I thought about pulling my Kabar, but it was smaller than his and I decided to go without it. I liked having my hands free. I opened my stance and dropped my center of gravity slightly and waited for his attack. Morley was a large man, not quite as big as me, but shit was he fast. He moved lighting quick coming at me, eating the distance up and swiping his knife at me right to left. I stepped back once, lifted my right arm and grabbed onto his elbow as it moved past me. I have a very strong grip, it came from lifting tons of weights, and being an avid rock climber. I dug the tips of my fingertips into his flesh and locked down on it. He was stuck with his arm across his body, twisting his torso and trapping his other arm. I waited for him to do all that was left for him to do. He lifted his massive motorcycle boot and tried to stomp my knee. As he lifted his foot I kicked the heel of his planted foot, pushing back and throwing him off balance. I pushed him to the ground and landed on top of him, bringing my knees up and landing on his pelvis, pinning him in place. I used my free hand to deliver an open strike to his face, landing it to his right cheek. As I hit him, I splayed my fingers and raked his eyes.
Morley screamed obscenities at me and dropped his knife to the floor. I retrieved his knife and threw it across the room, imbedding it into the far wall. I wanted to really hurt and embarrass this asshole. I released his elbow and moved my grip to his wrist, where I clamped on and dug in again. I yanked his arm back and pegged it to the ground, as I knee walked up his body, bringing my knees down hard on his stomach and chest. My right knee slipped down and pinned his left arm to the ground as I mounted him. I dropped two forearms down on his face in quick succession, stunning him. I let go of his wrist and finished pinning his right arm with my left knee. Now I had my hands free. I slapped his face a couple of times rocking his head side to side. The slaps were not meant to hurt him physically, but to bruise his ego. He screamed at me and tried to bite my thighs, trying to inflict any damage he could. I just kept slapping him.
“Sasquatch, looks like the camp is secure. How are things going on down there?” Doc asked in my earpiece.
“Why don’t you stay up there and watch the show,” I answered him in the radio.
I climbed off Morley, grabbed him by his shirt, and lifted his torso off the ground, dragging him toward the front door which was still open. I pulled him out into the air and tossed him down the stairs and into the dirt at his guard’s feet. Morley heaved a glob of bloody spit out onto the dirt. His men helped him to his feet, as I came down the stairs slipping out of my backpack and tossing it onto the porch. I unbuckled my armor, sliding it off and unbuttoned my shirt, slipping out of it and shucked the tank top off underneath. I stood bare chested, breathing in deep, my anger keeping me warm. The sun had started brightening the eastern sky casting enough light for the show I was about to put on. Morley let a roar escape from his chest as he rumbled at me, head down. I waited till the last second and turned catching Morley on the back of his head with my open hand. It threw him off balance and he skidded in the dirt on his face and chest.
I know what I look like without my gear on, I truly looked like the fabled Sasquatch Dan nicknamed me with. I took two running steps and delivered a soccer kick as if I was booting the winning goal. My foot connected with his exposed ribs on his left side, rolling him as he moved with the energy of the kick. He was well-muscled. I wasn’t sure if his ribs had not broken from that kick, although I was sure I bent one or two. He slapped the ground with an open hand as he tried to get to his feet. He swayed back and forth unsteadily. One of his people tried to come to his aid and a round smacked into the dirt in front of his foot. Doc had a perfect vantage point from on top of the house. The guard jumped back among his friends as they retreated from the scary looking cowboy aiming his long gun at them.
Morley had yet to hurt me during the entire fight so far. On the other hand, he was bending to his left side and pushing his hand to his ribs I’d kicked. His face was swollen, and his nose was bleeding. I took a couple of steps toward him, instead of retreating as he came at me. His pride was hurt, and he knew he couldn’t lose face in front of his men. He had had worse beatdowns in the prison yard and had not given in then and he wouldn’t here either. He moved his shoulders right and I bit on the feint as he hit me with all he had to my ribs with his left fist. The hit was a good one and it hurt, but I kept it off my face. I wrapped a hand around his neck and brought his head down toward me.
