Behind him, Foster caught a glimpse through the open door of the guard lying on the ground on his stomach, blood flowing from a wound at the back of his head.
The glare from a spotlight outside caught the side of the man’s face, highlighting his receding hairline and wrinkles. He wore the simple robes of a follower, and Foster quickly realised this wasn’t an interloper but one of The Children.
The man took one disparaging glance at her and immediately moved behind her.
She held her breath, half expecting a knife to slice her throat. Instead, he began to tug at the bindings on her wrists to untie them.
‘Who are you?’ she whispered.
‘Does it matter?’ the man asked, focussed on freeing her.
‘Yes it does,’ she said.
‘Someone who doesn’t believe in this place anymore. Lost my faith, you might say.’
‘You’re the only one who feels this way?’
‘There are others. I know they feel it too, but they’re too afraid to speak out. It’s hard to trust that your words won’t find their way back to The Father. When it comes to straying from the path, there’s no mercy in his heart.’
The man unravelled the last of the bindings on Foster’s wrists and started cutting through the cord around her ankles.
‘What’s your name?’ she asked.
‘Thomas.’
‘Thank you, Thomas.’
‘Thank me when I’ve gotten you out of here,’ he said, slicing the last of the cord.
Foster stood up and followed him to the semi-open door of the motorhome.
‘We need to head to the west fence. A little farther down from here, there’s a patched-up hole that your friends created when they escaped.’
‘Point me in the right direction,’ Foster said.
‘I’ll do better than that. I’ll take you there.’
‘I can’t ask any more of you, Thomas, but there is something else I have to do first.’
‘You want to rescue the young man?’ Thomas asked.
‘I can’t leave without him. Go back to your home. I’ll take my chances from here.’
As she made for the door, Thomas blocked her path.
‘The only reason you have any chance of getting free without being seen is because most of the disciples are guarding your friend. If you go within fifty yards of the church, you’ll be recaptured and all the risks I took will be for nothing. You cannot save him—not today.’
She didn’t want to admit it, but Foster knew he was right. The only way was to get herself out of the camp first and hopefully find the others.
‘Why are you really doing this, Thomas?’ she asked.
‘Because of my son. I taught him to obey The Father and the faith of our community, and his loyalty got him killed. We had a chance, you know. A chance to leave this place. Some people from Gideon’s community offered us a way out, and in my piety, I rejected it and damned my family in the process.’ Thomas gritted his teeth. ‘That bastard Crane won’t even allow us access to Samuel’s body so we can lay him to rest.’
Foster felt a chill run through her body as she recognised the boy’s name. Ethan had uttered it when referring to the creature haunting his thoughts within the church vestry. Thomas had been prohibited from seeing his son’s body because it was still walking around.
‘Helping you will never make up for what I’ve done, but it’s the only thing I have left.’ Thomas held the door open for her, and they left the outskirts of the campsite, running through the darkness with their heads low.
Upon reaching the fence, Foster glanced back to the church. Only the lights still burning inside partially revealed its black, ominous structure.
Thomas fumbled around and felt his way along the mesh until he found where the gap in the fence had been temporarily tied together with wire. He reopened it just wide enough for Foster to squeeze through to the woods beyond.
‘Hurry,’ he said. ‘Head southwest for a few hundred yards until you come to a road. There’s a car lot there. The disciples use it to store vehicles for when they travel. There will be at least one that has gas, and the keys will be inside. Head east on the 94 and you’ll see the signs for Medora. Gideon will take you in and provide you with food and shelter, especially if you tell them where you came from.’
Foster stopped short of the hole and looked at Thomas.
‘Come with me,’ she said.
His shoulders rounded, and he turned his back on the route to the outside world.
‘My wife is still here. She’s too under the spell of this place now. I have to stay. I can’t fail her like I failed my son.’
‘I’m coming back for my friend, Thomas, so I hope I see you again,’ Foster said.
‘Me too.’
Thomas helped push her through the gap in the fence and watched her stumble into the welcome darkness of the woods.
8
Teddy opened his eyes and adjusted his sleeping bag, his back to the conversation unfolding between Raine and O.B. Although he pretended to still be asleep, he was straining to hear what they were saying, nervously stroking his moustache with his index finger and thumb.
‘I can’t sit around waiting any longer, Miller,’ O.B. said.
‘You can and you will. We’ve got no choice,’ Raine said.
‘Nah, fuck that.’ O.B. rocked back and forth, clenching his jaw.
‘Give me an alternative that doesn’t involve getting yourself captured or killed. In the morning, Gideon and the rest of them will reach a decision. Hopefully they’ll make the right one. When that happens, the only way my plan works is if you’re with me and onboard.’
‘Then what?’ O.B. asked.
‘We let them in, draw the disciples out from the herd, and pick them off. After that, I will deal with Ethan. If I can get close enough to him, I think I can bring him back.’
‘There’s no telling what being connected to those things for so long will have done to his mind. What if you can’t?’
Raine looked down to the floor between her legs.
‘Then I’ll deal with him in another way,’ she said.
‘And you can do that?’ O.B. asked.
‘Have you forgotten who I am all of a sudden? You saw what happened when we escaped.’
