Twenty minutes later, the train began to roll. Resigned to whatever fate had in store for them, they sat quietly, most of them too worried or nauseated to talk.
After Mark shut the flashlight off and they were once again in darkness, Aidan wondered out loud how far the train would take them north.
"Hopefully all the way to Provo," Cheryl said. "With any luck we—"
Her words were cut off by a scream.
"Deanna!" Aidan shrieked.
Mark fumbled for his flashlight, but it fell and rolled across the floor. After a couple of seconds, he found it and clicked it on.
At the far end of the boxcar, one of the Eaters in the pile was apparently still alive. The ugly thing with a grotesque, decomposed face had grabbed Deanna's ankle and bitten down hard enough to break through the fabric of her jeans and tear the flesh. Blood seeped from her calf, pooling on the floor beside her.
"Oh, baby!" Aidan wailed with his arms wrapped around her. "Oh no…"
As she sobbed in his embrace, Zach put a bullet in her attacker's skull and kept it pointed at the heap in case any of the others moved.
After a few minutes, Deanna grew quieter.
"I could bandage her leg," Kai offered.
When Aidan didn't reply, Cheryl shook her head and whispered, "It's no use now."
It wasn't much longer before Deanna's head slumped down into her chest and her body became still.
Edmond stared at her body. "Now what?"
"I'll do it," Aidan said. He held his hand out and Jordan handed him his revolver, because it would be easier to use than his rifle in such close quarters.
When Deanna began to stir a few seconds later, he grabbed the back of her hair then leaned over and kissed the top of her head. When her brown eyes opened, dead and searching, and she snapped at him, he closed his eyes, put the gun to her temple and squeezed the trigger.
Her body fell away from him, and he lurched in the opposite direction then remained crumpled against the wall as his sobs came in choking heaves. Cheryl wanted to comfort him, but it didn't seem like the right thing to do at the moment, not with Mark there, not now…
The train kept rolling along, going at a good clip. After Mark's flashlight dimmed and went out, they sat in the darkness for some time before anyone spoke again.
Kai broke the silence. "We can't stay in here with all of these dead bodies. We'll die of suffocation."
"Can't we kick them overboard?" Jordan asked.
Diego snorted. "It's worth a try, amigo…before we choke to death on the fumes."
It took a serious effort, but he was eventually able to pick his way through the bodies and unhook the lot of dead Eaters from the wall. Then, Jake and Mark managed to pry the boxcar door open.
"Fresh air!" Edmond said, inhaling the warm breeze.
It took most of the group's combined strength to pull the mass towards the door. Once they had it near the edge, they shoved the lump of lifeless bodies, and they tumbled down the passing slope.
"That'll be a feast for the coyotes!" Zach said.
Edmond motioned towards Deanna's lifeless form. "What about…"
"Not her," Aidan said. "We'll take her off when we stop, so we can find a better resting place for her."
"It still reeks in here," Kai said. "But it's better."
It did smell better, Cheryl thought. Although, they were still in a blood-splattered cage with bits of brain matter sticking to the walls.
They relaxed a little after that. Some even falling asleep…until the train began to slow about an hour later.
Kai began to whine. "Oh man…I wish there was a window. How do we know we aren't approaching a concentration camp?"
"Easy," Zach said. "Let's open the door a little and have a look."
Just as they pulled the door open a crack to look out, there was a squeal of brakes, and the train speed dwindled further.
Jake stepped back from the door and grabbed his pack. "It's pulling in to a rail station. I think we'd better bail before we get there."
"You mean we're going to have to jump?" Edmond yelped.
"Drop and roll, man. You can do it."
As much as Cheryl didn’t like the idea of jumping from a moving train, she agreed that it was time to go. "If they're loading again, they're not going to leave this car empty. So, we'd better get off before the station where we're less likely to be seen."
Diego and Zach elbowed their way to the door and jumped out in tandem. They were followed by Aidan who unceremoniously pushed Deanna's body out of the boxcar and then jumped. Jake and Jordan went next. Then, Mark and Cheryl. Kai pushed Edmond out the door before he leapt.
