The Great War (Surviving the Zombie Nightmare Book 5) (4 page)

“I will not sit down!” Abel said and took two quick steps away from his chair towards the co-presidents’ side of the meeting room. “I will not sit down and you certainly will not force me to be quiet. I have something else to say about Mr. Bayne and Destiny. I think… ah!” Suddenly Abel grabbed the right side of his neck and dropped to one knee. Mere seconds after that, he fell flat out on his face and was completely unconscious. Almost everyone, including Dr. Cain and Admiral Bullosky stood and looked in his direction as Dr. Isaiah checked on him. Quickly Isaiah stood up and was holding a small dart in his hand. He and everyone else looked to the only person at the table who was not checking in on Abel; Mandy.

With her face as calm as the morning breeze, Mandy held and flipped a small dart gun around in her grasp, “Maybe you can’t make him shut up but I just did. Can we get on with this meeting?” She rubbed the small bump that adorned her midsection, “I’m feeling my morning sickness coming on any second now.”

Peyton Terry looked at her, then to Abel and back to her, “Are you insane? You can’t just take out a high-ranking member of this organization with a dart because you got yourself knocked up!” He looked over to Bullosky, “I want her removed from the meeting immediately!”

Bullosky started to shake his head but before he could speak, Dr. Cain did. “Mandy, you are to leave and return to your quarters. Remain there until you receive word of your consequences for assaulting Mr. Nichols.”

“Mandy, don’t,” Bullosky started to refute Dr. Cain’s command but for the first time in their time as co-presidents, Cain spoke above him.

“Mandy! You will remove yourself from the meeting or you will be removed by force at my command! Get out now or be removed!”

The attractive little brunette glanced angrily at everyone at the table and then looked at Cain, “You’d best send someone strong to my quarters Dr. Cain. I can’t be certain that you wouldn’t step in a large pile of vomit if you step in yourself; if you know what I mean.”

Dr. Cain did not respond to the veiled threat. Instead the room was quiet as Mandy left and a team of medical professionals safely lifted and removed Abel from the room. It looked like Dr. Isaiah was about to continue with his research information but he never got the chance.

Admiral Bullosky spoke up above everyone in a voice that only barely was disguised as human. “This meeting is adjourned! Everyone except Dr. Cain is to leave immediately. Anyone not out within thirty seconds of this command will be dealt with by me personally.”

Terry surely considered himself a tough guy and didn’t like doing exactly what anyone but Dr. Cain said. He glanced at her and she nodded proudly that he should do what he was told. Still, he had no idea what this guy was capable of so barely before the time limit was up he stood and went to the door and glared at Bullosky. After the door shut, Terry didn’t plan to go any further. An officer to his left stepped in, “You are not allowed to stand within fifty feet of the door when a meeting is still going on inside Mr. Terry. I’m sorry but you will have to move along.”

“Since when?” Terry glared at the young man.

“It is a new provision added to O.A. Law sir. Please move along or I will be forced to move you myself by any means necessary as is stated in the law.”

Terry looked at him and stepped closer, “And if I refuse? You really think you can take me down?”

“Sir, I’m certain that I will either succeed in moving you away from this door or that I will die trying. Do not force me to harm you Mr. Terry.”

Finally Terry took a few steps backwards and then turned to walk towards his quarters. As he walked he murmured, “Can’t hear anything through the damn door anyway.”

**

When the room cleared, Dr. Cain did not know exactly what to expect from her new partner. What she did know was that if she did not stand her ground in at least one or two areas she would be overrun within a week. She knew that Admiral Bullosky was a demon; a real life demon. That meant that he was immensely more powerful than she in nearly every single way possible. She also knew however that if he had all of the power and all of the ability that he needed to dominate the entire Earth, he would not have asked her for a partnership. Something bothered him. Whether it was Eric Bayne and Destiny or that the heavenly hosts were much more prepared and ready for the demons than he led on, she couldn’t say.

“How badly do you want this relationship to work Dr. Cain?” Bullosky asked when the room was clear.

