New Delhi was disqualified from existence today. Katie only heard select chatter on the radio whenever she was passing by or running her errands. Apparently, this was the most people to die in a single city yet. She also heard a news anchor refer to it as the Rape Capital of India. Yikes, she thought. Good riddance.

  More importantly, today was the inaugural day of her gift shop. Sweet-talking the people of Gentle was no trouble. She’d barely gotten through the first paragraph of her prepared speech when the town’s mayor, Colin, grabbed hold of her hands - eyes glistening with all the joy and excitement of a golden retriever - and promised her as much funding as she needed to get the shop running. Much to her surprise, he didn’t even ask for a cut of the profits. In fact, Colin was so ecstatic at the prospect of spreading the word of the Savior beyond the confines of their small town, he managed to recruit almost a dozen people to help her set up shop.

  By ten, all the paperwork had been signed. By noon, they’d torn down the General Store sign and helped her move into the empty shop while setting up a room for her to live on the first floor. It had been abandoned for years anyway. By three, they’d cleaned it to the point that you couldn’t tell that most of the wood was rotting under termites unless you looked really hard. The plumbing was restored. Colin’s cousin, Jonah - kind man that he was - donated enough furniture to turn it into a proper home. Come evening, almost twenty of the sweet people of the town of Gentle were gathered around to welcome the newest member of their community: Katie Marsh, sole license-holder and distributer for merchandise celebrating the Cult of the Savior.

  Katie thought she was gonna die of happiness. She had finally become a Proper Legitimate Business Owner. All that remained was giving the shop a name. She thought long and hard about what would be an appropriate title for a cult’s merch store. It needed to be something with oomph. Something cool and powerful. Something unique that immediately drew your attention but was also incredibly easy to remember. It had to be something powerful but also soft and delicate and welcoming.

  She got it.

  Katie took a deep breath and turned around. The townspeople were all awaiting her words with eager eyes and even more eager pockets full of cash. Katie smiled and said, “Welcome to Safi’s.”

  They burst into a roar of applause and hooting. Arms raised, oscillating in tune to a local country song, creating a wave of excitement that spread and illuminated Gentle with the kind of welcoming glow Katie had never experienced in her life. She wondered what Safi would make of this.

  Colin approached her with a grin and patted her back. “Safi’s. Like the Savior’s real name. Great call, sister.”

  Katie chuckled lightly. “Just doing my part in spreading the good word.”

  “Indeed.” Colin whistled and raised his hand. A beer bottle came flying out of the crowd and landed firmly between his fingers. He popped the lid against the store’s newly furnished stairwell and plopped right down. “It’s a good thing you’re doing here. The Cult is still new, directionless, unfocused. This might just show us the path we need.”

  Katie sat down next to him. “It’s only been two days. You gotta cut yourself some slack. Look around at what you guys already managed to accomplish.”

  She drew his attention to the church door in the distance. The red, blue, and green splotches of paint over the purple-black door were visible even in the dark. A group of children were still playing Sticks and Savior around it.

  “That’s some mighty fine sentiment, sister.” Colin chuckled and took a swig of his beer. He outstretched his hand and whistled again. Another beer bottle came flying at him, which he popped open and threw to Katie. She accepted it with thanks.

  “To the Savior.” Colin raised his bottle.

  “To the Savior.” Katie returned his toast and they both took a swig.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t get more people to pitch in. A lot of our more ardent believers don’t feel we should be spreading the good word in a uhh… monetary fashion, so to speak. They say it’s needless decadence and this sorta thing is what brought about the Savior in the first place. Buncha baloney, if you ask me.”

  “Right.” Katie nodded. She’d never expected becoming a Proper Legitimate Business Owner to be a cakewalk. Even so, she was thankful for the support she’d gotten so far. She eyed the crowd gathered around Safi’s. It was thinner than she’d have liked, barely twenty people, but it was a start.

  However, if she wanted to build a large and consistent base of paying customers, she was gonna have to put the work in. Not just in renovating the shop but in actually winning these people over. Almost four hundred called Gentle their home. Most had enough money to spare on overpriced mugs and t-shirts. And considering they were already enamored with the Savior, all they needed was a little convincing to loosen their pockets.

  “So, how long before you can open up our means of spreading the good word?” asked Colin with a grin.

  “I’ve made a few calls. The banners and pins should be arriving by tomorrow. The t-shirts might take a little while. Say, Friday? I’ll try to speed along the process as best as I can. I might have to pick ‘em up at the factory.”