Some of them remained curled up on the ground as the train chugged on by. They were bruised and battered, but eventually stopped seeing stars and were able to get to their feet. Then, they congregated by Deanna's body.
"Help me drag her to those trees over there." Aidan pointed to a nestling of pines in between some boulders.
Once they had her laid out, he started piling stones on top of her body, and everyone began to help. When the heap was sufficient enough to cover her from bloody head to toe, he paced around, picked up a clump of white flowers that seemed to glow in the moonlight and placed them on top of the pile.
"Going to say anything?" Mark asked.
Aidan paused for a moment and closed his eyes. "She was a tough little cookie…but she had a good heart."
"Amen," Diego said.
And that was it.
They stood around with their heads hung low. Cheryl shivered as a breeze wafted over them, raising goose bumps on her forearms. The train was long gone, but the stench from its rotten passengers lingered on the downwind.
Zach wrinkled his nose. "Where the hell are we?"
There were a lot of shrugs until Jake said, "When we were dumping that blob of Eaters out, we passed a small lake. Could be Lake Montezuma."
"Well…" Mark said. "We made it a little further north then. Too bad we couldn't have gone all the way on that train."
Everyone, especially Aidan, was anxious to move on, and get away from Deanna's grave site, so they decided to hike until they got tired. They skirted around the rail station where the train had docked and kept going for several miles before deciding to camp for the night on the south side of a group of boulders that helped to block the wind.
When Cheryl woke the next morning, her eyes squinted in the bright sunshine. Last night, everything was bumps and shadows, but the daylight revealed the true nature of the landscape. In this alien looking terrain, everything seemed to be on fire. Red sandstone formations shot up like pillars from a Martian landscape, glowing brilliant scarlet and orange. It was gorgeous and yet…there was something menacing about it.
She saw Mark sitting up next to her and asked, "Where are we?"
"Close to Sedona. See that?" He pointed to a massive, red butte on the southern horizon. It was jagged and triangular, like a pyramid shaped by nature.
"That's Bell Rock. Some people say it's a gateway."
"Gateway? To what?"
He didn’t answer, because Jordan called him away to look at a bug bite on his arm; he was worried that he'd been bitten by something worse while he was sleeping.
Cheryl stared at the big red rock in the distance. They'd passed right by it in the enclosed boxcar and hadn't seen it last night, because it was too dark. Sedona. She'd heard of the town but had never been there before. She remembered reading something about the place in a magazine a couple years back. It was said to be a magical place—an area where some sort of vortices converged. Whatever that meant.
Everyone's mood was buoyant that morning. They shared food from their packs for breakfast then began to hike at a good clip. Within a couple of hours, they found themselves inadvertently close to a highway and had to be careful to keep out of sight, because of the traffic. One of the Vultures pulled out his binoculars when he saw a green sign.
"Sedona—1 mile," he said. "Ya think they got any good hot
els? Maybe a spa we could stay at?"
That was met with a round of laughter as Jake ran on ahead of them and scrambled up a bluff. When he reached the pinnacle, he stood still, staring at the city in the distance.
"What do you see?" Mark called up to him.
Jake didn't answer. He stood silent like a statue, like he hadn't heard the question or was in too much awe to find words as the group traipsed up the hill behind him. When they reached the top, he turned around to face them with his AR-15 pointed in their direction.
PART III
Chapter 17
"I didn't think they could do it." Jake said, rubbing his face with his free hand while keeping his gun trained on them. "I didn't fucking think—"
Mark took another step forward. "Do what?"
Jake chuckled. "Build the temple. Connect the vortices." He stepped to his left, and swung his arm out wide, presenting the sight behind him as if it was a gift for them to behold.
Cheryl couldn't believe her eyes.
