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BENNY AND NIX STOOD BY THE EDGE OF THE TRENCH AS THE SUN FELL behind the world and the stars ignited overhead The trench enty feet across It ht as well have been tenwith its electric lights glowing against the shadows on the walls
Stared at one , high and to the left
An hour ago they had seen Lilah’s silhouette there
There had been no sign of her since
They didn’t even turn when Joe’s quad rumbled to a stop They heard him switch it off, heard Griravel, but they never took their eyes frohted
"Listen," said Joe softly, "I just brought back the last of the stuff fro over it now It was exactly what they needed It" His voice trailed off
"Go away," said Benny His voice was crushed flat and e the his elbows on his knees Grimm stood beside him, his eyes dark and liquid
"I want you two to listen to ht talk here, okay? I know you’re hurting I knohy you left Mountainside I understand why you’ve been searching for the jet I knohat it means to you A better place than your little town A chance at a real future I get that I’d have done the saht so too, or he’d have never left and never taken you with hi," said Nix
"No? Well, I know thison its feet Mountainside and the rest of the Nine Towns are just going through thealive Everybody knows that You knew it and you got the hell out You wanted to find a place to start solanced at hi Tom had said
"You have," said Joe
"No," said Nix
So moon
"You found the stuff in the jet," said Joe "You kids ht have actually helped saved the world"
"It’s not worth it," Benny said "It cost too hed and stood up He looked up at the endless stars
"It’s been a long night," he said softly, "and there are still a lot of hours of darkness left But"
He started to turn away, and Benny said, "But what?"
Joe gave hiht is, the sun always coue for Grimm, and walked sloay He cliine
They watched hiht?" she asked
Benny shook his head "I don’t know"
He wrapped his arhted
The stars burned their way across the sackcloth that covered the sky
-5-
SAINT JOHN STOOD ON A CLIFF THAT LOOKED DOWN ON A BLACK ROAD Brother Peter stood beside hiht It was a beautiful night, with a billion stars and a fingernail rass, and owls hunted in the air
The saint enjoyed being out here in the wild The desert had reclaimed much of the road over the years, but it was there, and it ran straight and true to the line of mountains that formed the border of Nevada and California
"Nine towns," murmured Saint John "And a place called Mountainside"
"Praise be to the darkness," said Brother Peter
Saint John raised his hand, held it high in the er toward the road Toward the northwest
The desert behind hi black The reapers ca out of the dark, and as they reached Brother Peter they formed into orderly lines, seven across Then they followed Brother Peter down the road So It took twenty minutes for all the reapers to file past where the saint stood
Thousands upon thousands of reapers
Those who had thought themselves lost when the world ended, who no that all roads led through pain and into the healing darkness Those who had lost faith in this world of disease and death and endless struggle, who now thrived with a purpose--God’s purpose Many of theainst the reapers and then, in their defeat, beheld the truth and took up their weapons again in the service of Thanatos, all praise his darkness
The lost who had been found
The blind who no
The last arht the last war The only war that ever mattered The war to save ered a moment after the last of the whistle to his lips, kissed it, and then blew into it, long and hard
Behind hier than the mass of reapers--moved forward If the reapers were a sea, then this was an ocean,moon All the crickets were shocked to silence by the moan that rose from tens of thousands of dead throats
Saint John s, aching to be shown the way
His reapers would open red mouths in the flesh of every ray people would consume them all, flesh and bone