Redemption of the Dead (26 page)

“I do,” she said, “but I also want to
know precisely what you guys were doing down here.”

“I’ll say it
again, little lady,” Nole said. “I don’t know why this is such a
big deal to you—”

“If you keep talking, I might tell you
and believe me it’s news you want to hear.”

That seemed
to get his attention because Nole’s face quickly went serious, and
she knew she had him interested to give information in exchange for
receiving some. He said, “We needed to find weapons that worked
against them quickly and effectively. We needed to find competent
people to man those weapons. We even decided we needed to make some
new ones.”

Billie flashed back to some of the
other secret bases she visited and the amazing tech they were
producing. “I’m aware of some of those.”

“You are? Name one.”

“Try the
D-K-Fourteen-P-Two-X,” she said, referring to that amazing
exoskeleton she saw.

Nole’s eyes
widened then squinted with complete suspicion. “Who are you,
really?”

“Just a kid, like you said, but I’m
also a kid who knows stuff and stuff you need to know if you have
any hope of surviving this attack.”

“Yeah, like what?”

“You finish talking and if I like what
I hear, I might say a thing or two, too.”

Greg said,
“I think we should listen. We got nothing to gain by holding back
now. She obviously knows about one of our most secret projects.
She’s already seen the place. Even if she told people out there,
there’s not enough of us to defend the fort anyway.”

Nole put his hands on his hips. “So
you’re saying we should just let this chick tell us what to do and
hope for the best? Since when did you grow a spine and tell me what
to do?”

“Since I
realized that if these folks could take out our captors and found
us after so long without human contact aside from ourselves, they
are people to be trusted, even just superficially to
start.”

Nole seemed
to think it over. “I’ll make you a deal, kid.”

“I
thought I was a
chick
,” Billie
said.

“Sorry. I’ll
make you a deal, Miss—”

“Call me B.”

“Fine. B. Whatever. You give me a
piece of info, I give you one of mine, and back and forth we
go.”

“How about you start and we’ll go from
there? You don’t really have a choice.”

He sighed.
“What you’re wanting me to divulge is classified information which
could jeopardize an operation months in the making and coordinated
around the globe. Do you get that?”

“I get it,
and what you don’t understand is you can tell me everything you
know and the conversation will still end with, ‘It’s not going to
work,’ because I know something you don’t and I’m not bluffing. I
have a piece of intel you won’t believe to be true, but it is, and
unless that piece of info is factored into your game plan, you,
your men, even me and mine, won’t have a prayer out there for much
longer.”

“Much longer?”

“Yeah, Lieutenant, not much longer
because a real bad guy has come to town and, you could say, is even
the one responsible for what you see out there.”

“Tell me!”

“You first.”

Checkmate.
Billie kept
a straight face, didn’t even blink.

“Those men
in the other room,” Greg said, “they forced us to show them how our
weapons worked. And we did. We had no choice because, like I said
before, they had a way of making a person do what they wanted them
to, so we showed them. Those who refused were killed and came back
as one of those creatures. The weird part was, those men didn’t
kill those that returned and told us not to as well. Instead, they
wanted to find a way to make those creatures immune to our weapons.
They asked us to make those walking dead things
invincible.”

“You didn’t figure it out, did you?”
she asked.

He slowly
shook his head. “Not quite. We had ideas, even a few tests, but the
decaying tissue was too fragile. Even those who were once with us,
who died then came back, they started to decay rapidly compared to
how long it would normally take for a human being to decompose, and
that’s just a human in the air, not in the ground where there’s all
sorts of aids to break them down quickly.”

“Why did
they lock you in elevator?” Sven asked.

“Part of it was simply to threaten
us,” Nole said. “They couldn’t kill everybody otherwise they’d have
no one to work for them. They started locking us up one by one. It
worked for a few people and they complied without question. A few
others tried to secretly come up with a plan to get out. That
didn’t turn out so well either. Those ones were killed and, like
the others, came back and were used in experiments. Dr. Moore was
different, though, wasn’t he, Greg?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Go ahead, tell them.”

“Moore was
one of my colleagues and a genius at coming up with really strange
ideas, but every one of them was solidly backed up by science. It
was more an issue of if it could be done or built versus looking
good on paper. Just because the background facts add up doesn’t
mean what you try to do with them will.”

“Get on with it,” Nole
said.

“Moore was
there when the first men went down. He was the only one called
forth to conduct the early experiments. We didn’t see him for hours
on that day, but when he returned, he was different. Sometimes he’d
act like himself, other times he was a completely different person.
Some days I thought maybe he’d been abducted by aliens or something
and had been replaced.”

That’s pretty close to the truth,
Billie thought, but kept it to herself.

“Moore quickly started taking charge and asking us to do
more and more bizarre things, even bizarre dissections with one of
the creatures and one of the people
while they were alive
,
and try and crossbreed them. I mean, Moore knew full well we didn’t
have the equipment for that kind of thing down here, but he
insisted we make do with what we had and assured us that
conventional scientific method might not be needed for working with
a new species. Eventually, it was clear Dr. Moore had sided with
our captors. They even answered to him. I couldn’t dwell on it all
the time. I was run ragged enough as it was. So was Nole here. We
all were. Like I said, we basically were told to keep our heads
down and work.”

