WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion: Part Three 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:04.600 Full Zone Media. 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:11.080 Welcome to It Could Happen Here Book Club. I'm Robert Evans. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.720 This is a podcast about things falling apart, and this 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.759 is our special weekend edition of It Could Happen Here, 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:22.439 where Margaret Killjoy and myself sit down and read a story. Well, 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.439 Margaret reads the story at this point, I am listening 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.760 to it. Presumably the format we'll switch up at some point, 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.000 but right now, Margaret, how are we? I'm excited for 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.080 part three of the first Daniel Kine book. Are you 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:37.600 excited to give it to me? 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.040 I am excited to give it to you, Robert. And 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:44.040 you know, when we switch up the format, you'll just 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.440 make up a story as we go, well, like at 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.720 the stop in the middle of the chapter, and then 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.840 you just make up what happens. Yeah, I guess that's 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.400 just called Dungeons and Dragons. Actually, oh yeah, we could 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.440 call it Dungeons and Dragons. I was just gonna read 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.720 from one of my Thomas Pension books because no one 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:02.760 else is act no one's no one has actually ever 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.160 finished one, so it'll it'll be as if I'm I'm 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.240 just making up a story. I admit I've never finished 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:10.160 a Thomas Bench no. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.920 No, of course not why there's things to do in 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.720 the world. Markret you gotta finish at Thomas Pinsion book. 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.400 As I get older, I have more interest in, like 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:21.640 finally sitting down and reading War and Peace and all 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:22.080 that shit. 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:24.959 But I just keep looking at my copy of Alan 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:26.880 Moore's Jerusalem and going one day. 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:31.720 One day exactly, that'll be like when we're finally and 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:33.320 we'll do the book club version, will be like a 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.800 book club presents War and Peace followed by Jerusalem followed 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:39.400 by infinite jest. 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:44.280 Yeah, yeah, finally. Or we'll get Jamie loftus On for 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:45.960 that one. She loves reading infinitsh jest. 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:54.920 Or we'll read novella's by I once ran my I 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.400 won't tell people I once ran one of my books through. 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.960 What grade level is this adult book that I wrote? 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:00.400 Mm hmm. 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:02.720 And I was very proud to say that one of 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:04.840 my books was written at a fifth or sixth grade 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:05.520 reading level. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.200 Oh you need baby, I did all my real important 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:10.560 reading by the time I was six. 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:12.720 Great. 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.320 I've actually been I'm friends with this baby now, so 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.400 I've been reading some uh Doctor Seuss with her, and man, 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.720 those are good books. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, there's a 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.600 lot of the human human condition contained with an hop 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:28.560 on pop. I hadn't realized. 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.960 Once you move up to shel Silverstein m oh now, yeah, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.640 directly from there to Danielle Kine. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:42.200 That's right, the Shell Silverstein of Vaguely Lovecrafty and Horror, 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:44.480 the action Punk. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.520 I'd say Shell silver wrote that Scooby Doo. I don't know. 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:51.960 I I gave up on asterisk punk. 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:57.920 Yeah. I uh, that's that's the next AI generated thing 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.320 I would like to see Shelf Silverstein's Scooby do. 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.840 So where we last left our heroes, We're starting with 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.400 chapter five. Everyone else will have just heard, presumably like 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.200 a week ago, chapter four, but we haven't heard it 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.160 in a moment because there was a break between recordings. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:20.840 And so Daniel Caine is showed up to a town. 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:25.320 There's a three antler deer that's goring people, and some 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.280 people in the town love it, and some people in 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.639 the town hate it, and the town is gearing up 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:38.480 for some conflict. Chapter five, My second night in Freedom 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.680 began more somberly than my first. It was well after 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.880 dark by the time Vulture showed up with potatoes and 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.600 onions and spring greens to be cooked before heading back 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.400 to the lookout rock. The days in Brn were in 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.800 the living room working through plans, which left me alone 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.400 to cook. I was happy to spend some time in 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.680 the kitchen. It had been a long time since I've 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:58.880 been surrounded by people living the way I wanted to live, 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.360 and I was almost able to convince myself that things 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.080 were going to be fine. I've got a long history 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.400 of scraping together little moments of peace in the midst 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.720 of hardship, and cooking is a great way to do that. 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.320 I cubed the potatoes, and, alongside lots of garlic and oil, 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.880 set them in a pan in the oven. I went 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:17.880 through their spice rack and realized half of what they 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.239 had had been grown, dried, and chopped here in town. