Despite the danger, John was fascinated. He'd been killing them for so long and this was the first real encounter with a zombie without just a fight. "Can you stop yourself from biting and raping people? Do you know right from wrong?"
Mark smiled. "Your right and wrong is vastly different from mine now. I see it. Once I kill you and you rise, you'll see it as well. I've decided to create as many superior beings as I can. You call us zombies, but a zombie is a mindless creature. I'm obviously so much more."
"What happened? Are you changing, morphing back to human and alive? Will you start breathing again?" John asked.
Mark shrugged again. "Every day brings me something new and exciting. I can literally sit here and hear the heartbeat of the baby in her womb upstairs. It sounds like magic to me. I'm drawn to him for some reason. I think many of us are." He grinned. "Mama is a special breed as well, as I'm sure you know. There's something… different about her. Wait until this kid is born. We can all feel it. If I had a breath to hold I would, because he'll be the death of us. I'm not joking. The pull is so strong, like the pull for all of us to head to southern States. I think eventually we'll all be focused on the baby. I'd like to be the one to rip him apart and drink his blood, because then I'll be the most powerful of us."
"I'm going to stop you from getting to my son."
Mark stood and dramatically stretched, cracking his fingers one at a time as he stared at John. "You can't stop me, and you can't stop us. We are the New World Order. We are the new Caretakers and the Homo Superior. We are the future."
"You don't have much of a future," John said and gripped the piece of wood. He was wondering if the zombie was going to rush him or if he'd be able to get the jump on the zombie.
"Can we just agree to disagree?"
John was done talking and moved against the zombie, who took a step back and swung the chair he was sitting on in front of him.
"It's not going to be easy to kill us anymore," Mark said. "If this were Vegas, I'd think even odds, although you had better really kill me for good this time. Because, if even a part of me is still alive, I will heal and come back to haunt you. And eat your baby."
"Then I'll make sure I burn you," John said and rushed the zombie, stepping onto the chair and swinging the wood at his head. The move caught Mark off-guard and he tried to duck out of the way. The wood jabbed into the side of his face, ripping through his right eye and shoving out behind the ear, catching in the zombie's head.
The two stumbled back and slammed into the dusty soda case, glass shards flying. They went down onto the wooden floor and John scrambled to stay on top of the zombie and away from his teeth.
"You missed the brain but I have to be honest… this shit hurts," Mark said and tried to pull the wood out. John gripped the chair leg and twisted it, trying to pierce the brain, but it was too far out of the head to have any effect other than squirting dark blood onto the floor.
Mark the zombie did John a favor by pushing his hand away and yanking the splintered piece of wood halfway out. John stamped his palm onto the wood and turned it with his other hand, jabbing it into the center of the zombie's head.
John was nose to nose with the zombie and was about to vomit with the sour breath of the undead man when he saw his gray eyes go from anger to confusion and then… nothing.
The zombie stopped struggling underneath John, all un-life snuffed out.
John found the biggest piece of glass he could and began the horrible but needed job of severing the head from the zombie's neck, vomiting twice as he worked.
He'd never get used to this.
John wiped as much of the blood off the chair leg on the zombie's shirt as he could. He'd need every weapon he could find and wouldn't leave it.
As he stepped back out onto the front porch and into the brutal sunshine, he stopped and shielded his eyes from the sun.
There were three zombies standing on the street smiling at him.
John slid to his right without losing eye contact and went back up the stairs, closing the door when he hit the steps.
Chapter Three
Russ Meyer surveyed the progress of the work they'd done and grinned. In only a few weeks, the rows of vegetables were beginning to show signs of initial growth, and they'd been able to move the fences another three lots for additional garden areas.
Bri was on her hands and knees, covered in mud and smiling like a madwoman. When she saw Russ, she looked back to what she was doing. "Hello, sir."
"Stop calling me sir. It's weird. I'm not that much older than you," he said.
She nodded without looking up, putting a handful of seeds in the hole. "You're more than twice my age."
Russ laughed. "Besides that part, I'm not much older. How's it going?"
"Very good. I think we have another good row of whatever these seeds are," she said. "But we're running out. We need to tell the searchers to find more fruits and vegetables." Bri looked up. "I want to plant so much food we can all eat for the rest of our lives."
"Isn't this how it's supposed to be?" Russ asked. "Back to nature. No cell phones, no computers and no television. Just a man and his thoughts under a starry sky."
"And women," Bri said. "Without us women it would be pretty boring around here."
"I suppose so," he said and looked around, making sure they were alone right now. "Did he bother you this morning?"
Bri didn't look up. "No. He was already out with his search party. I managed to get away from him last night when he was drunk." She looked up at Russ and her eyes were swollen with tears. "He keeps telling me he is going to take me for his wife. I don't want to be anything to him but his death."
"I will talk to the Lich Lord."
"You know what he'll say. Jeff is his right hand man. He'll let Jeff have anything he wants because of all the work he's done so far. As much as I hate the man for what he wants to do to me, he is responsible, in part, for getting me out of a cage and helping to give us certain freedoms." Bri smiled at Russ and wiped her eyes. "But it was you who sat with the Lich Lord and got us our initial freedom."
