“There she is! There’s the Philistine!” a woman from the crowd shouted, pointing a long, skinny finger at Abby.
“Last night I dreamt of a strange woman invading our midst. It must be her!” a man added loudly, and the crowd clamored in agreement.
“You dream of strange women? Isn’t that, like, a sin?” Abby replied, trying to maintain an air of confidence. The crowd again erupted in disapproval, but so far seemed hostile only in word.
“Everyone, please!” Nina shouted as she and Emma, Jim, Gary, and Ted all stepped up to stand beside Abby. “She’s just a young woman who’s lost! All I want is to help her.”
“Isaiah forbade accepting strangers into our homes before he himself has spoken with them! It is God’s holy will!” a man protested, and the crowd shouted their approval.
“And what about Clyde and the others? They’ve not returned! I say that this girl is a harbinger of evil!” another man replied.
“Look, let’s just get Isaiah, alright?” Jim said. “Let’s stop all this shouting and go get Isaiah and let him decide what is to be done!”
A young boy broke away from the crowd and sprinted up the road, presumably to summon Isaiah. A silence fell over everyone, and Abby glanced up at the people to her right and left. Jim, Gary, and Ted looked nervous. Emma was inscrutable, as usual. Nina, on the other hand, appeared to be her only true ally. If push came to shove, she would have to rely on her.
A low murmur came over the crowd as the townspeople whispered amongst themselves, fixing Abby with menacing glares. She stared back defiantly, maintaining a strong posture.
Emma looked down and saw the tenseness in Abby’s body, so she put a hand on her shoulder. “At ease, cowgirl. You’re not exactly defusing the situation here,” she whispered.
Abby nodded once and relaxed her shoulders a bit, but she was still on her guard. She wondered how quickly she could get back to her pack if she needed to flee. But she did not have much time to plan an escape route before a man that she presumed to be Isaiah finally appeared.
Zach, for better or worse, had taught Abby to make snap judgments of people within the first few seconds of meeting them. “Forget that nonsense of not judging books by their covers, Bug,” he had told her. “The eyes are windows for our souls. You can get a bead on someone just by looking into their eyes.”
Well, Abby looked into Isaiah’s eyes and saw only hatred. They were a kind of hazel color, yet tinged with a flat orange hue. By themselves, such strange irises would have sufficed to give him the visage of a madman, but the rest of his face brought this picture to perfection. A large, crooked nose dominated his gaunt face, standing in stark contrast to his hollow cheekbones. His bushy eyebrows were black but flecked with grey hairs, as was his long, unkempt, and dirty hair and beard. He was short, and his exaggerated gait, taking long, purposeful strides, betrayed a Napoleon complex. He wore surprisingly clean white pants and a thick flannel shirt only, and yet the cold did not seem to bother him. “Must be all the ice in his veins,” Abby mused.
The crowd of people hushed in reverential silence as Isaiah approached. He strode right up to Abby, motioning for the others to back away. They did, though Nina stayed very near to Abby.
“What is your name?” Isaiah demanded. He spoke loud and clear, his voice carrying across the open air with ease.
“Abby.”
“Abigail,” Isaiah said. “From where do you come?”
“Chicago.”
“And why have you come here?”
“I just wanted some food, maybe some winter clothes. I can trade.”
Isaiah shook his head and said, “Fools seek nourishment for their bodies. Wise men seek nourishment for the soul. As Jesus Christ, blessed be He and His Holy Father, said to the woman at the well, ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst'. Amen.”
“Amen,” the townspeople repeated in unison.
Abby glanced left and right, feeling a little freaked out. “Okay,” she replied, “what does that mean for me?”
“It means, fool,” Isaiah retorted, fixing his vengeful eyes on Abby, “that you shall receive nothing! You are not one of God’s children, I can see as much in your eyes! As it is written in the second epistle of John, chapter one, verses ten and eleven, ‘If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds’! Amen!”
“Amen!” the townspeople again repeated in unison.
“Hey, I believe in God!” Abby insisted.
