Berlin breathed its last today. Katie only heard the news over the radio while driving back from the factory with Savior-branded t-shirts for the shop. There wasn’t much buzz about it this time. Just an hour of morning news followed by a five-minute eulogy from some kings from Europe. Katie didn’t even know they still had kings in Europe so that was a laugh. But after that, nothing. Nothing but routine news about gas prices and parliamentary bills about making gender reassignment surgery even less accessible because apparently trans kids were the ones really destroying the nation. Katie wasn’t too bothered. She’d gotten hers years ago.

  She was more worried about getting these fucking t-shirts to the shop on time. The shopkeepers association were not kidding about their help. Ever since they’d publicly announced their support for Safi’s, people had come in droves. In fact, just this morning, when Katie woke up, she found a crowd gathered outside the shop. From the looks of it, they’d been camping there all night too. And they weren’t gonna be satisfied with just pins and mugs, no no no. They demanded t-shirts.

  Katie had to sneak out the back door just to get away from from them. After that, it was a simple matter of getting to the RV without being seen and driving away as fast as the creaking old thing could manage. She didn’t even get to bring Colin with her. Poor guy had been looking forward to the trip for the better part of the week. She was gonna have to make it up to him somehow.

  When Katie’s RV reached the outskirts of the town with her fresh stock of Savior-branded t-shirts, she felt an unusual silence in the air around her. She loaded the boxes onto the trolley-cart she’d borrowed from the factory and rolled them down the beaten path. Something felt off. There weren’t as many people going about town, no mini-bungalows blasting music today, nor even the usual kids playing Sticks and Savior by the church.

  In fact, the Church of the Savior seemed to have an unusually large gathering around the front door. Katie rolled her boxes into the shop using the back door, then went on over to investigate. Where was Colin, anyway? He was always the first one to find her whenever she—

  Oh no.

  Katie tore through the crowd, prying the people out of her way as she carved herself a path. No no no. This was not possible. It hadn’t even been a week. It took months, if not years, for cults to become like this. This had to be a misunderstanding.

  As Katie pushed the last person out of the way and her eyes fell upon the scene, her disbelief turned to horror and she fell to her knees with a cry. It was Colin, or what was left of him.

  Whoever it was, they had beaten him within an inch of his life. They’d poked out one of his eyes and the other was so red and swollen, he could hardly see. A large bloody gash extended from his forehead to his chin with small cuts like tree branches spreading out in all directions all over his face. His entire body was covered in painful bruises but, most distinct of all, a large circular brand over his chest, shaped like the Savior’s face. Colin was barely breathing.

  “Outta the damn way, you slowpokes!” Jonah came cutting through the crowd like butter and burst onto the scene. He gave Colin the once-over and shook his face gently. “Colin! Colin! You hear me.”

  Colin let out a soft painful moan.

  “He’s still breathing! You two, help me carry him to the doctor.” He pointed and barked at the people behind him. “I knew this Savior shit were nothing but trouble. Now, give me a hand here! What are you waiting for?”

  Four men came forth from the crowd and lifted Colin on their shoulders. With another order from Jonah, they marched in military synchronicity and carried him away.

  “What are the rest of you looking at? This look like a game?” demanded Jonah.

  “Who could’ve done this?” asked someone from the crowd.

  “The Mason kids. It has to be the Mason kids. Those mongrels are always up to no good!” cried another lady.

  “Quiet!” said Jonah. “We don’t got no proof for you to be making false accusations just yet. Now, I don’t like ‘em Mason kids any more than the rest of you but I don’t believe they’d go this far.”

  “Wouldn’t they?” said the same lady. Katie looked closer. It was Gertie of the shopkeepers association. “You’ve been around here forever, Jonah. You know damn well why those mongrels aren’t allowed anywhere near the town anymore. They nothing but trouble! Look what they did to poor Colin. Oh, lord! They must be punished.”

  “That’s enough!” Jonah crossed his arms and raised his voice. “I’ll say this once and I’ll say this clear. No one is doing anything to them kids until and unless we know for sure they the ones responsible. Anyone that tries to step outta line will have to answer to me. Is that understood?”

  A range of confused and indistinct murmurs rose from the crowd.

