Dead Man Running (56 page)

Either way,
continued life or death,
she greatly anticipated reaching the end result.

"Excellent, Elias," Wiley nearly shouted into the phone.  The loudmouth former Speaker from
California
was far exceeding her time introducing the now official Democratic nominee for Vice President of the
United States
.  

Wiley stood with his wife Jan,
who was
dressed in a stylish aqua green dress, awaiting their cue to go on stage and formally accept the nomination.

Wiley, already puffed up by the nomination, was ebullient from the news of the successful trial.  The further news that the nanobots relentlessly pursu
ed
all humans, heightened his feelings of success. 

As the atomic bomb was deployed over heavy population
center
s in
China
,
India
and
Russia
, he was confident that his 'bots would stop at nothing to infect one hundred percent of the human population.

Finally, the woman from
San Francisco
was done running her ugly mouth.  The producer of the 'show' prompted Jan and Ben to enter from stage left.

Wiley accepted a peck on the che
e
k from the hideous,
ancient,
still human creature then blessedly she was gone.

He and his bride stood
alone
on stage and basked in the thunderous applause.

He snuck looks at his wife, as he had all night.  She was
still
so beautiful to him.  He did fe
e
l something for her. 
Was it love?  Could a zombie love anyone? 
Perhaps the humanizing spells he had undergone affected more than the physical, they affected his heart as well, kindled his emotions?

He decided then not to kill her after the birth of his child.  If successful he would keep her around to make more babies as he enjoyed the sex act with her more than with the hundreds of other human women he had violated over the last year.

After several minutes, Wiley finally gestured for quiet and the crowd reluctantly obeyed.

He strode to the podium, his hand gently cradling that of his
pregnant
bride.  "Before I begin my remarks, I want to acknowledge my
soul mate
, this wonderful life partner of mine."  He looked Jan in the eyes.  Jan responded with
her well practiced
look of wonder, lust, and amazement.

"If it was not for her, I would not be here.  She literally brought me back from the dead."  The audience roared its approval.  "And I just want to say, in front of the world, that I love you Jan Sugerfoot Wiley, and
I am so happy to take this journey with you."  With that, he kissed her long and hard, to wild applause from the audience.

Wiley led the applause as Jan demurely sashayed off the stage.

Finally, he began his acceptance speech.  Afterward, some would say
that
they were at the event but, somehow, could not remember what the man spoke about. 

What t
hey did remember
was
'The Kiss', captured on the front of most newspapers, shown on someone's news broadcast continuously for twenty
-four
hours straight, tweeted about endlessly and posted on most websites, regardless of the site's raison d'être.  

This bit of stagecraft put to rest the 'otherness' or
'
alien-ness' of Benjamin Wiley.  Now here was a red blooded American
man
madly in love with his woman. 

Would a
n
alien or zombie kiss like that?

Of course one could, but most Americans were still ignorant of that fact. 

As it was, they blissfully accepted Ben Wiley as one of their own and
opened their hearts and minds to the man.

THIRTY
-
TWO

SUVA
FIJI
– AUGUST 2012

There was a knock on
Mira
Hidar
's hotel room door. 
She was
on the
island
of
Suva
, home of
Fiji
's capital city
, staying in the Tanoa Tower Hotel.

She answered the door and Elias Turnbull stood there, huge bouquet of island flowers in hand.  She ignored the flowers.  "Come in," she said.

They sat in the spacious suite's living room, facing each other in matching chairs decorated with outlandish
'
animals and flowers on drugs
'
prints.

"I thought you would attempt to run," he said with a smile.

"Run where?  I'm sure you
r
boss' people are watching the airport and every dock and pier on this island."

"Of course
they are
.  So, what is it?"

"Pardon."

"What do you have up your magician's sleeve
s
?  Are you going to transform me into a rabbit or a frog, perhaps?"

"You know that
transmorphic
magic does not work on the dead."

His smile broadened.  "Another advantage to being a zombie," he said.

He looked her over, smile plastered on his face.  She was facing the sliding glass doors that led to her balcony.  Her attention was on the outside – the tropical paradise, the south Pacific's warm and very deep
, blue
waters.

"Not thinking of jumping, are you?"

"Can we just get on with it?"

"Well, you are the naughty one."

She finally shifted her eyes onto his.  "What do you plan to do to me?"

"Well, I thought I would start with a little sexual assault,
and
then perhaps we could segue
from
that to just plain assault.  Afterwards, I would share your corpse with your fellow bomb builders."

"I don't want Rothmans touching my body.  I want you to eat me – my entire body, I mean."

Elias' smile blinked out, returned, like a faulty light bulb in a very dark hallway.

"You want to be part of me
- part of the body of your long gone boyfriend.  I guess this means that you really loved him?
"

"I did.  I never told him.  At least, somehow, I can be part of him."

