Page 30 of Shadow of Death
Hikers? Out this late while the night was coming on? Teenagers seeking absolute privacy? A drug deal? Or...
She moved carefully forward, realizing she was almost at the plateau, a place where the trees stopped growing because it was solid rock.
And there were people there. At first, she couldn’t see how many. They talked among themselves but she couldn’t make out the words.
She moved closer and closer against a giant spruce, letting the great arms of the tree shelter her from sight.
They looked like...
An odd assortment of normal people. Dressed for a climb. She saw an older woman clearly in the moonlight, and then she saw a young couple with a child—a boy—about ten years old.
Amy stepped back and pulled out her cell, calling Hunter and whispering to him what she was seeing. He was coming. He was on his way, but they were in opposite directions. She needed to keep hidden and observe until she had backup.
There were more people coming now, just dark shapes in the moonlight. They seemed to rise from a sloping trail on the other side of the plateau.
She watched as the figures gathered around a flattened rock that seemed to be just about in the center of the area. Worn by weather, the rock itself seemed to glisten in the moonlight.
A man stepped forward and lifted his hands; the others bowed in reverence.
Apparently, he was their leader, their priest, their shaman, their messiah. When he had received that honor due him, he began speaking. “We are gathered here—and you are the blessed ones, the ones with ears to hear the message, with hearts to understand. Hallelujah!”
“Hallelujah!” his flock responded.
So far, the group appeared...
Just like any group going to church or a temple.
Appearances could be deceiving.
And while this group looked different, she had seen such an event before, and it had been terrifying and horrible...no matter how “normal” these people, or even the leader, appeared to be. No, the leader wasn’t wearing a dark-hooded cloak or vestments of any kind but rather a white jacket that appeared more like something a doctor might wear.
She tried to count the people flocking around him. They were all in different forms of dress as well—mostly jeans or khakis and sweaters or jackets. They were both sexes and appeared to be many ages, from the older woman to the young boy.
She glanced around from the cover of her giant spruce tree, but she couldn’t see Hunter. He was on his way, and she knew he would move swiftly. She didn’t want to call him again; she was afraid any noise she made might draw attention to her. But her cell phone camera was silent, so she began to take pictures but then stopped to watch what was coming next. A group of men were carrying a plank carefully up the steep slope that led to the mountain plateau.
And there was a woman on the plank.
She wasn’t moving. She was covered in a white shirt. The moonlight caught her hair; it was blond and long and drifting around the plank.
Amy strained to hear the words of the leader who had raised his hands and was speaking to his “flock.”
“Sometimes, it must be blood that is fed to the earth. Sometimes, the sin is great. Life on this earth means nothing for the great beauty of the true life to come which lies ahead, yet it is open only to those who are cleansed. Some need to reflect on their sins as life slowly seeps away. And yet there are those who may perhaps earn their way to Nirvana by giving their life’s blood to the earth. For the earth is that which must care for us, the caretakers of others. And in serving the true Power, we must care for ourselves, while granting that those who might not know or see the truth, absolution is within their death. This I say verily.”
“And so, we hear, verily!” the crowd called out.
The man moved his white coat aside and drew from it a massive knife. It gleamed under the glow of the full moon that had risen as the group had gathered there. “I cleanse thee of thy sins with blood so that your soul may rise to the Heavens!”
There was no choice. The woman on the plank was about to die.
Amy drew her weapon and she fired. And while she hadn’t wanted to kill the man, an unbidden thought came to her mind.
I cleanseyouofyoursins, you murdering bastard!
6
Hunter heard the first shot when he was still about a hundred yards from what he believed to be Amy’s position.
Seconds later, he heard a barrage of gunfire.
