The Church - Part Seven

When I wake the next morning I know that whatever happens I just can’t let this farce continue. What little bit of euphoria we may have got at beating back the horde yesterday will by now have been completely blown away. As with the new sun the people will have started to realize what the hell has just happened.

The total desperation of our situation will have well and truly resurfaced but this time it will be even worse. We don’t only have the threat of the flesh eating zombies to deal with now; it’s also Matt along with his bloody plans for vengeance.

Reverend McKay is over at the gateway surveying our patchwork defenses; I look everywhere but there is no sign of Wayne around. I decided that I now have the rare chance to be able to speak to the bastard alone without having the worry of the usual threat of a smashed in skull.

I quietly but as quickly as I can I make my way down the stairs, across the courtyard to get to right by his side. I bend forward and coldly whisper in the Reverends ear. "Where will all this shit end? Will you not rest until we are all dead? You make me fucking sick!"

"How dare you!" screams the Reverend back at me, "This is Gods will, we are on the Road to Salvation! We must overcome all these little tests that he places in front of us."

He starts to look around in a panic and he sees that all the people in the courtyard are now staring right back at him. I am sure he can see in their eyes that they are almost man for man starting to distrust him. For the first time since I arrived I can sense that he is worried, no its not worry that he is feeling, make that scared.

The Reverend violently pushes me away from him and storms off over to the gardens to where Peter is working. They speak together for only a few seconds then I watch Peter scurry off at speed towards the main buildings. To go and collect Wayne and his club I would imagine. It seems that I have done it this time, I have questioned the Reverend once too often.

I go back up to my roof and await my fate. I decide that whatever happens next I shall go out fighting. Wayne won’t find me such an easy target this time but even with my new bravado deep down I know that I would have next to no chance in a fight with him.

"What in hells name is that?" I mutter to myself. There’s a load of screaming and shouting going on down in the main part of the courtyard. I run over to the edge of my roof so I can see what all the commotion about now is.

Its Wayne, he has now appeared and is slowly walking across the courtyard right towards where the Reverend is. He is carrying something long in his hand. Oh my god I can see what it is now- it’s a fucking leg, its got a red training shoe on, shit, it must be Peter’s leg!

Wayne has been turned into one of them. He must have got bit during the battle and transformed overnight. It must have been in his room and he/it couldn’t get out until Peter had arrived and opened the door. Poor Peter wouldn’t have lasted long; he would have barged right into the room to get him. And maybe even the shock of what he found might have killed him anyway.

The, as brave as ever, Reverend is now down on his knees praying out loud. No one is running over to help him, some may have run off to go and get some weapons but to me it looks like most of them have just gone away to hide. The utter shock of this sight, the fact of it being one of our own even if it the fucker Wayne has all but petrified everyone.

Wayne’s cold dead eyes are now fixed firmly on the Reverend quivering frame; it seems to have no interest in anything or anyone else.

If I sprinted down the stairs I could probably get there in time to help but I quickly decide that an easy stroll will more than suffice. Coldly I have come to the conclusion that with both the Reverend and Wayne gone out of our lives for good we could maybe at long last start to move on. We could make peace with the Matt and the others and start to rebuild properly.

By the time I get down to the courtyard it is all over, but its definitely not with the ending that I was expecting to see.

Wayne is now lying sprawled out spread eagled on the floor minus his head. That horrible dark blood they have in their veins is now quickly pooling out from his torso. Dawn is standing directly over her brothers’ body with a bloody axe still firmly held in her hands but also with a few tears in her eyes.

"My child! My child! You are an angel, you are my savior!" the Reverend sobs, whilst still on his knees he shuffles himself over and starts to hug her legs. "I knew that God could not let me die. I have to be here to complete his work. He has sent you to rescue me. I will never forget what you have done for me today."

Dawn is ignoring the reverend, she is still just staring down at the body of her dear brother. I try to imagine how the hell must she be feeling? She has just lopped of his head for fucks sake. It can’t be of any consolation to her that he was just a walking corpse; for in her eyes he has always been and always will be her big brother.

