After The Apocalypse (Book 2): Church of Chaos (15 page)

Chapter 24

“Tell me what you found in Bud Moon's bunker.” Emmett sank down into a plush leather sofa and pretended to be civil. Lola and I had been roughly deposited on an identical couch that sat opposite a heavy wooden coffee table of the first one. The surface of the coffee table shone with dark polish.

The room was an opulent mixture of colors, textures and money. The carpeting appeared to be made out of some kind of thick white fur. It tickled my toes when I walked across it.

Lola shifted uncomfortably on the couch beside me. “We can't talk in front of my friend.”

“Lola, you're testing my patience.” Emmett picked up a heavy glass tumbler and took a swig of the brown liquid inside. “I decide when you talk.”

“With all due respect-.”

“If you respected me at all, I wouldn't have had to hunt you down tonight. You should have come to me the very second you realized that Seth Ra was back inside the gates of the city.”

My entire body tensed. Emmett had kidnapped us off the streets because of Seth?

“I couldn't get away,” Lola said evasively. “Not without raising suspicion.”

“I don't care if you raise suspicion. We're talking about the high priest of the Church of Chaos. The bounty on his head is worth far more than your miserable little life.”

“And if he suspected that I was a traitor, he'd kill me outright,” Lola whispered. “My death wouldn't benefit you in the slightest.”

“I think you overestimate the value of your information,” Emmett replied. “Gauge is a pacifist. The Underground network is boring. The protests are annoying, but I've come to the conclusion that Gauge lacks the courage to take real action against the authorities.”

“Your assumption is wrong,” Lola said dismissively. “Gauge is biding his time.”

“You've been saying that for two years,” Emmett said. “To be honest, I was starting to question your value as an informant. Your previous association with the Church of Chaos is the only reason I allow you to continue to live, my beautiful little traitor.”

Traitor
. I stopped breathing as the implications of Emmett's words hit me. Lola was a traitor. I turned to stare at her, but she was ignoring me. Her attention was entirely focused on Emmett.

“Gauge isn't a coward, Emmett. He's just not as reckless as Seth. If you don't have someone on the inside of his operation, then you'll never catch him when he finally makes his move.”

“I don't deny that having someone inside the Underground is useful. I'm just debating how useful
you
are. Loyalty is easy to buy, Lola. But you already know how easily loyalty can be purchased. I bought yours for a handful of pennies.”

Lola let out a soft snort. “Seth is staying at the Underground tonight. If you raid the building, there is a good chance you'll catch him.”

“Why is he in the city?”

Lola hesitated.

“
Lola
,” Emmett's voice had a clear warning tone in it.

“He heard a rumor that Bud Moon was experimenting on humans with a modified zombie virus. Supposedly, the Powers That Be are planning on attacking the city using modified zombies.”

Emmett actually laughed. “Is that the best lie you can come up with?”

“I'm telling the truth,” Lola protested. “Bud Moon has figured out how to achieve and hold a partial transformation between human and zombie.”

“You expect me to believe that Bud Moon has figured out how to change his people into part-zombies the same way the Church of Chaos has?”

“Not quite the same,” Lola corrected. “He's injecting his experiment subjects with some kind of zombie serum. The goal is for them to continue to look human.”

“It'll never work,” Emmett said dismissively.

“I'm just telling you what we found out when we went into the bunker,” Lola said.

“Did you find any of these new style zombies in the bunker?”

“Yes and no,” Lola replied. “We spoke with one of the people Bud had experimented on. He was in one of the cages. He was rotting like a zombie but he still had a human mind.”

“And did this specimen have a name?” Emmett asked.

Lola frowned slightly and then looked briefly at me before turning her attention back to Emmett. “His name was Drake. He used to be one of the Scavengers.”

“Drake.” Emmett looked startled. “Drake Bledsoe?”

“I think so.” Lola nodded.

