by Jon McGoran
I looked up at him and our eyes met. There had been so much distance between us, and for that I’d been blaming the secrets about where he’d been and what he’d been doing the last couple of months, but I realized maybe it was more about where he’d been the past ten years, since he’d disappeared from my life. I suddenly felt like a big part of the wall between us had been smashed, obliterated.
I reached up and put my hand on the back of his neck, ran my fingers through his hair, and pulled his head down to mine.
As I pressed my lips against his I heard a sound like a clap of thunder. The building shook and the windows rattled. We both looked outside as an angry-looking ball of black smoke rolled up into the sky.
CHAPTER 12
We couldn’t quite tell where the smoke was coming from, at first. Then the gold H4H cross gleaming atop the Church of the Eternal Truth shuddered. We both held out breath, watching, and after a brief moment, the cross slowly pitched forward, twisting to reveal the H4H logo at its center, gaining speed as it fell. It disappeared behind the other buildings, then the sound of it crashing echoed off the surrounding structures.
“Oh my God,” I said. “It looks like someone bombed the church.”
A chorus of sirens began to wail, seemingly from everywhere. A police quadcopter streaked across the sky, right over the roof, lights flashing as it rocketed toward the smoke.
Rex’s jaw clenched and his eyes smoldered. “Idiots,” he said.
“Who?”
“Whoever thought something like this would do anything other than make things a million times worse.”
We watched for a second as the black smoke smudged the bottom of the cloud cover. The sirens were growing louder.
“We need to get you home,” Rex said.
I looked up at him. He was scared. “I’ll be okay,” I said. “I can stay here.” An image flashed through my mind of Rex and me, huddled together in his tiny apartment, safe and warm as the world raged outside. I felt a deep sadness as the image faded, and anger at the thought that we couldn’t even get through some tea and a few kisses without the world conspiring to keep us apart.
“I wish you could,” Rex said. “But you can’t. There could be riots after this. You saw what happened before. We need to get you out of Silver Garden. And we need to go now, so we don’t get caught out on the street if things do get ugly.” He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. Slowly. As if he wanted me to pay attention. When he was done, he pulled back, just a couple of inches, his deep brown eyes looking into mine.
“We only just got together,” I said.
“I know,” he said. “It sucks. But this time I’m not going anywhere. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
I felt a twinge of fear, as if he had jinxed things simply by saying those words. He started to pull his hands away, but I grabbed his wrists and held them in place. “Do you promise?”
He kissed me again. “I promise.”
As we tromped down the stairs, I pointed out to Rex that maybe Silver Garden wasn’t the safest place for a giant chimera, either. That maybe he should come home with me, to Oakton. To his credit, he thought about it, or at least pretended to, before he said no. He needed to be here, with his people. To my credit, I didn’t point out that while I wasn’t a chimera, I was his people, too.
Then we were out the door and sprinting across the street.
The cross hadn’t been visible from ground level here, but the black smoke was. Surrounded by a trio of police copters and a swarm of drones, most of them blinking red and blue in the gray sky, the column of smoke looked like some kind of giant monster under attack.
The police sirens were now accompanied by the slower, louder wail of fire trucks. Traffic was light, but as a fire truck came around the corner two blocks up, the emergency systems took control of all the cars and pulled them over to the side of the road.
I covered my ears against the noise as the fire truck passed us, but we didn’t slow down. People were coming out of buildings and looking up at the smoke in the sky. Some of them watched us run by, their faces suspicious.
At the Lev station, we hustled up the steps to the platform. There was no sign of a train coming, so we ran to the end of the platform, where the view was better.
The dark smear of smoke had stretched across the bottoms of the clouds moving by, but only a thin wisp was still rising up, as if the fire had been extinguished.
The Lev train appeared in the distance, followed by its familiar faint hum.
We hurried back to the center of the platform, where the train would stop.
“Last chance,” I said. “Are you sure you won’t come with me? My mom’s out of town until tomorrow….” I let that hang.
Rex grinned. “And what about Kevin?” he said.
“To hell with Kevin,” I said, and we both laughed.
Rex groaned and shook his head. “You have no idea how much I’d love to come with you to Oakton, Jimi,” he said. “But I need to be here, just in case, you know…anybody needs me.”
You mean in case anybody else needs you, I thought. But I understood. I knew how seriously he took the other chimeras’ safety. I grabbed him by the shirt and looked up at him with my gravest, most serious expression. “Be careful.”
“Come on,” he said, tugging my arm. “You’re going to miss the train.”
I kept my feet planted. “Say you will.”
“I’ll be careful,” he said. “Come on.”
The train pulled up just as we reached the boarding area. As the doors slid open, I pulled Rex close and kissed him again.
“You be careful, too,” he said as we pulled away from each other. “Call me when you get home.”
I nodded, then turned to step onto the train. I was greeted by the disgusted grimace of a middle-aged guy in work overalls, making clear what he thought of me kissing Rex. As the train pulled out, I looked around and saw other passengers staring at me as well, including a woman in her thirties in Italian boots and a fur coat that must have cost a fortune. I knew the fur had been grown in a lab, but it still creeped me out. She also had a Wellplant, so she was probably watching or listening to coverage of the bombing. Her stare soured into a sneer as I looked back at her.
