Monsters of the Apocalypse

by Rawlins, Jordan

  "Me."

  Nestor stopped and pulled the handgun from the back of his pants. He held it loosely at his side, finger on the trigger.

  "That man saved my life, Caleb."

  "Mine too. He was infected. He ended up infected, a casualty of Jacob's plan. He wouldn't get take the cure. God's Will, he said. He didn't want to be a mutant, so, he came for me."

  "Came for you?"

  "Suicide is a sin. Couldn't just ask me to do it, cuz it's the same. So he came to me and we talked. Told me he was infected and needed to leave the city. So we left. We had some fun for a while, as we waited for it to take hold, as much fun as you can have with a guy like him. One day, he got the hunger, we were out there in the sprawl and he came for me. I did it quickly," Caleb smiled wanly and dug the toe of his shoe into the ground. "He didn't suffer. He didn't beg or cry. It was less than he deserved, but it was the best I could manage. His legacy is here. Here where his family runs the gates and polices the city. Here where his family protects me and all these people and reminds us of the best humanity has to offer, just like he did. I didn't like to do it, but a man pays his debts."

  Nestor put the gun back into the belt of his pants and they moved forward toward the docks.

  Chapter 109

  ***

  The Shadow Army Indians loomed in the torchlight of the docks, huge and still like ancient statues. The crowd stopped a good distance back from the Indians, and waited, in a large silent arch as Nestor, Caleb and the wolf continued forward.

  "What are you doing here, Caleb? Didn't we make it clear what would happen…" the Indian stopped mid-step, mid-sentence and looked at Nestor. "You're alive."

  "Yes, I am. I need to see Jacob. I need that boat."

  "That's the President's boat. No one uses it without his approval."

  "And if I just go ahead and take it?" Nestor asked.

  "You'll have to kill us to get to it."

  "That's not a problem."

  "Then you'll have to steer it through mine filled water, that only we know the path through, without a drone blowing you out of the water."

  "Well then, I guess I'll just kill all of you for standing in my way and then deal with the boat later."

  The Shadow Army Indians raised their guns as the wolf growled, raising its hackles. Caleb, holding his pistol, barrel down, glanced over at Nestor who stood smiling with his hands empty at his sides.

  "Do you have a plan here, Nestor? Cuz, I don't really feel like dying without a plan."

  "And if my plan involves using you as a human shield?" Nestor said.

  "Well at least it's a plan," Caleb shrugged.

  "Lower Your Guns!"

  The voice cut through the crowd like a physical thing, a pathway forming from the back of the crowd to the docks where the Shadow Army Indians lowered their guns and stood at attention. Nestor and Caleb both turned and watched as the woman, and her huge bodyguard, moved through the crowd towards them as her voice continued, no longer a shout, but still ringing and clear.

  "Caleb Nevers, the famous hacker and exile, a most unexpected pleasure. Nestor Bravo, your presence brings warmth to my heart. Welcome to Los Angeles. I am Vice President Miho Walker and it would be my greatest pleasure to have you as a guest on my boat."

  Caleb had cringed at the sound of his last name and occupation, but when the woman had finished her speech and he turned, awaiting impact, he found Nestor in a condition that it took him a moment to realize was shock - absolute and paralyzing shock. Miho continued her walk, Flores in toe, until she was an arm's length from the unblinking, open-mouthed figure of Nestor Bravo. She held his gaze, but her words were for those who stood around them.

  "Mr. Nevers, you may wait here, under my protection. If you should choose to leave, I can guarantee that you will be unmolested. If you choose to wait, I can't guarantee that what returns on the boat won't be an order for your death, the choice is yours. Come, Mr. Bravo, I would guess President Rothschild is most eager to see you."

  Chapter 110

  ***

  "Agent Flores, will you excuse us?"

  The big man moved away, leaving Nestor and Miho alone, but for the wolf, at the prow of the boat.

  "Hello Nestor, it is good to see you."

  "You're alive," he sighed.

  "Yes."

