pistol. Two more nomads sustained injury by blunt force, possibly the mark’s pistol or a club, or a rock.”
The judge held the scrap of paper to the candle flame. It blackened and curled and turned to ash on his podium. It caught and burned to nothing. The judge stared through Lead. He spoke slowly, letting each articulated word echo in the courtroom.
“You are a hypocrite, Marchez. You claim the Lord stayed your hand from committing violence and yet you commit violence against heathens outside of Havasu a day later. What say you?”
Lead forced himself to stand straight.
“I admit I fired upon the heathens. They attacked me, I defended myself.”
“Terence Wood attacked the Church. He stopped apprehending marks. He stopped purging sin from our precious society, even worse; he let the sinners roam free in hiding. The fabric of our society is based on civil rules, Mr. Marchez. That which undermines our rules undermines our society. Terence Wood was a harbinger of chaos and his sins were unforgivable. Sin hurts society, sin hurts the Church, and as such, sin hurts you, mark. Sin brought our society to despair. Sin destroyed the first world nations, and it is sin that you were charged to fight.”
The judge drew forth another scrap of paper.
“Crusader Eliphaz supplemental report: Upon apprehension Goodman Terence Wood refused the rope and was brought under the blanket. In the ensuing combat Crusader Jerrod Black was shot and killed. I was wounded when the mark Leonard Marchez stabbed me through the left forearm with a knife.”
The judge held up the knife, the blade was still stained with Eliphaz’s dried blood. He put the knife down and held the Crusader’s report to the flame. Ashes scattered across the podium and drifted to the courtroom floor. One of the guards collected the ashes in his hands and laid them on the table in front of Lead.
“You are not an innocent, Marchez. You make claim to losing the killer inside; your very words of defense. And yet you stab a Crusader in the course of his work. Not only have you broken your accord with the Church, Mr. Marchez, you act as an enemy combatant of the Church. You sir, are treacherous.”
The judge raised his hands and the guards tightened their grip on Lead. One put his hand on the back of Lead’s neck while the other kicked out his left knee. Lead sprawled onto the table. The scarred guard twisted Lead’s head around so he faced the dome ceiling of the courthouse. Another guard pressed his jaw muscles until his mouth puckered open, and a metal pipe was forced past his teeth and into his throat. Lead tried to yell out but his words were muffled by the gagging pipe.
“You were a trusted Preacher of the Church, and you became an enemy of the Church, a lover of sin and treachery. You are a traitor against God and country and there can be no worse crime.” The guard with the pile of ashes approached Lead. He held the ashes above the pipe.
“For the foulest of crimes you are to be banished to the foulest of places. You are to consume the ashes of your sins. Eat your sins and pray that they will sustain you, for you are going to the Pit of Traitors. There you will be given no sustenance save the Earth’s clean water. Let your sin fill your belly, for the Church has no will to.”
The judge raised his hand and the guard poured the ashes into the pipe. Lead’s throat was instantly coated, his body tried to cough, but the gagging pipe and ashes blocked his air. Lead convulsed and lights flashed before his eyes when he was suddenly released by the guards. Lead pulled the pipe out and coughed a wet black mess on the courtroom floor. The judge sneered in disgust.
“Remove this creature from my sight.”
As Lead was being dragged away, a guard leaned in and whispered.
“Listen mark, you’re going to be rolled into the Pit. Stays in the Pit are short but few survive. You will be given no food. If you partake of the flesh of man, you know, eat people, you will never be removed. If you take in no sustenance but water, you will be absolved and survive your trial.” The guard smiled and nodded encouragingly. “Pray God be with you and cure you of your sin.”
The guard stripped the remains of Lead’s trench coat and tied a length of cloth over his eyes. Another guard pulled Lead’s arms back and tied him to a long plank. He was lifted and taken out of the courthouse. In the distance men whispered, desert birds chirped, the wind stirred grit.
“Good luck, sinner,” the guard said.
Lead’s binds were cut and his body thrown end over end. He tumbled over loose dirt and gravel for short seconds that stretched long in his fear and panic.
Lead impacted solid dirt and immediately tore off the blindfold. The sun stung his eyes; his lungs breathed air thick with human stink. The Pit was massive, perhaps twenty yards across. At the end farthest from Lead stood a shack cobbled from planks and rope bindings. The Pit squirmed with life. Innumerable emaciated men crawled on hands and legs to find shade against the sun’s blaze. What showed of their skin, what wasn’t caked in dirt and blood, was burnt and bubbled.
The Pit’s shack was its only structure. Three men stood in front of it. Their bellies were pouched in malnourished distension and their skin was a dark shade of gray, but aside from Lead they were the only men in the Pit with the strength to remain on their feet.
“Oy, give us your wood, new man,” shouted one of the gray men.
They approached Lead together, slowly, like predators accustomed to overwhelming prey. They ignored the moans of the emaciated men they stepped on or over.
Lead searched the ground for the plank he’d been thrown in with. Behind him, one of the emaciated men had wrapped his body around it and gripped it like a serpent. Lead tried to reclaim the plank, but could not pull it loose. In frustration, Lead stepped on the starving man’s hip to wrench the board free. He turned to the gray men, clutching the plank in both hands like a sword.
“Come on, lovely,” the gray man said. “Give us your wood.”
A gray man charged Lead with hands raised like claws. Lead sidestepped the man and swung the board into the back of his skull. The gray man collapsed, the emaciated men around him crawled away like frightened sloths.
“Right, tough one we have,” said one of the standing gray men.
“You like to fight, we like to fight too,” said the other gray man.
They moved to circle the ex-Preacher. Lead leapt back and pressed spine against the Pit’s edge. He held the board high over his head, ready to strike.
“Leave me be,” Lead said. “Let me serve my time to release and I will leave you be.”
The gray men paused just out of striking range.
“You are to learn,” said a gray man.
“That no time here is served out. The Pit consumes all who enter. No man leaves,” said the other.
The gray men retreated, pulling their unconscious compatriot back into the shack. Lead slumped against the dirt and watched them. One of the emaciated men touched his leg. Lead raised the plank above his head.
“Hold, new man,” the emaciated man pleaded with hands raised. “Please let me sit near you,” he whimpered.
Lead looked the man over. He was ageless in that he might be old or very old. Sun blisters and filth masked the man’s features, creating a creature both disgusting and pitiable.
“Sit where you are and talk if you will, I just want to serve my time,” Lead replied.
The creature crawled closer to Lead.
“There’s no serving here, sir. The cannibals did not lie to you. I’ve never seen a man leave this Pit, nor has anyone I’ve spoken to,” the man whispered.
“Cannibals?”
“True, they that possess the shack do consume men’s flesh. They have been here the longest for they do not starve. They will consume us all eventually.”
The emaciated man rolled until he faced the shack.
“They hide their deeds from the light, but all know; those who are captured and brought in are consumed.”
He turned to Lead. Pleading eyes peered through scars and seams.
“They whisper that my time has come. I’ve been with out food for ten days and have no strength to stand or fight. Please help me.”
Lead looked into the man’s eyes. He looked across the Pit at the other pathetic creatures, at men rendered into worms by need and lack of sustenance.
