Mother was quick with the blade. She slashed Belinda’s face.
“No, sweetheart!” Robert went to turn but was twisted back into place by a strong set of hands.
“She’s fine, face wounds tend to bleed a lot. It looks much worse than it is. But if you question me again, I’ll put a hobble in her step.”
Robert looked around, as if weighing some invisible set of options. As far as Blake could see he only had two; pull the trigger or don’t.
“Toby, if he hesitates further, put a round in her kneecap,” Mother instructed flatly.
“Uh, which one?”
She sighed. “Pick whichever one you’d like.”
Terrence was starting to regain his wits. He hovered protectively over Sheila. There was blood coming off his face, collecting around the bottom of his chin and dripping against her back. He looked up and saw the gun. He smiled and nodded, accepting his fate. “You do what you’ve gotta do. Please, just make it quick. She’s suffered enough.” Terrence buried his face in the nape of his wife’s neck. They sat their holding each other, rocking back and forth; bloody, filthy, despised by the masses, but alone and full in their embrace.
“Pull the trigger, Mr. Zulma.” Mother leaned in and pressed the tip of the knife against his cheekbone. “Pull the trigger, or your wife pays the price for your hesitance.”
The crowd began to recite the phrase, “Pull the trigger! Pull the trigger! Pull the trigger!”
Robert screamed and closed his eyes as his finger coiled around the smooth surface of the curved metal. The gun coughed to life in his hands. The seconds felt like minutes as the expended shell casings gathered in a small pile on the ground, rolling across one another like the tiniest chimes being played by the gentlest breeze. With each new bullet that erupted from the barrel the form of the entangled lovers was slowly whittled down to a messy, pink pile of formless matter.
Blake felt a stiff elbow nudge him in the side. “Gees, you ever see anything like that, Doc? What a mess.”
Blake just shrugged and shook his head.
Mother removed the smoking gun from Robert’s shaky grasp. He crumpled to the ground beside his wife. His mouth was frozen open. His eyes were searching the pile of human debris, as if he were mentally trying to reconstruct the two bodies he’d just destroyed.
“You did well.” Mother patted his head gently. He’d become just another one of her dogs.
“I don’t think Doc is too happy,” Toby snorted with laughter.
Blake’s face must have reflected what he felt inside: nothing. “I’m fine, just tired from the heat is all.”
“Toby, you worry about cleaning up this mess. Get two of the men to help you. I don’t want it stinking out here.”
Toby tapped the two guards closest to him. They approached the corpses with befuddled expressions, not really sure where to begin.
Many in the crowd shoved forward, trying to get a better view of the carnage. Some even escorted their children to the front of the line, as if using the horrific image to drive home some twisted morality tale.
“Alright everyone, you can begin heading back. His will has been done. Let His blessings be ever at your back.”
“And yours, Mother,” the crowd recited in unison.
Blake took one last look at the mangled bodies. In that final glance, it wasn’t horror or pity that overcame him. No, it was an odd sense of jealousy. They’d escaped Reeman. They’d escaped Mother and Toby and the damnable Scriptures. They were free.
32
The office was rather sparse. There was a desk populated with loose papers and a cup of writing utensils. Behind that, on the wall, hung a rather hideous looking drawing; the rest of the walls were bare. There was a well worn chair and a single shuttered window with a metal chalice and a thick book sitting on the sill.
Toby stood behind them, so close that Dominic could hear his bowels churning.
“Do you always keep it this dark in here?” Dominic asked, trying to make conversation.
Toby didn’t bite. He just lingered. He sucked a ball of phlegm into the back of his throat. For a second Dominic thought he was going to expel it on to the floor at his feet. But he didn’t. He just kept it there on his tongue like a fine wine.
“Who did the drawing over there?” He refused to give up on getting the bastard to loosen his lips.
Nothing.
The door sprang open just as Dominic was devising his next plan of verbal attack.
