Glory (Book 3)

by Michael McManamon

  On the way, Adam couldn't help but feeling as though they were lifting the man as they would a king on his throne. Marching him through town. In a parade.

  Except this man wasn't a king. And it wasn't a parade. If anything, this was a funeral. And not a very nice one at that. They were justthrowing the old man out.

  Adam and the women walked to the tree.

  As soon as they arrived, he looked down into the ditch and saw the two old women. They were piled on top of each other in a strange embrace. The woman with half a face was being hugged by the other.

  Adam shook his head. He didn't want to think about these things.

  "On three," he said and started to count.

  They threw the old man onto the pile. The chair went with him and seemed stuck to his body as they flew threw the air.

  Adam watched the man rise and fall. When he hit the ground, the chair came out from underneath him. It rolled a little ways away from the three dead bodies.

  Adam looked at it. He could see the dark stain running across the seat. Then he looked back at the man. He could see the seat of his pants stained too.

  No, he didn't want to think about these things.

  He turned to look at Claire and Jane and felt as though he should say something special over the dead bodies. He simply didn't have the words.

  "Let's go back," was all that he could manage.

  They went back to the cafe and walked into the main room. There were a few stains on the floor. Nothing too bad. Except for half of the woman's face. And the shit.

  "We have to clean those up," Claire said, pointing at them.

  "Let's look for a broom or something," Jane suggested.

  They found a broom and some other cleaning supplies in the back and cleaned up the room. Adam was glad that the others didn't have to see it. Shelly and Robert were too young to have to deal with it. Charles, too old.

  When they were finished, Adam grabbed hold of the the dustpan they had used. "I'm gonna throw this stuff away." He went outside and made his way over to the ditch.

  He looked down at the bodies once again. The three of them still there, lying on top of each other.

  They were probably friends, Adam thought.Lived nearby. Came out for a little coffee when it had all happened.

  He shook his head once more.He had to stop thinking about these things!

  He tossed the garbage into the ditch -half the woman's face, the pile of shit - glad that he wouldn't have to see it anymore. Then he threw the dust pan. He didn't want to see that anymore, either.

  Chapter 3

  Jane woke up in the middle of the night. She had had a good day. Theyallhad. They had had lots of food, played some games that they had found, had been able to relax.

  Now she was on edge. She thought that could hear someone crying.

  She looked around the room. The moonlight shone in through the front window. And there were a few embers glowing in the fire they had started in the stone fireplace. She could see that everyone was there, sleeping on the floor. They had put a few carpets down over the blood and stains. They had found a few knitted blankets.

  The crying continued.

  Jane propped herself up on her elbow. It sounded like a child, but Robert was beside her. His eyes were closed. He was breathing slowly. The new girl, Shelly, was in front of him. She wasn't crying, either.

  Jane continued to look at the other people in the room. All of them were asleep.

  She sat up further. The crying continued.

  Jane wanted to call out to see who it was, but she didn't want to wake the others. Of course, it made sense to wake them.If there was another child around, they should all learn about it.

  Instead, she got to her feet and took a few little steps out of the room. She tried to be as quiet as possible, though the floor creaked underneath her anyway.

  No one stirred.

  Jane went into the hallway and kept listening to the crying. It was coming from upstairs.

  She walked to the end of the staircase. She had been up there earlier. And, aside from a little room and bathroom, there was nothing else.

  She placed her hand on the end of the bannister, then put her foot on the first step.

  She looked up the staircase, but saw nothing in the dark.

  Her legs slowly made their way up a few more steps as the crying continued. The stairs creaked as she did.

  "Hello? Is anyone here?" Jane whispered when she reached the top. She could still hear the crying, but no one answered. "Hello?"

  She took a few steps forward and came upon bathroom door. Adam had closed it earlier and it remained that way now. The crying was coming from the small bedroom.

  She walked toward it and looked inside.

  Her gaze immediately fell upon a child sitting on the edge of the bed. A little girl. Bent over. Her long hair fell down over her face and into her lap. Her legs dangled over the side.

  Jane felt a moment of panic. But she also felt a sense of concern. She wanted to help.

  She took a step forward. "Hello?"

  The crying stopped.

  In the silence, Jane's fear started to grow stronger. This had happened to her before. First in the forest, then in Elsie's room -the girl she had killed.Each time, her daughter had come to her. A dream of the young girl her little Becky would have become.

  She expected to see her little girl's face, expected to see her husband standing somewhere close by.

  She wanted to run, to get back downstairs and wake the others so that they could tell her everything was okay, that it was only her imagination. She wanted to grab hold of Robert and hug him like he did his stuffed animal.

  She did none of these things. She took a step closer and put out her hand to touch the little girl's shoulder. It felt cold. Too cold. Like the bodies she had carried out earlier.

  Jane almost pulled away, but it had gotten into her head that this was something she needed to fight. She couldn't keep having these dreams. She couldn't keep thinking of her daughter and husband like this. She had to get past it, had to move on. She kept her hand where it was.

