Allen felt helpless. He would have to jump off the bus before it started slowing down. He would never stay afoot, and that might mean he wouldn’t get there in time to protect Orson. Maybe he could scramble up top, stop the jester from doing whatever he had planned. But he didn’t even know what the jester had in mind to know whether he should.
He did the only thing he could manage. “Syd?”
She looked up at him, and he could see her concerns echoed his own. They deadlocked in a stare, and right then he felt like the worst parent on the face of the planet.
The fire cannon’s tanks stirred, readying to spew fire, and suddenly Allen knew the jester’s plans.
CHAPTER 48
In his little world, Eddie had not imagined being able to summon up even the least bit of courage ever again. Such a strange word, courage. It referred to strength, to heroism in battle, yet it was often used to destroy rather than create.
He thought about his service in the Democratic National Party and remembered how it had been his job to seek out packs and burn them to the ground. When the creatures came bounding at a person from every angle, though, a man tended to get a bit twitchy. A trigger-happy soldier was not courageous. But cowardly. That was what Eddie thought of himself.
As of late his world had been a swirl of sorrow in which he remembered very few details. Somewhere below were his partners in crime. Joe did the driving and Fred handled any necessary maintenance. The latter of these two jobs could entail a lot, from fixing the vehicle to wiping down a quarter panel. Eddie’s job was the hardest. He killed and did so without discrimination.
He straddled the metal seat and warmed up the cannon. Something awful approached in the distance. Joe steered them closer, as Eddie took aim. Then he saw the small boy running out front of the monster.
Is he infected?
No matter what, Eddie would have to take out the big one first. It was the principal threat. He could deal with the boy afterward if need be.
Considering this he chuckled. They’re all dangerous to some degree.
His mind tried to resolve the matter.
Did you even look at the boy’s legs?
No, he hadn’t. Not that it mattered. Everyone out here in the wild was infected as far as Eddie was concerned. Even his own family.
Eddie’s eyes strained as he forced the memory of his family away. He tried not to think about what he had done to them. Or rather for them. He had only wanted to ensure they wouldn’t spread the virus.
He felt a tear stinging his eye and wiped it away.
What he had done to them, he had done to the whole town. Sure, several innocent people had died, but if that was what was required to put an end to this virus, to keep it from spreading any farther than it already had, then it was worth it. He couldn’t— No, he wouldn’t allow his family to end up like…like…
This monster.
The cannon felt good in his control. It was as if it had been designed with his grasp in mind. As he leveled the cannon on the heavily suited creature, ready to deep-fry the bastard, something compelled him to warn the kid.
“Get out of the way!”
The boy found him, and he looked surprised to see Eddie. But he listened, and that could mean he wasn’t infected. But Eddie knew there was an in between stage, one where the boy might not be all the way infected. If the virus had even the slightest hold on the boy, he would have to die. Lucky for the kid, the cyborg-looking thing chasing after him demanded Eddie’s immediate attention.
The mechanized monster saw the bus and altered its path. Eddie reckoned the dragon posed a threat to the creature. He also recognized the suit. He had seen them in the early stages of production, and it saddened him that even this machine had proved penetrable. Because of that, if he saw any more, they too would have to go.
Inside the suit, he saw the deranged soldier, torn bits of flesh hanging from his face, glancing back at Eddie as he veered off. Eddie had seen that look many times. It reminded him of his wife. At least he thought it did. With that image firmly in his head, Eddie let the dragon roar and laid waste to anything in his path with a heavy stream of flames.
The soldier fought the fire, waving its hands, trying to push through the blaze. Eddie kept the pressure on, spewing flames all around the creature. Struggling to maintain its ground, the creature finally seemed to succumb to its fate, standing there a literal ball of flames. Eddie watched the soldier sizzle, a pleasing sensation of triumph embracing him. Then he heard a voice from below he did not recognize. A woman’s voice.
“Ram it!”
Who the hell is that?
Before he could place the voice, the bus sprang forward. The wheels turned until they were on target. When they struck the soldier, the bus felt like it had leaped a good three feet into the air. Balls of fire showered the sky and the vehicle like a hell storm.
The bus backed away, stopping two dozen feet from the fallen soldier.
Eddie looked out over the edge. There he saw a woman burst out from the belly of their vehicle. Eddie couldn’t place her, and he worried whether Joe and Fred were okay.
She hurried to the creature, drawing a blade from a scabbard on her back. She found its neck in the fire and beheaded the monster. A charred skull rolled away from the corpse.
The woman looked exhausted and stressed by the ordeal, even now that it was done.
Is she infected?
Just in case, Eddie turned the gun on her, meeting her widening gaze.
CHAPTER 49
With Sydney’s blade still bloodied by the blackened ooze of dead soldier, Allen stepped in front of her and yelled, “No!”
The jester sat at the fire cannon with the flame still lit, preparing to douse them both in its blaze.
“You don’t have to do this.” Allen patted the air. “Just settle down. Please. We killed the dragon. We beat the monster. Remember?”
