Chapter 3: Then I'll Speak of Champions

Official Synopsis
Elsewhere on the Peninsula, Investigating Officer Hayward checks out a tip regarding a nearly-derelict farm, and a set of curious deaths that may be linked to religious activity.

Description
This chapter introduces the character of Hayward, described in the transcript as 'our antagonist, although he doesn't know it yet.'

That said, it opens on Sid Wright's radio show, starting our day right. He says that he will continue the broadcast as long as he is able, and that the station has his successor lined up, and the the Daily Grind will not cease.

Inside The Car
The radio fades out to Hayward, a police officer, driving, who tannoy calls Felix, his dispatch. They banter, and Felix offers Hayward a hosanna to the Cloak, which he refuses. Hayward is given the address of 41 Silk Wood Drive, and is told to consider a coffee (presumably it is early morning), and to not forget his gun 'this time'.

Then Hayward gives an aside. He say that the wider societal problem is that country people take their gods too seriously. He gives the example of a case he had years ago, at a farm outside the Giant's Rest. A boy, about 6 or 7 years old, had spoke to thunder that passed in the night, inviting it in and clapping in time with it. He had arrived to a destroyed house, both the boy's parents dead, and the boy himself deafened and traumatised.

Hayward says he's more insincere in his dealings with the gods, giving the example of his prayer to the Saint Electric over the coffee machine in the morning. Then he says that 'if it's sacrifice they need, any civilised society is willing to make concessions.' Which is then followed up with the statement that for every new tower built in Glottage, for every development constructed in the Slag King's name, two condemned criminals are tossed before cheering crowds and buried alive in cement. And that they all understand that this is necessary.

He then describes the outside of 41 Silk Wood Drive as he pulls in at the track, glimpsing the inhabitant, Mr. Finch, at the window, who draws the curtain and does not come out. Anticipating trouble, he requests a hosanna of determination from Felix over the tannoy. Having recieved the prayer to the Cloak, Hayward leaves the car, but doubles back after he realises he left his gun.

At the Farm
In aside, Hayward then explains the origins of the Cloak, that it was a god constructed by the Greater Glottage Police Officer's Union, akin to the god of the military's 'The Kind-Eyed Colonel With The Bushy Moustache'. He then explains that the Cloak, in addition to providing unshakeable righteousness to the officers, was used by the brass to justify cuts to the police force.

He then reaches the door, and has a tense conversation with Mr. Finch, who is deliberately obtuse- forcing Hayward to go over the case, four missing ramblers, with one found three months ago on the road, dead, emaciated, having begun to eat his own hands. In response, the police visited every farm within six miles, Mr. Finch response that the officer that visited him was young and didn't know what he was doing. Hayward then says that last week they recieved an anonymous tip. Hayward then attempts to goad Mr. Finch, speaking of the indignity of prostrating yourself before a cereal mascot, Sweet Jolly Crunchtooth. Mr. Finch replies that they do as they're told, and that the only other god on the farm is his husbands mural to the Flush Divine in the lavatory. Hayward then asks to see the fields.

Walking over the fields, Hayward gives an aside into the corporate construction of Sweet Jolly Crunchtooth, to replace and monetise the diverse harvest worship- it is implied this occured decades ago. He mentions resistance to it, giving sacrifice to Old Jack Of The Thousand Ears as an example. He says that there are not the signs of worship to those gods here, which would typically provide better harvest, as the wheat rots and droops worse and worse the further in they go.

Mr. Finch speeds up, and Hayward realises there are no other signs of life, that the machinery looks disused. His stomach gurgles, and he spots a small outhouse- which Mr. Finch is hastily guiding him away from. Hayward calls for Mr. Finch to take him to it, and states if there is any victims of an illegal ritual killng he will be annoyed. Mr. Finch responds that he never killed anyone.

