The Bad Country

by Hervey Copeland

  “But David, they are Devil worshippers!” Mary looked at him, the incomprehension moulded to her face like a clay mask.

  David turned his head slightly so he could see her face. Then he sighed and closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and looking her in the eye.

  “I know they are. And I think it’s absolutely horrible. But the thing is, as long as they’re not engaging in any illegal activities, no one can refuse them to practice their religious beliefs.”

  David took a few steps forward and started studying the surrounding area more closely.

  “David!” Mary hissed and started pulling at his jacket sleeve. “What do you think you’re doing? We’re getting out of here right now, before we run into anyone.”

  David put his hand over his wife’s and removed it gently without taking his eyes off the building.

  “Yes, in a minute,” he said. “I just want to have a quick look around first.

  Mary glared at him as if he had just struck her across the face. Then she stepped in front of him. Her face was colourless, her eyes wide and her mouth trembling at the corners.

  “No, you are not! We are leaving right now. I don’t want to spend another second in this horrible place.”

  David took a deep breath and averted his wife’s eyes. Then he put a hand behind his neck and started rubbing it.

  “Yes, we are going to leave. I just want to walk around to the other side first and have a quick look. After I’ve done that, I’ll come right back again and we can walk back to the B&B.”

  He let the hand on his neck drop to his side and looked at her.

  “I’m not going to let some silly devil worshippers intimidate me. It’s like you said a few moments ago. This is a public park, and we’ve got every right to be here. If they think that their stupid sign is going to send me running away with my tail between my legs, they’re sadly mistaken. You can wait here if you don’t want to come, but I’m not leaving until I’ve had a closer look at the place.”

  Mary stared at him without saying anything. She knew she wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it. There was something in his eyes that told her it would be a waste of time even trying. But why was it so important for him to have a look around? What was it he was hoping to achieve by doing so, other than upsetting the mother of his unborn child? She turned away from him and looked down at the ground. She knew that David always got his way if he really wanted something. It had been like that from day one, and it was something she had learned to accept.

  A sense of helplessness came over her, and she cast a quick glance over her shoulder at the building behind her. Then she stepped aside. It was better just to get it over and done with, instead of wasting any more time arguing about it. Hopefully it would only take a minute or so.

  “OK, I’ll come with you,” she said just barely above a whisper. “I’m not going to stay here all by myself. But I want you to promise that it will only be a quick look. I’m not going to spend any more time here than I absolutely have to.”

  David nodded.

  “I promise. A minute from now we’ll be on our way back to the B&B. I just want to have a quick look.”

  Mary held his gaze for a few seconds and nodded. Then she turned around.

  “Ok, you lead the way.”

  They moved slowly up to the front of the building, while casting careful glances around them. They hadn’t seen anyone after leaving their room, but that didn’t mean there weren’t anyone around. And even though they weren’t doing anything wrong, and even though it wasn’t illegal to worship the devil, they both had an uneasy feeling about the building and what it represented. It was the anathema of everything they themselves stood for. Everything they despised, such as greed, hatred and selfishness were worshipped inside the building in front of them.

  The path ended at the entrance area, where a big oak door with large iron hinges that almost went from one end of the door to the other secured it to its frame. There was a small rectangular noticeboard attached to the wall next to the door, but there were no messages tacked to its black base.

  David went over to one of the four windows that were facing them, but was unable to peer inside due to the thick black curtains that were pulled shut. He stepped back and shot Mary a quick look before walking over to the right hand corner of the building and started making his way toward the back of the property.

  Mary could feel her heart hammering away inside her chest, and she noticed that she had begun to sweat. Something inside her brain was telling her that this was a bad idea and that they should turn around and leave this place and never return.

  She felt a strong urge to grab David and tell him how she felt, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop him, so instead she put her hand up to her forehead and wiped away the perspiration that had accumulated there. It was forty five degrees outside tops, and a cold breeze to boot, but even so she was sweating profusely. She knew the weather had nothing to do with it. It was the building along with everything it represented that made her feel this way, and it scared her to the bones.

  The shock that had shaken Mary to the core a couple minutes earlier, was a mere drop in the ocean compared to the shock she received when she stepped around the back of the building a few moments later. She froze and felt her body go completely numb. The only organs that seemed to be working were her lungs, which quickly sucked in a big lump of air into her body, then held it there. All her other senses seemed to have gone into a hibernation state, and her brain was incapable of accepting what her eyes were telling her.

  She didn’t know how long she stood there paralysed, but she suspected it couldn’t have been more than ten or twenty seconds. The thing that eventually snapped her out of it was David forcefully shaking her arm and pulling her back toward the corner of the building. She turned around and saw his face had taken on the unmistakable characteristics of someone who has just received a tremendous shock.

  Then her brain returned to its normal operating level, and she was able to process the information. A loud piercing cry escaped her, but it was cut short when David placed his hand over her mouth and pressed it tightly against her lips. The only thing he was able to say was ‘shhhhh’.

