“Jack and I traveled north, always north, but it was not long before we reached the small walled town of Part. Normally I would have been excited to catch up to my ‘family,’ and Part was certainly somewhere they might have found respite, but at the time, I was very ill. Without much in the way of food or water, I came down with an illness and had a high fever because of it.
“It was during this time that Jack’s appearance first changed, and it would continue to change many times after, because Jack, himself, was the fever dream of a small child, though I did not understand this at such a young age. I know now why his appearance altered so often, though his true form beneath his many masks was unidentifiable, as nameless fears always are.
“For some reason I could not fathom during our journey, Jack had a responsibility to keep me alive and have me travel north with him, and so he stopped at Part, but in retrospect, he would have simply walked right on by if the circumstances had been different.
“It was outside of Part where we met Ray, and like so many others after him, he came and went until he was only a distant memory. Now that I think on it, Ray was a good man who had simply appeared in the wrong place at the wrong time, because Part was not the quaint little town we had thought it would be, and moreover, wherever Jack and I went, mayhem and death were always close behind.”
Ray whistled a tune as he adjusted his tattered fisherman’s cap. That cap had been his for the last fifteen years, and it had seen him catch quite a few whoppers, but he mainly wore the old thing now to keep his balding head from being sunburned in the constant heat of the scrubland he traveled through.
Travelling alone was stupid at any time. In fact, it was damn near suicide most of the time, but he could handle himself. He had his rifle, his pistols, and his staff, and it would be a cold day in Hell before he let some jagoff take him down without a fight.
Nevertheless, thugs and bandits weren’t so much a problem as was all the weirdness that prowled around at night. Nightfall was a nightmare regardless of where you were, and he never screwed around before the sun went down. He always found someplace to hole up and make himself less delectable; he found that raw force often provided that for him.
The things in the dark rarely slowed down from something as mundane as guns, but there were rules these creatures followed, and if you knew the rules, you knew how to keep them at bay.
This far south saw the most trouble from those insane bloodsuckers that prowled around here all the way down to the border. Mexico was swarming with those things, so that was normally a no go, but he didn’t really care about that; he was going to the coast to live out a quiet life of fishing and taking it easy on the beach.
Besides, the vamps weren’t a problem if you knew how to handle them. They couldn’t enter a home without being invited, and all that BS about crosses and holy ground was actually true; the “undead” wouldn’t cross a certain line if they thought the area to be sanctified. Whether God was real or not was irrelevant, because as long as the bloodsuckers believed it, it didn’t matter.
Ray carried a “home sweet home” plaque with him and automatically declared any small site he claimed as his “home.” This had successfully kept the vamps away at night, and it was funny too, because after the first few times of trying to get at him, the various groups of them didn’t even try anymore. They gave him a wide berth, and he figured their time spent looking for food was just as valuable as his time spent looking for food.
Now the wolves…? They were a problem, but only on nights when the moon was full. During those times, he hunkered down with a nice big fire, normally a stupid thing to do, as it was a beacon in the dark for everything out there, but during a full moon it was an absolute necessity.
The wolves didn’t like fire, and normally they wouldn’t go near it, so he was good about finding a wall to put his back to so he could put the fire in front of him. He knew the phases of the moon pretty damn well, so there was no way he was going to screw up and make a mistake on that front, so that was all good.
Now there were all kinds of other weirdness out there, but he wasn’t stupid, and he made an active attempt to avoid places he had a bad feeling about. That town he’d passed a few minutes ago was one of ’em; he’d seen the town of “Part” in the distance, but that town straight-up rubbed him the wrong way, so he’d just passed it by without a second thought.
Funny thing, too. Most people nowadays would flock to a town out in the middle of nowhere, but that kind of thing just screamed stupid. In order for any place to substantiate itself, it had to have regular food, water, some kind of sewage plan, and of course, defenses. Part obviously had those things, but, once again, it was out in the middle of nowhere, and that was a big red flag for him.
When the missiles had hit way back when, Ray had been on the construction site of a new office building. He was a foreman back then, and long days of that tough work had given him some good muscle and a pretty good tan.
He was pushing fifty-six now; in a few months he would hit that mark, and he was getting tired of this day-to-day struggle for survival. No, he was going to the coast to live the good life, and if he had to clear out the bad element first, then so be it, but he was settling down there one way or another.
No one had even dimly suspected what was going to happen after everything went to hell. Nuclear winter and radioactive rain and all that stuff went straight out the window. That nuclear hell was what was supposed to have happened, but the hell they got instead was far worse.
There was no radiation or worry of radiation sickness or tainted water or anything like that. Whatever had happened to the world during that time was some kind of judgement from on high, because every friggin’ monster in existence had come out to play soon after.
Ray sometimes laid down at night and had the surreal thought that maybe he was actually dead and this was some kind of Purgatory…He wasn’t Catholic, and he had no desire to be, but maybe there was something to that, or maybe the hellfire and brimstone bible thumpers were right about the “Rapture”…He really didn’t know.
Whatever was going on, it was over his head, so he’d just decided to push forward with his life in what he believed to be the best course of action: Living on the coast.
Out here in the scrub, the problem wasn’t so much food as it was water. He had four canteens and his pack, and he had a number of ways to clean his water: charcoal, charred animal bones, gravel, and sand…All were effective in a pinch.
He’d managed to find some lab-strength chlorine once, but he wasn’t too savvy on how to make use of it, so he’d ditched that idea. Nevertheless, one of his favorite tricks was to fill his small plastic water jug and leave it directly strapped to his pack; natural sunlight did the germ killing for him after a while.
Yep, he was pretty well set in terms of keeping alive and breathing…and healthy…That was important, too.
He only had two shirts and two pairs of pants, along with a small kit containing some needles and thread.
Right now, he was wearing his favorite light-blue Hawaiian shirt, complete with palm trees and coconuts…and oh buddy, he would have loved to have been stuck in Hawaii when the missiles had hit. There were volcanoes there, but he was pretty sure he could have worked around them.
But aside from that colorful shirt, he had on his beige work pants, fit and rugged, and his work boots, also fit and rugged, and both sets of clothes could survive long-distance travel…for obvious reasons. But still…he would have loved being in Hawaii.
He was a pretty big guy, and his work in construction had given him a pretty fit outlook on life as well as the physical benefits that go with regular exercise. He had taught karate down at the rec center in his home town, but that was a long damn time ago. He rarely had to use that, though; his biggest threats required other means of killing, and unlike people, he had no qualms about cutting loose on them.
That’s why it surprised him to see a lone figure dressed all in black in the far sunlit distance. Black was a terrible color out here in this heat, but this person did not seem perturbed or bothered by that fact in any way.
He could tell the figure in the distance was probably a man or a facsimile of one (considering all of the weird crap he’d come across), so he kept his guard up as they approached each other. He was going south toward the coast, and this guy was going north toward Part, so there shouldn’t be any trouble between them.
You always had to worry about thugs and bandits out here, but for the most part, people were pretty good on each other, all things considered. With every type of nasty thing imaginable coming out at night and wanting to eat you, people had decided to stick together for once in spite of their differences. Yep, there was nothing like a worldwide plunge into Hell to bring out the best in people.
Still, he was not stupid. This guy could be one of the “Charred Ones,” grotesquely burnt and deformed zombies of what were once people…
Ray had always had a theory that these were the people who were out of the blast radius of the nukes but were still close enough to be fried. Why they decided to keep moving and attacking anything that moved (other than each other) confounded him, but considering the state of the world, this was unsurprising.
