I tried again for measured calmness and laid on the bed waiting for what would happen next. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t have to wait for long.
I rested there, sucking the blood off my bleeding knuckles, feeling a cool breeze waft in from the window. I both contemplated fantastic and impossible escapes along with horrible deaths, feeling as powerless as I had ever felt in my life. It wasn’t a feeling I relished.
After about thirty minutes caught in the horrible theater of my mind, the adrenaline wore off and the sedative effect of the drugs took over and despite that fact that I was scared out of mind, I drifted off into a fitful sleep full of nightmares. Zombies roamed out of the cobwebs of my dreams, clawing the air, clutching for me as I stumbled around in a half daze. Like too many dreams, I moved in slow motion, fumbling in a endless black void. I tried to call out or scream, but all my efforts were choked off before they could leave my mouth as if there were no oxygen to carry the sound. I saw a dim light in the distance and made my way there, staggering along like a drunk. It was when I got close that I saw the horde coming my way. All of them were dead and all of them wanted me. When I turned to run back in the direction I come from, I saw another throng of undead coming out of the darkness. They swarmed around me, blocking every escape and I knew this was it for me, but the dream offered me no escape from my fate. The zombies closed in on me and each and every one of them took me apart, a piece at a time.
I jerked awake on the bed, not knowing how long I had been out, feeling disoriented with my heart hammering away in my chest. It took a good minute for my heart to ramp back down to something close to a normal pace, but when it did, I heard a door open in the hallway and several sets of boots coming down the hallway. There was no talking or any words spoken and that’s what made it even more disconcerting. The footsteps filled the hallway and someone stopped outside my door. I sat up on the bed and waited, trying to look nonchalant, but feeling a terrible unease in my gut.
I heard the jangling of keys followed by the sound of the key entering the lock. The locked clicked and the door swung open. Brother Jeb stood outside, his normal smiling self.
Some might say a smile is just a smile. Or they might say a smile is always a good thing, but there was nothing warm or inviting about this smile. Jeb’s was quite the opposite, in fact. A part of me would have preferred he be standing there with a scowl and a gun because I sure as shit didn’t trust that smile.
“Grant,” he said in a welcoming and smooth voice, “I’m so glad to see you fully awake.”
I restrained myself from saying anything smart ass and maintained a calm and even demeanor.
“I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind taking a walk with me?” he asked.
“Do I have a choice?” I asked, not able to withhold my smart ass tendencies. Hey, I deserve some credit for lasting that long, don’t I?
“Your humor is so refreshing,” he said with a slight chuckle. He nodded his head and Clint and the giant filled the doorway.
I put up my hands in surrender and said, “No need for that. I’m getting up.” I got to my feet and while I was considerably more stable than I was before my ‘nap,’ I still didn’t feel like all systems were one hundred percent functional.
Clint and the giant parted and let me me pass. There were four other heavily armed men along with Jeb, Clint, and the giant. All of them had on their game faces, their fingers tensed on the triggers of the rifles.
“I’m glad you decided to see it my way,” Jeb said, smiling again.
I grinned back, but both of us knew there was nothing happy about it.
“Let’s get the others,” Jeb said.
“Whatever you have to say, you can say it to me,” I said. “You don’t need to involve the others.”
“We only need a couple of them,” he said. He nodded to Clint who moved down the hall with two of the men to the door where I knew Dave, Joni, and the kids were. I took a step to follow them, but felt a vice clamp down on my shoulder, locking me in place. When I looked up to see what was holding me back, I saw the giant’s hand on my shoulder. He shook his head telling me to stay where I was. I considered trying to jerk away from him, but he had a hundred pounds and nearly eight inches on me and that didn’t take into account their guns. The odds for me to make anything other than token resistance were limited.
The two men with Clint took up defensive positions on each side of the door, rifles up, as he retrieved a set of keys and unlocked the door. Clint said something that I couldn’t make out. I heard Dave say something back.
“We want you,” Clint said, stepping back into the hallway and putting his hand on his pistol in his side holster.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere with you!” Dave bellowed.
“This isn’t a request,” Clint said with a full sense of command in his tone.
The tension level in the hallway went up about fifty percent and I could see Clint unsnap the holster strap over his handgun.
Another voice came from the room, “Oh I’ll go.” A moment later Joni bounded into the hallway, bouncing on the balls of her feet like a boxer. Her actions were so quick that it caused the men to take a step back in surprise. This all happened in a matter of seconds and the men did recover and took back the upper hand, but I had to admire Joni for her courage. I was glad that she was on my side.
Clint looked down the hallway and asked, “Who else?”
“Your choice, Clint,” Jeb said. “You chose.”
Clint stepped down the hall two doors and unlocked on door. “You inside, come out.”
“Who me?” a voice asked and I could tell it was Mo.
“Yes,” Clint said. “Get out here now.”
Whereas Joni came out with bravado and speed, Mo entered the hallway like a frightened sheep. I could see him shaking from where I was standing.
“What do you want?” Mo asked.
