After the Fall (43 page)

“My children,” she said at last. “I have summoned you here so that you many see a grave injustice made right. Our great city was dealt a severe blow by the betrayal of one of our own. Rayna Espinoza was tried and found guilty. Her execution was arranged in this very spot, yet she did not die.

“I struggled to understand why that was, for surely none of us are immune to the hunger of the undead and the infection they carry. Now I realize why that is.” She pointed that slender finger at me like a gun. “This man, one of our own, one that I trusted and — dare I say
cared about,
has found a way to tamper with the undead’s natural drive. He was able to become invisible to them and extended his power to the traitor Rayna. Together, in league with these beasts, they unleashed a plague that brought this whole city under siege. We suffered many losses. Good men and women died that night and thereafter. The infected have had to be cremated after their death, denying their families a chance at a proper burial.”

At this point, she pulled a white blanket off an easel, unveiling the picture of one of the guards that was on duty that night. Several assistants came up and unveiled the rest, which included the guards and others who must have perished in the subsequent waves.

“Look upon their faces!” she said to me. “Let them burn into your memory, for these deaths are on your hands.” She turned back to address the crowd. “This is your traitor. His name is Mordecai. The whereabouts of his accomplice are unknown, but rest assured we shall find her, and when we do, she will meet with the same fate.”

Just then, as I was looking into the hateful eyes of the crowd, I thought I spotted a familiar figure moving through the dense mob that was boiling with outrage. She pushed them aside like tall blades of grass. Most of them were too absorbed in their loathing of me to notice. I wished she would look this way just for an instant. Even if I couldn’t see her face, I would at least have a reminder of the reason I was about to lose my life.

“Mordecai, you stand accused of conspiracy and treason. How do you plead to this charge?”

I took a deep breath and spoke. “I plead innocent. I have betrayed no one, nor have I conspired against this city.” The crowd’s booing drowned out my response.

“Let it be recorded that the accused denies the charge.”

A recorder I had failed to notice was busy chattering away on her notebook, transcribing the proceedings.

“The Crown of Anathorn will now summon its first witness.”

His name was Sean Speth, and he
claimed
to be in service of the Queen’s guard. He had been assigned to guard the cage where Rayna was to be devoured. I recognized him as the one that had left to get help. He testified that I assaulted the guards and opened the cage, releasing the zombies that fed on the guards and terrorized the town. There was no cross-examination, nor would there be any witnesses coming to speak in my defense. I had already been convicted. This was just a formality to seal my fate before the citizenry of Anathorn.

“That’s not true!” I interrupted.

“I will add a charge of contempt if you do not silence yourself right now, which will only increase your suffering,” said the Queen.

“As you wish, my Queen.”

There were other “witnesses” after him. Not one of them had been present at the square that night, but they all corroborated Sean Speth’s testimony and endorsed one another as reliable witnesses. The Queen vouched for all of them, placing a seal of approval that would ensure a guilty verdict. She may have been the last word in a trial, but she still had to keep the people’s support behind her.

I heard grumblings and the occasional angry outburst coming from the crowd. The public opinion was set so far against me that they were ready to tear me apart with their bare hands.

“My Queen, I assure you that I would never betray you. I implore you to look in your heart and find it in you to forgive me for whatever I may have done to fall out of your favor. You have my oath of loyalty. I will be as your slave. Every fiber of my being will be at your disposal.”

The Queen’s iron façade cracked. I saw the slightest bit of doubt there. Lucretius rose from his seat and whispered  something to her. She looked around like a child that was being forced to make the first difficult decision in her life. It was promising.

Work your magic, Lucretius. Don’t fail me now.

It seemed to be working. The Queen paced around, shaking her head and waving her arms. The people whispered among themselves. She addressed the crowd with a much more diffident air.

“The court will take a recess. We shall resume shortly,” she said before walking off the stage. The whispering increased to a dull roar as the people became confused. When she returned to the stand, she seemed to be distraught. I hoped it was because of me.

“The Crown will now call the last witness,” she said. “Rhiannon Gottfried, if you will please come to the stand.”

I was too stunned to do anything but stare. She walked up to the stand in the Queen’s guard uniform, her blaze red hair gathered into a tight bun at the back of her head. She actually wore just a bit of make-up now. Not that she needed it, but it made her that much more beautiful. It made me wish that I was with her, but something else had changed. For all her beauty, she had become more distant. Her eyes had a dead look to them. I gave her a hopeful look and all I felt was ice. Rhiannon took her place at the stand and swore her oath.

“Tell me about your life before arriving at Anathorn.”

“I lived at a small walled town named Jericho. It wasn’t much, but it was ours and we kept it safe. I lived there with my husband and son.”

“And why did you leave?”

“I left because my town had been overrun by the undead. A few days before the invasion, I fell ill and nearly died. When I woke up, everyone I loved was dead and the town was deserted. I have no one left.”

“What do you think caused this tragedy at your town?”

“I think it was one man in particular. He forced himself upon me, a married woman, and infected me with his sickness. It was because of him that our town fell.”

“Could you point to this man?”

She pointed at me and the crowd gasped as if on cue. She had broken my heart and sealed my fate in one deft move. I had no more desire to live, not when the one I once loved had sold me out. Let them do with me as they please.

“I have no more questions for you,” said the Queen.

“There is just one more thing,” Rhiannon said. “Do not let this man destroy your great city like he destroyed my family and my town. Stop him now while you still can.”

