Chase watched the little bit of liquid seep out of the needle as Jayda checked for air bubbles. He and Dax held Richard down so Jayda could insert the needle into his arm. Like a held down tiger, he squirmed and tried to scratch at them. Weak, his words now slurred, he knew holding back the sting they held for Jayda no matter what nonsense he spouted.
With Dax, they lifted his body into the van and shut the door on him. Jayda stepped around the side of the vehicle blinking her eyes. Chase moved from his mind the last time he’d seen her cry.
“We need a plan, here,” Chase huffed.
In unison, a resounding round of having no idea what to do next were tossed his way. He shook his head then rubbed his forehead. It seemed he’d have an eternal headache until he got this ragtag group to safety.
“I saw a church a ways back,” Sherri piped up. “It stood out to me because it seemed that the parking lot had a lot of cars in it. I’d wondered if people had gathered there to maybe pray as the world ended or something.”
“Let’s go, Lucas,” Chase said. “The rest of you stay with the van and Richard. We have to do this fast.”
With a piece of tubing from the medical kit, a bottle of water and the empty gas container, he and Lucas set out. They made it to the church out of breath, but hopeful one of these cars or more would have some gas.
They moved around the building looking into the one window without stained glass at the back to see if they could see anyone. When he didn’t, he moved to the first car he came to and started to siphon gas. Relief flooded him as he got a little. He tried his luck with the next car in line. A smile actually broke over his face as he heard the liquid flow. Lucas had the next car ready to go when Chase got there.
“Excuse me,” a voice said. “What do you think you are doing?”
Chase and Lucas turned at the same time. He saw Lucas reach toward his gun. His pride soon fell to the wayside when he saw a preacher standing at the door of the church. He didn’t look angry or anything, just genuinely curious.
“I asked what you were doing,” the man restated, his voice remaining soft.
Chase and Lucas looked at each other, but honestly words failed him. His limbs weighted, he clutched the gas can. His other arm he had braced and ready to go for his gun.
“Okay, then. Guess I can figure out what you were doing on my own then. Are there more of you?” he asked.
“No,” Lucas blurted.
“Don’t lie to me,” the man said stiffly.
“There are three more of us. They are waiting back at our van for us to get some gas. We looked in the window and didn’t see anyone, so we assumed the cars were abandoned,” Chase offered. “Look, we have to meet someone soon. It’s important. Can we just take what little we have?”
“Why don’t you come in for something to eat and drink,” the preacher offered.
“Look, that’s kind, but we have to get back,” Chase replied.
“I insist. You can keep the gas. Just let us offer you some hospitality first,” the man insisted, his voice getting deeper.
The man who had been moving toward them as he spoke made a lunge for the gas can. Chase’s eyes unfortunately went to Lucas’ gun raising.
Chase stopped the gun with his hand as he lost the gas can out of the other.
“You bring your friends back, and you can have it back,” the man said with a polite nod before he turned around and disappeared into the church.
“What the hell just happened here? Listen Lucas, you can’t just go pointing that gun at the living.”
“He took our gas. Shouldn’t we shoot to protect what is ours?” he rebutted.
“It technically wasn’t ours. Some rules should still apply,” he said, softly. “Lets’ double back and get the others.”
Lucas just nodded and they went back. When they got there, Chase could see the question in Jayda’s tight face as to where the gas can had gone.
“A preacher at the church caught us. He said we could have gas if we came back and got a bite to eat with them,” Chase offered.
“Oh, that doesn’t sound suspicious at all?” Dax groaned.
“I know how it sounds, and the guy was definitely off. But, at this point, what choice do we have?” Chase said, his shoulders slumping even as he tried to catch his breath.
“I say we go in armed, and…” Dax was cut off by Chase’s glare.
“We can’t just go around like thieves or looters. These people are still human. Laws still apply. You can’t just go shooting humans because what they need doesn’t suit your needs,” Chase rambled, his words clipped.
“You wouldn’t even shoot the guy who stole gas from us,” Jayda spat.
“We never actually had it. We didn’t know what his situation was. Look, we have no choice here. We have to go back to the church and take on whatever they throw at us to get that gas without shedding blood,” Chases said as he turned on his heel to walk back to the church.
He was scared and relieved at the same time as he heard the group follow him. He didn’t know how he’d gotten to be leader. He’d given up the position long ago for a damn good reason or two.
By the time they hit the church again, Chase felt like he could fall asleep standing up. The hours were ticking away, and they were running out of time to get to the checkpoint to meet Daniel.
The preacher met them at the back door.
“Look, I actually need to ask a favor of you. Then I promise, I will offer you food and drink and give you the gas you need,” he said as he opened the door to welcome them in.
He led them through an empty room and into the back of the sanctuary. A collective round of gasps came from his group once the sanctuary came into full view.
