"You bitch!" King Edward roars in unadulterated fury and his palm belts Claire right across the face in a thunderous slap that echoes throughout the throne room. The guards restraining the Queen look uncomfortably away while Marco wipes his soaked face with a grubby towel.

"Why did you throw a bucket of water over me?" Marco mutters in an annoyed whisper to Archie who stands stock still, examining the trio of captives that had been brought up from the basement and surrounded by militiamen.

"You could barely get back to your feet after inhaling the incense." Archie whispers back, "It was the fastest way to bring you back to your senses after the King began shouting for our presence."

"You seem fine though." Marco huffs, "What was in that incense anyway? Barely remember what happened just now."

"Powdered crack most likely." Archie muses as he eyeballs Carol, who has been seated in the corner of the throne room and gracing everyone with an incredibly venomous glare. Beside her, as always were that mousy girl whose name Archie could not remember and of course, the cause of all this trouble, the Immunity Baby.

Archie comments idly, "Edward and his personal bodyguards really lucked out by being in the basement when the weirdness started. The fumes from the crack couldn't reach that place."

"Powdered crack?" Marco grunts in surprise, "How would you know that? And just how did you manage to stay on your feet?"

"I might have had, uh, experience with that sort of thing back in NYC." Archie reluctantly admits, "Builds a tolerance you know, even if its just an occasional indulgence."

"Figures. All kinds of shit goes down in that place." Marco chuckles softly but he's cut off by an irritated look from King Edward.

"If you two ladies are done standing there gossiping like schoolgirls," King Edward snaps, "I would like to confer with my Knight Commander and Advisor. Now."

"Yes, bo - no, muh, milord." Marco stutters as he shoots to attention and begins walking to Edward's side.

"Milord." Archie answers smoothly, falling in behind Marco.

"So, what in the world happened?" Edward barks, "Did anyone manage to capture those knaves ruining the peace of this kingdom?"

Marco flushes and looks aside awkwardly, making a show of examining the bodies of the dead priests lined up on the floor. Archie coughs and takes up the explanation in his stead.

"Almost everyone outside was knocked out by the incense milord." Archie says, "I barely managed to shut down the power generators myself."

"Yes, yes." Edward waves his hand irritably, "Well done Advisor. And what of the priests? I remember ordering the priests to be captured."

"We had not shaken off the spell cast over us, milord." Archie makes an apologetic expression on his face, "As far as I know, there was just one priest outside and he escaped."

"Stop being dramatic." Edward scoffs angrily, "What spell? It was probably just some hypnosis that affected the lot of you while everyone was stumbling about, as high as kites."

"As you say, milord." Archie says soothingly, knowing letting Edward stew in his own ignorance would be easier than actually explaining the truth to him. The truth that Xir was back.

Archie's gut ties into painful knots as he keeps his face carefully neutral. Xir was meant to be dead. Archie had personally seen the blasted remnants left behind by the ritual. But there was no doubting his own eyes and ears. The ritual had failed, and Joey's sacrifice had been in vain. And the fuck up most likely had been on Archie's end when he was researching the ritual. Yet another death he was responsible for. Archie found a pang of guilt building in his heart, but that quickly passed.

After all, what is another drop in an ocean of sorrow?

People dying around him really was old hat for Archie. What was tying him in knots at the moment was fear, an almost primal fear that Archie thought would never haunt him ever again ever since Joey set out to deal with Xir once and for all. Archie knew full well what Xir was capable of. And now the beast was targeting this settlement specifically, all thanks to the Immunity Baby captured by Marco.

If Archie thought he could get away with it, he would have killed Marco on the spot, just for the sake of letting off some steam.

"Now we have no way of questioning those bastards about what they wanted!" Edward snarls, breaking Archie's chain of thought, "Damn it!"

"They made it quite clear over the PA system." Archie points out, "They came because of that baby."

