There were enough to overflow a stadium.
Commander Walker was as tough as they came and yet he felt cold fear crawl right up his legs, cross his flat stomach and enter his heart. His Knights had slain less than a thousand of the beasts the night before. This was thirty times that number.
“They seen enough,” Stinky Jim said in a whisper. None of the Corsairs had ventured to the crest. They knew what was on the other side. “Let’s go.”
The group was silent on the way back down. Even the Corsairs held their tongues. They only stared at the Guardians with knowing looks. It was a guarantee that they would cave and each of them was wondering how they were going to divide up the women. So far, the Queen had been downright prudish on the entire concept and they weren’t happy about it.
But the Bishop shocked everyone by not caving. The group entered the pavilion—the surgical tables had been removed and in their place the Queen had set up a great chair to act as a throne. She lounged casually in it as if she were watching a movie in her family room at home.
“We saw your zombies,” the Bishop said. “They were very scary.”
“And?”
Wojdan gave her his sad smile. “Sorry, but they weren’t that scary. We will not surrender.”
Her eyes fairly gleamed with building excitement. She jumped up and went to stand directly in front of Wojdan; with her heels, they were roughly the same height. “You’re calling me out?” she asked in the same gleeful manner an eight-year-old would when told she was getting a pony for Christmas. “Yes! That’s what I’m talking about! You got guts, Bishop and I like that.”
“Yea,” he said, dryly.
“Damn right, yea! You just don’t know what it’s like to be me. Jillybean gets to do all sorts of things because everyone thinks she’s bluffing, but me? I prep and prep until everything is perfect and then what do I get?” She hung her head, drooped her lips like licorice melting in hundred-degree heat and said in the voice of a faux moron: “Sorry, but we give up.”
She perked up in a flash and slapped her hands together in triumph. “But this is going to be epic. Like one of those plagues I was talking about. Ooh, you don’t mind if we film it do you? I think Troy will look gooood wielding one of those spears, fighting for his life, surrounded by fifteen or twenty monsters. If you could manage to get your shirt ripped off during the fight that would be a big help. I will have to do something about the lighting.” Eve broke off, wondering how she would handle the lighting.
Commander Walker stared at her in amazement. “A film crew in the middle of a battle? That’s…” He bit back the word insane.
“No, I’ll be using a drone. Just think of it as one of those old public service announcements. You know: Don’t do drugs, or It’s ten o’clock, do you know where your child is? We’ll get some before and after shots and intersperse them with footage of the monsters eating everyone in your little village. And, and, brainstorm here…we’ll get my fleet right up close and get some video of us shooting torpedoes into your little boats. We’ll fill them with white phosphorus for a better effect. At night it will look wild!”
“I think we should talk to the other person, the one she calls Jillybean,” Walker said to the Bishop under his breath.
“No,” the Bishop said without lowering his voice. “This is the real queen. The other one is the bait and this one is the switch. Your Highness, we will be leaving now and I will pray for you.”
Donna Polston was quick to say, “I’ll lead them out.” Eve didn’t care. They were all extras in her world and she was onto the big picture. She wanted destruction on a level that would make everything Jillybean had ever done look like child’s play—and she wanted it on film, so no one would ever second guess her again.
When the little group was out of earshot of the pavilion, Donna turned on them. “She’s not kidding! That was Eve. She’s an entirely different person than the Queen and she’s evil. She’ll sic that entire horde on you.”
“Isn’t that what the other Queen intended as well?” the Bishop asked. “Or did she summon those fiends just to scare us?”
“Probably. With her you can never tell what’s going on because she’s so smart, but with Eve…Your Excellency, you have to give up. She will destroy you.”
The Bishop reached out and touched Donna’s brown hair. “No, my child. We will not give up. Ever.”
Chapter 39
Donna Polston crept back into the pavilion. She wasn’t in a hurry to be anywhere near Eve. It was always frightening being within arm’s reach of someone so bat-crap crazy. Thankfully the Queen had ordered the tent struck down so it could be moved back to the main camp. A few Santas were standing around scratching their heads, wondering how they were going to get the huge thing down without dirtying it. Donna didn’t want to have to babysit them through the task and slipped out again.
