Ben-David pursues Manning. He orders him to release Rachel. I’m crossing with long strides after both of them.

The lead Humvee’s driver and gunner stare as Manning approaches, dragging Rachel.

MANNING

You two, dismount! I’m taking the vehicle.

The soldiers look to Ben-David, who is scampering as fast as he can to catch up.

MANNING

(to soldiers)

Get out, I said!

Ben-David overtakes Manning. He orders him to take his hands off Rachel.

The soldiers are staring. Ben-David tears the flap open on his holster. Manning hears the military Glock 19 come out. He hears it cock.

BEN-DAVID

Stop, goddamn you! Where do you think you’re going?

Manning turns back.

MANNING

Where are we going? The same place Instancer’s going. The only place we can go.

Manning again shoves Rachel toward the Humvee’s door.

MANNING

(to Ben-David)

Keep behind us in your truck. I want to see your headlights in my rearview every second.

Instancer watches from the peak. Every eye has turned toward him. He mounts to the cab of his truck. We see the vehicle clearly now—a Chevrolet Chinook 5500 HD, the biggest, most powerful stock pickup on the planet. The engine starts. The oversize all-terrain tires churn into the dust.

Dana has at last joined our group. Manning orders her and the soldiers to break out the tunnel-busters. He hands me the Zombie Killer.

MANNING

(to all, re: Ben-David)

Protect him!

I’m scanning the faces of the troopers. Manning has taken over the convoy completely. He has usurped Ben-David as commander and overpowered the others by the sheer force of his personality. That, and the desperate urgency that has overtaken all of us with the apparition of the Adversary.

MANNING

(to Rachel)

Get in. Take the wheel.

RACHEL

Go to hell.

MANNING

I intend to. And you’re going with me.

Instancer’s truck reverses out of its overlook position, shifts into a forward gear, and accelerates from sight down the far slope.

Manning watches for a long moment, then turns back to Rachel.

MANNING

You conducted Instancer into this world and, by God, you’re gonna conduct him out.

BOOK SEVEN

END OF DAYS

30

MEGIDDO

WE’RE FOLLOWING Manning and Rachel.

Three hours have passed. The convoy has found its way down, at last, off the crest line. The trucks lumber west through a storm front growing more violent by the minute.

From Beit She’an, Highway 71 runs northwest twenty miles to Afula, a sizable agricultural town, then Route 65 turns southwest, ten miles to Megiddo. It’s kibbutz country, farmland parched to ash.

I have been fretting that we would somehow fail to find Gehenna. The absurdity of this now becomes apparent. From ten miles east of Afula, both sides of the highway, and indeed the driving lanes of the road itself, are packed solid with refugees and displaced persons streaming toward that exact location.

ME

Who are these people?

BEN-DAVID

End-of-the-Worlders.