Where the Dead Men Lie (18 page)

I made it to the lobby of the bank and peered outside into the street to make sure it was safe. I could see a trail of blood leading into the small alleyway between the hardware store and the pharmacy. But that was it.

The road was empty.

I scuttled from the bank to the church like a mouse. I was so concerned with being quick and quiet and getting to cover, I was not prepared for what I saw inside.

Hanging above the altar with his arms outstretched was the priest.

He had been mutilated.

Butchered.

Crucified.

A few seconds later, I had to look away.

"Beautiful, ain't it?" Ben said.

He was sitting up the back of the church, in the very back row. Like someone who had been running late for the Sunday morning service. He was admiring his own handy work. I opened my mouth. But nothing came out. I couldn't speak. Not while the image of that unholy mess was being seared into my mind.

"You're right," Ben continued. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But you must admit; it most definitely is appropriate."

Ben stood up and walked down the aisle, towards the altar. I followed blindly and numb. I was distancing myself from the situation. I had to.

Two of priest’s men were kneeling down in front of the altar. One of them was the bald guy.

"I made them watch," Ben said.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I’m just asking my two new friends here some questions. Ain’t that right fellas?"

The bald man answered with a whimper. The other man was silent. It took me a few seconds to realize he was dead.

"You can’t do this," I said.

"Old testament sweetie, remember? Eye for an eye."

"But it’s not right."

Ben ignored me. And as I’m telling him that he can’t do this, that he can’t torture and kill people no matter what the circumstance, he pulled out a gun and shot the bald man in the stomach. I felt all the blood drain from my face. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t believe what this man was capable of. I mean, he had just saved Maria and me from a certain death. But now, here he was doing things that no normal man should be capable of doing.

"Society has crumbled, remember? This is the only way to deal with these people."

"They… they were just doing what they had to do." I said, even though I knew they were messed up and evil. "They don’t deserve this."

And as I said the words I couldn’t figure out why I was defending them. But that kind of punishment, that kind of torture and pain? No one deserved that.

Ben looked at me. Right at me. He held my gaze. Made sure I was listening. "These men deserve this. Ed, the guy with the moustache, he killed his wife. This guy killed his kids," he said pointing the gun at the dead man, "He sacrificed them to those monsters. They are bad people. Messed up even worse than I am. Trust me, they deserve this. Hell, they deserve worse."

The bald man was doubled over, moaning in pain. "Oh God," he whispered "Please don’t kill me."

Ben laughed a crazy, hysterical kind of laugh that chilled me to the bone. "Are you stupid? I already killed you. I mean, sure I shot you in the stomach which means you’ll be a long time dying. But you’re still a dead man all the same."

"Please. I can help you people. I can keep you safe from the desert."

Ben shot him in the stomach again. The noise of the gunshot was deafening. It made me jump. I looked over my shoulder at the entrance of the church expecting monsters and a horde of infected and black smoke to come barging in through the large wooden door looking for us. I wondered if that thing outside could hear all the noise. Maybe that was Ben’s plan.

"Um, should you be making so much noise? Aren’t we supposed to be hiding?"

I asked these questions tentatively. I was scared of his answer. Scared of how he’d react.

"It’s OK," Ben said. "Because our bald friend here is back on the path to forgiveness and righteousness. Isn’t that right? You came here, to this church, to Father Damon for guidance, for protection. You lost your way but now you are going to make it all better. You are going to help me."

The bald man had his eyes closed, breathing hard. Sweating.

"Now, before you pass out from the pain and the blood loss," Ben continued. "I need you to tell me where your food supply is. And where you’re keeping my stuff. And where you locked up her friends. Don’t make me check every room. We’re running short on time here. And I don’t want to have to start torturing you for real. Nobody wants that."

Torturing for real? What the hell did he mean by that? What the hell did he think he’d been doing?

"The keys," the man whispered.

Ben cracked him in the mouth with the back of his hand. "Speak up."

Blood dripped down his chin as he spoke. "The food and water supply," he whispered. "They’re kept in the store room of the church. The keys are in the top drawer of the desk in there."

The stockman pointed to an adjacent room. "The desk in that room?"

"Yeah."

"And my bag?"

"What bag?"

Another back hand. "The gym bag with my goddamn weapons."

"They’re in the locker. In that office."

"And where are her friends?"

"The church basement. They’re out cold. They were drugged. It was for their own good. We weren’t going to hurt them. I swear. You have my word."

"You’re word ain’t worth much."

Ben moved over to the room and retrieved the keys and found his gym bag. He came back out and stood in front of the altar and looked up at the priest. "Goddamn, I wish I had a camera."

Yep. He was a madman.

"You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?" the bald man asked. "You’re going to leave me here. Dead. Rotting."

"Congratulations for catching up with the rest of the class, Einstein. Yes, you are going to die. You see, even before the world ended, being shot in the stomach multiple times at point blank range was still a tough ask for ER surgeons to deal with. And now? Well now that there are no ER surgeons."

And then bald man did something totally unexpected. He laughed. I guess, maybe the blood loss was making him delirious. "Einstein," he said. "Funny."

"Glad you can see the lighter side of your impending death."

"You can’t win," the bald man warned. "You can’t kill it. It knows you’re here. You’re deader than I am."

