The Bleed: Book 2: RAPTURE David Moody (the red fox clan txt) 📖

inside, but once the people realized there was not an endless onslaught of them, they turned to fight and won by sheer numbers alone. Stabbing, punching, or, in one instance, just wearing the thing down altogether as it savagely destroyed beings. Still, a great many people now found themselves in no-man’s land, looking up at an impregnable fortress. They were on their own, on the outs from those safely encircled. The monsters had easy pickings.

“There’s so many of them still out there.” Sam had one hand outstretched to the screen and the other holding her chin and covering her mouth.

“Who are you all?” Rollo asked.

Maddie raced over to Thistle, who was on the verge of collapse. “I’m okay, I’m okay.” Thistle tried to push her away. Rollo moved closer to Sam and was watching, as she was.

“That’s great and all, but now you’ve got all those people cocooned in, like, a square mile. What about food and water?” Rollo had turned to where Maddie was helping Thistle to a chair.

“Can only put out one dumpster fire at a time,” Maddie told him.

“Can’t you do something about the ones outside the wall?” Rollo asked.

“Like what?” Maddie was feeling weary, and irritable on top of that.

“I don’t know! Aren’t you three gods? Can’t you do whatever you want?”

“Does it look like we can do whatever we want?” Maddie snapped.

Rollo pointed to the screen. “Yeah, it kinda looks that way to me.”

“He’s right. We need to do something,” Sam said.

“Thistle is tapped, and whatever I do, it’s not strong enough to do that.”

“Maybe I can.”

Maddie was about to tell her that was ridiculous; she was just a what? A teenager? But Thistle and she were the same age, so that meant nothing. Maddie wasn’t an engineer or a theorist, but she had an exceptional understanding of mechanics and how things worked on a fundamental level. If the Bleed was in the process of destroying everything, didn’t it somehow make sense that forces were being assembled on the other end of the spectrum that were designed to stop them? Something vast and unknowable? Jenny, who was apparently a half-god, had found Maddie, who could, for some reason, manipulate the machinery. She, in turn, had brought Thistle and Sam forward. It made sense that maybe the universe was assembling its greatest warriors to do battle one final time, to decide the ultimate fate of creation.

“Great, And then there’s Sandra…maybe she can bitch them to death.”

“What, Maddie?” Sam asked.

“That was out loud?”

“Wait.” Thistle weakly raised an arm. “You did help. I didn’t do that on my own.”

“I’m not sure what’s going on,” Rollo said the words, though any of them could have.

“The rings.” Thistle paused. “It was basically my idea, Maddie, you facilitated it, and Sam, I think…I think you amplified my power. I can do things, I know that, but I didn’t do that.” She pointed to the screen.

“Whoa, I have powers?” Sam looked at her hands as if they, too, might begin to glow.

“A thought just came to me; I hate to use the term “hero,” but I’ve read enough books to think that maybe heroes are being assembled to combat the Bleed.”

“And we’re the heroes?” Sam asked.

“You are gods,” Rollo said. He looked on the verge of running out of the room and back into the scared throng inside the newly formed crater.

“I’m a damn mechanic.”

“What’s that prove? Jesus was a carpenter,” Rollo said. “Two years as a Theology major,” he said as the group looked at him. “I thought about joining the clergy, then I found Mary Jane…and Mary Jane.”

“What?” Sam asked.

“A female and a ‘special’ plant,” Maddie explained.

“Yeah, all of a sudden, vows of celibacy and sobriety seemed like a drastic measure. Right now though, I’m wondering if I would be feeling a better measure of comfort in the faith I forewent.”

“You’re from the States, surfing in Australia. Going to go out on a limb, here, Rollo. If you were a priest, you’d be dead.”

“There’s that. Not much comfort there,” he said.

“So tired.” Thistle could barely keep her head up. “There’s something else. The Bleed or whatever controls it, I didn’t feel its presence as strongly as before.”

“Makes sense. When we’re reaching out for other worlds, other realms, it’s like a beacon calling all to it, whether friend or foe. When it’s concentrated close, it’s more like a flashlight. Can you imagine what we could do with this if we get Jenny back? And what about your brother, Arridon? It may even be likely that Derrick has some power.”

“What about Tyler?”

“He’d be lucky if he could power a LED with a nine-volt.”

“Maddie!”

“Sorry, kid, I call them as I see them.”

“I still love him.”

“Never said you didn’t. But if your brother can do things, it would follow that so can your mother. I hope it doesn’t come to the point to where we need her help, because she’s unreliable. If she in any way believes she could be harmed, she won’t do it.” Maddie watched Sam for a response.

“You don’t have to keep looking at me, Maddie. There’s no argument here in that department.”

“Is there a chance I’m here for a reason?” Rollo asked as he stepped forward. “You know, like a knight summoned to protect the heroes.”

“Don’t know. Normally I don’t put much stock in coincidence; you can find it in just about any aspect of life if you look hard enough. But you did keep me safe until we reached the hotel, and what’s happening now is beginning to border on incredulous. Someone way above our station is pushing important pieces into place in preparation for a great war. I hate being manipulated, and I hate it, even more, when I don’t know who from and the ultimate reason behind it. I spent a fair amount of my life with my nose buried in technical manuals—there’s no lying there, no deceit, just straight facts that can’t be altered by perception.”

“I don’t want to state the obvious, but it looks like