by Dan Kemp
"I'm not sure anyone else can. I'm not sure I can."
"Well," she said, her hand playing at his chest. "That's a problem for another day. Today is just you and me. Come on."
He forced a smile, clasped her hand with his own. When she stood, Hope offered him her hand and he took it, pulling himself up. In the corner of the cave, a modern bed and kitchen table were the only conspicuous reminders of the world from which they hid. She led him there and they kissed, falling together onto the bed.
They lay together for a while after. His bare chest was cold, and he pulled the blanket up over him. Hope was cradled under his arm. There was a faint smile on her face, her eyes closed and her chest rising and falling slowly as she drifted into a light sleep.
In this moment, he was happy. He had been for two years now, reunited with his wife after years apart. The relentless pursuit of the man who called himself Martin, who called himself James's son, drove him to force her away, fearing for her safety. When the world ended, there was no need for them to be apart anymore. Martin had won.
To be back together with her was blissful, but he was plagued by guilt. Every day he saw the world around him struggling to put itself back together. As he always had for so many years, he felt a need to help them. But this time he didn't know if he even could. Even worse, he was afraid of what he might have to do.
Hope stirred next to him, stretching her arm across his chest. "Do you remember that night?" she asked. "The night we were married?"
He laughed. The question was rhetorical, one she often asked him when he was in a foul mood.
It usually worked. "Of course I do."
***
Chaos raged around him.
Fire had engulfed the entire grandstand now, and bodies littered the dirt and grass of the racetrack. Those who still lived fled screaming into the distance. He knew that somewhere nearby Martin continued his assault, searching for him. The wretched creatures he had summoned continued their rampage. He knew that every minute that passed only meant more innocents dead.
Yet the only thing on his mind was finding her. The burning barn was crumbling, its doors blocked by fallen timber. He blasted the entryway clear with a pulse of pure force, which ballooned out before him, shattering the wood and sending embers dancing through the air.
Inside, smoke burned his lungs. Two horses were left in their stalls. Hope was there, fumbling at the door of one.
"Hope!" he screamed.
She didn't hear him. James ran over to her and kicked the first door, shattering its lock. The horse bolted from the barn straight away. Hope managed to open the second before noticing him.
"Hank," she said, then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
He caught her, heaving her up into his arms and carrying her free from the burning building. It was quieter now, the only screams being further off in the distance. They were the only two left alive here. He laid her on the ground, rubbing at her chest. She woke, hacking and coughing.
"What happened?" she asked. He hugged her tight, tears welling in his eyes.
It was only then that he realized Joseph was missing.
James led her through the town, where more fires burned and more people lay dead and dying. When they reached Joseph's house, it was like an oasis. In that small forest clearing, the only sound was the swaying of the trees in the wind.
"I'm going to find your father," he said, and left her there.
And he did, not long after. First James went from street to street in the town, dispatching what foul beasts remained, but there was no sign of Joseph anywhere. Martin was absent as well, for that matter, seemingly having given up and moved on.
On a whim, James wandered into the woods, making his way deeper into the dark forest by means of his own summoned flame. He heard the beast’s horrible roar and then he found it, still feeding on the body of his friend. James ignited in such a volcanic rage that the monster was incinerated in an instant. The conflagration left the trees aflame and James’s own skin singed. But Joseph was gone, and there was nothing more he could do.
Hope waited for him on the porch of her home. Her face fell as he approached, alone. James shook his head and cast his eyes down, unable to bear seeing her face. She cried out and fell to her knees. He sat beside her, arm around her shoulder, and tried to comfort her as she cried. After a while her sobs grew quiet and she slept on his shoulder.
They were together, but he felt alone. He knew that eventually he would have to leave her, or she would die, and he would be alone once again. All he truly had in this world was Martin, an evil man bent on destroying him. He wished for something different. That she could be with him forever, or failing that, that he would just die along with her. He wished for it with every ounce of his being, and after a while he began to wonder if he could do just that.
There was nothing he couldn’t do, James decided. He had given this life to Martin, after all, one way or another. Perhaps he could share it with Hope. He’d spent his entire existence trying to help others, and now James needed to help himself.
She stirred after a time. "I miss him."
"I miss him too, Hope. I'm sorry." To have lost both her mother and father so soon, his heart ached for her.
"I can't lose you, too."
He let slip a little laugh. "You'll never have to."
She didn't respond, but his heart began to race now. He felt an urge to do something he knew he shouldn't.
"I need to tell you something, Hope."
She sat up. "What is it?"
"I won't die, ever. I can't die."
"What do you mean?"
