A Violent World

by Paul Seiple

  "It will not work without an access key."

  He gripped the pistol and swung around, expecting to be dead before he saw the man behind the voice.

  "No need to shoot." The tall, bald man held something resembling a credit card in the palm of his hand. "You came all this way. You shouldn’t leave in disappointment."

  He lowered the pistol but kept his grip tight.

  "You continue to surprise me, Wayne."

  "I could say the same about you, Mitchell. I'm surprised you're still alive," Wayne Kurten said.

  "It's not for death's lack of trying," Mitch said. "And you can call me Mitch now."

  “Does that mean we’re friends now?” Wayne asked.

  “It could,” Mitch said.

  "Did death do that to you?" Wayne pointed to the left side of Mitch's face.

  Mitch ran the tips of his fingers over the raised, damaged flesh on his forehead, over an eye patch, and traced scars on his cheek. "Is it that obvious?"

  "You're not winning any beauty contests," Wayne said.

  "Put the gun away. It's making me nervous," Mitch said.

  "Yeah. I put it away. Your lackeys pop out and take me away. I like my freedom," Wayne said.

  "I'm alone," Mitch said.

  "Forgive me if I don't believe you," Wayne said. "Tell ya what, though, I won't shoot you unless your lackeys show up."

  Mitch laughed. "And what makes you trustworthy?"

  "I have the gun. You have to take my word," Wayne said.

  "All right. We will play your way." Mitch stepped beside Wayne and swiped the access key. Lights above the elevator lit. The number seven glowed in red on the keypad.

  "What's down there?" Wayne asked.

  "The answers you came looking for," Mitch said, stepping onto the elevator. He held the door for Wayne. "Did you ever find that woman you were looking for?"

  "No. You took my congregation. I was alone. I valued survival over seeing Melanie Carpenter again."

  "You're a wise man, Wayne."

  "Did you ever find that guy you were looking for?" Wayne asked.

  "Alan," Mitch said, tracing the scar on his face again. "Let's just say, I wasn't as wise as you."

  The elevator doors opened to a glass room with a black floor.

  "It's a decontamination chamber. It's not needed anymore," Mitch said, stepping out of the elevator. He walked through the decontamination room and motioned for Wayne to follow. "The virus is no longer here."

  Wayne eyed the glass cells that lined both sides of the room. "Did you keep the dead here?"

  "Only the promising ones," Mitch said. He opened another door and turned on a light. "Come on."

  An obscenely large television was mounted to the far wall. The wall closest to Wayne was a giant, bare white-board. Only black smears that were once words remained. There were desks in the center of the room, giving the look of a co-working space. Mitch took a file from a metal cabinet and handed it to Wayne.

  "What's this?" Wayne asked.

  "The end was the beginning of the new world. The toxicity was too vast. Purification was the only way to ensure our survival." Mitch said.

  "What are you talking about?" Wayne asked.

  "You came here looking for answers. They are in there," Mitch said.

  Wayne opened the folder. The first paper was a report from a DNA company called yourDNAtoday. It was one of those spit in the tube, ship it, and get your ancestry results companies.

  "We started yourDNAtoday to access the DNA of millions..." Mitch paused. "... legally, and it turned into a billion-dollar company that helped finance ARMA."

  Wayne flipped to the next paper. It was a spreadsheet that served as a ranking system for people who used the DNA service.

  "We developed a scoring system that ranked how likely members would be to survive an apocalypse," Mitch said. "It also told us how many would be immune to Judas.”

  "I don't get it. How could you tell that?" Wayne asked.

  Mitch smiled. "People were so guarded with their social security number, but they would share their spit like it was nothing. DNA is more important than a credit score, but only by a little."

  Mitch reached over to the folder and pulled a paper from the middle of the stack. The letterhead read CreditHack.

  "We offered members of yourDNAtoday a free year of CreditHack. It monitored credit scores and breaches. More importantly, it gave us a snapshot of how responsible our members were," Mitch said.

  "I don't understand why any of this is important," Wayne said.

  "Customer retention was crucial." Mitch smiled again. "Once the data was recorded, we sent a second DNA test to qualifying members. This one was billed to give people an insight on their overall health. For example, it could let someone know if she should skip whole milk with her morning cereal."

