Riddley Walker

The next day, Riddley feels an unease settling over the community. He heads to work in Widders Dump with his normal crew and they begin work on a new excavation site. They begin digging and quickly find children’s bodies “from time back way back” (57). Among the mud, Riddley finds a puppet like those used in the Eusa shows. However, this new puppet is more disfigured than the ones used in an Eusa show. Rather than show the puppet and its hunchback to anyone else, Riddley knocks down a colleague and then runs away through the rain. He runs until he comes face-to-face with the head dog of the Bernt Arse pack. The dog leads Riddley to the forbidden town of Bernt Arse.

In Bernt Arse, the dogs lead Riddley to a chamber where a child is imprisoned. The child is disfigured, with no eyes and only a “cut” (60) for a mouth. With the dogs’ help, Riddley and the child escape the guards. Riddley notices that the guards have been sent from the Ram; he takes their weapons and follows the dogs into the ruins of the town. The child introducers himself as Lissener and claims that he is the Ardship of Cambry. Lissener is one of the so-called Eusa folk, mysterious people who are descended from the scientists of the past and imprisoned by the Ram. They are tortured for the information they may or may not possess and their disfigurements may have been caused by radiation. Eusa, Lissener claims, was the first Ardship of Cambry, and he was tortured after the war for refusing to share his scientific knowledge with the survivors. Eusa wanted to be kept alive as an example of the dangers of science, but the survivors wanted to make another nuclear bomb. Eventually, they beat Eusa to death. When Inland was separated from the English mainland by rising water levels, the Ram worried that they might have made a mistake. They developed the Eusa shows to satisfy Eusa’s belief that he should be used as an example to others. Meanwhile, they imprisoned the Eusa folk in the abandoned towns. The people from the Ram rape the Eusa women and torture all the Eusa folk, unbeknownst to most people. Goodparley and the other officials have no idea how to extract Eusa’s knowledge from the prisoners, but they torture and kill constantly in the hope that one day they will ask the right questions. Riddley senses a connection between Lissener and the leader of the dog pack. Lissener wants to return to Cambry to reunite with the other Eusa folk. The dogs bring raw goat meat for Riddley and Lissener to eat.

Riddley and Lissener spend the day in their hiding place to make sure they are not being followed. When night falls, they follow the dog pack out of the abandoned town. Riddley knows that he cannot return home and fears that the Ram probably wants him, so he offers to accompany Lissener to Cambry. Just as they are about to depart, Riddley has a vision which shows him the route to take to avoid being caught.

As they walk, Riddley remembers a Eusa show from years earlier titled “The Bloak as Got on Top of Aunty” (69). In the show, a powerful matriarch named Aunty spreads plagues while riding around on a giant rat. According to superstitions, Aunty appears to sick people and sleeps with them. Anyone who sleeps with Aunty dies soon after. One man’s wife and child are killed by the plague. As the man runs away from a violent mob, he chases after Aunty and demands to sleep with her. She agrees and, because she is impressed with his attitude, the man is not doomed to die afterward. Later, the man boasts to another woman about sleeping with Aunty. The woman also sleeps with the man. After they have sex, she reveals herself to be Arga Warga, Aunty’s sister. Arga Warga eats the man. The story is made up and told to Riddley to explain the name of a nearby area, even though the place was named for something else entirely.

Riddley and Lissener pass by farms and other settlements. They travel along the old highways which have fallen into disrepair. As the light fades, Lissener and Riddley talk about dreams and visions. Lissener explains how the so-called “Puter Leat” (72), the term used to describe the computer-literate elite, had the wisdom and ability to run everything in the world. The discussion excites Lissener and Riddley has to cover Lissener’s mouth to keep them hidden. Lissener has a fit, groaning and writhing on the ground. Riddley caries him to a shelter in an abandoned building and they spend the night huddled together for warmth.

The next day, they pass through an empty town named Fork Stoan. Riddley begins to realize how little he knows about the Eusa folk and the Ram. They pass through an area Riddley knew as a child, but which is now off-limits. Riddley remembers playing in the fields as a child, before his community settled down in a fixed location. Lissener seems to know the way through the town and Riddley feels a powerful energy emanating from the ruins. Old, broken machines tower over them and Riddley is struck by a sudden confusion about his intentions. Though he was previously working against Goodparley, simply because he did not like the official’s character, he is uncertain what he means to achieve with Lissener. Staring at the machines, he wonders whether Goodparley is right to try and resurrect the destructive technology of the past. He also begins to appreciate his own listening skills, believing himself to possess a similar ability to hear the unheard as Lissener.

Riddley and Lissener come across an outpost manned by guards from the Ram. They sneak past with the help of the dogs and pass by the outpost until they reach the seafront. They spot a campfire on the beach, surrounded by guards. As they slowly sneak around the campfire, Riddley tries to listen to the men but Lissener drags him away. Lissener leads them to a hidden boat. Riddley loots what he can from the dead owner, including a bag of strange stones which fascinate Lissener. They scuttle the boat and then head overland to Cambry.