by A. Giacomi
“He didn’t do anything, Beni. He just wanted to talk. It’s always the same old same old with him…blah, blah, blah, give me what I want…and me saying no…and then it goes back and forth a bit.” I smirk at my own sarcastic talents.
Beni doesn’t share my humor. “That’s not funny! Did he say anything of use?”
“Well, actually he did mention that he’s raising all his dead today, so we’ll go from a few incidents to…oh you know…like millions. I think it would be best if you warn the other cities, Lessard. They need to be prepared. I think bombs will be necessary; they can take out many at a time and thin the crowds. Guns won’t be effective until we can clear out some of their numbers.”
Beni nods. “Good plan. Lessard get on that. The rest of us need to strategize the next few days and find a way to protect our city during the worst of it.”
I roll my eyes. “Here’s the game plan folks, if you see them, shoot them in the head and destroy the brain. If you do that, he can’t bring them back anymore. Fail to do that and you’ll have a big problem and fast. Don’t waste time and ammo shooting them anywhere else. Understood?”
The soldiers nod.
“Well, let’s get out there then, soldiers! Ready your guns, time to hunt those suckers down! Highest body count today wins a smooch from my daughter.” I wink at Theo and watch him turn red.
“Mother!” Beni says in a shocked voice.
“Oh come on, Beni, lighten up! They know I’m kidding,” I say laughing to myself as I head off to artillery to stock up on guns.
***
We spend weeks blowing up hordes of zombies, it feels as though the flow of undead never ceases for a moment. Soldiers have dark circles under their eyes from the lack of sleep, but we need most of our numbers as often as possible, this only allowed for a couple of hours of sleep a day sometimes. The only one who never seemed tired was Beni, but everyone understood why, she had a little help from a small shard of stone stored in her heart. I’m sure the rest of the men and women were wishing for the same little convenient defect.
“Beni, we need to find a better way to lighten the attack rate. Everyone is dying. We won’t win if our soldiers can’t rest.”
Beni nods. “I agree, but what do we do?”
I ponder it a moment. “What about bait? If we could set out some landmines and somehow make them smell like living things…The zombies might move toward them instead of us. It would give us a bit of a rest and save on ammo.”
Beni likes the idea but worries about who would have to go and place the landmines in the fields. It would be too dangerous to send anyone out there; they would be attacked in minutes. It was beginning to look like a zombie stampede out there.
Lessard barges in and interrupts our strategy planning session, he looks fatigued and worried. “London is gone,” he says frantically pacing the room.
“What do you mean gone?” Beni says angrily. “They had plenty of weapons and men available to them…what happened?”
“Swallowed up…” he says covering his face. “I’ve been trying to contact them, but all I hear are screams at the other end. There will be nothing left of them.”
“Shit!” Beni says while slamming her fist into one of the nearby screens. Her hand doesn’t even bleed as shards of glass shatter to the floor.
Holding Beni’s shoulders I try to calm her down, but her eyes begin to glow red. “No Beni please, not now, not in here, if you give into your anger now you’ll only be hurting innocent people, people we need right now.”
Beni tries to take deep breaths as she closes her eyes. I can understand her rage, everything is resting on her shoulders, she is in charge and nothing is going to plan.
When she’s calmer she opens her eyes once more to view the desperate faces in the room, they are waiting on her for an answer, for their next move. The pressure feels immense and I wish I could ease some of it off her shoulders, but the truth is that war isn’t going to bring any sort of immediate win, this would take time and blood and sweat and many tears.
Beni finally regains herself and speaks. “I know what I have to do, it’s my destiny after all…why else would I be here, why else would I even exist if I wasn’t here for a purpose. I’m going to give him what he wants,” she says panting.
“No!” I scream. “No, I won’t allow it. It’s what he wants Beni and I assure you once he has that small piece of stone he won’t stop! The Eye of Ra is a very powerful stone for anyone who owns it in its entirety. Why would we want to give him that sort of advantage?” I say angrily.
Beni leaves the room, covering her face with her palms. I follow her closely.
“I don’t know what else to do,” she says shaking. “I don’t know how else to save everyone!”
“Listen to me!” I say shaking her now. “Your job is not to save everyone, that was never the plan, that’s impossible! Your job is to secure a safe future for those you do save…I’m sorry; I know you’re disappointed, but we need to be realistic, sweetheart. He needs to be stopped!”
She begins to perk up and heads back into the observation room. It was time to get back to work.
***
In the months that pass we lose many, but the flow of zombies never ceases. Even with Beni heading out daily to attack and destroy as many as possible, we had not made any headway. I can see Beni starting to lose faith, to lose momentum. She didn’t believe we could win this anymore, I needed a way to restore her faith, or we surely wouldn’t. Without Beni’s leadership, the soldiers would feel lost, anarchy would arise and the rest of humanity would be doomed. Perhaps this is what Satan wanted, perhaps he knew that we would eventually destroy ourselves and he would easily take over once every last one of us was dead.
