The Mountain and The City: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale Page 7

  The Vision Boxes look dead but there's a small, red Light under each one. I touch one and jump when the Box wakes up. A dark and foggy picture comes from Inside, until I can make out two Real People standing in the middle of the screen with Guns in their hands and Masks on their faces. It's the ones Outside, yet right here in the Box.

  Take the night eyes and leave. Go back over the fence and take the road away from here and don't ever come back.

  But if I stay quiet and listen, I can almost hear their voices through the wall, hear what they're saying. The Walls are thick but the sound carries. Crouched under the Window by the Front Door, my back to the Wall with the Real People on the other side, I just need to bring my Ear closer and I can make out their words.

  Eyes closed, all other sound pushed away, I hear words like “kingdom” and “tumbling off his hill”, but I don't know what they mean.

  Then my Eyes open. And they open to a terrible thing.

  The shorter one is looking at me, his eyes wide and his mouth open. He holds the Gun loose in his hands with his shoulders and feet frozen. The taller one notices the shorter one's face and starts to turn his shoulder, but I duck under the Window before he can see me.

  Maybe the shorter one didn't see me. Maybe he blames his mind.

  The Glass explodes over my Head. Pieces fall on my back and roll off the Suit like Rain. The sound puts anger in my Ears, so I cover them with my Hands as another explosion comes, and then another after that.

  Get away from the window. Hide under the desk.

  It hurts to crawl on the Glass. More windows explode and then a voice yells Stop, Stop, and it does, just the little tinkles of glass falling away, hitting the Floor and coating it and covering it in Stars, and then the Voice of the Outside breathing In, and, listening closely, foot sounds on the Concrete. One set of feet moves to the Back Door and the other to the Front. I can tell it's the taller one at the Back by the weight of the sound and the shuffle of the shoes, which is something I never noticed but now it's impossible not to.

  The taller shouts at the Back Door. “I'm coming in, you god-damned monster. You better not be eating my dinner!”

  Then the Front Door: “We know you're in there. Tell us you're not a monster and we won't shoot. You hear me?”

  “The hell we won't.”

  “It might be human.”

  “I might not care.”

  Front, louder: “We're coming in either way, you just have to decide if we're coming in shooting or coming in talking. Say you're not a monster and we'll talk.”

  But I can't say that.

  Nine seconds pass, then: “Screw it.”

  The taller one opens the Back Door and steps to the side, hiding along the Building. I don't see this but I hear it by the scrape of his round, metal back against the Wall and then two, deep breaths and a slow lean into the Doorway.

  “I see you, monster. Why are you hiding from me?” He talks to me the way Real People did when I was young, like my Brain has gone soft.

  I don't like it.

  He laughs. “Are you afraid of the big, bad man with the big, bad gun?”

  “C'mon, stop playing around.”

  “Easy for you to say, you're still hiding like a bitch. How did I land look-out with such a bitch?”

  Another explosion. A hole opens in the Desk above my Head and the Light comes through.

  Surrender now or they'll kill you. You're no good to her dead.

  My Hands go out of the Desk. “Please. Wait.”

  “Ahh, now we're getting somewhere,” the taller one says.

  **

  Under the Moon again. The dark hides too much. My Eyes keep going back to the Building, where the Light shines through the Windows and looks warm and safe and good and doesn't try to hide dangers from me.

  The smaller one has white in the hair above his mask. It's short, like him, and neater than the taller. The taller has spots on his face and little teeth in his mouth which he shows me as he talks.

  “Well, well. You're not an ugly, old monster at all, are you? A little beat-up, maybe, but that suit's been keepin' you fresh.”

  “She's infected.”

  “She's young.” He walks around, pushing the Gun into my Shoulder. “And I think she's got nothin' on under this thing. Oh, honey, where have you been hiding all my life?” His words become louder as he brings his mask next to my Ear. “I bet you're good for one, last party before you go full-monster.”

  “Don't get so close, you know how unpredictable the early stages are.”

