Dead Man Running

by Davis, Barry

  The globe began to vibrate and she looked at the smiling faces of her foster parents and she knew. She got to her feet, knocking her chair backward. She bolted for the back door and the globe, somehow, had grown wheels and was following her. The Chins were on their feet and toddled after her, not too concerned about catching her.

  Tamesha ran for the flower bed and kicked away the soil and mulch that covered the shotgun that killed Hank and his devout friend. She got the shotgun in her hand just as the globe reached her. As it snicked open, she shot it and the thing ceased moving.

  The Chin's approached as she grabbed ammo to reload. "You killed it," said Mr. Chin.

  Tamesha raised the shotgun and blew his head nearly off the shoulders. What was left of him crumpled to the ground.

  "You didn't need to do that," said Mrs. Chin. "Now who will I have sex with?" She reached down into the debris of the globe and stood up with a handful of darts. She shrugged. "Oh well, I guess it has to be you." She took a step forward with the darts and Tamesha pulled the trigger.

  Click, click.

  She looked at the gun, reversed it in her hands and swung it like a baseball bat. Mrs. Chin caught the gun in her free hand and flung it away. "C'mon Tammy, this won't hurt at all."

  What is it with these things that make them want to call me Tammy?

  Tamesha ran as fast as she could. The suddenly athletic Mrs. Chin, with a fistful of darts, was close behind.

  What Mrs. Chin did not realize was that, without the magic of the globe, the darts would merely kill, not transform. She would simply create supper, not an undead daughter.

  THIRTY-SIX

  Hamid Hidar climbed off the bed, his nakedness embarrassing his granddaughter. Mira struggled to keep her eyes on his face instead of his privates.

  The old man smiled. "Perhaps I need some clothes."

  "Please. You may only be wearing my grandfather but he was very precious to me."

  He nodded, turned toward a closet. "And you can drop that case of silver globes. I know they are reversal bombs but they cannot harm me." He disappeared into the closet, leaving Mira staring at the two naked females, who made no effort to hide their bodies. Indeed, their legs parted in order to give their guest a better look. Mira switched the briefcase from left hand to her right and unlocked it. She didn't know what the reversal bomb would do to Hamid, but she was out of options.

  Hamid reappeared dressed in dark slacks, black socks, slippers, and a white silk shirt. It was clothing unlike any her grandfather had ever worn.

  He pulled out a chair and sat. His companions each frowned and slumped, disappointed that their playmate did not return. Not riveted by the conversation they decided to play with each other, kissing, groping and tugging on one another. Mira watched the women, and then finally her eyes returned to the monster that inhabited her grandfather's body.

  "First, congratulations," he said.

  "For what?"

  "You are not alone. You come here with child."

  "I'm pregnant? How do you know?"

  He took a deep breath. "I can smell things now. I can smell the child. I'm sure she would be quite tasty."

  Mira took a protective, unconscious step back.

  "Don't worry child, I have no intention of harming you or your baby. Not yet anyway. Benjamin needs to know about this. Your child will be the most powerful of all. He'll have to decide what to do with her. You, I'm afraid, will likely be killed."

  Mira transferred the briefcase to her right hand.

  "Isn't that getting heavy? Please do as I say and set that down."

  "I'll keep it in hand, if you don't mind."

  Hamid shook his head. "The other reason I know about your daughter – and please name her Miriam after your grandmother if I can be so bold – is that I retain my magic."

  "How? You're a zombie, meaning you are dead and the dead don't retain their magic."

  It smiled. "Benjamin has been harvesting magicians from worldwide to solve the 'Hamid problem', the fact that he, Wiley, will cease to exist when Hamid, the human me, ceased to live. Cryogenics could have kept him alive a long time but not forever. Benjamin wanted to be assured life everlasting."

  "I thought he solved that by getting his wife pregnant?"

  "I guess he wanted something more tangible, direct. Why conquer a planet if you can't live to see long-term impact? I think he wants to send zombies throughout the universe!"

  "He doesn't think small, does he?"

