Monsters of the Apocalypse (18 page)

"You're
late," Flores grunted from the corner as Miho entered.

"I had to
kill the President's uncle and his security guards," she shrugged.

Flores
didn't react to the statement, which somehow scared the soldier who was sitting
on the edge of the bed even more. The soldier had long ago given up on
the possibility of escaping his Indian captor, after his first attempt had
ended so painfully. It was only now though, that the soldier considered
that he might not live through the night. He felt the sweat begin to bead
up on his neck.

"Hello,
soldier, my name is Miho Walker. We talked before, over the communication
line in your mask during your mainland mission, remember? I know a great
deal about you, so you don't need to introduce yourself. I know your name
and your service record. I know what happened to you while you were on
the mainland. I even know what those cannibals did to you while you were
unconscious. I know about the burning sensation in your ass that started
a few days after your return. I know about the temperature you've been
running. And, I know that in a matter of days you will be the first
mutant to make his home here on The Island."

The soldier
groaned at the word "mutant".

"You
had no idea, soldier? No suspicions?"

"I
don't know. Maybe I did. How can you believe such a thing?
How can you wrap your head around the loss of your own humanity?"

"Good
point. I'd like to take a sample of your blood. You see, you've
been injected with a new hybrid of The Shot. This is one that Jacob
Rothschild forced Dr. Thomas to make for him. It works a little faster, a
little different. How different, we don't know. Thanks to you, we
will very soon."

She bent
over and took a blood sample from his arm with quick, gentle efficiency and
then handed the sample to Flores. Miho sat down on a chair across from
the soldier.

"Thank
you. I'm sure this has all been rather unpleasant. I'm sorry for
that. For all of this."

"Are
you going to kill me?"

"Kill
you? No. Of course not. In fact, I intend to help you if I
can. What if I was to tell you we had a cure for your disease?"

"That's
impossible. If we had a cure we would have given it to the mainlanders,
right?"

"We
gave the mainlanders The Shot so that they'd die. Why on earth would we
give them a cure? Our hope is that after this nasty little mutant phase
they seem to be in, they'll drop dead. If not, well, then they can just
eat each other for all we care. Sharp teeth and big claws aren't much of
a threat to our military. But, you're different. You we'd like to
see live, live a long and healthy life. One where perhaps you had some
children."

"I'm
sterile, ma'am. I'm here because I'm a soldier, not because I'm
potent."

"Not
ma'am, it's Ms. Walker. Perhaps you weren't potent when you came here,
but you also didn't to want to eat humans. It's a changing world.
We are hoping to have you around to see whatever new wonders evolution has in
store for us. Sound good?"

"Yes.
Of course, thank you."

"Excellent.
I'm afraid that, my help doesn't come without a string attached. You see
the cure we have, doesn't seem to work on a mutant unless he's feasted.
The first feasting on human flesh seems to… um… change the mutant's physiology
slightly. If he hasn't fed, I'm afraid, the cure just kills him. So
you see, we need you to eat some people."

"Some?
Just one, right? Or a dead person even? Didn't you just say you
killed someone? Why don't I eat them, it'll hide your crime and get me to
where I can…"

"No.
For one thing, you've begun your transition, but I see no fangs or claws.
If you are to feed now, I suspect, it would be premature. In fact, I
question whether or not you could actually stomach the flesh despite your
hunger. Don't worry though, in a few days I expect you to be complete and
when that time comes you'll leave this room, which we have put aside for you,
and you will go to the places on this list and eat these people."

She set the
list down on the desk behind her, straightened it in relation to the desk's
edge and then smiled at him.

"Okay?"

"You
want me to kill people for you, Ms. Walker?"

"Yes."

"And
then how will I find you, to get the cure?"

"Once
these men are digested - oh, keep the heads by the way - we'll return
here. We'll come with the cure. Not one second before they're
dead. Keep the heads."

"How
can I trust you?"