None of them looked like they would harm me physically, but I realized how much easier it was to be brave when Rex was with me. I thought back to my realization the night before about how important it was for chimera supporters not to hide. I flipped my collar down, making sure my E4E button and the chimera pin Ruth had given me were proudly on display.
Ruth had said the pin made me an honorary chimera. It didn’t, but it at least made my position known: I was an intelligent, open-minded, and compassionate person who took the time to get to know someone before judging them. Except for the guy in the overalls and the lady in the fur, I thought with a snort. I felt okay judging them.
It was three o’clock when I got off the train in Oakton, and the sky was already darkening toward night. I flipped my collar back up. There was no one around to see my buttons anymore, and it had gotten colder. Before I left the platform, I looked back toward Silver Garden. There was no longer any sign of smoke or police copters. I hoped that meant the fire was completely out, that the damage was minimal and no one was hurt, and that Rex was home safe, warming up his tea and reading his book.
Halfway down the steps, I passed a man just standing there. He was dressed for the weather, but his coat was open. His fedora was pulled so low he could have had a Wellplant. He was in his forties, with pale, chapped skin and gray eyes that locked onto mine in a way you don’t do with strangers. But maybe we weren’t strangers, I thought. I was sure I saw recognition in his eyes.
He smiled but didn’t say anything. I didn’t either. I continued on my way, trying not to let on that he was creeping me out.
I hit the sidewalk at a brisk pace, and made it half a block before giving in to the urge to look behind me.
He was at the bottom of the steps now, starin
g at me. I quickened my place, telling myself he was probably just some kind of creeper, then wondering why I thought that should make me feel better. My senses were on high alert for any hint of footsteps behind me.
When I reached the corner, I looked back again, but there was no sign of him.
I stood there and scanned the street, wondering where he could have gone. There were no cars, no side streets. It started to snow again, with a hush similar to when I’d been walking to the station in the snow that morning. This time it felt different, though. This time, I didn’t feel like I was truly alone.
I hurried past houses lit from within, emanating warmth and good cheer, but locked up tight against the cold and the wet. I couldn’t see anyone looking out through any of the windows, but I couldn’t shake the sensation that I was being watched.
My brain began compiling a list of who might be following me: Brian Kurtz, Stan Grainger…maybe some random crazy H4Her?
As the new snow blanketed the street, my footfalls disappeared. The only sound was my breathing.
There was nothing else. There was no one else.
But I started running anyway.
CHAPTER 13
I kicked the snow off my feet as I ran up the back steps to my house, then let myself in through the kitchen door.
Kevin was in the living room, sitting on the sofa, watching the Holovid. I smiled at the sight of him, reassured by the familiarity of it, with the knowledge that he likely hadn’t moved from that spot since I’d left, hours before. Kevin was one hell of an athlete, but sometimes I was more impressed by his ability to waste an entire day sitting on the sofa watching sports.
Turning to close the back door, I paused for a few seconds and watched the snow coming down. When I turned back around, Kevin was standing right behind me, his arm raised over my head.
I let out a startled yelp, and he screwed up his face at me as he grabbed a bag of chips from the shelf over my head.
“You’re such a weirdo,” he said, shaking his head as he walked back toward the living room.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“And your weirdo friends are weird, too,” he called back as he plopped back onto the sofa and pointed at the Holovid. “You know some whack-job chimeras blew up that H4H cross? The news keeps cutting into the game.”
“Is it still on?” I asked, hurrying into the living room.
He looked at me, confused that I cared. “Yeah, Villanova’s up by six.”
“Not the game, idiot, the news.”
He shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know, they’ve been breaking in every—argh, not again. There’s only four minutes left!”
I hurried over to the sofa and whacked his knee with the back of my hand. He slid over a few inches and I sat down next to him and turned up the volume.
The local news guy had on his most serious expression. In front of him, the words BREAKING NEWS throbbed in red letters. Behind him, a computer-enhanced clip of the H4H cross toppled in dramatic slow motion in front of a wall of flame.
“Was anybody hurt?” I asked, dreading the answer.
He shook his head. “No, they don’t think so. Just that big, stupid cross.” He shook his head. “Dumbass chimeras.”
I gave him a sidelong look.
“Look,” he said. “I totally get it. The H4Hers are even crazier than your weirdo friends. But this was dumb, Jimi. I mean, things were just calming down. Don’t your buddies know when to give it a rest?”
The broadcast cut to dramatic holo-feed footage of the incident. It began with a flat, two-dimensional image from a single camera drone, shaking and jerking as it rapidly panned across the sky to capture the explosion a microsecond after it happened. Within seconds, as more camera drones joined the swarm, the image deepened into three dimensions. Before the initial ball of smoke had fully risen, the image was crisp and solid and detailed. Even from the drones’ vantage point above, there wasn’t any visible fire—just that first ball of smoke trailing up into the sky, and the golden cross teetering and falling as the police drones started showing up, followed by the actual copters. Then it looped back to the beginning and started all over again.