Inside The Outhouse
Hayward begins a narration as they enter the shed, and though the shed seems ordinary, he can feel the floorboards quake, and a steady churning which he assumes to be a machine. He asks Mr. Finch to go downstairs, and Mr. Finch goes first in before he can take stock. It's pitch black in the space below the outhouse, and the churning obscures all sound. Hayward is forced to decend afterwards, on the back foot. Mr Finch directs him to the light, Hayward feels stabbing hunger, and turning on the lights reveals that there is no machine.

The walls are made of chickenwire, and behind them, a mass of rabbits, hundreds or thousands strong, knawing at both the wire and each other, emaciated. He turns and Mr. Finch has a shotgun pointed at him. He threatens to introduce Hayward to the god in the fields, says that the first copper didn't reach this far out in the fields. Hayward figures he doesn't have much of a chance of getting to Mr. Finch without getting shot, and so sits in the dirt. In amongst tense negotiation he asks to be told about the god in the fields.

Mr. Finch says the deaths were an accident. Hayward asks about the rabbits, looking to keep Mr. Finch talking. He explains that the rabbits are the only thing that breeds quickly enough, that he feeds them twice a day. He says that they can just wait as the god eats them both. Hayward realises that its a god of hunger. He asks for the name, and Mr. Finch says that Harold called it the Hollow.

They had a barren spot where nothing grew. They would joke, throwing seed and saying 'grow, barren soil, empty earth, grow.' The barren earth grew, expanding, killing wheat, sinking earth, with the hunger it caused making it unapproachable over the course of months. They saw a flock of birds cross it in the sky, and starve in an instant, dropping dead to the ground. It caused perception to warp as you approached it. Harold blamed not signing the premium contract with Sweet Jolly Crunchtooth, and also came up with the idea of using rabbits to achieve equilibrium, to slow the Hollow's growth.

He then, at Hayward's prompting, explains the ramblers, who had climbed over the barbed wire to take the footpath, which took them right through the Hollow. He and his husband couldn't reach them, though they could hear their cries. That they didn't know about the rambler that had managed to get out, only to die on the road. But, after the incident, the Hollow receded, only by a couple feet.

Mr. Finch had wanted to consider removing the barbed wire, to reopen the footpath. Harold was ashamed of his husband, that despite building the farm over 30 years, his husband left in the night, on foot. He doesn't know if his husband left into the hills, or walked into the Hollow.

At Hayward's condolences, Mr. Finch rebukes him, compares him to a sweet-talking farmhand who stole each morning, and even apologised after getting caught. That if he lowered his gun he'd be taken to the jailhouse in Ees to be tried for manslaughter. Hayward promises to be nice about it. Mr Finch respons 'Rather it than you.'.

Hayward then narrates as Mr. Finch clubs him in the side of the head, and down on his foot, before tossing the shotgun and leaving. Mr. Finch leaves the hatch open as he goes, thus preventing Hayward from dying in the basement. Hayward takes it as evidence he wanted to be saved.

Final Scenes
Hayward continues to narrate as he chases Mr. Finch out to the fields, as the wheat gradually dies down to nothing. They come to a circle of dead earth, with a great crater in the center. Hayward attempts to threaten to accuse Mr. Finch of murder, before collapsing in hunger. He narrates as Mr. Finch continues to walk towards the center, muscle, flesh and skin shedding away. Mr. Finch, now almost skeletal, topples into the chasm. The hunger recedes, and the chasm vanishes, revealing a simple dent in the earth, with tattered rucksacks on the other side. On the way back he comes upon a dormouse, shriveled, dead, with its own tail in its mouth. He breaks down.

We cut to inside the police car, Hayward narrates that the clean-up crew arrived before dusk, that they'll attempt to destroy the Hollow, and that failing, rabbits are cheap. He is hailed by Felix over the tannoy, who directs him upriver to Marcel's Crossing, with possible false-faith activity. Hayward refuses another hosanna, prefering to listen to the radio.