No Hope (Book 1): Seven Days Alone

by Williams, Elton J.

  Kai says, “Peter lets barricade this door”. We told Jenny and Holden to go check the around if any of the dead is inside. I put a chair against the door we came through to keep it close. Kai hands me one of his knives, he says, “Peter you must push open the door, once it's open I will call the dead to me, you must just stand still against the wall, they will not see you and wait until all of them are out”. I reach for the door handle and Kai says, “Trust me, I have done this before”. I open the door and the dead walks out, seven priests that are dead all with devil markings on their foreheads, with their throats ripped out so they could not make a sound, and they walk straight to Kai. He shouts, “Hey, over here”. He begins to kill the once in front, while I walk behind the seventh one and starts stabbing them in the back of their heads, one by one they go down. Kai stabs the last one and says, “Wow, that's an ingenious idea to rip out their throats, that makes them silent killers”.

  I reply, “It sounds like you admire them? the once that did this to these poor priests”. He says, “No, don’t get me wrong, it's just that I could never come up with something like this”. I replied, “Well, I just think it's evil”. Kai says, “Peter, look out!” One of the priest with no legs comes crawling up behind me and grabs my leg, Kai throws a knife straight into the side of this head. I said, “Thank you, that was close”. He replies, “Check next time until all of them are out”. I replied, “Let's go check on Jenny and Holden, they have been away for a while now”. Kai says, “Okay”. I told Eric to stay under the table and wait until we come back and we went to go and find them.

  We ran into the mash hall of the church and see dead bodies lying everywhere and it looks like most of the people came to the church when the outbreak happened. Kai yells, “Holden, Jenny where are you?” Holden replies “In here”. They came out of a confessional and looked all awkward. Kai says, “Holden, you sneaky devil”. I can see Jenny blushing while she is trying to fix her clothes and Holden saying, “Sorry Peter”. I replied, “No need to say sorry, Jenny and I ain't together and you guys cant be going this we must secure the church”. We went and barricade every window and door that we could find. I walk to the table to tell Eric to stay there and not wander around and see the dead bodies, but he is fast asleep and Jenny walks in and sees Eric asleep and says, “Don't worry I will keep an eye on him”. Holden comes in and says, “I have barricaded all the windows”. Jenny asks, “Guys what now?” Kai replies, “Now we wait”.

  12 tiptoe past the devils

  A few hours pass by Jenny is busy in the church kitchen making us some lunch, Eric wakes up and walks into the office and ask where Jenny was. I replied, “She is busy in the kitchen”. He walks off to go find her, as soon as I said she was busy with lunch. Holden asks, “Peter, are you sure you okay with Jenny and I being together?” I replied, “Yes, I’m sure”. Kai comes running in and says, “Guys, I just heard noises”. I ask, “Noises, coming from where Kai?” He replies, “Outside in front where do you think”. Holden says, “SSssshh, listen, I think they on the roof”. Jenny comes into the priest's office were we sitting and hands us the lunch. She says, “Eric and I could only find some old coffee in a can that was left open, but it still tastes good”.

  Where a voice saying, “We know you in the church, we have the place surrounded just hand us over the Reaper, they know we had a deal not to take stuff in our territory”. Holden asks Kai, “Hey, what did you take? is that why you said that you would leave us as soon as you see one of them”. Kai replies, “No! It was not me, it could be some of the other Reapers, I was with the hunting party that was sent out to get you”. I replied, “Holden, he could be telling the truth”. Kai says, “Come on, Holden, do you think that I would do something like this? after I saved your life”. Holden replies, “No, I know you would not you are a decent person”. I ask them what could the person be talking about, but they did not know, Kai says, “Then we better find out what they think I took”.