Down in the valley below, next to a large rock formation, there was a massive foundation and the beginning walls of an immense structure made out of blocks of red sandstone. It's perfectly square shape suggested a pyramid, and she could see hundreds, perhaps thousands of workers swarming around it like colonies of tiny black ants.
"It may have taken the Egyptians hundreds of years to build the pyramids at Giza, but this one will be done in a couple of months. They work day and night. No pain. No fatigue. We feed them our garbage…the dead…and anyone who opposes the mission."
"Eaters?" Mark asked. "You're telling me they have Eaters working—"
"Oh…they're nasty. No doubt about that. But, as long as their bones and tissues hold together, they'll work until they disintegrate. The electromagnetic box we attach to their brains overrides their instinct to attack and allows us to program them to do specific tasks."
"Us?"
Jake lowered his gun for a quick second as he peeled off a patch of fake skin from his palm then held it up, showing them the O.N.E. symbol branded into it.
Diego spat on the ground. "Well…isn't that a fine piece of stink. You're one of them? You son of a bitch!"
"I have all of you to thank," he said, taking a little bow. "Without your help, I don't know if I could have made it this far. The original plan was to turn the helicopter north and land it at a checkpoint near Sedona. Unfortunately, I got caught in the crossfire when they were trying to take out the choppers as they evacuated from the fort. That left me in a bit of a pickle, because just like one of you, I'd have been shot on sight if I'd have tried to approach one of the Wranglers in those trucks driving around."
"Wranglers?"
"The men rounding up new meat for the building project and other needs. They don't ask for your papers or who you are—they're trained to shoot sheep on sight."
Mark's eyes narrowed. His cheeks flamed deep red as his teeth clenched together. "That's what we are to you?"
"If you're not O.N.E., your dispensable sheeple."
Cheryl thought he said it like a rehearsed line, something that must have been drilled into him during meetings with his evil comrades.
Mark's voice cracked. "How could you, man? I mean…we hung out together. We—"
"Oh…you had me worried for a while." Jake cocked his head in a mock show of pity. "Once you told me all your conspiracy theories. You were like a damn bloodhound with all your sniffing around online and putting things together. Too bad you didn't figure out what the bigger picture was."
"And what exactly is that?" Mark spat.
Jake closed his eyes for a moment. Sensing an opportunity, Zach's hand went to the trigger on the rifle hanging at his side.
With his eyes still closed, Jake pointed his weapon at Zach's head. "Throw your guns on the ground or I'll take you all out."
Cheryl and the others reluctantly laid their guns on the ground.
Eyes now open, Jake surveyed the array of weapons. He pointed to Edmond. "Put them by my feet."
Edmond began picking them with trembling hands.
Jake had come prepared. He had an extra duffel bag inside his pack, and he instructed Edmond to put them inside.
"Now…can't you feel it? Can't you feel the energy here?"
No one answered.
"There are ley lines all over the world, connecting sacred places—Mexico, England, Egypt. They cross here, making the vortices spin with cosmic energy." He expanded his chest with a deep breath. "I can feel it vibrating in my cells."
"Vortices…" Zach mumbled. "What's all this mumbo jumbo he's talking about?"
Jake ignored him and continued. "The electromagnetic energy here enhances psychic power. It raises consciousness, moving us closer to the next stage in human advancement. Not everyone is capable of evolving. You're all too stuck in Neanderthal programming, too simple minded to understand the need for population cleansing…"
"You enjoyed your little game didn’t you? You played it so cool." Zach said, still puffed up about the betrayal. "Played us all like a bunch of idiots."
Stop it, Zach. There's no need to push his buttons. Cheryl was struggling to understand what Jake was rambling about. She'd heard about some of that stuff, but his twist on it didn't make sense. After mentally chiding Zach, she couldn't hold her own tongue. "I thought all that supposed energy here was supposed to be a good thing. No one ever talked about the possibility of this area being used for malevolent purposes."
"Only out of chaos comes creation. Seventy percent of the universe is dark energy, sweetheart. To ignore that and only seek the light is the failure of small minds."
