Monsters of the Apocalypse (26 page)

Screams and yells of shock came
floating on the ocean breeze to the Presidential Mansion. October sat,
frozen, staring at the blackness of the screen. Miho and Flores watched
him, waiting. October finally forced himself up to standing and turned,
unsteadily, and faced them.

"What… what just
happened?"

"It appears sir, that Nestor
Bravo was just killed by an Islander hit squad."

"No… how… they were going to
wear masks to look like mutants," October muttered while stumbling
aimlessly around the room like a drunk. "It was supposed to look
like mutants killed Nestor."

"My guess would be, Jacob
infiltrated our military, sir," Miho said her eyes dropping down to her
screen. "I'm having security seal off the Presidential Mansion's
grounds. I'm programming the security lockdown of the Mansion
itself. The majority of the population is unarmed, though in time they
could be problematic. The military is traditionally loyal to the
President, but in the case of…"

"No. Stop talking,
Miho. How did this happen? How?!"

"That will come later!"
she snapped. "First, we'll issue a Presidential decree. The
military leadership has been compromised. The military is to go under 24
hour lock down, keep them in the barracks. All of the military barracks
have security locks that we can use…"

"Why?" October muttered
with a soft and uncertain voice.

"Because they might come and
kill you, sir. You just killed Nestor Bravo."

"I didn't. It wasn't
me."

"I know that, sir, but they
don't."

October came across the room and
leaned down, hands placed pleadingly on Miho's shoulders.

"Miho, the people, this will
make them hate me. They'll hate me."

"If you're lucky, sir.
If you're not, they're going to kill you."

These last words were punctuated
by Miho shaking off the President's hands, programming into her screen the
military lockdown command and October Carnegie falling to the ground
unconscious.

**
*

"My father said that one
of the side effects of the Apocalypse was that the smell of the Earth
changed. Cities, farms, suburbs, nature, all had their own smell, but put
them all together and you ended up with the smell of the Earth. That was
gone after the missiles took flight - along with the cities, farms, suburbs and
nature. Smell is the sense most tied to memory.

"A strange thing began
happening after the Apocalypse. People stopped being able to remember
things. Some people think it's a survival thing. It's easier to
live through hell if you don't remember what it was like before. If you
don't remember how good it was, it's harder to miss and you get on with your
day. I personally think it was the smell that made everyone forget.
Whatever the reason, they forgot what it was to be free, or to rebel, to fight,
to not be beaten.

"In general, it was a
fine time to be in politics.

"My father said that what
Nestor did was help people remember what it was to be human. To be free
and fight for survival. He was a leader of men, a ruler I guess, not
because he wanted to be, but because people wanted to be him. That's what
made him so dangerous. That, and the way he shot people in the
face."

- President Nevers, "Thoughts on
The Art of Ruling"

"Nestor?"
Caleb asked as his eyes struggled open.

"Dead.
Nestor's dead. Carnegie's men killed him. The feed went dead.
It hasn't come back on. The soldier who shot him, he told Nestor how
you'd followed… so he knew. Everyone knows," Bragg shrugged as he helped
Caleb stand up. "I thought that might make it better."

Caleb only
nodded and then moved without resistance into the passenger seat of the car.

During the
whole drive Caleb stayed silent, which was fine for Bragg. He glanced out
of the corner of his eye and saw the way that Caleb was continually rubbing his
neck where the dart had found him.

As they
passed the last of the desert, Caleb straightened in his seat and reached
forward, placing a hand on the dash.

"It's
Bragg, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well,
Bragg, I hate to point out the obvious, but you seem to be driving straight
into an army of mutants."

"Yeah."

"Okay.
Seems like a bad idea."

"Seems
that way."

Bragg smiled
as the panic grew in the small man, but, finally giving into sympathy he said,
"They won't stop us or hurt us."

"They
won't?"

"No.
They just stay here. They never harm us or interfere. They just sit
around smoking cigars and guarding that tent."

Before Caleb
could ask, he saw rising over the horizon a large white tent. The sea of
mutants around them parted peacefully and looked at the car as Bragg slowly
drove past. Their eyes were mostly curious, though Caleb felt he could
see hunger in some. No one made any effort to curtail their
movement. Some of the mutants, in particular the ones near the giant tent
held impossibly large guns, but they held them casually and made no gestures to
the car.

"What's
going on here? What's in the tent?"

"We
don't know. Mutants go in. Not us. They don't ever attack and
we think it's wise not to ask why. They let us pass through their camp
whenever we please. Human survivors trickle in steadily and we let them
into the tunnels. Time passes."

"On The
Island?"

