Dead Man Running (52 page)

The health of the donor of this blood – still bound a
nd
gagged in the green room – could not be guaranteed beyond the length of this segment of the show. 

Imagine
: C
oming to deliver a breakfast pizza pie, being waylaid by a bunch of people with impossibly large teeth, siphoned for blood then bound and gagged by the HUD Secretary.  It had not been a good Tuesday morning for Bud Soheski and the day did not promise to get better.

After examining the blood live on an electron microscope the doctors measured Wiley's blood pressure – a healthy one ten over fifty five – and skin elasticity, which was excellent for a man in his fifties.  Next, behind a screen Wiley dropped his shorts
and the
rectal exam commenced.  A long tube with a camera mounted on the end was inserted into the candidate's body and soon the
insides of a very human small intestine were being shown to the world.  Unfortunately for Bud Soheski it was his intestine being shown and the tube had been inserted in his body with far less
ceremony and
lubrication
than the normal rectal exam.  It was decided not to show Wiley's insides due to the slowness with which zombies digest human beings.  It would no
t do to project the remains of a
Girl Scout troop leading grandmother – Wiley's meal the night before – to the American people.

The exam finished with x-rays and a MRI, each of which cemented the candidate's qualification for office as a human being.  Wiley,
the consummate
pleasant, patient and non threatening black man, smiled throughout.

Afterward
a fully dressed
Wiley sat facing Lauer for a brief interview.

"Secretary Wiley, what does it say about your opponent's campaign that they question your status as a human being?"

"I think, Matt, that black people have always been seen as less than human.  This is a historic fact.  The people saying that I'm from outer space are saying the same thing people said during slavery or during Jim Crow –
'
I
can abuse you
because you are black
and blacks are not human
'
.
"

"So it's racism?"

"It's really desperation, Matt.  The president has a message that resonates with the American people.  Our opponents want the status quo, more of the same failed policies of the past.  The
y'
re out of ideas."  He smiled broadly.  "All they have left is to accuse me of being from outer space."

"Which we clearly saw this morning, is not the case."

"Exactly."  He looked into the camera.  "To all you purveyors of hate, know one thing: we love you.  And when we win, we'll embrace all of you, wrap our arms around you and take you into our…..hearts.
"

Lauer.  "I, for one, look forward to that."  He suggestively licked his
thin
lips.  "Thank you candidate Wiley and I'll turn this back to
Al
Roker
for today's forecast
.  A
l
?"

Tamesha had had several days to examine her prissy prison, the former bedroom of Melinda Jean Bartholomew.  She was looking for a way out and, in the closet, she found it.  In the ceiling was a one foot square panel the led to the attic.  In her wanderings around the second floor – Hank did not permit her to go downstairs – she had found
the panel's
twin in the master bath at the opposite end of the house.  If she could climb up to the attic, walk down to the other panel and descend onto the bathroom
floor that
would get her past the bedroom door Hank locked every evening
.  She would
then
have to
sneak
past Hank's gauntlet of balls, bells and chimes on the stairs,
and
somehow
escape
out
of
a window or door on the first floor without alerting her captor
.

After
a
Hank
prepared
meal of waffles, bacon and fish sticks, Tamesha watched TV with Hank then went to bed.  Hank locked his captive's door with the set of three
pad
locks he had
transplanted
from the barn doors. 

A wife was more valuable than a couple
of
horses, right?

Tamesha pretended to shower and brush her teeth.  She donned one of Melinda's night gowns and waited for the inevitable visit from Hank.

She read Melissa's copy of "The Hunger Games" while she waited.  She hoped that she could show the same courage as the novel's heroine Katniss
Everdeen.

Near midnight she heard the three lock
s
being disengaged and the bedroom door opened.

Hank peeked inside the room.  "May I come in, darling?"

She was his "darling" now.

Tamesha smiled, sat her book on the bed covers, and nodded.

"I just wanted to say good night to my bride," Hank said. He took a seat on the edge of the bed and gingerly kissed her on the cheek.

"Are you okay?  Do you need anything?" he asked.

Yes, I need my freedom.  I need all the zombies like you to be dead.

"No, I'm okay," she said.  She yawned, which caused her jailer to yawn
, although as a zombie it was a wasted gesture – they did not sleep
.

"I better
let you get your rest
."  He smiled.  "All the arrangements have been made, all the guests
will be here at two sharp tomorrow."  He took her hand and kissed it.  "Finally darling, our wedding day has arrived.  After Reverend Portlow marries us we'll have a quick dinner then retire to our wedding bed.  Would you prefer to do it in this bed?  I never asked if you had a preference."

Tamesha smiled, pretended to think about it.  "I like this bed a lot, Hank."

He stood, patted the bed.  "Here it will be," he said.  "We
'll
lose our virginity right here."  He patted the bed once more, smiled, then left.

Tamesha heard the locks engage one by one.

She picked up her book once again and read and waited.

At three a.m. she climbed out of the bed.
  She peeled the nightgown off to reveal the jeans and t-shirt underneath.  She removed her socks as she had decided that she would be quieter in her bare feet.