He could barely make out the crazed look in the jester’s eyes. Perhaps this irrational man was trying to recall the battle that had sent him over the edge. Or was it something else?
Craig, Gavin, Chris, and Allison stayed inside the bus, apparently unwilling to leave its safety. Both Isaac and Dale chose otherwise.
Isaac climbed out through one of the back windows and made haste to the top of the bus. Allen suspected Isaac planned to surprise the jester by coming up behind him. Hopefully he would be swift, so Allen and his wife wouldn’t end up toast.
Dale exited the bus and moved away from Allen’s family, out in plain view of the jester. At first Allen thought this some act of bravery, that Dale planned to draw the jester’s attention to himself. But, to Allen, Dale seemed either confused by what was going on or shaken by his own loss.
“We did kill the dragon, didn’t we?” The jester mumbled something to himself.
Allen hoped this was the jester trying to convince himself of this fact. Yet it appeared to have little effect on the moment. Allen took a bold step forward, keeping his hands out in front of him as if he were a cross warding off an evil vampire. The jester’s gaze went wide, and even at this distance with such poor lighting, Allen could see the lost look in his eyes.
“Stop, I pray thee, brave knight!” Allen said.
The man leered at Allen, his mistrust apparent. From the corner of his eye, Allen spied the boy he had so longed to see and wanted desperately to drop character. But he dared not look at Orson for fear the jester might return the aim of the cannon to his son.
As if sensing this, Orson stepped away, slowly moving out of sight. This was what Allen wanted most for his son right then. He wanted him to be safe above all else.
“What say ye?” Allen asked.
The jester continued to stare Allen down, perhaps never truly seeing Allen but instead lost somewhere in his past. Either way, the jester’s finger eased off the trigger. Allen believed his thoughts consumed by demons haunted the man given his strange expression. Allen felt bad for the man, having clearly experienced something so traumatic th
at it had deeply wounded the man’s sensibilities.
“Shall we take this fallen beast to our king?” Allen said. “Or will we die here amongst ourselves?”
Allen’s words forced the man’s eyes back to reality for only a second before his gaze drifted back to deep thought. But that was all Isaac needed to subdue the jester.
Isaac slid an arm around the man’s chest and yanked him back hard, right out of the seat. The cannon lulled forward, its flame extinguishing. The jester fell back against Isaac who laid sprawled out on the roof of the bus with his legs wrapped around the man. The jester put up no resistance. Defeated, the man crumbled, becoming limp in Isaac’s formidable limbs.
The others exited the bus, and Craig helped Isaac with getting the jester down from the top of the bus. On the ground, they gathered around the demented man.
“I didn’t want to do it.” The jester burst into tears. His eyes swelled with sorrow. “I didn’t want to kill any of them!”
The jester’s words became louder, more alarming. Allen worried what his outburst might attract. He scanned the horizon, observing a field full of decaying corpses. This place had seen its fair share of death.
“They made me do it! And I was so scared…” The jester’s words gushed out in a convulsing fit of tears. “I…I didn’t know who was infected or who wasn’t…”
Allen knew what the jester meant. When a person gets to killing something terrible, it can get to the point where they become so frightened that even the most normal people become unnerving. When all control is lost, it’s easy for any man or woman to lose their mind. Such was the case for the jester. He had killed too many innocents. Doing so left him scarred, a thing that apparently was obvious to them all. The jester wasn’t the clown they all thought when they encountered him. That was only his defense against the man he really was, a defeated soldier.
CHAPTER 50
Orson ran to his mother, his arms thrown wide, and Sydney met him with a huge hug. The urge to collapse with joy overwhelmed her. But she long ago resolved never to allow Orson to see her appear so weak. She needed to stay strong for his sake, to present the persona of what she felt it would take for her son to survive, in case something happened to her.
Before coming here, she sometimes wondered why she always felt this overwhelming need to prepare her son. Arriving at the school now, her reasoning became very clear to her. If something were to happen to either her or Allen, or worse, both, Orson would need to be strong enough to go on alone. And he had done just that. She was so proud of him.
“Syd? Are you going to introduce me to your son?” Allen said.
He came up behind her. His hand found her shoulder and already she could see his anxiousness. She contemplated how to breach the subject. What could she say about the boy’s father?
Orson waited patiently, obviously still a bit shaken.
Finally, she said, “Orson, this is your—”
“Uncle…”
When Allen interjected the word, it surprised her.
Orson stepped forward and shook Allen’s hand, and Sydney felt like crying as she witnessed this reunion. She didn’t allow herself to show even a hint of that joy, though. She wanted to know everything about what had happened to Orson. More so, she wanted to know something else, about Allen.
Why’d he do that?
She rushed forward, took Allen’s hand, and pulled him away. As she led Allen, she glanced back over her shoulder and saw Orson’s puzzlement. She wondered what his face would look like if he knew the truth about this man? She worried how he would react. He had been through so much already in his short life. A few of the others gathered around their son, clapping him on the back and Craig mussed Orson’s hair.
When they were far enough away, she let go of Allen and turned to him. “What are you doing?” She whispered.