  “I’ll go with ya.”

  “Really?” Katie was taken aback.

  Colin shrugged. “Sure! Anything it takes to bring our people together. Besides, once these ignorant asshats see what we’re actually offerin’, they gonna change their minds.”

  “Tell me more about these people opposing the… spread. What am I dealing with here?”

  Colin took another swig and stretched his back. “Well, there’s my cousin, Jonah.”

  “The one who donated the bed and stuff?”

  Colin nodded. “A kind soul, that one. Best carpenter I’ve ever seen. Really taken the Savior’s message to heart. Gettin’ rid of all material possessions, so to speak. A good man, even if we tend to disagree on certain things. He’s got quite a few people in his corner too. So, if you wanna convince someone, that’s where I’d start. Though, I won’t hold out much hope for him. He ain’t the kind to change his mind all that easy. Hell, he didn’t even want us renovating the church in the first place. Says it’s not right and whatnot.”

  “But he still worships the Savior?”

  “With all his heart, he does. He just don’t want no part in celebratin’ him. It’s only the universe correcting itself, he says.”

  Fuck, that was the opposite of what Katie wanted. And he had a decent following too? Fucking perfect. From the sounds of it, Jonah was too far gone to try and convince. But maybe she could pry some of his friends away from him? Either way, it sounded like a chore. Not the best place to start.

  “What else?” she asked.

  “Well, there’s the Mason Triplets and the kids that hang around ‘em. A rowdy bunch, those guys. Always causing trouble tipping cows and painting wieners on front doors and whatnot.”

  Katie scoffed. “Doesn’t sound like they’d be the type to worship the Savior.”

  “And that’s where you couldn’t be more wrong, sister.” Colin smiled. “Ever since them asshats learned that the Savior’s come to exterminate humanity, they only gotten even rowdier. Say it’s their way of speeding things along. Punks, I say. Nothin’ but punks.”

  “I see,” said Katie. She’d dealt with punks before. All she had to do was dig up some dirt on them and they’d be eating out of her hand in no time. Adequate targets. Just needed a bit of investigative work. Time-consuming. It’d be easier to start elsewhere, for sure. “Who else?”

  Colin thought for a moment. “Well, there’s the shopkeepers association. Garry, Gertie, and Stu. Nice people, if a bit closed off.”

  “And how do they feel about the Savior?”

  “I know they helped fund the renovation, same as anyone. I don’t think I’ve seen them come to pray, though. Them’s the types of people to keep their faith private.”

  “Great.” Katie groaned. Three introverts. Hard to tempt and even harder to utilise. Another group that was far from ideal.

  “Now, now, I wouldn’t go selling ‘em short either. Any time the town needs anything done, those folks are the first to step up. There’s not a soul in Gentle as well respected as Garry, Gertie, and Stu. They’re stand-up guys, that lot. And any of us would gladly jump off a cliff if they was takin’ the lead.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Oh!” Katie gasped. Now, that was more like it. “Who else?”

  “Well, I don’t think there’s another faction, so to speak. There’s about a hundred or so dunderheads that couldn’t think for themselves if you held a gun to their head. They’ll go what way the wind’s blowin’, if you catch mah drift.”

  Katie took another swig of her beer, inhaled sharply, and went over everything she’d learned. Four hundred townspeople, give or take. Jonah held the lion’s share of the support. Not an easy guy to crack, for sure, but worth talking to anyways. The Mason Punks and their dipshit friends came next. Just a bunch of kids. She could win them over, given enough time but, honestly, they were not her first choice. It wouldn’t be a good look to have the town nuisances be her first customers.

  Then came the shopkeepers association guys. From the sounds of it, they were the best lead to chase. Introverts or not, if they had people listening to them, Katie absolutely needed them in her corner. And then, there were the undecided. Not a whole lot she could do about those twerps, except pray that Jonah wouldn’t sweep them up before her.

  Speaking of, it would be best to try and talk to him anyways. Even if she couldn’t win him over, it wouldn’t do to make an enemy out of him.

  “So, what do ya make of it, sister? Think you can make it work?” Colin smiled at her expectantly.

  “Hey, anything for the Savior.”

  Colin slapped her across the back so hard, she nearly fell from the stairwell. “Aha! That’s what I like to hear. I just knew it. It’s gonna be so much fun to have ya around.”

  “Right.” She smiled nervously. “I’d like to speak with Jonah as soon as possible. Can you show me the way to his house?”

