“There are too many,” the Rector said. “We can’t hold them back forever.”
He looked around nervously.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
The Rector ran to a room behind the lectern and retrieved two gas cans he was keeping. He poured the gas over the pews, lectern and anything made of wood. He poured until the cans were empty.
“Let the door go and follow me,” the Rector said.
Mike and Jane let go of the door and followed him. As soon as they did, the doors flew open and the dead surged into the sanctuary. The mass of inhumanity flooded in, growling, teeth gnashing and clawing at the air as they came. The ravenous hunger and desire to kill urging them forward.
The Rector led Mike and Jane to the back room and closed the door. He lit a flare, opened the door just a bit and tossed it onto a gasoline soaked pew. The sanctuary flamed up quickly.
“We have to get out of here,” the Rector said.
“You go ahead,” Jane said. “We’re already dead...”
“No,” Mike said. “We’re done, but we need to help him escape.”
Jane agreed.
Mike broke out a window and crawled through. He helped Jane and the Rector out and ran around to the side door and pulled it shut to trap the dead inside.
A few had escaped but they fell to the ground in flames and burned up.
Soon the church was burning furiously. The Rector was heart broken. He lowered his head, said a prayer and stood and watched the flames leap high into the air.
Finally Jane shook him out of his trance.
“We need to go,” she said. “We don’t have much time.”
“We can take you to where we’ve been hiding?” Mike said.
“No, I want to go to Saint Michaels,” the Rector said.
Mike and Jane agreed to help him get there.
“How bad are your wounds?” the Rector asked.
“Bad enough,” Mike said. “We’ve both been bitten.”
“Doesn’t really matter,” Jane said.
Screams broke up the conversation.
“Those are demons,” the Rector said.
“What?”
“Demons. It’s a type of zombie.”
“Fast zombies...” Mike said. “That’s what we call them.”
Out of the shadows sprinted a figure from the far side of the church. It screamed as it came. Jane opened fire dropping it. More screams pierced the air.
“Lets go Rector,” Mike said. “We need to hurry.”
Mike could already feel the sickness coming on. His head throbbed at every beat of his heart. The pain almost unbearable.
They set out at a trot. Twice on the way they stopped to shoot pursuing zombies. They made it to the church in ten minutes. Inside they spent the next twenty minutes barricading the doors and windows. When they were finished Mike and Jane collapsed to the floor.
“Here take this,” Mike told the Rector handing him his rifle. “Sit down and watch us. When we turn... shoot us in the head.”
“Don’t you think he should shoot us as soon as we die?” Jane asked.
“No,” Mike said. “I want to see what it’s like to come back.”
“You won’t know anything about it,” Jane said.
“We won’t really know unless we do it,” Mike said. “Lets wait.”
“Ok... we’ll wait.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” the Rector asked.
“Yes,” Jane said holding her hand out to Mike who took it and held it tight.
The Rector sat and watched them for an hour. They said very little. Finally within a couple of minutes of each other, they stopped breathing as the life left their bodies.
They were only dead for fifteen minutes. Slowly they began to stir. The Rector stood ready to shoot. They sat up and looked at him. He almost fired but hesitated. Mike and Jane made no move to attack him or be aggressive toward him in any way.
They looked at each other and grinned.
Struggling to their feet, they walked over to him and looked down at their guns. Mike grunted again and motioned toward his rifle. The Rector hesitated at first but handed them their weapons anyway. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.
Jane grabbed the rifle and gripped it tightly. She turned to Mike, pointed the barrel at his stomach and pulled the trigger. Mike grunted angrily, raised his weapon and fired a shot to retaliate.
“Hey!” the Rector shouted. “Stop it!
He pushed the barrel of Mike’s rifle down and scolded them both. He could swear a smile come across Jane’s face.
They stood in front of him grunting.
The Rector tried to communicate but came away from the attempt feeling they couldn’t understand anything he was saying.
At daybreak he led them up into the tower and positioned them at the top. He sat back and watched them scour the city streets as if looking for something.
Finally Mike raised the rifle to his shoulder and sighted in. The Rector stood behind him to see what he was aiming at.
Two blocks away were two demons approaching quickly from the Northern end of the city. Mike waited until they were one block away, pulled the trigger once, and again.
The Rector was surprised to see both demons drop to the pavement and not move again.
He patted Mike on the back. “Good job,” he said.
Mike turned to him, grunted and turned his attention back to the streets below.
10
Ghost Ship
-------------------------------------------悪魔死--------------------------“Mike and Jane took up exactly where they left off,” the Rector said. “Trying to clear the city of the dead...”
“They’re gomers,” Jimmy said.
“Yep that’s right,” the Rector said. “Gomers.”
“Weren’t you afraid they would shoot you?” Amy asked.
“Actually no,” the Rector said. “I wasn’t. I know that sounds crazy but I didn’t think they would hurt me. Quite to the contrary, I thought they wanted to help protect me and the church, and, as it turns out I was right.
“Amazing,” Amy said.
