The Long Dark Wages of Sin: The Devil Went Down to Kentucky, page 24
There were, however, signs of the living. The clanking of magazines gave it away. Daniel slowed his pace and moved towards the noise. He’d gotten just a few feet away when he heard, “Ammunition. Anyone?”
Daniel froze, but only for a moment. “Here,” he called to Bishop in a raspy, whispering voice. “I have extra.”
Daniel was ready to strike the deathblow when he heard a muffled, “I am hit, brother,” emanate from his pants pocket. Jonathon had given Rick’s radio to Daniel in case they were separated.
Instinctively, Daniel moved, just as a butt of a rifle arched towards where he was just a second prior. Enough of it glanced off his wounded shoulder that he yelped, but he managed to pull his knife and used it to defensively slash toward Bishop. The feedback from his knife entering deep inside the man’s body let him know he’d likely done mortal damage.
Bishop coughed as he fell forward, crashing into Daniel, and nearly causing him to fall alongside him. Daniel came to a knee and turned the man over. “Fuck you, you traitor,” Bishop sneered.
“Traitor—traitor.” Daniel then screamed before thrusting his knife into the man’s chest, pushing with all the might he could muster. After the hard deed was done, he fell to a knee, and sucked hard breaths.
He remained in that position until he heard Jonathon’s voice once again rattle from the radio. He’d been calling for him over and over, even during the struggle. Daniel fought to come to his feet. The sound of Yeong-Eo screaming and verbalizing both coherently and incoherently filled the general vicinity.
“Flick your flashlight if you can,” Daniel said, his jaw still aching from the damage done earlier.
Two blinks came from not more than twenty feet away. The grasping hands of a Yeong-Eo lay too close to the downed man, so Daniel ended her struggles before coming to a knee near Jonathon.
“Help me—”
Daniel shushed him.
The moonlight shined brightly enough that Daniel could see Jonathon’s rough outline. “Where are you injured?”
“Stomach—shot.”
“I’m going to get you back to the barn.”
Daniel drug him for several feet before having to stop and take a break. He had repeated that process several more times when he heard footfalls from behind him. Daniel dropped Jonathon, and he fell roughly to the ground. He brandished the knife over the rifle because he didn’t want to make any extra noise.
Janna came several steps closer. “I want to help.”
“Help me pull him, then.”
It took several minutes, but they finally managed to drag him into the barn.
Through hard breaths, Daniel said, “I figured you’d run away.”
"I am where I want to be," she said.
"Here, help me a little more," Daniel said. Together, they pulled him into the stall. From there, Daniel retrieved a small lantern from his bag and switched it on just long enough to inspect the wound.
"It's bad, Lideo."
"If it were me, I would've left you outside, especially after what I did to you."
Daniel nodded, even though he was quite sure Jonathon couldn't see him. "I'm like the girl."
"We all are at times. This is war, and it isn't easy." Jonathon inhaled a long breath. "I've failed. For that, I'm sorry. I hope I die well."
"You will."
Chapter 39
Faith and Johnny. Faith's parents' house. Six miles outside of town. One day, nineteen hours after zero hour.
Johnny had retrieved Faith from the shed. He scanned the field. "A lot of those things aren't attacking for some reason. Are a bunch in the field across from us, just standing there. The government has really—"
"How can you see?"
"Night vision goggles."
"You can see in the dark?"
"Yep."
"Did you see Janna?"
He didn't speak for a moment. Finally, he said, "These attacks have been a long time in the making. The government—t"
"Janna?"
"She's inside the barn, with them. She helped pull one of their injured inside."
Faith's voice became hard—angry. "I prayed while you were gone. God told me she wouldn't come back with you."
"My little Lisa is just scared…"
Faith heard what he said, be she didn't bother to correct him. "God doesn't get it wrong, Johnny."
"I don't understand…"
"God told me something else. Do you want to hear?"
"I… yeah."
