APOCALYCIOUS: Satire of the Dead (38 page)

             
“Because we wouldn’t do that for one, and for two, we don’t know how to fire a nuke to begin with,” Nan said, placing her hands on her full hips.

             
Mia looked over to Mick. He read her face and had not forgotten their conversation a few minutes earlier. “I’ll go with you, Sir Regeliel.
And
Mick will go because he loves me. You have become part of our family. Even though I doubt the Biblical spin that you and my husband share, you have offered proof and I would be ignorantly biased to refuse to examine the evidence”

Mick felt stupid being told what to do in front of all these people but he didn’t argue the point. He was aware that he deserved a little dose of payback, whether that was Mia’s intention or not.

Mick looked to Bodie and Daniel, “The two of you are welcome to the mine and all that we leave behind. Death Wagon, you and Nan will stay here until we return.”

“That's bullshit! I’m going with you guys!”
Nan said defiantly.

Death looked at
Nan, still angry at the knight, but the main thing he had come to tell them was still unspoken. “There is a radiation cloud creeping slowly toward this area. I don’t know how long it will take to get here…weeks maybe but I think you should abandon the mines for someplace more remote.” Death hated the fact that his news and Regeliel’s proof might lie in the same direction.

Sir Regeliel interjected. “I believe we should wait until we have prepared ourselves before we leave. This way we can discuss what to expect.”

“Yeah that’s a good idea,” agreed Mick.

             
Daniel looked at Bodie. A perplexed look crossed Bodie Barnes’ face, and then he smiled a big goofy grin. “Hold the phone, baby. Do you have room in that party barge for us?”

             
Daniel rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, throwing his hands up as he sighed. “Oh for the love of Pete…why not,” he said.

             
“We can’t ask you to join in on this. It’s not like you signed up for a war.” said Mick.

             
Bodies’ expression changed to one of great seriousness and he looked at Regeliel. “There is really only one question, baby.”

             
“What is that, my friend?” asked the knight.

             
“On your world…are the women hot?” his serious expression broke and he began to smile broadly beneath his thick brown beard.

Daniel just shook his head for a minute then added, “Seriously, are they?”

Bodie laughed out loud and clapped his friend on the back, “That’s the spirit, baby.”

             
“I really do wish you would quit calling me ‘baby’,” said Daniel smiling. Then he looked back at Regeliel. “Well, brotha, what about it?”

             
Regeliel opened his arms and regained his typical good nature. “My friends, the women of my homeland are the most beautiful in all the lands I have traveled, with the exception of the Ladies Mia and Nan, of course.”

             
“That’s good enough for me.” said Bodie.

             
“Why not?” added Daniel

             
“As long as you know that the changes in you, when you cross, may be severe,” said the knight.

             
“Worse than a mindless ghoul that loves to eat brains?” asked Bodie

             
Regeliel laughed. “No. Not that bad.”

“Did I mention that I am the King of Graylocke?” asked Regeliel.

              “No that must have slipped your mind, Reg.” said Mick.

                                                                
Chapter 42 - Malpractice Suit

Eight months after infection

Donley Woods, West Virginia 

              Shere and Hito had spent the better part of two weeks teaching Annie everything they knew about weapons. Annie had never shot a firearm of any kind before, but Shere found that because of this she had also never picked up any bad habits that she had to eliminate. Annie was a blank canvas and she did surprisingly well. Shere gave them a crash course in everything from map reading to first aid, from improvised ordinance to what plants were edible. She taught the two of them everything she could think of from her Marine Corps training, and that was considerable. To Shere, Annie proved to be a girl with a tender  heart and the Marine soon found that she had grown attached to her, like she was a little sister, a sort of slutty little sister that was banging the man that she, herself was interested in, but a little sister, none-the-less. In this strange family there was love, maybe not your text book version of what one may have considered it to be, but it was genuine regardless.

             
It took them another three days to find the mansion. Annie’s confusion and fear during her escape had wreaked havoc on her powers of observation. After they found its location they saw that it was still an operating hub of illicit affairs.

             
There was a barn about an eighth a mile away from the perimeter of the Doctor’s property and situated atop a hill. An electric fence surrounded the mansion, but Hito saw that it had been put up to keep the
dead
out, not necessarily the living. As dusk drew near they found the countryside strangely quiet.  There were still thousands of the rotting dead lumbering about but maybe not as many as he was used to seeing. Shere returned to the barn and told them that she had set the claymore mines, and she left a clear path that Hito had designated. The bottom floor of the barn was lined in sandstone and would provide plenty of cover.

             
“I want to go with you, Hito,” pleaded Annie.

             
He shook his head adamantly. “Huh-uh, you two need to stay here until I find the Doctor and then I'll bring him to you. Once I’m in position I’ll radio for you to start shooting to draw the guards out. When they start to return fire, remember to take out the flood lights first, but wait until they get about halfway to your position; then you need to detonate the charges and start picking them off from your left side first. From my position I will start taking them out from the right and we will finish them off in the middle,” he explained to Annie.

             
Shere nodded, it had been her plan, after all.

             
Hito looked directly into Annie's eyes and reminded her, “You’ll do what I say, right?”

