Barren Fields (27 page)

He nods
yes
.

“
Good versus evil
, huh? And who are you rooting for?”

“You and Simone, of course.”

“You must know most of the people still at the ranch think I’m pure evil. Supporting me won’t do you any favors in survivability once Jeremiah makes his show.”

“Jeremiah is insane. He may hide his insanity well behind a front of Christianity, but what he is doing is anything but service to a higher power. We won’t let him destroy what this place stands for without a fight. Now get in the house and take the call,” he says as we arrive at the door and he opens it for me.

I walk into the room with the Ham radio and hear Simone and Dianne speaking excitedly to someone on the other end. I am also not too pleased to see my daughter Olivia sitting in a chair behind them. She was supposed to leave with everyone else in the trucks. Hopefully no one else in my family decided to take a losing gamble with their lives by staying here.

“Who is this person I need to speak to so badly?” I ask getting their attention.

A new level of tension hits when they turn their faces toward me, and I can see they have both been crying. Simone is not one for hysterics, so I doubt she had any kind of emotional breakdown over our current certain death scenario. They don’t say anything, just look at each other, and smile.

“Eddie is here now. I’ll let you speak with him for as long as we have,” Simone says into the microphone before getting up.

A long dead voice from the past sounds out of the speaker, “Eddie, are you really there?”

Now I understand Simone’s tears. My own eyes well up as I take my place in a chair facing the radio.

“Dad, is that you?”

“Yeah, Eddie, It’s me!”

“How many people survived in New Orleans?”

“I’m not in New Orleans anymore. We left right after your call eight months ago and spent some time in Mexico, but that’s not important right now. Simone told me what you’re up against with the swarms and also with this
Jeremy
fellow.”

I don’t bother interrupting to correct him on Jeremiah’s name. My mind reels a bit knowing that my father made it out of Louisiana and is still alive.

“We have seen the swarms of the infected as well. They have been running along the coast in California. Listen, if you can convince Jeremy to relax for a little while longer you won’t have to worry about the infected.”

“You’ve lost me, Dad. You said Mexico and California, where are you?”

“I’m off the coast of Oregon, right now. Me and a friend I’ve been surviving with are on a sailboat. I’ve given Simone the rough details of my location, but you need to know the infected are dying out right now. You won’t have to wait more than a couple of weeks before they are all gone.”

That has my attention. I sit there stupidly nodding at the radio expecting him to see my encouragement to continue.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m positive. We’ve been watching them from the boat for the last six to seven months. The coast is filled with them. It looked like millions of them were along the shore by San Diego and Los Angeles. I think everyone infected by the coastal cities went to the beach. I’m pretty sure they were attracted by the sound of the waves. We started seeing runners two months ago outside of San Francisco, it was a sickening sight. Instead of millions of bodies standing along the shore moaning at us, it was millions of them running. Just a huge mass of movement heading north along the coast.

“We tried sailing ahead of them and noticed them falling down by the masses along the way, and didn’t know what was happening. After seven more days of watching, huge sections of them were falling over, thousands at a time it seemed. We kept seeing them die like that, and then two weeks after they started to run, we woke up one morning to a dead coast. They are all dead out here. They start running when they have two maybe three weeks left to live. The running infected are starving to death, just like you were told by your man. But they don’t have months left to live, just weeks, by what we’ve seen.”

The elation that this news should bring, as well as knowing my father is alive, is short lived. A loud knock on the door lets me know my time is up. I look over to Simone standing in the doorway to the entry hall, and she nods at me with a frown to confirm my suspicion that Jeremiah must be outside.

“Dad, I have to go. Jeremiah is outside. I’ll see if we can use this new information to tide him over, but his main concern is an afterlife, not this one.”

“I know it doesn’t mean to you what it means to me, but I’ll pray for all of you to make it out of there.”

“I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too.”

Chapter 22

Brotherly Love

Isaac walks around the groups of praying followers spread throughout the riding stable. He is looking for Mariah, who should be speaking with Jeremiah, and wants to get her to leave the ranch. The faces looking up at him when he passes are a mixture of his own emotions and something more. He sees fear, anger, resentment, and a few truly evil looks of hatred shown his way.
Eddie was right. They think I’m a traitor. Maybe I am.

