Black Light: The Deplorable Savior

by Rich Richardson

  I died for the second time.

  Chapter 37 - Sirius V

  “Young one, you have yet to voice an opinion.”

  “I am still deciding.”

  “You must make your decision now.” The Shaman of Honor slid the black box down to me. “Our efforts to bring down the Omniscients have been in motion for a year, and you still refuse to be a part of it.”

  I held the box in my hands. The sound of the syringe rolling around inside seemed even louder in the underground meeting room. It bounced off the dirt walls and returned to my ears over and over and over again.

  “I don’t see why you need my people. We’ve been doing just fine so far.”

  “You have done nothing to sacrifice for this cause,” screamed Sirius II. “My Cage is the only one fighting to make our destiny come true, and now dozens of my followers are gone. It is time for the rest of you to show your support.”

  “Sirius III and IV have agreed to search for volunteers within their cages.”

  “Cage I will lend support as well.”

  “That leaves only you,” the Shaman of Wisdom said to me. “Sirius V, do you not care about the Tribe?”

  “How dare you ask that? The Tribe is what I live for.”

  “Then why will you not find volunteers?”

  “I just don’t see a point to it.”

  “We are putting fear into their hearts; showing them our strength. Don’t you want to be a part of that?”

  “I am already a part of it. I’m the one who has been collecting the dog serum. We wouldn’t have it if not for me.”

  “You have been bringing them to us one at a time. That is only enough to harass the Omniscients, not destroy them. We’ll need hundreds more.”

  “Perhaps it is time for a stronger leader to take control of Cage V,” said Sirius II.

  “What are you saying?”

  “I am willing to find volunteers, and I am more than man enough to rule two cages.”

  “You won’t come near my people.”

  “What will you do to stop me, whelp?”

  I rose from my chair, ready to slit through his throat with the most dull and rusty blade I could find. “You won’t step foot in my home.”

  “You’re a weakling and a coward!”

  “And you’re a mindless brute!”

  “Everyone be still,” Sirius I said, trying to keep us calm. “Since our support is pledged, perhaps it is time we left. Sirius V can discuss with the Shamans on his own.”

  “I still think this whelp doesn’t deserve his power.”

  “That’s not your decision, now let’s go.” He led the other empowered ones out of the tunnel.

  “Young one, you must understand how important this endeavor is,” the Shaman of Honor told me.

  “How can the others send people to their deaths? How can they decide this so easily?”

  “Because they understand that this is Canis’s will. We must strike fear into the fairies, before we can achieve our destiny.”

  I opened the box and took out the syringe. As I looked at this device, I thought about someone I loved and cared about dying for god and glory. I thought about how the Men of the Temple looked down on us, and how satisfying it was to know that we could inspire terror in them… but it came at the cost of our own lives.

  “No one from my Cage will do this. That is my final decision.”

  The Shaman was disappointed, but didn’t press the issue, which was very surprising. “Very well. If you change your mind we will always be accepting of your help, young one.”

  I crushed the syringe in my hand, making broken plastic and yellow fluid fall to the ground. “It will take a lot to make me change my mind.”

  I left them sitting in the tunnel, and returned to the surface. The exit brought me into the back room of my home, where Haylow was waiting for me.

  “How did it go?”

  “As expected.”

  “Are you still being stubborn?”

  “I don’t want to discuss this.”

  “We must. This issue is important.”

  I let out a sigh and collapsed onto the couch. “Very well. You may discuss, and I will listen.”

  “You are a truly close-minded man.”

  “I am doing this because I care. I am still providing them with the dog serum. That should be enough.”

  She sat down on my lap, and placed her arms around my shoulders. “My sweet dear, you should have learned by now that when you give something to the Tribe they will always want more. It is the nature of dogs.”

  “I suppose you are right.”

  “You know I am right. You need to follow their orders. And besides, if people volunteer then it is their choice. You should feel no guilt when it is their decision.” She kissed me, her lips softer than anything else in the world.

  ‘No. No!” I snapped back to my senses. “I won’t do it.”

  She began to sob into my shoulder. I had never seen her do that before.

  “Please, don’t cry.”

  “But I must! As long as the Men of the Temple rule the Ring, I will weep for our people. How can you accept the way they talk down to us?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Then why is it so hard for you to allow this one little thing? People have come to your door asking if they can volunteer, and you think that this is a moral dilemma? All you have to do is hand them over to the Shamans. That’s all.”

  “But they will die.”

  “It’s their choice.”

  “Well... Perhaps, I can consider it, but I make no promises.”

  “Oh thank you. You are so amazing.” She kissed me once again and I was lost to her.

  Chapter 38 - Jacob Wilson

  Aunt Paige never liked it when I swore, but this place was just so cool. “Holy crap!”

  “Watch your language.”

  “Sorry, auntie.”

  The police surrounded us as we walked up the ramp, and once we got up there, there was a big barricade made of concrete and sandbags, and men with black coats and guns guarding it. It took a really long time for Aunt Paige to get us through, and two other men in black were waiting for us on the other side.

