Zombie Reign (Book 4): Redemption

by Joseph Edward

  As we pulled up to the docks, I asked Elly and Phil to leave me on the boat unannounced. I gave them specific instructions to tell Andrew about where I was and not to alert Tommy or the others. They weren’t too fond of taking orders from what (by all appearances) was the enemy, but they did as I asked as long as one of them could stay behind and guard me.

  While I was left with Phil, I took the time to let what had happen sink in. If what I was told previously was true, I had transformed into something that very few knew existed and was probably the closest thing to being immortal that had ever walked the earth. I pondered that for a moment while I tried to channel the voices and collective presence that I could feel was as real as someone standing in the room next to me. There was an odd interference though, as if someone or something was working against me trying to reach out to what I was a part of and discovering more about it.

  As I watched Phil stand down and walk off the boat, I was greeted by Andrew.

  “So, it’s true.”

  “Well Andrew, there’s nothing like finding out the hard way, eh?”

  “We’ll find out.” Andrew replied as he drew the machete from his hip.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled out and held up my hands in defense of his armed approach, “I’m not gonna eat you – I swear!”

  “Sorry about this,” he replied as he brought the machete across my left block, severing my right hand just above the wrist at the forearm.

  “WHAT THE FUCK!” I yelled as I retracted my severed arm and stepped back in disbelief. There was pain, but not the kind of pain that you would associate with just having your hand chopped off. It was more of a sting with an intense throbbing at the end of the stump. There was an intense burning sensation that followed.

  Andrew walked over, picking up my severed limb from the ground. The hand was still grasping and clutching as if it were attached. As I looked on, I quickly realized that I was still in control of it as it was separated from my body. Equally disturbing was the fact that I wasn’t doubled over in pain. Sure I was pissed off, but I was more in shock than pain. I almost wanted to tell him that just to taunt him, but figured he’d go for the head next.

  “I can still feel it,” I said watching him hold my arm piece by the wrist, “I can move it!”

  “Just don’t choke me with it,” Andrew replied, “now come here.”

  “The fuck I will, you just cut my hand off!”

  “I want to show you something!”

  “I bet you do! I’ll show you something too! How about I eat your fucking brains you asshole!”

  “You don’t crave human flesh, do you?” Andrew said as he stepped back and raised the machete defensively.

  “Maybe not, but when in Rome,” I replied.

  “Seriously, let me see your arm.”

  Knowing that Andrew had the upper hand, no pun intended, I extended out the stump and he threw the machete off to the side and placed a firm grasp on my arm. He took the severed limb and matched up the ends, pressing them firmly together. I looked at him in disbelief. What in the hell was he doing?

  Then I suddenly felt a tingling and the strange burning sensation intensified. It was the first time my body actually felt any sense of warmth since I had turned.

  I watched as my skin and muscle twitched and went into spasms all the way to my shoulder. My skin rippled and twisted as if there was something burrowing underneath. Andrew was as stunned as me to watch as the limb reattached itself and repaired the wound in less than a minute. He let go as I raised the hand and flexed my fingers. Sure it was cold, but I could feel my entire arm and hand as if it had never been removed from my body. There wasn’t even a scar left behind.

  I made a fist and punched Andrew square in the face, knocking him to the ground.

  “What was that for?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe for cutting off my fucking hand! What do you think it was for?”

  “Fair enough,” he replied as I helped him back to his feet and he wiped the blood from his nose. He looked down at the blood on his hands and then looked at me. He was white as a ghost as his gaze telegraphed what he was thinking. If that wasn’t enough, his panicked scanning of the room trying to locate his machete gave him up entirely.

  I grabbed his arm, smiled, and licked my lips. He literally shit himself.

  “Just kidding,” I said as I let go of him, “I only crave bacon. You better go change yourself.”

  “Right,” Andrew said as he tried to gain his composure and gathered up his machete, “you better stay here while I try to explain this to the others.”

  “Why? What are they going to do? Shoot me in fear? They can’t hurt me, and you have a lot of explaining to do – to everyone. I’ll make sure that I’m not standing out too much as to cause a problem. You just gather everyone up and I’ll meet you in the situation room in ten, got it?”

  “I’ll get them together,” he replied, “see you there.”

  “And bring some bacon! I’m not kidding!” I hollered to him as he made his way back to land.

  Chapter 8 – The Unraveling

  I searched the boat for something, anything, to mask my condition. I found a baseball cap and pair of sunglasses that would help to cover up my new “flaws”, but if anyone got too close the gig would be up. I had to take the chance. After all, even if I was discovered, I was sure I could talk my way out of it. The worst that could happen was that I would take a few rounds. That really sounds strange, even now.

  I left the boat and made my way toward the compound, exchanging glances and greetings as I went. Apparently I wasn’t fooling many people because I was getting more intense stares than casual glances. As I walked along, I found that I wasn’t getting fatigued in the least. In fact, I felt more invigorated than I had ever felt in my life!

  As I came upon the situation room, there was a large table set just outside the door that was piled high with weapons and packs, with two armed sentries standing at each end. I was greeted by Andrew, who had been waiting for me in the hallway.

