Stronghold

by Ron Tufo

  Andrew just answered, “I dunno, but it feels like the right thing to do.”

  They took their own extra blankets from the car. Melissa made sure she still had her .22; she was getting to think it was a very important accessory to her outfit. Smart girl!

  Everyone met at the front row of pews, closest to the altar. Father Samuel gave the little group his blankets and his blessing, including a prayer they would safely make their way to wherever it was they were journeying. Everyone spread themselves out and were asleep before Father Samuel could retire to the rectory again.

  Andrew woke up with a start in the middle of the night only to see the candles on the altar flickering. Seemed colder than when he’d first lain down. Too tired to really care, he just pulled the blankets a little tighter and drifted back to his castle in the clouds dreamland.

  It was dawn; light entered the chapel in colorful bands. Two sleeping forms lay on the floor next to Andrew; suddenly, a voice boomed from the doorway, echoing throughout.

  “No, no you may not enter here, you spawn of the devil! Out into the sun with you where the lord shall surely burn you back to hell!”

  Everybody was up in a flash and looking toward the yelling at the entrance to the church. The unlocked door had swung open in the morning winds and the neighborhood zombies were here for the annual church omelet breakfast fundraiser.

  Father Samuel was holding them off bravely as he swirled a crucifix back in forth like a medieval broadsword. Trouble with broadswords (and crucifixes) is that they are heavy and wear down the bearer rather swiftly. Father Samuel was already starting to flag from the weight and from the onslaught.

  As he was being pushed back, Melissa was pulling out her gun, while Andrew was keeping Iza close and looking around for any possible weapon. The good father was beginning to recognize some of the zombies closest to him and his heart fluttered as he remembered who they were. He saw the entire Marshall family, old Mrs. Winslow, and worst, one of his long-time altar boys, Jerry MacDougal.

  Melissa yelled for the Father to back up out of the way so she could bring down the first few and take some pressure off him before she had to reload. Father Samuel stopped her in mid-aim with a resounding “No! Do not fire a weapon in my church! I will not have that stain upon my soul!”

  Unable to argue with that, Melissa reluctantly lowered her gun. “But Father, we cannot help you any other way.”

  “Yes, you can, my child. I will draw these people toward the altar. Take your group and circle around behind them to the outside and safety. Do it now, while I can still draw their attention to me and not their jaws.”

  Melissa and Andrew looked sadly at each other, both of them knowing exactly what this kind old man was offering them and what he willing to sacrifice to make good on it. Slowly they began to circle around the battle, for battle it was–Good against Evil in every sense of the phrase.

  The zombies were pushing Father Samuel further and further back toward the altar rail. His swirling cross was moving lower and slower with each pendulous swing. True to his word, all of the zombies were focused on him and none took note as the little group of soon-to-be escapees made their way around them to the front door. When they finally made it to the point where sneaking away was no longer an issue, they began to bolt for the door. Andrew was pulling Iza along as fast as the little girl could run, and then some.

  That was when they heard the first piercing howl from Father Sam. His energy had finally given way to the inevitable conclusion. If one could have asked, he would have told them that his heart wasn’t in the fight, either. These were the people he had spiritually guided through their lives. Nothing could have convinced him that somehow he had not let them down for their end, and his, to be like this. His howls subsided slowly into the shade of his altar. None of the zombies seemed to care much that he was a man they had all loved and respected in life. (Yeah, the world is a fair and forgiving place. Bullshit!)

  Refreshed by sleep, stoked by adrenaline and scared shitless by the morning murder, our little group of flatland refugees piled into the car and took off. Still too petrified by what was happening around them, they couldn’t dwell on what had just happened to the gentle, loving man who had saved them.

  The Never Ending Journey

  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. - Roald Dahl

  “Fuck, it's cold in here.” Even with the heat turned all the way up, the downturn in temperature and wind coming through the broken window overpowered anything the car heater was able to produce.

  Melissa admonished Andrew for his cursing in front of Iza. Iza popped back with, “Well, Melissa, it is fucking cold in here! My mom used to swear all the time. I learned some good ones from her. Wanna hear some of them?”

