The Sunshine Dame of Doom (6 page)

“But he’s not number one.”

“He isn’t?”

“Huh uh.”

“Then who’s number one?”

“Pink Floyd!”

Hector woke up with a cockroach in his mouth. He coughed it out, almost choking on it. He was confused, his head hurt. He tried to wipe sweat off his forehead. That was when he noticed he was in chains, attached to a makeshift bed with a torn mattress.

Hector looked around frightened, he could barely move. His eyes found Vince lying on a similar bed beside him.

“Vince! Hey Vince! Wake up, man! VINCE! WAKE UP!

His brother moved, but couldn’t open his eyes. Drool came out of his mouth.

“Come on, Vince, fight it man! Snap out of it!”

Slowly, Vince got a grip of reality, a terrible new one.

“What? What?” He mumbled scared, trying to move, but shackles strangled his wrists and ankles.

“Are you alright, bro?”

“Do I look alright to you? Damn it!”

“I know what you mean.”

“Where are we? What is this place?” Vincent asked with a very fainting voice.

Suddenly, they shook real harshly.

“We are moving, goddamn it!”

“It looks that way.” Hector agreed.

He saw another man lying in front of them, with thick beard and sidelocks, also in chains. He looked barely awake.

“Hey partner…” Hector called him.

“Yes…” He replied with an equally fainting voice.

“I don’t suppose you know what this is all about, right?”

“No, my friend, I don’t. All I know is I was participating in this rally, me and my colleagues, when some men in black suits came. That’s the last thing I remember before waking up in here.”

“Yes, pretty much like us. What’s your name?”

“Aaron. What’s yours?”

“I’m Hector, this is Vince. We are brothers.”

“Nice meeting you, my friends.”

“Likewise.”

Then, a strange smell invaded the place and they blanked out again.

Hector and Vincent walked with arms and legs shackled together, escorted by two men in military outfits. The brothers were numb and drowsy, as if under drugs. They were forced to stop in front of a room, where a third man carrying a club was waiting.

“All right, boys, strip.” He ordered, tapping his hand with the club.

“W-what?”

“To your bare asses, scumbag, if I have to say it again, I break your ugly face!”

The brothers did not have a clear idea of what was going on. Their vision was blurred. Very slowly, they took off all their clothes, a terrible headache stabbing their skulls. In an instinctive gesture of shame, they covered their genitals with the hands.

The two men in uniforms pushed them into the room, causing them to crash against a tiled wall. They fell on the cold floor. All of a sudden, a strong jet of even colder water whipped each and every one of their pores, making them roll to the wall again. The brothers screamed in despair and pain, the water was drowning them, they couldn’t breathe.

“It’s cleaning time, boys!” The man holding the thick hose said.

“Too bad we can’t wash this black skin off their bodies, huh?” The other man spoke.

“We can try and paint them!”

They laughed.

“So, did you have fun with the Jew boy?” The man with the club asked.

“Oh yeah, he cried like a girl when I shaved every single part of his disgusting body, you should’ve seen it, man!”

“I’m sorry I missed that one. But at least I’m having some fun with the wet niggers over there!”

And they laughed, laughed and laughed.

After being given shirts, pants and shoes without socks, Hector and Vince, again in shackles, were escorted by the two uniformed men to a huge, clean and air conditioned room. A distinguished man in a lustrous grey suit stood before them.

“Ah, they are much better now!” He said. “Well, at least within possibilities. Good morning, gentlemen. I’m the Minister and that’s all you need to know for the moment.”

“I don’t care who you are, alright?!” Hector blew up very loudly. “This is a total absurd! We are American citizens who are supposed to start a new job here! Nobody’s going to treat me like a prisoner anymore, you hear! I demand to speak with your superior right now!!!”

One of the thugs clubbed Hector right below his nape, causing him to fall down on his knees in pain. The other hit Vincent on the back of his legs to make him kneel down as well.

“Oh, and you will start your new jobs very soon.” The man calmly said. “You’re just not going to get paid for this one. Um, by the way, as I’m sure you’ve already realized, in here you only speak when required to do so. However, now that you mentioned, it’s important to say that I’m the only superior you got for now, and you’ll respectfully refer to me as Minister. That being said, you’ll be transferred to the power plant shortly, where you shall begin your new functions.”

“Power plant?” Vince mumbled. “But we know nothing of…”

He was brutally interrupted by a harsh blow on his shoulder.

“What did I just say?” The Minister reminded him. “Now, before you go, you’ll be allowed to spend some quality time in the patio to get some sun, not that you need it. It’s my policy to always let my employees enjoy some good moments of relaxation before starting the hard work. After all, we wouldn't want anybody accusing us of being cruel, now would we?” He turned to the guards. “Gentlemen, if you please…”

And Hector and Victor were pushed out of the Minister’s office.

