The God Who Walked
Compendium 2020 – Story 48
by Andrew Hawnt
Its voice was haunting, a melancholic howl like whale song that had been stretched. It called out across the moors, the sound passing over villages and small towns before ultimately passing over the city. Each step brought with it a shudder that could be felt in the solar plexus of anyone for miles around.
Cars and trucks lay overturned and crushed in the road. Smoke swirled into the sky from unseen damage over the next hill, and other than the sound of the behemoth itself, the only thing Kai could hear was the crunch of his boots against the tarmac.
The helicopters and drones that had circled the strange, mournful giant were long gone, either destroyed by the column of fiery plasma the beast could eject from the circular hole in its face or swatted away by its monstrous arms. Those arms looked like gigantic twisted tree roots, leading to its similarly textured torso. Its legs were taller than most buildings and continued to stride over the countryside.
Kai knew there were weapons trained on this location, including a suborbital weapon array that would annihilate the entire region if it had to. If the beast turned on the city, then the array would rain death upon the creature.
Always the city taking precedence, Kai mused. Never the town and villages. Ungrateful city bastards. The smaller places are the country's backbone.
His army pack was heavy, as was the rifle slung over his arm. They served no purpose against the towering creature that had emerged from the earth during a violent storm. Kai kept them with him anyway. He was still a soldier, even if he had disobeyed a direct order to not get any closer to the thing.
He had to go, though. He had to try and reason with the thing as nobody else had tried to.
“I want to talk to you,” he shouted up at the impossibly huge being. “Just me and you. Nobody's going to throw bombs at you or anything. Can you hear me?”
For a moment the giant moved on. Its next massive stride would put it close to the next town and way out of reach of Kai's voice. He had to act.
Kai pulled a flare from his pack, ignited it and tossed it onto the road before him. He watched in fear and anticipation as the giant slowly turned to look down at the burning light of the flare, then turned and took a step towards him, placing itself directly over him.
“My mum told me stories about things like you,” he said as it lowered a gigantic knee to peer closer at him. “Old things that lived before us, from another time when there were gods and magic. She said the gods never went away, just hid in the dark, and once in a while they would find themselves here on Earth again, but lost. I want to know... are you lost?”
The rumbling howl it had been emitting drew to a close, replaced by the deep bass of a new voice.
“I am,” it said in an approximation of a whisper, albeit a whisper that could have felled an Oak. “It is not time for me to be here yet, is it?”
Kai bit his lip and sighed. “I saw they had fired guns and rockets at you. They don't understand. Believe me, I've spent my adult life training as a soldier, and there isn't room in the minds of people right now for beings like you. Mum told me that the best place for the old ones would be the sea. Just until people are more willing to believe.”
The creature leaned closer, the hole in its enormous face regarding him with great interest. “Are you a wise man?”
Kai shook his head. “No, sir. I'm a bloke who wanted to say hello. I lost my mum a while back to cancer and I like to think she's out there with the old ones like you. Is that stupid?”
The giant slowly shook its head, its neck creaking like a bending forest. “Faith is not foolish in the minds of those who use it to guide them.”
Kai looked around himself, getting his bearings. He pointed. “The sea is East of here. Would you like a walk? I could use a friend.”
A massive hand was lowered and offered to Kai. He climbed into its palm and was lifted into the sky. He knew that within a few steps, the sea would be visible on the horizon.
“As could I,” came the thunderous voice.
Kai lifted his squad radio to his mouth and sent a message for a path to be cleared.
Together they watched the sunset paint the evening in deep shades of violet.
© Andrew Hawnt 2020
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About Compendium 2020:
Compendium 2020 is a project from author Andrew Hawnt that consists of 52 original short stories, flash fiction stories and vignettes given away for FREE in 2020. Featuring science fiction, fantasy, horror and more, this began as a personal quest and due to the weirdness of 2020 has become an ambition to provide free distractions for anyone who needs them.
About Andrew Hawnt:
Andrew is based in Nottingham, England. Known for his music journalism career, comics writing and film critique work, Andrew is a prolific writer and is the author of a growing stack of books, including the cult hit VHS Ate My Brain. He made the movies The Demon And I and The Demon And I: Birthrite completely in lockdown with cast members filming their scenes remotely, and new films are coming.
Andrew is also the creator and presenter of the YouTube shows Planet Hex, Turn One Shock and the VHS Ate My Brain series as well as the video versions of the Compendium stories.
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© Andrew Hawnt 2020
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