"God told me you were a warrior for Christ."
"A warrior for Christ?"
“Yes.”
"But God has forgotten about me, Faith. I told you that before we prayed. He took everything from me…"
"That was Satan. He's the father of lies. He's tricked you into thinking that. The Lord still loves you, but we must make sacrifices. We have to do things that are hard—things that we don't always understand, but God's plan is like that sometimes. I understand that better than anyone. I'm a sinner—a fornicator, Johnny. You're a sinner. That's why bad things keep happening to us. We aren't following God's plan."
"I don't want to feel like this, Faith. I don't want to hurt anymore. My fucking heart was ripped out of my chest when my kids and wife were taken. I was with another woman the day they were killed."
"The Lord told me, Johnny," she said, touching his arm. "I have… had feelings for Janna. I kissed her. I wanted to do more. But see, it was all a test, and I passed. He placed these evil things in our path. They were signs. Signs I missed until just a few moments ago. I've found the way now, though, Johnny. You can, too. You just have to want to do it.”
He began to cry.
“Do you want to do it?” She asked. “Do you want to feel God’s warm embrace. Do you want him to take all your pain away?”
“Yes, please… please.”
“Okay, then.”
“What can I do? What can I do to make all this pain and madness go away?”
“Help me rid this world of sin. Rid me of my sin. All these people have sinned, Johnny; all of them have chosen sin over the grace of our loving God. None of them can be redeemed, either. We must kill them all.”
Chapter 40
Torrance and Kenny. Faith’s parents’ house. Six miles outside of town. One day, twenty hours after zero hour.
Torrance and Kenny were barely keeping the horde at bay. They'd spent all the full magazines, so one of them hacked and slashed while the other loaded bullets into the magazines, which was what Kenny was doing at that moment.
"We have to get the fuck out there," Kenny said.
"No. We die out there, just like the others."
"We don't know that. Somebody's shooting out there."
"Just load the fucking bullets, man." Torrance slung the machete down and lopped off a hand that poked through the door. The man screamed and jerked his stub of a hand away. Normally, there would be two or three taking the man's place, but none came. Not at that exact moment, anyway.
There was rustling outside. Someone spoke in a harsh, gravelly tone, "I will get them."
Torrance wound himself up and was ready to strike with the blade. A long pause ensued. Torrance relaxed for just a second and took a step toward the opening when a large man appeared. Torrance's half-wound strike glanced off the man's meaty shoulder and stuck in an exposed 2x4. As he tried to wrench it out, he caught a fist to his face that knocked him back several feet.
Kenny reached down to pick up the rifle, but it was knocked out of his reach. The single lamp in the room supplied just enough light that Kenny and the man could make one another out. Johnson stopped; his head cocked slightly as other Crazies filled the room.
A boom sounded to Kenny's left. Torrance had resorted to using the backup shotgun. It wouldn't last that long, he thought. But he was on the move, shooting and moving toward the rear of the room. Movement that might very well buy him more time.
Kenny had backed up to the wall and had nowhere else to go. "Fuck," he cried, as the big man rushed him.
The shotgun boomed from down the hallway. Torrance, the bastard, had left him. A door slammed, and fists began pounding on it.
Fists began to pound on Kenny, too. In the dark room, one of those fists caught Kenny in the jaw, nearly causing him to lose consciousness. He managed to stay upright even after another of the large fists made contact.
Kenny began kneeing the man in the crotch, but apparently the poison influenced nerve sensitivity. Another punch and Kenny lost momentary consciousness. His weightlessness caused him to slip to the ground, where he awoke on impact. Johnson, slowed by the poison, still punched at the wall, giving Kenny a momentary advantage.
The room had become full of Crazies, and there was nowhere for either of them to go. Johnson, now having lost contact with Kenny, tossed other Crazies around looking for him in the pitch darkness of the room. He screamed and bellowed, kicked and punched, to no avail.
