Burn

by Geoff North

“You hid yourself away in the end... You and all those other world leaders.” Kelvin tossed him another piece of meat. Hank caught it in his teeth. “Your plan was noble, outwardly. But on the inside you all just wanted to save your retched souls. You convinced one another that it was for the good of humanity, that it was the only way to sustain humanity. You were cowards.”

  “Many good people sacrificed their lives so we could live on to someday re-establish civilization.” Hank belched and continued. “My Vice President was one of them. He was my best friend.”

  “Many good people? I’m sure there were many more besides that handful of politicians you called friends and associates. You and your many good people were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions... billions.”

  “Don’t lecture me. You eat people.”

  “And so do you now.” Kelvin stood, dropped one final piece of cold meat onto the bars, and then started to walk away. “Chew on that for awhile, Mr. President.”

  Hank Odell did just that.

  Chapter 42

  Cobe circled around Willem’s weak side, preparing to strike. The younger boy grinned and shuffled to his left. Too slow, little brother, Cobe thought as he swung the stick in at Willem’s ribs. Willem’s left elbow shot up, and there was a loud crack as the two sticks met. Willem sprung forward, hooked a foot behind the taller boy’s ankle, and sent him to the ground.

  “The new arm works just fine,” Willem said. He tossed the stick into his right hand and held his left out for Cobe to take.

  Cobe studied the white fingers a moment before allowing his brother to help him back up. He swatted the dust from his backside once he was on his feet again. “It’s going to take time getting used to you having two arms.”

  “Imagine how I feel.” Willem tossed his stick to the dirt next to Cobe’s. “I lived my whole life with just one, and now it’s like I can do twice as much with half the work.”

  It had been six days since Cobe and Lawson had ridden up to Boom Reach with Willem wrapped in a blanket. Six days in which the boy had fought his way from death to stand before his brother now in seemingly perfect health. Six days to grow a perfectly functioning arm where there hadn’t been one before.

  “Maybe now you’ll get more work done.” Cobe grinned back at his brother. “Instead of relying on me all the time.”

  Willem held his new hand out in front of his face and wriggled the white fingers. The skin appeared soft without a single blemish or wrinkle. There were no freckles, no scars, no hair growing along the forearm. It looked unnatural and weak. He balled the fingers up into a fist and squeezed. There was strength there he’d never known. He could feel it running throughout his entire body. “I don’t have to rely on nobody, no more.”

  “Don’t get too sure of yourself.” Cobe picked his stick up and kicked the other towards Willem. “I’m still your older brother, and I’ll always be able to kick your ass.”

  The two boys began circling each other once again.

  “Look at them two go,” Lawson rumbled. He took a long drag from his cigarette and watched the brothers spar with their branches. “The boy’s readier than he’s ever been. I say we set out right away, today... no more waitin.”

  Sara sat next to him on the stone steps leading into Boom Reach. “And I say we all need more time to recover. There’s enough food left here to last us months, and the location’s defendable if more of them monsters rising up from the ground decide to pay us another visit.”

  “We’d be safer on the island. Ain’t no place more defendable than that.”

  “I’m still not convinced.” She plucked the half-smoked butt from his fingers and flicked it to the ground. “Hank never came back.”

  “Hank was one of them monsters, you said it. He up and snuck out of this place in the night, leavin’ the rest of you to fend fer yourselves. He’s likely a thousand miles from here by now.”

  “He went to Victory Island, I know he did. And I have the feeling something bad happened to him there.”

  Lawson went to his hands and knees with a grunt and retrieved the last of his smouldering cigarette. “You been saying that for close to a week now. I’ve been to the island three times in my life, and not once have I ever seen anything to make me feel suspicious of the goin’ ons there.”

  “You never did tell us all much about the place.” Sara fanned his smoke away with one hand, stood, and went to the edge of the rocky trail. She looked down over the still lake a mile below towards the small island. “For the price of one old book any one can go there. Didn’t that ever seem strange to you?”

