by Josh Hilden
His Mommies had taken him with them when they’d checked out the rest of the island. There were four other villages, but they were much smaller than New White Harbor, and they were all being connected by gravel roads. Mr. Rowland had told him the roads would be done before Halloween when Charlie asked him.
All over the island, ground was being cleared to put in little farms, and Charlie thought that was good because he would like some fresh tomatoes and corn on the cob.
When he got back to near where the adults were talking, his Mommy stood up and raised her arms to him. He put on a final burst of speed and flew into her arms, laughing as she scooped him up and swung him around.
“My little man, are you having fun?” She asked as she hugged him tight.
“Yes Mommy,” he said, still laughing, and hugged her back. “I love you Mommy,” he said and his Mother squeezed him tighter.
“Where’s mine?” a voice asked from the ground.
He dropped down from his Mother’s embrace and ran to the other woman who was sitting on a blanket. “I love you too, Mama Lisa!” He said, and almost knocked her over with the force of his tight little embrace.
“And I love you,” She said and hugged him back.
“Come on Charlie,” his Mommy said holding out her hand. Mr. Rowland had gotten the Ice Cream machine working.
He yipped with joy and stood up, but before he left, he turned to Kyle and Scarlet Carson. Next to them was his favorite creature on the planet, Oscar the cat.
“Can Oscar have some too?” He asked them.
They looked at each other and laughed. Then Scarlet picked up little Andi, who had been toddling around in the sand, and said, “Sure kiddo, let’s go Oscar.” Oscar, hearing his name, got up off of Kyle’s lap and followed them.
“OSCA!” Andi exclaimed and started reaching for the cat. Everyone laughed.
2
11:30am EST
They watched Scarlet and Nancy take the children and the cat over to the table where the ice cream was being served. Roughly three dozen other kids and their parents were also gathered there to have some of the frozen treats.
“It does my heart good to see the kids happy again.” Amy said as she took a long pull on her beer. The micro-brewery equipment they’d salvaged had been put to good and immediate use. There were no hops in it, but the concoction had a rich malty flavor.
“I just wish we had been able to save more children from the mainland.” Jenny said as she adjusted Tina, who was happily slurping away at her Mother’s breast. It had been a hard delivery, with the trauma from her fight with General Baker not healed, but Dr. Aten had pulled her and her daughter through.
“We did what we could,” Lisa said, and used a stick to prod the fire they sat around. The coals glowed and gave off a gentle heat. They could all still smell the lake trout they’d been feasting on.
“We need to discuss the broadcasts again.” Kyle said, he didn’t look directly at anyone else, but they all knew he was tensed for another fight. The competing broadcasts from Denver, Anchorage, and Phoenix were the number one topic of conversation in the island communities over the last two weeks. Only the preparations for the spring holiday rivaled them in popularity. The powers that controlled each city claimed to be the legitimate United States government, and the various survivor communities across the continent were all choosing sides.
“Personally I’d go with Honolulu.” Ben said, as he reached to take his Daughter from his Wife.
“Yeah, Honolulu would be the best choice, or Key West.” Lisa said, as she lay back on her blanket and stretched. There had been a vicious softball game earlier in the day, and they were all a little sore.
Key West and Honolulu were where most of the surviving assets of the United States Navy had congregated, and the two areas, southern Florida and the Hawaiian Islands, were working together. They’d not chosen a side in the dispute that was quickly ramping up.
“OK, Denver is the last elected president and the bulk of the surviving military command, but there was never an election in November, and so he is not legally the President anymore. Anchorage is the former Governor and her people, along with a significant chunk of the Army and the Air Force, she’d been the opposition candidate, and she claims to have won an election in Alaska making her President. And Phoenix is that Senator and whopping big mob of militia men, he claims the Presidency because he is the senior active government official left.” Amy said, and she reached for a grilled fish sandwich that had been hot an hour ago, it was her third.
“The former Governor is a dingbat and is probably not actually in charge. The Senator is far away and has no real projectable power. And the former President didn’t do a hell of a lot to help us last fall.” Jennifer said ticking off fingers.
“We could do nothing.” Benny said,
“No,” Lisa said sitting back up. “For each of those people with a semi-legitimate claim, there are a hundred tin pot warlords on and off the airwaves out there.” She gestured toward the mainland.
