by Dylan Peters
As if David had spoken them into existence, I heard air horns in the distance, and the group of people gasped.
“Unbelievable,” David said and looked back at me. “Those are our alarms going up, son. That means those damned mynahs have breached our perimeter again. You really did call them, didn’t you?”
I could see the fear in David’s eyes now, and it was terrifying. At that moment I knew this man was capable of anything. Ah’Rhea was right, good versus evil had no place here. Right versus wrong would not matter. These people were going to kill us because they feared us.
Gunfire rang out in the distance.
David turned back to the group of pale frightened people. “Those monsters are back, and it’s because of these two,” he said with his eyes wide and spit flying from his mouth. “Just give me the word and I’ll put an end to this. Let me save us. Please! Raise your hands so I know you’re on my side, and I’ll get rid of these two before they bring the whole damned Nullwood down upon us!”
The hands went up one by one, scared people voting to kill a sick woman and a teenaged boy. I stared at their faces in horror and disbelief, but not one of them returned my gaze. They were ashamed. One woman was crying with her hand held halfway up, illustrating how weak and afraid she was. One man had his eyes closed. Ten people in all, hands raised in favor of murder over fear.
David spun away from them. He held his gun at me, his teeth gritted in madness, ready to pull the trigger.
And then the windows to my right side shattered into a thousand pieces, and out of the darkness came the mynahs.
Five of them flew straight at the group by the door. The people panicked and attempted to push and scrabble out of the room, but it was no use. The mynahs were already on them. I turned my head away, but I couldn’t escape their screams.
David’s gun was ablaze as he tried to fend off the other mynahs. He spun around and around as if being attacked from all sides, desperately trying to use his one small gun for a job much too large. In no time at all, there were mynahs everywhere. One hung from the ceiling and howled at him. The creature’s eyeless face was a nightmare made real.
“Arthur!” I heard Ah’Rhea yell above the pandemonium.
I looked across the way to see her in the grips of a mynah. She was still tied, but the monster had its talons around her shoulders and the chair. Her eyes were wide, terrified.
“Find the flame,” she said, and then the mynah ripped her and the chair off of the floor and launched through the shattered window, into the sky.
“No!” I yelled, unable to do anything but scream in futility.
Another scream rent the air, and I snapped my head to the left to see David’s arm in the mouth of a mynah. Two shots fired from his gun and then the hellish creature’s beak severed the arm that held it. David collapsed to the floor and was immediately smothered by mynahs.
I strained and struggled against my bonds. I could feel blood run down my wrists as the rope cut into me, but I didn’t care. It was this or death. I rocked back and forth, frantically trying to loosen myself from the rope, or the chair, or the world, or anything.
The chair tipped and I fell sideways, smacking my face on the floor. Everything went black for a moment, but when I regained my sight I could see a mynah standing over me, its arms open wide, clicking its beak open and closed like a sickly machine. Its leg brushed against mine, and suddenly my vision flashed.
I wasn’t in the school anymore. I was looking down on the Nullwood, flying above it among a flock of mynahs.
Another flash, and now I was on the floor of the Nullwood, still with the mynahs as they surrounded Ah’Rhea and her dog.
Flash. Ah’Rhea was attacking the mynahs, doing all she could to protect the dog. A mynah darted forward and slashed Ah’Rhea’s leg with one of its claws.
Another flash, and I was back at the school with the mynah lowering its terrible beak down toward my face.
I screamed, but my throat was hoarse and it came out as only a croak. I tried to yell again, and what I heard wasn’t my voice, but Anna’s.
“Wisket, save Arthur!”
The room swelled with golden light, my face throbbed, and spittle ran down my cheek. The room spun and all I could see was light. Then darkness took me, and I lost consciousness.
6
The first couple of days after getting kicked out of school were some of the lowest days I can remember. Once I understood what a mess I had made for myself, I was suffocating in shame. It grew in me in ways I didn’t even think was possible. It grew until I didn’t even think I deserved my own sympathy.
