From Adam’s position and the plentiful light in his room, compared to the dimness of the corridor outside, all he could see at first was a silhouette. As it got closer, he saw the familiar golden clothing and the shape of one of his most loyal followers. The scraggly beard and hair were easily recognisable, even in silhouette form. “Dean,” Adam said. “Thank God!” Dean had been the first to stand when Adam had announced the news of their salvation earlier on in the day. “Dean, Elizabeth stabbed me, she’s gone mad. Please help. I’m scared of what she might do to our children,” he blurted before the face of the figure emerged into the doorway.
It was Dean, and it wasn’t Dean. It was Dean’s frame and hair, beard and clothes, but that was where the similarity ended. The eyes that stared down towards Adam were not Dean’s eyes. They were not eyes belonging to any man. They belonged to nothing from this world. It was then that Adam had a revelation, the only real revelation he could ever take true ownership of. The Devil was waging war with God’s children...and he was winning.
The pain in Adam’s back was nothing compared to the agonising depths he felt as the skin and flesh were ripped from his throat by the monster’s teeth. He let out a hollow rasp in an attempt to scream. As his eyes froze in a final deathly gaze upon this hellish creature that knelt above him, dripping his own bloody flesh from its mouth, a tear formed. His reign as a prophet, as a leader of men, was over. Now something cold, something foreign, something terrifying from the darkest depths within him began to rise. His head fell back onto the floor, his eyes closed, and Adam never shed another tear.
chapter 10
Elizabeth burst through the door of Matthew’s room, and the chair that had been feebly wedged against it went flying through the air. She closed it behind her and let her eyes focus on the four beams of torchlight that shone towards her. Matthew, Ruth, Susan and Melissa sat huddled together on the bed. Ruth and Melissa were crying, Matthew and Susan were close to tears but doing their very best to appear brave. The noises from outside were getting louder.
Elizabeth ran to her children and held them tightly. “I thought you’d want me to check on them,” Susan said, almost apologetically.
“Thank you,” Elizabeth replied.
“Erm, Melissa was scared, I…” Matthew started.
“We’re all scared, Matthew,” Elizabeth said, walking over to the window. The blustery storm outside was as strong as ever, and a flurry of lightning flashes lit the exterior long enough for Elizabeth to see that outside was no safer than inside. She turned back around. “The girls who came here today. We need to get to them. They’re the only ones who’ve dealt with these creatures. They’re the only chance we have,” she said as a piercing scream sounded not far from the door.
“I don’t want to go out there, Mummy,” Ruth said in between sobs.
“No, me neither sweetheart, but we don’t really have a choice.” In the corner of the room, there was a hand-built wooden desk with thick legs. Elizabeth went over to it, moved the chair out of the way and pulled it over towards her before dragging it to rest on its top. The legs were held in place by wing screws which she quickly undid.
Matthew understood what she was doing and rushed over to help her. He kept one leg for himself, and passed one to Melissa, while Elizabeth passed the last one to Susan, keeping the other. “What do we do with these?” Melissa asked.
“Listen to me. These aren’t people any longer these are…” Elizabeth looked at their faces and realised they had been brainwashed by Adam for so many years that she would have to maintain some kind of illusion to get through the conditioning. “These are demons. The people we knew, they’re with The Lord, now. But their bodies have been taken by Lucifer. So when one comes towards you, you stop it. You hit it as hard as you can. You do whatever you need to. You cannot kill these things; they are already dead. Do you understand me?” Susan, Matthew and Melissa nodded their heads, suggesting they had some inclination as to what she was talking about, but the overall expression was bewilderment. The screams, growls, and running feet could still be heard echoing through the halls and drifting in from outside as more creatures joined the ranks.
“I want Daddy,” cried Ruth.
The temptation to tell her children what Adam had said was fleeting, “Daddy’s going to meet us later. We need to move now—it’s not safe here, okay?”
