I think understood what he meant. We had been making life and death choices everyday for the past month.
It never got any easier.
"We understand," I said. "That’s basically how things got out of hand back at the farmhouse. We made the choice to raid a town for supplies. The town was overrun with infected. We knew this going in. But that was the risk we took. Unfortunately it backfired on us. Nearly cost us our lives."
"And I don’t think we’ve thanked you enough," Maria added. "I mean, everything happened so quickly. And then we were locked up. And we understand you had your reasons and all but it hasn’t given us a lot of time to show how grateful we are. We’d be more than happy to help out around here for a few days."
The priest was silent. I got the feeling that he wasn’t listening to us at all.
The bald man stood behind the priest, watching us. Ed on the other hand was looking at the ground. Now that I look back on this messed up situation, I realize that Ed never raised his head and he never once made eye contact with us.
"I feel as though I need to explain what you saw today," the priest said. "The feeding. The sacrifice. And make no mistake, it was a sacrifice. Those women, they gave us everything."
Ed continued to stare at the ground. I thought I saw a tear roll down his cheek. But it was dark so I couldn’t be sure.
"In any normal circumstance," the priest continued. "The dead are honored; provided they have led good lives and are decent human beings. They are buried or cremated and sent off to the next world with unconditional love. I need you to understand that we do not have the luxury of burying our dead. We must survive. We must sacrifice what we love the most. Do you understand what a sacrifice is?"
He didn’t wait for us to answer.
"A sacrifice; it’s giving up something you love, something beautiful. All life is sacred. Those women today, they were no different. They were sacred, beautiful. They were loved unconditionally. Their deaths cannot, and will not be in vain. Feeding the demons. Sacrificing our people. We did not come to this decision lightly. You must understand; it is the only way to survive."
The priest then left without saying another word. Ed followed. The bald man told us they were going to interview the guys first but they would be back very soon. He told us to drink up. He then locked the one and only door to the basement.
Various colored glow sticks were scattered around the room, giving a faint light.
"Wow. He’s mad,’ I said. "He’s completely lost it."
"Come on, he’s been through a lot," Maria said. "I mean, we all have. But he’s a priest. He’s probably questioning his faith. He probably thinks this is the end of days or something."
"Yeah, I guess. I don’t know. It’s just this whole situation, this town. These people. They’re weird. They’re feeding monsters with dead people for crying out loud. That ain’t normal."
"Nothing is normal anymore," Maria reminded me.
Maria handed me the water and I took a big gulp. "Water is just the greatest thing in the world. Although it kinda tastes funny."
"Who cares, I’m just glad we’ve got water. Another day on our own and we would’ve all died of thirst. I’ve heard of people who go hiking out in the bush. They get lost, run out of water. Dehydration sets in, and their brain’s stop working. They get disorientated and confused. They can’t think, they can’t talk. This one guy, a school kid who was out on a field trip in the Blue Mountains. He got separated. Lost. In the middle of nowhere. He had a cell phone on him and actually made it to the top of a hill and got reception. He called the emergency services, but because he was so dehydrated, he couldn’t talk properly, he didn’t know where he was. He didn’t even know his own name. It was terrifying. That could’ve been us."
It was us, I thought. We were all starting to make bad choices. Even Kenji. Even Daniel. There’s no doubt about it, we got lucky. If these people hadn’t shown up, we would’ve died of thirst or have been eaten by the infected horde.
"OK, so it’s not all bad. Sure, they’ve given us water. And being inside sure as hell beats being out in the desert. But I’ve still got a bad feeling about this whole set up. The way they hung up those women. Feeding them to those monsters. That ain’t right. I don’t care what the alternative is. It’s just… it’s messed up."
"Yeah it’s messed up. Everything is messed up."
"And why is the priest is interviewing us?"
"Like he said, he’s trying to figure out if we’re lying or whatever," Maria offered.
"Nah, I think he’s trying to figure out if we’d be useful. He’s trying to figure out if he can use us in any way."
"Use us?"
"Yeah. Like, as bodyguards or whatever."
"I don’t know if I’d be any good as a bodyguard."
"Me neither. But another thing that is really starting to freak me out. Of the few people I’ve seen here, I’ve only seen men."
"What are you saying?"
"I’m saying, where the hell are all the women? Where are the girls? Why are there only men in this messed up town?"
"I don’t know. Maybe the women are hiding somewhere else?"
"And look," I said, pointing to the kid’s toys on the ground, and the pictures obviously drawn by kids. "Where the hell are all the kids?"
"Well, we’ve been locked up," Maria offered as she took another drink of water. "We’ve only seen a handful of people. Maybe the rest are living in a different part of town."
"Where?"
"I don’t know. Maybe they’re hiding in the basement of the town hall or something?"
