Botanicaust

s eyes dart down every time their stares connected. She tried to pray. Wanted to. Beside her, Eily stumbled through the words to the Lord ’ s Prayer. Levi joined her, encouraged her, corrected her. Was there truly a God listening? She wanted to believe. They wanted her to believe.
    She finished the prayer out loud with Eily. “ … the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen. ”
    But she couldn ’ t make herself believe.

    Working next to his brother-in-law again felt strange. Hog butchering time was upon them, and the scalding pit needed to be readied. Levi was down in the hole when he heard the commotion. Screaming. A subtle change in air pressure. A familiar dull roar.
    Heart thundering in his ears, he climbed out as one of the men hollered, “ The devil followed you here! ”
    About a quarter mile away, back at the houses, a duster hovered above the shade trees. A plume of black smoke boiled into the air. The Holdout siren began its frantic cycle as figures ran toward the houses. The fire would make the tunnels a death trap. “ Stay out of the tunnels! ” Levi yelled, pelting toward the chaos. “ They ’ ll burn everything! ” How could this have happened? The Holdout had been safe from Blattvolk for centuries. The pit of his stomach ached.
    “ Dr. Sertularia Argentea Macoby. Show yourself. ” Levi understood the words in cannibal from his time with the girls. We led them here .
    “ Tula! ” he screamed as he ran, his feet still in pain from the journey, his lungs dried by smoke and dust as the home next to the Ward erupted in flames. “ Josef! ” The occupants of the Ward would be completely helpless, too sick to flee. The nurses were likely helping the children into the tunnels, right now.
    The autumn-dry pasture near the schoolhouse caught, and the horses panicked, screaming and raising tail to flee to the far fence and over. Children swarmed out of the school and stood gaping at the duster as their teacher urged them to run. The ancient fire truck maintained by the Holdout repeated the hoarse cry of its horn as it barreled toward the row of houses.
    Beside him, Samuel and three others kept pace, shouting for loved ones above the siren as women and children fled the other direction. One man found his wife and swept their baby from her arms to lead her and another small child toward the gatehouse.
    Levi reached the houses, craning his neck to watch the duster as the flame-tipped nozzle of its gun targeted old Mrs. Kuche tottering on the arm of her granddaughter as they exited the back door of a house. “ Nooooo! ” He waved his arms above his head, trying to gain the attention of the gunman. The old woman lifted a hand to make a sign against evil toward the duster. A rush of flame engulfed the women. Their dresses billowed around them as they screamed , then fell, curling in on themselves like dried leaves.
    Horror gripped Levi ’ s soul. The Holdout was a death trap. The only way in or out was the gate, unless they shut down the electric. He hoped Peter — or someone — thought of that.
    Just then, Tula appeared around the corner of the Ward. She carried Josef in one arm, another young child in the other. Eily and Beth followed close behind, arms full of children. Children able to walk trailed behind like ducklings. Behind them, two nurses and Brother John carried stragglers.
    On the horizon, another duster sped their way. Levi rushed to take Josef and the second child. Tula ’ s blue eyes watered, from tears or dust or smoke, Levi couldn ’ t tell. His own vision burned and filmed as acrid clouds of grit filled the air.
    “ Run to the gate, ” Levi shouted at the children.
    “ No! ” Tula cried. “ No, don ’ t run. Surrender! They burn those who run. Find an open spot and drop. Just stay still! ”
    He clutched Josef against his hip. Lord, deliver us from evil . His pride, his belief that he could circumvent Gotte ’ s Wille, brought this horror. The entire Holdout would pay the consequences. Collapsing next to Josef, he hugged the wheezing boy tight. “ Papa, are they the bad ones? ”
    “ Yes, son. ”
    The duster twisted in the air, and Levi saw the fierce green face of the gunman as he looked down the barrel at the children. Levi raised his hands in the air. Panting in panic, he met the stare of the Blattvolk, dark eyed and hungry as a cannibal. The Blattvolk shifted his attention to Tula and shouted gibberish over the roar of the flames.
    Tula moved