"What the hell was that explosion?" Ellis asked, taking another shot of whiskey.
Karen had put down a few herself, trying to rid herself of the shakes.
Anthony stood on a chair by one of the windows, looking over the table nailed to it. His back was hunched over, his deep lacerations visible through his shredded shirt.
"That was the jailhouse. It's just… gone. Hell, the whole street is burning like kindling," he said.
"What do you mean it's gone?" Karen asked.
"I mean it's gone. Nothing there but a crater full of burning wood. Guess the sheriff and deputy didn't make it." He coughed a few times, wincing at the pain in his back. "My store is starting to go up now too."
Ellis walked to the door and peered over the barricade. "The entire street is lit up like it's noon out there." He gasped as he looked from right to left. "We ain't gettin' out of here," he whispered.
"Now what?" Karen was unsure if she could handle any more bad news. She'd already lost most of her friends.
"The entire town is out there."
"Are they… like them?" she asked.
"Yeah. Like them. All of them." He turned back to Karen. "How many people live in Gehenna?"
"Over two thousand."
"That makes it official then. We're fucked."
"We're reaping what we've sown!" Randy sat in a chair behind Anthony, drinking himself stupid from a bottle of Ellis' rotgut. "The whoredom and sins of this town have brought the Lord's wrath upon us."
Karen rolled her eyes, wishing she could break that bottle over his head. She believed in God, like everyone else, but didn't see Him as the vindictive son of a bitch that Randy thought He was.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, wench! Your disregard of God's will has wrought this Hell."
Ellis lifted a hand to quiet the doctor to no avail.
"You shall not silence me! God warned us, in Leviticus 26:28, and we didn't listen. 'Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.'"
The room grew silent as everyone contemplated the implications of the passage. Anthony and Ellis stared at him with astonishment. Even Barbara had stopped sobbing and looked up from the corner.
John was a major concern for Karen. He hadn't said a word since they came downstairs. He merely sat beside Randy, soaking in everything he said.
"The Bible says that?" Anthony asked.
Karen didn't like the direction this was taking. They had more important things to consider than Bible scripture.
When she was a child, her father always told her that God would protect His faithful and punish the wicked. She'd believed it whole heartedly until the day that he didn't come back from a visit to town.
A bandit had shot him dead while he stood in line at the bank. He'd taken the bullet in the back, never even having a chance to surrender himself.
Her faith in the protection and punishment of God disappeared and never came back. Since that day, she'd sworn to live her life in the manner she saw fit. She and God would even up when they met one day.
"Oh yes. This has all been foretold, and now it's coming to pass."
Not wanting to get involved in a religious debate, Karen walked across the room and sat beside Barbara.
"Barb," Karen started, swallowing the lump forming in her throat. "Lauren's dead."
Barbara's face scrunched inward as she began to bawl again, cradling her head in her arms. "What happened?" she asked between sobs.
"The woman from the street," Karen said, glancing at Doc Randy, "was infected by whatever this is, and… got her."
Randy stopped his sermon in midsentence and cocked his head at Karen. "The woman that was eaten in the street? You said she was dead."
"We thought she was, but apparently not."
Randy turned his eyes to Ellis. "Was she alive or not?"
Ellis looked back and forth from Karen to Randy, struggling with what he should say.
"She was dead," he said, his shoulders slumping.
Randy jumped from his seat, knocking the chair over. "The dead are rising! Zechariah 14:12! 'And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold everyone on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.'"
Barbara was visibly shaken by this. Karen had to admit that she was spooked by the similarities between the scripture and the situation outside.
"It's a coincidence. It has to be," Karen said, not believing the words coming out of her mouth.
"It's the end days. Prepare your souls," Randy said.
Ellis gave Karen a pleading look. He wanted her to provide an explanation that she didn't have.
"If the dead are rising by the power of God, why is that we can kill them?" she asked.
The blast of a gun on the other side of the wall startled everyone, interrupting Randy before he could retort.
Anthony hobbled over, wincing with each step, and stood by Ellis.
"Was that a gun?"
"Sounded like a shotgun. Sheriff Stanley must be alive! No one else has any guns," Ellis said. "Maybe he blew up the jailhouse on purpose, trying to kill some of those things."
Then Rob sat up. The stained white sheet that Ellis' laid on him remained, covering his head and body. Large red spots seeped through from the pool of blood around his body.
A groan escaped from beneath the shrine, sending a chill down Karen's back.
The sheet pulled free as he stood, revealing the thinned, jaundice skin. John stood up, his back sliding against the wall, where he watched with wide-eyed madness.
