The Rotting Souls Series (Book 3): Charon's Debt

by Ray, Timothy A.

  After a few minutes, the intercom buzzed. “How the hell do I work this?” she heard the woman’s voice over the speakers. “Uh, hello?”

  “Hey, it’s me. Come to our Communications Room, okay?” she asked, not liking that she was having to do this, but what choice did she have? The stakes were high and she wasn’t going to do this half-assed.

  “Sure Hon, on my way,” her husband’s best friend returned and the intercom clicked off.

  “Is that the right move?” John asked.

  “I don’t know, but do you have any other ideas?” she returned softly. She had analyzed her plan several times and there was just no denying it. It was going to take more than four of them to pull this off. There was no telling what Sean had up his sleeve and she couldn’t afford to be caught unprepared. “Someone has to guard our flank.”

  “Should’ve asked more of their group to come,” the former sheriff observed, nodding towards Vitarius.

  The other man shook his head. “I’m here for a debt owed. The others have to go back and help convince my people that moving is the best thing for them. There is a lot that goes into that and we can’t just leave our people unprotected. Maybe if you put this off—.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to wait. The longer we do, the stronger the chances that Sean will find a way back into our systems. I cannot tell you how much we don’t want that. He will kill us all if we give him the chance.”

  “Uh, what am I walking into here?” Vitarius asked with wide eyes and a questioning look.

  Naima walked in and she motioned for all of them to take a seat. She could have done this in the Strategy Room, but this would probably be quieter. Less chance of someone coming in here after what had happened this morning and she needed access to the computer system anyways. She turned to the computer and noticed that someone had replaced the two monitors she had destroyed. She navigated to a map that displayed the locations of the other compounds and sighed with relief when the other three still showed active.

  Maybe they had escaped after all.

  “For those of you that don’t know,” she said to the two newcomers, “the man that started the outbreak is a former friend of ours. The same man that helped to design, then build these compounds we live in. Last night he landed at the Icecrown compound and activated a security measure that killed everyone living inside. To prevent that from happening to us, Ben wiped and restarted our systems; giving his life to ensure that Sean would never get the chance to do that to us as well. He is now cut off, but that doesn’t mean he won’t do everything he can to try again. See, we have proof he started all this. In the hands of the right people, his life would be forfeit and he’d have to be on the run for the rest of his life. Trust me, he’s not going to let that happen. He likes his luxury and wants to enjoy what he’s built. That’s his Achilles heel. We know where he is and since all the compounds are identical, we know how to get to him. I’m waiting on a hacker friend from the New York compound to get back to me on beating his security system. Once she does, I plan on heading up there and ending this once and for all. I owe it to Ben and to his parents. They were more than friends, they were my family.”

  “Uh,” Naima broke in. “Why am I here?”

  “I need someone that knows how to handle a gun. I was told you did,” she commented. “Sabrina says you’re a pretty good shot. I don’t know if you realize this, but we are pretty shorthanded at the moment and I could use you.”

  “I don’t know what good I’m going to do. It was heat of the moment. I didn’t think. It was just point and shoot,” the other woman returned.

  John turned her way. “Which means you’re a natural. I would rather have you than some other green horn that requires weeks of training. Still not sure how you plan to get up there,” the man said, looking back her way. “Unless you have a secret jet hidden on one of these compounds around here.”

  She chuckled and shook her head. “We wait for Todd’s group to get back and hide in one of the hangars. Once they are in the tunnels, we refuel and take off.”

  “Then why don’t you just wait for your husband to get back? He can go in my place,” Naima asked confused. “Why all this cloak and dagger stuff?”

  “Because I know my husband, and you do too. Tell me, what do you think his next move will be when he gets back here?” she asked his best friend. “You know him almost better than me. What is your honest opinion?”

  Naima sighed. “He’ll want to wait. He’s a planner. He’ll want to have everything mapped out, diagramed, and choreographed. That what you’re getting at isn’t it?”

  She nodded with a smile. “I love the man, I do, but he will make us wait and I know that is the wrong move here. We have a small window where we are safe, but Sean isn’t the type of person to give up. He loves his back up plans and it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t have some other way of fucking with us. The longer we give him to work on it, the more dangerous are lives will become. I don’t know about any of you, but I can’t sleep as long as that mad man is out there. No, we need to go up there and take care of this now. He won’t be expecting us this soon. That’s our advantage.”

  “What’s your plan?” Vitarius asked her. “And how do you know if he’s even still alive? From what you said he killed all those people up there, surely they turned into zombies already. Maybe they’ve taken care of the problem for us.”

  She shook her head. “He was on the video screen mocking us while we were trying to save Ben. I saw where he was sitting, it was a room exactly like this. That means either he cleared out the undead himself, or he’s hiding in their backup compound. It would be set up just like ours and ready for his use. I doubt anyone was over there. If they were like us they were all holed up in the same place.”

  “If he’s just one man, then why do you need so many to go with you? Surely Officer Do-Right here can take care of one crazy old man,” Vitarius said, nudging John in the shoulder.