             
She remembered her oath and nodded. She would not let her new family down. Hito winked at her. “Good girl. Shere will be right over there.” He pointed to the far end of the barn. “We want them in the best crossfire we can, OK?”

             
Shere squeezed Annie’s shoulder. “We’re gonna kill every one of those sick bastards, remember?”

             
Annie nodded. “What about the other girls? We’ll let them go, right?”

             
Hito paused for a moment. It was against his original rules. He wanted everyone dead except himself and now the two women, but he had promised Shere that they would only kill those that deserved to die. There were still plenty of that type around and he could live with that. He nodded. “If that’s what you want,” Hito said. He thought that it was possible that even if they let them go, then they might end up having to kill them later.

             
Shere narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure that I like just leaving them on their own.” Shere said, remembering her oath.

“No, it will be just us three. They’ll have to fend for themselves,” Hito said. Shere frowned at that decision. Hito didn’t like the idea of having a bunch of mentally scarred girls hanging on his coattails.

             
They waited until dusk faded to darkness before Hito spoke again.

“Strap
on your NVG’s.” They looped the strap over their foreheads, but didn’t settle them in place over their eyes, “but don’t use them until the spotlights are shot out,” he reminded Annie. He put his own on and ran stooped over toward a flanking hill.

             
When he arrived at his predetermined high ground, he found the stone fence that would give him cover. He planted some Claymores attached to trip lines behind him so that he would not be surprised by living or dead taking his flank. He returned to his snipers position, thumbed the mic key and whispered “Two shots each to get their attention, Ladies.” 

Without hesitation he heard the shots.

              The floodlights kicked on in their one million candle power brilliance and lit up the countryside. Hito noticed about six or seven zombies lumbering toward the fence on the opposite side of his position. The girls were in no danger from them though, and he watched as armed guards poured from the front and side doors of the mansion. He keyed the mic again. “Two more rounds each then hold.”

             
There was about two seconds of silence before he heard the first shot. He knew that it would be Shere. Her first shot took out the furthest enemy from her, turning the near albino’s head into a canoe. The next shot hit a fat red haired man, that ran at the front, square in the chest, he cried out with a whimper and collapsed onto the ground begging for help.

             
The small pack of zombies at first turned to face where the shots had originated, but they soon caught the scent of fresh blood and turned their attention back to the fence. The zombies screamed for others in that loud shrieking moan that sent a shiver up Hito’s spine, but he smiled in spite of it.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
he thought.

             
He heard someone inside the house scream for the rest of the guards to get outside and help their comrades, and soon, another half dozen guards exploded from the house bringing the total up to twenty, counting the two already down. He waited and saw the next guard go down with half his face flapping on his shoulder as he pirouetted a half a second before he heard the shot crack. Then another one took a shot in the groin which elicited a long, high-pitched scream.  He was willing to bet that shot belonged to Annie, a fitting little payback.

             
The doctor’s mercenaries swarmed to the gate and flung it open wide. They clamored up the hill to where they had seen the muzzle flashes from the barn. They were already expending ammunition in a helter-skelter pattern. He keyed the mic again. “Heads down ladies, wait until they start reloading then we will each take out a flood light.”

             
When he heard the shots die out he keyed the mic. “Take out the flood lights then put your NVG’s on and start from the right.”

             
All three hit their mark and the country side went black again.  As he had instructed, the guards were picked off one by one from either side. Panic broke their ranks and the remaining seven guards turned on their heels and ran back toward the mansion. “Trip the Claymores, Shere,” Hito said into the radio then began taking out the lead in retreat. All twelve claymores went up simultaneously; peppering five of them with double ought buck shot. He saw another guard collapse to the wet earth, his face exploding out in front of him before slamming into the ground. Hito peered through his night sight and took out the last of the guards.

             
The pack of zombies had managed to acquire another three of their kind and they clawed at the fence, unaware that the gate was open.

             
Hito fumbled in his drag bag and retrieved his M4 with an M203 grenade launcher mounted beneath the rifle barrel. He keyed the mic. “Stay put, reload, and keep your eyes open,” he said, then crouch-ran toward the still open gate. As he ran through he felt a hand grab at his ankle, but a loud report from the barn stifled the dying man’s grip. He zigzagged across the side lawn, stopped beside a shattered window, and loaded a fragmentation grenade. He fired it through the top window; he repeated the process through every window. He used his small handled mirror to peek around the corner. Satisfied, he crawled over the sill and into the perfect darkness of the house.

              Hito Takahashi had the uncanny ability of understanding how people ticked. He cleared the first floor of the house, but didn’t bother to check the second floor or attic. He remembered Annie’s description of the mansion vividly. He found the door that led to the basement where the Doctor did his surgery. The door, of course, was locked. It was a steel door and the shotgun would do little to dismantle it.
The funny thing about doors,
he thought
was that the frames were almost invariably made of wood and covered in drywall and maybe some oak molding
. He didn’t have to blow the hinges or the deadbolt, just the wood frame that held it. He pulled out his survival knife and slammed it into the jam, fished out a grenade from his vest pocket. He pulled the pin and balanced it carefully atop the wide blade then he let go and dove into the next room behind a large coffee table.