He freed his arm from around her neck and held his palm in front of him. An orange ball of flame appeared and she gasped. With his mind he twisted the flame, sent it spinning and rippling above his hand. He flicked his fingers and spurts of flame streaked up and fell down in arcs, leaving beautiful orange trails in the night air. Hope watched, her jaw increasingly agape. Then he pressed the flame against his other arm. The flesh sizzled and popped, but Hope didn’t scream. She watched intently as he removed his hand, leaving a blackened patch of skin, and she watched as the skin healed before her eyes.
"I can't die," he said again. "I've been like this as for long as I can remember. A very, very long time. And for most of that time I thought I was alone, but now I know there is another like me. But he’s evil, and I'm not. He's the man who attacked us today. The man who killed your father. I think... I think he only exists because of me. I made him like me. But I might be able to make you like me too. If I could, maybe we could be together forever. If I could... would you want that?"
All of this he had said while staring down at his own feet, and as he finished he finally looked up at her, certain he’d see a look of rage, an accusation of him being the one who ruined her life. Dried tears stained her cheeks, but she wore a faint smile.
“Yes,” she said.
Jess
There were twelve of them.
Men and women, all adults, but otherwise young and old. Two of them Jess recognized as having been in the truck with her. Each of them wore gray rags with a bold number printed on the chest, like the ones she had been given. Most of them looked terrified, huddled together in the center of the room. They were afraid of her, she realized. Behind her, the door hung ajar, the dead bodies of the two church members clearly visible.
There was no other way out of this round prison. The circular walls were concrete, and the only window was in the center of the dome, over twenty feet above.
"I'm leaving," she said. "Not here to hurt anybody." Nobody moved, so she turned to leave.
"Jess?"
It was a voice she recognized, but couldn't place right away. Jess turned back around. She was a young woman. Blonde, knotted hair hung past her shoulders. Her gray rags bearing the number two fell loosely around her body. She looked thin, weathered, tired.
"Meredith?" Jess asked.
She was crying now, and the girl ran forward to throw her arms around Je
ss. Jess held her close, stroking her hair as she sobbed and dampened the front of Jess's shirt. After a minute the tears had stopped and Meredith let her go.
"Sorry," she said.
"Don't be. Let's get out of here."
"How? Do you have the key?"
"No. Let's check them."
Jess went back into the small entry room. The woman's charred body was still sizzling. Her clothing had been melted and fused to her skin. If there was a key there, she couldn't retrieve it.
"Here," Meredith said, pulling her hand out of the man's pocket and handing her a key. Jess tried it, and the door opened with a heavy clank.
The other two guards seemed to have fled. As they emerged from the prison, there was no one else in sight. They were inside a small compound. The prison and a small brick house were the only two buildings inside the chain link fence. The truck which had brought her here still idled just ahead, its exhaust puffing away in the increasingly cold night air. The back doors to the cargo hold hung slightly ajar.
With Meredith a step behind, and her rifle in hand, Jess moved toward the truck. The door swung open easily. Inside, a dozen men and women lay dead, their bodies tangled and piled atop one another. As if they had tried, to no avail, to retreat further into the truck. Blood pooled and ran down toward the back doors. As she looked upon the grisly scene the first drops of blood began to drip off and splatter on the grass.
It wasn't the magnitude of the violence that enraged her but the senselessness. The guards could simply have fled alone. Instead they had executed innocent people, and for what? She slammed the doors shut.
"Come on, let’s go,” Jess said, starting toward the cab of the truck.
"We're taking this?" Meredith looked like she was going to vomit.
"I'd take another car if I could."
Jess climbed into the driver's seat and the two of them left the compound. The two women were silent for a while as she made her way to the interstate and headed south.
"You were with Rachel the night before this happened," Jess said. "Do you know what happened to her?"
"Oh my God," Meredith said. "I forgot. You never came home that night. Rachel was worried sick. What happened to you?"
"I was kidnapped. What happened the next day?"
"She was gone when I woke up. Left me a note saying to let myself out. I figured she went to look for you."
Jess was sure she did. "So you don't know where she is, still?" Meredith asked.
"No. I was held captive for a long time. I still don't even really know what's going on out here."
"Well, have you seen the dinosaurs?"
Jess laughed. "Yeah."
"Okay. That part's really weird."
"What else? Is everywhere like this?"
"I'm not sure. From what I've heard, society is pretty much gone everywhere. Around here, a ton of people died. Really there weren't that many people left. It might not be as bad some places though. I've only been around here. That's just what people told me."
"What happened to you after?"
"I got lucky. I was leaving the city anyway, after everything that happened I just wanted to get away. I was on the highway when everything went crazy. Things were alright for a while, people kind of worked together. But then when everything started running out, people weren't so nice anymore."