“You don’t know it was chimeras,” I said.
“Really?” He snorted. “Church of the Eternal Truth? Gathering place of haters? Who else would it be?”
He had a point. The Eternal Truth congregation disapproved of all sorts of people and lifestyles that didn’t conform to their values, and they might have viewed all of them as less than people, but chimeras were the only ones they were trying to legally define that way.
The news anchor echoed Kevin, openly speculating that chimeras or chimera sympathizers were responsible for the blast. He recounted the events of the past several months—the marches and the anti-chimera riots, the passage of GHA and the resulting court battles. “Of course,” he added, “the structure damaged in the blast had been the subject of other controversies, as well.”
They cut to a slender man with sad, gentle blue eyes. The bottom of the screen said REV. BRIAN CALKIN OF ST. PETER’S CHURCH, SPRING CITY – RECORDED EARLIER.
“Yes, I disagree with some of the teachings of the Church of the Eternal Truth, and some of their political initiatives, but differing opinions are to be expected in a world of many faiths and denominations. What I simply cannot abide, though, is this altering—this desecrating—of the cross that our savior Jesus Christ died on for our sins. I…I simply cannot….”
An unseen interviewer said, “Surely lots of groups use the cross in their imagery.”
“Absolutely,” said Calkin, regaining his composure, his voice gaining strength and gravity. “And if Humans for Humanity wants to use the cross as part of theirs, well, so be it. But to include their brand as a part of the cross, their logo, and to put it on top of their church, well, I’d call that idolatry. I’d call it sacrilege!”
They cut back to the holo-feed loop of the explosion and the fire as the anchor said, “Nevertheless, Pastor Gordon Kerns of the Church of the Eternal Truth says he knows exactly who is responsible.”
Pastor Kerns was in his mid-fifties, with reddish hair and pale cheeks dramatically streaked with soot. His eyes were wide and intense, which could have been because his church had just been bombed, but I’d seen him speaking at rallies and marches—usually blocking off some street between me and where I was going—and as far as I could tell, his eyes were always like that.
“This is undoubtedly the work of those filthy, ungodly chimeras,” he said, his voice trembling with rage, his breath visible around the microphone held in front of him by the field reporter. I winced as the holographic spittle that accompanied his words seemed to arc through the air toward our coffee table. In reality, it had probably landed on the reporter. “They choose to poison themselves, to live in squalor, outside of normal society. Howard Wells is right: they’ve ruined their own lives, and now they want to ruin everyone else’s. And Church of the Eternal Truth and all the other churches in the Humans for Humanity family, we’re not going to stand for it. And we’re not going to let these activist judges get in the way of the human race protecting itself. We knew this day was coming. We knew the chimeras would turn vicious, like the wild animals they are, that they would attack humanity, whom they’ve abandoned, and that they would attack God, whom they blaspheme by their very existence, and—”
The feed abruptly cut back to the anchor in the studio, catching him as he let out a deep breath. “And speaking of Howard Wells, be sure to join us thirty minutes from now as Alenka Bogdan interviews Wells tonight on 60 Minutes, America’s longest-running news show. Meanwhile we now return you to our regular feed.”
The scene abruptly changed to a basketball court, where two teams were casually slapping hands at midcourt as thousands of fans wearing red and white chanted and yelled and waved handheld holographic cartoon badgers over their heads. Fans wearing blue were heading for the exits. The scoreboard read 71–68 and a commentator was saying, “Well f
olks, that was, without a doubt, one of the most exciting games of the last five years.”
“Absolutely,” said an almost identical voice. “We’ll be watching highlights from this one for years.”
“It’s over?” Kevin said with a growl. “Damn chimeras,” he said, shaking his head as he stalked out of the room.
I watched him go, stunned, as I occasionally still was, by his lunkheadedness.
“You still don’t know it was them,” I called after him, then raised my voice even louder as he thumped upstairs. “But I’m sure if whoever did it knew you were watching basketball, they would have postponed the bombing till after the game!”
I didn’t get a reply. The credits scrolled for a few seconds, then it was time for the regularly scheduled local news, with the lead story being the bombing, of course.
I went into the kitchen and called Rex. He answered on the first ring.
“You’re back safe?” he said as soon as he knew it was me. “How was it getting home?”
I decided not to mention my encounter with the creeper at the Oakton station. “It was fine. Uneventful. How about you? Run into any problems?”
“No, it was fine. I came straight home, just to be safe, but it wasn’t bad. Lots of blinky lights and dirty looks, but not much more than usual. It’s quiet around here and everyone seems fine.”
I looked into the living room and up the steps to make sure Kevin wasn’t nearby. “Was it a chimera, do you think? The bomber?”
“Most likely, I guess. I’d like to smack whoever did it.”
“I hope it doesn’t make things worse.”
“Well, it’s not going to make things better, that’s for sure.”
“I was hoping we’d get to hang out more today. Hoping some maniac wouldn’t blow up a church and stir up a hornets nest.”
