“Where are we?” Hope asked.
“This is Benjy’s camp. Let me tell you, though, there is way more to this place than what you see on the surface. I’ve been poking around when nobody’s been looking, and I think there’s more hidden here than I’ve found so far. I think Benjy is some kind of super-spy or something, because I have seen some stuff that doesn’t fit with the whole outdoor thing he has going on.” Renee looked around to make sure nobody else had walked up on them.
“Like what?”
“Well, I’ve found three hidden doors so far. Two are in the sheds on the side of the main house, and one is in the house inside a closet. I’ve also found two hidden electronic keypads behind a painting on the wall. I haven’t told anybody else what I’ve seen. Every night after we all go to sleep, David and Benjy disappear for hours. But if any of the kids wake up crying or thirsty, David shows up from out of nowhere to help out,” Renee said, confusion plain on her face.
“Wow. I don’t know what we can do about all that, but right now, I need to eat. I feel like I could devour a whole cow at the moment. I want to see Patch,too . How is he handling all this?” Hope started to brush the dirt off of her bottom and tried to straighten up her clothes to look presentable.
“He’s confused about everything, but with the other kids here, he’s had plenty of distractions to keep his mind off everything. Come on, he’s dying to see you. He’s gone into your room every night and pretended to read you a bedtime story before he would go to bed. You’ve got to have him tell you the crazy cow story sometime, and how the cow jumped out his window yelling, ‘I’m a stupid cow. I’m a stupid cow.’ He had me cracking up for a while with that one.” Renee led her sister back to the trail she’d come down. “For the record, I’m glad to see you’re better. I couldn’t have stayed sane if you hadn’t come back.”
For the next few minutes, the sisters walked quietly back to the camp as they held hands and soaked in everything that had brought them to that point. As they made it through the main gate, Hope heard Patch yell out to her.
“Hope, why did you run?” Patch ran across the field and leapt into her arms. As she caught him, he looked at her and yelled loud enough for everyone to hear. “You’ve gotten big! Did you finally hit puberty?” Hope laughed at the little boy’s question. “Who told you about puberty?”
“Uncle David. He said that all boys and girls go through it and they get taller and a deep voice and hair on your chest when you do. Do you have hair on your chest now?”
Hope tried not to drop him as she laughed herself silly, so she just squeezed him tighter, glad to have her little buddy at the moment.
“You’re crushing me!” he yelled as he squirmed to get out of her arms. “Let me go. Uncle David said it’s time to eat, and I have to wash my hands before he will let me. But just so you know, his cooking’s not any good. But I don’t like it when he yells at us for not eating, so I eat it, anyway.”
Hope put him down and watched as he ran into the house and out of sight. She looked at her sister. “I see he’s doing okay. Where’s Benjy? I have some questions for him.”
“He went out on a run, but he should be back soon. What’re you going to ask him?”
“Everything. I’ve got a lot of questions. Give me a minute alone, and I’ll join you inside. I just need a moment to clear my head.” Hope stopped in the middle of the yard and just soaked in her surroundings. Unaware that she was even doing it, she scanned for defensive positions and potential hiding spots. After a few moments, she took in a deep breath and headed into the house. All the kids immediately jumped from the table, against David’s orders, and ran up to her and gave her hugs and told her how happy they were to see her.
For the moment, Hope just grinned and enjoyed the happiness.
CHAPTER 60
EIGHT MONTHS PRIOR TO THE CAMP H INVASION
The Council
Eva paced around the warehouse impatiently for over an hour and fumed at her exclusion from the meeting of the Council. She didn’t understand why the chore she had been sent on couldn’t have waited until afterwards, yet here she was, following orders as she guarded the cargo that was delivered from the boat.
Tovas sat in the corner and tried to stay out of her way as he read a book. He had seen her like this before when she didn’t get her way, and she could be completely irrational. Against his better judgment, he decided to press his luck and try to get her mind off of the situation with a question. “Dear, Eva, have you ever read this book?”
“Excuse me?”
“I was merely curious if you had ever read this book, or any other book by this author?”
“I do not see why that is important right now, but yes, I have
“This is the first novel of his I have read, and I must say, it is truly as good as I have heard. The media has always labeled him the king of this genre and the book sparked some thoughts. I wonder if he might still be alive. If so, I may be inclined to track him down. I would truly love to have a chat with him someday and inquire as to how he comes up with such ridiculous plots that he makes into such entertaining stories.” Tovas turned to the inside of the back cover to read the section ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
“You never cease to amaze. You seem to have a singular way in your ability to make me ponder the absurd.” Eva began to calm down a bit and sat down for the first time since they had arrived.
“Well, it says here he is a native of Maine. I may just have to make my way up to the lovely area of Maine when all of this is over to see if he made it.” He heard the approach of multiple vehicles as they pulled up to the building.
Eva and Tovas both walked over to the only window in the large warehouse and saw Kane, Donavan, and Rowland as they exited one of the vehicles outside.
