The DayZ Novel
Page 9
Chapter 9 – The Last Man on Earth
The thing about going insane is that it doesn’t happen all at once. You don’t wake up one morning and decide to do some crazy shit – it takes time. In Joe’s case it was about three weeks and was so gradual that increasingly he was never really sure what was real and what he’d imagined. He started doing stuff that a week ago would seem strange – like talking aloud to himself. It was just such a long time since he’d heard another voice - the demon’s groans didn’t count - that he wanted to hear one, even if it was his own. Then he started answering the questions he pondered aloud, only it was not his voice he answered with. This was soon followed by praying - lots of praying. He prayed for salvation, for a way out, for a purpose to his now meaningless life that was solely based on the daily struggle to survive.
Before the event, Joe was a farmer. His father was a farmer and his father’s father was a farmer. The only choice Joe ever got about farming was whether to plant wheat or corn. Since farmers don’t need to go to school he was taken out at ten and put to work on the land. His life was all mapped out, next year he was going to marry the Mozhayev girl and take over his parents' farm. She was a nice girl, pleasant to look at and had a kindness to her that Joe had learnt to adore. She would be a good mother and Joe felt at peace with his dictated world.
Then one night she was at his door – but it wasn’t her. She had blood on her face and her eyes were crazed. Joe tried everything, he locked her in a room, tied her up, fed her real food. But she spat it all out and wouldn’t stop trying to attack him any chance she could. In the end it broke his heart to put a bullet through her brain. Her corpse was the only one he burnt and although it wasn’t in that exact moment that he snapped, it was definitely then that cracks began to form.
It was a week later while Joe was praying in the Mogilevka church that God had finally answered his prayers. Not with a sign but with actual words spoken from the icon of Madonna and the baby that sat behind the altar. His mission was now clear – this was the end of days as written in the Bible. As prophesied, the dead had risen and it was now his duty to eradicate them from the earth before he too could ascend to heaven.
He hadn’t kept count of how many demons he had killed but the pile of corpses in Chernogorsk showed it was a lot. There were corpses all over the place except for the church – he would not have those demonic beings defiling this holy place. He opened the church door, climbed the tower and rang the bells – the noise would attract them from far and wide. Saying a quick prayer as he cleaned his gun he then genuflected before leaving the church, kissing the icon of the Madonna and baby on his way out.
Down the street Joe walked towards an old factory with a high smoke tower that had a platform at its tip. This was his preferred sniping position. From here he could see all around and the military at one point had set up a forward operations base here. Below him there were medical tents and some military tents that still held the weapons they'd discarded when they abandoned this area. Joe ignored the weapons there and instilled his faith in God and his trusty CZ550. It was easy to use, easy to clean and ammo was plentiful so for his holy mission, it was the best tool.
As he climbed the ladder up to the high tower, he was once again filled with an overwhelming revelation that he was getting closer to God. He knew that once he had completed his mission and exterminated all the demon spawn from the land, he would finally ascend into heaven as the last man on earth. He will have returned the earth to the plants and creatures as it was in the beginning and now take his rightful place at the right hand of God.
The thought filled him with comfort and he whispered “Amen,” as blew the dust off the first magazine before loading it into the rifle. “Thy will be done,” he uttered as he crossed himself before lining up the first demon in the sights and squeezing the trigger.