by Riley Flynn
When Kate and Steve laughed, they harmonized.
“No, silly.” Kate tapped Alex on the arm. “It’s just a fence. It’s for the church. For our compound, as we call it.”
Alex could remember the church. His family hadn’t spent much time there. But it was always the tallest building in town. It was impossible to miss. Now, however, the spire hid behind the smoke.
They walked along the fence. Three blocks later, they came across an entrance, a large gate flanked by three guards and a small hut to keep the rain off their heads.
Alex could see the guns, pistols sitting on the guards’ hips.
“Hey there!” Kate’s sickly voice was accompanied by a wave. She skipped across and began talking with the guards. There was something to her tone: a zealotry, a conviction. Alex had heard it before, from Agent Root. It hadn’t ended well.
They were chit-chatting, Alex realized. Like people talking in a parking lot after Sunday service. No one seemed to notice the guns or the fence.
“Where’s Pastor Dan?” Steve slapped a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “We’ve got someone he’d love to meet.”
“Out riding right now,” said one of the guards, his eyes looking Alex up and down. “Who’s this?”
“Great! We’ll wait for him in the stables.” The hand from the shoulder dropped a few niches, pushing Alex gently forward. “We found this guy out on the edge of town. He’s great.”
“We have to check him.”
“Check him?” Steve seemed confused. Alex felt the hand pushing harder in his back. He walked forward. “But it’s such a beautiful day.”
“It really is a beautiful day!” Kate smiled as she spoke, her lips hardly moving.
“I know. Really beautiful. We still need to check him.” The guard put out a hand and stopped Alex moving forward.
He had a gun, Alex noted. A holstered pistol on his hip. All three of them did. They didn’t seem as happy as Steve or Kate, either. Something about guards, he’d noticed, no matter where they are, they share a kind of glum cynicism. A universal constant.
They might have guns, but they didn’t look comfortable. One of the guards on the other side of the fence was waddling on the spot. He’s got sore feet, Alex guessed. Probably not used to standing up all day. If these were the church people, they probably weren’t too used to guns or guard duty.
One way to find out.
Alex waited until the guard began to pat him down. He knew he didn’t have any real weapons.
As soon as the man lowered his head slightly, patting down every pocket, Alex saw his opening. With a quick hand, he snatched the pistol from its holster, pushing the kneeling man forwards and into the ground.
The guard cried out in pain. It took the others a moment to realize what had happened. Alex counted the seconds. One. Two. Three. He held the gun out in front of him, emptying the chamber and releasing the clip. The pistol hung limply from his finger, swinging back and forth while the other guards ran toward him, his other hand in the air.
When he was finally tackled, he smiled. Three seconds. Amateur stuff.
The other guards knocked him to the ground. There were more than three of them. Reinforcements must have arrived quickly.
“Hey, buddy.” Steve leaned over Alex. “Looks like you’ve fallen down there. We’ll have you up soon.”
The guards were patting down Alex aggressively now. They weren’t afraid to use a bit of force. He let them have their fun. Snatching the pistol had been an education, showing what these people were capable of. Suddenly, he felt much more assured. Then, they started kicking him.
“This is all just a bit of a misunderstanding,” Steve continued, “We’ll have you back…”
Steve stopped talking. The guard paused the kicking for a moment, reached into Alex’s pocket and pulled something out.
“Well, I’ll be…” Steve turned back to Alex, who’d curled himself up on the ground, already beginning to feel the bruising along his arms. “Did you know about this, buddy?”
“What?” Alex couldn’t remember whether he had anything in his pockets. Certainly nothing dangerous. The kicking had muddled his thoughts. It had seemed like a good plan, but was knowing that these church people weren’t too quick on the draw worth a beating? He tried stretching his arm out. It hurt.
“These.” Steve held something over Alex’s head. A pair of large iron nails. The lockpicks for the barn.
“I don’t remember those.” Alex told the truth, dragging deep gulps of oxygen.
