The Great War (Surviving the Zombie Nightmare Book 5) (12 page)

Dr. Isaiah broke the silence, “Ms. Mandy and gentlemen, I give you the resurrected Abel Nichols.” He then looked directly at Dr. Cain, “Genesis Cain, I give you my resignation. Goodbye.”

Cain looked on in shock. Not only was the evidence of a resurrected human being standing right before her eyes, but the amazing doctor that had made it happen just quit right in front of her. She was too stunned to say anything at all. It was at once great success and great disappointment.

Mr. Cornell stood up at near attention, “Oh my god!”

Mandy spun her chair around, “What just happened?”

Admiral Bullosky smiled, “It's beautiful, and it’s amazing.”

Peyton Terry stood and looked directly at Dr. Cain and asked, “What is this? What in the fuck did you do?”

Dr. Cain was a little bit confused by the situation but Admiral Bullosky was in complete control. He apparently was not surprised that Isaiah Neal had just quit Organic Ascendancy. “What we have done Mr. Terry is to change the entire world. We now, demons and humans together have achieved something that only god himself was able to do before. This is a historic day in the war against Eric Bayne and the angelic hosts. Now, with this move, we have shown the one on the great throne himself that we are a force to be reckoned with. We will not step backwards from this. Dr. Cain,” he looked at her, “Do not worry about the next phase of the resurrection plan you had placed in motion. It has been taken care of already. I had a feeling Isaiah Neal might quit or do something else totally ridiculous and so I made sure it was all in place. Rest assured Dr. Cain and everyone else that we are going forward and we shall not lose this war or any war. Now, we are gods!”

There was no applause in the room as people tried to make sense of what they had seen and what they had heard. All Dr. Cain knew was that she was extremely glad that Bullosky showed enough forethought to allow the resignation of Dr. Isaiah to not be a tragedy for O.A. Now it was at least possible that her plan would still work. She only hoped that Bullosky was telling the truth and that all was in place before any such time when Bayne and Destiny could bring the war back to them. At the same time that she was thankful for Bullosky's forethought, Cain found herself feeling somewhat suspicious of the demon, though she couldn't place why. Finally she put the thought behind her and allowed business to continue.

Destiny had not exactly formulated a plan for what to do after running away from the woodworking facility. She didn't like demons or the new breed of zombies but after barely escaping that place with her life, she thought maybe the newer options were better than being swarmed by the origina
l zombies. It had been positively terrifying and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would have been unable to get out alive without Eric.

Currently they were parked in the middle of a heavily wooded area roughly five miles away from the facility. She wanted to get away but she certainly did not want to just sit out in the open for fear of running upon another Organic Ascendancy team. Also she wanted to give Eric time to recover. In the meantime she was doing her best to restrain herself from freeing the O.A. soldier they still held prisoner from the burden of his head on his shoulders.

“I just don't get it,” the soldier said, “You are O.A. soldier original. Destiny, this is Bayne right here, helpless and you are just going to let him live? Why? What happened? I do not understand! Please, for the love of god, help me kill him. Here,” he started to pull himself between the seats, “I'll do it and you can help by looking the other way.”

Destiny had her sword in her hand and had been jabbing it into the floor of the armored truck to pass the time. When he stuck his head through the seats, she jerked her hand backwards and slammed him in the forehead with the hilt. “Sit, the fuck, down!”

“Ow!” he fell back holding his head, “What the fuck?”

“I'll tell you what the fuck,” Destiny said as she turned enough to face the soldier, “You would be zombie shit right now if it had not been for this man right here. He saved both of us with that crazy-ass move he pulled off back there. I know that you at least have enough brains in that otherwise vacant head to understand that. Well, understand this. When O.A. turned their backs on me and left me at the mercy of demons and zombie-demon half-breeds, it was Bayne working with me that allowed me the chance to survive.”

“O.A. turned their backs on you?” the solder still held his head but looked confused, “Wait, what?”

Destiny was bored with the fool anyway so just said, “What, what?”

“I thought you turned your back on O.A. That's what I heard.” The soldier shrugged finally, “Well first we were all told and most still believe that you died while fighting and killing Bayne. Clearly this mission could not be planned all that well without a small portion of us figuring out that you two must be alive. I'm not saying I believed you were alive but, well anyway, the point is that I heard you were the one that turned your back on us. That's what my commander thought at least. He suggested that the other story was just a cover so that you could still be a rallying factor for the O.A. troops.”

