APOCALYCIOUS: Satire of the Dead

by K Helms

  “You're sick,” said Shere.

  “Feisty. I like that. Are all black girls like that?” he asked, not waiting for a response. It wasn’t their first conversation that had led in this vulgar direction. “Amanda is feisty too.” His smile faded slightly and his tone contained a twinge of regret "She used to be so docile..."

  Annie threw up all over herself. Drew looked at Annie with an expression of disgust.

  Vomit offends this guy, really? Shere thought in amazement.

  “I’m going to leave the two of you un-gagged. So feel free to make as much noise as you would like,” he said gleefully, as he shut the door to Amanda’s bedroom. He walked past the bound girls and winked at them. “Someone is coming to try to rescue you from the big bad wolf. If you scream for him maybe he will find you quicker,” he said, then walked briskly from the room leaving the door open behind him. Shere watched his fat jostle beneath his shirt as he jogged away, and then turned to Annie who was spitting the last few bits of gorge from her mouth. Shere knew the fat miscreant was up to something and she didn’t like it, but what choice did she have? She could; scream for help and maybe get rescued, or maybe help the fat necrophiliac kill her would be rescuer, or she could do nothing but roll over and play dead. She shook her head knowing that she had to try.

  “Annie. We have to start screaming for help,” Shere said in a calm soothing tone that belied the physical and sexual abuse she had been subjected to the past few weeks. Annie nodded, and without much hesitation began screaming blue murder. Shere couldn’t contain a grim smile. Annie definitely had some pipes, and then she joined in on the blood curdling chorus.

  Chapter 34 - Banshees

  Hito pushed upward against the cast iron grate. It was heavy, but as he pressed up with his shoulder and pushed with his legs he felt the grate lift and he slid it across the floor. It made more noise than he would have liked and he kept expecting the fat man to burst through the door and blast him with a shotgun, but the shot never came. He hoisted himself up into the room and walked quietly through the store room to the door. He squatted down to his hands and knees to peek through the half-inch gap beneath the door. It was well lit beyond and he neither saw nor heard anything. He eased himself back to his feet turned the knob and slowly swung the door open. Hito grabbed the handles of his matching 9mm’s from their leather holsters and flipped off the safeties. He hunched over as he jogged along the wall, knowing he needed to find a vantage point. He saw a row of metal storage racks and thought that it would have to do for now. As he began to re-holster his side-arms he felt his blood run cold and a shiver rip up his spine as he heard a high pitched scream.

  “Heeeeeelllllllp!” The voice was then joined by another, screaming almost as loudly. “We’re in here!”

  He fished out the papers from his pocket again and scanned the floor plan of the factory. There was a lot of open area in here and he needed to even his odds. He located the utility room on the map then stuffed the papers back into his pocket and withdrew the 9mms again.

  "It's a trap!" screamed the first voice. Hito was surprised that the fat man was on to him, but he had never planned on throwing caution to the wind. Hito never took action with overconfidence.

  Finley kept watch from his office. He had a good view of the main floor from where he was, especially toward the walk-in freezer, where his ladies-in-waiting were screaming for all their worth. Finley knew that Mr. Hero would eventually walk with his swagger into his crosshairs to attempt to rescue the girls. It was perfect. He nodded knowingly as he thought that his associates degree and experience as a boss had always seemed to come in handy. You just had to understand the common man, he thought smugly. Finley started to smile when the lights went out inside the plant.

  “What the…?” he whispered, and then added, “That little sonuvabitch…” Finley’s expression changed to one of disgust and fear, but not a fear of the mystery hero, more so that he might lose his girls. He pulled back the slide of his automatic, chambering a round and waited in the dark; the perfect dark. He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face; none of the emergency lights had come on. Whoever the dark stranger was had tripped the breakers when he cut the juice to the generator.

