by Joe Sniezek
They entered the reeds again to reclaim their boat, but as they approached its resting place, they saw that it was missing. Eniyan was sure of where he left the boat, but memories can play tricks and boats can float away. They looked out over the water’s edge. There was no sign of the boat up or downstream. There were no signs of tracks in the mud nearby, not even their own.
“The decision has been made for us,” Eniyan proclaimed, “We are walking into town.” Instead of heading back to the road, they followed a narrow path along the water. It was not nearly as pleasant as the road. The ground was mucky and wet and smelled of the stagnant river. There were clouds of little bugs flying all around, getting into their mouths, nose, ears, and eyes. Wilfer bore his discomfort stoically. Eniyan seemed not to notice at all. If Zumi was irritated, she didn’t say so; they only sign of her discomfort was her mouth set in a firm line. Wilfer found himself swatting away the bugs more often than the other two.
After a short while, they reached the wooden dock at the edge of town. Eniyan pointed to the way by the river’s edge and headed the few blocks back to his house. Their abundance of caution seemed to be wasted because nobody was there. They slipped into Eniyan’s house, straightened whatever furniture was overturned and thudded down with weariness from the long journey.
Five
“Do we just wait here for someone to come?” Wilfer asked. “What if they don’t come? What if they do? Help me think of a plan. I don’t know what to do now.”
“It’s not too late to go back to San La,” Zumi said, brightly.
“Waiting here is the most obvious thing to do – for a while, at least,” Eniyan said as Zumi deflated, “But it doesn’t matter in the end.”
“How can it not matter? Seems like it matters a great deal, to me,” Wilfer objected.
“That’s what I want to teach you. But just telling you will never convince you. I’ll have to show you as we go along,” Eniyan raised a finger with a smiled.
Wilfer decided to ignore Eniyan. He shook his head to clear it and said, “Maybe we should split up but still stay close. I’ll take the house next door, and Zumi can take the one across the street. That way, we’re here for when we’re needed, but they can’t trap us all together.”
“Well, I was hoping to talk more with you about the nature of things, but I guess you do have a good plan. Let’s do it,” Eniyan said.
“It’s ok, I can pick up the trick to avoiding decisions on my own, I think,” Wilfer said with a sarcastic smile.
Walking down the street to their respective houses, Zumi skipped to catch up to Wilfer. She hooked his arm with hers and said, “I’ll go with you.”
“We’re supposed to split up,” Wilfer argued with little conviction.
“We are splitting up and I’m also going with you,” Zumi said.
They entered the designated house and again saw a thick layer of dust over everything. This dwelling obviously hadn’t been entered in a very long time – by people at least, the spiders and other pests seemed to come and go as they pleased. In an attempt to give it the minimum level of habitability, Wilfer grabbed a burlap blanket from the cot in the corner and used it to wipe off the table and chairs. He gave the blanket a shake and caused a large cloud of dust to rain filth down onto the floor and fill the air with dust. Zumi and Wilfer both coughed uncontrollably. After gaining control over her breath, Zumi said, “Let’s do that outside next time, okay?” She grabbed the blanket to bring it out the door and shake it off in the street. But Wilfer, not letting go of the blanket, stopped her.
“Wait,” he said, “They might see the dust or our footprints in it.” He gently shook the blanket out in the fireplace. They held their breath as best as they could, but neither the breath holding nor the blanket shaking did very much.
“That’s not really working, let’s just leave it,” Zumi pointed out, “The good thing about this is that the thick layer of dust on the windows will keep us hidden. Nobody’s going to see through them.”
With nothing better to do, they sat down and relaxed. Zumi sat down very close to him. She always seemed to be in contact with Wilfer. Some part of her body was always touching some part of his body, even if it was just a foot or knee.
Zumi began a conversation to help pass the time. “So how do you know that old guy, anyway?” she asked.
“I literally bumped into him after I woke up here,” he said, “I told you that.”
