by Zack Archer
“Everyone has a past,” I said.
She placed a finger on my stump. “That’s an understatement.”
“I got this little beaut in D.C.,” I said.
“Doing what?”
“Pissing off the Madam Secretary.”
“What’s that?” Sadie asked.
“The lady in charge. I had a little disagreement with her.”
“Over what?”
“Whether I should die.”
Sadie smirked and touched one of the filaments visible at the end of my stump. “What is that?”
“The connection between me and the artificial intelligence system that’s been implanted in my body. Course it got shorted out on the way down here, so I’m looking to get a tune-up if one of your folks know his or her way around computers.”
She laughed. “You’re nuts, Nick.”
“That’s what they tell me.”
She leaned her head back, staring at the stars. “Ephraim says you have to earn your life now. Hundreds of millions are dead and we the few are alive, so we need to make every day count, you understand? So, I do the things I do now not because I expect anything in return but because they’re the right things to do.”
I smiled. Not only was she incredibly hot, but she was trying to save the world.
“What’s your plan?” I asked.
“Hang out here a while and then maybe move back into the city when the bad people are all gone. When the Turk is no more.”
“What’s he want?” I asked.
“What everyone asshole wants. What other people got.”
“I’m familiar with the type,” I replied, flashing her my stump with its attached metal tube.
“You might only have one hand but it looks like a strong one,” Sadie said, a twinkle in her eyes as she looked at Raven, Hollis, Lexie and the others. “I mean, looks like you’ve done well for yourself.”
“We’re good friends.”
“I’m sure you are...”
“Best fighters I’ve ever seen.”
“They’ll need to be,” Sadie answered, the levity slipping from her face. “Because we’re gonna have to run a gauntlet to get you to that lab.”
“Worse than it was today?”
“Tomorrow will make this afternoon look like a stroll in the park.”
She cocked a finger and motioned for me to follow her into the communications shack. I looked over her shoulder and noticed that her neck smelled like suntan lotion and her hair had the vague scent of vanilla.
Dixie and some of the others were stooped over several laptops and tablets. Turning to see me, a scowl etched Dixie’s face.
“What’s he doing here?”
“He needs to know what we know,” Sadie said.
Dixie grumbled but nodded. I moved forward to see what looked like real-time footage of downtown Miami, the canals, and the surrounding areas.
“We planted some cameras on six buildings and a few of the taller palm trees,” Dixie said. “Lets us keep an eye on the Turk and the zombies.”
Dixie positioned a finger on the tablet and swiped through several screens. I saw images of men and women and speedboats patrolling the canals, clusters of zombies standing on tiny islands of debris, and larger vessels that looked constructed of scrap being attacked by the speedboats.
She tapped a finger and the images froze on a single person surrounded by a posse of hard-looking men—Hispanics, blacks, and gringos.
The single person was a tall man looking right at me, wearing an old mask that was painted black and white to resemble a skull. There were extra-large holes cut in the mask that allowed me to see the man’s black eyes.
“Is that him?” I asked. “The Turk?”
Dixie nodded. “Some of his people have started calling him Santa Muerte now. Fucker has his own death cult.”
“He’s like God,” Sadie said. “He has eyes and ears everywhere, which means we’ll need a be smart to get past his folks and into that lab of yours.”
Dixie tapped on the screen and the map pulled back. Two positions were represented by blinking red dots, and a squiggly yellow line connected them.
“That’s the Vortex Lab,” Dixie said, pointing to the red dot on the right side of the screen.
“The other one’s us,” Sadie said.
“How far away are we?”
“Nineteen miles, give or take.”
Dixie spread her pinched fingers on the screen to zoom in, tracing the outline of the squiggly yellow line. The path led through the Everglades, out into the canal, and then terminated at another spit of ground near the edge of the city.
“That’s the shortcut,” Dixie said, gesturing at the yellow line. “The path forward.”
“Doesn’t look that bad.”
“Yeah, well, there’s good news and bad news about it.”
“What’s the good?”
“We don’t believe the Turk knows about the lab or the shortcut.”
“What’s the bad?”
Dixie glanced at me. “The path leads right through the mounds, the place where the dead were buried before the local government collapsed.”
“So, in order to get to the lab, we have to cross the place where all the zombies were buried?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” Sadie said.
I gulped. “But they’re all dead. I mean…that’s why they were buried there, right?”
Sadie summoned a huge smile. “Fingers crossed.”
My gaze wandered back to Dixie who was grinning, taking some small measure of pleasure in my discomfort.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Scared?”
I held her look and flashed my stump. “I don’t scare easily.” I looked past her to see new images on the screen. Shots of large ships in the water next to small, interconnected structures.
“What is that?”
“Seasteaders,” Sadie said. “Bunch of people from the city who haven’t thrown in with the Turk.”
“Allies or enemies?”
“Neither,” Sadie replied.
“What are they doing?”
“They’ve built their own mini-cities out in the ocean.”
I stared at the buildings on the screen.
