I’ll be honest with you. I have no idea where the words were coming from. I was terrible at memorization. As a kid in school, when we had to recite the Gettysburg address from memory in history class, I totally bombed it. I think I made it as far as, ‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in…’
This is where the wheels went off the cart. My following words were, ‘...in the lottery.’ Yeah, totally wrong, but it sure got me the laughs. And well earned me a ‘D’ for that grade.
Now, I was reciting from the deep recesses of a memory scripture I had no memory of ever reading. So I had to just go with it and let the words flow because I knew, in that moment, the words were not coming from me. They were coming from above.
While I should have been scared witless, a serenity washed over me. It sort of reminded me of taking nitrous oxide at the dentist. Once that stuff was flowing, I didn’t care if my dentist wanted to remove every one of my teeth.
Alex and Richard faded from my consciousness as I took slow and deliberate steps toward Soto and Brother Ed.
I recited the words, “He restores my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”
That’s when Soto loosened his grip on Brother Ed’s neck and looked up to me. Whether that meant he was listening to me or whether he would throttle Brother Ed and start with me in a few seconds, I did not know. I just knew I had to keep walking and talking. In fact, I had little choice in the matter. A force greater than myself compelled me to move forward, step-by-step.
The next line must have been the show stopper. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
That’s when Soto fully released his hands from Brother Ed’s neck and slowly rose, looking on me with either fear or anger. I just could not tell at that moment. There was a 50/50 chance he just might launch himself at me, but my feet just kept on moving.
He continued to watch me as I raised my hands, and that’s when I saw a curious blue glow emitting from my fingers. It was faint but also obvious, and I had only seen something like this once before. That was when I faced off with Colonel Kilgore after he had been transformed by dark powers into something else. Something grotesque and powerful. Something demonic.
God had sent an angel to help me in that battle. The angel’s name was Barry. (His real name was Barachiel, but that was a mouthful.)
Barry had imbued me with some kind of holy power, and it was the only thing that saved our asses then. After the battle, that power quickly faded away, and I truly felt that I would never see it again.
That was until this very moment. Although it was different. I felt no flood of invincible power course through my body. This was more like a serene, peaceful feeling. But while it was gentle, it still held some sway.
Soto put up his hands and took a step back from Brother Ed’s prone body. He snarled once and continued to back up.
I continued reciting the holy words, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.”
By the time I finished that sentence, Soto had his back nearly against the wall on the other side of the room. With no more room to go, he was out of options.
“This is not over,” he said, and like he had before, he evaporated like fog on a summer’s day.
As soon as he was gone, the power that had flowed through me washed out of my body, and I fell to my knees, feeling spent. Footfalls sounded behind me, and I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders.
“You okay, ace?” Alex asked.
“Yeah,” I said, but my voice came out breathy and weak.
“That was some neat trick,” Alex said.
“Come back every Friday night for Joel, man of wonder,” I said. “And remember to tip the waiters.”
As I felt my strength return, I turned my head and saw Richard kneeling over Brother Ed. Richard seemed to be doing what he could to revive Brother Ed while also checking his vital signs.
Brother Ed coughed out several long breaths as he struggled to suck in air. He was up on one elbow while his other hand massaged his neck.
“You okay?” Richard asked with one hand on Brother Ed’s shoulder.
Brother Ed tried to talk, but only wheezy sounds came out of his mouth at first.
“What is it?” Richard asked. “Is it your windpipe?”
“No,” Brother Ed choked out. “No, no.” He looked past Richard and gathered me in his stare. “You should have let him take me.”
“What?” I asked, stunned.“I am Lazarus,” Brother Ed moaned.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Richard said.
“Lazarus died, but Christ brought him back,” Brother Ed said. “I saw a glimpse of what Lazarus saw, and it was a paradise.” He paused for a moment. “At least, I thought it was glorious.”
“It wasn’t your time, Brother Ed,” I said in a soft voice, hoping to calm him down.
Alex stepped toward Brother Ed and said, “That’s enough of this happy horseshit. Have you idiots forgotten that we have real, live people down in the hospital that we were going to check out?”
I said, “Oh, yeah.”
“Let’s get going, Chuckles,” she said as she reached down, grabbed my arm, and tugged me to my feet.
Chapter 17
Temptation Too Much To Bear
“Wake up,” the voice spoke inside Kara’s head.
It came from far away, like words spoken in a deep dark cavern, echoing along off the cave walls. She had been down deep, lost in one of her trances. It was a place she found herself retreating further and further into these past few days. Facing the reality of the situation and what she was had become nearly untenable.
“Wake up,” the voice said, but this time it wasn’t as distant. In fact, it was quite loud, pulling Kara up and out of her trance. When she finally emerged from it, she found herself in a small room in the maintenance building on the west side of the medical complex. It was a dark little room with a leak in the ceiling that filled the room with a dank smell.
