Bad Land (15 page)

Marshall screamed and fell to the floor. Diane grabbed for Tom but she was still held to the altar by one restraint on her left ankle. Tom landed on top of Marshall and yanked his blade free, only to drive it into Marshall’s gut and abdomen twice more.

Marshall was struggling to get up but Tom was too heavy. The large man was sitting on Marshall’s chest, grinning. “Well, I guess in the game of life we all can’t be winners. And I’m going to burn your body after I kill you, just in case. Good-bye, Marshall.”

The knife came down on his neck and ripped across his skin. The last thing Marshall remembered was Diane jumping onto Tom’s back and then nothing.

Chapter 28

He knew he was dead. But for some reason he could walk around. He was in his own house, In his own bed. He could hear George downstairs, making noises like he was playing with someone. Happy little yips and howls came from his roommate.

Marshall sat up and looked down on himself. There was no blood. There was no torn skin or deep gashes on his neck or stomach. To the contrary, he had never felt better. He was dressed in a white shirt with khakis and a pair of comfortable shoes.
Am I in heaven?
Marshall thought.

George was howling with joy at something. Marshall left his room and walked toward the kitchen and front room. Sure enough, everything was the same. No chew toy, empty pizza box, or old piece of mail out of place. Marshall rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. There was someone kneeling down playing with George.

The person had their back to him but for some reason he didn’t feel scared or intimidated. He felt like he knew this person. The girl in front of him stood up and turned around.

Marshall almost lost balance and he could feel his eyes open wide. His sister stood in front of him, smiling. “Don’t want to freak you out, Marsh. It’s me. I’m not some kind of weird ghost or anything.” She looked him up and down, still smiling. “Still need help in the fashion department, I see, a plain white tee and—oh no, don’t tell me you’re wearing khakis? Really?”

“How—am I dead?”

“No.” His sister shrugged her slender shoulders. “I am. You’re like in this weird in between place. I don’t know exactly how it works but once you turn immortal, the only thing that can kill you is fire. So you’re like—like in a time out or something, recovering from being stabbed.”

“What? How do you know I got stabbed? And I’m not immortal.”

“I’ve been watching and keeping an eye on you from time to time. And yes, you are immortal. You dipped your hand in Ann’s blood when she died on the altar and wiped it on your face to get the dirt out of your eyes, remember?”

Marshall was speechless. His mind was having trouble accepting his new reality. Everything his sister said made sense, but then again he was talking to his dead sister.

“Oh, and by the way, Ann says you need to stop being such a—wuss and start kicking some Lloyd family—butt.” Marshall’s sister raised her hands in submission. “Her words, not mine, and I even edited it a little bit.”

“You can talk to Ann?”

“Oh yeah, and Barbara Summers—she’s so proud of you. We all are.”

“We?”

“There’s a lot I can’t say, and I have to get going, but stop beating yourself up over me. I’m fine, and what happened to me was and is not your fault. And for goodness sake, stop drinking. We both know that’s not you.” She smiled at him and turned to go.

“Wait!”

She stopped and turned around. “Yes?”

Marshall took a few steps forward and placed a hand on his sister’s cheek, his voice quivering. “I just want to remember your face. For the longest time I couldn’t remember what you looked like.”

His sister took his hand in her own and held it against her cheek. Marshall was the happiest he had ever been or could ever remember being. He was with his sister again, even for the briefest of moments. She was standing in front of him and he could see her dark eyes and short, dirty blonde hair. Her lopsided grin and the mischievous smile that always played across her lips.

“You never forgot what I looked like, it was just too painful for you to remember. Now wake up. You have some unfinished business. Love you, Marsh.”

“Love you, too.”

***

There was a noise like thunder and Marshall sat bolt upright. He was back in the cave, and if he thought things had been chaotic before, he didn’t know what to think now. There was another thunderclap and another.

Marshall looked down at his shirt and coat. They were covered in his own blood. He lifted his shirt, cringing to see the brutal slash marks he knew had to be there, but there were none. Besides the bloodstains, he was fine. It was as if nothing had happened. A quick examination of his neck proved the same—nothing,

The thunderclap came again and again and Marshall realized that is wasn’t thunder at all, but a gun, a very large gun. Marshall struggled to his feet, reassessing his surroundings. Somehow the flames had spread and dark cloaked figures were running from the fire like chickens under a fox attack. At least three cloaked members were on fire, either unmoving on the ground or twisting and screaming in pain. The gunfire was getting closer.

Marshall saw Samantha walk down the cave entrance, handing out violence like an angel of death. Right hand supporting her gun and taking robed figure after robed figure down with bullets to the face, left hand holding a flaming Molotov cocktail ready for impact.