“Sure is a doozy of a coincidence, I can tell you.”
“What?” Alex asked as a guard pressed a boot on his ankle, applying pressure.
“Yeah, big coincidence. Kate, did you see these?”
“Oh, wow. What an amazing thing to happen.” Her face appeared above Alex. “It’s an amazing coincidence.”
The guard pressed down harder on the ankle. Alex winced and squirmed. He didn’t want to call out. After a few seconds, the guard let up.
“What’s a coincidence?” Alex asked, quickly pulling his leg in, “Can I get up?”
“These nails, silly!” Kate took them in her hand. “It’s almost like it was meant to be.”
“I was telling you, Kate, wasn’t I? This here’s a godly man. A true believer. It’s a sign!”
“Mm-hum. Definitely. Beautiful.”
Alex stood up, rubbing his bruised arms and testing his weight on his ankle. It hadn’t been worth it. He’d gotten carried away with his own competence. Stupid move. He saw Steve looking at the nails.
“What is it? Why do you care about a pair of old nails?”
“Old nails?” Steve laughed. “Friend, do you know the story of the passion? How they hammered these into the Lord’s hands, making his sacrifice real? These are just like the real thing!”
“God nails. Got it.” Alex dusted himself off. “But why the coincidence?”
Steve looked at Kate, a smile on his face.
“He really doesn’t know.”
“He doesn’t. Oh my. What fun!”
Steve turned back to Alex.
“See, buddy. Our church. Our people. We’re the Church of the Instruments of the Passion. You come to us with those same instruments in your pocket? Don’t tell me that isn’t a sign?”
“They’re just nails.” Alex muttered to himself as he followed Steve through the guard checkpoint.
Plenty of people had been believers in Athena, all gathering in the little church on Sundays. But it seemed more of a social event, in Alex’s eyes. They’d held the funeral there, years ago, hoping it would have made his mom happy. Back then, he hadn’t been able to mention his lack of belief to the priest. This felt like a similar time to exercise caution. These people believed.
“Oh no they’re not.” Steve chuckled again, apparently able to hear the muttering. “I told you. They’re instruments. Our Lord wouldn’t have been able to rise again without them. They’re holy items, no doubt about that. And they brought you right to us. It’s a sign.”
“It’s a sign,” said Kate, “for sure.”
The two fell into a deep conversation, talking about nails and crucifixion and signs from god. Together, they walked across the compound. Alex’s initial curiosity was beginning to fade. Right now, he wanted to be back on the farm. It wasn’t even just regret at leaving things badly with his friends. Even if the farm was full of Krol and his lies, at least it wasn’t this.
The compound, as Kate had called it, was the town square. It was surrounded on all sides by buildings. Town hall. The church. All Athena’s biggest structures. In the alleys and the roads, the fence separated them from the world.
In the middle, covering up most of the formerly empty space, were a collection of temporary buildings. Like tents but more permanent. Living quarters for people who weren’t thinking of sticking around too long. They hid the church from view. But Alex knew it was there.
On the other side of the compound, the smoke pillars slithered into the sky.
They must have been burning a hell of a lot of fuel, Alex thought.
There were also people. They stopped and watched Alex as he walked through the compound. More than a few of them carried guns. More than a few waved as they passed by. They all smiled.
Steve led the way, tracking around to the west of the compound. As the guard had mentioned, there were stables there. Just a small one. Room enough for a couple of horses. They went inside.
Straw and hay lined every surface. Plenty for the horses to eat and sleep on. Alex couldn’t help but think it was more welcoming than his farm house. Warmer, for sure.
Before Alex could really look around, Steve disappeared for a second and re-appeared holding a short, three-legged stool.
“Here, sit down. Take a load off those legs.”
“What, here?”
“Sure. Right here. Then we wait.”
“Wait for what?”
