Post by steve on Jan 7, 2012 16:59:03 GMT -6
PART 0121
It had been a trap, a trap that Salvare would have walked right into had Angela not spotted it.
The ambushers had heard Angela's voice but, by the time the ambushers had run over to where Salvare & Angela had been standing, the two were already deep into the forest. Salvare could hear the angry & obscene-laden tirades of the ambushers off in the distance as they tried desperately to find their prey.
"We know your kind blew up the Mail Car!" Salvare could hear one of them shout, "We'll find you!"
Salvare & Angela walked deeper into the woods until they could no longer hear the ambushers.
"Why do they hate us?" Angela asked.
"There are people who judge other people based upon where they come from or what they do for a living," Salvare explained, "They don't understand that you're supposed to judge a person on who they are."
Salvare & Angela waited for a while in the woods. Angela described to Salvare the trees, the rocks & all of the other local surroundings. Salvare tried to imagine what Angela was looking at but he knew that he couldn't. Color was an abstract concept to him & always would be.
"Salvare, there's a man over there," Angela stated, again ignoring that Salvare would never be able to see the direction she was pointing in.
"On the metal road?" Salvare asked, concerned.
"In the forest, walking," Angela replied.
"Do you see a hop line?" Salvare asked, "Is he following a hop line?"
"I don't know," Angela said, "I'll go find out."
Before Salvare could even reply, he could hear footsteps running away from him.
"Angela!" Salvare replied, "Angela! Please wait!"
Angela rushed towards the man &, as she did so, could hear the faint hint of chimes off in the distance.
===========================
PART 0122
"I'm telling you," Sam stated, "It was Malcolm who did all this! I heard it from three travelers walking to this very settlement! They caught him & now he's being interrogated by the priests. Word has it that there are others behind all this as well."
Sam had injected himself into as many conversations as he could, reciting the same story with slight variations.
Elsewhere, Harold was spreading the same story.
Malcolm had been caught.
Malcolm had confessed to doing everything.
Malcolm swore that others were also in on the plot.
Most importantly of all, though - Malcolm had proof of co-conspirators. Malcolm had evidence.
Sam had caught up to some travelers just entering the settlement & had them agree to spread the story.
Between the two of them, they made certain that everyone in the settlement knew the rumor. The other travelers would soon spread it to other settlements. Soon, other travelers would spread the rumor even further.
Sam & Howard's plan wasn't for the rumor to become fact but that is what it soon became for reasons that far exceeded their comprehension.
The metal road civilization needed a villain, a personification for all of their recent grief & misery. They had found that personification in Malcolm. It didn't matter that Malcolm had long since died. It didn't matter that Malcolm's name was being used for the unfair convenience of other parties.
All that mattered was that two people in particular would take notice of the rumor... And they did.
===============================
PART 0123
The metal road was both deserted & crowded at the same time.
The metal road was deserted of travelers, seeking refuge at the campground, inside settlements or even making camps just off of the metal road using hop lines.
The metal road was crowded with bands of marauding patrols from settlements eager to lay blame of society's ills onto the travelers.
The Bat had little problem moving along the road, deftly defying no less then four such patrols as they scoured the metal road & the nearby forest bordering it.
"Road's no place for a traveler!" One patroller yelled out, adding, "You best just hide in the forest for now. If we can't find ya, we can't beat on ya!"
The Bat was half-tempted to take advantage of the patrols' amateur searches. It would have been easy to have killed a few of the patrollers as they wandered away from their packs, swiping at nearby vegetation with poles & sticks to see if they could intimidate scared travelers out of hiding.
The Bat, though, had a job to perform & he had a personal rule against "free" kills that did not advance completion of his jobs.
As he continued to walk towards the cult where one of The Three Blind Mice was hiding, he began to think of how he might attempt to find the third & final member of the gang.
The Bat also thought about how he could take advantage of the events that had unfolded recently. People enjoyed taking revenge upon others & The Bat envisioned that several offers to kill travelers & aggressive patrollers would begin to filter in. The Bat smiled as he realized that, in good times or bad, he was never without work.
=================================
PART 0124
Salvare could hear Angela running further away from him in the distance.
"Angela!" Salvare yelled out.
A dry, brittle & dead branch swatted Salvare right in the mouth as he attempted to close the distance between himself & Angela. Having no time to be reminded of what dead twigs tasted like, he pressed forward.
Unlike Angela, Salvare had to rely only on sound - The faster he ran, the louder the leaves crunched underneath his feet, the louder the twigs snapped as he bulldozed through them & the less he could hear of Angela running.
Salvare stopped for a moment, his ears ringing while listening to the sound of catching his own breath.
