“Wait, do you mean those things, those creatures that attacked us – they have the Plague, THE Plague”
He nodded solemnly “The same.”
“But… how is that possible? How are we – or you, not infected?”
“Because the plague passes in the blood, not the air. Just one bite and the biggest of men is brought low… only to stand again, possessed of an incurable rage and an insatiable hunger for flesh.”
“Flesh?”
“Mostly human, but they will eat animals to. And with each victim comes another ghoul, another one of the Carrion.”
“Wait, wait, wait… Zombies – it sounds like you’re talking about Zombies, but that’s impossible”
“Haven’t you seen them with your own eyes?”
“W-well I saw something, they looked crazy, deranged… but Zombies?”
“I do not know this word that you speak, but if that is how you know them, then yes. Zombies.”
“But Zombies aren’t real.”
“Then they are not ‘Zombies’.”
“This is crazy, none of the news bites we have, none of the articles that were collected before the Cataclysm say anything about the infected coming back to life.”
The Father could only shake his head his hands spread in front of him, he had no explanation for them; what was, was.
Robert got up and paced around. Most of the spectators had left, their curiosity sated. Some remained, Fallon, the other warriors and a few others.
“I don’t understand, this… this isn’t what we were supposed to find. I mean, we didn’t know what we were going to find but it wasn’t supposed to be this. The Plague should have been long gone… we hoped there would be other survivors but…”
He looked around the camp lost for words. When his gaze reached Tommy he was just looking at his feet.
“What... what else. Tell me about Los Angeles, the place over the mountains.”
“That place…” the Father shook his head and sighed. “That place is a bad place, the people who live there are worse then the Carrion. The Carrion can not help themselves, they are sick and there is no cure. The ones that live in that place…” He motioned off to the west. “They have only a sickness in their souls, they know the evil that they do and they do not care.”
“How many of them are there?”
“Who knows? We do not go that place.”
“I… I have to see it. If I am to go back to my people and tell them that there is no help there, no hope, then I have to see just how bad it is.”
The Father shook his head sadly and sighed a deep gravelly sigh.
“As is it with the young, often they must touch the fire before they believe it will burn.”
“Please.”
Resigned the Father looked at Fallon but addressed Robert.
“There are some that might be able to take you. They go there sometimes in secret.”
“Thank you.”
“Do not thank me yet, even they may not take you. The live out in the desert like you, not far from here. Fallon can take you there.”
“Father!”
“You will take them to the Sanctuary.”
“The Monks will not take them, they will be killed!”
“That is not for you or I to decide.”
Obviously vexed she held her tongue.
“I am afraid that there is nothing more I can say to help you gentlemen, the Monks may help you they may not. And if they do take you… you may wish that they had not. I hope to see you again some day.”
He got to his feet and clasped hands with Robert and then Tommy, smiling warmly. Robert looked at Fallon, her muscles twitched and she glared at him.
“Wait here!” she told him. Unable to stand still any more she strode after the Father and began to talk heatedly to him in hushed tones.
“She doesn’t look happy.” Tommy whispered to Robert.
“No she does not.”
They tried to watch without staring, they couldn’t quite make out what Fallon was saying and none of The Father’s responses as he was replying so calmly.
The one warrior who walked with The Father and had been with the group to rescue them was talking too, mostly to Fallon. The Father reached out his arm to calm him as he turned more to talk to her.
“Do you think she’ll do it?”
“Yeah I think so, he is their leader after all. She might be a wild card but I think she follows orders”
“What about going to Los Angeles, do you think it’s a good idea?”
“What, their ghost stories have you nervous?”
“They have no reason to lie”
“And I don’t think they’re lying, just exaggerating maybe. Even if they’re not I just want to take some pictures as proof to take back to the council”
“But – ”
Tommy stopped short as Fallon stalked back over.
“You – come with me, now.” She said, her tone sharp enough to cut.
They tried to keep up with her as she continued her fast walk out of the courtyard, she raised her hand and made the rapid circular movement again and shouted up to the boy still perched in the natural pocket in the rock. “Ira, fetch Baudoin – Ahora!”
Not stopping for a response she strode on, Robert watched as the young boy scampered up the rock face like a spider and jumped from one ledge to another and out of sight. He had to walk quickly to keep up with Fallon, making talking difficult and he wondered if that might not be intentional on her part.
“Thank you, Fallon, we appreciate your trouble.”
“Stupid child” she spat, barely breathing any harder than if she was been on a casual stroll.
“I’m sorry if you don’t want to go.”
She stopped suddenly and wheeled around to face him. “Listen to me, I will say this only once – I do this because my Father tells me to, I do not do it for you.”
“Still, I am grateful. Thank you.”
Exhaling sharply she turned and walked off again, this time fast enough that he couldn’t talk to her.
When they finally caught up to her she was waiting for them outside the narrow canyon and over the crest of the ridge talking with Ira and Baudoin.
