Evil Origins: A Horror & Dark Fantasy Collection (76 page)

“Yes.”

Sally waited, expecting an explanation.

“Sally, I made bad decisions as a teenager. This one guy, Alex. We were hot and heavy in high school. We didn’t care about anything and thought we were invincible. He
decided to join the Marines after graduation. The spring leading up to boot
camp we spent a lot of time together, most of it in the backseat of his Camaro.
I knew I was pregnant about three weeks after he shipped out. My
mom and I were close, so I told her. She was pretty upset, as
you can imagine, but she let me decide. I gave my son up for adoption.”

The women sat together in silence. A dog
barked in the distance, while a swift breeze plastered newspaper and blue
shopping bags up against the unbroken windows of the shop.

“Someone’s out there,” Jana said.

Sally picked up Jay and moved into the back
room. Jana shut the door behind them, then turned and crept alone toward
the front door. She put her back to the cold wall and leaned
her head out. Blackness filled Jana’s vision, and stars burst in her
head.

Chapter
28

“Good morning, sweetheart!”

A cotton rag kept Jana’s mouth dry and prevented her from speaking.
A chair leg came into view. She looked at her hands,
and at the duct tape binding them to the chair. Jana’s head
throbbed and her shoulders ached.

“I’m going to pull this out, and you are not going to make a
lot of noise. Honestly, it doesn’t matter if you do because
nobody will hear you. But I don’t want a headache, so no screaming,
understand?”

The Commander’s wrinkled face loomed over her. One bloodshot
eye and one black eyepatch held to pitted, pasty skin. His
nose stuck out, reddened on the end. Scars ran down one cheek, and the
foul smell of salty beef and broccoli on his breath made Jana gag. He wore a beret over a balding and flaked scalp. Jana nodded her
nonverbal promise of compliance.

“Here.”

The rush of cold air filled her throat. Jana
choked on it and coughed, burning her lungs.

“Sit up.”

Commander Byron lifted Jana by the shoulders and propped her
against the wall. Both hands remained bound to the chair, stretching them
across her body toward the street. She looked down at herself
and at the fastened button on her jeans.

“I am a gentlemen, you do not need to fear that.”

“Who are you?”

“We found the woman and child. They have been secured and
taken to the offices of the Holy Covenant for evaluation.”

“Who are you?”

“You need to slow down, Jana. We will have
plenty of time to get to know each other.”

Jana’s face twisted in horror. He took Sally and Jay, and he
knew her name. The manner in which he’d gathered the information worried her
the most.

“I am Commander Byron. I serve the
Holy Covenant and have been running the First Cleansing in Cleveland.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I asked Sally.”

Jana shook the grogginess from her head.

“Jana,” he continued. “That is not a
common name. Do you know any other Janas in this town?”

His accent appeared only on certain words, and Jana had a
hard time placing it. It might have been German, possibly
Russian.

“Do you spend your time searching for other Byrons?”

The commander slapped her across the face. His
black, leather glove stung Jana’s cheek, leaving a waft of tanned hide and a
red splotch. She tasted the rawhide on her swollen tongue.

“You would do best being respectful to me. I
do not want to harm you, but I will if I must. You are already dead to
the Covenant, unless I say so. If you want to live, you need
me, and therefore you must treat me with respect. Do you understand?”

Jana nodded her head up and down without saying a word.

“Now. Would you care to answer my
question?”

Jana looked over Commander Byron’s shoulder. She saw the top of a glass counter directly behind him, and the
storefront to his right. He had dragged her behind the counter, out of
sight of anyone passing the shop

“No sir, I have never met another Jana, here in Cleveland or
anywhere else for that matter.”

A huge grin spread across Commander Byron’s
face. His yellow teeth glared at her, preceded by the foul breath.

“Yes, that has been my thoughts too. I
can’t tell you how lucky I am. Of all the Infidels scurrying like rats around
the city, I happened to spot you in my sights. Can you believe
it Jana? I was on the streets when you appeared. It must be an act of
God, don’t you agree?”

Fearing another blow for insubordination,
Jana nodded her head yes. She bit her lip hard, doing her best to keep
the tears from flowing.

