Savage is the Dawn

Boiler Room ~ Part Two ~

"You don't look so good, Jack. I don't like that look in your eyes," Kip leaned forward.

"I killed them. I thought I was smart. I felt they had justified... that thing. I thought I was an evil man. Would that I were an evil man, I would be spared the pains of my memories being used as battering rams against my soul! They beat against the health of my mind like the echo of drums in the darkness! Oh, God. Oh, dear Lord! I, I didn't mean to... I didn't want to... but I did. I did want them dead... just not me, It should have been God what brought vengeance on them! God what turned them to pillars of salt! God will grant me vengeance! Yet, I did it. I killed them. Not God. Not justice. I killed Melody, Sampson, Samantha, Grayson, and the ****** they laid with... she was my..."

Tears; at that moment all I had were tears.

"Jack or whatever your name is... You can't be your own worst enemy. You did something horrifying, fair. Now do something wonderful, that's how that works. We have important work to do and we need you man. Even psychotic monsters have a proper place in the world."

"We had work to do... look at us now."

"Our work looks like exactly this. Break out of this cage, take the medicine and find a way back to Akatan before daylight... and for that, we'll need a monster."

"Two monsters," Sila leaned forward.

He was about to speak when something happened in the village. A crowd moved and down the treacherous steep temple steps came the half-cracked 'Earthen Traveler' magazine photographer, who probably got fired a year ago and never knew it.

"Hey boys!"

"Hey yourself. We getting out of this bamboo box anytime soon?"

"Yeah, yeah... the ceremony is almost ready. What a treat, what a treat!"

"What kind of ceremony?"

"Sacred stuff, man. Sacred stuff. I don't want to tell you about it too soon. A few of you will die, of course. Morall. For the troops, you might say."

"Fuck that," Kip stood halfway up and shook the bars. The spearman turned his spear around and with the back blunt side jammed the rod down on the back of kips head. He winced and clutched at the scalp wound as he sat back down.

"Yeha, yeah, yeah.. Sorry, but death is no evil... HE is. This is right man. He's a GOD and you, you walked on his land, man on his land! You didn't take your sandals off, you see. That's what he said... said, 'you didn't take your sandals OFF'... it's going to really be something got to wait for the moon to be directly over the sunrise first... so I came to bring you water and some fruits. I'm not sure who's the lamb and who's the lion, he'll decide when the spheres aline. Tonight, tonight!" and with that he handed us both the fruit and the dread and took a picture with a bright sickly flash, then he turned and went back up the massive stone steps giggling to himself.

"Crazy bastard."

"Looks like we wait, unless we can attack these guards."

"Not the move... let wait for the right moment."

"We gotta have a better plan than that."

"Yeah, I'm thinking, but for now the best I've got is know the moment and go for it."

"What a general pile of shit. 'Know the moment and go for it?' Your plan to escape is just to escape...?"

"Fuck off man. I've never been in a cage before and unlike you I don't actually deserve to be in one."

"Low blow."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that... times is tough is all I'm saying."

"Times is tough."

"When the door opens, the guards will shift positions. I got left, you take right? Sila, Rook center on all else... don't trip over the mummy!"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Wait for the doors to open."

"Wait."

Silence fell on all of us. Sila eyes the end of the nearest spear.

"When I went in the water..." he began.