Cassie (Adrian's Undead Diary Book 8) (37 page)

Adrian felt powerfully ashamed. “Michelle. She’s one of the Trinity. One of the three of us who are supposed to save the world. They call her the Savior. I like her a lot Cass, I'm sorry. She’s… the only person I think I’ve met since you died that I think I could fall in love with. I’m so sorry if that hurts you. Really.”

Cassie put her hand on his cheek lovingly. “No. Don’t be sorry. I’m glad for you. Glad for her. I told you already once in a dream that I wanted you to move on, and I’m glad you’re starting to. Adrian, forgive yourself. Things that day happened for a reason, not all of which were under our control. I forgive you. Move on, love her, make beautiful babies, live a long life, save lives, be a hero. Do all the things the world needs now. Our love was wonderful, and I’ll always celebrate it, forever, but you need to be happy, and do the right thing. Baby, even the best life is filled with fucking regret. Don’t regret our love. Don’t regret what you’ve done, or what happened. Don’t regret one mistake, no matter how big you think it might be. You’re a good person Adrian. The best. You just need to understand it yourself.”

Adrian, even here and now I can feel her. Her very essence is on you, your mutual attraction, your love… it’s real. Go, give me the peace you can, and love her. Love her twice as much as you loved me, in my honor. Name a daughter after me. Cherish what we had as much as I do.”

Adrian’s tears ran hot down his cheek as he nodded, listening to her. A sob slipped free and he shook with grief.

“I love you. I always will.”

Adrian got some words out through trembling lips, “I love you too Cassie. Maybe I’ll see you one day?” Adrian said, rubbing her sides affectionately. He couldn't see his eyes were filled with so many tears.

The pretty girl nodded her head up and down slowly, “I think one day we’ll meet again. I hope so at least. Now go. Be strong. Save the world.”

Adrian closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of a flower he couldn’t quite place. He could swear in this dreamy moment he’d sipped on something sweet as well… honey maybe? He smiled as he inhaled deeply once more, feeling the summer sun on his face. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the bleak, gray world, surrounded by the thousands of undead. Michelle was an arm's reach away. He could feel her like the heat from a stove fending off the winter.

Instead of sparkling green, Cassie's bleak white eyes stared at him.

*****

Adrian rose to his feet, never taking his eyes off the kneeling woman in front of him. He wiped the tears from his eyes and cheeks. He smiled, remembering the discussion that he’d just had with her. The real her. Not the bitter, corrupted, dead Cassie that tried to make him kill himself to find forgiveness and false peace. Adrian knew what he had to do, and reached down to draw his pistol. It wasn't on his thigh, or his hip. He forgot he’d given it to Michelle.

Adrian turned to where he knew Michelle was standing and was surprised at how close she was. The Kimber was already in her hand, the safety off. Michelle offered it to him, somehow knowing that he wanted it, and knowing exactly what he planned on doing with it.

“Here,” she said, handing the smooth, gleaming weapon to him. She looked pained.

“Thanks,“ the Mohawked man said with a gentle smile, looking at the blonde’s gorgeous eyes and face. Her face wasn’t the same as Cassie’s, but he felt the same stirring of emotion when he looked at her. Adrian could still feel the warm sun lingering on his skin, despite the overcast sky here in the physical world. Somewhere, somehow, the light was shining on him, and he felt it.
 

Adrian looked around, taking in the sight of thousands of undead poised just a few arms’ lengths away. He wondered what would happen when he pulled the trigger.

He didn’t care. He believed.

Adrian stood in front of Cassie, leveling the powerful pistol between Cassie’s dead white eyes as Michelle put her arm around Adrian’s waist, giving him the support he wanted, and needed.

“Cassie, may our love guide you to peace.”

Adrian inhaled deeply, the scent of a sweet, warm flower warming his very core, and pulled the trigger.

*****

Gilbert sat on his rocking chair, listening to the roar of silence that cloaked the world he’d existed in since his death at Abby’s hand. He didn’t regret his choice to ask her to end his life. It was the right thing to do. This was the path he’d chosen, and he’d walk it as long as need be because Adrian’s task was far more important than Gilbert’s happiness. He'd suffer forever for the boy if he had to. He hoped his wife wouldn't suffer the same fate though.

