Molly - Part 1

Chapter 6

The cat watched the humans kill their own. When they left, it crawled out of the basement and began to saunter down the sidewalk.

Dogs. The cat could hear them coming. It sped off, crying out, then wandered into a park. A woman came out of a rickety, sheet-metal home, carrying a shotgun, laughing with zeal. The cat avoided the human and fell into long grass, taking its time as it made its way through the maze of trash and cars overturned.

It balanced itself along a wall half-decayed. As it came to the end the cat noticed its kin. Three of them. They weren't moving.

Coming closer, one of the cats reared up. Its eyes were faded, fur matted. The cat hissed, then fled as the other cats barred their own teeth.

The day waned. The cat was hungry, yet there was no food.

A man. The cat approached, crying out for scraps.

"Why'd you have to do that?"

Smoke rose up from the nozzle. Shaking, Carson stared at the stray as he holstered his pistol.

"Better off, yeah?"

Seth shook his head, combing back his hair, slick with grease.

They had gathered at the foot of the mountain, eyes glistening as the rockets continued to rain down. Most were of Carson and Seth's stock, drifting loners without form or reason.

"Think he's gonna give us the good news?"

Carson snorted. "Better. I'm not following his ass all day."

From the depths of the earth arrived a slab lifted by gears groaning below. And from that division appeared none other than Bobby King, dressed in his finest silks, wearing sunglasses despite the gray. He smiled, his teeth so white it almost made Carson turn away, and as Bobby King spread his arms wide and titled his head back Carson thought if there was anything like Jesus coming here he was, on Main Street.

"Brothers and sisters! Wives and friends. Bow your heads now; entwine your fingers and say your grace, for the Lord God is here and he is fine!"

Cheers, though ragged, their zeal run out by the poison and the guns. For Carson's part he waited. He noticed Seth wipe his brow, spitting on the ground, fidgeting where he stood.

And there, with its tip afire, was their destination.

"Holy Mountain!" Bobby King grinned somehow wider. "Beautiful, isn't it? The rats can go ahead and keep fighting each other. None of it matters, not the rat-men and their rat-guns or the president who now lies dead in a river. The only thing that matters...is that."

He pointed, his many rings catching the glare of one of the streetlights, and truly Holy Mountain was an awesome sight.

All partook, save for Seth, who seemed ready to jump out of his skin.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Carson seethed.

"Where's Jackie and Sven? Christ--they said they'd be here."

"They will be. Do you wanna get caught? Shut up and listen."

Seth obeyed, if only in form, eyes casting up to Bobby King and his multicolored cloak.

"I am going to deliver you from this terrible evil! But first, we must fight. We must be sacrificed like the lord Jesus Christ, that divine trinity. Come, apostles! Rise up! We will not be deterred, we will not be sanctioned. We are the pull that creates life, the water that runs into the ocean..."

More ragged cheers as Bobby King shed himself of his cloak and began up Holy Mountain.

"Shit," Carson mumbled.