Dead Man Running (61 page)

"I demand you call him now."

Becky Sings smiled, wagged her finger again.  "The dead cannot demand anything.  In a few moments you will lie at the bottom of my stomach."

As the creature reached for her
,
Mira used the element of surprise.  Using her residual zombie strength she grabbed both the thing's arms and flipped her small body over her head.  Mira
scrambled
to her feet but the thing was back
upright
and fast approaching. 

Mira ran for the
reverse bombs but Becky – faster, stronger – caught her before she could reach them.  She again flung Mira into the wall.  Her fists flew into Mira's midsection and
Mira
felt the air leaving her body.  She crumpled onto the floor.

The monster knelt in front of her defeated opponent and grasped Mira's face in a strong hand.  "Zombie lite?" she said with a laugh.  "Is Ben making half zombies now?"

Mira gestured for the case.  "It is new tech – makes you half man half zombie," she lied.  "He wants me to use it on Hamid."

The zombie punched Mira in the face hard enough that she momentarily lost consciousness.  She was awakened to the crazed slaps of the former Becky Sings.

"You lie.  Ben has taken care of Hamid
.  T
here is no need for any other
Hidar
magic."  She stood, flung the case far down the hallway until it crashed against the wall with a sickening sound.

"You see, I used
Hidar
magic to make me the girl who crouches before you today.  The girl who's gonna dismember and eat you."  The creature smiled.  "Instead of fresh faced Becky Sings I'm a monster, rejected by my monster lover." 

Mira looked at the crazed eyes of the
woman
.  From down the hall she thought she heard the snick of one of the bombs activating but soon the noise was drowned out by the crazed ramblings of the heartbroken dead woman.

"I have you to thank for it.  You and him."  She thumb pointed toward Hamid's door. 
"Him I have to protect.  You, my dear, will be lunch.  I've always wanted to eat another woman."

Two more punches to the face and Mira was losing consciousness.  She felt – and fought against – a forceful tug on her arm.  Her post zombie strength was almost gone when suddenly she felt the pressure on her arm lessen,
and then
cease.

Mira looked up and Becky Sings was occupied by hundreds of nanobots.  Soon the high tech fleas had the zombie on the floor, working their peculiar form of magic.

Mira recovered as Singler was transformed.

Afterward she gathered her damaged case – it had been cracked open enough for a bomb to deploy and send out its nanobots.  She spoke to the transformed Singler – asking her to do what she could to block interference from Pritchett and his men.  As Becky Sings slowly walked away Mira turned her attention
to
Hamid's room.

She pushed her way inside and was shocked – this was not a hospital room but a hotel suite.  She stepped into a foyer filled with paintings,
statues
and other luxurious appointments.  She breathed deeply, her lungs fil
l
ing with a musky scent.

"
Grandfather
Hamid
!" she called out.

The voice came back, soft as a
gentle breeze.  "Here, granddaughter.  Come.  Welcome."

She walked deeper into the apartment, stunned by the opulence that surrounded her.

Finally she reached the bedroom and her feet could move no further.  All of her was frozen, her mouth a comically wide 'O' shape of shock and wonder.

Her eighty-three year old grandfather lay naked on the bed.  Bracketing his body were those of two naked women – female zombie creatures to be exact – one with her hand on her grandfather's aroused sexual organ, the other gently massaging his scrawny shoulder muscles.

The old man took a deep breath, swatted away the hands of his lovers, and sat up.  He made no effort to cover his nakedness from his granddaughter.

"I know you have questions
," he said.  He smiled, his well worn skin straining to hold the wide flexing expression.

"And I
also
know you have come to kill me."

Tamesha Holloway knew it was not her birthday but she
also
knew it best to humor her foster parents, the Chins.
 
They were nice people but just a little bit strange to Tamesha.  She always figured it was an 'Asian th
a
ng'. 

That
afternoon
, speaking to Tamesha outside of
a
closed bathroom door, she pointedly told Tamesha to remain in her room until she was done with her gifts and came to get her. 

That was
early afternoon
and a bored Tamesha sat in her bedroom as dinnertime approached. 
Mrs. Chin was
apparently still
busy downstairs wrapping her presents
. 

Why would it take
four
hours to wrap presents?

Mrs. Chin stood in the kitchen whistling her favorite tune,
"Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.  Funny, she was not a good whistler before now.  Her husband
– converted by his wife that morning
–
handed her Tamesha's final gift.  She quickly wrapped it – they were both eager to go upstairs and have more vigorous sex before dinner.  Whistling was not the only gift the transformation had given her.  An insatiable sex drive was a not too shabby benefit. 

She
placed
the box containing the silver globe atop the one that held Tamesha's first 'big girl' brassiere
s
.  They sat in the corner of the kitchen and would be opened after dinner. 

Then, Tamesha would not be
a
foster daughter but a real daughter.  She would join the Chin's and the worldwide family of the undead.

Mookie came back in ten minutes as
promised
and escorted Elias into the aerial Oval Office.  Ben Wiley paced behind the massive desk.  He acknowledged the pair with a curt nod and they took a seat.