“You hit like a pussy,” I whispered in his ear.
“Argh!” he roared and threw another punch toward my ribs.
I twisted, taking the hit to my rock-hard abs. “Thanks for scratching that itch,” I laughed at him.
He threw two quick punches that I took again to my abs. I still had him pulled in close. “My turn,” I punched hard with my closed left fist, connecting where the jaw and ear met. His head rocked, and he let out a painful groan, so I threw three more quick hits to same spot. His jaw swelled and looked like he had a small orange in his mouth on that side. I moved my left hand and pummeled his open ribs as hard as I could. Four, five hits. I was holding Morley up on his feet. Now that he was thoroughly softened up, I reached down and grabbed on to his pants. I lifted him off the ground and spun to my right, letting him go at the end of my turn. His body flew about three feet and onto the ground rolling. I took some time and glanced at the audience. It was full of woman and children now, holding onto men surrounded by my people. A small knot of unarmed men and women sat on the ground huddled together under the threat of Johnson and Cupcake, and their M4s.
The lesson I wanted to teach had been taught. Now that we held the camp and the nefarious guards were under our thumbs with the families reunited, I could end this fight. I stopped waiting on Morley to get to his feet. I moved fast for my size, I was once visited by numerous recruiters to play football for some pretty prestigious universities. They said I had the size and speed of a hall of fame linebacker. I used all that talent now and crashed into Morley, lifting his body off the ground and driving him against a wooden post holding up the porch of the house. I stepped back a couple of feet and again crashed him against the post cracking it. Morley had gone limp in my hands, I knew he was still alive as he continued to grunt in my ear with every hit. I moved back away from the post, dragging Morley to the middle of the crowd. I put him in a bear’s hug and with all my strength continued to crush him, the hot air in his lungs expelled against my ear as he tried to speak. He had nothing I wanted to hear as I continued to squeeze. I felt and heard a pop in his back as he went limp in my arms. I dropped him to the ground and moved back to collect my clothes and pack.
Heaven came up to my side as I slid on my tank top and shirt. “I believe you have broken his back. Do you want me to finish him off?”
I turned and surveyed the crowd of little kids and tearful women. “Ask them what they want you to do with their boogeyman. I’m done, I have a mission to complete.”
Heaven turned from me as I buttoned up my blouse. “The man who has wrought so much grief and pain on you has been defeated and broken. We leave him to you, do what you think he deserves. As a man of God, I have always believed in forgiving those who have sinned against you. On the other hand, Demon’s should be cast out before they can infect others,” Heaven turned and walked away fingering a necklace of beads, under his uniform’s collar.
The crowd moved in on Morley, he screamed as they carried him away, dragging his useless feet on the ground behind him. I knew what they had planned. As I was placing my pack on my back Doc came out of the house carrying my SCAR.
“I think you left this behind,”
I took it out of his hands and reattached the sling to my armor, inserted a new mag into the well, and pulled the charging handle back ensuring a round was loaded. I had enough of this shit and felt a deep need to get back on mission. The Fortress gate opened, and our three Humvees and one truck came through. They pulled up the empty drive, turned and pointed back toward the gate. I put the fingers of my right hand in
my mouth and tried whistling. All I got was a dull raspberry sound. I smacked my gloved hand on my forehead and laughed. I pulled off my right glove and stuck my right fingers in my mouth and let out a sharp whistle. My team turned as one, and trotted over in my direction, as I leaned against Apache’s Humvee driver’s door. I was bone tired, as I had blown through my waning energy thrashing Morley.
I waited for everyone to finish gathering around before I spoke. “What is the situation of the prisoners?”
Athena stepped forward and spoke up. “I spoke with their meager leadership. An older woman named Cora Burke is pretty much the mouthpiece for the group. She says their supplies of food and medical stuffs are plenty, as Morley had raided all the nearby towns and settlements.”
