Chapter 9: Mark of the Beast by Stephen Simpson

 

Liam pushed his arm out to stop Lydia from walking any further. He brought his other arm up to his face to put a finger in front of his mouth to show her not to say anything. In his rush, his arm knocked against the bush beside him, and the leaves rustled loudly.

The dark figure turned around quickly. The voice was deep and heavily accented as it demanded, “Who’s there? I have a gun.”

Lydia felt a wave of ice-cold shivers rush through her body.

Liam lied, “I have a gun too. Make any sudden movements and I’ll shoot you dead.”

The figure laughed. “You watch too many movies, or what?” The dark figure stepped closer until he was standing close enough for them to see each other. He was older and taller than Liam and Lydia, and he had black hair and prominent eyebrows. “I see you’re not barcoded, yet.”

Lydia took a step backwards.

“Me neither,” he said. “Giovanni is the name, and you?”

Liam asked, “Are you heading to the coast?”

Giovanni walked past them, back to the dirt driveway. “Let’s not do meet and greet in the road. The patrol vehicle is due any minute.”

Lydia shrugged as she looked at Liam who gave her a questioning look. “Might as well,” she whispered. “There’s safety in numbers.”

They turned and followed Giovanni back to the dilapidated house where they hid within the shadows of the overgrown shrubbery in the front garden.

Giovanni slung his rifle over his shoulder. “So? Aren’t you going to tell me your names?”

Liam said, “Liam and Lydia.”

“You a couple?”

“No,” Lydia said quickly. “Just friends.”

Giovanni asked, “Do you have any food?”

Liam hesitated. He had seen enough apocalypse movies to know strangers cannot be trusted. “Not really,” he said. “Just one or two snack bars.”

Giovanni held out his hand, palm up. “Give us one. I don’t know when last I had something to eat.”

Liam pulled his backpack off and put it down at his feet. He bent down to unzip a side pocket and pulled out a snack bar.

Lydia felt her stomach grumble when she heard the crumpling of the wrapper. She had not eaten all day except for the one snack bar.

Liam asked, as he looked back at her from his bent over position, “Do you want another?”

Lydia shook her head. “I’d rather save it for later.”

After closing his pack again and hefting it up on his back, he handed the snack bar to Giovanni who ripped it open and ate it in two bites.

Giovanni said, with a mouth full of cereal and nuts, “I probably should have savoured that, but it’s too late now.”

“Where are you from?” Liam asked him.

“I’ve been walking for about a week now, all the way from Colony Dinta.”

Lydia gasped. “Colony Dinta?”

“Yeah. It’s crazy down there. It’s like a horror movie. Most people are coded already, and they’re like zombies now. All meek and mild, walking around like they’re in a period drama. The other handful of people who refuse the barcode and have gone into hiding are all starving to death. It’s not like in the movies where everybody is gone, and you can go into shops to scavenge. The world is still ticking along. Coded people go to work, go grocery shopping, go out to lunch, scroll their social media feeds, and watch TV at night. It’s only us stubborn lot who are suffering. Lots of times, I’ve considered to get coded just to still the hunger pains in my belly.”

Lydia asked in a soft, disbelieving voice, “Are you saying people with the barcode are different now?”

Giovanni looked at her with a look of sadness on his face. “Yeah. I’ve heard when they tattoo the barcode on a person’s forehead, they obviously implant a chip because how else will they get all the data when the barcode is scanned, although apparently it also has something to do with the widths of the lines, but I don’t really know how it works. They say, the chip is inserted in your brain just under your skull in your forehead and it has this chemical to make people compliant so that when the governments of Rheta say jump, you’ll jump, and when they say bark, you’ll bark. Crazy stuff if you ask me. Not something I want in my head, that’s for sure.”

Lydia looked at him, deep in thought. Was her mum like this now? Was that how her dad died? Did the chip go too deep?

“Where you all from?” Giovanni asked, looking at Liam.

“From Alton Stine, just down the road,” Liam replied.

“Isn’t that where that kid soldier shot seven people who were standing in the line to get barcoded?”

“When was this?” Lydia asked.

“About a week ago. Wednesday, I think. Just because there’s a curfew and all, doesn’t mean the world has ended. Didn’t you know what’s going on in your own town.”

Defensively, Lydia said, “We had a lot of things going on.”

They hunkered down when the lights of the patrol vehicle warned them of its approach. They stayed down until the night turned dark again.

“We have to get going. It’s still a long walk before we get to the coast,” Liam said, and started to take a step toward the driveway.

Giovanni fell into step beside him, while Lydia followed behind. She was thinking about what Giovanni had told them. About the seven people who were shot. Was her dad one of them. Will she ever know?

Giovanni asked, “Do you know anyone who’s been coded?”

Liam said, “My whole family. My brother joined the army just before the new year, and my parents went yesterday. When I left earlier, they hadn’t been back yet.”

“Won’t they be worried about you?”

Liam shrugged. “Probably, but I couldn’t take the chance that they’ll force me to get the barcode when they got back.”

Giovanni gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Sorry, man. I know, it’s hard.” He stopped walking and waited for Lydia to catch up before he fell into step beside her. “And you, Lydia?”

Lydia was looking down at her feet as she walked. One step in front of the other. She did not look up when she replied. “My dad died last week Wednesday, and they took my mum this afternoon.”

Giovanni said softly. “That’s rough.” He reached out to touch her arm. “How’re you holding up?”

