“Possibly a trap. There’s really no way of knowing,” Havish countered.
“Don’t let your desire for power blind you. Blind us. If this alliance is going to work then we make decisions together.” Justin wasn’t used to sharing power. The New Generation had survived because of loyalty, not spirited debate. The New Generation needed the Fountain cartel, though, and vice versa.
“We lost a few hundred men in suppressing the Canadian attack,” Havish said. “Accepting them would replenish our numbers.”
“Yes, but, these Academy soldiers could easily have spies within our walls. Dalbec escaped and we haven’t found him yet. I don’t want any schemes of his showing up on my doorstep. We just don’t know what they have planned,” Justin said.
“There is nothing left out there.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, aside from the Canadian attack, who is there to challenge us?” Havish posited.
“Do you need any more example than what we just saw? The Canadians left, sure, but not because we scared them off. I think they thought we were finished.”
“Back to the same argument then?”
“What same argument?” Justin asked, brushing the hair out of his face. His heart was racing with anger.
“The argument that we are weak.” Young let the words sink in. He’d had a change of thinking lately. It was time to share it. “Think about it. We’ve lived our whole lives under the Academy shadow. They kept us beat down, subservient. To make it worse, they could have eliminated us at any moment. If it hadn’t been for the government’s protection.”
“According to that man, Sal, there is no more government. Everything is gone.”
Havish clenched his fist and pounded his thigh. “All the more reason we are now the power! The zombie age is over! It is time for man to rule. Only those men who join each other in alliances will win! Can’t you see?! The people who relied upon the undead are losing!”
“What is it we’re trying to win, Havish? There is no prize. There is only survival. Haven’t you learned anything? We would just be another cycle, another ‘generation.’ Yes, a new generation, soon to be the old generation! There is no reason to chase power. Power is fluid. Power chooses who gets it, not us.”
“Power has chosen us!” Havish shouted.
“We don’t have power!”
“You’re wrong. We have a chance to choose the direction of our world.”
Justin didn’t respond. He could have, but it would have been to call Havish a fool. That wouldn’t be productive, he had the self-control to at least see that.
“That is a discussion for another day. Right now, we have to decide what to do about these men. They are hungry. Let’s feed them. We won’t let them in, but we want to keep their goodwill. Once they are relying on us for food, their hearts will change to loyalty. A man’s stomach is the key to his allegiance,” Justin said, thinking back to something from New Generation's own past. He gazed beyond Havish, then shook it off.
“And if a storm hits? What then? Those men will freeze out there.”
“We’ll address that if it happens. I can’t deal in possibilities, only probabilities.”
“It is a certainty, and we’ll have to make a decision then. It won’t be on our timeline, either, but winter’s.”
◆◆◆
Dalbec, approached the entrance to Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station. He wasn’t sure how he got outside of the complex again. Dalbec vaguely remembered getting angry about something, but it was all blurry in his mind. Where was Sara? The last clear thing he remembered was being with the strange machine that drove along the ceiling. Now, somehow, he was outside again. A couple wild turkeys ran off at the sight of him. Wary, wily creatures, they weren’t too unlike Dalbec himself. This was a different Dalbec, though, than the man who had entered Cheyenne Mountain weeks prior. He now had the virus in him.
He shuffled down the sloping exterior tunnel, stopping to balance himself against the cavern wall as a wave of hunger rolled over him. The tunnel was made of exposed rock, cold and damp to the touch. Water was dripping from the ceiling and he charted his course to avoid the falling drops.
“TM!!! He yelled, the sound echoing off the walls. “Where are you, friend!”
He got no answer, so he kept on down the tunnel until he reached the ninety degree turn that headed toward the blast door. The door was closed but as Dalbec approached it, a loud creaking sound signaled its opening.
“TM!!!” he yelled again.
“Yes, Dalbec?” the tinny, metallic voice responded.
“Good, there you are, I’m so hungry…”
“Sure thing, little buddy. Follow me.”
