Halfway back - Bruno, Steve and Fiona's adventure against zombies that may not be zombies and the secret behind them

by Marios Amontaristos

  “We want to ask you to reconsider the options you give the world. You should try to communicate directly with the people instead of the governments. Don't forget that you're doing this for the people, not for the companies or the politicians. What do you say?” Fiona asked quite stressed.

  “That's a noble thing of you to ask. Don't think that I haven't thought of it. But these people elect those politicians. Why do you think that these people, with their false choices, can be trusted with such a huge decision?”

  Dr Courant's elitist answer revealed a side of him which wasn't visible before. Yet, maybe they hadn't understood him well. “Maybe if they listen to their options, they will understand which option is the best. Most of them are poor. They will be in favor of a decision that will take away all the money of the world,” Steve said.

  Dr Courant turned around and looked towards the museum and the garden where the dinosaurs could still be seen even if it was evening and quite dark already. “I have seen people who can barely pay their rent, to shout and fight on behalf of politicians who vote for exhaustive taxes for the poor while the rich receive generous tax cuts. The same people accept to pay for their health insurance which barely covers their needs in disgraceful public hospitals where you go inside healthy and you leave sick. The same people feel too tired to think for themselves and they vote so that someone else will do it for them.” He turned towards the three. “Do you really trust these people's decisions? What they need is a parent to feed them, tell them what to think and give them some coins. I thought that maybe even one leader would help me and then many would follow. But no. Discussions took us nowhere. I will have to be more persuasive now.”

  Silence all over. Bruno was looking at Dr Courant who had turned his eyes towards the museum again. Then, Bruno thought about what Dr Courant had said, that he can focus the power of the rays by diminishing the radius and an idea came to his mind.

  “Dr Courant. You can take the decision for them, without causing any kind of destruction!”

  Dr Courant turned again, facing Bruno. “That's why I wanted you three with me. One of you always has something to say.”

  Bruno paused, expecting Dr Courant to give him permission to talk. But, as this never came, he started speaking anyway. “How about you release less power on a bigger radius? Maybe this way you will only heal the injuries and the illnesses, but no dead people will rise. And, as a consequence, you will give a serious blow to the pharmaceutical companies while eliminating the possibility of a war. And after they see what's going on and what your invention can do, you will be able to talk to people and tell them what to expect when the zombies start moving around, so that we won't have any mayhem again.”

  Dr Courant took a moment to think. Bruno went closer to him. “When the people know who did this for them, you will have them by your side. You won't need any government to threaten you. This plan can't go wrong.”

  Dr Courant looked at Bruno and smiled satisfied.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  No, it can't go wrong

  For the first time after a few weeks, Fiona found the time to visit Bruno and Steve. While walking, she could feel that something wasn't normal, the way she was used to. She was passing by a pharmacy when she remembered that she was out of shampoo. But the pharmacy was closed, even if it was too early, but not early enough for the afternoon break. She thought that she could find another one, but as she was approaching Darwin street, all she could find was another pharmacy with an 'out of business' sign on the door. Two out of two was a strange coincidence, so when she arrived at Bruno and Steve's place this was the first thing she mentioned to them.

  “We saw on the TV earlier that there are some protests downtown. Apparently, when Dr Courant turned on the machine again, people stopped going to hospitals. And now all the doctors, pharmacists, physiotherapists and all kinds of therapists are protesting because they have no business any more. And with them, many other kinds of businesses have lost their income from those professionals and it looks like the economy will have big trouble remaining stable,” Steve said. “In other words, thanks to Bruno and his idea, the economy is being destroyed in an accelerating rhythm.”

  “So, apparently Dr Courant was right. That's why he wanted to eliminate sickness and money at the same time. I think that now it's his chance to go for his offer. Now that he will definitely have the majority of people by his side,” Bruno said, ignoring Steve's blaming, which was more of a joke. “Let's go and talk to him!”