“Putting one foot in front of the other,” she said.

Giovanni did not say anything again but continued walking next to Lydia, while Liam led the way.

The bushes on both sides of the road were high and blocked their view. It was as if they were walking down a long tunnel in a maze. Every now and again the trees grew so large that they formed a tunnel over the road. These spots were especially dark because the thick foliage blocked the sparse moonlight.

When the hedges on the right side of the road became more sporadic, Liam suggested, while pointing his arm in the direction. “Maybe we should go off-road and walk across the fields.” He looked back. “Do you think it will be safer than staying on the road?”

Giovanni pulled his phone from his pocket to look at the time. “We still have half an hour before the next patrol.”

“It’s dark though and it’s at least a mile still until we reach the coast. We won’t know where we’re going,” Lydia said looking at the open expanse.

“When the sun comes up, it would be easier to see us in the open. On the road we can still hide in the bushes when we see the patrol car coming,” Giovanni added.

Liam started walking again. “I guess it’s been decided then. Let’s get going. I’d like us to be off the road by sunrise.”

Lydia’s feet were tired. She could feel her shoes rubbing against a blister or two that must have been caused by wearing wet socks that softened her skin. “Can’t we stop awhile?”

“The sun’s going to be up in an hour or so. It’s easier to get around in the dark,” Liam said without stopping.

When they came to a side road, Liam turned to go down it. “It’s this way to the beach.” He stopped walking and waited for Lydia and Giovanni. “Also, it’s a back road. I doubt the patrol car will be going up and down this road.”

They walked side by side now, with Lydia in the middle.

“We’ll have to stop for a bit,” Giovanni said. “Here between these trees. The patrol car will be coming by any minute now.” As he said it, the sky behind them started to brighten from the headlights of an approaching vehicle.

They quickly dashed to the side of the road and sat down in the long grass between the large bushes.

Giovanni asked, sounding hopeful, “Do you still have some of those snack bars?”

Liam gave him a disgruntled look but started to unzip the side pocket of his backpack without saying a word. He handed them each a bar.

The crackling of wrappers was loud, but they ate in silence, enjoying every bite and trying to make the snack-size bar last as long as possible.

When she put the last of her snack in her mouth, Lydia stretched out her legs and leaned back on her arms. She was exhausted. Beyond exhausted. “Can we sleep here? I am so tired right now; I could sleep just about anywhere.”

Liam said, “It’s just a little bit further, maybe half an hour, then we’ll reach the beach. The sun will be coming up by then and then we can sleep.”

Giovanni agreed, “Liam’s right. It would be safer to keep a low profile during the day. That’s how I kept going for the last week. At night you can see the headlights of the patrol cars way off because it’s so dark out. In the day, you’d have to rely on your hearing and sometimes, unless the car is driving fast, you cannot really hear it coming.”

Lydia lifted herself off the ground. “Well, let’s get going then. I’d like to get wherever we’re going as quickly as possible so that I can close my eyes and not open them for at least the next twelve hours.”

They continued their journey down the dark backroad and Liam was right, those who had all the power now did not deem it necessary to patrol the backroads.

When they walked past a dilapidated building of red stones, light blue doors, holes in the tiled roof and bars of the windows, Giovanni said, “That looks like a five-star hotel to me right now.”

Lydia agreed, “Oh, yes, I could easily lay my head down there and give it a gushing review.”

Liam said, “Just a little bit further there’s these holiday cabins where we can stay for the day. It’s out of the way and mostly used by people who go to a wedding venue nearby, so I doubt there’ll be anybody there during the week. If there is, we’ll come back to this luxury establishment.”

After walking for hours, mostly in silence to conserve their energy, now that they had something to look forward to, just a couple more steps ahead, the mood had lifted. Also, not having to hide from a patrol vehicle for the last two miles, made them forget all about how everything changed one Christmas morning, not so long ago.

The backroad turned into a walkway and split into two. They followed the path, after having to climb over a wooden farm gate, until they reached the beach. They could hear the waves crashing on the shore before they could see it and a cold breeze was blowing off the top of the water. As one, they pulled their jackets tighter around their bodies, hunched their shoulders and pushed their hands in their pockets as if that would ward off the icy chill.

Their feet sank deep into the soft beach sand, and Lydia could feel her thigh muscles starting to cramp up. “How far still?” she asked.

“Almost there,” Liam assured her.

Giovanni was breathing hard. “This better be worth it. I can’t believe we walked past a perfectly good place to sleep, like an hour ago.”

When they reached a set of four cabins, off the beaten track, Liam went ahead to scout out the place while Giovanni and Lydia stayed hidden in the foliage. Twenty minutes later, Liam came back with a huge smile on his face. He said, while looking at Lydia, “You’re going to be so glad you waited.”

They followed Liam back to the cabin.

Giovanni asked, “How’d you know about this place?”

“A cousin of mine got married over there.” He waved his arm in an estimated direction to the left. “And we stayed here for the weekend.”

They walked along the pathway to the cabin furthest in the back. The cabins were built between large trees and to the other side of them the sea grass grew so tall, it was as high as Lydia’s waist. If someone had to come along now, all they had to do was dive down, keep low, and hide in the grass.

As they reached the cabin and stepped up onto the porch, the sun started rising over the horizon. Lydia stood for a while, mesmerized by the colours. For just a moment, she could pretend that everything was alright with the world.


Continue reading Chapter 10/17

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