Released (13 page)

“Shit! Run, go, go, go!”

We leapt into the halway and I quickly slammed the door shut behind us, then I pushed a nearby couch in front of it. “That’s not going to hold it for long,” Max said as we ran down the halway, Norah bouncing in his arms. I realized I didn’t grab my bag and halted.

“Abby what are you doing? Let’s go!”

“I forgot my bag, keep going I’l be right there!”

“What? Are you serious, forget the damn bag let’s go!”

Max turned and ran for the front door, but I quickly ran back for my bag anyway. I found it and slung it over my shoulder as I heard a pounding coming from the basement door. The demon had finished its work on John and now it was after us. I felt a sudden surge of panic as I thought about the other people in the building.

Like we were somehow responsible for letting it lose on them, but there was nothing we could do, it was too late.

As I neared the front door, I saw the familiar lights of the Bronco in the distance. Taya had somehow managed to drive through the front gate and was already loading Max and Norah into the back seat. I saw Max look up after me, but as I reached the doors something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. It was Judy. She was running out of a room with four other people in tow.

“Please, take them!” She pleaded.

I wasn’t sure how we could al fit in the Bronco, but I couldn’t say no.

“Let’s go!” I shouted as I ushered them out and we ran across the front lawn. The night had grown cold and my lungs burned as we sprinted toward the Bronco.

The sound of the demon growling tore through the night air and seemed to echo off the buildings. It stood at the doorway only long enough to survey its prey and then leaped onto the lawn like a lion.

It quickly fel upon the two people in the rear. Without missing a beat the demon, leapt onto a third person as they stumbled in their attempt to flee. In one swift stroke it slit the woman’s throat with its long claws.

As we made it to the Bronco, I jumped onto the step by the passenger side door and Max held onto Judy and the last person as they clung to the back of the vehicle.

“Go!” I shouted as Taya put the Bronco into gear and sped out of the lawn, sending bits of grass and soil flying in our wake. It took some quick maneuvering but Taya barreled down the main road successfuly and flew onto the highway as the demon chased after us howling, faling farther and farther behind. I crawled in through the window, as Max helped the two women into the back of the Bronco. We didn’t want to risk stopping. The Bronco lurched and screeched loudly as Taya struggled to change gears.

“Here I got it.” I slid Taya over while holding the wheel and took over the driver’s seat.

Taya quickly went to Carter, surveying his wounds. “What happened back there?” No one answered.

Carter made a groaning sound and I tried to look at him through the rear view mirror. My heart was hammering in my chest and as badly as I wanted to stop the Bronco and crawl into the back to look at him, I kept my foot on the gas and pushed forward.

“Here.” Max handed Taya our first aid kit as he crawled from the back seat into the passenger seat next to me. I could feel his eyes on me and I wanted to look at him so badly, but I knew if I did I would burst into tears and completely lose any sense of self-control that I was so desperately clinging to.

Max silently rested his hand on my thigh and my chest heaved as tears burned my cheeks. Taya managed to clean up Carter’s face, making it look considerably better. It was stil swolen and bruised, but with the absence of blood he looked similar to that of what a professional boxer would after a fight.

Somehow, Taya had managed to crush up some Ibuprofen into some water and was attempting to get Carter to swalow it. As it dribbled down his split lip she quickly wiped it off gently and squeezed his hand. Pushing herself up against the side of the Bronco, she wadded a shirt into a bal and placed Carter’s head up against her. It looked as though he fel asleep instantly as Taya whispered at him. I felt an instant sense of gratitude for this girl, who we barely knew. Seeing her take such good care of my brother made my heart ache and as I saw her tightly hold onto his hand I knew with finality the love she had for him.

Judy, Norah and the other young lady we had managed to save sat silently in the back amongst our bags, their faces frozen in fear and anguish. The girl I did not recognize buried her head into Judy’s chest as Judy slowly ran her fingers through the girl’s hair. Norah sat with her face staring out behind us, her expression portraying that she was very far away from her body. I tried not to think about al the people we had left behind. I knew there was no way we could have saved everyone, but deep down I stil felt guilt over it.

