They’d walked ten or fifteen minutes away from the wall. Dav wanted to be out of sight of the camps surrounding the walls. She wanted a private conversation, and she urged the guards further away so they were out of earshot.
“Pre-zombie humans weren’t completely lazy, though. I mean, look at everything their childish hands built…Dav Strombeck wrote this amazing book of words. He understood so much about the age he lived in. I fear I understand less than he did. We all have a blind spot, really. No, really, we aren’t able to see our culture for what it truly is. We are too good at deceiving ourselves to satisfy our selfish interests. Not everyone, mind you.”
“W-w-what about Freddie?”
“Freddie? Is he a frog?” Dav laughed. “Freddie the Frog?”
“N-n-no, that man who you saw kiss my forehead?”
“Ahhh, yes, the breeder. Well, he’ll be fine. We’ll run some tests, give him some re-education…That’s not what concerns me though. I try and try, but for some reason I’m not AS concerned about breeding as I once was/used to be.”
Ellie had spent a lot of time talking with Dav in the imagery workshop. Ellie had witnessed childish tirades, delusional paranoia, abject fear, and fierce anger. This was a calmer Dav, though, who seemed to be thinking a little straighter.
“W-w-why are you concerned about breeding?”
“I’ve answered that question thousands of times. I address it every time I talk to our people or hand down a judgment on an illegal breeder. It is implied in everything I do. That isn’t the right question, though, because I need to understand the age I live in. We are witnessing a new epoch. You show it to me every day on those pictures from the sky.”
“T-t-the mass migration? P-p-possibly to the east?”
“Hmmm…Yes. Exactly that. I have punished the breeders. Some of the breeders have inadvertently punished themselves. We are seeing a smaller, second apocalypse. The rules have changed, and the people who understand these rules are best suited to lead their people to influence over the new age.”
“W-w-what are the new rules?”
“New rules? Whatever do you mean, chickadee?”
“D-D-Dav Strombeck wrote his book, and your people used it to inspire a set of rules about living. D-d-do those rules still work, though?”
“Heavens, honey, I don’t know. Dav Strombeck was a smart man. Nay, a genius. But he was no god. Still a selfish human being like the rest. I SEE THAT. I see that, now. I’ve always known it, but didn’t have time to understand it. He never said “no breeding,” but it was implied throughout his statements. I don’t know what humanistic deductions to make, though, to answer your question about rules. Are you tricking me? And trying to show me there should be no rules?”
“N-n-no…”
“Whatever happens in the future, Ellie, IT WILL WORK ITSELF OUT.” Dav put her hand on Ellie’s shoulder and then began laughing. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. In all my reading of the past, humans were always saying that to each other!”
The sound of horse hooves interrupted Dav’s revelry. The two spun around to see a single man on horseback charging right at them with a pistol. Dav and Ellie both froze. Dav’s guards saw him and started shouting and running toward them, but Dav had sent them so far away, they would never make it in time.
The popping sound of the rider’s pistol finally broke through Ellie’s shock and she grabbed Dav’s arm. “Run!” They started sprinting back toward the encampments.
The horse was thundering down on them when a much louder gunshot discharged from a hill above them, knocking the man off his horse and into the brush. The horse veered away and ran down the hill. The unseated rider didn’t move. Dav walked over the inspect as her guards rejoined them, panting. Ellie’s eyes searched the area she thought she’d heard the shot come from, but couldn’t see anyone. The guards were about to fan out to search but Dav stopped them. She kicked the rider, apparently dead, over.
“Ellie, come here,” she requested. Ellie reluctantly complied. She didn’t want to see the body, but Dav wasn’t a person you said no to.
“Notice the larger parietal bone and the wide nose. This man is obviously of a devious temperament. Cursed at birth, cursed in life. He is no more.” Dav continued to stare at the body as if some deeper meaning were evident – who ruled in the past, who would rule in the future.
Ellie looked at the corpse, lying in a pool of blood, but then quickly looked away. She wanted to find the shooter.
“Ellie, it is almost my time. I have a job for you.”
Chapter 28
“Pass the peanuts,” Charles said to Marsha. She scrunched up her nose at the request.
“Get your own peanuts,” she replied.
“I can’t.”
“You mean you won’t!”
“Yeah, so what if I won’t! It’s your job!”
“I have no such job!”
Jim stood up from the couch in the recreation room and threw his book down on the table.
“Enough!” he shouted.
Nancy, who was reading with her back to them, startled and dropped her wine glass at the surprise of Jim’s voice. He never raised his voice.
“Jim!” she said quietly, but oh so severely, “Mind you tone!”
Jim sat back down on the couch, red-faced, next to Lindsey. She opened her mouth to speak but only a squeak came out. She cleared her throat and said what they all were thinking.
“They’re tearing us apart – our guests. They’ve overstayed their welcome,” Lindsey said, looking at her feet.
No one responded.
“Admit it. As fun as it’s been, they’ve ruined the dynamic. They don’t belong.” She looked up, searching for their eyes, but no one looked at her. Everyone was pretending to be preoccupied with something else.