Robert hadn’t seen Baudoin before but he was average height and build and about their age, he wore the same tanned leather as Fallon and the others. His hair was long on top, cut short on the back and sides and pulled into a single short tail at the top of his skull. He looked neat and clean, Ira by comparison was a mess – his hair was longer all over and platted into thin locks with small decorations and charms woven in. His clothes were too big and hung off of him everywhere except where they were tied with cords around his forearms and calves.
Ira was facing them as they approached, retying the bandana he wore to keep his hair back out of his face. He nodded his head upwards and Fallon turned to look at them.
“It’s about time you two caught up, you’d better not be this slow for the rest of the way otherwise it is going to take all day”
“How far is this place?”
“For us? A half day’s walk,” said Baudoin smiling.
Robert smiled, “Oh, I think we can get there a little quicker then that, we just have one stop to make.”
It took over an hour to make it back to their camp, as they approached Robert made sure to take the lead. He was pretty sure that Greene would be awake by now and if he was, he wouldn’t be happy. And he was right.
“That little son of a bitch, I aughta’–”
Robert stepped in front of Greene before he could raise his gun any more. Ira ran at the Hummer and scaled it effortlessly – one foot to the tire, the next to the hood and then a cartwheel took him up and onto the roof and the cover of the gear stored there.
“That’s enough. They’re here to help us. If they hadn’t intervened last night we’d all be dead”
Greene grunted and stepped back, glaring first at Robert and then at Ira who peeked his head up above his cover.
“Later runt, you and I are gonna’ have a talk.”
Turning Robert found Jackson. “Is everything packed and ready to go?”
“Yes Sir.”
“No sign of Smith I take it?” he asked looking between Ramirez and Jackson.
“No Sir, I’ve been trying the radio again too and nothing” Ramirez explained.
“Alright well we can’t wait any more. These people… ahhh… Introductions, Jackson, Ramirez, Greene; this is Fallon, Baudoin and Ira. They are going to take us to some people who might be willing to take us to Los Angeles.”
“Take us? Since when do we need a guide?” Greene spat.
“Since we found out what a Hell-hole it is. Apparently it’s a real bad place and they may be willing to take us there to look around then get us out without attracting any attention. In case you failed to notice things work a little differently here than we expected. We need to go off book a little bit and I think we could use all the help we can get.”
Greene shook his and muttered to himself while he rubbed the cut on his forehead but didn’t try to object any more.
“Okay everyone lets load it up, time to hit the road.”
Tommy walked Baudoin over to the Hummer and showed him how to get in and where to sit. Looking up at the top rack Robert turned to Fallon. “Is he going to come down?”
“He’ll be fine” she said simply and went over to get in herself.
Taking one last look around he turned and looked towards the horizon and wondered… what had happened to Smith?
X
Looking around the Machine shop Pennebaker was at a loss for what to do. They had been having problems with the antenna equipment for the passed two days now. He wanted to have everything up and running by lunchtime but that wasn’t looking good at this point. They had spent the first day getting the old tower checked over and stood back up only to find out that it was too far gone, the next day they had just gone ahead and stood the new tower up only to find out it didn’t work right either. He knew they should have had everything up and running before the team left but that hadn’t been his decision.
They had been able to receive for a while the night before, long enough to know that there had been an a small accident and that Smith and Baker were coming back, but when they went to transmit they had found a problem with that wiring too, a problem they were yet to isolate and fix.
He had a dozen guys trying to put together a working vehicle so that they could send out a search party for Smith and Baker. The problem was that too many parts were rusted or rotten though, they had used everything they had getting the one Hummer working and stocking it with the spare parts it would need should they have a problem out on the road.
It had been at least fifteen minutes he thought, time to go crack the whip. Making sure to grab his binoculars this time he walked up the ramp to check on what Lewis was doing.
“Have you got that thing wired yet?” Pennebaker barked when he reached the top.
Lewis, working tirelessly wiring up the new antenna just mutely shook his head.
He was a good kid but Pennebaker wished Jackson were here now – he would have had it working before breakfast.
Bringing the binoculars up to his face he scanned the desert again, they should have seen Smith and Baker by now. The message they had received said that there had been a minor accident and that the two of them were coming back on the scout bike. They should have been here by now, unless they had had some kind of trouble with the little dirt bike. He cursed himself for not having another vehicle operational so that they could send out a search party – that was his fault, he couldn’t blame anyone else for it.
Sweeping the binoculars slowly back and forth he tried to perform as systematic a search as possible. He would never forgive himself if the bike had broken down on them, the restoration and maintenance of those vehicles had been his responsibility. Of course if they had crashed the dammed thing then that wouldn’t be his fault – that would be user error and he couldn’t be held-
He stopped the sweep and tried to better focus the lenses, was that..? Yes it was! He couldn’t make out who it was yet, it was just a little too far off but it was definitely one of the expedition team judging by the color of the humanoid blur walking towards them. They had had some kind of trouble with the bike, he knew it. Only time would tell what it had been but… wait a second he though. There is only one of them.
