by Jack Wallen
“I miss those days, B.” Jamal’s words forced me back into the here and now.
“Which days?”
Jamal stared at me as if my head was spinning an exorcist twist on my neck. “Duh…school. All-night coding sessions, weekend LAN parties, Linux install fests…”
“Is that what you did for fun?” Echo asked.
“Hell yeah, we did. We were kings and queens of the university,” Jamal answered, his voice a bit overly defensive.
“In whose mind?” Echo teased.
“Considering nerds wound up running the world,” Jamal smirked, “I’d say everyone’s.”
“News flash, Jamal, the nerds are no longer in control.” Echo caught herself. “I mean…I don’t…”
I stopped her before a full-blown meltdown set in. “It’s okay, Echo. One of these days, the nerds will take over again.”
Jamal joined in. “And when we do, it will be one righteous hack.”
Echo and I laughed…loudly.
“What?” Jamal asked innocently. “Did I miss something?”
“Yeah,” Echo replied. “Your own lameness.”
When the laughter died down, I nodded toward the radio. “Shouldn’t you be tracking the Genesis Cradle about now?”
Jamal gave me the look that said he was about to try and impress me. “I created a little app that’ll ping me once one of the Chatterers comes within a quarter mile of the wall.”
“So what…we just sit around and wait for the undead sonar to chime?” Echo asked as she continued to rock Jacob. “Do we have a plan for when that actually happens?”
“We…” Jamal’s voice faded as if he’d forgotten what he was about to say.
I shook my head.
“No?” Echo asked, dumfounded. “How can this group not have a plan when you two are involved? You always have something worked out.”
“Actually, my lil’ dumpling…” I leaned against the table. “We do have a plan…just…not specifics for said plan.” I looked to Jamal. “We need a plan.”
Jamal picked up on my meaning and scrambled out of the room.
“What’s Captain Chicken Pants doing?” Echo asked as Jamal bailed.
“If I’m correct, and I usually am with matters pertaining to Jamal, he’s retrieving the remainder of the team so we can form a specific plan.”
I drew in close to my baby. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?” Echo asked, feigning innocence.
“For taking such wonderful care of Jacob. I know I couldn’t pull it off twenty-four-seven.”
Echo grinned. “What can I say…he loves me!”
Jacob looked up to me and cooed just enough to melt my heart. I leaned down and planted a kiss on his forehead. “You are my special man,” I said softly.
“What’s going on?” Morgan’s voice announced. I could tell she wasn’t terribly happy for the intrusion to what had to have been a rare moment of relaxation—made noticeable by the creases in her check and the droopy eyes.
Josh, Gerrand, Rizzo, and Jamal followed soon after. Once everyone was settled in, I addressed the room.
“Do we have the necessary means to entrap one of the Genesis units?” I asked, straight to the point.
It was Josh who chimed in with the first answer. “Considering we have very little information on these bastards, my guess is a resounding no.”
Morgan turned back to the assembled crowd. “We need to change that, right away.”
“How?” Josh asked.
“That’s simple,” Jamal answered. “We wait until I get a ping from my locator software, head out to the given coordinates of the Chatterer, and capture the bastard.”
“You make it sound simple, Jamal,” Morgan added.
Jamal shook his head. “I certainly didn’t mean it that way.”
“Then how did you mean it?” asked Morgan.
“We’ve caught zombies before…we know the drill. All we have to do is get close enough to clong one on the head.” Jamal answered with a bit of snark.
“Excuse me? Clong?” Gerrand huffed. “I don’t remember us being in the habit of clonging zombies.” Richard approached the center of the room and addressed us all. “First and foremost, it is crucial that we locate two of your Chatterers. I need to test the effect of Fry on the first and then capture the second for further examination. I’ve already retrofitted another Fry Bomb with tranq darts filled with an industrial-strength muscle relaxer, so there’s no way the second zombie will either get at us or get away.”
I nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
“The only thing missing,” Gerrand started, “is the means to bring the Chatterer back.”
It was Josh’s turn to add his two cents. “We’ve rigged pulley systems before. It wouldn’t take much to create a sling that will allow us to hoist the rufied zombie over the wall.”
Gerrand nodded to Josh. “Get on that right away.”
“Yes, sir.”
Both Josh and Morgan exited the room.
Before anyone could utter another syllable, an alarm sounded from Jamal’s phone. He pulled it from the pocket of his cargo pants and stared at the screen with a mixture of delight and trepidation. “Fuck me.” He glanced up. “In the immortal words of Carol Anne…they’re here.”
I picked up and ignored the reference. “How close?”
“Within a quarter mile. Based on my tracking software, these things travel at normal human speeds. That means…”
“They’ll arrive at the wall in minutes,” Gerrand interrupted. “We have to go now.”
Gerrand’s command carried with it a much warranted sense of urgency. Without hesitation, we made to exit the room. Before doing so, Jamal checked the software for a direction. “Southeast,” he said hurriedly, and followed me through the door.
*
Josh and Morgan were already front and center at the wall, rigging up the means by which we would pull the captured zombie up and over. There was no time for discussion or chit-chat. As we raced past them, I waved and said, “Ready to hoist?”
“We will be, as soon as you need,” Morgan assured me.
I had no reason to believe otherwise, and told them so as my foot hit the wall and I pulled myself upward, hand over fist over hand. Both Jamal and Gerrand did their best to keep up with my pace. In the end, I reached the summit well before my cohorts in apocalyptic crime.
The second I laid eyes on the Chatterers, my heart skipped a beat. The latest undead evolution was nothing like we’d experienced to date. From this distance, they seemed no different from the living. They stood like us, moved like us. I held myself steadfastly to the wall with one hand and retrieved a pair of binoculars with the other.
I wish I hadn’t looked.
“What do you see?” Jamal’s voice nearly shocked the binocs out of my hand.
“You don’t want to know,” I answered.
“Actually, I do.”
Instead of describing the scene, I handed the glasses over to Jamal. He placed them to his eyes and did a quick adjust on the focus ring.
“No,” Jamal said simply, as he pulled the lenses from his face and rubbed at his eyes. He replaced the binoculars and gave another glance. “This can’t be happening.”
“What’s that?” Gerrand asked.
“The Chatterers—the zombies—they’re carrying weapons,” Jamal mumbled.
Gerrand gestured for the binoculars. “Let me see this.”
Almost immediately after focusing in on the image below, Gerrand sighed. “This is not good. How in the hell are we to deal with rifle-toting zombies?”
“Would the Fry bomb survive falling from this height?” I asked.
Gerrand shook his head. “Not a chance. The mechanisms would never stand the impact. I have to get down there.”
“Not necessarily.” Jamal reached to his belt and unstrapped a sizable length of rope. “Always prepared,” he said with a smile.
“What do you plan on doing with that?” Gerr
and asked.
“Is there a way I can attach the rope to the bomb? If so, we can set it off and lower it to the ground before it unleashes its special brand of hell.”
“Great idea,” Gerrand sighed, “only there is no way to attach the rope. I designed the bombs to be rolled. Fat lot of good it would do…”
Jamal managed to retrieve one more item. “Duct tape?”
“Solves all the world’s problems,” I interjected.
“That I can work with.” Gerrand grabbed the end of the rope while Jamal ripped off a length of the miracle tape. After applying a few strips over the end of the rope, Gerrand announced, “We have a winner! That was some brilliant thinking, Jamal.”
I reached for my Fry gun. “Before we go all Gap Band on those two Chatterers, we need to nail one with this.”
“Very good.” Gerrand nodded. “I nominate Bethany to take the shot.”
“Why me?” I complained.
“You have the best aim,” Gerrand answered.
Jamal shot up his free hand, “You’ll get no argument from me on that one.”