  “You think I don't know that,” the taller one shouts, “you think I don't remember all the shit we've been through?”

  “I know you remember, Tom. I want you to act like it.”

  The taller one breathes into his Mask and walks around to my Front. “I'm just trying to have a little fun here.” Then his face creases and he pokes the Gun into my Stomach. “What do you have in there? Did you bring your daddy a little present?” He laughs and moves the Gun around, and with it the things I hide.

  “No.”

  “Don't be modest, I'm sure you have all kinds of presents in there for me to unwrap. Here, let me take a look.” He reaches his fingers toward the Neck of the Suit, his little teeth showing in his mouth.

  I'm not sure what happens next. I lose track of the seconds, which is rare for me since I used to be the Keeper of the Time, but in one second I'm watching the hair on his knuckles blow in the Voice of the Outside, and in another he's screaming and shaking the same hand and saying so many words that his mask is foggy with them.

  “I told you to be careful, now we have to take you in to be disinfected.” The smaller one keeps distant. “Oh man, Graham's gonna be pissed.”

  The taller one points his Gun at the smaller one. “Pissed? I'm the one you should worry about!”

  “Alright. Calm down.”

  He points it at me. “Enough screwing around, show me what you're hiding in there.”

  The smaller one nods for me to do it. I reach in and take out the Silvery Tape and lay it on the Ground.

  “Keep going.”

  I take out the Night Eyes and wait.

  The Gun clicks. “I thought I told you to keep going.”

  I take out the other Night Eyes. He shows his little teeth again.

  “Now we're getting somewhere.”

  **

  The taller one searches the Building while the smaller one points his Gun at me with a serious face. Then the taller one comes back with his hand wrapped up in cloth.

  “Who's waiting for you out there? Is it a man? Please tell me it's a woman, make this the happiest day of my life.”

  I listen to the dark.

  “That's okay, honey, watch how easy this is.” He pushes me with the Gun toward the Fence. We stop where the Road leads up to the Gate. A thick piece of metal lays on the Ground and looks like it can slide across the Hole and cover it up when the Gate is open, so the Real People can walk over without falling in.

  He holds my Neck. “Hey! Whoever's out there, come take a look at this. I got my gun to your pretty, little infected girl's head. Caught her trying to steal some of our stuff. Problem is I'm pretty bored here, I might pull the trigger just to see what colors come out.”

  “Come on, Tom.”

  “I think you better show your face before I put a bullet in hers.”

  The Night is quiet. Even the Tree Beasts stop shouting at the sound of his voice. He moves his hold from my Neck to my Chest, feeling me with his wrapped-up hand, and I shout for him to stop but he just laughs.

  Something moves in the Wood. When I see what it is, I realize the mistake I've made. He touched me to get noise out of me, and it worked. He hoped the noise would upset anyone who heard it and bring them out of hiding.

  And it worked.

  Child inches out from the Wood, sniffing the Air, squinting to see. I can't let them touch her, especially the one who touches me. I'd do anything to stop that.

  “Run! Go away,
” I shout.

  He puts his hand around my Neck again. “Sshhhh. Now that's not nice. I would love to meet your monster and you're ruining it for me.” I feel my Neck close up and the Air with it. Bastard Air, never wanted it in my Lungs, now I burn for it.

  “Tom!”

  He lets go with another laugh. Child runs toward us but stops when she sees the Hole in the Ground. I tell her to stay back and she does, crouched and picking out sounds from the Dark.

  The smaller one wipes his Mask face. “Well, I'll be goddamned. I think the monster listens to her.”

  “Yeah? Listen to this.” Tom raises the Gun next to my Face and points it at Child. I bite my Teeth hard into his hand and taste his blood. The Gun explodes but the Bullet misses. He shoves me into the Fence, screaming, but I don't look back to see him. I hold the Fence and watch Child run into the Wood, and it calms me to see it.