Thankfully, they weren’t like the zombies out of all those pre-nuke TV shows; you didn’t become one if you got bitten. He had once seen a guy get radiation sickness from a bite, so those charred bastards were still dangerous in their own right, but shooting them in the head worked ninety percent of the time, so the old TV shows were good for something…At least they’d gotten that right.
He was on his guard as he approached this tall man in black, but a red flag went up in his head when he noticed what this guy was carrying…This stranger was carrying a little girl in his arms, and she did not look well.
He unslung his rifle, but he was careful to carry it barrel up so as not to appear openly threatening. He did not know if he was going to have to shoot this guy or not, and he was not looking forward to it if it came down to that. He’d rather people stick together and get along, and he didn’t like killing actual people…He wasn’t fond of killing monsters either, but…well…you know.
It had been some time since he’d worried over the safety of someone else. His whole family had died during that hell that was right after the nukes had dropped; his wife and kids and grandkids were buried outside of what remained of his house up north.
He’d drank a lot back then, and he’d nearly been killed a couple of times for it, but now he was out of that personal hell and back into the real hell that was the world he’d come to accept. True, he’d accepted it with a bitter humor, but he’d also accepted it with a powerful resolve to get south to the coast. He was going to “retire” down there…He figured he’d earned it.
They approached each other faster than Ray would have liked, but he’d seen all kinds of crap, so this guy carrying a little girl wasn’t all that strange. Still, he had the bad feeling he was going to have to open fire soon, and he didn’t look forward to that activity.
They walked up to each other to a distance of ten feet, and Ray got a good look at this guy for the first time.
This man was over six-feet tall and covered from head to toe in black battle armor. That armor was slick black metal, and it was covered by a black tunic, like one you would see out of a TV documentary covering the Middle-Ages, only this tunic had a zipper coming down from the neckline.
That tunic had a silver circle in the center of it with a little silver dot in the center of that circle, that circle “patched” on by four silver bars that spanned out from the “corners” of said circle…What that symbol on the tunic meant was anybody’s guess, because Ray sure as hell didn’t know.
This soldier’s getup was topped off by a full-face battle mask complete with black goggles. This guy wore a short black cape draped over his right arm, and the only defining “human” characteristic about him was the long dark-grey hair that flowed down to his shoulders…No, he didn’t exactly shout “friendly.”
“Hey, there, stranger,” greeted Ray.
The man in black did not say anything in return, and that was a little disturbing. Ray felt there was something definitely wrong about this guy, just Plain Jane wrong, but he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to put on a friendly face and attitude. The world may have gone to hell, but he hadn’t. He’d crawled out of his pit, and he wasn’t going back in it anytime soon.
He took a moment to study the girl in the stranger’s arms. She was little, probably between five and seven, and she didn’t look well. Ray could tell she was sick; her slightly-tanned skin was pallid and clammy in the light of the afternoon sun, and her breathing looked shallow and weak. She was either sleeping or unconscious; he couldn’t really tell.
She wore a small, tattered and dirty, blue print dress, and her shoes looked like they were barely held together from bits of old leather and cloth. The girl had thick curly black hair and a little cherub face, and in her little hands was clutched a large, tattered brown purse.
The first thought on Ray’s mind was for that little girl’s safety, so he did not beat around the bush.
“That little girl’s sick,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I know,” said the man in black.
This guy’s voice was rough, as if he had a permanent frog in his throat. Furthermore, his quick and decisive response along with the sheer wrongness of him brought down Ray’s hopes for a peaceful day pretty fast. He gripped his rifle in both hands, but he didn’t point it at the stranger…yet.
“What are you going to do with that little girl, mister?” he asked flatly.
“I’m taking her to that town,” replied the man in black. “She needs medicine. I don’t have any.”
This answer surprised Ray. He had honestly thought there would be some kind of half-assed lie punted at him, but this stranger did not give the impression that he was being dishonest or…for that matter…that he was afraid of Ray at all.
“Oooookay,” said Ray slowly. “That’s Part up ahead…but I don’t know what they’ve got, because I haven’t been there.”
“That’s where I’m going,” said the man in black.
Ray could tell that this man was not big on words. This little scene was all kinds of wrong in his book, so he just decided to cut right to the heart of the matter.
“I’m Ray,” he said firmly. “What’s your name, stranger?”
“People call me Jack,” said the man in black.
That was not exactly the answer Ray had been expecting. Most people said “I’m such and such.” They didn’t say “People call me such and such.” It was weird, and this guy felt wrong, so Ray did not hesitate with his next question, which was perfectly reasonable in light of the situation.
“Are you a monster, Jack?” he asked matter-of-factly.
“Yes,” said the tall man named Jack.
Ray was a little taken aback by this response. He’d only asked the question to gauge the guy’s response, and he had not really expected such a blunt and forward answer. Naturally, he continued with his questioning; if this guy was answering straight up, then he would just come out and say it.
“Are you going to hurt that little girl, Jack?” asked Ray.
“No,” said Jack gruffly. “I cannot. She needs medicine. I’m going to that town to get it. She must not die.”
A monster carrying a little girl to get medicine? Ray had seen some weird crap, but this situation had to be on the top of that dark list. He really wasn’t sure what to do about this guy, so he decided to pry him for some more information.
“Are you going to hurt that little girl after you get medicine?” he asked.
“No,” replied Jack. “I protect her. She must not die. She’s sick. I’m going to that town to get medicine. I’ve given her water, but that’s not enough. She needs medicine.”
Ray had a tough time swallowing that one, but he decided to go with it for the moment. For one thing, if this guy really was a monster—and Ray suspected he was—then reinforcements from Part were a better plan than taking him on alone. Still, he was not about to leave some poor little girl in the hands of a monster, regardless of what that monster’s intentions were.
“I think I’d better come with you to Part,” said Ray firmly.
“Why?” asked Jack.
“They may not take kindly to someone such as yourself,” said Ray flatly. “I can at least make sure that little girl gets medicine.”
“Good,” said Jack.
And that was that. Jack walked on with the little girl, and Ray followed closely behind. Jack seemed unconcerned with his presence, and the man’s bearing and silence were just as disturbing as his deliberate ignoring of Ray, but it was a short walk to Part, so it wasn’t like it mattered that much.
“Who is that little girl, Jack?” asked Ray after a while.
“Maria,” replied Jack.
“Do you know her?” asked Ray.
“Yes,” said Jack.
“Okay,” replied Ray. “So…why are you protecting her?”
“Because I have to,” replied Jack.
Ray figured as much. If this “man” was actually a monster, then he had rules he had to follow…just like every other monster out there. Still, he’d never heard of a vamp walking around in the daylight, even with all the gear this guy was wearing. Nonetheless, if this guy was a vamp, there was no way in hell Ray could take him…He knew what those bloodsuckers were capable of. They could rip a guy’s arms off and beat him to death with them…and that’s only if they were feeling merciful.
“I’ve never been to Part, stranger,” said Ray. “I don’t know what the people are like. I don’t even know if they have medicine. If I had any, I’d give it to you, but I don’t.”
“They either have medicine, or they don’t,” said Jack bluntly. “If they don’t, then I’ll look somewhere else.”
“Makes sense,” said Ray. “I really hope they do. I don’t want to see that little girl…Maria is it? I don’t want to see Maria get worse.”