It was Mother, clad in a set of snow white robes. A perfumed breeze rolled in behind her. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I trust my son proved to be pleasant company.”
“He’s a real people person,” Dominic said with a toothy grin.
Lerah whacked him in the ankle with the side of her foot.
“Well I’m glad to hear it. Toby, I want you to wait outside. I need to converse with our guests. I’ll call you if I need you.”
“I’ll be right outside these doors.”
Dominic recognized the vaguely shrouded threat.
Mother stood behind her desk and fanned through a stack of papers. After a minute or so of fruitless shuffling, she took her seat. She interlocked her fingers and granted them a jittery smile. “So, what brings you to Reeman?”
Dominic and Lerah looked at each other and smiled.
“You want to take this one, honey?” Lerah asked.
“You always tell the story better than I do.”
“Oh no, you’re too sweet, you’re definitely the better storyteller.”
The jousting couple routine, it was a bit they’d worked on during their walk up to the front gates. It’d been Lerah’s brainchild.
“Okay, sweetheart, if you insist.”
“I insist,” Mother interjected, doing a poor job of concealing her sparkling fuse.
“Apologies, ma’am—”
“Mother, please, call me Mother.”
“Mother, absolutely, my apologies for the delay, I’m sure you’re busy.”
“I am, so please, get on with it.”
Dominic cleared his throat. “Well, as we told your guards, our settlement was destroyed by the Union. We started north because we didn’t know where else to go. The Wastes pretty much picked us apart. We eventually found our way here.”
“And we’re so thankful too, my gosh, you have no idea what a blessing it was to see your settlement. It’s beautiful, by the way.” Lerah leaned forward, a hand pressed flat against her chest, speaking in high pitched, breathy tones.
Dominic almost didn’t recognize her beneath the ruse.
“Well, thank you dear. We do take pride in what we have. Now, you say it was the Union that attacked you? Why did they attack you?” Mother narrowed her baggy eyes. She was a harder nut to crack than her men had been. This wasn’t casual pondering, this was an interrogation.
Dominic cleared his throat, sat back, and propped one foot across his knee. “After they invaded they held us as prisoners. They questioned us, hard. They kept going on about the Rebels and a chest of coin they lost.”
“A chest of coin?”
“Yeah, they kept us locked up in the main hall for a full day before they lost their patience and started burning stuff and shooting people. I overheard them talking about some plan to buy up settlements that had sided with the Rebels during the war. They want everyone under the Union flag.”
“Hm,” Mother stood and walked to the window, “that sounds like the Union I know.”
“Their reach extends to these parts? And here I thought we’d escaped their clutches.” Lerah grabbed Dominic’s arm, feigning distress.
“They extended a similar offer to us. But here, in Reeman, we’ve no use for their currency. And we don’t find our freedom in flags or puppet rulers; we find our freedom in the embrace of the Creator.” Her fingers stroked the cover of the book sitting on the window sill.
“I imagine it’s a much more comfortable embrace than the one offered by the Union.” Dominic meant it; he’d take the invisible embrace of a f
igure in the sky over the shackles of the Union any damn day of the week.
Mother sipped from the chalice and gave a satisfied smack of her lips. “The hypocrisy of the Union is a subject for lengthy discussion. Take our settlement, for example. The Union came to us with their chests of coin. They claimed to be offering us freedom. They threatened us with fire and death if we didn’t accept their terms. Is that freedom? Everyone in Reeman is here because they chose to be here. Take you and your woman. Did anyone force you through those gates? Were you forced into those seats? Right now, if you wanted to, you could walk out that door and return from whence you came; no one would stop you. Is that not true freedom? The Union doesn’t want freedom. They want control. Well, the people of Reeman aren’t going to give it to them.”
Dominic had to admit, the woman made sense. “When the element of choice is removed, it’s no longer freedom.”
“When you say they threatened you, what do you mean? Did they send their armies?” Lerah was being a bit too forward.