Moans and groans seeped through the exterior walls, and she knew their source. They were her constant companions. The dead. They clawed at the walls, wanting to be with their mistress. That’s all they wanted. That and flesh. It was enough to drive her crazy, and she was oh, so close to falling into a pit of madness.
“Aren’t you hungry?” The voice said, but this time it was playful, almost teasing.
She knew the source of the voice. It was the Night Visitor.
“Why don’t you leave me alone?” She pleaded.
“Why don’t you surrender yourself to what you are?” The Night Visitor asked. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“You know I’m am,” she said.
“Then why do you deny yourself?” He said. “Why do you deny what you are?”
“I’m not what you say I am,” she said.
“Aren’t you?” He asked. “Haven’t you eaten flesh already?”
The very thought of what she had done made her flesh crawl.
“But I haven’t taken a human,” she said, and she felt the hot sting of tears behind her eyes as she wondered if she could still cry.
“Not yet,” he said in a teasing tone. “But how long can you hold out? You can’t deny the hunger forever.”
Kara slapped her hands against her cheeks and shouted, “Yes, I can!” But there was an empty churning feeling in her guts that said something different. It told her to let herself go. To quit denying what she was. It was inevitable.
“Can you?” He said and his laughter filled the space, echoing off the walls of the fetid little room. “I know you don’t want to feast on your so-called friends, but I tell you that this very day there are people here. Here at the hospital. They can be yours. If not for yourself, then for your army.”
“What are you saying?” She asked.
“Just what I said,” he said. “They are here. Your minions are hungry. So are you. Just release them.”
“I will not kill a human,” she said.
“How long can you hold out?”
“Forever,” Kara yelled.
“Forever is a long time,” he said with mirth in his voice.
“Noooooo!” Her voice echoed off the walls, but it just riled up the undead outside. They began to pound and claw at the wall more fervently. Their noises began to bore their way deep into her head.
“They are hungry,” he said. “And there is food close by.”
Kara narrowed her eyes and said, “I will not harm those people. They are my friends.”
“Are they really?” He asked. “You are the way you are because of Joel. Had he listened to you and let you stay south of town, you and your unborn baby would be safe and sound.”
“SHUT UP!” Kara screamed.
This only excited the zombies outside more, as they increased their efforts to get inside. To get to their mistress. From the sound of it, it seemed that they just might come through the wall. Kara didn’t understand why she attracted them, but they had to be around her. The closer, the better.
“Just so you know, I’m not talking about your so-called friends,” he said. “There’s new people in the area. New meat.”
Kara swiveled her head and looked up as if she might actually see the Night Visitor in the room.
“Yeeessss,” he said, drawing out the word. “These aren’t your friends. You don’t even know these people. They are total strangers.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, closing her eyes again.
“Let me go back to my first question,” he said. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“No,” she said in a mousy voice.
“But your horde is,” he said, “Think of them. When was the last time they ate? Really feasted on a good meal? You should at least release them. They deserve to eat. Maybe you will join them this time?”
“I’m not going anywhere!” She screamed, but the hunger grew within her, wanting to be fed. Wanting to eat.
“Are you sure?” He asked with a chuckle.
Chapter 18
New Kids on the Block
We hustled down the stairwell until we got to the second floor, where we stopped at a set of windows overlooking the hospital about seventy-five yards away. Dusk was coming on quickly, and the shadows of the collection of zombies in front of the main hospital stretched down the street from west to east.
Richard pointed toward the hospital and said, “That’s where we saw them.” His finger zeroed in on the door where we had seen the two figures.
“Do you see anything moving inside?” Alex asked.
“Not there,” Richard said.
I scanned along the windows in both directions but didn’t see anything.
“I suspect that whoever is inside has decided to take a low profile with the undead gathering outside,” I said.
“Maybe, but there’s not that many deaders out there,” Alex replied.
“Still, why risk it?” I ask.
Richard shot out a hand so fast it slammed against the window. “There! Back toward the entrance from the parking garage.” His voice was quite loud.
“Can you make any more noise?” Alex spat out. “You want to draw their attention to us?”
“We’re two floors up and a half a block away,” Richard said. “They can’t hear us.”
“The best way to be sure is to not make a big ass noise,” Alex scolded.
“Zip it, you two,” I said. “What did you see, Richard?”
He moved his finger along the glass of the window, then said, “You see that window about ten feet west of the entrance?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“I saw a shadow move inside there,” Richard said.
I focused on that window, watching for any movement for several long seconds, but didn’t see anything. I was about to look away when I caught movement next to that window. It was just a subtle change in the shades of darkness.
I looked to Brother Ed, who stood bent over, looking ten years older than he had a day ago. His eyes were sunken, and he wore the thousand-yard stare of soldiers who had spent too many days on the front line. I decided to leave him alone in his suffering.