Once in the big patio, the brothers walked under a melting sun burning their faces. The large field they were in was a vast piece of flatland that stretched all the way to mountains on the horizon.

In the vicinities constructions stood, some new, others run-down, but what really dominated the environment was a monumental dish antenna on top of a small building. They could see barbed wire fences surrounding the whole perimeter.

“Jesus, Hec, what is this, Hec?” Vincent spoke with a shaky voice.

“Hey, get a grip man!” Hector replied.

“What’s going on, Hec? What’s all this…?”

“HEY! Quiet you, let me think! There must be something we can do about this mess. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but no way I’ll just stand here and take this shit!”

A morbidly skinny and pale man passed by them, carrying recently cut wood.

“Hey, you there!” Hector stopped him.

The man might as well have been taken for a zombie if it wasn’t for the fact he spoke intelligibly.

“Yes.”

“Look, we need some help here.” Hector said. “Something is terribly wrong. We don’t belong in this place. Is there somebody we could talk to, you know…”

“Something is very wrong with this world and the people who run it!” The skinny man retorted. “And if I were you, I’ll shut the hell up right now for the sake of your health. Believe me, if you think this is bad, you have no idea.”

“Wow, this place is amazing!” Paul gasped.

“Welcome to Heavensville!” Shane said full of pride. “And our humble city is not named like this just by chance. This is the place you can live your life to the fullest.”

“Like things used to be before this pandemic exploded right in our faces, I suppose.” Susan said.

“Even better” Shane replied. “This pandemic, as you called it, helped us growing aware of the real important things, to never let such terrible events ever happen again. You won’t find sick people or flesh-eating monsters in here. I guarantee we are totally protected.”

“Like an Oasis.” Frank spoke.

“Or a sanctuary, like some of you might like to call it.” Shane responded.

“This place is everything but humble, I can tell you that.” Nick said.

Shane smiled “I’ll take this as a compliment.”

Becky walked alongside Shane, looking at the top of the imposing, shining houses with a serene expression.

“And what do you do in here?” Susan asked Shane. “Are you a community leader of some sort? Who built this place?”

“Ah questions…” Shane whispered “…so typical of the intelligent. I’m really lucky I bumped into you. I do believe we can talk better over lunch, what do you say?”

The maitre d' of Blue Ribbons looked dreadfully serious and awfully focused in his greeting high society’s customers work, but his face surely smoothed a lot when he saw Shane coming with her new best buddies.

“Miss Shane!” He said with the regular labored courtesy.

“Hi Bob.” She replied. “I’m bringing some friends from out of town to enjoy the delights of Mister Perrin’s cuisine.”

“Oh, and you shall have nothing but the best!”

“And make a note, Bob, put everything on my tab.”

“Hey!” Susan protested. “You don’t have to do that!”

“But if she insists…” Paul said.

“Shut up!” Susan retorted.

The maitre d’ twisted his nose to such demonstrations of roughness, but Shane laughed deliciously.

“Consider this my welcoming present.” She said. “Please, don’t hurt my feelings by turning me down.”

“We’d never do such thing.” Nick responded. “Lead the way, Bob!”

“Nick!” Susan protested again.

“You heard the man!” Shane spoke sportively to the maitre d’.

The man in tuxedo lifted an offended nose and took the group to the best table in the place. A pompous, starched waiter immediately came with the menus.

“Man, I didn’t know they made restaurants like this!” Paul observed. “This table alone is bigger than my dorm.”

“On weekends, this place is also converted in a disco.” Shane proudly informed. “And you are more than invited to join us in a little dance.”

Frank frowned at the menu “Man, how can I order anything in here? It’s all in French!”

“Be careful not to end up eating snails!” Paul joked.

“What?”

Both Susan and the waiter looked at them with very reproaching eyes.

“Hey, mister penguin,” Frank turned to the waiter “can’t we just have cheeseburgers, chicken wings, you know, the stuff?”

“Can you please find more ways to embarrass me?” Susan complained.

“Give the boys a break.” Nick intervened. “We’ve never been rich before.”

“And by the looks of it, you never will.” Susan spoke.

Once again, Shane seemed to be having a lot of fun with all that.

“I tell you what!” She announced. “Georgiou, see if you can bring us the biggest, the spiciest, the juiciest and the greasiest six cheeseburgers you can get your hands on, together with three plates full of your best chicken wings. And don’t be stingy on the ketchup!”

