21st Century Dead
Page 35
Am I a severely wounded human being? A broken war machine? Am I dead or alive or what the hell? Nine-o-two doesn’t seem to know and neither do I.
Over the machine’s shoulder, I see a little tent shivering in the wind. The structure is wrapped up tight and the interior is throbbing with that rotten orange glow. Some shard of Archos is inside, talking.
I take a step forward.
Nine-o-two bristles. Thin sheets of ice crack and fall from his joints as the barrel of his gun settles between my eyes.
Familiar smoke rises from the machine’s forehead. A line of communication that settles over me. Nine-o-two points at the snow a few yards away.
“Path blocked, acknowledge. Alternate route indicated. I wish you luck … creatures,” it says.
All kinds of tracks are in the muddy ice. Regular old footprints, the neatly spaced mine shafts of high-stepping tall-walkers, and the flat-topped mesas left by spider tanks dragging their equipment-filled belly nets over high snow drifts.
Gray Horse Army passed this way.
* * *
There are no mirrors out here in the wilderness and I thank the Creator for that.
Without a mirror, it’s up to my imagination to guess what Gray Horse Army sees when they look out at us. A shambling group of a dozen corpses following in their tracks, brain-dead and deaf and dumb. Luckily, my imagination isn’t that good anymore.
The humans don’t travel at night, which is why we catch up to them.
At dusk on the third day, we watch the spider tanks amble into covered-wagon formation. The legged metal giants squat into bunker configurations for the night, encircling the human camp. In the protected clearing, campfires glitter into existence. Soon, rifle scopes wink at us from the tops of the tanks.
Got to keep the zombies at bay.
But we keep a safe distance. Sway together numbly through the night, the wind cutting moaning tunnels between us. Gray Horse Army does not fire. The war is over, after all. I imagine we are just another one of the odd atrocities left behind in this new world. Not enemies, not yet.
At dawn, there is movement.
A tall-walker pulls up short and the rider watches for maybe half an hour. The rest of the camp is packing up. Groaning tanks stand, loaded with soldiers. A flock of tall-walker scouts sprints ahead. But before the army moves, two tanks part and a handful of men approach. As they get near, I recognize Lonnie Wayne.
He’s shading his eyes and shaking his head in disbelief.
Lonnie shrugs off his battle rifle and tosses it to the man next to him. Unfastens the loop on his sidearm holster, lets the pistol hang low on his hip. Extra ammunition and a knife and a hand radio hang from his belt, flopping as he strides toward us, alone.
“Lark,” he calls, voice breaking.
His boots crunch through the brittle morning snow.
I don’t react because I can’t. My every move is monstrous. To speak is to groan. To move my corpse’s puppet arms is to make a mockery of the dead. I’m so ashamed of my injuries. All I can do is stand here, a monster swaying with the wind as the breaking sun turns the ice to light.
Lonnie ignores the others. Gets near enough to look into my face.
“Oh, Lark,” he says. “Look what they did to you.”
I send all my concentration into the foreign, black metal in my head. Push out a glowing wisp of contact that only I can see. Let it settle over Lonnie’s hand radio like ghostly fingertips. It doesn’t catch, though. He’s got man-made equipment and it doesn’t work like Rob-built hardware. My light slips right through.
The old man studies me, looks for some reaction. But I can give him nothing.
“I can’t leave you like this,” he says.
Lonnie draws his pistol, reluctant, eyes shining. Lifts it glinting into the air and extends his arm. My head wobbles as the barrel noses into my temple. This close to death and I can’t scream for Lonnie to stop. All I can think of is how much I miss the feeling of my goddamn heart beating in my chest.
“Lark,” he says. “I’m proud of you, kid. You did real good.”
The old man pulls back the hammer with his thumb. Drops his index finger into the trigger guard. Wraps it around the cold, familiar steel.
“You were a son to me,” he says, and he squeezes his mouth into a hard line. Looks away, keeping his blue eyes wide to stop the tears from falling out.
