by Jim Goforth
"Melissa, that isn't like you," Desiree chided.
"Don't worry, he isn't forgotten. He's all tied up like a Christmas turkey. I tied his feet together. If he manages to get out of the van he'll only be hopping around. Besides I blindfolded him too so he isn't gonna get far."
"Are we just going to leave him here?"
"Why don't you just let me kill him?" Blaise asked, clearly genuine in her request.
"No, he might come in handy."
"Can't see how," Blaise countered, agitated again by the others thwarting her efforts to lay Wesley Drake to rest.
"We better bring him along," Desiree decided.
"I think it'd be more fun to leave him behind with the van unlocked for those fucking...what did you call them? Plebs? For them to come along and find him," Peter proposed, his dark malicious side manifesting itself.
"Nice thought," Melissa said. "But I suppose we better bring the useless prick along with us."
"I'll get him," Blaise offered.
"No you won't. You'll probably stab him to death and pretend he tried to escape."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Blaise nodded, scowling.
Corey wasn't entirely sure just how close to Britt Blaise had been, or even if they'd been close at all, but the fiery redhead seemed to have taken Britt's death as a personal affront; raging against the stupidity of raven's dimwitted minions for electing to release the feral Plebs in an environment not so far removed, but far in distance from their usual backwoods habitat.
"You get him out Pete," Melissa said. "Cut his leg ropes so he can walk, but leave the blindfold and the gag."
"Okay. Can I get a knife?"
"Here." One was passed to him, an eight inch bladed beast garnered from the arms bag.
"Want a hand?" Dennis offered.
"Yeah, sure." Pete looked surprised, but accepted the offer anyway.
The pair of them absconded to the rear of the van whilst the remainder of the party stood in a tight knot warily eying their woods surroundings, most of them expecting another attack from the freakish Plebs
"On second thoughts," said Pete to Dennis, "pull open the sliding door; we'll take him out there."
As Dennis did so Pete waited warily for Drake to be in attack mode, ready to launch himself.
Drake wasn't, he was curled in a ball in the corner.
“Hey Sleeping Ugly, wake up. Time to go for a walk."
Drake mumbled something behind his gag and refused to budge.
"Get your stoopid ass up or Blaise is gonna kill you. We're just trying to save your life you know. Cooperate and you might walk away alive."
Drake replied with another garbled statement, this one louder than before and swung his legs around to show that they were securely lashed together with rope.
"I know, fucknuts. Hold still."
Pete slipped the blade between Drake's ankles and sliced through the bindings, the severed ropes falling away. Again Drake mumbled something, possibly asking for the ropes securing his hands to be cut as well.
"I think not," said Pete. "Everything else stays."
When Wesley Drake was lax in getting to his feet, the duo hauled him out of the vehicle, slammed the door and frog marched him to the others.
"Didn't have to slam the door so loud you fool," Ryan reprimanded Dennis. "You want those fucking freaks to come back? Or Haskell even?"
"Not really."
"Forget it," Melissa ordered. "We're getting out of here anyway. Corey, Desi, you lead the way, Blaise and I will be at the back. Everybody else in the middle. Keep your eyes open, be on the lookout. I doubt the Plebs will attack us in a party like this, but anyone straggling is fair game. Stay together."
The congregation began to march up the rocky uneven path they had been driving along prior to the collision with the unexpected Pleb.
Again the wind picked up and it swirled persistently around them, snatching at clothing, whipping strands of hair into faces.
For the most part they trudged in silence, lost in their own respective worlds, arms folded against the chill bite of the wind. The only sounds were the crunching of dry leaves underfoot and the rustle of clothing.
Corey respected the fact that maintaining silence was probably a wise move, but he would have appreciated a little bit of harmless quiet banter.
The sudden killing of Britt seemed to have taken all the bravado wind out of the sails which had been flying so high at the Somerset residence.