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.040 I let myself get lost in the smell of fresh 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.120 and dried herbs. The Brussels sprouts were from the food bank, 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.880 but were going to taste amazing regardless. I cut them up, 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:32.919 drizzled them with oil and salt, put them in the 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.120 second tray. I've made fancier meals in my life, but 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.920 it still felt good. I set the old fashioned kitchen 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.640 timer and went to join everyone else. You can't figure 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.839 it out, Brune asked, she was pacing. She didn't strike 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.200 me as the typoo worried much, but she was worried. 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:52.200 Even Doomsday looked paler than usual. She leaned back in 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.839 her easy chair, feigning nonchalance, but her teacup trembled in 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.400 her hand. I didn't leave the ritual. I was blindfolded. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.640 I've spent and all day pouring over my books and 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:06.239 there's nothing there. Nothing, nothing about dismissing a spirit, Brene asked, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:12.159 Or nothing about you, Lyxi. Nothing. Thursday was standing statuesque 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:14.680 at his partner's side. There was certainly more to their 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.000 relationship than him trying his hardest to guard her. I 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:21.039 was sure, but times call for us to fulfill certain roles. 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.159 Will Rebecca know how, Burne asked. I don't think so, 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.000 Doomsday said. Vulture went to warn her last night, and 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.240 how did he put it? She's gone paranoid. Jet fuel 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.200 can't melt steel beams. Level paranoid made him show her 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.880 his ribs, Vulture said, And I agree that you only 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:41.680 get that kind of paranoid when you've just got no 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.240 agency at all, when you wish you had control over 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.040 your life, but you just don't. She and Clay planned 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.480 the ritual together. I don't know that either of them 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.360 wouldn't know how to do it alone. What are our options, 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.000 Bern asked, If we leave town take Rebecca with us, 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.280 will it come after us? Thursday asked it probably can't, 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.880 Doomsday said, but it's a moot point. I won't leave 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:09.000 without cleaning up my own mess. Rebecca's place is warded, too, 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.960 Thursday asked, Eulyxie can't get her if you and Rebecca 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.560 stay inside, what's it going to do? Nothing? Attack the 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.840 people close to you. I have no idea, Doomsday said. 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.560 She set down her tee untouched, then pulled her feet 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.640 up onto the chair and hugged her knees. Where are 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:27.479 Clay's notebooks? I asked? People turned to me, realizing for 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.240 the first time I was in the room. The only 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:31.720 thing he liked more than the sound of his own 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:33.799 voice was the sight of his own handwriting, I said. 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:36.599 When he died, he didn't have any of his journals 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.559 on him. They lived with Anchor for a while. Brynn said. 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.360 They broke up last winter, and Clay took it kind 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.120 of badly. No one knows what they were fighting about 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.560 though for a year and a half they were inseparable. 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.680 Then a week of quarreling and it was over. They 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.560 were fighting about Ulixe. Doomsday said anchor, worshiped it as 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.080 it was, didn't need to know anything more about it. 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.040 Clay wanted to understand it, so he moved into the 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.760 basement of that gas station down by the bridge where 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:09.160 it lives. He moved in with it. I asked, Doomsday nodded, 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.120 So if Clay left notebooks, they'd be there. Doomsday nodded. 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.520 We have to go get them, bring them to Rebecca. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.600 Doomsday was lost in thought. Slowly she nodded the dear thing. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.840 I said, it's only up during the day, right, powerless 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:27.200 at night. 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:28.160 I'll go. 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.920 Now, when you know you're going to do something anyway, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.120 it's better not to overthink it. Definitely better not to 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.080 let your mind linger on the cost benefit analysis. But 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.280 going to find his notebooks got me closer to solving 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.320 both my problems all at once. I could find out 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.680 what happened to Clay, and I could help this Rebecca person. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.440 Dismiss Youlxy and hope Doomsday wasn't going to summon something worse, 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.000 something that lived up to her name. I'll take you, 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:54.800 Brynn said, I'll lend you my gun in case the 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.640 ghouls are out, Doomsday said. She crossed the room and 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.520 went up the stairs. I didn't want the rules to 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.720 be out, neither of we have to do this. Thursday said, yeah, 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.080 we do, Brynn said. Doomsday came down the stairs two 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:10.360 at a time, her hand on the banister. It's gone, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.880 she said, my gun's gone. Anyone else would have asked 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.000 Thursday if he'd put it away the night before, But 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.680 Doomsday didn't even entertain the possibility that our partner would 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.880 have handled the fire army responsibly. Eric, Brynn said during 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.520 the funeral. Now, Doomsday said, we saw him the entire time, 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.040 except maybe the ten minutes we stepped away. He stayed 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.000 there the whole time. I said, Eric, wouldn't know we 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:34.800 had a gun, wouldn't know where it would be. He's 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.760 never in the house, Kestrol, I said, wasn't it at 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.920 the funeral the whole time too? Thursday asked, I knew 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:43.920 I was the most likely third suspect, and what I 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.000 was about to tell them wasn't gonna help. No, I said, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.200 Kestrel wasn't there. At the end, I told them about 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:52.720 meeting Eric, about our conversation in the park, about how 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.439 Kestrel showed up late. He'd had plenty of time to 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.840 steal the gun. It's not nice to wrap people out 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.920 like that, but it's also not nice to steal people's guns. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.280 Doom Thursday said, can we keep you away from the windows? 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.319 Maybe take Brinn's room. He climbed up on the couch 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.920 to lock the window. Likely there were bars ready to 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.440 go over the doors. There's not a squatter alive who 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.760 hasn't been through their house and analyzed all the ways 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.000 the police might break in. Hell, usually we've already broken 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.679 in once ourselves. Thursday left to secure the house against 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.200 human intruders, and Doomsday made her way, defeated up the stairs. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.320 Brenn and I stood in the living room, facing one another, 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.559 getting ready to head into the night. The kitchen timer 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.160 went off, dinner was ready, no one was in the 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:41.160 mood to enjoy it. We walked down the middle of 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.120 the street and I was calmer than I thought i'd be, 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.000 probably because I had a plan. I had something I 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.600 was going to do. I wore my pack emptied, but 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.480 for some essentials we had no idea how many books 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:53.120 we'd be trying to bring with us, so the extra 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.640 storage was important. It had been dark for hours, and 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.360 I scanned the power lines with those creepy ghoul birds. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.400 Either they weren't there or I couldn't see them. What 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.480 I did see were torches below us, coming up from 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.480 the river. People were walking with torches. I counted a 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.640 dozen specks of flame dancing through the night. Brynn saw 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:19.000 them too, mourners, she said, people celebrating Eulyxe. What it's 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.679 a tradition, Brynn said, any other night, it wouldn't be 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.360 something sinister. Hell, two days ago, I would have been 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:29.200 with them. But tonight it can't be good. She led 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.680 the way off the street through a front yard sculpture 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.920 garden of rusted reebar animals Eulyxe and as ghouls I 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.920 recognize now. We took shelter in an ivy covered roofless 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.680 house and peered back out at the street through what 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.000 was left of a window and what was left of 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.959 a kitchen. The torches came around the bend. Nine adults 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.360 and three children bore them, each with a homemade animal mask. 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.640 Goats and geese, sparrows and sheep. One of the figures 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.040 stood head and shoulders above the crowd. They marched past 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:02.679 us in silence. When they turned the next bend in 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.760 the road, we left our shelter and started back down 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:10.480 the hill. The basement door, I learned, was just off 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.160 the river, near the base of the bridge. We scrambled 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.640 down a steep path, then hopped from rock to rock 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.200 along the edge of the water. The trees were thick 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.719 down here. The gibbus moon cast enough light that we 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.680 could make our way without turning on our headlamps. A 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.320 breeze brought the earthy smell of the forest, and the 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.720 river was a white noise that drowned out all other 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.679 ambient sound. What's in it for you, Berne asked, as 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.960 she clambered over a fallen tree. Why aren't you skipping town? 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.600 For some of the last months of Clay's life, he'd 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.079 walked this path every morning and night. You know there's 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.040 a part of me that hates this place, I asked. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:49.160 It was rhetorical, of course, and brendan answer, I'm too 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:53.239 stubborn to give up traveling. Clay wasn't that same stubbornness 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.079 is going to carry me through I came here to 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.240 find out what happened to him. I'm going to I 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.080 clambered over a fallen log, the bar digging into my hands. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.640 And also, this is clearly the most important reason. Could 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.440 you imagine just leaving now, never learning what's going to happen? 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:11.439 The fear of missing out would rip my heart out 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.600 of my chest as surely as that deer. Brynn laughed. 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.880 I like when she laughed. We continued on along the water, 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.280 and I heard the dry heave of gold animals. I 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:23.080 never would have expected that would be a sound I'd 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.720 come to recognize. We crouched low, peered into the woods. