CHAPTER 9: Hell on the horizon
"Did we?" Katie asked as Holden opened his eyes.
"We necked a bit" Holden yawned.
"That's it right?"
"Yeah" Holden said getting out of bed and grabbed his shirt off the floor and putting it on.
"The soldier is here!" Scout shouted and Atticus got the children into the safe room before they opened up the loading bay door for the soldier.
"Jace Mortan?" Ben asked shaking the man's hand.
"Benvolio Montague?" The private asked and came inside.
"Where are the civilians?" Atticus asked.
"They didn't make it" Mortan said hanging his head "He wouldn't give himself up, he was bitten and he endangered the girl and myself, he got her in the night, I barely made it out alive"
Annah watched the soldier carefully, something was not right about him and she could sense it. She kept a close eye on him as he was served food. Katie sat down next to him and Lannah went over to sit between them but smiled when Holden did. Lannah was starting to like Holden; he protected Katie like Lannah would and seemed to know when something was wrong as well.
"Katie" Lannah whispered pulling her into the women's restroom while no one was watching "Don't get too close to the soldier, something is wrong with him"
"Lannah" Katie scoffed "You sound like Holden, stop being so paranoid!"
"But-"
"But nothing, you guys need to trust people more" Katie growled and stomped off. Lannah knew where she could find answers and went to the roof. She found Holden there too.
"What are you doing here?" Lannah asked.
"Same as you, looking for Anya" Holden said and looked down off one side of the roof.
"She hasn't been around for weeks" Lannah growled and sat down cross legged on the ledge.
"Then why are you up here?" Holdean asked.
"Okay so I was hoping Anya was going to be here too" Lannah gave up. She crossed her arms and shook her head.
"What?"
"Something is off about Mortan" Lannah said and locked eyes with Holden.
"I know, he just seems too...phony"
"Exactly"
"Hell" A sweet voice said and Lannah looked behind her to see Anya hanging onto the side of the building. She pulled Anya up and both Holden and her stared at Anya.
"Hell, hell, hell, oh this should be fun!" Anya sang.
"What are you talking about?" Holden asked.
"This man is filled with fire, oh, what a delight!" Anya sang dancing around.
"Fire, hell, those things are bad, very bad" Lannah said in simple words for Anya.
"Oh, nonono, this will be fun! The drama is sure to be entertaining!" Anya smiled.
"Is he a danger to us or not?" Holden growled and Anya flinched away from him.
"Fierce, ouch, I didn't expect that from a tame city boy like you" Anya giggled and danced circles around Holden "The private is a leader with a heart of fire, oh goodie, but who shall be his bride?"
"Bride?" Lannah exclaimed.
"Oh yes, he comes for a bride! Even knows not this, but I do!" Anya joyously squealed.
"Crazy" Holden and Lannah said in unison.
"No one ever believes the crazy chick, until something goes horribly wrong" Anya shrugged and walked down the stairs into the building. Holden stared awkwardly at Lannah for a moment before she left too. He stared down at his shoes. He really hoped if Anya was right, she did not mean Katie.
Roy had been up the night before working on some radios and other things he had kept hidden. When Holden rejoined everyone at the dinner table Roy brought out a radio that had been torn apart and put together with an IPod and some speakers. Roy turned on his funny looking contraption and sweet music flowed from the radio. Everyone gasped as their ears filled with simple demo music of rushing waterfalls and birds singing.
SMASH CRUNCH SMASH SMASH
"What are you doing?!" Roy cried as Anya stood over the remains of the music player with a five iron golf club.
"If we can hear it, so can they" Anya growled.
"But I spent days on this!" Roy whimpered kneeling over the scraps.
"Stupid" Anya growled and strolled away. Ben went after her but Jace followed.
"Anya wait!" Ben shouted and caught Anya's arm as she was about to walk outside, using the first floor door for once.
"You could give a bit more warning next time, he could have just turned it off. Remember we took you in, not the other way around" Ben said harshly.
"Because of me you're in the Costco and not that gas station anymore, why do you think the hoard did not hear you and try and get in?" Anya snapped "Why do you think you survived out of the forest after you rolled the van down the ditch, and finding the gas station in the first place?"
"You?" Ben asked with his throat dry and rough.
"No, the freaking tooth fairy!" Anya shouted and threw her hands in the air.
"So?"
"Yes me!" Anya growled and left, slamming the door behind her.
"I'll try talking with her" Jace said and followed Anya outside.
Ben hesitated, standing at the door. He had no idea how much Anya had done for the group and he just yelled at her for not having done anything. He hit his head against the door and it opened slightly. He gasped as he saw Anya lift a shovel and swing it at Jace who was on his knees before her. The spade broke off the wooden handle in a shower of splinters as it made contact with the side of Jace's head. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he fell to the pavement with cloudy eyes.
"Anya!" Ben shouted and raced outside and fell to Jace's side.
