Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde (25 page)

“His name is Rasputin,” she said. “Scar gave him to me at
Comic Con.”

“You weren't just making that up?” I stared at her in
disbelief.

“I would never lie about that,” she said giving me a shocked
look. “Take the way we came up and go back down the hill, then turn left
instead of heading right back to the highway. The Hasslebeck's Chevron station
should be down about a quarter of a mile.”

We rolled down the hill and headed toward the gas station.
I'd like to be able to tell you that I was surprised when we came around the
corner in a wooded canyon and rolled smack dab into the middle of an armed road
block, but I was starting to get used to it—as much as anyone can get
used to having automatic weapons pointed at them. These weren't bikers. They
looked like normal people, townsfolk, except they were armed to the teeth and
not interested in hiding it. They quickly surrounded all sides of the SUV and
began looking in to see who we had inside. A dopey looking guy with ruffled
sandy blonde hair and sad puppy dog blue eyes tapped my window with the muzzle
of his Uzi. He didn't look much older than me.

“Roll down the window,” he ordered. I looked at Felicity and
she nodded to me. No point in getting us lit up and killed over a simple
request. I complied.

“Yeah,” I said. “What's up, man?”

“What are you doing here?” He didn't sound like much of a
leader. He sounded, for lack of a better term, slow in the head.

“We were just looking for some petrol,” I told him. “Heard
there was a gas station down this way.”

“We've got some gas,” he said.

“Great.” I felt like he was holding something back. “Can we
buy some?”

“We'll give you some for free,” he said. I checked the
mirrors to see that the others were closing in on all sides of our car. They
still had their guns up as if they were ready for a fight.

“That would be very cool of you,” I said. When he didn't
respond I added, “Is there something I'm missing?”

“No,” he said, looking nervous. “We're just not used to
having strangers wander into our midst, especially so close to Harvest.”

“What's harvest?” I asked.

“A time of giving thanks and praise to our Lord and savior,”
he said without batting an eye.

Perfect
, I thought.
They are a bunch of brain
washed religious fanatics. That's why they’re acting so strange.

“We just want to get some gas and be on our way,” I said.
“If you don't mind. We've still got a long drive ahead of us.”

His eyes grew wide as Felicity leaned forward and he caught
sight of her.

“Felicity?”

Here we go again
, I thought.
Another crazed fan
boy.
I knew it had definitely saved our hides the last time around, but it
was still annoying. Why did it bother me so much? I couldn't put my finger on
it. Here I was working so hard to keep us all safe and get us where we needed
to be. I had to fight Tank off and lie our way out of trouble and all she had
to do was use her fame. It just didn't seem fair.

“Okay yeah I know,” I said. “It's very exciting to meet a
celebrity in real life but she's just a person like you or me. Trust me. Spend
an hour with her and you'll see she's no different than anyone else.”

“Darren?” She leaned over me, growing excited. “What are you
still doing here?”

“Are you serious?” I asked in an exasperated tone. “Is there
anyone you don't know? Come on!”

“What am I doing here?” He ignored my outburst. It was like
I didn't even exist. “I live here, remember? What are you doing here?” The Uzi
was on a strap that hung from his neck. He had reached both his hands in across
my chest and was now holding hands with Felicity, staring deeply into her eyes.
I was tempted to make a grab for the gun and teach him a lesson in staying
alert. A dark, sinister emotion twisted around in the pit of my guts watching
him fawn over her. If I hadn't grown up learning to control my emotions I would
have thought it was jealousy.

“I came back to see my mom,” she said. Tears filled her eyes
again.

“How is she?”

“She's . . .” her words trailed off. “She passed.”

“I'm sorry to hear that,” he said with genuine compassion.
“You really shouldn't be here,” he said, almost under his breath.

“It's getting late,” one of the others said. “Soon the sun
will set. The Messiah will want to meet our new guests before dinner.”

“We weren't really planning on sticking around that long,” I
said. A woman with a shotgun at her hip walked right up to the car, pointing it
at my face.

