Released Page 11

  Max sighed and puled out the map from the glove box. “Where are we exactly?”

  “There is a sign coming up,” I said.

  “Hmm…Shiprock, New Mexico. Wel, at least we made it to New Mexico, right?”

  I forced a smile for him - he always was such an optimist. He had always tried to lighten the mood through sarcasm or humor. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t but the fact that he always tried was one of the things that made me love him.

  “I’m not too good with math, but I would say we are about four hundred miles away.”

  “Thank God. So, when wil we get there? Tonight?” Taya asked sounding eager.

  “Maybe. If we don’t hit too many big cities that slow us down it is possible.”

  “Where are we going?” Judy asked from the back of the Bronco.

  “New Mexico.” Taya answered, as if the question were directed to her. I let her go on with it anyway. She and Carter had grown close and I knew he had probably talked her ear off about al his plans. “There is a military base there that has established a resistance. Haven’t you heard any of the transmissions?” Judy nodded solemnly. “John believed that the transmissions were a ploy used by the demons to lure humans there. He ordered us to destroy al the radios to rid ourselves of the temptation. He said to listen to them was to let the demons into your heart and corrupt your mind with a false sense of safety.”

  “And you al just destroyed the radios, no questioned asked?” I said.

  “Some of us refused, but in the end the radios were destroyed anyway,” Norah added flatly.

  “Sounds like you were part of some kind of cult.” Taya commented. “Why would you stay there?”

  “What other choice do we have? What would you have us do? Walk around aimlessly in this warzone, waiting for the next demon to pick us off?” I could see Taya on the verge of losing her temper; my brother would get the same expression on his face when he got upset. So, I nodded to Max to say something to calm them down.

  Max turned in his seat to face everyone. “Listen, it doesn’t realy matter does it? We are al here now and there is nothing any of us can do about any of that. The only thing any of us needs to worry about is getting to New Mexico and doing everything we can to send al these demons back to where they came from. Now, do you know any of what John learned from that thing while he had it locked up?”

  “Not much. It would only speak of one thing, repeating it over and over.” Judy said with fear rippling through her voice.

  “Wait, who?” I asked shocked of what I thought she just said.

  “The demon.”

  “They talk?” Max blurted what I was thinking.

  “Yes, like I said. When it spoke it would say only one thing and one thing only.”

  “Wel, what would it say?” Taya asked sounding as equaly shocked as the rest of us.

  “John caled it the prophecy. The demon said, “The day has come when God looked unto his creations and wept, for they had forsaken him. In his misery he shal turn from mankind and abandon them to the fate, they so earned. The Devil, Satan, King of Hel, most powerful seeker of souls wil open his gates and release his minions unto the land. Then shal there be darkness. Then shal there be pain and misery as the world has never seen. As the enemy of the righteous devours the lost souls of the earth he wil take his throne and rule the land for al eternity.”

  Judy spoke the words woodenly, but I could sense the fear she was holding back. I quickly looked to Taya who was whispering a prayer to herself. The prophecy that her mother use to tel her, was spoken by a demon. The thought chiled the air around me and I saw Max squeezing his mother’s gold cross in his hand so hard his knuckles were white.

  “I’ve heard that before,” Taya said softly. “My mother use to tel me that, but I thought she was just superstitious. Even after seeing the demons attacking people I stil couldn’t believe that such a thing could happen.”

  I could sense that Taya felt guilty for thinking her mother was crazy. I wanted to say something to comfort her, but couldn’t.

  We drove onward in silence, stopping only when we had to go to the bathroom and once more for Max to empty out the remaining gas tanks we had, in order to refil the Bronco.

  “Do you realy think its true Max? That the devil realy is on earth?” I asked Max after he relieved me from driving as we headed into Albuquerque.

  “As much as it doesn’t make sense, it does make sense. I haven’t even wrapped my head around it yet I don’t think.”

