The End of the World As I Know It (The Ghosts & Demons Series Book 2) (22 page)
Read The End of the World As I Know It (The Ghosts & Demons Series Book 2) Online
Authors: Robert Chazz Chute,Holly Pop
My jaw dropped open. “
Nuclear
?”
“No. Conventional explosives, but lots of it.”
The roar of the explosion hit us. A moment later, a wall of hot breath blew our hair back as the displacement wave washed over us.
“No radiation for nosy people to pick up on. The town of Medicament is evacuated. I’m sorry, kiddo. Your hometown isn’t there, anymore. The Army did it.”
“A cover up. How can they cover this up?”
“They’re the government, Iowa. They can do anything. FEMA workers are telling a bunch of homeless, shellshocked people right now that what they thought happened to them, didn’t happen to them. It’s a lot of lies. Victor says the aim all along wasn’t to kill everyone in town. It was to drive your team to the quarry.”
“They wanted Trick to be one of them.”
“Victor thinks they would have let you audition, too.”
“
What?
”
“I know, I know.”
“That’s why they didn’t kill me when they had the chance. I thought I was badass but I was bait. Victor sent me on this mission to be the cheese in his mousetrap.”
“I don’t think he’d put it that way, but yeah, it was a tactical move with big risks. He hoped to drown the bad guys in holy water and get your demon power leveled up, of course. The demons wanted Trick’s power undampened, too. That pretty boy could have done the Keep a lot of damage. If they could turn you, the Ra could have a couple of powerful allies who could go anywhere and do anything. You two could have been like, a demon power couple.”
“Mr. Chang and Victor… I trusted them but they didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”
“I think Victor was freaked about operational security. After what happened with Lynda and the whole demons impersonating friendly humans thing, well….”
Tears slipped down my cheeks. My home — Mama’s home — was gone. So was my confidence in the conductors of the Choir Invisible.
“Ellen will come back to Brooklyn with us,” Manhattan said. “Victor told her the Keep needs a pharmacist. She told him she’d bring her shotgun.”
“This makes no sense,” I said. “We’re at war with demons. The world will know it. Then what?”
“At war with demons? You know how that sounds. The government will pay anybody to keep their mouth shut, relocate them and everyone will get on with their lives.”
“No they won’t!”
“Sure, they will. It’s Iowa.”
I gave her a hard look.
“Oh, c’mon. It’ll be easy. This time next week, the Medicament Invasion will be reduced to a silly conspiracy theory and an urban legend. Well…a rural legend. They’ll pay off the survivors and have them sign non-disclosure agreements so the survivors get to keep their dough. It’ll all go away and anyone who disagrees will get their payout yanked. Then they’ll be written off as a nut and mocked on Facebook, if they aren’t disappeared.”
“And how will the government explain the smoking hole where my town used to be?”
“They’ve already got it covered. Bomb train.”
“What?”
“Happens once a month or so.”
“Really?”
“Trains carrying oil and gas derail somewhere in North America with surprising frequency. Medicament wouldn’t be the first town to be wiped out by one. Add in a rumor about toxic chemicals and no one will come near here to investigate for ten years. Today, it’s Medicament’s turn to be erased.”
“You think they’ll get away with it?”
“Of course they will,” Manny said. “Somebody will tell the truth, sure, but it’s like with everything. The first person to tell a new truth always looks crazy.”
We’ll call that little gold nugget from Manny Lesson 153. I was too upset at that moment to think of anything so pithy. Of course, I had no idea the news would get worse in about a minute.
The hot wind died as flights of sparrows, crows and a few owls took to the sky, flying away from the place that was once Medicament, Iowa. Hot zephyrs caressed my cheeks, drying my tears. I supposed I would be back in the Keep soon, far away from this mess. Soon, I’d be ready to begin again. “Manny?”
“Hm?”
“Can we go shopping? When we get back to New York, I mean?”
“Sure, sweetie. What do you want to buy?”
“Clothes.”
“Of course. I’m always up for — ”
“More workout gear, I mean.”