“Look to the next window to the right,” I said. “I thought there might be something there.”
It took a few seconds, and Alex said, “Yeahhhh. I think that’s a person.”
The longer I looked, the better I could make out the form. It looked humanoid, for sure. There was a head and shoulders, but the wall blocked any view of the bottom of the torso or legs. It stood stock-still so long I was beginning to think it was my eyes playing tricks on me. They like to do that, you know, and make sense of nothing.
Sort of like those famous inkblot tests. I think that inkblot looks like my grandmother’s favorite hat. Another person might see a cat or someone’s genitals, depending on how twisted they were, but I digress.
“You know, I’m not sure I see anything,” Alex said, obviously changing her mind about what she had seen.
That’s when the dark form moved forward and went from a shadowy figure to a face looking out of the glass. Even from the distance we were away, I could tell it was a woman. She had long dark hair and a pale complexion.
“There she is,” I said.
A moment later, a tall black man appeared behind the woman. He had a rifle slung over his shoulder.
I felt a pang of disappointment. I didn’t recognize either of them.
Deep down, I had hoped that maybe Jo, Russell, or Aaron might have come north to find us. Maybe things had settled down for them, and they had decided to see if my little gang had made it to the hospital.
A light flashed on behind the man, and I saw at least four more people lined up in the corridor behind him. He whirled around and shot out an arm, and the light flicked off.
“Did you see that?” I asked.
“Yeah, there’s at least six of them,” Alex said. “Maybe more.”
“The question is, what do we do?” Richard asked.
The man and woman retreated into the shadows and were lost in the darkness.
“We should do something to help them,” I said.
“Like what?” Alex asked.
“We know our way around,” I said. “We can bring them in our building and let them know the lay of the land, at least.”“And then what?” She asked. “You said it before; we only have so much food. We take on a group, and that is going fast.”
“Like I said,” I said, “We show them the lay of the land and get them on their way.”
“How do we know they won’t try to take what we have?” She asked.
It was a good point, but became moot by what happened next.
Richard said, “Look!” This time he pointed down the street to the west.
When I turned in that direction, I saw a horde of the undead coming from the west, marching with purpose. There were at least a hundred zombies shuffling along. This time, it didn’t look like the cold was slowing them down.
“Oh, shit,” I said.
“You think they’re coming for those people?” Richard asked.
“Be quiet and watch,” Alex said. “They could be coming for us.”
That’s what we did for about thirty seconds, and there seemed little doubt that this horde was, indeed, heading for the main hospital.
Richard stated the obvious when he said, “They aren’t even looking our way.”
“Yep,” Alex said. “Definitely. They’re heading for the hospital.”
“But those people are safe as long as they stay inside,” Richard said.
We watched for a few more seconds as I darted my gaze back and forth between the window where we had seen the people and the oncoming zombies in the street.
“We’ve got to warn them,” I said.
“There’s no way to do that unless we want to draw attention to
ourselves,” Richard said.
“Uh oh,” Alex said.
“What?” I said.
“They can get inside,” she said. “Kara is inside the horde.”
I locked my full attention on the approaching swarm of zombies and saw Kara breaking through the head of the mob. Her head was down as she led them along. There was something in the set of her body. There was a rigid determination in each one of her steps. A deadly intent.
“Oh no,” I said, and in those two simple words, my heart broke just a little.
“Holy shit,” Richard said. “This is going to be a massacre.
Somebody had to do something, even if it was something insanely stupid. And I was just the one to do it.
My mind and body were not my own as I threw myself at the window. It was tempered, double-paned glass. In the epic stand-off between that glass and Joel Hendricks, the glass won as my body bounced off of it. I rebounded and was back on my feet in an instant and pounding on the glass.
“Kara!” I yelled.
Alex wheeled on me and grabbed my shoulders, ripping me away from the window. “What the hell are you doing?”
“That’s Kara out there,” I said.
“And she’s leading a shit ton of zombies down the street toward those people,” Alex said.
“Okay, okay,” I said, conceding that obvious point to Alex. “But we should help those people.”
“There’s no way in hell we can do that without getting killed,” Richard said.
When I looked down onto the street, the zombies had cut the distance in half on their way to the hospital. I scanned their numbers, searching for Kara, but she was lost in the swarm.
“We can use the tunnels,” I said.
“No fucking way I’m going down in those death traps again,” Richard said.
“We have to do something,” I said, and I knew it came out like a whine.
“You do anything, and you’re putting us all at risk,” Alex said.
“We can’t just let this happen,” I said, feeling as useless as I had ever felt in my life.
I let my eyes scan the hallway, looking for anything I could do. The stairwell was just twenty feet away. It led down to the tunnels, but it also led to the streets.
Books of the Dead | Book 9 | Dead of Winter Page 8