Willy reaches out and grabs the suddenly hysterical Aubrey as she jumps to her feet and begins racing towards where Veronica was searching through the blankets. Hearing Veronica call out that she had found Marie and that she was still alive was the last thing Willy heard as Aubrey’s head all but explodes in front of his eyes, his ears instantly ringing from the deafening crack of the gunshot from directly behind him. Behind Aubrey on the wall is a splattered portrait that has been painted with bits of her brains, her blood, and tiny pieces of her skull. Willy, realizing that he is still holding onto Aubrey suddenly releases her as if he has just touched something that was red hot, allowing Aubrey’s now lifeless form to grotesquely slump to the ground at his feet. As Veronica walks up to stand next to Willy they are both stunned that the furious figure that they see standing in the doorway to the back room holding the still smoking gun, is not Jackson, but Dylan. Crying and still pointing the gun in the direction of the fallen figure of Aubrey that was now crumpled on the back rooms dirt floor. Veronica rushes over to him as he falls into her outstretched arm suddenly exhausted from the expenditure of such extreme emotions and adrenaline. “It’s ok Dylan, it’s all going to be ok. Marie is still alive and she’s going to be ok” Veronica begins telling Dylan trying to sooth his anxiety as he openly sobs into her shoulder, “She was going to hurt Marie! I couldn’t let her hurt Marie!” “I know Dylan I know. But you saved Marie and she’s going to be just fine because of what you did. See I have her with me, with us in my other arm. Shush now, it’s all over, it’s all over now” Veronica says continuing to try to comfort the distraught young man. Willy, finally able to stand upright again after he had collapsed to lean against the wall following the shock of watching Aubrey’s head explode and then turning around to find Dylan standing in the doorway. Realizing they were the only ones left in the room Willy abruptly shouts out “Ronnie, where is Jackson?” Veronica turns to look around the room before finally bringing her eyes to rest on Willy, both of them wearing looks of concern and wonder on their faces as she answers “I don’t know Willy, but I think we need to find out.”
Willy slowly nods his head up and down as he walks over and picks Dylan up from under the arms helping him walk out of the back room and out through the pantry as Veronica holds Marie close to her body, doing her best to keep her warm and her wound wrapped and covered. Behind them still hanging over the now dying fire and still skewered to the spit was what was left of Marie’s amputated and partially cooked left arm. Amputated at the shoulder Aubrey had cauterized the wound after the procedure was complete so that the baby wouldn’t bleed to death. Shuddering at the horror that had just been played out on the dirt covered floor of the little back room of the community pantry, Veronica lightly kicks something on the lying on the floor. Looking down to see what she had kicked, Veronica’s brow furrows as she attempts to focus on the book that was strangely lying on the ground at her feet. Bending over and picking it up she reads what is written on the cover, “The journal of Aubrey Bryant. A detailed memoir of the Afterlife”. Tucking the journal under her arm she quickly walks out of the pantry to follow Willy and Dylan up to the pavilion and the rest of the community that was now gathered there.
“Be careful who you trust; remember that the devil too was once an angel.”
– Unknown
Chapter Thirty Five
Reaching the pavilion Veronica quickly does a head count as she sees that Cain and Willy are tending to Dylan (who seems to have slipped into a sort of mild shock) from the incident that had taken place inside the pantry only minutes before. Holly, Sophia, Lily, and little Belle are the last to arrive at the pavilion, both Holly and Lily rush over to Veronica to help with Marie as they are filled in on this morning’s horrific current event. “Here Ronnie let us help” Holly says as she reaches Veronica who is still clutching the baby softly to her chest. “Oh my god this poor child. She has had to endure so much pain and loss already” Holly says at the sight of the trauma Aubrey had caused to Marie’s left arm and shoulder. “Is this all we have to offer a child, a baby, in this version of the world? Is every child born here in this dark lifeless hell being born to suffer?” Holly asks as she openly begins to weep as she finishes, “Isn’t there any hope anymore?” Holly’s last words are barely audible as her voice transforms into the squeaky whisper of fractured emotions and heavy sobbing. Veronica puts her arms around Holly and Marie hugging them both with motherly sympathy as she does her best to comfort Holly and chase her fears away. “There is always hope Holly. As long as we hold on to each another and love each other, there will always be hope” Veronica whispers in Holly’s ear as she strokes her hair. “Do you really believe that Ronnie?” Holly asks despairingly, looking up at Veronica with red, tear stained eyes. “Yes I really do. I have to, otherwise what’s the point?” Veronica answers as she places a kiss softly on Holly’s forehead. “I have to go and find Jackson Holly, will you be ok while I go and do that?” Veronica asks the still crying and emotional young woman. “Yes, I’ll be ok. Sorry about losing it like that. I’m still just so shocked that someone could do this to a little helpless baby” Holly answers as a fresh stream of tears break from her eyes to roll down her cheeks. “No apology necessary sweetie I completely understand” Veronica says to Holly as she stands up ready to begin her search for the now missing and clearly distraught Jackson. Walking over to where Willy and Cain were busy with Dylan Veronica hears Holly call out to her back “Oh! Ronnie! Sophia, the girls, and I all saw Jackson on our way to the pavilion!” Veronica turns back towards to where Holly was still seated holding Marie trying to hide her annoyance that Holly was just now remembering this little factoid. “You did? Did he say anything? Could you tell where he might have been headed?” “No he didn’t say anything, he never picked his head up, he just kept staring at the ground and walking fast” Holly says seeming to remember more about the encounter with Jackson as she speaks, “But it looked like he was heading to the cemetery so Sophia and I didn’t think too much about it at the time.” “Thank you Holly” Veronica says as she turns back around and again begins making her way to Willy. She had an eerie feeling that she was going to need his help with this one.