"I don’t know. It’s just weird. The priest, he’s a total freakin psycho. I’m convinced he’s lost his mind. And they way he was talking to Daniel and Kenji, like he was trying to get them to join him. He knows they’re soldiers. So he knows they’ve got survival training and all that stuff. That’s why he wants them."
"What are you saying? You think he’s gonna keep Daniel and Kenji and get rid of us? You think he’s only sacrificing or feeding women and children to that monster thing because they’re not as strong as men?"
I didn’t answer Maria because what she said sounded ridiculous and downright terrifying.
Feeding women and children to a monster?
No way.
But we just saw it with our own eyes, I thought. Two women. One was alive for crying out loud.
Alive and screaming.
But it was just a coincidence, right? The dreadlocked woman was already dead. And the other woman was infected as well, or mortally wounded or something.
It was just a coincidence, right?
"What do you think he's going to interview us about?" I asked, so I didn’t have to think about the possibility that the priest was sacrificing women and children to mutated monsters. "What is he going to ask the guys?"
"Not sure. Maybe he'll ask us where we're from. Or maybe he’ll ask us where we're going."
"Wait, where are we going?"
"To Daniel’s camp."
"Yeah but we can't say that."
"Why not?"
"Because it’s supposed to be a secret. You keep underestimating how important you are, Maria. And I don’t trust these people one bit. I mean, imagine if they knew you were immune to the Oz virus. Who knows how they would react?"
Maria took a sip of water. "I think you’re overreacting. And besides, I'm sure the guys will think of something."
"Something? Like what?"
"I don’t know. It’s not that hard to make up a story," she paused, thinking of a plausible explanation for why we were walking around in the desert. "We’re survivors, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that’s our cover story. We’re survivors trying to get away from the infected. Everybody who has made it this far has got to know that the cities are completely overrun. Boom, that’s our cover story."
"But we haven't had time to discuss it with the guys."
Maria handed the water to me and told me to chill ou
t. I took a big drink and was just about to remind her that we didn’t have the luxury of chilling out; that she was again, underestimating the severity of our situation and the fact that she was incredibly important but I stopped myself.
I had opened my mouth to speak but something had caught my attention. I thought I could hear voices.
"What is it?" Maria asked.
"I think I can hear voices," I said.
Voices that were coming from the air vent.
At first I thought I was imagining them. But Maria had heard them as well.
"Who is that?" she asked.
"Shh."
I looked up at the air vent. The voices must’ve been coming from a different room somewhere in this building.
I listened closely, straining me ears. I couldn’t quite make out who was talking.
"It’s the priest," Maria said. "And the big guy."
"Ben?"
"Yeah."
"I believe in forgiveness," the priest said. "I believe in redemption. As long as you are truly repentant."
"That’s great and all," Ben answered. "But what do you want?"
"I want to offer you a job."
"Wow, I didn’t realize you guys were hiring," he said "What’s the pay?"
"Your life," the priest answered. "Your soul."
CHAPTER 21
We scrambled over to the air vent, stacking a few cardboard boxes on top of each other so we could get our heads up near the vent to hear the conversation.
"Excuse me, Padre?" Ben asked. "My soul?"
"You are a very strong individual," the priest continued. "The strongest man I have ever seen with my own eyes. I believe you could be very useful here."
"Aww shucks. You’re too kind."
"So, will you help?"
"What’s the alternative?"
"There is no alternative. You will answer to God."
"Are you threatening me?"
"What the good Father is trying to say," said another voice. I think it was the bald guy. "Is that if you do not cooperate with us, we will sacrifice you to the desert. Your death will ensure our survival."
"But I think you will be of much more use to us alive," the priest added. "Like I said, you are a very strong individual. We could use a man like you around here."
Ben seemed to pause and weigh up his options. "Sure," he said casually. "What the hell. The world’s gone to shit anyways. Might as well stick around for as long as possible."
"Smart man. But before we officially make you part of the group, we just need to ask you a few more questions."
"Fire away."
"Where is the Fortress?"
"You been eaves dropping on us in the vault?"
"Just answer the question."
"There’s no point in answering it. You’ll never find the damn thing."
"Why not?"
"It’s completely hidden. It’s off the grid."
"Off the grid?"
"Look, you guys have a good thing going here. Trust me. You’re better off. The Fortress is a military camp, run by a bunch of terrified soldiers and a General who I’m starting to think is losing his goddamn mind. The place is a good three hundred miles north of here. You’ll never make it. And even if you do, you’ll never find it. Your best chance of survival is right here. You’re better off on your own."
"I see," the priest said, weighing up the information. "And tell me, what do you know about the black smoke?"
There was a long pause. Ben swore under his breath. "You’ve seen it? You’ve got one here?"
"Yes. A dark cloud. Black smoke. It shows up on the hottest days. When there is no wind."
Another long pause. "Black smoke is bad news. The military is scared of it. The Special Forces guys, the army guys, the marines, all of ‘em. Scared out of their minds."