  Jonah yelled even louder. “I said, is that understood?”

  The crowd answered in one tone of voice. “Yes, Jonah.”

  “Good. Now, leave. And don’t crowd the crime scene. I promise you, I intend to get to the bottom of this.”

  The people scattered like flies, leaving only Jonah and Katie standing by the church door. Once the people were gone, Jonah leaned against the door, pressed his palms into his face, and took a exhaled sharply. “Yelling like that always takes it out of me. Boy, am I lucky I don’t gotta do that more often.” He plopped onto the ground to catch his breath.

  “You seemed pretty adamant defending the Mason kids. Why’s that?” asked Katie.

  “No reason, doll. I just don’t need this town turning on itself.”

  “Are you sure? Because it kinda sounded like you don’t believe they did it.”

  Jonah chuckled weakly. “Them’s just troubled kids the rest of town’s given up on. Sure, they engage in the occasional prank like tipping cows or painting wieners on storefronts but, when it comes to real trouble, nah, I don’t believe they’re capable of it.”

  “So, what now?” said Katie.

  “Now? Now, I make sure that things don’t get any worse than they already are. This Savior shit’s gotten far enough already. I can’t permit the people their delusion anymore.”

  “What about the Masons? Aren’t you gonna try and clear their name?”

  “The hell do I look like? A detective?” cried Jonah. “Nah, it will sort itself out, long as we make sure things don’t go from bad to worse. I still got some folks ‘round town that hold me in some regard. I’ll tell ‘em to keep an eye out for anyone trying to stir up trouble.”

  “That sounds like a plan, I guess,” she said weakly.

  Jonah lifted himself off the ground with a grunt and put an arm over Katie’s shoulder. “I know you was sweet on Colin. Don’t worry about him. Bastard’s made of sterner stuff than this. He’ll pull through.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You take care of yourself, doll. Call me paranoid but I got a feeling it’s only going to get worse from here on out.”

  Safi was seconds away from disqualifying Berlin when they sensed a large metal object speeding in their direction. It roared and raged and bounded through the air, chasing after them like some predator. Safi outstretched a hand and the missile halted in mid-air mere inches away from their eyes. They used a finger to spin it around and inspect it. The craftsmanship was remarkable. The design showed a clear understanding of aerodynamics. Even the payload delivery system was quite novel. Far different than the one utilized by the Galactic Council.

  The inspected the letters engraved on the outer casing. Fat Man. That was odd. The weapon seemed quite thin and not particularly shaped like a man either. They tapped the shelling with a knuckle. Metal. They looked inside with their seventeen all-perceiving eyes to see what sort of element had been used to try to vanquish them. Their eyes widened with surprise, then narrowed in disappointment.

  They sighed. “Dear me, that cannot possibly be good for the environment.”

  The next question was, how to dispose of it? They could let it loose on the city and test the might of human weaponry firsthand. No, too cruel. The goal was to minimize suffering. The radiation from the missile alone would be enough cause for alarm, to nothing of the efficacy. If the blast wasn’t powerful enough to vaporize all targets in an instant, their pain would be worse than death and Safi would have to use the white plume anyways.

  Why would anyone use a weapon like this, they wondered. Something so crude and unreliable and so likely to cause lasting suffering? Didn’t that defeat the very purpose of weapons of mass destruction? To minimize suffering.

  Or maybe, they were overthinking things. Maybe this Fat Man was meant for single targets like them. They were surprised it had taken the humans this long to answer but, at this point, they’d take anything over insufferable silence.

  Safi hated the quiet. The quiet meant they had time to think and when they had time to think, their thoughts invariably went back to home. To the floods and the suffering and their last Muturi. Safi still remembered the day the Council rep came to their planet. It felt as though an angel had descended from the heavens. An angel that flew and soared against the sun and, within moments of arriving, turned the king’s capital into a glass floor.

  Safi wondered if things would have turned out differently had the Council rep arrived sooner. Before the flood. Would they still have this cruel burden of a job? Or, would they have their Muturi partner instead? To dance and sing in perfect harmony for all eternity. Just the two of them, perfect in rhythm, flow, pace, tempo. To dance. To sing. To forever be lost in their eyes.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Pah! They scoffed. The quiet really was quite cruel, wasn’t it? Making them think of what they’d never have. Parading it around in their mind like some sick delusion. They laughed. For what it’s worth, it was a good delusion.