  Noises were still coming out of her mouth, but they were muted and didn’t carry very far. And when she realised what he was trying to achieve, the screams stopped and were replace by sobs and gasps.

  “I’ll remove my hand, but you have to promise not to scream.” David’s face was ashen and he was shaking so badly she hardly recognised his voice.

  “D.. do yo..you promise?”

  Mary looked at him wide eyed and managed to nod her head. Moments later she felt the hand covering her mouth disappear. She remained silent, her gaze inextricably drawn toward the scene that had caused the violent reaction, the eight large wooden crosses driven into the lush ground and the five dead bodies that had been nailed to them.

  “Oh my god,” was the only thing she was able to say when she finally began speaking. She put her own hand over her mouth to stifle a new scream that was threatening to force its way out of her throat. Then she felt tears well out of her eyes and run down her cheeks. Her tummy was twitching and jerking every time she inhaled and exhaled, and breathing all of a sudden became a real struggle.

  The crosses formed a circle roughly ten yards in diameter. They were at least twelve feet from top to bottom, and the lifeless bodies attached to them almost seemed to hover in the air. Mary managed to turn away from the gruesome scene, but she knew that it had etched itself onto her brain, and that she would never be able to erase it. She was upset with herself for not having looked away sooner, because once she had established that the individuals were deceased, there had been no reason to keep staring. And she had known that they were dead the moment she laid eyes on them.

  There were three males and two women. They were all dressed in ordinary clothes, as if they had been yanked off the street, brought out here and crucified. One of the males
still had a hat on his head. Big black rivets had been driven through their wrists and feet, just as the Romans had done to Jesus when he was pinned to the cross in Nazareth almost two thousand years earlier. Their heads were bent forward; chins practically touching their chests, making it appear like their necks had been snapped in half. The areas where the rivets had punctured their veins were caked in coagulated blood, which led Mary to suspect that they must have died from blood loss. She pressed her eyes shut and thought about what a slow and gruesome death it must have been. Then she prayed with all her heart that the lord had allowed them to enter his kingdom, and that they were at peace now.

  “The Satanists are crucifying people,” David whispered, his voice trailing off. “I just cannot believe it.” Then after a brief pause to try to compose himself he added;

  “What kind of horrible place is this?”

  He turned around and grabbed Mary’s arm, and he did it with such force that Mary actually winced. His face revealed that he was still terrified, but she also noticed that there was something else in there. It was a basic survival instinct. It must have been activated when he realised what had taken place here. And right now Mary guessed it was telling him that they needed to leave, which brought home a very unpleasant fact, a fact that she up until then hadn’t even considered. Whoever had killed these people could also kill her and David. In fact it was probably very high up on their list of priorities if they wanted to avoid spending the rest of their lives behind bars.

  “We have to get the hell out of here and contact the police right away. This is a major crime scene,” David said.

  Then he turned around and started dragging Mary away from the backyard, and he didn’t stop until they were behind the end wall. There he stopped, let go of her arm and carefully poked his head around the corner again, and studied the scene one more time.

  “Do you think there is anyone here?” Mary whispered nervously. She was standing with her back pressed up against the side of the building, staring at his back and trying desperately to get her breathing under control again. The images of the dead people were still dancing in front of her eyes.

  She saw David lift his hand, indicating that she should remain quiet. When he pulled his head back from the corner, he shook his head.

  “Well, if there are, I can’t see them. I’m also pretty confident that there aren’t any people inside that building.”

  He nodded toward the dense tree line.

  “We’ll have to hide amongst the trees if anyone shows up though.”

  Mary wiped the tears away from her face with the back of her hand.

  “Why would anyone do such a horrible thing?” she asked. “What kind of depraved souls would want to crucify other human beings, and leave them to die on a cross?”

  David puffed his cheeks and shook his head.

  “People with absolutely no morals or mental boundaries,” he said after a while. “The kind of people who worship evil.”

  David put his hands on her shoulders, squeezed them tightly and looked her in the eye.

  “How are you feeling? Are you able to walk?”

  Mary took a few deep breaths and nodded.

  “Yes, I’ll be ok.”

  David kept looking at her for a few more seconds.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I am. Let’s get as far away from this place as possible.”

  David removed his hands and was about to walk over to the corner again and give the area one more sweep to make sure the coast was clear, when they heard a noise coming from somewhere at the front of the building. They both froze. David was about a foot away from the corner, Mary a few feet behind him, still leaning up against the wall and holding her breath. And at that moment she felt like she was going to lose it.

  Someone had exited the building, and in a few seconds that someone would walk around the corner and see the two of them hiding there. And that someone would also be very aware of the fact that there were dead people nailed to big wooden crosses in the backyard. Odds were also pretty high that that someone had been involved in the killings, and perhaps even held the hammer that had driven the rivets through the victim’s flesh.

