The Last Virus

by Caleb Adams

  “They are almost through,” I said to him.

  “And there they will be met sharpened tooth for sharpened tooth.”

  “They have many more mouths and many more teeth,” I replied.

  “The Angels have prepared us well. Are we not armed for battle, and are we not marked for heaven?”

  “Please, I beg of you,” I said. “We can still make a run for the sewers. We lived there once. And perhaps there are other tunnels we can find.”

  “I will not be ashamed if you leave,” he said and stood up.

  I stayed with him of course. He strapped on two belts of ammunition and hung an automatic weapon over his shoulder. As we came to the north tunnel wall, those in the middle parted so we could come to the front. A pickaxe. That is what broke through first. He raised his hands and they all stood, the barrels of our guns pointed straight ahead and waiting to be discharged. At any moment, I was expecting explosives or even a hose from which gas would begin flowing. Instead, we saw a ray of light come through. It moved around and lit up our faces like a searchlight.

  “General John Danzig, United States Marine Corps, Sector 4. Identify yourselves.”

  “We are The Children of God,” he replied, the first time I had heard him use that phrase. “You may continue the path you are on, but any weapons must be left behind.”

  The wall came down within a half hour of time. The General entered first, like a tank I remember. Eight others followed. Four lined up on his left and four on his right. His eyes then took a quick assessment of the situation. Our guns were still pointed ahead, but it didn’t seem to instill a bit of dread in him nor those that he had come with.

  “How long have you been here?” the General asked.

  “The twins,” he said with a look over his shoulder.

  The twins stepped forward and asked only the General to choose which book he preferred. The General neither scoffed nor hesitated at the request. He put his right hand down hard upon the Bible.

  “The Good Book has been chosen,” the twins replied and walked away.

  “Praise be to God,” we all replied as had been inculcated.

  “Two years and a few odd days, General,” he then said.

  “How many are with you?”

  “All that you can see.”

  “You think you could have them put their weapons down? I’m sure you’ve trained them well. But that little girl with the twenty-two in her hands and her teddy bear between her feet, well, you never know. She might just get an idea in her head that teddy isn’t quite safe with us standing here. I could probably take the slug, but nonetheless, it still makes for a fucking bad day.”

  “Lower arms,” he said.

  “Thank you.”

  “There is food here for you.”

  “Food we have. It’s water that we’re having an issue with. We tapped into a line when we got here. Unfortunately, it suddenly shut off about two days ago. So, we started tracing it out. And lo and behold, it led us here.”

  “We are the source of your spring, General. The valve we are working on.”

  “I brought some engineers with me. They can help you.”

  “I thank you for your offer, but we are quite capable. You shall drink again before the night’s end.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “Is there anything else we can do for you?”

  “No, that is it.”

  “Then our ways our own, General.”

  Even here, under the most absurd circumstances and wretched conditions, it was apparent that two alpha males do not combine to share their packs. A metal door was fashioned where the wall once was. It had only one handle, and that was on our side of the divide. If I had a choice of which gray wolf to follow, it would have taken me some time to decide, even as one of those wolves was my brother.

  UNTO US A GIRL

  I knew it troubled him greatly that another group was inhabiting the tunnels. I can only assume it was tantamount to venturing far off to another planet and finding a cross of Jesus buried in the soil there. How defeating would that be. To find that your God once had a mistress and you were not the only one.

  Months went on. He slept little. He paced back and forth, waiting for the Angels to visit him again. Strands of his hair turned white. Lines began to find his face. He was petulant, curt. Anger rose within him quickly.

  Then one day, he came to me soaked in sweat, as if someone had taken a wet cloth and wiped it across both his hair and his face. Across from me he sat and took hold of my hands.

  “I must tell you something.”

  “Please,” I replied.

  “The Angels have spoken once again to me. They were stern. They said, ‘O ye of little faith, how soon thou thinkest the Lord hath forgotten. Thy time is but an eye’s blink in that of heaven. Have thy no patience?’ And my eyes I lowered in shame at their rebuke. And I said, by all of heaven and earth, I give oath that I will falter in faith no more. Then, as I was relieving my eyes of the tears, they said, ‘A girl has arrived, the deliverer. Out of her shall come the one who crushes the head of the serpent that slithers above ye. Nations of new will be born and bring tribute and bow in obedience. Keep then thou watch. For she shall be shackled.’ ”

  “We place no one in shackles,” I said to him.

  “Then with the General she must be. Have the water turned off. He will arrive soon after.”

  “You do not wish to call an assembly first?”

  “It is of more importance for the General to hear than them.”

  In less than an hour after the valve had been closed, the General arrived. He was alone this time. At his side, a large gun, which was not asked to be removed. Once again, the General was asked to choose from which book he believed.

  “Welcome, General. We have been expecting your arrival.”

  “You need to let us know when you’re taking that valve out of service. Our sector has grown since I was last here. We need that water.”

  “It is not out of service. I asked for it to be closed.”

  “And for what goddamn reason might I ask?”

