| Part 2 Two days earlier in Littleton: There was a strange feeling in the air, something just seemed very wrong. Japheth tossed and turned in his bed, he had been unable to sleep for the past few nights. All at once he heard a scream and it jolted him out of his bed. He barely had time to pull on his pants as he ran down the stairs and roughly yanked open the front door. At his feet lay Mason, one of his best friends and most trusted follower. Mason had been stabbed in the chest with his own serrated hunting knife. Japheth knelt down and touched his friend�s cooling cheek and looked out into the dark night with a murderous glare in his ice blue eyes. "Japheth! Japheth!" a young voice called. "Who�s there?" Japheth asked with suspicion. A little girl with dark brown hair and eyes came running out of the darkness towards him. "Mina? Who has done this to Mason?" Mina�s eyes filled with tears as she looked down at the broken body of her older brother. "Outlanders are coming! Mason was on watch and I wanted to say goodnight to him, but as I was walking towards him these old people came up to him. They said things to each other and then Mason began to run," she stopped to take a shaky breath. "I followed, but far away. Finally he stopped and when he turned around a big man stabbed him with the thing he dropped. He wanted to warn you!" she exclaimed and began to cry even harder. Japheth�s heart dropped and he grabbed Mina�s hand and pulled her into the house. The three boys he shared the house with had gotten up after hearing the commotion and were now standing in the foyer looking at Japheth and Mina with shock. He realized that he and Mina probably both looked a fright. "Japheth, what�s happened?" asked Steven, who was tall and lanky with light brown hair and hazel-green eyes. "There are Outlanders coming. Mason is dead," Japheth replied dully. "Where are they?" Paul asked, his voice rising in horror. "I don�t know. Mina, do you know where the big people are?" Japheth asked Mina, whom Steven had guided to the couch and was sitting curled up in the corner of it. "They went towards the fields after they killed Mason. They don�t know where this house is, I don�t think," Mina said with uncertainty. "Where is He Who Walks Behind the Rows?" Steven asked. "I don�t know. I wish I had the power of the Leader, but you know I do not," Japheth said with resignation. "So then we must get to Hemingford," reasoned Zechariah, who up until this point had been silent. "There may not be enough time, Zech. We must deal with this by ourselves. The Outlanders must not be allowed to get to Hemingford," said Japheth with conviction. Suddenly a loud explosion rocked the home and a bright orange ball of fire seemed to engulf the center of the cornfield. This time it was Japheth who screamed and he turned to the three boys and growled, "Kill the Outlanders." They nodded and went to the closet to retrieve their weapons, then quickly left the home in search of more children to help with the hunt and the outlanders themselves. Japheth ran a hand through his sandy blond hair and turned to Mina, who was dozing in a fitful sleep. "Mina," he called, gently shaking her awake. "Japh? What?" she whispered. "Mina, you must listen to me. Things are happening that I may not be able to stop. If I should not survive...," his voice trailed off and he paused. "If I should not survive then you must get to Hemingford and warn the Leader and the children who live there. Can you do that for me?" he finished urgently. She nodded slowly. "No, Mina, you must say it! You must survive and warn the others! Think of your brother and of all the children here, they need you now!" he said frantically. "Ok, Japheth, I promise! I promise I will find Hemingford and tell the Leader what�s happened here," Mina promised, her voice shaking and her eyes tearful. Japheth gathered the little girl into a hug and forced his own tears down. He knew this might be his last night on earth, and he thought of Hemingford and of who was there waiting for him. ----------------------- Japheth had left Mina inside where he hoped she would be safe, but that is not where she stayed. She knew she needed to see what would happen for herself, so she followed him, keeping at a distance so that he would not see her and demand that she hide. -------------------------- Once a few feet from the house, Japheth knew that he would have to go to the fields, which were quickly becoming an out-of-control inferno. He saw as he ran to them that many of the doors to the houses were open, and they all looked empty. The children had probably run to the fields to try and put out the fire, but he hoped that they had not tried to do that. He wondered where Steven, Paul, and Zechariah were, and he had a distinct sinking feeling about what might have happened to them. Then he saw a hulking figure in front of him. "Who�s there?" he yelled. "Are you the leader of these children?" a deep voice asked. "Yes I am. I am Japheth, outlander. What have you done?" he snarled. He would not lie to these people to save his own hide. If this was his end, then the Lord had meant it to be so. "You children need to be stopped. What you do here is wrong," the man declared in a stern tone of voice. "Perhaps the fact that you are still alive is wrong. Maybe you were meant to perish," Japheth taunted. The man scowled and he seemed to grow very angry. Before he could say anything Japheth decided to run. If he ran into the burning fields, perhaps the outlander would chase him there and be caught in the flames. It was worth a try. Japheth took off in a fast sprint with the man close at his heels. When he reached the beginning of the rows he started to weave his way through the familiar path to Littleton�s own sacred clearing. He saw other children hazily through the smoke and he hoped that they were going in the same direction as he was. He burst through the stalks and skidded to a halt. The cross and platform that had been on the far right of the circle were gone. He assumed that the outlanders had thrown them into the fire. He blinked away fresh tears when he saw Zechariah�s body on the edge of the clearing, and