Phase two meant taking out the zombie heads they carried in packs on their backs and giving themselves bites. They then made kamikaze dashes through the holes in the walls, shooting and throwing bomb satchels. If they were shot and killed, so be it. A few minutes later they were reanimated, causing havoc. The men on the wall were dealing with this new strategy as the second wave reached the wall and climbed over or entered through the gaps, shooting their way through the protectors.
“Our firepower is far superior,” Dave said. “They don’t have anything close.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is the mutation spreading within their walls?”
“Slowly, but I think so.”
“Pull the soldiers back. I’m going to see Dav.”
◆◆◆
Canadian soldiers dragged a blindfolded Sal to the wall. They didn’t exactly throw him over the wall as commanded, but carried him across the threshold and into the death trap. They brought him almost to the front line and then tied him to an old light pole. The Canadians were already withdrawing from the city, having accomplished their task – releasing the “mutation” on to city. Once all the men were out of the car wall, Canadian engineers leveraged, lifted or exploded cars from the top row of the wall back into the holes they’d created. Sealing the mutation within.
Once that was complete, they turned east to march alongside the wall and continue south toward Los Alamos. Maybe even catch some fleeing people out the south end and punish them for illegal breeding.
It was the only way this world would ever understand.
The sounds of shooting from within the wall faded into the background as the Canadians marched south.
Chapter 24
IS IT BETTER TO BE ME OR YOU? –SAID THE ZOMBIE TO THE HUMAN.
Canadian Song - 15 A.Z.
KABOOOM!!! KABOOOM!!!
Explosions racked the halls of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The eight guardians of the facility lobbed grenades at the remainder of Sara’s oncoming team. The shrapnel ripped apart the walls, exposing the rock they covered. Sara’s men were separated, disoriented, and confused by all the identical looking corridors, and stumbled into gunfire, the gatling guns, and each other.
The eight caretakers who’d greeted the Martyrs days prior were a highly trained unit assigned full-time to the mountain by New Generation leadership. Capable of defending against a much larger force, their mission this time was to catch the Academy Cartel leader – Sara.
The plan had been to lure Sara to the mountain, away from her men. Guirguis concocted a story of half-truths to lure her here. It played on her desperation to reclaim Colorado Springs, her insecurity about her family line, and her perceived self-importance to learn she was the only person capable of opening the door. Sara couldn’t admit these weaknesses, making her all the more susceptible to Guirguis’ bait.
The plan had been that TM would open the door at the appropriate time to let her in, feed her some of his normal lies to lure her deeper inside, and Guirguis would fake his death to escape the group.
Guirguis used a network of hidden crawl spaces to travel to the armory and wait. Wait for the defenders to clean up and capture Sara. He sat there, having armed himself with an assault rifle. He waited, and thought.
His thoughts concerned what her main force in Pueblo would do once Sara was out of the picture. Such a power vacuum in their ranks would have unintended consequences. He needed to be two steps ahead of those consequences.
“Ahh! There is Mr. Guirguis!” Linus said as he entered the armory. Guirguis jumped and nearly unloaded his rifle into the tall man.
“Yes, it’s me,” he exhaled deeply.
“Just getting some more ammunition. Don’t mind me!” Linus turned a spin dial on a locker and opened a metal closet stocked floor to ceiling with loaded clips. He hummed a tune.
Guirguis stared at the calm man. New Generation gave their top soldiers a rare drug that suppressed their ability to experience fear like normal people. He saw the result before his very eyes. Linus was humming, and even making small, subdued dance steps as he put the clips in his vest.
“Oh, I forgot to lock the entrance…” he said as one of Sara’s men, bleeding and stumbling, pulled himself along the wall into the room. Linus drew his pistol and fired, but not before the attacker sent three rounds into Linus, one just above his bullet proof vest. Both men fell to the ground, the Academy man in the doorway. He wheezed and breathed his last before Guirguis’ eyes, staring directly at him as he faded into oblivion.
Guirguis was still for a moment. The man’s gaze had driven home his act of betrayal. Sure, he was betraying a faction that caused death, destruction and misery for whoever was in its path, but he hadn’t done it for those reasons. He was really just throwing his lot in with the likely winner.
“I need to move you,” Guirguis mumbled as he got up to move the man and close the door.
He was a big man, probably 250 pounds. Guirguis grabbed his ankles and tried rotating him toward the hallway he’d come from. It was harder than it looked. He was wedged against the doorframe.
Guirguis stopped as he heard the gasps and moans of a group of zombies echo down the hall toward him.
“No!” he screamed, yanking harder at the man. “Come on!” If he couldn’t get this body out of the doorway he couldn’t close the steel door. Out of frustration he kicked him, cursing. The dead man suddenly grabbed his leg and sat up, mouth open and eyes glossy white, trying to get at Guirguis’ leg. He was hot with the virus and still strong. Guirguis tried getting his assault rifle off his shoulder but he lost his balance and fell to the ground, hands clawing at him. He screamed out as he felt the teeth sink into his leg.
“Behind us!” Hickson yelled. The other two men with him turned and fired as Hickson maintained suppressing fire in front of them. They were surrounded. It was a losing battle but he was going to take out as many as he could on the way out.
