by Josh Vasquez
“Hey!” Jeremy yelled, raising his rifle.
Dennis turned and looked. He quickly scrambled backwards, putting CJ between the group and himself, using the boy as a human shield.
“Stay fucking back!” Dennis shouted, pointing the gun at CJ’s head. “You move and he dies!”
Virginia raised her shotgun reluctantly.
“You!” Jeremy said. “You did all this?!”
Dennis cracked his crooked smile. His jagged teeth glistened in the moonlight.
“You should have taken us with you. You left us out there to die and now we’ll take what’s ours. Father Abraham will lead us into Beulah Land.”
Jeremy lowered his rifle.
“Father Abraham?” Jeremy asked.
“Yes, after you left us, he found us and took us in. We told him of what you done did, and he promised to lead us to refuge. He will make you all pay for your sins.”
The man cackled out a few short laughs.
“This Father Abraham, did you leave him at the house?”
The smile slowly vanished from Dennis’s face.
“Yes…”
“Well, I hate to inform you, but your Father is dead,” Jeremy said.
“Wha-what?” Dennis stammered.
Virginia lowered her weapon and began crying.
“Josh chopped him to pieces when he saw what you did to his family. And my guess is he will do the same to you when he sees you.”
Dennis was at a loss for words. How could this be? Father Abraham was sent from God, to lead them into the promised Beulah land. How could he be dead?
“You’re lying!” Dennis shrieked.
Jeremy shook his head.
“No. No, no, no!”
CJ felt Dennis loosen his grip as he struggled to accept the news that his messiah was dead. He yanked his arm free and sent his elbow deep into Dennis’s groin. The man bent over in shooting pain, letting CJ go completely. The boy ran over to the group and stood behind Jeremy and Lexx. He eyed the two police officers and their Mexican friend.
Dennis laid in the dirt, crying from the pain and the truth Jeremy had revealed to him. These people would kill him for sure.
“He… He lied to us…” The man croaked. “He made us do this! He made us murder those people! He said it was their judgment from God!”
“I don’t know what god that man heard from, but it wasn’t the one that this family worshipped. And you slaughtered them.”
“Let us go!” Dennis cried, standing to his feet, still holding his swollen genitals. “Don’t kill us!”
Jeremy considered it. Could he just kill these people? They had every right to die. They took lives; they should pay with theirs.
An eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth. Isn’t that what it says? He thought.
But killing them, would that make him any different from them?
There was a small flash of light and a shot rang out in the woods, shattering the thoughts running through Jeremy’s mind.
A small hole appeared in between Dennis’s eyebrows, his eyes rolling up to try and look at it. Red blood oozed out of the small hole down his face. He fell to his knees, then face forward into the dirt, revealing the gaping exit wound on the back of his head.
Jeremy turned and saw Lexx pointing a pistol.
Virginia screeched and raised her sawn off shotgun. She fired once, the recoil sending her frail frame backwards. Both cops opened fire and put her down.
Jeremy continued to stare at Lexx.
“It had to be done,” Lexx said.
Jeremy shook his head. The man was right, but something still shocked Jeremy that he did it so effortlessly. While Jeremy had struggled with taking the man’s life, Lexx simply just did it.
“Yeah, but-”
José’s screaming interrupted him.
He had been the rear of the group the whole time, closest to the darkness of the trees. With the events unfolding so quickly in front of him, he had not heard the muffled sounds of footsteps behind him. By the time they grabbed him, and he screamed, it was too late.
They pulled him down to the ground, the sheer number of them too much for him to fight. He blindly fired his gun into the mob, but soon he felt fingernails tear into his stomach. He felt them pull and tear, his organs leaving his body. In horror, he watched as his intestines were chewed on, black bile leaking down the faces of his attackers.
The two cops, Jeremy, and Lexx all began firing at the throng of zombies coming from the woods. Moans and gunfire reverberated throughout the trees.
“There’s too many!” Jeremy yelled. “Run!”
Chapter Twenty Four
Tori stood and watched as Josh mourned the loss of his family. His wife, unborn baby, and everyone save CJ, was dead. He continued to sob into his wife’s lifeless chest, rubbing his hand across her stomach.
Tori knew that there was no way the baby survived.
God, I hope they find CJ, she thought.
If the boy was gone, Josh might lose it completely. At least with CJ, Josh would have something to fight for and live for.
Why would someone do this?
She didn’t buy Abraham’s bullshit. That he was some messiah-prophet whose job it was to cast judgment on the world? These nut cases made Tori doubt organized religion to begin with. Josh’s family had seemed so normal and so kind. They took the three of them in and Tori felt safe with these people. For Abraham to come in and slaughter them, in the name of God Almighty, that was pure craziness.
Josh starts crying out loudly. She resists the urge to tell him to be quiet.
Let him mourn.
Tori sees something move out of the corner of her eye. She turns quickly, bringing the rifle up.
Oh no…
Behind her, the field is full of approaching corpses.
“Shit.”
