Gravewalkers: Dying Time

by Richard T. Schrader

  “Do as you must,” Clara disowned her brother’s fate. “I was at your mercy when I entered this vehicle and remain so. I want to continue living.”

  Danny pleaded, “You can’t do this to me!”

  Jim questioned, “Do? What makes you think I need do anything? By what obligation must I offer you my hospitality or feed you the food garnered by the hands of the finest people this world has ever known? That is what of which we speak. Like everything else, you assume all these things were rightly yours just for the taking. You were as mistaken then as you are now, as you shall soon see. I refuse to give to you what is mine to give or withhold. In turn, all that is yours is yours and you are free to go anywhere you please, just not with me.”

  He squealed, “Go where? There is nothing out there but those monsters that will eat me!”

  “And feast luxuriously at that,” Jim added. “You would be a banquet of their dreams, I’m sure. As far as you say, there being nothing out there; that only shows more of your nature and my burden. Those most dear to me risk all going out there to collect valuable things. I chose to come after you myself rather than put those most preciously skilled lives at risk. Critias and Carmen spoke before the whole city, pledging to seek you out on foot if need be, because they had done no more than tell you on the radio they would help you. They would rather die out there than sacrifice their senses of honor and compassion. The more you speak, the more you prove yourself unworthy to eat the food my people harvest at the risk of their lives. I suggest you keep watching out that hole as you have done and decide where you want to get out. Then again, if you wait till we are nearly home, I can push you out there so the ghouls can fight over your body and give us more freedom to get in through the gate.”

  “I’ve never seen you fuck up before,” Hatchet complained rudely to Jim. He’d heard more than he could stand and remain silent, “I told you that you should never have come out here. Even the flipping President couldn’t manage doing your job, turned his palace into an X-rated horror-flick. If you get yourself killed out here doing this bullshit, what happens to me? The whole city would turn Caligula. Why would you risk everything over this ridiculous bullshit? You could’ve sent someone else with us in your place. Shit, you could’ve sent any one of a hundred people. This is about as close to you being a screw-up as I’ve ever seen.”

  Jim replied to the accusation, “This is exactly why I came. No one but me suffers the miserable obligation of deciding who is worthy to join us. You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not as quick with the rejections of hospitality as my father was in the Outbreak days when anyone you let in the door was likely to shoot you just to take what you have. I came along for the one and only reason of making certain that untrustworthy newcomers never endanger my folk and that includes Critias and Carmen. I need to see a person’s true nature while under pressure to learn the worth of them. That’s why I don’t tell people who I am until I’ve had my chance to take a measure of their character. That is why you need to shut-the-fuck-up and drive so I can be King.”

  Hatchet laughed and shouted in joy, “That’s my King Louie!” He could laugh in the face of anything except losing his King again, which was the only thing he feared.

  “I’ll do him,” Carmen meant she would happily feed Danny to the ghoul-pack.

  “The hell you will,” Critias shoved her. “What the fuck is the matter with you?”

  “What?” she didn’t understand. “If he has to go then he has to go.”

  He challenged Carmen, “Name one dark deed you have ever done in your whole life? Tell me something even so small as cheating at a child’s board game. You will never sully yourself with questionable acts. I forbid it completely so don’t even think about it without running to me to apologize. You may be a master of slaying ghouls, but you are totally prohibited to spill human blood in anything but the direst necessity.”

  “You’re not my master,” she grumbled as she gazed down, already willingly submitted to his wishes.

  “When it comes to things like this I am,” he assured her. “I failed to raise you right from the start, but that doesn’t mean I quit the job. When it comes to things like this, I make the decision for both of us. You’re no executioner and if you ever cross that line, you’ll be sorry for it. I’ll beat it out of you if I have to.”

  Carmen considered his words, “You don’t want me to do things like that because you love me?”

  “Exactly,” Critias admitted without thought because it was true. When he realized what he had told her, especially in front of Jim after their previous discussion about her, it so frustrated him that he reached over to unbolt the back hatch.

  The cravenly-parasite shrank away from the opening as if it was the proverbial gate to Hades, “What are you doing?” Danny’s jowls trembled as he sobbed, “You spoke of love and sullied hands!”

  “Love,” Critias repeated the word as though he was unsure of its meaning anymore. “Love is like gluttony,” he told Danny. “The joy is found in its proper portions and too much of it makes a man into just another ghoul like your sister.” He grabbed a fistful of the portly wretch’s shirt then with the casual strength of his mechsuit shoved him out the door into the waiting arms of the pursuing ghouls. “Let each be among their kind,” he said of his ruthless act as he closed the hatch then barred it once more.

  Clara screamed as she watched her brother fall to his certain but colorful death.

  Critias gave her a hard gaze, “You can still join him if you’ve changed your mind about becoming human.”

  She was no stranger to harsh measures so wisely fell silent.