  “No!” both Andrew and Melissa retorted simultaneously. That elicited a chuckle out of all of them and served to bring their minds back into a slightly more functional state. No one really wanted to stop again to look for something to cover the window, but Andrew had a clever thought.

  “Melissa, I will pull over for a moment. We’ll use your floor mat; I’ll raise up what is left of the window and jam the floor mat into it so it hangs down. It won’t be anywhere near perfect, but it will keep the worst of the cold out. You guys keep a lookout while I get it in place.” He did. They did.

  Up until now, Melissa had really liked Andrew, but was not sure if she loved him with a forever and ever kind of love. That was changing by the hour as she got to see more of who and what he was; how he was able to rise to this extreme circumstance. Andrew, on the other hand, had been in love with Melissa since the day she had called him “my little musician.”

  Iza, who was watching from the backseat through her eight year old viewfinders as Melissa and Andrew made googoo eyes, just went “Ewwww…you are not going to kiss him now are you? That would be so gross.”

  Melissa did the most adult thing she could think of. She turned to Iza and stuck out her tongue. Andrew shrugged and laughed and put the car back into drive.

  “Given where we are, if we keep heading east we should be coming into Augusta.” Melissa read from the glove compartment map. “I am not happy about going through a major city, but we really can’t avoid it or I am afraid I will get us pretty lost. I have never spent all that much time in this part of the state, and when I did, I really wasn’t paying attention because my mom was driving.”

  “No sweat. We’ll just blast through anyway, no need to stop,” replied Andrew.

  Right on the prompt, Iza whined from the backseat, “I have to go the bathroom!”

  “Can’t you hold it, Iza? We will be at my family’s home in a little just a little while.” Oh dear god, Melissa was thinking. I sound just like my mother!

  “Nope, I have to do a number one and a number two. Now.”

  “Well, you are at least going to have wait until we find a safe place. Keep your eyes open and help us look, okay? Either that or…do you need us to pull over on the side of the road?”

  “Uh, no thanks. That’s okay. I will help you look.” Melissa had hoped that would be Iza’s answer and looking would take out some of the pang of waiting.

  “Damn, Squeak, it’s almost two o’clock. If they left when we hope they did, that means they have been on the way for most twenty hours. This is not freakin’ good. What can we do, man? I have to do something. Let’s gun up one of the trucks and go into town and throw some lead. I can let off some steam that way. I promise I won’t kill anything living. Hey, everybody deals with stress in their own way.”

  “Ron, I love you, man, and I feel for you, but you gotta give it a little more time. You have always told me Melissa has a good head on her shoulders and Andrew sounds like a stand-up guy. My guess is nothing is easy on the road these days, but they will get here. Besides, Nancy made me promise to tie you down and sit on you if I had to, to keep you from doing anything stupid. I pretty much think going out and shooting almost living stuff qualifies. Besides, I am not going to have
Nancy mad at me. I have seen that woman when she is pissed at you and I do not want any of that directed at me! Let’s go and get some work done on the fences. They need it and it will take your mind somewhere else.”

  “There. Let’s stop there,” Iza squealed. “There’s got to be a bathroom and I can’t wait any more!” The large gold leaf letters over the entrance proclaimed the building to be the Augusta Civic Center. A painted letter canvas hung below that said, “Maine 3rd Annual ComicCon”.

  As Andrew was slowing down the car, Iza was already opening the door. “I have to go NOW!”

  Andrew stopped right where they were, across the street from the center. It was either that or run over Iza. He had considered both options but figured Melissa would be a tad upset with him if he chose not to stop. Iza was running across the street and was inside before either of them could get out of the car.

  “Melissa, how can we not run into zombies at a convention of comic buffs? Do you have your gun and plenty of ammo? I think we are going to need it.”

  Melissa revealed her pistol. “Give it to me and I will cover you,” Andrew said, rushing across the street. “Do you see where the ladies’ room is? Shit, this sucks. I swear, next time she is going to hold it in or stick her butt out the window. I can already hear someone moving in the hallway.” No sooner heard than seen, around the corner came Ironman and the Flash, moving in a slightly less than heroic way.

