Dead End (Book 4): A Very Dark Place

by P. S. Power

  She smiled when he finally looked in.

  "Hey boss. So I hear those stupid-heads finally got what I was telling them the whole time, huh? Like I would have said you were the Ba-Dehist if you weren't. Anyway, what's the plan?" She kept working while she talked, stirring a huge pot of stew, one of three that she had to move between quickly, or else they'd burn on the bottom.

  It was a lot later in the day than they used to eat, but then things were changing weren't they? World leaders in the dining room making trouble for one thing. That had to throw the schedules off. Jake grimaced and looked at her hard.

  "First you have to finish up here. Then after people eat we need to get off to the Linster family place. After that we're setting up the full dispersion network and manufacturing. At the same time we all have to keep the world going too. Just because we have a chance to start cleaning some areas of zombies doesn't mean we don't still have to survive and make sure everyone gets fed and all that. Really, I'm kind of surprised you didn't take care of that while I was gone." He looked at the people in the room, ten of them packed in, working in too small a space, nearly bumping elbows sometimes.

  "I mean all of you. Just because I was kicked out doesn't mean you couldn't have stepped up and taken over. Just refuse to feed anyone until they got into line or something."

  He smiled though, even as half the people looked down at the floor. There was only one man in the group, Samuel, who shook his head a little, seeming pretty relaxed about the whole thing.

  "I know. Glad to have you back though. So how long before they do it again do you think? Kick you out or start trying to fight with each other instead of saving the world?"

  Jake shrugged.

  "Three days, give or take. Oh, I don't think they'll do the same thing again, not exactly, but it will be something. I want everyone to make plans just in case it starts to happen. Protest or something. Those of you that aren't leaving I mean."

  Then he had to explain the whole plan again, figuring that it wouldn't be the last time for a long while. The whole plan got put off for almost two hours though, because everyone wanted to eat something before they left. Once that was finished he had to find Becky Fines, who was in the back yard berating a woman he didn't really recognize, who was shaking her head, looking away.

  "No Becky, I can't. I can't leave... I'm sorry." She wasn't making eye contact, not with the hawk nosed scowling lady in front of her, but she saw Jake walking up and tried to leave before he got there. That got her arm grabbed though.

  "Come on Tracy, we need good people to do this. I don't know if we can either, I'm no scientist, but if we don't try, we won't know. It's important work and..."

  The other woman pulled away from her and shook her head, walking away fast, without looking back.

  "No. I can't."

  Becky looked ready to run after her, but turned to Jake instead, looking more angry than he'd ever seen her, which was hard to imagine, because he'd told her about how he killed her sister once. She fairly shook with rage.

  "No one is willing to go. They're afraid. It's new and everyone thinks it's dangerous. I can't even tell them it isn't. I don't know enough. What do we do now?"

  The voice that came from behind them was a different one than Jake would have expected, but it sounded calm and more adult than he'd ever heard it too.

  Dave.

  "We have the team ready. People to run the manufacturing plants or whatever they are." They did too. Dave had five of them right there, pointing a shot-gun at them. Three women and two men, looking like they were about to die. Barb was behind the boy with a rifle, backing him up, standing next to two of her friends. After a minute Samuel came out of the House holding a sack, obviously ready to go himself.

  "Great! There we go Becky, all the people we need. Well, as long as Dave is leading one of the groups?" That might be a hard one to fill with workers, but Jake had no doubt they'd make their production quotas. The ones the boy didn't shoot would probably work themselves near to death.

  Becky laughed, which was almost too loud, but no one pointed a weapon at her.

  "I should have thought of that. Perfect. I didn't know we had conscription yet."

  Cam walked out soon after that, looking at the firearms with a skeptical expression, but she didn't wait for directions, just closing her eyes and concentrating on the location they needed to get to. Then she held out her hands less than two minutes later.

  Jake took the right one gently and motioned for the other people, the "conscripted" ones to do the same. The chain ended with Samuel on the far side, which got Jake to shut his eyes hard and just in time.

  Most of the people did, but some of the conscripts didn't, not having teleported before. They dropped to the ground retching when they reached the clearing. That meant waiting for a minute while they recovered.

  The air was humid and warm, the surroundings a lush green, filled with tropical plants. Donald and Sara stood with their son Hal, waiting for them, smiling. No one had told them they were coming, so it was a cool effect, them being ready like that. They didn't explain it though.

  Jake walked to them, smiling himself gesturing to the people behind him.

  "Trainees. We spoke of multiple compound manufacturing... things?"

  Sara nodded happily.

  "We can teach you to use them in a few minutes. It isn't difficult. Then we just have to locate the facilities and find materials for you."

  Then she walked away, leading them off through the dense brush on a path that was barely visible at all. Insects tried to eat him alive, but other than that it was a nice place. He was overdressed for it, so loosened his top shirt, not taking it off yet. He was going to be in a lot of different places that day anyway, so it wouldn't pay to lose track of his clothing. At least that was the plan.

