BARTON HOLLOW
CHAPTER SIX: The City on the Hill
All was quiet at the night time hours, albeit the common cricket or perhaps the uninterested passerby. Maybe it was just the tired imagination of his mind, but for a split second Ralph was almost sure he saw something flitting among the shadows in the trees. Although, a few minutes later when he went to check back on his sleeping comrades, all was well. There was nothing to be worried about in the dark of midnight, when the most difficult of foes to conquer was sound asleep at his feet; nothing at all, or so he thought to himself. It was sometimes his only solace, that so long as everyone was asleep, everyone would get along.
If they had kept walking that day, however, to the top of that hill on which they had decided the tension too great to bear, they would have found something quite peculiar on the other side. Just over the ridge, lying in plain sight, was a city.
The city lying atop the hill.
…
As another day continued, they walked on. Ralph couldn't help but feel that something was missing.
"So, what's the plan for today? More pointless walking? Or are we actually going to accomplish something?" Jack sneered, venom lacing his tone, "Oh, I know! We'll just go all the way back to Barton Hollow! That's a great idea! We will have made twice the progress we've made in four days!"
"Shut up, Jack." Simon growled.
"Oh, don't start this Simon." Jack hissed back. Ralph rolled his eyes and jumped back into the argument.
"Jack, would you stop picking fights?" He sighed, "It's tiresome."
"You know what else is tiresome, Ralph?!" The red head raised his voice, waving the sharpened stick he used as a weapon in Ralph's direction, "Walking in circles."
"We aren't walking in circles!" Simon corrected.
"All of you need to be quiet." Roger finally said, "I bet there's something right over the hill, you just see. We can't go back. We all know that, so stop arguing over it already! Or I'll come over there and show you what you really need to be afraid of!"
Everyone was quite as the walk continued for once; at that point Ralph's heart dropped to his stomach. He realized what had been so strange to him earlier.
"Hey, Jack."
"What?!"
"Where's Alex?"
Jack looked around for a moment, confused. Their progression halted, right before the top of the highway slope. Roger kept on going, followed by little Marie. By the nearly-broken shopping cart, Simon leaned and gave Jack and Ralph an exhausted, weary look. He was still not a morning person.
"I don't know. Did we leave him behind somewhere?" Jack answered slowly, "I bet he just got eaten by a walker. He's so slow and all…"
"Aren't you even the least bit worried?" Ralph shot back skeptically.
"Well, I wouldn't go back and look for him, if that's what you're asking." Jack furrowed his brow, "That's just plain stupid, Ralph. We didn't go and look for Maurice either, or any of our parents, so I don't know why he's worth any more than they were!"
"He's not, but that's not the point. You just don't even seem worried that he disappeared." Ralph said angrily.
"So?"
"So!?" Ralph repeated, "SO!? Is that all you think of human life!? SO!?"
"He was just holding us back!" Jack retorted.
"He was one of us, and not one of them!" Ralph stopped, sobering up for once. His pale yellow hair had crazed and layered with grime from sleeping on the ground night upon night. Right now, it crazed along with his tepid blue eyes, getting lost in the depths of a new insanity. Quickly, he shook his head and tried to clear up the fog. It left him in a haze, almost so that he couldn't even remember that it had been there in the first place. "That's all that matters…"
"Whatever you think," Jack sneered, "You're going back alone if you're thinking of looking for that fool."
"I never said I was going back, I just…we should feel something…" Ralph tried to explain the pain in his chest, like someone was twisting it in their fist. The sky was still blue.
"Hey, sorry." Jack tried to make up for it, "I misunderstood."
"No problem, I guess."
"We should get moving." Roger broke in. He had been oddly silent this whole time, not speaking up until now. Some odd air had formed around him, beckoning the sun to be sucked down into some hell-born abyss. Overall, a foreboding air.
"Righto." Ralph sighed. He kept on walking, not waiting to check to make sure the others were following. By the sound of the creaking shopping cart wheels, he could tell they were already keeping up with him anyway. It's not like they had anywhere else to go.
At the top of the hill, Ralph stopped. He heard everyone else halt in unison as well, with the squeaking of the cart wheels coming last, Simon's panting, jagged breaths coming through once more.
"What's…this…?" Ralph whispered.
"It's a…city? Where are we?" Jack answered, at the same time bringing up a valid question of his own. Where were they?
"I've never even heard of a city this close to Barton Hollow." Simon wondered, "In geography, Mr. Samsonas said that the nearest city was at least a hundred miles away."
"Could we have traveled that far maybe?" Ralph wondered. The glistening city ahead of them, obscured by a tangle of interstate roads and exits, seemed too still and quiet for what he'd heard of cities. Weren't they supposed to be noisy and such? Where were all the people?
"Do you think the walkers are here as well?" Marie piped up from Roger's side. He patted her head.
"Undoubtedly." He responded.
"Yeah, the cars are all still like before, and I don't see any people." Ralph began uneasily. There was something about the shells that had previously been buildings that unnerved him. The way they touched the sky, like they were calling forth heaven itself. The way the lights were out, and nonexistent. The way it groaned as if undergoing some horrible punishment.
Like it was….cursed.
Almost as if…it wanted them away.
"I don't like it." Ralph voiced his thoughts.
"Me neither." Roger took up quickly, "It just screams danger. I think we should go around."
"What are you talking about?!" Jack argued, "We're going in. You two have made the calls enough now. Simon, how about you?"
Simon shifted uncomfortably under the spotlight. "I…uh…I'm kind of tired, guys. Plus, we're almost out of food and water. We need to look for more. And the kids…" His gaze shifted to the two remaining littluns in the cart, sleeping with shuddering breaths underneath his choir cloak. "They're getting sick from the heat. We need to stop and take shelter. Even if it's just for two days…"
"Fine." Ralph agreed hesitantly, looking once more towards the ominous towers ahead. "But if it's not safe, we're leaving immediately."
"Well, duh." Jack made a face and started towards the mirage-like glass of the skyscrapers. Simon followed as well, and eventually even Ralph after a few moments. He beckoned Roger too as an afterthought. Roger held Marie's hand, half-turned towards the city, giving it a wary, deadly look. Marie glanced up plaintively.
"Big brother…" She whimpered, "I don't want to…see it…"
"Shh." He quieted, "Remember, the past is ours to keep." He bent down on a knee and looked her in the eyes, "You can't tell people about things that happened in the past, because then they won't like you anymore Marie. And you want people to like you, right?"
Tears began to spring up from her too-big eyes. "I don't want to be fed to the monsters!"
"And that's why we have to keep it a secret, Marie." Roger smiled, "It's very important. He was dangerous, just like this city, remember what I told you then…"
"…I remember! I remember!" She cut him off, "You don't have to tell me again! Geez, I got A's in school. I'm smart, not like him."
"Good, now let's go before they come back for us." Roger took her hand again in comfort and the two siblings strode towards the glistening city.
Although, if you had been looking from the distance, the heat undulating from the pavement, the broken asphalt, the very earth, made the scene look entirely different. This city was crawling. This city was not glistening with beauty, but with sweat from its toils.
And Roger, with little Marie by his side, seemed almost a black silhouette against the outline of it. A smudge, a blemish, an unforgivable sin.
Spring was accelerating with alarming speed, and the heat couldn't have felt more oppressive.
