The Remaining Read online

  Tommy doesn’t reply. He spots a shovel and then gets why he’s here. Next to a shovel, he spots a couple more. Then he sees the pile of dirt close by.

  They’re graves. Somebody’s dug fresh graves down here.

  “I didn’t want a bunch of dead bodies upstairs freaking people out,” Shay tells him. “We’ve been burying bodies all night.”

  Tommy wants to throw up.

  Pastor Shay takes a shovel and starts to dig a hole at the end of the row of graves. Tommy counts them. Six, seven, eight of them. He slowly walks toward the pastor, wondering for a second who this hole will be for.

  Then he has a sudden and awful realization. “Did you know the baby was going to be stillborn?” Tommy asks.

  “I knew. He was an innocent.”

  Shay’s words are cut with heavy, frantic breathing.

  “I still don’t get it. Why would God kill all these people and an innocent baby?”

  “He didn’t kill them. He took their souls and left their mortal bodies here. The baby didn’t get death. He got life.”

  The scene back there with the wailing mother and the weeping father sure didn’t look like life to Tommy, but he doesn’t say anything to argue. He picks up a shovel to start helping with the hole.

  “I was at home having dinner with my family when they all—they were all taken. I didn’t know what was happening—and then I heard the first trumpet. The most terrifying thing I think I’ve ever heard.”

  Tommy doesn’t say anything. He remembers the trumpet blasts all too well.

  “I froze when I heard it. I knew instantly. The other trumpet calls just confirmed it. The only thing I could think to do after that was to come here.”

  Tommy wipes sweat off his forehead and stops for a moment. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “It wasn’t my loss. It was their gain.”

  This sounds like typical pastor talk, though the guy giving it certainly doesn’t seem to fit with the typical pastors Tommy has known in his life.

  “So why weren’t you taken?”

  “Just because you have a church and a title doesn’t mean you have real faith. I had no relationship, no trust. I just had false comfort. That’s how I failed.”

  Even though he can barely see the pastor’s face since the light is behind him, Tommy can tell the man is tearing up. He wants to ask more questions but just can’t. He knows Shay is being honest with him, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be completely out of his freaking mind.

  Tommy keeps digging. His tired mind and body are both failing and full of adrenaline. He thinks of the famous movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The end where there are only two men left at the cemetery. “You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.”

  I think I’ve always been the one digging in my life. I’ve always been surrounded by people with guns. Dan, Skylar, Allison, Jack—all of them are gun-toting fools. But not me. I’m the digger. Always have been and always will be.

  “Come on, let’s finish this hole,” Shay says.

  Tommy never thought he’d hear such impassionate words being uttered by a pastor.

  Then again, he never thought he’d be digging a grave in the basement of a church.

  Tommy and Pastor Shay watch as the man holds the small bundle in his hands. It’s wrapped in a blanket that was taken from the nursery. This little life never had a chance. It never had an opportunity.

  Then again, if Shay is right, all this baby ever had was opportunity. He would never have the chance to grow up and make a mess of things.

  Life? Death? What’s the difference now that all of this is happening? This in here and out there.

  The father bends over and places the bundle in the ground. Then, kneeling before it, he starts to weep. The cries echo in this empty, dark space. Tommy swallows hard and looks away. He wants to leave but he can’t. He can’t move.

  And then Tommy does decide. He wipes tears off his cheeks, feeling the anger curl deep inside him. There is nothing but ugliness here. And the only thing Tommy wants to know is why.

  Why?

  29

  WAITING FOR THE END

  Just wait.

  So I’m told.

  Wait. Then wait a little longer.

  Boys will be boys.

  It takes them a little longer to grow up.

  The games, the nights out, the long days gone, the growing pains.

  Just wait, Allison.

  So he tells me.

  It’ll all work out.

  So he says.

  So I wait. I wait on Jack. Waiting until he’s ready for something more. Waiting because I believe he’s the right one. Yet each day that passes strips a little shard from the shell of belief covering me.

  Wait.

  That’s all I do.

  I wait.

  Allison and Jack sit in a side room off the hallway heading into the church sanctuary. They finally have a chance to be alone and talk and not deal with anything else. At least for these few moments.

  “I just wanted to say sorry for how I stormed out of the reception.”

  Jack’s leg touches her and his hand holds hers in a firm grasp that doesn’t feel like it will ever let go.

  “I’m sorry I was the reason you left.”

  Considering everything that has happened—all of the death around them combined with the confusion and terror—their argument seems silly and stupid. So many things seem silly and stupid suddenly.

  Jack doesn’t have his arrogant do-whatever-you-want look on his face like he sometimes does. She’s sure she doesn’t have that awful witchy look on her face like she knows she does when they argue and she doesn’t get her way.

  Nobody’s getting their way anymore.

  “You came looking for me,” she says softly. “That’s all that matters.”

  She actually manages to smile, and Jack mirrors it. It’s nice to see that smile. She really believed she’d never see it again.

