by Justin Sloan
“I’ve known many of these kids for years,” Clyde said. “We can absolutely trust them.”
“Clyde!” a loud voice said nearby, and then a man dressed like a lumberjack, in flannel and denim jeans, came strolling out from the left, where none of them had been looking. “I’m so glad to see you weren’t part of that mess.”
“Guys, this is Major, the youth worship leader,” Clyde said.
“Yup, it’s a name, not a rank,” Major added.
There was an awkward silence as everyone took each other in, and then Major nodded at the cut on Rohan’s face and the bandages on his hands. Then he looked at Beverly’s wrist, and for the first time Rohan realized the others had wrapped it with a splint, probably while he was feeling sorry for himself and his injuries.
“Looks like y’all are fighters,” Major said.
“It’s going to be the only way to survive,” Rohan said. “If all this isn’t taken care of soon.”
The man gave him a quizzical look. “So you don’t know?” Everyone waited, so finally Major added, “This isn’t just going to pass over. This is the time of tribulation. The rapture will happen soon, followed by spiritual warfare the likes of which has never been seen.”
“Jesus,” Beverly said, with a chuckle.
Clyde turned to her, deadpan. “Exactly.”
“Listen, Clyde.” Rohan put his arm around Nora as he said, “This end of time stuff, the rapture, all of that. It might happen, I’ll give you that. We’ve seen too much of the afterlife to not believe in something greater, more powerful. But this isn’t it.”
Doubt crossed Clyde’s face, but then he shook his head, chuckling. “Son, if you think possessions and spirits rising from the ground is anything other than the end of days, you’re in for a rude awakening.”
Rohan bit his lower lip to stop himself from going off on this guy. There was no way to explain to Clyde what “normal” was for him—not since seeing his dead fiancé.
Normal took on a whole new meaning after that.
When the awkward silence had passed, Clyde motioned for everyone to follow him to the fire and said they’d better check on the kids. He used the term loosely, as each of the “kids” was in their late teens. They were roasting hot dogs over a fire and drinking sodas, as if they were simply on a camping trip and the world wasn’t going to Hell.
Major introduced everyone, but Rohan pulled him aside.
“I appreciate what you’re doing here,” Rohan said. “And hey, I respect your religion, but here’s the deal—I have powers to fight these demon things. So does my girl—I mean, Nora—over there,” he gestured to Nora, “and so does Tess, in a different way. We have to hunt these demons down and take them out.”
“We have our beliefs,” Major said, eyes narrowing. “You clearly have yours. I get that, but don’t presume yours are more real than our own.”
They stood like that for a moment, staring each other down, until finally one of the boys said, “Hey, newbie, traditional or Polish?”
“What?” Rohan said, not looking away until he found Nora at his side, wrapping her arm around his and guiding him to the fire.
“Hot dog,” the boy said. “We have straight-up American baseball style hot dogs, or the big ol’ Polish ones. What’ll it be?”
Rohan frowned, unsure how to take this small sliver of normalcy amongst all the chaos.
“Just have a hot dog. Then we’ll figure it out,” Nora whispered.
It took all of his patience and the touch of Nora’s hand against his to get him to nod and say he’d rather have the Polish.
The guy handed over the Polish sausage, and Rohan nodded his thanks.
The teens took to them fast enough, and soon they were smiling, almost as if the world hadn’t fallen to pieces out there on the other side of these trees. But a sadness and worry lingered in everyone’s eyes.
“What happened back there?” Petra finally asked. She was leaning against a pack of camping goods, a pistol tucked into her pants. “I wasn’t gone that long.”
“You and me both,” Clyde said.
Major, who had been listening to the entire conversation quietly, cleared his throat. “The teens have an annual camping night here in the woods,” Major said. “We pretend it’s the great outdoors. So all of this caught us completely off-guard, too.”
“Great time to go camping,” Petra said, a faraway look in her eyes.
Clyde shrugged. “Pastor Mike was already telling everyone to get inside, take cover. I didn’t know what had happened yet, what everyone was freaking out about and why there were so many people in there… until one of them started thrashing about. Before we knew it, more than half of them were possessed, attacking each other and then everyone else until none were left, at least. At that point, I lost sight of Jacob and went to find him.”
“Then you just… continued to camp?” Rohan asked. “I mean, without knowing what was happening.”
“Clyde was freaking out,” Major said. “But when we heard about it, we knew instantly that it was as predicted. It’s fate that he stumbled upon us, and that we are all here right now. God’s plan.”
Everyone was nodding along except, Rohan noticed, the boy who had offered the sausages. This one had on a Beatles shirt under his leather jacket, with short hair that he combed to the side. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed Rohan staring, so Rohan just nodded and turned back to watching the fire crackle and embers float up and away.
He had always loved the way a campfire smelled, and it brought back memories of better times. Days spent with his mother out at Ocean Shores in Washington State, for one. She had family up there and loved to drag him along and get some outdoors time—his dad wasn’t really the camping type, more into football and lacrosse, two sports that Rohan had always thought fun as a way to connect with his old man, but nothing more.
