V.J. Chambers - Jason&Azazel Apocalypse 01

by The Stillness in the Air

  The flashlight flicked back on. I could see Kieran, standing dead center in the middle of the aisle, his gun out and aimed. The light flickered wildly over the store. I could barely make out two grizzled men, each wearing ratty flannel. They had unkempt beards and dirty faces. Their hands went over their eyes to protect them from the light.

  “Hey!” one exclaimed.

  “What the fuck, dude?” the other said.

  Kieran opened fire.

  Okay, this was insane. “Kieran!” I screamed, not caring that when I did so I gave away my location. “Kieran, what the fuck?”

  One of the men shrieked. “Shit, man!”

  Kieran’s flashlight illuminated him for a second. The man was on the ground, his hand to his stomach. Blood was seeping through his fingers.

  Kieran’s flashlight snapped back to the other guy who was on his knees with his hands in the air, terror all over his face. “Hey,” he said, “we’re sorry. We wasn’t gonna take anything, man. Hey, calm down, okay?”

  Kieran leveled his gun at the man.

  I tackled him, but not quick enough. He’d already pulled the trigger. His shot missed, though, ricocheting off the metal shelves.

  I pinned him with my knee, my gun on him. “What is going on, Kieran? Have you gone insane?”

  “They’re from Chicago,” he said. “They’re the same ones from Chicago.”

  That made next to no sense to me. Kieran was from Chicago, I thought. I wondered why he didn’t have an accent like those guys. I got up off him to retrieve the flashlight. “Don’t move, Kieran.”

  He didn’t listen. He rolled onto his feet in a second. Dammit. Why hadn’t I gotten his gun? Why had Kieran lost his mind all at once like this?

  I aimed the flashlight at the quivering guy and his partner, who was gurgling blood, his eyes rolling back in his head. Great. “Who are you?” I demanded of the man on his knees.

  Kieran was behind me, gun out and ready to shoot.

  I swung the flashlight back to Kieran, blinding him by shining it directly in his eyes. “Stop!” I ordered him.

  “I’m not anyone, ma’am,” said the man. “Not nobody. Just tryin’ to cross the river like everybody else. We were lookin’ for some food. There’s more of us outside. They probably heard the shots. They’ll be in here in a second.”

  Oh. Wonderful.

  The man continued. “You just leave me alone, and I’ll talk to ‘em, okay?” The dude was scared out of his mind. “Don’t shoot, okay? I’ll tell ‘em it was all a misunderstanding.”

  Kieran snatched the flashlight out of my hands. “But it wasn’t a misunderstanding,” he said. He put the flashlight under his chin, like he was telling a camp fire story. “Don’t you recognize me?

  Or did you kill so many other people’s parents and rape so many other people’s sisters that I’ve just faded in your memory?”

  Oh. Oh my God. “It’s them?” I whispered to Kieran.

  “It’s them,” he said, his voice acid.

  “Shoot him,” I said.

  “No,” said the man. Kieran put the flashlight back on him. “You’re wrong, man. I never seen you in my life. Don’t do it.”

  Kieran cocked his gun.

  “I’m not lyin’ about the others. They’re outside. There’s six of them. If you shoot me—”

  Kieran pulled the trigger. The bullet sunk into the man’s head. A red trickle appeared between his eyes. His body fell over.

  The doors to the pharmacy burst open and several men came in holding guns. They looked from Kieran to the dead man on the floor. Then they started shooting.

  Kieran didn’t move. He seemed transfixed by the body of the man he’d just killed. I grabbed the fabric of his sleeve and yanked him after me.

  We dove behind the final metal shelf, both hitting the concrete hard. I banged my chin, biting my tongue. God! I tasted blood in my mouth. Kieran still had the flashlight on. I took it from him, turning it off.

  Bullets ripped through the flimsy metal of the shelf. This was not a good cover. How were we going to get out of here?

  I pulled Kieran with me as we crawled backwards on the floor. I crawled over some of the broken glass Kieran had been crunching earlier. It bit into my skin like tiny needle pricks. Ouch!