Nothing. No sound.
"Hey!" Angela said in the distance, "Stop!"
"Angela!" Salvare yelled, turning his head towards the direction of Angela's distant voice.
As Salvare ran towards the direction of Angela's voice, he wondered what would compel her to be so brash so suddenly. What had she seen to cause her to be so reckless?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Hey!" Angela demanded, not knowing how whiny her youthful voice actually was, "Stop!"
"You're lost!" Angela tried to reason, the whine in her voice increasing, "We can help you find the metal road again! Stop!"
Suddenly, the man stopped & stood still. Slowly, he turned around towards Angela.
He looked directly into Angela's eyes & smiled.
"You're a special little girl," the man said calmly, "Your Daddy must be very proud."
Angela, stunned, said nothing in response.
"Read this to your Daddy," the man said, handing a large, folding piece of paper to Angela. Angela, numb, let the piece of paper fall from her hand. The man picked the piece of paper back up & stuffed it down the back of her shirt.
Angela never remembered the man leaving but did hear Salvare walk up behind her.
===============================
PART 0125
"You shouldn't be here," Alexander stressed, although his voice was as calm as though he were relaying the day's weather.
"It's all over the settlement... Probably beyond," Benjamin stated, "In a day or two, the entire..."
"The entire... metal road?" Alexander politely interrupted, "Will know what? Will know of a rumor with no evidence. Will know of several variants of a rumor... With no evidence."
"Men will also swing at sounds if they are frightened by them," Benjamin replied, "Regardless of whether they know if the sound is made with ill intent or not."
"The masses will celebrate more then anything else," Alexander bitterly admitted, "Their mail car destroyed, the heretics at the campground attacked... And still, they will celebrate all because of a rumor that supposedly answers their misery."
"We must address the rumor," Benjamin stressed, "At the least, we must be prepared in case this rumor... Develops unfortunately."
"How?" Alexander asked simply, "How do we draw attention to ourselves in order to make ourselves inaudible?"
"Should we not, at least, purge the last remains of actual evidence in the event, however rare, that this rumor persists?" Benjamin asked.
Alexander thought for a moment, then replied, "Absolutely. Under cover of gossip, no one shall notice if we are absent to perform other duties."
"Then let us begin," Benjamin said with a sigh of relief, "The sooner the burden is lifted, the better."
"Of course," Alexander agreed, "All burdens, eventually, should be disposed of."
It had been a trap, a trap that Salvare would have walked right into had Angela not spotted it.
The ambushers had heard Angela's voice but, by the time the ambushers had run over to where Salvare & Angela had been standing, the two were already deep into the forest. Salvare could hear the angry & obscene-laden tirades of the ambushers off in the distance as they tried desperately to find their prey.
"We know your kind blew up the Mail Car!" Salvare could hear one of them shout, "We'll find you!"
Salvare & Angela walked deeper into the woods until they could no longer hear the ambushers.
"Why do they hate us?" Angela asked.
"There are people who judge other people based upon where they come from or what they do for a living," Salvare explained, "They don't understand that you're supposed to judge a person on who they are."
Salvare & Angela waited for a while in the woods. Angela described to Salvare the trees, the rocks & all of the other local surroundings. Salvare tried to imagine what Angela was looking at but he knew that he couldn't. Color was an abstract concept to him & always would be.
"Salvare, there's a man over there," Angela stated, again ignoring that Salvare would never be able to see the direction she was pointing in.
"On the metal road?" Salvare asked, concerned.
"In the forest, walking," Angela replied.
"Do you see a hop line?" Salvare asked, "Is he following a hop line?"
"I don't know," Angela said, "I'll go find out."
Before Salvare could even reply, he could hear footsteps running away from him.
"Angela!" Salvare replied, "Angela! Please wait!"
Angela rushed towards the man &, as she did so, could hear the faint hint of chimes off in the distance.
===========================
PART 0122
"I'm telling you," Sam stated, "It was Malcolm who did all this! I heard it from three travelers walking to this very settlement! They caught him & now he's being interrogated by the priests. Word has it that there are others behind all this as well."
Sam had injected himself into as many conversations as he could, reciting the same story with slight variations.
Elsewhere, Harold was spreading the same story.
Malcolm had been caught.
Malcolm had confessed to doing everything.
Malcolm swore that others were also in on the plot.
Most importantly of all, though - Malcolm had proof of co-conspirators. Malcolm had evidence.
Sam had caught up to some travelers just entering the settlement & had them agree to spread the story.
Between the two of them, they made certain that everyone in the settlement knew the rumor. The other travelers would soon spread it to other settlements. Soon, other travelers would spread the rumor even further.
