Rising: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction (7 page)

Drugged Out

“You don’t think we’re taking on a bit too much with this place?” Leekasha asked.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Christa answered.  “You’re the one that’s been ranting on your crusade the whole drive.  On and on about the injustice of it all and how zombies need to stand up for their rights and assume their rightful place in the order of things.  I swear, you have preacher blood running through your veins the way you were going on.”

“I thought you were on board with all this.”  Leekasha frowned at Christa.  “Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about this whole thing now?”

“No, of course not.  I’ve been fighting for this for such a long time.  Part of me is excited, it really wants for this to happen.  On the other hand, I still remember what happened the last time I revived zombies.  I can’t go through that again.  That was horrific.”

“I was there.  Remember?”

“Yeah, I know you were, but this is big.  Really big.  There are over a thousand zombies in this place. Angola is like the biggest prison in the Americas.  It’s not just zombies in there either.  There are real hardcore criminals locked up inside.”

“I know it is.  That’s the biggest crime of all.  Those zombies haven’t done anything, but they choose to keep them all locked here with murderers and rapists.  That’s just not right. If we’re going to do this, we need to send a message to the powers that be.”  

Clouds were rolling up from the south as they drove closer to Angola.  By the time they got to the gates of the prison, it was dusk and they could see lightning in the sky to the south.

Leekasha rolled up to the main gates and rolled down her window.  The guard started to approach, waving them off when Christa convinced him otherwise. He opened the gate, allowing them to drive on through.  Angola was a huge prison facility, with much of the grounds being either undeveloped or used for farming. 

“It doesn’t seem like a prison, does it?” Leekasha said as they drove the couple of miles to the main prison complex.  “It just feels like we’re out for a drive in the country.”

“Yeah.” Christa yawned.  “Bit of a disappointment, isn’t it?”

“Are you kidding me?  You’re yawning?  You do realize what we’re about to do right?”

“Oh, sorry.  It’s just been a long ride.  Too much time just sitting in the car I guess.  Don’t worry, I’m ready for this.”

By the time Leekasha pulled their car to a stop, Christa was nodding off to sleep.  Leekasha poked her and said, “Christa, you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Christa answered.  “Let’s go and make some history.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about history, girl.  I just want to do what’s right.”

“This place is huge.  How do we know where to find them?”

“Seriously?  You can’t hear that?”

“No, what are you talking about?”

“The screams.  The pain.  You still can’t hear them any longer?  It’s coming from inside these buildings ahead.  I’ll follow the screams, you follow me.  Take care of the guards inside and have them let us in.  I’m doing my best to block out the screams.”

They passed through the first few gates easily.  Christa kept the guards distant, only engaging them enough to unlock doors and let them through the various cell blocks.

“Is this them, in this block?” Christa asked.

“No, but we’re close.  It must be the next cell block over.”

“We’ve gotta move quicker.  This is really hard for me today.  Don’t know why, but I feel so tired.”

Leekasha led the way, with Christa behind doing her best to keep up.  They entered the next block and found themselves surrounded by hundreds of Pacize-controlled zombies wandering the common area surrounded by empty cells.  With no purpose, and no human controllers telling them what to do, they milled about, bumping into each other.  The pain was too much for Leekasha.  She dropped to her knees and doubled over.  Desperately, she placed her hands over her ears and rocked back and forth, humming to herself. 

“We’re here, Leekasha.  We’re here.  These are the ones.  Focus on me.  Just focus on me.”

“There are too many.  You have to move them.  Get them away from me.  It’s too much.  They won’t stop yelling at me.”

“I can’t make them move.  You know that.  I can’t even hear them with the new Pacize running through them.  You have to do it.  You have to get up.”

Leekasha started shaking and stammered, “There are too many of them.  They’re too close.  I need space.  Just a little space.”

Christa pulled Leekasha to a corner to get her a little further away from the zombies. 

Leekasha regained some composure. “Christa, you have to try.  Get them away.”

