by P. S. Power
"You have one of the Travelers?" He sounded like all his people always did though, not derisive at all. Just a little cold and logical.
Jake liked that way better.
"We don't just have one, we have all of them. The Teleporters, which you call Travelers I guess, which is a good name for them, the Bawdri, the Valkyries, the Comtrices... Really we have most of the other groups that are left. We can even probably get the U.S. Military and maybe some other groups in on this. Cam, the girl that just left, is going to try and set that up now. I don't suppose you and Sara will be up for a demonstration in the morning? I'd prefer sooner, but I'm not going out into the dark to hunt zombies on purpose. Not if I can help it."
For some reason the man chuckled, keeping his voice low. Sara did as well, which sounded happy enough. It was a little manic though, and hers broke with a soft sob after a few seconds. Her next words explained it though.
"We didn't think... you really are the one from their fables, aren't you? The Very Good Man come to save the world. We didn't think... Our projections didn't show you as more than a regular person. One in the right place perhaps, but not... Nothing like this."
He didn't announce that it was because he wasn't who they thought. That didn't matter at all, not if the work got done. The world didn't need him, just a figurehead to rally around. If he could keep that role up for just a while longer, maybe it would work? Maybe it could even if he didn't.
The room was distracted by Morris showing up on the front porch, running in after knocking a little tune. It wasn't really coming through the door though, just Teleporting from the other side, so that he didn't have to wait for it to be unlocked.
"Is it true?" He spoke in a slightly breathless tone, looking like he was about to be a father or something. "We have a way to stop this nightmare?"
Jake nodded, but made his words more reasonable.
"Maybe. We need to test it for ourselves, and it will take work to make it happen, even if the compound does what we've been told it can. If it does though... then yes. We could, just possibly, actually have a shot." Or not, if it fell through. He didn't want to get anyone too excited, just in case, since that would probably have more than one person putting a gun to their head if the promise of freedom from the undead fell through.
Jake could see himself joining them, to tell the truth, so it was better to be a little extra calm about it. Not just for him, who honestly believed that Hal had done exactly what he said, taking out all the dead in the area. That had been witnessed. Inside he felt like it was real at least, but if it wasn't, if it was just a trick or something...
That would be deadly. In more ways than one.
Over the next fifteen minutes the room filled with all the leaders of every group Morris and his people could find. It was more than Jake figured on, being nearly eighty people in all now. One of them was familiar to him though. The tall bearded Denari fellow. The man was silent though. They all were.
"I'll let Sara and Donald here tell their story." They added a few more details when asked by various people, but it was essentially the same. The truth normally was.
Some of their people were murdering a-holes that had killed most of the people in the world, even though they had good intentions. There had to have been another way, but what that was no one could figure out. It was a hard thing to swallow, but Jake knew they couldn't get caught up in revenge. If they did that then they'd lose too much time. He didn't wait for anyone to mention that aspect of things before shutting it down. It meant interrupting the Bawdri leader, Darian, and not letting him work up a hot-headed rant for the next two hours, but it had to be done.
Even if that would kill time until they could go out and test the stuff.
"The first task needs to be making certain this compound works. I believe I've seen it in action, and it seems effective, but I want to make certain of that fact. We'll do that first thing in the morning. Then, if that works we need to set up a manufacturing and distribution network. I know that some people will want to go after the ones responsible for this, and I agree with that. But it can't be our prime occupation for now. Stop the zombies first, and we free up everyone to help with the rest." He waited to be shouted down, but for once in his life people just regarded him calmly.
Darian smiled, which looked slightly sad.
"I agree. Even if we face alternate attack, we must deal with the greatest threat to the world first. Might I suggest we spread word of these people and try to find them however? I know that I would sleep better if they were... apprehended." He said the last word slowly as if he was being diplomatic.
Shaking his head Jake didn't let it go.
"No. We don't arrest them. They don't get a fair trial. We find the ones responsible, make reasonably certain we have them all, and then kill them, so they can't harm anyone ever again. We're talking about the worst mass murders ever here. Mercy is a good thing, Darian, but we can't afford it in this case. Humanity may actually cease to exist, which was the plan these people had, I think. It isn't about right or wrong, or even revenge. There are just some things you aren't allowed to do, and we need to make certain that these people don't get the chance to finish the job."
People were staring at him again, but then something odd started happening. One by one, around the room, people started saying one single word.
"Agreed."
It was all of them too. It should have been a touching moment, but it wasn't, even though they meant it as a show of support for him. Jake teared up though, feeling like he was going to cry. That was fine, though. Most of them couldn't see his face after all. Just the Bawdri and possible one or two of the other groups had night vision like that. As long as they didn't mention it...
"Why are you crying sir?"
It came from the far corner, a voice he didn't recognize at all. A man's voice, but sibilant and strange at the same time. After a few moments a hand touched his shoulder. From the scent it was Sammi.
