“That’s probably not a good idea, Jessie.” Cobb said “Maybe you should wait. We’re winning against them, they just lost a thousand men at Tombstone.”
“Can’t wait and can’t explain Cobb.” Jessie said and the old man felt a shiver run up his spine. Like a goose had walked over his grave. Like he was talking to a ghost.
“Tell dad I’ll see him soon.” he said and flipped off the radio.
Cobb held the mic in his hand for a long moment, half convinced he’d been talking to Gunny. Lacy was still in her office doing busy work like everyone else that knew what was happening down in the reservation, nervously waiting to hear news. He should go tell her about the strange conversation but it would only upset her. Especially if she figured out that he thought both of them were already dead or soon would be.
Scarlet had been unusually quiet the last part of their trip. They talked about what to expect at the headquarters, about entrances and exits. The only way in was through the tunnels, the building was completely locked down. There weren’t any escape routes, they were so sure of their strength they weren’t prepared for an attack. The Lord of the Underworld didn’t think anyone knew where they were and didn’t have plans to defend against an assault.
“He sounds like an idiot.” Jessie said, sipping on a warm Mountain Dew as they passed by dancing prairie grass and overgrown corn fields in eastern Minnesota.
“He didn’t used to be.” she’d said quietly and curled back up to sleep.
She’d dozed a lot and only fully awoke when they got close and he needed directions to the Anubis headquarters. He’d killed the lights when they were still twenty miles out and drove into the city completely blacked out. She watched him quietly as he geared up and only spoke when spoken to. He asked for her advice when he was trying to decide between a Molle vest that could hold the extra magazines or his Kevlar leathers which he wore like a second skin.
“If it comes down to guns, you shouldn’t need a lot of ammo.” she said. “There isn’t a central armory, the guards all carry weapons and there are caches of guns and bullets on every floor. You can resupply there.” “We have to get to the labs undetected or we will fail.” she said as she pulled on her jacket. “We have to convince Doctor Stevens not to sound the alarm or we fail. He has to know how to reverse this disease or we fail. We have to kill my father or we fail.”
Jessie tried to say something funny to lighten the grim mood but couldn’t. They were probably going to their death. Both knew it and neither could stop it. It was okay, though. They would be together. He shrugged into his jacket, let his guns find their place and slipped his backup pistols into their holsters. He stared at her and tried to find words but they both knew the truth. Her more so than him.
She was morose and it took immense willpower to keep fighting the insidious spread of the black runners. It made her want to curl up and sleep, to surrender to it, to not do anything. To let it run its course so she would stop feeling the cold, creeping tendrils. She was dying and she could feel it worming through her, sense it curling icy fingers into her brain. She was only going through the motions for Jessie’s sake because he still believed. Because nothing she could say would make him turn away from this task. Nothing she could do would make him leave her to the business of killing her father by herself. She knew it was hopeless, though. Doctor Stevens didn’t have a miracle drug waiting for her. There was no cure.
Even if he could discover one for the slow-moving death, it would be much too late. She didn’t have another week. She didn’t have another day. The spread had reached a critical mass, it had finally infected enough of her that the good blood in her system couldn’t fight back. She had known this day would come. She’d been around Stevens enough, had watched his experiments enough to believe the infection was irreversible. She’d had hope in the beginning when the penicillin seemed to keep it in check but all it had done was slow the spread. It added a few months to her life and she was grateful for it. She had found love, had spent a wonderful summer with a kind and brave man. She would go through the motions of talking to the Doctor for his sake. But before she got too sick to make a difference, she would end the movement that she had helped start. She would end her father for Jessie’s sake so that the world he was building would have one less threat in it.
She reached in the car and stroked Nefertiti who had been watching them with glowing eyes in the blackness of the parking garage. She sensed the mood, knew something was wrong. Her and Bob both, who sat impatiently in the driver’s seat eager to get out but was told to sit. The cat didn’t purr as she usually did. Didn’t arch her back, didn’t knead the seats in contentment with her claws.
“Do you know where cats come from?” she asked Jessie as she stoked her.
He shook his head and watched her as she said goodbye.
“Noah had made a pledge to God never to harm any animal. A sacred vow. When the rains came and the ark was on the water, the devil came down and turned himself into a mouse. He went to the bottom of the boat and started chewing a hole. Noah saw this and, in his anger, he threw his glove to kill him. God remembered Noah’s promise and turned the glove into a cat who ate the mouse.”
She placed her hands on Nefertiti, on either side of her head, and looked into the glowing yellow eyes.
“To this day, that is why the cat chases the mouse and that is why the cat has little bit of devilment inside of him.”
Jessie smiled, pocketed the last of their grenades and slid his blades into their sheaths. Scarlet grabbed the Gatorade bottle of trucker speed, chugged half of it down and closed the door. She tucked the rest into her fanny pack riding tight against her back. They both reached through the bars and ruffled Bob’s fur, scratched behind his ears where he liked it.
