by Sam J Fires
“We come from a place called an FF commune. Our compound was abandoned after a Z strain attack years ago, but with enough people we could get it up and running again. Think about it, a secure, self-sustaining fortress built to last. How many of you are here? One hundred? Two hundred? The compound could comfortably house just over three hundred people indefinitely.”
“Cut him down!” she’d screamed.
The crowd seemed shocked as a silence settled over the children. “I said cut him down now!” she howled again, and two other children leapt to my side to cut me free.
The blonde strolled off down a narrow corridor leading out of the arena and motioned with her hand for me to follow. I followed her down a dimly lit corridor to a tiny little room in which she struck a match and lit a few candles.
The cell-like room was sparsely furnished. There was an old mattress and a single bedside pedestal where the lit candle was placed. She motioned for me to have a seat on a paint can as she lowered herself to the mattress.
“Tell me more about this commune place of yours.”
Chapter 4
THE POWER OF ‘ETCH A SKETCH’
T onight, not a single child can be seen across the border town. Most of them have made their way to the outskirts of town and are maintaining a very low profile.
Mosh, for her part, has arranged to deliver payment to the Heap Lord this evening, a few days earlier than usual. A boy named Zaf and I accompany her in disguise, wearing niqabs. It isn’t unusual for Mosh to drop off the payments early, nor is it unusual for her to be accompanied in the process.
The heap has four walls. Four of Mosh’s most trusted children will scale each wall along its length and hide until the moment is right. Mosh knows that once they extract Olly, the Heap Lords will pursue them and the only way to buy time is to create the biggest confusion ever seen by the border town.
Once we are inside, Zaf splits away from me and Mosh. His job is to place a bomb on the opposite side of the building from where Olly is being held.
I had made the bomb. In the old world it might have been ridiculous to think of a child making a bomb, but in this world, though rare, it isn’t particularly exceptional.
Olly taught me how to do this from the most ordinary of items and the children proved quite resourceful in obtaining them. As with everything else - they have their ways.
Zaf has made it to the opposite end of the building at the centre of the heap without incident and he places and arms the bomb. He has been especially selected for this task because of his familiarity with the heap. He has been one of the more sought -after consorts at the heap.
All is going smoothly, but on the other side of the heap a senior heap shark turned Minor Lord has noticed me. As Mosh and I begin heading toward the area where Olly is situated, we happen upon the Minor Lord who is the very same shark that commanded the troops the evening I escaped and abandoned Olly.
That night he barked orders in shark tongue and stared menacingly into my eyes. That night he saw my face clearly and being the senior shark, the image of my face is burnt into his memory forever. All sharks are trained to remember a face to the minutest detail, even after only one viewing. As he recognizes me, the older shark begins to descend with a surprising deftness. He is so consumed with capturing me that he doesn’t pay any notice to the blonde girl he has seen at the heap many times before. As he passes Mosh, intent on throttling me, she simply sticks her leg out and he comes crashing down headfirst.
Mosh and I break into a run in the direction of Olly’s cell. Not long after we begin our dash, an alarm begins to sound. It’s at this point where we run into the quartet of sharks which Mosh had so easily dispatched earlier. But then suddenly we are all distracted by a deafeningly loud explosion as the bomb planted by Zaf explodes.
Undeterred, Mosh and I begin to dash towards where Olly is kept again. As we round the corner of the corridor, we run smack into the second unit of sharks. Mosh leaps onto the nearest shark, wrapping her legs around his head and twisting her body, using her full momentum to knock him to the floor. As he hits the ground, she puts him in a head lock and begins to pull until something pops and the shark screams.
At this moment I light the makeshift torch made of a steel rod with a cloth wrapped at its top. I wave it violently at the three sharks who freeze at the sight of the blazing fire. I grab an aerosol can acquired by the children for me and point its nozzle at the top of the flaming stick. I press the nozzle which fires a jet of its contents at the flame, turning the torch into a flamethrower.
The sharks turn and run in terror from the flames. Mosh stands up again, the older shark at her feet writhing in pain with a dislocated shoulder. We look at each other for a second, then continue our raid. At the very end of the corridor on the right is a heavy wooden door, bolted tightly.
I remove a bag of thermite I have in my pocket. It’s something that Olly has been collecting for years whenever he found toys called “Etch a Sketch”. Olly told me that the powder in the “Etch a Sketch” would one day come in handy. In preparation for this evening’s events, I mixed the thermite with iron oxide and aluminium powder that the children of the border had retrieved for me. At times I believe that there is nothing these kids can’t get. Olly claimed to have learnt how to make this concoction of thermite, iron and aluminium from the old man we had lived with for a while, who in turn had claimed to have seen it on an old TV show a long time ago.
The bag of thermite is placed on the door lock so that it straddles both the heavy bolt and the door handle. I light it and the thermite burns brilliantly through the handle and bolt. Mosh kicks the door open and we see an emaciated figure standing behind it. For a moment I hardly recognize my brother.
Chapter 5
OLLY’S NIGHTMARE
I n the weeks since my capture, while Israel thrived as a robber and prostitute impersonator in the adjacent border city, things had not gone too well for me.
