Some people have returned to their homes on the side of Mount Pellegrino, it’s more dangerous but they appreciate the solitude. Some people live on the prison grounds which functions as a giant refugee camp with armed guards still protecting it. The oil rig is still home to a number of Mafia and any time we want to hold meetings between all the Families we meet there.
The port is also open to trade again, providing direct route to Europe.
There are reports that the zombie outbreaks in Europe originated from here. That ships full of people with zombie bites left this very port, bound for Europe.
[Smiles.] My friend, nothing like that could ever happen here. The police would not allow something like that, would they? Boats full of zombie passengers leaving the port, ridiculous.
You said yourself the Mafia owns the port. You said you were free to do whatever you wanted here. I can play back the tape, if you like?
[His faces twitches, a subconscious tic while his eyes glare at me.]
Passengers arrived on the mainland saying they paid extortionate fees to the Mafia to get away from Sicily. Those passengers carried the infection. Sure, they weren’t the only source of the infection in Europe, but they certainly caused the problem to accelerate. Tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of people died in Western Europe. What do you have to say about that?
[Don Orazio’s lip twitches and curls in rage. He is barely restraining himself from violence.]
Get the fuck out of my port!
The Soultrist
Area 51, NEVADA
Interviewer: TJ Weeks
INTERVIEW 22:
The following narrative was found in an abandoned journal written by Private Joe Hayter, with the intriguing words “US Psychic Division” written on the front page. Research is currently underway to verify the accuracy of the following events.
Josaphine kicked at the dirt with her ragged boot, trying to provide cover as the moaning rotters' tightened their approach for the kill. “Get your men back in line!”
Captain Bradly kicked up some dirt as well before plunging his Kabar knife into the temple of a rotter leaping towards him, then called out to his men that were starting to separate out, “Get your ass back in line!”
The men stepped backward in sync until they were back shoulder to shoulder building a wall around the young woman they referred to as the Soultrist.
The Soultrist was a known psychic, or witch, that had great power. Her powers were great, but only lasted in short bursts. She had been kept in an underground cell since she was only five years old. To be honest, the people were pretty damn lucky to have her help in the first place. Her mother was killed by soldiers when she was only a baby. They had been running studies on her since that day. On her fifth birthday they were running typical tests when her eyes shot out an orangish light, it was as though her normal green eyes started burning from her skull and created a glow. Her mouth crookedly opened when the same glow came out of it. It looked as if a fire was burning inside of her. Beakers started exploding and the viewing window in the door spidered. Since that day it was ordered for her to be underground for the safety of others.
Josaphine pulled out her 9 mm pistol and started firing at the nearby rotters before she and Captain Bradly’s team were knocked down by a strong whirled gust of wind. Josaphine heaved herself from her stomach to her back to see the Soultrist lit up and floating a few inches from the ground with her hair floating like it was in water. Her hands were spread to her side as the rotters started slowing their pace. The Soultrist slapped her hands together and the rotters heads splatted as if they were crushed by boulders clapping together. She slowly drifted down back to her tiptoes and to the ground. She nearly fainted as Johsaphine snatched her up to keep her head from hitting the ground.
Captain Bradly picked himself up from the ground before dusting his pant legs.
“She okay?”
Josaphine softly brushed her bangs from her face and felt for her pulse on the side of her neck. “She’s fine…I’m not sure how much longer she can do this though.”
Captain Bradly roughly snatched the Soultrist by under her arm and lifted her to her feet.
“She’s a god damn weapon…Probably the only one we’ve really got, so stop with the bullshit and let’s get out of here before more of those fucks show up.”
He directed the Soultrist’s arm back toward Josaphine.
She looked up at him with a halfass eye roll and took the Soultrist. The Soultrist’s eye’s started glowing once again with a direct stare at the Captain. He quickly threw a brown clothed sack over her head.
“Let’s move out!”
The small group of twelve staggered out and made ready to move out. The captain took lead before they started marching once again.
Darkness had set in, the group refrained from using any kind of light. Captain Bradly led the way and Josaphine stayed as far as he could away from him toward the back. She had removed the Soultrist’s head cover placed by Bradly and allowed her to see what was going on around them. She was able to sense things better than anyone and had shown Josaphine that through the time they had spent together.
All of the rest of the group were in a military formation, marching on as thought they had no cares in the world except for searching for the enemy, but Josaphine could see that they were only looking forward and to the sides periodically. Josaphine tried to keep an eye to the back and listened intently for any out of the ordinary sounds. Suddenly the Soultrist stopped her light barefooted steps on the asphalt and turned her head to the left. Josaphine let go of her arm when she felt the tension and tightness. The Soultrist was standing erect like a dog listening to the sounds of the night waiting for it to enter its domain.
“What is it?” Josaphine walked around her.
The Soultrist spun her head back to Josaphine and back to where she had turned to look before. She ran into Josaphine as she took a step backwards and then placed her hand on Josaphine’s shoulder and turned her green eyes to Josaphine’s blue ones and brought her finger to her lips indicating that she needed to be quiet. Josaphine followed her lead in walking backwards and felt the small rocks off of the side of the road crackle under her feet.
