Resurrection (11 page)

Mark rose from the pew. “Negotiate? If what you say is true there will be no negotiating with these people. They want power and land not pieces of paper with terms on it!” He shouted disgustedly.

“He’s right,” Nigel shouted. “We can’t just lay down our arms and let these tyrants inside without a fight; we have to fight in order to keep what we have left!”

The room erupted into a shouting match, many were for negotiation.

“Quiet, quiet,” Colonel Martin shouted above the din. “Everyone hold it down for a moment. This is a non-negotiable issue: their numbers are too large for us. I believe that if we can find some common ground we can let them go on their way. Now if you will all excuse me I must get back and monitor this threat and I will see you on Thursday.”

“That’s it?” Mark bellowed. “That’s all you have to say? “We can’t just lie down and roll over like some scared dog!”

With that the colonel exited through the crowd. Mark was stunned by the turn of events and knew in his heart that if they negotiated and showed weakness they would be killed and if they fought things may end the same way; but at least they would go down fighting.

The crowd that was for a fighting stood and cheered, another man a leader from the Dixon unit shouted in favor of negotiation and the room erupted once again and fights broke out. Mark ran to the podium and shouted for them to stop and eventually everyone calmed.

“Stop this; we can’t do anything unless we are all unified. I realize tensions are high among the various units but we all have the same cause; saving our families.”

The meeting at the chapel lasted most of the day, speakers from both sides of the issue spoke passionately and both camps were able to agree to disagree. The meeting was adjourned and everyone returned to their homes and waited for Thursday.

Mark began to believe that the colonel was seriously flawed in his thinking and that he should not be in a position of power over so many lives. The Confederates rolled across east Texas and destroyed Units in Tyler and the units around Athens and soon were in Corsicana.

If we stay right here on this ranch they won’t find us, we’re too secluded,
some said. But it soon became obvious that whoever they had captured in other locations nearby had revealed the location of the camp and now the enemy was at the gate.

The papers were drawn up and the colonel sent his representatives out to speak with theirs. The parchments were signed and utterances of peace were made but all the while the Confederates had sent fighters around to the backside of the camp and there they waited and reported back and by the time they realized they were surrounded it was too late; the Confederates attacked.

Chapter 27

The Day the Unit Died

The Confederates greatest strength was that they had no problem with brutality. While things were being finalized in the peace process they were sending truckloads of Wasters to the rear position.

The plan had been used countless times by the Confederates in other battles and it had always worked. Let the Wasters take care of the major sources of resistance and then attack when their victim’s white underbelly was exposed. It kept their losses down and sent their opponents morale into the ground.

Mark heard shots and screams and he bolted out the door. Wasters were everywhere. Men poured from the bunkhouses firing in every direction, but the Wasters already had the advantage.

Mark ran out into the road knife in hand and began slicing at the monsters. One jumped at him and it met the fury of his .45 another slid down the shank of his knife forehead first. It fell to the ground and Mark smashed its face with the heel of his boot.

Nigel ran towards him but before he could reach Mark’s position two Wasters ran from the dark and jumped on him. Mark ran to Nigel and kicked one of the creatures in the head and the ferocity of the kick sent its head rolling across the road like a bowling ball. He severed the others spinal cord and it rolled off of Nigel its jaws still chomping.

He grabbed Nigel by the hand and jerked him up and at that moment the bond between the two became permanent; the debt that he had owed Nigel for the theater incident was repaid.

Mark turned and saw Luz standing in the mayhem he ran to her and scooped her up and hurried back into the house.

“Isabel, Isabel,” he cried.

That is when he saw them; the Wasters had Isabel and Rafael. Luz let out a garbled scream and buried her head in Mark’s shoulder. Isabel’s arms were covered in bites with great hunks of flesh missing down to the bone. Rafael lay beside her, his face gone.

The monsters turned when they saw Mark and left Isabel and rushed at them. He grabbed hold of his M16 and a spray of bullets exploded from the barrel and the Wasters fell away like pins in a bowling alley.

He ran to Isabel and knelt beside her. Blood oozed from her open abdomen. She looked at him with her beautiful dark eyes and smiled at him and then her eyes became fixed and her head rolled to the side.

Luz stood in the doorway and screamed and fell to her knees. Mark went blank and a volcanic anger welled up in him. He heard a second scream and realized it was coming from his own mouth.

He lay Isabel’s head down on the floor and pulled Rafael over to his mother’s side and closed her eyes with his hand. He picked Luz up and left the room and stood on the steps outside the house.

By this time the fight was full on, men and women were firing in all directions but the Wasters were taking a dramatic toll. Tom and Darrin ran to him, he could see their mouths moving but he was unable to hear them, it was if he was merely sitting in the audience on a Saturday night at the cinema and had no control over the events he was witnessing.

