by Tim Miller
“Oh looky there! Nowhere left to go! Hahaha!” He howled, just as his head exploded.
A flatbed truck had driven up behind them. Dietrich never heard the gunshot, until the second one was fired into the crowd, hitting another of the afflicted
A couple guys and a girl were in in the back of the truck, and the bald man in the back yelled “Come on! Get on!” Sharon climbed up, and the rest of them piled on. Once they were all on, the bald guy pounded on the roof of the cab and the truck sped right into the crowd. Bodies bounced off the truck as it plowed through.
“Thanks for helping us out,” Dietrich said. He was still catching his breath, and haven’t even processed Bernard’s death. That would have to wait. “I’m Dietrich. This is Laura, Derrick, Amanda and Sharon.”
“Hey guys. I’m Cody. We just happened to be in town.”
Chapter 19
Cody was with a couple of other guys, and a girl.
“You guys from town?” Dietrich asked.
“Nah. We’re from San Antonio. I guess Skip has family here, so we came to check it out.”
“Who’s Skip?”
“Oh, he’s in the passenger seat. He kind of runs things,” Cody said.
Dietrich nodded. Looking around the back of the flatbed, he saw there were stacks of TVs, computers and other electronics. Chances are they weren’t in town to see anyone’s family. They were there stealing crap. Great. They just got rescued by a bunch of looters. Dietrich also noticed the shotgun in Cody’s hands, as well as each of them having guns in their waistbands. He just hoped they hadn’t just run into something worse than those afflicted.
They drove for a bit until they reached the police station. The place was dark and deserted.
“Come on. We’re gonna load up on their guns here,” Cody said as he jumped out.
“Where is all the police?” Sharon asked.
“I’m it.” Derrick said. “The rest have either left town or are dead or are one of those afflicted.”
“Can’t they bring in the National Guard or something?” She asked.
“I have no clue lady. You know as much as I do,” Derrick said as he jumped out of the truck. Two other men got out of the truck. One was a large man with long hair and a beard.
“How ya doin’? I’m Skip. Hope you all are okay,.” he said.
“We’re fine. Thanks for bailing us out of there.”
“No sweat, man. This is crazy shit. The news in town said there was rioting and looting.” Yeah. You’re the ones doing the looting. Derrick thought.
“Really? How strange,” Dietrich said.
“Exactly. Let’s head on in. We were here earlier. It’s pretty secure,” Skip said as they walked inside. They filed in through the main lobby, then through a set of thick double doors. Once the doors closed behind them, Skip turned around.
“Ok. Now!” He said as each of his men struck Derrick and Dietrich while the others grabbed the three girls. Dietrich was taken by surprise and tried to resist, but he was not a fighter, and the guy just flung him to the ground like a ragdoll. Derrick pulled his gun, but the girl already had hers out and stuck it to his temple and pulled the trigger. The women screamed as the thugs held them down. Someone was stomping on the back of Dietrich’s head. The blows made him lightheaded but he didn’t pass out. He pretended to hoping they’d stop and it worked.
“Okay, let’s get them in back,” Skip said.
Dietrich felt someone dragging him by the ankles as the girls continued to scream. After a few minutes they stopped. He opened one eye, and saw they were in a locker room. Someone forced his hands behind his back and handcuffed them. He opened both eyes and looked up to see Skip standing over him.
“Okay, bud. Here’s the deal. Sorry about your cop pal back there, but he should have known he didn’t stand a chance. Now you got three fine looking ladies over there. We’re just gonna have a little fun with them. You play it cool, and all of you can walk out of here. You try to be a hero, and I will cut their fucking pussies out and make you wear them as a hat. You got it?” Skip said.
Dietrich just nodded as he looked over at the girls. Amanda seemed unusually calm. Sharon was freaking out while Laura looked like they had knocked most the fight out of her.
