by Mark Tufo
“Well, that may be the case, but I would rather hold on tightly to my hope.” He walked away.
Again, I couldn’t blame him. I was fairly certain the aura I was emanating was much colder than the wind which was stirring. I looked up to see the swirling mass of approaching storm clouds.
“Perfect, just fucking perfect.”
***
I hadn’t moved much in the ensuing hours, even with the dumping of torrential rain. Soldiers had come and gone once their guard shift was over. I was starting to be ignored as if I were a fixture of the rampart. Had to be two or three in the morning. I couldn’t see the Watchers anymore, but I could tell more had amassed. I don’t know how I knew this. I just did, like maybe they had an effect on atmospheric pressure.
“Are you coming to bed?”
I was so deep down in my own mind that I had not at first realized the words were directed at me.
“Michael?” I was startled when a hand touched my arm.
“Tracy?”
It took me a moment to get my bearings, both in reference to where I was, and when. In my head it just as easily could have been 2010, and my wife was telling me to come in and have some dinner. I would sit with my kids, and we would talk about the day. A lot of laughing mixed with some good-natured barbs and some serious conversation about the things that needed to be accomplished the next day.
Azile’s face became illuminated by some means I was not privy too. My mind scrambled as I tried to attach a name and memories to what my eyes were taking in. She did not say a word as she must have seen the confusion and possibly fear on my face as I struggled to come up from whatever depths I had plunged to. Like a man that has fallen through the ice and cannot find the opening, I swam. My hands extended, looking for that break, the cold, enough to take my breath away and sap the strength from my limbs. My heart was beating hard with the exertion of attempting to keep me warm.
“What? Where am I?” My eyes lost focus as I kept trying to slam the name Tracy onto the face in front of me. Like I was fucking three years old and attempting to get the square peg into the round hole. If I’d had a hammer I could have gotten it to work. Might not be the best response for this situation, though. I did one final mental lunge up through the blackness. The haze dissipated and I was left with a mild fog. I’d been less befuddled after an all-night party.
“Azile?”
“Good to have you back.” She never did say anything about me calling her Tracy even if it had hurt her, if the pained expression she had gotten was any indication. She’d known me long enough to realize that it would be far from the last time I would cause her heartache.
I wanted to say it was good to be back, but I wasn’t so sure how convincing I’d be. Instead, I said, “Thanks.”
“Come on, they’ll still be there in the morning.”
“You see them, too?”
“I was talking about the trees. What are you talking about?”
I almost said trees as well, but she would have seen through that. “Watchers.”
I heard Azile suck in a breath. “A lot?”
“Hundreds. They’re all congregated by the tree line.”
“Even more reason to come in from the cold and wet. There is life in our room and only death out here.”
I almost told her I felt more comfortable in the presence of death. We were long time partners and I’d shared his cold embrace for a lot longer than the loving arms of life. Two minutes, two friggin’ minutes and I’d already held back a fair amount from Azile. Soon she was going to figure out that the man in front of her was damaged. Who knows, maybe she’s one of those women who are into fixer-uppers. This was more of a full-time project rather than a weekend warrior type of thing. I turned my back to the forest, feeling the piercing stares as hundreds watched my departure. I tossed a middle finger over my shoulder.
“That’ll show them.”
“You saw that?”
“I see just about everything.”
“Are you Santa?”
“Well, if that were the case, we both know you’d be receiving coal for a very long time.”
***
The sun poked its intrusive light through the drawn shades landing squarely on my tightly shut eyes. It was like someone was purposely blasting me with a flashlight.
“Can’t you cast a spell or something and block out the light?” I reached my arm behind me to awaken Azile. At first, I thought she was dodging my attempts to make contact. I turned so I could see, but she was already gone. I may have thought the whole night was a dream, except I was in her room not mine. Pretty sure she would have kicked me out if I hadn’t been invited.
“I’m going back to sleep.” The sun was now blazing across the back of my head. As long as it didn’t figure out how to shine around corners I should be fine.
I’d just started to doze off, a parade of familiar faces dancing in and out of dreams, a myriad of events as well, some were completely senseless, some real life events, when a heavy rapping pulled me from my dream.
“What’s a zombie ape doing here?” I shouted as I sat up, my breath quickened by the beginning of a nightmare.
“Michael, you are needed in the war council!” Bailey shouted through the door.
“Why? What’s so hard about it? You kill them before they kill you. Couldn’t be any more simple than that.”
“I will break this door down.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Now, Michael.”
“Fine.” I threw the covers off and walked across the room to open the door.
“You’re naked,” she said as I brushed past her and began to walk down the corridor. “Not this again. Do you not believe in clothes? Perhaps they can wait an extra minute.”
“No, no. I’d hate to be the reason for a delay.”
“I insist!” she shouted before I could round the corner and head downstairs.
“Just like a woman. Can’t make up their minds.” She may have growled at me as I brushed past her again. “Do you mind?” I asked as I tried to shut the door. “I have my modesty to think of.”
