A creaking noise came from somewhere in the distance.
“Let the games begin,” I muttered.
We exited the crypt and Jax drew out his pistol. We scanned our surroundings but nothing came charging out at us. I held my rifle in a ready position just waiting for the barrage of violence but it never came.
“I don’t hear anything,” Jaxon said after he found us some cover behind a large headstone.
“Neither do I,” I replied.
Jaxon broke cover and low-crawled to the dirt road that wound its way in and around the various burial plots. I tried to cover him as best I could but I had no idea where to look for any threats.
At the dirt road, he crouched low behind another headstone and cast out his light. I understood what he was doing. He was looking for more footprints on the dirt road. After about five minutes, he made his way back to me.
“There are tracks all over the road,” Jaxon said.
“Same kinda tracks as the creature?”
“Identical,” Jaxon said. “Unfortunately, the tracks are coming from more than one of them. So whatever these things are, they have been coming in and out of here for a pretty long time. I can also no longer follow our friend from the basement. Its tracks have gotten mixed up with all the others.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Wait and listen,” Jaxon answered.
We didn’t have to wait very long either. We heard scratching noises coming from one end of the cemetery within twenty minutes. In response, we crouched low and weaved our way towards the noise using the tombstones as cover.
I had never really been to Concordia before. I’d driven past it on numerous occasions, but I can’t remember ever going inside. It was a pretty large cemetery but not huge. Some of the burial markers were made of stone but others were made of wood, and sometimes even metal. There weren’t many trees: just some desert shrub type plants and the ground itself was sand. It was an old cemetery, not at all like most people picture when they think of cemeteries.
There weren’t exactly a lot of places we could use for cover either, but we stayed a low as possible and did our best. As we made our way, we heard the sounds of a zombie scream from somewhere outside the walls of the cemetery. I wondered what the zombie was screaming about. There weren’t any humans left in the city except for us. I began to worry a little bit about the rest of the team.
That’s when I noticed Jaxon had stopped. I couldn’t see what he was looking at but I was positive he had found our creature. I waited just a few tombstones behind him until he finally motioned me forward.
I crawled to his position, and he pointed towards the wall.
I saw the creature once again. It seemed to have forgotten about us entirely as it was busy digging into the ground next to an old grave. Jaxon gave out a low whistle. The creature immediately stopped its digging, and turned its long head in our direction. Its eyes were black. They reminded me of a shark’s eyes.
“It’s completely hairless,” Jaxon said. “Not very big either. In fact, it’s kinda scrawny.”
“It might be slim but it’s covered in muscle. So if you’re thinking about tackling it, don’t bother. Also, look how long its arms are. The arms hang down to its knees. No wonder it could cave in a zombie’s head so easily. It’s got all that momentum.”
Jaxon started laughing. The creature heard him and let out a low growl in our direction. Jax drew his pistol, and broke cover by standing up.
“Well, it’s been fun,” Jaxon said, “but I got shit to do.”
The creature saw him immediately and crouched low. It was ready to spring as Jaxon walked closer and closer. Yet, before the creature felt threatened enough to attack, Jaxon halted and aimed his weapon.
The muffled sound of a silenced pistol never came.
“Jax,” Hardin said in our earpieces. “Don’t shoot.”
“Why not?” Jaxon asked.
“I just got a call from Miriam,” Hardin said. “The creature is harmless unless attacked.”
“It doesn’t look harmless.”
“Well, it is,” Hardin said, “but it’s also somewhat territorial. So it’s probably best if you leave the cemetery.”
“What is it?” Jaxon asked.
“It’s a ghoul,” Hardin answered.
Chapter 3
Ivana
It had been a long time since I last spoke with Ivana. She was at the General’s side when the city became overrun by zombies. She was also around during the vampire situation but for the most part she was kept well away from the city. She’s considered a member of the team but they never let her near any danger. She’s not a fighter. She has no desire to ever become a fighter. Yet, through thick and thin, she stands by the team and helps out where she can.
When I contacted Ivana, she asked that we meet at a nearby bar instead of the normal conference room. It turns out that she recently broke up with her latest girlfriend and thought a few beers sounded like a good idea.
She arrived at the bar twenty minutes late, but the moment she made her way inside she was full of hugs and apologies.
I’m so sorry I’m late. Jax and Dudley were telling me a story about Skie drinking too much at a wedding rehearsal. How have you been?
“I’m excellent. How are things going for you?”
She sighs deeply, waves down a waiter and orders a drink before answering.
Aside from the breakup, I’m pretty good.
“Was it a bad breakup?”
She runs her fingers through her short, black hair and fixes me with her dark eyes before answering.
Are breakups ever good?
“I guess not.”
I say we skip the interview and just drink our asses off.
I laugh at her bluntness. She seems to have changed somewhat since the last time we spoke. It’s hard to put a finger on how exactly, but she seems to be a stronger person.
“That would be me not doing my job if I left out the interview.”
Have you ever considered that you might be a workaholic?
“Once a reporter sinks their teeth into a story, it’s very hard to let it go.”
