Page 25 of The Black Rider
“Find anything interesting?”
“Yeah. There is a vaccine. Doctor X created one with your blood and what they saved of your mother’s. All of Isaiah’s inner circle has gotten it. They don’t know what he’s planning, but he’s promised them paradise, and that’s why they are following him.”
I still hadn’t had time to process what had happened to my mother. She was killed right after I was born, and I hadn’t really had the time to really let that sink in. Maybe my life would have turned out totally different if she had gotten away with both of us. None of this would be happening right now, that was for sure.
“What happens to angels when they die?” I asked.
Where was she now? Was she back in Heaven? Did she know what was happening in the world?
“They are returned to the aether until another angel needs to be created,” Leif said. “She’d have no memories of what happened to her or you. As far as we know, no new angels have been created for a long time now.”
“What was her name?”
“The only Harbinger we know of that went missing was Uthuria. She was a young angel. That was probably how she got captured and couldn’t break free. Harbingers aren’t warriors. They are observers,” Aeron said.
“I don’t passively observe,” I pointed out.
Leif grinned at me.
“No, you’re a little badass Harbinger with a baby blue baseball bat.”
“Are you patronizing me?”
“Not at all. We’ve been saying all angels need to learn to fight for the longest time. All this just proves it. Satan will keep trying. If he got this far this time, there’s no telling what will happen next time.”
I shuddered at the thought.
“So, how do we fix it this time?”
“We’ve got your blood. We’ve got two angels here. I can make a vaccine while I figure out how to wipe out the Rage Heads.”
I got this tingling in my hand. Something was missing. Something was coming, and I needed my sketch pad. My hand needed charcoal. That was what was missing. They knew. I hadn’t said a single word, and they hadn’t been around me when this happened before, but they must have recognized something on my face.
I didn’t even have to leave my seat. Aeron had a sketch pad ready, and Leif handed me a box of charcoal. As soon as I had the smooth chalk in my hand, my vision blurred. I had no idea what it was like when other Harbingers did this. I had no idea how my mother experienced this.
I never knew anything until I snapped out my trance and looked at what I drew. I never knew if it would be abstract or hyper-realistic, and I’d be horrified at what I just painted. I didn’t know if Aeron or Leif were saying anything as my hand moved across the page. I could never listen to music when this happened. I couldn’t hear a single sound in the room. There was always this ringing in my ears that didn’t stop until my vision cleared. I knew most people found ringing in their ears irritating and saw doctors about it, but there was something about the tone I always heard that was oddly comforting.
My hand stopped. The ringing in my ears went away. The last thing to come back was always my vision. I shook my head as the black started receding in my sight.
I looked down at what I had just done. I didn’t have to guess what was coming. It was staring at me right in the face. Back before the apocalypse, there was a militant white supremacist group that called themselvesThe Right Hand Path.They liked to violently disturb peaceful protests and set fire to minority businesses and churches. They had telltale signatures when they were out in public too. They wore red masks that covered everything but their eyes with a giant swastika in the center.
I’d drawn an entire heavily armed group ofRight Hand Pathmembers standing right at the sign that saidWelcome to San Quintin.Some of them had rocket launchers aimed at what I could only imagine were the front gates.
“Seriously? The apocalypse couldn’t take out the Nazis?”
Leif and Aeron exchanged worried glances.
“Your father has been pandering to the extremist groups still left that Mexico has resources they won’t share. It fits right into their narrative. People with Erm, certain beliefs that have survived decided it was as good a time as any to let their racist freak flag fly. They were itching to do this before the apocalypse,” Leif said.
“Yes, but we have a warning now, and we can prepare. We can set more mines and traps by the signs. We’ll set an ambush. I can kill them all with just a thought, but I think everyone here who can shoot a gun would jump at the chance for there to be a few less Nazis in the world.”
“Yes, but my drawings don’t work like that. I could paint something, and it ends up on the news two hours later, or it could take weeks. I have this drawing, and we knowThe Right Hand Pathis coming, but they could already be here right now.”
“They aren’t. I called Meremoth and had him scout. They aren’t at the gates.”
“We all have horses, Ariel. Abayomi is checking the border. You saw what it took to get into Mexico in the first place.”
“Oh, shit, we can’t just protect San Quintin. We have to help all those people at the border. You know they will kill any living person they see on the way down here. It’s pretty shitty to be a Harbinger if everything you see comes true, and you can’t change it.”
