Mad Tales

Chapter 4 - Salvation-2

“Don’t try to run, little witch,” it said. “You lame, and you small, and I’m the serpent, the adversary, the Liar.”

My eyes skittered over the path around me, looking for a weapon. There in the brush on the right, a fat tree branch about as long as my arm. I squatted down and picked it up, sucking in my breath at the pain in my right shin. It wasn’t a tree branch. It was part of an old post. Oak. Petrified. Probably left over from the war.

That’s when the thing leaped at me, snapping its teeth. I stood, swung the post back, and knocked it across the snout with all of my strength! It yelped and crashed into the brush. Instead of running like I should have, I waded into the weeds to finish it off. It lay on its side, panting and whining. It’s eye rolled as I approached, and it bared its teeth and growled deep in its chest. I’d bashed the side of its head in.

“Take that you stupid devil! I ain’t no lame witch! I’m of Salvation. And you a dead demon.”

I raised the post over my head to bash the rest of it in, and that’s when I heard more growls.

I paused, and my eyes swiveled to the left and the right, that post still held over my head in my shaking arms. The devil’s generals was all around me in the brush: one in front, two down the path.

I slowly stepped back onto the dirt, the post still raised. I’d regained my breath, but my leg was giving me more trouble than I thought. Every step was agony, and the center of the bruise pulsed every time my foot touched the ground. It was now or never.

I spun and sprinted away. Well, I tried to sprint. It looked more like I as lunging forward every other step. The beasts let up a yelp and gave chase. Blood pounded in my ears as I tore though The Ring. The post slowed me down, but if I ditched it I was dead for sure. One of them things nipped at my heel. “Hi!” I cried, swinging behind me. I felt it connect and heard the thing yelp and I ran faster.

Quick glance over my shoulder. Two left: one about two feet behind me, one farther back. The one closest to me nipped at my heel again.

I swung the post but it ducked. Then it opened its jaws and clamped down on my calf. I cried out and fell to my knees. Soon as I did, the creature let go and lunged for my throat. I shoved the post up and into its jaws, heard a sick crack. It yelped, but jaw was locked. It twisted its head back and forth and drooled and snarled, but I didn’t let go. One more second and the other monster would be on me, and it would chomp on my face and eyes, and it would tear out my throat.

I gritted my teeth.

If them things was going to kill me, I’d take at least one of ‘em with me.

Then I heard shouts and a thud. I shoved the post in deeper, and the thing whined and whipped its head back and forth one last time, but I still held on. Then something pierced its side with a thud, and it sagged over to the left. A spear had stuck clear through it, and wiggling there in the air. I didn’t even have time to wonder what was going on when two more spears zipped in and spiked the monster to the ground. It’s eyes glazed over, and then it stopped breathing.

I got to my feet, shaking. A familiar voice said, “Didn’t your Mama tell you not to go through The Ring?”

I turned around and there stood Miranda, hands on her hips, head c****d, a crooked smile on her face. Next to her was little ol’ Maynard, clapping the dust off his hands.

Well, the whole porch just blew up. Joe kissed Miranda on the cheek, and Daddy punched Joe in the arm, laughing.

“Don’t you mess with that one!”

Mama said, “I always knew Miranda was the smart one of you two.” And that brought more laughs.

“Man, I tell you,” Miranda said. “We wasn’t going to just let you face no devil by yourself.”

“How’d you know she was in there?” Joe asked, like he always done.

Miranda shrugged. She smiled at me.

“Just figured. She wasn’t going to let ol’ Jimmy Walts beat her, and she was slower than him in a straight up race.”

“Hey now!”

“It’s true.”

“Where’d you get them spears?”

“Ol’ Maynard found ‘em,” Miranda said. “Just settin’ on the road like they was waiting for us.”

Paw Paw whistled long and low.

“Hand of the Lord, hand of the Lord.”

“Well we too old to find out now,” I said. “You going to let me finish the rest of my story?”

“Ain’t nobody stopping you!”

When they got a look at me, Maynard whistled.

“You look like hell.”

Miranda’s jaw dropped at the curse. Maynard never really was one to mince words.

“What? You seen her, too.”

