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The passageway wasn’t very long, but I pretended to stumble on the rough rock, deliberately spilling some of my weird golden cocktail. It led to a small, damp chamber with a bare rock floor and walls. It was largely empty and lit only by torches on the walls, but someone had painted the floor with a giant golden eye emblem. The firelight made it shimmer in the near-darkness. Creepy.

“Sit around the circle,” Holly instructed us, and Kimmy and I reluctantly sat on hard, damp rock floor. “Now, wait for the other initiates. They’ll be here soon.”

The sound of a bell ringing came from the cellar, and Holly hurried away to answer it. As soon as she was out of earshot, Kimmy said, “You think it’s a trap?”

I shrugged. “Always possible, but she didn’t know we were coming. If it is a trap, it would’ve been intended for Claire…and that makes me think it isn’t one.”

“Why?” she asked. “She’s obviously unstable. You said yourself that a year ago, she’d have hurt Claire if she could’ve.”

“That’s just it, though,” I said with a small smile, “I don’t think she’d have actually gone through with it, because what she said was true: she’s the reason Claire escaped the Order to begin with. And again, I found Claire in the Red Zone because Holly helped me. If she hadn’t, I don’t know that I would’ve gotten there in time.”

I swallowed hard, trying not to think about that. “The way I see it, Claire’s always been Holly’s weakness—maybe her only one. No matter how committed she’s been to the cause, she’s never managed to fully convince herself that Claire deserves all this.”

Kimmy made a face. “Probably because she fucking doesn’t. It’ll never stop amazing me that someone like Claire came from these assholes.”

I chuckled. “I’ve said the same. But if Holly is questioning things even more than before, I think that can only be a good thing. Maybe it means that the stranglehold the Order has on their followers is getting weaker.”

“After the bombing at the library, I kind of doubt that,” Kimmy said with a sigh. “Any cult that can convince people to kill themselves isn’t one that loosens its grip easily.”

Before I could reply, there were voices inside the passageway, and a few seconds later, Holly reappeared, leading a small group of three men and two women. They varied in age from mid-twenties to mid-forties, and all carried the strange golden cocktails we’d been served. I was still holding mine, though it was half-empty thanks to my spill. I wanted it to look like I’d been drinking. Kimmy’s was still full and untouched, but she lifted it to her lips and pretended to take a sip.

“Excellent, we’re all here,” Holly said crisply, and she sounded different now, as though she was trying to imitate Jim J’s smooth way of talking. I figured that must be part of the gig. “Please take a seat around the circle, and drink up. Your destiny and true purpose await.”

The group dispersed, all sitting around the gold circle like we were. Unlike us, they all looked wide-eyed and awed at their surroundings, and I noted that most of them had already started drinking their spiked cocktails. That explained a lot about how they managed to make this dump seem cool and mystical instead of being just a shitty little cave.

Holly was carrying what looked like a portable projector, and sure enough, once everyone was settled, she pointed it at the cave wall and flipped a switch. A somewhat grainy video of Jim J started playing. He looked every bit as unhinged as I remembered—maybe even more. His eyes were wide and lined with red, and he flashed us a manic smile that chilled my blood. I remembered that smile too well.

“Welcome, Odessa’s children,” he said, way too happy for my liking. “You chosen few have left the realm of the ordinary, and now you take your place amongst the stars, burning brightly forever, for all to see.”

There was a lot more like that—all about how chosen and special and perfect we were for buying his bullshit, and how we’d seen through the lies that the Delta had fed us and were now reaching for something more. Eventually, the only thing I was reaching for was patience, because the guy would not shut the hell up. I should’ve known he’d drag this out as long as possible.

“Recently, the Delta ripped off the mask,” Jim J said finally, “and revealed the source of your pain. Julius Blackwell, also known as the Sire, overtook your compound. Killed your Mayor, slaughtered innocents, and continues to crush you, with no end in sight. You join us tonight because you want to put an end to his reign; to seize the power he has stolen from all of us.”

Jim J’s twisted smile returned. “But I am here to tell you that you’ve been far more deceived than even you knew.” He paused for dramatic effect. “What if I told you that immortality was within your grasp? That living forever wasn’t just possible, but the inevitable result of this fight against the Sire—Odessa’s eternal reward for her children? That from the day of our victory, nothing and no one could harm you ever again?”

That got my attention, and Kimmy leaned forward at the same moment I did. The initiates near us were glued to Jim J’s grainy face, their pupils wide as saucers at that point.

“The Sire has denied you the true gift brought by the compounds,” Jim J declared. “He has hoarded it all for himself and a select few. I shall show it to you.”

His image suddenly faded, replaced by a photo of a thin syringe filled with silvery liquid. I stared, not sure what I was looking at.

“This, my loyal friends,” Jim J continued dramatically, “is Immortalis. A powerful drug created by the Omega Corporation—the company that created the compounds we call home. Developed with the same technology as Regenerex—with additional ingredients that enhance its potency—Immortalis is the elixir of life unlocked. When injected regularly, it extends the life of the recipient indefinitely, and in a large dose, it makes one impervious to earthly illness or injury.”

Jim J reappeared, and gave the same little stabbing demonstration he’d given when Claire and I had seen him at the Cave. I had to consciously close my mouth. I didn’t know what to make of this. I hadn’t thought that Jim J’s invincibility could be manmade, that it could come from something as simple as a drug.

But then, I’d seen how Regenerex had healed Kimmy’s mortal wound in a matter of hours through rapid cell regeneration. It was incredible, and it was very real. If this was basically Regenerex on steroids, then…it made a kind of sense. A strange, insane kind of sense, but everything at the Delta was so outside the world I knew that I figured it fit right in.

“It is the secret the Sire doesn’t want you to know,” Jim J continued, “because he is loath to share this miracle with anyone but his most cherished elites. Deep inside the Delta—and across all the compounds—there are facilities that produce this precious compound of immortality. We must take them all, and purge our homes of those who Odessa has deemed unworthy. The unbelievers, and their Sole Survivor—” he said it with a huge amount of mockery, “—must be vanquished.”

I exchanged a look with Kimmy, who appeared shellshocked. She gave me a tight shake of her head, as though in complete disbelief. I was feeling much the same way, except that everything was now making a whole lot more sense.

Jim J’s mission to take over the Delta was obvious now: he needed to increase the manufacturing capacity of this miracle drug. Whatever they had at the Cave wasn’t going to cut it for himself plus everyone he was promising it to. Killing everyone else inside the compounds made sense, because then there was more to go around for his crazy followers. The draw of the Order had also never been clearer: who wouldn’t want to follow a guy who was provably immortal? No wonder there were people willing to do anything for him. He’d essentially told them they’d get rich and never die…and it wasn’t a bluff. At least not for whoever he decided was worthy.

So, what’s the catch? I wondered, knowing there must be one. Does it also make you insane? Because that’d explain a lot. Sadly, I knew we wouldn’t get the truth from Jim J’s little presentation.

I looked around me at the initiates and saw only stars in their eyes. A couple were crying. Whatever they put in those drinks must’ve been potent. I’d ‘accidentally’ spilled the rest of mine in a small crevice between two rocks, but honestly, everyone else was tripping so hard that I doubted anyone would’ve noticed I hadn’t been drinking.

The video ended a moment later, leaving me with more questions than ever.