Dead End Stories From the End of the World

by P. S. Power

  Almost as if reading her mind, he nodded.

  "Yeah, I like Vickie. She can come. Let's go." His face was set however. Angry still, after being attacked. Carley had suggested that he might require sex from Sammi, who was very young looking. Perhaps thirteen? She'd never asked after her age, being that they ran in different circles. That was probably a mistake, given that the girl was clearly planning a career in some kind of command position. Possibly by taking the place of the other women there, if she could.

  It was a good move, given the situation. A bit risky, since they might challenge her to a fight, which would be hard for someone so small to win. If she could though, that would be a good way for her to earn her name. Not that other cultures did that, she remembered. They were just given them. It was why they all had such boring sounding appellations, she guessed. Jake? That meant latrine, she was almost certain. Nathaniel was pretty enough, but lacked any kind of real statement.

  Skolu meant skull. It made a clear point. It was dark, and gave warning to those that might seek to meet her in combat. Victoria, well that one was simple to see. It meant, the winner. Picking a name like that had pretty much been her announcing at seventeen that she planned to be the next leader of their people. It was all sorts of rude. Almost insanely so, of course.

  You didn't lead the Valkyrie by being shy or retiring though. And here she was, at only thirty-two, one of the top commanders for her kind in the entire world.

  "Come on Jake, before they decide to accuse you of being a cannibal, too." That was probably next on the list of things to malign him with, she knew. False charges of rape and child harm, then they would branch out into things like eating flesh and deserting his post in the heat of battle.

  It would be better if they didn't, but she just couldn't bring herself to trust them at the moment. Instead she patted him on the back, so that she could make contact with him, and not get in the way of his weapons drawing ability. She did let her hand linger however, trying to send him a message. That he was not alone. It was the truth, after all.

  He had most of the fighters with him. The political leader as well.

  It bothered her to a great extent that Skolu wasn't handling things better. They were going to have words about that later. Hushed tones, but it wouldn't shock her if someone found a knife sticking in their gut if she didn't shape the hell up.

  Focusing on the mission helped her calm down. A little. She plastered a smile on her face, and climbed into the front seat, next to the large dark skinned Carl, who drove gently, but with great precision. There was no snow on the ground, even though it was into the first weeks of October already. Still he watched carefully, looking for attack. So she did the same. Things went smoothly for a long while, until they neared a fenced area, with several barriers put up. Ones that said police on them. Her English wasn't very good, as far as reading went, but it was adequate to get that one. She couldn't even call out a warning to the others before a shoulder-fired rocket, one that seemed to be of American manufacture, slammed into the side of their transport. It had that sound to it.

  They had stolen the vehicle from them, after all. After Jake had killed most of the official men as they attacked, wielding a troop of undead to soften them up first.

  Probably coming in winter, because her group had cleverly gotten enough food for them to all survive. Growing it, and hunting for more. She thought this while the whole thing they were in tilted, and fell over. Her ears shut out most of the sound, which was deafening to the others she didn't doubt. Of them all, only their war leader was doing the right thing. He moved instantly to the back, past the wagon there, his small handgun already out, ready to fight. Then he moved toward the door, struggling to get it open. Without thinking she turned all the way around and leaped toward him. Yes, the others might be hurt, or even dying. Stopping to care for their wounds wouldn't aid them however, if a second rocket hit. Even in the heavily armored transport, they wouldn't last if that happened.

  As the door opened she worked her way in next to Jake, their shoulders touching.

  "Rush them?" It was the standard procedure, after all. When ambushed, you found the enemy line and ran at them, shooting to suppress their fire.

  Other groups did that differently, but the war leader smiled at her, his grin light and almost playful. Like he was flirting with her. Finally.

  "That sounds like a plan. On three?"

  They ran when the number was said, far less than three seconds later. They both rolled on coming out, to baffle the enemy's aim. There were bullets, but that didn't stop them as they made their rush. She was in the front, because her greater speed dictated that was her best position. That meant she was hit, directly in the middle, before she got to the line. Her step hitched when her secondary spinal nerve line took over, allowing her to keep running.

  It would heal. The wound was already starting to seal over, like it should. She could feel it hardening a little.

  Then, without hesitation, she and Jake killed the men that were trying to execute them. The others had recovered, and were moving up the line on the other side, she noticed. That was clever of them. Not engaging directly at all, since she and Jake already had. It would keep them safe. That was one of the things she really hated about working with these people. They were all so fragile.

  Or, really, it wasn't that. It was that they were delicate, and she cared about them. That had surprised her, at first. Not that much, since they were her unit. It wasn't like she'd never worked with humans before or anything. It was just... That she really thought of them all as family. Even the annoying ones, like Heather and Carley.

  They all looked around the area, ducking down, in case they were under attack from a different direction. There had been only six men, all in uniform, trying to kill them. She noticed Jake looking at her middle, and for a moment wondered if he was checking out her chest. That would have been progress, really. He'd been a bit shy with her the whole time they'd known each other. Always polite, but never even bothering to see if she would warm his bed for him.

