The men laughed again.
“Good job, honey.” Allison said to Amy. “And our next step is the good people of Condor City. Their brain signatures are in the system. It shouldn’t be hard to isolate them by crossing references with the town’s geographical coordinates.”
“We need to take a rest.” The girl complained.
“I still need you here, darling, it won’t be long.” Ally replied. “Meanwhile, give a motivational speech to the kids.”
Again, Amy faced Allison with a ferocious look. The woman ignored it.
In Brokenville, the cleaning staff wearing protective apparel materialized to do the dirty work after the clean mass assassination. The dead were fated to have their heads smashed in trucks, not to become living dead.
A worker leant on a female corpse to lift her, but he jumped back stunned and startled when the dead woman opened her eyes. He thought he was having a nightmare.
“Hey! Careful there, boy!” Trisha said. “You may lose your hand doing things like that!”
Along the field, all other cadavers rose as well, frightening the living ones who were supposed to be carrying them.
“Nice day, huh slick?” Hank greeted the employee in front of him. “Can you help me standing up, son? My dead legs are not the same. I must be getting old.”
But the man just stood there, his eyes and mouth wide open, as if in some kind of petrified catatonic state of fear.
“Okay, then.” Hank sighed and had to stand up on his own. “I’d love to stay and talk, but I’m afraid I got some chores to do.”
The employee did not react.
“You take care, son.” Hank spoke and walked away.
“No, this is not some kind of fancy spasm rigor mortis thing.” Trisha told her shaking listener. “I’m exactly what I look like. Boo!”
“Ahhh, ahhhh!” The man screamed.
He tried to run away, but tripped on his own feet and fell down.
“Please don’t bite me!” He managed to say.
“As I know you just work here, I’ll cut you some slack,” Trisha replied “but only if you tell me where your bosses hang around.”
The employee pointed a trembling finger at Secretary James, at that moment running like hell.
“Oh, I should follow yellow belly in suits over there?” Trisha asked.
The man nodded a yes, still on the floor.
“Thanks for your cooperation.” Trisha said. “Now, get out of here before I change my mind.”
But the employee seemed too scared to move.
“BRAINS!” Trisha shouted with hands up and wiggling fingers.
Only then, the man jumped to his feet and ran away.
Trisha rolled her eyes around the sockets, carefully so they would not fall off.
“That’s some good poison!” A living dead said. “It tastes like wine.”
“I’ve never felt so alive!” Another one spoke.
“Shut up!”
“Hey fellas,” Trisha called the other reanimated corpses “I hate to spoil your fun, but the food is served. Let’s grab some grub. Besides, this outdoor air is giving me wrinkles.”
And the undead chased the running Secretary James.
In the pub, the Minister was quietly enjoying a nice brandy when his cell phone rang. He answered it.
“Robert…!” gasped the voice on the other end. “You have to… We are in deep… oh my God!”
“James? What’s happening? James?”
Hedgiest stared at the screen. The called had dropped. He fixed the knot of his tie and was about to stand up. But five decomposing people stood all around him to block his actions.
“Out!” One of them said to the bartender, who jumped the counter with newfound agility and staggered through the door.
Hedgiest fell back on his stool, his eyes wide open.
“Hey Minister old boy!” said the young corpse sitting next to him. “So, we meet again! Now you can join me for a pint.”
Hedgiest slowly turned his head to the side and found the guy with a propeller toy at the top of his cap. It did not take long for the Minister to realize the man before him was not his garden variety type of person.
“What in blazes are you?” Hedgiest asked.
“I’m your son.” Zomboy responded.
The Minister frowned at him and shook his head.
“It sounds suitable, considering I am one of your creations.” Zomboy proceeded. “We all are your sons. Besides, you can’t deny the physical resemblance. I’m a rotten, dirty person. I surely took after you.”
Hedgiest frowned again, but it was a different kind of frown. This time, he was accessing the corners of his mind, to bring memories back. He pointed a forefinger at Zomboy.
“Mitchell, right?” Robert said.
“You bet!” Zomboy responded, opening a warm, twisted smile. “No need to be so formal, you can me Charlie. And I’m glad to see I’m still fairly recognizable, in spite of this so inconvenient putrefaction. Or was my irresistible charm that gave me away?”
“So, the experiments worked.”
“You must be very proud.”
The cell phone rang in Hedgiest’s hand. But Zomboy took it with incredible speed.
“Hum…” The cadaver said, checking the screen “Allison Forrester calling, nice smile. I heard nothing but good things about her, but this is not a call you’ll be picking up any time soon.”
Zomboy rejected the incoming call, turned off the cell phone and put it in his jeans pocket.
“The falling of our first and most important site,” The Minister divagated “Devasta Land, all the legends and myths surrounding that area… of course!”
