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“Behesht” by Dwale
A jerboa joins a caravan desperate to reach a lost holy city. Along the way he interviews his new companions and learns their stories.
Today's story is “Behesht” by Dwale, a poet, musician and award-winning short story author. Its poetry collection Face Down in the Leaves is available from Weasel Press and you can find more of their stories on Fur Affinity.
Read for you by Khaki, your faithful fireside companion.
Transcript
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.
Speaker:I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,
Speaker:and today’s story is “Behesht”
Speaker:by Dwale, a poet,
Speaker:musician and award-winning short story author.
Speaker:Its poetry collection Face Down in the Leaves
Speaker:is available from Weasel Press
Speaker:and you can find more of their stories on Fur Affinity. Please enjoy:“Behesht” by Dwale “Behesht” When father died, I cleansed his remains and wrapped them in a sheet,
Speaker:then secured them in a sling I’d fashioned ahead of time. His thirty-five kilogram corpse strapped
Speaker:to my back,
Speaker:I made the long climb up the dusty steel ladder of the surface access tube.
Speaker:The rungs were cold on the pads of my hands and feet.
Speaker:My efforts, my breath and heartbeat,
Speaker:the chimes and dings as I climbed, all resounded
Speaker:in the narrow confines.
Speaker:Up above, I checked my compass to make sure his head
Speaker:would be facing the holy city,
Speaker:then said prayers
Speaker:and buried him in the sand.
Speaker:There were no animals or people to disturb his remains,
Speaker:which would quickly mummify once the sun rose,
Speaker:but it was our tradition to bury the dead in this way.
Speaker:I thought of smashing the only solar array with the shovel while I was topside.
Speaker:Father’s last words were, “Farad,
Speaker:my son, you must leave this place.
Speaker:Get married and, God willing, have children.
Speaker:You should not have stayed so long.”
Speaker:I had told him to go to sleep
Speaker:and kissed the top of his head.
Speaker:But in spite of my father’s wish,
Speaker:I was tempted to spin out the rest of my days
Speaker:sustained by the hydroponics and insect farms
Speaker:that my great-grandfather had scrabbled together.
Speaker:I thought smashing the solar panels might hasten me along,
Speaker:until I imagined some desperate caravan would come
Speaker:hobbling into town only to find the pump inoperable
Speaker:and the water beyond their reach.
Speaker:So, I left the panels as they were
Speaker:and made my descent,
Speaker:back to the home where I had grown up,
Speaker:where my supplies were already packed.
Speaker:The backpack was heavier than my father had been,
Speaker:but less bulky and therefore easier to handle,
Speaker:so my footsteps should have been light and quick,
Speaker:as a Jerboa’s ought to be.
Speaker:But the further I walked,
Speaker:the more some vague unease stirred at the edge of my consciousness.
Speaker:The boulevard had been a quiet place even in my youth,
Speaker:when we had boasted a populace
Speaker:twenty persons strong;
Speaker:now it bordered on silence.
Speaker:As I passed the empty houses and storefronts where once we had played as children,
Speaker:the hairs on my back and ears stood on end,
Speaker:as though thousands of eyes were peering out from the dark
Speaker:and dusty windows on each side.
Speaker:I told myself it was only my imagination,
Speaker:a nervous response to being the only person within a hundred kilometers or more,
Speaker:but I quickened my pace nonetheless.
Speaker:There was only one sound on the streets
Speaker:which did not originate with my person:
Speaker:the hiss of falling sand.
Speaker:It worked its way in through the old ventilation system and would,
Speaker:in a short time, cover everything I had ever known.
Speaker:The dunes had finally encroached
Speaker:on the last of the unburied structures.
Speaker:Sand would swallow
Speaker:everything in the end.
Speaker:Perhaps that was for the best.
Speaker:A while later and the maw of the underground highway loomed before me,
Speaker:the beam of my flashlight vanishing into its depths.
Speaker:As I steeled myself
Speaker:and stepped over the threshold,
Speaker:tears began to flow.
Speaker:I was the last inhabitant of New Fatimabad,
Speaker:below the ruins of Ardabil,
Speaker:and I was leaving forever…
Speaker:Or so I thought. I ran into the caravan mere hours after my journey started,
Speaker:a handful of individuals whose appearance reflected an assortment of cultures and phenotypes.
Speaker:Their leader, a short man of vole genetic stock,
Speaker:offered that I should join them before he even asked my name.
Speaker:“Peace, my brother,”
Speaker:he said. “Come with us, and leave these wretched places behind.
Speaker:Where we are going is
Speaker:far better.” When I inquired as to where that might be,
Speaker:he smiled and said a single word:
Speaker:“Behesht.” Their destination was nothing less
Speaker:than Heaven itself,
Speaker:the hidden garden which is the reward
Speaker:of believers. We ended up going back into New Fatimabad
Speaker:for water and the food I had been forced to leave behind.
Speaker:What we could not carry,
Speaker:my new half-starved comrades jammed into their mouths
Speaker:until their bellies were distended.
Speaker:While that was going on,
Speaker:I gathered up paper and ink from my father’s articles.
Speaker:I had lived my youth in his books
Speaker:and reckoned it was time to try writing one myself.
Speaker:So, after traveling with the caravan
Speaker:and interviewing its members,
Speaker:I have set out to chronicle those stories
Speaker:which best reflect the world in which we find ourselves.
