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“You’re welcome,?
? Holden said, as the gang entered.
Inside, a large stage was set up in the middle of the arena. The stadium seating went all the way up to the top. Fang and his crew grabbed seats in the front row, close to an exit.
A teenage girl appeared onstage, and everyone clapped. She held up her hand for quiet, and instantly all were silent.
“Thank you for coming,” she said. Fang recognized her sweet, persuasive voice immediately.
“That’s the girl from the news,” Fang whispered to Maya. “The hypnotizing brainsucker.”
The girl looked healthy and happy, mature for her age, and really pretty. “I hope you’re all here for the Doomsday Group rally,” she went on. “If you thought this was a Susie Lee concert, you’re in the wrong place.” She smiled, and quiet laughter filled the stadium.
“So, who are we?” she said. “Well, my name is Beth, but that really doesn’t matter. What matters is that I believe in the One Light.”
All around Fang, kids leaned forward, nodding. Many repeated “the One Light, the One Light.”
“For those of you who are new, you might be wondering what the One Light is,” said Beth. The audience snickered, finding it hard to believe anyone would not know that. “Well, the One Light is… hope.”
Spontaneous cheers broke out.
“This chick is cool,” Ratchet said in Fang’s direction.
Fang looked at him sharply. “Don’t talk to anyone, and run if someone starts looking at you all crazy-eyed. Let me know if you suddenly feel… extra happy.”
“Oh, like that’s gonna happen,” Star muttered.
Ratchet turned to her, then Fang nudged Star in the ribs and glared at Ratchet.
“Hey, man, I’m cool,” said Ratchet. “I’m just saying it doesn’t sound all that bad, you know?”
Onstage, Beth smiled and raised her hands. Behind her, on a massive screen, images scrolled: children running through a field of wildflowers; a deer drinking from a bucolic crystalline stream; golden wheat waving in the breeze; healthy, happy adults sitting around a big dining table, raising their glasses to the camera; a little girl holding a tiny lamb in her lap; a woman weaving cloth on a loom. It went on and on, one idyllic scene after another.
“What does the One Light teach us?” Beth asked. “It teaches us that we’re responsible for ourselves and for our own actions. Right?”
The crowd murmured in agreement.
“The One Light is not about hatred,” said Beth. “The One Light is about love—love for each other, love for our Earth Mother, love for the animals in our care.”
The crowd shouted “Yes!”
Beth pointed a clicker at the screen, and a new series of images began. Now the pictures were of slash-and-burn farming, oil slicks, factories belching smoke, cities congested with traffic, nuclear power plants, thousands of chickens pressed together in crowded factory farms.
The audience groaned, upset by what they were seeing, and Fang noticed tears streaming down Kate’s cheeks.
“This is exactly what I’ve been talking about!” Kate whispered to the gang. “That’s where your Cluck-fil-A comes from!”
Still more disturbing images followed, of starving people, abandoned villages, trash-strewn lakes, and factories dumping pollutants into rivers.
With each new picture, the audience got a little bit louder, a little bit angrier.
“Um, I think Kate and Ratchet might be right. This doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me,” Maya said quietly.
“Something’s still off—think of every DG member we’ve seen,” Fang said.
“Who has done this to our Earth Mother?” Beth asked from the stage. “Was it me? No. Was it you?”
“No!” the audience shouted, shaking their heads.
