Time's Edge

Kiernan slides the paper he was drawing on across the table to me. “Take a look at this.”

It’s a detailed map of God’s Hollow, with the church, the well, and the chicken coop. Smaller squares line both sides of the road that runs through the center of the village. Two of these, the squares that are three and four doors down from the church on the opposite side, are marked with an X.

Kiernan taps the page near the two buildings that are marked. “Saul goes between those two houses, stays about two minutes, and then comes back that same way when he brings Martha to the church. That’s the only time I see any activity between the two of them, other than the one I mentioned before, when Saul is wooing her.”

That seems like an odd choice of words, but I guess hitting on her might not be in Kiernan’s vocabulary, so I just nod.

“They get about ten yards down the street, toward the church, and she sees something off to the side of the road that frightens her. I’m thinking maybe it was the dog’s body. It looks like she’s screaming, ‘Bull.’ Anyway, after that point he has to basically drag her. She’s fighting him hard . . . rips his sleeve and scratches him up.”

“Go, Martha.”

Kiernan points at the house on the far side of the two marked with an X and says, “I watched from each of the points you set and never saw Saul take her inside either of those houses. Given the mud on her dress and legs, I’m guessing he had her in a root cellar or something. We should go in at night and set up a stable point between these houses. That way we can see exactly where Saul takes Martha and get her out ahead of time. Before Saul comes back to get her.”

“And what do we tell her, Kiernan?”

“To get the hell out of there, what else? We can show her where the motorbikes are hidden.”

“I think she’d run, but I’m also sure she’d come back. She’s restless, but it’s her home. And if she comes back quickly, I think there’s a good chance she’d contact the authorities. Based on what we know, she didn’t do that, right? They just put two and two together on their own when no one from the village showed up to do the weekly shopping.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“We hide in the chapel. That’s the only way to be sure that we change this but nothing else. Martha will see there’s nothing to come back to, Kiernan. She’ll know she has to leave, find someplace to start over. When she breaks into a run, we stop him from following her.”

He shakes his head. “You really want the kid to see everyone she loves dead in that church?”

“No,” I say. “It’s going to haunt her for the rest of her life. But don’t you think she has the right to know? Once she sees what he’s done, she’s going to want Saul to pay, and I’ll do my best to convince her that we’ll make him pay.”

“And you think she’ll be quiet? That she won’t talk about two people who appear out of nowhere and save her while the rest of her village dies?”

“We’ll just have to convince her that talking would be a very bad idea.”

GOD’S HOLLOW, GEORGIA

September 15, 1911, 2:42 p.m.

We look like aliens, covered from head to toe in the biohazard suits. Even though the masks are supposed to block most odors, the place reeks of vomit and human waste.

I watched the scene three times through the key, trying to build up my resistance. I don’t look at the faces, just keep my eyes on the ground. If I think of these bodies as people, I’m going to lose it, so I push emotion aside.

Pipe wrench in hand, Kiernan walks past the bench where Sister Elba rests and climbs over the wooden divider that separates the choir from the platform holding the pulpit and the armonica. He presses his back against the wall, partially shielded by the red curtain hanging from above.

I take up position on the other side of the pulpit. The curtain won’t hide me, since the door where Saul will enter is directly opposite, so I crouch down behind the choir bench and pull the Colt out of my pocket. This was one debate that Kiernan won, and although it makes me nervous to carry it around, he’s right. I can’t actually shoot Saul, but a few shots could provide a useful distraction if a whack across the head doesn’t slow him down.

I take some deep breaths as we wait, trying to calm down. Then a scream cuts through the silence. After watching everything transpire through the CHRONOS key, I’d forgotten we’ll have audio this time.

As the sound moves closer, I make out a few words. She’s screaming about the dog, just as Kiernan suspected.

“Bull! That’s Bull! Let me go!”

There’s a scuffle outside the door, and Saul, whose voice I’d imagined as deeper, says, “Oh, no, you don’t. Come on, Martha.”

The door swings inward, and their heads, which are all I can see from this position, are silhouetted against bright sky. “Why are you fighting me? I’m just taking you to Sister Elba and the others, as I promised.”

He kicks the door, and it closes behind them. The smell must hit Martha first, because she coughs and turns her head away. When her eyes adjust to the dimly lit church, her mouth falls open, and her eyes glaze over. There’s no sound for several seconds—I don’t think she’s even breathing. Then she makes a keening sound, soft at first, and then it builds as she brings her hands to her face and begins to scream.

Saul spins her around, I guess to be sure that she gets the full picture. “See, Martha? Just like I told you. They’re all here, waiting.”

The platform shakes as he drags her up the two short steps. I lean back slightly to be sure Saul can’t see me when he turns and dumps her behind the pulpit. I can’t see her from this angle, but I can hear her, and the image I saw earlier of Martha’s arms clutched around her head, rocking back and forth, is seared into my memory.

Saul turns back toward the pews, that sick, blissful smile on his face. How can he stand to take such deep breaths when the smell is nearly overpowering even behind a mask?

He looks around at his creation for a moment and then crosses over to Martha, kneeling down beside her. I can’t see either of them now, but Saul is shushing her softly, like you would a crying toddler. My heart races, and I wait for my cue—the moment when Martha kicks him backward and takes off.

But that never happens. Kiernan jumps up about thirty seconds ahead of schedule, hops over the railing, and whacks Saul on the back of the head with the wrench. I wait for Martha to start ru

Kiernan lets out a huff that’s audible through the mask. He reaches down and tugs Saul off Martha, then scoops her up into his arms like a baby and takes off down the center aisle. I hear a low moan from Saul’s direction as I’m about to start off after them, and I see he’s now up on his knees.

I pull back my foot and give my grandfather a solid kick to the kidneys. He lets out a very satisfying oof and slumps back to the floor as I run for the front entrance.

Kiernan is just ahead, still carrying Martha. Although he seemed okay when we jumped in, his limp is back, probably because the leg is used to carrying Kiernan’s weight, not an additional hundred pounds. The fact that Martha is fighting him clearly isn’t helping his progress, so I catch up with them quickly, just a few yards beyond the tree where I parked my bike on our first trip to God’s Hollow.

“Why didn’t you wait?” I say, yanking off my mask.

Kiernan pulls up his mask as well, his face conflicted. “Sorry, but you weren’t standing where I was, Kate. I could see . . . I wasn’t go