SurvivorZ

72

JUDITH

Judith ran the razor blade through a fresh sheet of paper, slicing it into orderly ribbons. Her head was lowered, her mood, heavy. The fading sunlight streaming through her windows couldn't come close to brightening her thoughts.

She knew she should be finishing her housework, idle hands being the Devil's plaything and all. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Maureen was never far from her thoughts all day, leaving her guts twisted in knots. Cutting paper into strips always helped her relax, something that wasn't easy to do when her mind churned like a turbulent ocean.

A part of her wanted to trust that as a mother, Maureen would always do what was right for her children and never put them in harm's way. It was becoming harder to believe that would always be the case. Especially when her foolish decisions, like the one she made this morning, posed a risk to their safety.

Her domineering ways reminded her of her own mother, before the cancer reduced her to an emaciated shell wasting away in bed. Cora Montgomery was a stern woman whose heart was so filled with love for God that there was no room in it for anyone else. She only kept Judith around to spite the man who spurned her for another woman. As far as she was concerned, the child she bore from his immoral seed was her greatest shame in the eyes of the Holy Father.

Despite her indifference to her only child, she was never a cruel parent. She treated Judith as she would any other youngster in her classroom, dispensing praise and punishment in equal measure. She impressed upon her the importance of shepherding the young, of shaping innocent minds before sin could twist their mortal souls.

Over the years, her strict mentoring cultivated obedience in her daughter. When Cora laid suffering in her bed during her final days, puking and shitting out every bite that Judith fed her, she commanded her daughter to end her life. Like every other instruction Cora ever uttered, her final decree was gospel to Judith's ears.

She always wondered if the police suspected her involvement in her mother's death. In the end, all they could do was take her at her word that her dying parent got into her nightstand, found the razor Judith used to shave her legs, and managed to slit her own wrists with it.

They were never around to see how badly her mother's hands shook coming on the end. They couldn't possibly know that she could barely hold a straw, much less the implement of her own demise. Neither could they imagine the extent to which Judith was incapable of denying her mother's demands, nor how much she had grown to despise the control she had over her. The only ones who knew the truth were her and the Almighty, and she trusted Him to keep her secret implicitly.

The second life she took – not counting the unfortunate souls she barricaded in the school yesterday, nor that regrettable accident with Danielle's boyfriend – didn't go as smoothly.

Her hand started quivering. Judith cut the paper in a ragged line, the blade tight between her fingers.

Watching Maureen outside this morning, bent over Brent's body like one of those TV detectives, a single thought took root in her mind and wouldn't give her a moment's peace.

She suspects something.

Why else had she taken everyone with her, including Emily and Lee, and left her behind? Though she didn't directly accuse Judith of having anything to do with his death, she clearly found enough evidence on the body to harbor her suspicions.

When she declared her intention to bring the kids along, Judith could barely control the urge to pull out the blade in her pocket and bleed the woman dry. Maureen was proving to be a bigger threat to His plan to keep those poor children safe than the monsters lurking outside.

Something needed to be done, but she didn't dare proceed without a clear sign from above. She served Him in all things, after all.

"Lord, let your will be known."

The ways of God were many, she knew. He could be as powerful as a raging tornado or as subtle as a gentle breeze. The only way to see His majesty was through the eyes of faith.

She held up a sliver of paper to the sunlight and ran the blade down its grain, her hands steady once more. The slice curled it in two pieces, both of them catching the early evening rays through her kitchen window.

A shadow flickered over the paper. Judith glanced out the window. A northern cardinal was perched on her deck. Its bright red plumage was aglow from the sunlight gleaming through its feathers.

Judith gasped at its beauty. At that same moment, searing pain bit her finger. The edge of the blade dug into the soft pad of her fingertip. She hissed and dropped it, yanking her stinging hand away. When she looked back again, the bird was gone.

Sucking on her finger, she stared at the paper pieces scattered over her kitchen table. Her blood seeped into the pristine whiteness of the collage, flowing along the straight edges of the strips and soaking into their fibers.

She looked closer, watching as a shape emerged. The trace of blood clinging to a severed edge, slowly dissolving into two other cross-angled strips, was very distinctive. To her, it looked like the marks she left on Brent's throat after she punctured his jugular.

The unmistakable sound of a vehicle pulling into the driveway reached her ears. Judith jumped to her feet. She plunged the razor blade into her pocket and swiped the mess of torn paper strips into the trash.

Sucking on her wounded finger, she walked through the house to the front window. After disappearing all day, a part of her almost hadn't expected the others to return. With every hour the clock ticked away, she felt more certain that Maureen had convinced them all to skip town with her, leaving Judith in the lurch.

She parted the curtains in her living room and frowned at the sight through her window. She expected one car, not two. Her gaze narrowed at the unfamiliar faces emerging from the lead vehicle.

The woman with the short hair wasn't anything of note, as far as she could tell. She stood in the driveway, looking lost, moving only when the others led the way. From her attitude, Judith suspected she probably never experienced an original thought in her entire life.

Similarly, the man accompanying her looked to be all muscle and no brain. However, in a world that relied on brawn for survival, he posed a huge problem. Perhaps even a bigger one than Brent. If that muscle-bound oaf decided to insinuate himself into their group as an authority figure, it could make things difficult for her.

What was Maureen thinking, bringing more strangers into her home? Did she not sufficiently learn her lesson from Blahey? From Brent? How many others had to suffer before that foolish woman understood that trusting outsiders was inherently dangerous?

Something needed to be done about them, but not until she dealt with the root of all their problems. Maureen. She needed to handle that fool, before her recklessness brought them all to ruin.

Judith sneered. It wasn't a burning bush, but God's message was clear enough. A flock could only have one shepherd.

Maureen Sommers would simply have to go.