Behind the tent, the zombies were being coaxed towards the trailers by Eve. She and Jillybean liked to play the part of “zombie tamer” perhaps because it enhanced the idea of their fearlessness. She held a long aluminum pole which she used to guide the blind and deaf creatures. With no other real stimuli to guide them, the beasts would lumber in the direction they were tapped. One to the face would set the beast moving forward; a tap on the right arm would turn it, and so on.
Even maimed, Donna hated being anywhere near the monsters and kept well back. As she was plodding up the hill after them. Gerry the Greek limped over. “So?” he asked. The one word was chalk-full of meaning.
“They’re not giving up,” Donna said, dolefully. “God, I wish Jenn and Stu were here. Stu could get Jillybean to come out like that.” She snapped her fingers and sighed. “And if we had Jenn, I don’t think we would be in this mess at all. I didn’t really notice until she was gone, but I think Jillybean needed Jenn to be her conscience. You know what I mean? Her sense of right or wrong. And now without her, look where we are.”
“Since we don’t have either of them, maybe you should try to coax Jillybean out,” Gerry suggested. “You know Jillybean and Eve pretty well, and both of those crazy chicks like you.”
Donna smacked his arm. “What are you, an idiot? Never say anything like that out loud. If she hears you, she’ll kill you, Gerry. God, how did we get stuck in this situation? In league with Corsairs? Using zombies to kill people. Having a…” she lowered her voice even further, “…a schizo for a queen? Everything used to be so simple.”
It had been, and Gerry missed his old life as well, but Jillybean had been absolutely right about one thing, the happy little world they had been living in was never going to last. “We were living in a bubble, plain and simple. We have to forget it, because the past is the past. We have to worry about today. I don’t know if I can be a part of unleashing those zombies on the Guardians. It’ll be a massacre.”
“I know, but what choice do we have? Unless we can get someone who’s willing to risk Eve’s anger, we’re stuck.” Donna didn’t have the guts to try to outsmart Eve and she didn’t think Gerry was up to the task. She had known him for too long. When it came to thinking, he was a bit of a plodder. He wasn’t stupid, he just took his time coming to conclusions. Eve would see right through him if he tried to trick her into letting Jillybean out.
“Yingling’s pretty smart,” Gerry said. “He was a Sacramento guy, though. Damn, so is Rebecca Haigh. I was about to suggest her.”
Donna didn’t have Gerry’s prejudice against Sacramentans. In his mind they were bottom feeders and only slightly better than the Santas. Still, she scratched Steven Yingling’s name from her short list. She didn’t know him very well and what they were contemplating was tantamount to treason in Eve’s mind. If Donna was going to put her life in someone’s hands, she wanted to be able to trust that person completely. She loved the idea of using Miss Rebecca; the girl had proven to be tough, smart and resourceful. The problem was that Rebecca had been left behind as acting governor of the bay area in the Queen’s absence.
“What a
bout Colleen White?” Gerry suggested.
“You really are an idiot. Colleen hates the Queen, both of them. And I’m sure Eve hates her, though it’s hard to tell since she seems to hate a lot of people. Either way, I’ve had to assign hunting duties to Colleen just to keep her out of the camp. And you want to know what she’s brought back so far? In three days, she’s managed to kill a squirrel. That’s singular. One squirrel and it took her seven bullets.”
Gerry looked like he was going to be physically sick. “Seven bullets? That’s the most ridiculous thing I…” A sudden splash of gunfire from the north shook the morning. It was a short burst with two or three weapons popping off shots. “Zombie, probably.”
“Maybe,” Donna replied. Her gut told her differently. The shooting had been closer than the other stray zombie kills. Out of force of habit she gazed around, looking for a sign in the trees, in the sky, in the particular way the clouds had arranged themselves. She saw nothing which only caused the nervous pit in her belly to grow. Once she had been the leader of the Coven. Once she could see signs from the way the leaves fell and interpret them anyway she wanted.
