by Edward Teach
The charger carried them into New Mexico, and thanks to the already sparse population of the state, they were able to make good time as there were fewer dead autos clogging the roads. They had detoured around a small town that was teeming with zombies, a massive fire somewhere in the middle of town sending up plumes of black smoke, doubtless some group of survivors making their last stand. The battle having drawn zombies from miles around, the men had to go very wide of the city and take several additional miles of back roads to get clear of the growing conflict.
That night they saw the other fires. Most of them seemed small, though some in the distant cities had to have been tremendous to give rise to the amounts of light they emitted. The men made camp on the roof of a deserted gift shop, and pondered the meaning of the fires. Surely they would attract more of the walkers to the area, though certainly fire could be used as a defense. What were they burning? And why?
Jesus said, "A city built on a high hill and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden, and the walking dead will ceaselessly assault those within while the madmen ravage any who may flee.”
Jesus said, "What you will hear in your ear, from your mouth proclaim from your rooftops.
After all, no one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor does one put it in a hidden place. Rather, one puts it on a lamp stand so that all who come and go will see its light."
Cisco wrote when the voice was upon him, trying to make sense of what he was hearing, wracking his brain to tie it to the events unfolding before him. There were survivors tending those fires, or psychopaths at the very least, for no walker would do such a thing and fires would not burn so brightly for so long without continued fuel. Romeo told him of a vision of a Rider speeding on his motorcycle through a cloud of insects, and that they needed to cut northwest now, as his sight through the eyes of the undead messiah had led him away from the mountains and deeper into the desert.
The next day they had their answer to the fires, as a dark cloud appeared over the horizon, moving towards them swiftly. Cisco drove as fast as he dared, swerving when he must to avoid abandoned vehicles in the road or gripping the wheel sternly as they plowed over the occasional zombie that wandered too close. From his rearview mirror Cisco could see the cloud draw nearer, and could make out thousands of tiny shapes in its mass. It was then that Romeo shook his head and started closing the metal grates on all the windows, cursing aloud that it was a swarm of locusts.
The swarm swept over the speeding car, and an ear-piercing grinding sound filled the inside of the car. The insects were chewing at the very metal of the car, and the stink of ozone hung heavy in the air as the insects worked their mandibles through the paint job and into the steel skin of the vehicle. They might not be able to get through the main body of the car, but it sounded as if they were trying to grind down the seams in the grates enough to slip through into the car itself. Cisco yelled at Romeo to get the flame-thrower working, they had to clear the bugs off the car long enough to find a safe place to get off the road.
Cisco kept the wheel steady as Romeo leapt in the back and pulled the chopped seat back to reveal the extra fuel tanks and the handmade flamethrower. There was a swivel mount that had been welded to the roof of the car, and a crude sunroof had been cut so that someone from the backseat could stand and fire the weapon. The metal grate was vibrating with the attack of the insects, so once Romeo had struck the pilot light he had to squirt a jet of flame up through the grate to clear it.
Romeo’s gloved hand pulled back the grate and he let loose another burst from the flamer, clearing himself enough space to stand up and get a clear shot at the front of the car. Cisco screamed for the young man to move quickly, as he prayed that he had not swerved off the road without realizing it. Romeo pulled the trigger on the flamer and moved the barrel around in a full circle, sending a gout of flame out in a three-hundred and sixty degree arc, pushing the swarm back for a brief moment. He then leveled the flamer at the hood and sprayed fire across the front of the car, roasting thousands of insects but clearing Cisco’s vision. The young biker ducked back into the car and slammed the metal grate shut.
Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a blind person, both of them will fall into a hole."
Cisco could see the plumes of smoke rising roughly two miles up the road from their current position. Though he did not know what sort of building or situation might be unfolding there, he did know that if they did not get off the road they were as good as dead. Romeo had opened several of the thin grates at the back window and was firing small controlled bursts of flame to keep the swarm at bay, and soon the entire car stank of fuel, cooked insect, and the smoldering leather interior.
In moments the source of the smoke plumes was revealed to be one of the many roadside mini-marts that dotted the New Mexico landscape. A gas station, gift shop, and family restaurant all clustered together on one side of the road, offering motorists over-priced fuel, greasy food, and kitschy handmade crafts. In front of the gift shop there was a large fire pit that had been constructed from a detached truck bed and balanced upon four cinder blocks.
Someone had used rebar and the fine mesh of several door screens to create a ventilated wall around the bed to expand its upward containment capacity. The entire pit was brimming with the burning bodies of thousands of the rather sizeable locusts.
As they neared the buildings the swarm dissipated, spreading out in multiple directions and seemingly giving up the chase. Cisco hit the brakes at the last second, bringing the car to a jarring halt directly in front of the family restaurant. The two mean leapt from the car, Cisco with crowbar in hand. They had avoided the gift shop because even at a distance they could see that the building had been heavily fortified and boarded up. If there were still survivors inside they did not seem interested in visitors.
