After the World Read online

  About After the World

  After the war is lost, all that remains is to survive. And when you know what you’ve done, you can’t hope for anything more.

  Bereft in a hostile world, an orc general struggles to come to terms with his role in the destruction of his people. Running and hiding from the humans and elves that hunt him down, he searches for other orc survivors.

  When two human wizards finally pin him down in an abandoned orcish mountain fortress, he must use his wits and cunning to prevail, redeeming himself and the magic of his people.

  After the World

  By Máire Brophy

  Strange Fictions Press

  Part One: The Cave

  The world was full of bitter brightness ― stinging, blinding, searing light. It shocked my head and made it hard to open my eyes. Even a small flutter of the eyelids brought in such a cacophony, like a herd of trumpeting elephants through a small room.

  I was off kilter, out of step. I couldn’t walk the world as I once did. Even the blessed night didn’t bring complete relief. Its power was but temporarily dimmed as the scorched earth reminded me. I could see again at night, but the sights brought no comfort. The world that I knew was gone. Everything was broken.

  It had been years: scavenging, subsisting, crawling, hiding. We forgot in the glory of our civilization how it was possible to survive on so little. Orcs said we would “rather die” than carry on without our place, our people, our dreams. And yet, here I was. Surviving. Surviving on the things that were even slower or stupider than me, slow and stupid as I was. I fed on them, and time.

  “Time is a changer; time is a cycle. What was once will be again.” I told myself this on days when I had hope.

  Hope came easily then. Not often, but easily. One day I caught a rabbit. I hadn’t caught a rabbit in years. I’ve eaten lots of rabbit, but mostly someone else did the catching. I felt like my old self ― even though my old self would never have done such a thing. Such lowly work. But it made me think I was getting faster, stronger. That time and the world could change again. Later, I discovered why I caught the rabbit.

  Worse than the fever I shook with was knowing that I was not recovering. The cycle of time was not offering me an upswing. If I survived, I would remain as I was, digging in the dirt and hiding from the light. It seemed like a poor prize. That’s hope for you. A total bitch.

  From time to time, I met others, mostly goblins, who were on the same side. My cave is inviting ― a sanctuary from the burning sun. Most of the time, I frightened them away. We were all afraid. I was terrified in those moments. I knew if my bravado didn’t work, I wouldn’t be able to fight them off. It was only the remnants of my iron will that kept my face from showing it.

  I never actually had an iron will. I just figured out early on that I could fake it by sticking with my first assertion and never allowing the arguments of others to sway me. Of course, I was wracked with self-doubt over every small decision, but it was the only way to get to make big decisions. Be sure. Always sure. And then it became habit; you were just sure, as you had always been. It was unfortunate that reality didn’t know about my iron will. I didn’t intend to be swayed by it. But it swayed me, anyway.

  It was just a few weeks after the rabbit when she came, the first orc I had seen in a very long time, drawn by the cool cave. I was still very weak, living on grubs and water from the spring that still had the taste of blackness in it. Dawn was already filling the sky when she made it inside. I should have scared her off, but I could barely stand. And with the piercing light on the horizon, she had more to lose by leaving the cave than I did by letting her stay.

  I’m lucky that she chose to barter with me, rather than just kill me straight out. She had salted meat and some bread. Both were past their best, but it had been so long since I had tasted anything cured or baked, it did not matter. For this, I allowed her to stay in my cave and refill her water skins. She opened the bread and handed some to me, our fingers touched briefly. The sense of the tips of her fingers on mine lingered longer than the touch. My eyes focused on the bread. It was so long since I touched someone.

  We should have shared news, talked about what happened. Tried to figure out if any orcs were still out there. It could have helped us both. But I was so tired of it. It broke my heart again and again to think on it. I could live like this but not while raking over the coals of my self-doubt. Thinking on what happened was still too raw, and when I tried, in the early days, my mind skittered away from it out of self-preservation. It was even hard to look at her. Find food, drink water, stay out of the glaring light: That was all I could manage.