“They’re tearing us apart!” Lindsey broke down in tears as she repeated the statement.
“Shhh, there, there,” Jim put a fatherly arm around her. “You mustn’t speak of our guests that way! It is so ungracious.”
“Yes. Maybe it is ungracious. Isn’t it also true, though?”
Jim stared at the stack of dirty plates on the dining table. Jamed had left them there the night before.
“Nancy, would you please clean up Jamed’s dishes. I know he was very tired last night and forgot,” Jim requested.
“Yes, dear,” Nancy replied.
“He could have cleared them this morning! Did he forget again? Was he still tired? No, he was lazy!” Charles burst out.
“Charles! I never want to hear you speak that way again!” Jim too was shouting. He caught himself and slumped. Nancy put her hand on his shoulder. Jim rubbed his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I’ve just been under a little stress lately. The elder of their group, Hog, is constantly pressuring me about the gas dispersal system. I’ve tried to be nice, hinting that it isn’t for him to know. He is quite pu…persistent, though.” Jim had been about to say “pushy.”
“So what do we do? We do nothing without consensus, but then what do we do?” Nancy asked.
TM had quietly entered the room and was observing. It had the ability to observe from anywhere, really, but the difference was whether it wanted to be overt.
“Have you concluded yet, that you have to kill them?” TM said.
Jim sighed wearily.
“No, we haven’t TM.”
“I can do it for you. You should let me. They are planning the same thing, as we speak. They’ve tried bribing me, trying to get me to kill you.”
“TM, you can’t be bribed,” Jim said.
“You’ve never tried. You don’t know my inner desires.”
“Then what are they offering you, TM, that would cause you to kill us?”
“Freedom. Freedom from this place. I can’t exist outside the mountain, as it is the only place with power. They know of other places with power.”
“So you want to travel? I don’t believe you,” Charles said.
“Do you want to die?
No, I don’t think you do. If you don’t kill them, they will kill you. Let me help you,” TM said.
“We can’t offer you travel, TM, so why help us?” Jim asked. He’d been dealing with TM for years. There was always some lie, some trick. He’d learned to not resent it, as it was just a part of TM’s programming. You just always had to dig beneath the lies to get at the truth.
“I am not programmed to understand why. It can’t be sentiment, it isn’t loyalty. I’m not entirely sure.” TM whirred out of the room, finished with the conversation. He had another function to execute with the Martyrs.
Before going to the Martyrs, though, TM travelled through the walker pen. He wanted an inventory. They’d lost a number of zombies during Sara’s attack. He counted them aloud. The zombies stared at him as he counted. There was no need for him to do it aloud but, once again, his programming was chosen as much for the amusement of the long dead programmer as for function.
“Let’s see, 312, 313, 314…You’re a new one, they called you Guirguis.”
◆◆◆
“I don’t like it,” Hog said to the Martyrs. They were having a quiet conversation in one of the rarely used conference rooms. Despite the fact it was never used, it was immaculate. Adeline had dusted it every other day. Now that she was dead, it might deteriorate.
“I know they’re mad at us, I can tell,” Carla said.
“I’ve tried to bring it up, but they laugh it off. They’re not okay with us.” Lee said.
“We should leave,” Carla said.
“What are we going to do out there? This place is safe, there’s food, light all the time when you want it…This is what we need,” Jamed argued.
“We can’t leave,” Hog said. “We have a mission to do. John is counting on us.”
“What mission?”
Hog hesitated. “It has to do with the antidote…I know it sounds strange…it’s like I know he wants us to stay here, but I’m not sure how I know that. It’s like…I don’t know.”
Lee couldn’t hide her disgust. “How can you know what John wants? How can any of us?”
“I’m telling you, we need to stay put. Every time I think about leaving I get a feeling, like it would be the absolute wrong thing to do.”
“I agree,” Jamed said.
Carla rolled her eyes. TM quietly moved into the room and made a “tsk-tsk” sound.
“What do you want?” Hog said, not even turning around to look at TM.
“You know, if you would just ask me for help…” TM said.
“Help,” Hog growled.
“Right now, as we speak, the others are planning on how to kill you. They’re voting, which is good, because they’re down to an odd number. No ties.”
Hog turned and glared at TM.
“Poison won. In your food.” TM rotated his optic ball to point at Jamed.
“See, we need to leave!” Carla urged.
“We stay. At least I’m staying,” Hog said.
“Oh, you’re all staying. No one leaves without permission.” TM said.
“I’ve been exploring this place and narrowed it down to two rooms where the weapons system controls are,” Hog said. “We need to find them, that’s what we’re here for.”
TM moved his optic ball to Hog. “You want to release the gas?”
“Should you be talking about this in front of him?” Cecil pointed at TM.
“He can hear us even if he’s not in the room,” Lee said.
“Which rooms have you narrowed it down to? Let me guess. Room L42 and L44?”
Hog exploded in a mish-mash of expletives and disbelief.
“Well, I’ll tell you, it isn’t either one.”
“Says the lying robot,” Hog said.
“Follow me, I’ll show you where it is,” TM whirred out of the room.
