Released (17 page)

“Hey! Calm down!” Max shouted as he pushed Taya away from me.

“Stay out of this; you just want to protect your little girlfriend!” Taya countered shoving Max back.

“Huh, what?” Carter said clearly stil trying to gain his senses.

“Listen to what you’re saying Taya, do you realy believe Abby is to blame for al of this?” Max asked. I stood there, starting to wonder if she was right. I was starting to question myself, what was I doing just standing there? It realy was my fault that Judy and Norah were dead.

“She just stood there Max, you saw her! Why did you do it? Why Abby?” Taya was sobbing almost uncontrolably, as tears and snot ran down her face. Everyone looked to me; they too wanted to know what had come over me.

“I… I don’t know. When it looked me in the eyes, I couldn’t move. It was like I could feel it inside me. Inside my head, under my skin. I just couldn’t move Taya.

I didn’t mean to… I didn’t want this to happen.” I pictured in my mind what I must have looked like to them, just watching the demon attacking everyone, just watching it kiling Norah and I started to feel sick to my stomach.

“It’s ok.” Max whispered to me as he put his arm around me to steady me on my feet. Taya’s blood boiled at the sight of Max comforting me and she slapped me hard in the face before storming off. I stood there in shock and pain as my face burned from the strike. She had hit me right were Norah had, right before she died.

I wiped the blood from my nose and watched Taya in the distance as she started to pack up what she could, being careful to stay far away from the demon bodies.

“She didn’t mean that. She’s just upset,” Carter said trying to comfort me. “I need you to stay focused Abby. I need you to tel me what happened to you.”

“Not now Carter.” I protested shoving his hand away from me.

“Fine, but we need to know. If they are able to control people like that then we need to know how to stop it. I guess that adds some weight to the idea that John was possessed by it.”

That made me start to panic. “You think I’m possessed?”

“No, I just think it saw you as a threat and was able to make contact with you somehow and immobilized you while it focused on…other targets.” He paused trying to find the right words. “I need my tough girl back. Can you do that for me?”

“You sound like Dad,” I said.

“Yeah, wel, it always seemed to work for him, when he said it.”

I thought about it for a moment and nodded my head at him. As much as I wanted to crawl into a bal and cry the rest of the night I buried my emotions, and sucked it up like I always had to. I always had to be Daddy’s tough little girl.

I watched Carter walk over to Taya and was grateful that he was playing diplomat. I wanted so badly for everything to be over, for us to just get to the military base and then everything would be better.

“You don’t always have to be tough, ya know?” Max said softly to me.

“Yes I do. If I let myself feel everything, I don’t know if I could handle it.”

“You don’t need to handle it Abs, I’m here. Carter and Taya are here too, although Taya not so much right now, but that wil pass. What I’m trying to say is it’s ok to freak out. I can see you holding it al back. I know you are trying to be strong for everyone. We are stil going to love you even if you flip out and throw a tantrum like Taya, just like you’l stil love her even though she’s a teenage emotional rolercoaster.” He smiled at me and tried to clean up my face with a strip of his shirt he had torn off.

“She has good reason to though.” I winced as he put pressure on my nose.

He shrugged. “Maybe so. Everyone has reason to freak out right now, the world has turned into the devil’s playground, but she didn’t need to take it out on you.

Now, take a deep breath and then I need you to help me get things packed up.”

“Ok Dr. Phil,” I said using humor to lighten the mood like Max always did.

“There’s my girl!” a wide grin spreading on his face. His optimism drove me nuts, but I couldn’t survive without it. I watched him as he made his way toward our things and noticed that he was limping slightly. I realized he must have been in pain from the fight with the demons and I wanted so badly for him to never feel pain again. I silently prayed, not caring that God had apparently forsaken us, that we would al make it to the base and that someday we would be able to live the lives that we had always wanted to.

“I love you Max.” I caled out to him.

“I love you too.” He shouted back at me. I took a deep breath and walked to what was left of our camp.

