Justin lay limp on the ground, whimpering. Keary left his shield where it had fallen, half over Justin's body, and skidded over to where Vivien sat befuddled on the uneven stones. Aidan stood over them with his sabre at the ready, but the Firbolg paid them no mind. The ones who had inhabited monstrous bodies now looked as they had almost three thousand years ago. They laughed and cried and held each other in the creepy semi-darkness. The only light came from candles and Justin's dying fire.
"What just happened?" Vivien asked.
Keary's massive hand cupped her face gently while he inspected the cut. It started level with her mouth and proceeded up her cheek and over her nose to end in a slight lift towards her other eye. "You're lucky he didn't get your eye."
"And yet unlucky too," Mitch said.
"Huh?" Viv looked around in confusion. "Did we lose?"
"Yes," Aidan said quietly, "and we need to get out of here, now." He glanced at Keary, "Carry her. I'll get your shield."
Keary scooped her up easily and they backed towards the crash doors. "I can walk," Viv protested but Keary's face silenced her.
"What about Justin?" Mitch asked, although his gaze never touched the whimpering form on the floor.
"Leave him, there's no time," Aidan said curtly. "We're going to have to leg it. The car won't work now."
Outside was no brighter. All of the street lights were off and none of the windows in the surrounding buildings gave any light. Mitch carried Vivien’s shield, and Aidan her short sword so that Keary could hold her more comfortably against his chest.
"Fuck..." Aidan breathed as they crested the hill and looked down on the Hobart basin. There were no lights anywhere. "I'm open to suggestions."
They all looked at each other blankly and finally, Aidan sighed, "Alright. This is going to get very screwed up, very fast. Technology is finished, nothing like that works here. Physics doesn’t even work here." He turned and looked them each in the eyes one by one, "You've got five minutes to think of anyone or anything in the Greater Hobart area that you can't live without, then we'll make a list. We'll pick everything up and we'll get the hell out of here. Who knows what this has done to the landscape, so we're gonna make for..."
"We can't leave!" Vivien interrupted.
Aidan shook his head and Mitch cut across him before he could speak. "These people are going to wake up tomorrow to a world that doesn't make sense. A world where they can't feed themselves. They're screwed. The vast majority of them are going to die."
"Mitch..." Keary started, but Mitch held his hand up to silence his friend.
"No. You can't cajole your way out of this. You can't reason or moralise your way out of this. The only thing any of us can do now, is to try to survive. The rules are all screwed up, and 90 percent of people simply can't survive without their technology."
"So we let them die?" Vivien asked. "We leave them to the Firbolg? To starve? You're the only ones who have any hope of working out what to do and you're going to just leave them here?" She struggled out of Keary's grip and held her hands out for her shield and sword, "I'm not leaving."
Mitch rolled his eyes. "What are you going to do? You're no better at bushcraft than the average girl guide."
"I'll do whatever I can," she declared as she carefully maneuvered the shield onto her back and slid the sword into its oversized scabbard. "I can't just let these people die."
"A city can't survive now!" Mitch said angrily. "It can't feed itself. Their only chance is to abandon Hobart and get out into the country where they can at least grow some food."
Aidan sighed, "Not everyone can walk that far. The old, the sick... Jesus, the sick."
Their eyes turned to the left and they looked down the hill. Somewhere in the darkness, the Royal Hobart Hospital stood as silent and still as any other building.
"Fuck," Vivien began to jog in that direction.
After a short pause, Keary rolled his eyes and moved to stop her. His massive hands clamped down on her upper arms and he spun her to face him as if she weighed nothing. He glared down at her defiant face as she tried to shake his hands off. "You're hurting me!"
"Reality hurts," Keary grunted.
"Keary, let her go," Aidan made a move towards them but Keary just shook her again and growled.
"You are one of the people," Keary rumbled. "How exactly? I’m fucked if I know, but you're one of us and we are precious few on this side of the world. Do you know what that means?"
Vivien raised her chin and continued to glare up at him.
"We. Are. It." Keary said shortly. "The things that crazy asshole just unleashed on the humans will swarm over them like a plague and there is no-one else to save them." His hands loosened a little and she allowed him to pull her a half step closer. "Only us. I am a guardian and I swear on all the old gods I will save as many of them as I can... But that means saving ourselves first. Now, is there anyone down there that you love? Anyone that you need?"
