by J Porteous
The rest of the group crowded around him, giving their congratulations to the man. They returned to the pyre one last time, said some words, then wandered away; leaving the old man sat alone on the ground.
We waited for a while, making sure that the group were not going to return. The man still sat on the ground mumbling to himself, occasionally making odd gestures with his hands and arms.
‘Do you think it’s safe?’ Prism asked.
‘As safe as we’re ever going to be,’ I said.
‘You think we’ll get any sense out of him?’ she said, nodding towards the burnt man.
‘It’s worth a try.’
Even though the man was sat relatively far from the fire, the heat still washed over us as we approached. The old man still mumbled, holding his hands high in the air. He paused, cocking his head to one side to listen, then turned towards our approaching footsteps.
He prised his lips apart from each other in a painful fashion. ‘Brother? Sister? Have you not left with the others?’
I crouched beside him, heat emanating from his reddened body. ‘I’m not your brother, and she is certainly not your sister,’ I said. ‘There was a girl that came this way. Where is she?’
The man paused for a moment then let out a gurgling laugh. ‘By the Mother, it’s you, isn’t it? They said you would come in her wake, that you wouldn’t let go of the Daughter of Flame so easily.’
The idea that they knew I was coming startled me. I glanced up at Prism. ‘Go hide, this could be a trap.’
‘There is no honour in trapping your enemies,’ the old man said. ‘You must find the courage to face them to truly defeat them. Not that I expect the devil to understand that.’
‘The devil?’
‘Don’t try to trick me because I am blind. I may not be able to see you, but I know who you are. You’re the devil, and you’ve come to take the Daughter of Flame away from us.’
I grabbed him, abruptly letting go as the heat coming from his body burnt my hands. ‘Tell me where they’re taking her. I want to face them.’
‘And they will want to face you,’ the old man said. ‘They are holding the Great Cleanse in her honour, to celebrate her liberation from the devil. The others are heading there. They will be waiting; the devil is expected on the night of the Great Cleanse.’
‘What is this Great Cleanse?’ Prism asked.
‘You’ll see,’ the old man said. ‘You’ll see.’ He held his hands out again, turning them towards the heat of the fire. ‘Ah, it still burns bright.’
I found my hand gripping the handle of my hunting knife. After all they had done to the people of Community, to Jessica when they took her from Harvey’s crew, a little taste of vengeance seemed sweet to my tongue; but the man before me was no threat. He was blinded, his skin peeling away like old glue. Killing him would be like putting down a wounded animal, a mercy killing. This man deserves no mercy.
I tucked my hunting knife back under my coat.
‘Are you sure we can just leave him?’ Prism asked. ‘What if others come this way? What if he tells them something?’
‘They already know to expect us,’ I said. ‘Whether he tells someone or not, it makes no difference. Besides, he’ll be dead before long without treatment.’ I stood and looked down at the old man. In a strange way, I pitied him.
‘Devil,’ he said, looking up towards our general direction. ‘Will you bring me closer to the flames?’
I looked at the pyre. The idea to throw him head-first into the flames was tempting. Prism held my hand.
‘Don’t,’ she said, squeezing my hand tightly. ‘You’ll be sinking to the same level as them.’
I looked at the grey clouds and sighed. As much as it seemed like it would be a perfect justice, if I did what I so despised them for I would become no better than them. I squeezed her hand back. ‘Let’s go find Jessica.’
As I wandered away, the blind man shouted more nonsensical words at me, gibbering and yelling abuse at my back. As we reached the edge of the farm, the shouts had gone quiet. I turned back to see the old man pulling himself towards the flames on his hands and knees, desperately dragging himself towards the pyre through the churned dirt. He dragged himself into the pyre and was gone.
‘I almost admire them,’ Prism said, watching the smoke rise from the pyre. ‘Their belief is so strong that they cannot doubt what they are doing.’ She looked at me. ‘There are times when I wish I could do things with such conviction.’
‘You can’t just wade blindly into things because you believe in yourself,’ I said. ‘There are flaws in everything. You’ve just got to decide which risks are worth taking.’
