Empty Bodies (Book 5): Damnation

by Zach Bohannon

  “He told me you could help me with this.”

  The scar on Will’s arm had healed some. It was a much darker shade of pink than the rest of his arm, and the places where the teeth had sunk in were still obvious. Bartman looked down at the wound and then met eyes with Will again, his mouth open.

  “You were bit.” He presented it as fact, not question.

  “I was,” Will said. “But another preacher, a man by the name of Samuel; he healed me.” There was a pause as Bartman seemed to process what Will was trying to tell him. Will said, “He drew the demon out of me.”

  Bartman brought his hand to his mouth and mumbled something to himself. He took two steps back, glancing back and forth between the scar on Will’s arm and Will’s eyes.

  “It’s true,” Bartman said. “It’s really true.”

  “So you do know about this demon plague?” Holly asked.

  Bartman, still shaken, nodded. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  “When Samuel pulled the demon out of me, he said some sort of prayer. It wasn’t in English; in fact, I’m not sure what language he spoke. But we need to know what it is.”

  “Please, help us,” Holly said.

  “This Samuel, he was speaking in tongues. That is why you didn’t know the language.”

  “Do you know what it was?”

  “He believed in the lost text,” Bartman said.

  Holly wrinkled her brow. “Lost text?”

  “There’s no single prayer that is said to exorcise these spirits,” Bartman said. “This isn’t like a witch’s spell. It has far more to do with the heart of the one performing the exorcism than it does with the specific prayer that’s spoken. That language you heard, that’s the language of the Lord.”

  “Are you trying to say that he was speaking the word of God?” Holly asked.

  “As I said, if you don’t believe, it is trivial.”

  Will pointed down to his arm. “Are you questioning whether I believe?”

  “That you believe now? No. You have received possibly the most shocking of spiritual awakenings since the Lord’s tomb was discovered empty, three days after the crucifixion. But what you believe up here,” he pointed to his head, “is a far cry from what you feel in here.” He tapped his chest with his fist.

  “So you can’t help us?” Holly asked.

  “What is it that you want exactly? If I were to give you the information that you want, what would you do with it?”

  Will said, “If we could get this information to Washington, then we might be able to find a way to stop it.”

  Bartman stepped forward and put his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Son, there is no stopping this. This isn’t some concoction that can be mixed and put into a needle for the government to pass around.”

  “You don’t know that,” Will said, shaking his head. “You don’t know if this can be stopped or not. I’m living proof that it can be, be that on a small scale.”

  “How do you figure we will be able to convince, not only an entire nation, but the whole world, to believe? We have been trying that for centuries. It’s done nothing but caused wars, political ramblings, and social debates. We were never ‘One Nation Under God’, and He knows that. Now, we pay for our sins. We must pay for how we have treated the world, the Son, and His word.”

  Will threw the preacher’s hand off of his shoulder. “Bullshit! You may have the only key to end this, and you’re still lost in your own piss pile of religious jargon.”

  “Will,” Holly said sharply.

  The preacher looked to Holly and sighed. “And this is why I cannot help you.”

  Holly stepped in front of Will. “Father Bartman, please, anything you can do to help us. We have children with us, and one of them was bit, as well.”

  Bringing his hand to his mouth and biting his finger, Bartman said, “And he did not turn? How is that so?”

  Holly told Bartman about Dylan’s incident in the woods. And how, in an act of desperation, Will had amputated the boy’s arm and stopped the possession.

  “This is talked about only sparingly in the text,” Bartman said. “The only way a human can become possessed is for the demon to ride into the brain. And the only way to destroy it, as I’m sure you have found by now, is to severe the connection of brain and body.” He cleared his throat. “These spirits move slower through the body than you might imagine. It is foreign to them, and they must acquaint themselves with the vessel once they arrive. That is why you were able to save the boy. You acted quickly and demolished the demon’s route to the brain.”

  “See, you can help us,” Holly said.

  The preacher sighed. “With certain things, perhaps. But it is impossible for me to teach you how to expel the beasts once they have taken root. This can only be done by one who is pure, and of the cloth. Are you that?”

  Holly blushed. Will shook his head, still frustrated.

  “Thus, that, I cannot share.”

  “Then come with us,” Holly said.

  Clasping his hands behind his back, Bartman strolled down the center aisle. He moved toward the church’s main entrance, where the creatures continued to howl outside. Will had somehow managed to blank out the sound while they spoke to Bartman, but now it was clear. The preacher stopped when he arrived halfway to the entrance.

  He spread his arms out like an angel spreading its wings. It was like Christ himself on the cross as he spun around.

  “I cannot leave my congregation—my children. Don’t you hear them?”

  He’s gone crazy being in here alone, Will thought.

  “Eventually, they will make it in here,” Will said. “And if these so-called exorcisms are performed like the one that was done on me, you’ll never even heal one of them before they pounce on you.”

  “Then that is His will.”

  “And you should know,” Holly said. “We entered through the kitchen and some of the creatures left the front of the building and chased after us. They could bust inside at any minute.”

