Pearl shook her head. "Nope - already offered. Bad karma to take back an offer." She glanced over at her partner, who was rummaging in the back of the truck. "How's it lookin', Blaze?"
"All good, hon," the redheaded replied. "Just buttering some bread, here. Be right with you, Miss..."
"Miss Hyde," Armageddon said. "And thank you." She looked up curiously at Pearl. "So you could tell I was new, huh?"
Pearl laughed. "Yeah, you don't exactly resemble the natives round here, sweetie."
Armageddon looked down at herself and managed a smile. "I suppose I don't," she said.
"Grub's up!" Blaze passed down a steaming plate of food. Armageddon took it gratefully, accepting a fork from Pearl. "The big tent's a mess hall of sorts," the big woman told her. "You can eat in there if you want. If you feel like doing us a favor, you could gather up any dishes of ours you find in there on the way out. Brown ceramics, just like the one you're holding."
"Thank you," Armageddon said. "I'll do that." She inhaled the scent of beans and mushrooms as she approached the tent and gave a little prayer of thanks.
The tent was sparsely decorated inside. Armageddon saw a table in the back, but no one was sitting at it: instead it was stacked with dirty dishes. There were maybe two dozen people here, sitting on the floor in little groups, eating and talking. She hesitated, wondering where to sit. Her eyes passed over a group of young men and women sitting near the mesh window, and she saw a familiar face. Sunboi, he of the smiley-face sun tattoo, smiled and waved her over. Armageddon carefully picked her way through the crowd and settled herself between Sunboi and a young woman dressed in denim overalls covered with badges.
Across the circle, a dark, intense-looking young man was talking animatedly and waving his fork around. "Laws are a part of nature," he said. "And if we followed nature's laws, then nothing bad would happen to us. But Man can never just leave well enough alone."
"The system was sick," the overalled young woman said. "Authority was making us sick. The Burst was inevitable - the system had to bring itself down."
"Things are so much more free now," another man chimed in. "Laws were just a way for the man to control us..."
"We're a nation, now," Sunboi said, smiling. "And that nation is love."
They seemed largely in agreement with the dark youth's words - as far as Armageddon could tell from their strange language - but the dark youth went on angrily. "The cloud may be gone, but they want to make a new one, mark my words. They never learn, man. You remember what happened last time?"
"I don't," Sunboi smiled. "I wasn't born yet."
The dark youth snorted. "You should check your histories, Sunboi. It isn't hard. They forced everyone into the cloud and made us all vulnerable. And of course the cloud fell. Of course it did!"
"The Internet was like the tower of Babel," a male voice said. "Of course it had to fall down."
Armageddon glanced over at the speaker, but some other hippies were blocking her view. Her eyes went back to the dark youth, who now addressed her directly. "What say you, Sister? I say the Burst was a gift, a chance to set aside the old corruption and start anew. Now is our chance to re-make our society as it should be. What say you?"
She found herself moved by his words, but the language was so strange... were they talking about the same thing? "You cannot sew new cloth onto an old garment," Armageddon said. "You cannot put new wine in old skins. But..." But where are the new skins? she thought, trailing off. Here? I don't think so -
"Now this woman knows the truth!" the dark youth said. "But they are still trying to drag us back to the old ways, my friends. They want to make another cloud, man, and they must be stopped! Did you know that even now, after all that's happened, there are still fools who think the Cloudburst was some kind of singularity?" Several people started talking at once; some agreeing, some disagreeing, some confused. Armageddon heard the words 'True sings' spoken more than once. "Fools!" the dark youth snapped. "Fools are what they are. They would have us repeat the same old patterns. To our own destruction!"
"I don't think that's necessarily true," a young girl said. "My aunt and uncle deal with the True Sings on the reg, and the Sings say that - "
"They say a lot of things," the youth snapped. "All of them are wrong, and bad. They have failed to understand the basic truth behind the Burst - and if they're wrong about that, then nothing else they say can be trusted."
Sunboi broke in. "They say the Burst was the machines waking up," he said. "But machines don't sleep, man!"
