Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus | Books 4-6 | Jessie+Scarlet

by Simpson, David A.

  Airborne ranger gonna take a little trip.

  Mamma, Mamma can’t you see.

  Jody’s got your girl and gone.

  He put some distance between him and his followers and listened for Casey’s final screams. He never heard them, maybe they ripped his throat out first. That would be fitting.

  When he got to the road, he climbed out of the creek bed and saw headlights in the distance coming up fast. He stayed near the bridge so he could hide in case it was Casey’s goons but the trucks pulling up were loaded with Griz and the Indians. The stumbling dead still coming up the road, the slowest of the zeds from the town, were trying to converge on them.

  “Where’s the Chevelle?” Griz asked. “Tommy’s gonna be pissed if you tore up another car.”

  Gunny laughed as he climbed in. He was tired, sweaty, bloody and stained with zombie gore but feeling pretty good.

  “Casualty.” he said. “But this war is over. Casey’s dead or will be a zombie soon. He got bit.”

  “Good.” Lone Elk said. “His army is destroyed. Most have been killed, the rest are scattered and on the run. We sent trucks after them but I doubt if they’ll be able to catch up. If they do, they know what to do. If they don’t, they’ll chase them far enough away they’ll never come back.”

  “I think it’s finally over.” Gunny said, leaning back into the seat. “All of his top leaders are gone. I think most of the survivors were camp followers. They’ll probably keep running back to Mexico. Anybody radio Lakota yet? I’m sure Bastille already has victory music on standby and we need to get the evacuated people back home.”

  “Not yet.” Lone Elk said. “We wanted to wait until we found you, it would be the first thing they asked about.”

  “One problem taken care of.” Griz said, heading back to the cliff top and avoiding the ghastly figures reaching for the truck as he flew by. “Next problem is that cult. After that, our troubles are over. We can lounge about and eat bon-bons all day.”

  “Or drink icy cold tall boys with a line in the water.” Gunny said. “Let’s run by the camp, I want my ’55 back if it’s still there.”

  128

  Jessie + Scarlet

  Jessie idled the old Mercury into a parking garage a few miles from the Anubis headquarters. They had listened to the news on Radio Lakota about the attacks on Tombstone and the Island. The smaller towns and strongholds had evacuated so the conquering armies found nothing but empty houses and open gates. He’d tried to raise his dad on the ham but the last anyone heard, he and Griz had gone to help people at the Island. He knew that wasn’t right and he managed to get a hold of Cobb on one of custom channels.

  “He’s down south.” Cobb rasped, finally telling him plain without all the secrecy and code words. “Him and Griz infiltrated the Raiders camp and they’re trying to take it down from the inside. Last we heard, there was a big battle going on but we haven’t been able to raise them since.”

  Jessie sighed and said nothing, just held the mic in his hand. He saw the strange coincidence, the weird twist of chance that put them in the same situation at the same time. Almost like the hand of fate had intervened. He’d really wanted to talk to his old man, kind of tell him goodbye, maybe. He was walking in to something that would probably get him killed but he didn’t know what else to do. He didn’t have any other options. He thought he was the only one dumb enough to walk into an enemy’s camp but apparently not. The old man had done the same thing.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it.” Cobb said in the uncomfortable silence. “He can take care of himself. You know that. They’re probably just busy.”

  “Right.” Jessie said, bucking up, sounding more like Gunny than Cobb cared to admit. “I’m doing the same thing up at the Anubis headquarters. It’s time to end this. I just wanted to… to…” he broke off and let go of the key. He didn’t know what he wanted. He just wanted to hear the old man’s voice once more, just in case. The last time he fought one on one with an enhanced warrior, he’d had his ass handed to him. He’d only beaten the guy by luck. Now he was walking into their house. He wasn’t feeling real good about his chances but he had no other choice. The idiot doctor at the Tower had only made things worse, Scarlet was covered in black runners now. Doctor Stevens was their last hope. Their only hope.

  “That’s probably not a good idea, Jessie.” Cobb said “Maybe you should wait. We’re winning against them, they just lost a thousand men at Tombstone.”

  “Can’t wait and can’t explain Cobb.” Jessie said and the old man felt a shiver run up his spine. Like a goose had walked over his grave. Like he was talking to a ghost.

  “Tell dad I’ll see him soon.” he said and flipped off the radio.

  Cobb held the mic in his hand for a long moment, half convinced he’d been talking to Gunny. Lacy was still in her office doing busy work like everyone else that knew what was happening down in the reservation, nervously waiting to hear news. He should go tell her about the strange conversation but it would only upset her. Especially if she figured out that he thought both of them were already dead or soon would be.

  Scarlet had been unusually quiet the last part of their trip. They talked about what to expect at the headquarters, about entrances and exits. The only way in was through the tunnels, the building was completely locked down. There weren’t any escape routes, they were so sure of their strength they weren’t prepared for an attack. The Lord of the Underworld didn’t think anyone knew where they were and didn’t have plans to defend against an assault.

