ZOMBIE WORLD ORDER
Page 13
Avoiding her eyes, The Creep spoke. “The Angels wouldn’t play and disappeared. The Celtics are stuck at a truck stop in Jersey in a world of trouble. The Steelers had their main transmitter knocked out by the Psychos coming out of rehab. Details concerning them are sketchy at best, though I guess you made it. The Cowboys got trapped coming out of rehab. They didn’t make it.”
“The Cowboys. The team I was supposed to be on, right Esther?” Marie spit out the words. One of her weaknesses was a bad temper, and she was struggling to contain herself.
“Now, Marie, I know nothing about all that…. I mean, what Esther just said.” Furiously, Esther glared at Marie’s father, but said nothing.
“I find that hard to believe, Dad.”
“Well, what are you going to do? You can’t prove anything. It’s your word against ours,” Esther sneered. She perceived that Marie had some basic human decency, and Esther was the sort who perceived this as a weakness. It still had not registered with her that Marie had not magically appeared on their roof with no purpose. Perhaps, in a world gone topsy-turvy, Esther had seen Marie and had leapt to the certainty that she was a vengeful spirit, and this had made her slow to recover her faculty of reason.
“You are correct, within the parameters of your logic.” When Marie said this, her father blanched, as if this were the signal he had been dreading.
“Marie, you have to forgive me. I was so drunk, I had no idea how badly hurt you were. I let that fight continue out of respect for you, because I know you take such pride in your martial arts. I know now this was a mistake. Can’t you forgive me? I will drop all the charges against you and all your friends. I will make it all go away.” Her father was cunning, even in this extremity.
Seeing his words had no effect, he began to grow desperate. “Marie, I know I was a lousy father. Could you forgive me? Can’t you see how monstrous the whole world is? I’m just one evil little symptom of such a larger disease. I’m not worth it.”
Marie looked at him with a kind of grief. “You were a lousy father? You were worse than lousy, you were a criminal. Mom just looked the other way. It was easier for her. Still, I could have forgiven all that, I could have moved on, if you had just left me alone. Why did you need to keep ruining my life? Maybe you tried to have me killed on this stupid show you’re talking about, maybe you didn’t. I don’t care.”
“You should care about your father. You have no idea of how important he is in diplomatic circles. He has a lot of responsibility, protecting America. You are so selfish, so much worse than he ever told me. Even now, while America needs him…… needs US most, all you can think of is your silly little contrived grievances,” Esther said, spasmodically, advancing upon her. “You can’t pull that trigger anyway, you don’t have the heart. I hate girls like you. If you had any guts, you’d fight me fair and square.”
Marie raised the gun, and said, “Stop,” very quietly. “You may be right about me shooting you, at least in cold blood, but if you rush at me, I probably will fire this thing, and two barrels from a 12 gauge is not the makeover you are looking for. You will look a lot worse than I did six months ago. As for fighting you, it’s actually tempting, and I have already considered it. I think you lost your rights to a fair fight the second you popped me in the head with a rock or whatever that was six months ago when I wasn’t even looking. Anyway, you’re the hired help.” Marie considered for a long moment. She tossed the pair the handcuffs she had removed from the cop’s body in Jersey. It seemed like a long time ago, though it was less than five hours earlier.
“Okay, Dad, you put on one handcuff, and now push the other one through the small gap in the side of that metal fence. Yes, that’s good. Now Esther, put the other handcuff on. That right, is it locked? Tug hard for me. That’s good, thank you. Now hold still while I think about what to do with you.”
Marie stood for about five minutes, reflecting. Finally, she spoke. “If I do let you go, where exactly are you going anyway? If you thought about flying somewhere, all the airports are closed, and the helicopter has only a little more than half a tank. You can’t get far. Maybe you should just wait it out here in your panic rooms?”
Her father, sensing she was wavering, was reassuring. “That’s the beauty of this whole thing, Maria, and that’s why I’m so glad you are here, whatever the circumstances. We were just going over to my new boat, The Belinda. Your mom must have mentioned it. I told her all about it. It’s huge, and I have it docked right off Montauk where I kept our last boat. It’s even got a landing pad for a helicopter. Let’s all go there together, the three of us.”
“Just like old times?” Maria said eagerly, and her father’s face froze.
“Okay, then, both of you raise your free arms. Now hold hands way up high. That’s good,” Marie spoke in a gentle but firm tone. Grabbing her rope from her satchel, she quickly tied their free hands tightly together through the fence. Then, patting them down quickly, she produced a thick set of keys, which she sorted through quickly. One was labeled, The Belinda, and Maria smiled and nodded her head at Esther and her dad as she tossed the keys into her satchel. Going through their bags, she found a CZ-75 pistol in a bag full of women’s things.
“I bet you wish you’d been carrying this, Esther, unless this is my Dad’s bag. He is pretty freaky.”
Rifling through their belongings, she pulled out a variety of papers, gold coins, and credit cards. Tossing the cards, she kept the gold coins. There was a huge bottle of tiny pills she looked at quizzically, reading the label. “You know, I’ve never actually seen a real Pill Alpha before? So much fuss over little pills.”