  Dr Courant wanted also to see them and he was glad that they had the chance to meet. One month and half after the crucial decision on the roof and after their communication was limited to phone calls about the development of the whole situation, they had a rendez-vous at a café near the lab and in view of the museum, whose walls were almost restored completely and giant cages had been built to contain the dinosaurs that had made it alive.

  They took a table deep inside the café, so that they wouldn't be visible from outside. After they had sat down and placed their order, Dr Courant started talking. “There are many things that you need to know and I couldn't tell you on the phone. First of all, the government and the police are following my moves. The government because they obviously know that I have the machine on and keeping everyone healthy, except for those who die in accidents or road collisions, and this way I have caused huge problems to the economy and people demand some answers. Don't think that I didn't think about it when Bruno told me his idea. I was anticipating it and I couldn't see the time for it to happen, to be more precise. Now we have them in hand.”

  “And the police, why?” Steve asked.

  “They suspect me for the murder of Antoine Blanchard, although there is no evidence.” He smiled. “I took care of all evidence in the explosion.”

  “What? How did you do this? And why?” Fiona asked. None of the three was surprised, since it was only normal for Blanchard to be a target for Dr Courant. Blanchard was ambitious and ruthless and he would stop for nothing in order to reach as high as possible. If finding about Dr Courant would make Blanchard a candidate for the presidency of France, he wouldn't hesitate to try and destroy Dr Courant's work, ignoring the potential disastrous consequences of angering more a man that had already reached his limits and had enormous power in his hands.

  “Well, after he got his promotion he became too arrogant and I could hear him say that he would do anything to find who was behind all this, but I couldn't let him, could I? He took away your glory and he wanted to take away my dream and the hopes of billions of people. So, with the help of one of my boys, I planted a nice little bomb under his arrogantly parked car, which was half on the road and half on the sidewalk, and I waited until I could detonate it. But he detonated it himself when he crashed into a car while talking on his phone, as the report said.” Fiona felt a mix of relief and guilt while Steve and Bruno were looking at her like naughty little children who had just broken a plate and hid its pieces, promising to keep the story among them as a common secret that bonds them forever, until they go to high school.

  “So, now what?” Steve asked.

  “Now I will try to talk with representatives of the people and not the government. I will give a public speech and I will let them choose what they want by proclaiming and organizing an election. Of course, the government will help me organize the election and nothing bad is going to happen to me, or else the machines I have hidden everywhere will start working in full power and you can imagine what can happen if all these dinosaurs whose skeletons haven't been discovered yet, begin regenerating their whole bodies under the surface of the Earth.” Bruno, Steve and Fiona got uneasy. In their minds, various images from an apocalyptic scenery, for which their imagination didn't have to contribute much, since they already had in their memories very clear pictures. “Don't worry, we have them in hand.”

  Bruno wanted to feel reassured, but he couldn't. He wanted to say something, but nothing was coming out.

  “Are you sure
that people have their health higher than the economy?” asked Steve, who got tired of waiting for Bruno to find his words. “Have you seen the protests downtown? I'm not very optimistic about the outcome of the referendum.”

  “Yes! Referendum is the word I was looking for! Not election! Thank you, Steve. And don't worry. The majority of the people are not doctors. They will be with us.”

  But when Dr Courant announced publicly who he was and what he wanted, Steve's fears turned out to be justified. Huge demonstrations started all over Paris and many comments on TV by protesters included “He is trying to destroy the civilization as we know it. It was working fine so far, why is he trying to change it?” “You cannot threaten us like this. Keep your machine for yourself and leave us alone,” “If you don't like it here, go to another country. Don't try to change this one.”

  At the same time, huge counter-protests took place, organized by supporters of Dr Courant's machine and ideas. “Capitalism has failed. Health should be free for everyone.” “You can keep your money and eat it when you get sick. We want to be healthy, productive and creative.”

