Something Greg had said earlier sticks in Dan’s mind. He searches through the book for a helpful passage among the chicken scratch. They need to get out of this cage, and he knows the con man would have addressed this with a psalm, or at least a limerick.
“So, how will this whole salvation thing go down?” Dan asks the women.
“At dawn,” One of them begins. “The messiah will join those already saved, and he will lead them in here. We will be the first in the rapture. Then, we will all go forth and embrace the rest out in the parking lot.”
“Great! We will be the first. Did you hear that, Sheriff? He was afraid we’d be last.” Dan looks at the old cop. As he expected the man has halted his work on the ropes that bind the bars together. He seems to be making an effort not to look at the girls.
“I have a question.” Dan’s smile is exchanged for a look of concern as he holds up the college ruled testament. He addresses the strawberry blonde.
“This says marriages will be maintained in the hereafter, only once they have been consummated…” Dan finds the line in the book with his finger. “And, I quote… ‘Like bunnies’.”
“Well I’ve…” The girl starts to speak.
“Those don’t count.” Dan interrupts.
“Even if he put it…”
“Not there either I’m afraid. What’s your name?”
“Bella Donna.” She says in a voice so innocent it infuriates Dan that Greg could do this to her, to all of these people for that matter.
“Bella Donna. That’s a pretty name.” Dan has his smile set to stun, the girl blushes at the compliment. “Why don’t you let your hubby out? Then the two of you can go and consummate in your marital bed?”
“I don’t know.” She scrunches her brow in thought. “We aren’t supposed to.”
“Come on baby, let’s do it.” Greg pleads. Dan isn’t certain if he actually gets the point or not.
“I should ask the Reverend Pope if it is all right.” Bella says.
“Oh, let’s not bother the Reverend Pope with this.” Dan tries to make it sound like a small matter. “This is a decision between a husband and a wife.”
The girl is conflicted. She wants to be with Gregory forever and follow the book together, but she was told not to let them out. She starts to cry.
“I’m sorry, Greg. The Pope said not to.” She runs away and collapses onto the round bed, sobbing. The four other wives join around her in consolation.
Dan’s hope fails him. He sits next to the Sheriff who resumes his efforts on the bars once the ladies are distracted by the drama.
“Blade’s dull.” The cop reports.
“It’s all we got.” Dan sounds hopeless.
“Nice try with wifey. I thought you had something there for a minute.”
“She’s a nice girl. Following orders.”
“I suppose.”
“Want me to take over?” Dan offers.
“Naw, I got it.” The cop shakes his head.
The soldier can see Greg has fallen asleep. He is curled up on the floor of the cage. Dan hurls the notebook at him. The religious tome strikes the man’s head and he doesn’t stir. Dan stretches out on the plywood and closes his eyes, hoping for inspiration. Hours pass and no ideas form. He drifts off to sleep.
Dan tosses and turns in a restless slumber as his mind reviews the recent events. His head is troubled about what will transpire tomorrow. His nightmares are laden with a soundtrack of moaning, the song of the dead.
His eyes are open staring at the ceiling of the cage. Dan has resigned from trying to sleep for now. The moaning can still be heard. It is different somehow. Dan sits up to see the Sheriff is asleep with the razor folded in his hand. When he looks towards Greg he finds the source of the sound.
Greg and Bella are consummating their sacred vows through the bars of the cage. She is on all fours save for one hand that holds a pillow to her mouth, muffling her sounds of pleasure. Decent of them, Dan quips, toying with the notion of using the straight razor to sever their union. He decides against it, figuring there’s no point. Greg might prove to be useful.
At the front of the cage, Dan realizes two ladies are looking in at him and the Sheriff. They have jet-black hair and appear to be twins.
“Greg gave us permission to pleasure you and the heretic.” One of the doppelgangers speaks as the other smiles.
“No, thanks, I’m good.” Dan replies. He rubs his temples not believing this is happening.
