Ex-Patriots (31 page)

“I didn’t do anything but run some
tests.”

“You said they could let me go. That’s enough
for me. I’m tryin’ to do you a favor.”

“It wouldn’t be that simple,” I said. “If he
thinks it works, Colonel Shelly will expect me to have dozens of
exes outfitted with the Nest. Maybe hundreds. You can’t—”

The ex’s grin faded. “Don’t you tell me what
I can’t do. If I wanted, every dead thing for three miles would
pick up a rock and beat their own skulls in. Or anyone else’s.” He
glared at me with his dusty, scratched eyes.

“I don’t want any—”

“I can find them for you.”

He spoke with such certainty it made me
shake. “What?”

“The soldiers at the fence,” said the ex,
“they’re talking about you and your kid. You think your girl and
your old lady got away, right? That’s what they’re saying.”

“Colonel Shelly is—”

“He’s fucking stringing you along’s what he’s
doing. You really think he’s going to send his people out to look
for corpses?”

“They’re not dead!”

“Sure they’re not, doc,” he said with a
smile. “And I’ll help find them. I got a thousand eyes here in the
desert. If I see them, I’ll let you know where they are.”

“You... you’d do that?”

“Hey, doc,
familia
is everything, you
know?”

I knew it was wrong and I didn’t care. I
could tell he was as mad as me in his own way—in a dangerous
way—and I didn’t care. I just wanted to know Eva and Madelyn were
safe and be done with the Nest project so they would all leave me
alone and I wouldn’t have to think.

I looked the dead man in the eyes. “What do
you want?”

“Just tell them the thing works. Tell ‘em I’m
still kinda slow, so they won’t expect much. Then I’ll be free to
move around.”

“That’s all?”

“We may need to iron out some details later,”
he said, “but that’s all for now. Deal?”

His right hand bent up under the strap, ready
to shake on it. A gentlemen’s agreement.

I reached down and unfastened the strap.

NOW

“So,” growled the ex, “we meet again and all that
shit, eh, dragon man? Bet you weren’t expecting this.”

St. George pushed Sorensen behind him. “How
the hell did you survive?” he asked the dead man. “Cerberus killed
you. We burned your body with a few hundred other corpses.”

“And I got better.” The ex laughed. It was a
dry sound. “I’m Peasy,
esse
. Patient zero. D’you think I’d
go down that easy?”

“You’re not patient zero,” said St. George.
“You’re patient zero’s first victim, a street punk and a murderer
who lucked out and got superpowers.”

“It wasn’t luck,” said Sorensen. He cleaned
his glasses in a half-hearted way. “He was one of the Krypton
subjects before I took control of the project a few years ago. I
thought we’d flushed all the synthetic hormones and steroids from
his system, but when he was exposed to the ex-virus they reacted in
unforeseen ways.”

St. George glanced over his shoulder at the
older man. “You did this to him?”

The doctor shrugged. “I didn’t stop it from
happening to him, if you care to make the distinction.”

“Don’t matter to me,” said the ex. The dead
man’s eyes blinked as they tried to focus. “What the hell happened
to your head, dragon man? You look like a sick altar boy or
something.”

“So how did you survive? Where are you
hiding?”

The dead thing grinned. “That’s the cool
thing. I’m everywhere and nowhere. I been like this since that
bitch tore my head off. Hell, if I’d known that redhead was you,
I’d’ve ripped
your
head off yesterday.”

“What?”

Peasy grinned. “Got her,” he said. “And
believe me, I been thinking for months now about—”

* * *

“—
all the things I’m going to
do to you. I don’t even know where to start.”

Danielle batted at the desiccated arm.
“Fucking murderer,” she snarled. “I’d do it again. Give me half a
chance and I’ll tear you to pieces.”

The dead soldier leered down at her through
dusty eyes. On some level she knew how vulnerable she was. All
flesh in a room full of exes. He could do anything to her. Anything
at all.

But all she could think of was Gorgon. About
his twisted body as a monstrous giant dropped it like a used
napkin. About finding it half-eaten the next morning and crushing
the oversized skull of the thing that killed him.

