The Broken Earth

The Broken Earth (Chapter 4)

Another four hours went by in silence as Arthur carried his passenger through the wastes. All around them the lifeless vegetation became a more common sight; patches of dried grass and clumps of near fossilised hedges springing from the cracked and barren earth in all directions.

Upon the craggy horizon, countless miles in the distance a thin spiral tower shimmered in the sunlight. To the untrained eye it would appear to be a thorn covered sapling sprouting from the soil nearby, though its position behind the tallest of peaks in the region put the structure’s height at several hundred metres. Its polished metal surface reflected what little sunlight was uncovered by the dark blanket of clouds and the twists and curls in its shape echoed a creature writhing in pain. Bile rose in Arthur’s throat as he spotted it, a mixture of disgust and sadness sinking through him.

“What’s that?” Jonah inquired as he pointed at the tower. As Arthur looked over his shoulder he saw the boy’s face had lit up in curiosity.

“The invaders built those years ago,” he sighed. “Well I say the invaders did, they got the Smilers to build them for them. Thousands of them all across the world. No one really knows why they did it.”

“No one knows or you don’t know?” Jonah asked without a hint of mockery.

“There’s a few theories out there I guess. Some people thought it was just a monument to their triumph, other that it was of some military importance. I think it was used for something different,” Arthur’s face settled into an expression of intense hatred as he stared at the alien tower. “I think they used it to drain the lifeblood of the world. Just planted them things like fucking weeds and waited for them to suck up anything of use from the ground. I bet if you dug anywhere on Earth you’d never find anything but soil and clay; no metals, no fuels, no jewels, nothing. Guess that’s probably why they all left us, no reason left to stay.”

“What do you mean they all left? I thought those ones you call ‘Smilers’ were the invaders.”

“Are you sure they teach you right in that town of yours? The real invaders, the soldiers and masterminds, left a decade ago. The Smilers are something else, slaves I guess. Only ever saw them on TV either building their equipment or being used as cannon fodder. It didn’t occur to them to take their workers off Earth with them, just abandoned them here. They’ve gone feral over the past decade, maddened by the lack of resources and the alien environment no doubt. If you’d seen them during the invasion they were crafty bastards, now they’re just animals.”

“Just like you,” Mordred whispered harshly in Arthur’s ear.

“What did the invaders look like?”

Arthur pondered an answer but every time an image of the invaders was recalled his brain immediately forced it out of his thoughts. “Trust me, if you’d seen one you’d know about it,” he eventually grunted.

A minute went by in silence, Jonah chewing on his lip furiously. “Mister Arthur,” he eventually began, “what’s a TV?”

With a soft chuckle Arthur plodded on his trail, occasionally being corrected by vigorous shouting and pointing from his passenger.  After an hour, with the invader’s tower now hidden behind a craggy hill, the pair were greeted to a gaping canyon that seemed to open before them as they approached.

As they reached the edge of the vast chasm Jonah perked up and began pointing ahead of them. “There it is! In there! Eden’s in there!” Too tired to question, Arthur peered over the edge of the crevice. The vast scar in the ground carried down for at least a thousand feet and was roughly a mile wide. At the very bottom he could see a sprawling settlement surrounded by patches of green, a colour he hadn’t seen outside his shelter in years.

“How the- How on Earth am I meant to get down there?” Arthur grunted in disbelief at the boy who was now grinning and giggling with glee. “Am I meant to just climb down there with you on my back?”

“There’s a path a few hundred yards that way, it’ll take you right to the front gates.” Jonah nodded rapidly as he finished and pointed to their right.

Following Jonah’s directions Arthur trekked down into the chasm on a litter strewn path, wide enough to march a whole circus down. All across the road were rusted mechanical components, both human and alien in nature, broken farm tools and bleached animal bones. “At least you hope they’re animal and not lunatic bones, right Artie?” Mordred cackled away in Arthur’s head.

“Shut up,” Arthur hissed.

“What? I didn’t say anything,” Jonah raised his eyebrow as he spoke. “Erm... listen, thanks for helping me get back Mister Arthur. I’m sure the town will have some sort of reward for you.”

“Yeah, a bullet in the bloody brain.”

“Shut u- Look kid,” Arthur shook his head in a desperate bid to force Mordred’s serpentine voice from his ears. “I don’t want to trouble your people. I’ll just set you down outside and you can make your way back in. Your leg should be well enough to do that by now.”

“Oh, okay,” Jonah could barely keep his disappointment from his voice. Just great, Arthur thought, the kid’s taken a shine to a madman. Must be stir crazy himself in that case.

Before long the two of them reached the hurriedly patched fence, cobbled together from metal sheets of various size and thickness, that looked to stretch the entire length of the canyon. Rust attacked the edges of each plate of the outer defences and a thin walkway had been laid across the top lined with mesh and roofed with barbed wire. Directly before them was an immense gateway, taken straight from a medieval castle or so it seemed. Great planks of oak and pine had been nailed together and painted in a tar that had begun to fade and peel from both doors. Two immense trees grew at either side of the gate behind the fence itself, the overgrown branches smothering the walkway.

Arthur stopped short of the entrance and tentatively lowered Jonah to his feet. “Go on then kid, you get going and I’ll be on my way.”

“You sure you don’t want to come in?” Jonah’s face fell as he spoke and he folded his arms indignantly.

“This isn’t the right sort of place for me, I’ll just go back to the cottage.”

“Will I ever see you again?”

“I don’t know,” Arthur frowned. “Here, take this with you as a reminder, just in case you don’t see me after.” He slowly reached into his belt and grasped his knife. Not the best of ideas, he thought, giving the child a weapon. Especially since the only time Jonah had ever seen him use it was in a moment of madness. Still, it would serve as the perfect reminder. There was no way anyone would forget what had happened.

No sooner had Arthur pulled the knife from his belt and moved to hand it to the boy than he hurt two cracks of thunder. In an instant an intense pain struck his shoulder and stomach, pain like none other he had ever felt. A stabbing sensation condensed within an instant and punctuated by fire. As he collapsed onto his side and stared at the source of the pain realisation slowly hit him. He’d been shot. He was bleeding out. Town sentries must have taken him down, put him out of his misery like a rabid dog.

The last thought on his mind as he gazed at the screaming boy before him and unconsciousness claimed him was the triumphant screech of Mordred. “I told you this would happen!”