Chapter Thirty One
“Another interesting observation. A lack of produced melanin doesn’t just affect energy input but alters the overall physique of each infected. No matter who we once were or what race we might have been described as, HBRS has rendered our shells into a uniform, homogeneous genus.”
–Mother, “Notes on HBRS-15.21”. 2 Years After.
* * *
“Are you prepared, Liam?”
He nodded, lowering the binoculars while still watching the structure in front. “Aye, mate. Just keep these hollows busy, and we’ll do the rest for you. Piece of piss, really.”
Ezekiel grinned. “Do not allow your hubris to put your life at risk today. Remember that you not only must protect yourself but your daughter as well. She is more precious than you can know.”
Leah clapped in agreement from the carrier on Liam’s back.
Liam grumbled. “You don’t trust me either, yeah?”
She giggled.
He gave her tufts of hair a rub. This familial treason would have been more disconcerting had she not been so willing to stay on her father’s back, where she belonged.
“Please be serious,” Ezekiel said. “Your daughter is more important than you know.”
He met him in the eyes. “Let me make one thing again clear to you, Ezekiel. My daughter is the most important person in this world, and that will never change.”
He nodded. “Very well. Allow these sinners to follow my lead then, and exploit the void their absence creates. I will do what I must to keep their attention until we succeed.”
Ezekiel advanced slowly, assault rifle in hand, with the safety off. Liam checked the straps of his leather hardsuit to ensure Leah was properly secured, confirmed the quantity of ammunition in his pistol, and lowered the football mask they’d found a few days back, with the brim padded with plastic. It was far from the protection of his acrylic visor, but beggars couldn’t quite be choosers after losing that during the first Inquisitor attack.
The herd of hollows continued their shambling, oblivious to the three coming for them.
Now, this was the sort of teamwork that Liam preferred. After weeks of a combative relationship when Ezekiel dragged the two of them on their death march and refused to hear alternatives, Liam thought his only escape would only occur through his captor’s death. But an ambush by a group of Hunters brought the truth of their circumstance into perspective. Liam needed Ezekiel just as he needed him to see this journey through. There were too many dangers to account for, and neither had anyone they could trust in this untamed, savage wasteland. Without the other to lend support, neither would see this through, and both were still bound by the same objective of seeing his daughter return to safety.
Liam could not forget what Ezekiel had done to drive his family to this point, but past grievances were irrelevant. He had to do what he must to keep his daughter alive.
No matter what.
That was what made this find so valuable. As chance would have it, the pair had happened upon a wilderness lodge turned military relief center. Though their occupants had long since fallen, the two managed to see the supplies that they’d gained were mostly intact. MREs and bottled water remained wrapped in plastic atop wooden pallets, and the temporary barricades still held firm. Hell, Liam wouldn’t have been able to spot this goldmine at all had a tree not collapsed through one of the walls. There was no telling what other presents remained inside.
Of course, that still left the army of hollows between them and there.
Ezekiel fired a round into the air when he’d cleared enough distance. The hollows hissed and turned his way. From the cover of a thicket, Liam bid his time.
It took several minutes for the hollows to be shepherded properly. With his wounds now healed, Ezekiel moved with trained efficiency, gunning down some of these monsters to buy himself distance while merely bashing the ones who drew too close. Leah goggled from Liam’s back, but otherwise kept quiet enough. She’d been getting quite used to all the gunfire of late.
Moans grew and ceased as Ezekiel slaughtered their enemies, but the path forward soon turned clear enough. Liam leaned out of bushed and crept forward. Only the slightest rustling of leaves heralded their arrival, almost indistinguishable from the wind. He winced with a few ill-placed steps, the dull throb of his stab wounds a gentle reminder of the death he’d narrowly avoided with this last attack.
The lodge stood over three stories in front, with varnished, wooden walls that had long since lost their color, and a modern tiled roof that was now chipped and peeling. Boards anchored over shattered windows and vines wormed their way into the walls, sprouting flowers and berries every so often. After so much time combating the elements, only the outer walls remained somewhat intact.
