by Josh Vasquez
CJ summoned every molecule of energy in him and bolted for the back door. He clipped the dying junkie, sending him sprawling into the others. His legs burned as he ran as fast as he could. He hadn’t run this hard since football practice, which seemed like eons ago. He flew through the back door, down the porch, and past the old Oak tree. Despite hearing gunshots behind him, he did not disobey his grandfather’s last wish. He did not stop running.
Chapter Twenty Two
The sun was falling quickly in the winter Georgia sky. The bright, blood-orange orb began its dip below the towering pines. The air was cool, but had warmed from the morning ride.
Tori sat in the back of the truck, her back to the cab, her face towards the three newcomers on the opposite side. Officer White sat with his back to the tailgate, a mirror image of Tori. His partner and their “prisoner”, lay sprawled out, Black’s head cradled in his folded arms, and José asleep on his side.
Tori and White stared at each other, both sizing one another up. Tori had a hard time believing their story.
They were gone all day and when they came back, everyone was gone? She thought. It doesn’t make any sense. Well, none of this still makes sense. They’re cops, Tori. They’re not going to lie about something like that. Would they?
“So, Tori, was it?” White asked.
She nodded.
“This place we’re going to, it’s pretty safe?”
She nodded again.
“How long have you people been there?”
He waited for her to answer. After biting her tongue for several minutes, Tori decided that White was not going give up on the conversation. He continued to stare at her, waiting.
“We’ve been there for a month. The four of us. Josh’s family got there a week before we did.”
“I see, so they got there pretty quick after things started,” White said.
“Yes, but they lost Josh’s niece in the process,” Tori added.
White closed his eyes and slowly shook his head.
“Hmm… I’m sorry to hear that. What about you? Do you have family?”
Tori nodded. She thought about her father often, whether he was still alive or not. Every now and then, she would get the thought in her head to try to make an expedition to go find him, just her and Lexx. Parris Island just seemed so far away. She felt bad that, if he was still alive, he had no way of knowing that his daughter was alive as well.
“Yes,” she said. “My father was stationed on Parris Island. I haven’t seen him since.”
“Semper Fi,” Black said, his eyes still closed. “He’s a Marine; he’s still alive.”
Tori smiled.
“I like to think so,” she said.
“I was in the Marines. Did my time there,” Black said.
“Oh, maybe you knew my father, Drill Instructor Hays?”
Black opened his eyes and sat up.
“That old hardass is still there?” He asked, laughing.
“So, you did know my father,” Tori said, her smile growing wider.
“Know ‘em? That man made me the man I am today! Don’t you worry; I am one hundred percent positive that man is still alive. Nothing could kill old Hardass Hays!”
Tori let out a short chuckle.
“So, he’s responsible for you?” White asked his eyebrow raised.
“Hey, my ninja, don’t be hatin’,” Black said, laying back down in the truck.
“How many times do I tell you? That’s not cool,” White said
Black did not respond, but only smiled.
White looked at Tori and shook his head. She smiled back. Although he was clearly younger than Black, Officer White seemed light-years ahead of Black in maturity.
The truck slowed and came to a stop.
We must be here, Tori thought.
When Josh stepped out of the truck, Tori didn’t think anything of it; she just assumed he was unlocking the gate. She saw him out of the corner of her eye standing there.
“Did I- I, I locked the gate right?” He asked.
She turned to look at him. He stood in front of the gate, which was wide open. He turned and looked at everyone in the truck.
“I locked it right?” He asked again, his voice growing louder and desperate for an answer.
“Yeah man, I remember you locking the gate. Right, Tori?” Lexx said, standing up in the bed.
“Yes…” She said. “You did.”
He walked over to the iron gate. Plywood covered the outside, lining up with the rest of the outer wall. Kneeling down, Josh picked something up off the ground. He held up the lock with the chain still attached to it. Someone cut through a link in the chain. His mouth was open in disbelief, fear flashing before his eyes.
“Josh…” Tori said, but it was too late.
He took off running down the darkening driveway towards the cabin.
***
Jeremy got out of the truck and stared at Lexx and Tori. They both looked in shock.
“What do we do?” He asked.
“Get in the truck and we’ll go after him. Drive slow, it’s getting dark and we don’t want to hit him,” Tori said.
Jeremy looked down the driveway.
“I don’t even see him anymore,” he said, squinting into the darkness.
Tori picked up her rifle from the truck bed.
“Just drive slow,” she said.
He nodded and ran around to the driver side door. He drove the truck down the dirt path slowly, as Tori had instructed. Even with the headlights on the bright setting, he still did not see Josh anywhere.
How could he run that fast?
Jeremy began to worry about what they would find at the end of the driveway.
Did the zombies get in? No, someone cut the chain. Who would have cut the chain?
His mind raced. Something up ahead near the road caught his eye. He slowed the truck and stopped, as he got closer.
He put his hand up to his mouth and got out of the vehicle.
Slumped up against a tree, were Chris and Amy. Both were half-dressed and covered in blood.