Mother sipped from the chalice and stared blankly through the cracks in the shutters. “Not exactly, but it’s not something I wish to discuss. That matter has been settled.”
“So, we’ll be safe if we stay here?” Lerah continued.
Mother turned, holding the chalice against her chest. “That depends on if you stay here. That decision rests with me, not you.”
“Your men mentioned as much,” Dominic replied.
“We’re not your normal settlement.”
“That’s obvious. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a settlement with the sort of defenses ya’ll have in place; not since the war anyway.”
“Yes, they told me that you fought against the Union. A special unit, the name escapes me.”
“The Saboteurs, ma’am.”
“Mother, please, call me Mother.”
“Sorry, I’ll have to get used to that.”
“They mentioned a tattoo. May I see it?”
Dominic looked to Lerah; a husband seeking the permission of his wife.
“Go ahead, dear. He’s so shy,” Lerah said, with a flick of her wrist.
Dominic stood and raised his shirt. “You’ll have to excuse the mess. This body has experienced its fair share of heartache.”
Mother cracked the shutters. Thin sheets of yellow light slipped into the room. She leaned forward, surveying the ruins of Dominic’s torso. “It’s a crude etching, I must say.”
“It was drawn by crude men, using crude tools.”
“It does appear that you’ve seen your fair share of bumps and bruises. That one looks rather fresh,” Mother was referring to Lerah’s patchwork job.
“As it should, I received it from the Union a few days back.”
Mother stared quietly for a few more seconds, biting at her top lip. “Okay, I’ve seen enough.”
He dropped his shirt and sank back into his chair.
“I admire you, both of you, for standing against the Union. I believe you would both be assets to this community, it’s just a matter of whether you believe you have the ability to assimilate to our way of life.”
“I suppose we won’t really know until you tell us about your way of life.”
Mother held up a finger. “I’m getting to that, dear.”
“Perhaps we could get a drink of whatever you’re nursing? It’s been a long road, as you can probably imagine.”
“I’m afraid not, this is exclusive, and there isn’t much left.”
“Oh, well, I can fix that. That’s just grain alcohol; I can smell it from here. That stuff was my daddy’s constant companion. I learned to make it simply by watching him.”
“There’s a little more to it than that, this was a supernatural gift.”
“I’m telling you, Mother, just give me a barrel—” The familiar blade of Lerah’s boot digging into his ankle cut him off. “But if it’s supernatural, yeah, I can’t really do much there.”
“No, you can’t,” she said, staring at him over the top of the chalice. “So, are you two married?”
“We are!” Lerah shrieked. “It’s still pretty new. We were only married a month before the Union took our home from us.”
“That is unfortunate. His ways are beyond our comprehension, and often times, they’re for our own good. Sometimes we have to travel the harsh roads. It’s only when we get to the end that we’re able to look back and see the purpose in all of it.”
Lerah pouted up at Dominic with glassy eyes. “Aw, that’s so beautiful. Honey, did you hear that?”
“Yes I did, I’m sitting right here.”
“Do you not believe it, Dominic?” Mother asked.
“It’s just hard to see it right now, like you said; we haven’t really gotten that far down the road.”
Mother nodded. “Understandable, but give it time.” She placed the chalice back on the sill and removed the book. She opened it and began fanning through its yellow pages. “No kids, I’m assuming?”
Lerah shook her head. “No, we don’t have any little ones.”
“Are you actively trying?”
“Well,” Dominic cleared his throat, “you know, being on the road, it wasn’t really an ideal time. We’ve consummated our marriage, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“We just want to be in a place where we can bring a family up safe.” Lerah and Dominic intertwined fingers and exchanged glances of silent agreement.
“It sounds like you want to multiply. That’s good, that’s fantastic.” Mother smiled, staring into the recesses of the book, her hand shaking with each turn of the page. “That is one of our core tenets; multiplication.”
Lerah nodded. “Reeman sounds like a good fit. We’d love to start a family, right honey?”