As the door to the warehouse opened, they both stood with bowed heads to greet their master and fellow Council members.
“Ah, my children. I hope you are well this fine evening. I apologize for the necessity in having you miss the meeting, but I needed you both here in case things did not go as planned. However, I would like to assure you both that you most certainly did not miss anything of any significance.” He eyed the two covered bodies in the corner of the room. “I see you found the gifts I left waiting for you.”
“We live to serve your wishes,” Eva answered. “Would you like us to show you the package now, Master?”
“Yes. It is time we filled our friends in on everything we have accomplished thus far,. Kane led Donavan and Rowland over to the large shipping container in the center of the room.
As they all walked up to it, Tovas slipped around to the side and grabbed hold of a lever and tugged it down which allowed the large door on the back of the large crate to swing open.
Donavan and Rowland paused to look into the dark container and both fell silent with shock as they witnessed the contents.
Donavan broke the silence first. “That cannot possibly be what I believe it to be. You must have lost your mind if you truly think this is acceptable.”
Before them were twelve humanoid creatures in individual cages. Each one was naked, but bared no distinguishing features identifying gender. They were covered in a light fur over all of their body except for the areas where it had fallen out. Their skin was also more of a light gray than the normal flesh tones associated with humans.
As Kane approached the edge of the container opening, the creatures suddenly awoke and started to assault the bars of their cages as they all tried to get at him. He paused for a few seconds to let them get extremely riled up. Then he motioned for Eva to come over. As she arrived, she peered into the cages, and they all went silent and back into their docile state. She then walked over and opened up a cage, and then slowly walked one of the creatures out to meet her master.
The creature, which seconds earlier wanted to tear Kane apart, slowly walked over to him and kneeled down and bowed at his feet. After the demonstration was over, Eva told the creature it was time to return to its cage
, and it did exactly that.
Rowland was completely astonished at the sight he had just witnessed and looked over to Kane for an explanation.
“Come, my friends, there is much to discuss,” Kane said as he walked his fellow Council members over to a group of chairs.
After they were all seated, Donavan spoke up again. “I must say, I am at a complete loss for words. There are reasons we have set the restrictions we have, on expanding our kind. How is this possible?”
“As we all know,” Kane began, “only the masters of our Council are able to create more of our kind. Every attempt by one of our children to expand our lineage has been met with disaster, time and time again. As you can see evidenced in these creatures behind me, they are the result of those failed attempts. They have always been wild animals that would just as soon tear into us as well as anything else. We learned this the hard way 800-years ago when we ourselves, made the mistake of breaking the rules our fathers had laid out for us. At the time we had no idea for their reasoning behind the rules and edicts. After we gained our power, we enforced their rules regarding the expansion of our kind and we each agreed to limit ourselves to two consorts each, as we deemed that sufficient to carry out our will. This, of course, made it much more simple to keep watch over them. We knew how we had gained our own power and station, and it would have been foolhardy to simply accept that they themselves would not one day become overly ambitious and attempt to do the same to us, as we did to our makers.” Kane had remained standing with his back to the group.
Rowland, who was usually the most silent master of their order, and only spoke when he absolutely had to, finally broke his silence. “Yet, here we sit with the very creatures that could potentially do just that. Those beasts could bring about the very thing you have just described to us.”
“I understand your concern, Rowland,” Kane replied. “I will do all I can to assuage your fears, and I assure you we are in no danger whatsoever. I trust my consorts completely and I have no doubt that they will remain loyal and keep these creatures in check.”
“Tell me, Kane, to what end, and with what purpose were these creatures created?” Rowland asked. “And, most importantly, how are they controlled?”
“The how of their control lies within the modern day medical and scientific advances made by the human population,” Kane elaborated. “We have been working for years to create a completely controllable off-shoot of our kind, totally subservient to their creators; in a way similar to our ability to influence the humans. After many failed attempts, we finally found a way to accomplish this control thanks to some cleverly applied genetic manipulation. The fact that we ourselves are only alive because of another older scientific blunder brought me to the realization that this was the key to expanding our species. As for the why prospect, that is a much more simple thing to explain. After the outbreak in the 1300s caused by a couple of wayward consorts, inadvertently creating one of these creatures, I saw a potential method for recreating the crisis again. But I discovered a way to ensure it was more manageable this time.”
“Can you honestly tell me that you believe this situation to be in control, as you say? Why were we not informed of this plan before this? How is it that you have already achieved so much and still not informed us of any of this before you launched it?” Rowland got up from his seat to stare Kane down.
