Zombie Attack! Army of the Dead (Book 3) (16 page)

A low chorus of boos went through the crowd. John and Tank sneered, clearly enjoying the show. Tank punched Benji in the shoulder playfully, and to my great surprise Benji laughed and nodded his head. In the place where I thought my outrage should be, I found instead a gaping hole of sadness and betrayal. My heart felt like it was breaking in my chest again. For a split second I wanted nothing more than for them to pull the handle and get it over with.

Anything has to feel better than this,
I thought.
At least when I'm dead I won't have to see him gloat anymore. Every time he laughs it feels like someone is stabbing me in the chest. I can't believe I once called him my little brother.

“Despite our best efforts to get them to come clean and tell us where the stolen materials are,” Franco continued theatrically, “they've refused to budge an inch. We even offered them mercy; we told them if they helped us prevent a tragic war that would cost the lives of soldiers and civilians, and leave us all open to attack by zombie fiends, that we would let them live out their days in prison. And do you know what they said? They said they'd rather die than tell us. Well guess what? Today is their lucky day. Today is when they get to pay for the error of their ways, and it’s when we get justice for those who have sinned against us. Today they will hang by their dirty necks until the light goes out of their eyes.”

A fresh chorus of cheers rent the air as Franco lifted his arm and jabbed his balled up fist to the sky to drive his point home. He was a master of working up a crowd, a fantastic talent for a man who wanted to lead a devoted cult of fanatics on a path of world domination.

“Tank,” Franco said, turning and extending his hand out toward the giant with the eye patch. “It has been decided that you shall do the honors. You may now take your position by the gallows.”

Tank look surprised at the news, and oddly anxious. He turned to John who simply smiled and nodded, then back again to Franco like there must have been some kind of mistake.

“Come on then,” Franco said. “I know you're surprised, but we still have a hanging to get on with. I can imagine how honored you feel to be selected. I'm sure there are a hundred guys right now who wish they could take your place.”

Tank stepped forward like he was going to be joining us up on the platform. Franco's evil grin widened.

“Let's have a round of applause for Tank,” he shouted, and the men drowned him out in hoots and cheers, each one bloodthirsty and eager to see us executed and our bodies left to dangle in the breeze like broken wind chimes.

“This isn't how it was supposed to go,” Tank murmured, but Franco clapped him on the shoulder.

“I know you're disappointed that you can't tear Xander apart with your bare hands, as John promised,” Franco said. “In fact, it was John who recommended we bestow the honor on you of pulling the trap door lever for that very reason. It will just have to be enough, I'm afraid. Consider it a small portion of what you deserve for being a good and loyal friend.”

John smiled as Tank shot a confused look at him.
 

“Go on, Cyclops,” John shouted. “You heard him.”

Something is off
, I thought. Tank no longer looked happy at all, but the men around him didn't seem to notice or care. He stepped forward and put his hands on the lever that would force the small square of wood we were standing on to spring open, causing us to plummet to our deaths as the noose tightened around our necks and strangled the life out of us.
 

“On my word,” Franco said loud and clear. Tank just nodded.

I closed my eyes.
 

Forgive me Felicity
, I thought.
I'm so sorry, baby. I should have listened to you and stayed in Xanadu. I love you so much. And God, if you're up there listening, I need a miracle.
 

I opened my eyes, the anticipation causing me to involuntarily shiver all over.

“Now!”

Tank pulled the lever in slow motion. Suddenly images from my life began to flash before my eyes. I saw back to the days when my dad and I used to visit my mom in the cancer ward at the hospital. How frail and thin she'd grown. She reached out to me from her sick bed, her tiny trembling hand covered in veins by that point. She no longer had hair, but had carefully wrapped her head in a colorful scarf. She smelled like lemonade from the swabs she rubbed on the sores in her mouth. She was dying and we knew it. The doctor wanted us to say goodbye, to make peace with her passing. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke to me, answering my adolescent gibberish when I asked what I was supposed to do without her.