  “Are you ready for this?” Andrew asked.

  “Am I ready for this?” I answered, “I may have to win them over and make them realize that I’m not here to hurt anyone, but you…you have a lot of explaining to do to these folks. With any luck they will only resent you for a little while.”

  “And if I don’t have that luck?”

  “I guess it sucks to be you then. What’s with all the gear?”

  “I thought it best that we have everyone disarmed before the meeting. Everyone was allowed to keep one weapon with them – you know how it is. They weren’t happy about it. Give me just a minute…”

  As Andrew went to open the door, I stopped him briefly and asked for him to turn off the lights and let me enter in the dark. I thought it would be sort of a reverse surprise party if they were greeted with glowing yellow eyes and then when the lights were switched on I introduced the new me. Andrew made me realize that it may not be the best idea, as the resulting cross fire that was sure to ensue would probably end up getting him killed. I couldn’t argue with that.

  Andrew entered first and closed the door behind him, leaving me in the hallway with the two sentries. These guys were uptight – even for someone trying to survive in the zombie apocalypse. They were staring me up and down as if they were challenging me to make the wrong move. They were just waiting for the chance to pounce on anyone who tried to get too close to the pile of weapons on display. Knowing that I had new regenerative properties gave me a new feeling of confidence and arrogance. It’s hard to have any anxiety when you know that you’re hard to kill.

  This transformation into part of the undead world had changed me more than physically – it had a profound impact on my psyche as well. It had only been a few hours since I had turned into my current form, but I was already becoming intoxicated with its potential. I had to struggle to keep it in check. My loyalties were towards the living, even though I would probably be outliving all of them n
ow. Of all the thoughts racing through my head over this change within me, that was the one that terrified me the most.

  “You can come in now!” I heard Andrew yell from the opposite side of the door.

  Forget what I said about it being hard to feel any anxiety. Even though my heart rate wasn’t accelerating, I still felt an uneasiness rush through my body and had to resist the desire to run away at that moment. Expecting the unexpected was a given during the zombie apocalypse, but I had ever counted on this particular scenario playing out and had no game plan on how to deal with it.

  I turned my back to the sentries and opened up the door. As I stepped in I was greeted by a chorus of gasps that echoed throughout the room as I crossed the threshold. It wasn’t a shock to me as to who spoke up first.

  “I killed you!” Tommy shouted, pointing his finger across the room at me as he stood up.

  “Actually, it wasn’t you that killed me,” I replied as I removed the cap and sunglasses.

  For the second time, a chorus of gasps filled the room. The gasps were quickly followed by a series of weapon draws and laser pointers blinding me. The only ones who weren’t drawing down on me were those that had already known about my transformation, were still in shock, or named Tommy Watson. I was also rather impressed with the intensity of the lasers that Justin had developed and made a mental note to compliment him as soon as I was given the chance.

  “What’s the matter Tommy? Afraid you’ll fuck up killing me a second time?”

  “Holy shit! You’re a controller!”

  It made me feel so much better, and really eased all the tension I was feeling, as the entire room was no longer focused on me. Instead, everyone had turned to Tommy with the same puzzled look. Tommy had made an excited utterance that he couldn’t take back and by the looks of those in the room he wasn’t going to be let off easy.

  “Well,” I said, opening my arms to the group, “you brought it up. It seems like now would probably be your best opportunity to fill everyone in…on everything.”

  Tommy held his hands in the air as he laughed and came towards me.

  “Hold up there fella,” I said, pointing towards him, “that’s about close enough. I think that you better get with the explaining before you come over here and make nice. I’m not too happy about having my shit blown out and being left for dead out on the water.”

  There was one pair of eyes that I picked up glaring at me from the far corner of the room. The look I received hit me in the chest like a sledgehammer. Physical pain may escape me now, but the mental anguish I felt from the fearful eyes staring me down cut me to my core. It was Karen.

  Through my enhanced vision, the signatures given off by people were mostly the same. They had a distinct radiated glow akin to a halo effect. Now that I was in a confined space with an entire group, I could tell that there were very faint nuances that accompanied each one. Visually speaking, it was almost as it I was seeing what looked like sound waves emanating from their bodies. Or was it more of an electromagnetic field? Either way, it reminded me of what people who took LSD would describe after they had come down from the trips they took.

  It was disturbing and intriguing all at the same time. The complexity of the aura had some meaning – of that I was certain. I just didn’t know how I was going to go about figuring that out.

  “You okay?” Andrew said as he was shaking his hand in front of my eyes, “You in there? You aren’t going full zombie on us are you?”

  “What?...Um, no…” I replied, “it’s just that everything looks so different. I’m still trying to get used to it. Sorry for zoning out.”

  “He probably sees us all as cooked chickens,” said Justin, “like on the cartoons. You know, like when they’re hungry. Or a steak…”

  “Or bacon,” Eric added.

  “Exactly!” I shouted, scaring the entire lot, “No, I don’t see you all as bacon…I crave bacon! Seriously folks, I have an intense craving for bacon that I can’t explain.”

