Thursday, August 14, 2014

Hollow World Book 4 Chapter 15


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Clink. Clink. Clink.

He smiled as he knelt over the bodies of the fallen Others, placing obols in their mouths and rewarding them with a trip back to their home of the past few millennia.  The Pennyman walked from corpse to corpse within the streets north of Boulder City, where nearly thirty minutes before, the army had marched, their numbers slowly being whittled away by the defenders hidden upon rooftops or within storefronts.  He could hear the fighting up ahead and knew that he was moving close to the location of the conflict.  He grabbed his bag and moved to the next body, and dropped the obol into place when he was hit with a stray bullet.  The bullet tore into his chest and lodged itself against another shell, there from an earlier altercation.  He decided to move to the other side of the conflict and upon closing the mouth of his current ward, he stepped away from her, and into the field behind the wall.

The first man he went to had four different gunshot wounds in his torso and had continued to fire the machine gun until his body finally gave up.  He now lay peacefully upon the lawn of a small business, his eyes closed and his hands clasped upon his chest.  The Pennyman placed an obol into this mans mouth and then moved onto the next man, the second man to have tried to man the machine gun.  Another soul, another obol.  He could feel that he was being watched, but when he glanced around to confirm it, he could find no living eyes upon him, only the blank stares of the dead.  

He felt the ground shake as Graham’s army crashed against the gate, and he watched as it began to creep open.  He decided that again, he belonged on the other side of the battlefield and finished with the female he was charged with before standing.  One step, two steps, three, and he was watching the backs of the Others as they pushed through the gate.  He felt each death, and knew that here, as well as upon the killing field, a lot of work was left for him to do, but a noise behind him drew his attention there.

A large force of soldiers was charging down the street toward his position.  He could not make out details, for each soldier was limned in a white light, obscuring the features of those around him.  The Pennyman took a step back and watched as the men charged by, carrying large blades that looked as if they had once been farm tools.

It was when the new force had slammed into the back of the Others that the he realized he was no longer alone.

“So, Charon,”  Acmon said, a broad smile upon his face.  “I brought my souls back after all.”

“I see that,” the Pennyman said as he stooped to drop a coin into the open, waiting mouth of a dead man.  “And it appears not a moment too soon.”


Clink. Clink. Clink.

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