“You think this lynching is dignified?” Jenny asked, but her mic had been cut and her protest went unheard. The judge continued.
“Although our time here is coming to an end, in many ways this is just the beginning. We know that this woman facilitated the arrival of absolute evil into our world, and through our sacrifice to you today, Lord, we seek your appeasement. By offering her life to you, we trust that you will save us from the impending danger and lift us up to the kingdom of Heaven with you. We stand here together as one today, with utter belief and absolute faith, and await our ascension. We await the Rapture.”
At the mention of the Rapture, the stadium erupted into chaos loud enough to be heard from the edges of the Bleed. But Jenny was more focused on another word she’d just heard used: sacrifice.
Once again, the chaos was silenced to a whisper as the world awaited the chief justice’s inevitable judgement.
“Jennifer Allsopp, you are guilty of the most heinous crime ever committed. You have betrayed our entire world and caused the deaths of countless numbers of people. On behalf of the rest of the human race, I sentence you to death.”
Amongst another roar of cries and shouts and amens and hallelujahs, Jenny felt her cage again beginning to rattle and shake. The claw grab picked her up and raised her high into the air, then put her back down at the end of a raised section on the far right of the stage.
“Oh Lord, we offer you this woman as a symbol of our everlasting love for you. We pray that by ending her life today and closing the door on our enemies, you will look down on us and show mercy. We pray that you will allow the pure to ascend.”
Soundtracked by the noise of the crowd, fearsome-looking soldiers approached either side of Jenny’s cage, then made a grab for her as soon as the locks clicked open. There was a concrete wall between the cage and the stage wings, with an upright metal post positioned just in front of it. Two brutes picked her up between them, carried her over and chained her to the post. Even before she saw the line of eleven soldiers now marching across the stage towards her, she knew what was about to happen.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she said to no one but herself.
Six men and four women stood in a line a few meters back. Their commanding officer, standing to one side, started shouting orders. “Execution party ready.”
They lifted their weapons and unlocked them.
“Aim.”
Ten rifles were trained on Jenny. “Oh, shit,” she whimpered.
“FIRE!”
It happened somewhere in the impossibly short space of time between the F of “fire” shouted by the commanding officer, and the soldiers reacting and pulling the triggers of their rifles. An impenetrable orb, invisible but for a ghostly white outline glow, wrapped itself around Jenny.
The stadium was silent. The only sound came from blunted bullets bouncing off the orb and falling to the ground.
As quickly as it had appeared, it was gone again.
No orb.
No Jenny.
8
SURFERS PARADISE, AUSTRALIA
“What the fuck just happened?”
“I saved your life,” Maddie told her.
“Did you have to leave it ’til the last second like that?”
“I had to wait until I was sure everyone was watching. Pretty intense, right?”
“Screw you.”
“You could try saying thank you.”
“And you could try unchaining me from this post.”
Jenny was back in the clockwork room, safe and unharmed, but still shackled and completely fucking terrified.
“I’ll let you go when I’m ready.”
“How did you know where I was, anyway?”
“The room told me. Oh, and you were all over the TV. Every channel. If there was anyone who didn’t know who you were before today, they do now.”
“Great. Come on, get these chains off me.”
“I told you, not yet. I need some answers first. That trial just now—”
“It was bullshit. Kangaroo court.”
“—how much of what they accused you of was true? How much of all of this actually is your fault?”
“None of it.”
“Really? No smoke without fire…”
“Maddie, I swear, I’ve told you everything. I’m as innocent as you. You have to believe me.”
“Do I?”
Jenny’s legs felt like they were about to give way, and it was only the chains that were keeping her upright. She didn’t know how much more she could take. Less than five minutes ago she’d been a hair’s breadth from being executed after being paraded in front of thousands in the stadium and millions on TV. There wasn’t a single aspect of her life that seemed to make sense anymore. From the extremely pissed off look on Maddie’s face, it seemed things hadn’t gone much better for her either. She looked like she was ready to kill.
“What’s wrong?” Jenny asked.
“Um, everything. It’s time we were straight with each other.”
“I’ve only ever told you the truth.”
“I’m not so sure,” Maddie said as she walked around the console. “While you were gone I had plenty of time to get to know this machine and to find my way around it. I watched all the footage of your god friend turning up at the start of all of this, the big fancy show he put on in the middle of London, and I figured he must have been using the same kind of tech to move around as we’ve got here. Turns out I was right. I used the room to make one of those comet-like things to bring you back here. And yes, as it happens, I intentionally left it to the absolute last second before I did it.”
Maddie was clearly furious with Jenny, and the feeling was very much reciprocated. “You’re a spiteful, spineless, vindictive bitch,” Jenny screamed at her. “You bailed on me as soon as
