It was alright, he wasn’t trying that hard. His aim wasn’t as focused as when he had the man in the crosshairs. Regardless, he had them pinned down and it was just a matter of time before he shot and killed the other three. And who knew, maybe some of the undead would stagger behind the heap of dirt and gravel they were hiding at and finish them off.
Possibilities were endless.
“Couple more of you trying to escape?” He spoke as he fired off another shot, then got out of the cover that was only a large slab of concrete. “Come on out and accept your faiths. Come out and accept Jesus Christ as your savior and he will accept you in His loving arms. It’s the only way, I tell ya. Ya’ll been poisoned by this damn plague.”
He stopped for a moment to fire off another shot and see if any of them would show themselves. But none of them even tried to show their faces.
It didn’t matter. Their hours had been numbered and he was there to send them sinners packing.
“You can hide,” Bob continued as he attentively surveyed all their possible escape routes. “I will bring good God’s fiery vengeance upon thee and send you straight to Hell to burn for all eternity, for there is no escape.”
He squeezed the trigger once again and fired off another shot.
“Man fuckin’ Man. Women getting’ married. Ya’ll lettin’ Muslims into this country, and now you all tell me that I gotta give up my guns? Well, I’ll tell you something: you can try. You can come out and come over here and try to pry them from my cold dead hands.” He fired several more shots, only hitting the damned dirt.
Darkness loomed overhead, thick clouds pouring rain on them. It was as though God was washing off all the impurity of man, washing it all away, cleansing them all in preparation for a proper sendoff.
Bob stopped his sermon and listened.
There were voices coming from behind the cover. They were wrong if they all thought that mere pile of stone was going to keep them safe. Not a chance in hot Hell.
A smile stretched across his face as he raised one of the guns and continued.
“I was gonna give you a proper sendoff. I was gonna send you into the ever lovin’ arms of Jesus. But ya’ll fucked up now. All you’re getting now is a hot bullet straight to the head. I know it’s the only way to deal with the likes of you. Yeah … yeah it is. No other way I tell ya. You’re gonna burn for all the sins you’ve done, all the vile and disgusting acts you’ve engaged in. I know it all, for my God, my Lord and savior is speaking to me. He’s sending the Good Word to me, bestowing the righteous task onto me, telling me to do his bidding. I got Him, whispering in my ear!”
A shot came from the three left behind the cover, but the bullet flew a few feet above his head. Bob knew that this was just a tactic to distract him. They had no way of shooting directly at him unless they abandoned their safety and came out in the open. It was a useless diversion, or at least an attempt at one.
“Hey asshole!” came a male voice from the cover. It had to be the one he’d shot in the knee. The one he got right in the stomach was most likely dead. “If you wanna go to Kingdom Come so bad, I’ll send you there myself!”
Another bullet zipped above his head, nowhere near the target mark.
Bob only grinned at this pathetic attempt.
He would cleanse them with fire if that was the last thing he did.
***
“What is this lunatic talking about?” Becky asked no one in particular as she wiped her tears and snot above her upper lip.
“Sounds like some Bible-thumper on the edge. Sounds to me he lost it,” Jack said as she tried to come out a little more so he could get a clear shot. But the man fired at them three more times. Two bullets hit the ground, while the third one flew just past their heads.
“If we’re gonna get out alive, we need a plan or something,” Jill said and, to Becky’s surprise, she seemed somewhat collected. “I mean, we need to think of something. There’re three of us, one of him. Those seem like pretty skewed odds.”
“Yeah. Well, one of us can barely walk, and he’s got more ammunition than us. Plus, don’t underestimate these nut jobs. I’m surprised he hasn’t shot us all by now. That bullet that killed your brother, Becky, that was well placed, it looks like. He knew where he was shooting. Hitting my knee was just a bonus point,” Jack countered.
They fell silent for a moment.
Becky looked over at her brother’s lifeless body. There was no way she would leave here without making that gun-crazy bastard pay for his death. She inched past Jack just to get a glimpse of the maniac, then saw him standing there, toting two guns and almost foaming at the corner of his mouth like a rabid dog. He wore a trench coat and a pair of white gloves with something scribbled on them, but she couldn’t really see what it was.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Jack warned as he pushed her away with the hand he held the gun with. “He’s shooting like crazy; you’ll catch one in your skull.”
Becky moved and reclaimed her place next to Jill.
“We need to flank him, or something.” Jack offered a plan that to Becky felt rather simple and uninspired, but didn’t say anything because she didn’t have anything better to add.
“Alright,” she then said and waited.
“You two could split, come at him from both sides, while I distract him.”
“Honey, I don’t want to leave you,” Jill said and grabbed his free hand.
Jack only held hers for a second then let it go. “I’ll be right here. I’ll only serve as a distraction to buy you guys some time. I know you can do it.”
“That’s fine,” Becky added as she grabbed the M4 rifle. She inspected it, pointed it toward the dark sky and squeezed the trigger.
Nothing.
The gun clicked dry.
“Well that’s out of question. I was hoping it’d have at least a couple of bullets left.”