“How old are you, Jana?”

“Twenty-three.”

“Ah yes, how I remember twenty-three. Nights
and lovers last forever at twenty-three, do they not?”

“What are you going to do with me?”

“And where do you live?”

Commander Byron kept ignoring her questions, waiting with
patience for the information he needed. The art of
interrogation took years to perfect. The commander moved a hand to the
knife on his belt and wrapped his fingers around the handle.

“South Euclid. What are you going to
do to me, you bastard!”

Another gloved hand rose up and struck Jana
on the same side of the head. Her eyes rolled back, and then focused on
Byron. She felt her face burning, growing puffy, and she could taste the salty
drip of blood from her lip.

“You will respect me, young lady, or you
will have a very swollen face. I’m going to continue to ask you
questions. The answers may very well save your life. If, however, you curse at
me or show your disrespect, I will cut you into pieces and feed them to the
rabid dogs in the streets. Nobody but me knows you are here. I
have the power to wipe you from the face of the Earth.”

“I’ll cooperate, I promise. I’m
tired, my head hurts, and this tape is giving me a spasm in my back.”

Jana forced a half-smile, and lifted her head toward Byron. She opened her fists and batted tears away with her eyelashes.

“If you so much as—”

“Yes, you will kill me. I
understand. My back, please?”

Now Commander Byron smiled. He held
a pistol to Jana’s head with one hand. The other held a sixteen-inch knife that
sliced through the tape on her hands, wrists, and ankles.      

“Thank you,” she said, with a note of
sincerity.

The circulation came back into her limbs and she was able to
stretch the muscle spasm from her back.

“May I stand?”

“Sure, my dear, but don’t expect the eye of
this barrel to be looking anywhere but at your forehead.”

“What’s next?”

“That all depends on how you answer my questions.”

Jana nodded.

“Go ahead.”

“Do you know someone named John?”

“No.”

Commander Byron struck Jana square in the mouth. The previous slaps transmitted a blunt warning. This one
delivered the pain. Jana slumped down in her chair and spat blood on the floor.
Her tongue nudged a loose tooth in the front, and her lip
swelled.

“Don’t lie to me. Do you know someone named John?”

“I don’t know—”

Byron hit her again, in the same spot. Stars
swirled around Jana’s head. She lost her equilibrium and fell off the
chair onto the floor while spitting teeth into her palm.

“I can see that your leg is not fully healed. That is where I will be headed next unless you speak the truth. Do
you know someone named John?”

Jana pushed the hair from her face and bit down hard into
the sleeve of her sweatshirt in an effort to stop the bleeding.

“He is my husband.”

Commander Byron helped Jana back to her chair. He reached for a bottle of water on a nearby table and took a clean
handkerchief from his pocket. He poured water on the cloth and dabbed
Jana’s chin, attending to the blood.

“You are a very pretty woman and I would like for you to
stay that way. It is not easy for a man to strike such a
beautiful woman, but I must do what I must do, for the greater good. I
am sure you understand.”

The pain surged in her mouth. Jana managed
to nod.

“Take these with this water. It will help with the pain.”

He handed Jana the water and a bottle of
aspirin. Jana noticed the Cyrillic characters on the label.

“Do you know that the leader of the Holy
Covenant has identified a ‘John the Revelator’ as a key person of interest? He
does not want John killed or injured because he wants to speak with him. If you tell me where he is, I can get him safely back to Father with
minimal pain involved.”

“I don’t know where he is.”

The knife plunged down toward Jana’s
gunshot wound. It managed to slice her jeans and lodge in the wooden
chair. She gasped and pulled back from the blade.

“I believe you,” said Commander Byron. “When
is the last time you saw him?”

“He was heading to a Halloween party, on
the thirty-first. I waved to him from the window as he drove away. Later that night, a bunch of soldiers stormed into my house and shot
me in my bed. I was able to hide until the next group searched the
house.”

“Very good, Jana. Where was this
party?”

“His friend Reggie’s house, in South Euclid.”

“Do you know where it is?”

Jana paused. She looked down at the
knife and slid her tongue through the raw openings in her gums.

