Isaac Asimov - Nightfall (novel)

Even so, he knew he couldn’t take much more. His lip was cut and one eye was starting to swell, and he was getting short of breath. One more good punch could send him down. He held one arm in front of his face and struck with the other, while continuing to back toward the shelter of the rock wall. He kicked someone. There was a howl and a curse. Someone else kicked back. Theremon took it on his thigh and swung around, hissing in pain.

He swayed. He struggled desperately for air. It was hard to see, hard to tell what was going on. They were all around him now, fists flailing at him from all sides. He wasn’t going to reach the wall. He wasn’t going to stay on his feet much longer. He was going to fall, and they were going to trample him, and he was going to die—

Going—to—die—

Then he became aware of confusion within the confusion: the shouts of different voices, new people mingling in the melee, a host of figures everywhere. Fine, he thought. Another bunch of crazies joining the fun. But maybe I can slip away somehow while all this is going on—

“In the name of the Fire Patrol, stop!” a woman’s voice called, clear, loud, commanding. “That’s an order! Stop, all of you! Get away from him! Now!”

Theremon blinked and rubbed his forehead. He looked around, bleary-eyed.

There were four newcomers in the clearing. They seemed fresh and crisp, and were wearing clean clothes. Flowing green neckerchiefs were tied about their throats. They were carrying needle-guns.

The woman—she appeared to be in charge—made a quick imperative gesture with the weapon she held, and the five men who had attacked Theremon moved away from him and went obediently to stand in front of her. She glowered sternly at them.

Theremon stared in disbelief.

“What’s all this about?” she asked the leader of the five in a steely tone.

“He was starting a fire—trying to—he was going to roast an animal, but we came along—”

“All right. I see no fire here. The laws have been maintained. Clear off.”

The man nodded. He reached down to take the graben.

“Hey! That belongs to me,” Theremon said hoarsely.

“No,” the other said. “You have to lose it. We fined you for breaking the fire laws.”

“I’ll decide the punishment,” the woman said. “Leave the animal and clear off! Clear off!”

“But—”

“Clear off, or I’ll have you up on charges before Altinol. Get! Get!”

The five men went slinking away. Theremon continued to stare.

The woman wearing the green neckerchief came toward him.

“I guess I was just in time, wasn’t I, Theremon?”

“Siferra,” he said in amazement. “Siferra!”

He was hurting in a hundred places. He wasn’t at all sure how intact his bones were. One of his eyes was practically swollen shut. But he suspected he was going to survive. He sat leaning against the rock wall, waiting for the haze of pain to diminish a little.

Siferra said, “We’ve got a little Jonglor brandy back at our headquarters. I can authorize you to have some, I guess. For medicinal purposes, of course.”

“Brandy? Headquarters? What headquarters? What is this all about, Siferra? Are you really here at all?”

“You think I’m a hallucination?” She laughed and dug her fingertips lightly into his forearm. “Is that a hallucination, would you say?”

He winced. “Careful. I’m pretty tender there. And everywhere else, right now.—You just dropped right down out of the sky, is that it?”

“I was on Patrol duty, passing through the forest, and we heard the sounds of a scuffle. So we came to investigate. I had no idea you were mixed up in it until I saw you. We’re trying to restore order around here somehow.”

“ We? ”

“The Fire Patrol. It’s as close as there is to a new local government. The headquarters is at the university Sanctuary, and a man named Altinol who used to be some sort of company executive is in charge. I’m one of his officers. It’s a vigilante group, really, which has managed to put across the notion that the use of fire must be controlled, and that only members of the Fire Patrol have the privilege of—”

Theremon raised his hand. “Hold on, Siferra. Slow down, will you? The university people in the Sanctuary have formed a vigilante group, you say? They’re going around putting out fires? How can that be? Sheerin told me that they had all cleared out, that they had gone south to some sort of rendezvous at Amgando National Park.”

“Sheerin? Is he here?”

“He was. He’s on his way to Amgando now. I—decided to stick around here a little while longer.” It seemed impossible to tell her that he had stuck around on the unlikely chance that he would manage to find her.

Siferra nodded. “What Sheerin told you was true. All the university people left the Sanctuary the day after the eclipse. I suppose they’re off in Amgando by now—I haven’t heard anything about them. They left the Sanctuary wide open, and Altinol and his bunch wandered in and took possession of it. The Fire Patrol has fifteen, twenty members, all of them in pretty good shape, mentally. They’ve been able to establish their authority over about half the area of the forest, and some of the surrounding territory of the city where people are still living.”

“And you?” Theremon asked. “How did you get involved with them?”

“I went into the forest first, once the Stars were gone. But it looked pretty dangerous here, so when I remembered about the Sanctuary, I headed there. Altinol and his people were already there. They invited me to join the Patrol.” Siferra smiled in what might have been a rueful way. “They didn’t really offer me much of a choice,” she said. “They aren’t particularly gentle sorts.”

“These aren’t gentle times.”

“No. So I decided, better off with them than drifting around on my own. They gave me this green neckerchief—everybody around here respects it. And this needle-gun. People respect that too.”

“So you’re a vigilante,” Theremon said, musing. “Somehow I never figured you for that kind of thing.”

“I never did either.”

“But you believe that this Altinol and his Fire Patrol are righteous folk who are helping to restore law and order, is that it?”

She smiled again, and again it was not an expression of mirth.

“Righteous folk? They think they are, yes.”

“You don’t?”

A shrug. “They’re out for themselves first, and no kidding about that. There’s a power vacuum here and they mean to fill it. But I suppose they’re not the worst possible people to try to impose a governmental structure right now. They’re easier to take than some of the outfits I can think of, at least.”

“You mean the Apostles? Are they trying to form a government too?”

“Very likely they are. But I haven’t heard anything about them since it all happened. Altinol thinks that they’re still hidden away underground somewhere, or that Mondior has led them off to some place far out in the country where they’ll set up their own kingdom. But we’ve got a couple of new fanatic groups that are real lulus, Theremon. You just had a run-in with one of them, and it’s only by wild luck that they didn’t finish you off. They believe that the only salvation for humanity now is to give up the use of fire completely, since fire has been the ruin of the world. So they’re going around destroying fire-making equipment wherever they can find it, and killing anyone who seems to enjoy starting fires.”

“I was simply trying to cook some dinner for myself,” said Theremon somberly.

Siferra said, “It’s all the same to them whether you’re cooking a meal or amusing yourself with a little bit of arson. Fire is fire, and they abhor it. Lucky thing for you that we came along in time. They accept the authority of the Fire Patrol. We’re the elite, you understand, the only ones whose use of fire will be tolerated.”