“Isaiah, come on, we’re going.” She looked at Mother Charles. “You, too, Mother. It’s time to leave.”
Mother Charles smiled, nodded, and headed towards the gate.
CHAPTER 20
Outside the walls Anna spotted Gods swarming in from all directions. She now knew they weren’t really Gods, but it was hard to call them anything else. Jones and his men had set up a perimeter and were both attacking and defending on all fronts. A few enforcers that had remained in the towers were still shooting, but their efforts seemed ineffectual.
People were everywhere, either dead or alive and she couldn’t see any way through.
Lucy pointed, her face a mask of terror. “Jones. He’s coming for us.”
Anna glanced up and saw Jones galloping across the field towards them. She quickly withdrew the gun and fired a couple of rounds that missed their target. Gods swarmed towards her, barring the path.
“Quick, back inside,” she said.
She led her family back towards the prison, inside which, the residents were trying to fight back. Some of the priests were knelt in supplication before their Gods, who attacked them without remorse.
“We’ll hide in our cell for a while,” she said, leading the way back into the main building and to their room.
“We can’t stay here. Jones is coming for us,” Isaiah said as they piled inside
“We need to arm ourselves with anything we can find.”
“With what? There’s nothing here,” Zeke replied.
Isaiah squeezed his son’s shoulder. “We’ll make it out of this. I promise.”
“Just like Ben?” Lucy said.
Isaiah sighed. “No, not like Ben.”
Screams and shouts filled the air along with sporadic gunfire. Anna found a cutlery knife and palmed it just as Jones appeared in the doorway. He raised the gun, a maniacal grin on his face.
“Out. All of you, out. Now.”
He motioned with the barrel of the gun.
“This is crazy,” Isaiah said. “We need to get out of here before those dead creatures find us.”
“They won’t have to find you because I’m gonna take you to ‘em.”
“Like hell you are,” Anna said.
“Well I’ll kill you all here then.” Jones pointed the gun at Lucy.
Anna held her hand up. “OK, OK, we’ll come out.”
Jones laughed and backed away to allow them to exit the room. Isaiah clenched his fists and glared at Jones. Zeke bowed his head and walked out. Lucy stood defiantly in place until Anna grabbed her hand.
“Lucy, do as he says. I won’t let anything happen to you. Please, you’ve got to trust me.”
Lucy stared up at her mother for a moment and allowed herself to be led out into the corridor. She glowered at Jones but he seemed uninterested. Mother Charles hobbled out next, followed by Isaiah.
Jones followed Anna and her family along the corridor, the gun pointed at them. He put a cigar in his mouth. Up ahead, a zombie lurched into the corridor, followed closely by another one. Lucy screamed and backed away.
“Well look what we have here, it’s a couple of yer so-called Gods come to visit their loyal subjects. How fuckin’ sweet.”
“You can’t do this,” Isaiah said. “It’s murder.”
Jones took his cigar out and laughed. “No, according to your people this is a privilege, so I’m doing yer a favour. Now get movin’.”
Isaiah watched Anna slide the knife down into her hand. He glanced across at his mother. She nodded at him and started laughing, long and hard like a maniac. Jones looked over his shoulder, frowning. Anna used the distraction and moved in for the kill. She stabbed the knife into Jones’ side. Jones’ expression turned to one of surprise. Anna released the knife and backed away. Jones stared down at the handle protruding from his side. He grabbed hold of it and pulled the knife out before dropping the blade to the floor.
“Now that stings. But not as much as this is going to.” He pointed the gun at Anna but before he could fire, Isaiah dived at him, sending them both crashing into the wall.
“Run. Get away!” Isaiah shouted.
He pinned Jones to the wall with his elbow at the man’s throat. Anna led her family past the men. As she did so, Isaiah pulled Jones off the wall, punched him a couple of times and kicked him towards the zombies, who latched onto him and started munching at his flesh.
“Let’s get out of here,” Anna said.
EPILOGUE
Outside Sanctuary chaos reigned supreme. Those of Jones’ men who remained, were too busy fighting off the zombies to worry about stopping Isaiah and his family from escaping.
Anna led her family into the woods. The further they went, the quieter it became, the sounds of screaming and gunfire eventually petering out altogether.
They continued through the day, rested at night and then continued the next day. Mother Charles required assistance to walk, and Isaiah gave her a piggyback for some of the time, or allowed her to support herself on his shoulder the rest.
With no destination in mind, they just kept going until eventually they arrived at the remains of a security fence. The concrete pillars had collapsed in places, and most of the fence had rusted away.
Beyond the remains of the fence, a low building covered in plant growth was visible.
“We should rest up inside,” Isaiah said. Nobody argued as they were too tired.
They traipsed towards the building. Most of the windows had fallen out or been smashed and they clambered inside, with Isaiah lifting his mother through a broken window, to find themselves in a room littered with the remains of medical equipment.
Dust coated the walls and ceiling suggesting the place had been abandoned a long time ago.
“We should be safe here for now,” Isaiah said. He shrugged off his backpack and dropped it on the ground.
Anna walked across to a wall and rubbed at a dust coated sign, uncovering: METHUSELAH — The immortality project.
“What do these words mean?” Lucy asked.
Anna bit her lip, pensive. She looked at Isaiah. “Jones spoke of an experiment that started all this. Well I’m guessing this is where it originated. They were trying to live forever.”
“They’re all dead,” Zeke said. “That’s no life.”
Anna nodded. “I think they failed to realise we’re already immortal. We live on through our children.”
“So now what do we do?” Lucy asked.
“There must be other communities out here. Friendly ones. We need to find them,” Anna said. “And we need to put the departed to rest and bring life back into this dead world. This is our home.”
Isaiah reached into his satchel and rummaged around before pulling out a book.
Mother Charles nodded at him. “Therein lies the truth. But not the way the brethren interpreted it. We have to have faith.”
Everyone sat down, huddled in a small circle.
Isaiah opened the book and started to read. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
About the author
Shaun Jeffrey was brought up in a house in a cemetery, so it was only natural for his prose to stray towards the dark side when he started writing. He has had five novels published, ‘Killers’, ‘The Kult’, ‘Deadfall’, ‘Fangtooth’ and ‘Evilution’, and two collections of short stories, ‘The Mutilation Machination’ and ‘Voyeurs of Death’. Among his other writing credits are short stories published in Cemetery Dance, Surreal Magazine, Dark Discoveries and Shadowed Realms. The Kult was optioned for film by Gharial Productions.