“Absolutely,” Dominic had a hard time matching her enthusiasm, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
“I want to read to you from the Gospel of Multiplication. This scripture is at the very core of what we believe. When I’m finished, you can decide whether you’d like to stay or go.”
“Sounds good.”
“All ears.”
“This comes from the book of Syr, it’s the second verse of the Third Lament: Verily, I shall set a curse upon your house. You have turned your eyes to the low places. I shall cleanse thee with fire and with ash. The curse I have wrought forth shall be upon your heads and your children’s heads and their children’s heads. Yea, only the righteous shall endure. It shall be upon them to multiply and replenish the grounds from whence my judgment came. He that fails to multiply, that fails to put his hands to good use, does not find favor with the Creator, for they are not worthy of the Kingdom. Preserve your righteousness and strike the cursed from among your ranks, for it is the righteous that endure. Selah.” Mother closed the book with a solemn sigh and held it at her waist, obviously waiting for some sort of reaction.
It was all noise to Dominic, the babbling of a newborn babe, each sound as indecipherable as the next. He looked to Lerah and could see that she didn’t retain anymore of it than he had. “You’ll have to excuse us. I guess they had a different book in our church.”
“There are many false gospels and many false teachers. They spread fallacious ideas and turn the eyes of the people away from the one true Creator.”
“Ah, that was definitely our church then.” Dominic did his best to sound disappointed. “If it wouldn’t be too much, can you explain what all of that meant?”
“The scripture?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid the wife and I have never been much when it comes to interpreting Scripture, false or otherwise.”
“In the interest of being blunt, it means multiply or else.”
“Or else what?”
“Yeah, what happens if we don’t multiply? That sounds like a lot of pressure.” Lerah gave an uncomfortable laugh. Dominic could feel the beads of sweat breaking out against her palm.
“You need to understand, multiplication is a life or death scenario in Reeman. If you decide to st
ay, there is no leaving. Once you make your covenant before the Creator it cannot be broken. We live beneath the Curse, the same Curse that brought the fires down upon the old world. But multiplication is not your only option. You can choose to live separately from one another, celibate, and dedicate your lives to multiplying our little settlement through labor. Stay, leave, multiply, or don’t; in the end, the choice is yours. You have freedom here, no matter what the Union may say.” Mother set the book back on the sill and returned to her desk.
“What do you think, honey?” Lerah asked, giving Dominic’s hand a little shake.
“Well, it’s a lot of information. I know I’ve got no interest in being separated from my lady.”
“That’s admirable, Dominic, very admirable. I’ve seen some men come through here that, in the interest of preserving their own skin, chose the path of celibacy; they dropped their woman without a second thought. They were men without faith.” She slapped at her desk and created a small burst of air that sent some of her papers swirling to the floor. “Oh, great, just… Toby! Toby! Get in here boy!”
“I can get that for you.”
Mother flapped her hand like a broken wing. “No, let my son serve a purpose for once.”
Toby rushed into the room with his gun at the ready, prepared to do battle. “Mother, are you okay?”
Dominic could smell the layers of dirt and sweat wafting from Toby’s gelatinous gut as it hovered near his face.
“Oh, calm down boy. Pick those papers up and then leave.”
He sat his weapon up by the door and dove to his knees, scooping the papers up like a vagrant lapping the breadcrumbs from a tavern floor. It was obvious that Toby was used to playing the role of the footstool; he was all duty and no shame.
“Will there be anything else, Mother?” Toby aligned the stack of parchment and placed it delicately on the desk.
“You may go.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Once Toby had exited, Mother continued. “So, it’s time to choose. Will you be staying here with us in Reeman?”
Dominic looked at Lerah. She was pinching her tongue between her front teeth and had managed to forge a ridiculous grin. She was a sly devil, no doubt about it. She nodded eagerly at him and he sighed as if his arm was being twisted on the matter. “I suppose we are. Do we sign something with our blood?” He was only half joking.
The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1 Page 26