Alex was left alone outside the door, nursing his regrets. Bruised arms and a bruised ego. A creeping sense of dread. He wasn’t a guest in Athena. He wasn’t a local. Right now, he felt like a prisoner, waiting to be sentenced. All he could do was wait.
16
Even as Alex asked the question, he knew the answer was about to arrive. He heard the sound of hooves outside.
The horse entered the stables. It was huge, taller than any Alex had seen this close. And it was pale. Not white. Not gray. Just pale. The same color as bleached bone.
On top of the horse was a man. Just as tall, Alex realized, with a long, flowing head of hair.
Daniel Levine.
Alex recognized the man. He’d heard the story. Everyone who’d grown up in Virginia knew about Daniel Levine. A onetime football prodigy who’d shattered a knee in college. Barely skipping a beat, he’d switched to politics. Moving up through the ranks, from a local elbow rubber to a city council man to a senator, certain people had pinned him down as a potential president one day.
Then, Alex knew the legend, he’d left it all behind. The same God which had gotten him through the football injury had come calling again. Levine had become a Pastor, the head of a massive church. Since a few years back, his face had been plastered across every late-night cable commercial.
Now, that same man rode in on a pale horse and Alex knew the face right away.
Levine spun around in the saddle and slipped off the horse. He wore a thin baggy shirt and blue denim jeans. A pair of cowboy boots completed an eclectic look. But with the broad shoulders and the strong jaw, he managed to drag it all together. An outfit halfway between apostle and ranch hand.
A golden cross, as big as a baby’s thumb, dangled from a chain around the man’s neck.
“Good morning, Steven.” Levine handed the reins of the horse to Steve. “And who do we have here?”
That voice, Alex had heard it a hundred times on television. But, in person, it was different. Smoother, more syrupy. What had seemed saccharine on the small screen seeped in through his ears and soaked into his thoughts. Every word reached into his mind, wrapped itself around individual anxieties and rocked it back and forth. It put a person at ease. A politician’s voice. A preacher’s voice. Practiced and perfected, spoken through a smile.
“We met him out near the edge of town. You won’t believe what he had in his pocket!”
Steve led the horse away and Levine walked toward Alex, still standing beside the stool.
“He had these.” Kate emerged from a stall and handed Levine the nails. “A sign, I’m sure!”
“Thank you, Kate.” Levine took the nails in his hand. “My word. My word indeed. Please, have a seat.”
Alex did not. Instead, he had to stifle a snort of derision when the nails were mentioned again. Levine smiled.
“I’m Daniel Levine. You may have heard of me. My friends, here. They call me Pastor Dan.”
He examined the nails, holding them up to the outside light.
“You’ll forgive me for not shaking hands.” Levine turned back to Alex. “One of my little ways. These are for healing, I assure you.”
Levine held his hands up in the air, bowing his head. “And to whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?”
Alex couldn’t see a reason to lie.
“Alex.”
“Alex? Do we have a last name?”
“Early.”
“I see. And, Mr. Alexander Early, what can I do for you today?”
Levine took the stool from behind Alex and sat down, crossing his legs, and taking a close look at the nails still in his hands.
“Nothing.” Alex found it easier not to lie. “I was just thinking of leaving.”
“Oh, no? Really? Are you lost? Worried? I don’t think you’re sick… You should stay a while, Alex.”
“I’m not. Not any of those. I just have some place to be.”
“Not here?”
“No.”
“Very well. I’m glad to hear you’re not sick.”
Levine was tapping the two nails together. Alex didn’t like the sound.
“You see, Alex. I’m sure you’ve seen what this sickness has done to this town. It’s truly terrible.”
“I saw.”
“I’m sure you did. But how closely did you look?”
Alex had toured through the town. He knew how it had used to look. Now, it was dead to the world.
“I can see you thinking, Alex.” Levine tilted his head to the side, his face a picture of innocence and serenity. “If you have to think, I’m sure you didn’t look closely enough. This virus, you see, it’s a gift. We’ve been chosen. You see, there’s no shame in being sick. It’s like being touched by God. Is this what you saw, Alex?”