The sight of church members praying over what appeared to be dead zombies sent a shiver down Chase’s spine. The room smelled, adding insult to injury to the gory sight. The chanting sound of their voices added the horror music needed to fully creep him out. He wanted to back out almost as much as he needed that gas.
“We’ve had some success in bringing back the spirit or soul of the human back into their body. Granted, this was with those dying. We saved one. So, we are attempting to do the same with these poor souls,” the preacher droned on. “That’s where we need help. We believe in the power of prayer, and of the sheer number of souls adding to that power.”
“You want us to pray over them?” Jayda asked.
“Yes. Please. You can have the gas in exchange for a little time with God requesting a miracle for those we have lost. Have you lost anyone? Do you know of any afflicted?” the preacher continued.
“Sherri lost her husband, but we left him behind,” Jayda said, pointing toward Sherri who had remained gaping at the room. “My husband has the disease, but is still alive in the van.”
“Bring him, then,” the preacher exclaimed. “Bring him in to be cured.”
“The van is down the road without gas,” Jayda said.
Chases noticed the crack in her voice.
“I’ll go get the van if you give me just enough gas to get back here,” Dax offered. “I can be quick.”
Once the logistics of that were worked out, Dax left alone with a water bottle of gas, while the rest of them were assigned zombies to pray over. The preacher gave them cards, something they had written up to say over the bodies or corpses. Either way, Chase was grateful for the words. He would not have known what to say otherwise. He felt a bit rusty anyway. He’d lost his faith after Jayda had lost her leg and he’d lost her. He did what he had to, always using moments when the preacher wasn’t observing them all to look at his watch. He calculated the time they had left as he mumbled words.
It wasn’t long before the silence beyond the eerie chanting broke. Dax came crashing through the door with a screaming Richard. The sweat on the guy’s brow showed just how feverish and far gone the poor man was.
He watched to make sure that Jayda kept her distance. She did. She remained standing a few steps back from the body she had been assigned to pray over. The preacher took over immediately anyway.
The sight became a spectacle that practically halted all the other work in the room. Richard cussed at the preacher, but the preacher prayed on to rid the evil inside his body. Richard seemed to only remember how to take the Lord’s name in vain with a few decorative curse words. The preacher had motioned for a few of the other members of the congregation to join him. Chase couldn’t believe the way they had moved willingly, and with smiles on their faces to help. You would have thought their name had just been called in the NBA draft or something.
Before long, Richard’s words started to slur, and his words became unrecognizable. Chase had stopped all attempts at his own prayers, just as Jayda had. She now stood in the aisle, about half the church length away from the dramatic scene being acted out over her husband. It took a few moments, but Chase started to recognize a repetition to the sounds that Richard was speaking. It was as if he were speaking another language.
“It’s working,” the preacher exclaimed to the rest of the people in the room. He’s begun speaking in tongues. The same thing happened the last time as the Holy Spirit spoke through the victim he cured.”
Jayda gasped, drawing her hands to her mouth. Chase rolled his eyes. The sunlight streaming through an image of angels on the stained glass window above him caught his eye. If this worked, he didn’t know if he’d be a changed man or not. He couldn’t help feeling like he’d truly been caught in a horror film now. All Richard needed to do was vomit some pea soup, and the experience would be complete.
“The virus is taking over,” Richard finally screamed.
“Come, all of you,” the preacher motioned to everyone. “Come help us to pray for this man, to save his soul from this evil disease.”
Chase moved forward if only to stand beside Jayda. She didn’t need this drama in her condition. He placed a gentle hand on her arm, more to keep her at a distance. He moved his mouth, went through the motions. No one could possibly tell the difference in the chaos that had erupted.
“I can feel you,” Richard said in a calm voice. “I can feel myself getting better.”
Chase moved a few steps with Jayda. Richard sat now. He seemed calm and lucid as if the whole blessed thing was actually working. The preacher led the congregation into a rousing climax of prayers.
Finally, silence fell. Not that he didn’t want this to actually work at this point, but the noise pollution in the room had been off the charts there for a moment. A rumbling sound came through by way of the back door. Chase wondered if they’d left it open when they’d brought Richard in.
Chase motioned for Jayda to stay put, and then made his way to the door. He heard a few following him, which blocked the sound that was coming from outside. When he got to the door, he noticed a zombie come through a line of trees on the back of the property. Then another. Then two more. In a minute, a whole hoard of dozens of them hit the parking lot.
“Dax,” Chase yelled.
Luckily he appeared quickly.
“Help me get the guns!”
By the time Chase and Dax got to the van, Sherri, Lucas, and Jayda had met him there. He passed out guns. Lucas went right to showing Sherri how to shoot the gun she’d been handed, but Chase heard her fire back at him that she was already quite proficient. It gave him a chuckle though to think of his lab assistant in such a role now.
