by Megan Duncan
Chapter 11
I was completely dumbfounded, and at a loss for words. What to say to something like that, I wasn’t entirely sure.
“What gave him the idea that sacrificing yourselves would work? How is that even part of a normal thought process?” Max asked, clearly not holding back any inflection of disdain.
“Before the demons came, my husband was a professor. He used to study ancient cultures and customs. I believe that he lost all sense of humanity when he saw our son die, and was willing to do anything… he used to be a brilliant man.”
“Yeah… really damn brilliant,” Taya snapped. Judy looked away; obviously ashamed. I probably should have said something to Taya, but she was right. She had the balls to say what I couldn’t. It wasn’t Judy’s fault that her husband completely snapped, and turned into a total nutcase. I remembered the bandage I had seen on her arm at dinner, and realized that she too must have made the sacrifice her husband demanded.
I did not know what it could possibly feel like to lose a child, and the sense of loss that must accompany it, but I did know what I felt when I thought I was going to lose Carter and Max. I would have done anything to save them, and I suppose I did. Even though I had already come to the conclusion that I was justified, and much as I tried to fight it, I once more relived the moment that I pulled the trigger and shot Jerry in the head. The sound of the bullet hitting his flesh made the hair on my arms stand on end. I had never killed anyone before, we had always focused solely on defending ourselves from the demons, and it had never occurred to me that we would have to defend ourselves from anyone else. Then I remembered the sick feeling in my gut when I saw Carter fall to the floor and the crazed look I saw in John’s eyes. I realized I would have killed them all if I had to, and that realization made me want to vomit. Was I as bad as they were? If I lost Carter or Max would I turn into John?
“Abby, what’s wrong? You’re shaking,” Max asked with a concerned look in his eyes.
I immediately felt deeply sorry for him. He had gone through more than I had, and he was more concerned about me, just like he always was. “I’m just freaked out, Max. That was a really close call. What are we going to do now?”
“We’re going to keep going,” Carter said startling all of us, his voice sounding hoarse. Taya told him not to speak, and when he seemed to fall back to sleep she looked out the window. Her brow wrinkled as she scowled at the landscape, making her look a lot older.
Max sighed and pulled out the map from the glove box. “Where are we exactly?”
“There is a sign coming up,” I said.
“Hmm… Shiprock, New Mexico. Well, at least we made it to New Mexico, right?”
I forced a smile for him - he always was such an optimist. He had always tried to lighten the mood through sarcasm or humor. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but the fact that he always tried was one of the things that made me love him.
“I’m not too good with math, but I would say we’re about four hundred miles away.”
“Thank, God. So, when will we get there? Tonight?” Taya asked sounding eager.
“Maybe. If we don’t hit too many big cities that slow us down, it is possible.”
“Where are we going?” Judy asked from the back of the Bronco.
“New Mexico,” Taya answered, as if the question were directed to her. I let her go on with it anyway. She and Carter had grown close and I knew he had probably talked her ear off about all his plans. “There is a military base there that has established a resistance. Haven’t you heard any of the transmissions?”
Judy nodded solemnly. “John believed that the transmissions were a ploy used by the demons to lure humans there. He ordered us to destroy all the radios to rid ourselves of the temptation. He said to listen to them was to let the demons into your heart, and corrupt your mind with a false sense of safety.”
“And you all just destroyed the radios, no questioned asked?” I said.
“Some of us refused, but in the end the radios were destroyed anyway,” Norah added flatly.
“Sounds like you were part of some kind of cult,” Taya commented. “Why would you stay there?”
“What other choice do we have? What would you have us do? Walk around aimlessly in this warzone, waiting for the next demon to pick us off?”
I could see Taya on the verge of losing her temper; my brother would get the same expression on his face when he got upset. So, I nodded to Max to say something to calm them down.
Max turned in his seat to face everyone. “Listen, it doesn’t really matter, does it? We’re all here now, and there is nothing any of us can do about any of that. The only thing any of us needed to worry about is getting to the base and doing everything we can to send all these demons back to where they came from. Now, do you know any of what John learned from that thing while he had it locked up?”
“Not much. It would only speak of one thing, repeating it over and over,” Judy said with fear rippling through her voice.
“Wait, who?” I asked, shocked of what I thought she just said.
