Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 22

We cleared the empty and spacious nave of the cathedral, which went reasonably well than I thought. About sixty rows of pews were neatly arranged in two columns, and no surprise, vectors were hiding between them. Someone wrapped a chained padlock tightly around the double doors at the front of the cathedral.

I theorized that the infected we killed earlier were survivors who sought refuge behind the cathedral walls and locked themselves in, only to realize too late that some of them were infected-or all of them. We didn't find any vectors left.

We were safe for now. There were still a couple of unexplored areas, including the four-story private catholic school: CROMWELL ACADEMY. The rest were just the cloisters and chapter houses. Two hallways led toward the east and west from the nave; the two areas I was hesitant to check out with just the three of us. We needed more people to keep the cathedral safe. Lucky for us, both doors connected to those areas had a padlock on them, and I had the master key.

The place was huge. I didn't know how many survivors could be hiding in there, or worse, how many vectors were waiting for us on the other side. There might be students or some of the staff still trapped inside the building.

It was clear that I had to bring the others here. The bookstore wasn't the right place to hole up while we waited for everything to blow over, and Miguel and Logan agreed with me. I was already planning on using the roof, which overlooked a good portion of the neighborhood, by creating signs and SOS signals for other survivors and the army. Miguel reluctantly stayed behind the cathedral, keeping a watchful eye on it as Logan and I went to fetch the others in the bookstore.

"Keep the kids safe," Miguel told me.

I knew he was worried about Henry, the boy he rescued out of the streets last night. I reassured him that I would do my best to bring him to the church safe and sound.

Miguel carefully looked at the weapons and the vest I wore, and seemingly satisfied, he nodded and said, "You better."

I left the master key with Miguel if he needed an escape route if the vectors managed to get into the nave.

There were three entries into the main cathedral: The front door and the two exits at the back. The door on the east, which was the garden and where we came in, was filled with vectors. The one on the west was clear of them. Logan and I took that exit out of the church and ran off toward the bookstore's direction. Most of the vectors were distracted by the explosions and gunshots ringing out a few blocks away. A part of me was thankful for that.

I peered at the bags we carried, each filled with the haul from the pharmacy. We've only been gone for three hours, but I didn't know how long Carson have before the fever worsened. As we ran toward the next block, I wished we weren't too late to administer the medicine. We left some of the bags with Miguel, only bringing the things we needed for Carson.

We avoided the one or two vectors rushing through the street toward the army by hiding behind cars or underneath it, and once they were gone, we pressed forward toward the bookstore. It took half an hour to reach the back alley, getting lost for a good quarter of a mile before backtracking our way to the right street.

I knocked on the door at the pattern I showed Jonas earlier. A few seconds went by, and Jonas slowly opened the door, wide-eyed and on the brink of tears. At that instant, I knew something was wrong.

"What happened?" I asked him as I stepped into the dark.

"It's—It's, I don't know what's going on, but a few minutes ago they...they..."

As my eyes adjusted, I saw Bobby and Daniel huddled at the far corner, quaking with fear. At the door leading to the bookstore, Yousef and Luke had their hands wrapped on the handle, tightly pulling it shut as if someone was trying to break out. Joe pointed the shotgun directly at the door.