  "He doesn't. Anyway, his 'outside consultants' determined that since magic lies not in the brain, but in the heart, they could remove my heart and make the rest of me a zombie. Using the same humanizing treatments they've applied to Wiley, they have created a hospitable home for my human heart, one that will last forever. To guarantee that, their magic shields my heart from all magical harm. Even little Miriam would not be able to harm me." He smiled a wide zombie grin.

  Mira opened the case, pulled out two bombs.

  "I read your mind. Thank you for finally acting. This will bring things to a conclusion. You know, I can convince Wiley to let you stay here until your child is born. It'll be just like old times."

  "Fuck you and die old man." She dropped the bombs on the floor. The bombs snicked open and the nanobots flew out. The two females stopped having sex long enough to realize that the bots were coming directly to them. The robots flew into the women and soon they were tumbling off the bed, flopping on the floor as if having seizures.

  Meanwhile a group of nanobots flew into Hamid Hidar's body. Under his skin, the robots could be seen moving frantically to and fro.

  "Ah, they feel like bumblebees. They are quite the achievement. Congratulations." He laughed as the metallic creatures tickled his insides. "But, alas, they cannot harm me. I am protected by my magical heart."

  The two female zombies had stilled. The nanobots were working on them; they would be human in less than twenty minutes Mira knew.

  Hamid got to his feet. "I'm sorry but this is boring me now. Time to move on, granddaughter." He pressed some type of intercom and asked Pritchett to bring an assault team to his suite.

  In less than a minute Mira was facing Pritchett, ten of his men, and their assault weapons. As she stared at the smiling face that used to belong to her beloved grandfather, the case containing the remaining reversal bombs was closed and taken from her.

  Manchester Lee watched from the security nerve center of Harlem Hospital the activities occurring in Operation Room Seven. Two people – an older female and younger male – stood in opposite corners of the room brandishing assault weapons. In the center of the room the doctor and nurses he had spent his time converting from zombie to human were performing a caesarian section on Jan Sugerfoot Wiley.

  The problem with converting zombies to humans, he discovered, was that it brought to the fore their sense of self preservation. These new humans wanted to live and, therefore, were not going to do anything to cause the two gunmen to fire their weapons.

  His other converts at the hospital – the three 'rent a cop' security force he shared the security center with – were no more eager to take on the heavily armed duo.

  The cops? The Feds? They would take the word of a walking dead man that the young wife of the Vice President-elect was giving birth to a monster? Knowing the Feds as he did, they were likely to believe him but would retain the child for 'study' and possible duplication as a sentient, highly mobile, weapon of mass destruction.

  No, Manchester Lee was on his own and he would have to destroy baby Wiley all by his lonesome.

  The turncoat doctor pulled the bloody child clear of its mother's body. Jan was conscious and said something to the nurses and doctor. Manchester could hear neither question nor response but the woman smiled and rested her head back.

  "Probably asked if the fucking thing had a tail," he muttered. The three humans looked at him, then back to the video monitor.

  Yes, he thought, I'm all fuckin' alone.

  Elias drifted on
the clear, calm waters. He spent his time – maybe about an hour since the plane exploded – watching the sea life just below the surface.

  Suddenly a grotesquely familiar face shattered the tranquility of the water. "Mind if I come aboard?" Wiley asked. "It took me so long to reach you and I'm kinda tired." He raised one arm out of the water. It looked like a doll's arm plugged back into the socket in a haphazard manner by a determined toddler. "Can ya help a brother out? I have a leg just like it." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Let me tell you, zombie or not, jumping out of a jet plane without a parachute is not a good idea."

  "Fuck off, Ben," Elias screamed. He began paddling the boat furiously.

  Wiley's head disappeared under the water. Next, damaged leg or not, he roared from underneath the sad little raft, flipping the craft, its occupant tumbling out into the ocean.

  Elias felt the warmth of the ocean and the coolness of Wiley's lifeless arm clamp around his neck. The zombie faced Elias as he wrapped his legs around Elias' and the pair dropped under the surface, down under, where death waited for one.

