“I have no idea. Likely something we don’t want to get tangled with, though.”
“I have little doubt we’re going to go into it at some point. I would like to get its existence cleared up before that happens, though.”
“Eh.” I shrugged. “Not much we can do besides commit its appearance to memory and get a head start. We should be hitting Lake Champlain any day now, huh?” I said, looking back in the direction we were heading. We were situated on a hill, and from the crest, the landscape stretched a great deal forward. However, all that could be seen was the trees, which were now beginning to don their fall colors, and the mountains. A river also ran beside the highway as it had since the last city.
“Once we get to the lake, what will we do?”
“I suppose we’re either crossing it or walking around it. I bet there’s some boats docked up somewhere with their keys nearby that we could steal, but I’m not taking a rowboat.”
“Do you have some sort of ultimate goal in mind, though?”
“I guess I’m hoping we’ll eventually find civilization? I mean, the first cities grew around rivers. A lake is a good place to start.”
“Plus, you want to find those radio people, right?”
“Yeah, I mean the signal has yet to fade, so we must be getting close.”
I hopped off the roof and got ready to go. After the events of last night, we were both restless to leave this place.
“Do you think we’re going to see Gav again?” asked Midori, but her expression made it clear she was asking more for my sake than her own.
“I hope so. Whatever is going on inside him, I have a feeling he’ll be back. Or at least, his body will be.”
“The sky looks healthy today, at least,” Midori pointed out, referring to the many clusters of peaceful angels that were floating about this morning. I was unnerved by their seemingly inflated numbers, but Midori was right: bad things only seemed to happen when their numbers were low or agitated. Hopefully this meant today would be smooth sailing.
We had gone another hour down the road when we decided to stop and take a snack break. It was mostly for my sake, but Midori kept her eye out for any valuable nonconsumables.
A traffic jam on the exit ramp was where we dispersed to begin searching for food. I came out with some canned bread and a package of gummy candies. Midori had found a few cans of fruits as well. We continued to quickly scavenge through the cars, though, to see if anything interesting caught our eye.
I noticed a pile of wrappers and bottles on the ground, and I cautiously peeked into the back of the pickup truck that they led to.
“Holy shit!” I swore, falling backward in surprise. “You!”
Looking tired and ill-kept, Fex sat up and ran his hands through his dark hair in a poor effort to fix it. “Yes, me. I’ve been waiting for you for a day now, but you definitely took your time. And then I discovered alcohol.”
He yawned and got up, dusting himself off and jumping out of the truck with a slight wobble. “I’m not intoxicated now, though. By many technicalities, I can’t be. I wish I was, though. What was keeping you? Wait, I already know, scratch that.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be ‘promoted’? Or maybe dead?”
“Erika!” Midori called from the other end of the car pileup. “Is someone there?”
“I got off unscratched, very luckily. No one suspected my involvement with the fight thing. Good move by the way, with that fire. I wasn’t expecting you to utilize our weaknesses so efficiently like that.”
“Who is this?” Midori inquired as she approached us.
“This is Fex, an angel from that camp, and who has evidently been following us.”
“If you want to get technical, my name is really Nu-faxielimuth. Fex was a very quickly thought-out humanlike name. You may use it if it makes you more comfortable, however. You’re Midori, right? I’m very unpleasantly surprised you survived.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“Well, I’m sorry to say, you weren’t supposed to,” he said with great disdain. “Hasn’t Erika filled you in on everything? We were testing you too, but only one was going to pass and make it to the next round. You were actually the favorite, but there will still be problems if certain people see you both alive and together.”
“You guys are like a hive mind, right? Shouldn’t all of you know by now?” I said.
He cringed. “For serious, we are not a hive mind in the slightest. Stop saying that.”
“That is pretty rude,” Midori chimed in.
“Some of us are linked, but even they are not unanimous. Many of us are watching you, as per orders, but most of them are simply ‘Watchers.’ They watch. They do not form thoughts based on what they see; they just watch. And even then, what they see is not brought to the rest of us for some time.”
“How deep does this go?” asked Midori, shaking her head lightly. “This whole watching thing? What are your people planning?”
“Thank you for calling us people,” Fex said with a look of wonder. “See, now you’re even becoming my favorite! But alas, I really cannot go into details. I know I might be coming out of nowhere here to fill you in on all these wondrous facts, but I’m still on my own side. I can’t go about spoiling everything and thus getting killed.”
“So if you’re not here to help us, what are you doing?”
“I was just leading right into that, Erika. Last time’s attempt to boost me up to power failed, but just barely. There’s a little encampment just a little bit away from here where I’m expected to be in a few minutes. From there on out, the plan is the same. Kill the leader, I rise up and become more powerful. We all win.”
“That sounds risky for us, and we don’t get anything out of it,” Midori pointed out.
“You get the sweet feeling of having rid the world of another high-ranked angel. I believe currently running this camp is an angel by the name of Rohandral, pretending to be a man named Han. He should be even easier, if such a thing exists, to kill than Kasos, who was a Cherub. And Cherubs are a bitch to kill. Are you in?”
