by Allyson Bird
“I’ll take Paolo, Ciana, Santino, Gia, and Luciano. Fabrio, you will please look after the rest. Now children, listen, at all times those who I have called out will stay close to me, the rest will stay close to Fabio, understood? Otherwise there will be no treats at the end of the day, right?”
“Yes, Miss,” came the chorus, all eager to be on their way; there was the dog to see and name.
It was already getting hot as they climbed up the causeway to the Temple of Apollo. Mia looked up at Vesuvius. She had seen it before but it looked like a brooding mass today, a giant of a thing that festered and would awake eventually with the rage of the forgotten gods. Once inside the temple she let the children look at the sundial and explained to them how it worked. Two bronze statues stood near the portico. One was Apollo shooting arrows, and the other Diana. Paolo was disappointed that Apollo’s bow was missing.
“Not everything could survive being buried in ashes.”
“I bet I could,” replied Paolo beating his chest and stamping about like a little Apollo. “I’d fight my way out of the ash.”
As the children trundled around the statues and looked at the sundial Mia could feel the sun beating down on her head. She had left her own hat behind—after making sure that every child had a sun hat on. She started to feel dizzy again, like the night before. For an instant Mia thought she could hear a familiar voice, and indeed it sounded much like her own:
They will slow you down, you will need to leave them.
Recovering, and believing it to be mild heatstroke, Mia wiped the perspiration from her forehead and started to gather the children together again.
“Are you okay, Mia? Here, take my cap. I’m used to the sun more than you.”
“Thank you, Fabrio.”
In the next few hours they found the mosaic dog, named it Fabrio (the children seemed amused by that), and saw The House of the Faun, complete with bronze statue of the latter, and had a picnic in the Teatro Grande. Behind the theatre was the Quadriportico which had also been used as the gladiator’s barracks—which wasn’t exactly close to the amphitheatre. The guidebook said weapons and parade costumes had been found there. There were frescoes depicting the Loves of Mars and Venus. Mia hurried the children on.
On the Via dell’Abbondanza, Mia felt unwell again, just like before. One minute she was walking down the long dusty road and then she seemed displaced in time again. Once more she heard the cheers of a crowd and could see quite clearly gladiators in procession returning from the Anfiteatro. Some limping along, leaning on the shoulders of comrades, whilst others who could walk unaided were clearly wounded, holding dirty rags to the multitude of cuts that crossed their bodies. It was the first gladiator that most shocked Mia, for leading the weary men was a female gladiator, head held high, with a bloody sword in her hand. There was no mistaking the woman: she looked just like Mia, had long red hair just like her, although the woman was burnt by long days of prolonged exposure to the sun and her body was stockier, more toned. The woman looked Mia straight in the eye and spoke directly to her. You will endure, but you will survive. As quickly as the vision appeared it was gone and Fabrio was holding Mia by the shoulders, talking to her urgently.
“Mia, Mia, are you all right?”
For a moment she didn’t recognise him. Then slowly his features became familiar once more and she stared at him.
“I don’t know. I feel strange. Did you see?”
“Come on, Mia. Let’s make our way to the bus. Not far now.”
Some of the children looked worried as they were not used to her being so distant. The heat of the day was getting to them too. They had finished all the drinks they brought and were looking listless in the afternoon heat.
“Can we go home now, Miss? I want to go home,” Gia implored. Also—Ciana, a child not prone to tears, began to cry.
Fabrio herded the children together and led them further down the street.
As they walked on down the long Via dell’Abbondanza they felt the first tremors underfoot. Mia put a hand on Fabrio’s arm. The street was becoming more crowded with tourists now and a woman close by cried out in alarm.
Fabrio looked concerned and the children started to move closer to the two adults.
“It has done this before, Mia, you know that. Nothing ever comes of it.” He shrugged and smiled at the children. “Do you think the authorities would not have seen the warnings? After all, they monitor it.”
Mia looked back at Vesuvius and saw a thin vapour trail spiralling upwards which had been seen many times before.
“Right, children, we are almost at the Anfiteatro where our bus will meet us,” Fabrio said.
No sooner had he finished speaking when the ground shook with even greater vigour, followed shortly by the sounds of an explosion behind them. A huge force had projected pumice and rock high up into the air and over the children’s heads. In the distance, Fabrio could see a small red flow appearing near the top of the crater.
“Children, here—into this building!” called Mia.
The children started to cry as they sought shelter under the roof of the nearby villa. Just then pumice pounded down upon the building like hail and the children huddled instinctively into a corner, walls protecting them on two sides.
Mia looked at the children’s anxious faces and tried to think about what to do next.
“It isn’t far Mia,” said Fabrio. “Perhaps we could get them through to the bus?”
“Do you really think that it will still be there?”
“Well—it might be.”
“Even if we found the bus the roads will be chaos. No bus could get through on the road now. There will be too many people.”
“What else can we do?”
Mia thought about the preserved footprints she had once seen and that some of the city’s occupants, instead of fleeing to the harbour, had tried to escape through the countryside. It wasn’t a great evacuation plan but there weren’t many options.