“Please, don’t do this,” the preacher said as he grabbed Chase’s arm.
“We have no choice,” Chase spat back, then swallowed hard.
“Please trust me,” the preacher continued on.
“I’m starting to, but not with this massive a group. We can’t knife them down so you can pray over them,” Chase sighed. “Anyway, a miracle is a miracle, right? Gun or knife, what’s the difference. We’ll leave them all here for you. Now, please move. You are wasting time.”
He stepped away from the man to load his weapon as the others were doing. They formed a line in front of the church. Taking aim, the zombies stopped moving. Chase looked over the sight of his gun.
“What the hell?” Chase murmured.
“I told you to trust me,” the preacher said behind Chase.
“I don’t get it,” Chases said to Dax and the preacher who were closest to him.
They paused until one of the zombies started moving again. Soon, the rest followed suit.
Chase had yelled to fire, and the guns around him started going off in unison to his own. Dax, to his right, got in some good head shots. Lucas, to his left, fumbled a few shots into shoulders and stomachs. However, he noticed that Sherri held her own along with Jayda. Smiling, he fired and fired, even as they moved back at the approach of those yet to be hit.
“Shit, we’ve reached the church,” Dax yelled.
“Hold fire and move in,” Chase said as he stayed front to keep shooting the ones closest to him.
Pushed back in through the door by the mass that came at them. Many more that they’d initially thought, as if an entire town turned and headed this way. As they came into the church, there were moments were firing became too hard to avoid not hitting another live human. Some moments of yelling and stumbling later, they had moved the congregation members in enough to get all in themselves.
As the zombies fumbled in through the door, all trying to fit at once, some of the congregation started to move forward to pray. Chase and his group tried to fire, to hit the zombies instead of the humans, but many church members got mutilated anyway. The screams, Chase thought, would live in his head forever as these people got eaten alive.
He bumped into the preacher on his next retreat further into the sanctuary.
“They won’t touch me,” he said. “God won’t let them.”
Chase moved around the guy, aiming his gun at the next zombie. But, before he could get a shot off, the zombie pushed right into the man. The thing in a tattered, once expensive suit, fell to the ground over the preacher. Chase held his breath and fired, blowing the zombie’s head off at such point-blank range.
He couldn’t stop to watch as the preacher stood up, shell-shocked, in a grizzly state and fled to the back of the church, or front depending upon the direction you’d come in. His trigger finger tingling to numb, his shoulder aching, he hit the final zombie. But, as he lowered his gun and took inventory of his group, he heard movement coming from the floor.
A zombie struggled to get up despite the carnage. Taking aim to hit him before he got up to standing, he stopped when he heard Jayda let out a scream.
“It’s Richard,” she cried.
Chase focused in the movement better, and despite the blood from the other zombies killed, he could see that it was Richard. By this time he’d come to standing. He moved toward Jayda. Chase kept his gun aimed at his head, waiting to see if the man had turned or not. He stepped toward Jayda, and Chase followed at an easy angle to kill the man without harming her.
Richard stopped a few feet from her. Odd gurgling noises came from his throat. He no longer spoke in tongues, but unlike the other zombies, his moans and groans took on the rhyme and reason of actual sentences.
With his finger set on the trigger, he moved in to stand beside Jayda. Richard remained a good two feet from her, but he made his noises as if he spoke right to her. Chase shook as Jayda sobbed. He looked into Richard’s lost eyes, and got goose bumps all over.
Richard looked his way. Chase took a breath. Richard leaped at him. He heard the bang of a gun, but knew his finger remained frozen on his own trigger. As Richard crumbled to the floor, Chase saw Dax just behind him, a sliver of smoke coming from the end of his gun.
Beside him, Sherri moved in to comfort Jayda, even as Dax threw his hand on Chase’s shoulder.
“I wanted to save you the trouble, man,” Dax said. “I wouldn’t want to have to live with the consequences of having killed my ex-wife’s husband, even if he was a zombie.”
“Thanks,” Chase got out.
“Don’t mention it. You guys seem to have enough issues as it is. And with her pregnant and all, she’s going to need you,” Dax continued.
Chase turned so he could put his free hand on one of Dax’s shoulders.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Chase said.
“Don’t. I wanted to kill the bastard. Already had it in my head that I would save you the trouble. Now, just repay me the kindness by getting us to that checkpoint in time.”
“I’ll do my best. We’ve got to get out of here, though.”
Chase saw that the preacher, covered in blood, sat there speechless even as what was left of the congregation hovered around him. He picked up the gas can, and motioned to his group.
“Let’s go,” he said. “We have thirty minutes.”