  We walk to the front of the church and we look through some broken windows that we barricaded earlier, we see a group of people standing in the road with spears, bold heads, and red-painted faces some of them are on the roofs of the houses over the road and one is talking to them. He turns and looks to the church with a grey long beard red face with some kind of skull tattooed on the face in white ink and devil horns on his head. Holden asks, “What did we get ourselves into?” I replied, “I don’t know, but this is bad”. “So who is going to talk to them?” Holden asks. We look to Kai and he looks scared and says, “Don't look at me, I’m not going to do it”. I replied, “Well, they did say hand over the Reaper”. Kai yells and says, “I took nothing from you, I’m not even a Reaper anymore, what did you think I took from you?”

  The Devil leader talks to some of his men and points to where they should go, they run up the steps of the church and disappears into the blind spots we can not see. The Devils leader then walks halfway up the steps looks around and says, “Reaper some of your people broke into our camp and stole our lights they killed some of my guards”. Holden says, “Kai, you know what he is talking about its the lights we saw in the hall of the Mistress”. Kai asks, “When was it taken”. The Devil leader says, “Two days ago, we would have gone to the camp of the Reapers but we don’t know where it is”. Kai says, “If I tell you would you let us go?, I will even tell you where to find the lights and about a secret entrance that not many know about”. The Devils leader says, “It does not work like that you are going to have to show us and if you don’t I will kill all of you, I will give you until tonight to decide then we coming in”. I told Holden that Kai can’t go out there, they will kill him and they are already watching all the exits for one of us to slip up. “Then we have to get away out of here” Kai replies. We walk around the church looking for an exit. I told Kai and Holden that we can't trust the Devil leader because while we going to wait until tonight, they will try to find a way in here and we can't risk that and take his word. Eric asks, “Peter can Jenny and I help you guys to look”. I replied, “Yes, brother thank you”. Jenny and Eric went on their way to help us look for a way out of the church, a way that is out of their sight so that they can't see us when we leave.

  We look for an hour by still nothing, it looks like we stuck in the church and everyone looks like they giving up hope. I sit and think about what we are going to do and whats our next move. Holden stands by the window we barricaded to keep an eye on the Devils movements, I walk to the back of the altar and see a door behind some curtains and I called everyone over to check it out. Kai says, “I wonder where it leads to”. We try to open the door but it is locked. Holden says, “Peter, let's go to the priest's office and look for the key in there”. I reply, “Yes, I bet it’s in there”. Holden and I walk to the office I can see he is limping but not so much anymore, we hear footsteps on the roof of the church and look up with every step the Devils take, we can hear the roof tiles shifting. Holden says, “Peter, you were telling the truth back there we can't wait till tonight, they already trying to get in and we need to get out of here”. We hear something rolling on the roof and then a fall, someone screaming, “Aaaahh! I think, I broke my back”.

  Then we hear someone else rolling from the roof but no screaming this time, almost like someone fell to this or her death. We hear the Devils leader shouting, “Those idiots, I told them to walk slowly on the roof because the roof is unstable and what do they do, they do the opposite of what I told them to do”. Then another voice shouts, “You and you get up there and secure that roof”. We two other voices replying, “Yes, yes we on it, Kane”. Then we hear footsteps running up to the church steps then climbing, Holden and I are still looking for a key to the door behind the altar, we’ve looked through every corner of the office but still no key. Holden says, “There has to be a key here somewhere, any key but we find nothing it does not make any sense, Peter”. I replied, “Let’s go look in the kitchen, maybe we will find the keys there”. Holden replies, “Okay, let's do that, P
eter”.

