Monsters of Men

“Todd?” I say, into the comm. “Are you there? You need to run, Todd! You need to run–”

And in the larger view, we can see all the Spackle raising their bows–

“Todd!” I yell. “Answer me!”

And as one–

They all fire–

[TODD]

“VIOLA!” I scream–

But I don’t got the comm no more, the binos neither–

They were knocked outta my hands by a wall of running soldiers, pushing and shoving and screaming–

And burning–

The spinning fire ripped a curve thru the men right in front of me, killing ’em so fast they barely knew what happened and setting ’em alight in two or three rows on either side–

And just as it was about to take off my own head–

It lifted–

Up into the air–

Curving round–

And flying back to the ledge where it came from–

I whirl round now to see where I can run–

And then, over the shouting of the soldiers–

I hear Angharrad screaming–

And I’m pushing back and hitting out and shoving men aside to get to my horse–

“Angharrad!” I yell. “ANGHARRAD!”

And I can’t see her–

But I hear her screaming in terror–

I push forward even harder–

And I feel a hand on my collar–

“No, Todd!” the Mayor shouts, pulling me back–

“I’ve got to get to her!” I shout back and yank away from him–

“We have to run!” he yells–

And this is so completely something the Mayor would never say I spin round to look at him–

But his eyes are on the falls–

And I look, too–

And–

And–

Holy God–

An expanding arc of fire is racing out from the ledge–

The Spackle have fired every single bow–

Dozens of ’em–

Dozens of ’em that’ll reduce the army to nothing but ash and bodies–

“Come on!” the Mayor’s yelling, grabbing me again. “To the city!”

But I see a break in the men–

I see Angharrad rearing up in fright–

Her eyes wide open at the hands grabbing her–

And I lunge towards her–

Away from the Mayor–

Soldiers filling the space twixt us–

“I’m here, girl!” I yell, pressing forward–

But she’s just screaming and screaming–

I reach her and I knock back a soldier trying to climb into her saddle–

And the spinning fires are getting closer and closer–

Curving both ways, this time–

Coming from either side–

And the men are running in every direkshun, up the road to the town, into where the river’s trickling away, even back to the zigzag hill–

And I say, “You have to run, girl!”

And the spinning fires reach us–

{VIOLA}

“Todd!” I scream again and I see the fires zooming in over the river and some coming round the other way, curving along the hills of the valley–

Coming at the army from both sides–

“Where is he?!” I yell. “Can you see him?”

“I can’t see anything in this mess,” Bradley says.

“We have to do something!” I say.

Mistress Coyle catches my eye. She’s searching my face, searching it hard–

“Todd?” I say into the comm. “Answer me, please!”

“They’ve reached the army!” Lee yells.

And we all look back at the projection–

Where the spinning fires are slashing through the fleeing army in all directions–

They’re going to reach Todd–

They’re going to kill him–

They’re going to kill every man down there–

“We have to stop this!” I say.

“Viola,” Bradley says, a warning in his voice.

“Stop it how?” Simone says, and I can see her considering it again.

“Yes, Viola,” Mistress Coyle says, staring right into my eyes. “Stop it how?”

I look back in the projection, back at the army burning and dying-

“They’ll kill your boy,” Mistress Coyle says, like she’s reading my mind. “No two ways about it this time.”

And she can see my face–

See me thinking it–

Thinking it again–

Thinking about all that death.

“No,” I whisper. “We can’t–”

Can we?

[TODD]

WHOOSH!

One spinning fire flies right by us on our left and I see the head taken off a soldier trying to duck–

I pull on Angharrad’s reins but she rears up again in panic, her eyes wide and white, her Noise just a high-pitched scream I can barely stand–

And another fire WHOOSHES across the path in front of us, spilling flames everywhere, and Angharrad’s so terrified she lifts me off my feet by the reins and we fall back into a crowd of soldiers–

“THIS WAY!” I hear yelled behind us.

The Mayor, screaming, as a spinning fire makes a wall of flames outta the soldiers just behind me and Angharrad–

And when he yells it, it’s like I feel a pull in my feet, almost turning me round to face him–

But I force myself back to Angharrad–

“Come on, girl!” I yell, trying to get her moving, any way, any how-

“TODD! LEAVE HER!”

I turn and I see the Mayor, somehow back up on Morpeth, leaping twixt men and racing out from under a spinning fire as it rises back into the sky–

“TO THE CITY!” he shouts at the soldiers–

Planting it in their Noises–

Planting it in mine–

Throbbing thru it with a low hum–

And I knock him back again in my head–

But the soldiers near him are running even faster–

I look up and see the spinning fires still cutting thru the sky like swooping birds–

But they’re heading back to the ledge–

There are burning men everywhere but the army that’s still alive is also noticing that the fires are going back–

That we’ve got a few seconds before they come again–

And the men are reaching the city now, the first ones heading up the road, running where the Mayor’s yelling–

“TODD! YOU’VE GOT TO RUN!”

But Angharrad’s still screaming, still pulling away from me, still flailing in terror–

And my heart’s ripping in two–