They looked at each other. More gibberish, Elliot thought. More useless information that did nothing to sort out their mad situation. And so he laughed.

“You think I’m joking?” Melvin said. He held the book close to his face again and read. “They will come, woman and man. They will come at the start of the age of ascension, when the Mad King Moroni spreads his arms across the world and the ancients return to the land. They will come, the Mighty and the Strong, and they will banish the darkness and end the Mad King’s reign.“

“That’s bullshit,” Elliot said.

“Let him finish,” Evajean said.

Melvin read. “A woman and a man, saved from desolation, alone in a world consumed by Moroni’s madness–“

“That’s the name!” Evajean said and Melvin stopped, looking up at her. “What the crazies said in the warehouse. Moroni. That’s what they told us, Elliot.”

Elliot was quiet, thinking back. The woman in Wal-Mart, the first crazy they’d seen, what had she mumbled before she died? More. Except it hadn’t been “more,” but “Moroni.” She’d been unable to speak through the pain and injury, but she’d tried to tell them, too, just as the crazies had eventually. Moroni.

“I don’t understand,” he said.

“You think I do?” Melvin said. He set the book down. “Look, okay? I got my PhD in antiquities, in ancient languages and cultures. It’s what I taught for a lot of years, until– But I kept up with it, even after, and then–I don’t know how long ago, maybe around the same time everyone got themselves sick–then the dreams started. I saw this book and the two of you and I knew what I had to do. See, it’s my job to make sure you get this and that you know what it says. I hid out when things got dangerous, even when they came after me–”

“Who?” Evajean said. “The crazies?”

“They weren’t crazy,” Melvin said. He shifted in his seat, nervous. “At least I don’t think they were. Just men. With guns. Six or seven of them broke into my house. I was sleeping, but I heard them and I hid. I was in the closet, the kind with the slats on the door. That sort of thing never works, but this time it did, and I looked out and saw them. Huge men and I think they had rifles. They were looking for me, but eventually they left. That’s when I ran away, and I just kept running until I was here.” He held out his hands, encompassing the full sweep of the small church. “They never did find me,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Evajean said.

Melvin shook his head. “You’re hear, like the dreams said. That’s really what matters, isn’t it? That the dreams came true?”

“What else does the book say?” Elliot asked.

And so Melvin Werner read it to them and Elliot came slowly to realize just how insane the world had gone.

A lot of it made little sense, the language unreadable, the letters just squiggles Melvin insisted had no meaning. But the parts that were intelligible spoke of a war that had been brewing for countless generations, one between the being known as Moroni and some other, unnamed party. Moroni was set to return and, in fact, would already have at the time the book was discovered by the Ones Mighty and Strong, a pair who would survive the initial attack and, with the help of “outcasts,” banish Moroni. All of that was too vague for Elliot to make much of, but the book’s concluding pages were of immediate interest. The Mighty and the Strong needed to travel to “city by the dead lake” and venture into the “place of many artifacts” to recover some item or items that would reveal the whole truth and allow them to defeat Moroni.

“It’s Salt Lake City,” Elliot said. “It must be.”

Melvin nodded. Evajean said, “I bet you’re right. Yeah, Salt Lake City. It’s got a dead lake and that’s where all the Mormons are, right? Like the ones in Nahom, who were definitely involved in all this.”

“Nahom?” Melvin said. “That’s familiar. I’ve heard of that before.”

“Where?” Elliot asked.

“Sorry, I can’t remember. It’s just… something I remember hearing, is all.”

“What’s the ‘place of many artifacts?’” Evajean said. “A museum?”

“It could be,” Elliot said. “A museum. I guess that right.”

“You have your mission,” Melvin said. He was smiling as wide as his mouth would allow. “And all with my help. One of the outcasts, that’s most definitely me.”

“But that thing is in the way,” Evajean said. “That barrier.”

“What barrier?” Melvin asked. But before either of them could answer, he clapped his hands together. “I know!” he said.

“The dreams?” Elliot said.

Melvin nodded. He went into the side room and came out with a folded and worn paper map. “You know how I said I’d seen this all before? It’s not all I saw. There was another thing, a dream of a house, a big one. I woke up–this was a day before the those men broke into my house, so I remember it well–and I ran to my car, got this out, and circled it.” He held up the map. A location was marked in bright red ink. “It’s not far from here,” he said. “If you hadn’t shown up, that’s where I would’ve eventually gone, just to see.”

“A waypoint,” Elliot said. Evajean glanced at him and he shrugged. “What you said in Nahom. A waypoint.”

“Okay,” Evajean said, though she sounded confused. “Okay, that’s where we’re supposed to go.”

Elliot walked over and looked out one of the church’s windows. “I think they’re gone,” he said.

Melvin set down the book. “The creatures, yes,” he said. “I haven’t heard them in a while, you’re right.”

“We should get out of here,” Evajean said.

Both men agreed. Melvin set about gathering his belongings, stuffing them into a large duffle bag. Evajean tracked down Hope, who’d run off to explore while the three of them read the golden book.

When this was done, they stood by the front doors of the church. These were closer to the truck’s location than the side entrance, making their escape slightly safer if the creatures were still outside–though each of them had stopped by the windows several times while packing and no sign of the creatures had been seen or heard.

Elliot put his hand on the heavy latch. “Okay,” he said. “On three. Be careful and be ready to run if you see anything.” And then he was swinging the doors open, the hinges sticking, cracking, and finally screeching through their orbit.

The truck was only a dozen yards away, the passenger side toward them, unlocked the way Elliot had left it. Outside the church was quiet, the creatures nowhere in sight. Elliot took a step, then another, Evajean and Melvin close behind.