  “Last night, the Angels came to me and said there is a girl among you. She is one of us, General. And I would like for you to bring her to me. This girl should be easy to find. The Angels have said she will be in shackles.”

  “Yeah, well, your Angels are fucking wrong. There’s no one in shackles on my side. But if they want to have a look around, I’ll have no objections to that. Shit, I’ll even give them a personal tour. As far as handing someone over from my sector to you though, I’m pretty goddamn certain that’s not going to happen. Now, you were here before us, so I’m going to show my due respect. But don’t try my goddamn patience. We’ve got a shitload of things going on and no time to be fucking around with this.”

  “As I said before, General, our water is your water. We have no intention of denying your house the well of life.”

  “Then turn it the fuck back on. And I’m not leaving until I hear the rattle of those goddamn pipes.”

  “I will have it turned on when you leave. You have my word. As for the girl, in your charge I shall leave her. Keep watch of her though. She is the deliverer.”

  “Of what?”

  “Of all of us, General. Of all of us.”

  That was not the last time he shut off the water to summon the General. There were, in fact, two more times before the last. One for the infant he said the girl will give birth to in six moon’s time. And the other, to tell him that a good priest drinks the blood of Christ, whereas one in false robes sets it aside. I was now more worried about another return of the General than I was of the Caliphate finding us. His patience was wearing thin, and in him, I saw a man who was starting to believe that a bullet into my brother’s head would solve at least half of his problems.

  FOURTH revelation

  And to me the two Angels said, “Rise up from the bowels of the earth and return with the bodies of the serpents, more alive than dead. Let them knoweth the
taste of their own blood. Let it spring forth from inside their bodies and flow over their swollen tongues. Be not merciful as the serpent has shown thee no mercy. Let them get to know their skin. Set flames near so that blisters bubble, and the scent of their own burnt flesh sickens them. Bring knives to their maws and slice them like fatted cattle. Let them know pain thrice that a woman in birth knows pain. Do not bring death upon them though. Let them still breathe as the beetles and maggots take feast of their hearts, livers, and lungs. Let them wish of life no more. Let them wail and pray that they have never been conceived. All of this hath been commanded. Alleluia, Glory to God in the highest, praise to the Lord.”

  They all stood and shouted their allegiance. Even the young were with him. There were no words I could bring to him to reverse the course he was leading us on. The killing squads began shortly after.

  Where before it seemed to perhaps be just a misunderstanding of his mind, now it had become madness. And us, being tethered to him like an umbilical cord, were being dragged down right along with. The orders he gave to them were to return with the living bodies of Caliphate soldiers so they could be strung up and made to pay for their sins. It wasn’t done en masse, for he knew that would have attracted too much attention to those in Ayla. So, they were taken one or two at a time, to make it look as if the soldiers had just deserted their posts. It became apparent immediately, though he resisted the idea at first, that the bodies would have to be moved. The screams of the living he was able to suppress from our ears by shoving balls of clay into their mouths. The fetor of decay though he could not control. So, he had the bodies taken down from where they hung and moved to an area directly outside of our tunnels. The exact place where we always received the General.

  THE LIGHT OF GOD

  It was but two weeks into his crusade when he came to me in a most frantic state. I was thinking that he had come to say he was revisiting his decision.

  “The tunnels are darkening, and I have been told that we have no more candles to be lit.”

  “I will have power to the bulbs restored. For the other areas, I will place the battery lanterns down,” I said.

  “I wish no other light. We will make our own candles.”

  “From what? There is no wax or anything else we can safely burn.”

  “I will have bodies brought to you. Boil them down and fashion candles of the tallow that remains. You will now be the candle maker, the light of God.”

  “I will do no such thing. Even if God Himself asked me,” I answered in a firm protestation. “It is inhuman. And one that certainly heaven itself would not sanction. Perhaps not even the heaven of the Caliphate.”

  My refusal did nothing except to place a greater distance between us. Within hours he found another more than willing to be his candle maker. The next day I approached her as she was pouring the tallow into the molds, which were discarded cans of food. Cotton strips from Caliphate uniforms she was using as wicks. I said not a word to her, but set down by her side jars of cloves so that she could use to perfume the unholy scent.

  THE CRUCIFIX

  We were having our morning meal together when he set his plate aside, folded his hands together, and looked straight at me. On his tongue, I knew he had important words ready to embark so I also abandoned my own plate.

  “Last night, I walked among the ruins of the General’s house.”

  “The Angels have visited you again?”

  “Yes, and unspeakable horrors I was shown. Flesh of men, women, and children covered the tunnel walls, and very few wore faces recognizable. The General himself I saw upon an inverted cross.”

  “Is it to be soon?”

  “Of that day and hour, I was kept ignorant.”

  “And what of our house?”

  “I did walk over to it. The door was open and there was a great light of white emanating from inside. The Angels though stood guard at the entrance and told me I was not allowed.”

  “Then perhaps we shall be spared.”

  “Or perhaps to heaven we had already ascended.”

