He pushed his hand through his hair. He looked tired, as tired as I felt. “I’m one of the sealed. It’s biblical. Look it up.”
“I’m supposed to believe that God put a magical stamp on you and now you’re immortal or invincible or something?”
“I’m not immortal, just protected for a while.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. Why? Why would God do that?”
“Because He needs witnesses to spread the word…the good news.”
I laughed. “Good news? Have you looked around lately?”
“Have you?” he shot back. “The Earth. The sky. The entire universe. People have seen God’s eternal power and divine nature in the creation since the beginning of time, Seraphina. And they still reject Him.”
“Micah, the earth is dying, the sky is poisoned, and the universe is just a useless expanse of starry ocean. There is no God. No help is coming. It’s just us against Europa.”
“Your mother knew better.”
I froze. “You don’t know anything about my mother.”
His intense gaze felt like he was staring into my soul. “What happened to her in the church?”
Tears stung my eyes. I started to shake. “She fell,” I forced the words out. “She’s buried beneath a ton of brick and—”
“Now who’s the liar?”
His accusation hit me like a punch in the stomach. I dashed at the tears on my face. “Tell me something. When your god created Europa, did he single-handedly choose all the people Praetor Stanislov would slaughter? Or are the lives of individual people too insignificant for him to bother dirtying his hands over?”
“She’s still alive.”
“Don’t say that—don’t you say that!”
“He saved His true followers from the hour of wrath, just like He promised He would.”
“I am done.” I turned to leave.
“I thought you wanted the truth,” he called after me.
I rounded on him. “This isn’t the truth! This is a delusion created by cowardly people who are afraid of death!”
“He wants to save you, too. All He asks is that you trust Him.”
“Trust him?” I sneered. “If your god is real, then he stole my mother and left me and my brother to die! And I’m supposed to trust that?”
“He’s being patient with you. But even His patience has an end.”
I gestured to the broken world around us. “This is what patience looks like?”
“This is what a last chance looks like.”
“And then what, he tosses us all into hell?”
“Life is about choices, Seraphina. Every choice has a consequence. If you say you don’t want God, then God will honor your choice. But realize that an eternity apart from God—completely devoid of love, justice, peace, beauty—that is Hell.”
“That is crazy!”
“That is reality!”
We stared at each other for a moment, both of us breathing hard.
“Why are you protecting me?” I finally demanded. “I heard what you said at the Reinkann’s. What are you protecting me from?”
He shook his head. “I only know that I’m supposed to keep you safe.”
“So that’s all this has ever been? You protecting me?”
He gave me a haunted look. “At first.”
At first? Then what was it now?
He sighed and looked up at the sky. “I wish I knew what to say to make you understand.”
Crazy or not, he felt passionate about his faith. I wasn’t going to change his mind any more than he would change mine. “If it brings you comfort to believe in your god, then fine,” I told him. “But enough with the sermons and magic tricks. I don’t have the time or the patience to play religion with you.”
I left him there and walked back to camp in the faint light of dawn. Ash waited for me by my bedroll. Ben and Milly faked sleep, trying to look as though they hadn’t heard every word Micah and I had shouted at each other.
I curled up on my bedroll, pulled the blanket up over my head, and closed my eyes, hoping for a few more minutes of sleep. I was determined to forget about Micah Abrams. I had no use for a childish infatuation that couldn’t stand the light of day.
My mother’s face drifted behind my eyelids. I saw her vanish in the flash of a bright, white light. I squeezed my eyes tighter, determined to force the image away.
“She’s not alive,” I whispered to myself. “She’s not.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
After we ate, we packed up camp and followed Highway 97 south, toward Liberty, making sure to stay hidden in the forest. We kept the road in sight, though, and saw several Europa vehicles driving slowly past. We figured they were looking for us.
After my shouting match with Micah, I’d decided to avoid him altogether. Neither one of us was going to change the other’s mind, so there was no use in constantly banging our heads together. We all had our way of dealing with the Devastation. If Micah’s way was God, who was I to judge? But avoiding Micah meant walking alone.
