The Great War (Surviving the Zombie Nightmare Book 5) (10 page)

There have always been limits to most things in the human life as well as human emotions and the human mind. That was one of the main reasons that Dr. Genesis Cain was so passionate about the goals of Organic Ascendancy. Humanity did not deserve to be reduced to leverage for angels and gods. They should be more than that, better than that and somehow they would be. She would make certain of it no matter what she had to do. Such thoughts were the only thing that eased her troubled mind when she considered what she had just done.

Killing a human being in the name of the ascendancy of the entire human race was no big deal. Dr. Cain had done so more times than she could count and ordered it done monumentally more times than that. The actual act of training a weapon on a person and blowing their brains out from point blank range was not something that would even make her blink. The fact that she had killed her long time friend in cold blood was causing plenty of blinking however. Abel Nichols was a good man. Sadly, the fact of the matter was that he was obsolete. O.A. had changed, had chosen sides. She had made a deal almost literally with the devil himself. That meant that the information Nichols could get from the heavenly realm by whatever means necessary just was not needed anymore.

Still, Cain cared too much for the man to just wash him out to pasture somewhere. Nichols deserved to have a part to play in the end game with the only real foe that humanity had left; the combo of Eric Bayne and Destiny. It pained her to have to treat Destiny like a true enemy in some way but she cared nowhere nearly as much for the legendary O.A. warrior as she had for Nichols. Bayne was different. Every war seemed to have a defining battle led by a legendary general. Bayne was the warrior who would go down in history for fighting longer and stronger than anyone in the history of the human race but sadly doing so for the wrong side.

After all, she who won the war would get to rewrite the history books and Dr. Cain had no other option but to win. She planned for everything and always had. With the help of Terry she had even planned for the eventually zombie virus outbreak itself. One thing she refused to have in any plan however is what to do if she lost. She would not lose, she could not lose. Not now, not when she was so close. Who would have imagined how far humanity would have to go in order to achieve godhood?

It was clear enough that the angelic hosts had never been okay with humanity becoming more than human. It was in history books of all kinds as well as proven historic documents from thousands of years ago. She and O.A. had attempted for years to get to the next level of awareness alone but eventually it became clear that they needed help of someone higher. By default, that group had to be demons. It was a twist on the old adage that if you cannot beat them, you should join them.

O.A. could have beaten anyone, she truly believed that. All she was doing now was creating a situation where she was joining them so she would be close enough to drive a stake through their collective hearts when she was finished using them. Dr. Cain was nobody's fool. She knew well that the demons were likely planning to do the exact same thing to them. She had something to drive her will to win that they did not have now, nor had they ever had, nor would they ever have; the human spirit. In the end she viewed herself as a type of sacrificial romantic who would be praised for being the human that brought humankind to the level of a deity.

A knock sounded at her door. Dr. Cain slowly walked towards the door to her well decorated quarters, grabbing drink of the most expensive and precious liquid on the planet on her way. She kept the glass in hand as she prepared to open the door.

Most people in the position of being president of a controversial organization like Organic Ascendancy would never open their door for just anyone. Certainly they would have a guard to open doors for them and insure that nothing was amiss with whomever the visitor was. Dr. Cain was no idiot but neither did she like guards intruding on her personal space. That was all set up several corridors away. There were only a select few people that would be able to be allowed to get all the way to her door.

When she finally opened it she was a little bit surprised to see Dr. Isaiah Neal standing there. She made an odd gesture with her free palm upwards, “Dr. Isaiah; to what do I owe the honor of your presence? Also, why are you taking a break from your eternally important work?”

Dr. Isaiah looked passed her and into her quarters as if wondering why he had not been invited in. Without saying so he seemed a bit irritated that she would insult him by leaving him outside of her door, as if the mere honor of standing there wasn't enough for him. None of that came out when he finally spoke, “Dr. Cain, forgive my taking a few minutes off but I need to discuss something with you. May I come in? This is a matter of an extremely gentle nature.”

Making like she hadn't even thought of inviting him inside, Dr. Cain moved to one side and waved her hand out towards the room, “Well of course doctor. Come right in and tell me what is on your ever-impressive mind.”