TM led Dalbec down the hallways to the medical room where a robotic medic unit administered iron through an IV to Dalbec.
“Does that help?”
“Yes,” the color was returning to Dalbec’s face. He winced as pain, too, returned to his shot shoulder, but the pain went quickly away.
Dalbec exhaled deeply, as if relaxing from a long journey.
“I saw Sara,” he said. He didn’t know where the words came from. He was speaking from memories he didn’t know he had. It was a disconcerting sensation.
“Tell me about it.”
“They’ve destroyed her. Changed her...turned her grotesque, pitiful.”
“While you’ve changed into a beautiful butterfly, Dalbec.”
Dalbec turned and looked at TM. “What have you turned me into?”
A mirror on a robotic arm whizzed over the Dalbec, reflecting his image back to himself. He looked no different than before.
“See anything different?” TM asked.
“No.”
“Because the change is on the inside. Really, though, little has changed. More like we’ve awakened what has been in you all along. You are like your brother.”
“Brother?”
“Yes, he is coming soon. Not your real brother, but he is in the same position. You are truly blessed among men, my child.”
“Why do they say you lie?” Dalbec asked.
“Who told you that?”
“One of the stewards.”
“I cannot deny it, I lie. Nor would I deny it. Can a creation be blamed for how it was created?”
Dalbec ignored TM’s response. The iron had stopped flowing into his bloodstream. He could feel it.
“What happened?! Have you run out?!”
“Don’t worry, there’s more. You’ll just have to get it. I can take you there.”
“Take me now,” Dalbec begged.
“Yes, yes. It will teach you about who you are, too. Two birds with one stone, as you humans say. Now, let’s go to room L44. It has to be at the right time, though.”
Chapter 30
John led Sophia, in zombie form, by the rope tied around her waist.
She didn’t fight, but calmly complied with his gentle guiding down the mountain toward Colorado Springs – the same route he’d taken to find Mark, years prior. This time, though, a few hundred thousand zombies trailed behind him.
He turned back to admire his army. It wound up the craggy mountain highway behind him and extended for miles. He had to keep as many of these lives intact as possible. It was his job.
“Push through!” John shouted. Shots from snipers in the trees around them scored headshots. Some of John’s walkers broke off to chase away the snipers.
John’s army pushed on, occasional shots exploding the heads of zombies in his herd. The snipers had no hope of killing every walker in the inexhaustible swarm following John, but they felt like they had to do something.
As the pursuing walkers closed in on the fleeing snipers, the shooting died down. John turned to Sophia. He smiled at her. “They can’t stop us.”
The herd reached the bridge around Manitou Springs. A concrete berm, about the height of John’s shoulder, blocked the way.
“They knew we were coming a while ago. We can’t afford delays.” John observed
.
KAABOOOMM!!!
A violent explosion knocked John off balance for a moment. Shredded zombie limbs and bits from those who’d been up ahead rained down on the surrounding landscape. Once the dust settled he saw only a jagged gap where the bridge had once been.
John only had to nod and the walkers did what they wouldn’t have done otherwise –move to fill in the fifty-foot drop under the bridge. He watched as they flung themselves over the gap in the bridge by the dozens. John walked Sophia to the side of the road and forced her to sit on the ground. It was the only way to keep her head down and out of sight of the occasional sniper still desperately plinking away at the herd. She tried standing, but John repeatedly and gently pulled her arms out from under her as she tried to push herself up.
Hundreds of walkers had now hurled themselves into the gap in the bridge. They were piling up. Slowly, but surely, they would create a mound the whole herd could walk across. John felt a pang for the walkers crushed underneath, but it was the only way. Some would have to sacrifice themselves for the herd.
“Maybe that’s why there’s no independent thought in the herd. They sacrificed it for the group.”
More walkers threw themselves upon the pile as human defenders from behind the concrete berm let off a barrage of shooting. It fell scores of walkers, clogging the roadway.