  "Becky?" she asked. "Is it you?"

  Jane felt the little girl move underneath her grasp. She could feel the little shoulder moving up and down. Then she could hear something different. The little girl wasn't crying anymore. She was laughing.

  Jane pulled her hand back as the little girl's head shot up. Her dark black eyes stared at her.

  "What do you mean, mommy?" Becky asked. "Is itme?" Her lips were covered in blood. It dripped out of her mouth and onto her chin. It fell onto her white nightie.

  Jane couldn't speak. But shedid manage to take a few steps back.

  "Mommy," the little girl continued. "Where are you going? You can't leave me!" She laughed again. As she did, more blood spilled out of her mouth. It burst forth in a spray every time she chuckled.

  Jane felt tears come to her eyes and turned to leave.She couldn't do this anymore.

  Standing behind her was her husband. He stood in the middle of the door. She couldn't see his face, but she knew it was him.

  She screamed in surprise.

  Then, instead of backing away, she felt herself raise her fists and start bashing them against his chest and shoulders. Over and over, she hit her dead husband. He grabbed her wrists and started to laugh along with their daughter.

  When she could fight no longer, Jane pulled away and cowered into a corner. She covered her arms over her face. She didn't want to see them. Not anymore.

  She could hear the blood spurting out of the child's mouth. She could hear her husband coming closer. And closer.

  Jane couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. Her heart was beating quickly. Her body frozen. Eyes closed.

  The laughing continued.

  Then she felt her husband grab her. His fingers wrapped around her wrists.

  She tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let go. She tried to hit him, but she didn't have the strength.

  "Jane," he spoke.
"What's wrong?"

  The voice didn't sound like her husband's, but what did that matter? Her husband had come back from the dead. He had come to haunt her.

  "Jane," her husband continued. "Stop! What's wrong?"

  No matter how different the voice sounded, she couldn't take any chances. She continued to try to break free.

  "Jane, stop. Look at me!"

  Jane finally stopped and opened her eyes. Kneeling down in front of her was Adam. She looked around the room, then at the bed. Her husband wasn't there. Her daughter wasn't there.

  She looked back at Adam.

  Without a word, she started to cry.

  Adam wrapped his arms around her. "What's going on?"

  She couldn't reply.

  He held her for a little while longer, rocking her back and forth. "It's okay. Everything's okay."

  Jane continued to cry, but her sobs became less and less forceful. Eventually, she was able to speak. "I'm sorry," she said. Her face was still pressed into Adam's shoulder.

  Adam moved himself back so that he could get a better look at her. "There's nothing to be sorry about. But what happened? What's wrong?"

  Jane opened her mouth to tell him about everything. About her daughter. About her husband. About the people she had killed. But nothing came out.

  "It's okay," Adam assured her. "Don't worry about it anymore."

  Jane wished that that could be true.

  "Let's go back downstairs. We should try to get some more sleep."

  Jane managed to nod her head.

  Adam helped her up. She kept her face pressed into his shoulder. His arm stayed wrapped around her.

  He led her to the doorway. And, as he did, she took another look at the bed. There was no one there. There never had been.This had to stop!

  They walked to the staircase and went downstairs. Adam kept whispering to her that everything was going to be okay, that she had only had a bad dream.

  Ithad been a bad dream. And she was sure that she'd have it again.

  He led her back into the main room. Everyone remained asleep on the floor. The embers flickered.

  Adam led her to her place right next to Robert. She felt better there. Safer.

  "Now be sure to get some sleep," he told her.

  Jane looked at him. She wanted to reach out and tell him to stay. She wanted him to hold her. Not let her go. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. But, still, she didn't say anything.

  She watched as he went back to his place on the other side of the room. He laid down and gave her a little smile. Then he mouthed the words: "Everything's okay. Get some sleep."

  Jane didn't think that everything was okay. Too much had happened. Too much wasgoing to happen.

  No, it definitely wasn't okay.

  And she was sure that tonight she wasn't going to get any more sleep.

  Day 14

  Chapter 1

  Jane had laid on the floor, but, as she expected, hadn't been able to fall asleep. She had stayed up the whole night listening to the others breathe.

  She had also waited for the little girl to start crying again.That, or for her husband to come into the room and attack her.

  Neither happened. Adam had been right. Everything had been okay.

  She found him alone later that day.

  She had wanted to talk to him earlier, except it had been hard for her to work up the courage. She was embarrassed about what had happened. Plus, she didn't want to talk about it in front of everyone else. She didn't want to frighten them.

  Now he was by himself, looking out over the little ditch.

  She didn't know why he was there. It was a horrible sight. The three dead bodies they had thrown there.Was he thinking of the old folks' lives? Or bigger issues like all of the death and destruction they had seen?She supposed it didn't matter. Sometimes you just couldn't look away from certain things.

  She came up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He nearly jumped into the little ditch, joining the dead bodies.

  "Holy shit!" he swore. "You scared me!"