At least it had been taken out of all those people who'd needed to have it instilled in them in the first place; people such as Desiree and Blaise walked on as determined as ever.
At length Melissa broke the silence.
"Not walking the whole way along the track are we?" She enquired, loud enough for Corey at the fore of the party to hear her.
"No," he replied. "Only as far as we would have driven and then we'll have to go bush."
"And how far is that?"
"Not far. We'll be in the woods before long."
Before long they were in the woods.
They reached a section in the path which inexplicably broadened, perhaps enough to allow two normal sized vehicles to pass by, side by side.
Though this track carried on through the woods and the stands of trees were still very thick allowing limited vision either way, this juncture was where Corey halted the procession.
"I think we'd be wise to get off the track now," he suggested.
The troops gathered round, most of the girls in the centre gazing around their forest surroundings with eyes of trepidation.
Corey knew how they were feeling. He himself wasn't entirely keen on the idea of going into the wilderness off the beaten track with the threat of lurking Plebs, but neither did he fancy leading the procession right into an ambush.
Truth be known he didn't completely fancy leading the procession at all. It was probably only marginally better than being relegated to the rear of the party.
On one end of the scale they could walk headlong into disaster, on the other it could simply walk up behind them.
"Shit, it's going to be dark in there," Pete mused. "Do we dare use flashlights?"
"I think not," Corey vetoed that. "The church isn't that far away."
"Well, stumbling blindly around in the dark is going to alert them just as quickly as a little flashlight beam isn't it?" Lee retorted.
"They'll probably just think it's the Plebs," Tasha murmured, for once at odds with Lee's remarks.
Lee shrugged as if to say if even my girl isn't with me who is?
The trek through the stands and trees and tangled knots of shrubs was a hasty one, perhaps with the entire collective speeding along for fear Plebs would emerge from the myriad dark places and shadowy recesses lurking within the woods.
Before they knew it Corey and Desiree had lead them to the fringes of the vast clearing which encircled St Agnes church and its depraved inhabitants.
CHAPTER 36
The ancient behemoth that was the former place of worship for many a religious soul stood on the side of the clearing furthest away from them, a dark disreputable aging monster of a building.
The procession halted just inside the woods and rather than remain in a bunched group, they all fanned out along the fringe in a line.
Corey hunched down, keeping himself low to the ground and all the others followed suit.
They gazed upon the giant structure which apparently right now was housing their foes.
Time and the elements had not been kind to St Agnes.
Though its walls seemed to be relatively intact they were in bad need of repairs.
Here and there great holes looking like giant jagged toothed mouths were evident and sections of broken rotting timbers protruded at bizarre angles.
The high peaked roof looked as though it had already been on a tentative date with the wrecking ball for in places it was sagging dangerously low.
The great crucifix which once upon a time occupied a lofty po
sition atop the roof was now an inverted cross, hanging down from a capsized section of roof.
Wherever there were windows with stained glass Nativity scenes there was damage; the glass spider webbed extensively with cracks, if not completely smashed to pieces.
The whole thing didn't look like a former sanctuary for folk wishing to stake a claim upon a seat in heaven, it looked like a fast track to hell.
Though there was no sign of movement anywhere around the Spot, it was evident that Haskell and his unruly bunch were lurking inside.
Over beyond the church were parked a number of vehicles; three of them visible because they were parked out in the open where the face of the moon could clearly illuminate them, while more dark shapes which could signify further cars were apparent a distance back hidden in the shadows provided by the bordering woods.
Way back behind the other side of the church, located in the very midst of deeper darker shadows was some other gargantuan shape, almost as large as the ancient building itself.
Try as he might Corey couldn't quite see enough of this mystery item to decipher what it was.
"You see that big thing over on that left side?" He asked of people further up to his left, someone who might have a better view than him. "What is that?"
"I don’t know man," said Pete who was the person right on the end of the line. "I think it's a truck. Like a big semi-trailer."
