Monsters of Men

by Patrick Ness

  There’s a small group of men marching down the road. They’re in formation, led by Captain O’Hare, weapons raised and apprehension rising through their Noise like the smoke billowing up on the north and south horizons.

  “TURN BACK!” Bradley yells as we get closer to them. “YOU’VE GOT TO TURN BACK!”

  Captain O’Hare stops, his Noise puzzled, the men behind him stopping, too. We reach them, the horses skidding to a halt–

  “There’s a Spackle attack coming,” Captain O’Hare says. “I’ve got orders–”

  “They’ve released the river!” I shout.

  “You’ve got to get to higher ground!” Bradley says. “You’ve got to tell the townsfolk–”

  “Most of them have left already,” Captain O’Hare says, his Noise rising red. “They’re following the army up the road at full fast march.”

  “They’re doing what?” I say.

  But Captain O’Hare’s looking angrier and angrier. “He knew,” he says. “He knew this was suicide.”

  “Why is everyone else marching up the road?” I demand.

  “They’re going to the mistresses’ hilltop,” Captain O’Hare says, bitterness in his voice. “To secure it.”

  And we see in a flash of his Noise just what secure means.

  I think of Lee on that hilltop. I think of Lee unable to see.

  “Bradley!” I shout, slapping Acorn’s reins again.

  “Get your men to higher ground!” Bradley shouts as we ride around the soldiers and back down the road. “Save as many people as you can!”

  But then we hear the roar–

  Not the ROAR of the Noise of a group of men–

  The roar and crash of the river–

  We look back–

  To see an impossibly massive wall of water obliterate the top of the hill–

  [TODD]

  The screens change. The ocean disappears and up pop the probes from the town. The Mayor’s got one of ’em pointed right at the empty waterfall–

  “Here it comes, Todd,” he says–

  “Viola?” I whisper frantically, trying to find her in the screens, trying desperately to see if any of the probes are watching her ride thru the city–

  But I don’t see nothing–

  Don’t see nothing but the huge wall of water come shooting out over the hilltop, pushing a town-sized cloud of fog and steam before it–

  “Viola,” I whisper again–

  “Here she is,” the Mayor’s voice says–

  And he switches to a probe view that’s her and Bradley on their horses, racing for their lives up the road thru town–

  And there are people running, too, but there ain’t no way under heaven they’re gonna outrun the water smashing into the bottom of the falls and flinging its way forward, thru clouds of steam and fog–

  A wave heading right for the city–

  “Faster, Viola,” I whisper, pressing my face close to the screen. “Faster.”

  {VIOLA}

  “Faster!” Bradley calls ahead of me–

  But I can barely hear him–

  The roar of the water behind us is literally deafening–

  “FASTER!” Bradley screams again, looking back–

  I look back, too–

  Holy God–

  It’s almost a solid thing, a solid white wall of raging water, higher than the highest building in New Prentisstown, smashing into the river valley, obliterating the battlefield at the bottom of the hill instantly and roaring forward, eating everything in the way–

  “Come ON!” I shout to Acorn. “COME ON!”

  And I can feel the terror coursing through him. He knows exactly what’s coming after us, what’s blasting the first houses of New Prentisstown to splinters and no doubt Captain O’Hare and all his men, too–

  And there are other people running, screaming out of houses and running for the hills to the south, but they’re too far away, much too far to reach on foot, and all these people are going to die–

  I turn away, spurring Acorn again with my ankles out of pure fright. His mouth is spitting foam from the effort–

  “Come on, boy,” I say between his ears. “Come on!”

  But he doesn’t answer me, just runs and runs and we’re through the square and past the cathedral and onto the road out of town and I sneak another look behind me and see the wall of water smash through the buildings at the far edge of the square–

  “We’re not going to make it!” I yell to Bradley–

  He looks at me and then back behind me–

  And his face tells me I’m right–

  [TODD]

  Outta the corner of my eye, I see a screen showing that we’re landing on the shore and there’s snow and sand and endless water, waves crashing in and dark shadows moving thru ’em just under the surface–

  But my attenshun is on the probe following Viola and Bradley–

  Following ’em as they ride thru the square, thru the people left behind, past the cathedral and onto the road outta town–

  But the water’s too fast, too high, too powerful–

  They ain’t gonna make it–

  “No,” I say, my heart just ripping in my chest. “Come on! Come on!”

  And the wall of water slams into the ruins of the cathedral, finally knocking over the bell tower that stood on its own–

  It disappears in a flash of water and brick–

  And I’m realizing something–

  The water’s slowing–

  As it tears thru New Prentisstown, as it erases New Prentisstown, all the junk and the buildings are slowing it down, just a little, just a bit, making the wall of water a little bit shorter, a little bit slower–

  “But not nearly enough,” the Mayor says–

  And he’s in the room behind me–

  I whirl round to face him–

  “I’m sorry that she’ll die, Todd,” he says. “I truly am.”

