“I told you they were zombies,” said Corporal Anderson, while he walked towards the jeep. Father Lucas followed a few steps behind, and Arthur was strolling after them.
“The place by Alabaster Road is nearly empty, we will need a new gas station soon,” said Father Lucas. “Maybe get an electrical one.”
“Electric ones are shit,” said the Corporal. “And I’m sure electricity will be out soon.”
“Well, the city reactors were built to last with minimal maintenance. I’m sure even if they go out we would be able to get them running again.”
“And what about that place in the desert, where they took the kid?”
Father Lucas spat on the floor in disgust.
“If I don’t see that place in a million years it will be too soon.”
“I was wondering about it the other night, do you think it’s possible that we were spared because we were near to that place near the last days? Like an eye of the storm kind of thing.”
“We were spared because that was the will of the world,” said Father Lucas.
“Bullshit. That may be true, but there must be something more tangible, something simpler. We were both in that bloody bunker, maybe they had some kind of secret shield techno-shit.”
Father Lucas pondered that for a moment. “I don’t think so. Arthur was there too, and he’s as braindead as the rest, bless his soul.”
“Then what the hell was it, Father? Why us out of billions?”
He hadn’t thought about it, but when the Corporal had mentioned it, an idea had started taking shape in his head.
“You know what you and I have in common? We were leaders. We were the men that people look up to. You were a ruler of soldiers, I was a ruler of souls. Arthur here was none. He was, as big as his soul was, a follower, a sheep. But us, we were the herders.”
Corporal Anderson looked interested. He started the jeep while Father Lucas kept talking.
“If that is His will, we need to start again, to create a better civilization, based on His word. That might be why he choose me for his voice. Like he did with Noah, he sent us an ailing to cleanse the world, and prepare it for a new era of praise and enlightenment.”
“Then, we need to find the rest of those that are still capable of thought, His plan must reach to them too.”
“Maybe there’s no other,” replied Father Lucas. The Corporal seemed lost in thought for a moment.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” he asked.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” he asked.
“Yes. I didn’t tell you at first, because the man has some strong opinions, and I thought you wouldn’t like him, but...” he reached for the stereo, and Father Lucas was surprised to see that he turned the radio on. And suddenly, the car filled with a strong but soothing voice:
...orporate greed, zealotry and the way we raped our planet. There’s nothing more to it.
I remember the news of the last days, when everyday seemed crazier than the rest. One day we would cure the illness that had been destroying the world for the last thirty years, the next day we had created a new disease that was even worse. I especially liked that moment, where a corporation decided it was good enough to be a country. That would have been a great deal-breaker, at least if it hadn’t happened two weeks before the end of the world.
So anyway, I was thinking that if I am not the last man on Earth, maybe I will be the one to rebuild the world as it should have been, not as it was. Maybe it’s up to remember the mistake of the pasts so they won’t happen again. I could write a book: the Perry Dawson Bible! It would have all of my answers, and suggestions, and even commandments. “Thou shall not fuck with rock and roll” would most likely be number or two.
And yet, there’s so many wrongs to right... Well, you have to pick one to start, don’t you? So, from now on, The King won’t be Elvis. Buddy Holly was a better singer and a better composer, why shouldn’t he have the title he deserves? So, without further ado, I give you That Will Be The Day, by The King...
The music drowned his voice, and Father Lucas looked at the Corporal.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“As I said, he’s not the most settled person. I’ve heard him saying some things to which I know you wouldn’t approve.”
Father Lucas seemed lost in thought for a few seconds.
“That’s good, dialogue breeds honest behaviour. If we are to rule, we need to make sure that we represent all areas of interest. We should find him.”
“Well, I think I know what radio tower he’s using, we should go there.”
***
“I knew him,” said Chris.
“So, who is he?” asked Avril.
“He’s the guy who shot Dianne.”
She looked at the corpse on the floor.
“It can’t be. You said the man in black killed him.”
“And he killed Dianne,” said Chris. He now understood what Avril had meant before. There was something extremely wrong with dead people walking.
“Do you think this is general?” asked Robin. “Like, crazy Dawn of the Dead stuff, with zombie Hitler and zombie Churchill going at it again?”
Chris couldn’t bother looking for an answer. He was pondering what they would do, how they would protect the complex from further stuff like what had just happened, and most of all, how he was going to convince the referendum that Dianne should stay. It would have been so easy if this hadn’t happened. He looked at the second corpse. This man had called himself Ralph and was really good at planting. He claimed to be an accountant, but becoming an undreamer had impaired his abilities to the points where he needed to be told to move when looking at an incoming reaper truck.
“He shoot him twice...” he said, it wasn’t a question. Avril and Robin exchanged a quick glance.
