by Ken Barrett
“The shelter is in good hands with you,” Liam said.
“We’re about ready to go,” Tiger said as he joined them. “Do you think you guys can catch up to their army before they get to Glenwood?”
“I doubt it,” Rose answered. “All we can do is run as fast as we can, and hope that we’re right about Adar waiting to use his prisoners to draw us out.”
“A lot of folks are depending on you.” Tiger shook his head. “I don’t want to even think about what will happen if he starts torturing them before you get there.”
“It’s impossible to predict what an insane person will do, but if he acts as we think he will, there’s a good chance to rescue everyone,” Liam said. “But Adar could just as easily have another of his visions and do something completely unexpected.”
“So, we’re gambling everything on what we think a crazy guy might do?” Tiger stated ruefully.
“Yeah, I suppose we are,” he answered.
“I hope you kill them all,” Janus said. “Every last one of them. Evil like that shouldn’t be allowed to exist.”
“But life is precious,” Rose replied. “Our goal is to affect their rescue with a minimum of violence. To destroy their cult, Adar, Todecca and their priests will have to be eliminated, but beyond that, we’ll show compassion and let the rest live.”
“You’re asking for trouble,” Tiger stated. “Something that evil has to be crushed. You don’t put a campfire partly out because it will spring back up again. This is the same sort of thing; every one of their followers has to die.”
“If we lower ourselves to their level, we become just like them. Being intolerant of intolerance is the same sort of prejudice,” Rose stated. “The beliefs themselves actually aren’t the issue, instead it’s the tyranny of thought behind the notion that only our ideas have virtue. Once that mindset becomes entrenched, we feel justified in forcing others to obey.”
Tiger shook his head. “Here and now isn’t the place to argue, so I’ll just hope you’re right.”
“I hope so as well,” Liam answered.
Behind the young man, Alice was checking that each member of their militia was properly equipped and ready to go. Once that task was complete, she lined them up in rows in preparation for their march.
“It looks like you have things well in hand,” Liam stated.
“Will you guys walk with us for a while, or are you just gonna take off?” Tiger asked.
“There’s really no point in lingering.” Liam held out his hand. “Until we meet again in Glenwood.”
The young man clasped his hand and nodded. “Yeah. Until then my friend.”
*****
They rapidly outdistanced the hundred volunteers and were left alone with their thoughts. In the dark predawn hours, they ran through burned forests that were slowly returning to life, then by rolling hills and down wide grassy valleys.
As the blood-red sun rose, they passed by forgotten farms, homesteads, and the occasional small town. All were abandoned and long forgotten, but once were cherished by those that lived there. Despite the calamity of their history, there was a sense of peace in the surroundings; nature had reclaimed what mankind had taken, and replaced it with a reclusive sort of beauty.
They ran south along crumbling macadam roadways that were gradually surrendering to nature and returning the land to its natural state. But weren’t humans a part of nature? Perhaps pavement was as organic as a path trod by bison or elk.
Thunderclouds formed over the mountains at midday, and pounding rain followed soon after. Small streams flooded and roared out of the nearby hills and emptied into the flatlands, transforming them into shallow lakes that engulfed the road. As the deluge intensified, they were grateful for their raingear as their feet splashed unpleasantly through deepening puddles. But within an hour, the storm had moved on, and they continued running south.
In the late afternoon, their path brought them to the confluence of the Colorado and Eagle rivers. They slowed to a walk as they wandered through the maze of broken foundations of a town abandoned a century before. Ahead of them were the astonishing remains of a superhighway built by the ancients before the fall of their civilization, and they stopped for a moment to take it in.
“This was once part of the Interstate Highway System,” Rose informed him. “At one time roadways like this stretched across the continent like a grid.”
“Why would they build such a thing?” he asked.
“No one really knows,” she answered. “The accepted theory is that it promoted commerce between distant communities. In the end, they became roads used by conquerors during the period of warring city-states at the end of the Socialist Period.”
“Well, according to the map, this highway will take us through Glenwood Canyon, and all the way to Adar’s doorstep,” he replied. “So, by using it, we’re following tradition.”
“But we’re not conquerors,” Rose said. “We’re here to free our people.”
“Isn’t that what tyrants always say?”
Rose sighed. “We’d better get going, we still have thirty kilometers to go.”
He nodded, then followed her as she ran along the ancient roadway. Daylight faded quickly as scattered thunderstorms gave way to light showers. The air-cooled as they entered the shadowy gorge and ran along the banks of the thundering Colorado River. The highway eventually separated into two equal sections, one soaring above the other through the narrow gap between the towering cliffs.
Through one particularly tight area of the canyon, a rockfall had shattered the upper portion of the roadway, collapsing it onto the lower section. They had to retrace their route to find a way down, then proceed cautiously in hopes that the hanging chunks of concrete above them wouldn’t fall. After a few uneasy moments, they were beyond the threat, and again on their way.