Isaiah didn't say anything immediately. Instead he walked slowly inside the room and looked around for almost a solid minute. His eyes wandered over to the large series of windows on the exterior wall that overlooked the wooded area surrounding O.A. grounds. Quickly he glanced towards a kitchen area that included a water cooler. It was as if he were looking at pure heaven. When he finally turned around to speak to her he asked, “Can I have a glass of cold water? I have had bottled stuff for the entirety of my time here but I have never had it from one of these cooler-type machines. Can I have one glass or at least a half glass?”

Dr. Cain looked at him curiously at first but she softened her expression. The things this magnificent doctor had done for her and the rest of humanity were literally miraculous. He was currently working on bringing one of his better friends back from the dead after he watched her shoot him in the forehead at point-blank range. The least she could do is give him a glass of cold water. She walked over to the small kitchen, opened the cabinet and pulled a glass out. She filled the glass to within one inch of the top and walked over to Dr. Isaiah.

“Here you go,” she said with a kind expression, “I can tell something besides general thirst is on your mind Isaiah. What is the trouble? Are you unable to reanimate Abel?”

Dr. Isaiah's face took on an immediate pained expression before he lifted the glass of cold water and took a sizable drink. His expression was pleasant when he finished and he smiled, “That tastes amazing. If I knew how badly I would miss cold water years ago, I would have stored up a million gallons of it.”

“Well,” she smiled, “We have many more gallons than that at our disposal. We are not the richest organization in the present world for nothing after all. Simply request that some bottles get cooled before they are shipped to your quarters. Now, please, my time is short for this impromptu meeting. What is the trouble Dr. Isaiah?”

As if he had just remembered why he was in the room in the first place, Isaiah shook his head quickly, “Oh, right, of course. Forgive me Dr. Cain. No, I am not here because of Abel. To be sure the process of reanimating an actual human being is not going to be easy but I am equal to the task as long as I have the steadfast assistance of your beloved demonic partner. My problem lies elsewhere.”

Dr. Cain's smile was having a hard time sticking on her face. She thought a lot of Isaiah but really would rather him get directly to his point instead of meandering around it for minutes upon minutes. “Please,” she kindly said, “Explain.”

“The problem is Destiny,” Isaiah said bluntly. “She could present quite the problem for us if she were to ever become known to be alive.”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Cain asked, suddenly very interested, “It's not like you to think so much about a female.”

“It is not like that doctor,” Isaiah replied with a sideways glance. “I walked passed Mandy and Admiral Bullosky. As I did, I took notice of how much I did not like her. She might be important for all viable reasons but she is not likable after turning her back on someone she called a friend; even though we call Bayne an enemy. It may well be that I do not trust that she won't turn against us when it suits her like she did with Bayne.”

Dr. Cain was confused, “I understand that and I have planned for that but what does it have to do with Destiny?”

“The soldiers, our soldiers,” Dr. Isaiah said, “I'm sure think the same thing when they see Mandy. But they do not think that about Destiny.” Cain was curious at his point but didn't want to interrupt his line of thought. He looked out the side window and then back at her, “You told me that Destiny was alive. If she happens to find her way back here, we are going to have a few soldiers that are likely to refuse to attack her or worse.”

Dr. Cain thought hard about what he was saying and it made a lot of sense. It was strange to hear such a great forewarning from her doctor instead of her planning specialist but that didn't mean he was wrong. Actually Dr. Cain very clearly saw just how right he was. Of course there could be some tendency from the soldiers Destiny worked so closely with to take her side in some conflict. She was attractive and the best fighter most of them would ever see in their entire careers. Dr. Isaiah had happened upon something that might matter a great deal. They would have to have some manner of propaganda that would make the soldiers hate Destiny terribly; as much or worse than they hated Eric Bayne. But how could they do that without letting them all know that she was in fact still alive. It would not be easy to say the least.

She looked at her masterful doctor and smiled, “That is a very significant problem that we will have to deal with Dr. Isaiah. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. We will be certain to formulate a solution as soon as the next meeting takes place.” Dr. Cain touched his shoulder to guide him away from the center of the room and towards the door but he turned to face her as if he were not finished. She said, “Is there something else?”

