by Raymond Lee
“Elsie asked our marital statuses and in the course of answering she revealed she’s a lesbian.”
Gemma closed her eyes and muttered a curse before reopening them. “That figures. We treated a young man for frostbite back in November after we first got here. I told you I’m not a nurse but my brother has kind of deputized me for some things like that. He talked to us the whole time, telling us about how he’d lost his boyfriend the week before. Elsie was there with her damn clipboard. After he was released I didn’t see him again until about two weeks ago. He’d lost a lot of weight and was really quiet. I asked about him and was told he’d been put in isolation. I’d been told about isolation before. We’ve treated people who were supposedly attacked by others and those attackers were put in isolation. I couldn’t imagine what he’d done, he was so nice. He was back in here last Wednesday. We couldn’t save him. That sweet guy cut himself from wrists to elbows, suffering from whatever they did to him.”
“I appreciate you telling me this,” Hal said softly. “I’m curious why though. You have a pretty good set-up here.”
Gemma’s nostrils flared as she looked at him, her mouth pursed. “If I just turn a blind eye to it, how am I any better than them?”
“So are you saying you’re on our side?”
Her mouth turned up at the corners. “I knew it. The minute you started asking questions I knew you saw through the whole Christian façade and thought maybe someone had finally come to do something about this place. There are good people here who don’t deserve to go down with David and his people, but yeah, I’m willing to burn this place to the ground if that’s what it takes. Just tell me what you need.”
III
GHOSTS AND DEMONS
Raven grabbed the poker as Cruz bounded over the couch and swung it at his head. Her body weakened by the virus, it was easy for him to grab the poker and yank it free of her grasp before he tightened a hand around her throat and picked her up from the floor. She tried to scream but couldn’t make a sound with his hand wrapped so firmly around her throat. She only managed a terrified squeak as he tossed her onto the couch.
“You thought you could help him defeat me. You found him drugs to keep me quiet, to help him stay afloat.” He pointed to the gash stretching from his temple to over his eye. “Drugs won’t help him now.”
“What the hell are you?”
Cruz smiled that insidious smile before grabbing one of her legs in each hand. “I could snap you like a wishbone right now but I think I’ll enjoy the kicking more while I’m inside you.”
Raven kicked out, reacting to his threat, and caught him in the stomach. She pushed down the nausea and heat attacking her from within and scrambled off the couch, turning to run. If she could get to the bedroom she could get to her katana.
She cried out as her head snapped back, Cruz’s hand tangled in her hair. She fell onto the coffee table, the wood smashing under her. Above her, Cruz stood staring down at her, nostrils flaring, eyes bleeding into pools of black ink. “You keep making this more fun for me.”
“Cruz, please don’t.”
“Cruz can’t stop me now. Buckle up, whore, and enjoy the ride.” He unfastened his belt and unbuttoned his jeans then jerked back. His eyes went from black to their normal hazel as they widened in horror. “Raven! Run, Raven, run!”
“Cruz?” Raven struggled but managed to sit up despite the pain ricocheting through her body as Cruz clutched at his chest and backed away from her.
His head twisted from side to side as he groaned and growled, spittle flying from his mouth. He backed away until he’d placed the couch between them, seeming to fight with his own body for each step, and dug his fingers into the upholstery. His entire body tensed as he white-knuckled the back of the couch and growled. “I can’t hold him back.”
“Cruz? What’s happening? Let me help you.” Raven stood, wincing as her foot came down on a piece of the table she’d smashed through.
“No!” he yelled as he closed his eyes and grinded his teeth together. “Go! Run! If I catch you you’ll have to kill me.”
“Oh my God, Cruz.”
He growled again, his entire body shaking as he ripped fabric from the couch in a desperate attempt to restrain himself. He threw his head back and unleashed a roar no human should have been able to make, veins in his neck bulging under the skin. Raven gasped as she watched him fight something inside his own body for control.
“I’m sorry,” she said before forcing herself toward the bedroom. The floor blurred as she ran down it, sheer will power keeping her on her feet. She told herself it was a nightmare, just another horrible dream brought on by the fever but as she picked up the katana she feared it was all too real and she might have to kill her friend.
She turned to see Cruz standing at the end of the hall, the evil smile back in place. He’d lost the battle between him and whatever had laid claim to his soul. She slammed the bedroom door shut and locked it, barely turning the lock before he slammed into the other side of the door, jarring the whole cabin. “Leave me alone!”
“You should have ran when he told you to!” He laughed maniacally before slamming against the door again.
Raven backed away as he repeatedly slammed against the door. It was sturdy but wouldn’t be able to take the abuse for much longer. She searched the room but the only weapon she had was her katana. Cruz had to have his gun on him and she didn’t recall having hers when he’d brought her to the cabin. She opened the dresser drawers hoping to find pants, shoes, something, but only found moth balls. She was on her own in nothing but a flannel shirt, underclothes and socks, the katana her only weapon and one she didn’t want to use against a friend no matter what was inhabiting his body.