I felt like I was on an island. I felt alone in such a complete way that I didn’t even feel like I had the right to reach out for help. How could I when I’d only be asking more from the person I had already failed and disappointed? I couldn’t even look my mother in the eyes.
I felt like a monster, I felt like a disease, and I felt like a waste of life.
And yet I still needed someone to be there for me, because I couldn’t just curl up and die. I needed someone to help me because I wanted to be better than what I was. I needed someone to teach me because the way I felt then and what I saw in the mirror couldn’t be the end of my story.
My mother always used to tell me we choose our own perception, and we choose how to influence the perception of others. We can be angels in this world, or we can be devils. We can condemn, or we can rescue.
My mother was the only person who was willing to help me change my perception. She rescued me from myself after the worst mistake of my life. She helped me learn to grow from suffering. She taught me to write something better than horror stories.
I couldn’t fail her now… Now that it was my turn to be there for her.
It was time for me to wake up.
I opened my eyes to find myself on a cot in the nurse’s office at the school. Kay stood in the doorway while Anna sat in her wheelchair with Wisket in her lap. The wild dog lay on the cot up against my leg as Jim wrapped my arms in bandages.
“Don’t move, Creepy,” Jim said when he realized I was awake. “I’ve got to finish with your arms. You did a number on them trying to get free from the rope. Not to mention you might have a concussion from hitting your head, so just stay still.”
“Mynahs?” I grunted.
“All gone,” Anna said softly. “Wisket took care of them, and the wild dog helped too. Ah’Rhea must have sent him to get us as soon as David came for you.”
“We’re free to come and go as we please now,” Kay added. “The rest of the survivors are scared of us. The word spread quickly once Wisket and the dog started fighting off the mynahs.”
“I still think we should leave, though,” Anna said. “I don’t trust these people, and I don’t want to be around them.”
“David’s dead,” I said.
“We know,” Jim said. “It’s why things are so different with the other survivors now. Turns out they’re not so determined to kill everybody without David around.”
“They voted to kill us,” I said. “Ah’Rhea and me. The only reason they didn’t was that the mynahs attacked.”
I looked down at the wild dog next to my legs and a pang of sadness tightened my chest. I put my hand out and the dog licked it.
“What happened to her?” Kay asked. “Ah’Rhea? We didn’t find her.”
“They took her,” I said. “One of the mynahs flew away with her, and… I think they remembered her.”
“What do you mean?” Jim asked, drawing each word out slowly.
“Just before I heard Anna call out to Wisket,” I said, “one of the mynahs almost had me. It was close enough that it brushed up against me, and when it made contact I could see things.”
“Things?” Kay asked skeptically.
“Yeah,” I said. “Like flashes of a vision, or I think I was somehow seeing the mynah’s memories. The flashes were quick. It was flying over the Nullwood, then surrounding Ah’Rhea and the dog, and then a mynah sla
shed her leg. I was there, as if I was watching through the mynah’s eyes.”
“Man, you did hit your head hard,” Jim said. “I think maybe you were just having weird dreams after you passed out.”
“No,” I protested. “It was before I passed out, but it doesn’t even matter. My point is I think the mynahs knew Ah’Rhea and took her for a reason. They killed everyone else they got to, but they only took Ah’Rhea. I don’t know why they would take her if there wasn’t a reason.”
“See,” Anna said to Kay. “She’s not dead. We have to go after her. Wisket told me.”
“Anna,” Kay said with frustration. “We can’t just go after her. We have nothing to go on. Is she alive? Where is she? I know you want to believe Wisket is telling you to go after her, but—”
“But nothing!” Anna protested. “He’s telling me.”
“But,” Kay emphasized. “There’s no way to actually know. We can’t go traipsing off into the freaking Nullwood, okay? I’m sorry, but I’m drawing the line here. It’s too dangerous. I mean… Ah’Rhea might be dead by now.”