She reached up and smacked the dead man
across the jaw. It laughed at her and bent her back further over
the table. She swung again and it grabbed her wrist.

“Know what I’m going to do,
puta
?” It
shook her arm. “I’m gonna let them eat your hands.”

A few of the exes in the circle trembled.
They lowered their guns and their teeth clicked a few times. They
turned to look at her.

“Gonna let them bite your fingers off one at
a time. You ever see a zombie when they get someone fresh? If
you’re bleeding they’ll sit there and suck on it. It’s liquid meat
to them.”

All the teeth chattered. Two dozen exes. None
of them moved, but they all stared at her.

“And if you start to get weak,” said Peasy,
“we’ll just burn you. Stop the bleeding that way. Then maybe I’ll
let them eat your toes. You like that, bitch? Bet you’re one of
those toe-sucker freaks.”

She twisted her arm free and screamed at him.
Her hands flailed back on the table looking for a screwdriver or a
prybar. There was nothing. She tried to keep things clean and
tidy.

“And when I’m bored with watching you cry,”
he said, “I’ll just divide and conquer. Pull off your legs, your
arms, and—”

* * *

“—
then her head. Maybe I’ll
save her skull, put it up on a mantle or some shit.”

“You’re with Danielle now,” said St.
George.

“Oh yeah. These idiots put me on guard duty
around her armor. You guys pissed off the Army something
harsh.”

“If you hurt her,” said the hero, “I’ll crush
your skull.”

It grinned at him. “I got a hundred thousand
skulls, hero. And a billion more waiting for me to move in.”

“There’s nowhere you’ll be safe.”

“Well, good for me I’ve been nowhere for
months now,” cackled the ex. “I’m the new zombie virus, dragon man.
Now, you got any last words before... BITCH!”

* * *

“You got any last words before—”

Her fingers closed on the laptop and she
swung it over her head. The cables caught, just for a second, but
then the USB connectors popped free and she brought the metal and
plastic case down on the dead man’s skull. The corner gouged open
the flesh from the middle of his forehead across his brow ridge and
forced his eye shut.

“BITCH!”

She didn’t wait to see how much damage she’d
done. She let the computer drop, dove under his arms, and skittered
away across the floor.

He growled and all the teeth in the room
stopped chattering. The exes turned as one and tracked her movement
across the floor. Their arms raised in perfect sync and pointed at
her. Peasy turned and snarled. His face was covered with dark,
clumpy blood. He took a step, and the exes stepped forward with
him.

Danielle had the M16.

She rolled over and fired. He wasn’t even six
feet away, bending down to grab her. The first two rounds caught
him in the chest. The third in the Adam’s apple. The last one
punched through his nose and out the back of his skull. His face
sagged and the ex collapsed in a pile.

“Don’t work like that anymore,” said another
one of the exes. This one was a woman. Its hair was shaved short
and there was a ragged bite mark on its left forearm. It sneered at
her from the circle of dead soldiers. “Don’t you get it, big girl?
I’m the big one now. Way too big for you to kill.”

She fired again. The first shot was wild, and
she forced herself to take a breath and aim down the rifle’s simple
sights. The second round punched the talking ex in the shoulder.
The third blew out its left eye and part of its cheek. It dropped
to the ground.

“I’m not just one guy anymore,” said another
ex. A thin black man with a skull tattoo on his bare arms. “I’m all
the zombies in the world.”

She fired again and a black crease pulled
open along the side of the ex’s skull, just above the Nest. There
was a clang, she adjusted, and realized the rifle hadn’t chambered
a new round. It was empty.

“Eight shots,” he said. “They don’t trust the
exes with more’n that.”

Danielle grabbed the hot barrel like a
baseball bat and leaped up at the ex. She swung, connected, and got
a grand slam. The ex fell to the ground, its skull caved in.

“You know what, though?” said another ex.
“‘Peasy’ don’t do it for me anymore. I need something—”

* * *

“—
bigger. A good name for
death incarnate.”

“You talking to me now?” asked St.
George.

“A little out of practice,” said the dead man
on the stretcher. “But it’s like riding a bike, y’know?”