“I know,” said Jack in flat reply.
“Oh?” asked Ray. “You know me, huh?”
“Yes,” said Jack. “You are not a threat.”
Ray wasn’t exactly happy with that response, but if this guy was a vampire, then unfortunately, he was correct. A bullet wouldn’t stop him, even a hail of bullets wouldn’t stop him, and that body armor looked like it could stop a few bullets anyway.
“Are you dangerous, Jack?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Jack.
“Hmmm,” replied Ray. “Seen your fair share of action, then?”
“Yes,” replied Jack.
“Well, I guess that little girl could do worse,” said Ray, “but I’ll travel with you for the time being…just in case.”
“I don’t care,” said Jack bluntly. “Don’t get in my way.”
“Yep,” replied Ray. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
They walked for some time back in the direction of Part, and Ray’s curiosity got the better of him. There were things about the world that he did not know, and this man…or monster…probably knew something. He wasn’t keen on provoking this stranger, but he decided to just bite down and ask anyway.
“So, Jack,” he asked cautiously, “where do you think all of these crazy monsters came from?…Or do you know?”
“Yes,” said Jack curtly.
“Oh,” said Ray. “Soooooo…what’s the story then? How come nobody’s seen these things until now?”
“They’ve always existed,” said Jack gruffly. “Trapped in nightmares and dark fantasy…Imagination at its most twisted.”
“Huh,” said Ray. “That’s…not the answer I was expecting. The world goes to hell, and then monsters come out to take what’s left of us…I’ve never heard of that plot before.”
“It’s an old idea,” said Jack roughly. “It is not new.”
“Really?” asked Ray. “Guess we disagree on that one.”
“It’s simply a fact,” said Jack. “People believe they have a unique idea, and they create it, only to find out that someone else has done something similar right before them. This world…? It is not new.”
“Okaaay,” said Ray cautiously. “So you’re telling me that all these monsters just sprang up because of someone’s imagination? So are we imaginary then? ‘Cause I don’t feel imaginary.”
“You exist because you believe you do,” said Jack.
Ray thought about this, but that answer made absolutely no sense to him.
“That…doesn’t really make sense, Jack,” he replied. “If I exist because I believe I do, then I’d have to exist in the first place just to believe I exist…You see what I’m saying? Do you exist because you believe you do?”
“No,” said Jack. “I exist because others believe I do.”
“Right,” said Ray with a shake of his head.
Either Jack was a real monster, or he was just crazy. Either way, he was dangerous, and Ray would not put it past this guy to just slaughter whoever pissed him off.
He decided to be a little more judicious in his questions.
“So, Jack, what kind of a monster are you?” he asked cautiously. “Are you a vampire? I’ve never heard of a vamp walking around during the day.”
“No,” said Jack firmly. “Vampires are vermin, nothing more.”
“Right,” said Ray. “So you’re like…Jack the Ripper, then?”
“No,” said Jack in his rough voice. “That was a serial killer.”
“Well, you got me there,” said Ray. “What’s your real name, then? It can’t be Jack…”
“I have no name,” said Jack. “People call me Jack.”
“And why is that?” asked Ray.
“Because they mistook me for someone else,” said Jack.
“Who did they mistake you for?” asked Ray.
“A fictional character,” replied Jack. “Three of them, in fact… but that is irrelevant. I am going to Part to get medicine for Maria. That is all that matters.”
“You’re right about that,” breathed Ray.
He decided not to say anything more for the time being. This “Jack” was not forthcoming, and Ray was not going to piss him off any time soon. That bad vibe he had about Jack was never far from his mind, and he wasn’t even sure if the residents of Part could help take this guy down if push came to shove.
He thought about the weird collection of creatures he’d tangled with in the past.
He’d seen a tripped-out prostitute sic a collection of porcelain dolls on a guy once…Those dolls actually moved and attacked the poor bastard with kitchen knives in their little porcelain hands. Those little dolls blew apart into little porcelain shards from the blast of a shotgun, though.
And then there was that pale thing that had skulked around the bar he’d been holed up in; it was naked and hairless and as white as snow. He’d tracked it one night out of curiosity, but he’d wished he hadn’t. It spent its time eating corpses, and it even ate the charred ones that Ray had put down some nights before. In general, though, it had left him alone.
Yep, those things were freaky, but they weren’t as bad as the gigantic bird he’d seen flying overhead a month ago. That sucker had come out during a thunderstorm; it was as big as a diesel in wingspan, and it had lightning crackling across its feathers…and that’s why he was going to the coast. There were probably monsters out there, but more than likely they were in the water, and he wasn’t going in thewater. He wanted to catch fish on the coast, not get eaten by a giant shark or squid or something.
It took them about forty minutes to reach Part. Ray was pretty sure he was going to have to bunk here for the night, but something about Part still made him wary, and he wasn’t happy about that little detail.
Part was actually smaller than it looked from a distance, too. Ray was not sure how many people lived here, but it couldn’t be more than a hundred at the most. Still, it was surrounded by makeshift walls of wood and tin, and it was definitely a sight for sore eyes for most travelers on their way through the scrub.
They walked straight up to the big corrugated tin gates and peered up at a couple of guards on the wall. Both figures were young men, both holding rifles, and they did not look friendly.
“State your business!” yelled one of the men.
“We’ve got a sick little girl down here!” yelled Ray. “We need somewhere to lay her down, and she needs medicine!”
The two men spoke with each other in hushed tones before giving a motion behind them. The big tin gates opened up, and Ray breathed a sigh of relief at this turn of events. He nodded toward Jack, and they both walked into an open dirt square surrounded by more high tin walls.
An old white woman with grey hair walked out from a wooden door in the far north wall. She was accompanied by a large black man who looked to be in his late thirties and a younger white guy in his early twenties…All three of them were armed with rifles.
The older woman had a mean look to her; she was wrinkled around her thin lips as if from constant frowning, but it was her clothes that disturbed Ray the most. She wore a plain brown shirt and pants that looked untouched in their use; they were clean of dirt and grime, no holes or patches to be seen, and this bothered Ray a bit.
The other two were not much better in his estimation. The large black man was all muscle, and he was completely bald with nary a hair to be seen on his shiny head. He wore a black shirt, a simple pair of blue jeans, and a pair of dusty black boots…His clothes also looked to be in good condition.
The last guy was a young white man in his early twenties. He had curly brown hair with a short and well-trimmed mustache and beard combo, and he wore a dark green shirt with blue jeans, that combo finished with a pair of brown work boots…He too had decent clothes.
Ray didn’t like that observation. No one had good clothes anymore; it was just a fact. He didn’t have much time to ponder it, though, because the older woman didn’t beat around the bush.
“Deposit your weapons in the bin,” said the old woman. “Put them in the bin, and you can enter.”
“I have no weapons,” said Jack bluntly.
Ray firmly believed that Jack did not need any. Still, Ray was getting a really bad vibe from this place and these people, and his vibes were almost always justified in their warrant. He didn’t really want to give up his guns or his staff or his hatchet, but he didn’t feel right about leaving that sick little girl to die out here in the desert sun…It just didn’t feel right.
He deposited his guns in a large wooden bin near the north wall and handed his pack to the older woman. She did a cursory glance through his things, pulled out his hatchet, and then handed him his pack.
“Let them in,” she said to the two men.
They nodded and ushered the three of them to the north wall and through the wooden door.
