Sorrow

by Brian Wortley

  The pitiful minion endured the wounds from the surrounding minions but most of them found its taste too zombie. Eventually, all refused to eat for the deeper they ate, the more distasteful it became. The thing was entirely worthless even for eating. The king, able to bear the sight of this embarrassment no longer, screeched a terrible curse that sent the disgraced one running. Brady watched it flee without pity. Without even knowing the details, Brady could tell whatever mistake it had made had been dire.

  Now with his full attention, Brady communed with his king. He sat under its throbbing and gave himself to it. Through their union, Brady learned of an outpost of humans within the distant foothills that needed attention. The king had tracked these well-armed humans for some time. Brady saw in the king’s mind how these enemies began at one of the military bases and gathered their supplies to setup in the foothills. Overtaking these powerful foes would be no easy task and so the king allotted a sizeable portion of his army to Brady’s control.

  Brady listened closely to everything the king emanated and anxiously awaited the actual command. The king looked down to Brady obviously pleased with him. Then to Brady’s pleasure, the command came. Brady jumped up and immediately called the appointed minions to his side as he ran towards the perimeter. The king hesitated a moment to watch his faithful one carry out his bidding.

  ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙ ∙

  The journey would be a long one. Knowing that, the king had given Brady only second level minions. Had he given him first level minions, the journey would have taken weeks.

  Brady glanced back at his companions. Confidence swelled. He had never been granted so many. They ran along a large deserted road that took them into a fairly sizeable city. Brady felt a few nearby beating hearts. But he and his minions passed them by. The miserable humans shrieked back at their appearance and ran for cover. Brady watched the pathetic humans run and did not give the order to chase them. They were not his goal and the hunt would not be worth the reward of their skinny bodies.

  Soon they moved freely in the wild again. They crossed over railroad tracks to be closer to the mountains. Brady looked at the mountain peaks and saw something beautiful and familiar in them. The sensation confused Brady. He thought, perhaps, he had some glorious series of satisfying kills there in his younger days.

  As they approached the human camp, Brady again saw lines upon the ground like physical strategy. Brady ordered his minions to break up into groups so they could attack from different angles. Without even needing to focus on them, Brady felt the presence of many beating hearts. The foothills were lined with them. His fingers twitched with anticipation.

  As they drew nearer, Brady’s mind stumbled. He found himself suddenly unsure of what they were doing. Brady looked about and came to focus on the broken tooth of one of his minions. It seemed wrong or out of place. To his complete confusion, Brady felt the need to fix it. He stepped towards his minion and almost extended his hands to touch the cracked thing. But as he moved towards his minion his mind returned to him and he became startled at what he did. In reaction, he jumped back and remembered his place. The beating hearts returned to him and he knew they needed ending.

  In a commanding roar, Brady and his minions charged the human encampment. The deafening thunder of some great weaponry shook the earth. It pounded against Brady’s ears and caused him to stumble. His minions advanced on around him following Brady’s last command. Before Brady could recompose himself, the thunderclap came again and this time Brady felt several minions disappear from his control.

  An understanding and a hatred rose in Brady at this terrible weapon. Brady looked up and saw his minions climbing over its skin and trying to bite into it. In his mind, Brady latched onto a word to describe the thing. He knew its skin was far too tough to be bitten through. With little effort, Brady looked and understood how it moved on its track. He ordered several of his minions to squeeze as much of themselves between the wheels in the track. Eventually when enough limbs caught in the wheels inside the track and a whole minion disappeared into its parts, the track jammed and the tank refused to move except in circles.

  Brady, knowing any more attack against the thing would be pointless, ordered his minions to advance higher into the foothills to where the other humans waited. Though the tank still fired on them, they soon left it behind and rounded a hill that kept them out of view.

  Now Brady and his minions took the advantage. They moved easily up and down the rocky terrain and the humans started to scatter. Brady chased one down with ease and pressed his foot against the human’s chest and tore off its arm. Screams were the only human sound Brady could tolerate. And he only suffered them because he knew they signaled the end. The miserable human tried to crawl away so Brady tore into its back and slid his fingers between the delicate organs until he reached its heart. Soon the pathetic thing moved no more.

  Brady looked around to see the humans altogether broken. Besides the tank below, they held no foothold. Brady watched with pleasure as the last of the hearts fell to the ground and soon were ended by minions.

  Brady looked down and realized he ate an arm. For some reason, this seemed odd to him. He put it down and watched his minions for a time. They seemed almost foreign to him. Like sides of an iceberg, parts of Brady’s mind broke away. Brady looked down and saw his blood covered arm. He seemed overwhelmed that his fingers obeyed his every command. Like a baby, he marveled at their movement.

  His minions looked up at him anxious for leadership but found none. Only the echoing call of his king brought Brady back to his mission. He remembered his purpose and his minions and started to take them back home.

  Part 4

  Revelation

  Connor’s eyes popped open as soon as he realized he’d dozed. He quickly brought the night vision binoculars to his face and scanned the road leading up to the house. Nothing. The same nothing that had come down that road for well over two months now.