"Riots,
I hear. At first they say the military got locked in, trapped, but the riots
turned on them too. The President, his security detail, the military,
anyone complicit in the death of Nestor Bravo became a target of the screaming
mobs of Islanders. Mobs of pretty women and old men."

"What
are the Founders doing about it?"

"The Founders
are dead. It's just Carnegie in charge now. Well, him and a few
generals I suppose. They haven't done anything. Just held the line,
which isn't hard when you have all the weapons. They just seem to be
waiting."

"For
what?"

"Same
thing as us I guess: whatever comes next."

Bragg slowed
down and parked the car next to a subway entrance guarded by a group of ten
tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boys, who had big rifles and bigger
smiles. At the sight of Bragg they stood at attention.

"These
are my nephews. Don't bother learning their names, there's too many that
look too much alike. Boys, this is Caleb."

The boys all
stared at him from a respectful distance, heads slightly bowed. One of
the boys opened a large metal gate and moved aside to allow Bragg and Caleb to
pass.

"Caleb,
welcome to the tunnels of L.A., the last city of Man."

Caleb didn't
get any sense of the tunnels, since his way through was marred by an
ever-growing, silent crowd of onlookers. The smell was that of burning
torches and those torches cast dancing shadows over the old subway station
walls.

"Why
are they looking at me like that, Bragg?"

"You're
famous, Caleb. If you let them, they'll make you a saint. If you
want my opinion, don't let them. Sainthood is traditionally assigned
after death so that you can finish a meal without being asked for a
miracle. But hey, do what you like."

They came to
a long-dead subway train, the windows blacked out with blankets. Bragg
brought him inside one of subway cars. It was set up with furniture and a
computer screen.

"What's
this?"

"This
is your place, Caleb. Bathroom, you walk out, turn right, and you can't
miss it. The electricity in here runs off a generator that I turn off at
10 every night, we don't have much electricity even still and so, if you can
use a candle instead of a light, it would help. I'm going to put one of
my boys on guard here to make sure you'll be left alone. This door, leads
to the next car over and that's my car. You need me, come on in."

"This
is how everyone lives?"

"At
first. Now only saints like you and me who can't get privacy otherwise
get their own space. Everyone else is camped out through the tunnels for
now, though, at the rate survivors keep coming we may run out of tents and
tunnels. But, until then."

"Where
do the survivors come from?" Caleb asked with sudden excitement.

"Everywhere.
The Mutant Army burnt the land and the crops that were left. People have
nowhere to go, but here. More come everyday."

"That
doesn't make sense. I've walked all over this country and there weren't
hardly any humans left. Tons of mutants, sure, but not humans.
Where were all of these survivors?"

"What
can I tell you?" Bragg shrugged. "Maybe underground cities were
more common than we thought."

"Are
they here?" Caleb said grabbing the big man's arm. "My
city? Is Mary here? The Ohio underground city?"

"Ohio
underground city? Not yet, that I know of. But they'll get here,
Caleb, you just wait. Everything is coming here, everything.
Mutants, survivors, Islanders - it's all collecting right here. Someone
or something is gathering everyone and everything. We just got to wait
and figure out why."

Bragg left
the compartment and within minutes Caleb had fallen asleep, fully clothed, on
the bed. He slept with his pistol in his hand.

"Miho,
what do you actually think of me?"

"Sir?"

"Am I a
good man? I have always told myself that I was a good man. I did
bad things, but only so that one day I could have the power to make things
right. Absolute power is the only way to fix anything."

"I
would agree."

"Yes,
but, here it is, I have absolute power and look at the mess that I've made of
everything. I simply wanted to fix the tax code and now most of humanity
has claws and eats human flesh. By most standards that's not a great
success."

"I
would agree."

"You're
here, you're a part of this, Miho. You've been here all along. I'm
not so foolish to think that I would be here without you. You helped get
me here, helped the world get to where it is and I don't think you're a bad
person. I truly don't. So I ask you again, do you think I'm a bad
man?"

Miho looked
at October, her almond eyes as piercing as ever, as she spoke, "Sir, you
have absolute power. You have vanquished your enemies and installed
yourself on the throne of all mankind. Are you a good man? This is
a question you should have asked before. Now, when the world lives and
dies by your decree is not the time for looking in, for introspection and soul
searching. The military is with you, for now, not because they want to
be, but because the people are against you and them both. That makes you
allies. There is a Mutant Army at the edge of Los Angeles and an army of
human survivors underneath it. They all want to kill you. These are
things that must be dealt with. Something needs to be done and though I
may not know exactly what that is, I know what it isn't. I know that it's
not taking time for reflection and it's not beginning the inward search for
enlightenment!"