Speaker:It seemed the proper thing to do since we might be among the last people
Speaker:who will ever walk this earth.
Speaker:The Clergyman Their leader was a man named Shapur,
Speaker:a vole with a greying coat.
Speaker:He dressed in the simple fashion of desert nomads
Speaker:in times past, a knee-length shirt with a robe over it, and a turban,
Speaker:one wrapped in such a fashion as to expose his rounded ears.
Speaker:He approached me during our meal
Speaker:at the end of my first cycle with the group,
Speaker:there among the ancient vestiges of vehicles that would
Speaker:never again run on this road,
Speaker:what once had been a major thoroughfare but now aboded dust
Speaker:and silence. “Peace,”
Speaker:he said, smiling and taking a seat on the ground before me.
Speaker:His movements were stiff and abrupt,
Speaker:as though taken with a perpetual nervousness.
Speaker:His nose and whiskers
Speaker:wriggled in spastic contractions
Speaker:spaced some four or five seconds apart, without fail.
Speaker:“I wanted to welcome you formally to our group.”
Speaker:“And upon you, peace.
Speaker:May God reward you,”
Speaker:I answered. “I wasn’t sure if I would ever meet another person.”
Speaker:At that he laughed,
Speaker:and the laughter rang warm and earnest in my ears,
Speaker:such a strange sound
Speaker:as I had not heard in years, since before mother died.
Speaker:“You’ll come to know all of us in time,
Speaker:and more people besides, once we get there.”
Speaker:He must have read something in my face then,
Speaker:because before I could say anything,
Speaker:he added, “You have doubts.
Speaker:Do you lack faith?”
Speaker:“I have faith in God.
Speaker:I have less faith in men.
Speaker:Do you truly believe we will make it to paradise?”
Speaker:He smiled and said,
Speaker:“Paradise is always just around the corner for the righteous.”
Speaker:But of course, I could not be satisfied with that for an answer,
Speaker:so he continued. “Tradition holds that the tomb in the holy city
Speaker:is considered a part of Heaven.
Speaker:You have heard this, no doubt?”
Speaker:I nodded, remaining mute
Speaker:but seeing where this was headed.
Speaker:“Then you must also know that a prayer made there is always answered.”
Speaker:“My great-grandfather’s father was the last of our line to attempt the pilgrimage,”
Speaker:I said. “He spent four years trying to find a tunnel westward that hadn’t collapsed,
Speaker:and came home with nothing.
Speaker:So, what do you mean to do, sir?
Speaker:Will you build us a ship to sail the poison sea?
Speaker:Will you march us overland without environmental suits?”
Speaker:My color must have risen,
Speaker:because his tone took on a conciliatory inflection
Speaker:when next he spoke.
Speaker:“He would have checked the major roads,
Speaker:but could he know of every subway,
Speaker:access tunnel or pipe?
Speaker:He could not find a way, but that doesn’t mean the way is lost.
Speaker:We have maps. It will not be easy, but we will make it there.”
Speaker:The thought sparked a glimmer of hope in my heart,
Speaker:only to be snuffed out by the one that followed it.
Speaker:“But what if the city is gone,
Speaker:what if the sand-
Speaker:“ “Brother!” he said, not shouting,
Speaker:but more than a little firm.
Speaker:He shut his eyes for a moment,
Speaker:and when he opened them again his smile had reconstituted.
Speaker:“If God, praise to Him, should so will,
Speaker:surely He could cover even the tops of the mountains.
Speaker:But should we believe
Speaker:His holy places are no more before we have seen it with our own eyes?
Speaker:Think about it for a while.”
Speaker:With that, he yawned and excused himself,
Speaker:the irony in his final question gleaming like chrome,
Speaker:but eluding him all the same.
Speaker:The Newlyweds Babak and Nadia were rabbits draped head to toe in bright clothes printed with intricate, spiraling vine motifs,
Speaker:such fine stuff as I had only seen before in books,
Speaker:but which must have been common in their oasis for them to put together entire outfits from it.
Speaker:Babak’s shemagh
Speaker:had slits cut in it to admit the passage of his lanky ears,
Speaker:which was not uncommon;
Speaker:Nadia kept hers folded back
Speaker:and hidden beneath a scarf.
Speaker:But it was not their ears which most drew attention,
Speaker:but rather Nadia’s protruding belly.
Speaker:She noticed my staring
Speaker:and smiled. “God has willed it,”
Speaker:was what I said, referring to the kittens she carried.
Speaker:I couldn’t make myself return her smile.
Speaker:How could she think
Speaker:of bringing a litter into this dead world, to struggle and suffer in privation?
Speaker:“Praise to Him,” Babak addended.
Speaker:“Peace. I’m Babak and this is Nadia. Come, sit down.”
Speaker:He took my hand and all but pulled me onto the large carpet he’d been spreading out.
Speaker:“We found a little powdered tea,”
Speaker:he said. “You must drink with us.”
Speaker:I refused five times, and still ended up with tea.
Speaker:We talked for a while on small matters of personal history,
Speaker:our hometowns, our families.
Speaker:It may have been that they sensed my alarm and wanted to put me at ease.
Speaker:Babak and Nadia were from the same oasis,
Speaker:only three-hundred kilometers or so from my own,
Speaker:to the south, which was closer than I had expected.
Speaker:They were cousins.
Speaker:“You’re too gracious,”
Speaker:I said after he forced a peach candy into my hand.
