V - Charlie
"What's
happening?" It was the first thing
Charlie had said since leaving the apartments, and after all that they had just
been through it seemed a little pointless to ask. Even so, Charlie found it a relief, albeit a small one, to
vocalise his confusion.
"I
don't know."
He wasn't
really sure which one of the adults had said that. Probably not the old man, but it didn't matter. They were all as lost and scared as he was. That much was obvious. They stood atop the hill, staring down at
the burning city centre as its familiar buildings, the multi-storey car park
towers, the domes and spires, melted or faded away. The city shrank. Roads
changed shaped. Older buildings shifted
slightly, removing an extension here or a piece of scaffolding there, then some
of them disappeared as well. Even from
the distance of the hilltop it was possible to see stone buildings being
replaced by wooden ones, tarmac by cobbles and mud. It was also possible to hear silence being replaced by screams.
"There
are people down there!" That was
the old man. He was suddenly standing
ahead of the group, nearly dropping his papers as he shook with fear and
excitement.
"Yes,"
Josh, "and they're dying."
They
watched and listened for a moment longer without speaking. It sounded like there was a battle going on
between the flames.
"It's
a slaughter!" Paige said suddenly,
her hand to her mouth.
"We're
not going to be able to help them by joining them. We should stick to the hospital plan."
Charlie
turned to face Josh who was already walking away down the hill. It seemed wrong that they should be
following him, but he didn't want to head into the burning city any more than
anyone else so, slowly, he stepped away from Paige and began walking.
"We
aren't - We can't -” Henry shouted after them.
"We're not just leaving them!"
Josh
turned around on the spot, his shoulders tense and his face hard. "You are the one that wanted to
try the hospital, so now we're going.
Let's move!"
Paige
drifted away from the hilltop, but Henry seemed frozen there. Charlie could see the look of horror on his
face as the light of the fire passed across it. He clutched his papers to his chest as if they were his
salvation.
"Come
on Charlie." Paige put a hand on
his shoulder. "He'll follow in his
own time."
Charlie
nodded and they made their way down the hill, following the path of the torch
beam, before taking the first turn off west, towards Devara Hill.
VI - Henry
Henry
watched the flames rage across the city he knew so well. The screams.
The shouts. The roar of the
inferno. He watched it and he
remembered; not the memories of childhood, or of youth or middle age, these
were second hand memories. He
remembered a city built mostly of wood, where granite was reserved only for
those buildings deemed important or official.
He remembered the night the army came and set the wood alight.
How
is this happening? The past can't just
bubble up to the present like this.
All
the history papers he had read, the old colleagues and their projects digging
beneath the streets, his father and grandfather telling tales late at night, it
all seemed to add up to the scene before him, and it shouldn't have done.
It
can't be real. It happened too long
ago. This is the 21st Century. This is now. This is...
He
turned from the flames and saw the silhouettes of his companions disappear
around a corner at the bottom of the hill, the torch light fading with their
passage.
I am alone.
He held his
papers tight and ran down the hill...
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