False Idols (After The Apocalypse Book 3)

by Gen Griffin

  He waited for me to nod before he continued. “Our morbid little audience is already starting to thin out. We'll make our move as soon as the rest of the zombies wander off.”

  Chapter 19

  A woman in the very last cage let out a small scream as Gauge and I approached the prisoners.

  “Shut up,” Gauge snapped. “We're here to save you.”

  The woman turned ghostly pale, but by then several others had noticed us.

  “Save us?” A man asked. “Don't you mean eat us?”

  “Not hardly.” Gauge bent down to inspect the joints where the cage bars attached to the frame of the cage.

  “Please, hush.” I'd wanted to start the rescue efforts by breaking into the cage that held my father first, but Gauge had decided to work on the cages in order. We were starting with the one closest to our hiding place in the shadows and then working our way up.

  It had taken a long time for the zombies to lose interest in Green Shirt's corpse and wander off. My joints were stiff from sitting so still in the shadows while we waited for our chance to be heroes.

  “Everyone stand back,” Gauge told the four people who occupied the cage. They had little choice but to obey him. He grabbed two of the bars on the far left side of the cage, one in either hand, and pushed. The metal held for the briefest of moments and then let out a squeal and a groan as it began to bend.

  “Can't you be any quieter?” I demanded as Gauge forced the metal apart until the opening was wide enough for the captive humans to slip through.

  Gauge shot me a nasty look. “You want to bend the metal?”

  “No, I'm just scared someone will hear us!”

  “It's a chance we'll have to take.” He was already moving on to the next cage. “Help them get out and then watch my back. Warn me if you see anyone coming this way.”

  I nodded at him and then turned my attention back to the prisoners.

  “Come on. Out of there.” I waved hurriedly at the people in the cage Gauge had just opened. “You have to hurry and get out before they catch us!”

  “Not that I don't appreciate being set free, but where exactly do you expect us to go?” The man who had spoken earlier asked as he wiggled out through the bent bars.

  “Go North,” I told him. “Find someplace to hole up and stay there for a while. You don't want to be anywhere near the city.”

  “No shit,” he replied. “There's about to be a war.” He hurried away from me and out into the night.

  The woman who had screamed was the last one to slip through the bars. “Thank you,” she said as she went.

  I nodded and went to help the next group of escapees make their way out into the night.

  Each cage went pretty much like the first. A few of the prisoners were afraid of us, even though it was far too dark for them to see the scarred wounds that marked us as zombies. Some escaped quickly. Others took longer to escape, almost as if they were unsure about leaving their horrible situation.

  I sympathized with their plight, but we didn't have time to be comforting or offer any real support. I thought about Seth saying that he saved people from the flesh brokers and then set them free, because saving them and agreeing to care for them for the rest of their lives were two different things. I remembered that I'd been annoyed with him the first time he'd told me that. I understood what he'd meant now.

  I didn't want the prisoners to die. I wanted to give them a fighting chance of survival, but the only one I was willing to be responsible for was my Dad.

  Chapter 20

  “Who are you and why are you doing this?” My Dad met Gauge at the bars of his cage.

  “My name is Gauge and I'm saving your life because it's the morally responsible thing to do.” Gauge grabbed the very last set of bars with his massive hands and began to twist the metal outwards.

  “They'll kill you if they catch you,” Dad told him.

  “They'll kill me if they catch me regardless of whether or not we set you people free,” Gauge replied. He tugged on the bars until they gave and then looked at me. “The zombies still ignoring us?”

  “For the moment,” I confirmed. It took every bit of willpower I had not to run to my Dad. Two months ago, I wouldn't have had the strength to stand guard while Gauge freed my father, but all of Seth's hard learned lessons had finally sunk into my brain. The emotional reunion could wait until we had time to indulge our emotions. What good would it do to save my Dad's life if we got eaten five minutes later because we were too busy hugging to run for our lives?

