The Undead World (Book 1): The Apocalypse (39 page)

“
I won't get on my knees,” Neil said. “I'm an American and I have rights. You remember what those are?”

The robot nodded and thumbed back the hammer and there came a moment in which Neil felt his heart stop on its own. It just ceased its crazy thumping and went altogether still and
it was then Ram spoke in a low voice, “If you shoot, I swear I'll break this vial. It's your only chance at a cure. Think about it. It's your only chance at a future.” This seemed to penetrate the man's frozen mind and he put his hands up as if the vial was a bomb.

The Secretary watched in disbelief.
“Kill him, you idiot! There is no cure, don't you understand? See? It's just blood.” She went to Ram and with a speed of a striking snake, snatched the vial from his hands. “There's nothing in here but blood.”

“
There's no cure?” the guard asked in a little boy's voice.

“
No,” she hissed. “What cure is there from getting your throat ripped out? Or having your arms torn off? Our only cure is stopping the admiral. He can't be allowed to do this. He can't just kill innocent people.”

“
If you kill us,” Sarah said around gritted teeth. “You're the same as him.”

The older woman sneered.
“No. You came here with a traitor, pedaling your fake cures. You are hardly innocent, and this,” she held up the vial. “Isn't going to save you.” Like a baseball pitcher she cocked her arm back and let the vial fly. It zipped through the air, passing over the body of Eric Reidy to smash against the stark white wall. Glass went everywhere, blood shot out, looking like a red star in nova.

Everyone stared at the blood and knew a horrible evil had been committed. It was a sin that couldn
't be undone and its repercussions sank into them: there future had been destroyed and their journey turned out to be a waste of time and lives.

With a cry of anger, Sadie moved in a blur. The goth girl ripped a pistol from the diaper bag and jammed it up under the neck of one of the guards. Slower, Neil dug out the
Beretta from the car seat just as the second guard turned on Sadie. Neil stuck his weapon to the man's temple and said, “Drop it.” They were four in a line and only Neil at the end was safe.

“
You'll kill me if I do,” the man said. He had huge round eyes and they were cocked far over in his head to see Neil's face.

“
I won't,” Neil promised. “I'm not a murderer, but I will kill you if you hurt my girl.” Sadie flashed him a nervous smile, but it went haywire as she saw how close the second guard's gun was to her face.

“
You can't trust them,” the Secretary said. “Kill them, quick, we're running out of time. The admiral's coming.”

“
Jesus, lady!” the guard cried. “He's got a gun to my fucking head.”

“
Well someone do something,” the colonel growled. “By my calculations we have two minutes before we're attacked.”

“
There's only one thing you guys can do,” Sadie said, after a long moment where no one spoke. “You two drop your weapons or...” Here she paused and her breath began to pick up. “Or everyone pulls their trigger on the count of three.”

“
No,” Sarah breathed out in a panic. “Don't do it Sadie.”

“
I have to,” Sadie said; she had all the color of a sheet. “You know it's them that can't be trusted. If we disarm ourselves they'll kill us. So...here goes nothing...one...”

“
Sadie, please,” Neil begged, but at the same time he dug his pistol into the guard’s temple.

“
You have to shoot him, Neil,” Sadie said and then added, “Two...”

“
I will,” he whispered.

The guard with Neil
's gun to his head suddenly lifted the pistol from Sadie's face and pleaded, “Please, no. Don't shoot me. Here take the gun.”

Neil took it with a shaking hand, while Sadie disarmed the other guard
, though she looked about to faint as she did. The Secretary sat down in her chair looking small and frail. “This changes nothing,” she said without looking up. “I am the rightful leader of the United States of America. You people can't hurt me. It would be illegal. It would be murder. Now go defend us, Colonel. “

“
Yes Madam Secretary,” the colonel said and made to leave, but Ram stopped him.

“
I’m afraid it does change things,” he said, taking one of the guns. “If you manage to hold out, Colonel, what happens to us? We'll be arrested and executed, isn't that right?” The colonel nodded reluctantly and Ram sighed. “And if you lose, how many people will die? A thousand?”

“
Yes…maybe even two-thousand,” the army officer admitted, they locked eyes, and the officer gave the smallest of nods.

“
Then this is for the best.” Ram turned his pistol on the Secretary and said into her wide-eyed face, “For the greater good.” He shot her once between the eyes; she twitched and died, and not even little Eve cried at her passing. “I take sole responsibility for her death,” Ram said with finality. “Now do your duty, Colonel. Surrender your men and arrest me.”

Neil turned away and went to the wall where the blood was already beginning to turn a red brown color
. He pretended to study it as tears filled his eyes.

All four of them were arrested, five if Eve was included in their number and this was a good thing, because had they not been arrested and held for trial, they would have been sent to the refugee center at Guntersville which was later overran by a great army of zombies with a fearful loss of life.

