It wasn't an easy choice.
Chapter 27
***
Nestor had been walking for three days since the night in the abandoned Victorian house and hadn't seen a soul or heard a bird sing or a dog howl. He had learned quickly not to search much - what was left was horrific.
He carried the gym bag he'd mysteriously found. He kept the pistol in his belt with the safety on. He didn't know if anyone had survived or if he was alone. He didn't know if he would walk for the rest of his days without a word said or an eye alive enough to see him, or if tomorrow he would find a world full of survivors as sick and hurting as himself. He didn't know what he hoped for.
Nestor walked.
He thought it was a Thursday when he came to a traffic light that still stood. It no longer worked, nothing did. He walked into the middle of the intersection, ignoring the roasted corpses in the surrounding remnants of exploded cars. He sat cross-legged in the center of it all and ate a can of peaches he had scavenged from a grocery store. He drank a can of Coke.
As he finished the warm, syrupy drink he noticed that across the intersection were signs of life. Pillaged houses. Ravaged stores. He left his trash in the middle of the intersection and walked up to one of the buildings. The windows were broken, the shelves empty. He spat on the ground and gave his attention to the floor of the doorway.
Footprints still new in the dirt. Blood fresh on the ground.
He looked across the road with blank eyes and listened for the sound of anything except wind, but found nothing but the same silence that he'd been living with for days. He walked deeper into the town and everywhere he looked he saw more tracks and signs. And though all the signs he found were of behavior abhorrent in humans, it was humans.
Humans. He smiled and then he pulled out his gun, clicked off the safety and put a bullet into the chamber.
Chapter 28
***
October walked down the path that lead from the Presidential Mansion as Miho listed off incoming reports beside him. The lawn was perfectly manicured, but the grass was a bit longer than October cared for.
"There were some oversights it appears. A big concern is that even though the Neutron Missiles design makes it only kill people and not destroy things, they do cause fires and unchecked we could lose entire cities. Chicago is burning and…"
"Who takes care of the grounds?" October interrupted.
"What?"
"Who cuts the grass?"
"Soldiers, sir. The military, they have taken over all service detail on The Island."
"Are they happy with that?"
This last question actually raised Miho's eyes from her tablet. She looked momentarily into the sky, squinting as if reading some message up above.
"Happy? I don't know. We haven't polled them. Only the Founders knew what exactly was to befall the rest of humanity. I would think they're angry. I would think they're sad. I would think they're glad not to be dead, which would be the other option."
"Hmm. Well, I'm not happy with the grass, Miho. Have them take the time to do it right or take away that option."
"So you're saying kill the soldiers if they don't cut the grass right?"
"Yes. But, don't actually do it without double-checking. I might just be hungry."
Miho went back to her tablet. Off a ways, but still in sight, Flores stared on impassively.
"My uncle and the rest of the Founders?"
"All here. All well. You're scheduled to brief them at a cabinet meeting later in the week. The drones are returning as we speak, we should have all of our data very soon. Sir, about the others, the Islanders who only now have come to realize what has happened, they don't know much, but there are rumors that it would be best to… curtail."
"And Nestor? Jacob?"
"What about them, Mr. President?"
"Are they alive?"
"Anyone who isn't dead on the mainland is dying. Forget about them. No one on the mainland is important. They're your past. Your future is ahead of you. The dangers that come from now on will be here, on The Island."
October moved close to Miho. He put his hand on the screen of her tablet and when her eyes were locked on his, he leaned in and hissed, "Answer my question, Ms. Walker. Are they alive?"
She stared at him, her anger just barely detectable.
"Nestor is. We have no reason to assume Jacob isn't. It would be foolish though, to think they were a greater threat than…"
"They want me dead!"
"They aren't unique in that, sir," she snapped as she pulled the tablet back from under his touch.
October clenched his fists. He awaited fear in the small woman's eyes, but found none. He had never hit a woman before and he hesitated, unsure of the violence that has arisen within him. During that hesitation is when he noticed that Flores was standing to the side of him, still impassive, but impossibly big and imposing.
"What the hell are you looking at, you giant idiot?! How did I ever allow this, Miho?! How do you know this isn't one of Jacob's Shadow Warriors?!" October said pointing an accusing finger into the big man's face.
Flores smiled. It was terrifying.
"Because, Mr. President, you aren't dead," Flores shrugged.
October drew back his hand, but a small yet firm grip held it back. He looked in surprise at the strength of Miho's small frame.
"I apologize, Mr. President, Agent Flores shouldn't have said that. But, then again, you shouldn't have questioned the loyalty of one of this country's greatest warriors. A man who saved your life, not for the first time, only a week ago. A man who put himself in the path of Nestor Bravo, knowingly, on your behalf. Remember, Mr. President, Flores keeps me safe, so that I can focus on keeping you safe."
October lowered his arm and looked back and forth between the tiny woman and giant man and wondered which was more dangerous. Then he nodded slowly and said, "Yes. Yes, very well. You're right of course. I apologize, I… yes. I am sorry, Agent Flores."