“Okay. Anything you want.”
“I really want to kick some demon ass. I also need to get more archery training in with Anguloora.”
“He’s no fun.”
“No. He’s not. But he’s what I need.”
“Okay,” Manny said. “Whatever you want.”
“I gotta pee.” I walked back to the bedroom and Manny pointed me to a door on the right.
As I touched the handle, I worried what might be waiting on the other side of that door. What if Trick came back as a zombie like Brad had? What if Peter Smythe — or whatever his real name was — waited behind that door, ready to try to pull me through a rift and recruit me to the Ra? Or kill me if I refused treason?
As I closed my eyes, I could almost see Magog mocking and cackling at me from behind a shower curtain.
I opened the door. Spider’s dirty little bathroom was empty. I stepped to the sink to wash my face and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
No fangs.
Same girl-next-door face.
The devil horns were new. There were two of them. Each sharp, dark horn grew out of my head a couple of inches.
Manny appeared in the open doorway, crossed her arms and leaned on the doorframe. “Don’t freak. It’s not all bad. You’re a super chick with super powers.”
“I am a freak.”
“Very chic. I think it’s hot.”
“Shut up, Manny.”
“Tam?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re still Iowa, Castrator of Demons, but times ten.”
“I’m…I….
ugh
. I’m a monster. I’m ugly.”
“I have a suggestion,” she said.
“Make it good.”
“When we go shopping, let’s start with hats.” Manny stepped close, wrapped her arms around me and held tight as I began to shake. “The Choir Invisible needs a champion, Tam. You are that champion. You volunteered.”
“Feels like I’ve been volun
told
.”
“It’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I believe it. That and saucy new demon powers is all you’ve got right now. But that’s enough for now, isn’t it? It’s like always. We gotta adapt or die. You won’t die and neither will I…probably.”
A hot tear slipped down my cheek. “This isn’t happily ever after, Manny.”
“Not yet. But we’re not done. We’re just getting started.”
“But…horns?
Horns!
Children will run away. People will point and laugh.”
“Small children, maybe, but the good people won’t laugh,” Manhattan said. “There are still more good people than bad. We will always outnumber the bad.”
I shook my head and shut my eyes. For you, Dear Reader, Armageddon is still in the vague future, but the Ra will open a rift again somehow. They’ll come for you and everything you love, hard, fast and hungry. They’ll come for all of us.
Remember way back when? Lesson 83: Plans change. Pee in your diaper and cry if you have to.
I did.
Manhattan kissed my tears away. “This is kinda
Buffy
. I don’t suppose this is the time to make a joke about being horny, right?”
“Good call, Manny. Good call. For me, this is the end of the world as I know it.”
“Aw,
muffin
! Tough day at the office? C’mon. Let’s go make a better world then, shall we?”
I gave a slow nod, swallowed some snot and tried not to sniffle. “I guess…if there are hats. I am Iowa, Castrator of Demons, after all.”
“Yes,” Manny said. “Ooh, this has a nice ring to it. You are also Iowa, Scourge of the Horde of Ra.”
“And we are the Choir Invisible,” I said.
But we can’t do this alone. Join us.
About the Authors
Thank you for reading
The End of the World As I Know It.
If you’re so inclined, please do leave a happy review.
The Ghosts & Demons Series
continues in June 2015 with
Fierce Lessons
by Robert Chazz Chute and Holly Pop.
Be sure to find out exactly when the next book comes out by subscribing for updates at
Get Book One of this series,
The Haunting Lessons,
here.
Suspense novelist Robert Chazz Chute is a former journalist and winner of eight writing awards. His epic apocalyptic saga,
This Plague of Days
, won Honorable Mention from
Writers Digest
Self-published Ebook of the Year in 2014.
Holly (Pop) Papandreas studies biology in New York when she is not reading and writing dark fantasy. She is the author of the novellas
Ouija: Based on a True Story
and
What Angels Dread
.
For podcasts, updates, news and more about our books, subscribe at
AllThatChazz.com
.
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