Tattered Remnants

by Mark Tufo

  “That’s fair,” he responded.

  “Mind-melting?”

  “That’s not a truly accurate description, but she can indeed send an electronic signal with enough power to stop all function within a human being.” MJ said.

  “From a distance.” I added.

  “How far?” she asked.

  “Well, the experts haven’t come to a decisive conclusion, but at least a hundred feet, maybe as many as three hundred.” I told her.

  Tracy looked concerned, and she had every right to be. It got worse real quick.

  “They’re out there.” Tommy said, looking to the yard.

  “In the abstract?” I knew he meant close. It’s just always nicer to hope for the best. His look to me was all the answer I needed. “Listen, we both know how this is going to play out.”

  “Please, let me know the future.” Tommy said wryly, not a tone I was accustomed to hearing from him.

  “Fine, here goes my prediction. You untie her. She reaches up and pulls off her little hat. Then she immediately begins to mind-fuck me. I drop to my knees with blood leaking from my ears and nose. You realize you made a horrible mistake, then you dash in and shove a huge knife into her skull. She’s dead but it’s too late for me. The damage has been done. I’m now basically a slobbering vegetable.”

  “Much like now.”

  “Gee, thanks wife.”

  “So we’re now in the business of doling out punishment for a crime that has yet to be committed?”

  “Fuck, Tommy, when did you become a liberal? Does she look innocent? What about Dizz, doesn’t he deserve some justice?”

  “She didn’t do it.”

  “Guilty by association.”

  “That’s not a thing.”

  “Sure it is. There were plenty of states that had that on the books.”

  I had no idea what was about to happen while Tommy and I were verbally sparring. I would have fought to the death to make sure Sophia did not walk free. Tracy avoided the middleman. I’d not been prepared for the sound of her pistol going off in the enclosed space. Sophia’s head sagged forward, a nine-millimeter hole neatly punched into the back of her skull.

  “Nobody threatens the lives of my babies, no one! If you can’t handle that, then get the fuck out of my house!” She looked over to Tommy, the barrel of her gun still smoking. The look of shock on MJ’s face would have been comical under different circumstances.

  Trip stood. “Whoa, I don’t think this was how this was supposed to play out.”

  Tommy looked like he was about to blow like Mount Vesuvius.

  “Everyone out. Now!” I shouted when it looked like no one was going to move. I had a pretty good idea the bullet had done enough damage to kill the vampire, but I wasn’t completely sure. There was a tried and true method; nobody needed to be there to witness it. I wanted to pretend I was cutting up some chicken breast sections and not decapitating someone. It didn’t help that she stirred as I first put my blade against her skin. Something wriggled around inside my head. At first, I thought it was my conscience for what I was doing, then I realized it was a foreign body invading and trying to make a beachhead. Even with her mostly destroyed, I could tell I was no match for Sophia. I would not be able force her out like I had Payne. Sophia would wash over me like a tide to a sand castle. I dug deeply with a sawing motion, easily cutting through her skin, larynx, windpipe, cordage, and muscle, finally getting to her spine. The serrated edges caught in the dense muscle and cartilage, at least until I applied more force, and still she tried to destroy me from within. Most likely would have succeeded, if her thoughts weren’t so scattered. If she had a cohesion to them at all, she would have crushed me.

  I was panting from the mental and physical strain by the time I lifted her head clean from her body. That didn’t even take into account the spiritual strain. Killing something is bad enough; removing its head is quite another. I just had to remember that she was no more human than a fish.

  “I wonder what deep-fat-fried vampire tastes like.” I placed Sophia’s head in a trash barrel.

  “You did not just say that.” It was Tracy. “I wanted to see how you were doing. Now I’m not so convinced that was a good idea.”

  “I was trying to persuade myself she was a fish. Forget it. You okay? I know that’s not really your style.”

  “Just tell me that it was the right thing.”

  “Without a doubt, they would have killed us all. Or, more likely, made a few of us kill everyone else. It would have been a game to them, something done merely for the entertainment value. You did exactly what needed to be done. Probably saved my life today as well.”

  “How so?”

  “Tommy would have killed me while I tried to kill her. Speaking of which, where is he?”

  “I think he went to the deck.”

  “I’ve got this. Get out of here. There’s no sense in both of us getting scarred for life.”

  “I’d say it’s a little late for that for at least one of us.”

  “Funny, go and check on BT. Make sure he’s doing okay. He was pretty shaken up.”

  “What are you going to do with her?”

  “Viking funeral without the boat.”

  17

  Mike Journal 13

  Dennis helped me gather some wood and then went back in. When I placed her body on the makeshift pyre, Angel was the only one to stand with me as the body burned.

  “She was a bad person,” Angel said.

  “Yes, she was,” I answered.

  “I miss Dizz.”

  “Yeah me too, kiddo.” I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her in close. Even with the heat of the intense fire, it was still plenty cold inside my heart.

