Chapter 4 – Bloody Cheese
The night came, and the faint light of the moons shimmered down on the city. When the three moons rose in the sky as the light of the sun faded, the silence of the night began to dominate the slum. Murmurs and vague echoes of noise were the sole sounds heard in the slum.
Franswift stood outside his tent with a pale face as if he were facing a terrifying beast. Shivers ran down his spine, and his body was full of sweat. He anxiously looked around as he ran towards another house made of scraps and stones.
He shouted aloud at the doorstep, “Old Lee! Old Lee!”
“Patience, I am coming.” A middle-aged man with a regular build, a scanty rough grey beard, and a bald head walked out of the house. He had a dissatisfied face, clearly pointed at the rucks Franswift was causing.
“Why the hell are you…,” Old Lee stopped in the middle of his sentence when he noticed Franswift's pale face.
“Old Lee, how long have you been living here,” Franswift asked in a hurry.
“Franswift, calm down first and talk a...”
“Please, just answer me quickly.”
Old Lee apprehended Franswift and started long at his face before sighing.
He said, “Have been living here for 17 years.”
“When you arrived here at first, were the slums this crowded?”
“Not at all, when I came, the slums were at most, one-twentieth of the current number.”
The terrifying thought continued to germinate in Franswift's mind.
With a trembling voice, he asked, “Do you know how most of the slums population originated, according to their age?”
“What I know is that most of the people above the age of 20 at that time came from the villages and gathering points outside the city.”
“Do you know since when has the city has been allowing outsiders inside the slums?”
“I don’t know. But when I was a child and learned about the city, I learned it has been permitting people into the slums from ages ago.” Old Lee answered with a bewildered face, but quickly his eyebrows came together.
It doesn’t add up. His terrifying thought was becoming more and more of a reality than he wanted.
He did not doubt old Lee was lying. Almost all the people of the slums knew old Lee. As long as anyone in the slums could remember, old Lee was always in the slums. And during his time of staying here, all the people recognized his trustworthiness. This was all old Lee could sell about as he got old, and it paid off since no one has as much knowledge and experience in the slums as him.
“Franswift, why were you asking these questions?” Old Lee interrupted Franswift's train of thought with a worrisome face. As it seemed, he has realized something.
With a bitter face, Franswift said, “I am not quite sure of the cause, but I certainly know that something hazardous will happen in the slums. Old Lee, a suggestion if you will. Find any weapon and hide, hide very well, and you better do it now before it’s too late.”
“What do you k…”
“I’m sorry, I can’t answer your questions now. I am in a hurry too,” Franswift quickly turned away and bolted towards the gate.
Seeing the back of Franswift, Old Lee entered his house right away to prepare. Even if what Franswift was saying was all false and he was over exaggerating, he felt it would not hurt to do this. He also felt something was not right after the series of exchanges that just happened.
Franswift's heart was getting more desolate with each thought. I really hope I will discover some clues at the gate. Currently, he was walking on thin ice. One mistake, or one misjudgment, will cost him his life. He did not know whether he should incite the people of the slum to fight, whether he should find an escape route and flee instantly, or if he should fight alone. One wrong move and it would be his end.
When Franswift reached the gate, he stood there stunned, at a scene he had never seen before. He starred and gritted his teeth at the now shut gate. Do not mention forming plans. Right now, he cannot even be sure what is causing the danger or when it will come.
Rage and frustration built under Franswift skin, but none surfaced over his face. He knew that emotions never lead to a good thing. He saw there was a commotion around the gates, and a few guards were surpassing it. The first thing he noticed was the current guards were not the ones that always maned the gates. The most notable difference was the current ones wore black leather armor and held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. They were wearing cloaks that covered their body, with hoods over their faces.
Franswift walked to the nearest guard at the gate and tried to be as polite as possible to squeeze some information. “Excuse me, why is the gate closed?"
One of the guards jerked his head and coldly said, “A guard drill is conducting; it requires the gate being closed.”
“Can there be any way to get out of the city? It’s urgent.”
“The gates will not open unless the drill is over. Any other matters can wait until then.”
