Oblivion (13 page)

“Ok, on three guys, let God or that other mother sort’em out,” Merrick whispered and he cocked his shotgun.

Raymond mouthed the count and suddenly they were bursting through the doors. There were five deadheads inside, all dressed in black leather and highly intoxicated. Music blared inside. The largest of them had a white-blond Mohawk. He turned with a hiss on his pale, corpse-like features.

Jace wasn’t prepared to see them up close. He flinched at the sight of them, seeing the misery of their existence. They were the walking dead. No wonder they lived to extract pain. Pain excited them and made them feel alive. They had a table full of knives and other tools of torture.

Their skin was a pale, grayish blue in color with sightless eyes. They appeared brainless but they moved very fast, scattering as they came inside. The four Newbie’s were tied to the wall, all moaning and bleeding. Taken unaware; the deadheads all scurried for cover.

Jace took position near the doors doing what Merrick instructed him, calmly and efficiently dropping four out of the five deadheads while Raymond and Murdoch cut down their captives. It was three men and a woman. McNeal grabbed the woman and carried her out. The three men were escorted out by Raymond and Murdoch.

Jace watched in fascination as the deadheads got up soon after being shot. He downed each one again with a clean shot to the head. Merrick helped. Between the two of them; they kept the five down until all four Newbie’s were safe inside the van.

“Go on Jace!” Merrick called out, his eyes on the rousing deadheads. “I’ll cover you until you get to the van. Go!”

“I’m not leaving you here,” Jace shouted as he downed the leader again before he could get up.

“That’s an order, Kid! Get to the van! Those demons will be here any minute.”

Jace was frustrated the bullets only stunned the deadheads for a few seconds before they were up again and a threat. Two had gotten their hands on weapons and were returning fire. He took a bullet to the chest and was hardly affected. Merrick took his share of bullets too. Jace heard him grunt with pain and saw he was down.

The shrieks outside were getting closer when Murdoch and McNeal ran back inside.

“There’s a whole lot of em’ guys!” Murdoch shouted. “Let’s go!”

McNeal helped cover them as Jace dragged Merrick with him to the doors, shooting and reshooting the five leather-clad corpse-like creatures. When they cleared the doors, Jace dragged Merrick with him to the van waiting outside. McNeal and Murdoch fired on the deadheads as Jace jumped in the back. McNeal and Murdoch sent several automatic rounds into the five pursuing deadheads before they ran and jumped into the back of the van.

The van sped away, running over creatures Jace saw in his worst nightmares. They were like rabid dogs as they jumped snarling and growling on the hood, looking very human except for their solid black eye sockets.

Jace was wide-eyed as he saw one demon punch through the windshield and grab Murdoch by the throat in the passenger seat. He was gasping and struggling in the demons hold, even as big as he was. Jace could see why you wouldn’t want to be caught by one. It wasn’t likely you would get away.

Raymond calmly stuck a gun through the hole in the windshield and shot the demon, sending him rolling off the hood of the van. All within watched as Raymond drove, mowing down more demons while Merrick and Murdoch shot from the open rear doors of the van behind them.

Each man was assigned one of the new arrivals. Merrick wasn’t at all pleased to get the only woman. She was young, early twenties, crying and wanted to call her husband. They were all quiet as they listened to her lament over not being able to pick up her son at his daycare.

Merrick rolled his eyes and looked at Jace, winking at him. “You wanna take this one, Jace? I think you can handle her.”

Jace glared at Merrick, but something in the woman’s plaintive sobs reminded him of how it was for him that first day. She was dressed in a waitress uniform, probably on her way to or from work when she was killed.

The blood on her uniform was hers from whatever happened to her in the world. Jace could see the woman was traumatized. She huddled in a ball, too hysterical to be reasoned with.

He reached down and wiped her reddish-brown hair from her face. She had healed. Blood streaked a face that was quite pretty. Her name badge on her dress front said Daphne. He knew what he was about to tell her was not going to be accepted.

“Daphne,” he leaned down and whispered. “You’re safe now. No one will hurt you. Welcome to Oblivion.”

“I need to call my husband and tell him to pick up the baby,” she said tearfully as she looked up at him with a worried look in her light blue gaze.