Continuing to rummage through a large suitcase, she unearthed several small metal boxes and what appeared to be some kind of remote control device; at least it looked similar to those used for high end entertainment centers. Puzzled, after some consideration, she tossed them into her satchel too.
“What, no gun today? Oh, here is something. Daddy! A Derringer? I guess Esther is the muscle end of the family, though I bet The Belinda has a total arsenal, if I know you at all. Pretty well stocked, is it?” Marie did not wait for a reply, but she got one anyway.
“Your father told me you were a lying whore, but he didn’t mention you were a thief as well!” Esther yelled, as Maria’s father kicked her shin to shut her up.
Maria just smiled at her, a smile like glacial ice warmed by a winter moon in Antarctica.
Her father spoke again, ever the diplomat. “Marie this will be very difficult for you to understand, but everything you see happening with the Pill G Psychos is according to plan.”
“Really, Dad? It seemed pretty much all chaos to me,” Marie said.
“No, Marie, it isn’t. What you see happening is inevitable, but we are just controlling it instead of it happening naturally. The exploding population growth coupled with dwindling resources could only have led to one thing-Peak Everything, The Zero Sum Game. This way, there is a controlled, massive population reduction with enough resources left over for us to pick up the pieces. We are going to build a new society, a new world, finally freed from all the parasitical dregs who kept the human race from greatness. I mean, come on Maria, did you really think that Provision 3313 was just for a reality TV show? It was all part of our plan.”
“We. Us. Who are you talking about, Dad?”
“Can’t you see? Us. Me. Who do you think wrote 3313? I did. None of the rest of them has a real brain, and everything I did, I did for you. That is why you being here is so perfect. You see, it was getting back to me that you were telling some pretty nasty stories about me, which could have prevented me from getting a promotion to one of the top managers of the impending New World Order I’m talking about. It killed me to do it, but I set you up at The Brew House to silence you long enough to get promoted and move up high enough to be able to help you. Don’t you see? I got your friends to turn on you and call you a drunk and a liar. It’s all in the record. You were defused. That’s all I wanted.”
“You seem pretty confident you can win. From what I’ve seen, this Zombie epidemic is out of control. Your New World Order is turning into a Zombie World Order fast. I think your experiment or whatever has gone completely haywire. Outsmarted yourself this time? Had to happen someday,” Marie spoke in uncharacteristically derisive tones, watching her father’s face carefully.
“There’s where you are wrong, Marie. We can control the Psychos. Those little metal boxes you stole, you have no idea what they are for,” he ranted, oblivious to Esther’s protests. “Just turn one of those boxes on and every Psycho in ten miles will come running. We plan on using those boxes to clean up every last Zombie as soon as we have decided things have gone far enough. You want to know the beauty of the whole plan? We passed Pill G instead of Pill Alpha only here, in the East Coast power centers. We can wipe out our most powerful opposition, and then just blame the whole thing on Gaultier. We already tortured a videotaped confession out of him. We’ll stop it as soon as all our enemies are dead.”
Marie looked deep into her father’s eyes, and knew he was telling the truth. Against all reason, against all of her past experience with him, she knew he wasn’t lying, and the realization shook her to the core. The senselessness and pain of her life stun her, and for a fleeting moment she indulged in an emotion alien to her nature-self-pity. What fracture in the universe had made her pull this maniac for a father? Why her? The worst part was a creeping pity for this twisted wreck in front of her. All this time, in his own little universe, he had meant well. He had done the best he could with what he had.
Marie got up and walked to the edge of the roof.
For an hour, Marie sat in silent meditation, sitting cross-legged on the edge of the skyscraper, looking at the tattered city. For a while, she studied the small metal boxes and their remote controller, seeking to understand the functionality of them. Finally, she took one box and the remote and put the rest back in her bag. She rose and tossed her satchel into the helicopter, got in, and turned on the engine to let it rev up a little. She hurried to the door of the roof stairwell, opened the door and peered into the gloom for a couple of seconds, listening intently. She disappeared into the black stairwell for a few minutes and then reemerged. Taking a loose cinderblock, she used it to prop open the stairwell door.
She spoke to the two handcuffed and bound figures in loud but gentle tones.
“Esther, you are right, it is my word against yours, and I don’t have the heart to shoot you, although for your sake I wish I did. I learned heartlessness from your boss, I guess. You’ll have the opportunity to state your case in just a few minutes. Dad, I just want you to know in the short time we have left together that I will have no real reason to think of you anymore, but if I do, I will always remember you the way you are right now. I do appreciate your offering to drop all charges against me and my friends though. Let’s just say we settled this one out of court.”
Marie set the metal box she was holding down near her father and Esther.
Maria was suddenly hurrying, moving quickly. She turned her back, undid the helicopter’s moorings, and jumped into the warmed up helicopter. She could be seen pointing the remote control at the box. As the first Zombies mounted the stairs and emerged onto the roof, she lifted off as The Creep and Esther pulled away from each other, screaming while desperately trying to pull their wrists out of the handcuffs. She couldn’t have heard her father’s last words from this high up, over the din of the propellers, but a lip reader might have known what they were. His face was tilted in the direction of the helicopter, staring at her, and she imagined he might have been screaming her name.
