Chaos Walking

by Patrick Ness

  And the men start marching again, step step step, crunching through the loose gravel scattered across the road, down a small slope, through the town and towards the cathedral, getting bigger and bigger the closer we get.

  We file past some trees and I look to our left, to the hills on the southern horizon.

  “Sweet Jesus,” Pot Belly says.

  Even from here you can see the army marching in the distance, a single black arm twisting up a path too narrow for them, up to the summit of the hill with the notch on top, up to where they’ll meet The Answer.

  I look at the setting sun.

  “Maybe an hour,” Todd says, seeing me check. “Probably less.”

  “Lee won’t get to them in time,” I say.

  “He might. There must be short cuts.”

  The snake of the army slithers up the hillside. So many there’s no way the Answer will be able to fight them if it comes to open battle.

  “We can’t fail,” I say.

  “We won’t,” Todd says.

  And we reach the cathedral.

  We march up the side. This is where most of the damage is, the whole north wall having collapsed straight onto the road.

  “Remember,” Todd murmurs to the men, as we climb over rubble. “Yer taking two prisoners to see the President like you were ordered to do. Nobody needs to be thinking nothing but that.”

  We pick our way down the road. The pile of stones is so high you can’t see into the cathedral. The Mayor could be in there anywhere.

  We come around the corner to where the front used to be, now just a gaping hole into the vast lobby and sanctuary, still watched over by the bell tower and by that circle of coloured glass. The sun, behind us, shines right into it. Open rooms hang from upper walls, their floors crumbling. Half a dozen redbirds pick through the remains of food and worse in amongst the stones. The rest of the structure leans in on itself, like it’s grown suddenly tired and might fall down to rest at any time.

  And inside its shell–

  “No one,” Ivan says.

  “That’s why there aren’t any guards,” says Pot Belly. “He’s with the army.”

  “He’s not,” Todd says, looking around, frowning.

  “Todd?” I ask, sensing something–

  “He told us himself to bring Todd here,” Ivan says.

  “Then where is he?” asks Pot Belly.

  “Oh, I’m here,” says the Mayor, stepping out of a shadow that shouldn’t have been able to hide him, almost seeming to step straight out of the brick, out of a shimmer where he couldn’t be seen.

  “What the devil–?” says Pot Belly, stepping back.

  “Not the Devil,” the Mayor says, taking his first steps down the rubble towards us, his hands open at his sides. The guards all raise their rifles at him. He doesn’t even look like he’s armed.

  But here he comes.

  “No, not the Devil,” he says, smiling. “Much worse than that.”

  “Stop where you are,” Todd says. “There are men here who would happily shoot you.”

  “I know it,” the Mayor says, stopping on the bottom step of the cathedral entrance, resting one foot on a large stone toppled there. “Private Farrow, for example.” He nods at Ivan. “Still seething for being punished for his own incompetence.”

  “You shut your mouth,” Ivan says, looking down the barrel of his rifle.

  “Don’t look into his eyes,” Todd says quickly. “Nobody look into his eyes.”

  The Mayor slowly puts his hands in the air. “Am I to be your prisoner then?” He takes a look around at the soldiers, at all the guns pointed at him. “Ah, yes, I see,” he says. “You have a plan. Returning the cure to the people, capitalizing on their resentment to install yourselves in power. Yes, very clever.”

  “That ain’t how it’s gonna be,” Todd says. “Yer gonna call off the army. Yer gonna let everyone be free again.”

  The Mayor puts a hand to his chin like he’s thinking about it. “The thing is, Todd,” he says, “people don’t really want freedom, no matter how much they might bleat on about it. No, I should think what will happen is that the army will crush the Answer, that the soldiers accompanying you will be put to death for treason, and that you and I and Viola will have that little chat about your future I promised.”

  There’s a loud snap as Ivan cocks his rifle. “You think so, do you?”

  “Yer our prisoner and that’s the end of it,” Todd says, taking out a length of rope from Angharrad’s saddle bag. “We’ll just have to see how the army reacts to that.”

