by T. Gault
“But seriously, how are we going to get inside without making it easy for them to get inside?” I asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but I definitely think we need to get this under control before we even think about moving the others anywhere,” said Matt.
“Yeah, I don’t want to put Frannie or anyone else at any more risk than we have to,” said Curtis.
“Okay, go around the building one more time,” I said.
Matt started a second loop around and that was when I noticed an awning over the back door, near to the fence around the playground. There was a window over top of the awning. It wasn’t very large, but it would be our best bet for getting inside without making it easy for carriers to get inside. I told Matt to park next to the fence and I got out of the back of the truck. I walked up to the passenger’s side window and handed the video camera to Curtis.
“Put this under the seat,” I said.
“Okay,” replied Curtis. Matt watched as Curtis placed the camera under the seat.
“So what do you think is on that thing anyway?” asked Matt.
I looked away from Matt and Curtis toward the church, “I don’t know...could be something important...could be nothing, but I have to know why he felt that he needed to tell me something.”
I climbed over the six-foot chain link fence and took a quick look around the yard. There was one gate leading into the playground and it was chained shut. I tried both of the doors on the back of the church, but they were locked tight. I walked over to the fence and waved to Matt and Curtis. They both got out of the truck and climbed over the fence.
The noise from the fence was starting to attract the remains of the locals. We all huddled inside of one of the inset doorways. We tried to stay out of sight, but they still walked right up to the fence and began trying to walk through it. As they bumped into the fence, it rattled and clanked. The more noise they made, the more of them came. I motioned to the others and we all walked to the fence line and began jabbing our bladed weapons through the links and into the skulls of the corpses. One by one we took out every one of them that walked up to the fence.
Normally a handful of them would have bothered me, but when faced with the possibility of falling off of an awning ten feet off the ground and possibly breaking a leg, I didn’t want to take the chance. I climbed the fence as quietly as I could and balanced myself on the side of the building. I reached out for the awning and grabbed on. It was made of some kind of tin or something and didn’t feel like it was designed for someone to stand on it, but I climbed up anyway. I carefully inched my way over to the window and pushed on it. It was unlocked. I looked back to the others and gave them a thumbs up. I slid the window open and crawled inside.
Click click, “Keep your hands where I can see them, son,” said a deep voice from the darkness inside the room.
CHAPTER 14 - Relocation...
I stood staring into the darkness, not sure what was about to happen. I could make out what looked like the barrels of two shotguns pointed in my direction. I immediately threw my hands in the air. As my eyes adjusted to the low light of the room, I could make out a heavy-set male and a thin male holding the weapons.
“Now, I’m not going to ask you to disarm yourself. I can understand why you would be reluctant to drop your weapons in this current day and I don’t really want you to reach for your gun. We might have a misunderstanding. I am going to ask you to slowly spin around though,” said the same voice from before.
“I’ll do just about whatever you want, just don’t shoot,” I replied as I slowly turned around.
I tried to keep my eyes on them as much as possible while I rotated. I half expected them to try to bum-rush me when I had my back turned, but they stayed right where they were.
“You’ll have to forgive me, but we’ve already had far too many dishonest folk come through here already and we can’t take any more chances. We don’t have the nerve or the patience any longer,” the voice spoke again.
“Hey, what’s going on up there? Can you make it to the door and let us in?” said Matt from outside.
I wasn’t sure what would the man in the darkness would do if I answered so I just stayed still.
“Go ahead, you can answer,” said the voice.
“I’m okay. Just trying to figure something out. Give me a second,” I replied to Matt.
“So, what happens now? You going to shoot me or invite us in? Because if you aren’t taking on any more people in here, I can just go back out the way I came in. There are miles of other buildings around here,” I said.
“No, we’re not trying to turn anyone away unnecessarily. We just can’t let anyone with the sickness inside again,” said the voice.
“Well, I can assure you that none of us have ‘the sickness,’ and we are just looking for some place safe from the carriers,” I responded.
“I appreciate the words of assurance, but like I said, we can’t afford to let one in here again,” responded the voice.
“Are you going to come check me out so I can put my hands down?” I asked, getting impatient.
I saw the barrel of the shotgun on the left twitch and the barrel on the right lowered. A young black male walked out of the shadows. He couldn’t have been more than fourteen years old. He walked up to me and began to look around my neck and checked up and down my arms and pant legs. He performed the check as though he had been doing it for a long time. He turned to the other individual in the shadows and gave the thumbs up. I lowered my arms and stood still for a moment.
“Okay, let’s get your friends checked out,” said the voice as he stepped into the light. He was a dark-skinned, heavy-set black man. He didn’t look particularly in shape, but I wouldn’t want to get into a wrestling match with him. The young male that was with him hadn’t made a noise since I crawled into the room, but he wouldn’t take his eyes off of me.