There were general looks of confusion at this, but the young burster nodded and looked pleased. "The Burst was karma, man," he said. "We keep hurting Mother Earth, and She has finally had enough," he said. "And you, you who don't believe - you will see that too, in time."
There was a moment of silence, and then a bell chimed somewhere out in the camp. The group - most of them, anyway - started getting to their feet. "Well, time to go meditate," the young woman with the overalls said. "You coming, Mikey?"
"Don't call me Mikey," the young man said sulkily. "My name's Justice. You gotta call me by my name."
"Okay, sorry. You coming to meditate, Justice? I think you should, man. You were getting a little het up there."
Justice muttered under his breath, but he stood up to join them. Most of the other diners were already heading for the doors, having first dropped their plates and bowls on the far table. Justice turned to follow.
"Dude!" the young woman said.
Justice turned to her, exasperated. "What?"
"Your plate, man. Don't you know it's bad karma to make other people pick up your things?"
"Yeah, yeah," Justice muttered, but he picked up the plate and deposited it on the table before walking outside. The young woman followed; almost the entire group had left now except for Sunboi. Armageddon watched them go, feeling nonplussed. Well, she thought, I'd best gather up those dishes.
She glanced down at Sunboi, who hadn't moved. "Aren't you going to meditation?" she asked curiously.
Sunboi smiled beatifically up at her. "My life is a meditation," he said.
Armageddon gathered up the dishes, of which there were many, and carried the tower of plates and bowls back to the truck. As she worked, she found herself thinking of the Fields again, and of her failure in Buttfuque. Did I do the right thing? She wondered. I don't want Todd and Cherry to get hurt... but if I just let Hellfire follow through with his dastardly plans, many will be hurt. Lord, what am I supposed to do? The Lord, for now at least, gave no answer. Later, she thought, I will pray on this. But first I have to get out of... oh, goodness! I still don't know who owns that tent!
She shuffled up to the food truck, feeling sad and lonely all over again. "Thanks so much, Ms Hyde," the little redheaded woman told her. She leaned down from her window, scooping up the stack of dishes with practiced ease. "So, did you find who you were looking for?"
Armageddon forced a smile. "No. I think I found your Burster, though."
The redhead looked amused. "Oh - 'Justice', huh? Hope you didn't take his bullshit to heart." She glanced at Armageddon. "Pardon my French. I'm just not a fan of him spreading that stuff around." She was studying Armageddon carefully as she spoke. "So what do you think - you know, about all that Burster - True Sing stuff?"
Armageddon was tempted to just change the subject, but the woman had been kind to her: she figured she deserved a straight answer. "I don't know that much about it," she said. "I know the Bursters believe the Cloudburst was a blessing - a thing that had to happen. I don't know. Maybe it did have to happen - maybe it was all part of God's plan... I don't know. As far as I can see, this world's about as messed up as it was before. Just in different ways."
The woman smiled. "So you're not thinking of running off to become a Burster, then?"
Armageddon smiled and shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, some of what he said... it almost made sense. But then there was all this other stuff..."
The woman nodd
ed again. "Yeah, that's how these things go. You take any movement - philosophy, religion, whatever - they almost all start with some kind of truth, even the really bad ones."
"I suppose that's true."
The woman nodded. "But I also know this - if you start with a little truth, then you can follow it up with a whole bunch of bullshit and people will still buy it." She glanced at Armageddon again. "I'm sorry. I'm offending you with my language, aren't I? I didn't mean to."
"It's all right," Armageddon managed. "Things I've seen these past few days... I think I can deal with a little bad language." She reached up her hand, offering to shake. The woman looked surprised, but she accepted.
"So, what are you gonna do now, Ms Hyde?"
"I'm going to find the owner of a tent," Armageddon said. "It's blocking my truck, and I really, really need to move it."
"Well, I'm sure you'll find them eventually if you ask around," the woman said. "I have to ask, though - are you really in that big of a hurry? Forgive me for saying so, but you look damn tired. You sure you wouldn't like to rest here a little before you go on your way? We're breaking camp tomorrow morning, so you'll be able to move your truck by then at the very latest." She glanced up at the sky: to Armageddon's amazement it was already past noon. "It's gonna be a beautiful night out here in the desert," the woman said. "Tea - bonfires - music and laughter. Good vibes, know what I mean?" She looked at Armageddon kindly. "I dunno what your story is, but you look like maybe you could use a few good vibes."