They all stood and headed to the door. Susan placed her fingers on the handle while Elizabeth and Matthew poised themselves, ready for action. They had their table legs raised like baseball bats. It was less than twenty metres down the hall to the girls’ room, but they all knew this would be the longest twenty metres they had ever travelled. Melissa took Ruth’s hand and squeezed it tight. She had wiped away her own tears to at least try and fake strength for the little one.
“Three, two, one, now!” Susan said, flinging the door open.
Elizabeth and Matthew rushed through the gap out into the hallway. “Go, go, go,” Elizabeth said as Melissa, Ruth and Susan all ran out. Matthew led from the front. There was one beast up ahead on its knees, taking a bite out of one of Matthew’s friends. He swallowed all the terror he was feeling and carried on towards it, holding the table leg like his very life depended on it, which it did.
Elizabeth brought up the rear. For the time being, their movement was unnoticed in the wide corridor. She watched people, followers of her husband’s, feasting on each other like it was some twisted cannibalistic orgy. She turned her head back to the direction of travel, and saw the beast who had attacked Matthew’s friend suddenly bounce to its feet with its talon-like fingers outstretched, ready to tear into the meat of its next target. It began to bound towards them, and Elizabeth sprinted to the front of their small group, overtaking Matthew and throwing herself into the line of fire. The beast was two metres back when it launched through the air like a baseball from a pitcher’s hand. Elizabeth planted her feet firmly on the ground, bringing the rest of her small group to an instant stop behind her.
In the dim light of the hall, she could make out enough of its shape to determine where to strike, but then from behind her, a torch beam shone like a spotlight at a rock concert. For a fraction of a second, Elizabeth was transfixed by the beast’s eyes as it flew towards her. She held the table leg ready to swing, but felt confounded, like a rabbit trapped in the headlights of a speeding vehicle. In all her years, she had never seen anything so ungodly as this beast. Even from this distance, she could see the wild, dancing pupils reacting to the torch beam. Their movement was mesmeric, she could feel herself giving in to the horror that approached her. They did not stand a chance in a world full of these things. Why not just get it all over with now? Why not bow out before the struggle had even begun? A few seconds of agony and terror was not too much to trade for the torturous suffering that would surely ensue if they continued, was it?
“Mummy, please!” Ruth screamed, and those two words were all it took. A daughter’s plea. Elizabeth swung for Mars; one corner of the heavy lump of wood crashed into the side of the beast’s head, making a sound like a coconut makes when it’s hit with a hammer. The creature stumbled into the wall with its arms flailing before banging down onto the tiled floor. It started to climb to its feet, but Elizabeth raised the table leg high above her head and brought it down as hard and as fast as she could. The beast stilled, and Elizabeth brought the table leg up again, ready to repeat the action, but a high-pitched scream from further down the corridor made her look up.
A woman she had known for years was being attacked by two creatures at the same time. “Mum!” shouted Matthew, dragging her back to the moment. She turned to look at her son, to see his eyes in the dim light angled down towards the beast she had struck.
Elizabeth looked to see the creature was beginning to move once again. She had only stunned it with her blows. Its hand shot out with purpose, and its fingers clamped around her ankle.
“Argh!” she screamed in shock and repulsion, more than pain. She brought down
the table leg onto its head again and again, and again. With the final blow, she felt the pressure around her ankle ease. “Come on,” she said, shaking herself loose from its grasp. The group ran down the hall, and Elizabeth banged frantically on a door. “Robyn, Wren, it’s Lizzy!” she cried.
There was the sound of furniture moving, then the door opened, and the small group ran inside. Robyn had a crowbar raised, ready, and Wren was pointing one of the pistol crossbows towards the door. In the glow of the torchlight, Robyn and Wren could see the panic and horror on the group’s face. Robyn looked towards the bloody table leg in Elizabeth’s hand. “We need our weapons,” she said.
Elizabeth fished in her pocket and produced the keys. “Every second there are more of those things out there,” she said.
“Can you drive? Do you have keys to the vehicle?” Wren asked.
“What vehicle?” Elizabeth replied.
