Forever Autumn and the Ferry
a/n: This chapter brought to you by LEGO™.
For three days I fought my way along roads packed with refugees, the homeless, burdened with boxes and bundles containing their valuables. All that was of value to me was in London. But by the time I got to their little red-brick house, Carrie and her father were gone.
The first signs of autumn were beginning to evince themselves; the first of the leaves yellowing, drifting poetically down from the trees to be trampled underfoot of the mass of those whose primary goal was to abandon the city. It brought me a melancholy, nostalgic feeling, for my half-sister Karai adored the fall. A chill breeze caught me by surprise, though it was a different fall that I was more worried about.
The summer sun is fading as the year grows old,
And darker days are drawing near.
The winter winds will be much colder
Now you're not here…
We did not meet until our teenage years, my adoptive father believing her to be lost in a fire, along with his beloved wife. Fifteen years later, dramatic circumstances led us to become friends, then enemies, then family, and I loved her dearly. Finally finding peace in our tumultuous lives, we began spending time together: outings, carriage rides, even simple walks while chatting, I felt we had earned. I will not delude myself that the times were always pleasant, for there were certainly rough times while she was against us, but once things were resolved, she was amiable enough, as well as brash, daring, wild, and adventurous—things which people of our day tend to find unbecoming of a young woman, but which drew me like a moth to a gaslamp. Her fiery spirit matched the colors that came with the turning of the season, with Autumn donning her golden gown, trees brought to flame in brilliant oranges, yellows and the vermillion of the maples that matched the cheeky dash of red and black she wore at the corners of her eyes like a Japanese kabuki mask.
I watch the birds fly south against the autumn sky
And one by one, they disappear.
I wish that I was flying with them
Now you're not here
I glanced skyward as I hefted my traveling case, my hand tired from the strain of it dangling for so many miles, and watched a flock of geese, arranging themselves into V-formation. It was much too early for their usual migration; they, too, were moving on to seek safe refuge elsewhere. If only we humans and humanoids could take to the air so easily!
Like the sun through the trees, you came to love me,
Like a leaf on the breeze, you blew away…
It made my guts wrench that I had no way of knowing if Father and Karai were safe and well. When I reached their house, it, like every house around it, was abandoned, and while that increased the anxiety of desiring to know of their welfare, at least I knew that they were not staying behind, in the path of the Martians' havoc-wreaking.
But the circumstances brought the beginnings of tears of anger to the corners of my eyes. We had been together for so little time after finding one another before it was decided that I should establish myself on my own. I agreed to it, of course, for Master Splinter had wished it—I think to cool the blood between Karai and myself for a while. I resented the choice now, for it had taken me so far away from them both at such a critical moment.
Through Autumn's golden gown, we used to kick our way,
You always loved this time of year.
Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now,
'Cause you're not here,
'Cause you're not here,
'Cause you're not here…
One of her favorite autumn pastimes was hitching up her skirt to take a kick at the piles of leaves as they collected on the walks and gutters, sending them into the air for another short flight. She enjoyed this so much that I joined her at it, which often led to kicking them at one another, even seizing up armfuls to dump on each other's heads, laughing with mirth until we could scarcely breathe.
Why did such small joys have to be taken away from us, by such a thing as the planetary jealousness of Martians, of all things? Bitterness toward them filled me once again.
Caught up in my thoughts, I had become unaware to events around me, until a scream caught my attention, and more joined it. Fire leapt across the roofs of the buildings. I had wanted to see if it was from a Martian heat ray or perhaps merely an unattended and too-hastily abandoned stove sparking a house fire, but the population surrounding me panicked and ran, forcing me along in its flow whether I wished to turn around or not. It was all I could do to keep my feet underneath me!
Splinter's home had been my destination; he and Karai had been my sole concern. Without them leading me like a beacon, where was I to go now?
Like the sun through the trees, you came to love me,
Like a leaf on the breeze, you blew away…
Aimless, I followed the pack. Someone called out that we ought to be heading east, toward the harbors. There, we all could book passage on ferries out of the country. It seemed as good a plan as any to me, at that point, so at the wisdom of the east-man, many of us, myself included, turned our path seaward, toward our only hope of survival.
A gentle rain falls softly on my weary eyes
As if to hide a lonely tear
My life will be forever autumn,
'Cause you're not here,
'Cause you're not here,
'Cause you're not here
The exodus swarmed along through Common Garden, Blackfriar, Billingsgate, more and more people joining the mass from all directions. The mood remained somber, fear and exhaustion taking its toll on everyone. Weary women offered empty words of consolation to their tear-streaked children, men, bitter and angry at their apparent helplessness, being washed about in the apocalyptic tide we were all caught up in. We were all the same, in our plight… the rich rubbing shoulders with beggars, the soldiers and the salarymen, the masons and the bankers, the human and the animalistic, all together, fleeing with a common goal: to seek safety out of our besieged England.
"KRAANG!"
As one, we gasped, spying the Martian tripods as they waded up the Thames, tearing through bridges as though they were paper! Westminster Bridge, Waterloo Bridge… One appeared over Big Ben. The mob became a stampede. The press of people toward the docks increased, with some being squashed to asphyxiation or trampled underfoot. I'm sure, at that point, only my shell saved me from having the air crushed out of me. Men hollered, women shrieked, though if it was out of fear or injury, or possibly both, it was not impossible to tell. Six million people, unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong; it was the beginning of the rout of civilization, of the massacre of man- and anthro- kind.
A vast crowd buffeted me toward an already packed steamer, well-over capacity, its decks crowded with refugees. I looked up enviously at those already on board—straight into the eyes of my beloved Carrie.
A breath passed as we simply stared in shock at having spotted each other in such impossible circumstances, both of us straining our faculties of facial recognition to make sure we were seeing who we believed. My heart both leapt and sank. The expression that claimed her face said that her feelings must have been doing the same. But she was no hallucination, nor was Master Splinter, standing just behind her.
"Leo!" she yelped.
"Leonardo!" Splinter echoed, and they both pushed desperately through the crowd on deck toward the gangplank, but just then, it was raised.
"Karai!" I called back plaintively. "Father!" I stopped trying to fight my way through the masses… With the steamship pulling away, there was no point. But Karai seemed to think that throwing herself overboard to reach me was the more prudent course, and Splinter seized her around her middle to stop her. She screamed in protest and beat at him with her fists, but he held her firmly, calmly taking her pummeling until she burnt herself out and dissolved into tears of despair against his chest. That was the last I saw of her as the crowd shifted and carried me away from them.
Like the sun through the trees, you came to love me,
Like a leaf on the breeze, you blew away…
Through Autumn's golden gown, we used to kick our way,
You always loved this time of year.
Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now,
'Cause you're not here,
'Cause you're not here,
'Cause you're not here…