Land of the Undying

by Dave Willmarth

  “Ha!” Jervis slapped his knee in exaggerated amusement. When he raised his hand, there was a six-inch stiletto in it, the tip a fraction of an inch from Mace’s eye, and dripping poison. “You know that any other drow who referred to me in that manner would have been dead before they finished their sentence.”

  Mace smiled sweetly “Yes, but any other drow is not me. Your favorite. Your student. And you favor me precisely because I don’t fear you.”

  The knife disappeared too quickly for Mace’s eyes to follow the motion. So did the claws and mandibles. “Yes, well. Let us keep that to ourselves, shall we? Should any of the noble houses who want my head find out I’m partial to you, they’ll deliver your head to me in a box. Just for laughs.”

  Mace gulped. Every once in a while, he forgot where he was. He nodded once to the old drow.

  “Fine, then” Jervis turned toward the back of his shop, where his work bench sat. “These will be ready by morning. Try not to die before then.”

  Mace nodded his understanding and left the shop. Looking around, he considered his options. The clothes he wore looked decent enough, but they had no protective properties whatsoever. Only a fool would go out into the tunnels without armor. Feeling vulnerable, Mace decided to head back to the inn and call it a day.

  Once out of the pod, showered, and dressed, Mace cooked himself a quick lunch. He heated some beef stew, and crumbled taco shells into it for texture. While he was eating, he thought back to the morning. He was sure he’d been awakened by a voice. Had either Katie or her brother managed to survive the initial attack, and been calling for help while he slept? Should he feel guilty for assuming they were dead, and not even trying to rescue them?

  “Stop it, dummy” he thumped himself on the head with his spoon. “You have no idea where they were. You couldn’t have found them if you tried. And you would have gotten yourself killed in the process. Besides, the voice was just your imagination. Some noise the zombie made while playing with the radio.”

  Still… the thought bothered him. After cleaning up his dishes and putting everything away, he went back to the security office and turned the radio back on. After staring at it for a minute, he grabbed the microphone and keyed it. “Hello? Anybody out there?”

  Hearing no answer after a couple of minutes, and two more tries, he shook his head and walked out.

  Chapter 5

  Wherefore Art Thou?

  Shari woke on the sofa with a start. The plastic tarp beneath her crinkled with her movement, and she panicked for a moment.

  Body bag!?

  Before the world ended, she’d been a medical student. Fifth year. In her first year she and her fellow students had taken an anatomy class in which they’d dissected human corpses. At the end of each class they would replace any organs removed, stitch the body up, and seal it in a body bag. From that first day, she’d had recurring nightmares about waking up inside a body bag.

  Her panic quickly abated as Shari looked around the room. It was still daylight, though the light was fading. She decided to take a look around, to make sure the building was still secure. The fact that it was undamaged when she arrived told her that none of the creatures was making its home nearby. They tended to attack their own reflections when they saw them, and with all the glass storefronts here, the place would have been smashed.

  She listened at the office door for a while before unlocking and opening it. Shotgun in hand, with her rifle over her shoulder, she moved out into the building. First, she checked the door leading to the generator. No damage. Then she made her way through the building, checking every window and door. As it grew darker, she paused to tape a small but powerful flashlight to the barrel of the shotgun. She didn’t turn it on, not wanting to attract any attention.

  Once comfortable that the building was clear, Shari headed to the ladies’ room and used the facilities. She smiled to herself at how luxurious it felt to have a working bathroom. And how much had changed in just few months. There being no windows in the bathroom, she even lit a candle and made an attempt to work the cowlicks out of her hair. The simple grooming activity felt nice. Normal.

  Back out in the store area, she looked around as the sun began to pass beyond the horizon. She found a couple of inflatable swimming pool mattresses that she’d missed earlier. These could come in handy out in the wild. There were a few cans of Fix-a-Flat, and a vanilla scented air freshener for Bertha. She also grabbed a car-charger with a USB adapter that said it would charge most laptops. She didn’t have her laptop, hadn’t had time to grab it when everything went to shit. But she could hit a box store or pawn shop somewhere and get one. Cell towers had gone down weeks ago. But landlines still seemed to work. If she could somehow connect to the internet, she figured that would be where survivors were communicating. Maybe there was even some form of government or military still out there.

