Parish (6 page)

              “I don’t know.  I can’t say for sure, but for certain there were deserters.  People got their own families to be worrying about.  They probably wanted to be with them, try to protect them.” Artemis replied with a sigh.   “That’s why I volunteered to help you.  I ain’t got no family, but I did have one.  I know how I’d be feelin’ right about now if they were alive.”

              “Do you mind if I ask how you lost your family?” She looked to her partner with sympathetic eyes.

              “I never knew my Mom or Dad, Teely raised me.  Teely is my grandmamma.  I guess when I was ‘bout five my Dad died and then when I was ten my Mom died. I had a sister but she died a few years back.  She was hit by some teenager who was texting and driving.  Her name was Genevieve, she was a nurse.  Teely died last year, a month before I was due to come home from over there.” Artemis swallowed audibly.  “So now it’s just me.”

              “I’m sorry, Artemis.” Emily furrowed her brow and bit her lip as she thought over the story he had just shared.

              “It’s okay.  Honestly, I’m glad they ain’t here to be seeing this, especially Teely.  If Teely were here she’d be out in the midst of them corpses wailing about the four horsemen and hitting ‘em with the good book.  My Teely, she was spitfire.” Artemis chuckled deeply pulling Emily into it with his infectious laughter.

              “That’s quite the picture you paint.” Emily inhaled deeply and exhaled through her nose.  “I’m sure right now my little one is freaking out and the twins are too no doubt.  I love my husband, but Jack isn’t exactly the best when it comes to crises.”

              “Is that right?” He smiled.

              “We lived in Los Angeles for the past seventeen years.  You should have seen him the first time we experienced an earthquake.” Emily smiled as the memory came back to her.  “He ran out of the house in nothing more than his tighty whities and socks screaming like a little girl.”

              “That is funny.” Artemis howled with laughter.

              “It wasn’t even a four pointer.” Emily added which caused Artemis to laugh harder.  “I never let him live that down.  I was mortified because it happened in the morning and he ran out just as everyone around us was getting in their cars to go to work and to take their kids to school.  Our little old lady neighbor was screeching at him and picked up this tiny little Chihuahua and covered its eyes so the dog wouldn’t have to see him in his underwear.”

              “Are we getting close?” He looked around.  The zombie hoard was thinning out more and more.

              “This is the long way.  Go until you see the big gas station and make a right.” Emily looked out of the window at the street signs.  “We should be there in less than five minutes.  We’ll pass a brick elementary school, when you see that I’m about a block away.  Jamie likes to walk to school, that’s why we picked that house when I was transferred.”

              “Hold on a tick.  You’re that doc from the television awhile back aren’t you?  You’re from LA and you look really familiar.” Artemis looked at her, to the road and then back again.

              “Yes, I’m Doctor DeLasalle.  I was the one who did the press conference for Nazarene.” Emily nodded slowly.

              “I thought I recognized you!” Artemis smiled again.  “Why did you get transferred?”

              “We had the product.” Emily shrugged.  “They didn’t need to keep me around anymore once they had what they wanted.”

              “Well ain’t it your discovery?” He was confused.

              “Yes and no.  I get credit for it, but they paid for the research and development.  They own it.” Emily explained.  “I was offered a few positions around the country and even a few in Europe but I came back here.  Jack and I are from here.  Well, he is from here.  I moved here when I was twelve.  I’m originally from New York.”

              “Is that the gas station up there?” He motioned forward with his head.

              “Yep, make that right, right before the gas station.” Emily nodded moving forward on her seat.  Her heart began to race as they neared her home. Artemis turned the vehicle and punched the accelerator again.  “The school will be just up ahead.”

              “It looks like your family is going to be okay when we get there.  I don’t see any zombies.”  His eyes scanned the sides of the street.

              “I sure hope your right, Artemis.” She tried to swallow the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. They drove past the abandoned school.  A sudden realization struck her hard.  Life may never go back to normal, her children would be growing up in this new world, if they survived to grow up.  Emily fought the urge to vomit.

