The Harrowmen

Last time they came, Timothy knew how to stop them. They didn't come. The cellar children survived. But Timothy never came back, and now no one knows how to stop them. The children look to you. You are oldest, strongest, bravest. (You told them so.) Now, in this time of fear, you are their best and only hope. * [[Run]] * [[Hide]] * [[Fight]]

A band of children moving together is slower and more visible than a child alone. * [[Run away alone]] * [[Run away together]]

The cellar has served you well so far, but there is only a single door between it and the surface. If they find it, they will find you. * [[Stay in the cellar]] * [[Find a better shelter]]

Timothy fought them off. Timothy kept you safe. You'll go to face them, as Timothy did. (But Timothy knew how to stop them.) What will you take with you? * [[Bring the others with you]] * [[Bring a weapon]] * [[Take nothing]]

You can't save the others. (You're not Timothy.) But you can save yourself. You run through the city's rubble as quickly as you can. You hide from other children, from wild dogs, from anything that moves. You don't know where you're going: you just know you can't stay here. Behind you, screams: voices you know from the cellar, now warped in agony. The Harrowmen have found them. You keep running. You'll be out of the city by the time the Harrowmen come.

The city isn't safe. (The city is never safe.) The Harrowmen are coming. You'll find a place they don't come. Somehow, somewhere, you'll find it. Fearful, hopeful, the others follow you. You make your way through the rubble of the city, slowly, slowly, carrying the smallest and the injured among you when they are tired. You don't make it out of the city before the Harrowmen come.

If you go alone (like Timothy did), you know you'll never come back. But there are a dozen of you in the cellar: maybe all together you'll have a chance. The others are afraid, but they follow you. They trust you. You find the Harrowmen outside the city. You can't look at them. You can't look at their faces. You stand still and silent, trembling, eyes clamped shut as they come nearer. The other children are screaming all around you. There's nothing you can do when the Harrowmen come.

In your shared stash of treasures is a big curved piece of glass with sharp, sharp edges, wrapped in cloth at one end for a handle: the closest thing to a knife you have. You take it with you, and go to face the Harrowmen. They are outside the city when you find them. You shut your eyes tight and wait for them to come. When you hear their footsteps all around you, when you can feel their sweet-sick breath against your ear, you strike. They do not scream. They do not cry. But they bleed, and they fall. You'll be ready next time the Harrowmen come.

Timothy went to face them alone, taking nothing with him. You'll do the same. You find the Harrowmen outside the city. You stand still and silent, eyes clamped shut. You'll give up your life so the others can live. Their footsteps sound all around you, closer, closer. Their whiffing breaths are sweet-sick in your ear. Their nails scrape across your throat. There is no hope when the Harrowmen come.

You don't know when they'll come, how much time you'll have to search. Better, safer, to stay here. You cower into the corners to wait, and hope the Harrowmen will pass you by. There is a scratching on the door. A sniffing breath. A loose rock shifting through the rubble. The Harrowmen come.

The cellar is enough to keep you safe from other children and wild dogs, but it has never been enough to protect you from the Harrowmen. (That was why Timothy went.) It will take some time to search the wreckage of the city for a better place to hide. You don't know how much time you have. * [[Go alone]] * [[Go together]]

You haven't got much time, and you can't cover much ground alone. Where will you search? * [[Sewers]] * [[Cathedral]]

You spread out to cover more ground. Soon, soon, Lilah finds a place: a way down into the sewers, deep down, where the Harrowmen won't reach. The sewers aren't safe, not for long, but you only need to stay until they're gone. Safe underground, you don't even hear them pass by. You know what to do, now, next time the Harrowmen come.

You don't like the sewers. They smell like ancient sick, and they're full of rats, and sometimes the tunnels collapse without warning. But you won't have to stay there long: just until the Harrowmen pass by. Still, it takes a long time to find a safe entrance and comb through the tunnels that are still stable, to find a place deeper than the Harrowmen will go. A longer time than you think you have. * [[Go back for the others]] * [[Stay]]

The cathedral is all broken architecture and shards of stained glass. There's a cellar, a crypt, down far enough that maybe the Harrowmen won't come. But it takes you a long time to find it, and it's a long way back to where the others are waiting. * [[Go back for the others]] * [[Stay]]

You run back, but not fast enough, not soon enough. You're still aboveground when the Harrowmen come.

The others will die. You can't save them. You can't, anymore. But you can save yourself. You try not to think of the hope in their eyes, the trust. You try not to think of them dying. You are safe underground when the Harrowmen come.