“May his hand be ever on her!”
“I’ll bring your kind words to her. I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear them. We don’t have much on the agenda tonight. A little bit of town business and then we’ll get to the meat of tonight’s service. Sound good?”
“Take your time, Zach.”
“Fine by me.”
Blake folded his arms across his chest and slumped down in his seat. Riley curved an arm through the crook of his elbow and laid her face on his shoulder.
Zach covered the usual stuff: the progress being made on the new wells, construction on the wall to replace some rotting wood, an upcoming supply excursion in need of volunteers. “And that’s it as far as town business goes.” He shifted a few pages of notes, a stray sheet fluttering from his grasp and landing on the stage at his feet. “I know word spreads fast around here. I know all of ya’ll are aware of the unfortunate incident that took place last night. We lost a good man. He had no immediate kin, seeing as how he was abstinent, but that don’t mean he was without family. We were his family. And we all feel his loss.” Zach paused, studying his notes. “He was taken from us senselessly, at the hands of Colton Otterman and Kati Zulma. Both of them had also taken the Oath of Abstinence. Last night, they set out to break that oath, to break the bonds of Scripture. When they were caught in their defiance, they acted out violently, and killed one of our own.”
Terrence jumped to his feet. “Now you hang on one damn second! There’s more to it. My boy felt threatened. The Doc had been asking him all these questions—”
“Sit down, Mr. Otterman,” Zach spoke firmly.
The guards all moved forward at the same time, waiting for the order to jump.
“I’m gonna get a word in here, now I want—”
“Sit down, now!” Toby raised his rifle.
The crowd quickly turned on Terrence. They waved their fists and shouted him down, until he sheepishly fell back into his seat and took his sobbing wife in his arms once more.
“Everyone calm down. Just, calm down.” Zach waved his hands across the congregation, as if casting a spell. “He’s a father. A father that is grieving for his son. What happened is not his fault; his boy is a man and is in charge of his own actions. Many of ya’ll in here have children. I’m sure ya’ll can relate to his pain. It’s got to be hard, losing a kid. So don’t go being rough on him. If anything, you comfort these families. They’re gonna need it.” The mood in the room seemed to bend at Zach’s command. “Now, ya’ll know we’re a people that live under the laws of Scripture. And Scripture is pretty specific about the penalty for heresy.”
“Spare my Kati, please?” Belinda was on her knees, her hands folded on the back of the pew in front of her.
“I take no pleasure in pronouncing this stuff, but I’m gonna require order. Guards, if ya’ll will remain on standby for me.”
Guns came up.
“Just read the damned words! We all know where this is going.” Terrence shouted.
“In accordance with Scripture and the will of our Creator, I hereby sentence Colton Otterman and Kati Zulma to take the Fall. The Fall will take place two days from now, come sunrise.”
The hysterics of the two mothers reached a fever pitch, a momentary tide of emotion that swallowed the room.
Terrence was on his feet again. “May I speak?”
Zach nodded. “Make it brief.”
“When will we be allowed to see our children? We would like to visit with them one last time. It’s customary that family be allowed a visit before sentencing is carried out.”
“You won’t.”
“What?” Terrence looked as if he’d just taken an unexpected blast of air to the face.
“You will not be visiting with them. Mother has suspended visitation for security reasons. There will be no—”
“She cannot do that!” Belinda was stamping at the floor and whipping her head back and forth, spraying tears like a wet dog shaking dry after a bath.
“Matter of fact, she can do that. Visitation ain’t Scripture. This is a sensitive situation.”
“It’s a smoke screen! A bunch of bullshit! What’d you do to my boy in the lockup? Huh? We all heard him screaming.” Terrence searched the crowd for allies.
“Another outburst from you and—”
“What? Are you gonna call Mommy? She let you be the big man tonight, can’t you handle it yourself?” Terrence stepped into the aisle, his thumbs hooked in his waistband.
