“They are tracing our signal.” Hank made the cut-throat sign. “I need to shut this down in ten seconds.”
Dylan continued on the radio:
“We have to go now! See you soon, friends, and don’t forget to ignore us!” He gave his partner the thumbs up and took off the headset.
Hank killed the signal.
“So, are we good?” Slim asked. “Did they find us this time?”
“Not even close.” Hank replied. “They think we are in Stockholm.”
The crowd applauded, so did Zomboy.
“Once again, good job, fellas.” Zomboy praised.
“I surely love those scramblers.” Hank responded.
The mob of undead slowly dispersed, back to work.
Zomboy turned to Lily and Mate:
“So, what do you think?” The young corpse asked them.
“I can see you guys work hard, but also have a lot of fun.” Mate commented.
“So, you’re not only the Zincas, but also the Caretakers.” Lily spoke.
“And this is our entertainment room!” Zomboy completed. “Our greatest achievement so far, we did this all by ourselves, without the help of any Inca, Mayan or Aztec.”
“Don’t forget about us, boss.” One of the three dead showmen in the room said. “I think we did help a little, now didn’t we?”
“Oh, where are my manners?” Zomboy amended. “This is Hank, our genius electrician and chief engineer. He works miracles together with his two loyal associates over there, Slim and Dylan.
“Howdy!” Dylan said.
“Hey.” Slim spoke. “And we’re also geniuses.”
“And these are Lily and Mate.” Zomboy introduced the visitors.
“You can call me Clark.” Mate said.
“He’s a very good mate!” Lily added.
“So, you are the ones invading the official broadcasts with your own very particular ideas.” Clark said.
“How do you like it?” Zomboy smiled.
“It’s unorthodox, but real enough.” Mate replied.
“That’s our idea of a reality show.” Zomboy said.
“And I bet you’re also behind those cadaver-raining pile of cars you block the roads with, forcing the official vehicles and us to take little detours.” Lily spoke.
“You see,” Zomboy responded “a direct attack against those starched corporate puppets would never work, they are too powerful. Then, like the worms that devour our bodies, we have to eat away their bases, so the rest of the structure collapses.”
“Can they really collapse?” Lily asked.
“At least, we are a nuisance.” Zomboy replied. “It’s the second best thing a zombie can do after eating fresh meat.” He smiled again. “They supply us with seeds and we clean their society of the scoria.”
“How can you even power up all those gizmos and conveyor belts?” Lily questioned. “Where does your electricity come from?”
“We also borrow some from the Undertakers without their knowing.” Zomboy replied. “God bless power lines and subterranean cables.”
“Alright” Lily decided. “We’ve already played your little game for too long now. You surely know a lot about this whole Undertaking thing, you know who I am, you know who Mate is, and now we find out you got state-of-the-art networking equipment. Start talking, Zomboy!”
“It occurred to me that I spoke too much already.” Zomboy responded. “Besides, I don’t really think I have to, do I?”
“Fine” Lily accepted the challenge. “I think you lied to us when we first talked.”
“Guilty as charged.” Zomboy confirmed. “I just didn’t want to get sordid right off the bat.”
“The virus didn’t mutate in your bodies.” Lily continued. “That’s not the reason why you became smart zombies.”
“Getting warmer…” Zomboy said.
“You’ve been experimented on.” Lily spoke.
“Right on the money!” Zomboy replied. “We were lured into the facilities upstairs by big promises, the biggest of them money, of course.”
“Let me guess,” Mate said “some scientists and a couple of lawyers came to you and offer a substantial amount. All you had to do was participating in trials that were supposed to be totally harmless, just to help the noble cause of medicine.”
“You watched the right kind of movies, my good chap.” Zomboy replied. “It’s amazing how people, including me, believe in this sort of bullshit when they’re broke. And those crooks really know how to sell their product.”
“And, before you knew it, they locked you in rooms, took you to surgery tables and stuck all kinds of tubes in you.” Mate said.
“They also operated on our brains.” Zomboy revealed.
“But why did they do all that?” Lily queried. “What’s the point?”
“The virus intended to destroy the world had already been made.” Zomboy replied. That was the easy part. The difficult one was to create the perfect soldier - stronger, faster and obedient. Problem is obedience comes with reasoning. And the first batch of cadavers didn’t come out as they should have. They were enhanced, but still stupid.”
“We had to deal with some pretty strong zombies up there, actually way stronger than pretty.” Lily said.
“Some people call them the Destructors.” Zomboy told them. “Blah! A five-year old could’ve come up with that. I personally believe Zombetters has much more zing.”
“Why do I have the feeling this story doesn’t have a happy ending?” Lily said. “What we saw up there was a ghost town full of walking corpses. We didn’t see any super advanced medical institute.”
“That’s the happy ending!” Zomboy replied. “Do you want to hear another funny story?”