  Bartman smiled. “Then, as I said, it shall be my time. I will not leave my congregation.”

  And with that, Will saw no hope. Bartman would not leave. He wasn’t going to share any other information with them. What he had told them had further helped them understand things they already knew, and it was valuable, but Will knew there was no hope that Bartman would ever explain to them how to perform the exorcisms. And after considerable thought, Will understood.

  Will looked over to Holly. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  They turned their backs to Bartman and searched for a door to lead them back outside.

  When Will turned around to ask the preacher about the best way out of the church, he was surprised to see Bartman standing only feet away from the church’s front entrance.

  “Father,” Will said. The banging outside continued. Will shouted louder, trying to get the preacher’s attention over the commotion.

  Bartman lowered his wings and grasped on to the handles of the large double doors.

  “Oh, shit,” Will said.

  The door swung open, and the horde flooded inside.

  Pastor Bartman never had the chance to scream.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “Go!” Will shouted to Holly, signaling toward the door to the dining room.

  They went through the door and abruptly stopped. The Empties who’d tried to follow them into the church had somehow pushed the table away from the entrance and made it inside. They’d lumbered halfway across the room.

  “What do we do?” Holly shouted.

  Will scanned the room and saw a door on the other side of it. He grabbed onto Holly’s wrist and ran toward it.

  The door opened into a hallway with closed rooms on either side of the narrow space. A beam of light shined from around the corner at the end of the corridor. His hand still holding her wrist, Will sprinted down the hall. When they turned the corner, they arrived at a glass door which led outside. Without hesitation, Will opened the door.
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  Adrenaline pumped through him, and Will hadn’t thought to check to make sure it was clear outside. The door led to the side parking lot, several yards down from the door they’d originally entered the church through. Empties now occupied this side of the lot. One lunged at Will and he dodged it. He turned to shoot it, but a bang startled him. Holly had drawn her pistol and shot it in the head. She grabbed onto Will’s wrist.

  “Let’s go!”

  They ran for the edge of the lot, dodging the few Empties that stood in their way. Will shot over the guard rail, using his hand as a catapult, and fell down, sliding down the hill on his ass. He took one look back up, to the creatures coming toward the rail, and then darted into the pipe.

  Inside, he turned around and waited for Holly, catching his breath. She entered the tunnel and ran to him.

  “You all right?” she asked. “You took quite the fall back there.”

  “I’m fine,” Will said, frustration in his voice. “Why the hell did he do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Holly said.

  Will turned from her and clasped the back of his head with his hands.

  “Son of a bitch!” he yelled. A bottle was on the ground, and he picked it up and threw it against the wall. Shards of glass blew back onto him but he didn’t seem to notice or care. Holly stepped back, giving him his space.

  “It’s all right,” Holly said. “Let’s just get back to the car and get out of here.”

  Will faced her. “We drove all the way up here looking for answers. And that bastard, he knew. He knew exactly how to save people. How to end this. But he wouldn’t tell us and wouldn’t come with us.”

  Licking her lips, Holly replied in a mellowed tone. “I know you’re upset. We risked a lot coming here. I’m not happy about it either. But he made his choice, and there’s nothing we can do about that. He obviously was so far gone in the head that nothing we said was going to matter. Maybe we should just take his advice.”

  “You wanna go to Florida?” Will asked, his voice calm now.

  “Where else are we gonna go? The days keep getting colder. Soon it’s going to be hard for us to survive without sustainable shelter. We’ve still got a couple of weeks before it’s going to start getting really cold here. Let’s beat the weather and go somewhere where we won’t have to worry about it.”

  After a moment’s pause, Will cracked a smile and approached Holly. He hugged her, then pulled back and kissed her on the lips.

  “Let’s go.”

  ***

  Charlie was waiting for them outside of the SUV when they arrived back at the vehicle.

  “Everything go all right here?” Will asked.

  “Yeah,” Charlie said. “None of those things in the street even looked back here. Did you find Bartman?”

  Holly opened the back seat and hugged the children.

  “What’s the matter with your hand?” Mary Beth asked, pointing at Holly’s bloody palm.

  Charlie looked down at Will’s hand. “Damn.”

  “Will had a small accident,” Holly said.

  “Did he get bit?” Dylan asked, concerned.

  “No,” Holly said. “Hand me that towel below your feet, Mary Beth. And you two stay in the car.”

  Holly pressed the towel against Will’s hand.

  “He had a run in with a bottle,” Holly told Charlie, smiling.

  “I thought I heard something down there,” Charlie said. “I got worried for a second that something was wrong.”

  “Sorry about that,” Will said. “I’m glad you stayed with the kids and didn’t come check on us. I just got a little frustrated.”

  “Why?”

  Holly grabbed the first-aid kit while Will explained to Charlie what had happened in the church.

  “So he didn’t tell you how that other preacher saved you?”

