“I understand,” he said with a note of detached sadness in his voice.
I realized that I was the only one who still had family in our group now. While I had seen more than my fair share of death, I had never seen one of my relatives killed by a zombie or laid out dead. We sat there in silence listening to the wind blow through chimes on the porch and eventually Felicity came out holding the note.
Benji ran over to her and threw his arms around her. She started crying again but she didn’t seem as upset as I expected her to be. Perhaps she was just too exhausted to take it all in. She looked at me and held up the note.
“Two weeks ago,” she said. “They took sleeping pills and died peacefully holding hands.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck and avoiding eye contact.
“You know the crazy thing is that I had to find them today after I found Jackson this morning. What kind of messed up karma is that?”
“It’s totally unfair,” I agreed with her, kicking the end of the sofa absentmindedly with my sneaker.
“And how did they know I would come back here?” She wiped fresh tears from her eyes. “The letter is addressed to me. All it says is how much they loved me and how proud of me they are and not to give up hope no matter what. Why should I keep fighting when everyone I love is dead?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe they left if for you because you were all they had left?”
“Yeah, and now I’m on my own.”
“You’ve got me,” Benji said, wrapping his arms back around her waist. He began to cry. “My family died too. I had to watch them die, even my little sister. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Every night when I go to bed I can still see her face looking at me, begging for help, right before they began biting her all over.”
“I’m so sorry,” Felicity said, stroking his hair and looking at me.
I held my hands up as if to say I didn’t know where this was coming from. The truth was Benji had never shared that much with me. Sure he told me about what happened with his family, but he was reserved and quiet. Most of the time he just kept to himself. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how bad he’d been hurting inside.
“My first few weeks on the base were the hardest,” he said. “But then Xander began to look out for me. He had my back when the other kids teased me or stole from me or tried to beat me up. He’s taken care of me, made sure I don’t get eaten or left behind or kidnapped by neo Nazi’s.”
“Neo Nazi’s?” Felicity threw me a puzzled look.
“It’s a long story.”
“We’re family now,” Benji said, letting go of her and wiping his face. “We’re all we got left now. I know that won’t bring back your parents, but it’s better than nothing.”
Felicity leaned over and kissed him softly on the forehead. The look on his face said it all. I thought for a minute he was going to pass out right there.
“Thank you,” she said, “little brother.”
“What do you want to do?” I asked. “I’d be more than happy to help you bury them in the soft grass of the front yard if you like.”
“I think that would be nice. They deserve a proper burial.”
Benji and I fetched some shovels from a tool shed out near the garage and set to work while Felicity began to poke around the house for things to take with us. To cool us down, she made fresh lemonade from ripe lemons she picked on a tree in the yard and some sugar she found in the kitchen. There was no ice, so we drank it warm but it still tasted amazing.
Luckily the ground was moist and it took us less than an hour to dig one big hole for her parents to share. Benji was too squeamish to help move the bodies so he went with Felicity to pick wild flowers to line the bottom of the grave. When they had filled all the empty spaces up with colorful poppy flowers, honeysuckle, and larkspur, I set about the task of moving the bodies.
Her mom was light and stiff as a board, which made her easy to move, but her stepfather was already beginning to decay. I had to hold my breath to avoid the putrid smell of decomposition coming off of him. Twice I lost my hold and nearly dropped him, but recovered in time. I set them both on the grass then slowly and carefully pulled them into the grave with me to make sure I didn’t farther disturb their corpses. When they were laid out side by side as they had been in their bedroom, I joined their hands together and closed their eyes.
Benji made the sign of the cross over himself as I climbed out.
“Thank you,” Felicity said. “Before you bury them I’d like to say a few words.”
She proceeded to pay tribute to her mother in loving detail, thanking her for all she had done for her and her sister. Then she lavished praise on her stepfather for his love and support, for taking care of her when she was young, and for caring for her mother and being a faithful companion to the end. When she was done we were all crying.
“You can bury them now,” she said.
Benji and I took up shovels and gently filled the hole back up with dirt. When we were done, she fixed a white crucifix to the top of the grave with their names written on it that she’d made while we were digging.
“Do you want to stay here tonight?” I asked. I wasn’t sure that it was safe for us. In fact I was fairly certain it wasn’t, but I would stand watch all night if I had to in order for her to have one last night with her mom in her childhood home.
“No,” she said, wiping away fresh tears.
“Are you sure?” I was doing my best to be supportive. “We can take turns making sure it’s safe.”
“I’ve already grabbed a few things that remind me of her. I think it would be worse for me to stay. It’s hard just being here now. I can’t imagine waking up and not having her here.”
“We’ll go then,” I said, and she shook her head and cried again.
“I’m coming to the base with you,” she confided.
“Yes.”
“We’re sticking together. Like a family.”
“You know it,” I answered back. “We’re gonna need gas though to make it back.”
“No problem. I know just the place to get it.”
