deformed bone

【Because he has come, he has come to judge the whole earth; he will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his faithfulness. 】

— Psalm 96:13 —

"...This is a tragedy that makes everyone feel very sad. We had the opportunity to stop it, but we didn't. Yes, we have to admit that the sad murderer was once a member of the Adventist... "

Isaac was wearing a ridiculous light green hospital gown, sipping cold orange juice from a white plastic cup in his hand.Voices from the TV.To some people the voice might have been contagious, but to him it was like a demonic chant that made him sick and sick to his stomach.He politely put the empty cup back on the plastic tray by the bed, then coughed lightly, trying to get the nurse's attention.

【"How are you feeling today, Officer Holden."】

The nurse was at his bedside, she should have recorded his various statistics for today and then asked this routinely.

【"Well, I think I can probably have a few more rounds with a brown bear."】

And Isaac should raise his eyebrows as expected and answer like this.

However, the expected conversation did not happen—because at this moment, the nurse standing by the bed was engrossed in watching the TV.

She was watching very intently, even a little too intently.

She was still a beauty, but at this moment her face changed wonderfully.The slack facial muscles and slightly parted lips made her look like a retard.

Isaac knew he shouldn't be so mean, but he couldn't help thinking about it as he stared at the nurse.

The wound on his shoulder ached under the bandage, and he wondered if it was the wound that made him so distraught.

People would say, Izach Holden, the young police officer was lucky—he was a lucky absentee from the police station massacre.

Before the skinny Madeleine lifted her skirt, pulled out a pistol and started shooting at the other unsuspecting police officers, he happened to be staying with his colleagues in the sandwich shop on the street full of temptation and defensive boredom dialogue.

Of course, from Isaac's own point of view, he was simply unlucky.

That day, after hearing the faint gunshot, he, Joyce and Han rushed back to the police station immediately.They didn't confront Madeleine (by that time, Madeleine had already shot herself), but their movements startled an overwrought rookie policeman.A few shots later, Isaac gets shot in the shoulder, and that's why he's in this stupid hospital now staring at the disgusting Adventist speech at the stupid nurse next to him.

Isaac's endurance was finally exhausted after the man with the sunken head came out.He was even shocked that the man wasn't dead - and upon realizing it, he felt a sharp nausea.He swears that he would rather get shot again than see a rotten guy like Daniel spouting nonsense on the TV screen.

"Please turn off the TV, that sound is giving me a headache."

Isaac pushed the nurse's arm, then raised his voice.

After a while, the nurse pulled her eyes out of the screen in a daze, and landed on Isaac.

"what?"

she asked suspiciously.

"Please turn off the TV for me."

Isaac repeated it, thinking he had made it clear enough, but the nurse's eyes widened in shock.

"Why? You're turning off the TV now? Jesus, it's live—the Son and the Mother and the Father are here, for the first time in years—"

"But I'm not an Adventist."

Isaac interrupted the nurse, and he had to take a deep breath to manage his emotions before speaking.

"Oh, you should join, Officer Holden. With all due respect, there is no religion in this world that can eliminate the inherent sin and vices of human beings like the Adventists—"

"Hey, I'm really not the religious type."

Isaac said coldly.

He stared at the approaching nurse, feeling a slight chill and a faint chill.He wondered if the nurse had noticed that something was wrong with him.

During these days in the hospital, Isaac clearly knew that she was a very responsible and gentle woman, but at this time, her fanaticism and enthusiasm made her look like a brainwashed lunatic .

"Officer Holden, I was like you before, full of doubts about this world, about the true master of our faith, the true angels and light..."

The nurse was still chattering and trying to persuade Isaac, and at the same time, the crowd on the live screen also fell into carnival because of the appearance of the Son.

Isaac's eyes switched back and forth between the nurse and the TV screen, and the feeling of something wrong became more and more obvious.

Things are too weird...

That kind of frenzy is so abnormal.

Isaac even heard bursts of cheers coming indistinctly from the corridor and outside the window regularly.It was evidently from another ward.

Isaac swore he had never felt so creepy like this moment.You know, before this moment, he hadn't realized that there were so many fanatical followers of the Adventists among the people he was in daily contact with.

But how long has this been happening?Why did he not notice it?

The weird-looking young man on the TV screen, the so-called holy son, suddenly looked straight ahead during the interval of speaking.

His empty eyes made Isaac's back full of cold sweat, but the nurse didn't seem to notice it at all.Her face was flushed with excitement, and her body was shaking slightly.