“Your traders. How did they bring stuff back?”
“Boat.”
“Boat?”
“There’s a small dock at the base of the cliff. We have a motorboat down there that we use. It’s the only transport we’ve got,” she said as lightning lit up the room and thunder split the air around them.
“I don’t like the idea of getting on a boat in this,” Robyn said.
“It’s not like we have a choice,” Wren replied.
Ruth began to cry even harder, and Susan hugged the child tightly.
Robyn and Wren flipped on the rucksacks, which almost seemed empty now to when they had arrived. “Okay, Elizabeth, you lead the way,” Robyn said, as Wren flung the door open, letting in the hellish cacophony of growls and screams that ricocheted up and down the hallway. Elizabeth poked her head out of the door and checked in both directions. A newly turned creature, its golden clothes splattered with deep crimson blood, began to climb to its feet.
“Quickly,” Elizabeth called, beginning to run down the corridor in the hope that they could reach Adam’s office before the beast could get its bearings. Melissa, Susan, Ruth and Matthew followed her with Robyn and Wren bringing up the rear.
The beast Elizabeth had seen began to make a beeline for the escaping humans, but Wren placed her feet apart, steadied her hand and fired the pistol crossbow. The bolt flew through the dimly lit corridor and smashed through the forehead of its target. No one was more surprised than Wren, and she could not help but smile a little, as she turned to run after the others. As she did, she noticed Robyn was stood behind her with the crowbar raised, ready. “Nice shot, sis.”
“Thanks.”
They looked further down the hallway to see more people emerging from their rooms and other wings, swiftly attacked by the ever-growing army of the undead. “By the looks of it, we’re both going to have plenty of practice before the night’s through. Come on, let’s get our stuff and get the hell out of here.”
The two sisters ran after the others and ducked into Adam’s office, closing the door firmly behind them. They turned around to see a variety of rechargeable lanterns illuminating the room. “I think he’ll have kept your weapons in there,” Elizabeth said, pointing to a thick wooden door with a brass handle. Robyn walked up to it and pulled.
“It’s locked,” she said.
“Try this.” Elizabeth handed her the key. She hovered at the entrance. “He would never let me go in there. To this day I haven’t got a clue what’s behind that door.”
“It’s probably a monster porn stash,” Robyn said, and Melissa couldn’t help but giggle, guiltily.
“What’s a pornstash?” Ruth asked, which made the two girls giggle even more.
Everybody ignored Ruth’s question, and Robyn turned the key in the lock, opening the door. “Jeeesusss!” she said as the door swung open. It revealed a room about half the size of Adam’s office. What was inside went way beyond what could be deemed a man cave.
Along one wall was a countertop that stretched the length of the room. There were computers and laptops, as well as a small television. There were two mobile phones attached to chargers in the wall and a small fridge in one corner. On top of a desk on the far wall was a large box full of camera and CCTV equipment. “I don’t understand; what is this?” Elizabeth asked as she slowly walked into the room like Alice entering Wonderland.
Wren started to look around at all the equipment and hit a key on the laptop. For a few seconds, they had forgotten the screams and the danger outside. None of them had expected to see this. “Erm, it looks like he was watching everyone.” The feed was down because the electricity was off, but there were black boxes on the screen: Cam 1, Cam 2, right up to Cam 18. “I suppose it’s easy to seem like a prophet if you can listen in on people’s conversations and keep tabs on what’s going on outside.”
Elizabeth walked up to the bench and picked up a clipboard. There was a piece of lined paper on it with notes that looked like they had been written a long time ago. There were eighteen numbered entries. “Oh dear God!” she said. By the side of each number was a single name; all of them belonged to young women at the monastery.
Robyn looked at the sheet over Elizabeth’s shoulder. “I wasn’t far wrong then. The new messiah was a perv,” she said with a smirk.
“Bobbi!” Wren said.
“Well he was.” Wren glared at her and gestured towards Ruth, who was stood in the doorway.