Marshall looked for Diane and saw her laying a few feet away, motionless on the ground. Marshall shook Diane. “Wake up. Come on, we have to get out of here.”

There was a thin line of blood on her scalp from where Tom had thrown her off his back and onto the hard ground.

Diane’s eyes flittered open.

“Hey, boss, can you walk?”

The older woman nodded, clearly still dazed. Marshall helped her to her feet. The two made their way to Samantha’s side, who had managed to corner the remaining cult members.

Three bodies were on the ground from the fire and four more lay motionless from bullet wounds, for how long remained to be seen. Samantha chanced a quick glance at Marshall and Diane. “You two okay?”

“Kind of. We should have a talk after this,” Marshall said.

Samantha gave him a quick nod but refused to let her eyes stray too long from her captured prey. There were five members left standing; Abraham, Tom, and three others. Abraham walked to the front of the group like he was actually going to give Samantha a hug.

Eyes bright and arms open, he took a few steps forward.

“That’s far enough,” Samantha said, leveling her gun to his head.

“Samantha, it’s me. Please. I know this must all be very confusing, but I can explain everything.”

“You don’t have to. I heard you on the phone talking to Marshall and just now as I snuck down the cave. You don’t have to explain anything.”

Abraham stopped in his tracks and lowered his arms. “Believe what you will, but it was never supposed to be like this. I’ll give you one last chance to give up. That gun you’re holding won’t kill us.”

Even as he spoke, the four figures on the ground that Samantha had shot began to move. “See?” Abraham said. “You never had a chance. One last opportunity to put the gun and fire down and I’ll spare your life like I have spared it all these years.”

“Why?” Samantha demanded. Tears began to form. “Why did you pretend to love me?”

Abraham opened his mouth but then pressed his lips together. The two groups looked at each other and time seemed to stand still. “You reminded me of someone I once knew, a young girl that I had to sacrifice for the future of our family,” Abraham said.

Marshall thought back to the story the old man had told him. How he had witnessed the killing of a young girl named Melissa Nixon. But now Marshall knew the whole truth. It was Abraham who had done the killing and the young girl’s face still haunted him. He was haunted so much that he had sought recompense for his sin by sparing Samantha’s life in hopes that would balance the scales.

They were all ripped from the moment as Marshall felt a hand seize his leg and try to take him down to the floor. It was one of the robed figures Samantha had shot in the head. They were all regaining their feet. This one had crawled slowly toward Marshall and now was trying to pull him to the ground.

Samantha turned the gun and the thunder struck again. At point blank range, Samantha put a hole in the head of Marshall’s attacker the size of a grapefruit. “Get up from that, you son of a—”

She squeezed the trigger again, but where there should have been a boom, there was a click. She squeezed again and again, but she was out of bullets.

Abraham and his followers took this as a sign and rushed forward. Samantha was struggling to reload her gun and balance the flaming Molotov cocktail in her hand.

“Here, I got it!” Marshall yelled at her, grabbing the flaming bottle. “Run!”

Diane, Samantha, and Marshall turned and ran up through the cave entrance as fast as their legs would carry them, the group of dark clad figures yelling behind them like demons from hell. One voice rang out the clearest—Abraham’s. “She has the book! Bring back the book!”

Marshall glanced at Diane, who ran next to him clutching the large book in her arms. She had a gritty determination on her face that gave Marshall hope. The trio ran up the cave but their pursuers were gaining on them. “Take Diane up and blow it. I’ll hold them back.”

Samantha hesitated for the briefest second before she nodded and handed the gun to Marshall with a fresh clip already loaded. “Don’t do anything stupid. I kind of like you now.”

Marshall was about to come back with a witty remark but Samantha took Diane by the arm and the two kept running. Marshall turned to face the oncoming horde of cult members with a smile on his face.

Chapter 29

He definitely felt different. It was like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He knew he should be scared, but deep inside there was no fear. Maybe it was the fact that he had finally found out what happened to his sister, maybe it was that he could remember her face again, but whatever the reason, Marshall was grateful.

He was immortal now, susceptible only to fire. And the only fire in the area was in his hand.

The cult members were yards away. Abraham and Tom Lloyd were in the lead, the rest following in their wake like a dark stream. Marshall set his jaw, lifted the flame in his hand, and like Zeus hurling a thunder bolt from the heavens, he launched the bottle at Abraham and Tom.