‘That’s true,’ Prism said, looking at the ground. ‘We are the result of every risk we take. Would we be who we are today if we did anything differently? I don’t think so.’
Perhaps if I had done something differently when they torched the cities I’d be dead alongside my wife and son. Sometimes, with all the pain and suffering I had seen in this world, that didn’t always seem like it would have been such a bad outcome. Still, this is how things were, and I had to struggle on with the rest of the living.
The group which had left the old man were easy to follow, their tracks still fresh. We trailed at a meandering pace; there seemed to be little benefit in catching up with them before they reached their destination. There were only two of us; I had little doubt that we would end up on the pyres if we were caught.
‘Are you okay?’
Prism was staring at me, concern etching her brow. ‘I’m fine,’ I replied. ‘I just want to get Jessica back before anything bad happens.’
‘You don’t seem it,’ Prism said. ‘You’re limping terribly, and I can hear your gasping breaths from here.’
I had been so transfixed with making progress that I hadn’t noticed my own issues. As my mind turned to myself, my entire body throbbed, and stabbing pains seemed to come at me from all angles. It almost felt like my muscles were barely holding my body upright.
‘Their tracks are fresh. They’ll be there a while longer. Pace yourself, you want to be some use when we find her, right?’
Prism was right, as I was often finding recently. I let out a defeated sigh, a sharp pain juddering into my ribcage. I placed a hand to the right side of my chest and pressed against my ribs. There was movement where there shouldn’t be. Cracked, I think. Not good. ‘Alright,’ I said, relenting to her wisdom. ‘We’ll slow down until I feel better.’
She arched an eyebrow. ‘We’re going to be going slow for a while then.’
‘You know what I mean. I’ll save my strength for when we find Jessica, but don’t try to hold me back when that happens.’
‘I won’t.’
Wherever it was that the group of cultists were headed, it was a good distance. The afternoon passed by as we followed them, the sky darkening as evening set in. My body ached like it never had before, my coughs occasionally bringing the taste of blood with them. If the group didn’t come to a stop soon, we’d lose their tracks in the dark. There was no way we could risk using Prism’s lantern out in the open night.
We picked up their tracks on the outskirts of a small town, making sure to circle the town itself in case we wandered into a trap unaware. Just because the old cultist had told me that there was supposedly no honour in trapping your enemies didn’t mean that the rest of them believed that.
‘And they’re still going,’ Prism said, her eyes following the tracks as they led up the road. ‘How far is this fucking thing?’
My legs cramped as we stopped. ‘We’ll go as far as it takes.’
Prism placed her hands on my cheeks, focusing my eyes on her. ‘You do know this might not have a happy ending? You know that, right?’
I knew it, but I wasn’t ready to admit it. Jessica was here because of my decisions, my choices forcing her down a path she didn’t choose herself; if anything had happened to her it would be my own fault. I’d already failed one child, I didn’t know
if I could face failing another. ‘We’ll find her. We’ll bring her back to Hope.’
Prism looked at me with pitying eyes and shook her head. ‘Sure we will.’ She gazed at the trail on the road ahead. ‘You ready to keep going?’
‘Always.’
We wandered down the road. A desolate silence filled the air. There was no birdsong, no sound of even the wind in the trees, just the constant dull trudge of our feet. Night was truly approaching, the edges of the road and the fields beyond becoming increasingly hard to see in the dark.
‘We can’t stay out tonight,’ Prism said, looking up at the cloud-filled sky. ‘There’s no moon, and we can’t rely on my lantern without being spotted from miles away.’
‘I know,’ I said, but I couldn’t abandon my search for Jessica. Tonight was the Great Cleanse, or so the old man had said. If it was left until the next day, then we risked being too late to save her. ‘We’ll keep going just a bit longer.’
‘And then what?’
I looked at Prism. ‘And then that’s it. If we don’t find her tonight, we won’t find her at all.’