Speaker:My eyes kept wondering over to Nadia’s bulging abdomen,
Speaker:however much I might try to stop them.
Speaker:I had never seen a pregnancy with my own eyes before.
Speaker:“You are wondering,”
Speaker:Babak said, changing the subject with a delicate air,
Speaker:“why my wife and I are… baking.”
Speaker:“Baking?” “Yes. You know,
Speaker:the sort of baking for which rabbits are so well-known.”
Speaker:“Ah! Yes, of course,” I stammered.
Speaker:He didn’t seem offended at my curiosity,
Speaker:though other men might have been.
Speaker:“When a doe is under stress,
Speaker:the bread…” he paused here to search out a word,
Speaker:“returns. The oven gives you nothing.
Speaker:My Nadia is the first in many years to come so far along.
Speaker:That’s why we joined this caravan.
Speaker:caravan.” “You believe Shapur.” I thought of the greying vole,
Speaker:the holy man leading this expedition,
Speaker:with his wary eyes and constant twitching,
Speaker:and did not see how anyone could be convinced by his words.
Speaker:But then, I hadn’t needed convincing to join;
Speaker:it could have been the same for them.
Speaker:“I don’t not believe him,” he said, and laughed.
Speaker:“But about that, I have a theory.
Speaker:What if the world
Speaker:isn’t ending at all?
Speaker:What if far away from us,
Speaker:who are isolated here in this tunnel system,
Speaker:the world continued on
Speaker:as it had before?”
Speaker:The notion had occurred to me in idle moments over the years.
Speaker:The surface world, all sand and lethal heat in our region,
Speaker:might yet sustain survivors closer to the poles.
Speaker:“Much was lost in the cataclysms,” he said,
Speaker:his voice dropped down almost to a whisper.
Speaker:“It may be the case that this entire sector,
Speaker:or parts of it, were written off as a loss.
Speaker:We were cut off. Why would outsiders suffer the cost to excavate a wasteland?
Speaker:They forgot about us, and vice versa.”
Speaker:“Then you think we can reach it?”
Speaker:“God willing,” he said.
Speaker:“If we can, we will,
Speaker:for the sake of our children.”
Speaker:They were a charming couple
Speaker:and I often spoke with them when we encamped.
Speaker:Like her husband,
Speaker:Nadia was most cordial, but she rarely said more than a few words.
Speaker:Babak confided in me during our march one cycle
Speaker:that bandits had attacked her family’s caravan
Speaker:and killed her parents when she was only a child.
Speaker:Her eyes, though, were clear and watchful.
Speaker:I sometimes wondered
Speaker:what went on behind them,
Speaker:and what she beheld when she lapsed back into her customary silence,
Speaker:staring off into the dark.
Speaker:The Beekeeper Ruzba was an oddity:
Speaker:a chimera with a reptilian phenotype.
Speaker:We shall assume his gender as male for the purposes of this story,
Speaker:but I couldn’t be certain.
Speaker:He wore a white thawb,
Speaker:the ankle-length shirt which was not unusual for territories near the western mountains,
Speaker:and a plain white shemagh on his head.
Speaker:I would guess his weight at close to 60 kilos,
Speaker:which was a lot more than I had.
Speaker:He was only a bit taller than me, but stocky and powerful for his size.
Speaker:It was hard not to stare at his eyes,
Speaker:which were huge in proportion to his skull.
Speaker:I think it was the jerboa DNA in me, but I was never entirely comfortable around Ruzba,
Speaker:which was unfair since I know he never willed me any harm.
Speaker:It must have been his teeth,
Speaker:which were not sizeable, but were pointy,
Speaker:like his jaws were lined with stout ivory needles.
Speaker:Or it could have been his eyes.
Speaker:Unlike most geckos,
Speaker:the “leopard” variety possesses functional eyelids.
Speaker:More the pity, then, that Ruzba did not often think to employ them.
Speaker:The vertical pupils made his gaze even more unsettling.
Speaker:None of this was helped by the fact that his fingers ended with
brutal hooks:claws like the blade
brutal hooks:of a jambiya. There were two carts in our caravan,
brutal hooks:the labor of pulling them was distributed in shifts.
brutal hooks:But poor Ruzba, Shapur had explained,
brutal hooks:was, for all the human DNA in him,
brutal hooks:still too much a reptile for sustained physical activity in the cool temperatures underground.
brutal hooks:He could not even digest food without the aid of a heater.
brutal hooks:Whenever we went near a tube accessing the surface,
brutal hooks:he would always make the effort to go topside and bask,
brutal hooks:even during the day,
brutal hooks:which was flirting with death.
brutal hooks:We all understood, though no one ever mentioned it,
brutal hooks:that he wouldn’t live long if he were to be cut off from surface access,
brutal hooks:and the batteries on his portable heater were exhausted.
brutal hooks:But for all his woes,
brutal hooks:Ruzba would still take a short turn pulling one of the carts,
brutal hooks:then clamber on top of it to become part of the cargo.
brutal hooks:At first I could not understand why we would take the effort to haul him around when he was good for so little.
brutal hooks:But he was simple in manner,
brutal hooks:and quiet, bothering no one,
brutal hooks:and it was the charitable thing to do.
brutal hooks:And at dinnertime,
brutal hooks:he doled out a spoonful or two of honey to each of us,
brutal hooks:which inclined no few of us to favor him.