"I explained to him a simple truth: with the few living people dead, what would he do with the rest of his undead life? He needed us to keep growing and evolving. He's a smart man, you know. He already knew this."
Bri looked toward the Ocean Center. "He never comes outside anymore. Isn't he afraid we'll burn the building down?"
Russ shook his head. "He doesn't need to fear us because he knows we are only going to survive with him in our corner. We won't move against him. Look around. We're safer than we've been in many months, and we are starting to have food and shelter as well as a future."
"As long as we give him fresh blood," Bri said quietly.
Russ stood and pointed down the street. "Out there we were going to die in days, of either starvation, disease or as food for the mindless zombies. The Lich Lord saved us from the chaos and gave us a place to live." He went to her quietly and knelt in the dirt next to her. "And he can hear us, so we need to be quiet. We need to openly hail him as our savior but plot against him in the dark. Do you understand? He won't rule us forever, but right now we need him just as much as he needs us. We need to capitalize on it."
"And then men like Jeff will be gone?"
Russ smiled. "Yes."
"It can't happen soon enough," Bri said and went back to gardening.
"I'm going to see the Lich Lord," Russ said and stood.
Bri didn't say a word, digging through the soil with her fingers.
Russ wiped his hands on the dirty towel he was carrying and began walking toward the Ocean Center, where, not too long ago, he'd been held captive in a cage and about to be the meal of the zombie. He smiled when he thought of how much had changed in so short an amount of time.
"Azrael," a woman acknowledged him as he passed and he gave her a polite nod. He had no idea what her name was but he'd seen her around. As more and more refugees were added to the safety of their temporary fenced in ar
ea, he lost track of their names but tried to remember the faces.
There were several people shoring up the alleys between the buildings on Main Street, with only one alley open that led directly to the Ocean Center and beyond it the parking garage. If they kept getting in refugees, they'd need to conquer the Ocean Walk across the street at some point and use the two-level business area for their own purposes. The hotels to either side had been gutted months ago, and you could still smell the burnt flesh when the wind turned.
So much destruction.
While Jeff Hurleson was out driving with his motorcycle gang and finding supplies (and doing what else Russ had no idea, and didn't want to know), Russ was the eyes and ears of the Lich Lord, making sure everything was running smoothly.
And making sure no one touched Bri or any of the other younger women.
There were now seven girls under the age of seventeen in the camp, and Jeff had been staring at all of them. Russ knew it was only a matter of time before the man would take one or more of them, and Russ had become their protector. In a fair fight, he knew the former corrections officer and biker would wipe the floor with him, but Russ didn't want to make this a fair fight if he could help it.
The main doors to the Ocean Center were open and Russ went inside. Even though they had power in the building, the Lich Lord kept the air conditioning and lighting off at all times, preferring a single upright lamp in the center of the large room. The four corners were always bathed in darkness.
"Sir?" Russ called out.
The main floor was empty save the lamp in the middle. All of the cages had been removed and put into storage in one of the biker bars on Main Street and everything else cleaned up. The pull-out seating for concerts and events was also closed up into the wall again. The back doors had been chained shut from inside and there was only one way in or out of the giant room.
"It's Russ Meyer. Can we speak?"
Russ walked to the light and tried to see into the corners, but it was so dark inside. He knew the zombie wasn't sleeping. They didn't, and never breathed or needed food and drink. They hardly ever blinked.
"I'm here," he heard quietly from near the barred doors. "Don't approach. What do you want?"
"I want to go over a few things, if I may." Russ hoped he was in a good mood or else this was going to go quite badly. "At your leisure, of course."
"Of course," the Lich Lord said, his words echoing in the empty room. "Tell me what you want and be gone. I have many things to contemplate."
Russ still couldn't see him but he was sure the zombie could easily see Russ with his acute vision. "We are gathering more and more refugees and setting them up in tents on the street as well as some of the businesses that haven't collapsed. I ask we send out teams to not only gather food, water and weapons but also building supplies."
"For what purpose?"
"At this rate, we'll run out of room for everyone within six weeks. The people have been coming east from the mainland and the ones that aren't picked off by The Mindless need somewhere to sleep when they reach us."
Russ had dubbed the newer zombies The Mindless and those showing intelligence The Intelligent. It was cheesy but it worked. They were no longer simple zombies, hungry to bite and rape you. They were evolving at an alarming rate.
"Then form another team and have them go in search of whatever supplies you tell them to get. I don't want Jeff to deviate from the plans I've given him."
"What plans?" Russ asked.
The Lich Lord laughed. "They are of no concern to you. He does what he is told and he answers to me only. Remember that."
"Yes, sir."
"What else?"
"We need more area as well," Russ said.
"Have you already figured it out?"
Russ smiled. He had been yelled at last week for bringing up a topic and not doing his research. Now he was ready. He pulled a tattered map from his back pocket. "If you'll let me show you on the map, I've marked off a few blocks we can easily move the fences past."
