Chapter Thirty Five
“It is strange to see just how close Ava had gotten with her research. With perhaps little more than a few adjustments in specific carbon chains, HBRS would have been ready for human trials. Just a few atoms moved around is all that stood between the death of mankind and its salvation.”
–Mother, “Notes on HBRS-15.21”. 6 Years After.
* * *
Was this how it ended?
Liam watched the streets of Pandemonium with apprehension. So many hollows had gathered just beyond the Styx, and those residents inside were either bowing out of the way of the Beholders, or had been converted into their ranks. Crosses arose where vendors once conducted business, and a grim silence sat in place of the usual cacophony. Even devoid of the neon lights did not make this place any more humble.
It only became lifeless.
He clutched his daughter tight as she clung onto Hungry. So long as they were reunited with Evelyn, their family would be made whole.
Nothing else mattered. Not to Liam. Whether the Beholders sought to build some glorious kingdom or burn the bloody place down, he could care less. He’d lost one family before. Well over a decade had been spent agonizing over their absence. He had even traversed the better part of the Pacific Ocean to see them yet again, followed by an ever-more arduous land journey. In the end, that did not make the slightest bit of difference. His family had vanished when the Hollowing began, and nothing could be done to undo that loss.
But this one still had a chance. If Liam learned anything from his time with Ezekiel, it was that if he was willing to set aside his differences and reconcile, Evelyn would never be lost forever. They were creatures of love and compassion, after all, and if they had any purpose in this world, it was to give it to each other.
What was God’s love when compared to that?
The truck drove into the parking lot of Elysium, with a group of Inquisitors keeping watch. They got out of the car and went up the stairs.
Candles lit the walls, Beholders bowed out of the way, and their footsteps echoed against the linoleum floor, but Liam could not help but feel the hairs rising on the back of his neck. Oh, how he wished that Ezekiel was with him right now. He might have had assurances aplenty, but without his mate’s presence, how strongly could he trust them?
But then they entered another chamber and forgot all else.
Evelyn was there. Clothed in the white cloaks of the Beholders and with heavy bags below her eyes. But she was there. Still alive and moving.
Her jaw dropped. “Liam?”
“Evelyn, my love…” He set Leah on a nearby bed and rushed over. The two wrapped each other in their arms. “I missed you so much.”
Her voice cracked, somewhere between a chuckle and a sob. “Same. I was starting to think you weren’t coming back. What took so long?”
He kissed her cheek. “Ah, a bit of a flat tire situation on the road. Nothing a little hike couldn’t fix. Our daughter got quite the tan too.”
“Right. Let’s get her back to Mommy.” She shifted in place, then stiffened. “What are you doing!?”
Liam looked over his shoulder, only to realize that one of the Beholder maids had entered the chamber and moved for Leah. By the time he realized what she was up to, she’d already grabbed their daughter and made for the exit, leaving Hungry behind. Leah cried out as the two scrambled to their feet, but the door shut with a slam before they drew close.
“Oy!” Liam shouted. “Hand her back, right this instance!” He inched back and forth, trying to see beyond the small, plastic visor indented in the door’s body.
Evelyn pounded the wall beside. “Dammit! This wasn’t what you promised!”
He froze. “What do you mean, what they promised?”
She kept pounding. “I know you’re out there, Abraham. You give us back our daughter, or I swear to God, the next time I get out of here, I’m purging you on the spot. Even if I do it with my bare hands!”
Another stepped in front of the plastic visor. This was the man whom Ezekiel bowed down to, and looked different than the rest of the Beholders, with a priest’s collar above a black dress shirt and trousers. He smiled wide, his violet eyes bold and bright.
Evelyn shoved Liam aside. “You promised, Abraham. You looked me in the eyes and said that all I had to do was behave, and you’d let me see her.”
“And you have,” he said, his grin unwavering.
“Bring her back!”
“But there is so much work to be done.”
Liam pressed back. “Listen, mate. I don’t know who you think you are, but we have a right to see our daughter.”
His eyes flicked his way. “Blessed Father, I understand that this must be difficult to understand for an atheist like you, but we all have our roles to play now that the end has come.”
“Yeah? Well, from what your friend assured me, you lot cared for our well-being above all else. I won’t be well until my daughter is back in my arms, so you’d better do the right thing or else Ezekiel will put a stop to this.” He squinted. “In fact, I’d like to speak with him and let him know how difficult you’re being to God’s Chosen family!”
