“Kate,” I turned around to face him. “You’ve been a great friend. You’re a great soldier and I am proud to have known you.” I began sobbing and wanted so bad to hug him and say goodbye.
“Shouldn’t I be the one to say those things to you?” I sniffled and wiped the tears from my eyes, I had to gather myself together before I got back out there in front of them.
“So, the feelings are mutual my friend.” I said. “Just know that I am hugging you, in my heart.”
Dave knew he was Infected earlier when he told Tisha to let me sleep in.
I walked back out to the auditorium, my heart in my throat.
I heard Dave come out of the bathroom behind me and he went straight to the back pew that he was sitting in before.
I spotted Angel sitting in the floor in front of the alter with Teddy in her hands and she was talking to it. I could not hear what she was saying. Kimmy sat on the front pew looking bored, I guess because she didn’t have anything left to torture. She began to eyeball Teddy.
I started to approach Angel and take her into the other room for a while just to get away from it all. I was not comfortable with the fact that only a weak, old wooden door with a chain separated us from at least thirty undead. Just as I reached her I saw the neatest thing I have ever seen in my life as well as the meanest and the weirdest, all in the same ten minutes.
A little multicolored bird flew out from behind Jesus’s head and landed on Angel’s right foot.
She giggled and stretched forward to pet it. The bird hopped forward so Angel could reach it.
Then all at once, several more birds swooped down from the ceiling. The flutter of their wings creating a cool breeze that circled throughout the room. Many different kinds of birds and they all sat on or near Angel.
It was a spectacular sight, we were stricken with awe. There were probably a hundred or more. I had never seen so many birds at once. We laughed and giggled as well as they frolicked around Angel.
They tweeted and sung their little bird songs. They were lifting her hair in places and a few of them rubbing their faces on her cheek. She laughed and played with them. I felt like I was watching an urban rendition of Snow White.
We had all been glued to the spot watching this when Kimmy angrily got up out of the pew and ran over and screamed and stomped her feet, trying to scatter them. She pointed her finger at the birds and yelled, “GO AWAY!”
One little lavender bird flew right up in her face, making Kimmy go cockeyed to look at it. It pecked her very hard on the tip of her nose and blood welled up from the spot.
Kimmys face grew beet red with anger and faster than I could ever imagine a child moving, she snatched the little bird right out of the air and slammed it on the floor of the church. Then she smashed its tiny head in with the heel of her Mary Jane. We stared at her in shock. I don’t know why because this was classic Kimmy. We had just never seen her murder anything that was truly alive before. It was then that the weirdest thing happened.
The birds grew eerily silent and not a one of us made a sound. Every bird in the place had turned to look at Kimmy and cocked their little heads from side to side. Two of the birds closest to their fallen feathered friend hopped over and inspected it.
The others still were waiting in silence. It was so quiet in the church you could hear a pin drop. Even the undead were silent.
Both birds nudged it with their heads and began tweeting angrily.
Without warning every single one of those birds screeched at the same time and flew directly at Kimmy.
Their little beaks were pecking at her legs, arms, face and pulling her hair. Little drops of blood welling up everywhere that they pecked her. She flailed her arms trying to beat them away and screamed so loud. The birds had her completely covered now and we could only hear her screams. The dead in the room behind her became excited and began shoving against the door again. The wood crackled and splintered at the handles.
THE END
Dave ran up behind me and threw Tank’s jacket over Angel and scooped her up, we all seemed to break free of our trance.
Tisha grabbed Allen and ran to John. I screamed for Tank to grab the keys from the alter and Father Barrett sat there praying, making no attempt to move to save his self.
The doors were breaking open and they were shoving their bodies through the opening.
The birds continued to attack Kimmy and backed her into the doors. The undead that had not yet escaped began pulling her through the doors and her screams were deafening as they fell upon her, devouring her in a macabre feast.
The birds, satisfied that Kimmy was being punished, flew to the ceiling and disappeared in an instant.
I turned around to see where everyone else was and Angel’s Teddy was sitting in the floor, facing the room Kimmy was being consumed in, a perpetual smile on his face. I picked him up and scanned the room.
Dave was by the hall that led to the side door holding Angel and waiting for me. Father Barrett was being attacked by who I hoped was Diane. (The helper who he had betrayed) They both deserved their fate for being so selfish. I ran toward Dave and he handed me Angel.
“They’re all outside, now go! I’ll get your bags and toss them out this door. I won’t be coming back out.”
Angel put her little hand on Dave’s’ face and I pulled it away.
“No, Kate. It’s okay.” She replaced her hand on his face and said “You did well, Uncle Dave. You did real good.”
He smiled weakly at her and ruffled her hair. He looked at me for a moment and I could see several undead nearing him.
“Dave, they are behind you.” He pushed me out the door and pulled it shut. I ran to the red mustang that I so much wanted to see earlier and gave Angel to Allen who was sitting in the back.