  “Very well,” the Mayor says, sounding almost cheerful. “But I should send one of your men to the cellar so you can start taking the cure immediately. I can read all your plans perfectly clearly, and you wouldn’t want that.”

  Pot Belly looks back. Todd nods at him and Pot Belly jogs on up the steps past the Mayor. “Just back and down,” the Mayor points. “The way’s quite clear.”

  Todd takes the rope and walks towards the Mayor, moving past the guns pointed at him. My hands are sweating into the reins.

  It can’t be this easy.

  It can’t–

  The Mayor holds out his wrists and Todd hesitates, not wanting to actually get near him. “He tries anything funny,” Todd says, without looking back. “Shoot him.”

  “Gladly,” Ivan says.

  Todd reaches forward and starts winding the rope around the Mayor’s wrists.

  We hear footsteps in the cathedral. Pot Belly comes jogging back, out of breath, his Noise a storm.

  “You said it was in the cellar, Lieutenant.”

  “It is,” Todd says. “I saw it there.”

  Pot Belly shakes his head. “Empty. Completely empty.”

  Todd looks back at the Mayor. “Then you moved it. Where is it?”

  “Or what?” the Mayor says. “You’ll shoot me?”

  “I’d actually prefer that option,” Ivan says.

  “Where did you move it?” Todd says again, his voice strong, angry.

  The Mayor looks at him, then looks around at all the men, and finally looks up to me on horseback.

  “It was you I was worried about,” he says. “But you can hardly walk, can you?”

  “Don’t you look at her,” Todd spits, stepping closer to him. “You keep yer filthy eyes off her.”

  The Mayor smiles again, his hands still out, loosely bound by rope. “Very well,” he says. “I’ll tell you.”

  He looks around at everyone again, still smiling.

  “I burnt it,” says the Mayor. “After the Spackle sadly left us, there was no more need and so I burnt every last pill, every last plant that the pills were made from, and then I blew up the processing lab and blamed it on the Answer.”

  There’s a shocked silence. We can hear the ROAR of the army in the distance, marching up that hill, keeping on towards their goal.

  “You’re a liar,” Ivan finally says, stepping forward, gun still raised. “And a stupid one, at that.”

  “We can’t hear yer Noise,” Todd says. “You can’t have burnt it all.”

  “Ah, but Todd, my son,” the Mayor says, shaking his head. “I have never taken the cure.”

  Another silence. I hear suspicions rising in the Noise of the men. I even see a few of them step back, thoughts of the Mayor’s power, thoughts of what he can do. Maybe he can control his Noise. And if he can do that–

  “He’s lying,” I say, remembering Mistress Coyle’s words. “He’s the President of Lies.”

  “Well, at least you finally called me President,” the Mayor says.

  Todd gives the Mayor a shove. “Tell us where it is.”

  The Mayor stumbles back a step, then regains his balance. He looks around at us all again. I can hear everyone’s Noise rising, Todd’s most of all, red and loud.

  “I tell no lies, gentlemen,” says the Mayor. “If you only have the right discipline, Noise can be controlled. It can be silenced.” He looks around at each of us again, his smile r
eappearing. “It can be used.”

  I AM THE CIRCLE AND THE CIRCLE IS ME, I hear.

  But I can’t tell if it’s from his Noise–

  Or Todd’s.

  “I’ve had just about enough of this!” Ivan shouts.

  “You know, Private Farrow,” says the Mayor, “so have I.”

  And that’s when he attacks.

  [TODD]

  I feel the first strike of Noise fly by me, a whooshing of concentrated words and sound and pictures rushing over my shoulder, straight for the men with rifles. I flinch away and dive for the ground–

  Cuz the men start firing their guns–

  And I’m right in the way–

  “Todd!” I hear Viola shout but the rifles are firing and the men are screaming and I roll on the rubble, jarring my elbow, and whip round to see Corporal Pot Belly on his knees in front of Angharrad, his back turned, both hands on the sides of his head, screaming wordlessly down into the ground, Viola watching him, wondering what the hell is going on. Another guard has fallen on his back, fingers in his eyes, as if he’s trying to dig them out, and a third lies unconshus on his stomach. Two others are already running back into the city.

