Neytopia › Part 2: Noon › Chapter 21
Out of the frying pan into the fire
The raven woke up at dusk. A great fire was raging where the city once stood. He looked at himself. His body was riddled with scars where the bullets had pierced him. He said to nobody,
I died.
And nobody replied,
Yes.
The raven thought it was the Traveler.
Is it… is it you?
No, and he will never speak to you again. He lost his mind and, well, just forget about him.
After a few seconds of silence the voice spoke again,
You know who I am.
That creepy little girl…
Yes. Now get up, we have work to do.
What, now? Now that my dreams have burned to the ground again? Now that I have no gold nor army, not even clothes to protect me from the cold wind?
Yes, now. I know about the cold and the pain you feel. But they don’t matter.
They matter to me.
No they don’t, and you know it. So why don’t you stop whining and find shelter.
He walked to the mountains in the north. There he searched for hours until he found the entrance to a cave. With some twigs and pinecones he built a small fire inside the cave. He laid down to rest by the fire, and that’s when he was beaten, stabbed and dragged across the cave.
What the fuck!
Two sets of hands pulled from his arms. He was dizzy, his sight blurry. Still, he forced himself to remember as much as he could about what he saw. The walls and floor were covered with disgusting moving gore. It was painful to lift his head, but he made the effort. His kidnappers were rabbit-headed humanoids wearing robes. The rabbit-headed creatures he met on his way down the den turned to look at him.
Each level he descended, the smell of rotten fish and wet dog intensified. He threw up a couple of times out of nausea and his captors kicked him for it. After bumping his head on a staircase several times, they finally threw him in a cell. A particularly disgusting rabbit-creature tore his shirt, took a red-hot iron and branded his chest with their sign: it looked like a closed eye, drawn as a semicircle over a horizontal line with lines that resembled eyelashes. After their captors left, other prisoners in his cell approached him. A man whispered:
Hey, who are you?
The raven hadn’t heard the man. Holding his branded chest with his hands, the raven asked,
Where am I?
The man replied,
This is hell or somewhere worse. We were all captured in the forest. A wonderful smell drove me to what I thought was pie. Suddenly those things jumped on me and knocked me out.
Others in the room nodded. A girl said,
I just woke up here. All I remember is going to sleep at my house in the woods.
A bulky man intervened,
I am a royal soldier. See that fellow over there—The bulky man pointed to a corpse in another cell—He was an investigator looking for her—The bulky man pointed to a skeleton in another cell.
A terrified man said,
We came here looking for food. M-me and my wife.
The raven asked,
Where is your wife?
The man’s eyes watered with tears.
She was taken four weeks ago. For one whole hour we heard her cries. Then she stopped, she stopped— The man’s voice broke.
The royal soldier spoke again,
They sometimes feed us, you know. But sometimes, sometimes they forget we’re here. Except for women. They do things to women.
They glanced for a second at a cell where a body lay rotting, then looked away. The captive girl spoke with an empty stare,
Our fate is sealed. The manrabbits will consume us all…
He laid down to rest, determined to stay awake and plan his escape. The voices of the prisoners slowly died down until there was silence. His eyes closed for a second. When he opened them, he noticed the loud silence and looked around the cell. The prisoners were gone. Light fled the room and everything turned black.
He heard the footsteps on the stairs, approaching him.
Hello?
The footsteps continued, getting closer. He distinguished a shape in the shadows, but couldn’t tell what it was.
You will not give up now.
Fear gripped his mind. He froze, unable to move a muscle.
Who’s there? Come out!
The little girl stepped forth, smiling. Without moving her lips, she replied,
You can’t give up now. Get up.
No! Tell me why, why go through all this shit. All the work I’ve done, all the pain. Why?
Do you know why I turned you into a raven? Because it was the only way you could survive. You had to become something stronger to stand all the petty crap that would have killed you. And look at you now, you marvelous creature.
But why? Why do I have to survive? Why do I—
You should know by now that it’s not about you, it never was. When you see an insect, what do you think is its purpose?
Survival?
Yes, that’s right. But it’s not its survival. The insect is only a vessel carrying genes. The point of the insect is that its genes survive, just like you are a vessel to carry me.
And who are you?
The little girl came closer to his cell until she phased through its bars. Her hair flowed, suspended in the air.
I am Freedom, and with your help I’m going to rip the heart out of the old woman and make her eat it.
The prison’s walls burst into flames. The vision started to fade.
Now kill them. Kill every single one of her followers.
The vision ended abruptly. The prison’s walls were really on fire. He rose from the ground, his strength renewed. He held his cell’s bars and they melted in his hands. He stepped outside and spoke to the prisoners,
You are free now. Free to follow me and obey me without question.
The prisoners heard the echo of manrabbits rushing down the stairs. The raven’s eyes burst into flames. All the prisoners nodded, terrified but unable to stop peering into his eyes. The manrabbits were almost at the prison now. The raven smiled, put his hands behind his neck and kneeled down, waiting for the manrabbits,
Good.