  Looking down, she repeated something that she'd heard him say once.

  "Flesh wound." It wasn't life threatening even, so that was about correct.

  "Right. Well... I guess we should talk about that later? Or not. Just... If you have super powers, use them, you know?"

  She smiled, then shrugged.

  "I don't know what you mean? Are you talking about my girlish good looks, perhaps?" She felt a bit awkward, but that was just about flirting in a different language. She spoke well enough, she thought, but she had an accent, if anyone listened hard.

  "You and Tipper are Vals, right? Sisters?" He sounded very confident of that judgment. Like someone had simply told him all about it.

  Making a grim face she winced.

  "Tipper told you about that? I guess I can see that. You're part of her team. We agreed to keep quiet about that however." Someone was going to be very unhappy later, she decided.

  Jake shook his head though.

  "She didn't even tell me that she liked men, Vickie. Someone else mentioned it. A while back. We should probably deal with that when we get back. Or you can, I mean."

  She got that he was saying he planned to leave, and tried to talk him out of it. Subtly though, so as to not scare him off.

  Finally she went back to the topic of what she was. That was a hard thing to figure out, as a joke, she screwed up her face, as the others made their way from body to body. Checking to assess the condition of the corpses.

  "Oh? Is that so then? Someone else told you? Who's the Bawdri then?" It was a funny thing to say, but he didn't laugh at all. His eyes narrowed a bit. Questioning what she was saying. Like he didn't think that was something humorous. Meaning it might be true?

  Taken aback, she went slightly wide eyed in response.

  "Nate? No... He'd have to be ancient." That kind ages so slowly that to look forty would mean you were thousands of years old, at least. "Wait... Sammi?" She was the only on
e that would actually fit. Her night shine eyes and youth that didn't seem to fit her actions, for instance.

  Jake shrugged.

  "I don't know, not really. She just said she was the oldest person there and not a threat to us. You should chat with her, or something." Then he bent over and picked up a dull green tube, that seemed intact. The launcher with the next rocket, ready to kill them all.

  "Ah. So, if I'm allowed to know, what kind of being are you then?"

  There was a moment of silence. It was a grave thing, but then he smiled at her. It was more charming than she'd remembered him being before that.

  "Eh... Well, the rumor is that I'm a Very Good Man."

  Victoria felt her breath catch, the idea fairly stunning her for a moment. A VGM? Here? That was... preposterous. It had to be a jest. I had too. That kind of being would have fallen in the first days, their mind melting, and being eaten by the first of the dead that they tried to hug.

  Laughing, she felt something strange though. It was just a bit of a tickle, really, as Jake gave her a look that was... Beatific. A thing that promised nothing, but delivered truth and light, all at one go. He seemed to grow in her mind, and she understood the truth of it. After a second, she let her chuckling die and shook her head a little.

  Then part of her wanted to curl into a ball and die.

  It was so clear, now that it was mentioned. Here, before her, was one of the sainted. The purest. A VGM. "I'm so sorry..." She had to say it, because for him to be... Well, Jake, meant that his mind must be mostly gone already.

  "Oh, hey! Upgrade. I guess video games were right. You really do just find weapons laying around." Then being a clever person, he read the instructions and pretended to go over them. While he was doing that a group of human women, most of them very frightened looking, walked over and stood inside the fence line. It was a chain link style thing with concertina wire around the top. Ugly, but not so different than what Valhalla had. She preferred earth works, to wire, if she could get it. It was structurally more sound and could stop heavier weapons. Plus, it looked nicer. More organic.

  Without clumsiness or hesitation, the war leader armed the weapon he'd only just picked up, and made ready to kill them all. They were armed after all, and while not acting all that aggressive, they might pose a threat.

  "We surrender! God, please don't kill us!" Then they threw down their weapons to the earth, and placed their hands up in the air, as if being arrested on television. That was cute, but the rocket launcher was going to end their lives, just as fast, hands up or down.

  Except that Jake, who she'd seen kill nearly a hundred living people, simply walked up to the fence. Watching carefully, but not killing the women of his enemies out of hand. It was dangerous, and against protocol, but she followed, aiming at the group, in a general fashion, with her own weapon.

  The others did the same, with Barry, the older man, carefully getting behind one of the cement barricades, for cover. That was why she'd wanted him along. He had the sense to do things like that. the other men should have, even with an unarmed crowd.

  They talked for a bit, and the women claimed they only wanted to live. It was a good story, and one that she'd heard before, herself. Though the odds that these women would subdue Jake by trickery, and then proceed to gang rape him was small enough. It had taken her most of a day to break free of the ropes that they'd used to tie her. When she did, the twelve men had died of course. That was only what had to happen. It was embarrassing anyway. They'd only been humans after all. Not that twelve of them couldn't have over powered her in the right circumstance, or with enough luck, but she just hadn't been ready for one of them to hit her from behind like that. Even though she knew he was there.