“No,” said Midori.
At the same time, I answered, “Yes.”
“What?” she said. “You can’t be serious? I don’t know how we even lived last time. Last time Kasos was killed by another angel, right? There’s no way you can do it on your own.”
“I fled the scene early, but I was under the impression you killed Kasos, Erika. Is this not true?”
“It’s… complicated. I’ll explain it to you later,” I promised Midori. “But I think I can handle this. You don’t have to come along—though it might be for the best if you do.”
“Excellent. I am going to say I have your word now that you’ll do this for me. See you at the camp. Bring your own weapons this time.” Fex waved without looking back as he starting trekking down the hill.
Midori shook her head again. “This is just awful. I guess it’s nice that you seem to be over your prejudice against angels enough to work with one, but trying to team up just to kill someone you know you can’t kill seems very dangerous. Why would you trust him?”
“I don’t trust him. I just want to try it out. I mean, I trust him to the point that I believe he’s telling the truth and that he doesn’t want anything more from me. So I don’t see many negatives about this.”
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “I don’t want to split up, though. That’s always an awful idea. But I do think we should be cautious.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be fine,” I said, heading down the road. Fex was long out of sight, and I had to wonder if he had dropped his human form and flown off. “If you want, I can tell you all the details when we get there, but here’s the short of what really happened at camp: Everyone was an angel, they were testing us for some reason, I shot Haywood and Kasos, Kasos attacked me, and then she died. The end.”
“How did she die?”
“That was the doing of another angel, like I told you.”
She was quiet for a while, and I was afraid she was going to ask why I hadn’t told her any of this. But she said nothing.
Until, finally, “How will we know where the camp is?”
“It will be obvious. Really obvious. They want us to find it, after all.”
The lead off was the same as the last one: brush cleared in the same obvious way by what appeared to be clippers, and to the right there was a large pile about a foot tall of lanterns, wires, and knives. It was like they weren’t even trying.
There was a shorter trail this time, leading up to a grassy knoll, which was once again densely packed with very large tents. Once more a crowd of people encircled us, looking curious and yet very distracted. A man came out from the chaos, and I was suddenly very certain we wouldn’t have much trouble killing him. He was what I would call a wimp, very frail looking, tall, and thin. Last time Kasos had lived when I shot her in the head. I decided this was because she had been expecting it, having seen me raise the gun, and thus had time to switch to her angelic form. I guessed we could kill this man in less than an hour.
My own commitment to Fex’s sudden scheme nearly took me by surprise. Violence had never really been my game before, and God knows I had never dallied in manslaughter. However, I liked the idea of killing angels. I liked that I could take a stand, leave an impact in the only way possible postsociety.
Maybe this would change something. Maybe this would do nothing. I wanted to find out either way.
“Greetings,” the man said. “My name’s Han. It’s always pleasant to find more survivors.” His glasses, I noticed, had had their lenses punched out.
“Hi,” I said, wanting to move this along as fast as possible. “I’m Erika, this is Midori. We’d like to take some time to look around right now, if that’s okay with you?”
“Sure it is!” he said, tilting his head with a broad grin. “Why don’t I assign someone to show you around? How about you, Fex?”
Fex stepped out of the crowd. “Hi!” he said enthusiastically. “It’s very nice to meet you!” In between fake smiles, his cold eyes reminded me how much he wanted this to end already.
He rushed through showing us around, before leaving us unceremoniously at a set of tents identical to the ones at the other camp.
“That sure was something.” Midori bit her lip. “Do I have enough time to rest in my tent or do you think you’ll… be done before that?”
“I’m pretty determined to make this a speed run. I mean, we spent way too long at that other camp. Stay here if you want, but stay alert. I’m going to try to isolate Han.”
“Good luck,” said Midori, before she went into her tent. I guess I probably should have explained to her earlier about how she actually had been the one to kill Kasos—but how was I supposed to do that? She was probably stressed enough because she thought she was a vessel for an angel for the last couple months of her life—how was I supposed to tell her that I had evidently seen the angel that had been possessing her and that it had saved my life?
Okay, maybe it wouldn’t go that badly. She was smart; it wasn’t likely she’d overreact. It wasn’t even that scandalous of a secret. I just didn’t want to upset her. She deserved some rest, and I didn’t want to make her worry any more than she already was.
Han, like Kasos, did not seem to have a moment of solitude. I had yet to spy a creepy circle of angels for him to observe, but that did not stop him from constantly surrounding himself with others. No matter what Fex said, there was something ever so hive mind about the way the angel-people looked at me, like they only had one pair of eyes between them.
“Hey, Han,” I said, stepping in front of the group that had amassed around him and trying to ignore their singular looks. “I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment. Maybe we could walk together in the woods?”
“Absolutely. I know just the trail we could take too,” he said, getting up and waving good-bye to everyone.
“Could I also join you?” said Fex, coming out of nowhere with a smile. “I have been meaning to do some walking.”
