"Carver," Dan said, feeling a surreal sense of calm descend upon him. "We've got zombies."

Carver paused in her wrestling match with her nephew. She looked up at Dan, then unceremoniously hip-tossed her blood relative to the ground. He laid there groaning, arms cuffed behind his back, as Carver approached the door. Dan motioned for silence, and her march became a creep. She gently pulled him aside and glanced through the window pane. She stared for just under five seconds, then quietly pulled back.

"Well, that's disturbing," she commented. A series of finger flicks later, and a recording of her brief survey played out in the corner of Dan's HUD. "This is Carver to all squads. Report on civilian status."

The rest of the squads weighed in while Dan crouched beside the fallen Zachary. He tipped the young man onto his back, watching for his helmet's speech to text evaluation. There was already purpling along his jaw, and a thin line of blood trickled out of his nose and stained his teeth red. He was smiling.

*Groaning laughter* his visor summarized.

"What'd you do, Zach?" Dan asked. "There's a lot of civvies out there acting awfully strange."

The rest of the squads were reporting similar encounters. The civilians had, en masse, stopped moving. Many of them had stopped wherever they were, but an alarming number had also turned to face in Edict's direction before freezing.

Zach chuckled and wheezed, then turned over and spat a mouthful of blood. He turned back to face Dan, pupils blown out wide and manic, teeth bared and stained crimson. Dan tensed, ready to break the cultist's jaw if he tried to give out another order.

"Brother Charleston is a loyal and steadfast member of our church!" Zach spat, not even glancing at the comatose man. "He is a shepherd of the people, and his flock will protect our home with their lives!"

That did not sound promising. Carver stooped beside Dan and her nephew. She seized the young man by his lapels and yanked him up to her helmet. The matte-black glass shimmered and became transparent. The woman's furious face stared down at her kin.

"Are you telling me these civilians are going to attack us?" she asked, her voice balanced on a knife's edge, teetering towards violence. "And are you telling me you just ordered Charleston to make them that way?"

"You shouldn't have done that!" The voice of the second cultist interrupted Carver before she could get an answer. The man was handcuffed, shivering, and pale as snow. He leaned forward, towards Zach, snarling, "You shouldn't even know that command!"

"Don't pretend you wouldn't have done the same if you could!" Zach shouted back, pulling away from Carver before she jerked him back into place.

"How do we turn them back?" she demanded, fists held tight. The linen smock all cultists wore was ripping at the seams as she jerked the young man to and fro.

Zach did his best to shrug, every inch a defiant teenager. "No idea. Someone knows, but it's not me. Lucky for you, they'll only attack if you're hostile. You and your slave soldiers can walk right out, and nobody gets hurt." He grinned, as if he'd just resolved the entire situation.

Carver stared down at the young man, whose estimated age Dan ratcheted down every time the kid opened his mouth. Carver's face plate suddenly went dark, obscuring her from view. She shoved her nephew back to the ground, hard, knocking the wind out of him as she reached for her utility belt. The object she produced was a flat band of metal, resembling an unfinished handcuff and roughly the same size. She clamped it onto Zach's jaw and it expanded into a crude muzzle. Her nephew flailed and made noises that Dan's visor could only translate as *muffled screaming*, before glaring hatefully up at his relative.

"Deafen Edict," Carver ordered, and the agent managing Edict gently slipped a pair of earbuds into the man's ears. Carver turned to the other cultist, whose skin had gone from pale, to a faint green. The man looked ill.

Carver turned her nephew over, facing him down, and drew her sidearm. She hesitated for a moment, then pointed it at the other cultist.

"Turn them back," she ordered.

The man's eyes bugged out. "I can't! I didn't even know the trigger phase until Zach said it! I only knew the plan existed!" The gun stayed trained on him, and he started to shake uncontrollably as Carver thought things over.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"If I shoot Edict, will the civilians go back to normal?" she asked, in the straightforward manner of a person perfectly willing to kill an unarmed prisoner.

"I don't know," the cultist stammered. His shoulders shifted, as he tried to raise his hands, despite the handcuffs. "It's not like we've tested this before! It was supposed to be an emergency measure, in case of villain attack!"

"Yes, mind control your constituents, sounds like a great plan," Dan mocked.

Outrage crossed the cultist's face. He reared up in his bonds, exclaiming, "Our flock would want to defend the church! This only gives them the courage!"

