Dying Days 7

by Armand Rosamilia

  The Lich Lord walked past her and she was proud she didn’t flinch when he got within inches. Not that she’d have any chance if he got violent. She knew he would crush her in seconds. She decided to play nice and not bust his balls.

  “Whatever you want me to do, I will do. I just figured it would be easier if you took a more active approach to this. I left my girls out there to watch, thinking you’d relieve them of their duty once it got dark. For all I know they might be driving back right now. If there are smart zombies maybe they circled around and killed the girls,” Tosha said.

  The Lich Lord smiled. “Hopefully they won’t die like the young plaything you had to leave behind the other day. What was his name?”

  Tosha was trying to remember what his name was but couldn’t. She finally shrugged.

  “How about the new boy toy? Is he keeping you interested?”

  “Not even close. I already sent him to The Tosha Suite. He’d rather hang out with his buddies and play cards.”

  The Lich Lord stopped smiling. “He has friends already in The Promised Land?”

  “No. Just the typical losers I’ve already cast away or those I wasn’t interested in sleeping with,” Tosha said.

  “I had no idea that existed,” The Lich Lord said and grinned again. “I sometimes wonder, since I have all the time in the world, what would’ve happened if you and I had met when we were both human. I imagine you were tough as nails even then but I find it hard to believe you slept around this much.”

  “Feel free to call me a whore. Don’t worry about my feelings,” Tosha said.

  “I didn’t know you had any feelings,” The Lich Lord sang-growled.

  Tosha laughed. He’d sung a line from a Megadeth song, one of her favorite metal bands. “Impressive. I thought you were a doctor or something before you turned into a zombie.”

  “I was. It doesn’t mean I couldn’t also like music. I was a bit of a rebel when I was in my twenties. If I told you some of the concerts I’d been to in Montreal, it would blow your mind,” The Lich Lord said.

  “Ever see Lizzy Borden?” Tosha asked.

  “I don’t think I know who they are.”

  “One of the greatest bands from Los Angeles. They mixed metal and horror together. Had an amazing stage show, too. For the first few months of this mess I wore one of their concert t-shirts, until it finally fell apart. One of my goals in life is to find another one; although, even before there were zombies it was hard to find unless you went on eBay or Amazon,” Tosha said.

  “Perhaps there is a warehouse, somewhere in the world, with a box filled with their shirts? It should still be a bucket list item,” The Lich Lord said.

  “I don’t suppose you could use your powers to find me one or three?”

  The Lich Lord smiled. “As if there’s nothing else important going on. I’ll tell you what: keep doing what you’re doing and, when the smoke clears and The Promised Land is fully functional, I’ll make a trip around the country to find something suitable for you to wear.”

  Tosha laughed. “You’re bribing me to keep doing what I’m doing? I’ll take the deal. After all, I’m just a whore to you, right?”

  The Lich Lord stood and began pacing.

  It was weird to be so close to him without fear. Even though he looked like any other human, except for the gray eyes, he still radiated power. When you thought of zombies you pictured bloody, tattered clothing and wild hair. The Lich Lord was wearing clean, casual clothing. He preferred his clothing baggy so he could freely move. He was even wearing a pair of new sneakers, which she thought was funny.

  The guy didn’t need to eat or sleep. He’d never get older or gain or lose weight. But he still wanted his feet to feel good.

  “While you’re at it… can you find me a CD player and a stack of CD’s, too? I’ll give you a mental list of what bands I’m into,” Tosha said. Might as well push it and see how far she could take getting free shit from The Lich Lord.

  “Enough of this. I know we’re wasting time. I need to get out to the mall and see what the commotion is really all about. I can’t imagine, if it was an enemy, they’d be so brash as to show us their army of undead and not do anything with it. I have to believe it’s Darlene. Maybe she’s rounding them up to destroy them. She’s been doing that lately,” The Lich Lord said.

  “Yeah, I figured it was her keeping them at bay. Piles of bodies are her calling card now,” Tosha said. “Just do your weird mind thing and get in contact with her.”