              “Doc, we got a problem.” Artemis pulled her out of her thoughts.  “Tell me that ain’t your house.”  Her eyes went wide with terror as she beheld the seemingly endless throng of zombies that were surrounding her house.

              “That’s my house!” She cried.  Artemis slammed on the breaks.

              “Well fuck me sideways.” He murmured as he gripped the steering wheel and leaned forward.

Chapter Five

“It’s been hours.” Wren whined.  “They’re not going away.”

              “Your mom will come.  She’ll bring the National Guard and they’ll rescue us.” Jack replied leaning his head back against the wall.

              “I don’t think we have a National Guard.  We live in the city.  If they were going to do something we would have seen convoys going past by now.” Wade interjected as he picked at the rubber sole of his boot.

              “Can you not be such a downer?” Jack narrowed his eyes at his son.  He looked to the youngest of the group, worried about how he was handling everything.  The sun was rising casting it’s beams in through the window.

              “At least it’s daylight now.  Maybe that’s what they were waiting for?” Wren asked as she stood up and went to the window.  “Hey! Hey!  Oh my god! It’s Mom!”

              “What!?” Jack and Wade asked in unison, excitedly jumping up and running to the window.

              “Look over there, that’s Mom!  But she only has one soldier with her.  How are they going to get us?” Wren looked at Jack who was frowning slightly.

              “I don’t know, but I’m sure she has a plan.” He attempted to reassure them.  Just as the words left his mouth they watched as the vehicle backed up and stopped.  The back wheels began to spin in place before the vehicle jumped forward plowing down several zombies.  The soldier who was driving was running over as many as he could.

              “Yeah!” Wade began to cheer.  Jack turned around and grabbed the survival bags that Wren had made when the news had first broke and extended his hand to Jamie who took it gingerly.  Jack pushed the curtains back and opened the window, sliding through onto the balcony.  Turning back to his children he urged them through.  A small door on the roof of the military truck opened and Emily stuck her head through.

              “Jack! Are you guys ok?”  She was bracing herself as the driver continued to use the vehicle as a weapon.

              “We’re fine!  We were just waiting for you!” Jack hollered back with a smile.

              “Sorry we’re late!” Emily smiled back.  “Artemis is trying to get as many as he can.  As soon as it’s safe we’re going to try to get up against the house and then you need to come over the railing and get in through this hole.  But you have to go as fast as you can, we can’t hold them all off for very long.”

              “I’ll throw down the emergency bags first then Jamie.  He needs to go before the rest of us.” Wade called out to his Mother.

              “Sounds good!” Emily leaned down, obviously listening to the driver before popping back up to speak to her family.  “Get ready, we’re pulling up now!”

              Jack and Wade each reached down taking a bag each and moved to the railing. They watched as the truck pulled parallel to the porch.

              “Okay! Send down the first bag!” Emily shouted.  Jack hoisted the heavy sack up and over the railing hanging it over the side. She reached up and got hold of the bottom of the bag as Jack let go of it.  She pulled it in as quickly as she could before coming back for the second.  Wade handed the bag he was holding to Jack, and he repeated the action.

              “Come on bud, it’s your turn!” Jack opened his arms wide but Jamie took a step back.  “We all have to do it, it’s safe down there.  You don’t have to worry your mom will have you, you’re not going to fall.”

              “I don’t wanna.” Jamie shook his head.

              “We have to hurry!” Wren was nervously looking over the railing.

              “Just go Wren!” Jack spat.  Wren knit her eyebrows together before swinging her leg over the railing and jumping down onto the roof of the vehicle and slipping through the hatch.  “See? She did it and she’s fine, you can do it too!”

              “Okay.  Just promise you won’t let me go until you know Mom has me.” He pleaded with his eyes.

