Jonathan Maberry - Flesh & Bone

“And she came back,” said Mother Rose firmly. “Just the once. She snuck into our camp when we were in Nebraska, the night before we torched Auburn. She said that after she left the Night Church she got really sick. Cholera. She almost died, but then she met some of the Children of God monks, and they took her to a place in Nevada where they cured her.”

“Cured her of cholera? What’d they do? Use a time machine and go back to when the pharmacies were still open? C’mon, Rosie, ever since the Fall, if you get something like cholera you die. End of story.”

Mother Rose smiled at him. “And yet when she came into my tent she was completely healed. Margaret thought that it was a miracle. She said that there were what she called ‘special monks’ who had machines and all sorts of chemicals.”

“‘Special monks’? You mean scientists? Doctors?”

Mother Rose nodded. “She thought that it would change my view of the world, that I’d no longer think there was no hope. She thought that if I knew such things were possible, then I would stop trying to kill everyone.”

“Jeez.”

“Funny thing is,” said Mother Rose, “she was right. Just… not in the way she hoped.”

“If Margaret snuck into your tent, why’d you let her leave? You could have called a hundred reapers to—”

Mother Rose shook her head. “She’s still my daughter.”

“So — you let her go?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what—?”

“When I threatened to call Saint John, my darling daughter clubbed me unconscious with my own bottle of wine. When I woke up, she was long gone.”

“And you never told anyone?”

“I’m telling you now.”

The giant grunted. “Special monks. Jeez. You believe any of that crap?”

“I do. Over the last three years I’ve kept my ears and eyes open. There have been other people telling similar stories. Unfortunately, these other people were given inoculations and treatments by wandering monks, not at Sanctuary itself. None of them were able to tell me precisely where it is. However, I put enough pieces together to get us this far.”

“You really think the reapers saw your daughter?”

She nodded. “I know they did. Sister Cecily already told me. That’s why I want to meet with the team leaders. I want Margaret brought to me. Alive and able to talk. She does know where Sanctuary is, and I’m going to… encourage her to tell her dear, sweet, loving mother.”

“You are one devious broad.” He chuckled. “You know Saint John’ll skin you alive if he ever gets a whiff of any of this, right?”

“Which is why I have you, dear Alexi.” She patted the huge expanse of his chest. “I think it’s high time the Night Church had its first martyr.”

The giant gave her a cruel leer and hefted his hammer. “I can’t wait for the chance to smash that fruitcake into red paste.”

“My hero,” she said, making a joke out of it and rolling her eyes.

The big man bent and kissed Mother Rose full on the mouth. The kiss was intense and passionate.

Mother Rose pushed him roughly away, but she was laughing as she did so. She took a deep breath and exhaled. “It’s coming soon, Alexi, can’t you feel it? The war, this killing, it’s all going to end, and we are going to own this world.”

“What’s left of it,” he snorted.

She punched him on the chest. “Oh, I think there will be plenty left for us to play with.”

They laughed at that, and then turned and walked hand in hand into the forest.

After they were gone, Lilah climbed silently down from her ledge and moved to the spot where the group of reapers had stood. She bent and studied the footprints of each of the people who had just left, identifying them and cataloging them in her mind. Alexi’s prints were larger than any prints Lilah had ever seen. He would be very easy to track, though Lilah knew that if it came to a fight, she would have to use her pistol. There was no way she wanted to tangle with that brute and his sledgehammer. Alexi looked like he could have broken Charlie Pink-eye in half with his bare hands.

She moved along the bank of the stream, backtracking to follow Mother Rose’s footprints. They came from the east. Lilah also saw that those prints overlapped several of the tiny prints made by Eve. Mother Rose had clearly come from the east, just as Eve had. As, perhaps, all of these strangers had. Coming from the east, pushing trouble to the west.

Lilah caught movement above her and glanced up to see several vultures circling in the east. If Eve’s family was somewhere farther down this creek, then Lilah needed to find them and warn them.

But as she ran, she already believed that it was too late.

The male lion stood and watched them, but he made no move. The breeze ruffled the dark tangles of his mane but he held his ground, seeming content to be a spectator. It was the females, Benny remembered, who did the hunting. Males, though powerful and aggressive, were lazier. After a science class one day, Nix had dropped a comment about how true this was among humans, too. Benny had wisely avoided replying, but Morgie Mitchell challenged her on it, and the rest of the afternoon was spent at the fishing hole, watching Nix surgically dissect Morgie with her sharp tongue.

Now he watched as one big female took a tentative step toward them. The other two females, both of them considerably smaller than her, crouched and tensed, waiting to pick up their attack cues. Benny remembered something about smaller lionesses in a pack “herding” prey toward the big female, who did the killing. He and his friends had made that job easier for them by standing all in a bunch, with a deadfall behind them and nowhere else to run.

Benny very slowly took his katana in a two-handed grip.

“No,” warned Chong. “Don’t provoke them.”

“Dude, they’re hungry lions. I’m pretty sure they’re already provoked.”

The sword did not give Benny much comfort. Fighting lions had never been part of Tom’s training. The weapon felt like a dull kitchen knife.

“You got a plan?” he whispered.

“No,” croaked Chong. “I’m hoping for an evolutionary jump that will allow me to suddenly grow wings.”

It was a dumb time for a joke, but Benny knew his friend was talking to keep from panicking.

Benny tried to view their options like a chess player. The ravine was behind them; the forest was to their left, and to their right was a field of tall grass that washed up against a smaller section of forest, which in turn circled around to join the main woods. However, the smaller lions were between them and whatever meager safety the forest might provide. There did not seem to be any way out.

“Benny,” Nix whispered, “why aren’t they attacking?”

“Don’t encourage them.”

“No…”

“Zoms,” said Chong. “After all these years, they’ve probably gotten wary of zoms.”

“Lions don’t attack zoms,” said Nix.

“No. As you both pointed out, nothing does.” He lightly touched his pocket, and they could hear the clink of his bottles of cadaverine. “We all smell like zombies.”

“I’m not wearing any,” said Benny. “Neither is Eve.”

Chong sighed.

The lioness heard their muted conversation and growled.

“She knows. God,” said Nix, adjusting her hold on Eve. Then a moment later she said, “Chong… very slowly, see if you can get a bottle of that stuff out of your pocket. Benny, you get my gun.”

“What—?”

“Do it.”

Benny lowered his sword as slowly as he had raised it, all the time watching the lionesses. Moving as smoothly as he could, he shifted his weight toward Nix.

Now two of the lions growled.