Death After Death

Chapter 160: Words of Warning

When Simon walked out into that sunny field from the barn, he knew exactly where he was and exactly what was going to happen, but he wasn’t sure exactly what to do. Well, he knew that he needed to convince the family that lived here of the danger that was coming, but how exactly to do that was an open question.

What he knew for sure, though, was that using magic was probably not going to last time; if Aaric was to be believed, it had some pretty negative side effects for the family that lived here, and he didn’t exactly have another spell that was subtle enough to—

“Hey! Who are you!” the voice of a young boy called out, derailing Simon’s train of thought. “What in the hells are you doing in our barn?”

“Barn, child?” Simon asked, pretending to be a little older than he already looked. When he turned around, he saw the boy recoil from some of his more obvious scars, but he was polite enough not to say anything. “Come now, tell me where your parents are. I’ve come to warn them.”

“Warn them of what?” Aaric asked, more eager than afraid. “What’s going to happen.”

Simon shook his head and insisted that he had to speak with his father. So, Aaric begrudgingly led him out to the field where the man was working the plow.

They made no secret of their approach, and when Millen saw Simon approaching with his boy, he stiffened and stopped. “What can I do for you, stranger,” he asked. He wasn’t quite unfriendly, but he certainly wasn’t friendly either. That combination was enough to make Simon try the direct approach.

“I’m here to warn you,” Simon said, “You and everyone else on my way west. A dark cloud is coming. You know what that means, don’t you?”

Millen looked confused for a moment, then he figured it out and looked to young Aaric with a touch of fear. “Are you sure?” the farmer asked. “When? How?”

His questions came as a barrage, and Simon answered them as calmly as he could. “It has been foreseen,” Simon said, choosing not to provide any source for the statement, mostly because he didn’t know who these people might find to be a credible authority. “That is all that matters, and tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, the swarm will pass through this valley.”

Millen looked deeply conflicted, and he tried to push Simon for more answers, but he just shook his head. “I must take my leave,” he insisted, “There are others to warn and shelter to find.”

“Warn them about what, papa?” Aaric asked, but both of the adults ignored him.

“There’s not much in the way of shelter around here,” the farmer said finally. “Even less where animals are concerned.”

“It’s not the animals I’m concerned about,” Simon said brusquely.

“You would be if you had to eat them,” Millen said, shaking his head, “If the swarmers really do come, this field and all the other ones like it will be gone. We’ll need what little we can save.”

“Fair enough,” Simon agreed, turning to leave, surprised that his words had been accepted so readily. This was either a regular problem or at least something that had happened in living memory.

“Wait, where are you going?” Millen asked.

Simon, along with pretty much everyone else, spent the night in the old mines that night. Not many people actually slept. It was hard to do much sleeping with the sounds of hundreds of frightened animals echoing through the tunnels.

Most people at least tried to sleep, though. Simon prowled the farthest end of the oldest tunnels, though, searching for anything that didn’t belong. That deep, there was water dripping from the ceiling in places, which made sense because he’d been told the lower tunnels were long flooded, which was why the place was closed. As much as part of him wished to find goblins, he came up empty, though. The closest he got was when he was ambushed by young Aaric sometime after midnight.

“You find any monsters yet?” he asked, scaring Simon half to death.

“No, the only monsters down here are you, and whoever that is that’s snoring so loud,” Simon quipped, continuing to search for as long as his torch allowed.

“That’s just Mister Branaugh,” Aaric said with a laugh. He was a boy on the cusp of manhood, and he tried to act serious, but there was glee just beneath the surface, waiting to burst free at any moment. “And if there are no monsters, what are you doing all the way down here?”

“Well, the only way to make sure there are no monsters is to keep looking for them,” Simon said with a shake of his head, suddenly feeling very old. “Because as soon as you stop looking, that’s when they pounce. How’s the front door looking?”

“It’s all sealed up,” Aaric answered with a shrug. “Dad finished helping with that hours ago. Tight, too, with cloth wedged in all the cracks, just like you said.”

Simon nodded. Part of him wanted to go cast a spell to reinforce it, but he knew that would only get him into trouble. No, he’d already done his part, and the only magic he’d needed was a little foreknowledge that played on people's fears.

Sometime that morning, he finally went to sleep, sure that the place was safe enough for a short nap at least. Despite the sounds of baaing and mooing, he actually managed to fall asleep, which was a minor miracle in its own right. He slept soundly, too, right up until the bounding and the shouting.

Once Simon had scoured the back of the tunnels, he’d made his way slowly to the entrance, where he’d fallen asleep, not far from the barricade, in case anything bad happened. That turned out to be a good idea because sometime that morning, something bad started to happen.

Not everyone had believed his warnings. Though some people, had decided to sleep in their own beds despite Simon’s pleas, the village elder had joined them at the last minute, marking him as a coward among other things. He had no doubt they were looking forward to mocking him when they all left the tunnels in a day or two, and nothing had happened, but that wasn’t how things worked out.

Instead, when the bugs were sighted on the horizon, they came running. First, there were only a couple pounding on the door and begging to be let in, but more and more came after that. It was an awful moment because there was nothing to do. This wasn’t a modern door with a deadbolt that they could open for just a second like in a horror movie.

This was a barricade that had been hammered together from the existing planks that had sealed the mine for years, along with scraps from dozens of houses and farms. Even if they could take it apart without destroying it, it would take hours to put it all back in place, and from the sound of things, they didn’t have hours. They had minutes. They might even have less.

Arguments erupted then between those who said that something had to be done and those who insisted nothing could be done. Simon didn’t join in the arguments on either side; he just walked to the barricade, drew his sword, and stood there as a barrier between those who might do something stupid and the place they would have to stand to do it.

It wasn’t his preferred answer, and there were more than a few men in here with him who could probably take him at this point if they wanted to try. That didn’t matter, though. What mattered was that there were too many women and children in here to take any chances, and he wasn’t going to let them all get eaten alive because someone they cared about hadn’t heard the warning.

There were some hard looks and a few threats, but once the shouting and the begging turned to screams, no one talked about opening the door again. It was a settled matter. If they opened it, then everyone would die, and that was apparently all the deterrent anyone needed.