  She, too, was damaged. Or maybe she was always like that. I liked to imagine her as a possessor of cold reason, calculating outcomes ruthlessly, and that what happened made her different. She could not talk about it either, but her aversion manifested differently than mine. She talked as if there was a future, but only a future...she seemed to ignore the present.

  She spoke of a shady valley, away from the sun’s glare, where mountains and caves muted the burning sun, like there were clouds in the sky again. I knew what a bitch hope was, so I didn’t entertain her. It sounded like stories we told our young when they were too scared, before we had ambition. A safe place, but not of our making.

  She left a few nights later. In the time she spent with me, “a shady valley” became “The Shady Valley,” a thing that might be became a thing that certainly was. In a few short days, she became so certain. The act of enforced certainty reminded me of my iron will again, but then I remembered I had resolved not to think on it. I tried to dissuade her from her resolve, but if anything, my presence seemed to make her more sure. What was I but evidence that our kind would seek out these places and shelter in caves and valleys. If she kept looking, she would inevitably find her people, and all would be lost no more.

  I watched her go. The night’s light was bearable but terrifying in a way that night had never been before. Or maybe I had just been in my cave too long…afraid of the night, the very thought! I watched her figure move among the rocks and debris until she was out of sight. Suddenly, I felt grievously alone. It hit me like it did on the first day ― so alone, so unconnected, so lost. I called out to her. I would go with her. We would find The Shady Valley together. I would not be alone. I waited for a response, but none came. Perhaps she had gone too far. She didn’t hear me. Maybe she didn’t want me with her. Maybe she ran when she heard my words. If she heard my words.

  I ran out of the cave in the direction she had gone. I tried to move as fast as I could, but I tripped over stones and dead branches. My legs were not used to that kind of exertion any more. I scrambled to stay upright, pushing forward. The ground seemed to move under my feet. Everything began to move all around me. I couldn’t get purchase on the ground no matter how I dug my feet in. It was as if the cave was pulling me back. I couldn’t leave it. It was the last sanctuary I would have, and I would die without it. How could I do this? I would risk everything for fear of being alone. I scrabbled on the ground and tried to push through, to break the grasp it had on me. The exertion seemed gargantuan ― harder than anything I had done before. My heart pounded in my ears, and my breathing became labored. It quickly went from difficult to impossible, and I couldn’t catch my breath. I took in huge gulps of air, and yet my lungs ached for more. The weight of my body fought against the lightness in my head, and the world spun in all directions. I fought to hold on and managed one last gasp before I fell to the ground, out of my senses.

  The banner fluttered in the air, wafting in and out of my eye line with curious leisure. A stark contrast to the frantic chaos around me. The bodies of orcs and goblins and men churned in the sea of carnage. I was part of it, but above it. I c
alled out orders, and the sea surged forward. A sea is just droplets of water. How many can an ocean lose, before it is just a puddle? We were an ocean ― an enormous wave crashing into the land clean, washing it clean, making it new. I could afford to lose some droplets. I saw the faces of orcs trampled into the ground as we pushed forward. I felt nothing. They were the price I always knew we would pay.

  I came to with coarse dirt stuck to my face. I was scared to open my eyes. Even behind my lids, I could tell that it was already lightening. I knew I would not last in full light. I was too weak to withstand it. I moved my arms and pushed myself up, still with eyes closed. This was pure foolishness. If it was indeed full light, as I feared, I would barely be able to move at all. I steeled myself and opened my eyes. It was not yet dawn, although the warning glow ran ominously through the sky. Where was I? Where was the cave? I looked around; it was unfamiliar. I had been near the cave for a long time. It could have been years, or maybe just weeks or months. How could I tell anymore? Eventually, the marking of nights on the cave walls had become irrelevant, and I had stopped doing it a long time ago.