“All right, strip ‘em and get them in the shower,” Skip ordered as the men all began cutting the girls’ clothes off. They dragged Laura into the shower and turned on the cold water. She jumped and screamed as the water hit her skin. The other guy with Skip named Dale had a fistful of her hair as he pulled his pants down while fondling her pussy with his fat, sausage fingers. She tried to struggle against him, but he punched her. For such a big oafish man, he seemed to have quite the manual dexterity where sexual assault was concerned.
“Bitch, you don’t want to fight me. Hold still and you might like this shit,” he said as he bent her over and jammed his dick into her. She tried to hold still, but he was clearly hurting her. Dale pulled on her hair, bending her neck way back as he continued thrusting. The whole thing only lasted a couple minutes, though Dietrich was sure it felt longer to Laura. He struggled against his cuffs, but he couldn’t move. They had them on so tight, his fingers were falling asleep.
Once Dale finished, he backhanded Laura sending her toppling to the floor. She just lay there sobbing as Skip and the other guys applauded.
“Good show! Good show! Looks like I’m next! I like mom over here. She’s got the whole MILF thing going on,” Skip said.
“No! Please no! Please?” She cried.
“Oh it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt ya.”
“Just let me go. Please?”
“Okay. I lied, I am gonna hurt ya. A lot. I’m not as gentle as Dale.” Skip said as he shoved her into the shower. She slid across the wet tile and smacked her face into the wall. Blood ran from her nose as she staggered to her feet. Skip walked in and tripped her, sending her back onto her face.
“Stay down, bitch,” he said, as he undid his pants and dropped them. He rolled her onto her back as he entered her. As he began fucking, he also started punching. It was a bizarre display. He fucked her while ground-and-pounding her like an MMA fighter. Dietrich had to look away. As he looked over to Amanda, he saw they’d stripped her to her underwear. She was sitting on a bench, with one of the men holding her arms, but she wasn’t resisting or screaming. She had her eyes closed.
Chapter 20
Skip beat on the woman until his arms were sore. He got his nut about the same time she stopped breathing. Sometimes they died before he could nut inside them, but this one he timed perfectly. That was always the best. Once they were dead, it wasn’t as much fun with them just lying there. It still felt pretty good as long, as they were warm. The other girl just lie there while the older guy screamed. The teenager was next. He was sure Cody would want a piece of her, or his girlfriend would.
“Leave them alone!” The Dietrich guy yelled. At least Skip had been able to tune him out. Nothing more annoying than trying to get your nut with some dude screaming in the background.
“Will you shut the fuck up?” Skip finally yelled back. The guy piped down for a moment. For some reason the young one was just sitting there with her eyes closed, probably praying or some shit. “Okay, who’s up next?” Skip asked.
“I want this one.” Asia said. “I want her to eat my pussy.”
“Hell yeah, baby. That’s hot as fuck,” Cody said, licking his lips. Skip still didn’t trust that asshole. He and Asia were always glancing at each other like they were up to something. Skip didn’t like shit like that. Do your thing and get the job done. No stupid fucking glances or weird looks to each other. Dale was sitting there playing with the Laura chick’s hair. He was weird like that. He already fucked her unconscious, now he was all caressing her like she was his girlfriend. Asia began stroking Amanda’s hair, and running her fingers along her stomach.
“She’s so young and soft. What’s she doing? She asleep?”
“I don’t know. She’s been lik
e that for a while.” Dale said. “Think she might be praying.”
“Well, she can pray to my pussy. Wake up, kid,” she said as she slapped Amanda across the face. Amanda moved a little, but didn’t make a sound and her eyes remained closed. Asia looked around at Cody, who just shrugged his shoulders.
“What the fuck is wrong with this little cunt? Wake up!” This time she punched Amanda, sending her toppling to the floor. Still, Amanda just lay still, her eyes remaining closed. “I’m about to cut this bitch if she doesn’t do something.”
“Leave her alone! She just a child!” Dietrich said.