  Jesus.

  “Come on out of there,” the men yelled at us. They were getting closer.

  Kieran and I backed into the wall of the pharmacy. I scrabbled behind me, reaching over the partition to open the door. It was stuck.

  “Azazel,” said Kieran.

  “Help me,” I told him, wrenching at the door.

  The first of the men cleared the last of the shelves. He couldn’t see us in the dark, but he sprayed bullets across the back of the store.

  The door came open in my hands. I pushed Kieran inside and scrambled in after him. At least we had a barrier between us and them.

  We crawled behind a row of cabinets. Even more barriers. I peered up for a second, squeezed off a few shots at the approaching men. More of them were back there now. I don’t think I hit anything. It was hard to aim when you couldn’t see.

  “Azazel,” said Kieran. “Use your magic.”

  My magic? They were bad men, weren’t they? We were about to die. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The end justifies the means. It shouldn’t be too hard. I could just make them all—

  But then I saw a sliver of light against the floor. It was just ahead of us. I nudged Kieran. “A back door,” I whispered.

  We crawled for the door. Once there, I reached up to grab the knob. Locked!

  But we were inside. I twisted the lock on the knob and tried the door again.

  Sunlight streamed into the pharmacy.

  Kieran and I tumbled out into the street, bullets chasing us.

  Kieran slammed the door after us. Several bullet holes splintered through the door.

  We struggled to our feet and were off, dashing around the building as quickly as we could.

  As we rounded the corner, we were greeted by more shots. They’d beat us?

  No, I realized, looking up at the entrance to the pharmacy. They’d left someone on the door. A lookout.

  I paused for one second, fixing him in my sights. I pulled the trigger twice, and both of my shots hit home. The man grabbed at his chest and fell his knees.

  Kieran was already at the car, flinging open the door. I went after him, opening my door. As soon as I was in the seat, Kieran peeled down the street. I pulled my door shut as the wind rushed by.

  We raced down the streets of Clinton wordlessly.

  Kieran stared straight ahead, stony faced. I didn’t know what to say to him. Even though I’d seen my parents killed, I hadn’t had the same experience as Kieran. Jason had shot all the men who’d killed my parents right in front of me. I guess I’d always had more closure than Kieran had. And anyway, I suppose if you looked at it another way, I’d taken revenge on the Sons by convincing them all to shoot themselves.

  I reached over for Kieran, touching his leg.

  He pushed my hand off without looking at me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Why didn’t you do it?” he said.

  “Do what?” What was he talking about?

  “You had a chance to use magic against them, and you didn’t do it,” said Kieran. “Why not?”

  Jesus. Was he mad at me? He couldn’t be. Not really. This must be some kind of transference thing. Since he was so upset over seeing his family’s killers, he needed someone to lash out at. I guess, since I was the only one around, that was going to be me. “Well, I didn’t have to,” I said.

  “I saw that door. It was a better option.”

  “How do you figure that?” Kieran said. He glared out at the road, driving much faster than he had on the way into Clinton.

  By this time, we were out of the Clinton city limits, and back on country roads heading towards Columbus. I watched as the trees and grass flew past us. “It was just less complica
ted to go out the door,” I said.

  “But they’re still alive,” said Kieran. “If you’d used magic, they’d all be dead now.”

  Huh. Jason had killed my parents’ killers, but I hadn’t killed Kieran’s. Was that what he was looking for? Closure? “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “I just don’t get it,” he said. “You had no problem shooting that guy in the front. You didn’t even think. You just pumped bullets into his chest. But when it comes to magic, you balk. You can give me all that crap about destruction and everything else. But if you really cared about human life, you would have thought twice about killing that guy.”

  I flinched. When he put it like that, it didn’t make much sense, did it? I traced patterns on the door handle with my forefinger, trying to figure out how to explain it to him. “It’s different,” I finally said.

  “It’s not different,” Kieran said.

  “It is,” I said, “because when I shoot someone who’s got a gun and who’s shooting at me, we’re on a level playing field. Whoever has the better skills will shoot the other person. When I use magic, I take away another person’s will. I make them do what I want them to do. It’s just more wrong.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Kieran said.