*****
The glowing lights of the enemy camp lit up the sky long before they had a view of Glenwood. Clouds obscured the night sky, the air was misty and cold, the rocks slippery, and the towering cliffs that surrounded them amplified the constant roar of river rapids. Hopefully, the dissonance would obscure any sound they made.
Rose stopped to peek around the edge of a massive boulder that partially blocked their path. Adar’s encampment wasn’t in view yet, but it was probably close. “Shouldn’t there be guards?”
“Yeah, I would think so.” He had been watching for paths or other signs of patrols for quite a while and hadn’t noticed anything. “They know we're coming, so we're probably walking into a trap.”
“Adar’s probably counting on his God to protect him,” Rose said. “Or maybe this has something to do with his vision.”
“I guess,” he answered. “In the end, it doesn’t matter. We’re here to rescue our friends, and that’s what we’ll do. We’ve prepared as best we can, and now, all that’s left is to play it out. We can’t control the outcome, only our effort to attain it.”
They closely followed the river as they crept forward. The light rain and the spray from the thundering rapids made scaling the slick boulders along the canyon floor treacherous. The lights from the enemy camp weren’t getting any brighter, and he wondered if it was further away than they had thought.
“Where’s their camp?” Rose asked, expressing his own dismay.
A sudden rattle of falling rocks from above froze them in place. Was a sentry patrolling nearby? Had they been discovered already? No, he decided after a moment of panic, a guard hadn’t disturbed the stones, what they had heard was only the result of erosion and the toil of gravity.
The future of the human species depended on the outcome of their mission, therefore there was no other option than success. The first priority was that Adar, Todecca, and their priests had to die. He hated the idea of killing, but too often a few had to perish for the greater good of the rest. The decision to take violent action hadn’t been easy; he had run thousands of simulations searching for another option, but had found nothing. The freedom of
humanity hinged on the deaths of a select few; there was no other way.
The second priority was the rescue of those taken by the Scarred Faithful. Innocent lives needed to be preserved, and because those taken had experienced the inherent violence of intolerance, they would be less likely to subject others to that same sort of tyranny; that lesson had to move forward as a part of their history.
The last priority was the survival of him and his sister. Due to their physical construction and enhanced autonomic systems, they would be hard to kill, which gave them a good chance at destroying Adar’s cult. But it remained doubtful that even they could withstand the bombardment that would soon be leveled against them.
Liam led the way up the slope and away from the raging river. Adar’s compound was just around a curve in the narrow canyon, and flickering yellow firelight wavered like ghosts all around them. This was the only possible way to approach the enemy camp; why was it left unguarded? They stood at the edge of a trap, but their only path to success was to move forward and fully enter it.
*****
Rose waited in the shadows. “What do you see?”
Liam peered through a narrow gap in a line of massive stones that stretched between the cliff face and the boiling white rapids of the Colorado River. The air was damp and cold, and clouds obscured the night sky. “Their compound is fifty meters away, and covers a wide flat area that’s at about the same level as the top of these boulders,” he replied. “There’s a low muddy area with pools of water just ahead of us. It’s odd, but I don’t see any fortifications on this side of their camp, there’s just an earthen bank that we’ll have no trouble climbing. The layout seems purposeful, like an invitation.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” she said. “Any sign of our people?”
He looked over the encampment for a long moment, disturbed by what he saw. “The entire camp is set up like a box, with only this side open, so there’s only one way in or out. There are long stone buildings on the northern and southern sides that run all the way back to a cliff face at the rear.” He sighed. “And, there are gallows for hanging prisoners about twenty meters from this side of their camp. That’s probably the stage where Adar will execute our friends to draw us into his trap. Further back, close to the cliff face, are several large cages, but I can’t tell if anyone’s inside them.”
“So, no dead bodies lying around or anything like that?”
“No; not that I can see anyway, but the whole place is lit by torches, so there’s a lot of shadows.” He shook his head in dismay. “They could have several thousand soldiers waiting back there, and I’d never see them.”
“Ok, but we still need to get in and rescue our people before sunrise. Do you see any guards?”
“There are soldiers patrolling the perimeter, their pace and spacing are irregular, so I can’t predict their movements.”
“Is there a way we can get into their camp without being seen?”
“There’s nothing obvious,” he answered. “The west and north sides back up to the mountains, and the river protects the south. As I said, there’s no wall, just a steep embankment on our side, but sentries are on patrol.”
“Can we pretend to be guards and blend in?”
“All the sentries are wearing gray uniforms with red sashes,” he replied. “Let’s grab a couple of them and take their clothes.”
“Sounds like a plan; I’m tired of this outfit anyway,” Rose said while easing from her hiding place to creep around the boulder.
“Do you think they know we’re here?” she asked.
“Probably not, because if they did, Adar would already be putting on a show to draw us in.”
They slipped through the boulders, then waited in the shadows for a gap in the guard’s patrols. The area below their camp was exposed and brightly lit, so they had to pass through it quickly.
“Alright, there’re two walking together, coming up on the left,” Rose said. “Let’s grab them and bring them back behind the rocks, and see what they’ll tell us.”
“If they shout and warn the others…” he began.