  They disassembled the missile, tossed the inner components into orbit, and brought down the white plume. Suffering served no purpose. The directive was all that mattered.

  “The Masons are bad news.”

  “There’s a reason we don’t let those Mason kids into town.”

  “I heard one of them killed a man.”

  “They got ties to the mafia.”

  No matter where Katie asked, it was the same story. Part of her was starting to believe it too but something was not right. According to every single person she’d interrogated, the Masons hadn’t been seen near town in years. Apparently, there had been a big falling out between them and the rest of the folks that led to them being chased out of town. But no matter who she asked, no one wanted to tell her what the big fight was about.

  Colin was hurt pretty bad but the doctor said he was gonna pull through. He was a tough cookie, that one. But he still deserved justice. The store could wait a while. Besides, if this thing with the Masons got too heated, her business was gonna suffer anyway so this was just future planning on her part.

  Katie fired up her RV, pressed down on the gas pedal, and departed for the Junkyard. Ever since their big falling out with rest of town, the Mason kids had set up camp about fifteen miles south of town. No one knew what it looked like or what they even did there but regardless all townsfolk were barred from going there. Especially the children.

  Well, then, it was a good thing Katie wasn’t considered townsfolk just yet. Besides, she needed to see what all the fuss with these kids was about. If it helped lead her to Colin’s attacker, even better.

  A large wreckage of rusty broken cars piled on top of each other loomed in the distance. From afar, the cars seemed like bricks. Bricks laid across the ground in a circle the size of a basketball court, layer by layer. Cars that were once silver, gray, red, and white. Now, all rusty-brown, full of broken glass and dented metal. Some missing tires, others missing steering wheels. All discarded. Rejects.

  As the wreckage grew closer, Katie saw a gap in the middle of the car-wall barely wide enough for a medium-sized person to pass through. Of course, she groaned. She couldn’t just take the RV into their lair. Even still, she parked as close to the Junkyard as she could and grabbed a switchblade and hid it in her back pocket, just in case.

  Katie’s phone buzzed with new notifications. A missed call from Nolan Reed, the guy she owed money big time. Fuck, now wasn’t the time. She set it on mute.

  Katie watched the wreckage wall that stood five cars tall and wondered if Safi would come to her aid in case she was in trouble. She took a deep breath and, expecting the worst, squeezed her way through the narrow passage and emerged out the other side. She was almost disappointed.

  Based on everything the townsfolk had told her, Katie had expected a den of thieves, a town of punks and robbers, a gathering zone for drug dealers and other malcontents. These were just a bunch of fucking kids.

  Not even angry-emo rebellious kids or whatever the people had made them out to be. Just kids. Little kids wearing shorts and t-shirts playing hide-n-seek. Slightly older kids wearing tanks and khakis mud wrestling in a corner all their own. Even older kids wearing clean shirts and jeans, sitting atop wrecked cars just laughing and chatting.

  Katie watched them closer. The oldest among them couldn’t have more than twenty. She slapped her forehead and sighed. God, she felt like such an idiot. Then, she got really mad. What in the name of Safi was this propaganda? These were fucking kids, for crying out loud.

  One of the older ones saw her coming out the wreck and waved at her from atop a car. “Yoohoo lady! I think you might be lost!”

  That drew the attention of every last one of the kids who stopped whatever they were doing and came running to observe this new stranger. Within seconds, the entire population of the Junkyard was gathered around her, watching her every move like she was some emu in a zoo.

  She smiled awkwardly. “Hi kids.”

  “Hiiiiii!” said the younger ones in unison.

  “Hi, my name’s Katie.”

  “Hiiiii Katiiiiieeee.”

  A kid with glasses popped out of the crowd and gave her a big grin. “Where are you from, Katie?”

  “Oh, I’m from… pretty far from here,” she said softly.

  “Woaaaaahhhh!”

  By this time, the older kids had gathered around her. They teased the younger kids and ruffled their hair and asked them to make themselves scarce. The eldest introduced himself to her. “Sorry about all that fuss, lady. You know how kids can be. Whatcha bet most of them never seen a woman besides their momma before.”