  “Oh, for sure!” Colin burped and drunkenly pointed at a modest-looking house near the end of the Inner Horseshoe. “That the one. Tell ‘em Cousin Colin sent ya. He should let you in.”

  Katie lifted herself off the stairwell with a grunt of exertion and prepared to depart for her first target. “Thanks, Colin. Really, you’ve been awesome.”

  Colin outstretched his arms as if awaiting a hug and burst into a donkey-like braying laugh. “Anythin’ for the Savior, sister. Anythin’ for the Savior. He done come to save us from ourselves. Oh, lordie! I say I wouldn’t know what to do with mah life if it weren’t for him. He gave us purpose. Bet the lot of us ‘round these parts feel the same way. Anythin’ for the Savior… Anythin’ for…” Colin’s voice trailed off into song before fading completely as he shut his eyes, keeled over, and fell asleep on the stairwell.

  Safi walked amidst the ruins of New Delhi with slow, methodical steps. The death did not weigh on them so much as the emptiness did. Only hours prior, this was a bustling metropolis full of people, so many people. People that went to work everyday and complained about work. People with children that complained about children. People who were old who complained about being old and people that were young and… You get the idea. And now, it was quiet. A cold and empty desert stretched out in all directions for miles, never to say a peep again.

  This was the first time in years they’d had to disqualify a third city from any planet. They still recalled their last time, the rejuvenation of Planet Carthos of the Tau Ceti System. The Elders of their Great Cities were a stubborn lot. They wouldn’t listen to reason. ‘Heal the world’ was too naive a sentiment, they said. It could not be done. It would be too expensive and too tedious.

  When the first city fell, they were shocked but they did nothing. When the second city fell, they were outraged, but they did nothing. But when the third city fell and they did nothing, that was the last time that their citizens would tolerate inaction. It took the people mere minutes to raid their palaces. By nightfall, the citizens of Carthos paraded every single one of their severed heads on sticks as crowds cheered in the streets. Safi had never needed to disqualify a fourth city.

  Once the desert became too dull to tolerate, they flew away. Past the ashen desert, past the dry wind, past the dust clouds that had gathered over ruins of New Delhi. From up high, the gray sand dunes seemed a tiny sandpit for children. Then, there was light. A tiny flicker, so tiny it would be imperceptible but to a creature with seventeen eyes capable of perceiving all dimensions, a tiny flicker of flame at the edge of the sandpit. Then, there was another, and another. One by one, the flames alighted until millions of tiny flickers were gathered by the western edge of the gray sandpit.

  Safi looked closer. It was people were holding candles to mourn the lives that were extinguished today. They’d come to pay their respect or, perhaps, to find some closure amidst the chaos. They did not speak. They did not cry. They merely bowed their heads and placed the candles by the gray sandpit.

  Next morning, the local ministers would give speeches and issue statements about the tragedy and how this is a time for the people to come together. They would be cheered and paraded as heroes of the people. Then, they would go home and have tea with industrialists and sign bills that would destroy a thousand homes to build factories in the name of development and anyone criticizing them would be called a traitor to the nation.

  Safi wished they did not know this. They wished that the people would see the truth. They wished that they wouldn’t have to disqualify a fourth city for the first time.

  Jonah’s house did not feel like it belonged on the same plane of existence let alone the same row as the rest of them. Mini-bungalow freshly painted white to the left. Mini-bungalow freshly painted purple-black to the right. In the middle, a single-storeyed shack. Not even a house. A shack. A cottage with a plain unpainted wooden door, four unpretentious walls barely thick enough to hold back the wind, and a roof of dried straw over light wooden panels sprinkled in various herbs and salts and molasses to keep it together.

  The grass in the front-yard seemed freshly trimmed but, unlike its neighbors, bore no audacious decorations or exotic flowers. A simple beaten path unburdened by fences led from the house to where Katie stood, six feet of grassy land separating the cottage from the road which led to the newly-minted Church of the Savior. A road never taken by Jonah.

  It was a simple house for a simple man.

  Katie’s phone buzzed with new notifications. A missed call from Nolan Reed, the guy she owed money big time. Fuck, now wasn’t the time. She set it on mute.

  She lightly tapped the door a few times, hoping her fist wouldn’t punch clean through its thin frame. “Jonah? I’m Katie Marsh. I recently moved here. Listen, I wanted to thank you for all the furniture you donated. Could I come in?”