  But for all that time, I had never been here. I cast around desperately to get my bearings. I didn’t have time to waste; soon the sun would be in the sky, and I would be lost. I had to find shelter. In my desperation, I ran forward, hoping to find something I recognized. It was as if the wilderness had engulfed everything I knew. Perhaps I could shelter in the trees.

  A few more steps, and suddenly everything made sense, like a puzzle you suddenly understand. I knew where I was. The cave was not far. I would not have to face the day.

  Soon, the blistering sun hit the land, but I was in the cave. It was again as it had been. But no. Now there was something new. What was it? My thoughts: find food, drink water, survive, and something else. Something more nebulous, running away from my fingers like quicksilver. I searched and searched. I examined the cave meticulously, except for the mouth, which I would search when the night returned. Nothing had changed. It was my cave. The smell of her lingered slightly, but there was no trace of anyone else. What was it? In my frustration I started to mutter, and despite the glaring daylight outside, I found myself shouting.

  “How dare you!”

  A voice I had not heard in some time. I had spoken to her and others, I had even shouted at some, but I had not bellowed. I could bellow so well. It had a magic of its own. As if orders could not be disobeyed. And yet, here I was defied. Defied by this cave not letting me leave. I had fallen lowly indeed. Oh resentment, I had almost forgotten you. I remembered a time when you powered me. Everything was always someone else’s fault. The terrible thing about power is that you have no one to blame but yourself. I always enjoyed blaming others. It went well with my iron will.

  Something beyond survival had finally permeated my soul, and it made me laugh. I laughed and laughed and laughed. I laughed until my sides ached, and I could not breathe, and then I laughed some more. I laughed as loud as if there were no day creatures to hunt me down and slay me. I laughed as someone who could defy the world once more.

  When night came again, I left the cave. This time, I didn’t run. I walked. I followed the direction she went. I might see her again, or I might not. It didn’t really matter. I didn’t need her. I felt sure, and the surety was familiar. How long would it last?

  The journey was tough but not as bad as I had feared. Nothing could be as bad as I feared. I still survived, and it was somehow refreshing to walk through new places in the cool dark. Shelter was scarce but not impossible to find. I rarely found anything as good as the cave, but when desperate, trees could be cut and bound together to make a rudimentary shelter. Of course, the trees didn’t like it, but when did they do anything other than complain and gossip? Bloody trees, they never shut up. The light still burned me through the makeshift shelter in some places, but I found that I could bear it. The darkness of the cave had let me grow stronger than I’d realized. Not strong, but stronger than a creature that leeches along the ground, and strong enough to bear small bursts of the day. I remembered when the day held no fears.

  I remembered. The memories came back with my increased health. They were a hard burden to bear. Some days, I could not sleep, and my past decisions taunted me and burned me far worse than the sun. If only. If only I had. The cool night brought some ease, and I remembered my people. How they grew and prospered, and I remembered that not all my decisions were wrong. I remembered their bright eyes, their growing ambitions, and how I helped them see the world in a new way. A world that could belong to them, that they could own and shape. No longer tossed around by heartless tides, victims of circumstance, victims of steel and silver ― victims. Oh, the irony. It wasn’t lost on me. But their shining eyes were worth remembering, for all the pain it brought me. There was glory there and redemption and truth. It was not false like my iron will. It was real and solid, like the skeleton inside a man or the pit inside a peach. The foundation of all the things we did.

  Sometimes, the journey made me nostalgic; it brought me back to my youth. I had nothing then, less than nothing, really. I was a vacuum, sucking in everything around me. Did I even have thoughts back then? I was both innocent and not at all. I knew so little, but I was full of blind ambition ― that sort of directionless zeal. I knew I wanted to be someone and go places, but I didn’t know who that person was or where the places were. Everyone seemed so dull, somehow blunt. I felt sharp ― a creature apart. I would cut through everything in my way. I would make the path.