  “Oh shit! Why does it have to be Ironman? He is my favorite! Melissa-find Iza fast,” he said, “tell her to poop quick and then get her out of here!” Andrew pointed the gun at the Flash first and was tightening on the trigger as they got into range of the little .22. Unfortunately, “in range” meant like five feet away.

  Iron Man raised his hands. “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! We are okay! All the messed-up people are locked in the main hall. We got out before anyone even touched us. Crap! Don’t shoot us–please!”

  “Okay…okay…I won’t shoot you–yet–but you got to tell me where the ladies’ room is.”

  “You mean the men’s room, right? Don’t you?”

  “Look, you little twerp. Where is the ladies’ room?” Take me there and walk in front of me. Right fucking now!”

  Both of our superheroes were beginning to think it was probably safer locked in the main hall with all the people who were biting each other than it was with the weird guy holding the gun who wanted to go to ladies’ bathroom, but it didn’t seem that they had a choice.

  “The ladies’ room is right down the hall we just came from. We just saw a little girl run into it a few minutes ago. Are you looking for her?”

  “Yes, I am looking for her and my girlfriend. What did you think?”

  “Nothin’. We didn’t think anything. Really!”

  Iza and Melissa opened the ladies room door just as Ironman and Flash came up beside it. Iza let out a you are so my hero! squeal. “Ironman! Oh boy, you are my favorite. Where’s Wonder Woman?”

  The Flash kind of sagged a bit. No one ever said he was their favorite. Ironman turned to the Flash and chortled. “I told you there was a reason the Flash costume was on clearance sale.”

  Melissa looked at Andrew. Her rolled eyes said: “I can’t leave you alone for moment, can I?”

  Much to his credit, Andrew knew the look, gave her a goofy grin and shrugged his shoulders.

  Ironman began to spill. “Like, okay. Yesterday, everybody was in the hall for the opening speaker. We were late, so we had to, like, stand inside near the door. There was just no more room. Superman was up first, and like, everybody wanted to hear him. That’s when people just kinda stood up and started, like, biting other people. Everyone thought it was just some kind of bizarre opening ceremony prank. Then it started to get out of control. Everybody was, like, screaming and getting panicky, shoving and freaking out, us included. The last thing we heard was a security guard calling for a lockdown procedure. The second we started to, like, hear the doors clicking to lock from the other end of the hall, Jerome here–” Andrew looked sideways at Melissa. Really? Jerome? “–opened our door a split second before the lock engaged. I think we were, like, the only ones who got out. We stood at the door for…I don’t know…what seemed like an hour. All the shrieking inside was awful and lasted forever. It finally started to die down last night.”

  Flash picked up the story when Ironman, thankfully, ran out of breath. “We were gonna open a door to see what happened, but they were all still locked. Probably a good thing they were, because you can still hear some noises in there, only nobody is calling for help. We were going to leave and walk home last night, but we kept seeing these creepy guys wobbling around outside. They didn’t look so good. Then we thought we would just stay put. There’s plenty of food and stuff. We were just getting ready to walk home–we’re only a couple miles away–when you guys showed up. Can you give us a ride?”

  Andrew and Melissa did their best to veil their shock as they stared at each other. Unspoken thoughts drove them to wonder how to tell these two pseudo-super heroes about what was going on in the world.

  Andrew broke the ice with an adamant statement of his own. “I am not showing up at your father’s house with Ironman and Flash in the backseat.”

  Iza piped in with, “Maybe we can find Wonder Woman too!?”

  It took awhile to explain to the boys, brothers, by the way, what was happening. Melissa thought they seemed a little too happy about the new state of affairs. They all piled in to the car and headed down the road so the they could see if anyone had survived at their home.

  They pulled into the driveway, and had the scene not provided sufficient evidence, one could tell from the look on the youngster’s faces that there were no survivors. The carnage was complete. The boys did not look all that upset, and Melissa questioned them on it.

