The Black Farm

by Elias Witherow

I spread my arms. “I know that the entire Farm is terrified of you. The Eyes of the World! The Gods on the Mountain! Oh, they are just shaking in their boots down there. I’m always being told, ‘We mustn’t talk about the Eyes, don’t mention the Eyes’…and look at you. A pair of pathetic egomaniacs who think they’re special because their masters trusted them enough to spy on The Pig.”

  “They should fear us,” Tolin spat. “They should all fear us. We have the ability to bring wrath upon this place like no one has ever seen before.”

  I pointed a finger at him. “No, you don’t have the power to do that. Your masters do. Not you. You’re just a couple of messenger boys, hiding up here, glowing, pulsing your reports back to your enslavers. No, Tolin…you’re fucking nothing.”

  I could hear Tolin’s jaw pop and his eyes flared. I picked up the shotgun leaning against the table leg and casually pointed it at him.

  “I know what happens when I die. Do you?”

  Tolin ground his teeth together, but I saw some of the fire fade from his face, the red glow dimming.

  “Great,” I said, placing the shotgun back down and gripping the hatchet. “Well, I guess it’s time to eat then.”

  “Don’t do this,” Tolin whispered.

  I tore open Ansom’s shirt and looked at Tolin in his chair. “Do you think I want to do this? Do you think this is where I idealized myself at the end of this shitty, brutal road? Do you know what I’ve gone through? What I’ve felt? What I’ve seen? Hmm?”

  Tolin held my gaze but kept his mouth shut.

  I turned back to the corpse on the table and took a deep breath. I dug the tip of my hatchet into Ansom’s chest and sliced upwards, carving out a square of flesh. My fingers slicked with blood as I reached down and pulled meat from the bone, holding it up for Tolin to see.

  “Down the hatch,” I muttered. I opened my mouth, squeezing my eyes shut, and dropped the dripping flesh into my mouth. It squished around my teeth as I chewed, warmth running down my throat. I felt vomit surge in my gut but managed to keep it at bay. Grimacing, I finished chewing and swallowed hard.

  Gasping, I opened my eyes. I waited, trying to detect if I would feel any changes, either physical or mental. When nothing happened, I started carving into the body once again.

  “Not sure what I was expecting,” I mused, digging deep for a chunk of muscle.

  “Why are you making me watch this?” Tolin asked softly, his eyes lowered.

  I pulled free a long string of sinewy red. “I already told you why. It’s not easy, is it? Watching the violence and horror up close.” I tilted my head back and lowered the meat into my mouth like gory spaghetti. I chewed slowly, focusing on breathing so I wouldn’t gag. I had considered cooking Ansom but chose not to. I didn’t know if the fire would burn away the purity of his body. Honestly, I didn’t know if any of this would work. As I licked my lips, I suddenly had the urge to laugh.

  “You’re a monster,” Tolin said, watching me wipe my mouth.

  I sliced into Ansom’s stomach and began pulling out the gooey bits. Blood dripped from my hands and splattered onto the table top. Tolin winced away, grimacing.

  I filled my mouth with slippery organs and chewed viciously on them, focusing on just getting it all down. I didn’t know how much I would eat or how much I could, and so I just continued with my meal, slipping into an almost mechanical state.

  Tolin fell into silence, his face grave as I consumed his friend. I began to feel sick at some point but managed to eat the better half of Ansom’s torso. When I simply couldn’t down anymore, I sat down across from Tolin, sighing. I looked at the mangled mess between us and felt my stomach roll.

  I suddenly put my hands over my face, a chuckle escaping my bloodstained lips. “Jesus Christ…what the hell, right?” I laughed harder, clutching my sides and doubling over in my chair, “Oh my GOD, what the FUCK!?” Tolin looked uneasily at me as I howled, tears streaming down my face.

  I recovered slightly, wiping my eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry, did you want some? I totally forgot to ask.”

  “You’ve lost your goddamn mind,” Tolin hissed, his face pale.

  “Yeah, maybe I have,” I said, the humor leaving me, “but it doesn’t matter now. It’s done. And now that I’m finished, I don’t really have a use for you anymore.”