“I…I can’t, Syd. What if—”
“What if what? What if you die?” She felt her face flush with anger. “Is that what you were going to say?”
“I didn’t say that, but it’s a distinct possibility.” Allen sighed and tried to walk away, his fingers combing his wealth of hair. He pulled, leaving clumps of sweaty strands and turned back to her. “Look, I’m going to see this through.”
“We all are. We’re all going to see it through.”
“Damn it, Syd. Listen.” His eyes thinned on her, his lips pressed tightly shut. “I’m going to find a way to put an end to this. I’m not sure how or when, but I am going to fix things. I can’t do that if I have to worry about—”
“He’s your son, Allen!”
A gasp erupted behind them, and suddenly she was awkwardly aware of how loud she had spoken. Her eyes scanned a distraught Orson. His eyes were searching her face, looking for validation of this proclamation.
Sydney nodded. Now she would know his reaction whether she wanted to or not.
Allen took a step forward. “Listen—”
“Save it.” Orson’s happiness faded. He turned. “Just save it.”
Sydney thought Allen might run after their son, that he would hug him. She wanted him to keep Orson there, not let him go. But Allen only watched.
Orson fled, yelling, “Stay away from me.”
Sydney wanted to ease Allen’s pain. She wanted to know all the right things to say. But he had left them. Orson had every right to be mad. Overall, Orson had reacted better than she expected.
Allen appeared weakened by his son’s words. He staggered away and right then Sydney worried whether Allen would leave as a result of the interaction.
CHAPTER 51
Landon Hughes was rather pleased with how well everything had worked out. He lifted his feet onto the desk, a piece of furniture he had found himself on the other side of many times. Ending up behind the desk was the best part of all of it.
Looking behind him, he observed the two flags on either side. They would do for now, but eventually he wanted a flag of his own, one more representative of his nature. Stars and stripes really didn’t suit his vision for the future of America.
“President Hughes,” a man said.
He ignored the man, who wasn’t even close enough to speak yet.
Those words were music to his ears. He found himself muttering them a lot as of late. He had to admit, hearing them sometimes made him laugh. Mostly because he knew the truth; he was no more a president than he was a support role for such a man. Landon was a dictator, and, as such, he would rule with a heavy fist.
He had gone too far to allow anyone else to ruin this for him. The Democrats and Republicans and every other party had it wrong right from the start. With his precise scheme of releasing the virus throughout the States, he had collapsed the government. After the onset did what damage was needed, he resolved the matter with the antidote. With the power to heal the future of America, he eliminated any opposition before another man or woman could get a foothold on the country. Landon placed himself in a prime position to assume the role his peers saw him fit to fill.
Let them call me what they want.
“President Hughes?” The man was closer now.
He marveled at the title again.
“Yes, what is it?”
“I have those reports you asked for from the front lines.”
“Right, right. Very well. Thank you.”
The man placed the papers on Landon’s desk and stood at attention.
This annoyed Landon, though he didn’t let on. “That will be all, thanks.”
Over time, Landon would need to form some sort of mock cabinet around him if he meant to be convincing. They would all be puppets, of course, but that was okay. If they fell out of line, they would meet the same fate as the undead. They would die. But, as President, he could no longer bloody his hands in such matters. He had to focus on nurturing popularity among the people with constant reminders that he alone had been the one to save the northeast.
Landon smirked, knowing the area had been secured over a year before the infection was ever
released. When he cured the waterways, he had done so publicly, and the people hailed him as a true inspiration. Unknowingly, those he kept closest lauded him. If asked, they would lay down their lives for him. Landon had given hope in a time where little remained.
The phone rang and Landon answered. He listened to the brief message, smiled, then hung up. Satisfaction fell over him at having gained control not only of the northeast but now all the way down to Florida, too. Soon, they would have the power back all the way across to the Mississippi River. Before the end of the year, he hoped the entire country would be under his command.
Landon’s smile widened.
There had been heavy prices to pay for this end. Now that he was here, though, he felt ecstatic. He could run this country the way it should have been run from day one. With his plans set into motion, nothing could stop him. Sooner or later, this brave new country would be the utmost power in the world. No one would be able to deny Landon’s supremacy. They would have no choice but to join him. If they refused, he would wipe them from the face of his planet.
CHAPTER 52
“Tell us everything, Orson.” Sydney said.
She hoped he wouldn’t give her any more hassle about Allen. It would be better for everyone if he just accepted it. Yet, she knew that would be hard for Orson because he had never known Allen. For that reason, he seemed to blame Sydney. Of course, it was her fault to a degree. Why she had never seen that before annoyed her. She should have realized the truth would come out eventually, one way or another. The result of keeping those details to herself was that her son no longer fully trusted her.
Orson kicked at a loose tile on the old school floor. “I told you everything.”
Behind Orson, Allen pretended not to watch. Sydney knew he was doing so for reasons other than just to mend his relationship with Orson. She placed gentle fingers under Orson’s chin and lifted his face to hers. “Tell me again. Everything.”
Pack Animals [An Undead Post-Apocalypse Thriller] Page 15