“It is no trouble.” The other sister speaks. “But, it must be done while you remain in the cell.”
“That is very generous, but I’m just not interested, and very married to a woman who puts you both to shame.”
“How about you heretic?” The Question is directed to Sheriff Rexton who sits up.
“I’m your godfather for Christ’s sake. Shelly and Kelly, put some damn clothes on.” His rebuttal to their advances causes them to run away and sulk on the bed.
“Real close knit community you run.” Dan says shaking his head. The old cop doesn’t respond. He stares daggers at Greg who lies down again on the plywood near the bars. He and Bella have finished. She lies beside him on the other side, wooden dowels between them. Greg sports a huge post coital grin. It isn’t long before he is snoring.
“I just want to beat his fucking head in.” The Sheriff growls.
“He could prove useful.” Dan admits.
“How the fuck so?”
“If a zombie comes at you, toss his fat ass in the way. It should buy you a couple of minutes at least.”
“You know,” The Sheriff ponders. “All the work he puts into this; going from town to town, all the planning, and the devotion he earns…”
“Yeah.” Dan wonders where he is going with this.
“It’s an awful fucking lot to do just to celebrate his birthday.”
The two men laugh and it feels good. They both can feel the tension drain from their bodies.
“The bars are a no go.” The Sheriff says still chuckling. “I cut through the lashing, but can’t bend the dowels.”
“If we don’t get out, it won’t matter too much longer.”
“That doesn’t put me at ease any.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think that one through. Sorry.”
“It’s all right.” The cop says. “For a city boy, I kinda like you.”
“I like you too.” Dan replies. The cop reminds him of Bill. He won’t tell the sheriff that though. A comparison to a dead man won’t put him at ease either.
“These zombies are pretty bad ass, huh?” The Sheriff asks and the mood turns serious again.
“They’re slow, but wiry, and their hunger makes them quite strong. They don’t feel pain and their bite is infectious. The only way to put them down for the count is to destroy their brains.”
“And, we have no means to do that.”
“Nope, we sure don’t.”
“Do we know how this started?” The Sheriff asks.
“No.” Dan replies.
“I’ve had time to think. You know what I think it is? Cell phones. Even in a small town like Gaines everybody and their grandmother, and that isn’t an exaggeration, has a damn cell phone. They all walk around, talking and texting. They insert those stupid things into their ears so they can talk on the go. Who the fuck has that much to say?”
Dan nods along with the man’s rant. He doesn’t think cell phones are the root, but he knows what the man means. He very seldom used his.
“That damn shit melted everybody’s brains with radiation.” The policeman concludes.
4
A gong sounds startling everyone awake. Dan opens his eyes to see the ladies scampering around the room, putting on their robes. They take positions at the doors on either side of the chamber. A blonde and one of the twins stand at the one on the right. The other twin and a brunette man door number two. Bella Donna is at the cage.
“Aren’t you guys excited?” She asks with glee.
“Oh, yeah.” Dan says with misgivings. He watches the ladies to his right open their door with a key. He expected to see zombies enter the chamber, but instead he sees a hallway. The two girls sprint down it like children on Christmas morning.
“Where does that go?” Dan asks.
“To Main Street. My fellow wives will gather the savior and the saved. They will lead them here to us.” Bella explains, bouncing up and down with raw enthusiasm.
Moaning emanates from the hall. There isn’t much time, Dan judges.
“Bella, shouldn’t we be out there with you?” He asks the strawberry blonde. The twin who had left returns from the street. She skips into the room turning about in midair with her arms extended like a flower child of the sixties.
“They are coming! They are coming!” She sings.
“Bella, come on!” Dan urges. “We want to meet them.”
She looks to her husband for advice, but he is speechless with fright. He just stares at the door with his eyes wide open and unblinking.
“Please, Bella. It isn’t fair. The book says we are all equal.” Dan says adamantly. The moans are getting louder as the dead approach. He needs to get out of the cage. Dan knows if it gets too bad out there they can always go back in.