“You shut the fuck up, or I’ll gut her like a fish and make you watch, asshole.” Asia said pointing a pocket knife at him. “Come on bitch! If I have to hit you again, you’ll never wake up!” She took the knife and poked it into Amanda’s side just enough to draw droplets of blood.
Amanda didn’t wake up, but her body started convulsing. Foam came from her mouth as she twitched and gyrated on the floor.
“What’s wrong with her?” Asia asked.
“I think you broke her, baby,” Cody said.
“Fuck. I barely touched her!”
Amanda gurgled and twitched for several more minutes before she went still. Lying completely motionless, Asia nudged her with her shoe.
“Is she dead?” Asia asked.
“Fuck if I know. She ain’t movin’. ” Skip said.
One of the lockers behind them flew open, banging the door against another locker. The crew jumped at the sound.
“What the fuck was that?” Dale said.
“Guess that locker swung open,” Cody answered.
“Well no shit, Sherlock. What fucking made that door swing open like that?”
“I don’t know. The wind maybe?” Cody said.
Every locker door opened and closed repeatedly, filling the room with metallic banging over and over. It was so loud they all had to cover their ears.
“What the fuck is going on?” Skip yelled. He pulled his gun and fired two shots into one of the lockers, but the banging continued.
“Put thing away!” Dietrich screamed over the noise. “You can’t kill her! No matter what you do!”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Skip asked.
“Amanda has left her body. That girl is stronger than all of us. You might be in big trouble.”
Before Skip could reply, Asia grabbed her own throat and began gagging.
“Asia? What’s wrong baby? Asia? Answer me!” Cody cried, but Asia couldn’t reply. Her feet left the ground as she gagged and struggled. After almost a minute she flew backward into the wall and hit the ground motionless.
“Asia!” Cody rushed over to her and knelt by her side. “Fuck! She’s dead! She’s fucking dead! What happened? What just happened?” Cody’s eyes darted around, but Skip and Dale just had blank expressions. He stood, pulled a gun from his waistband and ran over to Dietrich, shoving it in his face. “Did you do this? What the fuck did you do?”
“It wasn’t me. It was Amanda. I think you’ve made her angry.”
Chapter 21
As the men tormented Laura and Sharon, Amanda realized they would never break free. At least, not in the usual sense. She closed her eyes and focused. It was difficult with all the screaming and commotion going on. Every other time she’d entered purgatory it had been from the quiet of her own room. Never in a desperate situation such as this. But she had to try.
Clearing her mind, she focused on Purgatory. She imagined leaving her body and entering that third realm few knew existed. The realm where only demons could move about while watching this world and finding ways to enter. Soon the noise went away. It was just her. Finally she came to the tunnel. It was like going down a water slide, except slowly. Passing through a thick membrane from one existence into the next. Finally she was there. The whole realm was like being under water.
Looking back, she could see her body sitting on the bench. She could also see the others. All of them moving slowly. Their voices slowed down and distorted. Her movements were slow and deliberate, but not difficult. She had no body and was free to move about. Skip had just finished beating on Sharon. Amanda knew Sharon was dead. She could sense it. Though the dead did not enter purgatory. Amanda didn’t know why. They just weren’t there.
Asia had started smacking her body around. It was difficult to watch, but she felt no pain from Asia’s abuse. That was when she got the idea. In the past she had been able to manipulate objects in the physical realm. Just by reaching out and sending her thoughts through the watery membrane of the realm, one of the locker doors opened, and then she slammed it shut.
After taking a few moments to watch them react, she did it with all of the lockers, repeatedly. She was surprised at how effortless it was to manipulate the realm. It was almost amusing to watch them all stumbling around through all the noise she was making. It wasn’t loud to her. She could hear it, but it sounded like it was off in the distance. She decided to try something else. Reaching out through the membrane, she began choking Asia. Though Purgatory she was able to lift Asia off her feet, and finally hurl her into a wall. Her own strength impressed her as Asia was dead on impact.