  “Please, it’s all good. And call me, Katie.”

  “Okay, then. I’m uhh… I’m Hunter, by the way. Well…” He scratched the back of his head and grinned. “I know you didn’t come here to babysit and you don’t look like any of our mommas so, what brings you to our part of town?”

  “Any chance we can talk somewhere a bit private?”

  He guided her away from the crowd to a secluded corner, far from the kids and obscured by a pile of cars. The entire time that they walked together, the rest of the kids wouldn’t stop hooting and hollering and whistling and Katie swore one of them even started singing an old romantic song. Poor Hunter apologized no less than twenty times on their way over.

  “Right, umm… That’s enough of that.” Hunter was blushing red and barely able to meet her gaze. “So, umm… yeah, what brings you here?”

  Katie looked around to see if they had any unexpected listeners about. Once she was certain that they were alone, she breathed a sigh of relief, and continued in almost a whisper. “So, I moved to the town of Gentle recently. Ever heard of it?”

  Hunter’s smile all but disappeared. “Oh…”

  “They don’t like you guys very much around there, do they?”

  Hunter scoffed and shook his head. “It’s all a bunch of bullshit.”

  Katie seated herself on a broken-down car’s roof. “I’m listening.”

  “God, where do I even start? I must’ve been about ten or twelve when it all went down. Used to be the Masons were welcome in town. Not liked or respected, by any means but tolerated nonetheless. You see, their poppa was this hotshot oil baron that died and left them a bunch of money. The Masons never knew an honest day’s labor in their life. I almost pity them in that way.”

  “Waitwaitwait, back up a little.” Katie crossed her arms. “I thought you were a Mason.”

  “Me? No.” Hunter laughed. “There haven’t been any Masons ‘round her for ages. Last I heard, the youngest of the lot, Billy Mason, went off to Harvard or some other fancy school. Uhh… anyhoo, as I was saying, the Mason triplets were troublemakers. They’d mess with anyone that came to town. Throwing eggs at people, running clotheslines through the muds, scaring cats. Nuisances, the lot of them.”

  “Cow tipping?”

  “Cow tipping?” Hunter looked almost offended by the question. “What are we, fifty? No, just pranks. Sometimes harmless. Sometimes… less than harmless.”

  “And let me guess? One day the less than harmless pranks went a bit too far?”

  Hunter rubbed his eyelids and exhaled. “It was meant to be their crowning jewel. And in a way, I suppose it was. Fireworks. As many as they could gather. All placed inside the barn.”

  Hunter lowered his gaze. “They never saw the fire spread. I still remember it like it was yesterday. A red plume, high as a mountain, dancing in the wind, roaring and raging till the whole barn were ash. The Masons were crying and begging the people for mercy. Said they didn’t mean for it to be this way. That it was a mistake. But all they saw was the ashes.”

  “So, that’s why…” Katie sighed.

  Hunter nodded. “They were chased outta town that very night. Them and any kid that ever associated with them.”

  “What happened to the Masons?”

  “They sold the house in Gentle, got a nice little place someways out of town and basically just got on with their lives. Living in exile. That’s when they found the Junkyard. A home away from home where them and any troublemaker kids could come and have fun for a little while.”

  “So there’s no more Masons here?”

  “Here or anywhere.” Hunter chuckled. “Unless you’d like to take a trip to Boston or wherever the fuck Harvard is.”

  “I don’t understand. If the Masons are gone, why do the townsfolk still hate you?”

  Hunter punched the loose car-door beside him. “Get you a million dollars if you can answer me that riddle. The Masons and any other kids that had anything to do with the fire are long gone. Most of the kids here, they never even been to the town of Gentle. And yet, they still got stuck with the devil’s label.”

  Katie thought for a moment. Something wasn’t fitting right. The story that Hunter had told her, that fiasco with the Masons, it didn’t fit with another piece of information she’d learned. What was it? She tapped her feet impatiently. What was she missing? What was— Her eyes lit up.

  “Hunter, this may sound weird but do you or any of the kids know anything about the Savior?”

  “The who?” His expression was as clueless as she’d expected.

