by Mark Clodi
“I can learn from both series Max. I made incremental improvements in both.”
“But we still might die?” Max asked.
“That is, unfortunately, a possibility. Without a series two subject to study, I can’t know if the adjustments I made with three were in the right direction. Oh, don’t look so alarmed, at the very least you’ll come back like I am. Probably.”
“Probably?”
“There is always risk Max. I will send in some helpers to prep you, please don’t give them any trouble, they are under orders to prep you at any cost, and I want this done today, regardless of any broken bones you might suffer at their hands.”
The doctor left the room to be replaced by two very capable looking zombies pushing in a heavy steel gurney. Still using his half sight, he felt these two were at least the equal of Aubrey. ‘Where the hell is she, anyway?’ Max thought as the two approached and began unstrapping his restraints. Of course he fought anyway.
Chapter 40 – Katie
Katie was standing mauled and naked in the rubble; her fingers were broken, twisted things that resembled wriggling worms more than flanges. She shifted the rocks away from the street, just one zombie in a seemingly endless line, clearing out pieces of broken concrete and the odd corpse or broken bit of office furniture from the collapsed building. Two zombies, their eyes glaring at her in intense hatred, carried a squirming man dressed in cut off shorts and a t-shirt towards her from the end of the line. The two stopped in front of her and held the man steady while Katie tore into him. With each bite she healed, with each swallow her mind came back and she remembered what she was and the details of her fight with the zombie on the roof. She remembered she had been bitten several times by the zombie during the fight before the first shell landed on the roof.
Katie pulled away from the dying man, remembering enough to be disgusted and reject this unlife she had been gifted. ‘Eat. Eat and forget.’ Came the persistent voice inside her head.
Aubrey. The woman was buried in the rubble that Katie was clearing. The woman wanted Katie, wanted her functional. At first Katie thought it was for revenge, Katie had throat shot the woman and killed her partner Harry too. When Aubrey was finally revealed, a compact, ragged figure, so covered with dust that she resembled the concrete that was found covering her, revenge seemed imminent. The woman had sent Katie to stand inside one of the other downtown buildings, along with hundreds of other zombies. Katie thought maybe she would just end up being another wheel on the cog, forgotten.
But the living kept arriving like clockwork, a child here, someone old enough to be her grandparent there. All for Katie, all a constant reminder that she was not forgotten. The zombies around her were mindless dead, and stared only at the victims hungrily, held in check from ripping them apart only by Aubrey’s will. The ones bringing her the food knew, they knew, but could not talk to her, just as Katie herself was compelled to remain silent as they held the victims in place.
Days went by, the feeding continued and Katie grew stronger. As much as the process disgusted her, she had hopes that Aubrey would go too far, that the woman would overfeed Katie and make her strong enough to break free from the bitch’s shackles. Eventually Katie tried; she shrugged off the other woman and managed to race almost three steps before Aubrey’s will re-asserted itself.
Soon after she was summoned to Aubrey’s presence, what she saw along the way was not comforting. There were zombies that were very clearly not right. They looked like the intelligent kind, the fast ones who could talk, however, most were babbling incoherently. One was reciting what sounded like the Gettysburg address while walking into a wall. It would fall over, get back up, say another line from that historical document and walk into the wall again and then it would start over. Others were crying, one was using a piece of glass to cut its wrists to the bone. The wounds healed quickly, but not before spilling a black mess out of his veins, he had been at it a long time, given the size stain on the ground beneath him. Aubrey was not in a conference room, she held court in an empty street, surrounded by other super zombies.
The memories faded out and Katie found herself back in the pizza parlor. ‘Now what was that daydream all about?’
“Katie, when did you last eat?” Randy asked her again. She looked around to see him standing beside her.
“Randy! Good to see you…” Katie faltered.
“You’re dead Katie, you need to remember. Tell me what happened.”
“I...” Katie’s world disappeared again, the pizza place fading in and out, with only Randy remaining beside her, a steady beacon, an anchor in the swirling chaos of time, places and memories.
