“But I also gave you my gift to combat the hound. For in all the plans I considered, there was not one where I could bend that beast to my will. Since he was outside the network, you would have to fight him at some point. And I knew you would not survive unless you could walk in time and outsmart him.
“I worked diligently and sacrificed so much and so many to get into position to make my two great requests. Through many trials and proof that I saw the future, I convinced them of my loyalties. It was then I fed Adam a very delicate story. I told them I looked forward in time and saw your pregnancy. I then convinced them that capturing my offspring should be of their highest priority. For he would be even greater than myself. Some of this conversation you oversaw with the help from the hosts.
“They immediately dispatched the hound to secure you. I confess, this was the only time I overshadowed your abilities directly. I helped you from here even though I shouldn’t have. I guided your walking in time to see exactly the path you needed to take. You were young in time and wouldn’t have been able to see the end of the beast if I hadn’t helped you. It nearly cost me everything.
“With the beast dead, this left Zalac with only one option. They would have to track down your party on foot with their army. This was exactly the position I needed them in.
“Now I made my second request. I made sure they knew I saw the future. And now I made the argument that I needed the direct help of the Sleepers to give Adam his cure. I used every ounce of influence and drained their obsession with me dry to be placed in command of the network of minds. I knew this request had to be made before Adam slipped away into unconsciousness. The second in command never would have granted me this. But I knew Adam was a desperate, fanatical man willing to do anything on a chance at getting what he desired.
“And so, even if begrudgingly, I became the leader of Zalac’s army taking orders only from Adam. As you can see by the crudeness of the wires in my brain, the network was never meant to be commanded by a single person. It took much effort and help from the Sleepers to even attempt such a thing. I have leaned on them greatly in my leadership.
“To all the world, I seemed your enemy. I drove the very soldiers chasing you. But deep within my heart, I wove a plan to work through those soldiers for your better. All of Zalac now came under my command. Finally after months of my every action being scrutinized, I was given unhindered access. With this powerful position, I secured the whole first part of my plan. You were safe from satellites and missiles and now I commanded their army.
“Now with total access to the Sleeper’s minds I was able to answer a burning question. Why did they seek to supplant Zalac but still served it? If they were truly the head of the army, why hadn’t they turned the zombies against Zalac? I gazed into their minds directly and saw confliction within them I cannot fully explain. Although they hated their captors, they were bound by some obligation to them. They would not outright destroy Zalac but sought a more subtle hero to undermine their captors. They’re very complicated and bizarre beings at times. I have grown to love them and promised them I would save them from this dying planet if I could.
“For the sake of simplicity, Adam’s network of minds had been based on the chain of command ending with the Sleepers. It was never really meant to be controlled by a single person and so ideas originating from me had a strange flow throughout the network. The closest analogy I can think of is entropy. Once I started an idea, it was difficult to stop it. But my ideas and wishes were rarely speedy. I gave more of an impression down through the ranks hoping it would be interpreted correctly. It is very difficult to describe. The Sleepers were given a much more efficient control over their minions than I ever had.
“My whole being was swallowed into it. I became a father to the network. The zombies became my children. My wayward family! As you can testify, I’ve always cared for zombie-kind. But through the network, I could truly nourish them. But- I will not go into detail here.
“I took leadership of the network soon after you were attacked at the hotel. I knew the company would not survive another attack of that size. Arguing that there was a learning curve and my actions did not directly flow down through the network correctly, I took the chance of only sending small forces against you at first. These were the days you wandered around in the wilderness.
“Force to pursue the story I’d told them, Adam pressed me into gathering all his forces to capture you. This was a necessary but dangerous action because if I started assembling the forces against you, it would thunder through the ranks and its intent could not be undone. But I had no choice. For Adam was set on it and my leadership of the network seemed lacking in their eyes. And so I gave the command to bring everything down upon your head. As I knew it would, the entire North American continent responded to its call.
“Knowing that power was shifting in Zalac, I tasked one of the Sleepers with the mission of sneaking a small group of second level zombies into this bunker in a supply convoy. Adam would soon slip into a coma and the second in command would then have no reason not to end my control of the network. When he came for me, our hidden forces attacked and in the confusion we sealed ourselves in the lower part of the complex. Though they killed all our zombies, so few of Zalac’s soldiers remained that they could not break through the sealed doors.
“Now we sat in a stalemate. I could not open the door because of the guards outside. They dared not leave their protected position. And I couldn’t bring more zombie forces against the bunker as its defenses were fully operational and they would not fall for anyone sneaking in again. So here we all sat until Connor smashed the upper part of the bunker and its defenses from above. The only defense that remained was a SAM site that destroyed your plane with a missile on your approach.
“Now I resigned myself to the final part of my plan. The greatest task my mind would undertake. In a single moment, I needed to seize control of an entire army of millions. Though the Sleepers would help where they could, because of the complexities of the network it had to be my undertaking. I cannot truly relate to you in words the price of such an action upon a mind. There are no analogies or comparisons I can make for you. It is for this action I am forever bound to the network of minds. Detaching the cables in my brain would kill me. I have taken the core of my essence and imprinted it onto the network. Now the two cannot be divided.