  She quickly raised her hands and waved them, pleading. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

  "It's...well...it's okay. You just took me off guard. I was just...well…I don't really know what I was just doing."

  "You were looking down there." Jane pointed at the dead bodies.

  Adam glanced back at them. "Yeah, you're right. They're...I don't know. The whole thing kinda fascinates me." Jane gave him an awkward look. "Not that I'm happy about it," he added. "It's just everything that's happened. How so many people have changed. Have become killers. And none of us know why."

  That was true,none of them knew why.

  "I'm sorry that I startled you," she said. "I wanted to talk to you. To apologize."

  "About what?"

  "Last night."

  The images came back to Jane as she spoke. She pictured her daughter laughing, her husband grabbing at her wrists. She turned her head and looked up at the bedroom window and shivered. Then she turned back to Adam. He was looking at her, his eyes concentrating on her.

  "It's okay," he said. "It happens to all of us."

  Jane wasn't sure what he was talking about.What happens to all of them? Dreams about loved ones? Did he have them too?

  "We're all scared," he explained. "It's normal."

  She wanted him to say more about it, to tell her that everything was going to be okay.

  Instead, he asked her a question. "Why were you up there, anyway?"

  She turned her gaze back to the bedroom window. "Why was I up there? It's just…I…I thought I heard a noise."

  "You thought you heard a noise? What did it sound like?"

  Like crying. She couldn't tell him that. She didn't want him to think that she had lost her mind.

  "I don't know," she said. "Like a creaking or something."

  "It was probably just the house making sounds. It's an old house. They do that."

  "Yeah, you're probably right."

  Adam took a step closer to her, put out his hand and rubbed it along her arm.

  "You're okay now," he said.

  He smiled and walked back into the house.

  As Jane watched him go, she raised her hand and put it on her arm, on the spot where he had touched her. His touch had been nice. Warm. Comforting. She rubbed her fingers over it as the corners of her mouth lifted into a slight smile.

  Chapter 2

  Adam walked back to the cafe, thinking about Jane. Last night had been weird. He still wasn't sure why she had gone upstairs. Sure, she had said that she had heard a noise. But that didn't explain why he had found her huddled in a corner, crying. There had to be something more to it.

  Life had changed, that much he knew. They had all seen things that no one should have had to see, done things that no one should have had to do. And Jane might be having a hard time coming to grips with that.

  Maybe that's all it was.

  He thought about going back to ask her.Tell me what's wrong, he could say. But he didn't want to push it. As with Claire, they had just met and he didn't feel comfortable trying to get her to open up.

  He could ask her later. Hewould ask her later. They all needed to stick together. To help each other. And Adam was pretty sure that Jane needed help.

  He had actually known it from the moment that they had met. There was just something unsettling about her. She was too quiet; too protective of the little boy.

  Yeah, she needed help and he'd make the time to talk to her.

  Adam turned around once he reached the cafe. He looked over his shoulder and glanced back at Jane. She was still there, looking down into the little ditch. The one with the three dead old bodies. The one thathe had been looking at earlier.

  He wasn't sure why he had been looking at it in the first place, and he didn't know why Jane was doing it now. He couldn't see her face, so he didn't know if she was crying or laughing or just staring.

  Maybe he should go back and talk to her now…

>   Later,he decided. There were too many things going through his mind. Too many things that he needed to sort out first. He wanted to check on Shelly. He wanted to talk to Claire.

  He turned back to the cafe and entered. Shelly and Claire were sitting inside, playing a game of cards.

  "I'm winning!" Shelly said, happily.

  "You've gotten lucky a few times," Claire offered in defence.

  Adam went and stood beside them. He didn't know what game they were playing. And, at the moment, he wasn't too interested.

  "Where are Charles and Robert?" he asked.

  "Outside," Claire replied. "I think Robert was getting a little bored in here. They went out back."

  The cafe was big, though Adam could imagine that itwould be boring for a little boy.

  "And where wereyou?" Claire asked.

  "I was out front, talking to Jane."

  As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt a little uncomfortable telling them that - especially with all that had happened last night. He didn't want to tell them his concerns, yet. Not until he thought about them more and had a chance to talk to her about them.

  "What about?"

  "I think she had a bad dream last night," Adam explained. He left it at that.

  "Is she okay?" Claire, herself, had had bad dreams lately. She knew how upsetting they could be.

  "I don't know. I think so."

  "Is she still out there?"

  "Yeah."

  "What's she doing?"

  He wasn't going to tell them that she was looking at the dead bodies. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders. It felt like he was telling them a lie. And he hated that. But, for all he knew, Jane had moved away from the ditch.

  "I'm sure she'll be all right," Claire assured him. "Now, let's get back to this game." She threw down a card.

  Shelly looked at it. But before the young girl played, she spoke, "You know, I like Jane. She's really nice." Her mouth was hiding behind a row of cards, but it was obvious that she was smiling.

  She's really nice.

  Adam had no doubt that Jane was nice. But that didn't mean that she was safe to be around. And that's what bothered him the most.

  Chapter 3