The Sunshine Dame of Doom (20 page)

On TV, Shane’s image was finally gone, to be replaced by some commercials with Becky on them.

“What about you?” Hector turned to Lily. “What’s your story? You’ve been captured, right?”

“Oh yes. Shane put me in shackles. I escaped, but not before having a little chat with her.”

“And what did she say, something we can use?”

“She said a lot of things. Then, I give you the headlines. If I understood her correctly, she was tossed into a lab right after she was born, and some scientists modified, enhanced, pasteurized her, turning her brain into some kind of radio station which, among other things, allows her to control minds.”

Everybody gazed at her.

“Any questions?” Lily asked.

“That’s a lot of headlines.” Maria commented.

“Man, if we shave her bald, we may find out she’s Lex Luthor.” Vince observed.

“She’s not kidding.” Tess intervened. “I got to know Shane a little and there was indeed something about her I couldn’t put my finger on. I felt different every time she looked at me, when she touched me, some weird feelings. And in regards to control minds, yes, I’m sure she does it somehow. I heard her saying words to people, strange words.”

“Words?” Lily opened her eyes widely “As in rhymes, a poem, something of the kind?”

“More or less, it was something like
the sunshine springs, happiness it brings. Those eyes you should follow, to keep away sorrow. Seek the giant bird you must, on her you shall blindly trust. For the good science you will urge, from all impurities to purge
.

“It looks like you memorized the whole thing.” Clark said getting worried.

“Well, I heard it enough times.” Tess justified himself, feeling tension rising in the air. “Shane never knew I was listening, of course. But every time she looked a person in the eyes and said those words, the person went all gaga over her.”

Hector approached Tess with an unfriendly look on his face.

“So you heard the words several times.” He said. “How do we know Shane’s not controlling you?”

“If I was to betray you, honey, I would have done it already. Besides, if my mind was controlled by her, you’d know it. For starters, I’d be acting heterosexual.”

“She got a point there.” Vince admitted. “Maybe, it takes more than just hearing the words to go gaga. Maybe, the person needs to be at the same place as Shane, look her in the eyes and hear the rhymes all at once for the thing to work.”

“What about you?” Hector turned to Lily. “It seems to me Shane had all the opportunities to dominate your mind. Why didn’t she?”

“She got other things in mind. She had a living dead set aside just to bite me and make me like him. Then, Shane would bring three children to be killed by the zombie me in front of cameras.”

“Why’d she do such thing?” Maria asked shocked.

“So the myth of Apocalily would be destroyed together with the kids.”

“Shane doesn’t like competition very much.” Clark said. “And she has a very particular way to eliminate it.”

“How did you escape?” Natasha asked.

“It wasn’t easy.” Lily answered. “Anyway, once back on the streets, I told a school principal what happened and asked her to spread the truth. But it seems Shane took care of that.”

“Yes,” Vince grunted “by going on TV with some story about an educational event to sell the idea you are the one trying to discredit her.”

“Anything else?” Hector queried.

“Shane also said she got a high ESP. It’s a short for extrasensory perception.”

“And this is Australian for...?”

“She might be able to read minds.”

“Oh Lord!” Maria spoke even more anguished.

“It would ruin her self-esteem if she could read my mind right now.” Tess commented.

“So, these are the powers I heard about at the power plant.” Maria divagated. “Michelle would’ve never committed suicide unless her mind was being controlled somehow.”

“Who’s Michelle?” Lily queried.

“Long story” Hector whispered.

“And this is all.” Vince hesitated “Right, Lily?”

“Not quite. Shane also mentioned she and some other guys were responsible for the zombie pandemic that destroyed the world.”

“Do you believe her?”

“It’s far-fetched, but it can explain how this virus spread so suddenly and so fast.”

“I had a feeling this whole thing was much bigger than just one area.” Prashant said. “It’s too sophisticated.”

“Great!” Vince muttered annoyed “Just great! And I thought we had a problem! Next time I bump into a town offering sanctuary to protect me against deranged folks trying to eat me, I’ll stick to the deranged folks trying to eat me!”

“But how can Shane dominate minds just with words?” Maria asked.

Everybody turned to the Australian girl again.

“My guess is there got to be some kind of radio waves that come out of her head which, activated by the specific sound of those words she says, somehow affect the control system of people's brains, allowing her to manipulate their will.”

They all kept on looking at Lily, only this time also with their mouths open.

“You got some technical degree after all!” Clark said.

“Nope, but I watched a movie with all this. It seems to fit this situation.”

“Hey look!” Maria pointed a finger at the TV. “Are they rerunning her speech?”

Shane was back on the screen.

“No dear” Tess said. “This is brand new stuff. And I got a bad feeling about it.” With a shaky hand, he grabbed the remote and got the sound back on.

Shane on TV:

“Good afternoon, my dear puppies in the Industrial Zone. This message is for your eyes and ears only.”

Her voice also resounded from the huge loudspeaker in the city center.

Shane continued on TV:

“I know some of you are harboring the criminals who rebelled and escaped from the power plant. Then, I’ll be brief.”

The TV started to show a big hangar shaped liked the half of a rugby ball. Several people were being forced inside of it by soldiers. Then, images from within the construction were displayed. Many anguished and frightened faces spread around the hangar like cattle.