Ben and Milly couldn’t get enough of Micah’s religious spiel. They were perfectly content to let me march several yards behind them if it meant they could hear all about God and salvation. I was losing two more people I loved to Jesus, which only made me hate him more.
While Ben and Milly got saved, I hung back and kept an eye out for foot soldiers. Every now and then I caught a flash of white fur darting through the trees. I wished Ash would just settle down and heel for a change. Of course, he’d never heeled a day in his life. Despite his total devotion to me, Ash was still a wild animal and could never abandon his true nature.
Ben slowed, falling into step beside me. “Micah says we’re about an hour out. We’ll stop to eat at Swauk Creek.”
“Got it.”
The sun felt warm on my face. I took off my coat and tied it around my hips. The sun was still a dimmer version of its former self, but, after spending a year at the top of a mountain, this was the warmest day I’d experienced in a long time. The ash from the eruption became more apparent as we edged further east. Over a year of wind and weather had eroded it into the topsoil, blending the two together and leaving behind a fertile packed clay where heartier plants were beginning to thrive.
“So, what do you think?” he asked.
I snapped a low branch off a passing tree. “About what?”
“About what Micah’s saying. You know,” he smirked, “about God and the end of the world.”
He knew full well that I had no interest in the subject, so it was hard not to get angry with him for bringing it up. “I don’t care.” I tossed the branch several yards out. Ash came shooting from the woods to charge after it like a housetrained puppy.
“You have to admit, though, it is fascinating.”
No, I thought, I don’t.
Ash brought the branch back. I took it and the wolf waited eagerly for me to throw it again. I glanced up ahead at Micah. I watched the easy, confident way he talked with Milly, the way her head tilted slightly as she listened, and I knew he was convincing her. I felt my jaw tighten. Christianity had plagued my life before the Devastation and now, thanks to Micah, a new outbreak was infecting my friends.
“He says we have five more years of this mess before things get better.”
“The Devastation isn’t a football game. You can’t put a timer on it.”
“He doesn’t call it the Devastation. He calls it the Tribulation. Says it’s in the Bible, in Revelations.”
“Revelation.”
“What?”
I sighed. “Revela-tion. There’s no ‘s’.”
“Revelation, right. He says things are going to get worse. That some of us won’t make it.”
I adjusted the straps on my pack. “I’m a little too busy trying to survive to worry about where I’m headed when I die.”
“But that’s just it,” he insisted. “We don’t know when our card is gonna get punched. I mean, with everything going on, the God question seems
important to answer sooner rather than later.”
I hurled the branch with all my might. “Then answer it for yourself!” I snapped.
He flinched, wounded.
I felt instantly guilty. “I’m sorry. I—”
Ash’s low, rumbling growl drowned out my next words. I looked down at him. Instead of chasing his stick, he’d planted his front feet and was staring off into the trees with his black lips pulled back in a snarl. At first I thought he smelled soldiers, but then a loud stomping and roaring filled my ears. The treetops in the distance shuddered. Something enormous was coming at us through the woods.
The four of us grouped together, weapons raised. Ash paced and growled in front of us. Branches cracked. Trees swayed. The ground shook. When I finally caught sight of it, I thought it was a bear racing toward us on its hind legs. But it was bigger than any bear I’d ever seen.
It crashed through the pines and bushes, finally stopping just inside the tree line. It stood a full fifteen feet in height, with the same misshapen head, flat nose, and bulging eyes as Alvin Reinkann. It was a Goliath.
He wore a green canvas tarp as a toga with a frayed rope tied around his waist, decorated with dangling white ornaments that rattled together as he moved.
“Where you goin’, pretty birds?” His deep, gravelly voice made him sound like a bridge troll who’d just woken from a nap. To complete his monstrous look, he carried a thick tree trunk over one shoulder like a thorny club.
He stepped into our path. We got a better look at him and, more importantly, his rope belt. The white ornaments were human bones—skulls and femurs banging together like gruesome wind chimes.
“What is that?” Ben rasped.
“I’m guessing the ogre,” Micah answered.