“Yes.” Lily answered.
“Once upon a time, a group of greedy corporate jockeys started a private crusade to rule the world, which included experiments to create super beings. And they succeeded. However, a most unfortunate accident took place. Due to extreme recklessness of some employees, enhanced reanimated corpses escaped from their cages and made a hell of a mess. So much that the whole complex had to be abandoned, end of story.”
“Only this is not quite what happened, right?” Lily said.
“What makes you say that?” Zomboy asked.
“You make me say that.” She answered. “I think the unfortunate accident in your story was actually a carefully planned coup.”
Zomboy opened another warm smile.
“The problem of creating beings with superior intelligence is that such beings outsmart you before you know they’re even there.” Zomboy spoke. “It wasn’t difficult for us to pretend we were Destructors. All we got to do was practice some snarling from deep down our dead throats.”
“Wait a minute!” Mate said. “Am I hearing this right? Are you saying the Undertakers don’t know you exist?”
“Such a strategic advantage, don’t you think?” Zomboy replied. “That’s why we can never leave the undergrounds. The Undertakers will smash us like bugs if we make our presence known out there. Still, it’s a low price to pay.”
“So, they succeeded in their experiments.” Mate concluded. “They made intelligent zombies.”
“But we never let them know it.” Zomboy proceeded. “A small group of us, the ones you’ve already met, hid behind the stupid, rough cadavers, observing, learning, planning. We made those scientists and executives pay for all the pain they inflicted on us.”
“You were the ones who opened the cages.” Lily guessed.
“That’s right.” Zomboy confirmed. “We developed a very good photographic memory for codes and passwords. I won’t bore you with the details. That’s a subject for another book. It suffices to say that we caused the so called accident. And here we are.”
“And not without a reason to live” Mate said. “Sorry, no pun intended.”
“It’s quite alright.” Zomboy replied. “We do have a purpose, but we don’t qualify as living beings, except that we eat. We ca
n’t reproduce, not only for the reasons I’m sure you’ve already thought of. I have my eccentricities like any man, but necrophilia is not one of them. And, like I said, the ones we bite turn into regular zombies, not stronger or faster, just zombies. That part was true.”
“And what exactly is your purpose?” Lily queried.
“I’ll beat the Undertakers in their own game.” Zomboy answered. “I’ll offer humanity an alternative. All good people are welcome to live in here, regardless of race, color and creed. You don’t have to be pure. You only need to be good. And everybody’s welcome to enjoy our facilities. There’ll be plenty of food, water and fun. And I didn’t even get to the kicker yet.”
“This entire project of yours is funded by the Undertakers without their knowledge.” Mate guessed.
“That’s the kicker.” Zomboy confirmed. “I bet it would wreck their brains if they knew they are exhausting their precious Svalbard Global Seed Vault with us. In return, they figure we’re ridding their society of evil, when the real evil is them. This is my gift to the world and also revenge against its destroyers.”
“Yes, but if you want me to endorse your little paradise, you’ll have to work on this eating people thing, evil or not.” Lily said. “I’m not comfortable with that.”
“We’ll try to do something about it.” Zomboy promised. “But you got to admit, as we eat scumbags, we’ll never go hungry. There’s an infinite supply of them between heaven and hell.”
Zomboy stretched and his whole body snapped loudly as a consequence.
“Now, enough talk.” The smart zombie said “Time to meet the crew.”
He led the visitors to a large field, with tables and chairs distributed in an organized way along the space. Around them, reanimated corpses played chess and checkers, chatting happily like they could live forever.
“This is our leisure area.” Zomboy informed. “In the future, we’re also going to have an internet cafe, TV room, nightclub and even a movie theater.”
“A leisure room would never be completed without a TV.” Lily commented.
There was also a natural waterfall that ended in a small lake. Mate Clarkson could not help noticing some gorgeous girls in bikinis getting into the water. But his enthusiasm vanished when they got out of the small pond. Their bodies and faces looked like leather due to so many wrinkles.
“Dates and hot saunas are not activities we can perpetrate in here just yet.” Zomboy told him. “But don’t worry about the ladies; nothing that a hairdryer and some ironing cannot fix for some time.”
One of the girls smiled to the newcomer. She was surely nice and sweet, but her contorted teeth and partially decomposed gums did not help matters much.
“I don’t even want to think what happens to a dead…” Mate swallowed hard. “You know, a dead…”
“I believe the word you’re looking for is penis.” Zomboy helped him.
“That’s right.” Mate murmured flushing. “I don’t even want to think what happens to a dead penis when subjected to water.”
“Yes, I don’t want to talk about it, either.” Zomboy admitted uncomfortably. “Let me introduce you to our department leaders, before my tongue rots completely.”
A group of walking cadavers stood up to meet the visitors.
“This is Trisha.” Zomboy started. “She’s our architect and head of the group responsible for structural maintenance.”