“What the hell are you doing?” Bradly asked. “Get her hood back on now!”
Josaphine stared at the belligerent man and placed her finger to her lips. All of the others stopped and stared at her. The Soultrist pushed Josaphine down and thrust her right arm forward to the woods on the other side of the two lane road and pointed as rotters appeared from out of nowhere. A beam of light came from the frail hand of the Soultrist and knocked the line of them backward. She pulled her hand back to her and braced it against her body with a look of surprise that she had done that. She slowly brought her hand back out and pointed it at a rotter that was heading for Bradly and again the rotter flew backwards with a small beam of light, the beam made Bradly stumble backwards while trying to keep his balance. The Soultrist pulled her arm back to her chest and looked back at Josaphine and then at Bradly.
He had gained his footing and stared long and hard at her. “What the hell is that stupid bitch doing?”
Josaphine jumped from the side of the road and blocked him as he walked towards them.
“Saving your ass, Get off it Bradly!”
He leaned one way and then the other around Jospahine as she leaned with him blocking his view. “She was trying to kill me!”
Josaphine huffed at him, “Kill you? Are you kidding me? She just saved all of us.”
“Yeah, pushing you to the ground was saving you!” Bradly commented.
Josaphine gave him a ‘you are so stupid’ look.
“She has been locked away for years and has no idea even what powers she has; and yes, she saved me by pushing me away from the rotters and got rid of them all. The longer we stay here, the more likely they will be back up and on their way after us again, so let’s move!”
Bradly pulled his head back away from h
ers and stared at her straight in the face, “You better watch your tone!”
Josaphine laughed and turned her back to him headed back to the Soultrist who was still standing grasping her own arm.
“Are you okay?”
The Soultrist looked at her and over to Bradly as he gawked at her and then back at Josaphine.
Bradly started to turn, but not before belting out to Josaphine, “Get that bag back on that weirdo.”
Josaphine shook her head and stared at the others that were still staring back at them.
“I’m sorry, I have to put this on just for now until we get back on the road and he isn’t paying attention. I think he will do nothing but cause trouble if I don’t.”
The Soultrist watched as Josaphine took out the bag and started to slide it over her head until her green eyes disappeared underneath. Josaphine led her by her arm once again.
“Move out!” Bradly hollered.
Josaphine walked slowly so that the Soultrist could keep up. “I have to find a name for you.”
The quietness was back as they marched down the road looking for safety. Josaphine thought for a moment and whispered to her right into the bag, “I think I will call you Mint. Your eyes are the color of a mint plant my mother once had.”
The sun was starting to come up and Josaphine had taken the bag off of Mint to allow her to walk on her own without her guidance, plus for the safety that she felt when Mint was able to listen and see things that Josaphine was sure that was not able to be seen or heard by them. Bradly took the men to a shade tree to the side of the road and had them rest and take in the little fluids they had and a small bite when he noticed Josaphine and Mint sitting under another tree to the other side of the road.
Bradly calmly made his way over to them and bent down to Josaphine. “Why is it so hard for you to follow orders?”
Josaphine stood and came nose to nose the best she could with the tall man, looked up at him and tilted her head.
“Because you are not my Daddy,” she whispered.
Bradly took a step back, pivoted away from her and walked back across the street, “That witch is going to get us killed if you don’t keep her contained, plus she is all we have to keep us safe.”
“So maybe we should treat her with a little respect!” Josaphine shouted, “And her name is Mint.”
Bradly stopped, shook his head and continued his walk back to his men without looking back.
Josaphine smiled at the aggravation she could feel from him as he walked away.
Mint stared at her as she sat back down.
“Don’t mind him, he is just a big old ass.”
Mint cocked her head to one side. “Ass?” She half questioned.
Josaphine sat up straight.
“Yeah, he is an ass. You can speak?”
Mint just stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language. Josaphine gave her the bottle of water she had taken from her pack and the small bag of peanuts she happened to have in her bag from a plane ride from almost six months ago. Mint brought the bottle to her mouth and took a sip and handed it back.
“No, drink more. You need it more than I do. I don’t think you understand how much you have helped all of us. Eat some of those peanuts as well,” Josaphine pushed her hand up towards her mouth.
Mint ate and drank as though she had not in years. Josaphine was happy to give her what she needed. Bradly on the other hand thought that she should starve and just do as she was told.
Unfortunately, Josaphine was either going to be stuck out on her own or with these behemoths; at this point as long as she stayed with Mint, she thought she might be okay, but did not want to be stuck completely alone if something happened to Mint. So, stuck with the asshole it was.
Josaphine had been on a hiking trip to find herself in the back hills of Texas when she came upon a small town that was not even on her map. She had just gotten out of a rocky marriage and had men standing in line to be her suitors, but she wanted none of that. She was ready to learn who she was and aimed to do so until she came to this small village that was only occupied by three homes, two of which were vacant.
