Nail - A Short Story Read Online Free PDF

threw it, so he overlooked it. Confidant that Bas is almost
exhausted, Ralic rounds the corner again. A bullet zings past his
left shoulder, and he freezes. “That’s right,” Bas’Tun says. “Just
stand… still.”
    “ Don’t hurt him, Bas,” Zell
says, weak and slouching to the side of the wall.
    “ Shut up, hero . I believed in you—
but you led everyone astray by believing in this… this heretic .”
    “ Kid… It should be clear as
day. This spirit boy just taught us how to preserve knowledge for
generations through his paper invention, something that surpasses
even the Elder’s wisdom. Just take off that stupid mask and see for
yourself!” Zell says as the clouds part and dissipate.
    “ No!” Bas focuses the gun
right at Ralic’s chest. “The elder gave me these to stop you both
and save the village. This is the only way I can see what’s going
on here.”
    “ That’s not true, kid; just
take it off and…” Zell stops as the walled town is flooded in
radiant, blinding light. Everything becomes brighter— from the
ground to the walls to the very air around them.
    Bas jolts. “Wh-what the… How is…” He
flails around as his NVG receptors are overloaded with
light.
    Ralic steps forward quietly.
    “ It’s so bright! It hurts!”
Bas complains, expecting a response from Zell.
    “… Wow ,” is all that Zell says as he looks up with his last
breaths.
    “ Zell! What is it! Why can’t
I see? Is this trickery from the spirits? Elder, help
me!”
    With a flash, Ralic swipes the gun from
Bas and upper cuts into the goggles, pushing them up off his
face.
    Bas cries out as he’s blinded anew,
this time by the real thing. He gasps and curls to the ground as he
slowly adjusts to the light. Gradually, he makes out the deep
vibrant greens of the grass, the rich wooden tones of the cabins,
the infinite blue of the sky, the pure cotton whiteness of the
clouds— and, finally, the Sun; that piercing, monumental array of
light and heat that supplies freely and without reservation.
Bas’Tun is on his knees, frozen, his mouth wide with disbelief at
the sight of the great light in the sky. His vision becomes watery,
blurry; he’s crying, but why?
    “ Pretty, isn’t it?” Ralic
says as if Bas were a friend.
    “ What… Spirit man…
what is this? ”
    “ It’s the Sun. This is what
I wanted to show you and your town.”
    “ Then…” Bas’Tun looks down
to his own body— ghostly-pale in comparison to Ralic’s pleasant,
comfortable color that’s been baked warmly in the sun for his
entire life. “Then you’re… this is… this is really the
surface?”
    “ Yes.”
    Bas slumps over in defeat. “Zell’Ahn,
Spirit man, I’m sorry. I… I didn’t know. Forgive me.”
    Ralic nods. “I forgive you… but I don’t
think Zell will be able to… in this life, at least.”
    Bas’tun swings his gaze to
Zell— dead, and with a grin plastered to his face. In reverent
silence, Bas creeps to Zell, closes his eyes, and weeps. “I’m…
sorry, Zell... I didn’t know. Please …”
    “ We’ll have time to…” Ralic
takes a breath. “Grieve later. We need to concentrate on saving
your town from the overlord.”
    Bas crumbles into Zell’s shoulder
weakly. “Zell I’m… I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. You taught me how to
use a crossbow, and how to temper steel, and-”
    Ralic tears Bas from Zell’s
corpse and shakes him. “Get a hold of yourself! We have to finish
this! We can’t give the overlord the opportunity to make a new
strategy. We must strike now! ”
    Bas sniffles. “But… but
how?”
    “ We… we need to show them
the Sun. We need to either get them to come up or… or we’ll need to
bring the sunlight down, somehow.”
    Ralic lets go of Bas’Tun as
he gets to his feet. “The eld-… er, the overlord ’s too powerful; we can’t kill
him.”
    “ Yes, we can . All we need to do is to shake the
people’s faith in it. If we show them all that it's been lying to
them, then