Jackson reaches the cemetery just as everyone is gathering at the pavilion and begins finding out about the true monster that was Aubrey Bryant. Leaning the bundle he was carrying against the trunk of the dead tree next to Gracie’s marker, Jackson falls to his knees in front of the stone. “I’m so sorry my love. I am so very sorry that I failed you and our beautiful baby Marie” Jackson says to Gracie’s marker, sobbing and begging her for her forgiveness. “I thought Aubrey was a sign from you up in the heavens and that you and god were watching over us and that everything was going to be ok” Jackson sobs. “But Marie is with you now in heaven and you have left me all alone down here to suffer in the darkness withered and broken. But I can’t survive down here on my own without you Gracie, you know that! So now I finally know what you want me to do my love. What you meant when you said we will always be together. I can do it, I will be strong enough. You and Marie are my strength.” Jackson stands up in front of the grave marker and running his left hand down the side of the marker he bends over and kisses the crown of the stone softly whispering, “Everyday” before standing up straight and adding “For all of eternity.” Jackson picks his bundle up from the tree and places the barrel of the shotgun in his mouth and pulls the trigger all in one determined motion. Veronica and Willy had just begun making their way up the small hill that leads to the cemetery as the gunshot rings through the compound and countryside beyond it. Jackson’s body falls backwards to land in the spray of blood and mud that now trailed out behind him to lie lifeless in front of the marker of his one true love. Veronica and Willy come upon the scene of Jackson’s suicide just as the splash of gore settles back to earth. Veronica falls to her knees to kneel in the mud with her face buried in her hands. Willy stands just in front of Veronica with slumped shoulders and tear filled eyes slowl
y shaking his head from side to side. Jackson’s lower jaw has been entirely removed by the shotgun blast that almost severed his head completely from his shoulders. Jackson’s still open eyes stare up into the menacing black sky almost as if he is beaconing the lightening that now dances through the clouds to come down and carry him home to be with his lovely wife and child.
Chapter Thirty Six
Veronica’s nights are no longer peaceful and sleep for her has become a distant memory. As she lays in the cot she has set up in the back room (she won’t sleep in the actual bed of their bunker without Clay because it feels to empty) she listens to Cain toss and turn through his own demon filled nightmares from his room down the hall. She closes her eyes and is welcomed by the insanely sadistic look in Sophia’s eyes from this morning when they spoke of eating the dogs. She opens her eyes and is greeted by the cold pitch black lonely room of her bunker. She closes her eyes again and is met with the memory of baby Marie’s left arm slowly being turned on a spit over open flames “Hungry, hungry, hungry” Veronica hears being maniacally muttered over and over again in that raspy voice that seemed to resonate from every dark corner of the world. Her eyes snap open and she almost believes she can hear the words coming from the dark corners of her own room for a moment. And so the pattern repeats until finally, sighing in exasperation and rubbing her sleep deprived eyes, Veronica rolls over and turns on the battery powered lantern that she kept on the nightstand next to her cot. As the light fills her little section of the room she notices the book she had found on the ground coming out of the pantry yesterday morning. Picking it up and looking it over she picks up the crank handle flashlight she kept next to the lantern and begins turning the handle to charge up the light. Turning on the flashlight and turning off the lantern to conserve battery power, she opens the cover of the book and begins to read,
“The Journal of Aubrey Bryant. A Detailed Memoir of the Afterlife.”
