It took me nearly thirty seconds to catch my breath. By that time, Jo had me in a bear hug and was spinning me around, her voice choked with emotion, thanking me for coming back.
When I was finally able to get a word in, I said, “It’s me that should be thanking you. You and Brother Ed. You saved our bacon out there.”
“Who are these people?” Brother Ed asked, pointing first at Thomas and then at the woman. “And what’s the collar around her neck and that contraption on her chest?”
“That’s a long story, Brother Ed,” I replied. “But I don’t know her name, but this is Thomas.” I said holding out a hand to Thomas, who came close to me.
“My name is Maggie,” the woman spoke up, trying to sound confident and friendly, but her body language sent an entirely different message. Her eyes shifted from our faces to the floor as she maintained a safe distance from any one of us.
“Where’s Travis?” Jo asked. “I heard you talking to him over the walkie,” she said.
In this messed up world, you can get so caught up in just surviving that you don’t get time to process anything. It’s act or die, act or die, act or die. There’s no time reflection. Just move. But it caught up to me right then and I felt the strength go out of my legs. I slowly collapsed to the ground and put my head in my hands. The emotions swept over me like a tidal wave, the fear and sorrow finally catching up to me.
When I took my trembling hands away from my face, I’m sure my expression said it all, but I slowly shook my head to make sure there was no misunderstanding. Jo’s face fell and both Russell and Brother Ed didn’t look much better.
It had been an ugly, ugly day for us. The bad thing about it was that it was far from over. There were miles to go before we slept.
“As for this woman,” I said, “she was with the man who controlled the zombies and attacked us.” Maggie’s body stiffened as she took a step back. Jo gripped her rifle tightly.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Maggie said. “You see this collar?” She grabbed the yellow collar that encircled her neck. “That bastard made us do it. He would shock the shit out of us if we didn’t obey him. That or feed us to the zombies. I didn’t want to do it, but it was do it, or die.”
“So, you’d kill us to survive?” Brother Ed said, his voice low and even.
Maggie tried to meet his eyes, but instead looked at the floor. “It’s not something I’m proud of.” Then a fire went off inside her. “Listen, you have no fucking right to judge me. You weren’t there. If you want to kill me, then fucking do it, but I did what I had to. What any of you would have done.” She pulled back her shoulders, stuck out her chin and stood there waiting for us to act. As quickly as her bravado came, it went as she deflated. “Besides, you don’t have to kill me. This collar will in less than twenty four hours. It was his fail-safe protection on us to keep us from running. So, sometime tomorrow morning this thing is going to go off and shock me to death. So, save your bullets.”
“She did come back to save me,” Russell added.
“Let’s table that for a minute,” Jo said, but she still held her rifle at the ready. “What happened out there?”
I wasn’t sure I had the strength to tell the story. Living it was bad enough, but I found a way to get them up to speed. I cut a lot of corners, giving them Twitter version in spurts of 140 characters or less until I choked it all out. And it did feel like I was spewing it like something painful and vile because it was both. Russell filled them in on what he had done and how he had come across Maggie.
“So, where’s that leave us?” Jo asked.
“On our own inside the complex,” I said. “Or what is left of it. Aaron managed somehow to stop the fires in the front building.”
“I turned on the sprinkler systems,” Aaron said. “Travis showed me how to do it one time.”
The mere mention of Travis’ name cut through us like a cruel blade.
“The front building is a loss,” Aaron said. “I was only able to keep it from spreading.”
“Jo, you said you had a walkie, right?” I asked. She nodded. “I lost mine in what happened out there. When did you last talk to the escape convoy?”
“Twenty, maybe thirty minutes ago,” she said.
The plan was set. If things looked bad, they were to leave the area and head to a pre-determined location to the east. They’d set-up camp and send back a recon team within 24 hours to see if anything could be salvaged. If they came back and saw the place in ruins or surrounded, they were instructed to turn around and get the hell out of there.
I held out a hand, “Can you hand me your walkie?” I asked Jo.
“They should be out of range by now,” she replied.
“I know, but I want to give it a try.”
I took the walkie-talkie, but hesitated. It was like you’re getting ready to make a phone call where you knew you were getting bad news. Who wanted to do that? But I guess I had to act like an adult and make the call.
“Escape convoy, this is Joel. Come in,” I said. “Escape convoy, this is Joel. Come in if you can hear me.”
It was as if someone had sucked the oxygen out of the room because I think everyone held their breath as we waited. Nothing but static came back for fifteen seconds. I brought the walkie-talkie back to my mouth and was about to press the talk button when a voice came over the speaker.
“Joel,” a voice spoke, “Oh thank God, you’re alive!” It was Kara.
A rush of different emotions swelled within me. It was great to hear her voice, but I was also troubled that she was still within close enough range to answer. Ultimately, it was my joy that won out in the brief skirmish.
“It’s so good to hear your voice,” I said, “but you should be miles from here by now. You know the plan.”
“I was bucking the plan,” she said. “Your influence must be wearing off on me. In fact, we all are here. They wouldn’t leave the area without knowing you and the others are safe.”