  The Noise flies from the Mayor, louder and stronger than anything I’ve seen before.

  Way louder than at the Office of the Ask.

  Loud enough to take out five men at once.

  Only Ivan still stands, one hand up to his ear and the other trying to aim his rifle at the Mayor but weaving it dangerously around–

  BANG

  A bullet smacks the ground in front of my eyes, sending dust and dirt up into them–

  BANG

  Another bounces off stones deep in the cathedral–

  “IVAN!” I shout.

  BANG

  “Stop firing! Yer gonna get us killed!”

  BANG

  His rifle goes off right by Angharrad’s head. She rears up and I see Viola grab the reins, surprised, holding on for dear life–

  And then I see the Mayor is walking forward and forward and forward–

  His eyes on the men he’s attacking–

  Coming past me–

  And I don’t even think–

  I leap from the ground to stop him–

  And he turns and sends his Noise straight at me–

  The world goes all bright, terribly, painfully bright, like every-one can see how much you hurt, everyone watching and laughing and nowhere to hide and YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING all bound up tight like a bullet right thru you, telling you everything that’s wrong with you, everything you ever done bad in yer life, telling you yer worthless, yer dirt, YER NOTHING, yer life ain’t got no point nor reason nor purpose and you should just tear down the walls of yerself, ripping apart who you are and either die or give it up as a gift, as a gift to the one who can save you, as a gift to the man who can control you, who can take it all away, who can make everything fine fine fine–

  But not even Noise can stop a body when it’s moving.

  I feel all these things and I’m still flying at him and I still hit him and I still knock him over on the steps of the cathedral.

  He grunts as the air is crushed out of him and the Noise attack stops for a second. Corporal Pot Belly calls out and falls over and Ivan’s gasping for breath and Viola’s calling out “Todd!” and then a hand is around my neck and it’s pushing my head up and the Mayor is looking right into my eyes–

  And this time it hits me full blast.

  “Give me the rifle!” the Mayor is shouting, standing over Ivan, who’s crouched on the ground below him, hand over his ear again but the rifle still pointed up at the Mayor. “Give it to me!”

  I blink, grit and dust in my eyes, wondering for a second where I am–

  YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING

  “Give me the rifle, Private!”

  The Mayor’s screaming at Ivan, hitting him over and over again with Noise blasts and Ivan is sinking to the ground–

  But his rifle’s still aimed–

  “Todd!”

  I see horse legs beside my head. Viola’s still up on Angharrad. “Todd, wake up!” she’s yelling. I look up at her. “Thank God!” she yells and her face is a picture of frustrayshun. “My stupid feet! I can’t get off the goddam horse!”

  “I’m okay,” I say, tho I don’t know if I am, and I lean myself up, my head spinning.

  YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING YER NOTHING

  “Todd, what’s going on?” Viola says as I grab a rein to help me stand. “I hear Noise but–”

  “The rifle!” shouts the Mayor, stepping closer to Ivan. “Now!”

  “We have to help him,” I say–

  But I flinch back at the strongest attack yet–

  A flare of Noise so white you can almost see the air bending twixt the Mayor and Ivan–

  And Ivan grunts sharply and bites his tongue–

  Blood spilling from his mouth–

  Before he screams like a child and falls back–

  Dropping the rifle–

  Dropping it right into the Mayor’s hands.

  He lifts it, cocks it and aims it at us in one fluid move. Ivan lies twitching on the ground.

  “What just happened?” Viola says, too angry it seems to care much about the rifle.

  I put my hands in the air, still holding the reins.

  “He can use Noise,” I say, keeping my eyes on him. “He can use it like a weapon.”

  “Just so,” says the Mayor, smiling again.

  “All I heard was shouting,” she says, looking at the men lying on the ground, still breathing but out cold. “What do you mean, a weapon?”

