The Devil's Touch

By ten o'clock that night, the human waves had ceased. An eerie quiet fell over the body-littered land.

'Now what?' Noah was heard to question the stillness.

A clump-thump was heard coming up the street, followed by a shuffling type of step; many feet.

'What the hell?' Monty said.

'The undead,' Father Le Moyne said quietly. 'They are sending the undead after us.'

Sam ran to the rear of the house, calling for Joe to come help him.

'What's up, Sam?'

'Help me make some Molotov cocktails. Bullets won't kill those—things. But fire will.'

Siphoning gas from Sam's truck, the men quickly fashioned the fire bombs. They ran back to the front of the mansion.

'Oh, Dear God in Heaven!' John Morton said, pointing to the street.

All heads turned.

He was pointing at Ann; at the hammer still tied around her severed ankle. Ann stood beside Max, Lisa LaMeade beside her. Will and Judy and Dan and Jerry and Marie stood behind them.

Pete LaMeade stood behind the lines of undead, grinning at the house.

'That's Mommy' Jeanne shrieked. 'Mommy!'

The girl was off and running toward the rotted form of her mother before anyone in the house could stop her.

The mother smiled grotesquely and opened her flesh-decaying arms in a welcoming embrace for her living daughter.

SIX

'I think the same thing is happening here as happened in Canada,' Janet said to Princess Xaviere. 'God, or one of His asshole friends is helping Balon; blocking out our Master. 1 think we have to face up to the fact that we have lost.'

'All is not lost!' the Princess snapped. 'The undead are out there now. They—'

'They will do nothing,' Janet said flatly. 'I am almost certain Sam Balon has been blessed.'

'No!'

'Yes, Princess. And it is time to consider our leaving this dreadful place.'

'I so wanted Balon's seed within me,' Xaviere sighed.

You wanted his cock in you, is what you wanted, Janet thought, but thought so very carefully, blocking out any mind-projection. 'There will be another time. In another place.'

'You're right, of course, Janet,' the Princess reluctantly capitulated. 'When we reach safety, we will begin immediately formulating plans to capture Sam Balon.'

'Yes, Princess.'

Xaviere Flaubert looked toward the Fox Estate. 'There will be another time, dear Father Sam. I promise you that.'

'Who do we take with us?' Janet questioned.

'Jon Le Moyne, of course. Jimmy, too. Your earth parents. One or two others. I don't care. I just want to leave this dismal place of failure.'

'Yes, Princess.'

Joe grabbed Jeanne's ankles and dragged her down from the fence, throwing her to the ground. Mille reached her sister and sat on her.

Sam lit a bottle of gas and hurled it toward the open-armed undead woman. The gas exploded at the dead woman's feet, completely covering her in flames. Her husband screamed his outrage and charged the fence, climbing over the bodies stacked on the street side of the fence. Sam burned half a clip into the man, knocking him backward, but not killing him.

Pete LaMeade jumped to his feet, smoking holes in his chest. He grinned at Sam. His grin exposed needle- pointed teeth and a bright red tongue, swollen with blood. He once more charged at Sam.

Sam threw a cocktail at him, the bottle breaking on the man's chest, the gasoline igniting, covering the man with fire. Pete screamed and ran into the night. The others, now confused and frightened, followed him, lumbering and staggering and clumping away into the night.

Joe and Sam helped Mille with her sister, leading the sobbing young woman back to the house.

Nydia met her husband. She was grimy with gunsmoke, her eyes red-rimmed from smoke and fatigue. 'It's over, isn't it, Sam?'

'Almost,' he replied. 'The beginning of the end starts at dawn.'

FRIDAY MORNING

'Sam!' Monty shouted. 'Father Le Moyne is gone!'

Sam looked toward the heavens. 'No,' he said softly. 'His job here was over. He just went home.'