DAY TWENTYSEVEN 4:55AM

The Laughing Track

Two men pushed a cart through the hall, both dressed in white, wearing medical masks underneath plastic visors. 

"You think he ever knew?" the thin man asked the elderly man.

"The question is: do you want to know?" the elder asked. 

The thin man stayed silent for a few moments, pondering that question. They continued to roll the cart through a long cold hallway.

Once they reached the elevator, the elderly man waved the back of his palm toward a green light and the doors hissed open. 

"No," the thin man finally said as they entered the elevator. "I think I would probably remain a fish."

Both men chuckled as they turned the cart around, and Hank's bloody hand slipped from underneath the sheet.

DAY TWENTYSEVEN 3:22AM

The Economy of Tragedy

"We're sorry to keep you up so late, Mr. Sanderson. We're almost done." 

Hank nodded at the man in the suit. The woman sitting beside him continued to type things into the laptop. "It's ok, I don't mind. It will all be worth it."

The woman paused in her typing to look at him. "It will be, we assure you." 

"You can make it go back to the way it was... Before he showed up," Hank said.

The man answered. "We most certainly can. In fact, if things go according to our projected design, we will be able to make some adjustments that you might find... to your liking." 

Hank was tired, and his head was swimming. A lot of the meetings he had been to these last few days were blurry, dreamy. He had answered every question they had asked. Had he told them about his feelings for Alice too?

"And you can make sure he won't show up again?" Hank asked. 

"We have someone working on that right now," Greg Logollos said.

DAY TWENTYONE 10:23AM

Breathe

Alice's eyes opened wide, she let out a sharp breath. Hank, keeping a vigil by her side, snapped to attention. 

He clasped her hands, seeing that they were warm.

"Oh Max," she said as soft as a butterfly's flutter. Her eyes weren't staring at the ceiling, but beyond. Hank's anger showed at the mere mention of his name. "You're... you truly... are a magnificent bastard..." 

Before Hank could say anything, Alice looked at him and she smiled and she closed her eyes and breathed out one last time. And in the blink of an eye she was gone.

DAY TWENTY 14:13PM

The More Things Change 

Three people were gone. At least, ones they could remember. Carmen, Farah, and Art.

Johannesberg’s hair was now long and pony-tailed. 

Rajinder’s brand of cigarettes was different.

Alice was still dying. 

And the cottage had changed.

It looked different, the layout was different. The decorations were different. It wasn’t the cottage that Hank had visited as a boy. 

The cottage had changed. But Alice was still dying.

Hank shifted on the stool, tucked in amongst the bushes, watching the laneway through the trees. The rifle rested at his side. He was glad to be on watch; he couldn’t relax inside anymore. 

Susanna crept up behind him, making enough noise to avoid startling him. 

“I brought coffee,” she said. 

“Leave me alone,” he said.

DAY EIGHTEEN 14:34PM

The Next Agenda 

Donnelly sat at her bedside. She looked so pale. She almost seemed faded, like an old photo. He finished his prayer.

The reverend had been praying a lot, both with others in the renegade church and by himself. Last night he had even tried praying to Odin. Standing out in the woods in the dark, remembering the mighty, terrible figure looming over him, wounded and wise. Donnelly had just improvised something, and his whispers had sounded like wind in the trees. He had started by asking for Odin's guidance, and protection, but eventually he had started talking, thoughts streaming from him, wishes and hopes. He had described the dream he'd always had of a beautiful cathedral, its doors open and welcoming. He had begged the Allfather to lead them to a world where they were safe, where Alice was better, where she and Max were married and happy, or where Max had never come to them. 

One of his prayers, to his God, had been answered. Mayganne was back. And another of his prayers as well; she had some answers.

While the Father had tended to the dressings on the cuts and bruises on her face, she had told him about her capture by LEGACY and her rescue by the mysterious woman, Suki. 