“Modesty? I do not believe there is any part of you I have not seen.”
I grabbed the chamber pot. I didn’t really have to go, but it was funnier than hell to watch the shocked expression on her face as she fumbled to pull that door closed as fast as she could.
“Stay close, you’ll probably be able to hear me go,” I called out.
I heard her footsteps retreating down the hallway. “I’ll tell them you are on your way,” her voice trailed back. I looked longingly at the bed and thought momentarily of returning to its warm folds. Then I remembered the damned zombie ape and decided that was something I did not wish to revisit. I grabbed my clothes up off the floor and dressed.
When I got downstairs the usual suspects were there although most of them looked a lot more tired than normal. Gount looked gaunt, normally I would pat myself on the back for my pun, but he was drawn. The impending war had him completely stressed out; whereas Merrings actually had a gleam in his eye like this is what he had been secretly hoping for the whole time. I would keep it in the back of my head that he quite possibly should be someone I kept an eye on.
Azile was there, as was Bailey, who surprisingly would not look me in the eye. I smiled.
“Thank you for joining us, Michael.” I tried to detect some note of sarcasm from Gount, there wasn’t any.
I nodded at him.
“Well, let’s get started.” He clasped his hands on top of the table. “We have heard from two of our scouting teams that Saltinda does indeed have a force less than a day’s forced march from here. He was seen meeting up with them and a contingent from New Georgia. As of now we have not located the Ft. Lufkin militants, if they are indeed out there. The weapons and the rounds were handed out.”
“Did they attempt to shoot the rifles?” I asked.
“Our scouts said that they had not. Perhaps because they did not feel they had the
rounds to waste or that possibly someone would hear them.”
“Lucky on our part, insane on theirs. How could they possibly think they are going to effectively be able to use them if they have never even fired them?”
“Any fool can fire a gun, Michael. Just think back to our time,” Azile said.
“Easy to do, difficult to master,” I responded.
“I wish they would try them. Maybe when they realized they didn’t work they would forget this folly and just go home,” Gount said. It was easy enough to see that he was deeply troubled.
“They’ll go home soon enough once they break against these walls,” Merrings replied. It seemed so out of character for him; or, more likely, this was who he always had been and it just took this set of extraordinary circumstances for him to reveal the true manifestation of his flawed character.
Gount either missed Merrings’ words or chose to ignore them. “Bailey, are your personnel ready?”
“They are, sir, and with the additional rounds, we may be able to keep casualties on their side down to a minimum before they realize that what they are attempting is a needless waste of life.”
“Oh, the soldiers will realize that immediately. It’s the assholes directing them who will need a little more convincing,” I seethed.
The approaching soldiers would be demoralized almost immediately as they attacked with either useless weaponry or close combat implements like swords and maces, as we sat far away and sent death spiraling towards them at supersonic speeds. Untouchable.
There wasn’t much to the rest of the meeting. Bailey was prepared—she had a system in place to rotate men and supplies out as needed should that have to happen. The general consensus was that we hoped it was all over before this was necessitated. I was not going to hold my breath in that regard. The meeting was breaking up when a scout bounded in and nearly took out Gount in his haste to deliver the news he was carrying.
“Sir!” He was breathing heavy. “Denarth marches,” he managed to get out before he placed his hands on his knees.
“And New Georgia?” Gount asked.
“Them as well, sir.”
“Any sightings of Ft. Lufkin?”
The man could manage nothing more than to shake his head back and forth.
“How much time do we have?” I asked.
It was Bailey who answered. “We will not be dining alone come dinner time.”
“Eight or nine hours? Okay.” I walked out. I had someplace I wanted to be.
“Michael?” Azile was racing to catch up.
“I was going to get a closer look at the Watchers.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“Did you really just ask me that question? You know I would never think something out that far. And if, by some chance, I did…that would just be more incentive for me to do it.”
“I will come with you.”
“Is that wise?”
“I have already fallen down the rabbit hole, Michael. I may as well see where it leads.” She looked up at me, something between an angelic look and a devilish grin on her face made me laugh.
The woods looked darker from the sheer amount of shadows making their home in the boughs of the trees.
“If you were a guy, I’d be telling you just how much I might shit my pants looking at them.”
“And yet, I am not and you still have related the tale.”
“Loophole,” I told her. I don’t know what I was expecting to see as we got closer. I was more than fearful that they’d rush at us and I would see the screaming face of a demon or a skull with an impossibly huge, open maw silently cursing us. Nothing though, they just milled about as oblivious to our presence as the leaves they weaved in and around. “Any idea what they are?”
Azile had moved even closer, going up by a tree and sticking her hand up in the air. She was mere inches from touching one.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know, Michael, perhaps I have taken a page from your journal. Do first, think about it later.”
“Yeah, because that’s worked out so well in the past.”
The spirit, for lack of a better term, did not acknowledge Azile’s hand. If anything, it may have moved back a bit as if fearful of the life she represented.