  “The truth, Viola,” the Mayor answers. “The best weapon of all. You tell a man the truth about himself and, well,” he nudges Ivan with his boot, “they find they have trouble accepting it.” He frowns. “You can’t kill him with it, though.” He looks back up at us. “Not yet, anyway.”

  “But . . .” She’s not believing this. “How? How can you–?”

  “I have two maxims that I believe, dear girl,” the Mayor says, coming slowly towards us. “One, if you can control yourself, you can control others. Two, if you can control information, you can control others.” He grins, his eyes flashing. “It’s been a philosophy that’s worked out rather well for me.”

  I think about Mr. Hammar. About Mr. Collins. About the chanting I used to hear coming from the Mayor’s house back in my old town.

  “You taught the others,” I say. “The men from Prentisstown, you taught them how to control their Noise.”

  “With varying degrees of success,” he says, “but yes, none of my officers has ever taken the cure. Why should they? It’s a weakness to have to rely on a drug.”

  He’s nearly on us now. “I am the Circle and the Circle is me,” I say.

  “Yes, you were certainly making an impressive beginning, weren’t you, Todd? Controlling yourself while you did the most unspeakable things to those women.”

  My Noise turns red. “You shut up about that,” I say. “I was only doing what you told me–”

  “I was only following orders,” the Mayor mocks. “The refuge of scoundrels since the dawn of time.” He stops two metres away from us, rifle pointed firmly at my chest. “Help her off the horse, please, Todd.”

  “What?” I say.

  “Her ankles, I believe the problem was. She’ll need your help walking.”

  I still have the reins in my hand. I have a thought I try to bury.

  Boy colt? Angharrad asks.

  “I assure you, Viola,” the Mayor says to her. “If you think about running on that beautiful animal, I will put more than one bullet through Todd.” He looks back at me. “However much pain it might cause me.”

  “You let her go,” I say. “I’ll do anything you want.”

  “Now where have I heard that before?” he says. “Help her down.”

  I hesitate, wondering if I should slap Angharrad’s flanks anyway,
wondering if I should send Viola riding off into the distance, wondering if I could get her safe–

  “No,” Viola says and she’s already working her leg round the saddle. “Not a chance. I’m not leaving you.”

  I take her arms and help her down. She has to lean on me to stand but I keep her up.

  “Splendid,” says the Mayor. “Now let’s go inside and have that chat.”

  “Let us start with what I know.”

  He’s brought us into what used to be the room with the round coloured glass window in it but it’s now open to the air on two sides and above, the window still there, looking down, but looking down on rubble.

  Looking down on a little cleared area with a broken table and two chairs.

  Where me and Viola sit.

  “I know, for example,” the Mayor says, “that you did not kill Aaron, Todd, that you never took your final step towards becoming a man, that it was Viola here who put the blade in all along.”

  Viola takes my arm and squeezes it tight, letting me know it’s okay that he knows.

  “I know that Viola told you the Answer were hiding at the ocean when I let you escape to go speak with her.”

  My Noise rises in anger and embarrassment. Viola squeezes my arm harder.

  “I know that you’ve sent the boy called Lee to warn the Answer.” He leans against the broken table. “And of course I also know the exact time and place of their attack.”

  “Yer a monster,” I say.

  “No,” the Mayor says. “Just a leader. Just a leader who can read every thought you have, about yourself, about Viola, about me, about this town, about the secrets you think you’re keeping, I can read everything, Todd. You’re not listening to what I’m saying.” He’s still holding the rifle, watching us sit before him. “I knew everything about the Answer’s attack this morning before you even opened your mouth.”

  I sit up in my chair. “You what?”

  “I had the army gathering before we even started Asking Viola.”

  I start to rise. “You tortured her for nothing?”

  “Sit down,” the Mayor says and a little flash from him weakens my knees enough that I sit right back down. “Not for nothing, Todd. You should know me well enough by now to know that I do not do anything for nothing.”