All Together Now: A Zombie Story (17 page)

Through the sanctuary windows I saw the sky was still dark and the sun could only barely be glimpsed over the horizon.

"Good morning, brothers," said a scrawny woman in a purple shirt. "This is the day that the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it."

I needed to pee so bad I had no doubt I would rejoice and be glad in it. "I'll be right back," I said to Michelle and stumbled into the hall.

Rumbling through the air, above the chatter of congregants, was the roar of an engine. I went to the restroom and swallowed a hydrocodone at the sink. I peed, then took another.

That was a mistake. My fuzzy head grew fuzzier and I've never taken another pill. Although it's probably a moot point since I'll likely be dead soon, I'll never take one again.

When I came back into the hall, I joined Chuck and Michelle at the end of a long line of Christians leading to the kitchen. I could smell genuine cooking, the sweet aroma of bacon and pancakes wafting to my nostrils.

My stomach growled. We'd leave after breakfast, I decided.

As we got closer to the kitchen, the engine sound grew louder and through the window I saw it was a gas generator.

My first thought was that the sound would draw a horde of dead, but then I remembered how far from town New Life Christian Church was.

We didn't have purple shirts, but the women in the kitchen gave us paper plates and let us help ourselves to a spread of pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and sausage. They even gave us plastic cups of orange juice.

Despite everything that followed, my stomach growls as I write this just thinking about the feast they'd set up.

People were sitting at card tables in the Sunday school classrooms off the hall. The reverend waved us over to a table beside him and Levi's parents.

I scanned the tables and spotted Levi sitting at a table farther back all by himself.

I didn't want to sit with the reverend, but the way he was waving, it would've been awkward not to.

"I hope you like pancakes," he said.

"I love them!" Chuck shouted, and the reverend laughed.

"Thank you," I said. "It's really great."

"The Lord provides for all the birds of the air and the flowers of the field," the reverend said. "Surely He will provide for you. I hope you'll join us in worship this morning after breakfast."

I didn't say yes, but I didn't say no, either. I didn't think it was a good idea to tell the reverend we planned to dine and dash.

We sat, and Michelle started to eat.

The reverend cleared his throat and I saw neither he nor Levi's parents had touched the plates they had in front of them. The reverend offered his hand and I took it.

I grabbed Chuck's hand, he grabbed Michelle's hand, and we all bowed our heads so the reverend could say a blessing.

And if ever a meal was worthy of a blessing, it was that pancake breakfast. It was the best I've ever eaten.

Chuck said it was the best meal he ever ate as well. And that's good, I guess, seeing as how it was his last.

68

AFTER THE BREAKFAST, WE FOLLOWED the congregants back into the sanctuary, which had been emptied of pillows and blankets. Folks filed into pews, most of them not giving a second glance to the stage.

Michelle and Chuck stopped to stare, and I did a double-take.

In front of the podium was a solid-oak communion stand with the words "This Do in Remembrance of Me" carved across its front. Strapped to the top of the table was Sister Rachel.

She snarled at the congregants, all dressed in royal purple shirts identical to the one hanging from her dead torso.

"Keep moving, brothers," someone said from behind me, "we must make room."

You might ask why I didn't grab Chuck and Michelle and run out of the sanctuary right then, and you'd be right to ask it.

The answer is I don't know.

No one else was running. No one ever runs out of church unless they're a bride uncertain of the groom.

I led Michelle and Chuck to a pew at the back of the sanctuary, closest to the exit. My plan was to wait until the congregation closed their eyes in prayer and slip out. Somehow that seemed more polite, considering the meal we'd just had.

But they never did pray. Several congregates were staring at Sister Rachel with worried looks on their faces.

Then a plump woman with white hair began playing the piano, and like Pavlov's dogs salivating at a bell, the Christians were all singing "There's power in the blood, power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power..."

The reverend took the stage with a hymnal, singing loudest. And we sang them all: "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," "Onward Christian Soldiers," “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Our God is an Awesome God,” and on and on and on.

