Molly - Part 4

Chapter 32

Mark coughed as he waved away the dust. It had come over them so quickly he hadn't been able to hide; none of them had.

"Holy shit."

Mark peered into the sky, and yes the world was a little brighter without that great shadow stretching over them.

Sarah came up, her face very pale.

"Who should call it in?"

Mark sighed, noticed his hand was shaking as he raised his receiver to his mouth.

A sharp ping.

"Yeah?"

Mark closed his eyes.

"Erica...you're gonna wanna see this."

***

"Fifteen years," Carlos spat, wiping his mouth. "Fifteen years of having to look at that fucking thing. Now it's dead in seconds."

They waited on a ridge overlooking the city. Holy Mountain was close. Now poised against the station; a great crack had split it open and while it was clear it would never fly again Erica was not so sure the damage was complete.

The wind drew through them, the revolutionaries looking on. They had grown much this past year, after Harbor's death. She wished it was simple and that the progress was good progress, but now she had grown older and as such could see the world for what it was: flawed.

But none of that mattered, so long as the red was there.

"What happened?" Christina said, mouth slightly agape.

"We've been hearing all kinds of stories," Carlos replied. "Mark here actually saw it happen."

They turned to him and waited.

Mark sighed.

"I'm just gonna say it, I guess."

He looked to Sarah, who nodded.

"We saw a big shadow. Hard to really make it out. It took the station and..."

Mark shrugged.

"That's it."

Erica lowered her head.

"That's it?" Carlos chuckled. "Mark, that isn't exactly--"

"It's what we saw, Carlos," Sarah snapped. "Believe us or don't."

"I do."

Erica took a few more steps, looked down the edge. A couple dogs were sifting through trash, snarling then running on seeing her.

They appeared out of the fog of the rubble. Standing in a straight line. Watching from afar. They wore black suits and black ties and their eyes were shaded by metal disks. They did not seem to notice the revolutionaries, continuing their staring, not moving as if stuck in a dream.

One of them turned to Erica, then smiled.

It was always going to be this way.

And then they left, fading with the dust, and yes Erica could see the white fog which had hounded them these long years, fighting against the turmoil of the fall of the station. Enduring.

"What do we do?"

"What we have always done: fight for a better world."

They came out of the cracks; they came out of the mud. Looking at the dead sky with dead eyes. But they had been imbued by the red, decaying pieces wrapped around their bodies, the symbol of an age coming into being.

***

Twisted rubble, and in the background: the dead station.

Molly lamented silently.

They had dumped the hovercars in a pit until they had spilled over and now consumed the block. Sparks flashed from hovercar to hovercar, shaking the ground a little. As she came closer she heard Teddy clear his throat; she smiled.

"I know it's dangerous."

"Sorry--just jumpy." He snorted. "Y'know...because of that."

The station split in two. Surely so many had died.

"Why now?" Teddy asked.

"She pressed too hard."

"He could have done it before--at South-End, when the nazis came--"

"God works in mysterious ways."

Teddy stared at her, then sighed.

She searched the heap then figured there wasn't much to salvage. With the hovercars still primed it would be difficult to diffuse them, let alone strip them for parts. She found a slab of metal and kicked it into the pit--the thing burned before it got close.

"Molly Smith!"

It appeared as a star, running so fast into the earth if Molly had blinked she would have missed it. It unfurled itself, stretching one long red arm then another, crawling. Molly witnessed what looked like vines running out of it.

Teddy took a step back.

"I have come on behalf of the tree mother," the machine said.

"Who are you?"

"I am Addicus; my name means nothing. I have been born out of the machinery that now plagues this planet."

"A revenant of red-light," Molly whispered. "Dead and then born again into death."

"Yes--I have come to give you a warning. The tree mother now understands the stakes. Before she was weak--she admits this freely. She has been watching you for a while now and knows that you have undergone something of a new-understanding too."

It turned its triangle-head to Teddy.

"I guess we're all still growing," said Molly.

"Yes."

It heaved what could only be a long, withdrawn sigh.

"The pieces are set though the board keeps changing. What will the world look like, I wonder? Is all hope lost? I do not know--I am only a machine. Numbers in form. But I do know that I have a soul, and that all things that have movement and love have souls. So why is it so hard to achieve balance? I do not know."

It left, sulking away, leaving them with the hovercars, the carnage.

Molly came to Teddy and grasped the back of his head, kissed him.

"What was that for?"

"Let's keep going."