Alive and Fighting: Every Sin a Saint

by Cole Connelly

  Alive and Fighting: Every Sin a Saint

  September, 2030

  Great Ape Weekly Assignment Dossier for [Arsène, Sidney]

  Mission: Infiltrate/Eavesdrop/Sabotage (sabotage only if completely necessary)

  Tribes Involved: The Klan/The Knights

  Associates for Mission: None

  Location: Capitol Castle (Old Capitol Building)

  Time: 3:30 P.M. TODAY

  Equipment Required:

  -PDA (Voice Record Updated to V12.3)

  -Concealed Weapon (Personal will suffice)

  -Mid Rank Klan Regalia (See Quartermaster Rhees, req. order number 33582-9)

  Equipment Suggested:

  ~Smoke/Flash bang grenades

  ~Grapple (Personal will suffice)

  ~Firearm (See Quartermaster Rhees if necessary: payment required)

  Mission Details:

  Nadia Gautreaux, Head of The Knights, has requested a meeting with the new Chief Arbiter of The Klan (Identity Unknown, uncover if possible). Meeting details are currently unknown; this is what you are charged with finding out. You will overtake, and without being noticed, replace a member of the Klan meeting party as they leave their headquarters. If you are detected, the mission will fail, and there may be severe backlash against us. You need not be reminded what happened to Glen after the Klan discovered him in a convoy. Use extreme caution when approaching and removing target. Once part of the convoy, you will proceed to the meeting and observe its progression. Make no comments and remain silent unless otherwise necessary. Should meeting turn sour and results deemed dangerous to us, or city as a whole, you are permitted to sabotage or disrupt as deemed fit.

  Best of Luck, Speed and Silence

  Garret Sims, Great Ape 1st Rank Runner Assignment Coordination

  ------------------------

  "Well Sid, how's your assignment look?" Max, also a member of the Great Apes information brokers for the city of Blood Oak, asked, reviewing his own assignment form.

  "See for yourself." Sidney offered, handing her form over.

  Max accepted it and began reviewing it carefully. His eyes scanned the sheet from under a pair of black and red ski goggles that rested just under his hanging bangs. He nodded a few times at various details before handing the sheet back to Sidney and kneeling down to get something out of his military style duffle bag.

  "Klan mission then, you must be thrilled. How long's it been since you got one?" Max asked, taking out a black leather jacket. The torso was worn and slightly cracked with age, and the sleeves had long since been removed. In their place, Max had affixed tanned deer hides, streaked with black stains from oil. The hides hung to his elbows and covered most of the red tribal tattoos that decorated his arms, while the antlers of the buck adorned his shoulders like epaulets.

  "Like four goddamn months. Sims knows I love Klan work and has told me I'm the best at it. I don’t know why he puts so much time between the missions." Sidney briefly ranted while Max put on his jacket.

  "What's your vendetta against them? I mean, they hold no place in my heart whatsoever, but you…what's up Sid? You weren't always like this." Max questioned, checking his own assignment sheet.

  "It's…a long story, boring… new hides?" Sidney inquired, changing the subject to one she knew he'd prefer.

  "Yeah actually, I just finished replacing the old ones last night. Don’t know if you remember, but I got shot through the shoulder with a flaming arrow, completely ruined the last pair of hides." Max boasted, puffing his chest out and turning his chin up.

  "Of course I remember, you wouldn’t shut up about your 'heroic survival' for like a week." Sidney replied, slapping his stomach with the back of her hands and making him double over. "Besides you wouldn’t have been hit if you'd stayed outta sight!"

  "Not all…of us…are Runners like you Sid…Silverbacks aren't shadow huggin' eavesdroppin' snoops like you guys. Someone's gotta keep the streets safe." Max joked, quickly recovering his breath.

  "Where'd you even get fresh hides this time of year? Caravan's not due 'til December." Sidney asked, admiring the impressive work Max had done on the garment.

