Ramirez’s ability to adapt to threatening situations made him dangerously capable of surviving with minimal resources. It was the prison code that he learned to implement outside Statesville that made him a feared man. He used fear tactics, intimidation, and capitalized on resources to rise to the top of a growing empire.
The Order started out as a community-based organization of neighborhoods on Joliet’s south side that was run by a community organizer. It quickly took shape after the Flash, but when Ramirez found it, he built an inner circle of lower-functioning criminals that looked up to him. The small inner circle grew into a large following, and Ramirez worked it like a potter on a clay wheel. He used men and women of questionable character to breed paranoia and mistrust in the community. When everyone saw Ramirez had more muscle behind his operation than the whole, he took it over by force.
Now the Order required resources that were becoming harder to find as each day passed. Ramirez had been forced to incorporate local outcasts, like Scroungers, to meet the needs of the Order. While Romeo Ramirez was a particularly brutal individual, he did not find the practice of cannibalism to be an acceptable means of survival. The Scroungers, on the other hand, had adjusted to the practice. Ramirez had been using them to scrounge up other food sources like canned goods and boxed meals, but lately, the Scrounger activity had been severely diminished with the growing Flesher population.
His cabinets were bare, and the people were beginning to grumble. It was the grumblers that Romeo traded to the Scroungers for alternative food sources. Recently, his eyes were set on striking the Joliet Correctional Center. His ears had received rumors of Haven’s gardens and underground springs, but with the Fleshers growing in number, the risk would be great, particularly once they reached the walls of the prison. They almost needed a Trojan horse to get in.
The Order operated out of Joliet’s Union Station, a structure built in 1912 that offered perimeter protections due to its being constructed below ground level. The interior had a large staircase that went up to the train station’s commuter platforms at track level. Romeo Ramirez’s desk sat on the second floor in the grand ballroom, which had been altered from its previous design after the turn of the century. From there, he dictated the rules of the new world order, and they changed when Romeo’s mind changed.
Now, Romeo sat contemplating his next move. To Romeo’s right, a man in black attire with a white clerical collar sat shackled to Romeo, their ankles affixed to one another by four feet of chain.
Two weeks earlier
“Romeo,” one of his minions called out as he came running into Romeo’s court, accompanied by three others.
“What is it?” Romeo said, looking over his shoulder.
“You need to come see this,” they said, without explanation.
Romeo followed them to the outside of Union Station, where he kept a row of livestock trailers that he used for makeshift prisons. In one of the trailers a man was bouncing off the walls of the interior and screaming sounds that he had never heard before.
“What is it?” he asked his minions.
“It’s one of the Scroungers you caught stealing from us,” one of them answered.
Romeo looked into the trailer to inspect the right hand of the Scrounger. It was missing. Romeo had a rule that he adapted from prison life. In the big house, if you got caught stealing, your hand was slammed in the gate until it was broken and useless.
Now, Romeo used a chopping block to tie men’s arms down while another man, known as the butcher, chopped off the thief’s hand. It was not typically fatal unless the wound became infected and it spread throughout the body, which was the case in this situation. Members of the Order that were caught stealing were dealt with similarly, except they were treated and released. This man was kept imprisoned, and his wounds were allowed to fester until his blood became toxic enough to kill him—so they thought.
“What happened to him? He’s like a wild animal,” Romeo asked.
“We don’t know. We just found him like this.”
“Who was assigned guard duty when this happened?”
“I was,” a man stepping forward said.
“What did you see?” Romeo asked, turning to face him head-on.
“He appeared to be sleeping, so I let him be. Then suddenly, he sprang up from the floor and was doing all this ranting.”
“Give me your rifle,” Romeo commanded.
The man reluctantly handed Romeo his rifle. The armed guards that were with Romeo grabbed the man and awaited Romeo’s instructions.
“Since this happened on your watch, we’re going to see what it does with you on your watch.”
The guards that grabbed the man led him to the ramp of the livestock trailer, and one of them took the keys off his belt clip to unfasten the padlock and chain that kept it secured.
Until this moment, Romeo and his men had never seen a Flesher. They were rumored to be an infection from the west that the local Scroungers had been warned to keep out of the Order’s territory. Time, it seemed, was against them.
The monster met them at the gate and was snapping at them like a wild animal would snap at its prey. Its eyes were translucent and dry looking. It never blinked as it pounded into the back gate door.
“Are we sure about this, Romeo?” one of the men asked, hesitant to open the gate as the violent creature continued to pound from the other side.
“Push him in quickly,” Romeo answered.
The man with the key unlocked the gate and gently began to open the door, trying to maintain control of the situation, but it was a futile attempt. The gate was thrown open with tremendous force, and the creature sprang out onto one of them. The speed at which the gate flew open and the creature took the henchman was astounding. It took Romeo completely by surprise.
