The Fomorians

by John Triptych

  Chapter 3

  When I opened my eyes again I was staring out at a gray, overcast sky. I blinked a few times before I sat up and looked around. The land was filled with monstrous trees growing on numerous islands, surrounded by marshy fens. It reminded me a lot of the bog lands where the old wizard Amicus Tarr had tried to have me exiled before, but this world was more like a fetid swamp. There was a rancid smell that reminded me of decaying seaweed and fish. I was fortunate enough to have been placed on dry land, otherwise I surely would have drowned by now. As I stood up and wiped the dirt off my jeans, I noticed what looked like a small settlement at the far side of the swamp forest. There were mud houses with thatched roofs and chimneys on top. A wooden palisade had completely encircled the enclave and I could see a pair of guard towers near its gate. If there were houses, then there must be people there, I figured. With no further recourse, I started to walk towards it.

  It took me a little while to finally make my way towards the front gates of the city. I made sure to stay on dry land as I sensed creatures might be lurking in the murky fens around me. Time seemed to pass by differently here so I could no longer estimate how long things would take. As I walked I instinctively felt through my pockets and checked to see if I still had anything on me. In the end I was quite disappointed to have nothing at all. Those gangsters that took Mark and me by surprise were very thorough.

  As I got to within fifty yards of the gates, I heard several cries of alarm. The words that were being shouted were in English so it was quite a relief for me to hear them. Within minutes a small crowd of people came out through the gates and intercepted me. I could see that they were mostly old folk, but there were a number of kids that seemed somewhat younger than I was.

  A rotund old man with wisps of silvery hair was at the head of the crowd and he held up his hand as I approached. He was dressed in rags, just like the others, and he seemed strangely familiar to me. “Hello, lad,” he said excitedly. “I’m Lester Leach. I’m the leader of the Wandsworth Borough Council.”

  I smiled as I shook his hand. “Oh yeah, I think I saw you on the telly once. Steve Symonds. From Finchley, sir.”

  Several of the older women who stood in the crowd let out cries of joy as they all gathered around me. They started speaking all at once and were constantly interrupting each other. Their faces conveyed a mixture of curiosity, concern and hope. A few small children hid behind the skirts of old ladies, their eyes darting back and forth.

  “Can you give us any news?” an old man with crooked teeth pleaded.

  One old woman placed a hand on my elbow. “Please, luv, can you tell me what happened to my beloved Arthur?”

  “Did you come here to rescue us?” another one said.

  Lester turned and gestured at everyone to calm down. “Please, everyone, we need to ratchet it down a bit. It’s obvious this lad has come through one of the portals. He must still be confused and I need to talk to him about how he got here and what the situation on earth is. So if you all could please go back to what you were doing, I promise to make an announcement later.”

  The murmuring crowd started to disperse. A few of the older folk shook my hand before being led away by the others. Soon, it was only myself and the Wandsworth council leader, who was standing just outside of the gates. I could see two old men eyeing me from the guard tower. They were armed with crude spears made of sharpened stakes.

  I was shocked to see so many people from the city had somehow survived. “Sir,” I said. “How did you all make it here?”

  Lester pointed to a nearby dwelling, just behind the gates. “Let’s go talk in my house, shall we?”

  His abode was really nothing more than a clay igloo. It had a single common room with a ring of stones that served as a hearth in the center. Bits of straw were strewn about the floor and there was a crude cot along the side wall that was really just a mound of rags and grass. We both sat beside the smoldering embers of the fire pit. He gave me a cup of water to drink, but I wasn’t thirsty so I just kept holding it in my hand.

  Lester nodded as he kept glancing at my clothes. “From what you’re wearing it seems obvious that you weren’t captured by those ghastly Fomorians, I take it?”

  I shook my head. “No, sir. I was in fact fleeing from one of them when I dove into one of the portals at the train station. The next thing I knew I was here.”

  He seemed surprised. “Y-you came from the Underground? Blimey! That’s news to all of us!”

  I looked around the room as I took a sip of water. It seemed alright at first, but there was a foul aftertaste so I placed the cup down on the floor. “Sir, can you tell me how all of you got here?”

  “Right, from the top then,” he said. “I don’t know how much time has passed since the time of day never seems to change here and we don’t have any watches, so you’ll just have to accept that whatever happened either occurred months ago or maybe even years ago. I can no longer give you a straight answer on that, lad.”

  I shrugged. “Oh, it’s no problem. Please go on.”

  “Well, I’m sure you heard about what had happened in Stonehenge and the word had come on down from the military and the MOD that the whole city was to be evacuated. Naturally I spent the whole day working with the other city councils, the mayors and the military to hammer out an evacuation plan. I don’t know how we did it but we did, and the military was able to get half the transports that we needed in less than twenty-four hours. Unfortunately, just as we began the evacuation of London, the Fomorians broke through and slaughtered a great many people.”

  I looked down at the ground. “Yes, I remember. I was there. I had forgotten my mobile phone back in the house and I ran out of the lorry to go get it, and that was when those monsters came straight at us. The next thing I knew the transports were gone and I was all alone.”