  “Those were our new foster parents. They weren’t really very nice to us,” Jerome said.

  “Yeah,” Louis, his brother broke in. “They even told us they were just doing it for the money. What do we do now? We can’t stay here.”

  As the question was being posed, two zombie boys pushed through the open front door and began to stumble out into the driveway. Andrew was just getting ready to start the car again when he noted that these two were not headed toward them, but toward the unfinished meal in the driveway. This time, it was Louis who set a new distance record for rocket rumination. Andrew was soooo happy the window had been open.

  “Oh god, those are, were, our foster brothers…nice kids! Oh god…oh god. What are we going to do now?”

  It was Iza who assured the boys they could come with her to Melissa’s father’s home. To their credit, both teens looked at Melissa for her confirmation. Melissa acknowledged with a big head nod and a shrug that it was fine with her.

  Andrew moaned,“Oh man, after your father kills me, he’s going to throw me out. He doesn’t like me much anyway. He’s not going be happy when he sees this circus act.”

  Melissa grabbed him by the chin, and, since she was right in the line with the rest of the Talbot women when they handed out the girl balls, she said: “Andrew Stephen Mitchell, I am going to tell you one more time, so listen carefully or I will be the one to kill you. Yes, I am my father’s princess. Yes, he has anger issues. Yes, he owns a shovel and a backyard. And yes, if anyone tries to hurt me, no matter how unintentionally, he will do them harm. I also know, however, that he thinks you are the best young man he has ever met and is happy that I like you. If you pull this ‘poor unworthy me’ act again, I will personally tell him you hurt my feelings on purpose. I can guarantee you will not like the resulting experience. Are we clear?”

  Melissa then reached up and closed Andrew’s jaw for him, grabbed his ears and shook his head up and down to create a positive response.

  Jerome was still staring at Andrew when Melissa returned to the passenger side of the front seat. “Wow, man, your girlfriend is tough. I wouldn’t want to get her mad at me.”

  Andrew turned to
face him and replied, “Yeah, her Mom and her sisters are the same way. It’s kinda scary sometimes.” Melissa was giving him the hairy eyeball look and he hastily added, “But in a good way! A good way.”

  Leaving Augusta, the next leg of their journey should have taken them dead east on the road to Belfast. Not gonna happen. The rotaries leading east out of town were a complete disaster. Nothing but overturned and burned out hulks of cars and trucks that had run headlong into each in what looked like a mass attempt to get out of Augusta.

  Rather than a nice eastern bound road, they were forced into a more roundabout trek. It was not too many added miles, but it seemed like any detour was going to be a bad idea. Oh well. Nothing to be done for it but to keep moving. It was early afternoon and with any luck they would be in Searsport well before dark. I wasn’t kidding when I said earlier that east/west roads in Maine are not much of an enjoyable option. They had to travel an hour north out of the way before they could head east. When they could finally drive in their preferred direction again, they were way up in Watervillle. Things were the same in every town they went through. No life as you think of life. Nothing but loners or small groups of zombies wandering around looking for food.

  Jerome and Louis were sitting on either side of Iza, who thought it was so cool to be between two superheroes, even if one of them was the Flash. It was sinking in to the boys that what was happening in their lives was beyond well beyond creepy and downright blood chilling. They kept looking at each other over Iza’s head, and they both saw tears in the other’s eyes.

  Iza did the most remarkable thing. She looked at both of them and expressed a beautiful and bare human thought. “I think my mom is not going to be able to come up here and find me. Can I be your sister? It would help a lot if I had two big brothers.”

  Melissa and Andrew both heard this request from the front seat. They held their collective breath for the split second it took for both boys break into tears and begin an intense, extended group hug. Andrew broke down too, as he wondered if his own parents were still alive. He pulled the car over, grabbed Melissa into an embrace and also put a welcomed arm over the backseat. The five stayed connected like that for minutes. Whenever I lose my own confidence in a crisis, I think back to this moment as it was told to me and I draw so very much strength from it.