No, no, no… He thought as he walked over to their bodies.
Tori and Lexx jumped out of the back of the truck, Black and White standing in the bed. Tori put her hand up to her mouth; Lexx was blank-faced.
“There’s… There’s no bite marks…” Jeremy stuttered. “They… They were shot.”
Carved into the bark above them was the word “sinners”. A trail of blood snaked its way from the woods. They were dragged and put in that position.
“We have to get to the house,” Tori said.
Jeremy nodded and waited for them to climb back into the truck before he pulled away.
Who would do this?
***
Josh ran, the tears flowing freely down his face. He pushed harder, his legs burning. He had not run this fast in a long time. Something was pushing him. Some strength that was not his. He felt it filling his blood like lead. His heart echoed like thunder within his chest.
He had found Chris and Amy’s bodies slumped against the tree. He stopped only briefly, only taking in what had happened.
They were murdered.
He did not know why or who did this, he only hoped he could reach the house before anyone else was hurt.
If they touch Laura, he thought.
Trees zipped by, dust kicked up behind him. He felt the muscles not only in his legs tighten, but his whole body seemed to pulse with anger. He could feel the pain of his muscles tearing themselves down and building back up, but his brain simply ignored it. As far as he was concerned, the pain did not exist.
His lungs sucked in air, filling his lungs with the cool evening air. The sky glowed with the day’s last bit of light, night taking over.
He knew what was happening within in him.
It was the rage.
Although, he knew what it could bring, he welcomed it. His mind raced with possible outcomes.
A voice inside his head begged him not to give into it.<
br />
He ignored it.
He burst into the clearing, the house in front of him. He ran across the open field.
Something was laying in the ground in front of the house. His eyes adjusted slowly, and as he got closer, it became evident what the objects were.
Laying in the dirt were the bodies of his wife and her parents.
He went to scream the word, “No,” but only silence escaped his lungs in a pained gasp. Waves of emotion rolled over him. He ran up to his wife’s body and picked her up into his arms. Her skin was still warm to the touch, but her body was losing its heat rapidly. Blood covered her abdomen. He looked down at her red-stained dress and began sobbing.
“No, no, no…”
She opened her eyes.
“Joshua…” She whispered, through cracked lips.
“Oh, Laura! Who did this?” He cried out.
Her eyes looked at the house and then back at him.
“I… I love you…”
She closed her eyes again and he felt the breath leave her.
His whole body shook as he pulled her close into his chest.
“No, no, no, they’re not mine, they’re not mine…” he started mumbling.
He clenched his eyes shut. This could not be happening.
“Ah, I see you’ve found your way home,” a voice said.
Josh looked up. Through his bloodshot eyes, he saw a stranger standing on the front porch.
The man began to make his way casually down the stairs. Josh had never seen this man before in his life. He was wearing a clean, white dress shirt tucked into blue denim jeans. The man stopped only feet away from Josh.
“My name is Abraham Archer Armstrong, and I’m sorry this is the way we had to meet.”
Josh moved his mouth, but no sound came out.
“You may know my associates,” the man continued. “Dennis and Virginia. They reached out for your help and you rejected them.”
The junkies? Josh thought.
“You turned them away from this refuge and left them out in the world to die. They would just so happen to run into me the next day, and unlike you, I did the Christian thing and accepted them for who they were. I fed their needs. I saved them.”
Josh couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“They told me about you and the way you treated them. We were surprised when we found you, what you could not share with them.”
He turned and raised his hand to the house.
“To think, Beulah Land, right here. Safety. Refuge. And you rejected the least of these.”
Josh laid his wife down.
“You did this?” Josh asked his eyes set on his wife’s face.
“Joshua, you have done this to yourself. This is the just judgment for your sins. The Lord sent me into this world to lead the righteous and the cast off ones into the refuge of Beulah land. You stand in the way of that plan.”
The man pulled out his pistol and leveled it at Josh’s head.
“Soon, this place will be for all people and not just you and your family. My associates are tracking down your nephew as we speak and he will join the rest of them.”
“CJ’s alive?”
“For now. But know this,” the man said, leaning in close to Josh. “He won’t be for long. He’ll join all the rest of you.”
The man pulled the hammer back on his gun. He expected Josh to attack after that remark.
What he did not expect was Josh to move as fast as he did.
***
Jeremy pulled the truck out of the woods and into the open area around the cabin. The high-beams fell onto the drive way ahead of him and Jeremy watched as Josh sprung forward, pulling the hatchet from his side, and removed the hand from a man in front of him. Jeremy saw the glint of a gun in the moonlight as the hand flew through the air.
He stopped the truck and got out, running towards Josh.
He watched as the man stared at Josh, shocked at the speed of his movements. Jeremy didn’t understand how he was able to move so fast.
Josh reared back with the hatchet and planted it in the man’s chest. The man’s eyes went wide. His arm went up to block the attack critical seconds too slow. Josh yanked back on the small axe and swung again, severing the other limb between the elbow and forearm. He pulled back and swung again. And again. And again.