  "Small deer herd's passing through The Outcroppings on the south side of town. They're learning to avoid the zombie-infested Campus District. Did you know I saw one zombie tear through a dozen deer last winter just inside the District? S'damn shame, didn’t even eat them, was just killin' to kill." Max recalled, sliding his hand along the hide over his left arm.

  "At least they're learning to avoid the zombies…Well I'm off, gotta go see Rhees, get some Klan gear and what not. Need anything from the storeroom?" Sidney offered as Max slung his duffle bag over his shoulders.

  "Nah, just guard duty today, won't be leaving the perimeter. Thanks anyway!" Max responded, leaving with a wave.

  Sidney took a brisk pace through the still ornate halls, renovated and repaired to as close to their art deco majesty as resources allowed. The speakers had recently been fixed, and Sidney smiled at the light and airy musak notes pattering through the metal chamber as the elevator descended the tower. The elevator stopped and started several more times for more Apes to board and depart, but before long her lift had reached the lobby. Striding fluidly through the halls of the Capitol building, Sidney made it to her destination, the massive storeroom that took up the entire back half of the first three floors, as the walls and floors had been systematically removed as the need for space grew over the years. The massive storeroom now looked nothing like the once stately home of the state's politics. Massive corridors of crates and scaffolding turned the enormous room into a labyrinth of supplies and equipment. As Sidney approached the small divider that blocked off the main room from the antechamber where she stood, an old man with a storied face called to her.

  "What'll you be needing today Miss Arséne?" Rhees, the Quartermaster asked politely, smiling at her.

  "I've got a requisition number for you, 33582-9. How's the missus?" Sidney asked as Rhees nodded at the order number.

  "Much better now. The Harvesters were able to set her up with a new kidney…wasn't cheap, but I'm just glad that there are still people who can perform those kinds of operations. The world could spin on ad infinitum and we'd always have poets and murderers, but doctors? I'm glad they couldn’t take that away from us." Rhees spun as he moved through the towering walls of crates and scaffolding looking for Sidney's request.

  "I heard that. Back when I broke my leg, they set it and I was running again in no time. That chief of surgery they've got over there…Nel…Ness…" Sidney began, but began to trail off, his name just eluding her memory.

  "Nero!" Rhees called from within the maze.

  "Thank you! Yes, Nero, he helped me design the braces I've got now. I tell you, I can drop from two stories up with these on without a scrape or bruise." Sidney marveled, looking at the contraption of springs and wires that she had affixed to her lower legs.

  "How many times do I need to ask for those leg brace schematics? If we could build more of'em, no telling how much it would reduce Runner injury." Rhees stated, returning to the small divider where Sidney waited.

  "You know full well his one request was that he hold onto the design until he'd finished perfecting it. After that, he promised the plans for the braces were all mine." Sidney replied, both of them fully aware of the agreement.

  "I know, just poking fun is all. Bit of bad news though. That Klan regalia is checked out already. Sorry, hope it wasn't a requirement." Rhees explained taking a seat on a stool behind the divider.

  "Damn, well it was…I'll go see what can be done. There's probably another way to handle this mission. Thanks for the help, Rhees." Sid
ney responded with a smile, but leaving with doubt in the mission.

  Rhees waved goodbye as Sidney walked back to the lobby, moving solely through muscle memory, effortlessly traversing her familiar surroundings as she considered her options. Thoughts raced through her head as to how she could now fulfill her assignment. Should she try and break into the castle and stay hidden, or should she try and ambush a Klan straggler and steal his uniform so she could continue the mission otherwise as instructed? Did she have the time needed to steal the regalia and change before the party noticed the straggler's absence? As she headed to the bank of elevators, intent on finding Sims to discuss the situation, another Runner, Rilla, entered the lobby from the elevators.

  Rilla was older than Sidney and had been a young middle schooler when the Infection hit and the undead began to outnumber the living. How he survived as a child when people had to be afraid of even their parents or best friends turning at any minute, no one is quite sure. Now cresting thirty, he was one of the most experienced Runners the Apes had. Sidney and Rilla each approached life and work in ways that were foreign to the other, but they had a mutual, if tempered, respect. So while Sidney certainly didn’t agree with Rilla's somewhat brutal and aggressive tactics, she couldn’t help but be impressed with the good results that usually accompanied his violently accomplished work. Sidney caught Rilla's eyes, which had turned grey due to an electrical accident, and he could tell that Sidney had questions for him.