Ray was honestly surprised at what he saw inside…These people had very small homes of shacks made from tin and wood, but it was the large field of irrigated crops that caught his attention. There was a cash surplus of grains, vegetables, and even some fruit trees. The whole of it was laced with long plastic pipes with irrigation holes…
Where these people stored their water and how they had enough of it to waste on crops made him wonder if there was a large underground table of fresh water beneath the hard scrub that constituted pretty much everywhere outside. It made some sense now why this place was out in the middle of nowhere, and that gave him a little more confidence than he’d had before.
Ray whistled as he looked upon that bounty of harvest; it was amazing that this much vegetation grew out here and out of season. Whatever their crop growing secret was, it was a pretty good one.
A group of mixed people of various races and ages came out from the fields to gaze upon them.
Ray’s original estimate of Part’s population was way off…There were only sixty people at the most here, and at least a third of them were youths ages fifteen to twenty.
They gathered around and stared silently at the strangers that had come out of the wastes.
Their gazes were wary and piercing, something Ray was used to with strangers, because even though people were more inclined to help than they were in the past, there were still ne’er-do-wells out there that would sooner shoot you in the face than give you the time of day.
“Are these new travelers joining us, Mother?” asked an older white man with a shaggy grey beard and long grey hair, someone a little older than Ray.
“No,” said the old woman. “They have a sick little girl who needs attention. We will take her to the Warren.”
This older man stared at Maria and frowned.
“Are you certain?” he asked.
“Yes,” said the old woman, this “Mother.” “This little girl will be treated like one of us…These two gentlemen, however, are our “honored guests.”
Ray didn’t like the sound of that. He didn’t like the emphasis the old woman had put on “honored guests.” He was wary like that.
The older man smiled and nodded a couple of times.
“Of course, Mother,” he said.
This older man was dressed in a tie-dyed T-shirt, good blue jeans, and good white sneakers, yet another red flag for Ray, because once again, clothes in good condition were tough to find. Plus, this old hippie had called the woman “Mother,” but Ray knew she couldn’t be the guy’s actual mother. “Mother” had to be some kind of a title…
Was this a cult?
This older woman looked to be in her late sixties, but Ray was not fooled by appearances. There were too many things that went bump in the night out there, and a person could never really tell if someone was safe or not without doing some closer inspection first.
He looked over to Jack, but the man or monster or whatever he was did not look perturbed or bothered by this red flag in the slightest. Jack simply stood there with little Maria in his arms, waiting for some lead or instruction to follow. Of course, it wasn’t like Ray could see Jack’s actual expressions behind the enigmatic man’s mask, but Ray had a sense for these things, so he followed his gut…Jack was simply unafraid.
That cinched it for Ray; Jack was not someone you messed with, so if trouble was going down, he was going to hide behind this tall and slender man in black.
The old woman turned and glared at the gathered crowd.
“These people are not your concern!” she yelled. “Have Brother Steven preach the Sermon of Thanksgiving until we are finished here!”
“Gather round, gather round!” yelled out the older man, the old hippie.
Ray figured this guy had to be “Brother Steven.”
The crowd of workers “gathered round” this “Brother Steven” in a semi-circle.
“We give thanks to the night and our brethren of the shadows for the bounty we have received today…” droned out Brother Steven.
Brethren of the shadows? What in the hell did that mean?
Ray didn’t really get a chance to hear the rest of the sermon, as his attention was pulled toward “Mother.”
The old woman, obviously the leader of Part, motioned toward him, not toward Jack, as she had most likely figured (accurately, in Ray’s opinion) that Ray was easier to speak to than the tall “soldier” in black.
“Come,” she said firmly. “Follow me to the Warren. We should have something to help her…It looks like she has a fever, and we need to bring that down.”
“Good,” said Jack bluntly.
They walked away from the fields as Brother Steven droned on behind them, and their path led them toward a somewhat larger shack than the others that dotted the walled interior of Part.
They followed this old woman along with her two bodyguards, the large muscular black man and the younger white guy, but Ray noted that these three remained armed at all times, and this made him nervous. He still had that gut instinct that something bad was going down, but he didn’t give up the ghost of a hope just yet. If they really did have medicine, then that little girl needed it and badly.
They were interrupted in their short journey as two more guards, two young white guys in their early twenties—these two also wearing clothes in good condition—walked up. These two new guards did not disturb Ray so much as the captive they held between them, a slender young white woman with long black hair. This young lady couldn’t have been more than twenty-one, twenty two, but that wasn’t the issue…
She was completely naked.
This nude young lady had her head down, her gaze at the dirt, as the two guards dragged her forward, one guard on each arm, before the old woman. The two guards dropped the young woman to the dirt, and she fell to her bare knees, and as she did, she bent over in a prostrating position.
Ray could see the fresh stripes from a whip across her bare back and bottom.
This “Mother” leaned over, gripped the young woman by her chin, and raised the young lady’s head until their gazes locked.
“Please…” begged the young woman. “Please, Mother Maleye. Please, forgive my transgression.”
“What was your transgression, child?” asked the old woman, this “Mother Maleye.”
“I had relations with Brother Alan without permission,” said the young woman.
“Brother Alan is to be betrothed to Sister Caroline,” frowned the old woman. “You are to be betrothed to Brother Frederick.”
“Yes, Mother,” said the young woman in a listless tone. “I was wrong. I have transgressed. Please, forgive me. Please…Please, let me eat.”
Mother Maleye released her chin and then addressed the guards.
“Has Brother Alan been punished?” she asked.
“Yes, Mother,” replied one of the guards.
“Has he been bled?” asked the old woman.
“Yes, Mother,” replied the same guard.
She stared down at the young lady and frowned.
“Have you been bled, child?” she asked.
“Yes, Mother,” said the young woman. “I’m so weak…Please…Please, let me eat.”
This “Mother” nodded once, and one of the guards removed a large, red, very ripe tomato from a burlap satchel hanging from his right shoulder. He reached forward with the tomato in his right hand, and the young naked woman snatched the red orb from him without a hint of hesitation. She tore into it with her teeth after that, the juice running down her chin, and Ray had to look away out of slight disgust…
This was all kinds of wrong.
This was a cult…The people of Part were all in a cult, and that meant he needed to keep his eyes peeled and his wits about him.
“You know what will happen if you transgress one more time?” asked Mother Maleye.
The young lady vigorously nodded as she continued to chew. She swallowed in an exaggerated motion, and then nodded once more, her long black hair wild around her pale and pretty face.
“I won’t transgress again, Mother,” said the young woman. “I won’t. I’m a good girl. I won’t transgress…”
“Good,” replied the old woman with a dark smile.
She nodded toward the two guards as the woman went back to eating the tomato she’d been handed.
“Return Sister Chloe’s clothes to her,” said Mother Maleye. “She may join the others in the field after she dresses.”
“Yes, Mother,” said the two guards.
Mother Maleye led Ray and Jack and her bodyguards away from this disturbing little incident. They all walked away from the two young men and the young lady.
It was clear to Ray that his end destination was the large shack in the distance, but that didn’t concern him at the moment, because he couldn’t help himself…He had to ask.
“I know it’s not my place…” he said warily. “I know I don’t have a stake here, but she doesn’t get to choose who she wants to marry?”
This “Mother Maleye” simply smirked at Ray and shook her head no.