‘We can always shelter in the town we just passed if we need to,’ she replied. ‘If we shut ourselves in one of the houses, hopefully we won’t be discovered overnight.’
It was the best course of action if we had to take it. Of course, it was a route I ideally didn’t want to go down, not unless Jessica was with us, but it seemed increasingly likely. My aches and pains came back to haunt me as my heart sank.
Something caught my eye at the edge of the darkness, a dim glow on the crest of a nearby hill. ‘We’re here.’
Prism looked to the horizon. Above the dark shadow of one of the surrounding hills was a deep orange glow, steadily increasing in brightness.
My mouth went dry. ‘That’s a fire. A big one.’
‘Do you think-.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Then what are we waiting for,’ Prism said. She wrapped her arm around mine and dragged me forward, my legs struggling to keep up the pace. ‘We’ve got a girl to save.’
Chapter Ten
We clambered up the hill in the nigh-on pitch darkness, with only the increasing brightness of the glow to guide our way. By the time we scrabbled our way to the top of the hill, everything was illuminated in a dull orange. On the other side of the hill was a scene of madness.
My mouth went dry as I took in what I saw. In the valley below us was a colossal pyre, its flames reaching high into the darkened sky. There were people around it, their figures dwarfed by the size of the pyre, their long shadows stretching out over the surrounding camp.
‘Holy shit,’ Prism muttered. ‘How many of them do you think there are?’
My gaze wandered across the figures who writhed and danced around the flames, their chorus of voices drifting up the hill towards us. It was hard to tell how many there were in the hellish light. ‘Too many.’
I scanned the fireside area, looking for any sign of Jessica. She just had to be down there somewhere. I’m coming for you, Jessica.
Prism tapped my arm. ‘Hey, over there.’
I followed where her finger pointed. A row of flaming torches advanced through the darkness, illuminating a group of figures and the rows of makeshift tents they passed. They snaked a route through the camp, making a heading towards the central pyre.
Others came in their wake. It was hard to make them out at first, but soon they all entered the light of the fire, their bodies forming a circle on the edge of the darkness. A couple of bodies entered the circle, a larger form leading a smaller one. Much smaller. Jessica.
I scrambled to my feet, only to find Prism grasping at me.
‘Keep it slow,’ Prism hissed. ‘We’re no use to her if we’re caught.’
I shrugged her off. ‘I know.’
We descended the hill towards the pyre, running into thorny undergrowth and dense bracken. I kept my arms in front of me, deflecting the worst of the scratches into my thick coat. We broke out of the gorse and into a much clearer area, nearer to the base of the pyre.
From our new location, the heat on top of my winter clothing caused me to sweat. My back was uncomfortably damp, my eyes stinging from the heat. I rubbed my eyes, hoping to clear them.
The large figure was now revealed to be a tall-set man. His face was obscured by a mask; it was full-face, with two large eyes and what looked like a beak protruding from the front of it. As much as his features stood out, I could not help but place my attention on Jessica.
In the flickering light, I could make out her frightened face. Her head darted about, looking at the bodies which surrounded the pair of them. The tall man’s hand kept a firm grip on her shoulder, his fingers digging into her collarbone. I realised that I had absent-mindedly reached for my hunting knife. I kept a tight grip of it, venting my frustration against its handle.
‘There must be over a hundred of them,’ Prism whispered. ‘We’ve got to warn Hope.’
‘We will,’ I said. ‘Right after we get Jessica.’
‘That doesn’t look like an option at the moment.’
‘I’m not leaving without her,’ I said, glancing at her shadowy features. ‘If you want to leave now, then go.’
‘I’m not saying that,’ Prism replied through gritted teeth. ‘I’m saying that whatever happens, Hope needs to know.’
Silence fell across the gathering of cultists, leaving only the sound of the roaring fire. My attention was drawn back to Jessica, and the man who stood next to her. The crowd held their attention to the large man, their attentive gazes drawn towards him.
The large man let go of his grip of Jessica. He gripped his mask and pulled it forward, removing it from his face and letting his eyes wander across the gathered bodies. His face was twisted and gnarled by fire, his mouth contorted into a permanent half-smile.
