60 INT. TRAIN - CARRIAGE - NIGHT
The four are hanging onto poles and seats as they pull themselves up, further away from the lava seeping in below through where the windows used to be. Solomon manages to shatter a couple of windows, climbing up through them and pulling the others through.
61 EXT. TRAIN - NIGHT
Aether holds her hands out, faintly glowing.
AETHER
I absorbed what I could. Stay close to me if you don''t want to boil alive.
JOSEPH
This isn''t right. What happened?
Nobody answers. Maria starts climbing down the side of the carriage. Aether holds her hand out, parting the lava enough for her to stand down there.
MARIA
The driver estimated us at five minutes on the train. We can walk the distance to the safehouse.
Solomon begins to follow her lead, as does Joseph.
SOLOMON
Here''s hoping.
Aether climbs down as well, and the four begin the trek through the sea of white-smouldering molten fields toward the looming pillar of flame where the Tower used to be.
JOSEPH
At least we''re not getting lost.
62 EXT. MOLTEN FIELDS - NIGHT
A short distance away from the wrecked carriage is the molten remains of another. The charred, smouldering corpse of the driver is lying across the controls. A white ember briefly flickers from its joints, prompting them to twitch.
63 INT. FIFTH TOWER - STUDY - NIGHT
Saul is sat at his desk, quietly filling out papers. Sophia enters the room, helmet removed. She storms up to him, slamming her hand down on his desktop. Saul calmly looks up from his work.
SAUL
No dice, I take it?
Silence. She simply glares. He sighs.
SAUL
What is it, Lord Sophia? I don''t have anything for you.
PILATE (O.S.)
It''s fine. I might.
Pilate and Photine are off to the side of the room, perusing the bookshelves. Sophia straightens her back, meeting Pilate''s gaze.
SOPHIA
Ironic.
PILATE
Unless you give me lip.
SOPHIA
I am the weapon of mass destruction here, not you.
PILATE
If there''s one thing about you that hasn''t changed, Lord Sophia, it''s that you wouldn''t dare to damage anything within half a mile''s radius of this Shrine. Not counting secular transport hubs, obviously.
Pilate closes the book in his hand.
PILATE
The question is how you feel about the other Shrines.
SOPHIA
Explain, apostate.
Pilate looks to Photine. He says nothing to her, but the intention in his harsh gaze is clear - that what he does next is on her, the person who talked him into doing it. With that declared, he makes eye contact with Sophia once again, and plays his hand:
PILATE
I know where Maria is going.
His stance is almost confrontational, as though testing her. Her gaze does not let up.
64 EXT. FIRST CITY - STREETS - NIGHT
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Even by the time Maria''s party arrive within the borders of the First City, the fires have not died down in the slightest. Ashes fall like snow. As they walk, strange shadows are visible through the windows of the blazing buildings. The lava has begun to cool, but the white glow of embers continues to light the way.
JOSEPH
This is awful.
For Joseph, this place was once his home, rendered unrecognisable by the cataclysm they just witnessed. It''s taking a serious emotional toll on him. Maria is holding up significantly better, but it''s easy to tell that the pressure is building in her gut.
JOSEPH
How could this have happened? I thought they had ten thousand years to make sure that the Shrines were working properly. This should be impossible.
SOLOMON
It''s right in front of you.
MARIA
Cut him a break, will you? This is hard for anyone to accept.
SOLOMON
You seem to be doing just fine.
MARIA
One of us has to be.
Before allowing anyone to puzzle out what she means, Maria makes a fairly sweeping gesture in the general direction of the First Tower.
MARIA
The safehouse is close to the city square. I can''t tell you about the entrance, but the majority of it is underground. It should be intact. At least, more intact than...
Not far away, a building collapses to the ground, giving out from the flames.
MARIA
...that.
AETHER
Keep an eye out for angry architecture. I''d rather not test this barrier any more than we have to.
The sound of light footsteps over ash travels on the wind. Maria immediately draws her PISTOL.
JOSEPH
What was that?
SOLOMON
Something''s here.
From the gap between two buildings steps a figure - their clothes are incinerated, and their body is a charcoal-like colour and texture. They shamble, seemingly aimlessly, across the street. Joseph rushes toward them without hesitation.
AETHER
Wait!
JOSEPH
Are you okay?!
The figure looks up. Their eyeballs have burst from their sockets - white flame fills their place. The smouldering figure opens its mouth, and Fire crackles from its lips.
FIRE
Am I?
Joseph screams, falling backwards. The figure extends a burning hand, reaching for his face.
FIRE
Are... you?
Its fingers don''t reach him. Its head jerks back with the sound of a gunshot. Maria has reached Joseph''s side, emptying a magazine into the figure''s face until there''s nothing left to come out of the barrel. It stumbles back. One step, two steps. It snarls like a bonfire. Joseph gets up, fleeing back to Solomon and Aether.
JOSEPH
What is that thing?
Maria watches as the figure stares into space, off-balance and about to fall. It doesn''t fall.
FIRE
What is... that thing?
The damage done to its head fills with more Fire. It is unharmed. Maria quickly falls back faster than it can shamble toward her, reloading.
MARIA
Immortal, apparently.
SOLOMON
Not exactly. You can tell. It''s not a living being anymore.
Its "eyes" lock onto the four.
SOLOMON
It''s a corpse. "Death" doesn''t mean anything to it.
AETHER
It''s like me. A vessel.
Dozens more corpses, crackling with the Fire, begin to emerge from the surroundings - alleys, buildings, even from under the ashes. Most of them simply move to pass them, feeling the walls and ground around them blindly. They clutch at everything and wander aimlessly like newborns, but a handful are acutely focused on the party.
MARIA
Vessels, plural?
AETHER
Like... a sense of touch...
JOSEPH
For... For the fire...? It can think?
SOLOMON
Infesting the corpses of its own followers, using them like cells...
MARIA
Stay on the move. Come on.
The four skirt between the slow-moving bodies, moving further into the city.
65 EXT. FIRST CITY - STREETS - NIGHT
The Fire''s corpses continue to move in great swathes through the streets, clutching and investigating everything they come across. Anything in their hands too long melts or burns away. A twisted, half-molten lamppost gives out in its grip and falls to the ground, crushing one of the corpses beneath it. The body is split in half. The split crackles and ignites. Flames spring from each half, each independently forming a complete figure - two bodies where there once was one. The legs that formed a torso now form a head - it looks at itself, its own fiery hands, now able to think and perceive even without a brain.
66 EXT. MOLTEN FIELDS - NIGHT
The dark fields are illuminated by a great procession of the Fire''s vessels. The entire population of the city has been converted into a forest of burning bodies. From afar, they look less like a simple mob, and more like a nervous system or mycorrhizal network. Their spread is organised and methodical. Solomon was clearly right: these "zombies" are mere feelers of the Fire, a single gigantic organism larger than the entire city. In the distance, the white flames - the limitless body of this abominable God - continue to spread. The First Tower has become a gleaming white pyre, and its vents that surround the border have become looming bonfires, making the entire city look like a blazing altar.
67 EXT. FIRST CITY - SQUARE - NIGHT
Lying in the light of the Tower''s flames is the CLOCK that once showed the countdown until The End. It has fallen to the ground, and its display has gone dark. Fire''s vessels ignore it. Briefly, burning words flicker on the display:
"AM:I :HE:RE: :WH:AT:IS:BE:YO:ND:HE:RE"
The sound of the flames rises and falls, like breathing.