  I reached for my gun and saw understanding fill Tolin’s eyes, my intentions clear. As I brought the gun up to the table, Tolin burst into ribbons of red, translucent tendrils exploding from his body.

  It only lasted a split second before I put two barrels of buckshot through his chest. Blood spewed from Tolin’s mouth, his body jolting from the blast. He looked at me for a second, fear and hatred filling his face…and then he slumped over dead.

  I exhaled. What a fucking mess…

  I don’t know how long I sat there, the air reeking of death and gun smoke. Blood pooled around my feet and I watching the veins of red drip down the table. My stomach begged to reject the contents that now filled it. I burped and then coughed, spitting out a chunk of Ansom.

  The wind howled outside and the windows filled with curious snowflakes. The fire began to die and I realized it was time to go.

  I wearily stood, wiping my hands on my pants. I had a long way to go still, back down the mountain. But as I began to gather things from around the cabin, I felt a strength fill me, replacing the fatigue. It was a burning determination that jetted from my chest, across my arms, and out the tips of my fingers.

  I donned Tolin’s bloody jacket and wrapped Ansom’s around my neck like a scarf. I tore their shirts into long swathes and wrapped them around my hands and up my arms. When I was satisfied, I picked up the hatchet and looked down at its razor sharp blade.

  “You’re a little smaller, but you seem to kill just the same.”

  I walked behind Tolin’s lifeless corpse and pulled him back into a sitting position. I cocked his neck to the side and began to hack his head off. It only took a couple whacks before I tore it from his shoulders. I found a crude-looking satchel in the corner of the cabin and stuffed it inside. Mind numb, I walked over to Ansom’s head and picked it up from the corner of the room where it had rolled. I shoved it into the satchel as well, looping the bag around my shoulders.

  “I still have use for you,” I muttered to the empty room. So far my plan had worked, but I wasn’t counting on its continued success. Not here, not in this place where everything was mercilessly taken from you.

  When I was finished, I gave the room one last look. Content, I went to the door and pulled it open, stepping out into the cold snow.

  It was time to find Jess and feed The Pig.

  And I knew just who to go to.

  The trek down the mountain was a long, gray blur. My mind receded into itself and all I focused on was putting one foot in front of the other. The snow froze me, the rocks bled me, and my body trembled beneath the weight of what I was about to do. I honed myself around a singular vision and let the rest blow away into the wind.

  At some point the snow turned to rain and the slush beneath my boots melted into mud. The cliffs and protruding rock descended back into forest and I pushed on. Down…down…down. I forever descended the steep slopes, shotgun in one hand, hatchet in the other.

  The congested interior of the woods began to thin, and I soon found myself at the foot of the great mountain. I could barely recall a single memory of my march other than the pain in my feet and the ache in my back. Everything was a gray haze and a panting discomfort. I didn’t slow, didn’t stop, didn’t even look back. There was only what lies ahead; there was only what I had to do. I refused to think about alternatives or other paths that might be available.

  The only thing left was The Pig and me.

  And it would not be my end.

  The gloom overhead thickened, and as I walked across the empty expanse of rolling grassland, I began to hear thunder at my back. It started as a distant rumble, but as I put miles between myself and the mountain, I heard it grow in in
tensity. The timid growls grew into vicious blasts that shook the sky and rattled my ears.

  I caught flashes of lightning, long snaking veins of red and neon blue. They cracked the clouds, sparking across the gray from the corners of my vision.

  I had set something in motion.

  And I felt the Farm beginning to unravel.

  The forest that divided the island grew in the distance, a line of color on the horizon. I walked toward it, my mind a cage holding back the insanity I had unlocked in myself. I could hear it, feel it, almost taste it.

  The madness.

  The air rippled around me. The hair on my arms rose as the sky was molded by violent energy. Lighting twisted the clouds like strands of DNA, followed closely by a cannon blast thunder that shook the earth. But I did not look back.

  The woods drifted closer and I noticed that the Farm was eerily…empty. There were no signs of Suicidals or Pig Born anywhere on the vast plains. The great red gashes in the sky were devoid of new arrivals and reborn souls. It was like everything had frozen and the very nature of the world stood paralyzed.