Then his radio squawks. Lonnie pauses, cocks his head. Static.
“… Alive,” the radio says, in a hoarse whisper.
I see the word register on Lonnie Wayne’s face like a ripple on a pond.
Real slow, he turns his head to face all of us, a dozen silent corpses standing mute in the dawn. Spirits who are not alive and not yet dead. Honor-bound to survive.
Lonnie lowers his pistol.
“Still alive,” hisses the radio. “Still alive.”
The old man blinks the low sunlight out of his eyes along with a couple of crystalline tears. Holsters his weapon with trembling hands. My skin can’t feel it when he cups my ruined face in his palms. I can’t smell him when he pushes his forehead against mine. Inside, though, my heart is stinging with a pure, eternal kind of sadness that never makes it to my face. Never will again.
“We’ll get through this, son,” he says, simply.
If I could cry, I guess I would do it about now.
Not for what happened to me and my soldiers, or for the bone-tired despair dragging down the bags under Lonnie’s eyes. I would cry for something even worse. For the sick orange glow that’s been spreading just over the horizon. For what I recognize as the birth of another Archos, its tendrils of control looping and roiling out of a growing evil haze. For the never-ending goddamn trials of living things.
If I could, I’d cry for what’s to come.
Also by
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN
Joe Golem and the Drowning City (with Mike Mignola)
Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (with Mike Mignola)
Wildwood Road
The Boys Are Back in Town
The Ferryman
Straight on ’Til Morning
Strangewood
The Ocean Dark (as Jack Rogan)
The Collective (as Jack Rogan)
THE SHADOW SAGA
Of Saints and Shadows
Angel Souls and Devil Hearts
Of Masques and Martyrs
The Gathering Dark
Waking Nightmares
THE VEIL
The Myth Hunters
The Borderkind
The Lost Ones
ANTHOLOGIES
The New Dead
The Monster’s Corner
British Invasion (edited by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, and James A. Moore)
Hellboy: Odd Jobs
Hellboy: Odder Jobs
Hellboy: Oddest Jobs
NONFICTION
The Complete Stephen King Universe (with Stanley Wiater and Hank Wagner)
Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman (with Hank Wagner and Stephen R. Bissette)
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
AMBER BENSON is an actor, filmmaker, novelist, and amateur occultist who sings in the shower. Best known for her work as Tara Maclay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she is the author of the Calliope Reaper-Jones series and the middle-grade ghost story Among The Ghosts. She is also the codirector (with Adam Busch) of the feature film Drones. She can be stalked on her blog—www.amberbensonwrotethis.blogspot.com—and on Twitter and Facebook.
S. G. BROWNE is the author of the novels Breathers; Fated; and Lucky Bastard, as well as the e-book short-story collection Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel. His debut novel, Breathers, a dark comedy told from the point of view of a zombie, was optioned for film by Fox Searchlight Pictures and is currently in development. His short fiction can also be found in several anthologies and collections, including The Living Dead 2; Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead; Swallowed by the Cracks; and Amazing Stories of th
e Flying Spaghetti Monster. His writing is inspired by his love of dark comedy, social satire, and the supernatural. You can visit him at www.sgbrowne.com.
KEN BRUEN
Author of twenty novels.
Ph.D. in metaphysics.
Current book, Headstone.
CHELSEA CAIN is the author of The New York Times bestselling thrillers Evil at Heart; Sweetheart; Heartsick; and The Night Season. All take place in Portland, Oregon, and focus on Det. Archie Sheridan, rainbow-haired journalist Susan Ward, and Sheridan’s lovely nemesis, the serial killer Gretchen Lowell. Cain’s books have been published in more than twenty languages, recommended on The Today Show, appeared in episodes of HBO’s True Blood and ABC’s Castle, and named among Stephen King’s top ten favorite books of the year. NPR included her book Heartsick in their list of the top one hundred thrillers ever written. Cain lives in Portland with her husband and remarkably well-adjusted five-year-old daughter.