“They’ve been in the church tower ever since. Taking shots a targets of opportunity as I like to say. If they have a clear shot at a zombie, regular or demon, they take it. And they rarely miss. It happens sometimes but very rarely,” the Rector said.
“So they have enough control of their hands and fingers to do that?” Derek asked.
“Yes. They can’t reload the magazines though. I have to do that for them, but they can change from an empty magazine to a full one. Takes a while but they can do it.”
“Wow,” Derek said. “That is amazing.”
“Right,” John said. “High functioning gomers.”
“Yes but they seem to be more on auto pilot than making conscious decisions though,” the Rector said. “There is basically no communication. But sometimes you would swear they were still in there.”
“Exactly,” Amy said.
“Do they eat?” Jimmy asked.
“No but they like water,” the Rector said. “I take water up there to them. They’re not good at drinking it. Spill most of it down their chin.”
“Well,” John said. “They’ve protected us twice.”
“Have they ever tried to talk?” Amy said.
“No, they haven’t. Just a grunt now and then. I talk to them but they just kind of stare back with that blank stare you get when you talk to your dog.”
“So they’re like pets,” Jimmy said.
“I haven’t thought of it that way,” the Rector said smiling. “But, yes I guess you could look at it that way.”
“Have you seen any walking around ignoring everything around them?” John asked.
“I have,” the Rector said. “I’ve seen quite a few since I’ve been here. I call them drifters. We’ve seen them more the past couple of days. Mike and Jane never shoot them. Actually they don’t even seem to notice them.”
“Really? That’s strange,” Derek said.
“Any idea where they’re going?” Amy asked.
“No. I just know they’re all heading North. It’s like they’re on a mission and all going in the same direction,” the Rector said. “I’ve watched them from the tower. They walk right through groups of regular zombie like they’re not even there. They ignore them completely. I’ve watched until I lost sight of them. It’s a mystery to me.”
“Weird,” Derek said.
“So,” the Rector said. “How did you wind up back here?”
“Well...” John began. “The day after the fire, we decided to we needed to leave.”
“Demon activity was getting out of control at the lighthouse,” Derek said.
“We heard a broadcast from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that was conducting rescue operations off the coast,” Amy said. “They were heading our way.”
“Ah...” the Rector said pointing to Shanna. “So that’s where you came from.”
Shanna nodded.
“We thought you were dead,” Derek said, “or we would have come after you before leaving.”
“So,” John continued, “we went back to the boat, took it to the marina at Patriots Point, then went from there to the TV station. There was a news helicopter there.”
“We checked it before we went to Sullivan’s Island,” Derek said. “Just in case...”
“Right...” John said. “Anyway, we got the thing started and flew out to the aircraft carrier.”
“Yeah, after a bit of a struggle with one of the dead trying to get aboard and fly out with us,” Amy said grinning.
“A demon tried to crawl in as we were leaving,” John said. “Amy shoved a flare down its throat and literally kicked it out of the helicopter.”
“Nice...” the rector said.
“To make a long story short..., John said, “We made it onto the carrier, got settled in, went to sleep then woke up three hours later to alarms going off.”
“Why the alarms,” the Rector asked.
“Right before we took off from the TV station, we were attacked by demons. I felt two jolts against the helicopter. That’s when I think they crawled into the cargo hatch.” John said. “Evidently Demons stowed away on our helicopter and caused an outbreak on the ship. It spread like wildfire...”
“What happened to the ship is our fault,” Amy said.
“You can’t blame yourselves,” the Rector said.
“We know,” Amy said. “But that doesn’t make us feel any better.”
“It took a while but we managed to make it off the ship by taking one of the Seahawks,” Derek said.
“What happened to the ship?” the Rector asked.
“By the time we left the dead had taken over,” Derek said. “There was nothing we could do. So there is an aircraft carrier out there somewhere manned by the dead.”
“I’m sure there were survivors trapped in the ship but we couldn’t save any of them,” John said. “Had we waited any longer, we would have been overran.”
“And by any longer we’re talking about a matter of seconds,” Amy said. “They were that close.”
“So that still doesn’t answer the question of why you came back here,” the Rector said.
“Familiarity,” John said. “We know this area.”
“Plus,” Derek added. “Our plan was to fly over the church to check it out then go back to the Yorktown and try to set up there for a while.”
“But we suffered engine failure and crashed in the cemetery,” John said.
“Are you still planning on going to the Yorktown?” the Rector asked.
“I don’t think so,” John said. “Our plan was to stay there temporarily then move on to a permanent location.”
“And what permanent location would that be?” the Rector said.
“We don’t know,” Amy said, “maybe somewhere inland.”
“What is the plan?” Shanna asked.
“That still has to be determined,” John answered.
“You should go with us,” Amy said to the Rector.
The Rector laughed. “No... I don’t think so. I told you before, my place is here at the church. It may be a different church but it’s still a church. It would take a drastic change of circumstances for me to leave.”
“Well...” Shanna said. “I vote we leave now. I don’t like it here. We’re trapped.”