"Oh fuck," said Corey, for if that was correct it made perfect sense. "I bet you're right."
Melissa gazed quizzically at him.
"Any of these jackasses own a truck?"
"Nope. But I bet they do now. To cart the Plebs around in."
"Holy fucking shit!" Dennis exclaimed. "It is a truck. And you reckon it's full of those beasts?"
"If it isn't now I bet it sure was before."
"It's my opinion that it still is," Desiree spoke up. "I'm thinking that those two we came across back at the track were the only ones they let out. Maybe a couple more, but I believe the majority are still in that trailer."
"You reckon?" Dennis sounded optimistic, as if he were happier in the knowledge that the brethren of the bloodthirsty brute he'd witnessed dining on Britt delicacies were all safely confined to the back of the truck.
"Maybe you're right,” Melissa also thought that suggestion sounded plausible. "It makes sense to keep 'em all locked up until they need them. Remember, they don't have a clue that we are out here and to the best of their knowledge they'd be thinking we're still at Corey's house or elsewhere in town. What would be the point of releasing all their strike weapons out here, they'd never round them all up again. I'm under the impression they plan to drive the truck into town and let them loose on Corey's house."
"I agree," Came the voice of Blaise from the rear of the line.
Corey turned his head to gaze at the vivacious redhead.
While all the other members of the party elected to hunch down in a straight line along the fringe of the woods, Blaise remained standing further back amongst the trees.
She was standing alongside the motionless figure of Wesley Drake with the muzzle of her pistol jammed up under his jaw.
"And I have a plan," Blaise announced, causing more curious eyes to turn in her direction.
"The plan is...?" Melissa queried.
"The plan is this," Blaise smiled. "Assuming all the Plebs are locked up in that truck, and that does seem more likely than Raven and co. merely turning them loose out in the middle of nowhere where they'd do no good at all, then I figure we can take all of them out of the equation in one simple hit."
"How?" Pete wanted to know.
"Blow up the truck?" Hazarded Dennis with a random guess and was rewarded by a simple nod and a wink from Blaise.
"Exactly Dennis. You're thinking like us now."
"Blow up the truck?" Lee said, like some ridiculous echo of Dennis. "How the fuck are you gonna do that? We don't have any dynamite or bombs in the bags do we?"
"Don't need 'em. We can cut the fuel line, get petrol pouring out of the tank, light her up and stand back and watch."
"I like it!" Pete liked it. "Yeah, we could do that hey?"
"And what about the fools in the church?" Lee said. "The truck ain't close enough to blow up the church is it? They'll come out shooting at anything that moves."
"That's where the rest of you guys come in. The good shots with firearms. You have to get close enough to pick these fuckers off as they come running out. It will be fucking chaos, these guys will be fucked. It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel. And we didn't even need this jackass," Blaise indicated Drake," to pull any fancy tricks on Haskell. I may as well kill him now."
"Not yet," Melissa vetoed that wishful suggestion. "The plan sounds solid, but it's gotta be foolproof. It almost sounds too easy."
"Because it is too easy," Blaise was proud of her simple plan. "I go in...alone. I prime the truck to blow, you guys get in position and cover every exit from the church. You signal when you're ready, I blow the fucking Pleb truck to almighty fuck, the rats come running out -if the church doesn't blow too- you sharp shooters pick 'em off. If you want I can blow up all those cars too. Blow up shit on both sides of the church."
"I don't know about that," Desiree said. "We might actually need some of those cars."
"Good point," Pete nodded.
"Alright," Melissa held up her hands for silence as other factions within the congregation begin to clamour at the alphas with various lines of enquiry and doubt. "Let's sit back and analyse this. First, I think we need to know for certain if the Plebs are in that truck. If not and we try and blow up the truck anyhow, what exactly is that going to achieve?"
"It will create the same end result bar taking out all the Plebs," Blaise said. "It will still cause chaos and get all these fools running out of the church to see what the fuck's going on. We can still pick them off like clay pigeons."