Jillybean had changed all that. Now if she said that she saw the destruction of the Guardians in the clouds, some jackass from Santa Clara would laugh and say: All I see is a horsey.
She sighed and said, “Colleen’s out. Who else.” They batted names back and forth, always finding fault somewhere. Charmel Gilbert was too sweet and Eve would eat her alive. Ashtyn Bishop was too unlucky, everything she touched became a fiasco. Claudia Stephens was still too skittish after her near death experience in the pounding surf off Alcatraz.
Everyone else was too ugly or too stupid. Eve could barely look at ugly people. Stupid people were almost as bad. Although she wasn’t the genius that Jillybean was, Eve wouldn’t let people with even a slightly lower than average IQ speak in her presence.
Another factor that ruled people out was bravery. Most everyone fell short in this category. Confronting Eve was very much like walking into a tiger’s dens, naked and weaponless.
What they needed was someone strong, brave, handsome and smart. Donna immediately thought of Mike Gunter and Stu Currans—and sighed again. She had to shake her head to clear the image of their dead faces. The one that replaced them was surprising: Knights Sergeant Troy Holt. “What did Eve say about that Knight? The handsome one, Holt?”
Gerry ran a hand through his dark beard. “She said he was cute or something. You’re not thinking of using him to get Jillybean back, are you? That’s crazy. First off, he just left and second, whoever goes to get him might get shot by them or by us, and they will definitely get shot by the Queen. You know better than anyone that Eve holds grudges, and she won’t be gone forever.”
He was right. Whoever crossed the lines could never come back. “Unless they went in some sort of disguise and then snuck back after dark.”
“Snuck back from where?” someone asked from behind them.
“Gah!” Gerry cried. Colleen White, dressed in form-fitting camo, had suddenly appeared at his side, causing him to jump. The three days of hard work involved in creating the river had worn down everyone except her. She looked as fresh as always, her black hair was still silky and her eyes as bright blue as ever.
“Nothing. I mean nowhere,” he said, feeling foolish. “Where’d you come from?”
She pointed off toward the ocean. “Over by the beach.” Donna frowned, creating tiny lines at the corners of her eyes and lips. “I was hunting,” Colleen added, quickly.
“Because that’s where all the deer like to hang out?” Donna asked.
The sarcasm was missed by Colleen who said, “They have to drink sometime. It must be at night. When everyone’s sneaking around, right? Come on, I heard you guys talking about sneaking somewhere. What’s going on for real?”
“Eve’s back,” Donna said and then proceeded to tell Colleen everything, hoping that she could come up with an idea. Colleen was quiet as they trudged along, heading, like everyone else, in the direction of where the shooting had taken place. It was only a few hundred yards from the main camp and already there was something of a crowd.
Donna, whose rank was somewhere between majordomo and serving girl, pushed her way to the front, where she saw Mark Leney talking with another of the ex-Corsair captains. They were standing over the bodies of three men. “What’s going on?” she demanded. Leney began limping towards her; he was bleeding from a wound along the side of his thigh.
“We should talk in private,” he whispered into her ear. “Can you clear these people out of here?”
“Of course.” With Gerry and Colleen’s help, they shooed the crowd away.
When it was just the four of them, Leney sat with a grimace, his back to the bodies. “You heard what the Queen wanted of me.” Donna and Gerry both nodded; Colleen nodded as well a second after they did, though she had no idea. Leney motioned behind him. “It was them. I had heard some rumors a while back that someone was doing some talking. I had hoped it was just that, rumors, but when I confronted them…” He pointed at his leg as if that was all that needed to be said.
“They just started shooting?” Gerry asked.
“Not right off the bat. I was like, ‘come on, guys, we know what’s going on’ and before I knew it, that guy, uh he reached for a gun. I was faster, but not fast enough and one of them nicked me.”
“When you say you heard someone was talking, who were they talking to?” Colleen asked.
