Page 25 of Godslayer
On the screens a buzzing noise sounds, pulling our attention back to the city. People begin rushing around. Some of them looking downright panicked.
Tyse presses in closer, trying to see the people better. “What the hell is happening now?”
I have no idea. But that buzzer was clearly a signal that people should be…doingsomething.
“They’re goin’ home,” Tyse says, pointing at a screen that shows a walkway in front of a row of houses. Whole families are scurrying through doors. “They’re rushing around tryin’ to get home.”
“Must be dinner time.” Which makes Tyse laugh and upsets my stomach. Because we both know they’re not rushing home for dinner. They’re not rushing home for somethinggoodlike hanging out with your family. People looking forward to something fun don’t move with panicked, jerky motions and have fear-filled eyes.
Suddenly, all but a few of the screens switch from an outside view to an inside one. Tyse and I both lean in closer, trying to see everything, all at once.
I’m drawn to a view of a woman and her family inside a home that looks eerily similar to the home I lived in with my father. He was the Extraction Master’s valet, so we had a nice place in the Extraction District. Not as nice as Finn’s house, but it was comfortable.
The mother is busy doing something in the kitchen while the father is ushering three little girls into another room. I look around, trying to see if I can follow the father and children, but each screen seems to be a different home, so I focus on the mother. She removes lengths of clear tubing from paper packages, then hurriedly follows her family into the other room.
The view switches, and now I can see them all. The mother is attaching the tubes to her daughters, a look of panic on her face. “What the …” I lean in closer. “What the hell is she doing with those tubes?” I glance up at Tyse and find him pale and sickly looking. “What’s wrong with you?”
He points to the screen in front of him. “They’realldoing it.”
He’s right. Every screen I look at, I find the same scene—a family in a room. All the females—mothers and children alike,have those tubes attached to them on one end, and on the other they are plugged in to a wall. “What is this?”
Delta’s voice comes booming through the screens. “Good evening citizens of Delta City. This is your god speaking.”
I startle, looking up at Tyse. “He’s here! Delta! He’s here!”
Tyse is shaking his head. “No. He’s not here. It’s a recording.”
“It is time for the evening harvest,” Delta is saying. “Please be ready by the count of twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen?—"
“Harvest,” Tyse sneers. “What a word.”
“A harvest? Like an apple from an orchard?” One moment it makes no sense, the next, it does. My hand flies up to my mouth. “No.” I look at Tyse. “He’sstealingtheir spark? Just sucking it out of them like…blood.” Ew. I make a face.
“Look.” Tyse is pointing to the screens. Every single view is of people, inside their homes, hooked up to tubing. “I guess Delta was tellin’ the truth,” he says. “There is no Extraction ceremony on his farm. There are no Spark Maidens. There’s no Maiden Tower. There’s no ten years of high livin’ to erase the guilt of sending a single woman into the tower to feed the growin’ god on the other side of the doorway. No. That’s a fantasy. Not even a bad one compared to what this fucker’s doin’ here. Because he just takes it whenever he pleases.Eveningharvest? Did ya hear that part?Evening. Like he does it in the mornin’ as well. Hell, maybe he does three, four, ten times a day for all we know. What a complete piece of shit. I mean, I knew he was bad, but this? It’s like stealin’ souls.” He’s shaking his head as he looks at the screens. Then his face screws up. “Ut oh.”
I turn, looking at the screen. “Ut oh, what?”
“Look. This one didn’t make it home in time.”
“Five. Four. Three…”
Oh, no! He’s right. There’s a woman running down a street, like she’s trying to make it home before the countdown ends. She’s not gonna make it. “What will happen?”
“Two. One.”
And then, a female voice in a strange, automated tone, says, “Harvest begins now.”
I gasp, watching as the young woman on the street stumbles forward, grabbing at her heart like she’s having an attack.
“No,” I breathe. Then look up at Tyse. “You don’t think he’s punishing her for not being hooked up?”
Tyse’s lips lift up in a sneer. “Oh, that’s exactly what I think. Fuckin’ Delta. Tryin’ to make himself out to be so benevolent, when he’s doin’this?”
We turn back to the screen of the woman and find her face down on the ground. Having passed out, or something, while we weren’t watching. There’s blood seeping out from her open mouth. “Isn’t anyone gonna help her?”
Tyse scoffs. Like this answer is obvious.
But then, movement. People are coming. “There they are.”