“Stay.” Jessie commanded and they slipped into the darkness.
“Stevens labs are separated from the Casino.” Scarlet said. “He’s set up in the hospital basements. If they have any guards, they won’t be enhanced soldiers.”
“I vaguely remember that.” Jessie whispered as they ran from shadow to shadow, staying close to the buildings.
“It’s connected by the utility tunnels so getting into the headquarters will be easy once we get to the hospital.”
The streets were deserted, the Cult kept them cleared of any undead that wandered in, they didn’t want a horde outside of the headquarters drawing attention. The undead were constantly showing up, sometimes days after a truck had come in. The shambling husks were easy enough to put down and dispose of. The Movement was content to remain inside the buildings, they hadn’t bothered building walls around the city. Any retrievers that happened by would think it’s just another dead town if there were no fortifications. They remained hidden from unwanted attention by not being obvious. Everything they needed was inside, they didn’t have to grow crops or raise animals, the supply trucks brought everything in for them. They had plenty to eat and festive banquets every week. Everyone was happy and content, in no small part thanks to the steady supply of a very special powder sprinkled into all of their food. Doctor Stevens had perfected the synthesized scopolamine, the devil’s breath, and everyone was pleased with their position in life. From the lowliest kitchen help and cleaners to the council members. Some were ambitious and wanted to move up in the hierarchy but it would happen when it happened. No rush. They were in the best place on earth and no one wanted to jeopardize that. The Lord of the Underworld provided.
The lower level of the hospital was completely boarded up with plywood covering the windows and doors. The two slipped into the parking lot, kept to the shadows and sprinted to the rear of the building. The quietly humming generator covered any noise they made and their speed made them a blur if any guards happened to be posted and happened to be looking in their direction. The mesh door blocking the ladder going up had already been opened, the lock cut off. Zed didn’t climb and those inside weren’t expecting any unwanted company. Jessie went first in case there was anything wait
ing for them on the roof, but had there been, they would have heard them coming. Halfway up, Scarlet goosed him with her baton, poked his butt and giggled like a school girl at his yelp of surprise. He had to hurry to keep ahead of the probing steel and by the time they reached the roof, he was laughing too as he kept “accidentally” dropping bullets and bouncing them off her forehead.
Jessie leaped the last six rungs, landed on the roof and got out of her way, snickering at her horrible cursing. She surprised him and sprang off the top rung high into the air and spun half way around so she was stretched out.
Jessie had to scramble to catch her before she landed back first on the pebble covered roof and grunted as she landed in his arms.
“Cheater.” he said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.
They parted after long moments and he stood her back on her feet. The gulps of bitter concoction she’d chugged had given her back the energy and spirit the runners had sapped from her. She stroked the hair out of face and stared up at him.
“We need to be honest. This may be our last chance to talk.” she said. “Can you handle it?”
Jessie quelled his first response. His pat answer that everything would work out, everything would be fine. They’d find a cure, eliminate the cult and live happily ever after.
She waited. Made him say it. Made him face it.
“Yes.”
“I can feel it burrowing into me.” she said. “It’s cold and it’s coiled inside my head. It’s like sand in an hourglass. It is slow, sometimes very slow, but it never stops. It has control now, Jessie. It is moving fast. So fast I can feel it.”
Her eyes flashed up at him in the waning moonlight. One still a glowing emerald green, the other darker and dull.
“I do not think Stevens can help. I think it is too late. If this is true, I do not want to walk the earth forever. I do not want to be one of them.”
Jessie swallowed, knew what she was asking. Knew it would be a lie to tell her everything would be all right. Knew he couldn’t promise a happy outcome. Knew they had to try anyway.
“You won’t.” he said.
She was an open book, her face raw and unafraid as she searched his eyes, looking for the truth. Looking for the promise.
“I believe you.” she finally said, touched his scar gently then turned toward the roof access door.
“Come.” she added lightly. “We have empires to destroy and people to kill.”
31
Doctor Stevens
The Twenty Third Psalm kept dancing through Jessies head as they descended the pitch-black stairs. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
He did fear the evil, though. The evil worming it’s way through her, eating away at her and destroying who she is. Turning her into something she’s not. Their enhanced eyes saw easily in the darkness and they followed the stairs to the lowest level, two stories below ground and saw light peeking under the door.
Scarlet led the way out into the corridor and they followed it to the sounds of activity half a building away. A single guard sat in the hallway outside of the labs in a chair with his chin resting on his chest. His rifle leaned against the wall and he was gently snoring. An ordinary man could be reasoned with, maybe knocked unconscious or tied up. The movement’s people weren’t ordinary. They were dosed and drugged. Blinded and brainwashed. They would eagerly lay down their lives for the Lord of the Underworld. For the paradise he promised in the next life for the warriors who lost their lives in his service. Scarlet and Jessie had to be as hard as they were and he didn’t hesitate. When they reached the bearded man, he twisted his head with quick jerk. The neck snapped and he let out a quiet surprised sound and that was all. He went from living to dying without ever waking up. Jessie rested his chin back on his chest and they slipped through the door.