Christa tried focusing on the nearest zombies, but every time she did she lost her grip on the guards watching from the control room.  The guards would start to move towards them until she focused on them again.  None of the zombies responded to her.  They were drawn to Leekasha. 
Hang on,
she thought. 
Why didn’t I think of this before? 
Christa put a new notion into one of the guards’ heads.  Instantly, the guards hit buttons and all the cell doors surrounding the common area opened.  The guard then picked up the microphone, and issued the command “Go home.  Go home.  Go home.”

The zombies obeyed as obediently as any drugged-out zombie would.  They all shuffled back to their cells and closed the door.  The cell block was at least a hundred yards long, so by the time they were all settled in their cells, the screams diminished to a manageable level in Leekasha’s head.

“That’s better,” Leekasha whispered.  “Finally they’re quieter.  I can hear myself think a little.”

Christa helped her to her feet.  “This is better.  At least they’ll all be locked in their cells when you revive them.  At least that way if things go bad they can only hurt themselves.”

“Yeah, that’s true.  Should have thought of that in the first place.”

“It’s not like we’ve done this before.  No reason to think this would go perfectly smoothly.”

They walked past a number of cells. Leekasha moved slowly and gingerly, like every step was on broken glass.  Most zombies didn’t behave much differently now that they were locked up.  They paced their cells, some just stared into the corners, while others lay in their bunks rocking back and forth.  A few violently threw their belongings around their cells and screamed.  Those cells didn’t have much in them to start with.  Just a small pillow and some blankets on the ground.  Apparently, there was a reason they didn’t have much in their cells.

“Can you tell which is which?” Christa asked.  “Can you tell which ones are like us?”

Leekasha leaned against Christa.  “Not really.  There are too many of them.  Too much noise.”

“I guess we’ll just have to try one and see.  What’s the worst that could happen?” She stopped in front of one cell with the zombie lying on his bunk with his back turned towards them.  “This one looks like he might be OK.  At least he’s not raving like a maniac.  Try taking your focus off me, and put it on him.  Focus on his cries.  He’s just one zombie.  You should be able to handle that.”

“OK, help me get closer to him.”

Christa helped Leekasha over to the zombie’s cell.  Leekasha placed both her hands on the bars of his door, steadying herself.  “It’s OK, Christa.  Just back away from me a bit so I can focus on him.”  Leekasha stared intently at the zombie on the bunk.  The zombie stopped rocking, but his cries increased.  It was like he could sense her now, watching him through a crowded room. 
Get up,
she urged. 
You need to get up and look at me. I need to see your face.
 
Stop screaming, and show me your face.  Now. 
The zombie slowly rolled over and sat up in his bunk.  He walked to Leekasha and reached through the bars and took hold of her forearms.  Not tight or rough, just gently holding on.  Leekasha looked at his hard, angular face with a sharp chin and hollowed-out cheeks. 
I can help you reconnect if you’ll let me.  Show me where it hurts the most.  Show me where you can’t go.  Where you’re afraid. 
His green eyes blinked and closed.  She could see in his mind where he was, and she followed him till she got to a bridge he wouldn’t cross.  She went ahead, and halfway across the planks leading to the other side were falling out of the bridge into the canyon below.  Leekasha knelt down, and waved her hands where the missing planks used to be.  Everywhere she waved, the planks reappeared.  She moved across the bridge to the other side, creating new planks and healing the bridge as she went. 

Eventually she reached the other side, and beckoned for him to cross.  The zombie opened his eyes and smiled.  He squeezed her arms through the bars and managed a hoarse “Thank you.”

Leekasha, overjoyed with her success, and for just a moment not hearing the other zombie screams, turned to share her excitement with Christa.  Christa however couldn’t reciprocate.  Instead she lay on the floor, eyes closed, while a small trickle of blood poured out of her ear then down her cheek.

“Christa!”  Leekasha yelled, turning away from the zombie in the cell.  She knelt by Christa, urging her to wake, but Christa didn’t respond. The zombie in the cell saw trouble coming.  He tried yelling to Leekasha to warn her, but the words were too faint.  Leekasha was too focused on Christa to notice that both guards had left their office and were moving towards her with weapons drawn.

Setback

Between her concern for Christa and the sounds of zombie screams in her head, the guards easily came upon Leekasha before she noticed them.  One placed the muzzle of his pistol at the back of her skull while the other kept a safe distance, covering his partner.