“She’s not,” I said groggily to Kay. “Come here.” Kay looked at me with trepidation. “Put your hand on the dog.” She walked to me slowly, as if she knew I was about to do something strange. “It’s okay,” I said. “He’s safe.”
Kay slowly placed her hand on the dog’s back, and as soon as she did she gasped. She stood paralyzed for a moment with a look of pain on her face, like someone who was suddenly chilled by the bitter cold. Her eyes watered, and after a few seconds she pulled her hand away from the dog and cradled it to her chest.
“What was that?” she asked me.
“You tell me,” I said.
“The dog told me Ah’Rhea is still alive,” Kay said. “He said he can feel her, and he said he misses her.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “He said she needs our help.”
“Yeah,” I said. “He told me that too.”
“How can the dog communicate with us like that?” Kay asked. “How can he know? How…” Kay’s voice trailed off. It was obvious that her mind was spinning and she was struggling to make sense of everything that had happened recently.
“I don’t understand all of this either,” I said. “But what I do know is that Ah’Rhea is somewhere in the Nullwood, she needs our help, and we need hers. She knows about things we have never even heard of before, and… and… well…”
I sat up on the cot and stared at the others. I told them how I tried to meditate in the classroom to help think of a way to escape. I told them how the wild dog had helped me have a vision of the Nullwood. I told them of the bear, and then I told them of the Everflame.
“It’s out there,” I said, “and so is she. Maybe if we help her and find the flame, we can fix our world. Maybe we can make everything right again; make everything like it used to be, and… and maybe I can find my mother.”
Kay put a hand on my shoulder. “We all lost people, Arthur. We all lost friends and family. Anna lost her parents. Jim lost his dad. I lost two brothers and both my parents. I know how hard it is to let them go. Really, I do. But how are we supposed to do this? We’ve got nothing to go on other than these two mystical animals and hints given in a vision you had. The Nullwood is full of mynahs and who knows what else. Wisket can help us out here, but maybe not in there. We don’t know. We would be taking a massive leap of faith, and—”
“You’re just scared,” Anna said.
“Yes, Anna,” Kay said, turning on the girl in the chair. “I am scared. I’m really, really scared, and I don’t know if I’m ready to leave the school, let alone go into the Nullwood.”
Jim stood up and wrapped his arms around Kay. They stood that way for a while and we were all silent. In those moments I realized that going into the Nullwood was easy for me. Going into the Nullwood to try to get my life back was the only thing I had left. Anna wasn’t far off. She didn’t have the hope of finding her parents, but she had Wisket, and her life would be tied to him from here on out. I wondered if she didn’t look at Ah’Rhea as her last chance at having something like a mother, or at least a mentor. For Anna and me, the Nullwood was hope, but it was something else for Kay and Jim because they had each other. Whether the world got better, worse, or whatever, they still had each other. That was something they couldn’t risk lightly.
“You guys don’t have to come into the Nullwood with me,” Anna said, breaking up the silence. “I’ll have Wisket and the dog. I’ll be okay. I understand it’s a lot to ask. You can stay here.”
“I’m not staying here,” I said. “I’m coming with you, Anna. However long it takes. Whatever we have to do. We’ll find Ah’Rhea, the Everflame, and my mother. I promise.”
Anna smiled at me in a way I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. Her smile was pure and genuine, with no hidden motives, no inhibitions, and no self-consciousness around the edges. She gave me a smile that held nothing back, and I cherished it.
“We’re coming too,” Jim said.
Kay looked up at him while still in his embrace, and her face said everything. She was scared and didn’t want to go into the Nullwood. Jim looked deep into her eyes and held her steady. Without words he was making promises to her, assuring her, and soothing her fears away.
“You know why I have to, Kay,” Jim said softly. “I couldn’t live with myself otherwise.”
Kay buried her head into Jim’s chest and held him tightly.
“Can we at least wait until morning?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Jim said. “We’ll head for the Nullwood as soon as the sun is up.”