  Mira, Pritchett, and his men watched as Hamid coughed out the remaining nanobots from his body. The angry swarm hovered above his head, frustrated.

  Mira wondered why they did not attack the other zombies in the room. They seemed particularly single minded when it came to her grandfather.

  She recalled the bewitching spell she had applied to this set of nanobots. Perhaps that would be enough, combined with their apparent stubborn determination, to overcome the magical barrier protecting Hamid's heart.

  Hamid straightened himself and walked toward his granddaughter. He took her hand. "Ready?" he asked.

  "For what?"

  He smiled. "Why, to go to your new home!"

  "My cell."

  Hamid nodded, turned toward Pritchett. "Take her." He looked down at the still slumbering women. "I will visit….afterwards." His stomach growled in hunger.

  "Look," said one of the soldiers. The nanobots were very agitated, their energy now consumed by a quickening circular motion near the ceiling.

  Their movement accelerated until the sound they made was very similar to that made by a high speed saw.

  The group, now moving in a perfect circle, traveled upward until they met the ceiling. Mira, Hamid and the soldiers stepped back as the nanobots destroyed the building materials in their path, chewing through the ceiling.

  "What should we do?" asked Pritchett.

  "Nothing," said Hamid. "They're frustrated. They're seeking greener pastures." He laughed and some of the soldiers joined him.

  Pritchett did not laugh. He looked from the hole created by the nanobots to Hamid then to Mira.

  He realized what the young woman already knew. They already had greener pastures – us! Why were they leaving?

  "Stop them," he said to Mira. He pointed his H&K machine pistol in her face.

  Hamid knocked away the pistol. "She can't, you idiot. She has no magic. She cannot control those things."

  "Can't you control them? You have magic, right?"

  Hamid shook his head. "It's her magic – one magician cannot control another's creations."

  A circle of sunlight shone on the floor of Hamid's apartment as more material drifted downward.

  "They're through the roof," one of the soldiers said. He stood in the sunny patch, looking upward.

  Suddenly the room was filled with a loud buzzing noise, loud enough to make Mira hold her ears, as the devices returned.

  The nanobots, still in a circular formation, transited the room. They fell upon Mira's metallic briefcase, disintegrating the material. The last of the globes were freed and quickly deployed. The soldiers fired upon the globes but it was too late – the nanobots entered their bodies and soon the eleven men were gyrating and convulsing on the floor. The original swarm continued a tight circular flight around Hamid, frustrating his efforts to get out of the room. Finally, the man had lost his smile. This was no longer funny.

  Over the next ten minutes the swarm grew as nanobots, having completed their work on the women and soldiers, vacated the transformed bodies. Mira, the transformed women, and a few of the newly human men, watched as the nanobots generated a very tight funnel cloud, one meant for a singular purpose, to lift Hamid Hidar out of the room.

  Hamid's body was quickly transported out of the facility. In seconds, all was quiet. The two women, realizing their nakedness, covered themselves.

  Mira, wondering what would happen to her grandfather, walked out of the apartment. Her thoughts traveled thousands of miles away to the Pacific. She couldn't shake the sense of imminent loss.

  Tamesha was getting tired and Mrs. Chin was gaining on her. With nowhere else to run, she ran to their next closest neighbors, the Browntree's.

  Good luck! Mrs. Browntree was working in her garden!

  "Mrs. Browntree!" shouted Tamesha. She didn't know the woman too well but hopefully she'll save her from a homicidal foster mother.

  She froze as she got close to the woman. It was the smile – wide and full of teeth, pure evil to the core.

  "What can I do for you, child?" she asked. She set down the hoe that she had been wielding. Tamesha didn't know what she had been doing with that hoe but it looked like body parts, not potatoes she was burying.

  The creature followed Tamesha's eyes to her 'garden'. It stepped back so that the child could get a better look. "I'm just burying what's left of my husband. He had such beautiful hands. I can't bear to eat them." Her stomach growled with anticipation as Mrs. Chin grabbed her stunned ward.