“Humph.” Emmett crossed his arms over his thick chest and looked thoughtful. “I know Drake. He dropped off the face of the planet a few weeks ago. He likes to gamble and I've seen him at my poker tables hundreds of times over the last couple of years. It was kind of odd, the way he all of a sudden stopped coming around.”

“You know boss, I've heard the rumors about Bud trying to breed zombies,” the thin thug spoke up. He was guarding the door we'd entered the room through. He had a gun visible in the waistband of his pants. “Maybe there is something to what people are saying.”

“What are people saying, Dervitt?” Emmett asked.

“My girl has to walk past Bud's place when she goes home from work at night. She says she hears a lot of screams coming from behind that fence.”

“I would expect to hear screams coming from Bud's compound. He's a flesh broker.”

“She says she can sometimes smell rotting meat when the wind is blowing real strong.”

“Might be worth checking out,” the bigger bodyguard said. He cracked his knuckles against the palm of his other hand. “Not saying that Bud is creating zombies, but if he is then I would rather not be the last person to know.”

“I agree. We'll head down there in the morning and pay ol' Bud a little visit.”

“He isn't there. He's already gone back to the Cube to pick up his next load of fresh meat.”

I gagged quietly.

“Even better. His guards won't have the balls to try to deny me entry.” Emmett actually looked pleased.

“If that's all you wanted to know-.” Lola started to stand up.

“Where the hell do you think you're going?” Emmett asked her.

“Patty and I have plans.” Her voice was shaking.

“You ladies won't be making your plans. Not tonight or ever again,” Emmett said coldly. “I can't trust you.”

“Yes, you can.”

“How long has Seth been in Ra-Shet?” Emmett countered.

“Two days.”

Emmett snorted back a small laugh and then shook his head at her again. “Two days and you didn't come to me?”

“I couldn't risk-.”

“Stop. Don't tell me anymore lies, Lola. You didn't tell me that Seth was in the city because you're still trying to play both sides. You want to live without paying for the consequences of your actions. Shame I'm not half as stupid as you think I am.” Emmett gestured to for his bodyguards to approach. “Take them to the usual place.”

“No!” Lola jumped up from her seat and began rapidly shaking her head. “You still need me. And P-Patty's innocent. Let her go.”

“No, I really don't need you anymore. Not now that I finally know where Seth Ra is,” Emmett replied. “As for your friend, sorry darlin'. War is always going to have its casualties.”

The one he'd called Dervitt grabbed Lola by her arms as she tried to twist away. “You can't do this to me!”

“You're a traitor, Lola. I can do whatever I want to you.” Emmett was smiling a gap-toothed smile as the big guard grabbed me by my arms. I struggled against him, twisting and kicking as hard as I could. He hit me over the head with one of his ham-sized fists and everything went dark.

Chapter 25

“Pilar! Pilar, wake up!”

I jerked awake. My head was pounding and I was laying on top of some kind of metal grate. A pair of tear-filled amber eyes were only inches from mine.

“Pilar. Get up or you're going to die,” she said.

I reached out and shoved Lola away from me with a strength I hadn't known I had. She gasped as she fell awkwardly backwards onto her butt. I sat up on the grate and fought to get my bearings. I had no idea where we were, but I remembered why we'd been taken here.

“You betrayed Seth.” I was still both stunned and horrified by Lola's actions.

“I didn't have a choice. I was trying to save our lives,” Lola spat the words back at me.

“Really?” I asked her. “Because I kind of got the impression you've been feeding Emmett information about Gauge and the Underground for a long time.”

“I've done what I had to do. You don't have a right to judge me. You haven't lived my life.” Lola narrowed her eyes at me. “Besides, why do you care whether or not I've betrayed Seth and Gauge?”

“It's wrong.”

“Says the girl who was about to walk away from Seth forever?” Lola tilted her head at me. She somehow managed a haughty expression even though her makeup was smeared and her dress was torn so that it exposed most of her stomach. “You said you never wanted to see him again. Why do you care if I told Emmett where to find him? Doesn't he deserve to die for executing your mother?”