  And I hit him with a VIOLA that’s packed with everything I got–

  {VIOLA}

  “No,” I feel myself whispering as New Prentisstown is torn to pieces behind us, as the wall of water is now filled with timber and brick and trees and who knows how many bodies–

  And I’m looking back–

  And it’s slowing down–

  Choking some on all the debris–

  But not enough–

  It’s reached the stretch of road just behind us, still coming quick, still coming full and hard and brutal–

  Todd, I think–

  “Viola!” Bradley calls back to me, his face twisted–

  And there’s no way–

  There’s just no way–

  Girl colt, I hear–

  “Acorn?”

  Girl colt, he says, his Noise ragged with the force he’s putting out–

  Angharrad, too, I can hear her ahead–

  Follow! she says–

  “What do you mean, follow?” I say, alarmed, looking back at the water not a hundred metres behind us–

  Ninety–

  Girl colt, Acorn says again.

  “Bradley?” I call but I see him gripping Angharrad’s mane tight just as I’m grabbing Acorn’s–

  And Follow! she bellows again–

  Follow! Acorn answers–

  HOLD! they yell together–

  And I’m nearly knocked off his back by an impossible burst of speed–

  A burst of speed that can only be tearing the muscles in his legs, that can only be bursting his lungs–

  But we’re doing it–

  I look back–

  We’re outrunning the flood–

  [TODD]

  VIOLA! I think right at him–

  Hitting him with all the rage that she’s in so much danger, all the rage that I don’t know what’s happened to her, all the rage that she might be–

  All that rage–

  VIOLA!

  And the Mayor flinches and rocks back on his heels–

  But doesn’t fa
ll–

  “I told you you’ve got stronger, Todd,” he says, steadying himself and giving me a smile. “Not strong enough, though.”

  And there’s a flash of Noise in my head so hard I fall back over a bed and crumple to the floor, the world reduced to nothing but the Noise echoing thru me, YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING and everything shrinks to just that sound–

  But then I think Viola–

  I think of her out there–

  And I push it back–

  I feel my hands on the floor–

  I use them to rise to my knees–

  I lift my head–

  To see the Mayor’s surprised face only a metre or so away, coming towards me, something in his hand–

  “Goodness,” he says, sounding almost cheerful. “Even stronger than I thought.”

  And I know another blast’s coming so I do it the old-fashioned way before he can gather himself–

  I jump at him, pushing hard with my feet and leaping out–

  He ain’t expecting it and I hit him about waist-height, knocking us back into the screens–

  (where the river’s still shooting down the valley–)

  (where Viola ain’t nowhere to be seen–)

  And he slams into ’em with a grunt, my weight against him, and I pull back my fist to punch him–

  And there’s a light tap on my neck–

  Just light as a touch–

  And there’s something sticking to me and I put my hand to it–

  A bandage–

  The thing he was carrying–

  “Sleep tight,” he grins down at me–

  And I fall to the floor and the screens full of water are the last things I see–

  {VIOLA}

  “Acorn!” I shout into his mane–

  But he ignores me, just keeps up his insane run, Angharrad, too, with Bradley up ahead–

  And it’s working, we’ve reached a curve in the road and the river behind us is still coming, still full of wreckage and trees–

  But it’s slowing more, lowering its height some, keeping more to the riverbed–

  And still the horses run–

  Down the road and away, a rushing fog reaching out to us, its tendrils licking at the horses’ tails–

  And the river still coming–

  But getting farther behind–

  “We’re doing it!” Bradley shouts back to me–

  “A little farther, Acorn,” I say between his ears. “We’re almost out of it.”

  He doesn’t say anything back, just keeps running–

  The road is becoming thicker with trees, half of them burning, slowing down the river even more, and I recognize where we’re getting to. We’re nearing the old house of healing where I was kept for so long, the house of healing I ran from–

  And found the hilltop with the communications tower–

  The hilltop where the army’s marching somewhere ahead of us–

  Maybe already even there–

  “I know a back way!” I shout. I point up the road, to a little farm off to the right, up a hill with a forest above it where the fire hasn’t reached. “Up there!”

  Girl colt, I hear Acorn say in acknowledgement and the horses turn for it, skirting the corner and shooting up the drive, heading for the narrow path I know is there through the woods–

  There’s a huge crash behind us as the river comes pounding down the road we just left, sloshing water and trees and debris everywhere, dowsing the fire but drowning everything else, surging up the drive behind us, swallowing the little farmhouse–

  But we’re in the woods and branches are smacking my face and I hear Bradley cry out once but he doesn’t let go of Angharrad–

  And it’s up a hill to a flat–

  And then another uphill–

  And through some shrubs–

  And then we’re sailing into the clearing, hooves thumping into the crowd, scattering screaming people this way and that, taking in the scene in a flash–

  Seeing the probe cameras still projected on the sides of tents–

  They know what’s been happening–

  They know what’s coming–

  “Viola!” I hear shouted in surprise as the horses race through the camp.

