The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (39 page)

"What was it?" Freddie demanded apparently
not one for campfire tales.

"It was War," Rusty answered.

"There was a war at the farm?" Nancy
inquired when Rusty didn't continue.

"No not
a
war, it
was
War." Rusty seemed to
think this was a better explanation; Al had never been more
confused in his life. He was half-tempted to throttle Rusty, if he
thought it would get him some sort of an explanation out of him, he
actually would have. Judging by the confused and irritated faces
surrounding him, he wasn't the only one thinking about it
either.

"It was one of the four horseman of the
apocalypse, War," Leah, taking pity on them, finally explained.

He'd experienced many things in his life but
this was the first time his blood ran cold, he almost laughed out
loud, and just about threw up his hands and walked away from them
in disgust. It was the most
ridiculous
thing he'd ever heard and yet upon
hearing it he was certain it was true.

"War chased the horses into a corner,
forcing them to pile on top of each other. When there was only one
left it took the survivor from the top of the pile," Phoebe
said.

"Took?" Donald said the word so hastily that
it came out as
tuck
but they all
understood him.

"That's the best way to explain it," she
said. "You would have to see it to fully understand. It's really
hard to explain. But yeah, the horse on top became its next mount
and the one it had been riding just turned into ash."

"You're kidding, right?" Claire said with a
snort.

"No." Rusty didn't have that eager,
I'm going to tell you a tale,
look
on his face anymore. Instead, there was a look in his eyes that Al
had become accustomed to over the months. It was a look that said,
I've looked into the face of death, I'm still
standing, but it took a little piece of me with it when it
left.

"Are you sure that's what it was?" Al
inquired.

Rusty bit on his inner lip as he nodded.
"There was no denying it, believe me I tried.
War
rode in on a horse that was as red as blood.
It left on a horse that had been white beforehand, but became just
as red when War climbed onto its back. It was encircled with this
red glow that I would almost say looked like fire, it was that
bright, but it wasn't like it was surrounded in flames. I only got
the impression of an aura of anger and fighting and… war."

They were all silent as they stared at Rusty
with both disbelief and awe. Al didn't think he would ever get his
eyebrows to come back down from their hiked up position on his
forehead. He took his glasses off and rubbed at the bridge of his
nose as he struggled to process this information. War, the second
horseman of the apocalypse, could it be true?

"He held a sword and rode forward with
this…"

"Purpose," R.J. filled in when his father's
voice trailed off. "It rode with a
purpose
. It had this determination to get to those
horses and move on. To where, I have no idea. Perhaps there is a
war brewing somewhere else in the country or the world."

Al shook his head as he settled his glasses
into place again. "We're
at
war."
He gestured at the bodies of the sick. "We've been at war since the
day it all started. Just because it's not an armed conflict like
we've always known war to be, that doesn't mean it's not a
conflict. We're definitely in the battle of our lives."

"True," Rusty agreed. "Very true."

"So if there's War then the other three are
probably here somewhere too," Nancy said.

"I would think so," Rusty agreed.

"You're lucky it didn't see you," Mary Ellen
told them.

"That's just it," Rusty said. "It
did
see us and it didn't care. It
looked right at us and moved on."

"It has a mission, it's fulfilling it. It's
not for War itself to kill us, it's for us to survive the war it
has unleashed on us," Al explained. "I'm sure none of the others,
not even Death, will acknowledge our presence on this plane. We're
of no consequence to them."

"What does it all mean?" Nancy inquired.

Rusty shrugged and rubbed at his jaw. "Your
guess is as good as mine. I've had weeks to try and figure that out
and I'm as clueless as the day I was bounced out of bed by the
first quake."

"It means we now get to rethink everything
we ever understood to be true before," Donald said. "But without
cable and internet I think we'll have plenty of time for
thinking."

"True," Leah said.

Mary Ellen pulled Rochelle in front of her
and draped her arms over her shoulders as she held her close. "What
did it do after you saw it? Where did it go?" Rochelle asked.