  When she can't be seen anymore, I turn to Tom. Now he has two bad hands. His Gun is on the Ground and he's screaming in his Mask.

  “Shoot her!”

  The smaller one looks at me, then at Tom, then back at me.

  “What are you waiting for? She bit me, you dumb-ass, shoot her!”

  “Let me think about this.”

  “What's there to think about? Goddamn it, do I have to do everything?” He swings his bandaged hand and hits me across the Face. I bounce off the Fence and fall to the Ground on my Knees with my Ears buzzing and my Eyes confused.

  He kicks me in the Stomach and I crumple. “When I catch your little monster friend out there she'll be begging me to be this nice to her. Man hasn't made words for the kind of stuff I'll be doing to her. But don't worry, you won't miss any of it. I'll let you watch the whole thing.”

  “I really don't think we should be doing this.”

  “Would you stop with that? Jesus Christ, always telling me what I can't do. I can't take from people who've been dead ten years. I can't use monsters for target practice. I can't do anything fun without asking Graham. And shut your mouth about getting disinfected, you can't catch the goddamn virus that way, or did you forget?”

  “Of course I didn't forget, but you still-”

  He stops talking. It's because he sees my Eyes, and what he sees in them makes him take a step back.

  As Tom turns his body to me, I land on it with everything I am. He shouts and falls to the Ground. The back of his head hits the Concrete, but I don't give him Time to feel it. I rip at him with my Hands in ways I didn't know I could.

  The Mask comes off his face easily under my Nails.

  So does the skin.

  **

  When I'm done, Tom isn't screaming anymore.

  I've done a terrible thing, something my mother and father wouldn't want to see, but I know because I've done it Child has one less danger to worry about, and that's something they would do.

  That's what life is. I just don't know what I am.

  The smaller one hasn't moved. The Gun in his hand is pointed at me but like him it hasn't spoken yet. His eyes stay on my Hands as I wipe them on the Suit.

  “Are you giving me the Death?”

  He looks over his shoulder to the Giant Mouth in the Mountain. “I...I can't.”

  “Then let me leave.”

  “The others will never believe me. They won't believe a monster got past the moat. They'll think...they'll think I killed him. I didn't like him but I would never kill him.”

  I stand.

  “Stay away from me,” he says. “I have to think.” He looks at what I've done and his breathing is faster and shorter. I can hear the heart in his chest and it sounds wounded and weak.

  He points the Gun to the Giant Mouth. “Walk. Right now.”

  “If you're giving me the Death, give it here.”

  “They'll decide what to do with you, it's not up to me. I just know I'm not dying for this. Not for you, and not for him.”

  He keeps the Gun pointed at me. We go away from the Fence and past the Building to the Mouth, where he turns on a Hand Light and shows the way. We walk between the Cars that sit on either side of the Passage, large, thick cars colored tan and brown and green with Guns on them colored the same way.

  The Passage is high and dark. It goes deep into the Mountain and ends at a metal Door bigger than any I've seen, Real Times or since. It has the look of serious machines. He tells me to stand back and goes to a Box at the side of the Door and presses a button.

  The Box says, “That you, Tom?”

  “It's Neil. Tom's dead.” He looks at me, frowning.

  The box says, “Are you screwing with me?”

  “I wish I was. I have the...person who did it. Prepare to receive a hostile, and go wake up Graham.”

  Three seconds of quiet. Then a loud rush of Air fills the Passage. Neil waves the Gun at the Door as it separates from the rock and slowly swings open.

  The Voice of the Outside breathes In. We breathe in, too.

  III

  When the Door shuts behind us everything goes red. It's as if my Eyes have become angry and put Fire to the World.

  “Listen to me. Stand against that wall for the next three minutes and don't move, alright? Nod if you understand me.”

  Neil keeps the Gun pointed at me as he backs against the other Wall, next to the second Door. The Room is small. I can tell he doesn't like this because he's sweating. The red Light makes his face look covered in blood but I know for sure it's sweat coming out of him and not blood.