"Holy shit." Marco curses as he peels open one of the robes the corpses are wearing, "I don't think we could have gotten any information out of these fuckers anyway, even if one of them had been captured alive."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"What are you yammering about now?" Edward fumes, "And mind your language in my court, Knight Commander."

Marco simply gesticulates impotently at the corpse and Edward rolls his eyes impatiently before walking up to examine it, with Archie following close behind. Edward's attitude immediately changes the moment his eyes land on what Marco is referring to, his entire head rearing backwards quickly enough to cause whiplash.

"Fuck!" Edward yells, faux courtly manners all forgotten, "What the hell? Who in the world would do this to himself?"

Archie frowns at the sight of the scarred tissue around the priest's crotch, the sole reminder of the man's dick. He then examines the corpse next in line, this one a woman who had her breasts cut off. Marco was right. Regular beatings and torture would not mean anything to someone willing to mutilate himself to this extent.

"They were becoming whole again." Claire murmurs in awe from her place, "Perfect in body and soul."

"Crazy. Completely crazy." Marco's face morphs into a look of pure revulsion as he steps away from the corpses. On this point, Archie was inclined to agree, nodding in solidarity.

Edward hauls Claire to the feet by her collar, angrily demanding, "Woman, you were the one who let these freaks in. Why! Tell me now!"

"The Father wanted to save us, Eddie." Claire pleads, "You've been blinded by Carol. She's brought our ruin with her!"

"Ruin? Ruin?" Edward repeats incredulously, "Carol is a miracle from God! I have a duty to save America, no, the whole of humanity with her!"

"Don't you ever try touching me." Carol warns in a dead serious voice as the nursemaid cowers behind her, "I'll hurt you, I swear I will."

"What were you doing the basement Eddie?" Claire musters the courage to ask her husband.

"I had not done anything!" Edward shouts angrily.

"Yet." Carol flatly chimes in from her corner once more.

"Can we all just calm down?" Marco pleads.

"What needs to be done, needs to be done!" Edward shakes Claire's body, driving the point home, "Your jealously won't change that!"

"You will kill us all Eddie!" Claire shouts back, "The Father could have helped, but you've ruined everything!"

"Helped? How?" Archie cuts in, the bad feeling he felt flooding back. From his experience Xir never lies, misleads yes, but there's always an element of truth in everything Xir says. Its the anchor of the brand of magic the beast employs. To use the truth to lead its victims to their ruin.

"The Father told me that the virus was coming to claim the baby." Claire explains in a rush, "That it would never allow a threat to itself exist."

"How in the world can a virus do that?" Edward snorts, "The virus doesn't even have a brain to think with. Just admit you were jealous and put those freaks up to it."

And with that derisory comment from Edward, the final pieces fall into place for Archie. The virus might not have a human intelligence, but it did possess an almost psychotic obsession with its spread and survival. That's the reason behind the almost frenzied growth of the Herd movement and their determination to spread the virus throughout the country. But the Herd were living on borrowed time, their bodies would eventually expire from the ravages of the virus. Not a problem since Immune were sterile, leaving the virus ruling over the ruins. But Carol and her baby were game changers. They could bring new life to this world, once the wreckage had been cleared.

They were able to steal the virus's kingdom away, just when victory was within its grasp.

Claire was right. The virus would never allow that.

And across the wind, Archie senses a growing presence, drawing closer to the settlement under the cover of the darkness. He immediately rushes out of the manor and climbs up an empty watch tower, fearing the worst.

And those fears are met in full.

A multitude of torches light up the plain in front of the settlement, illuminating the army of Infected marching with purpose. And the tide of bodies never ends, with more and more emerging from the shadows. Many of the Infected had already become feral, loping about like animals, but several still walk upright and carry weapons in their hands. But what catches Archie's eye most of all are the flags held aloft by the growing mob, as if they were a real army on the attack. The Star Spangled Banner flutters proudly against the night wind, with a crudely spray painted 'V' across the fabric.

One nation. United under its new God.