It was too late. After a while, the zombie pile filled the gap with thousands of bodies. The herd continued on. John crossed with Sophia in hand, still talking to her as the human defenders fled.
“I’ve seen the past…” John grabbed at his stomach and hunched over. “It comes through in memories…people in the herd that lived before the outbreak. I’ve seen how people lived, how they died…how they lied to themselves. They saw a world in decline; they had all the signs of the fall, yet did nothing. Instead, they reflected what everyone around them thought. They bought into the human herd, and didn’t stray from the accepted beliefs. Sure, they argued, debated, but it’s like there was a single mind shaping them, molding them into a force for whatever it wanted. All of it would fall.”
As the herd approached the city hours later, the car wall exploded with gunfire from the New Generation, Fountain, and surrendered Academy cartel. The thousands of geldings they’d deployed were useless. Round by round, bullet by bullet, the soldiers on the wall let loose a hail of ammunition into the encroaching masses. John watched from out of range as his herd was cut down by the onslaught.
“Either they use all their ammo, or we’ll overrun them. I’ve seen all this.”
Gradually, inch by inch, the herd gained on the wall as the walkers walked around or crawled over their fallen comrades. The zombies who reached the wall were just shot down. It didn’t matter. The falling zombies only created a hill that slowly built up the side of the wall. Even when the humans realized what they were creating and stopped shooting, the walkers still submitted to the task, shuffling up to and lying down on the pile to build a ramp up the side of the wall.
Within an hour, the ramp reached the top of the wall and the undead were streaming into the city.
“Now the herd wants revenge, but it won’t satisfy. Nothing will satisfy their craving. They’ve forgotten the real reason they’re here.”
Within an hour of invading the city, John knew exactly where Sara was. He walked there, taking his time with Sophia. Inside, dozens of the undead had already surrounded her, clawing at her cage. He made his way through them, as if they parted at his mere presence, and reached the cage holding Sara. He peered through the bars. The mangled Sara tried to remain dignified, standing up to greet her enemy.
“Sara, it’s time for you to understand what you’ve done.”
John went to the wall and grabbed the key to her cage. There were no protests from within. What John brought seemed better than what she currently endured. John opened the door and the slathering zombies clawing at the cage stormed in and pulled Sara down to the ground. John kicked them off once they’d bit her. He reached down to her waistband and pulled off the small pouch carrying his red rocks. She’d eventually taken them from Dalbec, in a moment of fear.
“Welcome to the herd,” John said a few minutes later as the change was imminent. Sara wept on the floor before she turned. Once she switched the crying immediately stopped.
What she saw in her mind, though, the consciousness of the herd she’d been partly responsible for creating – the children of Peterson Air Force Base – burned itself upon her forever.
Chapter 31
“Ladies and gentlemen, we join together on this fluorescent brown day for one reason, to further understand the reasons we exist,” Dav said to the audience she’d gathered around the Los Alamos outdoor auditorium. It was a cold day, a storm was moving in, and everyone was bundled and huddled around the numerous fire pits about the auditorium. Dav was on the crumbling concrete stage and wearing a fur coat, which was uncharacteristic. She’d also been sleeping in a bed, lately, and turning down the requisite ceremonies conducted by Dave to frighten and terrorize her.
Dav yawned with her hand over her mouth, the Canadian cue for the audience to clap. They did.
“Many of you little ones have met the littlest of them all – Ellie. She has left her mark on my heart and many of yours as well. I know because I’m telling you so. LET IT BE SO. Too many have ignored me up to now, but none will have that on their conscience going forward.” Dav gave a little clap to herself.
She bowed and motioned for Ellie to walk on the stage. Ellie walked, shoulders slumped more than usual, on the stage to stand next to Dav. Dav raised her hands. “Bring out the breeder!”
Two guards led Freddie on the stage.
