Endworld #28 Dark Days

by rebel4477

  The three Warriors stood firm as the undead washed over them. Ares cut and slashed and stabbed. Helen went for their necks , a single blow enough to send a zombie head tumbling. Sundance bashed heads with gleeful delight, his blows so powerful that he caved in zombie skulls, splitting some like overripe melons.

  Still, the zombies advanced. They clawed. They grasped. They tried to bite. One fastened its teeth on Ares’ tunic but couldn’t bite through the thick leather and the next moment Ares drove the point of his short sword into its eye socket.

  Thirty zombies were left and the Warriors showed no signs of tiring. If anything, Sundance swung faster and with more strength than ever. He struck a forehead with so much force, he drove the Grizzly clear through the zombie’s skull.

  Twenty were left, and the Warriors had scrapes and welts from being scratched and clawed. Helen was bleeding from a gash on her neck. They fought on, the fleshy thwick-thwick-thwick of whirling blades in counterpoint to the thud-thud-thud of the Grizzlies.

  Then there were only ten zombies —-eight—— five. The last of them teetered at Ares and he cleaved it from the crown of its head to its nose.

  In the sudden stillness, the Warriors stared at the heaps of walking dead and at one another. They were spattered with gore and bits of dead flesh.

  “God, I stink,” Helen said. She turned so she had one eye toward Sundance.

  “We’ll all need a bath,” Ares said. “But we’re alive.”

  “I never doubted I would be,” Sundance said. His Grizzlies were covered inches thick with goo and brains.

  “I had a few moments there when you forgot your training,” Ares said as he bent to wipe his short sword clean on a zombie’s shirt. “What was up with that?”

  “I guess it was the heat of combat,” Sundance said.

  “You guess?” Ares said. “Our training is supposed to prevent that. What’s one of the cardinal rules?”

  Sundance looked at him.

  “To always keep a level head,” Ares said. “And you didn’t.”

  “It won’t happen again.”

  “It damn well better not. I’ll let it slide this time. But if there’s another incident like today, I’m reporting you to Blade.”

  “No harm was done,” Sundance said. “We wiped them out, didn’t we?”

  “You’re missing the point,” Ares said. “It could have gone either way. All it would take was a mistake on your part.” He shook his head and gestured at Helen. “You talk to him.”

  Helen squatted and ran her machete over the pant leg of one of the undead and turned the blade over and did the same with the other side. Only then did she look at Sundance and say, “You’ve been acting strangely all day.”

  “If I have I didn’t notice,” Sundance said. “I’m just being me.”

  “It’s like your mind is somewhere else,” Ares said. “Did Bertha and you have a fight or something?”

  “What would that matter? I don’t let anything affect how I do my duty.”

  “Let’s hope not.” Ares straightened. “All right. Enough about how you’ve acted. Let’s get back to the zombies. Go through their pockets if they have any.”

  “What on earth for?” Sundance asked.

  “It’s SOP and you know it,” Ares said. “Blade likes to keep track of where the zombies are from. Sometimes we find papers that give us a clue which towns and cities might be inhabited.”

  “Oh, that,” Sundance said. He slid the gore-caked Grizzlies into their holsters and commenced turning zombies over and moving bodies.

  “You know,” Helen said to him, “I’m surprised you haven’t teased me today like you usually do.”

  “Tease you?” Sundance said while patting the pockets of a prone bundle of rotten flesh.

  “About my name,” Helen said. “You always razz me about naming myself after Helen of Troy.”

  Ares looked up sharply.

  Helen put a finger to her lips and shook her head.

  Still intent on the zombie, Sundance said, “I figured I’d go easy on you. But now that you bring it up, it’s a strange Naming for a Warrior.”

  Ares gave a start and straightened. He had sheathed his short sword but now he drew it.

  Helen sidled to one side and gripped her machete more firmly. “Nice try, but you’ve given yourself away.”

  Sundance finally glanced up, and stiffened. “How’s that again?”