“They do not see me.”
“I think they do.” She looked at me questioningly. I came toward her, grabbed the lowest branch and began to climb.
“And you think what I did was crazy?”
“Look,” I told her as I moved around on the tree branches.
“It is subtle, but they are moving away from you.”
“It’s like I have ghost repellant on.”
“Is that like the human repellant you generally wear?”
“You’re a funny lady, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you had some Tynes blood running through you. Any idea what these things are?”
“I do not. I will have to seek some counsel.”
“Who could you possibly talk to here that would know anything about them?” I was trying my best to touch one of the specters, but it was deft at avoiding my entreaties no matter how quickly I moved.
“Not here.”
“Forget it, I don’t want to know. I’ve had my fill of otherworldly visitors, visions or is it visages?”
I had turned to look at Azile with my question. I felt an arctic blast of cold air come up along my side. The misty smoke swirled, a face pushed through the curtain of smoke and presented me with an image of a rather plain-looking old woman; her features long as if the weight of the world had pulled them closer to the ground. I was thinking all of this as I plunged to the ground some ten feet below. I landed with a loud grunt by Azile’s feet.
“No chance you could have caught me?” I stayed on the ground for a second more, evaluating my body to see if I had injured something upon impact.
Azile was giggling. “Your small flight was quite ungainly. I’ve seen ostriches do better.”
“Ostriches don’t fly.” I was sitting up. “Oh…forget it, I see your point now. Did you see the face that appeared? Could have been one of your kind, looked the part.”
“A witch, you mean?”
“I call them like I see them.”
“I saw the face. Like I said once before I am inclined to believe they are benign, but they are here for a reason. Perhaps they have the ability of foresight.”
“And what? They get their jollies watching people die?”
“I don’t think so.” She was focusing in on the woman who had once again reverted back to her swirling form. “I think that perhaps they are here to guide those who are about to die.”
I backed up a few steps. “That’s fucking creepier somehow.”
“How so?”
“What if you knew your mom was in there somewhere? That would mean they knew you were going to die.”
“That is interesting. If someone were to realize that, could he or she somehow change his or her destiny? Maybe by possibly leaving this spot, or is your fate already sealed?”
“Like an expiration date.”
“Strange way of putting it, perhaps apt, perhaps not.”
“And that’s another thing.” I paused to collect my thoughts.
“What’s another thing? You haven’t said anything.”
“Why can only we see them? I know folks somehow know about them, it’s just weird they can’t see them as well. Nobody else over on that wall is able to or you can bet your ass the whole town would be up here. The guard probably thinks I’m an idiot reaching around myself for imaginary bugs or something.”
Azile thought on this for a moment. “It has to be something with our uniqueness, I suppose.”
“I’m sure that plays a part, Azile, I do. But I’ve been this…umm…uniqueness for quite some time. I’ve never seen them before. I think there is more going on here.”
“Any theories?”
“I’m not the one with a hotline to the spirit world. I think maybe you sho
uld get on the horn and ask someone.”
I had my thumb out to my ear and my pinkie to my mouth in the traditional “phone” gesture. That would be another gesture that the locals of this time and place didn’t know. Maybe I could associate that with a swear word as well.
“I’m not sure if it’s worth the time right now.”
“Would you believe me if I told you Tommy thought Watchers didn’t truly straddle the neutrality line but were slightly to the right of it?”
“He never said anything of this to me.”
I didn’t know how much I wanted to divulge about just how far gone I really was. “Umm it was right before I met Mathieu that he told me.”
Azile’s eyebrows furrowed. She did the math, Tommy was in the grave when I’d received my message. She let it pass, at least as far as I knew.
“Come, we should go, there are many things we need to do before the…” She let her words trail off before she said war.
I didn’t know it at the time; a guard told me when we got back, but apparently we had no sooner turned around to head back to town when he said there was a large, glowing mass of red behind us. He thought mistakenly for a moment that it was somehow the sun, but that was further to our right and already above the tree line. It was doubly strange, because we had not felt any heat, nor did the bright light illuminate us in any way or it would have cast a shadow in front of us, which would have been difficult to miss.
“Still benign?” I asked Azile (and to an even more confused guard who had just finished explaining what he had seen). I hadn’t meant it as an affront, just a true question. In my experience, red did not generally signify calm, tranquility, and peace.
“We” doing many things before the attackers attacked really meant Azile had many things to do. All I did was grab a rifle and enough rounds to buckle the knees of a pack mule had he the misfortune to carry my ammunition. This was not a battle I was looking forward to. Wait. That makes about as much sense as saying this was like a visit to the dentist that I was not looking forward to. No one in the history of mankind ever looked forward to the dentist. I guess unless you had a hand-in-mouth fetish thing going on, which I guess is entirely possible. So except for those few, and we’ll keep them out of the equation. Battle was battle, a necessary evil I suppose when one talks about mankind; it is our version of population control.