“Oh yeah!” Frank and Paul said almost in unison, exchanging high fives. “And bring some milkshakes to wet it all down!”     

Nick grinned and Susan shook her head negatively. 

Becky just kept watching everything with an expressionless face.

“But madam…” The waiter mumbled with a powerfully French accent. “This is highly unorthodox. I don’t think we can…”

Shane turned darkly serious all of a sudden “Georgiou, will you please take our order?”

“Tres bien mademoiselle.”

“Good.” She sweetened her face again.

“And tout de suite!” Paul said.

The waiter left.

“What do you do in here anyway?” Susan asked Shane. “I mean, what’s your work, your job, you know, your occupation…?”

“Oh yes, the conversation we started. I’m a kind of public relations in this place. I run my share of things, have access to this or that privilege, some of which you’ll soon be enjoying.”

“Alright, that’s it, what’s the angle?” Nick queried in a very suspicious tone.

“Stop it!” Susan scolded him again. “I guess we had enough!”

“Not this time, Sue. Come on, am I the only one here who thinks this whole thing is at least peculiar? We simply jumped from hell to paradise just like that, Becky turns nice all of a sudden, yesterday we were about to be eaten by zombies, but today we’re eating in a fancy restaurant!”

“I just saw the wrongs of my ways.” Becky finally spoke something. “I thought you were going to like it.”

“Alright, Shane” Nick continued “amenities time is over. What’re you up to?”

“Nick!” Susan faced him. “I can take these two little friends of yours acting like animals in a elegant place, even being assholes about things none of us ever had, things we’re now having totally for free, but what I really can’t take is you spitting on the plate from which you ate!” She turned to Shane. “Look, I really apologize for my friends…”

Shane immediately placed a hand on Susan’s hand. Such unexpected touch caused Susan to feel something she had never felt before, a very bizarre sensation, yet extremely soothing and pleasant.

“No apologies are necessary whatsoever.” She spoke to Sue in a sweet tone of reconciliation, like a mother trying to educate her little girl. “Nick is right to be suspicious. He reminds me of me when I first came to this place. As for your friends, they’ve been through a lot, Sue. May I call you Sue? It’s just fair to cut them loose, at least a little bit, so they can blow off some steam, don’t you think?”

Susan didn’t answer. She had listened to each and every word spoken by Shane, but she was still trying to come to terms with those sensations massaging her soul. Shane let go of her hand and the sensations were gone.

“You can call me Sue.”

“Thanks.”

Then, Shane fixed eyes on Nick. A strange chill ran down his back. Somehow he knew how abnormal that was, but something in his mind told him to just enjoy it. Such chill was awfully comforting.

“Nick,” Shane said “I was once as lost and confused as you are now. I had lost everything I cherished the most to this epidemic, pandemic, pretty much the story of most of us. But then, Mister Hedgiest found me and brought me here.”

“Mister Hedgiest?” Nick murmured the question, his eyes lost on Shane’s.

“Yes.” She continued. “He’s the industrious force who came to a city devastated by this strange disease, packed with sick souls who didn’t know any better than destroying healthy humans, and he turned this entire community into what it is now.”

“He kicked all zombies out of the city?” Paul asked.

“Yes, with the help of other people willing to follow his leadership.” Shane replied. “We don’t like to call them zombies, for they used to be like you and me. We’d rather call them
drifters
. And this wonderful man found me, a frightened little lamb ready to succumb to the idiosyncrasies of this new terrible reality. He gave me hope, a reason for living. And do you know what reason is that?”

The group of youngsters shook their heads.

“You!” She answered emphatically. “You and others like you. Mister Hedgiest did wonders for me, and I just think that helping others who were once like me is the least I can do to repay him. Believe me, what I’m doing for you, I did for many others, and I’ll keep bringing people in for as long as I live!”

“And we appreciate you taking us in very much.” Susan said.

“As I said, there’s no need to thank me.” Shane smiled. “This is my mission in life and I enjoy doing it.”

“And you built those walls we saw to keep the zomb… the drifters away?” Frank asked.

“The community did.” Shane responded. “The whole town helped.”

“Speaking which, you seem very important around here.” Nick observed still suspicious, but it was like he had to fight to bring the words to mouth. “Care to explain that?”

“Nothing to it, really” Shane calmly replied. “Since my rebirth in here, I’ve been working hard to bring as many people as I can to Heavensville. Then, I guess I kind of grew on Mister Hedgiest’s concept and he made me his
director
, so to speak.”

“And what Mister Hedgiest is to all of you, a kind of mayor?” Paul queried.

“Yes, we can say that.” Shane answered with a smile. “But we prefer to call him the
Minister
.”

The waiter came back with their food and drinks.