Where The Dead Men Lie (The Secret Apocalypse)

by Harden, James

  It feels weird, like Hope is the only place inhabited by people or something.

  We hear rumors everyday about the Oz virus spreading right throughout the country. Scary rumors about the military killing innocent people, and bombing cities to contain the virus.

  It’s impossible to know what’s going on.

  It was Valentine’s Day the other day. No one celebrated it. I don’t think anyone remembered.

  Father Damon makes everyone go to church. Every freakin morning.

  I don’t like that man. He gives me the creeps.

  Feb 17th

  We had our first ever encounter with an infected person today. I didn’t actually see it. But apparently it stumbled into town all by itself.

  4 of the men surrounded it; (dad included) and bashed it to death with cricket bats. One of the other guys, (can’t think of his name, the guy with the bald head), finished it off with a bullet to the brain.

  Apparently you have to shoot an infected person in the brain or destroy their brain somehow to put them out of their misery. (That’s how Father Damon always says it. ‘put them out their misery’. Or ‘release them from purgatory’). I don’t know what that means.

  Anyway, the gunshot was the loudest thing in the world.

  We could even hear it in the church basement.

  Feb 19th

  Two more infected people showed up today.

  Father Damon told the men they weren’t allowed to use their guns.

  The gun shot is too loud.

  The men bashed the two infected people to death but one of the men was bitten.

  He was killed (put out of his misery/released from purgatory) by his best mate.

  Feb 25th.

  A massive dust storm has blown in from the desert. No one has been outside all week. The dust storm shows no sign of letting up.

  Feb 27th

  Dad has started growing a moustache. He looks silly. Mum doesn’t like it. Says it tickles her mouth when he kisses him.

  Feb 28th

  I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just go ahead and say it.

  Today a monster came to town.

  A really big monster.

  It was climbing all over the town hall and the police station and the church. You could hear it moaning, and purring. Sniffing. It was putting its nose right up against the windows and the doors. It was looking for food. For us.

  It was hunting.

  More rumors. People start talking about zombies. And the infected psychopaths. The effects of the Oz virus.

  Could it create a monster like that? Could the virus change a person and turn them into an unrecognizable monster?

  March 2nd

  Father Damon organized an emergency meeting.

  Talked about the monster. He said a lot of weird stuff. Like how it was obviously the wrath of hell. A demon. A spawn of Lucifer himself.

  More search parties were formed. Their goal will be to search for food for the group and anything we can used to feed the monster. Cattle, cow, sheep. Anything.

  Father Damon said it was looking for food. So if we can feed it, it will leave us alone.

  March 3rd

  Food and water supplies from the church are running low. A group of volunteers has been organized to raid the wholesale food warehouse on the outskirt of town when the dust storm clears.

  March 4th

  Every day we hear more rumors, more stories. It’s like this weird game of ‘Chinese Whispers’. No one knows what to believe. What is truth and what is fiction? It’s impossible to tell. Especially when people talk about monsters and strange black tornados and zombies.

  March 5th

  The monster came back today.

  Everyone was ordered into the bank vault to hide.

  March 6th

  Father Damon said we couldn’t afford to wait for the dust storm to clear. So search parties will be sent out every day to look for food.

  People are starting to disappear.

  March 8th

  The Monster is coming back more and more often. Every few days now.

  More people are missing. The basement is starting to feel empty.

  A lot of women are missing.

  Father Damon has told us that a lot of the younger children are getting ‘sick’ because they are not as strong as the rest of us. They are being separated from the group.

  It is a lot quieter now.

  March 10th

  The dust storm has finally subsided. Clear blue skies as far as the eye can see. It’s nice to be outside again.

  March 11th

  The monster showed up again. And we were ordered into the bank vault again.

  One of the older women sat next to me. She appeared to be drunk.

  She kept saying the same crazy things, over and over.

  Women and children.

  Sacrifice.

  Murder.

  Mass murder.

  Women and children.

  Don’t drink the water.

  After she said that last one, she looked at me.

  Her eyes locked on to mine.

  Don’t drink the water.

  March 12th

  Mum and dad were chosen for a food run. Apparently there’s a big supermarket warehouse over in the town of Hunter.

  I’m scared for them both. I don’t want to be alone.

  I spent the whole time trying to occupy myself, trying not to think the worst. I tried reading. Must’ve read the same page about a million times.

  Hannah seemed to be coping really well. I don’t know how.

  Eventually the group returned. They had food and water.

  Dad was there.

  Mum was not.

  She was missing.

  March 14th

  It’s been two days now. No sign of my Mum. Dad keeps crying at night. He’s starting to break. I hear him whispering to himself, that he had no choice.