  Besides, Dad evidently didn't recognize me. Maybe Seth hadn't been exaggerating when he said my appearance had changed dramatically since I'd left the Cube. Two months ago, Dad's failure to notice me instantly would have hurt. Now I was more focused on getting out of the zombie camp alive. I'd have plenty of time to complain if we all survived.

  “Should we go?” The gray-haired woman was looking up at my Dad with almost painful adoration in her eyes. “Can we trust them?”

  A flash of anger rushed through my veins. Only my Mom was allowed to look at my Dad with such obvious affection in her eyes. He was our hero, not this gray-haired hag's. She had no right to cling to his arm the way she was.

  “We have no choice, Cecily.” Dad patted her arm. “You go ahead.”

  “I want you to go first,” Cecily whined.

  I sucked in a deep breath and bit my tongue.

  Gauge shot me a warning look. I held my tongue.

  “No. You go. Then Roger.” Dad pointed at a boy of about 12.

  “What about-?” Cecily gestured to a pile of blankets in the center of the cage. I blinked because I hadn't realized that there was a person laying in the rough cloth. Whoever it was wasn't moving.

  “We'll have to leave him.” Dad walked over to the still figure as Cecily hesitated. “I don't feel right about it but he's not going to survive being moved.” There was real regret on my Dad's face as he stared down at the injured person.

  “George, you can only do so much.”

  “He saved my life,” Dad said as he bent down. The blankets fell back from the man who was laying on the ground.

  The world around me swam out of focus and then crashed back into full technicolor.

  Gauge cursed. “Seth-. Damn. Fuck.”

  The man at my father's feet was Seth. His skin was as white as death and he had thick blood soaked bandages wrapped around his slender chest. His breathing was raspy and he appeared to be completely limp.

  “No,” I whispered as Gauge yanked the bars of the cage further apart so that he could reach Seth more quickly. “No. No. Please no.”

  “Pilar?” My father's face had gone ghostly pale as he finally noticed me. “Is that you?”

  Gauge reached his side and knelt down to put two fingers on Seth's neck. I didn't need to ask to know that he was checking for a pulse. To hell with guard duty. I bolted through the bars and rushed to Seth's side. “How bad is he hurt?”

  “Bad.” Gauge let out a soft whistle as he carefully prodded at the the bandages on Seth's chest. “Really bad.”

  I fell to my knees on the bare dirt beside Seth. His dark eyes were closed and then shadowed by even darker shadows. The scar that cut from his hairline to just past his cheekbone stood out in stark contrast to the pale pallor of his skin. I reached for his hand and found it cold to my touch. “No,” I whispered to him. “No. We've made it this far, you can't die on me. Not now. Not ever.”

  “He's your friend?” Dad had come to my side.

  I nodded, still clutching Seth's hand in mine. He wasn't moving. His eyelids weren't even fluttering. I didn't need to take his pulse to know that it was thready and weak. “He's the only reason I'm still alive. What happened to him?” The question was directed at my Dad and Cecily.

  Dad reached for my shoulder. Grief was easily visible in his warm eyes. “They've been making us fight to the death every night,” he explained. “Loser gets eaten alive by zombies. Winner gets to live to fight another night.�
��

  “That's barbaric.”

  “It was awful,” said Cecily.

  “My turn came up three nights ago. Your friend had won the battle the night before. He could have beaten me easily.”

  “But he didn't.” It wasn't a question.

  “He wouldn't fight me.” Dad's confusion was obvious. “I don't know why. He said I was the exception to his rules. That he'd never be forgiven.”

  I let a slow breath hiss out through the slight gap in between my front teeth. “I know why he wouldn't fight you.”

  My Dad looked at me questioningly. A slow sense of horror was dawning as I looked from my father's warm eyes to Seth's impossibly pale hand, cold and limp in mine.

  “He must have recognized you from my descriptions.” I spoke so softly that I was surprised anyone could hear me. “He'd been helping me search for you. He'd promised to help me find you. He knew I would never have forgiven him for killing you.”

  “It was kill or be killed in that arena. He could have saved himself if he'd killed me. It wouldn't have been fair of you to hold it against him.” Dad looked sick to his stomach. He squeezed my shoulder gently.

