The Queen of the Dead

by Peter Meredith

  “Forget it. I need the smallest canoe you have and the bombs. If you want to see what I’m willing to sacrifice you’ll give them to me.” The two, almost sisters stared steadily into each others eyes and Jenn did Jillybean proud by refusing to back down. “Please,” Jillybean added as she felt time slip away.

  Only then did Jenn look away. She stared upwards where the smoke of a nearby burning boat obscured the sun. As she watched the cloud broke, blinding her briefly. Logic told her not to trust Jillybean—after all, past actions were more than likely indicative of future ones. Jenn was tired of logic.

  “I trust the signs,” she stated, bluntly, knowing how much referencing the signs bothered Jillybean. “Take the canoe but hurry.” The clouds of smoke had quickly hidden the sun which Jenn interpreted to mean they were nearly out of time and yet, with seconds zipping by, the two stared at each other once more. Jillybean wanted to hug Jenn and beg her forgiveness, but the ice was still between them and she had to settle with gripping the girl’s firm arm.

  “Be a better queen than I was,” Jillybean said before stepping into the canoe and pushing off. She told herself to count to a hundred before looking back and she also told herself not to cry. She disobeyed both of her own commands. The first time she looked back, after only fifteen seconds, she saw both Jenn and Stu watching her. The next time they were gone, hidden by the smoke.

  This is your fault, Eve said, Don’t blame me.

  “I don’t.” Feeling empty inside, except for the diseased presence of Eve, Jillybean paddled on, the white sheet tied to an empty rifle propped in the front of the canoe. The little boat had a slightly curved prow which was where she stuffed the bombs. There was enough explosive power in them to vaporize her, the canoe and fifteen metric tons of salt water.

  Eve was so eager for the bombs that she wouldn’t let Jillybean turn her head away from the Corsair boats.

  You’ll let me take over when things get down to it, right? I am better at these sorts of things. You saw me with that jackass, Tony Tibbs. I can do that with any of these guys.

  “I’ll let you know when I need you,” Jillybean answered, pulling the paddle from the water and taking off the three-quarter length coat as well as her long boots. They wouldn’t be needed one way or the other.

  She should have been sick with fear as she picked up the paddle once more. In front of her were a hundred and ten boats, many of them shot so full of holes they hung low in the water or were being bailed by their thinned out crews. The Corsairs had paid a tremendous price for their attack and they were in a foul mood. They cursed and taunted her, and if she came too close they spat at her.

  “We’re not done yet,” she said in answer to them, and she said it over and over, making sure everyone knew that the fight would go on and on.

  Finally, disheveled, covered in snot and sweat, she made it to where the Sea King was anchored, snuggled in among fourteen other boats that were all lashed together side by side. Hundreds of bearded, dirty faces leered down at her as she slowly made her way around the back of the boats, tying the canoe off on the anchor chain of the Sea King and calling up, “Permission to come aboard?”

  “Permission to get gangbanged,” one of the sailors snorted.

  “Let’s see that you’re not armed,” another said. Holding onto the chain, she stood and turned to show there was no place in her tight jeans and short sleeve shirt to hide either a gun or a bomb.

  Then how are we going to threaten them? Eve demanded. Jillybean tried to ignore her by running numbers in her head. You can’t threaten people with a bomb when they don’t…Jillybean, damn it, listen to me or I swear…

  “Let her come up,” a rough voice said. She thought it was the Black Captain. Jillybean should have been completely overcome with fear. Everyone knew he was a monster. He was perhaps the most evil man left alive. He would do horrible things to her, there was no doubt about that. Still, she wasn’t afraid. She was dead inside.

  A knotted rope hoisted her aboard and from the high stern of the Sea King she could see every ship in the fleet, many of them crowded in close. It wasn’t the Black Captain. “Are you Phillip Gaida?” she guessed. Gaida was the Captain’s chief lieutenant and had a reputation for torture that was unrivaled. She had expected him to be as vile appearing as his reputation, however he was very average, all except for the hardness of his slate-grey eyes. These were more reptilian than human.

