The Regulators - 02 (37 page)

When the General finally took his group and escaped the
city, we were happy for them. Yet, I personally couldn’t conceive of such an
idea. To leave the city, we would need to drive. The streets were hazardous and
the church was made of stone. It would have no problems standing strong against
a siege from the undead.

Still, I had hopes on an eventual evacuation. Not by a
caravan, that was simply too dangerous, but if air transportation was made
available I would have jumped at the chance to see my people to safety.

“
What about yourself
?”

I wasn’t about to leave. My place was here inside the city.
Until the last person was evacuated, I planned on staying and rendering what
aid I could render. I also had twenty soldiers that felt the same way.

“
Soldiers
?”

Well, that’s sort of a private joke. Twenty of the able
bodied men and women that found their ways to the church began to help me. We
scoured the neighborhoods in small bands. We gathered supplies. We found
survivors. We also destroyed zombies when it was possible. We were very busy
during those times. Our numbers rose as well. I believe that the final estimate
was well over five hundred, but we really never made a true effort to count
everyone up.

“
When did you actually
meet the General
?”

I met the General and the rest of the Regulators right
before the Battle of the Sun Bowl. Are you aware of that particular battle?

The Sun Bowl is the
outdoor football stadium of UTEP. It has a seating capacity of over 50,000. It
was also used for concerts and different types of venues
.

“
I know what most
everyone knows
.”

Yes, well, what everyone knows isn’t quite accurate. They
know that there was a zombie battle right before a mass extraction inside the
Sun Bowl. What they never heard about were the vampires.

Earlier, you asked my opinion of the General. I can tell you
without any hesitation whatsoever that my first impression was entirely
unfavorable. He was extremely rude and entirely dismissive. I also felt that he
was somewhat dangerous.

“
I take it that the
two of you didn’t get along very well
?”

No, we did not. The Regulators were brought to the church by
two of my soldiers. Claudia and Joe were a married couple that went out
gathering supplies the day before. They were scheduled to return by sunset, but
they never made it back. I was extremely worried to say the least.

When they finally turned up the next day, they had the
Regulators with them. The General was a beast of a man. I think that you could
have fit two of me inside his shirt. That’s how large his shoulders were. The
rest of him seemed of average size, but his shoulders were immense. He also
hadn’t seen a razor in quite a few weeks and his clothes were marked with gore
that someone had apparently attempted to wash off but had been relatively
unsuccessful at removing the red and black stains.

I didn’t like the way his eyes darted around the room as if
expecting an attack at any moment. It made me uncomfortable the way his hand
always rested near the tomahawk on the back of his belt. Most of all, I didn’t
like his dog. From all that I’d heard, pit bulls were an extremely dangerous
breed. The dog looked menacing. Appearances are often deceiving however, and I
have since changed my opinions about pit bulls. In fact, I even own two of them
now.

Of course, I was in the vast minority with my immediate
opinions of the General. The survivors all gathered around to greet the famous
man. Each and every one of them wanted to say something to him. Many of them
even tried to salute him in that strange fist over the chest salute that became
popular over the internet.

He ignored them all.

He was a symbol of hope. He was a hero in the eyes of all of
them and he ignored all those that paid him homage. It was frightfully rude.
Instead of a single kind word, instead of a return salute, he simply walked by
them and started barking orders.

I was angry to say the least. Who was this man that would
come into my home and begin to make demands?

“Excuse me,” I said angrily. “Do you know how much these
people look up to you?”

He ignored me as well.

He actually ignored me.

Well, I simply would not be ignored. I was much too angry. I
was way too offended. I grabbed one of his massive shoulders, and I spun him
around to face me. His dog gave a low warning growl at my actions.

“You have insulted the people living in this church, and you
are now offending me!” I shouted. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t
throw you out!”

He simply shook my hand from his shoulder and continued
giving orders.

“
What were his orders
?”

Well, he had questions as well. He wanted to know what types
of building supplies we had. He wanted to know how many windows were in the
sanctuary, things of that nature. His orders concerned the creation of a
barricade as if he expected an attack.

It was his nephew Dudley that apologized for his behavior.
It was Joe and Claudia that explained what might happen. They told me about the
vampires. I doubted the story, to tell you the truth. For a brief moment, I
just couldn’t believe them.

“
What changed your
mind
?”

Zombies. The zombies changed my mind. I was living in a city
full of zombies, and I battled with them nearly every day. If I’m living in a
world filled with the living dead, it’s not hard to make the leap from zombie
to vampire.

I decided to take charge.

After all, I had been the one leading these people since the
very beginning. Who was the General? I didn’t even know the man. I understand
that he had a small measure of success, but from what I understood at the time,
nearly half his party died when they tried to escape from the city. I wasn’t
about to hand over the reins to someone with that sort of track record.

Father Monarez was
referring to the caravan that was led by Tito. Most of them were killed on the
way to the border when Tito disregarded Jaxon’s orders and tried to fight.
Father Monarez didn’t know the full story at the time
.

At the time I interrupted him, he was demanding to know what
skill sets were of the people under my protection. I simply would have none of
that. Many of those people were old or infirm. I wouldn’t have them endangering
themselves by following his orders.

I wanted to gather everyone and hide in the basement. It
would be horrendously cramped, but if what I heard about the vampires was true,
hiding would be our only chance for survival. The people were terrified. They
weren’t warriors. They thought that the arrival of the Regulators meant an end
to the nightmare they had been living through. Instead, they were quickly
learning that the General had brought with him something much worse to our
door.