“I checked their armory and including all the guns we took from the guards, they should have more than enough to defend themselves, from meatbags and scum alike.” Johnson answered.
“I checked further back and found two fuel trucks, one refined gasoline and the other diesel. They have more than enough to top off our tanks and be set a long ass time, or until it goes inert,” Cupcake yawned. He looked dead on his feet.
In the distance, a horrifying cry pierced the air. It would seem the people of the fortress had finished feeding Morley to their dead. I made a mental note of the condition of my people. They all looked like they had been put through the ringer. I needed to find time to bed us down for some R & R. Constant awareness and action could sap the energy of even the greatest warrior. None my people would ever own up to being wasted though, they would continue till they dropped. I made up my mind right there and then.
“Someone, find this Miss Burke and bring her on over. The rest of you go through our supplies and get me an inventory. We need to clean our weapons. Howser and Hunter, get up on the guard towers and take first watch. I am going to check with Miss Burke and see if she doesn’t mind us bunking down for the night. We could do with some rest and hot food on our mission.”
Cora eagerly agreed to let us bunk down with them for the night. In fact, her people made a huge feast of grilled venison, flatbread and veggies. The people of the fortress treated us like we were royalty for saving them from Morley and his sadistic guards. We had a small contingent left of those guards still alive and I in good conscience could not leave them to retake the fortress. I held a small court and interviewed each of them, Cora provided eye witnesses to their crimes. I heard some of the most disgusting things these poor people had gone through with these degenerates. One sticks out the most, so I will add that here. The rest begged for their lives and blamed Morley for everything they did. I left them to the small civilian jury, consisting of the woman and children that had been most affected.
I was bone tired, but Cora asked me to act as the judge of the vilest of the guards. I expected a man to be dragged in covered in tattoos and missing teeth. Instead a small thin woman was brought in to the cabin’s kitchen where I was sitting. She had long black hair with died purple tips, her bloodshot eyes had dark semi circles under it. Two of the imprisoned men escorted her to a chair and sat her down. Once she was down, they took a couple of steps back, staying behind her.
“Hi. I am Brian, can you state your name?” I tried really hard to be nice. She stared up at me through her hair, with hate burning in her eyes. She kept her mouth in a tight line. I studied her, waiting for her to open her mouth. “Nothing to say?”
“We don’t know her real name, but someone said she had been riding with Morley since he got out of prison. The other guards are afraid of her and have taken to calling her La Reina,” answered Cora who sat next to me.
“The Queen of what? Because all I see is your whole kingdom torn down around you,” I translated the Spanish to English.
She gave me a grin filled with black teeth. “Los Muertos,” she giggled.
“The dead are outside in a pen, would you like me to introduce them to their Queen?” I yawned. She just smiled toward her lap and brought her eyes up at me again. I turned to Cora, “Can you please list our Queen’s offenses?”
Cora opened a small notebook and read through it. “The Queen here is responsible for some of the most heinous acts. It was she that came and took children away from their families and delivered them to Morley and his men. She also took great pride in feeding husbands, wives, and children to her pets. She was the one who made first contact with other survivor groups out there and when they let her in, opened their gates at night for Morley and his men to come in and kidnap children and take what they wanted. She was just as bad as Morley if you ask me.”
I felt ill as Cora read through the offenses. I was tempted to shoot the woman right there and then. I studied La Reina as her offenses were unmasked, she smiled more and more as they were read. She was proud of what she had done. I stood up from the table abruptly knocking my chair over. I reached over the table and grabbed the woman around the throat, she gasped as I tugged her from her seat and dragged her outside. I had no idea what I was doing until I saw Tess. I whistled for her to come over and she obeyed quickly.
“I need every mother this sadistic bitch has hurt by taking their children. Pronto.”