brutal hooks:I had been with the caravan two days when we spoke.
brutal hooks:He had just finished his ephemeral turn hauling supplies,
brutal hooks:when I stepped in to take his place.
brutal hooks:He greeted me. “Peace,”
brutal hooks:he said. His mouth opened when he spoke,
brutal hooks:but his lower jaw didn’t bob up and down.
brutal hooks:It was as if the sounds he made were produced all in his throat,
brutal hooks:and the mouth was only a channel for them.
brutal hooks:The words were distinct,
brutal hooks:but off, as though they were being played from a recording device rather than originating from him.
brutal hooks:“And upon you, peace.
brutal hooks:It’s good to meet you, brother,”
brutal hooks:I said, forcing myself to be civil.
brutal hooks:“I hear you were a beekeeper.”
brutal hooks:“Aye,” he said, and licked his eye clean.
brutal hooks:I had begun to pull.
brutal hooks:The cart was not so bad once you got it going.
brutal hooks:I didn’t begrudge his rest.
brutal hooks:“You can keep bees underground?”
brutal hooks:“We bring sunlight down for the plants with fiber-optic line,
brutal hooks:same as any farm.
brutal hooks:Used to be a cable factory nearby,
brutal hooks:we had so much of the stuff we used it as rope.
brutal hooks:And our bees were specially engineered for that kind of life.”
brutal hooks:“I see.” Even then,
brutal hooks:I had the thought that I would write this story someday,
brutal hooks:so I had a look around to see if anyone was in earshot,
brutal hooks:then put the question to him.
brutal hooks:“Brother,” I said, “Do you believe we will get to paradise?”
brutal hooks:He didn’t answer for some time
brutal hooks:and I began to think he had fallen asleep.
brutal hooks:“What is paradise?”
brutal hooks:He asked dreamily,
brutal hooks:startling me back to attention.
brutal hooks:“For me, it’s a warm, shady place with plenty of water
brutal hooks:and lots of food to eat.
brutal hooks:That’s all I’ve ever wanted from life,
brutal hooks:and it would be so easy for God.
brutal hooks:It’s not too much to ask, is it?”
brutal hooks:The Djinn We came across an abandoned oasis,
brutal hooks:the sign at the edge proclaimed it “New Doroud.”
brutal hooks:The main transit tunnel we’d been following up to this point
brutal hooks:had suffered a cave-in some years before,
brutal hooks:so we were forced into the auxiliaries.
brutal hooks:When we emerged from one these into a park or public square,
brutal hooks:our immediate response was to locate the residential area
brutal hooks:and fan out to scavenge for supplies.
brutal hooks:Most such localities were picked clean
brutal hooks:before any of us were even born,
brutal hooks:but there was always a chance some things might have been hidden
brutal hooks:or overlooked. It must have been a thriving community at one time.
brutal hooks:It was by far the biggest city I had ever seen,
brutal hooks:even in photos, and must have sheltered
brutal hooks:two-hundred families or more.
brutal hooks:Judging by the four-centimeters-deep layer of dust on the floor,
brutal hooks:it was safe to say no one had been through for a long time.
brutal hooks:As I searched a house,
brutal hooks:I became aware that my companions had spread out so far that I was quite alone.
brutal hooks:I held my breath
brutal hooks:and turned my ears this way and that,
brutal hooks:but heard only the slow passage of a draft,
brutal hooks:and the faint hiss of shifting sand.
brutal hooks:Then I caught movement from the corner of my eye.
brutal hooks:I was not at first alarmed,
brutal hooks:but thought it was one of my fellow travelers come looking for me.
brutal hooks:I called out a greeting, to no reply.
brutal hooks:“Who’s there?” I asked.
brutal hooks:Nothing. I wanted to convince myself that it was only my imagination,
brutal hooks:but I was certain of what I saw.
brutal hooks:I slipped out the back entrance
brutal hooks:and found myself in an alley.
brutal hooks:A shattered ventilation shaft
brutal hooks:had dumped sand onto the path to my left,
brutal hooks:blocking the way.
brutal hooks:Could they have gone back,
brutal hooks:taking care to duck under the windows so that I didn’t see?
brutal hooks:But even if that were the case,
brutal hooks:why should anyone wish to move about in secret like that?
brutal hooks:A chill ran up my back and every hair on my body stood on end.
brutal hooks:My hand wandered down to the jambiya on my belt,
brutal hooks:the curved blade sang a muted tone
brutal hooks:as the tip scraped free of its leather sheath.
brutal hooks:It was the first time I’d ever exposed the knife in a public place,
brutal hooks:as this was taboo in our culture, only permitted by the necessities
brutal hooks:of self-defense. If ever there was a time,
brutal hooks:I thought, that time had come.
brutal hooks:“Sir?” I just about jumped out of my skin,
brutal hooks:but my composure returned at speed.
brutal hooks:It was a child’s voice I had heard,
brutal hooks:I was certain. Taking care to resheath my jambiya,
brutal hooks:I turned around. There was a chimera child standing in the middle of the road.
brutal hooks:I say “chimera child” because I could not, still cannot,
brutal hooks:identify her phenotype.
brutal hooks:She most resembled a jackal,
brutal hooks:sleek and fine-boned, but her coat was
brutal hooks:mottled shades of yellow and brown
brutal hooks:like the lifeless desert up above,
brutal hooks:which had once been scrubland,
brutal hooks:and her ears more resembled those of a ground squirrel, with tufts on the ends.
