We hit the three-quarter mark with the double doors at the end of the hall tantalizingly close when the moan started to rise to a wail. That’s when we made our mistake. We all stopped cold. Richard and Brother Ed spun around to cover our flank, and Alex and I zeroed in on the doors ahead of us.
We should have run for it right then and there.
The wail rose almost to a shriek when I felt something slam into my chest, knocking all the air out of me. I rammed into Alex, and the two of us rolled across the floor until we hit the wall. We ended up tangled together like a barrel full of monkeys, arms and legs intertwined.
Richard screamed, and someone let loose with a rip of bullets. They tore into the wall above mine and Alex’s heads, zippering along the drywall, blowing puffs of dust into the air. (I later learned that it had been Richard firing away.)
I choked for breath, but no air seemed to be getting to my lungs. My ribs stung from the impact of whatever had hit me.
When I glanced at Alex, she looked stunned, her eyes only partially open.
A second later, the pale blue form of Private Juan Soto appeared in front of Richard. Brother Ed fell back against the wall, nearly in a state of shock, his mouth gaping open.
Richard did what any of us would do and shot into Soto’s body. The problem with that was that Soto was a ghost, and those bullets passed right through him.
I had just enough of my wits to shove my shoulder into Alex, and we tumbled over as a stream of bullets passed by where we had just been.
Air slowly made its way back into my lungs, but it was just a trickle, and my vision swam before me. What I could make out was Soto slapping the rifle out of Richard’s hands, sending it flying. It made a massive dent in the wall and clattered onto the floor.
Soto grasped Richard by the neck and lifted him off the floor. Richard battered Soto’s head and shoulders with his fists, but it had no effect. Richard’s feet dangled in the air, but there was nothing I could do. I teetered on the edges of consciousness as I was still oxygen-deprived.
That sick, morbidly funny voice that had plagued me throughout my entire life decided that it was time to be heard. It said, “Things are looking decidedly bad for our heroes. Tune in next time to see if they survive their encounter with a ghostly menace.”
Only I knew there wouldn’t be a next time. Richard’s face was turning a bright shade of pink. I had regained just enough strength to raise my rifle, but I had no shot. Any bullet I fired would pass through Soto and kill Richard.
Other than that, I had no moves. I looked at my hands, and there was no holy magic stirring in them this time. Not even a hint of the blue light. I had little doubt that Soto would kill Richard and then move onto the rest of us.
That’s when Brother Ed roared to life.
“You will not do this!” He shouted as he stepped away from the wall. “By the power of Christ, I demand that you face me.”
That hadn’t worked for Richard when he tried it, but Brother Ed seemed to think it would.
And it did. At least for a moment.
Soto released Richard, and his body thumped against the floor, looking limp and lifeless.
“It’s me you’ve always wanted,” Brother Ed yelled, his fists at his side. “Well, here I am.”
“What are you doing?” I croaked out, my voice sounding more like a frog than a human.
Brother Ed slowly turned his gaze toward me and said, “I’ve been spared twice already. This is my destiny. This is my time.”
I put up a quivering hand and said, “No.”But there was no talking Brother Ed out of this. With his head lowered, he took a step toward Soto. Soto slowly pivoted toward Brother Ed, and he looked more tangible than he had just moments before. Less ghostly, if you want to put it that way.
“You are the reason I’m stuck here,” Soto growled.
Brother Ed pulled up a few feet away, his hands still at his side, doing his best impression of an old west gunfighter, ready for a showdown. What the hell he was going to do, I had no idea. After seeing Soto manhandle Richard, I did not see this going well, but Brother Ed seemed confident that it would.
“Back off,” I forced out in a breathy exhalation.
Brother Ed didn’t look at me but said, “Joel, I’ve always felt a little resentment at how God used you as His conduit. But now, I get to be His holy instrument.”
That’s when I saw a flicker of blue splash off his hands as he closed them into a fist.
Soto didn’t seem to notice and said, “You will pay for what you did to me.”
Brother Ed moved in on Soto, and in the next step, he launched himself off the ground, his hands out, little blue streaks of lights crackling off them. That’s when Soto noticed it, and his eyes went wide.
Brother Ed latched onto Soto’s neck and drove him back against the wall. Soto’s impact smashed a small crater in the drywall, and I heard him grunt. That was a first.
Tendrils of blue light spread off Brother Ed’s hands and started to sweep up his arms.
But Soto was far from done.
He surged off the wall, driving Brother Ed backward toward the room across the hall. Stumbling away, Brother Ed smashed into the room’s door, and they went tumbling into the room. The two of them disappeared from view, but I heard a loud crashing sound come from the room.
I felt small amounts of energy seeping back into my body, but I was far from being totally mobile. I was able to use my rifle as a crutch to push myself to my feet. Still, I swayed back and forth, small bursts of darkness at the edges of my vision threatening to take me back down.
“It is time for you to die!” Soto shouted from inside the room.
Reaching down deep, I pushed myself forward and stumbled toward the doorway, which seemed a mile away.
“Demon, you will not take me,” Brother Ed shouted back, sounding confident that he could do something about it.
