The Broken Earth

The Broken Earth (Chapter 4)

As daylight broke and the Sun took its first tentative glimpses over the horizon the damage Arthur's onslaught caused became abundantly clear. A ring of dead surrounded the camp, the mutilated corpses of Smilers piled up three bodies high in a carpet of the macabre. The smouldering remains of the campfire billowed a vast plume of smoke into the sky as it entered its last death-throes.

From the moment he had left his berserk state Arthur had been crouched on his haunches in front of the fire scanning the horizon for anything remotely resembling a threat, clutching his knife as though he wished to strangle it. All the while Mordred cackled into his ear and whispered sweet nothings about how futile his attempts to reach Eden were. At dawn, at some inaudible signal, he stood and stared at the sleeping child behind him.

The first thought that came to Arthur upon seeing Jonah clutching his makeshift blanket around him was one of regret. Regret that Jonah'd had such a terrible night. Regret that he'd seen what Arthur had done. Regret that he'd never have a child of his own. Regret that she died.

Steeling himself and preparing for the worst Arthur nudged the boy in a futile bid to wake him. "Get up," he growled, a feral edge to his voice that he immediately cursed. Jonah prized his bruised eyes open and started back instantly, seeking the safety of the stone behind him. "Calm down lad, I'm better now."

"Wha-What happened last night?" Jonah whimpered. Those paternal instincts that had appeared in recent days tugged at Arthur's heart as he struggled to deny them. He wanted to scoop the boy up in his arms and reassure him in a tender gesture as though he were his own son. That would be impossible now, his fit last night saw to that. Any physical contact from him now would be met with suspicion and fear and an attempt at fatherly affection would reinforce the idea of the poor bastard being a schizophrenic lunatic.

An eternal pause stretched out between them as Arthur attempted to navigate the minefield of his next words. "It was something I never thought would happen, lad. I'd been... I'd been repressing too much over the years and I just needed to vent it. I just couldn't take it. All those Smilers out there, all the pain they've caused me over the years, I just had to do what I did. I couldn't let them live. I couldn't let those bastard things run after what they'd done to me."

"But you could've stayed at the camp and protected it," Jonah cocked his head like a spaniel as he spoke. "You didn't have to go chasing them."

"I had to. They're monsters, kid."

"You kind of looked like a monster last night too." There it was. The elephant in the room had just been acknowledged, Arthur thought. That damned crusade of his against the Smilers and the Invaders was making him as bad as them. The sooner he was at Eden the better; he'd either be safe from them and himself in a safe environment or he'd be executed and be free from such trivial worries.

"I told you, Jonah, I'm better now." The force with which he spat those words made it clear he wasn't, even Arthur knew that, but Jonah nodded slowly in agreement. "Now come on kid, help me pack up the camp so we can get going."

Even as Jonah shuffled to roll up his sheet he repeated his canine gesture and asked "What are you going to do about the bodies? You going to bury them?"

Arthur laughed callously. "Hell no. I'm leaving them there for their comrades to pick up. I don't know what they do with them; bury them, eat them, whatever, but they always take away their dead and leave no traces."

"Maybe they vaporize them," Jonah piped up, struggling with the long word he'd never uttered before. "My parents said they did a lot of that in the invasion."

"Well clearly not anymore otherwise I would've been vaporized a long time ago. Now get packing like I said, Jonah." Arthur grunted as he stuffed handfuls of gear, anything he could find, into his pack and slung it on his back.