After the Fall

by Martinez, A. J.

  “My beloved people. It is with a heavy heart that I bring one of our own to this stage. Our Mother and Founder created this place out of love for humanity. She realized early in this battle for the world that humanity stood on the verge of disappearing. With courage, strength, and determination, she built this place, much of it with her own hands. Every building here stands as a testament to her greatness.

  “For whatever misguided reason, someone has decided to betray us. She has set about destroying this place by letting in the scourge that we fight day and night to keep out. Many have died and many others lie in a hospital at this very moment with a death sentence over their heads.”

  The screen flashed over to the victims in the hospital. Many of them had begun to transform while alive. The crowd gasped. It flashed back to Lucretius.

  “I am as horrified as you are. These good, hardworking people deserved to live. Were they afflicted with anything else, I could have allowed them to spend their last few hours with their families. They will be as dead as our culprit before the end of the night.

  “Let me tell you something about the traitor. She is a wolf in sheep’s skin who has been hiding among us for a long time. She pretended to be a loyal servant, guarding our borders, but underneath all that lurked an evil, conniving woman who resented our rule and the happiness it brought. She has incited discontent among our ranks and encouraged a few to take action against your government. The scale of this crime is one that we cannot ignore, one that we will not keep hidden from you.

  “Bring her out!” he commanded. Two men brought a bruised and tired Rayna for the crowd to insult and vilify.

  “This is your traitor. Rayna Espinoza, you will stand trial for your crimes tonight!”

  The crowd roared. It always amazed me how quickly they were willing to turn on someone for the sake of entertainment.

  “Miss Espinoza,” said the Queen. “You stand accused of the crimes of dereliction of duty, conspiracy, and sixty-three counts of murder. How do you plead to these charges?”

  “I say that this is all a set-up. I didn’t kill anybody.”

  “In leaving your post, you allowed a dozen undead to enter the grounds and take sixty-three innocent lives. Do you feel no remorse?”

  “I didn’t leave my post willingly.”

  “So you plead ‘not guilty.’ What of the conspiracy? Do you deny that two of your subordinates were plotting against the council and that you had knowledge of it?”

  “Of course I do. They may have been unhappy with their superiors, but they weren’t traitors.”

  “Then you deny the charge of conspiracy?”

  “Yes, I do. I never plotted against anybody, but now I see why somebody might want to do it.”

  “And in your denial, you have admitted that you have entertained conversations of a seditious nature as well as expressing support for the traitors.”

  “Stop twisting my words around. That’s not what I said!”

  “Silence, you insolent creature! Any more outbursts from you and I will have your tongue.”

  Rayna nodded. She made all the outward signs of submission, but her eyes remained defiant.

  The Queen continued, “Now that you have been given a chance to repent your crimes and enter a plea, I will call the first witnesses. Gregory Morain and John Hart, step forward.”

  The two men who had just days before acted as Rayna’s partners stepped up to the Queen and faced the crowd.

  “Do either of you recognize this woman?” she asked them.

  “Yes, I do,” replied the pudgy Gregory. “She is the traitor Rayna.”

  Rayna went to protest, but the angry crowd drowned out her objections.

  “Silence!” said the Queen to the crowd. “I will now ask you why.”

  “She ordered us to go out of our sector for no good reason,” said the thin, weaselly man named John. “We told her it was a bad idea, but she insisted.”

  “That’s because there was an attack on that sector!” shouted Rayna. One of the guards punched her on the side and she collapsed into him.

  “I will have your tongue cut out. I mean it!” She turned back to the two men. “Continue, please.”

  “As I was saying, we had to go deal with that situation. It took a while because these things kept coming back to life.”

  “Very well, that’s enough. Your testimony is satisfactory.” She turned to address Rayna. “Do you deny what these men have just said about you?”

  Rayna wheezed and tried to speak. “We were being attacked. They needed help before they got overrun. Those things were breaking the fence!”

  “Do you realize that it is against your orders to desert your section, unless ordered to do so by a superior?”

  “Technically, yes, but—”

  “So you decided to disobey orders and left your own area unsecured, thereby allowing the undead to breach the perimeter.”

  “But they needed the help!”

  “Then they should have held back and waited for reinforcements. We have our best troops on standby around the clock.”

  “We did call. No one came.”

  The Queen shook her head. “You are lying. Records show there were no calls made to higher headquarters.”

  I couldn’t stand by any longer. I had to step forward in her defense.

  “You must stop this madness!” I said. “She is innocent of these charges.”

  “Ah, Mordecai, just in time! I was about to play your recorded testimony.” She pushed a button and the black box spoke in my voice.

  “Anna Thorn, our beloved Founder, Queen, Mother to our kind — she is not who she appears to be.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

  “She’s not…she’s an impostor. The woman in her place, that’s not Anna Thorn.”

  The Queen stopped the recording. “We obtained this recording with your help, Mordecai. I am grateful for your service,” she said.

  “I didn’t—”

  “You’re a liar!” Rayna screamed. “You were pretending all along!”