  Fine. I sunk down in my seat a little and looked out the window. It was pretty in the spring in Kentucky. I wished there was more time in my life to look at pretty things.

  “Don’t you think it’s bullshit?” Kieran said.

  I snapped my head away from the window. “Obviously I don’t if I said it.”

  “Who cares whether or not you impose your will on those guys?” Kieran asked. “They deserve it. They’re worthless. They should be dead. Do you agree with that?”

  I nodded slowly. “I don’t see any reason to keep them alive.”

  “So, then, why wouldn’t you kill them?”

  “Because I don’t want to get in the habit of remaking the world to my liking!” I said. “Because it would be too easy to use magic like that, whenever I wanted. How would you feel if I started messing with your head? What if I just made it so you never wanted to be angry with me? I could do that, right now, you realize that? I could make your entire argument disappear.”

  Kieran’s knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. Now he released them a little.

  “You wouldn’t do that,” he muttered.

  “Not now,” I said. “But the more I use the magic, the easier it gets. If I start doing it all the time, if everything gets easier all the time, who knows what I’ll start doing.”

  “Azazel, you’re a good person,” said Kieran.

  “Am I?” I said. Because I wasn’t so sure about that.

  “Yes,” he said. He sounded so certain.

  I just shook my head. I turned away again, and I didn’t answer.

  We were quiet again, for a long time.

  Finally, Kieran said, “I can’t let them live.”

  I sighed. “Are you going to go looking for them?”

  “Sure,” said Kieran. “And then I’m going to kill them all.”

  “How did they even get here?” I asked.

  “Chicago’s not that far. You just head south on I-57. It won’t bring you right here, but it’s close.”

  “Did you hear what he said about trying to get across the river, like everybody else?” I said.

  “Maybe,” said Kieran. “What does that matter?”

  “If they were trying to get west, why would they come this far south? Isn’t there a bridge across the river closer to Chicago?”

  “Yeah, I guess so. I still don’t see why it matters,” said Kieran.

  “It’s just weird, don’t you think?” I said. “Besides, I didn’t know that it was common knowledge that they had power out west. I didn’t think the government was advertising that fact until we were sure.”

  “This is interesting,” said Kieran, “but all I’m saying is that I want to kill those men. Not try to figure out where they’re going and why.”

  “Kieran, you can’t kill them. You’ll never even find them again.”

  “If I got help from the others back at camp, we could canvas the area—”

  “In cars? You want to waste gasoline on these guys?”

  “They killed my family!”

  “I realize that, Kieran, but lots of people have lost loved ones since the lights went out. And if we all ran around trying to get revenge, we’d never make any progress.”

  Kieran glanced at me, disbelief written all over his face. “That has to be the most inconsiderate thing you’ve ever said to me. Seriously? Everyone’s in pain, so my pain means nothing?”

  What?! “That’s not what I said.”

  “Whatever,” he said.

  “It’s not!”

  “Just don’t talk to me, okay? Just shut up.”

  Wow. Okay, then. Kieran was in a great mood. Apparently, he was on my side about the magic and stuff whenever it didn’t personally affect him, but whenever he wanted to use me for his own reasons, then it was open season. I folded my arms over my chest and glowered at the foliage.

  And to think, yesterday, I’d thought he was so great. I’d thought there was really something going on between us. I couldn’t be in a relationship with someone like this. No way.

  We still weren’t speaking when we got back to the church in Columbus. Kieran parked the car.

  We both got out and slammed the doors. The Subaru quaked, as if shuddering from our anger.

  I didn’t wait for Kieran. Instead, I stalked into the church. The sanctuary was still and quiet.

  Everyone must be in the back rooms or out in the yard behind the church. Did I want to see anyone? Well, it would beat being alone or being stuck with Kieran. I went through the sanctuary into the back rooms. No one was in the room with the guns and the sleeping pallets. No one was in the room with the radio. No one was in Kieran’s office. No one was even in the room where Jason had been kept prisoner. This was odd.