Bodies filed in all around Kenny, their feet kicked, and their hands probed in the dark room. He slowly turned over and pushed himself as close to the wall as he possibly could and played dead.
No nightmare he’d ever experienced was as bad as the one he was living right then.
Chapter 41
Janna, Daniel, and Jonathon. Faith’s parents’ barn. Six miles outside of town. One day, twenty-one hours after zero hour.
“I want you to have this, brother,” Jonathon said.
“No. I’m not worthy of such a thing. I won’t take it.”
“You must. I don’t want to die for nothing. Besides, it isn’t worth anything now, anyway.” Jonathon coughed. “I am no one.”
“You are my Lideo,” Daniel said.
Jonathon laughed a wet, gurgling laugh. “I was wrong about you. Maybe wrong about everything. But I guess it’s easy to come to that conclusion when you’ve lost everything, including your life. Now, take it.”
Daniel took Jonathon’s necklace. The three of them sat quietly in the darkness as Jonathon breathed his last breaths.
Daniel sighed loudly. For the first time in his entire life, he didn’t have someone telling him what to do. All his leaders were dead, and he had no clue what to do next. The safehouse was the only place that came to mind. It represented, at least in some form, a chance to keep going. Where that going ended up, he had no way of knowing.
The Order was death, but The Order was also the only life he knew. Could he walk away? He wondered. He didn’t think he could. What would he do? Settle into a life with the Yeong-Eo, and pretend he was one of them, after he’d killed so many of their brothers, fathers, and mothers—mothers?
Daniel rubbed his hands on his shabby face. “I’ve done bad things to my people. Sometimes it was right, but most times it wasn’t. It won’t make you feel any better by telling you what I thought about your mother. I did what I did, and the reason I did it was because I was told to do it. As you know, we don’t get to make our own judgement calls.”
“I know this, brother,” Janna said, unemotionally.
“But it doesn’t mean I’m not sorry about it. At least, now—”
Daniel cried out, followed by a crack of a gunshot. He rolled over and fired several times into the open doorway of the barn. He grunted as he pushed Janna against the wall of the stall.
How did he see us? Daniel wondered. It was almost pitch dark in the barn. Maybe their attacker heard them speaking, but it’d be impossible to be that accurate by voice alone. He’d used night vision goggles on many occasions. That’s what it had to be, he thought.
He gritted his teeth as he removed his pack. It slid to the ground, and he pulled a lantern out of it. He got as close to Janna’s ear as he could and whispered, “Turn this on when I say.”
He felt her head move in the form of a nod.
There were near silent footfalls inside the barn. Each step led whoever it was closer to them. Daniel took the time to feel his wound. He was bleeding profusely. Without aid, he would die. A relieved smile formed on his face. He breathed the freshest lungful of air that maybe he’d ever taken. He was ready. He’d done his part. He’d tried. At least he no longer had to worry about what he’d do next. It was already planned for him, which was comforting.
Again, Daniel whispered in Janna’s ear. He told her the location of the safehouse. He then handed her the necklace. “Hide in the corner until it’s safe.” He began to move away but paused, before slowly inching back towards her ear. “Be the hero,” he whispered.
She moved swiftly to where Daniel bade her to go while he fought to come to his feet. Once erect, he switched on the lamp and tossed it like a grenade towards the open part of the barn. Daniel saw the shooter. He raised his gun while the man feverishly flipped the goggles away from his eyes. He had been quick with the flip, and because he knew generally where Daniel had been, he was able to fire six quick rounds in his vicinity.
Hobbled by his wound, Daniel was slow to the trigger, but he’d still managed to get off several shots before he was struck by the incoming rounds. He staggered a few halting steps before falling face-first into the hay-strewn floor of the barn.
Unheeding Daniel’s orders, Janna drew her knife, and ran towards where he’d fallen, bound and determined to avenge his death. But seeing Faith kneeling on the ground next to the shooter, reaching for his weapon, caused her to stop dead in her tracks.