"I don't know," Rusty answered. "It got on
the horse it had chosen, rode up the hill and out of view like it
had never been there to begin with. In fact I was left with the
impression of a hallucination but that pile of horses was still
there and everyone else had seen the same thing as me."

Al lifted his glasses again to rub at his
nose. He'd thought such a revelation should give him faith in
something more but right now he couldn't fully process what they
were telling him. Some time alone would probably help, but as he
looked around him, he realized no matter what it meant for the
afterlife, they still had
this
life
to deal with.

Starting with these bodies.

"We have to get these bodies out of here."
They didn't move as they were still struggling to comprehend what
they'd just been told. Practicalities didn't seem all that
important when they'd been informed that War rode the earth,
scouring for new mounts along the way. "The smell will attract
animals. Bears being the ones we would prefer to deal with over the
sick people."

"Yeah, yeah," Donald said and shook his head
to clear it. "You're right. What do we do with them?"

"There's too many to dig graves for," Mary
Ellen said.

"We can put them all in one of the pits we
finished today and fill it back in," Donald suggested. "We'll just
have to dig another one."

"Good idea," Al agreed.

Rusty moved to help him with one of the
bodies. When they bent down together Rusty leaned closer to him.
"Were any of you bit?" he asked in a conspiring whisper.

Al frowned at him and shook his head. "No,
why?"

"You haven't seen what a bite can do to
someone?"

Al dropped the feet he'd been holding and
straightened up again. This wasn't a conversation that should be
kept between the two of them. "What are you talking about?"

Rusty glanced at the others before dropping
the shoulders of the one he'd been about to help Al carry. "No one
has been bit?" Rusty inquired.

"Xander has," Mary Ellen answered.

Rusty's hand went to the revolver at his
side; the action caused Donald to grab for his gun too. Al rested
his hand on top of Rusty's in an attempt to calm the situation.
"Easy," Al told him.

"Where's Xander?" Rusty demanded not
relaxing even a little.

"He went into town with the others," Al
answered.

Rusty relaxed visibly as his hand fell away
from his gun. "That's good. For us, at least. Your other friends,
not so much."

Mary Ellen stared at him before shooting a
questioning look at Al. Nausea began to coil in his stomach. Did
the sickness somehow hibernate inside of people for an extended
period of time before taking them over? Had they sent the others
off with a ticking time bomb?

"He was perfectly fine when he left here,"
Al said.

"Sometimes it takes a little while for the
sickness to sink in, once it does they become just as nutty as the
rest of them," R.J. said.

"Wait," Mary Ellen said and held her hand
up. Lines were etched around her pinched mouth; her eyes were
focused on Rusty. "The sickness can lay dormant in people for
months
at a time?"

Now it was Rusty's turn to look confused.
"No, it's rather fast moving. If he was bitten yesterday he would
have been fine when he left here, but by now he would be feeling
the effects of it. I've seen it take a day or two before the fever
and sore neck start to kick in."

"Xander was bitten months ago," Mary Ellen
said.

"That's not possible!" Phoebe blurted. "Once
a person is bitten it's only a matter of days, sometimes a week
before they succumb to the sickness and turn like a rabid animal on
every one around them. We've seen it!"

Mary Ellen glanced at Al again, she didn't
seem to know what to say and he knew they still weren't overly
trusting of Rusty and his family. "It
is
possible," Al said. "Xander was bitten awhile
ago. It made him sick in the beginning but he's fine now."

The four of them stared at him as if he'd
just told
them
that War had ridden
down a hill and claimed a horse to ride like it was an everyday
occurrence. "How?" Phoebe breathed. "Why?"

"He was bitten in the leg, we cleaned it up
and we were able to get some ampicillin and prednisone into him
relatively quickly afterward. At the time we were just looking for
any combination that would help with the swelling, the infection,
and the sickness." Mary Ellen stopped speaking as she held her
hands out before her. "It must have been the right one."

Rusty and his family continued to stare at
them. Rusty finally spoke, "You mean there's a way to stop it?"

