Chapter 61 #2
I don’t mind being on my own because I don’t like being singled out when I’m with other people.
I get singled out enough just for being Max, so why did my own pop and the leader of this entire planet have to do it?
But then why was the leader of this entire planet talking to me and Pop alone in the first place?
Because Pop is special. By the decisions he makes and by how he and the Sky know each other, Pop is special.
But so what? What’s so special about being special? People go on and on about it all the time. We’re all special in our own way, allegedly, which is probably true, but again, so what? If everyone’s special, no one’s special, etc., etc., I’m not saying anything new here.
I do think, though, you gotta watch out for when people make an effort to say that you’re not special.
Because then they’re up to something. They’re trying to stop you from something.
I used to see it in class. When we were young, Margery Wingard–forget how she used to treat me for a minute–she used to tell Ben he wasn’t special just because he didn’t speak, and she expected him to keep up with all his assignments and his participation in class despite having to use the comm.
And in a way, maybe she was right, but only in a way.
He did keep up. He was smarter than all of us anyway, but he never let not having a voice stop him from speaking, that’s for damn sure.
But I don’t think that was Margery Wingard’s actual goal.
I think she was trying to break him down.
She wasn’t saying, you’re not special because you don’t have a voice.
She was saying, you’re not special just because you’re smart.
Don’t think you’re better than us. Don’t try too hard or we will push you back down. That’s what I think she was saying.
So when someone says you’re special, it probably doesn’t mean anything.
You are, it’s just not that interesting.
But when someone says you’re not, that’s when you’ve got to watch out.
That’s why I got so mad when the Sky said it about Pop and Pop agreed.
Pop is special in ways that are actually interesting and useful.
And people don’t really like that, do they?
Sometime before sunrise news comes back from the scouts that there’s been an attack on the town.
“What kind of attack?” Pop says. “Are my wife and son okay?”
But the Sky doesn’t know that level of detail. He’s exchanging Noise fast and heavy with the Land who returned, but even I can see that the news was serious enough for them to come back in person rather than add it to the Conversation.
There are many dead, the Sky finally says, but I do not know their names.
“What happened?” I asked. “Who attacked them? Was it a god?”
It was several of what you are calling ‘gods.’
“Several?” Pop says.
The Sky opens his Noise to show us, but all he’s got are what members of the Land saw from outside of town. There are gods, maybe seven or eight, standing around the edge of town, like they’ve surrounded it. Then the gods step into the town itself. And buildings start to explode.
“No,” Pop says.
The image fades.
“Why isn’t there more?” I ask.
The few Land who could see it retreated for their own safety, the Sky says.
“But there are Land in town,” I say. “The traders in the marketplace stay there overnight. They would have seen–”
But the Sky is already showing us what happened to them. They’re in a huddle in the middle of the tent. They’re surrounded by humans. I see Burly and Margery Wingard and Taper Wingard and–
“That’s Ben!” Pop says.
“And Tara next to him,” I say.
It looks like they’re arguing with Burly, but it’s hard to make out the words, and then people start shooting.
“Oh, no,” I whisper.
The Land start shooting back, and it’s all chaos and people running, and we see Taper arguing with a member of the Land who seems to be trying to stop him from leaving the tent, and we see a god pick up Taper and take off running with him.
“Where’s Ben?” Pop asks. “Where did he go?”
But that’s all the Sky has. Or all he’s going to show us anyway. Because he’s furious. I can see the red, throbbing anger in his Noise. Burly and Margery Wingard and others killed members of the Land. What the hell were they thinking?
There are four of my people dead at the hands of your people, the Sky says, and those words, “my” and “your,” suddenly feel very isolating out here in the woods, alone, with nothing but “his” people for endless miles in every direction except one.
“I don’t know what to say about that,” Pop says. “Burly is . . .” He frowns even harder. “I’ve never liked mayors. But please . . . my son. What happened to him? He was there. What happened–”
There were three of your people killed before your gods attacked.
I see Pop take the same deep breath that I do. No, nothing can happen to Ben. He’s annoying as hell, but nothing can happen to him. It just can’t.
I am telling my people to get clear of your settlement. I am telling them not to return.
“But we’ve got to help them,” Pop says.
You have got to help them. There is nothing that I have to do at all.