Merrick smiled broadly and looked out into the inky darkness as Jace explained to all four where they were. Drea’s assailant from twenty years ago was an old man now. He was the quietest of them all and didn’t argue what was told to him. The other two were a young insurance salesman who got jumped on the wrong side of town and a homeless guy.

“I don’t understand,” Daphne said again and looked like she would continue to cry.

“We’re dead, little lady,” Jose informed her tightly. The old man looked away from her devastated expression. “I guess we just wait for judgment now.”

“There is no judgment here,” Jace explained as he met Drea’s rapist and killer’s eyes with a cold look. “That’s not why you’re here. But while you’re here; these are the things you have to deal with, your friends back there and those things that attacked the van.”

“It ain’t Hell?” Jose asked in surprise.

Jace thought it unfair too. Jose deserved to burn for what he and his friends had done to Drea twenty years before. He hurt a lot of people before and after that certainly.

“No it’s not Hell,” Jace confirmed and glared at the relieved-looking man. “That comes later.”

“Why?” he asked, looking nervous.

“When you’re murdered this is where you go for a while,” Jace replied tightly, hating the way the man seemed to appear more confidant now. He realized before the other ones he was getting a reprieve.

Daphne looked sick. “I closed the diner and was walking to my car. I don’t remember anything after that. Why can’t I remember?”

“Your mind is protecting itself from seeing what happened to you,” Jace answered and saw she was devastated to know she wouldn’t be picking her baby up at daycare now. “You’ll have enough come back to you to piece it together.”

The insurance agent remained quiet, appearing dazed during the exchange. Jose Medeiros looked pleased and it aggravated Jace. Figures the guiltiest of them all saw the benefits of being in Oblivion.

“Tell them the job description, Jace,” Merrick added.

Jace looked at all four and smiled. “While you’re here, you’ll be expected to rescue those like you who come into Oblivion.”

“And face those things back there? No way,” Will the insurance agent said in near-hysteria. “I’m not going anywhere near them.”

“Pull over Raymond!” Merrick called and smiled at the agent as the van came to a stop. “You wanna get out? That’s your choice. In exchange for protection, you look out for those like you. It’s a two-way street, buddy. You don’t want to do it; you’re on your own, but you won’t last long. Most don’t. I saw it before. If the demons don’t get you; the deadheads do. You’re choice.”

The agent looked like he was going to be sick. “Fine, just get me out of here.”

McNeal looked at him in disgust. “You ever fire a gun, Boy?”

“No, I never fired a gun!” he said angrily and looked at McNeal in horror. “We have to shoot things?”

McNeal rolled his eyes and looked back to the road. “Great, I get the wimp.”

Murdoch and the others chuckled. Raymond eyed the man in amusement.

“You go with McNeal and the woman goes with Merrick. Murdoch takes the old guy and raggedy man is with me. Drea needs a break.”

“My name is Goose,” the homeless man said indignantly.

“Why do they call you Goose?” Raymond asked.

“I eat them,” Goose said proudly as he adjusted his grimy shirt. “Good eating and all I could get in the park. They’re hard to catch though.”

“Well Goose that speed of yours might pay off for you now,” Raymond informed him, “from what you saw back there; I don’t have to tell you what to avoid. Deadheads might be stupid but they’re fast.”

Daphne was crying again and Jace felt sorry for her. He knew what she was going through. He’d been a parent to Sara and Dougie. Waking up here and worrying about the kids drove him out of his mind those first few days. She would need time to absorb the fact her husband was now responsible for their six-month old son. 

He eyed Raymond with a new respect because Merrick was the most understanding of them all. She would need that. The leader might act like he was hard as nails, but he obviously placed each newcomer appropriately and with some sense of where they fit.

“It’s going to be ok,” he heard himself tell Daphne, trying to console her and convince himself of it. His heart ached to know he would never hold Lindsay again or be there to see his younger siblings grow up. What could you tell a woman who wouldn’t see her baby again? He doubted there was much he could say to make Daphne feel better about her situation.

“My son just started cutting teeth,” she said tearfully and sat against the side of the van with a sorrowful look. “I can’t think of not going home tonight.”

“I took care of my brother. I know what you mean,” Jace replied. “They probably went into foster homes when I died. It bothers me too. Just know that the living will take care of the living. Down here, you have to take care of yourself.”