“Then everything turns to shit, and worrying won’t change that,” Rose finished for him. “So, let’s quit lollygagging and get to work.”
In a quick blur of motion, she shot across the wide ditch with Liam right behind her. Together they raced up the embankment and ambushed both guards from behind, then carried them away into the night. The soundless attack had only taken a few seconds, and there were no witnesses.
*****
Each guard had carried a railgun, but their weapons had been tossed into the boiling river rapids. Both men lay unconscious behind a row of boulders as Liam and Rose knelt at their sides. The inky darkness was a physical presence that wrapped around them like an old cloak. A chilly breeze whispered as it drifted down the canyon walls, and gently sighed as it wandered toward the thundering river to the south.
Rose slapped the scarred cheek of the young man she had captured. “Come on, wake up,” she whispered.
“Did you kill him?” Liam asked.
“I hope not; they sure are fragile creatures though.” She shook the guard and slapped him again.
“Well, don’t knock him out while you’re trying to wake him up.” He shook the guard he had taken. The man had wrinkled dark skin and short gray hair. Like his sister’s unconscious captive, the man’s face and arms were horribly marred by brands. The raw lumpy wounds followed no pattern he could discern and were probably the result of tests to see if the man’s body would automatically heal.
He frowned; why did Adar seek out androids with such zeal? During the cult leader’s former life as Sam Beckman, he had known of their existence, but how had that knowledge become hatred and fear? There also remained the question of why Sam had taken to worshiping the Stickman, a little-known idol of the mountain tribes. He shook his head, realizing that his questions could never be answered.
“Well, fuck,” Rose whispered. “Mine’s dead. His lips are cold and blue; he must have suffocated while I had my hand over his mouth.”
“Take his clothes, then throw the body in the river,” he said, then gently shook his prisoner again.
The old man’s eyes fluttered open and he softly groaned. “What happened? Where am I?”
“You’re someplace quiet,” Liam replied. “And it must stay that way; do you understand me? If you make even the slightest noise or try to escape, I will kill you.”
“Where’s Jarod?” the man asked.
“The young man that was with you? He’s already on his way back to his post, and we’ll let you go too, as soon as you answer a few questions.”
The old man turned his head to look around. “Why can’t I see anything? Did the Stickman take my sight?”
Liam chuckled. “No, it’s just dark, so don’t worry. We’ll have you back home soon, but you must answer my questions first.”
“This is a test then?”
“Sure.” He shrugged in the darkness. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Matt, a sinner that came to this place to be saved by Adar of the Flames.”
“That’s good. Ok, Matt, here’s your first question: You have a lot of new prisoners, why haven’t their trials begun?”
“We’re waiting to trap demons. Our prophet has said that they’ll come to rescue the damned that we took from Steamboat.”
“How do you know they’re damned? They might be good people, just as you were when you came here.”
“They were corrupted, and so, at the order of our prophet Adar, they will burn.” The older man’s eyes drifted, searching for something to see in the inky darkness. “All those who harbor demons must be punished, as is God’s will. The Stickman’s word is the absolute law on earth, all that oppose him must perish.”
“That’s very good Matt, you’re doing fine.”
The old man looked up into the night sky, his mouth hung agape mimicking the rapture of bliss. “The Stickman’s disciples, Adar of the Flame
s and Todecca of the Burning, were outside when the sun’s fire fell like rain and washed away our sins. In their agony, God’s truth was revealed, and then they wandered, gathering followers until they found this holy place.”
“Tell me about this place Matt.”
“Caverns reach far below, where healing waters bubble and hiss.”
“Are there many entrances to the caves?”
“No, the Stickman chose to provide only one, which lies at the back of our compound. It’s a sacred place where our prophets and their priests live.”
“And everyone else is outside? And the prisoners are being kept in the cages we’ve seen?”
“Well, yes, of course.”
“That’s as it should be,” Liam replied. “When the demons come, how will they try to rescue the sinners taken from Steamboat?”
“But you’re already here, aren’t you demon?” Matt whispered.
Their discovery was bound to happen at some point, and Liam readied himself to silence the man should he shout to alert the guards. “Demons?” he scoffed. “No, we’re priests like Oxana and Theon. We are here to test you. Now answer my question.”
Matt snickered. “Tricksters, that’s what you are, but I’m not fooled, nor am I afraid. There is no escape for either you or those you seek to free. You will all die screaming as the Stickman bathes you with fire. All of this was foreseen by Adar long ago.”
“Adar isn’t his real name,” Rose suddenly whispered from the shadows. “He’s Sam Beckman, a hydroponics engineer from Flatiron City.”
Matt chuckled. “Your words reveal yourselves. You speak of the corrupt shell that the Stickman purified and shaped into our prophet. Adar has spoken of his past life; we know who he was, and love him for it. You hold no power over me demon.”
The conversation was going nowhere; he needed to try a different approach. “You said that Adar knew we were coming, so tell us what he saw; how will we try to save our friends?”
The old man frowned. “We only know that you will fail.”
