“I don’t need to be understood,” I tell him cautiously.
“Now that’s a lie,” he replies with a smile.
I mutter something about being busy, before heading out into the evening light. I immediately notice that the atmosphere in town is different, and when I make eye contact with the people making dinner I can tell that they resent me. They probably think I should have left instead of Deckard, but hopefully they also understand that I couldn’t let him keep challenging me. If I hadn’t forced the issue, he’d eventually have arranged another attack on me, and then another, and sooner or later I’d have been killed.
After heading around the side of a hut, I stop for a moment once I’m out of sight. That encounter with Harold just now has left me shaking, and I don’t even know why. I swear, though, I can feel a torrent of memories rumbling in the depths of my mind, and it’s almost as if talking to Harold brings them closer to the surface.
Chapter Eighteen
“I heard them screaming for days,” the man explains as he leads me back across the clearing, past more of the charred huts. “When they were being burned alive, that was bad enough, but…”
Stopping, he turns to me.
I keep my knife raised, just in case.
“Then the ones who were left… The things they did to them were just horrific.” He pauses for a moment. “I would’ve run and never come back, but I thought maybe there were more of those monsters out in the forest, so I stayed where I was, hiding like a common animal in a hole in the ground, and I waited. I was too scared to move, I started to think maybe I’d starve to death, but then I heard footsteps and I saw you coming. I figured maybe it was finally okay to come out.”
“How long ago?” I mouth.
“How long?” He pauses. “They arrived about a week ago, and the last of them left five days ago.”
“Who?” I mouth.
“The attackers?” Another pause. “I don’t know who they were, not really. I used to live here in the town. I remember the day they arrived. They seemed friendly enough, I didn’t think there was any need to worry.” He stares at me for a moment with horror in his eyes, as if he’s reliving everything that happened. “There was something slightly unsettling about them from the start, though. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but I could tell they weren’t quite right. There were only three of them.”
I tilt my head, surprised by that news. It’s hard to believe that just three people could have done all of this.
“I know,” he continues, as if he can read my mind. “They just turned up one day and said they’d recently been dropped onto the island. Two men and a woman. At first, we didn’t really pay them very much attention. They began to integrate with the rest of us, and at first they seemed to be surprisingly useful. For a while, I actually thought they’d be good additions to the town, but slowly things started to turn bad. Our leaders started to argue, there were divisions, and then…”
I wait for him to continue, but once again he seems too horrified to say anything.
“And then,” he adds finally, “the sickness started. I know it sounds crazy, but I think the sickness was part of their plan all along. I think they brought the sickness deliberately, as a way of weakening us all and causing divisions. Their leader was the worst, the most sadistic. He knew how to play everyone off against each another, undermining the strength of our town until it was too late for us to do anything. He was the one who led the torture, too. I’ll never forget the evil in his eyes.”
He looks down at the ground for a moment, his eyes filled with pain, and then he turns to me.
“His name was Harold, and he brought all this pain and suffering to our town. He destroyed everything.”
Chapter Nineteen
“People aren’t happy!” Olivia hisses, following me through the center of town. “Asher, there’s real anger growing!”
“Tell them to come and talk to me,” I mutter.
“Asher!”
Grabbing my shoulder, she forces me to turn to her. I damn near want to punch her, but somehow I manage to keep my anger contained. The last thing I need is for someone else to take on Deckard’s role as chief complainer.
“This is getting out of control,” she continues. “Deckard used to keep the peace, he used to make people understand why you made certain decisions, but with him gone people are really starting to wonder what our next move should be. Asher, without Deckard…”
Her voice trails off, but I can see the desperation in her eyes.
“With him gone,” I reply finally, “everyone’s just going to have to accept my authority. Either that, or they can leave.”
“Leave?” She seems shocked by the suggestion. “Every single person in this town has invested far too much of their time and energy to just get up and leave. You have to recognize that, Asher!”
“I don’t have to do anything,” I reply, although I regret those words as soon as they’ve left my mouth. I sound impetuous and self-absorbed, as if I don’t care about the opinions of other people here. “Maybe we can have some kind of meeting,” I continue, hoping to undo some of the damage. “Like a town-hall meeting, or a forum, a way for people to express their views.”
“That won’t be enough,” she replies. “Deckard promised—”
“Deckard’s gone!” I hiss.
“And that’s the problem!” she continues. “Deckard promised he’d talk to you about changing the way the town is run.”
“He did?” I ask, genuinely shocked by the news.
“He said he’d make you see sense. He said it’d take time, but that we should have faith in you.”
“While he was saying that,” I reply, trying not to let my sense of irritation show too clearly, “he was plotting to have me killed.”
She opens her mouth to reply, but then she hesitates. “Deckard would never do that…”
“He persuaded Ellis, Joe and Alison to come after me in the forest,” I tell her, fully aware that several other people are listening to our conversation. “They tried to jump me, and they made it very clear that they were going to kill me. I had a knife against my throat before I managed to fight back.”
“No, Deckard isn’t the kind of—”
“He was overheard talking to them,” I continue. “Someone heard the four of them plotting.”
“Deckard wouldn’t do that,” she replies. “Deckard—”
“Deckard was a traitor,” I add, interrupting her. More and more people are listening to us now, so I turn to the slowly-gathering crowd. If they want a leader, if they want someone who stands up for what she believes, then maybe it’s time I gave them what they’re after. “Thomas Deckard was trying to undermine me,” I explain, “and I told him to stop or leave. He’d been talking about going to search for his wife again, so obviously he decided he didn’t want to be part of Steadfall anymore. The same choice is open to everyone else, including you.”
“You want me to leave?” Olivia asks.
“I don’t want anyone to leave,” I reply, turning to her, “but—”
Stopping suddenly, I realize that Harold is watching from the back of the crowd.
“If you agree with Deckard and think he should have stayed,” I continue, turning to the others, “then you should probably follow him. Right or wrong, the rules of Steadfall are mine and that’s just how things are going to stay.”