I wanted to ask if it truly was all of them because I doubted Steve Hampton would have stuck around, but decided there were more important things to discuss. “Where are you?” I asked.
“East of you, about a mile and a half,” she said. “The trucks are pointed east and ready to go in case we see any trouble. What happened?” she asked, but added. “I figured you must have won because you’re calling.”
“I’m not sure you’d call it winning,” I said. “We’re still alive. The big bad guy is dead. There’s a shitload of zombies surrounding the complex. Or what is left of it. The front building is burned out.”
“Where are you and who’s with you?” she asked.
“We’re in the back building. Russell, Aaron, Jo, and Brother Ed are with us. Plus a young kid named Thomas. On top of that we have someone else.” I paused to look at Maggie. She stood off to the side of our group with her arms crossed, acting like she wasn’t listening, but I was sure she was keyed into every word I said. “I’m not calling her a prisoner and I’m not calling her an ally. That is to be determined.” I paused before delivering the next bit of bad news because I knew it would break her heart, but there was no avoiding it. I stalled with my next question, though. “Is everyone with you all right?”
“Yes,” she said. “The girls and Jason are fine. We have Mr. Schultz and the Benton sisters, too. It was a crazy ride out of there, but we’re all in good shape.”
“Kara, I have to tell you something,” I said and my mouth went dry. “We lost Travis.” I didn’t say anything for the next few seconds. It must have hit her like a punch in the gut because she was quiet. I felt the same way. “He was trying to save a young boy. There was a bomb.”
I listened for a moment and heard her voice, almost whispering. At first, I couldn’t make out what she was saying, then I heard that it was a prayer. I didn’t have any words, so I just closed my eyes and listened. When she was done, she said, “Amen,” but her voice was choked with emotion.
“Can you get out of there?” She
asked breaking the silence.
I looked around the group to get an assessment. Jo, Brother Ed, and Russell concurred with my assessment and shook their heads. “No, we’re stuck here. At least for now. We have a truck, but it’s out of gas. Maybe we can get some gas to it, but the place is thick with the undead.”
“I could come back for you,” she said.
“No, no, no,” I said. “You can’t come back. We barely made it through the mob back to the complex. We’ll think of something.”
That’s when it hit me -- another one of God’s text messages. Like the one I had experienced before, it was as if my soul and psyche were ripped out my body in an instant. One millisecond I was in the back loading area and the next I was floating in nirvana, surrounded by flowing white light, warm and cool at the same time, enveloping me like comfortable blanket. It would have been completely unnerving and disconcerting had it not been for the tranquility of the place.
The last thing I heard as I was spirited away was Kara saying, “Something’s wrong with Naveen and Jason. Something’s happened…” Her voice got further and further away, sounding as if she were rocketing away into a deep cave.
The whiteness was around me and in me at the same time. If I hadn’t experienced something like this before, I would have freaked out, but the truth was, this place completely inhibited freak outs. It was an existence of pure serenity and, like the first visit, I never wanted to leave. Despite my love for Kara, Naveen, and Madison I would have forsaken and forgotten them in a second to stay in this state of bliss. After all the fighting, pain, and loss of the past months, there was no question about what choice I would make. In fact, it was hands down easy; Hell on Earth or a tranquil paradise. Which would you chose?
Of course, I didn’t get to choose as something began to form in the endless whiteness. It looked like black sticks connected together at first, but then they became clear. It was a word -- just like before. The word was NORTH. I only got one word before and while it was a simple word (TURN), it was a word and action of much consequence. Had I not heeded it, I’m sure my friends and I would be floating in this nirvana right now. When I reflect on it, it wouldn’t have been a bad thing, but fate is much like comedy. It’s all about the timing.
It wasn’t my time to leave the world. I had work to do.
A rushing sound filled my ears, reminding me of Niagara Falls, and the whiteness dissolved away like melting snow. The transition back to reality shocked my system and when I opened my eyes, four sets of eyes were looking down at me as I lay on my back. A distant voice shouted away, but I couldn’t tell what it was saying. It could have been a different language for all I knew.
The faces quickly became familiar. It was Jo, Brother Ed, Russell and Thomas. The voice became clear. It was Kara shouting over the walkie-talkie. She was shouting about something happening to Jason and Naveen, but my mind still swirled from the whiplash of returning back to reality.
Jo leaned down and put a hand on my forehead while Russell picked up the walkie-talkie.
“Joel, you okay?” Jo asked in a quiet voice, as if she were talking to a sick child.
I tried to talk, but speech eluded me as I made a whispery croaking noise.
“Did you have one of your visions?” Brother Ed asked.
“It looked like he had a fit, the way he fell over,” Maggie said, somewhere out of view.
Jo shot her a look that must have had some heat in it, because Maggie kept her mouth shut after that. At least for a while.
Kara’s voice streamed from the walkie-talkie and was loud and clear, now that I was back in the here and now. “Joel, something happened with Jason and Naveen. Are you there, Joel?” Her tone was plaintive and frightened.