I was not nearly as confident, but I progressed toward the door in a wobbly fashion. Something smashed against the exterior wall, possibly a piece of furniture.
I stumbled into the doorway ten seconds later and saw Brother Ed and Soto grappling with each other, hands grabbing onto the other one’s body. Tiny blue streaks of lightning streaked off Brother Ed’s body, and his eyes pulsed with a coral blue color. Soto grunted out a protest as Brother Ed drove him toward the back wall.
I was beginning to think Brother Ed might just pull this off when Soto slammed a fist into Brother Ed’s midsection. The impact drove Brother Ed to his knees, nearly knocking him over.
I had a shot but was almost certain it wouldn’t do anything. I brought my rifle up and aimed, but Brother Ed sprang to his feet, blocking my shot.
“Demon, your time is nigh!” Brother Ed yelled as he rushed at Soto. Brother Ed lowered his shoulder and rammed it into Soto, nearly toppling the creature.
The problem is that Brother Ed didn’t stop pushing Soto backward and, in fact, kept chugging with his legs. He was like a defensive lineman, desperately trying to get the quarterback sacked. Behind the two of them was an expansive window, and I had a sinking feeling in my gut.
“No!” I screamed, somehow finally finding my voice, but it was too late.
Their bodies were locked in a deadly embrace as they crashed through the window and disappeared from my sight.
Chapter 34
Sacrifice
I gasped for both air and words as I leaned onto the door frame. My legs felt like they might collapse under me as the cold air rushed in from the outside, chilling me worse than I already felt.
I knew I had to look, but also knew that I didn’t want to. It was three stories down and nothing but hard, unforgiving pavement below.
Yeah, if things went absolutely and miraculously right, there was a chance Brother Ed could survive the fall. Really, he didn’t need to be shattered into a thousand pieces to die. In this undead world, a broken body was equivalent to death. If you could not move, you were a goner. And there was no rescuing him with t
he dead walking around out there.
The only way to find out anything was to move. So, I forced myself into action. By then, I had most of my breath back, even though my chest felt tender from the earlier blow. A sense of dread seeped into my body. A voice screamed inside me, telling me not to look, but not looking wouldn’t make the truth go away.
Just as I made it to the window, I heard footfalls behind me.
I decided not to turn around. Better to look outside and get it over with.
What I saw made my stomach nearly flip over. Brother Ed lay face down on the pavement below. Shattered glass lay strewn about his broken body. One of his legs stuck out from his hip at an unnatural angle. Blood seeped out from wounds in several broken places. Despite being three stories up, I could make out his face, and I would later swear he wore a smile. Even in death.
The one thing I didn’t see was any sign of Juan Soto.
Footsteps sounded behind me on the carpet, and Richard appeared in the periphery of my vision. He held a hand to his neck and asked in a raspy voice, “What happened?”
It took me two seconds to answer. “They went out the window.”
“Before that,” Richard asked.
“I think Brother Ed got to fulfill his destiny,” I said.
“That’s very deep, but what really happened?”
“It’s complicated,” I said. “Soto said Brother Ed surviving kept him here. Brother Ed felt he was meant to die in the attack by Colonel Kilgore.” I stepped away from the window. “Take a look.”
“Do I have to?”
“Do it,” I said, feeling a little annoyed.
Richard placed a hand against the side of the window and leaned out to take a look.
“Oh shit,” Richard said, swaying back inside. “Where’s Casper?”
“Geez,” I said. “You don’t listen, do you? When Brother Ed died, it released Soto.”
“Like from this earthly existence?”
“That’s what I think,” I replied.
“You sure? What if Brother Ed just bought it and Soto did his disappearing act?”
“Bought it?” I said, feeling heat rise into my face. “Give the man some respect. He just gave his life saving your ass.”
“Sorry,” Richard said, not meeting my stare.
Super chilled wind whipped in through the window, stinging my face, but I didn’t want to pull away from the window. I wanted to hurt. I wanted to feel it.
But there was no use holding onto the grief. It wouldn’t bring Brother Ed back.
“No,” I said, “I think that was it for Soto. I don’t think we’ll ever see him again.”
Still, I didn’t move away from the window. Neither did Richard. Maybe I had gotten through to him, and he was still there in a sign of respect for Brother Ed’s sacrifice. Or perhaps he thought I might punch his lights out if he stepped away?
When I looked out the window again, I saw some zombies coming to see what the ruckus was all about. What they were going to do was the last thing I wanted to see.
“We don’t need to watch this,” I said.
When I turned around, I spotted Alex leaning against the door jamb, still looking a little shaken.
“What the fuck happened?” She asked.
“I’m not going through that again,” I said. “You tell her.”
I slid past Alex and stepped into the hallway, leaving Richard to do the dirty work of explaining.
Chapter 35
Finding the Strength to Go On
It took Richard a few moments to tell Alex about what happened with Brother Ed and Juan Soto. After that, he moved in next to me and asked, “We’re turning back, right?”
Alex had been inside the room where Brother Ed and Soto tangled. She had looked out the window and decided one look was enough. After that, we gathered in the hallway.