“Yes, actually,” Dr. Isaiah said with a calm assurance, “I already have a plan forming in my mind about that Dr. Cain and if I were able to bring it to fruition it would be sure to guarantee that most every soldier would follow attack orders without hesitation. It would be a pity to have to finalize such a plan however. I actually quite like Destiny and though I understand why we all parted ways, I don't think I will ever find her anything other than pleasant.”

“Would that be true if she held a blade to your throat Dr. Isaiah?”

The doctor considered it for a moment and then turned back to her, “Considering what I am doing right now Dr. Cain, I think I deserve to have a blade to my throat in the very near future. No one who plays with life and death as I do should be allowed to escape the clutches of death for very long. I'm certain I will replace my good friend Abel in death soon enough and when I do,” he smiled, “There will be no one here to bring me back. Thank you Dr. Cain. I will see myself out. Thank you for the water.”

Dr. Cain could hardly believe that even someone as odd as Dr. Isaiah would talk so casually about his own death. She was so taken aback by the way he said such things and with a smile no less, that she very nearly forgot a key point. “Dr. Isaiah! Wait!” When he turned back around with questioning eyes she finished, “You didn't tell me about the plan concerning Destiny.”

He smiled again which now took on a completely uncertain meaning and said, “No, Dr. Cain, I did not.” His smile was still on his face when he shut the door behind him and left her alone in her quarters.

Fighting zombies had never really been what Destiny considered fun but then she had never actually fought this many before. It was completely different in this incredible volume and really, it surprised her. She hated fighting this many regular zombies way more than a few zombie-demon crossbreeds or even a demon or two. She sliced the head off of three more zombies that very nearly got to her and breathlessly said, “This sucks!”

The still bound, but no longer gagged O.A. Soldier said, “Mother fucker!”

Beside her she could see Eric using his left hand to push dozens of zombies away at a time and slicing easily through anything that came close with a sword that he was controlling telepathically only. Another glance down at the soldier told her that he was looking at Eric as well which was undoubtedly why he was so amazed.

Swiftly she spun her head back towards a threatening bunch that had gotten close to her again. She extended her left hand out and shoved the entire crowd back several yards. Then she heard a panicked cry behind her. Looking around she saw two zombies clawing at the soldier. Destiny swiped her sword through the neck of one, spun around to put herself between him and the second attacker and ended its life soon after.

“Thank you!” he said with a surprised expression.

“Don't make me regret removing the gag,” she said with a wink. The truth of the matter was that it came much more naturally to her to protect a fellow O.A. soldier than it did to fight side by side with Eric. Even though they had been through quite a bit since she was forced to fight with him or die, it was still a little odd to help the man she had called an enemy for so long. But then again, it was a shocking time where all kinds of enemies were turning into comrades. Even human supremacy groups joining up with zombies and demons who classically had troubles with humans was normal right now. When she thought of it that way she was perfectly happy with the position she was in.

“Destiny!” Eric yelled, now off to her left. “That's the perfect position for you to be in! Stay right there girlie and I'll reward you with making sure we get out of this alive.”

Destiny sliced through a few more zombies. It wasn't difficult to kill these guys but there were so damn many of them that her telepathic powers were fading. She did understand what Eric was saying however. He had a left hand so to have her fighting just off to his right made a lot of sense. As she nodded and said, “And here I thought you would reward me with a kiss!” she saw him switch his sword to his left hand from the air. That way she figured he could sword fight without using constant telepathy. She knew if he conserved that he would have plenty of power left for a long time. “How long do you think until we start cutting through them? It seems like we'll never get on top of their numbers!”

“We won't!” Eric said with a scowl, “We wouldn't if you and prisoner boy there stuck around. You need to leave!”

Destiny was so shocked that she dropped her guard and almost allowed a zombie in too close. She looked at him briefly before resuming her defensive fighting, “You want me to leave you here?”

“Fucking better not!” Eric said as he continued to successfully take out an all-out assault on the zombies. “I want you and pretty boy there to warm up the gun in the truck. I'll make a wide path through them, join you in the truck and then we use the big ass gun to clean up the mess!”

