The Cellar: A Post-Apocalyptic Novella (3 page)

In the dream, he was standing in a dark place. There was a strange metal door in front of him with a wheel on it. He reached out towards the wheel, and it turned rapidly, like some unseen force was spinning it. When it stopped, he heard a clanging noise. The door swung open to reveal a brightly lit room. He stepped inside the room. In front of him stood a tall figure clothed in a gray robe. Its bowed head was covered by a hood. But then the figure slowly began to raise its head, and Daren was about to see its face…meet its eyes. He didn’t want to, but he was frozen in place…

Daren had woken up at that point, and for three straight hours, he had kept his eyes on the door…waiting. He told himself he was being stupid. There were no angels of death that roamed the earth collecting souls in a sack. It was all a big, macabre joke. Murphy must have laughed or coughed himself to sleep.

There was a knock.

Daren sprang into a sitting position and stared at the door. He could feel his heart climbing up his throat with every beat. Arianna hadn’t heard a thing. He could still hear her snoring from behind the sheet.

The knock came again.

Fighting his fear, he slowly got to his feet, crept towards the door, and peered through a crack. He exhaled slowly when he saw Logan’s features illuminated by a torch. It was strange to feel relief at seeing the sentry who had almost sliced his throat. He carefully pulled open the door so as not to wake his mother.

“Is something wrong?” he whispered.

Whatever relief he felt quickly drained away. He could tell by the look on Logan’s face that he was haunted by something he had just seen. The torch trembled slightly in his grip.

“Is Arianna awake?”

“She’s asleep,” Daren replied. “What’s going on?”

Logan hesitated. “Uhm, I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean you’re not sure?”
 

Logan raised his free hand and rubbed his forehead. He stood there for a few seconds while he shut his eyes and drew in a long breath.

“Never mind.” He looked up at Daren. “Sorry I disturbed you. You can go back to bed.”

He turned to walk away when Daren stepped forward and grabbed his jacket. Logan looked startled as he turned around to face him.

“You saw it, didn’t you?” Daren asked him. “The cloaked figure?”

Logan paled. “How did you know?”

“I saw it too. And so did Murphy.”

“You both saw it?” Logan’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I don’t know.” Daren gave a shrug. “Maybe I wasn’t sure what I saw. Maybe I was afraid people would think I was nuts.”

Logan turned to the north side of the village and pointed his torch at a portion of the rock wall.

“I was standing there looking over the wall when I saw it walking near the edge of the forest,” he said. “It glowed bright green and there was also something about the way it moved.” There was a slight tremor in Logan’s voice. “It didn’t seem to be walking. It was sort of…
gliding
.”

This was the third person who had admitted to seeing the phantom. Daren didn’t know what it all meant. Was it a raider trying to find a way into the village? It didn’t sound like something a raider would do. Raiders usually came in a group and attacked villages by force. Skulking around in plain sight wearing a hooded robe didn’t make sense at all. And what was causing the weird green light coming from within the robe? No ordinary lamp could do that.
 

“Could you show me where you saw it?” he asked, acting more bravely than he felt.

“Don’t you think we should alert Arianna?” Logan looked over Daren’s shoulder to peer inside the shack.

“I think my mom should have her rest.” Daren stepped out and closed the door behind him. “Besides, both of us could probably handle one crazy person in a robe if it ever came to that.”

Logan looked a little uncertain. “I think she needs to know about this.”

“Go wake her up then,” Daren said. “Tell her you saw a mysterious ghostly figure gliding around. Let’s see how far you get with that story.” He folded his arms and looked at Logan. “I think we should find out what it is first before we start sounding the alarm.”

“Okay fine, but don’t go outside the wall, you hear? Arianna will roast me on a spit if anything happened to you.”

Daren followed Logan as they walked past several shacks. All the lights were out and no one seemed to be awake. Eventually, Logan’s torch shone on the base of the wall, which was made of large boulders. The stones became gradually smaller the higher the wall went. Right next to the wall was a wooden platform just three feet shy of the wall’s top. On the side of the platform was a ladder, which they used to climb up.