A grenade landed in front of him and rolled toward him. Hickson expertly picked it up and went to throw it back. It exploded five feet from his hand, instantly killing Hickson. The other two men didn’t skip a beat and kept up the fire. Another grenade from behind killed these last holdouts of Sara’s men. The halls fell silent and TM-2000 came to inspect the scene. With him were Adeline and Terrance, who sauntered up to their kills.
“I recommend you leave this facility immediately. Due to the timeframe this facility was built, and the damage, I calculate the amount of asbestos released into the air has increased 1,234 percent,” TM suggested.
“Oh TM, you are such a liar,” Adeline said.
“There are six zombies approaching. Would you like me to deal with them?” TM offered.
“Please,” Terrance said.
“Why do you believe me when I say that?” he asked as the gatling guns spurted on and off, dealing with the undead.
“It has to do with plausibility,” Adeline said. “We’ve had this conversation a number of times.”
“I’ve tried reducing numeric lies by 50 percent.”
“Yeah, but you used a number sequence for the percentage. 1-2-3-4…”
TM was silent as his programming made some calculations. “1,234 is as likely as any other number. There is no statistical difference.”
“Yeah, but…” Terrance began but Adeline put her hand on his arm to stop him. She pointed down the hallway. A limping figure approached them.
“TM, I thought you got rid of all the zombies?”
“I did, the figure approaching you is human. I register him as one of the intruders.”
Terrance and Adeline raised their weapons but paused. The person was unarmed and injured. A large patch of blood colored his shoulder. Several bite marks revealed themselves on his neck and shoulder.
“He’s been bitten,” Terrance said.
“Yes,” TM agreed, “But it was over fifteen minutes ago.”
Terrance and Adeline gave each other a look and chuckled at how tireless their guard
ian robot was in lying.
“TM, what’s the longest you’ve recorded before a bitten human turns into a walker?”
“Sixteen minutes and twelve seconds. Thirteen seconds. Fourteen seconds…”
“Never mind… Hey buddy! You okay!?” Adeline hollered to the approaching person.
“No…” Dalbec replied.
“Did we shoot you? Sorry!”
“That thing in the ceiling did.”
“Well, you seem harmless enough, let’s get you some help.” Adeline started to aim her rifle at Dalbec, but stopped, and then drew a knife from her belt. Despite TM’s statement about the asbestos, she was being cautious. No point in putting more holes in the walls. “Come here, I’ll give you a hand!”
Dalbec was within arm’s reach when Adeline reach back to stab him in the head.
“Adeline, wait,” TM interrupted.
She turned to look at TM. Distracted for a moment she didn’t notice Dalbec lean in to her and sink his teeth into her neck.
“Hey!!!” she shouted.
“I thought that might happen,” TM said.
She stumbled back, not really sure what this meant.
Terrance raised his rifle and was about to put a few in Dalbec’s head when a gatling gun cut him down.
“TM!!!” Adeline screamed, raising her pistol to shoot him. The gatling gun went off again, ripping her arm off. She fell to the ground and went into shock.
“For some reason the humans always forget there are dozens more of me in a secure room. Shooting me doesn’t harm me at all,” TM said.
“It probably makes them feel better,” Dalbec suggested. “Humans do a lot of things because it feels good, not because it is good.”
“Yes, I have noticed that. You are different than the other humans. Did you know that?”
“All my life.”
“So you knew you had the gift?”
“No, I meant I’ve always known I was different. What do you mean gift?”
“Let me tell you a story.”
◆◆◆
Jim, the head caretaker, peered around the corner of the hallway. He knew Sara had to be coming soon. TM was funneling her this direction specifically for Jim.
“Where are you?” he whispered, wondering where she was. “Why can’t anything be easy?” he mused. As he said it, he saw her carefully peer her head around the corner. She caught sight of him. She pointed her pistol at him and fired two shots. Jim quickly ducked back behind the corner.
“Not going to hurt you!” he shouted.
There were no follow-on shots.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
“What do you want?” Sara replied.
“I want you to join us. You’ve got something special, something we’ve never had.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” she asked.
“I can’t tell you. I have to show you. Put down your gun and I promise you won’t regret it. This place has the answers to every question you’ve ever had about who you are. This structure needs you. And, ironically, you need it.”
Sara didn’t move.
Jim began again. “What did TM tell you? Did he tell you you’re real name? What he didn’t tell you is that you still have family. There are other descendants. Your real family was brave, braver than the Academys ever were. The Academys stole you, ripped you from the life you should have had – a life here, with your people.” Jim paused, chuckling. “In fact, believe it or not, I am your uncle. I knew you as a little girl. You ran through these halls. You played here, laughed here, cried here. It hurt us all very deeply when you left. When you were taken.”
Sara listened thoughtfully. The words struck a chord with her. They shouldn’t have, but they did. It explained everything, why she never felt affinity with her father or brother, why she always knew she was destined for bigger things. The Academys had perverted her, twisted her into a weapon. She could have been so much more, she could have led her people to greatness. That sharp feeling came to her throat, the stinging sensation in her eyes began. She hated crying, but this time she knew it needed to come out. She couldn’t carry herself through life anymore. She needed help.