I have to admit, ol’ Devil worked me over pretty good. My smile was cracked lips and a wall of bloody teeth. Dress shredded in a dozen places, right leg all swole up and bleeding, left eye all swole up and bleeding, face lashed and welted, my whole body covered in dirt and mud, and little sticks sticking up out my kinky head.

“Well? We saved your butt. Don’t stop now. Jimmy’s probably about ten feet away from Main Gate.”

That was enough for me. I turned tail and ran.

“Don’t worry ‘bout us!”

And I didn’t, neither.

Ten minutes later I limped out onto Ring Road, about three hundred yards from Main Gate, which was to my left. Just when I did, I seen Jimmy turn round the corner about a quarter of a mile to my right.

And then I smiled, cause I won.

Dingalingaling! Ding Ding Ding! Mayor Bram rang the Noticing Bell until it bout cracked in half. People come out of their homes and from all over the place, crawled out the woods like ants, slunk down the street like spiders. Mama and me was standing on the platform facing everybody, and I was looking for Daddy, but he was fishing in the cove so I knew it’d be a while. Meanwhile, Mayor Bram was talking before everybody was even there, and he was loud, too. More he talked, though, quieter everyone got, until it was still as the bay at dawn.

He told everybody that there was Others on the edge of the fence. Everyone’s eyes flicked over me and I could feel the hate rolling off them. I just wanted to crawl away into a hole and cover up forever.

Then he told about when The People moved here after the war broke out between the Federals and the New States’ Confederacy. He told about The Battle of Ring Wall with his daddy and Grandaddy, and about the time they was up north and seen them people suffering from the blisters. And he told about our rules, and about what happened last time refugees tried to get in.

“But we have prevailed! We have survived against all odds. Preserved our lives and the lives of our children and our religion for almost a century of strife. All around us they fight their wars, they exert their power. But not over us.”

He paused, looked out over the crowd, and his voice became hushed, almost pleading.

“Now, our families, our children, our homes and our peace have been threatened once again.” He pointed out a man in a red flannel standing in the crowd, and the man blushed and shuffled nailed his eyes right on his feet. “You, John Gray. You lived in Helena not sixty years ago. What did you see?”

John Gray didn’t look up when he spoke, but his voice was clear and strong.

“I seen me some death and poverty. I seen despair and lies.”

“That’s right. That’s right! And you, Christine Thompson. Your parents was from Old Capital. What was it like there?”

“It was like the end of the world, Mayor. So my daddy used to tell me. Folks dying off like flies. No food, no meds, nothing at all. Anybody had anything, it was for the soldiers.”

Bram strode up and down the platform, finger pointing at Christine Thompson like he’d pin her to her spot. “For the soldiers!” He jabbed that finger at the sky. “For the soldiers!”

Whole town was looking up at the Mayor, eyes wide open, not blinking. They followed him while he paced back and forth, back and forth.

“You know what needs to be done. It is our way.”

He stopped and dropped his chin to his chest, crossed his hands solemnly in front of him. I heard the wind rushing through the trees, the gulls squawking down by the water. Finally, the mayor raised his head and fixed the crowd with his steely eyes. “As you all know the harvest is going to be a small one this year.”

Nods and murmurs from the crowd.

“The bay is not producing enough edible fish.”

More nods and acknowledgment. Some angry cries.

He stuck out his neck, bent over at the waist.

“Now why is that, I wonder? Why is that?”

Everybody’s eyes were cast down, staring at their shoes, pawing the dirt. Breeze picked up, mussing the mayor’s hair. He didn’t fix it. Mama gripped my shoulders, and I could hear her whispering a prayer.

He stood up, scowling at everybody.

“I’ll tell you why. Because it’s been two years! Two years!”

A soft shudder ran through the crowd, a murmur and gasp, and Mayor Bram held up two fingers.

“Two!”

Then he cast his cold eyes over the crowd, and he said in a low, dark rumble, “Well, I’m here to tell you today that we’re going to end that bad habit.”

About a half an hour later, the men Mayor Bram sent out after ol’ Raggity came jogging back into town, holding him over their heads like he was some kind of trophy. He was screaming because of his leg, but that didn’t slow them down at all. They ran right up to the Sunday school house behind the church.

Mayor Bram whispered in Mama’s ear, and Mama took me back there to the side door. She opened it up and brought me into the stairwell, then dragged me down into the basement and into the classroom. Raggity Man was tied down tight to one of them long desks we used for painting and crafts. I could see the pink stain from a jar of paint Molly Lavalle spilled there Sunday before. Mama turned me around and held my face in her hands.