Liam stepped over a collapsed chain-link fence and closed the final distance, suppressed pistol in hand. As much trauma as the attack inflicted at the moment, one nice bit about getting ambushed by Hunters was that they left a plethora of tools behind with their deaths. Guns and ammo, knives and swords, grenades and flashbangs. Liam might not have been this well-equipped since they’d escaped Cheyenne.
He reached the opening. Decayed wood spilled out where the tree had crumbled through. Dust and leaves faded out into a moldy, carpeted floor that slowly gained more order the further into the structure it rolled.
Liam peered deeper into the mess, but it was difficult to make out the full size and scope. This area appeared to be the lobby, and light fell onto the pallet of MREs and water bottles, but darkness clung to the edges. The windows were boarded most heavily here. Very little light slipped through, leaving only shadows along the boundaries. Moans echoed out from this vacuous space.
Hollow moans.
Can’t have everything easy, I suppose. Part of Liam thought about braving the darkness. The food wasn’t all that far, and his leather hardsuit could tilt bites aside from the joints. He could be in and out before they grabbed him.
But then he remembered the infant on his back and knew that no level of unnecessary risk was acceptable. Not for her.
So Liam pounded on the wall instead. Hisses arose in answer as the occupants of this place shambled his way, drawn by the sound. He made a few steps back and took aim with his pistol.
One by one, the hollows marched into daylight, only to drop the instant they appeared. Their movements were sluggish and predictable, and Liam wasted no time putting them down. A half-dozen entered his killing field, each collapsing on top of the last. He reloaded his spent magazine once finished and waited for more movement.
Only silence answered.
“Mommy’s not the only one who is good with a gun, eh?” Liam asked. “Your dad’s gotten quite proficient as well.”
Leah snorted, unimpressed.
“Fine then, you can handle the next batch that comes our way. But for now, I guess we just get what we came for.”
With the immediate area clear, Liam drew his knife and went to work, delivering a couple extra stabs to each hollow’s head, lest his shots have only knocked them out. Once satisfied, he wiped the blade down and crept inside. His feet squeaked against the moldy carpet, and his ears pricked at the world around him. Ezekiel’s gunshots echoed occasionally, but there was no other noise of note.
His tongue clung to the dry roof of his mouth, and Liam made for the pallets. A single slice from his combat knife was all he needed to tear through the plastic shielding. He wrenched open a container and ripped a bottle out, then quickly raised his improvised visor and poured the bottle, letting the water flow over his face freely. His tongue savored each drop. Oh, how sweet this fresh water tasted against his parched lips.
Leah whimpered behind.
“Don’t worry, love,” Liam said. “I’ll get you one soon enough.”
She let out another cry, this one louder than the first.
He looked over his shoulder. “Bloody hell, Leah. Wh–”
A silhouette had materialized from the darkness, slithering its way from the cover of the shadows. As Liam turned around, the hollow lunged forth.
All in one motion, Liam ditched the empty bottle, drew his pistol, and fired. The hollow dove into cover. Light fell across its face, revealing the slightest hint of scarlet in its pupils.
Dreg, he realized. That was a dreg!
He sprinted for the exit, not even bothering with the knife he’d left aside. No more thoughts were needed. Hollows were difficult enough to manage on their own. Undead that held the slightest degree of intelligence were another matter entirely.
“Ezekiel!” he shouted once in the forest. “Ezekiel! Ezekiel!”
“What is it, Liam!?”
Liam ran for the noise. Over a hundred hollows were following him, but he managed to evade their attacks with ease. Like a dog shepherding sheep, he weaved back and forth without the slightest degree of concern.
Liam drew as close as safety allowed. “We have to go, now!”
Ezekiel grimaced, his eyes still tracking the hollows. “What about the sinners?”
“Forget about those fucking things! They’re not the threat. I ran into a dreg back there, and I don’t know where it went!”
It took him a moment to recall their lingo, but his jaw dropped when the realization set in. He jogged away from the herd without another word.
The two rounded the nearest hill.
“You have no food,” he pointed out.
“No, I don’t. Didn’t get to keep the water either.”
“Shall I collect them both for you? I have no fear of this demon.”
Liam shook his head. “No, it isn’t worth the risk.”