Flores nodded curtly, but did not move away.
"How do you know Nestor is alive?" October grunted.
"His feed, sir. We can still watch his feed - and he's going to be dead very soon, sir," Miho said as her fingers played across the screen.
"Of what?"
"Well…" Miho fidgeted, glancing over to Flores who only shrugged.
"What? What is it, Miho?"
"It's another problem. You and the Founders will have to… we don't know what it is, but, there seems to be a problem on the mainland. There is a sickness. It seems to be occurring across the country in survivors."
"And Nestor has it?"
"No. But the people who are hunting him do."
Chapter 29
***
Arian and the Indians sat around the living room drinking October Carnegie's expensive liquor. Arian alone fiddled with a laptop. They kept quiet and were all clearly trying to avoid glancing out the windows at the wreckage in the distance.
"Well, the good doctor found his motivation I'm glad to say," Jacob said as he sat down among them. "What do we know, Arian?"
"Nothing really. A few last communications from before the EMPC blasts. We had success getting some of the population into bunkers and underground cities. How many is hard to say. How many of us made it is harder to say. Beyond that… the Islanders went out of their way to knock out all communications. No more phones, no more web, no more TV."
"You have to be wrong, Arian. I know October. I know the government. There's no way they're just sitting on The Island blind."
"No, of course not. They have drones and a satellite feed that is so heavily encrypted that with what I have here, it could take years to figure it out. You see, what they did was pull everyone, every specialist, every CIA hacker, NSA technician, pulled them off everything else and put them to work encrypting this one government satellite channel that carries all of the feeds. Drone feeds, satellite feeds, even Nestor's feed, all on one super big, super encrypted beam. A super feed. The Fe
ed. It wasn't like they needed to be doing anything else, what with the Apocalypse around the corner, so they must have figured they'd just go with one channel and make it impenetrable. We may never get in. I've never seen anything like it."
"They always say that, Arian. That's why people like me and you are so amazing. It's why they call us things like "genius" and "prodigy". People like us do the impossible easily."
"You may need to find another prodigy on this one, Jacob."
"Well… that's not good," Jacob laughed. "I don't suppose that telling you that I believe in you would help at all?"
"No, not even a little, Jacob. Look, there's something else. I… I seem to be having trouble typing. My fingers are very stiff."
"Yes, I know."
"And our teeth are longer," one of the Indians added.
"I understand."
"And we're hungry. But, food doesn't seem to... it's not what I'm hungry for," Arian said.
Jacob nodded and walked to the wall of windows and looked down on the city. Jacob was the one who had smuggled The Shot to his Shadow Army. He had underestimated the cruelty of October and the Founders and now something was happening - what had they done to him and his men? To everyone? He scratched at the glass absentmindedly with one of his claw-like nails, leaving a permanent cut in the window.
"I know. We're changing. We should be dying, maybe we are dying, but we're changing. We'll wait another week, by then the rest of the boys should be arriving or will have sent word or… not. Once they're here we'll go out and figure this all out. Have faith boys, we just survived the end of the world, stiff fingers and pointy teeth should be a piece of cake," Jacob said with a confident tone, but in the back of his mind there was something else.
There was a hunger and it was growing.
Chapter 30
***
The street was in a suburb that was relatively intact, the lawns only beginning to brown with the lack of water and sunlight.
"You're Nestor Bravo."
Nestor turned and looked at the man who was walking down the pathway of concrete that led from his doorway to the street.
"You're dead, Nestor Bravo. You walked into the nuclear winter weeks ago. You died."
"Okay," Nestor shrugged, resisting the urge to draw his gun. The man stopped not ten feet away and stared at Nestor. The man's skin was red and peeling.
"I’m a monster, Nestor."
"Okay."
"We all are."
The man stared at Nestor, his eyes pink. He smiled. His canines were long and red.
"I killed the family next door. All of them. The children. The wife. I did it with my teeth. Then I ate them."
Nestor looked around the street, but saw that he and this man were alone. Again his mind raced over to the presence of the gun, but the man seemed too sick to be a threat of any kind.
"They made me not human. I cannot eat or sleep. I cannot feel pain," he held up arms fresh with razor cuts. "All I want is not to be hungry. My wife…"
Nestor stepped back, his hand reaching for the pistol in the back of his pants.
"What is wrong with you?"
“You don’t understand... the hunger.”
The man moved closer as Nestor took aim.
“Understanding you isn’t a pre-requisite for killing you. Stop moving.”
The man charged at Nestor. After his first step Nestor shot the man in the head. It took three shots, but the third went through the man's eye and finally he fell dead.
Nestor had no answer. He stood in the middle of the barren street, empty houses stretching to the horizons like skeletons of a dead world. Ash rained down on them like snow. In each breath he felt the ungodly warmth that had permeated the atmosphere under the blanket of dirty brown clouds. No bird called. No sirens rang. There wasn't the sound of a car engine or plane above. No laughter of children or sprinklers beating a rhythm into the dead suburb.