  She raided the health care aisle, filling a bag with aspirin, analgesics, cortisone creams, antacids, anything she thought would be useful in her expanding medical kit collection. As she had traveled, she had raided a drug store for the good stuff. Painkillers, antibiotics, and such. She had enough to last a small community for several months. She’d divided them up among several medical ‘go-bags’ that she was creating. Those were now buried somewhere inside Bertha, but she’d dig them out and upgrade them later.

  With the very last of the light gone, she grabbed another of her favorite coffee drinks, and headed back to the office. She closed the blinds on the one window, then lit a candle. By candlelight she taped a folded blanket across the window. That should muffle both light and sound.

  Sitting at the desk she pulled one of the books out of her bag without looking. It was one of the trashy romance novels. The cover featured an unrealistically handsome man with a swooning woman in his arms. Grinning to herself, she settled into the chair and began to read by candlelight.

  *****

  Mace looked at his watch, and stepped away from his keyboard. Since lunch he’d been working in the lab. He’d made a minor breakthrough, and lost himself in the work. Hours had passed in what seemed like minutes. Only his growling stomach had alerted him of the hour.

  He headed to the kitchen and whipped up a quick dinner. Chicken and dumplings from a can, heated in the microwave. When he’d cleaned up, he made his way back to his quarters with the intent of logging into the game. Partway there he remembered that his armor wouldn’t be ready until morning. Instead, he decided to make a check of the cameras. See if the creature that had been outside was hanging around.

  Sitting at the security desk, he grabbed the keyboard and pulled up the camera feeds. The one he’d used to watch the monsters fight from the lobby was still zoomed in on the street. All that was left of the losing zombie was a splattering of blood and a few fragments of flesh. It wouldn’t take long for those to be consumed by insects or birds.

  The victor was nowhere to be seen. Mace zoomed the camera out, panned it back and forth. He wished there was audio to go with the picture. Still, he was thankful for these extra eyes. He set all the cameras on the building to motion detection, and sat back to watch and wait. If anything within sight of the building moved, the cameras would tell him soon enough. He set the DVRs to record any movement, so he could replay it later.

  He thought it likely that after consuming an entire fellow zombie, the creature would want a nap. If it were like most animals, it would find a nice safe den to nap in. Mace hoped that the den was far away.

  While the cameras did their search, Mace looked at the radio, grimacing. The fact that one of the creatures had used the radio, even by accident, bothered him. If they had any kind of ability to learn, or were beginning to recover their human intelligence, life was going to get nasty for him. His caution, and their stupidity, were the main things enabling him to survive these days.

  Mace decided to experiment. Picking up the microphone, he said “You out there, monster dude?”

  *****

  Shari heard the m
an’s voice come across the radio and froze.

  “You there, monster dude?” it had said. “I know you’re out there.”

  She nearly knocked over her candle in her haste to reach for the radio. She snatched it up and hit the talk button. “H-hello?”

  There was silence on the other end for a solid ten seconds. Which to Shari seemed like an eternity. Then the man’s voice came back. “You’re not the monster.”

  Shari didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “No, I am not. I’m Shari. But I heard the monster. Yesterday.” There was another, shorter pause before he answered.

  “Holy shit, you’re really alive. A live person! Damn I’m glad to hear your voice!”

  Shari smiled at the radio, at the sincere tone of the man on the other end. “Same here. What’s your name?”

  “Mace. I’m Mace. Are you… are you somewhere safe? The last folks I heard from made too much noise and got killed.”

  “I’m safe enough. And I’m being quiet. Is that what you were yelling about yesterday? Something about Katie?”

  The voice suddenly became sad “Yeah. I heard a call. Some kid. Said he and his sister were trapped in a fire house. I heard the thing break through the door and attack, and then they went silent. Then the damn thing was talking on the radio. If you can call it that.”