  “We don’t always pick a new name,” Helen said. “Sometimes we keep the name we’re given at birth.”

  Sundance folded his hands in front of him and smiled. “Well, what do you know.”

  “My mother and father named me Helen when I was born, after my grandmother. Out of respect for them I never changed it.”

  “My compliments, my dear. You’re somewhat clever for an ape.”

  “Does this means what I think it means?” Ares said.

  Sundance snickered. “Asks the dullard of this Triad. Yes, self-styled God of War.” He gave a slight bow. “I’m about to feast on your intestines.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Blade pounded loudly on the cabin door and when his knock wasn’t answered right away, he impatiently pounded again. There was still no response. He violated a Family rule by opening the door anyway. “Bertha?” he hollered.

  The cabin was dark, the silence deafening.

  “Hellfire,” Hickok said anxiously. “She’s not here, pard.

  “Stay calm. I know she’s your friend.”

  “She’s your friend too.”

  “Where could she have got to?” Geronimo wondered.

  Blade turned to Bravo Triad, to the two hybrids in particular. “Sniff her out as fast as you can.”

  “We’re on it, bub,” Lynx said, and he and Ferret went inside. They weren’t in the cabin half a minute and they were back out again. Their heads low to the ground, they roved back and forth.

  “She went this way,” Ferret exclaimed, and dashed off to the north.

  “On me,” Blade said to Hickok and Geronimo, and broke into a run.

  Ferret came to trees near the northern stretch of the moat, and stopped and pointed.

  The grate in the aqueduct had been raised slightly so that a foot or so of water flowed, enough to meet the Family’s daily needs but not so deep that the creature could hide in it.

  Bertha was seated on the bank, her hands on her knees, her expression pensive.

  Blade didn’t bother with the amenities. Walking up to her, he said more gruffly than he intended, “On your feet.”

  Startled, Bertha looked up, and rose. “Hey there. You look as if you’re about to bite my head off. What did I do?”

  “I’m mad at myself, not at you,” Blade said. He took the liberty of placing his hand on her shoulder, “We need to talk about Sundance.”

  “Oh God.”

  “What?” Blade said.

  “I was just thinking about him.”

  “Was he hurt recently? Did he cut himself, maybe? Has he been to the Healers?”

  Bertha put a hand to her throat.

  “I need to know,” Blade said, and gave her a slight shake. “Snap out of it.”

  “No, he hasn’t been hurt,” Bertha said, and she swayed. “But he’s been acting peculiar. He’s not been himself.

  I mean, he looks like Sundance and he talks like Sundance. But there’s a lot of little things. I’ve been wondering—-.”

  She stopped. “Oh, Blade, no.”

  “You didn’t think to come to me? I gave orders that any Family member who behaved strangely was to be reported to me right away.”

  “I was thinking of coming to you just now,” Bertha said softly. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. “Please, not Sundance.”

  Blade began snapping orders. “Gremlin?”

  “Gremlin here, yes,” the genetically altered Warrior replied. “Yours to command.”

  “Go t
o my cabin . My wife is there. Tell her to get Hickok’s and Geronimo’s wives and go to Bertha’s cabin and stay with her until the rest of us get back.”

  “No,” Bertha said, and clutched his arm. “I’m going with you.”

  “No,” Blade said. “You’re not.” He stared at Gremlin. “Why are you still standing there?”

  Gremlin looked sheepish and raced off.

  Blade turned to the hybrids. “Lynx, Ferret. I sent Omega Triad to the next valley to the north after those zombies the Hunters reported.”

  “We know,” Lynx said.

  “Go after them. You’re faster than we are. You can get there sooner. We’ll be close behind you.”

  “On our way,” Lynx said, and went to run off.

  “I’m not done,” Blade said. “It might already be too late but you’re not to stop, not to rest. You run like you’ve never run before. Anything gets in your way, anything at all, you rip it apart and keep going. Understood?”

  “I love it when you’re manly,” Ferret said.

  Hickok grinned.

  “One last thing,” Blade said. “The Gualaon.”