The girl removes a key from a pouch in her robe. She inserts it into the lock as Dan does his version of the Snoopy dance. He feels like a dork, but wants to appear eager to meet salvation. The cage door opens and Dan exits with the Sheriff. Greg remains inside the cell, petrified with fear.
“Get that door open.” Dan commands the Sheriff pointing to the door on the left side of the room. He searches for a weapon, but is turning up empty handed.
“Nothing?” Dan says. The word resonates in his head. It shakes a thought loose that may help them. Nothing? Not there? Invisible! Dan runs to the vanity. The beautiful piece of furniture has a large mirror that rests on a pivot. Dan grabs the heavy framed plane of glass and breaks it free from its stand. He hopes this is what Becka had meant when she said ‘the dead stare at themselves mesmerized’.
Jesus and his brothers are entering the bedchamber. Shelly or Kelly is grabbed by one of the living dead followers. Three of them sink hungry teeth into her body.
Bella Donna is running towards salvation, but Greg grabs her wrist. He is trying to pull her into the cage with him.
“I want to be saved. Let’s go together, Greg.” She says.
“It isn’t real!” He tells her. “I made it all up. Come in here with me.”
“So, you have lost your way.” Bella says. She stops struggling and turns willingly to her husband, slapping his face. “I want a divorce.”
She is free of his grip and into the arms of the dead. The messiah and a couple others have her by the mattress. Bella is bitten in several places over her body. The savior is biting her on her cheek. She moans in ecstasy. She moans like Greg could never make her moan if he ever gets the chance again. Her eyes glaze over with tranquility.
Bella and the zombies fall onto the leopard quilt. The dead look up, seeing themselves in the mirror above the mattress. The pane is right out of the seventies, complete with inlaid scribbles of gold. They release the girl as they stare at themselves.
The ghouls have finished with one twin. Her lifeless body is left behind as they begin looking for fresher meat. More corpses pour into the room. Dan yanks the zebra rug they walk on, falling several of them as he makes his way to the Sheriff. A group of zombies follow the soldier. They gaze into the mirror he wields like a shield, transfixed. Crazy ass Becka was right, Dan thinks.
“Shelly, give me the key.” The cop commands his remaining goddaughter.
“It is too soon.” She replies in a snippy tone.
“Hey, don’t leave me!” Greg screams from the cage. Some of the dead are trying to reach in and grab him through the bars. The other survivors ignore the cowardly caged man.
“Honey, I want to see the sun again.” The Sheriff says calmly. “I want to be saved in the light of day. I have been cooped up in here for weeks. Please.”
“I don’t know.” She says unsure. Her brunette partner can resist the urge no longer. She rushes into the amassing horde where she is quickly welcomed and embraced into the fold.
Bella staggers to the living at the door. She didn’t think salvation would be so painful. She addresses the remaining wife. “It’s time.”
Shelly opens the door. Greg must have found a way out of the cage because he shoves past everyone to exit the bedchamber first. Dan holds the dead back with the mirror while the Sheriff and Bella head down a long corridor. Shelly stands at the mouth of the passage with her arms wide open, beckoning the zombies to take her.
The walking corpses are gathered before Dan with only the mirror between them as he steps backwards towards the door. He is trying to close the portal, but Shelly halts his actions. She slaps his hands away from the handle and shoves him. The mirror falls to the cement floor and shatters.
Dan finds himself face to face with a mob of blank, undead expressions staring right at him. He has no choice but to run. The Sheriff is yelling for Shelly to come with him, but she ignores him. Dan grabs the man’s shoulder as he passes. Looking back the old man sees the dead fall upon his goddaughter.
“Leave her.” Dan tells him. It’s too late for Shelly.
The two men pass Bella as she slides along the wall on her way to the parking lot. It’s too late for her as well. Torches light the long hall. The corridor reverberates from the moaning. It opens to an antechamber filled with electronics, jewelry and bundles of money. The tributes, Dan assumes. These are offerings to the false prophet that is on his heels, along with his congregation of the undead. The booty is haphazardly arranged on expensive looking furniture.