“Everything is falling into place, isn’t it?” Zomboy said with another smile. “No wonder you were the head of the scientists, always the smartest cook in the jar, eh?”
“And I can see I wasn’t the only one. What are you doing here?” Hedgiest queried. “What do you want? Why now?”
“Oh, we decided to visit your nice little town and enjoy its facilities, especially your fine cuisine, by which I mean the rest of your managers. It’s a hunger we have to satisfy, but you made us like that. The employees we’re going to spare. After all, they are just common people trying to survive, deceived by your empty promises, like me and my people, long time ago.”
“How did you get in here?”
“I should thank your drivers. They gave us a ride, not exactly willfully, mighty kind of them anyway. When your vehicles stopped in our many roadblocks, it wasn’t the regular cadavers that rained on them. It was me and my team. But don’t worry. We spared their lives, which I’m sure you don’t care.”
“What about the guards, how the heck did you…?”
“We had to barricade your gentle residents inside their homes. You know, the ones contaminated by the heritages you don’t approve. I’m sure they received your mental instructions to go out and kill themselves, but they couldn’t because they were stuck in their houses. Bad luck, huh? As for your guards, I’m afraid we had to eat them; lousy aftershaves by the way.”
“You can’t possibly get away with this! You made a terrible mistake! Now that we know about you, we’re going to erase your existence from the face of Earth!”
“Yes, it’s always a good idea to make plans for the future. After all, you’re not getting any younger and I’m not getting any deader. It’s important to say, though, that when your corporation strikes down on us, there won’t be any we in the equation.”
“What do you mean?”
“You abandoned me, dad! That made me awfully needy! No, no, seriously. Ask anybody. I’ve been unbearably grumpy since the day you left me.
“What are you going to do?”
“I want to have my daddy by my side, so we can make up for lost time.”
“Robert didn’t pick up my call.” Allison talked more to herself. “Something is wrong.”
She turned to Amy and found the girl staring at her.
“Is
there something you’re not telling me, missy?”
“No!” Amy retorted.
“Are you sure?”
“I did everything you asked. What more do you want?”
The dialog was interrupted by an incoming call on Allison’s cell phone. She looked at the screen. It was Secretary James. She answered it.
In Brokenville, a convoy of trucks was parked along the curb by the entrance of the park, waiting to receive the corpses whose heads would be destroyed. But the cleaning staff was taking way longer than usual to come.
One of the drivers was standing by his vehicle and checked his wristwatch. He decided to go inside the truck and radio the head of cleaning personnel, to ask why they were taking so long.
He climbed the vehicle, got into the cabin and closed the door. However, he did not have time to work the radio. A living dead with a cowboy hat grabbed him from behind. At least one corpse had made it to the truck, but he did not expect to have his head obliterated.
“Howdy, partner!” Hank said.
The talking corpse locked all doors and sat down on the passenger’s seat, pointing an old, but fully functional Smith & Wesson Schofield at the chest of his hostage.
“You and I are going to have a little paw wow.” Hank spoke.
“Who are you?” The driver asked in fear.
“Try a lucky guess!”
Hank opened a large smile, so large that it exposed some cartilages and joints on both sides of his jawbone.
“Oh my God!” the other said. “You are a zombie!”
“Reanimated dead body” Hank corrected him.
“Please don’t eat me! And don’t shoot me!”
“In this order? It can be arranged. But you got to do something for me, boy.”
“Yes, yes!”
“You seem to understand a lot about vehicles around here, am I right?”
“I’m in charge of them, yes.”
“Then I’m in luck!” Hank said joyfully. “You’re just the guy I’m looking for. Can you do something for me, son?”
“Yes, if you don’t kill me.”
“Deal. You know, I’ve always got my eyes on a big ugly truck with the steering wheel on the right side, therefore, on the wrong side, quite an unusual model indeed. Do you happen to know where a guy like me can get his hands on one of those?”
“Yes! I know what you’re talking about.”
“Great! Then, we’re in business.
Hank jiggled the truck keys to the man.
“Just drive, son. And you’ll be scot free in no time.”
Allison put down the cell phone, even forgetting to terminate the call. Screams could be heard from the other end. All voices silenced all of a sudden.
She fixed eyes on Amy. The woman’s somber face spoke for itself.
“Brokenville was overrun.” Forrester announced. “I don’t know how, the Secretary couldn’t give me the details. It seems he and the entire Board of Directors were cornered by living dead in the town restaurant. Judging by the screams, the beasts must’ve broken into and finished them all.”
She faced Amy and waited until the girl returned the look.
“Do you know something about that?” Allison asked in a paced tone.
“How could I?”
“You’re in contact with the city.”
“I only pass instructions to brains. It’s up to your people to make sure they are complied with.”
