Fear. Helplessness. Anger. These emotions accompanied Emil and Kaja on their journey to nowhere. The girl was deeply concerned about the fate of her family, and cried many tears during the trek. However, she had an older brother beside her, who took care of her all the time when she was unable to move forward. They lost track of time after a while. They walked and walked, passing the dead. A sizable group followed them at first, but being on the road away from the village, surrounded by empty fields, they could no longer see anything but individual zombies walking through the fields.

  The siblings were hungry. The horde had forced them to flee with what they had on hand. They carried no food, no water. All they could do was walk forward. The road they took led to Lekow, another village, also part of the Regimin municipality. It was obviously risky, but they didn't have much choice.

  Something had changed in Emil. He was quiet, boiling with rage caused by the loss of his safe haven. He was also dangerous. Without hesitation he murdered all the corpses they passed with extreme brutality. Kaja was afraid of her brother at times however she knew him well and knew that she was safe with him.

  Stopping for a short break Kaja looked up at the sky. Night was approaching and the sunset was exceptionally beautiful. A melancholy feeling came over her, a sadness beyond description. It was not caused by the events of the day, but by her brother's condition. The forming night sky reminded her of Emil's fascination with the stars and planets. The mysteries of the cosmos fascinated him enough to be able to forget reality. He was happy then, full of life, in no way resembling what he became after the outbreak. The nightly conversations between the girl and Emil from the past, replayed again and again in her head, caused an emotional hole. She didn't realize how long she had been standing like that, the boy called out to her without emotion. She looked at him silently, knowing that those times would never come back. A sad smile dawned on her face and Emil, seeing this, did not understand what had happened to her.

  "Let's go." He waved his hand, beckoning his sister to him, and they moved on.

  Finding shelter for the night was the most important thing for them at that moment. Entering the village, the boy carefully observed every corner, listening for every rustling sound. Given the negligible number of corpses in the wasteland below the village, he was convinced that the former residents had not fled far and were still within the village. Emil urged his sister not to procrastinate so much at which the youngster crouched under a tree. She was breathing heavily tired. True, the villages were not very far apart, but the siblings were practically on the run to lose the chase. It was getting darker and darker, with only the last rays of the sun illuminating the horizon.

  Walking further along the road, they encountered a lone, dead man. He was staggering along the street, locked in a cage of decomposing flesh. He was dressed in a suit and over his shoulder hung a handy bag, in these neighborhoods it took a special occasion to dress like this. Emil's head immediately lit up. Disturbed by the sight of only one corpse, he began to look around for remnants of some sort of celebration. The dead man sensed a sibling. The moment the corpse turned around, the boy grabbed the axe correctly. The zombie looked terrible, its face had been partially bitten off by the dead, judging by the wounds while the victim was still alive. His clothes were ragged and his leg was broken. Kaja was disgusted by this sight, holding back vomit she looked away. Emil, being ready to attack, momentarily remembered the dead man who killed Judyta. He hesitated for fear that this one too would start running, it was a nightmarish mistake.

  The zombie suddenly found himself next to the boy and threw himself at him while he was running amok. He jerked at him without being able to attack. Kaja helped him, running up and pushing him away with her whole body into the corpse, which, due to the impact, lost its balance and flew off a piece. Emil embraced in a split moment. He took aim with the axe just after that, without even having time to breathe he hit the corpse in the head with the blade. The corpse fell to the ground inertly, while the boy leaned on the axe like a cane and grabbed his head. His mind was haunted by demons, with each successive tragedy destroying him mentally to the point that he began to question whether what he was seeing was true or not entirely. Kaja saw perfectly well what was happening to her brother, she wanted to help him but didn't know how.

  "I want to drink." She said, turning her attention to the dead man's bag.

  Emil knelt down next to him, calming himself down. He then grabbed the bag, which he then opened. He shuffled through it all, looking for anything useful but found nothing there to eat or drink. There was, instead, an MP4 player. The boy was a bit puzzled; he considered this equipment to be prehistoric. After all, if he himself listened to music, he did it through Spotify or Youtube. He took the player in his hand curious.

  "An old thing." He muttered, examining it from all sides. Scratches and scuffs were visible.