  “Now, calm down,” the Queen said to her. “He was simply doing his duty. If you had been as loyal as he’s been to us, you would not be standing here.”

  Rayna shot me a look of pure venom.

  “Moving on, I think we have enough proof to go forward. I see no reason why we should let this trial go on.

  “I have thought about your punishment for some time. Imprisonment seemed too merciful. When I thought about the many lives that you ruined, I realized it would be fitting for you to be locked in with the same creatures that you let slip through your sector.”

  The crowd cheered. Over and over, they chanted, “Kill the traitor!”

  I tried to step in and put a stop to the madness, but the Queen had ordered two guards to stand at my side. They locked their hands around my arm to warn me to stay still.

  A forklift came from the rear area with a huge container about the size of a shed. Two men pulled off the tarp on it and revealed half a dozen zombies thrashing at the thick walls of transparent armor.

  “Rayna Espinoza,” the Queen continued, “you have been found guilty and are hereby sentenced to imprisonment with the very creatures you allowed to slip in and take innocent lives. They will consume your flesh until you are dead. When you rise again, you will be left on display at this square, as proof that treason will not go unpunished in this great city.”

  The people whispered among themselves. Some wondered if the punishment was too harsh while others greeted it with bloodthirsty cheer. None dared question the Queen’s judgment, lest they be forced to share in Rayna’s punishment.

  Lucretius appeared ill. What little bit of color he possessed was gone and he became ashen white. He seemed capable of falling over at any moment. I rushed to his side, ready to catch him. Lucretius was the embodiment of law and order. What could trouble him so when he should have rejoiced at justice being served?

  “What’s wrong?” I whis
pered to him.

  “Nothing. I’m fine. It will pass. I just need to have a meal.”

  “You can stop this, you know. You hold a lot of sway with the council. You can stop this from happening.”

  “It is too late. Far too late. I have gone too far.”

  “Do you have any last words?” asked the Queen.

  “I hope you all go to hell,” Rayna said, focusing all her attention on me.

  “That may very well be, but you will be there before us. Put her in.”

  The men picked her up and hoisted her over the opening on top, but it turned out to be as easy as caging a raging wild animal. Rayna kicked, punched, and bit them when she got the slightest chance. They had to call for help to force her into the opening. The hungry creatures reached out to their dinner. She fought desperately, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to resist. They shoved her through the opening and closed the hatch. The creatures began to rush in.

  Rayna screamed. She wasn’t one to show weakness, but these were her last moments. She felt their hands reaching for her and prepared herself for their teeth. They never came. The monsters examined her for a moment and turned back to the clear walls.

  “What in the devil is going on?” asked the Queen. “Why are they not attacking?”

  I believed I knew the answer, but I dared not say it. A smile crept across my lips. Everyone’s eyes were on the cage. The would-be executioners were banging at the walls to get at the people outside.

  “No matter,” said the Queen. “You will stay there until they are hungry enough to have you.”

  The crowd, sensing that the show was over for now, had begun to disperse. It did not please the Queen, but one thing she could not do was stop them all. And what could she offer them but a drawn-out exhibition of her failure to execute Rayna.

  Meanwhile, Rayna continued staring in our direction. Her lips moved. I couldn’t read them, but the undead seemed to have understood. They flung themselves against the wall closest to us and tried to attack. The Queen seemed worried now.

  “If they get out of there, I want everyone to open fire. Cut them down.”

  “Looks like they’re not doing anything,” I commented.

  The Queen got up from her seat and stormed off the stage. Lucretius lingered a moment longer. Whatever had ailed him loosened its grip on him just a little. The crowd followed suit and began to disperse. Soon only the guards remained. They posted themselves all around the cage, not sure whether they were supposed to guard Rayna or the zombies that were trying to pound their way out. The undead just kept beating at the walls, showing no signs of slowing.

  I took a seat and prepared myself for a long vigil. Rayna’s hatred was palpable in the air. I can only imagine this is how someone feels the moment before lightning strikes them. She laid down on her side, still awake. I stared elsewhere, knowing her poisonous stare was locked on me. Inside, I felt something stabbing at me. I couldn’t stand that she despised me.

  The guards fidgeted and paced around the cage, but their captives would not give them a moment’s peace. They banged, moaned, and screamed after them. It must have felt like guarding a pack of hungry wolves, except a wild animal would have been a better choice. At least living things got tired and needed rest.

  “Looks like sunlight will be here in a few hours,” I said to the guards. They looked around and gathered in a huddle. The ghouls bunched together in a similar manner.

  “I guess we didn’t really plan on this,” I continued. In the misery of the moment, I could find consolation in increasing others’ suffering, especially when they were the agents of that same suffering.

  “We’ll have to call human guards to pull the day shift,” said their leader. “I just hope those candy-asses don’t screw it up.”

  Daytime might be a problem. Rayna had become immune to the undead, but I lost a little of my sunlight resistance after the conversion and she had none, even before this.

  “Go call for relief,” the leader ordered. “Make sure they bring some plywood or something to cover this thing up. We don’t need her dying at dawn, or we’ll be the next ones in there.”

