The Convent

Dawson woke up in the woods.  Curled up like a coward under a fallen tree with brush around it.  He was good for now.  No one was keen to the woods, they hadn’t used them, they were forbidden territory.  But for Dawson, right now, the woods were the safest place for him to be.  He was exploring them, just in case he needed to run.  He crawled through the pickers and picked a few berries off the bush.  He had eaten these blackberries before and they were quite tasty, not poisonous like they were rumored to be.  His fingers stained with blood and now blue from the berries.  The colors meshed and made a purple tone that Dawson hadn’t seen before.  He stood up and looked up at the towering trees. 

The trees were smaller than The Convent they lived in, the place he was likely to never return to.  They were looking for him and that he was confident.  He doubts they would ever stop looking for him, for what he did... they will never forgive.  The leaves crinkle and the branches snapped under the heavy foot of Dawson.  He fell forward tripping over a little undergrowth.  Despite how much he had explored the woods this past week he wasn’t used to them at all. No one was and that gave him an advantage.  He had nothing to lose.  He could carelessly run until there was nowhere else to go, because if he gets caught, that is the end of this story, for Dawson at least. 

The Convent was a grouping of four buildings and were protected by walls.  In them, thousands of people were living there, having children, eating, families, rules, laws, food, safety.  But that is all behind them now. The Convent sat in ruins, one building still half standing and the rest rubble.  The people were lifting the bricks and looking for other people.  Dawson, their leader was gone, but the search party was looking for him.  They weren’t familiar with the woods and wouldn’t look for him after night and would return to the safety of the walls and rubble.  They were going to make Dawson pay for what he had done, but what he had done... it was inevitable. They knew it, but a sacrifice was to be made and Dawson, their leader, would pay.  Their numbers were always dwindling. People were dying of starvation and Dawson, he promised it would get better.  But it never did.  Then, the great collapse.  The buildings fell and Dawson had gathered them to search for the living in the ruins.  The dead were piled in the basement of building four. It was still accessible.  The Convent was now hesitant doing so. They never thought about the people who passed going into the incinerator before, but now.  Now they are hesitant. 

 Terrance, the only one who was willing to keep the masses working through the rubble.  These buildings towered over the trees that surrounded them.  That evil wild with the toxins, the soil tainted from the wars.  The walls were tall, provided safety from the toxins, the walls sat higher than the trees.  The wild, it was dangerous.  Everyone knew that when someone went outside the walls they would never return.  Granted they saw the mutated animals flying about from their perches on the top floors of the towering, and now fallen, buildings they called home.  Terrance could no longer eat the soup of life.  He was disgusted by it now and so was everyone else. It was all a lie, the whole thing, was a lie.  They wasted seven generations and what for?  Dawson would now pay for this outrage. 

Terrance’s interest walks up to him, she was thin and had borne him ten children, 2 of which are still alive.   “Lydia.” is all he says.  “The people are scared, most don’t believe you, they are scared Terrance, you have to go down to them.” Her hand points down through the fallen wall, far down to the people lifting the rubble at a steady pace.  Terrance, standing in what is left of his room, says nothing.  “If you don’t do something they're going to kill us next.  They think you knew of it all too.  You have to tell them, tell them the truth.” She pleads with Terrance, and he stood there, like a rock, unmoved by her pleas.  “Tell them it was all Dawson, he was rotten, him and the order.” Terrance stood there, he was the leader now, he wasn’t in The Order, and he hardly knew Dawson.  He worked as the manager of a group in building four.  He lived in building 2 and didn’t know nothing about what goes on in building 2.  That was where everyone was, no one knew where Terrance worked, but they are suspicious of him. He knew right where the dead went, and that was suspicious and The Convent on a whole was aware of this.  Terrance motioned to his son to come hither.  “Sam, listen closely, see the hills in a distance, go there, where the smoke is.  The smoke is always coming from behind the hills, and now... now we know the woods aren’t deadly... we find Dawson there.  Don’t return after night, find him and bring him back dead or alive.  You return without him and you will take his place.” Terrance stated in a plain tone.  Sam looks to his sister, who is biting her thumb, she shook her head. “Father...” Terrance stares at Sam and that was all that needed to be said.  Sam had left the flat and Terrance looks to his wife.  “I will address them tonight.  We will have to address them, and I fear what will come of it.” 