  Kaja stood over her brother also looking at it. Emil clicked through everything he could find. There were no movies on it, but a lot of music survived. What caught his attention was an artist he knew, Ozzy Osbourne.

  "Is this the old man you used to listen to all the time?" She asked.

  "Yes." He replied, musing. "The battery is at the end of its life, but it might still come in handy."

  The player went into his pocket. Kaja meanwhile took her bag and tried to find something but it was already empty, there was nothing in any pocket. She sat down on the ground disappointed by the lack of water. Emil stood up, thinking which house to take as a night shelter. As he swept his eyes around the neighborhood, he spotted another corpse emerging from the church gates a few dozen meters from the street. This one was also in a suit, a bit more ragged with visible bites all over his body.

  "The church is a good place. We don't have time, come on." Emil said moving right away.

  This time he did not hesitate, the zombie fell dead instantly. They did not check him, there was no time. They were racing against the sun. Every second they lost was at a premium. While zombies during the day already seem like a gray reality, wandering among the dead at night leaves chills down the spine. In theory, nothing changes but imagination heightens the excitement, the fear.

  A few moments later they stood at the large door of the building. Without thinking, the girl grabbed the handle and pulled, opening the gates. They walked quickly inside, went a piece inside and froze. The church was full of the dead, many of them sitting motionless in the pews, others wandering aimlessly around the building. Their hearts leapt to their throats. Kaja nearly went down with a heart attack, Emil covered her mouth to keep her panicked from screaming. They began to retreat slowly, step by step, but suddenly the corpses caught sight of them. The dead got up and charged at the two when dinner came to them by itself. The boy pushed his sister toward the exit, telling her to run, and ran right behind her himself as fast as he could. The moment their feet stepped outside, they violently slammed the door. There was no certainty that the door would hold; it was solid but not solid enough to hold off an attack of dead men.

  "Never again." He swallowed his saliva loudly, having had enough of everything.

  "It was close." Kaja sighed.

  Emil banged his fist on the church door, but the sound was drowned out by the moans and murmuring of the dead on the other side. It was unimaginably loud, the siblings feared it could lure other corpses from the area so again they didn't have much time. They had to act immediately. The boy came up with an idea. He pointed his hand to his pocket and pulled out the player he had taken a few minutes earlier.

  "This is not the best time." She said, thinking that Emil wanted to listen to music.

  "Noise lures them, doesn't it? So we'll use it."

  "But, that..." she freaked out, knowing that he would want to let them all out. She tried to dissuade him from this plan. "Why don't we just find another place?"

  "We won't make it before dark. This church doesn't have all the corpses from this village, they may be hidden in houses." He clicked through the songs in the player to find the right music to listen to on occasion. "And if they are in the houses then I have no intention of endangering you or me."

  Kaja wasn't convinced about this, fear prevailed over her but she trusted her brother, or at least tried to.

  "What if they ignore the music? We only have an axe and Mr. Veredi's revolver. We might not even have time to escape."

  "We will not run away." He replied in a cold voice. His gaze reminded Kaja of Emil from two years ago when he was in the worst period of his life, consumed by depression. Although it was not visible from the outside, in his soul the boy was suffering mentally.

  "Did you see how many there were!" she nervously countered with an aggressive half-scream. "I can't handle it."

  "Do you want to return safely to the rest? Find your mother?" looked at Kaja with serious eyes. - Find out if dad is alive?

  "He died..."

  "How do you know?"

  "And how do you know that he survived?" she almost cried when Emil mentioned the family. "The whole horde attacked us."

  "If we were able to make it, why shouldn't he? There were more of them in the street than in the lot, he certainly escaped. We didn't hear any screams." The boy's gaze was confused, concerned. His head began to spin.

  Emil's words lifted the young Duckmark's spirits, albeit slightly. However, the youngster, seeing in her brother exactly what she had seen two years ago, guessed that the attempts at consolation were for temporary peace of mind than actual, sincere belief that Miko?aj was safely out of danger. She feared him. It would be safe to say that at times he frightened her with his words as well as his actions.