Then gunfire erupted from outside the camp on all sides and complete panic enveloped them.  Mark felt a sudden piercing pain in his side and fell down and rolled off the steps. He instinctively reached for Luz but she was limp, the bullet that had hit him had passed through his body and into hers killing her instantly.

Mark went mad and his rifle spewed ammunition crazily into the tree line. Nigel grabbed hold of him and pulled him toward the armory. About fifty men and women were holed up there and they opened up peep holes built into the walls and began firing.

Mark grabbed several weapons and ran back outside. He ran to and fro yelling and organizing fighters into groups directing their fire and soon there was some sort of control emerging from the mayhem.

The fighting lasted throughout the night but by morning all was quiet. Those inside the armory were exhausted and brass casings littered the floor several inches deep in some spots.

Nigel stepped out of the armory and found Mark assisting the wounded.

“My God almighty,” Nigel said stunned.

Mark stumbled up the steps and found Luz’s body where had had left her. He laid her on the bed in Isabel’s room and then placed Isabel and Rafael beside her. He wept as he covered their bodies with a sheet.

Nigel stood in the doorway and Mark turned to him. “They’re all gone now; all of them."

Mark took their bodies to a quiet place and laid them upon the pyre he had built. He said a prayer and set it ablaze. He remained with them for three days until their ashes were cold. A chill wind blew in that morning and Isabel’s and the children’s remnants were swept up and carried away by it. He buried his face in his hands until his grief turned to anger.

Chapter 28

Mark returned to Isabel’s house and sat numb watching out the window as the camp went about disposing of the dead. Anger built in him as the cold understanding stabbed through him like blade that it was all over; nothing was left now. He moved about the house as a spirit, silent and unseen. Taking all of Isabel’s belongings he piled them up in the living room until the entire room was filled to the ceiling.

As he threw the last box onto the pile her prayer beads fell onto the floor at his feet. He picked them up and slid them through his fingers and then kissed the crucifix and placed the beads in his pocket.

“God had nothing to do with this, Colonel Martin is responsible and he’s going to pay for his sins,” Mark said to Nigel.

Nigel could not speak; Tom and Darrin joined the pair.

“The Colonel is responsible for this, all of it,” he repeated.

“We all wanted peace Mark, nobody wanted war.”

“Apparently someone did,” Mark said incredulously. “In case you haven’t noticed we just got a huge ass kicking!”

“I think he’s right,” Nigel said. “Where was the colonel? Where were his men? I saw none of them and none are here now.”

“So what are you saying Nigel, That Colonel Martin set this up; why would he do that?”

“I don’t know if I’m saying that or not, I merely find it odd that there has been no sign of him or his soldiers.”

A crowd began to gather around them, some nodding their heads in agreement and the crowd grew larger and more vocal as Mark and Nigel spoke.

“I think we need to go up there and have a little chat with Colonel Martin so we can get our heads wrapped around this, “Mark said.

“Now wait a minute Mark,” Tom said taking hold of Mark’s arm.

Mark turned to Tom and looked down at his hand on his arm. “Don’t lay your hands on me Tom.”

“Okay do what you want, we’ll go up there but just you,  me and Nigel and Darrin, we don’t need a mob with pitchforks running up to the compound they’ll shoot us for sure.”

The four men loaded into a Jeep and made their way to the colonel’s compound. The road was littered with the bodies of soldiers from the compound and those of the now rotting Wasters. Intermingled amongst them were the corpses of Confederates dressed in grey uniforms.

Mark stopped just outside of the compound, the fences were down, burned out vehicles were strewn across the yard and several of the buildings still smoldered.

“Well it’s not looking too good is it,” Nigel said.

Mark continued on and through the remains of the compound, bodies lay everywhere some of them half eaten by Wasters. He stopped in front of the colonel’s office and paused before getting out of the Jeep.

The front office looked as if a bomb had gone off, papers and typewriters littered the floor and all of the glass was out of the windows.

“Colonel Martin, are you in here?” Nigel said entering the colonel’s office.

“He’s dead,” Darrin said.

“No, he’s not dead; he’s in here somewhere,” Mark said picking up a still burning cigar from the ashtray on the colonel’s desk “Everyone spread out.”

Each man went in a different direction with Mark taking the hallway. He checked several rooms the last one being a small cubicle with a desk and chair. He stepped into the room and upon seeing nothing he turned around and made his way to the door.

As he crossed over a small area rug he noticed a soft spot in the floor underneath the rug. He pushed on it with the toe of his boot and it gave way slightly under the pressure. Reaching down he tried to lift the rug but noticed that it was fastened to the floor with small nails. He knelt down and lifted on the rug and found it was fastened to door cut into the floor.

Cautiously with his gun drawn he lifted the piece of the floor and shined the light on the end of his weapon down into the hole; a set of stair led down into the darkness.