After running a hand through her long blond hair, Destiny sighed wearily. She really didn't want to rehash this stuff all over again. Maybe at the very least going over it would shut this fool up for a few seconds. “Okay, I'll tell you what really happened. You should know from the start that I don't expect you to believe me and I don't care if you do. This is the truth.”

She began to twist and turn her sword hilt in her hand as she spoke, “I was more than done with O.A. I packed a ton of stims and all kinds of clothes in my gear because I was finished. I had no plans to take my issues with Dr. Cain out on any of you. I figured you were all just following orders so whatever. I was fine playing the game one last time. Maybe the mission could be a success in some way. Who knows?

“We ran up on a large group of zombies accompanied by demons,” she continued. “I stepped out in front of the crew I had with me so that I could hopefully take out some of them with a telepathic move. Just about the time I stepped out into the dangerous area, I heard their weapons and I knew. By the time I turned around it was too late to kill them all before I was hit with a stun shot. It dropped me.”

“Son-of-a-bitch,” the soldier said in disbelief, “They shot you in the back?”

“Not only that,” Destiny said, “They tied me up and left me in the middle of an arena at the mercy of Eric Bayne. When he woke up from his own bit of treachery, he had the option of killing me right there. After all of the times we had fought and even after I cut off his hand, he decided instead that he would rather fight alongside me than kill me. He freed me and we kicked the asses of the demons and zombie-demons. It’s just been the two of us against the universe since then. Eventually we kidnapped an O.A. bastard and here we are. Are you caught up now?”

There was a long silence as the soldier apparently tried to wrap his head around what she said. Destiny knew he was probably trying to make sense of her version of the story and somehow still think that O.A. was infallible at the same time. Whatever decision he came to, she knew well the training he had gone through. He would find some loophole in his consciousness that would allow him to meld her version of the story with whatever he needed to change in order to still be loyal to Genesis Cain. It was as close to brainwashing as she had ever seen in real life. Still, when they were both going in the same direction it seemed like the best option for a former mercenary like herself.

Before he had the chance to react in any other way besides stunned silence, Eric began to stir in the passenger's seat. It would be better for all of them if there was some place to stay during this part of their little journey but the fact was the truck was as good of a place as they could hope for right now. Like all O.A. vehicles it ran on new technology that required nearly no gasoline to run. Even a huge truck like this one would only use a few gallons per six months of regular use.

As far as conditions went, Eric could have been better. His clothing was almost completely shredded. Though the wounds from the zombies attacking and swarming had mostly healed, there were plenty of scars left over. She doubted that passing out would do much for rest and relaxation either but at least he was alive. That was more than any of them could have said for themselves if he had not have done what he did.

“Ugh,” Eric said rubbing his eyes, “Fucking hangovers have nothing on this shit.” He sat up and continued the process of wearily getting his bearings. Finally he sat up slowly and looked out the window. Then he looked over to Destiny and back out the front. With a quick look back to their passenger he finally said, “Where are we? Why aren't we moving? Why is he still here?” He looked down, “Why am I almost fucking naked?”

Destiny kept a deadpan expression as she answered, “The middle of nowhere. Because we have nowhere to go that we could go with you unconscious. Because we still need him to get into O.A. Because the zombies wanted to get a closer look at your chiseled physique before they ate you whole.”

“Oh,” Eric sat up and glanced back over, “Right. Did I come away with my sword at least?”

“It’s in the back. I think Curtis back there can probably find something for you to wear. They usually keep spare sets of armor and clothing in these vehicles. I'm not sure why unless they plan on soldiers getting into each other’s pants now and then.”

Eric glanced back and waved for the soldier to grab him some clothing and then looked at Destiny, “Curtis huh? You freed him and know his name; should I be worried about your allegiance?”

Destiny smirked a bit, “I don't know his name but I figured we may as well call him something and Curtis seems to fit better than Spot. I always liked the name Curtis. Let's put it this way,” Destiny continued, “You don't need to worry any more about where I stand now than you did before you saved our asses back there. Is that satisfying enough?”

Eric grabbed the clothing, “Curtis, yeah I can see him being a Curtis.” He reached down and tore the rest of the tattered clothing off. Sparing a glance at Destiny he said, “See if you can control yourself while I change clothes here girlie.”

Destiny looked the other way and laughed, “I've had all I could stand of you without clothes for the last few hours while we waited to see if you were sleeping or in a coma. Just be glad I'm not taking mine off. We both know neither one of you could control yourselves in that situation.”