“Did we not recently combat an entire crew of Hunters?” Ezekiel asked. “Why do you quake in terror to a single dreg?”
“Just because we lucked out before, doesn’t mean we should thrust ourselves into every fight. This isn’t some war we’re waging. This is wilderness survival. You don’t expose yourselves to predators unless there is no other option but a certain death. Believe me, I have spent a lifetime in places more hazardous than here.
“And in this circumstance, the dangers are only compounded. Since that dreg knows we know about him, there’s no telling how he’ll react. He could have fled the area already, or he could be lying in wait for you to leave us undefended.” He studied the trees around him and swallowed the lump in his throat. “For all we know, an entire pack could be out there. Unlike other enemies, dregs are capable of adjusting tactics like any rezzer, but they blend it with hollows very easily. Were we to split apart in the hopes that you can find and defeat the bastard, he might very well use the opportunity to get to us.” He sighed. “It simply is not worth losing our lives over.”
“You’ll both go hungry,” Ezekiel said.
“Aye, we will. For today, anyway. But with those hollows closing in, there’s no other choice. Either we leave this alone, or we put Leah’s life back in jeopardy. I cannot allow that. Not after almost losing her before.”
He nodded. “I understand.”
The distance increased from the lodge, along with the vital supplies it held. Leah began to cry before long, craving sustenance that could not be given. But Liam could not help but smile the further away they went.
Whether his daughter knew it or not, she’d saved his life today.
* * *
A dark cobalt sky dissipated into yellow clouds flecked with orange streaks. Dusk closed in. The small but stubborn pines made a stubborn disparity, especially when reflected on the lucent surface of the lake below. Though it was difficult to determine without a proper map, the white calcite boulders and dusty terrain gave Liam reason to suspect that they’d reached the Sierra National Forest in Northern California.
Two weeks out, Liam considered. Maybe three. If they kept this pace, they would be back home in that time. Their adventure would come, and they would have to reconcile with what came next, along with whatever decisions had to be made.
Liam studied Ezekiel. With not much daylight to work with and camp already set, he had stripped down to his underwear for his daily ritual. His skin had shriveled after so much time without applying preservatives, and the many injuries he’d sustained had closed into a mesh of mangled, blackened creases. But he still held his head high and spread his arms into a giant Y as he absorbed the last light of day. This was the Beholder “prayer,” Liam had been told, though after so much time together, he speculated that there was more utility to the act than Ezekiel would realize. The undead could sustain their bodies in part by sunlight, which in turn helped slow the rate of hollowing against their minds.
Liam supposed that they still had some time to tough this out together, and with the warmth of a fire and his daughter by his side, he cared for little more than to see each day through.
Their inevitable parting would have to wait.
Liam carved into the chunks they had to work with for nourishment. A rabbit had crossed their path earlier in the day, and to their fortune, she wasn’t quite agile enough to escape. Supplanted by the gooseberries they’d happened upon the day prior, this might have been their first proper meal in weeks.
Leah drooled at the sight, her eyes hungrily fixed on the rabbit meat as it simmered in the cast iron skillet they’d scavenged a few weeks back. Liam gently pushed her back whenever she tried to lean too far.
“Easy now,” he said, ignoring his own grumbling stomach. “You’ll get to eat soon enough.”
Hungry watched on, his buttoned face ironically uninterested in the feast being prepared. “Life is good,” his chest still projected, and for the first time in quite a while, there was little dispute.
The aroma grew as the meat hissed, though Liam would not be satisfied until the rabbit turned fully white. The last ordeal any of them needed on their plate was for either to contract a parasite from unprepared meat.
He let the first batch of meat cool on a nearby stone, then slipped some thin slices for Leah once ready. She gobbled the morsel down without a second thought. Juices dribbled down her thinned cheeks, and she whined for more.
Liam chuckled. “Save some for the rest of us, yeah?” He called out to his other companion. “Are you sure that you don’t want anything, Ezekiel? I still haven’t gotten to the organs yet, and I was thinking of tossing the brain altogether because of some suspect coloring.”
“To consume flesh is a Sin,” he said with no hint of debate.
