Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde (26 page)

“I thought you religious types eschewed science,” I
challenged.

“We don't,” he said, calmly looking between us. “And you're
missing the point. Hell is as real as this world and the end of times as
predicted by the divinely inspired book of God is at hand. We are all living
witnesses of God's great plan to abolish sin from the earth once and for all
and restore this world to the paradise it once was.”

“Praise him,” Rowena said, making the sign of the cross over
herself.

“Sin?” I scoffed. “You mean like kidnapping wayward
travelers at gun point?”

“The earth was once a great paradise,” Bryan said, ignoring
my jab. “A Garden of Eden, until sin entered in the form of the serpent. Man's
weakness cost him dearly but the blood of the lamb atoned for that weakness
with his great sacrifice. The scriptures tell us he will come again and cleanse
the earth with fire and we will be set free.”

Felicity gulped, looking scared.

“Your followers referred to you as the Messiah,” I said. “Is
that what you've been telling them?”

“It's not for me to say that I am the chosen one,” Bryan
said, in a well polished routine. “As I told you, I am but a humble servant of
the one true God.”

“Sounds great,” I said. “Like I told your armed guards here,
we're just passing through. All we need is a little gas and we'll be on our
way.”

“I'm afraid that's not going to be possible,” Bryan said.

“Why?” I stared him hard in the eyes. “We know you have
petrol. We passed the station on the way here.”

“You've come at a very special time,” Bryan said. “We are
celebrating a religious holiday we call Harvest. We've spent months getting
ready.”

“That's great,” I said. “Just one more reason to let us get
out of your hair.”

“You don't understand,” Bryan said. “No one can pass through
this land without receiving a special blessing. This is hallowed ground. You
are standing in the promised land.”

“With all due respect,” I began in a voice that seemed
anything but respectful—but Felicity cut me off.

“Then give us your blessing and we will be on our way,” she
countered.

“I will be happy to give you my blessing, child,” he said
turning his full attention to her. “At the proper time and place.”

“Well how long is that gonna take?” I asked, flabbergasted.

“Don't worry,” Crowe said. “It won't be long. After the
feast and the teaching tonight many will be blessed and baptized as the spirit
moves through them. By morning you will feel like a different person.”

“Can't you just give us your blessing now?” Felicity asked.
“Why can't we leave before the festival?”

“You could,” Crowe said calmly, “If you had gas in your car,
which you won't. Worldly work is frowned upon during Harvest time, especially
after sun down. Besides, everyone is preparing for the great feast tonight. It
truly is a special occasion. You'll see.”

“Why didn't they just let us barter for some gas and be on
our way then?”

“I'm sorry but it is the law,” Bryan said with a touch of
genuine regret in his honeyed voice. “All new visitors must be questioned
before being allowed to pass. The righteous have many enemies during this
period before the Lord comes again. We can't be too careful.”

“We're not even adults yet,” I argued. “That doesn't make
any sense.”

“You have killed before,” he said, staring directly into my
eyes. “You would strike me down right now if I threatened harm to you or your
friends. I have no doubt about that.”

A chill ran down my back as I felt Rowena's hatred surge
toward us.

“You must earn my blessing to leave,” he said. “I will be
happy to grant it to you tomorrow so that you may be on your way. Until then
I'd like you to think of yourselves as my guests. You will be staying with me
tonight. I insist.”

Listening close by, Rowena looked both shocked and hurt by
these words but she recovered quickly.

If that's some kind of big honor he just bestowed on us,
I thought,
he can keep it
.

Felicity slipped her hand into mine and gave it a squeeze.
She was obviously just as scared by this turn of events as I was.

“Rowena, please show them to my quarters and stay with
them,” Bryan said. “I will be along after I have a word with Darren.”

“As you wish,” she said, then turned to us. “Follow me.”

We were marched back out at gun point and across the yard to
another entrance. On our way out I glanced over my shoulder and caught a
glimpse of Darren sulking in and kneeling before Bryan Crowe.