Toby started towards him with giddy anticipation, eager to break bones and render bruises.
Zach hopped down beside his brother and pushed him back towards the stage. “I’ll take care of this.” Zach began rolling up his sleeves as he approached Terrence. “You disrespect our Creator’s house? You disrespect me? And you disrespect Mother?”
“Boy, I knew you when you were still in diapers, you dare to—”
Zach flattened his nose with a quick right handed jab. He followed it up with an uppercut that planted Terrence on his back.
“Stop it! Stop! Don’t hurt him!” Sheila was fighting her way across the pew on all fours.
Robert hooked her around the thighs and pulled her back. “You don’t want to get in the middle of that. Stay back, he’ll be okay. Your husband is a strong man.”
“Listen to the man; he’ll keep you from a world of hurt.” Zach circled Terrence, searching for the best opening. He was curled in a ball, protecting his vital organs. Zach kicked him in the spine with the toe of his boot and opened him up like a flower. Terrence groaned and rolled over, arching his back, and pressing his chest towards the ceiling. “This man openly mocked Scripture, did he not?” Zach looked out across the congregation. They sat up on their haunches, trying to get a better view of the steel toed flogging. “He insulted our Mother… your Mother.” He kicked Terrence in the side, curling him back up with a wet little whimper.
“Don’t you think he’s had enough?” Blake stood up and stepped into the aisle. He heard the guard approach him from behind and felt the muzzle dig into his back. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Well you’re about to get some if you don’t back down. This ain’t your concern.”
“This is how we do things? We beat people in the middle of the Creator’s house?” Blake looked around and saw the same questions, the same doubts, lining the faces of those in the pews.
Apparently Zach picked up on it too. “I want ya’ll to remain calm and just think for a second. We can’t have folks speaking like that about Mother, can we? She ain’t here to deal with it, so that’s on us, am I right?”
The doors to the sanctuary blew open. Blake didn’t need to turn to know who it was. The shock on Zach’s face said it all.
“You may take your seat now, Doctor.” Mother said.
Blake wasted no time following her instructions.
She glided up the aisle.
Zach backed quickly towards the pulpit, almost tripping over his feet in the process.
“Mother—” someone in the crowd started.
She held up a closed fist and silence immediately followed. She stood over Terrence. He writhed on the ground at her feet. She went down on one knee and placed a gentle hand against the side of his face, undeterred by the blood glistening beneath her touch. “Come now, let’s get you looked after.”
Still fighting for breath, Terrence wrapped an arm around her shoulders and slowly came upright.
“Take him and go. You have experienced enough for one night.”
Sheila took him from Mother and they began moving for the doors, flanked closely by Robert and Belinda.
Mother turned her attention back to Zach. “You have disgraced this house.”
“Mother, you weren’t—”
“Guards, take him.” They moved in quickly from the left and right, two husky men. Zach froze, his knees slightly cocked. For a moment it appeared as if he might try to spring an escape. Toby retreated onto the stage, away from the potential blast zone.
“No, Mother, please, you have to listen to me.” He plunged to his knees and began to sob.
Blake had to fight laughter. The sight of Zach weeping scratched some dark itch he didn’t even know existed.
The guards hefted Zach to his feet. He didn’t resist as they bound his hands at his back and gave him a shove towards the doors. “Mother, listen to me—”
Mother slapped him hard across the face.
Zach began blubbering as he was ushered from the room, his head down, a string of snot hanging from his nose.
Mother took her place behind the pulpit, shooing Toby from the stage. “I, first, want to apologize for the behavior of my son. Tonight is a tough night for all of us. We’ve already lost one of our own and we’ll be losing two more in the coming days.” Her eyes blinked rapidly, the bright red lids twitched, the left and then the right. “The Fall is a blessed event, a commandment, and a gift. It’s also a trial. It’s hard on all of us. It is especially hard on the families that are losing someone. Mr. Otterman’s display of grief was, in that regard, justifiable. What was not justifiable,” her voice rose in volume and intensity, “were the actions of my son. I believe that, given the circumstances, Mr. Otterman had every right to grieve as he felt necessary. I am a strong woman. I am the mouthpiece of our Creator. Harsh words do not hurt my feelings.”