Again with that? “Suit yourself, mate.”
Zombies that didn’t eat meat. A truly fascinating ordeal. At first, Liam thought this to be mere bluster by a fanatic, but after all their time together, he’d come to see just how far Ezekiel could push his reservoir with the power of faith alone.
Not to perfection, of course. His normal crimson eyes still diluted after enough time, and the only way he’d return to sanity came from butchering a sentient creature in their path and consuming their brains. Without the “holy” cream his Friars had prepared for him, there were no alternatives but to engage in this sin. But despite all the benefits a rezzer gained when harvesting a healthy brain, since engaging with this practice, Ezekiel’s hollowing only accelerated, and he became forced to find another before long.
Liam hoped to push him through this final hump, but as rezzers went, he proved to be more obstinate than most. The bastard held out until the stutters before undergoing this necessary step yet again.
Ezekiel walked back over as Liam chewed on his own meal. The light of the fire clung to the folds of his wrinkled visage.
“You aren’t eating it all?” he asked, pointing to the chunks Liam had set aside.
“Oh, I’ll eat everything if you give me the choice, but these bits will be needed for the pemmican.”
“The what?”
Liam beamed. When was the last time that he’d had an opportunity like this? “While fresh meat and fruit are a staple of everyone’s diet, what separates the true survivalists from mere amateurs is how they combine the two…”
His brow twitched in confusion. “What is this game you are playing? You’ve never spoken like this before.”
“…Dating back to the first American tribesmen, pemmican has proved an invaluable tool for those who wish to progress through long treks across difficult terrain. A mixture of meat, rendered fat, and fruit, pemmican is known as the original survival food. The key is to dehydrate the meat and fruit and grind them into a powder before applying the fat. But doing so will pay off, for this superfood can survive up to five years without refrigeration. In a journey as dire as our own, it might just be the difference between life and death.”
Ezekiel watched on, stiff and blank as a stone slab.
Liam smiled. “Did I ever tell you that I used to run a television show about wilderness survival before the end of the world?”
“No.”
“Well, if you’re wondering why I’m setting the meat aside, that is your reason.”
The two simply sat in silence as Liam processed the remaining rabbit into pemmican while Ezekiel put his clothes and leather armor back on. Light continued to dwindle, spreading tendrils of scarlet and orange further from the horizon.
“Why don’t you believe in God?” Ezekiel asked after some time. “How do you gaze upon this land without seeing His glory?”
“I suppose to some extent, I do. Just not in the way that you might expect.” Liam leaned forward, his eyes tracing the wisps of light against the clouds. “You look at this sight and see the machinations of a single god, yeah?”
“Of course.”
“My father used to say the same thing. ‘This here is God’s country,’ he would insist, and for quite a long time, that was what I saw as well. But the older I became and the more of this world I experienced, the more I learned to appreciate how much greater it is than that.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Greater than the Lord?”
“Indeed.” He watched the slow but steady flow of the sunset, the world beneath, and the sheer weight of it all compared to them. “These mountains were all carved by the ebbs and flows of tectonic shifts, hundreds of millions of years in the making. Those lakes formed from rainfall that took just as long. And that sun over there? Billions of years up in that sky. All of these forces came together to form the tapestry in front of us, and one that we can only experience once per day.”
“Is this not proof of God’s power?”
“Is it not better proof of how small we are?” Liam countered. “Even if we were to die tomorrow… Even if all of us sentient creatures were to be extinguished, this vision would still be here, completely untouched. It will be here a thousand years from now, and a million years after that, undergoing a slow but steady change that we are only catching a tiny snapshot of.” He turned to Ezekiel. “Does living as such small creatures give us some special privilege? There are plenty of other birds and beasts who inhabit this space as well, and I believe they deserve just as much respect as we have. Do you really think all these almighty powers got together for our benefit?”
Ezekiel grunted. “I do.”
“And I thought that hubris wasn’t part of your tenet,” Liam quipped.