“At the perfect moment, I gathered my full strength and struck out through the network of minds like forked lightning going down the ranks. In a single moment, I violently seized the Sleepers, kings, second and first level zombies in the grip of my mind. For several agonizing hours, I held them in my grasp. Like worms in my hand, I felt each one writhing against my control. In a single act, I conquered the world, holding almost every moving thing.
“This gave you the time you needed to escape the horde. I smiled when you mercifully brought Val along with you. She alone I could release to you for her infection was always a unique one. I freed her movements but she was still next to the kings and would not become human again until she moved away from their corrupting minds. You beautifully led her away and she returned to you by the airport.
“Needing to restrain them no longer, I released the horde as you two escaped in the plane. My great task complete!
“This, my darling, was our story. Your salvation. My war.”
Sara sat up to look at him. She tilted her head to the side as tears started to form. Gently she placed her hands behind his neck and pulled him into herself and kissed him over and over.
“Look what you have done! How could I ever thank you? My Brady. My beautiful bastard. We do sit like royalty atop the world. Your enemies you have eaten from the inside out. None are left to oppose you. They were strong but you proved yourself craftier. I see Zalac standing like a mighty warrior clad in armor. And you, my love - like a snake - sneak up upon them and bite them where they are weak. And all their powerful armor goes to waste as the soldier dies of poison inside. The world is ended and
you have made the best of it.
“I never knew why you chose me at first to come out of the dead. I thought there must be so many more worthy. With great pains you sought me out. I see you like an arrow seeking me out while I was zombie. You could have had anyone but you chose me. I feel your love – even now – as if it were in the air. Intoxicating and beautiful.”
She kissed him again and again with the colorful stars whirling above their heads. In the light of the dying sun, the physical world started to fade. She looked on him and saw his beautiful soul and the swelling emotions of love in his heart as they enveloped her. The deep caverns of her soul were filled with great streams of love. Its waters swallowed the valleys and the high cliffs and even overtook the mountains until only an ocean of love remained. She sat before him complete. A magnificent being filled with life. Fully alive. Like a tree firmly planted in the earth she bloomed before him the majesty of womanhood and unshackled humanity. Like children they knew the deep wonders of life and drank them fully. For what seemed like a thousand lifetimes they held each other lovingly before the gloaming rays of the sun.
“What will become of us?” she whispered.
“You, my dear, are going home.”
“I am home.”
He smiled at her and whispered, “No.”
“And what of you?”
“I am ending here for I have served my great purpose.”
Her mind opened to his words and she knew them to be true. But it was not sad. She knew grief could no longer plague her heart, but even that was not the reason. Brady’s passing in and of itself held no sadness for it was overshadowed in Peace.
She smiled greatly at him for she saw what he had done. “Yes. I’ve always known. Somewhere deep inside. You would be ending here. But it is not sad.”
Brady stood and helped her to her feet. She looked down at her body as if for the first time since she arrived. Even her armless shoulder seemed a distant memory of a wound. Her many lacerations she received in Orlando were no more than ancient scars. She found in her legs no weakness of childbirth.
“One last thing to show you,” Brady said giving her hand to Protocuss who stood behind her. “I cannot follow you in this room, but I’ll speak to you through Protocuss.”
Brady stayed behind with Peace as Sara took the hand of her new companion. Together the two of them walked into a new room.
“Through the Sleepers I accomplished much,” Protocuss said in Brady’s voice. “It’s amazing what I could accomplish when my will inhabited many bodies. Using the physical body of a Sleeper I was able to paint this.”
Protocuss opened a door before her. Sara stepped into a similar sanctuary to the one Brady created in their cabin in the mountains. Brady chronicled Sara’s struggle since he left her. From the initial feelings of abandonment to her struggling to carry Val’s legless body, he captured the entirety of her journey.
She paused before the painting of her standing looking out to the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans. Even through the painting, she felt the draw of the sea singing her name like a siren. And then she turned to where she sang over the soldiers who committed suicide. Brady captured her mystic dance as seen through Connor’s eyes. She saw herself as if dancing in perfect harmony with nature.
Seeing her journey chronicled like this, her heart was moved. “Brady,” she said hanging on to Protocuss, “You see the world so beautifully.”
He made no reply but only kissed her softly on her head. She found Protocuss’ kiss far less awkward than she expected for it came from Brady’s intent. But it still made her laugh a little.
She moved at last to the finale of her story. In all the glorious strength of womanhood, she stood entirely new holding her son at the end of the battle in Orlando. Even now, she remembered how old and scarred she felt when arriving in Orlando. This painting stood testament to how much she changed in such a short time. The woman of paint before her seemed more like the victorious Nike than herself. She wondered if she’d even recognize herself if she saw the painting before the battle. Though she’d had children before, this birth transformed her in ways she couldn’t imagine.
