The Risen: Courage Read Free Page B

fault. I thought at the time it would have been harsher to loot them and let them go than to come and see what was here. I was wrong.”
    “The fault rests with J.D., God rest his soul, not with you. Not with any of you. You would think you would understand the difference between the truth and words said in anger with how your group carries on.” Ah, there is that cold slap we have come to expect from Paula’s words. She says, “Let’s get this girl downstairs before Lawless provokes anymore unnecessary mayhem.”
    The look she gives Lawless is one well rehearsed from many years of mothering. She motions for Rhett to lift Aimes’ unconscious body and he does so, letting his anger melt away with each inch he lifts with her in his arms. His eyes grow bright with his tears as he gazes down at her. Until now, I held no knowledge of how deeply he felt for her.
    With my own glare to Lawless for what just happened, I follow Rhett and Paula down a hallway I wish I could avoid. I focus on the blood that falls to the floor with the delicacy of rose petals shaken from a flower. It leaves a red trail in their wake that I do my best to step around it. Step on a crack; break your mothers back. If you step on your friend’s blood, what becomes of that?
    I close my senses to the many broken bodies that still lay about. I ignore the ones huddled in mournful embraces and blaming eyes as Chapel’s words keep repeating in my mind. With each death I pass, I wonder if it is another sin added to my soul.
    Is all of this our fault? If we had let J.D. have his fun then, would they be suffering now? If his simple ego was appeased back at the Welcome Center, would there have been a need for it to be appeased here at the school? Paula said this was J.D.’s fault, but I am starting to agree with Chapel. It was not J.D. who wanted to be here. He wanted to leave, but I stopped him. I kept them here when they were so close to leaving, and these innocent people could have escaped his wrath. I thought Aimes was going to be the last entry into my portfolio of failures, but with each body I pass, the pages grow along with the nightmares that will haunt me.
    Our eyes are rimmed with red. Our hands are soaked in red. We have spread red to every thing we have touched. We are covered and surrounded by the deaths of those we knew. Like flowers at a headstone, the red stains will always serve as a silent reminder of what has happened here today. As the moans mount, I am signaling my surrender. Death has won the game. He has defeated us almost completely. I truly hope it is now over. I only hope he will let us hold onto the one small victory Rhett clutches in his arms as we begin to descend into the lower level of the high school.

CHAPTER 4
    T he sun has finally crested the trees, sending its dazzling rays into the long windows of the bottom floor. The dead man with his broken neck seems more horrifying in the bright light of day. I refuse to glance at the woman who holds the proof we no longer need still planted in her chest. Her blood sticks to the bottom of my boots like glue in its cooled state. We trample it across the hallway, only spreading more of the red coloring I had hoped to escape. I have seen and smelled enough blood in one day alone to fill every day of a calendar with comments of its vision. After today, I have no desire to be reacquainted with it any time soon.
    “Law, you left the gate open.” Marxx motions with his head to the wide-open wooden doors of the courtyard to which Lawless stares at with a confused look.
    “Pretty sure I didn’t,” Lawless says. He is lost in thought trying to force the memories from last night to the surface of his mind.
    “Did they open themselves?” Marxx meant it as a jest, but no one is laughing. The mood shifts like an earthquake. We know what can open doors when others have had them closed.
    “Give her to me.” Marxx tells Rhett and when he gains no response he says, “My arm is still bum. I