Thirteen Roses Book Three: Beyond: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (15 page)

‘I did that. I created the alarm in your head and I switched it off as well. No one else heard it, Jackson. I am a demon, I have powers you couldn’t begin to imagine. And I’m this close to God. Believe me, if he had a party, I’d be top of the list.’

‘You’re a demon. God hates demons.’

Az chuckled, a sound like gravel being shaken in a metal pan. ‘God doesn’t hate anyone. He takes the piss out of everyone equally. I work for God, just like Luke used to. Only Luke’s been cast down now. So why would you stay with a guy who God has sent from heaven in disgrace when you can work for someone with a direct line.’

‘Why are you here? If God loves you, why are you down here?’

‘Why do you think?’ The demon spread his arms wide and looked around the tent. ‘It’s all gone to shit down here and God is not pleased. Why do you think he gave you such an important task? He just thought you might need a little help.’

Jackson’s chest swelled and he looked at the woman in his arms. Every one of the ladies was his responsibility. Could he do it on his own? He sniffed and pushed back through the sheets to the empty bed. He laid her on it, his fingers tracing her breast as he turned away.
 

The demon hadn’t moved and his horns peeked above the sheet. Jackson stared at the barrier that hung, so fragile and meaningless, between them. It was a demon. Why was he even considering trusting it? There was something about the way it spoke that made him want to trust it. He knew it was telling him the truth. And it knew that Jackson was the Chosen One.
 

The demon was the first person to recognise that he had been chosen by God and perhaps that meant more than it should. But if a demon agreed, then the humans with their attempts to kill him, or ignore him, or treat him like he was mad, meant nothing at all. He pushed through the sheet and stared the thing in the face.
 

‘If I join you, if we work together, what’s the plan?’

The demon nodded and folded its huge arms. Jackson watched the muscles rippling and rolling. This thing was huge and powerful, he didn’t like the idea of fighting it.
 

‘The plan is to ensure the ladies in waiting survive whatever is coming so they can do their job.’

‘Their job?’

‘You know that as well as I. We need a new human race, one made by people who are worthy. These women will bear the next generation. And they must be allowed to do that. If your friends destroy the device below, we’re all screwed.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The machine that keeps the zombies at bay - and can I just point out how clever a piece of engineering that was by me - is being used by your ‘friends’ as a bargaining chip to get the boy cared for by the soldiers’ doctor.’

Jackson growled and balled his fist. He couldn’t argue with an attempt to get Ed help, but using the machine was reckless and stupid. ‘Why would they do that?’

‘Because they’re desperate. And you can’t blame them. I’d be desperate too, if I were in Luke’s shoes. He’s been given a tough job by the— by God.’

Jackson frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

Az raised his eyebrows, huge chunky things the size of Ed’s arms. ‘You mean you don’t know?’ He laughed and shook his head. ‘Well, that tells you all you need to know. Luke wants to go home, to heaven. But if one of you dies, he’s stuck here forever. He’s supposed to be helping you save the human race, but all he’s really concerned about is keeping you alive long enough for God to let him back home.’

Jackson heard the last bit but he was already stomping past the demon towards the edge of the tent. He slipped beneath the canvas and stood in the gloom, breathing hard. He was going to murder the bastard. The lying, cheating bastard. He’d been lying all this time. He never intended to save the hostages.
 

It was difficult to be angry at the man for wanting to keep them alive, but it was easy to find fury at him for lying. That wasn’t God’s way. Why hadn’t he just told them? Jackson turned and watched the demon appear outside the tent, wisps of black smoke coming off him as he solidified.
 

‘How do you do that?’

‘I’m a demon. There are plenty of things I can do. It’s why you want to join me.’

‘I don’t want to join you. I want to do God’s work. You help me with that, we work together. The moment you lie to me or piss me off, we’re finished? Understood?’

The demon smiled that piss-taking smile again and Jackson growled. Just like everyone else, Az thought he was better than him. But just like everyone else, he was making the mistake of underestimating him. Jackson returned the smile with one of his own. ‘First, we find Luke and make sure the machine’s safe. Then we get the hostages away from the creepy bastards up here. We take them down to the cavern, right beside the machine. It’s much safer than up here anyway.