They both stood on the wooden planks as they looked out across the valley. There hadn’t been any stars or moon for as long as living memory. The ash clouds would have shrouded the night in total darkness were it not for a series of torches placed at six-foot intervals all across the entire length of the wall. The torches flickered as a gust of wind swept over the entire village. Daren hugged himself, regretting leaving his coat behind.

“Where’d you see it?” he asked.

Logan pointed over to a line of leafless trees about forty yards from the wall. The combined glow of the torches made their branches cast eerie, fingerlike shadows.

“Somewhere over there,” he said. “I nearly pissed my pants when I saw it. It had a gray robe, and it looked like it was floating.”

“Was it floating a few feet up in the air?” Daren asked.

“Not really. The figure’s robe was sweeping over the ground. But you could tell it wasn’t walking.”

Daren took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He wasn’t sure how he’d react if he saw the ghostly figure once more. He could always use a rock or a knife if a raider came after him. But an otherworldly being was something else entirely.

He scanned the valley as far as the torchlight could pierce the darkness. There was no movement save for whatever the breeze tossed around. The wind whipped against Daren, causing the bottom of his shirt to flap about. Flying dust stung his cheeks, and he raised his hand to protect his eyes. He braved the weather for ten minutes while the cold crept into his bones.

“I don’t think there’s anything to see out there.” Daren rubbed his upper arms to warm himself. “I’d better get back before I freeze.”

“It’s a good thing you talked me out of waking Arianna,” Logan said, zipping his jacket up to his chin, “or I’d look like a total idiot right now.”

“Good to know,” Daren muttered as he walked over to where the ladder was.

He placed his foot on the top step and started on his way down. He was about halfway to the ground when he heard Logan call out to him.

“Daren! It’s back!”

The platform creaked and shook as Daren scrambled his way back up. As soon as he planted his feet on the wooden boards, he glanced over to where Logan was. He saw him leaning over the top of the wall trying to get a good look at something in the distance. Daren rushed to his side and squinted at the same area Logan was staring at.
 

“Where is it?” Daren asked. “I can’t see a thing.”

“Over there.” Logan leaned out farther and pointed his finger to a dense portion of the woods. “It slipped behind one of those larger trees.”

With only flickering torches keeping the darkness at bay, all Daren could see was a line of trunks in the shadows. The branches were buffeted by the wind but there was no other sign of movement. Nothing alive seemed to be in the forest.

Then he saw it. A piece of gray slipped out from behind one of the trees. He held his breath as the edge of a hood emerged, then the head, then the body. The specter was bathed in the same eerie green light he saw in the forest. Its head was bowed down as if in mourning. The wind sent ripples through its robe as it moved along, the gray fabric betraying no stride. There was no lifting and lowering of limbs. The figure seemed to stand motionless, and yet it somehow kept moving. It glided over the earth, the hem of the robe quietly sweeping the ground.

“What should we do?” Daren asked, finally finding his voice.

Logan said nothing but stood transfixed. His eyes moved to follow the specter’s movements but the rest of him remained frozen in place. It was unnerving to see him that way: staring, open-mouthed. Logan usually didn’t scare so easily. Daren placed his hand on Logan’s shoulder and shook him, making his head bob from side to side. He turned to Daren with a bewildered expression.

“We should sound the alarm,” Logan croaked out. “They have to know that the Angel of Death is here!”

“Hold on!” Daren shouted. “Wait a minute!”

Daren tried to stop him, but Logan had already made it to the bell that was tethered to the platform by a piece of rope. He picked up the bell and hammered the air with it. The clanging reverberated all over the village. Torches lit up all over the shacks as everyone shouted and scrambled about. Children who were frightened awake wailed for their mothers. Everyone poured out of their shacks with pitchforks, knives, axes, sticks, spears, slingshots, and even the odd frying pan. Daren looked behind him to check the edge of the woods. As he expected, the phantom had already disappeared.

He watched as Arianna emerged from their home with a crossbow in her hands. She moved over to the center of the village to where the others had gathered. The torchlight glinted on the knives and axes as everyone looked around for any sign of danger. Arianna pointed to several of them and issued orders. A group of villagers then broke away to check the wall to see if there had been a breach. Daren could see Arianna looking around her frantically.