What the hell had happened? Had they crashed and gone down so badly that one of them had died? This didn’t make any sense… Damnit, he wished he had another vehicle ready again. Time to crack some heads downstairs. He didn’t care if he had to strap wheels to his feet he wanted to get out there now and find out what had happened.
He dropped the binoculars to his chest as he started to head back inside. If he had waited a few more seconds he would have seen the second returning team member come into view, a lot closer then the one he had seen. The creature that had once been called Baker shambled up an embankment almost a mile closer to home then Smith.
As he passed by the base of the antenna and started to head back down the ramp there was a shout from above him. “I’ve got it! I’ve found the short!”
He stopped, turned back to look up the mast to where Lewis was hand checking the cables inch by inch. “Well it’s about time! Hurry up and patch it already and get you butt back down here.” He strode back in to the Machine shop with a much better feeling then he’d had when he left.
“Sanchez, Cole, McComas, ANYBODY – I want a working vehicle, and I want it now – the first one to get me a working vehicle gets double rations!”
Lewis came running down the ramp and through the open doors, rushing over to the radio terminal they had set up and started flipping switches. Pennebaker met him there. “Well?”
“One second…”
Lewis picked up the handset and called out. “Base to scout team, come in scout team this is base, over”
He waited for a few seconds before repeating. “Base to scout team, come in scout team this is base, over”
He was about to try again when they finally got a response. “Scout team to base, it’s about time – we’ve been trying to call you. Over.”
“Ahhh… 10-4 Scout team, please stand by, I have Pennebaker here for you. Over”
Pennebaker grabbed the microphone from Lewis.
“Scout team, this is Pennebaker do you read me? Over”
“Loud and clear Sir, I have report for you Sir. Over.”
“Yeah I copy Ramirez, we got your transmission last night – I don’t know what happened yet but we have them in sight now, it looks like they lost the bike somewhere. Over”
“10-4 Sir, that’s excellent news. But Sir there is something e- – -hould know. Ther- – -been a deve- – -nt. Last night- – -r camp we were- – -e were set- – -by a dozen- – -people. It appe- – -Sir that the- – -dead. I repe- – -is not dead – ”
“Damnit Lewis what the hell is going on!?”
“I don’t know sir, everything is working right at this end, I don’t know, it must be at their end”
He keyed down the microphone just in case. “Ramirez I don’t know if you can hear this but you are breaking up. Keep trying back, we’ll be here. Over”
Setting the microphone down, he stepped away from the desk and took a deep breath.
“Lewis, I want you glued to that seat until we hear back from them, do you understand me?”
He looked at Lewis who sat staring mutely off behind him, following his gaze he turned around and saw Baker stood just inside the ramp doorway.
“Baker, is that you? Are you alright?”
“… I repeat, the plague is not dead. Over.”
Ramirez waited for a response but none came. “Base do you copy, I say again, the plague is not dead, do you copy? Over”
Silence. “It’s no good, I lost it.”
“That’s okay, hopefully they got it. And at least now we know that Baker and Smith are alright.
We can try them again when we get to this place, just keep listening for now.” Robert turned back to look out of the front window. He leaned forward to talk to Fallon who was sitting in the front passenger seat acting as navigator.
“How much farther is this place?”
“Not far now,” she answered flatly. She had lost some of her earlier tension but still wasn’t speaking more then a few words at a time.
“And what is it exactly?”
“You will see soon enough” she answered more irritably.
He sat back not wanting to aggravate her any more after what little progress they had made.
Behind him Baudoin leaned forward. “It is the Sanctuary. A place where the Monks live”
“Okay and who are the Monks exactly, what do they do?”
Baudoin looked confused for a moment. “They do, what everyone does. They live. They grow plants and vegetables and eat them, they do not eat meat. For them all life is sacred and they do not destroy it unless they have no choice.”
“Alright, and these… Monks, they go to the city by the sea?”
“Helheim, yes”
“But why, if they are so peace loving?”
“They go because for them it is a quest. They call it Shugyo. A journey they make on foot over many days, it is a trial for the body and the mind and the spirit, it is very punishing. And they go to that place to see the darkest part of man, to remind themselves of where they come from, of who their ancestors once were”
“But that doesn’t sound right, all of mankind wasn’t like how you describe Helheim to be.”
“Not all no” Baudoin said simply. He seemed about to continue when Fallon spoke, “Stop now.”
Robert turned to look at her and realized she hadn’t meant their conversation.
“Stop now!” she repeated more urgently.
Jackson looked at her and brought the modified Hummer to a stop.
“Your thing can not take us any closer, we must go in on foot.”
Long Live The Dead Page 6