Hell Followed With Us

Brother Hutch tells Benji that it’s time to come “home” to New Nazareth, and the thought of seeing his mother again makes Benji vomit. Benji knows that his body is a powerful weapon, as the virus was used to gradually turn him into a monster known as Seraph; as a result, he knows that Brother Hutch won’t shoot him. Still, he hates the idea of being defeated and spits in Brother Hutch’s face. One of the other men, Brother Collins, threatens to cut Benji’s throat and drags him away. Brother Hutch tames the Grace and commands it to follow them. As they walk among the wreckage of a destroyed world, Benji thinks about how he was made into a monster that carries a perfect balance of survival and destruction. The cult’s hope is that the monster that Benji becomes will wipe out what life remains on the Earth and take the Angels to Heaven.

When the group stops to rest, Benji thinks about Theodore (Theo), the man he is engaged to in the cult. Theo used to be a member of the death squad and had wings tattooed on his back. Just as Benji starts planning a way to escape again, someone from a tall building shoots the Angels one by one. Benji sees Brother Hutch die and recalls both positive and negative memories of him. Benji takes the opportunity to run, but he is quickly stopped by a boy with a rifle.

Benji is faced with a loaded rifle and wonders if he is about to die. He tries to tell the boy that he isn’t an Angel. The boy shoots an Angel, grazing Benji’s ear as the bullet whizzes past, and introduces himself as Nicholas (Nick). Nearby, a Grace carries another boy in its mouth, slowly devouring him. Nick tries to shoot the Grace, but it’s barely affected. Benji uses his connection to the Flood virus to talk to the Grace and tell it to stop, but it’s already too late, and the boy is dead. A girl named Aisha rushes toward Nick and Benji and scolds Nick for disappearing on his own. Soon, another girl named Faith arrives. After seeing Benji talk to the Grace, Nick’s mind starts spinning with a plan, and Benji can sense that something is going on but isn’t sure what it is.

A foggy period passes in which Benji is taken back to the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center (ALC), where the teenagers all live together. Everyone wears a mask to avoid being infected with the Flood virus, and Benji wears one even though he isn’t contagious. Benji wakes up and finds a person named Salvador watching over him. Salvador uses xe/xyr pronouns and proudly announces that xe is trans, like Benji. Benji has never met another trans person and finds it instantly comforting. After explaining the ALC to Benji, Salvador leaves and comes back with Nick and a girl named Erin, who is also trans. Nick and Erin have figured out that Benji is becoming Seraph, and they propose two options to him. The first is for Benji to escape on his own and make an attempt for elsewhere, and the second is for him to stay at the ALC and help fight the Angels. Benji knows that it could be the perfect opportunity for revenge but also knows this contradicts his need to be good.

Erin takes Benji on a tour of the ALC, offers him a change of clothes, and explains a brief history of the center. Benji notices pride flags and information all over the place, along with dozens of teenagers and young adults. There’s a chalkboard where people volunteer to help out and some small, dorm-like rooms where Benji is given a place to sleep. Erin asks Benji to come to a funeral for Trevor, the boy who died earlier that day, and Benji notes the way that people at the ALC are much more open in their grief.

When Benji wakes up the next day, he heads to the chalkboard and volunteers for cleaning duty in an effort to return the ALC’s kindness. He enjoys scrubbing the kitchen clean and having something to accomplish. When Faith makes some coffee, Benji tries it for the first time and finds it horrid. He notices that Faith wears cross earrings and comments on them, and Faith admits that she does believe in God but isn’t sure where she stands on the issue overall. Benji understands the conundrum and feels the same way, unsure of how he feels or what he really believes. All the while, Benji thinks about the fact that his time is running out and that within a few weeks, he will become Seraph.

The next day, Benji meets Cormac, a boy with red hair who calls him a middle schooler, and goes with Cormac, Nick, and Salvador to exchange supplies with another surviving group called the Vanguard. The Vanguard is made up of families who keep to themselves and rely on Nick’s group, called the Watch, to keep the city safe. They meet in a nearby park, and while they wait for the Vanguard to arrive, Nick explains to Benji that he’s on the autism spectrum and states his belief in Benji to “figure out how things work” (64). He asks Benji about joining the Angels, and Benji explains that he joined with his parents when he was only 11. Benji starts to develop feelings for Nick but shames himself for it, believing that he still owes his loyalty to Theo in the cult. When the Vanguard arrives, Benji is surprised to see a group of white men and one white woman, who talk to Nick and the others like they’re children. The woman calls Benji “miss,” and for the first time in his life, Benji corrects someone who misgenders him. In exchange for several boxes of supplies, Cormac offers a bag full of dismembered ears that he took off various Angels that he killed, along with the tooth of a Grace, which the Watch refers to as abominations. The woman checks the ears and deems one of them unsatisfactory, so she withholds one box of supplies. Watching his new friends be taken advantage of angers Benji, who makes the final decision to stay with the ALC and help them fight the Angels.

A funeral is held for Trevor, and it’s the first one that Benji has ever attended, as funerals and grief are seen as sacrilege for the people of New Nazareth. Everyone from the ALC gathers around Trevor’s grave, with a sniper keeping watch from above, and Benji stands beside Nick. Erin performs a eulogy and talks about Trevor’s sacrifices for the group, and Benji watches as the person closest to Trevor, named Alex, steps up to the grave and throws a bracelet in. Benji feels bad for Alex and tries to approach them to tell them that he understands what they’re going through. Alex doesn’t react how Benji predicts, instead blaming Benji for Trevor’s death and punching him. The two end up in a violent tussle that Benji eventually wins. Benji is about to suffocate Alex when Nick, Erin, and Cormac intervene. Cormac looks at Benji as though he isn’t human, and Nick tells Benji to go to bed. Benji looks back at the moment and wonders what compelled him to almost kill Alex.

Benji realizes that Seraph is the reason he reacted so violently toward Alex, and he knows that the Flood virus has started working its way into his brain. Determined to control Seraph, Benji knows that he cannot continue hurting those around him. He sneaks out of the ALC and escapes into the city of Acheson, which Benji finds has its own beauty if he can just ignore the corpses littering the streets. Benji believes that if he can tame a Grace and find a way to get along with these creatures, he can then find a way to tame Seraph.

Benji finds an old convenience store and a map of the city inside but is soon caught by Nick, who suspects that Benji is up to something. Benji insists that he wants to join the Watch, and he and Nick head to an old shelter to search for a Grace. They find one inside, lying handcuffed to a bed and wailing. Benji approaches the Grace and touches it, trying to connect and assure it that he isn’t a danger. Nick watches in horror and amazement as Benji manages to calm the Grace and sets it free by cutting off its thumb. As he does so, Nick panics and lunges at Benji. The Grace then attempts to defend Benji, but Benji is able to command it to stop attacking Nick. Suddenly, he feels like the possibility for self-control is within reach, and Nick agrees to let Benji join the Watch.