Chapter Twenty-Seven
Evangeline and Devlin had been walking for over a couple of hours, they’d decided to split up from Bobby and Paul to try to cover more ground. If they couldn’t find Michael tonight, they’d head back to Eva’s home. Things were bad out there. Worse than before because the initial fright of the quake and then the burning ash was over. Desolation and loss were setting in and the human predators were out in full swing.
They followed signs on the road that gave directions to an emergency shelter at a local church. When Devlin suddenly reached for his gun, she did too, glancing around. “What?”
“Rear of the police car, front of the church.”
Eva glanced at the car he referred to parked near the church doors. That’s when she saw it, two pairs of boots, toes up by the wheels. She traced the lines to see legs. They were laid on the ground. Slowly, senses on alert, they advanced to the car. Devlin placed his hand on the first man’s neck but she didn’t need him shaking his head at her to know he was dead, same with the other man. There was blood on the side of his neck. Both men had been drained. Bloodsucker.
Carefully, they approached the door to the church, Devlin placed his hand on the knob, she took out a second gun, and nodded to him she was ready. She moved to the other side of the door and when Devlin pushed the door open she went in low as he held his gun high, ready to shot first at anything moving in there.
They were greeted with stillness.
“Oh my God!”
There were four men in the foyer, their bodies lay twisted in unnatural positions, some had their throats ripped out. The white tiled floor was awash in their blood. Eva had to swallow at the sight.
Devlin moved past them into the main area of the church. When she attempted to follow, he spun around quickly and placed his arm around her, gently pushing her back to the entrance.
“What the hell? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, baby, you don’t need to see what’s in there. Let me check things out. You stay outside and don’t let anyone in.”
She shook her head. “No, Devlin. This is my job. What I was born to do. Yes, as a Chronicler, I keep the histories but I am also to bear witness of the events of my time. I have to see. Have to know…need to know.”
“No, you don’t need to see this. I’ll tell you what I find in there. But like the men in the foyer I think everyone in there is dead. Drained by a bloodsucking soulless, I can sense his stench and the death he left behind.”
Eva grabbed his arms. She needed to make him understand. She was doing this for them both, she wanted to be by his side. To show him, she wasn’t weak and could do what needed to be done. “But you have to see, you have to deal with it. I don’t want you to go through it alone. Just as I can’t protect you, you cannot always protect me.”
“Babe, I won’t be alone. You’ll be right here waiting for me. That’s enough. You don’t need to see this.”
“But what about you? Once you see images like that, it can’t be undone.”
“Exactly why I don’t want you in there with me. I was born to this life. You weren’t. This is my job. I’ll let you know what I find.”
He was right, but still she ached for him, for everyone in the building. And the bastard did this horrendous act in a church. She was sure it wasn’t random. It was the kind of thing that would appeal to a sadistic mind. She knew Devlin thought her views on the soulless were too forgiving. But she held forgiveness for those who deserved it, those who were just trying to exist as peacefully as possible. She understood the difference between a soulless like Michael and the one who killed senselessly, as was done here. If everyone was dead, that’s what this bastard had done. There was no need to kill them all because she knew in her heart, Devlin would come out and tell her they were all dead. She could sense no life within.
Twenty minutes later, he did. She just wrapped her arms around him, he buried his face in her hair as they held on to each other tightly.
“There’re all dead,” he whispered after a while. “All dead. Most were drained completely. Some he just cut up and they bled to death. I’m sure he drank on their terror. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. Come on let’s keep moving. Do you want to take the police car? I glanced in it and the keys are in the ignition.”
“Yeah, yeah. Good idea. Let’s put some distance from this. There’s nothing we can do for any of them. But we can’t leave them like this for anyone else to find.”
“What are you saying?”
“You know as well as I do, humans can’t know of the soulless, that the nightmares are real. There’s enough shit going on right now, that’s hard enough to deal with. We’ve got to burn the place down.”
She heard the sorrow in his voice and she couldn’t disagree with him. Pulling away slightly, she kept one arm around his waist as they turned and went over to the car.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll take care of this.”
“What are you going to do?”
