While everybody is distracted by the desolation, I break from the group and approach Lucindy. "What do you mean, the good people are coming?" I ask. She seems frustrated as her left arm struggles with her right arm, "Sometimes it's so difficult to re-engage my limbs with their sockets - this is an early prototype, it's not one of their best designs, " she says.
A sound, like a bone breaking, makes me flinch, "That's it, fully engaged," she smiles, then moves closer to me. "You know who the good people are, Tanya."
"If I did, I wouldn't need to ask you," I snap back. She has an infuriating knowing look on her face, "Remember, my sister and I visited the Love Rush Zone, back in Chicago, when we fooled Maria and Brigitte into thinking we were pediatricians," she says, smiling.
Our plans for this place, suddenly return to me. Lucindy, almost seeing the realization on my face, continues, "We heard of your idea to turn this into a place for good. A high-tech care center to repair and rehabilitate the disfigured and injured." She descends into an incongruous fit of laughter.
"What's so funny?" I ask. Her mirth subsides, "As if The Surgeon would allow you turn this place into a mere hospital." Another giggle stalls her, before she begins again, "I mean Tanya, caring for people is so last century. Why care, when you can create?" She asks.
I ignore her question, "So when you say good people are coming here, who do you mean exactly?"
She looks at me as if I'm stupid. "All the defective and injured freaks that you want to repair. They're on their way, with medical staff," she says.
And I recall now, before we left Chicago, Maria and her team were conducting interviews for medical staff, while we returned here to get the place ready. Of course we were derailed - as you know.
Lucindy continues to talk, with pride in her words, "The Surgeon has ensured that nothing but a barren, devastated wasteland will be here to greet them. And of course, she had to obliterate all evidence of her work before she could take it into the wider world," she says, with a knowing wink.
......
Noise distracts her and her head thrusts upwards.
A distant rumble, like growing thunder makes us all swivel round in the same direction. Our eyes follow as a low flying jet comes into view.
its thunderous roar intensifies and Kade runs to me, throwing a protective arm around me as we all instinctively bend our knees as the huge airplane gets ever closer.
The jet stream causes the ashen earth to shift and swirl, creating plumes of ash to rise like deathly clouds that sting our eyes and makes us cover our mouths to stifle our choking coughs. We are literally choking on dead men's ashes!
A great downward rush of wind forces us to our knees as the mammoth jet passes directly overhead.
Kade and I remain on our knees in a tight embrace until we hear the accelerating engines diminish to a low rumble.
When we look up we see Lucindy, a cloud of black ashen smoke swirling around her waist. Her right arm holds her left arm aloft as it waves triumphantly at the departing airplane. Her voice is charged with an excited, winner's emotion, "The Surgeon and her remaining followers are leaving. Go forth and create havoc, unleash your triumphs on the world all powerful one - our loss is Chicago's - the world's gain!" She chants.
......
All is quiet once the ash has settled. The silver sky reflects the flat grey of the scorched ashen ground, creating a space that looks alien, like another planet.
Kade and I stand and look away from Lucindy and toward my family. My mother is kneeling, her head is thrust skywards and her hands are clasped in prayer, "Thank you for this newfound freedom Lord, thank you..." she repeats over and over as if in a trance like state. My father and Tony are clasped in a tight embrace, my father gently sobs while Tony stares blankly, bewildered.
