Separated

by Michael Blue

  Erlina explored off to the front of the church from where Joshua and his mother were. She had spotted a piano, a real piano. Immediately, Erlina walked over to the front of it and uncovered the keys by lifting the fall board. Carelessly, she blew the dust that grew on the keys and fanned her face with her small palm as they drifted to her face. Joshua crossed his arms and leaned on nearby pew. He observed her curiosity, and snickered after she coughed a couple of times from inhaling the dust. She ran her fingers back and forth on the piano, leaving finger prints through the dust. Some of the keys made sounds, but some didn't unless she pressed hard enough.

  "Guess it's broken," She said examining the other parts of it.

  "It needs tuning," Pamela corrected.

  "How long has it been since you've played a piano?" Erlina questioned before stepping down the small stage.

  "Well, the last instrument I played was a guitar. I was really good at it, you know?" She continued, "I even wrote my own song,"

  "About?" Joshua questioned slightly intrigued.

  "God," she said smiling.

  Joshua's face returned neutral before releasing a sigh, and walked off. There was much more to explore in the church. It definitely looked much larger inside than it did outside. In the back of the church, there were two large glass doors that led to a dim corridor. Pushing his way past the doors, Joshua cautiously looked around in case any Infected were around. Both Pamela and Erlina watched him walk further into the darkness of the church and didn't bother asking any questions. Feeling in an awkward position, Erlina looked at her aunt with her hands nervously folded.

  Joshua continued walking quietly, so far, this town had to be one of the worst. There was barely anything, and the town was stripped of any "valuable" items from the looks of it. While walking through the corridor, Joshua missed his step, nearly tripping on a torn part of the damp carpet beneath him. There were two doorways that let to other parts of the church, one was labeled, "Baptizing Room" and the other were labeled, "Library". Both doors were locked when he tried wiggling the knobs. Already, this was getting them nowhere. Joshua could tell from the start that it was useless coming to this place. He bet it was a ghost town even before the pandemic. The further Joshua walked down the corridor; he made it down to a more open area. In front were numerous stair cases that led to the top floor of the church. To his right was a woman's room and to his left were some stairs that led to a lower exit and also led to a basement.

  "There's a woman's room here!" Joshua shouted as his voice echoed through the room, "Just in case any of you guys got to go...I'll be checking out downstairs,"

  Immediately, Pamela looked up at him and inched closer from where she was standing,

  "I don't think we should be separating."

  "I'll be fine. Just stay with Erlina," he said waving his hands in the air, shooing them back as if they were pestering pets.

  Erlina walked off from Pamela and fixed her spectacles upon her noise. She sat at the very edge of the pew and nervously looked up at her at. Sometimes, she hated when Joshua would become so distant at random times. It was annoying, and even though Aunty Pamela never really showed it, she could tell it bothered her.

  * * *

  Josh travelled down the steps and eventually made his way to the basement. Since the lights were out, it was really dark. The only light that made its way in was the clouded sunlight from the outside. The basement had little classrooms, and each room had two or three small windows that sat just near the ceilings. Either way, Joshua couldn't see much with his flashlight off, so turning it on was the first thing he did. The further Joshua walked in, the harder a disgusting smell hit him in his face. It smelled like something was rotting, and Joshua couldn't help but slap his face and clench his nose. He began coughing and gagging, and held the wall in order to hold him up. Holding back from vomiting, he covered his nose and mouth with his elbow. He spat in the far corner of the stairway and closed his eyes that were tearing up from the pure unsettling feeling of wanting to throw up.

  Constantly scaring away flies that flew around his face, it meant that there was something decaying down there. It couldn't have been an Infected because spores would've swarmed the place. Josh just completely denied that fact, or didn't want to believe, that it could have been a human. The more Joshua looked around the place, the more he caught noticeable supplies. Walking into the bathroom, he saw what appeared to be medication and soap that looked recently used. He didn't want to take anything just yet. Backing out, he walked into another room that was across from the bathroom. The door was unlocked, and Josh easily pushed it open, revealing selves full of canned goods. Some were already sitting on the tables, opened with empty beverages, mostly beer.