  "Something on your mind, kid?" Rilla asked, approaching Sidney with a handshake, which she returned. This was an issue they agreed on wholeheartedly; a strong handshake mattered in business relationships.

  "Yeah, I'll cut to the chase, as I'm sure you've got your own work. I got an assignment, requires that I masquerade as a Mid Rank Klan member, enter their meeting party and travel to Capitol Castle with them, and eavesdrop on their meeting. Thing is, the only Klan disguise we have is checked out right now. I'm not too sure how to proceed, never broken into the Castle before, it's always been too well patrolled by Knights." Sidney explained, laying everything out.

  "Hmm. That would be a conundrum, if you hadn't brought it up to me," Rilla laughed heartily. He was very proud of his success, and wasn’t one to let others go without noticing it. "I'll let you in on a little trade secret of mine. The Old Capitol has a hidden underground tunnel access to it. You can get to the tunnel through an access shaft that’s hidden in the grassy lawn in Capitol Park, right in front of this building. The underground tunnel beneath the park goes all the way from here to the Old Capitol. Now you keep that little tip to yourself, you hear?"

  "Where in the park is it?" Sidney asked, excited for the news.

  "At the base of Huey Long's monolithic statue, there's a single square tile that you can lift up. Not one of the triangular ones or whatever, it's the only square tile. Under this tile is an opening with a ladder that descends into the sewer tunnels. Once you’re down in the tunnels, take the only tunnel that you can stand up in. Go as far as you can go, and you'll get to a dead end. There’s a ladder mounted on the wall at that dead end. Climb up and you'll be in a maintenance closet inside the Capitol Castle. The closet's a tight fit for me, but you should have some elbow room in there. From the closet, you should be able to get to where you need to go." Rilla elaborated, and turned for the exit.

  "Wait! Aren't the sewers full of zombies?" Sidney pressed, before Rilla could leave.

  "Yeah, but you’re a Great Ape. Killing Zed's second nature for us. 'Sides, that tunnel is sparse with zombies compared to tunnels you’ve been in before," Rilla added, turning back to her. "Y'know, its actually better you're not masquerading as a Klan member. The Klan has so few chick officers, they'd have seen through your disguise the first time you spoke. Best of luck, kiddo."

  "Thanks. Speed and Silence." Sidney said, extending her hand, which he shook with a small and friendly smile.

  Sidney went back up to the barrack level and into her room. As an accomplished and decorated Runner, she had earned personal accommodations which afforded her the luxury of storage space. This was something she craved for her collection of exotic and foreign odds and ends, including her prized possessions of almost a dozen authentic, handmade Chinese colorful paper lamps. These hung in her room in place of the halogen tubes that had once lit the area, emanating a calmingly soft and muted light in shades of red, blue, and amber.

  Despite the arduous task ahead of her, Sidney was happy that she would no longer be posing as a Klansman. The mere thought revolted her. Sidney's previous dealings with the Klan had forever excluded them from a positive place in her mind. Where once they were just like any unappealing client, they now were nothing but the lowest scum on Earth to her, below even the undead. Past assignments, some two years old, rushed through her mind as she gathered her gear, leading to momentary pauses as she moved about her room.

  Two years ago, Sidney had taken an assignment that changed her outlook on the Klan forever. It was a simple task, one that she had paid no mind to the consequences of completing. A woman had been seen entering and leaving the River Center on occasion. Had it been any other building, it would have raised no alarms, but the River Center was no ordinary building. The majority of Blood Oak's zombies made their home there, including their Zero, Hivemind. How this woman was getting in was no challenge, the back door through which she entered was unlocked. It was how she left that made her a mystery. Why hadn't the zombies attacked her for entering their home? Most people who even walked in front of the building were attacked, dragged inside, and never heard from again. The Klan wanted to know this woman's secret, and at the time, Sidney was fine to oblige them. After all, they were willing to pay Sidney to watch the door and see if the woman had a pattern to her comings and goings. A Klansman named Cooper had paid her handsomely for this schedule.