Sam & Howard's plan wasn't for the rumor to become fact but that is what it soon became for reasons that far exceeded their comprehension.
The metal road civilization needed a villain, a personification for all of their recent grief & misery. They had found that personification in Malcolm. It didn't matter that Malcolm had long since died. It didn't matter that Malcolm's name was being used for the unfair convenience of other parties.
All that mattered was that two people in particular would take notice of the rumor... And they did.
===============================
PART 0123
The metal road was both deserted & crowded at the same time.
The metal road was deserted of travelers, seeking refuge at the campground, inside settlements or even making camps just off of the metal road using hop lines.
The metal road was crowded with bands of marauding patrols from settlements eager to lay blame of society's ills onto the travelers.
The Bat had little problem moving along the road, deftly defying no less then four such patrols as they scoured the metal road & the nearby forest bordering it.
"Road's no place for a traveler!" One patroller yelled out, adding, "You best just hide in the forest for now. If we can't find ya, we can't beat on ya!"
The Bat was half-tempted to take advantage of the patrols' amateur searches. It would have been easy to have killed a few of the patrollers as they wandered away from their packs, swiping at nearby vegetation with poles & sticks to see if they could intimidate scared travelers out of hiding.
The Bat, though, had a job to perform & he had a personal rule against "free" kills that did not advance completion of his jobs.
As he continued to walk towards the cult where one of The Three Blind Mice was hiding, he began to think of how he might attempt to find the third & final member of the gang.
The Bat also thought about how he could take advantage of the events that had unfolded recently. People enjoyed taking revenge upon others & The Bat envisioned that several offers to kill travelers & aggressive patrollers would begin to filter in. The Bat smiled as he realized that, in good times or bad, he was never without work.
=================================
PART 0124
Salvare could hear Angela running further away from him in the distance.
"Angela!" Salvare yelled out.
A dry, brittle & dead branch swatted Salvare right in the mouth as he attempted to close the distance between himself & Angela. Having no time to be reminded of what dead twigs tasted like, he pressed forward.
Unlike Angela, Salvare had to rely only on sound - The faster he ran, the louder the leaves crunched underneath his feet, the louder the twigs snapped as he bulldozed through them & the less he could hear of Angela running.
Salvare stopped for a moment, his ears ringing while listening to the sound of catching his own breath.
Nothing. No sound.
"Hey!" Angela said in the distance, "Stop!"
"Angela!" Salvare yelled, turning his head towards the direction of Angela's distant voice.
As Salvare ran towards the direction of Angela's voice, he wondered what would compel her to be so brash so suddenly. What had she seen to cause her to be so reckless?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Hey!" Angela demanded, not knowing how whiny her youthful voice actually was, "Stop!"
"You're lost!" Angela tried to reason, the whine in her voice increasing, "We can help you find the metal road again! Stop!"
Suddenly, the man stopped & stood still. Slowly, he turned around towards Angela.
He looked directly into Angela's eyes & smiled.
"You're a special little girl," the man said calmly, "Your Daddy must be very proud."
Angela, stunned, said nothing in response.
"Read this to your Daddy," the man said, handing a large, folding piece of paper to Angela. Angela, numb, let the piece of paper fall from her hand. The man picked the piece of paper back up & stuffed it down the back of her shirt.
Angela never remembered the man leaving but did hear Salvare walk up behind her.
===============================
PART 0125
"You shouldn't be here," Alexander stressed, although his voice was as calm as though he were relaying the day's weather.
"It's all over the settlement... Probably beyond," Benjamin stated, "In a day or two, the entire..."
"The entire... metal road?" Alexander politely interrupted, "Will know what? Will know of a rumor with no evidence. Will know of several variants of a rumor... With no evidence."
"Men will also swing at sounds if they are frightened by them," Benjamin replied, "Regardless of whether they know if the sound is made with ill intent or not."
"The masses will celebrate more then anything else," Alexander bitterly admitted, "Their mail car destroyed, the heretics at the campground attacked... And still, they will celebrate all because of a rumor that supposedly answers their misery."
"We must address the rumor," Benjamin stressed, "At the least, we must be prepared in case this rumor... Develops unfortunately."
"How?" Alexander asked simply, "How do we draw attention to ourselves in order to make ourselves inaudible?"
"Should we not, at least, purge the last remains of actual evidence in the event, however rare, that this rumor persists?" Benjamin asked.
Alexander thought for a moment, then replied, "Absolutely. Under cover of gossip, no one shall notice if we are absent to perform other duties."
"Then let us begin," Benjamin said with a sigh of relief, "The sooner the burden is lifted, the better."
"Of course," Alexander agreed, "All burdens, eventually, should be disposed of."