ORSON SCOTT CARD, the author of Ender’s Game, has also written stories and novels in the horror genre, like “Eumenides in the Fourth-Floor Lavatory”; Lost Boys; Homebody; and Treasure Box. He teaches at Southern Virginia University, served an LDS mission in Brazil in the 1970s, directs plays at every opportunity, and resides in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife and youngest daughter. See www.hatrack.com.
DAN CHAON’s most recent book is the short-story collection Stay Awake. He is also the author of the national bestseller Await Your Reply, which was named one of the ten best books of 2009 by Publisher’s Weekly; Entertainment Weekly; Janet Maslin of The New York Times; and Laura Miller of Salon.com, as well as having been named among the year’s best fiction by the American Library Association and such newspapers as the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. Chaon’s other books include the short-story collections Fitting Ends and Among the Missing, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and the novel You Remind Me of Me. Dan’s fiction has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories; The Pushcart Prize; and The O. Henry Prize Stories. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction and was the recipient of the 2006 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches at Oberlin College, where he is the Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing and Literature.
STEPHANIE CRAWFORD lives in Las Vegas where she may or may not be a showgirl assassin, but usually does odd jobs that include babysitting to supplement her addiction to writing about things like flesh eaters.
CODY GOODFELLOW has written three novels with John Skipp and three solo. His first collection, Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars, won the Wonderland Book Award in 2010. His latest, All Monster Action, is available now from Swallowdown Press. He lives in Los Angeles.
SIMON R. GREEN is probably best known for his Deathstalker series (space opera), Nightside (private eye in the Twilight Zone), and Secret Histories (Shaman Bond, the very secret agent). He acts in open-air Shakespeare productions, rides motorbikes, and is older than you think.
BRIAN KEENE is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Darkness on the Edge of Town; Take the Long Way Home; Urban Gothic; Castaways; Dark Hollow; Dead Sea; and The Rising. He also writes comic books such as The Last Zombie; Doom Patrol; and Dead of Night: Devil Slayer. His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French, and Taiwanese. Several of his novels and stories have been developed for film, including Ghoul and The Ties That Bind. In addition to writing, Keene also oversees Maelstrom, his own small-press publishing imprint specializing in collectible limited editions, via Thunderstorm Books. Keene’s work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times; the History Channel; The Howard Stern Show; CNN.com, Publishers Weekly; Media Bistro; Fangoria Magazine; and Rue Morgue Magazine. Keene lives in Pennsylvania. You can communicate with him online at www.briankeene.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Keene/189077221397, or, on Twitter at @BrianKeene.
CAITLIN KITTREDGE is not prepared for the zombie apocalypse. She is, however, prepared for the kitten apocalypse. She writes about ghosts, demons, werewolves, superheroes, and Lovecraftian horrors among her four series of novels, and short stories involving anything that strikes her fancy. She likes comic-book movies, cats, and pie. Caitlin lives in Massachusetts. You can read her blog at www.caitlinkittredge.com.
JONATHAN MABERRY is a New York Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and Marvel Comics writer. He’s the author of many novels including Assassin’s Code; Dead of Night; Patient Zero; and Flesh & Bone. His nonfiction books are on topics ranging from martial arts to zombie pop culture. Since 1978 he has sold more than twelve hundred magazine feature articles, three thousand columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, poetry, and textbooks. He founded the Writers Coffeehouse and cofounded The Liars Club, and is a frequent keynote speaker and guest of honor at major writers and genre conferences. Maberry lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Sara, and their son, Sam. Visit him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com and on Twitter (@jonathanmaberry) and Facebook.
JOHN M. MCILVEEN has written numerous articles (primarily in the technical venue), poems, and stories. His fiction has appeared in such magazines as Twisted and Deathrealm, and in the anthologies Borderlands 5 (a.k.a. From The Borderlands); The Monster’s Corner; and Epitaths. McIlveen exists in multiple realms: as the father of five gorgeous daughters, in engineering at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, as a writer, and as a publisher. As you might imagine, at times he is very tired. McIlveen lives in the town where Archie, Reggie, Veronica, Betty, Jughead, and Moose grew up, Riverdale (pronounced Haverhill), Massachusetts.
