Page 8

John

W ith that, we hugged the back of the building and left the alley.

I peeked around the corner into the street, but it looked deserted and quiet.

Small shops lined the road. The buildings were all painted a silvery grey, with only colourful signs to tell them apart.

Some had obvious signs of damage, like shattered windows, but most were fully intact and looked like their owners had just gone on a lunch break and never came back.

I’d never seen a street that looked so…new. The paving sparkled as if made of tiny crystals, uncracked and whole. The paint on the buildings was fresh. It was somehow more disturbing than the hollowed-out shells of civilization that I was used to. It felt like walking over a fresh grave.

“Is this normal?” I asked Claire in a low voice.

She shook her head. “This was the market district, so it was often busy. But if a lot of the shopkeepers are dead, maybe they don’t use it. ”

We followed the dark, empty street. I stayed on guard, but even as we walked the next couple blocks, we saw no one.

We were just rounding a corner towards what Claire said was the main road when we finally heard voices drawing closer.

I grabbed Claire’s wrist and pulled her with me into a nearby alcove.

“Sir, it’s Hanson’s turn to patrol,” a young male voice said, obviously impatient. “I was supposed to be relieved so that I could attend the Gathering this evening.”

“Hanson has been relieved of duty ,” another man replied gruffly. His tone made me doubt that Hanson was just taking a break. “So, you’ll have to make do for now. The commander says he knows you won’t make the same mistakes.”

Their voices were getting closer. Claire cut me a look, silently asking me what to do, and I shook my head. Not yet.

The younger guy cleared his throat, then spoke in a very different tone.

“Of course, sir. I understand. Can you spare Jensen to accompany me?”

“You know the answer to that. We’re shorthanded as it is, Smith, what with the Gathering and all the special operations the commander keeps authorizing.”

That’s why the streets are so empty. They were all at whatever this Gathering was. Seemed like a security nightmare to me, but I wasn’t complaining. I just hoped we didn’t accidentally walk into the middle of it.

“Understood, sir.”

They’d see us in a minute. I pulled Claire toward a door further down the wall, then followed her through it. We entered a back storage room of an abandoned café, then waited till they left before continuing down the road.

“I used to love that place,” Claire said sadly as we crept between buildings. “They had a nice selection of coffee.”

“How did you guys grow coffee?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “In this climate?”

“Lab-grown, Wastelander,” she reminded me. “Not much grows in the ground here.”

I grunted. At a different time, walking through this place with her might’ve actually been fun .

“We should follow the main road past the central park, then take a left,” Claire instructed. “Taking side streets from there, we can bypass downtown to get to the school.”

I followed her lead, but as we got closer to the main road, it became obvious we weren’t alone anymore. We dodged a couple of patrols, and then the sounds of a large crowd grew close, getting louder as we walked.

“We can’t keep going,” I said. “We’re going to walk right into them if we aren’t careful.”

Claire nodded, thinking. “What we—”

I pulled her back into an alley just as two men rounded the corner down the street from us, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“Yes, Colonel, I was just saying—”

“Sorry,” I hissed in her ear. “But we need somewhere to hide. Now.”

I let her go, and she grabbed my hand. We waited a moment for the nearest voices to fade, then she led me through the back door of a medical clinic. It had a second floor, where we’d be able to look out onto the main road and plan our next move.

“Neil’s old workplace,” she said quietly. “Never thought I’d be here again.”

We headed to the upper level, which was mostly offices, and crouched below a second-floor window. I took in the scene: a large, wide open green space was full of people, all gathered around a raised platform. Claire peered over the sill and frowned.

“They’re in the central park,” she whispered to me. “Must be that Gathering they mentioned. I don’t think we’ll be able to go that way.”

I cursed. “Is there another way?”

“Yes, but it’ll take longer.”

We went downstairs to leave, but there were voices outside. We ducked behind a wall, out of view, but the glass door didn’t open.

“Jensen, you’ll be stationed here to oversee the procession,” someone said just outside. “Don’t leave this post until His Address has been given and the Gathering has begun.”

A masked cultist parked himself outside the entrance, facing away from us.

Judging by his wide stance and the lazy way he held his rifle, he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

We tried another exit, but it was also blocked by a guard who was watching the crowd.