Greg is filling his pockets with wads of cash. Something on an oak nightstand catches Dan’s eye. The Sheriff is racing ahead as Dan stops to take his plastic locket back and the lighter his wife gave him. He forgoes his keys and wallet. His combat knife is nowhere in sight.
Bella screams somewhere behind them down the dim hall. Dan slides his items into his trousers and takes off. Greg fumbles to get as much of the till as he can.
“Wait for me!” He calls to the soldier who ignores him. It’s definitely too late for Greg. Despite the danger, his greed forces him to continue to stuff the worthless paper into his clothing.
Dan can see light at the end of the tunnel. He follows the Sheriff’s silhouette as the policeman makes it out into the light of day. Above the sounds of the dead that chase the living, Dan can hear the faithful outside. He can just make out their words.
“I can hear them coming!”
“Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Hey! He isn’t saved! Someone stop the heretic!”
Then, the soldier hears gunshots. The report of firearms stop him in his tracks. They have just shot the Sheriff.
He is close enough to the exit to see the robed figures outside, waiting for the zombies to emerge. Behind him he can see the chamber where Greg is currently being mauled. Dollar bills fall around the man’s feet as blood pours from his wounds. The dead take him to the floor where they jock for position around his corpse.
Dan has an idea. With no knife and the razor left back in the cage, he has to bite his hand to pull his plan off. He needs blood, and lots of it. He just prays this works.
#
Dozens of happy people in robes that reflect the morning sun in blinding white are gathered. They are at the brink of the Great Salvation and couldn’t be more ecstatic. They brave the chilly air, not letting it deter their faith, or dampen the joyous occasion.
“I can see them!” One yells with glee.
“I can’t wait.” Another says, holding her hands to her mouth to contain the elation inside her head that would otherwise ooze free.
A figure shambles out of the cavernous hall. He wears the uniform of a soldier. Blood glistens on his ears and cheek as he staggers through the crowd. His face is expressio
nless though he moans the song of salvation. The people of Gaines see that it is the intruder they had captured. Some clap for his transformation.
The man in the black robe jumps in Dan’s way. He grabs the soldier’s shoulders. Dan is almost grateful for the distraction. He has just caught sight of the Sheriff, dead on the ground, and is having trouble not looking at him. If he wants to get away from these nuts, he will have to play dead.
“Save me.” The cult’s priest pleads. He turns his head to bare his ear to the word of God.
When in Rome, Dan decides. He grabs the man’s head roughly and sinks his teeth into his auricle. The cartilage crunches into pieces as blood fills the fake zombie’s mouth. It tastes like copper and makes him feel sick.
Dan releases the man who smiles about receiving the bite. The soldier changes his direction, trying to find a way out of the lot without drawing suspicion. From what he is able to see the lot is completely enclosed by chain link, more zealots wanting his attention obstruct his view. He grabs the head of a woman and tears into her ear. Dan grabs another follower after her and gives him what he is begging for.
“There’s more coming out.” Someone finally yells, pointing to the temple. The mass that had crowded Dan now dashes to the disciples that stagger into the daylight. They are all too eager and don’t want to wait in line anymore.
“Thank God.” Dan whispers after the mob erodes away. His mouth is wet with their blood. It feels cool in the cold morning air. The cult’s absence allows Dan to see the lot better. Several cars are parked along the building, most are very expensive sports cars that he imagines are more tributes. Most importantly he sees his truck.
The soldier disregards the massacre brewing and sprints to the red truck. He almost yelps with joy when he finds the door is unlocked and the keys are still in the ignition. It is an even bigger boon that all his stuff is still inside; the .38 revolver, the rifle, his useless 9mm ammo. His coffee had been spilled onto the floorboards. He feels wide-awake and figures he can function without it.
Life Among The Dead Page 27
