"After The Move"
By Brian Roberson
IV
Telly walked for days, weeks, eons, epochs, he couldn't tell. Soon after he and Tans Hansell had parted company, he walked through the stopped traffic and soon found power lines running in an east -west direction. There were power lines that ran near his home, so he guessed that he could follow them right back to the neighborhood. A paved path ran beneath the pylons. He got on the path, turned west, and started walking.
The power lines marched through woods, large open areas, flat areas, hilly areas. They marched through abandoned little towns, inhabited little towns, past occasional isolated houses, across rivers and over canyons. The steel pylons would go from tall poles, to skirt latticed towers, to latticed columns, and then back again. Telly walked through rain, snow, night, and day. Sometimes it was cold, other times it was hot. Sometimes it was neither, and Telly could perceive no temperature at all.
Telly met many people along the way, and he was finally able to start distinguishing the Lost from the Normals and from the Phonys. The Phonys were the most dangerous. They were cunning, deceptive, and often harbored weird, selfish, or evil intentions. With a Phony, you had no way of knowing. Only the Phonys themselves would know what lurked within their dark skulls, or perhaps not. The Lost could often be just as difficult to read, but at least they were somewhat pure of heart. If they did have agendas, then at least they were relatively benign. Telly didn't see too many Normals because most of them had the sense to stay in one place and not wander around.
He would often see Tans Hansell and The Black Man along the path here and there, usually behind an improvised booth, selling wares while The Black Man urged people to stay away. One day as he walked on the path as it wound through an endless expanse of lilies on either side, he saw Tans Hansell walking along while swinging a walking cane while he whistled a tune as several people behind him all carried trunks and cases. A man whom Telly recognized as the guy who took the perfume from Tans Hansell before, was harnessed to a cart laden with various items, which he was laboriously pulling along. The Black Man was carrying a huge steamer trunk while several other people Telly had never seen were burdened with various items.
"Well hello, my dear Telly ! Fancy to be seeing you on such a lovely spring day! Perhaps I can interest you in some items in which you may be in need of! I have road flares! I have canned baked beans! I have rubies! I have diamonds! Perhaps some books and magazines to entertain you on your journey! I have manhole covers, bottled water, and gems of all colors! Why not peruse my selection? I know that you are a man of taste, my good Telly!"
"Yeah, peruse away, Telly." The Black Man said. "Then you'll get to haul this muthafuckers shit around all the time like we get to do now! Yeah, go ahead and 'peruse'!"
"Shhh! Quiet, you! I'm trying to make a sale!" Tans Hansell whispered angrily to The Black Man.
"You know what he got me for?" The Black Man said to Telly. "A goddam lemonade! A fucking little cheap assed bottle of lemonade! He said 'oh here, just take it'! As soon as I drunk that shit I was pulling that cart back there that that dumb muthafucker with the perfume is pulling right now! HEY! How that perfume workin' out for you, Hoss!?" The Black Man shouted. The man harnessed to the cart simply made a grunting noise.
"If you don't stop ruining my sale then you'll be pulling the cart as well as carrying the trunk!" Hansell said sternly.
"Here, I don't think I want this. Please, take this back." Telly said as he pulled the burnt object wrapped in the cloth that Hansell had given him.
"But you need this!" Hansell said with concern.
"Why do I need it?"
"Because you need it! You might not realize it now, but you need this item very desperately!" Tans said.
"Yeah you might want to keep that, Dude! If he gives you something that you don't ask for and don't agree to take, then you don't have to carry around his shit." The Black Man said.
"OK, I'm keeping it." Telly said. "But I don't think I'll be needing anything else today, thank you."
"That's fine, that's fine! Always another day. Always another need!" Tans Hansell smiled.
He then began whistling again, turned and began walking up the path while swinging his cane. His minions filed past him as they carried their burdensome objects with them.
"If you see Tans Hansell again, you better run." The Black Man said as he shuffled past.
Telly watched as the wretched troupe disappeared down the path. He then turned and resumed walking.
Telly wound up in the middle of a blizzard but he trudged on, it was then unbearably hot right afterwards, but still, he kept right on walking and he never stopped.