  It was what he did with this knowledge that haunted Sidney for years to come. "Cooper might be at this meeting. What if he's not? Could be getting myself worked up for nothing. If he is though, I can't let him leave…Rock pick, mini sledge, meat hook, no that's too much, pick and sledge'll do…She's dead because of me, it was just work then. Now, I can't let them continue this…twenty yards enough cord? Thirty's too much, twenty-five'll have to do…I missed that shot, Cooper's still alive, still killing, won't happen again…four clawed grapple or three? Three, four's too loud indoors." Sidney thought to herself, past and present holding equal floor, as she finished her preparations and sat down at her vanity.

  Sidney turned her left shoulder forward and pulled her sleeve up so she could look at her arm. Just below where her arm met her chest were two 'X' shaped scars and a single slash. She touched each scar and felt a wave of shame with each one, forcing herself to remember their significance. Each 'X' a year of failure to atone for the past, and the slash to mark the shot that failed to begin her true atonement. In the low light, she nodded to herself once.

  "For the sin I have commit/ Seven throats I must now slit/ Every one of us to blame/ Each a pawn within this game/ For my past I must untaint/ Every sin deserves a saint." Sidney whispered the penance of her own design to herself as she covered her arm once more. "Until only I'm left to blame…can't let any of them go."

  Putting on her familiar, vibrant look, Sidney left her room and made for the lobby. She passed many Runners along the way who smiled and waved to her, none knowing how invigorated she was for this mission. The sun was just passing the middle of the sky when she stepped outside. A few Apes were visiting on the stairs of the Capitol, but none were below in the park. Making good time across the lawn, Sidney got to the base of Huey P Long's copper statue that marked the center of the once manicured gardens.

  Sidney looked up into the statue's eyes. She knew vaguely who he'd been in his life, but here he stood atop a monolith, decorated with carved faces and beasts, and now he was just a memory. Scanning around the base of the statue quickly, she saw that there was, in fact, a square stone that had a small hole drilled into one corner. Findin
g it much too heavy to lift using only the two fingers that would fit the hole, Sidney was able to lift the tile up and over by hooking her rock pick into the small hole in the corner of the tile, which Sidney guessed was actually Rilla’s handiwork.

  The tunnels were damp and the air was saturated with moisture, but had long since lost their original purpose. Now they seemed only to serve as a nightmarish rat's nest of lost and putridly decaying bodies of man and beast alike and the ravenous zombies ready to feast on them. When corpses found their way into the mighty Mississippi River (whether dumped there from a cleared battlefield, purged from sanitizing a long forgotten building, or simply by choice), many corpses ended up in the underground sewers below Blood Oak. The massive pipes that had been designed to pull water straight from the river were, two decades later, still doing just that. Only now their by-catch wasn't just fish, but waterlogged zombies and the corpses destined to become their unnatural meals.

  Sidney inched along cautiously through the wet and unpleasant tunnel and rounded the first major corner on her trek to the Castle, without incident at first. Then, around that corner, she saw, blocking her only path forward, zombies were shoving and throwing themselves against a massive rusted grate, on the other side of which must have laid a fresh and appealing corpse. However, at the faint sounds of her approach, the closest zombie to her stopped dead and turned slowly to face Sidney.

  Despite its flesh already schlepping off from the dank environment, the zombie still bore the tell tale blood webs all over its visible skin. These webs were heralds of change, and people soon began to fear them more than the turn they signaled. For once the web like patterns of blood appeared beneath the skin, people knew they were done for. It could be hours, it could be days, but the webs were the first sign of the victim's turn into the undead. At this moment, the horde let loose the screeches Sidney knew all too well, the gruesome mix of blood clogged growls and shrieks of fear. The horde turned tail on their caged meal for the newly arrived and quite uncaged Ape.