I made it to the lobby of the bank and peered outside into the street to make sure it was safe. I could see a trail of blood leading into the small alleyway between the hardware store and the pharmacy. But that was it.

The road was empty.

I scuttled from the bank to the church like a mouse. I was so concerned with being quick and quiet and getting to cover, I was not prepared for what I saw inside.

Hanging above the altar, with his arms outstretched, was the priest.

He had been mutilated.

Butchered.

Crucified.

A few seconds later, I had to look away.

“Beautiful, ain’t it?” Ben said.

He was sitting up the back of the church, in the very back row. Like someone who had been running late for the Sunday morning service. He was admiring his own handy work. I opened my mouth. But nothing came out. I couldn’t speak. Not while the image of that unholy mess was being seared into my mind.

“You’re right,” Ben continued. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But you must admit; it most definitely is appropriate.”

Ben stood up and walked down the aisle, towards the altar. I followed blindly and numb. I was distancing myself from the situation. I had to.

Two of the priest’s men were kneeling down in front of the altar. One of them was the bald guy.

“I made them watch,” Ben said.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m just asking my two new friends here some questions. Ain’t that right, fellas?”

The bald man answered with a whimper. The other man was silent. It took me a few seconds to realize he was dead.

“You can’t do this,” I said.

“Old testament, sweetie. Remember? Eye for an eye.”

“But it’s not right.”

Ben ignored me. And as I’m telling him that he can’t do this, that he can’t torture and kill people, no matter what the circumstance, he pulled out a gun and shot the bald man in the stomach. I felt all the blood drain from my face. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t believe what this man was capable of. I mean, he had just saved Maria and me from a certain death. But now, here he was, doing things that no normal man should be capable of doing.

Ben slid the magazine out of the gun and checked how many bullets were left. He then slid the magazine back in. “Society has crumbled, remember? This is the only way to deal with these people.”

“They… they were just doing what they had to do.” I said, even though I knew they were messed up and evil. “They don’t deserve this.”

And as I said the words, I couldn’t figure out why I was defending them. But that kind of punishment, that kind of torture and pain? No one deserved that.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Ben looked at me. Right at me. He held my gaze. Made sure I was listening. “These men deserve this. Ed, the guy with the moustache, he killed his wife. This guy killed his kids,” he said, pointing the gun at the dead man, “He sacrificed them to those monsters. They are bad people. Messed up even worse than I am. Trust me, they deserve this. Hell, they deserve worse.”

The bald man was doubled over, moaning in pain. “Oh God,” he whispered. “Please, don’t kill me.”

Ben laughed a crazy, hysterical kind of laugh that chilled me to the bone. “Are you stupid? I already killed you. I mean, sure, I shot you in the stomach, which means you’ll be a long time dying. But you’re still a dead man all the same.”

“Please. I can help you people. I can keep you safe from the desert.”

Ben shot him in the stomach again. The noise of the gunshot was deafening. It made me jump. I looked over my shoulder at the entrance of the church, expecting monsters, and a horde of infected, and black smoke to come barging in through the large wooden door, looking for us. I wondered if that thing outside could hear all the noise. Maybe that was Ben’s plan.

“Um, should you be making so much noise?” I asked. “Aren’t we supposed to be hiding?”

I asked these questions tentatively. I was scared of his answer. Scared of how he’d react.

“It’s OK,” Ben said. “Because our bald friend here is back on the path to forgiveness and righteousness. Isn’t that right? You came here, to this church, to Father Damon, for guidance, for protection. You lost your way, but now you are going to make it all better. You are going to help me.”

The bald man had his eyes closed, breathing hard. Sweating.

“Now, before you pass out from the pain and the blood loss,” Ben continued. “I need you to tell me where your food supply is. And where you’re keeping my stuff. And where you locked up her friends. Don’t make me check every room. We’re running short on time here. And I don’t want to have to start torturing you for real. Nobody wants that.”

Torturing for real? What the hell did he mean by that? What the hell did he think he’d been doing?

“The keys,” the man whispered.

Ben cracked him in the mouth with the back of his hand. “Speak up.”

Blood dripped down his chin as he spoke. “The food and water supply,” he whispered. “They’re kept in the store room of the church. The keys are in the top drawer of the desk in there.”

Ben pointed to an adjacent room. “The desk in that room?”

“Yeah.”

“And my bag?”

“What bag?”

Another back hand. “The gym bag with my goddamn weapons.”

“They’re in the locker. In that office.”

“And where are her friends?”

“The church basement. They’re out cold. They were drugged. It was for their own good. We weren’t going to hurt them. I swear. You have my word.”

“Your word ain’t worth much.”

Ben moved over to the room and retrieved the keys and found his gym bag. He came back out and stood in front of the altar and looked up at the priest. “Goddamn, I wish I had a camera.”

Yep. He was a madman.

“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” the bald man asked. “You’re going to leave me here. Dead. Rotting.”

“Congratulations for catching up with the rest of the class, Einstein. Yes, you are going to die. You see, even before the world ended, being shot in the stomach multiple times at point blank range was still a tough ask for ER surgeons to deal with. And now? Well, now that there are no ER surgeons.”

And then the bald man did something totally unexpected. He laughed. I guess, maybe the blood loss was making him delirious. “Einstein,” he said. “Funny.”

“Glad you can see the lighter side of your impending death.”

“You can’t win,” the bald man warned. “You can’t kill it. It knows you’re here. You’re deader than I am.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t you get it? That’s why we sacrificed those people. It was the only way.”

“I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. Shouldn’t you be saving your story for the big man upstairs? That’s what you believe right? There’s a big guy, with a big white beard, and if you tell him all your secrets, confess all your sins, he’ll look after you. Maybe you should save your story for him.”

“Look, I can help you. I can help you hide. I can help you get out of here. Please…”

Ben then pressed the barrel of his gun to the man’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

I tried to look away in disgust but I couldn’t. I was both terrified and fascinated at the same time. I was frozen with fear.

I eventually forced myself to turn away from the scene of torture, trying to erase the memory from my mind. But I knew I’d never be able to. This whole thing, this whole apocalypse, or outbreak, or extinction level event, whatever you want to call it, it’s something that I will never be able to erase from my mind. It was changing me. Irreversibly and absolutely.