by SD Tanner
Gears appeared in the doorway, and using his arms, he leveraged himself out of the sharply angled cabin, dropping the six feet to the ground. He looked back at the doorway, and Ip’s blonde head popped up, and Gears helped her out of the cabin by grabbing her waist, and swinging her down onto the dusty ground. Once she landed on her feet, Gears walked to the front of the bird and peered into the cockpit.
Inspecting the crashed bird, he saw it was covered in ice. Even though he couldn’t interact with the vision, he instinctively tried to touch the bird, and his hand passed through the metal wall. Clearly the bird was frozen and he wondered what could have done that. Looking up at the sky, he only saw blue with a smattering of white frothy clouds. The sun was shining brightly, and were he truly present, he knew it would be dry and hot and it wasn’t possible for the bird to freeze in the air. While he was gazing at the sky, Gears, oblivious to his presence, had just walked through him. Captain Ted had appeared from somewhere and he was talking to Gears.
Gears hauled himself back into the bird through the doorway, and remerged with a body he balanced on the edge of the tilted platform of the cabin. Based on how roughly he was handling the body, he assumed the person was dead. Gears gave the body a hard shove and it dropped from the angled doorway, landing at his feet, creating a large puff of dust when it slammed into the hard ground. Lying on her back, frost covered the pilot’s helmet, and her hands were in the shape of claws. Captain Ted and Gears hunkered down next to the corpse and removed her helmet. Her eyes were wide open, her expression blank, and he thought she must have died without any warning. Touching her face, Gears said something he couldn’t hear, but he assumed he was probably commenting on how she’d died. Standing up, Gears looked up at the sky and he shook his head. He was clearly worried about what he was seeing.
Hoping to gain some insight to this strange event, he was so absorbed, he was surprised when he felt a hand touch his arm. Startled, he jumped and Ip was standing by his side. She seemed to be looking directly at him.
He wasn’t really present, and he didn’t know how she could see him much less touch him. “Can you see me?”
Looking uncommonly tired and weary, she nodded.
Sounding as confused as he felt, he said, “But I’m not here.”
“You are here and you are there. The future and you become a pair. It is your role to visit us here. It is your mission to make us aware.”
His mind reeled at the implications of her words. “How’s that possible?”
“You are dead, but you still breathe. For you, time interleaves.”
Jacob told them the Infected were dead and he was infected, and he’d come to accept he was dead. Being dead didn’t seem to be much of a liability and he hadn’t given it much thought. He was more concerned about the pet demon who possessed him, but was living in a quarantined corner of his mind. Ip was now telling him he didn’t have visions, but he travelled through time and saw the future. He had assumed they were only visions of possible futures, but he’d never really had any reason to think that.
It was different way of viewing his visions. “Why do I visit the future?”
“You have a heart that guides you here. You want to protect those you hold dear.”
That was true, his family was a cornerstone in his life, but they’d all died during the outbreak. Since then, he’d grown close to the people he worked with, and even before he had Max and their baby, he always cared about those who’d become like a family to him. He didn’t think there was anything he wouldn’t do to save them.
“I have a wife and a son who I have to protect, but I really want us all to survive.” Looking back at Gears, who was now talking to Captain Ted, he asked, “I must be here for a reason. What do I need to know?”
“They must be warned, or harm will be caused.”
“But why can’t you tell them?”
“Because I am here and I am not there. I do not know what I cannot see. And I cannot tell what I do not know.”
He wasn’t sure he understood, but he figured if Ip said she couldn’t warn them, then she couldn’t. “What do I need to tell them?”
“Warn them ahead of the battle to come. Prepare them before they come undone.”
Before he could ask how, he awoke with a start and looked around the dark room, almost expecting to find Ip beside him. Sitting up in the bed, he heard the determined wail of his son, and he swung his legs over the edge and walked to his cot. Flicking on the night light next to it, Baby Mac was lying on his back, wearing his onesie and kicking his legs while pouting unhappily.
Max appeared at his side and yawned. “Time for his early morning feed.”
He reached across to the window, and twitching the blind open a little, saw the Ranch was bathed in the dim glow of dawn.
Max scooped baby Mac up in her arms, placed him on the diaper table, and cooed to him while she changed his diaper. Despite his strange vision, he sighed contentedly at the sight. “I’ll get you some tea.”
He tugged on his pants and boots, walked out of the room and heard another baby crying. The noise reminded him Mom brought baby Bob and Ant back to the Ranch. She didn’t believe the babies could be Gears, Pax and TL, but she acknowledged they were somehow connected, and decided they should be together. He wasn’t entirely confident about his theory either, but no one could argue there was something odd about the babies. Knowing Max wouldn’t drink anything until she finished breastfeeding baby Mac, he walked outside. The toilets in the Ranch worked, but Pop hadn’t installed enough of them for the number of people who lived in the house, and usually there was a queue. Out of habit, he headed off to relieve himself behind the barn. Walking past the stables, he made a clicking noise with his tongue to greet the three horses patiently waiting by the fence, and he knew if the horses were outside, Pop was already up and preparing to feed the animals. He always said the Ranch without horses was just a house, and always somehow managed to find some. The hungry horses whinnied at him and he headed to the back of the barn. While he stood facing the wall, watching his urine splash against the dry ground, he heard a woman’s voice behind him, but unwilling to interrupt what he was doing, he ignored it.