I could already feel the icy fingers of death gripping my neck.

The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen!

The Queen excused Rhiannon. She snapped to attention and walked right in front of me, even though the shortest route off the stage led away from me. When she passed, she did not look my way. She denied me one last look from those emerald eyes as she walked out of my life forever. I may still have had all the signs of life, but I was dead inside. The Queen need not have me beheaded. I could just sit there and wither to dust.

The Queen’s face had regained that cold look of triumph. After all, she had just crushed a great evil that would blight her realm no more. I felt for the people because their enemy was right in front of them, telling them everything that was happening was for their own good. I wasn’t the first to die from her bloodthirsty caprice, and I would not be the last. 

The blood would flow until it raged out in a mighty torrent and only the undead would be left to roam the land. At least then there will be peace. After we are gone and the last undead collapses from famine, this planet will have a peace greater than at the end of the last World War, greater than the aftermath of the Fall. It will mean the end of strife for both humans and Vampires as well as the end of their existence. Another life form will rise to supremacy and aeons from now they will examine our ruins and wonder what great catastrophe wiped us from existence with such speed while leaving our cities largely untouched.

The moment of brooding was over. The Queen rose and prepared to hand out her verdict.

“People of Anathorn,” she said, addressing both the crowd and myself, “we have brought the accused before you and charged him with treason and conspiracy. Having given him a chance to admit his guilt and reduce his suffering, we gave him a fair trial and presented all the facts before you. After questioning the last witness, I am now ready to pass a judgment. Does the accused have anything else to say before we proceed?”

I did, and I took full advantage of the chance.

“Many of you are angry at my supposed crimes, but deep down, you’re relieved it’s not you on trial up here. All of you know that there is no such thing as a fair trial here…”

“That’s enough,” the Queen snapped.

“…That there hasn’t been a fair trial in decades…”

“Silence! I will have order here!”

“…Because the Queen as you know her…”

“I command you to be quiet!”

And I glared at her and said, “Or what, you will kill me twice?”

Those words were enough to make her hesitate, and I took full advantage.

“Your Queen is a fraud.” The crowd let out a collective gasp. “She is not Anna Thorn. Your Queen has been many decades gone and you’ve been given this poor substitute to rule over you with an iron fist.”

There, I said my piece, but I knew I would pay a hefty price for it. I felt something like a brick hit me on the side of the head. The room spun around twice before I hit the ground.

The Queen stood over me with eyes ready to jump out of her skull. All she could manage now was a low snarl. Her hands trembled and all of her canines protruded from her mouth. I snarled back at her with my own teeth showing.

“You, Mordecai, traitor to the Crown and the City of Anathorn, are sentenced to die by beheading and your remains will be left for the sun to take. Do you have any last words?”

I had no words, but I did have one final gestures. After all, I could only die once. Before the Queen could react, I jumped to my feet and snatched the veil off her face, exposing her mouthful of sharp teeth for all to see. There was a gasp and a wave of whispers that spread all the way to the back. Over on the back of the stage, the rest of the council members were frozen in their seats, all except Lucretius, who was on his feet, his face somewhere between a smile and a grimace.

“Enough! Kill him now!” 

There was a single gunshot. I fell back down from the impact, but I felt no pain, most likely from the shock. A deadly silence fell over the whole place, and I saw the reason why. Over to my left was a woman holding a gun with smoke still billowing out of the end. She was wearing the full face mask of the Queen’s guard battle uniform, but I knew who she was from the time I saw her walking through the crowd. The Queen touched a hand to her side, which had been stained a deep red that kept growing over the white cloth. Her hand came away gleaming crimson red. 

Someone in the crowd screamed. I was sure it was from the horror of seeing the Queen injured, but then another followed, and another after that. Before I knew the cause, the people were trampling over one another, fleeing in panic. Scores of hungry undead pushed their way into the crowd, seizing anyone unfortunate enough to fall within their reach.

The Queen’s guard sprang into action, shooting at the undead attackers, but it seemed their fire did more harm than good, crippling the living and making them an easy meal for the undead.

Rayna took some shots of her own, taking down several of the guards before another tackled her to the ground. I tried to rush to her aid, but the Queen let out a barrage of strikes and rage-fueled invectives. I fought off her attacks, but I could not shake her off long enough to help Rayna. For a false Queen, she was quite strong. The infusion of ancient blood, enhanced by her insanity, made for a dangerous enemy.

The shooter tore the mask off the other guard and a blaze of red hair flowed down. Fighting a weaker fledgling, she was holding her own and would have won the fight were it not for the three guards that rushed to Rhiannon’s aid. Likewise, another team of guards rushed to push me down on the ground. The cracks of rifle shots echoed through the streets. The riflemen were neutralizing the last of the undead. The guards raised Rayna and made us kneel before the Queen.

Rhiannon pulled the mask off the woman next to me, confirming what I already knew. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders and her eyes shone like ambers. She looked at me and I knew that I could die in peace, which happened to be the next item on the list. The guards pressed their rifle barrels into the backs of our necks.

“Come back!” the false Queen yelled at the crowd. “I order you to return this instant!”

The crowd ignored her orders at first, but returned to the stage when the soldiers forced them back into the square. I could see the fear in their eyes. They were beginning to realize, all too late, that everything I had said was true.

“Behold the two traitors and the remains of their comrades.”

The people looked at the corpses, but they made a bubble around them that extended a few feet out from the bodies.