  “I am.”

  “My name is Jillybean.” His hard eyes widened slightly. He had heard of her, but wasn’t surprised to see her which made her hesitate as he gestured at a spot on a silk-covered bench across from him. “So close, so soon? Wouldn’t it be better if we take this a little slower? We wouldn’t want people to talk.”

  He smiled showing a wide, almost peasant-like gap in his front teeth. “You want to take things so slowly so your friends can attempt to escape? Do you think I’m blind or just stupid?” He gestured to where the Puffer was laboring toward Yerba Buena.

  “I honestly think you are both,” she replied. “May I look at your boat while we talk? It’s a beauty.” The hard eyes narrowed but she ignored them and started forward, moving sideways so she could watch him. “So what inducement may I offer for you and your filthy band to leave?”

  Show him the bomb! Eve demanded. Violence and death are the only things he understands.

  Jillybean wobbled under the strength of her will. Seeing her clutch at a line made Gaida’s smile broaden. “I can’t imagine you have anything that will suffice. You see my men are quite upset at the rough handling you’ve given them. They are hungry for vengeance and anyone with any sense doesn’t get between a starving dog and his bone.”

  Her eyes began to blur and she heard Eve cackle, “So you think they’re dogs too?”

  She was running out of time quicker than she had expected. It wouldn’t be long before Eve was strutting around waving the detonator around. “Sorry about that,” Jillybean said, embarrassed by the juvenile humor

  “I take it that was Eve,” Gaida said, calmly. Jillybean could feel her mouth fall open. He laughed at her, and the smug chuckle nearly brought Eve out again. “What? Do you think the Black Captain would fail to have spies in Bainbridge? Spies and assassins. You have upset the delicate workings of things and I have a feeling that a timely reply is in order. Hopefully, you said a proper goodbye to Papa Neil.”

  He laughed again, but with Eve screaming, Let me kill him! Let me blow him up right now! the sound barely penetrated to where Jillybean was trying to hold on. She was on one side of the ship and he on the other. She stumbled further along the ship to get away from that laughter. The Sea King was sixty-four feet from stem to stern and there were sailors everywhere it seemed. They laughed at her and pushed her, but none did more to interfere with Gaida’s prize.

  She made it nearly to the bow before Gaida called out along the length of the ship, “Where do you think you’re going? We haven’t even discussed how I’m going to kill little Emily Grey. Oh, but I forgot. She’s not that little anymore. From what I understand, she’s just getting ripe. Maybe I shouldn’t kill her. Maybe I should feed her to my dogs.”

  His men began a mad barking interspersed with wild howls.

  Now Jillybean felt something. It wasn’t love. It was boundless hate. She reached into her mass of hair and pulled out a very small black square. She held it up for Gaida to see it. He was smart enough to know the danger he was in, but too slow to do anything about it as Jillybean ran for the bow and dove for the water, pressing the button on the detonator a millisecond before going under.

  Epilogue

  With the sun setting and the bay growing dim, the Sea King exploded in a vast and shocking display of light and sound. At first the light was white and piercing but it quickly turned orange and black, roiling into the air.

  “All the way over to port!” Mike yelled at Kasie, even as burning pieces of wood were falling around him. He was hauling up the mainsail and blinking away huge blobs of pu
rple and yellow when he saw the bow turn the wrong way. “No! The other direction. Turn the wheel the other way!”

  Pretty much against his will, Mike had taken the Captain Jack in among the other Corsair boats. With them all around him he’d had no choice, though he did his best to creep to the outer ring so he could make his escape at the first chance.

  Then he had seen the canoe and the white flag making its way from the barge. “We’re giving up,” he had said in a whisper to Colleen and Kasie. His first reaction was to feel sick to his stomach. Then he got angry and began to plan outlandish rescue operations, none of which had any chance of actually working but all of which entailed getting in close to the Sea King.

  This he did as slyly as he could, though being sly only meant pretending to let the Captain Jack get away from him. He had to endure many dark looks and even more curses, but eventually, just as Jillybean tied off her canoe, Mike was sixty yards away; as close as he could get.