  The police was unable to contain the protesters. Soon enough, there were various street fights all over the city while at the same time, many movements began rising rapidly all over Europe and soon enough in the rest of the world, with many violent outbreaks between the pro-health and the pro-preservation sides or, as they called each other in a derogatory manner, the hippies and the paper-lovers respectively. People were badly injured or killed and in some cases where the police had lost control completely, there were actual gunfights in the streets of the big cities.

  Dr Courant decided to speak publicly via internet while he was at a secret location so that he couldn't be traced and followed. His speech was shown everywhere on a live satellite broadcast.

  “I wanted to give you the chance to choose what is best for everyone. Instead, you chose to kill each other, like humans do constantly from the beginning of time. I have had enough. Since you cannot decide peacefully and for the best of everyone and not only for your selfish reasons, I will put an end to this thing that is turning into a global war, by making your two only options clearer. You can transfer all the money in the planet to me, turning it into a pile of useless paper and numbers and allowing us to begin again, under more solid bases and with most of our problems solved, thanks to my machine that will keep us all healthy and strong while we work to make the planet the heaven it deserves to be for all. Or, you can deny my offer and my work and I will turn on all my machines in full power and I will bring back every human and animal that ever lived and I will transform this mess of a planet you are creating with your idiotic fights into an actual wasteland. But be careful, because there is no way back once you take your final decision. You have 24 hours to decide.” And then the broadcast was interrupted. The violence got more brutal, since the hippies wanted to hand the money to Dr Courant and the money-eaters with their not-so-wealthy followers wanted to keep things the way they were. Both sides were standing firm on their positions over the subject and the deadline was getting closer and closer.

  Back in Dr Courant's lab, Bruno, Steve and Fiona were reading news from all over the world and none of them was feeling safe since very few reports were encouraging. “Dr Courant, I don't think that they will come to an agreement. Maybe if one side eliminates the other within 24 hours. You don't really want to do what you threatened to do, right?” Steve asked.

  “Maybe I do, my friend. What's the point in trying to change a world that doesn't want to change? We can at least show them that they can be far worse,” Dr Courant said and he wasn't looking very optimistic either.

  “And those who agree with you? Why do you want to punish those too?” Bruno asked. “We are with you on your plan, but now you sound like you gave an impossible task to the people in order for them to fail. It's as if you want them to fail.”

  “An impossible task? What about my task? My efforts to bring back my son and everyone else's sons and daughters and who knows what else? All these years of work under this unbearable pain and the temptation to quit everything and just give up hope? How do you compare this to the impossible task of having to hand over some useless pieces of paper, that are a human invention and have no real value?” Even though he remembered all he had been through, Dr Courant's speech was calm.

  “Why don't you make the banks of the world pass you all the existing money?” Bruno asked.

  “The banks don't have all the money. I want every single cent, even those hidden under mattresses and in piggy banks. If there are a few people with money, they will become powerful, because in the minds of people, money will still have value. All the money must come to us, so that it will be useless. Otherwise the people won't be able to accept the new era...”

  At that moment, around a dozen of heavily armed men broke into the lab. They had managed to enter the building and reach the lab without making any noise and took everyone by surprise. “Your hands in the air,” one of them shouted while all of the men were aiming at Bruno, Steve, Fiona and Dr Courant, who had two or three little red dots each, moving nervously on their chests and foreheads. Only the Dr Courant stayed on his chair, not seeming to bother much about the unexpected company and the weapons that were ready to blow off huge chunks of his flesh with a small push of the trigger. “You too, sir. Put your hands in the air,” that man said calmly. Dr Courant took a little remote controller out of his right pocket, where his hand was and raised it in the air.

  “Go ahead. Shoot and prepare to fight the dinosaurs once more, but this time they will keep returning again and again until they have killed every one of you and everyone else in the city. You, sir. Please, shoot me. What? No? Then what are you doing here?” The gunmen started looking at each other awkwardly and their little read dots were sliding on the walls, the tables and the legs of Bruno, Steve and Fiona.

  “Where is your machine, sir?” the leader asked impatiently.

  “It is in the kitchen, next to the sink,” Dr Courant answered naturally, as if he was talking to Bruno.