  “So when did you start going to this church?” Jack asks her in a sincere manner, not a mocking tone like he might have used hours earlier.

  “About six months ago. I don’t know. . . . It’s not like an every-Sunday thing or anything.”

  “How come you never told me?”

  “I knew you’d laugh,” she says with a nervous chuckle. “Laugh and roll your eyes.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. I probably would have. Then.”

  He takes his other hand and grips her hand tightly with both of his. He suddenly looks very serious and, in a way, sad.

  “I don’t know what I was waiting for or why it took me so long,” Jack says. “I guess I was waiting around for a sign. Like some eureka moment to happen. You just have to make a choice. I realize that. I love you. I know that, and I want to marry you.”

  Jack swallows and then moves out of his seat, bending on one knee while still holding her hands.

  What’s he doing? Now? He’s going to do this now?

  She wants to both run out of this room and also rush to embrace him. But Allison does neither. She’s just absolutely shocked, more so by this than by anything else that’s happened today.

  But the moment is suddenly frozen in time.

  A banging at the doorway interrupts them, accompanied by “Guys, you need to see this!” shouted by Tommy.

  Jack looks at Tommy and is about to say something, but he stands and helps Allison up as well.

  Tommy holds his video camera in his hands and motions to it that whatever he has to show them is on it. Allison is half glad for the interruption. She doesn’t know what she feels right now. A part of her feels like laughing and another part feels like breaking down to cry. Every inch of her is so full.

  Of all the times and all the places . . .

  Yet she knew it was probably going to be like this. Things never come at the right time. The moment your parents split up. The moment you lose the love of your life. The moment the world dec
ides to end.

  Tommy is cueing up the video. Allison glances briefly at Jack, who has his annoyed look on his face. He spots her looking at him and smiles. She does the same, hesitantly.

  The sound of footsteps makes her look at the doorway. She sees the sweaty face of Pastor Shay. “What’s going on?” he asks.

  “I’m showing them something I just found. Here, come watch this.”

  “What is it?”

  “I was filming—when we were outside—I have it on tape.”

  “What?” Jack asks.

  Tommy keeps pressing buttons until he finally gets to the right moment.

  The video starts playing on the small monitor attached to the recorder. It’s a scene from outside. Allison sees her friends moving on the street in the murky light. She can’t believe how dark it is and how scared everybody looks.

  The sound of something like a trumpet wailing in the background overwhelms the camera’s tiny speaker. On the screen, everybody stops. The video is jittery and shaking, but Allison can still see clearly enough to make out the terror on Skylar’s face.

  “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet and opened the Abyss,” Pastor Shay says.

  The camera is moving as if Tommy was trying to follow the direction of the blaring horns. For a moment they can see only darkness.

  “The sun and the sky were darkened and locusts came down upon the earth.”

  Allison is not sure what the pastor is referring to. She can see Skylar back on the screen, looking all around her until—

  She’s grabbed by something and disappears.

  No no no.

  “Whoa,” they all collectively gasp.

  “What the—?” Jack starts to say.

  “And were given power like that of scorpions of the earth,” Pastor Shay finishes.

  Tommy rewinds a bit and then pauses.

  There’s something Allison can make out in the darkness. Some kind of strange shadow hovering right over Skylar. It’s like the night suddenly grew teeth and pulled her into the thick black.

  They stare at the freaky image.

  “They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth,” Pastor Shay says. “The sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses rushing into battle.”

  If it were up to Allison she’d tell the pastor to shut up. He’s really freaking her out. But she can’t. She’s afraid to.

  “Look at this,” Tommy says as he starts zooming in on the shape. It’s blurry with the pixels having a hard time forming the outline, but she can make out something.

  What is that?

  Jack curses.

  Allison feels goosebumps. Whatever they’re looking at—this dimly lit thing—it’s terrifying. She can make out stringy hair and long wings and an even longer tail.

  That thing is grotesque.

  It’s something out of a nightmare. Something terrifying. Something unimaginable.

  “They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and they had the power to torment people.”

  “Okay, now you’re just freaking us all out,” Jack says to the pastor. “What are you talking about? And what is that thing?”

  “One of the fallen,” Shay tells them. “The opposite of life.”

  “You talking demons?” Allison asks.

  The pastor nods.

  Wonderful.

  “What do they want?” Jack asks.

  It’s not a question of whether there’s really anything there. They all know now there’s something there.

  “To torture. To destroy.”

  I’m glad I’m not a full-time member of your church, Pastor Doom and Gloom.

  “There’s got to be a way to fight them,” Jack says.

  Tommy just stands there, the implications of this discovery clear on his face. Allison knows he’d normally be beaming with pride, but there’s not one ounce of it on Tommy’s face. Just bleak terror.

  They all wait for the pastor to explain more. “This is the first season of bad things to come.”

  “The first?” Tommy asks.

  Shay nods and looks at them without any sort of reaction. It’s like he’s known this was coming for years. “It’s going to get worse,” the pastor tells them in a low, no-nonsense manner.

