“I don’t mind pain. I don’t mind giving or receiving it.”
“You’re one twisted sonofabitch,” mumbled Henry, cocking his gun.
His face darkened. “At least I’m not a pathetic excuse for a man like you, Henry. Bragging to everyone how you were some kind of stud your entire life when you couldn’t even get a woody. Tell us, what kind of a cowboy are you, when you can’t even get your own gun loaded, Henry?”
Henry glared at him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, but I do. I know everything about you. Remember Mary?” He grinned evilly. “You were always trying to act like you could make that woman happy. She laughed at you, even when you weren’t looking. Felt nothing but pity. Good thing she wasn’t interested in your pruny old ass, or you would have left another woman frustrated and disappointed in life. ”
“Now that’s enough!” hollered Tiny, stomping toward Billie. “Nobody talks to my grandfather like that!”
Billie’s eyes narrowed. “You’d better stop right there or I’m going to make you holler in such a deep voice that everyone will mistake you for a man.”
“Forgive me, God,” muttered Henry under his breath as he pulled the trigger. “For not killing this bastard all the way the first time.”
The impact of the bullet from Henry’s gun knocked Billie backwards, sending him into the black hole.
Nora’s eyes closed and she collapsed to the ground.
“Nora!” hollered Kristie, rushing to her side. She bent down and checked her pulse. “She’s okay. She’s breathing.”
Henry walked to the edge of the hole and looked down. “Oh, hell. What did I do?” he whispered in horror. “I think I just killed one of us.”
Justice walked over and stood next to him. “That was Travis, not Billie.”
“He’s right,” said Paige. “Billie would have never acted like that. Plus, you saw what he did with his hands.”
“He would have killed one of us,” said Justice. “You did what you had to do.”
Henry removed his hat. “Well, I reckon you’re right. I just couldn’t stand listening to his lies anymore. And then when he threatened Tiny… well that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Bryce put his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Henry. Something was really off about that guy.”
“Like he was possessed,” stated Paige. “You saw what he did with his hands.”
Bryce sighed but didn’t answer.
“What happened?” mumbled Nora.
“You don’t remember?” asked Kristie.
She stood up slowly. “No… I remember something flying out of the hole… and then seeing Billie. But that’s it.”
“He wasn’t Billie anymore,” said Justice.
She turned to him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“He’s gone,” said Kristie. She put an arm around her shoulders.
Nora’s eyes widened “As in dead?”
“Yeah. But he’s finally at peace. At least, I hope,” said Kristie, glancing uneasily toward the hole.
Nora paused and then sighed. “Well, I guess there’s nothing more to say.”
Paige’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh, my goodness! Survivors!” hollered a voice. “God has truly answered my prayers.”
They all turned to find a priest rushing toward them. He stopped in front of Tiny. “My name is Father Brambati. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to find you people. This is surely a blessed day.”
“Where did you come from?” asked Bryce.
He turned to Bryce. “I was upstairs when I heard the noise.”
“No, when and how did you get to the mall?” he asked.
“By car, earlier today. I came to Minnesota to search for my family. My grandson used to work here… I thought I’d see if he’d somehow survived.” His face fell. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t find him. Nothing here but zombies and death.”
“And that hole,” said Paige.
He nodded. “Yes. It’s incredible, isn’t it?”
“What do you make of it?” asked Kristie. “Do you think it has something to do with the supernatural?”
The priest walked to the hole and stood there for a minute, not saying anything.
“Father?” asked Tiny. “What do you think?”
He looked up. “Actually, it’s a bridge.”
“A bridge, huh? Where does the bridge lead to?” asked Bryce, frowning.
“You’ve heard of the End of Days, have you not?”
Bryce grimaced. “Well, yeah. Lately, I’ve heard a lot about it. Are you saying that we’re really at the end of our rope here?”
“Some of us are,” said the priest. “But not all.”
“I don’t get it,” said Henry. “I’ve never heard of a black hole in the Bible. What has this got to do with the prophecy in Revelations?”
Father Brambati smiled. “This is the bridge between Heaven and Earth.”
17
Cassie
I left Nordstrom’s in search of Kylie and Adria, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There were so many stores and hallways… plus, I couldn’t risk calling either of their names out loud. Not when Billie was undoubtedly searching for me.
Billie, aka, Travis.
The fact that he was now possessed by Travis scared the living crap out of me. I had no idea how to stand up to a supernatural being, let alone one who could start a fire with his bare hands. The fact that he could also leap into someone else’s body was no less terrifying. If I could just find the girls and get back to Bryce. That’s all I wanted…
Frustrated but not yet beaten, I searched every store I came across, as well as the bathrooms. Then I saw something that made me want to toss in the towel and head back to the bar for another shot.
“No freaken way,” I gasped when the giant bat thing swooped down from the ceiling, screeching something crazy.
Frightened, I ran into the nearest store and grabbed a long metal clothing pick-stick. With my heart pounding, I held the metal grabber in front of me and crept back out into the hallway. This time I found myself alone in the hallway with something familiar and less daunting - a zombie with most of his facial skin missing as well as his pants.