  With the path secure, Connor eyes drifted in their usual way to the woman sleeping in the bed at the other end of the room. He watched her body move under the slow rhythm of her breathing. She drooled in her sleep. It disgusted him at first. But eighty some days of living together in the same room changed his mind. He had passed through a cycle of disgust to toleration to affection. He told himself: you know you’re hooked when you see a woman drool and think it’s cute.

  Connor was in deep. He thought he loved the woman before but after eighty-eight days of living together in the same room, he was a mess. He poured on the charm as best he knew how but Val maintained her distance. In the cabin, she seemed to be falling for him. They relished staying up all night talking and watching the sunrise on several occasions. She flirted back in response to his awkward gestures. They’d even kissed a couple times. But as soon as they dropped off Brady to join the dead and moved into this house in the foothills to watch his progress, Val was all business.

  Connor thought they’d be sleeping together by now. A couple weeks into it, he tried to make something happen but received a less than cordial response. She seemed disgusted by the thought of sex and spent the night alone on the roof. Connor was baffled and angry.

  The morning after, they didn’t talk about it. Connor knew if he started releasing those emotions, he’d get very angry and probably explode. Since they lived in such close proximity, Connor thought it best they didn’t have a huge fight and spent the next week on opposite ends of the house. So for now, he’d let it pass for the sake of harmony.

  Val quickly returned to her normal business-like approach to him but Connor couldn’t separate himself from the experience that easily. He found himself making snide remarks in his head to most of her comments throughout the day. The tension, that only Connor seemed to feel, colored most of their interactions.

  Eventually, Connor’s curiosity and growing emotions swelled to where he couldn’t stand it anymore. The scale weighing harmony and emotions finally tipped to the latter and he spoke.

  “Ok
, I’ve just got to ask,” he blurted out right after breakfast one morning. “What happened a couple weeks ago when you spent the night on the roof? I thought we were hitting it off. I thought you liked me. But you shut me down pretty hard.” As soon as he said it, he heard how confrontational and angry his voice sounded outside his head.

  Val looked away and sighed. She seemed annoyed at having to engage in this conversation. “Connor, I do like you. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I didn’t.” She hesitated for a moment as if collecting her thoughts. “It’s just that we have so much going on.”

  “What in the world do we have going on? We sit in this house twenty hours a day and do nothing besides sleep and eat!”

  “I mean with Brady. Don’t you just feel like that is consuming all your energy? I couldn’t possibly think of getting all entangled in that other stuff right now.”

  “I am engaged in everything that’s happening with Brady but let’s be honest - weeks go by without a new development. It’s not taking a lot of our time. What? Are you sitting here just thinking about Brady a hundred percent of the time and can’t do anything else?”

  “Yes! It’s taking all of me. You’re not a woman. I don’t expect you to understand how much this affects me. Just know that it does.”

  “But this is such a great time to work on us. We’re alone. This could be the only time we’re alone for the rest of our lives!”

  “Connor, be serious. Just think about what you’re asking. Who would watch for zombies while we’re in the throes of ecstasy? Zombies don’t know about ‘when the van's a’rockin!’”

  “Is this a joke to you?”

  “No, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to lighten the mood.” Val almost stopped herself from adding, “Sheesh, you could use some sex. It would calm you down.”

  Connor stormed out.

  ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙

  In his mind, Connor saw himself giving Val silence for days. In reality, it amounted to only three hours. He stomped over to the next building to steep in his anger. He passed the morning thinking of all the great comebacks he should have said.

  He returned to the other building only to collect his lunch and then returned to his solitude.

  When early afternoon arrived, it was time for their usual trip into the city to check on Brady. This eventually broke Connor’s silence.

  “Let’s go check on Brady,” Connor said callously.

  Val replied by only gathering her things. She wanted to scope out his mood before she opened her mouth again.

  Together they got on the bicycles and started rolling down towards the city. For the daily trip into town, they used the bikes for fear a vehicle would cause too much noise. Even though they only entered the far west side of the city and spied in on the interior, Connor still didn’t want to risk it. They biked to their usual building where they could see out over the zombie perimeter.

  It had been about a week since they actually saw Brady. It had become fairly common for him to disappear for chunks at a time. Since he had evolved into a second level zombie, his movements became much faster. Connor and Val had watched him closely right after his advancement and discovered he participated in a lot more activities. It was not uncommon for him to be gone for several days at a time and then return with multiple kills.

  As time progressed, Brady seemed to become a favorite of the Zombie King himself. Brady became his main source of food. Several times Connor and Val had seen Brady haul back corpses or live humans for the king to consume. Connor became concerned at their increasing amount of time together.

  Val opened the door to the roof first. She stepped out onto the pebbles and into the hazy sunlight.

  “I’m sorry,” Connor blurted out.

  Val turned to look at him.

  “If you’re not ready,” Connor continued, “I shouldn’t force you. I just thought things would be different by now.”

  “It’s alright. Let’s forget about it.” Val said almost apathetically.