  Allison glances at Jack, who just stares ahead at the pastor.

  Maybe she doesn’t need to worry about waiting for a proposal anymore. Maybe that’s been the reason all along. It was never meant to happen because the end was near.

  And now, the end doesn’t look just near. It’s scratching at the window waiting to come in.

  Waiting to come in and prick the life out of every single one of them.

  30

  THE SCREAMING SOUL

  Tommy sits in the padded pew going through his video recorder to see if there’s anything else that sticks out at him. But all he can really think of is what he saw back there in the room right before he interrupted them.

  Jack was about to pop the big question to Allison.

  All it took was the end of the world. Nice to know.

  Note to self: Maybe don’t wait until the end of the world to let the people you care for know about it.

  Jack was on his knees—literally on his knees—about to ask Allison to marry him.

  Tommy wonders if Allison would have said yes. Does it really matter anyway? But if it doesn’t, then why did he stop Jack from asking?

  I mean, where would they get married and who would be left alive to even come to the wedding?

  These crazy thoughts swirl around his head until he hears someone come and sit beside him. He looks up and sees Sam’s dyed-white hair. For a moment she makes sure she’s not interrupting something important.

  “I just heard a news report,” Sam finally says. “Churches are being attacked.”

  “Attacked by who?”

  “Not who; what. Aliens, demons, whatever. Like the thing that attacked your friend.”

  “Where’d you hear it?” he asks.

  “Someone has a radio. No cell phones are working. The televisions aren’t showing anything and the Internet’s down. But there’s a few radio stations still broadcasting.”

  Tommy glances around the room. Nobody seems very social. Most people are keeping to themselves or are huddled in groups of two and three. Tommy’s spoken with a few of them just to try and learn as much as he can.

  “People are talking about leaving in the morning,” he says. “Getting out of the city.”

  “You think we should go?”

  He notices the word we. But she’s a part of their group now, like it or not. Tommy stares up at the cross in the center of the wall behind the pulpit. “I don’t know. Maybe. Might be a good idea, especially if some crazy monster is going to attack us here if we stay in the church.” He can hardly believe the words coming out of his own mouth.

  This is nuts.

  The door in the corner behind the organ opens and Jack comes walking out. He makes his way to Tommy.

  You better not be engaged.

  Jack greets them both.

  “You see Skylar?” Tommy asks.

  Jack nods. “Just now.”

  “How’s she doing?”

  “She’s okay. Allie and Dan are back there with her.”

  Tommy nods, staring up at the stained-glass window. He keeps seeing the shadowy thing from the video taking Skylar into its arms (or tentacles or whatever they were).

  “Did you see that? I mean—what was that thing that attacked her?”

  Jack looks like he’s in a daze. He only shakes his head, staring back at the people in the church. “I don’t know. . . .”

  If Tommy had to say what he was feeling deep down, he’d be forced to admit that Pastor Shay was probably right. The Rapture. The end of the world. Maybe Jack would say the same thing—the look on his friend’s face seems to confirm it. But neither of them seems to want to say it out loud yet. It’s still too wild, too crazy, too . . .

  Horrific.

&n
bsp; “What do you think we should do?” Tommy asks.

  “Hole up here,” Jack says.

  “Until what? Sam says churches are being attacked by those things. Some of the people around here are planning on leaving in the morning.”

  Jack scans the room. “Oh, really? And go where? We don’t know for sure what’s happening out there. At least in here it seems like we’re safe.”

  “So you want to just sit here and see what happens?” We’ve found Allison. Now we can escape this dungeon.

  “Till we figure out a better plan, Tommy.”

  Tommy shrugs, still feeling that caged-in sensation. “Maybe we should move on, see if—”

  “To where?” Jack interrupts. “Anyway, we can’t move Skylar.”

  Tommy is going to answer when a screeching sound outside does it for him. They both stand up and look toward the front of the sanctuary.

  Another scream pierces the stillness. Some of the survivors in the room gather around Tommy and Jack.

  “What was that?” Tommy asks.

  Another sound, this one lower and darker and louder, comes from the front of the church. It’s like the sound of the undead, the sound of something unholy, unreal—and the sound is approaching.

  It’s rushing toward the screaming sounds. Someone outside is being attacked.

  The demonic sound is suddenly above them, hovering and howling and moving.

  The screaming human outside abruptly stops.

  No.

  The hunter found its prey.

  We have to leave this place we’re surrounded and they’re just watching us waiting for us at any moment.

  Sam comes close to Tommy and he puts an arm around her. You were right. The group in the church stand together, not making a sound, not moving.

  Everybody Tommy can see looks absolutely terrified.

  I wonder if I look just like them.

  He breathes in and out slowly, not sure when the next sound will come, not sure where it will come from.

  A smashing sound comes from the stained-glass window. A figure crawling—no, thrown against it—sends the glass cracking in a thousand little spiderwebs.

  “God, help me!” the figure cries out. “Oh, no! Please, no!”