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Finally, Jim J introduced a group of ordinary-looking people to the crowd. They were dressed in the dirty, lived-in clothing of farmers and labourers, and none wore masks. They were separated from the crowd by a roped-off area and armed guards.

“Wastelanders!” Jim J crowed. “Welcome to our humble abode.”

The masked crowd booed.

“What is he doing?” Claire whispered urgently. “Why would they want Wastelanders here?”

Jim J gave the crowd a disapproving look. “Now, now, family. You know that we require support to realize the Vision.”

He cleared his throat and spoke directly to the group of normal people.

“Wastelanders, I bring you good news. From a Wasteland you have been elevated—selected for something greater. Work hard, and you will be given the opportunity to ascend into our ranks. Help us take on the sleeping giant that is Omega, and you will be rewarded. We share the spoils of Odessa’s holy war with our family. ”

Jim J looked through the group.

“Ah, the bright-faced young man in the front,” Jim J said, gesturing towards the front of a smaller crowd, separated by a roped-off area and armed guards. “Come. Seek your fate.”

One of the masked guards shoved a terrified, golden-haired boy towards the platform, and I gritted my teeth. He couldn’t have been more than ten years old.

“Welcome, child,” Jim J said, and his grin made me feel sick.

The boy said something, but without the microphone, I didn’t hear it. An attendant handed Jim J a microphone.

“Speak up, son,” he said, holding it up to the boy’s lips.

At first, the kid didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t have, either. But after Jim J insisted, the boy said,

“I just want to go home.”

Jim J threw his head back and laughed.

“Precious boy, you are home,” he said, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I understand you’re here with your sister today. Tell us your name, and where you come from.”

The boy hesitated again. “My name is Clay. Live on a farm with my mom and dad and my sister. You…your friends killed my parents.”

His voice trembled, and Claire looked as horrified as I felt .

“An unfortunate casualty of the cause, Clay,” Jim J said softly, as if this fucking guy had a sympathetic bone in his body.

“We appreciate your sacrifice. I promise that if you work hard and devote yourself to the cause, you will discover a whole new family right here within the Order, and a life that you couldn’t possibly have imagined living on that little Wasteland farm. ”

Even from a distance, the kid looked like he was about to burst into tears, but he was hurried off the platform by an attendant. Jim J smiled again as the masked crowd applauded him—there were even a few cheers. I shook my head in disgust. Claire just looked heartbroken.

Jim J let the applause die down before speaking again.

“Dear family, I can finally show you the gift I’ve promised,” he said, happy as a clam. “For your loyalty, you will be rewarded with the one true gift: life.”

Jim J drew a jagged, jeweled dagger from his jacket pocket, and before I even knew what the hell was happening, he plunged it into his own chest. He sighed, then twisted it, groaning.

“What the actual fuck?” I breathed.

Claire’s eyes were wide as saucers. “What is he—”

Before she could finish, he’d pulled the dagger out. Blood spurted everywhere, but the man had an honest-to-God smile on his face. He didn’t even seem to feel pain. He held up the dagger, and an attendant came running.

“Again, Sampson,” Jim J told him. “Show the people that this is no trick.”

Sampson took the dagger and stabbed Jim J again in the chest, this time with even more force. He pulled it out and stabbed again, and again, and then I lost count.

A minute later, Jim J was still grinning, even as his life bled out of him onto the stage.

“So, you see, family, that Odessa’s gift is true,” he said to the crowd, who broke into deafening cheers.

They were loving whatever the fuck just happened.

“The Mistress of Cruelty rewards me with eternal life. Once we achieve the Ascension, I will be able to grant each of you this same gift. Remember this as we take all that is ours.”

He took out a handkerchief and casually started to clean the dagger. I exchanged a look with Claire, who looked as shellshocked as I felt.

“What was that?” I asked her .

“An illusion,” she replied breathlessly. “There used to be people—magicians—in the Old World who used illusion to make magic seem real. But they were just skits.”

“Gotta say, that’s the best damn skit I’ve ever seen,” I said.

She bit her lip, looking unsure. But Jim J had already moved on, ushering Claire’s mother onto the stage.