  The Lawman shrugged, ground the last bit of cigarette beneath his boot, and went to stand beside her. “Books are rare. Rarer than any other form of riches a man might find.”

  “But why books? What do they offer such a small community? You can’t grow crops on paper, and you can’t feed children with ancient stories.”

  Lawson hesitated, as if the question was one he’d asked himself before but still didn’t have a proper answer for. “Maybe it shows the lengths a person might travel to get here, or how much they’re willin’ to better themselves by learning what the world was like a long time ago. Knowledge is a powerful thing, that’s what Agnan once told me.”

  “Agnan... the woman that waits on the shore.”

  “That’s what they call her. She was there the first time I crossed the water almost thirty years ago, and I reckon she’ll be there waiting when we make our way over this time.”

  They studied the island in silence a while longer. The sun set behind the mountains west of the lake, turning the sparkling blue water a sombre grey. Cobe and Willem continued cracking sticks together further down the mountainside trail, the older boy cursing, the younger one laughing. Sara finally spoke again. “It’s half the size of Rudd. How can a place so small and secluded hold so much meaning in your heart? Why have you brought us to a place so far from home?”

  Lawson put an arm around her shoulders. “The size of a place ain’t what makes it special. The people what live there, and the things they can teach you are what have meaning. If you want to settle some place bigger, we can go back the way we came, back to Burn... or whatever’s left of Rudd.”

  She looked up at his lined face and into his cold grey eyes. “Then why didn’t you stay here? Three times you visited this place, and three times you left.”

  Lawson hesitated again, longer this time. “I... I wanted to bring what I learned back to them people east, wanted to show them a better way.”

  “You became Burn’s Lawman. You taught them nothing.”

  “I brought order back with me. It was a start.”

  “And cruel men like Lode fought against your order. They didn’t want to learn how the world once was. Books were outlawed. People were punished and put to death for just wanting to learn.”

  He pulled away from her, and started down the trail towards the boys. Sara followed. “Don’t walk away from me. Rudd was shit, but it was the only home Kay and me ever had. You brought us all the way here, and you’re going to explain why.” She grabbed his arm and spun him around. “Victory Island’s a gawdamn bump sticking up out of a lake. There ain’t enough land to spit at without hitting water first. It ain’t the kind of home I expected to raise our daughter in.”

  Cobe and Willem had lowered their sticks. They watched and listened as the older couple argued.

  “We ain’t going to stay here,” Lawson snapped back. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but there are things worse than howlers and rollers roamin’ the lands now. Them people from a long time ago are coming up out of the ground in bigger numbers. Me and Cobe saw hundreds more heading from the south on the other side of Rust City. That island is about the safest place I know. We can ready ourselves with the knowledge Victory Island has been collecting for years. We can fight back.”

  Sara pulled her hand from his arm and took a step back. “So that’s what this has been all about. You didn’t want to find us a home... You never
planned on settling with me and your daughter. You just want to keep on killing.”

  “I want to protect you. I want to save us all.” Lawson left her there and started back down the trail. He pushed his way between Cobe and Willem and kept on going.

  Sara yelled after him. “Then we’ll go to your gawdamn island if that’s what you want so bad! We’ll go there and see what became of Hank and all them other fools that went there with their stupid books.”

  The Lawman vanished from sight down the steep path. Sara looked at the gawking brothers and waved them away. “Go on then. Grab your stupid books and follow him down to the water. Looks like today is the day we see what that place is all about.”

  At the very bottom of the mountain called Boom Reach was a narrow strip of sand and stones sitting before the lake. Most of that small sliver of land was now buried under tons of melting snow and ice. The snow and ice had plummeted from the highest reaches of the mountain just days earlier, and the simple-minded man now casting his line into the water at its edge had been responsible.