“You didn’t know him at all before that? What if he has something to do with it?” she asked, her eyes going wide as she was struck by that revelation.
“No way. He may be old and a little bit crazy, but he’s a good guy. I can tell,” Wilfer defended the peculiar man against her implications.
“Yeah. Crazy, and I think homeless,” she agreed. “He may be ok, but is he helping? What if we were better off without him? He’s just sort of going along with things, not doing much of anything. How about if he waits here in case somebody comes, and we go and have a look around.”
Wilfer was unsure; the girl could be very persuasive, sometimes. “How about… At first light, we go exploring. I doubt I’d be able to stay locked up here for another day anyway.” He didn’t like changing plans, but Eniyan himself said it didn’t matter, right?
∞∞∞
They slipped out of the house and crept around town. At first, they were careful. But as it became apparent that the town was truly empty, they grew playful. Their cautious reconnaissance transformed into a game of hide and seek.
The two were frolicking at one edge of town, giggling, tossing pebbles, hiding and chasing each other. They abruptly stopped the games when they heard a mechanical clicking, grinding, and scraping sound from around the corner. Wilfer, having grown complacent, strolled boldly up the alley onto the street. He expected to see something like a shutter blowing in the wind or a pile of leaves caught in a tiny tempest. Instead, he saw a cloaked figure with arms outstretched, walking – almost hovering – slowly rounding the corner up the street. Its head swept side to side as it went. Its eyes were reflective like that of a cat; if Wilfer hadn’t kept a tight lid on his imagination, he would have said they were actually glowing green.
It turned towards Wilfer. At the last possible moment, he threw himself back into the alleyway, falling to the ground. He quickly got back up and grabbed Zumi by the arm, pushing her into a run while he whispered fiercely, “Go! Go! Something is coming.”
Together, they ran down another alley into a recessed doorway. Wilfer gently eased open the dried and decayed wood door. They slipped in and hid, peered out the window, and prayed they were safe. As they did so, the strange demonic figure passed near, but not directly in front of their temporary sanctuary. It appeared to be sweeping the town in a grid pattern, rather than pursuing them. Wilfer found that encouraging because it meant they had not been spotted, or maybe were of no concern to the thing at all.
Wilfer had to know what he was dealing with, so he devised a plan to test the limitations of the strange creature. He did not think it was fully aware of its surroundings. First, he wanted to test its hearing, peripheral vision, and reflexes. Yes, it moved slowly and methodically, but what if it was loaded like a spring trap?
His first idea was a little rock fall. He balanced a rock on a twig and hoped to have Zumi shoot it with a bolt from her crossbow just as the demon was passing.
“I can’t make a shot like that,” Zumi looked at him from the corner of her eye and she tucked the crossbow away into her bag to discourage its use.
“Hmm, something a little easier then. This place is pretty run down, let’s make it look like it happened naturally. We can loosen a brick and pull a string to knock it loose as that thing passes by. We’ll see how it reacts to that first,” Wilfer brainstormed.
They spent the next while preparing. Zumi unwound a thread from some extra burlap they found. Wilfer loosened a brick from the top of a building. It came loose much easier than Wilfer expected. Maybe these buildings weren�
��t as safe as they thought. They laid the string around the corner of the building and tied it to a twig that was propping up the brick. When the string was pulled, the brick would fall and they would reel the twine back in, leaving no trace.
They waited for a very long time. The demon was in no rush to find them. Wilfer’s cramping legs were eating away at his patience. Fortunately, the creature did pass by, at last. At exactly the right time, they pulled the twine and the brick clattered to the ground beside the demon. The creature did not react at all. It did not pause, turn, or give any other indication that it had noticed.
This meant that the demon had no peripheral vision, nor could it hear. Well, this would be easier than Wilfer thought. They could walk right up behind this creature and remain safe.