  Lynx bared his teeth and clicked his claws. “We’ll rip him apart, too.”

  “Listen to me,” Blade said. “We’ve been in a lot of fights over the years, haven’t we?”

  “Have we ever,” Lynx said, and smiled.

  “This thing is worse than anything you’ve ever faced. Don’t give it a chance. Don’t hesitate. Take it down as fast as you can.”

  “Fast and furious,” Ferret said. “Got it.”

  “We know how to kill,” Lynx said.

  The pair streaked off in blurs of fur.

  Blade faced his friends. “Does each of you have plenty of ammo?”

  “Do you even need to ask, pard ?” Hickok returned. “For me to go outside without ammo would be like going out without my fingers and tootsies.”

  “Tootsies?” Geronimo said. “There’s a word I bet the real Hickok used a lot.”

  “Enough,” Blade said. “Let’s go.” He unslung his Commando and jogged toward the drawbridge.

  “I needed some exercise, anyway,” Hickok said.

  “This isn’t the time,” Blade chided. “Or hasn’t it sunk in yet that we’ve lost Sundance?”

  “You know better, pard.”

  “That’s not fair, Blade,” Geronimo came to Hickok’s defense. “He’d joke about his own death as he was dying, and you know it. It’s just how he is.”

  Blade knew he shouldn’t take his irritation at himself out on his friends. But Lynx had been right. He should have consulted with the hybrids about the blood. If he had, they might have cornered the shapeshifter by now and this would be over.

  “I’m powerful sorry about Sundance,” Hickok was saying. “He was a good pard, and I’ll grieve for him. Later. Right now I’m worried about the other two. Ares and Helen are out there with that critter. And you know what it’s going to do to them, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” Blade said, and ran faster.

  CHAPTER 21

  The creature that was Sundance drew itself up to Sundance’s full height and kept on growing. It smiled, and Sundance’s teeth became long and pointed and his tongue flicked out and licked lips thinner than his. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

  “Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you?” Helen said as she balanced on the balls of her feet.

  “We’re Warriors,” Ares said. “We don’t go down easy.”

  “Oh, please,” the thing said, and pointed a claw at its own chest, which still resembled Sundance’s. “None have ever been easier than he was.”

  “I bet you took him by surprise,” Helen remarked.

  “So he didn’t have any chance to defend himself,” Ares said.

  The creature looked at them in mild incredulity. “What age do you think you live in? The time of the Troy we were just talking about, when warriors challenged each other to open combat? I was there, and now is nothing like then. Now it is kill or be killed, however the killing needs to be done.”

  “Wait,” Helen said in amazement. “You were there, where?” “At Troy, of course.”

  “No way,” Ares said.

  “You have no conception of how many centuries I’ve lived ,” the creature said. “The Lords of Kismet wanted the city to fall and I and others of my kind were there to ensure the Greeks won.”

  “It’s just not possible,” Helen said.

  “Foolish primate ,” the creature sneered. “What do you know of the infinite possibilities of existence?” It looked down on them in contempt. “Haven’t either of you read Homer? Read how the ‘gods’ kept appearing to the Greeks to inspire them on, and then disappeared? And how Hector’s own brother seemingly materialized at his side and offered to stand with him against Achilles, only when Hector confronted Achilles, his bother had vanished.”

  “That was you?”

  “It was one of us.”

  Ares was so astounded he lowered his sword. “You knew the real Achilles? You saw him with your own eyes?”

  “I spoke to him as I am speaking to you now,” the creature said. “I saw him fight. I saw him kill. There has never been a human slayer such as he. He was superb.” The thing paused. “Which makes it ironic, and fitting, that the first of your Family’s Warriors I killed had taken his name. Believe me when I say that your Achilles was a pale shadow of his namesake.”

  “He was a good Warrior,” Helen said.

  “You knew the real Achilles,” Ares said, and shook his head in amazement.