“We have a very strict breeding policy in Part,” she said firmly. “We must rebuild the human race, and such a duty, such a responsibility, must not be taken lightly.”
She motioned toward the workers in the field who were still listening to Brother Steven’s sermon.
“Anyone is free to join our society,” she said matter-of-factly. “However, they must abide by the rules. We seek to breed superior traits within our children, therefore, we have a strict code of conduct when it comes marriage.”
Something wasn’t right here…Ray had not noticed any children here other than little Maria, nor had he noticed any pregnant women…Maybe they were holed up in a shack like daycare or something?…He didn’t really know, but he had a feeling this was not the case.
That bad vibe was hitting him strong.
“Ooookay,” he replied. “Well, I’m heading south to the coast, so Part isn’t exactly the right fit for me, but…to each their own.”
“Yes,” smirked the old woman. “To each their own…Come. The Warren is ahead.”
They walked up to the large shack, but Ray noticed there was a smaller shack attached to it, just off to the east, and he could hear the distinct rumbling of something mechanical emanating from said smaller shack.
“What’s that building?” asked Ray.
“That is our refrigeration unit,” said Mother. “We have water, power, structure, and safety here. That is all one needs to lead a productive life. Our refrigeration unit is mostly powered by solar panels, but we do have a generator for emergencies. We must not lose our “ice box,” so to speak.”
Where these people had gotten the gas to run a generator was beyond Ray, but…it was better than nothing. The bigger and better question was how they had obtained solar panels, but at this point, the question was moot, because the only reason he was here was to help Maria, and that was it.
He did not favor the thought of travelling with Jack any longer than he had to, nor did he favor the thought of being in Part longer than he had to. It was a double whammy of trouble, but not for the same reasons.
They walked into a larger shack, the “Warren” as they had called it, and waited in a large office-like area. This room had a couple of desks complete with paper and writing utensils…
It looked like the past, and it reminded Ray of better times. There were even a couple of real windows with real glass to look through and peer out into the green fields beyond, and Ray got the sense that this place was not a bad place to settle down in, all things considered…It did have safety, it was just everything else that bothered him about Part.
They were still using corporal punishment here, and he’d already gathered that “transgressing” too often probably meant something like “making a permanent disappearance.” He did not like the idea of that poor young lady who’d been punished being taking outside of Part and having a bullet put between her eyes…especially for just wanting to marry whom she wanted to marry.
He really needed to get this done and get the hell out of this cult.
A wooden door to the east, a door that clearly led to the “ice box,” opened wide as a young black man, a young man in his late teens, carried a large clay jar from that refrigerated room.
Ray could see clay jar after clay jar in that room, but what concerned him was the long steel table and the medical equipment attached to it. There was a large, light-blue, PVC IV bag on a metal pole, that bag connected to a PVC tube, and he could tell that bag was partially filled with blood.
“Not now, Brother Elijah,” said Mother Maleye. “We have honored guests. I will come and get you when we are ready.”
“Yes, Mother,” said the teen boy.
He walked back into the “ice box” with the clay jar and closed the door behind him.
Mother Maleye turned her attention back upon Ray.
“We keep all of our medicine in the next room for safety purposes,” said the old woman. “We guard it for obvious reasons…As for the girl, you’ll have to leave her here.”
“No,” said Jack bluntly.
Ray did not want a confrontation at this particular time, so he stepped forward and motioned toward Jack.
He was not surprised by Jack’s answer…He had expected as much. If Jack really was a monster, then he had to follow the rules, whatever those rules were, and right now those rules appeared to be centered around this sick little girl, Maria. Still, rules could be bent, even if they couldn’t be broken, and he didn’t believe for a second that Jack couldn’t handle himself.
“I’ll watch her, Jack,” said Ray. “Go ahead. We’ll wait for you here.”
Jack looked him over for a moment and then handed over Maria. The little girl was light in Ray’s arms, and he could feel the heat of her fever on his bare skin. He was overcome with sympathy for her at that moment, but that was nothing unusual; he was just that kind of guy.
“Into the next room,” ordered the old woman.
This whole cult business and this woman in general was all one giant red flag in Ray’s mind, not to mention the “Ice Box” with the IV table and the clay jars…This was looking worse by the second, but these three were armed, and he and Jack were not, so if it was going to get ugly, then it was going to get ugly, and there was nothing he could do about it.
The old woman motioned toward a large wooden door behind her, that door set in the north wall of the shack. If there was a room there, it had clearly been in the back of the shack, which was why Ray hadn’t noticed it.
Jack stepped forward without a second thought and opened the door. There was no light in the next room, but Ray could tell by the outline of the boards next to the door that there was no floor in there, either.
“Jack, wait!” yelled Ray, but it was too late.
The large muscular black man pushed Jack forward, and the tall and slender man in black pitched down into the darkness. The large black man quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. Ray wanted to jump forward and serve him up some punishment, but considering he had two rifles trained on him, there was no way he could make it to anyone before being blown apart. Still, he was pissed at this whole situation and its nonsense…People were supposed to help each other and not pull crap like this.
“Why’d you do that!” he asked angrily.
“Because it’s necessary,” said the old woman in a grim tone.
“You don’t have to answer him, Mother,” said the large black man.
“They keep calling you ‘Mother,’” frowned Ray. “What’s going on here? What is this? This is some kind of a cult, isn’t it?”
The old woman gripped her rifle and motioned toward the door.
“Survival,” she said coldly. “If you wish to call us a cult, then our apt title would be the ‘Cult of Blood.’ You see, we give them what they want, and they give us what we need.”
“They?” scoffed Ray. “Who’s they?”
“The vampires,” said the old woman.
It was coming together now. Brother Steven’s talk about giving thanks to the night and their “brethren of the shadows,” the clay jars in cold storage—those jars probably filled with blood—all of the nice clothes, the generator, everything Ray had noticed in here…
“So that’s why you have all of these nice things!” spat Ray. “You’ve made a deal with those bloodsuckers, so you can get the goods…I don’t know how you got such nice-looking crops to grow in such poor soil, but I do get it now. This is what you’ve been up to since the nukes dropped.”
“Oh, yes,” nodded the old woman. “Yes, we do trade for good items at times, but as for our crops…? They’re easy to grow. You see, we give our benefactors some of our blood…and they give us some of theirs in return.”
There was a loud rumbling sound as a motor turned on, and the pipes outside shook and shimmied as water flowed through them. Ray held Maria as he looked out the window for that brief moment, but in retrospect, he’d wished he hadn’t.
The pipes outside sprayed the crops below with irresponsible abandon of usage, but what came from their irrigation holes was not water…No, it wasn’t just water. It was clear the water they were using was mixed with something else, something so recklessly stupid it was insane. A hot red liquid sprayed from the irrigation pipes, and the strong smell of blood reached Ray’s nostrils as he turned back toward the others, his eyes wide with alarm and some well-justified panic.
“Are you out of your mind!” he said angrily. “This isn’t survival! This is just stupid! You can’t feed that poison to people!”
The young white man shook with anger as he aimed his rifle at Ray.
“Let me shoot him, Mother!” he hissed.
“No,” said the old woman firmly. “We need him alive.”
Ray knew exactly why they needed him alive, but he’d be damned if he was going to be sucked dry like a juice box. He needed to stall for time, because he was positive that Jack…?Jack was something even the vamps couldn’t handle.
Still, he knew a little thing or two about vampires and, more importantly, their thralls.