Zumi pointed out that in all the time they spent watching the creature, it followed a predictable pattern. They never saw it turn around suddenly or stop. It only walked straight forward while looking left and right. At an intersection, it first paused, then turned left or right at a ninety-degree angle. Nothing else.
Wilfer realized they could risk getting much closer to look at the thing. But before they did that, it was probably best to see what Eniyan thought of the whole thing.
∞∞∞
They softly knocked on Eniyan’s door. Surprised to see them, he said, “What are you doing here? Did you find something?”
Wilfer thought it t looked like Eniyan had been napping in a chair. “Yes. Perhaps we should show you. Can you follow us?” They brought Eniyan to a building they knew would soon be in the demon’s path.
“What in the abyss is that thing?” Eniyan asked, not taking his eyes off the creature.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Wilfer said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean it, I have no idea what to make of it. It’s not from anywhere even remotely close to here. What did you get yourself into, boy?”
Wilfer shrugged. Eniyan scratched his beard for a moment and said, “So it can’t hear and doesn’t turn around very well? I wonder if it is even alive, or once was.”
“We were planning on trying to catch it. What do you think?” Wilfer asked.
“I think,” Eniyan said after some careful thought, “that it will do something unpredictable, and probably dangerous.”
“We haven’t actually touched it yet,” Zumi nodded.
“We can wall it in to keep it out of our way, but that won’t tell us anything. I want to examine it,” Wilfer said.
Eniyan had little to add, so Wilfer just continued telling them his plan. “I want to drop a net over it, and then we can hold it in place while we get closer and poke at it. We will see what it’s all about. We can hold it there for as long as that takes,” Wilfer explained.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Eniyan warned.
“Let’s get started,” Zumi said cheerfully, as she grabbed all the burlap in the vicinity and began separating the threads and weaving them into ropes.
The three of them working together were able to build a loose net that was big and strong enough to capture the demon. They stretched it above the alleyway between the eaves of two opposite buildings. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong street, and the demon did not head in their general direction. It was doing its sweep in another corner of the city.
“What if it doesn’t ever come this way?” Zumi asked.
“Well, we can move the trap, but I don’t want to do that yet,” Wilfer replied.
“How long are we supposed to wait?” Zumi asked.
“Go and see where it is now and if you can tell where it will go next. We’ll need time to move the trap,” Wilfer said.
After she left, Eniyan raised an eyebrow at Wilfer and said, “We’re not in any hurry, are we? If we catch it now or in a few hours, does it really matter?”
“I suppose not, but the longer we’re focused on this, the more chance something else might happen while we’re not paying attention,” Wilfer said.
“Things go at their own pace,” Eniyan said with a shrug. “Don’t let anybody push you around.”
“She’s not…” Wilfer began just as Zumi slipped back in the door.
“It’s coming this way. Get ready,” Zumi said with a wink at Wilfer.
They got into position and the demon passed underneath the netting, seemingly unaware. It did not have the ability to look up. They dropped the net on it and each person hauled on their respective rope. The net cinched tight around the creature. It strained against the ropes for a moment, then fell over and laid still.
Exchanging puzzled glances, the three friends walked slowly over to the creature. Zumi tossed a pebble at it. As he got within striking distance, Wilfer stretched out his staff and gave it a poke. Again there was no reaction. Wilfer stood over it and pulled back its hood to get a glimpse of its face. The moment Wilfer entered its line of sight, the creature opened its mouth and began screaming. It was a horrible, deafening wail that knocked the three back. They immediately clapped their hands over their ears, but the volume was so loud that it penetrated the very flesh and bones of their hands.
The skull-splitting screech made Wilfer dizzy and stars swam in his vision as the lights of the World dimmed.
∞∞∞
Wilfer found himself opening his eyes as he laid on his back on the ground. He had been awoken by a hand gently shaking his shoulder. He looked up to see one of the small, shy potato-skinned creatures hovering over him. When it saw Wilfer’s eyes open, it patted him on the shoulder, smiled, and waddled away.
