Pestilence Rising

by Lea Ryan

Chapter 10

   

  “Something's wrong.”

  I woke to a face hovering over me. Celeste was a blur of pale in a blur of dark hair.

  “You must get up. They've already eaten breakfast in the cafeteria. I feel the presence of imminent danger.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Eleven.”

  I had slept too long. I must've needed the rest. Then I remembered that Gideon wanted me to meet him at noon. I swung my legs from the bed and stumbled to the trunk.

  “You should have woken me earlier.”

  “I'm a protector, not a nanny.” She turned to the sun streaming from the window, and I saw that barbs had sprouted from her wings, the beginnings of feathers.

  “Wings are looking good. Have you seen Michael?”

  “No. You should be careful today.”

  “Always.”

  I exited the dorm to the sound of boisterous conversation coming from the direction of the cafeteria. The corridor was as empty as the dorm was. When I arrived at the cafeteria, I knew why.

  The tables were crowded, every seat taken. Even the cafeteria staff watched from behind the serving counter. At the center of the action, Bree held up a crown made of woven brown vines and wildflowers. Its intended recipient was a seated woman about forty years old. Her ash blonde hair was ill-kempt, her dress a prairie-style number that covered her up to the neck.

  “I proclaim today Emma Day!” Bree announced and placed the crown.

  Emma grinned triumphantly. The crowd roared in approval.

  A door on the other side of the cafeteria swung open, and everyone in the room fell silent. Llewyn strolled in, head high, stride regal like she already ruled the world. Again, she wore no shoes. She acknowledged people on the way, touching hands and waving benevolently as she passed. They practically swooned. Her pet bulldog, Vic, trailed behind her.

  She went directly for Bree and Emma. At her arrival, Bree bowed and backed away to give her room. Llewyn put her hand on Emma's shoulder and addressed the crowd.

  “Bree was correct. Today, we celebrate Emma. Her contributions to our family have been nothing short of extraordinary. She has counseled the lost. She served on the team that set up the vegetable garden that provides us with vital nutrients. Our home would not be the sanctuary it is today without her unwavering support. I appreciate everyone's cooperation to make this Ceremony of Light a day that we will sing about until the Divine Ones walk the Earth once again.”

  The crowd erupted with another round of cheering. With that, Llewyn and her guardian left the room, cutting a line through the men and women rising to cluster around the beaming Emma. I scanned for Michael as I should have done upon first entry.

  Bree's head popped out of the crowd. She spotted me and waved, jumping up and down to be seen over the others. She pushed through.

  “I missed you at breakfast.” Bree noticed Celeste but didn't acknowledge her presence.

  “Sorry, I guess I slept in.”

  “I considered waking you when I got up at five, but you looked peaceful.”

  “I'm not really a five in the morning kind of guy.”

  She reached for my hand, “Come on. I'll get the cook to make you an omelet. Gotta keep your strength up for the big day.”

  “I have to leave for a while – an errand to attend to. I'll grab a bite while I'm out.”

  The smile fell from her face, “You won't be gone long, will you? We have a lot planned.”

  “I'll come back as soon as I finish.”

  Trust me, sweetheart, I'm not going anywhere without my brother, I wanted to say.

  She pulled me from Celeste who remained at the edge of the room.

  “Why is she with you? She isn't one of us. Doesn't that bother you?”

  “I've heard enough talk about our kind being freaks that I don’t worry about the differences in someone else. Celeste is my friend.”

  Jesus, I was starting to sound like them. Our kind? Ugh. My answer appeased her well enough.

  “Ok. Well, come find me when you get back. I'll make sure you get in on all the fun.”

  “I promise.” I made a heart crossing motion across my chest.

  Bree pulled me down to kiss me on the cheek, then cast a sidelong glance at Celeste.

  She had no sooner walked away when I received a text from Gideon's number, Come now.

  Everyone was filing out a side entrance leading to the garden as Celeste and I went toward the lobby. A pair of guardians was stationed near the door - two big guys I hadn't seen yet. One of them put a finger to his ear and spoke, probably reporting our departure to Vic. They made no move to stop us. They knew we'd return. I gave them a wave on the way out.