Az nodded, his smile never changing. ‘That sounds like a plan. You’ll find Luke in the secret passages. I won’t make an entrance quite yet, let’s keep our team a secret, shall we?’

‘God doesn’t like secrets.’

‘Actually, God’s rather fond of secrets. It’s lies he doesn’t like, so if someone asks you whether you’re working with me, you tell them yes. Otherwise, don’t say a word.’

There was enough emphasis to make it an order and Jackson bristled. He was tempted to argue, to make it plain who was in charge. But he had better things to do. So he nodded and watched Az fade away, the smoke thickening until that was all he was before that, too, disappeared.
 

Jackson waited for a moment. He hadn’t actually said they were working together. He’d made his plans clear, which were just the same as if Az hadn’t arrived. Knowing that didn’t make him feel any better about his latest union, but it was enough for him to put one foot in front of the other and believe it was by his own choice.
 

He found the place on the wall and slipped through into the white corridor. He hesitated again. He’d just spoken to a demon. He’d taken this whole mess in his stride. The zombies had been a challenge, a way to prove his worth and his intentions to his new-found God. Even the soldiers and the ladies in waiting had been no big deal. But he’d just spoken to a demon, a mythical creature that was ten feet tall and covered in red fur that did nothing to hide the massive dick hanging between its legs.
 

He’d very quickly got used to being the biggest man around. It had always been that way, except on the rare occasions he met up with those he did business with. And even them he turned his nose up at. But there was no denying there were beings here who were bigger than him, in every way. In
every
way. He ground his teeth and looked at his fists. He wasn’t helpless. The demon thought he was stupid, just like Luke did. That was their first and biggest mistake. When this was all done and he had his audience with God, he would drag the arrogant bastards before him and demand the truth.

The first door opened into an empty room that reminded him of a canteen. The second and third were locked. The fourth took his breath away. The corridor that lay beyond it was cavernous, far larger than should have been able to fit into the space. This was magic, trickery that until a week ago he’d have scoffed at and expected only from the weirdo nerds who played online games.
 

Now he felt it, like a cold wind on his skin that raised goosebumps all down his body. He crept into the passageway, cooling his anger for a moment. Both sides of the corridor had doors every few feet and he reached for the nearest handle with shaking hands. It opened silently and he peered in.
 

The room beyond was as small as the corridor was large and contained only a bed and a hospital machine. Tubes ran from it into the arm of the woman lying in the bed. Her gas mask obscured most of her face but her eyes were open and widened as she saw his face.
 

He pushed the door closed behind him, then knelt beside the bed and inspected the tubes. They were putting things in her. He sniffed. There was nothing in here, nothing to amuse the person lying prone. He could feel her eyes on him.
 

‘I’m Jackson.’

‘I don’t remember.’

‘What?’

‘Anything. Where am I?’

‘You’re in St Paul’s.’

‘What’s St Paul’s?’

He blinked and took her hand. It was utterly limp, lying in his like a piece of raw meat. It was faintly warm and dry and felt somehow inhuman. ‘How long have you been here?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything.’

‘Can you feel my hand?’

He squeezed her hand and she winced. ‘I can feel that. Is that your hand?’

His eyes filled and he blinked the tears away. What had they done to her. ‘Why are you here?’

‘I don’t know.’

He turned away, standing abruptly before he crushed her hand. What had they done? His breathing quickened and he growled. Was there someone like her in every room? And why was she in here and the ladies in the tent outside? He paced across the room in two steps, and as he turned he noticed the chart hanging from the other side of her bed.
 

It was simple. It had a number, 24, and a blood type, O positive. It also had the following written in type.
 

Partial exposure, fifth day after P
.

That was it. He could guess what it meant and, just like that, the mission had got tougher. Footsteps came from outside the room and he pressed his ear against the door. They stopped a little further up the corridor and he pictured them opening another of the rooms. Footsteps again followed by a soft click.
 