“There are a lot of innocent people in the Underground.” I purposely ignored what she'd said about Seth deserving to die.

“I'm innocent,” Lola snapped. “I never asked for this life, Pilar. All I wanted was to marry Jeremiah and have his babies. I wanted a pretty house on the quiet side of town with a white picket fence. Seth
ruined
my life.”

“Seth ruined your life?” I looked around us. We were sitting on top of some kind of suspended platform. There was a heavy metal door embedded in the wall to my left. The wall itself was brick and went several hundred feet into the air. The other three sides of the platform opened out into the air. A ladder was attached to the far side. It went straight down.

“He turned into a zombie,” Lola hissed. “Jeremiah had to leave the city and form that ridiculous fake church. When he tried to come back to the city, he died.”

“You can't blame Seth.”

“I will always blame Seth.” Tears were streaming down her face as she sobbed. “Seth killed my happily ever after.”

I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't even try to respond. Instead, I crawled to the edge of the shaky platform. There was nothing but pitch black darkness below us. I couldn't see the ground, but I could hear movement. Low growling. The sound of something being drug across the dirt. The smell of rotten meat was thick in the air.

I looked back up at the wall behind me. “Oh god. We're inside the west gate corridor, aren't we?”

Lola nodded as she sobbed. “We're going to die.”

I stared back down towards the ground as the moon came out from behind a cloud. The sight below me took my breath away. Hundreds of zombies were crowded around the base of the platform, trampling and shoving one another in an endless quest to be the zombie standing directly beside the ladder that was our only way off the platform. “We're going to die.”

Chapter 26

“We might as well just get it over with,” Lola announced after several hours of pounding on the sturdy metal gate and screaming. The gate was our only way off the platform that didn't involve going down the ladder and being eaten by zombies. It was locked and refused to budge so much as an inch. Lola's hands were bleeding from her efforts to pry it open. She'd ripped most of her fingernails off in the process.

I'd been sitting on the edge of the platform and watching the horde of zombies churning below my feet. There was something strangely mesmerizing about the monsters below us. After seeing what had become of Drake and my mother, I found myself wondering if the zombies below us could think. I wondered what it felt like to turn into a zombie. Drake said it hurt.

Lola took her high heels off and slung them down into the horde below. One of the spiked heels landed straight down, piercing a zombie's head. The zombie didn't seem to mind.

“I'm not going to sit here all night,” Lola's voice sounded high and frightened. Her words echoed off the brick wall behind us. “If we're still here when the morning guards come, they'll use a cattle prod to shove us off the platform. If I'm going to die, it's going to be on my own terms.”

“I'm kind of still hoping that we'll get rescued,” I muttered. “No need to get all suicidal just yet.”

“Rescued?” Lola snorted at me. “Who the hell do you think will come for us?”

“If we're lucky?” I frowned down at my pretty painted toenails. “Seth.”

“Seth isn't going to come looking for you, Pilar.” Lola sounded certain.

“He's never left me alone before.”

“He never really believed that you hated him before either,” Lola spoke so quietly that I barely heard her.

“What?” I turned to look at her. Lola's sleek hair had turned into a bloody, tangled mess. She had blood all over her clothes because she kept touching herself with her bloody fingernails.

“You told him that you would never forgive him for murdering your mother. You said you never wanted to see him again and that he shouldn't come looking for you.” Lola recited my own words back to me.

“You heard me fighting with him?” I felt confused and betrayed.

“I did,” Lola acknowledged. “And I told him that he needed to let you go. He asked me to go after you and bring you back. I said there would be no point because he'd made you hate him.”

“That wasn't your decision to make,” I said. “I don't hate Seth. I'm just mad at him.” I was startled to realize the words were true.