Eric pulled on his new clothing and he seemed to like the way it fit well enough. He shrugged at her comment, “Well she has us there Curtis. Speaking of which,” he looked at her, “Don't you need to change clothes or something?”

Destiny smiled, “No, I'm fine with what I have on.”

“You sure?” Eric asked, “I think those look a little tight for you. Curtis,” he turned around, “Grab her something back there so she can change.”

“Curtis,” Destiny said calmly, “If you so much as look at the little trunk you boys put extra clothes in, planning for me to change, we're going to have to risk O.A. security without a living soldier. Eric,” she said with a wink, “If you want to see me without clothes on, why not just ask?” she pulled at the collar of her armored skin-tight suit.

Eric raised his eyebrows then waved her off, “Nah, we have people to kill or something. I guess we can schedule a mutual naked session sometime after we survive that.”

They sat there in relative silence for a while. Destiny was sure that he was thinking over the same thing that she was though she knew his perspective was different. For her it was going back home with the intention of slaughtering her traitorous brothers and sisters. It was quite different than taking it to a life-long enemy like it might feel to Eric. A large part of her still liked and respected what O.A. stood for. Why in the hell they thought it was a good idea to throw in with demons was absolutely beyond her. It showed that Dr. Cain was getting either senile or desperate or both.

In the end it didn't really matter how she viewed them but it might matter how they viewed her. She realized that at least some of the soldiers might feel somewhat fond of her still. Even in the little confrontation she had earlier with the group of O.A. soldiers there had been several differences of opinion. It might at least be conceivable that a few of them would not want to fight her. She thought it was surely wishful thinking to imagine that they would not follow orders but it was very possible that it could cause them to pause. If they did that, they'd be dead. The only way any of them would not fall she decided, was if they actually turned their guns on their fellow O.A. people in defense of her. That might buy them a few minutes.

“How is it going to work?” Eric asked. He had a serious expression on his face as he had clearly been processing their options as well. Now fully dressed, he appeared ready for action. It was stunning when she considered what he had been through only hours before but then again, this
was
Eric Bayne. He continued, “Do we just sit in the back while Curtis drives through the gate? Surely it won't be that easy.”

“Well,” Destiny considered, “It could be on a really good day where security was relaxed. Considering that at least the higher brass know we are alive and might have heard of our skirmish back there, it is very unlikely that it will be that easy.”

“Please tell me we don't have to pretend to be bound or whatever. Look at Curtis here,” Eric said, “Nobody is going to believe that he could take out and tie up the two of us.”

Destiny thought about it for a minute and said, “That's a good point. Do you have any other ideas?”

Eric appeared to think about it for only a moment before saying, “How about we play dead?”

“Seriously?”

“No,” he said, “I am serious. Listen, he couldn't take us both out but they could believe that a whole team did and only he survived. We lay down in the back face down and motionless. He drives up to the gate or whatever the hell is there and says he barely survived but his group was able to take out an already injured Bayne and Destiny.”

Destiny figured that might actually work, “The only issue I see is that he could turn a weapon on us and make it real that he killed us. What is to stop him from doing that?”

“If he so much as turns back towards us, I'll telepathically send my sword through his neck and we'll take our chances with headless Curtis.” He shrugged, “It’s as good of a plan as we could hope for in these circumstances.”

“I agree,” Destiny said quickly and started the truck.

“Wait,” Eric said, “Are we really ready here?”

“Sure,” she said, “I don't see any reason we wouldn't be.”

“Except that I have no idea what I am going into. I don't know what to expect at all. You have not only been to this place but also have worked there and know everything there is to know about it. What am I getting myself into here?” Eric asked.

For a moment she was surprised that he would seem worried about anything after what he had just pulled off. Then again, it was always a good idea to know what you were going into and he was nowhere nearly as comfortable as she was with the O.A. complex. “It is actually a good idea to go over what we need to do once we get there. We have two options once we get through the gate. Option one is that we could have him drive the truck into the main hanger area which houses everything O.A. uses to get around. If we do that then it won't take long before the shit hits the fan. As soon as they see us alive the soldiers would come out like ants rushing to rebuild an anthill. Option two is that we could have him drive us through there into the mechanical repair hanger. That's obviously where repairs are made. There would be fewer people there and only one or two guards to react to seeing us. It would give us a chance to get into the complex instead of having to fight our way through a thousand O.A. soldiers.”