by Gen Griffin
FALSE IDOLS
AFTER THE APOCALYPSE
BOOK THREE
GEN GRIFFIN
If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.
FALSE IDOLS
AFTER THE APOCALYPSE BOOK 3
Copyright © 2015 by Gen Griffin
All rights reserved.
ASIN: B01521F9NE
ISBN13: 978-1517248215
ISBN-10: 1517248213
EBOOK ISBN:
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Also By Gen Griffin
The Possum Creek Series
Lord Have Mercy (Prequel Novella)
Hot Southern Mess
Hissy Fit
Hot Southern Nights
Pretty Is As Pretty Does
Give Me Some Sugar
After The Apocalypse
The Scavengers
Church of Chaos
False Idols
After The Apocalypse: The Complete Series Box Set
DEDICATION
To my fellow authors. All your hard work is worth it.
Keep sharing your stories with the world. We need them.
Prologue
I'd never meant to start a war and yet, as I sat at the edge of the small clearing that separated the Cube from the outside world, Seth had made it impossible for me to deny the nightmare I'd helped set into motion.
“How does it feel to come home?”
“I don't have a home anymore.” I glanced over my right shoulder to see Gauge standing a couple of steps behind me. He studied the massive concrete block structure in front of us with obvious curiosity. He didn't look scared. Good for him. I was terrified. “Home died with my mom.”
Gauge sighed and sank down in the soft grass beside me. “You've got to forgive Seth eventually, Pilar. Killing her was the most merciful thing he could have done for either one of you.”
“I have forgiven Seth.” I stared down at the laces of my heavy, steel-toed black leather boots. “You asked about my home. The Cube isn't home without my parents. I don't have a home anymore.”
“I gotcha.” Gauge looked like a sheepdog with his too long, floppy blonde hair and wide-set hazel eyes. “The Underground was the closest thing I've ever had to a home. It's a pile of ash now, so I guess we're kind of in the same boat.”
“Seth's boat.”
“Seth's boat,” Gauge confirmed. “Never in a million years would I have thought I'd wind up throwing my lot in with the High Priest of the Church of Chaos.”
“Or pledging your loyalty to the Church?”
“Or that.” Gauge held out his forearm and stared at it unhappily before reaching to the knife sheath at his ankle and pulling out a small blade. “Seth wants me to mark myself before we go into the Cube.”
“Are you scared?” I asked.
“Terrified,” he confirmed.
“It's not too late for you to change your mind,” I said.
“Seth says I might already be Changed and not even know it.” Gauge held the blade of the small, wickedly sharp knife just above the soft inner skin of his forearm.
“Is that possible?” It was a scary thought.
Gauge pressed the tip of the knife down into his skin. Blood welled up from the wound as he drew a long, deep line through his own flesh. “He told me to make sure to cut deep. He says shallow wounds will still heal even if you are Changed. Evidently its the deep wounds that tell the truth.”
I watched the blood continue to pour of the cut. It ran down his arm in streams.
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“I don't think Seth feels pain,” I said.
“I don't think that particular quality is part of the Change itself. I'm more inclined to say it's part of Seth's act.” Gauge nearly smiled as he used the knife to make a second cut on his arm. This one was perpendicular to the first cut. He'd turned the cuts into the symbol of a cross. The mark of the Church of Chaos.
“Seth's act...yeah. That.” I turned away so I didn't have to watch Gauge bleed. “Do you really think he's a god?”
“Hell no.” Gauge actually laughed. “I used to think he was the boogeyman, but that was before it got personal between us. Seth's not a monster. He's just terrifyingly practical. Survival is his main goal. He doesn't really care much about how he survives.”
“His lack of respect for human life is pretty much my least favorite personality trait.” It was hard not to think about how calm Seth had been when he'd decapitated my mother. I'd forgiven him, yes. Forgotten? Not so much, no. I highly doubted that I'd ever be able to forget the way the blade of Seth's sword had cut so neatly through my mother's neck at the base of her spine.
“And yet, you're the one who we're all pretty sure he'd die to protect.”
I left that one alone. I brushed my fingers tiredly through my hair and then glanced back up at Gauge's arm. The bleeding had slowed slightly. “Explain to me why Seth wants you to cut yourself?”
“How much has he told you about becoming one of the Changed?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Gauge looked skeptical.
“He changes the topic every time I bring it up.”
“He probably thinks it will scare you.”
“Will it?” I met his eyes and searched their warmth for answers. Gauge wasn't as cold as Seth was. I'd learned he had more patience and a whole lot less personal agenda than Seth during the two weeks it had taken us to travel from the city of Ra Shet to the home base of the Church of Chaos and then to the Cube.
Gauge hesitated and then sighed. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“The whole secret behind becoming Changed is both more and less complicated than I expected it to be. Truth is, there isn't much secret in Seth's big secret.”