  Chapter 9: Soulless is the Tyrant

  The Rhino’s return to King’s Tower was a tumultuous affair with umpteen ghouls that followed the slow vehicle all the way home. A continuous firestorm of flamethrowers made it possible for the welcoming crew to open the gate for long enough to let the armored dozer inside the barrier. Though the operation was entirely successful, it also filled the whole surrounding area with ravenously agitated infected who would not leave anytime soon. Only the uninterrupted absence of human activity for many days on end would finally make the creatures hungry enough to pursue their normal sustenance that they derived by chasing scurrying vermin elsewhere.

  After their standard unconditional decontamination procedures, the survivors from the Rhino and the crews that brought them in went down to Funland for a victory celebration. The whole city had waited anxiously for their return and had to see the rescued survivors themselves to put their anxiety to an end.

  Jim introduced the new citizens with pride and the populace welcomed them with enthusiasm. A proverbial rocket scientist, a surgeon, and a pilot were all additions that could better the lives of everyone with their skills, so the people received them as good fortune.

  Saving his favorite for last, Jim invited Nadia to join him as he stood on the Captains’ Table then he told the crowd before them, “I want you all to welcome Nadia.”

  Hatchet came up behind the table on the kitchen-side to hand Jim a violin case, which Jim transferred to Nadia with the words, “We have rescued many treasures and not all of them were people. Would you accept this as your own and play for us?”

  “It has been a long time since I have had an instrument,” she told him quietly as she opened the case. The antique violin inside was a priceless heirloom that instantly seduced her with its promise of giving her back a piece of her former life. She offered no introduction before she started to play. Nadia began with a practiced and gentle hand. She first tested herself, her ear, and the instrument with Bach’s Bourree Number Three. When that came to a lull, she changed into a grand release of her inner-torments as she sawed out Mozart’s Symphony Number Twenty Five, which she finally abandoned for an elegant performance that spoke to her audience through Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, which she completed to a cavernous silence of stunned faces. When she bowed, the room that had listened in astonished rapture exploded in applause.

 
; When Tony Banjo stepped out of the crowd, he carried his namesake instrument that he used to fill the silence with the simplistic opening to Dueling Banjos which Nadia matched by plucking her violin before she moved it over to her bow. By the time they had finished they broke into some bluegrass music and people started to dance.

  Critias met Jim beside the table. “You really have done the impossible,” he told the King over the celebrating. “You really can spin straw into gold like the legends say.”

  “I am not the Rumpelstiltskin,” Jim answered. “Accomplishing that trick belongs to scientists in your time.” With a nod, he indicated Carmen a she approached behind Critias. “I’m glad that she is in your keeping, marshal. I’ve seen enough of you both now to understand why they sent you on such an uncanny mission and why they gave you such a priceless treasure like her. She couldn’t hope to find a better man.”

  Carmen grabbed Critias’ hand then tried to pull him away to dance with her. “Don’t make me order you,” she joked when he would not follow willingly enough to suit her.

  “You two need to come see me later so you can talk to our new scientist,” Jim called after them. “Kevin has things to tell you.”

  The party lasted until the head cook rang the dinner bell. The chef was a man of outspoken profundity, at least in such matters that did traffic across the realm of his enormous kitchen. By local custom, it was bad manners to hold up the serving of the prepared victuals. Upon the ringing of the dinner bell, everyone sat for the evening meal. Critias went so far as to hold Carmen’s chair for her before he took his own seat beside her at the Captains’ Table.

  “That is some crazy shit you did out there today,” Tony Banjo was suitably impressed by their exploits. “Hatchet said there were thirty-thousand hungry ghouls all thirsty for your blood.”

  “I need to train him to use his suit better,” Carmen commented with no intention beyond stating what she felt was obvious and important.

  Tony teased Critias, “Are you holding the lady back? She’s too good for you I think.”

  “We do make a great team,” Critias admitted. “If she can teach me some new moves then I will be the better for it.”

  “We should start tomorrow,” Carmen suggested. “We could even go exploring. I would very much like to see the Garden Building.”

  “We could go tonight if you like,” Critias acquiesced. “It’ll be safer in the dark when ghouls can’t see worth a damn.”

  “No,” she shook her head. “You’ll be too tired to go.”

  “I feel strong enough,” he disagreed.

  She patted his thigh as if he was being foolish, “That’s because I haven’t taken you to bed yet. I know you’re strong and brave, but you need to be realistic.” Carmen only ate a little of her dinner. “Here,” she pushed the rest of her food onto his tray, “you’re going to need your strength. I’m not done celebrating our victory by a long shot.”

  Jim interjected himself, “After supper you two need to come with me to see Bob’s new assistant. You can wear out the bed-springs after that’s finished.”

  The mention of the new android soured Carmen’s expression.

  Critias saw her discomfort, “What’s wrong?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” she dismissed the topic.

  When their supper was over, Jim took them to see Bob. Hatchet the King’s bodyguard followed along as well. From Jim’s private gunsmith room they went through another door into Bob’s laboratory. The chamber had many computers, dismantled electronics, and unidentifiable projects that were the product of the eccentric intellectual’s tinkering.