  “Seth...” I struggled with my words and the conflict that had been raging in my soul for the last several weeks. “I love Seth, but he killed Mom.”

  Dad stopped, whatever words he'd been about to say died on his lips. “Pilar, that's not possible. I was with your mother when she died.”

  “What?” I gaped at him.

  “Your mother got sick while Bud Moon was taking us to the meat market in Ra Shet. She died in my arms.” Dad tried to put his arm around my shoulders but I pulled away.

  “That's not possible-,” I started and then stopped myself. “She died? You're sure?”

  “Of course I'm sure.” Dad looked wounded. “I never would have left her side if she'd still been alive.”

  “We found her locked in a cell inside Bud's compound. She had turned into a zombie. Seth, well...Seth executed her.” Tears filled my eyes and then spilled down my cheeks.

  “Pilar, your mother died well before we made it to Ra Shet. If your friend killed her, all he did was destroy the shell of her body.” Dad seemed to think he was offering me a comfort, but the truth was that his certainty only made me feel worse. I'd been furious with Seth for killing my mother. I'd never stopped holding it against him, even after I'd been forced to admit that death was the kindest thing we could have done for her.

  The horror of the situation was just too much for me. I finally looked mutely to Gauge, pleading for help with my eyes.

  “What did they do to Seth when he wouldn't fight?” Gauge asked my Dad.

  Dad rubbed his brow. “Ronald Malls ran him through with a sword and then offered him to the zombies as a snack. I think that he thought the zombies would tear him apart the way they do everything else. He should have been easy prey.”

  “I bet that didn't work.”

  “No,” Dad eyed Gauge warily. “The zombies are afraid of him. Even with him wounded badly, they still won't go near him. You should know, he's not human.” Dad spoke slightly louder this time. “I don't know what he is-.”

  “The High Priest of the Church of Chaos,” Gauge replied almost idly. “And my friend.”

  “Oh.” Dad went silent again.

  Gauge touched a small burn wound on Seth's cheek. It was one of dozens that were covering nearly every inch of his exposed skin. “Who tortured him?”

  “Bud Moon and the Powers That Be,” Dad replied. “They wanted something from him. I have no idea what, but I got the impression he wouldn't talk. Ronald Malls and his flunkie, Halliday, kept pulling him out of the cage and dragging him off to somewhere. A few hours later they'd bring him back even more cut up. Yesterday they brought him back unconscious.”

  “Yesterday?” Gauge looked doubtfully down at the cage that was surrounding us. “Has he woken back up?”

  “No,” Dad said.

  Someone let out a loud scream from the direction of the trail the freed prisoners had been taking out of camp. I shuddered as Gauge caught my eye. A second scream echoed the first.

  “Sounds like the zombies just found a snack,” Gauge said. “I'm guessing we have maybe five minutes before someone figures out we let all their prisoners free.”

  “We need to get out of here,” Cecily said. “We'll die if we don't run.”

  “What do you want to do?” Gauge was looking directly at me. “Can we save Seth without sacrificing ourselves?”

  “I don't know. Why is this my decision?” My hands were shaking badly as I reached out to stroke Seth's hair away from his eyes.

  Gauge shot me an irritated look. “Because you're his second in command.”

  “I can't leave him like this, but I don't know what to do for him either.” I couldn't stop crying.

  “Pilar, you know medicine,” Dad reminded me. “You know about healing. I don't know what the circumstances are between you and your friend here, but I believe in your ability to make the right decision.”

  I took a deep breath, wiped the tears from my eyes as best I could and ran through the options in my head. It had been so much easier to be detached when I had been working on people I didn't know well and didn't really and truly care about. Making the right choice was a million times harder when someone I loved was the one at risk.

  And I did love Seth.

  Sitting here with my knees in the dirt and Seth's hand cold in my own, I was able to accept that I loved him. The admission hurt like hell, but watching him die was going to hurt far worse.

  “Did any of the zombies bite him?” I asked finally.