They counted themselves as lucky, yet the looming trial was a weight upon all of them. They slept little and worried a great deal, especially Sadie who wasn
't nearly as tough as she tried to let on. She found the cage oppressively small. Restless, she walked the ten by ten cell every day, stretching her legs and complaining about the need to run.

In spite of everything they stayed as cheerful as they could and looked on the bright side: they were warm and alive and still together. The time passed and it was hard to tell how long, though Eve could hold her head up and blow raspberries at the guards by the time Colonel Taylor was arrested for speak
ing out repeatedly against the admiral's heavy handed methods.

Things
grew especially grim after the colonel “confessed” to the killing of the Secretary of Health and Human Service and was executed by firing squad. Since the little group was among the few who knew the actual truth, Ram surmised that it wouldn't be long before each of them was forced to make their own confessions and were killed as well.

It seemed a very likely thing, but not two days lat
er the USS Harry S Truman, the admiral's flagship, exploded in a giant fireball. His coup was ended with a countercoup, which in turn led to an assortment of counter-counter-coups until the remaining hodge-podge of military forces set up veritable city-states where generals reigned with all the power of petty kings.

And all the while, the five of them sat in their makeshift cells, until it was
practically forgotten what they were incarcerated for. Thankfully Eve, with her giant blue eyes and her tiny button nose, made such an impression with the guards that they were looked upon favorably and when word got out there was a baby being held as a prisoner, the group was taken before a general none had ever seen before.

“
This is the baby I've heard about?” he asked. “May I hold her?” He was a kindly sort of man with short grey hair and wore a uniform that had been starched to such a degree that he seemed bullet proof.

Still Sadie said,
“Only if you wash your hands.”

Since the g
eneral had benefitted from the Secretary's death and had never liked the admiral in the first place, he didn't hold a grudge and released them as soon as Eve went red in the face, grunted twice and filled her diaper. “She's all yours,” he said quickly, handing her back. “Good luck.”

Things had changed greatly at the CDC during their stay in jail. For one it was no longer called the CDC. It was simply called either the Atlanta Base or just Atlanta. And gone were the multitude of scientists. Some stayed, but for the most part the others drifted away when actual work was expected of them. The base had been expanded to include the buildings and grounds of nearby Emory University, and for the most part, as winter turned to an early spring the base was beautiful.

It was a thriving community of both men and women, numbering close to four-thousand people and Neil's family was welcomed—mostly because Eve was such a novelty. Very few babies had lived through the initial stages of the apocalypse, and children of all sorts were considered somewhat of a prized possession.

Sarah and Neil decided immediately that they wanted to sta
y. The base was secure and the general seemed a good and fair ruler; overall it seemed an ideal place to raise children. Although Sadie liked Atlanta well enough, she stayed mainly because she couldn't stand the idea of ever leaving her apocalypse parents.

Ram was different. He chaffed all through march and by the time the Dogwoods began to flower he shouldered his pack and kissed his friends good-bye.

“
I'm going north,” he said in a vague reply to their questions. “Just to see what's what. I'll be back, I'm sure.” The truth was that his heart was restless. It held the ghost of a woman and the thirst for revenge. Cassie was out there—and she deserved to die. Often he had dreamed of her and in those dreams she was a faceless hate.

“
Bring me back something nice,” Sadie begged. “Like the Liberty Bell, I've always wanted one.”

“
Is that all?” he asked with a laugh. “Just a thousand pound bell? Not the crown from the Statue of Liberty?”

“
Or a shot glass from the Empire State Building, one or the other. I'm going to miss my Uncle Ram.”

“
Me too,” Sarah told him. “What I want is for you to bring yourself back when you're done setting your heart to rest.” She hugged him fiercely, while Neil was quiet and shook his hand solemnly.

“
Good luck,” his friend said. “And keep your powder dry...wait. Is that a real thing or a sexual metaphor?”

Ram couldn
't help but smile at the man, or at any of them really, however he knew, as he went through the gates, that smiling didn't always equate to happiness. Sometimes it was only a mask to hide pain. So Ram smiled his fake smile one last time and then turned to begin his hunt. The End.

A Perfect America

The Sacrificial Daughter

The Horror of the Shade

An Illusion of Hell

Hell Blade

The Punished

Sprite

The Feylands: A Hidden Lands Novel

The Sun King: A Hidden Lands Novel

The Sun Queen: A Hidden Lands Novel

The Apocalypse: The Undead World Novel 1

Pen(Novella)

A Sliver of Perfection (Novella)

The Haunting At Red Feathers(Short Story)

The Haunting On Colonel's Row(Short Story)

The Drawer(Short Story)

The Eyes in the Storm(Short Story)