Images of the scene in the basement kept flashing through my mind. The sight of the demon mauling Jerry and then Roger made my stomach lurch and my body started to protest even more when the sound of the bulet hitting Jerry’s skul played out in my head. The bulet I aimed at him, kiled him. My logical mind told me there was no other way, that in the end someone was going to die down there and if I didn’t do what I did it, could have been any of us, but my heart screamed at me. In a war with demons, I took another person’s life. Could I live with the choice I made?

After what felt like an eternal battle inside my mind I swalowed the lump that was building in my throat and with one deep breath I found my resolve. I could live with what I did; I had to because I knew without a doubt that I would not be able to live without Max, my brother or even Taya. They were my family now, and no matter how afraid I was, I would do anything I could to protect them.

“What happened?” I asked after a long while of silence. Even though I knew the details might be difficult to hear, I wanted to know what had occurred and caused them to end up in that basement.

Max looked at me and I saw the fear hiding behind his expression. “I was watching Carter talk to Norah in the courtyard. I kept my distance just watching them and then al of a sudden John’s two goons showed up. They started talking to Norah and they got into an argument. Things started to get heated and they tried to drag her off. Carter tried to stop them and that’s when they started fighting.” Max paused taking deep breaths and I could tel he was trying to keep his anger controled.

“I thought it was some kind of jealously issue at first, so I wasn’t going to intercede. Maybe they didn’t want one of their girls talking to us, but from the fear I saw in her eyes, I knew something was wrong. I ran at them and took Jerry to the floor, but Roger quickly knocked Carter out and they both ganged up on me. Before I knew it they were dragging us down those stairs and I saw them throwing Carter into a heap on the floor next to me.” Max looked up at me with tears threatening to fal down his bruised face. I had to quickly look away and focus on the road before me. I had not seen Max look like that since his parents passed him and if I were to see it now, I don’t know if I could stand it. He was my pilar of strength and to see him broken would break me as wel. I held onto the hand he rested on my thigh and squeezed, trying to pass on what little bit of strength I had left.

It seemed to help as Max took a deep breath, and went on, his voice sounding steadier. “John showed up and was preaching about how we must al make sacrifices to the greater good. That everyone else had paid the price and Norah could not be an exception. Then he puled out a long knife and quickly sliced her forearm. They let her blood pour into a bucket and gave it to the demon.”

My jaw dropped and I looked back at Norah, but her face remained expressionless. “They gave it her blood? But why?”

“John believed that sating the demon’s hunger and feeding it our blood, while keeping it alive would somehow give us leverage as a form of bribery for the demon,” Judy said woodenly.

“That’s flipping nuts.” Taya added a little too loudly and Carter stirred in her arms. She quickly shushed him and glared back at Judy.

I looked at Taya warningly and encouraged Judy to go on. “When our son died, something changed in John. After that night, he had this crazy idea in his head that we had to sacrifice ourselves to them. He thought that by doing so, it would appease them and they would leave us alone. We were al required to give the demon a taste of our blood, to see who it most desired as its sacrifice.”

I was completely dumbfounded and at a loss for words. What to say to something like that, I wasn’t entirely sure.

“What gave him the idea that sacrificing yourselves would work? How is that even part of a normal thought process?” Max asked, clearly not holding back any inflection of disdain.

“Before the demons came, my husband was a professor. He used to study ancient cultures and customs. I believe that he lost al sense of humanity when he saw our son die, and was wiling to do anything… he used to be a briliant man.”

“Yeah… realy damn briliant,” Taya snapped. Judy looked away obviously ashamed. I probably should have said something to Taya, but she was right. She had the bals to say what I couldn’t. It was not Judy’s fault that her husband completely snapped and turned into a total nutcase. I remembered then the bandage I had seen on her arm at dinner and realized that she too must have made the sacrifice her husband demanded.