We spent the next hour or two packing up anything we had left that was stil usable. Max and Carter stacked the demons bodies in a large pile and used what was left of the tiny bit of gasoline we had to set them on fire. Strangely enough they lit easily and burned like dry wood. The fire grew large and we al felt uncomfortable being near such a large beacon of light, not to mention the stench.

We had wanted to bury Savannah and Norah but we didn’t have any tools, nor did we have the time to do it by hand. We puled them as far away from the demons as we could and had a smal funeral, each of us saying our own prayers silently. I could feel Taya’s eyes on me the whole time.

It was difficult to just leave them lying there, and the thought of animals or other demons getting to them was difficult to bear. Carter suggested that we set them ablaze as wel, and after Taya’s protests he convinced her that in many cultures it was a very respectful way to honor the dead.

As the orange glow of the flames danced across our tear stained faces we turned our back on our lost friends and made our way back toward the highway.

It felt like an eternity of walking before the slightest rays of sunlight blossomed on the horizon. None of us said much on the long walk, except when one of us needed a break. We didn’t stray from the road and wouldn’t even alow ourselves much privacy to go to the bathroom. The farther down the road we got, the slower we became. Our bodies were weakening from the lack of sleep and food.

I’l never forget the moment we saw the military base in the distance. A sudden wash of relief spiled over me and I felt like I could breathe again. We cheered and hugged each other and our steps felt lighter as we quickened our advance to the base.

“I’m going to take the longest shower ever,” Taya said sounding much more like herself then she had earlier that night.

“Me too, but not before I stuff my face with whatever they have to eat.” Max added.

I smiled over at Carter and I could visibly tel how relieved he looked, even with his face battered up. We had made it.

“How are we going to get in when we get there?” I asked as I wondered if they had some kind of perimeter set up.

“Duh! Right through the front gate,” Taya said sounding like walking into a military base during a demon apocalypse was completely normal.

“Taya’s right. We probably should head for the front gate, I’m sure they have some kind of surveilance set up. When they see us approaching they wil probably send someone to meet us.”

“I can’t wait.” Not holding back my relief I sped up my walking as much as my feet would alow. Max slowed down to keep pace with me and I mouthed the words I love you to him and he smiled.

The closer and closer we got the more relieved I felt. As we neared the front of the base we walked quickly down the freeway ramp and onto First Street. The visitor parking area was loaded with cars of every kind and we looked at each other with tearful grins from ear to ear.

“So many people have come,” I said. “Do you think we should wait here for them to send someone to get us?”

“Heck no!” Carter said, a laugh almost escaping him.

“What if they have like, shooters guarding the entrance?” Taya said starting to sound paranoid as she looked up at a tal watch tower.

“I’m sure they do, but they aren’t going to shoot humans,” Max said reassuring her. “We’ve made it this far, don’t get hesitant now.” I wanted to say something to comfort her as wel, but she was stil angry at me. I could tel she was trying to work past it and wasn’t glaring at me as much, but it was obvious she was stil hurt. Whether she was right or wrong didn’t matter, so I didn’t want to press my luck.

As we made our way further into the base down the main road, I kept waiting for a military jeep to come roling up to us, but nothing ever happened. I knew it was crazy to expect the entire base would be jam packed ful of people, and operating busily like it normaly would have, but I guess I secretly did hope that.

We slowed our pace and it was obvious that we al were starting to worry. We walked further and further into the base and no one stopped us.

“Where is everyone?” Taya asked.

“I’m sure they have everyone concentrated in one area. This base is pretty spread out; they would want to be able to keep an eye on everyone,” Carter said.

“Wel, where is the concentrated area then?” Taya snapped.

“The radio tower?” I questioned. “I mean they use it for transmissions, so they would be nearby there right?”

“Good point, Abs!” Max smiled at me.

We each looked around trying to find some kind of radio tower or satelite dish on any of the buildings.

