Zombie Theorem: The End Game (19 page)

“So, no one here as an issue with this?” Brian asked surprise. “Heaven, isn’t it like against God or something?” he muttered.

“No. I have read the Bible many times and haven’t seen anything about it. I believe in love, Brian; I couldn’t care if it’s between men or women or any combination. The first man or woman of this convoy that has a problem with you can come talk to me about it.” He removed a small knife from his web gear and stared at it as he said the last part.

Hase walked up and gave Brian a hug. “Brother, we know who you are. You are a warrior who fights like a demon. We couldn’t care less who you love or sleep with.”

Everyone said something encouraging, and it brightened up Brian’s mood, he stood taller and the smile was back. Doc was the last to speak. He walked up and smoothed his mustache down with his left pointer finger. He did it slow, squinting at Brian with his best cowboy squint.

“They made a movie a couple of years ago, about gay cowboys. I think it was called Broke-back something. As long as I’m not the one you have eyes for, I support you, friend.”

“Gee, thanks, Doc.” Brian said back, trying to hide the discomfort he felt from Doc’s announcement. Doc let out a loud guffawing laugh and gathered Brian into a half hug.

“Now seriously, can I get back to shit that matters?” Kuppers asked.

“Yes, and thank you for having my back and supporting me guys, and Apache. You truly are my family.” Brian meekly said and bowed his head.

The team touched his bowed head as they walked past and back to their vehicles and positions. I sat there and watched them as they moved on. Apache stopped and kissed my cheek before jogging after Hase.

“So, you feel better now, Brian?”

He raised his head and wiped at his eyes, clearing unshed tears. He cleared his throat and focused on me. “You are the biggest asshole ever! But I love you, brother.”

He trudged over and wrapped his gorilla-like arms around me and pulled me into an amazingly gentle hug for a man his size. He held me for a second, then pushed himself back. I could see the old Brian coming back, slowly, but he was in there.

“You done breaking down and being a teenage girl?” I quipped. He gave me a stern look, and I threw my hands out in front of me. “Ooh, too soon?”

“Boss, I should pull your ears off and stuff them in a donkey’s ass. But for some damn reason, I keep having this feeling that you are the most important person on this planet.” He turned and walked away.

Leaving me to figure out how to get off the hood of the Humvee without making my pain worse, all the while trying to figure out what he’d meant, by his last statement. I gave up trying to get down and instead laid back on the hood and stared up at the darkening sky. I could make out a couple of stars faintly as I laid there. I let my mind wander and work on the last couple of days. My subconscious could do some marvelous tricks and one, was it could piece puzzles together from fragmented pieces of information that didn’t look like they were even part of the same picture.

I watched as the sky turned dark and the stars brightened, they exploded across the sky, I was amazed at the beauty of all of it. It made me feel small, it made all of our problems seem small. I closed my eyes and focused on the pain in my torso.

I felt my eye-lids become heavier and heavier, like lead curtains. I tried to fight it, but sleep won. I fell into a black hole and then found myself standing on a rocky ledge on top of a mountain. The clouds gathered around me and blocked my view of the scene below. They felt cold as they brushed around my feet, enveloped my ankles and slowly worked up my legs. I looked to the sky searching for the sun and found it low on the horizon. I took no warmth from it, in fact, its light also seemed dim, as though it was an artificial light and its batteries were close to dying.

I felt alone, detached from the world. I tried to think of what I could do stuck up here, lost with no plan. The clouds crept up to my hips, and now took on a consistency of a thick whipped cream. I tried moving my legs and they responded, but slowly. I started to panic and looked up to the rock wall behind me. I looked for handholds that I could use to climb higher. The wall was smooth as I passed my hands across it. Out of pure desperation, I punched the wall hard. I felt the pain and the trickle of blood run down my knuckles and onto my fingers. But where I had hit the rock a hold appeared, not a very big one mind you, but big enough for me to stick my fingers into it.