I did not know what it could possibly feel like to lose a child, and the sense of loss that must accompany it, but I did know what I felt when I thought I was going to lose Carter and Max. I would have done anything to save them, and I suppose I did. As much as I tried to fight it, I again relived the moment that I puled the trigger and shot Jerry in the head. The sound of the bulet hitting his flesh made the hair on my arms stand on end. I had never kiled anyone before, we had always focused solely on defending ourselves from the demons, that it had never occurred to me that we would have to defend ourselves from anyone else, but then I remember the sick feeling in my gut when I saw Carter fal to the floor and the crazed look I saw in John’s eyes. I realized I would have kiled them al if I had to, and that realization made me want to vomit. Was I as bad as they were? If I lost Carter or Max would I turn into John?

“Abby what’s wrong? You’re shaking.” Max asked with a concerned look in his eyes.

I immediately felt deeply sorry for him. He had gone through more that I had and he was more concerned about me, just like he always was. “I am just freaked out Max. That was a realy close cal. What are we going to do now?”

“We are going to keep going,” Carter said startling al of us, his voice sounding hoarse. Taya told him not to speak and when he seemed to fal back to sleep she looked out the window. Her brow wrinkled as she scowled at the landscape, making her look a lot older.

Max sighed and puled out the map from the glove box. “Where are we exactly?”

“There is a sign coming up,” I said.

“Hmm…Shiprock, New Mexico. Wel, at least we made it to New Mexico, right?”

I forced a smile for him - he always was such an optimist. He had always tried to lighten the mood through sarcasm or humor. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t but the fact that he always tried was one of the things that made me love him.

“I’m not too good with math, but I would say we are about four hundred miles away.”

“Thank God. So, when wil we get there? Tonight?” Taya asked sounding eager.

“Maybe. If we don’t hit too many big cities that slow us down it is possible.”

“Where are we going?” Judy asked from the back of the Bronco.

“New Mexico.” Taya answered, as if the question were directed to her. I let her go on with it anyway. She and Carter had grown close and I knew he had probably talked her ear off about al his plans. “There is a military base there that has established a resistance. Haven’t you heard any of the transmissions?” Judy nodded solemnly. “John believed that the transmissions were a ploy used by the demons to lure humans there. He ordered us to destroy al the radios to rid ourselves of the temptation. He said to listen to them was to let the demons into your heart and corrupt your mind with a false sense of safety.”

“And you al just destroyed the radios, no questioned asked?” I said.

“Some of us refused, but in the end the radios were destroyed anyway,” Norah added flatly.

“Sounds like you were part of some kind of cult.” Taya commented. “Why would you stay there?”

“What other choice do we have? What would you have us do? Walk around aimlessly in this warzone, waiting for the next demon to pick us off?” I could see Taya on the verge of losing her temper; my brother would get the same expression on his face when he got upset. So, I nodded to Max to say something to calm them down.

Max turned in his seat to face everyone. “Listen, it doesn’t realy matter does it? We are al here now and there is nothing any of us can do about any of that. The only thing any of us needs to worry about is getting to New Mexico and doing everything we can to send al these demons back to where they came from. Now, do you know any of what John learned from that thing while he had it locked up?”

“Not much. It would only speak of one thing, repeating it over and over.” Judy said with fear rippling through her voice.

“Wait, who?” I asked shocked of what I thought she just said.

“The demon.”

“They talk?” Max blurted what I was thinking.

“Yes, like I said. When it spoke it would say only one thing and one thing only.”

“Wel, what would it say?” Taya asked sounding as equaly shocked as the rest of us.

“John caled it the prophecy. The demon said, “The day has come when God looked unto his creations and wept, for they had forsaken him. In his misery he shal turn from mankind and abandon them to the fate, they so earned. The Devil, Satan, King of Hel, most powerful seeker of souls wil open his gates and release his minions unto the land. Then shal there be darkness. Then shal there be pain and misery as the world has never seen. As the enemy of the righteous devours the lost souls of the earth he wil take his throne and rule the land for al eternity.”