The man's blood began to pool and spread around his head like a gory halo.
Nestor walked down the middle of the road, his gun in his hand and didn't look back.
Chapter 31
***
"Caleb, what are you doing?!"
"Good morning, Nicolette," he said with his eyes focused on the glowing warmth of his computer screen.
"That computer could explode at any moment!"
"Well… yes. But, I just survived a nuclear holocaust, excuse me for feeling lucky."
Nicolette stared at him. He sighed, turned off the computer and turned to face her.
"This is real isn't it, Caleb? They blew it all up."
"They did," he nodded.
"How can this have happened? How can this have happened to me?"
"You were lucky."
"How am I lucky?! They blew up the whole city! The whole world!" she said throwing a pillow across the tiny room.
"But you were in here. You survived. You were lucky."
"This isn't lucky, Caleb, this is a disaster! Oh God, I can't handle this."
Caleb shrugged and drummed his fingers on the lead box, having placed the battery back inside.
"You know who I blame? The nerds," Caleb said as he moved towards the bed. "Which includes me, mind you. We made it fun. For decades now we've been lining up to watch movies about the Apocalypse. Buying videogames based on a post-nuclear holocaust world. Once you do that, you make something a game, a sort of laughable future - but a reality that you've truly considered… well. Once you've allowed the unthinkable to be thought, you've opened a very dangerous door."
He moved in to kiss her, but she pulled away.
"Oh, God."
"What?" he asked watching her move to the far edge of the bed.
"I just realized who I'm sharing a room with."
"Who?"
"An idiot. Caleb, you're an idiot. How did I let this happen? And why are you smiling?"
"In a strange world, the familiar is like a warm hug."
"This is familiar?"
"Oh yeah, I've had this conversation so many times. Not the end of the world thing, the idiot part."
"How does it usually end?"
"Badly, but, I'm feeling lucky."
Nicolette stood up and moved towards the door.
"I… I need to walk. I'm going to go for a walk."
Caleb watched Nicolette walk out the door and then walked over to the desk and opened up the lead box. He pulled out the battery inserted it into his laptop and hit the power button. He stared at the screen for a long time before he started to smile.
Chapter 32
***
"Miho, it's okay, you can let him in," October sighed.
"Are you sure, sir, I'll happily tell him he has to wait, like the rest of the Founders, till the meeting this week."
"He's not a man accustomed to waiting, Miho. He doesn't know how to leave or be dismissed. It's just easier to let him in, trust me. How do I look?"
"Fine, sir. Presidential."
Sage Carnegie, the oldest member of the Carnegie clan found his way into the room and sat down across from October. Like his nephew, Sage was a large man, though even in his old age he had a strength and virility that October had never been able to achieve.
"Hello, Uncle."
"You look well," the old man tapped his finger against his knee to some unknown rhythm and smiled. "How are things, Nephew?"
"I don't know."
"You. Don't. Know."
"No one does. We're waiting. These things take time. You need to get used to that. When we destroyed the infrastructure out there, it made it slower for us. We have drones and spies… but, it's slower now. We don't have thousands of number crunchers sitting around the Pentagon anymore do we?"
"No, I suppose we don't. I hear things though, am I to believe they are all rumors? Or am I to believe that you are simply out of the loop?"
"What have you heard?"
"Things, Nephew. Dark and foreboding things. I hear stories of Jacob Rothschild and Nestor Bravo. Strange thing
s about monsters that roam what was once our fair country. And survivors - I hear talk of a great number of survivors."
October shrugged.
"What can I say? Jacob wasn't dead after all. He meddled. We had to accelerate things. Inoculations were stopped prematurely. There seems to be some indication that Jacob and his Shadow Army blew up planes and led people to bunkers. And as if that's not enough, he called Nestor Bravo back from the dead like some sort of annoying black magic incantation!"
"Calm down, boy, it seems to me that though Jacob started a lot of things, you were quite helpful to his cause, what with your killing people on TV and telling people our secrets while they happily ate microwave macaroni! My concern is that the Founders will blame you."
"But it was Jacob! Jacob Rothschild!"
"Yes, yes, yes. Aggravating man. I knew his father, of course. Fine man, knew his place. Jacob, even as a boy, had a rebellious streak in him. A rebel with a brain, a very rare and dangerous thing. As for Nestor Bravo, there have always been men like him. Once upon a time they ruled you know? The man who was the deadliest with a blade was the king. Fortunately, we have evolved, even if Nestor Bravo hasn't. So then, the last part, tell me about these foul mutants that are haunting the dreams of our fair Islanders."
October sighed and turned to the window behind him and looked down on the soldiers mowing the grass.
"Do you believe in monsters, Uncle?"
"Yes I do. I prefer for them to work for me."
Chapter 33
***
They came into the city like a curling mist.
They arrived, always at night, so that Jacob would wake up and find more and more of his Shadow Army picking uninterestedly at breakfast. Their stories were all the same. Death and tragedy and hunger.
Monsters of the Apocalypse Page 8