  "All right, let's do it. But if something happens-"

  "I will protect you." He interrupted her, assuring her of the effectiveness of the plan. "Open the door. And hide behind them."

  The siblings began to implement the plan. Kaja grabbed the handle, chills went through her from her feet to the top of her head. The player Emil was holding began to play music. Instantly he felt the pleasant sounds to his ears, the melody starting the song. Preferably he would have listened to it in peace and quiet without the hustle and bustle of the corpses, but unfortunately there was no such possibility. Without waiting too long, he threw the player opposite the door of the church where he wanted to lure the corpses and quickly ducked around the corner while Kaja pulled the gates. The zombies spilled over the grounds almost immediately and, hearing the music, moved in that direction. The corpse stench reached their nostrils, which was still unbearable despite the passage of many days since the plague began. The dead went out and out, there was practically no end to them. One by one, they left the church. Emil knew many of them by sight. Younger ones, older ones. Finally, the last of them left, leaving his siblings a clear path. The boy came out of hiding and silently walked behind the backs of the zombies, who were standing by the player, listening. They seemed to be focused on the music, as if they were aware that they were listening to something they loved when they were alive. Emil stared at the strange phenomenon, the image in front of his eyes blurred for a brief moment and he collided with someone low, walking blindly ahead.

  "Kaja, be careful."

  He turned his gaze to, as he thought, his sister but froze. Before his eyes he saw a dead girl, looking similar to his sister. The zombie was staring at him with its white blinds, its jaw almost all bitten off.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "No, no, no..." he ran the axe head over the concrete, slowly walking towards the undead girl. "No!"

  He raised the axe, swung and then hit the top of her head with all his strength. He thought it would finish her off, but it didn't. He pulled out the axe and pinned the corpse further against the wall, making it impossible to bite her. The zombie grunted in immobility, not believing. Emil was terrified, the world around him stopped in time. His heart rate accelerated, he began to sweat from stress and fear. The dead man raised his head, bloodied and hounded to look at Emil. His lips moved, whispering words the boy understood.

  "We can take you home." The corpse said calmly, without taking his eyes off him.

  "Come with us." He heard from behind him these words from the rest of the dead, like a chorus. "It's not safe here."

  Emil nearly screamed, frightened by what was happening. The axe fell out of his hand and his knees softened as he tried to understand if he was delusional again or not. Terrified, he grabbed the girl by the head and slammed her against the wall many times, lashing out. Her blood gushed onto Emil's face, some went into his mouth and some into his eyes. The corpse died but the boy had another problem. He wiped his eyes, all red from the corpse's blood. He turned to the horde that stood motionless by the player and among them he saw an undersized blonde woman. The corpse's clothes matched Klara's before she left. Being amok, he raised his axe to pave the way to the girl. He picked it up, with slight difficulty given his condition, and approached the first zombie. He didn't even have time to turn around when Emil plunged the weapon into his skull. The next one fell just as quickly. And another. And another.

  The music suddenly stopped playing. The battery in the player discharged at the least opportune moment. All the corpses turned around, hearing noises in the back. Emil had to make sure what he saw was true. He killed the next zombie, tearing off its head in one swift motion. He looked at the fair-haired corpse and it turned out to be a completely unknown person. He was relieved, but he still had a horde of the dead in front of him, which was only a few meters away.

  Suddenly he felt something pulling him back, in a split moment he was thrown into the church and the door closed. With the closing of the gates, Emil's psyche also returned to a stable state. He looked around, sitting up and looking for his sister. He felt a strange liquid on the floor, which he touched with his hands. Kaja looked at him with horror and distance. He frowned, knowing full well that whatever he would say he would already be a lunatic in her eyes.

  "What the hell was that supposed to be?!" she irritatedly said with resentment.

  "Kaja, I-"

  "No, you are not yourself, Emil. I've seen before that something is wrong, but now this is an exaggeration. When we find the parents I will tell them everything. You need help."

  The corpses beat on the door with great force, fortunately it was solid also they did not have to fear about forcing it through. Nevertheless, they flinched, interrupting the conversation and looking at the door.

  "Why did you interrupt us in mass?" They heard an ear-pleasing, calm voice behind them.