One day as Telly walked along the path under the power lines through rolling farmland , he spotted what looked like a large, writhing, wounded animal up ahead. He soon came upon the furry mass that was just off the path to the right. The power lines were humming and buzzing up above in the warm sunshine. Telly recognized the twitching mass as a pile of fur coats, hats, and stoles. He over turned a couple of the coats and was immediately startled to see Evan and Michael, the two fur boys from Big Bill's place. The boys both gasped and covered themselves up again with the furs.
"Evan? Michael? Hey, it's me, Telly. What are you two doing out here?"
Evan peaked through a gap between one of the stoles and a coat. "We left Big Bill's. We don't live there anymore." He said.
"Why not?"
"Because we wanted to find more furs. We need new ones."
"So what's wrong with the one's you have?"
Michael then peered out of the same gap. "Because the new ones are not the same. They're different. We want to experience new furs. These one's are old, and we've rubbed against them enough. We need new furs and we can't get any at Big Bill's."
"So how is Catherine?"
"She's the same as she always was." Evan said.
"I'm on my way back to Big Bill's to see her. I'm going to see if she wants to start up a new home with me. Maybe you guys can come along too. We can start up our own new house. What do you guys think?"
The boys were silent for a few seconds. "That sounds sort of cool, I guess." Michael finally said.
"Will we be able to get new furs?" Evan asked.
"We'll try. We'll always try. Come on, let's go back so that we can meet Catherine. I'm sure she'll want to start a new life with us. Once we have our new house, and have everything set up, we'll get you some new furs. OK? Deal?"
The boys then looked at each other, appeared to nod in agreement, and both rose up at once out of the furs. They were both fully dressed, and had large back packs on. The gathered up the furs, and were soon walking along the path.
The three of them walked on slowly through all kinds of weather and scenery. They passed farms, towns, factories, water falls, swamps, industrial plants, houses, everything. Sometimes it rained, sometimes it snowed, sometimes it was night, sometimes it was foggy, but they kept on walking.
"So what do you guys remember about The Move?" Telly asked them one day.
"I was sitting in traffic with my parents." Michael said.
"I was hiding in a basement with my family." Evan said.
"So do you remember when it actually happened?"
They both paused. "Not really." They both said at once.
"I remember that I was sitting in the car. My parents were both really worried and had the radio on. There was some kind of attack happening. We lived in the city and were trying to get out. All of a sudden I was in that neighborhood that Big Bill lives in. I had a suitcase, and I had to find my parents. I checked all the houses one by one until I found my parents. But they wouldn't talk to me. All they did was stare at the wall. Eventually I saw some kids in the neighborhood, followed them, and I wound up at Big Bill's." Michael said.
"I remember we were in the basement. My family and I were all praying. I remember that I suddenly had to go to the bathroom. I got up and was standing right next to a window. They all told me to get down. Next thing I knew I was standing in front of Big Bill's house with a suitcase. I'm not really sure what happened." Evan said.
"What about you, Telly?" Michael asked.
They walked along in silence for a few seconds. Big, fat snowflakes were starting to fall out of the sky.
"I remember that we were at our house, on the porch. We had decided not to leave, but to stay right there. We were watching the TV, and had the radio on. It was an attack of some sort, like you said. I remember hearing that Russian soldiers were invading western Europe, and American soldiers were invading southern Russia. My dad was drinking tea on the porch and my mother was inside calling for me. Next thing I knew, I was in Big Bill's neighborhood. I was carrying a suitcase, just like you guys said you were."
"So do you think The Move had something to do with that attack?" Evan asked as he rubbed one of the furs along his face.
"I think so." Telly said.
The fat snowflakes turned into a torrent of small snowflakes, and then a raging blizzard. The three of them sat along the side of the path, using the furs as an improvised shelter. The three of them could hear anguished voices within the howling wind. Occasionally a person would come walking by in the blinding snow storm, screaming and wailing in agony. Eventually the storm ended, and the three of them found themselves sitting a bright, noonday sun, with flowers blooming all around them.