  There was silence as Shari tried to figure out appropriate words. He saved her the trouble. “I… I couldn’t do anything to save them. He didn’t know what station they were in. And the zombie was right there…” he sounded crushed.

  “Even if they’d been right next door, it doesn’t sound like you could have saved them. Maybe killed the bastard that got them, but not saved them.” Shari offered.

  Mace’s voice came back across. “I think maybe I heard you yesterday. I was asleep. Something woke me up. By the time I got to the radio, it was the creature. But I thought I heard a voice. Was it you?”

  Shari nodded at the radio, as if Mace could see her. “Yeah, I found this radio yesterday morning. Tried it out. The zombie must have heard it, and picked up the radio the kid dropped. Or some other radio. It kind of creeped me out. Then I heard you yell at it. I tried to talk to you, but you were gone. Rage quit?”

  She heard him chuckle. “Yeah. Sort of. I was angry, and scared. If these things learn to use tools like the radio, we’re in deep shit.”

  Shari’s mouth dropped. She hadn’t thought of that. “Well, shit. Thanks for that. No sleep for me tonight.”

  No chuckling this time. “Yeah. Sorry. So listen, where are you?”

  “I’m in a truck stop. About six miles west of the capitol.” She replied.

  “Six miles. At that mega-truck place? Damn. That’s a long walk from here. I’m southwest of the city, maybe…” He paused as if looking at a map. “Maybe 7 or 8 miles from you. I can try to get to you tomorrow. It’s not safe to be out after dark.”

  Shari smiled. “Such a guy.” she teased. “I’ve got wheels. I can get to you.”

  “Sweet! All the cars here are burnt out or out of gas. We got hit pretty hard. And there are zombies around. At least one really big one. I watched him eat another one yesterday.” Mace replied.

  “Yeah, most of the big cities are pretty trashed. Are you safe where you are?”

  “Underground facility. All the comforts of home. Even electricity. Plenty of room. There… used to be a bunch of us. Now it’s just me.”

  Shari began to get excited. Electricity meant she could hook up a laptop. “Okay I’m not sure how much juice this radio has. Tell me how to get to you. I’ll head over as soon as the sun is up.”

  Mace’s voice didn’t answer right away. Then he said “From where you are, head east on the interstate. Turn south on Hwy 123. Go about 7 miles and you’ll see a Safeway grocery store. I’ll meet you there. And… be careful. We ran into another group of survivors in the first week. They killed a few of us. I think the creatures got most of them. Haven’t seen them since, but they might be listening.”

  Shari’s gut clenched. She’d had her own run-in with desperate survivors. “I hear ya. I’ll watch my back. You do the same, Mace. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Sure. See you then. And uh… REALLY nice to hear from you, Shari.” Mace’s voice sounded so relieved, it was sad. Then he added, hesitantly “If… if you can, stay awake tonight. Once you get here, you can sleep safely for a week.”

  Shari wiped tears from her eyes. This man’s concern for a stranger was touching. “Yeah, I’m good. Had a nap this afternoon. Don’t worry. Good night, Mace.”

  She set the radio down and put her head in her hands. The emotion of the conversation nearly overwhelming her. To hear a friendly voice talk about a safe place after so long alone. She could tell from his voice that Mace felt the same. She thought maybe he’d been alone even longer than she had. And he’d lost friends, as she had.

  She wanted to run to Bertha and drive to him right then. The urge had her on her feet and moving toward her bag. “Stop it, stupid. It’s not safe out there. And you don’t even know where he is. You can’t sit in Bertha outside a grocery store all night. And you can’t be sure you can trust him.”

  She sat back down in the chair and replayed the conversation in her head. The bit about dangerous survivors terrified her. She’d survived the first week with her roommate, Sheila. Mostly by hiding. The two of them had been up all night studying, and had passed out in their living room. They’d slept right through the morning, which had probably saved their lives. They should have been in class when the first wave of contaminated creatures swept through campus. Instead, they were awakened by screams and gunshots, sirens and frantic car horns. One look out the window of their third-floor apartment convinced them it was best to lock the doors and stay where they were.