  “Get people off the drive up the hill, Wilf! The river–!”

  “There’s an army!” Jane shouts next to him, pointing across the clearing to the entrance–

  Where we can see Captain Tate leading what must be nearly the entire army–

  Marching up the hill–

  Their guns raised, ready to attack–

  Cartloads of artillery ready to blow the hilltop to pieces–

  (THE SKY)

  The Sky hears everything.

  I knew that before but I did not really know it until now. He hears every secret hidden in every heart of the Land. He hears every detail, important and nonsensical, loving and murderous. He hears every wish of every child, every memory of every old crone, every desire and feeling and opinion of every voice in the Land.

  He is the Land.

  I am the Land.

  And the Land must survive, the Source continues at me as we ride east over the hills, fast on our battlemores.

  The Land is surviving, I show back to him. And will continue to do so under the leadership of the Sky.

  I can see what you’re planning and you must not–

  I turn round to him sharply. It is not your place to tell the Sky what he must do.

  The fog and the falling ice combined have damped down some of the fires in the forests that surround the valley as we continue on. Those to the north still rage and I can see in the voices of the Land that they will continue to rage despite the river. Numbered among the damage the leader of the Clearing has done will be a blackened and scorched country.

  But the south is rockier. There are paths through the hills where the trees are thin and the brush is low, and the fires do not burn so hard.

  And so we march in the southern hills.

  We march east.

  All of us. Every member of the Land that has lived through the blaze, every Pathway, every soldier, every mother, father and child.

  We march east in pursuit of the Clearing.

  We march east to the far hilltop.

  Our weapons are ready, weapons that drove them back before, weapons that killed them in their hundreds, weapons that will destroy them now–

  Then I hear the voice of a soldier riding up next to me–

  He is bringing me a weapon of my own–

  For the Sky must not enter battle unarmed.

  I thank the soldier as I take it from him. It is an acid rifle of the Land, not unlike the rifle the Knife himself carried.

  Not unlike the rifle I promised that I would use one day to–

  I open my voice to the Land.

  I summon them again.

  I summon them all.

  We are marching east, I show them. The Land that survives is marching towards the Clearing.

  To what end? the Source demands again.

  I do not answer him.

  And we march faster–

  {VIOLA}

  “Viola, stop!” Bradley calls after me–

  But I’m already riding forward, almost without having to tell a weary Acorn to do it–

  We gallop through the people on the hilltop as they start to scream and run from the approaching army, some of them raising the guns they got from the Answer, the mistresses racing for their own larger weapon stock–

  War is coming, right here in insane miniature. The world is falling to pieces and the people here are going to waste their last moments fighting each other–

  “VIOLA!” I hear–

  It’s Lee, at the edge of the crowd, turning his head to read the Noise of the men around him, trying to get a picture of what’s happening, trying to stop me–

  But I won’t be responsible for another single person dying, not if I can help it–

  This started wit
h the missile I fired, the decision I made to involve us in this war, a decision I’ve spent all the time since trying to rectify, and what’s making me angrier than even the fire or the flood or Todd being flown out of here by the Mayor, is that even when peaceful cooperation is the obvious thing, the only thing that will keep any of us alive–

  There are still people who won’t make that choice.

  I pull up Acorn at the front of the advancing soldiers, forcing Captain Tate to stop.

  “PUT THAT GUN DOWN!” I find myself screaming. “RIGHT NOW!”

  But he just raises his rifle.

  And points it at my head.

  “And then what?” I shout. “There’s no more city below and you’re going to kill off the only people who can help you rebuild it?’

  “Get out of my way, little girl,” Captain Tate says, a faint smile on his face.

  And my heart sinks as I see how easily he’ll kill me.

  But I lift my gaze to the army behind him, to the men readying the artillery to fire.

  “What happens after this attack, huh?” I shout at them all. “You all march to the ocean to meet your certain death as a million Spackle cut you down? Are those your orders?”

  “As a matter of fact,” Captain Tate says. And he cocks his rifle.

  “Did you come to this planet to be soldiers?” I’m still shouting and now I’m also shouting at the hilltop behind me. The Answer and its remnants, the people gathered here, the ones picking up their own weapons. “Did you? Is that what any of you wanted? Or did you come for a better life?”

  I look back to Captain Tate.

  “Did you come to make paradise?” I say. “Or die because one man told you to?”

  “He’s a great man,” Captain Tate says, looking down the barrel of his rifle.

  “He’s a killer,” I say. “If he can’t control something, he destroys it. He sent Captain O’Hare and his men to their deaths. I saw it with my own eyes.”

  There’s murmuring in the army behind him at this, especially as Bradley rides up, opening his Noise to the sight of Captain O’Hare and his men on the road. I’m close enough to Captain Tate to see a bead of sweat coming down his temple, even in the cold, even in the snow.