Chapter Eighteen
Felicity grabbed the bag of stuff she’d gathered from the house and got back in the Lexus. She turned and handed a small teddy bear to Benji.
“His name is Rasputin,” she said. “Scar gave him to me at Comic Con.”
“You weren’t just making that up?” I stared at her in disbelief.
“I would never lie about that.” She gave me a shocked look. “Take the way we came up and go back down the hill, then turn left instead of heading right back to the highway. The Hasslebeck’s Chevron station should be down about a quarter of a mile.”
We rolled down the hill and headed toward the gas station. I’d like to be able to tell you that I was surprised when we came around the corner in a wooded canyon and rolled smack dab into the middle of an armed road block, but I was starting to get used to it—as much as anyone can get used to having automatic weapons pointed at them. These weren’t bikers. They looked like normal people, townsfolk, except they were armed to the teeth and not interested in hiding it. They quickly surrounded all sides of the SUV and began looking in to see who we had inside. A dopey looking guy with ruffled sandy blonde hair and sad puppy dog blue eyes tapped my window with the muzzle of his Uzi. He didn’t look much older than me.
“Roll down the window,” he ordered. I looked at Felicity and she nodded to me. No point in getting us lit up and killed over a simple request. I complied.
“Yeah,” I said. “What’s up, man?”
“What are you doing here?” He didn’t sound like much of a leader. He sounded, for lack of a better term, slow in the head.
“We were just looking for some petrol. Heard there was a gas station down this way.”
“We’ve got some gas.”
“Great.” I felt like he was holding something back. “Can we buy some?”
“We’ll giv
e you some for free,” he said. I checked the mirrors to see that the others were closing in on all sides of our car. They still had their guns up as if they were ready for a fight.
“That would be very cool of you.” When he didn’t respond I added, “Is there something I’m missing?”
“No,” he said, looking nervous. “We’re just not used to having strangers wander into our midst, especially so close to Harvest.”
“What’s harvest?”
“A time of giving thanks and praise to our Lord and savior,” he said without batting an eye.
Perfect, I thought. They are a bunch of brain washed religious fanatics. That’s why they’re acting so strange.
“We just want to get some gas and be on our way, if you don’t mind. We’ve still got a long drive ahead of us.”
His eyes grew wide as Felicity leaned forward and he caught sight of her.
“Felicity?”
Here we go again, I thought. Another crazed fan boy. I knew it had definitely saved our hides the last time around, but it was still annoying. Why did it bother me so much? I couldn’t put my finger on it. Here I was working so hard to keep us all safe and get us where we needed to be. I had to fight Tank off and lie our way out of trouble and all she had to do was use her fame. It just didn’t seem fair.
“Okay yeah I know,” I said. “It’s very exciting to meet a celebrity in real life but she’s just a person like you or me. Trust me. Spend an hour with her and you’ll see she’s no different than anyone else.”
“Darren?” She leaned over me, growing excited. “What are you still doing here?”
“Are you serious?” I asked in an exasperated tone. “Is there anyone you don’t know? Come on!”
“What am I doing here?” He ignored my outburst. It was like I didn’t even exist. “I live here, remember? What are you doing here?”
The Uzi was on a strap that hung from his neck. He had reached both his hands in across my chest and was now holding hands with Felicity, staring deeply into her eyes. I was tempted to make a grab for the gun and teach him a lesson in staying alert. A dark, sinister emotion twisted around in the pit of my guts watching him fawn over her. If I hadn’t grown up learning to control my emotions I would have thought it was jealousy.
“I came back to see my mom,” she said. Tears filled her eyes again.
“How is she?”
“She’s . . . She passed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said with genuine compassion. “You really shouldn’t be here.”
“It’s getting late,” one of the others said. “Soon the sun will set. The Messiah will want to meet our new guests before dinner.”
“We weren’t really planning on sticking around that long,” I said.
A woman with a shotgun at her hip walked right up to the car, pointing it at my face. “We insist. No one enters or leaves this hallowed ground without the blessing of the Messiah.”
“Who is the Messiah?” Felicity asked Darren as he pulled his hands back and broke eye contact.
“Only he can reveal himself to outsiders,” Darren said.
“I don’t like this,” she said.
“Me neither,” I replied.
“It’s going to be fine,” Darren said. “The Messiah is all-seeing and wise and compassionate. He will know what’s best to do.”
“Really, we were just passing through,” I said, but they were already pulling open the doors. They held them open and rode half in and half out with their guns trained on us.
“Drive slowly,” the woman said. “We will guide you into camp.”
Darren seemed to give Felicity a look that said he was sorry, but it was way too late for that. We pulled down the road, passing the Chevron on the way. A little voice in the back of my head told me to fight, but I knew it was useless. They would cut us to shreds if we tried to make a break for it. Whatever was going to happen, we’d just have to ride it out to the bitter end.
No one is taking my sword again, I vowed. They’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands.