  “It’s not that easy. We usually block one another and any other zombie out there out of habit,” The Lich Lord said. “This might take some time.”

  Tosha was about to comment when The Lich Lord laughed and clapped his hands. He was slowly nodding his head.

  “You’re where?” he asked.

  To Tosha this was like listening to one side of a phone conversation.

  “I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.” The Lich Lord stopped smiling. “It seems we have a couple of big problems. I’m leaving now.” He stood and began heading for the door.

  “Where are you going?” Tosha asked.

  “It seems Darlene has uncovered a plot to kill me. As if a zombie horde on our doorstep wasn’t enough excitement for one evening. I’ll be back,” he said.

  “Bullshit. I’m coming with you. I want to hear this first-hand. Besides, I haven’t seen Darlene in too long. I want to see how she’s doing,” Tosha said and ran to catch up.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Mitch was on the balcony, watching the darkness slowly overtake the ocean. The sun had been gone for a few minutes, a faint orange glow above his head.

  The knock at the door didn’t surprise him. He knew Terry was a man of his word but also a man who would not be denied, especially when he thought he could help. And bring alcohol.

  “Come in. Doors open,” Mitch yelled.

  Terry entered and came out to the balcony, pulling up a chair and handing Mitch a cold beer from the open twelve-pack box he was carrying.

  “Nice view,” Terry said. “Hopefully this heat wave breaks soon. I think it’s hurricane season. Wouldn’t that be a bitch? Get wiped out by Mother Nature while we’re worried about zombies and shit. We’d never know it was coming. I wonder how people did it before technology. They just assumed every thunderstorm was going to kill them after the first actual hurricane nearly did, right? Maybe once we get settled we can look for the tech to set it back up.”

  “Set up what?”

  Terry sighed and took a sip of his beer. “You’re not even listening to me. I’m talking about getting the world back to where it was. The right way. With hurricane detection systems and cities without walls and no more zombies.”

  “It’s better now than it’s been in over a year,” Mitch said. “I remember when this all started. I’m sure everyone does. Certain points in the timeline of history. If you were old enough, you would remember us landing on the moon.”

  “That was faked,” Terry said with a smile.

  “You can remember 9/11 and what you were doing. What you were thinking. Add the zombie apocalypse to the list,” Terry said.

  “I was getting high when 9/11 happened. Same with the zombie apocalypse. Only I was smoking weed in 2001 and by the time the zombies were on TV I was shooting junk into my veins.” Terry rolled up his sleeve and Mitch could see the faint marks on his arm.

  “Wow,” was all Mitch could think to say.

  “I’m sure, if the zombie thing hadn’t happened, I’d be dead by now. I did some really bad things in my life. To a lot of good people, too. I pushed away everyone I knew,” Terry said. He guzzled half of his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Beer doesn’t even do a thing for me anymore. I just go through the motions.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Mitch asked.

  “I want you to know what you’re dealing with. I’m not perfect. Neither are you, I’m sure. We’ve all done bad things in our lives but we’re not bad people.
I want to do what has to be done,” Terry said.

  “Then that is my next question: what needs to be done?” Mitch asked.

  Terry put up a finger. “Excellent question.”

  Mitch got another cold beer from the box and Terry took one for himself.

  “We need to finish these before they get warm. I think they’re well past their fresh date but they aren’t really too bad. Just a little skunk to them,” Terry said. “From what I’m told, there’s a beer distributor to the west. They had generators and a thick fence around the property. It just sat for months with no one there. Isn’t that crazy? You always think when the shit hits the fan everything will be looted. Yet, of all things… a warehouse filled with beer went untouched until we found it. Stacks and stacks of beer. Quite a bit in giant freezers and fridges. Ever see the beer trucks?” Terry asked.

  Mitch shook his head and finished his first beer. It still tasted good.