He popped open the trunk of the police car and found a spare can of gasoline. “Use this.” Devlin moved the bodies of the two men into the church then came back out to get the gas. He went in and returned shortly, she could smell smoke already, he must have set the interior on fire. He splashed whatever remained of the gas along the door and tossed the can back into the foyer then shot at it.
Eva could see more flames.
He took her hand and moved toward the car. “Let’s go.”
She got in the car and they drove off. He didn’t say anything as he drove, she didn’t either, what was there to say? They didn’t get very far before the road was clogged with abandoned cars. He stopped the car and they got out. She met him around the front of the car and held out her hand to him, he twined their fingers together and squeezed. “You okay?” she asked. Her heart ached for what he had to do.
“I will be. I have to believe that we all will be.”
“Look,” she said. It was another sign leading to another shelter. She heard Devlin’s deep breath. “Should we check it out?”
“Yeah, no choice.” He squeezed her hand.
She breathed a sigh of relief as they approached the junior high school and could see people moving around the outside. Kids raced across the playground, there was a military truck with a satellite on top of it, two National Guard trucks, and several police cars.
They approached the building and Eva smiled at the female officer who walked over to greet them. They were no longer wearing jackets, making no attempt any more to hide they were armed, but they still weren’t showing just how armed they were. To the ninth degree.
The officer glanced pointedly at their visible weapons. “Hi, I’m Officer Borst. I understand why you need to be armed out here, but if you come inside you’re going to have to give up your fire power and the knife.”
Devlin had his sheath attached to his thigh. “Fair enough,” Devlin said then introduced them both to the officer. “We aren’t coming in, we’re trying to make our way home but we wanted to know if you had any news. We haven’t been able to get anything on the internet and phones or texts are hit or miss.”
“Yeah, it’s a bit better here. We have a satellite truck that’s boosting the signals and we’ve got an old fashion radio runs on batteries as well as electricity. We have a generator too. But I’m sorry to say the news isn’t good. Do you know about the tsunami?”
“Yes.”
“Most of the coastal areas are gone, still underwater but it’s receding so that’s the good news. The coastline won’t be the same but we won’t lose it all. LA is nothing but burnt out buildings but at least it’s not burning anymore. The fires are under control in most areas except for up North but travel on the main roads are null, some of the side roads are good but moving around is like going through a labyrinth. There are gorges in the road too wide to drive across, some you can’t even jump across or you have to travel a block or two to get around and a few overpasses and bridges are either clogged or damaged. It’s going to be a long ass time to clean this mess up, much less rebuild. We’re making plans to bus everyone from here to Arizona. Are you sure you don’t want to stay and move out with us? We’ve evacuated most of this area.”
“We’re sure. We have people waiting on us.” Devlin glanced over at her.
“What about aftershocks?” Eva asked.
“Nothing so far. But the science types can’t say for sure if we’re out of the woods. One might come tomorrow, next month or next year. They don’t seem to know.”
“When do you all plan on getting out of here?” Just as Devlin asked the question, a few dogs barked and a fight seemed to break out in the parking area several feet from them. Two men seemed to be fighting but some cops quickly broke things up and separated the men.
“What’s that all about?” Eva asked.
“The reason we’re moving out sooner rather than later. We’re waiting for two more buses from the military to get here and a bulldozer to help clear the roads for us. We’re going to caravan out, but we don’t have enough cars for people and fights have been breaking out. Someone said something about aftershocks and now everyone’s antsy to leave. Even if they don’t own the car, they’re trying to leave in. We’ve had to break up a few fights. People now know ‘help’ isn’t coming to them. We’re it. There won’t be a quick fix. They have to leave the area. Some people were trying to leave the camp, they are trying to get out of this part of California on their own. Those with cars are welcome to leave, but they don’t know which roads to travel on since GPS isn’t working well as well as blocked so most have decided to wait and follow the military buses coming. Others not so much.”
“Don’t envy you that,” Devlin said.
“The roads out of the state are also jammed again. The military’s been clearing any abandoned cars and turned the highways into one way roads heading east and northeast which is helping.”
“But meanwhile, you have to wait. When do you expect the busses? Devlin asked.