The screen door of Gilbert’s house opened with a familiar creak. The old man spun sideways, surprised at the unexpected noise. He looked up, his old reflexes straining to get the muzzle of his rifle up, but he stopped when he saw the face of his one love in the doorway. His wife.

“Dinner is about ready. Do you want to come in?” His wife asked him, clearly oblivious that her presence meant that this was all over.

He was thankful for her lack of awareness of the events of the world. Gilbert felt a rumbling deep inside that he hadn't experienced in a very long time. It warned him his emotions were about to be set loose. His lower lip trembled as he thought of everything that had happened, and everything that Adrian had just accomplished. He started to shake with happiness mixed with pride.

“I’ll be right in,” he told his wife.

His wife opened the creaky door and went inside. Gilbert heard the tweeting of birds in the trees for the first time since arriving here, in this strange place. Although Gilbert felt he was no longer where he’d been spending time.

He took the magazine out of his weapon, removed the round from the chamber, and put it in the rocking chair where he hoped it’d remain for the rest of time. He leaned his AK against the house, and promptly forgot about it. Gilbert opened the creaky screen door and went inside to see his wife again. Dinner smelled wonderful. She always could cook.

Retirement would be good.

*****

Kevin, Abby and Hal were running literally as fast as their legs would carry them. They’d heard nothing in the direction Adrian and Michelle had headed, and that seemed bad. Kevin wondered if the lack of gunfire was a sign of their death. Adrian wouldn't go down without taking something with him.

“Adrian? Adrian? Do you copy? Give me a sign motherfucker,” Kevin stammered as he ran. The three warriors running to their friend’s aid came to a sudden stop as they rounded a corner. The world was filled with undead on this street. Each was facing away, their attention fixed on events Kevin Hal and Abby couldn’t see. All three of their weapons were up, ready to fire, though no one pulled a trigger; the undead were too silent, too organized for this to be mundane. None would risk a shot and ruin whatever was happening. This was beyond the pale.

Kevin looked to the sidewalk and launched himself up on top the concrete stanchion that supported a traffic light. He shimmied up several feet until he could see over the hundred rank deep crowd of undead. In the center of the intersection a few hundred feet away Kevin could see Adrian and Michelle, her arm around him as Adrian pointed his prized Kimber pistol at the face of a zombie on its knees in front of him. The zombie was a woman, and had red hair. Kevin knew exactly who she was. He faintly heard Adrian say something softly, and then pull the trigger.

The single pistol shot rang out like the sound of a great door shutting. The report of the weapon went beyond vibration through the air. It was on every level imaginable and many levels unimaginable. Kevin watched the force of the gunshot pass through the world like a nearly invisible wave, watching it hit the rows and rows of gathered dead like a tidal wave, pulling out the reanimating force that made them so wrong, and so deadly. They collapsed to the ground, bodies finally with freed souls. Kevin felt it hit his body as well as his soul as if it were immersive, purifying energy. As this nearly imperceptible wave of energy passed along the world, the zombies continued to fall to the ground, sapped of the evil that powered their existence.

As the moment passed further and further out more and more undead fell, all across the city, all across the towns and countryside surrounding Adrian and his people, all across the state, across the country, and the continent.

Adrian had, with a single pull of one trigger, with the weight of one difficult decision made, and with the belief that all could be well, that all would be well, seen to it that judgment day had come, and passed.

Humanity’s second chance had been assured.

March 5
^th

I’m having a hard time imaging this being over.
 

Or, depending on how you want to look at it, maybe this is really all just the beginning? I’m not tired at all. I should be exhausted, weary, ready to rest, but I’m not. I think that’s fortunate, though I know that attitude will change as I actually get down to work.

Where to begin? Do I tell this in dramatic fashion, dragging out all the details in sinful fashion? Or do I cut straight to the chase and drop the biggest of all bombs?

I suppose as the Scribe I should record history. History tends to start at the beginning, so I guess I’ll follow suit and do the same.