She now looks over at him. "Fuck you!" she spits at the crying Reverend and pushes him away from her legs. "I didn’t do anything for you. I did it all for him, I just couldn’t let him stay like that, not even for another second."

As I get closer I can see the anger swelling up in her green eyes. The hatred is almost exploding out of her very soul. I can sense even from here that this is going to get even nastier.

She throws away the axe and kicks the still kneeling Reverend McKay straight in his face. He flies backwards and I can see blood exploding like a fountain out of his large bulbous nose.

"Get up you son of a bitch!" she shouts as she draws a long kitchen knife out from her belt. "You are going to fucking pay for what you have done, what you have done to my dear brother!"

The Reverend starts screaming for help at the large crowd of our group who have gathered again now that the beast which was Wayne has been fully stopped. "Help! Someone please come and help me; get this mad woman off me. Help! Please save me, I cant die for I am a messenger from God!"

With all his henchmen now dead he just has to hope that he still has some supporters, some believers within our group who will come to his aid. And soon enough they show themselves, a couple of men start to make their way gingerly over to the now walking couple; the sobbing and pleading clergyman and the deranged sibling with her knife held at his fat throat.

Dawn sees them so she stops and puts the Reverends large frame in between her and them. "You two can just fuck off now," she shouts at them "Are you going to risk your lives again for this charlatan? This nutter has been the cause of all the deaths of our friends over the last few days. I am telling you all this; it’s going to stop and its going to stop right now."

One man does stop; thinks about what she has said for a few seconds. Her argument has worked as he puts his knife away, holds his hands up and then makes his retreat. But the other guy has totally ignored her plea and he now holds his knife way out in front of him as he continues nervously on towards them.

I can’t allow him to succeed with the rescue so I quietly make my way behind him and when I am close enough I kick him right in the back of his leg. This force of this makes him drop down to his knees where I now slam the hilt of my knife across the back of his head and thus knocking him immediately unconscious. As I look down at him my heart is racing away and I realize that I have no idea where I got the courage from to do that.

Dawn is looking at me slightly shocked with what I have just done; I just nod at her to hurry and continue along with her plan. She almost breaks into a smile but as she looks again at the Reverend her grief and anger soon puts a stop to even that.

She forcibly drags the Reverend up the ladder and on top of the side wall and then proceeds to pull him whilst he is screaming over to the lowest section. During all this time he has not stopped even for a second his crying and pleading out for help.

I find myself silently begging for Dawn get this over with, to finish it quickly. Even although he does not deserve any bit of mercy at all I am beginning to feel a little, but only just a little, bit sorry for him.

Dawn throws a rope ladder over the wall and pushes him away from her. "Get your fat arse down there now!" she bellows at the Reverend.

He looks down and violently shakes his head with the horror of what’s below and with the disbelief at what she telling him to do. "No please, please let me live!"

Dawn’s knife strikes out in a flash across the top of his arm causing a long and deep cut in his skin and his bright red blood starts to drip down onto the stone of the wall floor. With that strike comes a high pitched child like scream from him.

"That will give them something to chase after, give them a scent to follow," she laughs. "Now get down there, you can go down like you are or so help me I will cut the tendons in your legs, throw you over the edge and you can try and then crawl away. It’s your choice and you had better make it now."

He looks down at the clearing, there are a half dozen or so of the zombies mulling around. I guess he decides it’s his only option to try and make a run for it; so still crying he sets off down the ladder.

I watch as he manages to dodge past the slow moving beasts and head off into the trees. Where the hell can he go to? We are sure there are no other settlements around and he obviously can’t go anywhere near Matts. He will definitely die but if I am being honest it’s no more than he deserves.

Dawn also watches him disappear into the distance then walks over towards me. "Right Sam, all this shit stops now. We need peace; we must try to make things right with Matt before there are any more deaths. I don’t want my brother to have died for nothing. Go and get your gear; you are taking me over to the supermarket."

Bloody great. Going to meet the man whose father I had personally invited to come to his eventual death. This should be fun.