  “Maybe the dark will take the attention off us and they’ll attack her,” one of the underlings suggested.

  There was another pang of worry in the pit of my stomach. What if he was right? If they relied on sight more than smell, they might focus on her when the lights go out. There was a chance that they might not, but it was her life riding on that chance. I had to think of another way to get her out. Now all I had to do was come up with a plan to subdue six strong Vampire men with three rifles, two shotguns, and a submachine gun between all of them, not to mention the handguns each of them carried in their belt holsters.

  The underling left to make the call, looking none too relieved to get away from there. That left five men and one less rifle. Even with those odds, the lead man remained on edge.

  “Damn you, Colin. Why the hell didn’t you make sure the batteries were charged before we left?”

  “They were all full green when I got them.”

  “The hell they were! There’s no way. Look, they’re all dead.”

  “I don’t know how old these batteries are. It’s not like anybody’s making batteries anymore.”

  “All right, enough! I don’t wanna hear another word about it. Just guard the damn cage.”

  Rayna, who had managed to catch a nap, woke up at the end of the argument. She jumped up and looked at the stalking ghouls. When the memories came back, so did the hatred. She was no longer afraid for her life, not when she was too busy meditating on my destruction. If thoughts could kill, I would have disintegrated on the spot.

  “What the hell’s taking this guy?” asked the leader. “I’m gonna get me a cigarette. Y’all hold it down.”

  “We got it,” replied the one named Colin, who seemed a little disappointed that he could not join him.

  “Why is he going over there? He could light up here. It’s not like zombies get lung cancer.”

  The truth was, their leader stepped away because he needed an excuse to take a break from the banging and groaning. I can’t say I blamed him much for that.

  “Screw this,” Colin said, pulling out a cigarillo and lighting up.

  All twelve of the zombies rushed over to the light. They seemed more fascinated by the light than the man itself. A funny comparison came to me. They were like moths. Ugly, nasty, flesh-eating moths that liked pretty lights.

  Colin was immersed in the pleasure of his cigar when I heard a cracking sound. It snapped him right out of his blissful state. He panicked and pointed the submachine gun at the plexiglas. I don’t know if it went off on its own or if he fired. The end result was the same. The whole dozen of them pushed into the plexiglas, undeterred by the bullets punching holes through them. Cracks began to spread until they covered the whole pane and it exploded outward, spilling a pile of zombies all over Colin. The other four rushed over to help. This was the opening I needed.

  I hit the one closest to me so hard I felt his neck bones snap. His last dying act was to fire his shotgun. I made sure it was aimed at his companion’s chest. The other two didn’t even have the time to register what just happened before I rushed behind their backs and did the same to them. Colin was still on the ground screaming while the ghouls feasted on his flesh. Some of them split off and started to feed on the others.

  I didn’t get much time to enjoy the grim view. A bullet whizzed by me and I realized that the fearless leader had returned. The shot caused two of the zombies to chase him. He panicked and started taking wild shots at them. I picked up one of the rifles and fired at him. Most of the rounds found their mark. He fell to the ground and was overtaken. Now there were two screaming men in the street.

  “Come on!” I said to Rayna. “Let’s go, while they’re busy.”

  She jerked her hand away. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “We’re as good as dead if we stay here.”

  “And
who got me put in that cage in the first place?”

  “Just come on. We’ll talk this out somewhere else.”

  “I’m not going with you.”

  I grabbed her arm and dragged her.

  “Let me go! I told you I’m not going with you.” She was pulling her arm away, but her efforts were halfhearted at best. We disappeared into the side streets, leaving behind the screaming men. Two trucks with flashing lights approached and we hid. I had a good idea where they were headed.

  We rushed over to the apartment and gathered a few supplies. She sliced a blood bag open and almost inhaled its contents. A few more perished in the same manner. Since it might be a while before the next meal, I joined her.

  After filling up on blood and supplies, we snuck out through the fire exit. There were no death squads marching up the stairs just yet. They seemed to be busy with the commotion at the plaza. When we were back at the street, Rayna broke free of my grip and went the other way.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. Anywhere you’re not going.”

  “We can survive better together. I can help you.”

  “You want to help me? Get their attention. Distract them long enough for me to get away.”

  Despite her objections, I followed her through the empty streets. There was no one out there except for the emergency responders. Nothing works as well as a zombie threat to keep city dwellers locked up in their homes. We hid in the alleys when we saw the patrolling Armored Personnel Carriers, or APCs for short. They were painted black to represent Anathorn’s elite guard, part police, part military, all trouble. The elite troops were out. That meant the Queen must be getting worried.

  Once I noticed where Rayna was headed, I seized her by the shoulder.

  “You’re going to her house, aren’t you?”

  “You’re a quick one.”

  “That’s suicide. She’s bound to have an army of guards waiting.”

  “So what?”

  “You’ll be dead before you even get in the house.”

  “Why are you worried, Mordecai? You’d get right in, being the Queen’s lover boy and all.”

  “I’m not her…wait, that could actually work.”