“The demon.”
“They talk?” Max blurted what I was thinking.
“Yes, like I said. When it spoke it would say only one thing and one thing only.”
“Well, what would it say?” Taya asked sounding as equally shocked as the rest of us.
“John called it the prophecy. The demon said, “The day has come when God looked unto his creations and wept, for they had forsaken him. In his misery he shall turn from mankind and abandon them to the fate, they so earned. The Devil, Satan, King of Hell, most powerful seeker of souls will open his gates and release his minions unto the land. Then shall there be darkness. Then shall there be pain and misery as the world has never seen. As the enemy of the righteous devours the lost souls of the earth, he will take his throne and rule the land for all eternity.”
Judy spoke the words woodenly, but I could sense the fear she was holding back. I quickly looked to Taya who was whispering a prayer to herself. The prophecy that her mother used to tell her, was spoken by a demon. The thought chilled the air around me and I saw Max squeezing his mother’s gold cross in his hand so hard his knuckles were white.
“I’ve heard that before,” Taya said softly. “My mother used to tell me that, but I thought she was just superstitious. Even after seeing the demons attacking people I still couldn’t believe that such a thing could happen.”
I could sense that Taya felt guilty for thinking her mother was crazy. I wanted to say something to comfort her, but couldn’t.
We drove onward in silence, stopping only when we had to go to the bathroom and once more for Max to empty the remaining gas tanks we had to refill the Bronco.
“Do you really think it’s true, Max? That the devil really is on earth?” I asked Max after he relieved me from driving as we headed into Albuquerque.
“As much as it doesn’t make sense, it does make sense. I haven’t even wrapped my head around it, yet, I don’t think.”
“Kind of makes it hard to think that there is a way to beat this, knowing that the Devil himself is out there.”
I didn’t want to sound like such a downer, but Judy had dropped a pretty damn big bomb on us. One would think that if the world were being devoured by demons, you might mention that you have one locked up in your basement and maybe even throw in the fact that it talks!
“Don’t think like that, Abs. We will find a way. We’ve done pretty well so far. With the exception of the last escapade of course, but that wasn’t entirely our fault. We were on guard against demons; we didn’t think we would have to worry about other people attacking us with an apocalypse going on.”
Judy looked up for a moment, no doubt she wanted to protest any negative comments about her crazy husband, but she thought better and kept her mouth shut.
I gave Max my best impression of his famous devilish grin and propped my feet up on the dash. The whites of my converse sneakers were scuffed and d
irty, so I attempted to give them a good shining with my thumb and some good old-fashioned saliva to help pass the time.
“He’s right,” Norah said, almost to herself. I was going to ask who she was talking about, because so much time had passed since anyone had said anything.
“Of course I am,” Max said, returning a smile back at me, relishing in the fact that someone admitted he was right. We giggled as we heard Carter moan in protest. Taya then let out a quick laugh, even though it was obvious she had tried to prevent it, and Carter gave a weak smile before closing his eyes again.
Making our way through town had been easier than it had been anywhere else. Max attributed it to the fact that we were so close to the military base, and was determined this was a result of so many people making their way to safety. A statement that seemed to perk up Carter quite a bit, making him much more coherent.
“I used to really want to visit New Mexico… before everything happened,” Norah said, trying to make conversation.
“Why is that?” Taya asked in a tone so friendly it almost surprised me, but I figured spending the last few hours with Carter snuggled up against her put her feelings of jealousy to rest.
“I was really into astronomy, spirituality, and the whole extraterrestrial bit. I wanted to take a trip across the United States one day and visit all the major spots like Area 51, Roswell and Sedona.” When no one said anything she started to look embarrassed that she had said anything. Laughing at herself a little she said, “Sounds stupid now, though.”
“No, it’s not stupid. I don’t think you’re stupid. I was just trying to figure out why you would want to visit Sedona,” Taya said.
“Oh, well, Sedona is likely one of the most spiritual locations in the country. It’s full of powerful, and amazing energy vortexes.”
Visibly attempting to hold back on her enthusiasm, Norah then gave us a full account of her cross-country journey to any and every popular point of supernatural or paranormal events. I had always found such topics extremely boring, but the passion in her voice had piqued my interest. To hear someone talk about something they cared so much about; made me slightly envious. There was nothing I particularly excelled at, and nothing that I felt I was that passionate about. I mean there were a lot of things I enjoyed, but nothing that I would drive cross country to go after.