  They had done well enough for a couple of weeks. The electricity had gone out on the third day. Their cell phones had lasted a day beyond that. Neither of them had been able to raise any family or friends on their phones. They’d covered the windows, piled up furniture against the front door, and hunkered down. During the first few days, they heard noises outside and would peek out to see survivors making a run for it. Only to be brought down by the creatures. Later, when the live food supply dwindled, the creatures began to kill and eat each other. Shari and Sheila stayed put, not willing to risk going out. At least, until their food ran out.

  When they’d first ventured out, they simply raided nearby apartments. Those with doors open or unlocked. They managed to gather enough food and drink to last them another week, and locked themselves back inside.

  When they ran low again, Sheila suggested they hit the convenience store down the street. It was only about two blocks away. They could be in and out, no problem. They hadn’t heard much outside in days, as the zombie creatures seemed to have mostly killed each other off.

  They made it all the way to the store without seeing any creatures. Each of them had loaded up a bag full of food and drinks. They were nearly home when they spotted a man following them. Sheila had screamed when she saw him, thinking he was a zombie. But the man waved and jogged toward them.

  “Good to see others still alive!” he’d said. “Especially such lovely ladies.”

  And right there, the creepy factor set off alarms in Shari’s head. But Sheila was a more social animal, and so happy to see another live human being, she didn’t notice. Or chose to ignore it. She invited the man inside, and the three of them shared a meal.

  When it got dark, Sheila offered the man their sofa. The two women retired to their separate bedrooms to sleep. Shari locked and barred her door, wishing she’d thought to bring Sheila into her bedroom with her. The man in their living room had been setting off alarms all evening. She didn’t like the way he’d stared at them.

  As she settled into bed, she resolved to talk with Sheila in the morning, and send the guy on his way. Sheila would argue, and he probably would too. But Shari wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  She was awakened b
y a thump outside her door. Reaching into her nightstand, she grabbed the revolver she kept there. She sat for a minute, listening. The doorknob on her bedroom door clicked a few times. Somebody was trying to open it quietly!

  Shari rose from the bed, gun pointed at the door. She didn’t make a sound, hoping the man would be discouraged by the locked door. Apparently, he was. About a minute later, she heard a crash, and a scream from Sheila. Shari franticly moved the dresser from in front of her door and unlocked it. Throwing it open, she looked across the living room to see Sheila’s door kicked in.

  Racing across the room, Shari halted at the door. She was just in time to see the man tearing Sheila’s nightgown off of her. He held a kitchen knife in one hand, and Sheila had a deep cut on one arm.

  Shari raised her gun and screamed “Leave her alone or I’ll shoot your nuts off!”

  The man looked up, grinning. With one swift motion, he grabbed Shiela by the hair and yanked her to her feet. Standing behind her, he stuck the point of the knife against Shiela’s ribs. “You shoot me, she’s dead. Just put down that gun, and we’ll all have a little fun.” he sneered at Shari. For emphasis, he licked the side of Sheila’s face.

  “KILL HIM!” Sheila screamed. Then she began to cry “I’m sorry, Shari. I’m sorry.”

  “Shut up, bitch!” the man poked at her ribs with the tip of the knife, drawing blood.

  Shari took a deep breath. “You let her go now, and you can leave. But if you hurt her in any way, I’ll put six holes in you. Then I’ll reload and add six more.”

  “Ha! You ain’t got what it takes, bitch. I’m gonna have some fun with your friend here. Then I’m gonna do the same to you. There ain’t no law no more. The strong survive. The weak serve the strong. You two are gonna be my wives. You’ll even get to like it, you’ll see.” he kissed Sheila’s neck, never breaking eye contact with Shari.

  “Not even if you were the last man on earth, you sick piece of shit.” Shari took a step forward, gun still aimed at the man’s face.