Jill’s eyes didn’t leave her boyfriend who was now trying to shim on the gravel and get a good look at the religious nut.
***
“I see you,” Bob said and fired at the emerging face that immediately disappeared behind the cover before the bullet could reach it.
Was he enjoying this? Did this give him insurmountable pleasure?
It sure did.
Bob smiled and felt a shiver crawl up his back and over his shoulders as he the smoke coming from the barrel of one of the guns reached his nostrils. There was something righteous in the whole ordeal. Having the privilege, this holy task of judging and dispensing justice on four sinful souls was rewarding. It was an important task. With the world gone to shit, it would be up to him now, and people like him to pass judgment, to bring it back to the old days of decency and order.
He ejected the spent clip from the .45 magnum and popped in a full one, taking note it was his last one. He’d better make these next few bullets count, he thought as he wiped the rain from him forehead and his mouth.
“You’ve brought this on yourselves, sinners. What did ya think would have happened? You go around killin’ unborn babies, lettin’ gays marry each other … you’ve taken this world to Hell and now you must stand and face your judgment. You’ve let Muslims come into this country and now … NOW you want to put a woman into the office? You want have a WOMAN for a president? Well, I’ve seen a lot of shit in my day and trust me, enough is enough.”
He walked a few steps to the left to see if he could get a decent shot and for a moment it appeared that he was going to get lucky, but the man who had fired at him went further behind the cover and pushed the other two women along with him.
“This is what I’m going to do,” Bob said after a moment of contemplating whether or not to rush their safety. He could have done it, but why get hurt or even killed when there was so much more work to be done.
“I’m gonna give you to the count of five to get you sinner, gay lovin’ ass out here, to face me, and face your judgment.” He spit to the side, cleared his throat and continued. “When you see me, I want you
to look at me and look at me good, for when you do, you will see God in me. You will see His image and know that I am His vessel and that His word is the only one you should abide by. Give up the life of sin. As you see, the gates of Hell have opened and the dead are upon us. They are here as a disease, as pestilence cast upon this world to ravage it, to kill it so it could start anew.”
***
The trio sat listening to the words spoken by the self-proclaimed preacher and at the same time took their own silence as the time to prepare and reflect on what was about to come.
“One!” The man began his countdown.
“Maybe we should wait here and see what he does,” Jill said. “Maybe one the dead gets him, or maybe he comes back here and you could just shoot him first, Jack.”
“Yeah,” Jack said and shook his head. “Or he could just come here and blast us first. We don’t know what other arsenal he’s got up his ass. I’m not willing to stay here and find out.”
“Honestly,” Becky chimed in, “I don’t think he has anything else. What we see on him is most likely what he’s got. I he had grenades and any of that stuff, he would have tossed one back here a long time ago. He’s a psycho and he’s just playing with us.”
“Two!” The voice continued in the distance.
Becky felt like they were in some mega church and this crazy preacher was spewing things at them, screaming his sermon, but the catch was that he had weapons locked and loaded. Anyone who would get out of line would get a bullet in their head. Except this wasn’t a church; this was an old toxic waste dump, and they were about to die at the hands of this lunatic and no one would ever know. They would be buried beneath the plague and the filth and they would decay for weeks, months, until they were just a distant memory.
This grim thought clouded her mind for a second, and kicked her head further into the bloody dirt. Looking at Tom’s lifeless body a few feet away from her brought her back from her day dream into the nightmare she was already living in. Seeing his corpse was the fuel she needed to stall death for a little while longer. She wanted to kill the man who had shot her brother first, then at least attempt one more time to get out and see her parents; make sure they were alright. No, it wasn’t her time yet. There were things to be done.
“Three!”
“Jack, are we doing this?” Becky asked.
Jack looked at Jill, then leaned in for a kiss that lasted several seconds. Becky saw it was Jill who didn’t want to let go. She didn’t blame her, she actually felt bad asking Jack to follow through with the distraction. She was just about to object when he pushed himself up.
“Let’s do this,” he said and grunted as he pushed up with the palm of his hands. His knee was still bleeding profusely and if they didn’t tend to it soon enough he would bleed out.
***
“Four,” Bob said and wiped the corner of his mouth. “I hear you chatting away over there and it’s all useless. You are wastin’ your time away. You could just come out, like righteous Christians and accept God into your heart. All this would be so much easier, and you’d even feel better about yourselves. But no, you have to fight your fate, spit in its face with your puny little efforts to delay the inevitable. Death has come, sinners, it has come to pay you a visit, and it’s knocking. It’s knocking on your door. Now you better open it and get what’s coming to ya.”
The conversation unfolding behind the mound gained traction and it sounded like the three of them were in a hurry. Maybe they had come to their sense, but Bob knew that was highly unlikely. They would try to play a trick on him, that was for damn certain. It was always these young ones that were the biggest pains in the ass. Bob always blamed them for the way the country got soft. America wasn’t what it once was. Now you got all these morons crying about civil liberties issues and violations. Everyone was offended by something.
Well, all that had come to an end.