Realizing he had made the wrong decision, he pulled a pistol from his side and shot the creature. It was unfazed by the impact that had clearly hit its mark. The creature, unperturbed, continued to feed on the man until he was dead, then chased down another henchman. Within minutes, several were dead, and Romeo’s men were firing at the creature while he took his leave, choosing to find sanctuary in Union Station. He was joined by most, but several didn’t make it.
Within hours, Romeo found himself looking out over the lot that was now too dangerous to re-enter. Every person the Flesher had attacked and killed had reanimated into an undead version of their old self. What used to be a single Flesher turned into many. To their complete shock and dismay, the Order had lost ground, and there was no answer as to what had happened. The Order had access out of the station and into the streets on the other side of the facility, but the lot was by far and large the operational center of choice.
The next day
A man was brought before Romeo and made to take a knee before him.
“Who’s this?” Romeo asked.
“We found him snooping around.”
Romeo looked at the man, who was dressed in clerical garments, and asked, “Who are you, and what are you looking for?”
The man stood up, but the guard that had brought him before Romeo hit him in the back of the knee, forcing him back down.
“He had this,” the guard said, handing Romeo a walking stick with a crucifix affixed to the top of it.
“Are you a preacher?” he asked the stranger.
He refused to answer.
“My men tell me you were snooping about. We have a penalty for thieves around here.”
“I’m no thief,” the man objected in a calm voice.
“Then what are you doing snooping around my territory?”
Again, the man refused to answer.
“Markus,” Romeo called out.
“Yes?” a man answered, stepping up toward Romeo.
“What are we calling our visitors in the backyard?”
“Screamers,” he answered.
“Ahh, we call them Screamers,” Romeo said, looking into the eyes of the stranger. “What do the Scroung
ers call them?”
“Fleshers,” he answered.
“Do you know why they call them Fleshers, preacher?”
The man didn’t answer.
“Because they rip the flesh off your screaming body until you’re dead. They peel you like a banana and leave your corpse exposed until you join their ranks as a Flesher yourself,” Romeo said, trying to intimidate the man into talking.
“Do we have a preacher, Markus?” Romeo asked.
“No, we don’t.”
“Have we survived this long without one?”
“Yes, we have.”
“Take him out back and feed him to the lot. Let’s see if his faith can save him.”
Three men grabbed the stranger by the arms and pulled him to the exit that led to the containment of Screamers. Romeo stood up and walked over to the door, where he chose to be a spectator in a gladiatorial arena. The men looked outside to make sure there were no Screamers in the immediate vicinity, then threw open the door and kicked the stranger outside.
“Wait,” Romeo called out as they were about to close the door. “Preacher, you might need this,” he said, tossing the crucifix outside.
The walking stick landed at the man’s feet. The preacher looked out across the lot and spotted four Screamers. He reached down and grabbed his walking stick. With his left hand firmly grabbing the base of the black leather-wrapped stick and his right hand grasping the foot of the cross, he pulled a lengthy blade out, exposing the stick as a concealed weapon.
From inside, Romeo smirked at the idea of a blade being used against the Screamers, especially since none of them had died after more than a hundred rounds were fired into them. The stranger began walking toward the nearest Screamer. To the surprise of the audience, none of them were attacking the man.
One by one, the stranger approached a Screamer and dispatched it with a swing of his blade. The man’s blade was sharp and his aim was accurate. The blade struck the Screamers in the neck and cut the heads clean off. Each of them dropped to the ground, both body and head, the head showing the only sign of life. None of the Screamers attacked the man.
Eventually, they had all been neutralized and the man was headed for a getaway when Romeo backhanded one of his henchmen in the chest and said, “Bring him to me, alive.”
Two weeks later
“Preacher, I know your faith saves you and that you are indeed a holy man. This is why I need you to accompany me to Haven. There’s more than a hundred Screamers between here and there, and I know they won’t bother us with you by our side.”
“If God should see fit to keep you safe, it won’t be by my hand, but by the Lord’s.”
Romeo smirked at the preacher. He had let him keep his sword as a sign of good faith. He’d had it in his possession now for the better part of two weeks and had never engaged any people with it, only Screamers. It was believed that the man’s religious beliefs kept him from killing people.
“Perhaps even your presence will give us victory over Haven. We haven’t put your gifts to the test against men yet,” Romeo said.
A group of men entered Union Station, and one of them called for Romeo.
“What is it?” he asked.
“We’re set up and the snipes are in place,” one of them said.
“We wait for nightfall; then we strike,” he said, with a half grin spread across his face.
Former Ebony Pistols territory
“I didn’t think you’d return for me,” Tynice said.
“Well, I did. Getting out of here’s not going to be easy, so even though you barely know me, I’m going to ask you to trust me with your life.”
Tanara and Tynice looked at Shemika and then back to Mason. Their body language said it all, but they told him anyway. “We trust you. You saved her twice, risking your life each time. That says something,” Tanara said.
“Yeah, it says I’m crazy,” Mason replied.
“How is it that you can walk among them?” Tynice asked.
“Mind control,” Mason said.