Well, Dudley loves to exaggerate but he didn’t exaggerate on this one. Some major shit went down. It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s actually over. For a while there, I couldn’t see the finish line. I was beginning to lose hope.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about?”
Ivana laughs at me.
Of course not, excuse me. I sometimes forget that most people don’t have a clue about what happened with the team during the cleansing of the city. It’s quite a story though. I’m sort of glad Dudley turned you on to it.
“Can you walk me through it?”
I can walk you through my part.
“Just what I wanted to hear.”
Well, you may not know this, but I started hanging out with Miriam a lot. Most people probably wouldn’t want to spend time with a real witch, but I really never gave it much thought. She’s an awesome person: very strong and confident. She’s also very motherly. I like that. I lost my Mother when the zombies came.
“You mentioned that you lost your entire family the first time I ever interviewed you.”
Did I? I don’t really remember. I rarely ever talk about the people I lost. Anyway, Miriam was there when I needed someone. She’s just the sweetest person I’ve ever met, even if she does tell me that I run through women too fast.
Occasionally, Miriam gets a call from someone that needs help with things that the Regulators don’t really deal with. The boys prefer fighting things they can hack up with their big knives. They aren’t exactly cut out to deal with something that you can’t beat up.
“You’re talking about spirits?”
Yes. I’m talking about spirits or ghosts. Sometimes she deals with possessions and demons. I started going with her on these little side jobs. I call them little because they aren’t the type of thing that will get out of hand. They can pl
ay havoc on a family unfortunate enough to take up residence in a haunted house but they have little effect on the world at large.
“What about possessions? I imagine those can be pretty awful.”
They are. It’s terrifying to see someone bend and contort while they hurl out insults in a language that they shouldn’t know. I damn near pissed my pants the first time a saw a kid crawl up a wall.
Miriam, however, wasn’t bothered in the least. She’s seen it all a million times. She’s fought it all a million times. She has herbs, potions, and talismans. She uses all of these things to remove the entity.
Mind you, if it’s real bad I tend to wait outside the room. I normally try and talk to the parents, spouse or loved ones. I try and keep them calm while Miriam does her thing.
“What does she do if it’s real bad?”
I asked her that once, and she told me that she calls the police. It turns out that the spirit world takes care of itself. She says that there are entities that prevent other entities from interfering with the land of the living, sort of like ghost police.
Anyway, I’ve sort of gotten off the topic but we were dealing with a pretty bad possession case when Jax and Dudley ran into an unknown creature in an old basement. Mr. Hardin sent her some grainy photos and even a quick video, but despite his many phone calls, Miriam couldn’t tell him what it was.
She also didn’t have much time to spare figuring it out. I could tell that she wanted to ask questions. She probably had a bunch. She’s the resident monster expert, but the demon inside the little boy we had come to help had started twisting his own spine so violently, she feared it might kill the body.
It took her a pretty long time to get the situation sorted out. I’m happy to say that the boy lived, and he is now demon free. The parents will probably need therapy for the rest of their lives, but fortunately the boy doesn’t remember a thing.
After things had calmed down inside the boy’s bedroom, Miriam was immediately on the phone with Mr. Hardin. Jaxon and Dudley had gotten more images of the creature. They had even followed it down a tunnel that went under the city in order to escape a building full of zombies.
Miriam put two and two together.
“I’m pretty sure it’s a ghoul,” Miriam announced over the phone. “It’s actually pretty rare to see one nowadays.”
“How dangerous are they?” Mr. Hardin asked over the speaker phone.
“They aren’t dangerous at all unless you attack them. They have zero interest in living human flesh. A ghoul feasts upon the dead. The more rotted the better. Just make sure that the boys don’t attack. If they do, the ghoul will fight viciously until they kill it or it kills them.”
“Shouldn’t they just get rid of it?” Mr. Hardin asked. “Possibly throw some explosives down in the tunnels and clear out the rest of them.”
“No,” Miriam answered. “Ghouls are in just about every cemetery all over the world. They’re a part of the natural order of things, and they do an excellent job of staying out of our way.”
“Why do you think so many of them have taken up residence in El Paso? A basement in the Downtown area isn’t exactly near any cemeteries.”
“El Paso has a lot of corpses around the city lately. For all we know, they may have been migrating to the area since the beginning of the zombie invasion. An invasion of an entire city would provide an excellent feeding source with all the leftover pieces of the victims that didn’t reanimate.”
“I’m guessing the amount of destroyed zombies lying around since we’ve begun clearing out the city only encouraged more of them to show up?” Mr. Hardin asked.
“I would think so,” Miriam answered. “There could literally be thousands of them under the streets. It’s really not a problem, though. They will clear out when the food supply dries up. Until then, just think of them as a cleaning crew.”
“Let me tell Jaxon,” Mr. Hardin said. “He’s been tracking one down.”
Miriam sat quietly for a bit after Mr. Hardin hung up and sipped her cup of coffee.
“You’re thinking about something?” I asked her.