“Shit!” Max exclaimed slamming his hands on the steering wheel as the Bronco shuddered to a halt.
“What happened?” He’d startled me as well as everyone else in the Bronco and we all took on expressions of instant panic. Max jumped out of the Bronco as clouds of white smoke starting seeping out from under the hood.
Taya started panicking first, repeating “Oh my God” over and over, while the younger girl that Judy had been mothering started bawling. Carter attempted to get out to help find out what was wrong, but he wouldn’t be any help with one eye nearly swollen shut, so I ordered him to stay while I jumped out. Then I thought that even if Carter’s eye wasn’t swollen he probably wouldn’t be able to help much anyway, the boy didn’t know a thing about cars. In fact, he knew even less than I did, which wasn’t much at all.
The stifling heat of the late afternoon sun hit me hard and I quickly yanked my hair into a ponytail as I rounded the front of the Bronco. Max had the hood up and was using his shirt to attempt to open the valve to the radiator.
“Damn this thing is hot.”
“What do you think is wrong with it?”
“What happened?” Taya called from inside the Bronco.
“Just sit tight!” Max called out to her. “Abby I need you to get back in the Bronco and keep everyone calm, okay? Can you do that for me?”
The concern in his voice made me worry. “Yeah, okay.” I turned to walk away and looked back at him. “Can you fix it?”
Max didn’t say a word cause the expression on his face said it all, we were doomed.
“What’s wrong with the engine?” Carter asked immediately as I got back in the car. The coolness from the air conditioner was already starting to dissipate.
“Max is taking a look at it. So, how are you feeling?” I asked trying to change the subject.
“I feel like I got my ass kicked. Now tell me what’s wrong with the Bronco.” Carter’s short temper was starting to flare up and I knew he wasn’t going to drop it until I told him what he wanted to know. I reflected briefly on how I thought he would probably make a perfect cop. He was always so pushy and cocky, just like every cop I had ever met.
“It doesn’t look good,” I said, trying to speak it in a whisper because I didn’t want everyone to panic, but it was futile. Even whispers weren’t quiet enough when everyone is confined in one vehicle like a bunch of sardines.
I heard Judy take a deep breath and then she opened the trunk door in one smooth movement. “We will have to walk the rest of the way then.”
“What? Are you crazy?” Taya asked flipping around in the back seat to face her.
“What other choice do we have?”
Taya growled in frustration and turned around to kick the back of the empty driver’s seat like a child having a temper tantrum.
“Okay. Everybody calm down for a second. Abby where are we?” Carter asked.
“Umm...” I frantically grabbed the map doing my best not to rip it, and stared at it trying to remember the name of the city we had just driven through. “We just left Las Cruces not too long ago. It’s about another fifty miles or so to the military base.”
“Fifty miles, okay, we can do that.” Carter clapped his hands. “Okay, everyone pack only what you can carry and make it quick we need to move out.”
I helped Judy pack what we had left of our food and water into one bag, while Taya rushed to every nearby car hoping to find one that would start. When she eventually gave up, she resigned herself to trying to block the sun by making some sort of umbrella using car antennas, and some kind of wind breaker jacket she had ripped up.
I found Max standing alone about twenty feet from the Bronco with his back to me. His arms were crossed and he was staring intently at the imposing mountain side lining the distant city of Las Cruces. We didn’t speak at first. We just stood next to each other in a comfortable silence.
“We are only about fifty miles from the base. That’s not too bad, right?”
“Well, look at you trying to be all optimistic,” he said, smiling down at me.
“You got a problem with that?” I asked with a sarcastic, yet playful tone.
“Nope, no problem at all. Although I was thinking that if you just stood along the road and flashed those nice legs of yours maybe someone would give us a ride.” He looked at me then and waggled his eyebrows.
“Ha! Never going to happen,” I said as I playfully punched him in the arm. Max suddenly stole a kiss and the scruff of his unshaven face poked my chin, making me giggle. He grabbed the baseball cap out of my hand and slapped it on my head.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Are you?” I countered.
~