  “He sounds like an idiot.” Jessie said, sipping on a warm Mountain Dew as they passed by dancing prairie grass and overgrown corn fields in eastern Minnesota.

  “He didn’t used to be.” she’d said quietly and curled back up to sleep.

  She’d dozed a lot and only fully awoke when they got close and he needed directions to the Anubis headquarters. He’d killed the lights when they were still twenty miles out and drove into the city completely blacked out. She watched him quietly as he geared up and only spoke when spoken to. He asked for her advice when he was trying to decide between a Molle vest that could hold the extra magazines or his Kevlar leathers which he wore like a second skin.

  “If it comes down to guns, you shouldn’t need a lot of ammo.” she said. “There isn’t a central armory, the guards all carry weapons and there are caches of guns and bullets on every floor. You can resupply there.” “We have to get to the labs undetected or we will fail.” she said as she pulled on her jacket. “We have to convince Doctor Stevens not to sound the alarm or we fail. He has to know how to reverse this disease or we fail. We have to kill my father or we fail.”

  Jessie tried to say something funny to lighten the grim mood but couldn’t. They were probably going to their death. Both knew it and neither could stop it. It was okay, though. They would be together. He shrugged into his jacket, let his guns find their place and slipped his backup pistols into their holsters. He stared at her and tried to find words but they both knew the truth. Her more so than him.

  She was morose and it took immense willpower to keep fighting the insidious spread of the black runners. It made her want to curl up and sleep, to surrender to it, to not do anything. To let it run its course so she would stop feeling the cold, creeping tendrils. She was dying and she could feel it worming through her, sense it curling icy fingers into her brain. She was only going through the motions for Jessie’s sake because he still believed. Because nothing she could say would make him turn away from this task. Nothing she could do would make him leave her to the business of killing her father by herself. She knew it was hopeless, though. Doctor Stevens didn’t have a miracle drug waiting for her. There was no cure.

  Even if he could discover one for the slow-moving death, it would be much too late. She didn’t have another week. She didn’t have another day. The spread had reached a critical mass, it had finally infected enough of her that the good blood in her system couldn’t fight back. She had known this day would
come. She’d been around Stevens enough, had watched his experiments enough to believe the infection was irreversible. She’d had hope in the beginning when the penicillin seemed to keep it in check but all it had done was slow the spread. It added a few months to her life and she was grateful for it. She had found love, had spent a wonderful summer with a kind and brave man. She would go through the motions of talking to the Doctor for his sake. But before she got too sick to make a difference, she would end the movement that she had helped start. She would end her father for Jessie’s sake so that the world he was building would have one less threat in it.

  She reached in the car and stroked Nefertiti who had been watching them with glowing eyes in the blackness of the parking garage. She sensed the mood, knew something was wrong. Her and Bob both, who sat impatiently in the driver’s seat eager to get out but was told to sit. The cat didn’t purr as she usually did. Didn’t arch her back, didn’t knead the seats in contentment with her claws.

  “Do you know where cats come from?” she asked Jessie as she stoked her.

  He shook his head and watched her as she said goodbye.

  “Noah had made a pledge to God never to harm any animal. A sacred vow. When the rains came and the ark was on the water, the devil came down and turned himself into a mouse. He went to the bottom of the boat and started chewing a hole. Noah saw this and, in his anger, he threw his glove to kill him. God remembered Noah’s promise and turned the glove into a cat who ate the mouse.”

  She placed her hands on Nefertiti, on either side of her head, and looked into the glowing yellow eyes.

  “To this day, that is why the cat chases the mouse and that is why the cat has little bit of devilment inside of him.”

  Jessie smiled, pocketed the last of their grenades and slid his blades into their sheaths. Scarlet grabbed the Gatorade bottle of trucker speed, chugged half of it down and closed the door. She tucked the rest into her fanny pack riding tight against her back. They both reached through the bars and ruffled Bob’s fur, scratched behind his ears where he liked it.

  “Stay.” Jessie commanded and they slipped into the darkness.

  “Stevens labs are separated from the Casino.” Scarlet said. “He’s set up in the hospital basements. If they have any guards, they won’t be enhanced soldiers.”

  “I vaguely remember that.” Jessie whispered as they ran from shadow to shadow, staying close to the buildings.

  “It’s connected by the utility tunnels so getting into the headquarters will be easy once we get to the hospital.”

  The streets were deserted, the Cult kept them cleared of any undead that wandered in, they didn’t want a horde outside of the headquarters drawing attention. The undead were constantly showing up, sometimes days after a truck had come in. The shambling husks were easy enough to put down and dispose of. The Movement was content to remain inside the buildings, they hadn’t bothered building walls around the city. Any retrievers that happened by would think it’s just another dead town if there were no fortifications. They remained hidden from unwanted attention by not being obvious. Everything they needed was inside, they didn’t have to grow crops or raise animals, the supply trucks brought everything in for them. They had plenty to eat and festive banquets every week. Everyone was happy and content, in no small part thanks to the steady supply of a very special powder sprinkled into all of their food. Doctor Stevens had perfected the synthesized scopolamine, the devil’s breath, and everyone was pleased with their position in life. From the lowliest kitchen help and cleaners to the council members. Some were ambitious and wanted to move up in the hierarchy but it would happen when it happened. No rush. They were in the best place on earth and no one wanted to jeopardize that. The Lord of the Underworld provided.

