Chapter Twenty Seven
“I know we’ve been losing a lot lately, Evelyn, but I don’t want you to forget this. God is real, and He loves you..”
–Marquise Jones, “Unnamed”. 2 Months After.
* * *
Jesus-fucking-Christ.
Evelyn’s eyes widened behind the binoculars as she watched the Beholder camp get buried. “What the hell was that!?”
Chantelle clutched the radio to her ears. “I don’t know! They’re saying that the whole cliff just collapsed out of nowhere!”
“Isn’t Leah still inside?”
“I don’t know!” she shrieked.
Evelyn lowered the binoculars. How could this have happened? The chance of landslide forming naturally was rare enough on its own. One striking at a time like this was nothing short of divine intervention.
And against the Beholders too… At least that proved beyond a doubt that Abraham had been spinning lies. He was as much a victim of this disaster as Leah.
Chantelle gasped. “Wait, there’s something else!”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone’s coming!”
“Where!?”
A trio of armored trucks barreled into view, heading straight for the entrance to the Styx, east of their position. Evelyn watched in horror as they opened fire on the walls, launching a flurry of armor-piercing rounds into the small batch of troops that’d stayed behind. Within moments of engaging, the Styx security was on the retreat.
Then the main force arrived. From the cover of a dwindling night, a sea of cloaked rezzers flowed out from the darkness of surrounding buildings, their ranks a mix of black, brown, and white. So much white! Like maggots wriggling over a corpse, they rushed across the open asphalt expanse of the Styx.
Impossible! How could the Beholders have gotten so close without anyone catching them!?
The trucks rolled to a stop, and a troupe of Inquisitors stepped into the open, all equipped with RPGs. Their volley went off in unison, and the steel-plated gate wheezed as so many explosions rocked its frame at once. Another second, it collapsed altogether.
The majority of the Beholders moved for the open gate, but others began thrusting grappling hooks against the Styx. A few landed nearby, their owners scrambling to move up the rope. The grapples shook under the added weight, and Evelyn yanked a few free. The Beholders hissed as they plummeted back down.
But she couldn’t go quickly enough. For each rope she removed, two more flew up to replace them.
Evelyn drew her M4. “We have to move, Chantelle.”
“And do what? The others are still miles away!”
“I don’t know. Something!”
The pair scrambled down the stairs while more Styx security rushed to reinforce the gaps. Automatic fire flew from both sides, and crossbow bolts whizzed overhead.
The discomfort in her chest was gone, replaced by adrenaline overflowing. Whatever could be said for her perpetual stomach virus, nothing compared to the chaos erupting throughout.
Evelyn reached the bottom and realized how much worse this attack had become. More Beholders stormed in from behind, making for the Styx, where they’d secure the entrance. What few guards that remained were pinned on both fronts.
A trio turned and came for Evelyn. Her brain lurched into attack mode as she removed the safety from her M4.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. When each set of shots hit their end, one of her attackers dropped, her rifle moving with instinctive precision from the heads of one to the next. Not that this stopped anyone. Her attackers moved without fear as she purged them, one after the next.
But no sooner were those Beholders dead that more turned their way. Evelyn jumped back into cover as crossbow bolts flew by. Chantelle screamed when one struck her shoulder, dropping the radio she’d been carrying. Evelyn yanked her behind the nearest wall. More bolts flew. Some of these guys were brandishing repeaters, pulling the hand crank up and down while their volleys moved at a speed of a semi-auto.
“Fuck!” she cursed. “There’s too many of them.”
Chantelle looked at her wounded shoulder and cringed. “What do we do?”
“Get back to Elysium. It’s the best place to defend!” She inched her head around the corner, only to see more enemies closing in. “Go first. I’ll cover you.”
Evelyn slipped her M4 to full auto and started laying into the Beholders. Chantelle used the opening to make her own escape, hobbling across the open streets with all her might. More bolts flew, but Evelyn was the better marksman and peppered their attackers before they could land a clean shot. Ichor burst free where she struck.
The Beholders moved into cover against her attack, and Evelyn used the chance to break free. Unlike them, she could move at peak human speed. Their return fire was unprepared for her agility and missed by miles. One got the bright idea of shooting a gun, but Evelyn had already escaped the block by then.
Only to see that the mayhem had surpassed the Styx. The humvees had already cleared the main gates by the time they’d rounded the bend, and more were coming. No shortage of guards was on the retreat, their own dark, worn cloaks and rotted skin a contradiction to the clean uniformity of their enemies. One humvee focused on the defectors and opened fire from its minigun turret. A cloud of bone and gore exploded from where the Pandemonium soldiers once stood.
Evelyn stumbled back as more of the crossfire fell her way, ducking behind a stone wall before it could land.
They weren’t far from Elysium. This area was where the bosses made their homes, so there was a myriad of obstacles to help give them cover. Evelyn yanked Chantelle from place to place as the two moved through tight alleys, out of sight.