Back on the street in Chicago Aubrey gestured behind Katie at the insane zombies, “I’ve been experimenting and I think I just about have this down. I need to act now. It’s sooner than I would like, but we can’t always choose when to do what must be done, wouldn’t you agree.”
“I shot you.”
“Yes, very observant. I survived and you did too, in a fashion. I need you and I will have you. How would you like to kill the man responsible for all of this? Isn’t that better than just taking out a couple of his leaders?” Aubrey asked.
Katie shook her head, “You killed Randy. I’ll kill you, I swear I will, if it’s the last thing I do.”
“I’ve killed a lot of people; it wasn’t personal, but you almost got me, it if that is any consolation.”
Katie remembered struggling, pitting her will against that of Aubrey, she was like a kitten fighting against and elephant.
“I see we’ll have to do this the hard way. Well, that is what I’ve been practicing for. Now I’ve learned that what is taken away can never be restored, but I’ve also been trying some things to work around that problem. You might think I am just shaping you to be a tool that I never think about again, and truth be told if you accomplish what I need, the end would justify the means. However, my tests have proven that I am more of a mechanic than a surgeon. I lack the finesse of wiping out vast swaths of your memory and replacing them with my directions and I need your skills and abilities as intact as I can have them.”
“I will kill you.” Katie ground out between clenched jaws.
“Yes, yes, we’ll get to that later. First things first. You’re alive. You never died. You will forget all of this until I tell you otherwise.” Aubrey said the words and Katie felt the changes in her head. The woman was inside her head, moving things around. She wasn’t removing things, she was putting instruction in Katie’s brain of what to remember. Katie screamed, raising her head to glare up at the shattered windows of the office building on one side of the street. That was when she saw Randy.
He looked serene, a link to her past and, thankfully, he was not a zombie. Katie was sure of this. “Shoot me! Kill me Randy! Shoot me!” Katie begged.
Aubrey paused in her work, “Randy?” the woman looked closer into Katie’s head, “Ah, your partner. You’re lover. Naughty-naughty, you know the rules against what you did! You were a cold, standoffish bitch to him weren’t you? Just a friend with benefits?” Aubrey snorted, “Well I think you did a pretty good job of deluding yourself there, didn’t you?” She turned back to her work.
Randy stepped out of the building and approached Katie’s side, holding out a hand and shaking his head quietly, finger held to his lips, his voice, a bare whisper said, “Don’t speak. I don’t know everything, but I can keep part of you, for a little while. I can come with you. I can help.”
Katie screamed again and yelled, “Yes! Yes!”
Aubrey, misunderstood Katie’s outburst, she nodded her approval, “It is better if you just accept it. After this we’ll work on hiding yourself from our kind. I think you will be the best pupil yet. I have a whole slew of mission objectives for you, don’t worry; we’ll get through this.”
The memories faded again to the present where Randy’s arms encircled her in the restaurant, holding her tightly. She quickly composed herself and tried to pull away.
He held onto to her.
“All done?” he asked.
Katie relaxed and leaned back. Randy wasn’t real, she had nothing to pull away from. “I’m missing large chunks of memory.”
“I was too. Whatever Aubrey did to you almost affected me. I’ve been a little off ever since you started heading south. I knew something was wrong, I knew I had to provoke you to figure it out, but I couldn’t do it on my own.”
“You’re dead.”
Randy’s soft laughter echoed in the deserted shop. “So are you.”
“But you’re not a zombie.”
“No. I guess I just wasn’t finished here yet.”
“So, you’re a ghost?”
“Listen, Katie, I don’t know what to think. I suppose ‘ghost’ covers it, well enough, but I think we have to make a decision about some things and we have to act fast. Do you remember the old guy who was just here?”
“I remember.”
“Good. I don’t think he is alone. I think the man who started this mess is across the street and we might have a chance at taking him out.” Randy said.
“Why bother?” Katie asked bitterly, “I’m on his team now.”