Abby, Michelle, Kevin, Harold and I all went into the city to find Cassie on March 3
^rd
. I woke up early, shockingly at 3:33 am that morning in one of the houses in Spring Meadow that the locals gifted to us as a home away from home. Kevin and I joked that it was our “embassy.” Sort of funny, but also pretty accurate.

After staying in bed, thinking the day to come over, and eating an early morning MRI with my brother Kev, we got our gear packed up, checked, double checked, and we loaded into the HRT. We coordinated with Ethan and Quan’s group as they started out towards the western parking garage at the apartments. Our plan was to reach detonator range at roughly the same time so the explosions were more or less simultaneous. All went well up to that point.

We heard Quan blow the other garage before we tried to blow ours. Operative word there is tried. The explosion towards the Factory was incredibly loud, even over all those miles with all those buildings in between. We saw some plumes of dust and debris rising up into the sky and we knew the explosion was successful beyond the shadow of a doubt. Very exciting shit for sure. We were in detonator range on our own garage, and Kevin hit the switch.

The Jinx Fairy struck.

Clicky clicky went the detonator, but no boomy boomy went the bombs. We had a minor, spirited debate as to whether or not to scrap the mission, but I put my foot down, and with the support of the others, we opted to move forward. Everyone else was onboard, though I know Kevin was skeptical. We were watching undead shuffle off towards the location of the explosion, even with us in the HRT right there moving, so I felt pretty confident we would be okay. One downed building would have to be enough of a diversion for us.

I don’t necessarily want to say I was wrong… but my judgment could’ve been better. It was a “grab your heels and brace for anal impact” kind of day that day, and I think no matter what my call would’ve been, things would’ve been bad, or worse. The third day of the third month was the when this had to happen, and I’m glad I pushed forward.

I think we made it fifteen more minutes before the roads started to close up on us. We were engaging undead from the windows on a constant basis and the HRT’s plow blade was seeing some robust work smashing walkers from the road in front of us. It got to the point where we were pissing through ammunition fast enough, and there were enough bodies in the road ahead of us, I made the call to change our route to something safer. We'd reach where we were going, but we'd be out of ammo when we got there.

We knew we had the car alarms as well as the fires in the garage making noise to help us, and despite it not blowing up, I had a good feeling the undead would still be inside the garage. That creates a bit of a vacuum right? A few thousand undead from the city packed into a single structure means a few thousand undead off the street in that area.

I was right. Sadly, the route we took to head us towards the hospital we hadn’t been on yet, and there was a nasty surprise waiting for us. To be honest I don’t remember what happened. I have no recollection of the moment itself. The first thing I remember was coming to, hanging on my side in the driver’s seat. The HRT hit something explosive, and we were tossed on our side IED style. Thankfully I was wearing my seat belt, otherwise I would’ve been tossed around like a goddamn ragdoll. Kevin got chucked from his seat, and as it turns out, he’s got a sprained wrist and has so many bruises he looks spotted like a fucking leopard today. Tough kid.

Michelle woke me up, and after shitting a bit of a brick I got myself under control, and undid my seatbelt to get out of the seat. We discovered later on that the entire street we had been driving on was covered with both exploded as well as unexploded cluster munitions. Michelle told me after the fact yesterday that I’d taken my eyes off the road for just a few seconds to crack some dumb joke about Kevin or something, and that was long enough for me to hit one or five with the HRT.

Abby and Hal were shaken up, banged and bruised but alive and still in the fight. Michelle had her bell rung, and I already told you about Kevin. At that point the Jinx Fairy was balls deep inside us. We had no vehicle, we were out of radio contact with Ethan and Quan’s group, we were all alone, and utterly, and completely surrounded by the dead.

I radioed back to Spring Meadow and told Agnes or Anders to pass along the message to the other group that our vehicle was down. I gave our approximate position, and went back to unfucking our lives. We debated a plan, and decided we needed to try and blow the garage to create a powerful diversion to not only pull undead away from Cassie’s work so I could get there, but also to try and kill a bunch of these dead motherfuckers. One of them tripped a cluster bomb right near us, and we watched as the damn thing got launched in the air like Wile E. Coyote. Not good for the zombies, not good for us either.