The cities have been over run and are in complete chaos and disorder. The military has left the people to fend for themselves in most places now. The only place that they still have any presence is protecting the FEMA camp the government set up on the outskirts west of town. Owen says we have to stay out of sight and be as inconspicuous as possible. He also says that we can’t go to the FEMA camp even though the police said over the loud speakers as they drove through town that it was a safe place to go with plenty of food and water for everyone. Owen say’s that they’re lying and that it’s just a place to round everyone up for orderly disposal by starvation and dehydration so that the rich elite and politicians can have the planet to themselves. I understand that he’s just trying to protect us but I don’t think he’s right about that and I don’t like stealing our food from other people that need it just as much as we do”
Veronica flips through the pages skimming through page after page of how Aubrey and Owen had to hide and fight for food. She reads about how they found a small group of like minded people and about how they had killed and eaten their first victim. Then about how cannibalism became a mainstay in the little band of survivors diet. Then she reads the passages about how the little group had found and captured a pregnant woman and about how Owen had showed them all how to only eat certain parts of her at a time so that it would kill her more slowly. Consequently making the food source last longer. And about how they had done the same thing to the baby after the captured and tortured victim had given birth. Then they started doing that with all the babies that were born within the group as a couple of the women had become pregnant in the downward spiral of the spinning vortex of insanity and promiscuity. Then about how the men started getting the women pregnant on purpose to compensate for the lack of food when food was scarce and hard to find. As Veronica begins to read the telling of Aubrey’s own pregnancy and about her excitement not for the coming baby, but for the coming series of meals, she has to stop and lay the book down on her chest. She is both sickened and horror-struck at the words she has found contained within the pages of the journal. She pinches the bridge of her nose in a futile attempt to dam the steady flow of tears that roll down her cheeks to leap onto her pillow.
“Are you Ok mom?” Cain’s words that come from the dark entryway to her room startle her causing her to emit a small shriek in her fright. She had been so focused on the journal she hadn’t even heard him get up or walk down the short hall to stand in the doorway to her room. “Damn it Cain you startled me” Veronica stammers, “But yes I’m ok, thank you.” She hadn’t even realized she’d been crying, much less sobbing hard enough to disturb her fifteen year old son that for the most part, still slept with the soundness of innocence. “Are you sure? I could hear you crying from down the hall in my room” Cain asks, his voice still groggy from sleep eerily reminding Veronica of Aubrey’s own cold and raspy voice. “Yes I’m sure. I couldn’t sleep so I was just reading a little hoping that it would help and I read some things that caused me to get me upset” she answers. “What are you reading?” Cain asks, yawning as he does. “A book I found this morning that needs to be thrown away.” “Oh ok. Well maybe you shouldn’t read anymore of it if it’s going to upset you” Cain say as he turns around and heads back down the hall to his room and falls back into bed. Falling back to sleep again almost as soon as his head hits the pillow, Veronica feels slightly envious at her sons ability to fight through his nightmares and find the sweet bliss of sleep. She lets out an exasperated sigh and closes the journal of Aubrey Bryant for the last time and lays it face down on the nightstand next to her cot. She lays there thinking about the words she has just read and going over the events that have occurred over the last few weeks at the compound. Sighing, she wipes the rest of the tears from her face and completely gives up on any chance of sleep knowing now that any attempts to do so would be a pointless waste of time and effort. Veronica gets out of bed to begin her day.
Chapter Thirty Seven
Year One, Day Three Hundred and Twenty Nine
Veronica makes her way up the hill locked arm in arm with Sophia on her left and Holly on her right. Sophia who has quickly become to sullen and morose to cry any longer, her views on their existence after the eruption are on a steady downgrade towards absolute pessimism. Holly who is still in shock over the last week’s string of events walks up the hill stiff legged and upright, her face pale and blank, she wears the melancholy mask of disbelief and doubt. Lily, with the sleeping baby Marie perched on her left hip, and Belle walk hand in hand just behind the trio of women in silence out of both respect and sadness. Cain, Dylan, and Willy (The unfortunate designated gravediggers of the compound) are already at the cemetery waiting on the procession to arrive so that they can, yet again, commit another beloved member of their community to the ground. The fact that there is only one open grave site is not lost on Veronica. As she curiously looks around for another open site, Dylan makes his way past the women to stand next to Lily and Belle behind them.