Nora breathed deeply as she leaned into him and pulled one of his arms around her. He smiled and pressed his lips gently to the top of her head. Funny how dark times can draw two people together like this, he thought.
The rest were chatting now, speculating about how the final end would come, and whether it would be like in those rapture books that had been really popular in the nineties. Had it happened yet? If so, why had they been left behind?
Rohan’s head hurt from it all, a fact that was worsened by the guilt he felt knowing all this had really started with him.
Maybe he’d somehow rise to power and take over the world as the anti-Christ, and he just didn’t know it yet. But he doubted that. If God, or whatever was up there, had such a plan for him, he was pretty sure it was simply to kick butt. No taking names, no stopping to ask directions. Definitely no bubble game.
Simply. Kick. Butt.
“Where’re your thoughts at?” Nora asked, softly. Her hand moved across his chest, tracing a circle above his heart.
“All this….” He squeezed her tight, trying to convey comfort and security. It was almost laughable though—none of them were safe anywhere, he was pretty sure. “It’s impossible to be thinking of anything else, right?”
“Maybe,” she said. “My mind was wandering to campfires I used to have with the girls, back in high school. We’d all get together and go get a campsite, have a fire and a couple of beers, or that peach fake wine stuff, depending on the girl. We never stayed for the actual camping though.”
She laughed at the memory, and Rohan breathed in her scent—lilacs and nutmeg, which he thought was an interesting yet tantalizing combination.
“A whole side of you I wouldn’t have thought existed,” he said. “Hope you had designated drivers.”
“Yeah, the prudish nerdy girls we invited along.”
After a moment of silence and listening to the other conversations around them, and a shared smile with his sister, who was in a deep conversation with Tess on the opposite side of the fire, he said, “Tell me the truth. You were the prudish nerdy girl, weren’t you?”
She laughed and hit
him. “However you want to imagine me.”
“Ew.” He even chuckled now. “You were a teenager. I’d like to imagine you just as you are right now. Perfect.”
“Whoa, talk about pressure.”
“Think about it,” he said. “How many other beautiful women can help me fight evil spirits and demons?”
She raised an eyebrow at him, then glanced over to Tess. “I can think of one.”
“I—” His gut clenched up. Put him against spirits and demons, he could leap into action and not think twice, sometimes. But any conflict related to feelings? Yeah, right. Run the other way was his first instinct. Especially because it really hadn’t been that long since he had lost his fiancé.
“Relax,” she said, taking his hand and pressing her lips against it, then moving it to hold the side of her face. “I’m not the jealous type.”
“You’re… sure?”
“I get that you two went on a date, and she’s pretty hot, but I’ve never been the type to worry. If you wanted to be with her, you’d be with her. But who’s sitting next to you, wrapped in your arms?”
He shook his head, amazed at how great she was. “You are, and let’s not change that.”
Nora stiffened slightly. “There is one thing that gets to me, since we’re being honest and all….”
Rohan breathed deeply, and waited.
“Okay, so….” She sat up so they could make eye-contact.
Rohan was overcome with how bright her green eyes shone in the fire. The flames cast shadows across her face that highlighted the beauty of her full lips and the cute curve of her nose.
“Yeah?” he said.
“I just want to know…. You went to the afterlife to try and bring back your fiancé, right? Okay, I get that. You loved her, you still love her, and I’m totally one-hundred percent on board with all that. But, are you good here? Are you still trying to bring her back, or…?”
“Oh, that’s all?” he asked. “I thought you were going to bring up something serious.” He could tell she was about to punch his arm, so he quickly added, “Nora, trust me, that’s done.” She bit her lower lip and looked at him with those wide eyes, waiting for more, so he said, “I technically didn’t go into the afterlife to get her, anyway. I went to stop Altemus…. But when I was down there, I saw her, and she helped me defeat him. It was amazing, and we had our perfect goodbye. She wants me to move on, and, while I’ll never stop loving her in any way, I can tell you that, judging by the way just looking at you here makes my heart thump in my chest, or the way your kiss feels so perfect on my lips, I’m doing a pretty good job of ‘moving on.’”
Nora closed her eyes and for a moment Rohan thought he’d said the wrong thing, but then she opened them and he saw a glisten there, before she sighed and wrapped both arms around him, head on his chest.
“You’re right,” she said. “Your heart is beating extra fast.”
He laughed and kissed the top of her head.
Eventually, everyone decided who would take what watch for the night, though Clyde was fairly certain that they’d be safe out here away from the populated areas or buildings that others might stumble across. They even had a tent for Rohan and company, though it was a tight fit.
Having her so close like that, listening to her breathing slow as she drew closer to sleep, definitely brought images to mind of just the two of them and what they might be doing at the moment if they were alone. The thought made him roll over, as he felt kind of bad about it for some reason, and didn’t want to turn himself on too much in this awkward situation.
When he did turn, however, he was startled by a face staring at him.
“Good, you’re still awake.” It was sausage boy, his head in the tent flaps.
“Geez, man,” Rohan hissed, then waited for an explanation as the boy glanced around nervously. “You scared the heck out of me.”
The boy finally reached out his hand and waited for Rohan to open his and accept a set of keys with a small sugar skull keychain.
