Part 69

Epilogue 1

The end came quickly after that.

The town of Eagle's Crown effectively ended the moment a young boy spoke another young boy's name in an underground chamber. At that instant, the blessing... the protection... the uncanny luck that protected the town from the harsh wasteland that surrounded it began to fade. Poisonous reptiles invaded bedrooms and nurseries. Hordes of stinging insects discovered new nesting grounds in pantries and storerooms. Strange diseases festered in the bellies of the animals... and a few children... and many crops began to bear odd spots of foul-smelling mold.

All of this was before dawn.

In year, the town was gone. Without the demon's protection, those that remained succumbed to starvation or disease. Or murder. The same fates met most of those who fled the town, especially those who fled unprepared.

Still, there were a precious few who would find themselves not only alive in a year's time, but thriving... in places far, far away.

-But their story is not this one.

And this one is not yet done.

Before dawn found Eagle's Crown that morning, most of those who'd survived gathered just east of the center of town. The Town Hall was a dark shape in the distance... a shape that they watched warily, but had no desire to see closely. They stood... already swatting at flies and biting things... and tried to discuss a course of action. Most wanted to leave. A few wanted to stay. Some merely attended out of fear or morbid curiosity, wanting to see who had survived the night. Derris Vern was of the final group. He'd been drunk since the preceding afternoon, but the horror of the ceremony... horrors that he had mostly missed... had sobered him. Derris had no idea what they were going to do. His wife wanted to stay. HE wanted to know what happened to his brother.

No one seemed to know, although some looked away oddly when he asked if they'd heard from him. Derris didn't know what that meant; but he didn't like it.

Men spoke of plans to flee across the Wasteland. They were shouted down by those who wanted to farm it with sweat and muscle to replace the demon's dark blessing. This idea was pulled down by howls of panic, and a shriek from a woman who'd just been bitten by something unseen... and who died an hour later. None of this matched the outrage that erupted when Theema Vern suggested... no, DARED to suggest... that they find a way to summon the demon and forge a new covenant. She went so far as to suggest they re-enter the Town Hall... and the chamber below it... in search of clues as to how this might be done.

This is how Derris and Theema Vern found themselves limping through the not-quite-abandoned town, each struggling under the weight of a multitude of bruises. Derris bore the worst of it from trying to protect his wife. Theema, who'd been exhausted when the meeting began, was now all the weaker from attempting to shout down... and then ward off... the entire remaining population of Eagle's Crown.

Now they were going home, where Theema intended to renew the search for her missing mother, and Derris intended to drink until sanity returned to the world. Or until he passed out, whichever occurred first. The quickest route was through the town, and despite her husband's protests, Theema refused to veer around the Town Hall. She had no desire to ENTER it... yet... but she would not avoid it out of mere fear.

And so it was pure chance... perhaps... that they were across from the Town Hall when a single dark figure detached itself from the shadows and made its way toward the building.

Derris didn't recognize him at first. In fact, he barely SAW the man until he was almost upon them, crossing their path at a distance of only a few yards. The tall figure stepped into the road ahead of them and didn't seem to notice them as he walked toward the Town Hall.

Derris pulled his muttering wife to a halt, and silenced her protest with a sharp gesture... for which he expected to pay dearly later.

Noticing them, the figure stopped. It turned toward them after a moment of hesitation, and in that moment, it seemed to... change.

A trick of the light. Dawn was not quite upon them, and the shadows might easily add height and weight to an otherwise recognizable figure. It might change the color of a robe... or the features of a face...

...it might make otherwise normal eyes flicker with a strange light for a just the briefest moment.

But then it would be gone.

Derris shook his head.

"Fenton!" His wife snapped. "Why ware you sneaking about!"

And there he was. Fenton Barny's impatient frown lightened to a smile.

Derris sighed. He didn't know what he thought he'd seen... but it hadn't been Fenton and he was happy to have been wrong.

"Fenton, have you seen Lowell?"

"Or my mother!" Theema injected. "Have you seen my mother? And what are you doing here?"

"Are you leaving?" Derris wanted to get his questions in before Theema exhausted the man. "Everyone else is leaving, Fenton. Well... not everyone, but I don't know if it's safe! I mean..." Derris looked at his wife. "...we've got a family! But it's not safe to GO, either! What about you, Fenton? Are you... what do you think we should do?"

