The Journeymen

All Is Lost

Jack knew that he was lucky. He didn't feel lucky but he knew that he was. He had awoken to the familiar loud ringing one gets when a gun is fired without ear plugs. Or when some other loud explosion occurs. Anya's limp form was draped across his body, still unconscious from being closer to the blast than he was. It was likely that Anya, who stood between Jack and the explosion in the main hall, had actually dampened the shock wave.

He reached up and clapped a hand to one of his ringing ears, attempting in vain to ease some of the pain. When his hand came away with blood, he knew that one or most likely both of his eardrums had been ruptured. He could see from the blood coming from one of Anya's ears which was close to his face that her eardrums were ruptured too.

From the smell of smoke, he knew the building was on fire and that he needed to get himself and his apprentice out. And anyone else who survived. Jack knew that the chances were not good for anybody who was inside the main hall but blocked that thought from his mind.

Carefully, he rolled Anya to the floor, cradling the back of her head in his hand as he placed it on the ground. He could feel that the hair on the back of her head and even the clothes on her back had been singed by the fiery concussive force but her front side seemed almost untouched aside from the blood that had run from her ears onto her cheeks. A quick visual inspection showed that nothing appeared out of place. He could see that the skin on the back of her neck and arms already looked inflamed, probably having suffered minor burns.

He shifted to his feet in a low squat and, grabbing Anya's arm by the wrist, lifted her into a fireman's carry. Despite her relatively light weight, Jack felt himself stagger. He could feel that his balance was off and knew that he most likely had a concussion. He tried to shake the dizziness from his head before walking through the open door that led into the hallway.

Just outside the main hall, there was a body laying on the ground. He could see the light of a raging fire flickering on the wall opposite the doors to the main hall. The body was a man's body which lay face down on the floor and the master Journeyman was able to quickly identify that the body was not the one he was most concerned with finding. Jack hurried to look through the doors, hoping that there might be survivors in the room even though he knew there wouldn't be.

Inside the main hall, Jack immediately knew all hope for any other survivors was lost. He could see nothing past the flames and black smoke which billowed out into the hallway. The man who had fought against countless enemies over the years was now no longer winning the fight against his dread and pain. Tears began to stream down his cheeks as he turned to inspect the body, coughing as his body rejected the toxic black smoke.

The man whose body lay face down on the floor seemed to have suffered a significantly more serious version of Anya's fate. His back was severely burned, the skin either black or red and blistering. The shirt had been ripped from his back and his pants were slightly burned. Jack did could see the rise and fall of his back, showing that though severely injured, the man lived.

Jack knelt down, Anya still slung across his back, and picked up one of the man's legs, wrapping his fingers around his shin in an attempt to avoid further damaging any of the burned flesh. He then began to stagger out through the main doors of the Meeting House.

When he was met outside by the founder of the Journeymen, Evan Haldane, Jack had only said three words, "Chuck is dead," before nearly collapsing into the smaller man. Although he had not seen the body, he could not deny that his partner had been killed in the explosion. What caused the explosion, and who was responsible for it, Jack did not know. He only knew that his best friend in the world, his mentor, his brother, was dead.

Evan had held Jack whilst he sobbed for a few moments before sitting his friend down on a curb next to the two more severely injured casualties of the attack. Evan had healed Jack's ears right away and aside from a concussion, he was uninjured. The main healer for the town watch had arrived and immediately began working on the man who Evan had identified as Walter. Of all of the Journeymen to survive the assault, Jack was crushed that it was one of the men responsible for the meeting occurring at all.

Just as Evan began to organize the town watch to fight the fire that raged on the meeting house, Liza had arrived, robed in clean, bright pink pajamas, her face covered in a ridiculous green mud mask with curlers in her hair. The comedy in her appearance was not lost on Jack but he somehow couldn't find it within himself to even smile. Whatever bad blood existed between the women was forgotten or at least ignored as Liza set to work on his apprentice without hesitation.

Jack, his head in his hands, had turned over the events of the night in his mind. He had stormed out with Walter apparently following him, probably intending to lecture his peer for his behavior. His angry outburst has saved both of their lives. He heard Evan organizing men and women, both in forming a bucket brigade to prevent the spread of the fire and to run in and out of the unaffected parts of the building collecting belongings, supplies, and whatever other valuables that could be collected. The animals were also being rescued from the stables adjacent to the building, George and the other mounts of the Journeymen being pulled away to safety.

Liza had graciously volunteered her home for Jack, Anya, and Evan to stay and recover. Walter would be taken by the town watch to the hospital where the lone doctor and modestly skilled healers would hopefully be able to save his life. Martin immediately leapt into action, preparing extra bedrooms, drawing up water, and even preparing some of Liza's precious supply of coffee. The woman was clearly wealthy because she had a supply of only slightly stale coffee beans.

Jack had been instructed by Evan to at least change clothes and wash his face. The men and women of the town watch had been successful in collecting all of his, Chuck's, Gabe's, and Anya's belongings from their rooms as they had all been staying in a separate wing of the Meeting House. All of their clothes reeked of smoke and were to be washed by Martin so Jack was forced to borrow clothes from his significantly shorter leader. He wore a pair of green basketball shorts that were too short, and a tan t-shirt which was one size too small.

Jack and Evan sat at the small table, Martin busy with the preparations involved with three unplanned guests, Liza working on Anya to heal whatever burns she had and ease the trauma on the apprentice Journeyman's brain after being knocked unconscious by the blast. The two men sipped the coffee, Jack taking in the bitter warm concoction and savoring it.

"I know it might be hard, but fill me in on how we got here. And is that Rick Thompson's daughter Anya back there in that room with a severe concussion?" Evan carefully asked, trying to put together a picture of the events that led up to his arrival.

Jack took another sip from his coffee before walking Evan through everything from the patrol, Anya's village, their journey to Dumas, their companion, Gabe the powerful wizard whose whereabouts were still a mystery, and finally the explosion. Jack also explained that he and Chuck had been interested in taking Anya as an apprentice for a while and that she was already taking to magic exceptionally well. His mind occupied with the telling of the story, he was unconcerned with the new information that Evan knew Anya's father Rick.

Throughout the story Evan had mostly just nodded while listening, not interrupting to ask questions. His concern was obvious when Jack mentioned the message of "Arise" which was carved into the chest of the tortured watchman from Anya's village.

"For now we have to figure out how tonight's attack happened and what we're going to do about it. Maybe Anya will be able to tell us more. We need to find this wizard of yours and see if he saw or heard anything. Powerful wizards can also sense when big magic is used. I suspect if we ask your friend Liza, she'll tell us the reason she came running was because she sensed something big. If Gabe is as strong as you say, maybe he'll know more. I'm going to send runners out to locate him." Evan produced a radio from his backpack and spoke with someone from the town watch. "And Jack, once we've dealt with this, I have something I need to tell you and Anya. This is bigger than you know." Evan then turned to walk out of the house, again speaking into his radio.

As Evan closed the door behind him, Jack heard voices coming from the room where Anya was recovering. He heard the door open and heard Liza calmly calling for him. He knew Anya was awake. He knew that he would have to tell her about Chuck. At least he was fairly certain that Gabe was safe. The young woman would be lucky to have the wizard there for her. Hopefully she would feel luckier than Jack was feeling in that moment as he stood to go tell her the horrible news.