She jumped as he slammed against the door and wood splintered. She looked at the katana in her hand and the window over the dresser. Deciding she wouldn’t behead her friend unless she absolutely had to she set the katana on the dresser and opened the window. It was small but she thought she could just make it. She had to try. She tossed the katana out the window and climbed up on the dresser. Her head and arms fit through but it got tighter as she started working the rest of her body through. She was half way out before she heard the door crash open.
“Shit!” Her arms completely out, she braced her hands on the outer wall and pushed but just as she felt her body starting to slide through she heard another loud crash, felt the dresser disappear from beneath her knees and then Cruz’s hands were clamped on her thighs.
She screamed, her voice finally finding its strength, fueled by terror, and pushed as hard as she could but his hands were locked onto her tight, his fingernails digging into her flesh. She saw movement deep in the trees and the panic inside her doubled.
“You made this easy,” Cruz said from behind her as she continued to struggle and her heart stopped as she felt her underwear slide down her legs.
“No!” She screamed, unable to stop herself from reacting as panic seized her. The figures in the woods grew closer, drawn by her screams as she pushed against the wall in effort to escape. She kicked her legs wildly, but unable to see her target she failed to protect herself as Cruz’s grip tightened and slid to her hips. “Cruz, I know you’re in there! Please don’t!”
He laughed as his fingers dug painfully into her hips and yanked her back. Tears fell from her eyes as she felt his tongue slide over her, taunting her. She cried out, no longer caring if the monsters in the woods shuffling toward her could hear. Being eaten by them couldn’t be much worse than suffering the molestation from someone she’d trusted. His teeth closed down on her, causing her to cry out in pain. She continued to kick even though he was between her legs, unbothered, and pushed against the wall, desperately trying to break away from the agony and heartbreak of what her friend was doing to her, fearing he’d assault her with more than just his teeth if he succeeded in pulling her back into the room. She squirmed and wriggled, trying to get away but the movement seemed to only encourage him as he grew m
ore violent, biting down on her tender flesh even harder, eliciting screams of pain as her skin tore.
As zombies neared she considered letting go, allowing him to pull her back inside the room and finish her off, but as one grungy man cocked his rotting head to the side and studied her with his milky white eyes she decided against it. She’d rather be killed by zombies than let whatever was inside Cruz get everything he wanted.
“Kill me!” she commanded the thing.
The zombie grabbed her shoulders and she braced herself for its bite. It pulled her forward with surprising strength, freeing her from Cruz’s hold, and dropped her to the ground before reaching into the window for Cruz.
Once she gathered the wind that had been knocked out of her from impact with the ground she rolled over and managed to get to her knees. She froze in shock as she counted ten infected people crowding around the window, trying to get in to Cruz. None of them seemed to care that she was outside with them, injured, and easy prey. She heard him cursing inside and knew he’d be out the front door after her in a matter of minutes, and he had a gun.
She wrapped her hand around the katana lying on the ground and dug in deep to find the strength to get to her feet. She took off, blinded by her own tears as she ran into the woods doing her best to ignore the pain of rocks and sticks digging into her feet and the blood she felt dripping down her thighs.
“Scott!”
Richards turned in the middle of a field of daisies to see Raven running toward him, the sunlight reflecting off her blue hair. She wore a white sundress and a dazzling smile as she neared. “You found her!”
He looked down at the little girl holding his hand and shared a smile before looking back up.
Suddenly Raven jerked to a stop, her hands before her as if she’d slammed into a glass wall. She beat at it, the smile turning down at the corners as the sky darkened and the field of daisies became a forest of dark trees with gnarled branches. Puddles of red bloomed all over her sundress as tears fell from her eyes.
“Find me, Scott. I’m here. I’m right here!”
The world around her faded in and out as if it were glitching and he caught sight of an interstate off ramp before it stopped.
Raven screamed, the sound echoing in his head, chilling his blood, and then she was gone.
Richards jerked awake, his hand over his rapidly beating heart as he took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down.
“Are you all right?” Sky asked from where she lay in the backseat.
“Yeah.” Richards scrubbed a hand down his face and raised his seat back up to the upright position. He’d used the equipment Sky’s captors had kept in the back to syphon gas from an abandoned car and gotten her somewhat cleaned up using baby wipes from a gas station before finding the alley they were currently in and backed the SUV into a narrow space between two buildings, providing them cover so he could get some sleep before continuing on. He looked at his watch and calculated he’d been asleep about three or four hours. “Raven came to me again.”
Sky sat up and leaned forward. “You think she’s alive?”
“Even better. I think she’s here. She’s right here in Kansas.” He started the SUV and pulled out of the space.
“How do you know she’s in Kansas?”
“She told me,” he said as he guided the SUV down the narrow alley and pulled out onto a main street, sideswiping an infected woman in the process. “Don’t ask me to explain how all this is happening, kid, because I have no clue but it’s happening so hang tight. We’re going to get your sister.”
“Help me,” Raven cried as she continued to push through the woods, trying to think through the panic clouding her mind. “Help me, help me, help me.” She begged and pleaded, not even sure who she was asking anymore. She’d called upon Hal, Damian, her parents, and God, but hadn’t received any answers other than howls in the distance. She’d lucked out with the zombies back at the cabin, but had no doubt wolves would find her appetizing.