  The truck was just where I'd left it, the exterior wet from dew and sprays of water from the trees. With the keys in the ignition and the engine started, the GPS sprang to life. It connected to download our destination from whatever satellite the Center used.

  I remembered my fear of Llewyn reading my mind and reinforced mental wall between us. I didn't need her finding out about Gideon.

  “You're getting attached.” Celeste told me.

  “I don't know what you mean.”

  “I see the way you look at her, the girl.”

  “Jealous?” I raised an eyebrow.

  She was not amused, “My life depends on the success of this mission, Hunter. Do not forget they're the enemy. They took Michael against his will.”

  The GPS voice alerted us of the first direction, “Turn around.”

  I did as I was told and went back the way we'd come, winding down the road that rose and fell and threatened to fall off into nature.

  “I haven't lost sight of what they are.” I said.

  “We can't let them carry on like this. It will only lead to disaster. The evil must be stopped.”

  “An assembly of healers and ravagers isn't necessarily evil. You'd probably feel more secure if they were just regular people, right?”

  “That's not what I meant.”

  “What did you mean?”

  “You can't help what you're born with. Nature isn't evil. Action is what defines you. They worship false idols, and they disregard their maker. Therefore, this group is not righteous.”

  “I've seen no evidence that what they're doing has affected anyone outside their circle. Their methods may be questionable, but they take care of each other.” I stopped at the intersection and sat there for a minute, processing what I'd just said. “Holy shit.”

  Celeste looked at me fearfully. I hadn't even noticed myself slipping into their mindset, and yet, I defended them to my friend, the angel sent by Heaven to help me.

  “I'm not sure how that happened.”

  “You need to be mindful,” was all she said.

  I spent the rest of the drive mentally reasserting my views on these people who hadn't demonstrated any real justification for what they'd done. A willingness to defend them had come on far too easily for my taste. I did need to be mindful.

  Past the sign offering a welcome to the town of Grandview, antique shops lined the streets alongside boutiques with dresses in the windows, a coffee shop and an old fashioned hardware store. It wasn't Chicago, but I would take it. I hadn't realized how much I had missed the city until I got a taste of crowded buildings and concrete. Home seemed so long ago and far away that I barely remembered my cramped apartment, the smell of Indian food wafting up from Mr. Suresh's place.

  The GPS directed me to a chrome-trimmed building near the courthouse - Shirley's Waffles and Fries. It did not appear to be rigged up as a remote base of operations. The parking lot was full. The place was open. I wondered if Gideon sent the wrong location.

  “Ooh, I like waffles.”

  “When did you have waffles?” I asked.

  “I saw them on a menu. They look like something I would like.”

  While I was glad to see she had no worries about meeting up with my former employer, I had my doubts. Did I have enough informatio
n to keep him from planting a bullet in my skull? Unlikely. I scanned neighboring rooftops and windows for snipers. I didn't see any, but I felt them watching. He wouldn't have met me there without hefty security, especially after what happened during our last meeting.

  The smell of melting butter, grease and syrup hit me as I opened the door, giving rise to a growl from deep within my stomach. The diner was packed, almost every sunny yellow bench filled with people smiling and talking and eating breakfast food instead of lunch, despite the fact that the clock read past noon. The chrome trim on the exterior continued inside and caught the reflection of a shining black and white tile floor. The sounds of dishes and glasses clinking together rose above the din every so often.

  Gideon had set up shop in a booth in the far corner from the entrance. No enforcers were around, also no Nigel, which was a first. He was eating waffles just like everyone else.

  “Good morning.” I pretended to be happy to see him. “Where's my boy Nigel?”

  He spoke with his mouth full, “He's in time-out for letting you go. Whatever you've got, it had better be as magical as these waffles. The sight of you fills me with rage.”

  The waitress appeared, a graying woman with a tired smile. She eyed Celeste's wings, “What can I get ya, hon?”

  My friend didn't notice. She never noticed people staring, or maybe she just expected them to do so. Regardless, Celeste enthusiastically ordered a drink and strawberry waffles with a side of sausage and hash browns. I ordered some French toast and coffee, and with the waitress gone, we got down to business.

  “I'm not complaining because I'm starving, but why are we meeting at a diner? You said you had a base of operations.”

