Splintered: The Labyrinth, Book 3 by Brian Keene

Author:Brian Keene [Keene, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Manhattan On Mars Press
Published: 2023-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

10

“W e can’t stay here, Teddy. You know that, right? Nothing has changed.”

Teddy snorted with derision and gestured, sweeping his hand in a wide arc. “Nothing has changed, Nelson? Take a look around. I reckon the people here would disagree with you.”

They sat on the front porch of the Ponderosa—Teddy, LeHorn, Sarah, Rose, Carl, and Earl. The wall on the social hall’s west-facing side had a crashed pickup truck sticking out of it. The interior was an unnavigable jumble of collapsed tables, fallen chairs, and other debris that had been scattered in the panic. All around them, the town of Renick reeled and reckoned with the aftermath of Purturabo’s dance. First responders from nearby Frankfort, Lewisburg, and Marlington were already on the scene, as were the State Police. More emergency personnel were en route from further locations, along with the nearest National Guard unit. The fires were mostly extinguished, totaling in the loss of seventeen homes and five businesses. The death toll was currently incalculable, partly due to the influx of out-of-town visitors who’d come for Old Home Week, but mostly due to the fact that the dead were in pieces. Blood and offal covered everything. The streets and sidewalks. Tree trunks and grass. Aluminum siding and clapboard housing. Street signs and utility poles. On their way back to the Ponderosa, they’d passed a child’s plastic wading pool, filled not with water, but with glistening viscera already crawling with flies. Someone had lined up seven bodies on the main street, side by side, and then ran over each of their heads with a monster truck. There was talk that Mo White had cooked his toddler in his backyard smoker. The air stank of smoke and burned meat. The Greenbrier River ran red.

“I’ve known these people all my life.” Teddy’s voice cracked. “I won’t run out on them now. They’ll need help picking up the pieces. Somebody’s got to help rebuild this community.”

“You’ve known them all your life,” LeHorn agreed, “which is another reason why we can’t stay. You’re supposed to be dead on this level. The longer we stay, the more and more questions there’ll be about your miraculous return. And not everyone is going to take it as well as Rose, Earl, and Carl have.”

“They already know I’m alive,” Teddy argued. “I reckon me leading these folks in a town singalong was a pretty big giveaway.”

“It was. But right now, they’re in shock. Once that shock wears off, there will be more questions. They’ll be looking to point the finger at someone. They’ll need someone to blame. And with so many people dead, while you’ve apparently returned from the dead? They’re going to resent that.”

“We’ll never recover from this,” Carl said, staring out at the destruction. “This is worse than Pearl Harbor. Worse than 9/11. Worse than that purple pandemic.”

Sarah frowned. “Purple pandemic?”

“Yeah.” Carl nodded. “Remember, those terrorists that did all those chemical attacks? Turned the rain purple in a bunch of places, and all the chaos that followed?”

Sarah shook her head.

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