Dawson continued working his way towards the hills. He was confident there were more people out there and the world wasn’t as dangerous as he had first presumed.  Behind him he hears a branch break. “Hello, who’s there!” Dawson calls out to the woods, a bird chirping is all that answers, “Hewo, uhs ere!” The black bird was large, sitting in the tree.  Dawson had found a book in the Basement of building one and this bird was bigger than the crow he was familiar with. They would perch on the window sills of the dead ready to eat, but this bird following him... it was bigger.  Dawson guessed it to be a Raven.  He read a book about a Raven terrorizing a man over a lost Lenore.  This was his Raven.  He continued walking further through the woods.  “Hewo.” He hears the harasser to his right now, the bird is following him and mocks him, perhaps this is a mockingbird.  No, they don’t look black like this bird.  He made his way to the top of the hill; he was ready to find the source of the smoke.  To his astonishment, a city of smaller buildings covered by a large wall, the wall would be taller than the trees as well.  He knew it, another group of survivors.  He was timing himself and knew it would take a day to get there.  He sat down and ate more of the berries he saved; he opened the cloth on his hand.  The wound from the tree branch was red and swollen.  He knew this ended in two ways, he recovers or ends up in the incinerator.  He started down the hill and thought to himself, “The Convent would be looking for me here, I must make good time.” He trips and falls down and stumbles a bit.  “If you kill yourself now then why are you running Dawson?” He asks himself.  “Faw!” Says his Raven, it walks in Dawson’s direction. Dawson looks back and gets up, dusts himself off and started making progress as his Raven flies off in the direction of the Smokey City. 

Back at The Convent Terrance is preparing to address the crowd, what dwindled from a good ten-thousand is now a small two thousand.  “Hello, Hello, bear with me!” Terrance says with his hands up into the microphone and through the one speaker they salvaged from building one’s basement.  The speaker was not strong enough for everyone to hear, most stopped working to hear what Terrance was going to advise them. “We have a search team looking for Dawson on the hills, we are sure he is there and all signs point to that while we track him. The woods are dangerous, there are wild animals out there but, we will need food and that will have to come from the wild.  I am looking for a large group to risk their lives again for The Convent.  My daughter, Alana, will gather that group and head out tomorrow.” Alana looks at her father, who is ready to make his whole family take on his burden.  The burden he has was given to him by his team, the team that worked at Basement 4, the notorious basement.  No one knew who worked at building four, the team always wore their safety gear like all were required.  No one was going to pay attention to anyone else.  Everyone works for The Convent; we are all The Convent. That was the logic and motto.  “Everyone works for The Convent; we are all The Convent. Remember that.  We are Convent strong.  Now, we are running out of energy, we are out of food, we are recycling water in Basement of Two, but the facility is at an eight capacity.  I think with the number of survivors we can start exploring and hopefully repopulate. But first we need to be safe.  We now know we won’t die from the outdoors, we don’t need our gear, which was pointless. Any questions can be directed to my wife.  Thank you, and may the souls of the fallen be our life.” Terrance walked back towards Building two, back to his open home. 

Dawson made it to the walls of the building, he looks for a door and sees guards outside the door, not like The Convent. Their guards protected the inside of the doors, not outside.  Also, they aren’t wearing any protective gear, they know it’s safe.  He had a plan; he would find his way to the door and they would think he accidentally got out and let him in.  He works his way behind the guards.  “Hey, can you guys let me back in?” He casually asks.  But instead of getting a friendly invite he is stabbed and tied and dragged inside.  The pain was substantial and he wanted to pass out but he is dragged through the streets and thrown into a wooden device, his hands tied and his head in a hole.  They spoke a language he didn’t know.  Slowly a blade separated Dawson’s head from the body.  His body is dragged to the smokey stacks and his body is chopped up and separated the muscle from bone.  His skin is tossed into the incinerator and the meat cooked on the flames. 

Terrance thought he sufficed the people but slowly people started asking questions.  Mainly, people started finding out that they worked in different buildings then they lived, and building four, its basement was run by someone in building 2.  Sure enough, they were reading Dawson’s very fine notes, how he explored the woods and how he believed there were more people.  But what they cared about, his documents on the sick.  The sick would all go to the incinerator.  And they now know that the incinerator was used to cook their food, the food, gave them life.  Terrance answered right to Dawson and before he could even get a chance to answer the door a group pulls him from his room and ties him up.  They are pulling him and several others down the hall, people are throwing feces on Terrance and his family and coworkers.  He knew, he knew they knew.  He was dragged next to the microphone.  “We know what you’ve been doing, what do you have to say?” The leader of the mob screams. 

Terrance is ready to tell the truth. “I’m sorry, we needed the food, there wasn’t enough anymore and we started taking the healthy.  It was for the better good, I didn’t know the world was safe outside, I swear, I’m sorry.” The crowd needed a sacrificial lamb and this man did what he had to do, good or not, and his sorry wouldn’t suffice.  The crowd screams eat him.  They knew, they knew everything.  

Terrance, like Dawson, was slowly separated by the forgiven building 2 team, the team he led.  His soul feeds The Convent.  And for the moment, that day, The Convent was sufficed.