Maria hovered until it was over. She waited until she was pretty sure that there wasn’t enough left of them to reanimate (is that a word that Phil would have used? What a character), and then started choppering over Manhattan. At least, she was pretty sure that was why she watched the whole thing while hovering above the rooftop, just from practical considerations.
From this high up, New York City probably didn’t look as bad as it was, but it looked awfully bad anyway. Small fires burned, in buildings and on the ground, and everywhere were signs of destruction. Some of the roofs contained people waving for help. She waved back. She was feeling pretty free, actually. She felt no strong temptation to return to earth, and could not think of an oasis of calm anywhere even if she had. Soaring across the city, Marie felt an emotion she had savored but little of-unmarred bliss.
Suddenly, she remembered her long forgotten goals. They had all been supposed to head for The Cloisters and have a group therapy in the herbal garden. Marie decided this was as good a plan as any, and in the spirit of having absolutely nothing better to do, she choppered up the length of Manhattan towards that museum, situated north of the George Washington Bridge, waving to all who waved to her.
Marie had lived her life in fear for a long time, and mastering it had made her strong. However, her anger and hatred toward her father had also provided her with much of her impetus-with him dead, or at best having the most minimal existence as a severely handicapped Zombie, she felt strangely bereft of motivation. She felt better, but her emotional life had for so long been one of scorched oblivion she literally no longer could hear what some might have termed the better angels of her nature.
Chapter Thirteen: Truck Stop Battle
The convoy jumped off about 45 minutes before the horde hit. By that time, a considerable store of food, water, military and civilian supplies had been accumulated. One part of the roof was to be kept generally clear as it was big enough to land choppers on. Stacks of 50 caliber rounds were pyramided to the sky, and a Guardsman quickly showed Jen, Jorge, and Keisha how to reload the bullets into the belts for automatic fire. Jerry was given a sniper rifle and several crates of ammo. Al swiftly had helped familiarize the newcomers with the basic requirements for the small mortars to be used, and the basics of reloading weapons.
In addition to his own guns, Dan was given a couple of good deer rifles with excellent scopes, and several thousand rounds since none of the Guardsmen used such small ammunition in their weapons. It was given to Dan to understand that he was to go after the “low hanging fruit”, the Zombies who managed to get through the initial wall of fire The Captain had planned for them, and those that drifted away from the main firing area. Dan did not take it personally that he did not “rate” a sniper rifle. He had seen Jerry in action and found no shame in deferring to him in this regard.
The plan was pretty simple. Highway 80 was clearly visible from the roof of the truck stop. As the hordes traversed it, the group would simply rain whatever artillery, rifle, and small arms down on them they could muster. The light and noise was sure to draw many away from the main mass, if it was not all diverted. The Captain was in contact with The Pennsylvania National Guard, who was bringing up several divisions to set up a defense at The Water Gap. Regular Army troops were also en route, coordinating with The Air Force and Marines. The Captain had been pushing a last ditch defense of The Gap for two days, and his logic had finally won some converts to his ideas. They just needed some time to dig in, and that was what he intended to get them.
Al found David wandering around the truck stop parking lot with some chain link fence. He was reinforcing the metal cage of the two bulldozers the trucks had left behind, weaving a complicated web of interlocking bicycle locks he
had taken from the truck stop gift shop. No one had suggested he do this, but when Al saw what he was doing he immediately saw the sense to it. David had refueled both bulldozers and stocked the enclosed cabs with water, a couple of 5 gallon drums of diesel fuel, and food and water. When David saw Al approach he looked up.
“I don’t really shoot, but I can drive a bulldozer a little. On the westward side we don’t really have to worry as much because the building is built on a small hill, but I think if there are enough of these things we’ll need to keep them from stacking up against the other three sides, because they’ll climb up if we don’t. Plus, this will give me something to do. I worked a little construction, but they never let me drive the bulldozer much. I wasn’t in the Union. This’ll be fun.”
Al did not know what to make of him, but since he agreed it was a good idea to have two dozers working, he helped David crawl into the cab and then did his best to make it more Zombie-Proof.
“Do you need anything?” was all he asked.
“How about some cigarettes? The bulldozer driver I worked with chain smoked when he was driving. His name was Hector. I’m going to pretend I’m him. Maybe cigarettes would help.”
“Sure, let me run and get you a couple of packs. You should have a Walkie Talkie and a gun that packs some wallop, too. I think you are going to be very useful here, but you know you will be all alone in here, don’t you? Everybody else but us will be up on the roof.”
“You worry about your job sonny, let me worry about mine. See, I sound just like Hector.”
“Yeah, funny. Listen, David, the best I can do is to tell you that you can drive for about 8 hours I think with the amount of fuel you have. Top off your fuel tank as soon as you use enough so you won’t be driving around with the fuel exposed. Zombies have a tendency to spread small fires.” As David had already ascertained, the gas cap for the bulldozer was in the cab, right behind the seat. “If you run out, or you need to try to get out, call in and everybody will give you some cover fire and they’ll throw a rope ladder over the side of the wall. That’s all I can think of. You have guts, my friend.”