The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire

by Josh A. Murphy

  I almost didn’t believe my eyes at first. Though they had been described to me many times before, my imagination had never been able to create something has hideous as these. Two Fiders, each the size of a car charged at one and other. Much like the dragon, they were coated with thick, rocklike armour – only brown in colour this time. Aesthetically, I couldn’t see a single different between the creatures and a regular spider, the humongous size being the only difference appearance wise. Each of their eight legs moved in perfect synchronisation as the two beasts sped across the woodlands, carefully sidestepping and twisting around trees as they charged for each other. I was relieved to see that they hadn’t spotted us, at least, yet.

  The two creatures continued to let out whaling, high pitched screeches until they clashed. Like an unmovable object hitting an unstoppable force, the impact was deadly. A loud crunch rang out as they collided. Each frantically swing their arm sized pincers at each other, whilst an orange larva like substance spat from their hideous mouths.

  “We don’t have time to watch this, come on, Zachary!” Conrad whispered, already rising to his feet, he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away. We ran for a good twenty minutes before the sounds of the two animals battle faded away. It was another hour before I finally felt at ease again. All the while I had half expected to see the victor of the fight come hunting us. They ran at a ferocious speed, there was no way we could have out run it. Luckily, neither of the Fiders came looking.

  The rest of the journey was relatively uneventful. We camped at night, and during the days we seemed to walk and walk forever, as though we were going around in circles, but Conrad was determined, he knew exactly where we were heading. I had the utmost confidence in him to get us to our destination as quickly as possible.

  Before long, the sounds of gunfire began to appear in the distance. As we came closer and closer to Warrington, the sounds grew louder. It really did sound like we were entering a battleground.

  Finally, after two days of travelling we reached the end of the woods. An old main road was what welcomed us. It was lined with old, rusty cars. Hundreds of vehicles stretched on as far as the eye could see, each terribly burnt with their own human remains inside.

  “An Elder dragon swept across here and fried hundreds of people as they fled the town back during the early days of the Rise.” Conrad explained, as though reading my thoughts.

  I took a deep breath and began to cross the main road, carefully tiptoeing between cars and around debris. Across the road awaited Warrington. I took a deep breath as I scanned the destroyed town. Each building had been nearly burnt down or blown up, it looked like a war zone. It was hard to tell what damage had been caused by a dragon, and what had been caused by the ensuing war.

  “Are you sure you want to enter there?” Conrad asked, stopping just short of the edge of the road. I could by his mannerisms that he wasn’t too keen on heading into Warrington, and after seeing what it looked like first hand, I couldn’t blame him. Yet more death and destruction awaited for me in Warrington, I was sure of this. But that wouldn’t deter me, I had my mission, and every single thing I cared about seemed to rely on it. Finally, we had reached Warrington. That was the first phase of my quest complete. Now I had to find Lynette Kerslake and the second phase could begin.

  I waited for a moment, thinking things through in my mind. An explosion erupted somewhere further into the town.

  “Yes.” I finally replied, taking off walking towards Warrington before Conrad could reply. I was determined to see this through.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I was surprised to find the streets so deserted. We had walked through the town and down numerous streets for ages before eventually decided to stop off in what had once been a pet store. The streets were littered debris of all kinds. Human remains were a frequent thing too – long rotten to nothing more than bones though, so it wasn’t too unnerving.

  “The fighting is taking place in the town centre. That entire area is walled off, it’s where most of the people in Warrington live. I’ll be surprised if we bump into anybody in the outer limits of the town centre, but still, keep your guard up.” Conrad explained as he closed the rusty pet shop door behind us. The room was full of old dusty cages, most of which either busted open or containing animal remains. It was a sad sight, but nothing I couldn’t handle. It looked as though nobody had been inside here for decades.

  “Why did you tell us to stop?” I asked.

  “I left something here on my way out, just in case I ever returned.” He explained, rooting around behind the counter with Lizzie still attached to him. His statement destroyed my assumption that the place had been left untouched for quite a while.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “This.” He simply replied, placing a handmade bomb of some kind down onto to table

  “Why would we be needing that?” I asked, my eyes fixed on the explosive.

  “You never know. It may save our lives in a desperate time.” He smiled, giving it Lizzie to place in their backpack with their other supplies.

  “Do you think you’ll need any more ammo on hand?” Lizzie asked me, feeling around in her backpack for extra ammo clips.

  “I don’t think so.” I said. I had been given three clips for my handgun, which was to be kept at the ready at all times now that we were in Warrington. I really hoped I wouldn’t be needing anymore ammo than that.

  “Alright. We’re ready to go.” Conrad said, heading straight back out into the streets. I let out a sigh and followed him. I didn’t like walking around in the open like this, but for the time being it was our best option. We couldn’t really talk much out there, unless it was absolutely necessary – every sound had the potential to alert hiding thieves, murderers or soldiers to our location. We planned on avoiding those kinds of people for as long as possible, though it was almost a certainty that we would come across a few once we reached the town centre.

  The closer we got to the centre of town, the more our surroundings seemed to become damaged. We were even beginning to stumble across relatively fresh corpses. Men, women and children of all ages were scattered across the streets.