brutal hooks:Her tail was long and broad,
brutal hooks:like that of a skunk.
brutal hooks:At the time I took her for a hybrid,
brutal hooks:though of what, I couldn’t discern.
brutal hooks:She was naked and smelled of ash and smoke.
brutal hooks:“Hi, I’m Atash,” she said.
brutal hooks:“Girl, what are you doing? Put some clothes on!”
brutal hooks:She ignored that
brutal hooks:and ran around me,
brutal hooks:out of the alleyway, into the road.
brutal hooks:“Let’s play! Come get me!”
brutal hooks:Three seconds into our meeting and I was already annoyed.
brutal hooks:I prayed for patience and walked after her.
brutal hooks:“Where are your parents?”
brutal hooks:She went so still
brutal hooks:that if she had been lying down, I might have thought she died.
brutal hooks:“They’re gone,” she said.
brutal hooks:“Long ago. The others, too. All gone.”
brutal hooks:“Well,” I said, almost caught up with her by then,
brutal hooks:“I’m with a group.
brutal hooks:Poor thing, have you no clothes?
brutal hooks:Come with me and we will give you something.”
brutal hooks:“Where?” she asked. I pointed
brutal hooks:and we started to walk back together,
brutal hooks:me looking straight ahead,
brutal hooks:as much from embarrassment as from a concern to protect her modesty.
brutal hooks:She asked a few questions about the group,
brutal hooks:how many people, what sort,
brutal hooks:our method of transport.
brutal hooks:I answered her, but she continued uninterestedly,
brutal hooks:so that I was not sure if she was listening.
brutal hooks:“You should all stay here,” she said at last.
brutal hooks:Something in her speech had changed.
brutal hooks:It wasn’t an issue of timbre, but of some
brutal hooks:intangible feeling.
brutal hooks:It was the same voice,
brutal hooks:but as though it issued from one who had already been on this world
brutal hooks:a hundred and more years,
brutal hooks:all of them weary,
brutal hooks:all of them alone.
brutal hooks:“You will never reach your destination.”
brutal hooks:“Ah,” I said, unsettled by her change in tack, but still taking her for a child
brutal hooks:and willing to indulge her little game,
brutal hooks:“but you don’t know our destination.”
brutal hooks:“Of course I do. You mean to go to the holy city
brutal hooks:and pray for salvation.” I stopped
brutal hooks:and whirled around in surprise.
brutal hooks:She had vanished.
brutal hooks:“I’ll show you…” she said,
brutal hooks:her words issuing from everywhere at once,
brutal hooks:and the world around me began to spin.
brutal hooks:How can I describe that feeling?
brutal hooks:It was like I had rollers on my feet,
brutal hooks:and the earth spun beneath me while I remained fixed in place.
brutal hooks:I was of a sudden on the surface,
brutal hooks:the multitude of stars shining down on the endless expanse of desert.
brutal hooks:“Here is your refuge,”
brutal hooks:she said, her words
brutal hooks:acidic, taunting, “Blasted ruins
brutal hooks:buried thirty meters deep!”
brutal hooks:Then the world rolled back over and I was standing in the ghost town,
brutal hooks:as I had been a moment before.
brutal hooks:“We are the last of our peoples,” she said.
brutal hooks:“Stay here. You will find only death if you continue.”
brutal hooks:There are many who may berate me for this, but I ran away as fast as I could, and I didn’t stop until I found someone.
brutal hooks:I didn’t speak of the incident at first,
brutal hooks:I was afraid they would
brutal hooks:think I was crazy.
brutal hooks:There was talk of setting up camp in that settlement, but I wouldn’t hear of it.
brutal hooks:I babbled on until Shapur relented and agreed to set up in the tunnel past the edge of town.
brutal hooks:A week passed before I shared this story.
brutal hooks:It made its way around the caravan.
brutal hooks:Some said I must have dreamt it,
brutal hooks:others smiled and nodded
brutal hooks:but I knew they thought I was making it up.
brutal hooks:I guess I wouldn’t have believed me either.
brutal hooks:I was surprised that Shapur did.
brutal hooks:I found him sucking on a tube of fifty-year-old nutrient paste
brutal hooks:near the front of the caravan and poured out
brutal hooks:the whole story. He listened with a passive face until I was done.
brutal hooks:“That was a djinn,” the vole said,
brutal hooks:“in a child’s form.
brutal hooks:Even as we were made from clay, so were djinn made from fire.
brutal hooks:The smoke and ash smell must mean it is near the end of its life.
brutal hooks:It would seem they are dying out along with us.
brutal hooks:Pay no mind to the vision it showed you.
brutal hooks:It was only an illusion meant to bring you to despair.”
brutal hooks:“Might it have been an angel?”
brutal hooks:He scoffed and we left it at that.
brutal hooks:At times, I was not sure myself whether it was a dream,
brutal hooks:but I took care not to stray too far from my companions.
brutal hooks:I often thought of that girl, djinn or not,
brutal hooks:dying all alone in the dark,
brutal hooks:in that immense, inexorable stillness,
brutal hooks:and I pitied her.
brutal hooks:The Highwaymen We found the first body outside a formidable-looking structure
brutal hooks:that must have been a bank or government office in times past,
brutal hooks:which had been hollowed out
brutal hooks:of the living rock.