Russell pressed the talk button and said, “Joel passed out, but he’s awake now.”
“Naveen and Jason passed out too, but it seemed more like a light seizure.”
I found my voice. “Ask them what they saw?”
“What?” she asked, not understanding my question.
“They saw something,” I said. “Ask them what they saw.”
Russell conveyed my question and I heard Kara ask Naveen and Jason what they saw.
“Hold on,” Kara said. “Naveen’s still a bit dazed, but Jason is writing something.”
“What did he write?” Russell asked.
I knew what she was going to say.
“It’s one word,” Kara said. “North.”
I mouthed the word as she said.
We were silent for a few seconds. I felt myself drift back to full consciousness with the world being a little too bright and the colors too vivid. Sounds seemed to have more texture as I heard my friends shift their feet and I could even hear their breathing like they were bulls chuffing away. These sensations reached an apex and, thankfully, stopped and returned to a more normal level.
Kara spoke over the walkie-talkie again, “Do you guys hear that?”
“Hear what?” Russell asked.
“That whomping noise.”
I rose to a sitting position, but everyone else stood stock still, listening intently.
The whomping noise reached us through the loading dock doors. It was a whomping sound, rhythmic and regular, and it was getting louder. Everyone wore puzzled looks, but I knew what it was and I knew it didn’t mean good news.
My text message from God was simple, but there was an urgency to it. A sense of menace to come. It was more than coincidence that this sound came just after my last blast from above.
I reached up and grabbed the walkie-walkie from Russell’s hands. I bought it to my mouth, pressed the talk button, and said, “It’s helicopters.”
Chapter 39
The Cavalry
They were a sight to behold, coming in from the west looking almost majestic. I didn’t have Brandon’s knowledge of military hardware, but they looked like attack helicopters with a menacing and awesome array of firepower. I think they were Apache warships, but I wasn’t certain. I’m sure they were featured on an episode of the History Channel’s Modern Marvels Warfare show at some point and I wished I had watched it. I was just too busy on my XBox to watch such enriching programs. Not that knowing would have made a difference.
After I had informed Kara what the source of the noise was, I told her, no matter what, she was to hold back unless I told her to come to us. The rest of us at the loading dock quickly moved into the back building and rushed to the second floor to give us a better view of the approaching aircraft.
Initially, they just swept in over the buildings like giant hovering bees in search of a flower. They were no doubt taking an assessment of the situation and determining their next action.
For their part, the zombies stopped shambling about and stopped to watch the airshow, transfixed on the flying beasts. I’m guessing they were wondering if the helicopters were edible.
“What do they want?” Jo asked.
“Are they here to rescue us?” Russell asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” I said.
“Then what do they want?” Maggie asked, her tone sharp.
“They’re after Jason Carter.”
“Who the hell is that?” Maggie asked.
“You know, the less talking you do right now, the better,” I said giving her a hard stare. She took the cue.
“Why do they want Jason?” Russell asked.
“Because he’s immune,” I said.
“Why don’t we let them have him then?” Brother Ed asked.
“Because they’ll kill him,” I said.
“You can’t know that,” Brother Ed replied.
“Listen, don’t ask me how I know this, but he’s more important than we can ever know. Like, save the world important.”
“You can’t know that,” he said again.
But I did. I knew it as sure as zombies roamed the planet. Those text messages from God always carried an undercurrent of other information that took time to decode and process, sort of like a subtle
background audio track on a song.
When the world tilted and the dead started coming back to life, something fundamental changed. Some would call it a new dark age. The light of the world had been replaced with blackness. I wouldn’t disagree, but I would say it was more like gray, maybe very dark shades of gray. Sometimes it was charcoal gray and sometimes it was almost silver, but those silver times were rare.
Others would say that the darkness was the end of our rational age and the start of a new age of magic. These same people would say it was dark magic.
Me, I didn’t think of it as magic, but there was a massive sea change in motion. Things had shifted seismically. There was no denying it. Because of the little movies God was sending me, I knew it firsthand that God was in the mix, but sometimes it seemed like He was on the sideline, watching from afar. I also knew that someone or something was filling the void that God had left open. And that thing was at work and up to no good.
I had no idea why God had selected me as His messenger boy and, honestly, sometimes felt like I was being played, but I knew the messages He was sending me were true. They were as real as the love I felt for Kara. So, I couldn’t deny God still had His hand at work. But, I also felt like there was some cosmic chess game going on and I felt like I was just a pawn.
What I did know was that Jason was a bishop, maybe a King. He was the most important piece on the board and I would do what I had to do to protect him. I didn’t have any idea of how I was going to make that happen, but I knew I’d think of something.
“Brother Ed, I do know that,” I said. “When they first got him, they experimented on him so viciously they nearly killed him. Jason told me that he wasn’t the only immune person they had and every one of them had been killed. He knew he was next.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Russell asked.
“They’re not getting in here with all these zombies around.”
“But we can’t go anywhere, either,” Maggie said.
I let that go.
“Is there more fuel around?” I asked.
Books of the Dead (Book 3): Dead Man's Land Page 28