Chapter Text
"Take the baby," Cillian yells, his voice a whisper through the fire and bullets and screaming outside-
Oh, my God, the screaming-
The screaming of men at war, the screaming of women and girls as they fall and fall and fall-
Women and girls-
Oh, God-
Eileen's body lays on the floor next to the baby squirming in a cot; her baby, Todd Hewitt, the youngest boy in Prentiss town, the youngest boy in Prentiss town ever if this nightmare don't stop-
And it ain't gonna stop-
It ain't-
Not until the Mayor's killed every last woman, just like he did Todd's mother. It ain't hard to imagine she's sleeping if you ignore the wound in her stomach, a gash that bleeds and bleeds and bleeds-
But I can't ignore it-
Cuz I know I can help-
I know she can't die-
She can't-
"Ben, take the ruddy baby and run!" Cillian stands at the empty doorway, a rifle in his hands as he watches for soldiers, his back facing me to make sure I don't see the tears I can see in his noise, the ones I can feel in the air, the anguish that's so heavy and thick I cant breathe-
And I don't feel in my own body no more-
When I pick up Todd, his wailing so painful that my heart rips in two, I'm watching outside of myself-
I watch myself kiss Eileen on the forehead for the last time in forever-
I watch as I pick up the battered leather journal clutched in her warm, sticky hand-
And I cant take no more.
Just as I get to the doorway and take Cillians hand in mine, just as he squeezes it back as gently as adrenaline would let him, just as a splay of bullets shatters the air around me and Cillian screeches "RUN!" at the top of his lungs, its all I can do not to shatter to the ground myself and forget this planet-
Forget its people, forget the nightmares and misery and terror we caused-
But I don't shatter-
I don't-
Because I vow to myself, to Cillian, to this wretched planet-
I vow that Todd Hewitt, this tiny baby on a huge, huge disaster of a planet-
I vow that he will be the start of the most beautiful world you ever known.