center.
A faint growl of machinery, the reek of diesel. It reminded him of walking down Stanton Avenue when the trucks were delivering the papers to the news stands out front of the capitol building.
Henry squinted through the last of the trees. At the edge of the road, a guard shack made of plywood and corrugated metal, full of flickering light, sat facing a smoking contraption that was rumbling like a freeway. “It’s a generator.”
He turned and waved the rest of them forward. They crowded up to look over his shoulder, Adam peering past his thighs. “You need to get one of those in Solitude,” Henry said. “Pretty soon you could even have the Internet. So much porn.”
Kasey snickered.
Henry inspected the guard shack. It looked like someone was sitting with their feet propped out the window. “Is that Sloppy?”
Aela leaned forward, squinting like Henry had. “Who?”
“The fat bastard that was with the guy holding the lantern. Slick.”
“I can’t tell.”
Kasey nodded. “That’s him.”
“You sure?” Henry said.
“Oh, yeah. And he’s asleep.”
“Where’s the other one?”
“I don’t see him anywhere.”
Henry drew Heaven’s Blade from his pocket. He let the sheath slide back as he raised the knife to his face. “Let’s go make sure he stays asleep.”
He turned to Aela. “Stay here with Adam.”
She shook her head, her face clouding with anger.
“Henry’s right,” Kasey said. “If the other guy’s around, you can send us a signal.”
“What kind of signal?” Her voice dripped with scorn. "You want me to send up a flare?”
Henry shrugged. “You got one?”
Aela bent down and picked up a rock the size of a chicken egg. “If I see something, I’ll throw this rock. And trust me, I’ll try really hard to hit you.”
“Fair enough.”
Henry spun and ran toward the guard shack in a crouch. He heard Kasey’s soft steps on the blacktop behind him, and as he got a closer look, he could see that it was Sloppy.
He’s asleep, all right.
The grumbling generator covered their approach. They walked right to the open window. A mound of crumbs covered the front of Sloppy’s shirt, and an empty pack of Pinwheels danced on his chest, rising and falling with his snores.
Henry peeked around the edge of the guard shack. Small blue globes that looked like the Dream Lights Abraham had given them stretched in a haggard line from the shack to the base of a log fortress built right over the road a half-football field away. Like Old West settlers protecting themselves from Indians. A fortress to a child.
Spiked walls lashed together with chains, and the road ran through an opening in the front blocked by a train-crossing gate. Light from inside the fort washed out. Flickering flames and pulsing colors.
Henry thought he heard the faint notes of a raucous pirate song.
A rickety tower at the front corner had a small roof over it, like the builder had plunked another one of the guard shacks on top of a teepee of logs. A spotlight hung off the side, facing the ground.
The generator sputtered, chugging to catch up, and the lights in the guard shack flickered. The row of blue bulbs dimmed and buzzed. The generator revved, and the lights brightened before settling back to normal with the regular laboring engine’s cough and bellow.
Sloppy’s snort broke rhythm, and he pulled his feet out of the window, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He scraped crumbs from his stained T-shirt, knocking the empty wrapper to the ground.
Henry stood and leaned through the window. Sloppy froze and looked up at the demon hanging over him.
“Howdy,” Henry said. “You guys still serving breakfast?”
Sloppy twisted his jiggling flesh to reach behind him. Henry shot his claws out and grabbed Sloppy’s hand before he could drop it on a big red knob that looked like the Staples Easy Button.
Sloppy barked a desperate snarl and reached his other hand under the arm in Henry’s grip. But his bulk was too much to overcome. He couldn’t reach the alarm with his other hand.
Kasey’s spear entered the window, creeping through the air. Sloppy froze, and his eyes tracked the tip of the blade. They rolled down to keep it in sight as it poked into the bubble of flesh under his jaw.
“Where’s your buddy?” Henry asked, releasing Sloppy’s hand and leaning his elbows on the edge of the window. “The one with all the teeth and the oily hair?”
Sloppy’s brow creased in concentration. “Who, Slick?”
Henry choked on his laughter. “No fucking way! That is really his name?”
“What?”
Henry flapped his hand. “Never mind. Where is he?”
“He’s takin’ a shit.”
“Nice. How long’s he usually take?”
“Like, forty-five minutes. I think there’s something wrong with the guy.”
“So, we got some time together, just you and me, and Kasey makes three. Tell me something, Sloppy. What’s going on over there in Fort Irony?”
“I ain’t telling you nothing.”
Kasey leaned into the spear, and it pierced the flap.
Black blood poured around the blade under Sloppy’s chin. He sucked in breath, and tears rolled down his red cheeks. “I don’t know nothing,” he whined. “I’m just supposed to hit the button if anybody I don’t know comes out of the trees, man.”
“That’s it?”
A snot bubble burst under Sloppy’s nose. “Sometimes, me and Slick go into the Forgotten, and we have a little fun, you know?”
“This isn’t a confessional, Sloppy. I just need to find a guy. A demon that came through here a couple of days ago. Maybe you’ve seen him?”
Sloppy’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. He winced when the spear cut deeper. Then he groaned, his eyebrows rising in comic despair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, man.”
“Yes, you do, Sloppy. I can see it in your pudgy dumb-fuck face. Just tell me where he is.”