It was brilliant of course. She scowled as she helped the soldier stand up, “Why didn't you say that thirty minutes ago?”

Eric yelled, “Because I just thought of it. That's why I wanted you on that side. It makes your path to the truck and the door a tad easier. Get going! Honk or something when you get there so I'll know when to blow a path open for myself!”

Destiny shook her head and shoved the soldier forward towards the truck. Before she took two steps she heard the prisoner squealing. Looking around she saw a dozen zombies between the two of them and the truck. Not for the first time she wondered if it wouldn't have been a decent idea to unbind at least one arm and let the soldier fire a gun at least. She figured she would be able to defend herself if the fool was fool enough to attack her. It didn't matter right then however because she didn't have time to do anything but leap in front of the soldier and start fighting off zombies.

She knew well that her telepathic abilities were weakened for the moment and that she would have to get another huge hit of stims once they were safely in the truck so it was all about her sword and her so-called god-given talents. By the time she got squared to the zombies, they were coming at her in a half circle. She was confident in her overall ability to get through them to the truck but then how would she get the truck out the door when there were at least a dozen more between the truck and the door? Clearly this was not going to be the easy task that Eric apparently thought it would be. “Eric!” she said as she kicked the zombie directly in front of her in the chin, “This is going to take some time! Might want to think of a plan B if time is important!”

Other than hearing a clear expletive, she couldn't concentrate on what all Eric was doing. The zombie she kicked in the chin had fallen backwards onto two others. She swiftly sliced through the neck of two on her right while stretching her leg out to kick one on her left in the chin as well. Thanks to the fallen zombies there was a lot of stumbling going on. That was the good thing about the mindless variety at least; they were as dumb as a hammer most of the time.

One found its way over the pile and to her and she stabbed it right in the heart. Destiny felt her sword hang up in the thing's rib cage so instead of abandoning the idea of using her sword until she could jerk it out of the zombie, she used a two-hand grip and heaved the zombie across in front of her. His body slammed into three that had gone around the pile. Those three fell to the far right as three more were coming directly towards her. The body of the zombie stuck on her sword had turned and was starting to slide but she still had time to use him.

Dragging him around in front of her she used the sideways sliding body to block the next three zombies from getting to her. Besides delaying their attack, it also served to get the three of them all in a nice row. Finally when they succeeded in pulling the body of the stabbed zombie off of her sword, they still were somewhat stuck for a moment too long. She used her suddenly free sword to slice through all three of th
eir necks then stepped forward and in a downward slice to remove the head of the one who had previously been stuck on her sword. Whatever Eric was doing, she hoped he was at least holding the zombies off while she tried to get to the damn truck.

**

Eric heard the warning from Destiny and knew that he had either to stall the legions of zombies for a while longer, which meant finding a much different way of fighting them, or give up and go to a different plan. There were two problems with that. He really liked his first plan and he had no plan B. That left only the fact that he was going to have to come up with another way of keeping back the masses. Sure he was as strong telepathically as anyone ever but even he would eventually wear down under the stress of fighting this many of the zombie bastards.

He stuck with wielding his sword in his left hand and using wide ranging telepathic shoves to keep them away. There were enough dying at his hand that he could literally begin to stand on top of the bodies but there were so many more yet to come at him. Between sword strikes and shoves he began to search for something, anything that could assist him. After a long swipe towards his right, he turned slightly and finally saw exactly what he needed. Literally, saws were what he needed. Along the far wall there were several huge saw-blades hanging by simple hooks. They were at least twenty-four inches in diameter and sharp enough to cut a tree trunk into slices. He smiled widely as he began to gather his strength. This was going to be fun after all.

When he finally knew he had enough strength built up to do what he needed to do telepathically, it couldn't have come at a more perfect moment. Fighting hand to hand was something he had always been good at. He was still good but not nearly as comfortable after losing his right hand. It wasn't as if he'd had time to put into sparring or anything like that. All of his focus had been on gathering and gaining telepathic strength. At this moment he could not be more glad that he did that.

As the zombies began to close in on him from all sides, he actually could hear the commotion where Destiny was getting worse. She was in some bit of trouble as well. Who could have thought that an ass-load of regular old zombies would be such a headache? It wouldn't matter soon as long as he did this correctly. If he did not do it right then he could also kill himself and Destiny but there was no time to second guess.

