Expedition Westward

  ***

  Two hours later, Star was back in the van moving along the road to Mech City. She looked over at the Squish Girls lashed against the wall with their merman, like cord wood. Even though deactivated, the mermaids were incredibly attractive – and the merman was to die for.

  “You’re going to like your new home,” she said. “Just keep in mind – Winston is a no no!”

  Star covered them over with blankets. Best to keep temptation away from herself, and from Winston, too.

  She resumed her place on the mattress alongside Winston, who slumbered on in the depths of inactive mode. She snuggled up close.

  “Okay, sweet heart,” she said, “it’s time to start living happily ever after.”

  Epilog

  Sister Reedy stood on the banks of the pond, staring out over its murky water. It was just a little pool that she’d happened upon, but it summoned up memories of the cursed lake nestled in the mountains of their former refuge. The events of that horrible day ran through her mind, as they had every hour for months.

  In her tormented recollections, she saw again the face of her precious son, Roddy Jr., as he sat upon the shore of Pickle Lake. She saw again, with aching heart, the trust in the eyes of the 9-year-old as he reached for the cup she presented to him. She saw her own hands in front of her, passing him the fatal libation.

  In this empty world of the present, she raised her hands over the pond’s fetid water in useless supplication.

  If only she’d drunk from that cup herself, and he had taken hers!

  Without hesitation, Roddy Jr. swallowed the Nectar of Truth. He looked up at his mother then with a confident little smile on his lips – the rich, full lips so much like those of his sacred father. But his expression soon changed from confidence, to doubt, and then to extreme terror as he crumpled up in agony.

  No! No! No!

  She added her screams to the groans of her dying son on the shore of Pickle Lake. She rushed back toward the Messiah and seized the cup of Nectar that he indicated for her. She slugged it down, praying fervently that this, too, would prove fatal ... but it wasn’t. It condemned her to an existence of unending sorrow.

  Sister Reedy knew that her unworthiness was responsible for the death of her son. She would not prove unworthy again. Her sacred mission would not fail!

  But deep within her heart, wrapped in her mother’s intuition, lurked an evil misgiving. The ‘Nectar of Truth’ had been a scam whereby the Messiah had slaughtered all but his most compliant followers. He’d cynically destroyed anyone who might be a threat to his power.

  Even his own son!

  Yes ... who more so than Roddy jr. posed a threat to him? The boy was smart, well-liked, charismatic, and full of confidence. He was free of the dark insecurities that plagued his father. She had shielded him from all negative influences, had raised him with a keen sense of his exalted position in life.

  And his father killed him before he could come into his own.

  Out here in this barren wilderness, away from the pressures of the Temple family, such thoughts had a chance to take hold. Sister Reedy suppressed them with a violent effort of will. She left the pond and clambered back up the incline to the road.

  She proceeded along the pavement with caution, assault rifle slung over her shoulder, prepared for instant use. This was new and frightening country, an area she had never seen before. Why had Chief Acolyte sent her this direction?

  Southward would have been more obvious choice, to a region with which she was familiar. The desert there was natural, not like the barren horror of this once verdant landscape with its dead forests and eroded fields. She paused to drink from her water bottle.

  Best not to question Chief Acolyte’s directive. He was obviously under the influence of divine inspiration when he gave it. Who was she to dispute the will of the Heavenly Father? If He intended her to find the demon spawn, then she would give it a maximum effort. She had to prove herself worthy.

  Mine is not to reason why ...

  The sound of an approaching vehicle interrupted her reflections. Sister Reedy crept half way down the road bank and concealed herself behind some thorny weeds. Time passed. Then she spied a truck coming from the west, moving at moderate speed.

  She ducked further behind her cover as the truck whooshed by. Only after it was safely past did she raise her head and study the receding vehicle through her binoculars.

  “I don’t believe it!”

  There, poking its head out of the truck’s side window, was a wolf creature like the ones she’d seen at the Temple! The other demon spawn must also be inside that unholy vehicle.

  Of course ... Mech City! Where else would such abominations be heading? Sister Reedy grinned. The effect on her ravaged face was horrifying.

  “Thank you, Heavenly Father, for showing me this sign!” she exalted.

  She scrambled up the bank and began walking with lethal purpose toward Mech City.

  THE END