  The sound of lazy footsteps on a creaking floor came from the other side. The door was swung open and Katie was greeted with the most gentle smile she’d ever seen. Jonah was a tall man. Tall and burly and wide enough that getting out the door required a slight bow and a squeeze. His calloused hands were toying with a precision screwdriver covered in soot. There was a dirty towel over his broad shoulders which appeared as though it had been used in wiping the sweat from his red and weary face. Quite recently too, judging by its color.

  He was dressed in a plain red shirt and khaki pants, both of which seemed a bit tight around his considerable gut. His unkempt beard, multiple tattoos, and graying mullet hair made him look like one of those bad-boy biker types, but his smile and kind eyes were more than enough to put Katie at ease.

  “It was no trouble,” he said, leaning on the door-frame. “I didn’t need it. You wanted it. Everyone’s happy.”

  “Well, yeah, that’s right. But still, I can’t express how thankful I am. Really. I thought I’d still have to sleep in my car.” It wasn’t a total lie. Her RV was still a car, right?

  “Not while Jonah Redfield’s still breathing, doll. Now tell me, to what do I owe the pleasure? Do you need another piece of furniture for your place?”

  “Oh no no no, I’m good. Thank you. But I did wanna talk to you about the church.”

  Jonah’s smile stopped radiating all the way to his eyes. “Yeah, I figured. I suppose, I was still expecting to avoid this conversation somehow.” He laughed a little.

  “I know you don’t much care for shows of faith or going to church. I respect that. I know you’re still a good man at heart.”

  “That’s mighty generous of you, doll.” He chuckled dryly.

  Katie pretended to overlook the sarcasm. “What I mean is even if we have different goals, it doesn’t mean we have to be at odds.”

  “Different goals?” He laughed again. “I don’t got no goals. I’m more than happy living my life in peace in my this here humble abode.”

  “And inspiring others to do the same?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

  His smile was firm and unfeeling. “Just trying to be a good neighbor, doll.”

  Katie crossed her arms and stepped back. “Look, I’m not trying to start shit or anything—”

  “But you did start shit, didn’t you?”

  “Wha-what do you mean? I—”

  “I saw your car pull up into town yesterday. I saw the look you had in your eyes and, believe me, I seen that look before. That hunger. That greed. That ambition to take what you think what you’re entitled to without any regard for others. I seen in ruin great men many times over.”

  Katie lowered her gaze. “Look, I am perfectly entitled to set up business wherever I please, okay? I have the permission of the mayor and—”

  “Colin? That old fool?” He scoffed. “Colin would sell his mother if he thought it brought more publicity to town. That’s all this is, doll. A great big publicity stunt. Don’t try to convince me, or yourself, that it’s anything but. Least not while you’ll be pocketing all the coin.”

  “It’s not what you think. We’re.. We’re helping spread the word of the Savior. How is that wrong?”

  “The Savior?” He laughed. “What do you know about the Savior? Did he come whisper sweet nothings to you in the dead of the night?”

  Katie did not answer.

  “Do not presume to speak for beings that are beyond your understanding, doll. Trust me, it never ends well.”

  “I thought you liked the Savior.”

  Jonah took a deep breath and looked around the town. He saw the children playing Sticks and Savior, the young painting the Savior’s face on every building they passed, and the old walking with a vigor they hadn’t known in years. Jonah exhaled. “I respect the Savior for the energy he’s brought back to this town. Truth be told, I haven’t seen these folks so energized and… and purposeful in all my life. It’s like they’d been wasting away for as long as they knew and, suddenly, something’s come to give them direction. It’s a comforting delusion, doll. But a delusion nonetheless. You and me both know exactly what the Savior brings us. And it ain’t hope.”

  “But Colin said you have faith in the Savior. Isn’t that right? Then why are you saying these things?” she cried.

  Jonah smiled and shook his head. “Oh, I got faith alright. I got faith that the Savior will bring exactly what he promised us. And honestly? I can’t wait.”

  Katie stepped back and nearly fell. Her legs were trembling.

  Jonah towered over her like a mountain. His voice, once gentle, now roared and crackled like thunder. “Humans have had the stage for thousands of years and what good have we done with it? Nothing. Nothing but killing and hurting each other for stupid reasons over and over. The Savior promises an end to that cycle. Why would I be anything but delighted? So, you can take your empty gestures, your promise of spreading the good word, your selfish short-sighted plans to make some quick cash, doll. God’s honest truth, I will not get in your way. But do not forget for a second what awaits every last one of us worms crawling on this backwater rock of a planet: Extinction.”

  Jonah slammed the door in her face.