"But, I'm not really him, darling.  I'm just wearing his skin but I'm something else entirely."

"I understand that but you must give me my delusions.  I am about to die, you know."

"I know.  Care to get started.  How difficult will you make this?  The more difficult the better, I say."  He stood.

Mira
got to her feet.  She went to the sliding doors and pulled the curtain taunt across the opening.  She stood in front of Elias.  "Don't hurt me until the end," she said.  She grabbed her dress at the hem and yanked it over her head.  She was naked underneath.

He stepped closer and kissed her roughly.  "I won't hurt you…not too much," he said and he easily scooped her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom.

He was her Elias, without the caring, gentleness and love.  What he had was power, fierce desire for her body and incredible stamina.

After several hours of his attentions, she was sore all over and bone tired.  Finally, his desire and energy seemed to wane.  This was when the normal man would fall into a deep state of sleep.  This creature, this thing with the lifeless eyes and Viagra on steroids like erection, merely watched her as she attempted to catch her breath. 

Her only hope, she knew, was that perhaps she had sapped its energy to the point where the reversal bomb could work.

"I have to pee," she whispered.

He smiled.  "No tricks, now.  I'll be counting the seconds until you return."

She got out of the bed naked and her bare feet were comforted by the thick carpet.
  She made it to the bathroom and closed the door.  She really did have to urinate and took care of that task before moving on to more critical matters. 

She nearly jumped off the toilet when Elias knocked on the door.  She remained seated when he
leaned
his head into the room.  "I decided that I don't trust you.  A machete could do some damage to my handsome face."  He
entered the room, stopping to
preen in fro
nt of the mirror as he walked past.

"Excuse me," he said as he reached behind her head and removed the toilet cover.  He looked inside only to find the typical inner workings of a toilet, no weapon or potions.

"I will leave you alone then.  Enjoy your human bodily functions."

"Thanks," she said and he finally left the room, closing the door tightly.

Mira
wiped herself and stood.  She placed her feet on the edge of the old fashioned
loin
's paw t
ub
and stretched until she reached the recessed light bulb above.  She unscrewed the light bulb and reached inside to pull out the light's pot
, which she had loosened earlier
.  In the vacated space were two globes.  She pulled the objects out.  She didn't bother to reinstall the light.  That, she could do later, if she was still alive.

She stepped out of the bathroom and he was waiting for her.  They stood ten feet apart, both naked as jaybirds, each holding globes in their hands.

Elias roared with laughter.  "You know, you're a bit too late for that, my darling.  I'm already one of the tribe."  He laughed again.

"I thought you were going to kill me?"

"I spoke to Ben – he approved your conversion but he left the decision to me.  I secreted this globe in with the flowers.  I didn't know what I would do but after tonight, I just couldn't see wasting such fine flesh."

"I thought maybe you changed your mind because, deep inside, you love me."

The monster laughed again.  "I love screwing you, darling, that is about it."

"I don't believe that and this will get back the man I love."  She, then he
,
dropped their globes.  As designed, one of her globes deployed, the second sat in abeyance.  To
Elias'
amusement, the
nanobots covered
his
naked body. 
His smile disappeared as awareness struck his brain.  "The reversal bomb," he whispered.

He retained his presence of mind to stop her as she attempted to run back to the bathroom to escape the bomb intended for her.  It deployed and, held fast by his strong hands, the bomb struck her with dozens of darts.  She remained on her feet as first Elias' hands fell away, then the creature toppled over and began wild convulsions.

She smiled - the last thing she remembered as she herself fell and everything went black
. 

T
he po
ison
did its intended work, and ended her life.

She woke.  There was light streaming into the room.  She sat up on the carpeted floor and looked around.  Elias was no longer in the room.  She took a deep breath and his smell came into her nostrils.  He was
near
.

Deep sexual desire filled her and she sensed an unnatural strength in her body.  She stood
, stretched.  She felt good – as if the cares of the world had been lifted off her shoulders.  She was one of them – the undead
–
and it felt wonderful.

Suddenly there was a snicking sound from behind her.  The second reversal bomb!  Before she could act the bomb exploded, raining dozens of tiny
robots
onto her body.  She tried to block them but it was no good.

She immediately felt woozy and she took an involuntary seat on the carpet.

She sensed a presence and looked up to see Elias' smiling face. 
He crouched down next to her.  He was changed, not one of the undead anymore.  She felt profound disappointment. 
"I love you," he said and then everything went back to blackness.

She next found herself in bed.  There was the smell of breakfast coming from the living room.  She found her robe lying on the edge of the bed and she put it on.

Elias,
seated on the balcony with breakfast laid out on the glass table, stood and came toward her.

"We're both okay," she said, unsure.

"We're no longer monsters," he said.

"Why do I miss it?" she asked.

Elias shrugged, placed his arm around her waist.  "It's like a drug.  I think we'll always miss it."