"Well,
my dear soldier, you don't have to. You just have to trust that once you
change you will be one mutant alone on an island filled with an army of
humans."

Jacob and
Arian watched the helicopter disappear into the night sky, the soldier on
board. Their eyes could see it longer than a human’s could. Their
sensitivity to light made the daytime harder, painfully bright, but at night it
was a great advantage and one that predators needed.

"Well,
now it's happened. That helicopter carries an infected soldier to The
Island. Once he changes there will be nowhere that our kind can't be
found," Arian said with disgust.

"Yes,
if they find him," Jacob laughed.

The two
mutants walked back into the woods.

“So what
now, Jacob?”

“Now we
wait.”

“For what?”

“For my army
to come to me.”

“Why would
that happen?”

“You heard
the soldier. Rumors spread. Once mutants hear they have a king
they’ll want to see him. They’ll wonder what makes this mutant a
king. They'll want to see me.”

“What is it
that makes you think you're the one who gets to be king?”

“The same
thing that makes all kings, Arian. I'll say I am and will kill anyone
that says differently.”

Arian nodded and watched Jacob
move ahead. He turned back and glanced at the helicopter as it turned
into a tiny dot of light and then disappeared. He turned back and saw
that Jacob had stopped and was leaning against a tree, waiting for him.

"Doubt is nothing but fear,
Arian. Fear not. What's wrong?"

"When we were a Shadow Army
we were using conventional weapons to fight bad people. That's not the
case anymore."

"It certainly isn't.
What is it that's troubling you?"

"The fact that none of this:
the wasteland that we live in, the fact that we're cannibals… none of it fazes
you and it should! Don't you see that this isn't a big joke, Jacob?
We're mutants! Man-eating mutants walking through a radioactive nuclear
wasteland! That's ridiculous! We're infecting humans to make them
eat humans! There's a big island where what's left of humanity is sitting
around waiting for us to die and Nestor Bravo has become a TV star and no one
seems to be the slightest bit confused or have any trouble adapting to
this! Well I do. This isn't something you take in stride and it's
certainly not funny, Jacob! Quit laughing, this is serious!"

Jacob watched Arian who, now that
his speech was over, stood panting and near tears. Jacob walked over and
squeezed the mutant's shoulder. He waited while Arian regained his
composure.

"Do you feel better, my
friend? It's good to let it out. Some of us laugh, some of us
scream, some of us die. No one way is right. None is wrong.
But laughing is more fun, you should try it. Jacob Rothschild, Mutant
King of the Wasteland of Mankind! That's funny, Arian. Think about
it. Now, come on, my friend, this next part is going to be a riot."
Jacob turned and walked away as his laughter rang through the night.

Bragg came over and sat beside
Nestor on the bed.

“Nestor, I’m going to get very
close to your left ear and then your right. I’m going to whisper in your
ears. It’s important that you let me do this.”

“Okay.”

Bragg moved
close and whispered in Nestor’s left ear.

“Testing.
Testing. Left ear.”

Bragg
switched to the other ear.

“Testing.
Testing. Right ear. Okay. It’ll be a minute.”

Bragg went
back to the corner and sat in the chair.

“What is...”

Bragg shook
his head. Nestor shrugged. There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,”
Bragg said.

“Left ear is
clean,” the young blonde man said.

“Thank
you. You may go. Okay then, Nestor, now we can talk.”

“What’s
going on, Bragg? How are they finding me? How did you find me?”

“The camera
inside you, it’s transmitting. It has been since the President’s speech.”

“Okay, but
that’s encrypted. The feeds have always been protected.”

“It was
encrypted. It was hacked. A hacker named Nevers hacked it.
Now you are being broadcast for anyone who knows a way to pick up the feed on a
computer or tablet or phone... they can listen to it, watch it. Those who
don’t, find those who do. That’s how they keep finding you. That’s
how I found you. They say that the King of the Mutants wants the camera
in your head. He wants it, so that he can talk to his people. So,
he can rule completely.”