I repeatedly hit the wall above it and slightly to the left. Same results, I put my fingers into the holes I’d made, then lifted my foot and kicked the wall, all with the same results. I made a hole big enough to gain purchase. I kicked with my left foot higher up and repeated the procedures till I was able to pull myself out of the rising clouds. I looked up and could see the top of the mountain. It was far, but I knew I couldn’t stop, I knew the clouds were trying to grab purchase on me and I was not going to give up. I kept at it, Punching and kicking and gaining inches at first, but gradually I would reach higher and higher. Finally, with a strength and tenacity I did not know I had, I looked up and saw I was a mere three feet from the summit. I pushed harder, knowing I was so close to the end, that I doubled my effort and pushed my body harder than I had ever done before.

When my hand didn’t hit the rock of the mountain cliff that I had been scaling for what felt like forever, I tilted my hand down and found the summit. I moved my hand around looking for something to grab a hold of to help me pull myself over the top. Nothing, just sand and loose rock. I decided to rest and let myself think about my options. My lungs felt as though they would burst from my chest and my heart pounded from the exertion, threatening to explode where it sat in my breast. I risked a look down and felt all my hope and desire start to slip away. The cloud cover had risen to the bottom of my feet. I felt panic start to well up, but I fought it down, swallowing it and let it instead, energize me.

I slapped my hand down again and forced myself up on my toes. My hand scrabbled around looking for purchase. A slender warm hand then slipped into mine, and grasped it tightly. I pulled back on it and used the person’s strength to help me step higher, I flung my other hand up and the person caught it and I pushed my feet against the wall, climbing with all my remaining strength. My head cleared the edge of the cliff and I saw the person holding me. The person that anchored me and helped me over the top was none other than Angel, in her woman form.

I scrabbled onto my knees and wrapped my arms around her, hugging her tight and trying to keep myself from sobbing. I felt exhausted, drained, and just plain wiped. She lifted my head and gave me that glowing smile. The smile that tells me everything is ok. She bent down and grabbed me by the underarms and helped me to my feet, still no words from her. I can’t tell if I am dreaming, or if this is somehow real. Angel kissed my forehead and then with her right hand, she pointed to the other side of the mountain and off in the distance. I tried to focus on what she was showing me, but all I could see was a blurry far away image, at the bottom of another mountain.

“I don’t know what you are trying to show me Angel,” I rasped out.

“I am an Angel, but not the same as yours. She is.” The Angel looked to the sky as if listening to a voice. “She is off on a different task for our Lord. What you seek, you will find, but when you arrive you will run into.” She cocked her head up again and smiled. “Roadblocks. Yes, that word will suffice. I am here to help you prepare physically for your journey. Your Angel has helped prepare you, but she specializes in healing the heart and emotions. I specialize in healing the body.”

She took her right hand and placed it on my chest. Suddenly as if every nerve ending in my being was ignited, I writhed in pain. Molten fire ripped through my body, I felt my eyes bulging in their sockets, trying to escape the fire. My jaw slammed shut and I was thankful that my tongue was in my mouth. Although, if it wasn’t and this was a dream, wouldn’t I wake up with it still in its place? Stupid place for a question, I agree.

After what seemed like an eternity of pain and suffering, it all just stopped. Just like that, everything felt fine, my exhaustion had fallen to the wayside and I felt refreshed. I know I lived it and yet, as I tell this, I cannot believe it myself. This Angel took her hand away and stepped away. She turned her body and again, pointed off into the distance. I looked again where she indicated and this time, I saw a concrete building, resting on the ground at the base of its own mountain. Well, to be honest, I was standing on a mountain, so the other would be classified a hill.

“The place you are heading is more than it seems. Like a wasp’s nest, it has many chambers and layers. But also like a wasp’s nest it is guarded. Go and prepare your mortals. This is the first step to wiping the scourge from this plane. There are many more steps to come and you will lose heavily, but remember, you have something else guiding you, and will help when the time comes. Be strong, Dan. Be vigilante, and strike with all the force you can.”