"You narcissistic piece of—"
Zach stepped towards Jake, and Cheryl stepped in front of him, holding her hand up. "It's not worth it."
He un-balled his fists as Jake smirked with a look of satisfaction.
"So tell me, friend…" The sense of betrayal vibrated through Mark's voice as his hands twitched at his sides. "Did you have something to do with Fort San Manuel falling?"
Jake beamed, pride puffing up in his chest. "You mean…did I disable some of the alarms, take out some of the guards? Well…as a matter of fact…yes I did. Of course, I had help. You would have been surprised to know how many of us there were inside the fort. Even Colonel Wagner was one of us. Too bad he didn't make it."
They were all speechless, but Cheryl thought Jordan looked the most deflated. He'd been Jake's right hand man since they left Ben and Chip behind. All this time, he'd looked up to the man as both a mentor and a friend. Now that he'd taken off his mask, the ugliness underneath was unbearable. Jake rambled on, seeming to enjoy the misery he was spreading with his revelations.
"All you idiots…scrambling around looking for some clue about how the infection spread…when all the while it was right under your noses."
Mark looked so angry, he seemed ready to tackle the man with his bare hands. "What…are you talking about?"
"Ha! How else could the infection have appeared simultaneously in cities all over the world?" He laughed, beaming like he'd accomplished such an evil act solely on his own.
"Once the scientists at XCGen created the virus, Afghanistan was just the initial laboratory for its distribution. After that, we planted it in every large population center. Thousands of us. It was called The Sowing. It could have been your neighbor, your mother, your best friend.
Mark looked ready to combust.
"What about the vaccine?" Aidan asked. "Was that some kind of hoax too?"
"Another bit of brilliance. We gave it to the military. Then, they unknowingly became our allies as they enacted Martial Law, put quarantines in place, and torched entire buildings filled with the infected…all the while not realizing that they were assisting in an efficient method of population reduction. Now, that we've got our forces in place…we're eliminating them."
"Your own men," Mark scowled. "How could you?"
Jake took a step close to Mark while keeping his gun trained on him. A sly s
mile spread across his face as he whispered, "They've promised me much, my friend…I've known pleasures you could not even fathom—universes of ecstasy." The words made him salivate. Drool dripped down his chin into the peppered forest of his goatee.
Disgusted, Cheryl had to look away. The demoniacal look in his eyes was just too much to bear.
Aidan seemed just as ready to be rid of him. "Go to your harem or your opium den then…or whatever the hell you have waiting for you down there. Just let us go…"
Jake pursed his lips. "I…could. But you might fetch me a pretty sweet reward if I brought you along and sold you as slaves. The EM boxes work on the living too."
Nervous looks crossed their faces.
"Please..." Mark said, lowering himself to the act of begging. "Let us go. We won't try to stop you from going down there. Just let us go on our way."
Jake studied them for a very long anxiety-filled pause before he responded. "I've thought about it…and honestly I don't think you're worth the trouble it would take to march you to the gates of Sedona and try to get you all through there alive."
A breeze of relief washed over Cheryl…for just a second…until she considered that meant he was going to kill them here and now.
Training his gun away from them for the first time, Jake pointed it towards the sky. "I'll give you a stay of execution, but it's only temporary. When I get to the O.N.E. compound, I'll have to tell them where you are, and they'll unleash the hounds of hell to find you."
She sighed a quiet breath of relief. They could be rid of him soon and have a chance to get away.
"By the way…I hope you aren't thinking of going on to Provo." Jake kicked his head back and laughed. " I don't know a soul there. It just sounded like a good ruse to get you up this way."
Bastard.
It was Mark's voice in Cheryl's head. She knew he was close to combusting and throwing himself at Jake. He seethed with so much anger that his body was practically vibrating with it.
But, Jake wasn't through toying with them yet.
"I think…instead of going alone. I think…I'll take just one morsel with me…someone to keep me company on the hike into the New City." He pointed the gun at Cheryl.
Eaters (Book 2): The Resistance Page 22