Flood

by Brennan McPherson

  Chapter 54

  “Time to leave, Jade.” Enoch’s voice came soft, yet firm.

  Jade felt for the burnt remains of Noah’s mannequin, that final memento still left of their former life, and hid it in the folds of her dress.

  “Are you ready?” Enoch said.

  Jade stood and nodded, then followed Enoch into the harsh sunlight. After countless days huddled in the dark of the shack, the world seemed oppressively large. Noises came foreign, half-remembered like songs in a dream. From the patter of Barak’s sandals, to Enoch’s heavy breathing, everything seemed louder than she remembered.

  As they went, she sidled up to Noah, who lagged behind the others. She drew out the remains of the mannequin. “Here,” she said, and offered it to him. “I thought you would want this back.”

  He stopped midstride and stared at the object. Taking hold of it, he brought it to his lips and kissed it before stuffing it in his tunic. “You had it this whole time?”

  “It was all I thought to grab. Mother . . .” She rubbed her neck.

  “I understand,” Noah said.

  “Can I tell you something I’ve not told anyone else?”

  Noah nodded.

  “After everything that happened . . . I feel that my mother truly did love me. But part of me thinks that it only feels that way. That it’s only true in seeming.”

  Noah shook his head. “Don’t let the Others make you doubt. She loved you, Jade. She never left you.”

  “Then why is she gone?” Jade said.

  “We have to move on. Otherwise, how could you pay the Others back for what they did?”

  She looked into his eyes and saw in them the strength she longed for. “How can you just push it aside?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Well, I’m trying to, and I can’t. When I sleep, I see her. When I wake, the pain just strikes deeper. I try to sleep again, though I know it will make it worse, because I can’t bear to breathe without her.”

  “I know,” Noah said. “And I would feel the same, but for the fact that the ones who did this are still alive.”

  Footsteps grew as Barak and Enoch approached. Enoch raised his brow as he neared them. “Why have you stopped?”

  Noah looked toward Jade, who redirected her gaze to the ground. “I needed to rest for a moment,” Noah said.

  “Next time, warn us. We didn’t know where you had gone.”

  “Sorry,” he said. “I’ll speak up next time.”

  Chapter 55

  The village was a huddle of thatched huts interspersed over rolling plains farmed by its inhabitants. As they approached, Noah saw no farmers in their fields. He wondered why, for the weather was fine and the season ripe.

  Before they entered the village, Barak stopped them and whispered in Enoch’s ear. At first, Noah thought it a passing remark. Then Enoch whispered into Barak’s ear.

  Jade bent toward Noah. “Why have we stopped?”

  Noah hushed her to catch Barak’s words, but the man was too quiet. Enoch nodded, then addressed them. “You will cause no trouble when we enter the village. You will speak to no one, even when spoken to. Let Barak and I handle any issues that might arise. No matter what, do not let yourself be separated from us. Do you understand?”

  Noah suppressed the urge to groan. “We understand.”

  “Barak needs to purchase supplies. Now that we’re here, he thinks today was a bad time to visit. Nothing can be done about it, and there’s no reason for us to hide the potential danger from you.”

  “What do you mean?” Jade said.

  “I hope Barak’s fears prove unfounded, but if you do as I say, you should be safe. Just remember to stay near us and speak with no one.”

  Noah nodded. Jade bit her cheek. Barak and Enoch trudged on.

  As they entered the village, the way grew easier. The grasses were replaced by dirt paths hardened from frequent travel. No children played outside the houses. No men or women stood in open doorways.

  Deeper in the village, they heard great revelry. Within the distant laughter laid a shadow that, combined with Enoch’s warnings, gave Noah a sense of dread rather than excitement.

  They rounded a high fence that surrounded the market, and in the center stood a wooden platform. Naked women lined the platform with shackles on their wrists and necks, each woman linked to the next. And the chains were held by a pair of Others whose horns reached toward the sky.

  Men gathered around the platform. Some drank amber liquid from flasks. Others jeered at the women and laughed. A select few stood aloof, arms folded, scowls plastered under dark-rimmed eyes. On the outskirts stood the market booths.

  Barak led Noah and the others to a booth that held tools both wooden and metal. The tool merchant refused to meet Barak’s eyes. When Barak chose what he wanted and slid the money toward the merchant, the man whispered, “You should leave. That one on the stage is eyeing the children.”

  Jade’s face paled, and her fingers shook as she clutched at her dress as if to keep it from being torn away. She craned her neck to see the Others on the platform, and stilled.

  Noah followed her gaze toward a trio of women being led down the stage to a short, fat man who stumbled from too much drink. The Other leading the women handed the little man the chain in exchange for a lump of gold. The little man pulled out a whip and snapped one of the women in the face. She cried out as a red line thickened and dripped blood down her neck.

  Noah felt as if someone had struck him in the throat. Who were these men? How dare they abuse the women like that? “What are they doing?” Noah said. “And why are we doing nothing to stop them?”

  Enoch grabbed Noah’s shoulder and whispered, “Don’t.”