“We’ll decide as a group,” Derek said.
“Group my ass,” Shanna shot back. “You mean you two will decide for the rest of us. I’ve seen this dog and pony show before.”
“Actually that’s right,” Amy said sternly. “I will go along with what they decide. So that’s three against one. We have the votes. So... you’ll either go along with it or go on your own.”
Shanna shot her an evil look. “Maybe I will. And you can just be the little damsel in distress and let the big tough men take care of you.”
Amy walked up to Shanna and stared her in the face for a moment. “You know,” she said finally, “you can run your mouth to them all you want and they’ll just roll their eyes, but make no mistake about it, if you continue to run your mouth at me... this weak little damsel will beat your ass.”
Derek stepped in between them. “I’d like to see that,” Shanna said.
“Keep it up and you will,” Amy said and turned to walk off.
“Ladies,” the Rector said taking Shanna by the elbow. “Lets sit down and relax.”
Shanna jerked her arm away and retreated to a nearby pew. She felt like crying but held it in. She didn’t want them to see just how afraid and insecure she was. She had spent her entire life holding in her emotions and thought now wasn’t the time to show weakness. She felt ashamed of the way she had been acting.
The rest of the day was spent resting with a little small talk here and there but mostly the group sat quietly.
Just before sunset John went to the tower with the Rector to check on gomers Mike and Jane.
John looked at Mike. “Hey... you remember me?”
Mike grunted. Jane looked at him but quickly turned her attention back to the street below.
“Guess not.”
As they turned to leave Mike stepped in front of them blocking the way out of the tower.
“Excuse me,” John said.
Mike held his ground. John stepped back, not sure what he was up to. The gomer turned toward the sea and grunted again.
John turned and to look. “Holy shit!” he said. “You see that?”
“I see it,” the Rector said.
“I need to get the others. Please get out of the way,” John said pushing the gomer politely out of the way.
He raced down the stairs. “Hey, you guys better come see this,” he said.
“What is it?” Derek asked.
“Just follow me.”
Everyone but Shanna got up to follow.
“Shanna I think you’ll want to see this too,” John said.
Shanna shrugged and stood to go with them.
John led them to the tower. Mike and Jane stepped back and watched them with droopy eyes. Mike grinned at Shanna. She backed away.
“Freaking creeper,” she mumbled.
“He’s harmless,” John said. “Just ignore them.”
“Yeah, you’ll think that when he bites a chunk out of your face,” Shanna shot back.
John shook his head and pointed to the horizon. “Look,” he said.
Heading into the harbor was the USS Harry S. Truman.
“Oh my God,” Shanna said. “It’s the Truman.”
“Wow,” Derek said. “A ghost ship...”
“Right...” John said. “And it’s at full steam.”
White foam spread out from the bow as the huge ship plowed through the water at top speed.
“It’s not slowing down,” Derek said.
“That’s because there probably isn’t anyone at the helm,” John said.
The huge ship passed between Sullivan’
s Island and Fort Sumter drawing closer and closer.
“It’s heading straight for the battery,” Amy said.
The sounds of the ship churning through the shallow waters reached the tower. Mechanical groans could be heard clearly through the cool evening air.
John raised the binoculars. He could see the flight deck of the ship. The news helicopter and the two Seahawks were still strapped where they had been earlier that morning.
The F-18s were parked along the angled deck on the port side of the ship. The flight deck crawled with the dead.
They watched in silence as the ship drew near. It approached the battery with the full force of the steam generated by its two nuclear reactors and four five bladed screws.
Water and dark mud flew into the air as all ninety seven thousand tons of ship plowed through the muddy bottom of the harbor.
A tsunami of water and mud raged over the sea wall. Oyster shells, sand and other debris spread out over the battery walk.
The ship finally came to rest after the right front corner of the flight deck took off the corner of the three story Historic Charleston Foundation building that sat by the waters edge.
One of the F-18s broke loose from its tie downs, slid over the side, bounce off the seawall and crashed into a house across the street. John was amazed it didn’t catch fire.
“So much for humanity’s last chance,” Amy said sadly.
“Right...”
The left corner of the flight deck stuck out ominously over East Bay Street.
The four screws continued to churn up the bottom of the harbor creating a geyser of dark water and a horrendous racket.
“Wow...” Amy said finally. “That’s amazing.”
“Yeah...” John said. “After all we went through to get away from that ship... here it is.
John checked with the binoculars again. Where the ship came to rest was less than two thousand feet from the church.
Except for the one F-18 the rest of the aircraft were still strapped in position. The walking corpses on the flight deck had been knocked off their feet. Some were thrown completely off the deck.
The ship was brightly lit by the reddish orange lights illuminating the flight deck.
The huge screws finally slowed and stopped turning. Muffled metal on metal grinding could be heard.
“What’s that?” Derek said.
“I would imagine that would be the sound of the gears and shafts for the screws failing due to heat and the force of the blades hitting the bottom,” John said.
The Demon Dead: Troubled Waters Page 10
