"The only redeeming quality about this story is that the good die and the stupid suffer." ~ Anonymous
“This way!”
I cried to my companions
Backpack jostling
As I crested the top
A sea of pines
Spilled out below me
Stretching on beyond horizon
Completely unbroken
I stopped
And hesitated a moment
Pulling out my map
Squinting at the formations
Then flipping it over
Considering all angles
Soon my comrades caught up
“Well?”
One wheezed as he collapsed
Pulling out waterskin
And quenching thirst
“I may
Or may not
Have absolutely no idea
Where we are…”
The sun was never again so bright
Never so effulgent
As the first time
I came up from our depths
The ominous
Ponderous creaking
As the lift was hoisted higher
And higher
I felt my heart beat quicken
What did it look like?
The sky
Clouds
Sun
Only ideas implanted in my head
Sounds that conveyed nothing
But wonder
And possibility
With a bang the lift stopped
The workers outside the cage
Tied down the rope to the wall
The door was opened
Beyond the gathered crowd I saw the illuminance
The otherworldly radiance spilling over their heads
I stepped
Uncertain
But excited
Onto the tunnel’s floor
The crowd embraced us and handed us head bands
Inset with dark glass
Old bottle bottoms
Lined with leather
We placed them over our eyes and were lead
Single file
Out of the mouth
Birthed into a world so vast
As to leave me awestruck
No god could have prepared me
Could have forewarned
Of this vastness
This beauty
I wept
“Minos, over here!”
Cried my father
Broad arms waving
Face aglow with love
A bear of a man
And one who I had not seen
Not held
In several years
We embraced
Warmth and sweat
But gloriously rejoined
He released me
And gestured to the horizon
Amber mountains stretched on
Unending
The sun beat down on me
Warming me more deeply
More completely
Than I’d ever felt before
And I knew then
I would never again
Love those caves
As I now loved this land
Minos had emerged
Minos had died
Minos was reborn
If you enjoyed this poem make sure to check out Amberley’s poem for this day also right here! Also if you want more poems like this check out our collections After the End and the hashtag AfterTheEnd!!!
I hear tell these mountains were dangerous before The Fall
They had a weird name that we didn’t write down
Books are just dead weight and dead words
Sounds like Apple Asians
Told you it was a weird name
Anyway, I know their dangers
The cougars
The lions
The wolves
Lots of predators now
Because cages of them were opened just after The Fall
Humans too of course
We live at the foot
The door to these mountains
But today I venture inward
To hunt for our village
Anything will do
But I hope I find deer
Slinging longbow and a pack of arrows
Water too in a doe skin jug
Enough for a few days
I say goodbye to my wife
A gentle kiss and little words
The forest swallows me almost immediately
Every inch of this place looks the same
To the untrained eye
But I know it
The curves
The drops
The switchbacks
I see paths were only underbrush looks back
A day of travel passes
Only a footnote in my mind
A brief blur of leaves and bark
The next day I find myself on a rocky outcrop
Overlooking a valley
Smoke drifts up lazily between the trees
Fire means people
I choose to avoid them
Heading down into the valley
But angling southward to steer clear
A few hours later I am perched in a tree
My garb blending me in
All vine and leaf
I am nothing
As I wait I take a sip from the jug
Tang of the hide mingling within
Better than trusting the streams out this way
Then a snap
I freeze and slowly lower the jug to my hip
Eyes scanning for movement
Slightest disturbance
Then I spot it
A stag
Antlers brazen and bold
I smile softly as I ease the bow up
Notching an arrow
Slowing my breath
The bow creaks softly as I pull back
Waiting for the moment
The exact right instant
Then a shot rings out
The stag shudders and drops in an instant
Eye obliterated
“Gottem!”
A cry to my north
I ease the arrow back
Pressing into the bark around me
Three figures descend
Hollering in excitement
Bedraggled in rough sewn hides
I consider my options
Travel for another kill
Maybe days
As that shot will have scared off all others for miles
Or
I tighten my grip on my bow
“A biggun’!”
I pull back the arrow
Aim for the side of his face
A soft thwip and the arrow finds its mark
Causing him to spin around
To stop them from knowing where it came from
“What in hell?!”
I notch the second arrow quicker
Deep breath
Release
The second
Biggest of the three
Drops without a struggle
The final one aims a rifle wildly
Old and muzzle loading
We had a few
But rarely used them
The gunpowder too valuable to waste on a single animal
“You think you can attack the Kilkenny’s?!?”
I notch the next arrow
Just as our eyes meet
My face, grim determination
His, confusion
His shot fires wide
A tree to my right cracking
I release the final arrow and he clutches at it
Blood trickling around it
He yanks it free
Mistake
Blood gushes for a few seconds
And he collapses
Dead
I’ll dress my kill
Construct a simple sled for the meat
And take what goods they have
I probably have a few hours before more come looking
I’ll be gone long before they find this scene
If you want to read more from this world go check out Amberley’s poem for this Thursday! Also check out the tag “After the End” to see all current poems written for this project.
Dried Ink Ribbon 