  It occurred to her, while she stood and listened to the war leader talk, that she'd told him once about that happening. A woman had been trying to spread discord in their group, about a month after the happening. When the dead started to plague the lands of men. She'd been an annoyance, so Vickie had invited her to leave. The fact was, most of what she'd claimed had been simply false. It was nearly perfectly designed to pull their collection of people apart however.

  So, in an offhand fashion she'd told Jake about her ordeal. It had simply been meant to explain that she knew the difference between truth and a lie, but that might have been why he'd been so remote from her the whole time. Friendly and even kind, but not pressing her for sex. To protect her feelings, even as he felt estranged from the rest of them? Human women felt lessened by rape. Valkyries viewed it as being similar to any other assault. A thing of shame, because you should have won, but no more traumatic than that. It was a different way of seeing things, that was all.

  It turned out that their enemies, the local police, were all dead. That was good news, since they'd been one of the more dangerous factions in the town of Westwood so far. The dead were first, being that nearly everyone there had turned, but the police had been a constant problem for most as well. That, it seemed, was done now.

  She wasn't really surprised when Jake offered to help them survive however. It was clear that he was a good person. Now that she was looking for it. Even when attacked, he rarely sought to harm others. Oh, he killed, when his hand was forced, but only to save those around him. To protect himself, likely so that he'd be there for others, later.

  They borrowed a vehicle to get back, driving carefully the whole time. It was possible that they could come under fire again. Just because they'd been told that no one from the force was left, that didn't mean it was the truth. It would be a good plan. Sacrifice a few of the lesser members, fake being dead as a whole, then ambush them later, in force. That probably wasn't the case, since too many of them had died already for that to work. Unless they'd gotten reinforcements from someplace else?

  Carl and Barry rode with her, but she drove, since it was a smaller car. One that still had fuel in it. It sped the trip up a whole lot. It was a luxury however, and not the kind of thing she could let herself become used to again. Travel now was mainly going to be on foot.

  "Carl, will you and Barry fill Nate in? I need to talk to Tipper about a few things. Work up a crew to teach hunting? That, and survival skills. We need to be careful here. This situation..."

  "Yeah, no doubt. Ninety-three women and children. Not one of them with more intelligence than a goose, and all fat and well fed too. They won't last ten minutes without a lot of help. I guess we just have to do what we can." His voice was low, but the words were wrong.

  The danger wasn't that these women might fail. That was on them. No, it was that they could be spies, or saboteurs. Just because they didn't seem to be great fighters, that didn't mean they might not kill them all. Being too kind right now could end up with a lot of their own people dead.

  For a moment, she nearly just said that out loud, but the people with her weren't that hard, even now. They didn't have to think that way, so it had never come up for them. Vickie had lived a very different life than any of them, other than her sister. Which was a thing that had to be dealt with. Fast.

  It wasn't hard to find her, since even after the mistakes she'd made earlier in the day, Skolu was to be found behind the barn, having sex with Samuel, the soft spoken man that was responsible for getting them wood. Distracting him from his real work, instead of entertaining him at night, like she should have. When nothing useful could be accomplished anyway, other than guard duty.

  She waited for the man to finish, not having any particular problem with him finding what pleasure he could. He left quickly, laughing when the kind and gentle soul realized that he was being watched.

  "Oh, hey Vickie. Um, I hope that didn't shock you?"

  "Not really. I just need a word with Tip here. It's private. Not the same kind that you two were just sharing, but you get the idea. Secret stuff." She hoped the man wouldn't ask her about what, because that would give her away, wouldn't it?

  Tipper was still fixing her clothing, looking a little bit chagrinned at being caught like t
hat. She should be, of course, especially after basically telling the VGM that he was worthless to her, other than as a tool to use.

  "I guess I'm going to get a lecture now from you, too? Little Sammi practically reamed me a new one. For a kid she doesn't take a lot of crap. Not off of us mere adults. You should have heard what she said to Carley. I swear that kid has a mouth on her that you wouldn't expect." It was conversational, and not half as wary as it should have been. Skolu didn't even flinch when Vickie moved over to her, pulled a knife and stabbed her three times in the middle. Right along the right trunk nerve line, which really hurt, as long as it wasn't severed.

  Her sister dropped to the ground, no blood pouring forth. It wouldn't, not from something as small as a hunting blade.

  When she spoke, it was in Galu. Their language. The one they both spoke at home.

  "We are done here, you and I. There will be no more games, and you will not risk the war leader Jake any longer. You have endangered us all. No, even though you don't know it, your disdain of him has risked the fate of the entire world. We will not have a conversation about this. From this point on, if he comes to you for reassurance, you will damned well give it to him. If he wants you to crawl around the dwelling naked with tulips in all your holes, then I'd best come in to be regaled with the tale of your sore knees. Do you understand? If this situation weren't so serious, I'd disown you. I'm tempted to anyway. You shame our entire kind."

  Then, without waiting for an answer, she walked away. It wasn't her job to protect her sister from her own stupidity.

  No, it was her job to make certain that they both protected the VGM.

  Not that it wasn't already too late. They'd probably well and truly lost him, months before, when his fragile and enlightened mind broke under the strain of having to kill so many, for so long.

  All they could do now was...