  “Kind of makes it hard to think that there is a way to beat this, knowing that the Devil himself is out there.” I didn’t want to sound like such a downer, but Judy had dropped a pretty damn big bomb on us. One would think that if the world were being devoured by demons, you might mention that you have one locked up in your basement and maybe even throw in the fact that it talks.

  “Don’t think like that Abs. We wil find a way. We’ve done pretty wel so far. With the exception of the last escapade of course, but that wasn’t our entire fault.

  We were on guard against demons; we didn’t think we would have to worry about other people attacking us with an apocalypse going on.” Judy looked up for a moment, no doubt she wanted to protest any negative comments about her crazy husband, but she thought better and kept her mouth shut.

  I gave Max my best impression of his famous devilish grin and propped my feet up on the dash. The whites of my converse sneakers were scuffed and dirty, so I attempted to give them a good shining with my thumb and some good old-fashioned saliva to help pass the time.

  “He’s right,” Norah said almost to herself. I was going to ask who she was talking about, because so much time had passed since anyone had said anything.

  “Of course I am,” Max said returning a smile back at me, relishing in the fact that someone admitted he was right and we giggled as we heard Carter moan in protest. Taya then let out a quick laugh, even though it was obvious she tried to prevent it, and Carter gave a weak smile before closing his eyes again.

  Making our way through town had been easier than it had been anywhere else. Max attributed it to the fact that we were so close to the military base, and was determined this was a result of so many people making their way to safety. A statement that seemed to perk up Carter quite a bit, making him much more coherent.

  “I used to realy want to visit New Mexico… before everything happened,” Norah said trying to make conversation.

  “Why is that?” Taya asked in a tone so friendly it almost surprised me, but I figured spending the last few hours with Carter snuggled up against her put her feelings of jealousy to rest.

  “I was realy into astronomy, spirituality, and the whole extraterrestrial bit. I wanted to take a trip across the United States one day and visit al the major spots like Area 51, Roswel and Sedona.” When no one said anything she started to look embarrassed that she had said anything. Laughing at herself a little she said,

  “Sounds stupid now though.”

  “No, it’s not stupid. I don’t think you’re stupid. I was just trying to figure out why you would want to visit Sedona,” Taya said.

  “Oh, wel Sedona is likely one of the most spiritual locations in the country. It’s ful of amazing energy vortexes.” Visibly attempting to hold back on her enthusiasm, Norah then gave us a ful account of her cross-country journey to any and every popular point of supernatural or paranormal events. I had always found such topics extremely boring, but the passion in her voice had peaked my interest. To hear someone talk about something they cared so much about made me slightly envious. There was nothing I particularly exceled at and nothing that I felt I was that passionate about. I mean there were a lot of things I enjoyed, but nothing that I would drive across country to go after.

  “Shit!” Max exclaimed slamming his hands on the steering wheel as the Bronco shuddered to a halt.

  “What happened?” He’d startled me as wel as everyone else in the Bronco and we al took on expressions of instant panic. Max
jumped out of the Bronco as clouds of white smoke starting seeping out from under the hood.

  Taya started panicking first, repeating “Oh my God” over and over, while the younger girl that Judy had been mothering started bawling. Carter attempted to get out to help find out what was wrong, but he wouldn’t be any help with one eye nearly swolen shut, so I ordered him to stay while I jumped out. Then I thought that even if Carter’s eye wasn’t swolen he probably wouldn’t be able to help much anyway, the boy didn’t know a thing about cars. In fact, he knew even less than I did which wasn’t much at al.

  The stifling heat of the late afternoon sun hit me hard and I quickly yanked my hair into a ponytail as I rounded the front of the Bronco. Max had the hood up and was using his shirt to attempt to open the valve to the radiator.

  “Damn this thing is hot.”

  “What do you think is wrong with it?”

  “What happened?” Taya caled from inside the Bronco.