“OK Colonel, what do you think we should do?” Kyle asked, looking her right in the eyes.
Lisa didn’t say anything for a long time. She looked at the children, and then at the town they were building. They had a growing manufacturing capacity, and were self-sufficient for food production. They’d spent the previous winter and spring stripping coastal towns of everything useful, and pulling ships adrift on the lake to the island to be stripped. They had sufficient power generation capacity to always have lights, heat, and communications. They’d done a lot with no help, and they had formed a solidarity that would never be broken.
“We stay independent,” she said finally. They all looked at her and said nothing so she continued. “We expand back to the mainland and we rebuild. By the time the powers out West decide to penetrate the East, we will be strong enough to dictate our own terms.” That hardness they had all seen in her since her return from the edge of death shone through in her words.
“I think we should discuss some of this with Clay and General Hart before we take it to the council.” Kyle said, and then sipped his Coke. They had salvaged a lot of soda over the winter, but it wouldn’t last forever. General Hart and Command Sergeant Major Sanford, having worked hard to master his prosthetic legs over the winter, had returned to White River when the snow let up. They’d cleared and fully reopened the base and relieved the skeleton team who’d spent the winter maintaining the complex. Hart was the nominal Military commander in the area, but Lisa’s seat on the council gave her a bit more undefined authority.
The issue would have to be debated in council, and then put before the citizens for consideration, but the statement got the wheels turning. It was no sure bet the people of the Refuge, what was more and more being referred to as “The American Republic of Michigan”, would decide the best thing to do wouldn’t be to side with one of the contenders for President. But these were Michiganders, and they’d always felt a little apart from the rest of the nation. That being said, there was a good chance they would decide to go it on their own, and Lisa, being one of them, knew that.
There were still many dangers out there, bandits, warlords, and the Risen Dead by the millions. But they’d survived the first and the second blows and they were still standing. Somewhere nearby 2nd Lieutenant Riley Skeels started playing his guitar and singing. Almost to a person, the crowd on the beach quieted down to listen, and many found that their cheeks were wet with tears despite the grins on their faces.
“Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But
I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.”
When the song had finished, applause erupted from the group. Lisa said she hoped the people in the dozens of other Spring Day parties were having as much fun as they were. The others agreed, and then Jennifer suggested they play a game of soccer with some of the others. All but Ben whose leg, even after being reopened and set by Dr. Aten, had never healed right. He said he’d stay with the baby and just enjoy the fresh air.
The game was halfway through when the bells on three of the guard towers rung out in their clear and crisp gong. Everyone stopped to look at the water. A form lumbered toward the fences, dripping with algae and appearing to be as much a skeleton as flesh. The sharp report of a hunting rifle accompanied the creature dropping back into the water.
Everyone returned to their activities, after all it had just been another corpse, and this was too lovely a day to let that ruin it. In the distance, a new game was starting.
3
Chicago, Illinois
Navy Pier
June 21, 2013
12:01 am EST
James walked out onto the broad expanse of the pier, and looked at the assembled crowd as he approached the podium and potable sound system. He was dressed head to toe in fine black leather, with the sigil of his Lord and Master emblazoned on both his forehead and his uniform. On his hip, the branding iron he’d retrieved from the corpse of that insane fool Clarke swung lazily and glinted in the sunlight. A large .50 pistol was strapped to his thigh, and a fire axe once belonging to General Adam Baker was slung across his back.
He was ready to do his Lord’s work again.
They’d come to his call believing his promise that he would protect them from the Dead who’d ruled the Windy City for the last year. The crowd consisted of more than 1,000 men, women, and children. They looked scared and hungry, but they were the strong ones, the ones who’d managed to survive the Rise of the Dead and eke out some form of life. He stepped to the podium flanked by four of his elite Razors, the common soldiers were dispersed around the pier, and the bulk of his people were mixed into the crowd. He paused for a moment to wish that “Books” was here with him, his adopted little brother should have stood at his right hand. But James McCoy took comfort in the knowledge that Arn “Books” Jacobson had gone to his reward with their God.