“Welcome our guest speaker: Meredith Ainsley. Woman of my heart. Mother of the Vessel. Odessa sent her to me, in the knowledge that I would have need of her strength and courage, and of the Vessel she once bore into this world—a Vessel for my Ascension.”

I saw Claire gulp, and I squeezed her hand.

“It’s alright,” I soothed. “She can’t hurt you. Take another breath. Slowly.”

She did, in and out, just as her mother started speaking.

“Family and friends,” Meredith said with a malicious little smile. “Thank you for that warm welcome. I come bearing a history that holds lessons for our glorious movement, lessons from the Eye itself.”

“You may know that before I met our Jim J, I was married once,” she continued, and the crowd booed.

“Some of you knew Brandon, and some of you even witnessed his greatest failure: the rebellion of ’83.

Of course, Omega suppressed all knowledge of these events, so if you’re in the dark, you aren’t alone.

Together, we conceived the Vessel: the key to Jim J’s Ascension. ”

Claire’s grip on my hand was now painful, and I murmured more comforting words, wishing this shitshow would just end already.

“During the Great Sickness, when we moved into what would become the Cave, Brandon had so many ideas of how the compounds would save humanity. But, as we now know, it became nothing more than power seized by those too weak to rule in the Old World: Omega.”

There were jeers from the audience at that last word. I shot Claire a look, but she shook her head. She didn’t know what Omega was any more than I did.

“But Brandon was a visionary. An artist.”

Meredith’s lips twisted into a malicious little smile that made Claire flinch. She’d clearly seen that smile too many times. Anger curled tight in my gut .

Two attendants then appeared on stage, holding a giant canvas painting of blended dark blues and greys. It was a massive door that opened onto a bunch of clouds. The silhouette of a child peered around its corner. The whole thing had a dreamy quality that reminded me of Claire’s art style.

“Thirteen years after we’d sealed ourselves away inside the walls, he insisted that if we could just reintegrate, invite the Wastelanders to live among us, we could rebuild the world anew.”

More jeers from the crowd. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, couldn’t have that, could we?

“Brandon was a fool,” Meredith said, clearly enjoying every word.

“His pathetic rebellion died with him. He thought if he could appeal to people’s better nature, he could win.

Through Odessa’s Eye of Truth, we know that nature understands only one thing: power.

True power concedes nothing. Through our force of will, and by the grace of Odessa, we create the right. ”

Claire had shut her eyes and was breathing deeply through tremors that shook her.

I rubbed her back, but the truth was that her mother’s words worried me.

I’d fight to my last breath to protect her, but at the end of the day…

I was one guy. Getting her away from these creeps once and for all was job one.

“When we cut the beating heart of the Vessel from her body, remember that Brandon’s blood runs through her veins, and that it is Jim J alone who can purify this bloodstained legacy through his Ascension.”

She looked over at Jim J with obvious adoration, and I could’ve puked in my mouth.

An attendant came back with a lit torch, and Claire gave a small, pained cry as they set fire to Brandon Ainsley’s painting.

I pulled Claire into my arms, and she hid her face against my chest as we waited for the end to the madness.

“War is coming,” Meredith said in a hushed tone. “Play your part and remember that we have Eyes everywhere.”

She raised her hand, her palm facing the crowd. A small, black version of the Eye emblem was painted on her palm, and the rest of the Order raised their hands in perfect unison, reaching to her. Fucking creepy.

“Enjoy the festivities. ”

The crowd broke apart to allow tables to be carried over, and they began serving food.

They must have an afterparty for these things.

I checked on the door and was relieved that the guard had left.

Now was our window. I went back to Claire, who’d gotten to her feet.

She stood behind the office’s desk, frowning.

“What’s up? We have to move.”

She looked up at me, her cheeks still pale. “There’s something here for me.”

She held up a small, thumb-sized object. I’d barely even used a computer before, but I’d seen enough to know that it was a storage drive. Attached was a small chain and a label that read For Claire .

“From Neil?” I asked, confused.

“Must be,” she answered. “Not sure how I’ll ever open it, though.”

“The tech people at the Valley can try,” I replied, checking out the window. “Take it with you. Let’s go.”