She begins firing into mob. Heads explode, bodies drop, but the numbers do not dwindle. She has to get them in the house. She pops off a few more shots, turns, and runs toward Josh. The whole time he has not moved, hasn’t even acknowledged the imminent threat.
“C’mon, get up!” She yelled, yanking him up from his wife’s body.
He pulled away from her, his eyes burning with anger.
“We have to go, Josh,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
He stared at her and then behind her towards the zombies. He turned his gaze to his wife and his face softened.
“Leave me,” he said.
“No. If CJ is still alive, he is going to need you. You are all he has left,” she insisted.
He nodded slowly. She turned, shot several of the closest zombies, and spun back to him.
“C’mon, into the house,” she said, taking him gently by the arm.
A sound filled the night, a sound Tori had not heard in a long time, but a sound Tori would never forget. It was a loud screeching, like a dying animal fighting for its life. She felt a shiver run down her spine.
They were pushing their way through the crowd of slower zombies, shoving their less coordinated brethren to the ground and out of the way. Even in the dark, the runners seemed to glow in the moonlight. Their bright pink flesh contrasted with the sea of gray they ran through.
“C’mon!” she yelled, pulling Josh into the house.
She immediately slammed the door shut and bolted the door. She dropped the 2x4 brace into its bracket and pushed Josh into the house.
Man, is this what I was like for Jeremy? She thought.
She remembered having a hard time getting her shit together for Jeremy when they were trying to escape the construction vehicle facility in Savannah. Josh was acting the same way. He was despondent, unresponsive. She had to think of something fast or the runners would break through the door in no time. They had to get out of the house now, but make the runners think they were still in there.
She snapped her finger and sat her gun down. Running around to all the different rooms, she began to collect all the oil lamps and started smashing them onto the floor. Whe
n she was finished, she went back to Josh and tried to get him to focus on her.
“Josh? I need you to help me buddy. You with me?”
“Yes,” he said.
“You sure? Cause I have an idea to get us out of here, but I’m going to need you to work with me.”
“What do you want me to do?”
She smiled.
“PB and J.”
A small smile formed on his face, but quickly faded. He nodded and stood up.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
She picked up her rifle and the two of them ran towards the kitchen. Tori began pulling out drawers frantically, searching for anything to ignite the oil.
“Here!” Josh yelled, throwing her a zippo lighter.
“Good! Now, upstairs!”
As they reached the stairs, the 2x4 on the front door splintered. The door groaned under the beatings of the runners. It would not be long before they were through and inside the house.
When they reached the top of the steps, Josh motioned for his and Laura’s bedroom. Outside their window was a small ledge that went around to the backside of the house. They could take it to the back porch and make their jump less severe.
Josh paused in the room, taking it in for the last time. He motioned for Tori to go ahead through the window. Emotions began to overflow as he looked at the bed he shared with his wife. The pictures on the nightstand of him and her beneath the oak tree outside. The ultrasound picture of his unborn child.
For a second, he considered taking the photos.
Josh lit the lighter and tossed it through the bedroom door. Below, he heard the sound of the front door bursting inwards. The lighter tumbled across the wood floor, igniting the oil, until it finally reached the upstairs balcony’s edge, and fell over into the bottom floor. It hit in the middle of the living room, the lamp oil catching aflame and lighting the surrounding furniture. Josh heard the runners scream as the flames reached above the balcony. He watched the fire burn briefly before turning and running out the window.
On the end of the ledge, Tori waited for him. He wasted no time running the ledge.
“You okay?” she asked.
“No.”
He jumped first. He hit the back porch and rolled. Tori jumped after him and when she hit the deck, he was helping her up. The back yard area was also crawling with zombies, but they could neither see nor hear any runners, except for the ones burning inside.
“This way,” he said, pointing in the direction of the rear shed.
She followed him to the small, wooden structure; taking out any z’s who got too close for comfort with the butt of her rifle.
It was less of a shed and more of a roof shelter. It had only one support wall and two posts on the opposite corners to support the slanted roof. Underneath it was a grey tarp covering something. Josh pulled the tarp off and revealed a double-seated four-wheel drive vehicle.
“You drive,” he said. “I’ll shoot.”
She handed him the rifle and sat in the front seat. Tori had driven an ATV before; it had just been a while. While she familiarized herself with the controls, Josh sat behind her in the second seat. He sat close, his legs pressed firmly against hers.
She heard the screams behind them. Burning figures emerged from the house and began sprinting in their direction.
“Go! Go! Go!” Josh yelled.
Tori floored the ATV into the darkness of the woods, the only light from their headlamps and the moon above the treetops.
Chapter Twenty Five
Jeremy ran through the blackness of the woods, pulling CJ by the arm. Behind him, he hears the moans and shuffling of the dead. To his left, he saw a large shape that he could only assume was Lexx.
“Are we even running the right way?!”
Yep, that’s Lexx.
“Yes!” CJ yelled back. “Just keeping running straight!”
Jeremy hoped the boy was right.
Shrieks echoed throughout the trees.
“Runners!” Jeremy yelled.