“Most of the stuff is built out of repurposed metal, plastic, and bamboo bolted onto these moorings made of Biorock. They even got solar panels, turbines, aquaponics, and fish pens now. I’ve even heard they’re actually starting to produce fresh water.”
“Bullshit,” Dixie said.
Sadie shook her head. “It’s true. Ephraim said it’s like the reed islands in Lake Titicaca down in Peru.”
Sadie pointed to the screen. “They’ve built everything in a fractal pattern. Everything’s linked like hexagons in a honeycomb.”
“They’ll never make it,” Dixie offered.
“looks like they already have,” I replied.
Dixie powered the screen down at the sound of a bell ringing outside.
“What going on?” I asked.
Sadie clapped her hands. “The festivities are about to begin.”
18
As soon as dusk descended, the camp came alive. Everyone who’d been previously working put their tools down and trundled out as an older man continued to ring a bell. Everyone worked to pull back webbing and tarps that concealed boxes, crates, and containers and from these they removed goodies like beer, liquor, packets of cocaine, and slabs of meat packed in salt.
“For a while, the government dropped off supplies for us,” Sadie said. “They flew all the way down from Langley Air Force base.”
“Even the cocaine?” I asked.
Sadie laughed. “We ripped off a few drug-runners, the folks who do business with the Turk. Definitely not my thing, but different strokes for different folks…”
“The rest of the shit we scavenged,” Ephraim, Sadie’s crew member, remarked.
Goods in hand, the camp members struck torches or flicked on little lanterns and set out, heading into the ju
ngle. We hesitated and then followed them.
A hole had been winnowed into the underbrush, barely large enough for one person to fit through.
Crouching, we humped through the jungle-like ‘Glades until we came to a spot beyond the tree line. The camp members used their torches to illuminate a beautiful lagoon, a spot where two rivers converged to form a circular body of water that resembled a swimming pool. There was even a little spit of sand, our own beach, along with benches carved out of a fallen tree and a pit filled with rocks and wood that was quickly set alight.
“Didn’t expect it, did ya?” Ephraim said, a twinkle in his eye.
“Now I understand why you stay away from the city.”
“A famous person once said that two things revolutionized life: falling in love and moving to the country.”
He grinned as I saw a man open a metal locker that was filled with swimwear. Skimpy bikinis for the ladies and trunks for the guys.
The women in the camp retreated to the bushes and then returned, sporting the bikinis. Scarlett, Layla, and some of our party did the same and, in a few minutes, there was a righteous party underway.
I strolled across the beach, smelling the odor of burning wood and meat. Some of the ladies had their weapons out, inspecting or cleaning them. Hollis was sharpening the edge of her tomahawk on a wet stone and Sadie was twirling her crossbow, stopping to fire at a metal drum bobbing in the water. Ephraim picked up an old guitar and began strumming it as a woman sang several pop tunes that I remembered from the good old days.
Lexie had Stevens in her arms, feeding him scraps of roast hog, getting down to the music while Raven and Layla stomped their feet. Even Deb had put her weapon down and was clapping her hands to the beat, swaying next to Lucy who handed me an animal horn filled with beer. Some of the others in the camp were swimming in the lagoon, snorting lines of white powder off an old windshield, or smoking joints.
One of the women from the camp held up a bag of weed. “I’ve always heard that’s a gateway drug,” I said.
She smiled. “Yeah, a gateway to good times.”
We shared a laugh and I deferred. Narcotics had never been my thing. Women had always been my drug of choice.
I downed my beer and then somebody quickly refilled it. It was Sadie, who was holding what looked like one of those old goldfish bowls filled with suds that she’d used to replenish my horn.
“Work hard, play harder,” she said.
“I thought that was my motto.”
I held up my horn and she grinned and tapped it with her fish bowl. My gaze lingered on her and then I leaned in close. “What will you do when it’s all over?”
“What?”
“When the zombies are gone and civilization returns.”
“We have civilization right here.”
“You know what I mean.”
She registered this, taking a long pull from her bowl o’ beer. “I don’t see a house and a white picket fence in my future…”
“How come?”
She shrugged. “My sail’s always been set to the passing wind. I get bored easily and when I get bored, guess what happens, Nick?”
“Bad things?”
She laughed. “Naughty might be a better word.”
I noticed scars running down her arms, along with sections of welted flesh. “These are reminders,” she said.
“I’m sorry.”
“No need to be. I’ve learned to love them. Hate the pain, but love the scars, y’know?”
“Just so happens that I’ve been involved in my share of naughty things as well, Sadie.”
She licked her lips. “I’ll bet you have.”
“I’ve got scars too.”
“Any that can I see?”
“Maybe later…”
Hands suddenly wrapped around Sadie’s waist and a figured popped out of the shadows. It was Dixie. Dixie made a move to kiss Sadie who turned her head, permitting a peck on the cheek. I was a little surprised to see that the ladies were an item. I never would’ve guessed it.
“Make sure you turn in early,” Dixie said. “We have a long day tomorrow and I’ll bet you need the rest.”