“This man has shown an unpermitted desire to breed. SHAME. We are going to give him a unique opportunity. WAIT. WAIT. I will tell you what that is in a bit.” Dav scratched at her neck and frantically motioned for Dave to come on the stage. He did so, holding a long knife.
“We Canadians have always been resilient. May that resilience continue to guide us,” Dave said, raising the knife. The crowd responded with a “Yes.”
“The tiny robots have given the final word, I am to leave!” Dav said. “It is time for me to go on my walk, the long walk to nowhere. I’ve always looked at this day (well, today is really many days compressed into one) with fear. I do not fear anything, but I feared this day. Was I not pure in mind? Probably. The robots made sure of that. I probably used their lies to their liking, which was my mistake. It is the last mistake I made as Dav. I will go back to being Melissa Cartwright.” Dav smiled, feeling a warmth inside her heart as she said that name.
“But who will be Dav?” Dave asked in a monotone voice, per the script.
“This little chicken. Ellie will be Dav.” Dav, now Melissa, pointed to Ellie and clapped. No one in the audience clapped.
Melissa stopped clapping and held her arms out to the audience. “You must not be sad. She will guide you. She sees things from a different perspective. Looking down from the sky she is detached, impartial, unable to be skewed by earthly desires. I am encouraged that the robots haven’t corrupted her.”
All this was still in line with the script. The audience was supposed to initially shun the new Dav, as the pre-zombie world had done with Dav Strombeck. It was only after the final ceremony that they would accept the new Dav as their leader.
“And who will be Dave?” Dave asked.
“This young suitor, Freddie, will be the new Dave. However, I warn you all. There might be something different. These two may choose to make Dav and Dave about something else. They may choose to marry,” Melissa said. This caused a genuine sound of confusion in the crowd, but Melissa silenced it with the raising of a hand. “...and...and...and I encourage them do so.”
The crowd made no sound, but the tension was palpable. Ellie and Freddie looked nervously at one another, searching for some answer to this awkward situation.
“Dave, you must continue, before these fragile people lose heart.”<
br />
“Yes, ma’am. Guards.” Dave nodded to the guards who grabbed Ellie by the arms and took her to a table they brought out. They set her upon it and tied her arms and legs to the wobbly structure. She said nothing and didn’t struggle. Freddie watched with no reaction.
“Today marks a turn for our people, not unlike every turn before this. We adapt, we change to match the times. Let this mark it.”
Dave moved to stand next to the table, and raised the knife high above his head, pointing the blade toward the sky.
“Are you afraid?” Dave asked Ellie.
“N-n-no,” she replied.
Dave put both hands on the handle and pointed the blade toward Ellie, readying to drive it down. He never got to the next step. A deafening gunshot interrupted the ceremony.
Dave stumbled back, dropping the knife and grabbing his wrist. The bullet had grazed it and blood was coming from the wound.
“Untie her now!” A voice came from above the crowd, on top of a building. Ellie recognized it immediately. Obevens.
The guards began untying her, thinking this a revised element of the ceremony. Ellie struggled to see where he was, but all she could see was a dark form on the roof, with a barrel protruding from it. Another man from the crowd came up and put a gun to Melissa’s head. The crowd murmured at this further deviation from the script. What did all this symbolism mean?
“I got her!” Tock said up to Obevens, who quickly moved to get down from the roof.
“This hasn’t happened before,” Melissa said to Tock. “I’m curious if we could start over so I could see it again?”
“Huh?” Tock blurted.
Obevens was off the roof and racing for Ellie, who had thrown off her ropes and gone to Dave to check on him.
“Ellie! Come on!” He grabbed her arm, trying to drag her away.
Ellie’s heart began to pound, hearing his voice so close. Her mind raced, also. Obevens had put himself in terrible danger. She did the first thing that came to her mind. She slapped him with all her might across his face. The crowd was now in complete confusion over the ritual before them.
100 A.Z. (Book 3): The Mountain Page 23