"Why? Why are they so scared?"
"Because they don’t understand it. They don’t know how to fight it."
"Where did it come from?"
"It was supposed to be the cure. They tried to fix this thing. They tried to destroy the virus. They just made it worse."
"There’s got to be a way to kill it," the bald guy said.
"If there is, I’d like to hear it," Ben replied.
"May God have mercy on our souls," the priest said.
"You should forget that stuff. There ain’t no mercy. Not anymore. Not out here."
"I fear there is little left to do. We considered ourselves lucky to have survived the full brunt of the Oz virus. But now… now we have been pushed to the edge. The demons from the desert, the black smoke. It is too much."
"They’re called nano-swarms."
"What?"
"The black smoke. They’re rouge nano-swarms."
"I don’t understand."
"You don’t need to understand. The only thing you need to know is, if you see black smoke, you don’t have long. It’ll find you. Doesn’t matter if you’re hiding underground in a bank vault. That won’t keep it out. It’ll tear that vault apart. Eat it up."
"You know how to stop it, don’t you?" the priest said. "You know how to fight it. Tell me."
"Or what?"
"Please. I’m begging you."
"No need to beg, old man."
"Tell us," the bald guy said more forcefully.
"You can’t fight it. Not with guns."
"Then how? What do we do?"
"If you see it; run. Get out while you still can."
CHAPTER 22
Run.
Hearing Ben say that gave me chills.
We climbed down from the cardboard boxes.
"What the hell is black smoke?" Maria asked.
"I don’t know. Something we haven’t seen yet. Something the military created."
"Oh great."
"Yeah, things just keep getting worse. We can’t catch a break. And what is Ben doing? Is he really going to join these people?"
"What did you expect?" Maria asked.
"I don’t know. I thought he was…"
Wait. What did I think? Did I think he was normal? Sane? Did I think he was somehow different?
No. Like all of us, he’d lost big. He said if we’d been lucky, we all would’ve died in the initial outbreak. He may have been physically strong, made out of stone. But mentally, emotionally, he had shattered like glass.
And now he was joining forces with a madman.
Maria sat down against the wall and took another drink. "I hate being stuck inside like this. I hate not knowing what’s going on."
"Yeah, I agree. But there’s not much else we can do."
They’ve got the guns, I thought. And whoever has the guns is in charge.
Maria sat down against the wall and brought her knees up to her chest. I’m pretty sure she was just as scared as I was. But she did such a good job of hiding it. She took another sip of water and then offered me the bottle.
I took another drink, trying desperately to rehydrate myself. I handed the bottle back to Maria and decided to explore the surrounding cots and mattresses. I needed to keep busy so I wasn’t constantly imagining the worst case scenario. I picked up a newspaper that had been thrown on the ground next to a bunch of magazines. It was dated the fourth of February. Most of the newspaper was dedicated to the Oz virus and the outbreak.
The headlines read:
Super virus continues to spread.
Death toll rising.
Nationwide quarantine announced.
In amongst the gossip magazines and children’s toys I found a notebook. It was a diary of a girl named Sarah.
There was a little message written inside the cover. It read:
Property of Sarah Mackenzie.
No unauthorized persons allowed to view. (This means you mum. And this especially means you Hannah!)
Amazingly I recognized the handwriting and the name. Sarah. It was the same handwriting from the letter we found at the farmhouse. That must’ve been her house.
Next to the notebook were a whole bun
ch of crayon drawings. They were all drawn by a girl named Hannah. I guess this was Sarah’s little sister. The initial drawings were of her family. Two girls. Two parents.
A drawing of the farmhouse. A drawing of a horse called Princess Cinnamon.
But then the drawings changed. Most of them were drawn in charcoal.
Claws.
Eyes.
Infected.
Monsters.
Black smoke.
Tombstones.
More and more black smoke.
A cold chill crawled up my spine. I put them down and began reading Sarah’s diary.
February 7th
We finally made it. Took forever, especially since we had to walk the last 20 k’s when we ran out of fuel. Mum and dad are still fighting.
Mum thinks we should’ve followed the evac route. Gone to the military safe zone.
Dad did not want to go there. He knew what the camp would be like. He said it would be like a massive refugee camp. We’d be crammed in together like sardines. More chance of catching the virus around that many people.
So he made the decision to drive the 300km to Hope. He said Father Damon would be able to look after us.
February 11th
Mum is still angry with Dad. Every day, more and more people show up. Every day the church basement gets more and more crammed.
The smell is starting to get to me and now we have young children here. They cry all through the night. Sleeping is getting harder and harder.
February 16th
We’re completely cut off from the outside world now. The town is empty. Pretty much everyone left when the military advised people to evacuate.
Where The Dead Men Lie (The Secret Apocalypse) Page 10