I didn't know there were so many hymns. The congregation sang for an hour or more. We let Chuck hold the hymnal and Michelle and I read the lyrics over his shoulders, singing along as best we could.

Some of the songs I knew from my mother's time as a born-again or from church camp. But they didn’t sing my mother's favorite hymn, the one she used to play in the car and at home all her year as a Christian, the one I knew all the words to.

We didn't sing "All Together Now" until after the reverend gave his message, and that song will haunt me to my grave or my time as a zombie, whichever comes first.

We sang "Room at the Cross," and then the reverend put his hymnal aside and stood at his podium, which was behind Sister Rachel, and began to preach.

He read from his Bible and advised his followers to read along in their Bibles and preached on the story of Lazarus. He read from Revelations about how the dead will rise when Jesus returns.

I've never made it through a whole sermon awake and the reverend Brian Hopstead's sermon was no exception.

Maybe it was the pain in my head. Maybe it was the painkillers. Maybe it was that I hadn't slept the night before, or maybe it was all three. What I know is while the reverend yammered on about the prophet Elijah raising a boy from the dead, I drifted off.

I don't remember doing it, but my head bowed low and my eyes shut. I don't know how long the reverend spoke or what he said, or how long I slept.

I know that when I opened my eyes, bright sunlight was streaming in through the sanctuary windows and everyone was singing again:

"Once I was all alone, mired in sin. My wicked self had usurped His word. When I felt most afraid, the Shepherd called, 'lost lamb, come join the herd.'"

The reverend walked between the aisles, singing.

I sang along, hoping I hadn't snored or otherwise drawn attention to the fact I'd been sleeping during the service.

I was so busy trying to look natural I didn't notice Chuck shifting nervously in his seat.

"All together now, we're all together now. Yea though we perish, yea though we die, we'll all be together in the sweet by and by."

The reverend bowed his head, closed his eyes, and spread his legs for dramatic flair.

"All together now, we're all together now. All together, all together now."

The reverend opened his eyes and walked straight to the end of the aisle, reaching out for Chuck. "Take my hand, son."

My little brother looked to me. I shook my head.

The reverend took Chuck gently by the wrist and raised his arm as though proclaiming him the winner.

"And behold," the reverend called, "a child shall lead them!"

The reverend started back up the aisle, leading Chuck behind him.

Michelle and I stood.

Everyone sang: "For there's no greater pain in heaven or hell hurts worse than being on my own."

Chuck and the reverend stopped just in front of the stage and the communion table with the zombie strapped to it.

"But after we've died, left our mortal coil behind, we'll rise up and not be alone."

The reverend stooped to Chuck's height and asked, "Are you ready to pledge your soul to the church, to be transformed by Almighty God so that you may not perish but be given everlasting life?"

Chuck bit his lip.

I worked my way to the edge of the pew and started up the aisle, slowly, so as not to attract attention.

The reverend put his arms on Chuck's shoulders and sang with his congregation:

"All together now, we're all together now. Yea though we perish, yea though we die, we'll all be together in the sweet by and by."

The reverend seized Chuck's hand.

"All together now, we're all together now."

I stopped walking and started running.

The reverend forced Chuck's hand down until it was positioned in front of the communion table.

Sister Rachel snarled and bit into his wrist.

Chuck screamed and bright red blood flowed over the dead woman's lips.

"All together, all together now."

69

KEEP HIM SAFE, RICKY

I ran up the aisle toward the front of the sanctuary.

It was as though the world had gone into slow motion.

I could see congregants in their identical purple T-shirts standing in the pews on either side of me. Every one of them was smiling.

Keep him safe, Ricky.

The reverend pushed Chuck aside and stretched his own arm in front of Sister Rachel. He wrapped his other hand around the dead woman's head, holding her close, and as she bit into his wrist he shuddered and moaned.