“That all
changed when I guess it was realized that Dr. Undersall, myself and
the others had done all we could, so we were all thrown into those
elevators. I even asked Moore why they didn’t kill us and he said
that our services might still be required. That was the last we saw
of him or those other men. A few days later, you guys showed
up.”

It
was a lot to take in, but it was clear the demons were attempting
to create an invincible army by any means necessary. Billie wasn’t
sure if it was completely meant for a battle with man and then
another means would be used for a battle with the angels, or
perhaps even an attempt to become impervious to
any
assault
was the end goal.

“The
weapons,” she said, “are they functional?”

“If they
hadn’t changed anything since a few days back, yes,” Greg said,
“but not all of the prototypes have been tested.”

“All right, Lieutenant,” Billie said,
“you held up your end of the bargain so I’ll hold up mine. This
attack you’re planning? It has to happen now.”

“Oh yeah, why’s that?”

“Because this isn’t about killing
zombies anymore. This about taking on the armies of Hell
itself.”

All four of the men looked at her with
uncertainty.

“I
th
ink you’re too tired,
Billie,” Sven said. “You don’t know what you mean.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Lieutenant
Nole, I can quickly create a briefing for you if you give me
something to write on. You can relay that info to all parties that
you are working with. I know I sound crazy, but we’re also living
in a crazy world at the moment. I know that you and Greg didn’t
tell me about the mirrors.”

Both men’s eyes widened with
surprise.

“You know about those?” Greg
said.

“That’s what you were referring to
when you said they ‘had a way’ of controlling your
people.”

He nodded.
“How did—”

“I fought
the mirrors, these guys, too. That’s when Moore came in. He changed
form, gentlemen, went from the man you knew to one of those
disgusting creatures. I also know why you were told to do the
experiments you were. The undead aren’t merely people risen from
the grave. They are people who are possessed with hell spawn.” The
elation of sudden revelation buoyed her spirits. “Why do you think
people began to decay faster than normal once they returned? If you
have death itself inside you, there is only one result.” Had she
said too much? She decided it best to keep her mouth shut until she
felt it was appropriate to say more.

The four men stood there, silent.
Billie glanced over to Sven, who returned her gaze with a look of
pity.

Please don’t think I’m crazy,
she thought.
I’m
telling the truth. I’ll show you somehow. Just don’t push away
whatever it was you thought about me before, I . . . I began to
like it.

After a long
moment, she said, “What’s our next move?”

Nole glanced
at Greg, and after a sigh, said, “Know any good
priests?”

* * * *

The Present . .
.

It had come to fruition as
Lucifer planned. The Earth had fallen, humanity possessed. Only a
few small pockets of resistance remained. Even the angelic presence
that used to be so common on Earth was now whittled down to very
few.

The greeting at the
lakeside had been commendable and it was there the devil got to see
these new creations—these undead creatures—for the first time. They
were beautiful and grew even more gorgeous by the second as he
absorbed the damage they had done to humanity.

After speaking with them and ordering them to sniff out
every last human soul on the planet, he spread his own wings and
ascended into the sky and flew over the land, taking in the ravaged
cities, the fields of bodies, the infected animals, the dead trees
and grass, even the dead fish in the lakes. Though it wouldn’t
affect him, the toxicity in the air would take its part on killing
all that remained with its poison. The canopy above of gray clouds
and brown sky further reduced any interference from life-giving
water and the sun’s healing and growth-giving rays. The Earth was
rotting and it didn’t take eons to bring it to the brink; only a
single year.

The smell of death lingered
on every molecule of air, exciting the devil as he flew. Even the
ocean as he soared over it at incredible speed looked chalky and
stale. With no sun, the water didn’t evaporate and just stayed
there to stew with the awesome amount of dead sea creatures
within.

It had all come to pass
perfectly.

Once humanity was absent and his army complete, the
invitation to battle would be sent to Heaven’s gates and,
outnumbered, the Golden City would be overrun by demon and
possessed human alike, and finally—after eons of waiting—the
enormous throne in its center would be his.

The devil flew on, a grin
creasing his face.

However, he needed one last
item to ensure victory.

* * * *

25

Demons

J
oe laid alone
on the cot. He had looked around for
Tracy and, not finding her, started to panic, thinking maybe she
was more mad at him than he realized and had taken off into the
streets, but when he saw her talking to one of the trainers he
sighed with relief. He wanted to go up to her and ask her if she
was coming to bed, even waited around for over twenty minutes,
trying to look like he was occupied inspecting the floor, but when
she didn’t look his way he cut his losses and went back to what was
supposed to be
their
room. Alone.

Now, laying
there with his arms folded across his chest, no blanket, it felt
like old times again. No girl. Just him. Always alone. The
difference was, now he knew better than to base his identity on a
girl and instead tried to be himself. He was most certainly not his
old, old self. That man—that boy—had died the day of the Rain. He
was becoming something new, but he was also aware he had to
suppress this new side of him for the time being, and not only at
Tracy’s command of doing so, but for the good of himself and any he
might have a chance of influencing. With a possible war coming up
soon, he couldn’t lose his edge.

He hoped
Tracy would take the time to lie down even if it was not with him.
She needed to rest, too, and it scared him to think he’d have to
compensate for both of them in battle if she wasn’t functioning
properly.