he wondered morbidly if he would find Steven and Paul�s bodies nearby. Japheth had no time to react when he was tackled to the ground by an outlander, but not the man he had seen before. This one was younger and not as heavy-set. They rolled onto the ground and Japheth punched him squarely in the jaw. The young man punched him back and produced a long knife from his belt. He tried to stab Japheth with it but Japheth managed to catch the blade between his hands and throw it so that it skittered across the dirt. He lunged at it and just managed to wrap his fingers around the handle, then triumphantly pinned the outlander to the ground. Japheth brought the blade down to finish him off, but as he did so he felt a white-hot pain slice through his chest. He looked down in shock and disbelief at the sickle that had gone clean through his back and out of his chest. He choked hard on his blood and fell off the outlander to the side, and crawled towards the edge of the clearing. With his dimming eyes he saw a familiar figure and weakly whispered her name. -------------------------- Mina heard what sounded like her name as she reached the clearing all alone. Then she saw Japheth and tried hard not to cry out loud. She saw that the big people were standing in the clearing and she dropped to her knees and crawled to Japheth as cautiously as she could. When she got to him she saw that he was still alive and leaned over and whispered his name in his ear. He looked up at her and tried to smile bravely for her. "Mina, I told you to stay at home," he rasped. "I know, Japheth, but I had to see," she whispered. "Now you�ve seen, and now you must tell them," he said and tried to catch his breath. "Please, Mina, get out of here now. I�m all but gone and so is this town. Don�t perish with it!" he said with obvious agitation. "But Japheth, what...," she started to say. "No, just go! Remember me...and Littleton," Japheth whispered, and then he was gone. Tears began to slide down Mina�s cheeks and she lightly kissed the forehead of the young man who had been like an older brother to her. He was wearing his cornhusk cross and she took it from around his neck and placed it hurriedly in the pocket of her now-dirty dress. She noticed that the outlanders had not seen her but she stayed down as she made her way back into the smoky fields. Once she was sure it was safe to do so, she stood up and began to run. The sun was starting to rise, and somehow she knew just where she had to go. It would take a long time, but she would get there, and she would do it for Japheth and her brother. -------------------------- "Thanks a lot, Theo" said the young man to the older man whom Japheth had been running from. "No problem, Kevin. I�m just glad that�s over," Theo replied as he helped Kevin up. He wondered where that leader kid was and if he had definitely gotten him. That sickle through the back should have done the job, though. "It�s not over yet. That one you killed isn�t the real leader. That one is in Hemingford," said Lacey, coming up behind the two men. "Are you sure this is right, Lacey?" asked Kevin, looking around at the blaze that had consumed the corn and was spreading to the town. "Yes, of course it is. These kids are evil, don�t forget it. No matter how innocent they seem, they�re not," Lacey snapped. "Okay, okay, calm down," said an older woman named Margaret, who put her arm around Lacey. "Why don�t we find a place to clean up and rest for a while. If this town Hemingford is even worse than it was here, we�re going to need it. Why don�t you and Meagan go to the car, okay? We�ll find our other friends." Lacey rolled her eyes but nodded. She really didn�t like getting stuck with this Meagan girl, who they had picked up a few states back. She looked like she could almost be a corn child herself. "All right, come on Meagan," she said to the girl who was staring awestruck at the flames as they leapt higher and higher in the distance. She grabbed Meagan�s arm and pulled her out of the clearing. "Guess we�re on our way to Hemingford," said Theo. -------------------------- Present, Hemingford: All of the children were now gathered in the Sacred Clearing. They were waiting impatiently for their leader to arrive, because they had heard that something big, and possibly very bad, was happening. But just six months ago they had weathered a huge storm, and no one wanted to believe that yet again the relative peace and order of the town would be disturbed. The groups of children then grew quiet when the corn parted and out stepped Micah and Delilah, their faces grim and taut. Micah climbed the few steps onto a slightly raised platform and Delilah joined Jedediah, Rachael, and Danny where they stood off to the side. "Children, I called you all to this meeting because of something terrible that has happened. I will not delay in my telling of this to you, because all of our lives now depend on it. Littleton is no more. Japheth is dead, and so are many of his followers," Micah paused when he heard a sharp intake of breath and a choked sob. It was Tabitha, the girl who was carrying Japheth�s child and who would have joined him in Littleton in less than a year. He nodded his head in sympathy and continued, "We have good reason to believe that Outlanders are on their way here, and that their intention is to destroy our town and us." "What will we do?" one of the children shouted from the crowd. "We must be ready. Three will now keep watch, and they must carry larger weapons. Watch will also go through the night. When we receive word that they are indeed coming, we must come to this clearing because we will be most safe here. Do not delay, drop anything you are doing and take nothing but weapons with you. You must be prepared to fight," Micah answered with confidence. He dismissed the children and ordered them back to their homes, except for three boys which he put on watch. Delilah, Jedediah, Rachael, Danny, and Keren came up to him when the last had gone. "Things will never be the same again, will they Micah?" Delilah asked with sadness. "I�m afraid not, Delilah, I�m afraid not," Micah answered, and the group fell silent. |