"Excuse me?"

"Don’t you get it? That’s why we sacrificed those people. It was the only way."

"I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. Shouldn’t you be saving your story for the big man upstairs? That’s what you believe right? There’s a big guy, with a big white beard and if you tell him all your secrets, confess all your sins, he’ll look after you. Maybe you should save your story for him."

"Look, I can help you. I can help you hide. I can help you get out of here. Please…"

Ben then pressed the barrel of his gun to the man’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

I tried to look away in disgust but I couldn’t. I was both terrified and fascinated at the same time. I was frozen with fear.

I eventually forced myself to turn away from the scene of torture, trying to erase the memory from my mind. But I knew I’d never be able to. This whole thing, this whole apocalypse, or outbreak, or extinction level event, whatever you want to call it, it’s something that I will never be able to erase from my mind. It was changing me. Irreversibly and absolutely.

CHAPTER 27

At that point all I wanted to do was run back down to the bank vault and lock myself in and stay there for the rest of time.

But I knew that wasn’t an option.

"Come here," Ben said from in the adjacent room. I guess it was like the church office or something.

"Why?"

"You’ll need one of these. Just in case."

He was digging around in his gym bag. He then held up a grenade.

"No. No way. I hate those things. They’re too dangerous."

"It’s not a frag grenade. It’s an EMP grenade."

"A what?"

"Electromagnetic pulse grenade," he said as he handed it to me. "If you see black smoke, pull the pin and throw it."

"Throw it where?"

"You gotta be kidding me? Throw it at the black smoke! The closer the better. The pulse will stun the nano-swarm temporarily."

"Wait, before we do any of that, we need to get the guys. Where did baldy say they were being kept?"

"They’re locked up in the basement."

"We should go and get them first. Kenji and Daniel, they’re trained for this kind of thing."

"Trust me; there is no way in hell they are trained for this. And besides, if they’re still drugged up, they’ll be useless. Grab that bag. Come with me."

"What? Me?"

"Yeah. And hurry up. We don't have long. I’m guessing the nano-swarm knows we’re here. Especially after all that noise."

"It? It knows we’re here?"

"Yeah, the black smoke. It learns. It gets smarter."

"Wait. I don’t think you understand. Kenji, Daniel. They’re soldiers. If they’ve been drugged then we need to wait for them to get it out of their system."

"We don’t have time for that. Look, I know they're soldiers. But trust me; they do not know how to deal with this. The nano-swarm is not going anywhere. It knows there is food here. And it’s got a taste for meat."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"The nano-swarm. That black smoke cloud thing out there. I don’t know exactly what it is or where it came from. But I do know this. It hunts. It feeds. That’s all it does."

"How? How do you know that?"

"First hand experience. I’ve seen it in action. General Spears briefed us back at the Fortress. He called them, ‘rouge nano-swarms’. The recon teams called it black smoke. Another one of the ‘anomalies’."

"Can’t we just hide?" I asked. "Can’t we make a run for it?"

"No. It will follow us. Chase us down."

"Why don’t we wait it out? Down in the vault?"

"Look, this town is the last place in the world we should be. The priest has turned it into a freakin drive thru, fast food joint for those monsters. He trained them to feed here. I don’t want to spend a minute longer in this town than necessary. They way I see it. We only have one option."

"Which is?"

"We have to take it down."

Once again it was do or die. Once again it was time to make a stand.

"I need your help, little lady."

It was weird hearing Ben ask for my help. He was a huge man and at that moment he was covered in blood, cut up to all hell, gun in hand. He looked like the last person in the world who needed help from anybody, except maybe psychiatrist. And on the flip side he’s the last person in the world you would normally agree to help. There’s a reason parents tell their kids not to take candy from strangers. It was to avoid people like this.

But I had no choice. This was not a normal situation.

I took a deep breath. "How do we kill it?"

"We can’t kill it."

"What?"

"Just grab the bloody bag. We need to do this now."

"No," I said. And as soon as the word left my mouth I regretted it.

Ben didn’t look like the kind of guy who heard the word ‘no’ very often.

He stared at me. Waiting for a damn good reason why we shouldn’t go right now.

"We need the guys," I said. "We have to get them first. We’re stronger as a group."

Kenji’s wise words coming out of my mouth.

Ben thought it over. And finally gave in. "Fine. We do it your way. But we have to hurry."

CHAPTER 28

We made our way down to the church basement where the bald guy had told Ben they’d taken the boys.

Sure enough that’s where they were.

They must’ve taken them down there after they had tied Maria and myself up, I thought. Then again they could’ve done it at the same time. We were all unconscious.

The guys were lying on the cots. They were all tied to one another.

Ben checked their pulses quickly. "They’re alive."

We untied them and waited for them to come back around. Kenji and Jack were still sound asleep. Daniel was the only one sort of half awake. He was completely confused and disorientated. It took him a while to understand what was going on. Once he finally caught up, he just shook his head. He looked exhausted. Upset. Like he had let the group down.

Kenji finally woke.

Jack was still asleep.

"The water was spiked," I said.

When I told them what had happened they all reacted differently. At first they were confused.

And then angry. Very angry.

Jack was awake for a little bit, but then a few minutes later he was asleep again. Apparently he had downed most the bottle of water.