“The name’s Reverend Reginald Chapman. You can just call me ‘Rev’ if you like. I like cars and it’s what my congregation calls...called me,” he said. “Oh, and that’s Deandre. I’m sure you’ve noticed already, but he doesn’t talk. He’s not deaf, he just doesn’t talk. I didn’t know him before all of this, but he’s never said a word to me,” said Rev.
“Nice to meet you,” I replied and mumbled under my breath, “I hope.”
I followed Rev and Deandre down the hall to a stairwell that led to the back door. They both stayed away from the door and Rev pointed at the door. I was a little confused, but I walked to the door anyway.
“No offense, you seem nice enough, but I don’t know what kind of guys you’ve got waiting outside. If the first face they see coming out isn’t yours, I don’t know if they’re going to shoot,” said Rev.
I thought about it and it made sense. I would have probably done the same thing. I pushed the lever on the door and slowly stepped outside.
“It’s about time,” said Matt from right outside the door. He and Curtis quickly stepped inside the small room at the bottom of the steps. They were startled when they saw Deandre and Rev, but Matt quickly realized that they were not more of the infected. Curtis seemed uncomfortable even though they were not trying to bite us. I introduced everyone and we began to exchange information.
Rev was the pastor for the church. He said that he had been running a soup kitchen the night he saw the first one. He knew the carrier before he was infected. The people in the area called him “E.” Rev said he thought the guy’s name was Edward or something, but he wasn’t sure. He said he’d never seen “E” run before, but that night he was sprinting toward the line for the soup kitchen. He started to attack everyone and a few of the bishops helping with the operation tried to get him under control. Rev kept talking about how bad “E” smelled and that he looked more unhealthy than he had ever seen him. He bit three or four of the other homeless people in the line and also bit one of the bishops pretty bad on the forearm. They held him down until the police arrived and they had a medic take “E” to the hospital.
Rev said this incident was a little more extreme than usual, but every once in a while fights would break out in the line. The medics also checked out the other injured people and even had to treat one of the original responding police officers. The injured bishop went home after the incident because he said he wasn’t feeling well, but none of the injured homeless people left after the incident. Most of them never feel well and they were not going to miss that meal. Rev never heard from that bishop again after that. He tried calling his house and there was never an answer. He never got a chance to visit his house to see how he was doing either. Rev never left the church that night.
One by one the injured homeless people finished their food and left, he explained. Most of them were complaining of headaches and dizziness. Rev told them to go sleep it off and that he would personally take them to the hospital in the morning if they got worse. While Rev was cleaning up the kitchen several hours later, after everyone else had left, one of the homeless females came wandering back up to the building. Rev tried to find out what she needed, but she was sick just like “E.” She tried to attack him, but he managed to get inside and lock the door. He called for police, but the dispatcher said there were an abnormal number of calls for service that night. The police never came. He called back, but the line was always busy.
Rev yelled at the woman outside and repeatedly told her to leave the property, but the more he yelled at her, the more agitated she became. She began to pound her fists against the door and clawed at the windows. Rev didn’t want to take the chance of trying to get to his car and ending up in a fight with the woman. He went into the sanctuary and tried to sleep on one of the pews. It was horribly uncomfortable and when he was quiet enough, he could still hear her outside, scratching on the building. In the morning the woman was gone, but he could see the smears of dried blood on the door and widows outside.
A man named Jose and his wife Maria had come the following day, but Jose failed to mention that Maria had been bitten. Rev couldn’t bring himself to kill any of the “sick ones,” so they ended up just getting Maria out of the building before she turned. Rev said he felt awful about doing it, but he had to think of the other people inside the church. Jose left with his wife and never came back.
He started to try to leave, but that was when he met Deandre. He found him curled up on the back porch of the church holding a large bloody wrench. When Rev asked him what had happened, Deandre just began to cry. Other than Deandre, we weren’t the only other people to come across the church. He said there were two other people camped out in the sanctuary.
Bishop Hadley had returned from the previous night and he had his own story to tell about what had happened at his house. He didn’t want to elaborate.
The last person inside the church was Tracey. She was a paramedic that had responded to one of the attack calls in the area. Rev said she just showed up pounding on the door talking about how she was cut off and that they got the rest of her unit. She was about the same height as Beth, but she was a little stockier with dyed blond hair.
Rev said the neighborhood wasn’t particularly safe before everything started and that was why he kept a couple of shotguns around. He said he only had a single load for each of the single-shot twelve-gauges.