"Some nut has been calling the FBI, Secret Service, the White House and the media with some wild tale.  He says that the Cake Boss came to Andrews with some flying cakes and that the cakes dropped miniature robots on everyone.  He's pissed because he says he was a
n
all powerful zombie and the bots made him human again."

"What a wild story,"
said
Elias.  "Can it be true?"

Wiley looked at Mookie, back to Elias.  "We know that it's true.  We've been hearing rumors, picking up cell and Internet chatter, about some type of zombie revers
ing
bomb.  I have to admit Elias that I have had Mookie and his people following your
Mira
."

Elias kept his expression and voice even, as would befit a dead man.  "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing," Mookie said.

"It was Lee, Manchester Lee," said Wiley.  "From onboard we managed to speak to this less than happy former zombie.  He said that Lee was there along with the Cake Boss people.  The globes came out from the holds of the airplanes overhead.  The humans among them were actually transformed to zombie before being reversed back to human.  Our friend, like the other zombies we had inserted on the base, w
as
converted to human against
his
will."

"How did Lee get his hands on our technology?" Elias asked.

Wiley stared at Elias for a few beats too long.  "How indeed?" he asked finally.
 
"Whoever created it, it is a magnificent feat of engineering.  These nanobots seem to think and are very creative in terms of satisfying their ultimate purpose."

"So, once we get to
Hawaii
and refuel, we go back home?" Elias asked.

"No, we proceed to
China
and
Russia
as planned.  Nothing must interfere with our conquest of those people."  He laid his hands flat on the desk, drummed his fingers.  "First, we need to cleanse our organization, beginning with this airplane."
He opened a desk drawer with his right hand, reached inside and placed a stethoscope in the desk.  "Our little town crier says that he still looks like a zombie although he is human.  His heart beats, his temperature is normal, he farts and sweats.  It occurred to us that anyone on board may be a resistance operative
, one that is easily identifiable
."

"He also disclosed that there is a bomb onboard.  That this traitor will use some type of electronic device to remote detonate the bomb.  That the Andrews folks were told to place a parachute on board so that this individual could escape."

Elias smiled.  "That's why you collected all the devices," he said.  "That was quick thinking on your part."

"Indeed," Wiley said.

For Elias Turnbull it was getting very hot in the room.  He wiped the sweat that suddenly dampened his brow.

"My, my, Elias, how you sweat for a dead man."

Before Elias could get to his feet, Wiley had leaped over the desk and flew into the smaller man's body, toppling h
im
backward.  Wiley had
Elias
pinned, his
post
zombie strength no match for Wiley's super sized strength granted him by his magical cohorts.  He seized Elias' neck with one hand, felt the wild beating of his heart with the other.

"My, my Elias, how your heart beats so strong, for a dead man."

"Kill me, I don't care.  You'll be dead soon."

Wiley smiled.  "Do you mean someone plans to harm
Hamid
?"  He laughed and Mookie joined in.  "We've fixed good old
Hamid
.  If Lee or anyone else tries to kill
Hamid
, well, let me just say that's going to take a whole lot of killing."

Wiley lifted Elias to his feet and slammed him against the cabin wall.  "We'll find your fellow traitors, Elias, you know that.  Do you care to accelerate th
e
process? Perhaps in exchange for Ms.
Hidar
's life?"  He grinned.  "
Do you think me daft? 
How could she be one of us when you have been made human?  You would have used the reverse bomb on her as your first order of business as you love her."

"You know nothing of love," Elias managed to say.

"Is that a 'no' my friend?  You will not help us?"

"Fuck you Ben and
your little pet pimp
."

"Feisty for a dead man."  Wiley turned to Mookie, nodded to the stethoscope.  "Take that, find his partners.  Start with the
pilots
.  T
hey likely were converted at the Andrews ceremony.  I will stay here and play with my 'son' before disposing of him.  All of this betrayal is making me hungry." 

Mookie nodded and left the room.

Wiley plucked Elias off the wall, lifted him over his head and threw him against the far bulkhead.  He then sat behind the desk.

He pulled several huge knives from the desk drawers.  He lined the gleaming instruments atop the desk before looking at the stunned body of Elias Turnbull.

"My friend, I'll let you choose.  Shall I cut off your
leg, arm or balls first?"

Mookie used his key to unlock the cockpit.  There were three men inside – he was sure that they were human beings.

Three sets of eyes tracked him warily as he entered their domain.

He was taken aback by the vast sky and ocean
spread
before him – both in glorious
but starkly different shades of
blue.  His thoughts drifted briefly to the little girl he had rescued in
Oakland
.  Of all the souls he managed to save in his bloody journey, she meant t
he
most to him.

"Sir?" Captain Jackson prodded.  Mookie stirred from his brief mental sojourn.

"
I am not here to do you harm
," he announced. 
He watched as the three men tensed. 
"
I am well aware of the plan to destroy this aircraft.  As Mr. Turnbull is detained I have decided to play his role.
"
  He looked at his watch.  "You have ninety seconds to make any arrangements you have to in order to save yourselves.  The first bomb will detonate then.  I'm sure you are aware the second, more powerful charge will explode soon afterwards."

The three stared at him for a few moments before the pilot, Jackson, spoke.  "We'll need to put the aircraft on auto pilot," he said. 
He looked at Mookie.  "Why are you helping us?"