  It had been a solid week, and we’d heard absolutely nothing from the two vampires still out there. Tommy had stayed ever vigilant, as did we all, but where we were scanning with our eyes, he was using his mind. They’d gone dark. I’d like to think we had scared the hell out of them by putting the fear of God in its place, but I knew it was wishful and wistful, thinking. Vampires were bad losers, given they never really had to be accustomed with that end of the competitive spectrum. The problem with our enemy was that time meant absolutely nothing. They could seek revenge in a day or a decade. We could have all but forgotten about them when they struck. Sure, we were staying close to the house and always had to be in groups of two or more, but how long would that last? Another couple of weeks and most, if not all, of us would return to our normal routines. We’d become lax. Humans just can’t stay on high alert forever. We can’t handle that kind of strain. We’ll invent safety and security, if we have to, just to feel better.

  “Michael, I need some help.”

  “Why the formality, MJ?”

  “Because I really need your help.”

  “Okay, I guess honesty is the best policy. What can I help you with?”

  “I need some transformers.”

  “Don’t we all. I would really love to have an Optimus Prime. Shit, even a Bumblebee would be great.”

  The blank stare I received back confirmed to me MJ had absolutely no idea I was talking about the incredibly successful cartoons and movies about beings from another planet that could transform into various pieces of equipment, like a truck or car, and then switch into their alter egos, capable of massive amounts of mayhem and destruction.

  “We are not talking about the same thing.”

  “You’re the smart one. Are you just figuring that out now?”

  “I need the transformers on the telephone poles. They’re roughly the size of a large trash can.”

  “How much do they weigh?”

  “Five hundred to eight hundred pounds.”

  “Are you kidding me? How are you planning on getting them down?”

  “The same truck you used at the post office and a series of cables and pulleys.”

  “Well, not that the utility company is going to give a shit, but how long do you think this whole procedure is goin
g to take?”

  “Should be able to safely get one down in under two hours, three at the most.”

  “And the zombies?”

  “What about them?” he asked, clearly confused.

  “What do you think they’ll be doing for all that time?”

  “I have no idea. I would imagine zombie-type activities though.”

  “What do you think would be a favorite zombie-type activity?”

  “Eating people, I presume. I really don’t see what this has to do with me getting a transformer.”

  “Nothing? Nothing at all? How in the hell did you make it for so long through life without falling through an open manhole cover or something?”

  “I always watched where I walked.”

  “And a good thing, too. Listen, when I was getting that cherry picker, I noticed some of those transformers off to the side. I can’t confirm whether they worked or not; I was a little busy.”

  “That’s all right. As long as the main components are in there, I can repair them.”

  “Now, before I wrangle up some help to get these things, can you tell me what the hell you are going to do with them?”

  “Fission bomb.”

  I think my mouth dropped open.

  “Oh, my gosh, I crack myself up. You should see your face. I’m a few materials short of actually being able to do that, and this has absolutely nothing to do with that project.”

  “You’re actually working on designs for a fission bomb?”

  “Oh, I’m a little ways past the planning phase.”

  “I don’t want to know. I’d rather be surprised with the bright white light of disintegration.”

  “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to test fire one.”

  “Yeah, I’d appreciate that. We’d all appreciate that. How many of these damn things do you need?”

  “Three would be ideal, at least two. Wait, no three, just in case I need to scavenge parts. Probably four. Wait, how many can I have?”

  “You make my head hurt, and we’re not even talking sciencey stuff right now. I’ll round you up what I can.”

  “Can I come?”

  I wanted to say no only because there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that he was going to go into great detail about exactly what he was going to do with these transformers. But I didn’t want to go to the power facility to only grab the wrong stuff.

  “Fine, it would be a pleasure,” I told him instead. “Let me just go grab BT.”

  “And who else?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The transformers are heavy. Who’s going to move them?”

  “Have you seen BT? It’d be like him holding a can of beer.”

  “Not really, Michael. It wouldn’t be like that at all. The ratio of BT to the diameter of—”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. I’m not taking too much muscle, MJ, because if anything happens here...”

  “What would happen here?”

  “You cannot be this clueless. You remember the whole war with the zombies and the added fun of the vampires? Remember all that?”

  He waved it off as if that was no concern to him.

  “You and Trip should hang out sometime.”

  “I really don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

  “Just be ready in a couple of minutes. I’ll let everyone know.”

  I know how my bread is buttered and who does the buttering. The first person I went to was Tracy. Without even looking up, she said we needed diapers. I guess she was all right with it.

  I had to wake BT up. He was about as happy as you would expect someone that had just gone to sleep four hours ago would be after pulling a late night guard shift. The scowl he directed at me almost had me leave his room before I even asked, and then it just kind of went away. The scowl I mean.

  “What are you in here for?”

  “MJ and Tracy want me to run some errands.”

  “This isn’t about his fission bomb is it?”

  “You know about that?”

  “Everybody does, damn near all he talks about. How could you not?”

  “I start tuning him out the second he starts talking about his experiments.”