“I get it now,” grimaced Ray. “I really get it now. There are two types of thralls…There are the ones that are weak because of blood loss, but they’re kept alive by a little bit of vamp blood. That’s what those people out there are, aren’t they? They’re blood bags, aren’t they?
“Those crops you grow all come out rich and delicious because they’ve been grown with vamp blood…The poor people of Part get drained of their blood, but you keep them alive with that crap you’ve been growing…Even worse, they’re addicted to it, and because they’re addicts, they’re easy to manipulate. Inflict some punishment, and they get the picture…But you? You’re different, aren’t you, lady?”
This old woman, this “Mother Maleye,” simply flashed that irritating smirk Ray now officially hated so much.
“And how am I different, stranger?” she asked. “You seem to know so much about us, so why don’t you explain to me how I am different from the…‘poor people of Part.’”
“You’re the other type of thrall,” frowned Ray. “You’re the kind that drinks straight from the tap…That’s why you and your guards are all healthy and fresh…but you’ve made a big mistake taking a vamp for their word.”
“And why would that be, Mr…” asked Mother Mayeye.
“Ray,” frowned Ray. “You can just call me Ray.”
“And why would that be, Ray?” asked the old woman yet again.
“Because you’re slaves, you damned fool!” yelled Ray. “Those bloodsuckers don’t care about you! You’re expendable, you idiot, and because you’ve ‘partaken’ of their blood, they now own you!…You’re nothing to them! You’re…You’re nothing but cattle to them! They’re going to tear right through all of you the moment they no longer need you!”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Mother Maleye. “We all get to live and have food to eat and a place to sleep. I’d rather live here in chains than die out there.”
“Why?” asked Ray in wide-eyed disbelief. “Don’t you remember anything this country stood for!…The world’s gone to literal Hell, lady! Freedom is the only thing we have left!”
The young white man aimed his rifle directly at Ray’s head.
“Let me kill him, Mother!” demanded the young man.
“No,” said Mother Maleye with a wave of her right hand. “Stand down, Brother Cole.”
The wheels turned in Ray’s head as he put all of the pieces together, and that puzzle was ugly, because it was becoming pretty clear now what was going on here, and it was worse than he had first estimated, far, far worse.
He looked down at the sick little girl in his arms, and his brain finally put it all together. He’d figured out the last piece to this sick, sadistic puzzle.
“That’s why there are no children!” he gasped. “You…You’ve been feeding them newborns…”
This was so unconscionable that Ray could barely fathom it.
“It depends,” scowled Mother Maleye. “The food we eat here acts as a powerful contraceptive, but there have been planned pregnancies and births, and we have acted accordingly.”
Ray gasped as his eyes widened in shock.
“Then why the forced marriages?” he asked in a pseudo-daze. “Why bother doing that at all? Is that another ‘control’ thing? I mean, that’s what that old hippie and his sermons are for, right, so why the forced marriages?”
“Yes, we do use forced marriage for control, but that’s only its secondary purpose,” smirked the old woman. “It’s only been two years since the final war, so newborns have not exactly been plentiful, but we have a program set in place.
“You see, whenever we wish to have a couple breed, they are no longer allowed to eat from the field. We give them stock food the vampires supply us…The main reason for the planned couplings? The primary purpose of that is…well…flavor.”
This was waaaay worse than he had originally thought.
“My God, they pick people out,” said Ray as the reality of it all hit him square in the face. “You’ve got it all figured out. The vamps pick out who they want to breed, and then you hand over the newborns to them, because…”
He couldn’t finish that statement.
“We tell the people of Part that their young die of the ‘Red Plague,’” continued Mother Maleye. “The people here believe only the most virtuous live, so they must be extra dutiful and virtuous themselves, or they will produce one of the ‘tainted,’ a child who is ‘infected’ with evil, one that will die of our imaginary ‘Red Plague.’ It’s a simple story in itself, a very basic lie, but the people believe in it, so they don’t grieve for the newborns they lose.”
This was so awful, so horrendous, that Ray had even more questions, but the truth was, none of those questions were important right now…No, there was a far more pressing question on his mind.
“What are going to do with Maria?” he asked as he looked over the sick little girl’s listless form.
“She will easily be healed by consuming one of our crops,” said the old woman. “After that, she will be raised here in order to join our community. She will work the fields and breed with the others.”
“You’re insane,” said Ray as he shook his head no. “Without newborns, you’ll all grow old and die.”
“No, you’re a fool,” hissed the old woman. “We age much more slowly because of our benefactors’ blood, and we will create new life without handing the chosen few over to them…Our chosen few will join Part and live among us, but make no mistake…without us, humanity would die out, and then where would our benefactors be? You seem to think they don’t need us, but this is a lie…
“This is survival…plain survival…for all of us…Just last week, a group of people came wandering by here, but they were too cautious, so they passed us by. They’re all dead by now because they were fools just like you. They’re food for the wasteland by now, but they were still useful. Oh, yes, they definitely were.”
In spite of what this old bat believed, Ray was no fool.
“So, you ratted them out, did you?” he asked. “You ratted them out, and you got your reward…You disgust me.”
“Part is on top of an underground lake,” sneered Mother Maleye. “We only need a little blood to mix in for proper irrigation, but that ‘reward’ you are so disgusted at was a shipment of good clothing and other supplies we can’t get out here on our own. Better for us to receive such a reward than to have some nameless group of idiots squander such a prize just before they’re slaughtered by something far worse than vampires.”
Ray was furious at her and her goons. He wanted to kill the lot of them at that moment, and that was saying something, because he was not the killing type. It pissed him off, angered him to no end, and he couldn’t help but vent that anger in the form of a lecture.
“I’ve got news for you, lady,” he said angrily. “People are supposed to help each other! Look around! The world went to hell, and every kind of weird crap in existence has come out to finish us off, and you’re acting like one of those backstabbing bastards in all of those TV shows I used to watch…Preying on your own kind…It’s disgusting. You deserve what’s coming to you.”
The old woman gave him a grim smile and motioned toward the door with her rifle.
“Put the girl down and go through the door…Ray,” she ordered.
There was no reason delaying the inevitable. Besides, knowing what he knew about Jack, Ray still figured he had an ace up his sleeve.
He scowled and then gently laid Maria down on one of the desks. He needed his hands free for what was coming, because he knew deep down what Jack was, and he knew that this old bat had bitten off way more than she could chew.
He turned to her and shook his head in yet more disgust.
“You’re the fool, lady,” he said darkly. “You should’ve just told us you had no medicine and sent us on our way…Yep…Joke’s on you.”
The old woman, Mother Maleye, gave him a dark smile and shook her head.
“And why is that?” she smirked again.
“Because you let him inside,” said Ray with his own smirk, a smirk that was long in the coming and very-much deserved.
The old woman’s face darkened for a second as comprehension set in.
“What do you mean by tha—” she began to say, but she was cut short.
There was a terrible crash as the wooden planks beneath them collapsed. The boards shattered and were pulled inward as if a great force of suction had dragged them down.
Ray fell along with the other three into the darkness below, but his mind was not on his own personal safety. His only thoughts were thoroughly wrapped around the safety of that sick little girl, Maria, but he did not have to panic over her. He was glad that he had laid her down on that desk, that desk that was still safely parked atop what little flooring was left of the “Warren,” and he was glad for that, because the fall to the dark and damp hollow below was not going to be pleasant.