Tank already had fired up the engine and it was purring like a kitten, a very powerful kitten, (I thought with delight) but quickly forgot the car when I heard the side door slam shut again.
I looked back and Dave had thrown my two bags out the door. I ran to pick them up and just as I snatched the straps and began to take off toward the car, the windows of the church blew out behind me and I realized that Dave had set off the grenades that he’d been carrying this whole time. I had forgotten about them.
I threw myself to the ground and covered my head. When I looked up through the smoke I could see the historical Ohio license plate on the cherry mustang. XCAP4U.
I pulled myself up and ran toward the car, I was able to throw the extra bag in through the window and Tisha tried to open the door to let me in. I pushed the door shut.
“There’s no room for me. You guys go on. “
“But Kate, I’m not leaving you. “ Tank said.
“Yes, you are. I’m gonna wait for Dave and we’ll be fine.” I winked at Angel “Take care of my girl. And if I’m ever in Ohio, I’ll look you up.”
Tank gave me a sad smile and said “I’ll be waiting on you.” With that he drove off the lot and turned left straight onto 75. The birds were now flying over head of them, as if they were leading the way. I felt that they would be safe.
I picked up my pack and pulled my gun out. I wanted to find Dave.
I searched the area surrounding the church. But I never found him.
In fact the church was completely destroyed. And I didn’t find the little purple heart that Kimmy was holding.
After I heal, I may go back and search again, but something tells me not to.
In my travels away from the church, I did encounter a few zombies, which is why my ankle is sprained.
I tripped over a tree stump as I was running backwards trying to shoot them so they couldn’t follow me. I got them, but I hurt my self pretty bad. I will be okay for now.
I washed the necklace Dave gave me in one of the small lakes in this cemetery. It’s shining very brightly as I wear it on my neck. I will never forget Dave.
It feels good to get all this off my chest and maybe I will survive. And if I do, I’ve got a
date with some friends.
book iii
angel
Part One
October 24, 2013
2:35 a.m.
Dave could not believe that he had mustered up the strength to scale the wall into the cemetery, only to find the gates were less than a hundred feet away, and unlocked.
He sat back against the large oak tree that hid him from view and pulled Allen’s iPod from his front jacket pocket. He found it on one of the pews and had meant to give it to him; but everything happened all at once and he had forgotten about it, until now.
It was still working and he had looked through the playlist. The kid had several great songs downloaded onto the device; he wouldn’t mind hearing a few of them. He inserted the ear phones and hit play.
Buried Alive by Avenged Sevenfold began its guitar intro and he could not help but cry
.
He had to take care of this and soon. He didn’t want to become a soul trapped in a dying body, but ultimately, that was all we were anyway. We are dying from the moment we take our first breath. The only mystery in death is when or how.
His own cause of death held no mystery for him any longer. He could feel the infection ravaging his body. His muscles have become stiff and sore, each step he had taken in the last few hours had been painful. His clothes were drenched with the sweat that continuously seeped from his pores, even at rest. His eyes feel as if they are bulging out of his head, there is a sour taste in his mouth and his head is pounding.
The latter could be the result of the gut wrenching bout of vomiting that he had succumbed to only an hour before. He had taken some of the ibuprofen that he had in his pack, but it did not help. He really didn’t expect it to, but he had hoped it would have at least taken the edge off.
He thought about what had happened at the church. He knew something was going to happen, he could feel the tension in the air; he just didn’t know it would unfold so soon. He was relieved that it had happened while he was still in the condition to help.
No one looks forward to that kind of situation, but when you know it’s coming, you really just want to get it over with.
He had managed to kill most of the infected inside with the grenades, but there were a few, very wounded stragglers, that he shot in the vast field behind it. He saw what he guessed was recently a sixteen year old boy, wondering aimlessly, his arm hanging by the skin, his face slack and jaw askew. He even thought he saw little Kimmy trying to crawl out of the building, hair and face on fire. He did not want to end up like that.
He thought about Kate and how much he still cared for her, he was grateful that she had escaped death this time around. Hopefully she would continue to do so. That is of course, why he gave her the cross, to help carry her though her journey. It had always worked for him, until now. So it must just be his time.
He had thought about the rest of them as well, he had seen the mustang drive off as he was running from the church. He prayed that they had made it to Ohio. As far as he knew it was their next destination, but with the way it is now; they could end up anywhere, or not make it very far at all.
He thought about his parents. He was adopted at four years old and he remembers the first time he had laid eyes on Jim and Brenda Fraley.
Their faces lit up with such joy, that he thought they couldn’t possibly be the cause of it. He was the cause, though. They were so overjoyed to be getting the son that they had wanted for so long.
They had let him do whatever he wanted, which wasn’t a bad thing, as long as it was within reason. They had let him be whatever he wanted to be, supporting him in every decision and every event.