Tess nodded her head and left to carry out my orders. I dragged the woman to a post that sat next to another which used to hold the camp’s sign. I spied a hook about six feet off the ground, I lifted La Reina’s zip-tied wrists high and picked her into the air with my free arm. I slid the loop of her ties to the hook and let go. She was now hanging just above the ground and her shoulders took her full weight. This was a terrible form of punishment, as your weight slowly pulled on your shoulder and elbow joints tearing them apart. La Reina refused to scream at the pain she was in, she stared directly into my eyes trying to kill me with the look. Out of the corner of my eye, every female in the fortress including the ones on my team came over. I waited till all the women finished trickling in and took in the harrowing scene of La Reina, before stepping up next to the hanging woman.
“This woman calls herself the Queen of the Dead. She has done things to your people and your children. She may be the reason most of you were taken from your cities, towns, or enclaves of survivors. She has given your children to these murderous rapist guards, she has killed your husbands. She is as bad, if not worse than Morley himself, but I am no judge. I cannot decide what will happen to her. You are the ones she has hurt, you will be her Judge,” I had nothing else to say as I turned my back and walked away. I needed to get some sleep.
The screams of La Reina invaded the first five minutes of my sleep. I am not sure if I stopped caring about the screams or she had been silenced finally. Neither mattered as I fell into a deep sleep. I didn’t wake on a boat this time. Instead I dreamed of Lewis and Athena. We sat around a table talking like old friends over coffee.
Lewis and Athena were making a joke about me when a bald man with a slight beard walked into the room. My friends froze as if the intruder paused them.
“Hey Brian, why don’t you come and sit with me. I don’t have much time given to me,” He sat on a small couch and waved me over.
I took a minute to scan the room. This was my condo in San Francisco, I hadn’t seen it since the morning I left to work so long ago. I made my way over and sat on the opposite couch from the man. He motioned for me to pick up a cold glass of beer I hadn’t noticed when I first sat down. I picked up the glass and took a tentative drink, it was the best damn beer I had ever tasted. I gulped it, allowing some to escape around my mouth and dribble on to my beard. I put the glass down and lifted the napkin I found on the table and cleaned my beard, as I went to put the napkin back the glass was full again.
“Neat trick? Dan thought so too.”
“If you know Dan, then this is not a dream is it?” I asked.
“Think of it as a meeting with someone concerned with man’s world,” he picked up his own beer and took a long drink.
“I don’t do well with double talk or cryptic speeches. If you have a little speech pre
pared, please deliver it,” I picked up the beer again and sipped at it. This beer was honestly the greatest thing I had ever put in my mouth.
“You haven’t asked any of the questions Dan did, curious. I can appreciate a man who doesn’t want to mince words or solve puzzles. I am a creator, no not God. I work for the omnipotent being though. The things, or zombies as you call them, on your plane are an aberration, a scourge to be wiped away. Follow so far?”
I took another sip and found the beer refilled. This would be a great trick to learn someday. “I follow just fine, but why do you need men like Dan and me to solve this problem? Can’t God or whatever, just wave a hand and make them all go away?”
“God can do anything, but to wipe the scourge out would mean destroying everything on your plane. This is something that I would like to avoid, and because I have asked, I was given the chance to solve this my way. By calling upon men and women, who I have imbued with a spark to do what must be done. You and Dan have that spark, and in some ways, so do the rest of your friends including Athena,” he turned and motioned to Athena. “Your friend Angel, set up for you two to be reunited again. She knows you will need your one true love to support you and keep you moving toward your objective. I need you to make the hard decisions Brian, to do what must be done. You cannot flinch to make the call, Dan and the rest of humanity rests on your shoulders,” he took another drink from his beer and sat back in the couch.
“I have already told Angel I will do what it takes. I am not a man who talks with no action, I will find a way to save everyone, and in the process bring Dan back from the edge. Let me finish my beer and send me back, I don’t have time for all this talking.”
“You act just as I predicted, but I brought you here mostly to allow your body and mind to heal. I gave you wide shoulders for a reason Brian,” he clinked his glass with mine and I found myself on the couch in the living room I had taken as my bed in Morley’s cabin. I was curled up in the fetal position and yet still barely fit on the wide long couch.
Zombie Theorem: Dark Times Book Five Page 24