"I think, if you get them some medicine in
the beginning, there is. We think we have an idea of what might
have caused it all." Al told them about what they'd discovered in
the library and what viruses they suspected had been the basis for
the sickness spreading across the earth.

When he finished speaking, Leah took a small
step back and then sat on the ground. "Mom," she breathed.

Al had heard the sorrow in the word when
she'd said it before, but now an air of regret surrounded her. "We
had to…" Rusty's voice trailed off, tears formed in his eyes as his
gaze went to the lake.

"I understand," Al said. "We lost someone to
the sickness too. He wasn't bit but he became sick and attacked one
of us. Another member of our group, Riley, was forced to kill
him."

Rusty nodded but he kept his gaze on the
water. "What about the other people? The ones that don't do
anything?"

"The Lost Souls, that's what we've started
calling them," Al explained.

"That's fitting," R.J. said.

Al didn't know if it would make them happier
to know they had saved one of them, or even worse. He debated
telling them about Victor as he took in their desolate expressions.
Then he recalled the determination that had driven Riley to save
the boy, and the look on her face when she'd first seen Victor
looking back at her. The feeling
he'd
experienced when he'd first seen the boy
staring at him.

Al turned and gestured toward the young boy
peering out from behind Mary Ellen. Victor stared at Al for a
minute before moving forward hesitantly. He remained partially
hidden behind Al as he shyly stared at Rusty and his family.

"We found Victor a few weeks ago," Al
explained. "He was one of The Lost Souls."

All eyes shot to Victor so fast that the boy
took an abrupt step back. "Really?" Phoebe asked excitedly.

Al rested his hand comfortingly on Victor's
shoulder. "Really," Al confirmed. "He's stayed healthy since we
gave him a large dose of L-Dopa."

"So we can save them too?" Rusty asked.

"I'm not sure how many of them are left for
us to save, but some of them, yes."

Rusty wiped away the tears in his eyes and
knelt before Victor to study him more closely. "It's nice to meet
you."

"You too," Victor said but he didn't move
any closer.

"Amazing," Rusty marveled as he stood
again.

He'd made the right choice by telling them.
There was too much madness in this world now; any bit of good was a
welcome change that lightened even the heaviest of hearts. Al
squeezed Victor's shoulder and released him so that he could
retreat back to Mary Ellen. "We should get these bodies out of here
before the sun sets. I don't think you're going to make it back to
your cabin in time but you're welcome to stay with us," Al
offered.

"Neither do I," Rusty agreed as he bent to
pick up the shoulders of the body at his feet again. "And thank
you."

None of them spoke as they worked to get the
bodies away from the cabin and into the ground. The stars were
already out when the last shovel full of dirt was tossed onto the
mass grave. Al ran his arm across his forehead to wipe away the
sweat and dirt sticking to him. It had been a grueling day, every
muscle in his body ached but the last thing he felt like doing was
crawling into bed as he walked back toward the cabin.

"Have you caught and eaten any fish from the
lake?" Donald's question was the first time anyone had spoken in
hours.

"We have," Rusty answered. "The animals are
still drinking from the rivers and lakes, and we're eating them, so
we didn't think it would make much of a difference."

"I guess that's logical," Donald said with a
small laugh.

"Honestly," Rusty said. "At one point, when
there were even more of us, we hadn't caught any big game in awhile
so it was either fish or die. It didn't matter if it made us sick
or not if we were going to die from starvation anyway. It wasn't an
easy thing to do, it was actually terrifying forcing that first
bite of fish down, but you do what you must."

"That you do," Mary Ellen agreed.

Reaching the camp the others broke off to go
inside when Al volunteered to take first watch. He walked over to
the boulders at the edge of the lake and climbed on top of them. He
contemplated everything Rusty had revealed today. The horsemen, the
apocalypse, all the years of church and then the years of
resentment and nonbelief. All of it made complete sense and yet no
sense at all. Why put all of them here to take so many of them away
again?