Tell that to Colton’s tongue.
“I don’t want any of you to be afraid to express yourselves. This is not a dictatorship. We all live under the laws set by our Creator. His judgment comes just as swiftly for us as it does for any of you. Zach will be punished for the behavior he exhibited here tonight. Let us move forward from this, together and stronger than ever.”
Cheers of blind adoration permeated the room.
Blake joined them.
He saw Mother’s eyes lingering on him, just long enough to ensure that he was playing his role.
A hand shot up from the crowd. “Mother, a question, if I may?”
“Yes, stand so that we may see you.”
The man stood. He hunched his shoulders and kept his gaze pointed at the ground. “Well, I just wanted to know, is it true what your boy said about visitation being suspended? Colton wasn’t my blood, but he was like a brother to me. We worked the wells together for some time. I’d like to see him before he takes the Fall.”
Mother nodded. “Unfortunately, what my son said is true. Due to the sensitive nature of this incident, we’re not going to allow for visitors. It’s already an extremely emotional event, and after conversing with our Father about it, I feel that suspending visitation is the best decision. I hope you understand.”
“I do, Mother. Thank you for being straight with me.”
“Are there any other questions or concerns?”
None.
Just cheers.
The sheep bleating for their shepherd.
“Then please feel free to be dismissed. I expect to see all of you tomorrow at sunset for the burial of our fallen brother, he was an important piece of this community, let’s be sure to show him the respect he deserves.”
Blake grabbed Riley and Judith and made for the doors as fast as his feet would carry him.
21
Dominic stood shirtless at the edge of the third floor of the bombed out office building, looking out over Hell’s Hallway. Nothing but air stood between him and the ground below.
Hell’s Hallway, what a name.
To him it was all just war. Young men died for faceless causes. Nothing was ever lost or gained. The bullets flew, and the blood poured, until one side tapped out.
The musky smell of charred wood from the burned out cook fire still hung in the air. As he stood there, rivets of sweat poured down his torso and back, he looked like he’d just stepped from a bath half dressed. The ground was still cloaked in pre-dawn shadow. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. Lerah still slumbered away peacefully. She stirred every now and then, rolling from her back to her side. Her knees were curled up above her waistline and her shirt was ruffled up around her taut belly. Her guns were both fully loaded and within arm’s reach, though they wouldn’t do her any good. The girl could sleep through an explosion. Dominic had tripped and scuttled to where he now stood and her eyelids hadn’t fluttered. It was nice to have someone to share the road with for a change; a companion.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Lerah had pushed herself up onto her elbows, her face still slack with sleep.
“No point in robbing someone else of rest just because I can’t grasp it for myself. We don’t have to set out yet. You’ve still got time.”
“I’m awake now.” She sat up and curled her knees back behind her butt. “What’s for breakfast?”
“There’s still some potato left from last night if you can get it down cold.”
“The potato will be fine. I hope Reeman at least serves up a decent meal.”
“I just hope I can get a decent smoke, I’m running low.” He took one of his last three cigarettes between his lips and set a match to it.
“Think you could spare one?” she asked, pulling a greasy bit of skin from the spud.
“Really?” He turned from the ledge and leaned back against a broken wall. “I didn’t know the lady smoked.”
“I’ve got to keep you on your toes.”
He shook a cigarette free from the pack and extended it to her. She came up to her knees and took it in her lips, wobbling a bit as he lit it.
She sat back down, leaning against the sandbags. “How’s the wound?” she asked, her eyes settling on his torso.
“Feels okay, not hurting me too bad. I’ve had worse.”