  “Are they selling people?”

  The little man jerked the chain and forced the women he’d purchased down an alleyway, whipping them as he went.

  “No,” Noah said, bitter tears rising as he thought of Elina and Lamech, and then of his mother. The very acts being perpetrated before him were the source of his life’s greatest horror. He tried to count the women, seeing them anew as broken families, but lost count as he noticed the Other who had sold the women staring at Jade.

  Jade’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed on the ground as the fat man and his newly purchased trio disappeared around the bend. Noah stood dumbfounded as Enoch dipped and lifted Jade, patting her cheeks to wake her. Barak, too, dipped to her level and spoke her name, but she did not wake.

  After one more glance down the alley where the little man disappeared, Noah wrenched a fishing spear from the booth and sprinted after him.

  “Wait!” the merchant said.

  But Noah was gone, intoxicated by the cool air rushing through his lungs as he stretched his legs further, faster. Heavy footsteps gained on him, and he glanced back just long enough to see Barak, whose gaze was set like coal in a mountainside.

  No, Noah thought. I will not be stopped. Not this time!

  Rounding the corner and increasing his speed, he found the fat man forcing the women against the wall of a building so that he might beat them. Already, the women were cowering, weeping, bleeding from the lash of the whip.

  Noah paused for a fraction of a moment, frozen by the sight of them so vulnerable, so exposed. Then the man thrust his knee into the first woman’s abdomen, and Noah’s grip tightened around the spear, his vision contracting. The burning rose in his chest until it seemed his hands had been thrust into flames, and he dashed down the alley, raising the tip of his weapon and bracing for impact.

  The fat man glanced up and narrowed his eyes just as Noah plunged the tip of the spear through his side. The man bellowed like a wild boar, and the women collapsed over each other and screamed. The weapon slid through the man’s ribs, and Noah lost his grip and collided with him.

  As they tumbled over each other, Barak swooped down with hands like steel and breath like a lion’s. He lifted Noah off the ground and slammed him into the building, knocking the air
from his chest.

  Noah crumpled into a heap next to the cowering women, and Barak spun and slammed his heel into Noah’s head, sending a covering of blackness over everything.

  Chapter 56

  Jade woke to Enoch’s wrinkled fingers spreading her eyelids. His bright eyes peeked through a mess of tangled hair and probed her, questioning. She moaned and turned away, noticing that she leaned against a wooden wall, and above her hung a thatched awning.

  “Can you speak?” Enoch said.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Where is Noah?”

  Enoch huffed. “He stole a weapon from the merchant and ran off to pursue his obsession.”

  “What—”

  “No time for questions. Barak will take care of him. We must leave with all haste. The merchant was furious, but he has no desire to see a child fall into the hands of the slave drivers. And neither do I.”

  Enoch pulled her up, and she didn’t even have time to dust herself off before they were off again at a faster pace than she’d thought Enoch capable of. They skirted the outside of the village and made their way back in a different direction than they arrived.

  “Where are we going?” Jade said.

  “Barak’s home is no longer safe. We return to the cave where we first met.”

  “And after?”

  “We part ways.”

  The ground seemed to melt beneath her, and she stumbled and nearly fell. “With Barak? Or with you?”

  “I do not know,” Enoch said.

  Jade looked away and thought back to what had happened in the village. When she’d caught the Other staring at her, she saw it happening all over again. The way they jerked those women around like dogs on chains . . .

  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” Enoch said. “You have no reason to feel shame.”

  “I never knew . . . I mean, Mother told me of things like that. I just . . .”

  “It is hard to believe that men can be so filled with death that they might rob others of life. But it is the truth. Under the leadership of the ones you call the Others, they have murdered followers of the Old Way. Through the pressure of fear and violence, the Others changed our world in ways unimaginable—even after what you saw today.”

  “How could anything be worse than that?”

  “I could not even describe the depths of man’s evil without feeling remorse for darkening your imagination. But we should not be surprised. The heart is desperately wicked, even more so when lost in the sounds of separation. They have not the tools to peer through the veil, because the tools were never theirs to own. They have grown too proud to bend their knees to the One who holds authority over life and death.”

  Jade fell silent. The rolling plains gave way to forest once more, and Enoch led them in a new direction.

  “You have no idea how strong you are, Jade.”

  Enoch’s words sent a shock through her chest.

  “Loss is to the soul what a spear is to the body. You’ve been skewered, yet still you live. It is a testament to the strength of your heart.”

  Tears came unbidden. She slowed as her eyes burned and she lost view of her path.

  Enoch matched her pace. “You and Noah are deeply wounded. A man with a wounded back does not have the ability to treat himself. Another must do it for him. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Jade nodded and wiped her cheeks.

  “You were born for each other. You cannot heal him, but you can tend his injuries. Without you, he will fail. Together, I believe you will be given the opportunity to grow. You already love each other. It is little more to be bound in marriage.”

  The tears increased and scattered.

  “He is all the family you have left,” Enoch said. “It may seem odd to you now, but you will grow to love each other in more ways than one.” Enoch stopped and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I am proud of you. And I count it a blessing to have known you.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Now, wipe your tears, and let us get back to the cave.”

