After The Apocalypse (Book 2): Church of Chaos

by Griffin, Gen

  Evening had settled on the city of Ra-Shet and a light breeze blew through the air surrounding us as we walked out of a store that sold cheap plastic jewelry and other miscellaneous accessories.

  “And then I told Jonas that if he ever bought me another hideous cat necklace, he wouldn't have to worry about buying me another gift as long as he lived because I would no longer be his girlfriend. You should have seen the thing it was-.”

  I slowed my pace as I caught sight of a small group of men standing less than 20 feet in front of us. The shortest one of them was leaning against the wall of a big brick building. He was standing just on the outside of the light that was being cast by an overhead street lamp.

  Even in the darkness, I could see that the short, heavyset stranger was no thug. He was wearing a long sleeved navy blue button down shirt and a pair of tight fitting light wash blue jeans. He had sunglasses perched on the brim of a black fedora. There was something intimidating about the way the man stood in the middle of the sidewalk, blocking our path.

  “Pilar?” Lola stopped a couple feet ahead of me when she realized I wasn't keeping up with her. “Are you coming?”

  “Yes,” I closed the gap between us. I leaned down and whispered in her ear. “See that guy standing under the light pole? I think he's watching us.”

  Lola squinted and then sighed. Her lips were set in a tight line. “I'd say we should take a different route, but its probably too late. He's seen us.”

  “You know him?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately.” Lola straightened the hem of her short dress. “His name is Emmett and he's waiting on me.”

  “Is he your friend?”

  “Not exactly.” Lola started walking towards the man. I couldn't help noticing that she wasn't smiling.

  Chapter 23

  “Well, well, well. Pretty little Lola. I heard you were a very naughty girl today.” The man in front of us was short, stocky and built like a muscle-bound box. The buttons on his shirt were straining with the effort of staying closed.

  “Hello Emmett.” Lola swallowed visibly. Her shoulders were tense despite having just told me that this man was a friend of hers. Her lips were drawn in a thin line. “Whatever you heard, I doubt it's true.”

  He let out a deep and strangely chilling laugh. It echoed against the buildings around us and escaped into the night air. “We'll see about that.”

  “We can talk later.” Lola took a slight step to the left, as if she were going to walk around Emmett. “My friend and I are running late.”

  Emmett reached out and caught her slender arm in his meaty hand. “Introduce me to your friend.”

  “Her name is P-,” Lola hesitated. “Patty. Her name is Patty.”

  “Patty?” The man exchanged a doubtful look with his two companions. The one on the right was very tall and very thin. His clothes were too big, as if he had recently lost a significant amount of weight. The fellow on the left was just big all over. He towered over us and his arms were thick enough that he looked like he could pick up a building with one hand.

  “Patty,” Lola confirmed.

  “It's nice to meet you, Patty.”

  At this point, every alarm bell in my head was going off. The biggest man stepped closer to us. “Nice to meet you too.”

  “We really need to be going.” Lola tried to pull away from Emmett, but he held her tightly in place.

  “You ladies aren't going anywhere just yet. Not considering that I heard you and three other people broke into Bud Moon's complex this morning and murdered a man in cold blood. Patty here matches the description of one of your accomplices.”

  “Emmett, I can explain.” Lola forced a smile but her already pale skin had turned ghostly white.

  I took several steps backwards, trying to increase my distance from the three men. The tall skinny one noticed. “I think the redhead's going to run, Emmett.”

  Emmett narrowed his dark eyes at me. “You don't want to run, sweetheart. Trust me when I say you want to cooperate. I treat my friends a whole lot better than I treat my enemies.”

  He reached up and stroked one hand down Lola's creamy cheek. She swallowed visibly. “Let her go. She doesn't know anything useful. She's just a pawn.”

  “If only I could believe you.” Emmett turned his gaze back to me. “Come with us quietly and you might live through the night.”

