is part of their plan to get their hands on Anna?'
'If I was still working for an organisation with the resources that they have why the hell would I put my life in constant danger travelling across the country like this?' said Greaves. 'And why do you suddenly care so much? Like you said, you were hired to do a job.'
'Because it's stopped being just a job. Because I care about Anna and I don't want you to put her in danger or feed her up to some killer plague germs.'
Cortez couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. 'I never thought I'd say this but I agree with the whore.'
'Thanks big guy, you sure know how to sweet talk a girl.'
'I'm not trying to flatter you,' said Cortez. 'But I do share your misgivings. You've paid me well Greaves. I've earned what you've given me and it's fair to say the rewards have been good. Nonetheless a man has his limits.'
'A man has his limits,' said Greaves. 'What the fuck does that mean?'
'It means that I too care about Anna. There is something special about her and I don't want to see her used like some lab rat in one of your experiments.'
'Of course she's special,' said Greaves. Cortez had never seen him so close to losing control. 'I've been saying that right from the start. Don't you see what we're a part of? Don't you realise what we could do? We could change the whole world for the better. All this chaos and disorder, all this pain and death and suffering. It doesn't have to be for nothing. We could build a new world. We could bring about paradise on Earth.'
'Paradise is to be found in the hereafter,' said Cortez. 'With Allah, the almighty.'
'And what if you're wrong?' said Linda. 'What if we end up wiping out what's left of humanity?'
'My friends,' said Anna, joining the conversation for the first time. 'I thank you both from the bottom of my heart for your concern. And I too never thought I would say this, but I agree with Mr Greaves.'
'You do?' said Greaves. There were tears of gratitude in his eyes. 'I mean of course you do. Obviously you do.'
'I have prayed long and hard for guidance since you told me about my true origins, about this disease for which you say I'm to be a host and Mr Greaves is right, all this suffering and death doesn't have to be for nothing.'
'Exactly,' Greaves said, there was a trace of hysteria in his voice. Cortez had not realised quite how much this meant to him. 'Of course it doesn't.'
'I know what Mr Greaves has said to be true because I have felt this contagion calling to me, calling to every part of my being. As I said to you Mistress Linda it knows I am coming and it hungers for my company. Hungers like Satan himself hungers for lost souls. I have searched every part of my being and I have spoken almost constantly with my Maker and I now believe there is a reason why I alone, out of all the poor children, crafted by Satan's scientific arts, am alive. This plague is more dangerous than anyone, including you Mr Greaves, realise. Yet it is my destiny to be joined with it. God himself has willed it thus.'
'Anna,' said Linda. 'Do you know what you're saying?'
'Yes Mistress Linda I do. I have spent all my life asking God to reveal my purpose in life. The folk of my community were good folk, gentle, honest and true. But as you have pointed out Mr Greaves, it was not easy growing up as the only Native American within the whole community. My momma and poppa never told me how I came to live with them. As you might imagine matters of birth and conception weren't spoken about much by my people. Every attempt was made to keep our minds and our bodies from sinning. What my momma did tell me was that she was sure God singled me out for a special purpose. From the moment she held me in her arms she said that she knew this to be true. She knew it with as much conviction as she knew that the sun would rise the next day, that her name was Sarah Bontraeger and the Lord Jesus Christ died so that we might be redeemed from all our sin. I was often teased as a little girl by the other children because I was so different, because no-one knew who my grandparents were. If you went back two generations, more or less everyone in the community could trace their kin back to ties with everyone else's. It was a point of pride for most of them.
'Sometimes when the teasing got too much for me, I ran and hid and cried. I would call out to Jesus to help me, to give me his comfort and to show me the special purpose he had for me. Once in a while I would feel his hand on my shoulder. I would know then, in these moments, what my Momma had always told me was true. He did have something special in store for me and when the time was right he would reveal it to me. I have been through trying times of late and I have fallen in with bad people, present company excluded. Yet my strength, my rod and my comfort still has always been my belief that I have a special purpose in God. This is my purpose to join with this evil plague and to turn it to God's will.'
'No Anna,' said Greaves. 'It is not evil. It is just a collection of self-replicating micro-organisms. It has no purpose, no intent and no will. Not until it joins with you.'
'With respect Mr Greaves,' said Anna. 'You have not felt its call. It is evil alright, and I must pray with all my heart for strength, so that I may do the right thing when the time comes.'
'You are just full of surprises,' said Linda. 'You don't say nothing for days, then you come out with a big speech like that.'
'Yes mistress Linda,' said Anna. 'I hope I have not bored you with my story. In fact my throat is dry and I would like some water if you wouldn't mind.'
Cortez got up and fetched her a drink. 'I was not bored at all by your story,' he said. 'If you don't mind. I should like to hear more.'
'What would you like know Mr Cortez?'
'I am curious as to how you ended up in the house of sin where we found you?'
'Ah yes, there,' said Anna and she stared into the distance.
'If it is too distressing we do not have to talk of it.'
'No, no, that's alright. I think, for the sake of my own sanity, I sometimes believe that all happened to a different person. I have changed so much since I left the community. Since I met you all. I believe I have even begun to talk differently.'
'Yeah,' said Linda, 'I'd noticed that. We'll have you cussing and spitting on the floor yet.'
'That may take a while Mistress Linda,' said Anna with a smile. 'When The Cull came – I believe that's what you call it isn't it? – it came early to my community. Some of us took sick and died within days. It was only a few at first. We tried praying, of course, but for once God didn't seem to heed our words. Then more and more of us fell. We thought we had brought the wrath of the Lord down on our heads. There was much lamentation and self reproach, we begged God for a sign to tell us what we had done wrong, to show us how to put it right. But nothing came. There was much despair in those last days as our loved ones and all the people we had grown up with died before our eyes. We sent parties to the outside world to bring us help but none of them returned. Then there was only a handful of us left at this point, locked away in our own homes with what few provisions we had left. Momma and poppa were two of the last to go. I buried them in our back yard and I cried for days. There wasn't anyone else I could turn to for help. There were dead bodies everywhere and all our cemeteries had run out of space. I tended to the last of my brothers and sisters in the community, tried to make their last hours as comfortable as I could. Then there was just me.'
Anna paused for a minute, drank some more water and took a deep breath. 'You have to understand that the community was my whole world. I knew of no other life outside of it. My world had ended along with the lives of everyone I knew. The outside world was a complete mystery to me. The Amish way of life has not changed in two hundred years. Even though there was no-one left in the whole settlement I was still afraid to leave. I confess I even prayed to God to take me too, so I could join my community in heaven. '
'So what happened?' said Linda, 'How did you end up leaving?'
'I was starving and delirious and suddenly I felt Jesus by my side. I knew that he wanted me to live and to leave the settlement. Only in the outside world could he reveal his purpose to me. So I collected a few possession and I set off to the nearest town. Nothing could have prepared me for what I came across.'
'I imagine it would be like travelling forward two hundred years in time,' said Greaves. 'Or visiting another planet that was far more technologically advanced.'
Anna looked at him with a puzzled expression. 'Once again you must excuse me Mr Greaves but I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about.'
'Never mind. Please continue.'