Susan joined Elizabeth and looked at the sheet. Her finger moved down the page until she reached her name. Crossed out in front of it was the name Andrea. “I think I feel sick,” Susan said. “Andrea had my room before me. How long was he doing this?”
“I’m so sorry,” Elizabeth said. I didn’t know.
Susan stepped back with tears filling her eyes. “You did, though, didn’t you? You might not have known about this,” she said, pointing towards the computer monitors and the clipboard, “but you knew what he was like. You knew when he invited girls to his room for mentorship what it meant.”
“I didn’t...not really,” Elizabeth replied as tears filled her eyes too.
“How can you say that? How can you say that after that look you gave me today? You knew why he asked you to leave the room. You knew what he was going to do, but you didn’t say anything, you kept silent and let me suffer, and let other girls suffer. He was a monster, and you let it go on right under your nose, and what did you do about it, n—”
“I killed him!” Elizabeth screamed.
The room became a vacuum as everyone fell silent.
“Mum?” Matthew said in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I killed him,” Elizabeth croaked as she began to sob.
“What? How?” Matthew demanded.
“He wouldn’t let me leave the room to come and get you. He blocked the door, so I stabbed him with a pair of scissors and ran.”
“You stabbed Daddy?!” Ruth screamed.
“You stabbed him where?” Matthew asked.
“In our bedroom.”
“Did you see him die?” Matthew persisted.
“No, but—”
“He might still be alive. I’m going to go see,” he said, turning to leave.
Wren grabbed hold of his arm. “You won’t make it a metre out there before one of those things gets you.”
Matthew dragged his arm away, and turned on her. “Get your hands off me. My father was a great man and—”
“He wasn’t a great man!” screamed Elizabeth. “He was a tyrant, and a bully…and a pervert!” she stormed across the room and grabbed hold of Matthew by the collar. “Your father was so scared of opening that door that he was prepared to leave you and your little sister to fend for yourselves against those things. That’s how much of a great man he was.” She pointed back into the room. “He had spy cameras in all the young women’s rooms. He was connected to the outside world. He was a liar. Your father was—”
Matthew slapped his mother across the face, silencing her immediately. They looked equally shocked, then Elizabeth unleashed a strike on her son that mad
e everybody’s eyes widen. Matthew stumbled a little, and Ruth howled with fear as the only two people she had left suddenly began to battle with each other.
“Hey!” shouted Robyn, walking across and stepping in between the two of them. “I could listen to you guys talk about Pervy the Prophet all night long, but don’t you think we should focus on the problem at hand? Like how we’re going to get out of a walled monastery teaming with flesh-eating monsters?”
Ruth buried her head into Melissa’s side, inconsolable as she cried. Matthew looked at his mother in disbelief. “You’re right,” Elizabeth said, as if suddenly jolted by Robyn’s words.
Wren saw the javelin and bow and arrows on a shelf. She went across and collected them. “Okay,” she said, turning around. “We stay together. We move as fast as we can. We get down to the quay, onto the boat, and get the hell out of here. Robyn, Elizabeth, and I will go in front. Matthew and Susan will cover the back. Melissa, make sure you keep Ruth moving. Make as little sound as you can.” Wren grabbed a handful of bolts and put them in her pocket. She had the pistol crossbow in one hand and the javelin in the other as she headed back out of the secret room.
The others said nothing. They looked at one another and then just followed. Robyn went to stand by the door with her sister. She adjusted the straps to the three quivers she had around her shoulder and withdrew an arrow. They both stood looking at one another until Elizabeth came to join them. Her face was still red from the slap she had sustained, but her eyes were focussed. “What’s the fastest way out of here and to the boat?” Robyn asked.
“Turn left out of this door, head to the bottom of the corridor, turn right then left again. Head to the end, through the double doors and into the chapel. Go through the chapel; there’s a door that leads out to the walled garden where we have services outside in summer. We get over the wall, and there are steps leading down to the quay, but we need to be careful; they’re steep, and the railing has rusted away in places.”
The End of Everything Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3] Page 45