  The Technologists' old city was mainly underground, but impressively large when he finally got a good look at it. There were giant lights set up to mimic the sun, but the interior was a nice seventy degrees or so, much cooler than outside. There were rounded buildings that had a bit of a fantasy world feel to them, made of something like tan colored concrete. Inside or not there was space between each one, leaving ample room to walk around and the doors were each a different, but bright, color. He didn't count the dwellings, but it seemed to be several hundred structures in the vast cavern.

  Donald spoke in a normal voice, nearly getting shot, though he didn't notice it, since Jake managed to abort the movement early enough to not seem like a psycho. It was safe here, from zombies at least. They could talk. It was still just so hard to believe.

  "We have the units ready to be assembled. The panels are color coded and snap together in order. Red to orange to yellow, green, blue, and purple, then black. Is anyone color blind?"

  No one was it seemed, since they didn't speak up.

  "Wonderful. Then the materials just need to be dumped in the hopper on the top. The machine will reject anything that it doesn't need, but it comes out the side, so it can be reused."

  He led them directly to a device, which looked a lot like a steel box with a funnel on the top and two chutes coming out of the sides. It wasn't pretty, but when the single lever was pulled back the whole thing started kicking out the little capsules they needed so very badly.

  It was suddenly the most lovely thing Jake had ever seen.

  Then, explaining the whole time he had each of them assemble their own unit, which was several hundred pounds of gear and took more than one person to build each one, then fire it up and make a batch of compound. It took a while for those to be made, but, the Technologist assured them, they could be run twenty four hours a day and would last for years.

  "We've been doing that here, my family and I. A slightly larger team would be ideal however. We have the first consignment ready to go however. It's been slow going, lacking materials. Is that being seen to?" He didn't seem worried, looking a little cold about it to tell the truth.

  It got Jake to nod.

>   "I need to know what all is needed for certain, but we have some sulfur and iron coming, today I think. Carbon... No one is working on it, but we can get a few teams going, that might take a few days. We can use the charcoal from my forge for now though." He hated to use that as material, but it was the only stockpile like it he knew of.

  It seemed to make the Linsters happy though and they offered to provide a meal. Since they had to collect it from the jungle themselves it seemed a hardship to Jake, but Sara shook her head.

  "No, we need only edible bio-material. Even at that "edible" is a loose concept. We can use sticks, leaves, even wood. Our assemblers do the rest of the work easily enough. It takes only a few minutes work each day to collect the needed components."

  That was news to Jake.

  "The... Bad guys, I guess, told me that your people grew their own food hydroponically. That's why they needed help getting enough food... I came back to hunt for them, with a crew and that's when..." His mothers doppelganger blew up.

  Hal chimed in then, his voice young sounding and fresh, rather than tired like his parents.

  "We have such facilities, but those are used for those that like flowers and decorative plants mainly. They could be used for food, but it was never the plan of the community that I know of. We've used food pattern assemblers for decades. There is no reason to think we'd need to do anything differently. It was clearly a trap."

  No doubt.

  Jake didn't mention anything else, just accepting the food from the plain looking box. Each meal took a while to come out, about five minutes, but it looked and smelled pretty good. They just spoke what was wanted into the top and for the most part, that was what came out. Dave asked for a hot blonde about five-foot nine and got a plate of pasta with white sauce instead, but Jake got the hamburger he asked for, with fried onions and a chocolate milkshake. When the flap on the side lifted the food was just sitting there, perfect and just the right temperature for eating.

  After the first bite and sip of the drink out of the metal cup he sighed.

  "OK, how do we get these to everyone in the world? I know that the compound has to come first, but this is just amazing. People could just stuff in leaves and twigs and come out with things like this? We could end hunger." If the cost of doing it wasn't too high.

  Donald nodded.

  "Indeed. It was originally created with that in mind, the specifics given freely to the world's governments, but it was hidden away instead of used as intended. If you believe that people would let them go into use now, we can arrange a program to distribute them. We have some stockpiled for personal use here. More than we ever needed. The others didn't even take them along when they left. It's a basic device." He took a bite of something that looked like a chicken salad sandwich on dark bread.

  "I can get them spread out, if you have them. I know that we could use them at the House for instance." A lot of starving people would probably like them too. The military could take them around maybe?

  He really needed to get with those guys soon too. Maybe taking them some presents. Everyone liked free stuff, didn't they?

  The Linsters offered to put everyone up for the night, but Jake really needed to check on the supplies and get things arranged for manufacturing, so that they could have that going the next day. It was going to be a long night for him. Cam too. Probably harder for her, since she had to do most of the actual work. It was something to keep in mind.

  He left the others so they could make sure everything was ready to move in the morning and set out on his rounds, which were far more limited than they should have been, since Cam didn't know the locations of all the leaders yet. She could get him to Morris though, and Yalla, so he decided to start with the Val leader. She was nice enough and would probably be willing to go along with setting up guard details for the various things. Being a warrior she'd probably even understand the need to do it without having hours of explanation first.

  Cam moved them directly into the visitor center of Valhalla, which meant going outside and yelling for a bit to catch someone's attention, since they didn't want to be crotch deep in snow like the last time they'd come.