              “I promise, come on.” Jack ushered Jamie to the railing and lifted him up and over.  Emily reached up and took hold of him.  With a small cry of panic Jamie fell down into the waiting arms of his mother.  Emily pulled him through and handed him to Wren.  “Go on Wade, I’ll go last.”

              “Alright.” Wade nodded and went over the railing, jumping down just as his sister had done.  Once through the hatch Jack went over and held on, looking down at the hole his kids had just wiggled through.

              “Come on Jack, we have to go!” Emily cried from inside.  Jack took a deep breath and jumped, his ankle snapping as he landed.  The zombies were swarming sides, smearing their hands and faces on the windows trying to get at the occupants.  Struggling, Jack managed to pull himself to the hatch and slide through head first.  As soon as his feet cleared the hole, Emily slammed it shut and locked it and the driver took off leaving massive tire marks in the once pristine grass.

              “Thank god you’re all safe!” Emily shrieked as she threw her arms around Jack and Jamie.  Wade and Wren put their arms around them.

              “We were worried about you.” Jack whispered into his wife’s neck.  Emily pulled back and looked into the faces of her family.

              “I was worried about you.  If it weren’t for Artemis I would still be at the hospital.” She turned and looked at her new friend.

              “Thank you sir, for saving her and us.” Jack smiled and gave him a grateful nod.

              “It ain’t nothing.  I’m just glad I could help.  Now we got to get out of the city.” Artemis turned his attention back to driving.

              “Do you know what caused this?” Wade asked as he looked out of the window.

              “No.” Emily shook her head.  “There wasn’t enough time to figure it out before people started turning.  It was really bad at the hospital.”

              “We know we saw it on the news.” Jamie was still holding onto his mother’s hand as tight as he could.

              “Oh honey and you got scared for me?” Emily asked.  Jamie nodded slowly.  “Well, you can see, I’m fine, and you’re all fine.”

              “Do you have any information, we were stuck for a while?” Artemis asked.

              “No, it wasn’t too long after the news showed the hospital falling it went back to the emergency alert system after about fifteen minutes even that went dead.  We don’t know anything.  The president said the local authorities would speak to us after he was done, tell us where to go to be safe.  No one came on to tell us anything.  We watched the neighbors all leave, but we don’t know where they went.”

              “They probably just tried to get out of the city before it got overrun.” Artemis shrugged.  “Bet the roads out of town are all gridlocked now though.  We’re gonna have a hell of time getting out, but we are in a military vehicle and these babies are designed to go off road.  Don’t you worry. If there’s a way I’ll find it.”

              “I suggested we go to the swamp.” Emily looked to Artemis who was nodding.

              “Why?” Wade asked, confused.

              “There won’t be too many people in the swamp.  More importantly if we have a military left they’re gonna go through and bomb the hell out of cities.” Artemis explained.

              “But what about survivors?  We can’t be the only ones.  If they bomb the cities they’re going to kill a lot of people who are counting on them to come and rescue them.” Wren grasped the back of the seat as she manically stumbled over her outburst.

              “They know that.  But you need to think, if there are a million dead out there looking to eat anyone left who is alive and only a handful of survivors, the greater good has to win out or all of the survivors everywhere are at risk for being eaten.  I can’t speak for the rest of ya but I have no intention of letting someone eat me alive.” Artemis shook his head.

              “Of course none of us want to be eaten.” Wren’s shoulders dropped.  “I just thought the military didn’t leave a man behind?”

              “They don’t as a rule, but I think you would agree with me that the rules have changed?” Artemis asked as his eyes lifted to the rearview mirror to look at Wren.

              “I would agree with you on that.” Jack nodded as he reached over and squeezed his wife’s knee.  “Everything has changed.”

              “This is so bad.” Jamie interjected.  “This is so, so bad.”

              “We’ll be alright.” Emily reached down and pulled her son onto her lap, folding him into a loving embrace.

              “So, here’s the question…are we heading to the swamp or somewhere else?” Artemis asked.