Vivien began to tremble powerfully. Her shield and lance fell from her numb fingers and silent tears began to roll down her face. "How do I save one, or two, and not everyone?"
"By thinking about your grandchildren," Keary rumbled. "You think about the line of our people forward into the mist, and you think about the line of men. If you want those children to be born, if you want the lines to continue, then our job is to survive."
He bent and retrieved her shield and her lance. With a much softer expression, he pressed them back into her hands. Viv swallowed hard, unable to look at his face. Instead, she took the weapons and straightened her back.
They double-timed down Macquarie street and into the middle of town. It was late, which was a blessing. Once everyone woke up things would start getting really bad. The first sign of life they heard was someone in one of the apartments of the Astor hotel apparently swearing at their non-functioning Tv, lights, and general gadgets.
"Oh he's gonna have a real bad day tomorrow," Mitch said lightly.
"We're all going to have a bad day tomorrow," Aidan told him.
Mitch stopped suddenly on the corner of Murray Street and grinned, "oop! Mountain bike!" He looked disapprovingly at the bike chain, "Keary, be a love, would you?"
Keary took hold of the pole the bike was chained to and began to rock it back and forth until it was loose in its dirt footing. Another minute of effort and he was able to pull the pole clear of the ground. Mitch looked disappointed.
"I thought you were going to break the chain," he said plaintively.
Keary gestured to it, “Feel free."
"No, no, this is good. Alright, I'll be back with shoed horses and anything else of interest I find on the way. Oh hey, I wonder where they keep that horse and trap rig that charges tourists a freakin' mint for 20 minute runs around Salamanca?" He looked at them hopefully but no one knew. "Eh, no worries. Anything else out that way you need me to grab?"
No one answered him, so he jumped on the bike.
“Meet us at the corner of Risdon and the Brooker,” Aidan told him. “We’ll pick up Vivien’s father and hold for you there.”
Mitch nodded and then pedalled off down Macquarie street.
"Should we split up?" Vivien asked.
"No," Keary said firmly.
Aidan took her hand and held it as they continued into town. "Just because everything looks normal, doesn't mean it is."
When she looked at him, partly confused and partly frightened, he squeezed her hand. "We're in the mist now. This isn't the world you know."
"I can't wrap my head around that," she confessed. "You say it, and I know you're not lying but I can't..." she looked around at the dark buildings and still cars, "It just looks like a power out."
“I promise, it’s not,” Keary said without a glance back. His eyes scanned the dark streets. “Where is everyone?” He asked after a few blocks.
“What do you mean?” Aidan asked.
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“There should be more people. I know it’s late but it’s not that late, pubs and clubs should still be open. There should be people on the street. Cars that stopped. Where is everyone?”
Aidan shook his head, “We can’t worry about it now,” he said. “Let’s just focus on what’s in front of us for the moment.”
Keary grunted. “There are things in the mist.” he rumbled, “Dangerous things.”
“Focus, Keary,” Aidan ordered.
The huge man grunted again and continued to search the darkness. They followed Macquarie street until the corner of Campbell. “Turn here,” Viv said.
Keary shook his head. “We want to follow the highway.” He disagreed.
“That’s further to walk ” Viv said. “Trust me, I walk this town all the time. If we take Argyle St, we’ll have to climb the hill. If we go all the way to the Brooker it’ll add half a kilometer. Trust me, cutting up Campbell and then across to the Brooker further down will save a lot of walking.”
Keary glanced at Aidan who nodded. “We don’t walk around here much. We’ll follow you.”
They walked for a long time in silence, seeing no one. In the unnerving quiet Vivien walked very close to Aidan, gripping his hand tightly. Finally, as they were about to turn right towards the highway, they heard someone yell.
“Keary,” Aidan said as he let go of Vivien’s hand and started towards the voice.
Vivien followed behind them and they hurried to a small park set back from the road between double story townhouses. A young man with short curly hair had taken refuge in the crows-nest of a wooden pirate ship and attempted to fend off three… things.
“Skrayling,” Keary growled.
He and Aidan split and began to circle around the play equipment in opposite directions. Vivien watched, unable to catch her breath, as they closed in behind the Skrayling. “Hey!” Aidan yelled as he slashed at the back of one with his glowing blue sabre. It screamed at him, a terrifyingly human sound, and turned to slash at him with powerful claws.