The Nullwood sat on the horizon as we exited the school that morning. Mist still clung to the ground, and the sky was a pale blue shifting to a pale yellow as it stretched to the east. We were heading west, away from the rising sun. It wasn’t lost on me how poetic that was.
We had each taken a camping backpack from the survivors’ reserves and filled it with things we thought we would need. We packed protein bars, water, lighters, a Swiss army knife, flashlights, a battery-powered lantern, extra clothing, ponchos in case it rained, some packets of dehydrated food, toilet paper, a first aid kit, and Jim took a short-handled shovel to replace the one he left back at Esteban’s. We also rolled two tents and four sleeping bags to take as well.
As we left the perimeter fence of the school, one of the women standing guard looked to Anna.
“You kids going out there with your animals to stop the mynahs?”
“No,” Anna said coldly.
“Well, what are we supposed to do without protection?” the woman asked incredulously.
“Live,” Anna said with a smile. “Or don’t.”
Anna wheeled past the woman, and I couldn’t help but smile. In such a short time my world had changed more drastically than I ever would have thought possible. A grown woman with a gun was looking to a teenaged girl for protection. It really made me think. Who were the children in this new world? What was the authority? Were the paths and rules we’d once followed nothing more than illusions?
I looked at Jim, who I’d pegged as the stereotypical school jock. He dated the prettiest girl, probably played football, and was still a bully even after high school had ended. He was the exact kind of guy I would have written into one of my horror stories. Yet when the illusions of the past world drifted away, he proved to be someone quick on his feet whose compassion meant more than his muscles. He had rushed in front of us all to nurse Ah’Rhea, and he had done the same for me last night. I didn’t know why, but his loyalty to Anna held firm even when she fought it. Things had started roughly between us, and he still called me Creepy, but it seemed different in the last twelve hours. It felt more like a nickname than an insult.
Kay was more than what I had imagined her to be, as well. She was too attractive so I had assumed she would be shallow, weak, materialistic, and illogical. Yet she kept our group in check with a voice of reason. We were all emotionally bruised, but Kay kept steady. In a weird way, s
he was the strength that held the group together. She was there for each of us in small ways when we needed it. Her mind wasn’t vacuous, it was nuanced and ripe.
Then there was Anna, who I could never have been more wrong about. She wasn’t frail, or someone to be pitied. She was strong, defiant, courageous, and more full of hope than I had ever been. In simple truth, she was our leader. It was she who Wisket came to, and it wasn’t due to luck or any other trivial factor. The mystical creature could sense something important in her, something vivid. How could it not? After all, I did.
Illusions were vanishing in this new world, and that thought gave me a light to carry where we were about to go. I couldn’t help but think about how my mother’s prophecy was coming to fruition. In that last brief conversation we had, she said, Your life is not going to be like this forever, Arthur. The world is bigger than high school, and I know it’s hard to see that now, but it is. It will be for you.
She was right, and that was both terrifying and exciting. I could be someone different. I could write a new story.
It didn’t take long to reach the edge of the Nullwood. We stood there readying ourselves to enter a nightmare, for better or for worse. Anna was white-knuckling the wheels of her chair with Wisket in her lap and the wild dog at her side. Kay heaved a sigh of resignation but stared ahead with determination, and Jim gripped the handle of the short-handled shovel so tight I thought he might break it.
“You ready for this, Creepy?” Jim asked me.
“No,” I said. “Not at all.”
“Good,” Jim said. “I didn’t want to be the only one.”
II
Into The Nullwood
7
Even after an hour walking through the Nullwood, the morning mist had not evaporated from the forest floor. It felt appropriate in this seemingly haunted place. I’m sure each of us had our ideas of what the Nullwood would be, haunted being one of those things. Maybe cold, dark, or depressing. In some ways, it was living up to those ideas. I imagined a barren, wasted, dark, lifeless void, in which our warm pulsing bodies would stick out like beacons in the fog.