  This is where Joshua's contemplating began. He stared at the foods and wondered if it would be wrong taking some food from these people. He began to ponder whether these survivors could have children. All Josh could do was take three cans of canned peaches and some stale peanuts. It wouldn't even make much of a difference. He bit his lip and thought very hard until he came to the conclusion that taking it should mean no harm. Joshua rushed into the room, and threw off his backpack unto a table nearby. Unzipping it, Joshua threw in canned goods of baked beans, peaches, and vegetables.

  "Yeah...that should do it," he said sighing in relief, examining the foods along with his extra pair of rolled up pants, some scraps of paper, and matches.

  Hastily, he zipped up his bag and tossed it back unto his shoulders. Marching out the room, Josh closed the door behind him. Turning the opposite direction, there was another door that seemed much more different than the others. It was large and black and it was labeled "boiler room". Curiosity killed the cat, was a term that Josh hadn't heard so much. He had a bad feeling in his gut literally and figuratively. The more he neared the door, the decaying smell grew immensely. He covered his nose with one arm and pushed the heavy door open with the other. Immediately, flies swarmed the room.

  "What the hell...?" he said, afraid of what he were about to uncover.

  In plain sights was a butcher table with a bloodstained knife pierced into it. At this point, Joshua was trembling. His shaking hands couldn't let go of the door knob, and it rattled within his thin grip. His breathing became very unsteady and it intensified when he noticed a trail of blood leading to a small room in the back, and the streaks of blood made a left. Joshua slowly followed it, passing the butcher table with caution, and then stopping. Before making his to the back room, Josh looked down at the two steps that led to it. He anticipated at first, but he needed to know what kind of territory he and his family were in. With his instincts overcoming the fear embedded in his bones, he walked down and turned his head to the left. Noticing an old furnace and multiple corpses stacked near it.

  In complete shock, Joshua nearly lost his mind and fell backwards, tripping over another corpse that seemed to be looking right up at him. He crawled backwards, and kicked quickly until he rammed his head and back into a wall, and began hyperventilating. It had nothing to do with how much dead bodies Josh had seen in the past. He had killed and seen enough bodies' equivalent to a graveyard, but this picture was too gruesome for him to cope with. It was all women and children with decimated corpses. You could tell they were tortured souls and Joshua began sobbing at the thought of his mother and younger cousin. The thought of just being here made his upset and desperate all at once.

  "Oh my god," he said placing his palms on the blood stained floor.

  His arms were trembling and struggled to bring himself to his feet. Missing limbs, fingers, and toes? These people were fucking animals. Unfortunately enough, something terrifying alarmed Joshua and he listened closely. It wasn't an Infected, but something much, much worse. Sharply turning his head, Joshua heard yelling upstairs. Erlina shrieked and his mother shouted her name, then there was a gunshot.

  "Fuck! No!" Joshua said sharply to himself. Quickly making it to his feet, he dashed out of the room to run to his family's aid.
r />   Autumn

  * * *

  Erlina was beginning to get impatient, something that was so rare. The young girl stood up and paced around for a moment or two, meanwhile her aunt, Pamela, looked around for interesting things to read. Biblical tracks were some things she found pretty interesting. However, before the two both got carried away, Erlina asked the important question.

  "What's taking Joshua so long?" she questioned.

  Pamela looked over her, regaining back her attention.

  "I don't know what he's looking at, but he's going to need to hurry—"

  Coincidentally, Erlina had hit the survivor switch just in time. Before she could finish her sentence, Pamela turned over to see two colossal men entering the church and looking right at her, both appearing dumbfounded to see two females in the area. Frightened, she stood in place. Erlina immediately pulled out her bow and yanked an arrow out from her quiver. She aimed back and forth at both men and nervously shuffled her footing.