  These thoughts were bombarding Mary’s brain, but they were momentarily interrupted when David grabbed her by the arm again and began pulling her along toward the back of the building. And it all happened so quickly that she didn’t have time to think about the horrible sight that awaited them there. She just let herself be pulled along. Then when they cleared the corner, her brain slowly started to kick back into normal mode again. The fear of what was about to happen triggered a reaction that doused her system with adrenaline, and all of a sudden she was no longer being pulled along by David, but was sprinting along the back wall all by herself.

  She felt the presence of the bodies, but she didn’t look at them. Nor did she let it affect her. There was only one goal in her mind at that moment, and that was making it over to the tree line at the other end of the backyard, before whoever had just exited the building managed to catch a glimpse of them.

  She looked over at the trees and felt helplessness well over her. They had to be at least fifty yards away, and even if she ran for dear life it would take her a good ten seconds or so to get there. How long would it take the person to walk around to the back of the building? Would ten seconds be enough?

  David was a few yards ahead of her, having just reached the halfway point of the building. He was way faster than her, and she knew he would reach the trees three or four seconds before her. Watching him run away ahead of her set off something inside her head, but she couldn’t quite determine whether it made her upset or not.

  Was he leaving his pregnant wife in the lurch, or was he simply doing the sensible thing and trying to save himself? She immediately scolded herself for thinking along those lines. He wasn’t leaving her behind; he was only doing his utmost not to get caught, just like she was. Slowing down just to stay abreast with her made zero sense, and it would only increase the odds of both of them getting caught.

  She saw the trees getting closer, but o so slowly. She could feel her desperation rising and she knew it would soon transform itself into full blown panic if she didn’t focus a hundred percent on what she had to do. So she swept all the negative thoughts aside and kept pressing on, and realised that she was only ten yards away from the corner of the building now. Then it was only five yards away, and then she was there.

  She immediately veered to the left and disappeared behind the end wall and knew she was safe, at least for the time being. Ahead of her, she could see that David had reached the tree line. She could also see that he had turned around and was facing her, waving his hand frantically for her to hurry up. She reached the spot a few seconds later, and both of them hurried deeper in among the trees.

  After having covered twenty yards or thereabouts, David ushered her behind a tall fir tree, before he himself moved a few yards to the right and slid behind another one. Then they stood there absolutely still, hoping that whoever had come out of the building hadn’t noticed them.

  Mary kept her back pressed tightly against the tall pine tree. Her head was spinning and she had her eyes closed, desperately trying to slow down her respiration. She was drenched in sweat and her tummy hurt like crazy. She put a hand on top of it, hoping that the strenuous exercise and the shock hadn’t caused any damage to the little person she was carrying around in there.

  Then she opened her eyes and turned her head ever so slightly, and saw that David was standing crouched behind a tree, palms resting against the bark and facing the building. The sight scared her and she wanted to shout to him to get his head back behind that tree again, and not give the person or persons who had come to check what was going on an opportunity to discover them. But instead of screaming she turned away from him again and started praying to God that nothing would happen to them. She was mouthing the words silently until she heard the deep voice calling out to the empty landscape, asking if an
yone was there.

  Mary’s body tensed, and once again she found herself holding her breath. The person could be no more than thirty or forty yards away, and he was more than likely looking in their direction. What would they do if he started walking in among the trees and found them hiding there?

  A few seconds passed, and then the person called out again. And judging by the volume of his voice, she could tell that he was closing the gap. Her body involuntarily jerked, and she could hear the sound of her heart beating like a giant bass drum in her chest. She had to focus all her willpower on standing absolutely still. One careless movement could cause a noise that would alert the man of their presence and give away their positions. And that would be the end of the line for both of them. In her head, she was pleading with the man to turn around and go back inside the building again. Just turn around, close the door and stay put until they could contact the police.

  Then there was nothing but silence. She strained her ears, but she could hear no sounds. No footsteps, nor branches being pushed aside or twigs being stepped on. Nor was she able to sense the person’s presence, something she knew she would have been able to do if he had gotten any closer.

  The feeling of having dodged a bullet started to wash over her and she was able to relax a little. Then after what seemed like forever, she finally worked up the courage to turn her head and look over at David. He too had turned away from the building, and was now standing with his back against the tree.

  He had seen her turn her head and was looking at her, mouthing some soundless words with his lips at the same time as he was pointing with his head toward the building.

  Mary was unable to understand what he was trying to say, so she just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. David closed his eyes for a second or two and nodded. Then he took a few deep breaths, and very slowly turned his head around again and gazed out furtively toward the building.

  Mary felt another shot of adrenaline hit her system, and once again she felt a strong urge to scream at him to pull his head back behind the tree again. To let him know that it was highly likely that the person was still looking in their direction. But all that came out of her mouth was a muted plea for him to stay put.