Fenton glanced at Derris, but gave Theema a long stare. His eyes traveled down her torso and lingered at her stomach before shifting back to Derris. Then he answered:

"Take Dem. Take dem and go fah from hir."

"Eh?" Derris recoiled from the low, accented growl. "What's wrong with your voice?"

Fenton cleared his throat and tried again.

"Go," he said. "This ain't no place for a family. Not any more."

"Have you seen my mother?"

"Or Lowell? Have you seen my brother?"

"Seen? No. He wasn't with us when we shut the door."

"We?"

"You ran early," Fenton explained. "Worse things happened after you got out. Lot's worse-"

"We heard that," Theema snapped. "But WHO shut the door!"

"We all did," Fenton sighed. "Everyone who managed to stop running. We had to. It was... it was LOOSE in there! And it was gonna be loose out HERE with our families if we didn't!"

"But... but you didn't see Lowell?"

"No," said Fenton. "No sign of him. If there was, I wouldn't have... nobody was alive when we shut that door, Derris. Believe me on this. If he's not out here with us, then he was dead before the door was shut. Your mother, too, Theema."

"And what are you doing now, eh?" Theema snapped. "Looting? Ransacking houses before you run like a-"

"Some people," Fenton fixed Theema with a hard stare. "Some people got ideas of opening that door again. Maybe to take a look around... Maybe to do something else. Me? I'm gonna leave... but before I do, I'm gonna make sure nobody's done anything foolhardy. And if they haven't, maybe I'll wreck the mechanism that opens the door. Slow 'em down, if nothing else. Give those who're leavin' time ta get out."

"Sounds sensible-"

"No it doesn't!" Theema spat. "We can still summ-"

"This town is broken, woman!" Fenton snapped. "Dead and broken! You wanna stay here and die among de wreckage, that's your business. But if somebody decides to open old wounds before dere even old yet... there's no tellin' what might happen. Maybe if you leave and go far enough, you and your child will be safe."

Derris blinked.

"I don't remember telling you about that. When did I-"

"YOU, Fenton Barny, are a coward! Always have been. And you've always hated anyone who wasn't as cowardly as you. That's why you and my husband got along so well!"

"You weren't there in that chamber," Fenton hissed at Theema. "You heard... but you didn't SEE. If you had, you might not be standin here now. You mighta run out of that room and kept on runnin into the wasteland like some did. But I didn't. I stayed here and closed that door so maybe we can all have a second chance." Fenton ended with another glance at Theema's abdomen.

"Nonsense," said Theema. "We-"

"Let's go." Derris grabbed his wife's thin arm in one meaty fist. He pulled her... gently... along with him.

"What? Where!?"

"I've been in enough fights for your sake tonight." Derris' gentle pulling becam more insistent. "We're leaving. And by that, I mean we're leaving this TOWN before you get me killed."

"You can't decide that!" Theema tried to pull free of his grip. "You can't decide for me; I have-"

Lowell let her go, but rounded on her with his fists clenched but motionless at his sides.

"SHUT UP!" he screamed. "They're DEAD! Our families are DEAD! Any influence you had in this town is DEAD too! WE are all we've got now! The two of us! But at least we're FREE!"

"Free to die in that wasteland."

"Don't you get it! Our child won't ever have to worry about... about what we did here! He won't even have to know! Fenton's right... it's a second chance, but only if we take it!"

"We'll talk about this," Theema growled. She shot a glance at Fenton, then started walking.

"Yes," Derris said as he followed. "We'll talk about which direction to go while we're packing!"

Fenton stood and watched them. Eventually the couple carried their argument out of earshot, and only then did he smile.

"Enjoy your second chance," he said. "Find your magic and your colors... and perhaps our paths will cross again..."

Fenton turned toward the Town Hall, and as he did, his features shifted... becoming a jumble of curves, lines, and bulges before settling once again into the face that Derris had seen only briefly. The shadows claimed him the following instant, and he made his way in darkness toward... and into... the Town Hall.

Minutes later, the silence was broken by the unmistakable sound of metal grinding against stone.