"I think we can trust her, Mother," Donnelly said to the unconscious woman. "She seems to know a lot about Max... She wouldn't even come with Mayganne to our sanctuary, so its location wouldn't be compromised..." He sighed, and took hold of Alice's hand. It was hot. Better than cold, he figured. "Mayganne says she needs to find Max. We have his cell number. But I'm going back to the city; I need to meet her before I give her the number."

He glanced down at the satchel he had packed. He had gotten everything ready before coming to see Alice. He knew his resolve might weaken. Mayganne was already outside in the car. The handgun was in his pocket. 

"I'll be back, dear girl," he said, leaning in to kiss her forehead. Here eyelids, for now, were still. "Maybe I'll find out what's happening." And when he thought of everything that had happened - fleeing the city, learning about LEGACY, Luger being a traitor, doing the ritual with Max to kill the hit squad, meeting Odin - tears formed in his eyes. And suddenly he was thinking about everything, all the ways the world kept changing, all the faces of everyone in his church, the fear that they carried with them always, the sister he no longer had. And he was crying, leaning down, his face against Alice's shoulder, sobbing. All the words of all the sermons he had told falling like red snow through his mind, melting into nothing against the burning ache inside him.

When he finally left the room, Hank was waiting outside. 

"I'm against this,  Father," Hank said as Donnelly passed him. His voice was tense.

The reverend rounded on the younger, larger man. "I really don't give a shit what you think. You just keep everyone here safe until I get back." 

Eyes wide, Hank was silent as Father Donnelly went downstairs.

DAY SIXTEEN 17:59PM

Standing in the Tide 

"She is not getting any better," Father Donnelly said once he had closed the door to the bedroom. Susanna closed her eyes. Hank clenched his fist.

"It's time we do something," Hank said. 

Susanna could feel the storm that was about to break in the hallway of the cottage. She mumbled something about checking on the children outside and headed for the stairs.

The reverend knew this argument was due. They had reviewed the options already, two days ago, when Alice first got sick. They couldn't risk going back to the city, or calling help to come here. Any doctor in the nearest town would only send her to the hospital; she clearly needed treatment of some kind. 

Fevers, vomiting, hallucinations. Strange bruising would appear and disappear all over her body.

They couldn't take her to a hospital, though. Max had been clear about that when the plan had been made to come here. No contact with the system in any way. Even Max didn't know their exact location. He said he would call when it was safe. 

Hank knew all of that, but Donnelly knew they were still going to argue about it. Because of Max. Donnelly trusted him, Hank didn't. And now Alice's health, maybe her life, hung in the balance.

He already knew everything Hank was going to say, most likely yell. He also knew that Hank used to have problems with anger; he hoped nothing bad was about to happen. He would let Hank have the argument though, because even though everything had already been said, even though nothing would change - the group had decided to wait - sometimes you still needed to have the fight anyway. 

Hank looked at the reverend, eyes hard and cold.

Johannesberg called up from downstairs. "Father! Milligan says there's a vehicle coming up the lane!"

DAY THIRTEEN 19:53PM

Where I Lay My Hat  

“Hank, I can’t thank you enough,” Alice said as she dropped her backpack onto the bed. Dust floated up in the beam of the flashlight. “It’s really nice, and there’s room enough for everyone.” 

Hank smiled, holding the light steady while Alice unrolled her sleeping bag and Susanna started placing some of her clothes in the dresser. It wasn’t the first time that they had relocated in the years they'd been together. As things changed, so did the places they lived. Some kept normal homes, most took to living communally in places like The Rave. Sometimes they moved by choice, sometimes they moved because their havens disappeared in a shift. New places and hangouts, and new passwords and signals. And each time there was Alice, waitress, college student, even an actress once, supervisor at a women’s shelter, her world and her life warping around her, while she remained constant, a beacon calling the lost home.