“We’ll stay here. Not every time the volcano explodes does it bury the city,” Mia tried to put on a brave face but inside she was thinking that this was the dreaded eruption that no one had wanted to believe was coming.
The eruption did not cease its violence and as Mia, Fabrio and the children took refuge in the villa the pumice and ash piled up against the doors, almost sealing them in. More than once Mia heard the crack of beams as the roof began to buckle under the weight of the burden. The smell began to make the children sick and the ash began filtering through cracks in the ceiling. They made the decision to leave.
Thankfully, there did come a time when the pounding on the roof subsided and Fabrio just managed to get the main door open. They all tried once more to get down the Via dell’Abbondanza to the edge of the city. As they tried, with great difficulty, to move even a few metres down the cobbled street the ground shook and a crack appeared in the wall of one of the restored Pompeian houses. The two teachers hurried the children along to where the bus should be waiting for them.
When they were almost at the end of road, close to the entrance of the Anfiteatro, the volcano erupted again and roared to the heavens. It was a deafening sound. The crowd panicked as the top part of the volcano collapsed. Darkness closed in immediately as hot ash fell from the sky. Mia and Fabrio grabbed the children closest to them.
“Santino, Ciana, come quickly!” The two adults tried to remain calm but the urgency in Mia’s voice made the children even more afraid, if that were possible. Mia and Fabrio dragged the ten children into a tunnel that lead to the Anfiteatro and they began to cry and call out for their parents. Mia tried to dust the hot ash off little Gia’s shoulders.
“It is hot, Miss. It hurts so,” the child wailed.
They were pushed deeper into the tunnel as other frantic tourists barged in from behind. In the distance Mia could see the dim light of the Anfiteatro. The children clung to her as they were swept along, until she almost tripped. Dozens of the tourists were now seeking safety in t
he small stone tunnel too, pushing them deeper into the darkness. Fabrio was shouting for the people to stop but his voice was drowned by the cries of the crowd. There was hardly any room to move as more tourists poured in and shoved the children underfoot. Mia thought that she heard the crack of a child’s back, as she screamed at the crowd to stop.
“The children—watch out for the children!”
She saw their red sashes disappear one by one as she lost track of them. She screamed again and shouted their names. She had three of the children, and one of them was Paolo. She was too blinded by her own panic and the darkness to see who the other two were. She hoped that Fabrio had some of them. Mia reached down and could feel the head of one boy as he dropped to his knees and clung to her legs. She hauled him back up. Then—before her, she could see a little more light. Mia stifled a sob. No! The crowd was pushing them into the open again, into the arena where the hot ash was falling like winter snow and people were clasping their hands over their mouths to try and block out the heat that was searing their lungs.
Most of the children were lost to her now, many were trampled underfoot by a hysterical crowd that didn’t realise what it was doing. Once in the open Mia felt the hot ash on her skin and burning pain as she tried to breath. Gia was dead already in her arms and Mia looked back at the tunnel, at the people lying on the ground, charred by the ash. They coughed, choked and reached out blindly with hands that could only capture the dead. Mia could hear what sounded like a hurricane rushing through the streets.
As she fell to her knees tears made a trail through the ash that blistered her face. She looked at the pile of bodies that partially blocked the entrance. She saw a flash of red. For a brief moment she saw herself standing astride the dead with a bloody sword in one hand. Then she heard the words in her head.
For once—I’d rather die with some dignity than climb over the bodies of others.
Deathside
“And I shall have some peace there,
for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of morning
to where the cricket sings.”
By kind permission of A.P. Watt Ltd,
on behalf of Grainne Yeats, from
The Lake of Innisfree, Poems of W. B. Yeats,
the MacMillan edition 1962.
“When men and women die, other people summon priests, their loved ones, or the doctor. Lorne Delaware wanted me. He said that no one else would be able to see that his wife, Darla, got there safely to the other side. You see, Captain; I know that it is at the moment of death that the dying are at their most vulnerable, for they slip into some dreamlike state. At that moment It could snatch them. Take them, to that no man’s land as their soul leaves the body, seconds before they can muster the strength to pass over.”
“Are you shitting me?” was the captain’s response. “What off-world notion is that? You’re that crazy goon I read about, the one who says that there is something that grabs us when we die.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I can’t help it if you don’t believe me, Captain. I’m telling the truth as I see it.”
“You’re damned right I don’t believe you.”
“But even if you don’t believe it, no one should die alone, right?” It was more of a suggestion than a statement.
The captain thought for a while. “I don’t believe a word of what you have said, John Valen, but on the other hand if you want to sacrifice yourself to this virus, then hey—that’s your problem. I don’t think much of our chances, after what the doctor told me. But once you go into the isolation unit on this ship, you stay there—understand?”
“I understand.”
“No one will come out to us from Althea, they are too afraid. Even with stringent quarantine regulations, they won’t come. I‘ve asked them.” The captain began to cough. As I left the room he slammed his fist down on the table and his coughing became more persistent.