  I entered the woods and began the final plunge toward my destination. A wind ruffled the foliage overhead and it sounded like screaming. The canopy of green sparked with flashes of red and blue as more thunder crashed down upon me. I shifted the satchel on my shoulder and felt the severed heads knock into one another. I felt blood leaking from the fabric and drip down my leg.

  And still I walked…and walked…and walked…and knew this was my last journey. Whatever fate awaited me, whatever end I would meet…I knew it would be my last. I simply could not continue beyond this, for if I did, I knew I would lose myself entirely.

  Beyond whatever pieces I had already lost.

  Dried blood coated my face, clung to my skin, and lined my lips. I tasted dirt and copper and violence as I licked sweat from them. My hair hung in clumps across my eyes and I smelled the taint of death on my clothes.

  Suddenly, as I neared the end of the forest, I heard a voice call out to me. It was like an echo down a long hallway, a muffled cry from beneath a pool of numb pain.

  “N-nick?” A female voice.

  I slowed, chest heaving. I felt nothing as I turned and stared between the trees, seeking out the source. A dozen yards away stood a small group of Suicidals, watching me with cautious eyes. I started into their faces, my eyes dark and empty, until I spotted one I recognized.

  She stepped out from the group. She looked terrified.

  “Jesus Christ…Nick, is that you? It’s me…Megan.”

  I just looked at her, bloody knuckles tightening around my hatchet. Megan…yes…I remembered someone named Megan.

  She took a hesitant step forward, fear pooling in her eyes. “D-do you remember me?”

  I said nothing for a moment and then slowly nodded.

  “What the hell…what happened to you?” she asked, her voice quiet. She took a quick look over her shoulder at her companions and then back at me. “What’s going on?”

  I opened my mouth, my voice sounding like the hinges of a rusty gate. “I’m getting the fuck out of here.”

  Megan swallowed and pointed behind me. “Did something happen? Did…did you do something?”

  I hefted the satchel and averted my eyes.

  She took a step closer. “Nick…have you seen the sky above the mountain?”

  “I have to go,” I said quietly, starting to walk again.

  “Nick!”

  I stopped and looked over my shoulder at Megan and her companions. The way they were looking at me…the fear…

  “I’m glad you’re ok,” I said. “Find some place safe if you can.”

  “Nick, WHY?” Megan pleaded.

  I turned away. “Cause Hell’s coming.

  I didn’t wait for another question and let the trees swallow me up again. I couldn’t help them. I couldn’t worry about them. They were on their own, just like me. Just like we all were.

  After a little bit, I saw light begin to filter in from between the trees and I knew that I was reaching the end of my road. I expected to feel something…maybe fear or hesitation. Maybe relief. Anything. Instead, as I stepped across the woodland threshold and onto the other side of the island, I felt absolutely nothing but the darkness in my heart.

  Rain began to pelt me as I left the woods. My boots sank into soggy earth. My clothes fluttered in the wind, now nothing more than filthy, bloody rags. My fingers tightened around my weapons and I readied myself for what I needed to do.

  I looked toward The Barn and suddenly stopped, my eyes going wide. I gazed out at the scene before me and felt something stir in my stomach, like a nauseous bubble of sickness. I heard my jaw pop as I grit my teeth and my hair blew across my face.

  “Goddamn it,” I whispered.

  Standing between me and The Barn were hundreds of Pig Born, silent and still, their unmoving eyes trained on me. Their contorted, mutated faces were twisted into snarls of rage and hungry hatred. Drool and pus leaked from their angry mouths and we watched one another like gunslingers before the draw.

  Even the two snake creatures that were coiled around The Barn’s smokestacks were still, their long faces trained in my direction, their lidless eyes unblinking as they observed my entrance into their territory.

  I let out a long breath and summoned my voice.

  This was it.

  “I need to talk to Danny!”

  My demand rolled across the distance between us and the Pig Born didn’t move. They didn’t even react, they just stood there, glaring at me.

  “To hell with this,” I growled.

  I raised the shotgun over my head and blasted two rounds into the sky, “GET THE FUCK OUT HERE DANNY!”