They had been even more understanding when he began going through the phases of adolescence. He said he wanted to start a band, they bought him a guitar and a set of drums, his father had helped him set it up in the garage. When he died his hair blue and decided to wear all black, they had taken family pictures. They said that they had liked his style. They never refused him anything and he never gave them a hard way to go. They were awesome parents and he could not have asked for more.
When he returned home after learning how far the infection had spread so quickly, he had found his parents; already infected and they had tried to attack him with more speed and strength than they had actually had in life in over 20 years.
He had hoped that this virus didn’t mutate into a strain that will cause every infected to be so treacherous. If they mutate in this way in large numbers, no one has a chance. They are too strong and too quick, those who have managed to survive this long won’t have a chance in hell.
His parents change frightened him, saddened him and almost broke him. He pictured their sweet faces as they were in life and they melded into the rotting, bloody masks that they had become.
For a moment, he had wanted to collapse at their feet and let them attack him.
He would have rather died than to have to hurt them in any way, zombie or not. The only thing that motivated him was he knew that they would have wanted this. They would not have wanted him to give up so easily.
He had no choice but to kill them and at the time he had not yet had thoughts of them having a conscience, as he did now. It was ripping his heart out and he finally broke down in tears and released a grief stricken wail that he had been holding in for so long. He knows now, that they had understood why he had to put them down. They were in their own world of pain as well, and he knew that once it was done, they had been at peace.
He did not feel sorry for his self, the way things were going, he was sure that this world would never be the same. He wouldn’t miss a thing.
As the song came to its extreme climax, he didn’t waste another second, just as quickly as he had done everything else in life; he put his gun under his chin and blew his own brains out through the top of his head.
They splattered against the tree behind him and bits of his brain flopped off the bark and hit the ground. It had been such a powerful shot that blood that had covered the dying leaves of the tree and was now dripping back down upon his lifeless body.
8:15a.m.
If you did not know that more than three quarters of the population were now the living dead, it would appear to be just another gloomy autumn morning. The streets and sidewalks are wet and littered with leave and limb of the trees as they begin the process of shedding, to conserve their energy for the approaching winter.
The remnants of the latest showers were dripping from the tree branches as the cold heavy winds cause them to sway to and fro. The sun obscured by thick, dark clouds that threaten to unleash another heavy rainstorm before the hour is up and preventing its warmth from beaming down upon them.
It had rained so much in the past week you would think that it was in the middle of spring, but it is late October and the rain has an icy chill; it would freeze you to the bone if you were standing out in it.
The roads were slick as well and once again surprisingly clear. It should not have been that easy to travel the eleven hundred miles from Florida to Ohio. They shouldn’t have been able to get that far. Sure, there were times when he took a turn to try for a shortcut, but those areas were blocked and crowded with the dead, moaning loudly and reaching out as the headlights illuminated their decaying faces.
He saw them a bit differently now. He had heard the conversations of their being conscious and able to feel and at times, display emotion.
He remained quiet while he picked it apart and analyzed it. Coming to the conclusion that although they were still aware, they could not be allowed to survive. They would kill you no matter what their inner thoughts were, so they had to be destroyed.
Tank and his companions were still alive when by all rights they should’ve died many times over. Somehow, they have managed to make it. By the Grace of God, he was sure of it. There’s something about that little girl, too. He didn’t know what, but he felt that he had to protect her, though at times it felt like it was the other way around, like she was protecting them
.
‘Maybe she’s a real angel’, he thought, but why would God trust her to be safe with a gang of average sinners instead of a band of loyal Christians? He quickly scratched that question as he thought about Father Barrett. On the outside, he looked the part. On the inside he was as cold as ice. He had to be, to lock his entire congregation in a room with infected people. He entrapped them and they died what he was sure was a terrifying death, all to save himself.
Father Barrett had gotten the end that he deserved.
His thoughts then turned to Dave, it was a brave thing that he did, blowing up the church and killing the infected within to save them. He wondered if Dave had made it out and hoped that Kate was okay. It wasn’t likely.
She was in open field and they’d seen many undead as they drove away from the area. He didn’t know how much ammo she may have had left, if any. He had hated to leave her there.
They had travelled from the church in Tennessee, to Ohio with a flock of birds flying overhead most of the way, disappearing only after dropping a little purple heart into the hands of Angel. He normally didn’t think much about religion one way or the other but the birds made him lean a little closer to thoughts of an existing higher power.
They had stopped in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the parking lot of a place called Camp Washington Chili to syphon gas, and everyone got out to stretch. The area was deserted other than a few undead lumbering around in the BP and Shell stations nearby. There were quite a few cars in those lots but they were safer doing it in the chili parlor lot.
There were enough cars and if it just so happened that it wasn’t enough, they would have tried their luck with the other lots. Fortunately, they were able to get plenty.
The Last Days (Books I, II, & III) Page 15
