FFCDelta: Easter Everywhere by Jim Steel

Filed Under Fiction, FFCDelta

Servius looked up from his folding table and glared at the legionary who had just burst into his tent.  This, he thought, had better be good.

  He let the man catch his breath before asking, “Well?”

   “He’s back, Centurion!” puffed the legionary, red of cheek and swaying with exhaustion
.
   “Who is back?” asked Servius.

   “Him!  The one we crucified!”

   “We’ve crucified a lot of people,” said Servius, beginning to feel nervous.

   “You know the one of which I speak, sir.  He’s in the next valley talking with his followers.  They’re going to overthrow Rome.  Or take it over…”

   “Now, you know that’s impossible,” said Servius, getting to his feet.  “I saw his body on the cross, and he was quite clearly dead.  I believe that you did so too.”  The man’s followers had been loyal to a fault, but there is always one who is willing to betray a friend for a price.

   “I know… I can’t explain it, sir.  Perhaps if you come with me and look - it’s only a ten minute walk from here.”

   Servius stared at the man.  He was sure that he wasn’t lying.  The legionary was sweating with fear, and something had scared him more than the centurion could.  That in itself made the matter worth investigating. He picked up his sword and buckled it to his waist.

   “Come.  Show me.”

   They left the tent and walked out of the camp.  There was an animal track that led up in the right direction, so they took that and trudged up the hill in single file with the legionary in the lead.  Around them the dusty land with its dry plants sat, withered and hazy, beneath the indifferent weight of a clear blue sky.  Servius wondered, not for the first time, if he might just keep on walking until he reached the Mediterranean Sea.  It wasn’t too far from here.  Perhaps he could then catch a boat and sail back home to his father’s farm.  There was no madness there.

   The two of them crested the brow of the low hill, and the legionary raised his arm to point at the figures below.

   “Let us go nearer,” said Servius, “I cannot see them clearly from here.”

   They walked a bit further down the hill.  Servius’s body was already reacting to the sight before his mind accepted what he was seeing.  He felt light-headed and sick, and the strength fled his limbs.  The man below turned to look up at him with an expressionless face.  But the eyes – the eyes cut into Servius’s soul.

   “It’s him, isn’t it, sir?  He’s come back from the dead, hasn’t he?” asked the legionary.

   Everything that I have believed is a lie, thought Servius.  Our kind has no future.

   “Yes,” said Servius.  “That’s him.  That’s Spartacus.”

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Comments

2 Responses to “FFCDelta: Easter Everywhere by Jim Steel”

  1. Gregory Adams on February 2nd, 2008 7:28 am

    That’s right… this story fit both the topic of ‘Holiday’ and the topic of ‘Celebrity!’ We call that ’stunt writing’ and kids, don’t try it at home. Jim here is a trained professional.

    Oh, and I’m Spartacus.

    –G

  2. D.S. Knight on February 3rd, 2008 2:09 pm

    haha! Nice one! :)

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