  Will shook his head.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “I think I’m more frustrated that he wouldn’t come with us and that he felt the solution was to open the door and let those things eat him,” Will said. “From what he told us, I don’t think that we’d be able to perform the ritual to draw a demon out of someone.”

  “Because we’re sinners?” Charlie asked.

  “We’re all sinners,” Holly said. She looked to Will. “This is gonna hurt.” She stuck the needle into his hand to stitch up the cut. Will grimaced and bit down on his jacket sleeve to keep from crying out.

  “Because we aren’t of the cloth. We aren’t priests, and we aren’t pure,” Will said, biting his lip. “He told me only pure, or virgin, priests would be able to perform an exorcism of this kind. It’s not just a possession, it’s ownership of the body. He could’ve told us how to do it, but it wouldn’t have mattered unless we could find someone else who could do it. And what are the chances of that?”

  “He did tell us why Dylan lived, though,” Holly said.

  The children quit messing around in the back seat and listened.

  “The demons have to travel to the brain to take over,” Will said. “But he said that many of them move slowly. That’s why it takes more time for some people to turn once they’ve been bit. It’s also while we were able to save Dylan by thinking fast and amputating his arm.”

  “Well, at least we know why that works now,” Charlie said. “So, what do we do next?”

  Will grimaced again as Holly continued to close his cut.

  “Almost done,” she said.

  Will bit down on his sleeve and mumbled, “We were thinking of heading South.”

  “How far South?”

  “We were thinking about Florida,” Holly said.

  “Can we live on the beach?” Mary Beth asked, a new excitement in her voice.

  Smiling, Holly said, “Maybe, sweetie. We’re not even sure if that’s where we’re gonna go, or what it would be like when we get there, if we go.” She finished the last stitch on Will and snipped the thread. “All done.”

  “Thank God,” Will said. He looked to Charlie. “What do you think?”

  Charlie thought for a moment, and then he shrugged. “Well, then, I guess Florida will be as good a place as any. We won’t have to worry about freezing.”

  In the SUV, the two kids cheered. Holly smiled. In turn, Will grinned. He looked down at his hand. Holly had done a good job at stitching him up for someone who hadn’t been used to patching human flesh until recently. When he looked up again, everyone was staring at him. Will chuckled.

  “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  That night, Gabriel couldn’t sleep. Even with the welcomed comfort of an air mattress, the adrenaline flowed too strongly through him. All he could think about was the next day, knowing that he would be sent out onto the football field for an impossible fight. Behind the scenes, Ambrose would be betting on him to win. And in all honesty, Gabriel still didn’t understand why. What did Ambrose see in him?

  Claire had at last managed to fall asleep, which Gabriel was thankful for. Since he’d been reunited with his friends, Claire had been crying the entire time. After what she’d seen—what all three of them had seen—Gabriel couldn’t blame her. The three of them had every reason to be scared, and Gabriel knew he would have to stay strong to help keep them all together.

  Gabriel had been lying on his back for at least two hours, trying to fall asleep. His back aching, he finally decided to stand. As he made it to his feet, his back yelled at him and he reached back to massage it. He walked over to the room’s only door and stared out the tiny window.

  He heard shuffling behind him and turned around.

  “Why’re you up?” Jessica asked.

  “Can’t sleep,” Gabriel said, staring through the window again at the door across the hall.

  “Yeah, I can’t either.”

  “You sure sounded asleep.”

  Jessica shrugged. “In and out.”

  Gabriel turned to face Jessica. “I have to ask you something.”
r />   “All right.”

  “What did you put in that journal?”

  “Everything,” Jessica said. “It’s the only way I’ve been able to cope with this madness.”

  “What did you say about me in there?”

  “Why?”

  “I just want to know,” Gabriel said. “Every indication that Ambrose has given me is that he’s ‘chosen’ me because of whatever is written in that book. I just feel like I kinda have a right to know.”

  Jessica sighed and looked to the ground, and then looked up to Gabriel again. “It says the truth. You and Will both held us all together. So, in case I was eventually separated from you all, I wanted to remember. And if something happened to me, I wanted the world to remember that you two were strong. If Will were here, he’d be in the same boat you’re in.” She bowed her head again. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “Well, like you said, I got you into this.”

  “No,” Gabriel said. “We were going to be here either way. I think what that book has done has given us a chance. It’s given us beds and privacy. If we had been captured and they hadn’t found your journal, chances are we’d be stuck in one of those rooms with all the other prisoners. Instead, we are here, together. And Ambrose wants me to win. He’s going to be betting on me. So, maybe I’ll get an advantage that the others won’t.”

  “What was it like?” Jessica asked.

  “What was what like?”

  “This ‘game’ you’re going to be in. You said that they took you outside to see one.”

  Gabriel looked outside the window again, staring off into that distant place. “It was a nightmare. People in the crowd were cheering and booing like animals. And the guys on the field didn’t stand a chance. There was only one weapon, and they had to race across the length of the field to get it. All before a pack of Empties was released.”

  “Well, I’m betting on you,” Jessica said.