  I was a creature apart again, here on this journey. Like those early days. I was both hopeful and fearful of who I might meet. Back then, it was someone to learn from, someone to join, or someone to fight. I feared discovery, and yet I longed for it all the same. I longed for someone to look at me and know me. To see the sharpness and all I could be. As I walked on this journey, I longed for recognition too, but I knew it would be double-edged. I wanted someone to share the grief and the loss with. Someone who understood. But that would also bring disapprobation. After all, I was surely to blame.

  The thought of those piercing eyes looking at me with blame stopped me in my tracks. The world began to swirl again, the way it had on the night that she left. I dropped to the ground ― experience telling me I would end up there, anyway. I was still capable of learning some things. I sat on the ground and remembered the cave and my aversion to leaving it. I placed my palms flat against the dirt as I sat. I pressed my fingers into the mossy carpet. I listened. And then I heard.

  “You’re not welcome here. We have healed. We don’t want you back.”

  What did the ground know? What was it but earthworms and dead trees, anyway? This is what it had come to. The ground thought it could have an opinion now. I pressed my fingers harder. The moss didn’t long resist my nails, and soon the tips of my fingers were embedded in the earth.

  “By daylight, you will be found and slain. We will tell. We will shout!”

  This ground is seriously delusional. The sun must have gotten to it. The ground shouting, like anyone could hear. The day creatures were no better friends to the ground than me. In fact, they wouldn’t even listen to the ground.

  At least I was listening to you, you stupid ground.

  “LEAVE!”

  I dug my nails in further and clawed them. I tore out a lump with each hand. I held them in front of me ― moss and soil and insects. I squeezed them, and bits fell through my fingers. Bloody sod was defying me, these days. It would be enough to make you despair, if I wasn’t out the far side of that already! With bad grace, I threw the clumps of sod against the surrounding trees. Give them something to complain about! I rose to my feet and walked on. I had no interest in this ground. Rocks had better sense, anyway. Give me an angry mountain any day.

  She had told me the day creatures were multiplying and expanding. I had seen little of this around the cave, but as my way sloped down into a valley, I saw it much more. Even though the night didn’t belong to them yet, they
were increasingly fearless. They used to be corralled even in the day, but evidence of them was everywhere. Like a canker, they festered around certain pockets, and now there was little to stop their spread. They were a disease run rife through the land, unchecked and unchallenged in the day. The night still kept them back, but for how long?

  Was it really the end for orcs? I understood that if I had stayed in my cave, they would certainly have found me one day. The cave kept the sun away, but it did not offer an escape route from anything that could chase further than the sun. I would have been trapped. It was a mercy that they had not spread so far yet. I needed to find other orcs and goblins, and those few men who lived in the dark with us ― creatures who cursed the sun and wanted to curtail its tyrannical power. We needed to come together again, find a place and make it defensible. We had failed to curb the day creatures, and they had decimated us already. Would they complete the task and manage to annihilate us entirely?

  My way was blocked. Or rather, not sufficiently blocked. I had been walking through sloping forests and plains with lots of scrub and rocks and shitty trees ― yeah you heard me! ― and suddenly there was nothing. It was as if a giant hand came down and swooped them all away and stacked the dead trees at the edges. Like a ploughed field but of epic proportions. Up until now, I always felt the only good tree was a dead tree, but lately they had been hiding me from the day creatures and the sun. They didn’t like it, but they couldn’t run away, because they’re trees. Their grumbling had become background noise. I’d even stopped telling them to shut up. Now I would miss the whining trees. How would I continue?

  First, I needed shelter. It was still full night, but if I pressed on, I would not find shelter before the day. I returned to the tree line. The trees groaned to see me back ― that gave me some pleasure. I made sure to scratch some bark off as I walked by. Petty mischief was always worth doing when you have the opportunity. Eventually, I found a hollow that would serve and ripped off some branches to cover it.