"Hey Teddy."
Teddy dropped his rifle and hugged her, pulling back and searching her face.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Where is she?"
He turned towards Holy Mountain. That single peak etched in that wave of buildings and noise. Its sad bramble-strewn face coughing out more dust, more dirt. Something mired and to be done away with.
Molly sighed.
"I'll be right back."
***
Jessica did not acknowledge Molly's approach. Instead she continued to watch the horizon. Hunched over a little like a gargoyle. Clothes as tattered as a vagrant's.
"I used to come up here, before the bombs," she said, smiling. "Hike up all the way to the top and just watch the evening go away. Only place where you could get close to the stars."
Her gaze wandered up. Molly's didn't; they both knew what they would see.
"Saron is dead. I think he was trying to stop sheep-herders from getting to the station. Tracked them to South-End." Molly shrugged. "In a lot of ways I don't think this city needs me anymore. The violence is already here."
She looked at the ground; she knew Jessica was watching her and while Molly did care she thought it best to keep her head down.
"I am afraid of you," Jessica said with a smile. "I wish I wasn't but it's true. I see too much of the enemy in you. The people I am trying to fight. I know that you have helped before but now with everything coming to a head I don't know if I can trust anything that you say. I can only trust nature, and her call."
Molly watched Jessica for a time.
"I understand."
She began to walk away until she heard Jessica get up.
"You are ready," Jessica said. "To die. Or to go away."
"Yes."
"But something's keeping you here."
Now Molly smiled, glad that someone else was here to take the mantle. She was done.
"He's all I care about now."
And she left Jessica, unconcerned by her reaction. Molly didn't know what was coming next, only that she was sure she would play less of a part in it.
Maxis.
Molly looked up at the stars.
"I will never let you take him."
YOU ARE READING
Molly - Part 4
Science FictionThere wasn't a statue of liberty anymore--there was no need for it. And as the sun dawned and the fog rolled in and the buildings became so high they blotted out what little sunlight there was it could only be said that yes: this was the end of the...