I examined her for a minute and was amazed that I’d thought she had looked like Angel at all. He hair was more of a light brown, and her face had subtle differences. But I could feel the power of her words and actions pushing me into action.

“Tell Angel that I miss her,” I managed to say.

“She knows, but do not fret, you will see her again when the times is right. She is always watching over you, as well as the rest of us. Now go, Dan. Awake in man’s world, it is time.”

I gasped out loud and threw my arms out, trying to stop myself from falling. My hands hit the hood of the Humvee, and I laid there, trying to remember where I was. I opened my eyes and saw the dark sky giving way to the first rays of light from the east. I sat up and winced automatically for the pain I knew would come. When only a twinge appeared, I relaxed and stretched my back. All the while I moved, I waited for pain to overcome me and signal that I had only had a dream. But when the worse was just small twinges, I realized that the dream had not been just a dream. I dangled my legs over the grill of the Humvee and sat there, thinking about all the Angel had told me. Wait! Do I really believe in Angels, Heaven, and the battle between good and evil? Let me break this down, maybe it will help both of us understand more. I knew of a little girl named Angel who was mysterious, but warmed my heart with love. She died and yet, I see her in my dreams. I have died and been just outside Paradise, or Heaven as some would call it. I had spoken to my Angel during that time so okay, I guess I believe in Heaven and my Angel. If I believed in my Angel and I had just met another one, then I guess I believe in all Angels. Battle between good and evil has been a concept that is as old as time. So that is a no brainer. Oh, and yes, this is paranormal and hard to believe, but yet here I am, in a zombie apocalypse. So anything I guess is believable. And with that, my sanity and reality check are complete. I know what a fucked up world I live in.

“You look better this morning, I have never seen anyone sleep on the hood of one of these things and look so damn cheery in the morning. Want some shitty coffee?” came Brian’s deep rough voice.

“Do whales shit in the sea?” I asked sarcastically. “Of course I want some shitty coffee. Hand it over and I won’t have to wrestle you to the ground and beat you like a red-headed step-child.”

Brian laughed so hard I was terrified that he would drop the offered coffee. But he hung onto it and managed to not spill one drop. He reached out and handed me the black warm gold and I sipped it. Oh man, I love caffeine. I think you may know that already about me, but let me tell you again. Sweet ambrosia, the nectar from the Gods couldn’t be as good as shitty coffee. Brian sat down next to me and we sat quietly and drank from our cups.

I broke the silence after a couple of minutes. “Brian, I had another wild dream.”

Brian didn’t flinch or try and make fun of me, instead he said “Yeah, I had one, too.”

“I’m sorry, you had a dream? Of what may I ask?” I was knocked off my feet, I thought I was the only one who had these dreams. Well, I guess I am not as special as I thought. Still nice to be able to share the burden with a man who had shoulders big enough to take some of it.

“Little Angel came to me and we talked. She said I had to be strong and stay by your side. That you were the link between success and failure, and what we were doing was pivotal to mankind’s existence.” He hid his look with his cup and drank deeply.

I sat there for a moment, taking in his words and putting them into little boxes in my head. “I had someone else come and tell me that our objective is more than it seems, and that we need to take it over, but that it was occupied. I guess that is the way to put it.”

We both sat in silence for a couple of minutes, absorbing the words we’d both put out into the world. I drained the rest of my coffee and turned to Brian who seemed lost in his own little world.

“Shall we start the day, brother?”

“Yeah Boss. Let’s kick this bitch into motion. But from here on in, you do not leave my side. Got it?”

“I got it, big man. I am glued to your side, you cop a squat and I will be right next to you, dolling out the toilet paper.”

He looked at me sideways and sneered. “You got that from an action movie, didn’t you?”

I shrugged not really remembering where I’d heard it before. We got to our feet and made our way past other soldiers who were working on their vehicles and cleaning their weapons. Every soldier we passed also had a sense of something big coming up. We came around Kuppers’ APC and right into a chaos of activity. And standing in the middle giving orders, was none other than Kuppers himself. He caught a glimpse of me and motioned to his APC and to wait for him.