“Just a brief demonstration,” Jeb said as he nodded at Clint.
“One more,” Jeb said.
Clint unlocked the next door and opened it.
“Let’s move,” Clint said to whomever was inside. Robbie’s exit was a repeat of Mo’s, but he looked a degree less afraid. That wasn’t saying much because Mo looked terrified.
Clint gestured for him to join Joni and Mo to proceed down the hall.
“Let’s follow them, shall we?” Jeb said like it was a question, but it was really a command. I could have had resisted, but there was no point. I walked ahead of the men and joined Mo and Joni, with armed men in front of and behind us as we left the building into the light of the day. I blinked at it’s brilliance of the sun as my eyes watered.
There were more armed men outside along with a few women. Some of them joined in our little parade as the others hung back watching us. I didn’t see any kids, though.
I took in the buildings carefully as we strode down the narrow street that led through the compound. The buildings were packed together tightly. There was nothing about their exteriors that told of what went on inside them. I guessed most were living quarters, but one had the words “Medical Building” over its entrance and another was designated as the armory.
Armory? I thought. Why did these people need an armory?
I’m sure my question would be answered and the answer would bring about even greater reasons to fear these folks.
We cleared the main set of buildings and entered a field with tall grass, but our party walked on a broad dirt path with hard packed soil. A sparse amount of trees sat off in the direction we were headed with what looked like a steep drop off. I could see a wooden structure of some sort set between two stands of trees. From the distance we were away, it looked like stands for a baseball stadium. Steps led up from the sides onto a wide, central wooden walkway of some sorts that overlooked drop-off. There was a lot of room underneath the walkway to allow people to stand.
We made steady progress before I felt my guy tighten into a ice cold knot. I smelled them before I heard them. The
thick musty smell of decay smacking me in the face and taking my breath away. This could not be a good. No way, no how.
“What is that?” Mo asked as he choked a little.
“My God,” Robbie said. “That’s awful.”
I saw Jeb take a sideways glance to Clint who maintain a stoic expression. Something was shared between them, but I was unable to decode the exchange.
The moans came next. They seemed muted, but were unmistakable as the chorus of the undead.
“What is that sound?” Mo asked slowing his pace.
It was obvious that he had never encountered a large congregation of zombies. I wished I never had.
“Keep moving,” the giant said shoving Mo along.
As we got closer to the wooden structure, I saw strange emblems painted in red decorating it. Some were very cryptic, but there was one that was familiar. It was a simplified version of a Satanic pentagram.
Robbie slid into beside me and whispered, “Did you check out my phone?”
I nodded my head and whispered back, “What’s up with these people?”
“They’re a cult.”
“Yeah, I got that,” I said. Clint looked at the two of us and we shut up for a few seconds.
“They started one way and flipped,” he said.
“Flipped?”
“I thought you said you checked out my phone.”
“I did, but only a few pages.”
He rolled his eyes. “They were a Christian doomsday cult, then they flipped to the dark side.”
“Like Luke Skywalker going to the dark side of the force?” I looked to make sure we hadn’t met with any curiosity. “How does that happen?”
“Hell if I know,” he said shrugging his shoulders.
We ran out of real estate and were at the wooden structure. Getting this close made its purpose much clearer. It was a grandstand to look down into a pit. From the moaning and the stench, there was little doubt what the pit was filled with.
At the top of the grandstand, there was a walkway with railing that had a break in it. Stairs on either side led up to the upper walkway. Below were places for people to stand on two levels below giving them a good view into the pit. These lower levels were covered with chain-linked fences to offer those on the walkway a safe perspective.
Just as we got in beside it, Jeb mounted the right walkway and the men closed in on my group of people and left us little choice but to follow Jeb up to the top. The grandstand was solidly built and there was no sway at all. We ascended the stairs and were at the top in no time.
None of Jeb’s men spoke, but seemed poised for something to happen. There was an edge of tension in the air.
“Grant, I’m so glad you could join me here,” Jeb said not looking at me, but instead, taking in the expanse of the pit in front of the grandstand. It was a large pit at least forty yards across and maybe eighty deep. I would guess that it was around twelve feet deep and it was full of zombies. Their moans increased in volume and insistency as they reached into the air, clutching at us and clawing the air. It was as if wanting was the same as getting, but not quite enough as they teemed against the side of the pit in front of the grandstand.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“You’re here because we have something to offer you beyond your wildest dreams,” he said.
“You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about that,” I said. “That scene on the highway was a bit too convenient.” I looked over to Clint. “What do you have to say about that, Clint?”
Clint’s expression didn’t change, but he looked away from me.
“That’s what I thought,” I said. “Your guys were too relaxed and those cars blocking the highway were a bit too staged.”
“If you’re so smart, then why did you fall for it?” he asked.
I just shrugged. I was trying to being nonchalant, but my naivete may have cost us dearly. Of course, they could offer us milk and cookies and send us on our way, but I didn’t think that was going to be the case.
“You’re not here because of our ruse,” Jeb said. “You’re here because the Lord of the Air directed you to us.”