“Why’d you
save me?”

“You’re a
man. A soldier. You don’t deserve to die on some table as a
sacrifice offered to the mutants.”

“You killed
the men who captured me by yourself?”

“I
did. Him and his little gang of inbred morons. He mentioned the
location, I wasn't too far away. It's a good thing because mutants who'd
been watching had just arrived when I did. I killed them too.”

“You were a
soldier?”

“I still
am.”

“You didn’t
get The Shot?”

“Nope.
I was instructed not to. Now I've been instructed to start a resistance.”

"You
keep saying that, but… what does it mean? What resistance?”

“It’s small,
just started, but it’s real. This is one of our safe houses."

"You
fight the mutants?"

"No.
Not if I don't have to. They don’t scare me, not yet, but they
will. They’re organizing. An army. A king. Or so they
say. We’re their food, in any case.”

“I have to
get to The Island. I have to kill the President.”

“Look at
what’s become of the world, Nestor, does that matter anymore?”

“It’s the
principle of the thing. You have cars in your resistance?”

“You can’t
have a car, Nestor. You would make it a few hundred miles then you’d run
out of gas. A waste of a precious vehicle. I can’t tell you where
the stations are for refueling, because you’ll give away the location and there
are many groups looking for us. They’ll find us. Like your friend
with the beard. He said the name of the town you were in and the next day
he was dead. The resistance is not so strong that the same couldn’t
happen to it.”

“My ears?”

“A suspicion
I had. The sound is a little off in your broadcast. When you lost
your ear during the assassination attempt, it destroyed the mic. The
other ear’s is fine. When I whisper in the bad one, it’s not broadcast,
but if you repeat what I say, or answer in a way that is telling, if I talk
normal, the other mic can pick it up because, well, your head's not that big,
is it? They’ll hear me. You understand?”

“Yes.”

Bragg leaned
into Nestor’s left ear.

“L.A. is
where our resistance makes its home. There’s little to no radiation
there. They didn’t want it blowing toward The Island. When they
gave out The Shot, they started on the East Coast; they hadn’t finished giving
out The Shot in California when you sped everything up with your attack.
Populations have always been less dense and more defiant towards the government
on the west which makes for more survivors, more potential fighters. If
you make it there, by the time you make it there, we can offer you shelter,
maybe even help. We have no intention of attacking The Island, we even
hope that they may intervene so that we aren’t butchered on their doorstep, but
maybe we can still help you. Our route goes east to west, from the middle
up to the north of the country. If you go east to west from just below
the middle to the south, you won’t put us at risk. You go much above the
middle, you’ll kill us or we’ll kill you. Remember: what you say, they
hear. What you see, they see.”

Bragg leaned
back and looked at Nestor.

“If you put
a bag over my head and drive me, I could help you. In a few days we’ll be
out of reach of the mutant army if there even is one.”

“I will do
that if you want, Nestor. Regardless of the repercussions, I will help
you in any way that I can.”

“What do you
mean? What repercussions?”

“I don’t fear
the mutants yet, like I said. They hunt us because we’re food, but they
can eat the dead if we’re not there. They won’t starve. They’ll
only go so far for us. We pose no real risk to mutants. We go to
towns, we educate the inoculated about what they’ll become, and then we send
them east, to their own kind and move the un-inoculated to our safe
houses. We don’t kill them unless they try to feed on us. But the
Islanders, they hunt us as well. They feel we’re supposed to be dead.
They made plans. They use their drones to search for us, but there’s a
whole lot of country. So you see, if you saw a sign on accident, said the
name of the town where a gas station was by mistake or looked at a tree that
some Islander recognizes from his home town, drones will arrive from The Island
and bombs will rain down from the sky in an hour.”

“I’m a death
warrant to whoever I’m with.”

“I will
drive you, regardless of that, Nestor. No man should have to risk his
life for the good of others.”

Nestor
stared unblinking at Bragg, who simply smiled and said, “What do you want?”