“I knew I could talk you into walking away from him.” Lola raked her bloody hands through her hair again, leaving red smears against her scalp. “I needed you gone!”

“You needed me gone?” I was baffled and feeling more than just a little bit betrayed. “You acted like you were my friend. I confided in you!”

“A lot of people have confided in me, Pilar. A lot of people think that I'm their friend, but it's all a lie. The part of me that was capable of truly being anyone's friend died with Jeremiah.” Lola leaned back against the brick wall. “Seth was being stubborn. I went into his room last night wearing nothing but my underwear and a smile. I offered myself to him. Jeremiah promised me I could be the high priestess of the Church of Chaos. I told Seth that he needed to keep his brother's promises.”

“You seduced Seth?” I was both hurt and thoroughly disgusted.

“No, you dummy. I tried to seduce Seth. I tried and I failed. He blew me off. He thinks you would make a better high priestess than I would.”

“Seth didn't say that.”

“Yes. He did,” Lola said. “He wants you to be the high priestess of the Church of Chaos. Don't ask me why. I couldn't answer that question if my life depended on it. And I guess my life did depend on it, because now we're trapped on this godforsaken platform and we're going to die. ”

“You tricked me into leaving Seth so that you could have him?” I was so exhausted that I couldn't help giggling. “All that talk about starting a new life and helping me find a happy future was just a ploy so you could have Seth to yourself?”

“You wanted to leave him!” Lola screamed.

“I'm sorry.” I was choking on my own laughter as I tried to speak. “No. Never mind. I'm not sorry at all. You tricked me.”

“I didn't trick you. You really would have been better off if you'd walked away from this life,” Lola said. “It's not fun when you get caught in the middle of a war that has nothing to do with you.”

“Clearly not.” I managed to stop giggling as I gestured down at the pit of zombies below us. “You tried to play both sides and got caught. To make it even worse, no one is coming to rescue us because you made sure that the one person who might have actually tried to find us wouldn't come looking.”

“I really don't understand what Seth sees in you,” Lola grumbled.

“Welcome to the club. Neither do I. Neither does anybody.” The zombies continued to circle and churn beneath us. “But you're wrong about one thing. I don't hate him. I thought I hated him for killing my mom, but I've been staring down into this pit for long enough to realize that maybe Seth was right to do what he did. She was suffering as a zombie. She deserved to rest in peace.”

“Well, aren't you just feeling forgiving.” Lola shook her head at me. “Maybe you'll get lucky and Seth will come save you after all. As for me, my luck's run out. Even if Seth does show up, he'll cut my throat when he realizes I betrayed him.”

“Lola-.” I stopped myself because I honestly didn't know what to say. Seth probably would kill her for betraying him.

“Good luck, Pilar. I hope life treats you better than it treated me.” Lola took a deep breath, her chest heaving as she launched herself away from the wall. Lola crossed the platform in four quick strides and then jumped over the edge and into the zombies below.

She didn't start screaming until after she hit the ground. I watched in horror as all of the zombies abandoned the base of the latter and swarmed over her. I could hear her bones snapping below as zombies ate her alive.

I wanted to stand frozen in horror, but my desire to live was stronger than I had realized. The base of the ladder was clear. If I was going to have any chance of escaping, I needed to move now.

I kicked off my high heels and stepped hurriedly onto the top rungs of the ladder. It was slick and gritty under my feet. I nearly slipped as I began to climb down towards the ground. I wasn't very careful about how I descended. I skipped two to three rungs at a time as my hands and feet alternated slipping off the metal surface. Ten feet away from the ground, I lost my grip altogether. I fell to the ground with a thud that came very close to knocking all of the air out of my lungs.

I wanted to lay down on the ground, but I knew that I would die if I gave into those urges. I forced my feet underneath me and began running for the far end of the corridor as fast as I could.

The zombies, worked up from the smell of Lola's blood and already finished with her corpse, chased me.