Franswift realized he would not be able to get through even if he talked to them till the morning. He turned around, and just as he was about to leave, a thought came to his mind. Could try that.
He faced the gate and entered into focus. He then closed his eyes and allowed his concentration to flow to his ears. He began to pick up some sounds, some rhythms coming afar.
It’s similar to the rhythms I heard the wolf was pursuing me, but they are varying and a thousand times more! No, they are tens of thousands more!
He could not see the beast tide, but he could imagine it. Thousands of different beasts, stampeding across the barren brown land. He was sure if he stood on top of the walls, he would not spot their end.
Franswift face went pale. He hastily opened his eyes and went out of focus. He faced the wall with fear still on his face. Noticing he was still around the guards, he tried to briefly regain his composure.
When he calmed down, he saw the guard he had talked to earlier was staring at him. Franswift only understood one thing from the guard's eyes. Talk, and you are dead.
Franswift bowed down towards him to show he understood and began to move back slowly. When he went out of the guard's sight, he started sprinting straight away.
The guard that had spotted Franswift moved out of the row of guards he stood in and walked to another man standing at a distance. The man was surveying the gates and the people around it. The sole difference between him and the guards was that he had a staff strapped to his back instead of holding a spear.
“Chief, it looks like a kid realized something.”
“Saw it.” The Chief said, “He went back quietly and only ran when we were out of sight. He tried to cause us no trouble. Why should we cause some more trouble to him when he is already at his wit's end. Even if he goes back to try and cause more trouble….”
He turned his head towards the wall. “They are almost already here. He won’t be able to gather enough people to cause a problem, even if he wanted to.”
***
Franswift ran with all his strength towards Joe’s shop. When he saw the guard’s look and the other guards' equipment, he knew even if he tried anything, all he would achieve was give them some minute trouble. More than that, he recognized he had no time. Even if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to do anything on time.
He reached Joe’s shop and started banging and shouting at his door.
“Joe, open up quickly!”
“Joe, hurry up!”
“Joe, we have no time!”
“The co....”
“The swift bird!”
Finally, the door opened, and Joe appeared at the door as always. But this time, he had a weapon in hand, and his face showed how annoyed he was at how Franswift acted at his door.
“You better have a good reason for this,” Joe said with a frown on his face after he saw Franswift panting and sweating.
Franswift quickly said, “You are right, it is a beast tide, and it will trample all over the slums. We don’t have much time.”
Joe, taken aback, said, “What! Explain.”
“Damn it. I said we have no time waste.”
Joe stood still as if he would not budge an inch if Franswift did not explain.
“You were right; there is a beast tide, and it’s on its way here. They barred the gates, and no one is entering or leaving. The guards that usually man the gates and the walls are all gone. They have all been substituted with others completely different from the ones before. And they will open the gates again at any moment. This time with a beast horde behind it.” Seeing Joe stunned, Franswift bit his lips, feeling frustrated that joe couldn’t keep up with his thought process.
He said slowly, “It always weighted in my mind, how the slum is still accepting people when they have been doing so for ages. Have you ever wondered why they let a slum this big inside the wall? Why did they not replace it? They indeed make a profit by squeezing the people here. But how many people do you think actually provide services with a great margin in profit out of the hundred thousand people here? This is the slum; people here are not educated or know any set of beneficial skills. People with those qualifications will not exceed the 100 mark because those who have actual useful skills had already left to avoid being squeezed by the city. So why don’t they just expand the other areas? I am sure just the taxes earned would surpass the profit we provide them. I always gave it a thought but never got an answer. Today, I got one. We were simply a trap.”
“Ww-what do you M-mean?” Realizing what Franswift was implying, Joe’s head was filled with fear, and he started stuttering, forgetting they were losing time.
Franswift shouted, “Do I have to spell it out. There is a beast horde at our doors, and they will liter this place with corpses. Those vermin have been using the slum as a trap for the beast tide, you get it!" Franswift couldn't hold his anger anymore and bellowed, "It’s a trap – a mousetrap. And we are the bloody cheese.”
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