What was he doing here? “This is private business, I’d rather you didn’t,” I told him, giving him a confused look.
He stared back with what seemed to be irritation. “No, I insist.”
“It’s fine, Erika.” Han placed a hand on my shoulder. “Let him join us.”
The forest path was suspiciously cleared out, laid with new wooden railings, and the upper brush of the trees had been trimmed. I could see through the gaps of the canopy the sky was still full of angels.
“So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?” Han asked.
A strong look from Fex told me now wasn’t the time to whip out my flare gun and shoot him in the face. I wasn’t even sure if that’d work. I mean, it would catch him off guard, but would that split second be enough for him to drop his human body?
Instead, I thought fast. “The angels. I guess. I mean, my family all died because of them, and I was hoping that as the leader, you might be able to help me with them.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know. Angels. What are they all about? Everyone I know is dead and I want to know why the angels did that.”
“Why are you asking me?” he asked with a forced laugh. “What would I know about angels?”
“I’m not expecting you to answer; I guess I’m just looking for condolences? Some sort of spiritual speech about God’s plan for us all? It was a bad idea to drag you out like this. Sorry.”
His smile grew, and he poorly tried to disguise its relieved nature. “That is true. Perhaps we should head back, then?”
Fex, who had yet to even make a sound, stood still. “I’d like to continue walking. If she’s up to it, she may join me. I’ll make sure she gets home safely.”
“I’d like that,” I said, trying not to sound too happy.
“Hm, I suppose it can’t hurt. I will leave you two alone, then,” Han said, turning around.
“What’s this all—” I started as soon as Han was gone, but Fex shushed me.
“Let’s walk in silence. Allows more time to think, I’d say,” he said cheerfully.
Just a short way down the trail Fex pointed dramatically to the left. “What’s that? I think I just saw something run into the woods. Let’s check it out!”
I saw nothing, but I followed him as he wove deeper and deeper into the tangled brush. At last he pulled me under a low-growing bush. “There are some things I hoped I would never have to explain to you,” he whispered harshly. “Because they are so obvious. Number one: don’t fall into a simple trap. And no matter what you do, take time to think. If you killed him on that trail, even ignoring how clear it was you were being watched from above, all of the camp-bound angels saw you leave with him. You’d be marked as his killer in two seconds and eliminated.”
“All right, all right, I’m sorry. I was just trying to end this as soon as possible.”
“Your sloppy job would have cost you your life, and if you continue being sloppy, mine. You have to kill him in camp so I can pin the blame on someone else, kill his supposed killer, and reap the rewards. And I hope this is very clear to you, because I can’t spend much time with you without people talking. It’s odd enough for some we both ended up in the same camp after the last one burned up; the last thing we need is people getting suspicious of our involvement with each other.”
“How’d you even get chosen as my tour guide again?”
“I’m one of few angels equipped for the job, I suppose you could say. The others are Watchers. But again, that’s sort of the point—they watch.”
“Seriously, I got it. I’ll be more careful next time. I’ve just got to take some time to strategize.”
“Let’s hurry back, then. Remember to think things through. And also, Han is going to be a bit more on alert because of you; you know that, right? Way to ask him about the one topic you should have known to avoid.”
“No need to rub it in.” I
sighed.
We made our way back to the main trail without a word, and continued the trend all the way back to camp. We split as soon as we arrived, leaving me free to pace the camp.
It looked like this might take a while after all.
13
BY NIGHTFALL, I was no better off. I paced the surprisingly roomy interior of Midori’s tent trying to think of ideas, but I came up with nothing.
“I mean, it shouldn’t be too hard. Han doesn’t suspect us yet, and he looks to be quite weak. But still, he is never alone. And there isn’t one easy way to kill him in isolation in this camp without someone knowing it was me.”
“Can’t you do this in your own tent?”
“I was hoping you’d be able to help.”
“Right now I’d rather meditate. And even then, I never agreed to help you here. I suggest we just bail on him and get back on the road.”
“Don’t you have a single idea?”
She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “Create a distraction? Look, why are you so bent on risking your life like this? Fex’s never done anything for us.”
“It’s not about him. It’s about me. I want to use this opportunity to practice killing angels. I think it’s best I learn now instead of dying later because I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“The angels don’t even want us dead. You said it yourself. They want to test us, and no matter how creepy that is, we don’t need to worry about combat with them.”
“They want to test only one of us. And I don’t want you to die.”
“All right. Fine. But keep yourself safe out there, okay? They’re always watching.”
“That’s exactly it, though. They are always watching. I don’t care what Fex claims, there’s something all too similar about most of the angel-people here. It’s like they’re just here to fill empty space.”
“I think you just have a biased view of the angels. It’s like… speciesism or something. They’re not all the same.”
I was starting to feel like I was onto something however. “It’s night. Han doesn’t sleep but stays awake in the center of camp with a group of those weirdo angels. But think about the last camp we were at: by the end, every angel was in the sky watching my fight with Kasos. So why am I allowed here; why haven’t they heard I’m not to be trusted?”
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