  "Thank God. Thank God," he muttered.

  For a while neither one talked, she kept her eyes on the sea, unable to face Nestor's gaze.

  "You look sick, Nestor. Still strong and… but sick."

  "I'm well enough to finish what I started. You're Jacob's Vice President?"

  "Yes."

  "How? When? How did he find you?"

  "I found him. I was young and angry. I wanted to see him, to tell him that I hated him. It wasn't easy, but I found him. He was in hiding. The Shadow Army wasn't even an idea yet. I'm not sure why I did it - joined him, believed him, believed in him. I guess I wanted to. What girl wouldn't want to believe that the father who disappeared had done it out of love and to protect her? What daughter doesn't want to believe her father is a great man?"

  "You're so much like your mother, the way you move, your voice."

  "That's what my father says. He says I got the best of her."

  "There was only the best. She had nothing else to give."

  She reached over and touched Nestor's cheek, her fingers tracing the familiar white scar, he didn't flinch or respond. She smiled at the warmth of his skin.

  "I didn't know he would use you, use how you felt about me, to do this to you. I'm so sorry, Nestor."

  "Don't be sorry. You don't need to be sorry for loving your father. He's your father. You're as beautiful as your mother and I hope… as kind."

  She lowered her hand, placed it on the railing and turned back to the sea.

  "No. I'm crueler than my mother. That's what you taught me, Nestor. You and Jacob taught me how to be cruel and that's what has kept me alive. Now though… my father is not the man you once knew, or the one I once followed. I'm not sure what he has planned or what he is capable of. What are you going to do when you see him?"

  Nestor reached out his hand, but stopped just short of hers.

  "I loved your mother so much. Both of you - I loved both of you so much."

  "I've always known that. So did she. So does my father. Are you going to kill him?"

  "Yes."

  She turned and moved close to Nestor, he lifted his arms awkwardly allowing her to move within them and then he gently hugged Miho, who squeezed him back.

  "I'm so sorry, Nestor. When I left I was so angry at everything. I'm sorry I left like that. I’m sorry to have brought you here."

  Nestor didn't say a word, but only held onto her as the boat heaved in the growing waves, until she slid out of his arms and left him alone at the front of the boat.

  Chapter 111

  ***

  The doors opened. The wolf walked through the door first followed by Nestor, then Miho and Flores.

  Jacob was sitting in the center of Founder's Hall, waiting. He smiled at Nestor.

  "You made it."

  "So did you I guess, rich boy."

  "Of course. You look awful."

  "Yeah, it's been a tough few years."

  Jacob smiled and shrugged.

  "Anything you wanna say before I kill you, Jacob?"

  "Sometimes the best way to prove a point is to die making it."

  Nestor nodded. He slowly pulled out his knife. All of the guards around them raised their guns, but with a gesture from Jacob they lowered them. Jacob pulled out a matching knife and moved toward Nestor.

  The two men circled each other. Jacob held the knife in the standard style of the Apache, the smile never leaving his face, the light in his eyes dancing in tune with his feet. Nestor let the knife hang in his hand limply at his side in the reverse grip of the Kali style. He moved only enough to keep Jacob in front of him.

  Jacob charged forward with blinding speed and brought his knife down
and up in a figure eight of deadly slashing. To the spectator's eye his parry was met with indifference and stillness from Nestor. But, in the next moment when Jacob fell, it was clear that the knife had somehow missed Nestor completely and that, though Nestor's hand still hung limply at his side, it was now empty.

  Nestor's knife was deeply embedded into Jacob's chest.

  Jacob fell to the ground laughing. He pushed himself up into a cross-legged position and looked at the knife with amusement.

  "Ow. That hurts."

  "It won't for much longer," Nestor assured him.

  Jacob nodded. He glanced over at Miho who stepped forward and kneeled beside him. Jacob's last words went into her ear alone and then he died, smiling. Miho stood up and looked at Nestor. Nestor stared back with a gentle smile on his face. She stood straight and proud. To her side her Flores loomed, giant, but Nestor held his gaze on Miho. When she spoke, her voice was strong and didn't waiver.