  Connor opened his mouth to rekindle the entire argument but thought better of it. Instead he looked through the binoculars and scanned the streets for his friend. There in front of the Zombie King’s usual hideout sat Brady.

  “Damn,” Connor said when he saw him. “You see what I see?”

  “He’s evolved again.”

  “This is getting out of hand. I’m not completely convinced the cure works on the second level much less the third.” Connor took a moment to think. “He’s in too deep. We’ve got to save him now if we’re going to.”

  “Save him? What are you talking about? He has the only cure. The plan has always been that he would activate the cure himself and come to us. There’s no way in there.”

  “I have another dose of the cure,” Connor confessed. “I didn’t want to tell Brady in case something like this happened. It’s Plan B.” Connor’s head spun. He flicked his thumbnail against one of his teeth in his usual nervous habit. “He’s a king! I don’t even know if we can save him.”

  “Let’s watch him until he makes another raid somewhere. Then when there aren’t so many of them, we can jump him.”

  “No, it could be weeks before he leaves again. We have to do something now!”

  “The two of us? What are we going to do?”

  “We can attack them and draw him out. Don’t you think the king would send him if his own town was under attack?”

  “Yes, along with everyone else he has! That sounds like suicide, Connor!”

  “We have to! We’ve got to stop this before he gets any worse.”

  Connor was done with talking. Something inside him snapped and he saw only this option. His hand shot up to one of his vest pockets and felt the small vial containing the cure. Without another word, he flew down the stairs and back onto the bike. Val quickly followed.

  “I’m going to get the vehicle,” Connor told Val as they rode back up the hill towards the house. “We don’t have to get out of it. You can stand in the bed and I’ll keep driving around. All we need to do is draw him out and hit him with the cure.”

  “You’re seriously not going to be talked out of this? I like this plan better knowing at least you thought of using a vehicle. But Connor, you’re going to get us both killed. You know that, right?”

  “You have a better idea?” Connor said stopping his bike.

  Val almost fell off hers trying to stop so suddenly. “Let’s wait. A couple more days won’t push him over the edge.”

  “It very well could,” Connor replied in the first rational tone he’d used since learning of Brady’s new evolution. “Val, he’s all I’ve got. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

  “What about me?”

  “Not even you would be here if it weren’t for him.” Connor looked back towards the city. “We’ll stay in the vehicle. We’ll play it safe.”

  “Connor,” Val pleaded, “this is not a good idea.”

  “Then you can stay here,” he replied firmly.

  Val sighed. “You know I can’t.” Connor peddled up the last hill to the house. Val added, “We’re gonna die.”

  ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙

  Connor filled the truck up with gas. He and Val moved the rest of the non-perishable supplied they’d left in the truck into the house. Connor grabbed his fully automatic weapon and checked the clip. He piled up a bunch of ammo and put it next to the driver’s seat.

  “I feel like such a redneck,” Connor said. “I got my truck, my gun, a pile of ammo and we’re gonna go shoot up a bunch of zombies. All I need is some beer. PBR probably.”

  Val just looked at him. Now she was the one who wasn’t in the joking mood. Her stomach twisted itself into knots. She felt very similar to the dark clouds moving in over the mountains.

  “Connor,” she tried to beg him one last time, “I can give you so many reasons not to do this.”

  Connor looked up at the dark clouds and wondered if it would rain on them. He then opened the truck door and hopped inside. “You c
oming?”

  Val ran around to the passenger side and joined him.

  “I don’t know if this will make you feel better,” Connor said taking his pistol and popping out the clip, “but this is my plan.” He removed the first bullet and put it in his lap. Then he took the jar from his vest pocket and poured its contents onto the top of the bullet. “One shot,” Connor said reinserting the bullet into the top of the clip.

  “We create enough of a stink to draw him out,” Connor continued. “Once he’s alone, I shoot him with this bullet. I don’t even know if shooting him with a bullet like this will work. Or if he even can be converted now that he’s a king. I shoot him and if it works – great! If it doesn’t, we withdrawal. I’m not trying to be a martyr here, Val. I just don’t know what else to do.”

  She looked at the determination in his eyes and knew she wouldn’t persuade him. “Ok,” she said. “A plan makes me feel a little better.”

  “We’re not getting out of the vehicle.”

  Connor started the engine and gave one more glance to Val. She replied with a nervous smile.

  ∙ ∙ ∙ • ∙ ∙

  Navigating the streets became easier now that the zombies had removed most of the cars. Connor drove effortlessly through intersections he remembered taking several cycles during a typical rush hour.

  It felt strange to be so deep inside the hollow city. It wasn’t the first time Connor had been through the inner parts of Colorado Springs. But the last time Connor remembered being here was long before the birth of a king or the building of a perimeter. The city had looked very different then.

  “We’re getting close,” Connor announced. “You want to get in the back?”

  Val rechecked her rifle clip one more time and found it full. “Please don’t die,” she said in a deep tone Connor rarely heard Val use.

  “Something tells me we’re going to be ok. Brady has this way of always seeming to know what he’s doing. I don’t think he’s going to kill us.”