  "Hello, Mrs. Browntree. Thank you for slowing down little Tammy."

  "You're welcome. Dinner or convert?"

  "Convert," she said and she raised the fistful of darts above Tamesha's head.

  They must have dropped about a hundred feet and Elias struggled to hold his breath. In a matter of seconds he would have to open his mouth and his burning lungs would fill with water. He faced his murderer, the smiling face of Ben Wiley. He thought of Mira as the darkness began to creep around the edges of his conscious mind.

  Hamid Hidar found himself under water as well, under at least a thousand feet of the Atlantic, off the continental shelf near the coast of Maryland. He too smiled, until he realized the plan of the nanobots.

  The bots suddenly accelerated his body upward, the sudden pressure change overwhelming even magical defenses, swelling his heart until it burst in his chest. The last living part of Hamid Hidar was dead.

  With the loss of his magical heart, he was ripe for invasion by the bots, which wasted no time. In seconds, still hundreds of feet below the surface, Hamid Hidar began to be transformed back into a human being.

  As a weakening Elias stared into his eyes, Wiley's eyes widened. With a sudden surge of supernatural power, Wiley's body blew apart into its component pieces, the force of the explosion sending Elias jetting toward the sunlight.

  With one last burst of energy, he was able to break the surface and breathe life giving air, simultaneously coughing out seawater. He wasn't far from the raft and he slowly paddled his way back to it.

  After righting the small craft, he climbed inside. It was his turn to smile. Mira had been successful – Hamid was dead.

  But was she still alive?

  Mrs. Chin's arm fell to her side. She, and Mrs. Browntree, said nothing but simply walked away. They didn't go far but merely trod in circles. Tamesha watched in fascination for an hour. The two women continued to walk, sometimes into each other. When that occurred, they righted themselves and continued their circular transit.

  Finally tired of watching, Tamesha strolled back to the Chin house. She had to pack her things and make an important phone call.

  The nanobots deposited the transformed Hamid Hidar on the shore of Chesapeake Bay. He stood, stretched. He had not felt so well in years. He rubbed his chest – the bots, he realized, had destroyed then repaired his heart.

  He felt happy but undeserving. They should have killed
him. And then left him that way.

  Given this new life, he would make the best of it. Nothing like this would ever happen again.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  The next morning Manchester Lee watched as they placed Jan Sugerfoot Wiley in a wheelchair. A helpful nurse handed her the boy child after pecking the child on its fat cheek.

  Jan was surrounded by a phalanx of private security and New York's finest. In the wake of the news of the Wiley home and plane explosions, the authorities were taking no chances.

  No, America was going to make sure that the wife and child of the slain leader would be okay.

  Homeland Security had gone to its highest threat level given the assassination coupled with what they were currently terming a biological warfare attack that has rendered several million Americans in a stupefied state of being.

  The manufacturers of American flags and yellow ribbons – firms in Shanghai and Beijing primarily – had gone to double shifts to satisfy the oncoming demand.

  Manchester watched from his vantage point of the stairwell door until the contingent was out of sight, heading for the elevators. He ran as fast as his stiff legs could carry him up the three flights to the roof.

  Using his zombie strength, he crashed through the ceiling door, which had been bolted shut from the outside. The men who had sealed the door – three FBI sharpshooters – all turned their attention and high powered weapons on the man who had just appeared on their rooftop. Without warning – given the current state of affairs, niceties like "stop or I'll shoot" have gone out the window – the three men fired.

  As the lethal lead tore chunks out of his body, Manchester reached into his duffel bag and pulled out two reverse zombie bombs and tossed them in the direction of the men. In a matter of seconds, the three were writhing on the ground.

  Manchester heard the next bullet before he felt it. It had come from a surrounding rooftop and had the unfortunate effect of destroying one of his eyes.

  Manchester turned back to the door; he wanted to place another two bombs inside the door to thwart any reinforcements coming, but he was now out of time.