  “Not that I'm aware of,” Dad said. “I haven't seen any bite wounds on him and I think we've been pretty thorough in dressing his wounds. Most of the damage that's been done to him was done with a knife.”

  “What are you thinking?” Gauge asked. More screams were coming from the camp surrounding us. People were yelling. Zombies were running. The escaped prisoners had been discovered. We only had seconds to get away before we were discovered.

  I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. “Take my Dad and his -,” I hesitated with my eyes on Cecily, “-friends and go. Save them. Please.”

  “Pilar, I can't just run away and leave you here.”

  “I can't leave Seth.” My heart was pounding in my chest. “He's dying, Gauge.”

  More yelling. The zombies were coming closer. A man's voice called out that the cages were broken.

  “He wouldn't want you to die with him,” Gauge said.

  “Pilar, please.” Dad tried to pull me to my feet. “Don't make me lose you twice.”

  “I'm sorry, Daddy.” I threw my arms around him and hugged him as tightly as I could, only to pull away a second later. Tears were streaming down my cheeks as I turned to Gauge. “Take them and go. That's an order.”

  “Pilar-.”

  The zombies were heading our way now. I could hear their feet beating across the dirt towards us.

  “Now Gauge! Go!”

  Gauge hesitated. “What aren't you telling me?”

  “If Seth and I live, I'll tell you all the details.” I shoved him as hard as I could. He flew backwards, taking out the bars of the cage and landing on his tailbone with a thump twenty feet away. The entire side of the cage was gone. I turned to my Dad. “He'll take you somewhere safe. You can trust Gauge. He's a good guy.”

  Dad looked like he wasn't going to go, but Cecily grabbed his arm and gave him a tug. “She looks like she knows what she's doing, George. Trust her.”

  “She's my little girl.”

  “I can't focus on surviving if I have to worry about saving you,” I gave him a far more gentle shove than I had given Gauge. He didn't have the zombie durability that Gauge and I had so recently acquired. He was human. He was meat.

  Cecily gave my Dad's hand another tug.

  “Mom, George, we have to go!” Roger had joined Gauge outside the cage just as the first few zombies appeared in
front of us. Gauge ripped one rotting man's head cleanly off of his neck with his bare hands.

  “I love you,” Dad said to me.

  “I love you too,” I said.

  With regret in his eyes, my Dad grabbed hold of Cecily's hand and jogged for where Gauge and Roger were waiting on them. Two seconds later, they were gone into the darkness and I was alone with Seth and the zombies. The good news was that I was a hell of a lot smarter than the zombies.

  Chapter 21

  “The prisoners are gone!” A short, chunky female zombie had shoved her way to the front of the group that was rapidly surrounding the cages and arena.

  It took every bit of courage I had to keep standing nonchalantly next the cage I'd destroyed. I'd used the few seconds I'd had before the zombies arrived to cover Seth completely with the rough blankets and move him into the shadows near the edge of the cage. Now I pretended to be puzzled by the damage to the bars of the cage. I hunched down and acted like I was just another dumb zombie who had become fascinated by a warped metal bar.

  “How could they have escaped?” A male zombie wearing a plaid shirt demanded.

  “Does it matter?”

  “Maybe someone left the cage door open.” The zombie who said this was standing next to the destroyed cage. She was giggling. Blood was running down her chin.

  “We have to find them.”

  “Bud will be angry.”

  “Not if we get them back.” The first zombie was apparently taking charge. “They can't have gone far. We can find them.”

  “I just want to eat them.” The plaid shirted zombie licked his cracked lips hungrily.

  “You three go to the North and see if you can catch up to any of the escapees,” the lead zombie said. “The rest of us can go to the west.”

  “What if we're too late.”

  “Then we can at least tell Bud we tried to find them.”

  “Then we starve.”

  Zombies began to head off in different directions. I stayed in place. A hand grabbed my hair and yanked my head backwards. It was the female leader. She had bulging brown eyes and buck teeth. Her breath smelled like death as she glared down at me. “Didn't you hear me?” She demanded.