“We insist,” she said. “No one enters or leaves this
hallowed ground without the blessing of the Messiah.”

“Who is the Messiah?” Felicity asked Darren as he pulled his
hands back and broke eye contact.

“Only he can reveal himself to outsiders,” Darren said.

“I don't like this,” she said.

“Me neither,” I replied.

“It's going to be fine,” Darren said. “The Messiah is
all-seeing and wise and compassionate. He will know what's best to do.”

“Really, we were just passing through,” I said but they were
already pulling open the doors. They held them open and rode half in and half
out with their guns trained on us.

“Drive slowly,” the woman said. “We will guide you in to
camp.”

Darren seemed to give Felicity a look that said he was
sorry, but it was way too late for that. We pulled down the road, passing the
Chevron on the way. A little voice in the back of my head told me to fight but
I knew it was useless. They would cut us to shreds if we tried to make a break
for it. Whatever was going to happen, we'd just have to ride it out to the
bitter end.

No one is taking my sword again
, I vowed.
They'll
have to pry it from my cold dead hands
.

As we drove, we passed groups of roving armed units on
patrol who looked up and watched us drive farther in. I was suddenly really
glad I hadn't tried anything stupid. It looked like they had been stocking up
on weapons and ammunition for decades. I remembered learning about the massacre
at Waco when I was still in school for social studies. This was starting to
look a lot like that, but without an end in sight.

“Look over there,” Benji said pointing out the open door.

We all turned our heads. There were camps set up along the
sides of the roads. In between them were tents that offered goods and services.
It was an outdoor market like something from the Renaissance Faire I'd gone to
when I was Benji's age. There was even a guy carrying a large drumstick in his
hand and eating it as he walked along. I was so distracted that I almost ran
over some people crossing in front of us. A loud thumping on the hood of the
SUV brought my attention back to the road.

“Watch where you’re going,” the woman barked. “Make a left
up here and drive all the way up onto the property. Keep it under five miles
per hour and whatever you do, don't run over any children.”

I turned onto the gravel road and pulled down a wooded lane
with children darting in and out of the trees, laughing and playing. When I
came out the other side, I pulled up in front of a huge building with several
armed guards posted out in front.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“I don't remember it,” Felicity said.

“Pull up over there and shut the engine off,” the woman
ordered. Everyone who had been riding on the side of the vehicle jumped off and
steadied their weapons on us, leaving the doors wide open. I did exactly as she
said, without hesitation. We all got out. I strapped my blade on my back again.
I was ready to fend off an argument over them disarming me again, but it never
came.

Guess they figure one sword won't do much against a hail
of hot bullets blasting through me
, I thought. It made sense. It would be
futile to fight. It wasn't like we just had to get off the property. We had to
make it out of town in one piece.

“What now?” I was doing my best to sound as nonthreatening
as possible. Under the circumstances I'd say I was handling things pretty well.

“Now,” she said with a smile, “you meet our Messiah, Bryan
Crowe.”

We were led into the building slowly at gun point. There
were more young children running around playing tag. They didn't so much as
stop and give us a look, which seemed odd, since we were clearly being marched
around as prisoners. I would have thought for sure that their curiosity would
have gotten the best of them, but no such luck.

“Nice place you've got here,” I said, craning my head around
to take in the paintings on the ceilings of Biblical stories. I felt the muzzle
of her gun jab me in the small of my back.

“Keep moving,” she growled.

She'll kill you for sure if you step one toe out of line
,
I thought. I'd never been more sure of anything in my life. She had the
determination and resolution of a devotee blinded by faith. Chills went down my
spine as the realization set fully in that she wouldn't hesitate for a second
to murder us if given the order.

Before we knew it, we were standing before a middle aged man
with a long beard sitting on an elevated gold painted throne covered in
pillows. Behind him, the wall was painted as one long mural depicting the last
supper through the crucifixion and resurrection. A pretty teenage girl with a
bob cut stood next to him actually feeding him grapes. He leaned over and
whispered in her ear. She turned and looked at us then ran off.