Chuck stumbled and sat down on the side of the stage. When I reached him and threw my arms around him and held him close, he was weeping.

Keep him safe, Ricky.

Beside us, the reverend withdrew from Sister Rachel with a gasp, then turned back to his congregation. He held up his wrist for them to see, dripping blood down the sleeve of his purple suit jacket.

"Behold!" he shouted. "I am washed in the blood of the Lamb and the Word is made flesh!"

I picked Chuck up and carried him toward the exit. No one tried to stop us.

"Come forward, brothers and sisters!" the reverend called. Even as he spoke, his congregants were forming two lines toward the front of the sanctuary.

"Come and receive Sister Rachel's testimony, and be baptized anew. There is room at the old rugged cross, room at the cross for you!"

Ruth Davis stood before Sister Rachel and allowed the zombie to bite into her considerable gut. Peter Davis was waiting just behind her.

"No!" Levi screamed, working his way between pews toward the aisle.

I found Michelle at the back of the congregation. Her eyes were wide and her breathing came in hitched gasps.

The reverend sang, "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me."

"Stop this!" Levi screamed. "Stop it! Stop!"

Levi's father hit him so hard he fell back against a pew. "Spare the rod and spoil the child! Be not tempted from the path of the righteous, boy!"

Levi wept as his father took his turn with the zombie.

After Peter Davis had received Sister Rachel's testimony, he moved so the next congregant in a purple shirt could allow herself to be bitten. Behind her, the other members of the flock waited their turn, singing with the reverend:

"Come home, come home. You who are weary, come ho-o-o-me. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, 'O sinner, come home!"

Michelle and I ran from the sanctuary into the foyer. Levi met us there. "I'm coming with you," he said.

I didn't say anything. I clutched Chuck to me and felt my shirt dampen with his tears.

Keep him safe, Ricky.

Together, we left New Life Christian Church.

70

"THE VAN," I SAID AS we came outside, remembering that Peter Davis had left the keys in the ignition.

At the other side of the gravel parking lot, Brother Mordecai lurched toward us, but he was too far away to be a threat so long as we kept moving.

Michelle took the front passenger seat and Levi drove us from the church. I didn't know where we were going, and I didn't ask.

My sole concern was Chuck. He trembled in my arms and I could feel heat radiating from him, burning him from the inside out. He looked up at me, his eyes barely open.

"Ricky?"

"Yeah?"

"Am I going to die?"

I shook my head.

"Good."

And that was the last word I ever heard Chuck say. He laid his head against my chest and slipped into unconsciousness.

"I am so, so sorry," Michelle said from the front seat. "It's my fault. I let him walk right past me. I didn't know they would... Why did they do that?"

My eyes were fixed on Chuck. He was whimpering and twitching, his eyes fluttering, but never fully opening.

"Why would they do that?" Michelle asked. "What kind of church does that?"

"We're nondenominational," Levi said.

"It's my fault, Ricky," Michelle said.

"No," I said. "I was supposed to keep him safe."

Michelle said other things, but I don't remember what.

I stared down at Chuck, his tiny body burning, dripping sweat and twisting in spasms, but his eyes closed and his face lax, his mind serene.

I don't think he felt any pain. If there's any evidence of the existence of a God, that might be it.

I didn't know the van had stopped until Levi opened his door and got out.

"What are we doing?" Michelle asked.

"Left all my supplies at the church." Levi went around to the back of the van, opened the rear doors, and lifted an axe from beneath the back seat.

It made me think of Dad and the axe he'd pulled from the dead lawyer on the square.

"Are you good, Ricky?" Michelle asked.

"How's Chuck?" Michelle asked.

"We'll be right back," Michelle said.

Levi shut the doors and went away. Michelle stared at me a long moment, then followed him.

Through the window glass I saw we were back at Wal-Mart.

I rolled Chuck backward and he gasped, but didn't wake.

"I was supposed to keep you safe," I said.