  I found that reply odd. And now that I think about it, I should have asked him to expound. However, my attention to the matter was released when he unclasped his hands, and on his right palm, lay a bronze crucifix that had acquired a dull olive patina. It was a curious piece, for it was obviously a locket, hinged at the side. I asked him if it opened. He said that it did not. He said centuries upon centuries of sadness had fused it together. I returned my eyes to it. The figure of Christ was smooth and almost unrecognizable, as if the thumbs of generation after generation had worn Him down. If I had to put a guess to its date of origin, I certainly would say it was at least a thousand years old.

  “From where did it come?” I asked.

  “The Angels. It was given right before they left me.”

  “Are you to wear it?” I questioned.

  “It is for the girl. She must have it around her neck before the Caliphate come.”

  “And who to place it?”

  “I will summon the General. It will be taken to her.”

  “You have called him here four times now. And not once did he acknowledge her existence, or even the child you said she had born. He cares only about the water.”

  “Speak no more of it and prepare for his arrival.”

  When I returned to my quarters, I wondered about the crucifix, taking doubt of its authenticity in every other thought. It seemed almost impossible for him to have constructed such an object himself. From where the tools and from where the ancient bronze? Certainly, it could not have been found within the tunnels. For its construction, by blueprints found, we knew to have begun no earlier than 1899. I thus convinced myself it must have been taken from a Caliphate soldier. A good number of them came from lands rich in ancient artifacts. No other explanation would I accept. His Angels were hysteria, delusion, manifestations of hope, but certainly not actual entities capable of gifting crucifixes. I laughed aloud. How grotesque my initial thought to believe his Angels had indeed given it to him. I left my quarters and hurried to prepare for the General.

  THE PROPHECY

  The general arrived within two hours. He was not alone this time. With him were twelve others, eleven of those who were well-armed. From his mien, it seemed his patience with my brother had been exhausted, and who could really blame him. I feared the worst. My brother told the general of his vision where his area of the tunnels had fallen to the Caliphate and also of his own horrific death upon an inverted cross. He then told the general to take the crucifix and place it around the neck of the girl. The general declined the offer, and soon after his entourage began to leave. To my surprise though, a man with a gentle face and without a heavy weapon swiped the crucifix from the little girl and took it with him. I looked over to my brother and upon his face, not a change in countenance, as if he had expected the crucifix to be taken all along.

  ORDINATION OF IMMORALITY

  To ask only a simple question, I walked into my brother’s quarters unannounced. They were all turned away from me, but I did not need to see any faces for I knew all three. Like Caligula, he was copulating with one of the twins, while the other was sitting beside him with an arm around his waist. He still had his white robe on. They were wearing nothing more than what was given to them at birth. I seemed to have no feet to flee and no air to speak. Then, the sister who was not on all fours, brought her lips to his ear and poured forth words. He turned not, but instead waved a hand for me to come and join them. My body once again found movement, and I ran out of there, knowing that the corruption of his mind had now been completed.

  CONSECRATION

  He was calm that day, the possession gone from his demeanor. It was almost as if my brother had returned. We ate together in the morning and separated right after so he could prepare for the words he was to deliver in the evening. I did not feel myself the entire afternoon and retired to my quarters in the hope I could find a few hours of sleep. My eyes I remember never closed, for th
e imminent dread I sensed was all-consuming, and neither my body nor my mind could find even a wisp of the respite I sought. I felt stiff and cold when supine. I trembled and sweated when I paced. I wished nothing more than to be done with the night to come.

  The frankincense was heavy in the assembly area, the candles were breathing without a flicker, and from all of the crosses, the Jesus’ now removed. An hour we all waited for him until finally, the ram’s horn sounded. The twins entered and took opposite sides of the altar, standing tall like obelisks. Each had on a strapless black dress made of cloth I soon realized were from burqas stolen from Ayla. Their eyelids were obsidian shaded, and their lips were layers and layers of a crimson red. Upon their foreheads, one had the word Dies and other Irae, in what seemed to be from coal. And there before each, a metal ammunition box painted forest green. Another few minutes passed before he arrived. He glanced my way and nodded. And after I also nodded, he began to speak.

  Children of God, the Chosen, it has been accomplished. In the tunnels near to us, with the Angels I huddled and we watched as a crucifix was placed around the neck of the deliverer. She is safe, and the prophecy fulfilled. Alleluia, Glory to God in the highest, praise to the Lord.

  The Angels then looked right, and time moved forward. And as I looked with them, I saw lands and waters of the earth tomorrow. Battles raged. Lights of cities blazed with fire, and great peals of thunder echoed into the air. Steel birds swept through the skies to bring terror, and armies of the cross marched victoriously. And the moon then appeared, and as if it was a celestial spotlight, it showed its light on a certain patch of the desert earth. And there everywhere below, like black ants, the soldiers of the Caliphate hurried away from that which once they had devoured. And though in spirit I was joyous at the triumph, my hands and teeth clenched as I watched all of them escaping without retribution. Then though, as if they knew my mind, the Angels spoke. “Anger not, for their names and their hiding places are known. For either by sword, famine or plague, or by wild beast shall each be slain. Yea, we say unto you, fear Him and all His power. Glory to God in the highest. His vengeance is swift and just.”