Dead Man Running (62 page)

Mookie smiled.  "
Because enough human beings have died
," he
said
.
  "There will be no more blood.  No more on these hands."  He turned on his heels and left the cockpit.

"Engage the auto pilot,"
Jackson
ordered and one of the co-pilots flipped a red handle down on the instrument panel.
  The men began to frantically strap on their parachutes and secure their emergency kit, inflatable and
supplies.

By the time the
auto pilot
handle engaged, Mookie had produced
a sat phone.
He dialed the number
he had memorized.
  His finger hovered over the 'send' button.

"Balls it is," Wiley said.  He stood over top Elias, a wicked
carving knife held in his powerful hands.  He kicked the prone man in his back, sending Elias writhing on the floor in pain.

"You see, if you were a zombie, you wouldn't have felt that."  He laughed.

"Everyone knows you're not a real zombie, Ben.  Don't pretend you don't admire us humans.  You've gotten yourself fixed."

"I made myself Adam to Jan's Eve."

"You made yourself vulnerable."  Elias punched upward and connected with the monster's very human testicles.  The beast fell to the ground and Elias scrambled over his body to reach the cabin door.  He had gr
abb
ed the doorknob when he felt a vise like grip on his ankle.

"Going somewhere?" Wiley asked.  He had the knife in his hand and he reared back.

As he swung the blade forward the airplane shook with a violent explosion.  The blade
went off course and
embedded in the bulkhead.  As Wiley attempted to retrieve the blade Elias managed to open the door and sprint down the length of the plane, elbowing past shocked and disoriented zombies.

Close on his heels was Wiley holding two
knives
retrieved from the presidential desk.  "Stop him!" he cried but the other zombies were too absorbed by the blast to be any help in
arresting
Elias' progress. 

Elias reached his seat and found the bag with the parachute and inflatable.  The bomb had opened a hole in the side of the plane just three rows away.  Using the backpack as a weapon he swatted away the
suddenly focused and aggressive
zombie
s
as he
made his way to the opening
.  There, the pressure
instant
ly sucked him and several of the pursuing zombies out of the aircraft.

Quickly, Mookie was at Wiley's side.  He held onto his boss' belt to prevent him from being jettisoned from the airplane.

"
Did the pilots trigger the bombs?"
Wiley
asked
. 
He had to shout given the deafening noise from outside. 

"I didn't reach them in time, sir," Mookie responded.

Wiley's
eyes
stayed on the hole in his aircraft. 
"
I'm going after him.  He must die for this
."

"Of course, I will be right behind you." He let go of Wiley's belt and the leader of the undead wind
-
milled out of the airplane.

Mookie ignored the questions and pleas of the
surrounding
zombies and once again pulled out the sat phone.  He dialed another memorized number.  "I need to be picked up from these coordinates."  He then related the longitude and latitude that he
had
read off the cockpit instrument panel. 
"Tell him the plane is going down and Wiley is alive and in pursuit of Turnbull."  He clicked off the phone.  Pushing past the zombies he retrieved his own parachute and inflatable pack and made it back to the gaping hole. 

He
grinned back at
the
zombies then
leaped from the
airplane
.
  Behind him were the captain and his co-pilots.

Seconds later,
a second explosion
disintegrated
Air Force One
in the air.  By the time the debris would hit the
ocean
, nothing larger than a toilet seat would
dent the surface
.

Elias landed on the calm ocean surface
, the parachute canopy
collaps
ing on top of him.  He unsnapped the chute tethers and freed himself from all that canvas, swimming underneath
to get
clear.  Treading water on the surface, he removed the backpack.  He pulled a ripcord and the pack transformed into a small raft, including a quart of fresh water and a MRE.  He didn't know how long he would be on the ocean.  The original plan was for him to have the sat phone, which would have made calling for help very simple. 

Now, he would have to wait for the inevitable search ships and planes.  He hoped he wouldn't die from exposure before he was rescued.

In the distance, an amazing distance given that he only jumped out of the plane a few
m
inutes
ago, he saw the plane explode.  He
pray
ed that Wiley was on that plane.  He mourned all the souls that would never live again and, for the millionth time, cursed hi
s own
self for agreeing to bring Ben Wiley back from the dead.
 

What a silly, selfish moment – one that has led to many deaths and placed the entire human race at risk.

He thought again about
Mira
.  He was halfway around the world from her but, in his gut, he felt uneasy.  Things were not going right.

Funny
, Tamesha thought. 
No one ate their dinner but me.
 
She was not surprised – one look at her foster parents and she knew.  They were monsters.  What she struggled with was how she was going to escape this house.

Tamesha's foster parents said that they were not hungry but Tamesha knew otherwise. 
Zombies like them don't eat
….
chicken. 

And a
ll that noise she
had
heard coming from their bedroom – she knew what that was.  She had seen enough R rated movies to know what
that
was.  They w
ere
doing it and they didn't care who heard.
  Hank was all horny too before she killed him.

She would have to go along with things until she figured out how to get away.

