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Nix started to say soht better of it and instead said, "It could have crashed afterit That’s eight row, Benny These could be only eight months old"

"Maybe," Benny conceded, "but I doubt it"

Theythe dead flying machine

They were so riveted by the plane that they did not look into the surrounding woods and so did not see the dead zoame trail; or the two bloody spots where a pair of reapers had died froone, and bloody footprints trailed away into the shrubs

Nix went over and stood by the draped plastic that hung fro until he was at the base of the upright section of wing, then he stared down the length of the trench at the other wing He looked at the twisted blades of the propellers Two six-bladed props had been attached to each wing, and one had fallen off Benny went over to it and touched the tip of one of the propeller blades

"I’ll ad about planes," he said, "but after we got back last year, I looked through every book we had in the library and in tons of ’s This is definitely not the oneI’m absolutely sure of it"

"Why?" she deer, fear, and hope in her eyes

He was s over thehas propellers," he said "Jets don’t have propellers"

Nix’s eyes flared and her mouth opened, but for the moment she was totally incapable of speech Her eyes cut instantly from Benny’s face to the blades of the massive propeller that lay in the dirt behind him

"And that opens up a whole new can of worhtly "Because no ht about when this crashed, it definitely crashed hts went out"

"God," breathed Nix

"That means there were at least two planes in the air And if there were twohow ht be out there?"

FROM NIX’S JOURNAL

Just after Christht with Benny He found one of my notebooks He swore that he didn’topen, faceup He sahat I’d written, and he flipped through the pages

He had no right to do that He had no right todeal about it So what if I wrote "We have to find the jet" a hundred tie? I told hiet ready for leaving town

He didn’t believe ht

I am NOT obsessed Benny’s a jerk sometimes

42

SAINT JOHN CLEANED HIS KNIVES WITH A PIECE OF CLOTH HE KEPT IN HIS pocket That cloth had cleaned those knives a hundred tiround Saint John did not disrespect the over their corpses These heretics were in the darkness now, and their bodies were now holy relics, proof of the red doorway that opened between the world of flesh and the infinite realm of spirit

"Thank you," he said to them "Thank you"

He wept softly as hehad been done It was a shrine now, and anyone with eyes would be able to understand the beauty of what had happened here That beauty coaxed tears from Saint John’s eyes; but that was not the only reason he cried

There were jealous tears on his face, and he lowered his head in shame, unable to look at these transformed ones His envy of their freedoh they had been blaspheo, each of them--even the least of them--was more fully and truly connected to the darkness than he was While he was clothed in flesh, while he lingered here on earth, he was an outsider to the purity of the darkness An enabler, yes, a conduit, even a guide, but not a part of it

For that, he wept

He staggered over to a patch of unrass and dropped heavily to his knees He slid his knives into their sheaths and then bowed down, placing his forehead on the ground in abject humility

"Please," he prayed, "let me come home Please"

The darkness whispered inside his brain

Not yet, er, Lord? I have opened so many red doors, I have cleansed er?"

Until the world is silent There are so few left, and you uide each of them to the red door

"Mother Rose and I are always in the service of--"

You, my child, are my trusted servant You

Tears fell like rain froround His body shook with sobs, and he beat his fists upon the ground

Last of all shall I bring you home, my believed son Last and most treasured of all

Saint John wept until his chest ached from it and his throat was raw

Then, slowly, as if he lifted the entire world with hiround and climbed wearily to his feet

He turned and looked at the crimson horrors behind him

"Until the world is silent," he said thickly He sniffed back the last of his tears "Such is the will of Thanatos--praise be to the darkness"

Then he turned once ers into the forest

43

CHONG WAS HAVING THE WEIRDEST DREAM

He felt as if he was flying

Not happy flying, like in his dreams where he would rise up out of bed, swoop down the stairs, and zoom out into the streets of town and then soar up to dive and play with eagles and falcons No, this was a bu

And it hurt

He tried to move his hands and feet, but they seemed

He fished for the proper way to describe it to hi opened his eyes for just a round at an incredible rate of speed Faster than a horse could run The ground was bumpy, and there was smoke in his nostrils

He turned his head and saw the tanned back of a sliirl seated in front of him

Her name was just beyond his reach

The explanation to all this was just beyond his reach