He tried to focus on running as straight as he could. There was no telling how many runners there were out there. If it was a couple, maybe they could take them on, but any more than that, and fleeing the cabin would be the only option. He remembered leaving the keys in the ignition of the truck and hoped that it did not drain the battery.
Up ahead, he saw a faint reddish glow through the trees.
What is that? Jeremy wondered.
As they got closer to the edge of the woods, and the glow became more visible, it was very clear what it was.
It was the house completely engulfed in flames.
“What the hell?” Lexx yelled. “Tori!”
“Lexx!” Jeremy yelled.
It was too late. Lexx was running towards the burning house through the field of zombies. He fired his shotgun, blasting his way through. Jeremy heard the gun click. Lexx was out of ammunition, but that did not stop him. He began swing the gun as a bludgeon, the barrel smashing through the soft, wet, decomposing flesh of the undead.
“What the hell is going on?”
Black ran up beside Jeremy, with White right behind him.
“I don’t know, but we have to get out of here.”
With the house gone and no way to defend themselves from the runners, they had no choice but to leave now. To punctuate Jeremy’s thoughts, he heard shrieks behind them.
He ran for the truck, the others following behind him. Lexx had essentially cleared the path for them. Jeremy reached the truck and climbed into the driver’s seat. Dangling from the ignition, the keys were still there. CJ climbed in next to him as he cranked the truck up. The headlights came on, shining light on Lexx.
***
Lexx stood there watching the house burn. He refused to believe Tori was inside, but he couldn’t know for sure. The heat radiated from the fire, keeping him back. There was no way to get close to it.
She must have done this, he thought. There’s no way she was still inside. Unless… Unless she was trapped and couldn’t get out…
Everything in him wanted to run into the flames and try to find her.
“Lexx!” Jeremy yelled from the truck. “C’mon! We have to leave!”
Lexx turned and looked at the house again. The kid was right. Nothing could be done now; they would just have to return and try to find out where they went.
Lexx ran over to the truck and jumped up on the side gate.
“Go!” he yelled.
He climbed into the bed as Jeremy pulled away from the house. The roof began to cave in. Lexx felt his heart sink.
***
When they reached the highway, Jeremy drove the truck away from the entrance. He would at least get them far enough from the zombies, maybe the dead wouldn’t follow them. He never saw any of the runners, but heard their screams as he raced through the woods. He looked for an open spot in the road, somewhere where they could see anything coming at them from a distance. They finally came to a stretch of road that sat in between two farms, both fields full of dead crops.
Jeremy brought the truck to a rest and shut the engine off.
“What are you doing?” CJ asked.
“We gotta talk about what to do next,” he answered, motioning his head towards the people in the back.
The two of them stepped out of the cab and walked towards the back. Black and White both sat with their backs to the bulkhead, while Lexx stood, leaning against the side rails.
“We have to go back, Jeremy,” Lexx said, not moving from his position.
“I know, but we can’t now, it’s not safe.”
“I know it’s not safe dammit, she’s still out there!” He yelled.
“Hey man, keep your voice down,” Black said.
Lexx spun around.
“You shut the fuck up!” He said, pointing his finger in Black’s face.
Black stood up and shoved Lexx’s finger away.
“Get your finger out of my face!”
“Guys!” Jeremy
yelled, jumping up on the side of the truck. “Get it together! We have to figure out what to do!”
Both men stared each other down and then relaxed, turning their piercing stares at Jeremy.
Oh yeah, much better Jeremy, his sarcasm told himself.
He ignored himself.
“Look, you’re right Lexx. We do need to go back. But right now, it’s just not safe. That place was crawling with z’s and there are runners somewhere out there. I’m sure Josh and Tori got away from there safely. We just have no idea where they would have gone.”
He paused, looking at the two officers.
“There was no plan B. The house was plan B.”
Everyone was silent, the sound of crickets the only thing heard for miles.
“I say for now, we stay here. In the open. In the morning, when we can see again, we’ll return to the house and look for clues on where Josh and Tori went,” he concluded.
There were no arguments from anyone.
Black continued to eye Lexx suspiciously.
“You got something you want to say to me?” Lexx asked.
White placed his hand on his partner’s shoulder, but Black pulled away from it.
“Yeah, yeah I do,” Black started. “Don’t think we just forgot about you killing that guy. He was surrendering and you shot him.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Lexx snapped.
Black got in his face.
“No I am not,” he said. “It may be the end of the world, but don’t think there aren’t still rules!”
“You’re not serious are you? That guy was responsible for killing Josh’s whole family and what? You want to take him to jail? Slap some cuffs on his hands and cart him off in the paddy wagon?”
Black’s face was stone cold.
“If we let that guy go, he would just find some other would-be messiah to fill his junkie needs and pledge his allegiance to! That guy slaughtered innocent people and you want to jump on my case? You can fuck off,” Lexx said.
“He’s right.”
Everyone turned and looked at CJ, who had been silent up until this point. The boy’s face was serious.
“That man killed my family,” he said. “He deserved to die. Every one of them did.”
