Oil and wax dripped down from the ceiling’s chandelier and fell onto my fair skin, now red and half burnt. Per usual the place was dark, and the air so dense it could be cut with a knife.
Finding candles and light in a place that was supposedly abandoned made me doubt, especially since in that case there wouldn’t be any light or candles on.
The scenery was as expected, half demolished houses and burnt buildings, in the middle of a desert with no animals, and barely any cacti. The sound of the wind moved the light curtains barely hanging into the steel hooks.
My job as a member of the GEA Construction Co. was to evaluate whether the place was apt for urbanization. Clearly, my purpose there was pointless, since regardless of the conditions, they would still build the paradise that any wealthy family would want. Similar to the Peruvian Oasis Town named Huacachina.
Europeans wanted to have a similar Oasis but close to them, and somewhere in the world with no conflict.
I continued walking across the short, wide streets, and finally found the expected: the light of the sunset signaled a liveless skeleton, laying on the porch of a house.
People had died in the incident. When the Eurasian War broke out, the first incident occurred in this exact town, as two nations bombarded each other. Unfortunately, the bombardment occurred in the isolated city of Balasia. And no one survived.
Now war is over in Europe.The injured and useless people were sent to South America, causing even more conflict due to the racial and cultural differences, combined with the already fine and fragile democratic system built with war.
I approached the church, saw movement. A coyote entered the church and brought out three more coyotes. All had big green eyes, and golden bright fur that irradiated a beautiful spark.
I was so immersed in their beauty, that I almost dismissed the human head hanging from the coyote's mouth. Out of nowhere coyotes got out of the church, all with heads of children and old men with a green necklace hanging from the neck of the bodiless skull.
I started running away from the wild animals, and finally got to the bell tower. I closed the door and could hear the slams and yells of the coyotes. I heard the voices of children crying. My first thought was calling someone. But I was in the middle of the desert and my only means of transportation was a car on the other side of the city.
Soon, the bell from the tower started chiming. Through a small hole within the worn out walls, I could see black figures with gray candles in hand. Slowly approaching the bell tower.
The door from the bell tower opened up, and tons of figures entered. For a moment I remained in a state of complete shock. A coyote with red eyes was ready to jump on top of me, but somehow, I managed to evade it, and started running towards the top of the tower. Ascending steep and noisy stairs, made of wood; I fell three times before reaching the bell.
My ears rumbled with the vibration of the golden bell. There was blood on the walls, where the bell hung from. I started sensing a strong smell, an odor of rotting meat and musty garbage. It was the smell of death.
A woman hung from the bell’s clapper, and the white striped dress was burnt and full of bugs. The minute I got distracted, every coyote and dark figure reached the top of the bell tower. The soft breeze moved the dazzling light of the candles that barely showed the presence of creatures around in the depth of the night.
Sand covered my face, tears fell from small eyes, and the only sound I could hear were cries of wailing, sadness, and despair. A coyote with hazel eyes took me by the boot of my pants and dragged me down the bell tower. I hit my head with the stairs, and rocks on the way.
The coyote pressed on my chest with its dirty paws, and tried to make me enter a room. We were now inside a house, almost defilibrated by the sun. Inside the room, there was a pile of bodies, dead bodies. That rotten smell from before was way stronger.
I barely understood the purpose of the coyote. Did it want to kill me for the pile to become larger?
Behind the coyote there was an old man, almost translucide, and with worn out clothes. The look on his face was sad, but pure. The man opened up a window to a smaller room, there was a baby, asleep but alive. The pile of bodies didn’t allow me to enter, so there I noticed.
The pile of bodies were all from the same family, probably put there for the sake of the baby, and victims of the Balasian battle.
The Eurasian war broke out a year ago. So it was impossible for the baby to survive after so long. So it was most likely the work of the saint spirit, or curse, I thought jokingly.
The cries continued, the coyote dragged me towards the bodies, and the old man begged me to get the baby out of the room. Body by body, I cleared the room’s entry and got the baby out.
On top of the baby’s chest there was a flower, and a piece of paper that said койот душа, meaning Koyot Dusa or a coyote spirit. The baby stopped crying as I held it. I got out of the house. The coyote and old man followed me into a candle trail, where humanoid creatures covered in black capes kneeled down, as I passed.
With the Koyot in hand I entered the car, and got away from there with no question. I could see how the candles faded away as I drove away from the place. Until the city became shadows produced by the moon’s reflection.
The camp where my team was staying was the only source of life in miles. My partners greeted me in shock and awe. The baby was of course a big surprise for everyone. When I got there, my chief in charge told me:
“Thank god you’re here! I thought you had died like the rest of the people sent there”
I remained silent for some minutes, and handed the baby to the younger crew member. My team explained that I was the fifth person sent to inspect the place, but the first three didn’t make it. None of them knew if they were alive, or not. The fourth person sent, died after minutes of getting to the camp, due to fractures and hemorrhage. Apparently, the woman sent before me, jumped off a high building, and only managed to get to the camp.
From the stories told by my partners I understood three things:
The bodies in front of the baby’s rooms were not from a family, but the other land supervisors that came before me. Probably dragged by coyotes, and spirits to rescue the baby.
The woman that reached the camp but died, jumped off the bell tower, managed to survive and instead of dying while being dragged by coyotes, she escaped the place. The rest of the supervisors must have died after jumping off. However, I didn’t jump as my last resort.
I had just rescued the only survivor of the Balasian Battle. One that miraculously survived thanks to cursed coyotes, spirits, and a flower.
Step 9 Yellow
By Natalia Pérez