Let me just tell you, we were one sorry looking group of people. Richard wore the expression of a shell shock soldier with one of those thousand-yard stares. Alex still had a dazed look in her eyes, as if she weren’t totally with us. I couldn’t tell if it was an existential crisis or if her bell was still wrung from me smacking into her.
I know for sure, I didn’t want to see my face in a mirror. If my outside represented my inside, I probably looked like the world had ended and zombies had taken over the planet. Wait, that had already happened. Let’s just say, it was bad.
I just knew I had no answers for Richard. A big part of me wanted to turn around, return to my room, crawl under my covers, and stay there for a decade or so. That would have been the medicine for my melancholy, but melancholy was a huge understatement. Sustained clinical depression was more in the ballpark.
We stood in stunned silence, and I wasn’t sure any of us wanted to or had the strength to go on. That was until Alex spoke up.
“We’re fucking moving forward with this mission,” she said, sounding more like herself than her expression belied.
“Hold up,” Richard said. “We just lost a man. How can we go on?”
“We go on because it’s the damned job,” Alex said, and I could hear the grit in her tone.
“But that makes you down a person to get the hell out of here?” Richard asked.
“We go on!” Alex shouted, and I saw her hands clenched into fists.
“But you can’t,” Richard pleaded.
I moved in between them and said, “We go on because it’s what Brother Ed would want us to do.”
“He is dead!” Richard yelled.
I felt myself come fully out of my stupor and said, “He can’t have died for nothing. His death has got to have some damned meaning.”
“Not if you die, too.”
“We all knew that was a very real possibility when we left the fifth floor,” Alex said. “We could die any day in this fucked up world. We can make his death mean something.”“We have to,” I said.
“Well, I don’t have to die with you,” Richard said.
He started to turn away, but Alex shot out a hand and grabbed him by the shoulder. In the practice move of a cop, she spun him around like he was on a lazy Susan. Once she had him facing her, she moved right up and into his face.
“Listen here, asshole,” she growled with her nose an inch from his. “You are getting us to that dozer, or else I will toss you out after Brother Ed. You got it?”
They faced off for a good five seconds before Richard broke.
“Okay,” he said, but to save face, he added, “but that’s as far as I take you. Besides, neither of you know how to drive that dozer.”
“Brother Ed told me and Alex the basics,” I said.
Richard rubbed his chin, then said, “Well, okay, but you are on your own after that.”
“I’m good with that,” Alex said, releasing Richard from her grasp.
I let out a long sigh, and that’s when the walkie-talkie buzzed to life on my belt.
Lori’s voice squawked out of the speaker, “What’s happening over there?” Her tone was frantic.
I snatched the walkie-talkie from my belt, and I hissed out, “You were told not to call us.”
“We saw someone fall out a window,” Lori said.
“Shhhh, shhhhh,” I said. “Who is with you?”
“Doctor M,” she said.
“And not the kids?” I asked.
“No, just us,” she replied.
That turned out not to be true.
“It was Brother Ed,” I said.
I heard her gasp over the walkie-talkie’s tiny speaker. It took her a moment to recover, then she said, “When are you coming back?”
“We’re not,” I said.
“But you lost Ed,” she replied.
“Brother Ed,” I said, doing my best to honor the name that Brother Ed wanted to be called despite always hating it myself. Now, I would give anything just to be able to call him by that name.
Lori’s voice shook me out of my reverie. “Joel, are you still there?”
“Please call him Brot
her Ed,” I said.
“Okay,” she said. “What’s going on? What are you going to do?”
“We’re sticking with Plan A. Richard’s getting us to the bulldozer, but as planned, he’s coming back. Alex and I are going on.”
“Are you sure?” Lori asked.
“No, but we’re doing it anyway,” I said.
I saw Richard moving toward the door of the room where Brother Ed and Soto had battled. He disappeared inside while I made a couple of more exchanges with Lori. Doctor M asked from off-mic whether the samples were still intact. I said they were, then double-checked to make sure that was really true.
About the time I slid the hard plastic case of the samples of Naveen’s blood with the two vials of Doctor M’s secret sauce vaccine, Richard appeared in the doorway. His face looked fifty shades of green.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.
Richard opened his mouth to talk, but stopped, brought his hand up to his face. It looked as if he might vomit at any moment.
I asked Lori to hold on and asked, “What is it, Richard?”
“The...the zombies,” he said. “They’ve got to Brother Ed’s body.”
I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. It didn’t help much. The mental picture of the zombies having their way with Brother Ed was almost too much to bear.
“There’s nothing we can do for him,” Alex said as she stepped next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. She gave me a gentle squeeze and said, “We have to get moving.”
I knew she was right, but I was having trouble letting it sink in. Brother Ed had been saved twice, once by Richard after the attack by Colonel Kilgore, and then by me, when Soto had him by the throat. I thought that he could make it a third time, but it seemed like it was three strikes, and you’re out. The only comfort I could take was that it was by his own choosing, but that was a cold consolation.
I finally said, “You’re right.” With that, I pushed past her and made my way to the double doors at the end of the hall.
Books of the Dead | Book 9 | Dead of Winter Page 16