  I swallowed the lump in my own throat and calculated my odds of actually escaping. The thin man would probably be able to grab me before I made it 10 feet away. Even if I did manage to escape, I was doubtful that I would be able to find my way back to the Underground. Not that I wanted to go back to the Underground. Truth be told, I had nowhere to run for and no one to run to. It wouldn't be right to leave Lola at the mercy of Emmett and his thugs either.

  I took a deep breath and nodded. “I'll come quietly.”

  “Smart girl.” Emmett began pulling Lola towards a small side street that I hadn't even noticed. After a second's hesitation and a harsh glare from one of the henchmen, I followed them.

  Chapter 24

  “Tell me what you found in Bud Moon's bunker.” Emmett sank down into a plush leather sofa and pretended to be civil. Lola and I had been roughly deposited on an identical couch that sat opposite a heavy wooden coffee table of the first one. The surface of the coffee table shone with dark polish.

  The room was an opulent mixture of colors, textures and money. The carpeting appeared to be made out of some kind of thick white fur. It tickled my toes when I walked across it.

  Lola shifted uncomfortably on the couch beside me. “We can't talk in front of my friend.”

  “Lola, you're testing my patience.” Emmett picked up a heavy glass tumbler and took a swig of the brown liquid inside. “I decide when you talk.”

  “With all due respect-.”

  “If you respected me at all, I wouldn't have had to hunt you down tonight. You should have come to me the very second you realized that Seth Ra was back inside the gates of the city.”

  My entire body tensed. Emmett had kidnapped us off the streets because of Seth?

  “I couldn't get away,” Lola said evasively. “Not without raising suspicion.”

  “I don't care if you raise suspicion. We're talking about the high priest of the Church of Chaos. The bounty on his head is worth far more than your miserable little life.”

  “And if he suspected that I was a traitor, he'd kill me outright,” Lola whispered. “My death wouldn't benefit you in the slightest.”

  “I think you overestimate the value of your information,” Emmett replied. “Gauge is a pacifist. The Underground network is boring. The protests are annoying, but I've come to the conclusion that Gauge lacks the courage to take real action against the authorities.”

  “Your assumption is wrong,” Lola said dismissively. “Gauge is biding his time.”

  “You've been saying that for two years,” Emmett said. “To be honest, I was starting to question your value as an informant. Your previous association with the Church of Chaos is the only reason I allow you to continue to live, my beautiful little traitor.”

  Traitor. I stopped breathing as the implications of Emmett's words hit me. Lola was a traitor. I turned to stare at her, but she was ignoring me. Her attention was entirely focused on Emmett.

  “Gauge isn't a coward, Emmett. He's just not as reckless as Seth. If you don't have someone on the inside of his operation, then you'll never catch him when he finally makes his move.”

  “I don't deny that having someone inside the Underground is useful. I'm just debating how useful you are. Loyalty is easy to buy, Lola. But you already know how easily loyalty can be purchased. I bought yours for a handful of pennies.”

  Lola let out a soft snort. “Seth is staying at the Underground tonight. If you raid the building, there is a good chance you'll catch him.”

  “Why is he in the city?”

  Lola hesitated.

  “Lola,” Emmett's voice had a clear warning tone in
it.

  “He heard a rumor that Bud Moon was experimenting on humans with a modified zombie virus. Supposedly, the Powers That Be are planning on attacking the city using modified zombies.”

  Emmett actually laughed. “Is that the best lie you can come up with?”

  “I'm telling the truth,” Lola protested. “Bud Moon has figured out how to achieve and hold a partial transformation between human and zombie.”

  “You expect me to believe that Bud Moon has figured out how to change his people into part-zombies the same way the Church of Chaos has?”

  “Not quite the same,” Lola corrected. “He's injecting his experiment subjects with some kind of zombie serum. The goal is for them to continue to look human.”

  “It'll never work,” Emmett said dismissively.

  “I'm just telling you what we found out when we went into the bunker,” Lola said.

  “Did you find any of these new style zombies in the bunker?”