  Confused by the voice of a living person, they looked deep into the building. A man was standing at the altar. He was a man by the carcass, of medium height. His face was barely visible through his hood and the long chestnut hair sticking out of it. Clad in occult robes smeared with blood and zombie entrails, he directed his gaze to the altar. Placed there was an incense stick from which smoke was rising. The smell of not necessarily legal plants drew Kaja's attention, and she didn't like it. As for Emil, on the other hand, he was all the same, focused on the stranger without pause. They went deeper with his sister and only now, being closer to the altar, they saw the undead nailed to the big picture. Judging by his clothes when he was alive, he was a priest. Emil didn't know him, he hadn't been in church for a very long time. The case was different for Kaja, who hid behind her brother's back in horror.

  "In the mass?" The only thought in his head was that he must have overheard, there was no other possibility.

  "That's exactly right." He showed the incense and the bible. "We were halfway through. And now we probably won't finish because you chased out the blessed ones."

  The siblings literally did not know what to say. They were not safe in his company, they knew that. They had no way to escape either, they were trapped.

  "Wait. They don't attack you?"

  "They attack, just like everyone else. But all you have to do is smear yourself with their guts and they won't distinguish you from the sinners anymore. This is the only way to prolong our life on this side until we convert everyone!"

  "Man, that's enough incense for you."

  "I'm not kidding. I don't have any hallucinations like you."

  Emil fell silent for a moment. The subject of his mental problems was embarrassing and awkward for him.

  "Have you been like this for a long time?"

  "Almost a month. With breaks."

  "Maybe it's time for you." He nodded his head concerned.

  "I don't understand."

  "Get closer to God. Death is not the end, my dear. It is only the beginning." He smiled with conviction at what he was saying. "God promised us a resurrection... And he kept his word."

  Kaja became concerned. Fearing that the cultist might be armed with a firearm, she discreetly pulled out Tarhos' revolver and, with a slow motion, gave it to Emil, who, without letting on, grabbed it, unlocking it.

  "And to this one what happened?" He nodded toward the corpse hanging in the painting. "Is this your blessed one, too?"

  "Him?" He glanced at the hanging man, the smile disappeared from his face. "No. He just happened to be an asshole. Where I come from, at Westerplatte he would have met a worse fate. I would have handcuffed him to a rock and sent the blessed to pluck him."

  For the siblings, the stranger's intentions became clear. A religious fanatic and, in addition, a psychopath these days is no good.

  "Westerplatte? Do you have any group?"

  "Of course. Gdańsk was the epicenter of the purge in Poland. The Lord sent us a gift in the form of a homeless man who started it all. All his most faithful servants are right there."

  Emil glanced out of the corner of his eye at Kaja after these words. Both of them carefully remembered their relatives from Gdańsk, with whom there had been no contact from the very beginning. A spark of hope was born that they were still alive after all, whether in a group of morally bad or good people. The stranger looked at the window and frowned.

  "Come, come. Sacrifices must be made with the last ray of the sun. May God forgive us."

  "Wait, wait." One question was born in Kaja's mind. She had seen all these dead people, but when she looked at them during Emil's psychosis, she didn't notice any particular signs in most of them of how they could have died. "How did you get everyone together in one place? And what happened to them?"

  "I killed them." He replied without hesitation. "There is poison spilled at the entrance. One touch and you're dead."

  Emil froze. He remembered that he had touched some liquid while sitting at the door. He momentarily looked at Kaja, whose face was equally horrified. He didn't have to ask if she had come in contact with it, the reaction told the whole truth.

  "You're joking, right?" he raised his voice, looking at the cultist.

  The man only looked at him, answering.

  "No. I told you, death is not the end. It is a new beginning. A new life."

  In Emil began to boil, burning rage took control of him but he resisted it.

  "Accept God and become what he created." He took the incense in one hand and the knife in the other.

  "God isn't here anymore."

  Holding the grip of the revolver tightly, Emil took rapid aim and shot the cultist right in the head, killing him on the spot. The corpse fell to the ground along with the incense and a second later the boy shot again, this time at the nailed corpse. Everything happened so fast that the man most likely didn't notice that he was dead. The shot also caused all the corpses in the area who had not attended the occult mass to head toward the church. However, it didn't matter because the church doors were unbreakable.