The two men guarding the entrance to the partitioned room Jeremiah is in hesitate before letting him pass. They know what he will find inside and aren’t sure if they should let Isaac in. If he is with the demon, Eddie, then he could be a threat to the man they’ve grown to trust.

“Wait here, Isaac. I’ll check with your brother if he will allow you in.”

“Charles, are you serious? It’s me!”

“You’ve chosen your side, Isaac, and if you are with Eddie then you are against Jeremiah. You are against God!”

Charles opens the door and nods to Peter, the other man, then he walks in closing the door behind him.

“You’ve made a mistake Isaac,” Peter says, stepping in front of the door to block the way should Isaac try to walk in after Charles. “Jeremiah told us everything. Even how he knows what Eddie is. You took the path of evil and—”

His words are cut off as the door opens behind him. Dave Cromwell, Sheila Jackson, and Charles all file out and stare at Isaac as they go by.

“He will see you now,” Charles says while drawing his gun on Isaac. “You won’t be needing any weapons. Take them all off.”

Isaac removes his guns and blades and is thoroughly searched before the two men open the door to let him in. Dave and Sheila have begun leading the prayer groups in singing religious hymns, and the pit in Isaac’s stomach grows as he suspects the start of singing is to cover other sounds that may arise in the room with his brother.

He doesn’t get to go in alone. Isaac is followed into the room by Charles and Peter, and the door is closed and locked behind them all. The small room is brightly lit with two lanterns on wall pedestals across from each other. A large leather chair is on the right side and seems out of place in the world which they now live. Jeremiah is standing in front of a table in his pristine white suit. The clear plastic body suit he is wearing has protected his ritual outfit from the blood that is dripping down the front of his body and pooling by his feet on the floor.

Isaac sees Mariah lying on the table behind their brother.

Jeremiah steps to the side, giving access to the grotesque vision of Mariah’s mutilated body, a large knife protruding vertically from her chest.

Before being able to take his first step, Isaac’s head is knocked sideways from a blow and he blacks out.

*

Stinging pain. Isaac’s cheek feels like it’s on fire.

“Use the water. I want him awake.”

A bucket of cold water is poured on Isaac’s head and that revives him. He is now seated in the large leather chair with his hands duct taped together in front of him. He tries to stand but his legs are taped up as well, so he sits there and focuses all of the hate he can conjure in his gaze at Jeremiah. 

“You murdered Mariah!”

“No, Isaac. I murdered the demon that was in Mariah’s body.” Isaac follows his brothers glance and sees he is also speaking to Charles and Peter. “That is the same thing I killed in my wife’s and daughter’s bodies as well.”

“You’re fucking insane, Jeremiah! There are no demons. This is a disease and you know it.”

Jeremiah shakes his head and gets an expression of pity on his face as he looks at his brother and walks up to him in the chair.

“I know for a fact that any person who is bitten is controlled by demons. I’ve proven to many people how I know and that only those that are close to God like you and I can flush them out and eliminate them. Would you like me to show you the proof?”

Isaac looks at the other men, and then back to his brother.

“If you have proof the bitten people are demons, I will look at it.”

Jeremiah takes off the transparent plastic jacket and then begins to remove his white suit top and shirt. He lifts his left arm and points to a scar on his armpit and chest. A mouth shaped scar.

Isaac’s eyes grow wide as he looks at his brother.

“You see now, Isaac. I know the people bitten are possessed by demons because I have been one of them since our attack on Christmas day. I have fought the demonic urges but know that only my strong faith in the Lord have truly protected me from its total control up until this point. I had to kill our sister because she gave herself over completely to the demon and allowed herself to be swayed by the evil which Eddie Keeper spews. Because of my bite, I am not fit to lead these people, Isaac, but you are. Everything I am doing here, this is all to make sure you and those that worship God are the people that continue to rule this Earth.”

Jeremiah motions for the other men to go, they nod and walk out.

“Why didn’t you show me this earlier?”

“I wanted to, but I think it was the influence of the demon keeping me at bay,” he says while pacing back and forth in a sincere and determined manner. “I was only able to regain control when I was challenged by Eddie that first day at Wal-Mart. I knew he was protecting the demon in Mariah, and it woke me up.”

“And at Christmas when you told everyone to kill the people that were bitten?”