  Hito donned his night vision goggles and filled his fists with the twins, as he liked to call his matching Beretta 9mm’s. Now the advantage had shifted. The girls were still screaming, but their voices were becoming ragged and not as loud as they had been. He slowly made his way toward the sound and peered around the corner of the open door. Hito saw them inside the open freezer, bound to a metal rail. Their eyes looked eerie in the green of the NVG’s. There was a door on the other side of the girl’s prison and he could hear moaning coming from within it. There was something dead in there to be sure. Even knowing that this was a trap and couldn’t risk going in and asking the girls where the fat man was; for all he knew Fatman had a set of NVG’s as well. He couldn’t risk it. He backed away and scanned the factory floor. His eyes moved up to an office that sat on a wide catwalk. There crouched the fat man, clutching a pistol in both hands before his face. He wore no night vision and Hito decided that he should dispatch him as quickly as possible before the fat man’s eyes adjusted to the darkness. He wasn’t entirely sure that fat boy was the only one in here that wasn’t a prisoner so he crept toward the metal grated stairs, and when he was within twenty feet Hito raised both 9s and aimed at the fat man. He listened for a moment, and hearing no one else creeping up on him, began firing. The muzzle blast of the 9mms acted like a strobe light inside the darkness nearly blinding Hito with each flash, but he kept firing. He stopped after eight rounds, four from each twin. The fat man lay slumped on his side, blood pouring from his nose and mouth. Hito saw the bullet hole in the man’s temple and a couple others in his right side and neck. Blood poured from the wounds and dripped through the metal grated walk-way, making light pattering sounds as the droplets fell to the concrete floor below.

  The fat man was dead, and with his head leaking its contents from an extremely large exit wound, he would stay dead. Hito walked to the office door crouching low as he did so. He holstered one of the twins, grabbed the door knob and swung it open.

  The smell was appalling, and Hito was shocked to see that the curtains were made of skin, as were the blankets on the couch and strewn throughout the room was skulls and various other bones; A femur here, a tibia there; it was a veritable charnel house. In the past months he had witnessed virtually every deviant act known to man, but this was abhorrent. With no laws or officers to enforce them, the survivors of the apocalypse were free to participate in whatever they desired. That was a risk they were free to take, because Hito was free to kill them as recompense. He shut the door as he backed out of the office and started down the stairs to where the girls had gone silent. He stopped himself, knowing that there was a proper order of things. He needed to secure the rest of the plant before he finished the job. The bound women weren’t going anywhere, so he could put them down at his leisure. He would make it mercifully quick, though, as far as he knew they were relatively innocent.

  It took Hito about forty-five minutes to check the rest of the plant to his satisfaction then he went back to the utility room, restarted the generator, reset the main breaker then walked back to the walk-in freezer and entered the room. He got a good look at the two naked prisoners and raised an eyebrow appraisingly at them. Both were extremely attractive but the black girl had obviously taken a few beatings. Some of the bruises were old and fading to yellow, while some still had the fresh color of red that turned her dark skin purple in several places. The white girl had the roundest and largest set of breasts he had ever seen but the streaks of vomit that ran down her breasts and stomach and off the side of her right thigh was not quite as arousing. Hito noticed the blonde woman had a playboy bunny tattoo on her hip. Her body was thin at the waist, with long slender legs. He realized he was staring and forced himself to look away. The black girl's brown skin glistened with perspiration i
n the warmth of the steel building. Her hair was cropped short and spiked long at the bangs either by intent or from the humidity, but it suited her well. She had an angular, but very pretty face, almost elfish, and to him she was more beautiful than the blonde even with the bruises. She was slender, but athletic and toned with long, lean muscle. He hunkered down in front of them, the pistols hanging in his hands over his knees.

  “Is that fat bastard dead?” asked the black girl showing her perfect white teeth in a sneer of disgust.

  Hito nodded. “Yeah, he’s dead.”

  He watched as both girl’s faces relaxed, relieved that their ordeal was almost over. He noticed the black girl’s face as it tensed again, and he knew that she wondered what was going to happen to her now.