Carver jabbed a finger towards the door, where several dozen blank faces waited for... something. "What's out there isn't courage," she said. "You could call it many things, but not courage. So, are you going to help me turn them back, or am I gunning down a horde of civilians today?"

"Just leave!" the cultist begged. "There's no need for anyone to get hurt! You can walk out now, and they'll all be fine!"

"That's not an option," Carver stated, cold as a naked blade.

"Let's just put a bullet in the man," Bravo-Two suggested. "What's the worst that could happen? The civvies are already controlled."

"They might get stuck that way," Carver denied. "That'll be the last resort. I guarantee you, if it doesn't snap them out of the effect, they'll be battering down that door to kill us." She paused, then broadcast to all teams, "Let's try and avoid recreating the UT Massacre, huh? 'Specially since the poor bastards out there are the very people we're trying to help by shutting this place down. Everyone sit tight, keep hold of whatever prisoners you've got, and let's come up with a plan. No violence until I say otherwise. I need suggestions for extraction, right now!"

Dan ignored most of the following conversation in favor of watching the crowd outside with his veil. The majority of them maintained that eerie stillness, though it seemed even Edict's power didn't stop them from shuffling or swaying every now and then. However, he still felt movement in the building; feet beating against carpet as bodies hurried from place to place. These weren't members of Carver's squad, and when Dan opened a portal to check, he realized many of the priests were completely unaffected by Edict's power.

That made sense, he thought. The two idiots in the room with them weren't mind-fucked, and they were right next to Charleston when it happened. It was a targeted power, or maybe they just knew to wear earplugs when he gave a sermon. So, the priests were on the move. Where were they going? Not outside; plenty of men with guns outside, and not a lot of mercy.

Down.

They were going down, underground.

Another way out.

"Carver," Dan said, interrupting whatever half-baked plan they were forming. "Any news from the team checking out that hidden stairwell?"

Carver gave him a quizzical look, but asked for an update. Dan listened in on the response, his veil scanning his surroundings for options. The two men had followed the stairway down, and found a series of sleeping areas and another mess hall. No defenses to speak of, but they'd stopped descending and were now moving down a branching hallway vaguely towards the center of the Evo Church. If Dan's direction sense was correct, they'd probably stumble upon the cosmic generator soon, or walk right into the dowsing room, where upgrades were granted.

He pursed his lips, thinking hard. There was an entire facility hidden beneath the church. What else was squirreled away? His veil was of limited use, here. He could feel vague outlines, but without the appropriate technical knowledge, he'd never know what he was looking at. Portals wouldn't help either, because according to the agents, the power was off down there. Dan wouldn't be able to see a damn thing.

But there had to be an exit. Otherwise, the priests wouldn't be fleeing there.

Did Charleston's power have a limited range? It must, because it'd snapped when he entered the t-space. Or was that just some sort of aspect of the Gap, taking effect? Some combination of both? The civvies presumably went home after services were over, yet here they were, affected by Charleston's power.

…What about those who stayed home? Were there a few thousands random people out there, now staring vaguely in the direction of the Evo Church?

He looked at Carver, who was finally calling for backup.

"See if there are any 911 calls about family members acting strangely," Dan suggested. "This can't be the whole church. We need to know if we're dealing with a range limitation."

"Doesn't matter," Carver dismissed. "They've got more than enough hostages here to force our hand. Even if more are out there, it wouldn't change anything."

"If it has a range, we can move Charleston outside of it," Dan pointed out.

She threw her hands up in the air. "How? We're surrounded, and I don't know how they'll react if they see us hauling him around! That door's probably the only reason we haven't been swarmed yet!"

"We go underground," Dan said. "I can feel the priests running around outside. They aren't affected, and they are all heading down, somewhere. There must be another exit. We can bring Charleston to it."

Not with a portal, though, because Dan was keenly aware of Anastasia's warning to him. That particular ability needed to be kept quiet. Fortunately, his power gave him other options.

Carver gestured to the walls surrounding the team. "I don't see another exit handy."

Dan walked to the nearest wall, his veil poking through to the other side. There was some space between the sheetrock and the various load-bearing columns, and beyond the building materials was an extremely thin corridor, exclusively used during construction and then walled off. Dan's veil ripped a large square out of it, and deposited it on top of the gym door.

"I'm licensed for emergency excavation during a crisis," Dan explained. "I'm thinking this counts. There's no path to the stairs, so I'll make one."

Carver stared at the hole. Her men did the same.

"Damn useful, that," she noted, then dragged her nephew to his feet.

"Let's move out!"