Alive. Barely. By the grace of God.
Brittney touched his face. Her fingers left a trace of mud behind.
She stood up.
“The demon,” Brittney said. “The evil one.”
“Yes,” Tanner said.
“What should I do?” Brittney asked.
“Good,” Tanner said. “You must serve God and resist evil.”
She looked at him, eyes blurring with tears. “I don’t know how.”
Tanner looked past her, raising glowing eyes to the hill that rose behind Brittney.
She turned away from Edilio. She saw Zil fall to earth. Saw Dekka sinking slowly in a pillar of dust. Saw Astrid with her little brother. Saw children running up the hill, still panicked.
“Calvary,” Tanner said. “Golgotha.”
“No,” Brittney said.
“You must do as God wills,” Tanner said.
Brittney stood still. Her feet did not feel the warmth of the sand beneath them. Her skin did not feel the slight breeze from the ocean. She did not smell the salt spray.
“Climb the hill, Brittney. Climb to the place of death.”
“I will,” Brittney said.
She began to walk. She was alone, everyone else ahead, she the last to climb the hill.
Dekka was just coming down to earth. Astrid was racing ahead, pulling Nemesis with her.
How did she know to call him that? She had known Little Pete before, back in the old days. She knew his name. But in her mind the name Nemesis had formed when she saw him. And a surge of pure rage.
/> Is he the evil one, Lord? She stopped, momentarily confused as Astrid and Little Pete ran ahead.
Her arm twitched. Stretched. So very strange.
And her braces were turning liquid, leaving only a metallic slick on sharp teeth.
Zil lay groaning, his legs twisted at impossible angles.
Brittney passed him by.
She would meet the evil one when she reached the top. And then would come the battle.
“Everyone hold hands,” Mary said.
The children were slow to react. But then, one by one, their little faces turned to the sunset, they reached out for each other.
Mary’s helpers, carrying the babies, stood in the line with all the others.
“It’s coming, children,” Mary said.
“Hold tight to each other…