  “Hello, Madam President.”

  “Mr. Vale, it’s nice to see you again. I hope you don’t mind that I brought my nephew. He’s never been to this district before.”

  The man looked at me, but never smiled. He just said “I’m not surprised.”

  “We need to talk. Do you have somewhere we can do that?”

  “Over here.”

  Aunt Paige looked over to me before leaving. “Stay here, and make sure the officers can always see you.”

  “Yes, aunt Paige.”

  She left with the man she called, ‘Mr. Vale’. The other one smiled at me, and he stayed behind.

  “Hey little guy. How are you?”

  “Good.”

  "How old are you?”

  “Eleven. My name is Jacob.”

  “It's a pleasure to meet you, Jacob. My name is Tex. How do you like the Gray District?”

  “It’s really cool!”

  “What’s your favorite part?”

  “The houses on the wall! I want to live in one!”

  “Maybe we can go up and see one.” He looked at the policemen, and all of them shook their heads. “Well, we can’t do that, but maybe there’s something else we can do.”

  The police stayed close behind us as we went down the road from the building where auntie and the other man were talking. There was a spot where there weren’t any houses, where there was a big opening and you could see the forest on the other side. I ran up to it before the other man could get there. I couldn’t see over the railing, but Tex put me on his shoulder while Aunt Paige’s guards stood so close I could see the chips and dents in their helmets.

  Down below us, there was nothing but trees for miles and miles, and off in the distance they stopped and the ground was just black.

  “What’s that? That
place on the other side of the trees.”

  “That’s the Badlands, where there isn’t any forest and the ground is darker than coal.”

  “Whoa. Does anything live there?”

  “Maybe. We sometimes see things running around out there. There might even be people.”

  “I want to live there.”

  He laughed.

  “Are there really dog-monsters in the forest?”

  He stopped talking for a second, then grabbed a piece of concrete that was sitting on the ledge.

  “Let’s see.” He tossed it down and it broke into a million pieces on the ground. I kept watching where it hit for a like a minute, and then a big brown thing poked its head out of the bushes.

  I yelled and the thing ran away. I really wanted to see it though. “Tex, make it come back!”

  “I can’t. You have to keep quiet.”

  I pressed my lips together as hard as I could and started watching again. It took longer, but the dog’s head came back out, then it’s body, and then it came out sniffed where the rock had hit. It was really big and fuzzy. I liked it’s puppy ears.

  The big dog looked around and then stared right at us. He just looked at us for a while, then he ran off faster than I could see.

  “That was so cool! I want to have a pet just like that! Let’s go down and find it!”

  “Sorry little buddy. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Aw, man. How come your walls have holes where you can see the animals?”

  He frowned. “For a lot of reasons.”

  Then I heard somebody behind us start shouting. “Tex Mex! Bring the kid back. We’re done here.”

  I was still on Tex carried me on his shoulders all the way back to Aunt Paige, with the policemen still standing right next to us.

  “Did you have a good time?” she asked me.

  “Yeah! I saw a big dog! And we got to see outside the wall!”

  Aunt Paige and the other man’s eyes got really big.

  “What? We didn’t leave the district," Tex told them. "We just looked through a hole. It was completely safe.”

  They both looked relieved, but auntie grabbed me away and kept me close to her.

  “What do you say to Mr. Tex Mex?” Aunt Paige reminded me.

  “Thank you.”

  “It was no problem buddy. Come back and visit anytime.”

  “Awesome! Can we?”

  She didn’t answer.

  Chapter 39 - Scott Vale

  “Why are you here?”

  “Your men have barricaded the Gray District off from the rest of the city. I felt the need to investigate.”

  “Investigation implies some form of subtlety. You’ve got the entire police force at my doorstep. This looks more like an invasion.”

  “I cannot invade what I own, Mr. Vale. Every part of this city is mine.”

  “I think you’ve missed a couple of memos. The districts are ruling themselves now. You should have stepped in a long time ago, Madam President.” I put all the spite that I could behind those words. “Now, I’m going to ask again; why are you here?”

  “I’m calling in the favor you owe me.”

  “You said the favor was that we come and ask for food when we needed it.”

  “I gave you a more food than you needed. It's only fair that you take a few extra steps to help me.”

  “Fucking politicians. You should have been feeding the people here from the start.”

  “Maybe we would have sent food here, if this place wasn’t full of thugs and thieves.”

  Every ounce of hatred in my body culminated into this next question, and, while the question was meant to wound her, I also wanted to know if it was true.

  “Do you honestly think we’re all born bad, or does it help you sleep better at night, believing that we crawl out of the womb with a thirst for rape, bloodshed and a cheap high?”

  “What the hell are you asking?”

  “I’m asking if you really think we’re all thugs, thieves and junkies, or if you make yourself believe that so you don’t feel bad while we starve.”