“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble!” Isaiah replied. “The book of James, chapter two, verse nineteen. Your belief means nothing when you do not act on it! Your speech and the way you carry yourself betray you as a Jezebel or a Delilah, not a Ruth or an Esther.”
“I dreamt of a wicked woman destroying us, Isaiah!” shouted the man who had spoken earlier.
“And yet another evil portent!” Isaiah cried as he threw his hands up in despair. “Your coming is marred by unwelcome omens, Abigail.”
“What omens?” Abby asked.
“The winter storm that has besieged us this entire month, dark dreams by several members of our community, a disturbing lack of wildlife, and just this morning I had to send out a posse to find one of our scavenging groups,” Isaiah replied.
It sure hadn’t taken long before they sent out a search-and-rescue team, Abby thought. She took heart in knowing that it would probably take them at least a day to get back with news that their scavenging team had been slain, but then Isaiah said, “I allowed them to take the truck to expedite their mission, and I have spent the last hour in prayer for their swift return to our flock.”
“Goddamn it,” Abby muttered under her breath.
Isaiah’s eyebrows arched in anger and his lips curled back in a sneer; he had heard Abby’s utterance. “Blasphemer!” he cried as smacked Abby hard with the back of his hand, knocking her to the ground. “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison! The book of James, chapter three, verse eight! Christ commanded us to cut out our offending members, and so you must suffer the loss of your tongue!”
Isaiah unsheathed a knife that had been hanging from his belt and took a step towards Abby, but Nina and Emma both stood over her in protest.
“She’s not one of us, Isaiah! She couldn’t have known!” Nina cried with her arms outstretched.
Emma, who had not placed herself directly in front of Abby as Nina had done, stood just to Abby’s right, partially concealing that side of her from Isaiah. She alone had noticed Abby’s subtle reach towards her pistol, and if Isaiah was truly intent on cutting out Abby’s tongue, then Emma wanted to give her a fighting chance.
“Yeah, and didn’t Jesus say, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’?” Emma said.
Isaiah looked from Emma, to Nina, then down to Abby. After a moment of internal deliberation, he pointed his knife at Abby and said, “Blaspheme not again, child. Or it shall be your death!” He sheathed his knife and backed up, allowing Nina and Emma to help Abby to her feet.
“But you are clearly a cancer upon my community,” Isaiah continued. “A wolf among these gentle sheep. I know not what madness took hold of you, Nina, to bring this sinner here, but it was a mistake. You will need to do penance. But what’s done is done. She is here, but not for long. Abigail, I will go now to pray on this, and I will ask the Lord God what I am to do with you. Until He divines unto me an answer, you will remain here. Nina, return with her to your home and confine her there. I will assign extra guards to watch your home so that she does not escape.”
“Isaiah, can’t we just send her on her way?” Nina asked. She had not expected Isaiah to imprison Abby, and she felt like she had betrayed the poor young woman.
“No! She may be an enemy of God and of
us,” Isaiah replied. “God knows the truth of it, and He shall tell me what to do.”
With that, Isaiah walked away, whispering instructions to some of the nearby townsfolk. Meanwhile, Abby stood as still as a statue, contemplating an escape. All she had to do was get to her pack and then she could make a break for it. But she didn’t know how well armed these people were, and it was clear that they viewed her as a threat. And once the posse came back and reported what had happened downtown, Abby doubted that even Nina could shield her from Isaiah’s wrath.
Reluctantly, Abby followed Nina back into her home. Nina’s boys were awake now, but they avoided eye contact with Abby, sensing that something was amiss. Abby went back up to the bedroom, closed the door, and looked out the window. She could already see men standing around the house. She sighed and sat down on the bed. After just a few minutes, a knock came on the door.
“May I come in?” Nina asked.
“It’s your house,” Abby replied in a frustrated tone.
The door slowly opened, and in walked Nina, closing the door again behind her. She walked over to the bed and sat down next to Abby. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Isaiah has never done this before. The worst that he’s ever done to newcomers is force them to leave.”