As we drove, we passed groups of roving armed units on patrol who looked up and watched us drive farther in. I was suddenly really glad I hadn’t tried anything stupid. It looked like they had been stocking up on weapons and ammunition for decades. I remembered learning about the massacre at Waco for social studies when I was still in school. This was starting to look a lot like that, but without an end in sight.
“Look over there,” Benji said, pointing out the open door.
We all turned our heads. There were camps set up along the sides of the roads. In between them were tents that offered goods and services. It was an outdoor market like something from the Renaissance Faire I’d gone to when I was Benji’s age. There was even a guy carrying a large drumstick in his hand and eating it as he walked along. I was so distracted that I almost ran over some people crossing in front of us. A loud thumping on the hood of the SUV brought my attention back to the road.
“Watch where you’re going,” the woman barked. “Make a left up here and drive all the way up onto the property. Keep it under five miles per hour, and whatever you do don’t run over any children.”
I turned onto the gravel road and pulled down a wooded lane with children darting in and out of the trees, laughing and playing. When I came out the other side, I pulled up in front of a huge building with several armed guards posted out in front.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“I don’t remember it,” Felicity said.
“Pull up over there and shut the engine off,” the woman ordered.
Everyone who had been riding on the side of the vehicle jumped off and steadied their weapons on us, leaving the doors wide open. I did exactly as she said, without hesitation. We all got out. I strapped my blade on my back again. I was ready to fend off an argument over them disarming me again, but it never came.
Guess they figure one sword won’t do much against a hail of hot bullets blasting through me, I thought. It made sense. It would be futile to fight. It wasn’t like we just had to get off the property. We had to make it out of town in one piece.
“What now?” I was doing my best to sound as nonthreatening as possible. Under the circumstances I’d say I was handling things pretty well.
“Now,” she said with a smile, “you meet our Messiah, Bryan Crowe.”
We were led into the building slowly at gun point. There were more young children running around playing tag. They didn’t so much as stop and give us a look, which seemed odd, since we were clearly being marched around as prisoners. I would have thought for sure that their curiosity would have gotten the best of them, but no such luck.
“Nice place you’ve got here,” I said, craning my head around to take in the paintings of Biblical stories on the ceilings.
The muzzle of her gun jabbed me in the small of my back. “Keep moving.”
She’ll kill you for sure if you step one toe out of line, I thought. I’d never been more sure of anything in my life. She had the determination and resolution of a devotee blinded by faith. Chills went down my spine as the realization set fully in that she wouldn’t hesitate for a second to murder us if given the order.
Before we knew it, we were standing before a middle aged man with a long beard sitting on an elevated, gold painted throne covered in pillows. Behind him, the wall showed one long mural depicting the last supper through the crucifixion and resurrection.
A pretty teenage girl with a bob cut stood next to him, actually feeding him grapes. He leaned over and whispered in her ear. She turned and looked at us then ran off.
“Welcome,” he said, standing up and coming to greet us. “My name is Bryan Crowe and I am a humble servant of God almighty. I have been waiting for you.”
Felicity groaned and the girl jabbed her in the back with her gun.
“It’s all right Rowena,” Bryan said, addressing his fierce female warrior. “Our faith does not require blind obedience from others.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said, stepping forward and extending my hand. “My name is Xander.”
He took my hand in his. His grip was firm and unyielding like metal, but his hands were soft like a girl’s. Chances are he wasn’t doing a whole lot of hard labor in the promised land.
Probably leaving that for the kids, I thought. Or prisoners.
“Welcome,” he said with a wide grin. He released my hand and took Felicity’s. “And who might you be?”
He leered at her and something inside of me stirred to life, dark and brooding and ready to chop his hand off if he got too friendly with her.
“Felicity.” She looked away from him.
“Welcome, child,” he beamed, lingering a moment too long before turning his full attention to Benji. He went down on one knee and looked my friend in the eyes, giving him his full, undivided attention.
“How’s it going, champ?” His voice was much more relaxed.
“Um,” Benji said, looking up at me. I nodded that it was okay to respond to Bryan. “Okay.”
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Benji.”
“Nice to meet you, Benji. I’m Bryan.” He sat down in front of my friend. “Hey, do you like playing hide and seek?”
“Yeah.” Benji sounded a little confused.
“Well we’ve got over ten acres of zombie-free land to play on,” Bryan said. “Dinner isn’t for another hour. Do you want to explore the grounds and play with some of the other kids?”
Benji looked at me again. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. All I wanted to do was get out of town, but that looked less and less likely to happen in any hurry. We were almost out of gas and they had what we needed. Not to mention, we were severely outgunned. It might be good for Benji to run around with kids his own age while the adults sorted out the unpleasant details. I shrugged and Benji turned back to Bryan.
“How will I find my way back?”
“Judah will show you,” Bryan said. Without another word, a young boy with a mess of chocolate brown hair Benji’s age walked over to him, ignoring the rest of us.
“Hey,” the boy said, extending his hand to Benji. “I’m Judah.”
Zombie Attack! Box Set (Books 1-3) Page 19