by Jake Bible
“Or you’ll replace me?” Mr. Gein laughed. “Is that it?”
Ms. Isely stood ice still.
“Oh,” Mr. Gein said. “I hit it on the button. On the nose. Right on the tallywhacker.”
“Tallywhacker?” Ms. Isely frowned deeper. “I think we know each other intimately enough that you know I do not have a tallywhacker.”
“But do you have a heart?” Mr. Gein asked, doing a slight shuffle. “Or a brain? Or even courage?”
“You need rest,” Ms. Isely said as she ignored his antics and stepped past him. “Go lie down, for god’s sake.”
“Yes, sir!” Mr. Gein saluted as he backed himself down the hall. “Right away, sir!”
***
The gin bottle was almost empty and Mr. Gein let it fall from his fingers as he stood over the BC injection molding table.
“Ooopsy,” he mumbled drunkenly.
“Sir?” a tech asked as she came into the room to start her checklist procedure. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yeah,” Mr. Gein slurred. “How many brains are going into this Frankenstein’s monster?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I do not understand,” the tech said, visibly alarmed at the state Mr. Gein was in.
“The personalities,” Mr. Gein explained slowly. Like to a stupid child. “How many are being feed through the cerebral matrix into the BC bodies?” He felt a bit nauseous from the question. Too many words, too fast.
“I don’t know, sir,” the tech replied as she backed towards the door. “The upload is the file that Ms. Isely has given us to upload.”
“The file Ms. Isely gave you,” Mr. Gein said to himself. “Where is that stored?”
The tech pointed to the control room behind the safety glass.
“Delightful,” Mr. Gein said as he reached down and picked up the gin bottle. “Just delightful. Care to join me in an experiment?”
“Sir, I really think you should speak to Ms. Isely,” the tech said.
“Oh, pish posh,” Mr. Gein frowned. “She’s no fun.” He winked at the tech. “But I am. Come on. I need your help. Finish your checklist and let’s see what monster we can make!”
***
“You have got to be fucking kidding me, Gein!!!” Ms. Isely shouted as she burst into the control room. “Are you out of your fucking mind? You’ll destroy everything!”
Mr. Gein burped, frowned at the sour taste it brought up then pointed at the empty drink cart. “You need to restock that.”
“You asshole!” Ms. Isely screamed as she yanked him from the seat he was slouched in. “I should have the Three shoot you in the fucking head!”
“Too afraid to do it yourself?” Mr. Gein said, yanking free of Ms. Isely’s grasp. “Or are you no longer into doing the dirty work?”
“You know exactly what I’m capable of,” Ms. Isely glared. “And you should remember that, Gein.”
“Hard to forget,” Mr. Gein burped.
“Cerebral matrix is still holding,” the terrified tech said. “It looks to have stabilized.”
Ms. Isely’s attention shifted from Mr. Gein to the BC injection room.
“How long?” she asked. “How long has it been stable?”
“Five minutes,” the tech replied. “Should I continue or abort, mum?”
Ms. Isely approached the window and peered in at the figure on the injection table. She slowly turned and looked at Mr. Gein. “What did you do? How did you get it to stabilize?”
“You were pushing a square brain into a round hole,” Mr. Gein smiled. Ms. Isely kept staring at him and he sighed. “You didn’t separate the two personalities. I did.”
“And which one is in there?” Ms. Isely asked, pointing to the BC form on the injection table. “Gein? Which personality did you upload first?”
“That’s where it gets fuzzy,” Mr. Gein shrugged. “Couldn’t really say. There was one file then there were two files. One of them is in that thing now.” Mr. Gein pointed to the BC form in the other room. “The monster shall rise!”
The slap came fast and Mr. Gein barely registered it before the second one landed.
“Hey,” he said sheepishly as he sat back down. “That’s not nice.”
“You are an imbecile, Gein,” Ms. Isely said. “I have no idea what I ever saw in you.” She rounded on the tech. “What is the time frame?”