“That was me breaking through the demons grasp again. I was mixed up by the fever at first. But once my mind was clear I knew everyone had to kill the bitten, and I had to kill my wife.”

“After the fever you got from being bitten?”

“Yes.”

“The fever from bites doesn’t happen for six hours, but you killed Angela and Rachel after thirty minutes.”

Jeremiah stops his pacing and looks straight at his brother.

“You’ve always been too smart for your own good Isaac,” he yells. “I was going to give you all of this. All of those people out there would have worshipped you, would have followed you anywhere even with your betrayal of me. All I had to do was go out there and tell them you were one of us and all you had to do was believe it too.”

“But it’s a lie!”

“Who gives a shit if it’s a lie? You would have ruled the world.”

“Why did you kill Mariah? Why did you kill your own wife and child?”

“Angela was leaving me. She filed for a divorce before the gathering at the camp. Rachel wanted to go with her and told me I treated her mother like dirt. They were disrespectful.”

“And Mariah?”

“Mariah was for show. These people need to know what I’m willing to do to people that won’t follow me. You should understand that since you like Eddie so much. He did the same thing to the men that attacked the ranch.”

“He did it to protect the people at the ranch not to control them.”

“You’re a fool if you think that, Isaac. Everything he has done has been for power and control, just like me.”

“You are insane,” Isaac says with a sad tone of understanding.

Jeremiah puts his white jacket back on and replaces the plastic cover over it as well.

“This could have all been yours, Isaac. You could have rebuilt God’s kingdom on Earth for his followers, but now I have to send you to him.”

With those final words Jeremiah begins the process of beating his brother to death.

Chapter 23

The False Prophet

Oregon.

I check that my guns and knives are all in their corresponding holsters and sheathes, and then open the front door. I am expecting to see Jeremiah and a throng of people wanting some kind of show, but only two people are there; Gayle Bradley, the cook, and her son, Tyler. Tyler is still a bit shell-shocked from witnessing his father’s death and doesn’t go more than five feet away from his mother at any time.

“Gayle? Where’s Jeremiah?”

“You only have a few minutes, Eddie. They are all in the riding stable, and Joanne let me know I needed to hurry.”

I don’t know who
Joanne
is, but Gayle is motioning for us to follow her. So I grab Simone’s hand and Simone grabs Olivia’s, and we file out of the house together. Timothy and Dianne come out behind us.

“Where are we going, Gayle?”

“To the back of the property. I saw you fill the ditch with fuel, and I put a plywood ramp over it so you could leave.”

She picks up the pace as we walk past the stable. Two men outside that were keeping an eye on me earlier disappear inside as we walk by.

“If you’re with Isaac, why didn’t you leave with him earlier? I saw the vehicles go out the gate before our trucks did.”

“Isaac is dead, so is Mariah,” she says in an upset manner, and Simone grips my hand. “Jeremiah is in that building right now bragging about how he killed one of the demons, his own sister. Mariah tried to talk with him about being immune but he just cut her down. Isaac found out when he went looking for her, and Jeremiah beat him to death.”

“He beat him? Are you sure Isaac is dead?”

“There isn’t much left of Isaac’s face. Once Jeremiah knocked him down he kept punching him and calling him a traitor to God. If Isaac isn’t dead now he will be soon.”

I stop and look back to the stable where people are starting to walk out following Jeremiah in our direction.

“He’s going to do the same thing to you and your family if you don’t go. He wants to make an example of you. He thinks if he kills you all of the demons will go away.”

The irony of the situation isn’t lost on me. If I stay and Jeremiah kills me, in a week or two when the infected all drop dead from starvation, he can claim he was right. If I run then he can still claim running us off our farm is what sent the demons away. Either way he will have a win for his new cult ideology.

I start walking toward the back of the property again at a quick pace. When we reach the plywood plank, I have everyone walk across, and then I throw the plank into the ditch leaving me stuck on the this side with Jeremiah.

“Eddie, what are you doing?” Simone yells pleadingly pacing back and forth along the ditch looking for a way to get back over to me.

“I have a surprise set up for him. Just stay on that side. Everything will be okay,” I say calmly. “It’s not just you and me anymore. You have to get Olivia out of here now.” Olivia and Simone both start crying and I prepare myself to face Jeremiah, who has almost arrived.