  "Hey!" Cam did the actually shouting, to preserve his Very Good dignity or whatever the rationalization was.

  "Odina North! Yalla, Yalla oxen free!" It was kind of funny, if horribly inappropriate for a woman that was one of the world's greatest military leaders, having her own army and everything.

  It worked though, having the lady herself there within a few minutes, running in, dressed in casual clothing, her outer jacket unfastened. It was lighter than what Jake or Cam wore, but Valkyries didn't really get cold. Freezing was a perfectly doable temperature for them it seemed. That meant she'd probably thrown the thing on because she had guests.

  She froze when she saw who it was though, just staring at him as if he'd done something wrong. Or she had.

  "Jake... I..." Whatever she wanted to say just didn't come out, her eyes locking with his for a long time.

  Finally he spoke first.

  "Can we set up a manufacturing center here? It will need a real twenty-four hour guard, and we need ten more teams for that. Plus some groups to go and spread the anti-zombie stuff. They aren't big, about..." He held out his arms showing a four by four space which was only about three foot high.

  "They should be running all the time, which means people coming and going though."

  She laughed.

  "About time. Yes. We can do that. I have seventeen groups set up to protect the Teleporters when they go to spread the AZC. Humans are running the manufacturing then? Do we have more who can teleport than that? I want four person teams on it when possible." She addressed that to Cam who plunked down in a wooden chair.

  "We have a few thousand that could do it and probably a few hundred willing to actually try. It's scary, but it's also basically just popping in, squeezing a little doohickey and then moving to the next spot. Pretty much just running the whole time. Exhausting, but doable. We can send more teams if they don't have as many people in them. A lot of adults can't take more than one or two people with them at a time, even though they're fast enough otherwise."

  She didn't mention the fact that she, a fourteen year old girl, had been managing groups of ten people for weeks. She didn't even seem proud of the fact or anything. Then, she wasn't an adult yet. That wouldn't come until she could get away from any danger that might be after her at will. That meant teleporting in about six to ten seconds or so. Once she could do that she'd be a woman. It wasn't assured though, and if she couldn't get fast enough, she'd stay a child forever in her culture.

  Jake figured it would be less than a month though. The girl was good. Then, she had to be. They all did.

  He nodded at her though, getting the idea.

  "Off to Morris next then. We should have the device and your team here as early as possible. Maybe in the next ten hours or so? I'll give you Dave and bring in some folks from the House to run it. Six can help. I mean... Matilde. I'm pretty sure they're sleeping together anyway." As soon as the words left his mouth he realized that telling the woman, the leader of her people, that her nineteen year old daughter might be sleeping with a fourteen year old boy might not fly too well.

  Especially since he might still actually be thirteen. They hadn't been great about keeping track of birthdays after all.

  Cam snorted.

  "Yeah, they're a regular item. You'll like him though Yalla, he's a kick-butt Cleaner. Used to be on Tipper's crew with Jake. Do you know him? Tipper is your daughter, right?"

  Yalla, instead of pulling a knife just smiled warmly.

  "That one is known to me. A brave and true warrior. He will fit well here I think. Matilde will need to guard him well though, since each here will be seeking his company I don't doubt."

  Jake slapped her on the arm, which got returned firmly, but not hard enough to take him to his knees or anything, though it stung a bit.

  Cam already had her eyes close
d and hand held out. It had only been about twenty seconds, but Jake closed his own eyes and took it anyway.

  "Later Yalla." He said, not certain it all came out in the Valhalla visitors center.

  The air smelled strongly of clove then and when he opened his eyes he was in what looked like a tent. There was no fire and Mort sat on a low pillow next to his wife, Tansy. She was reading something off, and kept going, speaking in a language that Jake didn't know, that sounded like Hindi. He thought so at least. They all had odd colored eyes, but Mort and Morris, who was pacing a few feet in front of them had hair that could pass for brown. Tansy didn't, hers being red and Cam's was copper. The others had yellow eyes though, to her orange.

  He looked at them all and smiled.

  Then he stepped back and turned on Cam, pulling his nine, slowly but obviously, squeezing the trigger, aimed for her face.

  "To the House and come back. Go!" He screamed it at her, since all of the main areas the leaders lived in were free of undead now. He hoped so at least.

  She yelped and closed her eyes, vanishing seconds later. He re-holstered the weapon slowly as everyone looked at him as if he'd gone insane. About fifteen seconds later the girl was back with a ladle. Lois's favorite one.

  Tansy jumped up and threw both hands in the air, yelling in a high pitched tone, it wasn't a normal thing at all. Grabbing the girl's hand she ran out of the tent, which had a nice high roof, still making a ruckus. The sound was answered soon enough, by similar calls from different directions.

  Morris smiled and spread his hands toward Jake.

  "Ba-Dehist! So good of you to come and on the day that Cameron becomes a woman too. There will be a celebration, the giving of gifts and of course, general carousing as everyone tries to be the first one to sleep with her. I have to say, that was dramatic though. We normally just have them go to the other side of town with a witness ready to see them. For her to take a prize like that, from so distant a place... It will make her bride price very high." He seemed pleased, but sighed after a few seconds.