Firing the flare at the archer

Firing the flare at the archer is a pivotal action in which the man, wounded by an arrow, uses a flare gun he recovered from a derelict sailboat to defend himself and the boy against a hostile archer in a coastal town. The event transforms the flare gun from a signaling device into a weapon of last resort, and it deepens the boy's trauma while forcing the man to confront the limits of his own strength and the moral cost of survival.

Ambush and First Wound

As the man and the boy wheel their heavily loaded grocery cart through the back streets of a small port town, an arrow whistles past the man's head and clatters off the street. The man grabs the boy and falls on top of him, pulling the cart toward them; it tips over, spilling the tarp and blankets into the street. From an upper window of a house, the man sees a figure drawing a bow on them. He pushes the boy's head down and tries to cover him with his body. He hears the dull thwang of the bowstring and feels a sharp hot pain in his leg. "Oh you bastard," he says. "You bastard." The arrow has cut a gash just above his knee about three inches long, deep and bleeding heavily.

Return Fire with the Flare Gun

Clawing the blankets aside, the man lunges for the flare gun, cocks it, and rests his arm on the side of the cart. The boy clings to him. When the archer steps back into the window frame to draw the bow again, the man fires. The flare rockets up toward the window in a long white arc, and then they can hear the man screaming. The man grabs the boy, pushes him down, and drags blankets over him, telling him not to move or look. He pulls the blankets out into the street, searching for the case for the flare pistol. It finally slides out of the cart; he snatches it up, opens it, takes out the shells, reloads the pistol, and puts the rest of the loads in his pocket. He tells the boy to stay just as he is, pats him through the blankets, and rises, limping across the street.

Aftermath and Confrontation

Entering the house through the back door with the flare gun leveled at his waist, the man finds the house stripped to the wall studs. He steps through into the living room and stands at the stair landing, listening for movement in the upper rooms. He looks out the front window to where the cart lies in the street, then goes up the stairs. A woman is sitting in the corner holding the man; she has taken off her coat to cover him. As soon as she sees the man, she begins to curse him. The flare has burned out in the floor, leaving a patch of white ash and a faint smell of burnt wood. The man crosses the room and looks out the window. The woman's eyes follow him. She is scrawny, with lank gray hair. He asks who else is up here; she does not answer. He steps past her and goes through the rooms. His leg is bleeding badly; he can feel his trousers sticking to the skin. He goes back into the front room and asks where the bow is. She says she does not have it, does not know where it is. He turns and goes limping down the stairs, opens the front door, and goes out into the street backward, watching the house. When he gets to the cart, he pulls it upright and piles their things back in, telling the boy to stay close.

Consequences and Significance

The wound forces the man to later suture his own leg with a needle and silk thread from the first-aid kit, a procedure the boy watches in horror. The event marks the first time the man uses the flare gun as an offensive weapon rather than a signaling device, and it underscores the constant threat of violence in their world. The boy's trauma deepens; he becomes quieter and more withdrawn, and the man's physical decline accelerates. The flare gun, which the boy had wanted to shoot as a celebration, becomes a tool of survival in a world where there is no one to signal to.