“They’re late, no surprise but they should be here in a couple of hours.”
Eva knew why he was asking. It was good they’d be leaving well before sundown. The farther they could get from the area, the better.
“Well, thanks for the information,” Devlin said.
“Yes and good luck,” Eva added.
“Thanks. Good luck to you two. Hey, you guys okay for supplies? Water? Food?”
“Yes, we’re fine.”
“Stay alert,” the officer added. “And keep those weapons handy.”
“You too, good luck,” Eva added.
Hand in hand, they walked away from the school.
“At least no soulless showed up there,” Eva said.
“Yeah, but we haven’t found Michael either. No sign of him. So far, we’ve only seen evidence of soulless but sighted none.”
“That’s strange, don’t you think? That we haven’t run into any last night? Though, I’m glad the soulless hadn’t run across that last group. Hopefully, if one remains in the area, they’d be long gone if they come back tonight.”
“Maybe they are around though. The fighting could be aggravated by the presence of one. I didn’t sense that to be the cause of the anger and frustration, back there. Did you?” Devlin asked.
She shook her head. “No. You’re right. It’s all natural. No outside influences necessary. Besides, that group is much better armed.”
“Yes, it might deter one bloodsucker but not two or three of them. Specially since they wouldn’t have any idea what they were really up against.”
Not a pleasant thought.
“Let’s head back.” They’d decided to take a different path back, to try to cover more ground. Devlin would check in with the others when he had a signal. They were heading back toward where they left the Jeep, hoping it was still there. But they’d have to find a place to rest up for a few hours. It would take hours on foot and avoiding some places to get back to the Jeep. Whoever got there first would wait on the others.
They took a different route back than the one they’d traveled but Eva was exhausted nonetheless. Even though Chroniclers were blessed with perfect health and great stamina, hers had been tested over the last few days. Her energy reserves were nil.
When she stumbled over a piece of debris Devlin grabbed her, steadying her. “Let’s check out that house over there,” he suggested.
There was a crack about three feet wide, three cars had taken nose dives into the break. Thank God, no bodies were in the cars. The crack ran straight down the street then veered off splitting the house on the end into two. They went to the house next door. The bay window on the side had crumbled there was a big enough gap they could climb through. Devlin used his backpack to knock off the edges of glass on the bottom, so they wouldn’t get cut. He crossed over first then helped Eva inside.
They entered into a room with a baby grand piano. It opened into a hallway and across from it was a dining area with a table and eight chairs around it, a China cabinet, and another serving table in there. Moving farther into the home, they saw a wide two story staircase on the right and a study to the left. There was another closed door. Going past the staircase, they saw a family room and beyond that area was an archway that led to a refrigerator, the kitchen.
“I’ll check upstairs,” Eva said. “You can finish checking down here and see what’s in the kitchen.”
Eva climbed the staircase and searched the second floor. There were four bedrooms up there. The chandelier in the master bedroom had fallen and crashed on the bed. She hoped no one was in it at the time. No blood, so hopefully not. The other rooms appeared fine, a few pictures had fallen off the walls, but the beds were clear and clean.
She joined Devlin downstairs. He’d set out some things for them in the breakfast nook. “I see you’ve been busy.”
“Yeah, they had some good stuff. Shame for it to go to waste.”
“You don’t feel funny about helping yourself to other people’s stuff?” she asked. Opening the jar of olives, he’d placed on the table.
“In this situation, no. This stuff will spoil soon, everything in their fridge already has. And given what the cop told us, no one’s going to be coming back this way anytime soon. This neighborhood isn’t drivable. You?” He pulled out a cracker from the opened bag and popped one in his mouth.
“Yes and no. It feels wrong. Like we’re intruding. Yet, at the same time, I’d be a fool not to use what we found. We need to rest, sleep. We still have a long way to go and quite a bit of it on foot. And that’s hoping the Jeep is where we left it.”
“Exactly! What’d you find upstairs?”
“Beds.”
“Useable?”
“Some.”
“Then we sleep on a bed for the rest of the night.”
Eva wasn’t going to argue. Not when she saw the heat in his gaze.