Romeo shouted when he saw that the swarm had re-formed and was rushing towards them. The two men grabbed their gear and ran inside the family restaurant, slamming and locking the door just as the swarm, now diminished but no less deadly, reached the restaurant. In moments the glass windows were covered in the insects, their thousands of mandibles making a disconcerting grinding sound as they began chewing through the building. Cisco racked his brain for a solution, and then thought again of the fires burning day and night, then how Romeo’s flamethrower had driven them off for a short while.
Cisco yelled out for Romeo to re-ignite the flamethrower and toss it over, which the perplexed young man did. Cisco lit the pilot and shouted for Romeo to open the door. The young man was unconvinced, until Cisco shouted that it was the smoke of their burning kin that drove these things away, that’s why survivors kept the fires burning. With that Romeo shrugged and opened the door. Hundreds of insects tried to fly in, only to be met by a burst of flame, then a second, then a third as Cisco hosed down the front porch area of the restaurant. With thousands of insect bodies burning, the smoke their crackling bodies emitted was a dark plume, thicker than most normal smoke.
As the swarm dissipated Cisco and Romeo were able to relax for a brief moment. Through the smoke they could see that much of the swarm had fallen to the ground, their energy spent, and Cisco realized that this was how so many were available for the night-fires. Survivors had clearly figured out this weakness in the swarms, and were using the burning bodies of their kind to keep the insects at bay.
Jesus said, "Often you have desired to hear these sayings that I am speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me and you will not find me."
Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so. As for you, be as sly as snakes and as simple as doves."
The two men quickly scavenged inside the restaurant, only to find its bones picked clean, no doubt by the survivors that still remained silent within their boarded gift shop. Romeo saw someone looking out that them from insi
de the second floor of the boarded building, and called out to them, though was met with only more silence. Romeo called out to them again, asking about Zombie Jesus, the psychopaths, and the Riders. Seeking any news or rumor. Still all he was met with was silence, then, at last, a warning shot.
The two men needed little else to motivate them to leave quickly, and soon were in their charger and leaving the same way they came in. As they turned down the road they saw, perhaps five miles from the gift shop, a lone rider appear on a hilltop road. The rider was moving fast, and soon sped towards them, heading towards the small settlement. As he rode a vast swarm of insects rose from the ground behind him, three times the size of the swarms they’d just destroyed. Romeo looked at Cisco gravely, and the older man nodded and spun the steering wheel. Romeo attached the flame-thrower to a fresh fuel container and Cisco floor the fuel pedal for maximum speed.
They could see in the rearview mirror that the swarm had reached the settlement, though they’d lost sight of the rider. Cisco brought the car to a halt, and for a few long moments let it idle while he looked at the swarm in the rearview mirror. Romeo lit the pilot light on the flame-thrower in answer to Cisco’s silent question, and the older man shifted gears and turned the car around.
The charger pulled into the settlement a few minutes later, the two men witnessing a horrific sight. The fire pit had been knocked on its side, and the once powerful fire was now a smoldering heap producing little smoke. The giant swarm of insects battered against the boarded gift shop, their mandibles sawing through thin spots in the wood so they could pour into the small holes in their hundred, then thousands. The Rider stood next to his bike, the tail end of the swarm seeming to be centered on him, as if the insects were a hurricane and he was the eye of the storm.
As Cisco brought the charger around the front door of the gift shop burst open and three people fled from within, covered by insects. The people were screaming and bleeding as the locusts chewed them apart a tiny piece at a time. Cisco nearly vomited at the sight, but kept his cool, and plowed the charger right into the Rider. The man was flung by the metal grille, and landed several feet away, the swarm’s connection to him temporarily severed. Romeo stepped out of the car and hosed down the first floor of the gift shop, setting the entire building ablaze in a matter of seconds.
The swarm thrummed in frustration and dissipated, leaving only Romeo and Cisco standing in the smoke filled road as the Rider got to his feet. The man was dressed much like a biker, with sun-cracked leather and a bandana on his brow, though his skin was covered in boils, and his eyes burned with a jaundiced yellow that pierced the very soul. Romeo and Cisco looked at the Rider, then at each other, and drew their pistols. Romeo put two rounds through the man’s chest, and Cisco two in the midsection and one in his thigh, each wound exploding with more yellowish pus than blood.
The Rider staggered backwards, then with a rasping laugh drew in his breath, so much that his belly distended with the pressure of the volume. Romeo took a step backwards and fumbled with his revolver, as the buzzing sound of insects grew louder. Cisco had a gut-twisting realization, and hurled down his gun as he dove for the flame-thrower. He rolled onto his back and squeezed the trigger just as the Rider made a belching sound and spewed hundreds of locusts from his mouth into the air at the two bikers. The gout of flame caught the insects in flight and burned them to a crisp.
Cisco was screaming as he got to his feet, still squeezing the trigger of the flame-thrower as he rushed forward to get closer to the Rider. The jet of flames engulfed the Rider, and even though he belched forth several more swarms of insects everything burned. By the time the flame-thrower’s tanks went dry and the weapon sputtered out the Rider was nothing more than a charred corpse half-smeared across the asphalt.
The two men quickly recovered their wits, and rushed to the gas station. They had expended all of their fuel reserves using the flamethrower, and would be stranded with an empty car if they didn’t refuel. Luckily the pumps still had pressure and they were able to refuel completely, though the flame-thrower had been so over-used that it had melted beyond repair. With their tank full and their hearts heavy, the men left the settlement and turned northwest, vowing not to stop till they’d crossed the state line.