And the Beholders continued their invasion without mercy. With the trucks clearing out all the heavy resistance, the remaining soldiers were uncoordinated and looking for an escape. What few who hadn’t been purged during the initial strike were just as shell-shocked as everyone else.
Then there were the citizens themselves. Workers and bosses alike ran every way they could. Those who could take refuge inside their homes did, with their armed guards laying shots against any who drew too close. Others tried to cling to the alleys and crevices, like Evelyn and Chantelle. Most were stuck out in the street, either because they had some handicap affecting their mobility, or because the Beholders got to them first. They were funneled into crowds and pushed onward.
Pandemonium was a city that thrived under chaos. With no legitimate police force, a decentralized government, and a financial system that drove the poorest to the brink on a constant basis, no one was surprised by how quickly violence blew up. Riots occurred like clockwork every couple of months, and plenty of power brokers attempted coups over the years. Evelyn had seen her fair share before leaving for Cheyenne. Sure, she’d been safe inside Mother’s Grace, but that insulation only went so far against the regular destruction that got levied.
This wasn’t that. What they were experiencing had never occurred before. Not another quarrel between residents, but a violent invasion of their home. Nobody broke through the Styx!
And with that veil of security shattered, the citizens of Pandemonium were ill-prepared to fight against the sheer power that an organized force could inflict. The workers continued to be on the run while the guards were finally experiencing what it felt like to be underdogs. Many tossed their weapons aside and surrendered before they could be purged. The Beholders took their arms with glee and marched them into the main crowd like every other shmuck.
“Maybe we should lay low?” Chantelle asked after ducking behind another trashcan. “It’s only a matter of time before Charon gets back.”
Evelyn shook her head. “No. He’ll be too slow at this rate.”
“There’s so many of them though.”
“Trust me, Chantelle, you don’t stay put at a time.”
She blinked. “How do you know?”
“Because I’ve lived through this before. We keep moving, or we die.”
Chantelle gulped and left her hiding spot.
Evelyn kept moving, her M4 shaking in hand. This wasn’t her first time being so powerless. She remembered a moment just like this one, back during the first days of the Hollowing.
Evelyn and her father had been living in Colorado Springs at the time. They had been spared the early outbreak anarchy in the Boston area, but once the government forced martial law and took down most social media sites, no one had concrete answers about where this shit would go. It didn’t help that political partisanship had been the flavor of the time, so an army of demonstrators took to the streets a couple weeks in, convinced that it was all a power play by the government to kill their freedom.
She’d never know how the hollows first got into Colorado Springs. Maybe it was a small CDC lab that got breached during the riots. Maybe some refugees brought them over. Maybe a single one contaminated the water table in a high-density neighborhood. It didn’t matter. Between the lawlessness and the mass migration, the Hollowing spread like wildfire in those Coloradan streets.
Z-Day, people came to later call it. The tipping point where the government lost all control of a dozen major cities. It became the sort of day that people spoke about in hushed whispers as they went from camp to camp, spreading the facts about the outbreak and how fast it was burning. Another tale to explain why the military no longer performed regular house checks while the truth of the undead could no longer be denied. Everyone loved to talk about that day once it happened.
But most survivors hadn’t lived it like Evelyn and her father.
She remembered Z-Day all too well. Remembered the feeling of her father’s hand clenched around hers as they ran down the street. She remembered soldiers gunning down civilians, only for them to get back up. Others merely eating each other, if not chunks of themselves. She remembered blood flowing everywhere, red and black both. Fire burned the ground, smoke was in the air, and everyone sprinted any way they could, searching for exits that were not there. Only a protracted chaos remained around each block. The world they’d known imploded around them, and no one could stop it.
Evelyn never thought she’d have this feeling a second time. Not until this moment.
The Beholders continued their onslaught, murdering any who resisted. If only the two of them could get a little further, they’d reach Elysium.
“There’s too many,” Chantelle whispered when they were close enough to see their target.
Evelyn studied the main street. The Beholders were marching everyone through, with their humvees driving nearby. The tsunami of .30 cal bullets made short work of any entrenchment along their route.
But nobody’s purging the civilians, Evelyn realized. They were all getting shepherded onward, right to the main plaza of Elysium itself.
“I have a plan,” Evelyn said. She pulled a damaged tarp from a nearby dumpster and wrapped it around herself, keeping the M4 out of sight.
“What are we doing?”
“Just follow my lead.”
The pair marched into the open street and immediately got absorbed by the crowd. Evelyn glanced over her shoulder, only to realize that Chantelle had been separated at once. She swallowed the lump in her throat and kept moving.
Little by little, the Beholders forced the workers forth. It wasn’t long before she found herself in striking distance of Elysium, though the doors had been already locked down.
Then she saw the general for this army, and her plans changed altogether.