  We about to walk out the door then I see some papers hanging out between a stack of bibles. I move the bibles out of the way and Holden asks, “What's that, Peter?” I replied, “It looks like building plans”. We roll it open onto the table and Holden says, “Look, Peter, it has the same street name as the church were in”. I replied, “Now we only need to find a way out of the church if we can find some kind of drainage system, then we can go pass them without them noticing us”. Holden replies, “Yes, but we have to find that key”. We take the building plans with us to the kitchen while we look around for the key, Eric, Jenny, and Kai come in the kitchen to tell us that they have found nothing. Holden says, “But, Peter did find the building plans of the church”. Kai replies, “Let’s see if we can find a way out of the church with it, old churches like this always has the secret passageways running underneath the churches and buildings around this area”. Eric asks, “How do you know that, Kai?” Kai replied, “I was a history major when I was still in college when everything was still normal”. We open the building plans and look through it for any way out of the church, we see were all the doors and windows are but no hidden or secret passageways, Kai says, “Guys, look for any blocks or squares in the building drawings because this is an old church, some passageways will be marked as a block”. Eric says, “Look there is a square here”. Kai replies, “Yes, I see it in the middle of the church floor”. Jenny says, “And we standing on one to”. “Okay, guys lets move the tables and the rugs and see if there a way out” I replied. We stack the tables on each other and remove the rug from the floor and there are some marks on it, Kai goes on his knees to take a closer look, he feels with the palm of this open hand on the floor and then hits on it with his open hand to hear if its hollow underneath the foundation of the church floor.

  Kai looks up at us, smiles, and says, “I haven’t done this in a long time but the sound I heard over here tells me that there must be hollow ground underneath let us look for an opening”. We start to look for an opening to the hollow ground, Kai steps on the floor to feel were the weakest part of the floor is. Holden asks, “What’s this?” He points to some marks on the floor where a cupboard is standing it looks like drag marks. Kai says, “Let’s drag it away and see what’s underneath it”. We move the tables we stack upon each other and drag the cupboards away from the wall. Eric says, “Look, Peter, it’s some kind of door with a keyhole”. Kai replies and says, “Yes, Eric it’s called a trap door and it most likely leads to a passageway”.

  Eric stands and smiles and says, “Guys, it looks like Kai was right all along”. Holden kneels and tries to open the trap door but its also locked, Holden says, “What, this one is also locked how can this be”. Jenny says, “Relax, Holden we will find a way out”. I can see a look of frustration on Holden’s face as he looks at Jenny. “Cant we break it open,” Jenny asks. I replied, “We can but with what tools and I don’t think priests will let their tools just lay anywhere”. Kai replies, “Peter is right and if we do make noises and break it open the Devils will hear and they will be in a hurry to get in”. I look through the draws of the cupboards but find no keys, then I got an idea maybe the priests had the keys on them the whole time. I said, “Hey, guys maybe the keys that we looking for are in front of us the whole time”. Jenny asks, “How and where?” They look at me funny and even my little brother Eric, so I told them that maybe it's on the dead bodies of the priests in there pockets or cloaks. Kai says, “Yes, you can be right about that”. Holden asks, “So who is going to volunteer to look through there rotten corpses”. Jenny says, “Don't look at me you guys brought it up so you can go take a look, that smell of their rotten flesh will be stuck in my nose”. I replied, “Okay, I will do it, who will join me?” Holden says, “Eric, Jenny, and I can go look for the other trapdoor”. I said, “Kai, it looks like it's me and you buddy”.

  Kai replies, “That's how Holden is when we had to deliver the dead bodies to the cannibals he was afraid to touch them”. Holden, Eric, and Jenny went off to look for the other trapdoor, and Kai and I went to go look if the keys will be with the dead bodies of the priest. Kai says, “Let’s put their bodies back in the office where they came out of when we are done looking for the keys”.” Yes because the beginning to smell” I replied. We check the bodies one by one, we get some car keys and two sets of door keys but none matches the keyhole of the trapdoor and we took off their crucifixes and put it on the ground. Kai says, “It’s just a bunch of useless keys and our time is running out because it's getting dark outside”. I light up some of the candles and lamps that are against the walls of the church so that we can see better suddenly, Kai says, “Peter, look that crucifix it looks kind of odd”. I pick up the crucifixes and put it in front of us and we open the one that looks odd, and its a key we try to open the others but only one more opens, and the others are actual crucifixes. I said, “Kai, it looks like this could be the keys of the door at the altar and the trapdoor”.