“It’s fine, it’s not your fault,” Abby replied.
“I know, I just feel bad. That’s all,” Nina said.
A silence fell between the two of them that stretched for several minutes until Nina said, “Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself while we wait?”
Abby looked up at her and said, “There’s not much to tell, really. I lost my family just like almost everyone else did and now I’m trying to survive from day to day.”
Nina sighed and said, “Yeah. I know how hard it is to lose your family. My parents, my brothers and sisters, and my first husband all died during the Outbreak.”
“First husband?” Abby asked.
“Yes. The father of my two boys. I remarried last year to a wonderful man named Clyde. An old friend, actually. He’s still out there with the others,” Nina replied as she cast a longing glance out the window.
Abby shuddered. She had killed Nina’s husband. Thus far Nina had been a strong ally, but Abby doubted that she would stand up for her husband’s killer.
The bedroom door opened just then, and Emma came in. “It looks like our boys are almost here,” she said. “The guards see the truck coming in from a distance.”
“That was quick. That’s a good sign, right?” Nina said with a nervous laugh.
Abby jumped off the bed and said, “Look, I really need to leave, Isaiah be damned. I don’t feel safe here at all.”
“They’ll kill you if you try to run, Abby,” Nina said.
“That’s a chance I’ll take. I just need to leave,” Abby said as she hurried to the closet, but Emma stopped her.
“Whoa, slow down,” she said. “Nina is right. If you just take off running, you’ll be gunned down.”
“I have to leave now!” Abby insisted as she shoved Emma aside. She opened the closet and grabbed her pack and rifle.
“Abby,” Nina said as Abby was putting her pack on, “where did you get that rifle?” This was the first time she had gotten a good look at Abby’s gear in the light of day, and the rifle had caught her attention.
Abby stopped what she was doing and froze in place. She looked up at Nina and saw a strange look in her eyes. She must recognize the rifle, Abby thought. “It’s mine,” she said quickly.
Nina stood up and balled her hands into fists. “Where did you get it?” she repeated.
Abby hesitated, unable to think of a way to answer Nina without angering her.
“You killed my Clyde,” Nina said as tears started to roll down her cheeks.
“They tried to kill me! I was defending myself!” Abby retorted.
“Bullshit! Clyde wasn’t a murderer! He wouldn’t have hurt you!”
“He did! They were all going to leave me to die out there!”
“STOP LYING!” Nina screamed. She lunged suddenly, but Abby stepped aside and threw Nina to the floor as Emma backed up against the wall. Abby seized this opportunity to dash out of the bedroom and down the stairs. She ran for the front door, but the men from outside heard Nina scream and were now charging inside.
Abby hurried towards the nearest window, yanked it open, and squirmed outside, but a man grabbed the back of her coat before she could run away. Abby dropped her rifle, whirled around, and grabbed the man’s hand in both of hers. She pushed his arm down and snapped his wrist backwards. There was an audible ‘pop’ as the man’s wrist shattered and he cried out in pain. Abby retrieved her rifle and took off running down the side of the road, but by now several of the townspeople had returned outside.
“The witch is escaping!” a man shouted.
Abby looked over both shoulders and saw several people close behind her. She stopped suddenly, spun around on one foot, and swung her rifle at the nearest man, hitting him hard in the side and knocking him down. She then slammed the buttstock into the next man’s crotch as he tried to grab her, and he too went down. Abby turned to run again, but too many people swarmed around her. She was tackled from multiple directions and flung down into the snow.
She was stripped of her pack and her weapons, even her KA-BAR. There was nothing she could do as four men pinned her down. “Get Isaiah!” someone yelled.
“Don’t let her up! She killed Clyde!” Nina cried as she joined the riotous crowd. “She killed them all! The posse is coming back right now, you’ll see! They’re all dead because of her!”
“Murderer!” a woman screamed.
“You’ll burn in Hell, sinner!” an old man yelled right in Abby’s ear.