“Look at you,” Protocuss said. “Look at what you have accomplished. The magnificence of who you are!”
“Moses was right about me.”
“There is more,” Protocuss said leading her on.
She moved into another room discovering similar murals of Val. Tracing her fingers along the paint, she learned Val originated from Romania. She had been captured by Zalac and carted off to the Nex. There she received horrific scars marring her chest and back that she successfully kept secret for years. After the terrors of the Nex, Sara found Val had been chosen for a special assignment to be made into an experimental zombie-human. The project was to be overseen by the Colorado Spring’s king. After only a few short hours of relief in order to be prepared and shipped to Colorado Springs, she again was subjected to mind-breaking torture and more physical abuse. Slowly she was molded into the king’s desired outcome over the period of several months.
Sara wept aloud. “She endured so much without complaint. I feel like such a fool for carrying my burden so loudly.”
She came at last to the crowning achievement. After the plane exploded and Sara dragged Val up the mountainside, Brady painted them lying together. There Sara witnessed a transformed Val bearing similarities to her own evolution. At first glance, Val seemed a pitiful excuse of a human. Dying and used up. But through Brady’s painting, she seemed a masterpiece. Val’s lovely heart leapt from the paint at first as if the picture were only of it. Sara could not help but kneel under the sheer wonder of it. Sara tore her eyes away from it to express her thoughts to Protocuss, but the feeling proved beyond words.
Val, though bloodied, scarred, and legless shone brilliantly with a beauty the world could not destroy though its evil claws tried many times. For in the open gashes of her wounds, her amazing heart shone through. Sara saw in Val the stunning sparkle so many women dream of. If a sculptor captured her true image and put it on display, she would have been the envy of the gods.
The scene left Sara breathless. Val’s beauty pleaded of hope and reassurance. Though she spoke not a word as Sara traced her fingers around Val’s twisted body, somehow she heard Val’s encouragement. Sara heard in Val’s beautiful wounds that pain was passing away.
In the next room, Sara found the glorious Moses. Beginning with his broken family to his majestic fiery funeral, she found the man bore a resolute strength not unlike her own. Perhaps the most poignant painting was that of Moses entering alone the network of minds. Like tendrils it drew him in and he stepped into it as a man might a room. There he navigated its twisted chasms back to Brady. The two sat like friends at a picnic somewhere outside physical reality. Their companionship was unshakable. Their bond was so complete Sara could see it in a physical way. It floated between them like visible thought. His kind laugh and intoxicating smile flowed freely there. And Sara could not help but smile along as she looked on it.
“He was so strong for all of us,” Sara said.
“His strength we passed to you when he died. For the company would not have survived without it.”
Protocuss now took her to the final paintings dedicated to the warrior who tirelessly fought for her since the beginning. The first few paintings came to Sara riddled in darkness. A mysterious depression overshadowed Connor starting when Connor and Val slept together. Startled by Val's undisclosed disfigurement he spiraled into a brooding silence. Sara witnessed argument after argument. He raged at his wife sometimes beating her. His desire to start a family pressured Val and heaped on more shame upon her broken body. The two drifted apart cradling themselves in their work. Connor spent long hours on his experiments while Val started training the new recruits.
A lust for power overcame him and Sara saw his plans to overthrow Brady since long before Chicago. Once he succeeded Brady, his heart raced with the possibilities of founding his new America. But all th
e while a dark mist poured into his ears. Not until the nuclear strike ripped his dream from him, did Connor take an honest look at the man he’d become.
The next painting portrayed an agonizing Connor distraught over the renewed loss of his family, the mistreatment of Val, and the death of his dream. As he wept Sara saw faded images of his family kneeling beside him.
The dark mist dissipated.
After his time at the hotel, a new Connor emerged. He desperately desired to restore his relationship with Val but her heart was cautious. So through their journey in the wilderness, he made constant efforts to woo her. Like a flower, Sara saw Val’s heart slowly open to him again until finally in New Orleans she bloomed. Sara’s heart raced to see them reunited.
But their beauty could not last for soon Connor heard the call of death. With a hasty kiss on the lips of his true love, into the stars he sailed. Sara saw him a broken man made whole. A clenched fist now open. In a final sacrifice, she saw him turn his starship earthbound. Barely enduring the reentry process, Sara beheld him - the captain of a crippled craft - headed only for death. But its captain bore no sadness. In fact, as the wings tore off, she thought she saw him smile.
Sara sat taking it all in. “Strength. Beauty. Sacrifice.”
“These were the pillars on which I constructed my war,” Protocuss said sitting beside her. “I sent out a call to the faithful asking for great sacrifice. And my call was answered with the noblest of hearts. Asking unbelievable endurance of them, they gave more.
“And not everyone is chronicled here. Time, space, and energy would not allow it. So many have sacrificed so we may take pleasure in each other’s company again. Ones like faithful Adus and his band.”
Gazing into these paintings, Sara remembered the halls of time. “I know these stories,” Sara exclaimed.
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