Never Too Far (25 page)

Eve put her cigarette case in her robe and was about to leave when two men in black hoods darted out of the crowd. They swooped in with long knifes that glinted beneath the lights. At first, Joe didn’t fully comprehend what was happening. Only after they grabbed the heads of Eve and Templeton and yanked them back did Joe understand. By that time, however, it was too late. The sharp blades sliced deep into both of their necks. The blood squirted. It shot out like water from a punctured hose.

The blood hit Joe and he toppled over backwards in his chair. On the floor, he wiped his blood-spattered face with his sleeve, and even though he should’ve stayed down, he scrambled to his feet again. His left eye was cloudy and burned from the blood that got in it, but he could still see well enough to know that several more men in black hoods had descended from out of nowhere. They stabbed Templeton’s fat body like a flock of ravens pecking and tearing at a bloated animal. Eve was nowhere in sight. She must’ve crashed to the floor below the tabletop, which was now a wet puddle of spilled beer and dark blood.

The massacre was seemingly over as violently as it began. The hooded men dashed away into the screaming mob of people gathered around the bloody scene. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the crowd fell on the murdered bodies like vultures.

Joe went into a full-on alarm. He ducked under the table as it rocked and swayed from the rush of people swarming around. They grabbed and tore at Eve and Templeton’s clothes and bodies. They were taking anything they could get. Money was ripped from hand to hand until it was shreds. A siren went off, loud and shrieking. Eve’s robe was torn loose, her bare skin scratched and clawed. The table tipped over and feet trampled on Joe. He got tangled for a moment in the thicket of legs before he slid into a tight gap between two people and pushed himself to his feet. He fought his way through the crowd until he reached the door and squeezed outside.

He shimmied along the face of the building to a narrow alley, no bigger than a hallway, and stopped. He saw the flashing red lights of two trucks, and then two Arbyters with their mounted cannons swiveling over the mob.     

“Disperse! Disperse!” a loudspeaker proclaimed, followed by a popping sound.

The air filled with bursts of yellow and white smoke. Joe didn’t know what it was. The crowd turned frantic as they scattered. Several people, stumbling and coughing, pushed past Joe and knocked him against the wall in the alley. He smelled an acrid odor, and when he breathed, his lungs seized. He thought it must be some kind of poison, so he ran down the alley with the other fleeing people. The wretched smoke continued to follow him. His eyes watered. But he happened to spot a small opening in the brick foundation of the building
opposite the Weimar Club. It was either a knocked-out window or knocked-out bricks. Either way, Joe thought he could hide there until everything calmed down.

He dove on the ground and wedged his shoulders between the bricks and squirmed into a dark crawl space. He felt around for something to block the opening and keep the smoke from seeping in. He found something that crinkled when he touched it. It was an old sheet of plastic. He plastered it against the opening and waited.   

After he coughed a few more times, his lungs started to clear. Even though he felt safer now, his nerves were still raw. He was still rattled from the savage attack on Templeton and Eve, especially the way Eve’s white throat split open and the way her blood gushed out. He thought he heard her gasp something, some word, before the knife cut in and slashed her neck. He remembered her throwing her arms in the air and the V of her robe peeling open to expose the hollow of her neck. What was it she said? Something with an “s”. Was it soft, send, sound, south. South. It had to be south. But south what? It meant nothing to him.

While he lay in the dark crawl space, he wondered what was going to happen now. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take until it didn’t seem worth it. His only contact to sell the diesel was dead. Then he heard the rapid tat-tat-tat of rifle fire. He flinched and let go of the plastic. The bitter smoke rolled in before he could get the plastic over the opening again. It stung his eyes and throttled his lungs. He gasped for air a few times. The thought flashed through his mind that he could be suffocating, but a moment later his lungs began to inflate again. He coughed
and hacked. His eyes watered, so he kept them closed.