The closest guard spoke. “The paperwork for shooting you is just as long as the paperwork for throwing you into a cell.  I’d suggest you stand up real slow and keep your hands where I can see them.  If you can’t manage that, then either myself or my partner will be quite happy to put a bullet in your head.” 

As Leekasha stood up, the guard took a few steps back, keeping his weapon pointed at the back of her skull.  The guard checked that his partner still had him covered, then pulled both Leekasha’s hands behind her and secured her wrists with tie straps.  Grabbing her right shoulder, he pulled her around to face him.  Again he raised his weapon menacingly at Leekasha.

Glancing down at Christa, who still wasn’t moving, he asked, “What’s wrong with your friend there?”

Leekasha’s knitted brow and closed eyes suggested to the guard that she was in some sort of pain.  The guard looked back to his partner, who just shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not going to ask again.  What’s wrong with your friend?”

“I don’t know.  She was just fine a few minutes ago.”

“Fine?  You’re both in a maximum security prison block, exactly where you’re not supposed to be, and you think she’s fine?”

“Ah, yeah.  We were just visiting someone today, and somehow we got lost on the way back to our car I guess.  Sorry about that.  If you could just point us in …”

“Mmm, no.  There are no visiting hours here today.  Especially not in a cell block of freaks.  Nobody visits freaks in this place.  Nobody’s even supposed to know they’re here.”

“Oh, yeah, I suppose that explains how we got lost.” Leekasha smiled somewhat sarcastically.

“Your friend down there isn’t doing very well, and I wasn’t kidding about the paperwork, so I suggest you try a little harder not to piss me off.”

Leekasha tried to get into the guard’s head, but every time she tried, the zombie screams just got worse. 
I need to just forget about them for a second and get in this guy’s head. 
She tried, and the instant she did her head felt like a pin cushion from all the screams.  It took everything she had not to pass out from the pain and block the screams again.

“Actually, Officer … can I call you that, Officer?  I don’t know this girl at all.  I was just on my way over to find someone helpful like yourself when I saw here lying there.  I was doing the Good Samaritan thing, trying to help out, when you came by.  If you really want to shoot me for trying …”

“That’s it, you’re done.” 

The guard pulled his weapon to eye level just as Leekasha noticed the zombie she had revived staring off into the distance.  She followed his gaze and realized he was looking at the other guard.  The guard kept lowering his weapon then raising it again.  Every time he raised it, it seemed like his weapon weighed hundreds of pounds.  His arms shook as he brought it back up.  Once more, he raised his arms, trembling.  Beads of sweat poured down his face as his finger fought to resist pulling the trigger.  The zombie in the cell was shaking as well.  He eyes were closed as his hands gripped the cell bars. 

The backup guard pulled the trigger, shooting his partner square in the back of the head.  The guard crumpled in a heap at Leekasha’s feet.  The backup guard walked slowly to Leekasha, his face in shock, his weapon lowered.  The zombie in the cell still focused his will.  The backup guard handed his weapon to Leekasha, his hands shaking.

“Please,” he said.  “I have a family.  Please don’t.” 

Leekasha reached into his utility belt, took a pair of tie straps, and quickly restrained his hands and feet.  She pushed the guard to the floor and up against the wall before returning to Christa.  Christa hadn’t moved through the entire ordeal, but at least the blood had stopped flowing from her ear.  Leekasha put her hand close to Christa’s mouth till she felt her breath.

“Oh thank you!” she said.  “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Leekasha went to the cell of the revived zombie.

“What’s your name?”

Straining to speak, he said, “Jed … I think.  Yeah, it’s Jed.”

“Jed, I’m going to get you out of there just as soon as I figure out how.”

Jed nodded his head in agreement.

“Then we’re going to get some help for my friend over there.  Did you see what happened to her?”

“No, sorry,” he whispered.

“When I get you out of there, you’re going to help me.  You’re going to help me get help for my friend.  Can you do that?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Good.”  Leekasha shook her finger at him. “Because if for any reason you think you can’t, I’ve got no problem leaving your ass here and moving on to the next guy.”

“I’ll help.  I promise.  I will.”