“He did,” she said.
“That’s not good, that shows iniciative, planning. I’ve failed so let me try again... That’s not usual undreamer behaviour.”
“Well,” said Avril. “You know they hate loud noises, and when he first shoot him, the undreamer started howling.”
“I guess it could happen.”
His mind wondered once more to the referendum. He needed Dianne to stay, he was sure of it, but how would he convince everyone?
***
When Chris had left, Robin turned to Avril.
“Why did you lie to him?”
“I don’t trust him.”
“I thought you two were close, like really close friends.”
She grimaced.
“I met him right before the event. I don’t know who he is around Dianne.”
Robin scratched his head. He started picking up the pieces of Tops scattered around the floor. The robot had wanted him to see something important, and he didn’t think it was about the shooter. He needed to rebuild the robot.
“You know,” said Avril. Robin realized he had forgotten that people usually like to explain their actions in heavy detail. Although the short conversation had been enough for him, it was clearly not enough for her. He turned and tried to avoid looking pissed off at not being able to finish his task.
“You know, I think she is going to change him. When she was not around, Chris used to be about other people, he’s got a lot of generosity. But when she’s around, she kind of sucks him into a hole. I’m fearing that his whole attitude will change from now on.”
He nodded, she carried on.
“And I want to know where she came from. I saw her die, I saw her buried. This is like something from a fucked up zombie movie or something...”
“Well, our whole situation is bonkers, m’lady,” said Robin, in an attempt to calm her. “If this guy was dead too, maybe all dead people are coming back.”
“That’s just...” she said, but trailed off.
“I mean, I might even go looking for my nanny, she gave me a fiver every Sunday, might be she still does.”
Avril just there, looking at him, but didn’t give an answer. He took this as the cue that the whole conversation was over, and he returned to picking pieces of Tops. When he turned back, she had gone.
***
The man hadn’t even looked back once. Carrie had been following him for the last forty eight hours, as he had gone from house to house, killing everyone in it, and then leaving to find the next. She couldn’t understand why she was following him, except that he was different. He was not feral and primitive, like the zombies were, but he seemed to have a plan, and her curiosity demanded she found out what it was.
She walked into the house from which he had come out, and searched for the clues she knew would be there. The corpse was mostly clean, which usually meant he was a zombie. There were no fight signs, so the man would have just walked in, found the evidence, and left. She saw an open laptop, and moving her fingers over the trackpad made the screen come to life. There was an e-mail open, dated on the 10th of December.
Dear Alice, we’ve already moved into the compound, I don’t know how much I can say, but since I’m pretty sure we’re being screened, I’ll just let them edit anything that’s confidential. After all, I never signed an NDA and I’m sure my marriage license didn’t have one.
This place is a dump. The complex is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nothing out there in the sun. Oh, they’ve showed us some plans, and they say a lot of pretty things about the future, but right now our choices are rot in a nice bunker or burn in the desert sand without even an umbrella, or a seat.
The kids are restless. They like the place alright, and little Elliot loves the gaming room, but this is not a good environment for them. This is like a futuristic office turned war room. Amanda asked me last night if we are prisoners, and my heart just broke. I’ve been dealing with this situation for too long. General Dynamics changed him, I know it.
I am once again considering divorce, Alice. I just don’t know how to bring it up. I will probably do it once this whole crazy thing with the 12th of December goes away.
I miss you.
The sender was Mia Vanenkoff, and she wondered if it would be the same person that she kept seeing in the photos that she found. She opened an new tab in the web browser she was using, and opened Facebook. It was not logged in, but it seemed like Alice had kept her passwords saved, and she could access her page. She looked for Mia, and started browsing through her photos. She immediately recognized her as the woman that the man in the suit seemed to be looking for, however, she still didn’t know his relationship to her. She was not in any photos, and she couldn’t see anyone like him in her friend list. She frowned, but went back to Mia’s personal details. She saw that she was married, but it didn’t seem like the name of her husband was there. She wondered about the divorce she had heard about.
Mia spoke about the complex, and she wondered if it would be the infamous General Dynamics complex that had been on the news the day before everything went to hell. Suddenly, she realized that if the place was still up, it was likely that it was well stocked and she could find supplies and maybe even a way to search for more non-zombies. And besides, it seemed safer than following a killer.
***
“I wonder why all this stuff still works,” said Corporal Anderson, as Father Lucas used Google Maps to find the radio tower.
“Old world paranoia. Most of the web companies had so many redundant systems that not even a cataclysm could bring them down.” he answered.
