Elysium: Book Six of The Liminality

Chapter 52 - The Last Stand

As the black car rumbled down the rugged back roads leading to Dr. Leveret's practice, Karla fumed in the back seat between the two pudgy Sedevacantist boys. They both contorted in the seat to avoid touching her, as if contact with their pastor's demonically possessed daughter might taint their perceived purity. She made them squirm plenty by planting her elbows firmly into their beefy sides. What rubbish had Papa's people told them about her to make them respond in such a way?

She could not even bring herself to look at him in the front seat, despite his desperate attempts to catch her eye, begging for her trust. His hopeful and optimistic chatter went ignored. He apparently thought he was establishing a rapport with these monsters. Who was he kidding?

Karla could never forgive him for the atrocity he had just committed. She considered it an absolute act of betrayal. He did not know these people like she did, but that was no excuse. His actions had condemned them all and now might poor Dr. Leveret at risk.

Mrs. Ambrose, most of all, did not deserve the fate Karla knew was coming to them. She had never asked to get involved in any of this. Izzie had simply shown up at her door, cold and miserable, looking for shelter from a downpour. For a year now they had avoided all contact with the church. It was sheer ill chance that Jamie's friend happened to be related to a boy from their former parish.

Karla blamed herself as well for bringing Izzie back to Mrs. Ambrose. She hadn't known where else to go, but that was no excuse. It had been a mistake to return to Drumnadrochit. She should have expected the church to be able to track them down. Papa had moles in public service everywhere.

She knew the drill of what was to come. Once these men had confirmed that Izzie was deceased, they would arrange for the witnesses to disappear. Papa was no stranger to assassination. How many posters for missing persons had she seen growing up around him. His people had the means to cover up a massacre.

She heard a muffled cry from Mrs. Ambrose in the boot when they rode over a particularly severe pothole. The despair overtook her long before they came to the final turn onto Dr. Leveret's property. The roots engulfed her with a vim and vigor she should have gotten used to by now.

***

She found herself in a ditch in the hollow, amidst absolute chaos. There was smoke everywhere, occluding so much light she could barely tell it was daytime.

Swaths of flame swarmed the hillsides. Insects buzzed about, some mounted many unsaddled. Crowds along milled on the muddy banks of the pond, surging this way and that like so many confused sheep hounded by wolves. There was baggage and miscellaneous belongings strewn everywhere.

Karla pulled on a pair of muddy shorts she found on the ground, just to feel a little more protected, though she remained topless. There were plenty of startled Hemisouls around staggering about in the nude.

The ark, now partially aloft, had become enormous. Puffy lobes protruded from its base, equipped with promontories and balconies like a city made of clouds. It was tethered to the ground and people were climbing the lines, attempting to board it.

Swarms of gleaming Ophanim beleaguered the craft, the Argents releasing shafts of blue lightning that flew in spear-like shafts and ripped into its side. The ark healed almost as quickly as it was harm but the weight of its cargo and passengers caused some of the lobes to collapse and break free onto the crowd below.

The ark was being defended by a lesser squadron of rebel Ophanim, distinguishable by their more dingy and damaged hulls. The rebels were quite adept in their dogfighting. The loyalist Argents absorbed more hits than they inflicted, but any attrition at all was not in the rebels' favor.