At first, I had been made a plaything for the Heap Lord himself. The Heap Lord used and abused me with a twinkle in his eyes on many occasions. But I’m not easily broken like that. I fought the Heap Lord every single time with everything I had, kicking, writhing, screaming, rocking. But no matter how hard I fought, he always came back for more.
It was as though he was trying to exact his vengeance upon me for every poacher who had ever dared to raid his heap. But I fought all the same, each and every time.
One day the Heap Lord and I were locked in one such intense power struggle that I was sure that he was going to kill me. In the course of the struggle I had rocked back and forth violently while the Heap Lord had been holding me in a bear hug from behind. The back of my skull struck the ridge of the Heap Lord's nose and he let out a yelp not unlike the one I had let out the day I had been caught.
The Heap Lord immediately released me from the bear hug and raised his hands to his face to clench his bleeding nose. He then made a run for the door and was almost unable to open it as blood dripped down from his nose onto his robes, his hands and the floor. I was stunned. Eventually the Heap Lord was able to open the heavy door but lacked the presence of mind to close it behind him.
I slipped out after him and began slowly walking the corridors of the building which stood at the centre of the heap. The building was not particularly large nor difficult to navigate but that was part of the problem. I had absolutely no cover in the building so getting out would be a matter of luck alone. I picked up my pace and rounded a corner which led to a flight of stairs. I descended the stairs quickly and turned into a corridor and proceeded along it until I heard a troop of sharks walking toward me from beyond the corner. I managed to hide within the arch of a doorway as the sharks rather nonchalantly marched on by.
I continued this great escape until I reached one of the doors leading to the outside world. I exited the door which, to my surprise, was not guarded. Outside, I saw the heap. If I could just make it to the actual heap, then I would be alright. I could hide there
for days without the sharks being able to find me and would be able to steal water and food from them until I was ready to escape.
I watched the sharks complete their rounds, so focussed on the heap that they didn’t even notice me and then, at just the right moment, I began my dash toward the heap, towards cover.
As I ran, my heart thumped crazily in my chest. I was almost there. The heap was within reach when a piercing pain ripped through my side and my legs lifted off of the ground.
A head shark had charged at me with his hard shoulder. The rugby tackle caught me at full pace and catapulted me into flight. Like a projectile, my flying body drew an arc in the air before I slammed to the ground.
I gasped for breath as I heard the shark barking out orders. Some other sharks came to restrain me and then escorted me back to the room. Little did I know that the shark who had tackled me to the ground, the only shark who had noticed me, was one of the first, a Minor Lord now who still patrolled like a regular heap shark. The very shark who had stared me down on the night I escaped, and he had longed for his vengeance with more zeal than the Heap Lord ever could.
Some said of this shark that he had caught the madness strain of the plague which the FF communes had released onto the world, but that was untrue. His madness was more personal, more particular to him. From that day it was not the Heap Lord who visited me every evening but this shark. Unlike the Heap Lord, this shark had no sexual interest in me, but instead wanted to break me down piece by piece. He would beat me. He burnt my skin with hot pieces of metal. He had the sharks hold a towel over my face while he poured water on it, causing me to feel as if I was drowning.
Often while I was being tortured, I noticed a hard bulge in this shark's pants. I doubted he wanted sex from me. For this shark, I surmised, it was all about the power.
This merciless torture carried on week after week, but I was still not broken.
Then tonight, I heard a commotion outside the room. A blaring of an alarm within the compound and a loud bang which sounded like a bomb. As with all loud bangs, the sound causes me to recoil in panic, but that feeling quickly went away and I wonder what’s happening outside and how to use it to my benefit.
Something is burning and then I see the lock and bolt of the door collapse. The door swings open and there stands a figure holding a torch.
I hardly recognize my brother.
Chapter 6
SHARK’S REVENGE
T he three of us make our way to a flight of stairs. The building is in chaos since my makeshift bomb exploded. The bomb had a dual purpose, both to create confusion and to signal to the children posted at each wall to begin to ready their Molotov cocktails for action.
The children at the outskirts of the border town also heard the bomb, as did all the town. Olly needs my support as we make our way to the exit of the building. Along the way a couple of sharks attempt to intersect our path and bring our escape to an untimely end but Mosh dispatches them effortlessly.
Mosh is a prodigy of the pits and fighting is second nature to her. As is protecting others. Olly has never seen anyone fight the way Mosh does and asks if she has been raised by assassins. He’s heard of assassins fighting with such sophisticated techniques but never seen it before and he’s astonished by her fighting prowess.
The first shark who has the bravery to try and stop us amidst the confusion makes the mistake of grabbing Mosh by the wrist. Mosh strikes his throat with her knuckles before rotating her wrist and yanking her hand free. She then strikes him with a knee in the solar plexus. It’s a fluid, powerful movement, this time without lifting her victim off the ground. He bends forward under the force of her knee and she slides horizontally across his back, grabbing his arm and flipping him over. She holds him there for only a few seconds before he passes out.
“What the hell was that?!” Olly cries out in surprise.