  "This man is Nestor Bravo. He is to be pardoned for the murder of President Jacob Rothschild and welcomed in a fashion befitting a hero of his stature. This is the decree of me, President Walker and is to be followed out completely."

  "And my father?"

  Nestor looked to the side where a beautiful young woman sat at a computer screen, her hair wild and unruly. Miho smiled at her.

  "His exile is void. Caleb Nevers is welcome in Los Angeles."

  Miho turned and leveled her gaze at Nestor. To his side the wolf growled softly.

  "Well, I ought to be going, Ms. President. Me and the wolf, we aren't suited for city living."

  Miho moved slowly across the room and nodded to Flores who opened the hall's door.

  "Your ride is waiting, Mr. Bravo," Miho said, now standing very close to Nestor.

  Nestor smiled.

  "President?"

  "Turns out he had a plan. There's an art to it, "The Art of Ruling," he called it. He wanted someone who knew the art to take over, that's me."

  Nestor nodded and looked down at the body of Jacob. He walked over and pulled the knife from the Jacob's chest and cleaned it. He faced Miho as he did, with unblinking eyes.

  "He planned all of this?"

  "Perhaps. He never revealed the entirety of any plan, nor was he above taking credit for luck and chance, but… He was the last of the controllers, of the controlling families and he was killed by the hand of a soldier from an inauspicious background. His Vice President, a lowly mixed race girl with a family of no consequence, from the ghetto, rises to power, making final the transition from those who have so long ruled to those who would be free."

  Nestor nodded at the completeness of it all.

  "A family of no consequence? A girl from the ghetto?"

  "Winners write the history books."

  It made him laugh. Nestor looked in her eyes for one moment longer, the identical eyes of his long dead lover and then she led him to the door.

  "You could stay. I want you to stay, Nestor. You were the one who protected me, who watched over me when I was a child," she smiled.

  "He asked me to protect you. She made me promise to protect you. I just did what I was told."

  "No, you did it, because you love me."

  "That's true. I do love you, Ms. Rothschild."

  Nestor kissed her on the cheek and then left the hall beside Flores.

  Chapter 112

  ***

  Flores moved across the deck and joined Nestor at the prow, the sea spray wetting both of their faces.

  "You shot me back at Camp David?"

  "Yes I did, Mr. Bravo."

  "No man's ever shot me and lived to tell the tale."

  "No man's ever been shot by me and lived to tell the tale."

  "You're a Shadow Army Indian. You're supposed to be a nameless soldier in an unseen army, but, they call you Alberto Flores, right?"

  "Yes."

  "What name is it she goes by?"

  "Miho Walker."

  "When I started doing black ops, they changed my name to Nestor Bravo and erased any records from my past. It was to protect my family and friends. I was assassinating dangerous people and if it went wrong I didn't want anyone to be able take revenge on my family. They did that for all of us, or at least any of us who wanted it. Jacob and October were the only ones I ever heard of who declined, for them the family name was more important than their family's well-being. In any case, she's the only person who knew my real name. Or my parent's names, Alberto and Miho."

  "I believe she considers it a tribute."

  "No one questions an Indian with a Mexican name? A Korean named Miho?"

  "People don't question her."

  "You watch over her?"

  "I work for her. She doesn't need watching over. Or, she hasn't needed it before. She's always seen clearly, until now."

  "Until now?"

  "You know who she is, Nestor. The people need to believe that she's a nobody, that she's of the people, that the ruling class is extinct, but, they also need a great leader who knows how to rule the people. The future hinges on the lie of her name, you know her lie. She cares about you. You make her weak, your existence threatens hers and that threatens all of mankind."

  "You intend to kill me, Flores? You think you can?"

  "You've grown old and sick, Nestor. You know it as well as me."

  "I do."

  Nestor looked deep into the Indian's eyes. Flores stared back. Eventually Flores smiled and nodded his head.