‘That was an accident,’ O.B. said.
‘Was it?’ Raine said, posing it as a genuine question—one she didn’t know the answer to herself.
‘Say this plan works and everything goes as we intended. What then?’ O.B. asked.
‘We get Ethan to dismiss the herd, move Gideon’s people back in, and we come clean to them and try to convince them to trust us,’ Raine said.
O.B. narrowed his eyes, unconvinced by her reading of their current situation.
Anna’s low whimper carried across the largely empty hall.
Salty opened his eyes to see the dog pawing near the entrance.
‘What is it, girl? Need to use the can?’ he asked.
‘I’ll take her,’ Teddy suddenly piped up.
‘That’s awful charitable of you, cupcake, but there’s no need. I got this,’ Salty replied.
‘I need to stretch my legs anyway. Goin’ a little stir-crazy in here,’ Teddy said, laughing nervously. He’d already started to crawl out of his sleeping bag, careful not to wake Kaos, who was sleeping close by.
Salty thought about it for a second. He didn’t entirely trust Teddy yet, but he trusted him enough not to hurt Anna.
‘Sure. If you don’t mind, go for it,’ he said.
‘Cool. We won’t be too long. Just once around the centre of town,’ Teddy said.
He walked to the door and smiled at Anna before he let her out into the night air.
Teddy strolled down Main Street with Anna always twenty yards ahead of him, sniffing the patches of grass and light poles of the sidewalk.
In the dark and the quiet, when the residents were tucked up in bed, it would
be easy for Teddy to forget this wasn’t a dead zone, if not for the telltale characteristics of a functional town.
The sign in the baker’s window with yesterday’s date and uneaten loaves of bread to match. Freshly chalked hopscotch squares marking the concrete in the children’s playground. The street lamps glowing in their plexiglas cocoons. The steady trickle of water from the solar-powered fountain.
He was more than aware of every beautifully simplistic element that told the story of a human town—a place of relative safety in a world of cold flesh.
His appreciation for his surroundings was cut unceremoniously short when he saw Anna perched on the edge of the curb, stopping to take a shit in the gutter.
Teddy smiled.
‘That won’t do, Anna. I reckon you could get a fine for that here.’
He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out the small plastic bag he’d taken from the town hall.
Trying not to breathe in, he got down on one knee to retrieve the neatly coiled turd she had left for him, plastic bag turned inside out around his hand.
Teddy happened to glance across to the opposite side of the street. He saw movement near the large truck parked there. Four figures in total, all loading boxes into the back compartment of the vehicle—no lanterns or torches, taking great care to make as little noise as possible.
He collected the turd and deposited it into one of the nearby trash cans on his way over to the midnight workers.
As he got closer, Timo, who seemed to be directing the others, noticed him approaching and, instead of waiting, walked briskly to meet him halfway.
‘Hey,’ Teddy said. ‘What’s goin’ on?’
‘You should be inside,’ Timo said, not looking particularly pleased to see him.
‘Anna had to go.’
Teddy craned his neck to look around him to the next crate being loaded onto the truck.
‘We’re doing this now so it doesn’t alarm the rest of the community until it needs to. Gideon is going to make an address in the morning,’ Timo said.
‘About what?’
‘We’re about to jeopardise everything we’ve built here.’ The bitter tone in Timo’s voice was impossible to disguise. ‘It seems your friend’s intel about this mystery device The Children have has even got the council spooked enough to consider evacuation.’
‘Device?’ Teddy asked.
‘Wow. Looks like you’re one of the last to know.’
‘They don’t tell me much,’ Teddy said. ‘I hardly know them.’
‘Yeah, well, I hope they’re wrong about this. If they’re not, their plan better work, because I’m not abandoning this town, and I don’t know a single person who would.’
Teddy zoned out, reflecting on what Timo had told him.
‘Hey, are you with us, buddy?’ Timo asked, waving his hand in front of Teddy’s face.
‘Yeah. Yes,’ Teddy said, snapping out of it. ‘Do you know if Gideon is still awake? I’d like a word with him.’
‘His light’s still on in his office.’ Timo pointed over to the small window and the glow coming from inside. ‘You’ll have to hurry though.’
‘Thanks.’
Timo watched him all the way over to the door to Gideon’s place. Anna scampered to catch up to him. He held his curious stare until Teddy knocked on the door, and then he returned to directing the men loading the truck.
Gideon answered immediately, eyebrows raised due to the late hour. He looked weary, the skin beneath his eyes lined with stress.
‘Mr. Jackson. You and your friends are making this a habit. Can’t it wait until morning?’
‘Actually, it can’t. May I come inside for a moment?’ Teddy asked.
‘Yes, of course.’
Gideon ushered him inside, taking a quick scan up and down the street to see if there was anyone else except the truck workers.
‘Would you like something to drink?’ Gideon offered as he fumbled around with the whisky tumbler on his desk.
‘I wouldn’t say no.’
Gideon poured him a measure, and Teddy downed it in one gulp.
‘So, spit it out, son. What’s bothering you?’