"Maybe," Armageddon said. "I'll tell you what. I'm going to walk around the camp and see if I can find who owns that tent. But if I can't... well, maybe I'll see you tonight."
The woman smiled. "Well, good luck," she said. "Either way, honey, I've a feeling that things are gonna turn out all right for you."
Tea... and a Visitation
Taking tea from strange hippies is one of the classic mistakes.
Armageddon was disappointed, but not exactly surprised, to find herself still in camp come nightfall. She had asked maybe two dozen people about the white tent, and gone back to it three times over the course of the day in hopes of catching the owner at home, but all to no avail. Tough break, people told her - but hey, we'll be moving on tomorrow, right? Armageddon sighed and accepted that she was stuck here for the night.
As the sun sank, Camp West's denizens congregated around the bonfires. There were two of them, one on the north side and one on the south. One of the camp dwellers had tried to explain it to her - something to do with the magnetic poles - but Armageddon hadn't taken it in very well on account of an elderly, bearded man walking past them in a floral print dress. The man was headed south, and Armageddon took this as her cue to go north.
She counted maybe two dozen people sitting around the bonfire, and more standing around talking nearby. A man stood close to the flames, strumming dreamily at a guitar. The sound was soothing, wafting over the soft hum of the campgoers' voices. To the north, Armageddon could hear more drums - apparently these people were fond of something called 'drum circles' and someone had started one up at the other fire. But it was far enough away that Armageddon had to strain to hear it, and the occasional cheers and bursts of laughter that went with it.
"They're at the yang pole - south side of the hill," a woman's voice said. "Making merry, dancing under the stars. Here in the north is a quieter place. Reflective, you know?"
Armageddon looked down and was not entirely surprised to see Pearl, the lady from the food truck, sitting on a log near the fire. Pearl smiled up at her and patted the log, motioning for Armageddon to sit. "Tea's coming soon," she said. "Warm you right up."
"Oh... that sounds nice." Armageddon sat down at Pearl's right side, drawing her coat closer around her. "It does get cold out here in the desert."
"It surely does," Pearl said. "So - no luck with the tent, huh?"
"No. Looks like I'll be spending the night."
Pearl smiled. "Could be worse places. It is beautiful out here, you have to admit."
"It is." Armageddon sighed, feeling her aching muscles ease as she settled into her seat. "So where's your friend?"
"Oh, Blaze is over on the south side," Pearl said, chuckling. "She's young, you know? Likes to sing and dance. But she might join us later."
Armageddon started to reply, but she cut off as a young couple approached them. "Hey, Pearl, can we sit with you guys?" the woman asked.
"Of course, darlin'," Pearl said. "Take a load off." The young man sat down at Pearl's side, while the woman took a seat next to Armageddon. She eyed her clothes curiously, but when Armageddon met her eyes, she smiled at her. "You here for some tea?" she asked.
"I suppose I am," Armageddon said, smiling back.
A comfortable silence fell between them. Armageddon stretched her hands out to the flames, listening to the guitar chords drift over them. After a few moments, the young woman began to hum along.
"Oh, look," the young man said. "Here it comes."
Armageddon was expecting some kind of ceremony, perhaps - the people here seemed to love their ceremonies - but all she saw was a big brown ceramic cup being passed from person to person. It came from the right, passing from person to person, log to log. The man at the end of the log next to them leaned out and passed it to Armageddon's nameless companion. The girl took the cup, inhaled deeply, then took a sip. "Oh," she sighed. "That is good tea." She passed it to Armageddon, who caught a bitter, earthy smell as she raised the cup to her lips.