I explained our situation to Rev. When I told him about Frannie he was hesitant to allow our group to move into the building. But on the conditions that Tracy would check the wound and she would be kept away from everyone else, he did finally agree. I asked if any of his group could help us get the rest of our people, but Tracey was the only one that volunteered. She said she might be able to use some of the supplies at the sporting goods store to patch up injuries. We all geared up with what they had available, which wasn’t much.
“I need to stay here in case any more come along, but I do want to send you all off with a prayer before you leave,” said Rev, looking around at all of us.
“Lord, keep these young men and women safe as they gather their friends. I don’t know why you are allowing this to take place, but I know your will is an unstoppable force, that will be carried out, no matter what. But I ask that you place your mighty hand on these here and guide their movements and their actions. Bring them all safely back here, so that we might find our way through this. In your holy and powerful name, amen.”
I looked up and was shocked to see Matt actually bowing his head. Curtis looked annoyed for some reason, like he wanted to say something, but he kept quiet. I somehow felt better about going back out there. Like maybe God would have his hand in what we were doing.
The sun was beginning to lower in the sky and the shadows were starting to stretch. We decided that I would drive and Tracey would ride shotgun. She had responded to numerous incidents in the area and was very familiar with the neighborhood. Matt and Curtis would ride in the back of the truck. We quietly made our way to the fence. Rev gave us the key to the lock on the gate so we wouldn’t have to climb over it again. But just like before, the quiet houses and streets made every step on the pavement echo. The carriers had started appearing in the yards surrounding the church as I started the engine. I quickly pulled off and headed back toward the sporting goods store.
“So, a medic huh? This must be just another day at work for you right?” I said trying to make conversation.
“Not really,” replied Tracey.
I stared at the road and tried to think of anything else to talk about other than what we had all been through over the last few days, but nothing would come to mind. Nothing really seemed to matter anymore. All I could think about was seeing that video Thomas had made.
“It’s going to be cramped back here,” said Matt from the back of the truck.
“You’re right. This isn’t exactly the best vehicle for transporting people,” I responded.
“I know of a van that probably has a pretty decent amount of gas and probably has the keys around it,” said Matt, trying to stay quiet.
I looked in the rearview mirror at Matt and he raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders.
“Curtis...this is going to be weird, but we need to use your mom’s van,” I said to him.
“No, I’m not going back there. I won’t...I can’t,” said Curtis.
“I’m sorry man, but we need it,” I said.
Curtis threw his back up against the wall of the bed and crossed his arms.
“He’ll get over it,” said Matt. “I’ll drive.”
I began to head toward the mall parking lot, to where the van was parked. Every few minutes I found myself looking back at Curtis to see if he had been able to relax, but he just continued to sit with his arms crossed.
“So, Tracey. What did Rev mean when he said you guys had already dealt with too many dishonest people already?” I asked.
“Um...Well, you know about Jose right?” said Tracey.
“Yeah, he briefly told us about what happened,” I said.
“There were a couple other cases before Jose showed up. A guy tried to bring his daughter inside and she had a pretty obvious bite on her leg. He said she got bit by a dog and not by one of the sick people. Look, I’ve been doing this for a while and I know what a dog bite looks like and what a human bite looks like. That was not a dog bite,” said Tracey.
“So what did you guys do?” I asked her.
Tracey let out a breath, “It was kinda sad, but we had to do it to keep the rest of us safe. Rev didn’t want to send them away, even though she had the bite. I tried to clean it, but I didn’t have my equipment and it already looked badly infected. The little girl died that night, and...came back. She attacked her dad while he was sleeping. We heard him scream from down the hall and all came running. Deandre was actually the one that reacted first. He beat the girl in the head until she stopped moving. Her dad freaked out and went after him, but Rev and I got him on the ground and tried to reason with him, but he couldn’t see things for what they were,” Tracey paused.
“So did he...you know? Did you guys kill him?” I asked.
“No, actually probably something worse. We forced him out the front door and locked it behind him,” she said.
“Did he just run off and disappear?” I asked.
“No, he didn’t. We could hear him pounding and screaming outside the door for us to let him in, but Rev and I both knew that we couldn’t do that. We heard what sounded like a struggle outside the door, one last thump on the door, and I saw him running across the street. There were about five of them after him. He disappeared behind some houses and that was it,” she responded.
“Yeah, that would explain Rev’s opinion of new people. That was pretty close for your group. If he had turned along with his daughter and came after the rest of you while you were sleeping...that would have been bad,” I said.
Tracey just nodded her head, “Yep.”
“So, what made you want to join the fire department?” I asked, changing the subject.
Tracy looked at me and snickered, “Really, all this is going on and people are still asking me the same question.”