  Trot twirled the branch in a lazy clock-wise motion, gathering the line of knotted weeds back up into a bunch. There was a small knot at the end of the branch, a hook of sorts facing back towards him, that allowed Trot to do this. It wasn’t terribly efficient, the line fell away from time to time, and would break apart if left too long to soak in the lake. He hadn’t caught a single fish with it, but Trot was extremely proud of his invention. Sara had said it showed great injin-ooity. That meant Trot was smart.

  Angel and Kay were somewhere off behind his left shoulder tending to their two remaining horse’s needs at the beginning of the rock trail that zigzagged up the face of the mountain. Angel was feeding the one-eyed Dust grubs she’d scratched from the moist dirt, and Kay was washing Cloud’s hide with cold lake water. The girls were arguing—again—and Dust chewed noisily in disinterest.

  Trot called to them without taking his eyes from the end of the branch. “The fish aren’t biting because you two never stop yelling at each other.”

  Angel threw one of the fat grubs in her hand at the back of his head. “The fish ain’t bitin’ cause there aren’t none in the lake. The Lawman told you himself days ago.”

  The curly white bug bounced from his head to his shoulder, and landed in the wet sand beside him. “Thanks, I can use it as bait on my next cast.”

  Angel and Kay went back to arguing. It wasn’t as heated as it had been in the past. The two girls had worked their major differences out across the flat, blasted eastern lands into the rugged sky rocks of the west. They’d endured hardships along the way, battled creatures known and unknown to them. They had all saved each other’s lives, and fighting over things like boys and which girl was homelier than the other didn’t seem all that important anymore.

  “I don’t wanna touch no dirty bugs,” Kay complained. “Your hands are the ones that are always dirty, you keep feeding them the slimy things.”

  Angel tried pulling the wet cloth away from her. “It ain’t fair, you always get to water ‘em down.”

  “Because I’m gentle. You’re all rough and jerky. It scares them.”

  “Give me the gawdamn cloth.” She got a hold of it and started to yank. Kay pushed her away a second time. Angel was about to try again when both girls heard the clomp of boots heading down the trail.

  “The horses are clean enough,” the Lawman said. He had an immense load of dead wood in his arms. “There’s more branches a ways up the path. Get going and bring me down as much as you can carry.”

  “You gonna build a fire down here?” Angel asked.

  “That’s my intent.” Lawson dropped the wood a few feet from Trot on the last bit of dry ground in front of the lake. He kicked Trot gently in the side. “Shift yer ass over some. It’s going to get mighty hot there in a little bit.”

  Trot did as he was told, manoeuvring away from the branches Lawson was now arranging into a pyramid shape. “We gonna cook some meat? You find some more rabbits?”

  “No rabbits, no cookin’.” When he’d finished, the Lawman stood and nodded, satisfied with his work. He looked at Trot again and scowled. “What did I tell you about fishin’ from the lake?”

  “You told me not to ‘cause there ain’t no fish.”

  “And why aren’t there any fish in the lake? You remember that part of our talk?”

  Trot lowered his eyes to his shaking hands. “You said there were other things living in the water now, and them other things ate up all the fish. I thought maybe... well I was hoping you might be wrong. I figured if I could catch just one fish, I could make you proud of me.”

  “Them other things I warned you about are dangerous, Trot. The folks what live on the island put ‘em there so strangers would think twice before settin’ over without good cause.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be, just listen to what I tell you.” Lawson squatted down and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve proven yerself to me and the others a dozen times over. Don’t go thinking no more I ain’t proud of you.”

  Trot smiled and nodded. “I’ll listen. I will.”

  “Good, now how about handin’ me that stick to add to the pile.”

  He went to give it to him, but it shot out of his fingers and disappeared into the lake. Something big and long slid through the dark water. Both men hurried back higher up into the snow. Trot’s pants had slid all the way down to the back of his knees once again. He took no notice of the ice freezing against his rear end. “What... what was that?”

  “What lives in the lake now instead of the fishies.”