Mrs. Chin cleared the plates and handed Tamesha her first gift.  Tamesha un
-
wrapped the box – it was a large box full of bras.  How embarrassing, especially in front of a suddenly leering Mr. Chin. 

She took the other gift in hand.  She shook it –
she felt relief as
it didn't sound like a box full of panties.  She quickly pulled off the paper and looked inside.  It contained a silver globe.

The globe began to vibrate and she looked at the smiling faces of her foster parents and she knew.  She got to her feet, knocking
her
chair backward.  She bolted for the back door and the globe, somehow, had grown wheels and was following her.  The Chins were on their feet and toddled after her, not
too
concerned about catching her.

Tamesha ran for the flower bed and kicked away the soil and mulch that covered the shotgun that killed Hank and his
devout
friend.  She got the shotgun in her hand just as the globe reached her.  As it snicked open, she shot it and the thing ceased moving.

The Chin's approached
as she grabbed ammo to reload
.  "You killed it," said Mr. Chin.

Tamesha raised the shotgun and blew his head nearly off the shoulders.  What was left of him crumpled to the ground.

"You didn't need to do that," said Mrs. Chin.  "Now who will I have sex with?"  She reached down into the debris of the globe and stood up with a handful of darts.  She shrugged.  "Oh well, I guess it has to be you."  She took a step forward with the darts and Tamesha pulled the trigger.

Click, click.

She looked at the gun, reversed it in her hands and swung it like a baseball bat. Mrs. Chin caught the gun in her free hand and flung it away.  "C'mon Tammy, this won't hurt at all."

What is it with these things that make them want to call me Tammy?

Tamesha ran as fast as she could.  The suddenly athletic Mrs. Chin, with a fistful of darts, was close behind.
 

What Mrs. Chin did not realize was that, without the magic of the globe, the darts would merely kill, not transform. She would
simp
ly create supper, not an undead daughter.

THIRTY-
SIX

Hamid
Hidar
climbed off the bed, his nakedness embarrassing his granddaughter. 
Mira
struggled to keep her eyes on his face instead of his privates.

The old man smiled.  "Perhaps I need some clothes."

"Please.  You may only be wearing my grandfather but he was very precious to me."

He nodded, turned toward a closet.  "And you can drop that case of silver globes.  I know they are reversal bombs but they cannot harm me."  He disappeared into the closet, leaving
Mira
staring at the two naked females, who made no effort to hide their bodies.  Indeed, their legs parted in order to give their guest a better look. 
Mira
switched the briefcase from left hand to her right and unlocked it.  She didn't know what
the reversal bomb would do to
Hamid
, but she was out of options.

Hamid
reappeared dressed in dark slacks, black sock
s
, slippers, and a white silk shirt.  It was clothing unlike any her grandfather had ever worn.

He pulled out a chair and sat.  His companions each frowned and slumped, disappointed that their playmate did not return.  Not riveted by the conversation they decided to play with each other, kissing, groping and tugging on
one
an
other. 
Mira
watched the women,
and
then finally her eyes returned to the monster that inhabited her grandfather's body.

"First, congratulations," he said.

"For what?"

"You are not alone.  You come here with child."

"I'm pregnant?  How do you know?"

He took a deep breath.  "I can smell things now.  I can smell the child.  I'm sure she would be quite tasty."

Mira
took a protective, unconscious step back.

"Don't worry child, I have no intention of harming you or your
baby
.  Not yet anyway.  Benjamin needs to know about this.  Your child will be the most powerful of all.  He'll have to decide what to do with her.  You, I'm afraid, will likely be killed."

Mira
transferred the briefcase to her right hand.

"Isn't that getting heavy?  Please do as I say and set that down
.
"

"I'll keep it in hand, if you don't mind."

Hamid
shook his head.  "The other reason I know about your daughter – and please name her Miriam after your grandmother if I can be so bold – is that I retain my magic."

"How?  You're a zombie, meaning you are dead and the dead don't
retain their magic."

It smiled.  "Benjamin
has been harvesting magicians from worldwide to solve the '
Hamid
problem', the fact that he, Wiley, will cease to exist when
Hamid
,
the human
me,
cease
d
to live. 
Cryogenics could have kept
him
alive a long time but not forever.  Benjamin wanted to be assured life everlasting."

"I thought he solved that by getting his wife pregnant?"

"I guess he wanted something more
tangible, direct
.  Why conquer a planet if you can't live to see
long-term
impact?  I think he wants to send zombies throughout the
u
niverse!"

"He doesn't think small, does he?"

"He doesn't.  Anyway, his 'outside consultants' determined that since m
agic lies not in the brain, but in the heart
, they could remove
my heart and ma
k
e the rest of me a zombie.  Using the same humanizing treatments they've applied to Wiley, they have created a hospitable home for my human heart, one that will last forever.  To guarantee that, their magic shields my heart from all
magical
harm.
  Even little Miriam would not be able to harm me.
" 
He smiled a wide zombie grin.