Once again, he wondered what he was going to do. If he still wanted to get money for the diesel, he’d have to find another buyer. He was back to square one—worse than square one because he had no idea who to go to next.
What about Templeton’s rival, Red? It seemed like the only option Joe had left. He had to find Red. But where and how, especially with only one day remaining on their tags?

As bad as that was he had more pressing issues at hand
, like who sent the killers and how was Eve involved? Did the killers know who Joe was now? Were they coming after him next? Worse yet, was Mary in danger? Was someone on their way to Mary and Joe’s room right then? The only important thing now was to make sure Mary was safe. They had to get out of sight and leave the rooming house. The rest he’d have to sort out later.

Joe tore the plastic away from the opening. He crawled out into the alley and stood up. A whiff of the foul smoke still lingered in the air.

He only made it to the end of the alley before two men grabbed him. They wore long dark coats and fedoras with thin red bands on them. One of them snatched Joe’s wrist and scanned it. His face was narrow in the eyes and broader around his jaws. He must’ve been fond of candy because his breath smelled like peppermint.

“It’s him,” he said. “It’s the dirt-eater.”

The other man pulled something out of his pocket. He shoved it in Joe’s hand. It was a piece of paper.

“We know you have the diesel,” he said. He stared straight into Joe’s eyes. “Follow these directions and all will be forgiven.”

They let go of him and then walked away as if nothing had happened. Joe slumped against the wall. He looked at the paper in his hand and unfolded it.

It
read, “Take the diesel to the old church on Ludwig and 10
th
. Bring the girl.”

Chapter 41

That evening, Joe and Mary set out to find the church. They went through parts of the city where decaying buildings lay and people milled about as if they didn’t notice a thing. Joe couldn’t stop fidgeting. It was as if he was sitting on a pile of rocks and sticks instead of the smooth bench. He kept lifting one hip and then the other. He squirmed and shifted his feet.

At one point they rode down a steep ramp onto a narrow boulevard beside a canal. It was full of dark water that reflected pieces of light from the windows shining in the buildings on the opposite side. Up ahead, Joe saw two figures standing near the edge of the canal. He was too far away to see exactly what they were doing. When they got closer, he saw a man standing in front a woman whose heels were dangerously close to the edge. One slip and she’d fall in.

Joe was about to shout when he realized the woman wasn’t really in trouble. Instead, the man’s arms were wrapped around the woman’s waist. His head was lowered over her shoulder
, and the woman leaned against his body with her head tilted up close to the man’s face. It looked as if she was nuzzling his neck or whispering something in his ear. The two seemed oblivious to the wagon’s approach. They didn’t move or startle or even look while Joe stared at them. That’s when he saw the woman wasn’t whispering at all, but rather her lips were pressed tightly against the man’s lips. They were lovers. Joe looked at Mary to see if she saw them, to see if she also saw the lovers. He figured she hadn’t since her hat was pulled so low over her brow.

Further along they turned and crossed over a bridge. It had a small tower in the middle of it with a lone yellow window at the top. They followed the street ahead. The horses’ hooves clomped on the stones beneath. The street ended at a crumbling building. The brick walls were mostly knocked away, leaving jagged ridges like broken teeth. They were at the corner of Ludwig and 10
th
. To their right was an old church.

Joe never really thought about what to expect when he saw the church, but it certainly wasn’t what he now witnessed. It didn’t look anything like the temple back home, which was a simple one-room building and not like the enormous, spired structure they were getting closer and closer to. Finally they stopped out front.
Lamps along the church’s parapet spread a ghostly pattern of light and shadow up and down the ornate façade. The effect was not unlike the spooky glow from a lantern playing across someone’s face in the dark.

This must be the place, Joe thought. He stepped out onto the deserted street and waited for Mary to scoot across the bench before he helped her down. Then he pulled up the floorboards and dug out the bundle of diesel in the hidden compartment and set it on the ground. He turned to look at the church again, veiled in those strange patterns of shadow and light. He wondered how a person could worship in such a monstrous building.