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:31.040 We're almost there, Brynn said. She pointed. The base of 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.040 the gas station went all the way down to the water, 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.200 and a chain link fence stood between us and the 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:45.839 door with a simple unlocked gate. When I focused, I 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.760 could just make out a dozen silhouettes between us and 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.920 where we wanted to go. Goats and geese, squirrels and 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.240 sheep in all respects, but for their lack of organs 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.160 and ribs. They acted like every barnyard animal I'd ever met, 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.760 annoying and fully aware of the sorrow and emptiness of 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:08.400 their captive lives. They're awake, I said, Should we go 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.760 around in through the front. Bryn shook her head. The 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.840 trap door to the basement is welded shut. Should we, 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.400 I don't know herd them somewhere, get them away from 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:23.199 the door. Bryn, still crouching, flicked open her extendable baton. 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.600 I sighed, then extended mine. The weight felt good in 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.160 my hand. Most days, a baton made me think I 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.200 could take on the world. That night, though I wasn't 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.440 so sure it was going to be enough. I wouldn't 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.400 fight a single living goat by choice, let alone an 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.360 undead one with all its friends. Brynn stood back up 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:46.640 straight and walked right toward our destination. Always afraid, never 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:50.280 a coward, I mumbled to myself. My blood started racing. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.120 I stood up, tightened all the straps of my pack, 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:58.320 and followed. Animal eyes turned toward us with mute curiosity, 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.360 which turned to malice as we had to rush past them. 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.240 A silent mess of geese got underfoot and lunged for 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.760 my hands. I started swinging. It was an animal abuse. 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.199 They were dead already. Some of the ones I hit 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.840 didn't get up again. Brynn was almost to the gate. 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.360 When the goat ran at me, someone or something had 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.440 sheared off the beast's horns, presumably before Eulixie had stolen 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.600 the creature's rib cage. Not an easy life, or on 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.400 life or whatever. I pulled back and swung from the 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:28.920 hip like a one handed batter and hit the goat 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.360 in the skull with all my strength. I must have 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.480 grown up watching too many zombie movies. Hitting that thing's 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.000 skull was like hitting a bowlder, and I probably hurt 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.520 my hand more than I hurt the goat. Still, the 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.520 blow seemed to have stopped its charge. It was still 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.160 in my way. It tried to bleat, but it had 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.040 no lungs. I heard a low rumble, like distant thunder, 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.760 and turned in time to see a demon bull crash 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.680 out of the trees and barrel toward us. Oh fuck, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.880 I said, or Brynn said. I started thrashing at the 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:03.720 dumb goat in front of me with the baton. It 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.360 bit my hand and I dropped the weapon. I dove 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.680 over it, but my backpack destroyed my attempts at a 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.600 smooth acrobatic roll, and I landed on my back. Brynn 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:14.560 helped me to my feet and we were through the gate. 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.200 I swung it shut, dropped the latch, and was knocked 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.600 off my feet as the bowl slammed into the chain length. 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.960 The fence post bent to a forty five degree angle, 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.960 and the beast backed up to charge again. I got 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.680 up again, clutching my bleeding right hand, and we stumbled 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:31.760 in through the open door to the basement and slammed 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.440 it behind us. As though that pitch dark room offered 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.640 us safety, we switched on our head lamps. It was 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.160 a single, large room, like any basement in any shitty 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.320 house anywhere. A water heater and a furnace and pipe 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.000 stood out from one wall, and a box spring and 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.640 mattress lay on the floor in the near corner, with 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.760 simple gray sheets and a pile of ratty old comforters. 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.320 A milk crate served as a bedside table, and a 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.160 short stack of books stood atop against the far wall. 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.320 A blood red deer with three antlers lay sleeping upon 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.000 a knee high pile of rib bones. As soon as 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.120 my head lamp flashed across Eulyxe, I put my hand 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.880 over my light, but the demon didn't stir. With the 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.800 sun below the horizon, he likely couldn't move at all. 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.600 The bile rose in my throat. The bones Eulyxes slept 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.040 on weren't the pale white of long dead, sun bleached corpses. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.160 They were gray and yellow and gristly. Some of them, 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.440 I surmised were human. Let me see your hand, Brynn said, 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.760 you're hurt. It's fine, I said. I hadn't really looked 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:41.920 to tell if that was true, but I didn't want 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.040 to look, not until I was somewhere safe. It wasn't 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.520 bleeding horrendously. I wrapped my wounded hand with the bandana 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.720 from my back pocket, tight enough to keep pressure on 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.600 the bite. Don't want you turning into a wear goat 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.640 or something. Though Brynn laughed, it was a nervous laugh, 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.520 probably because, well, I don't think either of us knew 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:03.000 for certain if that was an actual possibility. It'll be fine, 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.480 I whispered. I went to the books beside Clay's bed 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.280 while Brent stood watch. There was a copy of twenty 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.360 thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the copy I had given him. 