Deadrise (44 page)

"Did any of you see that?" he asked, raising his binoculars to his eyes for a better look.

"See what?" Susan asked from the floor where she was still ministering to Matt.

"The other boat. Something came out of the water and took the last guy under." All Mac could see now was the small boat bobbing gently on the waves near shore. But it didn’t matter. He had a hunch he knew exactly what, or more precisely who had attacked the man.

"What?" Susan sat up on her knees and peered over the edge. Mac was right. The boat was empty. "Was it Zack?"

"I’d be willing to bet on it." Mac said.

"I’m beginning to think coming up to this goddamned lake was a bad idea." Rick muttered from the pilot’s chair.

"If we’d have stayed back at the U we would all be dead and you know that." Mac retorted lowering the binoculars and turning his focus towards home…

Chapter 47

Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Rainbow Lake, UT

3:01 PM

Last night in the forest, while feeding on the snipers brains, Zack’s feeding proboscis had come upon something unexpected; a small object nestled in the center of the brain, hard and metallic and no larger than a kernel of corn. He extracted it, sucking it clean of blood and scraps of brain before holding it out on the palm of his slimy, mottled hand. He instantly recognized it as a microchip. As he watched, it appeared to erode away into nothing and within twenty seconds his hand was empty. While his hungry,
always so hungry,
alien metabolism returned to fulfilling its need, the human part of his brain couldn’t help but speculate about the nature of the chip and why it had been implanted in the mans brain. But the cranial cavity was soon empty and Zack’s mind had returned to his hunger.

But now he had come upon an identical microchip while feeding on the white robed man who had been shot from the smaller boat, and his analytical human mind tried to make some sense out of the connection. He swished it through the water to clean it of blood and brain matter and as replayed the last fifteen hours over in his mind…

After tossing the empty head into the yard he had watched from his perch in a tree thirty yards back from the edge of the trees. He could see the large black dog jumping back and forth and barking. He could also feel its psychic presence; carnal, primal, its hatred for him and desire to kill him was driven by pure instinct. It could sense his unnatural state, his disharmony with nature. But even its instinct to kill was not stronger than its will to survive, and the dog stayed at the tree line. There was no sign of his former companions and after several minutes the dog finally retreated to the perceived safety of the lighted house and out of Zack’s sight. Zack turned and with the ease of a monkey sped through the lower tree boughs.

He emerged several hundred yards to the south onto the lakeshore, leaping from the last tree, twisting and flipping his body with the skill of a trained acrobat…landing in a perfect crouch at the waters edge, ready to pounce on the nearest threat…

But there was nothing. He did a quick mental scan…Half a dozen drones fifty yards north, stumbling his way. Another dozen, one hundred yards south up the beach. He closed his eyes and widened his scan, feeling for Krylok or Superzombies…

There!

There!

There!

Three spread out around the lake, the nearest one less than half a mile away, putting it near the estate where he had fed upon the man in the boathouse earlier today. The superzombies could also feel his mental touch, and knew at once that he was not their master but in fact he was the one they were sent here to kill! He got the last in the faintest of psychic impressions, but there was no mistaking what he had sensed. He could also sense over a thousand drones, the majority also less than half a mile away, in the vicinity of the superzombie. His first instinct was to seek out the superzombies and kill them, his monstrous bloodlust flaring red hot, but once again his rational mind won out and he quietly slipped into the water. He swam one hundred yards along the bottom before surfacing for air and to observe the superzombies location.

There were hundreds of drones wandering about the estate grounds; dozens down by the boathouse and water but most near the mansion. A bonfire still burned in the center of the yard and there were electric lights on in the house. Burning torches set into the balcony rails provided light outside and in the firelight he could see several white robed, AK-47 wielding men standing out on the second and third floor balconies, looking down at the zombie horde below. He scanned their minds lightly, but was met with the same static, white noise resistance as the man he had killed the night before, just as he had expected.

He turned his attention along the length of the roof where six large wooden posts had been erected, spaced twenty feet apart and wrapped in chains. A naked man and woman were crucified to either side of each one. He looked closer and indeed they were truly crucified with spikes driven through both wrists as well as one through their crossed ankles. Plastic bindings at the wrist and ankles kept the victims from pulling the limbs loose. Zack also noticed that each side of the crucifixes had small seats, which the victims sat on to prevent asphyxiation and keep the victim alive as long as possible under excruciating agony.

Fixing his gaze on one pair, he narrowed his mind scan to them…No static interference, only mind numbing pain. All twelve were still alive and most were in the same state of mind. They were facing east so they could look down on the hungry drone horde below. When Zack had passed by this house yesterday there had only been a few dozen drones wandering in the forest nearby, and there had been no crucifixes. Had a superzombie come and summoned the drones? Had they set up the crucifixes and tortured the inhabitants of the house?

He was sure about the summoned drones. He had seen thousands in the forest outside Park City, controlled by the Krylok and their Sentinels, just as he could control them. As for capturing and torturing the occupants of the house, the white robed men were definitely human. The static interference blocking their minds from being scanned was most likely caused by the microchip, but what else was it for? It had to have a deeper purpose than a mental defense. The mind could defend itself without such an implant. But before he could ponder the puzzle any further he felt the psychic sweep of a superzombie. Zack quickly shielded his mind, and lowered himself into the water and tilted back so that the slope of his forehead, his eyes and his nostrils were the only thing protruding from the water and watched…

A superzombie stepped out onto the third floor balcony. It stood well over six feet tall and wore camouflaged heavy military battle armor with helmet, web gear laden with grenades and extra ammunition and carried a military assault rifle with an attached grenade launcher. Its skin was visible in the light, dark and wrinkled like old leather, the frame gaunt and skeletal. He couldn’t make out its face but he could feel its eyes scanning the lake and sense its psychic probe sweeping the dark water.