Repeating herself, the woman shouted, “Hello Mac!”
Finally finishing, he tucked himself back in his pants, and still tugging at his zip, he turned around. He was confronted by the sight of two enormous breasts, barely contained by a tight thin t-shirt. Surprised, he stepped back into the puddle of his own urine and followed the line of the breasts up to a face. The woman was at least six feet and seven inches tall, and although her face was strikingly beautiful, it was in proportion with her gigantic body. He was standing in his own urine, trapped with his back to the barn, and he shuffled to the left to move away from the enormous and imposing woman. With a little more distance between them, he was able to take in the extraordinary sight. She was quite attractive, but her head was almost twice the size of his own. Her body was perfectly balanced with full breasts, a small waist, and well-rounded hips, but she was significantly wider and taller than him and he wasn’t a small man. Her beautifully sculpted hands were the size of dinner plates and her feet, although gracefully shoed in tanned leather boots, were easily twice as big as his own.
Realizing his face probably betrayed his horror, he rearranged his expression into a smile and asked almost timidly, “Who are you?”
The woman pouted and fluffed her hair, but with her size, the gesture looked comical and she asked sulkily, “Don’t you recognize me?”
He cleared his throat nervously. “I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
“Well, of course not,” the woman replied petulantly. “You’re dead and you don’t have a life anymore.”
Her comment irritated him and snapped him out of his shock. “So, who are you?”
The woman harrumphed and began to vigorously scratch her crotch. “I can’t believe you don’t recognize me. You’re supposed to be the smart one.” Brightening, she sto
pped scratching, and cupping one enormous breasts in each hand, she asked gleefully, “Whatdaya think of these hooters? Pretty fancy, huh?” Tweaking her nipples sharply, she added happily, “I quite like these bits.”
Narrowing his eyes and slightly tilting his head, he asked suspiciously, “Ruler?”
Rolling his eyes dramatically, Ruler exclaimed, “Finally!” Attempting to flounce, but looking more like a stamping linebacker, he preened and added, “I think this is the best body yet.” As if telling him a secret, he asked, “I thought it might be fun to be a beautiful woman for a change. Do you think Gears will fancy me?”
“No. No one’s gonna fancy you looking like that.”
Suddenly seeming offended, he asked sulkily, “What’s wrong with what I look like? Big tits, very long legs and I’m gorgeous.” Frowning and scratching his crotch again, he added, “It took me ages to find a body as good as this one. There’s not much left to choose from.”
“And who’s to blame for that?”
Ruler waved one large plate sized hand at him and said dismissively, “It doesn’t matter, and it’s not why I want to talk to you.”
“You know, I could kill you.”
“No, you couldn’t. Firstly, I’m not actually here, and secondly, even if I was I’d just find another body anyway, so what would be the point?”
He sighed and decided Gears would want any intel he could get about Ruler. “What do you wanna talk to me about?”
Ruler smiled smugly. “I’m here to make you an offer you can’t refuse.”
“I can refuse you anything.”
Waggling his forefinger with a perfectly manicured nail, Ruler said confidently, “Don’t be so sure. You’re a daddy now. Don’t you want to see your son grow up?”
He already knew the chances of him seeing baby Mac grow to be a man were slim. Being dead, infected with the designer virus and living in dangerous times, both he and Max worried they might both die, and there’d be no one to take care of their son. Ruler had just articulated his greatest fear.
Suddenly looking serious, Ruler said with apparent honesty, “I’m not all bad, Mac.” With his hands behind his back, he began to pace. “The problem is the set up. The universe works on perpetual energy, which means there has to be opposing sides. My side gets a bad rap, but we’re just doing our job. I’m not really any different to the other side. We’re set up to compete like two sports teams, but neither side is bad. It just depends on which side you’re supporting.”
Frowning at Ruler’s explanation of the universe, he replied bluntly, “You torture and kill people. I don’t think the other side does that.”
Ruler stopped pacing, and while rolling his eyes to the sky, he waved his arms widely and exclaimed in disgust, “Oh, this old chestnut!” Looking down at him, he narrowed his eyes and pursing his lips, he added, “As if God is all that. All those people who went to Church, praying every day and helping the poor, blah, blah blah…and what did they get for that? Nothing! That’s what! They still got sick, they still suffered and died in horrible ways, but does God get shit for that? Oh no, apparently God gets to work in mysterious ways, and gives his toughest missions to his strongest soldiers. What a load of crap! And then there’s me. I’m honest. I tell people I’m gonna be bad, but God gets to be horrible and everyone says, oh never mind, God still loves ya!”
Kicking at the dirt with his well-heeled, but over-sized foot, he added childishly, “It’s not fair. I’m always made out to be the bad guy.”
He shook his head. “That’s ‘cos you are the bad guy.”