“Those things back there,” Daphne said with a shudder. “What’s their problem? They’re dead too right? What is their beef with us?”

“Deadheads took the easy way out,” Raymond answered her. “They’re suicides who are stuck here forever. That makes them hate us because eventually we move on and they can’t. The demons just want your soul. They get in good with their master if they manage to get enough of them.”

“Master? You mean the devil?”

Raymond shrugged. “Haven’t met the guy. We only know the demons prey on us as much as the deadheads. They get a hold of you; it’s all over.”

“Move on?” she asked and looked hopeful. “Eventually we all go to Heaven?”

“Some of you,” Raymond said and eyed Jose Medeiros in amusement. “Some of you go somewhere else.”

“How do you know where you’re going?” Daphne persisted, her pretty face looking worried.

“You know,” Raymond said with a contemptuous look at Jose. “It depends on how you lived your life. Trust me, lady; you don’t need to worry about it.”

   Jose looked less confident now and stared out the back window of the van now, aware he was going to the other place.

“How long will we be here?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” Raymond said honestly and shook his head. “It’s different for everyone. You weren’t meant to die this soon. That’s why you’re here. You live in Oblivion until your time comes and then move on to wherever you go.”

“Can we change where we’re going?” Jose asked as he looked at Raymond closely, a worried look in his brown eyes.

Raymond looked slightly smug. “That’s the biggest question, pal. We don’t know. That’s why we do what we do. Every good deed might help. It can’t hurt.”

Jose looked shaken and stared back out the window. Daphne sat quietly too. Goose was acting like a tourist and avidly looking out the window. Will was pouting, obviously unhappy with what he heard.

Jace liked Daphne best among the newcomers and was glad they were taking her with them.  The van dropped them at the warehouse and Merrick opened the garage door. Daphne followed Jace and looked wide-eyed as she looked around. Jace smiled at her doe-in-the-headlights expression.

“Merrick will brief you on everything else you need to know, Daphne,” he told her. “You will be smart to listen to every word he says. You don’t know how long you’ll be here. There’s a lot to learn.”

Daphne frowned then. “If those demons get us, we’re just nothing then, right? No soul means we just disappear?”

Jace looked tense. “You go to the other place for eternity. You don’t want to get caught by them.”

Daphne appeared to accept things after that. Jace showed her to the guest room and to the shower. He found a set of fatigues small enough for her and a pair of boots. He left her alone and joined Merrick on the fire escape. He was smoking and looking angry.

“Don’t ever do that again, Jace. When I tell you to go; you go. That could have been bad back there.”

Jace glared at him. “I’m not going to leave you or the others behind, Merrick.”

Merrick looked furious. “You don’t get it, kid. That’s why there’s so few of us. We saved four Newbies tonight.  That stunt you pulled playing hero could have cost us.”

“I don’t get it.”

Merrick blew smoke and shrugged. “I think you do but you don’t want to see it. We got nothing’ to lose, Jace. We both know where I’m going. If I can save four here, four there, it might matter. You gotta chance. Don’t do that again. You just leave me next time.”

“I can’t do that!” Jace exploded and shook his head. “You’re asking me to leave you to them?”

“If it saves four more; I don’t mind.”

Jace could see Merrick was disturbed by his actions. “You expected to be sacrificed, didn’t you?”

“Sometimes it’s necessary, you’ll see. Ya get tired, Jace. I been doing this for forty years. We both know that’s a long life. I died at twenty-three. Ya get me now? I just want out of here, no matter where that is.”

“What’s Raymond’s story? He’s been here since 1864.”

“1865 more like it,” Merrick said and sighed tiredly. “He says he disobeyed his commanding officer who wanted him to burn down a plantation house filled with women and children who barricaded it from the Yankees.”

“You think he burned it down, don’t you?” Jace asked knowingly and whistled. “Guess he goes to the other place eventually.”

“Jace, he’s paying for every life he took,” Merrick said tensely. “You don’t get no break down here. Those are some serious years he’s looking at combined. I heard over one hundred people died in that plantation house, mostly slaves. You figure how many years they had left times one hundred and that’s why Raymond is still here. He won’t admit it, but he done it. He torched the place and a Union officer shot him on the battlefield a month later.”