He landed with a loud “Oomph!” as he fell on his left side and hit the hard dirt at the end of that fifteen-foot drop. It hurt like hell, but he was pumping full of adrenaline, so it took him no longer than a few seconds to roll over and pop to his feet.
He looked up to get a lay of his surroundings, and the first thing he noticed was the dim flickering of light from the various spokes of flame littering the floor of the cave…This cave extended off into darkness, but this small hollow wasn’t much bigger than the three rooms above combined.
It took him a moment to figure out what had happened down here, and his conclusion was…Jack had been busy.
There were no vamps down here that he could tell, but there were the burning piles of some unidentifiable fuel source, and considering Jack was standing amongst the center of them, Ray had a pretty good idea of what the tall man in black had used to start those fires. He didn’t really have time to muse over it, however, because the old bat across from him gave the command to fire.
“Kill him!” screeched Mother Maleye.
All three of Ray’s captors opened fire on Jack, and the tall and slender man in black soldier armor jerked right and left as the bullets impacted upon him center mass. He fell backwards to lie unmoving in the dirt, and Ray backed away.
The old woman, the sadistically practical leader of Part, turned her rifle on Ray, and her face was livid with rage.
“Do you know what you’ve done!” she screamed. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done! Once they discover they’ve lost some of their own, Part will run red with blood!
“Brother, Cole, beat him to death! Don’t bother wasting a bullet! Show him what us ‘thralls’ can do!”
“With pleasure, Mother Maleye,” replied the young white man through gritted teeth.
This kid rushed him, but many years of karate saved Rat. The boy wailed away with wide punches, poor technique in those hooks, but Ray blocked each shot with ease. Even so, his arms had to absorb the impacts of those powerful shots, because this kid was waaaay stronger than he should have been…
That’s what vamp blood did for you.
Ray’s attention should have been on the kid in front of him; it should have been on the immediate threat of being beaten to death, but it was thoroughly upon the prone form of Jack, because Ray had a terrible sensation of fear wash over him upon looking at that man’s motionless body. Something was coming, and Ray really didn’t want to find out what that something was.
His fears were not disappointed.
Jack stood a second later, but it was the way he stood that prevented any of his assailants from shooting him again. His left leg raised into the air as he stood using only his right, as if he were lifted into the air by invisible hands or by a gust of strong wind, and he was on both feet a moment later.
Mother Maleye and the big muscular bald black man that was her other guard stared at this impossible feat of physics in clear shock, and their hesitation cost them. Ray would not have believed it if he hadn’t seen it himself, but what happened next was even more surreal.
Jack flicked out his right hand, and the muscular black man’s rifle was jerked from his own hands by what looked like a wisp of shadow, living shadow, and then that rifle flew across the ten feet of distance into Jack’s waiting armored hands. The tall and slender man in black flipped up the rifle and pulled the trigger in one smooth motion, and the bigger guard’s bald head popped open like a smashed melon.
Ray used this new attack to his advantage. Due to the resounding “BANG!” of the rifle, Ray struck back at Brother Cole before the boy could react; he kicked the young man in the crotch with his right foot and then smashed his left fist straight into the boy’s gawping mouth. The kid went down like a wet rag, and Ray dashed forward to snatch up the boy’s rifle.
The old woman, this pernicious old bat named Mother Maleye, opened up fire on Jack once more. Jack jerked backwards as he was struck again, but he flicked his left hand, and the old woman was launched by what Ray could swear were moving shadows.
She hit the dirt wall with terrible force and slumped down against it. Jack dropped the rifle in his hands, flicked his right hand, and the old woman’s rifle was tossed aside by yet another shadowy force, something nearly indescribable…It was like watching the shadows come alive to wreak their own vengeance.
Ray could tell Jack was angry; it was in the way he walked, or tromped, rather, up to the old woman that he had so brutally flung aside. He peered down at her as she goggled up at him, but he did not grant her a merciful death as he had her bald companion.
He reached up to his mask, there was a loud click and a hiss of escaping air a moment later, and every fiber of Ray’s being screamed at him to shut his eyes and look away.
Ray squeezed his eyes shut and turned away just as the air around him turned cold. A strange and overwhelming darkness flooded the underground chamber a moment later, and though he couldn’t see that darkness, he could sure as hell feel it. No, he didn’t need to see it, and that somehow made the situation even worse than it should have been.
He heard a whispering at the back of his mind, a playing of old fears upon his psyche, like a small child’s fear of the dark, so he doubled down and did not look, though his adult curiosity wanted him to.
He was supremely glad he did not. Mother Maleye put forth a terrible and shrill, long and loud scream, and then there was silence.
Ray heard a loud click and a hiss of air; the cold chill and whispering ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and he knew it was safe to look…but he really wished he hadn’t.
The old woman was a ghastly and pale white, her hair was albino in contrast from its previous grey, and her cold and lifeless face was permanently frozen in a look of horrible and utter terror.
Ray looked down at the young man at his feet, but the boy was no different. He was pale and lifeless with a shock of white hair where his brown curls had been…even his facial hair was white.
That cinched it for Ray; he was going to part ways with Jack as soon as this business with Maria was concluded.
It occurred to him that they were still not safe; there were still guards above, including on the wall, and they were all armed.
“Jack, we’ve got to—” he began, but he was interrupted.
Jack walked up to him as he was speaking, grabbed him by the arms, and jumped. Jets of flame streaked from the soles of the tall man’s boots as they sailed upward to land upon what was left of the floor above.
Ray found himself teetering on the edge of the hole as he leaned back upon the desk where Maria’s unconscious little body lay.
“Stay with her,” ordered Jack. “I will be back shortly.”
This was all going to end with a slaughter if Ray did not say something now and with firm confidence. Monsters had to follow rules, and Ray knew this, so there was no time to waste.
“Jack, be merciful!” barked Ray. “Only kill them if it’s necessary! If they give up…If they submit, let them go! I’ll deal with them!”
The tall man in black looked upon him with those blank goggles for a few seconds before replying.
“I must protect Maria,” he said bluntly.
“I know,” replied Ray. “Just make them submit, and I’ll deal with the people of Part. Maria will be safe no matter what. We’ll use some of the juice from those crops to cure Maria’s fever. Those crops are tainted with vampire blood, and we’ll use it this one time to bring her back up, but I need those people out there alive…
“They’re victims in all of this, and I can talk some sense into them. They’ll listen if you make them submit. They can help Maria if you make them submit, and that’s what’s important…We have to help Maria.”
“So be it,” said Jack in his distinct rumble.
Ray did not even consider arguing with him anymore. No, the tall and slender man in black left through the front door of this now wrecked room called “the Warren.” There were gunshots a moment later, many gunshots, some shrill screams of the women, some shouts, and then a couple of short, descending screams followed by two loud thumps.
Jack walked back in a couple of minutes later and stared at Ray in his cold and silent way.
“Bring her,” he said gruffly.
Ray did not argue with him. He didn’t know what Jack was, because this “man” was certainly no vamp, but by the looks of it, he was far more dangerous than Ray had first estimated…
It was possible Jack was a legendary, a monster that was one of a kind, but which one, Ray had no clue.
Ray picked up Maria and was amazed that the little girl was still clutching that purse of hers even though she was still unconscious…even after everything that had just happened. It was an odd thing, but it was no weirder than what had just happened, so he thought no more on it. No, he followed Jack out of the Warren and into the fields where the terrified people of Part were now prostrate and huddling in the dirt.
