The Church - Part 4

"Reverend," I growl as I stride towards him. "What the hell have you done?"

Everything is plunged into darkness. I slowly start to regain my senses and immediately taste the iron of the blood in my mouth. Wayne is standing above me, staring down with the same look as he had earlier. In his hand is a short club, which is the response to my question.

"My son," the Reverend softly speaks as he comes into view "please get up, come walk with me." He holds out his hand to assist my rise and smiles, a smile which scares me nearly as much as what is outside.

"These are difficult times that require difficult decisions. We needed a diversion and the three that were sent out had to be sacrificed for the greater good. They were damaged, and could not work or earn their way in the Church. But at least this way they have earned their passage to heaven."

He stops us suddenly, his smile disappears, his tone changes as he whispers in my ear "Please heed my warning- No person is more important than the Church, we shall do whatever is necessary to spread the word, to increase our flock!"

"My son" he says, once again smiling, as he puts his arm around my shoulders. I so wish he would stop calling me that. "We need to get in contact with the survivors at the supermarket. You will go alone. You have been there before, you know the dangers, and they will know your face."

"You can’t be serious!" I plead "its suicide, they will kill me just like George. No way am I going, no way"

Wayne walks up to us and takes his position next to the Reverend, the club ready in his hand waiting for the order, the order I am sure he would love to hear.

The Reverend gives another chilling warning "Everyone must obey the word of the Church; this is the be all and end all of everything. If someone does not follow the word then they have no place here. They will be banished outside to walk along with the other non believers."

I look at them both, Wayne with the hatred in his eyes and Reverend McKay with that smile. I know that if I don’t give the correct answer then I would be signing my own death warrant. I couldn’t survive outside for long, that’s assuming I was still conscious when I went out the gates.

"I will go" I mutter and the Reverend comes up, embraces me and starts into prayer. Wayne just smiles.

I kit myself up again attaching a white flag to my spear. I head to the rear wall and look for a time to exit. This time there is no need for diversions as a gap for one person can be found fairly easily.

I look down and see none of those monsters within twenty feet; its now time to go. I throw my rope down and start my descent. I am on the ground in about five seconds but as I turn my heart nearly stops. A zombie is running towards me as fast as any live person. It must have only just turned and having such little decay it could certainly move. There was no way I could outrun it but if I stay to fight and it takes too long I would be over run by the others in under a minute.

I take out my knife and throw it with all my force. With a lot of luck it hits his forehead dead centre and his legs give out from under him, it stops moving- again.

I bend over the corpse to retrieve my knife; I will need all the weapons I have. I fill with sadness as I notice the earphones still inserted and the wire running down to the radio in its pocket. This poor soul was one of the "volunteers" thrown out the previous day. At least now he was at rest.

My journey to the supermarket is uneventful but I have spotted at least three zombies following me from the Church. Thankfully they are very slow so keeping ahead is not a problem.

I arrive at the car park entrance to see that it hasn’t thinned out much since yesterday. There are still about a dozen zombies milling around. If I get to the doors my time will be short. I contemplate just running away but where would I go; would I ever find any other survivors? There must be some but the odds of finding someone before I was caught were astronomical. I conclude that this is my best chance. If I can get in it will give me some time to work out what to do next.

I start to run towards the doors. Almost immediately I am spotted and being pursued by the dead. No use being quiet now so I start waving my makeshift flag and shout at the top of my voice-

"Help me! Let me in! I come in peace! Please save me!"

I scream these words over and over as I get to the doors. There is no movement or noise from within. I turn around and see the zombies about ten feet away. I have no escape. Two of the slots on the doors open and I close my eyes and wait for the inevitable.

The thud of crossbow bolts firing make me open my eyes, too late to see them hit but I can see their victims now lying on the floor. I am not the target; they are going for the zombies.

The door opens and two men appear, firing at the now dwindling dead horde. "Get in now!" the one closest to me screams. I don’t need a second invitation.

I am thrown face first against a wall as soon as I enter. "Don’t fucking move shit head" shouts a voice from behind me. I can now feel a crossbow pressed against the back of my head, hands searching me and removing my weapons.

I now hear a different voice "Get him up to the office; I want a little chat with this guy. Once it’s clear outside get rid of those bodies, I don’t want rotting meat stinking the place out"

There are no responses from anyone; they just get on with their orders. Whoever this guy is he is definitely in charge.

I am frog marched up some stairs to an office, by the look of it must have once been the store managers. There are graphs and charts all over the walls and the desk is surrounded by filing cabinets.

A man in his late forties walks in and sits down. I can see he is wearing a now badly worn security guards uniform. He opens one of the desk drawers and removes a bottle of brandy and two glasses. He fills them both and hands me one. It tastes like heaven.

"My name is Jim Wallace, I am in charge here." He speaks quite softly but there is a tone of authority "I know you are from the group living in the church. Our patrols have seen that. Now tell me your name and what you are doing here"

"First of all can I thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me in" I proclaim with my hands clasped in front of me, "My name is John and I have been sent here by the Reverend McKay, the leader of the Church. He wants you to join us, to join his new vision. He wants all survivors to start to rebuild together."

I didn’t tell him that the Reverend is insane and what he is prepared to do. For my own safety I will keep that to myself for now. I just hope my captor doesn’t think I am holding anything back.

Jim just sits there looking at me for a few seconds before he speaks "Come with me John, let me give you a tour. I must admit I am very proud of what we have here."

The main area of the supermarket has been divided up into separate areas, sleeping, eating and food storage. He shows me the freezer areas which are kept going by the generator. Jim informs me that there is thirty seven people living here. He also states that no survivors have been spotted for over a month which I already knew. As he talks about the gangs of looters they previously had to fight off I can sense he would even welcome that back, he would welcome any signs of more life.

We return to his office and he gives me another brandy. "John, I find what you say interesting. We can’t stay here forever; the food will be gone, the generator could fail. My people are even getting a bit stir crazy, for most the only time they see the sky is if they go to the roof. I think some sort of alliance or trade agreement may be possible but only if it’s for the benefit of my people. We must stay separate; I will not let my people be controlled by anyone"

He swallows down his whole glass in one go and sits staring at me again. "Okay John, lets go and see you’re Reverend"