Shane continued on TV (voice-over):

“This is a live broadcast. It’s all happening right now. I guess most of you recognize those souls getting into the shed. They are your friends, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. I know the power plant fugitives are listening to this. You shall go to Heavensville, surrender your weapons and peacefully turn yourselves in to my police force, or my soldiers will flood the hangar with cyanide. I believe you all know what that would do to the ones inside. You have until nineteen hundred hours to comply.”

“In case the rebels are too spineless to present themselves voluntarily, I’m very sure the rest of you, Industrial Zone residents, will put your best efforts to find them and bring them to me. Dead or alive, it doesn’t matter. This is the only way you’ll ever see your loved ones again.”

“I’m really sorry I have to resort to this, but I won’t let some scumbags ruin everything I worked so hard for. I’m doing this not only for me, but also for all good people entitled to enjoy a comfortable, normal life. We need to have some order.”

Tess turned off the television. A big cloud of gloominess descended on everybody’s hearts and spirits.

“So much for the locals sympathizing with our cause” Prashant lamented. “Now, we’re definitely screwed.”

“What’s nineteen hundred hours?” Maria asked anxiously.

“Seven o’clock in the evening” Harper, the former military man, informed. “That gives us less than two hours.”

“Residents will tear this whole city apart looking for us,” Vince said “including this restaurant. Sorry to drag you into this, man.” He turned to Tess.

“I dragged myself into this…” He whispered discouraged, looking at his waiters, who returned a pessimistic look. “Gosh, what do I do?” 

Suddenly, but not surprisingly, everybody turned to Lily again.

“Okay, I’ll turn myself in.” The Australian woman announced. “See if I can buy you some time.”

“No way!” Hector retorted. “What good that would do?”

“People’s lives are at stake! I have to go there and talk to Shane. She wants me. Maybe I can convince her to trade me for the hostages.”

“Shane might kill those people anyway, Lil, even if we all turn ourselves in.” Clark spoke. “She can’t be trusted.”

“That’s a good point.” Vince said.

“Then what?” Lily asked.

“Well, I was hoping that you could come up with something that would get us out of this mess.” Maria answered. “After all, you are the great Apocalily.”

Lily scratched her chin and said:

“There might be something we can do.”

“I knew it!” Natasha screamed.

“But I’ll need to find somebody who knows a hell lot about networking, routers, this sort of thing.”

Hector and Vincent jumped with big smiles.

“You found us already!” Hector said proudly “
Hector and Vince, Routers and Since
, best products and services in the universe!”

“I heard about you.” Lily spoke.

“Really?” Clark asked surprised. “No offense, but you’ve never struck me as someone who reads business magazines.”

“My father was a Telecom technician.” She reminded him. “He worked for
Lonestar
Technologies
.”

“Oh yes, from Texas” Hector recalled “one of our best customers, tough but fair, not that we ever gave anyone any reason to complain of our products for that matter, unlike the competitors.”

“So, what’s the catch?” Vince asked Lily.

“We don’t have much time. I’d rather tell you my plan as we go. You got to trust me on this one and follow my play.”

“Yes, but you still need to tell us what to do in the immediate future.” Clark pointed out.

“If you remember correctly,” Lily said “we did have a truck when we came here. I need to find my motorized kangaroo.”

“Maybe I can help you with that.” A man they didn’t know offered. “My name is Zachariah, but everybody calls me Zach. I run a car repair workshop two blocks from here, and sometimes I make delivers to Uptown.”

“I’m listening.”

“Normally, we ship spare parts always to the same addresses over there, but recently we received purchase orders for very weird items to be delivered to the TV station.”

“TV station?” Clark frowned. “Why would they take a seized truck to a TV station?”

“Well, my drivers don’t ask many questions because it’s dangerous, but they told me they did see a very peculiar, ugly, shielded, armored truck-looking thing with the steering wheel on the wrong side.”

“It’s my rig alright!” Lily jumped “Can’t miss it.”

“Now that you mentioned a TV station…” Vince said. “Yo Hec, remember that place we’ve been before they took us to the power plant, with that minister guy and all?”

“Cristal clear, bro.”

“There was a huge dish antenna in there.”

“Yes!” Clark agreed. “I saw it too.”

“We’ve all seen it.” Prashant said “Although I lost an eye on the occasion.”

“Anyway, I have the address.” Zach informed.   

“Is it possible that Shane and the minister guy are using the TV station as headquarters?”

“Let’s find out.” Lily spoke. “But before we do that, we need to know how Shane communicates remotely with her armed forces.”

“Good point.” Clark replied. “When we fled from the hospital with Susan, a whole parade of suits and limos just popped in front of us, as if coming from the sewers.” 

“Cell phones?” Maria suggested.

“For some reason, cell phones are allowed neither in Downtown nor Uptown.” Tess informed.

“What about walkie-talkies?”

“Yes!” Hector responded. “Harper and I brought a lot of those from the power plant when we escaped.”

“And that stupid sheriff also had one.” Clark recalled as well.

“But I never saw any walkie-talkie on Shane.” Tess said.

“Me neither.” Lily agreed. “But I don’t think she needs it.”

“What do you mean?”