  “Why are you so surprised?” the creature asked, and its arms grew longer and its legs extended and its clothes began to change before their eyes. “Hasn’t Blade told you? I am Razhliq Nher of the Gualaon. We were of this world before your kind were spawned. We will be of this world long after your kind have been exterminated.”

  “What have we done that you hate us so?” Helen asked.

  “Besides overrun the planet like a horde of locusts? Are you that stupid?” The shapeshifter gestured at the heaps of zombies . “Look around you. Look at what your kind has done to this world. You very nearly destroyed yourselves. You’ve wiped out countless species, polluted the environment, contaminated the earth for a thousand years to come. And you stand there and ask why do we despise you?”

  “It wasn’t us. It was the people who lived more than a hundred years ago,” Ares said.

  “And if you’re so high and mighty,” Helen said, “why didn’t your kind stop them?”

  “Because we were few and the humans were many,” the Gualaon said. “And because our masters, the Lords of Kismet, had forsworn contact with humankind. But the war changed that.”

  “How can you have lived so long and not be wiser than you are?” Helen asked.

  “Our breadth of knowledge is beyond your pitiful comprehension.” The creature’s features no longer resembled Sundance’s . It was reptilian, and hideous. It fixed its red eyes on her. “We are wiser than your kind will ever be.”

  “Then why can’t we live in peace?” Helen said. “Why can’t we work together to rebuild the world?”

  “Humans had their moment in the sun, as you would say , and they blotted it out with their bombs and their missiles. But in a way you’ve done my masters a favor. There are far fewer of you now. My Lords can rise and reclaim this world for their own.”

  “With your kind to do their dirty work,” Helen said.

  “Nothing you can say or do will turn me against them,” the Gualaon declared. “I’ve served the Lords of Kismet for millennia with pride and distinction. It’s why they sent me to your Home. They knew I wouldn’t fail.”

  Ares raised his short sword to chest height and crouched. “That’s what you think.”

  The creature’s transformation was nearly complete.

  “One last thing,” Helen said. “I take it these Lords of yours are out to destroy the Freedom Federati
on. Are you starting with the smallest factions and working your way to the larger ones?”

  “Human logic never ceases to amuse me,” the Gualaon said. “You don’t start at the bottom and work your way up . You start at the top and work your way down. The Free State of California and the Civilized Zone have already fallen. You were next because of the influence your Family wields. It was felt you might rally the other surviving groups and pose an inconvenient if trifling nuisance. So here I am.”

  “And here you die,” Ares said.

  The creature showed its teeth in a vicious grin. “How’s that wife of yours?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” The creature looked at Helen. “And you. How is your daughter doing? Is she well and happy?”

  “You bastard,” Helen said.

  Razhliq Nher laughed an alien laugh. “After I’m done with you two, I’ll seek each of them out and feast on their soft flesh.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Helen said to Ares. “He’s trying to rattle us.”

  “I know,” Ares said.

  “Silly primates,” the Gualaon said. “Whether you are rattled or not makes no difference. I don’t need a psychological edge.” The creature raised its hands and flexed its claws. “You’re both as good as dead.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Without warning, Ares sprang and slashed at the shapeshifter’s neck but the creature leaped aside.

  “You’ll have to do a lot better than that, monkey boy,” their adversary taunted.

  “How about this?” Helen said, and went at the thing with her machete flashing. She was considered fast by her fellow Warriors but none of her swings connected. The thing ducked. The thing dodged. In frustration she swung at its legs and at its head and cut empty air.

  With the creature focused on Helen, Ares darted around behind it. The moment its back was to him, he thrust his short sword. The double-edged blade sank in clear to the hilt.

  Snarling in rage the Gualaon stiffened and whipped around, striking the Warrior across the head.

  Ares went flying. He came down with bone-jarring force, swore, and scrambled erect.

  By now any vestige of humankind was gone from the creature’s appearance. The Gualaon had assumed its natural reptilian aspect.

  Helen glanced at Ares and said, “L and H.” In their training they learned to use hand signals and other cues. In this instance L and H was code for high and low. Since she said L first, it meant she was going low and he should go high.