  “Yes and no,” Lola replied. “We spoke with one of the people Bud had experimented on. He was in one of the cages. He was rotting like a zombie but he still had a human mind.”

  “And did this specimen have a name?” Emmett asked.

  Lola frowned slightly and then looked briefly at me before turning her attention back to Emmett. “His name was Drake. He used to be one of the Scavengers.”

  “Drake.” Emmett looked startled. “Drake Bledsoe?”

  “I think so.” Lola nodded.

  “Humph.” Emmett crossed his arms over his thick chest and looked thoughtful. “I know Drake. He dropped off the face of the planet a few weeks ago. He likes to gamble and I've seen him at my poker tables hundreds of times over the last couple of years. It was kind of odd, the way he all of a sudden stopped coming around.”

  “You know boss, I've heard the rumors about Bud trying to breed zombies,” the thin thug spoke up. He was guarding the door we'd entered the room through. He had a gun visible in the waistband of his pants. “Maybe there is something to what people are saying.”

  “What are people saying, Dervitt?” Emmett asked.

  “My girl has to walk past Bud's place when she goes home from work at night. She says she hears a lot of screams coming from behind that fence.”

  “I would expect to hear screams coming from Bud's compound. He's a flesh broker.”

  “She says she can sometimes smell rotting meat when the wind is blowing real strong.”

  “Might be worth checking out,” the bigger bodyguard said. He cracked his knuckles against the palm of his other hand. “Not saying that Bud is creating zombies, but if he is then I would rather not be the last person to know.”

  “I agree. We'll head down there in the morning and pay ol' Bud a little visit.”

  “He isn't there. He's already gone back to the Cube to pick up his next load of fresh meat.”

  I gagged quietly.

  “Even better. His guards won't have the balls to try to deny me entry.” Emmett actually looked pleased.

  “If that's all you wanted to know-.” Lola started to stand up.

  “Where the hell do you think you're going?” Emmett asked her.

  “Patty and I have plans.” Her voice was shaking.

  “You ladies won't be making your plans. Not tonight or ever again,” Emmett said coldly. “I can't trust you.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  “How long has Seth been in Ra-Shet?” Emmett countered.

  “Two days.”

  Emmett snorted back a small laugh and then shook his head at her again. “Two days and you didn't come to me?”

  “I couldn't risk-.”

  “Stop. Don't tell me anymore lies, Lola. You didn't tell me that Seth was in the city because you're still trying to play both sides. You want to live without paying for the consequences of your actions. Shame I'm not half as stupid as you think I am.” Emmett gestured to for his bodyguards to approach. “Take them to the usual place.”

  “No!” Lola jumped up from her seat and began rapidly shaking her head. “You still need me. And P-Patty's innocent. Let her go.”

  “No, I really don't need you anymore. Not now that I finally know where Seth Ra is,” Emmett replied. “As for your friend, sorry darlin'. War is always going to have its casualties.”

  The one he'd called Dervitt grabbed Lola by her arms as she tried to twist away. “You can't do this to me!”

  “You're a traitor, Lola. I can do whatever I want to you.” Emmett was smiling a gap-toothed smile as the big guard grabbed me by my arms. I struggled against him, twisting and kicking as hard as I could. He hit me over the head with one of his ham-sized fists and everything went dark.

  Chapter 25

  “Pilar! Pilar, wake up!”

  I jerked awake. My head was pounding and I was laying on top of some kind of metal grate. A pair of tear-filled amber eyes were only inches from mine.

  “Pilar. Get up or you're going to die,” she said.

  I reached out and shoved Lola away from me with a strength I hadn't known I had. She gasped as she fell awkwardly backwards onto her butt. I sat up on the grate and fought to get my bearings. I had no idea where we were, but I remembered why we'd been taken here.

  “You betrayed Seth.” I was still both stunned and horrified by Lola's actions.

  “I didn't have a choice. I was trying to save our lives,” Lola spat the words back at me.

  “Really?” I asked her. “Because I kind of got the impression you've been feeding Emmett information about Gauge and the Underground for a long time.”

