Dead Man Running

by Davis, Barry

  Elenoa, with tiny Ashmita in her arms, ran into the bathroom. There, she was greeted by another puddle of rainwater, this one smaller than its cousin from the main room. Like a snake, the puddle whipped out and struck Ashmita, golden water drenching the tiny child from head to toe.

  Elenoa shrieked as tiny bugs crawled over her child's body. She frantically brushed them off but could not stop them all. Elenoa watched in horror as the bugs, or whatever they were, crawled under her child's skin, all seemingly headed for the child's head. She ignored the same creatures now transiting her own body.

  In seconds her child convulsed violently, her gyrating body difficult for Elenoa to hold.

  In minutes little Ashmita stopped moving, her eyes frozen in death.

  Elenoa hugged her child to her breast and let out a wail that would have been heard across the island, if there was anyone left alive to hear anything.

  The sound had not died away when Elenoa felt a pinch in her skull. She gently placed her baby in the bathtub, out of harm's way. In seconds, her body was convulsing as she had seen her neighbors.

  A half hour later, zombie Elenoa lifted her undead child out of the tub and the two continued their day as if nothing at all had happened.

  Thousands of miles above Levuka, Mira Hidar rode in the C-130 transport. She sat with the others and heard the eyewitness accounts of the successful deployment of the zombie atomic bomb.

  She was among them but apart nonetheless. She was human, a sheep among wolves, and could not pretend to be happy, excited or proud of their accomplishment.

  She was none of those things despite the fact that most of the 'credit' for the events on the island below fell upon her slender shoulders. She was ashamed that she had given such a frightening weapon to a madman. This, on top of the greater shame: ultimately the Hidar's were responsible for the madman's existence in the first place. It was a selfish act, creating Ben Wiley. It would take a selfless act to destroy him, one neither she nor her grandfather had been able to perform thus far. It was a bitter irony – two people capable of conjuring wonders – incapable of that most basic act, ending one's own life.

  Tonight Elias Turnbull would come to her. She would be ready. Either she would die or she would take the first step toward ending this abomination. At the very least her death would stop hundreds of these creatures, the ones she directly created. The problem was Wiley was converting thousands of humans a day.

  He would make up the losses in a matter of hours.

  Either way, continued life or death, she greatly anticipated reaching the end result.

  "Excellent, Elias," Wiley nearly shouted into the phone. The loudmouth former Speaker from California was far exceeding her time introducing the now official Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States.

  Wiley stood with his wife Jan, who was dressed in a stylish aqua green dress, awaiting their cue to go on stage and formally accept the nomination.

  Wiley, already puffed up by the nomination, was ebullient from the news of the successful trial. The further news that the nanobots relentlessly pursued all humans, heightened his feelings of success.

  As the atomic bomb was deployed over heavy population centers in China, India and Russia, he was confident that his 'bots would stop at nothing to infect one hundred percent of the human population.

  Finally, the woman from San Francisco was done running her ugly mouth. The producer of the 'show' prompted Jan and Ben to enter from stage left.

  Wiley accepted a peck on the cheek from the hideous, ancient, still human creature then blessedly she was gone.

  He and his bride stood alone on stage and basked in the thunderous applause.

  He snuck looks at his wife, as he had all night. She was still so beautiful to him. He did feel something for her. Was it love? Could a zombie love anyone? Perhaps the humanizing spells he had undergone affected more than the physical, they affected his heart as well, kindled his emotions?

  He decided then not to kill her after the birth of his child. If successful he would keep her around to make more babies as he enjoyed the sex act with her more than with the hundreds of other human women he had violated over the last year.

  After several minutes, Wiley finally gestured for quiet and the crowd reluctantly obeyed.

  He strode to the podium, his hand gently cradling that of his pregnant bride. "Before I begin my remarks, I want to acknowledge my soul mate, this wonderful life partner of mine." He looked Jan in the eyes. Jan responded with her well practiced look of wonder, lust, and amazement.

  "If it was not for her, I would not be here. She literally brought me back from the dead." The audience roared its approval. "And I just want to say, in front of the world, that I love you Jan Sugerfoot Wiley, and I am so happy to take this journey with you." With that, he kissed her long and hard, to wild applause from the audience.

  Wiley led the applause as Jan demurely sashayed off the stage.

  Finally, he began his acceptance speech. Afterward, some would say that they were at the event but, somehow, could not remember what the man spoke about.

  What they did remember was 'The Kiss', captured on the front of most newspapers, shown on someone's news broadcast continuously for twenty-four hours straight, tweeted about endlessly and posted on most websites, regardless of the site's raison d'être.

  This bit of stagecraft put to rest the 'otherness' or 'alien-ness' of Benjamin Wiley. Now here was a red blooded American man madly in love with his woman.

  Would an alien or zombie kiss like that?

  Of course one could, but most Americans were still ignorant of that fact.

  As it was, they blissfully accepted Ben Wiley as one of their own and opened their hearts and minds to the man.

  THIRTY-TWO

  SUVA FIJI – AUGUST 2012

  There was a knock on Mira Hidar's hotel room door. She was on the island of Suva, home of Fiji's capital city, staying in the Tanoa Tower Hotel.