‘Ever since the outbreak, the good fortune I’ve had hasn’t been lost on me. I don’t have great survival skills, and I sure as hell ain’t a fighter. I’ve just been counting my blessings and looking for a place to hang my hat. When I arrived here and met the people in your community, I knew instantly this was it—this was where I belonged. I want to show you I can contribute here, and I will do whatever it takes to gain your trust.’
‘OK,’ Gideon said, frowning with inquisition.
‘Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m grateful to the folks I travelled here with. Jake saved my life and I felt a debt to him, and I have no regrets helping him rescue his friends.’
‘There’s a “but” coming, isn’t there?’
Teddy sighed.
‘I ain’t a snitch.’
‘Go on,’ Gideon said.
‘I don’t know why, but the woman—Miller—she’s lying to you. That cult you’re defending yourselves against, they don’t have a device to control the dead. It’s a person, someone from Jake’s group. I don’t know for sure, but I think he was a subject of some kind of experiment, and the cult members travelled all the way to Canada to kidnap him and bring him back to their camp.’
‘Canada?’ Gideon said, almost losing his grip on the glass in his hand.
‘Yes, sir. I’ve been getting as many details as I can from them, and I’ve overheard the rest. Whatever the reason, they don’t want you to know the whole truth.’
Gideon’s expression soured, and the whisky he knocked back tasted bitter in his mouth.
‘Thank you for bringing this to me, Teddy. Go back to the town hall. I’ll take it from here,’ he said.
9
Edwards walked alongside Crane at pace on their way to the holding barn at the north of the camp.
The breaking dawn reflected from the dew-covered ground, creating a silver sheen over its surface.
‘How is Isaac?’ Edwards asked.
‘He’s resting. Luckily the blow to his head only left him with a mild concussion. He says he’ll be ready to travel later.’
‘Good. And what of the woman?’
‘We tracked her through the woods to our nearest transport hub. I’m afraid we lost her trail after that. None of the vehicles had been taken. As far as we’re aware, she’s still on foot,’ Crane said.
‘We have no more time to look for her. Just as long as we ensure the boy thinks we still have her, it doesn’t matter for now.’
‘Of course.’
As the guard standing at the barn door saw them approaching, he unlocked it and stepped aside.
‘I put him out here because I didn’t want him spreading any discontent amongst the congregation. His wife has already been asking questions,’ Crane said.
‘Don’t worry about that. Rachel is devoted to the cause. I will calm her fears,’ Edwards said.
Crane opened the door and allowed Edwards to enter first, quickly filing in behind him.
Thomas shuffled nervously at the sight of them, pushing back against the side of the barn to aid him in standing up, hands tied behind his back.
‘Thomas, Thomas, what is it you think you’ve done?’ Edwards said.
‘Opened my eyes to your deception,’ he replied, his voice muffled and distorted by the swelling forming around his cheeks. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth where he’d been beaten by the disciples after his arrest.
‘If you’d come to me and told me how you were feeling, I could have helped guide you back to the light,’ Edwards said.
Thomas gritted his teeth in anger.
‘You’re not the way. You’re a delusional maniac whose rhetoric led to the death of my son.’
Crane lunged for him, about to make him pay for his outburst, but Edwards stood
in the way to block him.
Against his instincts, Crane stepped back.
Edwards smiled.
‘I’m sorry to lose you, Thomas, but your son is not dead.’
For one brief moment, Thomas’s eyes widened with a sense of hope.
‘He’s going to help us vanquish our enemies, and so are you.’ Edwards nodded, and Crane set about Thomas, strapping a cloth gag around his mouth and pulling a small woven sack over his head.
Crane got behind him and forced him outside. They marched him in silence across the camp to the church, all the way to the vestry.
Crane whipped the sack away, and Thomas blinked to see Ethan getting up from the sofa, startled by the sudden entrance.
‘This is Thomas, Samuel’s father. He’s going to provide you with the strength you need to do what you’ve promised,’ Edwards said.
Before Ethan could ask what was happening, Crane drew his blade and sliced through Thomas’s throat.
The man convulsed on his feet, the terrible realisation that he was about to die reflected in his desperate gaze towards Ethan.
Still trying to gasp for air, he fell face down. The blood immediately began to spill from the wound and crawled closer to the sofa.
Ethan lifted his feet, mouth gaping in shock, watching the final twitching of Thomas’s body.
‘Trust me, Ethan. He’s being far more useful now than he ever did when he was alive,’ Edwards said. ‘Drink, feed, as your nature commands, and we can get this over and done with. We’ll be back to collect you in a couple of hours.’
As abruptly as they had entered, Edwards and Crane left the vestry, leaving Ethan to stare at the creeping pool of blood that was making his thirst for it unbearable.
10
Morning was about to become afternoon, and there had been no announcement at Medora, no collecting of belongings by its residents, and no mass exodus.
Everyone seemed to be going about their day as normal. The stores were open for business, people were performing their daily chores, and there was no sign of Gideon.
He was either still inside his office building or somewhere else entirely.
Raine couldn’t wait around kicking her heels any longer. Lying low at the town hall like they had been told to was driving her crazy. Salty and O.B. weren’t too keen on the idea either.
Everything Dies | Season 3 Page 25