'Well, that's because I just met your father, after all this-well, after he left to come get you.'
'Why?'
'Why?' Martin straightened his stiffening legs. The sounds of combat grew louder, and he had to raise his voice. 'Well, because that's what God had planned for us. That's what God wanted me to do. Do you know about God, Danny?'
Danny nodded. 'A little bit. Mommy and Rick didn't go to church. I know that he lives in Heaven, up in the sky. I thought that's where dead people went, but now I know better. When people die, they don't go to Heaven. They become monster-people.'
Martin flinched, not sure how to respond. He picked up the action figure again.
'They still go to Heaven, if they know Jesus. Those
things out there-they aren't people, Danny. They're just shells-kind of like these toys. Like Piccirilli here.'
'Piccolo.' Danny corrected him.
'Sorry, Piccolo,' Martin corrected himself, still trying to distract the boy. He walked over to the attic window and peered outside, trying to judge the distance to the house next door. It was too far to jump, he decided. Zombies swarmed below them, carrying a variety of weapons.
'Do you see anything?' Danny asked.
'Not really,' Martin lied. 'But I'm not afraid because the Lord is with us. He's always with us, Danny. Always. He lives inside your heart, and he sees everything that you do and knows everything you think. You might think that, with all of the bad things going on outside, He isn't there, but I can assure you that he is. He's always watching over you.'
'Like Santa Claus?'
A frantic pounding on the door interrupted Martin's response. He crept down the attic stairs, pistol shaking in his arthritic hands.
'Wh-who is it?'
'It's Jim!'
He opened the door. Jim burst in and slammed it closed behind him.
'Daddy, are you all right?'
'I'm fine, buddy.' He scooped Danny into his arms and gave him a hug.
But Martin heard the lie in his voice. Everything was far from fine. The sounds of gunfire, both Frankie's and their attackers, was constant now, as were the angry cries of the zombies.
'Where's Frankie?'
'Downstairs. We don't have much time.'
'How many are there?'
'Too many.'
'What are we going to do?
Jim shook his head. 'I don't know, Martin. I don't know. What about that window over there?'
'I checked it already,' the preacher answered. 'It's too far to jump and the zombies are waiting at the bottom.'
'Damn!' Jim slammed his fist into the wall. Danny flinched, staring at his father in concern.
Martin frowned. 'We're trapped, aren't we?'
Jim didn't respond.
'Jim? Tell me now, man! Are we trapped?'
Slowly, Jim nodded.
From below, Frankie shouted, 'Jim, if you've got a plan, now would be a good time to share it!'
THREE
Laughing, the demon lord Ob looked out through eyes that had once belonged to a scientist named Baker.
Undead carrion birds hovered above him like a dark cloud, blending in with the night sky. The rag-tag paramilitary group was decimated, beaten by Ob's superior forces. The remains of burned-out tank husks and other vehicles littered the blasted landscape. Wisps of curling, oily smoke still rose from a few, the former inhabitants smoldering inside them.
Inanimate zombies lay scattered across the ground, each one brought down by some form of head trauma. Dozens more thrashed in the mud; appendages severed, bodies cut in half, destroyed-but still moving. Hordes of the more mobile ones swarmed about the lawn, feasting on the fallen and wounded humans.
Not all the humans were being killed. Ob had ordered several dozen rounded up, stripped of their weapons, and herded inside the complex.
They would be questioned as to the location of other survivors and then used for food-livestock. It wasn't that his kind needed to eat-at least, not while in spiritual form. They had gotten rid of that flaw eons before. But still, like any other physical life form, they needed energy, and when they took over these empty human shells, that energy was drawn from food. Eating the living served three purposes. It was an affront upon Him, the Creator, the one who had banished them to the Void. It allowed them to convert the flesh to energy while in human form, even without a digestive system, since his kind processed food on a different level. And it served to dispatch the humans' souls, killing them and enabling more of his kind to take over the bodies.