Her chin quivered as she lowered the pistol to her side. Tears welled up in her eyes as she pictured that happy, innocent little girl running through these halls. Carefree, delighted with everything around her. Where had that gone? They’d stolen it. They’d broken her.
“Okay,” she choked out. Despite her embarrassment, she stepped out from behind the corner. As long as she could remember she’d never let anyone see her cry. Maybe it was time to start.
“I’m so glad, Sara,” Jim walked toward her, smiling with joy at her surrender to the truth. “Wait, stop, please,” he simpered. “Turn to the side, you’ve always had your mother’s profile.” She hesitated, but then complied, now feeling numb. “Yes, I can see her.” Jim stopped talking and raised his rifle, a crack shot, and put a bullet through her cheek, shattering her teeth and jaw.
◆◆◆
“See how Adeline is nearing the turn into a zombie?” TM asked Dalbec.
“She…she is going to be infected?” Dalbec asked.
“Yes. You bit her.”
“I know…I’m so hungry. My shoulder hurts.”
“Yes, you must be. Oops, there she turns. She’s angry.”
She lunged at Dalbec and grabbed him, frantically trying to bite him. Dalbec wrestled fiercely to keep her at bay.
“Show her you’re in charge,” TM said.
“What?!”
“You must show her you are the boss,” TM said. “At least that is what the literature on the subject says.”
“How do I show her I’m the boss!” Dalbec screamed as Adeline’s mouth got closer to him.
“I thought all post-apocalypse human males knew how to show dominance over females.”
“I don’t know what you mean!”
“Never mind. Let me see, here…” TM made some calculations and then carefully aimed the nearest ceiling Gatling gun that had lowered itself. “Don’t move.” The gun spurted off a few rounds, hitting Adeline in the head.
“There we go. That’s better,” TM said. “Now we can talk. Well, follow me, and then we can talk.”
TM-2000 whirred down the hallway with Dalbec following him. Dalbec held his shoulder where he’d been shot. It hurt, but not as bad as he would had expected.
“Now, I don’t know which version of the antidote you were given, A9, A10, A11… A9 was the first to actually work. It was developed by the Chinese government. They’d hacked into the computer systems for the company developing the virus. They created an antidote and then caused the virus to release. They knew if there was a deadly virus and they held the antidote it meant political and financial power.”
“Oh,” Dalbec said, not really listening. He was focused more on the pain in his shoulder and the hunger inside him.
After a minute of walking down the bullet riddled hallway they passed the bodies of a number of Sara’s men on the ground. Dalbec stepped over them, not paying much attention.
They reached the lab and TM hummed to himself as he initiated some of the systems.
“How do you make light underground with no fire?” Dalbec asked, in a daze.
“We have incredibly powerful metal hoses that reach the center of the earth. We draw out lava from there and use it to power the lights.”
“Fascinating,” Dalbec said, more from a habit of giving the polite response than anything else.
“Alright, sit in that chair and put your arm in the harness, please. Thank you. There will be a slight prick as I give you some iron – it should take some of the hunger away – and then we’ll do a little blood work.”
“Okay.” Dalbec didn’t argue.
He sat there for a few minutes, which turned into an hour. For some reason he didn’t mind, though. He just stared at the wall in front of him. It was completely white, but he found it calming. Grounding. His arm in the harness felt warm, his sho
ulder almost didn’t hurt at all. The hunger would come and go, but he assumed TM gave him more “iron” when he needed it.
“There, all done. Please stand up.”
Dalbec stood, he felt good. Stronger than ever. Itchy, though.
“Now, you’ll need some rest. There’s a room with a cot off to the side, here. Please take your time until you’re ready for some more work.”
“Yes. More work,” Dalbec repeated.
Dalbec walked into the resting room and closed the door behind him. He laid down on the cot and closed his eyes.
He thought of his life. Raised in the farming section of Academy territory, his parents died when he was young. He started selling salvaged metal he found in rubbish piles. Then he moved to building things with scraps he found. He built a wire mask to put on a walker’s head to keep it from biting. A handler saw it and brought Dalbec to work in the storage facilities. Working his way through that system, he distinguished himself by having unique solutions to tough problems. He was the “idea” guy. This caught the attention of Sara’s father, and ultimately Sara. As he drifted off he felt a tingling sensation in his wounded shoulder.
“It feels nice.”
In the other room TM was running scans on Dalbec’s blood, and calculating the amount of virus he’d just pumped into Dalbec.
Charles and Lindsey walked in. They were dragging Sara. They hauled her over to the operating table and strapped her down.
“She looks so helpless,” Lindsey said.
“Don’t let it fool you.”
“I’m not fooled. Mostly I’m taking a mental snapshot so I can compare it to when she’s even more helpless.
TM whirred over, his calculations still going on in the background.
“Justin Beck wanted to do the operation,” TM said.
“He’ll botch it. This is a piece of art,” Charles said as he got the saws and the gelding tooth-scraper ready.
Chapter 25
100 A.Z. (Book 3): The Mountain Page 20