  "I still don't understand," Wayne said.

  "It did none of those things. We gauged that sixty-five percent of people who took our test placed the plastic tube against their lips. The tube in the second test was infected with Judas," Mitch said.

  "You purposely infected people?" Wayne asked.

  "Only those worthy," Mitch said.

  "Worthy of what?"

  "Being part of the future," Mitch said. “It’s written in the Book of Revelations that 144,000 people will ascend to Heaven. That’s fiction. I think we both know there is no Heaven. But that list is very real.” He pointed to the list of people sent the second DNA test. “Those people were my flock.”

  Wayne flipped through the folder. There were no results from the second test.

  "We didn't expect any returned tests after the Judas experiment," Mitch said.

  Mitch grabbed a remote and turned the television on. A deep voice narrated over a video of a man dressed in ARMA gear administering a shot to a woman infected with Judas. Mitch paused the video.

  "I told you we developed a way to control them. The new soldier fights for only one thing... Judas's survival. Keratin helps that tremendously. Have you ever been around a heroin addict?" Mitch asked.

  "Plenty," Wayne said.

  "Then I suppose you've seen the things addicts will do to get a fix. Keratin is a million times more addictive to the infected."

  "What's stopping them from just attacking the living to get that fix?" Wayne asked.

  "I call it the zoo effect. It's the same reasons lions don't attack zoo keepers. They learn to understand the workers are the ones who bring food. That's what you're seeing on this video. We are training them. Contrary to what you may believe, they still think. They can associate that specific color of blue..." Mitch pointed to the ARMA jumpsuit. "... with the people who give them keratin."

  "Some lions still kill zoo keepers," Wayne said.

  Mitch pointed to the folder. "The data told us which ones would be loyal soldiers. Granted, we had a few problems along the way, but we worked through them." Mitch fast forwarded the video to a drone shot of at least a thousand people infected with Judas in a prison yard.

  "And what are you going to do with them?"

  "Here's the thing, Wayne, a lot of people immune to Judas are annoying. They want the world to go back to the way it was when social media turned people into zombies. When idiots ran the world. When people took life for granted. We need to do everything possible to make sure we do not regress. We are moving forward now. My army will ensure those who have a regressive mentality do not impede the progress."

  Wayne put the folder back on the metal cabinet.

  "Did you get your answers?" Mitch asked.

  "I'm not sure. This is a lot to process," Wayne said. "Are you going to let me walk out of here alive?"

  "You don't strike me as having a regressive mentality," Mitch said.

  "So does that mean you're going to let me leave?" Wayne asked.

  "Do you want to leave, or do you want to be Maestro in this new world?" Mitch asked.

  Wayne turned away from Mitch. He walked to the television and stared at the army of the
dead. "I have an addiction too, Mitch." He faced Mitch again. "I'm addicted to power."

  Mitch smiled. "Well, the war starts in the near future."

  "Where do we begin?" Wayne asked.

  "I have a feeling you will be a great ally, Wayne. I promised you I'd take you to Melanie Carpenter. That's where we will start."

  The Living War

  The Great Dying Series Book 4 - Coming Soon

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  The Great Dying Series

  Post-Apocalyptic Thrillers

  THE LAST FIVE DAYS (BOOK1)

  AM I DEAD? ( BOOK 2)

  A VIOLENT WORLD (BOOK 3)

  About Paul Seiple

  Paul Seiple has written nine novels. He is the author of the James Beamer Thriller series. The first three books in the series make up The Morning Star Trilogy and should be read in order. He also writes The Great Dying Post-Apocalyptic series and The Project Specter Mystery series. Other works include the thrillers The Dark Stuff and Intruders: The Awakening (a collaboration with Tracy Sharp)

  Check out some of Paul’s other books here.

  To learn more about what Paul is working on visit his website www.paulseiple.com.

  By Paul Seiple

  Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved

  Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronically, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise) without proper written permission of the copyright owner.

  A VIOLENT WORLD is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design: Deranged Doctor Design

  Proofreading: BZHercules