Needing a break, I head to the library in the uppermost part of the facility, I needed something to defeat him with; I was desperate. The first book I find is one about the many deals that Satan had made with mortals. This seemed like a perfect place to start, but what it didn’t offer me was a solution. Every story ended with the dealmaker dying and taking a few other innocents with them when they refused final payment. There was only one story in the entire text that had my attention. One of a man in love with a woman who didn’t love him, the devil promised him a decade of love, but that at the end of that time the woman would cease to love him and the man would owe Satan his heart. The man did not hesitate to give his heart at the end of the ten years, he was so appreciative of the time he did have with her that his heart didn’t seem like a big price tag at all. What the devil didn’t know was that although the heart was given willingly, it was tainted with an illness. The man was going to die anyway. When the devil received the heart it also made him very sick and unable to continue his evil duties for a very long time.
Slamming the book shut I have an idea. One that would take a lot of faith that it would actually work and I also wouldn’t be able to tell Beni about it. She wouldn’t approve and would try to stop me. Heading straight to Lessard’s office I ask a few men to leave us so that we could discuss an important matter alone. Lessard shoos them away and looks at me curiously.
“Eve, I know that look, what sort of mess are we about to get into?”
“Not a mess, a solution. It’s risky, but it just might work. I need one of the infected, you need to bring them to me alive.”
This makes him rise from his seat. “Eve, absolutely not! That would be very dangerous and what would I tell our soldiers? That they will be risking their lives to retain an evil being?”
I hold up my hands. “Hear me out first. We’re not winning this fight, and I refuse to hand over Beni, but I’m not even supposed to be here right now. I’ll gladly go if that means she can live out here days undisturbed.”
“What are you saying, Eve?” Lessard says very emotionally. The man had become such a big softy over the years.
“I’m saying I have a so
lution and we should take it. I was reading a book upstairs and it says if Satan is offered an infected heart, it will make him sick too. He won’t be able to continue his attacks and he may not return.”
“But you’re not infected…” Lessard says slowly before fully understanding why I needed a live zombie rather than one with a bullet through its head. “But how do you know he’ll even want your heart in exchange?”
I grind my teeth. “I know he’ll do it because he hates me, and he loves suffering and he knows Beni will suffer when I leave her again.”
I hang my head, I hated to do this to her willingly this time, last time I hadn’t known she still lived this time I would be crushing her, knowing it, and still moving forward with it. I only hoped she’d be able to forgive me over time. I would never apologize for saving my daughter.
Lessard knows me well and knows I won’t change my mind. “Alright then, when do we do this and what do you need from me?”
“Tonight…I will go into a trance and contact him, offering my heart in exchange for hers. If he agrees, I will ask for twenty-four hours to say my goodbyes, which is when we go forward with retrieving a zombie and allowing it to bite me. Once I’ve been infected and offer my heart up willingly, he’ll take it, become sick, and we’ll be rid of him.”
Surprisingly, Lessard hugs me, he wasn’t the type, but I suppose people change over time. “Thank you, Eve, I don’t know what else to say. I’m extremely grateful. You have saved our world once before and somehow I know you’ll do it again.”
“Don’t thank me, Lessard, I’m doing this for my own reasons remember? I’m no hero, I just want to give my daughter a little more time on this planet, and I want that time to be zombie free. It’s about damn time we stop those things!”
He nods, I could see tears welling up in his eyes, but he doesn’t allow them to fall. Lessard was a proud man. I had known it the day I met him. I hadn’t always liked him, but one thing I respected was his need to do what was right. Sure he had made some mistakes along the way, but who wouldn’t under these circumstances? Zombies didn’t exactly make people reasonable. They made them desperate.
***
Back in my room I nervously pace back and forth praying that this would work. When I’m calm enough, I insert myself into my bed and try to doze off. For some reason in dreams you could summon him, it was the only way to get him to listen to you, and sometimes he showed up uninvited.
After a few desperate hours trying to get to sleep I finally dive into a deep sleep. My dreams lead me to a murky dungeon where I find my guest waiting in a dark cloak for me.
You rang? the voice hisses eerily.
“We need to talk,” I say sternly, I had no time for his jokes.
Ooooh sounds so serious…Fine then I’m all ears, he says with an evil laugh that would unnerve anyone.
“I need to stop this war, and I refuse to give you my daughter. Let’s make a deal here. I know you despise me, it’s because I’m smarter than you and you just can’t stand it can you? So why not take my heart instead?”
Interesting…but how does that solve the little problem of getting my piece of the stone back? ...Your daughter still has something I want.
“Why would you possibly need it? You’re already more powerful than everyone and everything. You have the dead walking around at your command, how is this stone going to change any of that. Leave her be, she won’t be a problem…but as for me…if you don’t take this offer, you may regret it. I won’t rest, you know that, this war will go on forever with neither side getting what they want. I still hate you for taking Cameron from me, and I won’t stop fighting you if you let me live and who knows I might even win.”
The devil laughs in my face, a gust of foul air hitting me like a ton of bricks.
You? Defeat me? That’s ridiculous!
“Is it? I can tell I make you nervous. Why is that exactly?” I say with a smirk.
I can feel him growing angrier, good, that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted him to become so angry with me that he would want my heart more than hers; he would lust after destroying me until he made it so.
“So do we have a deal?” I say after he remains silent for a few moments.