I pulled back the bolt on my AK-12. “He’s a lot bigger than Alvin.”
Ash had his head low and his haunches raised, ready to pounce. “Steady, boy,” I told him.
I nestled my cheek against the stock of my weapon, touched my nose to the charging handle, and put the large knobby head in my crosshairs. “Time to put you out of your misery, big fella.” My finger brushed the trigger. Then its eyes lit on Milly.
“Hey, Mills.”
I froze.
The blue eyes. The cleft chin. The mop of blond hair. Oh, God, it couldn’t be.
“No,” Ben rasped. “No.” He looked like he was about to be sick.
Micah set his hand on the barrel of my rifle, slowly redirecting it toward the ground.
A ragged sob tore from Milly’s throat. She wavered—I thought she might pass out—but she steadied herself. Taking a deep breath, she set her hands on her hips. “Timothy Odette,” she shouted up at the ogre. “I have been lookin’ high and low for you. What’re you doin’ out here in these woods by yourself?”
The thing that had once been my friend looked away and lowered his head. “I’s just wick-wackin’ around, Mills.”
“Well, you can wick-wack your behind right to Leavenworth this instant and let Doctor Reinkann take a look at you.”
He brushed his hand back and forth through the bones on his belt. The creepy sound made me shiver. “Don’t like doctors,” he muttered.
“I don’t care what you like,” Milly went on. “You—” Emotion cracked her voice. “You just follow us.”
I shook my head at her. “Milly, we can’t go back. The praetor still has David.”
Milly’s eyes swam with tears. She was barely holding it together. “But Doctor Reinkann might be able to help him.”
My heart raced with fear for my brother. “Tim’s survived out here this long—”
“You expect me to just leave my brother out here in the wilderness to live like an animal?”
Looking confused by the conversation, Tim chewed his bottom lip and fiddled with his tree-club.
“We aren’t going to leave him,” Micah reassured.
“Of course we’re going to leave him!” I snapped. “There’s nothing we can do for him now, but there still may be time to save David. We’ll get Tim on our way back to Leavenworth.”
Milly lifted her chin. “Y’all go on. Me and my brother are goin’ back to Leavenworth.”
“Do you not see what’s hanging from his belt, Milly?” Ben whispered. “Those aren’t monkey bones.”
“We’ll be just fine.” Milly looked up at Tim. “C’mon, big brother. Let’s get you to the doctor.”
Without sparing me a glance, she turned and walked off in the direction we’d just come.
“Look out!” Micah shouted.
He charged past me, tackling Milly to the ground just as Tim struck out with his massive tree trunk. The club flew over their heads, missing them both by inches.
I looked up at Tim. A crazed snarl twisted his bulbous face. He raised his crude club over his head, preparing for another strike. “Don’t like DOCTORS!” he shouted.
He turned his googly eyes on Micah and took aim. Micah sidestepped the attack. The ground shook with the force of the blow as the makeshift club dug a deep furrow through the ash and dirt.
Furious that he missed again, Tim let out an earsplitting roar. The hair on my head stood on end.
“Maybe this would be a good time to run?!” Ben shouted, inadvertently drawing Tim’s attention. “Whoa, now,” he said. “Easy, big guy.”
Milly leapt in front of the ogre. “Tim! Stop!”
Tim knocked her aside with his enormous, lumpy hand. He spotted Micah and closed in on him again.
Micah ducked behind a tall, thick pine. Tim, growling like a mad dog, swatted the tree out of the way like it was nothing. Ash charged in. He sank his teeth into Tim’s bulging ankle. Tim shook the wolf off like a ragdoll.
Ben rushed up behind Tim. “Sorry, buddy.” He jammed a knife into the back of his massive calf. Tim howled in pain and kicked out, knocking Ben backwards. But his attention returned to Micah.
“You!” He snorted at Micah. “You die!”