  He was so close that the explosion partially deafened him. The main was up in seconds. “Switch places with me!” he roared at Kasie so loudly every ship in the bay heard him. “Get the jib up and try to look manly.” No one paid attention to what she looked like. The entire fleet had sprung into action, scattering from the burning wreckage. His was the only boat heading toward the blast zone.

  For a sailor it was a horrible scene. What was left of the Sea King was burning and sinking simultaneously as were the two boats on either side and as they sank they were dragging an entire line of boats down with them. Captains were braving roaring fires to cut their ships free before they too were burnt or sunk.

  Gunfire suddenly broke out. It was just a quick rattle but it was a prelude to guns going off in every direction.

  “Kasie, what are you doing?” Mike bawled. “Get up. They’re not shooting at…crap! Colleen take the wheel.” He ran forward, leapt over Kasie, and hurried to raise the jib. He then leaned out over the rail, searching for… “There she is.” He pointed and saw that Colleen was looking thirty degrees from the direction of his hand. “Turn the wheel to your left. Stop! Hold it there.”

  Jillybean was swimming with slow strokes as if she were playing in a pool and not in a bay surrounded by people bent on killing her. She was so dazed by the explosion that she didn’t see the Captain Jack or hear Mike calling for her. And she didn’t fight it as he hauled her onto the deck, streaming water, her eyes going in two different directions.

  “Is Jenn okay?” Mike had been barking questions into her face and shaking her, however this was the first thing she understood.

  “Sh-she sh-should live,” Jillybean said, faintly. Her head felt strangely squishy and she was sure that if she touched her skull her fingers would leave indentations. After a deep breath she said, “The best way to help her is to head out to sea.”

  Mike wanted to ask how that could help in anyway, but he had no idea what she had confessed to the others and still trusted her. “Can you take the wheel?” he asked her.

  Colleen was happy to give up the responsibility. She had been sure she was going to wreck the ship or make it fall over the way they sometimes did. Jillybean, feeling better with every passing second, didn’t hesitate and took control, immediately turning to the starboard even before Mike had a chance to give the order. The two worked as well coordinated team and soon they were racing on a northwest tack, leaving a strange battle behind them.

  Half the Corsairs were going at each other with guns blazing while the other half were racing around the bay or trying to get out of it.

  “Who are they fighting?” Colleen asked.

  “Themselves,” Jillybean answered. “The Black Captain’s chief lieutenant hinted that theirs was a loose confederation and I suspect that maybe with the lieutenant dead, things might be unraveling. It’s why we need to get north as fast as we can.”

  Mike gave her a quick look. “North? We’re not going all the way back to the Grays Harbor. Not with…”

  “Trust me,” Jillybean said with a small, ironic smile that he didn’t understand. She turned to Colleen. “My head is aching. Can you do me a favor and find some Tylenol or aspirin or something.” Colleen came back ten minutes later with an apology and a bottle of berry/potato wine that nearly made Jillybean puke after the first swallow. When she had taken five such rancid swallows her head swam, but pounded less.

  Nothing could help the pain in her heart or the sea of confusion she found herself in. Did she go north to try to save Neil and Emily? Neil hadn’t just adopted her, he had remained devoted to her despite knowing the true extent of her evil. He was a good man, one that she never truly deserved. And Emily…Emily was one of the most truly innocent, loving, kind hearted creatures left on earth.

  If humanity had any hope it wasn’t going to be found in Jillybean, it was going to be found in someone like Emily.

  “Or Jenn.”

  Jillybean looked back south where a fire was raging on the Floating Fortress. If she went south would Jenn or Stu even allow her to help them? Would they ever forgive her? She was sure the answer was no on both accounts.

  Mike had been so busy tossing the dead overboard and getting the Captain Jack in proper sailing form that he hadn’t noticed the smoke coming from the barge, and soon the dark hid it altogether. He actually thought she had been eyeing the Corsair boats racing in a long line south of them.