Dr. Cain looked solidly into his eyes, “How badly do you want it to work Admiral?”

Bullosky took a slow walk around the corner of the table. Cain assumed that he was attempting to calm himself or at least trying to make it look like he was. Finally he looked up with a relatively calm expression and said, “Dr. Cain, you need me on your side in order to get to where you want to be. Do you want that opportunity ruined by your grandstanding and pride?”

“Oh, that’s a good one; a demon accusing someone of being too prideful. Isn’t that how all of this started way back in that certain garden?” Genesis Cain smiled briefly before continuing, “Look Bullosky, you are not wrong but guess what? You need me and O.A. on your side in order to get to where you want to be as well. This is going to be give and take my new co-president. I will give you the lead a lot of the time. You can take liberties with some things but hear me and hear me well. If you attempt to override me again in a meeting, in a one on one conversation or in any other way that would suggest we are not partners, Organic Ascendancy will no longer be willing to play your little game. My doctor is smart enough to have already backed up and re-backed up the new technology he had learned. Right now we could lose everyone on staff that is above clearance level and we still could survive without you. If you want a war with someone else on your plate, try to override me again. I will withhold my support of you and your demonic horde. Without me, you do not have one person in O.A. You might take us down into the dust in a war, but should it come to that, you will take your losses as well. I guarantee it. We are either partners, fifty –fifty, or we are enemies who shall fight to the death. Which is it Admiral?”

For a moment Dr. Cain thought that their young partnership would end right there with the demonic Admiral doing something drastic and dramatic to burn her to ash. That would be okay because if he did something to her, she knew well that her people would die before they followed him. She needed the help of the demons for now. For years they had tried to fight against the zombies. Now that joining the demons meant working with zombies, she was perfectly fine with people being upset by that.

They should question her. She didn’t have to answer them or even act as if they had a right to question her; but they should question. Dr. Cain also figured that Abel Nichols was probably right about Bullosky blocking his spiritual contacts. The fact that he was probably about to make really good points that would draw into serious question whether or not Eric Bayne and Destiny were dead made it quite okay that Mandy had silenced him as well.

Whatever the combination of factors that were swirling around in the demon’s head, he actually surprised Dr. Cain in responding in a calm fashion. “Doctor, I respect that you have the courage to stand up to me. Actually it makes for a better relationship between the two of us but only because you have a good reason behind it. If the case was that you were only grandstanding out of jealousy, you would not have made it out of this room today. As it is, I only get to know you better now than I did before. I also know well how important you and your cooperation are to O.A. accepting me and my kind as partners.”

Bullosky laughed quickly, “When you live life as a demon, you kind of get accustomed to people not trusting you. I don’t mind the odd looks and even the tough questions from your team here today. There is one problem however.”

Dr. Cain narrowed her eyelids, “And that is?”

“The fact of the matter is that Eric Bayne and Destiny are not dead,” Bullosky shrugged. “From all of our reliable information, they are alive and well. We have no idea where they are but there have been no signs of a body of either one. I think we both know them well enough to say that if there is no body, they are alive and well. The question is simply what we can do about that?”

“Why should we have to do anything about it at all?” Dr. Cain asked.

Bullosky looked at her as if she were the craziest human he had ever seen, “What do you mean? Surely you heard that your very team is already questioning whether they are alive. Why should we build an army if they are both dead? It is a good question Dr. Cain.”

“So,” Cain shook her head as if she didn’t understand, “Let them question. Something that I have learned after leading this organization for so long is that allowing them to question you does many things. First of all it gives the illusion that they are near your level. When I do not answer directly, it then shows them that while I am a good enough president to allow them their questions, I do not require myself to answer.”

Bullosky frowned, “So you give them the feeling of control while at the same time clarifying that you are in complete control, brilliant.”