As Skip ran over to question Dietrich, she started on Dale. Using the membrane, she snapped his fingers one by one. He doubled over and she could hear him screaming. Skip turned around and ran over to Dale. Cody tried to run out of the room, but she had the membrane close in around Cody, pick him up and slam him into the wall. He grunted and screamed as she slammed him into the concrete wall repeatedly. She pulled him away and prepared to slam him one final time, when a gunshot went off. This was incredibly loud.
It sent a ripple through the realm causing her to drop Cody and even shook her whole being. She looked where the shot came from and it was Skip, standing over her own body. He’d fired a single shot into her skull. Amanda looked at her motionless body. Getting a closer look, her eyes now stared lifelessly at the ceiling. She was dead. Even though she was in Purgatory, time still felt like it stood still. What would happen to her now? So far nothing to her current self. She was still in Purgatory, she just had no body to return to.
Cody was walking back up and began kicking her dead body. He then undid his pants and knelt down between her legs. He was going to rape her dead body? What a sick asshole. Using the membrane, this time she reached out and twisted his head all the way around. Even in the realm she could hear his neck snapping as she slowly twisted his head until it was facing in the wrong direction. His lifeless body fell to the ground.
Skip was standing there with his gun out. He began firing in random directions. One passed right through her, or would have, had she been real. She lunged at him and slid inside of his body. Unsure if she could actually possess him, she drifted around until she was able to take hold of his mind. He knew right away she was in there.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He said.
“I’m killing you.”
“What are you? We just killed you! Get out of my head!”
“You should have just left us alone. There’s enough death out there today. But you had to try and use it for your own desires. But that was a fatal mistake.” She said.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“You’ll know it when I do it,” she said as she sent her will out from his body back into the membrane of Purgatory. It grabbed hold of him and began to pull. First it was barely noticeable, but then he felt it and began to scream as it strengthened its grip, began pulling into different directions. His face became distorted as he tried to fight against it.
“Stop it! You’re tearing me apart! Please stop!” He screamed but she ignored his screams as she continued to push against his body. After almost a minute it happened. Skip exploded. His body burst into hundreds of chunks of bone and flesh as blood sprayed throughout the locker room. Much of it showered onto Dietrich who sat there helplessly with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Amanda looked
around at the blood and the bodies. She had to laugh at the irony. Not too long ago, something else was possessing and controlling her. Now, she was the one doing the possessing. Drifting over to Dietrich, she used the membrane to break the handcuff off him. He stood and looked around.
“Amanda?” He called out. “Amanda? Is that you? Are you here?” She tapped twice on a locker to signal “Yes.”
“Did you do this? You’re still here? They killed you.”
She tapped on the lockers again. She wasn’t sure of another way to communicate from here.
“Can you help us from there? You’re in Purgatory now. Can you help us save Simon? And stop these afflicted?”
She tapped twice on the locker again, though she wasn’t herself sure. Especially after she heard Him.
“Well hello old friend. Fancy seeing you here” a voice said. Looking up she saw him. This was the first time she’d seen him as his true self. He was large and hideous with an elongated jaw, long and twisted horns coming from different parts of his head and hollow blackness where his eyes should be. It was K’rall.
Chapter 22
Dietrich went over and helped Laura up and walked her over to a bench. He went through a locker and found a large shirt for her and some towels so she could dry off. She was shaking and shivering, but probably not because she was cold.
“What happened?” She asked.
“Everyone is dead.”
“All of them?”
“Well, Amanda is kind of dead.” Dietrich said.
“What do you mean kind of?”
“She did that thing she talked about earlier. Going into Purgatory. That’s how she killed these thugs. It’s like she became a ghost. They killed her body, but she’s still in Purgatory.”
“Holy shit. That is insane.”
“How are you doing?”
“I’ve been better.” She rubbed the knot on her forehead where she’d hit the floor. There was dried blood under her nose.
“I tried to stop them. They handcuffed...”