  "Put your weapon down, niña," The first man spoke with a strong Mexican dialect.

  He was an attractive, tan, heavyset, bald-headed man with a short beard that covered his entire jawline and chin. He wore black pants and a plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves that exposed his massive tattooed forearms. He had a beer belly that reminded Erlina of a lumberjack, and ironically enough he had an axe strapped to his leg, but he wasn't only chopping wood from the looks of it.

  Erlina didn't answer nor did she listen.

  Pamela was the first to speak. Meanwhile looking at Erlina, she gave the gesture to lower her weapon.

  "Settle down," Pamela said looking back at the two men, "We don't want any trouble..."

  "Should've thought about that before you broke into our base," The second partner spoke.

  He was somewhat smaller in width compared to the lumberjack but was definitely older. He had on a leather coat and denim pants and black boots to match his coat and dirty black banana. He resembled more of a man affiliated with a biker gang.

  "We didn't break in. The door was open," Pamela elaborated putting her hands up in defense.

  "Liars," He replied.

  "We aren't lying," Erlina said aiming with her bow and arrow again.

  "Erlina!" Pamela said sharply once again for her to lower her weapon.

  "Please," Pamela said beginning to beg, "Just let me call for my son and then we can leave...we were just travelling and making stops."

  Just as both men were going to speak, a look of surprise appeared on their faces. Out of the blue, a man from behind grabbed Erlina and placed his dirty, smelling hands to cover Erlina's mouth and nose to prevent her from breathing and possibly knock her out, which was the biggest mistake her could've made. She was fighting for air and had to do something to protect herself. Getting a good clench with her teeth, Erlina bit through the flesh of the stranger and used both arms to grab hold of the top limb of her bow.

  "ERLINA!" Pamela shouted. Quickly, she pulled out her beretta and the two other men immediately ran to get her from behind. She saw them running, but that wasn't going to prevent her from protecting her niece.

  With all her strength, Erlina smashed the lower limb of the bow in the strangers face and he stumbled backward. Going in for another swing, the man quickly stood up and threw off her sway by knocking away the weak swing with his much superior strength. Using his other arm, he smacked Erlina with an almighty blow and sent Erlina twisting into unconsciousness. Grunting, she hit the floor with impact and her bow hit a pew beside her.

  Enraged, Pamela pulled the trigger of her handgun and shot the sucker right in the neck. He held his neck in pain and began gurgling blood and gasping all at once. He choked as his neck bled out and he fell to his knees and completely slammed to the ground, his body not being too far from Erlina's. Both the lumberjack and biker ran to Pamela and held her back from taking another shot at either of them,

  "No! L-let go!" she shouted and jumped trying to fight free from their overwhelming grips.

  Eventually, one of them got hold of her beretta and easily knocked her out by knocking her right on the head. Falling to the ground, she could feel a dark haziness completely taking over her sights before she could even close her eyes.

  * * *

  After hearing the gunshot and arguing between the two comrades Joshua managed to make his way up another stairway. Silently climbing it, it led right back to the entrance of the church and nearest where they had entered the chapel. Strangely, one of the entrance doors were wide open. Staying crouched in the very corner, Josh peaked out in the chapel to see his mother laid out on the floor. Thankfully, they hadn't noticed him. Josh cursed, not knowing how to get his unconscious mother and Erlina out of there unless it meant getting himself in a really bad fight, or possibly killed. Erlina was nowhere in his sights, maybe she went looking for him? He thought. To the sound of their voices, Joshua faltered back into the shadows like a predator examining its prey.

  "Dammit, man! I can't believe Hugo had to go ahead and do something stupid like that!" the one resembling a lumberjack exclaimed.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I was thinking we could let them go before this dumb ass had to ruin everything!" He paused and rubbed his temples, "Man, how the hell did he even get in here without us noticing?" he questioned, "He was just with us outside a few minutes ago."