“What can I say Bullosky?” Cain responded, “We humans are worth more than our scientific brilliance and pure zombie man power. You might find if you align yourself with us for long enough that you actually like humans.” Bullosky was quiet as Dr. Cain walked towards the meeting room door. She stopped with her hand on the doorknob and looked back over her shoulder at her demonic partner, “Maybe you’ll even decide that you don’t want to take us all down into the dust when you’re finished. Perhaps you could trust us for long enough that instead of taking us down with you, we can all ascend to the highest level of heaven? Give it some thought Admiral. As far as Bayne and Destiny; we simply send enough man-power to kill them for real on a mission to ‘find their bodies’ and the problem goes away. There is no reason to worry.” With that she opened the door, promptly walked out and left him to his thoughts.

Everything that she did was for a specific reason or she would not have parted ways with the best human agent she had ever had. Some might think she was crazy. Maybe she was crazy after all. One thing that she knew for absolute certain was that if humanity wanted to carve its own path into power in the universe, to attain godhood without bowing their knee; she was their best chance. The fact that it meant working with a demon to get to the finish line was just another sacrifice she was willing to make.

When Eric walked from the bathroom back into the main area of the trailer, Destiny was sitting there rubbing her ass again. He rolled his eyes and ignored her as best he could. Quickly he grabbed his sword and began to make sure it was sharp. That way he could focus on something besides her sexy ass. Since the incident with him getting somewhat unintentionally excited during their little fight, Destiny had not let him forget it for a moment. It was constantly a battle for him to just ignore her and walk out of the room. For her side of the situation, she basically had the run of the place with a simple turn of her body or look from her eyes.

As far as Eric was concerned and considering this was such a hellish place for a heavenly safe house, having the run of it really didn’t matter at all. He would much prefer not to have to deal with her. Now things were getting serious though because he was not only getting stir crazy but he also had another vision that led him to believe that he needed to get moving. They couldn’t win any war sitting around and arguing with or ignoring each other.

“That doesn’t look very appetizing,” Destiny said with what he figured was a sultry look towards the cans of food near him. Eric didn’t look over at her. She said, “Why don’t you forget eating that and try sampling someone else. Oops, did I say someone?”

Finally Eric threw his sword down and looked over at her, “Would you fucking stop that? Okay, you got me. I got a little accidentally excited when I was kicking your ass the other day; big deal. I have always enjoyed kicking people’s asses. What I want to do right now is get in that piece of shit-mobile out there, drive to Organic Ascendancy and hand them their asses in a box! We can’t expect to do anything but die if we just sit here. If you want me to sample your ass, you’re just going to have to fucking wait! I want to kill someone, not fuck someone!” He could feel his face was as red as blood as he finished, “If I touch you right now, it’ll be the killing kind, not the fucking kind! What’s it going to be?”

Destiny was quiet for a bit with a sour expression on her face. Apparently she had rather enjoyed manipulating him into giving her run of the house. The things he had said seemed to weigh on her however as her expression shifted. She sat straight up, then stood up and walked towards the counter. She crossed her arms and cocked her head to one side, “You want a piece of Organic Ascendancy?”

Eric spat out, “Fuck yes, I do!”

“I can get you there, but I’m not sure you want to do that.”

“Why the hell not?” Eric asked.

She shrugged, “I know O.A. and how Genesis Cain operates. They probably have already told their people that I am dead since that was clearly the plan. The same is probably true of you.”

“Who cares?” Eric demanded, “Let’s go show them how fucking wrong they are!”

“You don’t understand Eric,” Destiny said now propping her hands on the counter. “This must really be a safe house that the demons cannot find because I assure you they are looking for us. Dr. Cain wasn’t intending to lie to her people in saying that the two of us are dead. She was simply telling what the result of her plan B would be.”

After a moment of thought he said, “So you’re saying they are hunting us down to try and finish what dozens of demons, cross-breeds and zombies couldn’t do?”

“Absolutely,” she nodded, “That is what I’m saying.” She held a hand up to stop him from talking until she was finished. “This wouldn’t be a team of lackeys like she sent with me to double-cross me. We are talking about teams of the best warriors she has coupled with however they are working with the demons and zombies. If we leave this trailer to leave a death mark on O.A., we had better be ready to have a mark left on us as well. Win or lose, no one battles Organic Ascendancy and Dr. Genesis Cain without accepting loss and scars. Are you ready for that?”