The three of them walked along in the stifling heat until they came upon a semi deserted town. The power lines were now running along latticed columns, and the path appeared to have been paved over an old railroad bed. The deserted remains of a large freight railroad station stood. A group of men were sitting around the station, staring silently into space. It was then that they noticed the water portal that was sitting next to the path. This was the first one that Telly had seen since he had started this journey.
"Telly. We need more furs, so we're going to jump into there." Evan said.
"No! Don't! It'll take you to Tans Hansell ! That's what these things are for! You must not ever have any dealings with Tans Hansell! He'll enslave you. Please don't. I promise that I'll get you new furs, but not this way. Please..." Telly pleaded.
"Don't worry, we'll be all right. Once we get our new furs we'll come right back to you, we promise." Michael said. The two of them then jumped into the water at once. After a brief splash the water rippled out, and then was totally still again.
Telly shook his head and kept walking. He soon came upon a grey haired man sitting on one of the concrete legs of one of the pylons. He was playing a harmonica and had a bottle of red wine next to him. When Telly walked by the man stopped playing and looked at Telly, who stopped and turned towards the man.
"Been walking a mighty long time, havencha?" The Grey Haired Man smiled with a toothless grin. Telly nodded in the affirmative. "You jumped into a water portal and got lost, dincha? " Telly nodded again.
The Grey Haired Man threw his head back and started laughing. He then looked at Telly with a mixture of kindness and pity.
"Well I guess old Tans got to you already, then!"
"No. He didn't. I've not accepted any of his wares." Telly replied.
"What about whutcha got in yer pocket?" The man replied with that toothless smile of his.
"I...I don't know what you mean?"
The Grey Haired Man then pulled an item out of his pocket. It was a burnt piece of debris just like what Tans Hansell had given to Telly.
"You ever wonder how The Lost stop being The Lost?" The man said with a smile as he held the item up. "You see, EVERYONE starts off as one of The Lost, that is, unless they happened to see a Russkie missile drop to the ground right in front of them! Big Bill was one of those! He was sitting on his porch drinking a beer and saw the thing fly right past him just before it went off! He knew right where he was when he got here! I saw it too! I was on top of the USA Today building where I worked! I was up on the roof! I actually saw two missiles come in! I was watching it sputter it's way right into the city! Next thing I knew, I was sitting right here!" He then held up the piece of debris. "Come on, bring yours out!"
Telly could feel a sensation of heat coming out of his pocket, where the trinket was. He pulled it out and unwrapped it. He held it up and stared in wonder as it began to glow a dark red. The Grey Haired Man then bolted up, put his trinket up against Telly's, and Telly all of a sudden reeled backwards.
Immediately, Telly's mind was filled with images of panicked crowds, crying children, cars clogging the interstates and expressways out of cities, people running around trying to find shelter, people praying, people urinating themselves, frenzied mobs and people being trampled. All of a sudden, all of it was blotted out by a sudden white light that seared everything away instantly. Telly was then blasted by a sudden narcoleptic attack, he reeled around where he was, and struggled to gain his bearings. He could hear the Grey Haired Man laughing in the background as he reeled about. Eventually, he felt himself collapse to the ground as he lost consciousness.
He found himself suddenly awake, but he was not in the same place. He was still on the path, and the power lines were now running along short metal poles on the left hand side of the path. There was a gurgling stream on the right hand side of the path, running parallel. All around were trees, and the place was nice and cool and shady. Telly got up and resumed walking in what he assumed to be the correct direction, which he based on the fact that the power lines had been on the left hand side of the path the entire time.
As he walked, he soon heard a familiar whistling ahead of him. He recognized it right away and girded himself. Sure enough, he soon saw Tans Hansell walking along while twirling his walking cane. Behind him he could see the minions following as they carried trunks and bags and pulled carts, although he seemed to sense that the numbers had grown.
"Well helloo again, my dear Telly. I wonder if perhaps THIS will be the day in which we can finally do some business, you and I!"
To Telly's horror, he saw that pulling one of the carts, was Evan and Michael. They had their new furs that they had obtained from Tans Hansell wrapped around their necks. Telly turned towards Hansell in a rage as Tans slowly and insidiously began to laugh.
End of IV