  “Yes, well the evacuation didn’t go exactly as planned,” he said. “The Fomorians moved quickly and were upon us in seconds. Our military escorts tried to fight them off but they were all killed. We were all screaming and such, thinking we would be next. Then something strange happened.”

  “What?”

  Lester let out a deep sigh. “The Fomorians just stopped killing us all for some reason. They took the whole lot of us prisoner. I’m guessing they just went after the ones who resisted, but those that were helpless they seemed to spare. Then those monsters took all the able-bodied men, women and lads away—where, I’m not so sure. The weak and the old they sent through these gateways that apparently lead to other worlds such as this.”

  I scratched the back of my neck. “So that’s why this whole town seems to have nothing but old people and very young children. What do you think they did with all the able-bodied prisoners?”

  He shrugged. “Only God knows. Some of us here have guessed that the Fomorians might be using them for some sort of hard labor. But what they are building is anyone’s guess.”

  “Do you think that the able-bodied prisoners are still on earth? Or did they perhaps bring them somewhere else?”

  Lester shook his head. “That I do not know, lad. We have tried to make a life for ourselves out here. As you can see, we sort of built these dwellings and put up a wall around this place for protection.”

  “Have you been attacked by anything out here?”

  “No, not really,” Lester said softly. “There don’t seem to be any animals in this place other than the occasional small snake or lizard. But sometimes the Fomorians come along and they, ah…they take some of us away. We tried to resist, but as you can see, none of us are what you would call fighters. We have a few old former soldiers, but they can hardly be called effective defenders.”

  I stared at his clothes. “What happened to the clothes you had on earth?”

  He looked away in shame. “Those Fomorians stripped us of our clothes and possessions before exiling all of us here. We had to scrounge around to find these scraps. We built this settlement with our bare hands. Fortunately the people her
e still have respect for city authorities, so I was able to organize them fairly quickly. If only we had more able-bodied people and some better tools, we could really make a go of this place.”

  I nodded. “I see, thanks for telling me all of this. It has given me a lot to think about.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said as he looked at me. “Now as for you, lad, how were you able to escape from those Fomorians?”

  There was something strange about this whole arrangement. I could somehow sense he wasn’t telling me everything, so I reckoned it would be best if I didn’t tell him everything about myself either. “There’s not much to tell, really. I spent most of my time hiding in abandoned houses by day and I would just eat whatever scraps I could find.”

  “But how did you know about the portals, lad? Did you travel through the other worlds before?”

  “This was the first time for me,” I said. “I saw a glowing hole by the side of the Tube and I just dived into it, just before one of those monsters got their claws on me. It was just through sheer luck, I suppose.”

  He was starting to get suspicious. “You seem awfully calm about it all, despite being in a different world.”

  “After being on the run for a few weeks and dodging monsters left and right, I think there’s really not much that will get me nervous these days,” I said.

  Lester seemed to accept my explanation for now. “Right, I guess now we need to find you a place to stay,” he said as he stood up. “I think there may be a hut available on the other side of the settlement. We could use a young lad such as yourself to help us with digging and all that.”

  I stood up as well. “Have you ever thought about finding a way out of here?”

  “Many of us tried. Quite a few of the more adventurous types ventured deeper into the marshy fens but they never came back,” he said as he pointed down to my feet. “Are those women’s trainers you’re wearing?”

  I looked down. Sure enough, the shoes I had taken from the store in St. Pancras had pink laces and flowery patterns along the sides. I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice them until now. Bloody hell.

  As we walked along the muddy paths in the village, we started passing through the center of the compound and I saw a large wooden cage that was suspended above a withered old tree. Two old men were sitting around and they were evidently standing guard over it. As we got closer my eyes opened wide. There was a young woman sitting inside of the cage. She was dressed like me, in jeans, and wore something like a leather jacket. She looked to be in her twenties, with dark brown hair that fell over her shoulders. What surprised me the most was how tall she was. Even though she was sitting in the cage, it looked like she would be over six feet tall if she ever stood up. She stared back at me with light brown eyes that indicated a mixture of curiosity and wariness. Her pale cheeks had freckles and I felt that she was quite beautiful.

  Lester took me by the elbow to keep me from stopping to look at her. “Pay her no mind, please.”

  I kept looking back at her as we passed by the cage. “But why is she locked up? What did she do?”

  Lester continued to hold onto my arm as we passed through a path in between several mud houses. “She’s an agitator. We had to detain her because she kept stirring up trouble.”

  “But what kind of trouble?”

  He stopped and looked me straight in the eye. “She keeps telling us to resist the Fomorians. But as you can see, we’re nothing but a bunch of pensioners and disabled people with very young children. If we do what she proclaims we will all be dead.”

  I tried to look back at where the cage was but the house behind us blocked my view. “But she’s not a child or an old fart. How did she get here?”

  Lester frowned. “Watch who you call an old fart, lad.”

  I looked down at the muddy ground. “Sorry. But her clothes are also different. Was she brought here by the Fomorians, like the rest of you?”