I cringed.
Fortunately, he ignored me just as the others had.
I relaxed slightly and started down the corridor again. Before I made it to the end of the hallway, the flying creature made another appearance. With its enormous black wings flapping loudly, it flew at me again, glaring at me with red eyes.
I raised the stick and slammed it against the beast’s face with everything I had. Fortunately, it tumbled to the ground and then lay motionless.
Finish it off.
I started toward the animal, wondering what the hell it was. It was much larger than a bat and like nothing I’d ever seen in any school textbook.
Noticing me get closer, it screamed in rage and flew back into the air.
Fortunately, the naked zombie was close. Grimacing, I pushed him in front of me and used him like a shield as the flying beast attacked. The creature opened its mouth and impaled the zombie in the forehead. The zombie fell to the ground, with the creature still attached, and I stabbed it with the end of the pick-stick, twisting until it was finally silent.
As I backed away with the bloody stick, I heard the sound of a baby crying.
Adria!
I began running toward the noise and when I rounded the next corner, I saw the couple from earlier with Kylie and Adria. The man had Kylie by the arm and the woman was bent over Adria, who was sobbing in terror.
“Let her go,” I said firmly, stepping toward them.
Kylie shrugged off the man’s hand and rushed to Adria. She picked her up and moved toward me.
“Are you okay?” I asked, eyeing her.
“Yeah,” she replied, her eyes full of tears. “No thanks to them.”
Sneering, the man pulled ou
t a gun and aimed it at us. “Why don’t you just put that stick down?”
I glared at him.
“Do it, or I’ll just shoot you. I have no problem with that.”
Sighing, I did what he asked.
The blond woman smiled triumphantly. “Good. He’ll be so happy with us.”
“What is wrong with you people?” I snapped. “Treating babies and children like this?”
The man smirked. “This isn’t your ordinary baby.”
“Oh, come on… do you really think that this baby is the ‘Chosen One’? I mean, she can’t even protect herself, let alone the world.”
“You’re just trying to protect her,” remarked the woman with a sneer.
I sighed. “You’re so wrong, you know. Wasting time trying to track this innocent kid when she isn’t even the one you should be worried about.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”
“Because I’m the one you should be afraid of, not her,” I replied, only half bluffing.
The woman’s eyes widened. “What are you saying?”
“What do you think I’m trying to say?”
“Don’t listen to her,” said the man. “She’s full of it.”
“Are you sure?”
The couple glanced at each other.
“If she is supposed to save the world, wouldn’t she be older?” I said. “I mean think about it - how could such a young child stop a demon from ruling the world?”
“We are to stop the baby before she grows up,” the woman stated. “Thus the zombie apocalypse. This whole thing was set up to make it easier for us to find and stop her.”
My eyes widened. “Are you saying that Travis is responsible for the zombies?”
“Not him. Abaddon,” she replied.
“Enough,” said the man. “You’ve said too much.”
“Who cares?” replied the woman. “She should know how powerful he is. She should honor him, as we do.”
“Where do I find this Abaddon?” I asked, hoping that I had a chance to show this character how I really felt about his zombie apocalypse. Because of him, my parents were dead and so were most of my friends and family. If anyone needed to pay, it was obviously that guy.
“Don’t worry,” she replied. “You’ll be meeting him soon enough.”
18
Bryce and Company
“You’re shitting me,” said Henry. His cheeks turned pink. “Oh, forgive me, Father. I’m just shocked, is all.”
The priest smiled. “It’s quite all right. Given the circumstances, I understand your particular choice of words.”
“When are they coming?” he asked, staring back into the dark hole.
“Well, you’ve all probably seen the first signs,” he said solemnly. “The storms, the earthquakes, the blood in the water, and now the darkness that has settled upon us.”
“That’s why the sun hasn’t risen?” asked Paige.
“Yes.”
“Uh, about this bridge to Heaven,” said Justice, peering over the edge. “Is that really at the end of this hole?”
“I’m not exactly sure how it works, but there is indeed something on the other side. Did you feel the vibrations in the floor earlier?”
“Yes,” replied Kristie, slowly moving toward the hole. “What was that, exactly? Oh… wow… that’s deep.”
Paige walked over and looked down. “That doesn’t look like a bridge to Heaven to me.”
“I agree,” said Kristie, backing away. “To me it looks more like something out of a horror movie. And that thing that flew out of the hole… that definitely wasn’t an angel.”
Paige turned to the priest. “Did you happen to notice the oversized bat flying around the mall? The one with twelve-inch fangs and beady red eyes?”
“No,” said the priest. “I’m happy to say that I didn’t come across such a thing.”“If this is a bridge between Heaven and Earth, why would it unleash something that tried attacking us?” asked Henry.
“You’ve heard the old fables about the ‘troll bridge’?” asked Father Brambati.
Paige snorted.
“It’s my understanding that the bridge has many guards, not all of them friendly,” he said.