He pushed his door open and peered out. There was nothing there so he slipped into the corridor and tiptoed towards the sound. Murmuring reached him through one of the doors and he stopped beside it, holding his breath.
 

‘This one’s full exposure. Camera ready?’

‘Yep, that and the knife.’

‘God’s will, we won’t need it.’

‘Hah, God ain’t listening any more.’

‘That’s blasphemy, brother, and I’d thank you to keep it to yourself. God is always listening. He is testing our resolve and by the sounds of it, is right to do so.

‘How long till it stops being testing and starts being that he doesn’t care.’

‘Brother.’ The word was sharp and made Jackson jump. There was doubt. That’s where these guys were going wrong. The doubter should be strung up in the middle of the cathedral with a sign saying why he was there. Only way non-believers would ever truly change.
 

‘Right. Are we ready.’

A grunt was the only response and Jackson was moving before he had time to think about it. The door swung open easily enough and the scene beyond it was exactly as he’d imagined. The robed man stood frozen with his hand on the gas mask. The other man stood away from the bed, camera focused on the woman who stared from one to the other, blinking furiously. Jackson raised a hand, but as if in protest, the robed man yanked the gas mask down and off the woman’s face.
 

All three of them took a breath and waited. The woman took a shallow breath and then another. Nothing happened. The robed man’s face broke into a huge smile and he glared at the cameraman.
 

‘So you see, God has answered our prayers.’

Jackson’s heart leapt, not realising how badly he’d wanted to see the same thing. Then the smile froze on his face, a groan emerging from deep in his throat. The woman was changing. It happened horribly slowly. He looked away for a few moments, and when he looked back, he was unable to deny the pale sheen to her skin. Her eyes sunk equally sluggishly, as though her body fought the change.
 

Her eyes slid closed and her neck stiffened as the plague completed its work. He didn’t know how long she would lie still before she reawakened, but at this moment, she was dead. He stepped further into the room, pulling the knife from his belt. The camera man watched him without saying a word. Then he blinked and pulled a gun from his belt.
 

‘Stop. Don’t move.’

‘You need to kill her.’

‘We need to take blood and we can’t do that until she returns.’

‘She’s a bloody zombie.’

‘Right now, she’s dead. When she returns, we’ll take blood and then we’ll kill her. Until then, you don’t touch her.’

The robe nodded but moved away from him to stand behind the head board. His eyes twitched from the body on the bed to Jackson. ‘You’re Jackson. Etienne warned us you’d be back.’

‘He was right. First time for everything. What happened to her?’

‘She nearly survived. The plague’s potency is ending. She will, I think, be the last test to die in this way.’

‘In this way?’

‘The people in this corridor are ruined. The drugs we use to keep them immobile do irreversible damage. It doesn’t matter, we have no further use for them.’

His first thought was for the women in the tent outside. ‘What about the ladies in waiting?’

The robed man smiled. ‘We use other methods for them. It is why we keep them unconscious. They would be unfit for purpose were we to ruin their muscles. But those in here are not fit for childbirth. Some too old, some infertile, most not worthy. Like you, they are inherently worthless to our cause. Now, your presence here is unacceptable.’ He turned to the soldier. ‘If you will?’

The man raised his gun and Jackson saw his finger tighten on the trigger.
   

Krystal

The rough stone of the roof jarred her shoulder and scraped the skin as she fell. She slammed into the wall and the air rushed from her body. She wanted to scream, but a part of her knew the soldiers below would hear. She couldn’t make a sound, couldn’t give them away.
 

David’s hand was sweaty around hers. He was twisted, his side pressed against the window sill. His face was screwed up, teeth clenched together and lips pulled back in a grimace.
 

‘Don’t let go.’

His lips formed something close to a smile. ‘Wasn’t planning on it.’

He looked like he wanted to say more, but all his energy was taken by her weight. His hand was slippery and her fingers moved. She whimpered and forced her legs to stop kicking. She stared at the wall in front of her. It looked smooth but in truth was rough and notched. She ran her hand over it until she found something approaching a hand hold and locked her fingers in it.