  “We have a fleet of them. I think twenty, from what I remember. They were loaded three times each to get it all to Main Street. Quite a score. Of course, we’ve begun making our own home brews as well. The cans need to be kept so we can use them to refill. There’s even talk about securing the land from here to the distributor. Maybe set up an operation to mass produce alcohol,” Terry said.

  “Having a lot of alcohol doesn’t seem like a good idea to me,” Mitch said. He wasn’t much of a drinker. Mostly social. He knew he’d have these two beers and wave off a third. He also didn’t want to get drunk and cry about Tosha, either. In the best of times, he’d be a happy drunk. He was already in a sour mood.

  “It’s really our choice, though, right? A zombie shouldn’t tell us what we can and cannot do,” Terry said, trying to sound casual. Mitch sat up. He now had a clue as to what this social visit entailed.

  “Come right out and say your piece,” Mitch said.

  “I like your style. This is what attracted you to us.”

  “Us?” Mitch asked, putting the beer down on the balcony and sitting forward.

  Terry waved his hands. “Don’t get excited. By us I mean everyone you met at the poker game, as well as a few others mixed in with the crowd. People who are loyal to the cause. People who want to see America great again, without having to suck up to a fucking zombie in order for us to survive.”

  “By my estimation, that fucking zombie is probably the only thing keeping us alive. Why try to kill something that can’t be killed?”

  Terry put up a finger. “Ahh, but it can be killed. Just like all the rest. Like when we’ve faced off against other smart zombies.”

  “The Lich Lord was the first I’d ever encountered,” Mitch said.

  “No shit? Wow. We had a few of them try to breach the walls not too long ago. They came from all four sides. Just jumped up onto the wall and created panic. Ripped apart a few people. Made us realize we needed more soldiers patrolling the walls, too. But the most important fact we learned: a head shot still kills these fuckers. It doesn’t matter how intelligent they are. How nasty they are. A bullet to the brain will put them down,” Terry said.

  “If you take out The Lich Lord, everyone will panic. You’ll have chaos in the streets.”

  “Not if we do it quietly. Inside The Ocean Center. When he returns from one of his nightly forays. We sit and wait,” Terry said.

  “I hear he can read minds.”

  “He can. But we turn our brains off. Think of nothing. We’ve been practicing meditation. Doing yoga and shit. Getting ready for the mission,” Terry said.

  “If you only need one headshot, why do you need so many people?” Mitch asked. His initial reaction was to toss out Terry with his beer and forget it had even been mentioned. What if The Lich Lord was setting him up? Or listening in to their conversation? This was very dangerous. But Mitch also wanted to know more. He didn’t like the thought of a zombie, with so much power, being their ruler. From what he’d seen and heard the zombie was playing nice now but what if he decided to kill everyone? Nothing could stop him if he knew he was going to be attacked. He might have powers to block bullets if he knew they were headed his way.

  “We need people who will help us secure the area without anyone knowing what happened. There are a few humans who come and go out of The Ocean Center all the time. Once it gets to be night, they lock the doors and go to their homes. We just need to be inside and hidden until The Lich Lord returns. We kill him and clean up the body,” Terry said.

  “And when people need to see him? Question him about something?”

  Terry smiled and finished his second beer, pulling another from the box. He offered it to Mitch, who waved it off.

  “Here’s the real beauty: we take turns being The Lich Lord. We form a secret committee, who oversees what new rules and laws are put into place. We continue in the direction he has us going but without his power hanging over our heads in reality,” Terry said.

  “Everyone stays in line because they believe he’s still alive,” Mitch said. “What happens when one of us, the people who were in on the assassination, try to wrest power for themselves? It’s a dangerous thing to try and control. All it will take is you deciding you should be king because you thought up this plan or you pulled the trigger.”

  “That’s why we’ll have a committee. Eventually we’ll let others into the fold, too. Over the course of a few months or maybe years The Lich Lord will be seen less and less. He’ll be a distant memory and we’ll expand our city into many cities. We’ll slowly repopulate the world. At least this part of Florida at first. Back to normal,” Terry said.

