“Yeah. Right! We had this other sergeant...” Emily’s face scrunched up as she tried to remember.
“Murphy. Sergeant Patrick Murphy. I tried to slip him the antidote as well, but Collins screwed up my plan.”
“All right, mate. Now you’ve got me all curious. Let’s hear the full story then!” She twisted in her seat to face Ben.
Ben snorted. “There’s really not much to tell, Emily. The Order provided me with half a dozen ampules of antidote. Apparently, their scientists weren’t sure if one ampule would be enough per person. They had this policy of putting their armed forces first, so they made sure we had extras.”
“Hang on.” Joe had returned with a plate of food and was just sitting down at the table. “Can you tell me about these ‘armed forces’ before you talk about this antidote? You were a spy, right?”
“My rank is called Optio. We were kind of like spies, yes. Most of us have had some specialist training.”
“Like John? He was Special Forces.”
“Special Operations. Or SpecOps,” Ben corrected. “Although Special Forces is acceptable, too. I never really talked to John, so I’m not sure what branch he was in. I was a Ranger.”
Joe nodded. “So, what other forces does the Rosae Crucis have?”
“I don’t really know how many of us — I mean of them — there are. It was all very secretive. But what I can tell you is that a man called Wallace oversees the armed forces. I don’t know his first name, which come to think of it is kind of funny since most people of the Order address each other by their first names and rank.”
Several others had moved in closer to hear. Ern scuttled so Nancy could sit, while Shelley and Christine had pushed Melissa’s chair closer. Steve, Q and Ethan stood nearby, and Keith hung back a bit but was also clearly interested in what Ben had to say.
Joe asked Melissa what her and John’s ranks were, wondering if they’d come from the same branch as Ben. She looked long and hard at Ben before shaking her head.
“I’ll tell you another time,” she said.
Ben lifted one corner of his mouth in a rueful smile. “That’s fine, Melissa. As I was saying, we have one leader of the army. He’s more than a general, though, because he deals with all kinds of stuff. His rank is Paladin.”
Q’s curiosity was tweaked. “You mean like a knight or something?”
“Kind of, I guess. Our Order goes back to well before medieval days. Anyway, Paladin Wallace is second only to our actual leader. His name is Brenin. His title is Sentinel.”
“Hey! Are you guys like from the Round Table or something? No wait, what was it?” Q was thinking hard now.
“The Knights Templar?” Shelley supplied.
“Yeah, Knights Templar!” Q confirmed excitedly, with a generous grin to Shelley.
“Our Order is related to them. There’s a lot of bullshit in the history books and on the internet, so let me see if I can give you the two-minute version of the Rosae Crucis.”
The audience had grown once more, so Ben had to raise his voice for the benefit of all.
“The Rosae Crucis is related to the Order of the Rose and Cross. That all ties back to the Knights Templar and the Stonemasons. Those of you who know your history know that the Knights Templar were disbanded, hunted down, and pretty much destroyed by the Catholic Church. That happened around the 1300s. There are a bunch of conspiracy theories out there about why the church hunted them down, but the truth, as I know it, is that the Order follows a different deity.”
This was followed by several shocked noises as people realized what Ben was saying.
“God. They have a different god,” Ethan explained to a confused Steve.
“Yes. Our god is called Summuh.”
He fell quiet at more noises of disapproval.
“People, please!” Joe exclaimed. “Can we leave the discussion about theology for another time?”
“He means religion,” Ethan whispered to a baffled Steve.
His comment, timed exactly when everybody was silent, broke the tension.
“All right, people. Let’s leave Ben here to finish up his breakfast. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some chores to do.” Joe encouraged. The crowd broke up quickly, leaving Ben with Emily and Ern.
Ern had brought Ben another cup of coffee. The soldier savored his first sip, closing his eyes. “I love coffee.” Ern grunted in agreement.
Emily frowned. “Hey, Ben?”
“Yes, Hill?”
“Call me Emily. Or Em. Coffee is dog-shite. You’ve obviously never had a proper cuppa,” Emily looked dead serious while saying it.
“All right, Emily. Em. Maybe you can fix me a cup sometime,” Ben replied with a gentle smile.
“Also, why don’t you tell me more about this antidote? You still owe me the story of how you tried to save our mates.”
Ben thought for a second. “Do you remember the first day you joined us?”
Emily remembered.
Shit was just starting to hit the fan.
Chapter 44
Emily
October 24. 11:30 A.M.
The bus tires screeched as the vehicle swerved wildly. People in the back cried out in alarm, several of them losing their seat. Emily righted the bus and glanced quickly over her shoulder. Durant had lost his footing and lay on top of two hapless civilians. Sergeant Murphy had somehow held his balance in the aisle. One look at the man and you could guess why.
Low center of gravity.
He might have been two inches taller than Emily — if that — but the guy was almost as broad as he was tall. Emily figured that if she ever got high-centered, she could ask the sarge to crawl under the bus and bench-press the thing off the obstacle.
The guy was built like a brick shithouse, as it was called around there.
“Damn it, Hill!” His voice matched his barrel chest. Deep and booming. “Next time, just run over the damn thing!”
The damn thing was a zombie. It had stepped out onto the road, apparently attracted by the bright, shiny vehicles traveling past it.
“Forester is supposed to
