Outcasts (Badlands 3)

I obediently followed him outside. The smoke smell was ten times worse and the fluttering of wings was hidden behind dark clouds.

There was lots of shoutin and the devil’s church lit up like a beacon in the distance.

“Why aren’t we goin on the bike?” I asked Grimm, climbin into passenger seat of Cobra’s Charger after he pulled the door open for me.

I slid all the way over so Cobra could get in beside me, takin position in the middle. Blue and Katya got in back.

“The only thing they could do that wouldn’t attract too much attention–– mutilated my tires,” he responded as soon as he was in the driver’s seat.

“We didn’t know,” Kat said.

“No shit, you were just the dumbasses he used as a cover,” Grimm replied, flying down the road.

I nudged him with a scowl. It wasn’t her fault Parker was a shit person.

“If I find out you were trying to take my girl away, I’ll find everyone you love and slaughter them right in front of you.”

He braced a forearm across my chest, and hit the brakes.

If it wasn’t for that and Cobra grippin my shoulder I would have flown through the windshield.

“Grimm—.”

“And what’s happening to them will be child’s play compared to what I’ll do to you.” He cut me off and pointed at the church, indicating the cause of the smoke.

The iron Leviathan cross was glowing a bold orange. Tied to the front of it was Parker, the back held a man who was already too melted to be identifiable. Embers carried pieces of them on the air.

Parker’s flesh was already splittin open, and somethin that looked like chunky blocks of thick cheddar was leaking out of him.

That was more disturbin and vile to me than him not being dead and the townies cheering the fire on. His voice was vastly fadin but his screams were audible nonetheless.

The substance leaked onto his clothes, and like a wick, his shirt fed the clumps to the hungry flames, fueling the fire.

It had just begun to consume him entirely as Grimm gunned the engine. I don’t think any of us really had anything to say at the moment.

The acolytes followed us in a large SUV.

“We go through the valley and wrap around, surprise em from the back.”

“That’s smart,” Cobra replied.

I looked from side to side, waitin on an explanation. “Are you gonna tell me where we’re goin?”

“To cut the head off the snake.”

We hit the Valley one bathroom break later, just as the sun came back again.

Grimm pulled the Charger to the side and cut the engine. Once he was out, he held out his hand and slid me towards him.

“It’s best to travel light. The sun can be more of a pain in the ass than you are once we go in.” He gestured to the tall rocks making up the walls.

“What sun? There’s barely anything but darkness in there,” Katya said, coming to stand beside me. She’d changed into an outfit much like mine, shorts and a tank top, but still had a large glitter bow attached to her ponytail.

She was right. It looked like the valley of death, irony at its finest.

“You want to go through there? It’s the valley of shadows.”

“There’s not shit to be afraid of. The valley is mine, and the shadows are my bitches.”