“Welcome,” he said, standing up and coming to greet us. “My
name is Bryan Crowe and I am a humble servant of God almighty. I have been
waiting for you.”

Felicity groaned and the girl jabbed her in the back with
her gun.

“It's all right Rowena,” Bryan said addressing his fierce
female warrior. “Our faith does not require blind obedience from others.”

“Glad to hear it,” I said, stepping forward and extending my
hand. “My name is Xander.”

He took my hand in his. His grip was firm and unyielding
like metal but his hands were soft like a girl's. Chances are he wasn't doing a
whole lot of hard labor in the promised land.

Probably leaving that for the kids
, I thought.
Or
prisoners.

“Welcome,” he said with a wide grin. He released my hand and
took Felicity's.

“And who might you be?” He leered at her and something
inside of me stirred to life, dark and brooding and ready to chop his hand off
if he got too friendly with her.

“Felicity,” she said, looking away from him.

“Welcome, child,” he beamed, lingering a moment too long
before turning his full attention to Benji. He went down on one knee and looked
Benji in the eyes, giving him his full, undivided attention.

“How's it going, champ?” His voice was much more relaxed.

“Um,” Benji said, looking up at me. I nodded that it was
okay to respond to Bryan.

“Okay,” he mumbled.

“What's your name?”

“I'm Benji.”

“Nice to meet you Benji,” he said. “I'm Bryan.” He sat down
in front of Benji. “Hey, do you like playing hide and seek?”

“Yeah,” Benji said, sounding a little confused.

“Well we've got over ten acres of zombie-free land to play
on,” Bryan said. “Dinner isn't for another hour. Do you want to explore the
grounds and play with some of the other kids?”

Benji looked at me again. I wasn't sure what to make of it.
All I wanted to do was get out of town but that looked less and less likely to
happen in any hurry. We were almost out of gas and they had what we needed. Not
to mention, we were severely outgunned. It might be good for Benji to run
around with kids his own age while the adults sorted out the unpleasant
details. I shrugged and Benji turned back to Bryan.

“How will I find my way back?”

“Judah will show you,” Bryan said. Without another word a
young boy with a mess of chocolate brown hair Benji's age walked over to him,
ignoring the rest of us.

“Hey,” the boy said, extending his hand to Benji. “I'm
Judah.”

“I'm Benji,” he said, nervously taking the boys hand.

“It's okay, Benji,” Judah said. “You don't have to be
afraid. Come on, I'll show you where we grow our crops. We got a working
tractor and everything.”

“See you at supper, kiddo,” Felicity said, stopping Benji
for a moment and kissing him on the head. Judah led Benji outside and I turned
on Bryan.

“Okay,” I said, “now that the kid’s out of the way, let's
hear it. What's your deal?”

“I don't know what you mean,” Bryan said, looking slightly
offended.

“Come off it,” I pushed.

“Your little brother will be fine,” Bryan said. “Better than
fine with Judah as his guide. I would never hurt a child. The Lord said we
should be like children if we are to enter into his kingdom.”

“What's with the religious compound?” Felicity said, cutting
to the heart of the matter. “You've built up a cult following for the end of
times and armed yourselves to the teeth, hoping something like this would
happen and it did. You've been planning this since long before Z-Day. That
about cover it?”

“Are these not the end of days?” Bryan asked with that
creepy grin appearing on his face again. “The book of revelations describes the
end of times as a period when the dead shall walk the earth because Hell is
overflowing and there is no more room for them. Does that sound accurate to
you?”

“I don't believe in Hell,” I said flatly.

“The fact that you don't believe in it doesn't mean it
doesn't exist,” Bryan said. “If you ceased to believe in electricity because
you don't understand how it works, electricity would still exist. For hundreds
of years people thought the Earth was the center of the physical universe and
that the sun rotated around us. It makes sense if you think about it. They were
observing it every day with their own two eyes. It was hard to get them to
believe otherwise, to teach them to understand that our planet actually rotates
around the sun. Did that make it less true, because people didn't want to
believe in it?”