Where The Dead Men Lie (The Secret Apocalypse) (17 page)

"Killing innocent people?"

"It’s not like we enjoyed doing it. We had to. We needed to do it. The people we sacrificed were sick; they were a liability, a burden to the group. The elderly. This is no place for an old person. Not this world. Not anymore."

"And the children?" I asked.

He lowered his head. His whole body shook as he broke down in tears. "I’m sorry. We’re all sorry. Please. Please don’t kill me."

I couldn’t believe it. These people had completely lost their humanity. They had turned into the worst possible version of themselves in a matter of weeks.

Ben raised the battle axe high above his head. Ed closed his eyes. But before Ben could go through with it, we heard a loud hissing noise, like a snake and a group of cicadas combined.

The noise was getting louder.

Ben hesitated.

Ed lifted his head. He looked up and down the street, his one good eye, darting frantically from side to side. "Oh God. You have to let me go. We have to hide."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Please! It’s coming!"

The hissing sound grew louder.

Maria was awake now. "What’s that noise?"

Ed kept saying it’s here, over and over.

"Maria, are you all right?"

She was holding her head with both hands and rubbing her eyes. "I’ve got the worst headache in the world but other than that I’m fine. What the hell happened?"

"These people tried to sacrifice us. They drugged us, tied us up. Tried to kill us!" I kicked gravel at Ed. "Isn’t that right!?"

Maria closed her eyes again and leant heavily against me. She still wasn’t completely with it.

Ed completely ignored me. "Please," he begged. "We need to hide. It’ll find us. We can’t be in the open like this."

He was genuinely afraid.

"Maybe we should do what he says," I said to Ben.

Ben smiled. He had a better idea. "Let’s get up to the bell tower. Check things out," he said as he pointed the blade of the axe at Ed. "Stay here. Do not move. Can I trust you to stay put?"

Ed was begging for his life. He tried to stand and make a run for it. But Ben pushed him back down. He then swung the axe high above his head and using the blunt end, crushed Ed’s ankle.

Ed screamed in pain.

"That should do the trick," Ben said with a wicked smile on his face.

I should’ve been afraid at this point. Ben was becoming more and more violent. He was slipping into a dark place. I should’ve been afraid. But I wasn’t. I was in shock that we were still alive. I had to keep reminding myself, that even though Ben looked like an absolute maniac, he had just saved our lives. He was on our team.

And besides, I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know where the guys were. I had Maria’s life in my hands. Literally. I was holding her up; taking most of her weight as the sedative slowly worked its way out of her system.

So I followed Ben up the stairs, to the top of the bell tower. And I suddenly realized what he was doing. He wanted to see what we were up against. The thing that was making the noise. The thing that had scared the priest and his men. He was using Ed as bait. A sacrifice if you will. Giving him a taste of his own medicine.

In the bell room, two men lay slumped over in the corner, on top of each other. They had no doubt been beaten to death by Ben.

I scanned the horizon, trying to ignore the fact that we were standing right next to a couple of dead men. My vision was still cloudy. Everything took a few seconds to come into focus.

Maria was leaning against the wall for support. The climb up the stairs had exhausted her. I must admit, I was breathing hard too. Whatever they had used to drug us with wasn’t completely out of our system yet. I was staring, gazing, transfixed at this one little house on the edge of town.

I was just thinking about how useless I was at that point in time. If something attacked us, or if we had to run away, I’d be done for.

Suddenly, a dark blur, a shadow, flew across my line of sight. I raised my arm, surprised at how heavy it was and pointed towards the small house on the far edge of town. "There."

"What is it?" Ben asked.

"I… I don’t know."

"Is it the big one?"

"I can’t tell. It keeps hiding, moving in and out of the buildings. A shadow."

I was staring off into the distance. My eyes were glazed over. Trying to focus.

It was a shadow, I thought.

But that can’t be right.

"A shadow?" Ben asked. "Where?"

"Right there. Near that small house."

And then I saw it again. The shadow. It seemed to be moving in and around the buildings. Moving like a snake. It was making its way slowly towards the center of town. It was similar to what I the other day at the mine pit, I thought. The black, horizontal tornado. Maria had thought it was heat mirage. But there’s no way it was a heat mirage.

"What the hell is that?" I asked.

Before Ben could answer me, a walkie-talkie that was strapped to the belt of one of the dead men crackled to life. "Hurry up!" the voice said. "It’s coming."

"We’re going as fast as we can!"

Ben picked up the radio and cleared up the reception.

"Stevens! It’s coming!" the voice repeated.

We then heard gunfire, coming from the edge of town. I guess it was the other men, the ones who had gotten away and saved themselves from the violent hands of Ben. They hadn’t made it very far, though.

The men were shooting in all directions, seemingly at nothing. Suddenly a dark cloud, a shadow, the black smoke, came out of nowhere. It slithered in and around their feet, pulling the men to the ground, engulfing them completely.

The gunfire ceased. And for a few seconds the only noise that filled the town was the screams of dying men.

"We better get inside," Ben whispered. "Hide in the bank vault. Now. Let’s go."

I put my arm around Maria to help her down the stairs. This was going to be tricky. My legs were still made of jelly. And Maria was still slumped against me. But before we even attempted one step, Ben grabbed us both and pulled us to the ground.

He had his index finger up to his lips. "It’s here," he whispered.

He moved to the corner of the bell tower and slowly peered over the wall down into the street below. "Look."