“So what's the deal with that guy Darren?” I asked, picking
at the edges of the hem of my new clothes.

“He was kinda like my first boyfriend,” Felicity said.

“You sure know how to pick em,” I replied.

We were sitting in a large waiting room full of sofas and
chairs. There were crosses on the walls and a Bible in the corner, but nothing
else. No television, no reading material, nothing to occupy us except ourselves
and our own thoughts.

After we were led off to Bryan Crowe's private mansion and
guest quarters, we were separated and treated to our own private tour of the
immediate grounds. My guide was a kid about a year younger than me named Jonah.
He was perfectly brainwashed to give the most banal sort of answer to any
question I could come up with. He rattled off the great history of their
leader, talking about his trials in the desert and how they mirrored the tales
of Christ in the Bible. Jonah told me that Crowe was drawn to this special land
by an angel of the Lord, that he settled here and prepared for the end of days
as instructed by God. I did my best to follow along, but I was pretty bored after
ten minutes. I started asking questions about the way things worked and what
they thought the rest of the world was doing, trying to catch Jonah off guard
and get him off topic, but he didn't budge.

“You can't trip me up with your worldly questions,” Jonah
patiently explained. “I am a child of God now.” I hated him with an unnatural
intensity after that. I half wished a zombie would come along and bite him so I
could do the honors of sending him off to his redeemer.

“I see,” I answered, “but aren't we all God's children, no
matter what religion we practice?” He glared at me. I was certain that it was
only a matter of time until I was escorted to a mass grave site where
troublesome visitors were disposed of. Instead I was taken to a private
showering area and left to get clean, despite my numerous protests that I
didn't need another shower. I wasn't really comfortable so I just splashed some
water on myself and washed my face.

When I got out I found all my clothing gone. Instead, a neat
new pile of bright white sheets that had been stitched into garments awaited me
with my katana sitting on top.

Smooth move
, I thought.
Sneak in and snatch my
clothes but leave my weapon. Smarter than you know. I would have torn this
place apart to get it back.

I picked the garments up and held them out in front of me.

“What are we going to, a Klan rally?” I mumbled.

They fit well enough and since I didn't have any other
options, I put them on. It felt like I was wearing a cheap Halloween costume.

“Where are my clothes?” I asked when I came out of the
bathroom to find Jonah patiently waiting for me.

“Civilian clothing is not appropriate for tonight's
festivities,” Jonah replied with a smile. “Your street clothes will be returned
to you in the morning.”

I was tempted to say something smartass like
don't forget
to use starch
but I held it in. I just stared at him instead, trying to
make the moment as uncomfortable as possible. They were keeping us as prisoners
but kept acting like we'd actually chosen this. It was the least they deserved.

Jonah led me to the waiting room where I found Felicity
wearing an equally disastrous pair of bed sheets stitched into the shape of an
ugly dress. If this had been an episode of
Project Runway
the designer
would have been cruelly excoriated, then sent home weeping. I tried not so
successfully to stifle back a giggle. Felicity shot me a nasty glance for a
warning.

“Hey,” I said, turning to Jonah. “When are we going to eat?
I am starving and you've separated us from our resources.”

“Someone will be along shortly to take you to the feast,”
Jonah said. “Have a blessed night.”

“Oh and you too, buddy,” I said flashing him a fake smile.
“Mahalo.”

He retreated out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
I could hear the lock click into place.

Great
, I thought.
Once again I'm locked up like a
caged animal. How do I keep getting myself into these situations?

After some time had passed and we realized we were probably
alone, I took up the subject of Darren with her. She hadn't seemed to want to
talk about him much, but I had lots of questions. She tried her best to answer
my inquiries in single word replies but I wasn't backing down.

“He seems a lot older than you,” I said, referring to
Darren. “That's all.” A little voice in my head reminded me that just a few
hours ago I thought Darren looked the same age as me. I promptly invited that
little voice to shut the hell up.

“He was a senior in high school and I was still in junior
high,” Felicity said. “It was before my acting career took off. It feels like
forever ago.”