Jesus said, "Whoever has something in hand will be given more, for they have the power to take and to keep, and whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little they have."
THE HORSEMAN OF WAR
His disciples said to him, "Who are you to say these things to us?"
"You don't understand who I am from what I say to you.
You love the tree but hate its fruit, or you love the fruit but hate the tree."
He looked out across the dried riverbed and squinted, the sun and dust creating a shimmering haze before him. Men with masks for faces danced in the heat waves, the fringe of their leather bouncing as they moved. In their hands they held drums and feathers, and he continued to make his way down the path as the sounds of their whispered chanting echoed softly off the walls of the canyon.
Romeo sat in silence as they drove, letting the vision wash across him, doing his best to cope with the pain of it. He looked out across the desert and scrubland, his eyes coming to rest on a lone walker who had wandered off the road. He watched the creature shamble onwards in the other direction, to what purpose or end he could not fathom. What force drove these creatures he did not know, but he knew that Jesus was the answer. Somewhere out there, just past the horizon, the undead messiah moved towards his goal and Romeo knew he must follow. To whatever end.
The young man told Cisco about his vision, and they mused as to who the dancing men might be. Cisco had heard of the Native American tribes in the southwest crafting dolls called kachinas, a sort of spirit that was part of their ancient faith. They had seen plenty such dolls, cheaply made and expensively priced in the gift shops and gas stations throughout the region.
They had been making good time, stopping only to re-fuel and rest for a few hours at a time. They had continued to keep an eye out for gas stations and had enjoyed good luck with finding fuel to keep the tanks and containers full. They would park, re-fuel, and sleep on the rooftops of the stations for a few hours. Often there would be one or two walkers who would have wandered into the area by the time they were awake and ready to leave. In small numbers the zombies were not overly difficult to kill, and with Cisco’s tire iron and Romeo’s machete they could quickly dispatch one or two of the creatures and get moving again. They never stopped for more than three to four hours, preferring to avoid the possibility of attracting more than just a few walkers and find themselves in an accidental siege situation.
They kept moving, putting mile after mile behind them as they followed Romeo’s visions and seeming innate sense of direction towards their goal. If they strayed from this invisible path they’d found themselves on Romeo’s headaches would grow unrelentingly more intense until they’d righted their course. It was crude, but they felt that progress was being made.
As dusk began to creep across the landscape on the second day they saw a large dust plume in the distance, and soon could make out several headlights. They parked on the road and Romeo looked out with the field glasses. There were five vehicles, one of them an actual school bus. They did not have the look of psychopaths, as there were no spikes, grisly trophies, or an abundance of mounted weapons. Cisco remarked that they might as well stay on the road and see what these people were moving towards, or away from. It felt somehow important to connect with other survivors.
It was then that they noticed two more vehicles approaching only perhaps a half-mile behind the first. As they watched the pair closed distance with the convoy, and gunfire erupted between the two groups. One was a humvee military assault vehicle and the other was a police patrol car. Romeo and Cisco looked at each other, knowing that they must act, but hesitating as to which group to side with. Their decision was made for them as the lead humvee pulled alongside the school bus and bega
n strafing it with machine gun fire. They could see that there were unarmed survivors inside.
Both men leapt back inside their charger and Cisco turned the ignition while Romeo chambered a round in his rifle. The attackers weren’t psychopaths, but they certainly had murderous intentions, and that was enough for the bikers to enter the fight on the side of the convoy. Cisco kept the vehicle on the shoulder of the road as they approached the roadside battle. The convoy had devolved into a confused tangle of vehicles, their forward momentum halting as the patrol car cut off the lead convoy truck by ramming it off the road.
The charger slid past the patrol car as Romeo moved the grate and emerged from the makeshift sunroof with rifle in hand. He quickly drew a bead on the gunner in the humvee and fired three times as they closed distance, his first shot going wide, his second pinged off of the armored plating of the turret, and the third punching through the gunner’s mouth and exploding out of the back of his head. Cisco swerved at the last second, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision as the humvee’s driver panicked and lost control of the vehicle. Romeo ducked back into the vehicle as Cisco banked hard and pulled the car around to circle over to the patrol car.
A man in swat gear had stepped out of the patrol car and was pumping round after round from his shotgun into the lead convoy car, riddling it with holes and killing both driver and passenger. The shooter was so intent on murder that he did not notice the charger picking up speed and barreling down on him until the last second. The man tried to leap to the side but Cisco cut the wheel in anticipation and pulverized the man with the metal grille, then crunching him under tires as the charger rolled over him.
The humvee had recovered and turned tail, speeding away in the direction it had come from. Cisco moved their car to the side of the road, and Romeo stood on the roof of the car while Cisco leaned against the side. They did their best not to appear threatening, though their armor plated charger and the scavenged M240 machine gun from the fallen gunner implied that they were not to be trifled with. The convoy was a buzz of activity as they checked their wounded, mourned their dead, and circled their vehicles defensively.