“Ah, well that is most unfortunate, actually, however I shall do what I can to explain. The escape of one of the creatures here in the States caused the outbreak before I was able to bring you into the fold regarding my plan. We three had spoken at length about our wishes to cease being in the background, cease playing our chess game with the humans, and, instead, take a more active role in leading them. However, what has always held us back was their sheer numbers, let alone the weapons they control. No matter our resolve, they would have destroyed us as soon as we attempted to go public. The humans are mired in fear; they fear what we are, let alone the fact that any open attempts to control the human race would have been met with immediate and decisive aggression. It was my sincere hope that this would allow us a chance to cull their numbers, and secondly to provide us with an army that would allow us the means to keep them in check. It is true that these creatures are the cause of this outbreak, but they shall also be our salvation.” Kane turned to face Rowland.
“Explain,” Rowland said. “In what way could these beasts possibly be our salvation?”
“Ah, yes, well it seems these little beasties somehow attract the zombies. I intend to send Eva and Tovas out on a small test run with a few of them to make sure that is still the case, but I am confident that will only give credence to my initial conclusions. What we discovered in Europe when we attempted to locate one that escaped there as well, was that the zombies were wildly attracted to their scent, and will follow them without fail unless they come into direct contact with other prey. If the test run proves successful, we can then use the creatures to herd the zombies to a predetermined location where our forces can eliminate them in a controlled environment. This would effectively eliminate our need to locate Mercer’s hidden location and the book that holds the key to the previous method we employed to stop the spread of the infection.”
“What of the weaknesses of the creatures?” Donavan finally chimed in. “Do they still inherit our weakness as well?”
“Yes, they do. Sunlight is still a death sentence for them, as are the other flaws we all possess. However, they have some inherent strengths we do not. They can go much longer between feedings, and, instead of blood alone, they can ingest the entirety of their victims as food. However, if they do not eat their prey’s heart, the prey will eventually become that which is currently plaguing the world currently.”
Rowland walked slowly over to the container. He peered inside at the docile creatures that they had always feared, yet found no comfort in their presence still. “How many more do we have?” He turned to face Kane.
“This is all of them,” Kane replied. “Due to the random nature of the human subject’s DNA, we had no choice but to destroy several of the subjects we turned, since they could not be controlled. It appears as though it is simply a random occurrence. We have not been able to identify any portion of the genetic code that would lead us to a conclusive answer as to their ability to be controlled after the change.”
Rowland started to walk over to Kane and paused before he made it all the way to him. “Pray tell, how exactly are we supposed to finish this campaign if all we have is a dozen creatures as our army?”
“Truthfully, I had planned to continue the trials once my consorts returned from the test run. In any case, it is not as though there is any shortage of human subjects to choose from in any case.”
Rowland closed the distance between Kane and himself, getting within a couple feet of his counterpart. “I must say, I am most unimpressed with the execution of this plan.” Then he backhanded Kane and sent him sliding across the room. “I trusted you to make this a reality; you assured me you could make this happen, and this is what you give me? We are not in a position to contain this infection at this time, let alone continue the eradication of the people with the capacity to stop our plans. I have allowed you to retain leadership of this council simply in the hopes that you would see our plan to fruition. We are up against the clock on containing this infection, and you bring us an army of 12!”
Kane gathered himself together and stood back up to face Rowland. “We are closer than ever to accomplishing our goals. The Americans posed the greatest threat to us, and they are reeling in chaos at the moment, floundering for any semblance of structure and order. The Russians were our next most imminent threat, and they have not shown any signs of fighting back yet. The Chinese are irrelevant; at the moment their two largest cities have been destroyed by nuclear detonations. My plan is still viable. We can continue to herd the remaining zombies across the country and complete our campaign to destroy any remaining opposition. I do not know what more I can s
ay at this moment.”
“I will allow you to continue for now in the hopes that you will have some more impressive results to show me before I deem it necessary to step in. Please do not make me wrest control from you, as I will not be as benevolent a leader as you have been to the rest of our clan.” Rowland walked away and exited the building.
Donavan looked at Kane and realized immediately that he, too, had nothing to say. So he turned and exited the building behind Rowland.
Kane looked at his two consorts, who did not hide their confusion at the current situation.
“You will continue with the plan as instructed. If you fail me in this task, it will be the last failure of your long lives. Am I understood?” Kane then left them behind, alone.
Eva eyed Tovas, and for the first time in a long time, she said nothing as she sat down and began to plan for their mission. Tovas got the hint and dove right into making their plan as failure free as possible.
CHAPTER 61
Hope, Renee, David, and Benjy
Hope sat outside as she tried to come to grips with everything that had happened in the last week. Her eyes were swollen from crying at the loss of her father and friends. She was very confused each time she looked down at her changed body. She’d asked everyone to give her a few moments to come to terms with things, so they all stayed inside while she cleared her head. Renee was very hesitant to let her be alone, but at David’s insistence, she reluctantly stayed away as well. Storm was the only one who would not leave her alone, and the loyal German Shepherd had stayed by her side the entire time. It had been over 30-minutes since she sat down, and she kept hearing the words of her father run through her head:
Humanity's Hope (Book 1): Camp H Page 28