brutal hooks:Such architecture had been easier to produce with the assistance of machinery
brutal hooks:than it had been back in the days where it was all done by hand,
brutal hooks:but was still a colossal,
brutal hooks:labor-intensive sort of project spanning years.
brutal hooks:As such, there were not many of them.
brutal hooks:The dryness and cool air had mummified him,
brutal hooks:this mole, who was shriveled but otherwise intact as the day he died.
brutal hooks:He had a pistol in his hand
brutal hooks:and a wound in the side of his head.
brutal hooks:Near to his remains we found a shallow pit filled with bones,
brutal hooks:which were scattered in such a way
brutal hooks:that we could only discern how many people were involved by counting the skulls,
brutal hooks:of which there were three.
brutal hooks:Their dentition suggested they were all moles like their mummified friend.
brutal hooks:To judge by the holes,
brutal hooks:they’d been killed each
brutal hooks:with a shot to the back of the head.
brutal hooks:Everyone must have noticed, though we did not mention it,
brutal hooks:that the bones were covered with bite marks,
brutal hooks:and had been cracked open to extract the marrow.
brutal hooks:There were bullet-holes in the door of the stone building, which wouldn’t open.
brutal hooks:Circling for an alternate means of entry, we discovered that the windows had been blocked with piles of heavy furniture.
brutal hooks:We had just about resolved to give up and move on
brutal hooks:when I decided to throw my shoulder against the door to see if it would give.
brutal hooks:I am neither large nor strong, so this gesture was symbolic,
brutal hooks:yet, there was a crack
brutal hooks:and the door swung open,
brutal hooks:catching me so unawares
brutal hooks:that I almost bowled face-first onto the floor
brutal hooks:with all the excess momentum.
brutal hooks:The door had been barred with a slab of some composite material which must have been rigid enough for the task when it was new,
brutal hooks:but had degraded with the years and become brittle.
brutal hooks:There was another mummy in this first room,
brutal hooks:this one laying prone with a pistol in its hand.
brutal hooks:The holes in the back of his shirt left little doubt as to the cause of this fellow’s demise.
brutal hooks:The last of them we found not far from that front area,
brutal hooks:sitting with his back to the wall,
brutal hooks:legs stretched out in front of him.
brutal hooks:He’d been shot three times in the upper torso.
brutal hooks:Stains on the floor indicated it had happened in the other room,
brutal hooks:after which he had dragged himself in here to die.
brutal hooks:He was clutching a pair of bags about the size of pillow-cases,
brutal hooks:full of canned food.
brutal hooks:We were excited about that
brutal hooks:until noting the way the cans had swollen up from bacterial activity inside.
brutal hooks:Shapur insisted that we give the remains proper burial rites
brutal hooks:even though he conceded that these men had almost certainly been a family of highway robbers squabbling over the last of their stores.
brutal hooks:“Murderers? Cannibals?
brutal hooks:Why should we?” I wasn’t angry at the suggestion, but perplexed.
brutal hooks:“God can forgive any sin if we turn to Him in sincere repentance,”
brutal hooks:he said. “Only He knows what is in the hearts of men,
brutal hooks:and only He is fit to judge them now.
brutal hooks:Desperation can drive even the best of people to an evil path.
brutal hooks:No man has the right to say who is
brutal hooks:or is not worthy of Behesht.”
brutal hooks:The Nomad We lucked upon a caravanserai that had a pump in good condition.
brutal hooks:We believed we might top off our supply of water if only the power could be restored,
brutal hooks:so we made to locate a surface access and see if anything could be done for the solar panels.
brutal hooks:While engaged in this, however, the overhead lights sparked to life.
brutal hooks:There was only one conclusion:
brutal hooks:that we were not alone in this place.
brutal hooks:It may have been a group like our own,
brutal hooks:but then it might also have been persons with less than noble intentions.
brutal hooks:A moment’s talk and we took up a defensive position in the room with the pump,
brutal hooks:watching the doorway and waiting.
brutal hooks:Those of us with pistols had them ready.
brutal hooks:We did not have to wait long before the stranger made her appearance.
brutal hooks:She entered the room with her head down.
brutal hooks:Chimeras, being based on the human genome,
brutal hooks:fell within the limits of the human range of sizes,
brutal hooks:with those of smaller phenotypes tending towards the low end,
brutal hooks:and those of larger phenotypes tending towards the high end.
brutal hooks:But these tunnels and buildings had been made by and for chimera derived from slight,
brutal hooks:burrowing creatures,
brutal hooks:and this woman was a camel.
brutal hooks:We weren’t in doubt about that,
brutal hooks:the famous hump, though reduced compared to that of her four-legged counterparts, was in evidence.
brutal hooks:She was well over two meters tall,
brutal hooks:the ceiling was just shy of it.
brutal hooks:When she saw us, she startled and bumped her head,
brutal hooks:then clasped her hand over her heart.
brutal hooks:“Peace,” the she-camel said.
brutal hooks:“By God, you scared me!”
brutal hooks:To say her voice was like a man’s would have been wrong.
brutal hooks:It was far deeper than that,
brutal hooks:a rumble that was felt as much as heard.
brutal hooks:She wore a long, white, hooded robe with trousers underneath,
brutal hooks:all made from some shimmering material I could not identify beyond saying it was
brutal hooks:no natural fiber.