  Hito was glad the fat man was dead. He had taken a lot of pleasure in that one. He had deserved to die, him probably more than any other he had killed since the onset of this epidemic, but he would take no pleasure in the deaths of these two vibrant young ladies. It isn’t personal, Hito thought, and realized that it was rapidly becoming his mantra, but for the first time, there was a shadow of doubt in his actions.

  He heard moans coming from the room behind him. “Have any idea what’s in there, ladies?” he said, with a tilt of the head, motioning behind him.

  “He called her Amanda. She’s a zombie,” ventured Annie

  “She’s hanging in some sort of sex swing,” added Shere. Hito cringed with apparent disgust, then stood and walked over to the door. He holstered the left twin and opened the door, pointed the business end of the 9mm into the room and saw that there was, indeed, a female zombie strapped into a nylon harness, suspended in the center of the dimly lit room. He saw that she had no arms or legs, but fat hung in rolls against the straps that held her in place. He raised the 9mm and placed the barrel against the dead woman’s forehead. She hissed at him once before her toothless gums started snapping viciously at him. He squeezed the trigger and put her out of her misery. Hito began to mentally prepare himself to kill the girls when he heard Shere say, “Mister, if you want, we’ll join up with you.”

  Then Annie added. “Actually, I think I’d rather kill people than these zombies.” She spoke in such a chord of disgust that part of him instantly related to them.

  Hito paused. Could these women be serious? It would be nice to have some like-minded companions. There were days when he was plagued by guilt for all those he had killed and maybe if he was teamed with others that shared his vision then, maybe, just maybe that nagging guilt would leave him in peace. If they were telling the truth, the three of them could do a more thorough job than just him. If they were lying, or just saying things out of shock, then he could easily kill them later. Hito was sure that the black woman had intuited his intentions and may be pledging allegiance to him as a ruse for her escape. He had seen a sharp intellect burning in her eyes.

  “We owe you our lives. Take us with you and we’ll repay that debt,” said Shere. There was no innuendo in her words, just a fierce pride that would not allow her to feel indebted to another. She could not, however, deny that there was something about the tall Asian man that intrigued her. She tried to put it out of her head, thinking that this attraction had something to do with the mental trauma she had been through for the past few weeks. She tried to make sense of it, but couldn’t. She wanted him, simple as that. She wanted him for herself. The truth be told, she thought the other girl wanted him too. Shere had noticed the way the blonde had relished the way the Asian man had stared at her, and jealousy speared Shere’s stomach, gnawing at her.

  “I’ll go too. Anything you want. You'll be the boss. Just take us with you,” pleaded Annie; there was desperation and innuendo in her tone and Hito heard both.

  Hito turned toward them paused uncertainly for a moment, and then holstered the remaining twin. “I’m the boss, huh?” Hito asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Annie nodded enthusiastically but Shere said “I’ll be a partner, but I’m no one’s lackey.”

  Hito studied them again, pondering his decision. He liked the way Annie intoned more than just partnership, but, even more, he liked how Shere somehow believed she had the leverage to bargain, even though she was completely naked, bound to a pipe and was acutely aware of how defenseless she was.

  Hito sighed then said “I’ll take you with me if you do what I tell you,”

  “Whatever you say, whenever you say,” Annie agreed instantly.

  "Within reason, handsome,” Shere amended.

  Hito withdrew a long, razor-sharp knife from his thigh and saw Annie start slightly at the sight, Shere simply tensed, her muscles corded like snakes set to strike. He held up his empty hand showing a palm. “Easy… I’m going to cut you loose, and then we’ll find you some clothes.” he said and watched them slowly relax.

  “What’s your name?” Annie asked him. Hito was enjoying this; he was a man after-all. What man wouldn’t?

  “Hito” he said as he cut them loose.

  “Hito…” repeated the black woman. “I’m Shere.”

  “And I’m Annie,” said the blonde.

  The girls took notice at how he was looking at them. It wasn’t the same way as with the fat man. Hito looked at them in a distinctly sexual way, but a normal sexual way.