Mosh stands up and shrugs and we continued our run. Mosh takes the torch from me in case there are any additional obstacles. There is one, another shark who is struck with a flaming torch on his head almost as quickly as he got the bright idea to try to stop us.
We’ve made it outside but we’re immediately spotted by the sharks, who begin charging at us. Mosh begins to ululate loudly and Olly is startled by the sudden whaling. The children stationed atop the wall hear Mosh’s whaling and begin to make the same eerie sounds. This lets the others stationed at the other walls know exactly where Mosh is and that the second phase of the plan is on.
The children on top of the wall all stand up and began lighting their Molotov cocktails and launching them at the sharks. The flaming cocktails rain down upon the sharks, providing us with the perfect cover to dash for the wall.
En route some sharks have managed to maintain their wits and they try to stop us. Where Olly and I avoid their tackles with a sidestep here and there, Mosh drop kicks the odd shark or two in the chest. She leaps up and kicks out both legs directly into any shark who comes at her and even though falling to the ground slows her, she never misses the opportunity to inflict pain on a shark.
Those who come at her from other angles are deftly struck by the torch she carries. She is even able to strike at some sharks who have designs on me and Olly, striking them well before they reach us.
With more confusion, with every shark she wounds or scares, she knows she adds to the chaos and increases the chances of survival of every child she’s protecting.
We reach the wall comfortably and a rope is dropped from the top. Olly takes hold of the rope and two of the children on top of the wall begin to haul him up as his emaciated figure slowly climbs the wall. Olly makes it to the top. Mosh and I look each other in the eye with a congratulatory air but then hear a boy screaming in the background.
We turn to look back into the heaps and there stands the sadistic old heap shark who had tortured Olly and stared down at me the night I escaped. He is holding Zaf by the shoulder tightly and looks directly at Mosh and me.
The shark yells out something in gibberish which is presumably shark tongue and then reveals a large machete in his free hand. He looks Mosh square in the eyes and slits Zaf’s young, innocent jugular vein.
Blood spurts out violently, its crimson red gushing out. The shark lets go of Zaf’s body and it drops to the floor, twitching as the life pours out of him.
Mosh screams loudly and drops to her knees, tears flowing from her eyes. She had known Zaf from the fighting pits. He had been one of the children who had been with her from the beginning and to see him slaughtered like that brings a cold, empty vibration from deep in her stomach throughout her body as she sits and sobs.
The sadistic shark remains where he is, taunting us, slamming the fist of his free hand against his chest and screaming out in shark tongue. Mosh stands up slowly and turns to me.
“Take the kids and go. I will find you.”
“Mosh, don’t. It’s a trap. He’s just baiting you.”
She laughs maniacally. “I know, but that’s his mistake, not mine.”
I try to reason with her once more. “Mosh, you have nothing to gain from this. The children need you…”
Mosh raises her hand to silence me. “If anyone deserves to die here tonight, it’s this son of a bitch.”
Chapter 7
ONLY THE BRAVE DIE YOUNG
M osh asks me whether I have more paraffin for the makeshift torch. I do and the torch is lit again. She looks at the children on top of the wall and gestures for them to take Olly and make their way to the outskirts of the town. The children understand immediately and begin to ululate in unison again. This signals to the children at the other walls to stop the attack and descend the walls to make their way to the outskirts.
The heap is engulfed in flames and the inhabitants of the border city beyond have gathered outside its walls, wondering what has transpired. Olly and the children descend the wall speedily and they all make their way through the crowds toward the outskirts to meet up with the other children.
&n
bsp; Mosh demands that I leave too, but I refuse until she inevitably gives in and agrees to let me wait for her. I slowly make my way to the top of the heap wall from where I can survey the landscape of the burning heap. It is pure, unadulterated chaos. The sharks are in a panic, running all over the place. Heap Lords can be seen cowering like the cowards they are. The fire grows with each moment.
“Nice,” I say to myself as it all burns down to the ground. In the distance, at the outskirts, all the children can make out is a bright red orange flower glowing and dancing on the horizon.
In her hands, Mosh holds a torch which burns as bright red and orange as the horizon. But I can see in her eyes a cold fury which burns in a different way. She is about to annihilate the perverse Shark Lord.
She runs towards him, roaring loudly into the night as she charges. For the first time in years the Shark Lord surely must feel a pang of terror. A moment before she reaches him, she feints to the left and then the right again before jabbing her torch like a sword of fire directly at his head. The Shark Lord is able to evade her sword of fire, stepping out of her path and swinging his machete at her torch. His machete hits out hard, but she absorbs the blow well by continuing to move with the motion of his strike.
The Shark Lord turns on the balls of his feet to keep an eye on the little blonde. From my perspective it looks like she is toying with him; a predator circling its prey. She has become the shark with a burning torch circling like a fin above water.
Then she runs at the Shark Lord again at full speed, leaping into the air and driving the tip of her torch down towards his head with all the force she can muster. The Shark Lord parries the blow by wildly swinging his machete in an arc in front of his face.
As the weapons collide, small embers waft in the dense atmosphere between the two swordsmen. The Shark Lord back pedals slightly, almost losing his footing. I know that Mosh could finish the fight here and now, but she’s enjoying playing cat and mouse.