"Light, our only light, our only salvation..."

She repeated the monotonous sentence in a vague tone, looking as if she was about to lose her mind.

In the end, Isaac got past the nurse unbearably and grabbed the remote, forcing the TV off.

"what are you doing?!"

At the moment when the sound and the picture disappeared, the gentle and sweet nurse in memory turned her head and glared at Ai Zhake with her teeth and claws.

For a moment, Isaac even felt that she would lift the iron tray and hit him directly on the cheek.

Thankfully, that bloody scene never happened.

Because at that moment, the door of the ward was pushed open.

"Hey, Officer Holden, how are you doing today?"

The slightly frivolous question came out of the mouth of the Asian police officer at the door.

The unusually gloomy and turbid atmosphere in the room dissipated instantly because of his arrival.

Seeing the appearance of another police officer, the young female nurse gave Isaac a cold look (the viciousness in the eyes made Aizhak frown), then she packed up her things indifferently and opened the door directly towards Go outside.

Hearing the hurried footsteps, Isaac didn't suspect at all that she was rushing to the nurses' lounge to enjoy watching the live broadcast that had completely turned into a religious worship.

"Wow."

After the nurse left, Han opened the door slightly to let the man behind him slip past him into the room.After closing the door, he said to Isaac, "You seem to have annoyed her a lot."

"Well, maybe."

Isaac said dryly.

Then he looked at the man next to Han.

"How are you?"

he asked.

Joyce waved at him the bandages on his hands, which, like Isaac, had been wounded by the overwhelmed rookie cop.

Although he was very reluctant, Isaac still had to admit that the arrival of Han and Joyce made him feel a lot more at ease.

Of course, he and the other party are still in a state of mutual defense and mutual suspicion, but the tragedy at the police station (including the idiot policeman who raised a gun and shot indiscriminately) still made the three people in the ward form a kind of self-control. intimate relationship.

"You look worse than me, you're frightened."

Joyce stared at Isaac and said unceremoniously.

Isaac smiled wryly.

"Who would've thought I'd have a remote control contest in a hospital room."

He just wanted to pretend to be relaxed and perfunctory what happened just now, but Joyce and Han came to his ward this time, obviously not simply to visit the sick.

"Is it because of Adventism?"

Joyce continued.

Isaac was stunned for a moment.

And Joyce also glanced at Han at the same time, without any words, Han had already stepped out of the room briskly.

But judging from the shadow under the door, he didn't go far, but kept guarding the door to avoid the approach of other people.

Joyce dragged a chair and sat down beside Isaac.

"What the hell are you doing? Your posture makes people a little nervous."

Isaac tensed his nerves, then stared at Joyce's expressionless face and said.

Joyce rubbed his eyebrows.

"When I came to see you just now, almost all the wards I passed by were broadcasting that live broadcast."

Joyce said.

"..."

"Something is wrong." Joyce met Ai Zac's eyes, and continued his topic steadily, "The live broadcast, I'm sorry, was a mess, but no one seemed to notice what was wrong with the content. Those people were Cheer as if they were already the most fanatical Adventists."

"It's just like the nurse lady just now." Izak took over Joyce's words and said, "Just yesterday, she looked like a normal person."

"At least it's normal when there's no mention of Adventism," Joyce said. "The development of the Adventists is too scary, too fast. Its followers are increasing geometrically every year, and once they join, there is no sign of quitting. Other religions are simply unbearable in front of the Adventists They have lost a large number of believers. In the past, this struggle between faiths has been enough to cause a bloody religious war. But for so many years, our society has been peaceful, and the religions we know are so quiet Land, let itself weaken like a lamb that has been cut up. And the Advent faction, it is constantly growing, it is almost like a cancer cell."

"what do you want to say in the end?"

Isaac couldn't help but said.

For some reason, mentioning the Adventists to Joyce always made him a little anxious.

Joyce sighed, very rarely, he showed a trace of confusion and uncertainty in front of Isaac.

Of course, this slightly fragile temperament is fleeting in him, almost hallucinating.

"Let's be honest, we think Adventism is the biggest and most evil cult in the continental United States, and it's completely out of control right now. It's not normal."

"I thought maybe you could define 'abnormal'."

Isaac said.

Joyce opened his mouth, he hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke.

"Someone in the Adventists is controlling the minds of ordinary people through unnatural means."