by Joel Varty
I can’t even catch my breath for a moment; it is caught in my throat as I try to process the grief, the fear, the everything of this moment. I try to bring my wits to bear on it, but just then I hear a sound. It is faint but distinctive, something familiar:
Click click PONG click click PONG click click PONG…
It is the sound of the pump that I took down to get repaired just before Aeron came back. I don’t remember fixing it, but someone must have, because that’s the sound it makes when it’s working properly. I haven’t heard the noise since I was a boy, but it is unmistakable.
“Lucifer, I have to get back, surely my family thinks that I am dead.”
There is no answer.
“Lucifer? Michael? Gabe?”
Silence, and the sound of the wind in a warm breath of sunshine against my face and through my fingers.
I stand up straight and turn downhill towards what I feel is the direction of the farm. I take a step. It feels funny, like being in the darkest of night where you can’t tell if your eyes are open or closed. I take another, and trip over a stick, which whips around and catches me in the ear as I fall flat on my face. I feel a trickle of blood down my neck. I know what Rachel will say, and I almost smile at the thought: he can’t take two steps without bleeding all over himself.
I get to my feet shakily and continue downward.
The day is warm and fresh, as it ought to be.
Eventually, I hear voices, children and grown-ups, calling out in the darkness for me.
It is sweet music to my ears.
About the author
Joel Varty was born on a farm in Ontario.
He works in Toronto and lives in Cobourg.
He writes during his long train commute to and from work.
How the world ends is his first novel.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Part One
Chapter One – Sunrise
Chapter Two – A Meeting
Chapter Three – Another Meeting
Chapter Four – Rations
Chapter Five – My Family is Safe
Chapter Six – A Day for Death to Reign
Chapter Seven – The Basement of the Church
Chapter Eight – What the End Might Be
Chapter Nine – Getting Home
Chapter Ten – The Fight on the Tracks
Chapter Eleven – Awakening
Chapter Twelve – Finding
Chapter Thirteen – Serving
Chapter Fourteen – Another Way Out
Chapter Fifteen – A Breath of Thunder
Chapter Sixteen – Trees
Chapter Seventeen – The Journey Begins
Chapter Eighteen – With No Direction
Chapter Nineteen – Blood Brothers
Chapter Twenty – The World We’re Living In
Chapter Twenty-One – The Family Farm
Chapter Twenty-Two – Visitations
Chapter Twenty Three – Urgency
Part Two
Chapter One – Darkness
Chapter Two – Voices in the Night, Strangers in the Morning
Chapter Three – The Lighthouse
Chapter Four – The Truth about Evil
Chapter Five – Why They Follow
Chapter Six – Pain of Truth
Chapter Seven – Capture at Dawn
Chapter Eight – Prisoner
Chapter Nine – A Journey into Darkness
Part Three
Chapter One – How the Dream Ends
Chapter Two – The Love of Friends and Children
Chapter Three – The Duty of Angels
Chapter Four – To Kill an Idea
Chapter Five – Jonah is Freed
Chapter Six – The Long Walk Through Fire
Chapter Seven – The End in Ashes
Chapter Eight – The Ones Left Behind
Chapter Nine – To Linger a Little Longer in this Place
About the author