“I saw…” Picking the right words seemed important. “I saw a town I didn’t recognize.”
Levine laughed.
“A diplomat! We could really do with a man of your tact, Alex. Really. But I digress. Athena is special. Everything you see around you, here and beyond, it’s a sign. A signal. A gesture from the Lord himself. Something special is happening here.”
The town had never looked special, Alex thought. That was its charm.
“Something special?” he said aloud. “I’m not sure I follow…”
“We all follow, Alex. That’s the beauty of it. Look around you. Kate follows Steve. Steve follows me. I follow God. And he leads us forward. Upwards. One step closer to heaven. We all follow hand in hand. It’s a beautiful thing, really.”
Levine laid the two nails on the ground amid the dirt. This man, Alex thought to himself, is insane. He remembered a pious senator, doing everything for God. Maybe from one of the more conservative sects. But he had assumed that was all bluster for the cameras. Now, it seemed, Levine actually believed. There were no cameras in Athena.
“We all came up from dust, you know? He raised us. And we’re now about to be raised the rest of the way. Everything that’s happening, Alex. There’s a reason. I saw it. I saw the truth. I gathered around me God’s chosen people. The important ones. The beautiful ones. The followers. We’ll be ready. We must save everyone. Everyone worthy.”
He’s insane. Alex couldn’t stop staring. Absolutely insane, he thought. I have to get away.
“Like… what? The apocalypse?” Alex hadn’t read much of the Bible. But he had an idea of how it ended. “You think this is Biblical?”
“Oh my, yes.” Levine chuckled. “But what isn’t? I’m sure you’ve heard of the Evangelicals and their rapture. Hopeful fluff, of course. A poor reading of scripture. But we can’t quarrel with the world around us. Does this not feel like the end of days, Alex?”
“I’m not religious.” Alex struggled to think of an answer. “I don’t know about this stuff.”
“You may not be religious, Alex, but the Lord certainly is. There’s hope for everyone. You only need to repent. And be baptized. We’re all sinners in the eyes of the Lord. Those with the power to repent, we must help them. We must get them ready. We’re here to save souls, Alex.”
Alex
watched Levine. It was confusing, to be so captivated by this craziness. But he couldn’t look away. The man sat on a stool, a pair of nails on the floor in front of him. He laughed, he smiled, and he knew how to captivate. Too charming a man to talk about the end of the world. He seemed almost happy. The worst of it, Alex thought, is that he’s helping me to see the bright side.
“But people had died.” Alex couldn’t help himself from arguing. “Millions.”
“Billions.” Levine flashed his pearly white teeth. “Soon enough.”
“So how can that be a good thing?”
“You’re not sick, Alex. How does it feel to be chosen?”
“What? I wasn’t… I just... I don’t know what I am.”
“A survivor, Alex. You’re a survivor. Have you ever felt like you don’t have the answers? Like you’ve been left out? Isolated? Selected? We know how that feels. I know how that feels. It’s a new world, for sure. God’s world. That’s the only truth you need right now.”
It’s Krol, Alex realized. The same self-assuredness. The meaning was totally different, but the way both men talked? They were almost the same. Two sides of the same coin.
“You and your people seem happy.”
“We are. You’re always welcome to join us. But you don’t believe me.”
Alex shook his head.
“I don’t.”
Levine stood up from the stool. The nails were back in his hand. He held them up in the air again.
“What brings you to this part of the world, Alex, if you don’t mind me asking? And with our very own insignia right in your pocket. Surely you can see the coincidence?”
“I was just passing through.”
“But there’s just us folks here now. Alex, you don’t look like a man who has spent long on the road. You’ve shaved. You’ve washed.”
Levine leaned against the open door and shouted out into the compound.
“Steve, please tell me. Where did you find our friend? Was there food inside his car? No? Exactly.”
Stepping back into the stable, Levine turned on his thousand watt smile again.