  “Just sit tight!” Max caled out to her. “Abby I need you to get back in the Bronco and keep everyone calm, ok? Can you do that for me?” The concern in his voice made me worry. “Yeah, okay.” I turned to walk away and looked back at him. “Can you fix it?” Max didn’t say a word cause the expression on his face said it al, we were doomed.

  “What’s wrong with the engine?” Carter asked immediately as I got back in the car. The coolness from the air conditioner was already starting to dissipate.

  “Max is taking a look at it. So, how are you feeling?” I asked trying to change the subject.

  “I feel like I got my ass kicked. Now tel me what’s wrong with the Bronco.” Carter’s short temper was starting to flare up and I knew he wasn’t going to drop it until I told him what he wanted to know. I thought briefly for a moment on how I thought he would probably make a perfect cop. He was always so pushy and cocky, just like every cop I had ever met.

  “It doesn’t look good,” I said, trying to speak it in a whisper because I didn’t want everyone to panic, but it was futile. Even whispers aren’t quiet enough when everyone is confined in one vehicle like a bunch of sardines.

  I heard Judy take a deep breath and then she opened the trunk door in one smooth movement. “We wil have to walk the rest of the way then.”

  “What? Are you crazy?” Taya asked flipping around in the back seat to face Judy.

  “What other choice do we have?”

  Taya growled in frustration and turned around to kick the back of the empty driver’s seat like a child having a temper tantrum.

  “Ok. Everybody calm down for a second. Abby where are we?” Carter asked.

  “Umm...” I franticaly grabbed the map attempting not to rip it and stared at it trying to remember the name of the city we had just driven through. “We just left Las Cruces not too long ago. It’s about another fifty miles or so to the military base.”

  “Fifty miles, ok we can do that.” Carter clapped his hands. “Ok, everyone pack only what you can carry and make it quick we need to move out.” I helped Judy pack up what we had left of our food and water into one bag, while Taya rushed to every nearby car hoping to find one that would start. When she eventualy gave up she resigned herself to trying to make some sort of umbrela using car antennae's and some kind of wind breaker jacket she ripped up to block the sun.

  I found Max standing alone about twenty feet from the Bronco with his back to me. His arms were crossed and he was staring intently at the imposing mountain side lining the distant city of Las Cruces. We didn’t speak at first. We just stood next to each other in a comfortable silence.

  “We are only about fifty miles from the base. That’s not too bad, right?”

  “Wel, look at you trying to be al optimistic,” He said smiling down at me.

  “You got a problem with that?” I asked with a sarcastic yet playful tone.

  “Nope, no problem at al. Although I was thinking that if you just stood along the road and flashed those nice legs of yours maybe someone would give us a ride.” He looked at me then and waggled his eyebrows.

  “Ha! Never going to happen,” I said as I playfuly punched him in the arm. Max then quickly stole a kiss and the scruff of his unshaven face, poking my chin, made me giggle. He grabbed the basebal cap out of my hand and slapped it on my head.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  “Are you?” I countered.

  Chapter 12

  We then started the long walk through the hot New Mexico desert, to the one place we thought we might find salvation and safety. I glanced back at the Bronco, before it went out of sight and vowed that someday I would return for my father’s car. It had taken us so far along on our journey and a smal part of me felt like I was leaving something behind.

  Norah and Carter chatted animatedly about what they each thought was going on in the world. “More like what was going wrong in the world,” I mumbled under my breath.

  He showed her his demon dictionary and when she expressed her agreement that the knowledge he had colected was in her words “genius”, they became quick nerd buddies. Carter encouraged her to tel him everything she knew about the demon at the city hal building, any detail she knew that we didn’t already have.

  As I walked behind them, half listening to their conversation and half admiring Max’s butt in front of me, I wondered pointlessly how Norah was able to write in Carter’s book and walk at the same time. She had apparently acquired a large amount of information that Carter deemed important as wel as details on other demons we had yet encountered. She spoke of how she survived when al hel broke loose, literaly. Her tale was not much different than our own. When the rest of the world panicked, turning to crime, looting and worse, we chose to lay low and not let hysteria and fear take control. We watched the world around us crumble through the windows of our home and now we were walking through the rubble.