“Mind control?”
Shemika hit Mason in the chest.
“What?” He laughed. “Seriously, though, I figured it out. Not the science behind it, just that I know it works. I figured out that they respond to fear. Somehow they don’t even know you’re there unless you get frightened. When you do, you light up like a Christmas tree. They literally smell your fear.”
“Not science,” Tanara said.
“Huh?” Shemika asked. Both Mason and Shemika were looking to Tanara for her answer.
“I was a nurse before the Flash. I worked with an endocrinologist, and we worked on this sort of thing.”
“Explain,” Mason said.
“We would get patients with cortisol imbalances, and I would be required to take home pamphlets and study them. My doctor was strict like that. He wanted all of us to be as knowledgeable in our field as possible. Anyway, during the fight-or-flight, or hyperarousal, responses when you become frightened or angry, the human brain releases cortisol into the blood. Once that happens, there’s several things the body dumps into the muscles to make them work as efficiently as possible.”
“Are you saying the Ravagers can smell cortisol?” he asked.
“Or amino acids or glucose or adrenaline, yes.”
What Tanara said was a revelation to everybody.
“We have to learn to focus this knowledge if we’re all going to get out of here,” he said. “Shemika did it by closing her eyes and trusting me to lead the way. Is that something the two of you can do? Maybe if you hold hands and walk in a file, I can lead you out of here?”
“I want to try it without closing my eyes,” Tynice said.
“Absolutely not!” Tanara objected.
“You’re not my boss, Tanny. If I wanna look, I’ll look,” she insisted.
“I agree with your sister, Tynice. It’s too risky. If you get frightened, even a little, they could smell it and kill us all. Let me lead you to safety.”
“Fine, let’s do this,” she conceded.
The four of them made their way to the bottom floor, where Mason was sure to stop them and throw out a reminder, “Do not open your eyes. No matter what you hear or smell, keep your curious eyes shut. And above all, do not get frightened.”
“I like to imagine I’m on the shore of a deserted island,” Shemika said. “Try that and see if it works for ya.”
Mason opened the front door and let the faded sunlight in. The Ravagers were fewer in number than they were earlier.
Mason led the way. He was holding Shemika’s hand, she was holding Tanara’s, and Tanara was holding onto Tynice.
He navigated the way out of the old Ebony Pistols territory and got them safely to the location where he had hidden the Knucklehead, about a half mile down the road. Mason had two choices from here. He knew that he had to either tell Tynice and Shemika to find their own way, or he needed to go out and find another mode of transportation that could carry all four of them.
Then there was the matter of food. All of them were hungry, and Mason knew that if he didn’t find something for them to eat soon, then they would take desperate measures to find their own, exposing all of them to danger.
Mason decided to leave it in the hands of Tanara and Tynice. He explained to them that he could not take on the role of caretaker for the two of them. He agreed to protect them if they decided to tag along, but ultimately, they were going to have to be responsible for their own food. There simply wasn’t enough sustenance to be found to adequately support four adults.
Tanara and Tynice decided to tag along. All they had was each other, with the world in shambles and nowhere to go, they each felt they had nothing left but family and friends; besides, Mason and Shemika were the first two people they had met since the Flash that they could trust. All this was decided as they walked along the highway.
Mason was glad to have them along as long as they had an agreement that he wasn’t responsible for them. It was an agreeme
nt he needed to hear, but he knew deep down that if things were to get tough, he would be the one towing the weight. In such a case, he was well aware of the fact that Tanara and Tynice couldn’t safely manage themselves. If they could, he wouldn’t have had to rescue them. He needed to get them armed and trained in the use of guns. He knew just the place, but first, he needed his motorcycle. Mason’s plan was to push it along as they followed.
Old Scrounger camp
Near the bus stop
Sometime later, Mason, Shemika, Tanara, and Tynice were a few hundred yards away from the place where Mason had had his first encounter with the Ravagers. He remembered following what he thought was a Scrounger he was sure he’d shot and killed into a back alleyway that led to a Scrounger camp. On the ground, Mason had seen gear and weapons that had seemingly been abandoned. Assuming all the Scroungers had been turned, he was confident the supplies would still be there.
“You guys need to stay here and wait for me. There’s a cache of weapons and gear down the road from here.” Mason was pointing at an abandoned truck with an extended cab. It was a newer model, so the fact that the keys were lying on the floor of the truck mattered little. The hood had been popped and the contents of the motor had been completely stripped away for whatever purpose the parts were being used for.
“I’m not staying here. I’m coming with you,” Tynice said in a defiant tone.
“No, you’re not,” Tanara objected.
“Who’s going to stop me?”
“You’re going to get yourself killed, Tynice! You don’t even know what’s out there, what those things are!”
“I’m not afraid. I can do it!”
Mason was watching them go back and forth until he had enough. “Enough, already! It’s the apocalypse, Tanara. I fail to see how you can stop a defiant kid,” Mason spouted.
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