A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 01

As he shrieked, she picked up his holy book and handed it to a woman there, telling her that they needed no minister to guide them. They only needed to be able to read, and they could guide themselves. The woman stared at Monnie who nodded, saying, "You read this and think. If you've got a brain at all, you'll see just how much cowshit he's poured into your ears. Most of what he's told you isn't even in here at all."

That had been months ago. Today she sat on the bench of her coach and pulled back on the reins to stop her horses at the crest of the ridge as she contemplated the vista below her. Monnie was about to stare thirty years of age in the face and she used the moment to take stock.

She never gave it a thought, but though she was all alone in the world, she was independent. She might not be everyone's cup of tea and she never thought of herself as remotely pretty, but she was striking in her appearance at just over six feet of solid farm-bred and built muscle, covered as she was in her slightly greenish skin and all topped off with her now deep red hair. She might not ever have a man again, and the predicted "drying-up' of her ovaries had happened just as her grandmother had foretold, but Monnie didn't carry one wrinkle or grey hair. Like anyone, she had no idea how much time she had on Earth and living on the road as she did brought her a few more uncertainties, after all.

Still, she smirked a little; life could be a strange thing. Here she was looking down on the miles of the ruin of what had once been a great city, it was said. Now it was home to the ghosts of its inhabitants and they outnumbered the living here by many to one.

Lozenjellis, it had been called.

That was about all that she knew of it, other than knowing two more things.

The man who caused the demons to appear in places everywhere came here sometimes.

Monnie Aldergrove had come here to kill him.