  We walk to the trapdoor and try the keys and it unlocks the door, we check how far it goes down but its pitch black so I took a lamp from the wall and went back down, I told Kai to go call the others so that we can get ready to leave the church. Kai says, “Okay, but check how far the passageway goes because we don’t want to get trapped down here”. Kai goes back up into the church and I check further how far it goes, I turned back into the church, and Jenny says, “Pete, we are ready”. I replied, “Good, do you have all our bags?” Holden replies, “Yes, Peter, we have all of the bags”. Then we hear some scratching at the doors of the church Kai whispers, “I think they trying to get in, we better hurry up guys”. The leader of the Devils says, “Your time is up and I have given you a chance to turn over that Reaper scum but you did not and know you going to feel the full wrath of what we can do, Devils break down those church doors and let us show them not even their God can keep them safe”.

  Jenny says, “Did you guys hear what he said let's go he sounds crazy”. I replied, “Jenny, calm down his just saying those things to make us freak out its just mind games”. Holden says, “But, Peter, he sounds like a mad man and he will kill us if he gets ahold of us”. Kai says “Peter, I have an idea lets put some of the bodies against the doors and set it on fire so if they get through the doors it will give us enough time to get away while they struggle with the fire”. “That's a great idea, Jenny, you can help me and Holden you can help Kai to stack the bodies against the front door and we can do the door we came in and use the oils that are in the rest of lamps that are against the walls to throw it over the bodies so that it can burn quicker” I replied. We ran to the bodies and carry them to the doors, I said, “Holden and Kai, let us just take two bodies it should be enough”. Jenny and I take the lamps from the walls and I told her to take two lamps to, Holden and Kai. Jenny runs to them with the oil lamps and I can hear that the Devils are busy trying to break down the doors, I see an ax coming through the door as they busy chopping and one of the Devils looking through a hole in the door laughing and saying, “We will get you Hahaha”.I set the bodies alight and they fire spreads quickly, I see smoking coming from the front entrance and I yell, “Come on guys”.

  Jenny, Kai, and Holden are running towards me and we hear the Devil leader saying, “That fire is a diversion surround the place and keep a lookout for them kill the rest and keep that Reaper scum for me”. Jenny says, “He knows what we planning”. I replied, “Nonsens, we going ahead as planned”. Eric is standing at the trapdoor with the bags and his hand over his mouth and nose to cover it from the smoke, I pick up the lamp take his hand and we went down the trapdoor into the darkness, Kai, Holden, and Jenny are following behind us. I take the glass cover off the lamp to see which side the flame is being pulled because I can feel a draft pulling through the passageway, we hear growls and howling coming ahead of us the lights attract them like moths to a flame, Kai says, “Peter, hold on I see something ahead of us it’s moving”. Kai takes out his knives and stands in front of me
while I hold the lamp for him to see what's coming towards us, I told Jenny to keep Eric’s hand while Kai and I walk towards the things that approach us. Kai says, “Peter shine the light over here”, as he starts slashing anything that's approaching, I replied, “The ones you killing is the same as the priests their throats have also been ripped out”. Then the growls get louder three of the dead is approaching, Kai, he slashes through them blood splatters on the walls of the passageway as I keep the light for him to see. He stabs them through the heads and they go down one by one, the flames turn direction and I look through the darkness I see some steps leading upwards and some kind of door flapping as the wind is shaking it through the gap I see the stars. Softly I said, “Kai, Hey, guys up here”. Kai says, “Peter, wait! Let me check it out first”. He walks op the steps and looks outside, he comes back down and says, “I see to of the devils walking around guarding the back of the church but the exit is surrounded with bushes so they will not see us if we move quietly”. We walk up the steps, Kai says, “Holden, Peter put down the lamps they will see us”. We leave the lamps on the steps as we exit the passageway it comes up into a garden behind the church. Kai, says “Guys, keep your head down, we going this way there is a hole in the fence”. I look up and say, “That devil is standing right there”. Jenny says, “Peter, just walk we almost out”.