  “I've done what I had to do. You don't have a right to judge me. You haven't lived my life.” Lola narrowed her eyes at me. “Besides, why do you care whether or not I've betrayed Seth and Gauge?”

  “It's wrong.”

  “Says the girl who was about to walk away from Seth forever?” Lola tilted her head at me. She somehow managed a haughty expression even though her makeup was smeared and her dress was torn so that it exposed most of her stomach. “You said you never wanted to see him again. Why do you care if I told Emmett where to find him? Doesn't he deserve to die for executing your mother?”

  “There are a lot of innocent people in the Underground.” I purposely ignored what she'd said about Seth deserving to die.

  “I'm innocent,” Lola snapped. “I never asked for this life, Pilar. All I wanted was to marry Jeremiah and have his babies. I wanted a pretty house on the quiet side of town with a white picket fence. Seth ruined my life.”

  “Seth ruined your life?” I looked around us. We were sitting on top of some kind of suspended platform. There was a heavy metal door embedded in the wall to my left. The wall itself was brick and went several hundred feet into the air. The other three sides of the platform opened out into the air. A ladder was attached to the far side. It went straight down.

  “He turned into a zombie,” Lola hissed. “Jeremiah had to leave the city and form that ridiculous fake church. When he tried to come back to the city, he died.”

  “You can't blame Seth.”

  “I will always blame Seth.” Tears were streaming down her face as she sobbed. “Seth killed my happily ever after.”

  I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't even try to respond. Instead, I crawled to the edge of the shaky platform. There was nothing but pitch black darkness below us. I couldn't see the ground, but I could hear movement. Low growling. The sound of something being drug across the dirt. The smell of rotten meat was thick in the air.

  I looked back up at the wall behind me. “Oh god. We're inside the west gate corridor, aren't we?”

  Lola nodded as she sobbed. “We're going to die.”

  I stared back down towards the ground as the moon came out from behind a cloud. The sight below me took my breath away. Hundreds of zombies were crowded around the base of the platform, trampling and shoving one another in an endless quest to be the zombie standing directly beside the ladder that was our only way off the platform. “We're going to di
e.”

  Chapter 26

  “We might as well just get it over with,” Lola announced after several hours of pounding on the sturdy metal gate and screaming. The gate was our only way off the platform that didn't involve going down the ladder and being eaten by zombies. It was locked and refused to budge so much as an inch. Lola's hands were bleeding from her efforts to pry it open. She'd ripped most of her fingernails off in the process.

  I'd been sitting on the edge of the platform and watching the horde of zombies churning below my feet. There was something strangely mesmerizing about the monsters below us. After seeing what had become of Drake and my mother, I found myself wondering if the zombies below us could think. I wondered what it felt like to turn into a zombie. Drake said it hurt.

  Lola took her high heels off and slung them down into the horde below. One of the spiked heels landed straight down, piercing a zombie's head. The zombie didn't seem to mind.

  “I'm not going to sit here all night,” Lola's voice sounded high and frightened. Her words echoed off the brick wall behind us. “If we're still here when the morning guards come, they'll use a cattle prod to shove us off the platform. If I'm going to die, it's going to be on my own terms.”

  “I'm kind of still hoping that we'll get rescued,” I muttered. “No need to get all suicidal just yet.”

  “Rescued?” Lola snorted at me. “Who the hell do you think will come for us?”

  “If we're lucky?” I frowned down at my pretty painted toenails. “Seth.”

  “Seth isn't going to come looking for you, Pilar.” Lola sounded certain.

  “He's never left me alone before.”

  “He never really believed that you hated him before either,” Lola spoke so quietly that I barely heard her.

  “What?” I turned to look at her. Lola's sleek hair had turned into a bloody, tangled mess. She had blood all over her clothes because she kept touching herself with her bloody fingernails.

  “You told him that you would never forgive him for murdering your mother. You said you never wanted to see him again and that he shouldn't come looking for you.” Lola recited my own words back to me.