‘Brothers, sisters,’ he said, his voice a dry rasp which had to be dredged from his throat. He held his hands up in greeting. ‘It’s been a long time since we set out to bring the good word to the people left in this wretched world, and I know there have been some that have questioned their faith along the way, but we have been blessed for our commitment to the ash!’ He grabbed Jessica’s hand and held it aloft. ‘We have been rewarded with the Daughter of Flame!’
Jessica’s eyes darted around as the gathered crowd roared with passion. To see her so frightened, so panicked, it tore my heart in two. Some of the group broke away from the circle, putting their hands or feet towards the flame in some kind of celebration. The smell of singed hair and burning skin drifted on the breeze.
‘There are still pits of disease,’ the man continued. ‘Cesspools of uncleanliness, touched by the plague. We will turn the remnants of this world to ash, and only then will all of humanity be reborn.’ Another cheer rose from the crowd, only to quickly be silenced by his raised hand. ‘I am the Father, and I will continue to lead us to paradise. Believe me, brothers and sisters, we are on the right path and will continue on down it. Tomorrow will bring more victory for the ash, but tonight we will praise the ash for this gift to us!’
The gathered cultists broke into a chorus of chanting, dancing to the sound of their own hymns. Through the moving bodies I kept my eyes glued to Jessica, watching her every move. The circle had parted for the Father and Jessica, allowing them to stand back and watch the celebrations. He bent down and talked to her, gesturing to the other cultists, Jessica nodded in response.
I was helpless. There was Jessica, so close and yet impossible to reach. None of the cultists seemed to be armed, but diving in with my knife drawn would only see me tossed onto the pyre, quite likely in front of Jessica as well. I dug out my shotgun from my coat, sliding the last shell into it, but I immediately dismissed it. These maniacs held their bodies into the fire without fear, would they worry about finding themselves on the business end of a loaded shell? I returned it to the holster.
Prism nudged me. ‘We can’t stay here all night,’ she said. ‘We’re goi
ng to get spotted sooner or later.’
‘I know.’ My eyes didn’t move from Jessica. ‘But I’ll stay as long as it’s safe.’
Prism nodded, seemingly pleased that some semblance of common sense was filtering into my skull. ‘If things go wrong, we split up, agreed? If they find one of us, then at least one of us should be able to make it back to Hope.’
It was a sound idea. ‘Agreed.’
The celebrations lasted for an hour or two. The warmth of the pyre saved us from freezing as we lay in the darkness; it seemed odd to be thankful of one of their pyres for once. The chanting and dancing had not let up since the celebrations had started, and culminated in a number of cultists throwing themselves willingly into the flames.
I watched as Jessica said something to the Father, to which he nodded and led her away back into the darkness of the camp. I followed the torch he held as they wound their way around the groupings of tents, trying to make sense of the layout. They disappeared into one of the larger tents, the Father leaving alone.
‘I’m going to get her,’ I said, more to myself than to Prism.
‘You’re going in there?’ Prism said. ‘What if you get caught?’
It wasn’t something I wanted to think about. ‘Then I’m going to end up in that pyre too.’ I turned to Prism. ‘I can’t just leave her here. I can’t.’
‘I get it,’ Prism replied. ‘I do, but I can’t go in there with you.’
‘I’m not asking you to. Head back to Hope, tell them what’s coming for them. Hopefully I’ll meet you there.’
I didn’t wait for a response. I kept low and scurried around the edge of the camp, the warmth of the fire slowly draining from me. Keeping quiet in the brush was difficult, and every snap of a twig or crunch of dead leaves left me anxious as to whether the nearby tents housed anyone. All I could do was keep going, and hope that whoever owned the tent was either asleep or still indulging themselves in the celebrations.
My eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness now that I was looking away from the fire. The dim orange glow bathed everything in an odd hue, but it was enough to help with navigating the mishmash of tents. They were all shapes and sizes, no doubt what they could scavenge and take from whichever poor bastards they met along the way.