One was the home of an elderly man who used to be a blacksmith before the town was taken over by the soldiers that had taken all of the town’s belongings and killed almost everyone. Another home was a younger woman that had moved there years after the attack to take care of the old man and Mint, the story told to Josaphine was about the other house of the woman that was killed and stashed her baby in the walls of the home to save her before the mother was killed - which was Mint. When the apocalypse began, Josaphine had just left the small village and was on a trek to the famous cliff nearby of a famous Indian Reservation that she wanted to see. She had not made it quite there when a man came from the top of the cliff and chased her back into the small village. The woman and old man had already been killed by the zombies and soldiers had already moved into the town. Captain Bradly was giving out orders and men were standing guard around the village. Josaphine had introduced herself to the loud man and asked to stay with them. It was then that Bradly informed her that he was the Captain of the group and of the old tale he had heard about the witch that had been left there and they would be finding her before they were going to move on to safer ground. Josaphine had offered to help and had been the one to find her.
So now here they were, on their way to find safer surroundings, with the witch.
Josaphine stood as she saw Bradly stand from under the tree and the men follow his lead standing and forming their single file lines. Josaphine waved to Mint telling her to come on and they fell in behind the group.
The sun was getting quite hot and Mint seemed to be slowing her pace with the intense heat. With Josaphine becoming concerned that she was not going to withstand the heat after being locked up for so long, she hollered for the group to stop.
Bradly did stop, but did not turn around.
“What is it now?”
Josaphine shouted back, “She isn’t going to make it in this heat.”
Bradly still did not turn.
“She has no choice,” and he proceeded to lead his group.
Josaphine could not believe his thought process on this. She was their saving grace and he was blowing off the whole situation.
“She is what we have, unless you are going to fight the hordes alone?” Josaphine questioned.
The group stopped and turned to her as Mint fell into Josaphine’s arms.
Bradly and his men watched, when one of Bradly’s men ran to the women and picked her up and took Mint to the shade.
Bradly ran towards the man.
“I did not say move!” He shouted.
The man paid no attention to his one-time captain, “Sorry sir, but you are not seeing the whole picture, all of our weapons have been taken by others, we have no guns; she is all we have to survive, she needs to be saved.”
Bradly saw that he was losing control of his men and was slowly losing his leader status of the pack. “No!”
He grabbed the man by the back of his shirt, “Get up and get in line.”
The man stood and jerked his arm from the captain.
“I will do what I can to save the person that can save us!”
He bent down to Mint and Josaphine, “My name is Perry . . . I was a medic. She will get heat exhaustion easily from never being in the sun as she was, she needs water and to cool down.”
All of the men began pulling out canteens and passing them down. Josaphine fanned her with the map she had in her backpack. When Mint came to, she was shocked to see so many people standing around her and pushed herself backwards with her feet. Josaphine held tight to her, reassuring her that she was safe. Mint calmed down as Perry handed her a canteen of water and helped guide it to her mouth.
Bradly made another announcement for his men to fall in. They all slowly moved from the two women and made their way back to where they knew the Captain wanted them. Bradly swaggered over to Josaphine and Mint an
d lingered over the two of them for a moment.
“We are leaving out in five, either you come or you don’t.”
Bradly turned and walked away.
Josaphine shook her head with the sadness at the man not understanding the luck they all had with having Mint around.
A mass of zombies emerged from the roadside. The soldiers formed a line of men with their Captain. Josaphine and Mint watched them fight them with their hands and rocks that they found at the road side along with branches from nearby trees. Josaphine had nothing to donate to this fight as she had no weapons either.
Mint sat up straight and again her eyes turned to orange and she clasped her hands together sending rotter brain matter all over the fighting men. A few of the zombies still stumbled through the crowd of scared men and were easily killed since they were not coming in masses. Mint stood and walked to the middle of them all and floated into the air and clasped her hands in front of her again and the rest of the rotters fell to the ground.
The men watched Mint as she floated back to the ground and fell to her knees. Josaphine ran to the woman and picked her up.
Bradly walked to The Soultrist and again grabbed her hard by the arm, “You are staying with me from now on.”
He began to drag her to walk at his pace.
Mint watched Bradly like he was going to hurt her more than he already was and refused to walk with him but allowed him to half drag her as he walked. Bradly grabbed her hair and pulled his face close to his.
“Walk, witch!”
Mint’s eyes turned to fire red instead of the orange and she glared at the man in front of her.
“Ass!”
Beams came out of her eyes and threw Bradly back to the side of the road and Mint dropped to the ground.
Two men helped her up and Josaphine ran to help her. Mint caught her weak feet and tried to walk with Josaphine but her jelloed legs would not allow her to do so. Josaphine and Perry carried her off of the hot black top and laid her in the grass to regain some strength when Bradly started rustling the grass he had fallen into. Three men stepped in front of Josaphine and Mint and would not allow Bradly near them.
Zombie War: Interviews From The Frontline Page 17