“Just do your best,” she said in a voice that barely rose above a whisper. “That's all you can do in this life. Take care of each other now. I'll be watching over you, I promise. I love you.”

I'd blocked out that painful image for most of my life, unable to deal with her passing. Over time I'd forgotten the details of her face as well, replacing them with a generic image in my mind, an idealized version of who she was.

“Why did mommy have to die?” I asked my father before the funeral. He was dressed in his good Sunday clothes, attempting to put on a tie, a job that used to be reserved for my mother on the rare occasions we went to church.

“So she could be your guardian angel,” he told me. “She's in Heaven now looking down on us.”

I searched the clouds as we stood by the gravesite at her funeral, looking for a sign of her. As the next few years went by I prayed to her, imagining her in flowing white robes, young and beautiful and radiating light. Those were some dark times, some tough times, and I found peace in being able to talk to her, whether she could hear me or not. Later, when Moto found us and completed our family, I stopped talking to my mom. Life moved on and took us with it. I'd forgotten all about it until I saw the lever reaching the end of the arc, signaling that our deaths were just a moment away.
 

Mom,
I thought with all my might,
if you are still up there, if you can hear me, please help us. I need you now more than ever. Please get us out of this and back safe with the ones we love.
 

I felt the door under my feet give way as my body went into an animal panic, erasing all traces of rational thought from my mind. It felt like electricity was shooting through my body, and I became hyper aware of everything as the adrenaline began to kick in. I could hear my heart beating, could feel it like a lump in my throat as I began to fall.
 

Those were the longest seconds of my life. They say when you die your life flashes before your eyes. I don't know if that's true for everyone, but it was for me. A series of images tore through my mind, showing me everything from rainy days as a child splashing in puddles on the way home from school, to the training sessions on hot summer days with Moto, and to the moment Felicity and I shared our first kiss. My mind froze on the image of her face, unable to let go or move on.
 

I'm sorry, baby
, I thought.
I'm sorry for everything. I love you.
 

I reached the end of the rope and it went taut. Beside me I heard a loud ripping noise that made me picture Moto's neck snapping, followed by an odd crashing thud. I had no such luck. Tank had been right. Whoever measured out the rope for my hanging didn't do it right. I dangled helplessly by the throat as the life was squeezed out of me, my face turning colors.
 

I heard people around me booing, loud voices calling out to finish me off. The crowd of Franco's followers, mostly bikers in disguise, began hurling rocks and cans at me.
 

“You did this,” Franco hissed at Tank. “Didn't you? You were so caught up in your childish scheme of revenge that you couldn't stand to see them die so easily! You couldn't stand the thought of not being able to rip his body to pieces like you'd been planning since John first captured him in Ojai.”

There was a chorus of murmurs now passing between the enlisted men, many of whom began backing away.

“What are you talking about?!” Tank yelled in frustration.

I could hear ringing in my ears as I kicked helplessly, praying the pain would stop.

“You snuck out here and messed with the rope,” Franco said, growing louder and angrier. “Admit it!”

“I'm not taking any more of this from you or anyone else,” Tank said, turning and squaring off with Franco. “I've had enough.”

Franco kicked Tank's legs out from underneath him without hesitation, leaving the giant sprawled out flat on his back. He withdrew his gun from his holster and pointed it at Tank's massive chest. Tank held up his hands, his single, remaining eye wide with shock at how quickly the tables had turned.
 

“Wait,” Tank begged. “I made a mistake. Please.”

“There's no room in my army for soldiers who can't follow orders,” Franco replied. “Enjoy your one-way trip back to oblivion, freak.”

Any minute now I'll be dead
, I thought, the pain in my throat driving me mad.
Please let it happen soon. Please don't let me suffer anymore.

