Plague

That’s His purpose, you know.”
    “No, I didn’t know. I guess I missed that part. I was still back at the part where he has to kill everyone.”
    “He was forged by a race of gods in the far reaches of space to remake the world, to create it anew.”
    “Yeah, well, that sounds just a tiny bit insane, Brittney.”
    She smiled. “It’s all insane, Sam. All of it. But He will make it all over again. Once He is born anew.”
    Sam felt tired. He wished Astrid were here, maybe she could find out more. Maybe she could talk Brittney out of her lunatic delusion. But he wasn’t Astrid.
    “I’ll tell you what,” Sam said. “If your friend in the mine shaft wants me, he can bring it on. Because he’s tried. And I’m still here.”
    “Not for long,” Brittney said. “Do you think these creatures just happened on their own? The Lord has molded them, created them to be indestructible, so that you could not stop them, Sam.”
    “I’m sorry for what’s happened to you, Brittney,” Sam said. “You’ve been abused about as much as any person ever has been. But I’m still going to have to stop you.” He raised his hands, palms out. “Sorry.”
    Twin beams of green fire hit Brittney in the chest. They burned a hole through her.
    The bugs leaped, raced to cover the few feet between them and the dock.
    “Jack! Dekka!” Sam yelled.
    Jack punched straight up through the planks of the deck, but he’d picked a bad spot. He erupted between Brittney and Sam, blocking Sam’s fire.
    Brittney screamed, “Kill them!”
    Jack tripped, which moved him out of the line of fire. Sam aimed and hit Brittney again but now she was running away. Her back melted, her spine exposed then burned through, and still she ran.
    Sam swung his beams at the nearest of the onrushing bugs. Light beams hit the huge creature and bounced away to slice a sailboat’s mast neatly in half. The stump was a torch.
    Jack hauled Dekka up from the water and she struck even before she could stand. Gravity beneath the nearest creature ceased. The bug went airborne and its momentum carried it just over Sam’s ducked head. It shot through Dekka’s field and landed half in the water, with its rear portion on the dock.
    “Push it!”
    Jack slammed into the bug’s rear end and it splashed into the water.
    Jack spun, ran at the second giant roach. He ripped a plank from the dock and rammed it with superhuman strength into the gnashing mouthparts.
    The board splintered. The creature didn’t miss a step.
    Jack fell on his back and the monster was on him in a flash.
    “Jack!” Dekka cried.
    Jack, flat on his back, kicked up with such force that the wood beneath him snapped.
    The third creature swarmed over the first. Its mandibles swept Dekka, missed cutting her in half, but knocked her twenty feet away into the water.
    Sam saw in a split second of clarity what he would have to do. He didn’t like it.
    The bug rushed at Sam.
    The mouth blades sliced.
    Sam timed his leap, shouted a desperate curse, and dove straight into the bug’s gaping mouth.
    “The days of uncertainty are over!”
    Caine stood at the top of the steps to town hall. Below him the sick lay coughing and shivering. Edilio, helpless, as weak as a newborn kitten, shivering so hard he looked like he was having a seizure.
    Beyond the sick were dozens of kids, many wet from having come through the rain in the west. Many still wiping the sleep from their eyes. Some of the youngest were carrying their blankies.
    Diana stood apart, blank, downcast. Penny had been given a chair. Lana leaned against a tree in the plaza, her hand resting on her pistol, with Sanjit nervous beside her.
    Caine saw it all. Every upturned, moonlit face. He saw the fear and the anticipation. He reveled in it. Gloried in it.
    “First, I say this,” Caine said. “Taylor, who has joined me, reports that the creatures are almost here. They are nearing the highway and will reach town in minutes. When they do they will hunt down, kill, and eat . . . every living person.”
    “We can fight!” someone yelled. “We beat the coyotes. And we beat you, too, Caine!”
    “How will you fight without Sam?” Caine demanded. “Is he here? No! Sam can’t stop these creatures. He tried, and he failed, and now he has run away!”
    He waited for someone to speak up in defense of Sam. But not a word.
    Gutless, faithless weaklings, Caine thought. He was almost sorry for Sam. How many times had Sam put himself in harm’s way for