“I hate secrets,” I huffed. “Can't you just tell me?”
“Fine.” Gauge shrugged and a burst of fresh blood oozed out of the cross on his forearm. “As you already know, the zombie virus doesn't just affect zombies. It has contaminated everything in our environment. Its in our water. Its in the plants. Its in the air we breathe and everything we eat.”
“Except canned goods,” I pointed out.
“Except canned goods. Canned food is the only uncontaminated food source we have and its rapidly running out.” Gauge cast an unhappy glance at the Cube. “Most people aren't willing to resort to cannibalism in order to avoid eating contaminated meat. Not to mention that the cost of human flesh is highly prohibitive.”
“And, with the canned food supply running out, it's unsustainable.” I frowned at the Cube. “It's probably why the Powers That Be are experimenting with turning people into super zombies.”
“All good scams must come to an end, eventually.” Gauge yawned and stretched. Trust him to make himself comfortable anywhere. The gray block building loomed over us like a nightmare come to life. “Have you ever been afraid of starving to death?”
“What?” The question took me by surprise.
“Have you ever been so hungry that you thought you would starve to death?”
I considered the question and then shook my head no. “We were hungry sometimes and canned food is gross, but no. The Powers That Be always kept us fed.”
“People starve to death in Ra Shet during the winter.”
“Okay.” I didn't know where he was going with this, but I trusted Gauge to get to the point fairly quickly.
“When you're close to starving to death, all you can think about is eating. There isn't much you wouldn't do for a bite of food. The guard patrols the streets on the hill at night to keep poor kids from digging through the rich people's trash and eating it. Everyone steals. Everyone begs. Being hungry in the city is one of the most agonizing, humiliating experiences that you could ever imagine.”
“It sounds horrible.”
“It is.” Gauge leaned back slightly so that his spine was resting against the trunk of the nearest tree. “I can't even begin to explain the desperation that takes over the poor during the coldest months of the year. Growing up, I was one of the kids digging through the dumpsters and running away from the guard with a stolen loaf of stale bread. So was Seth and a lot of other people in the Burroughs.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with becoming one of the Changed?”
“Do you know why people are so afraid of eating food contaminated by the zombie virus?”
“Because they're afraid of being turned into zombies by their food,” I replied.
“Correct.” Gauge nodded. “Would you rather starve to death now or eat today and worry about turning into a zombie later?”
“Um, probably eat today and worry about the zombie virus later.” I didn't have to give it as much thought as I would have two months ago. I'd adopted Seth's 'live today, worry about tomorrow later' life philosophy. So far, it had gotten me into a hell of a lot of trouble. On the bright side, I was still alive.
Gauge smirked at me. “Generally, yes. That is the choice most people make. They want to survive so, when given the choice to eat zombie meat or starve to death, they eat the zombie.”
“Eat zombie?” My jaw nearly hit the ground. “Like, eat an actual zombie?”
“They're not that hard to pull out of the west corridor of the city,” Gauge explained. “When things get really bad in the Burroughs a few of the men normally go down to the corridor. They catch a couple of zombies, butcher them and cook them. Everybody eats to survive another day.”
I gagged at the thought. “That's disgusting.”
“Its better than dying of starvation.”
“I can't believe you've eaten zombie.”
“A lot of people have.” Gauge poked the edges of the cut on his arm. “It makes sense that the high levels of contamination in zombie meat might be responsible for changing people into half-zombies.”
“Oh my god.”
“I don't know why it never occurred to me before Seth explained the process.” Gauge pursed his lips thoughtfully. He looked like he genuinely meant what he was saying. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Ra Shet are probably walking around Changed without a clue.”
“If so many people are already Changed, then why does Seth act like its some great secret?”
“Because the Church of Chaos would be completely powerless if everyone knew how easily Seth's powers can be theirs,” Gauge said flatly.
Chapter 1
“You can't save people with a flamethrower.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at the High Priest of the Church of Chaos.
“You just don't like to see me having fun.” Seth grinned rakishly as he adjusted the nozzle on the flamethrower he had strapped onto his back. A single lock of dark black hair had fallen across his forehead, obscuring the ruined white pupil of his blind right eye.
“Your idea of fun doesn't leave a whole lot of room for survivors,” I pointed out.
Seth pressed a button and sent a small whoosh of flame shooting into the air above our heads.
I shrieked and ducked instinctively towards the thick carpet of multicolored leaves at our feet. He laughed.
“What can I say?” He adjusted the hose of his new favorite toy. “You always insist on learning all your life lessons the hard way, Pi. Why won't you just trust me?”
“You don't have much of a conscience when it comes to respecting the sanctity of human life.” I struggled to regain my composure as I ran both of my hands through my frizzy reddish brown curls.
“I've never intentionally hurt you.” He had the nerve to look insulted, pursing his lips into a terrifyingly pretty pout.