  “When someone starts talking about a bomb that can take out a city, it’s generally a good idea to pay attention.”

  “You coming or what?”

  “Bored already? Yeah, maybe it will do me some good to get out.”

  “Really? I figured for sure you were going to throw something at me. Although, I don’t know how much that silk robe would have hurt.”

  “It’s a kimono.”

  “Okay, man, no reason to get testy. It looks pretty on you.”

  He tossed a pillow at me with enough force to have ripped my head off if I hadn’t moved. “Fuck, man. You’re going to put holes in my brother’s walls.”

  “How’s he doing?” BT sat on the edge of the bed and wiped his hand across his face, trying to rub the tiredness away.

  “The way you’d expect him to be.”

  “When we leaving?”

  “Five minutes.”

  MJ, me, BT, and Justin, who unexpectedly wanted to come, were all in the truck. I realized halfway to the power facility that MJ never really told me what we needed the transformers for.

  “They’re for the zombies.” He’d answered after I’d asked. “Well, I mean not for the zombies specifically. They’re more for us. Well, in the abstract, they’re for us.”

  “Oh for the love of God, MJ, what are the transformers going to do?”

  “They’re going to stop the zombies, of course.” He seemed a little chuffed.

  “I bet dentists have an easier time pulling teeth from patients trying to run away from them.”

  BT smiled.

  “Let’s just say for argument’s sake I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Well, it’s obviously clear enough that you don’t,” he said.

  “You believe this guy?” I asked the other occupants of the car.

  “Well, he is right.”

  “From my own son? That hurts more than you know.” Justin had been working through his loss. Slowly but surely, he was coming more into his own. I think the biggest part of the equation was the love he had for his nephew. He would stay with the infant for hours on end. The baby was the balm that soothed his soul. Nicole had all the help she could ask for, and sometimes, even more.

  “I can take some power off of Ron’s generator and run it through the transformers to create a charge that I will apply to some fencing that will inhibit the zombies’ ability to come closer to the house.”

  “Like an electric fence?” I asked.

  “Something like that.” He had dodged the answer again. Giving a genius access to materials and time was never a good thing. I swear MJ did half the things he did merely because he could. If we could have built him a lab off grounds, we would have. As it was, we had to check in on him from time to time just to make sure he wasn’t going to get us sucked into a portable wormhole or something.

  It looked all quiet as we pulled up to the fence. MJ started to get out.

  “Hey cowboy, how about holding on for a sec.” BT arm-barred his exit.

  “Yeah, and I’m the one without a clue. All right, the last time I was here, there were a bunch of zombies up on the third floor. Let’s just make sure they haven’t found a way out and aren’t just milling around.”

  “That would probably be a good idea.” MJ said when he realized he wasn’t going to be able to move BT’s arm.

  The parking lot was clear. We all peered up to the top floor. Seven or eight zombies peered down. Apparently, the rest had broken free or were just disinterested in the goings on below. Either way, I was happy for it.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” I pointed to a flatbed truck with six of the transformers parked on the back of it. The truck was even equipped with its own small crane to deploy the large cylinders. “This is too fucking easy.” I looked around.r />
  BT let Mad Jack get out.

  “What’s the matter, Talbot? The gods can’t throw you a bone every once in a while without you getting suspicious?” BT laughed while he joined MJ outside.

  “Their bones come with a heavy price.” I was still looking around. Justin got out as well. My heart skipped when the truck roared to life. I got out of my ride. “There is no way the keys were in it.”

  “What? No,” MJ stated. “I hotwired it.”

  “And the battery was okay?”

  “It’s running. I don’t think we need one of MJ’s hypotheses to prove that.” BT said.

  “What the hell did I bother bringing you here for?”

  “I’m security, man,” BT informed me.

  “Naw, man. I just brought you for the muscle. I thought you were going to have to load those things into the truck.” I told him.

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “Meh, I’ve been called worse by better, and I’m just talking about today.”

  “All right, smart guy, what do you want to do now?” BT asked me, but MJ replied instead.

  “Well, I would like to get this equipment back to my lab where I can change the—”

  “Sciency shit! BT, if you could take him back, Justin and I will go and get the diapers.”

  “You sure, man?”

  “It’s diapers. How hard could it be?” It’s after the fact that you ever wonder why you uttered words like that out in the open where everyone can hear. “I’ll take Justin and meet you at the house. We’ll be right behind you.”

  BT looked at me. “Just follow us back, and we’ll go out again.”

  “It’s fine, man. It’s diapers.”

  “Mike, I don’t feel good about this.”

  It took me a couple of minutes to assuage him of his bad feelings. “We’ll be right back, I promise.”

  BT waved as he drove the truck out of the yard. “Right back, man. No side stops.”

  “Of course,” I replied. I waited until they were out of range. “Now we just need to figure out where to get diapers, and we’ll be all set.” The grocery store in Belfast was cleaned out. It had been orderly, but there wasn’t much more than a memory of products being housed there. There were a few convenience stores, but they’d been just as empty.