  “We're set up, just not here. I need to make sure you aren't drinking the Kool-Aid before I tell you where.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “And just so you know, we are under surveillance. You try anything crazy, I have a friend who's got a good look at the back of your head through a set of crosshairs. No darts this time.”

  “You don't have to threaten my life every time we hang.”

  An old man at a nearby table overheard our conversation and swiveled around to assess the situation. That drew the attention of the woman across from him.

  “Sorry. No problem here.” I gave him a friendly wave. “Just joking around.”

  They went back to breakfast. We really needed to be more careful in public. I often forgot other people didn't lead the lives we did.

  “Nosey geezer.” Gideon mumbled. He shoved the last bite of breakfast in his mouth. “Give me what you've got. I have other shit to do.”

  “Most of them seem peaceful. They call Llewyn 'the mother'. The guardians are probably the biggest problem. They're like your guys. I haven't seen any weapons, but I wouldn't doubt it if they had something there. The head guardian, a guy named Vic, comes from a military family. I'm sure he sees the value in being armed.”

  “How many?”

  “Guardians?”

  “Anomalies.”

  “Only the guardians seem capable of fighting.”

  Bree. I imagined Gideon's goons slamming her to the floor and winced. She didn't deserve the punishment the Center had a habit of doling out.

  “They're dangerous. All of them. How many?”

  “I don't know. A couple hundred?”

  He clasped his hands on the top of his head and fell back into the bench seat, closed his eyes. I had always figured that Gideon's attitude toward anomalies was part of his overall angry demeanor. Watching his reaction, I didn't see anger. It was his worst nightmare.

  “An army.”

  “It's not like that. They aren't soldiers. This morning, they were having a party for a woman. They're regular people, sort of.”

  “You're sympathizing too much. Get your head out of your ass and pay attention. They are the enemy. Your brother is their prisoner. Did you find him? Maybe he'd be of more use to us than you.”

  We paused for the waitress to deliver our drinks.

  “Llewyn said I would see him today during this ceremony they're having.”

  “What about you, angel girl? Have you made any useful observations?”

  Celeste put down her juice, “I have observed that you are a very sad man. Your heart was broken, so you inflict your pain on the world. Oppressing those you see as a threat to your way of life justifies your actions in your mind, but God sees all. Your motivations are not pure.”

  He was dumbfounded for a couple of beats, then his lip curled into a snarl, “I didn't ask for psychoanalysis. Allow me to be more specific. Did you see anything at the compound that might tell us what the end game for this chick is?”

  “I spoke with some of her followers in the library last night while Hunter dined with their leader. She intends to reassemble the shattered souls of her deities, who she believes were human a couple of centuries ago. She claims that the anomalies, as you call them, carry fragments of the souls - one healing spirit, one ravaging.”

  “What happens once that's done?”

  “The men will be resurrected.”

  “That is cold-cocked crazy. And what kind of havoc do we think she's capable of causing when her plan doesn't work?” He directed the question to me.

  “She's pretty invested in her belief system. I can't begin to speculate where the derailment of their reality might take her or them. The guardians, especially Vic, are serious security. They seem like they're itching for action.”

  “Are they ravagers?”

  “The commander is. I don't know about the rest of them, but I would assume the majority are. I only see them when they're guarding the door or following me around.”

  “This is the kind of information I'm looking for, Hunter. Stories about how nice they are have zero value to me. I need an evaluation of an enemy. Detail, detail, detail. Weapons. What training do they receive? What is their hierarchy? I'm greedy for this knowledge. Do you see?”

  “Okay, yes, I get it. I'll pay more attention. “

  “Don't pay attention. Be proactive. Gather intelligence. Borrow some if you have to.” He called the waitress over. She gave him the check for his breakfast, and he was gone.

  I moved into the bench seat across from Celeste. Over waffles and French toast, I said, “I don't think your mission will end with Michael's rescue.”

  “I agree. Llewyn must be stopped. She’s gaining too much power over her followers. There are too many of them. They could become a very powerful mob if compelled to do so.”

  We finished our breakfast and headed back to the compound. A different guardian stationed near the door nodded at us on the way in, while his cohort announced our return to Vic. The lobby was bustling with activity as it had been when we arrived the previous day. Bree wasn't there, neither was Michael.