  The water rippled towards them again as the thing made a second pass. Trot couldn’t see much of its head—the thing had slowed down, but it was still moving too quickly in the murk to make out much detail. What he did see was enough to guarantee he’d never try fishing on his own in Victory Island Lake ever again. He saw the upper half of his fishing stick stuck between rows of jagged sharp teeth. It looked like a sliver caught in bone. Above that horrible mouth was a dull yellow eye, bigger than Trot’s whole head. The black pupil at its center regarded Trot for a moment with hungry intent and slipped into the darkness below. The body followed, a deep green mass of rippling muscle over fifty feet in length.

  It had no arms or legs, no fins and no tail. It was a snake, Trot realized—thicker through its middle than he was, and Trot was substantially thick through the middle.

  “You seen enough?” Lawson asked after the thing disappeared from sight. Trot nodded emphatically. “Good. Let’s get farther back. Them things can’t move fer shit on land, but I’ve seen ‘em attempt a lunge or two at anything standin’ too close to the water. That one there is going to give it a try on his third pass if we let it.”

  Trot pulled his pants up and scrambled out of the snow to where the Lawman had arranged his branches. Kay and Angel were coming back down the path, each carrying impressive loads of wood. Kay had seen Trot pulling up his pants near the end. She made a funny face as she dropped the branches next to Lawson’s pyramid. “Did we miss something?”

  “I’m done fishing,” Trot answered.

  Kay shrugged and looked to her father. The pyramid had grown. “Why do you have to build a fire so big?”

  He pointed to the island a mile away. “So the folks there can see they have visitors.”

  Angel pushed Kay aside. “Let me light it. I like startin’ fires.”

  “Build it up some more,” Lawson replied. “It’ll let them know there’s more than just one or two of us.”

  Sara, Cobe and Willem joined them moments later. The brothers were carrying enough books to ensure all seven travellers would be admitted onto Victory Island. Sara was still dead set against going at all. She sat on a stone with her arms crossed over her chest in defiance. She remained that way for the next few minutes as the others asked the Lawman questions about the island.

  “Are the horses coming with us?” Kay asked.

  Lawson sho
ok his head. “Not on this first run. If things go well enough, we can come back for them.”

  “Then I want to stay here to look after them.”

  Sara finally broke her silence. “I’m not letting you stay here alone. You’re coming with me.”

  “But we can’t just leave them here. What if more of those monsters from under the ground show up while we’re gone?”

  Lawson waved her concerns away. “Dust can take care of himself better than any of us can. If anything happens, he’ll lead Cloud out of the tall rocks and back out into the open plains if need be.”

  “I still think going there’s a bad idea,” Sara said. “We need to know what happened to Hank.”

  Angel settled to her knees in front of the wood pile while the grownups argued. She worked ferociously for the next minute with a rusted knife and piece of flint. Sparks jumped into the dry kindling and caught on fire. Soon the entire thing was a blaze.

  Lawson was done fighting with Sara. He added more branches to the flames. “We’ve been through too much and come too far to turn back now. We’re goin to Victory Island, and that’s that.”

  They stood back as the fire continued to grow. The flames shot up, pushing a column of grey smoke into the sky rocks above. Cobe scanned the lake. “How long till they take notice?”

  “There.” Willem pointed to a black spot that had suddenly appeared on the water’s surface. It grew in size as it headed their way. “Someone’s coming.”

  The Lawman nodded. “It’s the right thing to do, we’re making the right choice... You’ll see.”

  Sara sat back down on her rock and waited. The feeling of dread none of the others seemed to share with her grew as the dark shape out on the water approached.

  Chapter 43

  Lothair Eichberg was alive. His arms, his legs, and every single rib in his chest had been pulverized within the monstrous tornado that had torn him away from the Lawman back in the pit on the outskirts of Rudd. The vortex had eventually spat him out some fifty miles east and left him in a puddle to die. But Lothair didn’t die. He crawled out of the mud and lay in the dirt for three agonizingly long days as his body repaired itself. The sun burned into him, turning his shredded grey skin almost black. Flesh healed over, bones mended, and on the fourth day Lothair was back on his feet and heading west.