“I'm the exception. Not the rule.” I put my hands on my hips and reminded myself that Seth, regardless of his bizarre and inexplicable loyalty to me, was an incredibly dangerous creature. “You could light the Cube on fire and listen to the screams of everyone inside as they burned to death. It wouldn't even turn your stomach. You could kill seven thousand people in a day and still sleep tonight.”
“I do what has to be done,” he said.
I opened my mouth to argue with him, but then closed it because the argument was one we'd had multiple times in the weeks since we had discovered that Bud Moon, one of the leaders of the Cube's governing body, had been experimenting with modifying the zombie virus.
Seth thought the best approach to dealing with a possible horde of insane super zombies was to kill them all before Bud got the opportunity to loose them on the world. Seth's plan was simple. Barricade all the Cube's exits, douse the place in napalm and strike a match.
Or, more accurately, shoot a rocket launcher at it. I didn't really want to know where Seth had gotten his hands on the rocket launcher. Or the tank that was currently sitting a hundred yards from the front gates of the Cube. Clearly, some defunct military base was missing much of its equipment.
“It's possible that no one inside the Cube has been infected,” I said finally. “We don't know whether Bud has ordered for everyone to be injected with the modified virus or not. We don't even know if Bud is still inside the Cube. He could already be heading towards the city with an entire horde of zombies.”
“Let's hope he's not.” Seth pursed his lips and frowned in the direction of the Cube. “It doesn't make much sense for Bud to mass dose his people with a finicky and unreliable modified zombie virus. They'll all die.”
“Bud doesn't care if his people live or die any more than you do.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him.
Seth scowled at me. “Enough with the insults. That was uncalled for. I haven't intentionally killed anyone-.”
I raised my eyebrows at him skeptically. Seth had plenty of blood on his hands and we both knew it.
“-who absolutely didn't need to die,” he finished.
“Seth,-.”
“I have a bad feeling about going into the Cube,” he said unexpectedly. “I saw a lot of recent vehicle tracks around the gates when we were scouting the grounds of the Cube.”
“You said that wasn't unusual.”
“I said that there's always some traffic in and out,” he corrected. “I didn't say-. Oh hell, I don't know. Something about this isn't right but I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that's making my skin crawl. Happy?” He threw his hands into the air with obvious irritation.
“No,” I lied. He'd get mad if I admitted that I enjoyed seeing him rattled. Besides, it was petty. “I realize that it's entirely possible that everyone inside the Cube is infected. We could all be torn to pieces by super zombies the minute we get the front gate open.”
“Have you changed your mind about going inside?” Seth stopped fidgeting with the flamethrower and held his hands up in a shrug. He was bare-chested except for the straps that held the weaponry in place. He'd said something about wanting to get the equipment checked out and in working order before we got dressed for the occasion. I wasn't quite sure I wanted to know what kind of outfit Seth considered appropriate for a mass slaughter.
“No.” I closed
my eyes and then reopened them. I looked up at him with renewed determination. “We have to try to save them.”
Seth inhaled deeply and then let his breath out in a long sigh. I could see his jawbone clearly through the permanently open wound that marred his otherwise perfect jawline. Another open wound, this one long and wide, but not particularly deep, oozed eternally on the left side of his chest. It stretched across his ribs and down towards his hip bones. I absently wondered if the leather straps for the flamethrower chafed on so much raw meat.
I'd assumed that Seth was a zombie the first time I'd seen him. While that assumption wasn't precisely correct, it wasn't entirely wrong either. Seth was one of the Changed. People who were infected with the zombie virus but still alive and capable of intelligent thought. The downside to being one of the Changed was that your body appeared to lose most of its ability to heal itself. Like a zombie, once you were injured, the injury was permanent. The benefit of being one of the Changed was that zombies lost all interest in eating you. In a world where zombies were estimated to outnumber the living 100 to 1, being immune to zombie attack was quite possibly worth the never-healing wounds. The Church of Chaos, Seth's personal cult, wasn't exactly running low on followers. In fact, I'd recently come to realize that the number of people who wanted to join the church was far, far greater than the number of people who Seth allowed to do so. Being Changed was highly desirable, and as the High Priest, Seth got to be choosy about who he allowed to become one of the Changed.
Bud Moon was determined to recreate the process of the Change but he had no idea what kind of voodoo Seth had used to become Changed. Bud had taken a scientific approach to the problem, modifying the original virus and injecting it into his test subjects with mixed results. The papers we had stolen from Bud's secret laboratory detailed death after death as the mutated virus was tweaked, altered and changed again. Bud hadn't figured out how to duplicate the change, but the results he'd gotten were utterly terrifying. Zombies who looked normal for a very short period of time before they began to decay from the inside out. Bud's zombies were not the mindless masses that had destroyed human civilization nearly 30 years ago. Bud's zombies could think. They could follow orders. For a very short period of time after their initial infection, Bud's zombies were damn near invincible.