  “I believe you’re all thugs, but only because it’s true.”

  “Then why are you here? If we’re all irredeemable bastards, then why do you need a favor from me?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You don’t need to say anything. I already know why. You’ve been making yourself believe it, haven’t you?”

  She kept up her stoic appearance, but I saw her eyes look at the floor and her body squirm in her chair, just for a moment.

  “The facility under Jamestown can only produce so much food. When we stopped being able to keep up with the population growth, it was decided that the distribution network should favor… citizens of high priority.”

  “You feed the Cages because you feel bad for them, and the shiners in the Sunset District because they’re rich, but the Gray District and the Truands don’t get shit!”

  “That’s not true.”

  “That’s why you bought into all those lies. Believing we’re all criminals means that you can feel good about yourself while letting us starve.”

  “Scott, I’m trying to be- ”

  “You don’t let us eat, and then you punish us for stealing? That’s fucking stupid!”

  “Shut up.”

  “But you love everyone in the Sunset District. They must be good people since they have nice apartments with all those neon lights and picket fences. Your conscience is clear as long as they’re happy. You protect the people you like and fuck over everyone else, just like the Men of the Temple! You’re just another Frollo!”

  She took her hand off the table and smacked me across the face. I was dazed for a second, but drew my gun. As I aimed it square at her face, I saw that her second hand had come off the table as well.

  She was holding a tiny pistol that looked like something a doll would use. The two of us stood there for several seconds, looking one another right in the eye. But then I realized something, and the calm that spread across her face said that she realized it too.

  We’d been waiting to pull our guns since we walked through the door. Neither of us had come into this room with the intention of making a truce. If I had written down everything I wanted to get out of this meeting, everything that was true, it would have been one thing; to scream in her face about everything the government had done wrong in my eyes. But there was too much at stake to let old wounds stand between us, so I lowered my gun and she lowered hers.

  “I know you must hate the government, and many of the people I work with do buy into the lies you talked about… as did I, for a very long time. I’m sorry for what happened, but now is the opportunity to fix things. There’s no point in staying bitter anymore.”

  “We need food,” I said, countering her well thought out speech with a point-blank, but truthful, statement.

  “I know. Recently the people in the Sunset District have been… uninterested in food, so, as long as we can keep producing, we’ll have plenty to spare. Unfortunately, the people of the Sunset District are also uninterested in working, so our manpower is running dangerously low.”

  As much as I wanted to call her out for offering us food only after the Sunset District got drugged, I swallowed the urge to do that. “How much can you give us?”

  “More than enough. How many men can you spare?”

  “I have about three hundred and fifty people living here, at last count. A lot of them are getting restless with nothing to do, so I can probably get you a hundred workers by the end of the week.”

  “That’s perfect. What about men in fighting shape? My police force is stretched pretty thin trying to cover the entire border with the Sunset District, along with the Cages.”

  “Why can’t you recruit anyone from the Presidential District?” I asked honestly.

  “The people of my home district have a slight… aversion to physical labor. They’re doing their best, but most of them do more harm than good.”<
br />
  My first instinct was to say, “So they’re a bunch of pussies?”, but I simply said, “That’s unfortunate.”

  “It is, and that’s why I need you and the Black Jackets to help me. My people are pretty much useless.”

  “Ok, but before we continue this negotiation, I have some conditions.”

  “What are they?” she said with a misleadingly pleasant demeanor. I knew she wasn’t looking forward to hearing my demands.

  “First, I don’t want you sending my men on any suicide missions, or putting any workers I loan you in harm's way. They stay in the Presidential District, where it’s at least somewhat safe.”

  “Done. anything else?”

  “Two more things. We need fifteen units of food a month.”

  “Fifteen units? That’s an insane amount.”

  “You used to send almost twice that amount to stock the stores in the Sunset District. Don’t try to cheat me.”

  “Fine,” she said, gritting her teeth so hard that I expected shards of enamel to fly out of her mouth. “What’s your last demand?”

  “If you’re going to use my men as guards, they should be armed just as well as the police.”

  “I’m not giving you automatic weapons.”

  “We need to defend ourselves.”

  “Bullshit. There haven’t been any vicious dogs or junkies knocking at your doorstep.”

  “But that could change in a heartbeat. Jamestown is getting more dangerous by the day.”

  Her head sunk. I don’t think she liked being in this position; having to ask someone else for help. She had too much pride for that.

  “We’ve got no reason to try and hurt anyone,” I told her “The only people who’ll even have access to firearms will be whoever is on guard duty, and after that they’ll be locked up. I give you my word.”

  “Ok, I trust you,” she said. To this day I have no idea if she meant that, but, if she was lying, she sure had me fooled. “Why do you need that much food? One unit is enough for fifty people a month, if it’s well rationed.”

  I figured telling them wasn’t all that big a deal. It wasn’t really a secret at this point. “To tell you the truth, we’ve been thinking about leaving Jamestown.”