  “When are you planning on doing this?” Mitch asked.

  “Why? Are you interested?”

  “If I can hear all of it. If I’m sure we can get away with it, I might be in. I imagine you’re trying to get me drunk and a part of it because you’ve heard I have military training and can shoot a rifle,” Mitch said.

  “Exactly. None of us has the experience you have. I knew, as soon as you came into The Promised Land and I heard how long you’d survived, you’d be the perfect trigger man for us. You’ll be a hero, Mitch. A fucking legend,” Terry said.

  “I don’t want to be a legend. I want to be a survivor. When are we meeting next?”

  “That depends on Whopper. He was suddenly pulled from guard duty to drive a bus with Tosha to the mall to pick up some supplies left behind,” Terry said.

  Mitch groaned. “The bitch is stealing all of my shit I hid in the mall. Damn her.”

  “We’ll have to deal with her later. She’s too close to The Lich Lord. Has daily meetings with the zombie, too. With Tosha out of the way, we can appoint one of us as the team leader for scouting missions. Not miss a beat,” Terry said.

  Mitch didn’t say anything but he wanted to argue. He didn’t want to see Tosha die. He wanted to work it out with her. He wanted to see where it could go.

  “Get your head out of your ass, buddy. She’s not into you anymore. She never really was. She’s already moved on to another new guy who crossed the bridge tonight. Trust me. She doesn’t remember your name or mine. At least we got to taste some of it before our turn was up,” Terry said.

  “I need to get my head in the game. What’s next?” Mitch asked.

  “Grab a couple of beers and put them in your pockets. The rest put in the mini-fridge. We need to go pay a visit to Whopper and see if he was questioned or opened his mouth,” Terry said. He pulled a .22 pistol from the beer case and handed it to Mitch. “You got my back?”

  Mitch nodded.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Darlene hadn’t been expecting to see Tosha with The Lich Lord, even though she knew she was his new enforcer.

  The women nodded to one another.

  “Tell me all you know,” The Lich Lord said.

  “It isn’t much.” Darlene was staring at Tosha. “I need to talk with you in private.”

  “We don’t have time for this. There’s a bigger problem coming down the road.”

  �
�What are you talking about?” Darlene asked.

  “A horde of zombies. Hundreds of the fuckers. All hanging out at the mall,” Tosha said. “We’re hoping they’re your pets.”

  “Shit. No,” Darlene said. “But I have a bad feeling I know who’s behind it. Are they marching on The Promised Land?”

  “Not as far as we know,” The Lich Lord said. He turned to Tosha. “Can you contact your people you left to keep watch?”

  Tosha nodded.

  “Then go take a walk and do it,” The Lich Lord said.

  “I don’t want to miss anything.” Tosha smiled.

  “I didn’t ask you,” The Lich Lord said.

  Tosha threw up her hands and looked like she was going to pout but thought better of it. She nodded to Darlene. “In case we don’t see each other again tonight. I know how impatient your kind is, even though you’ve got nothing but time on your side.”

  Darlene smiled. “I hope we get some quality one on one time as well. I have so many questions to ask you about our entwined pasts.”

  Tosha shook her head and walked off, pulling out her radio.

  “Do you think she has enough range for it?” Darlene asked.

  “I’m a signal boost,” The Lich Lord said. “Let’s get down to business.”

  “I can’t give you names but I can tell you there’s a problem. Just a brush of thoughts before it was shut down. They’re careful. They know you can do a sweep and find them so they don’t think about it. They must also know you have a limit to what you can hear and how far,” Darlene said.

  “How widespread do you think it is?”

  Darlene shrugged. “I caught a thought among a sea of thoughts. I was scanning but by the time it clicked and I tried to go back it was gone.”

  “Why were you scanning my people?”

  “Boredom,” Darlene admitted. “I’ve been in and around the area lately. Maybe I want to be human again. Talk to a real person without them being scared of me or trying to figure out a way to kill me.”