brutal hooks:There was a pistol at her waist but she made no move for it. “Peace,
brutal hooks:sister,” Shapur said.
brutal hooks:He gave us a look and we holstered our arms.
brutal hooks:I was not privy to the conversation which followed,
brutal hooks:as she and Shapur went to speak in another room
brutal hooks:while I was summoned to assist in getting the pump to run.
brutal hooks:It was not until later that cycle,
brutal hooks:when we were encamped and taking our meal,
brutal hooks:that she came to me and exchanged greetings.
brutal hooks:Shapur might have sent her for me to interview,
brutal hooks:but whatever the case,
brutal hooks:I invited her to share my carpet.
brutal hooks:“I was surprised to see a camel,”
brutal hooks:I said. “I thought your kind was lost.”
brutal hooks:“My kind shall walk the earth until the final day.”
brutal hooks:There was pride in it,
brutal hooks:but she could not conceal a twinge of sadness.
brutal hooks:She knew, as we all did,
brutal hooks:that day could well be imminent.
brutal hooks:“Will you be joining us, then?”
brutal hooks:She shook her head.
brutal hooks:“With these,” she indicated her attire with a hand wave,
brutal hooks:“and our genetics, we can survive on the surface for days.
brutal hooks:It is dangerous, but because we can circumvent obstructions in these tunnels,
brutal hooks:we are able to range far when we scavenge.”
brutal hooks:“Ah.” I thought about the civilization that had once graced the overworld,
brutal hooks:the great cities with buildings that seemed to touch the sky.
brutal hooks:“You must have seen so much.”
brutal hooks:She shook her head again and smiled.
brutal hooks:“Only sand, from horizon to horizon.
brutal hooks:We have been farther than you can imagine,
brutal hooks:and found nothing.”
brutal hooks:“You keep saying ‘we,’
brutal hooks:do you have a herd?”
brutal hooks:“Oh, yes,” she said, confident.
brutal hooks:“We were attacked
brutal hooks:and became separated, but I’m sure I’ll catch up with them soon.”
brutal hooks:“And when was that?”
brutal hooks:She looked up at the ceiling,
brutal hooks:her lips moving as she performed the calculations.
brutal hooks:“About ten years ago, I think.”
brutal hooks:“I see.” I didn’t say what I was thinking,
brutal hooks:that her fellows were long dead.
brutal hooks:The both of us were chasing ghosts,
brutal hooks:and differed only in direction.
brutal hooks:“And is that why you won’t come with us,
brutal hooks:because you’re looking for them?”
brutal hooks:“No,” she said, and laughed.
brutal hooks:“I already told you,
brutal hooks:there’s nothing out there.
brutal hooks:You fools are going to get yourselves killed.”
brutal hooks:The Executioner Amir the hare stood out from the rest in many ways.
brutal hooks:He was just over one-hundred and eighty centimeters tall (not counting the ears),
brutal hooks:by far the tallest in our group.
brutal hooks:In dressing he was utilitarian,
brutal hooks:favoring slacks and baggy pullover shirts,
brutal hooks:eschewing traditional styles.
brutal hooks:He was the only male in our party who didn’t wear any sort of head covering,
brutal hooks:and the only male to wear his hair long,
brutal hooks:which was not forbidden, per se,
brutal hooks:but so far removed from contemporary standards as to be peculiar.
brutal hooks:But the thing that stood out most of all
brutal hooks:was that he carried a shamshir.
brutal hooks:Swords had not been used in war for centuries, so I was curious as to its purpose.
brutal hooks:But Amir was a hard person to approach:
brutal hooks:he took his meals alone
brutal hooks:and always sought the fringes whenever we encamped.
brutal hooks:It wasn’t that he was rude when spoken to, people said,
brutal hooks:but rather that he preferred his own company.
brutal hooks:It wasn’t until I had been with the caravan two weeks that I got a chance to speak with him in private.
brutal hooks:It was our sleeping period
brutal hooks:and I was losing a battle with insomnia, so I decided to see if anyone else was conscious.
brutal hooks:Living almost all one’s life underground bestows a certain awareness;
brutal hooks:we become accustomed to feeling our way along,
brutal hooks:seeing with our ears.
brutal hooks:I found the wall and followed it,
brutal hooks:not wanting to wake anyone with my lamp.
brutal hooks:I had the sense that a sleeping bag which had been occupied earlier was now empty,
brutal hooks:and a moment later I heard the clink of glass on glass
brutal hooks:and moved towards it.
brutal hooks:A little while and I could see a glow emanating from a house we’d searched earlier that cycle.
brutal hooks:I’d always been told that it wasn’t right to spy on people, so rather than creep up on whoever this was,
brutal hooks:I cleared my throat.
brutal hooks:The light inside the building changed,
brutal hooks:like someone wearing a lamp had turned their head.
brutal hooks:Then the light moved towards the doorway
brutal hooks:and there I met Amir.
brutal hooks:“Ah,” he said, and went back inside.
brutal hooks:I followed him. Further in, he had pried up a piece of the floor, revealing a crawlspace.
brutal hooks:That was presumably where he had found all the bottles of liquor he had set up,
brutal hooks:and from which he was so nonchalantly sipping.
brutal hooks:My first reaction was to peek behind me to be sure I hadn’t been followed,
brutal hooks:then to ask him a question.
brutal hooks:“Are you crazy? Shapur will have you whipped if he finds out.”