MARK MORRIS became a full-time writer in 1988 on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme and a year later saw the release of his first novel, Toady. He has since published a further seventeen novels, among which are Stitch; The Immaculate; The Secret of Anatomy; Fiddleback; The Deluge; and four books in the popular Doctor Who range. His short stories, novellas, articles, and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of the highly acclaimed Cinema Macabre, a book of fifty horror-movie essays by genre luminaries, for which he won the 2007 British Fantasy Award. His most recently published or forthcoming work includes the official tie-in novel for zombie apocalypse computer game Dead Island for Transworld, a novelization of the 1971 Hammer movie Vampire Circus for Hammer/Arrow, several Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish Productions, a short-story collection Long Shadows, Nightmare Light for PS Publishing, and a follow-up volume to Cinema Macabre titled Cinema Futura.
JOHN SKIPP is best known as an award-winning and bestselling author and editor, whose twenty-three books have sold millions of copies worldwide and been published in nine languages. His early works (written with Craig Spector) were considered seminal to the “splatterpunk” style of modern horror fiction. A 1987 conversation between Skipp and George Romero led to Skipp and Spector’s 1989 anthology Book of the Dead, which was the beginning of modern post-Romero zombie literature. Skipp’s other zombie anthologies include Still Dead (1992), Mondo Zombie (which won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology in 2006), and the seven-hundred-page “Greatest Hits” collection, Zombies: Encounters With the Hungry Dead (2009).
THOMAS E. SNIEGOSKI is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult series The Fallen, as well as the popular urban-fantasy books featuring angel turned private investigator, Remy Chandler. The Fallen: End of Days is the latest in the Fallen series, and In the House of the Wicked, the next of the Remy Chandler books, was released in August. Sniegoski lives in Massachusetts with his long-suffering wife, LeeAnne, and their French bulldog, Kirby. Please visit him at www.sniegoski.com.
STEPHEN SUSCO has accumulated tremendous success and is renown in a profoundly dynamic career spectrum, including stints in such unique and daring fields as dynamic cryptopaleontology, dark-matter-waste recycling, and extraheliosphere meteor hijacking. In this particular slice of the metavers
e, however, he’s achieved a more modest reputation, having concocted slightly more than a few movie recipes—including The Grudge; Red; and the upcoming Leatherface, of which slightly less than a few have been half baked. And yet his “twins” in their respective parallel universes surely look on with envy at this, his first foray into the publishing world.
KURT SUTTER is a television and feature writer. He is very familiar with things that should be dead, but are not.
DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI is the author of several crime thrillers, including the Edgar–nominated and Anthony Award–winning Expiration Date, as well as Fun & Games, the first in a trilogy. He currently writes the DC Comics series Birds of Prey and has written about the Punisher, Cable, the Immortal Iron Fist, Werewolf By Night, Black Widow, and Deadpool for Marvel Comics. Duane has also collaborated with CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker on a series of bestselling “digi-novel” thrillers, which includes Level 26: Dark Origins; Dark Prophecy; and the forthcoming Dark Revelations. He and his family live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Visit him at www.secretdead.com or twitter.com/swierczy.
DANIEL H. WILSON is the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse, as well as six other titles, including How to Survive a Robot Uprising, Where’s My Jetpack? and A Boy and His Bot. He earned a Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, along with a Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence. His next novel, Amped, will be released by Doubleday on June 5th, 2012. Daniel lives in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more at www.danielhwilson.com.
RIO YOUERS is the British Fantasy Award–nominated author of Old Man Scratch and Westlake Soul. His short fiction has been published by, among others, Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy, IDW, and PS Publishing. Rio lives in southwestern Ontario with his wife, Emily, and their daughter, Lily Maye.