  Kaja, although she was in favor of what her brother had done, was horrified at how easy it was for him to murder a man, for the second time. She looked at him sadly. Emil, meanwhile, was searching through the corpse, looking for anything useful. After all, they were still hungry and thirsty. In the pockets there was only a handwritten letter. He took it in his hand, opened it and read it aloud.

  "Wiktor,

  Until the situation in the city calms down you get new orders. Go south and raise an army for us. We need a force to fight the Government. In the warehouse in my office you have the keys to a helicopter, you know which one.

  We need to resettle on Harbor Island. Tanks have taken to the street, they are killing not only the blessed ones but also us. We'll do what we can to destroy all the bridges so keep an eye on the equipment.

  May God protect us."

  ~ Wit

  He held the letter for a moment longer, analyzing the facts. He did not expect completely that any government was still operating in the world, although it probably could not be called a government in the old sense of the word for it has no control over the state but only over its own community of survivors.

  Emil got up, leaving the letter next to the body, and headed for the sacristy. He expected surprises left by the cultist but fortunately there was nothing of the sort. However, he found the man's supplies, some of which had already been consumed, but there was still some left. The boy took two bottles of water and an infused can of beans, which had been prepared earlier on a special heater, but unfortunately had managed to get cold. He also took a wooden spoon. Although he was not fond of cold food, it even disgusted him, it was not too much of a problem in this situation. After thinking for a while and checking how much food was left, he decided that he would let the meal go and give the whole thing to his sister.

  He returned to the chancel with what he had taken. Kaja was sitting on a pew in the front row, waiting for her brother. The boy headed in her direction. The banging on the door quieted down after a while, the corpses apparently getting bored and scattering around the church grounds. Emil sat down next to Kaja, handing her a can with a spoon in his hand and putting the bottles between them. The girl looked at the can, then at Emil.

  "And you?" she felt uncomfortable as the only one having food.

  "Eat." He opened the bottle, wanting a drink. "We will still find something. As long as this poison doesn't finish us off."

  Kaja, with mixed feelings, began to consume the food, slowly savoring the taste, although, like Emil, she didn't like it cold. Emil put down the bottle. They sat in silence, the boy staring blankly ahead, trying to understand himself. To understand what he experienced in front of the church. The hallucinations were oppressing him more and more, being behind a secure fence it was relatively calm, but outside any hallucination is a deadly risk. He feared he might be experiencing depression or worse, early schizophrenia.

  "Kaja?" He said uncertainly.

  The girl looked at him, swallowing her food.

  "I don't know what's happening to me." He began to stammer, no longer hiding his emotions inside. "Sometimes I just... can't see, can't hear. Everything is blurry."

  He fell silent, gathering his thoughts. He didn't know how to say what was on his heart.

  "When I have an attack they... whisper. They speak to me. I don't know if it's true or not anymore." He turned his gaze to his sister. "Maybe I never woke up from this coma?"

  "Don't say that because it makes me stressed" She turned around, putting the empty can on the floor. Emil noticed fresh blood on the back of her hair.

  "Hey, Kaja." When she turned around, he grabbed her face and checked the back of her head. He momentarily remembered the corpse that looked just like his sister. "Don't say I did it."

  She did not answer the question, only looked at her brother, who had horror in his eyes.

  "Where are you, Emil?" She asked, filled with sadness. Wherever Emil's mind was, it was certainly not here.

  "What?" He heard it as if through a soundproofed wall, as if he had been deafened.

  The boy's mental problems were giving out once again. Ever since he awoke from his coma, he regularly had fits of psychosis and strange hallucinations. This was also the case here. He didn't understand Kaja's words until she repeated it, but instead of his sister he saw Marcel before his eyes. For a split second. - "Where are you!" - He shouted. Emil's ears rang. The sight of his friend shocked him, the aggressive tone confused the boy. He felt he was losing his mind. He looked away quickly, closing his eyes. He wanted to cut himself off from everything, not to feel anything anymore.