“Over there!” Taya shouted as she jumped excitedly and pointed off to our left. We al squinted into the distance and could barely make out the sight of a large object turning around and around.

”That’s it! Come on!” Carter took off at a steady trot and we al folowed at his heels. As we ran, I wondered what it would be like to finaly see the military.

Throughout history the military had always stood as a beacon of hope, protection, freedom and defense. I imagined formidable looking men dressed in military uniforms carrying massive guns. The thought brought a smile to my face as I ran.

We al skidded to a halt when we made it to the radio tower. We glanced around us waiting for someone to show up. The satelite spun steadily as it towered above us and as the silence of the base came crashing down on me, I could feel fear threatening to break me.

“There’s no one here. What are we going to do?” Taya was panicked.

“They’re here. Don’t say that,” Carter demanded.

“Let’s find the door to this place,” Max said rushing around the side of the building. I folowed him in silence, not wanting to admit to myself what I was slowly starting to realize, there was no one here.

Carter tried every knob in a panicked state. It would crush him if he was wrong. We had finaly made it to the base, we had risked our lives to make it here and it could have been al for nothing.

Max found an open door and we al rushed eagerly inside to an empty halway. There were papers and boxes lining the wals, but the disorder and clutter was a normal site. Papers crunched under our feet as we walked slowly down the hals. I squeezed Max’s hand for comfort as we al walked single file behind Carter.

Some of the wals were smeared with blood that had dried a long time ago, leaving dark streaks. That was not what realy scared me. The claw marks that tore through the plaster confirmed my worst fears. The demons had made it here. I didn’t want to admit it aloud and I desperately tried to focus my thoughts elsewhere as we continued through the hals.

We glanced into rooms, randomly making our way to whatever room was the control room for the satelite. There had to be someone there controling it, I thought to myself. We needed someone to be there. I tried to convince myself that we would find someone. Maybe he fel asleep on duty, or maybe they set it on autopilot.

Those things run on autopilot right?

“Maybe everyone is stil sleeping?” I said. It was a ridiculous comment but I just couldn’t let myself believe that we had come this far only to find the base empty.

“It’s stil pretty early isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Carter said not sounding convinced. I knew it was a sily thought. They wouldn’t al be sleeping, someone would be standing guard.

As we turned a corner, at the end of the halway I could see a door that was clearly labeled as the control. At the sight of it, Carter ran down the halway vaulting for the door opening as he nearly burst into the room. It seemed as if the rest of us took a deep breath before we folowed after him.

The room was lined with numerous workstations lit up with tiny blinking lights and odd looking keypads. The foreign electronic equipment wasn’t what confused me most; it was the fact that the room was completely empty and looked like it had been for quite some time.

We each walked through the room silently surveying it. As if we had to look at every inch of it before we would believe that we were truly wrong about coming here.

I took a seat at one of the computers and wiped the dust off the screen. I couldn’t make sense of any of the information I was seeing and looked up to see what Carter was doing.

He was standing at what looked like the main workstation; both his hands were twisted through his hair. Max was nearby noisily rummaging through papers. He must have sensed something and he caught me staring at him. I quickly tried to mask the fear on my face, but he knew me too wel for that to work.

“Maybe they had to move? There has to be something here. They wouldn’t keep the transmission running if no one is here.”

“It’s not stil running!” Carter snapped. “Just look. It’s been shut off. What we heard must have just been the signaling bouncing off of something, or maybe someone else was broadcasting it. That’s probably why it’s been so weak. Someone shut it off, which means they didn’t want people to keep coming here.” Carter started thrashing around in anger, kicking a chair over and sweeping al the papers off the workstation as he kicked the desk and sat down heavily in defeat.

“You don’t know that,” Taya said rushing to his side. She tried putting her arms around him but he pushed her away. Her face took on a hurt expression, but she quickly removed it and placed a hand on his arm, which he alowed.

I franticaly tried to understand what was going on. I didn’t know anything about computers or transmitters, but I wanted to do something, to say something but I didn’t know what.