“If stabilization holds then consciousness should be achieved in an hour,” the tech answered. “Should I continue or abort?”
“Continue,” Ms. Isely scowled.
Twenty-Three
The nightmares gripped him; they tossed his psyche to and fro, bruising it, battering it, leaving it bleeding and whimpering on the cold, bloodstained floor of Outpost Tango Charlie.
Newly inducted Councilman Malachi Norton thought he could handle the assignment he’d been given, but he was wrong. All the power in the world, all the privilege that had been dangled in front of him to betray his fellow outpost team, hadn’t been enough.
Sure, he walked tall and acted like the new leader the outpost needed, but that was daytime. At night, when the lights were out and he was only alone with his thoughts, the faces of Security Chief Andrew Morris and Special Teams Leader Gregory Knobel haunted him. Their silent, accusatory stares unnerved him, leaving him sleep deprived and short tempered in the morning.
But that was war, he told himself. And in war a person did things they couldn’t live with. So they took more lives into the Hell they had fallen into.
“Allegiance?” Norton asked as he walked to the next kneeling person in a long line of terrified outpost personnel. “Choose now.”
The woman, one of the kitchen staff, looked up with puffy, tear swollen eyes and spat. Norton dodged the weak spittle and nodded to a guard. The bullet pierced the back of her head and Norton barely had time to step away from the spray of brain and bone.
“Jesus Christ, Caldwell!” Norton scolded as he wiped a bit of gristle from his left boot. “Let me move first!”
“Sorry, sir,” the guard Caldwell said. “I’ll wait, sir.”
The next in line refused to raise his head and Norton didn’t even bother asking the question; Caldwell waited until Norton was out of the way before putting the man down.
***
“Sir?” a tech asked as Norton entered the command center of Outpost Tango Charlie. “A Mr. Gein is on the com.”
“Put him through,” Norton frowned as he took a seat. “Gein? What do you need?”
“Really?” Mr. Gein laughed. “That’s how you want to play this, traitor?”
“Excuse me?” Norton snapped. “I am not a traitor. I am following the Council’s orders. And doing a fucking good job of it.”
“You turned on your own people there at your outpost,” Mr. Gein pushed. “That’s about as traitorous as it gets.”
“What do you need, Gein?” Norton asked as he scanned some files that had come across his tablet. “I’m busy getting your little war prepped.”
“Don’t even think you can’t be replaced,” Mr. Gein growled. “You aren’t the only dipshit in that frozen shithole that can get what needs to be done done.”
Norton sighed. “Listen you over-important bureaucrat, you couldn’t replace me even if you wanted to! You think I have everything in a data file? You think you can reproduce what I’ve accomplished here? Not a chance in Hell, Gein! I only gave certain parts to certain techs and other parts to other techs. I’m not an idiot, Gein.”
“We won’t debate that point,” Mr. Gein grumbled.
“So what’s the point of this fucking com call?”
“To see if you are on schedule,” Mr. Gein replied. “Are you?”
“If by on schedule you mean ready to fucking deploy some badass metal on the wasteland, then yes.”
“Testing is complete?”
“Complete and beyond expectations. The Shiner AI provided us with all the data needed to create a mech army that can take down Capreze’s band of imbeciles. Cou
pled with the BC tech we will easily secure the wasteland for the Council.”
“For the Three, you mean,” Mr. Gein corrected.
“Right. Whatever.”
“I really don’t like you, Norton,” Mr. Gein stated. “Keep your nose clean. When this is over no one will be above review.”
“I assume that means you also,” Norton laughed. “I’ll talk to you later, Gein. I have actual work to do.”
Norton severed the com call and looked about the command center.
“I want pilots in the hangar in ten minutes,” he ordered. “No more test runs. The mission is go and we had better be ready.”
***
“Every one of you was hand picked!” Norton shouted up at the row of battle mechs. “You have been vetted for your loyalty to the Council first and for your exceptional skills at piloting mechs!”