  Shere cleared her throat and said “I know you saved us and all, Hito, but do you think you can hurry it up with the clothes? I’m a little uncomfortable here.”

  Hito snapped himself out if his reverie and finished cutting them loose with his face turning red. “Yeah… I’m sorry about that.”

  Shere stood and began to shake out her arms to return their circulation with a long groan. She wanted nothing more than to cover herself, but she did not want to look vulnerable either. The Asian man had already seen her nakedness so she crossed her arms before her with a look of impatience etched upon it.

  Annie came to his side, considered kissing his cheek but remembered throwing up and backing up a step asked, “Can we get some food too, I’m starving.”

  Hito laughed. He hadn’t laughed in so long that it sounded like it had been someone else laughing for a moment before he realized it was himself. He slid off his overcoat and wrapped it around Shere’s shoulders. She looked at him gratefully; her dark hazel eyes had such intensity that Hito had to look away. “You’ll have to share this with your friend until I find you some of your own.”

  Shere gave him a pointed look and Hito grinned with a shrug. “Hey, I only have the one coat.” Shere was far from comfortable being this naked with another equally naked woman when it didn’t involve a squad-bay shower room and as she had no desire to be bumping her business against another woman. Shere saw that her only course of action was to give the blonde the coat and wait for Hito to bring her some others. She started to remove the coat and Annie stopped her.

  “No, you keep it. I can wait,” Annie said, noting Shere’s discomfort and seemed not to share the black woman’s modesty.

  “You girls stay here and I’ll go grab some food,” he said.

  “And some clothes,” Shere reminded him again quickly after Hito as he jogged out the door.

  After a few minutes, Hito reentered the room with a plastic bag full of canned food and a can opener. Over his shoulder were several articles of clothing from Finley’s office. Hito had been relieved that they were not made of human skin. “Dinner, ladies; I found some clothes and some blankets for you, until we go shopping,” he said sliding another plastic bag to them.

  “Are you sure you want me to get dressed?” asked Annie grinning evilly.

  Hito noticed that she had taken the time to tidy herself up as best she could. He had never been real smooth with the ladies, but this time he wasn’t the same old Hito. “For now I think it’s probably the best idea.” Annie nodded and began putting on the proffered clothes. When they were dressed Annie looked unabashedly at Hito who had opened a can of tuna and was eating with his fingers.

  Hito almost choked on his mouthful of
tuna when he saw how she was looking at him and then composed himself as he tried to keep his arousal hidden. Annie seemed to be instantly aware of this and eyed him evilly.

  Shere rolled her eyes, frowned then grabbed another can of tuna and the other can opener as she listened and watched the other two, feeling very much like a third wheel.

  Annie’s eyes never looked away from Hito and Shere was amazed at her shamelessness and again came that gnawing at the pit of her stomach. Jealousy, but she would not play these games. If Hito wanted Annie, then she couldn’t blame him; after all he was blatantly being propositioned. Shere watched her for a while and remembered seeing grief counselors on television. They said that people often reacted to trauma by seeking comfort sexually. However she didn’t think this was the case. Annie was either one of those women that got all hot and bothered by danger or she was just a tramp. Shere believed it to be the latter of the two.

  It seemed that they had counselors for everything. To Shere, those psychological gurus were just quacks trying to make a fast buck from people that needed to be reassured that their behavior was perfectly acceptable and normal. Angry people, bigots and racists, alcoholics, drug addicts, sex addicts, pedophiles. It was all bunk to her. It wasn’t a matter of being able to control yourself; it was a matter of being given the right motivation to control yourself. If there were really no consequences for your actions, other than a friendly talking to, then of course people would continue to do whatever they wanted.

  She was surprised that some new age hippie type hadn’t started a ‘save the zombie’ cause to make excuses for their horrific actions; or tried to make laws so you couldn’t shoot them in the face, because that was just cruel. The good news was that those touchy- feely idiots had to have been devoured by the dead the first, and last, time they had tried to reason with and counsel the approaching zombie horde.