  Vic found us near the library, “Your brother is outside working in the garden. The mother has given permission for you to see him. I want you to understand that any attempt to remove him will be met with force. Guardians are stationed throughout the grounds.”

  “I understand.” I decided right then that I would thoroughly enjoy kicking Vic's ass. The way he felt the need to assert his dominance got to me. How much of his time did he devote to ensuring every man around him recognized his alpha male status? His prick was probably two inches long.

  He motioned to a corridor that ran next to the library, “Down that hall, through the door, turn right to the fenced-in area. Several people are working there.”

  I had no idea what I was going to say to my brother. We hadn't parted company on the best of terms. I remembered standing in the driveway the day he left, Dad disapproving of his decision to forgo college for the quick money he would make in the traveling evangelist circles. Michael had provided some bullshit line about following his calling.

  I was just happy to see him go. I didn't care what the reason. He hadn't experimented on me in years at that point, but he messed with me on a regular basis, hitting on girls he thoug
ht I liked, telling other kids if they got near me, I would give them a disease. What do you say to someone who made the whole first part of your life miserable?

  With him gone, my next couple of years would be smooth sailing, or so I thought. Watching him drive away was one of the happiest moments of my life.

  How things change.

  In a row of lush, green plants, he bent to pull a clod of dirt from the end of the garden hoe in his hand. I'd never seen him do any physical labor. Dad never even made him do chores because the 'good' brother had something better to do, a basketball game to play, a club to lead.

  That day, the soil had dyed his shirt earth brown, his jeans too. His hair stuck out in all directions, and his once athletic frame seemed frailer. There was a heavy sadness about him. I could see it from yards away, and it only became clearer as we approached. The cocksure bully was long gone. This man before me was someone completely different. They had beaten him down.

  “Hey.” I said to him.

  He looked, not recognizing me at first. I supposed I did look different. I was still just a kid when he left home. When he did link my face to memory, he dropped the hoe into the dirt at his feet.

  “Hunter?” His voice was breathless as he threw his arms around me in a hug. “What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here.”

  Michael had never hugged me before. I resisted the urge to shove him away, a reflex held over from childhood. This wasn't genuine brotherly affection, I told myself. It was merely a response to being a captive.

  I cleared my throat, “Are you alright?”

  He withdrew, “I do what they tell me to, and it keeps me out of trouble.” He looked around to gauge whether anyone was listening. “We should go for a walk. Come on.”

  We exited through a gate at the far side of the veggies, followed a path toward the woods. I expected to have to deal with the guardians, but no one moved to stop us. A pair of them at the corner of the building reported our whereabouts on earpieces.

  We came to steps leading up to a boardwalk into the trees, and we walked for several minutes before he stopped. We arrived at a spot in which all appeared quiet.

  White cranes like the one I saw in the meadow when we first passed the nature preserve rested in the trees. They were so plentiful; they almost looked like part of the foliage, large white feather bundles among deep shades of green.

  “How did you find me?”

  “Celeste came to my apartment in Chicago.”

  Her presence finally registered. He stepped to the side to get a look at her wings. The feather barbs had started to form white tufts.

  “What are you?”

  I replied for her, “She's an angel. God sent her to help with your rescue.”

  Michael laughed, “God?”

  She nodded solemnly.

  To my surprise, he believed her, “And to think I spent all those years denying He existed.”

  Celeste scowled, “How could you say that? You performed miracles.”

  “Yeah but, I just thought I was a freak of nature. I never actually believed.”

  “We went to your house.” I told him.

  His attention snapped back to me, “Sarah?”

  I looked out into the trees and shook my head, “She's gone. She told me she was sick.”

  “She wanted to die. Did you help her?”

  I drew a deep breath, “She asked me to.”

  His brow furrowed, but he nodded, “Yes. That's okay. That's good. I was worried these people would murder her. I'm glad you were there. They threatened to kill her if I didn't cooperate.” He steadied himself on the boardwalk railing.

  “You can leave now. They have no leverage.” I offered as a sort of consolation.

  “They would just hunt me down again. They won't stop until they have all the pieces to their puzzle. They're serious, Hunter. I've seen things. What they say could be real.”