Joe still didn’t like the fact that he had to take Mary with him. He didn’t want her to be in any danger, but as Mary said before they left, “We’ve come too far to stop now.”

Joe pulled the deerskins off the container of diesel and tossed them aside. With one hand he grabbed the handle and with the other he clasped Mary’s hand. At the wrought iron gate, he stopped for a moment to let his nerves calm down before he pushed open the gate. The hinges screeched in the dark stillness. They both walked up three concrete steps onto a cracked slab inlaid with stones. Up ahead were three large wooden doors. Above each one was a triangle with a dot inside it like a peeled open eye. When they arrived at the middle door, Joe noticed a white button off to the side below a small box perforated with holes. He pressed the button and heard a low buzzing sound.  

A few seconds passed and then a staticy voice spoke from the small box. Despite the crackling, there was something familiar about it. It had a measured calm to it that he’d heard before. 

“Welcome,” the voice said. “Nice to finally meet you. After I buzz you in, proceed to the doorway on your left and ascend the stairs.”          

Inside was a vast empty hall. Along the sides were statues of bearded men wearing robes and crowns on their heads. At the far end sat three sets of stairs that led up to a bay of dark windows. But that wasn’t what caught Joe’s attention the most. He was astonished by the huge vaulted rafters made of timber. They spanned the domed ceiling like exposed ribs. He was equally astonished at what was carved into the base of each one—a winged creature with bugged eyes and a long tongue curling out of its open mouth. Hanging from the tip of every other tongue was a long chain ending in a ring of dim lights that dripped spots of light on the floor below.

To the left was a dark archway. Joe figured that must be the doorway the voice referred to. They walked across the huge stone tiles, their steps echoing softly in the hall, until they reached the archway’s threshold. In front of them was a winding staircase hollowed into the wall like a cave. Small dots of light were embedded along the edge of each step. Joe slid his foot tentatively onto the first step
, as if he wasn’t sure it was going to hold him. He didn’t get very far before he had to stop. He was holding Mary’s hand but she wasn’t moving with him. Their arms hung between them like an umbilical cord.

“Come on,” Joe said. “Don’t be scared. I won’t let anything happen to you. Just keep hold of my hand and you’ll be okay.”

Mary didn’t say a word. She merely followed him onto the step. He knew the only reason she did was because of the trust she had in him. She followed on faith, on faith in him.

A little later, they reached the top of the winding stairs where
they found another door with a small box and a white button beside it that he pushed.

“Come in, friends. Come in.”

A buzz sounded, a latch clicked. Joe picked up the diesel and pushed the door open with his shoulder. Inside, a flood of light smashed into his face. It was in such stark contrast to all the darkness they’d just been in that it momentarily paralyzed him. The room was as brightly lit as noonday on the plains when Joe had to squint to see. He couldn’t believe all the light.

“Welcome to my paradise,” the voice said. “My island oasis, my tropical wonderland.”

Once Joe’s eyes adjusted, there was no question it was a wonder to behold. He could hardly believe what he saw. The fear and trepidation that dogged him before had suddenly vanished. The first thought that came to his mind was
beautiful
, although he couldn’t articulate a reason for that. It was simply the first impression that came to him. Then he thought of the story about how Virid created the earth as a fertile paradise for humans to live in, a paradise that would last forever as long as people didn’t fall prey to their own power. Of course, people did fall prey. That’s why the Prophet Roy came. He came to say that Virid spoke to him and she told him she had created a new paradise in heaven for those who trusted and followed in her way. But Joe’s next thought was that this couldn’t be true, this couldn’t possibly exist, and none of it was real.

At the far end of the room, surrounded by palm trees and a waterfall, sat a man in a huge wicker chair. His face was hidden by some kind of ghoulish mask. It looked like it was made of wood. The eyes were painted white and so was the huge snarling mouth. He wore a robe of red fabric with white flowers, which was knotted at one shoulder. Behind him was a huge photo mural. Joe had never seen anything like it in his whole life.