The crowd constantly scanned the area for any signs of the Risen Dead, but James had used the Branding Iron to command all the Dead in a one mile radius to leave and not return till he called them. He understood the tool better than Rudy ever had, and it bent to his will with childish ease. The idea that Ast-Murath had inhibited its power when he’d still had a connection to the Earthly plane, and that was why Rudy had only had limited success with it, never occurred to James. But it would not have bothered him to learn this truth. The secret to James’s success had always been his willingness to roll with the changes life threw at him and adapt to them. He was Master of the Iron now, and that was all that mattered. He tapped the microphone to make sure it was working, and when he was satisfied he began to speak.
“My friends,” he began in a charming voice that’d always startled police and prosecutors when he’d been a boy. “It has been a year since the world changed, a year since the powers of mankind were proven to be worthless in the face of change. It has been a year since the old Gods abandoned you, and left you to be meat for the monsters that were once your friends and family.”
The crowd murmured when he paused, and he was gratified to hear many of them voice words of agreement with him. This would have made his Grandfather proud. The old man had been a preacher and hoped James would follow him down the spiritual path. Of course the same old man had beaten the young James so badly when he had been caught playing “Doctor” with the little Shady girl down the road, that he had been in the hospital for a weak in a coma. James sometimes wondered if the damage his head suffered that day led to his lack of a conscience. He didn’t really care, but the question did hold some curiosity for him.
“I come to you today, my friends, from the shores of Lake Superior. There my fellow warriors and I fought, and I am ashamed to say lost, a battle against our true enemies.” He paused again and then continued. “I have come here today to offer you a choice, join me in my crusade to build a world where we can be safe. Join me in building a world where the One True God holds us all in his strong embrace, join me, and you and your children will ever after be safe from the bite of the Dead.”
Now the murmuring became loud and chaotic, it was music to James’s ears.
“If you choose to join us, you will be fed, housed, and protected from the Dead. You will be given meaningful work to do, and your children will be educated. All you have to do is accept the One True God into your heart, and pledge your eternal loyalty to him.” He’d been building his tempo and volume as he spoke, and the last was more a roar than a phrase.
The people began to cheer, and they chanted his name. James smiled, there was much work to be done and many plans to be made, but the first step had been taken.
4
Somewhere Else
Rudy Clarke stared at the empty room surrounding him and wept. When the brat destroyed the book, he and the bitch disappeared in a flash of light, and left him alone in the darkness with the dead dancing around him. He did not know if it had been a few seconds ago or if it had happened 1,000 years ago.
Sometimes he heard the voices of people he’d known when he’d been a man. The children he’d loved in his own way, the men in prison who’d loved him in their own way, and the people that he had fed to the Dead. They mocked him and laughed at his isolation, but they wouldn’t come close enough for him to get his hands on. He didn’t know what had become of his Master. He cried for Him to save him, but there was never a response.
Rudy was alone.
Final Interlude
“The People Picking Up the Pieces”
“Mile High”
State of Colorado Capitol Building
Denver, Colorado
October 00, 2012 AD
9:30pm EST
Fires burned across the horizon view that faced the Great Plains that lay below the Highest City in North America. It would have been beautiful if the fires weren’t accompanied by smoke and the smell of hundreds of thousands of bodies burning outside the cities limits. The protocol that had been established when the scope of the outbreak was finally understood was for all of the dead who were put down to be trucked to pits that’s were still being dug outside Denver’s inhabited boundaries and then burned till nothing remained.
The first couple of weeks following the rising of the dead had been awful, the city and state governments had collapsed almost completely and contact with anyone at the federal level had been spotty at best. If Deputy Chief of police Karen Franer had not been on duty as the exponential growth of the infestation had been realized, and if she had not had the proverbial “Balls” to take control of what was left of the cities defenders, then Denver would have just another burning Necropolis on the face of the earth. But that had not happened. They had fought a building by building, neighborhood by neighborhood battle to reclaim what would eventually be known as the last Free American City. It had taken weeks but they had managed to rid Denver of the infestation and to seal the area off from the hordes that roamed the plains below.
Chief Franer, they were all starting to call her Governor and she was afraid that eventually she would have to yield and allow them to stick her with the title, walked into her office in the newly clea
red out state capitol. There was a lot to do, the old core of the city was one hundred percent clear and her people were pushing outward clearing the suburbs and bringing in supplies and all of the survivors they could find. There were unbelievable amounts of the former, enough for years if they rationed them, and heartbreakingly few of the later. The fires would be burning for a long time.