That he could recognize her in a room full of people by how she smelled was just weird, but it was the truth. He knew who it was. The tiny hand squeezed gently as the tears fell.
"It's because he's The Very Good Man, and having to order the deaths of people. I'm so sorry Jake. I... you shouldn't even have to be here. Maybe we could take him somewhere else now, let him rest or..."
He just chuckled. There was no place else that was better. Not for him. Fake figurehead or not, it was clear that these people had decided to need him and that meant standing up for them, no matter how hard it got.
"I'll be fine. We'll leave from here in ten hours. Head into town and run the test? Will that work Sara?"
The woman cleared her throat but sounded positive enough.
"That will be fine. We've been releasing a constant stream as we've traveled, and each place we do that in should be rendered safe. If we go carefully we won't encounter any of the animated. I don't know if the closest town is a good test zone however. Our path in, plus the release here should have made those areas free of the dead from now on. How far is it to this place?"
Jake shrugged.
"About fifteen miles."
"Ah. Well, we should do it again, but another place might make a more dramatic test zone. Each capsule will clear things to about seventeen and a half miles away, so we have overlap there already."
They decided to do that, then also do the next town over, which hadn't been cleared at all, and was probably crawling with the things. Cam walked to him, pushing on his arm to get his attention.
"By the shopping mall?"
"Sounds like a plan to me. Do you think you can get us all there?"
She did something, which he couldn't see, but Sammi could. That reminded him to nudge her a little. She was supposed to be busy after all.
"She stuck out her tongue. Very immature of her. I think it means she believes herself equal to the task."
Jake rolled his eyes.
"Pregnant girl in the basement? Shouldn't you be there playing
mid-wife or something?"
That got a low murmur from about a third of the people there, but a snort from the Bawdri Princess.
"What? Do you think she's going to have it right now? If she manages to have it tomorrow sometime it will be a miracle. It's her first and she isn't a huge girl. I..." She put an arm around him, as if he might need to be held up or something. Like he was weak.
She was playing to the crowd, trying to make him out as some kind of sympathetic character. It was actually a good plan.
"She... there's a good chance that the child won't make it. Heather might not either. We don't have a hospital here and she's been through a lot. Malnutrition, stress... I don't want this to come as a shock to you later..."
As if he hadn't figured that out already? They'd do what they could though. It was all there was for now.
It seemed strange to him... not one, but four different people offered their help then, the Grand Comtrice he recognized in the dark, which made sense. Her ability was a kind of blood magic after all. People bled during childbirth. He wasn't certain if it had to be her blood or not, but she was also old and probably had experience. Darian also moved along with them, as if he might be of some use in the situation. He could see in the dark if nothing else and was probably the oldest person on the planet, so he likely could manage something.
After that most of the people went home, a bed was found for the Linster family and everyone settled for the night. Jake dozed a bit, not truly sleeping, but there were no problems at all. He got up early and pulled on Colleen's arm until she got up, Vicki already being out and about herself. It wasn't light yet, but he decided not to bother with forge work that day. They kind of had other things to do.
Which, it seemed, involved all the House's cleaning teams. That made sense, being that they'd want to be in on this if it worked, and could act as back-up if it didn't, but it was Tipper that rousted them all from bed. She'd cut her hair again, so it stuck up in a mannish bristle on the top. She had on a white snow suit though, over her cleaning outfit. They met in the living room, but her face was grim, instead of happy. At first he wondered if the Linster family had run away, or died, but that wasn't it. She was just taking it on herself to lay things out. All of the other Vals and T'srith came in for it too.
"Look, I know this sounds like it might save us all, but it also means, after today, that we're going onto a real war footing. From this moment on we don't let Jake or any of the other leaders out of our sight. We may all have to die for this, regardless of what happens. The worst case scenario here is also our best hope. If this thing works, and I know we all want that more than anything, then these... I don't know what to call them. Our enemies? Then they have to try and kill us before we end their play. That means we need to scramble people. We need to hide the new operation and spread it out as many ways as possible. I know that I don't rule here, we can take a vote or something, but doing anything less is insane."
Jake just agreed with her.
"We need to hunt them down and fast, but also spread this compound, if it works. If it doesn't I'm going to need all of you to help keep morale up. Taking hope away would be too much for a lot of people here. I can count on you all?"
The voice from behind him was familiar, Morton, Morris's son.
"Of course Ba-Dehist. No matter what comes, you can count on us all." It sounded good when he said it, and even though half of the people in the room hated him just for being, they all went along with it.
What were they going to say though? They kind of had to go along with it, at least in theory. He was all they had for the moment, as feeble a thing as that was.
The next few hours took forever, with Sara going along with Jake and Cam to release the capsule, which was literally what it sounded like. I tiny pill sized thing she pinched with her fingers to break open. They stood on the roof of the shopping mall, since it was as high as they could get in the area.