  “Figures.” Katie shook her head. “So, you know that weird bug-like alien that appeared on TV this Monday?”

  “That son of a bitch that sets cities on fire?”

  “The very same.”

  “Obviously. Who hasn’t heard of that freak? What of it?”

  Katie’s face went through every expression imaginable. How was she supposed to break the news to them? Should she? She took one look at Hunter and the fear and confusion in his eyes and decided it was better this way. She took a deep breath, cleared her throat, and told him all about the Cult of the Savior. From the tearing down of the crucifix to the repainting of the church to the different factions that had formed in town all with their own different idea of what the Savior meant to them. And, last but not least, the attack on Colin.

  With every word that left her mouth, Hunter’s face became more and more grim. By the time she was done, the poor kid looked ready to faint.

  She placed an arm over his shoulder to comfort him. “I know this is a lot to take in.”

  “No shit.” He scoffed. “So, they think we worship that fucker nuking cities every day?”

  “And that you had something to do with the attack on the mayor.”

  Hunter shook his head in disbelief. “Most of the kids here aren’t even old enough to drink. T-they’ve never been to this town. Hell, they never even heard of it. And you’re telling me that all those people think of them as monsters? Why?”

  “I wish I had an answer, Hunter. Really, I wish I did. But this is just what happens when people are scared. They need someone to blame. And who better to blame than people they’ve never met?”

  “They’re kids! They’re fucking kids!”

  “I know. Believe me, Hunter. I know. And we can’t let them hurt them. You need to get them out of here. Please, while there’s still time.”

  Hunter stared blankly at her. “They chased the Masons out for a fire, didn’t they? Over a fire they accidentally set in a barn. And now, they have the sheer fucking audacity to treat that fucker turning entire cities to ash as their God? And… and we’re the ones who have to run? Why? What have we ever done to them?”

  Katie was almost in tears. “Nothing! But what’s important right now is the safety of these kids. Hunter, I saw the look in their eyes. They are like charging bulls and they’re just looking for a target.”

  Hunter shut his eyes and took a deep breath. His hands were trembling. “We ran away once before. They chased us out. And now, they’ll come and chase us out again. Like we’re animals that need to be put down or kept away. They’re never gonna stop.”

  “Hunter, please listen to me. You do not wanna fight these people. They’re not bad people, they’re just not thinking right.”

  “Maybe, I do wanna fight ‘em. Maybe me and all the rest of us are tired of running and being chased out whenever it’s convenient for the so-called not bad people.”

  “Hunter, no! You gotta—”

  He jumped off his seat, grabbed her by the shoulders, and looked her in the eyes. There was no fear in him. There was no anger. Just perfect clarity of purpose and calm understanding of what had to be done. “Anyone seventeen or under, we’re sending away. The rest will stand and fight. Bet we can find a bunch of weapons here if we look around. We’d call the cops too but who knows if those pigs would ever listen. Probably too pre-occupied dealing with all this Savior panic. Besides, this is our fight. Thank you, Katie. But we’ll take it from here.”

  “Hunter, no!”

  But he didn’t listen. Katie fell to her knees. She had failed. No. She could still do something. She could still stop the fight. She just had to get to town and tell the people the truth. They hadn’t decided to do anything yet. Yes, that’s right. Jonah had stopped them. Fuck, Jonah. Why did it feel like he was the only person she could count on anymore?

  If only she could get to Jonah, she could stop the fight. She had to get to him. Fuck the shop. Fuck her reputation. Fuck her standing with the shopkeepers association and every other fucker in this fucking town. She was not letting a bunch of kids die.

  She ran as fast as her feet could carry her. She squeezed past the narrow gate and did not look back. Her legs were on fire. Her heart was beating out of her chest but she had to make it. She could already see the RV. She had to—

  A large metal tube struck the side of her head and she fell to the ground with a decisive thunk. Her vision blurred and her ears rang but she kept crawling towards the RV. Nothing mattered except the goal.

  The metal tube struck her leg and she was stopped in her tracks. Katie doubled over and howled in pain. She could not afford to stop. Not now. The tube struck another blow on her torso. She coughed up blood. No. Fuck no. Not fucking now. She had better things to do than fucking passing out.

  The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Nolan Reed’s face.