  She answered the door and Elias Turnbull stood there, huge bouquet of island flowers in hand. She ignored the flowers. "Come in," she said.

  They sat in the spacious suite's living room, facing each other in matching chairs decorated with outlandish 'animals and flowers on drugs' prints.

  "I thought you would attempt to run," he said with a smile.

  "Run where? I'm sure your boss' people are watching the airport and every dock and pier on this island."

  "Of course they are. So, what is it?"

  "Pardon."

  "What do you have up your magician's sleeves? Are you going to transform me into a rabbit or a frog, perhaps?"

  "You know that transmorphic magic does not work on the dead."

  His smile broadened. "Another advantage to being a zombie," he said.

  He looked her over, smile plastered on his face. She was facing the sliding glass doors that led to her balcony. Her attention was on the outside – the tropical paradise, the south Pacific's warm and very deep, blue waters.

  "Not thinking of jumping, are you?"

  "Can we just get on with it?"

  "Well, you are the naughty one."

  She finally shifted her eyes onto his. "What do you plan to do to me?"

  "Well, I thought I would start with a little sexual assault, and then perhaps we could segue from that to just plain assault. Afterwards, I would share your corpse with your fellow bomb builders."

  "I don't want Rothmans touching my body. I want you to eat me – my entire body, I mean."

  Elias' smile blinked out, returned, like a faulty light bulb in a very dark hallway.

  "You want to be part of me - part of the body of your long gone boyfriend. I guess this means that you really loved him?"

  "I did. I never told him. At least, somehow, I can be part of him."

  "But, I'm not really him, darling. I'm just wearing his skin but I'm something else entirely."

  "I understand that but you must give me my delusions. I am about to die, you know."

  "I
know. Care to get started. How difficult will you make this? The more difficult the better, I say." He stood.

  Mira got to her feet. She went to the sliding doors and pulled the curtain taunt across the opening. She stood in front of Elias. "Don't hurt me until the end," she said. She grabbed her dress at the hem and yanked it over her head. She was naked underneath.

  He stepped closer and kissed her roughly. "I won't hurt you…not too much," he said and he easily scooped her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom.

  He was her Elias, without the caring, gentleness and love. What he had was power, fierce desire for her body and incredible stamina.

  After several hours of his attentions, she was sore all over and bone tired. Finally, his desire and energy seemed to wane. This was when the normal man would fall into a deep state of sleep. This creature, this thing with the lifeless eyes and Viagra on steroids like erection, merely watched her as she attempted to catch her breath.

  Her only hope, she knew, was that perhaps she had sapped its energy to the point where the reversal bomb could work.

  "I have to pee," she whispered.

  He smiled. "No tricks, now. I'll be counting the seconds until you return."

  She got out of the bed naked and her bare feet were comforted by the thick carpet. She made it to the bathroom and closed the door. She really did have to urinate and took care of that task before moving on to more critical matters.

  She nearly jumped off the toilet when Elias knocked on the door. She remained seated when he leaned his head into the room. "I decided that I don't trust you. A machete could do some damage to my handsome face." He entered the room, stopping to preen in front of the mirror as he walked past.

  "Excuse me," he said as he reached behind her head and removed the toilet cover. He looked inside only to find the typical inner workings of a toilet, no weapon or potions.

  "I will leave you alone then. Enjoy your human bodily functions."

  "Thanks," she said and he finally left the room, closing the door tightly.

  Mira wiped herself and stood. She placed her feet on the edge of the old fashioned loin's paw tub and stretched until she reached the recessed light bulb above. She unscrewed the light bulb and reached inside to pull out the light's pot, which she had loosened earlier. In the vacated space were two globes. She pulled the objects out. She didn't bother to reinstall the light. That, she could do later, if she was still alive.

  She stepped out of the bathroom and he was waiting for her. They stood ten feet apart, both naked as jaybirds, each holding globes in their hands.

  Elias roared with laughter. "You know, you're a bit too late for that, my darling. I'm already one of the tribe." He laughed again.

  "I thought you were going to kill me?"

  "I spoke to Ben – he approved your conversion but he left the decision to me. I secreted this globe in with the flowers. I didn't know what I would do but after tonight, I just couldn't see wasting such fine flesh."

  "I thought maybe you changed your mind because, deep inside, you love me."

  The monster laughed again. "I love screwing you, darling, that is about it."

  "I don't believe that and this will get back the man I love." She, then he, dropped their globes. As designed, one of her globes deployed, the second sat in abeyance. To Elias' amusement, the nanobots covered his naked body. His smile disappeared as awareness struck his brain. "The reversal bomb," he whispered.

  He retained his presence of mind to stop her as she attempted to run back to the bathroom to escape the bomb intended for her. It deployed and, held fast by his strong hands, the bomb struck her with dozens of darts. She remained on her feet as first Elias' hands fell away, then the creature toppled over and began wild convulsions.

  She smiled - the last thing she remembered as she herself fell and everything went black.

  The poison did its intended work, and ended her life.

  She woke. There was light streaming into the room. She sat up on the carpeted floor and looked around. Elias was no longer in the room. She took a deep breath and his smell came into her nostrils. He was near.