The terrible wailing continued. Wilfer had only a single thought in his mind; he had to shut the creature up. So with great effort, he pushed himself to his feet. With shaky steps, he headed out in search of something, anything that could help. Behind a rain barrel, he saw a stump. On top of that stump, an old rust ax rested. Certainly, it was not sharp and the handle was cracked and splintered, but Wilfer hoped that it would be enough to kill the demon.
By the time he returned, he saw that Zumi and Eniyan had regained consciousness. Zumi was slowly pulling herself back to her feet, while Eniyan was already standing over the creature stomping its head as hard as he could in order to silence it. It had little effect.
Wilfer swung his ax and cleanly severed the demon’s head. It separated and rolled away from the now limp body. However, the wailing continued. Eniyan had not yet stopped his stomping. Wilfer swung his ax again. He made a deep rough gash in the creatures face. The force of the blow shattered the old handle of the ax. Eniyan picked up the loose ax head and used it as a hammer to crush the creature’s head. After more than half a dozen blows, the creature ceased making its infernal noise. Each blow caused the wail to sound more ragged until finally, it stopped, and the light faded from the creature’s eyes.
The head had been reduced to a pile of metal bits, ceramic splinters, and wax. Exhausted, disoriented, and in pain, the three of them could only look at each other in horror. Zumi slid her back down the wall she was leaning against. She rested her forehead on her knees and began sobbing. Wilfer rushed to her side and placed his arm across her shoulders and weakly said, “It will be okay.”
Eniyan was still examining the creature. He had removed its robes and Wilfer now saw that it was some kind of doll or mannequin. It was made of ceramic and a wax-like substance. He noticed that it had hundreds of very thin pipes running down its lengths. The doll was dirty and in poor shape. Wilfer thought it looked very old, but he was not certain what he was looking at, exactly. The ceramic could have been bone. The wax could have been mummified flesh. Nevertheless, Wilfer’s first instinct was that it was merely a doll.
Eniyan looked up at Wilfer after he had finished his examination and said, “I think it did exactly what it was supposed to do. It was meant to find us and sound an alarm. Unfortunately, it did that exceedingly well.”
Wilfer looked at Eniyan in dismay. “They are coming now, aren’t they?”
Eniyan said, “I’m afraid so.”
By now, Zumi had recovered. She raised her head and looked at the two men and said, “We could go back to San La,” and smiled weakly.
“Yeah. We’ve got to go,” Wilfer agreed.
“Really?” Zumi asked, her excitement growing.
“Somewhere at least,” Eniyan said, “We can’t very well stay here. Grab anything and everything we need and let’s get out of here. Time has just run out.”
“What should we do with this stupid thing?” Wilfer asked as he nudged the mannequin with his toe.
The old man shrugged. “Leave it,” he said as they rose to their feet, steadied themselves, and headed back to Eniyan’s house.
Six
Hastening back to Eniyan’s home, Wilfer couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Someone was after him. It was obvious that all of this was no mere coincidence. The amnesia, waking up in a strange place, the pounding knock on Eniyan’s door, the new restrictions at the San La gateway, and finally this spying automaton; all this had to be connected somehow. And what about Zumi’s insistence on dragging them to San La? How did that fit the puzzle?
Remaining purely reactionary and always just going along with things was how people got killed. He needed a little more information – something concrete, something he could sink his teeth into. Wilfer decided that the time for answers was right now.
They had walked a few blocks when he stopped dead in his tracks and said, “Alright stop. Before we do anything else, I am getting some answers.”
“We all want answers,” Eniyan said over his shoulder but kept walking.
“You go on without me, but I’m not taking another single step with you until we figure this out,” Wilfer proclaimed.
Zumi looked at him with eyes filled with surprise and apprehension. Eniyan stopped and slowly turned around with a sigh. “Tell me what’s on your mind, Wilfer.”
“Someone is coming for me. Not us, just me,” he said with a hard stare at Eniyan. “What do you say to that?”