Moroni was here, in this world. Both of them knew it as soon as they’d been made aware of the true nature of their quest–the true nature, in fact, of their very purpose. Furthermore, he was in Salt Lake City. That was why the barrier they’d passed through had been erected and why the crazies had migrated here. The Mad King had established his earthly kingdom and Elliot and Evajean were on its outskirts.

“He could be at the temple,” Evajean said. They were standing in the hotel lobby, looking out at the dark and empty street. “The big one you see in pictures.”

Elliot thought about this. Back in the hotel room, they’d quickly come to the conclusion that gathering weapons for some sort of assault would be meaningless against an enemy such as Moroni. Instead, the two of them would have to rely on prophecy, taking as truth what they’d read in each of the Smiths’ writings. They were meant to destroy Moroni and everything they’d done until now lead them to that confrontation. Guns wouldn’t matter, neither would strategy or tactics. If they had within themselves the power to defeat this otherworldly being, then they would defeat him. But if he and Evajean were not the Ones Mighty and Strong, then no amount of preparation would make any difference.

“I don’t think that’s where he’ll be,” Elliot said. “When the Mormons came here, when they built this city, they were coming to something.”

“The salt lake.”

“There could be something special about it.”

“The Hole,” Evajean said.

“What about it?”

“In the earth. The great salt lake is what, Elliot? An enormous hole in the earth.”

That sounded right. Again, “right” was a product of a deep feeling, a sense of what was and always had been proper, like being drawn to water when you’re thirsty. “That’s where we have to go,” he said.

“Yeah,” Evajean said and her voice sounded both excited and small.

They left the hotel and with it the journals, which remained behind on the bed in the room. Neither noticed their absence but, if they had, they would’ve known that those messages from the past had fulfilled their purpose. Now the only purpose left to see completion was the one that had driven the lives of Elliot Bishop and Evajean Rhodes.

“Is it far, do you think?” Evajean said after they’d walked west for several minutes.

“It probably is.”

“Will we make it by morning?”

“Yes.”

The city was empty. They neither heard nor saw any sign of the crazies and, the further they walked, the more convinced Elliot became of Evajean’s theory about the Hole. That’s where the crazies had gone and that was where they’d find Moroni.

They stopped after a couple of hours to rest. Evajean pulled her jacket tight in the night chill. “Are you scared, Elliot?” she asked, looking not at him but out across the city and in the direction of the lake.

“Yes,” he said.

“I am, too. I keep thinking how insane this all is, everything that’s happened. I don’t want to believe it. I want to think that I can just turn around and go home and Henry will be waiting for me–and that we can bring a bottle of wine over to a barbecue in the evening at your place, with Clarine and your daughter there. You’ll cook some of those steaks and maybe I’ll have a drink, but not as much as before. I think how wonderful that would be, and it makes me scared and sad.”

Elliot didn’t respond. His stomach had twisted as she spoke. He turned his face away from her.

“It was all so beautiful then,” Evajean continued. “Before. But I know that if all this is true, if everything we read isn’t just stories made up, and if we really are the Ones Mighty and Strong, then that beauty was false all along. Because no matter how good things were, there was still Moroni and there was still Yahweh. And all of this was going to happen no matter what we did.”

“Except stop believing,” Elliot said. He turned to face her and she did the same. “It’s belief they needed to do this. If we’d stopped believing…”

“Stopped believing in what, Elliot? They were there. They were real. You can’t stop believing in something if it’s really right there in front of you.”

“That’s not what people believed in,” Elliot said. “They didn’t go to church worship Moroni and Yahweh, the demons from outer space. They went because they believed in God. That’s what the demons used–that faith. They needed it to keep people’s minds open so they could make the crazies when the time came. If we’d rejected that belief…”

“I just want things back the way they were. I really do.”

“Yeah,” Elliot said.

“But I don’t hate them.”

“Who?”

“Any of them. Any of the people who believed and, I guess, kind of caused this to happen. I can’t hate them. They believed what they did for love.”

“A lot of people have believed a lot of things for love,” Elliot said. “That doesn’t make any of it right.”

Evajean nodded. “But it makes it more okay,” she said.

Elliot shook his head. He didn’t know how to respond and he didn’t want to. What mattered now was just the road in front of them, the last miles until the water–and whatever they might find there. “We have to see this through,” he said, standing up. “Come on, let’s go.”

She followed him, and kept any further thoughts on the matter to herself.

Some time later–Elliot had lost track of the hours, and distance was impossible to judge in this unfamiliar city–they saw the first of the crazies. It was a young girl, and she stumbled down the middle of the same street they were on, in the same direction toward the lake. Elliot noticed her when they came around the side of a van abandoned across the road. They’d emerged out of the city proper and were following a two lane highway that arced in the direction of the salt lake. Elliot had broken the glass door of a gas station and found a map of the city. It showed this road taking them right up to the shore and then along it.

Elliot grabbed Evajean and pulled her down to the curb. Startled, she called out, but he pressed a hand to her mouth. “There,” he said, pointing.

She looked. The girl was perhaps ten or twelve years old, in a green dress torn up the back. Her hair was dirty and matted. As they watched her, she was joined by two more, an elderly couple, who came out of a row of office buildings off to left. Then three male crazies in jeans and novelty t-shirts climbed out of the cab of an overturned semi. None appeared to notice Elliot and Evajean.

“Where are they going?” Evajean whispered.

“The lake?” He lifted himself part way up from the gravel. “But why haven’t they seen us?” He crawled forward.

One of the men who’d come out of the cab, a fat, middle aged guy, fell down from the top of the truck and hit the road with his shoulder. Elliot heard the bone break. The guy pushed up with his other hand and got to his feet, stumbling after the others. But, as he’d fallen, his face had been pointed directly in Elliot and Evajean’s direction and Elliot was sure he’d seen them. Still, the crazy gave no sign of noticing.

Elliot turned back to Evajean. “I don’t think they can see us,” he said. “Or, if they can, they just don’t care.

She shook her head. “Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where do you think they’re going?”

“I don’t know.”

They lay there until the flow of crazies diminished and then stopped. When Elliot could no longer see any of them, he stood up.

“Who’s do you think they were?” Evajean said, when they’d continued walking.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean who’s side. Yahweh’s or Moroni’s? I figure Moroni’s because I think that’s what most of them have been, but you can’t tell.”

“No,” Elliot said.

The sun had just begun to turn the sky behind them orange when they discovered where the crazies were going, and who’s they were.

You can discuss the "The Hole" with the author in the novel's official discussion board.