Robbie leaned in close and whispered, “That Lord of the Air, that’s Satan.”
“What was that?” Jeb asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“I’m not sure it was nothing,” Jeb said, his expression becoming serious. “You see, we do believe in the God above and we do believe the Bible. It is the good book because so many people think it tells the story of a great divide in the world between the light and the dark, but that’s not how I see it.” He paused for a moment. “That’s not how we see it at all.” Clint nodded his head as did a couple of the other men.
“We see the story as one continuum in which God granted dominion over the earth to the one lord. This is quite clear if you read your Bible.”
“That sounds like an interesting perspective,” I said. “I don’t think the mainstream would see it that way.”
His expression clouded over for a couple seconds, but then the sun came out from behind his darkness. “But they had it wrong,” he said raising his arms to the pit below. “This is more than obvious evidence that God has truly surrendered the world over to the Dark Lord.”
This was starting sound like a really bad Harry Potter book. When was he going to mention Voldemort? Whatever I was thinking didn’t stop him from continuing on with his sermon.
“When God cast the angel Lucifer down to earth, he gave him dominion of the seas and the land to do with what he wishes. It is through reading and study of the good book that I have prophesied the end of the world and as you can see my prophecy has come true as the dead now walk the earth.”
A couple of the men let out loud, “Amen’s.”
I remembered then that the website Jeb’s cult that he had proclaimed that the end of the earth would come in fire, most likely a meteor from the heavens or maybe a volcano. I didn’t think it was a good time to nitpick, though, and let him continue. I didn’t have much of a choice and he was on a roll working himself into a full oratorical lather.
“It is in Revelation, we are told to rejoice because the devil toils on the earth as his time in short. We know…”
...blah, blah, blah. He went on like this for another ten minutes with his men nodding and sometimes shouting out “Amens,” when the spirit hit them. The day was hot and after a few minutes, I started to feel a little drowsy. Maybe I wasn’t fully over being drugged or maybe he was boring the utter crap out of me. To stay awake, I scanned the surroundings to look for any chance of escape, but found none. There was either open fields behind us or the pit full of zombies in front of us. Making a break into the field would likely get me shot in the back Going forward was a no-win proposition as the zombies would chow down on me. So, I listened. He finally got interesting a few minutes later.
Jeb said, really getting into it, “In serving Lucifer, we really serve the Lord because He saw fit to put the angel Lucifer in charge of the planet. But Lucifer is a harsh master and deserves a sacrifice to keep us safe from the undead scourge. It is through the sacrifice to the unclean and unconsecrated that we remain holy in his eyes. It is through this sacrifice that the living become transfigured in a holy blessing that pleases our Lord of the Air.”
Now, I knew why we were there and I did not like where this was going. The word ‘sacrifice’ was being repeated too many times.
Jeb put his right index finger into the air and looked to me and said, “There is only one way to to avoid that sacrifice and that is if any of your group wants to join us in our devotion to the Lord of the Air.”
“Well, I’m not much of the joining type,” I said. “And I don’t think my group is.”
“That’s too bad because I don’t think you’re taking me seriously,” he said, his expression becoming dark as he nodded in my direction.
I heard the shuffling of boots on the wooden platform and spun around, considering a run across the field, but w
hen I turned, I came face-to-face with two rifle barrels, their dark, cold eyes staring at me, unblinking and deadly.
That last sentence must have been a cue for the men around us. They closed ranks around us, and two of them grabbed Mo by each arm.
“Hey, what’s going on here?!” he asked with a look of alarm.
“It is through sacrifice that we appease you Lucifer,” Jeb shouted.
“Take your hands off him!” I shouted and took two steps toward the men manhandling Mo. Those were my last two steps of the day as I felt something hard smack into the back of my head. A bright and colorful fireworks show of red, yellow, and orange went off in the back of my head as I went to my knees. The impact further jarred me and my world swam in a flurry of blackness with bright blue sparkles at the edge. I teetered on the edge of consciousness for an undetermined amount of time. I heard shouts and a couple screams, but they seemed far off and indistinct.
Through force of will, I fought my way back to the tableau before us and, in retrospect, a part of me wished I had given in and let the darkness take me When I finally turned my head (which was no small effort as it felt like my head was encased in concrete), I saw two of the men standing at the edge of the platform. Mo was slumped forward between them and looked worse than me. Blood flowed down his face freely and from a large gaping wound on his forehead. He wavered back and forth. One moment, it looked like he might fall backwards and, in the next, I was sure he was ready to fall forward into oblivion. Well, in truth, he’d be eaten alive in a ghastly pitstop before oblivion.
“It is now that we cast out the unclean as an act of propitiation. To atone for all the sins have committed against you, Lord of the Air,” Jeb shouted loudly, his head thrown back and his eyes nearly glazed over in a overheated fervor.
“Please accept our sacrifice!” Jeb yelled as he threw his hands into the air.
Forget The Zombies (Book 3): Forget America Page 6