  “What?” I prodded.

  He sighed, “Just weird stuff. I can't explain really.”

  “The stars?”

  “Yes, the stars, but it's more than that. When we go into group meditation, you'll see what I mean. I don't want them to accomplish what they're trying to do. It's unholy.”

  “You just said you didn't believe in God.”

  “I meant unholy as in not right. I've had plenty of doubts, but the resurrection of those two creatures is wrong.”

  “Llewyn said they were human.”

  “When they were alive, yeah, but in death, their energies have changed them. They don't even look human anymore.”

  “Wait, you've seen them? As in not imaginary beings?”

  Michael nodded.

  My blood ran cold. I had been operating under the assumption the whole story was the concoction of a damaged, yet manipulative mind. To think the mythology she pressed could be true was horrifying. An inhuman ravager with the power of many ravagers. The existence of such a creature would be catastrophic. It could tear down every life, civilization, ecosystems. I was the next to steady myself on the boardwalk railing.

  I turned to my guardian angel, “We were right, I guess. This is more than a simple rescue. What now?”

  Celeste had paled, “I don't know. I need to pray.” Looking stricken, she left us to move farther down the boardwalk.

  “I wondered what was so special that divine intervention was required. Too bad the big man upstairs couldn't give my girl a heads up.”

  “What's up with the wings?”

  “You know that old cliché about angels having to earn their wings?”

  “You're kidding me.”

  “You should have seen them when she landed in my living room. They looked like were ripped from her back, bloody and broken.”

  He cringed, “Yikes.” Then he changed the subject, “Did Sarah suffer?”

  “She was happy, tired of you keeping her alive. There was a rainbow. She said it was for her.”

  A bell in the tower rang over the grounds, startling the cranes around us into flight. They lifted, wings stirring the air and scattering white feathers all around.

  “That's the bell to call us to the temple.”

  “What for?”

  “The ceremony for Emma.”

  Celeste caught up with us as we reached the lawn behind the compound. A crowd of people from the grounds was making its way into the building. Guardians kept watch near the door.

  I committed their faces to memory in an effort to start a count. They were marked with same glyph tattoos as the others, symbols on their forearms. I wondered if the number of tattoos designated their rank.

  A guardian with black hair stopped Celeste at the temple door inside, “Not you, the mother's orders.”

  “I'll wait in the lobby.” She told me and disappeared back through the crowd.

  Llewyn's followers would all be in the temple. I could probably get some idea of a head count while they were all in the same place.

  The temple was divided with aisles on each side and one down the center like church pews, but the benches were shorter and farther apart with cushions on the floor, for kneeling, I guessed. Sunlight shone through windows that reached toward the ceiling.

  The benches filled quickly. Llewyn's followers were an orderly bunch. They took their seats, talking excitedly about whatever was going to happen.

  A small hand emerged from the crowd to grab me. Bree appeared.

  “You found your brother! That's great. Come on. I saved us a couple of seats in the second row, so we can be close to the action.” She pulled me through the throng.

  I stopped when I saw the statues. They were a pair of muscular, four-legged creatures, one in ebony and the other in ivory white, facing each other at the back of the stage. Their construction was roughly lion, but the details were alien. They each had four eyes with the larger pair shaped like wide almonds and rimmed in what looked like scales. The second pair of eyes, located behind the first, encroached on the territory of the ears, which lay against the sides of their
heads.

  Menacing yet silent roars revealed rows of curved teeth inside and thick serpent tongues that forked into three ends. Along their jaw lines, spikes jutted downward and continued to the base of their necks, then ran down the backs, lying against one another as though waiting for the opportunity to rise against whatever threat dared to present itself.

  “Come on.” Michael urged me to a seat.

  “They look like that?” I could barely get the words out.

  He nodded.

  The idea that I could somehow be a part of these monsters made me want to throw myself off a bridge. I knew then I would do whatever was needed to keep those things from entering the living world.

  Speakers mounted on the walls played tones like electric bells. Members of the congregation observed the stage area with rapt attention. Even the guardians posted at the entrances took seats to await the proceedings.

  Two women dressed in plain, gray tunics took the stage. Their hair was pulled back from their faces and twisted into braided crowns. They stood in front of the statues.