Ugh, she thought, gulping it down. This is supposed to be good? I hate to think what the bad stuff tastes like. It tasted like someone had stirred a couple of teaspoons of mold and dirt into an otherwise ordinary tea and then dumped some honey in to offset the bitter taste. Armageddon forced herself to take one more tiny sip before passing it on. At least it's warm, she thought. She gave the tea to Pearl, who took two dainty little sips. If the brew tasted bad she gave no sign. Wordlessly, Pearl passed the tea to the young man on her left. The guitar kept playing - not even a song, really, just chords floating out at random. It sounded pretty, though. Armageddon stretched and sighed, looking up at the stars. So many stars...
"Hey," the girl said at her elbow. "You up for another?"
Armageddon looked at her, surprised. It didn't seem possible that the cup had gone around the fire once already, but there it was. She gritted her teeth, remembering the bitter taste. The tea had warmed her up, though; she could hardly feel the cold now. She shrugged and took another sip. Hmm, she thought, it doesn't seem so bad now. Maybe it’s one of those acquired taste things?
She gazed out, past the fire, watching the moon rise over distant hills. It was a harvest moon, fat and orange like a pumpkin. She glanced back at the flames, fat and orange, like... what? She felt sleepy - not tired, just sleepy. It wasn't a bad feeling. She looked out at the world through half-lidded eyes, watching the sparks of the bonfire tumbling up into the sky. Fat, orange sparks...
An elbow nudged her right side, but gently. She looked over at the young woman, but the young woman wasn't there any more - Blaze, Pearl's friend, was sitting there instead, smiling at her. "You up for another, darlin'?"
"Oh," Armageddon murmured. "No, I think I'm good. I feel quite warm now." She took the cup politely and passed it to Pearl, then went back to staring at the flames.
"All good, Sister," Blaze said. "You have to know when to stop, yeah?"
Sister Armageddon, Armageddon thought. That's who I am. But whose sister am I, really? My parents had no other children. Where are my sisters, my brothers? Where are they?
"You look a little tired, hon," Blaze said. "You want me to get you some juice? Juice is good after tea."
"Yes," Armageddon muttered. "Juice is good... yeah. So sleepy..."
"Okay," Blaze said. "Tell you what. I’mma grab you some OJ from the truck. It's concentrate, I'm afraid, but it's better than nothing." She looked at Armageddon with some concern. "You've been doing it hard, haven't you, Sister? You need to be
careful, you know? Food and drink and sleep - you can't let those things slide out here. Last thing you want is to get sick." She patted Armageddon on the arm and then left, and Armageddon went back to staring at the flames.
She still felt sleepy, but she had no urge to close her eyes. She watched the people around her through lowered lids, thinking how young they all looked. Even the old ones looked young - the fire's light smoothed out aging skin, added color to graying hair. Blaze was back, handing her a cup of orange juice, and Armageddon drank eagerly. "Delicious," she said. "Thank you. I think I'm going to bed now."
"Okay, sweetie," Blaze said. "You gonna be okay walking back in the dark? We can get one of the guys to to accompany you if you want - "
"No, no, I'm fine," Armageddon said drowsily. "I've got my .357."
Blaze frowned up at her in confusion. "Your what?"
Armageddon rose to her feet. "God bless you, Blaze," she said. "And God bless you too, Pearl."
"Oh," Blaze said. "Well, thank you, honey. And God Bless you as well."
"Take care," Pearl called after her, as she shuffled off into the night.
Sleepy as she was, Armageddon had no problem with her sense of direction. Her truck was on the east side, just past the picnic tables and the totem pole. She clutched her coat around her as she walked, feeling the night's chill for the first time in a while, but at least the cold was waking her up. She felt, calm, alert, relaxed but aware. She felt good, for the first time in who knew how long. She would get a good night's sleep, then she would wake up early in the morning and...
What? She asked herself. What will I do then? She didn't know, had no idea what she was going to do next. Maybe I'll just sleep on it, she thought. But now, perversely, she felt no urge to sleep.
As the truck came into view, she gasped. The tent - that dratted tent that had gotten her stuck here in the first place - was occupied! She saw a soft white light glowing just above the entrance, a man's silhouette seated on the floor inside. She quickened her pace, hurrying towards him. "Excuse me!" she called out.
Armageddon Hyde in The Chosen and the Damned Page 9