"It will take some hours, but the individual nanites can move through the air somewhat. Not fast, but within twenty four hours they will saturate the full area. In four this entire town will be secured. It takes about three hours after contact with a single element for the dead to cease being animated. If we had specimens here, this close to the release point, it would happen much faster. Less than half an hour." It was said academically, then she added something that seemed a total afterthought.
"Oh, as an aside, since it has entered your bodies, as well as my own, we're functionally immune to the original complex now as well. If infected, the plague will be shut down immediately, before it does any damage."
Which only made sense. Now he just had to test it out by being bitten. He kind of wanted to avoid that though. It hurt for one thing. Plus he didn't know if it would really work or not.
Cam teleported them back to the House to pick up the first group of people about three hours later. A group of fighters. It might be safe, but if it wasn't they weren't going in unarmed. That meant he was actually in the third group, with Darian and Morris, who had no clue where the mall even was from there. Mort did, since Cam had taken him in the second group, because he could transfer people faster than she could in a pinch. About half an hour later everyone was there and walking into town.
Not all the zombies were inert corpses however. One of them crawled on the snow covered ground slowly, right toward them, until it got half-way, and then just stopped. The undead didn't do that though, they always moved, so it was a great sign. Oh, Jake still desperately wanted to cut its head off, but it didn't move and most of the others they found were already down in the same way. They were for at least the five miles they walked.
"Well..." He fought a grin, a happy thing that made him want to dance a little.
"That works. Great. We need to get to producing more, in several locations. How long will it take to have enough to start?" He was looking at Donald who didn't answer immediately, conferring with his wife and child first. They huddled together to do it, which was something he'd seen their people do before. The evil ones at least. Then those were the only other ones he'd met before.
Donald moved forward to answer though, since the question had been addressed to him.
"We need to recover some equipment from our home laboratory. In travel time it took us four months to walk the distance, once we have that, we can fabricate materials in short order, including more of this compound. It will take travel time plus seventy-four hours to begin. At that point we should be able to produce ten such capsules per hour per day, provided the raw material is available. Per manufacturing unit." Then he stood, looking at Jake for a long time.
He in turn looked at Morris and then Darian.
"Guys? I'm thinking that some teleportation, along with ground vehicles, would really speed that part up, don't you? Don't make me beg..." He would have, but they just nodded.
Morris making a point of answering first.
"We can do that. At once in fact. Do you have a map? We can see what vehicles will be needed. We can also use line of sight transport, if need be. Hard to pull off, but fast. If we work in a team..." He looked at Mort then, and didn't wait for Darian to offer anything. Several people just stopped watching the dead for signs of life, and wandered over to Sara, who had a map in a small book that had a glass magnifier over it, showing very fine details on each page.
It was in South America, but Mort pointed and grinned.
"Here?" What he indicated Jake didn't know, but Sara said yes in return clearly.
"That's the location that blew up. Close to it at least, about a mile away. A biological construct that... Looked like Jake's mother. It should be safe enough to go to now, we checked it pretty hard after that, everyone was gone though. Of course if the people we met are there they might have cleaned everything out..."
That got a head shake from Donald.
"Unlikely. We should check though. I doubt they touched the true city. When can we arrange that? At least one of us," He waved at his family, a strange blocky mo
vement, "will have to go to do the work, ideally all of us, but I understand if you feel the need to keep a hostage. There is much to atone for here and we accept that our kind will not be allowed to survive this." It was a strange thing to say, but no stranger than the fact that dozens of leaders simply seemed to agree with him.
Jake blinked.
"No. If you're innocent of doing it in the first place, then you won't be harmed. If anyone tries they'll be fighting me first. Not much comfort probably, but it might get a few people to hesitate while you run away." He was trying to be funny, and it worked, at least in that a chuckle went up. Mainly because Vicki started laughing.
"That would do it. OK. I think we get the idea, don't blame the people trying to fix the mess."
Mort, it turned out was ready to take them right then. It got a team put in place, with Carl from the House going in with a team made of unusual people. There were ten of them in all, but Morten didn't blink about taking them all, except when they vanished. All the Teleporters did it with their eyes closed. Otherwise even they tended to get sick.
Jake had tried it once, but lost his cookies almost instantly.
They investigated for a while, checking bodies for signs of movement, waiting for something to jump out at them. The only thing they found was a wild eyed man with a knife that clearly wasn't sane anymore. He ran away, silently, never having spoken. Survivors out in the world were probably a pretty quiet bunch anymore. The noisy were just dead.
Morris took it upon himself to get them all back to the House, so they could talk about plans and strategy, things like that. Jake tried to pay attention to what was said, but most of it seemed a little premature. First they had to actually set things up. Then distribute the compound around the world. It seemed like they needed to focus on that part first, not trying to set up a long term government.