Everyone's screams reached a crescendo along with their terror as half a corpse emerged from the thick fog.
"Stop! Stop pulling! Cut the rope and block the doors! Hurry, block the doors!" Bud, the supermarket manager, shouted in a voice so shrill it was almost piercing.
Trembling, Ollie grabbed a pair of scissors from the checkout counter and cut the rope. The others scrambled to pick up the bags nearby and pile them up like a barricade, blocking the glass doors.
The lower half of the corpse lay less than five meters from the supermarket entrance, blue-green intestines still attached, drawing one scream after another from the crowd, along with a loud sermon from Mrs. Carmody.
"I knew it! I told you! This is what happens! He has finally sent down His punishment, because all of you worship modern gods, or even no god at all.
"The Creator has sent forth His seven horsemen, because we have blasphemed against Him for far too long. From this day forward, we shall repay Him in blood. It is time to prove yourselves. Choose your side: forgiveness or damnation. If we want to survive, we must perform a blood sacrifice!"
"Sorry, what did you say?" Hearing those words, Martin could no longer stand it. Supporting himself on the shelves, he hopped over to the woman on one foot.
"Please say that again. What do we need to do?"
The woman faced Martin without a trace of fear, flames of madness dancing in her eyes.
"A blood sacrifice. Offer Him the purest soul, or perhaps as early as tonight, after darkness falls, they will come and take some of us away. Then you will understand. Then you will beg Holy Mother Carmody to show you the way."
Already calling herself the Holy Mother?
*The