novelraw Chapter 91: Unanswered Questions
Chapter 91: Unanswered Questions
"What are you doing here?" Stanley asked Freddy. "I don’t remember you ever taking this job."
"I took it so I had an excuse to come down here," Freddy said. "I wanted to see how you were doing."
"Ah," Stanley realized. "Thanks."
The man between them loaded up the pig onto the cart and also put the chickens in the cages. He would then take these animals to the 3rd quadrant that was just above here, where they would be butchered for their meat, or sold to butcher shops itself around the town.
The man moved to the next house that was about 20 meters away, while Freddy stayed there to talk with Stanley.
Freddy felt somewhat bad for Stanley. "Are you sure this is what you want? I think I can understand why would want to quit the Defenders, but what’s the point of coming to a farm?" he asked.
"Because I’m used to this life," Stanley said simply, not wanting to talk about fighting the crawlers. Freddy didn’t need to know that.
"Used to?" Freddy asked curiously before remembering. "Oh right! Your mother was Dull, wasn’t she? I’m sorry, I forgot."
"It’s alright," Stanley said.
"So... what do you plan on doing now? Just work on the farm?" Freddy asked.
"I don’t see what other choice I have," Stanley said, looking around. "I’ll work on the farm for a while, maybe find a girl for myself and then have some kids and die. That’s what Dulls do around here anyway."
Freddy frowned a little. "Are you joking right now?" he asked.
"Ah, sorry," Stanley said with a bit of a chuckle. "Seriously though, I don’t have anything to do. Although, I might start doing something. Once my brother becomes mayor, I will try and get these Dulls to have a better lifestyle. If nothing, I should do that at least while I’m here."
Freddy gave a small smile. "That’s not a bad idea," he said. "You can truly help the ones that need it."
He too remembered all the various people that were taken away from their families, unwillingly. It didn’t sit right with him.
"I’ll help you if you need my help for it," Freddy said.
"Thanks, but it will take a while before I get to that," Stanley said. "I have to wait until my brother becomes mayor and things calm down for him before I even bring up this topic to him."
"In the meanwhile, I’ll just live my time on the farm normally," Stanley said. "There’s no hurry, is there?"
"I suppose not," Freddy said.
"Oi Defender!" the man that was done dealing with the chickens he got from that farm shouted. "Are you coming with me or not?"
"Coming!" Freddy shouted. "Sorry, I have to go for now. I’ll try and see if I can come to visit you later."
"Sure," Stanley said. "Good luck."
"You too," Freddy said and ran away to the man to be his guard while he took care of the pigs and chickens.
Stanley returned back inside and continued eating his meal from where he had to stop due to their sudden arrival. Around the time he finished eating, it started to rain.
This was the first rain of the season, so Stanley went outside to enjoy it. He leaned against the wooden pillar of the back porch as he watched the rain fall onto the field in front of him.
There was nothing else to do for quite some time now. The chickens were in their cages, safe from the rain, and the pigs loved the rain, so Stanley had lots of time on his hand, which became a lot of time to think.
Seeing how much time he was wasting made him wonder if he did the right thing. Was waiting here really the best thing to do with his time?
"No, I can’t doubt my decisions," Stanley thought to himself. "If I doubt myself, who would believe in me?"
He shook his head and just focused on passing the time. The rain only got harder from there with the storm causing the wind to move at such speed that it disturbed the veil somewhat.
It was a normal scene that Stanley had seen many times before, but it still looked so surreal. As if the veil was a physical thing that a wind could just blow away if it was strong enough.
It had been so many years since the first mayor of the city had formed the veil that not a single person in the town had any idea how the veil was made at all. What even was it?
When the lightning flashed beyond the veil, Stanley’s heart grew cold at what he saw. Just as their name suggested, the crawlers were crawling all along the floor on the other side of the veil
The number of crawlers on the other side of the veil seemed uncountable. 100? 200? Maybe even more?
There were also crawlers on the top of the cliff that made it impossible for anyone to go up through the cliff too.
Stanley would only imagine how many there were all around the world that they had to run away from. 5 thousand? 10 thousand? surely there couldn’t be so many crawlers.
What were crawlers even?
That was one question that was never answered when the history of the Last Hope was taught. All they ever learned was that the first mayor had saved the people from the monsters and created the town here.
It never taught them how the crawlers came to be. What even were they? Were they one of the many animals that are said to be extinct?
Questions that used to cross Stanley’s mind many times in the past crossed once again, and once again would remain as questions.
Would he ever get the answer? Probably not. But it wasn’t like he even wanted the answer. What he wanted was revenge against those things that crawled so eerily on the other side of the veil.
The rain continued strong for a while until it stopped and the first ray of sunshine peered through the cloud after the rain.