“I am not!” Ruler shouted stubbornly. “And I’ll prove it to you. I can make sure you live. No strings attached. You and Max can live happily ever after, and you can watch your son grow to be a man. I can make that happen.”
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted by the offer, but he asked suspiciously, “Why would you do that?”
Ruler’s wide shoulders sagged and he said tiredly, “Do you know how tedious it is to always be in the wrong, to be the thing everyone fears, the bogeyman under every bed? I don’t always do bad things, but I always get blamed for anything bad that happens. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I just get a lot of bad press?”
Shaking his head firmly, he replied, “No.”
“The offer is on the table, and you can take it anytime you want. There’s no strings, Mac, and maybe if I do this for you, others will see I’m not all bad.”
Looking out across the arid land that surrounded the Ranch, he shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”
CHAPTER EIGHT: Take my hand (TL)
Sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, he was looking at the houses while they drove through what must have once been a pleasant, middle class suburban area, but was now abandoned and falling apart. Being nearly two years since the outbreak of the virus, nothing had been maintained. Weeds were growing haphazardly, paint was peeling from the eaves of the houses, and some of the roofs had caved in. Almost every ground level window of each home was broken, and clearly the properties were ransacked long ago. In driveways and on the road, cars were left to rust with flat tires, and they were covered in dust and dirt. Nothing was moving other than the flutter of a torn and faded flag that stood proudly atop a flagpole in one of the gardens. He thought America, once the home of the proud, looked defeated and he felt a flatness wash over him.
Sighing deeply, he looked away from the flag that stood for everything that once was. “Why are we doing this again?”
Nelson cleared his throat. “It’s only a flag, TL. If we save the people, then it will fly again, and that’s why we’re doing this.” Sitting in the passenger seat behind him, he patted his shoulder and added reassuringly, “It’ll work out because it’s meant to.”
The shooter who was driving asked, “How do you know that?”
“Because everything happens for a reason,” Nelson replied confidently.
He snorted derisively. “What? You think almost everyone in the world died for some greater purpose?”
In his deep smooth voice, Nelson replied steadily, “There were seven billion people on the planet. How did you think it was going to end? What we were doing wasn’t sustainable, something was bound to go wrong and then it did.”
“So, you don’t think it was Ruler’s fault?”
“No, I don’t believe the Devil is that powerful without the support of man. I think man got involved in things he shouldn’t have, and it wouldn’t be the first time. Look how we nearly annihilated ourselves with nuclear weapons. The cockier we got, the closer we kept coming to destroying ourselves. We made ourselves vulnerable with our arrogance, and the Devil leveraged our stupidity against us.”
It was an interesting theory. “Are we still being arrogant?”
Nelson chuckled. “In a way, I think some of us still are.”
The driver glanced at Nelson in the rear mirror and asked in disbelief, “In what way are we being arrogant now? If you ask me, we’re too frightened to be arrogant.”
“There’s nothing to fear, but fear itself. We must place our trust in God and fight for what we believe in, and mankind will stand proud again.”
He harrumphed rudely. “I can’t say I’ve seen much of God lately, Nelson.”
“You of all people should know better than that, TL. You exist because there is a God and a Devil. Without them, there’d be no need for Horsemen.” Pausing, he asked, “You do believe you’re a Horseman, don’t you?”
Looking down at his arms poking out from his rolled up sleeves, he saw the odd ridge and blue black markings that matched the ones on Ip and her sword. Ant’s baby had the same markings and so did Pax, and there was no rational explanation for why they shared them. Whenever he asked Ip, all she did was shrug and say it was his real self. According to her, he was a Horseman, and although he might be able to accept that, he didn’t know what it meant to be one.
Acknowledging there was a lot happening that didn’t make much sense, he replied, �
��I’ll admit the markings are odd, but I don’t know what it means, if anything.”
“You know what it means, TL. You just don’t want to accept it, but you will because you’ll have to.”
“We got company,” a voice said in his ear.
Travelling ahead of them was a bird, with four combat shooters providing them with air cover, and obviously they’d seen something ahead. “Give me a sitrep.”
“Two trucks, five shooters, well-armed and they seem to be converging on a house less than half a mile ahead.”
“Have they seen you?”
“Probably not, but they’ll have heard us.”
The end of the world was very quiet and sound travelled, and no doubt they’d already heard the bird even if they couldn’t see it. Curious why an armed team would be storming a suburban house, he asked, “Are there any other vehicles at the house?”
“None that look like they’re in use,.
“Any indications they’ve seen you yet?”
“I can’t believe they haven’t heard us, but they seem pretty caught up in whatever it is they’re doing. It looks to me like they’re planning to storm the house.”
“It’ll be nightfall soon, maybe they’re just looking for somewhere to hole up for the night.”
“I don’t think so. I think one’s a super hunter.”
If even one of them was a super hunter, he was prepared to call them an enemy. “Strafe ‘em and keep them away from that house.”
“Roger that.”
In the distance, machine guns were firing and he knew they were following his orders. He figured if there was a super hunter with them, then they didn’t need the house for protection, and they were probably attacking whoever was in the house. If they were friends with a super hunter, then they were his enemy, and he would protect the person or people hiding in the house.