  “I resemble that remark you know,” John said with a smile.

  “Of course you do,” Vitarius returned.

  She sighed. “Ben said that there had been recent upgrades to our weapons systems. Even he didn’t know to what extent. We haven’t had a chance to check ours out yet and I don’t want to take any chances. If we do this, we do it all the way. Nothing can be left to chance. No matter what happens to any of us, that man must die.”

  Chapter 38

  WalMart

  Robert

  Safford, AZ

  He had run in every direction he could think of but they never found Renny. He had disappeared without a trace. It really got under his skin and he felt the fury bubbling up underneath. Some of their group had broken and run off and only now when he was catching his breath did he notice how few people were left.

  “Where’d they go?” he asked a tall Hispanic man. The man looked like he could be a prison guard.

  “They were holding our kids hostage,” the man replied. “Been like that for days. That’s how they kept us in line. The others went to try and free them.”

  Robert nodded. One mystery solved. “Think they succeeded?”

  “Doesn’t take much to guard kids,” another man said from his left. He was a gruff looking white dude with a Metallica shirt on. The cowboy hat on his head contrasted with the rocker persona and he questioned the man’s taste in clothing.

  “Maybe we should go check to make sure,” he told them, deciding to try and make the best of things. Renny could run, but he wouldn’t get far. The world was shrinking on them as safe zones began to disappear and he knew the man wouldn’t be running west. That left north and east. He would leave signs. Sooner or later something would turn up and when it did, he would take great pleasure at gutting the man—slowly.

  “Only place you’re going is the hospital,” the first man said, giving him a worried look.

  “I’m fine,” he muttered. He suddenly didn’t feel it though. He had just survived two fights in that horrid mockery of
a coliseum and felt like he might have something broken inside.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” the man returned with a grim smile. “Hey Joe, go see if you can find us a ride. Better hurry.”

  The man with the cowboy hat took off and he stood there trying to fake that nothing was wrong, but the pressure in his back was mounting and the pain began to increase with it. He had been hit with a sledge hammer in that spot and there was no telling what damage had been done. “How do you know the hospital is safe?” he managed between painful breaths.

  “First place those jokers cleared out,” the man replied. “Name’s Gene by the way,” the Hispanic man said as he placed an arm on his shoulder and tried to make him lean against him.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing but body aches. It’ll pass,” he managed.

  Gene shook his head. “Daughter’s a nurse, she’ll know for sure. That is, if they freed our people from the Wal-Mart they were keeping them in.

  Robert laughed.

  “What?” asked the man curiously.

  “I worked for Wal-Mart,” he said with a painful chuckle. Then his head began to throb and his balance slipped from him. “Name’s Robert,” he said. “Just in case I die and you need something to put on the headstone.”

  “Nah, think we’re past headstones at this point. You’ll just have to settle for cremation. Just not today,” Gene replied with a smile as he led Robert over to an approaching truck.

  To his surprise it was the same one he had driven into town with. Everything had been looted from the back but the rest of it looked like it was in working order. Aside from the collision damage it had sustained, of course.

  He had used this truck as an instrument of hate. Could he make it one of peace? He didn’t know if he was there yet; still too many resolved issues. But that time in the arena had changed him. He didn’t know what path he was now on but was sure that this time it would end differently.

  He’d have Renny’s head on a pike and a grateful town to lead. Who knew what came after that?

  Chapter 39

  Learjet

  Todd

  Tucson, AZ

  They had slowed down to allow the Humvee take point and were currently driving down Hughes Access Road. It ran along the backside of the airport and his father had worked at a private plane supplier for the last fifty years. Learjet had once been a very popular and prosperous company until 9/11, and while the manufacturing part of the plant had been shut down, the customer service part still maintenanced the planes for their customers. His father assured him they’d find a plane there that they could take. It was also a craft his father was intimately knowledgeable about and would feel more confident flying.

  “I can’t believe how much is gone,” he told Ros, as she fought against the urge to speed up and pass their companions before them.

  “Looks like they did a thorough job,” Rosilynn said, referring to the military that had destroyed much of the city. “That gas station back on Valencia looked like a World War II battlefield you’d see on Saving Private Ryan. Good of them to clear the roads at least.”

  “Well, they had to get out somehow, right?” he returned with a sad heart. His parent’s house had been just up the road from there and from the look of things, it had been utterly destroyed. They had passed his former high school and only the gym had still been standing. The blackened walls were the only clue as to once stood there, and only someone that had intimate knowledge of the area would even recognize that much.

  His wife would also be hurt by that loss; it was where they had met.

  They sat in silence for a moment as the road took a bend and headed west. “I don’t understand why he thinks the airfield will still be there,” Ros remarked, shaking her head.

  “The military withdrew north, right? Well you know they did most of that with planes. So they had to protect the airports. They wouldn’t destroy them in case they came back,” he reasoned.

  “Well, we’re almost done here. Thoughts on what comes next?” she asked him. There was a tone in her voice and her mood had changed.

  What was he missing?

