“What’s your point, Andrew?” growled Carter. “Are you saying that we worked all these years for nothing?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, brother,” insisted Andrew. “Since we settled down and built Treetops, when have we had a year without a major flu epidemic? When have we ever had a really successful harvest? We’re hunters, man, but we’re not farmers. Sure, we put a lot of venison and wild pig on the table, but it was never enough. Not by half.” He took a breath. “How long do you think people should keep pushing against things before they realize the truth?”
“What truth is that?”
“The only truth that matters,” said Andrew. “We’re dying off because we’re supposed to. The gray plague, the famines, the other diseases, the wildfires, and the other stuff. These are like the plagues of ancient Egypt. The true god has revealed himself and is calling us home, Carter, he’s offering us freedom from bondage.”
“Through murder?” demanded Carter.
“It’s not murder—it’s euthanasia, and it’s sanctioned by God. Look—before the plague, humanity, in its sinfulness and corruption, was like a cancer patient dying by inches, crying out for relief. Our god listened, Carter. Don’t you see? Our god. When your god abandoned you, the true god listened. That’s what Saint John and Mother Rose revealed to us. What the reapers are doing is holy work. This is God’s merciful way to end all this pain, all this torment.” Andrew shook his head. “How can you stand there and tell me that with everything out here—everything in nature—trying to kill us every single freaking day, we are meant to live on and suffer?”
“You’re insane. All of you.”
“Really? Think about it, Carter. Consider how many people have joined the reapers since Saint John began spreading the word. Thousands. Armies of them all over the west. There are probably more of us now than there are people like you. That’s not a couple of people going crazy,” said Andrew. “People already know that life on earth is over. They know. When they hear what Saint John has to say, they don’t think that it’s something bad. They’re relieved. That’s the truth of it, brother. People are just tired of struggling when there’s no real way they can win. Not here, not while they’re still trapped in the flesh.”
But Carter shook his head. “I don’t care how many people join you, Andrew, if your god tells you that it’s right to hurt people, to kill them—to kill my little girl—then that god is a liar. That god is a lie.”
Sadness darkened Brother Andrew’s face. He let out a long, weary sigh. “I tried, Carter,” he said sadly. “Because we have history, because we’ve been like brothers, I tried.”
Carter pointed the shotgun at Andrew’s face. “Sure, and because we were friends I’ll give you a chance, Andrew. Drop the cutter and get your ass into the wind and we’ll call it quits here.”
The reaper gave a sad shake of his head. “I’ll bet you don’t have any shells left. Otherwise you’d have given me the gift of darkness.”
Carter snugged the stock of the shotgun into his shoulder. “Want to find out?”
“Yes,” replied the reaper earnestly. “I want to die. How can you still not get that? So either pull the trigger or put the gun down and join us.”
“I’m taking my family away from here. You won’t have to worry about us ever again.”
“Away where?”
“Someplace where you can’t touch us. Somewhere safe.”
“Why not give it a name? Or are you afraid to say the name ‘Sanctuary’ out loud?”
Even from where he was hiding, Chong could hear Carter’s shocked intake of breath.
“C’mon, man, did you really think we don’t know you’re looking for Sanctuary? We know that Sister Margaret is with you. Some of the scouts saw her. There’s only one place she’d take you to try and keep you from us.”