She took Melissa's desk chair into the closet and sat it underneath the attic opening. 
Tamesha c
limbed onto the chair and immediately found that she had a problem: she still could not reach the opening.

She tamped down the panic in her mind and thought for a moment.  Seconds later she was back in the bedroom
where
she grabbed several books off the bookcase
.  She
brought them into the closet
and
placed the
m
under the legs of the chair until the chair was raised about six inches.

She gingerly climbed on to the suddenly less than stable chair.  It wobbled as she reached as high as she could.  Her fingers
found
the piece of painted plywood that covered the opening.  With a firm push, it lifted and she was able to sweep it aside.  She grabbed the sides of the opening and lifted herself up and through.

She never felt so grateful for being forced to do all those chin-ups during gym class.

She had no flashlight and it was very dark in the attic, with only a few slats of moonlight to guide her way.  Her eyes adjusted to the dark as well as they could
and she knew that she just needed to walk straight ahead to reach the opposite opening.  There was no floor to walk upon, only the parallel wooden beams.

Tamesha got in a crouch and began to make her way across.  It was warm in the attic, away from the house's central air, and she began to sweat.  Midway, she paused.  She was above Hank's bedroom and she stopped to listen.  She could hear
nothing – no noise to indicate his presence -
and she felt momentarily safe and confident.  She continued on.

She reached the opposite opening.  Her hands glistened with sweat and she wiped them on her pants and shirt before reaching for the piece of plywood that covered the opening into the master bathroom.  She placed a finger under one corner of the board and attempted to lift it. 

It would not move.  She took a deep breath and got fingers from both hands under the board and
pull
ed with all her strength.  The board still would not
budge
.

She fought back her fear and panic.  Maybe the board was just warped, she thought. 
I just need to keep trying
, she told herself.

Somewhere, deep in her mind, the Devil was telling her that she would be a zombie bride to Hank Bartholomew
.

She spent several more minutes tugging on the board.  It would not move.  Finally, she felt around the edges of the board and discovered the nails that had been used to prevent the board from moving.  The tips of the nails pricked one of her fingers - it had been nailed shut from the bathroom side.

She was still in a crouch – her knees hurt her now, the sweat covered her
skin
in
slick
sheets, and now her eyes were leaking.

She felt low, in a dark deep pool of despair.  Her breaths were short and shallow, coming fast. 

When she hung her head an image of Granny T's gnarled feet flashed in
front of her
.  She looked up and followed the feet – attached to an image of Granny T dressed in her favorite bright red tent like mu-mu – as they walked over to a huge window.  The image pretended to unlatch the screen and then floated out of the attic.

Tamesha blinked once,
and
then pinched her arm to make sure that she was awake and alive.

She crab walked over to the
window, regained her full height
and looked out.  Directly outside was the barn.  There was a rope that stretched from just outside the window to the hayloft of the barn.

As Granny T had showed her, Tamesha unlock
ed
the screen and swung it open.  Again using skills learned in gym class, Tamesha used a hand over hand technique to transit the thirty feet
of rope leading
to the barn. 

Good old
Katniss had nothing on Tamesha Louise Holloway.

Approximately two hundred and forty-seven miles above the Earth's s
urface
the International Space
Station was accepting a visitor, the Firefly capsule.  It was the first private spacecraft authorized to dock at the ISS.  Station commander Oleg Kononenko and astronaut Don Pettit watched as the spacecraft completed its docking sequence.  The pair confirmed a successful dock with NASA and Virgin Spaceways, the craft's owner.  The two suited up and opened the airlock between the two crafts.  Pettit gave a
thumbs
up as he entered the capsule.  He could feel the history of this moment, the first private spacecraft to enter low Earth orbit and execute a docking sequence.

The pair buzzed around the capsule for several minutes before retrieving the supplies inside.

Kononenko and Pettit were
soon
back in the ISS with the other astronauts, unpacking and stowing the supplies. 
Astronaut
Suni Williams was the one who found the globes.

Afterwards, the crew assembled for
a special transmission
from
the Earth.

"Welcome, astronauts, to the dawn of a new era for the Earth
, t
o the transcendence of a new race of beings.  And you, my children, are
the
anointed
ones chosen
to make it happen.  You will plant the seeds of the salvation of our planet."

"We will serve you until the day we die," said Kononenko.

Benjamin Wiley laughed.  "Hopefully you will serve me a bit longer than that, my friends, you lovely children of God.  You see, you are already dead.  Now, listen carefully, this is the work I need you to do."

Tamesha
climbed onto the hayloft and looked back at the house.  It would be so easy to run away now but she knew she couldn't run.

Where would she go?  Her foster parents would never believe her about the zombies and
H
ank would just kidnap her again.  If she ran away from
Daly City
, she would be easy pickings for all the zombies she knew were out there.  No, she had to make a stand here.  She had to make this a safe place.  And the only way to do that was to destroy that zombie Hank Bartholomew II.  She just hoped that she would find a weapon inside the barn that would do the trick.