Dylan quickly walks over to Lily and Marie as soon as the procession completes its arrival and assumes its position around the soon to be filled open gravesite of the late Jackson Scott. Lily looks up and smiling at Dylan she knowingly hands Marie over to the protector that destiny had mercifully provided for the recently made orphan. Dylan took the responsibility willingly. In his mind he was finally given the opportunity to be the big brother he knew in his heart he was always supposed to be. Dylan cradles the tiny infant close to his chest and smiles down silently mouthing “thank you” to her as he does. Lily’s slight blush is the only indication that it’s not just for the sake of Marie and Belle that she has so enthusiastically stepped in to her role of compound Nanny. Their attention is soon drawn away from each other however as Willy begins the eulogy of their fallen friend. Dylan stands up straighter with his chin held high as he is filled with the pride of knowing that he will do everything in his power to provide the life For Marie that Jackson had been to weak to provide for her. As Willy asks everyone to bow their heads for the opening prayer Lily of
fers her hand to Dylan. With closed eyes and bowed heads Dylan readily accepts the offered hand as both of them begin smiling and blushing in the recognition of their secret growing feelings for one another.
“Thank you for coming everyone. Today we gather together yet again under the prescience of the creator to sadly lay to rest another one of our own.” Willy begins after the opening prayer has been completed. As every eye falls on Willy doing their best to avoid looking at the clothed wrapped body of Jackson that is still lying next to the open grave waiting to be lowered into its final resting place. “We have been filling far to many holes in the ground with the bodies of our loved ones it seems here lately. I think Jacksons’ death presents us with a new form of sadness though. Because in spite of everything this world had already thrown at him, in the face of everything he had already had to endure. The world finally succeeded in driving Jackson over the edge.” Willy pauses to catch his breath and to wipe at his eyes and nose with a handkerchief. “How many times has it driven us all to that very same edge? But for most of us, we find the strength to keep from letting it topple us over it. For Jackson, that strength was Gracie and Marie. After he lost Gracie that strength was just Marie. And when he thought that he had failed Marie, in Jacksons’ mind all of his sources of strength were gone.” Willy meets the eyes of all of his friends that are here gathered around him one by one. “So today we yet again commit a beloved friend and member of our community to the ground. Before god and the devil that brought us here we once again commit a soul to the seemingly insatiable darkness that blankets us in its despair.” Willy falls silent for a moment allowing the silence to settle in around them doing its best to feed the groups growing feelings of sadness, doubt, and despair. The darkness joins the silence recognizing an opening to tighten its icy grip on the hearts of the community that it has already long held within its cold lifeless right hand. Its left hand placed squarely on their backs waiting for the right opportunity as they all stand looking over the edge into the abyss below. Willy begins to speak again just in time to hold the darkness at bay, bringing sighs of relief from everyone except Sophia and Cain. Sighing himself and drawing in a large breath Willy begins to read, “For as much as it has pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother Jackson here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; Earth to Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection of eternal life through our lord Jesus Christ.” Finishing the eulogy prayer Willy takes another breath before asking the gathered group “Who’s father?” The group answers in chorus as they all begin the final prayer of the funeral service, saying it together raising up as one voice “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever, Amen.” As the group breaks up and begins to filter back to their homes and the tasks of their daily chores Veronica walks up to Willy and Cain, “Thank you Willy that was a beautiful eulogy, Jackson would have appreciated that.” “Yeah well I’d rather someone else be giving it. Or better yet, to not be giving it at all” is Willy’s only response as he bends over to retrieve the shovel that was discretely placed out of sight behind the skeleton of a dead, but still standing tree. “I know. Me too” Veronica pats him on his forearm as she turns and makes her way back the hill toward the pavilion at the center of the compound to begin preparing breakfast. Stopping halfway down, her curiosity finally getting the best of her, she turns and shouts back up the hill “Hey Willy, how come there’s only one grave?” Willy (who is just standing back up from placing Jacksons’ body in the bottom of the open grave) turns and looks Veronica directly in her eyes as he answers. “Because that devil’s whore doesn’t belong buried alongside our family and friends that’s why.” “Fair enough. So what are we going to do with her body?” Veronica asks. Willy’s demeanor quickly turns calloused and cold. With a slight smirk he turns back to the task of burying his friend as he says “We’re going to treat her just like she was going to treat baby Marie.” As he turns back around to once again look Veronica in the eye he finishes, “We’re going to burn that bitch.”
Beneath the Ashen Veil of Darkness Page 15