After Burn
A cold icy forbearing gripped my heart as I listened to the horrible screams and moaning of towns’ folk being incinerated in the scorching heat of mid morning day sunrays. What a horrible sound, I thought to myself. What would death feel like when it came? Sure everyone thought that death would be sanctity from this burning rock we call a planet, but in my mind all I could think about was our family’s most precious secret. Rather than sharing this new found treasure so we might start plant life growing again, we have felt it within ourselves to keep it secret from everyone! And I can’t take this guilt anymore. Its time I do something about it! Its time I bring balance back to our world!
As sweat dripped down my face as I crept around my house careful not to wake any of my family up. As soon as my things were packed I quickly headed out into the morning dusk. And without another look I walk, with my back turned, away from my home. As every hour passes I can sense the mid morning coming nearer and nearer. Increasing my pace I look around wildly for an escape hole, so I might avoid the sun’s rays. A breath of relief spread through my body as I find one running as fast as I can I dive into the hole and slammed the hatch shut, blocking out most if not all of the harmful rays of the “burning star.” And there I lay until evening when the world turns to the moon when the sun will have no effect on my journey. Tired and out of breath, with most of my bodies strength nearly gone, I decide to rest and recuperate for a while, and with that I drift off into sleep.
“Sir! Sir! We found another one,” said an excited solider.
“Well done Captain Edward, said Overseer Roderick, I think another promotion is in order, congratulations new Assistant Overseer Edward”
“Uhh…” Jason mumbled
“Oh look he’s waking up, quick assistant overseer fetch the medic,” exclaimed the overseer.
“Yes sir” Edward said with a salute to his forehead.
“Uhh… where am I?” asked Jason.
“Why you’re at base camp”
I clap silently inside my head with glee that I had made it to base camp, and with that I drift into slumber once again.
As my eyes blink open I hear the overseer yelling something about a plant called Nectross Fermentis, but that’s all I heard before my vision blurred and I fell asleep again.
I woke up again to the sound of someone tapping on a wooden desk very violently, but as I raised my head the tapping ceased and in a calm voice the overseer addressed me, “oh good you’re awake, now have you ever seen a plant like this?”
He held up a blue-ish colored plant with green buds and pedals that seemed to resemble the welcoming arms of an angel from heaven, but in opposite of the plants beauty it carried a grotesque smell that seemed to reek out of the scar in it’s stem.
“Yes” I replied
“Do you know what it can do?”
“Yes” I answered
“Where did you get it?”
“From my family’s greenhouse sir. We have kept it alive for about hundreds of years and I have come to rid myself of my family’s guilt by coming here. You see I was planning to plant it during mid morning so it would spread thirty five times as fast as normal. This way it can release toxins to cure the dreaded disease and make the burning sun rays bearable, and I had hoped you could help” answered Jason
“Well, I’m afraid that I cant let you do that, for you see if you did it would bring the plants back.”
“I know. That’s why I want to release the Fermentis into the earth.”
“Unfortunately we have to kill you for we have rules here and those rules include, that if anyone knows how to bring back the plants must die, and their family to!”
“No! You can’t!” yelled Jason
“I can” the Overseer answered calmly
“NO!” without thinking I lunged at him, but he was too fast, he was behind me and had thrown me against the wall before I could even turn my head.
“Guards! He screamed, take this useless pile of trash to the holding rod outside and let him watch while the sun bakes him alive”
“Yes sir!” they said together, and with that I was being hauled off towards my doom.
Minutes later we were outside, and I could see clearly the shape of the holding rod. It was about ten feet tall and I guessed about one and a half feet in diameter. We were nearly to the holding rod when it hit me, why was I letting these buffoons drag we to my death? I could easily overcome both of them, and so I did. Once we were at the rod and they had taken out the rope, I twisted my wrists so that their hands let go of mine and then I kicked both of them in the chest knocking them onto the ground. The dazed astonishment was all the time I need to get a hold on them and then beat them with my fists until they where out cold. Working fast I picked them up one at a time and tied them against the rod as tight as could. I made sure the knot was unbreakable before racing to the backside of base camp were a small hut was still standing. After checking if it was safe I walked inside and sat down to catch some rest.
“Thwack!” a vigorous slap to the face woke me from my slumber. It was the overseer.
“Why hello there” said the overseer in a mocking tone “I would like inform you that your little act of heroism forced my hand to send someone to kill everyone in your family He is my most skilled assassin and he should be arriving momentarily” the overseer turned his head to the sound of footsteps coming down the hall “ah ha, there he is.”
“I have returned master, the deed is done” said the assassin
“Ah good, good, now to complete your task there is one more concertos family member you need to kill, this one right here, now then Jason its been fun but I’m afraid it is time for you to die, Assassin, kill him”
“With pleasure”
Fast as a cheetah he lunged for my chest with his dagger, but I countered it with a quick spin to the right and then planted my foot on the assassin’s back and shoved him forwards. I looked down at the floor where this man lay, and I felt satisfied, but my satisfaction quickly faded as I saw him turn around and then summersault over me coming at me with his daggers. He charged but I ducked and grabbed his wrists, twisting them in my hand I yanked the daggers free of his hand and threw him through the wall and out onto the dirt outside. Stepping outside as well, I stared at this man and admired how easy it was to defeat him. Just then I noticed him saying something, “Jason, oh Jason what are you going to do know? All of your family has been murdered, doesn’t that fill you with rage, and make you want to bring justice upon the one who killed them, but you probably don’t even care do you! They might as well be worthless piles of sand in your eyes!” mocked the Assassin.
“No shut up you’re wrong!!” Jason yelled
“No I’m right, and you know I am, it’s true and you can not deny it!” said the Assassin
“NOOOOOOO!!! YOUR WRONG!!!” Jason screamed
Letting forth a furious battle cry I charged at him, but as soon as I did I realized he had intended this, and before I could react he had picked up a nearby piece of metal and thrust it through my chest directly through my heart paralyzed I lay there in a pile still overcoming shock of my heart being stabbed out.
“It is done assassin, now hurry leave him, mid morning is approaching let the sun finish him off” said the Overseer
Waiting until they had left, I gathered all of my remaining resources and raised my arm crying from the pain in my chest I thrust the seeds of the nectross fermentis into the air just as the sun peeked over the horizon, and with my last breath I felt satisfied knowing I had fulfilled my purpose on this earth.
“Wait what’s that smell,” questioned the Overseer
“I don’t know sir,” replied the assassin
“Oh no” said the Overseer in a concerned voice
“What is it?” asked the Assassin
“Jason has released the toxins into the air” said the Overseer
“How is that bad?” said the Assassin
“Well remember, Assassin, when I told that if any of those toxins got released that life as we know it would end?” questioned the Overseer.
“Yes sir” answered the Assassin
“Well this is why, many years I discovered, in some ancient textbooks, that our ancestors knew of the plant that Jason carried around, and they said that the toxins wouldn’t bring back life, it would eradicate it.
Link to Zine
Link to Zine
