Here It Comes

**Here It Comes** is the 8th chapter of *The Power (Novel)*.

## Plot

(Illustration of a “Cataclysm Era” carving that has been scratched out, dating around 5,000 years ago.)

To the South, Jocelyn is on the road in her Jeep driving down a gravel road. In the North, Roxy and Tunde are sleeping in their shelter. In the West, Allie/”Mother Eve” knows that it’s time for Tatiana to go.

Allie goes into Tatiana’s room and places her hand on Tatiana’s back, as she has done many times before. She then uses her powers to cause Tatiana to pick up a letter opener and slash her own throat, knowing there are hidden cameras in the room. Allie then screams for help. Tatiana dies.

#### Darrell

Inside the perimeter, they watch as a solider (Jocelyn) drives up in her Jeep and starts taking photos from the outside the gate. One of the women working there alerts Darrell. As he watches from the inside, he’s tempted to go test out his new powers on her, even though his father has ordered him to keep it secret until it’s time to find buyers for their technology.

He decides to go out to take care of the soldiers as the women watch him and follow along behind him.

#### Roxy

When Roxy and Tunde awake, Roxy assures him that she’s going to get him out of the country. She says she needs to go get her skein back first though, but she says a blonde woman wearing a airline hat will come by tonight to drive him across the border in the trunk/boot of a car. As Tunde waits, he considers what to do with his footage and notes just in case he dies tonight. He quickly jots down an address and puts the package containing all the materials in a nearby mailbox as he sees a car pull up.

Tunde sees the blonde woman wearing a hat that reads “JetLife”. She gives him a bottle of water to drink and tells him he can piss in it if he needs to go to the bathroom. Then, he gets in the trunk.

#### Jocelyn

Jocelyn is outside taking pictures when she sees a man (Darrell) approach her. Jocelyn agrees to leave, but the man wants to fights. Darrell is eager to really use his new powers, and Jocelyn is eager to see what she can do now that her powers have been cured. Jocelyn thinks she has the situation under control, but then when she goes to make her final blow, she shorts out. Instead, Darrell kicks her in the face and then jolts her until she is no longer moving.

Darrell feels triumphant until he realizes the other women are now eyeing him and coming towards him menacingly. He runs, but they catch up to him. They kill him and take his skein.

#### Roxy

Roxy arrives at the factory with a small force, ready to mount an assault, but when she arrives they welcome her in. They shows her the skein they took from Darrell.

A short while later, Roxy meets up with Allie at a train station nearby. Roxy talks to Allie about how bad things are happening and that they should find a way to stop it now that Tatiana is gone. However, Allie has a completely different idea. She thinks that they should help the war to “begin in earnest”, using Roxy’s tale of betrayal to incite the women.

As Roxy and Allie talk it’s clear Roxy wants peace and Allie wants war. Roxy pleads with Allie not to do this.

Before they part ways, Roxy tells Allie to go find her former adoptive mother who has now remarried to a man named Lyle Williams. Allie does as Roxy recommends and seeks out the former Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor. Allie learns she is now running a children’s home in Jacksonville with her husband.

Allie calls her, and Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor immediately recognizes her voice. She tells Allie that she was the one who taught Allie discipline and made her into the person she is now, and Allie realizes that Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor was the one who instructed her husband to hurt Allie.

After the call, Allie is upset. Allie understands now that her whole idea that women are good and that men are bad is flawed, since she sees that a woman was behind her pain the entire time. Instead, it’s power that creates these dynamics, but for some reason people like follow leaders and give them power. (“Look, a King will basically make you into slaves, and don’t come crying to me when that happens. That’s what kings do.” “Welcome to the human race. You people like to pretend things are simple, even at your own cost. They still wanted a King.”)

#### Margot

In her office, Margot gets a call that Jocelyn has been found in the woods, barely alive. Margot is horrified to hear the news, thinking of Jocelyn as a child. She wonders “how can we stop it happening again” and she thinks about how the “old tree [of power] still stands” and how it needs to be blast to pieces.

#### Idaho

An old man in rural Idaho receives a package (from Tunde) to be delivered to UrbanDox.

#### Allie

In a church, Allie/”Mother Eve” calls out to her followers to warn them that an apocalypse is near and that they should “build an ark”. She calls upon America to help Bessapara to fight the North.

#### Margot

As Jocelyn heals, it becomes clear she will never fully heal. Meanwhile, there are threats from extremist groups who have posted photos from what’s going on in Bessapara who are threatening attacks.

Margot advises the President that the United States must appear strong and send them a message that the U.S. is capable of and willing to escalate things. The President brings up rumors that the terrorists have ex-Soviet chemical weapons.

Do It

At that moment, all the parties (UrbanDox, Margot, Awadi-Atif, Mother Eve) are poised and ready for a fight.

By the end of the book, the world is on the brink of a massive war. The implication is that it will be hugely destructive and will remake the world and reshape who holds the power in the world.

#### Roxy

Back at home, Roxy goes to see her father. She says that she should kill him, but instead they laugh together sitting on the porch. She tells him about meeting Tunde and how they like each other, and Bernie asks about if they’ll have grandkids someday. Roxy says maybe.

Roxy’s story ends with “they have another drink before they go down” and it seems be left a little vague as to what that means for Roxy and her father. However, given that Roxy owns an underground bunker and the story is implying that a nuclear or chemical war (or some combination of both) may be brewing, it seems likely that the line is indicating that Roxy and her father will be hiding out in the underground bunker.

That said, Roxy no longer seems focused on gathering power and exercising power. Instead, she seems to be thinking of her future and possibly a relationship with Tunde. She seems to be at peace, and the way her story ends seems to indicate that she will be fine and possibly happier without her power. As for her father, he has no more sons and is relatively powerless now as well. Instead, he wonders about grandchildren.

Roxy saying that she saved Tunde and how he likes her underground bunker, so that seems to indicate that Tunde did survive and was safely smuggled out of Bessapara. Of the characters in the book, Roxy and Tunde are the most powerless by the end, but they also seem to be happier and more hopeful than the rest.

Apocrypha excluded from the Book of Eve

The last section of the book is an excerpt from some text that was “discovered in a cave in Cappadocia, c. 1,500 years old.” It describes the shape of power (which it describes as being like a tree with offshoots and branches) and how complex it is.

## Trivia

*(e.g. observations, cross-references, 'useless knowledge')*