“Daren!” she called.

“I’m here, Mom!” he shouted reluctantly.

Arianna looked up at where Daren and Logan stood. As she ran towards the platform, Daren noticed that she’d forgotten to wear her eye patch. He had never seen her without it. She must have completely freaked out when she heard the alarm and found him missing. As he imagined what must have gone through her mind, he felt a pang of guilt.

“Are you all right?” Arianna slung the crossbow over her shoulder and proceeded up the ladder.

“I’m okay,” he reassured her.

Arianna placed her hands on the wooden boards and hauled herself onto the platform. Her good eye stared wildly at him, checking for any injuries. A mass of scars covered the empty socket where her right eye used to be. Daren winced as he saw it for the first time.

“Who sounded the alarm?” she asked.

She answered her own question as her gaze fell on Logan, who stood there, barely breathing, keeping a tight grip on the bell. He just stared back at her.

“Where are the raiders?” Arianna demanded. “I assume you rang the bell for a reason.”

“The Angel of Death has come,” Logan mumbled.

Arianna creased her brow and looked back at Daren. The eyeless socket seemed more menacing than the glare in her intact eye.

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on here?”

⊕
 
⊕
 
⊕

I
N
SPITE
OF
THE
COLD
, Daren had enough sweat to make his shirt stick to his chest. Since Logan had broken all the shovels and pickaxes, he had to settle for a flat slab of rock. He held it with both hands and used the sharp end of the slab to chip away at the walls of the trench. He’d been digging since early dawn and it was already almost noon. The trench was already two feet deep and now had to be widened. Logan was right beside Daren placing handfuls of loose soil into a sack.

“This punishment isn’t too bad.” Logan bent down to scoop up more dirt. “It could’ve been a lot worse.”

Daren noted that Logan had recovered nicely from his shock from the previous night. He was back to his usual annoying self.

“What could possibly be worse than digging the village latrine?” Daren asked.

“Arianna could’ve ordered us to go door to door and collect all the piss pots for dumping,” Logan answered.

“Thanks for putting that in my head.” Daren thought it was unfair that he was being punished. Of course, explaining to his mother that he tried to stop Logan didn’t do him any good. Arianna gave him a long lecture about how false alarms compromised the security of the village. She told him that inane old story all over again, the one about the boy who cried wolf. He didn’t even know what a wolf was. It was another mythical creature made up to scare kids.

Logan dusted off his palms and wiped them on his pants. “Maybe I’d better haul the dirt up now before it gets too heavy to lift.”

“Maybe if you talked less we’d be done by now.”

“Why don’t you just say ‘shut up’ to my face?”

“You don’t get to be the angry one!” Daren threw the slab on the ground. “It’s your stupid bell-ringing that got us here!”

“You think I ring bells for fun?” Logan raised his voice. “You saw that thing. What else was I supposed to do?”

“For starters,” Daren said, turning around to face him, “try not to make me look like an idiot in front of the whole damned village.” He wiped a drop of sweat off his nose.

Logan’s eyes darkened with rage. He stepped forward and shoved Daren on the chest. Daren lost his balance and fell backwards into the trench.

“You want an apology now, is that it?” Logan sneered as he looked down at him. “I did what I thought had to be done. Which is a whole lot better than standing around and whining, ‘What should we do?’!” Logan mimicked Daren’s voice.

Daren got on his feet and brought his face close to Logan’s. “You would’ve stayed frozen like a scared kid if I hadn’t shaken you.”

“Dammit to hell!” Logan turned around and kicked over the sack, spilling its contents all over. He shot Daren a menacing look. “I’d better take a break before I stab something!”

Logan stepped out of the trench, cursing repeatedly as he stalked off. Muttering curses of his own, Daren slapped the dust from his pants and grabbed the canteen strapped to his belt. He peered inside the container, sloshed the water around, and downed a huge gulp. Screwing the top back on, he glanced at the rock wall of the village about twenty feet to his right. The two villagers Arianna assigned to watch him and Logan weren’t around. They were probably taking a break. And Logan was nowhere in sight.