“He killed me. He killed you. He killed the entire world. I’d like a little payback.”
“Again, what’s the point?”
“Where the hell is the old Katie? We hate these things we want to send them back to the grave. Nothing has changed.”
Katie snorted and wiped her arm across her eyes, “Except we’re dead. I find this whole thing pretty goddamned pointless now. God I just want to throw up. But I know I can’t. If you want this guy so much, you go after him.”
“I doubt my ability to press keys on a laptop will impress him much. But a bullet in his brain would be nice.”
“If he doesn’t stop us first.” Katie said, “Aubrey controlled me like a puppet on a string. And this dude was her boss.”
“I don’t think he knows you’re here.”
“How can that be?”
“I…well if he knew you were sitting outside his evil lair, I think you’d be dead by now. Dead again, I mean. I think Aubrey did something to you to keep you below his radar.”
“If she could make me go below his radar, that means she could do the same thing. So…she might be there too. I could kill her.”
“After killing him.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“I think there are two revenges to get here, one for humanity, one for you. Which is more important?”
“Damn it, Randy! You’ll always be a soldier, won’t you?”
“This we’ll defend.” Randy answered, quoting the Army service motto.
“Fuck you.”
“I hope you like it cold.”
Katie laughed, “Okay. You win, again. But I am saving a bullet for when I run into that bitch Aubrey.”
Katie rolled over onto her hands and knees, the memories still spinning in her head made her pause for a moment.
“You okay? I thought you said you were okay?”
“Gimme a minute.”
“You might not have it.” Randy said, he was staring out the window.
“What? What do you see?”
“Your good friend Aubrey has arrived, and she brought help, it looks like.”
Katie pulled herself up to the low window, no longer too concerned about avoiding the eyes of the zombies across the street. What she saw was amazing. Randy was right, Aubrey was there and she hadn’t come alone. The dark cloud hanging over the clinic continued to pour rain down on the street and it made the fighting all that much more interesting to watch.
The zombies stationed outside the building across the street didn’t seem to notice anything going on at first. Then, as one, they turned towards the attack. One of the people outside the yacht restoration place turned too late to avoid being axed in the head by another zombie, but he did convulsively pull the trigger of his assault rifle and sent a trail of bullets right at Katie, the window shattered inward with the rain and wind.
“Fuck me! That was close!” Katie said, pointing at the bullet holes in the wall behind her.
“Look! The second stringers are all down! Looks like the royal guard is coming out now.” Randy said.
“How can you see anything in this shit?” Katie asked picking up her rifle and hoping that the scope would help her see things more clearly. Putting the rifle to her eye Katie saw the zombies moving so quickly that they looked like a special effects stunt from a movie. Two of the attackers went down under the onslaught, none of the defenders who were left were using guns now, instead they all had clubs or blades of some kind. In a moment Katie knew why, Aubrey’s troops tried to shoot them and they simply stepped out of the way.
The defenders outnumbered the attackers and moved faster and more fluidly than their opponents, the sole exception was Aubrey, she more than matched them for speed and agility. Katie rested her sight on Aubrey’s head, tracking it as best she could. ‘Can she dodge it, if she can’t see it coming?’ Katie wondered.
“Don’t.” Randy cautioned.
“Don’t what?” Katie asked innocently.
“I know you. If you have to shoot, kill one of the ones she is fighting. I think Aubrey could use the help.”
“So you can see what I am doing now? If you ask me there are too goddamned many people in my head.”
Randy shook his head, “No. I just know you. If you’re going to help her you better do it soon, she’s down to three guys against about twenty.”
Katie signed and changed her sight to the men fighting across the street. “I ain’t got shit for a shot here.” She switched her aim away from the men fighting Aubrey to those fighting the most competent of her supporters. When a head popped into view, Katie stroked her trigger. The shot went wide and stuck another defender in the throat.
“Nice,” Randy commented, “Aim for the head. That won’t keep him down long.”