  Deep sexual desire filled her and she sensed an unnatural strength in her body. She stood, stretched. She felt good – as if the cares of the world had been lifted off her shoulders. She was one of them – the undead – and it felt wonderful.

  Suddenly there was a snicking sound from behind her. The second reversal bomb! Before she could act the bomb exploded, raining dozens of tiny robots onto her body. She tried to block them but it was no good.

  She immediately felt woozy and she took an involuntary seat on the carpet.

  She sensed a presence and looked up to see Elias' smiling face. He crouched down next to her. He was changed, not one of the undead anymore. She felt profound disappointment. "I love you," he said and then everything went back to blackness.

  She next found herself in bed. There was the smell of breakfast coming from the living room. She found her robe lying on the edge of the bed and she put it on.

  Elias, seated on the balcony with breakfast laid out on the glass table, stood and came toward her.

  "We're both okay," she said, unsure.

  "We're no longer monsters," he said.

  "Why do I miss it?" she asked.

  Elias shrugged, placed his arm around her waist. "It's like a drug. I think we'll always miss it."

  She looked into his face – strong, kind, and full of love and hope. "I love you," she said. She stood on her tip toes and placed her lips on his.

  She caressed his face. "We still look like them."

  "Yes, and we do have some residual strength. I've been testing myself as you slept."

  "Testing?"

  "I've been bench pressing the couch," he said with a smile.

  She kissed him again. "Come to bed," she said.

  "We need to talk about our next steps," he said.

  She took his hand in hers. "Later," she replied. "Right now I want to be with you and let everything else be damned."

  This time, he kissed her lovingly, his hands gently undoing her robe. "Did I say I love you," he said as he kissed her again.

  "I think you talk too much," she replied with a smile and led him back into the bedroom.

  That evening the pair strolled barefoot on cooling sands under a pale moon.

  "How did you convince Wiley to convert me?" She shifted her eyes from his, down to her free right hand, then back again. She was alive. Amazing. "He knows my magic died with me, right? What use could I be to him?"

  "I'm like a son to him. He was giving me a toy, a plaything. Besides, I argued that there is a role for you. Magic or not, you have created a unique chemical mixture, the potion that re-animates the dead via the nanobots. He is setting up dozens of factories across the globe. You need to verify the mass produced mix at all the locations and adjust accordingly. Your conversion guaranteed your loyalty."

  "His army of scientists couldn't handle that?"

  Elias shrugged. "Perhaps, but you are the expert, better able to improvise if there are contingencies."

  She stopped walking, faced him. "Have there been any contingencies?"

  He nodded. "In Mississippi hundreds were killed - some subjects failed to reanimate or reanimated less than fully formed."

  "What do you mean 'less than fully formed'?"

  "They were zombies but the 'Dawn of the Dead' variety, all slobbering and looking to eat brains. They killed dozens of Wiley's people before being destroyed."

  "Why did it happen?"

  "Mississippi is the state with the highest percentage of obesity. The people were simply too large to reanimate given your current formula."

  "So Wiley really needs me?"

  "I convinced him that he did. Mississippi didn't bother him - he was willing to literally eat the losses." He smiled.

  "You convinced him otherwise?"

  Elias nodded. "I told him to multiply Mississippi by thousands of other places. Obesity is an epidemi
c in the Western world. Wiley likes order and the conversion of humanity would be untidy."

  Mira nodded.

  Elias smiled. "I have no idea why zombie me would go to so much trouble to save you. No offense but he had the choice of millions of human women."

  "Because you loved me, even as a zombie."

  "How was that possible? Zombies don't feel love or any emotions."

  "You did. When you visited me in Philly I placed a spell on you. I didn't know if it would work but apparently it did. I gambled that Wiley had been treating you with the same humanizing mojo he was taking."

  "He was."

  "My spells don't work on the undead but by making you more human, you were vulnerable."

  "The spell gave zombie me emotions?"

  "It allowed you to feel the emotions of your host, bring them to the surface."

  The pair walked on, letting the water from the rising tide flow over their feet.

  "We can't be together like this again," Elias said as he squeezed her hand.

  "I know," she replied. "There's less than two months to the election and I know Wiley will have you as his right hand man. I'll be all over making sure his factories are creating effective atomic bombs."

  "You need to get with Manchester as soon as you safely can. Obviously I can't meet with him or talk to him by phone. Once I'm back with Wiley I'll be in a totally monitored state."

  "I understand. I told you what he and I discussed."

  Elias sat on the warm sands and pulled Mira down next to him. He placed an arm around her shoulder.

  "It's a good plan – you go after Hamid while Manchester kills Wiley's child. Given your new status, you will have a very high security clearance."

  "Yes, it allows an easier path to get to Hamid."

  Elias looked in her eyes. "Can you do it? Kill him."

  Mira nodded once, twice. "It is the only sure way to stop Wiley."

  Elias nodded, squeezed her hand. "I could get you a pass signed by Wiley. The zombie security will no longer see you as a threat. You could convert key individuals inside – communications, surveillance – smoothing your path to Hamid."