"Rob? You're alive!" he said.
Karen's suspicions were confirmed: he'd lost his mind. No sane person would think something that looks like that could be a member of the living.
Ellis didn't hesitate. In three large steps he stood in front of the reanimated brother, intent on skewering him with the sword.
"No!"
John charged forward, tackling Ellis from behind and sending the saber sliding across the floor.
Karen cursed herself for leaving her sword on the bar. Though it was only twenty feet away, it might as well have been on the other side of town.
John and Ellis tussled on the floor, throwing punches and kicks like wild men.
"You already killed my pa! I ain't letting you kill my brother too!"
"He's already dead! You saw it with your own eyes," Ellis said between labored breaths.
They rolled into the bottom step of the stairs leading to the second floor, still throwing blows at one another.
Another gunshot barked from the back of the building.
Rob pivoted around in a slow motion, as if he was moving through mud. Karen couldn't understand why he didn't attack the helpless people against the wall instead of going after the two biggest men in the room.
Was it some kind of memory of his brother driving him in that direction? Was it the sounds of the fight attracting him?
"Help him," she said, looking from Randy to Anthony. "John is out of his mind!"
"I will not fight the will of God," Randy said. He reclaimed his chair and stared at the floor, refusing to make eye contact with Karen.
Anthony gave Karen a sad, hopeless look before averting his gaze.
Rob's walking corpse was in the middle of the room
, blocking Karen's path to either sword. Her eyes frantically swept the room, trying to find the table leg she'd used earlier. She finally spotted it sitting on the floor a few feet from where John and Ellis were trading fisticuffs.
"Rob! Over here!" She jumped up in the air and waved her arms, trying to get his attention.
His course didn't change. Only a few steps stood between Ellis, John and the cannibal.
She eased her way forward, wary of getting too close. "Robert! Turn around, damn you!"
No response outside of the expected moans. He was on top of them now and leaned down to take a bite from Ellis' back.
Karen surged forward, throwing her small mass against Rob's knees. His legs buckled and he toppled over her, landing on his side. His large legs draped across her body, pinning her to the floor.
She pushed against his boots, trying to lift his massive lower body away, but didn't have the strength.
Rob sat up and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from sliding away. As he tried to turn toward her, his legs tumbled away, giving her room to stand.
Leaning back at a steep incline, she tried to pull her trapped arm from his grasp. He was still clambering around on the floor, trying to get to his feet.
Unable to shake his grip, she turned and stretched to her full length, trying to reach the saber sitting atop the bar. The sword was two feet beyond her reach, teasing her.
Jerking her arm, stretching her body, and screaming in fear, Karen dragged Rob toward the bar, fighting like a caged animal. Her fingers were inches from the sword when her progress halted.
Rob had regained his footing and was reeling in her arm while ducking his head to feast on her hand.
From the corner of her eye she spotted Lauren, standing on the bottom stair. Her head wobbled from side to side, like grass in a high wind. She whipped her hand from side to side, trying to wrench it away from Rob's eager mouth.
Ellis had gained a dominant position against John, using his heavy mass to pin him to the floor.
Lauren's head bobbed forward, her chin resting against her chest at an unnatural angle. She bent down and lowered her swaying head at Ellis.
"Lauren, no!"
If she heard Karen's plea she didn't acknowledge it, and bit through Ellis' shirt and into his wide back. Blood oozed from the sides of her mouth as she clamped down.
Ellis roared in pain. He tried to stand up, but his arms were tangled with John's, who either didn't understand the situation or was too far gone to care.
Lauren gnawed at his back, tearing chunks away as he struggled helplessly under her.
"Ellis!" Karen cried.
Both of Rob's hands now held her forearm, immobilizing her limb.
She felt his balmy breath against her skin as he opened his mouth to take a bite. A boom echoed through the room and the side of his head exploded, spraying its contents across the bar and her dress. She felt drops of blood splatter over her cheek and into her hair.
Another crack and Lauren's body fell forward, slumping over Ellis' back. Grey matter drained from a hole where her temple had been.
Karen froze in shock, staring down at the bodies laying across the floor. She wiped at her face, staring at the red smears in her palm. Creaks came from her neck as she turned her head and looked toward the stairs.
At the top of the steps stood a man who looked like he had just crawled from a nightmare. He wore all black and was armed from head to toe, with gun and ammo belts hanging from every nook and cranny.
He held a pistol in his right hand with smoke trailing from the barrel.
All fighting, screaming, and crying ceased as everyone watched the man in black descend the stairs.
Chapter 14