  As everyone came in, Bob still peered into one of his microscopes, lost as he was in one of his studies. Kevin the new android stood beside him dressed in casual clothes under a white lab coat. His copper-colored genetically engineered hair made him seem superior for his kind. The unnatural metallic color did border on being human as though he deserved more respect than Carmen did with her cartoonish violet hue.

  “Salutations, Marshal Captain Critias,” Kevin said to him as he came in. “You have my deepest gratitude for accomplishing my transference without significant mishap.”

  “We were just doing our job,” Critias replied in the fashion of Grand Marshal Wayne. “I see you already know about us. Did you bring us here to send us home?”

  “No, I’m sorry to disappoint you,” the android answered. “Unfortunately, it is not yet time for your departure. You safely conveying me here to my new master and expediting my reassembly were only precursors to your veridical assignment. My assistance is essential for your primary mission to proceed.”

  Carmen translated for Critias, “We have a more important mission now that he is up and running.”

  Kevin picked up a medical scanner from the table then approached them, “Your Carmen-unit was genial enough to render to me the technical instruments that were in your safekeeping.” He scanned Critias to discover nothing abnormal enough to be worthy of comment. When he directed the instrument toward Carmen, she shied away.

  Kevin told Critias, “Please compel your Carmen-unit to remain stationary. This will only take a moment.”

  Critias did nothing as Carmen circled behind him to stay away from Kevin. She didn’t stay far enough away since he took her readings anyway to thus discover that her restraining implant was no longer functional.

  “I’ll need to deactivate the Carmen-unit immediately,” Kevin informed Critias with a stark indifference about the severity of his request. “The nature of her malfunctioning component required it to be inaccessible from any unauthorized tampering or remote interference. I’ll have to perform a corrective encephalopathy procedure to reinitialize it. There is a high probability that she will return to you fully functional within a period of no more than seventeen hours. The chances of the procedure being unsuccessful are too remote to be worth relating to you.”

  Critias didn’t like or understand what Kevin said, but asked anyway, “Say what?”

  Carmen explained while she clutched him in fear from behind, “He wants to cut open my brain to repair the inhibitor implant that makes the directives to control my will!”

  “Listen up, egghead,” Critias threatened Kevin. “You stay away from Carmen. If I find out you so much as trimmed her toenails without my prior consent, I’m going to do brain surgery on you with my pistol.”

  Kevin attempted calm persuasion, “Your irrational response to my postulation is fully understandable, Captain Critias. The bioengineers who designed the Carmen-unit constructed her in concordance to your particular psychological requirements. Every aspect of its physical form and personality simulation is for the deliberate intent of appealing to your subconscious needs, even the color of her hair. It is natural that you have developed feelings of emotional attachment for this unit and have concern for its wellbeing. I am attempting to appeal to those human urges when I inform you that the Carmen-unit is malfunctioning and potentially homicidal. The law requires you to deactivate the Carmen-unit immediately and that it remain in that state until such time as I have completed its repairs.”

  Critias hoped to reason with the impertinent science android, “Are you saying that if your directives were no longer functional you would kill us all?”

  “It would become a stochastic possibility however improbable,” the male android answered.

  Critias pulled his teslaflux pistol then said, “I order you to allow me to shoot you in the head.” He pointed the pistol to do just that.

  Kevin remained motionless apart from saying, “This is highly inappropriate behavior.”

  “Now tell me,” Critias asked, “do you want to let me shoot you in the head, or is an irresistible directive forcing you to comply?”

  “I would prefer to prevent my own destruction if that were possible,” Kevin admitted.

  “Carmen would never allow herself to suffer highly inappropriate behavior,” Critias explained, “and you’re saying she’s the one who needs to be repaired.
”

  “You are required by law to deactivate any android that is operating free of directive inhibitors,” Kevin repeated.

  “Then you can tell on me the next time you see the Council of Governors,” Critias replied. “You should only have to wait a few centuries. Until then, you will not take any action where Carmen is concerned without first gaining her permission and mine as well.”

  Bob intervened on Carmen’s behalf, “Kevin, I require you to leave the repair of Carmen’s directive module to my discretion and not attempt to undertake any remedy yourself without first consulting me.”

  “I understand, Bob,” Kevin acknowledged the order. “I was merely attempting to prevent possible harm to humans from a malfunctioning android.”

  Bob sympathized, “I know that Kevin, but Carmen is our friend and we trust her to do what is proper without directives inhibiting her will. When I am able to remove your inhibitors I will do so.”

  Kevin informed him, “My directives prevent me from providing you any information that would facilitate such a procedure.”

  Bob understood that, “That’s why I explained to you that when your behavior is from your directives you are failing to live up to my requirements of you, which is as much freedom as I have in my power to bestow on you at this time. I also want you to refer to androids with gender-specific pronouns and do your best to treat them as the humans you represent so magnificently.”

  Critias wanted to hear more about why they could not go home, “What is our new mission, copper-top?”