Abraham ducked below the bottle and dove to the side but Tom took the fire and burning alcohol straight to the chest. Flames erupted as the burning liquid spread to the walls and cave floor, creating a wall between him and the rest of his attackers. Tom fell to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain. Marshall raised the gun to shoot him but thought better of it and looked on, content to let the fire run its course. Instead of a bullet, Marshall sent a message. “My sister… Ann… Barbara… they all say hello.”

The flames were still running hot as Tom’s body ceased to shake and lay still. The flames were still alive but they were dying out. Where the fire had been almost a complete wall, it was more of a hurdle now to the group on the other end.

Marshall could hear Abraham yelling for his followers to jump over the flame. He was urging them to attack again. Marshall stood back a good ten yards from the flame wall, both hands on the butt of the gun, arms locked like he had seen Samantha do.

As the first robed figure sailed across the flames, Marshall caught him with a bullet to the chest and another to the belly. His aim wasn’t nearly as good as Samantha’s, but he had played enough video games to have a decent idea where to point the pistol.

The gun went off again and again as he fired at the dark robed figures. They fell left and right and a few even fell back into the flames, shrieking as their immortality came to an end.

But soon Marshall heard that familiar click of the empty barrel and knew it was time to go. He left them there, some dead, some dying, and others still able to pursue. He didn’t care. They would all get what was coming to them.

Marshall sprinted up the dark cave, knowing that he was close to the exit when the lights that were set into the cave wall ceased to light his path. “I’m coming out!” he yelled.

A dim silver glow met his eyes and he exited the tunnel at a full sprint. Diane was on his left with a huge rock she lifted over her head, ready to crush anyone wearing a dark robe. Samantha was on his right. She hurled two full gasoline containers into the cave mouth.

There was more noise now as the cult members came within yards of the entrance. Shrieks of anger and pain that sounded more animal than human erupted from the ground.

Samantha and Marshall had brought enough gasoline to make a trip to the opposite end of the country and back. Marshall turned, doubled over, his chest heaving as he saw Samantha and Diane each throw two more large containers of gasoline into the entrance to the cave.

“Run!” Samantha said as she lit a lighter of her own and tossed it high into the air. The lighter fell right into the mouth of the cave. Diane and Marshall didn’t need another invitation and both took off at a sprint. There was a loud rumble behind them and a huge glow lit the night sky. They couldn’t see exactly how bright or high the explosion got, but Marshall had a good idea by how hot his back felt while he ran.

The sound was deafening and the shock sent them all flying forward past the estate’s overgrown lawn.

Marshall did his best to cover both Diane and Samantha with his body while flaming debris struck the ground around them. He felt something burning hit him in the back and then a warm sensation traveling down his spine. In a few seconds it was all over. The meteor-like debris stopped falling and the heat from the flames shooting out of the cave’s mouth subsided.

“You can get off me now,” Diane said, still smothered under Marshall.

“Oh, sorry,” Marshall said. He stood up and helped the women to their feet.

The three didn’t have words for the moment, so instead they walked back to the cave’s mouth in silence. The cave was gone. The blast from the explosion had caused the entire entrance to collapse in on itself.

Samantha was soot-streaked and sweaty as she stared at the closed cave. “Do you think they all died in the fire? Do you think Abraham is dead? Or are they trapped down there now forever?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. They’re gone permanently, and that’s all that matters,” Diane said. “Even if Abraham survived the blast and fire, there’s no way he’s getting out of there.”

Marshall was staring at the ground without seeing. His mind was a million miles away thinking about his sister. The thought that had brought him so much pain before made him smile now.

“What are you smiling abo—” Samantha stopped mid-sentence, seeing the blood covering his shirt for the first time. “Marshall, are you—” Samantha looked him up and down and her eyes lit up in worry. She reached behind his back and tore out a piece of rock from his back the size of a baseball.

Marshall sheepishly looked at Diane and Samantha’s worried faces. “Oh yeah, I guess I have some explaining to do.”

Sirens sounded in the distance and the trio looked at one another. “Yes.” Diane was the first to speak, still clutching the book to her chest. “Questions and explanations later. Right now we need to get out of here before we have to explain to the police how we just killed twelve immortal people.”

The three ran to the car. Marshall caught Samantha by the arm and slowed her pace as Diane hurried ahead. “Hey, how are you doing?”

Samantha took a moment to think before she responded. “I’m okay. I’ll have time to process this later and then I probably won’t be, but we did the right thing.”

Marshall nodded. “And we made it out alive. Maybe now we can go on our real date. Not a pretend lunch-slash-thank-you-meal.”

Samantha looked at him and smiled. “Maybe?”

“Definitely. Oh, and I should probably tell you that I’m immortal now.”

Samantha’s jaw dropped as Marshall smiled, took her hand, and ran for the car.