“We need to get there, though,” Evajean said.

Elliot opened another bottle of water. “You know where this museum is?”

There was no confusion. Cassandra had expected the question. “It’s downtown. It’s not going to be easy to get to.”

“Still, we have to,” Evajean said.

“You certainly do,” Cassandra said. “It’s where you find the journal.”

“What journal?” Elliot said.

“Joseph Smith’s.”

“Who’s that?” Evajean asked.

Cassandra Burns rolled her eyes. “The mighty and the strong indeed…” she said. “He’s the one who started all this.” She pointed in the direction of the city. “He was led to the golden plates by the angel, translated them, published the results, and founded the Mormon church. He’s their prophet.”

“And he’s involved in all this?” Elliot said.

Cassandra nodded. “I don’t know how, but yes, I think he is. I know I’m supposed to help the two of you find his journal–”

“Which is in the museum,” Evajean said.

“–and then I don’t know what happens from there.”

“Let me ask you something,” Elliot said. “You say you’re supposed to help us, that you knew we were coming. How? How did you know we’d be here? Did someone tell you?”

“God did,” Cassandra said.

Elliot blinked. “God?”

“I heard his voice in my dreams. He kept me alive and safe when everyone else died or went mad. He lead me here, showed me the way that avoided the dangers. Speaking of,” she said, “we should at the very least go inside. I’m not ready to take you to the museum now but I’m also not terribly comfortable standing out here in the open, no matter how much protection I’m getting from God.”

Cassandra used one of the unopened plastic bottles to break one of the panes of glass in the the house’s back door. When the three of them were inside and had done a search of the place to make sure it was empty of crazies, Elliot returned to his questioning.

“How do you know it was God?” They were sitting around a table in the kitchen.

“How do you know anything?” Cassandra said. “I just do. When the Lord speaks in your dreams, you’re left with little room to doubt.”

Evajean nodded, but Elliot hoped it was only to be polite. “That’s not good enough for me,” he said. “A lot of terrible stuff has happened recently, a lot of people are dead–”

“And you wonder how God could have allowed that to be?”

“No,” Elliot said. “I just want to be sure that this thing you heard in your head, that told you to find us and help us, isn’t the same thing that’s behind all of it.”

Cassandra laughed. “You doubt?” she said. “Everything that’s happened, everything you’ve seen, and you doubt whether it was God?”

“Yes,” Elliot said. “How do we know it wasn’t–” He turned to Evajean.

“The Mad King Moroni,” Evajean said.

“There is a God,” Cassandra said, “and he spoke to me. I have faith in that deeper than the two of you can understand. I know.”

“What do you know?” Elliot said. “I guess, see, I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around all of this. People started getting sick, elderly and… and children. Nobody knew what it was but the government told us to stay in our homes and remain calm, and when more people started dying, they began picking up the bodies and taking them somewhere.”

“To the Hole,” Evajean said.

Cassandra was watching Elliot and didn’t turn when Evajean spoke. Elliot continued. “As far as we knew, Evajean and me were the only people left in our town, in our state–anywhere. And so we decided to go find this Hole because that seemed like the only thing left to do. Up to that point, you could say it all made sense. I mean, how many times had we heard a plague was going to wipe out the human race? That this one happened to drive people mad before they died–who knows? It could’ve been infecting the brain.”

“Yeah,” Evajean said. “That’s why the crazies were shocking but not a total shock, you know? But then we found that town where everyone seemed okay and things just got too weird.”

“And this has made you doubt God?” Cassandra asked.

“It’s made me doubt–or be ready to believe, for that matter–pretty much everything,” Elliot said.

“My knowledge is limited,” Cassandra said, “but I can try to explain as much as I know. My dreams have helped me to learn about these events, and my studies have provided slightly more.”

“What studies?” Evajean said.

“That museum you need to get to?” Cassandra said. “I worked there. Early American history. Albeit with a Mormon slant, but that’s to be expected in this town. Not that I bought into any of that–I was raised Methodist and remain to this day–but it was work and I just couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Now I know why.”

“That’s one of the things I’m unsure about,” Evajean said. “What does Mormon stuff have to do with all this? You mentioned Smith and his angel, but how’s it all tied in?”

“Ultimately, I can’t tell you. But there are strong signs of connection,” Cassandra said.

“What can you tell us?” Elliot asked.

“Do you know how Mormonism was founded?” Cassandra said.

“Smith found the book and translated it,” Evajean said.

“Yes, but do you know how the Mormons say their faith came to be? The underlying mythology, I suppose?”

“No,” Elliot said. Evajean shook her head.

“Thousands of years ago, a lost tribe of Israel came to America and settled. This was to be the promised land, where God’s kingdom would be established. Jesus, after his death, showed up in the States to tell the people that. Eventually the people split into two warring factions, however–the Nephites and the Lamanites. The former were the good guys, but they were defeated. God cursed the victors and the Lamanites’ skin darkened and they became the Native Americans.”

“That’s absurd,” Evajean said.

“Yes,” Cassandra said, “I believed so, too. But now, the signs make me think differently perhaps. I think the Nephites and the Lamanites were real.”