Fast footfalls could be heard running towards the barn. At least two Crazies were attracted by the gunfire. Faith grabbed Johnny’s gun, but the Crazies were on her before she could fire it.
Janna's rage morphed into fear and even confusion as she saw Faith being attacked. Still, she charged the two Crazies, knife at the ready. One of them clubbed Faith, and the other was about to join in when Janna's knife found the spinal cord of the latter. The other, though, had pounced on Faith and was taking its rage out on her, striking her multiple times before Janna could stab the man enough to end his attack.
Janna flicked her attention between Faith and Daniel. Before she'd reasoned out fully why her choice was what it was. She came to kneel beside Daniel. He was, however, dead by the time she got there. He'd taken at least one round to the face.
Janna grabbed Daniel's rifle, and then picked up the lantern before running to Faith's side, where she fell to both knees beside her. Tears flowed as she brushed the hair away from her face. A burgeoning knot seemed to leap off the girl's forehead, but seemed unhurt, otherwise.
She inched closer to her face. Her breaths were faint against the wetness of her own skin, but she was breathing. She stroked her dark hair until she heard something stirring outside the barn. She needed to concentrate if she was going to live. Janna took in Faith's face for a long second before trembling fingers fumbled over the on/off switch of the lamp. The barn went dark.
Janna continued stroking Faith's soft hair. She pretended for several moments that she'd wake up and everything would go back to that moment when they kissed. It was a pleasant thought.
But then her thoughts abruptly flicked to her father. She didn't know why, exactly, but they did. He'd been abusive before her mother was taken away. Afterward, he was a monster. What was the difference, she wondered? The answer came to her quickly. Love was a weakness. An unnecessary pain in a cruel world. It was like the fancy wedding cake she saw in a magazine that was left in a house they stayed in for a while. It was so beautiful, and so much time was spent on it. But then it got eaten away, and nothing remained. It was just all gone. It was the same emptiness Janna felt in that very moment.
She felt a controlling grip trying to take hold of her, bending her towards a conclusion that would rob her of her own self will and power. Her thoughts and feelings worked against her. "Just wait for the girl to wake up. She'll smile at you, and she'll love you. You can be happy," they called to her. Her emptiness would be replaced with love, and everything would be good. She and Faith would live happily ever after. Except Janna knew better. She knew better.
She wiped away her tears before gently resting Faith's head against the ground. She then pulled the body of the man she’d stabbed to death on top of her so other Crazies would think she was dead, too. Finally, she took Faith’s cold hand and kissed it before coming to her feet.
Janna moved to the doorway of the barn and looked out into the blackness. She then took the necklace out of her pocket and squeezed it in the palm of her hand, before placing it around her neck. She gripped the rifle and then exited the barn without looking back at the dark form of Faith lying on the ground behind her. At that moment, she hadn’t known what Daniel had meant by being a hero, but she was going to find out. She knew it had everything to do with the Order, the necklace she had, and where she was going.
Chapter 42
Torrance and Kenny. Faith’s parents’ house. Six miles outside of town. One day, twenty-three hours and fifty-minutes after zero hour.
The mass of bodies pressed hard against Kenny. A man who was too close to him cried loudly, but there was no beating on doors, yelling, or screaming. Aside from the siren, things were almost serene compared to how it’d been earlier. How much earlier, Kenny had no clue. He’d lost track of time.
The crying man next to him took several long wheezing gulps of air before going completely silent. It wasn’t just him, though. It repeated itself in hundreds of different iterations, as one by one the Crazies died. The death throes lingered in the air like a thick fog.
Kenny couldn’t take it. He fought his way to his feet, and then walked across a countless number of bodies on his way to the side door. But he couldn’t open it. Too many bodies pressed against it.
He then felt his way around to the gap in the wall. He used his rifle to push bodies out of the opening, and once he was sure he could fit, he climbed out.