“I can see that,” she said, referencing the innumerable scars littering his body. “Come here and let me take a look at it.” She dropped the potato and brushed her hands off on the front of her shirt. “Stand still.” She started fiddling with the edges of the bandage as he stood over her. She was holding the cigarette in one corner of her mouth, puffing away like a pro. “You’re not bleeding through and it doesn’t smell funny. So far, you’re in the clear.”
“So I’m not dying?”
“Not yet anyway.”
He picked his shirt off the ground and slipped it over his head. “I’ll take what I can get.”
“Still need to keep an eye on it, at least for the next few days.”
He secured his weapons, picked up his jacket, and began to slap the dirt away. “You about ready?”
“Lead the way.”
Light was creeping up the narrow passage known as Death’s Hallway. What had been secluded by night was now framed by day: walls pockmarked by bullets, rust covered shrapnel peaking up from the dust, the possessions of the dead bleeding from sand crusted suitcases.
“Daylight really doesn’t do this place any favors.” Lerah did a poor job of hiding the shock in her voice.
“It’s as ugly as it gets.”
She walked behind him, kicking items of clothing and jewelry aside with the tips of her boots. “About what I said last night, you know, about you being full of shit and the stuff with the Rebels? The war is over and you’ve proven yourself a friend out here. I was just talking and not thinking.”
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for. The Union is your family. Folks tend to get pretty defensive about their family. It’s only normal.”
“Yeah, you want to believe family is perfect, know what I mean?”
“I never got the pleasure of such an illusion, but I do know what you mean.” Dominic looked down and saw something white sticking up out of the dirt, the edges rippling in the wind. He knelt and started clearing a space around it.
“What is it?”
He took up the cloth. There was a small hole and a rust colored stain. He recognized the fabric. Recognized the spot he was kneeling in. Recognized the snipers nest thirty meters back over his right shoulder in the second floor window.
“That a bullet hole?”
Dominic closed his fingers around
the item before Lerah could touch it. “She was probably twelve, give or take a year. Both of her parents had gone down in the first barrage; just shredded. She’d curled herself up behind the body of this dead mule, the only thing that had saved her. Poor goddamn mule, sprang a hundred leaks before I ever happened by.” Dominic’s voice seized up. A cloud cover moved across the surface of his eyes. He blinked hard and forged ahead. “There were bodies everywhere. There was blood. Shit was burning. I was shot up. There was smoke all in my eyes. Then there was this calm in the storm. They were all reloading, or they’d killed their quota for the day, I didn’t know. So I’m running my ass out of there and I see this little girl and I grab her up. I’m trying to run out of there with her as fast as I can. I’ve got her in one arm, my pistol is in the other hand, and then I hear a shot. It’s so far off; at first I think nothing of it. A few seconds later I feel her go slack. Her cheek falls against my shoulder, like she’s taking a nap. That’s when I see the hole in her back, the missing flesh, the missing fabric.” He let the cloth pinwheel from his grasp. It hit the ground and slowly blew away on the back of the breeze.
“People make mistakes in war. They mess up.” She sounded as if she were trying to convince herself. “I’m sure your crew had their share, right? I’m sure they messed up.”
Dominic nodded. “I’m sure they did.”
“We can’t change the past.”
“No we can’t.”
“We can only make sure the future is better.”
Dominic nodded. “I agree.”
She stood. “And that’s what we’re doing out here. So let’s get it done.”
If you say so. “Ready when you are.”
22
Zach sat against the back wall of the cell. His hands were shackled above his head. Morning had arrived and he hadn’t slept. He kept waiting for the door to burst open, for Mother to appear with her blade poised for his tongue.
They’d moved Colton and Kati in the middle of the night. Probably had them locked up in the gatehouse, further away from the main square, more eyes and guns on them. Colton’s blood still stained the floor. There’d been no attempt to clean it up. A few bits of straw had been brushed across the surface, some dirt was kicked around, but that was as far as the efforts had gone.
The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1 Page 18