  I know what blood smells like.

  “Nod your damn head!”

  My Head goes up. Then it comes down. There's a drain in the ground under my Feet.

  “Don't move for anything, anything at all, or help me God I'll shoot you and deal with the consequences.” He raises the Gun higher when he sees my Mouth open.

  “You know the God?”

  “Of course I know God. Why?”

  “I want to know what he's like.”

  He squints through his Mask. “Are you screwing with me?”

  “No.”

  “Well, if you want to know what God's like, go ask Tom.”

  A picture comes into my Head of Tom laying on the Ground, looking up with his new face.

  Neil says, “Not for nothing, but Tom was an asshole. I know it, the whole base knows it. Hell, Tom knew it. It doesn't mean he deserved to die, though. Not like that.”

  “Yes, it was too quick.”

  He shakes his head. “That's not what I meant.”

  “He tried to give the Death to the little one and I stopped him. If he'd given it to her you'd be next to him, watching the Stars.”

  I add, “Help me God.”

  His eyes are big as Rocks through the Glass of the Mask. “You really are half-monster. Jesus, I should have killed you when I had the chance.” He checks the straps of his Mask and puts his hand over the red Button on the Wall.

  “Just do me a favor,” he says as he pushes it. “Try not to scream.”

  The red Light goes out and the World with it. It's like the Cavern again except worse. There are no Night Eyes here, no leaking Lights or Glow Beasts for my Eyes. There's only the Dark, as black as Leatherwing eyes and wrapped around my Neck, and then a sound: hissing, but not Munie. And then a feeling:

  Water on my Skin.

  It sprays from the Walls and Ceiling, cold on my Face and running down the Suit. I hear it everywhere with the echo of his voice repeating in my Head again and again and again.

  Three minutes.

  Three minutes.

  Three minutes.

  One-hundred eighty seconds of the Death Feeling. Gun or not, I scream.

  **

  Calm down. Slow your heart. Remember Child's face, remember she's still alive out there.

  I failed her, but at least I gave her a chance to run into the Wood, to disappear. I don't know if I'll see her again, and even though I want to, I hope she's far away from here. Somewhere without Real People and Guns and Giant Mouths that lead to Water Rooms.


  Don't think about the Water.

  It's all over me, in my Hair, on my Face. I try to ignore it and think about other things, like apples and eggs and nests. I pull those pictures into the middle of my Eyes and let them push the Water to the creases.

  Being Keeper of the Time meant I knew what minutes felt like. But I'm not the Keeper anymore, because the watch was lost and the Time with it, and the further the Time falls the less I know it. When the Water finally stops and the red Light comes back, it means three minutes have passed like a Beast in the Night, and not like a friend.

  “I told you not to scream.”

  The Water is a layer of tiny Beasts on my Skin. I wipe them off and spit them out, crouched in a corner I don't remember backing into. Neil takes a Mask from a hook where some hang. It's different than the one he wears, with dark holes in the mouth instead of a tube, and no round, metal part for the back.

  “Put it on. Over the mouth, like this.” He holds it over his own dripping Mask.

  “Don't want to.”

  “That really doesn't matter. If they see you without it they'll kill you on the spot. They do what they have to around here to keep the peace and stay alive, I wouldn't try to fight it.”

  I look at the first Door.

  “Locked,” he says. “One way at a time, either in or out.” He holds the Mask out and I take it. I pull it over my Face. The second Door makes a loud noise, so I get away and watch it open, thick and heavy and letting white Light bleed into the red.

  Neil rubs his fingers together. His blinking goes quicker.

  “You're afraid of them,” I say.

  “Afraid of the others?”

  “You're worried about what they'll do to you. Isn't this your family?”

  He shakes his hands to get the Water off them. “They keep me alive,” he says, and pushes me through the second Door.

  **

  A man with big hands holding a big Gun stands behind glass, machines on the walls around him. He yells at Neil, but even the glass between us doesn't make his voice quieter.