Eric thought for a while about her words. Clearly she would know a lot about the organization so he knew he should take her words seriously. Some part of her had to want to get revenge on them but she was still worried about how hard the fight would be. Perhaps he should be thinking along the terms not of what he could take from O.A. but rather what they could take from him if he decided to take the fight to them.

In the end however the choice was not that difficult. “Destiny, these zombie bastards killed my parents and my brother by making him a zombie that I was forced to kill. The same is true of the people you mentioned the other day as well as Bart. You took my right hand from me and the only person I thought I could somewhat trust turned her back on me to be the mother of the new human race or some shit. I understand you are serious that O.A. won’t go down without a fight but what the fuck else do I have to lose?”

Destiny stood to her full height again and smirked, “I would love to drop a few bombs on the place Eric. If you are willing to go in there and risk whatever it is that they could do to us; I’m more than willing to fight with you.”

“Hell, let’s get going then!” Eric reached for his sword but Destiny put her hand on the blade and kept it down.

“Hold on their lover-boy,” she shook her head with a smile. “If you want to hop in the old-ass-mobile out there and just drive up to O.A., you must want this to end really quickly with a really big bang and with the two of us in pieces. Nobody and I mean nobody drives up to that place and survives when they are at the security level they are at right now except for their own people. We need a plan and it has to be a good one.”

Eric thought for the briefest of moments. She was right of course but a plan had come to him while she was still talking. He said, “That makes it pretty simple Destiny. You already said that these goons are looking for us, right?”

Destiny nodded, “Yes, without a doubt.”

“Then we simply go out there and joyride until one of them finds us. We slaughter their little demon-loving asses in the worst fashion, take whatever credentials we need, hop in their vehicles and drive right in.”

A wide smile formed on Destiny’s face, “Imagine the look on the faces in the hanger when the door to one of their trucks opens and they see me; the dead having come back to life. It won’t be easy Eric and it might need tweaking, but I’m in.”

They started walking towards the door at the same time. When they were outside and in the old truck that they currently had to use as transportation Eric looked over and flipped Destiny the keys, “You drive. I don’t know where these goons would be hunting and you probably do. By the way,” he looked over with a hard expression, “When did you get the right to call me Eric instead of Bayne? How about I find out your real name and call you by that name?”

“You could do that,” Destiny said as she started the old truck and slowly teased it into actually moving forward. “If you do I’ll cut off your other hand, both feet and the other appendage.”

Eric made a sour expression, “I see.” He planned to do what he could to find that full name as they began looking for a team of well-trained warriors, demons and zombies who were all looking to kill the two of them. Crazy, somehow, did not seem to quite describe them correctly.

**

“Are you still sure this is something we want to do?” Destiny asked Bayne who was sitting calmly in the passenger’s seat. Most of the drive had been silent and aimless. What were they supposed to do to find the group that she knew was out hunting for them? It seemed like one of those things where if she and Bayne had wanted to avoid the groups hunting them, they would have run across four of them already and would be half dead. Because they happened to be seeking them out, they had found nothing. That was only bad because the surge of adrenaline that had accompanied her when the two of them left was long gone. Instead of wanting to find the O.A. bastards that had turned their back on her, Destiny found herself remembering that it was going to be a deadly mission that she and Bayne would very likely not both return from. If they both lived through it, the safe bet would be that they wouldn’t be the same.

Eric finally broke his silence, “It seems to be our only real option Destiny. Plus, it has been too long since I had zombie blood on my hands. In other words,” he glared at her with a passion that she simply could not easily find within herself at the moment and said, “Fuck yes we want to do this!”

Destiny could think of about a dozen reasons that they might not want to go all out looking for a group of people that was trying to kill them. Just as she opened her mouth to begin arguing the points she thought of, she saw a truck that looked like it was loaded down with a complete band of O.A. soldiers. Based on the way Eric was shifting in his seat and looking in that same direction, he saw them too. She shook her head and knew that it didn’t matter now why they shouldn’t get involved in the mess right now. All of those reasons were gone.