“Good to know you’re still having trouble
focusing,” said St. George. “It’s always nice when you can beat the
bad guy the same way twice in a row.”

“You a church man, Dragon? My mama was, bless
her soul. Made me go to church, do confession, all that. Didn’t see
the point, but I did it to make her happy.”

“Yeah, you’re a model citizen.”

“You remember the story of Jesus and the
pigs? That’s how I always remembered it. There’s a guy who’s all
possessed and shit, and Jesus took the demons out and they filled
up a whole herd of pigs. Hundreds of them. Remember that one?”

“Yeah,” said St. George. “The story of
Legion.”

“Legion.” The ex smiled and its legs twitched
beneath the gurney’s straps. Left, right, left. It took the hero a
moment before he realized the exes were—

* * *

—walking towards her. They marched in lock
step like soldiers. Like Nazis in old newsreels, with their rifles
across their bodies.

Danielle ran towards the door. She couldn’t
remember if it locked on this side or not. If it didn’t open they
were going to reach her before she could remember the code.

She reached for the handle and the door
opened. Sunlight poured in for an instant. A figure blocked the
sun, a dark shadow her eyes couldn’t make out.

“On your knees,” shouted the figure. “On your
knees, put your hands on your head.”

Another soldier moved in behind the first,
and a third.

“Shoot them,” Danielle shouted. “He’s
controlling all of them. You’ve got to—”

They slammed her to her knees and yanked her
hands up. Way too strong for her to resist. She glanced back in a
panic.

The exes stood like statues. Their weapons
were up, just as they were when she’d entered. They were back in a
circle. Back on guard duty as if nothing had happened. A few gaps
stood out in the formation where she’d put down the talkers.

The light from the door vanished as Freedom
stepped into the workshop. “Sweep the place,” he said. “Top to
bottom. Make sure he isn’t here, too.”

Two of the soldiers moved off into the
workshop, looking up into the rafters and under the tables. They
passed the circle and the zombies took a clumsy step forward. One
of the soldiers raised a fist and pointed.

“Stand down, soldiers,” barked Freedom.

The exes lowered their weapons to their
sides. Some dropped their rifles altogether. They swayed for a
moment and grew still again.

“Listen to me,” said Danielle. “The exes are
being controlled by someone else. The superhuman we told you about,
Peasy, he’s—”

“Doctor Morris, I’m taking you into custody
for possible involvement in the assault on Colonel Russell Shelly,”
said Freedom. “The MPs will be here shortly to place you under
arrest and read your rights as they stand under the military code
of conduct.”

“Shelly was attacked?” said Danielle. “How?
Is he okay?”

“Colonel
Shelly was beaten by your
associate, Stealth, almost two hours ago in an attempt to force the
release of you and the Cerberus battlesuit.”

She shook her head. “No way.”

“We have a witness who found her standing
over him.”

One of the super-soldiers walked over and
examined the bodies on the floor. “Damn it,” said Kennedy. “She
took out three of them. Sorensen’s going to be pissed.”

“Screw him,” said Truman. “I just don’t want
to go catch more for him.”

“Look, that’s not the real problem,” said the
redhead. “I’m telling you, those things are not under your
control.”

“Building is clear, sir,” called one of the
soldiers. He walked back across the workshop and cut through the
circle of exes. He gave one a casual whap on the back of the head,
and it swayed back and forth for a moment.

“Does it look like she was able to sabotage
the suit?”

Truman picked the laptop up off the floor and
studied it. “Nothing visible, sir. Looks clean. Probably want to
check the software before they test it, though.”

“I know how this works,” Danielle said.
“You’ve got to have some sort of protocol in case the Nests fail.
Just put it into effect so you’ll be ready.”

“The ex-soldiers have been operational
without a single failure for six months now,” said Kennedy. “What
makes you think they’re all going to stop working now?”

“I didn’t say they’re going to stop working,”
snapped Danielle. “I’m trying to tell you they’ve never worked.
They’re not working now. There’s been someone else controlling them
all this time.”

“That’s your answer to all this?” said
Freedom. “There’s been a supervillain here at Krypton all this time
and no one’s noticed?”