“What’s this?” Rohan asked.
“I don’t buy into this crap, but I’m not leaving my sister, either. I heard what you did out there, and that you’re trying to go fight these things. That right?” When Rohan nodded, the boy said, “Good. The van out there, the white one, that’s mine. Take it.”
Rohan sat up slightly. “You’re sure about this?”
The boy nodded. “Far as I can tell, you have a better chance than anyone else I know of making this better. So go, before the others realize you’ve gone.”
“But the sound of the van starting…. Won’t that wake everyone up?”
The boy scrunched his face in thought, then shrugged. “You’ll just have to take off pretty fast then. It’s not like they’ll chase you. Us church goers aren’t exactly in the revenge business.”
Rohan smiled at that, then shook the boy’s hand. “Thank you. If there’s a way to find you and repay you when this is all over, I will.”
“Hey, if you stop the demons and I get to live through this, that’ll be payment enough.”
They heard a scuffling outside, and then the sound of someone pissing on a tree. There was at least one person out there moving about.
“I’ll go make sure they’re distracted,” the boy said. “You make your getaway. When you hear an owl hoot, that means you’re clear to go.”
“Really, an owl hoot?”
“It’s that or a dog barking, so shut up and get the others ready.”
“Thanks again,” Rohan said, and the boy nodded as he ducked out.
Before long, Rohan, Nora, Beverly, and Tess were driving along a forest path, doing their best to see in the darkness. Finally, Rohan spotted a turnoff and pulled onto a side street that went past a residential area which, to his relief, was not burning in demon-fueled chaos.
Tess had mentioned that her family’s house was a decent journey from here, but that they could make it, and that they could regroup there for supplies. So that’s where they were headed.
Chapter 5: Arrival
Driving along the wooded highway, the countryside was somewhat calmer than the city, but not by much. Along the way they passed a house in flames, spirits chasing a man, and at one point, a bunch of cars piled up with several lunatics screaming and tearing at each other. Rohan kept his gaze ahead and sped past. No time to stop. No room for distractions, and no way of knowing who was possessed and who was just going wild in the mayhem.
As the sky purpled, rays of orange shot out from the trees. Soon, the sun appeared and the tree-covered hills appeared to be on fire.
Nora fell asleep on his shoulder, and it wasn’t long before Rohan could hear a soft snore coming from the backseat as well.
The ride was quiet and peaceful. If he looked at the trees and the sky and the sun, he told himself that he would have never been able to guess that the world was in the middle of an apocalypse.
He thought about the teenage kid who had given them the keys to the van. Did the kid mean what he said about him, Rohan, being the only one who could make all this better? What a horrible thought.
He felt a pit in his stomach and gritted his teeth as the trees fell away, revealing the outer skirts of a suburban sprawl.
Tess’s family lived in western Virginia. This had made both him and Nora nervous. If the city had gone to hell, there was no “going through.” It would be a fight—a massive, bloody and dangerous one. Rohan was ready for a lot of things but he didn’t know if he was ready for that. At some point, if they weren’t careful, their luck was going to run out. He looked down at Nora, who was still sleeping, then back at Beverly and Tess, and he knew he’d never be able to forgive himself if anything happened to them.
He came upon occasional traffic so he tightened his grip on the steering wheel, grimacing through the burns on his hands. The bandages helped somewhat, but his hands still hurt from where he had touched the demon.
He passed an industrial intersection and a pickup truck with a bad muffler
passed by, throwing up thick black smoke.
Nora startled and wiped her face. “What was that?”
“Some guy with no muffler,” Rohan said. “You’d think mufflers would be a priority in an apocalypse.”
“I think gas is probably more important,” Nora said, taking in the surroundings.
“Yeah. Hopefully nothing crazy is waiting for us here.”
Beverly and Tess woke, and sat up.
“Progress,” Tess said. “I kept thinking that when I woke up this would all be a dream. I dreamt that Rohan took me to my house, dropped me off and said sorry, that all of this was a joke.” She looked out the window wistfully. “I guess it’s not.”
“At least you slept,” Beverly said, rubbing her neck.
“Wrist bothering you?” Rohan asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.
“A lot,” Beverly said.
Nora switched on the radio again to find a jumbled mess of static as she tried to find a station.
“I doubt there will be any music,” Beverly said.
“You never know.” Nora shrugged. “But anyway, I’m looking for more news updates.”
“The world has gone to hell. That’s your news,” Rohan said.
Nora found a station and heard voices. She stopped and listened as the station streamed into the car.
Soon it became clear that the voices were screams. Dozens of them. Interrupted by grunts and glass breaking.
Rohan turned onto a freeway which took him around slums. They watched as spirits swirled over the city.
Then they saw it.
A giant specter among the spirits, glowing red, like fire. It looked like a reaper, with a grinning skull and a massive sword in one hand that sparkled with silver energy. It shrieked as it flew through the sky, and the very sight of it sent a chill down Rohan’s spine.
Nora was almost glued to the windshield. She didn’t take her eyes off the demon, which circled in the air and rained fire down over the rooftops.
“It can’t be,” she said.
“Tell us what’s on your mind,” Rohan said.