“It’s time to bust this shit up!” Eric said like he was getting ready to watch a professional football playoff game instead of getting ready to start a fight that might end his life. He finished in the same manner, “Its go time!”

She veered their beaten up vehicle into the path of the truck causing it to swerve to one side. The two vehicles came to a stop, after the O.A. truck spun around, within a few yards of each other. Already she noted that the driver was speaking into a comm-link but the passenger-side soldier found himself looking directly at her. His eyes were as big as silver dollars and his mouth was gaped wide open. She wasn’t a lip reader but it sure looked like he said something about someone being alive. That mystery didn’t matter though. Six soldiers were already out of the truck and ready with weaponry directed at them and more were on the way.

“I hope your telepathic powers are all charged up,” Eric said quietly, “You’re going to need them.”

Destiny sighed, “Now you start to sound like you’re worried, seriously?”

Eric glanced at her and smirked, “Let’s go.”

With a quick thought back to the last pack of stims she took, Destiny was sure she was more than ready for not only this fight but a few more after this one. Even though she thought she was out and ready in a hurry with her sword in hand; Eric was already locked in with three of the group. He had pulled their weapons out of their hands quickly and then pulled the actual soldiers in very close. Before Destiny could reach the front of the car, those three were dead on the ground. Wow, she thought, Eric really was itching to get his hands on someone. That could only mean one thing. She would have to get busy doing some damage to make sure his kill count wasn’t more than hers.

Three soldiers were already heading towards Eric so Destiny chose to take a running leap towards the group behind them. There were four in all. Those four should just about complete the human portion of the group but she knew there would be more on the way. As she landed in the middle of her four she called out to Eric, “Bayne we’ll have more to deal with soon so we should kill these quickly.” She smiled at the shocked soldier standing in front of her, “What’s the problem big boy? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. No matter,” she pulled her sword to her right hand and struck a defensive pose to protect against the first wave of attacks from the group, “You’ll be a ghost soon enough.”

No immediate attack came though. Instead the soldier directly in front of her kept his hands at his sides and said, “You, you’re alive.” He looked towards where Bayne was disposing of his second group, “Both of you are alive. They said you were dead.”

Destiny didn’t relax but she couldn’t believe what he had said. Organic Ascendancy’s high brass really had told the rest of the organization that she and Bayne died. She suspected they might, but to hear that it was true was somehow worse. It certainly made sense from Dr. Cain's point of view. A great deal of the group liked or even loved what she had done for O.A. What better way to jump right over the reaction that turning their back on Destiny would bring than to suggest that she died probably while fighting Bayne. Some might still think of her as a traitor depending on what they were told but that didn’t matter. She smiled a teasing smile and relaxed her stance into one that looked more like a dancer approaching a partner instead of someone getting ready to fight to the death. The poor boy actually smiled as she sauntered up to him.

Once she was so close she could feel the warmth of his breath she said, “Maybe they were just mistaken.” She shrugged as she quickly flipped the grip on her sword at her side. “Then again, maybe they were talking about you.” In a swift move she lifted her sword and swung it in a wide sweep at neck level of all four soldiers. The blade cut through three of them like a knife through butter but the fourth had enough time to jump back.

He didn’t stay back long as he then charged forward, likely hoping to catch Destiny off balance. Unfortunately for him, she was more than ready. After planting her feet she surged forward to meet him with a quick, straight kick. The boot caught him directly under the chin and he fell backwards into the side of the truck. Before she could charge forward and end his life, Eric jumped in front of her and sliced the O.A. soldier’s head off with a left-hand grip. He turned to her and smiled, “That’s seven to three I got you so far girly pearly. You’re either rusty or just don’t want to kill your own kind.”

If looks could kill then the look Destiny gave Eric would have burned him to ash quicker than the light-power of the demons. “You’re going to pay for that bullshit!”

Eric stepped calmly to one side of the O.A. truck, “Ah, don’t worry about it. This next bunch should give you plenty of chances to even the score. Plus you won’t have to feel bad about killing your O.A. buddies.”