Free Dead World (Book 1): The Impetus by Jacob Mollohan

his reverie. The door opens a bit and water spills in for the briefest of moments as a head pops through the door. He smiles as he recognizes Miss Leary. She sees him and smiles as well. She was one of the first attendees of his services.
    Miss Leary opens the door fully and walks in with her hand ushering in a couple young kids. They walk in silently.
    “Thank you for coming,” the reverend says, the same way he started all of his sermons. His Bible is open to Revelations and he reads the text, a new level of emotion sticks in his throat as he thinks of his daughter.  “ The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.   Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”
    As he reads a few others enter. They sit in their customary spots. The faithful believers that have been with him for a long time and by the time he finishes the 3 rd chapter there are nearly fifty souls in the building.
    He isn’t sure how they all made it here with everything going on out there but he gives thanks to God for this chance to lead them all one last time.
    He continues reading, unable to come up with anything better suited to the moment, and lets the words fill the heavy silence in the room.
    The rain falling outside casts a dull background and helps to block out the sounds of the dying city outside. He simply reads the text. Not sure what to say. He has never been a man who struggled to find the right words but with the world going to hell he lets the word speak for itself.
    “ To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.   Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” he says and looks around at his congregation.
    Most of them are crying, their tears falling freely. The kids have fallen asleep among the parents, it smells of incense.
    Reverend Jackson pauses taking in everything that has happened and tries to come to grips with it all. The hope that God has spared them for a reason flashes through him. And for a brief moment he lets himself hold on to it. Maybe his group of faithful will be the victorious.
    He looks back down to his Bible and takes a deep breath preparing to read more when the sound of the doors being flung inward draws his eyes up. The rain spills into the open doors and a crowd of people stretch back, lost in the shadows.
    In all these years he has never locked those doors, insisting someone stay here overnights to help anyone in need. He didn’t lock the door because God was supposed to save them, protect them. These abominations shouldn’t even be able to come in here. Where is god in all of this?
    But god doesn’t answer.
    The crowd is full of corpses, hundreds of them, and he recoils at the sight. These are the same as the people who had attacked the young girl and her death flashes through his mind again. At the head of this mob of demons a young girl in nurses scrubs. She is covered in gore and filth and looks like she has sustained so many injuries that it should be impossible for her to stand. She should be dead.
    And with horror he realizes that she is. That is what the reports have been talking about. The verse springs into his mind again. The dead will walk the earth. He knows with certainty that this is the end.
    The mob descends on his flock in a flurry of limbs and gnashing teeth and he rushes out to protect his people. He screams at the top of his lungs. The children’s startled wails mix with the mother’s cries of terror as the first of their number is slaughtered by the ravenous horde.
    It all ends in minutes. Reverend Jackson’s