I followed his gaze. He was looking at a small alley between the hardware store and the pharmacy across the street. The alley was filled with a dense, black smoke. At first I thought maybe the building was on fire. But then the smoke continued to seep out into the street. It was moving. It was almost as if it was alive. It began seeping out between the buildings, into the main road. Up close it looked like black smoke. Every now and then the sunlight would catch what looked like a flash of silver.

Ed was lying in the middle of the road. He was crying to himself. The smoke began to circle him. Moving in closer, tightening like a noose. It then completely engulfed him. Ed let out a scream. It only lasted a second. He seemed to choke up. He began coughing. He then made this weird gargling noise as the smoke dragged him back into the small alleyway between the hardware store and the pharmacy.

Yes. The smoke dragged him. Physically.

And just like that the smoke was gone. Ed was Gone.

"What the hell was that?" I whispered.

"Black smoke," Ben answered. "Rouge nano-swarm."

"What?"

"Trust me. It’s bad news. We need to get inside right now. Our only option is to hide. We can’t fight it. Standard weapons are no good."

CHAPTER 25

We made our way down into the bank vault as quickly and as quietly as possible. Ben said the black smoke was bad news and that our only option was to hide. He also said that standard weapons we’re no good. I don’t know if he had intended to or not, but Ben had scared the hell out of me. And even as we huddled together down in the bank vault, I had no idea if we were safe or not.

Maria was fully awake now. She was able to stand and walk on her own. Awake and terrified. Just like I was.

"What was that thing?" Maria asked. "What are we going to do?"

"We wait." Ben answered.

"Wait for what?"

"For the all clear. These people have obviously hidden down here for the past few weeks. So as long as we stay put, keep quiet we should be safe."

"Wait,’ I said as I remembered his conversation with the priest, right before they tied us up, right before I lost consciousness. "I thought you said that we couldn’t hide from it. I thought you said the only thing to do was run, get out of here?"

"Hopefully the nano-swarm will be satisfied with Ed."

"And what if it’s not?"

Ben didn’t answer.

Maria suddenly looked worried. "Where are the guys?"

"I don’t know, but I’m going to find out," Ben said as he headed for the door.

"What? You can’t leave us!" I said.

"Keep your voice down. I won’t be gone long. Your friends have got to be locked up around here somewhere."

"You’re going to look for them?" Maria asked "With that thing out there? How are you going to find them?"

"The priest and his bald bodyguard," he answered. "I’ve got them tied up in the church. I’m going to ask them where they locked up your friends. And where they’re keeping my things."

"And what if they don’t cooperate?"

"I’ll ask them the hard way."

Ben turned his enormous back on us and left, closing the vault door behind him but not locking it properly.

Maria sat down against one of the pallets of cash. "Can we trust him?" Maria asked about Ben.

"I don’t think we have a choice."

"What if he’s just left us here to die? What if he comes back and then decides to kill us?"

"He wouldn’t do that."

"Why not? Seems like something he’d be perfectly capable of."

"He was the one who saved us."

"He what?"

"Don’t you remember?"

Maria stared blankly into space. She shook her head. "I can’t. It’s all just a hazy blur. I remember a pulsing light. Throbbing pain. I remember screaming. I could hear the howling moan of the infected. A lion’s roar. But that’s all I remember. Just the sounds. I thought I was dead."

"The priest, when he took us down into the basement of the church, he drugged us. His plan was to sacrifice us. Feed us to that monster thing. He took us out into the town square, strung us up by our feet."

"Like those other two women?" Maria asked.

"Yes."

"I… I can’t believe it. We nearly died?"

I nodded. "I was able to cut myself free. And then I cut you down. But I took too long. The monsters…"

"Wait, monsters? As in plural. Meaning there was more than one?"

"Yeah. There were three of them. And they had us practically surrounded. Ben saved us from a certain death. When the monsters showed up, he took them on. He didn’t back down. He was possessed. Out for blood. A gladiator or something. He killed them with an axe and a crowbar for crying out loud. No guns. No grenades. Just a freakin axe and a crowbar and his brute strength."

Maria was shaking her head in disbelief. She was struggling to come to terms with that fact that we almost died, that we were almost eaten alive. "I should be thankful right? I mean, he saved our lives, right?"

"Yeah. We owe him big time."

She shook her head. "But I think more than anything, I’m just scared of him. He looks insane. He’s covered in blood. He looks like a maniac."

"I know. He’s been through hell. I’m pretty sure he killed those other men with his bare hands. But he has to be one of the good guys. He just has to be. Why else would he save us?"

Just as Maria was about to agree with me we heard screams coming from somewhere upstairs.

"You were saying?"

I moved over to the vault door and opened it a little bit more. The damn thing weighed a ton.

More screams.

Whatever happened to being quiet, I thought.

"Who is screaming?" Maria asked.

"I don’t know. But I’m gonna check it out."

"I’m coming with you."

"No. You have to stay here. It’s too dangerous."

"There is no way you’re leaving me behind all by myself. Are you crazy?"

"This is the safest place to be. Nothing can get you in here."

"You are not leaving me alone!"

And then I did something that I don’t think Maria will ever forgive me for.

I shut the vault door and locked her inside.

"I’m sorry," I whispered to myself because there’s no way she’d be able to hear me through the thick steel door.

I was already practicing my apology speech to her as I ran up the stairs.

CHAPTER 26