"He's all yours, I am done with you people" Anya growled and left. She walked down the main street and Ben watched her leave for a moment before lifting under Jace's arms and pulling him toward the door. Ben was busy trying to get the door open but Jace could see Anya clearly as a hoard smelt his blood and forms in front of her. She should have turned and run but she walked right toward the hoard.
Jace pointed toward her and tried to speak but his jaw was swelling up too much. The hoard split and moved around Anya as if she were poison to their cause. They ran toward the scent of blood on Jace. Ben got the door open and pulled Jace inside to safety. Just as the door closed he saw the hoard had already caught sight of them inside. They knew, with what little mind they had left, that their ultimate goal was to further the infection and to do so they must get inside. By throwing their rotting and fragile bodies at the metal doors until something happened.
"We have to get to the roof, a hoard is coming!" Ben shouted and everyone shot to their feet.
"But we could just stay quiet like last time" Katie said.
"We only survived that time because of Anya, she just flipped out and beat Jace with a shovel, I doubt she is going to help us this time" Ben said. Holden and Roy helped get Jace up the stairs. Without a doubt they looked over the sides of the building to see the hoard was double, easily triple in size and completely surrounded the building. They watched in horror as the dead began to pile up, the doors grew weak against their weight. Two of the three doors were safe and boarded and piled up but the third was dangerously weak.
"They're going to get in the next building was a good twenty feet away and was a parking garage. It would be the only building they could have fled to, but it was now impossible. They ran around the building for escapes. There was a fire escape but it only led down to the hoard, there was no escape.
"If they get in, we're done for" Lannah sighed cocking her shotgun.
"There has to be a way out of here, there must be, right?" Jem said peeking over the edge.
"That witch left us for dead" Jace said. Scout had grabbed an ice pack and Jace's swelling had gone down enough for him to shout like his mouth was filled with food.
"Don't you call her a bitch, she saved our lives many times" Holden growled.
"WITCH" Jace shouted at the top of his lungs.
"A witch?" Atticus repeated.
"That's imposs...well it would make sense" Roy said rubbing the back of his head.
"She saved our lives, witch or not we owe her, and we can't start doubting her now" Holden tried.
"Look what she did to my face!" Jace shouted. Kaseja started to growl and Katie turned toward the parking building. There stood Anya on the roof. Katie covered her eyes from the sun and tried to get a clear view of the witch, she had something blue on her head.
"Anya?" Katie said and everyone else turned to see.
"Anya! Help!" everyone started to shout desperately. Anya just watched as a spine chilling snap rocked the building frame.
SKKKKKKKREEEEEEEEEE
The metal door broke away from its hinges and everyone looked over the edge as the dead stormed inside. They looked back up to Anya and saw the blue thing on her head was gone. Lannah got up on the ledge. Holden took her hand looked into each other's eyes. Holden took Katie's hand, she took his hand and he helped her onto the ledge. She didn't know why, she just felt a calm sweep over her. She took Jewel's hand that held onto Roy's hand. Ben stared at them, terrified.
"Come Pheobe" Holden said and held his little sister tightly. She squeezed Holden's hand.
BANG ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH BANG
Everyone flinched; the dead were breaking down the door. Jewel held out her hand to Atticus and Ben but they refused.
"Have you lost it?" Ben shouted. Kaseja ran and leapt off the roof. Light as a feather on a gust of wind the group on the ledge fell backwards off the building. They held onto each other's hands, none of them screamed, they didn't even flinch. Slowly their eyes closed as the wind picked up. Ben's eyes watered as his love vanished in the ocean of death.
BANG BOOM BOOM BANG BANG BANG BOOM BOOM
Atticus and Ben began empting their guns as soon as the door fell open. Three shots went off ending them all. Ben stared at Jace. Atticus lay with his children at his sides, they had gone to sleep, to sleep and be forever quit of the nightmare the earth had fallen to. Jace took his hunting knife and together Ben and Jace joined Atticus, free of the world and its demons.
The sky grew dark as hell itself, the clouds glowed a fiery red. The clouds thundered with the fury of the darkest beasts that lurked only in the nightmares of children. Hell had sent its scouts to earth, and that day hell itself rose. The earth shook with such force a crack in the earth expanded from Japan to France and dropped under the sea only to rise up in New York New York and split the entire northern United States in half. Lava springs and volcanoes rose like weeds filling the streets with the fires of hell.
High upon the city's tallest tower stood Anya and watched as hell escaped and crossed the world over. Her blonde hair flowed in the wicked wind as it thrashed about. Steam rose from the streets as the rain storms freezing rain sizzled.
"North we shall fight, Kip, tis our only hope" She said as Kip climbed to her position and stood beside her, his chest puffed outward toward the blasting wind that tore away their breath.
"May their dreams be sweet and far from this place" Anya sighed and kissed her two fingers and waved it toward the overrun and burning Costco building "May their souls be laid to rest at peace"
"Kip" the blue creature sighed softly.
(This is not the end, the story will continue...)