First he had to get enough of the zombies off of him to be able to concentrate. He kicked two of them to his left away and then did the same to the ones on his right. He began to lift one of the saw-blades off of the wall slowly but he could not quite get it where he needed it because of the massive zombie horde. Finally he had to make a decision and take a risk. About ten feet to his left stood one of the mammoth devices that had been used by this place to slice up trees. He dropped his hold on the saw-blade, allowing it to fall back onto the hook and began to fight his way over there.

Heads rolled on a second by second basis as he sliced his way through the thick crowd of zombies. He didn't worry about the ones jumping onto his back and clawing at him until they started to weigh him down. Then he would quickly either throw them off or slice off their heads. It took a good few minutes but felt like hours for Eric to reach the large machine. When he did, he grabbed a zombie from his back, slung him in a circle to get the rest of the zombies off of him and jumped onto the machine.

Once there he put his sword away and reached his arms towards the saw-blade on the wall. With a twist of his hand and in his telepathic hold on the blade, it began to spin. Faster and faster he spun it as the zombies began to climb onto the machine over the backs of the ones not smart enough to simply hop up there. Even Eric tended to get distracted by attacking zombies but he had to focus on the saw-blade only for a minute. During that time he would just have to trust that the damage done by the zombies would be something that would heal.

When the blade was spinning fast he lifted it off of the hook and allowed it to spin all alone in midair. There were two zombies clawing at his back, one riding his back and clawing at his head and three trying to drag him down by pulling at his legs. He tried to yell loud enough to be heard, “Destiny and prisoner boy, hit the deck now!”

“What? I can't just,” Destiny started and then apparently saw the spinning saw-blade before finishing, “Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me! Down!”

Eric didn't have the ability to say anything because when he warned them, the zombie clawing at his head stuck his hand in Eric's mouth. Other than biting down and trying not to swallow the fingers that snapped off of the undead monster, Eric did nothing. Finally he sent the spinning blade through the area around the truck, trying to feel in the air of the warehouse where the large vehicle was. Zombies would be easy to hit. He'd just avoid the truck and know that zombies were everywhere else.

No machine was turning the saw-blade so when it struck flesh, even zombie flesh, the guts and blood could be heard being torn and ripped apart. Eric smiled and spit the zombie fingers out as he heard more and more zombies being sliced into by the blade. He moved it around the truck and then back and forth. When that had gone on for long enough he heard the door open and shut. Destiny was thankfully smart enough to know that the truck was the safest place to be once the zombies and the saw-blade were not immediately around.

“Move the blade towards you! Clear a path and make a run for it. Jesus,” she exclaimed, “Where the fuck are you?” Eric heard the voice of the O.A. soldier say 'right there' and Destiny followed with, “Oh my god. Yeah, I see where he is.”

Eric tried to pay no attention to the zombies climbing around and on him so that he could easily control the saw-blade. He moved it towards him and back and forth. He couldn't be sure how far each way he was slicing with the blade but he knew a lot of zombie flesh was being carved and that made him smile. With his eyes still closed he decided that he could finally take a leap off of the machine but when he went to move his leg, it felt like the leg weighed a thousand pounds. He opened his eyes to see what how his path looked and heard the saw-blade drop to the ground. He could see only pitch black darkness.

**

Destiny shook her head at the sight in front of her. In the short time she had been on the side of Eric, she had never seen anything like this.

“Is he even fucking alive in there?”

Destiny didn't look at the soldier but said, “Shut the fuck up and get that gun ready to fire like he said. You know, the big fucking gun!”

“Yes, ma'am!”

The truth of the matter was that she didn't know what condition Eric was in. There was no way to know because she couldn't see him. All she saw was the wide path his amazing saw-blade trick had carved for him and a massive pile of zombies. They were all crawling over each other the way they sometimes did and had created a large ball of zombies roughly three or four yards in diameter on top of the machine. When the saw-blade dropped she assumed the worst. She was still assuming the worst but then again this wasn't some normal human out there in the middle of a massive wad of zombies. This was Eric Bayne.