  The lower level of the hospital was completely boarded up with plywood covering the windows and doors. The two slipped into the parking lot, kept to the shadows and sprinted to the rear of the building. The quietly humming generator covered any noise they made and their speed made them a blur if any guards happened to be posted and happened to be looking in their direction. The mesh door blocking the ladder going up had already been opened, the lock cut off. Zed didn’t climb and those inside weren’t expecting any unwanted company. Jessie went first in case there was anything waiting for them on the roof, but had there been, they would have heard them coming. Halfway up, Scarlet goosed him with her baton, poked his butt and giggled like a school girl at his yelp of surprise. He had to hurry to keep ahead of the probing steel and by the time they reached the roof, he was laughing too as he kept “accidentally” dropping bullets and bouncing them off her forehead.

  Jessie leaped the last six rungs, landed on the roof and got out of her way, snickering at her horrible cursing. She surprised him and sprang off the top rung high into the air and spun half way around so she was stretched out.

  Jessie had to scramble to catch her before she landed back first on the pebble covered roof and grunted as she landed in his arms.

  “Cheater.” he said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.

  They parted after long moments and he stood her back on her feet. The gulps of bitter concoction she’d chugged had given her back the energy and spirit the runners had sapped from her. She stroked the hair out of face and stared up at him.

  “We need to be honest. This may be our last chance to talk.” she said. “Can you handle it?”

  Jessie quelled his first response. His pat answer that everything would work out, everything would be fine. They’d find a cure, eliminate the cult and live happily ever after.

  She waited. Made him say it. Made him face it.

  “Yes.”

  “I can feel it burrowing into me.” she said. “It’s cold and it’s coiled inside my head. It’s like sand in an hourglass. It is slow, sometimes very slow, but it never stops. It has control now, Jessie. It is moving fast. So fast I can feel it.”

  Her eyes flashed up at him in the waning moonlight. One still a glowing emerald green, the other darker and dull.

  “I do not think Stevens can help. I think it is too late. If this is true, I do not want to walk the earth forever. I do not want to be one of them.”

  Jessie swallowed, knew what she was asking. Knew it would be a lie to tell her everything would be all right. Knew he couldn’t promise a happy outcome. Knew they had to try anyway.

  “You won’t.” he said.

  She was an open book, her face raw and unafraid as she searched his eyes, looking for the truth. Looking for the promise.

  “I believe you.” she finally said, touched his scar gently then turned toward the roof access door.

  “Come.” she added lightly. “We have empires to destroy and people to kill.”

  129

  Doctor Stevens

  The Twenty Third Psalm kept dancing through Jessies head as they descended the pitch-black stairs. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

  He did fear the evil, though. The evil worming it’s way through her, eating away at her and destroying who she is. Turning her into something she’s not. Their enhanced eyes saw easily in the darkness and they followed the stairs to the lowest level, two stories below ground and saw light peeking under the door.

  Scarlet led the way out into the corridor and they followed it to the sounds of activity half a building away. A single guard sat in the hallway outside of the labs in a chair with his chin resting on his chest. His rifle leaned against the wall and he was gently snoring. An ordinary man could be reasoned with, maybe knocked unconscious or tied up. The movement’s people weren’t ordinary. They were dosed and drugged. Blinded and brainwashed. They would eagerly lay down their lives for the Lord of the Underworld. For the paradise he promised in the next life for the warriors who lost their lives in his service. Scarlet and Jessie had to be as hard as they were and he didn’t hesitate. When they reached the bearded man, he twisted his head with quick jerk. The neck snapped and h
e let out a quiet surprised sound and that was all. He went from living to dying without ever waking up. Jessie rested his chin back on his chest and they slipped through the door.

  Doctor Stevens looked up in surprise when he saw them enter his lab. He had almost nodded off waiting on the latest batch of devil’s breath as it was dehydrated and pulverized to dust. He sprang to his feet but Jessie was on him in a blur of motion and had him against a wall. Scarlet walked up and his eyes got big when he recognized her. When he saw the black runners twisting away from her scarred cheek, climbing up her neck and disappearing into her hairline.

  “Scarlet.” he asked, intrigued by the patterns. “What has happened?”

  He didn’t fight them, seemed genuinely concerned and didn’t ask about his guard. Jessie relaxed his grip around the man’s neck. He hurried over and turned her head to the light to get a better look at the darkness invading her skin. There were cages with zombies in them but they hadn’t reacted to the humans bustling in. They stood motionless with electrodes sticking out of their heads. Jessie stared at them then poked one and it didn’t move. He closed the curtains so he wouldn’t have to look at them then moved to guard the door while Doctor Stevens gingerly touched her face, asked if it hurt.