“Makes sense to me,” replied Bryce. “As crazy as it sounds, it does make sense.”
“Unbelievable,” said Paige. “It took a bat out of a hole to make you believe this stuff?”
“And a priest,” he replied.
“What’s going to happen next?” asked Kristie.
“Well, we need to find the child, quickly.”
“You’re talking about Adria, right?” asked Tiny.
He smiled. “I’m not sure of the child’s name. Tell me about Adria.”
Tiny explained how they’d found the baby. “And the guy, or demon, whatever the hell he was… sorry Father, he believed that she was the ‘Chosen One’.”
He rubbed his chin and nodded. “Well, he could probably sense that she was special and a threat. Where is Adria?”
“We don’t know,” said Kristie. “Somewhere in the mall.”
“Let’s start searching,” said Tiny, picking up his gun. “Kristie, you and Paige come with me. We’ll take the top level. Justice, why don’t you and Bryce start at the bottom and we’ll meet in between.”
“I’m coming, too,” said Nora.
“You’ve been through a lot and I think you should stay here with Henry,” replied Tiny. “In case the kids come back this way.”
“Whatever you say.”
***
They split up and Paige followed Tiny and Kristie up the motionless escalators.
“I’m thankful that the lights are working, but these escalators are killing me,” she said after they reached the highest level of the mall.
“I’m surprised that there are lights,” said Paige. “They weren’t working last time we were here.”
“Somebody must have switched on the generators,” said Tiny.
“So, mom… did you notice that Nora’s acting weird?” asked Paige.
“Nora has always been weird,” said Kristie. “Hate to say it.”
“Well, something is up, because normally she isn’t so agreeable with everything,” said Paige.
Kristie sighed. “All jokes aside… she’s been through a lot in the past few days, Paige. She found her dad’s body and a demon possessed her boyfriend. That’s a lot to digest, you know? I think it’s safe to say that Nora has earned the right to act a little weirder than usual.”
“I suppose,” she replied. “It’s just that…”
“What?” asked Kristie.
She hesitated.
“Tell us what’s on your mind,” said Tiny.
“Well, what if the demon jumped out of Billie’s body and into Nora?”
Kristie stopped walking. “Don’t say that.”
“Think about it. He obviously did it to Billie. Why wouldn’t he do it to Nora if he needed to?”
Kristie turned to Tiny. “What do you think?”
He sighed. “As far as I’m concerned, anything is possible at this point.”
Kristie closed her eyes rubbed the space between her brows. “Well, I think we’d better watch Nora closely. If Travis is controlling her, then…”
“Oh, hell,” said Tiny. “I’d better warn Gramps and that priest, just in case.” He handed Kristie his gun. “You keep looking for the girls and I’ll be back up in a minute.”
Kristie looked at the gun uneasily. “Okay, but you know how I am with these things.”
He unlocked the safety. “Aim and shoot, babe, aim and shoot.”
“Okay.”
“And keep the gun down unless you actually have a target, mom,” said Paige, moving out of her way.
“Oh, sorry,” she replied. “Just get back up here soon, Tiny. I’m sure we’re being overly paranoid anyway.”
“Let’s hope so,” he said.
19
Cassie
“So, you
’re saying that Abaddon, A.K.A. Lucifer himself, is involved with the zombie apocalypse because he’s trying to flush out the ‘Chosen One’ and destroy her… I mean,” I smirked. “Me.”
“Give it a rest, you’re not the one we want, sweetheart,” said the man, smiling coldly. “Now, unless you want me to shoot one of you in the head, you’re going to accompany us back to the hole.”
Since he had the gun and I had no other option at the moment, I decided to play nice. For now. “Fine. Just don’t start shooting people.”
“Do as you’re told and I won’t have to,” he replied.
“Where is the other girl, Allie?” asked the woman.
“She’s long gone,” I replied. “I sent her away.”
“We don’t need her anyway,” said the man. “We have the child.”
“So, um… where have all the zombies gone?” I asked, trying to distract her.
“Do you really care?” asked the woman.
“Yes. It’s weird.”
“If you really must know… Travis sent most of them into the parking lot and away from the hole.”
“Why?” I asked.
“So they don’t fall in. Their entrance into the other realm might anger him, should they somehow survive the fall.”
“Lucifer?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said. “Anyway, once he enters this world, zombies will be the least of your worries.”
I swallowed hard. “Enters? Uh, when will that be?”
“Once the child is sacrificed,” she replied, her eyes glittering.
I glanced at Kylie, who looked ready to bolt. I mouthed the word ‘no’ to her and she sighed.
When we were about to round the corner leading to the hole, the woman stopped abruptly and then shooed us back.
“What is it?” asked the man.
“There are two people with the priest,” she said. “I don’t recognize either of them.”
He walked around us and peered around the corner. “I don’t either,” he said, frowning. “Look, why don’t you go over and find out while I watch these two?”
Zombie Games (Uncut) Boxed Set Page 76