I turn to face him as he walks up. He is flanked on either side by two of the Wal-Mart trouble makers, Dave, and Sheila. I instinctively put my hand on the gun in the holster at my side. At least twenty assorted firearms rise up to point at me and everyone behind me, so I move my hand away and wait.

“Eddie, Simone, I’d like to talk to you,” Jeremiah says like a politician looking for votes.

“You want to talk to me the way you spoke to Isaac?”

“He betrayed God! He knew what he was doing, and he got punished for it.”

“You mean he betrayed you, right? Everyone here knows Isaac never stopped believing in God.”

He turns his back on me to address the crowd.

“Those are the words of the demon. Everyone bitten becomes possessed. We all know this. Isaac knew this, yet he still sided with him?”

I have to admit Jeremiah has a flare for preaching with drama. He is good at it. The fiery speaking, the finger pointing, and accusatory inflections in his tone. He even turns on the spot to face me again when he points at me and says the word
him
in a long drawn out rumbling way.

“You are a demon, Eddie. Ever since you were first bitten you have been possessed.”

“If I’m not immune then why don’t I run around and try to bite people like everyone else you say is possessed?”

“You know why, beast! But I will entertain your dishonesty to prove to these people what you are, so they know without a doubt that we are doing the will of God.”

I have to shake my head and roll my eyes at the ridiculous spectacle of it all. I can understand one madman like Jeremiah being in a group, but looking around at the faces in the crowd, I see fear and anger looking back at me. They are all looking at me as if I were about to burst into flames and consume them with fiery evil. It’s the same look of fear I’ve seen on the faces of people fighting the infected.

When Jeremiah takes a dramatic pause for breath, Olivia matches my sentiment in thoughts when I hear her ask, “Is he serious? What’s wrong with him?”

“The monsters that bite are all lower demons, the ones that run around spreading their satanic filth. You, Eddie, are a higher demon. That is why you can control your behavior and why you survive the attacks.”

He spreads his hands out to the sides and nods his head as if he has explained some big truth to the world. If all of these nervous people didn’t have guns pointed at me he would be dead ten times over.

I want to take him seriously, I know that is exactly what all of these people believe, but a smile starts creeping onto my face. Simone starts laughing behind me, followed by Olivia, and then I burst out laughing as well. Once again I am doubled over at the most inappropriate time trying to catch my breath and wiping tears from my eyes at how asinine the world and the situation I find myself in has become. It must be a full minute before I’m able to stop laughing enough to say anything. Each time I try, I look at him attempting to be serious and official, and it cracks me up even more.

“Oh, Jeremiah, thank you. I needed that. I’m sorry for laughing but look at you. That show might work on the regular faithful that attend your church, but I think you’re going to end up in a home for the overacting. Cut the theatrics and tell me what you want.”

“I want you to admit what you are. Tell them you are a demon.”

“I am not a demon. Demons don’t exist. I don’t believe in gods or devils, angels or demons. Is this the work of a demon in your eyes?” I say pointing at the ranch and the people in the crowd. I am trying my hand at Jeremiah’s game but with less gaudy embellishment. “I’ve been keeping all of you alive, fed and healthy. How is that the work of a demon, Jeremiah?”

“That is the work of a higher demon. You aren’t just trying to kill us. That isn’t your way or your purpose. You want to fill our stomachs with food, give us a safe place to live and steer our souls away from God. You want to take away our eternal life in Heaven and a comfortable life on Earth, is the way
you
are doing it.”

I know I can’t win against Jeremiah’s fantasy with a logical argument and it pisses me off. No matter what I do or say, I can’t win.

“That right there is why I don’t believe in God. Look what happens to you if you believe in things without evidence. I mean, look at all of you, your belief in God has totally screwed up your perspective on reality! This is a fucking disease like the bird flu or Ebola. Some people survive it, and some people don’t, but you start throwing your ideas about God bringing about the end times and suddenly all bets are off. Now anything is possible from pigs farting peanut butter to imaginary demons controlling human bodies. There’s nothing I can say that you can’t counter with some magical explanation Jeremiah, so why don’t you just kill me and spare us all the torment of your proclamations.”