Leney looked startled by the question. “Uhh, just people. It’s one of those things you hear sitting around the fire at night. People talk. You know. I heard from Bob, who heard from Jim that Ron was asking too many questions. That sort of thing.”
“Are there more of these traitors?” Colleen asked. “Did they give you more names or…wait! That’s Steve. Steve Yingling. He wasn’t a traitor. He hated the Corsairs.”
In a state of shock, Donna edged closer to the bodies. One was a Corsair she didn’t know, one was a Santa named Runner, who did nothing but play cards all day, and one was Steven Yingling. He was covered in so much blood that it looked like he’d been shot by a machine gun. He had three holes in his chest, one through-and-through on his left wrist and was missing a finger on his right hand.
“Maybe he hated the Queen even more,” Leney said. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. Like I said, they just started shooting. That smacks of guilt in my mind.”
“Yeah,” Gerry said. He leaned in close to Donna and whispered, “We lucked out not using him.”
Donna fixed him with a quick glare and pretended she hadn’t heard. “The Queen is going to have a freaking conniption fit. She’s already paranoid; Eve, I mean. If there’s anyone else, she’s going to resort to mass tortures, executions, the whole nine yards.”
“There isn’t,” Leney said, speaking quickly. “None that I’ve heard at least. And I really don’t know if these guys were for real. I just wanted to ask them some questions and the next thing I know they’re pulling their guns.” He looked eager to be believed.
“If only Jillybean was here,” Colleen said, ignoring Donna’s sudden twitch. “She’s much more reasonable. She’d believe you, Captain Leney, just like I do.”
Colleen was being so obvious, that Donna had to close her eyes so that Leney wouldn’t see them roll back in her head.
Leney knew exactly what she was suggesting and she was absolutely, one-hundred percent wrong. Jillybean would take one look at the crime scene, for that’s exactly what it was, and see that the three men had been murdered. After killing them, Leney barely had time to position the bodies and kick dirt over ill-placed blood spatters before the first person arrived.
It would be stupid to try to bring Jillybean back, but it would also be stupid to appear to fight it. “I can try to talk to her if you think it will help.”
Donna tried not to look too excited. “It might,” was all she was willing to commit to. The four of them left the bodies discarded
in the high weeds and went to where the pavilion was being erected. Eve was nearby, listening to the Corsair Captain who had found Leney and the bodies. He was dismissed with evident annoyance and Leney was forced to go into the deprivation trailer with Eve.
When he came out ten minutes later, he was pale, looking as if he had kissed the wrong end of a baby. Donna caught his eye and he gave her a discreet shake of his head. Eve was still in charge.
Unexpectedly, Colleen said, “I’ll go Highton. I’ll leave as soon as it gets dark. I’ll send that…what was his name? Troy? I’ll send him back, but even if he’s able to get Jillybean back, what’s really going to change? Aren’t we still going to attack? Don’t we have to? The ex-Corsairs aren’t going to go through all this work just to walk away when they could crush these guys.”
“I don’t know what Jillybean’s plan was,” Donna said. “She likes to play things close to the vest. Maybe she was hoping that the first attack would scare them enough for a bluff to work. They clearly aren’t changing their minds. So, I’m worried that this is going to happen, Jillybean or no Jillybean.”
“Me too,” Colleen whispered, dropping her head.
She looked suddenly vulnerable. Donna gripped her arm. “Then maybe you shouldn’t go. If you try and fail…”
“Eve will kill me. I know. I’m still going. I think I’m done with all this. And if I can do something to stop the slaughter, then I will.” She started to walk away, then stopped and said over her shoulder, “If she wins this way, she’ll be the new Black Captain. And someone will have to stop her.”
Chapter 40
Eve was still in charge and growing crazier by the minute, when Colleen slipped out of camp just as the sun was going down. The Queen had spent the afternoon standing on the steep hill above her zombie army, gloating over it, breathing in the foul air that shimmered up. She wasn’t fighting her inner demons, she was goading them and feeding them on raw hate.
Generation Z (Book 4): The Queen Unthroned Page 38