Zedlist – Part Thirty Four
Serial Fiction Novel
“I’m scared of flying”, Alex shouted, noticing Kevin’s glance and feeling the need to explain.
There was an excruciating sound as fingernails scraped against the fusillade.
Geoff used the controls to his left to rise even higher and then pushed the cyclic pitch lever gently forward. The helicopter shook again, more violently this time. Kevin saw the figure fall down the station roof top. Geoff regained control of the helicopter and began moving forwards. Looking back, Kevin could see the large figure getting up. He looked nimble, but hideously disjointed. Kevin sat back in his seat and took a breath.
“Where are we going?” Tim asked from the back.
This was a question that Kevin had not given any thought to. All he had been focused on was getting away from the chaos below.
“We have to go and help Harrison”, Amy shouted from the back, her measured tone being disrupted by a sense of urgency for the first time.
“Who is Harrison?” Kevin asked.
“Harrison is my dog”, Amy responded.
“Your Dog?” Alex spluttered.
“Yes”, Amy said, glaring in his direction. “He needs to be fed, He’ll be worried that no one is there, poor thing.”
Kevin was fascinated that Amy was showing this level of concern for her pet, when she had barely even blinked upon hearing that her father was dead.
“Where is it?” Kevin shouted so that she could hear him from the back.
“Chignal Smealy”, she replied, “In Essex.”
“Head towards Essex”, Kevin said to Geoff, “this thing must have GPS.”
Geoff had gone completely silent. The uncertainty in his eyes had been replaced with a focused determination. Kevin looked down and saw houses on the ground that were now just tiny pinpricks of light. He noticed that it was becoming increasingly harder to breathe.
“What’s going on?” Kevin said, panicking. “Why are we so high? Where are we going?”
Geoff replied without turning his head. The words that left his mouth sent a chill down Kevin’s spine, “I am taking us to heaven so we can meet God”.
Tim had released his safety belt and was leaning towards the cockpit. “Did he just say what I…”
“Yes”, Kevin replied.
“The air up here will be too thin for the rota blades. The helicopter won’t be able to go beyond a certain height. If he is set on going up, we will be up here until we run out of fuel. Tim ran a hand through his patchy hair, sweat rolling off his brow and down his nose.”
“So what you are saying is that the only thing stopping us from flying to heaven is that the air is too thin for the rota blades? Isn’t that annoying”, Kevin exclaimed. He relied on sarcasm to express himself, even in the face of death.
Geoff was seemingly oblivious to the conversation between the two men. It was as if he was in some kind of trance, still under the effects of the LSD.
“Geoff, I understand what you want to do and I am not going to stop you, but I need you to listen to me. Can you do that?” Kevin spoke softly and slowly, as if talking to a child holding a hand grenade.
Kevin waited for a response, but none came.
“Have you ever read the word of God?” Kevin asked him.
“He is talking to me now”, Geoff said.
“I understand. Do you believe that the bible is the word of God?” Kevin asked.
“Yes”, the man responded.
“There is a story in the bible that tells of the Tower of Babel. Have you heard of this?”
Geoff did not answer.
“The people of babel believed that they could reach heaven by building a tower to God. When God saw them doing this he punished them for thinking that they could ever reach God in the physical realm and split their one language into many. This left them unable to communicate to one another. In the confusion they could not continue building the tower. Do you think that God will reward you for trying to reach him in the physical world, or do you think he will reward you by saving lives and doing good on earth by giving you everlasting life in heaven?”
“But God doesn’t…” came a voice from the back. Amy put a hand around Alex’s mouth before he could finish.
After a minute Geoff’s hand eased on the controls. The helicopter dipped and started descending slowly back towards the ground. This was the first time Kevin had been truly appreciative of his Sunday school education. As the cabin slowly decompressed and oxygen levels began to rise, Kevin breathed a much needed sigh of relief.
As the adrenaline began to decrease in his body he started to shake slightly. He looked tired and older than his twenty seven years. He’d administered unregulated amounts of acid to forty three people, pinned an old man against a wall, found a dead body, fought a dead body and escaped the police in a traffic copter. The initial plan of broadcasting a manifesto over the radio had clearly gone somewhat awry. Although Kevin was still keen to get to the bottom of everything surrounding the demon-possessed celebrity cult, he was more concerned with keeping everyone in his group alive, including himself.
He couldn’t help thinking about Colin and his apparent rising from the dead. His body had appeared to have traits of a zombie, but also had some fundamental differences. His body moved in a distorted, disrupted fashion, much like in an early stop animation film. He was not dragging his feet or groaning. Not even the smallest amount of drool left his mouth. The most distinctive feature was the eyes, tortured, trapped and every bit human. The bullets had done nothing, but by destroying Colin’s brain his body had become limp and lifeless once more.
next: Zedlist – Part Thirty Five
previous: Zedlist – Thirty Three
all chapters: Zedlist
more by LUCAS HOWARD
photograph by Nick Graham