I stared up at the misshapen face of the thing that was once my trusted friend and felt my heart break. I understood Milly’s desire to take him back to Doctor Reinkann for treatment, but this wasn’t Tim. This wasn’t the boy who’d insisted on being my brother’s friend, who’d fought beside me to protect our town, who loved his sister more than anything in the world…. The Tim we knew would never want to live like this.
I blinked back hot tears and raised my weapon. “I’m sorry, Tim,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
The crack of the gunshot echoed through the woods. I heard Milly scream.
Tim didn’t fall.
Instead he turned and fixed his watery gaze on me. The bullet had scored a red gash in his forehead, but hadn’t penetrated his thick skull. He bared his teeth at me and roared so loud my ears popped. “SEEEEERRRRRAAAA!”
I’d only made him angrier.
“RUN!” Micah bellowed.
As Tim bore down on me, Ben grabbed Milly’s hand and sprinted off with her down the hillside. I couldn’t find the will to move. Tim stopped in front of me and bent forward to glare into my eyes. His face was bulging and grotesque, covered in an oozing slime. I could feel his hot breath on my face, smell the rotting stench of it in my nose.
“You’ll be tasty,” he mumbled.
And then Micah was there. He charged in between me and the ogre, knocking me out of the way. Tim swung. He narrowly missed me, but Micah wasn’t so lucky. A sharp branch from the tree-club plowed a deep scratch into the side of his face. He cried out in pain. Still, without missing a beat, Micah swung me up into his arms and ran with me down the hillside.
I looked back over his shoulder. Tim lumbered after us, big and awkward, but one of his steps covered five times more ground than one of Micah’s.
At the bottom of the hill, we caught up with Ben and Milly. Micah dropped me to my feet and the four of us sprinted through the woods toward the highway at breakneck speed. Ash bolted ahead, leading the way.
I could hear Tim crashing through the tree
s, seething with monstrous rage.
We broke through tree line and raced across Highway 97. Thick underbrush slapped at our arms and legs. We dropped down the steep bank, then stopped. Swauk Creek was rushing, deep and swollen from snow melt. Ash waited, whining, unsure of where to go next. I slid down the bank and plunged my foot in.
The water was ice cold.
Tim howled behind us.
We charged into the frigid water. It rose to my waist, cut through my clothes, and tore the breath from my lungs. I forced my numb legs through the strong current, desperate for the other side. Ash leapt in after me, paddling furiously, determined to keep up.
Milly stumbled on the slippery rocks. Ben grabbed for her. They disappeared beneath the water. After a long moment, they resurfaced, sputtering. The rushing current pulled me sideways, threatening to sweep me away. Micah caught my hand, pulling me in tight. I wrapped my arm around his neck and let him guide me to the shore.
Finally, the four of us dragged ourselves onto the opposite bank, exhausted, panting. We looked back. Tim had stopped at the water’s edge. He seemed almost afraid to get his feet wet.
He looked over at us and whimpered. “Mills?”
Dripping wet and shivering, Milly dropped to her knees and stared at her brother across the rushing water. She looked small and defeated. I knelt beside her, wrapping her up in my arms.
Tim let out a mindless roar. He waved his tree trunk in the air and stomped his enormous feet. “Traitor!” he spat at her. “Traitor!”
She turned her face into my neck, sobbing.
“The praetor will pay for this, Milly,” Micah said. “I swear he will pay.”
“Micah,” Ben said. “Your face.”
I looked over at Micah. Water dripped from his dark hair, mingling with a steady stream of blood oozing from the deep cut on his cheek. He dabbed at the wound, looking puzzled. He claimed to be “sealed,” protected by God, but Micah Abrams wasn’t so indestructible after all.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The tiny town of Liberty, Washington, sat two miles off Highway 97, deep in the Wenatchee National Forest. Hard-core campers used the ghost town as a stopover before heading deeper into the mountains. The grinding mill still stood, along with a few of the old miners’ houses and the dilapidated Meaghersville Hotel. Dredge ponds, tailing mounds, and old mining equipment left to rust in overgrown fields made the town beautiful, historic, and forgotten. The perfect place to hide a rebel summit.
The Goliath Code (The Alpha Omega Trilogy) Page 28