Hank realized that he was falling in love with her. He cleared his throat, worried the women could somehow read his thoughts. “I always hoped we could use this place, eventually,” he said. “ But it’s so far away from, well, anything really. Except the other cottages on the lake. Although they’re all abandoned too, since the land deal happened. They were the last I heard, anyway.” 

Alice smirked. “Unless that’s all changed.”

Hank smiled back. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maybe I should take Jo and check out-“ 

Alice interjected. “Hank, it can wait until tomorrow. You’ve been at the wheel for so long. Get some rest tonight.” 

“He’ll probably be up all night escorting people to the outhouse,” Susanna joked. 

The rest of the cottage was bustling. Beds getting assigned, supplies getting unpacked. A fire finally clawing into brightness in the main room. Seeing everyone come together, work together, here in the place where he spent his childhood summers… It made Hank’s heart full of rainbow feelings. Every time they learned that something had changed, Hank always tried to remember those summers, to make sure they were still there. He feared losing his past most of all. Now it seemed that his future, all of their futures, were at risk.

He frowned as he watched Johannesberg and Milligan check over the hunting rifles they had brought on the retreat. He knew that Father Donnelly still had that pistol Max had given him. At the thought of Max the anger returned. The sense of pride and closeness he was feeling flared into a red rage as quickly as if he had shifted.

Maybe he had… maybe that’s why he had so many problems throughout his life dealing with anger. Something about his identity shifting… He tried to hold onto the idea, the sense of it… 

Johannesberg called him. “Hey Hank, will you walk us down to the dock?”

Alice and Susanna came downstairs as Hank led Jo and Milligan, both armed, out into the cold night. 

“Things feel…” Alice said softly. “It’s like they’re building to something.”

Susanna took Alice’s arm in hers. “I know what you mean. Something’s happening. We’re caught up in something. Maybe this Max is the key to figuring out what’s going on?” 

Alice thought about Max. She was still fighting the urge to call him. “I just feel… That it will somehow end badly.”

Susanna shivered. It was unnerving to hear Mother talk like that. She tried to change the line of conversation. “Did Hank ever say if this place had a name?” 

Alice smiled wryly, her tone sarcastic. “Maybe we should call it the Alamo.” 

“How about Helm’s Deep? They won that one.”

DAY EIGHT 11:53AM

Prophecy 

Hank took a deep breath. Johannesberg toyed with his eyebrow ring. Laughter trickled down from the dorms; Susanna had organized some kind of game for the others to play. She was a great addition to the group, a teacher. She still worked professionally; the last shift had changed the location of her school, but the students still knew her. 

"I hate to see it all fall apart," Hank said. He scratched his beard. Jo kept quiet. He looked a little uncomfortable seeing the big man get so emotional.

"It's bullshit," Hank continued. "This one guy shows up and suddenly people are going missing, then he's got the Father convinced we're part of some big conspiracy. Bullshit." 

"I don't know..."

Hank rounded on the young man. He had a flash of grabbing the kid by his mohawk and ramming his face into the door. It had been a long time since those outbursts of rage; part of his former life. But since Luger had disappeared, then the Father, then Mayganne, Hank had started to feel the surges of violence return. Father Donnelly had returned in the middle of the night, but spouting nonsense, and Hank wasn't feeling any better. 

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"How about we wait and see what Mother says?" 

Hank felt his hand tighten into a fist. "Fine. I'm going for a walk." He started down the hall. He heard Susanna's voice calling out instructions for the game. Johannesberg caught up to him.

"Hank, listen. Please." The older man took another deep breath. Jo continued. "K, you're gonna think this is nuts too. But I have to tell someone. You wonder why I don't seem worried about this Max guy..." 

"Things have gotten worse since he showed up."

"Well, stranger anyway. If that's possible. But listen... The thing is... I saw this anime when I was younger, and the main character... Well, the series was called Aeon Triumph Gun Messiahs-" 

The door opened to Mother's room.

"I've made a decision," Alice said.