Her deadly
intensity continued to burn in the silence that followed. October tried
to stand his full height, hoping that looking tall could pass for strong in
this weak moment.

"Yes,
yes. You're right, I'm being foolish. Something must be done."

He looked
down at the small woman and he knew she was right. He was the most
powerful man on the planet, but still, he wondered if people liked him.

Caleb woke
up half way out of his bed, being lifted by Bragg.

"Good
news, you don't have to wait."

"What?"

Bragg set
Caleb down on his feet with a huge smile on his face.

"You
don't have to wait, Caleb. Apparently, the world was waiting on
you. Grab your gun."

"What's
going on? What happened?"

"You
slept in and now your town is here and they're asking for you."

"What?"

"The
survivors from the Ohio underground city have arrived."

"Mary?"

"I
don't know."

Caleb put
his pistol in his waist and together the men moved through the crowd of
onlookers. As the crowd parted, familiar faces appeared to Caleb, though
no one with a name he could remember, and then he saw her.
Nicolette. She smiled at him as he approached. Tyler was beside her
and as Caleb got closer, Tyler and his same old entourage, still impossibly
huge, moved in front of her in a protective manner.

"Hey,
Caleb, look at you. A big man now, huh?"

Caleb took a
last step and then punched Tyler in the Adam's apple. Tyler's eyes rolled
back in his head and he fell to the ground gasping. Caleb knew that he
had succeeded in his attack on Tyler only due to surprise and prepared for the
beating that would now come down as the entourage closed in. He cringed
and closed his eyes as a huge fist came towards his face, but though there was
a loud crack, he felt no pain. He opened his eyes to see the huge fist now
held still, cracking sickly, in the palm of Bragg's hand. Bragg reached
out his other arm and pushed Caleb behind him, positioning himself between
Caleb and the other big men.

"Enough,"
Bragg boomed in a voice so loud that all of the men paused in their
advance. As Bragg released the fist from his grip he continued,
"You're all new here, so this trespass on our way of life will be
overlooked. We don't allow violence in the tunnels. You may stay
and be peaceful or leave."

The one man
who stood larger than Bragg smiled briefly before saying, "Sorry friend,
you're mighty big and I suppose that works on most, but I'm afraid you aren't
big enough to tell me what to do. Step aside."

"You've
been warned," Bragg said quietly.

The man lunged
forward at Bragg. Bragg dropped his right shoulder and turned, catching
the larger man in the solar plexus. Bragg's arms shot out grabbing the
man under one thigh and over one shoulder. As two of Tyler's other
friends moved forward, Bragg drew himself to full height, the man stretched
across his shoulders. Bragg's hands shifted below the struggling man and
pushed him high into the air. Bragg moved quickly back as the huge man,
now the toy of gravity, came crashing down on top of the two charging men
leaving them all in a tangled and writhing mass.

The entire
population of the hall held their breath in wonder at the feat of strength.
Bragg seemed unfazed, though there was a slight rip at the right shoulder
seam of his jacket. As two blonde haired boys approached with smiles and
rifles, Bragg turned to Caleb.

"You
don't hit people here. You understand?"

"Dear
God, that guy has to weigh over three hundred pounds and you just threw him
into the air like he was nothing!"

"And
I'd appreciate you not saying the Lord's name in vain either. Though that
won't get you banished. Are we clear?"

"Yes.
I’m sorry."

Bragg nodded
as a few more blonde haired boys arrived.

"Take
these men and show them the door, they aren't welcome here, maybe the mutants
will have them."

Caleb turned
to Nicolette.

"Hey
Caleb, remember the night the world ended?"

"Where
is she?"

"You're
supposed to say: yeah that was nice."

"Nicolette,
where is she?!"

Nicolette
cringed under Caleb's angry glare.

"They
kept her."

"Who?"

"The
mutants. They held us in their camp when we arrived. They held us
for days. Only this morning did they finally let us pass, except for
Mary, they took her into the tent."

Bragg
watched the realization pass over Caleb's face. Bragg reached out and
grabbed the man's shoulder. Caleb turned, eyes wide and crazy.

"Let go
of me, Bragg. I'm going over."

"To the
tent?"

"She's
there."

"They
sent a message," Nicolette inserted. "The mutants, they said to
tell Caleb and Bragg: "To come over. Just the two of you, unarmed."

Caleb
dropped his gun and started walking towards the door.

Bragg looked
at the crowd around him, his own men positioned in the corners. Without
Bragg the flock could stray, but without Bragg, Caleb would get himself
killed. Bragg bit his lower lip as he considered the decision. Then
he dropped the gun he kept in a holster under his jacket and followed.