“Five!” he finally said, veins popping on his neck as he fumed and raised his guns. “Now that’s it, that’s all you get. I tried to give you a chance but you blew it.”
***
Jack kissed her again. Tears came down her face as she was pushed away by her boyfriend again who now stood up almost to his full height and urged Jill and Becky to go.
Becky took out the knife she had acquired earlier from the small of her back and gripped it tight.
This was it. She’d either live a few more years or die in the next few seconds.
She tugged at Jill’s arm. “C’mon…”
“Babe, please don’t…”
“It’s the only way. I’ll be alright. It’s just a distraction, we got this. You guys go, and I’ll cover you. Get him from each side.”
Several shots came their way, some of them hitting the soaked ground, others flying close overhead. He was shooting haphazardly now, not really thinking about his targets or where the bullets would hit. He fired at them and hoped one of the strays would hit them. She remembered Tom call this technique spray and pray once, most likely from a video game he had been playing. Shoot and hope it gets the target, was what he had said actually. And this maniac was doing the same thing. He just wanted them dead and was getting desperate.
Becky grabbed Jill’s arm and held her down, stopping her from getting up just yet. “Wait until he stops shooting,” she said. “Hopefully he’ll run out of ammunition. He’s been firing off like crazy, he’s bound to run empty soon enough.”
Four more shots came, all flying overhead now. But then the maniac stepped to the side and almost got Jack in his other leg. The bullet hit the ground and one of the rocks flew off like shrapnel and almost hit Becky in the head.
“Shit, that was close!” she said.
“Alright guys, time to go, it’s us or him,” Jack said and got up, then pushed Jill away.
“No, Jack please don’t do this.”
“We have to, now go!”
Becky pulled her away from Jack who slowly limped from around the cover and pointed his gun at the gun-crazy religious zealot. Blood dripped from his shattered knee down his dirty black pant leg, leaving a thick trail of red on the wet ground.
Jack fired once.
“We have to split up,” Becky told Jill. “You go that way, down there and around. I’ll take him from this side here.” She pointed to the narrow path through the row of big slabs of concrete. “We have to get him from each side, disorient him. Alright?”
“Fine!” Jill said annoyed and started to run away.
***
Jill wiped the rain from her face and passed Jack as he fired another shot. The crazy man returned fire twice. The first bullet went way off mark, but she heard the second one stop short, followed by gurgling and a painful grunt.
She looked over to Jack who was now struggling to keep his balance as he held his throat. All the energy she had left felt like drained out, as if someone had flushed her like a toilet. Her knees buckled and she did her best not to collapse.
As Jack struggled to keep his hand on his throat, she saw blood squirt through his fingers. Stumbling, before hitting the ground, he turned his head toward her and tried to mouth something, but all he managed to do was spew more blood out of his mouth.
“JACK!” Jill screamed and started running toward him.
A single gunshot stopped her from reaching him as the bullet hit the dirt at her feet. Then more gunfire came her way. She got down on all fours, shimmied to the side for more cover, and began crawling toward her boyfriend, tears running down her once pale face. It was now streaked black with mascara.
“H-hang on, J-Jack…” she stuttered as she dragged herself through the dirt. It seemed like it was raining harder now. “Hang-g in th-there love … I’m coming. I won’t let you die, I promise.”
She heard Becky yell from the other end. “No! You have to go! You have to go, Jill, or you’ll die too!”
“But … but I can’t leave him!” Her voice was trembling at the nightmare unfolding before her. Jack had his right hand out
stretched, his fingers moving only slightly. He still held his throat with the other hand, but it didn’t do anything. The blood was now gushing out, creating a pool around his head. She saw his lips quiver, his eyes blink at her only once. The fingers stopped moving on his right hand that was reaching out for her and the left one fell from his throat.
The bullet wound was there, she saw it now. It looked like the bullet had taken half the neck with it and all it had left behind was a bloody, grotesque gaping hole.
“You gotta be shitting me!” Jill said as slammed her hand on the ground then began to crawl backward and move.
“Come at me you whores of Babylon,” the crazy preacher sounded off again. “Come at me and get what’s coming to ya. Two more of you to go. You are dropping like flies, one by one. There is only one way out and that is through death by my hand. Now come at me you whores. Come at me now! Hell is waiting for you, to purify you, to cleanse you.”
Jill hesitated for a moment, reluctant to get back up. She just wanted to stay here, crawl over to Jack and die. But seeing Becky on the other end told her it wasn’t time yet.
She needed her revenge first. She needed to make sure that Jack didn’t die for nothing, that his death wasn’t in vain.
***
She was about to get shot; it was a very good possibility, if anything, and it made her mind race so hard and fast that she could barely focus on the task at hand. She waved at Jill to get back on her feet and proceed with the plan (if you could actually call it that). With Jack now dead, the lunatic was able to focus on the two of them and she was sure one would get shot, so how all of this was going to go was a mystery.
The she heard his guns clicking.
No it wasn’t the sound of him reloading, but actually the triggers being pulled and then nothing coming out.
Rise of the Dead Page 13