  After a moment, I saw the Pig Born part. Danny emerged from the ranks and I saw hatred in his eyes. He began to walk toward me, fists clenched, and I stood my ground and reloaded my last two rounds.

  “I knew it would be you,” Danny snarled, drawing closer.

  “Who the fuck else would it be?” I asked, snapping the barrels closed.

  Danny stopped a couple feet from me, the wind whipping between us. It was as if the Farm itself was gasping for life.

  “What have you done?” Danny asked, his eyes furious slits.

  I just watched him, unmoving.

  Danny pointed toward the sky at my back. “Have you seen this? Look!”

  For the first time since leaving the mountain, I allowed myself a glance back. And what I saw took my breath away.

  The clouds in the distance had been ripped apart to reveal hundreds of thousands of blazing red and blue comets that painted the heavens like neon streaks across a canvas. Lightning webbed around them, igniting the sky with brilliant color. It was as if the hands of the universe had dipped their fingers in paint and dragged them across the expanse of the sky.

  Danny saw my surprise and awe and his voice cracked with anger. “So let me ask you again: what did you do?”

  I slowly faced him. “Before I answer that, I need two things from you.”

  “Oh this should be good,” Danny snorted. “Listen here, you pathetic—”

  I suddenly snapped, a furious rage erupting in my chest. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I advanced on him and raised my gun. My sudden aggression rooted him in place as I slammed the barrel of the gun under his chin.

  I leaned into him, my face inches from his, my eyes blazing. “You don’t get to talk right now, do you understand me? Not a goddamn word or so help me I’ll blow your motherfucking brains out the back of your skull.”

  Danny’s eyes went wide, his sudden disadvantage paralyzing him. I heard the Pig Born stir but ignored them. They wouldn’t dare make a move with Danny in such danger.

  “Do you have any idea what I’ve gone through to get here?” I spat, quivering, the madness begging to be released. “Do you have any clue what it’s like to be one of us? Do you!?”

  Danny didn’t move, the shotgun digging into his skin.

  “Now I
want you to listen to me because I need something from you,” I continued, my voice dropping to a guttural growl. “I need you to find Jess for me and bring her here. And then, and ONLY then, will you take us both to feed The Pig. Have I made myself crystal clear?”

  Danny mumbled something, but the gun pressed his jaw closed. I lowered it slightly and Danny swallowed before repeating himself.

  “She’s already here, Nick.”

  I felt my mind blank for a split second. “What did you say?”

  Nick cocked his head behind him. “She’s here. She came looking for you not too long ago. She refused to leave and so I—”

  I pressed the gun hard beneath his chin. “You did what?”

  Danny raised his hands. “I locked her up in one of the new arrival rooms. She’s ok. I didn’t know what to do with her; she absolutely would not go away. I threatened her with Pig Born, The Pig, everything I could think of. But she would not leave me alone.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Why the hell wouldn’t you just kill her? You have no patience for us, so why lock her up?”

  Danny blinked. “Jesus, Nick, I’m not a monster.

  After a moment, I waved my hand at him.“Then get her! Now!”

  I lowered the gun and allowed Danny to turn. He motioned to the Pig Born. “Bring her here.”

  He turned back to me as the Pig Born left and disappeared inside the long building connected to The Barn. Thunder cracked overhead and Danny and I stood staring at one another, hatred sparking between us like the lightning in the sky.

  “How did you do it?” Danny asked quietly, his voice hostile.

  “Shut up,” I said, grinding my teeth, “before I waste these shells on you.”

  After a couple tense minutes, I saw the mass of Pig Born stir as someone walked through them. My heart began to race and I felt a lump form in my throat. I shot a look at Danny and then back at the menacing crowd of mutations.

  And there she was.

  I felt a surge of emotion rise in me like the dawning sun at the sight of her. Her clothes were in rags, her hair a tangled mess, but her eyes…her eyes shined at the sight of me.

  “NICK!” she screamed, elation lacing her voice. She broke away from the Pig Born and sprinted for me. Danny stepped back as she bolted past him and into my arms, hugging me fiercely, burying her face in my chest.