When Songbirds Fly | Bellamy Blake

Chapter Fifty-Four: The Four Horsemen

'The end is coming. Hear me as I say it this time: the end is coming, and it's coming soon.'

I continue to peer at the video of the speech — apparently by a man called Bill Cadogan —, even as Jaha passes the tablet to the passenger seat for Clarke to see it. 'He gave this speech two weeks before the bombs.'

She puts it onto full screen and I prop one elbow on the back of her chair, leaning forwards.

'The world is dark and getting darker all the time. Everything we once trusted has turned on us — government, religion; even technology has become a weapon in their hands, used to poison our minds. I know you're in pain. I know you're afraid, but it doesn't have to be like this. There is a way out of the darkness. I can show it to you. You can be saved. Join me. Join us and together when the horsemen come... from the ashes, we will rise.'

Bellamy's eyes meet mine in the rear view mirror. He quirks an eyebrow, clearly wondering how anyone would buy into this nonsense. I offer him an apologetic grimace. 'It's easier to get pulled into this type of thing than you think. They just need to know the right things to say.'

Without a word, he turns his gaze back to the land ahead of us. I wonder if I should've just kept quiet. It's too soon to think of the damage ALIE caused.

Sighing impatiently, Clarke hands the tablet back to Jaha. 'Please tell me you have more than this.'

He nods and exits the video, swiping onto another article. The size and quantity of the words hurts my brain. 'In the two years before the bombs, Cadogan sold off most of the Second Dawn's real estate holdings, generating tens of millions of dollars, but there was one thing he didn't sell.'

He comes to a stop at what looks like the opening to a book. At the bottom is a picture of a small wooden cabin surrounded by tall trees that look very similar to the ones towering over us from beside this manmade road of churned up grass and dirt.

'I found this in his autobiography. It's his childhood home. His father built a bunker there to save his family. I think Cadogan used the Church's money to expand it.'

Bellamy shrugs dismissively. 'He grew up there. Maybe he kept it for sentimental value.'

'Hm. His father beat him almost daily in that house. He hated living there.'

'You're assuming that it means he wasn't a sentimental guy, though. I've come across way too many people who loved their abusers, even when they were aware of what was happening to them. That shit messes you up. You become dependent, long for what you wished you could've had instead.'

A silence settles over the small space. Jaha is clearly unimpressed, searching his mind for another argument to keep us interested.

Clarke finally shifts in her seat to get a better look at him. 'Why keep it if you're liquidating everything else?'

'Because that bunker is there. I can feel it.'

'Guy sounds like a religious fanatic to me,' Bellamy mutters.

Nodding hurriedly, I push myself back from Clarke's seat and settle into my own. 'I mean, yeah. He was a cult leader. It's kind of in the job description.'

Jaha watches me kick my legs up onto the seat beside him with what almost looks like distaste. He easily masks it with a shrug. 'Maybe, or maybe he was just a leader willing to do whatever it took to save his people.'

——————

It's dark when we finally climb out of the rover. I snatch a flashlight from the box by the back door, carefully lowering myself onto the ground using the door handle.