“Fine,” I said, and leveled the pistol toward the nearest Chatterer. “You sure about this, Gerrand?”
“Absolutely. This must be done.”
Without awaiting further confirmation, I took aim and pulled off the shot. The dart filled with Fry launched from the gun with a crack.
Jamal held the binoculars up to his eyes and focused in on the target. “Bingo. You nailed him, B.”
“What’s he doing?” Gerrand asked.
“Nothing yet.”
“My guess is there’ll be no…”
Jamal stopped Gerrand short. “Hold up.”
“What is it?” Gerrand whispered.
“Son of a bitch,” Jamal hissed. “It looked like it was going to drop, but it only stumbled. I’ve seen those bastards hit point blank with a shot and not miss a beat.”
“Maybe the Genesis zombies feel pain?” I dared ask.
“Let’s not find out,” Gerrand responded, pressed the ignition button on the Fry Bomb, and lowered the device.
Both of the Chatters spotted the descending black ball and drew nearer to the wall, in an obvious display of curiosity.
“Fascinating,” Gerrand whispered.
The sound of the flicking arms of the Fry Bomb managed to reach us at the top of the wall, quickly followed by one of the darts skyrocketing to its apex at our eye level, and then immediately plummeting back to Earth.
“Nailed ‘em both,” Jamal said, binoculars to his eyes.
“Three,” Gerrand chimed as he pulled the rope up.
Jamal continued spying on the scene with the binoculars. “Nothing yet.”
“Two.”
“Nada.”
“One.”
“Nyet.”
“Zero.”
“Boom!” Jamal cried out. “Down the fuck-wits go.”
“You guys having all the fun up here?” Josh’s thunderous voice nearly shocked me into stage-diving back to ground level.
“And the award for most perfect timing goes to…” Jamal snarked.
“Never suck up all the fun. You must save some for the rest of us.” Josh bolted an industrial-grade pulley to a metal bar and fed a thick rope through the guide. Next he tossed a harness to the ground below, and then the free end of the rope followed suit. “When you get down, you have to tie the rope to the harness, strap the zombie into it, and then get your ass back over the wall. I’ll remain up here, so when the creeper reaches the top, I can swing the meat sack over and you can lower him down.”
“I take it that means we’ll be doing all the heavy work?” Jamal dared ask.
Josh laughed. “You’re funny, nerd boy. Would you like me to help you down to the other side?”
Jamal blanched and tossed a leg over the wall.
“I’m just fuckin’ with you, J-Man.”
“Regardless…” Jamal continued over. “Point taken.”
We made our way down the wall without incident. The second my feet hit the ground, I snatched up the harness and made short shrift of attaching the rope. While I worked some serious knot magic, Jamal and Gerrand dragged the Chatterer to the wall.
“Jesus H. Sweatfest, that thing smells like open ass.” I covered my nose and mouth.
“Take a look at this, Bethany.” Gerrand waved me over and pointed at the zombie’s ear.
Grafted to the flesh of his head was what could only be bone conducting headphones. The grafting was rudimentary, but effective. Flesh had been sutured over the conduction panels in front of his ears. The healing process had already come to completion, meaning the grafting had to have been undertaken weeks ago.
Suspicion welled up fast and furious, insisting I make a break for the second Chatterer. Just as I thought, the second zombie had the same set of phones surgically attached to its head.
“What are you thinking, B.?” Jamal’s voice whispered into my ear.
“I’m glad these bastards didn’t develop the ability to communicate telepathically, while at the same time scared out of my wits that the ZDC managed pull off something this malevolent. We’re looking at next-level evil, Jamal.”
“You know,” Jamal leaned in to get a better look at the device on the thing’s head. “We might be able to remove that and use it to our advantage.”
I turned to face Jamal. “What are you thinking?”