“Yes.”

“I am so glad to hear that. It appears you
and I will be traveling companions. How far is it from here? I am not
fully acquainted with, how do you say, the ‘Mistake by the Lake’?”

“That’s an old joke. It was never
funny.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“A few miles. Will we be driving?”

The commander stood and walked toward the counter. He
grabbed a book of matches from a dish sitting on top of the glass case. Byron
lit a match and applied it to the reeking stub of a half-smoked cigar. The
initial stench of the relight made Jana gag. She felt the aspirin crawling up
her throat, but managed to force it back down with another swig from the water
bottle. The commander shook the match and tossed it into a stainless-steel sink
behind the counter “No. If he is there, the sound of the vehicles would alert
him. Given our respective physical limitations, it will take us time to get
there but I believe we must sacrifice comfort for the success of the mission.”

He motioned with a cane to his right leg.

“However, we have plenty of time. How
does your schedule look for the next three or four days?”

“I might have to comply, but I don’t have to put up with
your shitty attempt at being funny.”

Commander Byron laughed. Bursts of
smoke launched toward the ceiling fan while his hearty chuckles propelled them
out.

“This is true, my dear, you do not. But
I think you will find our partnership much more tolerable if you do. I am sure you want to see your husband again, correct?”

“Yes, I do.”

“You see, then. We are partners. I deliver your husband to
Father, and you both get to live. Given the situation in this
town, I’d say that is a deal worth taking.”

“Why is this happening?”

“My dear, I don’t think you are in any
position to ask questions.”

Jana slumped back down in her chair, exhausted and tiring of
the conversation.

“Can you at least tell me who is behind
this invasion?”

“An invasion implies takeover by a foreign and hostile
power. I’d like to call it a liberation.”

“Liberation from what?”

The commander shook his head and looked down his nose at
Jana. He shuffled to the chair next to her and sat down. The
recent activity caused sweat circles to bloom under his arms. Jana
could taste his musky body odor.

“From yourselves. You have forsaken God. You
have forsaken goodness and now, like the Great Flood, He is cleansing the Earth
of its evil.”

“That is nonsense. Who has ordered this?”

“Father has received the message from upon high. He leads the Holy Covenant, and with my help, has executed a very
successful First Cleansing.”

“This is the United States of America. We
tolerate religious freedoms. We don’t impose them on our citizens.”

The commander stood. He took two long drags from his
dwindling cigar and snubbed it out on top of the counter.

“God’s law supersedes man’s. You have wandered. It is time for the shepherd to bring you back home again.”

Jana stared at the Commander and shook her head at him. She
pulled her bottom lip in with her top teeth, stifling any further provocations
on the matter. Byron waited, anticipating another barrage of
doubt from the unfaithful.

“When do we leave?” Jana finally asked.

“You are a wise conversationalist, young lady. You quit
pushing when you realize there is nothing left to gain. We
will leave tomorrow morning. I have no fear of traveling during the
daylight hours. We have the authority of Father and the Lord Almighty
behind us.”

“Commander, promise me that you will not harm me or John.”

“I promise that I will deliver you to
Father unharmed. From that point on, it is God’s will, not man’s.”

Jana found a space in the storeroom. She
used cardboard boxes to furnish a sleeping pad. The commander, holding on to a twisted
sense of chivalry, created a similar one in the store. Jana’s
mouth ached, and breathing brought a cool pain to the exposed nerves of
shattered teeth. Restless on the makeshift mattress, she turned the
recent events over and over in her mind as she drifted into a fitful sleep,
pondering a bleak future.

Commander Byron waited until he heard the
rhythmic breathing of the woman. He moved toward the front door and
stared out into the empty, black streets. The lack of noise
stunned him the most as he stepped outside.

Byron had spent his entire adulthood in the bustle of urban
life or war, both of which drummed on the ears of their participants. Mortar
rounds, machine-gun fire, tanks, sirens, boom boxes, and road construction—all
of it was gone. An occasional howl from a lonely dog or the rumble of a
military truck heading to an unknown destination were the only remnants of the
former lifeblood of the city.