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“I just want you kids to know that I love you,” Mary said. “Alice, back from the cliff. It’s not time yet. We have to wait so that you can go with me.”
“Where are we going?” Justin asked.
“Home,” Mary said. “To our real homes. To our moms and dads.”
“How can we do that?” Justin asked.
“They’re waiting.” Mary pointed. “Just outside the wall. The Prophetess has shown us the way.”
“My mommy?” Alice asked.
“Yes, Alice,” Mary said. “Everybody’s mommy.”
“Can Roger come, too?” Justin asked.
“If he hurries,” Mary said.
“But he’s sick. His lungs are hurt.”
“Then he’ll come another time,” Mary said. Her patience was fraying. How much longer would she have to be this person? How much longer would she have to be Mother Mary?
Other kids were pressing closer now. They’d been driven up the hill, right up against the FAYZ wall by battles going on below. Drake. Zil. Evil people, awful people, ready to hurt and kill. Ready to hurt or kill these very kids unless Mary saved them.
“Soon,” Mary crooned.
“I don’t want to go without Roger,” Justin said.
“You have no choice,” Mary said.
Justin shook his head firmly. “I’m going to get him.”
“No,” Mary said.
“Yes. I am,” Justin said stubbornly.
“Shut up! I said NO!” Mary screamed. She grabbed Justin and yanked him hard by the arm. His eyes filled with tears. She shook him hard and kept screaming, “NO, NO! You’ll do as I say!”
She let him go and he fell to the ground.
Mary drew herself back, stared down in horror. What had she just done?
What had she done?
It would be okay, all of it okay, once the time came. She would be gone from this place. Gone and gone and gone, and all the children would come with her, they always did, and then they would be free.
It was for their own good.
“Mary!” It was John. How he’d made it past the fights down the road and reached her she could not imagine. Yet, here he was.
“Children,” John said. “Come with me.”
“No one is leaving,” Mary said.
“Mary…” John’s voice broke. “Mary…”
Sanjit was torn between staring in blank horror at the cliff wall just inches away from the tip of the whirling rotors, and the awful sight of a girl, the one named Penny, hanging in midair above those same rotors.
Caine stood at the top of the cliff, unafraid of falling. He wasn’t a guy who could fall, Sanjit realized. Caine could step off the edge and like the Road Runner simply hang in midair, beep beep, and zip back to solid ground.
