Chapter 20
Finding Trent
Tuesday, September 16th, 2059
30 days to Armageddon
In the morning, Leo waited for Mom to come home from her graveyard shift and turn in for the day before he got up and snuck out of the house.
He needed to level up on his walking and running skills, but he also needed to get to this church before hell froze over, so he'd dug into his life savings and grabbed some bus money. His twelve-year-old life savings was under the tile in his closet where his sister had said it would be. Minus the five dollars Lydia had no doubt confiscated per their agreement. Little brat.
Leo boarded a smelly city bus filled with drunks and drug addicts, who, thankfully, left him alone. The bus took him down Main Street to the city's outskirts. He got off a few blocks from the church's location.
As churches went, The God's House was small, nondescript, and covered with fading, peeling white paint. On one side, someone had spray-painted graffiti depicting a horned demon. The only interesting thing about the church was the large cross above the entrance. A cross made from hundreds of smaller crosses welded together. Leo wasn't a big fan of religion, but he had to admit it looked pretty neat. Nervously, he opened the door and went inside. The large, empty room smelled like pine-sol cleaner and felt quiet, peaceful.
A small woman dressed in jeans and a tee shirt came out from the back. “Can I help you?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I'm looking for Trent, a man with a tattoo of a cross on his right hand?” Leo was suddenly nervous, wondering what he was doing here and if he was wasting his time.
“And who are you?”
“Leo. Leo Edwards."
“Nice to meet you, Leo. Assuming I know this person, what do you want with him?”
Shit. “Uh, I can't say. But I need to speak to him. It's important.”
She looked at him for a long moment and seemed to make up her mind. “Wait here.” She walked away, but he could hear her talking on her cellphone.
“Boy, around twelve... Leo Edwards... No idea, says it's important. Think it might be the boy you were talking about?... Okay... Will do...”
She came back. “He's in the neighborhood and he said he'd swing by shortly. Would you like some tea? Hot chocolate? Coffee?”
“No thanks. I was wondering. I read an article about your church. I believe the article said something about a cancer patient taking Bio-Blessed, but they censored the story.”
She sighed. “Not a story for children, but if it stops you from taking that stuff...” She sat down on a pew. “One of our older church members took Bio-Blessed for her cancer. At first, it seemed to help. She looked better, hair growing back, more energy, didn't need a walker. Then, a couple of months ago, she collapsed in the middle of the Sunday sermon. I called the ambulance, and we tried to help her, but there was nothing we could do. It was a large snakelike thing underneath her skin, circling her neck, strangling her. Her doctor thinks it was her tumor growing out of control. Said he'd never seen a tumor grow that quickly, and if he hadn't seen it himself, he'd have sworn it was impossible.”
She looked away and shook her head. “Bio-Blessed Inc. insists their product had nothing to do with this and if I suggest otherwise, my church will be shut down and I will face multiple lawsuits for slander. You seem like a bright boy. I'll let you decide for yourself what happened.”
“I see,” Leo said. He wondered how many such events Bio-Blessed Inc. had covered up before the change.