The Dead Parade (34 page)

“
I don’t care. I’ve got to bring this guy to the station.” Layton pointed at Elmer.

“
You’re kidding me right?”

“
Nope.”

“
But this is my car.”

“
Doesn’t matter.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Everything is screwed up today. Half of us will be riding alone, and most of us will be in different cars.”

“
And who are you riding with? You’re not bringing him in by yourself, are you?”

“
It’s just me.”

“
Yeah right.”

“
Honest. Big man Wilson told me to call for back up when I get there.”

“
So I lose my car?”

“
I just lost mine, so it looks that way, yes.”

Neilson sighed. He hated losing his car almost as much as he hated Layton. “All right. Fine,” he said. “Take my fucking car. See if I care.”

PART SIX:

THE END OF IT ALL

122

Officer Layton and Officer Neilson turned towards the sound of somebody screaming.

The screams came from the extra large mouth of Officer White––the cop with the excellent shot. A moment before, without warning––unless you consider ice-cold air a warning––both of Officer White’s arms snapped simultaneously, just below the elbow. From what people could tell, there was no possible reason for the occurrence. It just happened. Then his arms snapped again. Then his arms snapped again––and his mouth opened. He embarked on a tremendous mount of screaming, letting it all out. The pain, shock, wonder and amazement––all came pouring out his mouth in a monumental wave of horrified noise. Then at the end of his screaming, his wrists snapped, cracking like two thin strips of dry and brittle balsa wood.

White fell to his knees. The look on his face was one of complete terror. His arms had become something resembling circles.

“
Help me.” White said. “Help––”

Then both of his legs snapped twice and his neck snapped once.

Officer White fell onto his back, silent and mangled beyond belief, beyond repair. The eight police officers that watched it happen were frozen in shock. What they had witnessed was something from a nightmare. Something unnatural.

Officer Steve Carney––a young man that was new to the force––was the first person to speak after White went down. He said, “I’ll go to the cottage, get the medics.” But then he didn’t move. His feet felt glued into his boots, which seemed to be nailed to the earth with railroad spikes.

Thomas Barnet––he was the first to move.

Barnet was an older man. He had a potbelly and a crown of gray hair. He had a wife and three teenage kids––two boys and a girl. He also had a dog, a line of credit, a mortgage, a new car, and a dentist appointment later that afternoon. He walked slowly towards the coils of White’s body, as if White had become contagious. He thought about the things that were his life and wondered if he was risking it all. His feet moved slowly. His fingers sat firmly around his gun, drenched with sweat.

Elmer watched Barnet from inside the car, wondering if he was brave, or just plain stupid. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

Standing outside the car, less than two feet away from Elmer, Layton felt like saying something witty. Instead, he stood up straight and rubbed his hands together.

Steve Carney still hadn’t moved. The medical assistance he promised would have to wait.

Barnet moved closer to the mangled remains of Officer Markus White. He could hear bugs buzzing and peeping as they twittered in the trees. He could smell the fresh morning scent that the storm had awoken. He could see White’s body shivering and trembling, looking the way a spider might if you held it under a flame. And he could feel the unnaturally cold air around him that was both unseasonable and wrong. The temperature had dropped below zero where he was standing. His breath hung in the air, along with the aura of an unfamiliar presence.

Something changed inside of him. Fear overwhelmed the moment; he wished it were illogical, groundless or unjustified. But it wasn’t. It was justified all right. His head was on the chopping block and the executioner’s blade was falling.

Barnet stopped walking.

He turned away from Officer White, biting back the urge to scream.

“
Is he dead?” An unknown voice asked in a whisper.

Barnet didn’t know. He also didn’t want to know. He wanted to resign from this moment of unintentional bravery. He wanted to put his feet in motion and run.

“
I can see my breath,” he said.

“
What?”

“
I can––”

Officer Thomas Barnet suddenly folded in half. His legs stayed in place while his upper body was forced backwards, like a human folding-chair. Then he fell onto his side with his mouth propped open. The blood rolled over his teeth and lips. Then someone shouted, someone screamed. People began running, scrambling, covering their eyes and dying where they stood.

Officer Layton watched a man’s head snap back and turn in a circle. He watched an officer’s spine get pulled through his back. He watched a man loose his eyes and a woman have her jaw ripped off.

One man jumped inside a police car, only to be pulled through the open window with a broken neck. Another had an explosion inside his head. A woman’s stomach opened up like a gym bag and her intestines fell in the mud.

And while people ran, and screamed, and tried to hide, Officer Layton slipped inside the police car with Elmer. He slammed the door. The windows were up and the Bakisi didn’t catch his scent. And for him, the show continued.

One by one, the people he worked with were being ripped apart, which was fine by him. He didn’t like them much anyhow.

123

When the blood began spilling, and bones began breaking, and people began screaming, and running, and hiding, and dying––James knew what was happening. He knew the score.

The Bakisi had finally caught up with him.

He couldn’t do anything; he couldn’t say anything helpful or explain the situation to the people that were suffering––the cops and the detectives and medical workers. And at this point, he didn’t want to try. James was finished fighting, finished running, finished explaining and crying and wishing that things were different. He wanted the Bakisi to do what it was going to do and be done with it.

James had given up.

It took a little more than two minutes for the Bakisi to finish everyone off––for the beast to cut throats and snap necks and do whatever it was doing. And during this time, James closed his eyes. When he finally opened them again, he could see it: the Bakisi. It was standing at his feet.

Its black skin was glistening, its huge eyes were gazing. It was filled with hate and rage and seeping with death. Fingers seemed almost broken with curves and bends and far too many knuckles that rested on the floor where it stood. Its feet were like webbed hooves, if such a thing existed. Its teeth draped from its gapping maw, twisted and long––teeth that resembled rusted black nails that had been pulled from an un-giving lumber. Its chest, hairless and thin, seemed to shake and quiver at times, as if the cold air was coming from within.