“STOP!” I shouted at the General. “This will not happen. You
are not in charge here. I lead these people, and I will not have them
endangered by you or anyone else. We cannot possibly make a fight out of this. I’m
taking all of them into the basement. If the beasts actually come for us, we
will be safely hidden from danger. I, for one, am not even convinced that they
will come for us. After all, their fight is with you, not us. Maybe you should
leave. Yes, leave and take your vampires with you.”

Everyone became instantly quiet. All eyes were upon us as
the General and I faced each other in the middle of the sanctuary. I saw his
eyes narrow as he sized me up.

“The vampires will come,” he growled. “That’s going to happen
whether you like it or not. If you aren’t ready for them, they will break down
your doors, find you in the basement and tear you apart. They will do this
whether I’m here or not. They will kill all of you because they are evil and
evil does nothing but destroy.”

The tone that he used absolutely terrified me. In that brief
moment I saw the man as nothing more than rage and fury. He spent most of his
days holding it all back of course, but it was always there, hiding underneath
the surface just waiting to come forth and destroy.

“These people are not warriors.”

“Come tonight,” he answered, “they will be.”

I wanted to say something back. I wanted to defend everyone.
I wanted to keep them from danger. I was at a loss for words. With the zombies,
we always had the church to keep us safe. The stone walls were impenetrable.

My world was turned upside down. I could no longer rely on
our home to keep us safe. No longer were we bringing the fight to the monsters;
the monsters were now bringing the fight to us.

I didn’t know how to help.

I didn’t know how to protect everyone when our fortress
could be breached. I had no choice but to let the man take charge. I had no
alternative but to rely on a man that I considered dangerous. Worst of all, I
thought he was actually the type of man that we needed to make it through the
night.

It was Claudia that led me away from the room. I was
noticeably shaken. I was worried. I felt that I had failed. A threat was coming
and I was powerless to stop it.

“
You shouldn’t be so
hard on yourself. It’s not as if prestigious schools and seminary ever trained
you for battle, and think about how many lives you still managed to save. I
don’t know that many people could have handled what was coming your way
.”

In truth, you are certainly correct. I had at that point
achieved far more than should have been possible, but at the time I was a
broken man. I was devastated by my inabilities. I had no idea what the General
was doing. I merely sat in my office and cursed myself.

In case you haven’t by now noticed, failure does not sit
very well with me. I’m just not used to it. I am also keenly aware that if it
wasn’t for the General and his team, I would not be sitting here today speaking
with you. He was right about that basement. I would have led everyone to their
deaths. Vampires are evil. I truly believe that they would have attacked us
regardless of whether or not the General was inside the church. They would have
killed us all, just to upset him.

Of course, I knew none of this at that time. At that moment,
I merely felt like a failure. It wasn’t until the large one by the name of Nick
came to visit me that I began to see things a bit differently.

“Can I have a moment Father?” Nick asked after politely
knocking on the door.

I didn’t answer him, but he didn’t let that slow him down
any. He walked right in and leaned a large axe on the wall next to the chair he
dropped down on.

“Don’t think too badly on him Father,” Nick said. “He has
the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

“He’s a very unpleasant man,” I replied softly.

“That he is Father,” Nick said. “Always has been, but he
grows on you once you get to know him. Besides, I don’t think I would want to
follow a pleasant man into a fight like this. Jax knows what he’s doing. I
don’t know how he knows, but for some weird reason everything seems to work out
for him in the end.”

“I hope you’re right young man,” I replied, “because I
certainly don’t feel comfortable entrusting anyone’s safety to him at the
moment.”

“Of course not,” Nick said. “You’re a leader. You’ve led all
these people to safety. But tell me, what does a priest truly know about
killing vampires?”

I had no answer for him, of course, and he didn’t seem to
actually need one. Instead, he nodded respectfully in my direction and left me
to ponder what he had said. His words had affected me. What did I know about
killing vampires? The zombies were easy enough, but from what I heard, vampires
were a different matter altogether. I was in over my head, or was I?

The moment things were about to turn bad, the Regulators
appeared at our doorstep. Could it be? I had prayed for God’s help in defending
the people under my protection every single night and just when things became
dire, the General appeared.

Well, God does work in mysterious ways.

I had been horrible with the man. In fact, it was me that
started the rudeness. Sure, he was rude to all the survivors that came forward
to meet him, but Nick was correct. The man had the weight of the world on his
shoulders. He was trying to find a way to save everyone.

At that moment, I realized that I was acting rather
immaturely. I had it in my mind that I would leave my office, walk over to the
General, offer my hand in friendship and apologize for my behavior. I could
either sit there and nurse my wounded pride, or I could walk out there and do
something beneficial.

I chose to do something beneficial and just as I rose from
my chair, the General himself strode into my office and slammed my chainsaw
down on the desk before me.

“If you’re through with your stomp and pout,” he said.
“We’re going to need every able bodied person tonight.”

Before I could reply, he stomped back out the door.

I grumbled to myself. I may have even cursed, but in the end
I followed him. The sanctuary was a mess. There were odd contraptions being
built above all the windows. There was a heavy looking and rudely constructed
spiked platform at a ninety degree angle above the front door. The pews had all
been moved and stacked together in two large groups. It looked as if they had
become some sort of protective wall, but I wasn’t sure.

The noise level was something else. I was terrified at how
much noise the people were making. The electric saws, the drills and the sounds
of hammering would attract every single zombie in a ten mile radius.

I immediately looked out the window.

“Be careful, Father,” the General said as he walked past me
carrying one side of a pew with one hand and while pointing to the contraption
above the window with the other. “Don’t want to lose a hand, do you?”