  By then they were turning toward Pelican Harbor. It was now Mike’s turn to say, “Trust me. These guys can sail like nobody’s business, but they don’t know this bay like I do. They’re fighting both the current and the headwind. In these conditions it’s best to sneak up on the Golden Gate.”

  He proved correct and by the time they went shooting through one of the slim breaks in the ropes, he had a four-hundred yard lead which doubled as they slowed to slip between the buoys.

  As soon as the Captain Jack pushed through the low incoming waves they found themselves in the Pacific. With a long look at Jillybean, Mike turned them north.

  An hour passed in silence. Colleen and Kasie huddled under a blanket, while Mike stood at the wheel more worried about what was going on behind him than front. “If they’re chasing us there’s no way to know. We should turn back.”

  “Not yet. We’ll light one of their fire pots. That’ll draw them on.” It would also give her more time to think. Which way to go? It made all the sense in the world to go north. With every mile she traveled she was that much further from trouble, that much further from hate and death and misery. It seemed obvious which way to go and yet her stomach was in turmoil.

  Another thirty minutes went by, leaving her as hopelessly lost as before. Stu would never take her back. She had destroyed his entire world and Jenn, Jenn would more than likely…Jillybean jerked as a whispering sound came right at them out of the near silent night. She even ducked down until she heard a single: honk!

  It had been a lone goose flying south for the winter. It was somewhat lost and all by itself, but it knew the right direction to be going. Jillybean cracked a smile. “Turn us around,” she ordered with a mad laugh. There would be no hero’s welcome, or any welcome at all for that matter, but as much as she loved Neil and Emily, going back would be for the greater good. She could help the most people and maybe get back north in time to save her loved ones.

  She had no idea what sort of mayhem and death she would find when they got back to San Francisco but she was utterly convinced she would find Jenn and Stu alive. Not because he was the toughest man she had known in ten years, and not because Jenn was intuitive, smart and tough. No it was because of that damned goose.

  She laughed again, tears now in her eyes, and Mike asked her, “You okay?”

  “No, I’m not. I’m insane and sometimes evil, but I try, Mike. I try to be good. It just doesn’t work out sometimes.”

  The End

  Author's Note:

  Before you ask, yes the Generation Z story continues! Sadly, it’s not quite ready just yet. While you wait, could I ask
a favor? The review is the most practical and inexpensive form of advertisement an independent author has available in order to get his work known. If you could put a kind review on Amazon and your Facebook page, I would greatly appreciate it.

  Now, that you’ve left your review—thank you very much—may I suggest a palate cleanser? If you have enjoyed Jillybean and are curious how she got to be so messed up in the head, she is strongly featured in my ten book series: The Undead World. Although she doesn’t show up until book 2, it makes sense to begin with book one: The Apocalypse.

  Of course, you’ve probably read all ten books as well as the two Jillybean Novellas, but have you read The Apocalypse Crusade? It’s the ultimate zombie origin story, but be forewarned: there is an obscene amount of blood spilled and skin flayed and love lost and all sorts of sadness. On the other hand, there are also heroes and heroines, bravery and sacrifice. And there’s adventure that spans the world:

  In an apocalypse there is definitely a beginning where mistakes are made and the seeds of evil are allowed to sprout and take shape. However, an end is not so certain. Once an Apocalypse occurs not even death is certain. Sometimes death is only the beginning.

  At first light that morning, Dr Lee steps into the Walton facility on the initial day of human trials; she can barely contain her excitement. The labs are brand spanking new and everything is sharp and clean. They've been built to her specifications and are, without a doubt, a scientist's dream. Yet even better than the gleaming instruments is the fact that Walton is where cancer is going to be cured once and for all. It’s where Dr. Lee is going to become world famous…only she doesn’t realize what she’s going to be famous for.

  By midnight of that first day, Walton is a place of fire, of blood and of death, a death that, like the Apocalypse, is seemingly never ending.

  What readers say about The Apocalypse Crusades:

  “DO NOT pick this up until you are ready to commit to an all-night sleep-defying read!”