“
Okay,” James said, still cuffed and sitting in the chair. “You’ve got me. I won’t run anymore. I’m yours, I’m not sure what you want from me, but I’m yours. I can’t run any longer.”

The Bakisi seemed to understand this. It stepped away from James and lowered its head, looking meek and somewhat submissive.

James stood up––the only survivor among the carnage of the cottage.

He approached one of the bodies. A set of keys hung from a latch on an officer’s belt. He sat on the floor next to the officer and took the keys.

It took James a long time to free himself from the cuffs, almost six minutes. The Bakisi waited patiently. When he finished, he stood up and walked across the room, which looked like the inside of a used blender. Guts and blood and tattered limps, fingers, intestines and severed flesh, hair and bone and opened torsos, decapitated heads and squashed eyes––it was all here, mixed together like the devil’s martini.

James shook his head in disgust; he lifted a gun off the floor. But the gun wasn’t for the Bakisi. He finally understood; you can’t harm a deity.

“
Let’s get going,” James said. “Let’s go someplace new.” He walked to the door and then stopped. His eyes flickered. “Wait a minute, will ya?”

The Bakisi gave him some room.

James returned to the center of the room. He set the gun down and picked the axe up.

He said, “I love you” and began chopping Debra’s head off. It took three swings. He thought it would make him happy but it didn’t. With Debra being dead it just didn’t feel the way he thought it would.

Oh well. Such is life.

124

Elmer and Layton sat in the car together, seemingly––the last men alive. Layton was in the front and Elmer was caged in the back. But Layton didn’t have the keys to the car. Neilson had them, and Neilson was lying outside with his legs torn off. It was dangerous out there.

They talked about the situation, forgetting all police/suspect protocol.

Elmer wanted Layton to go outside, scoot across the road and dig through Neilson’s pockets.

Layton didn’t. He was thinking something else; he figured fuck that––Elmer should do it.

Layton took a deep breath, building the courage he needed. If Elmer was getting out of the car, Layton needed to open the door for him. Police cruisers are like that. The back doors don’t open from the inside.

He put his hand on the door handle and closed his eyes. On the count of three, he thought. One––

Elmer saw James walking down the driveway. “Oh shit,” he said. “Look who it is.”

Layton opened his eyes and found himself surprised. “That’s James McGee, isn’t it?”

“
That’s him. That’s the guy responsible, not me. I’m innocent. That’s your wanted man, right there.”

“
What’s he doing?”

Elmer seemed puzzled. “I don’t know. Doesn’t he realize––”

“
How can he not realize? Look around you!”

“
But he doesn’t seem scared.”
“He’s coming this way,” Layton said. It didn’t occur to Layton to raise his gun. And he could have; it was in his hand.

James approached the car with his handgun in plain view. He pointed it at Layton and said, “Drop it.”

Layton did, feeling like a fool. He should have protected himself, and he wondered why he hadn’t.

“
Open up.” James said.

“
No fucking way,” Layton replied. Then he put his hands in front of his face. “I’m not coming out there.”

“
Do it. Or I’ll blast the window.”

“
Good luck buddy. It’s bullet resistant.”

“
Not from this range.” James said. Then he pulled the trigger three times.

The first bullet lodged into the glass, causing a spider’s web design to form around it. The second bullet blasted a hole in the window. The third bullet went through Layton’s head, coming out the other side in a rope of blood.

Elmer screamed.

Layton fell back, dead.

James smiled through the broken window. “Hello Elmer,” he said. “Remember me? Do ya? Do ya? Do you remember Debra? Do ya remember what you did to Debra? Remember the hammer? DO YOU REMEMBER THE FUCKING HAMMER?”

Elmer threw his hands in front of his face screaming, “Oh God! Oh God! Oh God please don’t kill me!”

“
I’VE GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU, MAN! I’VE GOT SOMETHING RIGHT HERE!

Elmer began crying. “Oh God… don’t! Don’t,” he said. “Don’t shoot me! Oh man, oh man, don’t pull the trigger! Oh please God don’t shoot me in the fucking head!”

James opened the back door and pointed the gun at Elmer’s face, shaking his head back and forth like a rabid dog. He was screaming and yelling and kicking his feet in the mud. Spit hung from his mouth; his fingers squeezed the gun like he was trying to break it. His eyes watered and threatened to pop from his skull.

“
TAKE THIS, YOU MOTHERFUCKINGPSYCHO!”

“
No! No! Don’t! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Oh man, I so sorry!”

“
BUT I HAVE TO ELMER! I’M HAVE TO!” James pulled the gun away. He rammed the barrel into his own mouth, digging the iron into the gums above his upper teeth, screaming, “IF I DON’T PASS IT ON, IT WILL BE WITH ME FOREVER!”

Then, laughing and insane, he pulled the trigger.

The blast was deafening.

125

That first night, while David Timothy Camions (a.k.a. Elmer) sat in his jail cell, cursing and swearing, covered in blood, and laced in cuffs the police refused to remove, he knew he was not alone.

Something cold was there. Watching him, hating him, freezing the air around him.

It took a long time to sleep that night. It was almost morning, in fact, before he drifted into the other world. And when he did sleep, when his eyes fell in a frightful, haunting slumber, he saw a boy with a red balloon walking along the edge of a lonely road. And behind the boy, between the trees that seemed to incase the child like impenetrable wooden fingers, he saw the dead. They were crawling from the ditches and the laneways of the cottage. Escaping the bedrooms, the beach, and the driveway, sometimes in pieces, sometimes destroyed, whispering in solemn tones and moaning voices.