“Out loud…just thinking out loud.” Jamal helped me suit the zombie up. “But if these devices can receive and send the Chatterer signal, chances are the Zero Day Collective are listening in. That means…”
I cut Jamal short. “We can reverse engineer the technology and track the ZDC.”
“Exactamundo,” Jamal replied with both thumbs in the air. “The only hurdle is getting a signal past the Faraday cage this baby will be housed in.”
“You already know the solution to that problem, don’t you?” I winked.
“Look who you’re talking to. Of course.” Jamal offered up a clownish grin.
The minute the Chatterer was in the harness, we dragged him to the base of the wall and started our ascent. The climb up was fueled by an extra dosage of fear.
“How long do we have before that sucker wakes, Gerrand?” I asked.
“I counted at least six darts embedded in its flesh, so…eight to ten hours, give or take.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jamal sighed.
“That’ll give us plenty of time to get it locked up tight,” I added, knowing that somehow we’d have to locate the means to transport the ugly bastard.
That is, if Dane kept his word. Without the Thelemites on our side, we’d never hold off a full-on attack from the Collective.
We reached the apex and swung ourselves over. Josh cheered us on with equal parts snark and honesty. “Don’t let the fucker slip. One crash landing and it’ll explode like an overripe watermelon.” Josh offered up a menacing laugh that faded into the distance once we were halfway down.
“This is going to work, right, B.?” Jamal said, his voice rife with trepidation.
“It has to,” I responded.
“That’s not exactly the reassurance I was looking for.”
“Let’s get this monster down to the ground and then I’ll give you all the reassuring your heart and mind could ever possibly desire,” I answered, sucking wind as we descended faster than caution would advise.
The second my feet touched down, I made my way to Morgan, picked up the rope, and readied myself for the struggle.
“Some gloves would have been nice,” Jamal whined.
“Pop a pacifier in and everything’ll be just fine,” Morgan quipped, as she patted Jamal on the back.
Gerrand took up the rear of our little undead tug of war.
“Go!” Morgan barked the order.
Almost immediately, the rope tightened and nearly slipped from my ill-prepared grip.
“Holy mother of chub, that zombie weighs a ton.” Morgan’s voice strained
against the effort.
“Actually, that’s the downward force of…”
I silenced my little lamb before he was too far down the physics rabbit hole to return.
Slowly, hand over straining hand, we lowered the Chatterer to the ground. Thankfully, when it touched down, it remained trapped in a sea of blissful slumber. A quick minute later, Josh hopped from the wall, scooped the Chatterer up, and tossed it over his shoulder.
“After you.” Josh gestured with his free hand.
“I cannot believe how easy that was,” Jamal sang out.
Instinctively, I slugged Jamal in the shoulder. “I swear, J-Mart, if you just jinxed us, I’m going to haunt you from the grave.”
“Since when did you believe in the jinx?” Jamal answered.
He had me there. Superstitions were never my strong suit.
“To be honest,” I said, “the apocalypse has me afraid of my own fucking shadow. I figure we could use all the help we could get…which means respecting the jinx.”
“Oh, I respect it,” Jamal half-heartedly laughed. “I’m glad to hear you’re finally a believer.” Jamal winked.
Gerrand interrupted our little back-and-forth. “When we arrive at the HQ, I have the perfect place to tie down our little friend.”
“So the mad science can commence?” Josh asked with a laugh.
“There will be science,” Gerrand answered. “The maddest in the field.”
eighteen | the auction
Dane stopped the box van a block away from the auction coordinates. He shut the vehicle down and stuffed the key into his pocket. The over-hot engine ticked and popped as waves of heat rose to greet the blistering air of the desert. Beads of sweat collected along his hairline. He’d pulled the dreadlocks back to keep cool. It never worked.
He checked his watch.
“Ten minutes,” Dane whispered.
“Wouldn’t it be best if we were the first…”
Dane held up his hand to silence Ronaldo. “We have the silver bullet in our chamber…it doesn’t matter when we arrive.”
“But what if—” Ronaldo started.