  No choice.

  March 15th

  Dad, and Father Damon called me in for a special meeting. I assumed it was about my mother.

  Dad’s face was blank, expressionless.

  He kept staring at the ground. He wouldn’t look at me.

  Father Damon said he was sorry for my loss. Said a prayer. Asked us all to hold hands.

  He asked us to take to communion.

  I told him I wasn’t religious.

  He insisted.

  The bread was stale and hard. Almost chipped a tooth.

  The wine was strong. Way strong. Burned my lips and my tongue and my throat.

  He offered me some water to wash it down. It was then I remembered the words of the old woman. I can’t even remember her name.

  She said don’t drink the water.

  I told Father Damon I didn’t want any water.

  March 16th

  More and more people are disappearing on the scavenger hunts and the food runs. When we wake up in the morning, someone will be missing.

  Women and children.

  I don’t know exactly what’s going on. But I’ve got a really bad feeling in my gut. I’m scared. Dad has changed so much in the past week. I don’t know who he is anymore. Mum is gone. She’s dead. I know she is.

  I’m scared. I don’t want to be here anymore.

  I need to get out. I need to get myself and Hannah as far away from here as possible.

  So that’s what we’re doing. I’ve made my mind up.

  Is it the right decision? I have no idea. The only thing I know for certain is I don’t want to stay here anymore.

  We packed a little bit of food. I’m too scared to take any water. Hopefully we will find some in the next town over. Maybe in Hunter. If we make it that far.

  We have to get out of here...

  The diary ended suddenly with a few scribbled lines.

  I tried to flip through the pages to see if there were any more entries, but my fingers were slow and clumsy and I dropped the notebook.

  My eyes were heavy.

  I looked at M
aria; she was still sitting on the floor against the wall. Her head was tilted forward, resting on her chest. She was breathing heavily, deeply.

  I struggled to focus my eyes, struggled to keep them open.

  Maria drooped over to one side, completely passing out, spilling the water on the concrete floor.

  I looked at the water as it slowly and rhythmically spilled out of the bottle.

  The water tasted funny.

  My eyes became heavier.

  "Maria," I said, slurring her name. "Maria, we need to get out of here."

  But Maria was sound asleep.

  And there was nothing I could do.

  "Don’t drink the water," I whispered to no one, to myself.

  I tried to stand on legs that were made of jelly and custard and other things that aren’t very solid. The concrete floor of the church basement seemed to be made of quick sand. I fell to my knees.

  I remember watching a documentary on alcohol addiction once. I remember a lot of alcoholics talk about how at some point in their lives they have a moment of clarity, even whilst being extremely intoxicated.

  I never really believed in the whole moment of clarity thing until then, in the church basement.

  I had a moment of clarity.

  We had been drugged.

  "Come on, Rebecca. Get up! You need to get Maria out of here. Get up!"

  I crawled over to the one and only door of the basement and lifted a heavy, heavy arm up to the handle. I tried to open it. I don’t know why, I tried. I knew it was locked. But I couldn’t think of anything else to do. My mind was a complete haze.

  Smoke. Black Smoke.

  Impossible to see through.

  I threw all my weight against the door but it didn’t budge. I sat down against it and at that moment I realized we were going to be sacrificed next.

  It was clear now.

  And it was too late.

  We were going to be strung up by our feet in the town square.

  We were food for the monster.

  As I fell into a black hole of unconsciousness, the words of the priest echoed around in my mind. "If we feed them; we live."

  CHAPTER 23

  Everything went dark. I had entered a nightmare and there was no escaping.

  My mind showed me things that I never, ever want to see again.

  My father’s death. Deep behind enemy lines, taken as prisoner, beheaded on camera.

  My mother. Torn apart by a horde of infected.

  My friends. Sacrificed.

  Maria. Gone.

  My mind flashed forward to the future. The very possible end game of this pandemic.

  The entire world overrun by the Oz virus. The extinction of the human race.

  All of a sudden I was standing in the corner of the church basement. The basement was lined with military style cots, crammed with people.

  The smell was overpowering. Children were crying.

  And then, in the very middle of the night, the priest entered, his black robe flowing behind him, exposing giant vampire bat wings that had grown out of his back.

  His skin was black and scaly, like a snake.

  He looked at me. Held his index finger up to his lips.

  He tip toed between the cots. To the opposite side of the room.

  I followed him, as he slowly slithered and stalked towards his prey.

  I saw the girl, Sarah Mackenzie. Her sister, Hannah.

  Their father, Ed. His ridiculous moustache.

  An empty cot next to him where his wife once slept.

  The priest moved past them. Kept moving to the far side of the room where there were two small children.

  A girl.

  A boy.