  He shook his head. “No, several of us found her a few days later. We asked her where she was from but she refused to answer.”

  A little boy and his old guardian walked by us as we talked. Like the others, they were dressed in clothes that were crudely put together from a bunch of rags and old leather. The boy looked to be about six or seven years of age and he just stared at me for a long minute until the old woman took his hand and they walked off. Something wasn’t right about this whole place, but as to what it was, I just couldn’t figure it out yet. “Did she say how one could fight the Fomorians?” I said.

  Lester just rolled his eyes. “What she said didn’t make any sense, lad. It’s best you leave her be.”

  “But what are you going to do to her? Surely you can’t keep her in that cage forever?”

  He pointed to a mud hut at the far end of the compound, near the edge of the stockade. “We’ll decide on that later. Now this is where you can stay for now. I would ask that you stay put because I still have to gather the council and we have to meet and decide what to do with you.”

  I crossed my arms and frowned. “What is there to talk about?”

  “We still have to meet because we all vote as to who gets accepted into our little community here. We don’t want any trouble and the last thing we need is for the Fomorians to come here and retaliate against any perceived resistance on our part. This is all a delicate matter and we have to proceed very carefully,” he said as he pointed to the hut’s open doorway. “Now go on, lad. In you go, if you please.”

  I lowered my head as I went inside. It seemed that these dugouts were smaller than ever. Just as I turned around to face him, Lester closed the door behind me. He made a low whistle and another old man who carried a crude spear came to stand beside him. I tried to swing the crude wooden door open but it wouldn’t budge. Lester must have put a stopper in it on the outside. “What’s going on?” I said.

  Lester smiled. It seemed like a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. “Don’t leave that cabin for now, lad. I’ll be back in a while, after the meeting.” With that, he turned his heels and walked out of sight. The old man stared at me through the door for a little bit before sitting down on a rough wooden stool that had been placed across the pathway.

  I turned and looked around. The hut’s interior seemed just like Lester’s, except that it was a lot smaller and it was bare. It was apparent that I was now a prisoner in this place. As I glanced out at the old geezer who was guarding me, it seemed that no sooner had he sat down on that old stool than he was already dozing off. Whatever security arrangements they had in this place seemed strangely lacking.

  As to what was going to happen next, I wasn’t going to sit around and wait. Even though I was somewhat short for my age, I could easily touch the grass ceiling of this hut. I tried to feel just how thick the roof was, and the dried weeds immediately gave way the moment I tried to push my hand up through the roof. This was easier than I thought it would be. I quickly used both hands to widen the gap on the thatches and soon enough I had made a large hole in the ceiling to push through the gap. Using my arms, I supported myself as I climbed up and I was suddenly on top of the hut. No one seemed to notice as I climbed down along the other side and started making my way silently along the pathways near the other dwellings.

  I kept on going until I sighted the area where the cage was. As I got closer, I saw that the two guards had left their posts and the woman was by herself. I stayed low as I crept up behind her while keeping my back to the fence. When I got close, she twisted her torso and stared back at me.

  “Hello, my name is Steve,” I said softly as I crouched down near the knee-high wall that served as the perimeter of the clearing in order to keep out of sight. “Might I ask the reason why they are keeping you locked up?”

  She looked at me blankly. “You mean you don’t know? Seems you just arrived here recently. This place is not what you think it is.”

  I nodded as I stayed on guard. “I know that. I think the council leader is not giving me the whole story. Did they rea
lly build this place up?”

  She shook her head. “No, it was the Fomorians who gave this place over to them. The next time those monsters come back, they will probably hand me over. You see, the people here sometimes sacrifice one of their own in order to appease the Fomorians. It’s the reason why they are left alone to run this place as they wish.”

  I thought about this for a bit before answering her. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? What if I let you out and it turns out that you’re the one who’s lying?”

  “There’s one way to find out,” she said as she got up on her feet. She was still crouching since the cage wasn’t tall enough, but she kicked at the latch with her right foot. The simple wooden stopper instantly broke off and the cage door swung open.

  I stood up with my eyes wide open as she slid out of the cage and stretched her arms. One of the guards was just on his way back and he soon noticed that she was out of the cage. He let out a shriek and ran the other way.

  The woman walked over until she was beside me and peered closely at the wooden logs that lined the stockade. “I’d say these old logs haven’t been set very well.” She wrapped her arms around one log and squatted before pulling it right out from the ground, then she let it fall until it was lying horizontally across the gap in the wall.

  Lester and a few other men had run into the central clearing. He pointed a finger at the both of us. “Stop!”

  The woman got on the fallen log and started walking out of the compound. As she made it past the gap in the walls she turned around and looked at me. “Are you coming?”

  I leapt onto the log and ran to catch up with her.

  Chapter 4

  We walked along the edges of the swamp for what seemed like hours. As soon as we got beyond the walls of the refugee compound I noticed that they didn’t even try to follow us. Soon enough, we had lost sight of the settlement as we wandered into the farthest reaches of this never-ending marsh world. The woman walked slightly ahead of me; she seemed to be leading me somewhere, but wherever that was, she wasn’t telling me.