  I threw open the back door and looked out into the yard. Empty. The grill was knocked over.

  Oh my God. I tore back through the church, nearly colliding with Kieran in the sanctuary.

  He saw the look on my face. “What?”

  “Everyone’s gone,” I said.

  Chapter Twelve

  Kieran and I grabbed guns and ammunition from the weapons room. Then we climbed back in the Subaru and took off. I was convinced they were all in Columbus-Belmont park. Jason had all of them. They could be dead by now. Jesus. What had I expected when I told him last night that I was pregnant with another man’s child? He’d been angry. Now he was out of control. What was I going to do?

  I raked the nearby area with my gaze as we drove by, looking for bodies. Would Jason keep them all prisoner, sending us fingers and toes? Or had they all been slaughtered and their bodies strewn across the town? Maybe he was planning on hanging them. Maybe the townspeople were thirsty for blood, since we’d killed those boys. Maybe—

  But then we saw them. They were all standing beside the road in a huge clump. Hallam was running his hands through his hair and swearing loudly enough for us to hear it inside the car.

  Kieran pulled over next to them. I nearly started sobbing in relief.

  “Hey,” said Kieran, reaching across the car and folding me into his arms. “It’s okay.”

  “I thought they were dead,” I said.

  He pulled me close, patting my back. Hadn’t we just been fighting? Why, then, did it still feel so nice to be in his arms? Kieran and I got out of the car. We didn’t slam the doors so hard this time.

  “What the hell?” I yelled at Hallam. “We had no idea where you were! I thought Jason had killed you all.”

  “We’re fine,” said Hallam. “The motorboat, however…” He stepped aside from the clump of people, and I could see what they were all gathered around.

  The motorboat that Kieran and I had dragged here from Georgia had been destroyed. It was riddled with bullet holes. Th
e motor was ripped out and twisted, a deformed hunk of metal. The boat itself had been chopped up. It was in pieces. Holey pieces. It lay on the grass like an animal ripped to shreds by a predator. There was nothing left. It was irreparable damage.

  “They must have done it last night,” said Hallam. “It was the noise I heard when I sent everyone out on alert to look for them. When we were searching the area, we must have missed the boat.”

  I didn’t know. I hadn’t walked this way. I looked at the ruined boat, feeling glum. We’d never make it across the river now.

  Some of the others were trying to pick up the pieces of the motorboat and take it back with them.

  Hallam waved a hand at them. “Leave it,” he said. “It’s hopeless.” He started trudging back towards the church.

  The others dropped the pieces they were holding and fell in behind Hallam. They were a pathetic procession, heads hung. They looked utterly defeated. Kieran and I got back in the Subaru and drove back to the church. We beat them there by a few minutes. When Hallam and the others arrived, Kieran and I were sitting on the front steps of the church.

  They all walked by us and into the church. Hallam stopped to ask, “You guys find anything in Clinton?”

  I hadn’t been expecting that question, but Kieran saved me.

  “No,” he said. “It was like you said. Picked clean.”

  “Told you,” said Hallam as he went into the church.

  Marlena lingered behind. Once Hallam was inside the church and out of earshot, she said, “Well?

  Did you find anything?”

  “Yeah,” said Kieran, “the assholes that killed my family.”

  Marlena looked confused. “The pregnancy tests?”

  Crap. I’d almost forgotten about those. I’d shoved two in my pockets, one on each side. I checked. I came up with one severely smashed cardboard box. “I have one,” I said. “The other must have fallen out in the scuffle.”

  “Scuffle?” said Marlena.

  * * *

  The instructions that came with the pregnancy test said that after I peed on it, I had to wait three minutes. It also said that it was 99% accurate, and that if I tested too early, that the negative result might only be because there wasn’t enough pregnancy hormone in my body. But I was over a week late, so I hoped it wasn’t too early. It said that a negative result shouldn’t be read after ten minutes. I didn’t know what that meant. Two lines meant pregnant. One meant not pregnant. One strong pink line and one faint pink line was still a positive, no matter how faint the pink line.