“I don’t want to kill you if you aren’t a demon, Eddie, but I have a way for you to prove whether you are or aren’t to these people. My group and I want you to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,” he stops speaking and is waiting for a reply.

At this point most of the people in the crowd nod their heads at his statement. People from his group and the Stick People.

I understand their sentiment, even though I can’t agree with it. Religions have been calling for judgment day ever since man first created gods. Now that the world of man has truly gone belly up the people in front of me are turning to the easiest explanation they can wrap their heads around. They want there to be a better life after this one, something to look forward to after the suffering they experienced in this one. I just can’t make myself believe in something in order to feel better. Either it is or it isn’t, and if I don’t know, then I don’t say yes.

“Is there anything else, Jeremiah? Any specifics you want to add to your invitation to find Christ?”

“Yes, you need to accept that what we are dealing with are demons and possessions. If we keep trying to deal with these things as if it is a disease, we will lose sight of the lesson that the Lord is trying to teach us. We should be humble in his presence, and the demons will leave us alone.”

“You think if we all pray real hard and accept that these things are demons they will just go away?” I say shaking my head, unable to grasp the convoluted reasoning behind such a thought. 

“They are still here because you and many of those around you question the existence of the demons. You even question the existence of God!” he says with genuine anger.

I hold my hands up in a calming motion, and say, “Okay, okay Jeremiah. I’m not trying to be rude but you know I don’t believe in God, and your theatrics are great. Let’s try this then, you have a large crowd of believers here, why don’t you and anyone here that wishes, try to convince me. Convince me that God exists. Tell me why I should believe and what evidence I am missing that should lead me to believe even half as strongly as you do?”

To this Jeremiah straightens up and smiles. “That I can do, Eddie. The proof that God exists is you,” he says while pointing right at me.

I look down at myself and back up at him shrugging my shoulders. “Not enough, Jeremiah. Care to elaborate?”

“You, Eddie. Your life. Look at what you have and tell me that God wasn’t guiding you. You knew before everyone else that you should prepare for disaster. That was God’s hand guiding you. You prepared this ranch like your own Ark to weather the coming storm that we are in. You took in all the decent people that came your way and fought, risking your life to protect and save the innocent people that Stockton captured. That is God guiding you.

“You have survived this plague with God’s blessing, and He has chosen you to guide and protect these people. That is why he has spared your family while most of us others have endured such terrible losses. God has blessed you, and it is time for you to accept him for the gifts he has given you.”

“And if I don’t accept that these are the gifts of a God?”

“Not
A
God Eddie,
The
God! And if you don’t accept him then you must be against him.”

“So if I accept your God then I am his blessed messenger, and if I don’t I’m a higher demon?”

“Either you accept God has blessed you with all of your success and swear allegiance to Him or we will know you can’t, because you are a demon!”

“Sorry, not convincing. Is there anything else?” I ask, and he just steps back as if my question might hit him in the face. “Does anyone else have evidence that should prove to me that God exists?”

“He has a point, Eddie,” this time it is Dianne behind me that speaks up.

“You believe the infected are demons, Dianne?” Simone asks in shock.

“No, not demons or possessions, but look at your life, your family all surviving. Even Eddie’s father survived. How do you explain it without God?” she says.

I turn back to see many heads behind Jeremiah unfortunately nodding.

“Fine, let’s say I believe God has blessed my family. I don’t believe we have been blessed by anything, but let us say God exists. Because my family all survived, I should show my appreciation to God and?” I ask leaving the rest to be filled in by the crowd.

“You should convert!” one person says.

“Become a Christian,” says another as the crowd begins to murmur in excitement.

I stare at these people and wonder how humanity was able to survive for so long when people can so easily twist the things they witness to fit their own agendas.

“Don’t you mean you should all become Atheists?” I ask back at them.

The faces filled with hope at my possible conversion turn to looks of surprise and fear at what I have suggested. I know Jeremiah won’t let me live. It doesn’t matter if I say I believe in God or not. You could tell by the growing anger and frustration etched on his features as it sounded like I might be finding a way out of his trap. I’m not going to pretend to believe in God to save my skin any more than a devout Christian would pray to Allah to keep their head from getting cut off. All I can do is speak the logic that I know and accept my fate for not having killed Jeremiah, Dave, and Sheila that first day at Wal-Mart.