Pop’s eyes widen. His Noise picks up, and I can’t follow what they’re saying. Pop gets more and more desperate. The Sky gets more and more stubborn and angry.
“It’s my son!” Pop finally yells.
And were those four murdered not someone’s sons and daughters? He looks at me, and I can see in his Noise he’s thinking about the talk we had the night before. He looks back at Pop. Every time the hand of friendship is shown, it is bitten. Fast or slow, but always. Always.
“You know we have these conflicts,” Pop says. “They erupt now and then, and we deal with them and we go back to peace–”
Do you know why we do not just obliterate you? Remove you from our home like we would a termites’ nest?
“Not fully,” Pop says. “Our people do wonder.”
We do not do it because it is precisely what you would do, the Sky says, stepping toward Pop.
That is not how my people act. That is not who we ever were.
Until you tried to make us that way. Until you tried to force us to be you.
Isn’t that what you want in the end? To either erase us or turn us into yourselves?
“You know that’s not what I want,” Pop says.
And you know you do not speak for your people. As I must. It is maybe finally enough that we do not extinguish you. But that does not mean we have to stop others from doing the same.
“What does that mean?” I say.
“It means he’s leaving us,” Pop says.
“What?” I yell at the Sky. “But you just spent time telling me I could change the world. You’re the leader of the planet. You could actually change it!”
I am a voice for them. I look over them. That’s why I am the Sky.
“But you also lead them. So lead, for eff’s sake!”
Lead them to what? To accept death at your hands? Because it ‘happens now and then’?
“You said we were in great danger,” I say.
Yes. You. The danger is to you.
“The god that came out of the rock and killed Granddad killed a lot more of your people than it did mine. Are you really sure we’re the only ones in danger?”
I can tell he really doesn’t like this. Probably because I might be right.
“And,” I say, pressing on, “it took Ess. One of your young people. The gods at the city may want humans, but that god back there only wanted you. It went past Granddad to get him. And as is obviously true from our city, where there’s one god, there are going to be more.”
He still hesitates.
“You said people are special because of the decisions they make. Well, yeah, okay, we’ve bitten your hand. A lot. But something’s coming for both of us. And maybe if we fight it together, humans will finally realize what idiots we are for all the biting. That’s what you can decide.”
He looks at me, his Noise brimming and roiling, then he finally says to Pop, I’m sorry if something happened to your son or your one in particular.
And then he leaves. He just leaves.
···
“How far away are we?” I ask Pop the instant we’re alone.
Pop doesn’t even try to get the Sky to stay, and I can see from his Noise how angry and worried he is. I’m just trying to get us moving.
“Pop,” I say again. “How far are we from town?”
“A day’s walk,” he says. “Too far to help.”
“We don’t know that. We can go fast and cut that time down.”
“Max–”
“What’s the alternative? We’re just going to wait and hope? Because I’m not doing that. If there’s something that can be done, some fight that can be had to save Ben and Mom, then that’s what I’m choosing.”
“It’s too dangerous for you–”
“Not when I’m what it’s coming for! However dangerous it is, it’s my fight! And it’s Ben’s fight! And he’s not fighting it alone!”
I grab my stuff and storm off in the direction we were heading before. I’m no longer tired at all, I feel like I could run all day, even though I know that’s probably not true. But for now, I can run. So that’s what I do.
“Max, hold on!”
“Nope!” I yell back. “Better catch me!”
I hear a grunt of annoyance, but he takes off running after me anyway.
Of course I can’t keep running for very long, but it’s longer than I expect.
And when I do have to slow down to a fast walk, Pop is next to me, fast-walking, too.
There’s just no choice. Ben is obviously the boy from the Sky’s myth, the one with the prosthetic leg, and I don’t know if that means he’s actually safe or if he’s in the most danger of all, but I do know that means he’s in the middle of it, and he won’t be doing that alone, not if I can help it, okay?
I start to recognize things in the landscape now. We’re getting to the area where the trees are starting to thin. The canyon where all the catchers were is somewhere up ahead.
“We’re going to have to go around it,” Pop says.
“No time,” I say.
“I don’t have my gun anymore. I lost it in the attack.”
“Then we brave our way through like we did last time! Pop, we have to get there! Mom and Ben are there!”
“Max–”