And so Zack sat for the rest of the night, his gnawing hunger tamed into submission by his human mind. And the superzombie also stood watch through the remainder of the night. At one point it was even joined by another, dressed and equipped identically. The white robed men, who changed guard shift every couple hours, paid no attention as they searched the water together. He dared not use his own mental probes for fear they would lock onto him and fire their grenade launchers.

At any point during the night he could have easily ducked beneath the water and swam away, but he chose to stay and observe, confident he would go undetected as long as he kept his mind block up and refrained from using his own telepathy. All throughout the night more drones had continued to come out of the forest and congregate at the mansion until there were well over one thousand gathered. Also, during various stages of the night, some of the crucified victims would come awake, screaming for God, their mothers, death, anything to take away the pain. Their cries would in turn excite the zombies below, who would take up a gurgled moan of their own that would echo across the water. And when dawn cracked over the eastern mountains peaks, Zack still floated in his same place, and the original superzombie still stood there, a silent, unmoving sentinel to the gathering army of zombies over whose chorus of moans a few wailing sobs could still be heard from the crucifixes above.

During the night his hunger had grown exponentially and was now a seething, molten ball of pain that needed to be dealt with. His could feel his human mind losing control, bit by tiny bit and decided to accept his metabolism’s needs rather than continue to fight them. He took a deep breath and sank into the depths of the lake. He powered for the bottom scanning for prey. Although human brains were the favored and most nutritious food of choice, it wasn’t the only one. He knew that if necessary he could feast upon the brains and blood of animals. He hadn’t done it yet, but he could instinctively sense it was possible. He turned and moved toward shore, knowing that large fish were to be found near the wooden docks, where they in turn preyed upon smaller schools of fish. Just in front of him a large suckerfish detached from a large rock it had been clinging to and tried to swim away, but Zack was too fast and he snatched the fish before it moved a foot. It tried to wriggle away but he clutched it with both hands, digging his claws into its flesh. He plunged his feeding proboscis into its small brain cavity, slurping it clear in a single gulp. It was not more than a tease, bitter and sour at that, and he turned the fish over and sank his feeding proboscis its heart, getting three large gulps before the carcass was bled out. He dropped the empty husk, searching for another one. How many fish he hunted and drained and how long it took him to do so was lost to him, but when his human mind was finally able to regain total control he could tell by the position of the sun rippling above the surface of the water that several hours had passed.

He surfaced directly underneath the wooden dock, keeping his head low and huddling near one of the wooden legs. He had no recollection of surfacing for air during his feeding frenzy but he knew he must have several times. Luckily the superzombie hadn’t spotted him. Taking a gamble, he did a low frequency scan, searching only for drones…their hollow psychic vacuums echoing back at him by the hundreds. He could hear them as well, their low moans combined into a cacophony that drowned out all other sounds. He sniffed the air, their sour, putrid stench thick and musky, overlaid by the smell of the bonfire.

The base of his neck began to tingle with what he now recognized as his sixth sense and he turned to look out over the lake…On the far side in the northeast corner, at the same cabin he had encountered Matt and his friends yesterday, he caught a glint of sunlight off metal or glass. He looked closer, narrowing his eyes for binocular vision…he could see a boat tied to that dock and two men with binoculars looking in this direction. Hopefully the shadows would obscure him. Filling his lungs with fresh air he sank below the surface.

He surfaced in the boathouse just as the screaming started. It was the agonized wails of the crucifixion victims. He swam to the front of the boathouse and pulled himself onto the inner dock. Staying low to the floor he edged up to the main door, raised his mind block, and slowly lifted his head to peer out the small window.

The zombie horde had begun to press toward the house, a wave of agitation now spreading through the crowd. The bonfire still burned in the center of the yard, distorting part of his view with heat but his other senses more than compensated as he absorbed what was happening. The six large, chain wrapped posts that held the crucifixes and their victims were mounted on some kind of winch and were now tilting slowly out over the edge of the roof, already at a forty-five degree angle. The six large posts continued lowering until they ran parallel with the ground. The top ends were still secured by chains but the bottom of each crucifix had been unchained from the posts, allowing them to dangle about twenty feet above the outstretched arms of the horde, which was now roused to a fever pitch. As the crucifixes slowly spun on the chains Zack could the faces of all twelve victims were writhing masks of pain and suffering as they thrashed against the spikes that impaled them and the bindings that held them to the crosses. Zack’s human brain noted with some interest that most if not all of the six women might have indeed been attractive at one time, but now their naked bodies bore the signs of savage torture and sexual mutilation, which in turn appealed to the Beast.

He pushed such thoughts from his mind and concentrated on what was transpiring.

One the second floor balcony five armed, white robed men stood at attention. On the third floor five more also stood at attention. Another unarmed man in red robes stood near the center of the balcony. He was taller than the others and although Zack couldn’t hear him over the zombies wailing and the victim’s pleas, by the motions of his hands and the bobbing of his head he was giving a fiery sermon.

Secured to a platform at the edge of the balcony in front of him was another naked woman. To either side of him, cloaked in black hooded robes stood…Zack’s sixth sense fired again, all of his instincts telling him what he dared not confirm with a mind scan. The short figures in black robes that stood on either side of the man were Krylok Aliens!