Sasha was frustrated and a little hurt. Alexander must have known this was in the offing and kept it from her. She understood, of course. But she was furious at herself for being so far away from the action that he’d been forced to hide this from her. The first battle of Armageddon was beginning, just a few hours south of her bedroom. She could either stay here and rot in the American Federation or prove God with her devotion and move there. It didn’t even seem like a choice, really. If good men were fighting and dying to restore the Kingdom of God on Earth, it fell to her to travel there and support those men.

She thought of Alexander. His liquid green eyes, his scraggly beard, the way his still-boyish voice broke in excitement when he lost himself in the Spirit of the Lord. Her beloved was out there right now, fighting and maybe bleeding to bring the Truth back to the world. The least she could do was join him.

Weeks ago, Alexander had given her the contact information for a man named Brother Andrew. He’d called the other man a “deliverer.” Sasha knew her parents and the AmFed authorities would’ve described Brother Andrew as a people smuggler. She hadn’t reached out to Brother Andrew yet. In her fantasies, she’d always waited to graduate before escaping to the Heavenly Kingdom. She was still a few weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday, and had hoped to at least spend that with her parents before setting off.

But now, as she scrolled through articles about the Martyr’s breakthrough and immersed herself in snapvids of cheering soldiers raising cross banners over newly captured neighborhoods, Sasha felt a powerful anxiety overtake her. She needed to be there. There was no other option.

Sasha flicked open a window on the left side of her viewspace, typed in the address she’d memorized for Brother Andrew, and sent him a message.

“I’m ready to go.”

Chapter 4

Manny.

Manny woke up needing to piss, and also to the sound of explosions. He couldn’t quite tell which was more to blame for his sudden, unwelcome consciousness. His lizard brain woke up and shouted, “Get the fuck out of there, you asshole!” a second later. Manny got to his feet, grabbed his gear bag, and looked around for the journalist.

Reggie still seemed asleep. But he stirred just as Manny started toward him and another thundering “boom” shook the world.

“Christ! What was that?” Reggie asked in a slurred voice, heavy with sleep.

“Mortars,” Manny explained. “I think I heard rockets, too.”

“Shit,” the Brit exhaled sharply. “Is this bad?”

Manny shrugged. “Those sound like small mortars. Very short range. But we’re miles behind the line, so–”