  Chapter 57

  Noah awoke to the sensation that his skull had been split. He was jostled back and forth, and could hear the metallic shift of long grass on leather. Several of the blades scraped his arms before he realized someone had thrown him over their shoulder.

  He cried out and slid off, landing hard on his side. As he struggled to his knees, he looked up to see Barak’s face lower into view. Noah lashed out and scrambled back, but Barak clutched his tunic and shook him. “Stop! I’m trying to help you.”

  Noah grabbed the man’s wrists and attempted to force them away, but Barak was strong. “Leave me alone!”

  “And let the Others kill you?”

  Noah paused, confused.

  “If we don’t hurry, they’ll find us.” Barak pointed to the forest a stone’s throw away.

  Noah stood, chest heaving, and tenderly touched his head, where he found a lump covered in crusted blood beside his right eye. The place where Barak had kicked him. His back throbbed and resisted bending, and as he looked around, the thought struck him that the village was gone, and so were Enoch and Jade.

  He couldn’t trust Barak after what Noah had done. Still, they were exposed, and after what he’d done to that man in the village, certainly someone would try to chase them. He dusted himself off and jogged to the tree line, careful to keep his distance from Barak, who set his back to a tree and indicated Noah should do the same. Noah stood instead with his back to a bush and glared.

  “I apologize for striking you,” Barak said. “After you went after that man in the village, it seemed you’d gone mad.”

  “You threw me against a wall and kicked me in the head. Where is Jade?”

  “She is safe. Enoch tended to her after she fainted.”

  Noah closed his eyes and took a deep breath. At least he could trust Enoch to take care of her. Though he had thought he could trust Barak as well.

  “I was yelling for you to stop before you attacked that man,” Barak said. “The only reason he saw you was because he heard me.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “I don’t care if you believe me. We have to get you farther away before the slavers find you, or the men from the village tell them where you might be. A few saw you run after that man.”

  Noah closed his eyes and willed his chest to stop thumping. His next words came as a bone-dry whisper. “Did I kill him?”

  “He won’t survive.”

  Noah let his breath out slowly. “Good.”

  “Do you understand nothing?”

  “I understand that I did what you lacked the courage to do.”

  “You put us all in mortal danger,” Barak said.

  “Do you want to know what I think? That the world is the way it is because everyone is like you—afraid.”

  “I wasn’t afraid to give up everything to follow the Old Way,” Barak said.

  “Does the Old Way demand you ignore those women?”

  “It wasn’t easy for me to turn my back to them.”

  “Liar.”

  Barak chuckled bitterly and shook his head. “I was like you once. To me, the future was filled with possibility. If I met an obstacle, I overcame it. Then I watched my friends slaughtered. Afterward, my wife died a slow and excruciating death. And do you know what I learned? That I could do nothing.”

  “I did something today.”

  “So did I. The Almighty told us to keep you safe, and that is what I have done. Or would you like me to let them find you, and slice your body open from top to bottom to let your innards dangle while you struggle to breathe? Because that’s what they did to my friends. Men and women faithful to the Almighty. Or how about if I let them cut Jade’s wrists and catch her blood in goblets to drink?”

  “Why should we ever ignore atrocities? When does it ever make sense to let innocent people be slaughtered?”

  “Noah,” Barak said. “You hate those men because you believe all life to be sacred.
But today, you took a man’s life. Who gave you that authority?”

  Noah touched the wound on his head. “If I hadn’t killed that man, those women would have been killed.”

  “You didn’t change their outcome.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because that’s the way it works. They were shackled. Did you free them? They were naked. Did you clothe them? They were frightened. Did you offer them courage? Even as I carried you away, I heard the slavers coming. Do you want to know what those women did?”

  Noah turned away.

  “Nothing, Noah. They just sat there. Waiting.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “Who can determine when a person should die? God does not give us the authority to make that decision, for he is the only one who can bring life back to what has been destroyed. There is only one Judge, and if you try to become him, you will only reap judgment upon your own head tenfold.”

  “I’m not evil, like them.”

  “Yes, you are, Noah. We all are. That’s what you don’t understand. The only righteousness that exists in the world is God’s. Search your heart and you will know it to be true. Stop trying to be God. Instead, strive to be with him. Let him make you righteous. Let him bring about justice as only he has the wisdom to do. Let him decide who must live and who must die. If you refuse, your desires will control you, just as they did today. And, eventually, they will destroy you. Along with everyone and everything you love.”

  Chapter 58

  Enoch and Jade reached the cave, and Enoch gathered sticks and dry brush to make a fire. Piling the brush on a split log, he pressed the end of a stick into the kindling and used friction to heat the fibers until they smoked. He bent, cupped his hand about the smoke, and breathed the tongue of flame to life. “They’re about to arrive,” he said, and added sticks.

  “How do you know?” Jade said.

  Enoch pointed just as Barak stepped through the brush. The man walked to the fire and sat, but Noah did not follow.