"What do you know about this church that captured us?" Jess asked.
"Not much. Some crazy cult. There's a lot of them now."
The gas light flickered on and caught Jess's eye. "We're gonna need gas," she said.
They took the next exit off of the highway and found themselves at a rest stop. There were a couple of cars which hadn't been stripped. Jess found a hose in a little shed behind the station and used that to siphon gas from a nearby sedan.
As the last drops were draining into her truck, she began to hear a rumbling. Shielding her eyes against the early morning sun she could see a van approaching, speeding steadily down the road toward them.
"Meredith, get back in the truck," Jess said, and Meredith did. Jess stayed outside, poised and ready in front of the vehicle. She did her best to look intimidating, desperately trying to conceal her own fear.
The van rolled to a stop close by. When the tinted door swung open, a man stepped out. A black hood was pulled up over his blond hair but it did not obscure his wide, overly-friendly smile. He wore leather armor that seemed to be accented with feathers. He extended his arms out in front of him, as if beckoning her to hug him. She didn't. Jess could see the silhouette of a few others inside the van, who didn't emerge.
"James greets you," the man said.
"Okay,” Jess said. “What do you want?"
"Only to ensure you are safe. These are dangerous times for two beautiful young women to travel alone."
If it weren't for what seemed to be the genuine warmth of the man's expression, she might have sensed a threat in that.
"What's the catch?"
"None. There are men enough in this world looking to help themselves. James seeks only to help others."
"Alright then. You help a lot of people?" The man nodded. Jess pulled Rachel's photo from her pocket and handed it to him. "Have you seen this woman?"
The strange man looked at the photo, then back at her, then at the photo again. His smile grew even wider.
***
Jess followed close behind the van. The strange man claimed he had taken Rachel to a safe place, and that he would lead her there. And though she felt hope for the first time in a long time, she refused to ride in their van along with them. She and Meredith followed in the truck as they went south, crossing into Maryland. They rode in silence most of the way, Jess still having the distinct feeling this could all be a trap.
They were on a narrow country road now, and their truck bumped and squeaked as they went. On the side of the road, a sign came into view. ‘Black Creek,’ it said. It was clear that it had previously said ‘Deep Creek,’ but the first word had been crossed out and replaced. They passed around another bend, and the town suddenly appeared before them.
The walls were massive, at least fifteen feet high, and two intimidating guardhouses sat atop the gate. The van pulled off the road into the grass, and Jess did the same behind. The man who called himself James was already out of his vehicle, walking forward and then standing at the foot of the wall, apparently shouting up at someone. After a moment he returned.
"This place is safe," the man said to her. "You will find her here, if you can get inside. Thanks to James's friendship they have agreed to speak to you, but I warn you they do not permit everyone entrance."
"They'll let me in," she said. "Thank you."
The man smiled, raised his arms and bowed his head slightly but didn’t reply. He climbed back in his van, and then he was gone. She and Meredith approached the gates, which began to rumble and open, grinding across the asphalt.
They were greeted by several armed men and women, who stood behind the gates with their rifles leveled at her. Jess barely noticed the guards. Behind them, a city had been built. Freshly paved roads and sidewalks ran along rows of stores and businesses. A grassy park was visible in the distance. Streetlights lined the walkways.
"Wow," Meredith said.
"Step forward," someone shouted, breaking her reverie. Jess did so, taking Meredith's hand and leading her along when she hesitated. The gates slid closed behind them.
"Come with me," said the man at the head of the group, lowering his rifle. He led them down the sidewalk and through a metal door into a room built into the side of the wall itself. It was surprisingly spacious inside. The room they were in now had several chairs and a table. A single lightbulb hung overhead, illuminating the dim space.
"You have electricity?" she asked. The man only laughed.
"Have a seat. He'll be here in a few minutes." He left, the heavy door closing behind him with a bang. Jess and Meredith sat. On the other side of the room, a narrow hallway branched off. Small holding room
s, like jail cells, sat on either side of the hall. They were all empty, as far as she could see.
No more than a few minutes had passed before the door opened again and another man entered. He wore a green bandanna and a black eyepatch over one eye. He took a casual seat across from Jess.
"I'm Kristof," he said. "I'm second in command of Black Creek."
"I'm Jess. This is Meredith. It's nice to meet you."
"So how did you find your way here?"
"We were on the road, looking for someone. A strange man, some cultist I guess, found us. Are you associated with them?"
"No. They call themselves the Disciples. They're fairly harmless overall. As far as cults go. We protect them, and they feed us information, and potential recruits for the town."