  “Let’s get him some bacon and see what happens!” Justin said with a curious smile as everyone turned to him with looks of bewilderment, “What? Maybe it will have some effect on him. You know, as long as he’s fed bacon he may turn back.”

  “I’m not an experiment,” I replied, “but who am I to argue with science. Can someone whip some up?”

  “I’m on it!” Justin yelled as he darted out of the room.

  “Great,” Andrew said shaking his head, “we have our first confirmed controller and we’re going to be feeding him bacon to see how he reacts to it. Brilliant…”

  “So you don’t crave flesh at all?” Tommy asked.

  “I wouldn’t mind ripping your head off of your shoulders, but beyond that – no. I obviously don’t have any of the drive to feed on the living like the zombies do. I know what I look like, believe me,” I said as I looked over towards Karen, “but you have to believe that I’m not one of them. It’s almost as if I’m an evolved version…or hybrid…or something. Anyway, I’m probably not telling you or Andrew things you aren’t already aware of, right?”

  All eyes were on Andrew and Tommy as the group started putting the pieces of the puzzle together and finally realized who held the ones that had been missing. The ball was now officially in their court.

  Much to their credit, I didn’t have to interject at all during their lengthy briefing. They were very open with all of the information that they had given me earlier, which made me suspect that they knew more than they were now willing to share with the group. As they continued on, my attention to their briefing was being broken by what could best be described as white noise.

  It was like being underwater and still being able to hear. I was still being distracted by the jumbled thoughts of what felt like hundreds, if not thousands, of zombies. They were incoherent but consistent thoughts. Then suddenly, like finally hitting the right frequency when trying to manually zero in on a distant distress call with an amateur radio system, the collective thoughts echoed as one.

  HUNGER

  There was something I could sense in the background though, something that seemed to be guiding the multitude of thoughts by the shoulders and keeping them on course. The more I concentrated on trying to decipher what was being said, the louder it became. The hair on my neck stood up and I got a chill up by dead spine as I heard it. It was the creepiest ass whisper I had ever heard. I could swear I felt a cold breath on both ears as I heard the distinct voice in my head send out the order.

  Turn them all.

  If I wasn’t already a paler shade of grey, I think my skin color would have changed and gained someone’s attention. I physically shuttered as the voice repeated and started to gain momentum. I had to interrupt and get their attention. As I stood up to speak, the room fell silent and everyone looked my way. I think maybe my body communication spoke louder than my words.

  “They’re coming.”

  “Who’s coming?” Tommy asked.

  “The zombies, lots of them,” I answered as I focused my attention to the group, “I can…hear something…I’m not sure. It’s like everything…and nothing…but I was clear on two messages – the first was that they’re hungry.”

  “What was the second one?” Tool asked.

  “That they were ordered,” I replied as I turned my attention in an attempt to reconnect with the voice while trying to communicate to the group, “they’ve been told to turn us all.”

  “Ordered? Like by a zombie general? Are you saying that they’re organized?” Andrew asked.

  “No, not organized,” I replied as I closed my eyes and tried to get a clearer mental reception, “it’s as if they’re driven and guided at the same time. There’s something…someone…behind the scenes. I’m trying to make it out, but it’s so distant. It’s like they can’t think on their own, but they can collectively – if guided by the right voice.”

  “A controller,” Andrew said, “it’s another controller! Griff, you didn’t just cross over – you evol
ved in death as part of a controlling force of their collective! Don’t you get it? It makes sense now…”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked as I broke off my concentration to focus on the discussion at hand.

  “They are controlling the zombies like an army of sorts. That’s why we were starting to see more hordes! It wasn’t that they were travelling in groups, they were being systematically controlled and ordered to clear out specific areas.”

  Andrew went to the map of the southeast area of Michigan on the dry erase board, circling madly over the marked areas that were the confirmed ‘dead’ zones where the hordes had attacked. As he began marking off the locations, he verbalized the epiphany he was experiencing.

  “Detroit, New Baltimore, Wyandotte. What do they all have in common?”

  “They’re all in Michigan?” Eric asked, trying to answer the question.

  “No, no, no! They all have independent water supply systems. What is our greatest resource here in the region? Water! If they control the water supply, they control the living populace. Don’t you get it? Everyone planned on minerals like gold and silver to be the winners in the collapse of society, but that is just a mechanic of trade – not survival. If they captured control of the water, the thing that every living thing requires, they would be able to control the survivors. The food chain is supported by farming…farming is supported by irrigation…”

  “And irrigation is the lifeline,” Tommy interrupted, knowing where this was going, “to every living thing.”

  “Exactly! The entire scenario ends up playing out like a neutron bomb!” Andrew exclaimed.

  “So,” Tommy continued, “they leave the buildings and infrastructure standing, without all the radiation or destruction that a bomb would have given off. The zombies are a virus of sorts, but one that they found could be controlled…to eliminate as much of the living as possible, while still giving them the chance to rebuild under a new regime.”

  “But aren’t they just using a predator to get rid of a pest problem? Sounds like overkill, it’s like letting tigers loose to control a rabbit problem.” Jamie said.