Abby groaned as half of her face was pressed into the cold snow. Already her ear and cheek were getting numb. Someone had their knee pressed into the small of her back and another on her neck.
A minute passed, though it felt like an hour to Abby, before Isaiah arrived.
“What has she done?” he called.
“She murdered the scavenging group!” someone shouted.
“She has Clyde’s rifle!” Nina said.
“What? She alone killed five men?” Isaiah asked.
“The posse is returning, they’ll tell you exactly what I have,” Nina replied.
“They tried to kill me!” Abby shouted, though her voice was strained by the weight of the people on top of her.
“Silence, whore!” Isaiah commanded.
Just then a man came running up to the large group, calling for Isaiah. “It’s just as we feared! They’re all dead! Clyde’s head was… we could only identify him through the process of elimination.”
Nina began to weep, as did a few other townspeople. Isaiah looked down at Abby, locking eyes with her, and Abby could see the wheels turning in his head. She wondered what kind of horrible execution he was planning for her, but before he could pass his judgment a woman yelled, “Give her a trial by fire!”
Chapter Five
“A trial?” Isaiah repeated. “Yes, I believe that would be wise. I know not if it is possible for one young woman to overcome five men, but Satan is strong and could no doubt have lent his servant some demonic powers. Yes! A trial by fire!”
All the townsfolk roared in approval. Abby was picked up and dragged across the snow towards a nearby house as Isaiah led the way. A realization dawned on Abby, and she suddenly understood why there were burnt husks of old houses here and there throughout the town. It seems like this was not the first trial by fire that Isaiah had ordered.
Even as fear began to claw its way up Abby’s spine, she did not scream or curse or fight. No amount of foul language or pleas for mercy would sway these maniacs, Abby knew, and she couldn’t possibly fight her way out of so large a group. She would have to just bide her time and exploit the first opportunity she found. That’s what Zach would have done.
They carried Abby into an old two-story house that had been pick
ed clean of almost all its furniture except for a few wood chairs. The group of people still holding onto Abby shoved her into one of these chairs and held her as her legs and arms were tied to it. At this point Abby started to fight back, fearing that her window of opportunity was closing, but it was still of no use. They bound her legs to the chair and someone else was tying her hands.
Even as Abby struggled, the person that was tying her hands together leaned forward and whispered in Abby’s ear. “Just be patient,” a woman’s voice said.
Abby craned her neck to look behind her and saw that it was Emma. She gave Abby a subtle wink and then got up and exited the house with everyone else. She had left the ropes around her wrists rather loose, Abby noted.
Some men with small, red containers began to drizzle tiny portions of gasoline on the floor and walls around Abby. Her heart pounded as she tried to understand exactly what Emma had meant when she said to be patient. Be patient for what? An opportunity? Was she going to make a distraction? How long should she wait? How long would it take for the smoke to suffocate her?
“Foul woman!” Isaiah cried from outside. He and the rest of the crowd stood just outside the front door, staring at Abby with hateful eyes. “Five of our men are dead, and you have been accused of murdering them. But God alone knows the truth, and if He knows you to be innocent, then may He spare your life! If not, then in earthly fire you shall die, and in Hell’s fires you shall awake!”
The men with the gas containers were now heading back outside to rejoin their group, except for one man who was fumbling with a box of matches. Abby watched as he pulled one out and struck it against the rough side of the box, setting the sulfur-tipped stick ablaze. He held it for a moment, gazing into the tiny tongue of fire, then released it. The flame sputtered during its short journey down into a puddle of gasoline, and was then consumed in fire.
The flames spread quickly across the floor and up the walls, eating away at the old wooden structure. Already the room was beginning to heat up and Abby could feel beads of sweat running down her neck and back. The people outside were jeering and yelling insults at her, but Abby was not even listening to them. She was still trying to figure out what opportunity Emma had wanted her to wait for. And where was Emma? Abby couldn’t see her in the crowd.
His Name Was Zach (Book 2): Her Name Was Abby Page 5