“You be good, girl. And don’t be scared. This here for the good of all of us. Fear of this is foolishness.”

I nodded, and Mama spun on her heel and left me in the room. The door shut behind her with a click, and I heard her footsteps echo up the stairs, and then the door to the outside squeaked open and slammed shut, and then it was just me and that Raggity Man. I peered at him real close. He was sweating, his face was bright red, his teeth was clamped down on his bottom lip. He didn’t make no sound, just lay there, breathing through his nose. I could hear the swoosh of the wind, and every now and then he shifted on the table.

Finally he looked over at me, and with a face pinched tight in pain, he spoke.

“Little girl. Cut me loose.”

I didn’t say nothing. Just stared at him.

“Little girl, look.” His voice was rocks in a barrel. “Cut me loose. I won’t come back. I swear I won’t. I know who you are now. I won’t come back and I won’t tell nobody. Just cut me loose.”

I shook my head real slow, and the Raggity Man stared at me. He stared so long that I couldn’t take it no more, so I just looked at the floor. I heard the swoosh of the wind outside. There was a pair of shears on Teacher’s desk. I strolled over and was just about to reach out for them when somebody rapped on the window above.

I jumped about ten feet.

The windows were thin little rectangles set up near the ceiling. They let in just enough light to see by. I looked up, and there was dumb ol’ Jimmy Walts, bent over and pushing his nose against the glass! I waved at him and smiled real big to make him jealous, and he made a face and all the sudden he was jerked away. I seen two pairs of legs, Jimmy’s and his Daddy’s, stalking away from the Sunday School House.

I padded around the desk and up to the window, pulled out Teacher’s chair and stood on it, then stood up on my tip toes to see what was going on outside. I seen the people around the bell and Father Harris reading from the book, his voice getting louder over the groans and cries of his flock. Some was already starting to shake.

There was a clunk behind me, and some shuffling, and some low voices. I turned around and it was five men, one of them was Andy Rawlins. I knew him because I he was always gruff and mean and I was afraid of him. They each held a wood bowl in one hand and a copy of the book in the other.

“Get down, girl,” Andy Rawlins said, and I did. I straightened my dress.

Rest of them men gathered around ol’ Raggity, each coming to a halt at five points: one at each arm, one at each foot, and mean ol’ Andy Rawlins at his head.

Four of them started reading a passage from the book I ain’t never heard before. Then Andy Rawlins pulled out a big, flat, worn leather pouch he’d stuffed down his belt in the back. He set it on Teacher’s desk and opened it up. I saw all kinds of shiny knives flashing inside. He took one out that was as big as my arm and ran his finger along the blade. I’d seen daddy’s hunting knives before. They were pretty big, but not nearly as big as this one. This one looked like as sword. Like it could take a man’s head off in one swipe. The other men put down their books and grabbed the Raggity Man’s arms and feet.

“Hey!” Raggity Man yelled.

He started kicking with his good leg, and shouting, and he kicked one of the men clean off him. Kept on struggling till Andy Rawlins come up an grabbed him by his broke leg and shook it round a bit. Raggity howled something fierce and all the blood drained from his face. Then he started to weep, and he stared right at me, tears cutting pink patches through the dirt on his skin.

“Little girl.”

Outside I heard the Noticing Bell rattle softly over the thick moans of the people. I turned to look out the window again. I wanted to be out there, out there with Miranda and Mama and Maynard and even dumb ol’ Jimmy, but I wasn’t. I was in here.

“Little girl. Please.”

Andy Rawlins put the knife against his neck and drew it across. Blood fanned out and flooded down like a river.

He and the other men took up the bowls to catch what spilled over the edge. Ol’ Raggity gagged and gurgled, moaned and gasped, and the blood splashed into the bowls, and he started shaking and twitching. Got so bad they had to hold him down by lying cross his chest. After a while he stopped, and Andy Rawlins got up and reached for the worn leather pouch. He turned and fixed me with a stare to freeze mercury, and thrust out a skinning knife. Held it by the blade so its fancy, polished ivory handle shivered in the air. He shook it at me like an order. I heard it loud and clear.

There was a lot more cutting to do.