He paced back and forth in the hangar, his body tiny compared to the two-story mechs lined up in ten rows of five. He paused briefly in front of one of the mechs.
“Pace!”
“Yes, sir!” the mech pilot called down from his cockpit.
“Are you ready and willing to wipe out every living thing in the wasteland? Men, women, children?”
“Yes, sir!”
“You have no hesitation? No remorse for the fact that your mech will be crushing helpless survivors of that hell that lies below us?”
“No, sir! My duty is to the Council! For the glory of our nation and the future of our people!”
“Glory of our nation and future of our people!” all of the pilots shouted in unison.
“Exactly!” Norton replied. “We can’t have mutant DNA pollute the true human gene pool! Those disgusting creatures are not human! When they die do they go peacefully to the afterlife?”
“No, sir!”
“What happens to scum like them?”
“They become monsters, sir!”
“Monsters,” Norton shivered. “Undead, flesh-eating monsters. If allowed to breed, if allowed to mix with our safe genes, they will destroy all of mankind, just like they nearly did hundreds of years ago! Are we going to let that happen?”
“NO, SIR!”
“Then deploy, pilots!” Norton shouted as he walked briskly to the side of the hangar. “The tunnel is open and the wasteland awaits! You have your orders! You have been sent to cleanse with extreme prejudice! Do not disappoint me! Do not disappoint yourselves! Do not disappoint the Council! And do not disappoint your country!”
“FOR THE GLORY OF OUR NATION AND FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE!”
***
“Fucking LaFrance,” Norton snorted. “Never approved my request to widen the tunnel. I fucking hate sending the mechs through single file. Maybe we should have just painted a target on each one.”
“Sensors and advance team do not show any hostiles anywhere within range of the tunnel exit,” a tech reported. “They will be fine, sir.”
“Don’t fucking tell me what will and won’t be fine!” Norton shouted. “Fucking ever! I decide what is fine! Got that?”
“Yes, sir,” the tech replied immediately. “My apologies, sir.”
Norton waved him off and settled in front of the vid array at his workstation. Each mech’s vid feed streamed directly to him. He would be able to watch every single moment of the action.
Destroying the wasteland mutants had been the dream of his family, and many of the families under the Council’s protection. It hadn’t been a popular view and those that strived for that end result had been forced to remain silent except in sympathetic circles. At least until the Council had been populated with like-minded individuals.
The dreams of cleansing the wasteland of the polluted population were in reach and Norton was proud to be at the forefront. He would be there, watching, rejoicing, ready to take credit for his nation’s greatest triumph.
Twenty-Four
The faint luminescence of phosphorescent walls was all Jenny could take in as she waved in and out of consciousness. Her head screamed at her, begging for mercy from the pain that engulfed it. She regretted having tried to fight when they put the hood over her head. Well, not really.
She knew others were with her as she felt them tend to her; lift her up carefully to drink stagnant, mildewed water; clean her as she knew she’d soiled herself; and sit close by, discussing her fate.
Bits and pieces of conversation floated into her mind.
“…ain’t from here…”
“What…slit…her?”
“…on her own…”
“…troubled…fault…”
“Where…am…I?” Jenny whispered and whatever conversation had been going on stopped immediately.
“Dear, you’re in the Maze,” a woman said and Jenny struggled to keep her eyes open and focus on the voice. “But I’m afraid you won’t be here long.”
The world swam about her, but Jenny held her eyes on the woman that crouched next to her. “Where’s the Rookie?”
“She must mean the Mayor’s nephew,” a young girl said. “Last batch of slits said he was here to take his place by his uncle’s side.”
Jenny tried to push herself up, but she didn’t quite have the strength.
“Easy, girl,” the first woman scolded. “You’re lucky to be living. Whoever conked you on the head didn’t hold back. Stupid idiot.”
“Thought they weren’t supposed to-?” a girl asked and the look from the older woman shut her up immediately.