Katie grunted, too embarrassed to tell him she had missed her intended target. She aimed again and her second shot caught the man trying to clobber Aubrey’s boy full in the face. His brains sprayed out onto Aubrey, who Katie swore was smiling. “Yeah, laugh it up bitch. I’ll get you too.”
The fight continued with Katie taking pot shots that slowly turned the tide of the battle. At least until the group of defenders fell back into the building. A zombie shoved one of the wide door closed and obscured the fight from Katie’s sight.
“I’m gonna have to move. I can’t see any targets from here. I thought being dead came with the ability to see through walls?”
“Maybe Aubrey blocked it, so you wouldn’t get suspicious?”
“Her fucking loss then. I’m going across the street and getting under one of those vehicles.” Katie said, pointing at a row of cars that would let her see into the building.
“That’ll only help until they close the other door.”
“I am not going in there.” Katie fished around in her duffel bag for more ammunition to reload the rifle’s magazine, then picked it up and headed out into the rain to cross the street.
Chapter 41 – Max
Doctor Sentry popped into the doorway to his room less than ten minutes after leaving and gestured for the two handlers to push Max out into the hallway on the gurney he was now strapped to.
“I am sorry Max, but things are very fluid right now.”
Max thought he heard the sound of gunfire from outside the building.
Sentry had his assistants push Max into a longer room with four beds in it. One bed was empty, the two others were occupied by Bill and Stewart. Bill’s bed was lying flat, but Max could see the rise and fall of his friend’s chest as he struggled to get free of his bonds. Stewart had one arm strapped to the rail on the side of the bed, much as Max did. Her arm was bruised and bloody, also just like Max’s. Though she was gagged with an orange colored ball strapped into her mouth, Max saw the short nod of approval as she looked him over.
Max was no
t gagged; apparently he had not been fiery enough with his speech to warrant one. Keeping his vision on what Sentry was doing Max waited to seize his chance, for once the doctor appeared to be focused wholly on what he was doing. The doctor was busy preparing a syringe he had taken from a small glass refrigerator built into the counter. Sweat mingled with the blood from one of the bruises on Max’s forehead and trickled down into his eye.
Doctor Sentry turned with the needle and walked towards Stewart, “Series two for you dear. It should work just fine, but isn’t as advanced.” He checked her arm as she struggled, “I thought we’ve been through this already? Hold still.”
Stewart continued to struggle, making it difficult for the Doctor to line up a vein. Sighing in frustration he mentally sent for the two goons by the door to hold Stewart down. Max intercepted the orders and changed them. Sentry seemed surprised when his two assistants tackled him to the ground, sending the syringe flying.
“What?” he cried out in alarm as he fell. “Stop this now.” Max saw him emphasize his words with a strong mental push, which he changed to indicate they should continue to hold the man down.
Sentry’s brow furrowed in anger and his whole body lit up like a halogen lamp. The two assistants dissolved where they were touching him, their bodies seemed to be absorbed into Sentry’s own and he called out with his mind for more assistance as he got up. The remnants of the bodies of the two men who had jumped him fell off in pieces to lie in a disorganized pile at his feet. Sentry’s clothing was as blood free and spotless as before.
“So, we have a comedian here then. Who is playing games with my men?” His eyes roamed the room and locked onto Max. “I choose you, Max. Your other friend here has incredible strength, the woman is both stronger and faster than normal, but you! You, my friend haven’t shown your cards until now have you?”
The four men Sentry had summoned appeared in the doorway and charged the doctor, having had their orders changed by Max when they were called. These men were dressed for war, carrying pistols on their belts, along with knives and wearing military style fatigues. Sentry watched them for a moment as they charged and then sent out a burst of orders that blanketed the area. Not hundreds of orders, not even thousands, it looked to Max like millions. Max grabbed onto as many as he could, but when the burst was over the four zombies were approaching Stewart and holding her arm steady, not attacking the doctor like Max wanted. Somewhere in the world there were thousands of zombies who were on their way here to rend the doctor limb from limb. Max hoped they arrived soon.