“Well, I’m just taking a wild guess here, but I think residents there didn’t exactly follow your instructions.”
“I wouldn’t know about that.”
“How come?”
“I’m connected to regular brains. They are not like mine and the other children’s. Only we have the extrasensory perception. We can send suggestions and orders to ordinary minds, but they can’t respond. I have no ways to know what they do.”
Allison typed on her cell phone.
“General Driscoll?” She said. “This is Allison Forrester. Listen carefully. Brokenville was invaded. This is not a drill. Contact the city’s military base immediately. I want every soldier, guard and police officer on the streets to repel this attack. Tell your men to make sure all residents are in their homes, with doors and windows locked up. Please, tell the man in charge of the base to report directly to me. Thank you.”
She finished the call and turned to Amy:
“I’ll accept your explanation for now, but know that I’m not fully convinced.”
“Perhaps you should ask your engineers then.” The girl retorted.
“I will, honey. I need you to do something for me. Get the brain signatures of all personnel in the Brokenville medical institute. Instruct them to go to the arsenal and arm themselves. They must shoot to kill everybody they don’t know, or never met in their lives.”
“You already sent the soldiers. Is this really necessary?”
“If I said so, it’s because it is. Now, do as I say and stop questioning my orders!”
Amy obeyed.
“I’m sleepy!” A boy complained.
“Me too!” A little girl added.
“They can’t take much more of this.” Amy said. “They need to take a rest.”
“Did you do what I told you to?” Allison queried.
“Yes! Your killing suggestions are in their minds.”
“Then, you may take your rest.”
Allison strode to a control panel connected to the wall and punched a red button on it. The children were disconnected from the needles and from each other. The straps tying their arms and legs to the chairs also got loose.
“Go to your rooms.” Allison commanded. “I’ll deal with you later, missy.” She held Amy’s arm. “I’m not done with you.”
The girl led the children to the lodge area. Through the surveillance system, Forrester watched the boys and girls get into their respective rooms and close the doors. Amy was the last one to disappear into her personal quarter. Allison pressed another button to remotely lock all doors.
She typed four numbers on her cell phone.
“Melinda?” Allison said. “This is Ally. Please get my speedboat ready.”
Ike, Ivy, Mate and Lily sneaked into Brokenville medical institute. Lily was humming the song Comfortably Numb, by Pink Floyd.
“Um, Lily…” Mate said “not that I don’t like it, but you’ve been humming this tune since we left Devasta Land.”
“I can’t help it.” Lily replied. “It’s stuck in my head like glue.”
“At least you’re in luck.” Clark spoke. “Only foxtrot gets stuck in my head.”
“We are here because…” Ike queried.
“They test people in this town.” Lily responded. “And I don’t think they give patients much of a choice. If there are folks being turned upside down, they should be here.”
“It makes sense.” Ike admitted.
“And I’m thirsty, too.” Lily completed. “There got to be soda pops somewhere in this place.”
“Where’s Jill?” Ivy asked.
“She’s safe in the local movie theater.” Lily replied. “I heard they are showing Tom and Jerry.”
“Zomboy assigned some of his trustworthy women to look after her.” Mate spoke.
“I’ve never thought a kid would be okay with zombies,” Ike said “but those look cool enough.”
“And they should be well fed by now.” Mate observed.
“It’s a bit strange to work with cerebral zombies,” Ivy said “but sometimes we shall fear the living more than the dead, I guess.”
They had to stop their march. A group of two doctors and three nurses stood in front of them.
“Hello there!” Lily said. “We came to help.”
From somewhere inside their aprons, the group of five drew machine guns.
“Back off!” Lily shouted.
They jumped back to the room they had come from and closed the door, while the little medical team fired their weapons in every direction.
“I don
’t think they want any help.” Mate spoke.
“Shouldn’t those people follow a Hippocratic oath or something?” Ike complained.
“Maybe they are trying to justify their jobs.” Ivy said. “They riddle us with bullets, so they can stitch us later.”
“I wouldn’t count on that.” Lily said. “Their minds must be under control. You guys get in here.”
Lily pushed the other three to a small medicine storage room.
“You’ll be safe in here.” Lily said. “Close the door.”
“What about you?” Clark asked.
“I have a doctor appointment.” The Australian answered.
The medical team broke into the room and spread around, machines guns in hand, ready to shoot. Ike, Mate and Ivy could see them through cracks on the door. Lily seemed to have disappeared.
One nurse saw the door to the storage. She grabbed the doorknob and turned it.
“Hey!” Lily fell upon the aggressors.
She rendered a doctor and a nurse unconscious with her martial arts dance, but another nurse fired the weapon at her. Lily jumped behind a cabinet.
Apocalily Series (Book 2): The Almighty Lady of Tomorrow Page 20