Her foot caught on something and she went down, crashing to her knees on the hard ground. She scooped up the katana that had fallen from her hand as she tumbled forward and froze, the sound of movement in the woods alerting her to imminent danger.
She pressed her back against a tree and held the katana in front of her, not sure she’d even have the strength to swing it hard enough to kill anything, much less whatever the hell was wearing Cruz’s skin. She shook her head, wondering what had made her think such a thing. Of course it was him. It had to be him. He was insane and off his meds. She’d seen him act crazy while off them before, seeing and talking to dead people as if they were right there in front of him. She’d saved him from killing himself to escape the sickness in his head. She should have let him pull the trigger, would have if she’d known what he was capable of, how horribly he would betray her.
The movement in the woods grew louder and she recognized the shuffle-drag sound of an older zombie’s movements as it neared her. She replayed the scene at the cabin, being pulled from the window and discarded as the infected went for the meat still inside and felt her forehead with the back of her hand. Still warm. Was it the virus that caused the zombies to overlook her as a source of food? Would they go back to hunting her after it passed through her system? Was it all just a fluke and she was just as in danger of them as she was of Cruz? Her eyelids grew heavy as she thought about it.
The shuffling grew closer and she knew she needed to get up, to stay moving, but her eyelids weighed eighty tons and closing them felt so good. She decided she’d just sit there a little while longer, just long enough to give her burning eyes a chance to cool, see if the throbbing between her legs and the sharp stabs of pain in the soles of her feet would subside with a little rest.
She came awake suddenly, her heart racing, fight or flight reflex fully engaged, but she had no idea why. Terrified, she picked up the katana that had fallen across her lap while she’d dozed and gripped it tight. She shivered, her skin pebbled with goosebumps. Now that the adrenaline of her escape had worn off she couldn’t ignore the chill in the night air. It seemed darker than it had been when she’d first closed her eyes. Without a watch she had no idea how much time had passed since she’d closed her eyes and given in to the pull of sleep but her body was stiff, evidence of having been sleeping sitting up for long enough for it to set in to her bones.
A rustle of leaves came from her right and her head swung that way on reflex as she chewed her bottom lip and raised the katana in front of her. The urge to run overcame her, nearly tearing a panicked cry from her throat, but her brain was less panicked that it had been when she’d run blindly from the cabin, no plan in place. She still didn’t have a plan, but she knew better than to just take off running, crashing through the woods alerting everything within earshot to her location.
A twig snapped, closer to her, followed by more rustling. She strained to hear, alarm rising when she didn’t hear the distinctive shuffle-drag of the undead. When she’d jumped off of a balcony into a swimming pool with her little sister over six months ago she’d prayed she wouldn’t ever see a zombie again. If she wasn’t so afraid she’d laugh at the fact she was now hoping for them. She had a shot at outrunning zombies or if it came down to it, slicing their rotting heads off with her katana. Zombies weren’t smart and she didn’t think they could see that great from a distance. Wild animals and even worse, Cruz, were a totally different nightmare. They could think. They could fight back. She looked at the long blade in her hands and gulped. They weren’t already rotten, making them harder to slice apart. She would also be able to see fear and pain in their eyes as they died by her own hand. She’d choose to go against a horde of zombies before she’d ever want to face off with something like that.
“Raven!”
Her blood turned to ice in her veins as her limbs shook and a scream bubbled up in her throat. She clamped her teeth shut and swallowed the panic induced by Cruz’s voice as he called her name in the dark. Another twig snapped, givi
ng his location away. He was within about seventy feet of her and he wasn’t shuffling. His footfalls weren’t heavy. His voice didn’t sound pained. The zombies at the cabin may have slowed him down, but they didn’t damage him in any way that would prevent him from being able to overpower her and finish the assault he’d started.
I’m the man who’s going to peel you like an onion.
His threat replayed through her mind and she shivered, having no doubt he’d meant it. Cruz might have been her friend, might have genuinely cared about her, but without medication he wasn’t Cruz. He wasn’t even a man. He was… a demon, she decided, thinking of the worst thing she could. He was evil and without conscience. She tightened her sweaty hands around the hilt of the katana and fought not to whimper as another twig snapped.
“Raven! I know you’re out here! You left a trail of blood, sweetie. It’s rude to run away like that. Come on out and behave now. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to see what you look like inside out. Is that so bad?” He laughed that maniacal laugh and Raven cringed, the sound of it seeming to dig into her head and scrape against her skull.
Movement from her left caught her attention and Raven turned to see dark figures emerging from the trees. Silhouetted in the moonlight, she noticed their awkward gait and recognized them by their walk before their nauseating smell could reach her. Her stomach turned with hunger as they neared despite the sickening smell of them and she was struck with the overwhelming urge to gorge on something, but she had no food with her. The zombies approached her, still moving at their normal slow pace, her presence not having any effect on them. She looked down at her bloody legs and wondered if they could smell her. The two closest to her, a pair of brown-skinned men with tightly curled hair looked right at her with their smoky white eyes and passed her as if she weren’t a bloody chunk of meat perfect for the taking.