  Next came Emma, the honoree. Her tunic was a midnight blue embroidered in silver. She knelt between the women, but faced the left side of the stage. She placed her hands together at her chest in prayer.

  Llewyn and Vic entered through a door on the left side of the stage. He surveyed the crowd until he located me and then turned back to her. She stood next to Emma to address the crowd.

  “Welcome, everyone. Welcome to Marie,” She motioned to the women behind her, “and Dena who are here to bear witness on behalf of the Divine Ones. Emma is a shining example of what we should all strive to be. Her heart is pure, her devotion complete. Maructe, the evolved spirit of Samus, and Ekash, the evolved spirit of Josiah, taught us that the universe is driven by balance, light against dark, life against death. These energies flow through the heavens, rivers from which, upon evolution, the Divine Ones culled their names.”

  I didn't like where this was heading. I could tell by the look on his face that Michael wasn't digging it either. He appeared even more haggard than before.

  Bree, on the other hand, looked on with wide-eyed reverence, much like everyone else in the room.

  Llewyn went on, “Each of us is but a particle of energy borrowed from the Divine Ones. When the time comes, when they call for the return of our fragment, we must relinquish our star to the rightful owner, so that one day, they may walk the mortal realm and show humanity what it is capable of becoming.”

  As I took in the scene around me, the expressions that spoke of admiration and hope, I knew there was no way to stop what was about to happen. These people had no desire to be saved. In fact, if I attempted to interrupt this special day of theirs, they were likely to take it badly, especially the guardians who, for some reason, seemed to have made a mission of searching for an excuse to kick my ass.

  Llewyn went to Marie who brought a ceremonial dagger from behind her back.

  My stomach suddenly felt as though I'd swallowed a ball of hot lead. I was about to witness a murder. I'd seen people killed before. Hell, Celeste and I had taken out the enforcers Gideon brought to Sarah's house, but this was different. This was no fight.

  Llewyn raised the knife. Bree looped her arms around mine. Her excitement was almost sickening. I wanted to shake her, tell her how wrong this was. Why didn't she know?

  I looked at Michael. He shook his head no to tell me not to do it. Don't make a scene. Don't forget the danger.

  “I commit this star back unto the sky. Fly swiftly. Ekash is waiting.”

  The blade sank into Emma's chest easily, and she gasped a nauseating, wet sound. The witnesses sprang forward to catch her as she fell backward. She tried to speak, but the words were lost in her body's struggle to handle the trauma.

  The seconds that passed as she died ticked by in agonizingly slow motion until her movements ceased. The stillness in the room persisted for a short while after. It seemed a morbid thing, the quiet, the gawking at the lifeless body before us.

  No one moved because the show hadn't yet ended.

  A tiny orb of golden light levitated from Emma's body, twinkling in the air. Then it shot, like a miniature comet, past the witnesses and Llewyn, into the white statue of Ekash.

  I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. Michael had warned me, but I couldn't wrap my head around the reality.

  Llewyn stood over Emma's body, holding the knife that dripped blood onto the carpet at her bare feet. Her gaze found mine and held, and again, I felt my soul stir. The control she had over the others wasn't caused by weakness on their part. As we stared at one another, I realized that I could easily fall under her control. Her presence was a potent force I wasn't sure I could fight.

  She spoke to the crowd again, “I want you all to remember Emma's Ceremony of Light when we go into meditation. Your day will come but only through true enlightenment. Seek the Divine Ones. Live virtuously and be good to each other because we are all part of the same immortal beings. Continue to build the kingdom, so your brothers and sisters can find their way home. We'll have a short break and then gather outside for the pyre.”

  Electronic bell tones played through the speakers again. Everyone in the audience rose to leave. The mood lost all solemnity. They spoke to each other about trivial things like chore lists and where they would meet up later. Bree chattered in my ear about how wonderful Emma's ascension was and how she longed for her own Ceremony of Light. I tried to block her out because I didn't want to hear about how she couldn't wait for Llewyn to stab her in the chest.

  Celeste met us as we exited. Upon seeing my distress, she asked what the matter was.

  I told her, “You were right. Something is wrong.”