  A hand reached out for them. But it was not a human hand. It was black and scaly. It had razor sharp claws and talons instead of fingers.

  They gripped around the children’s legs and the priest dragged them out of the room as they slept.

  As everyone slept.

  The priest looked over his shoulder, back at me. He held my gaze and then smiled. He winked at me and then left.

  I saw a column of light shining into the basement. I dived for it. My head throbbed. Pulsed.

  When I finally woke, I was confused as all hell.

  It took me a few seconds to realize I was hanging upside down. Fingers scraping against the black, bitumen road. I was in the town square. Maria was hanging up next to me about ten feet away.

  I could feel myself, swinging and swaying back and forth. The movement was making me nauseas. Then again it could’ve been whatever we had been drugged with that was making me feel sick. Or you know, the fact that I was hanging upside down.

  The town square had a roundabout, traffic circle thing in the middle of the road. I guess it was more of a town circle then a town square. Anyway, in the middle of the roundabout was a bronze statue of a soldier. His head was lowered. He had rifle in his hands.

  At the feet of the soldier was a big block of white marble. Carved into the marble was a long list of names. I don’t know why, but I was trying to read the names, even though I was upside down and everything was blurry and I really should’ve been concentrating on getting out of this predicament instead of trying to read the names.

  I could see the sun hanging low in the sky. I had no idea what time it was, but it had to have been late in the afternoon. This meant that Maria and I had been unconscious all day.

  I come to the realization that I had woken from a nightmare and entered a real life one.

  Now, there really was no escaping.

  Someone was speaking in a hushed whisper.

  "God our Father, your power brings us to birth. Your providence guides our lives. And by your command we return to dust."

  It was the priest. His black robe was flowing as the hot desert wind blew through the town. In my mind he looked huge, like a giant, all powerful demon.

  "Lord, those who die still live in your presence, their lives change but do not end," he continued. "I pray in hope for my family, relatives and friends. And for all the dead known to you alone. In company with Christ, who died and now lives, may they rejoice in your kingdom, where all our tears are wiped away. Unite us together again in one family, to sing your praise forever and ever. Amen."

  Another voice spoke. "At first I was mad. I wanted to…" the voice broke down, choked up.

  "It's OK," the priest reassured him.

  It took me a few seconds to realize that the voice was talking to me. It was Ed. He was telling me his story. Trying to justify the horrible things he had done.

  "At first I wanted to kill the Father for sacrificing my wife. But I came to the realization it was for the greater good. She is in heaven now. With God. She is safe. And our group is stronger for her sacrifice. She gave her life for us, to save us. She is a hero."

  I shook my head and everything went blurry. "Are you crazy? You plan on sacrificing us?"

  "I am doing God’s work," the priest answered. "To refuse is to condemn yourself to eternal damnation."

  "You're all sick. You're insane."

  "We make choices," he said as he made the symbol of the cross over me. "We make sacrifices."

  I tried bargaining with him. I told him that Maria was immune to the Oz virus and that she could be the savior of the entire human race.

  But the priest did not care.

  He told me that nothing could save us. Nothing.

  The priest then turned and walked away, his robe flowing in the wind. Ed followed him like a lap dog, still refusing to look at me.

  As soon as they left I began struggling to get out, trying to free myself, trying to wake Maria up. I was suddenly very aware that the priest's men were watching me from up in the bell tower. Just like we had watched that poor dying woman the day before. I wondered if that meant one of those monsters was now making its way into town.

  I did not want to end up like that woman.

  So I kept struggling. It was then I heard a howling moan. Somewhere o
ff in the distance. And something different. A roar. Something bigger.

  Coming closer.

  I began to panic. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t stop thinking about how any second now I was about to be fed to a freakin monster.

  A voice spoke to me. A voice that was so clear and so loud. I looked around, expecting to see someone standing there, talking to me. But there was no one else in the town square besides Maria. And she was out cold.

  The voice spoke to me again. It was the voice of self doubt and fear. It kept getting louder and louder. The voice told me that this was it. This was the end of it all.

  It kept saying, "You screwed up. You’re as good as dead."

  I looked up at my feet. I could barely feel them. The rope had cut off the circulation.

  "There’s no getting out of this. You came all this way for nothing."

  I shut my eyes as tight as I could. My head throbbed with each pulsing beat of my heart. I had to try and think.

  Think.

  I had been drugged. I was hallucinating. Imagining the priest as vampire and a demon. Hearing voices.

  I had to fight it. Concentrate.

  Focus.

  Maria needs me.

  Come on Rebecca! Maria needs you.

  She was hanging up by her feet from the next street light over. I called out to her but she didn’t respond. She was definitely out cold.