  “This looks like The Saviour of Man has already swept through this area. There used to be quite a few friendly people living in this area, looks like they’re all dead now.” Conrad explained. I couldn’t help but internally laugh at how ironic their name was. The Saviour of Man were the ones doing this to people. Murdering civilians to make Warrington their base of operations, it sickened me.

  “Why is this happening?” I asked, feeling a little more confident about talking now that the sounds of the gun battle only a mile or so away was drowning out most noise.

  “Their leader is a man named Wesley Theon. He’s a selfish, arrogant man according to rumours. They feel they’re capable of destroyed the Dragon population, but feel that to do so, we, the people, must give them anything and everything that they so require. In this case, they wanted Warrington as their base of operations. Of course, the people refused, and now this has happened.”

  “People killing people, its madness. It’s times like this when we need to band together, not pull apart.” Lizzie sighed from over Conrad’s shoulder.

  “That used to be an old sports stadium.” Conrad said as he turned onto a main road. Now all that remained was a large pile of rubble. I Saw the words ‘Halliwell Jones Stadium’ written on an old banner, but I didn’t have a clue what that meant. But it was what I saw ahead of the remnants of the stadium that really caught my attention.

  A large patrol of men, some thirty or forty people long, even from this range I could see that they were all armed to the teeth.

  “Fuck.” Conrad muttered, pulling me off of the road.

  “Which side do they belong to?” I frantically asked.

  “I don’t plan on finding out.” Conrad said, trying to open the door to a house. It was locked. He took a deep breath before charging at it, shoulder first. The door splintered into pi
eces as he burst inside.

  “Hurry up!” He whispered as he disappeared inside. I didn’t need to be told twice, almost sprinting into the small terrace. The interior was dark and desolate, the wall paper had long been ripped from the walls and pretty much everything inside had been coated with dust.

  “Here, lie down in here.” Conrad hastily whispered, ushering me into the front room. He had already placed Lizzie down on the floor – I quickly lay down beside her whilst Conrad crouched up to the dirty windows to keep an eye on the squad.

  “Are they definitely heading in our direction?” I dared to whisper. Conrad didn’t reply, instead he continued on staring out the cloudy, dank window.

  “They’re close, don’t say a fucking word.” He said, lying down.

  We lay in silence for a few minutes before the sounds of footsteps and conversation drifted from outside. All I could do was lay there, gun in hand and hope that they passed. The patrol didn’t seem to be in any rush, it was a good five minutes before their mumbled voices disappeared.

  “Right… I think they’re…” Conrad began to whisper before a voice shattered the silence of the house.

  “Don’t fucking move!” A deep, powerful voice bellowed out from the hallway. Everyone shot their heads to the door; where three men stood, all with their guns trained on us.

  “Throw your guns to the ground.” The same voice commanded. I looked to Conrad, reluctantly he threw his rifle down. I gritted my teeth, before doing the same.

  “Just who are you guys, Saviour of men?” One of them asked.

  “They are, we should shoot them! Then bring their scalps back to Lynette.” The youngest one said, the last of the three to speak.

  “Wait!” Conrad pleaded, raising his hands in the air.

  “What?”

  “Lynette Kerslake?” He asked.

  “Yes, what is it to you?” The oldest of the trio asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I know her. She’s my friend, please, take us to her!” He said. The three men exchanged glanced between one and another before the oldest nodded.

  “Carl, send word to Lynette that we have someone who wishes to see her, and be quick about it.”

  “Yes dad.” The younger one said, before disappearing.

  “It’s a good job you got me in a good mood.” Carl’s dad, the apparent leader of the trio smiled.

  For a good twenty minutes we remained completely silent, being held a gun point by the pair. From how they looked, I could only assume that the other boy was Carl’s brother, and also the older man’s son. It made me think about my father and my brothers, filling me with a great sadness.

  “So, how did you find us?” Conrad asked, almost laughing; his voice sounding considerably less nervous than it had done before.

  “We made sure that all of the houses in this area had locked doors. That way we would know if any had been broken into.” The older one explained.

  “Pretty smart.” Conrad said, feeling rather stupid. And that was that, the conversation ended there.

  We remained in silence for another five minutes before Carl eventually returned, red and sweaty.

  “She’s here now, I described them to her, she seems to think she knows them.” He said through gasps for air. He leant against the wall and wiped a torrent of sweat away from his forehead.

  “I guess that’s good news for you guys.” Carl’s father said, with a sigh. It was almost as though the guy was disappointed that he didn’t get to kill us on the spot.

  “She also said she wishes to see them alone.” Carl added.

  Reluctantly, Carl’s brother and father left us alone in the room, not before taking our weapons though. A moment later, Lynette appeared at the door frame.

  “Conrad Logan.” She almost laughed when she spotted him.

  “Lynette Kerslake.” He replied, smiling himself.

  “What brings you back to Warrington?” She questioned, still standing in the doorway.

  “The boy.” He said, nodding in my direction. Lynette raised eyebrow in suspicion as she looked me up and down.

  “May we stand?” Conrad eventually asked, Lynette nodded as she entered the living room and closed the hallway door behind her.