Doctor Stevens looked up in surprise when he saw them enter his lab. He had almost nodded off waiting on the latest batch of devil’s breath as it was dehydrated and pulverized to dust. He sprang to his feet but Jessie was on him in a blur of motion and had him against a wall. Scarlet walked up and his eyes got big when he recognized her. When he saw the black runners twisting away from her scarred cheek, climbing up her neck and disappearing into her hairline.
“Scarlet.” he asked, intrigued by the patterns. “What has happened?”
He didn’t fight them, seemed genuinely concerned and didn’t ask about his guard. Jessie relaxed his grip around the man’s neck. He hurried over and turned her head to the light to get a better look at the darkness invading her skin. There were cages with zombies in them but they hadn’t reacted to the humans bustling in. They stood motionless with electrodes sticking out of their heads. Jessie stared at them then poked one and it didn’t move. He closed the curtains so he wouldn’t have to look at them then moved to guard the door while Doctor Stevens gingerly touched her face, asked if it hurt.
“Across the hall.” he said, making a decision then bustled her towards the door. “I need to run some tests.”
Stevens drew blood, listened to her heart and played with his microscopes. Jessie pulled a stool over to the door and kept watch. The room was large, filled with lights and equipment and machines that looked like they did complicated things. There was a large, curtained cage on one wall but it was quiet, no riled up undead to disturb them.
The minutes turned to hours.
When the shift change guard came, he met a similar fate as the other and was hidden away in a broom closet.
Time dragged by. Centrifuges spun, Doc Stevens tut-tutted and made small talk, he questioned them about everything they’d done so far to fight the infection. They retold the story, interrupting each other here and there when one would remember exact dosages or particular brand names of the various remedies they had tried. Stevens zeroed in on the injections Jessie had given her so many months ago at the farmhouse and the pills from the tower. He drew Jessies blood, he analyzed the tablets she’d been given and his demeanor grew ever grimmer. They waited and watched as he worked and dark became dawn.
Another guard showed up around noon and joined the one in the closet. Sooner or later, the captain of the guard would grow suspicious. Jessie kept a close watch out of the door, waiting for someone to investigate the missing soldiers.
“They’re very short staffed.” Stevens told them. “It’s been like that for weeks. A new man has taken over as Chief of the Armies and has only left a skeleton crew here. I believe they were going to conquer Lakota, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Did they succeed?” Jessie asked wondering if more than one army was marching south. If Tombstone and Blackfoot weren’t just the beginning thrusts of the war, if they had enough men to attack all the towns simultaneously.
“I couldn’t tell you.” Stevens answered genially as he read the numbers off a ribbon coming from one of the machines. “I keep to myself over here. Did I tell you I think I have nearly perfected a way to control the reanimates with electrical impulses? It’s a fascinating study. With a modified game pad, I can make them turn left or right or march off the edge the roof. I can even control their impulse to bite and spread the disease. I really need to find an electrical engineer to program a more intuitive controller.”
He rambled on about his work, his experiments and his progress. Jessie grew weary and tried to stay alert as the doctor wondered if he could carry on his research at the Tower and questioned them about the facilities there. He spoke to hear himself speak and most of the time they couldn’t understand what he was saying when he drifted off into technical jargon. Sometimes they were sure he wasn’t even talking to them. Scarlet was saddened by what she saw, at how much he’d changed. He’d always been a little strange but he was even more detached than he’d ever been before.
Jessie and Scarlet glanced over at the cages when he talked of making the undead dance and perform for him. Just the thought of it was distasteful.
“Wouldn’t it be be
tter to try to cure them? Maybe reverse the virus?” she asked. “Is it possible to heal the brain?”
Doctor Stevens shook his head, made a few notes on his tablet and explained it as simply as he could. He was used to dumbing things down for people so they could understand.
“It’s a virus. Same as the common cold.” he said. “We’ve been trying to cure it for centuries and it’s impossible because of the way it replicates. All you can do is mask the symptoms until it dies off and goes away on its own. Except the zombie virus doesn’t die off. It’s much too virulent because of the way it was designed, even fifty generations removed from the original host. Fascinating, really.”
“It’s definitely man made then?” Jessie asked
“Oh, yes.” Stevens enthused. “It’s brilliant.”
“Then you won’t be able to cure me?” Scarlet asked, ignoring the doctor’s perverse admiration of the disease.
Jessie ignored the door and waited with everything in him not wanting to hear the answer.
“Oh, no. Of course not.” Stevens said, completely unaware of the anguished look on both of their faces at hearing it said out loud. “But this is an incredible chance for me to study the results of the two non-compatible serums I created. Very rare opportunity because of your specific blood type and the unique properties of a serum long past expired.”
Zombie Road VI: Highway to Heartache Page 25