  The leader nodded towards the direction of the kitchen and two men went inside right away. They returned after a few seconds. “There is only a washing machine in there, sir.”

  “Why? What machine did you...? Oh, I see! Oh, what a terrible misunderstanding!” Dr Courant was way too calm. It appeared that he was prepared for this invasion. He waved to Bruno, Steve and Fiona to take their seats back. “Sit down, these chickens won't hurt anyone.” When they took their seats back, he turned to the leader. “So, master chicken, you really thought that I would leave my machine somewhere that you could find it or that I would tell you where it is? Are you so innocent or the idea you have about yourself is so big? You're not so intimidating, you know.”

  “Sir, don't underestimate what we can do to you,” the commander said, but he didn't sound convincing.

  “What, all of you? That's so scary! You can beat me up, seriously? You must be very tough boys! Look, I don't appreciate your presence in here. If you do me the favor and get lost, it will be nice,” Dr Courant said, growing tired with the presence of some gunmen threatening him and his company.

  “We cannot leave before we find your machine. Will you tell us where it is or we will need to use violence?” said the leader, whose egoism was so hurt by Dr Courant's nerve and refusal to be afraid of the trained assassin squad, that his weapon was feeling heavier and he had a headache.

  “Do you see how stupid you are? You see that I'm in my lab without bothering to hide and you think that I would have my machine somewhere around here, so that you can find it easily? Even if I wanted, I can't help you. I gave it to my boys and asked them to hide it somewhere and not tell me where. If you want, you can help me search.” Dr Courant was enjoying torturing the men with the weapons, when he saw that they didn't have any indication that they were from the police or the special forces. Then he remembered and he got serious. “Did you break into my house before comin
g here? This is what you do, right? Instead of knocking on the door, you prefer to knock the door down. But this time I'm not so innocent. Les enfants!” He shouted and then there was silence. In a few seconds, various well built men came shouting behind the armed forces, who barely managed to turn around and see what was happening, and started stabbing them with big knives on the back, on the chest, on the face, on the neck, on the crotch and the thighs and anywhere that their equipment wasn't enough provide any protection. The intruders were surprised and they had no time to react. Some of them managed to shoot a few of their stabbers, but they were outnumbered and soon enough lying on the floor dead, along with their leader.

  When Bruno, Steve and Fiona, who had fallen on the floor to cover themselves, realized that there were no more shootings and got up, they saw Dr Courant, badly wounded on the chest, lying on the floor. He didn't have time to cover and was hit by a bullet and he looked like he didn't have much time left. The three rushed over him. He couldn't speak and his breathing was fast and weak. He showed the remote, which had fallen one meter away. Fiona brought it back to him. He pressed a button. He lied on his back. He tried to press on his wound to limit the bleeding. Bruno saw it and moved aside Dr Courant's hands, so that he would press the wound himself. Fiona brought him a glass of water. Steve was trying to give him words of encouragement, quite awkwardly. Dr Courant smiled and closed his eyes. His breathing became weaker. Steve slapped him. He didn't move. He slapped him again. Nothing. Bruno checked at the wound and saw that the bleeding had almost stopped. Within a couple of agonizing minutes, Dr Courant was breathing again normally and the wound was almost completely closed.

  Fiona and Bruno hugged and Steve turned towards the door trying to prevent himself from crying or probably to hide his tears and preventing the image of a tough guy he thought he had. Dr Courant sat up and took a deep breath. “I knew that this machine would be very useful some day. It's good that they didn't shoot me in the head.” He got up. “We can't stay here. Probably more of them will appear soon. Let's get out.” They moved past the dead bodies, whose wounds were smaller than when they fell dead on the floor, and the ones who had survived and were standing there, waiting for orders. All four went downstairs and started walking quickly towards the closest metro station. Then, they noticed that there was some familiar and terrifying noise coming from the museum. They turned their heads simultaneously and managed to see the head of T-Rex raising, with a bleeding guy motionless between its large teeth.