One of the trucks doubled back, parking in the center of the crowd. Father Abraham left the passenger’s seat and strolled into the open, with a line of Inquisitors blocking the path. He hopped onto the hood of the humvee to give his stature more height. A morning sun cut through the open air, highlighting his tiny form in rays of light. His people were still shrouded in the dark, their weapons trained on the crowd.
Abraham didn’t have a weapon himself. He didn’t need one, either.
Still too far. Evelyn began to shift through the crowd, slowly closing in.
“Citizens of this treacherous city!” Abraham boomed. “Look to me and hear my words. Your leaders have led you astray and brought you all down a path of wicked damnation. They have poisoned not only your minds but also your very souls in the eyes of the Lord.”
Evelyn shoved another pair of workers out of the way, getting closer to her target.
“When we first arrived,” Abraham continued, “your Head Huntress made a solemn covenant with me. She promised we would forever remain friends and neighbors so long as we respected each other’s space. My congregation held up our end of the bargain! Even when we saw how much vile Sin this city lived under and how much you all were hurting yourselves, we turned the other cheek, like the good people of faith we are. We trusted that we could lead an example through love and acceptance.
“But what did we get for this honesty? How were we repaid for our kindness and peace?” His lips twitched in rage. “Betrayal! For a short time ago, the Head Huntress mobilized the armed forces of this city with the goal of wiping us all out. While she looked me in the eye and shook my hand, she kept her other wrapped around a knife behind her back. This act of treachery was nothing short of the work of the Devil that you all have grown accustomed to praising in these sinful streets.”
Just a little further. Then Evelyn would be in range.
“Thankfully, the Lord intervened against this evil, for while the Whore of Babylon and her army sought to drive a dagger in our backs, God punished her for her hubris. He smote our enemies where they stood while keeping the rest of us safe. That’s right! Your Head Huntress defied the Lord’s power, and he destroyed her for this Sin! A Sin that you all share for following in her heretical ways!”
Her heart stopped in her chest. Evelyn had known Leah was dead the moment she saw the landslide, but hearing the words out loud brought a certain finality she hadn’t expected. He’d even said this would happen. Leah had brought that threat up during the meeting before the raid. Could Abraham have really predicted a landslide would bring her down if she attacked?
Evelyn shook her head and kept moving. This could still end.
Father Abraham beamed, his violet eyes like molten amethyst. “But fear not, my sinful neighbors! For the path back to God is always there for those willing to take it, and we believe in redemption above all else. You all may consider yourselves part of our loving family now. No longer will we turn a blind eye against your Sin, nor will we allow you to destroy yourselves!
“Behold!” Abraham cheered. “The Lord will be mocked no longer. Behold! The path of the righteous has been laid for all willing to take it. Behold! In these hours of revelations, the power of goodness will prevail against all evil. Behold! God is great, and His will be done. Behold!”
“Behold!” the Beholders echoed. “Behold!”
Evelyn was almost there. Her finger wrapped around the trigger of her M4. One quick pop and this monster would be gone forever. Once and for all.
His eyes suddenly fell on her. Onto the respirator she always wore and the sunglasses above. He watched her with an unshakable fury.
“Behold,” he mouthed.
Evelyn raised her M4. Those nearby screamed and dove for cover as she took aim.
Father Abraham didn’t even flinch. “Did you not ask for proof, Evelyn!? Did you not wish to see God perform a miracle for yourself!? Look beyond these walls and gaze upon the evidence that He wrought for you! Do you still deny His power, even now!?”
Her finger wrapped around the trigger, and her target was right there. But Evelyn couldn’t bring herself to do it. The trigger felt impossibly heavy, and the muscles in her hands quivered without thought.
Could it really be possible that she’d been wrong? Evelyn tried to think up alternatives. Of how he could have seen them coming. Or how he might’ve mobilized so many soldiers this close to the Styx. Or how he dropped a fucking mountain on Leah’s head. But no matter how hard Evelyn tried, all explanations seemed woefully insignificant.
The scope grew blurry, and her aim was unsteady as she tried to will her way into taking the shot and bringing this madman down before it was too late.
Then she missed her chance. By the time Evelyn saw the Beholders coming, they were already within arm’s reach. One Inquisitor wrenched the M4 from her arms while the other struck her side. She wheezed as the pain burned through her stomach, and her vision grew clogged with tears. Hands wrapped around her limbs, and she scraped against the ground.
Evelyn opened her eyes again and realized they’d dragged her to humvee where Abraham stood. Right before the crowd of Pandemonium citizens, with thousands upon thousands watching. The morning had come in full swing, and sunlight now highlighted her too.
Abraham puffed his chest high. “There is one more secret that your heretical leaders have kept hidden from you, my good neighbors. Another miracle from the Lord that you were denied. Let us start this new relationship with the transparency you deserve!”
He yanked off her respirator, exposing Evelyn’s vibrant, living eyes for all of Pandemonium to see while she blinked back powerlessly.
“Behold!” Father Abraham roared.