Goddamn it. Every minute stuck here was a minute that Kimmy couldn’t afford.

“We’ll have to wait them out,” I muttered. “No choice.”

We went upstairs again and sat in what Claire said was Neil’s old office.

It was surreal, being in my girlfriend’s dead husband’s office, but it had a clearer view of the park.

The crowd only got bigger. Most of them wore the painted eye masks.

On the platform, an altar stood, draped in black with a large golden eye painted on the front.

“What do we do now?” Claire whispered.

“Lie low and wait for our chance,” I answered, sounding more confident than I felt.

We sat on the floor beside a floor-to-ceiling window. The blinds were down, giving us decent cover, but I made a small opening so we could watch outside. Several minutes later, there was the rumble of drums, and it seemed like whatever was happening was about to begin.

A tall, thin, light-skinned man in his forties took to the platform, smiling down at a crowd that instantly started losing its shit.

Unlike the rest of them, dressed in all black, he wore an elegant navy-blue suit.

He ran a hand through his wild brown hair and long brown beard. When he spoke, his voice was amplified.

“Family,” the man said, raising his hands to the crowd.

“A warm welcome, as always, to our weekly Gathering. Odessa, Lady of Shadows, Mistress of Cruelty…she blesses us with this shroud of night, and with her Eye, we see through the darkness to the ultimate purpose: Dominion. For the benefit of our guests, I’ll introduce myself: my name is James, but friends call me Jim J, your Prince of Pain.

The Order of Odessa is delighted you’re here for this joyous occasion. ”

Claire’s eyes widened. An elegant-looking older woman, dressed in a long purple gown, had joined Jim J on the platform, her eyes glued to him.

She had Claire’s eyes, but her mouth was thinner and pinched, like she pursed her lips a lot.

Shiny silver hair fell just past her shoulders, carefully styled.

Even though she was perfect-looking like the rest of them, with just a few wrinkles here and there, she had a mean look to her.

Something in her eyes, and the critical look she gave the crowd.

“My mother,” Claire whispered to me, even though I knew. If I hadn’t recognized the name Meredith, her reaction would’ve told me. I just nodded, hoping that we’d find a chance to leave soon. I wanted to spare her pain.

“We’ll begin, as usual, with the Vision,” Jim J announced .

A masked man carried what looked like a massive silver wine glass to Jim J on a tray. He took a long drink, paused, then drained the rest of it in about a minute.

For a minute, Jim J just stared at the crowd with a blank expression. Then his mouth twisted into a weird little smile, and he exhaled loudly.

“I see through Odessa’s Eye—her gift to me,” he said, and in unison, the crowd repeated it. Claire made a face that told me how uneasy she felt.

“I see the Vessel—a woman with skin pale as snow and hair red as the dawn. I see her blood on fresh sparkling snow, her heart in my hand, as I conquer death and Ascend. This is Odessa’s Great Plan, her challenge for me: crush all who do not bend the knee to Her Sight, who escape and elude me.

She has hidden away her power inside the Vessel—a sacrificial lamb, whose spilled blood brings the Ascension. The last of the failed Ainsley line.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up. The guy spoke with a passion that genuinely spooked me—the sound of total delusion spoken as fact. That he was obviously referring to Claire didn’t help.

I glanced over at her. Her cheeks had paled, and there was real fear in her eyes. I couldn’t blame her. I reached over and took her hand. Her cold, clammy fingers gripped mine tightly.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I reminded her. “Deep breaths, baby. Stay focused.”

Claire nodded and inhaled deeply. After a minute, she looked better, and her grip on my hand loosened. I hope coming here wasn’t a huge mistake. I could be putting her in even more danger than I realized.

“What does he mean?” she asked quietly, to herself as much as me. “I’m not the last of the Ainsley line.”

“You sure he even knows?” I replied doubtfully. “The guy’s mind is shot.”

Jim J rambled on for what felt like forever.

The guy didn’t know when to shut the fuck up, but I got that he and Claire’s mother, Meredith, were an item.

Judging by Claire’s expression, that little tidbit was as big a shock to her as it was to me.

Her mother wasn’t just a member of this cult…

she was literally in bed with its insane leader, who for some twisted reason was hellbent on killing her daughter .