brutal hooks:He smiled and shook his head,
brutal hooks:indicating his sword.
brutal hooks:“Let them try. The one who puts a hand on me surrenders it forever.”
brutal hooks:“They have guns.” He shrugged.
brutal hooks:“I never said they won’t shoot me.
brutal hooks:But you are right,
brutal hooks:if it pleases them to flog a dead man, they’re welcome.”
brutal hooks:That settled, he tipped the bottle in my direction,
brutal hooks:offering. “No, thanks.”
brutal hooks:“Suit yourself.” As he did not appear to mind my presence,
brutal hooks:and would be more talkative on account of his inebriation,
brutal hooks:I decided to stick around.
brutal hooks:I had nothing better to do.
brutal hooks:“So…” I began, but he never let me get started.
brutal hooks:“You want to know about my shamshir.”
brutal hooks:It wasn’t a question.
brutal hooks:“Yes. Yes, sir.” “I cut people’s heads off for a living.
brutal hooks:Or at least I did.
brutal hooks:No courts anymore, that means no sentencing.
brutal hooks:Used to be, folks would catch a robber now and then.
brutal hooks:Bandits are parasitic, you know,
brutal hooks:but now there’s no one for them to feed on.
brutal hooks:No host, no parasites.”
brutal hooks:“Oh. How did you get into that…”
brutal hooks:I trailed off in thought, trying to find a tactful word,
brutal hooks:and came up with,
brutal hooks:“occupation?” He had already said more than I had ever heard him say.
brutal hooks:The liquor seemed to be doing its work already.
brutal hooks:“You’re born into it,”
brutal hooks:he said. “One of my ancestors was a criminal, probably, who got stuck with it.
brutal hooks:From then on, his genealogical line became an ‘executioner family.’
brutal hooks:That means we can only marry among other executioner families.
brutal hooks:How many of those do you think there are?
brutal hooks:God only knows how we made it this far.
brutal hooks:It stops here, though.
brutal hooks:No one for me to marry,
brutal hooks:executioner family or otherwise.”
brutal hooks:He took another drink
brutal hooks:and we were content to let the thread of conversation sleep a while.
brutal hooks:When he continued, he did so with a smile.
brutal hooks:“The work is not so bad,”
brutal hooks:he said. “The cycle before, I go to the aggrieved family and beg them to grant clemency.
brutal hooks:I beg mercy for murderers!
brutal hooks:If they don’t forgive him,
brutal hooks:then at the beginning of the next cycle
brutal hooks:I sharpen my sword.
brutal hooks:It’s just like swinging a pick,
brutal hooks:easiest job in the world.”
brutal hooks:I tried to imagine myself
brutal hooks:decapitating someone
brutal hooks:and decided I couldn’t do it.
brutal hooks:By then, I was ready to change the subject.
brutal hooks:I asked him if he thought we would reach paradise,
brutal hooks:as I had done with the others,
brutal hooks:but he seemed not to understand that the talk had moved on.
brutal hooks:“Well, why shouldn’t I?”
brutal hooks:he asked, ears flat,
brutal hooks:his tone agitated.
brutal hooks:“God saw fit to have me born into this position.
brutal hooks:How, then, am I tainted?
brutal hooks:I’m just like this sword,
brutal hooks:an instrument for someone else’s use.
brutal hooks:If the sentence is wrong,
brutal hooks:then that wrong falls on the authorities.
brutal hooks:And if a sentence is just,
brutal hooks:then what sin transpired?”
brutal hooks:“Brother, I apologize,
brutal hooks:I didn’t mean that.
brutal hooks:I’m asking if you think we’ll ever escape these tunnels, if we’ll ever reach the holy city.”
brutal hooks:Now that he understood the question,
brutal hooks:he settled back into thought,
brutal hooks:and his bearing softened.
brutal hooks:Then he laughed and gave me the answer for which I had been looking.
brutal hooks:“I don’t have any idea about that,”
brutal hooks:he said. “But what would you have us do,
brutal hooks:sit on our hands?” ***
brutal hooks:As I write this, the supplies are running low.
brutal hooks:Shapur pores over his maps and makes promises,
brutal hooks:but I felt it prudent to commence this project.
brutal hooks:Two cycles ago, Ruzba went on to his reward.
brutal hooks:His scales had gone from yellow and black
brutal hooks:to a greyish brown.
brutal hooks:We think it was the lack of sun.
brutal hooks:If you should stumble across this record,
brutal hooks:I hope you will pray for him,
brutal hooks:and for us. So now
brutal hooks:I commit these pages to posterity.
brutal hooks:With this cool, dry air, they should last for many years.
brutal hooks:If you read this far,
brutal hooks:you have my thanks.
brutal hooks:Please return them to the box you found them in.
brutal hooks:I had thought to write a warning here urging you to go back,
brutal hooks:but the fact is, you’re going to die either way.
brutal hooks:You may not reach Behesht,
brutal hooks:but you definitely won’t if you never make the attempt.
brutal hooks:It’s strange, but the more we search,
brutal hooks:the more certain I become that we will arrive in paradise.
brutal hooks:We are very close,
brutal hooks:I think we will find it any time now.
brutal hooks:This was “Behesht” by Dwale,
brutal hooks:read for you by Khaki,
brutal hooks:your faithful fireside companion.
brutal hooks:Thank you for listening
brutal hooks:to The Voice of Dog