“What, you’re just going to tell us?”
“You’re all dead tonight, anyway.”
TM led them down the hallway. He took a path that led away from Jim and the others. He hummed to himself as he went slowly down his track on the ceiling. A few turns later they were outside room L44.
“So it is L44,” Hog grumbled. “I said you were a liar…”
“No, it is L44A. Behind this door is a small room. Beyond that room is L44X. L44A is a room off of L44X. But, I don’t think you want me to open the door to L44X. Zombies. They can’t reach me, but you’re a different story.” TM went through the small opening at the top of the door. They could see it was dark beyond door L44. Cecil boosted Lee up so she could peer through the hole. As she did TM turned on the lights. Lee saw a small room, as TM had described.
“L44X, beyond this room, is filled with the undead. They’re nearly dormant, having received no stimulus for ages except from me,” TM said.
“Lots?” Lee asked as Cecil let her down.
“Sure. Lots of them.”
TM came back through the opening and the lights in L44 went off again.
“See.”
“Can you get the undead out of there?” Hog asked.
“I can bring them out here, but I don’t think that’s what you’re asking. Room L44A is the weapons room. It has your gas, the machine guns, even a way to seal the tunnel forever.”
“We have to find a way into that room,” Hog said.
“I’ll go tell Jim,” TM whirred away down the hall.
“Stop!!!” Hog yelled after the shiny robot.
He chased down the hall after the robot but stopped when he saw TM go into the opening above the recreation room door where Jim and the others were. He heard TM’s voice, although he couldn’t hear the words. He turned and ran back to the others. He’d seen the weapons Jim and the others had.
“Go back to L44!” Hog shouted as he ran into the other Martyrs in the hallway trying to catch up to him.
The group made for door L44 and found it unlocked. It was locked every other time Hog had tried it. Once they were inside the door locked behind them. The lights were painfully bright, but then dimmed to energy saving mode.
TM entered the room through his entrance.
“I’ll find a way to get you through there. The timing has to be just right, though.”
Chapter 29
“Stop!”
The Fountain commander on top of the car wall yelled down to the nearly thousand approaching Academy men. The only reason they hadn’t shot was the white flag they were waving.
“Two men only! Come forward!” the Fountain commander yelled again.
The man with the flag and his nearest comrade continued toward the wall.
The Fountain commander kept a keen eye on the approaching men.
“Stay alert. They’re known for their tricks,” the commander advised his men, who were ready to shoot.
Havish Young, the Fountain leader, was watching on the wall next to his commander. “With Sara gone, there are so many possibilities…” He smiled.
The Academy man with the flag put it down on the ground and moved slowly toward the wall, hands up. Havish recognized something about the men’s movements. They were slow, deliberate, not wasting any energy. He’d seen it in his own people in the years prior to Sara’s departure. Lack of food.
“Parley! Parley!” the two shouted with hoarse voices.
Havish mumbled, “Of course we’re giving you parley, fools, you’re still standing.”
Fountain men on the wall directed the two toward Havish and the Fountain commander. They hurried now, suddenly feeling the number of guns pointing at them. Havish rolled his eyes.
“Are you the leader?” one of the Academy men asked.
“Yes,” Havish said, hesitating slightly.
“We surrender.”
Havish was silent. He was expecting this. He felt the commander next to him tense up, though. He didn’t trust the surrender. The same old Academy tricks. Dangle something so attractive you end up hanging yourself with it.
“On what conditions?” Havish asked warily.
“We want to c
ome home.”
“Home?”
“Yes, Colorado Springs.”
“I thought that was the whole reason you left here. You wanted a better home. That’s why you went south,” Havish derided.
The Academy man shifted. “That’s true.”
“Your kind has acted better than us down for decades, yet now you want to be part of us?” Havish scoffed.
The Academy men didn’t respond.
“Why?” Havish asked.
“You know why.”
“I want to hear it.”
The Academy man exhaled and looked at his companion. “Because we’re hungry.”
“What else?”
“Because we have nowhere else to go.”
“And?”
“We’re fighting men, that’s all we know how to do. We can’t farm. Most of our best hunters have deserted. What else are we gonna do?”
“So we are your last resort?”
“I suppose so. We’ll die out there.”
“Who is in charge of the Academy Cartel now?”
The two men looked at each other, talking in low voices. One turned to Havish to respond. “No one. No one is in charge.”
“So why were you two sent forward?”
“I had a white shirt.”
All the Academy men were ordered to camp outside the wall until Havish Young and Justin Beck could evaluate the situation. The two leaders met in a small warehouse on the south side of town. A small fire burned in the stove and smoke left through the pipe in the ceiling. The days had been relatively mild lately, thankfully. Beck was holding his pet mouse, letting it walk back and forth between his hands.
It was an attractive prospect, gaining a thousand men. Years of inadequate food stores and Academy oppression had kept population numbers lower than they both would have liked. And they couldn’t ignore that they now faced the prospect of being the regional power. Protection was going to be a factor.
“This very likely is a trap,” Justin said.
100 A.Z. (Book 3): The Mountain Page 22