Jeremy saw the pile of bodies near Josh and realized that Laura was one of them.
Oh no, he thought.
Josh fell to his knees, next to pieces of the man that stood there only a minute ago. Gore covered him, tears washing away the blood on his face. He screamed into the night’s air.
Jeremy walked over to Josh slowly. His friend sat there, heaving and sobbing.
“What did I do?” he mumbled.
“Josh...” Jeremy said.
Josh turned and looked at Jeremy. Jeremy almost did not recognize the man before him.
“What did I do, Jeremy?”
Josh looked at Jeremy, then over at Laura’s body. He crawled over to her and rested his head against her chest. He placed his hand on her bloody stomach. Jeremy winced.
No, the baby…
“Josh, why did they do this?”
Josh snapped up.
“CJ! He’s still out there! They’re trying to track him down!”
Jeremy heard footsteps behind him. Lexx, Tori, and the others walked up to the scene. Tori looked at the crumpled up body in front of Josh and then at Jeremy.
“What the fuck,” she mouthed.
Josh stood up.
“I have to find him!” He shouted.
Jeremy grabbed him by the shoulders.
“No! We’ll find him. You stay here,” he said, giving Josh a shake.
Josh’s eyes glazed over and he slunk down to his knees again.
Jeremy turned to the group behind him.
“Tori stay here with him. We’ll go find CJ.”
She nodded and looked over at Josh. He was crying and mumbling to himself again.
“Okay, but hurry.”
She caught Lexx’s eyes for a brief moment, before the five of them took off running towards the woods.
She turned back to Josh, who was holding his dead wife’s body again, mumbling to himself.
“They’re not mine, they’re not mine, they’re not mine…”
Chapter Twenty Three
CJ could hear the crunching of leaves behind him. He knew they were not far behind him, but he did not dare turn and look.
They want to catch me, he thought. If they wanted me dead, they would have shot me by now.
He dodged a tree in the darkness.
But maybe they don’t have guns. Maybe they are going to kill me; they just have to catch me first.
He was not going to let that happen. It was dark, but CJ knew where he was. He had spent much of his summers exploring these woods. He was as familiar with these woods as he was his own house. He and his sister would play hide and seek here, the games lasting whole afternoons. There was no spot in these trees that CJ did not know about.
Even the newly added zombie traps, most of which CJ helped build.
CJ and his grandfather placed the several pits with not much strategy in mind. They were just one last thing to stop the dead from possibly reaching the house. The chance of a zombie wandering into one were slim, but it made everyone feel better. Plus, CJ thought it was somewhat cool to have “booby-traps.”
CJ jumped and landed on the other side of a hole.
Behind him, he heard someone yelp and then scream.
“Aaaaaggghhhh!”
“Leave him!” he heard Dennis hiss.
CJ hoped Dennis had fallen into the hole. He wanted the man to pay for what he did. That man led these people here. His parents were dead because of him.
CJ ran towards the nearest trap. It was another hole, with shredded metal from the old shed placed in its shallow walls. CJ and his grandfather designed it so that when a zombie fell into it, if it tried to climb out, it would onl
y tear itself apart in doing so.
There’s the y-shaped tree. It’s close.
He passed the old, dead oak tree, its trunk split down the middle, two large branches reaching out into the night sky. He jumped over the hole and waited several feet on the other side.
His three pursuers caught up to him and stopped.
“C’mon kid,” Dennis said between gasping for air. “We got you. You got nowhere to go.”
“You haven’t caught me yet,” CJ said.
He turned and began to run away. The third man went to go after CJ.
“No, wait!” Dennis yelled.
But it was too late.
The man took a step forward and slid into the hole. There was a sound of tearing fabric and flesh. The man screamed and clawed at the dirt around him. He went to pull himself out, the tearing sound growing louder. He screamed again as Virginia knelt down to try and pull him out, only ripping the man’s lower half more to shreds.
CJ looked at Dennis.
“I can do this all night if I have to,” he said, before turning to run again.
He ran several feet before something hit him in the back and he fell forward to the ground. Dennis wrapped his arms around CJ and held him down on the ground.
“You’re not going any-fucking-where,” he said through clenched teeth.
CJ yelled for help before Dennis was able to clamp a hand over his mouth.
***
Jeremy heard CJ’s cry for help. It seemed like he was not that far from them, but the sound bounced off the trees, making it hard to pinpoint exactly.
“This way,” Jeremy yelled, trusting the feeling in his gut that told him to run right.
They had been running, but being very careful not to run into any of the traps set throughout the forest. Jeremy and Lexx knew they were there, but where exactly, they had no idea.
They found one, but only because one of the junkies were sticking out of it. The sharpened rebar at the bottom of the hole had torn through the man’s lower half. Since that discovery, Jeremy and the others watched their steps carefully.
They ran into a small clearing, the moon filling the grove with a faint glow. Dennis had CJ pinned to the ground, while Virginia stood next him, begging him to stop.