"Don't come any closer," the Lich Lord hissed. "Tell me about it. Will it compromise our security? I don't want to spread us out too thinly."
"With all the new survivors, we should have more than enough. There are many strong men and women who've joined us. We can begin building something stronger than chain-link fencing. We could use cement and section off our home, if need be, with actual walls," Russ said.
"Do it but make sure it is slow. I don’t want any weak points. My brothers will be here soon enough. They'll be able to smell you inferiors. I don't want them busting through and taking everything I'm building. They can't see the long-term big picture. Make sure the new members of my community are well aware of what living here in safety entails: fealty to me and me only. No false gods, no putting themselves first. They only live because I say so."
"I tell each and every new group coming in," Russ said. "Some of the new members want to meet you but I, um, tell them it isn't a good idea."
The Lich Lord laughed. "I think it is a fine idea. The next one who asks can come and see me. Once I am finished draining him or her, the rest will stop asking."
"Alright," Russ said, having no intention of doing it. He already knew one of Jeff's main purposes was to find sacrifices for the Lich Lord every few days so he could feed. Russ didn't dwell on it. At this point, it was better an outsider no one knew was killed rather than someone they knew. "I have one last thing to ask you. It is more a personal favor, to be honest."
"Go on."
"When I first arrived and you heard I used the moniker Azrael you decided to take it for your own," Russ said slowly.
"I did."
"I’d like to have it back and use it myself. I call you Lich Lord and so does everyone else. It seems a more fitting name for you. They've been calling me Azrael for many months and everyone on the street still calls me by this name, but I don't want you to overhear it and get mad at me."
"This is what you bother me with?"
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to clear it up," Russ said quickly. He felt like he'd overstepped and was going to get in trouble. Or worse.
Russ stood in silence for several minutes, not daring to move or say a word.
"Fine. Keep it. But, if I want to use it again, you can bet I will."
Russ bowed. "Thank you, Lich Lord."
"Now, I need some information from you."
"Of course."
"Tell me about the sightings of my brothers, mindless and otherwise."
"Since we set up the blockade over the Main Street Bridge and set a threesome of men to guard it, the attacks have ceased from that direction. A1A has also been quiet. The Mindless are still coming out of the surf across the street but I have a team set up on the ruins of the boardwalk and they dispatch them. As many as they can get to. To the north and south it has also been quiet. No hordes have come at us so far," Russ said.
"I want a wall erected using the ones already in place on the boardwalk. Block off the beach completely, except for one gate. When we send out a team to fish we can have easy access in and out, but the mindless brethren won't be able to open it. And those who are intelligent?"
"Only two in the last week. One of them tried to casually walk over the bridge with a hoodie over his head but his gray eyes gave him away."
The Lich Lord snorted. "Don't only rely on the eyes. I'm sure they'll eventually find colored contact lenses and walk among you."
"Good point. The other Intelligent zombie tried to walk down A1A and attack people. He had a sword. That was quite a sight. Jeff shot him in the head and they burned him on the beach."
"Why wasn't I notified of these attacks?"
"I thought you had other things to think about. You haven't stepped outside in over a week. You never send anyone for us," Russ said. "Jeff has been doing his thing outside the walls and I've been running it inside. We have an uneasy alliance."
"What does that mean? Just come out and say what you want to say to me. I don't have
time for this."
Russ thought, at this point, the Lich Lord had nothing but time. He'd been sitting in the dark in this arena for about ten days without anyone seeing or really talking to him. Was this more of the evolution? Russ so wanted to study him but knew his chance of that was slim to none. "I'm worried about some of the younger women."
"Are they hurt? Injured? Pregnant?" the Lich Lord asked, the last word drawn out and, Russ knew, with a smile.
"Not any of those things… yet. I am just in fear of something bad happening to them. With so many men in camp and with so few women left, I'm afraid there will be raping and brutality, with nothing to stop it."
"I will stop it if I want," the Lich Lord growled. "I suggest you write up something formal and present it to me. If each man is allowed to take one woman as his concubine, no other man will be able to touch her. The penalty will be death."
"There are many men and women already married, so they'll be safe."
"Ha. I wonder how many men will cast off their old hag wives for the chance to take another as a mate. Here is my edict, which I will address in two nights: every man has the right to take a woman as their own, but only those who are capable of bearing children. For the old, the ones who are fixed and the ones who are incapable, they can do whatever they want. Be together for love… whatever. But men who are capable of reproducing must take a suitable mate."
"Why?" Russ blurted.
"The human race must go on. It must prosper. I offer a sanctuary for you to get away from the sins of the past and to live in perfect harmony. All I ask is my sacrifice, like the gods of old. All I ask is my tithe. Whether it comes from inside these walls or beyond, it doesn't matter to me. But the day will come when the human race is confined to these gates and walls, because everywhere else is death, plague and my brethren. I need to know I will always be able to feed, and feed well."
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