With lightning speed Benji raced onto the platform, drawing my katana from his back and slicing through my hanging rope. My vision was starting to fade to black. My head began to swim as I lost consciousness. I heard the sound of the gun going off over and over as I fell. My feet hit the earth beneath the platform, but didn't find purchase. I crumpled like a sack of moldy potatoes. Benji plunged through the trap door after me. He sliced the noose and pulled the wiry twine from around my neck. I gasped down air like a thirsty man gulping down water. I saw stars as I tried to sit up. Benji pushed me back into the dirt.
 

“Stay down,” he cautioned, doing his best to cover me. “It's about to get ugly.”

Benji pulled a hidden lever on the underside of the platform and a steel plate swung forward, locking into place in front of us and blocking off Franco and his men. Before they had time to react, the sound of gunfire rang out all around us. I turned my head to see Moto had already managed to work his hands free and was doing his best to remove his noose.
 
Loud screams from in front of me drew my attention away. I looked out from under the gallows platform to see total chaos unfolding right before my eyes. Soldiers in full fatigues were fighting with Franco's men. I could see Tank's lifeless body splayed not ten feet from me. Franco and John were nowhere in sight.

“What's happening?” I wheezed in bewilderment.

“We're rescuing you,” Benji explained. “You didn't really think I'd turned on you, did ya?”

He cut the ropes around my hands, then gave me back my katana.
 

“You were pretty convincing,” I gasped, still not sure I believed he was really with us again.

“I had to be,” Benji affirmed. “Franco began recruiting men the first week he came on the base. That's when Moto approached me with his plan. He said that if I could convince them that I was jealous of your promotion, of you having your brother in charge, then I could make them believe I'd gone bad. He was right.”

“You knew about this?” I asked, turning to face my brother, who was now smiling.

“I ordered it,” he said. “I told you I had a man on the inside.”

“So was getting hung and almost dying part of your plan?”

“Not exactly,” Moto shrugged.
 

“I was just supposed to get information about what Franco was planning,” Benji explained. “But, as you can see, things escalated quickly.”

“So you're not part of Franco's elite squad?”
 

“Hell no! I tried to give you a clue. I thought when I made up the story of you stealing comic books from me you'd figure that out.”

“So that's why you said that,” I realized at last. “I thought you'd either lost your mind or Franco had brainwashed you into joining his team.”

“Actually, I'm the leader of the resistance,” Benji said proudly. “We're called Loyalists.”

“What on Earth does that mean?”

“It's just a funny name we came up with as a joke,” Benji laughed. “I'm in charge of a unit of soldiers specially vetted by your brother to counteract anything Franco might come up with.”

“You mean like a military coup?”

“Exactly,” Moto said.
 

“Franco’s decision to follow through with the hanging threw me for a loop,” Benji admitted. “I spent all night coordinating this rescue. We weren't planning on exposing ourselves so soon. We didn’t wanna lose the element of surprise. Then again, I couldn't just let them kill my two best friends. How would I explain that to Felicity and Sonya?”

“What if the fall had broken my neck?”

“We took measures to make sure that wouldn't happen,” Benji assured me. “My guys were the ones who set up the gallows in the first place. Once construction was complete, they added the metal shield as well as a side exit to give us a running start out to the front gate. Both ropes were intentionally cut so they'd snap, and you'd fall through to safety. I also had one of my men all set to pull the lever, but Franco switched that at the last minute. I was supposed to get a signal, then leap forward and cut you loose once you were safely under the structure. I wasn't expecting Tank to mess with your rope. He must have switched it out this morning, shortening the length so you'd just dangle helplessly while he watched.”

“So he was right about Tank?” I asked. “And John just let him do it.”

All that talk about how I'd killed his friend,
I thought,
and John didn't seem the least bit concerned that Franco had snuffed Tank out.
I thought about the look on Tank's face when he was told he would be doing the honors. He looked horrified, as if he knew it would mean his own death instead.

“Beats me,” Benji said. “Probably some internal power struggle.”

“Guys like John and Franco don't have any real loyalties,” Moto explained. “In the end, they'll always put what's best for them over everyone else. That's why we can't let them get away with hijacking the military and using it as their personal army to conquer the world. That's why we're in this fight.”