  "Yeah, I was thinking we could've released them, too. He must've heard the talking and entered through the back door or something. I'm tired of doing bosses dirty work."

  "Dammit! He just had to knock that innocent girl out and get..."

  Immediately, Josh lost concentration on the conversation and he realized why he couldn't see Erlina. Bringing his head lower to the ground, Josh could see underneath the pews, and there Erlina was: knocked out on the cold floor while she bled from the corner of her bottom lip. Josh fought back the tears and hesitated to reach for his gun. Should he surrender? What was he going to do?

  The biker man continued speaking,

  "It's too late now. Doubt boss is going to let any of them free..."

  "Man, I just want to get back to the camp and spend time with my family. None of this is worth getting my life taken from me. I miss my son."

  "Shit! She said she had a son, remember? He's not going take this lightly. Keep your guard up, we'll talk about this later! If your find him try reasoning with him,

  "Too late, assholes..." Joshua whispered to himself.

  Josh crawled out from his corner and began sneaking through the chapel and both morons followed one another towards the back. Listening closely, they eventually began searching through the women's room and made their way down stairs to the basement. To keep a low profile, he walked around the perimeter to avoid being spotted by them and Joshua eventually picked up his speed and quickly crawled to his mother's body.

  "Mom!" he whispered, roughly trying to awake her, "Mom, get up!"

  There was no response. While he squatted beside her, he held his temples and closed his eyes for a brief minute. He felt like he was in a pit of darkness, not being able to see what path to take or what choices to make. He felt weak and alone, something that was new for him. Josh had no idea on what to do. Carrying both his mother and cousin were out the picture and his mother was a couple pounds heavier than he was. He could try, but it would've meant some serious back pains. However, if that's what it meant; then screw it, he didn't care. He shuffled through his mother's pockets, remembering she had placed the car keys in her pockets. Quickly enough, he found them. They rattled like a toy, but they made a lot of noise. Quickly, Joshua put them in his pocket to keep them from alarming the others. Just in time, Josh heard the two men slowing making their way up the staircase by the entrance.

  "We'll he isn't down there," he heard one of them say.

  Getting up on both feet, he ran off towards the back to escape through the back exit. Passing by Erlina's body for a split second, he looked down at her and bent down to touch her face,

&n
bsp; "I'll be right back," he said.

  Picking up the pace, Joshua kicked the dick that put his hands on his younger cousin; the one they called Hugo. After two to three kicks, it wasn't difficult to tell that Josh broke some of Hugo's ribs, and that was relieving enough. Caught by surprise, Josh remembered the two men just made their way up the stairs. Quickly, he couched just before one of them managed to glance in the chapel room.

  "Let's check upstairs," one said.

  By this point, Joshua crawled down the stairs that led to the back entrance. Stealth was something he was practically skilled in, but it always surprised him when he outwitted his enemies; it felt rewarding. Quickly enough, Joshua pushed the bar that was on the large door that enabled him to make his way out. As the door closed slowly behind him, Josh still stayed crouched and listened closely. Looking around, he saw no one in the area. It was safe, for now. Josh got the idea that he had to hurry or else his mother and cousin would end up like the women he saw in the basement. The thought of it made him sick to his stomach, nearly gagging. He started running his quickest, beaming by the side of the church. Reaching the very edge, he hesitantly poked his head out around the corner to see if any other enemies were in the area. He scanned every bit of the area and saw nothing suspicious. Immediately, Joshua took off like a rocket. Going on to a full sprint to reach his mother's car that was only a couple of yards away, he slid and made it to the automobile in no time. Using his mother's keys to quickly open the driver's door, he sat in it and the first thing he did was place it in the ignition, and power on the car. Softly, he closed the door and drove off towards the church. To avoid possibly being seen by any of the douche bags upstairs, he pulled up closer to the sidewalk, but he was still in the open no matter how close to the church he parked. He thought hard whether or not taking the keys out would slow him down. All he wanted to do was get the hell in, and get the hell out.