              “I think it would be best to go there.  It’s not heavily populated and we could just hide there until it’s safe.” Emily resolved herself to her earlier suggestion.

              “What if it’s never safe again?  The swamp is dangerous.” Wade leaned forward slightly, holding onto the seat in front of him for balance.

              “It’s dangerous everywhere.  Right now we have to find a place that is the least dangerous.  That is our only chance.” Emily shook her head as she turned her attention to her husband.  “What do you think?”

              “I can’t say I’m thrilled with the idea of going into the swamp, but I do understand it.  I think you’re right, we should head to the nearest one.” Jack nodded slowly.

              “There you have it.” Emily gave Artemis a pat on the shoulder.  “Just keep going straight ahead, we’ll run into one eventually.”

              “Alright.” Artemis replied hesitantly.  It was obvious that he disagreed with the decision but he was choosing to remain silent. 

              The drove in silence, going up over the curbs in places where the roads were clogged with abandoned vehicles.  They saw a few zombies, but nothing like the hoard they had encountered earlier.  The entire city seemed to be deserted, except for those who had turned.

              A few of the abandoned cars contained half eaten corpses partially spilled out onto the road, the meat picked from their bodies exposing the bone.  Wren had long since closed her eyes and leaned on her Dad trying to sleep.  Wade sat staring at his hands that were clasped in his lap.  Emily held Jamie, shielding his eyes with her body the best she could.

              There were chunks of bloody innards smeared in certain places, some on the road others on the windows of the cars.  It was hard to imagine how many people were now being digested by other people.  They approached a church.  It was large and old.  A man was clinging to the tiles on the roof, seemingly waving a torch high above him.  He was screaming.  Artemis rolled his window down an inch in an attempt to hear what the man was shouting.  As they drew closer they could see the man wasn’t just any ordinary man it was a priest.

              “O kind and good Mother, whose own soul was pierced by the sword of sorrow, look upon us while, in our sickness, we arraign ourselves beside you on the Calvary where your Jesus hangs. Dowered with the high grace of suffering, and hopeful of fulfilling in our own flesh what is wanting in our sharing of Christ's passion, on behalf of his Mystical Body, the Church, we consecrate to you ourselves and our pain. We pray that you will place them on that Altar of the Cross to which Jesus is affixed. May they be little victims of propitiation for our salvation, for the salvation of all peoples? O, Mother of Sorrows, accept this consecration. Strengthen our hopeful hearts, that as partakers of Christ's sufferings we may also share in his comfort now and for evermore. Amen!” The man was sobbing as he shouted the prayer to the heavens.  Suddenly the priest’s attention turned to their vehicle.  “Do not believe this, my children!  These are not ill human beings by the measure of anything medical!  These are Satan’s army, possessing the weak of faith and turning them into these creatures!  They are possessed my children!  They are demons from the bitter depths of hell!”

              “He’s gone looney.” Wade shook his head in awe of the man and his screaming.

              “Father, get somewhere safe!” Artemis yelled.  “You’re just attracting them out there screaming!”

              “Go with God my child!  I must stay and save these souls that the devil has claimed!  He shall not take one more lamb of the almighty on this day!  He shall not be victorious for God is all and knows all and he is ever victorious! These are his children and I shall not forsake him for God does not forsake those who hold fast to him!” The priest stumbled, his torch falling from his grip.  It slid down the tiles of the roof and plunged over the side, striking one of the zombie in the head and causing them to ignite.  The human torch continued to moan upward toward the priest, un-phased by his hair, flesh and tattered clothing which was on fire.

              “We can’t leave him.” Jack shook his head as he watched the manic priest struggle to remain on the roof.

              “He’s made his choice.  He thinks he got it all figured out, wants to save them lost zombie souls.” Artemis shook his head.  “Those things ain’t got no soul, whatever soul they did have it done flew away already.  They’re dead.  Dead things don’t have a soul.”