“Hello you!”
“And over there you have Plumber, Farmer, Heater, Doctor, Chef, Mixer and Comedian.” Zomboy continued. “No need to say what each one of them does.”
“Hi!”
“Ahoy!”
“Ola!”
“Saludos!”
“Konnichiwa!”
“Ciau!”
“Tally-ho!”
“What does the Comedian do?” Mate asked.
“He stays tuned on the news outside these caves and brings us the latest on Politicians’ promises.” Zomboy answered.
“Got it.”
“And there are also Hank, Slim and Dylan you’ve already met.” Zomboy proceeded. “They’re in charge of power supply and technological gadgets, a very important job indeed, as you could see with your own eyes.”
Once introductions were done, Zomboy went up a large stone that served as an improvised podium.
“Attention everybody!” He called.
All eyes turned to him.
“Let’s give a warm welcome to our first, hopefully not last, tenants to populate this humble hole, to later repopulate the Earth in style. Soon, we’ll be teaching the next generations all secrets that the descendents of the first inhabitants of this land so kindly shared with us, so they can continue the hard work started many years ago. And this place and its legacy to mankind will live forever after our corpses become dust and our flashes turn to ashes. This is Lily Master and Mate Clarkson. Let’s hear it, folks!”
“HOORAY!”
“The only thing missing here” said Clark “is a rock ‘n’ roll band.”
19th MOVEMENT
Ike, Ivy and Jill were crouched on the floor, also tied up to wooden poles fixed to the ground.
“Who are you anyway?” Ike asked, the arrow still impaling his right shoulder.
“I guess you already know that.” The man standing by him with a fire torch responded. “We are the Residents and I myself own this territory. That’s why my people call me the Owner. The man you left to die was a loyal soldier. The Boss was like a brother to me.”
He knelt down in front of Ike.
“Does this hurt?” The Owner grabbed the arrow piercing Ike and turned it in the wound.
Ike screamed in pain.
“Stop it!” Ivy begged. “Please!”
“Those are the ways of the new, perverted world.” The Owner proclaimed “Too bad if you people made the mistake of trusting others. But don’t worry. Your friend is going to be alright. I need you all in one piece for the games.”
“Games?” Ivy mumbled.
“My people are doing some rounding up, and soon you’ll be given the same opportunity the Boss tried to gift you with, but you so rudely declined.” The Owner answered.
A roughly built corral stood in the middle of the big patio they were. The whole area had once been the campus of a mighty university.
“What’s going to happen?” Jill asked.
“I don’t know, honey.” Ivy responded. “I’m sorry you jumped from the fire to the frying pan.”
“It’s okay.” The girl said. “It’s not your fault.”
The Owner broke the tip of the arrow perforating Ike. He firmly held the other end and took it out in a single pull. Ike screamed again.
“Feeling much better now, huh?” The Owner said tapping Ike’s left cheek with his hand.
Ike’s wound began to bleed like mad.
“Help him!” Ivy pleaded.
“Sure.” The Owner spoke. “We can’t let this goddamn thing get infected. Some cauterization might be in order.”
He touched Ike’s wound with the flame of his torch. The man cried in horrible pain and despair.
“Stop!” Ivy burst in tears. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m just trying to help.” The Owner calmly replied.
“Leave him alone!” Jill commanded.
The Owner stood up, walked to the girl and crouched by her.
“It seems we have ourselves a little loudmouth.” He said.
Jill had to turn her head away to escape from his breath reeking of alcohol.
“That turns me on!” The Owner spoke, reaching for his pants’ zipper.
“Please don’t!” Ivy said. “She’s just a girl! You can have me. I’ll do it.”
“On a second thought, I’ll save you both for later.” The Owner decided. “I’ll wait for my men to come back. They’re hard-working boys. They deserve their piece of the pie and I don’t want to spoil it.”
“Please, sir.” Ivy begged again with pleading, defeated eyes.
The Owner came near the woman and faced her.
“You’re lucky you caught me in a good day.” He said. “We won’t touch you girls for the moment, but be warned. We don’t like no loudmouths in here. You keep a leash on the little bitch.”
“Yes sir.” Ivy nodded in agreement.
“And you will address me as Mister Owner.”
“Yes, Mister Owner.”
“By the way, I’ve never liked those.”
The Owner snatched the piercing right out of Ivy’s nose. She cried in pain, feeling the taste of her own blood, gushing mercilessly to her mouth.
“Somebody patch this up.” The Owner ordered. “I hate mess.”
He stood up.
“Are you sure you want to let those two beauties go to waste?” Another man asked. “My dick doesn’t mind a bloody mouth. It’d be a new experience anyway.”
“Nah” The Owner replied. “We’ll have enough fun with the games.”
20th MOVEMENT
Apocalily Series (Book 2): The Almighty Lady of Tomorrow Page 15