  Taya was walking with Judy trying her best to comfort the younger girl. If I were to have to guess I would have said she was only a couple years younger than Taya, maybe thirteen or fourteen. The young girl, whose name we learned was Savannah, quickly warmed up to Taya. They chatted about their favorite TV shows and what teenage heart-throb they thought was the most swoon-worthy.

  Judy took on the role of mother hen, making sure we took breaks regularly and drank water while also trying to conserve it. Her calm demeanor was comforting but also a little unsettling. I wasn’t sure yet how I felt about her, but that may have had something to do with her crazy husband. I later told myself that I would have to look past that since she was of course going to be living with us on the base. She obviously didn’t share the same insane tendencies as he did, otherwise she wouldn’t have escaped with us. Or did she do that because she knew if she had stayed she would be long dead by now.

  I felt someone watching me and looked up to see Judy looking at me. I felt a bit embarrassed to think I was just having paranoid ramblings in my head about her and gave her a polite smile. She returned it and I could tel it was sincere.

  I watched her for a moment longer as she wiped sweat from her brow and saw the bandage on her forearm completely exposed. She had removed her button down blouse and tied it around her waist making the ful extent of the damage easy to see. Seeing that made al my doubts I had about her disappear. I didn’t even want to imagine the trauma that she had to have gone through, having had her husband slash open her arm to feed her blood to some talking demon from hel.

  Finding it hard to look away I walked a little quicker to catch up with Max and Carter who were even farther ahead. “You look realy flushed. We should take a break.”

  “I’m fine Abs, we should keep going.”

  “We are never going to make if we al pass out from heat stroke.” He gave in then and we al walked off the road to find some smal bit of shade in the sparse vegetation.

  Carter made rounds as we al sat panting and resting, making sure everyone was doing ok. “Everyone doing alright? We can do this. We are just walking, this ain’t nothing.”

>   “You sound like you are getting us ready for the big game, coach.” Max teased.

  “Hey, whatever works,” I added. Carter was right, we needed to stay motivated. Just focusing on the goal, getting to the military base. We were on the home stretch now. Carter paced back and forth a moment, obviously anxious to make it to the base but also to keep his muscles warm as he had much more endurance than the rest of his. I suppose he could finaly prove to Max now how useful track and field was.

  I saw Taya sitting under the shade of a large bush with Savannah, both of them rubbing their feet. Their flushed faces glistened with perspiration as they continualy chatted about ridiculous topics, obviously both making every effort to avoid talking about anything serious. I decided I could use a distraction as wel and joined them.

  The sand under the tree was cool on our feet and was a welcome relief from the miles of walking we had done. I tried to rest while placing my head on my bag and listening to the methodic sound of the girls chatting. That, coupled with the familiar weight of my shotgun resting across my chest, let me think I might almost be able to fal asleep. Although tempting, I knew it would only be a bad idea, cause when I woke up I would only be more tired than before I went to sleep.

  “Abby, may I speak with you?” Judy asked. The sound of her voice startled me a bit and I nearly jumped up.

  “Yeah, sure. What’s up?” I asked trying to colect myself.

  She ushered me out of earshot from the girls and led me over to another large bush where Max and Carter stood waiting.

  “What’s going on?” I asked starting to grow concerned.

  “Nothing is wrong, so don’t start getting al freaked out,” Carter said, sounding too much like our father. I looked at his face and noticed the sun had started to burn his nose. Coupled with the swolen eye; he was not looking to wel. Max, on the other hand, wasn’t burnt at al and was turning a golden brown that I found surprisingly attractive.

  “I’m not freaked out.”

  “I just thought we should al discuss what the plan is.”