Towers of beaming light loomed over her. Light that would never be seen by the line of forty-nine men behind her. All unable to see, their eyes remained completely shut. Somehow or other the disease was worse than people could have ever imagined. She continued as rain began to pour from the dark clouds.
“What the fuck is this?! We were supposed to be home an hour ago.”
“Ah shit, anyone got an umbrella?”
“Hey, how about I take lead?”
The men chuckled at the last line but Mary ignored them.
The city’s plan of having one leader guide an entire group made out of fifty people was bound to
end in disaster. If anything happened to Mary, or if a single person lost their way, then it was all
over. Mary was cautious – not from the puddles that formed or the fall-inducing cracks littered across the concrete but rather the angry, cold, starving and impatient followers she was now tasked with.
It would only take one to –
“Hey, Mary?” Alfred spoke, his hands gripped firmly but not painfully on Mary’s shoulders.
“Yes Alfred?” She knew what Alfred was about to say.
“He’s a bad person Mary. I think it’s about time you–”
“I did. He signed the papers.”
Alfred blinked, his grey, empty eyes still remembered their former status. He choked, nearly stopping the entire line.
“That’s great news! You moved out? You got your stuff? You know I would help you sweetheart
but, well…”
He pointed to his eyes as the two of them gave a miserable chuckle. They hadn’t any energy to
do much else. Yesterday was a disaster. A follower named Tom had been suicidal for about three weeks. Initially people thought he would get over it or, like most people end, up in the hospital. In the middle of a snow storm however, Tom decided to let go, dooming twenty-five others. Wandering souls in a snow storm unable to find their way; they would all starve.
Mary was given her last warning.
Mary would often stay up at night, wondering whether she truly cared for these men. Wondering why women were not rendered blind. Even she would get lost sometimes in the dishevelled city. The blind leading the blind, she thought. Matthew 15:14 - “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
She continued onwards motivated not by the prospect of finally returning home to her husband
nor the prospect of having a hard day of work be over, but by the idea that she would soon be joining her brother Tom. Inching towards a narrow gap between two buildings, she advised the forty-nine men to come into a horizontal line. They would all be holding hands side by side carefully navigating the darkness.
After exiting Mary did not tell them to let go. In fact, she kept guiding them in this formation for fifteen minutes longer after they had exited the narrow trench. She arrived at a giant ledge overlooking the city; a forgotten highway which after years of neglect would no longer protect people from easily falling off into the ocean below with its now missing barriers. Mary looked behind her as the crowd became slightly alarmed by how long the trench was taking. She stopped, asked everyone to be quiet, and looked out into the darkness.
“Everyone stop!”
“Is everything okay?” asked Alfred.
Mary, for the first time since she started this job, ignored him.
“Everyone, this is very important! We have a bit of a difficult manoeuvre. There is a large step in front of us covered in moss. I want everyone to hold each other's hands as tightly as possible and on my count make one big careful step in front of you.”
The crowd followed her advice, bending their knees in anxious unison as they gripped each other's hands, holding on for life. Mary looked on, scarcely hearing the ocean that was always distantly heard in that quiet city.
“On the count of three!”
“One.”
No more death.
“Two.”
No more sickness.
“Three!”
No more false promises.
Mary and everyone else took a step forward. A beautiful spectacle of knotted hands joining each other intermixed with ocean breeze. Everyone leaping to permanent freedom.
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