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.919 I opened the front page, saw my own handwriting, Clay, 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:19.080 maybe you'll get as much out of this as I 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:24.040 did under it. He'd written back, Danielle, I think at 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.800 the end of it, you're more nemo than I. It 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.080 took all my presence of mind not to drop the book. 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:33.040 Had he known I would come hunting after his ghost 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.240 and end up looking through his bedside reading. More likely, 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.520 he'd just written a note absent mindedly for Fox's sake. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.720 What did I know about the world anymore? The next 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.400 book was history, something about the Kronstat Rebellion, obscure Russian history, 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.880 when the Bolsheviks decided to kill all the anarchist sailors. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.200 I flipped through it. No notes to me, but here 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:57.480 and there he'd highlighted passages. Last a spiral bound notebook, 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.720 the first couple pages were filled with some college kid's 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.520 English literature notes. A decade back, Clay had shown me 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.760 that trick Punk's Christmas, he called it. When the school 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.560 year ended, college kids threw out everything from unopened food 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.240 to art supplies, to furniture, to computers to well, obviously notebooks. 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.200 Head on over to the dumpsters, pick up anything you need. 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.240 After the wrote transcription of some boring lecture in a 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.920 stranger's hand. However, I saw a page with Clay's handwriting 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.880 on it. I threw the books into my backpack. From 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:34.320 outside the open door, I heard birds, dawn, shit. Brenn 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:35.920 and I had the same thought at the same time, 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.120 and we grabbed one another and bolted across the room 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.560 to crouch behind the furnace. A row of small windows 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.560 lined the top of one wall. The first hint of 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.639 color and light came through them a moment later, and 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:52.320 Eulix stirred. The sheer, unrid reality of the situation took 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:56.440 off the worst of my anxiety. Brynn held my good 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:58.520 hands so tight it hurt almost as bad as the 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.119 one the goat had bitten. And we watched you, Lixey 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.320 rise to face the day for all the world. He 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.440 moved like a regular deer, graceful but nervous. If he 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.959 knew we were there, he made no sign. Instead, he 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.840 headed for the door and was gone. We crouched in 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.239 the encroaching dawn, our hands locked together, are breathing as 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.879 quiet as we could make it, for full two minutes 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:33.240 before we left to find Rebecca's tree house. A squatter's 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.159 life is ruled by darkness, breaking into buildings, digging through trash, 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.600 even just sneaking up onto rooftops to see the city. 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:42.639 All those things are easier and safer to do after dark. 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.080 But the sun was up as we marched along and 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.200 then away from the river the day before summer solstice. 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:50.679 It was going to be up for a long while. Still, 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.479 I trained my eyes on the woods for movement. Walking 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.480 in the forest, you don't see most of the animals 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:59.720 only once I saw something. Something in the branches above us. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.720 Could have been a squirrel or a bird. Hell could 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.440 have been a mountain lion. Better a living mountain lion 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.400 than an undead squirrel. After twenty minutes along the river bank, 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.000 it was an hour's high cup to a ravine. There 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:14.440 was another way to Rebecca's place, a path that ran 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:16.640 up over the top of the hill, but it would 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.280 have taken us through town. We needed to get Clay's 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.000 notes to Rebecca so she could figure out how to 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.040 perform the ritual, and we couldn't risk running into Ulixe 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.960 or Eric. Brynn led us unerringly with a compass and 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:32.640 a laminated US Geographical Survey map. Having a destination Rebecca's 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:34.680 treehouse and an idea of how to get there where 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.119 about all I had to prop up my waning courage 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.520 While we walked, I let myself wonder more about Eric 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.359 and Kestrel. They said doomsday and the rest they were 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.600 going to summon something worse. I'd play it by ear, 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.679 I decided, listen to Rebecca, decide how much to trust her. 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.119 We stopped only once to pick at the previous night's 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.480 dinner from tupperware. Brynn had a few bottles of cold 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.159 coffee and caffeine did its best to replace the adrenaline 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.160 that have been slowly draining out of my system since 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:06.720 we left the basement. I love coffee, she said, smiling. 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:09.560 I know it's been all to say. I know I'm addicted. 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.160 I know everyone loves it. I don't care. There's only 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:14.879 a small handful of things in this world that make 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.320 me happy, and coffee is one of them. What's another, 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:22.159 I asked. We're both slightly delirious. She thought about it 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:27.080 for a while. Shit like feeling useful or not paying rent, right, 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.520 But I'll stick with weaknesses romance novels. I fucking love 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.440 trashy romance. The straighter the better, the worse the politics, 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.959 the better. I'll just eat that shit up. That's awesome, 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.720