“Stamina’s never been a problem for me,” I said. Sadie smiled, but Dixie just glared at me.
“Have a wonderful evening, ladies,” I said, tapping Sadie’s beer bowl a final time before moving over to grab some of the meat that was still simmering on the fire.
Ephraim loaded me up a plate of food.
“You double as a chef?” I asked.
He laughed and nodded. “I also dabble in computers. Word is you need a little assistance with something.”
“The word is right,” I replied.
I followed Ephraim over to his workstation which included a “table,” a length of wood propped up on cinderblocks under a tent. The table was strewn with gears, the lacework of strange machines, and little bottles of oil and other substances along with stacks of tools and tiny gizmos.
Over the next fifteen minutes, Ephraim worked under the light cast from a solar lamp. He labored on my hand, stripping and rejiggering the filaments. He did his best to reconfigure some of the key neural links which had been severely downgraded, and/or severed after the helicopter crash.
“Okay, try it,” Ephraim said.
I stood back and worked to mentally conjure up the HUD. It took several tries, but eventually I was able to access the HUD and Slade.
“It’s going to be intermittent at best,” Ephraim said.
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” I replied.
“I heard that,” Slade said.
Belly full, HUD sorta fixed, and sporting a righteous buzz from the beer, I thanked Ephraim, left the beach, and headed back up to the camp where I strolled around the perimeter. I heard the sounds of the others talking, eating, laughing, dancing. If I didn’t know any better, I might’ve thought the whole thing resembled some of the parties I used to attend in Ocean City back in the day. It was the first real fun anyone had probably had in a good long while.
I noticed a shadow up in one of the trees and squinted, spotting a structure that resembled a lookout post of some sort. One of Sadie’s crew showed me to a ladder that had been bolted on to what he said was a thick torchwood tree. Near the tree’s crown was a structure that resembled a tree fort, an observation post large enough to hold four people that afforded an excellent view of the surrounding swamplands.
Near the tree’s crown was a structure that resembled a tree fort, an observation post large enough to hold four people that afforded an excellent view of the surrounding swamplands.
The sky was scattered with stars, the horizon dark and without definition except for a few blobs of light far out on the horizon. The lights, which looked like strobe lights, were coming from a single structure in downtown Miami. I knew almost immediately that it had to be the Turk’s lair, his party palace.
I studied the lights and closed my eyes, listening to the barely-audible thump of bass-heavy music and what might have been screams, drifting across the water.
“That’s his place,” a female voice said from behind.
I flinched, looking back to see Sadie gesturing to the building. “The Turk. He’s holding one of his raves,” she added.
“Wonder what it takes to get on the guest list.”
“I don’t think you want to know.”
“You’ve been to one?” I asked.
“I’ve spied on one, yeah. It’s one of those things that once seen can never be unseen, if you know what I mean. He and his family, that’s what he calls the whackjobs who follow him, kill and torture people just for the hell of it.”
“Sounds like a woman I knew in D.C.”
Sadie pointed at my hand. “The one that gave you that?”
“The very same.”
“What happened to her?” she asked.
“She fucked with the wrong guy.”
Sadie smiled, her white teeth juxtaposed against her dark, tanned skin, fl
ashing in the darkness. She inched forward until she was standing on my right, close enough to kiss.
“Do you want to see where we’re going to tomorrow?”
I nodded.
She placed her left hand around my waist and used her right to lift my good hand, pointing to a spot out over the water.
“Are you scared about tomorrow?” she asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the way I see it, all the bad things have already happened.”
She laughed. “That’s an interesting but fucked-up way to look at things.”
“Helps me to sleep at night.”
“I’ll bet you don’t get much sleep, Nick.”
I smiled. “Not if there’s work to do.”
“What kind of work does a guy like you do when the sun goes down?”
“Whatever needs to be done.”
She licked her lips and then she leaned in and kissed me. I kissed her back, my arms folding around her.
“What about Dixie?” I asked.
“What about her?”
“She doesn’t seem like the open-minded type...”
“Nobody tells me what to do.”
“You are the captain,” I said.
She laughed and reached down and grabbed my cock, squeezing it as I moaned. Then she unzipped my pants and let my dick spring free before running her hands up over my chest. Then she helped me take my shirt off and sucked on my nipples before dropping to her knees.
“What about the others?” I asked.
“We’re too high up,” she replied. “The sound doesn’t travel.”
Sounded good to me. Sadie grabbed my legs and pulled me over. Then she held the head of my cock in her mouth and began to lash the underside with her tongue. I crouched and rubbed her huge breasts, gently squeezing the nipples as she moaned.
She began deep-throating me, sliding back and forth, building up a rhythm. Then she stood, and her tongue flicked into my mouth. I reached down and grabbed her ass, giving it a gentle smack. Then I turned her around and helped her out of her clothes. She was only wearing yoga pants and a tight T-shirt, so it didn’t take long. I stood back and admired her toned frame in the moonlight.