But he merely grinned back. “It is because of everything that you’ve said that my faith becomes fortified. Though we can both appreciate the beauty displayed before us, without our presence, there would be no one to behold what God has created.” He stared off into the dwindling light. “He painted such an eternal, resplendent portrait so that we would always know of His presence, and we were given free will so that we might share His love with each other. That was why we were created, Liam. To be creatures of compassion, to understand love, and to give it to others.”
“But there is still so much violence.”
“There is,” Ezekiel agreed. “One cannot choose to walk in the light without also being able to walk in the shadows. That is the power of our free will. But do not forget that there is always hope for change, no matter how far you might stray. Just as the sun sets at the end of each day, so too does it arise on the horizon with the onset of the next. We can always return to the light. God will forever be waiting.”
Liam rubbed his fledgling beard in thought. He supposed that he hadn’t quite thought of it this way.
A herd of hollows entered their field of view, well over a kilometer away at the lake’s edge. The crowd hobbled onward.
“What about them?” Liam asked. “Don’t you believe all those sinners are a lost cause?”
“They are, but only by their choice. You cannot deny that the world before the Beholding was one bathed in Sin, where man had closed its ears to God’s eternal love. Though He cries out to them, they can no longer hear, as the Devil has closed them off.” He looked to Leah. “But this is no eternal victory for evil either. No matter what has happened to these sinners’ souls, they will all one day be reclaimed by God. He loves all His children and would not leave them to suffer eternally as you might think. When your daughter manifests with His might and pours the seven bowls of judgment, you will see for yourself.”
Liam said nothing for a time. Though he did appreciate Ezekiel’s respect for Leah, he would never share that view. She was his daughter, and not anything else.
“That herd is traveling south,” Liam said. “Same as the other ones we’ve been seeing.”
“Yes… I’ve noticed something in the air. A strange energy that is hard to place. I can only taste a glimpse of it every so often with the aura of you and the Chosen One, but it is still there, calling my kind down south.”
“You said that there’s a taste? What kind?”
“Blood and death.” He grit his teeth, though his shriveled cheeks still pinched into a confident grin. “I believe that the final battle will soon be upon us. The dead are converging on the same destination as us, and there is no telling how my people are combating yours. It will only become more treacherous from here.”
Liam gulped. They were still hundreds of miles away, so scents could not travel this far. But as he watched the certainty in his companion’s eyes, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was some truth obscured to him. The hollows moved as though they were on a mission and had been doing so for days.
Liam turned to his friend. “And yet, you smile.”
“And yet, I smile,” Ezekiel said.
“Why?”
“Because regardless of the dangers we may face, God will not forsake us. Not when we still have so much more of His love to share.”
Liam grimaced. He really wished that he could indulge in this level of tenacity in the face of impossible odds.
“Promise me this, Ezekiel,” Liam said. “When we reach our destination, you won’t allow any harm to come to my daughter. No, I don’t want to hear that God or Abraham will save her. I want it to be from you. I have to know that she will be under your protection, and not anyone else’s. If you’re the one who embarked on this mission by yourself, then you can be the one to see it through to its end.”
Now, it was Ezekiel’s turn to remain silent. The moment dragged on as he watched the same hollows on the move, along with the last strands of light dwindling above.
“There is something I must admit to you, Liam,” he said.
“What?”
“This mission did not begin as my own. The Father ordered me to break the peace and capture your daughter, lest she succumb to her illness in the hands of your heretical friends. Were I to have failed, he would have disowned me to protect my Brothers and Sisters. I betrayed no one in chasing you, nor have I ever acted against my congregation’s interests in this pursuit.”
Liam averted his gaze. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Their growing friendship or not, Ezekiel followed the Beholder faith blindly like the rest of his tribe.
“But…” he continued, his fists clenched. “I will do as you request, Liam. If I have learned anything from our time together, it is that no man – no matter how great or small – can explain God’s lessons better than He. We might have started as enemies, but we are now friends. That was through His power, and not through anyone else. Even if this relationship puts me against my own congregation, against my own Father, I will allow no one to come between you and her.”
Liam’s cheeks reddened. He had not expected such a profound declaration from Brother Ezekiel. To think that they were trying to kill each other a little more than a month back. And in the end, Liam considered that his ally had won today’s argument.
God’s love truly radiated through them all.