Looking back now, it was just like the time Darla passed over, but Lorne had more faith in me then. I began to save so many. After that I could have had anything I wanted, status and wealth, but I only wanted one thing, and that was to get away from what I’d seen. That’s why I booked passage on this voyage; to get away from the dark entity that was hungry for souls and haunted the dying. The dying knew real terror and now I knew it too. I was running scared and my fear had caught up with me.
We had been stricken by some alien virus and it was picking us off, one by one. I had told the captain who I was, because I was afraid for the entire ship, full of families with children. They thought they were on an easy run to Althea, a planet which was in the Poseidon galaxy, “A Water World Beyond Your Wildest Dreams,” the promo declared. In reality, if they all died, they would be facing the greatest journey they had ever taken. Just how was I going to see that they all made it to the Luminary safely?
In these last few weeks, some families complained of a mild sickness but it seemed nothing much to worry about, that is until half the crew became very ill and the travellers started to panic. We were only five days away from our destination.
I had done everything I could for Darla and Lorne had known that. I had been very close to her, in those last moments as I held her in my arms. I kept a cool head, not panicked, and never let my guard down once. I had been Darla’s bodyguard, or rather the guardian of her soul, and delivered her to the Luminary. The Luminary are from another world, for indeed there is one—in fact, there are many. I had ensured that Freya Banks had gotten there safely, and I saw her shimmering form dance and smile as they led her away. With John Ryan it was another story. The evil thing (for I had never found a name that could encompass the horror), descended upon him like a huge black shroud, stifling his soul. When my concentration lapsed and I became weaker, It blighted and withered him away. That is what has haunted me since. I wish I could save every soul on Earth, but I knew that was an impossible task.
I was running away again. Lorne was running too now, and had left Earth a bitter man, mourning the death of his wife. It was to be some sort of new beginning for him and his daughter, Celina, but now they were facing the deadly virus and the other unseen enemy.
That’s where I came in. If the worst came to the worst and they died, I would try and ensure their safe delivery. I have seen, with my own eyes a soul snatched from the arms of the Luminary and dragged screaming away. I couldn’t stand the thought of that happening to Celina. Then there was me. I was not afraid of dying but what really scared the shit out of me was—just who would ensure my safe delivery to the other side?
I had been allowed, once suited up, to sit with the dying. In the last seven days I had won every battle but one. For how long could I carry on? I never left the confines of the isolation unit. Even the Luminary looked worried and that was saying something. If anyone had told me a year ago it was possible there would be this death-side struggle…I would have laughed in their face. The entity would surely want me more than anyone else, as I had cheated it so very often.
I did what I could for the dying and then the captain became really sick. With only an isolation suit between us, we communicated. The captain was sweating profusely and his hands looked marble-veined. He was only in his mid-thirties but he looked much older at that moment. He struggled to find the words:
“Look—look, John, I have never seen anything like this before. It will pick us off one by one, all of us dead within the next week, unless we do something about it.” The captain coughed and looked like he was going to throw up.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted.
He could hardly sit up in his bed. “I have no idea how the virus got on board. All I know is that it is highly contagious…and if we can’t work out what is going on, we either all die on board…or we can try again to get help and risk spreading the virus.”
I stared out of the window into deep space. “If we all die and someone comes to salvage the ship, won’t this spread?”
“I don’t know,” he s
aid with a sorry shake of his head.
It wasn’t the thought of dying that scared me. There are deaths and there are Deaths, and once in a while there comes along a Death that is oh, so special, different in so many certain and profound ways—and that would be mine. There are no other guardians like me, as far as I know. There would be no one there to free me from Its cold grasp. I didn’t know why It couldn’t come near me when I was alive, but when I was dead I feared that would be a different matter.
Three days before we reached our destination, more and more of the passengers succumbed to the sickness and panic began to spread. Whole families lay huddled together in corridors and in their quarters, either too sick to move or too terrified to leave for fear of contamination. Three days before—what?
I went to intercede for the captain. He was unconscious now, oblivious to the coming onslaught. I sat down on his bed and waited. I did not have to wait long. Through the visor in my suit I could see the entity moving closer to the captain. His death-rattle became more pronounced and the black shroud crept closer, threatening to envelope us both. This terror was final: nothing could have made me shake more as It tried to become more manifest. I could see the white-balled eyes fix on us both. The terrible eyes were the only thing that remained constant in Its shifting shape and shroud. I could smell the foulness of it, even inside the suit, as I cradled the dying man in my arms and hoped against hope that the Luminary would come in time. The captain took his last, rattling breath and I could see his body shimmer. There were only seconds remaining before his soul would leave his body and the thing would take him away.
I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness as fear filled my mind. I felt the entity try to take me as well as its prey. I must fight it. I must. I felt myself giving up, succumbing to the will of something that should not live, that should be dead itself. Then I felt the terror cease and I saw them—the Luminary surrounded us, caressed and reassured us. I saw them take the captain. The entity retreated before their incredible presence.