Abraham merely watched back. “Brother Ezekiel has been struck down by God’s wrath.”
Liam recoiled a foot. “He what?” They’d just been together less than twenty minutes ago…
“Ezekiel did not speak on behalf of the Lord. He is the source of the evils that befell your departure, and whatever words he said to you were no doubt poisoned by Satan.”
“He saved my life!”
“Did he now? Or perhaps the Devil has obscured your vision as well, Blessed Father. Do not forget that evil led you both astray before. Even when we came to your bunker with open arms, you brought harm to many in my congregation.”
Evelyn grit her teeth. “I’m so fucking sick of your bullshit, Abraham! Stop hiding behind God. You’ve always been in this for nothing more than to control everyone else.”
“Is that your sincere belief?” he asked, suddenly offended. “After all our conversations on scripture, have you come to doubt my faith as well?”
“I’m not falling for any more of your lies.”
He shook his head with a frown. “Then I suppose the only comfort to give you is the truth as it occurred. Whether you’ll believe it is your own choice…”
* * *
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t interrupt, Blessed Mother and Father. I know, I know. Long stories can be trying, especially during these stressful times, but just hear me out before you go back to your hollering and cussing…
“I was reborn into this world like so many others at the start of the Beholding. I watched as civility gave way to barbarity, where men cut down children just to see their lives extend another day more. It truly was Revelations’ beginning. You know this, Blessed Mother. You were there.
“And it is here where I must confess my own Sin. For when God inflicted this curse unto me, I was not above it. Not at first. Oh, yes. I killed, I maimed, I fed. Such was as natural to me as breathing.
“But one day, I took shelter in a place that would forever change my life. A small, unimposing church on the side of some abandoned highway, with nothing more than a copy of the Bible left behind. I could hardly string together a few words at the time, let alone understand even a fraction of the Lord’s wisdom, but somehow, some way, I found myself reading ever deeper into these sacred texts. It became so much that I’d realized many days had come and gone, yet I hadn’t had a bite to eat. Ain’t that something special?
“Oh, sure, I still went out every so often, but that hunger for flesh became less and less. I knew that in time, I could extinguish it altogether. I even managed to convince a small group of others afflicted with my curse to join in this cause of self-discovery through faith.
“Plenty of evil still existed beyond the walls of that church however, so I took this little congregation of mine and went to a place where no harm would come to us. A quiet little bayou in the heart of Louisiana. It wasn’t just us, either. We brought some cows to milk so that our throats might be quenched without death inflicted.
“What beautiful days those were. Finally, I had the chance to delve deeper into the Lord’s words without interruption. I became smarter. Wiser, even. I unearthed so many truths just by reading into those beautiful words, and I realized how much evil thoughts had been weighing me down. The others looked up to me, and I began to understand what it meant to be a father. Not in the same way as you, mind you. But in my own.
“Sin is not to be taken lightly, sadly. Though we thought we could rid ourselves of it just by immersing ourselves in the Lord’s Word, it still found its way to slip through. Some began to question why we’d even do such a thing. ‘Our minds are still slipping, Abraham,’ they’d say. ‘What use is this Lord to us!?’ And with these doubts, more Sin came. It wasn’t long before we were at risk of collapse altogether.
“That was when a second miracle came to us. By chance, one of our less faithful members tried to leave our family, only to get trapped under a falling tree in the swamp. The poor soul had been stuck underwater for hours, and the Devil had claimed most of his mind.
“But I refused to see that as his end. I gathered every member of our family together and I pastored as I’d never done before: ‘Begone, Satan!’ I screamed. ‘This here is a child of the Lord! He is not your puppet to control! Begone!’ For hours, we repeated those words and read scripture to help drive this evil out.
“And you know what happened, Blessed Mother and Father? Not only did that man find his way back to the Lord, but his faith became far purer than us all.
“And so I learned my path. Not just as a father, but as a shepherd too. A child under the Lord, whose sole purpose was to guide our dying world back to the love of God. No one should ever be left alone.
“Month by month, year after year, my congregation grew. With each new member, another piece fell into place, and our love flourished as one. Not just for the power of the Lord, but for those within our community. We became stronger, and we learned to lean on each other for support.
“Heh. We are far too flawed of creatures for this gift. There is no greater proof than the endless derivations and versions that man had created about God’s word over the millennium, and this too began to form divisions in our camp. So what was a simple pastor to do but carve out his own scripture, with my observations and love of God for a guide? Thus became the formation of the Holy Word. Humanity’s best attempt to understand the Beholding and that which came before.