  Conrad quickly placed Lizzie on an old, dusty chair before sitting beside her. I stood to my feet and sat on the arm of the chair with them.

  “What’s so special about this boy? Only less than week ago you were determined to start a new life, elsewhere.”

  “Let’s just say that he has something in his possession that may lead us to that very life.” Conrad said, wishing to remain vague. It was clear that he knew this woman very well, well enough not to be intimidated by her, despite her apparent power over the people in Warrington. From how things were going, it almost seemed as though she was some kind of leader, despite the fact that I had been told by multiple people that Warrington had always been void of any authority figures.

  “And that is?”

  “Important, is what it is. Something tells me your circumstances have changed considerably, too.” He said, dodging her question. I was quite grateful of that – I didn’t wish any more people than necessary to know that I have a dragon’s egg in my possession.

  “You’re quite right. Saviour of Man are crushing us. They’ve murdered so many people here in Warrington – it became evidently clear that we needed to band together if we were going to repel their attacks. So, I was elected as leader. We don’t have a name or anything, but people look to me for orders and such. We’ve banded as many people as we could in the town centre to count our forces and determine what our best course of action is. Of course, there’s still a few lone wolves about, and most people still have their own interests at heart, but things are a little more, stable.”

  “Congratulations on your new position, and I wish you the best of luck in defending the town and your people.” Conrad said. There was something about their tones which made me feel a little uneasy, as though they had some kind of a history together. I shot Lizzie a look, which she returned, looking just as uncomfortable as I did.

  “Thank you. Now you tell me, what exactly has led you to Warrington?”

  “The boy is looking for some family. He believes they may have headed to The Church of Fire. We need directions to them.”

  “And you think I’ll give you directions?” Lynette almost laughed.

  “Well, yes.”

  “I guess I could. But I’m not just going to offer it up. When they excommunicated me from The Church of Fire, they made me swear never to give up their location.” She smirked, before falling deadly serious again.

  “Well what will it cost to get that kind of information?” Conrad reluctantly asked.

  “You’re the best damn soldier I’ve ever had the chance to fight alongside. We’re launching an attack on a Saviour of Man camp tomorrow. If you take part, I will give you the directions to Church of Fire. Deal?”

  For a few moments Conrad remained silent, staring off into space. She was asking a lot, and from the look on her face, she knew that too. But really, she had him by the balls. She didn’t look like the kind of person who would roll over and submit. She didn’t need to give us that information, but we needed it – she knew that.

  “Let us sleep on it.” Conrad eventually replied.

  “Of course. I’ll have someone escort the three of you to a vacant house later. But be warned, Warrington still isn’t safe. Not only are we open to attacks from Saviour of Man, but there’s also a few questionable characters lingering around. We’re doing our best to weed these out, but it’s hard.” She explained.

  “I may have left Warrington, but I haven’t forgotten what it’s like. Don’t worry Lynette, I won’t be letting my guard down around a single person out here.”

  “I’ll have someone ready a house, but in the mean time you’re more than welcome to come with me to our headquarters and discuss things in better comfort?”

  “Very well.” Conrad said, before rising to his
feet.

  “I’ll have my men give you your weapons back.” Lynette said, also rising before quickly making her way out of the room.

  Conrad looked to me and Lizzie, before he let out a sigh.

  “Not a word.” He snapped to Lizzie, just as she began to open her mouth to protest about the deal.

  “We’ll discuss what we’re going to do tonight.” He added, before picking up Lizzie and carrying her out of the room.

  Upon leaving the house we were given our weapons back and lead into the heart of Warrington. We shortly reached a large, wooden wall some ten feet tall. Armed guards were positioned atop, some wielding old, rusty weapons, others wielding bows. Whilst several stakes and spears were protruding from the ground in front, each with a severed head impaled on top, it was a scare tactic, and it sure as well worked. Every single one of the guards looked dirty and tattered with hardly a single bit of meat on them. They each had a fearful combination of sadness, and fear in their eyes. I had known that poverty ripe in the Charred Lands, but it was hard to stomach it first-hand. I couldn’t help but feel guilty that I had spent the majority of my life tucked away behind the save walls of Haven, with regular guaranteed meals and relatively clean clothes on my back. It was a stark contrast to the people of Warrington. They were real survivors.

  With a simple nod of the head from Lynette the gates were swung open and we were invited inside. I immediately felt uneasy. I felt as though all eyes were on us, and me in particular. I was a new face in an unwelcoming town. With my relatively well kept clothes and a certain innocent, I stuck out like a sore thumb. To them, I looked like an easy target. I liked to think that I would prove them wrong, but truth be told, that’s exactly what I was.

  It was beaming with activity, never in my life had I seen so many people all at once. Everywhere I looked people busied themselves transporting supplies from one place to another, or frantically worked away on building fortifications and defences. The people here were getting ready for something big. I didn’t really want to be a part of it – I had no loyalties or allegiances to this place or its people. I didn’t know if it made me a coward, or heartless, but I didn’t want to spill my blood for things that I didn’t care about. I planned on doing my best to talk Conrad out of taking part in the attack tomorrow.