Keary bashed another over the back of its head with his shield and kicked at the third while the cornered young man scrabbled from the crows-nest and fell onto the wood-chips around its bottom. He tried to move backwards on all fours but ran into Vivien who helped him to his feet and stood with her shield raised in front of them both.
“Stay with me,” she told him breathlessly.
Aidan and Keary disposed of the remaining Skrayling with brutal efficiency, leaving the wooden pirate ship covered in sticky blood which might have been an unhealthy greenish brown. Aidan pulled his sabre from the last one and hurried back to Vivien. “You two OK?”
“What---?” Their new friend started, but he seemed unsure where to go from there. His eyes were wide and spooked and he opened and closed his mouth as though he kept thinking of things to say only to change his mind.
“We’re fine.” Viv slung her shield back over her shoulder and touched their new friend’s arm. “Hey… are you hurt?”
“No.” He managed at last. “No, I’m fine.” He looked terribly shaken. “What’s happening?” He asked. The others looked at each other unsure how to respond, but he didn’t appear to expect an answer. “I was with friends.” He breathed. He shook his head and blinked like someone trying to shake off sleep.
“Where did they go?” Keary asked sternly.
“They just,” he shook his head again. “I don’t know. I must have passed out. Maybe they ran?” He paled.
“Hey,” Vivien put her hand on his arm and turned him to look at her. “It’s going to be OK. What’s your name?”
“Isaac.” He said.
“OK Isaac, I think maybe you should come with us.” She said gently. Isaac didn’t seem to be in any fit state to argue.
“We can’t pick up every stray we come across if we expect to get anywhere tonight.” Keary murmured to Aidan.
“I know,” Aidan conceded. “But she’ll pitch a fit if we try to leave him. Let’s just get going and hope we can get out of this without any more random additions.”
Keary made a face but didn’t say anything. Instead, he led them back out of the park and towards the Brooker.
The remainder of the trip was uneventful. Off to the east, something was burning. Something big. It lit the horizon and the sight made them all uneasy. At some point, Vivien became aware of the fact that the mountain didn’t look right. It was bigger, broader, and something about it seemed off. She got the uncomfortable feeling it was looking at her. Back towards the city, they heard sounds a number of times which could have been screams, but they were too far away to be sure.
Vivien’s house was silent and dark when they arrived. Despite the urges of the others to be careful, she barged in and called for her father. There was no answer.
“He should be here!” She said urgently. “He was home. I know he was home. He’d have waited here for me, he’d know I’d come back here, he’d---,” she stopped as Aidan stepped in front of her and gripped her shoulders.
“He wouldn’t have left without you?” He asked gently. “He wouldn’t go somewhere to look for you?”
Vivien shook her head. “No. No.” She looked lost and frightened. “When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.” She breathed. She managed to meet Aidan’s eyes at last. “He wouldn’t leave. He wouldn’t risk missing me. He’d wait. He’d know I’d come here. I’d come home. He’d have waited for me. He wouldn’t leave.”
“My friends wouldn’t have left,” Isaac said, and everyone turned to look at him. He met their eyes each in turn and they were surprised to see that he looked far more cogent than he had on the walk. “They wouldn’t have left me, and I didn’t pass out.” He said with more confidence. “Something happened to them.”
“Or something happened to us,” Keary said. They all turned to look at him and he shrugged. “Nothing happened to them. They’re exactly where we left them, wondering what happened to us.”
Aidan’s eyes widened. “Not everyone came through.” He whispered. “He couldn’t bring everyone through… Jesus, he’s left a load of people behind.”
“Better than half I’d guess,” Keary said. “I knew there should have been more people.”
“We need to get moving. Get back to the corner where Mitch will be coming for us.” Aidan said firmly. “We can try to work everything else out once we’re back together.” He looked at Vivien. “Anything you need, you better grab it quickly. Nothing more than you can fit in one bag.”
After she left the room, he looked at the others. “Check the kitchen. Tins, anything dried. Anything that’ll last.” He said.
It took Vivien almost half an hour to come back from her room with a heavy-duty hiking backpack. She’d hooked her shield to the side of it and it bounced a bit which forced her to hold it with one hand while she walked. She met Aidan’s eyes defiantly and he raised his hands in surrender.
“Hey, you’re carrying it. If you’ve got it, go for it.” He gestured to the others. “We ransacked your kitchen.”
Vivien sighed and touched a photograph on her fridge. It was her, a young man her own age, and an older man all laughing. “Kane and my dad.” She said.