“Creepy,” I said. “What kind of guy goes for a girl that
young?”

“He is actually one of the sweetest, most genuine people
I've ever met,” Felicity fired back sounding annoyed by my persistent line of
questioning. “It's a small town with small town values. There was nothing
creepy about it.”

“If you say so,” I said, trying to fight off my obvious
jealousy. “He just seems a little weird.”

“Besides,” Felicity said, ignoring my taunt, “all we ever
did was hold hands. We never even kissed.”

“Never?”

“Not once,” she said. “Are you satisfied? Can we stop
playing Spanish Inquisition now?”

“No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition,” I said in a
high falsetto voice but instead of laughing, she just smirked. I was really
under her skin today.

Does that mean she wishes she had kissed him?
a
little voice in the back of my head asked. I shouted it down yet again. I was
disgusted with myself. Less than a week ago she didn't exist and all that
mattered was getting Benji to the safety of the base. Now I had no idea where
Benji was or if he was safe and I was thinking about Felicity way too much for
my own good.

“What do you know about this Bryan Crowe guy?” I asked
switching gears. “He is supposed to be the Messiah according to my new best
friend, Jonah, but I don't recall the Bible saying anything about Jesus holding
people against their will at gunpoint.”

“He may not remember me, but I remember him,” Felicity said,
shaking off a tremor that ran through her. “I was six years old and my friend
Caley was having a birthday party. It was a big deal since her family was what
we used to call wealthy back then. What?” She had turned to me when I made a
face.

“I'm sorry,” I said. “It's just hard to think that there was
a time in your life when you weren't rich and famous.”

“I grew up dirt poor out here,” Felicity protested. “My mom
and my sister and I didn't have much after my dad left. We moved out here
because it was cheap and we lived in a rented mobile home for the first year
after the divorce. I remember my only toy was a half melted Barbie with no
clothes that I found abandoned in the sand lot. My mom cleaned her up and sewed
her some new outfits. They weren't much better than what we are wearing now,
but they meant the world to me.”

“That must have been tough,” I said.

“It was,” she admitted, looking up and making eye contact
with me. “Anyway, most of my grade school class was there. Bryan Crowe showed
up to do magic tricks and make balloon animals for all the kids. It was a
perfect day with a
piñata
and cake, but it ended strange. There was some
commotion and then my mom came to get me and all the kids left at once.”

“What happened?”

“One of the kids had gone missing for over half an hour,”
Felicity said. “They found her out near the stables with Bryan Crowe. Her dress
was torn. She was eight.”

“So why didn't they put him in jail then and there?”

“They tried but they didn't have any proof of wrong doing,”
Felicity said. “The girl didn't have any signs of abuse. She said she went to
the stables on her own to look at the horses and he found her there. She said
he just talked to her but she couldn't remember about what. She didn't know how
her dress got torn. The police questioned the rest of us but nothing ever came
of it. That was the end of his career as a kid's party entertainer though.”

“I'll bet,” I said. “I'm sure word got around pretty fast
after something like that. I’m surprised that he wasn't at least run out of
town.”

I expected her to argue about how easy going and permissive
Ojai was, but her brow furrowed instead and she looked really upset.

“I started having nightmares about him,” she said. “I
couldn't close my eyes without seeing him waiting for me in the dark in a clown
costume. It got really bad. One day I begged my mom to tell me about him. I
thought if she made him seem more human to me, I could get past my irrational
fear.”

“What did she say?”

“At first she wouldn't tell me anything,” she said.

“That must have been frustrating,” I offered, trying to move
the story along. I wanted to know as much about this guy as I could. What were
his weaknesses, aside from young girls?

“She told me it wasn't appropriate for kids. But I stuck
with it, bugging her the way only a child can, and eventually she caved,” she
said. “She told me that he was a drifter. She said she didn't know where he was
originally from, that no one did, but everyone knew he arrived from Vegas as a
failed magician. He'd gone there to show his act on the strip and had fallen
flat on his face. Shortly after the incident at Caley's party, he reinvented
himself again.”