  "Maybe, maybe not. You need to leave is all. There's no place for you here. You know that and I know that… and she knows it, even if she can't see it yet."

  The boat came to its final stop and Nestor got off. He turned and looked at Flores.

  "You keep her safe, Flores."

  "You too, Nestor."

  Nestor watched the boat pull out and didn't look away until the lights of the boat had disappeared. Then, when all the ocean was just blackness and reflected moonlight, Nestor turned to Caleb who was sitting nearby, nervously waiting.

  "Your daughter is quite striking, Mr. Nevers."

  "Yes she is. She runs the entire mainframe now. She's very important to mankind. They say she's likely to be named Vice President if Vice President Walker ever…"

  "The hacker who hacked my feed was named "Nevers". She took your name."

  "Yeah."

  "But, you hacked the feed first?"

  "Did I not mention that? I thought I mentioned that."

  "I should have let you die out there in the nothingness," Nestor smiled.

  "Well, I could say the same for you," Caleb laughed. "Where you headed?"

  "Sprawl I guess. Walk me out."

  "There aren't any mines in the city, Nestor."

  "All the same."

  They walked through the city as people kept a respectful distance.

  "You get the treatment, Caleb? For potency?"

  "No, they say one of the side-effects is it shrinks your dick."

  "What about kids? Procreating and all? Don't you want that?"

  "Shrinks your dick."

  "Allows mankind to continue on."

  "With small dicks."

  Nestor turned to Caleb and looked the man up and down. They were standing under the torches of the city gate now, the sprawl stretched out endless before them.

  "Well… I guess this is goodbye."

  "What are you going to do out there, Nestor?"

  "Just walk and see what's there. There should still be a few vicious monsters wandering around, so I should feel right at home. I'm glad I got to see you again, Caleb."

  "Actually, I think I might go with you."

  "You're not exiled, anymore. You can stay."

  "No, I can't."

  "Why not?"

  "Nestor, I'm a danger to my daughter. I can be used against her. I have to think of her first… you wouldn't understand."

  "Yeah, I guess not," Nestor smiled.

  "I guess, sometimes, being a good parent means wandering out into the waste
s of civilization to fight the last monsters of the Apocalypse."

  "What if that's us?"

  "We aren't monsters, Nestor, or at least, not really."

  "What would you say we are then?"

  "We're people. We're people who kill people who eat people."

  "Whatever you say, Caleb," Nestor said lighting up a cigarette, "let's take a walk into the nothingness and see what's waiting."

  Caleb smiled and walked out the gate with Nestor and the wolf. The keepers of the city, the descendants of Bragg, watched them until they disappeared under the night sky. High above them, in the darkness, manmade stars flew over the earth with their little blinking lights announcing to the world that they were still there.

  ***

  "My predecessor left me this book, as he left me so many things, to finish. It is not high on my list of priorities and so I gave the responsibility of finishing it to my Vice President. She insists though, that I write at least a little something and she can be quite persistent. So, here it is, here are my thoughts on "The Art of Ruling":

  "I always believed that the only way to be free was to be in charge. It seemed to me that when it came to being a ruler, the other option was being ruled, to live at the whims of others, to be a victim. I now know that this is something we will all do regardless of our position in the world; we are all a victim at one point or another. I still believe it should never be accepted, chosen or tolerated, that one should always fight and resist it. One should always fight to be free.

  "Now that I am the one in charge though, I see that being in charge isn't freedom. Just as the people live, for lack of a better word, trapped under my rule, I live trapped under my responsibility to them. I now think freedom is something a person can fight for, something they should fight for, perhaps even something they can achieve while fighting, but is not something they can actually win and keep.

  "Every day I wake up lying down, gravity holding me in my bed. I fight gravity to stand up and though I succeed, I don't break free of gravity and I know that one day I won't get up. One day gravity will win. That's life. Human kind isn't meant to be free. Helium balloons are free. Balloons can just float away, high above the problems of the world, free of gravity's hold, humans can't. But, then again, humans don't pop."