“And it is here where I make another confession, for though I project myself as a learned man of God, I have never known full enlightenment like the prophets of old. I’ve only gotten as close as I could, as all men strive to do. No matter how close I came or how many rules I instilled, I could never escape Sin for good. Such is the nature of this curse.
“Thus, I clung to the idea that we didn’t have to defeat Sin. That wasn’t our job. We just had to outlast it. Stick to the faith, follow our rules, keep our heads down. If only we did as our Lord commanded, He would one day descend from the heavens in His purest form to finish what He had started. I believed this year after year, even when the proof was nowhere to be seen. It was all that kept me going.
“And then one day, just like that, it happened.
“Someone came to our camp… A heretic, mind you. He proclaimed that there was one still out there free from Sin. A man by the name of Liam Fenix. He knew the location by heart.
“It was as if a fog had been removed from my vision for the first time in years. We were here to behold God’s power, you see. Not merely witness it. To behold is to become beholden, and there is a debt that must be repaid. Just as the Lord had returned our minds to us, so must we return unto He. I dispatched some Friars to all corners of the Earth just to recruit others to our cause.
“Oh, you both were tough ones to reach. Even with such precise guidance, it took us months to make the pilgrimage over from our quaint bayou to that mountain of yours, and we lost so many of our congregation along the way. I even assumed you would treat our arrival with open arms, but you both responded to our honorable intentions with malice. This threw many into despair, but I never doubted for a second that we would find ourselves reunited. So I picked up the trail where we left off and journeyed west, following little more than dust tracks in the road.
“Yet again, I was right to keep the faith. Though we knew nothing of substance and had no leads to follow, we were rewarded in the end. Why? Because you reached out to us, Evelyn. You approached Brother Nathaniel, and through him, we had another direction to take. One more daunting to be certain, but there was that tiny sliver of hope to grasp onto, and that’s all the Lord has ever needed to reach my heart…
“And yours as well, Evelyn.
“I really have you to thank for this, Blessed Mother. Not only did you lead us to our Chosen One, but you made me see my own blindness for what it was. After so many years of never being challenged over my beliefs in the Lord, I thought there could be no other way. But you didn’t treat me as some messiah beyond reproach. Why, you face my hubris head-on! It wasn’t enough that you and I had faith to prove the convictions that I’d come to see. I needed hard evidence of God’s power to show you His way. I needed results.
“I told you once before that all of us are willing to believe. The question has never been if we’ll do it, but where it’ll go. Will they cling to the words of the past, or will they accept a future still to come? You wanted miracles, Blessed Mother? I made sure that you beheld them as I had.
“I followed the wisdom of the Lord to the end, and through His power, they came. The unbeatable Whore of Babylon was defeated, the heretics surrendered, and faith flourished like never before. Why, we have even shepherded just about every sinner on this half of the Mississippi beyond these walls, ready to witness this final end with us.
“And through this challenge, the end is nigh. The Chosen One has returned to us, just as God hath ordained.
“Isn’t this just an incredible sense? The Lord’s Holy Word is no longer mere text trapped on a page, but something manifesting in front of our eyes. Only a few more steps remain to see God’s power fully realized!
“And all of this… Every last ounce of transition I’ve brought to this unholy land, I’d like to thank you for, Blessed Mother. You opened your heart to my congregation, you cleared the fog from my vision, and through this covenant, I have come to see just how much power God has given me. I can now do the Lord’s work and finish what the Beholding ushered in, all those years ago.
“I cannot thank you enough for this gift, Blessed Mother…”
* * *
The pair stood in place, Abraham’s words still ringing out. Liam watched Evelyn from the corner of his vision, and though part of him wanted nothing more than to scold her for her role in this mess, he could not bring himself to do so, even internally.
“So that is why I must do what comes next,” Abraham finished. “Not for control, or power, or whatever nonsense you’ve come to believe, but because this world has been fractured without His love, and it is my duty to bring us all back together, united under one God. That is His will.”
“And how do you plan to do that?” Liam dared to ask.
He smiled. “‘And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out vials of the wrath of God upon His vessel.’”
Liam watched on in confusion, but Evelyn suddenly quaked. “You can’t!”
“I don’t understand,” Liam said.