The various peoples cowered around them. There were two dead young men near the west wall, and what they’d been killed by was pretty obvious. The other guards, the healthier young men of this warped little village, had thrown down their guns and were currently prostrate like the workers in the field.
Jack completely ignored them.
The monster in pitch-black soldier armor and a black tunic picked a ripe green tomato and held it over Maria’s listless body. The tall and terrifying man gingerly pried open the sick little girl’s mouth and squeezed the tomato in his other hand. The ripe fruit burst open as its sweet juices dripped into Maria’s mouth, and the girl coughed and sputtered a second later.
Ray was amazed at how the color returned to her pale and clammy skin, and he felt the heat of her fever die down almost instantly. The little girl’s dark-blue eyes fluttered open to stare up at him, and Ray smiled for once…He was happy at that moment, and that was saying something, considering everything he’d just seen.
“Who…?” asked Maria with labored breath. “Who are you?”
“Ray,” said Ray quietly.
He gently set her down, and Maria looked around her as if seeing for the first time. She looked up at Jack in confusion and then at the people gathered around them.
“What’s going on, Jack?” she asked in a small and quiet voice.
“Nothing you need to concern yourself over,” said Jack gruffly. “You were sick. You’re better now. We’re leaving.”
Ray did not know what to think of Jack’s single-minded purpose in traveling with this little girl, but in spite of what the now late Mother Maleye had said, he was no fool. He could not fight Jack, and he was not even going to attempt to, but he was still concerned for Maria’s safety, and it didn’t feel right for him to not say anything about it.
“Now hold on a minute, Jack,” he said firmly. “This little girl needs something to eat and drink, or she’ll get sick again.”
Jack stared at him without saying anything, and that in itself was disturbing.
“She can’t eat this food here,” said Ray cautiously. “She can’t eat this food because…well…you know why. It’s tainted with vampire blood, but this Mother and her goons have safe food stashed somewhere in here…We just have to find it.”
“We’ll get food,” said Jack bluntly, “and then we’ll leave.”
“Okay,” said Ray with a nod. “You should take some food and water with you for Maria. You don’t want her to get sick again.”
“Yes,” said Jack gruffly. “I do not want her to get sick again.”
Once again, Ray knew monsters followed rules whether they wanted to or not, and Jack was no different. It was a terrible thing to have this monster walk off with this child for who knew what, but if Jack followed rules, and those rules said he had to protect her, then this little girl was safer with him than with anyone else. Ray was pretty damned sure about that.
Maria looked up at Jack and then at Ray.
“Are you Jack’s friend?” she asked in her small voice.
Ray just smiled and shook his head no.
“I’m just a tired old man who wants to get to the beach,” he said, “but I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
The little girl looked around herself at the still terrified people of Part.
“Who are all these other people?” asked Maria.
Ray stared at the horrified face of “Brother Steven,” the old hippie.
“Well…these people are…” frowned Ray. “They are…uhh…”
He walked forward into the fields as Jack and Maria followed him, and then he addressed the old hippie, Brother Steven. The older man was down on the ground, his hands behind his head, but he looked up with horror in his eyes as Ray stared down at him.
“You,” said Ray firmly.
“Y…Yes?” stammered Brother Steven.
The older man, as old as he was, was terrified. Whatever Jack had done out here, he’d done it in a spectacular way, because these people were absolutely cowed, but Ray was going to use this to his advantage, and that advantage started now.
“I’m in charge now,” nodded Ray. “Mother Maleye is…She’s…Well, she’s passed on.”
“She has?” asked the older man.
The other people of Part raised their heads and stared at Ray in both surprise and shock.
“Your ‘benefactors’ have been destroyed, Brother Steven,” said Ray.
“They have?” asked the old hippie.
“Well, some of them,” replied Ray. “Because of that fact, there will be more coming here, and they’re not going to be happy when they do…No one is safe here anymore.”
The old hippie rose to his feet and looked around himself, obvious shock upon his weathered face.
“What will do now?” he asked. “What will we do?…What can we do!…We have nowhere else to go!”
Ray didn’t have to think very long on this one. He’d been by himself for so long that he’d forgotten what it was like to have companionship, and to be honest, he kind of missed it.
“I know how to protect myself from what lies in the dark,” said Ray. “I’m heading south to the beach, and I’m going to live out my days there fishing and living the good life…Anyone who wants to come with me can come with me.”
He turned and stared at the people of Part, including the young guards.
“That means all of you!” he yelled. “It’s not safe here anymore! If you come with me and follow my rules, we’ll all make it to the beach in one piece! Am I clear! It’s not safe here anymore!”
The young woman that had previously been punished, the one named “Sister Chloe,” walked forward with both tentative and placid steps.
“We will be punished for our transgressions?” she asked.
“There are rules to follow,” said Ray, “but you won’t be punished like that ever again, young lady. You don’t have to worry about that…and…if you stick with me, you can marry whomever you wish.”
“I can?” asked the young woman with hopeful eyes.
“Of course,” said Ray. “And that reminds me…No one…and I mean no one, is going to steal anymore children from the people of Part…Not if you come with me. You come with me to the beach, and we’ll all build a new life there.”
Ray felt a pull at his jeans, so he turned his attention upon the little girl tugging at them.
“That’s nice, Ray,” smiled Maria. “That’s a good thing to do. You’re a nice man.”
For some reason, this really picked him up. It had been a long time since he’d heard anyone say that.
“Thank you,” smiled Ray in return. “Now…let’s go find that food.”
*****
Ray sat down in a plain wooden chair in front of an oak desk and rested his arms upon the desk’s flat surface. The building he was now in was the storeroom for this screwed up little community, and it was actually as nice as the Warren had been. There were a couple of old desks and chairs and a bedroll where a guard had slept…It wasn’t too shabby, all things considered.
He was sitting on a huge store of food, water, and goods here, including guns and ammunition, and though Jack had taken a sizable amount of goods with him, the monster in black had left a goldmine behind in the way of comfortable living.
Still, the beach called to Ray, as did the serenity of the ocean and the promise he had made to himself about his “retirement.” No, he wasn’t going to stay here, but he couldn’t leave these people behind as offerings to the vamps or the other things that roamed the wastes…No sirree, he wasn’t going to do that.
These people did whatever they were ordered to do, so he’d ordered them to eat the food that he gave them, the canned and sacked goods that remained in this building. He figured they’d come around to his way of thinking, and when they did, he was going to take them with him. He knew how to avoid the things out there, even if they didn’t, and it was safer to travel in numbers anyway.
Ray reached over to the long handle leaning against the side of the desk and gripped the shovel he had found. He held it firmly in his left hand as he held a white sheet of paper in his right. He was going to bury the dead soon, but for now he simply stared at the child’s drawing in his right hand.
Maria had given him a “gift” before she’d left; she had scribbled out a drawing in crayon for him, and he was touched by that sentiment…
It depicted him and all of the people here…all smiling…all holding hands while on the beach…all except for Ray. No, she had purposefully drawn him differently. He was smiling too, but he stood in the middle of that group of happy people, and he held a nice, big, fat fish in his hands.
Part Copyright © 2025 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Part Copyright © 2019 Jack Be Nimble Matthew L. Marlott
Author’s Note: The cover image for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of Canva.com. Jack’s Part form was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of SendFame.com and modified courtesy of Canva.com.