"Right. I suppose so. But it still leaves all the Plebs unaccounted for."
"Forget the Plebs. It's the people in the church we really want. The Plebs are just their puppets," Blaise said. "They have no guns; they aren't really a threat to us once we take away their puppet masters. Hell, if they've been turned loose out here they can fucking stay here for all I really care."
"That's just plain irresponsible Blaise."
"Well like the boys said nobody really comes out here do they? Alternatively once we've finished off who we have to we can then proceed to hunt down the Plebs." Blaise had an immediate answer for everything. "That'll be some fun I guarantee, us with all our guns. Be just like your standard hunting expedition."
If Corey hadn't witnessed firsthand the murderous brutality of the marauding Plebs he would have thought Blaise's suggestion was a cold blooded and callous one for he was not keen on hunting defenseless animals, but as he had, he thought nothing of it.
He knew without a shadow of a doubt that the mutated creations would decimate whatever living being they sank their black claws into so the idea of hunting them down before they got the chance to appealed somewhat to him.
Besides, perhaps they owed any further souls haplessly lost out in this hellish domain in future a better chance of survival without being set upon by unexpected freaks they never would have guessed existed.
"Okay," Melissa nodded. "You've sold me. We'll do it your way. But I still think we should try and determine whether or not there are Plebs in the truck."
"And how the holy fuck do you propose we do that?" Lee queried antagonistically. "Open it up? Or better yet, knock on the door of the church and ask 'Excuse me, but could you tell me if you are harbouring mutant fucking freaks in the semi-trailer outside?'"
Melissa was not impressed with Lee's sarcastic attitude. She scowled blackly at him.
"That is exactly the type of negative thinking which is going to get you killed quick smart. There can be no margin for error, no room for fuck ups. You see how quick that Pleb snatched Britt? No, most of you didn't because that's how fast i
t was and by the time anybody got to her it was too late."
"I saw it," Dennis pitched in.
"I know you did. Most of the others didn't. And it happened very fucking quickly didn't it?"
"Yes." Dennis had to agree. "Fast as lightning."
"Exactly. And mere seconds later she's dead with her eyes and heart ripped out. So I need to know right here and now if anybody believes they aren't up to this, or they're not comfortable being in the front line." Melissa said this with glowering eyes fixed upon Lee. "If anybody thinks they're a weak link you have to let me know so I can ensure you stay the fuck right out of harm's way."
"I don't know why you're looking at me while you say that," Lee snapped belligerently. "I'm no weak link here. I'll be looking to take down as many of these assholes as I can. They fucked with me big time most of my life and now it is payback time. And as for these sonofabitch Pleb motherfuckers, well I don't care which one killed Tim, they've all got to go. Fucking bring it on, bring 'em all on. I'm fucking ready!"
Melissa looked quite taken aback by Lee's vehement outburst as the little dreadlocked fellow stood, eyes baleful and flashing with potent anger.
"Alright Lee!" Blaise applauded his impassioned rant. "That is simply beautiful."
Melissa nodded and clapped Lee on the shoulder.
"Good. Keep that fire burning."
"Oh it's burning." Lee tried to keep the simmering glow of rage flickering on his face, but as he turned away from Melissa Corey saw a small sneaky smile of satisfaction steal over his features.
"Right then. Anybody else want to state a case for, or against being a weak link?"
"Me," Serena piped up. "I want to stay right away from the gunplay. I can't shoot for shit and I don't wanna get in the way."
"That's fair enough. Anyone else?"
Caroline and Rachel both appeared to want to join Serena well out of harms way, but after opening their respective mouths to speak they voiced nothing and shook their heads.
"I want to say something," Dennis spoke. "I want a gun. You guys have got to trust me. I need to have a gun. I'm in the same boat as Lee here, these fuckers have made my life hell, not in the same way but I've suffered."