The tears were in her eyes. “He thinks that by pouring bowls infected with HBRS into Leah, her healthy body will purify the world.” Her pupils quivered as the conclusion took root. “He’s going to hollow her.”
His heart skipped a beat, and Liam pounded the door anew. “Let us out, you bloody psychopath! You don’t know what you’re doing!”
“Still, you doubt His greatness. You shall see, Evelyn. You both shall watch when the skies split apart and the kingdom of Heaven is reborn, how everything came together to reach this end.” He laughed, fists clenched and eyes lost in delirium. “We will behold this new age together!”
On that thought, Abraham marched off, Beholders at his flank.
Liam wiped the sweat from his brow and rushed around the room. There had to be some way out of this prison. Some direction for them to take. They couldn’t leave their daughter in the hands of that madman!
But Evelyn continued to stand in place.
“This is all my fault,” she said, shivering. “If I hadn’t been so fucking careless, we wouldn’t be in this mess. She wouldn’t have her life at risk. All I’d had to do was stay put and be quiet!”
Liam grimaced. In truth, he had his own share of the blame for driving her away, leaving a void for someone like Abraham to fill behind.
He hugged her. “It’s okay, love. We’ll get her back. Maybe you know a way out?”
She blinked, tears running down her cheeks. “A way out?”
“You’ve been here for a while, yeah? I’m sure you’ve got a trick up your sleeve, just like you always do.” He smiled. “You’ve always been better at this than me. Don’t let anyone let you think otherwise. You’re Evelyn Jones, the woman who always has a plan.”
“The plan,” she repeated. The fire grew again in her eyes. “Shit, that’s right. I got so wrapped up in seeing Leah again that I forgot–” She ran to a corner, shoved a desk aside, and started ripping planks of wood away. “Help me, Liam. There isn’t much time.”
He complied, pulling the parts free. Within moments, a hole large enough for them to squeeze through had formed. She squirmed through. Liam followed.
“You knew this was here?” he asked, squinting through the dust in the air.
She scrambled forth. “It was supposed to be here for the three of us… Fuck! I should’ve grabbed her when we had the chance! Now, where’s she going to get brought? Somewhere else in Elysium? Maybe back to the Styx? There was talk of them setting up a new camp. How far away was that church you came from?”
“Slow down, Evelyn! I can hardly keep up as is.”
“You don’t get it, Liam. We have to get to her before the shooting starts. I’m not letting our daughter get gunned down in the crossfire.”
Again, his chest tightened. Out of the bloody kettle and straight to the fire! “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that you weren’t captured by them? That this was all part of a plan?”
Evelyn dove through an opening and yanked him next. They were in a storage closet, with boxes scattered about. She dug through one and pulled out her Sig Sauer, then handed another over to him.
“Just trust me,” Evelyn said before kicking open the door. “The Beholders are about to feel a world of hurt. Our job is just to get our daughter and get out of here before this whole place is torn down.”
They rushed down the hall, guns in hand.
“At least tell me whose plan this is.”
A gunshot rang as they rounded a bend. Liam glanced out a nearby window and had his question answered.
An army of rezzers had formed on the outer rim of this complex, all in different outfits. Some of them dressed as workers, others wearing the nicer garbs common from the merchants of Asphodel, more as the Styx’s soldiers, and plenty of Hunters in the mix, with their own elaborate wardrobes to match. It was as if the entirety of Pandemonium had organized together, all armed and ready to fight.
And at the center of the mass, one stood apart from the rest, limping forth. A hand rested on a cane for support while the other gripped a rifle that still smoked from the warning shot it had given. A sheepskin jacket glistened above a pair of faded jeans, and a burgundy scarf trailed behind.
Liam beamed. Defied the odds again, did you?
Leah casually swapped the cane for a megaphone. “Attention, Beholders in Elysium!” she shouted, her deep voice booming. “From what I hear, your messiah’s whole shtick is that he got killed by his enemies, only to be reborn! Well, I’m still standing after what your lord tried, so what the fuck does that say about me!?”
The crowd roared.
“Only going to say this once, assholes!” she continued. “You’ve invaded our home, you’ve brainwashed our friends, and now you’ve kidnapped the last living humans on this earth, all over some bullshit prophecy! We’re coming in there to take what’s ours, and anyone in the way is getting purged. No discussion, no negotiations. This is Lady Leah, the Head Huntress and Whore of Babylon, over-and-fucking-out!”
She pointed forth, and the rezzers charged.