“Oomph,” grunted the Corporal. He looked at Arthur, who was looking at the city lights. They were standing at a high perched lookout, that allowed them to see the whole skyline. There were a few buildings that looked disheveled, but most of them were actually standing. It made him uneasy, he had expected an old style cataclysm, but this was eerie. It was as if everything would continue, regardless if there was any civilization or not.
The kid sat staring at the distance, Corporal Anderson hadn’t want to take Arthur with them, but Father Lucas had insisted. He could understand it, though. It had been Arthur who took care of him when he was hurt during the attack, but when the 12th of December had come, he had suffered the same fate as most of the people around them. Tonight he seemed more active, but some other times he was nothing more than a puppet. Father Lucas seemed to like it, and gave him constant orders, but the kid still unnerved him.
Suddenly, Arthur turned, and looked straight into the Corporal eyes. He felt uncomfortable, as the kid hold his gaze, unmoving, unblinking and without any emotion.
Father Lucas spoke, and broke the enchantment.
“Unless he’s managed to change the signals, he should be transmitting from Crowley Avenue. We could get there in twenty minutes if we cut through Abbinson. It’s a no entry road, but I don’t think we would get any cop complaining.”
“OK,” said Corporal Anderson, “let’s go.”
“Arthur, in the car!” screamed Father Lucas. The kid walked around the cliff and stood for a second next to the Corporal, he looked once more at him, and then got in the car.
***
Tops was easy to put back together. Although the shot had destroyed most of it’s top half of the body, all his processing and storage were kept in his lower part. He used some pieces from the robot that had crashed against Dianne’s statue and had the little machine running again in no time. He knew that Chris would be going crazy about the dead chick, and that Avril would be going crazy about Chris. He was glad he had his machines to go back to. It was in time like this when he most regretted his decision to come and live in the complex. Back at his old place things hadn’t been so complicated.
He used to be a Seeker, but he had never told anyone. Long before the event, he had liked the idea of the Singularity: a point in human evolution in which technology and specially Artificial Intelligences grew complex to the point were they became so powerful that they changed the world in new and unpredictable ways. After all, the world needed some changing. Then, three months before that priest had gone crazy on TV, he had started emailing a writer about the concept of the Eschaton, which sounded oddly similar to the Singularity to him. During those emails, the writer had always emphasized that the time was near, but Robin had been much more skeptical about it. You cannot predict change, that’s why it always seems so distant, had written the Seeker. Robin had started taking some of the mannerisms of these people. He went to some meetings. They had been eerily similar to a cult, but it always worried him the fact that they weren’t. Most of them used to live perfectly ordinary lives, until the point were they put a cardboard sing over their head, and went out to let people know that the end was nigh. Then, when the priest in TV started shooting lightning out of his ass, he had gotten another email: Told you it was near. At the time, he hadn’t believed that anything would happened. He smiled at how foolish he had been.
Most of those Seekers had been close to the complex when the attack happened, and some had even been killed. He shivered at the thought of seeing them again. After the attack, and even though everyone thought there would be a new one, they just stood there, waiting, hoping to be the firsts to see the change.
Most people had heard the priest say that if Chris Barnett didn’t die, the world would end. The Seekers had heard that if he lived, the world would change. They wanted to see it, to feel it as soon as they could. They needed change, as he had, too.
Instead, they had became braindead. He had been spared by some mysterious reason, maybe even by chance, and yet, for a while he had thought they were the lucky ones. And then, one day, he had decided to see where it had all started, and found a small society of men and women trying to do their best to make the zombies he had been seeing lead useful lives, even educate them.
He had stayed, and had soon become the local expert in electronics and robots. He had had a few General Dynamics robots before, which he had tweaked and turned until they had been mostly unrecognizable, however the technology in the complex was at least five years what they had been releasing to the market. He understood why they had seceded, they had the potential to become a leading force in technology.
And time had passed, as it always does, and he had started trusting these people, as he had never trusted others. He knew it had to be the friendship that comes with hardship. Life was hard, after all, even if his skills with the robot meant that they had it easier with agricultural and technical jobs. People here appreciated him all the most because of it.
But it also meant that he now had a responsibility towards these people. The robots had been tweaked to the point that no one but him would be able to fix them if something happened to them. Maybe he needed an apprentice, and once he was trained, he could leave once more and become free once more.
He flipped the switch that activated Tops, and after a couple of seconds the robot came to life and started running. It realized that the scenery had changed and turned around in confusion. He focused its cam on Robin, who felt interrogated and uncomfortable.
“A crazy wanker shot you, I’ve reassembled you using a few bits and bobs, you might want to try moving around a bit to see that nothing falls down.
The robot took his advice and ran in circles a couple of times. Suddenly he remembered something important, and an exclamation mark appeared on his display and it started running to the door.
Robin sighed and started following it.