“Why am I here?” Jenny asked, ignoring the woman’s advice, and the subsequent waves of nausea and pain. “What do you mean the Rookie is taking his place? What place?”
Jenny looked about and saw she was in some type of cave; maybe man-made. The rough hewn walls were slick with moisture and glowing lichen. She’d been placed on a thin pallet of torn rags and discarded garbage. It was comfortable enough, but the smell told her she hadn’t been given the deluxe accommodations and had been settled with the unwanted castoffs.
Seven women in all stood close to her, although only the one crouching by her she would have considered an actual woman; six of them were dirt covered teenagers, their chests bare and groins covered in rags that were only slightly cleaner than the ones Jenny lay on.
Jenny was about to ask more questions, but a high-pitched whistle sent the women into action.
“We have to get her up,” the older woman said. “Help me.”
“She’s on her own,” one of the girls said before turning to the low opening leading from the room. “She ain’t no Eden slit. Let her get eaten.”
“Eaten?!” Jenny asked with alarm. “What does that whistle mean?”
“It means we run,” another girl said just before she took her own advice.
Jenny gripped the older woman and forced herself to stand. “I can’t run,” she stated with gut clenching alarm. “I don’t know if I can walk.”
“You’ll have to,” the woman said. “We kept you hidden as long as we could, but staying in one place is how you die in the Maze. I’m going to kick that man’s ass for putting me through this.”
“I still don’t know what’s going on,” Jenny said as she leaned on the woman and limped out of the room.
“You know how to fight the dead?” the woman asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Jenny nodded, her head slightly clearer, but not any less pained.
“Then that’s all you need to know,” the woman said. “I’m Agnatha. I’ll help you as much as I can.” Agnatha gave Jenny a look and she nodded.
“I won’t hold you back,” Jenny promised. “I can fight.”
“Oh, you’ll have to,” Agnatha said as they took a turn into a near pitch-black corridor.
***
Jenny and Agnatha followed several twists and turns, making Jenny even more disoriented than before. She struggled to keep from vomiting, but by the time they’d reached their destination she lost the struggle. Agnatha leaned her against the wall of the large room they entered and let her expel the meager c
ontents of her stomach.
“Get that done now,” Agnatha said as she hurried to a pile of weapons and pulled two rusted, but sharp, short swords. “No time for puking when the dead arrive.”
She offered a short sword and Jenny took it without question. “Thanks.”
“Station eight, seven, fourteen and eleven are cut-off,” a girl said as she ran up to Agnatha. “Runners from all other stations say they’re ready.”
“Ready for what?” Jenny asked as she looked about the large room they were in. At least twenty or more women of various ages, although none quite as old as Agnatha, stood with swords, spears, axes, shields, ropes, pipes, and many other hand held weapons, ready for the attack they all knew was coming. “What the fuck is going on?”
“You’ll see,” Agnatha said, pushing Jenny towards the center of the room. “Just don’t get in the way. One comes at you do your part.”
“My part?”
“Kill the thing,” a girl said, her cheeks crisscrossed with thick, white scars. Her shoulders, upper arms and chest were just as brutalized. “And keep it from killing anyone else. At all cost.”
“At all cost,” everyone echoed quietly.
“Jeezus,” Jenny gasped as she realized she’d woken up to a nightmare. “Who put you here? Who would do this?”
“Put us here?” the scarred girl asked. “This is the Maze. This is where slits go. Get with it.”
Jenny had a million more questions, but the groans, shrieks, moans and grunts coming from the four entrances to the room shoved them all from her mind.
***
The way the room was created –curved walls that lead to a domed ceiling a couple dozen feet high- the sounds of the approaching deaders echoed everywhere, sending a disorienting aural assault down on the circled women.
Jenny tried to get a bead on which way the deaders were coming from, but to her ears they were already on her.
“What is going on?” Jenny cried. “Why the fuck are we stuck here? Why doesn’t someone get us the fuck out of this place?”