“Do you want to bring it with you?” Aidan asked.
Vivien shook her head. “No. I have other pictures, but,” she grabbed a permanent black marker out of a jar that sat on the kitchen bench. Across the photograph, she wrote ‘I’m OK daddy!’ She put the marker in her pocket and sighed. “Just in case.”
When they left, Vivien locked the front door and resolutely did not look back as they walked away.
“What time do you make it?” Aidan asked as they walked.
“Something like 1 A.M..” Keary said. “Though how much meaning that has now is anyone’s guess. The sun could rise in twenty minutes, or twenty years, for all I know.”
Viv had sweat through her shirt by the time they reached Risdon Rd, even though the night air was cool. When they stopped she shrugged out of her backpack and plonked down on the grass next to it. The traffic lights which used to manage the intersection stood silent and unlit. Vivien stared at them for a while until she realized why they looked so strange.
“Aidan!”
“What?” He turned and looked where she pointed.
The traffic lights weren’t made of metal. They seemed to be polished wood, and the red, yellow and green lights were no longer plastic over a bulb. Instead, they were jewels. Keary walked up to one and touched it.
“Feels smooth, like someone sanded it.” He reported.
“Why is it like that?” Vivien asked.
Aidan shrugged, “Who knows. The mist is a mad place, from our perspective anyway. My father always said you could find anything in the mist. Not just monsters and outcasts, but your own ancestors, your own grandchildren even. Time in our world is like a river, it flows from one place to another. In the mist, time is more like a whirlpool.”
“A whirlpool without technology ” Vivien said.
“Technology needs physics, it needs rules. The rules here are different.”
“And the rules here say that uncle money bags donated our street lights.” Viv quipped.
Keary and Aidan both chuckled. Isaac stood quietly to one side. His eyes darted here and there, and his hands clenched against his thighs. Eventually, they heard the sound of hooves on the road, echoing through the still night. They heard Mitch coming from a good kilometer away, so by the time he pulled up with five horses trained together with rope, they were all on their feet. Isaac looked particularly concerned.
“Things could have heard that.” He said.
“Who’s newbie?” Mitch asked as he swung down from his horse.
“Isaac. He was being monstered by Skraling and Vivien wouldn’t leave him.” Keary said. “I’ll take the big one.” He took the reins of a brown horse at least half again the size of the others.
“Did you see anything interesting?” Aidan asked as he held a horse steady for Vivien to mount.
“Depends,” Mitch shrugged. “Do you consider the fact that fully half the infrastructure of the city has been fundamentally altered, interesting?”
“What do you mean?” Aidan demanded.
“Well, take that for instance.” Mitch indicated the traffic light. “There are buildings that seem to be ruins, buildings that seem to be made out of living trees, and a couple that might be bigger on the inside. Oh and the fountain on the roundabout near the ABC building? It’s now a pool which may or may not be bottomless, and I think the first person to swim in it might be something’s lunch. I saw what looked like massive lamprey in there.”
“Did you see any people?” Keary asked.
Mitch frowned. “A few, but honestly not as many as I thought. Most of them look pretty lost, crying in the streets, that sort of thing.”
“Where do we go now?” Vivien asked after a long pause.
“The Moot,” Keary said.
Vivien looked at him in confusion but Aidan explained. “It’s a backup meeting point, in Grove. Any of the Danann who were living away from the sanctuary will head there, and the survivors once they get free of the Fomorians.”
“What if they can’t?” Mitch asked.
“Then we’ll have to go get them,” Aidan said.
“That’s a big gamble, Aidan.” Keary pointed out. “It was one thing when a handful of Fomorians had managed to cross over, but we’re in the mist now. Who knows what’s in the water? Or on the island with them?”
“Are you saying we should just leave them?” Aidan demanded.
Keary shrugged. “I’m saying we just convinced Vivien that the survival of our species is more important than finding her father.” He said. “You should at least question if going on a mission in unknown territory, in the middle of the apocalypse, after a group of people who may or may not be there, is really the best use of our resources. And by resources, I mean our lives.”
Aidan stared at him helplessly, but Keary’s face was calm.
“If you order me to, I’ll follow you to the island and try to find the others,” Keary said. “You are Aidan, son of Lud. I just want you to think clearly about it.”
“Let’s go have a look at the water,” Mitch suggested carefully. “We don’t have to decide right now, we’re going the same direction either way.”