“Yes,” Miriam answered. “I’m wondering if our resident Guardian will still attack the ghoul.”
“Why would he?” I asked.
“I couldn’t really answer that my dear,” Miriam said. “I have a difficult time trying to understand most of the things that Jaxon does.”
Both of us laughed at that. Jaxon was unpredictable at best. He probably wasn’t going to like hearing that he shouldn’t attack a monster that he’d been chasing down.
“How rare are these ghouls?” I asked.
“Ghouls aren’t rare at all,” Miriam answered. “Only seeing a ghoul is rare.”
“Is that because they live underground?”
“Yes, they rarely venture out of their tunnels.”
“And they’re eating the zombie corpses?” I asked.
“Yes,” Miriam answered. “A zombie corpse is still just a corpse.”
“They won’t get sick or turn into a ghoul-zombie?”
“No,” Miriam answered. “Nothing seems to bother ghouls. Other, more intelligent monsters even use them to dispose of corpses. I’ve even heard about a few mad scientists using them as well.”
“What kind of monster uses a ghoul?” I asked.
“Vampires use ghouls relatively often, and if you think about it, it makes sense. You see, a vampire isn’t interested in a human body. They only want the blood. Once the blood is drained and the human is dead, they are left with an unwanted body to dispose of. Now, most vampires, especially the older ones, stake out a territory. They don’t want a mass of bodies lying around and alerting people there’s a problem next door. So, after they feed, they summon a ghoul. A missing person isn’t nearly as threatening as an unwanted body, just think of all the people that suddenly up and vanish. There must be thousands of them every year. People look for them, but very soon they are forgotten by all but their loved ones. A murdered body is a different story altogether. The police often spend years tracking down killers.”
That got the wheels in my head turning big time. I had an idea. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not. Yet, there it was.
I told Miriam what I was thinking. She in turn tossed the idea about for a bit but ultimately rejected it due to the danger factor.
Still, it was there in my mind. It was no secret that the zombies in El Paso were eventually going to try and venture out of the city. Time wasn’t on our side, and all of us were extremely worried that the Regulators weren’t going to be able to stop them from leaving.
“I’ve spoken to Jaxon about that. He was convinced that leveling the city was a bad idea.”
Well, you should have seen Miriam. She was freaking out about it. She had no confidence whatsoever that destroying the city would work. Mind you, she didn’t have a better idea, nobody did, but she was definitely against trying to explode the problems away.
“Why was she so against it?”
In order to blow shit up, all the guards on the borders would have to be removed. All it takes is the survival of one zombie. One single zombie and the problem returns again. Only when that happens, it happens outside of El Paso and without the aid of the city’s natural barriers that were so beneficial in containing the outbreak.
“Because there would be no one there to prevent the dead from escaping the city?”
Exactly, and forget about going nuclear. I’ve read reports about living humans surviving those explosions just by hiding inside a concrete building. I doubt that type of bomb would even slow a zombie down unless it landed on top of them.
Miriam and everyone else were hoping to end the problem in the city, well away from the borders. I just didn’t see how it was going to be possible. I guess that’s why I did what I did.
“What did you do?”
Well, we’ll get to that, but before we do, it’s probably important to tell you that these events took place just a week before Jaxon’s award
ceremony.
“I see.”
Jaxon wasn’t too keen on going. He doesn’t much care about rewards or recognition. Still, the President himself was going to be the one handing out the medals. It would have been pretty rude if Jax blew it off, and Mr. Hardin also wanted the team to take a few days off. They had been in the fight for way too long. They needed a few days without something trying to eat them.
“How did Mr. Hardin convince Jaxon to go?”
He didn’t. He got Skie to do that for him. He explained to her that it was a very prestigious event and many popular public figures would be attending. He told her that the boys needed a break. It would help clear their minds which would keep them safer when they returned to the city.
He also made plans for the event to be held in Ruidoso, which is close enough to El Paso that if anything happened, the team could get back into action very quickly. Skie talked to Jaxon immediately. It only took her ten minutes to get him to agree to come. She was excited. She loves gatherings. She loves dressing up. She loves meeting new people. It was totally her kind of thing. I got a bit nervous when she called me up and asked me to go shopping with her. She was positive that I wouldn’t have anything proper to wear.
“Was she correct in that assumption?”
Yes, I’m not very big on wearing dresses or spending a lot of time on my hair.
“Did you go with her?”
I had no choice. You should see that girl when she’s determined. She’s no meek and mild person. She’s freakin’ pushy. I guess that’s how she deals with Jax.
Anyway, the girl knows fashion and she really knows how to dress somebody up. In the end, I went with a very slinky black number that was way too girly for my tastes, but I was tired of arguing against it. My mind was on that idea I had tried to discuss with Miriam.
As soon as we were finished, and mind you, it took all day and well into the evening, I drove back to our New Mexico base camp and hit the computers. Of course, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I also knew I couldn’t ask Miriam or Mr. Hardin for help. They would have told me that I was crazy and put a stop to my plans immediately.
Broken (Book 3 of The Guardian Interviews) Page 6