  “I’m not about to just leave the Humvee if that’s what you’re hinting at,” he told her. “I was going to let my dad take the others back and then drive back to the compound. We made it here, I can make it back. Maybe take the route through New Mexico, skip Duncan this time.”

  “I figured you’d say that,” she said with a smile. “And you’re not going alone.”

  “The hell I’m not,” he replied taken aback. He wasn’t going to risk anyone’s life but his own. He didn’t want to lose the Humvee, sure. But he’d abandon it before considering letting anyone else come with him. There was no point in putting more lives at risk.

  Rosilynn laughed. “You know how it is, no one goes anywhere alone. We move in pairs. Sabrina is too green and Joseph is worn out. I don’t know if you noticed, but he didn’t get any sleep last night after they got in. He’s running on fumes. He’d snore the entire trip back. And your dad is needed to fly the plane. So, unless you want your sister-in-law going back with you, you’re stuck with me.”

  He sighed. He knew that she was right. Things had gotten a bit crazy lately and the training that he had put himself through had somehow begun to slip away. It was one thing to prepare, and another to actually have to do it. Nothing ever seemed to work the way you anticipated.

  “Well, I couldn’t ask for better company,” he finally gave in.

  She patted him on the leg. “See? You should’ve learned a long time ago that it’s pointless to argue with a woman. We always get our way.”

  “So my wives keep reminding me,” he muttered with a grin. They made a right onto Old Nogales Hwy and he knew they were only minutes from their destination. “It’s a right up here,” he told her needlessly. The Humvee was already getting into the turn lane and the Learjet sign was coming into view.

  They followed the armored truck along the short path to the first turn and soon the maintenance hangar was coming into view. “This is where your dad worked huh?” she asked conversationally and he nodded as they pulled into a parking space beside the large vehicle of war.

  As he got out, the doors on the Humvee opened, and the more experienced members of the group started moving forward, sweeping the parking lot. The hangar was unscathed, just as they expected it would be, but that didn’t mean it was empty. People worked here all hours of the day and some could be held up inside waiting this out. Or worse, they could be shambling around just looking for their next meal. He went to his mother-in-law’s side and covered his wife’s family as they followed his father into the building ahead.

  His dad took out a badge and swiped it over a lock. The door clicked and Joseph darted inside to clear the room. He signaled the all clear but was standing at the foot of some stairs with his weapon pointed to the upper level. He nodded to Ros and the two of them went up to clear the topside. A few minutes later they returned, weapons lowered, and the group moved towards the doors that led to the hangar.

  Ten minutes later, they had swept the interior of the building and all of them felt relatively sure that they were alone for the moment. Joseph had moved towards the hangar doors, wanting to make sure the area outside was clear and Sabrina was hot on his heels with her weapon ready. He wanted Ros to go with him instead, but the young Hispanic girl had been insistent. Maybe she found him attractive.

  Well, there were worse things that could happen. She was a good person and could do no better, especially now.

  His father had climbed into one of the nearest jets and was doing an engine check. He claimed that he had personally cleared it a few days before the shit hit the fan and felt like it was their best chance at finding a jet operational and ready to fly.

  He hadn’t argued. This was his dad’s thing, not his.

  His knowledge stopped at flying flight simulators for fun and he knew that was in no way realistic enough to give him a handle on these things. He remembered laughin
g at his father’s insistence that a wrong engine light had shown up while watching Lear get damaged in that movie Face Off. Well, now he was grateful that his father knew planes so well; their previous pilot had become a homicidal maniac and he was quite sure that his father was neither of those things.

  “You’re not coming with us, are you?” Chris asked him.

  He shook his head. “Got to get the Humvee back. We might need it again. I should be okay though. Just tell the wife I’ll be a few hours behind you.”

  “You sure?” the older woman asked him and he smiled.

  “I’ll be fine,” he told her confidently. He had Ros going with him. If the shit hit the fan she was the right kind of person to have at his side.

  “Thank you for coming for us,” Chris said and gave him another hug.

  “Hey, you’re my mother too, remember?” he asked, and actually meant it. They had known each other for over twenty years, longer than he’d been alive before meeting his wife.

  “All clear,” Joseph announced as he and Sabrina came walking up. He handed the keys to the Humvee over. “Sure you don’t want me to come with?”

  “Nah,” he said dismissively, “we should be fine. Besides, if you guys have to stop off anywhere for any reason, I’d feel better knowing you were with them.”

  “It’s less than an hour flight. I’m sure they’ll make it,” the sniper said with a grin.

  “So am I, but why take the chance?” he returned, then extended his hand. “Get there safe and take care of my family for me til I get back.” The engines were cycling up behind him and it was time for the group to be on their way.

  “You got it,” the man said, giving him a good shake then moving to cover the ladder as his mother-in-law climbed up the steps. “Take care of him,” Joseph told Ros.

  “I will,” she replied and stepped over to give the big man a hug. He saw a flash of jealousy in Sabrina’s eyes, but it was fleeting and disappeared the moment she noticed him watching.