I gladly accept your offering, Eve. It will be my pleasure to own such a virtuous heart. I will place it next to Cameron’s on my display mantle. May I take it now? I do so wish to add to my collection, he says hissing with rage.
“Give me twenty-four hours and I’m all yours…I just want time to say goodbye to my daughter…she can’t know about our deal, but I want to try and give her some closure.”
Twenty-four hours? he huffs. You’ve been given an extra decade already! …humans…you’re all the same…so greedy for time... He gives another huff, but fine I will grant you your time, and then I will make you suffer horribly, and I will relish in it.
His laughter fills my mind again and I bolt upright sweating from our meeting in dreamland. I am so glad to find myself in my bed and away from him momentarily, he had a way of stealing all the oxygen out of a room. I was still hyperventilating slightly, I needed to calm down and remember the plan. There was very little time left to me now.
***
On my way to find Lessard, Abeni corners me. Her face looks pale with worry.
“What is it?” I say as I hold her shoulders.
“I killed someone…” she says gulping back tears.
“What do you mean? We’ve killed lots of people…you understand that they’re not people anymore right? They only used to be people. We can’t spend time feeling guilty about saving the living.”
“No, no, no…” she says, clutching me harder for support. “You don’t understand, I lost my temper, and she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was only trying to help…”
“Who? Where?” I say trying to draw more information out of her.
“Julia…She caught me at a bad time. I was trying to get away from everyone. I was so angry about all the soldiers we’d lost, so angry at about all the undead that we still have to eliminate to win this…I got into a spiral…we can’t win this I kept thinking and I just got angrier. Then Julia…” she can’t continue.
“Where is she now, Beni?” I say nervously.
“She’s in my room…she’s just…”
I don’t waste another moment waiting; instead, I’m sprinting down the hall toward Beni’s room, fearful of what I might find. When I reach the door I open it slowly, hoping Beni had just imagined it all, but my worst fears are realized, in the middle of the room lies the small nineteen-year-old girl that had been one of Beni’s closest friends. It felt a lot like losing Alex, a pit opens up in my chest and it just aches. Julia lies in a pool of her own blood, her throat slashed and her eyes still open so that they watch the ceiling with an air of shock still lingering in them.
Closing her eyelids felt like the most humane thing. Next, I kneel next to her and observe her marks. Beni follows close behind, still inconsolable.
“Does anyone know about this, Beni?”
She shakes her head, “No not yet.”
“Did you bite her, Beni?”
She nods acknowledging her error, and the monster that lived within her.
I wish I could have spared her this fate, living with a curse like this was not enviable, but at least she was still human, she could learn to control it better, she had been training her whole life in order to control the powerful monster that lurked within, but eventually, everyone has a breaking point, it’s just that Beni’s was all the more dangerous.
Knowing full well that Julia would turn, I decide to take advantage of an unfortunate situation. I needed to infect myself; Julia was already infected, now the only problem was getting Beni out of here. She didn’t need to know that she had helped me in a way, she also didn’t really need to know my plan, it was best she didn�
�t.
“Beni…” I say gently. “I need you to leave now…go get Lessard. We need to clean this mess up.” But Beni stands there immobile, grief holding her in place. “Beni!” I scream. “Go and get Lessard, I need you to do that now!”
Raising my voice startles her and she promptly leaves the room, I lock the door behind her so that I won’t be interrupted. Taking my place next to Julia I wait. After about five minutes her eyes begin to flutter and fingers begin to twitch. She was going to wake up soon, I needed a bite, but I also needed a way to stop her from finishing the job. I couldn’t die quite yet, I had a heart to donate first. Scanning the room I find Beni’s lamp on her night table to be suitable. It was made out of a hard metal that was sure to crush a skull or two.
Julia begins to groan, meaning it was go time. I sit so close to her that I could smell the death on her. “Hey, Julia…need a snack?” I say holding out my arm.
She slowly rises and begins to sniff me, I must smell very good to the new Julia with flaming red eyes. Grabbing my arm gently at first she examines it and then slowly brings her mouth to my forearm. “Go ahead,” I say, “taste it…”
Perhaps my compliance confuses her, but it takes her a few moments before her teeth touch my skin. I close my eyes, I didn’t see my first bite and I had no desire to watch my second. Hearing the flesh rip from my arm was worse than watching. I could hear the blood bursting into her mouth and I feel a bit dizzy with disgust. After a few more chomps I’m nearly screaming, I decide that would have to be enough. Opening my eyes, I see Julia’s mouth coated in my blood and raise the lamp ready to deliver the blow.
“Julia, you have done a good thing here tonight. I’m sorry you had to go through all this, but trust me, you saved Beni tonight, and you just don’t know it,” I apologize again, but this time for the rather large dent I put into her skull, I keep bashing until Julia stops moving.
I’m out of breath standing over lifeless Julia when Lessard and Beni blast into the room. Beni takes one look at my arm and races toward me.
“No, Mother no! She turned, so it’s true I can infect people! Oh god!” she says nearly pulling out her hair in disbelief. “And now you’re infected because I didn’t kill her when I should have, because I couldn’t do it…because I’m a coward.”